Norway attacks shatter a nation's innocence

[brentspeak]

Yes, life will go on, but Norway can never fully recover (i.e. revert back to being the same as it was prior to the rampage.)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-norway-psyche-20110725,0,3508047.story

Norway attacks shatter a nation's innocence

By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times

July 24, 2011, 1:45 p.m.

As Norway recovers from the initial shock of the shooting rampage and earlier Oslo bombing and begins the mourning process for 93 people who were slain, many predict the nation will never be the same.

"It's going to have a deep, long-lasting impact," said Atle Dyregrov, director of Norway's Center for Crisis Psychology, which has helped other countries recover from disasters such as the 2008 China earthquake and this year's Japanese tsunami.

"Our innocence is lost," he said. "We used to think that these things only happened in other countries, not here. Now that illusion is shattered forever."

He predicted that Norway's relaxed security policies and reluctance to impinge of civil rights will give way to familiar restrictions already in place in other Western nations, including limited access to government facilities and increased surveillance of suspected extremist groups. He likened the changes to Sweden's security tightening after the 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme.

[Faygo Kid]

1. Norway is beautiful and wonderful. My heart breaks.

My father's family migrated from Norway; Mom's from Sweden. I'm sure I'm related to the victims, but that doesn't matter. I am heartbroken about this. I weep for Somalia, as well, but this hits too close to home. I visited Norway once, in 1973. I pray I can go back one more time.

[Lucinda]

2. We should be advancing as a species, instead we are

stuck in this cycle of violence and intolerance...