CHARMAIN NAIDOO: When private affairs go public
'It made me think about how shallow we mostly are, how we cry foul at the most trivial of matters and let the heavy, dark ones that really affect us go unsung'
I’ve always thought of the English actor, writer, activist Stephen Fry as the modern day Oscar Wilde, the literary giant who, in 1895, was convicted of homosexual activity and sentenced to two years, spent in Reading Gaol. Fry is himself gay, and a vocal activist about homosexuality – and a host of other things too. He had this in common with Wilde: they both spent time in prison, Fry for credit card fraud – after being expelled from two schools.The bi-polar Fry is credited with having said this: “If I had a large amount of money I should certainly found a hospital for those whose grip upon the world is so tenuous that they can be severely offended by words and phrases and yet remain all unoffended by the injustice, violence and oppression that howls daily about our ears.” It made me think about how shallow we mostly are, how we cry foul at the most trivial of matters and let the heavy, dark ones that really affect us go unsung. I refer to the hours and hours of talk on radio this w...
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