In this season of giving gifts and counting blessings, Dr. Nafis Sadik has a way of making Americans feel truly blessed and thankful for all they have - but also ashamed.
Listening to her turns thoughts away from buying $150 Nike shoes or the latest Nintendo games to seriously wondering how to help the poor in the far corners of the world.Sadik is executive director of the United Nations Population Fund. A Pakistani who was born in India - she has lived among the world's worst poverty.
She also spent much of her life learning and practicing obstetrics and gynecology in the United States and working at the United Nations. That has allowed her to see that even the poorest Americans are filthy rich by world standards.
I listened to Sadik a few weeks ago at a U.N. conference for reporters. Her speech came after lunch, where we had feasted on thick steaks of Atlantic salmon and fancy French tortes.
Our full stomachs set us up perfectly to feel guilt for what the little woman with the salt-and-pepper hair would say.
"The world has a population of 5.4 billion people," she said. "Americans - even the poorest among them - are in the top 1 billion economically."
She used a simple illustration. Most Americans have access to refrigerators, and hardly give them a second thought as they quietly hum away keeping their food safe from spoilage.
She said few of the 3 billion living in developing, Third World nations have that luxury. And virtually none of the 1 billion poorest residents do.
She added that many never will. "Can you imagine the environmental damage that would come from 1 billion new refrigerators in China?" she asked.
She gave another example of American wealth she noticed as her agency struggled to distribute health information in the Third World but found it cannot do so at medical clinics there simply because they often do not exist.
"In the United States, it may be difficult for the poor to get to clinics. They may have to take time off work, and take buses and make transfers. But they can get to them.
"In many of these countries we try to work in, the nearest clinics may be days away - and virtually impossible for people to reach," Sadik says.
Sadik said that just finding enough food to eat, adequate shelter and clothes to wear - never mind obtaining an education - is a constant struggle among four-fifths of the world's population.
But not so in America. Even its poorest and homeless can find at least temporary shelter, food, clothing and emergency medical care that would likely be the envy of four-fifths of the world's people - even though it may be pathetic by American standards.
If Americans need more reason to care about that than just compassion, Sadik notes the future of the rich in industrialized nations is closely tied to the poorest. "Most of the environmental damage now - like burning of rain forests - is coming from the poorest 1 billion people" struggling to make a living.
The United States argues for trying to save the rain forests, but it still uses 80 percent of the world's energy and resources for 5 percent of the population.
The United Nations is organizing its largest summit ever next year - the Earth Summit - to begin, hopefully, a process of sharing technology and other wealth of industrialized nations to save the environment and improve conditions for poor nations. Because of Sadik, I will be truly thankful this week as I watch my children enjoy their Christmas presents and dinner. Because of Sadik, I also have been giving more to charity.
Even with that, I don't think I will ever quite be able to get Nafis Sadik and her words out of my mind. It is nice to have so much, and horrible too.