Winnenden's 15

What shocked you in Germany, is being followed with sadness and shock here as well, at least if you ckeck the media agenda. No matter which news channel I tuned into yesterday evening Dubai time - CNN, BBC World News, Al Jazeera - the story of the shooting at the school in South-West Germany was everywhere, with interpreters struggling with the local dialect of the spokespeople at last evening's press conference and CNN simply filming German news station n-tv's live coverage as they had nobody on the ground themselves. Today, the National carries a piece on the frontpage, see here.

The paper observes: "Such shootings are rare in Germany, where gun laws are tight by comparison with many western countries, and the outbreak of such violence in this prosperous, sedate part of the country stunned the nation."

In everyday conversation, this was only shortly a topic yesterday when the news broke. And I have to say I'm also not too surprised by this new incident; somehow, even though it's every time a tragedy in its own right, you "get used to it" in a way. This is the second similar event I remember in Germany after Erfurt in 2002. Not to speak of others around the globe. A paper now even published a list of school-related shootings worldwide. Violence is simply there, any time you use any form of mass media there are reports, and it's not a question of if you like or accept it. Let's see what they identify as reasons this time - I'm sure somebody will find computer games in the teenager's home and blame them, as it was done almost seven years ago in Erfurt. Which sounded like too simple an answer for me even then.

The only thing that is evident here is that we can't simply look at the US and shake our heads at the tragedies happening over there, raising our eyebrows in disbelief at the groups promoting free access to guns and the weapons people keep at home. While these are things worthwhile to discuss, the true reasons for such horrible events seem to lie deeper, as they happen in one form or the other in any society. The horror movies, it seems, can come to anybody's town.

Sadly, it looks like there will always be people who violently interfere with other people's lives. No matter where you go, no matter how much we think of our civilization.