Sad real-world news

[cleolinda]

Between a massive explosion and a shooting at a Labour Party youth camp, 92 dead in Norway attacks. The victim count has been rising as recovery efforts continue. At the moment, 85 deaths, mostly kids, have been reported from the island camp alone.

Norway attacks: latest developments being added on CNN.com; Norway attacks: ‘A nightmare,’ PM says;

Comments

[havocs_roman]

Re: Facebook: even among my very atuned to pop culture FB friends, I've seen more Norway updates than Amy Winehouse ones. To be fair, the attacks were yesterday (when my FB friends updated about them) and AW's death was only announced a couple of hours ago. I assume there'll be a flood of AW-related updates in the next few hours.

Part of me wants to be a cynic and talk about how you can't compare the (allegedly) drugs-related death of a celebrity to the massacre of children by a demented extremist, but - also surprisingly, since I'm not even an Amy Winehouse fan - I find that I can't. In the end, a young woman died (allegedly) because she couldn't help herself and neither could/would anyone around her; and so many people died because they had the misfortune of being in the wrong place when a criminal decided to act. For some reason, in the end (for me), it's become less about the context and more about the huge loss, waste of lives. It's all so tragic, so meaningless. Not that things like this ever have meaning, but it's all so

[chili_das_schaf]

This is what I tried to put in words and failed when I tried to write about it. Very well stated.

[gryster]

I'm Norwegian. I live in Oslo. I got the first news of the bombs on my way home from work. And yet everything and everyone seemed so calm. There were a few more people on their cell phone than normal, but no panic in the streets. I honestly didn't understand the extent of the damage from the bombing until I got home and saw the images on tv

[gryster]

Just re-read this and realized that I just let my feelings explode all over your blog. I'm sorry. It's been an intense couple of days.

-Gry

[sixthbrightest]

I think it was wonderful to hear something from the people "on the ground", so to speak. As an American I got some coverage of it, but not the kind of raw intensity that you displayed here, and I think it's a valuable perspective.

[gryster]

Thank you. Just woke up to these comments. They mean a lot

[rileycostello]

so sad, all of it. those poor kids.

as for celebrities throwing their lives away: what a horrible shame.

[twistedlillstar]

There aren't any words for what the last two days have been like. I didn't know any of the people killed, but Norway's a small country, so I think it's impossible not to be touched by it in some way. My boss's niece was at Utøya, she survived. My colleague's friend was there. He's dead. We've barely spoken about anything other than this at work. It feels wrong to think about anything else.

No one I've spoken to is reacting with hatred, though. We're all shocked and sad and maybe scared, but what we keep saying is that we'll keep going. I'm so proud to live in a country where we react with compassion and solidarity and calls for more democracy and more humanity.

[twistedlillstar]

Also, thanks for posting about this. It means a lot to see that people care, even when they are far away.

[cleolinda]

I'm so proud to live in a country where we react with compassion and solidarity and calls for more democracy and more humanity.

The reactions have all been so inspiring. It's such a sad, terrible thing to have happened, but the way Norway has risen to the occasion makes me feel better about the world on the whole, not worse.