Going home to my country in mourning

Ragni Trotta, Contributor

GOING home to my country in mourning, flags flying at half mast everywhere, was a new and sombre experience.

A national day of mourning, a memorial ceremony was broadcast on Norwegian television on Sunday, August 21 in memory of all the lives lost to the tragic events of July 22. For the second time in my lifetime, I saw the King of Norway weep on national television during a heart-wrenching speech that touched every Norwegian to the core and unleashed floods of tears across the nation.

King Harald wept constantly throughout his speech and had to stop to collect himself several times. There was no dry eye in the nation during the televised memorial ceremony, a moment in which every Norwegian was united in mourning regardless of background, religious belief or ethnicity. They were all trying to make sense of the tragedy at Utoya, the island that is home to AUF - the youth arm of the Governing Labour Party. King Harald hung his head stating that as a father and grandfather, he was incapable of fully understanding and could only try to imagine the pain that anyone that lost a child or a loved one was going through.

Most devastating

Upon my arrival to Oslo my brother, my mother and I drove past Utoya, the scene of the most devastating incident to touch Norway since World War II. The recent tragedy immediately became infinitely more real to me. I could envision the boats trying to pick up survivors from the water, the many terrified people hiding from the gunman wherever they could find shelter and the scattered bodies of the many who didn't escape his bullets.

The first time I ever saw a Norwegian King weep in public was on July 24 when CNN broadcast a memorial service from the Church of Oslo following the massacre and the bombing. I had been glued to the television screen for two days in disbelief at what had happened in my peaceful homeland. A hunched over Norwegian King Harald and Queen Sonja frequently dabbing away their tears with white handkerchiefs, seated in the first row of the church where not too long ago the happy wedding of their son and the baptising of their grandchildren had taken place. It was a sight I will never forget.

Norwegians, particularly from the older generation, do not often show strong emotions. Our Royal family has in their dignified manner always been great representatives of our country. We have never been a nation of people who openly display emotion or affection, particularly not in public and certainly not in an official capacity.

Never have we witnessed the kind of emotion King Harald openly displayed during this last summer month. But King Harald, as his father King Olav V, is a man of the people. A young prince who saw Norway through the Second World War together with his father King Haakon, our beloved late King Olav V was loved by the nation throughout his several decade-long reign. During the oil crisis in the 1970s, King Olav would be seen carrying his own skis from the Royal Palace down to Oslo's tramway to take the tram up to the outskirts of Oslo and go cross-country skiing with his countrymen. He considered himself a Norwegian like his countrymen and made a point of making the same sacrifices as his people.

Peaceful country

A small country of five million people, Norway has several times been deemed the world's most peaceful and happy country to live by UN surveys. Over the last three decades, many immigrants have come to the country and brought diversity to the population. One of the young party members at Utoya, an immigrant and Muslim originally born in Iraq, lost nine friends through the massacre. She was told by the grief counsellors to attend a maximum of three funerals. My 21-year-old niece said some powerful and profound words to me when I spoke to her on the phone following the massacre. Wise beyond her years, she said to me, "I am glad that it was a Norwegian and not an immigrant or a Muslim that did it so that this incident cannot be used to promote racism and hate."

Norway has been very fortunate not to previously be touched by extremist terror attacks, but July 22 changed our history in such a way that it will forever be considered a turning point in our lives. As pictures and stories about the 77 victims appeared, it became clear that almost every region of Norway had lost at least one of theirs. More than 600 young people from many different beliefs, ethnic backgrounds and religious convictions had come together to try to make a difference in our society and in the world by being politically active. The victims of the bomb attacks on the Labour Party Government buildings in Oslo had done nothing wrong other than being responsible employees, working late on a Friday afternoon to get their work done before leaving for the weekend or their summer vacation.

Heinous act

As devastated as all his countrymen, the father of the perpetrator said that he thought it would have been better if his son had killed himself too. We will join his father in trying to understand what could possibly have gone on in the mind of the young man who planned and committed such a heinous act. Certainly, there seemed to be no mitigating circumstances. He was educated in a First-World system, not fighting poverty, nor was he being oppressed. He was born into one of the wealthiest of nations of the world and had all the opportunities he would ever want simply for the asking.

I have lived outside Norway for more than half my life, but I am proud to remain a Norwegian citizen. My father Tormod, a very active politician in the Labour party, made my siblings go to meetings and conventions for the Labour party all the time. Living abroad, he used to call me every time there was an election in Norway and tell me that it was "totally unacceptable not to vote". When I told him I didn't think I was sufficiently up to date with Norwegian politics to place a reasonably educated vote, he would give me a rundown on the most popular candidates and call me every day until I had made it to the Norwegian Embassy or Consulate in the country I lived to vote. In his world, "It is your duty to vote, it is an important part of maintaining democracy. Voting is your duty and responsibility."

Norway has 16 political parties, broadly represented coalition governments and more women ministers than any other country in the world. Through this tragedy, I am immensely proud of the dignified way in which my countrymen have stood up for our country, the principles of our nation and the foundation upon which our democracy is built. Nothing could be a more befitting tribute to honour of the very bright, young lives that were extinguished much too prematurely from the world.

Ragni Trotta is head of The Palmyra Foundation, an organisation that aims to transform early-childhood education in Jamaica.