Two tragedies, one weekend, two tales of woe
Two things happened this weekend. I think both could be classed as tragic, but both for entirely different reasons. I don't want the reader to think in any way that I am trying to compare the two events, but I think they are worthy of a sort of news round up, which is the only reason they appear in the same blog.
I will start with the events in Norway. My heart goes out to the people, it really does. At present we know of 93 deaths at the hand of Anders Behring Breivik. For those who do not know he is a right wing extremist who was unhappy with the ruling party's immigration policy. This led him to plan an attack over several years where he planted a bomb to kill several ministers of parliament and shootings on the island of Utøya where the ruling party had a summer camp for teenagers. The most tragic aspect is of course that so many young people were involved in the events. Breivik claims that what he did was disturbing but necessary to highlight the issues of immigration in Norway and that he had no choice. It has become chilling when there are suggestions that he may have come to Britain to meet with members of the English Defence League (EDL) some years ago. There are some questions to be asked of the Norwegian security force though as he was able to slip through the net for a number of years that culminated with his brutal killings this weekend. Even Breivik himself was surprised that he was able to get to the final stage of his plans without being spotted as he admitted his behaviour had been unusual.
I feel a good point was made by Charlie Brooker today though. When the attack first took place and there were few details available the rolling news channel were getting so called 'experts' to give their opinions on the events. They all said the same thing, that it was an Islamist splinter group attached to al-Qaida who wanted revenge for Norway's involvement in Afghanistan and the cartoons that came out of Denmark (apparently Muslims don't see the difference between the Scandinavian countries...really?). This was all merely conjecture and a way to fill up the air time of the rolling news rather than waiting for actual facts to come in. By Sunday morning the truth was out. Some people seemed more shocked that a white, fairly well off man would be capable of such attacks. I say, look at the nail bombings, etc that London had to deal with for years. They were white, fairly well off men orchestrating those attacks too.
The fact remains though that at least 93 people have lost their lives while others have physical and mental scars to last more than a lifetime. Norway will recover as New York recovered and as London has had to many times before. There may be some lessons learnt for Norway itself and maybe the world. Perhaps it is time that we stopped putting the focus on strictly Muslim Fundamentalist groups and realised that there are some home grown potential terrorists right under our noses who know we will not be paying them the attention as it goes to other places. We all need to learn from this tragic loss so that it does not happen at home and the lives lost are not totally in vain.
The second tragedy of the weekend was the loss of the singer Amy Winehouse. I can hardly claim to be a big fan but I think her case highlights the tragic plight of all those with an addiction problem to alcohol or drugs, or both. Winehouse joins the not so prestigious 27 club of people who have passed away in the 27th year of their life. The group contains Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin and many more. Winehouse, like many on the list, had a long standing problem with both drink and drugs. Perhaps the signs should have been clear as to how soon her life would end as she had a shambles of an attempted come back tour in June, which led to her being booed off the stage in Serbia. Then she performed with her Goddaughter on Thursday night in London as a surprise and rambled on about everyone needing to support her. Then she spoke to her mother and said how much she loved her. Did Winehouse know her time was coming up? Who knows? We will never know if she knew her days were numbered, only whatever the autopsy report can throw up.
The tragedy of Winehouse is her addiction. Unfortunately, although she was in a position to gain help from the best rehabs in the world she didn't seem to want to be helped. The first step on the road to recovery is to admit you have a problem, or so they say. Winehouse seemed to gain her musical inspiration from her addiction and the pain it caused her. Sadly her parents have lived to do something no parent ever should, that is bury their child. No one can ever know that pain unless they live to experience it and it is not something that any parent could wish to experience. The memory of Winehouse will live on and of course all her music is there forever, but I hope that her tragic tale will help someone else who is struggling with addiction to look at their own life and seek help before it is too late. Sadly a death of a young person with some degree of talent is what it takes to make addiction problems high profile enough to be taken seriously in the press and the public eye. In fact in Winehouse's case the press seemed to love to watch her fall deeper and deeper just so they could sell their papers each week with a picture of her on the cover and the latest problem in her life covering the pages. This in itself makes me feel sick and sorry for her and her family. Let us remember the positives and yet remember the sickness she suffered so that we may help someone in a similar position to regain their life and take it back from the master of drink or drugs.
