The Little Girl in the Well Syndrome

So what is it about this kid who was supposedly trapped on a large balloon that got away and flew up to 9,000 feet that so got the world's attention? Not only did it get the Local TV News Chopper Live treatment here in Colorado, but was broadcast instantly all over the world. Even the BBC Radio World Service, which doesn't usually cover dramatic sensationalizm of questionable news value, did a story on it.

We daily hear about lives lost in Afghanistan, crushing poverty in the world's slums, convenience store shootings, and weepy breast cancer stories - all tragic, often involving frightening death, but none of which capture our attention like a six year old who may be trapped in an escaped home made flying saucer.

It's that little girl who fell down the well syndrome. You know the story. A little girl is playing near an abandoned well and falls into it. The next 48 hours, the hole in the ground is surrounded by frantic family members and emergency equipment. All television news networks park their satellite trucks nearby. Voyeuristic townspeople watch from behind police tape, waiting to see if she'll survive.

The phenomenon is so powerful that it is captured in fiction. In Woody Allen's 1987 movie, Radio Days, a World War II era family tensely sits by the radio for hours to see if a little girl they don't know survives the fall down a far away well. Atrocities in Europe which affect even this family's relatives don't merit such attention.

The Simpsons spoofs these types of events in an episode where Bart drops a walkie-talkie down a well and pretends to be a little boy who fell in. In addition to the media circus, law enforcement, and general mayhem, hucksters sell "I was there when Timmy fell down the well" T-shirts. Truly funny satire as only The Simpsons can do it. When it's discovered that it was only Bart's prank, the disgusted townspeople quickly leave the scene. When Bart really falls down the well, no one pays any attention.

I suppose nothing unites us like a helpless child caught in a perilous situation. Everyone wants the outcome to be happy, regardless of our separate religious and political views. One thing a businessman in India and a housewife in Canada can have in common is the fervent hope that the child will survive.

And, just like on The Simpsons, our concern turns rapidly to cynicism and disgust. When little Falcon turned out not to be on the balloon, but hiding in his Fort Collins attic, all that good will from around the world evaporated into accusations of publicity stunts.

Meanwhile, how many people died in Afghanistan yesterday? I don't know either.