Hubby and I sat down to watch the early edition news on TV this morning, unusual in itself that we were both up before the kids but hubby got up early for work and I stirred and for once didn't nod back off to sleep.
It was quite nice, sitting together - me with my Earl Grey, him with his coffee - sans kids in a peaceful house.
Except it was one of those news editions that makes you despair and shout out to the TV "HAVEN'T YOU GOT ANYTHING GOOD TO TELL ME??!!"
The two main headlines today were both so shocking, it makes you wonder sometimes if us 'good folk' are in the minority in the world.
First comes the story of Janice Bronwyn Linden, a 35 year old South African woman who was arrested in China for drug smuggling and despite best diplomatic efforts was very sadly executed by lethal injection this morning.
Did the Diplomats do enough? I watch the news at least twice a day and the first I heard about this story was last night. It didn't seem to become a worthy headline until poor Janice was in her last hours. Too little, too late.
SA has very strong economic ties with China and hubby wonders if a threat to cease all trading would have helped?? I wonder if anything would have helped. China's a country that executes Drug offenders and they don't see anything wrong with that law clearly. Making an example of someone like Janice seems par for the course.
Second headline was this one (text from News24.com);
Johannesburg - Two police sergeants have appeared in court after allegedly raping a woman in Fourways, Johannesburg police said on Friday.
"It is alleged that the victim was stopped by the duo who were on duty [last] Friday," police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou said.
"She was pulled out of the front seat to the back seat where the police officers allegedly took turns to rape her."
The woman laid a charge against the police that Saturday.
The cops, aged 28 and 43, were arrested and subsequently appeared in court on Thursday.
Their case was postponed to today and a formal application for bail will be heard.
Shocking enough, especially as it happened on my doorstep and super shocking especially that two policemen were involved.
Can you imagine? Would you ever stop for a policeman or ask one to help you ever again if you'd heard this story???
It gets worse too! The full story is that TWO sisters, who are in their 20s, were on their way home from a work party over a week ago and were allegedly raped in two separate locations near their homes.
Both girls are fearful for their lives, their evidence and rape kits are held at the same police station as the men who attacked them and those men are due out on bail today. Police spokesman have stated that "steps have been taken to ensure the girls safety" and a fair trial presumeably but man you need courage to go through with something like this. I wish both girls well and the very, very best of luck. I hope that the far less than ideal police force we have in this country does the right thing this time, to correct its Officers wrongs.
I'm not daft, I know there's an awful lot of bad the world over but most times I'd rather focus on the good and try and ignore the sh*t. So tomorrow morning when hubby gets up I think I'll do my usual, turn over and go back to sleep. I'll wake up with the kids and watch Takalani Sesame instead.
