Opinion: A local potboiler of soap opera proportion

Last Updated on Sunday, 30 July 2017, 7:30 by Denis Chabrol

by GHK Lall

Right before the stunned eyes of this nation a real life film noir unfolds with one sizzling development after another, and with alarming frequency.  Other than for the impacted principals, especially the grieving family society yawns in disbelief and with some disinterest.  It has seen so much sleaze at all levels and for so long that it is jaded to the point of being unmoved.  But a potboiler this one is, this local development, which has a slew of evil ingredients present.  Mikey Spillane and Humphrey Bogart would have been proud.

The local crime tableau is about the lifestyles of the rich and now notorious.  There is allegedly homosexual overture; rejection; rage of the spurned; murder ordered nonchalantly; murder committed craftily; conspiracy to cover-up; police cover-up; flight of a fugitive; possible witness tampering; menacing with a firearm; and of recent a former member of the bench now warming a cell.  It is incredible to have all of these alleged developments and elements happening in relation to a single case of murder.  From the beginning to where things stand presently (with more likely to come), it has been one raw eye-opening soap opera episode following on the heels of each other.  Indeed, but all of this is related to single character, a single case, and a single death.  The only element missing is a political connection; but given the orientation of one of the leading figures in a wicked cast of characters that ought not to be written off.  Well, so far that is the story for now and can change in a heartbeat.

From all appearances, this society has become very sophisticated, very heartless, and very mechanical in the performance of the heinous and monstrous.  So what else is new here!  This has been the thinking for a long time now, and reduces many to the point of uncaring.  It is business as usual; the nation is not shocked.

As I look closely, this would have been the perfect criminal enterprise; except that some people who played rough got caught; some people who talk in the coin of the realm (and lots of it) got shackled.  One cannot help but wonder that, if this was a mere nine calendar quarters ago, whether any of this sordid tale and its outward compromising tentacles would have ever made it to the light.  I doubt it.

This is crime imitating life and in the most dastardly fashion.  I must say that there is the impression that there remain too many people in this society who believe that they are above the law; and that they can pay their way and get away with any kind of barbarity, including capital offenses.  The reasonable question is just how many have done so in the last two decades and a little more.

Separately, with all this fascinating stuff, I must confess to declining interest in politics and civics and economics and critics and mystics.  Politics especially has become predictable, repetitive, ordinary, and boring stuff, particularly when such originates with the over-the-hill crowds which have lost touch with reality and truth.  True Crime is where the real action and