By ERNIE NEUFELD
Decades have passed since Marshall McLuhan threw at us the
phrase "global village."
It is so simple and self-explanatory that many of us had some
problem grasping its full significance. Depending on individual
awareness and interest in the definition, we still grope sometimes
with the ramifications.
A Rotary district governor for Toronto and area made it a bit easier to understand, especially for a small-town boy, when addressing the Toronto (read "the" in italics) Rotary Club recently.
In lending significance to the worldwide service club's 100th jubilee in 2005, and stressing awareness of the fact that in spite of all the good this and other worthwhile organizations have achieved, there remains a shameful and glaring prevalence of misery, hunger, disease, oppression and every form of distress that comes to mind.
With the international background of being Swedish trade commissioner in Canada's largest city, Lars Henrikkson simplified the global village concept by asking listeners to imagine themselves living in a village of 100 people. If you live in southeastern Saskatchewan, you might think of living in a community about the size of McTaggart or Halbrite or Cedoux, give or take a few families.
Instead of accepting the community's present makeup, apply current human ratios worldwide. The village of your choice now would have:
Fifty-seven Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 Americans (North and South) and eight Africans.
Half of the village's wealth would belong to six people: all Americans.
Eight of them would live in substandard housing.
Half would be unable to read.
Only one would have a college education.
There is a good chance not one of them would own a computer. (I acknowledge many today would consider that a blessing.)
Now take a moment to sit back and imagine - really imagine, really see them as neighbours and fellow-villagers in your mind's eye - as true components of the village in which you are destined to spend your life.
You do! I do! We all do! It's the global village.
Now consider just one horrifying example of what is still left undone in this hive of inequities.
Do you remember the cold fear that struck our hearts just a few decades ago - especially as parents - when spring's arrival brought not only winter's end, but the negating knowledge of the pending hot weather scourge of polio? It was almost certain to strike children you knew, and perhaps even your own. Today we have almost forgotten the disease in Weyburn or anywhere in Canada.
Back in 1985 Rotary International launched Polio Plus - a seemingly realistic goal of eradicating polio by the year 2005.
It was believed achievable, although at a high cost, and toward that end Rotary resolved to raise $120 million - a sum now handsomely exceeded.
Mr. Henrikkson noted that in 1985, 1,000 new cases of polio were reported worldwide daily. Today, this figure has shrunk to 780 per day. Wow! Obviously an improvement, but still shockingly short of the goal.
What more can I say?
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