bleak

I'd be surprised if there were anyone out there who had not heard the news story about the orphaned baby humpback whale found abandoned in a harbor near Sydney, Australia. It's been on the news for several days. Before I continue, I will openly admit that this damned story had me in a puddle of tears. We were just out on the Gulf of Maine on a whale watching trip, and saw several humpbacks. The mother-calf bond for whales is very strong. Babies stay with and are fed by their mothers for about a year. The mental image of this lost baby whale bonding with a yacht to the point of attempting to suckle sent my fragile emotions right over the edge.

The whole continent of Australia, and much of the world, it seems, has been entranced by this story as it has been relayed via news feeds and blog updates. When you show the world a solitary and lost innocent in need, everyone becomes the face of charity. We really wanted to find a way to save that baby whale. We absolutely yearned to find a way to help. We can debate the reasons for this charity another time - whether its really altruistic (doubtful) or if it's an attempt to bolster our own esteem by feeling good about ourselves (probably more likely).

Edit - At reread, that last bit is just too pessimistic. There are lots of reasons for charity, whether it be altruism or mothering/nurturing instinct or genuine concern or the need to feel satisfied with ourselves. I hereby edit that cynicism out. Mostly. -End Edit

In my opinion, the ultimate motivation for our need for charity is academic and is not really that important. Yet when faced with other versions of this same story - stories of innocents in desperate straits - stories that are seen on this plant on scales of quantity and need that are simply unfathomable, the collective charitable outcry seems to be quieted.

This phenomenon is quite common, and also quite understandable. A local news story will appear that highlights the plight of a local family that lost their home in a fire or perhaps it describes the situation of a local elderly woman who cannot afford to pay her electric bills on her social security income. Invariably, our charity gushes out and the money rolls in. It's heartwarming to a point, but I've always thought of it rather like a lottery. For those few families lucky enough to be highlighted as the "story de jour," this charitable outpouring is likely a lifesaver. But I wonder how those human-interest families were picked and the cynical side of me wonders how much potential entertainment value ultimately plays into those decisions.

From the singular local scale to the broader picture:

The July 2004 UNICEF Report on AIDS states that in Sub-Saharan Africa,

...Between 1990 and 2003, the number of children orphaned by AIDS increased from less than one million to an estimated 12.6 million.

... Even without the impact of HIV/AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa already had the largest proportion of orphaned children. In 2003, 12.3 per cent (43 million) of all children in the region were orphans, nearly double the 7.3 per cent of children in Asia, and 6.2 per cent of children in Latin America and the Caribbean, who were orphans. Botswana has the highest rate of orphaning (20%). In 11 of the 43 countries in the region, more than 15 per cent of children are orphans. Of these 11 countries, AIDS is the cause of parental death between 11 and 78 per cent of the time.

UNICEF projects that in 2010, msomething like 1 in 5 children in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe will be orphaned.

The 2006 US census estimates the percentage of children living below the poverty level to be 32.6% in the District of Columbia and 29.5% in Mississippi. The average for the entire U.S. is 18.3%. On a personal note, I have a hard time believing that U.S. Census counts give anywhere close to an accurate accounting of the homeless, so I view these numbers as lower limits.

My point is there is no shortage of human innocents (children) that are is desperate need. To the contrary, the magnitude of orphans and children in need on this planet is so well beyond the threshhold of comprehensible that "overwhelming" is an understatement. If I try to wrap my brain around the idea of 1 out of every 5 children in Sub-Saharan Africa having lost their parents and living in countries marked by poverty and malnutrition and AIDS, I implode. I haven't the faintest clue as to the true needs in these situations, much less what actions I could personally take that even begin to help. It seems that pulling out my checkbook and writing a check to a humanitarian organization borders on slacktivism.

It's not that hard to understand why we allow these problems to exist without constant attention and charitable outpourings. We feel like we can help one family. We can make a dramatic difference in the life of one elderly lady. We can hope to help one lost baby whale. We like to feel as if we can actually make a difference in the world. But to imagine that we can make a dent in global poverty, for instance, is not realistic.

Personally, I think it's even delusional to imagine we can make a real difference. I think the scale of need on this planet is well beyond the reach of well-meaning armchair charity. (I include myself in this category. I do not mean to give offense here - this is just my interpretation of the magnitude of the problem). I don't even believe that the collective actions of millions of armchair activists acting on local levels can make a dent in these bigger issues. These are problems that must be addressed on national and world scales. The best we can do on a world scale, in my opinion, is to support the government representatives that will take action to help.

Despite this pessimism, I am not against helping locally. Whether it's true altruism or it's because it makes us feel better for being charitable doesn't really matter. We can't make a dent in world problems but we can make a difference in the family down the street. And that's OK.

The Australian authorities euthanized the baby whale today. She was too injured and too young to be able to help while in captivity, and their efforts to help her find another pod of whales with a lactating mother that could adopt her didn't work.