Where’s Madeline?
I don’t know about you but I’ve really just about had more than enough of the Madeline McCann case in the press, the media saturation is one thing but the hysterical oscillation from one extreme position to another I’m finding very disturbing and worrying. Not just for the McCann family, for which I have considerable sympathy but for all of us.
First of all we started with a wave of mawkish sentimentality as people who never knew the family were encouraged to wash themselves in self righteous sympathy the likes of which we have not seen since the death of Diana. What drives people to emotionally indulge themselves by obsessing over the tragedies of strangers whilst ignoring the needs of their immediate friends and families these days seems quite mysterious but I have noticed that the people of Britain seem to judge each other by different values now. Even politicians are now judged not by their policies and leadership qualities but on their ability to emotionally connect with the common man, a value system that I find quite worrying for the simple reason that a population which bases its judgements on emotional rather than rational values is very vulnerable to the most simplistic of manipulation.
Now in a more sinister turn of evens it seems that the press, who it seems only yesterday were canonising the McCanns have turned on their cash cow in an amazing u-turn and are now baying for Mrs McCann’s blood like a medieval mob. Not that I have the greatest of expectations of the press but I’m shocked at the speed that the general public seem to have followed this hand-brake maneuver.
All seems a bit familiar.
How quickly everyone forgot the Peter Falconio Outback murder case.
It seems to me that this case has been addled by prejudice that is not entirely false but neither is it entirely true either. First there is the incompetence of the Portuguese police, having lived in Southern Europe myself I can verify that the local police are of a chronic standard but this is not because of what they are but because the pay is so poor it cannot attract individuals of a decent standard and when any case is more than open and shut they will frame any poor fool they can to save face. Then there is the prejudice in Southern Europe towards English parents who are regarded as selfish and unloving, it is said they love their dogs more than their children and again I’d say that this is a reasonable point of view, it is somewhat true that in comparison to the all encompassing love of the Southern European family we do make poor parents but these prejudices should not be clouding this case and the focus must remain on Madeline.
To complicate matters further the police are now basing their strategy on DNA evidence collected with a new untried technique called low copy number analysis which can identify DNA from a single cell. Even Prof. Alec Jeffries, the founder of DNA fingerprinting has gone on record claiming that not too much store should be put in evidence gathered from this technique as it can be misleading, particularly where family members are involved. The DNA from siblings can be surprisingly similar and traces can remain on objects for lengthy periods. Interestingly Prof. Jeffries has already offered his expert opinion to the defense team.
I never like to rush to judge in legal cases but I do became concerned when the path of justice starts to meander and trial by press raises its ugly head. It must be an awful time for the McCanns who still have two young children to look after and are now busy defending themselves rather than concentrating on the search for their child, having been living in Belgium at the worst time in their modern history I fear for the worst but crucifying Mrs McCann seems to be a diversionary tactic by a desperate police force. Odd that the ammunition for that came not from them but from the UK.
Happened before it seems, this article by the “Dingo Baby” mother is interesting.
here
And what else floats?
A duck.
Precisely.
The McCanns have become part of singularly peculiar managed cross-media campaign that has featured a bewildering cast of intriguing characters. Even veteran paranoids I know who could weave a global conspiracy theory out of the labeling on a cornflake packet are having trouble coming up with an hypothesis that accounts for the involvement and behaviour of all the players in the McCann saga
The actions of the Portuguese police are just one part of the theatre we have all been witness to
It’s all very, very odd
Excellent post. You have the talent to sort out in a very simple way complexe issues. Rational mind I would say. There is one major factor one shouldn’t neglect in this case. Portugal is a country that has been marred by child sexual abuse for a long time now involving priests and religious boarding schools and members of the old bourgeoisie which are still very influent and organised in secret societies. To my knowledge, despite accusations from former pupils, no serious, national wide investigation was conducted. One has to read the Portuguese writer psyhiatrist Antonio Lobo Antunes to realise the level to which very upsetting things in the national consciousness of Portuguese can stay subterranean and never become discussed or recognised. I have sympathy for the MCCanns, despite my feeling that they played with fire with their campaign media. They might be facing something tantalising for a young family.
Wolfie,
As a follow up to my previous comment I noticed today that Portugal attacked Brown on his boycott of the EU meeting hosting Mugabe. I am of the opinion that the way the Madeline story was treated by the media in the UK and Portugal, and the judiciary in Portugal, has a flavour of ‘affaire d’état’ (state matter) since the beginning. Stef hinted at this in many of his posts about the McCanns.
By the way, the title of your post reminds me of a children book series I used to read to my children with a Madeline as a central character in an orphanage in Paris. Actually my daugther still has the doll ‘Madeline’.
Xoggoth @
Thanks for the link, very pertinent. There is a pattern of blaming the Mother in cases of child disappearances I just wish the media would at least learn from their mistakes like any decent human being.
Stef @
Very odd indeed, however I’m reluctant to blame the McCanns, I don’t think they had much choice in being caught up in this farce and once this juggernaut gets started there really is no stopping it. As for the unusual players relating to the government and their “buddies in the media” I suspect this case is being used as a trial run in controlling public opinion. Something they are going to need in the coming months I suspect.
Sophia @
I don’t think this is a Portuguese crime, I suspect an organised crime elements with international reach. Context is always lacking in these cases. For some time there have been a string of abductions in Southern Europe, mostly of older girls but sometimes children. Pale and blonde girls/women are most often targeted. They are transported through Morocco towards the ME and Interpol turns a blind eye, I suspect for political reasons. A children’s school in Malaga I know of was recently targeted, the crime was thwarted by alert parents but they have since posted permanent private guards, the would be abductors were identified as foreigners. What is now clouding the issue on the political stage is that its become a matter of national pride.
I know the books, classics.
Wolfie,
You are right.
What you mentioned is another possible alternative. In my opinion, the abductors must have been in the surrounding of the McCanns for a while. They must have known that they were at the restaurant. The investigation should start there. The Mc Canns must have felt horribly guilty afterward and that may explain some confusion in the testimony and the whole thing with the media. In Canada it is criminal to leave a child under 13 unattended.
I agree. It sounds harsh but I am fed-up with it, too. You are right - it has become a Diana-ish saga, which will no doubt delight the editors of the “Daily Express”. There have been so many twists now that no one knows what’s going on and I am sick of seeing “Sky” journalists interviewing each other when there’s no concrete information. I knew as soon as all that money started pouring in that the British media would turn on the McCanns and now it has. Whatever really happened, it is tragic: poor, innocent, little girl.
Wolfie, Stef,
Stef war right when he wrote in one of his posts on the McCanns that the government involvement in the media hype was meant to hide important issues and that this was an example in diversion of information.
The truth is: From annoyed by the story until the McCanns were accused and slightly interested after, I am starting to be hooked to the Madeline story as a case study on our relation to the news. Le Monde published the alleged picture of Madeline carried on the back of a Moroccan woman and I cannot help but think about the Hitchcock movie ‘The man who knew too much’. And I thought that more than ever, the line between reality and fiction is blurred in the stories that are planted and treated at lenght by our news outlets. What are we being served, fiction or news ? That’s the question. I am not denying Madeline’s disappearance here. I am just realizing that the news are treated like fiction items with no distance, objectivity, judgment, or any rationale.
Sophia,
This “News Management” has been going on for some time. The seminal moment in the UK was the murder of the government scientist David Kelly when this affair was used to manipulate the BBC into the compliant government organ that it is today. All that we are seeing now is a refinement of the techniques that have been utilised to date, next on the list will be the internet I’m sure.
Spin Watch UK
Wolfie,
That looks like an interesting link, I will be watching it. Thanks.