Wikipedia

Mr. Billion

Joined 5 August 2004
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mr. Billion (talk | contribs) at 19:02, 9 August 2006 (→About me). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
"You are not normal. If you are reading these pages[1], you probably belong to the minority of the world’s population that has a steady job, adequate access to social security, and enjoys substantial political freedoms. Moreover, you live on more than $2 a day, and, unlike 860 million others, you can read. The percentage of humanity that combines all of these attributes is minuscule."
~Moisés Naím, "Dangerously Unique"
"One in five people in the world—more than 1 billion people—still survive on less than $1 a day, a level of poverty so abject that it threatens survival. Another 1.5 billion people live on $1–$2 a day. More than 40% of the world’s population [living at or below $2 a day] constitutes, in effect, a global underclass."
~UN Human Development Report 2005

It's sometimes hard to see things that are so huge they should be obvious. More than a third of the world's labor force is unemployed or underemployed, and about 56% of the world (according to Freedom House) is either "partially free" or "without personal freedoms." Other things, like the Darfur conflict and the continuing struggle in Afghanistan are all too easily forgotten. Wikipedia, like all other systems, is subject to systemic bias. Let's work to overcome that.

  1. ^ Naím was referring to the pages of Foreign Policy magazine, but his words also apply pretty well to the pages of Wikipedia.

About me

The user name originates from a certain Calvin & Hobbes strip taking place in the classroom in which Calvin attempts to solve a math problem and slips into his Tracer Bullet fantasy world, concluding that the only possible "culprit" is "Mr. Billion."

As long as you're here, clicking here gives hungry people food. Just click the button. It provides a small benefit, but it also requires next to no effort, so hey, it couldn't hurt.

It would be good to think about this, too, though. According to a joint Action Aid/Oxfam report, only about a fifth of international aid makes it to where it's intended to go. (I'd be interested in reading the report itself.) Some wealthy countries have actually reduced their international aid budgets since the 1970s. Perhaps a better way to help the less fortunate would be to petition your representatives in your respective Congress or Parliament to address these issues.

Random Comments, Thoughts, And Other Stuff

Mr. Billion's excogitations can now be found on his Talk page. You can leave a message by Clicking Here.

Fun Stuff

Stuff to do

You could work to improve the articles on the list of featured articles English Wikipedia should have to Featured Article status. There's currently (00:37, 9 January 2006 (UTC)) about eight articles that are especially in need of cleanup: Akbar, Johann Gutenberg, Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Andes, Latin America, Miguel de Cervantes, and Niccolò Machiavelli.

Or you could work to counter systemic bias or do some other necessary tasks around Wikipedia:


You can help improve the articles listed below! This list updates frequently, so check back here for more tasks to try. (See Wikipedia:Maintenance or the Task Center for further information.)

Fix spelling and grammar
None

Help counter systemic bias by creating new articles on important women.

Help improve popular pages, especially those of low quality.


The Web is a bewilderingly vast memepool.
Feel free to add any links that you think are exceptionally interesting.

Games

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