I’m not sure how much the rest of the world is aware of what is going on but here in the UK (though the event didn’t actually take place in the UK but rather on the continent) a little girl named Madeline Mccann was abducted. They think. She has gone missing, presumed abducted after she was left alone her her two twin two year old siblings in a holiday apartment[1].
While this is, of course, a tragic event, it’s not uncommon. It happens around 3 times per week in the UK[2]. This specific case, however, has been taken up by the media and blown out of any kind of proportion. So far it hasn’t helped to find her.
It’s been interesting to watch the developments on Facebook. First, the “Find Madeline” groups appeared. Then the “if this group reaches 10.000 then I will release Madeleine McCann!!” group appeared. Now the “get Durka Pedro banned from Facebook!!!!” (the creator of the former group) has appeared.
While the motives for the joke group are unclear it makes a good point. All this media attention which has been a fantastic earner for the media has yet to turn up any results with regards to finding her. Second, the latter group, with debates about the former raises some interesting points.
The Find Madeline contain such topics as “What would you do if you got your hands on the person who kidnapped her?” These are people who don’t know her posting in this. What kind of person posts such comments as “rip out their windpipe and beat them to death with their tonsils”? Presumably, the same type of person that would abduct a small child. I know it’s a crazy idea but when we catch a child abductor, maybe we could, just possibly, make them stand trial and be brought to justice.
Events such as thing provide two things. First, they provide an opportunity for the media to make lots and lots of money off the story. Second, the provide an excuse for people to act like animals and ruining people’s lives with hysteria-driven witch trials. We should be ashamed of ourselves. Especially the supposed educated elite of the Facebook networks.
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This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Religion & Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.