A Pound of Prevention or an Ounce of Cure?

They call it the "international community," as if all the nations of the world are homes in a village somewhere.  That'd be one messed-up looking town.

You'd have the sprawling, lavish mansion of the USA (purchased on credit, serious issues with the plumbing and foundation) on the same street as Latin America, whose homes have holes in the roof and bullet holes around the door.  The Koreas share a duplex, one of which is well-lit and prosperous, the other dark and boarded-up - and the owner occasionally takes potshots at the mailman.  Well-to-do and quiet Europe Street is just around the corner from the Middle East Road, which is currently on fire.

There are fire trucks and such in an enclosed parking lot that can only be unlocked when the right five households agree to do so.  The understanding is that if your home is burning down, it's only a matter of real concern if some sparks land on a neighbor's yard.  And if you happen to hear the sound of women and children screaming from a neighbor's house, mixed with muffled gunshots and the thump of something heavy hitting the floor, well... it's not really your business, or your problem.

Not a model community, in other words.

It does have its good points, however - if someone's home is ablaze, sometimes its neighbors will provide shelter for the residents until the fires go out and they can rebuild.  But other times, a neighbor will force a fleeing family to stand out in the yard without water or shelter, because they aren't wanted.  And then we have a crisis of people without adequate supplies, struggling to find a place of safety when what they thought was home became a roaring conflagration.

And it begs the question - maybe it would've been easier to douse the flames when they were first sparked.  Sure, it'd be hard work, and expensive, and you might even lose people.  You'd probably expend more resources and cause more grief preventing the crisis than you would by watching it happen but letting some refugees camp out on your property.  But while your individual share in the effort would be greater, the overall level of misery would be much lessened.  You'd be doing something good for your community.

But it's not a real international "community," is it?  Just a bunch of self-interested actors who happen to live next to each other.  And so we'll watch a disaster like Syria unfold, consider taking action, but decide it's not really worth the trouble.  It's not really our problem. 

At least until those refugees show up on our borders, asking why we aren't doing anything to help.