Every year 3.1 million Indian children die before the age of 5, mostly from diseases of poverty like diarrhea.

One death is a tragedy, and a million deaths are a statistic.

Conservatives highlight the primacy of family and argue that family breakdown exacerbates poverty, and they're right. Children raised by single parents are three times as likely to live in poverty as kids in two-parent homes.

Of those who die from avoidable, poverty-related causes, nearly 10 million, according to UNICEF, are children under five. They die from diseases such as measles, diarrhea, and malaria that are easy and inexpensive to treat or prevent.

A few countries like Sri Lanka and Honduras have led the way in slashing maternal mortality.

The caricature of Islam as a violent and intolerant religion is horrendously incomplete. Remember that those standing up to Muslim fanatics are mostly Muslims.