And this is just the beginning

What a disconcerting holiday season it is for the First World. Millions of folks in the States and Europe are wondering if two clementines and one hollow Chocolate Santa are enough to fill a Christmas stocking or whether it's really necessary to give the kids a gift on every day of Chanukah.

In Japan and Hong Kong, where lavish year-end banquets at fancy restaurants are a tradition, families are thinking of smaller and plainer events or considering just staying home. People who rarely use their kitchens are trying to figure out how grandma made all those special sweets.

In areas of our rich countries where scraping by and doing without is called "life", things can't get much worse and yet everyone fears that they will. And they're right.

The other day I saw an elderly Italian gentleman discreetly filtering through the supermarket's refuse bin. I ran through the emotions of surprise, concern and shame in quick order. This, after all, is small-town Todi and no one is supposed to go hungry here. By the time I'd located a package of chicken parts in the bottom of my shopping cart and thought up a story to go with them, he'd vanished. I really wanted him to have those drumsticks.