Anorak - Madeleine McCann: On The Road

interested wrote:Has anyone read Anorak today? They have re-printed an article dated 31st, May 2007 entitled "Madeleine McCann: On the Road" covering the McCanns' visit to Rome, complete with 108 COMMENTS. I've never known the site to reprint some of the "old" material. I have to wonder about the timing. Sorry, I can't "do" links but it's worth a read.

92 DL says:
June 1st, 2007 at 3:44 am

Anyone with more than two brain cells can see they were negligent. What sticks in my craw is that they continue to minimize the significance of leaving their children alone and refuse to take even partial responsibility for Madeleine’s disappearance. All they (mainly Gerry) keep yakking about is:

1. “We didn’t REALLY leave them alone.” Yes, you did. Unless you want to go on the slimmest of technicalities that by leaving 3 children in a room TOGETHER unsupervised, they were not ALONE. Madeleine did have the twins, so she was not alone in the most absolute sense.

2. “Everyone does it.” No, they do not. I do not know a single person who does this. We take our children with us or we get take out or……here’s a novel idea for a hotel……we order room service. Besides, using the “everyone is doing it” argument is pathetic after age 13 or so.

3. “It was no different than being in your garden.” Yes, it was. Unless your garden is 10 times the size of most, includes a pool and has parking lots, busy streets and lots of strangers walking about, then your garden is VERY different.

4. “Just as if we had been in the next bedroom.” But you WEREN’T in the next bedroom. Had you been, she would not have wandered off or been abducted.

5. “We are responsible parents.” Obviously, you are not. Being well-educated and wealthy does not mean a person is a responsible parent. Responsible parents do not leave 3 small children alone in a strange hotel room for hours, exposed to any number of possible hazards. They certainly do not leave the door unlocked so the children can wander off or a stranger could walk right in. If this is responsible parenting, God help all the children of the world.

It’s that “We REALLY didn’t do anything wrong” attitude of theirs that is rubbing people the wrong way. They seem to have learned nothing and are solely blaming “the abductor” without ever looking in the mirror to see the ones that started this whole tragedy in motion. It’s anyone’s fault BUT theirs. I’ve never liked people who shirk responsibility and I don’t like it now. It sickens me that they do not grasp how terribly negligent they were, but still see it as a simple mistake.

margaret wrote:I like this one, and in over 4 years what has changed??

92 DL says:
June 1st, 2007 at 3:44 am

Anyone with more than two brain cells can see they were negligent. What sticks in my craw is that they continue to minimize the significance of leaving their children alone and refuse to take even partial responsibility for Madeleine’s disappearance. All they (mainly Gerry) keep yakking about is:

1. “We didn’t REALLY leave them alone.” Yes, you did. Unless you want to go on the slimmest of technicalities that by leaving 3 children in a room TOGETHER unsupervised, they were not ALONE. Madeleine did have the twins, so she was not alone in the most absolute sense.

2. “Everyone does it.” No, they do not. I do not know a single person who does this. We take our children with us or we get take out or……here’s a novel idea for a hotel……we order room service. Besides, using the “everyone is doing it” argument is pathetic after age 13 or so.

3. “It was no different than being in your garden.” Yes, it was. Unless your garden is 10 times the size of most, includes a pool and has parking lots, busy streets and lots of strangers walking about, then your garden is VERY different.

4. “Just as if we had been in the next bedroom.” But you WEREN’T in the next bedroom. Had you been, she would not have wandered off or been abducted.

5. “We are responsible parents.” Obviously, you are not. Being well-educated and wealthy does not mean a person is a responsible parent. Responsible parents do not leave 3 small children alone in a strange hotel room for hours, exposed to any number of possible hazards. They certainly do not leave the door unlocked so the children can wander off or a stranger could walk right in. If this is responsible parenting, God help all the children of the world.

It’s that “We REALLY didn’t do anything wrong” attitude of theirs that is rubbing people the wrong way. They seem to have learned nothing and are solely blaming “the abductor” without ever looking in the mirror to see the ones that started this whole tragedy in motion. It’s anyone’s fault BUT theirs. I’ve never liked people who shirk responsibility and I don’t like it now. It sickens me that they do not grasp how terribly negligent they were, but still see it as a simple mistake.

Well said!

kathybelle wrote:

margaret wrote:I like this one, and in over 4 years what has changed??

92 DL says:
June 1st, 2007 at 3:44 am

Anyone with more than two brain cells can see they were negligent. What sticks in my craw is that they continue to minimize the significance of leaving their children alone and refuse to take even partial responsibility for Madeleine’s disappearance. All they (mainly Gerry) keep yakking about is:

1. “We didn’t REALLY leave them alone.” Yes, you did. Unless you want to go on the slimmest of technicalities that by leaving 3 children in a room TOGETHER unsupervised, they were not ALONE. Madeleine did have the twins, so she was not alone in the most absolute sense.

2. “Everyone does it.” No, they do not. I do not know a single person who does this. We take our children with us or we get take out or……here’s a novel idea for a hotel……we order room service. Besides, using the “everyone is doing it” argument is pathetic after age 13 or so.

