Thursday, June 7, 2007

Maddie

Just read an article about the department that handles missing cases here in Belgium. (to read the article you probably need a subscription and it is in Dutch)
It says that they are receiving almost a tip per day about Maddie, the British girl who disappeared in Portugal, I first read about it here (I'm not gonna comment on that part of the story).
There is no indication whatsoever that she is in Belgium, the Portuguese police did not contact Belgian authorities but Child Focus is starting a poster campaign anyway.
The spokesperson of the police (commissaris Guido Van Rillaer) says that they now have a full time employee working on checking the Maddie tips.  While I understand the parents need to do all they can I feel that a lot of other parents are left in the cold just because they do not have the ability to travel around and to involve celebrities with their cause. 
The parents of Belgian missing cases that we had some time ago while also focusing on their own case were a lot more constructive they have been the origin of Child Focus which is helping all the missing children cases.  If anything were to happen in my family, that is how I would want to focus my efforts, and definitely not having a deluded senior citizen touch a picture of my daughter.

There was however a shimmer of light in the article:

... Met de tweede categorie tips, die van zieners en pendelaars, doen we ook niets. 'Ik zie ik zie ik zie.. dat het kindje nog in leven is en zich ergens in een witte boerderij bevindt.' We zitten al twaalf jaar in het vak en hebben van hen nog nooit bruikbare tips ontvangen.


Translation:
... With the second category of tips, those of mystics and pendulum swingers, we're not doing anything either. 'I see I see I see .. that the child is still alive and is in a white farm somewhere.'  We have been in the business for twelve years and have never received anything useful from them.

(the first category of tips are the vague ones, like 'I saw the girl in a car, but I'm not sure and I don't remember the type of car, color or license plate and didn't see who was driving' can't do anything with that either)

It cannot be stressed enough that those people do not ever help and are just wasting precious time and I applaud commissaris Guido Van Rillaer for telling it to the media.

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