I will start with the events in Norway. My heart goes out to the people, it really does. At present we know of 93 deaths at the hand of Anders Behring Breivik. For those who do not know he is a right wing extremist who was unhappy with the ruling party's immigration policy. This led him to plan an attack over several years where he planted a bomb to kill several ministers of parliament and shootings on the island of Utøya where the ruling party had a summer camp for teenagers. The most tragic aspect is of course that so many young people were involved in the events. Breivik claims that what he did was disturbing but necessary to highlight the issues of immigration in Norway and that he had no choice. It has become chilling when there are suggestions that he may have come to Britain to meet with members of the English Defence League (EDL) some years ago. There are some questions to be asked of the Norwegian security force though as he was able to slip through the net for a number of years that culminated with his brutal killings this weekend. Even Breivik himself was surprised that he was able to get to the final stage of his plans without being spotted as he admitted his behaviour had been unusual.
I feel a good point was made by Charlie Brooker today though. When the attack first took place and there were few details available the rolling news channel were getting so called 'experts' to give their opinions on the events. They all said the same thing, that it was an Islamist splinter group attached to al-Qaida who wanted revenge for Norway's involvement in Afghanistan and the cartoons that came out of Denmark (apparently Muslims don't see the difference between the Scandinavian countries...really?). This was all merely conjecture and a way to fill up the air time of the rolling news rather than waiting for actual facts to come in. By Sunday morning the truth was out. Some people seemed more shocked that a white, fairly well off man would be capable of such attacks. I say, look at the nail bombings, etc that London had to deal with for years. They were white, fairly well off men orchestrating those attacks too.
The fact remains though that at least 93 people have lost their lives while others have physical and mental scars to last more than a lifetime. Norway will recover as New York recovered and as London has had to many times before. There may be some lessons learnt for Norway itself and maybe the world. Perhaps it is time that we stopped putting the focus on strictly Muslim Fundamentalist groups and realised that there are some home grown potential terrorists right under our noses who know we will not be paying them the attention as it goes to other places. We all need to learn from this tragic loss so that it does not happen at home and the lives lost are not totally in vain.
The second tragedy of the weekend was the loss of the singer Amy Winehouse. I can hardly claim to be a big fan but I think her case highlights the tragic plight of all those with an addiction problem to alcohol or drugs, or both. Winehouse joins the not so prestigious 27 club of people who have passed away in the 27th year of their life. The group contains Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin and many more. Winehouse, like many on the list, had a long standing problem with both drink and drugs. Perhaps the signs should have been clear as to how soon her life would end as she had a shambles of an attempted come back tour in June, which led to her being booed off the stage in Serbia. Then she performed with her Goddaughter on Thursday night in London as a surprise and rambled on about everyone needing to support her. Then she spoke to her mother and said how much she loved her. Did Winehouse know her time was coming up? Who knows? We will never know if she knew her days were numbered, only whatever the autopsy report can throw up.
The tragedy of Winehouse is her addiction. Unfortunately, although she was in a position to gain help from the best rehabs in the world she didn't seem to want to be helped. The first step on the road to recovery is to admit you have a problem, or so they say. Winehouse seemed to gain her musical inspiration from her addiction and the pain it caused her. Sadly her parents have lived to do something no parent ever should, that is bury their child. No one can ever know that pain unless they live to experience it and it is not something that any parent could wish to experience. The memory of Winehouse will live on and of course all her music is there forever, but I hope that her tragic tale will help someone else who is struggling with addiction to look at their own life and seek help before it is too late. Sadly a death of a young person with some degree of talent is what it takes to make addiction problems high profile enough to be taken seriously in the press and the public eye. In fact in Winehouse's case the press seemed to love to watch her fall deeper and deeper just so they could sell their papers each week with a picture of her on the cover and the latest problem in her life covering the pages. This in itself makes me feel sick and sorry for her and her family. Let us remember the positives and yet remember the sickness she suffered so that we may help someone in a similar position to regain their life and take it back from the master of drink or drugs.
Comments
Post a Comment