Saturday, November 26

GRATEFUL!

Greetings, dear reader!

Well today is the highlight of the Photo Challenge...since Gratitude is the theme, Thanksgiving Day is the "Main Event!" However OUR Thanksgiving was very tough this year...we weren't able to go be with our kids and we had no money for the usual Thanksgiving feast. We ate "on the cheap" a thanksgiving dinner at Cracker Barrel ($8.99 got you turkey and all the fixings, free drink and free pie) Still, even with our non-traditional meal we were grateful...do you know that if you live indoors in the United States, 


Global Village

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like this:
There would be:
61 Asians
13 Africans
12 Europeans
8 people from South America, central America (including Mexico), and the Caribbean.
5 people come from North America
1 person from Oceania

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

75 villagers have access to a source of safe drinking water
25 do not, and have to spend a large part of the day just getting safe water.

There is enough food for everyone in the Global Village, but the food is not divided equally. Only 30 people always have enough to eat. 20 are severely malnourished.


76 people in the Global Village have electricity.
24 do not.

20 people have 80% of the Global Village’s wealth.  The other 80 villagers have to share the remaining 20%.

Half of the villagers survive on less than 2 US dollars a day.  A quarter of the villagers learn less than $1 and are in extreme poverty.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world. 

‘Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.’ Nelson Mandela

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of him/(her)self and his/(her) family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services... Everyone has the right to education.  Universal Declaration of Human Rights



All that to say...I'm grateful. And blessed. Very.

More soon,
Paula Clare

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Happy Thanksgiving Paula! What a lovely family photo. I can tell your day was full of blessings.
Tomorrow I will be featuring your tags and wonderful tag book made for me several years ago. I just love it and felt the time had come to feature it again!
Always! Elizabeth