And one of the greatest tragedies is that over 2 million have died in the conflicts in Sudan, with no Western relief efforts yet in sight.

Also, I was talking with my cousin the other night, who is the executive director of the regional food shelf network here in the Twin Cities, and she said the local food shelves here are bare. When the tsunami hit after xmas, traditionally a difficult month for the organizations that deal with winter crises in the lives of the American poor, aid to local relief evaporated over night.

I don't begrudge a dime sent to tsunami relief. But I also know the relief is likely not getting to women and children (perhaps some of you have noticed who the "recipients" are of the food drops, etc? All men. A lot of the food and water will be stolen from recipients and will be available in many areas only through a black market.

And the saddest thing about all of this is that in this day and age, it never has to be like this. If we put even half of the resources and organization into providing relief and raising living standards world wide rather than to militarism every year, poverty on the entire planet would be largely gone.