Aslaug's Axe Shed

Hi guys, it’s been a while, I know. Things have been busy with a move to a new home and changes at work and so on. Lots going on around me right now. But at least I can now look forward to some vacation, as I will be heading off to England for a week come Saturday morning. I’ll be down south this time … amongst Southern Jessies, as they are called up in Yorkshire (and according to Erica, I’m an honorary Yorkshirewoman, and consequently a Northern Monkey) as those lilly-livered Southern Jessies like to call us *hrumph*

Anyway, it’s off to Blighty for me and I promise updates when I get back. There’s change in the air again overall, but I’ll let you all hear about that as it becomes relevant.

And for the record, my new story is coming along so well I am a little taken aback by it myself. Sadly, though, this one won’t get posted. At least not yet. Why? Because my proofers took one look at the first two chapters and ORDERED me to try to get this published. Apparently, I have come up with something original and very engaging, if I am to believe their reactions

Take care all, until I get back from England.

Tomorrow, it has been a week since the bomb blast in Oslo, and the mass shooting mostly of children at an island youth camp for the Norwegian Labor Party. The killer was apprehended literally with weapons in hand, at the island itself, and it has now been revealed, that he still had plenty of ammunition left.

It has been confirmed that he shot the people at the island execution style. That once they were on the ground, he shot them once more to make sure they were dead, point blank range, and that he used Dum-Dum bullets to make certain the deed was as bloody and complete as possible.

It is now known that he wrote a 1500 page rambling manuscript, mostly by copy-pasting from other known terrorists and from right wing extremist bloggers and debaters. It is known he sent it to over a thousand people, all people he thought would sympathize with him, including past and present members of the Norwegian parliament for the Progress Party, the most ultranationalistic party represented in Norwegian politics today.

In fact, a lot is known. Many more things than this. It is known that the killer lives in an extremely narcissistic view of himself, in the belief that he is a modern Knights Templar, and that he is a part of a great, European uprising against Islam. An uprising which, according to his statements, include throwing every single Muslim in Europe out, regardless of their personal situation or beliefs, and killing every single ethnic European who does not conform to right wing extremism.

Yep, you got that right. EVERY non-extremist according to him, must die. Be hunted down and killed.

Such is the vagaries of a truly delusional mind. Sadly, of course, he is not alone, and that is why I felt the need to make this third blog-post about the tragedy in Norway.

Let’s face it. We will see wingnut conspiracy idiots every time something happens. I know some of them will likely find this blog-entry by pure chance, and they will probably post hateful comments below about how I am blind to the truth, or how the system has hoodwinked me or something similar. These people claim that the bombing never happened. That the building in Oslo never existed, and even if it did, that it is unharmed. Or at least that if it did happen, it was on the orders of the Norwegian government itself. The same with the killings. They claim this, because as -one- collossal simpleton out there said “There is no such thing as a terrorist, but most people are too stupid to realize that”.

Of course there are terrorists. They are real, and they are evil, and they will lose. Not by denying their existence, but by acknowledging it, and beating them, every single time. Sometimes with violent means. And sometimes, as in the case of the Norwegian butcher, with love and warmth and genuine caring.

There are others, like an Italian former minister in Silvio Berlusconi’s government, who claimed that while he did not agree with the method, he did agree with the killer’s message. A member of the French proto-fascist Front Nationale was actually suspended by the leadership of that party for blogging a defense of the murderer. Take a look at Israeli newspapers and they are full of editorials and reader contributions, all sneering at Norwegians and placing the blame squarely on themselves. In Israel, Norway is apparently often seen as an anti-semitic country. Clearly not by everyone, but at least by enough that even the Jerusalem Post has pointed out that Norwegians brought this on themselves.

Others, even in Denmark, a country which has universally stood with Norway during this, and where the population has shown overwhelming support and love for their Norwegian brothers and sisters (just as the case has been with Sweden and indeed all of the Nordic countries), a couple of raving idiots couldn’t help themselves. One is a minister in the Danish government who has a history of making absolutely idiotic facebook statements, and then when confronted by them, claiming that facebook is a private forum and that no one has the right to give him a hard time for what he says there … a minister. In fact, the Minister for third world aid and development.

Let’s leave that one standing alone in silence for a moment or two, shall we?

Before we continue on to the next egomaniac who felt like profiling himself on the corpses of dead teenagers: Mads Christensen. A man known in Denmark as “the braggard”. He writes for several glitted magazines and occasionally appears on TV, talking about men’s fashion and how a properly manly man should be manly in manly ways so as not to appear unmanly.

It’s pretty much all he can rant about, most of the time. Frankly, I think his lectures about how a civilized person should tie his bowtie and what color jacket goes with what color socks, and indeed how long those socks should be, and how to apply a proper sock-suspender, makes him nothing but a monumental buffoon.

