Lest We Forget

"According to the UN, roughly three billion people do not have access to safe sewers,
1.5 billion lack clean water, 1.25 billion don't have minimally adequate housing, one billion
have no health care, and a half-billion don't get the minimum daily caloric requirement.
An unknown but very large number are illiterate. Among the world's poorest fifth,
between 30,000 and 40,000 children under five die each day from malnutrition and infection;
another 180 million barely hang on. The UN estimates that all these needs could be met,
at a basic level, for a yearly expenditure equal to 10 percent of the U.S. military budget
-- or slightly less than Americans and Europeans spend annually on pet food and ice cream."
-- George Scialabba, "Fiddling with Nature", The American Prospect, June 3, 2002, p. 37.