....your Weapons of Choice

The Facts, the Figures & the Anecdotes

65% of Americans (aged 18 to 25) can't find Great Britain on a map of the World
92% of Americans don't own a passport
Many European Business folks have tales of being called in the middle of the night by American colleagues somehow oblivious to the time zone difference
Business Cards around the World have phone numbers prefixed by the International Dialing Codes - true in all countries bar one - the USA
70% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 whilst 50% thought one of the 9/11 Hijackers was Iraqi. Neither were true.
140 countries opposed the 2002 Iraq Invasion by the Americans and British (roughly 80% of the World's population)
However, within the "Coalition of the Willing" the 20% were less willing. 70% of Australians, 69% of Italians, 70% of Japanese, 87% of Spaniards, 91% of the British and 95% of the Turkish people opposed the Anglo-American War against Iraq
When polled on who was the "greatest threat to world peace" - George Bush or Saddam Hussein - the British population couldn't decide, each got 45% of the vote
3 times as many innocent civilians died under American Bombs in Baghdad and Afghanistan than died in the US on 9/11
In 2001 the average American was 4,500 times more likely to die of the flu or 6,500 times more likely to die in a car accident than in a terrorist attack
The Number of people who died on September 11th 2001 from hunger was 24,000 whilst, the same day, 6,020 children died of preventable diarrhoea
An organiser of a Canadian anti-poverty group was stopped at the US Border and questioned by the State Department about whether he "opposed the ideology of the United States" and about the location of Osama bin Laden.
The US has 5% of the World's Population yet consumes 25% of its finite natural resources and outputs 25% of the mankind's carbon dioxide.
The Americans killed four million Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians during the 'Vietnam' War
At the start of the twentieth century those killed in a war would be around 90% armed combatants - one hundred years later it would becom 90% civilians
80% of Americans want a universal free-at-source Health Care system like that in Germany, Canada or the UK yet every attempt to improve the US Medicare system is shot down - by the Insurance Companies
70,000 die of Air Pollution every year in the US
Senator Inhofe once described climate change as "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people"
The State of Wyoming (pop 495,700) emits more carbon dioxide than 74 developing countries (pop 396 million) whilst Texas (pop 22 million) exceeds the emissions of 120 developing countries (pop 1.1 billion)
50% of Americans don't believe Climate Change is a problem whilst only 40% believe its man-made
The US Think Tank once said "If you want to keep your guns, your property, your children and your God, then sustainable development is your enemy" (- hence unsustainable development is good for their children?)
One third of Americans believe the Bible is literally true
Half of all US Congressmen are backed by the Religious Right
Millions of Christian Fundamentalists in the US welcome environmental destruction because they believe it hasten the "end of day's" when they will be plucked from Earth in the 'rapture'
50% of Americans reject the theory of evolution & now 13 US States are engaged in legal battles as to whether evolution and creationism should be taught in school
President Bush jnr rolled back over 300 pieces on environmental legislation in his first 4 years of office
The chance of an American in the bottom 20% of the economy moving into the top 60% is lower than in any other developed country
55% of Americans don't believe that they can make a better life for themselves by working hard and playing by the rules
The top 1% of Americans earn more than the bottom 95%
More Americans make their living from dealing cards in Casinos (82,960) than by running Lathes (65,840)
Every American owes someone in Chine $4,000. China has lent American $1.4 trillion and this number grows by $1 billion every day.
US Military spending in 2008 will be $623 billion. In comparison China will spend $65 billion, Russia $50 billion, France $45 billion, UK $43 billion, Japan $42 billion & Germany just $35 billion.
1 in 6 American children live in poverty - higher than in any other developed nation
1 in 3 Americans are obese
West Oakland, California (a town of 30,000) has 53 liquor marts but no Grocery Stores
The 2005 G8 meeting commited to an extra $50 billion pa financial assistance to the third world - but in 2006 it fell by 5% and then fell even further in 2007
The UN target for poverty relief funds is 0.7% of GDP for the rich countries - the US is at the bottom of the league donating only 0.17%
$211 billion was spent on the Iraq War by the end of 2004 yet immunising every third world child would only cost $3 billion. Likewise supply the whole world with clean water would only cost $37 billion pa
In 2006, the US spent more on the war in Iraq than the whole world spent on investment in renewable energy. Projected total US spending on the Iraq war could cover all of the global investments in renewable power generation that are needed between now and 2030 in order to halt current warming trends
On an average day in the US 100,000 children carry a gun to school whilst 40 of them will be wounded or killed

....your Weapons of Choice

The Facts, the Figures & the Anecdotes

Links