However, in this tragedy, he marked himself out as not just a buffoon, but a truly raving lunatic, when he appeared in the press, saying that he felt it was disgusting how none of the “sprightly young men” had “attacked the attacker and laid him out by hitting him with a stick”. He was going on about how proper men would have taken the fight to the attacker.

We are talking about children down to the age of 5 being on that island (at least one). One eleven year old boy saved his life by looked the killer straight in the eyes and saying “you already shot my father. Don’t shoot me. I’m too young to die”.

The murderer let him go.

Thirteen year olds, forteen year olds, being faced by a grown man, known amongst his friends for being a workout-nut, pumping irons contantly. A man who is now known to have been so full of anabolic steroids at the time of the attack that he probably thought of himself as some kind of superhuman, undefeatable combat-god. A grown man with automatic weapons, hunting rifles and Dum-Dum bullets.

But Mr. Mads Christensen, from his self-admitted safe spot in his big, plush chair, thought the children were cowards for not attacking him head on. And I myself got into a seething argument with one man agreeing with him. One man who said that “Any proper man likes the idea that members of his species would charge an attacker. Women and girls can’t understand that!”

He actually said that to me.

I leave it up to you to imagine the verbal explosion I subjected him to afterwards, but I think I scared him off in the end. Even if I didn’t, I will more than gladly tell him what a dickless moron I think he is. One thing I did tell him was that there was an expression for people like him:

Armchair Generals

People who get a hard-on from sitting in the safety of their own homes, imagining the brave, futile frontal attack because they have no f*cking clue what a modern bullet does to a person getting hit. Especially Dum-Dum bullets. And that I suggested he sit down in front of his safe DVD, watching an action-flick where getting your insides smashed by modern firearms doesn’t seem to hurt at all, and where scores of nameless badguys die “clean”.

His response was that he knew what a Dum-Dum bullet did because he used them for hunting himself.

Which tells me everything I need to know about the man. No REAL hunter ever used Dum-Dum bullets to kill deer (the largest animal you can hunt in Denmark, and one which he poses in his facebook picture with, having apparently just shot). There’d be nothing left to eat afterwards. So either he’s a sadist, a liar or an absolute moron. Or all three.

So here is what I am getting at. The heroes of the island. I’ll just bring up two examples of grownups, who were there, and who paid with their lives to save the children.

The first one was Trond Berntsen, a 51 year old policeman on duty at the island. Like most Norwegian policemen, he was unarmed. It is not a country where cops normally need to carry guns, and this was supposed to be a peaceful gathering of children and young people. Mr. Berntsen’s son was amongst those gathered for the camp. Mr. Berntsen was one of the first to be killed, as he got the killer’s attention to allow his son to escape. The man faced down a raving lunatic with automatic weapons, unarmed and wearing a police-uniform, to allow a child … his own son in this case … to survive. Thank the Gods, Mr. Berntsen’s son was amongst the survivors. Mr. Berntsen was the step-brother of the Norwegian Crown Princess, and by all accounts, a decent, kind human being and a great father.

The other was a Danish woman who had lived in Norway with her husband for many years. Hanne Balch Fjalestad was a first aid medic working on the island. Her daughter was there as well, and the last she saw of her mother, was Mrs. Fjalestad baking waffles by the tent. Eyewitnesses have since explained how Mrs. Fjalestad would gather children behind her several times, to face down the killer, so that he would have to shoot her while they escaped to safety amongst the trees. Finally, she too was shot and killed.

People faced him down. From eleven year old boys, to grown men and women, people tried to stand up to this monster. But no one can rightly expect CHILDREN to face a heavily armed, hardened, homicidal maniac bent on their deaths. No one can expect a group of ten, twenty or thirty of them to gather up and agree to charge, knowing some of them might die while others might reach him.

Doing so makes the person making that statement a monster in his or her own right. A lesser monster than the killer, for certain, but a monster nonetheless.

Children died on that island. And to prove the murderer wrong, thousands of Muslims … the very people he claimed would destroy Norway … have shown their abject grief since it happened. Many attended Christian services of remembrance. Many others have left flowers, lit candles … shown their deep, deep sorrow.

As one political comentator said, Norway stands united, as one nation with one people for the first time in many, many years. How long it will last is anyone’s guess, but it is the direct opposite reaction that the murdering monster from the island wanted and expected.

Let that be the legacy of his deeds. That on July 22nd 2011, and in the days that followed, all compassionate, decent people in this world, regardless of political conviction, religious faith and personal creed … were Norwegian.

