[Music]
you
I don’t know what’s up with this let’s
see if we can manage no apparently not
anyways there’s bubbles on the picture
behind me so what the old thing is the
biggest problem that we are facing in
this world today
I think it’s bubbles it’s the fact that
we are all living in separate spaces
where we are not really communicating
with each other we’re living in our own
bubbles some call it social constructs
some call it filter bubbles some call it
echo chambers the problem is that we
don’t really communicate across these
bubbles how do I know that this is the
biggest problem I know it’s because I’ve
lived it in 2011 I was a student I was
living in the United Kingdom and I was
studying theatre of all things and I
went back to Norway where I’m from on
summer vacation before I moved to the UK
I had been a part of the Labour Youth
party it’s a massive youth movement in
Norway where we work on politics really
and what I wanted to achieve through
that was working for social justice of
some sort I wanted to make Norway a
community in which everyone could tribe
despite their background in 2011 I went
back to summer vacation and I met with
my friends from the Labour Youth party
at their summer camp every year they
throw this summer camp on a small island
but outside of Oslo I was 20 years old I
was you know a pretty regular kid and a
lot of the people who were at the summer
camp was there mostly to enjoy summer
like myself not because of the political
workshops but because of the parties
because of the football playing because
of you know the fun having and I went
out there on Thursday afternoon and and
I had and then Friday morning came and I
crawled out of my tent very late in the
morning it must have been afternoon
actually because you know evenings when
you’re 20 and and as I did that a man
was driving his car towards Oslo the
city I grew up and I grew up in Oslo and
this man was driving his car there and
in that car he had a bomb that he had
built himself he drove into the
government headquarters through these
buildings behind me here he parked his
car and let the fuse for his bomb he
left the car went another car and drove
off
and as he did that the buildings blew up
all of all slow blew up the city I knew
the city I grew up in was shattered it
was blown to pieces
we got a notice out on the island and we
saw pictures on their cell phones and we
realized that our home is not our home
anymore
the place I grew up the place I felt
close to you was no longer safe City it
used to be in the blast zone was the
Central Library of Oslo the place I
spent most of my school days because I
was a massive geek and as we realised
this as we started calling her family
and friends trying to figure out he was
okay and he was not under sparing Brevik
drove in his car towards us on the
island we gathered in the central place
of their only camp area and the camp
area is sort of in a crater the island
is shaped a little bit like a volcano
like in all the cocaine I like to
imagine and then we gathered in the
centre of it and there we tried to
figure out what was going on and while
we were doing that we started hearing
these popping sounds we told maybe its
fireworks maybe someone is having a
party it’s summer vacation after all is
a Friday afternoon like people might
like to have fun and not know what’s
going on in Oslo
and we were told by staff members at the
island to kind of stay in the center of
the island and from the center they only
can obviously not see across the lake
and so we thought maybe someone’s
shooting at the island but that wouldn’t
be so dangerous because we are here in
the center of the room where you can’t
see across and so we are basically safe
and as we were told that and more people
came towards us
a man in dark clothes walked across the
hill that goes around there and some
people ran towards him and the man in
dark clothes lifted his gun and he shot
the person who was running towards him
straight down that was the first time I
saw anyone get killed and my brain
couldn’t comprehend it I couldn’t
understand what was actually happening
in front of my eyes I tried to
rationalize it in all social ways I
thought maybe it’s a absurd military
exercise that no one’s told us about
maybe it’s some teenagers with paintball
guns like having fun I don’t know like
I’m Norwegian I live in know in
countryside I own no guns and I still
somehow got that this could be terribly
dangerous and so I turned around and ran
into the woods along with my friends and
there I called my parents and they told
me to stay safe and try to protect
myself we didn’t know what was going on
neither did they everyone was confused
and then I walked down to the track that
goes around the island and there I met a
young boy this is the island by the way
the boy was 8 years old he was just
sitting next to the track he had lost
track of his father he was a security
guard on the island and he was sort of
panicking I took the boy and decided to
hide with him we tried to figure out
what we could do and I stayed with him
for most of the time I stayed on top of
him covering his mouth holding him down
so he wouldn’t run out and scream to
reveal or hiding spot and we stayed like
that for the better part of an hour and
then
the gunshots came closer to where we
were every few seconds we heard gunshots
and as the gunshots came closer to us a
group of people came running towards us
and in that grief was another young boy
and I took the two boys and I ran with
the group and we ran along the track
that goes around the island and there we
ran into a pile of dead bodies a pile of
friends of mine who had been executed he
had been shot in the head by Anders
Behring Breivik and in that pile was a
cell phone that was ringing and that was
the first time I realized that someone
outside of the island was trying to
reach someone who was there someone they
loved someone who would never be able to
pick up the phone again and I sort of
