Monday, May 28, 2007

Missing Children

This might be the most callous thing I've ever written, and I've deleted and rewritten this sentence 4 times to find the right way, if such a thing exists, of saying I feel the response to the search for Madeline, the British girl abducted while on holidays, lacks perspective.

It strikes me that the work of the Pope could be entirely consumed with meeting the parents of every child that has gone missing since Madeline has been abducted, let alone the countless number of children abducted, exploited, abused and killed every day.

Yet these middle class parents, who have been embraced by the British media, who left their children alone in their holiday apartment, have somehow found themselves entitled to an audience with the Pope. Are my a horrible person to think that parenting skills would be called into question had this family been from an inner-city estate?

Whatever the resolution of this tragedy, lets not lose perspective on the greater, ignored fate of countless, nameless children who will become mere statistics, not garnering a line of text, never mind a headline.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid I agree with you and this is something that has been raised elsewhere in the blogosphere. There are a number of eye-raising circumstances pertaining to this case which, had the parents been less well-off, connected and media-savvy, would have occasioned an outcry among the chattering classes about parental carelessness. While we all hope and pray that Madeleine is returned to her family I doubt that there will be any long-term attention paid to the ongoing issues of child-disappearances and parental irresponsbility.

Why have children if you're not going to watch over them, especially kids as young as those in this case?

I suspect that if the parents in question had been, say, a Natasha and Wayne from Council flats in Birmingham, then their other children would already have been taken into care.

tjl8822 said...

Joyful

Anonymous said...

I agree with Uncle Junior AND I have been completely baffled and disgusted from my first hearing that they basically left TWO 2yr old children in the care of a 4yr old ALONE. I can't understand ANY reasoning for that. It's atrocious really. The parents recently stated that they consider the time and proximity they left the children alone no different than having a meal in their garden if they were back at home AND STILL that's absolutely unacceptable if your very young children are not in your realm of sight for the duration of a meal. That's a considerable amount of time not to be watching your children. This is so sad that she was abducted, and even more sad that was entirely avoidable on their part.

Anonymous said...

I absolutely agree that they are receiving special priviliges. The other children would have been taken away and they would be considered the main suspects if they were not white and connected.The Pope doesn't make it a habit to meet all grieving parents whose children have gone missing, even if they are "good catholics". I personally have never heard of him doing it before. And when is Simon Cowell whose making a fortune off americans and J.K Rowlings with our youth going to offer up millions for our missing kids? I hope the little girl is alive despite her parents negligence. But I also pray for ALL the children. Rich or poor!