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Michael Jackson’s role in Michael Jackson’s death?

With the exception of himself, everybody else was culpable in Michael Jackson’s death from an overdose of powerful anaesthetic propofol, it appears!
What other conclusion can I draw? Jackson’s personal physician, Dr Conrad Murray, has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison after his argument that, “Jackson, who was tired and under pressure from rehearsing, took eight tablets of lorazepam (a sedative) and that when he left the room, Jackson self-administered a dose of propofol that, with the lorazepam, created a perfect storm in his body that killed him instantly,” was found to be patently bogus.

So, the courts have determined that Murray had a role to play.

A few weeks ago, the Jackson family filed a £26billion lawsuit against concert promoters AEG following the singer’s death in 2009. According to news port TMA, Katherine, Michael’s mother, and his three children “are seeking £6.6billion to make up for the loss of his future earnings after the series of planned concerts that were scheduled before his death were cancelled.” £19.8billion is also expected in other damages!

As promised by AEG, nasty things are beginning to emerge: Jackson had on permanent make-up, he wore a wig, he touched up his eyebrows, his nose had endured one too many nose jobs, he had no needle marks on his body, he did this, he did that and it makes you wonder whether the lawsuit is worth the dirty laundry!

The case of the family is that Murray was not competent and as a cardiologist, was not the correct physician for Jackson. They have also accused AEG of not being diligent in agreeing to Murray’s recruitment.

So, the family has determined that AEG had a role to play in Michael’s death.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a Michael Jackson fan with kind thoughts towards all aspects of his life, not least being his phenomenal talent and musicianship. I am, however, compelled to ask, upon sober reflection, why the family now appears to be holding everybody responsible for Michael’s death except they themselves or Michael himself?

It may well be time to interrogate what role Jackson and the Jackson family played in his own death. Knowing his addiction to pain medication, knowing how Jackson reportedly asked security to keep away prying eyes, as Jackson was the one that took the decision as to which physician ought to be hired for the upcoming concerts, as Jackson was the one who fell so thoroughly in love with propofol he called it “milk”, as family members also knew his addiction challenges and must have attempted to do something about it albeit unsuccessfully because Michael won’t let them and as Jackson was the one that settled on AEG in the first place to promote “This Is It”, an unforgettable last concert. What was his own role in his death?

Over time, I have come to discover two basically different reactions to different situations that confront people. There are those who accept the burden of their situations, accept their own roles and contributions to their present reality and spring from there onto good interventions to alter undesirable outcomes; and there are others that appear all too ready to blame other people for their predicament.

Fail an examination and they blame the wicked teachers  for setting too difficult questions, be unsuccessful at an interview and they blame evil witches for clouding the judgment of the panel, totally run amok with your emotions and embark on unacceptable behaviour and it is others who baited you to  lose your temper.

It is never a question of better preparation or better self-control. It is always someone else that did it or caused you to do it, never yourself! When are you going to accept that you also played more than a little part in your current situation, when are you going to stop playing victim and start taking more than a little responsibility as an active actor in whatever life’s current drama is?

On a much lighter and perhaps contradictory note, I find it most amusing comparing this current propensity to sue other people in the Jackson/American culture to the attitude of the people in my village when an apparently healthy 45-year-old hospital employee suddenly died one day in his sleep.

The hospital offered to fund a post mortem at the 37 Military Hospital with the aim of diagnosing the cause of death and hopefully learning from it and potentially protecting other potentially genetically susceptible family members.

Come and see a flood of delegations. First came the ‘ordinary’ relations and then came the assembly men and other local government officials from the area and then came the chiefs and queens “to beg the hospital to release the body.”

A common thread run through their rather simple message, “It is God who gives, it is the same God who takes. We have come to accept that it is God Himself who took our brother away. His death is the will of God. Insisting on post mortems and investigations create the impression that we are suspicious of the cause of his death. This is unnecessary, especially since we have already accepted his death. Please release him so that we can bury our brother peacefully!”

Needless to say, there was no post mortem and the body was subsequently released for burial. Can you imagine that this family turned around to sue the hospital for over working him and not taking adequate measures to screen him for earlier signs of ill health, blamed the widow for poisoning him with her good cooking, blamed his children for wearing him down with their block headedness, and never once considering what he or they could have done to avert the disaster?

Of course, that was not the ending in this case but with current happenings in the second Jackson trial, it could well have been!


By Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey
www.sodzisodzi.com
[email protected]

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