Recognizing and Confronting Poverty in All its Forms

A brand new, silvery-gray Range Rover idles in Beirut's afternoon traffic jam. Its driver, an impeccably coifed and elegantly dressed middle-aged woman, is having an animated conversation with a friend on her cellular phone, her hands, sparkling with diamond rings and golden bracelets, flash in the afternoon sunlight as she talks. From the curb, a young girl no more than eight years old, her eyes dull, her hair matted, her faded dress fraying at the edges, shyly moves towards the Range Rover. The glamorous woman shifts her position in an effort to ignore the street girl begging at her window.