ABSTRACT
According to the United Nations Development Report, one-fifth of the world, about 1.2 billion people, lives in dire poverty. Half the world lives on less than $1 per day. While 61 percent of Americans, almost 200 million people, are overweight, 170 million people in the Third World are seriously underweight. Most of these are children who, if they fail to receive adequate nourishment, will either die or suffer brain damage.1 Americans raised over $1.3 billion for relief of the families of victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. A total of $353 million was raised for the families of the 400 police officers and firefighters who died trying to save others. That comes to $880,000 for each family, families that would have been provided for by New York City and state pension and insurance plans. Furthermore, the Red Cross decided to provide financial aid (the equivalent of three months rent) plus money for utilities and groceries, for anyone living in the lower Manhattan area who claimed to have been affected by the destruction of the World Trade Center. It set up card tables in the lobbies of expensive apartment buildings in Tribeca, where wealthy financiers, stockbrokers, lawyers, and rock stars live, to offer the residents these financial donations. The higher their income, the larger the financial award. Some got as much as $10,000. Meanwhile, 30,000 children in other parts of the world die every day of hunger and preventable diseases. Oxfam International was not overwhelmed with financial support for their work.2
