Imaginary Compassion

At least they have multi-culturally appropriate fictional characters doing something for humanity. Hidden Disaster! (VERY well hidden.)

The graphic novel follows the 'adventures' of Zana, Max et al at the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department – known as ECHO – as they struggle to secure funding for the fictional sate of Borduvia, which has been devastated by an earthquake.

Securing funding! Look! It’s a bird! No, It’s a plane! No! It’s middle age apartment dweller with a grant application!

Zana: "No the aid is channelled through organisations like UNICEF or Oxfam. When the Commission finances them, they become what we call our 'implementing partners'."

So off it goes to someone else, leaving our Young Pioneer reading it to wonder why that characters would be there at all, or for that matter, asking:

Tesjang: "So are there many people from the European Commission here?"
[ ... ]
Zana pleads the case, explaining: "In tragedies like this, international solidarity is normal.

No, European publicity hounds and sympathy sluts chaotically fighting over who can making claims about themselves is the norm. With a budget roughly 1/600th of the ammount American individual citizens (not the government) give to charity, it's no wonder that they need to program children into trying to do as Zana and Max do, because their parents certainly aren't.

Especially amusing is that one cannot find any indication of how many “Zana and Maxes” there actually are, and I’m please to report that they cite as a source of revenue for “Humanitarian aid” as “humanitarian aid”.