The world exploded into outrage over the Charlie Hebdo attacks last week, with millions of people marching through Paris and other world capitals in a show of solidarity with the 12 fallen cartoonists and journalists in the last few days. Many of them carried writing implements, symbolizing the power that a written or drawn message can hold.

In the meantime, Boko Haram massacred an estimated 2000 people in the town of Baga, Nigeria last week and very few people actually noticed until yesterday. Amnesty International has described the attack as the deadliest massacre in Boko Haram’s history. Now that this event has crashed onto the front page, it seems like it’s mainly being characterized in terms of why it was ignored in favour of the Charlie Hebdo attack. Alongside headlines detailing how Nigerian defense forces have given up on counting bodies because there are so many, others are asking why the attack didn’t garner attention, and still more argue that Nigeria needs the same support that France has been given.

All these questions are valid. But do we really need to frame one tragedy against another? It begs comparison, inviting people to consider one in terms of another, think about which was “worse”, and even try to link the two. Why WAS the Baga massacre not given immediate coverage? Was it because freedom of speech is sacred? Because this kind of attack is unprecedented, especially in a European state? Have we become numb to the crisis in Nigeria after a few months of continued attacks by Boko Haram? 2000 people is a lot more than 12; are we saying the lives of 12 satirists and journalists are worth more than the lives of 2000 Nigerians, because freedom of speech was involved? Where are the cries for intervention? Where is the emergency meeting of the UN Security Council? Where is the outrage here? When 12 die in France, millions march for free speech. When thousands die in Nigeria, after a prolonged series of attacks and the kidnapping of 200 innocent schoolgirls, we...start a hashtag and there are a few protests. Is it because this is just another African country in disarray? Are we are tired, bored of troubled, poor African states? We saw genocide in Rwanda; we watched Mali burn, Libya collapse, and Syria crumble. An African tragedy brought by Islamic extremists is nothing new, nothing novel.

But Europe is safe. Europe is modern and advanced with states where girls can go to school without any fear, where a magazine can get away with publishing cartoons that (in my opinion, of course) are in bad taste and unnecessarily disrespectful with very little in the way of criticism, where we walk the streets freely without fear of a suicide bomber in a café. That kind of thing does not happen in Europe. And so when it does, it is a global news event and the world takes to the streets.

But it is average in Nigeria. It is the same thing that happens every so often. An attack by Boko Haram has to be new in some way to be immediately newsworthy.

We live in an age of voracious media consumption, where we are instantly moving from news source to news source, story to story. Other things that I think were important but haven’t exactly gone mainstream include the Tuesday bombing of the Colorado Springs NAACP headquarters. A couple in Northern Ireland have courageously mounted a challenge to their ban on same-sex marriage. The New York City Police Department’s Office of the Inspector General just released a report studying 10 cases in which officers used chokeholds, clarifying the discipline process for police officers and recommending some changes. The war in Afghanistan ended in late December of last year, quietly and without much fanfare. And, for a drop of optimism? Bella, a Siberian Husky pup, was rescued after getting stuck in a storm drain.

I’m not saying that the 12 people in the Charlie Hebdo attacks are any less worthy of our outrage. I will defend to death your right to be able to say what you want, and while doing so, my right to criticize (respectfully) what you say. No one should die for his or her opinion.

But I will also stand by the victims of media neglect. I will continue advocating for causes that have passed out of the media cycle and stopped “trending”. I will think about Somalia, Afghanistan, and the Arab spring now that they have become unexciting and are not really reported on. I will wonder what is being done about improving mental health services for individuals like Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau, who reportedly begged officials for help until he broke, now that we have mourned and the media have put the issue to bed.

It seems that we, as a global citizenry, have such short attention spans these days. We are no less passionate; but we get riled up and flame out before real change is made. There is a mismatch between our fervor and our commitment. We seem to take up and put down causes as quickly as we can change shoes.

In her book War Games, Linda Polman writes about the community of International Non-Governmental Organizations and how it moves from trendy issue to trendy issue, in order to keep sympathy high and donations flowing without solving anything other than superficial issues. It is a trend mirrored in mainstream media, and I don’t know how we solve this issue. I don’t know how we focus collectively on creating permanent solutions when the problems seem to be increasing exponentially.

All I know is that we can’t keep ignoring issues once they stop being novel, or an uncountable number of innocent people will pay with their lives.

Image credits:

Fighting in the town of Baga
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

Husky stuck in a storm drain
San Diego County Animal Services)