Dr Martin Robers: We are all blighted

We Are All Blighted



EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com

By Dr Martin Roberts
07 April 2010


WE ARE ALL BLIGHTED


A serial 'blogger' on the McCann case, 'Himself' is a tirelessly vitreolic critic of the parents and all those who have lined up behind them, coining the phrase 'a blight on humanity' in his heading up of a series of quotes attributed to the McCanns. These examples are drawn from diverse occurrences (media interviews) over time. In particular the set of utterances paraded in conclusion have the monotonous ring of scripted falsehood. Just as recently, a single early interview given by Gerry McCann has been 'exhumed' and transcribed by Nigel Moore, editor of McCannfiles. It is an interview with reporter Jenni Murray for the BBC World Service, recorded on 19 June, 2007 and broadcast on the 22nd - the 50th anniversary day of Madeleine McCann's disappearance. What is striking about this dialogue is that those apologetic cliches with which we are now all too familiar are here displayed, already present and fully formed, barely six weeks after little Madeleine mysteriously disappeared.

In the course of the interview Gerry McCann refers separately to the concepts of empathy and sympathy. The nearest I have come to 'losing' a child (as in suddenly not knowing their exact whereabouts) was over a decade ago, when one of our two infants 'detached' himself unnoticed in a bustling cafeteria within the grounds of a zoo. 'Frantic' would not be inappropriate as a description of the ensuing couple of minutes. I can hardly begin to imagine the feelings of a parent having to cope with the unintentional absence of their child for a protracted period of time; a day and you're traumatised, a week and you're in pieces.

If this is the class of sympathy to which Gerry McCann refers, then why can I not find it within myself to extend it to him? Could it be that the McCanns' behaviour, then as now, is not appropriate to the elicitation of such emotional confluence? If one takes this 50th anniversary interview as an example, it seems fairly clear that whatever emotions the McCanns may have been enduring, at that time and since, they are something other than those typically attributable to parents suddenly and unexpectedly deprived of a child by abduction. That our emotions can affect both what we say and how we say it is a common, if not universal, experience that does not require experimental demonstration. The influence can lead to 'spur of the moment' remarks, 'outbursts', even 'outpourings.' What emotion does not usually provoke is pseudo-intellectual detachment. For that we need Gerry McCann.

Jenni Murray: ……Gerry McCann has just returned to Portugal from a brief trip to Britain to appoint a campaign manager to coordinate their efforts to publicise the case; only the second time he's left Portugal since Madeleine's disappearance. But I spoke to him, while he was here, and asked him what stage the investigations were at now.

Gerry McCann: The actual specifics of what happened and I think the key things here about, errm... who actually has taken Madeleine, errr... why they've taken her and where she is, errr... I don't think we're any the wiser. That's very much why we're having to continue our campaign on an international front to make sure that Madeleine's image and, errr... details of her disappearance are as widely spread as possible.

So a primary purpose of the campaign exercise is to broadcast information you do not have? (Message to interlocutor: The use of more and more words does not make a circular argument any less circular).

In very short order the interview proceeds to deliver up one of the sickest statements I can recollect having been attributed to either parent in this case. It comes after an evasive non-answer to a very straightforward question, where the 'need for secrecy' overrides a simple 'yes' or 'no.'

JM: Are there any leads at all? I mean, is there anything that the police are now following up, for example?

GM: There's a lot of, errr... information still coming into the inquiry and, errm... you know, there's a lot of hard detective work going on. We have to realise that if they were hard leads we wouldn't be telling, errr... the public because, errr... they would be handled in a very quiet, errr... fashion and, errr... investigated. The important thing, at this time, is that we don't have Madeleine and, errr... that's the only, errr... result that'll clearly make Kate and I happy, and the rest of the family.

I have previously commented on the manner in which both parents, Gerry in particular, phrase their statements so as to invite the application of a supportive context by the listener who, in so doing, inadvertently assumes this to be the framework within which the speaker himself is operating. Assume nothing. There is no justification for a supposedly literate doctor's being so cavalier with relative pronouns that we listeners have to 'slide them up and down' their respective clauses in order to extract the significance we suppose them to hold. Hence 'that we don't have Madeleine' is the result that will clearly make Kate and Gerry happy. And no, I did not say that. Gerry McCann did.

Now follows another non-answer, the justification for which is vacuous. Adequate knowledge of the personality of one's child would surely allow an opinion as to how that child might cope with unforeseen separation. Not in this case.

JM: How do you think Madeleine herself would be coping?

GM: You know, that's somewhere where we, errr... we can't really go because, errm... it's back to speculation and we've absolutely no idea who's taken her and where she is and, errm... you know, what sort of surroundings she's in, so there's just too many in... errr... errr... probabilities there to really consider it.

