Massachusetts

We Americans don't like to confront the really tough issues of poverty and hunger. We turn a blind eye or chalk it up to laziness so we can get on with our mostly materialistic lives. The majority of us live better than royalty of bygone days, consuming a lavish diet and enjoying luxury, health, and longevity unimagined a few years ago. To make ourselves feel better we do an occasional "mission" trip to Africa and offer assistance, sugar-coated with salvation.

To gain a different perspective I spend a great deal of time in really poor countries, where most people still live in shantytowns, in the filth of their own sewer, struggling from day to day. And I've learned a thing or two about work. I mean really hard, backbreaking work, in fields and factories, dawn to dusk, male and female. And children! Six to seven days a week. For little or nothing but the chance to survive. And these are the lucky ones who have a job. Most don't. Those who survive do so on bland diets that are mostly rice or some other grain. They suffer from chronic protein deficiency in countries where education and health care are for the rich only, all 1% of them.

If this isn't depressing enough, consider that according to recent news reports, in spite of hunger and poverty, agriculture provides enough energy to fuel population explosions in virtually all of the third world. This malignant growth of human numbers represents the single greatest threat to all life forms on this planet outside of nuclear war.

And, in an ironic turnaround, the population of many developed countries has finally stabilized. Japan and Italy are even worried about population declines. Too many here. Too few there. Bad news everywhere! It's enough to make you want to shoot the television.

Patrick Joseph Kennedy left County Wexford, Ireland, in 1858, during the great potato famine. He settled in Boston and carved out a niche for his family. Two generations later his grandson, Joseph P., would become one of the richest men in America. His son, John F. Kennedy, became president of the U.S. in 1960. Rags to riches stories are commonplace in this nation. Unlike some, the Kennedys never forgot their roots or their poverty.

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We Americans don't like to confront the really tough issues of poverty and hunger. We turn a blind eye or chalk it up to laziness so we can get on with our mostly materialistic lives. The majority of us live better than royalty of bygone days, consuming a lavish diet and enjoying luxury, health, and longevity unimagined a few years ago. To make ourselves feel better we do an occasional "mission" trip to Africa and offer assistance, sugar-coated with salvation. To gain a different perspective I spend a great deal of time in really poor countries, where most people still live in shantytowns, in the filth of their own sewer, struggling from day to day. And I've learned a thing or two about work. I mean really hard, backbreaking work, in fields and factories, dawn to dusk, male and female. And children! Six to seven days a week. For little or nothing but the chance to survive. And these are the lucky ones who have a job. Most don't. Those who survive do so on bland diets that are mostly rice or some other grain. They suffer from chronic protein deficiency in countries where education and health care are for the rich only, all 1% of them. If this isn't depressing enough, consider that according to recent news reports, in spite of hunger and poverty, agriculture provides enough energy to fuel population explosions in virtually all of the third world. This malignant growth of human numbers represents the single greatest threat to all life forms on this planet outside of nuclear war. And, in an ironic turnaround, the population of many developed countries has finally stabilized. Japan and Italy are even worried about population declines. Too many here. Too few there. Bad news everywhere! It's enough to make you want to shoot the television. Patrick Joseph Kennedy left County Wexford, Ireland, in 1858, during the great potato famine. He settled in Boston and carved out a niche for his family. Two generations later his grandson, Joseph P., would become one of the richest men in America. His son, John F. Kennedy, became president of the U.S. in 1960. Rags to riches stories are commonplace in this nation. Unlike some, the Kennedys never forgot their roots or their poverty.

© Danny Kimberlin 2015