I remember 7 or 8 years ago, when taking a vacation break in Botswana and crossing the border from SA by road. There was a large sign up at the immigration pointing out that something like 1 in 7 of the population was infected with HIV. That's in a country which is relatively rich per capita.
On that scale, we live in a very compressed band. What is especially noticable as one moves further away from western Europe is the enormous contrasts between the haves and the have nots and the apparent inconsistencies. For example:
- People living in cardboard box shanties outside Cape Town with satellite dishes on the roof.
- People sitting by the roadside in Moscow drinking from bottles of cheap perfume while large S class Mercedes with tinted windows drive by spraying them with muddy slush.