Did we sit back and let him die?

Headline: Did we sit back and let him die?

We knew he was playing with fire. His fans knew he suffered from insecurities.The whole world was aware that he was a lonely man, yet we relished the headlines, stood agog when he sported crazy fashion moments and gossiped about his erratic behaviour.

The world watched Michael alter from a young precocious child in the 1960's to a mega pop star, a brand. Fans and critics alike became enthralled in the long, bizzare, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was a premier all-round performer, a uniter of black and white music , to an emotionally and mentally confused man, weighed down by the media, law suits and his financial woes. In hindsight, the public lingered in a morbid obsession, watching the trajectory of the king of pop's life.

Regardless of all the unsubstantiated rumors swirling around Michael Jackson's untimely death, it is clear that the same people that shielded him from the outside world, did very little to protect him.
The industry personnel that surrounded him had their best interests in mind, not his. Jacko is just one of a handful of celebrities who have fallen victim to their fame and the vultures that made up their inner circle.

This week it emerged, that just weeks before his death, Michael told his manager that he was flabbergasted when he was informed that he was to perform 50 shows at the London 02 Arena and not ten as he had requested. He doubted his own ability to do fifty shows and told his managers it would require him to put on weight, something he was losing in the run up to his death. However, pressures from the industry meant that his opinion meant nothing and ultimately he was forced into spending hours and hours toiling with a team of dancers for a performance he and his fans hoped would restore his tarnished legacy to its proper place in pop.

Had he not been tangled in the 'industry web', perhaps he could have salvaged and carved out a life for himself, but his life was never his own. It was always directed by publicity stunts, press statements, allegations, rumours which struck Michael where it hurt, his self-esteem.

Poor Michael battled throughout his life, from self-esteem issues to feelings of despondency
and suicidal thoughts. He also battled court cases through the past twenty years and took more than one slating in the press for the acquittals and allegations made against him regarding sexual molestation. In 2005, he was cleared of charges that he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.

His appearance also was a sure fire sign of a man in turmoil. He went from cute and precocious as a child in the 60's, to handsome and striking, to paler, to whiter, to thinner, to gaunter, to freakishly white and scary. While he claims to have had a skin disease, the mans image and his never ending need to change himself, showed a person who had no self-esteem. He suffered in vain at the hands of unethical plastic surgeons who, if they upheld their oath to “do no harm”, should not have proceeded with further surgeries once he exhibited what were probably signs of body dysmorphic disorder. Rumour has it, that Jacko was being fed pills, just like sweets, by his managers and team. Drugs that could may have been a major cause of his death.

He is arguably one of the world's best entertainers, an enigmatic figure, who was as big as the world's best performers. However, the higher up you are, the bigger the fall! While we can all look back on the heyday, when he made moon-walking sexy and crowned crotch-grabbing dance moves, nobody can conceal the dark clouds that shadowed his life. Michael truly was a victim and a frail instrument at the hands of the industry savages and his blood is now on their hands.