Activity 31 – If the World Were a Village of 100 People
Learning objectives: This activity helps realise how diverse our world is and how possibly European or ego-centric, etc. we are in the face of global reality. Hence, it will help develop a more global worldview of the participants. Writing a cultural related text and about feeling will also help improve communication and writing skills.
If the world were a village of 100 people … 61 villagers would be Asian (of that, 20 would be Chinese and 17 would be Indian), 14 would be African, 11 would be European, 9 would be Latin or South American, 5 would be North American, and none of the villagers would be from Australia, Oceania, or Antarctica.
At least 18 villagers would be unable to read or write but 33 would have cellular phones and 16 would be online on the Internet.
27 villagers would be under 15 years of age and 7 would be over 64 years old.
There would be an equal number of males and females.
There would be 18 cars in the village.
63 villagers would have inadequate sanitation.
33 villagers would be Christians, 20 would be Muslims, 13 would be Hindus, 6 would be Buddhists, 2 would be atheists, 12 would be non-religious, and the remaining 14 would be members of other religions.
30 villagers would be unemployed or underemployed while of those 70 who would work, 28 would work in agriculture (primary sector), 14 would work in industry (secondary sector), and the remaining 28 would work in the service sector (tertiary sector). 53 villagers would live on less than two U.S. dollars a day.
One villager would have AIDS, 26 villagers would smoke, and 14 villagers would be obese. By the end of a year, one villager would die and two new villagers would be born so thus the population would climb to 101.
- How much are you surprised with these diversity statistics?
- How similar is the population of this village to that of your host city/ village?
- And your home city/ country?
Write a short paragraph according to the questions and your feeling about this text.
Additional Remarks: The data was retrieved from the internet in 2021, therefore global data included can change.