Minority Report

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I don't want to get into a big debate about ethnic origins of various races, nor do I want to get into details regarding numbers, but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the people on this planet are not white.

The world population is currently estimated at about 6.78 billion. The bulk of the white people are to be found in Northern America, Europe, Russia and the Antipodes. Add together their populations and you can just about scrape together a billion people, not all of whom will be white of course.

This means that for every single white person on this planet, there are nearly six people that have skin that is considerably darker than the average Caucasian.

Now, I do not claim to have visited every corner of the globe, but I have been to many countries where having pale skin (let alone red hair and freckles) puts you into the less than one percentile.

So, why is it that when you open every first aid kit and get out a sticking plaster, they are generally a sort of pinky-beige colour? Are white people six times more likely to require a small cut or abrasion covering up? I know you can get make up and hair products designed for different shades, why have plasters missed out?

I realise you can get clear plasters, novelty plasters for kids with cartoon characters on, even ones that look like rashers of bacon, and catering plasters are bright blue so they show up in food (incidentally also on X-Rays), but if you go to your first aid kit, your average plaster will be some non-descript "white skin" colour.

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Photos

Band Aid
A plaster, yesterday, declined to comment.

Comments

[Moomin]

Why not ....
.... start a petition for plain plasters to be discontinued and only cartoon character adorned ones to be produced in future? That would solve the problem, wouldn't it?

[Richard]

You must be so bored!!