The ending of blasé innocence, at Pukkelpop, Belgium

We, the ones (with me in the forefront!) who never stop complaining about how today's youth are so shallow, have no appreciation of real life, live too easily, and simply have no issues in life. The same youth whose main interests in life revolve around computer games, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, their hair-do, mobile phones and the state of their tans?

Well, today and last night, their cool, almost arrogant belief that they are untouchable, that they will live forever, was blasted away in a 10 minute fury of  hurricane winds and rain, when trees were snapped like tooth picks and dropped onto food stands, gigantic TV screens came crashing down onto the unsuspecting, and dancing teenage masses as they listened to the singer of Skunk Anansie trying her professional best to be overheard over the howling storm, until she too was almost blown off the stage! In video clips these kids recorded themselves as the sky fell all around them, we hear their shocked screams, the unbelief clear that anything like this could be happening to them, but above all I will never ever forget the agony and pain of one of the teenage girls as she is pinned down by a huge tree, her skull in a vise grip under this tree, cuddling her in its own death throes.

And all we can do, because we remain helpless to change any part of this tragedy, is to weep for the loss of their innocence, even if it was childishly blasé, even if it was arrogant in its naïveté.
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20110819_037