Dear Wim
I needed to write to say how upsetting it is to hear of the awful massacre of innocents in Norway.
It would be appalling anywhere – but for it to happen in a country of such wonderful, balanced people is beyond words.
My thoughts are with you all – especially the survivors and the families of the victims – and my hopes are that this act of madness will eventually result in Norwegians reaffirming their tremendous values of sanity and democracy.
I have copied this to other subscribers to Birding-Aus because I had not seen any posting so far from the numerous friends of you and of Norway.
Michael Norris Melbourne
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Comments
3 responses to “Tragedy in Norway”
John, my feelings as well.
As a parent, a human being my heart goes out to you all. My son and his Norwegian girlfriend are in Norway staying with her parents, and for hours we didn’t know whether they or Norene’s family members were safe. They are, unlike so many other youngsters.
Best wishes
Dear friends,
Many thanks for your kind words! Yes, this is a terrible tragedy, especially maybe the situation on Utøya where many youngsters were ‘hunted and killed’ for almost two hours on a very small island. Almost one in 7 of the 650 people on the island were either killed or more or less severely wounded, and the survivors may be scarred for life. The bomb in town was of course also terrible, but here most of the enormous damage is material (although 7 people were killed and many injured also here). The fact that all this terror is the result of the delusions of just one lone intelligent ‘rogue’ is almost unbelievable, but on the other side in a way also good to know; it had been much worse, I think, for the country and the forthcoming (local) elections, if it had been terror from outside, e.g. El Qaida.
Norway is, compared to most other European countries, a very open society, with a small distance between those who govern and the governed, e.g. ministers, and even often the king and crown prince, travel with the normal scheduled flights when they have business elsewhere in the country. (The quite young lady, who told me: No, just sit, OÌ can climb over you to the window seat in the plane to Tromsø a few years ago, turned out to be the Interior Minister.) Of course, modern times penetrate also here, and Jens Stoltenberg, our prime minister, is no longer allowed to bicycle to work, too dangerous. The fact that the AUF summercamp had no real police present on the small island Utøya must be seen in the same light. The terror actions of Friday may well change the picture a lot, but we all strive to keep the society as open as possible, and the distance between Norwegians of all stripes as small as possible: Norway is still a quite egalitarian society. We absolutely must avoid to get into the situation I always hate so much on say US airports; there you are ‘guilty until proven innocent’. Things like the terror last Friday are a very high price to pay for such an open society, but it may even be worth it!
Best greetings from the high North, where we just lost the midnight sun for this year.
Wim Vader
________________________________ Van: John McGowan [johnmcgowan@live.com.au] Verzonden: zondag 24 juli 2011 11:20 Aan: Vader Willem Jan Marinus CC: birding-aus@vicnet.net.au; menorris@ozemail.com.au Onderwerp: RE: [Birding-Aus] Tragedy in Norway
Very well said Michael Dear Wim I can only echo these comments. This is a tragedy in any country, but in one as small and as close knit as Norway it must be shattering.
I so enjoy reading your emails and I share then with a couple of people who are not birders-just Norwegian-philes.
You guys have been through worse and you’ll come back.
Kindest regards
John Mc South Australia
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Very well said MichaelDear WimI can only echo these comments. This is a tragedy in any country, but in one as small and as close knit as Norway it must be shattering. I so enjoy reading your emails and I share then with a couple of people who are not birders-just Norwegian-philes. You guys have been through worse and you’ll come back. Kindest regards John McSouth Australia
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