Ten things about the world

Ten things you may want to know about the world

1. The world is located on a huge universe; there are galactic clusters with galaxies; one of these galaxies is the "Via Lactea", that holds a solar system in which nine planets revolve around a ball of ultra-hot plasma. One of these planets is very important to us because we live there; its surface is 3/4 water, and the other 1/4 is divided in continents that we call Asia, Africa, America, Europe, Oceania. One of those continents, America, is divided in North, Central, and South America.

2. On the continents of the Earth, there are many different countries, for instance, in South America there is a country called "República de Chile", and in North America there is a country called the "United States of America". These countries have many different geographical, political, economical, religious and moral landscapes; but from far away those differences are not easily seen. For instance, Africa may remind you of lions and zebras but they are not all over Africa, only in certain parts; some parts are desert, others are jungle, and so on.

3. There are people like you everywhere. People that wake up in the morning, go to work, gets home; eats, have friends, relatives, children, etc. So, in this precise moment, for example, people in Asia are waking up to go to work, and people in Europe are coming back home, etc. There are good and bad people everywhere. Also, we share about 92% of our genes & with mice, and about 99% of our genes between humans.

4. People are different. They may look the same for people that are not used to them, but, for instance, people from Japan, China and Taiwan may look similar, but they are all different. The same is true, for instance, about people from Colombia, Argentina or Chile, we are all very different. We dress different; we have different hair and skin color, we speak different languages. We eat different things also, and some of the things they eat in some place are considered very bad in other places, for instance, raw fish will never be popular in Argentina but it is enjoyed in Netherlands.

5. Religion matters for many people. Nowadays, religion is a source of moral guidance for many people in the world; and even people that don't adhere to a religion live in a world that has been shaped by many different religions in different countries. Most of these religions tell people to be nice with each other, to work hard, to study and evolve, to pray and have faith, although the relative importance of these things differs in each religion.

6. Killing people is a bad thing. Modern weapons are formidable examples of technical advances, and show care and ingenuity in their construction, but we must not forget that they kill people, and we should never use them because when a person dies not only him, but also a lot of persons suffer. Also, in the armies, we see examples of courage, strength and commitment that are admirable, but we must do everything that is possible to keep armies for defense only, not for invading or attacking; if we attack others, they will try to attack us later. An eye for an eye only means that at the end of the day everybody is blind.

7. Most people in the world suffer. They suffer from illness, hunger, thirst, ignorance and violence. They work hard to avoid suffering, but at some point, they cannot do anything more, and we must help them. In some cases, we must help them because otherwise they will die. We are becoming insensible to the images of people suffering, but we must strive to put in that other person's shoes and imagine what will we feel is we were in such a harsh situation.

8. People adapt. They smile and laugh even in the most incredible situations. If they only suffer and suffer, they die, so their bodies and souls keep them trying to think and feel good things. There are people without hands and feet that strive to have normal lives and succeed. There are people that cannot hear or see but there is a flame in their hearts that glows from inside allowing them to live and be happy sometimes. Humans survive.

9. Getting people to agree on something is difficult, but the results are worth it. A million people can do much more than a bunch of them; also, because different people are different, they can all give something that the others don't have; that is the whole point about living in communities or conforming global alliances. Getting countries together in the same direction is difficult, but it is the only way of living in peace.

10. To be properly informed, you need different sources. Information is a product like other products you consume; it should never be monopolized because monopolies tend to abuse. It doesn't necessarily mean that media will lie to you, but as humans, we can only see things based on our own viewpoint, and this is necessarily subjective. There is nothing wrong with a newspaper or broadcast network that has some orientation: media is a in the business of creating opinion, but you must never forget to look at the other part of the history.