Blog action day against poverty

I'm posting today because of blog action day. Having lived in a country that was a mixture of first and third world, poverty was for many years a daily reality for me, a daily ache of guilt and pain. Shopping at a local supermarket, I grew familiar with the sight of a legless man sitting outside, his hat on his lap, begging. Although I've always had mixed feelings about people and even children begging, it felt right to drop a coin into his old brown felt hat. Then one day, he was gone and I never saw him again.

I don't know much about the philosophy of poverty. My feeling, however, is that we won't eradicate it until we change our ways of thinking, behaving and buying. When I return to North America after a visit to Africa I'm always horrified at our level of consumption, at the plethora of clothes and toys our children are showered with. And I think of so many who have practically nothing.