I read the below article in the news recently. I guess it’s time to move to Sweden and start a hot dog stand. I could sell at 75% off and still make a killing!

THE world’s most expensive hot dog will go on sale in Stockholm as part of a United Nations-sponsored event aimed at highlighting the problem of poverty as world leaders gather at the UN summit in New York.
Hot dogs and veggie dogs will be sold in downtown Stockholm for 999 Swedish kronor ($170) a piece, said Klas Waldenstroem, a spokesman for the United Nations Development Programme’s Nordic office.

“The goal is to highlight world poverty during the UN summit in New York by using a simple metaphor – the customary Swedish ‘korv’ (hot dog) – to show people here what it would be like to live life without having enough money for even the most basic things,” he said.

More than more than a billion people worldwide live on less than one dollar a day, according to the UNDP.

“We’re not just talking about having it tight financially. We’re talking about poverty that is paralysing,” Mr Waldenstroem said.

For someone who lives on a dollar a day, buying a hot dog at the regular price of 20 kronor ($3.40) would be as impossible as asking your typical, well-to-do Swede to pay one thousand kronor for a “korv”, he pointed out.

Read the whole article here.

Seriously now, this is such a lame comparison. Beggars can beg for $1.50 or whatever it costs to buy a hot dog in New York City because they are surrounded by wealth. Real poor people who would dream about hot dogs are surrounded by nothing but other poor people. When you’re starving in the middle of an African desert, in a country ruled by a ruthless government, relish, mustard and ketchup packets we throw away would seem like heaven.

The world’s poor need caring, honest leaders and protectors – something I’m afraid the UN could never provide. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the UN is totally useless. The United Nations is primarily a relief organization. It’s their job to prevent war. By saying the United Nations is useless, I would be making the argument that they have never assisted anyone, nor has their presence prevented a single war, and I’d be very wrong on both counts.

But with modern day transportation, communication, and agriculture technology, famine should be a thing of the past. The only reason people starve these days is for political reasons, and that is something that unfortunately the UN has little power over.

I posted every day this week, as you can see. Mostly nothing personal, all just plain silliness. It was fun. A great way to spend my lunch break, writing little blurbs of utter nonsense. Here’s the plan: Long boring posts about my daily life one day on the weekends, short and sweet little posts about miscellaneous nonsense (including personal stuff, when it arises) five days a week. I might skip a day or two, but I’m going to start writing more now that we are getting into fall and I’ll be spending less time out doing things. It’s that time of year again to start hibernating in our warm little holes. And now that I’m seeing more traffic to the site than ever, perhaps this will increase return visitors. Or decrease it? I can’t imagine anyone can take too much of my blathering.

Anyway, it was a great week. I was in a pretty good mood all week. I think it’s the weather, and the fact that my allergies haven’t been so bad. Maybe I’ll skip a year and not have to go through the annual 3-4 month long hellacious allergy struggle. That would be great.

I’ll write tomorrow or Sunday. See you then.