Utøya

Hello, my name is Nicklas Høilund. I’m from a  relatively small town called Arendal 4 hours south of Oslo. I wanna start with saying that I’m really happy I got this opportunity. I’ve been carrying a lot of sorrow with this, and I think speaking about it will help get it off my heart.  The 22^nd of July 2011 was the day when the freedom of Norway was tested. It was a raining in Norway that day, my mother told me.

At the time of the attack I was in the Netherlands with some friends of mine there. My mom sent me a picture of the damage from the bomb, but I just couldn’t believe her. I was forced to believe when the shooting on utøya started. My eyes were glued to CNN in an apartment in the Netherlands, My eyes started to tear up, and I felt so weak. Being so far away from home during a time like this felt awful. I’ve never been so scared in my whole life. 

The weeks following the attack were full of sorrow. But sorrow was not what stood out to me. What I noticed was the way Norway got together. I’ve never felt as proud of my country as I did when I heard our prime minister give his speech, and the whole nation held hands showing love. I also feel the need to mention the brave people who heard the shots and went out in boats to save people who tried to swim to land. They saved so many lives, and didn’t stop even though they got shot at. In countries like Denmark and Sweden they were giving roses to honor the deceased.  And the whole world stood by our side as we showed Anders Breivik that you can hurt us, and you can bring us to our knees, but you can’t take away our love. Our love for our country, and our love for each and every person living in it. Whether it be a middle eastern man or a Caucasian woman. We all stand together with love, and no one could ever take that away from us.

Growing up in Norway, I’ve been taught that you should share what you have of wealth, and that you should do to others what you want them to do to you. I’ve been taught that violence should never be the answer. Even our police officers don’t carry around guns when patrolling. Because of all this, it was so incredibly hard to understand that a Norwegian man could do this. Especially to his own people. I think I speak on behalf of my fellow countrymen when I say that it felt like a giant dagger to the back.

He tried to kill the next generation of our labor party, to stop helping immigrants, and to stop liberal democracy to the extent we have in Norway. I’m happy to say that he failed, and that all he did was to bring more love for diversity and stronger opinions for liberal democracy. In April this year, about 40.000 people gathered at Oslo Tinghus to sing “children of the rainbow.” Which is a beautiful song about living together in peace. This was to prove a point. The point that what we stand for, can’t be changed by hate. Our answer to hate will always be love. I’d like to end this with a quote from our prime ministers speech about Utøya, that he gave two days after the incident.

"We are a small country, but we are a proud people.

Vi er et lite land, men vi er et stolt folk."

He said

And I think that’s never been more true than it is now

Thank you