An Ode to Autumn

Tis known you're here, as icy blasts

Cast golden leaves upon the grass

Those blades they twist, they turn and quiver

Your breath makes all abend and shiver

Bobbled hats, scarf, mitts - all woollen

Donned to start some Autumn fooling

Falling leaves of golds and reds

Flake and float above our heads

Now raked away and into piles

And in the shape of golden smiles

Leafless trees and plants await

To heed the mark of Winter's fate

Autumn, a short time you are here

You take from nature all that's dear

Yet lying dormant is what's best

As Spring awaits, we all must rest


by
The Potting Shedder 2010
~oOo~

Missing Maddie really is no joke...

Day 10 - 13th May 2007

Absolutely not.  I've got no time for the opportunistic jokes and comments that raise their ugly heads in the events of tragic news, appearing in everyday life, in papers, forums and Facebook groups.  Frankie Boyle's joke may have been aimed at the father of Madeleine, however in my opinion, still in bad taste.

What I do find rather amusing is the lack-luster counterspin that we've experienced from the Team over the last week in response to the overturning of Goncalo Amaral's banned book.  I expected the counterspin to go into full throttle, but it's been amazingly quiet from both the Team and the British media.  What about the sudden appearance of a new eyewitness who thought they'd spotted Madeleine 3 years ago, travelling in the direction of Madagascar?  Or grainy CCTV footage from Bondai Beach?  Instead frail, old Mr Healy has been wheeled out to complain about a joke made by Mr Boyle at one of his recent shows.  A show which Mr Healy didn't attend but bizarrely felt the need to speak out about instead of leaving the customary comments to hired spokesperson Clarence Mitchell.

More wilting spin in the news involved the Google-like translation of the Find Madeleine website into German, in the apparent hope of jogging the memories of those German tourists who holidayed in Praia de Luz over 3 years ago.  Three years too late I'm afraid, unless Mr Edgar has just advised his employers that Germany also has those lawless villages with people living on the edges of society - as per his description of Portugal.  Oh to live in 'civilised' Leicestershire.

So what about the usual sighting that so often appears when news is on a downer? Or is this, in typical McCann style, being saved for a rainy day.  Perhaps for the customary Latch onto Christmas Appeal?  The appeal to keep searching for Madeleine which involves the wooden parents reading yet again from a script?  An appeal where there is no heartfelt message for the little girl who may be watching, or the mention of the huge reward available for information leading to her safe return?

The Christmas Appeal... perhaps Christians of today should be thankful that Mary and Joseph knew exactly what bounds were within the realms of responsible parenting. Despite the need to quench their thirst and fill their bellies with friends at the local Inn, they didn't (even though the Innkeeper was a kind, hospitable person).  Had they left baby Jesus away in his manger, all alone to fend for himself in an unlocked stable who knows what would have happened.  Instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh perhaps the 3 Wise Men would be delivering a different kind of gift, one similar to the ruling of the 3 Wise Judges.  One thing's for sure, the bible certainly wouldn't be as it is known today.

There is no time to lose in the case of a missing child, so instead of waiting for Christmas, an appeal should be made today.  To that one person out there who has kept that piece of information from the police, and has kept it close to their chest since May 2007 - it must be eating away at your insides, it's time to release your conscience and get the police case back on track and investigating just what happened to Madeleine.  No matter what the consequences.  You know it, we all know it... so do the right thing.

Or the parents and their chums could just agree to attending the reconstruction and answer the questions they refused to answer in the first place.  Enough to reopen the case.

Either way, there is only one deserved person in all of this and that is Madeleine.

    .    

A New McCann Appeal

Today we have news of a shiny new McCann appeal which yet again, looks like another back to front initiative from the Team...

Kate and Gerry McCann are launching their website in German this week in a bid to reach German tourists who were staying at the Ocean Club when Madeleine vanished.

Apart from British and Dutch holidaymakers, who've long been canvassed directly, there were also German tourists who may have left the resort without talking to police about potential evidence that's not been considered.

The McCanns have also given an interview to Bunte magazine in which they make new appeals for help in the search for their daughter who disappeared from the family's holiday apartment in May 2007.

The couple's lawyers are studying the recent 30-page judgement from Portugal in which former cop Goncalo Amaral won an appeal to republish his book the 'The Truth of the Lie' which the McCanns had managed to get banned.

They may appeal his appeal ahead of a full defamation claim they are still pursuing against Mr Amaral who claims that Madeleine died accidently in the apartment and her parents hid the "truth" by concocting an abduction theory.

A defamation trial in Lisbon is unlikely to be heard until next year.

Good luck!  I hope it brings many leads, although it beggars belief that the McCanns should choose the pomp and ceremony of hosting their site in German, in an attempt to target the few German holidaymakers that may have been there almost 4 years ago and who bizarrely may need reminding about this infamous case.  Surprisingly, they would rather target Germany than take the advice of their crack investigation team and aim for the obvious... the Portuguese people themselves.

