Amanda Knox: Can Beauty Kill?

Meredith Kercher's murder the perfect ingredients for becoming a frenzied, salacious media storm: the mysterious murder of a young, British, pretty girl in a provincial Italian city, allegations of drugs and sexual deviancy, topped off with a two-faced American girl whose rumoured crazed appetite for perverse sex allegedly pushed two men to kill in a sex game gone wrong. Amanda Knox was recently acquitted alongside former lover Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in November 2007. Four long years and two high profile trials have seen her portrayed as an angel-faced killer, a Venus in furs, a witch and a “diabolical, satanic, demonic she-devil” by prosecution lawyers; the most scathing attacks coming from  Patrick Lumumba’s lawyer, whom she wrongfully accused of the murder at the beginning of the case.

 It is unusual for a defendant in a murder case to be lambasted and demonized to such an extent, and what is even more striking is that such personifying was not limited to the tabloids but permeated the very courtroom itself. The fact that she was beautiful was undoubtedly a factor that worked to her disadvantage. Had she not been so photogenic, the prosecution’s case, which rested on her being a “Venus in fur” who seduced and led two men to kill for her, would not have been so self-propelling. FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole explains that attractive women are disadvantaged in these cases as the attention shifts from the facts to their physical appearance and creates a two-case scenario. On the one hand the good looks help the defendant in that the jury is unable to reconcile the pretty face with the odious crime. However, when a sexual motive is added and it is implied that the good looks may have abetted the crime, the jury becomes more likely to view the defendant as an “evil femme-fatale”. There is a fascination today with the popular image of female evil, that of a degenerate criminal lurking behind a seemingly innocent, pretty face. When presented with such an individual we are eager to deconstruct their personality and trawl through the most infinitesimal details, to then reconstruct it in a way that fits the malicious femme-fatale persona.

 Thus Amanda Knox’s past and present behaviour was mercilessly scrutinised and the most preposterous conclusions were drawn from it, as evidenced by the unwarranted interest in her purchase of underwear after Meredith’s body was discovered. One need only to look at the case of Casey Anthony in the United States, where her being a pretty woman and allegations of sexual deviancy led to a media frenzy similar to that seen with Amanda Knox. It is tempting to claim that popular culture, with its images of a “good girl gone bad” and an ever-increasing interest in extreme sexual behaviour, has permeated society and created an insatiable appetite for cases that appeal to the archetype of the mysterious femme fatale who hides under a mask of callow puerility. Even the defence appealed to popular culture by comparing Amanda to the shapely cartoon character Jessica Rabbit, who is a “faithful and loving woman” despite her sultry looks. However, there is no doubt that as we frantically attempt to discover the “real” Amanda by postulating on all the possible faces she may have, we tend to forget that human personality is not clear cut in anyone and reduce Amanda to a two-dimensional cartoon character. It has been taken for granted that her good looks hold the key to her personality, that somehow they explain and indeed justify this heinous crime, and because of this we have proceeded, untrammelled, in dressing her in the most stereotypical female criminal clothes.

Racist at the roots

Whilst researching material for my next piece, I came across an article on Amanda Knox published in L'Espresso, an Italian left-leaning newspaper, which is an unnerving example of how entrenched xenophobia and casual racism have become in Italy. The author refers to Rudy Guede and Patrick Lumumba as the "Uomo Nero", which is Italy's version of the bogeyman and translates literally as "the Black Man". How l'Uomo Nero has managed to survive the advent of political correctness and remain part of Italian popular culture despite its intrinsic racist connotation is already bewildering in itself and a damning sign; however, the fact that a leading, well-established and more disconcertingly left-leaning newspaper can refer to two black men as the Uomo Nero in a grotesque play on words or even careless lack of tact is indicative of how Italy has tacitly accepted xenophic attitudes in its popular culture.

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

This video is related to this post.

In memory of Steve Jobs. Connecting the dots.

The whole Internet is talking about him, every newspaper has pictures portraying him, wikipedia already updated its page about him... And I still want to talk about this great man that passed away yesterday, October 5th 2011.

Although I never had the luck to know him (of course... I mean who am I?) I personally owe him very much, and could not help getting goose bumps and wet eyes when I read the news.

