MJ's death and my reflections

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This morning at 5:30 am a friend of my brother called him to break the news, MJ has passed. I never believed my brother, him being a joke cracker but I told him this time you’re crossing the line. But then I turned the TV on and there it was on BBC TV. It was really hurting and I wondered why he would of all the times have to go now, when he was to planning a big comeback. So I spread to news to friends who were really shocked. After some hours I came to office and I read news of destruction around the world for example the bombs in Iraq and deaths in Somalia. I had many questions as I tried to look at reactions to MJs death and for those deaths in troubled countries. For MJ many people had gathered at a hospital and around the world we are all sad but for all these other deaths we are unbothered. As I watched the reaction around the world to Jackson’s death I wondered if really all humans can ever be equal. Not that I don’t recognise MJ’s contribution to music and his great talent, I would be naïve to do so, but I wonder why we no longer get the shock when we see death around the world. Everyone seemed to say oh he died young at 50, and then I thought that actually in Uganda life expectancy is at 50. Do you know in many African countries dying of old age is almost history? Do you know that this shock we feel at the loss MJ’s death, many Iraqis face it everyday? The fear for the loss of their own lives and the puzzles of how their children will grow, grips people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am saddened by MJ’s death but I also have unanswered questions on why we don’t react like this when 1000 Palestinians are murdered in less than a month. Let’s face it just like MJ’s life had very deep lows, these people’s lives are entangled in the politics dictated years before they are born and for many it is reasons beyond their control. In such circumstances we will choose MJ’s strengths and good deeds and therefore we will question how this could happened. But for the poor people caught in these conflicts we have many options. We take little or no time to think or be saddened by their situation. If we do think about it we dwell on their weaknesses.