blacked out from that I managed somehow
to keep track of the boys and I ran with
them and we ended up on the southern tip
of the island and from there we could
see helicopters in the air we could see
many boats in the water and we could see
the longest line of blue flashing lights
from police vehicles you could ever
imagine
and we told hey more than an hour has
passed by now we are finally safe and
then out of the woods behind us came a
policeman and the policeman told us that
we have caught the bad guy
you’re safe now and as he told us that
the man who was wearing the police
uniform lifted his gun and started
shooting at our group and I jumped
straight in the water with the boys
following me with bullets flying around
me I was wearing a massive woollen
jumper and I sank thank God for that
jumper must have saved my life and I
pulled the jumper off and I stood back
up in the water and I looked back to
watch the island and there I saw
understeering Brevik taking aim at my
head and for a moment I realized that
this is my last moment I’m going to die
now and at 20 I came to peace with that
and private fired
and the bullet flew straight past my ear
and he missed and I fell over in the
water again and somehow I managed to
swim around some rocks and hide
underneath the trees that were hanging
out or the water with the boys no
surviving an attack like this is
extremely painful it’s extremely
difficult Here I am with the boys and I
spent a long time trying to piece
together my life again
I felt shattered like a puzzle that had
to be pieced back together and part of
that was understanding what made
Braddock Brevik Braddock was a far-right
extremist a neo-nazi he wanted to kill
us because he believed that the Labour
Party was in favor of migration of
people coming to Europe from a diversity
of backgrounds and living peacefully
together and yes indeed that was part of
the reason I why I was there because I
believe that diversity is something we
can all live with something we can all
try then I started looking at the
Braddock’s history and bravery comes
from Oslo he’s similar to me in many
ways but he locked himself in a
different bubble than me he lived in a
different world than me a world that was
driven by fear by fear of people being
different and I think this fits very
well with a definition of violent
extremists in that way I’ve come to
learn from Desmond Tutu who defined
violent extremism as the violent denial
of diversity and so the direct opposite
of violent extremism is diversity it’s
being able to live together and be
different and in order to make that
happen
I started working on trying to
understand how people become extremists
how do people become so afraid of
extremism no of diversity I mean I went
to places like Copenhagen we’re here
from the Central Library you can see the
site of the synagogue to which violent
extremists went and killed a security
guard during that attack he also went to
convention where people restore
talking about freedom of expression I
think the library is a good symbol here
because libraries are temples of wisdom
people go there to learn about each
other’s about different world views
about different ideas people go there to
grow themselves and I think that’s the
key to what we have to do we have to
work to grow ourselves to grow what I
call strong positive identities
identities where I’m so comfortable
being me that I’m not being threatened
by you being you where I’m so
comfortable being me that we can live
together and be extremely different but
still be friends I met mid-war former
extremists than anyone else here I am on
UTA island on the very rocks where I
almost get killed with our na Mikkel is
a former violent extremist the founder
of the largest neo-nazi network in the
world and he keeps saying over and over
again hurt people hurt people
people who experience pain will cause
other people pain I think there’s
something profound in that and there’s a
cycle we have to break people who
experience pain will cause other people
pain and the only way we can deal with
that is by trying to break out of it by
trying to cause people happiness instead
of causing them pain and we do that by
seeing each other by seeing each other
as human beings
Arno left the neo-nazi movement after he
met someone he believed was vastly
different from him a black lady who saw
him said to him you’re better than this
he believed in Arno’s humanity by
reaching out to each other I think he
can do this I think this is a good
picture that sort of symbolizes how the
world can be seen it’s a picture from my
native Norway
of a mountain that’s divided into blocks
and one can say that extremists are now
standing on Easter Block speaking at
each other shouting at each other but
not listening to each other and
what we need to do in order to combat
extremism is being this guy in the
middle who’s trying to climb up to the
tops trying to see what’s going on
they’re trying to listen to the tops
bridge the gap between them we have seen
failures of this such as what’s been
going on and Charles will this fall
where vast amounts of neo-nazis have
been marching in the streets we’ve also
seen larger neo-nazi marches in
Scandinavia in Sweden and Norway than we
have seen since the Second World War
this year I think it’s time we stand up
and that we bridge the gap after Charlie
Hebdo we said just we Charlie we meant
that freedom of expression was the way
to go and I think that is right I think
we need freedom of expression I think we
need communication we need to speak it
to each other and so I invite you all to
break your bubbles burst your bubbles
speak to someone who is vastly different
from you someone with a different
worldview someone with a different way
of experiencing and seeing life and by
speaking to each other by bridging the
gaps between the extremes we can fight
extremism together thank you all very
much
[Applause]
you
[Music]
[Applause]
you
