If the world were 100 people
By: Aima Tariq
Tags: Pandemic, Humanity, Unity, Diversity, Antirasism

If the world were 100 people

Gender:

50 would be female

50 would be male

Age:

25 would be 0–14

66 would be 15–64

9 would be 65 and older

Geography:

60 would be from Asia

16 would be from Africa

10 would be from Europe

9 would be from Latin America & the Caribbean

5 would be from North America

Religion:

31 would be Christian

23 would be Muslim

16 would not be religious or identify themselves as being aligned with a particular faith

15 would be Hindu

7 would be Buddhist

8 would believe in other religions

Education:

78% of eligible males would have a primary school education

76% of eligible females would have a primary school education

66% of eligible males would have a secondary school education

63% of eligible females would have a secondary school education

7 would have a college degree

Urban/Rural:

54 would be urban dwellers

46 would be rural dwellers

Shelter:

78 people would have a place to shelter them

from the wind and the rain,

but 22 would not

Drinking-Water:

91 would have access to safe drinking water

9 would use unimproved water

Internet Access and Cell Phones:

65 would be cell phone users

47 would be active internet users

Lessons To Learn:

Appreciation for Diversity:

For a moment, imagine how will the world be if everyone was the same-had the same skin colour, spoke the same language, had the same job and the same looks. The world will be so boring, won’t it be?

Cultural diversity helps us recognize and respect “ways of being” that are not necessarily our own. People from different cultures contribute to knowledge, new skills, new ways of thinking, new techniques. It helps to explore the world and grow.

And diversity is not confined to culture only, but it also includes diversity in age groups, interests and views about the world, diversity in belief systems, in workplace such as job function, management status, seniority etc., diversity due to mental and physical abilities.

So instead of looking down at somebody or being jealous of somebody, we need to appreciate what we already have and to celebrate diversity.

We need to realize that we are not robots but humans that can bring out creativity when we accept diversity.

As Pat Wadors says;

“When we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become a wiser, more inclusive, and better organization.”

Being Grateful:

22 out of 100 people will not have any shelter to hide in. 9 out of 100 won’t have clean drinking water. Many of the people will have diseases with no cure.

So we need to be grateful for what we have and try our best to give it to others who don’t. As Muhammad Ali says:

“Service to humanity is the rent we pay for our place on this earth.”

Everyone matters:

If you look around, you’ll notice that everyone’s presence is worthy-that everyone matters. We need each other more than we know. All professions, whether it is a doctor, an engineer, a plumber, a trashman, a policeman-we all depend on each other and in reality, no profession is better or worse than the other.

Photo by pure Julia on Unsplash

Realizing our own potentials:

If the world was just 100 people, we would have more problems and fewer people. We would need different types of people doing different works and so, we would try our best to do things that we are good at and become the master at it, through which we can help the world.

As Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera says:

“If we all did things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”

Sticking together:

With only a small amount of people on earth, we would be greatly outnumbered by animals, and also since we would already be having a lot of problems, we would have to stick together without any discrimination. We would need each others’ physical and moral support, to protect each other to survive.

As Helen Keller says:

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”

In a nutshell,

Instead of discriminating people on the basis of their colour, race, professions, ideas about life and the world, we need to hold our hands together and form families without blood. We need to solve problems like climate change, mental health, racial injustice, refugee crisis, terrorism going on in different parts of the world and well, the most current one- the 2020 pandemic.