dr.e.

It brought to my mind your Martian from another post, and I wonder what his reaction would be, in view of all else going on in the world.

As food shortages, food riots and famine spread around the globe, I worry that indiviudal horrors like Burma will fade to become just a small part of a chekcered overall picture in the Martian's overview.
How can the Martian see one face , when it's part of a snapshot containintg
millions?

When catching up on the news, I, too, sometimes feel overwhelmed. There is Burma, and, at the same tine. there is the mountain of money being spent on the primaries. There is the seemingly endless situation in Darfur, and People magazine publishes pictures of the 100 most beautiful people in the world.
How can one mind, Martian or eartthly, take all that in and digest it properly?

The intellect says that's just the way things have always been and still are. Nothing to gawk at here. Move on.
But moving on feels like a betrayal.

My heroes are the humanitarian workers who do manage to keep the individual faces in mind as they deal with millions.

Your story telling helps.