A Tale of Two Cities: Why Unequal Attention Is Being Paid to Baghdad and Paris?

A question is raised in the aftermaths of the Paris massacre: why do Paris attacks and similar events in the western world provoke higher levels of hype, while equally comparable attacks in Baghdad and Beirut go unheeded?

The answer seems to be straightforward. Some countries have the soft power to have many people on board supporting them when events like these occur. The soft power is not something with which a country is born; it should be procured through ages of perseverance in creating progressive political and cultural values. This is what makes people more ‘interested’ in the destiny of one country than that of the other.

I am sure most people, who express their solidarity with Parisians, have spent some time in Paris or Parisian cultural products have penetrated their hearts and impacted their minds one way or another. Unfortunately, this is not the case for Baghdad or other isolated cities and countries where comparable events occur. How many people around the world have ever heard of the names of the cities in the Middle East where unspeakable atrocities are being committed?

The equality argument is also raised for paying equal attention to similar events in different parts of the world. Of course, legally speaking, everybody is born equal, but this is not the case from a political or economic standpoint. In politics, save voting rights, equality is almost non-existent. And as we know, in economic life, we are all born unequal. (I am but describing.)

In international law and politics, which is only superficially coated with the idea of equality of nations, there are circumstances under which a country may temporarily lose its right to be treated equally. If a country is a rogue state, it should not expect other countries to treat it equally.

With so many self-imposed sanctions against themselves, which make them more and more isolated and their contribution to human civilization meager and negligible, most Middle Eastern countries and their citizens are far from getting equal attention of the world for comparable events.

It is up to a nation to make itself unequal upwards or downwards.

PS: The concept of attention economics might also be helpful in understanding the unequal attention paid to the events of the same nature. This Econtalk episode can also shed light on the issue.