"50 facts that should change the world"

Feb 23, 2006 at 08:24 o\clock

A selected few from the above book. They all speak for themselves:

The US and Britain have the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world. No surprise there.

China has 44 million missing women.

81% of the world's executions in 2002 took place in just three countries: China, Iran and the USA.

One in five of the world's people lives on less than one dollar a day.

In 2003, 15 million Americans had some form of plastic surgery.

Landmines kill or maim at least one person every hour.

There are 44 million child labourers in India.

People in industrialised countries eat between 6 and 7 kg of food additives every year.

7 million American women and 1 million American men suffer from an eating disorder.

Since 1977, there have been more than 90,000 acts of violence and disruption at abortion clinics in North America.

A third of Americans believe aliens have landed on Earth.

More than 150 countries use torture. (and the USA and the UK are two of them.)

Every day 1 in 5 of the world's population - some 800 million people, go hungry.

A third of the world's population is at war.

10 languages die out every year.

There are at least 300,000 prisoners of conscience in the world.

2 million girls and women are subjected to female genital mutilation each year.

America spends 10 billion dollars on pornography each year - the same amount it spends on foreign aid.

In 2003, the US spent 396 billion dollars on its military. This is 33 times the combined military spending of the seven 'rogue states'.

There are 27 million slaves in the world today.

Americans discard 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. That's enough bottles to reach all the way to the moon every three weeks.

The average urban Briton is caught on camera up to 300 times a day.

The US owes the United Nations more than 1 billion dollars in unpaid dues.

From "50 facts that should change the world", Jessica Williams

insider2 wrote at Mar 2, 2006 at 05:00 o\clock:\"2 million girls and women are subjected to female genital mutilation each year.\"

Isn\'t that roughly the same as the number of baby boys subject to male genital mutilation each year?
enzedder wrote at Mar 2, 2006 at 08:20 o\clock:I would say the number is far greater for boys but at least it doesn\'t affect their enjoyment of sex.
insider2 wrote at Mar 2, 2006 at 17:39 o\clock:I would question your assertion that \"it doesn\'t affect their enjoyment of sex\", but it remains a totally unecessary mutilation done without anaesthetic in most cases and certainly without the agreement of the patient. It is barbaric practice.