To use a statistic to describe poverty
is to turn a human being into a number,
the antithesis of compassion.

Yet The World Bank, The International
Monetary Fund, The United Nations--
all use statistics when talking and writing
about poverty.

Nazis turned human beings into numbers
by using indelible ink when they wrote them
on the arms of those they soon were to ****.

One human being in poverty on Earth is
one too many.

My nouns are different:
starvation, hopelessness, illnesses,
slums, violence, death.

There are over 3,000 billionaires in the
world right now.

How much has each given to end world
poverty?

How many of them have held
in his or her arms the body of a child
dying of poverty?

Not enough, not nearly enough.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS