If you want to see what poverty looks like, go to Haiti. This country ranks high on the bad list. You can see it from the air. There is no money for fuel to cook with, so they burn charcoal. Whole areas have been denuded over the years. A few pics of the transition from the Dominican Republic to Haiti:
I talked with a friend in Athens today, we spoke about the terrible air quality conditions in China. He said that Athens was suffering a similar problem. Smog, caused by people burning wood to heat homes is the issue in Greece. My friend mused:
China’s rapid industrialization has created its problem, in Greece, we have the same problem, for the opposite reason. China has a booming economy and smog. Greece has a collapsing economy and smog. The� WSJ� had a story on this topic, the trees are falling in Greece: Zero Hedge� wrote about the Greeks burning their trees. This� Blog� has an interesting perspective on life in Athens these days.� A pic, and the authors caption:
This bit of modern insanity is brought to you by the technocrats in Brussels. They created a system a dozen years ago that was never intended to work in a country like Greece. It was doomed from the start. As painful as it might be for Mario Draghi, and those who still believe in the Euro Uber Alles, the reality is that the only way out for Greece, is a an exit from the Euro.
If Greece did take the bold step of divorcing a bad partner, it would bring additional pain to the citizens. The wood fires would become more necessary, more trees would have to come down. But there would at least be a future, where today there is just� soot and and no hope.
A question for readers in Spain:� Are trees getting cut for firewood, as is happening in Greece?