I don’t know what’s up with this let’s
see if we can manage no apparently not
anyways there’s bubbles on the picture
behind me so what the old thing is the
biggest problem that we are facing in
this world today
I think it’s bubbles it’s the fact that
we are all living in separate spaces
where we are not really communicating
with each other we’re living in our own
bubbles some call it social constructs
some call it filter bubbles some call it
echo chambers the problem is that we
don’t really communicate across these
bubbles how do I know that this is the
biggest problem I know it’s because I’ve
lived it in 2011 I was a student I was
living in the United Kingdom and I was
studying theatre of all things and I
went back to Norway where I’m from on
summer vacation before I moved to the UK
I had been a part of the Labour Youth
party it’s a massive youth movement in
Norway where we work on politics really
and what I wanted to achieve through
that was working for social justice of
some sort I wanted to make Norway a
community in which everyone could tribe
despite their background in 2011 I went
back to summer vacation and I met with
my friends from the Labour Youth party
at their summer camp every year they
throw this summer camp on a small island
but outside of Oslo I was 20 years old I
was you know a pretty regular kid and a
lot of the people who were at the summer
camp was there mostly to enjoy summer
like myself not because of the political
workshops but because of the parties
because of the football playing because
of you know the fun having and I went
out there on Thursday afternoon and and
I had and then Friday morning came and I
crawled out of my tent very late in the
morning it must have been afternoon
actually because you know evenings when
you’re 20 and and as I did that a man
was driving his car towards Oslo the
city I grew up and I grew up in Oslo and
this man was driving his car there and
in that car he had a bomb that he had
built himself he drove into the
government headquarters through these
buildings behind me here he parked his
car and let the fuse for his bomb he
left the car went another car and drove
off
and as he did that the buildings blew up
all of all slow blew up the city I knew
the city I grew up in was shattered it
was blown to pieces
we got a notice out on the island and we
saw pictures on their cell phones and we
realized that our home is not our home
anymore
the place I grew up the place I felt
close to you was no longer safe City it
used to be in the blast zone was the
Central Library of Oslo the place I
spent most of my school days because I
was a massive geek and as we realised
this as we started calling her family
and friends trying to figure out he was
okay and he was not under sparing Brevik
drove in his car towards us on the
island we gathered in the central place
of their only camp area and the camp
area is sort of in a crater the island
is shaped a little bit like a volcano
like in all the cocaine I like to
imagine and then we gathered in the
centre of it and there we tried to
figure out what was going on and while
we were doing that we started hearing
these popping sounds we told maybe its
fireworks maybe someone is having a
party it’s summer vacation after all is
a Friday afternoon like people might
like to have fun and not know what’s
going on in Oslo
and we were told by staff members at the
island to kind of stay in the center of
the island and from the center they only
can obviously not see across the lake
and so we thought maybe someone’s
shooting at the island but that wouldn’t
be so dangerous because we are here in
the center of the room where you can’t
see across and so we are basically safe
and as we were told that and more people
came towards us
a man in dark clothes walked across the
hill that goes around there and some
people ran towards him and the man in
dark clothes lifted his gun and he shot
the person who was running towards him
straight down that was the first time I
saw anyone get killed and my brain
couldn’t comprehend it I couldn’t
understand what was actually happening
in front of my eyes I tried to
rationalize it in all social ways I
thought maybe it’s a absurd military
exercise that no one’s told us about
maybe it’s some teenagers with paintball
guns like having fun I don’t know like
I’m Norwegian I live in know in
countryside I own no guns and I still
somehow got that this could be terribly
dangerous and so I turned around and ran
into the woods along with my friends and
there I called my parents and they told
me to stay safe and try to protect
myself we didn’t know what was going on
neither did they everyone was confused
and then I walked down to the track that
goes around the island and there I met a
young boy this is the island by the way
the boy was 8 years old he was just
sitting next to the track he had lost
track of his father he was a security
guard on the island and he was sort of
panicking I took the boy and decided to
hide with him we tried to figure out
what we could do and I stayed with him
for most of the time I stayed on top of
him covering his mouth holding him down
so he wouldn’t run out and scream to
reveal or hiding spot and we stayed like
that for the better part of an hour and
then
the gunshots came closer to where we
were every few seconds we heard gunshots
and as the gunshots came closer to us a
group of people came running towards us
and in that grief was another young boy
and I took the two boys and I ran with
the group and we ran along the track
that goes around the island and there we
ran into a pile of dead bodies a pile of
friends of mine who had been executed he
had been shot in the head by Anders
Behring Breivik and in that pile was a
cell phone that was ringing and that was
the first time I realized that someone
outside of the island was trying to
reach someone who was there someone they
loved someone who would never be able to
pick up the phone again and I sort of
blacked out from that I managed somehow
