I feel sure this is true though the extent of child deprivation is not really a subject the new right wants in the media. It limits advertising revenue at least that revenue that can be used to foster commercial enterprise and we are all shopkeepers now.
Ignores such they are always with us. Research directed to why? Can’t detract form the main game we will have a prayer and throw a coin a small one like Australia’s foreign aid programme or America’s come to that.
Birth control, an economy directed towards helping humans? Do not be silly it’s the mental ward for you, at least in Russia, jail perhaps in other countries. Birth control by law not only offends some religions it infringes liberty. Better to use the fodder in wars,a desire of god we are told, though granted the excess or left overs are indeed troubling. Some travellers have denied the reality others say it is god’s will. Meanwhile if I don’t go and buy something instead of wasting time I will be acting contrary to the demands of society. No money? Put it on the card!

Jane, when I first went to Istanbul 40 years ago, it was very much impoverished Asia rather than wealthy Europe. But the kids had a spark and zest for life which stood out by comparison with many of those further west. I met a lot of kids in those much-maligned Third World sweat shops who had great vitality and enjoyment.

Although I'd been to the Middle East and North Africa, I found India overwhelming when I arrived there in 1972, it's great to read your tale of how dispossessed kids are making something of their lives.

I was in Bihar in 1973. It's a place of extremes - from very cold in winter to 50C in summer; great riches and desperate poverty; epidemics, floods and drought in the 12 months before I arrived; bandits holding up trains, rebels blowing up the railway minister; terrible prejudice against and extortion of the poorest classes.

Yet I felt that the people were happier than those in Europe. So much unhappiness in the west is of a mental nature, arising from thinking, conceptualising, comparing; the people of Bihar just seemed to get on with it, "life is desperately hard, well, that's the way it is, smile, help your neighbour ..." Inspiratonal.

I found Indians in general very aware of where one was coming from. If you had money, they would know, and seek to extract it from you; if you had none, they would go out of their way to help you - some very poor people gave me great help after I'd been robbed of all my cash and passport in Varanasi.

How would Australia cope with such a situation in the event of massive fuel shortage?