Despite the Pacific's reputation as a region of beaches and abundance, there is no place further from the internationally agreed poverty reduction targets.

Why is the idea of helping poor children so difficult to sell in a country with a supposed 'socialist streak'?

The gap between rich and poor is an important issue that rarely gets discussed by our economic mandarins.

It is a measure of how subdued is the national mood and how modest are our current ambitions that we expect so little of our elected governments.

Many readers will have been taken aback this week by revelations in the Herald series on the number of children turning up at schools hungry each day.