Another reason why many of us look away is simply because the scale of what we are up against is so huge and so daunting. At the opposite end of the problem from the individual moral dilemmas with which we are increasingly familiar - there are the coordinated actions of countries, at the UN or the EU.
Take the news from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees this week. Here are some of the headlines from UNHCR's Global Trends report:
* The number of displaced people living outside their home country has risen for a second year running, by 500,000, to 11.4m at the end of 2007 mainly due to the "volatile situation in Iraq"
* The number of people displaced internally by conflict or persecution increased to 26m from 24.4m at the end of 2006. Another 25m have been forced from their homes by natural disasters.
* Almost half the global refugee population is accounted for by about 3m Afghans, mostly in Pakistan and Iran, and more than 2m Iraqis, mainly in Syria and Jordan. There are also about 500,000 refugees each from Colombia, Sudan and Somalia.
* These figures exclude an estimated 4.6m Palestinian refugees, who are the responsibility of the UN Relief and Works Agency.
* Six out of seven refugees flee to neighbouring states, eg the mass exodus from Zimbabwe has made South Africa one of the biggest recipients of asylum claims in recent years with more than 250,000 since 2002.
* The total number of people under the care of UNHCR at the end of 2007 was "an unprecedented 25.1 million."
What part would you hope the EU might play in easing this care burden? A campaign to put an end to destructive holier-than-thou wars that leave peoples in even more trouble than they were in already? A new look at food production, or a quicker look at climate change? Forget it. There is no good news from Liza Schuster, who called her article about the decision the European Parliament are have taken today on the European Return Directive, 'Things can only get worse'. Here too, we meet the same kind of shame which is simply debilitating - how can these things happen in our name?
