little girl lost

As suggested by Margo, a few words about the case of Madelaine McCann. If I were one of her parents, I would be sick with worry, fear, grief and guilt. We all understand that they're going through hell. However, having said that, let's move away from private suffering for a moment and look at the wider picture. The situation in Portugal is the whole media circus trip - reminds me of what it was like here during the prostitute murders - and also reminds me of the vulpine nature of journalists. But thats somewhat by the by here - what's interesting about this case is the determination of her family to keep her name in the headlines come what may, as if, through sheer effort of will, publicity alone will bring her back. It won't. Let's be honest here - she's probably already dead. The other interesting thing here is what has already been called 'the globalisation of Maddy'. In a way reminiscent of the death of Diana, everyone's leaping onto the band-wagon - MP's sporting yellow ribbons in Parliament the other day, David Beckham's stilted plea for information.......Christ, someone will bring out a pop song about her soon, which will inevitably go straight to the top of the charts. The world we live in is, unfortunately, full of suffering and loss. How many children have been blown to pieces in Iraq this week? How many kids have died in Africa from entirely preventable diseases? Full of mawkish sentimentality, we shed crocodile tears for one pretty little blonde girl because it's so much easier than to cry for a million unnamed others. Am I being too cynical?