 The Mirror newspaper in England published this shocking report by their U.S. Bureau Chief Andy Lines on March 13th, 2000. Andy and I traveled extensively throughout the Usa visiting some of the poorest neighbourhoods where we discovered shocking poverty in the world's richest nation. In ghettos and feeding programs we witnessed people struggling to survive on handouts from church groups and meagre government aid. Some of the scenes we witnessed could have been taken anywhere in the so called third world (a term I personally hate - we all live on the same planet on the same world). America, despite her many riches, does little to help those at the lower end of the social scale. as Andy wrote, 'We could be in wartime Kosovo, Afghanistan or Bosnia. In some wretched corner of Africa. But we are not.' We are in the Usa, where for some, the American dream has become their worst nightmare. |