As dispiriting as it was from time to time at work, the news was hardly uplifting. The story about Tim Kretschmer a 17-year old who shot and killed 15 people at his school was shocking. I find it hard to comprehend how someone is reduced to expressing their anger and frustrations in such a way. In Western Europe or the US life for a teenager is hardly about a fight for survival. But perhaps our relative comforts do not leave us any less anxious about establishing a sense of identity; of what we are and what we are here for. Perhaps he felt those around him (story is he was bullied at school) denied him that. And that the best he could do was take matters into his own hands. Shocking that such a short life (and those of some of his contemporaries) ended as it did. I cannot begin to comprehend how the parents and children of the school will ever recover from this ordeal , it is tragic beyond words.
At about the time Tim was born Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme was underway. The sums involved are truly awesome. $50bn I have seen reported. In court he expressed shame and apologised for his wrong-doing. But what are we to make of that given that he was defrauding investors for nearly 20 years and was fully aware of what he was doing? Of course there are no dead bodies here, no parents mourning the loss of their children. But such pity as I have now is not for the fraudster or his possible 150 year jail sentence.
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