According to the most recent estimates, in 2023 almost 700 million people around the world were subsisting on less than $2.15 per day. The good news however, is the share of the world’s people living in extreme poverty fell by half over the last decade: from 14.3 per cent in 2010 to 7.1 per cent in 2019. …from the U.N

Life’s Chances

There are a billion chances in life
to be who we are or something else
and yet accidentally we find ourselves
here,

Many of us, born on third base
believing we just hit a triple*,
and others find themselves in a
world where they never get
to play.

For most, life is just like a hen
house ladder, shitty and short**.

For sure we are making progress,
as humanity but we have so far to go,
and there are so many challenges.

Those of us blessed by Life’s Chances
might take a moment each day
to appreciate our good fortune,
and help make the world better
for those far less fortunate.

*from Barry Switzer, 1986 interview

**from the movie “The Holdovers”