There are children in need of help, and people willing to lend a hand, but life can be senseless and cruel.
Humanitarian crises encircle the globe. Violent resistance afflicts Iraq. Mass death from starvation and war threatens Sudan. Millions have died in other conflicts across Africa. No one has much time for Burma.
Yet if only the right government officials removed the wrong bureaucratic barriers, 1,000 Burmese children could be saved. Orphaned by their government's war on its own people, they could be adopted by loving families in other countries.
Burma is among the world's poorest countries. The ruling military junta foolishly called an election in 1990, won by Aung Sang Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. The government put Ms Suu Kyi under house arrest, suppressed her party, and closed the universities. Despite periodic hope for a more moderate course, the regime always returns to repression.
At the same time, the government has pursued a brutal war against minority ethnic groups. At least a million people have been displaced within Burma. Another 200,000 live in refugee camps in surrounding nations, most importantly Thailand. Hundreds of thousands more live and work illegally outside the camps.
The primary victims are Karen and Karenni, many Christians whose ancestors were converted by Western missionaries.
A tenuous ceasefire now exists, but many of the refugees have known no life other than as casualties in a war of extreme brutality. The ill-disciplined Burmese forces draft civilians as porters and routinely kill and rape villagers, before destroying homes, clinics, and churches alike _ and then sowing landmines.
Unfortunately, a refugee's life inside Thailand is fragile. Bangkok complains of the burden, despite outside assistance. And Thailand has not signed the United Nations convention on refugees, leaving the latter with precious few legal guarantees.
Indeed, the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has business interests in Burma, desires to push the Karen and Karenni back across the border. Unfortunately, neither safety nor peace await them there.
The violent conflict has yielded thousands of refugee children alone. Many are orphans; others have been abandoned or separated from parents who may be dead. About 1,000 are under the care of Christian Freedom International, which conducts relief operations along the border, provides medical aid inside war-torn Burma, and runs schools and orphanages in the Thai camps.
CFI is pushing to make these children eligible for adoption. However, they are not recognised as Burmese citizens, are not Thai nationals, and are not certified by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as persons of concern. Thus, they are stuck in legal limbo _ and the camps.
Jim Jacobson, CFI's president, has taken the children's case to UNHCR officials, the Thai government, and the US embassy in Bangkok. All point accusing fingers at each other.
The Thai Interior Ministry claims not to object to adoption, and blames the UNHCR. Yet in the past Thailand has obstructed adoption efforts, perhaps fearing a new influx of refugees.
That is not likely: Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for Burma notes that Karen and Karenni generally flee only as a last resort, despite the abuses that they routinely suffer. The adoption of a few orphans would have no impact on the refugee flow.
However, the UNHCR says it cannot certify those of uncertain legal status; without United Nations sanction the United States (and other nations) will not allow adoptions. But the UNHCR says it cannot move ahead without prior American agreement.
The embassy says the decision is for Washington to make. They just ``kick it back and forth'', complained Mr Woodrum.
And so the orphans languish. ``Over the last nine years, I've observed some of these kids grow up into young adults,'' Mr Jacobson said.
A Virginia resident who moved to Thailand to better oversee CFI's operations, Mr Jacobson flew back in mid-August to seek support in the American congress. The children's cause crosses party lines.
Republican Representative Frank Wolf is playing a leading role. Also pushing for action are Republican Representative Mark Souder and Senators Libby Dole and Sam Brownback, and Democrat Representative Joseph Crowley and Senator Jon Corzine.
``We've got everyone from the right to the left. It's crazy that we can't get something done,'' Mr Jacobson said.
Yet Bush administration officials have been strangely unhelpful. The State Department remains mired in bureaucratic minutiae, while the White House refuses to discuss the issue, responding to Mr Jacobson's request for assistance with a form letter.
Immigration issues have become more sensitive after Sept 11, 2001. The case of 1,000 orphans in a war zone should be a straightforward matter, however.
America and like-minded states cannot right every wrong in the world. But they can aid some people now at risk overseas. Including a few desperate children languishing in Thai refugee camps.