Something About Money

Two news stories caught my attention last week. The first dealt with an Indian girl who hanged herself after being refused 1 rupee to buy food at school. Sania Khatun did not usually eat anything at school. When she saw some friends eating some rice, she asked her mother for 1 rupee so she could eat as well (44 rupees=1 US dollar). She was refused the money and, when her mother returned home that night, Sania was hanging from the ceiling. Think about that: for 1 US dollar you could have provided Sania with 44 bowls of rice. The second news story that caught my attention last week dealt with the value of Bill Gates. According to Forbes Magazine, Bill Gates is the richest man in the United States with a net worth of $51 billion. How does this guy sleep at night? Think about what Gates could accomplish if he gave half of his fortune to feed the poor in India. $25 billion would buy 1,096,875,000,000 bowls of rice in India, and he would still have $26 billion left! If Katrina taught the United States anything it's that you don't have to look to India or Africa to find poverty. Look in your back yard, Bill!