"They live in the bushes"

Yesterday I was hanging around the office brainstorming how to communicate with people like me the wonderful work being done by the people here. A small commotion stirred outside and I found myself moving with everyone else to the back yard. I discovered six young men from around six to seven up to around nine or ten. They were orphans and had been living alone; they had heard there was a place where they could find a meal and wash up...so here they were. We found some ill fitting donated clothes and put them to use as they washed their old rags.

I asked Guma to find out exactly what they meant when they said they "lived in the bushes". Come to find out it is illegal to be a vagrant, however young you are and compelling your story may be. If they let themselves be found by the police they would be arrested. They had not socialized with anyone outside their group for two years. They, of course, were not receiving an education and had not seen a doctor. When I last saw them, their old clothes were strewn about on the lawn drying in the sun and they were eating their first square meal in memory.

It is said that if the entire population of the planet is represented by one hundred people, fifty-seven live in Asia, twenty-one in Europe, fourteen in North and South America, and eight in Africa. The numbers of Europeans and North Americans is decreasing. Fifty percent of the wealth of the world is in the hands of six people, all of whom are American. Seventy people are unable to read or write. Fifty suffer from malnutrition. Thirty-five do not have access to safe drinking water. Eighty live in sub-standard housing. Only one has a university or college education. Most of the population of the globe live in substantially different circumstances than those we in the First World take for granted.

I wonder what the responsibility of the one with the college education is?

dlm