Empty Bellies In Haiti

This is truly sad:

In Haiti, where three-quarters of the population earns less than $2 a day and one in five children is chronically malnourished, the one business booming amid all the gloom is the selling of patties made of mud, oil and sugar, typically consumed only by the most destitute.

“It’s salty and it has butter and you don’t know you’re eating dirt,” said Olwich Louis Jeune, 24, who has taken to eating them more often in recent months. “It makes your stomach quiet down.”

In all my travels, Haiti is the only place I have ever actually seen a malnourished child. Stories like this are heartbreaking and make it no mystery why wealthier countries are happier places than poorer ones.

(HT Tyler Cowen)