BOY, oh boy, oh boy, I don't know where to begin. Choose your flavour: teachers' dispute, GPS, housing, youth violence, Cuba. If I didn't know better I would be convinced that we have been jinxed with the eastern curse that reads "May you live in interesting times!"

As an age advocate, I must confess that I don't know how to compete with the conflict that is taking place in so many other very important social areas. It's been suggested that seniors should organise a march on Parliament using machetes as cane sticks. That's bound to get someone's attention but, perhaps a tad drastic.

Yet meanwhile, back on the farm, the ageing wheel keeps turning. I went to get my prescription glasses renewed the other day. The visit, lenses and frames came to almost $600. I've had my current frames for the last ten years and by the looks of things I'll have them for the next ten years too!

Unfortunately, I'll have to pay the piper for the lenses. And get this, no sooner after the 'eye lens' surprise my home insurance agent called to say he'd be by to discuss the rise in my home insurance, never mind costs were raised last year also.

And, if those financial setbacks don't grab you, has anyone checked their health insurance deductions lately? Don't get me started! Now if as a young, working professional the cost of living in this country is hitting me hard, how on earth are senior citizens faring?

Folks, is it possible that we are pricing our own into poverty? I had the opportunity the other day to speak to nurses during Nursing Week. The nurses asked me to speak on the subject, "The Many Faces of Poverty".

I was looking forward to sharing this speech because I know that many people in Bermuda believe that we do not have poverty in this country. Well, I did some research on poverty and here's what I shared with the nurses.

In 1959, the elderly represented 35.2 per cent of all people in poverty in the United States. Since then a number of federal programmes such as Social Security, Medicare, the Older Americans Act and seniors' housing have helped to reduce poverty among older Americans.

Likewise, many elderly have taken advantage of private and public pension plans to help secure their later years in life. As a consequence of these government and private programmes, the poverty rate of the elderly has dropped over the past three decades.

In Bermuda, according to the 2000 Census, while the poverty indicator has also dropped, the elderly remained the largest sub-group in the "poor" category of all ages, with 40 per cent of the elderly believed to be in this category.

While the poverty indicators in both the US and Bermuda are dropping, Bermuda's indicators remain far above those experienced in America 45 years ago. How's that for progress! Still, these statistics represent the financial indicators of poverty only.

According to the World Bank site called PovertyNet, poverty is more than financial disadvantage. Poverty is hunger. Poverty is a lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor; not being able to go to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job and fearing the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness bought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, a lack of representation and freedom.

Poverty is also being alone with no one who cares for or about you. Poverty is lacking a purpose in life. Poverty has many faces changing from place to place and across time and means many things to many people.

Here's what a cross-section of poverty-stricken people around the world, featured on PovertyNet, had to say about their own experiences of poverty:

Based on the characteristics of these testimonials poverty is also feeling helpless and powerless; being crushed by daily burdens; not being able to live in peace and love; having no voice; illness, humiliation and shame; being surrounded by material wealth with an absence of caring.

What do you think Bermuda ? do we suffer from poverty? Before you answer that question remember I'm not just talking about the financial kind but the moral kind too.

By way of a poverty barometer what are your answers to the following questions: Is it true that while some of us may be financially well off, we are also morally bankrupt? Is it true that some of us offer rents far beyond the financial means of our fellow Bermudians simply because we can? Is it true that we raise insurance prices and refuse to cover the most vulnerable of our society for the sake of satisfying our shareholders who are ironically growing older themselves? Is it true that we fight over our parents' legacies even before they are dead? Is it true that we sit silently by while our leaders court every manner of mammon and ignore the vulnerable among us, the very people they were elected to protect?

If these claims are true Bermuda, then we need to adjust our collective understanding of what constitutes poverty in this country.

This editorial has not been written with the intent of finger-pointing. Instead, in the context of Heritage Month, a time in which we traditionally reflect on all the wonderful things that have united us and brought us this far, it might also be a good time to reflect on where we are going.

Where are we headed Bermuda? Do we truly love our neighbours as much as we seem to love ourselves? What type of heritage are we leaving for our children? Where will we be when it's our turn to be 'grey' in Bermuda?

If you don't like your answers to these questions, then what are you prepared to do about them? Could poverty be facing you as you grow older? I'll leave these questions for you to ponder.

Until next time my friends consider this . . . when will enough be enough!