You know, it's actually kind of funny. This incident in Norway got me worked up for probably the first time.
I didn't give a shit when 9/11 happened, even though I live in Brooklyn - I didn't know anyone in the towers, I was in maybe 2nd or 3rd grade. I didn't know what was going on. There wasn't any connection. I mean, that changed when I went to HS about a quarter mile away, then I could blatantly see and live with the aftermath, what that neighbourhood went through. But not beforehand. And I didn't get worked up over it either.
I gave a damn when my mentor died from meningitis about 2 years ago. It was already a very tough time for me, and I when I found out, I pretty much just lied down. Yeah, it sucked what happened to 'er. That was fairly tragic. Her mom never really recovered, and in a way, I still didn't recover from it. Her death was part of a series of rapid events that shook my life upside down, fostered my current personality, and if it didn't give me them, opened up my migraines. But that's because I was pretty close to her. It was unexpected and personal.
A recent death of someone I didn't know was a tragic accident. Girl gets swiped by a car going at 30, she dies, people at my school are crying the next few days, they flare up for a week. I helped some of them out, and even though I didn't cry, I didn't know the girl, I dealt with people who knew her. I know what they went through. I'd be willing to consider it tragic regardless.
And then comes Oslo.
I couldn't give a shit about the bomb. Seems like there's a car bombing every day. 7 people died from that, and it sucks, but such is the price of chaos in the world we live in today. But that youth camp shooting, that's a whole 'nother fucking story. Those are teenagers who were targeted for fuck knows what. If that incident doesn't constitute a tragedy for you, I don't know what does. I don't know any of the people who died there, I don't even know anyone in Norway right now, but I feel for them regardless.
I'm not going to write out my own point here. Pretty much the best way to make it is this one clip from The Wire, which just sums up my response to the OP perfectly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wmgghlEagA