Dear Friends
Over the past two days I have felt so heavy-hearted because of the events happening in my beloved country. When I started this blog I vowed that it would be a place where positivity can be shared and where no negative energy would permeate the air, but I wish to express my sadness not only over the Oscar Pistorius shooting incident, but also the rate at which our country is spiraling into very dangerous waters.
When I checked the news for the day yesterday morning, I was horrified by a story that I hoped with all hopes was false reporting instead of a realistic happening. Oscar Pistorius, South Africa's golden boy had allegedly shot and killed his beautiful, model and lawyer girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp dead in his Pretoria home. I did a double take.
Our country has been reeling in shock since the gruesome rape and subsequent death of a 17-year old girl in Bredasdorp, Cape Town. Today had been dubbed 'Black Friday' in a movement to shake the country into action to stop the fact that a woman is raped every 4 minutes in South Africa. When I think of home, my country and the many roads that I've traveled through South Africa as I've explored my country, I can't believe that this statistic rings true. It just seems too impossible for it to happen HERE. Our country is too small and under-developed to sport such a gruesome achievement. But it really isn't and the fact of the matter is that we've got a big problem on our hands when it comes to women abuse.
And here we are....Reeva Steenkamp has been dead for a day and a half and even though I never knew her, I mourn her because she was startlingly beautiful with a demure attractiveness and she had made something of her young life already. If you had asked me who Reeva Steenkamp was before this terrible tragedy, I wouldn't have known, but now that I do I cringe for this life lost far too soon and for the falling of a South African hero.
Regardless of how this turns out, Oscar Pistorius' name will be forever tainted as each individual will form their own opinions regarding this event.
I don't know where to stand on this because I simply cannot accept that he may have done it. I keep hoping for his sake that there is some feasible reason for what happened, but the more I read media reports, the more skeptical I become and the heavier my heart gets.
I am sad that I live in a country where people feel the need to protect themselves with weapons in their own home, when we leave our home and cars open when we visit family in the United States. I am sad that I live in a country where LEADERS and people in POSITIONS OF POWER will not comment passionately about statutory rape turned assault turned murder and will leave activists to campaigns sporting black clothes. A black outfit WILL NOT stop the abuse of women, but harsh laws with harsh consequences when broken WILL. No rapists have been stopped by the black t-shirt sported by a South African today. I am sad that our media reports so falsely and that stories are fabricated simply to sell and not because they are based upon truth or stand to educate and inform readers.
There are more evils to recognize here than just the Oscar Pistorius shooting.
I don't condemn Oscar because we don't know what has truly happened. There are others who are speaking out against this man who was about to launch a campaign providing 10 children with prosthetics just so that they can get their moment of fame. We so often forget that the people whom we put on pedestals - celebs, also have lives and human tendencies. Almost any adult reading this right now could say that they have had a bad relationship with someone at some stage, yet he is condemned by the mother of a girl he previously dated as a monster whom she is glad her daughter is free of? Since when do we kick others when they are down? If he is such a monster and if there is truth in the claims that he has abused females in whichever way, why didn't that mother place charges against him? Would you not protect your child if a man was treating her abusively or even just badly? This is the exact mentality that has brought our country to it's knees and robbed it of it's morality.
If you are a South African reading this, make a stand against false media and better yourself in your own ground of influence. Lastly, try to be neutral until all the facts are presented and do not make jokes regarding his prosthetics and the shooting. A life has been lost - THAT is no joke.
If you are a foreigner reading this, I plead with you to stand WITH us South Africans in an honest attempt to stop the violence. Do not judge us as a whole because of a single incident, but help us to be better with your support.
My heart is breaking for South Africa, but I hope and pray that we don't forget these atrocious acts or become numb to them, but rather that we will always be motivated to build a better country by being better individuals.
wx
