Where's that then?

Much is being made of the fact that, just hours before the terrorist attacks in Paris, 44 people were killed by suicide bombers in Beirut, but whereas the Paris attacks have resulted in hours of TV coverage, and pages of newspaper reporting and public buildings being decorated in blue, white and red, the Beirut atrocity got no more than a cursory mention.  As some people saw it, this was evidence that Lebanese lives are "worth" less than French ones.  So, does it?  I would say it's not so much a matter of worth, but more a matter of newsworthiness.  Rightly or wrongly, we pay more attention to, and relate more to events close to us, than those further away. Paris is just over the channel - Lebanon is way over there somewhere in the mysterious Middle East.  And then, I've never been to Beirut, but I have been to Paris.  The fact is that if something happens here in my immediate vicinity, it will mean more to me than if the same thing happens in Penzance, say. Just human nature.