Although the book stated that this "village" would be a small scale model of the world, I couldn't help but find myself annoyed and irritated at the fact that "only 30 always have enough to eat" and that "the poorest 10 each have only about $1 a day". Maybe all the pictures got to my head and blindsided me from the fact that this book was about global issues we are actually facing.

I kept feeling more and more somber as the book went on and found myself angry at the people in the village who were consuming so much and leaving their fellow villagers essentially nothing.

The problem is that there IS enough to go around. There IS enough food, water, and energy. We're not thinking about everyone, we're thinking of ourselves and only ourselves.

Maybe we need to reevaluate what we think is important, as role models and leaders as well as some of the world's top consumers.

I thought that book was kind of a lot and dark for a children's book.

The whole concept is more frightening when you read about it in a book rather than hearing about it or just seeing the news.

I was surprised that the United States and Canada was only represented by five people and that English wasn't the most used language.

You would think with it being a village of only 100 people that they would all know each other and feel it right to share what is good with everyone and help others.

It's like if the world was our senior class, I know everyone because there's not that many people. So I would share with others if they needed something.

There was enough for everyone there in the village so I don't see why not make everything equal.

People just don't seem to think that way and are selfish.

I think the the thing that surprised me the most out of this whole book was the fact that I was actually surpsrised. I always thought I was pretty aware and informed about how unequal and disproportioned goods are, but I literally found myself thinking, "whoa!" The part that I was the most taken aback by, though, was the part in the book about food. There were more than twice as many chickens than people plus all the other produce and animals, but it was so unevenly distributed. I've always been aware of the food shortages around the world, but it wasn't until after after I read the part in the book about how 15 people were overweight in the village, 20 people were undernurished, and one person was dying of starvation that I really related it back to the rest of the world. I just thought about how it makes no sense that the United States has an obesity problem, yet there are people dying of starvation all around the world.
I think I was also surpsised at how I kept expecting the categories I would fit into to be bigger. For example of all the one hundred people, only seven spoke English and only fourteen were from the United States and Canada. I don't think it's because I think the world revolves around me, I just think it's because I a lot of the times will limit myself to American resources, and they usually will tell about the dilemma abroad, then focus on how it will affect us.
I think by narrowing down the world's population into just 100 people, I've been able to see not just a country individually, but a country related to the rest of the world.

As an American, I (like most other Americans), take everything that we have for granted. Recently, my teacher read us a book called, If the World Were a Village. This book describes the many people of the world, but compressed into a village of only 100 people, and it describes what kinds of people they are (nationality, language that they speak, age, and religion). After that, it starts to go into other things, such as food, air and water, schooling and literacy, money and possessions, and electricity. This is where it starts to really get interesting, because here it is capitalizing on how unevenly the resources are distributed. Some interesting facts are: 17 people do not have easy access to a clean source of water (which is essential for life), 43 do not adequate sewage, and the ten richest people have more than 50 percent of the wealth. The saddest part of this is that there would be plenty of resources if everything were to be split evenly, which I believe is the best way to go, even though that sounds a little communistic. I know this from experience. About 3 years ago, I went to a simulation of a global village, and on the first day, we learned this lesson. A tray of food was brought out, and we were assigned a place in the line (determined by the wealth of our country), and there was originally enough food for everyone, but everybody at the front of the line was taking more food than they actually needed, leaving a small quantity for all of the other poorer countries. I believe that communism always sounds good on paper, but there is always somebody that screws it up.

We, humans are never satisfied and never will be.
We can never get things done with Minnimum line.
It always have to be "bigger", "better", and "prettier"
We want better clothes.
We want better shoes.
We want better cooler cell phones.
We want better computer.
In Africa, people do not have an access to safe water.
In this village, 33 people would be without access to a safe water suppy.
Yet, if you go to gas station around here, you have choices. "Should I get flavored water?", "Should I get Smart Water or Fiji Water?".
50 people in this village would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation.
Yet, we order food or get food more than we really need.
We, human including myself are unappriciative.

After listening to the story of our world as a single village, I feel that I have heard the data before but never so accessible. That in itself makes me want to share the information in this format with people I have encountered who think that the world is so much to think about that it’s not their problem. In the past year a group of my peers and I attempted to research and share our gathered knowledge with our local community, more specifically the adults in our church. When we were advertising for the event, which was to include presentations and an open forum to discuss the information we shared and what to do with the knowledge, people seemed almost offended that we were inviting them to learn with us. When presented as a night to share knowledge and information about the state of the world, some individuals retorted that they have enough knowledge. This was obviously disheartening to those of us that were so on fire for the idea. In the end we all agreed that our Knowledge Night was a success, because if nothing else we learned from each other.
As a result, there was much frustration about how to share information that young people are learning with our local, national, and global communities. We are citizens and leaders in the world, not just tomorrow, today! I have seen the power of youth that are ready to come forward and take a global stand. We are more connected to our neighbors in the international community than we have ever been before, and resources like If the World Were A Village are highly beneficial in sharing what we know, and in continuing to learn more through different lenses and perspectives. I look forward to sharing this delightful presentation of our world today with the people in my community.

Everything I heard about overcrowding used to just through one ear and out the other, generally in a school context I would be overloaded with facts and numbers with seven, eight and nine digits; there was never enough of anything for me to relate too or fully comprehend. I don’t mean to say that my ability to understand is from a lack of intellect or consideration for global issues but merely that when presented to me in such non-relatable ways I couldn’t completely appreciate the significance.
When presented in the form of children’s book, now we are talking, If the World Were a Village takes all the facts and numbers and turns these in too percentages of the world and then takes these percentages and personifies them as people in the village. Because the only metaphor is the microcosm from the vast population of the world to a little village of a hundred, the comparison is not too intricate and unclear. Many parts of the book enlightened me to many shocking facts that I have not heard prior to reading the book.
For one, the pages about the exponential growth of the world, as it doubles and doubles, was something I did already know. However, when I discovered that the “Village” could only support 250 people and the expected time frame for this growth was 140 years, I was shocked within the lifetime of my children’s children, the world will reach its population cap. Wow! This is a scary thought, if you account for the social psychology of the world and human kinds historical inability to eradicate injustice and the great difference between standards of living, how much worse will this be if the population doubled?

“If the World were a village consisting of one hundred people, only five would be American and Canadian.” This quote from the book by David J. Smith is truly eye-opening. He puts things in terms and conditions that are easy, not only to comprehend, but to relate to. Most of the statistics that are found and provided about overpopulation in the world contain large numbers that are confusing and sometimes seem irrational.
As an American I often times feel privileged and entitled. It was shocking to hear that out of one hundred people, only five would be from, what I thought was, the most dominant culture in the world. Not only was I shocked by this information, but there also showed a statistic about twenty percent of the world using eighty percent of the worlds electricity. This statistic was astonishing, to say the least. I was actually embarrassed to be put into that category when it seems so selfish.
Just reading about this global village made me want to there and help. Then I realized that I do live in this village. I can help.