A touching (and timely) piece on income disparities
"Some images linger in the mind forever. Earlier this year as I walked along the streets of the well-off Ipanema district in Rio de Janeiro, I noticed a poor woman and her boy sitting on a sidewalk. They clearly relied on the charity of others, plying pity for a few coins. But at that moment, they were mother and child, consumed with one another, as if their shared love made them forget why they were there that morning.

To his great joy and to my surprise, the woman lifted the boy into the air, his elated face unconscious to either his poverty or the fact he had no legs. And so they played until a stranger approached and offered money. Both smiled in gratitude, somewhat surprised by the interruption of their simple bliss.

At the time I couldn't help thinking how this charitable gesture would do nothing to change their lives, particularly the boy's, in a world where his disability would most likely close the few doors of opportunity available even to the able-bodied poor of in Rio..."