What 'Free Rice' Led Me To...

I almost feel that I should be writing this in the largest size I can get. Why? Because I now spend a couple of hours a day on a program called "Free Rice" instead of playing games when I get tired of writing. Oh, it has a 'game'... but the game is feeding people all over the world and I am glad I found it. I've always been a word game fan... Jessie, my mother, made up word games for us to play from the time we were old enough to talk to the end of her days, so this is my kind of website. The best thing about it is that you get a grain of rice to 'give' to those who need it with every word you identify correctly. I had so much training in words by Jess that I rarely miss a definition -- if I don't know the word, I can usually guess it by the root of the word, or the fact that it isn't the other three or four definitions. I have been managing to get 3,000 to 3,500 grains a day... and I shall continue to do that and more from now on.

I also learned a sad fact from this same place... that we are far, far behind some other countries in our aid to poverty stricken countries and peoples. Take a look at this:
International Aid -- A Solution
http://www.poverty.com/internationalaid.html

It will show you that the Scandanavian countries, plus Luxembourg and Netherlands are way ahead in their aid to the poor, while we are at the BOTTOM in giving, down below Japan, Italy, Greece and Portugal. We assume... I hear people 'assuming' daily ...that we are so big in our 'gifting' to others -- well, folks, we are not. We are at the bottom, according to the UN statistics.

Of course, that is rather a regular thing with our wealthy... they give mainly to those who can 'entertain' them, as to the theatre, symphonies, galleries, museums, etc. They tend to overlook the ill, the halt, the blind, and particularly those annoying, grimy, lazy (so says Barb Bush), poor people, not only here in the U.S., but also abroad. Even Oprah and particularly the WalMart heirs fall into this bunch. The middle class in the U.S., plus the lower classes, and even the poor... largely support those annoying poverty stricken, homeless, lost people of this world. How do I know... well, I am now, through unfortunate circumstances I won't go into... one of "the poor," living on my Social Security -- but I work hard to save up enough to give to two of my favorite groups: "Feeding America" and "Doctors Without Borders." The first tries to feed the people who need their help in the United States, while the second has been feeding children and saving lives all across the globe. They both need our help to continue the great job they've been doing.

If anyone reads this, I hope they write to our President and urge him to give the miserable 0.7% (that is LESS than 1%) of our national income that is the same as the other countries are giving, that the UN says is necessary to stop poverty in the world. Let's get our money in there with the Swedish, the Danes and the Dutch and get rid of world-wide hunger.