On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:46:14 -0400, bb
wrote:

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:02:16 +0700, Bruce In Bangkok
wrote:

Why do you think that these people live in "misery"

Sierra Leone is the lowest ranked country on the Human Development
Index and seventh lowest on the Human Poverty Index. Sound like a
great place to hang out.

You seem to equate rankings on some index with misery. Which is
foolish.

As I mention in another post I worked for a period at Freeport's
copper mine in Irian Jaya where the indigenous people are literally
stone age. they had no metals before the mine was built. As a result
even cutting a sapling was a major undertaking.

While you might considering these people as living in misery, they
didn't consider their life to be in any way miserable or nasty, and in
fact they considered the "White Man" as somewhat foolish for spending
all that effort to dig up a soft green rock that wasn't, in their
eyes, worth a damn.

In fact, had these primitive people learned that "you" owed someone
$10,000 (translated into terms that they could understand), as I have
read is the average credit card debt in the U.S., they would certainly
have considered you as someone who was living a miserable existence.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)