I don’t know if it is just me but on the issue of Maddie McCann I am disturbed by the mass hysteria and complete blanket coverage. Obviously as a parent I can quite see that the parents of the little girl will do everything and exploit any conceivable situation in order to find and expedite the safe return of their child. It is not their position of which I am critical or at least questioning, it is that of our society at large.
There seems something wrong, something very false about all the posters and memorial services, as if it’s a collective confessional and everyone must make themselves a part of the charade or risk being branded part of the problem. I can’t help but think that this is something akin to an attempt to wash off the guilt of a system that demonises older children and exploits and sexualises younger ones. After all in the midst of the memorial services, internet chain mails, local paper connection stories there is no debate taking place, no questioning, a singular lack of introspection. It is as if this is all lip service, the Catholic confession that gives absolution in return for hollow promises without any genuine need to change.
Under normal circumstances I believe there would have been a moderate amount of news discussion about a child going missing, some recriminations at the parents of the child being allegedly in a restaurant down the road when it happened and after a few days there would have been the presumption that she was dead. Naturally one would not expect parents to have to believe this until it was confirmed unequivocally, I cannot imagine any parent is likely to give up hope until the absolute last and that is why so many hang on to the last shreds of hope when there appears really to be nothing left, kids who haven’t been seen in 20 years that sort of thing. There are many in this situation who whilst they would not wish to find out their child may be dead would welcome some news one way or another in order to achieve some kind of closure, how can you mourn one of the most important people in your life when you don’t know if they may one day be coming home?
This case differs in many ways. Firstly the depth and breadth of coverage has been something to behold it has at times been utterly pervasive, bordering on the hysterical. At a time when soldiers are being killed in both Afghanistan and Iraq where flood waters are causing billions of £s worth of damage to some major cities across the UK the lead story has often remained that the girl is still missing and Mr X is being questioned or that there has been a sighting in Country Y. A £1.5 million reward has been offered, small wonder then that there have been alleged sightings across Europe. On the internet there are official websites, unofficial websites, blog commentaries and daily columns of nothing in particular on the sites of every tabloid and TV channel.
The parents have had audiences with major politicians and religious leaders including the Pope. What anyone expected the Pope to be able to do about this Lord alone knows (I use that phrase advisedly!) but it did keep the headlines and column inches ticking. I can’t help but think that the only ones who really gain from this is the media itself. Such news is soft work, it thrives on speculation and the hope of the desperate and stories and facts require little if any substantiation.
Wristbands have been made and sold (I confess I genuinely don’t know what the money has gone towards). They have even had the entire English Premier League football players coming out with T-shirts on at the start of the first game of the season.
I can never remember this sort of concerted publicity campaign for anything and certainly it eclipses every other comparable scenario. I can’t help but wonder what other parents of lost or deceased children must be feeling, combined with the obvious hope of a happy end to the story I’m sure must be an element of frustration and anger that such attention was not afforded their family in its hour of need.
Recently I have seen posters of bunny girls and high street honeys put up at the same time as sex attacks were taking place, where people are being shot more regularly because violence is becoming an accepted part of life and its glorification by some and acquiesence by others allows this all to continue.
I would not be so bold as to suggest that the current state of this country’s oppressed majority is entirely a product of a concerted effort of the status quo but they have the option to do nothing about it knowing that the internal turmoil, fear and violence is enough to keep the downtrodden where they are. Our detached, individualist, exploitative world devoid of cohesion, unity, responsibility comes at a price, and as more and more people are forced to pay it there has to come a time when it is just too expensive. As long as there is no realisation of this fact that situation will only perpetuate and we will keep having to look for and ultimately bury our children and the only real hope in life is that they continue to be someone else’s.
Song Of The Day ~ Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight
RED BARON'S WORDS 
Such a cynic!
I will tell you that with a great loss, like that of a child, there is no such thing as “closure.” Hate that word. I hope that you never, ever have to find out the truth of my words.
I think in a case like this, there is so much attention because the right and the wrong is so clear, and we very rarely have anything like that in our lives. Everyone wants a child home safe with her family, and so everyone gets involved. A common cause is a highly attractive force, especially when the cause is for good. You contradict yourself, I think. Here, people are being cohesive, to a degree you find specious, and yet you say, “Our detached, individualist, exploitative world devoid of cohesion, unity, responsibility comes at a price.” Can’t win with you, eh? :op
-Redbaron responds – No, I disagree, my critique as I pointed out is not of the parents. I do not feel that this has been a cohesive action, I feel it has been a vaccuous superficial one, where are the debates about the safety of children and the way society treats them in general. The other issue I have a problem with is that this is not the first time such a case has happened so why this one, why now? Those are the grounds of my discontent, it isn’t so much a snipe as an unease, it doesn’t feel right nor especially genuine, I don’t mean that people don’t want the little girl found I mean that they aren’t looking properly at a society where this whilst not commonplace nonetheless happens often enough because people don’t care. The mass media is not a cohesive force it is one of the most devisive, picking away at people’s fears all the time.
As regards the ‘closure’ issue, I do not mean that by knowing fate things ease or go away, but without it the pain of misguided hope is said to be in some ways worse because each new day your dreams are dashed.
It is said, but I’ve been both the one waiting, and the one knowing for sure, and I can tell you that little hope is always better than no hope at all.
-Redbaron responds – I concede, I neither know categorically nor wish to be in the position to know to be able to confirm or refute. With this information in mind do you feel that the approach to this case from the world at large has been genuinely constructive, sensitive or caring, as personally I don’t feel it at all. Perhaps I am cold but I would expect more emotion rather than a sense of it being going through the motions.
It’s hard for me to say; it’s not been as big a case here as there, because an American isn’t involved. You know how we do so love to get in a tizzy when it is. As you so rightly point out, you cannot blame the parents who are using every means that has suddenly become at their disposal through celebrity and media interest. If I were in their shoes, I’d say, “Hell yes, we’d like your help!”
What distinction are you making between “hysterical” and the “more emotion” (indicating a lack) that you mention? Hysterical IS emotional. Constructive is a hard call to make; is hysteria ever constructive? And can it be quantified, this constructiveness? I mean, if the radio and TV and papers are blaring headlines about this, does that encourage parents all over your country and whomever the story touches elsewhere, to think twice about when they leave their kids, to talk to their kids again about kicking and screaming and making a fuss when someone tries to take them? Then yes, it’s constructive, but you’ll never know. Is it constructive in passing laws and starting programs to teach people how to parent? Is that what you want? There are plenty of laws already; the good people don’t need them and the bad people don’t obey them, so more won’t help.
I guess that’s the question I have for you. What would you have preferred to have seen happen as a result of this case, this media attention? What would qualify as “constructive” for you?
-Redbaron responds – Oooh that’s a big one, that’s going to take some thought, but I cannot shirk from it really can I, I may have to make it into a follow-up entry so leave it with me.