When a fire partially destroyed France's Notre Dame social media feeds were swamped with people rehashing old photos from their holidays in Europe marking their devastation for the iconic church. But when nearly 300 people were killed in bombings in Sri Lanka, the level of public sympathy didn’t even seem to come close; the Google Trends page comparing interest in the two events shows that the Notre Dame fire had up to nine times more search interest than the terrorist attacks that occured in Sri Lanka within twenty-four hours of the bombings.

And I do not believe that it is not to diminish the tragedy of losing over 800-years of French culture and history in fifteen hours to ask the question: why is it that we seem to have a bigger emotional reaction to a fire where no one died than a gruesome massacre of hundreds of people in premeditated bombings?

The simple answer appears to be that attacks in France, or even similar ones in New Zealand or other parts of Europe, appear “closer to home”.

Geographically, Sri Lanka may as well be in Timbuktu, at least to many people that I know; when news of the attack reached us, there were some girls at school that knew neither where Sri Lanka was on a world map, nor what it looked like. And yet, such lack of locational knowledge about the country does not compare to the distance many of us feel culturally to Sri Lanka, which I believe makes all the difference in the extent of public sympathy and emotion.

It's not unusual for people to care about events which feel more relatable to them. It is the first and natural reaction that many of us have when we receive devastating news, to wonder how likely it is that something similar will happen to us.

And yet it is undeniable that any one of us could have been in the circumstances leading up to the Sri Lankan bombings, so the argument that we seem to show more concern regarding European terrorist attacks because they are more relatable appears somewhat ridiculous.


The first attacks were on Easter Sunday, one out of three explosions at church services for the occasion. One of the churches hit was a Catholic church in Katuwapitya, north of the capital city, Colombo, and its gothic architecture is inspired by that of the Notre Dame cathedral. But on this day, how many people around the world were also attending a church service to observe this day of worship? In 2015, CNN reported that up to 50.8% of Americans planned on attending church on Easter Sunday, and this year me and my family certainly did. If the terrorists had chosen to attack churches in Sutton rather than Sri Lanka, me and most of my friends and family would’ve been dead. You may also have been at an Easter service or celebrating the holiday with your family. It is relatable.

Three more explosions were reported in Colombo’s city centre, a place frequented by tourists, many of whom are British, along with everyday Sri Lankans due to the abundance of restaurants and cafes located there. We have all been to similar cafes and locations, and maybe even been one of the 2.1million people who visited Sri Lanka in 2017 or sooner. It is not an alien or unrelatable event.

There were also reports of a suicide bomber in another hotel, Cinnamon Grand, who had been waiting in line for a breakfast buffet with detonators ready to go.
I have friends who have eaten at that very breakfast buffet before, and it is an affordable hotel for middle-class tourists. You may have eaten there too, or at least a buffet very similar to it. This is completely, totally and utterly relatable.

And yet I acknowledge that many people who are aware of Sri Lanka’s culture and history are aware that violence and other attacks of similar nature are not unfamiliar to the people who live there; it was only a decade ago that the country came to the end of a 30-year civil war, after all. The difference is, however, was that there was every hope that it was exactly that - history, and that Sri Lanka were beginning to recover and move forward by such brutality.

In only a few decades, Sri Lanka has gone from a place my parents did not know to being ranked as the top travel destination for 2019 by Lonely Planet.

After Sunday’s atrocities, many fear that will change. And whilst Sri Lanka mourns their dead and bereaved, we should too.