"less than Europeans spend on perfume - or than Americans spend on cosmetic surgery"

The World Summit begins today in NYC, as does the three-day fast for those of us who have signed up to fast and pray for it. (Quite an ironic week for the announcement that the UK has banned Make Poverty History advertisements from TV and radio, a fact which I found easier to learn about on U2 sites than anywhere else.) The NY Times has some sobering words on the summit and the MDGs, among them these: "the gap between the current trendline on child mortality and the one the leaders committed themselves to amounts to 41 million children dying before their fifth birthday over the next decade."