At a Loss
“Before the war, Sofya Levinton had once said to Yevgenia Nikolaevna Shaposhnikova, 'If one man is fated to be killed by another, it would be interesting to trace the gradual convergence of their paths. ' " At the start they might be miles away from one another – I might be in Pamir picking alpine roses and clicking my camera, while this other man, my death, might be eight thousand miles away, fishing for ruff in a little stream after school. I might be getting ready to go to a concert, and he might be at the railway station buying a ticket to go and visit his mother-in-law – and yet eventually we are bound to meet, we can't avoid it...”
― Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate
These are the words we listened to this morning on our drive back from our weekend getaway on the first day of December. At 9h00, I received the shocking news that an acquaintance had been gruesomely murdered in her home.
This is the second week of our awareness campaign to protect women and children. It feels like a punch in the solar plexus and leaves one reeling. A family is bereft, children and grandchildren have been robbed of their beloved Mother and grandmother, and a community is shattered. I know her life was not in vain, but I pray she’ll know why her life had to be entwined with that of a murderer. Once again, man’s inhumanity towards man is flaunted. How does one ever come to terms with such brutality and grief? We are warned that death comes like a thief in the night, this murderous thief who personifies pure evil, robbed her of her God-given portion of life.
---oOo---
Piano
by D. H. Lawrence
Despite myself, the insidious mastery of song
In this poem, D. H. Lawrence captures the very essence of nostalgia...
---oOo---
Derek Walcott writes of violence in Africa
---oOo---
My condolences to the family and friends of this caring, friendly, positive, and loving woman. May she rest gently.
P.S Some statistics:
September 11, 2014, at 07:37 am The Star
In South Africa, over 1,000 women are murdered annually by intimate partners, with three women killed daily-statistics that demand our attention and action.
"Facts about murder in South Africa: Incidents of murder increased from 16,259 murders in 2012/13 to 17,068 in 2013/14. This means that there were 809 more people murdered than in the previous year. This comes on the back of a similar increase in 2012/13 when 650 more murders were recorded compared to 2011/12. The average number of murders committed each day increased from 45 in 2012/13 to 47 in 2013/14. Using Statistics South Africa’s 2013 midyear estimates, the murder rate in 2013/14 was 32.2 per 100,000, up from 31.1 in 2012/13. SA’s murder rate is about five times higher than the 2013 global average of 6 murders per 100,000. –
From Crime Statistics.
Comments
Topics
Latest Photos
