Why?

The chain of events that preceded and then followed the death of Jacintha Saldanha has been endlessly scrutinised as to make further commentary irrelevant, but I will strive to offer something which I feel is unsaid. What the two Australian DJs did was reprehensible in both conning innocent people but also in seeking to obtain the medical details of a sick young woman, no matter her position in society and the world. The Crown Prosecution Service is right to announce today that they are investigating whether charges are to be laid against the two. But the suicide this was engendered could not have been predicted and the two DJs do not deserve the death threats being made against them, even if the radio station they work for has previous form in being ticked off by the local regulators.


But what I also find unacceptable is that Saldanha took her own life, thereby depriving her two little children of a mother and leaving her husband wracked with guilt as he had rowed with her on the morning of the day she hung herself. She obviously had a breakdown, with the normal pressures of being a nurse being added to with all the unwarranted extra, but even if she saw herself as a burden to others, she should still have thought of her kids and, for me, that is unthinking at best and selfish at worst. You carry on, even if it just for the children. What is more is that she was a Christian yet chose this course of action. Further, it taints the news surrounding Kate’s baby, with Saldanha’s suicide always being associated with the sprog. This unborn child had no say about being saddled with this for the rest of history. Saldanha’s passing is tragic, heart-breaking, but my sympathy is for her family primarily and in limited supply for her. Maybe most will disagree with that but it is how I feel.