Gene,

I understand what you are saying about "quality" of diet. But some of the places I have been, the poor people are on the verge of starvation! They often never exceed 90 pound, even normal height (4.5 to 6 Ft.) people. There is no mistaking the "poor" people I have seen in other countries.

They didn't have the money for any food, let alone bad food.

I was in a remote village once and gave an older woman (maybe 40 to 50, but looked to be 80 years old) a futon (you know, a folding light foam type of mattress) to her. She cried and cried. I thought I had done something wrong! My guide at the time told me that she was just thankful. When I asked, I found out that she had NEVER slept on ANYTHING thicker than a blanket on the ground!! Her tribe was nomadic and I never got to see her again.

During that time, in another village, I tried to give a child a toy doll. The mother would not let me. I was told (by the mother through an interpreter) that the the child had never had any toy other than sticks that they could pick up from the ground and the mother never expected to be able to give her any other toys. She did not want the child to have and yearn for something she would never be able to have in the future. VERY SAD!

Here in the USA, I hear endless crying about no air conditioning, or other nonessential items. A lot of countries do not have any type of social assistance! Let alone give money to the poor.

One of the things I saw recently in Mexico that I liked a lot, was that to get assistance, the people had to work at something! We were told that Mexico does not have welfare. BUT, if you need food, you go to city hall (in most cities) early in the morning, they provide you with what passes for tools (the specific one we saw was a palm frond!) and given a job to do that day. Like sweep the street. YES, a motorized street sweeper could do a better faster job, but put people out of work. This way the worker earns the food he gets at the end of the day.

I have hundreds of other stories, but I better quit the rant now before I go off....

Greg