World events

Amen to that.

Latest news I'm hearing from the BBC is that a gunman "disguised" as a policeman has opened fire on people on, if I heard rightly, an Island in Norway? Is this related?

Too early to say, but it seems so, yes. It was the Norwegian Labour Party's youth organization that have their summer camp there.

Watching the news now and the death toll at both incidents is rising.

Concensus seems to be that there is no obvious link so far, but that it is very co-incidental for them not to be linked.

There is a sense being put about here that there was a "won't happen here" mentality - except at the American Embassy.

Yes, I am, thanks. I had actually intended to go downtown today (in the area where the bomb went off) to take the bus down South, but in the last minute I decided to stay home for a few more days because I'm still not feeling tops after the operation on Thursday. But it was weird to hear the blast from so far away (about 2 kilometers).

Yes, the two incidents seem to be linked, as the same person was observed both where the bomb went off and then -- dressed up as a police offer -- shooting those kids at the summer camp outside Oslo. Just writing that sentence feels so absurd and surreal. The events are really starting to sink in. I believe I'm more shocked than I think.

80 dead!? this has rapidly turned into a horrendous event with so many innocent lives lost, awful, truly awful!

My heart goes out to you and your country Thor.

It is a terrible event indeed.

Would this guy have done National Service? And would that have meant he was familiar with using firearms/explosives?

I woke up to the high death toll today, and got another shock. More than 80 teenagers at summer camp -- resourceful kids, engaged in politics and a desire to make a difference in the world -- get butchered down, isolated on an island. And then there's the bombing in downtown Oslo that took 7 lives yesterday, people working in the service of our nation. Just like 9/11 or the other terrorist attacks in Oklahoma, Madrid, London etc., it's a trauma far, far removed from anything we can imagine. Just listening to the prime minister's press conference, where he said that his youth paradise had been transformed to a nightmarish hell, gave me tears in my eyes.

We also have to remember that Norway is such a small nation -- we're only about 5 million people -- so everyone has a connection to everyone in some way or other. Especially when the death toll is this high.

This is a national trauma, the worst incident here since WW2, and it affects us all. I need some time myself just to digest it all, and I can only imagine what it's like for the friends and family of the deceased. Whatever problems one has oneself become so insignificant in such a time, and I feel that I don't have the words to describe it.

It's too early to tell, but I doubt that. Extremist organizations like that frequently take credit for attacks such as these to gain recognition, even though they didn't do it. This looks more and more like a one-man show (or a few) from a deluded guy associated with extremist right wing movements.

I think this picture from yesterday's bombing sums up how little colour matters in this thing:

http://gfx.dagbladet.no/labrador/174/17 … 12x550.jpg

Fuck. That's a hard-hitting picture.
Horror on this scale seldomly emotionally hits home until its broken down to components and brought back to an almost personal level.
This just did.
Goddamn.

The Islamist faction that was keen to take the credit for the attack in the meantime has quickly retracted their statement (as was widely expected). Pathetic attention seekers. Al Quaeda seems to be in massive disarray, and their textbook fear-spreading tactics are becoming increasingly transparent.

It now certainly seems this was an action by a very limited amount of people (it almost seems incredible it was just one man. the logistics and planning alne must have required an absolute mastermind), rooted in -what else- uncompromising fundamentalism (that makes humanity and lives utterly subservient to conviction) and relatively easy access to weapons of war (nobody, NOBODY, can EVER convince me that there is ANY point or sense to licensing MACHINE GUNS for personal use).

God, it's sickening to the stomach.
He executed eighty people.
It makes me physically ill.

Thank modern day America and "Free will" laws that are making other countries loosen up their gun laws, for these situations.

Martijn, so this is what i read last night? a pathetic small Islamic organization trying to take the credit........

I hope the Justice system does its work good this time and lets him rot for a lifetime in dark isolated cell. Death sentence is too good for him.

I've been watching the news for almost 20 hours now and there has been so many rumors so I don't know what's true or not. I just remember he had license for some guns, I don't know what types.

I hate this world sometimes. It baffles me that people can be so evil and hateful to want to do something like this.

What a shock to find out this morning that 84 people had been confirmed dead.

Witnesses seem to have described a second gunman. Not sure if it's early confusion, but considering the death toll, it seems likely.

My thoughts go out to Thor, Ranietz and Norway.

Peter

What really got me while watching the news was the aerial view with all the tents and thinking that those kids should, right now, be doing activities and enjoying the company of friends, this brought tears to my eyes, it's all just so senseless and heartbreaking.

No worries, D. This topic is called "World Topics" and will segue from this to that event as times goes by. It's just that right now, I feel empty and don't really have anything to add on other issues or film music or anything else. The Japan tsunami disaster was another big one earlier this year, but when something horrible happens so close to home -- and to such a degree -- it strikes you in a whole other, personal way. You become a bit apathetic.

Anyone else hearing rumours that Amy Winehouse is dead? Trying to confirm at the moment.