Flummoxed.

Two and a half months since Madeleine McCann went missing.

A few co-workers of mine were discussing how tragic the situation is just a couple of days ago. And of course it is tragic. No parent should have to go through that kind of torture, and I sincerely hope, futile as it may be, that no harm has come to her.

Now J.K. Rowling is using the launch of Harry Potter VII to raise awareness about the plight of missing children worldwide, with Madeleine as the poster child. It’s admirable that she felt moved to the point where she’s using her considerable influence to promote a worthy cause.

What’s incomprehensible, though, is the mass outpouring of sorrow for the Madeleines and the Natalees of the world, and the indifference towards Darfur, Congo, or Iraq. Nicholas Kristof actually wrote a column on this strange phenomenon entitled “Save the Darfur Puppy,” which you can find here. It reminds me of a story a friend of mine once told me – how one man, in an incident of particularly destructive road rage, threw another driver’s dog into traffic. People went absolutely mental over the incident. I probably would too, as I adore dogs. But what kind of sense does it make that people are so moved by Fido, and not at all by scores of civilian deaths – oh, sorry, “collateral damage” – in a single instance in Iraq? Why does no one care that no one is keeping a bona fide count of civilian casualties Iraq, or that the means to do so does not even exist?

I guess the only explanation, as stated in the column above, is that our capacity to feel and empathize is severely limited. And that will probably serve as our best evolutionary advantage, given the state of the world we live in.