Madeleine's Fund : Leaving No Stone Unturned

tigtag02

whereishergar wrote: »

Apparent some of you care more about your garden gnomes

Hmmmmm, helpful :T

At what point was it stated that any poster doesn't care? (Or cares more about inanimate objects for that matter!!)

Not caring is not the issue - I'm sure that there is not one person who doesn't hope that this little girl is found alive and well and returned to her family.

The debate is (and this is the important bit!!) about the parents accepting resposibilty for their actions causing the situation in the first place!!

Its really not that hard to grasp the concept of the debate and I think that many VALID opinions both ways have been aired.

jw - you are one of the most eloquent posters I have read on MSE and whats even better is that I agree with every word - I wish I could only put it across as well

pinkemsy

Now is the time to try and find Ben Needham, he has long been forgotten by the media. I'm sure his mother thinks about him every second of every day.

FRUGAL_4

pinkemsy wrote: »

Now is the time to try and find Ben Needham, he has long been forgotten by the media. I'm sure his mother thinks about him every second of every day.

Ben's mother must live in my county as she was on my local tv news, apparently she is going to KOS to look for her son who was taken 16 years ago from a farmhouse, apparently she is footing the expenses for the trip.

doitmyself

Hi Hugo. You're a significant poster to this interesting and topical thread. You're not the arbiter of what is and isn't right or acceptable to say though.
Can I add my comments to (selected of) yours below, and thus hopefully extend the debate? They're serious comments

Were the baby sitting arrangements suitable? - Probably not.
Definitely not, if the child was abducted

Early reports point to Madeleine being targeted as opposed to randomly selected.
Do they? I'm really not sure I've seen/heard this, and certainly not that it's been corroborated
Remember the chap on the beach taking photos of children? No (as above)
Apparently another dad chased him away and got a picture of him on a mobile.
May be true but again, news to me

I think the abduction may well have happened at a different time. Who knows it may have happened earlier but for the McCanns' diligence preventing it.
I think any reference to the McCann's dilligence is pushing a point isn't it? And was this particular child so specifically targetted? Where have you got this info from?

You have to remember however the points made wrt the fund. I have reiterated these before but for clarity.

1) The purpose of the fund is to help find Madeleine
I suppose some people would ask, and some people have asked, how? The police are not short of funds, are they?
3) Slating the parents for wanting to stay in Portugal whilst the search is going on is unreasonable IMO. They lost their daughter in Portugal, it is natural to want to be there for her, since indications are that she is likely to be closer to, if not in, Portugal as opposed to anywhere else.
I don't agree from a practical pov although I understand. But I have to ask, what are the 'indications'? You are referring to the suspect? He/they are suspects, and may be totally innocent. And come to that the parents themselves may be involved in their daughter's disappearance, it wouldn't be unprecedented, and who knows?
But isn't there speculation (supported by the parents themselves) that Madeleine may have been taken to another country? If so why stay in Portugal? Following every reported sighting in every country (I suspet 'Madeleine' will be 'spotted' in any place her pic is publicised incidentally) really isn't going to find her. I can't find my car keys in this flat sometimes!

4) The reason that the fund exists is, as I said earlier, donations were coming in and they needed a home.
This is a bit naive isn't it? You can't pay money into an account, or even a collection box if it doesn't exist. And I think in the broader sense you have to ask why people think money is the answer to everything and why they assume their money will help. It hasn't in this case (so far) and probably wont, and may not even be wanted. If the fund was set up to be able to accept donations then it was deliberately done so.

Why haven't other families who've suffered child abductions had the same exposure? I agree it's not fair but that is not a good reasons to deny this to the McCanns. They probably don't care what anyone on this thread thinks...

It's extremely narcissistic to believe anyone connected with this is reading your or my or anyone else's opinions on this, one of a thousand such forums. In essence that is part of this rather bizarre situation, - people not remotely involved in fact and who will immediately find some other cause celebre once this case is resolved/drops off the front pages (already happened) thinking they and the're somehow more important or relevant than they actually are.

Can they afford to do these things without the fund? I very much doubt it. Even if they could sell their house etc to pay for it, it would take time to release funds. My guess is that their travel insurance may provide some help
For what??!
but maybe not to the tune of what they may be planning.
Why are they planning anything? Their child is gone, she will (probably) be found but not by these hapless parents going all round Europe/the world

They are both doctors, he is not a lawyer. It is wrong to assume that young professionals are loaded. With sharply rising house prices etc this is often far from the case. What I see here when this arguement is raised is a huge prejudice against people who have the potential to do very well for themselves, and its deployment as a poor substitute for reasons to insist they sell the clothes off their backs to fund their "Jolly around Europe".
You've gone off on a few different tangents here I think Hugo!
Do they plan to sell book and film rights? Well lets wait and see.
Well let's sincerely, if there is any sincerity left hope not, eh?

computerwoman

God bless you little miss madeleine mccaan wherever you are, sleep tight, and know that one day you will be found, have hope that the world is looking out for you.
and to the rest of you, if only we could see into the future, then that would be great, but who could know that this would happen, the mccaans must be going through hell, have a heart, and look for maddie, not look to blame, god bless us all.
cw

MyUserNamesTaken

One question: Can this money not be used to help Ben Needham's mum go to Kos and resume the hunt for her boy? Why is she having to foot the costs herself?

emmaroids

i just seen on the news and the mc-canns are doin a `european tour` to raise the profile on there daughter
no doubt funded by cash that many other folks would be greatfull to recieve.

i recon there just scared to come home cos of what they may face, rightly so imo.

just come home and face the music and stop dragging your twins across the world on some wild goose chase.

sorry if i sound harsh but im beginning to lose interest in this.

its as if they are the only parents whos kid has gone missing, i bet lots of kids have gone missing this week alone, where is the coverage on them?

EagerLearner

I think the parents would get slated for staying in Portugal and would also get slated for coming back to UK. They would get slated if they did too much (ie creating a fund for all the monies coming in, being out and about too much looking for her) and they would get slated if they did too little (rejecting the money being donated, not talking to the media and staying indoors too much). They would get slated for being too 'robot-like' and containing their emotions, they would get slated if they blubbered and cried all the time and made no sense, as this would not contribute to the search if they were a wreck.

As you see, they are doing what they can amidst the above, trying to strike a balance. Let us not forget they have the police and advisors telling them how to act, what to do and when.

The fact that they are raising awareness in Europe is a good thing - the Portuguese police cannot be everywhere. In terms of the police 'having money' and the fund money being considered unrequired by some on here - yes they do have some, but only for the main police work: Not for photocopies of posters, not for people's time, not for search groups that may need to travel to various locations, not for all the other things that this campaign needs real money for.

They are not staying in 'The Continent' for fun or pure enjoyment and the money flooding in is because people are choosing to donate it - the McCanns never asked for it. Funds remaining will help other kids. I don't see why anyone wouldn't want this fund if a) it came about because the people wanted to donate and b) it will help missing kids.

frenchconnection200

Can I add, as someone who works with doctors, they are not the most emotional of people due to having to keep their feelings in check whilst dealing with sick and dying people. So I would not be critical of them for coming across as emotionless.
At home they have a nanny and my impression of all this is that they really didn't know how to deal with having children around when they wanted to have a good time. When on holiday my kids are with me in the evening and if not it means my husband and I take it in turns to stay with them on an evening. The Mcanns are probably so used to handing them over to a nanny it just did not occur to them that a family holiday means spending time with your kids not your mates.

black-saturn

I'm sure they're not interested in what we all think at the moment and just want their daughter back. All this arguing and bickering isn't helping them at all.