News that a young man with two guns took 32 lives in a coldblooded rampage at a U.S. university has triggered shock and dismay around the world. Revelations about the life of Seung-Hui Cho that emerged after the killings have compounded fears and concerns and raised questions about immigrant dreams and the reality of life in the United States.

There is precious little that anyone can say with certainty about the horrific shooting of 32 people at Virginia Tech University last week. The profiles of the victims have been heartbreaking and the promise of those lives, cut agonizingly short, is an irreparable loss not only to their families and friends, but to entire communities.

Equally disturbing is the information available about the killer, Cho. He was an alienated and troubled young man. His personal history reveals that he was truly mentally unbalanced, having been hospitalized in a mental-care facility for observation. Acquaintances -- no one who went to school with him say they really "knew" him -- have said he rarely spoke and never showed emotion. He was a cipher who failed to find roots in his community or build a network of family and friends to cope with the adjustments of immigrant life, adolescence and college. The rant-filled videotape he made prior to his rampage is proof of a mind divorced from reality, eager to find enemies.