Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway, has called for restraint and tolerance at a special session of the Norwegian Parliament today.
(From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/...)
"It's important that policy isn't shaped in a state of panic."
The prime minister also warned against measures that would curtail people's freedoms.
"I would like to ask from this podium that we avoid starting a witch hunt on expression," he told MPs.
"Everyone had to choose their own path in a landscape filled by shock, fear and despair. But the Norwegian people found their way home again."
How much this differs from perhaps the most illustrative response to the 9/11 attacks, from our old friend, Toby Keith:
Oh, justice will be served and the battle will rage:
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage.
An' you'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A.
'Cos we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way.
Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.
From "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue"
I decided against putting the video here, because just reading the lyrics makes me want to vomit. Join me below the fold for a few thoughts.
Can you ever imagine an American President saying this?
He added: "We have memorials in churches and in mosques, in parliament and in the government headquarters, on the streets and in squares … Evil has brought out the best in us. Hatred engenders love."
(From:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...)
or this?:
“We will not be intimidated or threatened by these attacks. The aim of such attacks is to spread fear and panic. We will not let that happen. We must stand firm in defending our values, Norway is an open, tolerant and inclusive society,” he told reporters.
(From:
http://www.euronews.net/...)
However, Norway's right wing has said that it will seek tougher reforms:
But the right-wing Progress Party indicated that it would press for tougher judicial measures.
Per Sandberg, chairman of parliament's justice committee, and a member of the party, said when parliament reconvened in a few weeks there would be discussion "about sentences, searches by the police and everything else".
"My party has always wanted that. I believe there will be new measures," he told Reuters.
Progress Party? Quite the ironic name. However, unlike many of our fellow Americans, Norwegians are not bloodthirsty, nor redirecting their anger at immigrants:
(From:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...)
The attack could have been directed at a cultural symbol of “foreignness” in Norway—an immigrant neighborhood or a religious institution, perhaps. But what made the camp a more ideal target was that it encouraged transcendence of cultural allegiances and envisioned a society that could move past ethnic and sectarian conflict. That is, labor was attacked because its strength stems from solidarity rather than divisiveness and exclusion--the political currency the far-right trades on.
While we all have pie fights about the debt ceiling agreement, let's remember how much all of us, as a country, have to learn about becoming a better nation and people.
(for more reading, I suggest the great Guardian article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/...)