The World March for Peace and Nonviolence international delegation will pass by Montreal on December 1, 2009. Margaux Verdier and Henry de Boisseguin, two young trainees from France, came this summer to Montreal to help the Canadian promoter committee. Margaux and Henry have created educational booklets intended for young people in Quebec and Canada. The booklets will be distributed in the fall in high schools to created awareness for peace and non-violence.

The booklet proposes games, a brief history of non-violence, an interview with the group *Simple Plan* and a calendar of the international events. To help the younger visualizing the world military expenditure, Margaux and Henry also decided to dedicate part of the booklet to mathematical exercises. They compared the expenditure with known distances and buildings.

They launched themselves in many calculations. By taking as reference the Canadian dollar dimensions, called the *“loonie”*, and the world military expenditures of 2008 (1.464 billion dollars*), they were lead to *”heavy”* realities. Here are some of their conclusions they drew (significant hearts please pay attention!):

1.If we put 1.464 billion 1$ Canadian coin – loonie – on top of each other, it is possible to do 6.67 the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

2.If we put 1.464 billion 1$ Canadian coin – lonnie – on top of each other, it is possible to do circle the earth 64 times.

3.If we put 1.464 billion 1$ Canadian coin – loonie – one next to the other, it is possible to cross the Transcanadian highway 4.960 times.

4.The 1.464 billion 1$ coins mass is 10.248 million tons. This mass represents about a million times the mass of the Eiffel Tower, 45.546.666 times the mass of the Freedom Statue and 28.076 times the mass of Empire State Building.

5.If the world military expenditure were distributed between all the people living at this moment on the planet, each one would receive US$146,40.

Theses numbers will probably attract the youngers’ attention and they are not less shocking for adults. Finally, to obtain equivalent in Canadian dollar we will owe to multliply 1.464 billion by
0.93 – that was foreign exchange rate on August 25, 2009. Thus, imagine a few thousands more Eiffel Towers, Freedom Statue…

* SIPRI: International Stockholm Peace Research Institute Carryforward – June 8,2009 – in American dollars