When talking about poor countries, we often refer to them as Third World and we pity them. Did you know that there is a Fourth World that ranks even lower than these Third World countries?

... many of the nations of Africa began a death spiral into the worst global pandemic since the Black Death. And America didn't seem to notice.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise. The United States had ignored Africa through most of its modern history. For a while during the Cold War, Washington put the continent on its strategic chessboard. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, U.S. policy-makers again lost interest in Africa.

And that was when the scourge of AIDS struck the continent.

For the price of a movie ticket and a Coke for the 1 billion people who live in the First World -- the industrialized, wealthy nations -- the march of AIDS through sub-Saharan Africa could be slowed to a crawl....

Malawi resides in the Fourth World -- so desperately poor and in such an utter state of collapse that it doesn't even qualify as a member of the underdeveloped Third World.

The aid package to fight AIDS that President Bush signed into law last month will help 12 African countries. Malawi, so small and insignificant, is not among them.

I have a friend who did her PhD research on AIDS and society in Malawi. It's been several years since she spent her time there, and she's only now able to write about it and get her degree, the experience was so depressing.

To avoid being a hypocrite, I won't tell you to do something about it. I won't suggest going there, or sending money, or getting involved. But it is important to recognize that even the poorest people in this country have it much better than anyone in Malawi. So just take a minute and think of these people next time you're paying $10 to see a movie, and $5 for a soda.