If such complex problems as globalization and the war in Afghanistan seem difficult to grasp, simplified figures could come in handy.
That is the approach adopted by Kayoko Ikeda, a translator of German literature and an expert in oral literature, in her latest work, "If the World were a Village of 100 People."
The picture book is Ikeda's account of a globally circulated e-mail message, which appeared in various versions but whose ultimate origin is believed to have been a column written in 1990 by the late Donella Meadows, joint author of the controversial book "The Limits to Growth," published in 1972.