Friday 28 March 2008

Enfants Kidnappés: Kate and Gerry McCann participate in an ITV documentary.

"Kate et Gerry McCann participent à un documentaire sur ITV." "Comme nous vous l'annoncions, en bref, hier, les parents de Madeleine ont pris part à un documentaire télévisé pour marquer la commémoration du premier anniversaire de la disparition de leur fille. Les caméras ont suivi le couple depuis le mois de janvier. Dans le documentaire, le couple parle longuement de Madeleine, du soir où elle a disparu, de leur statut "d'arguidos" au Portugal et de leur décision de revenir en Grande-Bretagne. Les parents n'ont pas reçu de rémunération pour leur participation à ce programme d'une heure sur ITV. La chaîne, au lieu de payer les parents, à verser la somme £10.000 au Fonds Pour Trouver Madeleine."

Kate and Gerry McCann participate in an ITV documentary.

As we announced in brief yesterday, Madeleine's parents have taken part in a television documentary to mark the commemoration of the first anniversary of their daughter's disappearance. The cameras have followed the couple since January. In the documentary, the couple talk at length about Madeleine, of the evening she disappeared, of their, "arguido," status in Portugal and of their decision to return to Great Britain. The parents have not received payment for their participation in the one hour programme for ITV. Instead of paying the parents, the channel has paid the sum of £10,000 into the Find Madeleine Fund.

"Ils ont aussi filmé le lancement d'une campagne visant à introduire un système d'alerte en Europe, quand un enfant disparaît, dans le style du système Amber aux USA. Ce système permettrait aux autorités d'exiger du temps d'antenne aux chaînes de télévisions et de radios à chaque fois qu'un enfant disparaît... (NDLR: nous imaginons qu'il ne s'agirait que d'alertes en cas d'enlèvement avéré par un inconnu... sinon, rien qu'en Belgique, en excluant toutes les fugues de mineur, il y a eu 451 dossier de rapts parentaux l'année dernière... Si le système Amber Européen ne se limite pas aux seuls kidnappings par un ou des inconnus, il y aurait, en Belgique, un peu plus d'une alerte par jour!!! La France étant 80 fois plus grande que la Belgique, le calcul est vite fait... si l'on transpose le tout à l'échelle européenne... on va se retrouver avec plusieurs alertes au quotidien)."

They have also filmed the launch of a campaign looking to introduce an alert system in Europe, when a child disappears, in the style of the Amber system in the USA. This system would allow the authorities to demand air time from television and radio channels each time a child disappears. ..(NDLR: we imagine that would onyl involve alerts in cases of proven abduction by a stranger....otherwise, in Belgium, excluding all under-age runaways, nothing but been 451 cases of parental abduction last year, If the European Amber system does not limit itself to single kidnappings by one or more strangers, there would be, in Belgium, a little more than one alert a day!!! France being 80 times bigger than Belgium, the calculation is quickly done...if everything were implemented at European level ...we would be faced with several alerts daily.)

"Kate et Gerry ont été filmés dans leur maison de Rothley à Leicestershire et les caméras devraient les accompagner à Washington aux États-Unis, où le couple compte poursuivre leur campagne. Les caméras d'ITV seront également présentes à Bruxelles quand les parents de Madeleine iront défendre le projet. Le producteur de Mentorn médias, Steve Anderson, a déclaré: "Au milieu de la controverse, ce qu'il ne faut pas oublier, c'est que la petite est toujours portée disparue et que sa famille a fait de son mieux pour la retrouver. Ils sont déterminés à faire tout ce qu'ils peuvent pour faire en sorte que ce qui est arrivé à Madeleine n'arrive pas à un autre enfant".

Kate and Gerry were filmed in their house in Rothley, Leicestershire and the cameras should accompany them to Washington in the United States, where the couple plans to continue their campaign. The ITV cameras will also be present in Brussels when Madeleine's parents go to support the project. Mentorn Media's producer, Stev Anderson, stated: "In the midst of the controversy, what must not be forgotten, is that th little girl is still missing and that the family has done its best to find her. They are determined to do everything they can to ensure that what happened to Madeleine does not happen to another child."

************Article ends. ************

I don't very often add comments to these articles, but I will add just a brief note, or rather a simple question to this one. I have already, in a previous post, wondered how much information would have been available for an alert, on the night Madeleine disappeared. Look out for a small, blonde child, wearing white, no pink, pyjamas, accompanied by a man with an egg-shaped face with hair. No vehicle description. And a photo? The most up-to-date photo of Madeleine did not appear until, what was it, twenty-three days after she disappeared?

Anyway, I digress from my simple question for Kate and Gerry.

Q: On the evening that Madeleine disappeared, what would have been more useful?

a) An Amber alert?

b) A babysitter?

http://www.kidnapping.be/maddie/maddie.html


I have read elsewhere, that Kate and Gerry want to do their best to, "stop," child abdcuctions. Stop child abductions? It ain't gonna happen. As we have seen in the Enfants Kidnappés report above, in Belgium alone there were 451 abductions by parents last year. Would those have been prevented by an Amber alert system? I think not. So, trying to stop them may be like doing a King Canute!

So, if we can't stop abductions, what can we do? Well, we can do our best to prevent them. Abduction by absent parents may be rather difficult to prevent; if a parent has right of access, then legally the risk has to be taken. Abduction by stranger(s)? How to do our best to prevent them? Here are just a few suggestions, which are probably common sense to most parents, even if Clarence Mitchell says that we Brits all leave our children on heir own.

  • Make sure you know where your children are.
  • Keep the children in your sight at all times when out and about.
  • Never leave very young children on their own, especially in an unlocked building.
Remember, if you cannot see the building where your children are, you are probably too far away to know if they are choking, vomiting, or have had a serious accident.

In a holiday apartment like those in Praia da Luz, if parents are in the apartment while children are sleeping, it would be rather difficult for an abduction to take place. If the patio doors and the front door are locked and the windows have shutters, which cannot be opened from the outside (an attempt creates a horrendous din apparently) then I would have thought that abduction would be close to impossible. So, if you go on holiday to PDL, especially if your apartment is outside the Mark Warner complex, the night crêche is useful as is the babysitting service, provided by the nannies whom your children will probably have met at the daytime crêche: not strangers then!

Remember folks. In the UK, there is no minimum age for leaving children on their own. However, the law does state that should you do so and your children suffer significant harm as a consequence, you will be held responsible and may be fined or sent to prison, depending on the level of harm to the child.

And lastly, "to ensure that what happened to Madeleine does not happen to another child," never leave your children alone. Can the McCanns possibly be stupid enough to think that an Amber alert system is the way to deal with situations where parents leave their children on their own? God help us if that's the average level of awareness of our UK doctors!

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