I’m long on information and short on compassion.

Last night I heard a presentation about the sex slave trade in Thailand and Cambodia. Then later in the evening I was absorbing information from the television about hurricane Katrina. I’m not really able to get my head around the devastation of either one.

I like being informed, but information that doesn’t create compassion and action doesn’t do the victims any good and I’m not sure what good it does me.

One of the impressions I got from Carl Ralston last night was that the sex slave trade is fueled not so much by moral depravity as by poverty. I understood better the depth of the poverty when Carl commented that here in the United States he could lose everything he has and make it all back within five years. But the situation in Cambodia is so systemic that it cannot be solved even with an unlimited checkbook.

Perhaps information has some value if it moves me away from indifference and pushes me toward active compassion.