It was October of a few years ago when I stumbled across the video of Steve's 2005 speech at the Stanford University. At the time I had just refused a scholarship from a very important university... all in the sake of making my life with my own hands without relying on the security of a  piece of paper. I felt alone and scared, constantly questioning my decision and wondering if my arrogance would only bring me to desperation and failure. I loved what I did, I believed in myself but still it was hard when it felt like me against the rest of the world. Steve's words made my day... but not only my day, they gave me  faith and strength again. Every time someone asked me why I did what I was doing and every time I was shown how my choices did not have a clear practical goal, every time that I felt that what I was doing was right, even though I could not rationally explain why, I remembered the words: "connecting the dots", I remembered the words "stay hungry, stay foolish", I remembered the strength of a man that connected those dots... And did in a way no one could have ever imagined!

Let's all stay hungry, let's all stay foolish.

My condolences to all those who have known and loved Mr. Jobs.

My respect to his memory.

Society: the Great Conveyor Belt

Today going to university is not just about learning, it is mainly about entering the swelling pool of graduates who are now categorized as "employable", having a piece of paper that attests to this and consuming copious amounts of alcohol in the process. It is implanted in us from our early school years that the natural thing to do after school is to go to university and get a degree so that it may all culminate in a job. We are pawns placed on a conveyor belt that inexorably takes us through the various stages that society has pre-determined for us; to deviate from this track is looked down on as a failure to achieve what has already been decided for us. How can that be considered a failure if we were not even given the chance to set our own objectives? More importantly, what kind of success is it to merely achieve a life that is not truly our own because we were never at the helm of it?

Going to university is an enrichening experience. Learning is multi-faceted and does not only involve poring through endless books; one would not need to rack up a lifetime's worth of debts if that were the case. Whilst some of us may feel that we solely slave away in the library for 9 months a year, there are a host of other experiences that make us more knowledgeable and open-minded at university. First of all, meeting people from all walks of life ensures that there is a healthy exchange of opinions which may serve to either strengthen one's existing ones or shed light on different lines of thought. This is something achieved mainly through debate. Secondly, university teaches us the important skills of acquiring and processing knowledge through academic writing and research. The feedback from experts in the field is of invaluable use to our development, and not just for the grades. Thirdly, there is no doubt that whilst the formal conferring of the degree is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to education, it is still of immense use when attempting to enter the job market.

However when that tip of the iceberg overwhelms what lies beneath and what really should be valued in a university education, then it all becomes a waste of time. One should not go to university just to get a job as it means education is not an end in itself but a means to an end. When ones goes to university to learn, as well as getting a job eventually, then one is more prone to take a proactive stance in the educational process and engage with it so as to derive some form of satisfaction and personal direction in life. When one goes to university with the sole aim of landing a job then university becomes a conduit to something else, it blurs into the background and one has no incentive to actually think about the experience, let alone engage with it, because the conveyor belt of society has luckily pre-determined the outcome. When I was still in school I wanted to take physics and mathematics at a higher level because I enjoyed them despite the fact that I was almost 100% sure I would not be pursuing a scientific subject at university. Most people advised me not to go ahead with this "madness" because it was useless; in their opinion the subjects I chose to study should be completely determined by what I wanted to study later, therefore rendering school a mere conduit to university such that the latter could then lead to a job and so on so forth.

But what should a job lead to? At university we are rushed into choosing a career path when we often have no work experience whatsoever. This could have catastrophic consequences. A job description does not allow one to make a decision based on the work "experience" as a whole including the work environment and very importantly one's colleagues. We are expected not to stray from our field and have a choice of possible career options which are foisted upon us; however we are not encouraged to contemplate other paths. Everything a graduate does is expected in some way to feed back into that ubiquitous CV rather than being an end in itself. Volunteering, for example, should not be undertaken to enhance one's CV but to develop as a person, meet new people and to give back something when we are normally used to a one-sided relationship with the community. When contemplating a gap year we are asked "how will it look on the CV?" before being asked what benefit will accrue to us. The onus is on employability and not personal development, which falls into second place. If one were to spend a gap year travelling different cultures whilst reading serious books on topics of interests and thus learning a great deal, this would not be recognised on the CV because it is not a tangible form of learning; it does not translate directly into greater employability. But it is in many ways of greater value than participating in a structured volunteer program as there is more room for initiative and one is working towards a self-determined goal. It also becomes an  experience in itself, whose value lies not in the future benefits but in its present.

One need not become a social recluse to add value and direction to one's life; becoming aware of the inexorable conveyor belt is the first step. It is grotesquely simplistic that today's society is pervaded with the idea that a person's achievements can be reduced to two A4 sides, if that, and rather than letting the experiences naturally lead on to the job, we are persuaded to work backwards and apply criteria which are not our own to our life. Our lives are fluid and the only mould being applied to them should be intrinsic to us, not that of a vague job description and accompanying competencies.