Madeleine, where have you gone?
MISPLACED sympathy is a common symptom of those afflicted with bleeding-heart syndrome.
These poor folk will defend the indefensible, make excuses where none exist and generally forgive any behaviour no matter how abhorrent and irresponsible.
They are out in force again, lining up to support Kate and Gerry McCann, who are now considered suspects by the Portuguese police in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.
Leading the charge in Australia are those quick to connect the case with that of Lindy Chamberlain, despite the circumstances being world's apart in just about every way.
In the UK, the McCanns, who by their own admission repeatedly left their young children all alone while they ate and drank with friends, have been practically sanctified.
Whether the McCanns are responsible for Madeleine's disappearance is for the Portuguese police and judiciary to determine, but from what we already know they should be charged with neglect for leaving a four-year-old girl and twin two-year-olds alone and unprotected in a hotel room for up to 30 minutes at a time.
Any decent parent can tell you a lot can go terribly wrong in that time, even without an intruder.
Now there is some dispute about whether the kids were checked on at all during the dinner the McCanns were enjoying at a nearby tapas bar.
Some members of the McCann party, who also left their kids alone in their rooms, said they "checked" on the children.
But only by listening at the door to see if any were crying.
Unfortunately, children that have already been abducted tend not to be heard.
The McCanns maintain they left the children to fend for themselves because they did not want strangers looking after them.
This excuse was exposed for all its absurdity when it was revealed they had been using the hotel's child-care program on every day of their stay in Portugal.
Which begs the question: why take the kids on a holiday with you if you have no intention of spending any time with them?
Across Europe, many children go missing everyday but no case has received the amount of coverage the McCann disappearance has generated.
Yet, despite every micro detail of the events leading up to the disappearance being scrutinised, there has been virtually no critical analysis of how two wealthy, well-educated parents could be so reckless as to leave their children alone in a foreign country.
Instead, the bleeding hearts would have us believe many parents regularly do this without any such consequences.
I'm sorry, did I miss something?
Since when have parents been leaving four-year-olds alone?
If the McCanns were a couple of simpletons who'd left three kids on their own so they could go down to the pub for a pot-and-parma, the press would've shredded them for their selfish conduct and demanded the twins be removed from their care.
But the McCanns have somehow escaped any real scrutiny from the media and the public at large.
This may be largely due to the formidable PR machine they have in place. They have recruited everyone from David Beckham to the Pope to pray and plead for Madeleine's safe return.
One can only wish they showed a fraction of this devotion to their children before their daughter's disappearance.
In the coming months, we are likely to learn more about what really happened on May 3 in that idyllic little corner of Portugal, which will forever be linked to a beautiful little girl with the haunting, blue-green eyes.
Whether Madeleine was abducted by a stranger or is a victim of filicide or accidental death is a long way from being determined, but what we can say safely is that her fate was sealed by her parent's gross negligence on that tragic night.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22402077-5000117,00.html
