Paris is too important to the world and, as always, will rise again after attacks

Paris is the essence of urban chic. You're in Paris, you're somewhere special. Small wonder it's a target. "Paris itself represents the timeless values of human progress," said US President Barack Obama. And whatever you may think of the man is completely irrelevant at this point because when he is right, he is right. Paris does indeed represent the timeless values of human progress and, at this moment, those values are under attack in a random and terrifying manner.

There is also much talk about how the terrorist raids last week in Paris are garnering a disproportionate amount of attention, particularly in comparison to recent attacks in Beirut and Kenya as well as the downing of a Russian airliner. It's true, all of it, that there was no big push on social media to fly the colours of Kenya last year or of Lebanon or Russia this year. But, fair or not, Paris is a global urban symbol on par with the likes of New York or London.

You would not have to go far to find media coverage in any of those locales because they already have a huge media presence in place. Symbolically, at least, they are much bigger scalps.

When suicide bombers attempted to infiltrate Stade de France during this recent reign of terror, they were fully aware who was playing and who was watching the match. Over 80,000 spectators, including French President Francois Hollande, were on hand to see current football world champions Germany play France in a stadium where the hosts won the 1998 World Cup final. You want to drive a stake through a culture, you aim at the heart and at the heart of most countries is their love for sport and their national team.

Sport can often be unifying and divisive, passionate and illogical. But the truth is that following sport is a luxury and at the elite level it's a first-world luxury, which is another reason why cities like Paris, New York and London will always be at risk. Admittedly, the rancorous cacophonies of sports talk shows now seem so trite and senseless after the Paris tragedy. But in the demented and pathological psyche of jihadists, big money teams like the New York Yankees, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain playing in big money leagues are symbols of Western decadence. They hate it? Good, that in itself should be reason enough for right-minded people to keep following sports.