I have been unable to tear myself away from my computer all weekend. Since Friday’s massacre in Norway, I have constantly been trying to find the latest updates, the most recent snippet of news. Only once did I leave the computer, and that was yesterday, Saturday around noon, when I went into Dublin, to the Norwegian Embassy at 34 Molesworth Street. I was surprised that they were not open for business the day after such an unfathomable tragedy. I was also surprised that so few people had left flowers there. But I realized that the full implications of what was going on in Oslo was still being laid bare, and I don’t doubt that more people did so as the day progressed.

I left red roses, the symbol of the Norwegian Labour Party, the party whose youth movement was so viciously attacked on Friday, on the doorstep. With the flowers, I also a handwritten note where I had copied down Norwegian poet Nordahl Grieg’s most famous poem, “To Youth”, which talks about love and how the spirit of brotherhood and compassion will always defeat war and evil. It is a beautiful poem, which was made into a song in the 1950′s. I didn’t sign it with my name. I signed it “From someone who loves Norway dearly”.

I stood there for a little while, and I had tears running down my face, trying to come to terms with the horror of what had happened. As I turned around to leave, I saw an elderly gentleman come towards me. He too carried red roses, and he too left them on the doorstep of the embassy. I don’t think I have ever seen a human being look so sad and so somber as this old man did. I don’t know if he was Norwegian, Irish or something else. I don’t know if he had a personal reason to be there, or if he like so many others around the whole world, simply tried to show that he cared and that he sympathized.

But we nodded to one another, and went off in separate directions. As I walked away, I sang the norwegian version of the poem to myself, under my breath. It just … came natural, I guess. I must have looked half mad to onlookers, but I don’t care. A man like Anders Behring Breivik, who has now confessed to the slaughter, will not win.

He has stated that his goal was forever to change Norwegian politics. To eliminate the political left through violence. He considers Europe in the midst of a civil war, which in his sick, twisted mind has been going on since NATO bombed Serbia in 1999. In his mind, the Serbians should have received support, “in removing Islam from their country”. He has been ranting about multiculturalism and marxism, calling the children he murdered in cold blood members of “the Stoltenberg-Jugend”. Jens Stoltenberg is the Labour Party leader and Prime Minister of Norway, and one of the most genuinely decent politicians I can think of anywhere in the world. Even in Norway, his most ardent political adversaries all tend to agree that he is a good man. They just don’t agree with his vision for the country.

Now that is what a modern democracy/republic should be all about. Civil disagreements, dealt with through fair elections and a democratic process. One of the first things, Mr. Stoltenberg said after the attacks, was that now, Norway has to be rebuilt, into an even more open, even more tolerant nation. I applaud him. I agree with him absolutely.

I want Anders Behring Breivik to spend the next many, many years in a prison cell, knowing that the European Civil War he hoped to start become a right wing, nationalist hero of never began. I want him to know that the world remembers his evil, and that it stands united WITH those who suffered, and AGAINST him. I want him to know that he failed, absolutely and utterly and miserably.

I still can’t describe the horror of it all. This morning it was revealed that a Danish woman is most likely amongst those killed on the island. But regardless of that, regardless of where ANY of the dead came from, it is all just meaningless, utter tragedy. Yesterday evening, Anders Behring Breivik’s “political manifesto” was made public. At first, people thought this 1500 page whopper was mostly an original work. This morning it was revealed very large, significant parts are copied practically verbatim from the insane ramblings of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. All that was done to it was changed words like “leftist” to “multiculturalists” and “modern society” to “western Europe”. Otherwise, not a comma has been changed. The “manifesto” also shows Anders Behring Breivik wearing military-style uniforms with words like “Marxist Hunter” on badges on his sleeves, wearing an ABC-suit and a scuba-diver’s outfit, wielding an automatic weapon. He consistently refers to himself as a “Knights Templar”, and a “Crusading Knight” or “a Resistance Fighter” throughout these ramblings.

He also claims others have declared that they were ready to follow his example. Let’s see if that is true. If there are others, they too will fail to change the world according to their wishes. Personally, I don’t think anyone WILL follow him.

This man, a self-styled Christian defender of Western Civilization, was not a brave knight or a valiant resistance fighter. In his manifesto, he writes that he has “no doubt” that he will be “chased through his town” by “a hundred defenders of the system” while his guns are still smoking, and he is praying to God.

In the end, he was nothing but the lowest of cowards, butchering children down to the age of 13 with automatic weapons, execution style. Shooting them an extra time each when they were on the ground to make SURE they were dead. In the end, he did not even try to shoot it out with the police. He just gave up and surrendered, despite having written about how surviving the attack and waking up in the hospital to be demonized by the world press, in a world where nothing had changed, was his ultimate nightmare.