3. “It was no different than being in your garden.” Yes, it was. Unless your garden is 10 times the size of most, includes a pool and has parking lots, busy streets and lots of strangers walking about, then your garden is VERY different.

4. “Just as if we had been in the next bedroom.” But you WEREN’T in the next bedroom. Had you been, she would not have wandered off or been abducted.

5. “We are responsible parents.” Obviously, you are not. Being well-educated and wealthy does not mean a person is a responsible parent. Responsible parents do not leave 3 small children alone in a strange hotel room for hours, exposed to any number of possible hazards. They certainly do not leave the door unlocked so the children can wander off or a stranger could walk right in. If this is responsible parenting, God help all the children of the world.

It’s that “We REALLY didn’t do anything wrong” attitude of theirs that is rubbing people the wrong way. They seem to have learned nothing and are solely blaming “the abductor” without ever looking in the mirror to see the ones that started this whole tragedy in motion. It’s anyone’s fault BUT theirs. I’ve never liked people who shirk responsibility and I don’t like it now. It sickens me that they do not grasp how terribly negligent they were, but still see it as a simple mistake.

Well said!

I also say well said. The McCanns have said more than once in their many media interviews, that it isn't right that they are being criticised on internet forums. In my opinion it is right that the McCanns are criticised. What isn't right, is the cruel, selfish and criminal behaviour of the McCanns, towards their 3 children in Praia da Luz has gone unpunished, because of the British Government's intervention in this case. The McCanns have proved themselves to be cumpulsive liars, for over 4yrs and for over 4yrs they have had people defending them.

The chairman of the Leveson Inquiry must know that the McCanns are responsible for whatever happened to Madeleine, but he won't hear a bad word against them. He even tried to stop one guy (I can't remember his name) from telling the inquiry that the McCanns were quite happy to use the media when it suited them.

108 Distantobserver says:
October 1st, 2007 at 5:13 pm
But how do you know they are suffering all that much? Not all parents have the supposedly universal instinctive strong love for their children (almost “being in love with” them). Kate said in her first interview “We are very responsible parents”. Think how close “responsibility” is to ” liability” or “burden (bravely borne)”. She did not say “we love our children very, very much” – and that would indeed have sounded false, because if you do love your children very very much, you cannot BEAR to sit in a bar and drink while they are alone. I know that since when our child was small, we kept a constant eye on him NOT because with thought in terms of “responsible parenting” or prided ourselves on being good parents but for the entirely selfish reason of knowing that if anything bad happened to him (and just think how many things can happen to a 3-year-old left alone in ten minutes, let alone half an hour), WE would not survive it. I am not being sanctimonious at the expense of the McCanns who “made a mistake”, I do not at all think that our love for our child makes us in any way superior. You either have that love or you dont. I do know parents who are not that much in love with their toddlers, they would behave exactly as the McCanns did (“it’s our holiday, too!”). But why keep saying that they are going through hell now? Why not think that if they were able to bear leaving THREE children alone in the room and have a good time with bottles and bottles of wine, instead of fidgeting miserably and leaving the party in a few minutes, they may be equally perfectly able to come to terms of being just one child short. ———————
Mods and Admin
Distant observer: just an observation that could be discussed? 7 years to become a doctor, 9 months to become a parent… ‘blood’ or ‘vocation’ which is really that much stronger? or is parenthood a vocation anyway, or as some see it, a burden?

A butterfly gave hope to brave Kate McCann yesterday – as it landed softly on her hair before an emotional audience with the Pope.” This gives the Sun its front page headline: “BUTTERFLY OF HOPE.”

And the Sun says the red admiral butterfly landed on the yellow ribbon tied to Kate’s hair.

A sign. Not a sign that a yellow ribbon high off the ground looks, to a butterfly, not unlike a yellow flower. This is a sign of hope, that in some way this insect, Vanessa atalanta, personifies Madeleine’s spirit.

Says Kate: “It was strange, but lovely, like a symbol of hope.”

Charlotte says:
June 1st, 2007 at 1:53 pm
sadly no-one has yet realized that the butterfly is not a symbol of hope, but the symbol of death. Do a google on butterfly after death and there are thousands of accounts of butterflys visiting after death. Most find it a comfort to see the butterfly but they already know that their loved one is gone. It is often believed that the butterfly symbolizes the safe departure from this world into the next.
The butterfly always pays attention to something ‘significant’ in my own dad’s case, it was
the clothes my mum took for him to wear to the grave and then the car she drove to the funeral directors – the butterfly once again hovered on her head when she arrived at the funeral directors ( she had to drive 20km to get there – fast butterfly!!) and sat on her head till she went inside. Our butterfly came back everyday until my dad’s funeral – a week in all. The strangest thing about this, is the butterfly, tends to return when the loved ones are at their lowest point. Butterflies only live for up to 48 hours so why keep coming back?
I think in this case the significance is the ribbon. Many people believe that this was a butterfly of hope, if you speak to someone who has had their own butterfly, they will no doubt say without hesitation that Maddi has left this world and was trying to tell her Mum she is ok.
I hope as much as the next person that Madeleine is alive and well. You read up on the butterfly yourself and come up with your own opinion.