Disasters, quick and slow

The Boston Marathon Massacre and the explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant yesterday are examples of  a quick disaster.   Relief is quick, people appear almost instantaneously and despite the tragedy, there is a feeling of satisfaction that we have responded to the crisis in a humane fashion.   Then there is the slow motion disasters unfolding in countries like Greece where up to 20% of children don't get enough to eat and there are reports of kids doubled over with pain from hunger and stealing or begging food from classmates.  Meanwhile, the rest of the European community demands more austerity from the Greeks as their country tumbles into third world status.   A recent report from Unicief  ranks the US 26th out of 29 advanced countries in metrics which measure the well being of children.  Only Latvia, Estonia and Romania ranked lower.  What these statistics foreshadow is a generation which will mature in poverty with less education than there parents and certainly less economic opportunity.  I don't know if we will be able to summon the same sense of outrage at these slow motion tragedies as we do for bombings and explosions.  I doubt it, but the consequences will dwarf the explosions in Boston and Texas.