Well, he didn’t have to wake up in the hospital. Just in a prison cell.

But apart from the grief, the horror, the shock and the pain, nothing has changed, and nothing will. Because the rest of us, decent, upstanding, good human beings who understand that there has to be room for civil disagreement in this world, and for more points of view than one, will never, ever cave in to demands made by evil men like him.

Evil must not win.

Evil cannot win.

Evil will not win.

I am shocked and dazed.

Yesterday at work, I was sitting around in the middle of the afternoon. Nothing happened. I had literally no cases to work on, and there were no cases left I could pick up. Consequently, I decided to take a peek at a Danish newspaper’s homepage, just to see if there was anything going on.

I could not believe my eyes.

Oslo, my home away from home for so many years, was under attack. The government district had been hit by a massive bomb. The building housing the prime minister’s office looked like something out of a post apocalyptic story. I tried to tell all my colleagues but only a few of them seemed to register the seriousness and tragedy of it all initially. I was glued to the screen until I had to go home, switching between a few different news-sites, hoping to get another snippet of information.

Soon they were all mentioning that a person had died.

Then that two had died.

By the time I got home, the deathtoll had exploded. They were talking about anywhere from seven to thirty five dead, including those who were attacked simultaneously at a summer camp for 13-14 year old members of the ruling Norwegian social democratic party’s youth organization.

Where a tall, blonde man wearing a fake police-officer’s uniform arrived, and started shooting left and right.

I got up this morning to the news that as many as eighty children had been killed on the island.

Eighty children.

Murdered in cold blood. One eyewitness who survived the massacre describes how he kept shooting for forty five minutes to an hour, roughly one shot every ten seconds. How he kept hooting and hollering, making victory-shouts and … oh gods, this is just so fucking senseless.

The man that the police have arrested and whom everyone believes to be responsible for both the bombing and the shooting is Norwegian. In fact, his name is so arch-Norwegian it almost becomes a parody: Anders Behring Breivik.

This name has now become the Norwegian equivalent of Timothy McVeigh.

Breivik is a self-described nationalist, frequenting the extreme right of Norwegian society. He is a rabid islamophobe … and he chose to take his anger out on innocent children at a summer camp, as well as by blowing up a bomb in the center of Oslo, claiming more innocent lives and unfathomable material damage. The blast was so strong that newspapers are reporting stories from people as far away as four kilometers from the blast, feeling their buildings tremble. Windows are blown out in a one kilometer radius.

When I looked at the images from the bombing-site yesterday, I felt a cold chill run down my spine. The Norwegian parliament, Stortinget (the Great Ting), is prominently shown right next to the damaged building. I used to eat ice-cream literally on the exact opposite side of where the bombing went off when I lived and studied in Norway. I ate dinner at a restaurant 200 yards down the street from there several times.

This is like my own back yard. These are places with the deepest emotional meaning for me.

When I get off the boat or plane in Norway, my first feeling has ALWAYS been “I’m home”. It makes me smile simply to be there. Norwegians are some of the kindest, gentlest, most decent human beings I know. Theirs is a culture of friendliness and warmheartedness. They have a long-standing tradition for democracy and for antimilitarism. Yes, Norway is a member of NATO, yes they have taken part in military operations in both Libiya and Afghanistan, but Norwegian culture is anti-militaristic.

And now they are under attack. Not by Al Qaeda, which so many people thought initially, but by one of their own.

More than eighty people dead, most of them innocent children at a summer camp, and no one knows if the death-toll will rise. Everyone expects it to.

Words fail me. I don’t know how to adequately express my sorrow or how deeply I feel affected by this. I want to know that my Norwegian friends and family are all alright, but by feeling that way I feel like an egotist, because even if everyone I personally know in Norway are alive and well and unharmed, then what? Can I just sit back and draw a sigh of relief and go “Oh thank goodness”? So many people have been directly affected by this … indescribably heinous crime.

Please, I ask you, if you have any kind of faith at all, to pray for Norway. Pray for those left behind. For those wounded on mind and body.

And for those who have died.

For those who are not religious, I ask you to sympathize. To show your support for the bereaved and the affected.

Norwegian newspapers like dagbladet.no and vg.no are showing updated pictures, if you want to see the devastation. Sometimes, you can find articles in English translations on their sites if you need it.

We must not let terrorists dictate our lives. We must not let them win by changing how we are and what we do. We must remain defiant in the face of their meaningless, senseless insanity and violence.

We must take our lead from the government of Germany in this, and understand that we must never negotiate, never back down, and never give in to terrorists or their demands. If we do, they win, and then every drop of innocent blood, every bit of suffering and every tear shed for those lost, will have been in vain.

Today, we are all Norwegian.

All those of us with compassion, decency and humanity.