Divorce is one of the key predictors of poverty for a child growing up in a home that's broken.

I think any branding for me is band-related. It's really weird to get used to the exposure because I am a naturally introverted person and I'm not exactly social. Occasionally I can get comfortable enough to talk but I spend a lot of my days not talking especially when I'm at home and not on tour.

Spare a thought for the poor introverts among us. In a world of party animals and glad-handers they're the ones who stand by the punch bowl. In a world of mixers and pub crawls they prefer to stay home with a book. Everywhere around them cell phones ring and e-mails chime and they just want a little quiet.

In Afghanistan there is a plan to build democracy hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and poverty every year and we don't have a plan for reconstruction at home.

Our poverty will be brought home to us to its full extent only after the war.

There are more than 300 000 families in the Gulf region that lost their homes and are waiting for peace of mind. The hurricane exposed the sad reality of poverty in America. We saw in all its horrific detail the vulnerabilities of living in inadequate housing and the heartbreak of losing one's home.

What power can poverty have over a home where loving hearts are beating with a consciousness of untold riches of the head and heart?

Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world.

To get away from poverty you need several things at the same time: school health and infrastructure - those are the public investments. And on the other side you need market opportunities information employment and human rights.

While Haiti has recently celebrated more than 200 years of independence from French colonial rule the citizens of the island remain vulnerable to poverty poor health and political chaos.