Lost in the stats..

Having recently completed a research paper on Darfur I am fully loaded up with statistics. Having worked on this projects for several months I have learnt that bombarding people with numbers is more likely to lose their interest than win their hearts. With all due respect to those who have lost their lives, the daily reports detailing numbers of people lost in a battle or confrontation lose meaning to the person who knows little about the situation on the ground. This is how you get news anchors using statements like "only" 6 were killed in the attack which truly belittles the lives of those that have lost their lives. It is important to note that whichever life is lost is a person like you and me. A mother, maybe an aunt, a brother or a nephew. They have a story, they had goals. They had desires like you and me, and they probably had hope to see their next breath but they simply could not. No life is just a number, please don't get lost in the stats.