Tuesday 26 August 2014

Oscar Pistorious - A Renewed Life Purpose

To Oscar Pistorius and his team:

While you, Oscar, may be staring into the deepest abyss of your life, I'm here to suggest that this could, in fact, be the biggest opportunity that has ever come your way. Before you baulk at that thought and dismiss it as absurd, please read my invitation to understand how a new purpose can help you redeem yourself, your dignity, and possibly that of a nation.

Everyone knows this is the worst time of your life. Your story is on the lips of many, leaving no doubt that at the end of the day you are guilty for the death of Reeva Steenkamp. Nothing will ever change that fact. It is impossible for anyone to know how he or she might live with this, not withstanding that you also stand in the harsh spotlight of the world's condemnation. The family and friends that lost a daughter, sister and friend are reminded that their memory of Reeva will forever be undermined by the fame of your (mis) fortune.

There are many that say 'your life is over', but what if I were to tell you that you are standing at the edge of possibly the most important precipice any individual has ever been near? Right now, you can go down in history as the tragic paralympian who's Icarus archetype saw him burning in a dungeon, or you can seek to address a very real and frightening issue that South Africans truly understand.

Let's talk about the level of fear, horror and terror that people live with on a daily basis in that country. Let's talk about how so many, like you, have had to make split second decisions to save themselves or their family. As a South African, when I read the headline on that fateful Valentine's Day about the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp, I initially didn't think much of it. I didn't even read the article. I turned the page and thought, 'Oh, that could happen to anyone in Johannesburg. That’s reality'.

And therein lies the problem. This is not 'new' news to South Africans. We read these kinds of stories every day. I know people who have been in exactly the same situation as you were in, and luckily for them, they didn't pull the trigger - on their young child, their wife, their brother, their pet. But some have. We've all read these stories before. You are no different to every single other person living in a country ravaged by extreme levels of fear, violence, rage, rape, and horror. South Africans live against a backdrop of such extreme violence, leaving them with the propensity for evermore-desperate behaviour. The courts have sent you to be assessed for your mental health. But the whole country needs to be assessed for its mental health. Not a single person in South Africa has escaped being tarnished by the constant and persistent level of fear and the hyper vigilance one has to live with in order to 'just survive'. I say ‘just survive’ deliberately, because it is not a way to live.

People living in Europe have simply no understanding of so many aspects of South African living conditions: the gated communities, the security guards, the alarm systems, the lock and key, the vigilance. Europeans cannot imagine the need to own a deadly weapon, the anxiety of 'the buck stops here' mentality and why a person would feel compelled to take security matters into their own hands.

Well, for South Africans, the issues are all too clear. Often they cannot trust a security guard whose family may be targeted if he doesn’t let an intruder in. They certainly cannot trust an inadequate police force that, as the world has observed, bumble their way through crises. So South Africans implement whatever measures fit their individual circumstances in order to feel safe: the electrified perimeter gates and fences and the fierce dogs, the private (armed) security firms, the elaborate alarm systems, the locked and gated bedrooms at night. Some draw the line at owning a weapon that can kill, but I know many a peacekeeper that will hold a weapon as their last line of defense.

No one can say what anyone would do when staring down the barrel of a loaded gun in a state of abject fear - this is life or death. Europeans cannot even imagine what it would be like to live under these conditions. In England, if you get burgled, the worst that would happen is that your things may be taken or you might get beaten but very rarely do we hear on the news that someone has been killed in a burglary. It's not impossible and it certainly makes headline news, but citizens in the UK are not faced with horror stories of people being tortured or raped in front of their loved ones, children forced to watch their parents suffer and then scalded in hot water to death. I can't bear to continue listing stories that for South Africans is daily fare. We live against this backdrop. The background stories in our heads are flooded, overwhelmed by unimaginable horror. It’s a recipe for disaster at every level and so, when fear races through your body at 2.00 in the morning, it could very well not be the personal, years-of-internal-terror monster in the nightmare that has awoken you, but a very real and present threat. It’s hard to say this, but your story is not the worst one I’ve heard.

And if that isn't enough for anyone to start questioning the real problems in South Africa, how about the alarming statistic that the private security firms in South Africa employ more people than the police force and army put together? And yet, we are still not safe. What the hell is going on?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to excuse you from your deed. That's not my intention. People make decisions as to how to live under those circumstances every day. Some people cannot tolerate them and leave their beloved country. You are not alone; you’re just in the (un)fortunate position of having been the nation’s hero, Oscar Pistorius. It's irrelevant to me what psychological profile you have. If I lived in the environment South Africans live in on a daily basis, and I couldn't even run, let alone fight, and I was faced with a potentially brutal intruder, yes, I too, may make the decision to own a gun. Flaunting that is another matter, but is that really what our attention should be focused on right now, given how ravaged by violence South Africa is?

Oscar, the bottom line is that there is no mercy for your crime because you did kill your love. It is an unimaginable horror that you will have to live with for the rest of your life. But Oscar, the nation needs you. You have an opportunity, with the spotlight on your trial, to expose the absurd levels of fear, rage, horror and crime that South Africans deal with daily. You could begin to challenge the government for not even remotely doing enough to protect its people. This needs to be the biggest agenda in the South African government. You and your team could make this your agenda and make a difference to millions of peoples’ lives. Think about it.

I recently saw an exhibition of photographs to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide by South African photographer Pieter Hugo. Called 'Portraits of Reconciliation', Hugo’s photographs show Hutu perpetrators standing next to their Tutsi victims, all of them having participated in a formal pardon and forgiveness process called the AMI Reconciliation Project. It was galling to read the level of horror inflicted upon the victims, yet, despite this, and sometimes only out of the practical necessity of reconciliation, the victims were prepared to offer their forgiveness. Some are strained, others not. What becomes clear is that there is something incredibly healing in the practical offering of help or support towards the person harmed who had, often, been left utterly destitute by the degree of their loss. There was a strange sort of redemption for both victim and perpetrator in this committed act of service. It seemed to make more sense to me that sometimes forgiveness requires concerted action. It requires service for forgiveness to be possible. The capacity to heal is always far greater than the inflicted wound.

So, Oscar, as I said, whether it's from behind bars or not, you could seriously turn the eradication of crime and violence in South Africa into your life’s purpose. It's obvious that South Africans become accustomed to the conditions that they live under. How else do they cope with the palpable daily fear of losing a loved one, if not from a vicious intruder then from their very own wrong judgment? I know of nothing more tragic. A trial seems almost theatrical against the backdrop of a country that prepared you, psychologically and otherwise, for your very own demise.

With the level of media attention that your story holds, who can imagine how much of a spotlight you personally could bring to this issue in a most glorious land? Ironically, you have the potential to be the biggest factor in exposing a failing government and resolving the issue of the unacceptable levels of crime and violence in South Africa. You could capture the nation, and perhaps, in time, the nation may look back at the service you gave to your country and reclaim its once beloved hero.

Manuela Viana
East Sussex
England