Albeit slowly.
It was a shock the first time I turned on the television after the attacks at Utøya and in Oslo 22. July – and noticed that the programme did not cover those attacks. I think it was the Wednesday after.
Life goes on, even for the television channels, who emptied all their programming selections that weekend in order to cover the tragedy.
For those of us who weren’t hit directly, life goes on quicker than those who were there, who lost someone or who know someone who lost someone close to them. Regardless of that, it is still incomprehensible that this would happen in little Norway.
The funerals started just before the weekend, and will likely keep going for a bit. I think the coverage from those make it seem more real than the pictures from a bombed out Oslo.
A national day of mourning has been declared for later in August, and the start of the campaigning for the election has been postponed.
But at some point, the municipal elections this autumn will come – and though the political parties have mentioned that they’re getting more members after this – time will tell if the plea for more democracy will be effective come September, as people are getting back to normal.
We can say what kind of Norway we want to have after the disaster, but allegedly it takes 21 days to form or break a habit, and we’ve not passed that mark yet. Time will tell.
