Madeleine McCann: 1000 Days Of A ‘Fierce Blonde Flame’
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: It’s been 1000 days since Madeleine McCann went missing and became the media’s Our Maddie, the benchmark for missing children. In that time we have learnt…NOTHING.
What we have done is look and be entertained by the single thread story of girl who went missing.
Tonight a roof-top, showbiz spiced dinner to commemorate the milestone. And there’s to be an auction. Bring your wallet. One lot is a poem by Simon Armitage, called The Beacon. Armitage wrote a poem for the fifth anniversary of 9/11, the 60th anniversary of VE-Day and Killing Time, a poem celebrating the millennium. Perspective in the matter of Our Maddie is all.
The Beacon
Dusk, doubt, the growing depth of an evening sky,
dark setting in as it did that night,
the forever vastness of outer space
reflecting the emptiness here inside,
shadowing, colouring, clouding the mind.
But somewhere out there there has to be life,
the distance only a matter of time,
a world like our own, its markings and shades
as uniquely formed as a daughter’s eye,
distinctly flecked, undeniably hers,
looking back this way through the miles and years
to a lantern cupping a golden blaze,
its candle alive with a fierce blonde flame
for the thousandth time, for as long as it takes.
Says the Times:
Armitage accepted the commission, which came via Emma Loach, a director who worked with Gerry and Kate McCann on a television documentary and is a friend of Armitage, after he met the couple at their home in Rothley, Leicestershire. “We talked about the night Madeleine went missing, those terrible hours of darkness before they could resume the search,” he said.
Perhaps more telling than the Ode To Maddie are the comments from Times readers. As AGW writes in the Forums:
Interesting the Times On Line comments on the Armitage Madeleine McCann poem are not re the literary merit of the writer but aimed at the child’s parents.
They are
1. Few, and …
2. 100 per cent unfavourable.It may be a matter of regret to some, much joy to others, but there is another huge sea change re the McCann parents, this one stemming from Gerry McCann’s angry outburst on the steps of the Lisbon Court only a few days ago…
I still meet and talk to others who “know” Madeleine McCann is still alive. My professional and gut instincts say she is not and does anyone know just one police officer who subscribes to the “live and held somewhere” theory?
Celebrity meals in London Roof Top restaurant rooms, such as the one planned for this evening, are not about recovering a missing child. They are about being seen….or perhaps more to the point NOT being seen to be associated with Drs Kate and Gerry McCann.
It stopped being about the search for child long ago. The story is one of entertainment. And we get to stare at the main players: the innocent parents, able to stoke the voracious media machine:
Kate and Gerry McCann spoke yesterday of the guilt they feel at coping without Madeleine – 1,000 days after she disappeared. In a statement to mark the painful milestone, the McCanns said:”It’s difficult sometimes to understand how we’ve been able to keep going and survive without Madeleine.” They added: “Especially since nothing has changed since that terrifying first night. Sometimes it even feels ‘wrong’ to be coping.”
Coping:
A thousand lanterns will be released into the sky tonight to mark the 1,000th day since Madeleine McCann went missing. Supporters at up to 50 locations including the United States, Portugal and the UK, will take part in the symbolic event, co-ordinated for 7.30pm, UK time. At the same time parents Kate and Gerry McCann will sit down to a £150-ahead fundraising dinner at the Richard Bransonowned Kensington Roof Gardens in West London.
And we are watching the parents. And we are forming opinions in place of facts and evidence:
The grim anniversary comes as a SECOND vile book – Faked Abduction – accuses the McCanns of lying about Maddie’s disappearance. Brit Steve Marsden repeats claims in a book by ex-Portuguese cop Goncalo Amaral. Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “Everything Mr Marsden alleges is entirely untrue.”
A missing child became a global sensation. Madeleine McCann is missing.
Posted: 27th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (6) | TrackBack | Permalink
