questions questions questions..tsunami

i don't know if this has been said before (and hence whether it is callous and cynical, or just cliched), but why is the tsunami attracting so much attention?

Okay, I know how bad that sounds, so maybe I should add a qualifier- why is the tsunami attracting so much attention, when other tragedies and disasters didn't?

It's heartwarming to see the outpouring of generosity that has been spilled in assistance of tsunami victims, and it's pretty amazing to see the 3 big commercial networks join together to produce the Australia Unites event & the Rest of the World cricket match. But I just wanna know, what is it about this tragedy that has captivated the attention and air-time of worldwide mass media, when other humanitarian crises went unnoticed/ignored in the past (or even, in the case of Darfur, in the present)?

Is it the spectacularly horrifying images of the giant waves crashing onto the beach?
The number of Europeans who have been affected? (Sweden allegedly had 2500 people in the affected areas)?
The amount of footage available to be played and replayed?
The number of the dead? (800,000 died in Rwanda 1994, 2 million have died during the Sudanese civil war, compared with the 150,000 lost to the tsunami)