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Home / Diescho's Dictum: If the world was a village of just 100 inhabitantsMy

Diescho's Dictum: If the world was a village of just 100 inhabitantsMy

2016-01-15  Staff Report 2

Diescho's Dictum: If the world was a village of just 100 inhabitantsMy
The earth is old. According to Hebrew orthodoxy this year is 5776 after the earth was created. Christian Scientists hold it is over 4.5 billion years old. Followers of Islam would say it Rabi Al-Akbar 1437. Geological scientists suggest the earth is 5. 5 billion years old. Some book claims that Namibia started to appear some 2500 million years ago. Afrikans would say the earth is older than their known kings.The world is big. As we get to know about this world wherein we live it gets either bigger or smaller, depending on our knowledge about it, our role and significance in it. Or who we think we are. Yet it gets bigger, wider, greater, more dangerous, more bizarre, and certainly more interesting. With so much technological innovations this world gets safer and more fascinating. It gets more and more unsafe as we realize that we are no longer as private as we used to be when we could hide in caves and no one would dare to get too close to the mouth of the cave because they were too scared of the dark which protected the cave’s tenants. Now there is light to banish the dark and leave us all bare and unsafe. Information, good and bad, travels faster than our fear. All the time. At the same time. Information gets more and more - yet poorer and poorer in every respect. And as information becomes more it gets more unhelpful to help us negotiate our human existence. Our world shrinks all the time, not in size, but in power to intimidate us. We intimidate it, do we? The world is safely unsafe The world is ours The word is itself A world of contradictions:There are more people and fewer relationships There are more educated people but fewer solutions More information yet less understanding More knowledge yet less wisdom More stories yet more ignorance More medicines yet less wellness More food yet more hungry people Safer to go to the moon yet unsafe to cross the road to visit neighbours More expensive weddings yet more costly divorces More safety weapons yet more rage and aggression More love songs yet more family-based violence More music yet less melody Wider streets yet narrower viewpoints More beauty yet less elegance More healthy diets yet more illnesses Taller buildings yet shorter temperaments Bigger homes yet smaller families High expectations yet low tolerance More politicians yet fewer leaders Parents make fewer children who make more children as children More curiosity yet less generosity More goods yet less God Powerful people are more insecure Those who produce more eat less Those who eat more produce less The weak protect the powerful There is more politics yet less politeness More courts of law yet less courtesy to love More people to trample on and fewer to count on Sleep is to escape the day’s memories than to rest from good labour The powerful fear the weak We speak more yet hear less Greed informs our steps and monitors our stops. World statistics challenge us to imagine that the world is a village of only 100 inhabitants. How and who would they be, and how would they carry themselves? This is how they would be and interact: 52 females 48 males 13 Africans 61 Asians 12 Europeans 14 Americans (North and South) 75 Non-White 25 Whites 33 Christians 22 Muslims 14 Hindus 7 Budhists 16 cannot read and write 50 do not have enough food 1 is near death due to starvation 1 is a university graduate 89 are heterosexual11 are homosexual 1 is HIV positive 21 are overweight 87 have access to safe drinking water 1 of 2 children live in poverty 51 live in towns 49 are rural dwellers 8 with no access to internet 39 have access to sanitation 24 have electricity 6 of them control 32% of the village wealth and all 6 are American citizens 26 are under 14 years of age 66 are between 15 and 648 are 65 and older 12 speak Chinese 5 speak Spanish 5 speak English 3 speak Arabic 3 speak Portuguese 3 speak Hindi 3 speak Bengali 2 speak Russian 2 speak Japanese 62 speak other languages, including Oshiwambo and Namlish. If we take the top 11 most populated Afrikan countries as the only ones in the group, out of the 13 Africans 6 would be Nigerians; 2 Ethiopians; 2 Egyptians, 1 Congolese, 1 South African and maybe 1 Tanzanian.No wonder we have such inequalities. Where are we? What do we eat? What do we wear? What do we speak? It’s time to learn to speak OshiAfrika!To Find Our Place In This Village.
2016-01-15  Staff Report 2

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