The United Nations monitor on extreme poverty and human rights has embarked on a coast-to-coast tour of the US to hold the world’s richest nation – and its president – to account for the hardships endured by America’s most vulnerable citizens. Facebook Twitter Pinterest United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston. “The US has an extraordinary ability to naturalize and accept the extreme poverty that exists even in the context of such extreme wealth,” he said. The response is really up to us.”The UN poverty tour falls at a singularly tense moment for the US. To some extent, Trump’s focus on “making America great again” – a political jingo that in itself contains an element of criticism of the state of the nation – chimes with the UN’s concern about extreme poverty.

Source: The Guardian December 01, 2017 18:00 UTC