Kate Middleton Pregnancy Watch: Jacintha Saldanha was the ‘greatest public sorrow’ of 2012
KATE Middleton Pregnancy Watch – Day 14 of the Duchess of Cambridge womb news round-up:
Parade: “Kate’s Pregnancy: Why Are We So Obsessed?”
Because it sells magazines?
What of Jacintha Saldanha?
Indian Express: “Family of royal hoax nurse tell of ‘unfillable void’
Wiping away tears outside London’s Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral where the family attended mass, her husband Benedict said “part of me has been ripped out”.
“The events of the past week have shattered our lives and we barely have the strength to withstand the grief and sorrow,” he told reporters, thanking William and Kate for kind words as well as Prime Minister David Cameron for a message of condolence.
“Nineteen years of togetherness with a strong bond of affection and understanding will be cherished forever in my life. Your loss is a very painful one and nobody can take that place in my life ever again. I love you and miss you forever.” Her children Lisha, 14, and Junal, 16, spoke of a generous mother who had worked tirelessly to provide for them.
“The house is an empty dwelling without your presence. We are shattered and there is an unfillable void in our lives,” Lisha said. “We love you mum, sleep in peace and please watch over us until we meet again in heaven.”
Deccan Chronicle: “Tearful Shirve waits for Jacintha”
The body of Jacintha Saldanha, the Indian-origin nurse, who died after being duped by a prank call to a UK hospital treating a pregnant Princess Kate, was on Friday flown to India.
The Star (Canada): “Talking Points: Hang the prankster DJs?”
Jacintha Saldanha was found hanged.
Matthew Parris (Times):
As the year moves towards its close, I nominate Jacintha Saldanha’s suicide as having given in 2012 the greatest sorrow to the greatest number. As a single event I believe it caused more tears to prick more eyes, more individual and spontaneous moments of dejection, more small shadows of sadness passing however briefly over more ordinary lives than any other national or international tragedy — whatever objective claim those bigger tragedies may make to our sympathies.
He must have written this before the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Also, big killings in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t get remembered by names. You just get numbers.
…there was a moment last Friday, just a moment, when I reckon almost every one of the 60 million-odd of us said an inward “Oh! Oh no!” and for a second closed our eyes and were cast down. It was fleeting, transcendent and real, and in all its simplicity I wish it could have lasted.
But no. Soon we were off again, many of us, looking for somebody to beat up about it. How the media and (I suppose) its customers sicken me in their reflexive urge to find somebody to beat up, always someone to beat up. We decided, of course, to beat up Mel Greig and Michael Christian, the Australian radio presenters who sprang the hoax that led ultimately to Ms Saldanha’s suicide.
Don’t you see — can nobody see? — that it’s beating people up that causes these tragedies? We were all set to beat someone up at the King Edward VII Hospital. We hadn’t quite decided who: Ms Saldanha, who mistakenly put the call through? The ward nurse who answered and spoke about the Duchess of Cambridge’s condition? The hospital authorities who put a nurse in charge of a switchboard when a prominent royal was a patient? Shocking. Disgraceful. Unprofessional. We demanded inquiries. We were indignant…
Then Ms Saldanha, perhaps fearful of being beaten up by the media, killed herself. So now we’re beating up Ms Greig and Mr Christian. Oh please, get some perspective on this.
Such are the facts on the “greatest sorrow” of 2012…
Posted: 15th, December 2012 | In: Royal Family Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
