02/18/19

The Village of One Hundred

If we were to reduce the seven and a half billion people currently residing on the planet, down to only one hundred people and all living in the only village in the world, who would they be? Or rather what would the village initially look like before any changes, which would undoubtedly occur, and if they would survive. Would they get along? Where would the village be? These are questions that could be discussed at extreme length and have been, throughout human history, and when discussing, one could easily fall down into numerous bottomless rabbit-holes. Since we are talking about human nature here, and not just any other far less complicated, but just as intelligent animal on the planet. Roles would obviously change, especially since all the focus would have to be on hunting, gathering and growing, and not spending. As to authority it’d either be one of two eggs, egalitarian or ego. There would also be just as many males and females with alpha, sigma or beta traits. All of which is far too interesting, with most conclusions based on the roll of the dice, for all the permutations, outcomes, and scenarios there would be. For being human is a very complicated affair.

The following statistics were first published in 1992 by the Retired Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison, Wisconsin, in a curriculum entitled “Unheard Voices: Celebrating Cultures from the Developing World”. Shortly thereafter the statistics appeared as an email that continues to be circulated and viewed by millions of people around the world. This updated version includes the detailed research, statistics and source information of the “100 People:  A World Portrait, A Global Education Toolbox” project at 100people.org/statistics, first posted in 2016. And also includes a further updated version made in January 2019 by Matt Rosenberg, at thoughtco.com/if-the-world-were-a-village.

Continue reading

10/20/18

Grand Deluges – A Pedantic Wet Dream

A Book by Joe Peters

Proudly and humbly announcing my new book, Grand Deluges – A Pedantic Wet Dream

From a 32 page essay I wrote years ago and kept going back to, I fell down the rabbit hole it became and after a couple of years of writing at night and painting houses during the day, Grand Deluges appeared. Feedback so far has been very good, from “unique writing style and pace” to “very relative to today considering it’s like an encyclopedia written as a story” to “refreshing, rational and at times even funny”, and a “very interesting non-linear read”.

Continue reading

12/26/12

The Borborygmus that is Palestine – An Essay on Apartheid

Chapter 1

The first time, the area between what was Phoenicia (today – northern Lebanon and Syria), and Egypt to the south, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, was clearly called Palestine was by the Greeks in the

5th century BC. Though Palestine had always been there and has been called many other names. The region was among the earliest to see human habitation, animal domestication, agricultural communities and civilization.

The descendants of earlier peoples, such as the Kebarian culture, who lived in the area from about 20,000 to 12,000 years ago, were the hunters and gatherers, the Natufian, who created an Eastern Mediterranean culture which would be the first to implement the concepts of agriculture; originally developed to feed their livestock, and the first cultivation of cereals, specifically rye. The Natufian dominance lasted from 14,500 to 11,500 years ago. One of its settlements, now called Jericho, is the oldest inhabited city in the world. It lies near the Jordan River in the West Bank.

Continue reading

10/2/12

CAMA? Say it isn’t so Stevie Harper.

Continue reading