Madeleine vanished from Portugal and the Team's lead investigator Dave Edgar believes that the child is being held very close to Praia de Luz, within 10 miles infact.  Just to make it glaringly clear - the following is a snipped interview with Mr Edgar from the Belfast Telegraph, he didn't tell me this personally!!.

"The Ulster detective leading the search for Madeleine McCann today reveals his most chilling theories yet.  Dave Edgar told us he is convinced little Maddie is imprisoned in a hellish lair - just like kidnapped sex slave Jaycee Lee Dugard.  He insisted the "back from the dead" reappearance of Jaycee confirmed his suspicion.  And despite fresh leads taking his probe to Australia and Barcelona, the east Belfast man insists the golden-haired younster is being held just 10 miles from where she was snatched in Praia de Luz two years ago.

But he warned that the sprawling wilderness where he believes Maddie is languishing is almost impossible to search completely.  Dave said he was convinced Maddie was entombed by an abductor in a cellar or dungeon. "Maddie is most likely being held captive, possibly in an underground cellar, just like Natascha or Elizabeth, and could emerge at any time," he told us.

He feels this is the lone prowler who has Maddie stashed in a cellar or dungeon in the lawless villages around Praia de Luz.  But Dave warned: "This rural, sprawling terrain makes it extremely difficult to search. You could quite easily keep a child there for years and no-one else would know.  The person who has Maddie is most likely a paedophile or a person so desperate for a family they were willing to kidnap for it.  I wouldn't like to speculate on what is happening to her."

Dave says the region where he feels Maddie is being held has attracted any strange characters, including convicted sex offenders.  "I don't want to generalise or make gross exaggerations, but there are people there living on the edges of society," Dave said."

This makes me wonder why the McCanns are now targetting Germany, when their lead man believes the answer lies where the whole sad version of events began, in Praia de Luz.  Even though some of his outlandish comments appear xenophobic, extreme and wrong, Edgar is being paid to detect and advise, and being paid from the fund.  Yet his advice is whoosh clunked into oblivion by his employers.  I wonder why.  

Anyway, yet again we can end with the immortal words of Dave Edgar...

"I don't know. We could still be sitting here in 10 years."

Here's hoping these words are just as worthless as all of his other horrendous fantasies.

More McNiggles...

The missing Madeleine McCann case seems to be a web of intrigue which makes one question thoughts previously held and taken as 'gospel'.  Nearly 4 years on, there are many more questions than answers, otherwise knows as the McNiggles.  Little things that stick in the mind and no matter what, they just can't be explained.  From day one I've had these niggles, starting with the news that all these children were left to fend for themselves in empty apartments.  Were they really left alone?? That little niggle intensified as I waited for news of the missing child and watched her father read a plea to the waiting press, not appearing to speak from the heart but reading from a sheet of paper.

More recently I read an article from yesteryear in This is London, and discovered that the journalist shared my niggle about certain points raised on Portuguese TV. I'm certainly not naive and believe that there is nothing wrong with swinging amongst consenting adults, but is this what this holiday camp is all about, to those in the know?  Who knows what goes on behind closed doors?  Or closed, open or partially opened windows? Or even those damn shutters?  Anyway, I had hoped for some niggle relief, but me oh my, that little niggle just got bigger...

"Several Portuguese lawyers and journalists, along with a uniformed police officer from the National Republican Guard I spoke to outside the Ocean Club apartment, told me solemnly not only that the McCanns and their friends were "swingers" who had taken their holiday together to indulge in group sex (an assertion made repeatedly by the Portuguese Press), but that "everyone knows" that its tolerance of orgies is the Mark Warner Ocean Club resort's main selling point"
This is London 16.09.07

(I should like to make it clear to those guilty of skimming that the above quoted paragraph was taken directly from the aforementioned This is London article.  I have not had any private or personal conversations with the GNR, although I really would like to.)

Next is the well publicised flouting of apparent religious devoutness of the couple. This is a couple who have partaken in IVF with wonderful consequences - not one, but three successes. Nothing is more precious than the birth of a child, and what a reward that child is after carrying and nurturing for all those months. And especially after the worrying first few weeks of IVF. A joyous outcome, yet the Catholic church opposes all kinds of in vitro fertilisation.  We have also seen the religiously devout mother in the act of receiving holy communion from an Anglican priest (an act frowned upon by the Catholic Church, some would deem this as sinful!?) whilst a Catholic priest watched from the sidelines.  A devout Catholic knows this is forbidden and would never receive it.  This niggle grew into the even huger niggle of... have they been excommunicated?  I recall Mrs Healy's confusion in the early days as to why her daughter had even asked for a priest because they weren't really religious?

The niggle of the book.  Yes Goncalo Amaral's Maddie - The Truth of the Lie... currently available at all major bookshops in Europe as a result of the recent overturning of the ban.  I quote Kate McCann yet again from yesteryear...

"Our main worry was people believing that Madeleine was dead and then stopping looking for her."

