Alright, I admit it - I was snagged by a web clip at the top of my Gmail page asking, "What’s the world’s deadliest animal?" So I'm curious; sue me.

Believe it or not, the mosquito is proclaimed to be the world’s biggest killer, wiping out over 1 million people per year. (The article went on to apologize that the mosquito is an insect, not an animal - the biggest animal killer is actually the hippopotamus. Go figure.)

What made me say "Hmmm" to this little bit of news was that I realized that my views of the world are pretty narrow-minded. When I think big killer, I tend to think about what I know and what’s close to home. I never even considered that there are millions of people out there in the world struggling to survive threats that to me are a mere summer nuisance - despite the fact Canadian mosquitoes are pretty darned big.

Think about it. We worry about having food and shelter; where our next paycheck will come from. Maybe we worry about whether we drink too much or whether the weather is going to make us run for cover. More people than I can imagine have to worry about whether they'll die thanks to a mosquito.

Posted by Louise.