'Scuse me... What?

Read a few articles online this morning that made me stare vacantly into space, blink, then going "Wait.. What?" And not because I'm tired.

The first article could inform me that a girl from Rwanda in her twenties was brutally raped and beaten up for over 2 hours at a refugee center in Rjukan, Norway, by a iraqi man. Bleh. What's wrong with people?! There were no employees at the center, because it was a weekend, and they didn't even arrest the guy, just moved him to another facility: the police thought there wasnt' any risk that he would do it again... Yes, clearly, he isn't liable to do anything like that.

Slightly less seriously was the story of a 28 year old who got his car deliberately crashed three times on European Highway 6 in northern Norway. A BMW came from behind at high velocity and crashed into him, and when he pulled over to call the emergency, the BMW also came to a halt and backed up straight into his car again. The clearly annoyed driver jumped out screaming "aren't you afraid to die?", jumped back in and backed into him yet again before taking off. Clearly an extreme case of road rage? Well, maybe, but one sentence in this article made me puzzled: "Greger got a bit of a surprise when he looked into he rear-view mirror after overtaking a BMW in a 80 kilometre an hour zone yesterday." Anyone stop to think that the 28 year old Greger might have done a very dangerous overtaking maneuver? A reckless maneuver that was the final poke at another mans already frayed mental state, a move that just really ticked the bloke off?

Finally I want to mention an article which deals with a case that is very explosive and sensitive. And because no one ever can be sure what happened, it's impossible to ever prove anyone wrong or right, but that didn't prevent me from reacting. 17 years ago we had something called "The Bjugn-case" going on in Norway - Ulf Hammern who was working at a kindergarten was accused of "alleged sexual abuse" against the kids at his work place. The whole thing blew totally out of porportions in an instant, eventually involving over 36 named kids, and leading to the arrest of 7 people, including the police chief in Bjugn itself, along with Hammerns wife and two employees at the kindergarten. Only Hammern ended up in trial, and was eventually acquitted of all charges. A horde of so called "competent people" had concluded that the children had been molested, but the court felt it couldn't trust these statements. Ok, fine, the case was a witchhunt, and no one can ever prove it one way or the other. What bothers me now is the article I read today, where a 20 year old girl who was one of the 10 kids Hammern was charged of molesting, says she's going to sue Hammern for "offending her honor". He had said in an interview that he thought the kids involved in the trial 17 year ago might've been "brainwashed" by their parents and all the professional people (psychiatrists, doctors etc) who had interrogated the kids (the art of suggestion can work wonders on a childs mind). She found this statement so offensive to her and her family that she, after much consideration, has decided to sue. First of all: let sleeping dogs lie? Come on people, this many years later no one can prove anything, why go poking at it with a stick? And that goes for both the young girl and Hammern. Secondly I have to ask myself what's the worst: Publicly being accused of being brainwashed when you went to kindergarten, or being accused of molesting 10 kids? If anyone has the right to be offended and generally pissed off, it surely should be Hammern?

All in all - three articles that made me question human kind that much more.