Fair enough, I totally understand and agree with that comment.  Yet why no attempt to stop the book from being published in the first place?  Why no attempt to block the sale of the book once it had been released?  Why wait for months and months before taking any action, while in the meantime the book is selling out all over Europe, being translated online into English and being read by all and sundry. The Team weren't so concerned about the search being impeded or hampered during these months.  Were they waiting for the sales tally to mount or were they spurred into action because an English version to be sold in the UK was in the offing?

Another little niggle that has been awakened in the last few days has been the phone and text messages that the parents and their friends reportedly deleted from their mobile phones.  This irked me initially because surely on discovering their child missing they should have done the obvious - looked for her?  Instead, deleting their calls became a priority rather than searching alongside the population of Praia de Luz and the police  After reading the ruling of the three Portuguese judges who overturned the ban on Snr Amaral's book, my niggle surfaced and grew...

"What is certain is that since the start of the investigation there were incongruent and even contradictory situations concerning the witness statements; the telephone records of calls that were made and received on mobile phones that belonged to the couple and to the group of friends that were on holidays with them; the movements of people right after the disappearance of the little girl was noticed, concerning the state in which the bedroom from where the child disappeared from was found (closed window? open window? partially open window?) etc., and the mystery would only become even thicker due to the clues that were left by the already mentioned sniffer dogs."

And finally, a real niggling niggle that just won't go away no matter how I try to explain it.  Eddie the Cadaver Dog who, according to the experts, is infallible.  Eddie marks what he's trained to mark, nothing else.  He does not lie.  This dog was taken to various locations in and around Praia de Luz, yet the only place places marked were in relation to the family of missing Madeleine.  In their apartment, clothes, car and sadly on Madeleine's favourite cuddly toy, Cuddlecat.  To me that is a momentous discovery, and I just can't explain that other than the obvious - the dog was simply doing what he was trained to do, so who was he signalling?

With the ease of online browsing and a wealth of information at our fingertips, we are so much more informed than we would have been 10 or more years ago.  A huge thanks should go to the many translators and foreign posters, without whom we would certainly be in the dark, following the inconsistent version of events of the parents and their friends.  Should we believe them, can we believe them? Surely they do not have the definitive right to insist that we believe their version of events and nothing else?  The police believe more questions need to be answered, indeed the mother refused to answer any questions... questions need to be answered but these answers just pose even more questions.

There are, of course many more niggles from Timbuktoo and beyond which could be collated and turned into one big niggle.  Fact is, it's already been done and sadly it is what it is - the Case of Missing Madeleine McCann.  Cobbled, nobbled and wobbled into one enormous McNiggle and I ask myself if this is just the simple case of a missing child, then why am I so irked?  Now more doubts have been cast after reading the latest ruling in this sticky web.  Perhaps the most important niggle of all... what really happened to Madeleine and where is she?  

The Great Hampering Debate... Who's Hampering Who??.

After the startling news (not for UK readers) regarding the overturning of the ban on Goncalo Amaral's book, Maddie - The Truth of the Lie, great claims have resurfaced here, there and everywhere that the said book could actually be hampering the search for a live child.  

To quote Kate McCann from yesteryear...

"Our main worry was people believing that Madeleine was dead and then stopping looking for her."

Rather worryingly, these claims prompted a terrible, annoying ringing in my ears.  I felt compelled to type three little words into my search engine - Dave Edgar McCann. Try it, you'll come across a myriad of reports, all indicating that the search is actually going rather well despite the book being in publication... despite the dvd being viewed, and despite Snr Amaral occasionally giving his personal opinion in public.  The search seems to be going well,  although the sad fact is that none of the many leads investigated have actually led anywhere remotely close to finding Madeleine.

Here are a few snippets, although there are many more reports.  Unfortunately I don't have my waders handy...

The family of missing youngster Madeleine McCann have been given new hope after more than 50 people have come forward with information about her disappearance.

"It gives the family hope that we have had more than 50 calls following Thursday night's programme.  "This is in addition to hundreds of calls we received following the McCanns' appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show in the United States."

Renowned for leaving no stone unturned in his UK murder investigations, Dave now spends his days with a four-strong team probing every lead that comes in to his office.  His partner Arthur Cowley has more than 30 years' policing experience in north-west England and the pair are backed up by a translator and an ex-police administrator.  They have sifted through thousands of emails, answerphone messages and letters to get that one breakthrough lead.

"Our investigators received approximately 1,000 e-mails and phone calls following this appeal and have been busy working through this information. Thank you to everybody who passed information on."

"There has been a good response in the wake of the video. Kate and Gerry are very pleased."

So it appears that in one hand, the private eyes are being inundated with phone calls, emails and other titbits of information to keep them and the four-man team busy, busy, busy.  Yet on the other hand they're redundant, nothing to do... no phones ringing... no leads... yawn.  That damn book?  Hmm, maybe not or simply justification for the cost of employment and fruitless investigations?

I'll leave you with Mr Edgar for the final word...
"We could still be sitting here in 10 years."

The real truth of the lie?

For the sake of truth and justice for Madeleine McCann, I hope not.