The actions of one individual should not be taken to sully it as a whole.
NIDDERAU, GERMANY: This is with reference to your editorial of July 24 titled “Terrorist attacks in Norway”. I remember my Norway visit a couple of years ago and found it to be a most peaceful and friendly country. And by peaceful I don’t mean only the trees and the fjords, but of a sense of peace.
It has a relatively low population and I found most people I met to be happy with the quality of their life. So it is shocking that someone with as much hate as Anders Behring Breivik would be found in such a society. That sad, I am sure that the number of such people is very small and also that Norway will be able to get over the shock of the tragedy and move on.
What we should know also about Norway is that it is the first European country to impose strict quotas to guarantee that women are better represented in the workplace. For instance, boards of companies were ordered to, within five years, increase the average representation of women as members from nine per cent to 40 per cent. The reason I am giving this example is that it indicates that the country has some very progressive and forward-looking policies and that the actions of one individual should not be taken to sully it as a whole.
Sharif Lone
Published in The Express Tribune, July 26th, 2011.
