Bleeding hearts and flowers…

These are dark days in Norway. Last friday, two terror attacks killed almost 100 people in Norway. Sadly, most of them were young people, the youngest only just 14, who attended a summer camp outside Oslo.

This attack was carried out to destroy our political system. And the single terrorist who did this, aimed to change our system. In this he most definetly met his goal.

Norway will never be the same after seven-twentytwo (22 of july), but not the way the terrorist hoped. I have never witnessed anything like this in Norway. The terrorist united the whole country against his beliefs, and hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets all over Norway to show their respect and mourn the deceased.

Personally I attended a ceremony in Oslo last monday, which gathered more than 200 000 people! This is amazing in a city which only have 600 000 citizen in total! In the rose-gathering, all people brought roses and other flowers. This was held over our heads, and later placed in many locations all over the City. If you visit Oslo now, there are probably millions of flowers, cards, teddybears, candles, hearts, notes and drawings placed all over the city.

Our politicians could have done the Bush version… 10 minutes after 9-11, he said: "Let´s hunt them down!" Our prime minister, and the mayor of Oslo have from the first moment said that we will fight this with love, peace and respect. We will show the terrorist, and the rest of the world that this will not break us! This will not weaken our democracy, on the contrary, strengthen it beyond what we thought possible. As we speak, more and more people join both political and volunteer groups.

To the terrorist and other people who are against democracy and basic human rights I say this:
You may kill us all, you may destroy our homes and lives, but you will never break our spirits! Love will always abolish hate, and we have a lot of love now!!

The families, friends and everyone who lost or are missing someone from the attacks, are constantly in my mind.

I brought my Hipstamatic of course. All prints are the John S Lens, and the BlacKeys B+W Film.

The Oslove sign has become a symbol, together with the rose, during these times…