If it had happened in the US it is inconceivable that a great deal of the emphasis would not have been on Justice for the Killer. "We'll hunt him down . . . " Well no hunting down required in this case but you get my drift. I can't recall what we said about it in Bali, but we're not as preoccupied with 'justice for the killer' as the Americans are.
In Norway they will deal with the killer no doubt, but are ignoring him - as we have come to largely ignore our own monster of Port Arthur - and focusing on more important things, which is healthier methinks. Here's the Norwegian PM's speech.
Is your first sentence missing a 'not'?
Correct. Apologies - fixed.
Also, do those elipses really need spacing?
ellipses? (pointless pedantry rules - yay!)
Thanks for the link to the speech Nicholas.
About half way down...
How often do we have senior politicians, anywhere in the world, talking about Love in this sense of the word?
Too rarely.
I am not sure this holds water...they have the guy, so hunting him down would appear somewhat redundant? Is there an actual example to prove this point? A speech after Fort Hood? After Virginia Tech?
Here you might say that of course the President or Governor will give a good speech, but check those newspaper columnists and chiefs of police! But you can't understand their Norwegian equivalents...
The thrust of this article seems to be Norweigens good, Americans bad. That doesn't seem very loving towards our American friends and it seems a strange time to make the point.
My Mum is Norweigen and she happens to be in Norway at the moment. I must ask her when she returns home if there was a widespread call to ban automatic rifles and an opportunistic politician waiting to capitalise on community angst.
"I must ask her when she returns home if there was a widespread call to ban automatic rifles and an opportunistic politician waiting to capitalise on community angst"
Seems like a good opportunity to me -- is the average person really better off with M16 assault rifles floating around the community?
Conrad - I don't believe that the M16 has magical floating capabilities.
Re @7:
I think all that Nick has done is to draw a contrast betwwen the US resonse to 9/11 ("We're going to nail these bastards") & the Norwegian response to Behring Breivik ("We're not going to let this bastard dictate the terms of engagement").
I think that's a pretty reasonable response.
I think it is comparing apples with oranges but pretending that the oranges are also apples.
Why on earth would Norwegians be talking about nailing the bastard when they already have him under arrest? I bet you they would have been if he had been at large!
(sure the 9-11 attackers themselves were already done for, but they were clearly part of a larger group which was publicly celebrating their deeds whereas Brievik has been cast as a loner from the outset so there has been little reason to suspect from his actions or anything else a larger plot/group)
If you want to make comparisons the Oklahoma City bombing is probably closer in it's nature than 911. Even then catching the perpetrator took a lot longer.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing
"Conrad – I don’t believe that the M16 has magical floating capabilities."
Especially not in the hands of people with serious mental health problems nor in the hands of the dead that got shot by them.
Here's an interesting look inside the prison that Breivik is likely to spend his time. The commentary is pathetic however, I would expect more from Foreign Policy magazine. Like information on rehabilitation and recidivism.