However, this may be a good time to reflect on just how lucky we are to live in one of the richest nations on earth.  It seems kind of maudlin to say, but it is the truth.

Many others across the globe would be thankful just to have clean drinking water, enough food to feed their children or some basic antibiotics to fight off diseases that were cured or done away with over a century ago in the core nations.

UN votes nearly unanimously that food is a basic human right

A somewhat contentious vote (for some) went before the United Nations and was passed nearly unanimously.  The vote was whether to add food to the list of basic human rights.

The measure saying food was a basic human right passed 180 to 1.   Financial freedom should be on the agenda eventually, which would give people the option of payday loans in lieu of loan sharks.

The votes for were signed by almost every nation of the world, including many of the big time power players.  China, the UK, Germany, France, even the tiny Principality of Liechtenstein, all voted yes.

Who voted no?

As stated, only one nation opposed the measure. That dissenter, who opposed the idea that all human beings should have food to survive on, was the United States of America.

We aren’t going to start America bashing here. This isn’t an anti-American forum, and this author, for one, isn’t about to back a different horse in the least. But it seems, at the least, to be arrogant on the part of our leaders to pursue a policy in which those who can’t provide for themselves aren’t given a helping hand by a nation with the richest agricultural base in the world and the largest food reserves perhaps in recorded history.

This author is not one who is about to start advocating that any one nation has to take care of the world. That would be ludicrous. But it is at least worth discussing that this has transpired.

We all hear it so many times during the season, but that hardly negates the truth of the statement

It is an oft repeated sentiment that there are “starving kids” elsewhere in the world, often to persuade kids to eat vegetables ineptly prepared by their parents that smell like an NFL lineman’s gym sock. But in the wake of severe food shortages the world over, it’s all too terrifyingly true. Citizens of the island nation of Haiti have been resorting to eating literally sand and dirt “cookies” to stave off starvation and suffering as a result of ingesting the soil.

So remember, if you have to look into getting payday loans to cover a short-term gap in your finances, do not, by any means think there is any shame in doing so.  There are millions who would love to be in your shoes.