Update on North Sea summer camp abuse case

ONE STENCH DRIVES OUT another, as prankster Till Eulenspiegel used to say, and if that was true in medieval Germany, it is even truer in the high tech, post-reunification Federal Republic. This summer the vicious news dribble of the Catholic sex abuse scandal soon gave way to the truly sadistic North Sea summer camp story. Since then, both have since been unseated by the horrific Love Parade disaster of Duisburg on July 24 (which I wrote about here). 

But faster and gaudier news images do not actually drive earlier evils out of the world, they merely push their heads under water until they are forced back up for air. This is the case with the North Sea summer camp nightmare in early July…

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The summer camp from hell

How an idyllic island retreat became Lord of the Flies redux

IT LOOKS AS IF William Golding of Lord of the Flies fame was an optimist. What happens when you send a group of poorly-supervised teenagers to a North Sea island and let them fend for themselves? A youth club from the German town of Osnabrück found out earlier this month. While the investigation into the ensuing crime will take weeks, the wounds will likely last a lifetime.

It should have been a wonderful experience. This year, the Municipal Sports League of the western German town of Osnabrück…

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