Super Perspective

Reading up on the news in Egypt (and please keep everyone there in your prayers!), one figure stood out to me: 40% of Egyptians make less than $2 a day. Puts my salary in perspective. But it puts this weekend’s gluttony, aka the Super Bowl in perspective as well.

Consider:

• A 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl will cost $3,000,000.
• A ticket on the 50-yard line, lower level, costs almost $16,000
• 106.5 million people watched the Super Bowl last year on CBS.
• 8 million pounds of popcorn will be consumed, 28 million pounds of chips, 53.5 million pounds of avocados for guacamole requiring a total of 222,792 football fields worth of farmland to grow.
• 325.5 million gallons of beer will be drank which would fill 493 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Meanwhile:

• $3,000,000 would provide hospice care for those dying of HIV/AIDS over four years in Uganda, or vaccinate 3 million children for measles across Africa, or provide mosquito nets, better access to medications, and free HIV/AIDS testing in Rwanda. (That’s only three ads right there)
• 75% of the world makes less than the cost of that football ticket… in ten years. (according to the Global Rich List)
• Up to 10,000 adult and underage girls are expected to be sex-trafficked to Dallas-Fort Worth this week
• 223,000 acres of corn would feed 25,000 people for a year (according to rough calculations from this site).
• 325.5 million gallons would give enough potable water to 616 million people for a day, or enough for 1.7 million people for a year. (This is only a dent, though, as 1 billion people are without drinkable water)

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[d] is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)