Pistorius: A life gone wrong
Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee athlete known as the “Blade Runner” who pushed the limits of human endurance and ingenuity to cross the divide between disabled and non-disabled sport, is obviously not what he is seen to be in his public persona. Apparently, he lives at home with a gun in his hand, a machine gun by the window, a baseball bat and a cricket bat stationed handily near, besides raising three pet dogs.
The “fastest man on no legs” is reportedly prone to violence against girlfriends and may even have issued threats to a perceived love rival. Barely days after telling a newspaper that her boyfriend was an impeccable man, Reeva Steenkamp was shot at Oscar’s Pretoria home and the police booked him for murder straightaway, lending little credence to his story that he mistook her for a burglar.
As the news broke, first thoughts would have been on the violence that is pandemic in South Africa, and the ways in which people are prepared to defend themselves in a society wracked by violence against individuals. The economic disparities being what they are in that country, it would have been so easy to imagine the incident to be an offshoot of social tensions.
Pistorius is one of the privileged ones, although psychologists could possibly trace his insecurity to childhood troubles. His is just another story of a life gone wrong after all the highs.
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