Extreme Poverty

So who said Hollywood is a soulless, heartless town? Following in the footsteps of the Asian tsunami relief effort, many A-listers are lending their star power to "One" cause -- the Campaign to Make Poverty History. A simple public-service announcement that began its rounds April 10 on MTV and ABC features the megawattage of Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, Bono, George Clooney, Penelope Cruz and other performers and religious leaders asking Americans to participate in the One Campaign.

Re "U.S., Mexican Bishops Urge Bush to Resume Migration Negotiations," Jan. 25: I am more than a little tired of the Catholic Church blaming the U.S. for the problem that it created and is in the unique position to eliminate. The world, including Mexico, has limited resources. Overpopulation stretches these resources to the breaking point. When the pope forbade the use of birth control, he created the conditions of overpopulation, extreme poverty and desperation that forced mass illegal immigration to the U.S. If this pope were an honorable man, he would admit the mistake and allow the use of birth control.

Re "Peace Prize Winner Sees Every Cent as a Seed," Oct. 14 Over the past few months, The Times has published a number of articles about microcredit and its benefits to the poor. I particularly enjoyed the article about Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered the concept of microcredit, winning the Nobel Peace Prize. However, the stories failed to mention how regular people of modest means can join Yunus in his fight against poverty. The information can be found by anyone interested in joining the fight against poverty at smallfortunes.

HELENA Bonham Carter's ethereal beauty that graced such Merchant-Ivory films as "A Room With a View" and "Howards End" has been hidden under makeup the last few years. Under the guidance of her boyfriend, director Tim Burton, the lithe 40-year-old actress has played a wise simian in "Planet of the Apes," a witch in "Big Fish" and an unglamorous, poor mother of a young boy in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

American parents hold dreams for their children. They want the best, or at least better than what they knew when they were growing up. Many middle-class parents, of all racial backgrounds, are finding that they must put their dreams on hold. Their children will never be able to buy a home in the neighborhood where they grew up. Their grandchildren may have even less. Many Americans are losing ground because of sweeping economic and political change.

Most people avert their eyes when the Ghost Train rattles past. Probably they wish they hadn't seen it. Or maybe they want to believe it doesn't exist. After all, it has no official timetable, no windowpanes, no doors in the frames and no seats. But the train is undeniably there. Its passengers are trash scavengers who travel every day from this down-on-its-luck northwestern suburb to a city still known, occasionally, as "the Paris of Latin America."

Most of the world is aware of poverty, hunger and disease. Most of the world is aware that people are dying, especially that children are dying or growing up weak and stunted and maimed. We are aware that the numbers are vast and the apparent causes--poverty and underdevelopment--are pervasive. It is because we are aware of this that we lose our capacity to distinguish the immediacy of this disaster. We lose our sense that this is really happening.

Last week, in honor of World Malaria Day, viewers of "American Idol" were urged to donate $10 for an insecticide-treated bed net to save an African child from malaria, the mosquito-transmitted scourge that infects about 300 million people every year, killing nearly 1 million. The premise behind the idea of treated nets is simple. The netting prevents malarial mosquitoes from biting people while they're asleep, and the insecticide kills and repels the insects. World health experts say that using the nets can reduce child mortality in malarial regions by 20%. But even as donations roll in and millions of bed nets pile up in warehouses across Africa, aid agencies and non-governmental organizations are quietly grappling with a problem: Data suggest that, at least in some places, nearly half of Africans who have access to the nets refuse to sleep under them.

These days, according to Times reporter Lisa Leff, a group of students at Hoover High School in Glendale has a rich appreciation for the quality of their lives. They have a new energy, a new respect for the problems of the world around them, and a sense that they ought to be involved. Most importantly, perhaps, they now know what it really means to be desperate, angry, fearful and without hope. They also know how it feels to be needed.