EUROPE’S GRIEF

On Saturday, one year has past since Madeleine McCann went missing in Praia da Luz, Portugal, and the search continues. 

 

Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate told the BBC today that they haven’t given up on the search for Madeline. Kate McCann said: “We need to find Madeleine, that’s what keeps us going.”

 

And although the couple is still official suspects, their contact with the Portuguese Police is almost non existent. Gerry McCann said: “We would very much like to know what exactly has been done, what hasn’t been done, who’s been eliminated and on what ground, what leads are still being actively followed.”

 

Earlier this month, the couple delivered a presentation to the European Parliament appealing for an Europe wide alert scheme for missing children. Gerry McCann said today: “We were saying stuff like if the borders had been alerted, ports and various things. Your worry is, that child is going to be moved and moves quickly far away from the scene of the crime.”

 

And as Europe was shocked by yet another horrifying kidnapping story earlier this week when the 73 year old Austrian Josef Fritzl was arrested after keeping his daughter captured in his basement for 24 years and fathered her seven children. And in relation to the former kidnapping victim Natascha Kampusch which was found after being held in a basement cell for eight years, the McCann’s appeal for a European alert scheme could not be more important.

 

Natascha Kampusch spoke today in her first British television interview with the BBC, about Austria’s latest abuse scandal. She said: “I think it can happen everywhere and it also exists everywhere, not just in Austria.”

VOTE FOR CHANGE

Although ‘vote for change’ has been central to the campaigns of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the latest comment from Clinton may suggest the opposite.

 

When asked in a television interview with ABC last week, how she would respond as a future President, if Iran launched a nuclear attack on Israel, she replied:

 

“If I was the President, we will attack Iran…We would be able to totally obliterate them.”

 

The comment has been criticised for being irresponsible and insensitive and it seems though doubtful that Mrs Clinton shares the diplomatic abilities of her husband.

 

As the ‘vote for change’ campaigns continues this might indicate desperation from Clinton who is still behind Obama by 131 delegates, and we can ask whether her latest comment is a last attempt in increasing her support base which has mainly contained women, by speaking the language Americans know, War!

 

Through the election campaign I have been rooting for Hilary as her experience and relationship with Europe gave me hope the she was the right candidate to continue her husband’s diplomatic work.

 

Also the ideological conviction she had in relation to the failed but still highly inspirational medical campaign in the mid 1990s showed signs of strength, a woman who cares about the weaker in society and is not willing to compromise her ideological conviction. Now I am not so sure…