Why isn't there the same sympathy for Kenyan attacks?

I wasn't making any assumptions at all, thatbags. I am merely interested to know why cities with a huge proportion of immigrants from non-western countries didn't choose to colour their buildings in colours of flags when other countries were bombed, in the same way they are doing now. Also why facebook only produced blue, white and red colourings for the Charlie Hebdo shootings in January, but not Kenyan ones a couple of months later. The whole world is suffering from the attacks. I merely wondered if it was don to a lack of communication from organisations such as the BBC, who have fewer people on site, or was there some other reason, as we do have an awful lot of expats everywhere and you would think they would kick up a fuss.

I cannot comment about the media elsewhere in the world as I have no experience of it other than the odd article read online.

Sorry I wasn't clear. The European and US media.

I'm sorry I offended you finnochio. It's natural to be more concerned when you have family and friends somewhere that is under attack.

My comments were of a more general nature regarding those who have no personal involvement.

I think the media coverage is fuller when the victims are predominately European or American.
vq Do you mean the British/European press?

Because when there was the atrocity on the Tunisian beach I was on the other side of the world; it got some coverage but not much and many people I spoke to were unaware of it.
People where I was were more aware of events like a cyclone which had wiped out South Pacific islands whereas that was barely covered here.

I think it's natural to cover news which is more local to home or involves people we may know or feel close to.

finnochio I am glad your DN is safe.

Thanks J.

Glad he is safe ffin.

Right this minute, I care more about the recent atrocities in France, because I live here, have French family here, and a young and loved French nephew living in Paris. It was thanks to fb. and the 'safe' alert page that I knew he was ok. So forgive me if my thoughts cannot expand to the wider world in these past few days. I am not unaware of the devastation that has occurred in recent years, but for now I hold my sadness close to home.

We didn't have a thread about the Beirut suicide bombings either.

But it's human nature to feel more outrage when these happen close to home.

The Kenyan mall shootings had a lot of coverage.

I suspect media cover if fuller when things happen in a place with easy access for reporters.

Why do we care more about people closer to us than those far away? If we abhor atrocities and terrorism then it shouldn't matter if it's in France, Africa or the next street.

I think the media coverage is fuller when the victims are predominately European or American. The events in Africa got some coverage but not in the way the French terror attack has or the Twin Towers got (and still gets).

Not sure I understand what you mean by that, ab. Could you expand your idea a bit, please?

Can it be fear with sympathy for France ?

I am sure that the great majority of us feel deep revulsion for these attrocities, no matter where they take place. It's nothing to do with racism, or any other ism. But it is perfectly natural to feel more deeply affected by an attack right here in Europe. Many of us love France and can identify with the french people more than we can with those in a far off country. But we still care, and fervently wish that all world violence would stop.

I agree with you bags 're your post of 16:12 and earlier ones - I care about the victims in France but I don't think changing my status on Facebook is necessary to show that.

My post 're the recent bombings in Beirut ("the Paris of the Middle East") refers to media coverage.

I utterly agree with the last six posts.
Because it is closer to home, the fact that Britain is on the highest level of alert and that the violence seems to be escalating is, whether we like it or not, bound to be making people fearful.

I am desperately sorry for anyone affected by violence anywhere in the world and just wish there was a solution.

We can feel desperately sorry and angry for people the world over when atrocities happen, but when it happens in a city just a short train journey away, which many of us know, have visited or lived in and may have friends and relatives working in, it does bring it closer to home and make people more fearful.

Make that the last four posts!

I agree wholeheartedly with the last three posts.

Well said that bags. I have near relatives, close friends and good friends of my children in Paris. I am concerned about their immediate welfare . I have no one in Kenya or Beirut and while no man is an island it is relative to ones own circumstances. Otherwise we get compassion fatigue, or at least I do. And suggesting that it is because people are non white that we don't care is a possible thoughtless remark which perhaps the poster might wish to have deleted.

Nellie I am not sure I agree with you. I think it is a lot more to do with the frequency of terrorist events in a country and, sadly, Kenya has had a lot - as have many countries in Africa with local insurgencies as well as arab extremists. The shopping mall atrocity in Nairobi received just as much attention as the Paris events.

Thinking back to the recent troubles in Ireland. When the IRA & Protestant Loyalists started their terrorist campaign in Ulster in the late 1960s - 70s every event shocked us. I can still remember the shock and horror of the death of the first British soldier there, I can even remember his name, but as the campaign developed the space given to yet another death or deaths in Northern Ireland, whether military or civilian, either in this country or any other occupied less and less space in the media and certainly was ignored elsewhere. I too became inured to just accepting further deaths as they occurred. I cannot rememeber the name of the second soldier to die in Ulster, or the third, fourth........etc.

Because Kenya isn't in Europe and all that matters is attacks on Europe , sadly

I don't think so really, because when the Kenyan shopping attacks happened it was top of the news agenda; When the terrible university attacks happened I remember it being top of the news agenda again.

I think we have watched years and years of unrest and war on our screens coming from the Middle East as well - it seems to have become part of the fabric of life there - and it is wrong to feel inured to it, but people sometimes do in the end.
Refugees fleeing across land and sea has been top of the news agenda for weeks.

However, attacks like the ones in Paris are more unusual and therefore probably more shocking.

I think reporting like that, trying to say that we feel more for those closer to home than those further away, is guileful and intended to stir up more hatred.

The whole assumption of a lack of sympathy is insulting. No-one has the right to assume they know how other people feel without being told. Not being told about it is not a sign of lack of sympathy.

My not saying I despise the actions murderous thugs does not mean I don't despise them. It may mean I don't wish to talk about it. It may mean that I don't think anything I say (or 'signal' with a flag or whatever) will help anyone. It may mean I'm grieving silently for ALL victims of murderous thugs, whether I know the gory details or not.

I tend to assume that's what all decent people are doing, whether or not they say or signal so.

I am not more upset over the killings in Paris than the killings in Africa , but I think all people are equal

Oh! It's nothing to do with them being non-whites! Now that is bloody insulting!