BAIE, BAIE INTERESSANTE VERGELYKING TUSSEN DIE OSCAR PISTORIUS VERHAAL EN SUID-AFRIKA SE VERHAAL!!!: In some strange way, the life and times of blade runner Oscar Pistorius is comparable to that of SA as a whole. He is a mirage; so are we. Pistorius purports to be the victor in a heroic and unlikely battle against the odds. His struggle is evidence of the triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insurmountable obstacles. And yet, underneath it all, he is just an ordinary person, struggling with self-doubts, inadequacies and grubby fantasies involving shapely blondes and oversized guns. And, it turns out, he is also prone to irrational fears and uncontrollable anger. He is so much better than he seems to be and simultaneously so much worse. Whether he is guilty in the present seems overwhelmed by his past. Yet he lives in the present. Now who, or what, does that remind you of? SA celebrates 20 years of democracy next month, and it too is a mirage. The word most associated with SAs extraordinary transition from apartheid is miracle. SAs present is so bound up in its past, it feels mythological. But living in SA today seems anything but miraculous. It feels harsh, uncertain, and filled with irrational fears and uncontrollable anger. In a country where there are around 30 murders a day, it seems strange for so much media attention to be focused on a single case. But in a way, this dichotomy is symbolically accurate. This how we roll: on one hand we mythologise and on the other we ignore. (Tim Cohen, Financial Mail, 6 March 2014)
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 12:14:05 +0000
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