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| 99 M&Ms for the Earth

It is often said that life is not fair. This can be demonstrated by where we live. Some countries are crowded and poor, others are large and wealthy. To demonstrate this, let's divide the class into 6 groups.

In a class of 25 students, 15 are now Asians. Most of you are from China or India, but your group also includes people from Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other small countries. Asian people are the most numerous on our small planet.

of the remaining 10 students, 3 are European. You are German, Irish, Norwegian, Italian, Spanish, French. Your separate countries are small and so is your space.

Now there are 7 students left. Of them, 2 are South American. You have a large space, but it's mountainous and overgrown with jungle.

Of the 5 remaining, 2 of you live in Africa and the Mideast. You, too, have a large space, but most of it is no-arable land. You are members of a thousand little tribes and peoples.

Now there are 3 of you, and 2 are the people of the former Soviet countries, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, plus Eastern Europe. You have had so muich turmoil in your recent past that it's difficult to get back on your feet. But at least you have plenty of space to work with.

The remaining person is North American, that is, you are a citizen of Canada, the United States or Mexico. You have plenty of room, vast wealth and enormous power.

Imagine that the world is the size of this space. You Asians, all 15 of you, live in less than 1/4 of the space. You 3 Europeans stand elbow to elbow in the smallest part of our space. The 2 of you who are South Americans have a large space, but the interior is uninhabitable; you must stand on the edges of your space. Africans and Mideastern people, you live in most of your space, even in the jungles and deserts. In eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, you are comfortably spread out. Lastly, as a North American, you have room to roam in your large space.

On the entire planet there are only 99 M&Ms to feed all of you. The M&Ms represent the food, money and resources available to each group. The first 30 candiesgo to the North American. The Eastern European and former Soviet people get 13. The people of Africa and the Mideast receive 2 candies. South Americans get 3 candies. For the Europeans, there are 38 candieas. The Asians get 13.

Asian (Far East): 60% of the people, 23% of the land, 13.5% of the resources. (15 students, 13 M&Ms) European: 13% of the people, 7% of the land, 38% of the resources. (3 students, 38 M&Ms) South America: 7% of the people, 12% of the land, 3% of the resources. (2 students, 3 M&Ms) Africa & Middle East: 7% of the people, 20% of the land, 2% of the resources. (2 students, 2 M&Ms) Eastern Europe & former Soviet Coumntries: 10% of the people, 15% of the land, 13.5% of the resources. (2 students, 13 M&Ms) North America: 3 of the people, 17 of the land, 30 of the resources. (1 student, 30 M&Ms)