Wednesday, September 24, 2008

MIKSI TAAS?


Why again? Such was a headline one of the Finnish newspapers today. The other one, Helsingin Sanomat, wrote that the tragedy of Jokela happened again. This time, it was different part of the country, Kauhajoki - but the tragedy that has shocked Finland was similar to the one that happened not even a year ago. Massacre in school.

Today, it was a mourning-day in Finland. The flags were at half-mast, the general atmosphere felt depressed. Despite so sunny, shiny and warm autumn day. I was pretty much speechles when I heard the news. It's even hard to think about why such things happen. Like, a 22 years old student enters his school, finds a class and starts shooting. He also lit a fire, which was due to the newspaper fatal for the victims.

In a way, it's hard to believe this has happened in Finland, the second time. Such massacres were kind of American thing, as they did happen there, or perhaps one would place them into some other European country with higher rate of criminal. And now it is Finland, more or less calm and friendly Northern country with high life-standards, organized healt-care and all that; all in all, wellfare society, and a peaceful land where people perhaps tend to be more self-destructive than destructive towards others.

According to the article in HS, the student that did the masacre was giving the impression of an ordinary young man, perhaps quiet, but not lonely; totally pleasant guy, who also had friends. But finally, he put on the internet some material in which he spoke about hate towrards people. He killed others, and he killed himself.

The surface can perhaps hide the inside. Like that people do not show what they actually feel. Psychotic and caotic mind that needs help can be thus hidden away. In my opinion, Finns actually do not talk a lot about their emotions, yet they can also open their souls after some time. They can also explode after a while, long whiles of silence - and yes, perhaps that can be destructive. The anger can be kept inside for too long...

On the other hand, perhaps the people that sorround these potential killers do not notice changes within the temperament of their friends. Sometimes I find this society too self-orientated, like too busy with everything else but others. Things are said and seen just from the surface. People are not lonely, yet they can be lonely within the crowd that interacts with them. Hard to explain again; perhaps more careful attention towards the other is missing as self is, even subconsciously, put on the first place too much.

The fact that Finland has suffered two school masacres in less than a year is still shocking, and I cannot find answers why such things happen right here. I am also a Finnish student, and thus I might not feel that relaxed wihle spending time in the university anymore. However, the state of the whole world is not that good: with simple words, the world has gone crazy. Now, Finland has been struck. The future feels uncertain, fear and grief have entered the society. But finally, such bloody story can probably repeat everywhere in the world...

All in all, it is just sad beyond words.

3 comments:

Aelfsciene said...

Siksi mailmaamme mene hiitasti Helvettiin :/

kaneli said...

Niin, hitaasti se menee siihen... mutta voisikin olla nopeasti...

Ulmiel said...

Jap, žalostno, res hudo žalostno ... tud jst sm bla precej presenečena nad tem, da se je zgodil na Finskem - prvi odziv je bil: "Na Finskem?! Ravno zaradi visokega standarda življenja in ker mi pač delujejo bolj normalni kot Američani, za katere sploh nisem presenečena, če slišim tako novico - četudi je hudo žalostno tudi to dejstvo.
Vsekakor upam, da se bo to nehal ponavljat in da ne bo postalo moderno po celem svetu, znašat svoje frustracije nad soštudente. Ti pa pazi nase tam gor. *hug*