Today’s media are obsessed with the trial of Oscar Pitorius and circumstances surrounding the tragic death of Reeva Steenkamp.
There are currently few news bulletins failing to update this case.
That this was anything but a tragic and heinous crime is beyond doubt, and the sense of utter loss experienced by Reeva’s family and friends without question.
Yet the supreme preoccupation with this matter by media interests indicates that society in general, and the media particularly, have a distorted perspective of the value of life.
Were Ms Steenkamp anyone other that a young, glamorous model, media and community interest would have been minimal; the media caravan would have moved on quickly and the dogs would have stopped barking, if in fact they started at all.
The unseemly interest accrued to this matter denies the fact that there are estimated to be around 1000 people per day dying from gunshot wounds world-wide*.
Well in excess of 300, 000 per annum.
Yet we are fixated with just one; were the other 999 of no consequence; did they not have families that grieved also; and did they not lose their future also?
Undoubtedly they did.
But in our world, it is all relative; to who you are; where you are; and what your public profile is.
The value of life should be a sacrosanct thing, not valued on a sliding scale dependant of your perceived value.
Perhaps we could do with a reality check on just what is real and what is relative.
* Source Wiki.answers.com
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