To lighten the mood but briefly, we also have pan-european traveller Gerry McCann referring to his map of Germany dating from before the Hanseatic League.

GM: The phase of the campaign now is very different to that which we, errr... have undertaken in the last few weeks with Kate and I, you know, travelling to different areas, errm... either to raise awareness in countries in close proximity to Portugal, such as Spain and Morocco, and also going directly to countries, errr... The Netherlands and Berlin to appeal for information.

But this is hardly the forum for levity and we progress via the interview into linguistically incoherent waffle (e.g., "there's no guarantees") that camouflages the authorised mantra, as well as a persistent displacement on the part of the interviewee.

JM: Has the campaign helped you and Kate to cope, in that, at least you feel you're doing something?

GM: It has helped us and it helped us stay positive, errr... perhaps when our, errr... we were feeling very negative. Yes, there's no doubt having a focus and diverting your energy, errr... into the campaign, it certainly does help us but, at the same time, when you don't achieve the... the end goal of getting Madeleine back, it... it's still, you know, very difficult as time goes on. We are determined and, errr... we certainly will not give up and I think, you know, parents would know that; they would do anything to find their child.

JM: You've had help from trauma counsellors. Has... has that actually helped you?

GM: Without a doubt, errr... and I think what, errm... the psychologists, errm... did was give us the tools, errm... to help us cope at the beginning. We could only imagine the worst scenarios and, errm... he helped us to consider other possibilities and that, you know, there's reasonably good possibilities, errr... that Madeleine, errm... has not been seriously harmed and that has helped drive us. We have tremendous hurt that Madeleine is not here and we've had to have, you know, 50 days now, errr... without her and, of course, when you think about Madeleine not being with her family, errr... it's very distressing.

JM: So, for you and... and for Kate, what actually keeps the hope alive? I mean, when... when you're together, can you actually bolster up each other? Is it... or do you simply find that when you're together you feel very depressed about it?

GM: Despite, you know, a huge investigation, there is no evidence, to date, that Madeleine has been, errm... harmed, errr... physically, errm... and that, errr... means that we will always have hope and, errm... the hope is what drives us on in our determination to be reunited with our daughter. So, errr... of course, there are... we have blips and, errr... moments where, errm... we're not quite as positive and that is difficult to deal with but we support each other; we get family support and the huge amount of goodwill.

JM: Are there other international cases you know about which give you hope; where the children were... were eventually found?

GM: There's been a number of cases, errm... where children have been found, after a long time, errm... that, when you think about these, you know, is a double-edged sword. Errr... You know about the case of the Austrian girl who was found after, I think, eight years, errr... and you think: 'Goodness me, 'you never want to be separated, errm... that long and, in fact, every day is too long for us and there's been another case earlier this year where a boy, errr... was found in America after four... four years; well. Errm... So, yes, you know, there are clearly, errr... cases where people are returned.

Every person gets a mention - except the first person; the one with greatest involvement yet least representation.

This 'blight on humanity', in my estimation, does not reside in an individual alone, but in all those affiliates that have coalesced in their private and public support for a dubious cause; one that has succeeded beyond measure so far in achieving highly questionable objectives, impoverishing the English lexicon in the process. No longer should we have need of terms like decency, honour and integrity all the while the governance of our society is entrusted to those who would either declare for the corrupt, or turn a blind eye to their existence.

http://www.mccannfiles.com/id232.html

A very good article and worth reading again.

I cannot understand why the McCanns bring up these cases of young women who have been found after being held captive for years. None of them were found because anybody was actively searching for them, but because of other circumstances, so why do the McCanns think that continuing to pour other peoples money into searching for Madeleine has any relevance to cases such as Natascha Kampusch and Jaycee Dugard?

I do not believe Madeleine was abducted, but I could be wrong. However, if I am, I fail to see how all this publicity, anniversary lantern bashes, half marathons or suing people is going to find Madeleine. If the parents want to continue hoping, I can understand that, and good luck to them, but they cannot expect to be supported and feted indefinitely.
As Kate says, it isn't about them, it's about Madeleine, but the way the parents behave, and the things they say, Madeleine does seem to get pushed into the background.

I have been going back over articles and this really sank in the second time around.

JM: Are there any leads at all? I mean, is there anything that the police are now following up, for example?

GM: There's a lot of, errr... information still coming into the inquiry and, errm... you know, there's a lot of hard detective work going on. We have to realise that if they were hard leads we wouldn't be telling, errr... the public because, errr... they would be handled in a very quiet, errr... fashion and, errr... investigated. The important thing, at this time, is that we don't have Madeleine and, errr... that's the only, errr... result that'll clearly make Kate and I happy, and the rest of the family.


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