Plight of the poor - Living costs

“The poor you will always have with you,” Jesus declared as he was anointed at Bethany. Almost 2,000 years later, little has changed.

In fact, nearly half of the world’s population — more than 3bn people — live on less than the equivalent of €2 a day. More than 1.3bn live on half of that figure and 1bn children worldwide are living in poverty.

At the same time, it is also true that the rich will always be with us, if the latest sale of a single gem stone is anything to go by. An exceptionally rare 19-carat pink diamond has fetched $50m (€44m) in Geneva, setting a new price-per-carat record for a stone of its kind.

The so-called Pink Legacy was sold to American luxury brand Harry Winston, which belongs to the Swiss Swatch group. Another pink diamond was sold last November at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong for $32.5m.

Just imagine what the combined value of those stones could do to help alleviate poverty.

Sadly, the poor are still with us and are likely to remain so for another 2,000 years.