Madeleine's abduction

1. Facts

The three-year-old Madeleine McCann was abducted from the Mark Warner's Ocean Club family resort (situated in the Algarve region in Portugal) on the 4th of May while her parents were dining at a restaurant nearby, checking on her and her twin brothers every half an hour.

Twelve hours ellapsed before the Portuguese police started searching for her, thinking initially that she may have lost her way somewhere and that she would return. The relatives of the family are running down on the alleged incompetence of the local police while the Portuguese public thinks that a Portuguese child gone missing wouldn't be looked for so feverishly. Such notions, however, will not bear in my opinion any fruit in the search for Madeleine.

As the Portuguese law forbids the police to inform the public about their procedures, rumours are mushrooming. The latest say that a woman and a girl fitting Madeleine's description were noticed at a service station and that she must have been abducted by a British national who had insider information about the family's daily schedule.

2. Opinions of the public

The majority of the public sympathise with Madeleine's parents who are at the moment going through every parents worst nightmare and a horrendous ordeal on top of that as their first family holiday has been transformed into a holiday from hell.

The McCann's try to stay positive although every minute that passes without their adorable girl makes it a little bit harder to breath for them.

Despite of the fact that the great majority of the public is aware in what a desperate state the parents are, their leaving their children alone while eating out has sparked off a heated debate. Some parents say that they shouldn't have left their children unatended while others hold that you cannot take care of your children 24/7 and that there is always a risk involved in being a parent.

Be that as it may, the way I see it is that today we are living in an increasingly threatening world and yet we cannot curb our children's freedom because of something that might happen. Abductions are after all few and far between.

Finally, I would like to say that my prayers are directed to the family and I sincerely hope that Madeleine will return home safe and sound.

Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6636869.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6629399.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6637469.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6638793.stm

http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1381410.0.0.php

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/05/08/do0803.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/07/wtoddler107.xml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6627605.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2007/04/18/vanessa_today_feature.shtml

Some noteworthy vocabulary I stumbled across while reading my sources:

negligent; negligently;negligence-irresponsible
Mr Brown was found guilty of negligent driving.

to be a part and parcel of something-to be a necessary feature of something
Working irregular hours is all part and parcel of being a journalist.

salutary-formal-a salutary experience is unpleasant but teaches you something

zealous; zealously-someone who is zealous does or supports something with great energy
No one was more zealous than Neil in supporting the proposal.