Message-ID: <19990118223748.AAE10320@LOCALNAME> Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 18:37:26 -0400 From: Kerry Miller <mailto:kerryo@NS.SYMPATICO.CA> Subject: Re: Unicef: one billion illiterates To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Wilbur wrote:
{ >According to the United Nations Children's Fund, the world will enter the
{ >new millennium with an estimated one billion illiterate people
{
{ This statistic must be made up. Last I heard, 1 out of 5 Americans is
{ illiterate.. and the world is running at something like 65% illiterate.
{
...
{ Now term "Literate" actually doesn't only mean "read and write" but ability
{ to comprehend what is going on.
I don't believe you have made your case: it's quite possible that 65% of
the world's population doesnt know whats going on, and at the same time,
that 16% are *literally* illiterate -- uable to read and write.
{ People don't starve because they can't read. People starve because they
{ are hungry.
{
People starve for all sorts of reasons. The question of literacy
speaks (writes?) to *how they might get out of a state of hunger. One can
imagine a grand effort to 'regularize' the world, so the hoi polloi can
get an allotment of grain and vegetables from the experts. Is that what
you have in mind? I doubt it, but certainly 'solves' the 'problem.'
The value of literacy is not just to be able to read the directions on
a label instead of asking your neighbor -- and (I hope!) you dont have to
take my word for it ;-)
kerry