Madeleine

[bluepeterno1]

Being an idle sort of cove I haven't read all the preceding posts here but one cannot help but reflect on the media coverage vis a vis the parents. If these two had been shellsuit wearing weegies the papers would be calling for their immediate despatch by stone or noose, n'est c'pas? I still cannae quite get my head round why they left such young children unattended. they are not short of a bob i should think, so WTF?
I feel about this as I do about premiership footballers and the like who get caught drink driving. WTF? Get a taxi! You can afford it. Instead there seems to be a "doesn't apply to us" aesthetic at work here...one can imagine the family at the centre of this tradgey shaking their heads in bourgoise indignation as they read their Daily Mirrors..."bloody chavs. left this wee girl unattended! Damned disgrace! Scum of the earth! String 'em up I say...bah!"

not short of a bob WTF.this wee girls father was born and bred in glasgow and i dont suppose he had any more than most of us born there, comments like this are shamefull to glasgow ,as for the yellow ribbons it is about showing support , celtic football team will be wearing them at there game today ,they do not have my support as a football team ,but they have 110per cent in this gesture, this is not about class or anything else but a poor wee girl who has been taken from her parents ,put yourself in there position.

[Graham]

I'll prolly get told to move this but.....

St Andrews on Friday

[Josef]

I'll prolly get told to move this but.....

St Andrews on Friday

Hopefully the bloke in the awful Seventies song which started this mawkish tradition was not doing his 'three long years' for child abduction.

[Vladimir]

Its from a song! Which one?

[Graham]

Its from a song! Which one?

Smoke on the Water

[red_kola]

Its from a song! Which one?

Smoke on the Water

[Josef]

Its from a song! Which one?

The obscurely-named 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree'

I'm comin' home, I've done my time
Now I've got to know what is and isn't mine
If you received my letter telling you I'd soon be free
Then you'll know just what to do
If you still want me
If you still want me
Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree
It's been three long years
Do ya still want me?

Wikipedia suggests that the general concept of yellow cloth may have been around for a lot longer, but if it was then it was certainly never publicly visible till then, even in the States.

[Graham]

Its from a song! Which one?

The obscurely-named 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree' ::):

whoooooooooooooooooooooooooosh

[james73]

Its from a song! Which one?

The obscurely-named 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree' ::):

whoooooooooooooooooooooooooosh

I believe you lost this?





James H

[Josef]

Aye, alright

[Puro_pt]

The parents were blaming the Portugese police for being incompetent at best and retarded at worst. I hate this idea that foreign people somehow have less intelligence than people in this fabulous country. I mean, come on...

Well, they don't speak English very well, do they? Obvious, innit?
(...)

Hummm... Believe it or not, 10% of the Portuguese population speaks better english than most british youngsters i know (and believe me, i just had a confirmation on that as i'm spending my weekend in Praia da Rocha)

[Puro_pt]

The parents were blaming the Portugese police for being incompetent at best and retarded at worst. I hate this idea that foreign people somehow have less intelligence than people in this fabulous country. I mean, come on...

We are plain stupid, believe it, despite having discovered half the world we keep putting the same "gentlemen" (In English, i don't have the notion of how far can i go with an insult before being rude so i prefer to call them that!) in power year after year

[Puro_pt]

You also need to remember they were on holiday. Peoples guards tend to drop on holiday. Even more so, I suspect, in what was percieved as a "safe" enclosed complex. I try to think of myself somewhere like Butlins. I could very easily see myself leaving my (not that I have any) kids sleeping 50-100 yards away while I went to dinner, especially if i could see the apartment they are in.

Dunno though! I wasn't there. The main thing is that She gets found safe'n'sound. I just hope it's an upset Woman that has her.

PK

The question is that Portuguese people itself deceives a bit to the untrained eye. We give our children a fair amount of freedom but all in a very calculated basis according to the situation.
What happenned with maddie's parents, normally would not happen to a Portuguese parent (well, we do have some stupid people!), in a strange enviroment like an holiday resort hardly that would happen.
On the other hand, at home, with friendly neighbours it is not rare to happen with some people, often due to imperative needs(work etc etc) but also for not so imperative needs... and some times, there goes a children burned in flames but kidnapping is very very rare, (besides, you don't want to be jailed for harming a children... the inmates here love those guys, as also rapists, wich aren't very frequent(it does happen sometimes)

[Puro_pt]

I've held my views on this but what I just heard on the news has forced me to comment.

A business man has offered a million for her safe return....

What proof is there that she was abducted???

The parents should not have left the kids alone

Why is the british media going so NUTS over another missing person? GMTV have even flown a resident reporter over.... one thats normally in the studio daily. Must be nice to get out in the sun, eh?

Not quite, still a bit cold here... but warming quickly... bag it up ppl & fly south!

[Puro_pt]

There was a TV interview with Ben Needham's mum - he was taken in not dis-similar circumstances in the 1990's from Kos. The Police feel sure he was sold to wealthy Greek or American childless couples, and would be adopted by them and brought up as their child and would never know the truth.

The problem here is that this kidnapping bothered the Judiciary Police a lot (it's not every day that a british newspaper (ROTFL) editor calls "clowns" to them)... knowing them as i know, i think that if an organized network exists, it won't be around for much long (Don't ever seriously bother a Portuguese folk... believe me...)