Stockholm
September 15, 2005
THE world's most expensive hot dog will go on sale in Stockholm as part of a United Nations-sponsored event aimed at highlighting the problem of poverty as world leaders gather at the UN summit in New York.
"The goal is to highlight world poverty during the UN summit in New York by using a simple metaphor - the customary Swedish 'korv' (hot dog) - to show people here what it would be like to live life without having enough money for even the most basic things," he said. More than more than a billion people worldwide live on less than one dollar a day, according to the UNDP.
"We're not just talking about having it tight financially. We're talking about poverty that is paralysing," Mr Waldenstroem said. For someone who lives on a dollar a day, buying a hot dog at the regular price of 20 kronor ($3.40) would be as impossible as asking your typical, well-to-do Swede to pay one thousand kronor for a "korv", he pointed out.
The event will kick off with Minister for International Development Cooperation Carin Jaemtin selling the first franks. "We want to show how tilted the distribution of wealth is in the world ... It's extremely important now during the UN summit that world leaders are pushed to live up to their commitment to help eradicate poverty," a spokesman for Mr Jaemtin said.
A number of Swedish celebrities will also come to sell the pricey hot dogs, which will be available at a special stand through Saturday.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16611305-13762,00.html
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