And they converge into this channel here, which drains into this region.

Say, Have you considered? If your water drains away, who will bring you pure running water?

Say, Have you considered? If your water drains away, who will bring you pure running water?

Many of us think that compassion drains us, but I promise you it is something that truly enlivens us.

It can contribute simultaneously to unemployment in one region or sector and to labour shortages and brain drains in another.

Well, what if we go to Madison Square Park, and we imagine it without all the cars, and bicycles instead and large forests, and streams instead of sewers and storm drains?

This is true both for the public infrastructure (drains, depressions where water accumulates during the rainy season, broken drinking water supply pipes) and in the private homes (roof top, drinking water tanks, and water collections inside and around the house).

In some countries, worries about educational competition and brain drains have led to outright academic protectionism. India and China are notorious for the legal and bureaucratic obstacles they place in front of Western universities that want to set up satellite campuses catering to local students.

Even worse, as China flexes its geopolitical muscles, the only foreign policy that the US systematically pursues is unceasing and fruitless war in the Middle East. The US endlessly drains its resources and energy in Syria and Iraq in the same way that it once did in Vietnam.

American society has become increasingly harsh, where the richest Americans buy their way to political power, and the poor are abandoned to their fate. In their private lives, Americans have become addicted to consumerism, which drains their time, savings, attention, and inclination to engage in acts of collective compassion.