to keep track of the boys and I ran with
them and we ended up on the southern tip
of the island and from there we could
see helicopters in the air we could see
many boats in the water and we could see
the longest line of blue flashing lights
from police vehicles you could ever
imagine
and we told hey more than an hour has
passed by now we are finally safe and
then out of the woods behind us came a
policeman and the policeman told us that
we have caught the bad guy
you’re safe now and as he told us that
the man who was wearing the police
uniform lifted his gun and started
shooting at our group and I jumped
straight in the water with the boys
following me with bullets flying around
me I was wearing a massive woollen
jumper and I sank thank God for that
jumper must have saved my life and I
pulled the jumper off and I stood back
up in the water and I looked back to
watch the island and there I saw
understeering Brevik taking aim at my
head and for a moment I realized that
this is my last moment I’m going to die
now and at 20 I came to peace with that
and private fired
and the bullet flew straight past my ear
and he missed and I fell over in the
water again and somehow I managed to
swim around some rocks and hide
underneath the trees that were hanging
out or the water with the boys no
surviving an attack like this is
extremely painful it’s extremely
difficult Here I am with the boys and I
spent a long time trying to piece
together my life again
I felt shattered like a puzzle that had
to be pieced back together and part of
that was understanding what made
Braddock Brevik Braddock was a far-right
extremist a neo-nazi he wanted to kill
us because he believed that the Labour
Party was in favor of migration of
people coming to Europe from a diversity
of backgrounds and living peacefully
together and yes indeed that was part of
the reason I why I was there because I
believe that diversity is something we
can all live with something we can all
try then I started looking at the
Braddock’s history and bravery comes
from Oslo he’s similar to me in many
ways but he locked himself in a
different bubble than me he lived in a
different world than me a world that was
driven by fear by fear of people being
different and I think this fits very
well with a definition of violent
extremists in that way I’ve come to
learn from Desmond Tutu who defined
violent extremism as the violent denial
of diversity and so the direct opposite
of violent extremism is diversity it’s
being able to live together and be
different and in order to make that
happen
I started working on trying to
understand how people become extremists
how do people become so afraid of
extremism no of diversity I mean I went
to places like Copenhagen we’re here
from the Central Library you can see the
site of the synagogue to which violent
extremists went and killed a security
guard during that attack he also went to
convention where people restore
talking about freedom of expression I
think the library is a good symbol here
because libraries are temples of wisdom
people go there to learn about each
other’s about different world views
about different ideas people go there to
grow themselves and I think that’s the
key to what we have to do we have to
work to grow ourselves to grow what I
call strong positive identities
identities where I’m so comfortable
being me that I’m not being threatened
by you being you where I’m so
comfortable being me that we can live
together and be extremely different but
still be friends I met mid-war former
extremists than anyone else here I am on
UTA island on the very rocks where I
almost get killed with our na Mikkel is
a former violent extremist the founder
of the largest neo-nazi network in the
world and he keeps saying over and over
again hurt people hurt people
people who experience pain will cause
other people pain I think there’s
something profound in that and there’s a
cycle we have to break people who
experience pain will cause other people
pain and the only way we can deal with
that is by trying to break out of it by
trying to cause people happiness instead
of causing them pain and we do that by
seeing each other by seeing each other
as human beings
Arno left the neo-nazi movement after he
met someone he believed was vastly
different from him a black lady who saw
him said to him you’re better than this
he believed in Arno’s humanity by
reaching out to each other I think he
can do this I think this is a good
picture that sort of symbolizes how the
world can be seen it’s a picture from my
native Norway
of a mountain that’s divided into blocks
and one can say that extremists are now
standing on Easter Block speaking at
each other shouting at each other but
not listening to each other and
what we need to do in order to combat
extremism is being this guy in the
middle who’s trying to climb up to the
tops trying to see what’s going on
they’re trying to listen to the tops
bridge the gap between them we have seen
failures of this such as what’s been
going on and Charles will this fall
where vast amounts of neo-nazis have
been marching in the streets we’ve also
seen larger neo-nazi marches in
Scandinavia in Sweden and Norway than we
have seen since the Second World War
this year I think it’s time we stand up
and that we bridge the gap after Charlie
Hebdo we said just we Charlie we meant
that freedom of expression was the way
to go and I think that is right I think
we need freedom of expression I think we
need communication we need to speak it
to each other and so I invite you all to
break your bubbles burst your bubbles
speak to someone who is vastly different
from you someone with a different
worldview someone with a different way
of experiencing and seeing life and by
speaking to each other by bridging the
gaps between the extremes we can fight
extremism together thank you all very
much
[Applause]
you
[Music]
[Applause]
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