Reality check of the day

From the 4/18 New York Times:

In Haiti, where three-quarters of the population earns less than $2 a day and one in five children is chronically malnourished, the one business booming amid all the gloom is the selling of patties made of mud, oil and sugar, typically consumed only by the most destitute.

“It’s salty and it has butter and you don’t know you’re eating dirt,” said Olwich Louis Jeune, 24, who has taken to eating them more often in recent months. “It makes your stomach quiet down.”

An isolated incident?  Lindsey‘s got a front-line look at what’s going on the Philippines:

“…Reports from the UN state that about 57 percent of Filipino households don’t get enough food daily.  Logic says that the number of families without enough to eat will only escalate now that their main staple [rice] is increasingly more expensive.  Specifically, the cost of rice has gone up 50 percent in the last two months, doubling since 2004.  Experts say it could rise an additional 40 percent.”

$4 gas a problem?  Depends.  Does it mean giving up going out to eat, or eating at all?