AT THE COLE FACE: With Jessica Cole

Following this, two things became apparent to me:

The first; apparently radical Islamists don’t share the paper’s sense of humor, and the second; you would have had to be living under a huge rock if you didn't hear about it.

All over the world people began digesting details of the deadly assault via the many news outlets, including social media. 

What's also interesting is that the same day 37 people were killed in a car-bomb attack in Yemen. I, along with many I'm sure, didn't know about this attack until today. On reflection I find this odd.

Two days later, on January 9, the terror group Boko Haram slaughtered 2000 people in Nigeria, most of the dead were women, children and the elderly who could not flee in time. Amnesty International labelled it the group's ‘deadliest massacre yet’.

There’s something strange, isn’t there, about our differing reactions to these three incidents. 

At what level does it affect us on a societal scale. In Paris we find it difficult to perceive that such iniquity could have occurred, we demand justice and retaliation. But in Yemen and in Nigeria, there is mostly just a sense of loss. 

There is a stark difference between the West's actions over 12 deaths in France then its behaviour following 2000 deaths in Nigeria. Even though the death toll in Africa was 166.6 times greater. 

Can you imagine if the figures were the other way round?

It's interesting that everything seems so much worse when there are Westerners involved, when something rocks our proverbial 'civilised' world. If it was just about numbers, wouldn't the other incidents take precedence? 

Perhaps the scary thing is the realisation that if this attack can happen in France, it's just as likely to occur in Australia.

Or that by attacking a newspaper it violates legal freedom of speech? 

Or the fact that violent enforcers of foreign set of laws take it upon themselves to punish extrajudicially?

It seems easy to judge the journalists for this over-the-top coverage; on every channel every half hour. Perhaps I defend these people as I stand by my comrades in this profession, in doing so we cover the events that consumers are interested in. The word ‘terrorism’ is the flavour of the month.    

It's hard to psychoanalyze other people and near impossible to do so for radical terrorists, but I sometimes suspect we are convincing ourselves we'll be safe as long as ‘terrorism’ doesn't cross the line or border. 

It seems an interesting afterthought to consider why the Paris terrorist attack has affected us more than the 37 victims in Yemen and 2000 innocent people killed in Nigeria.