The Kenya mall attack brings home the deeper meaning of globalisation

Nairobi's horror has transfixed us. But maybe it can break our inhumane habit of distancing ourselves from trouble 'over there'

• • Jian Ghomeshi 

A child runs to safety as armed police search the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, 21 September 2013. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

By now, we're told, the standoff at Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, is over. The country has entered an official period of mourning – though, at this writing, there's an air of caution about whether it's safe to enter.

The official toll is chilling. Among the dead: 61 civilians and six law enforcement officers, as well as five of the militants who had stormed the mall and turned it into a hostage zone that later became a battlefield. Nearly 250 casualties in all. Various reports have added anywhere from eight (the official government estimate) to 137 more dead, according to the hostage-takers.

It's an attack that has been difficult to look away from, and it has dominated news coverage of the past few days. Over that time, it must be said, terrorist activity in other parts of the world has also claimed many lives. There was a bombing on Sunday at an Anglican Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, that killed 85 people. And a rash of attacks at funerals in Iraq, killing dozens in a country where more than 5,000 people have died this year in similar acts of violence.

These events are an all-too-common occurrence in many places. And that is not to mention natural disasters, like the devastating earthquake that hit Pakistan Tuesday, killing at least 300 people, with the death toll rising. But the mall siege in Nairobi in particular captured our collective attention. Did you notice that?

Is it because we recognize the target – a shopping mall – as a place we, too, have gone with friends and family, and tried on clothes, and eaten fast food? A kind of "western" environment, and as much a symbol of freedom as the football stadium, or the office building? Maybe.

In essence, though, none of these attacks on innocent people really differ. That is to say … do they? How do we make sense of such horror? Is it easier to separate ourselves? And do we really need to draw distinctions between a bombing at a funeral in Iraq, and an attack on a mall in Kenya?

We have in the past. It's easier that way. We're not very honest when it comes to addressing deaths happening across the globe. Or maybe, we're scared; or in denial. You see, the violence we're talking about does have one thing in common: we like to think it happened "over there".

And it happens "over there" a lot. That interpretation is a problem. It's reductive and it's untrue. Increasingly, "over there" is a construct, a state of mind.

In a globalized world, where we enjoy the benefits of favourable trade relationships, where we draw the fuel to power our economies, where we can travel almost instantly and communicate with very little interruption around the globe, "over there" no longer legitimately applies. To be specific: these events in Kenya or Pakistan or Russia are happening here, in our world. We're part of it.

We cannot be selective about our desire to globalize. We cannot attach, say, economically, but detach when events aren't savoury or to our liking.

It's hard to imagine a solution to problems like extremism, and terrorist acts, and states with unstable or non-existent governments. But maybe, just maybe, we can begin by changing our minds about "here" and "over there".

We need to engender a sense of connection, not just in our commercial interests, but in our human community, too.

• Q with Jian Ghomeshi is broadcast daily on weekdays on CBC Radio 1, in selected US cities via PRI, and on SiriusXM

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/26/kenya-mall-meaning-globalisation