We are adopting from one of the poorest nations in the world and yet we live in a nation where the rich seem to be getting richer (and stupider) by the minute.
Case in point, the Fleurburger 5000 hamburger that is now available at the Fleur de Lys restaurant in Las Vegas. The 5000 stands for, yep, you guessed it, $5000.
For a single effing hamburger!
OK, it does come with some fancy bottle of wine and a certificate proving that you had the burger which, honestly, anyone should be ashamed to show around.
To put it in perspective, that is more than 31 times the per capita gross national income in Ethiopia ($160). And since 23% of the population lives on less than $1 per day, at least 13 people could live for a year off of what that one burger costs.
Who eats this stuff? I'm thinking the grossly rich Russian billionaires who are probably the same people who eat the world's most expensive dessert, sold by New York eatery Serendipity 3. Alas, this dessert is no longer available due to the shut down of Serendipity 3 due to rodent and fly infestations as well as 100 live cockroaches found on-site. Funny. Maybe the cockroaches are the ones making the dessert, ala Ratatouille. Then it might be worth it. Kind of. Maybe not.
Someone posted on our local Ethiopia adopt Yahoo group that she was interested in adopting so she could "save a child'. She got a number of polite but emphatic responses that if that was her main reason, she might want to consider donating to a charity rather than adopting. I didn't respond but if I had I would have told her that an adopted child loses a lot by coming here - language, identity, culture, links to biological family. And she will be coming to a country where eating a $5000 hamburger is celebrated. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't adopt or her life won't be better. You just have to keep in perspective that America is not the Holy Grail and there are things about our culture that are really not that great.
1 comment:
Excellent post!
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