| MercatorNet | June 20, 2017 |
The world as 100 people.
Some recent statistics to make you feel grateful.
This short video gives a thought-provoking breakdown of the state of our world at the moment. This type of breakdown always makes me feel grateful as I have a tendency to forget that I live in a very privileged part of the world.
I can't vouch for the accuracy of every statistic (how do they collect so much data accurately from so many countries?), but the video illustrates how unbalanced the distribution of the world's food and wealth is among people. So many people are obese while others are starving, as Marcus Roberts recently discussed.
It also interests me that the vast majority of people are in some way religious as I don't generally get that impression from Western society. As after Trump's election, it makes one wonder how well the media represent what the majority of people actually think.
Another thing which surprised me was the relatively low car ownership per capita, despite automobile emissions being the number one cause of pollutants. It seems that we here in Australia and New Zealand live in a very spacious part of the world - only one person would live here in a 100 person world (luckily in reality our corner of the world isn't quite as lonely as that). But Australia and New Zealand also apparently have more than their fair share of cars, with both countries appearing in the top ten countries for car ownership per capita; perhaps because of the need to cover those wide open spaces. I have lived without a family car for the last three months while we have been in Montreal and it has been surprisingly liberating not sitting in Auckland's growing traffic.
(I apologise for the advertising at the beginning of the video)
June 20, 2017
In the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in London, an inferno which turned a 24-storey block of flats into a Roman candle in a couple of hours, killing at least 79 people, there will be inquiry upon inquiry to find who was responsible. (See Karl Stephan’s article below.)
I hope the name Le Corbusier (1887-1965) comes up. It was this Swiss-French architect who inspired a generation of high-rise apartment blocks. His famous dictum, “A house is a machine for living in” gives the flavour of his uber-rational designs.
His only building in the United States is the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University. He designed it in his studio in Europe and it is said that when he arrived for the opening ceremony, he gasped, “Oh my God, they’ve built it upside down.” True or not, it gives you an idea of the inhumane starkness of his style.
Le Corbusier’s geometrically pure high-rises were favourites of architects around the world. It was just the people who lived in them who hated them. But they didn’t matter too much.
After the wretched failure of the urban forests of concrete designed by acolytes of Le Corbusier, architects have returned to small-scale, human, eco-friendly and sustainable projects. It can’t come too soon. The faster we bury Le Corbusier the better.
Michael Cook
Editor
MERCATORNET
| The world as 100 people. By Shannon Roberts Some recent statistics to make you feel grateful. Read the full article |  |
| A Dutch euthanasia pioneer surveys the wreckage and despairs By Michael Cook Safeguards for the mentally ill and the demented are slipping away Read the full article |  |
| As demographic winter sets in, the world will need far more palliative care By Michael Cook A British study shows that the world is far from prepared Read the full article |  |
| The Grenfell Tower tragedy: a disaster waiting to happen By Karl D. Stephan When professionals fail ordinary citizens. Read the full article |  |
| ‘Freedom of choice’ implies options By Sheila Liaugminas The abortion movement offers only one. Some choice! Read the full article |  |
| Prepare for new golden age of audio drama By Richard Brooks Big names are flocking to podcasting. Read the full article |  |
| Man can ‘create’ resources By Jon Dykstra How farmers turned manure into mattresses for cows. Read the full article |  |
| Transgender laws threaten to erase women By Family Policy Allianceand Women's Liberation Front If a man can assert that he is a woman, then women lose their hard-won privileges Read the full article |  |
| Super special fathers of specially needy children By Mary Cooney On Father's Day, let's honour the dads of special needs children. Read the full article |
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The world as 100 people.
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