Why I'm sick of Maddie McCann

Last night, I posted a bit of a rant on Facebook and Instagram about my feelings towards the world renowned missing child, Madeleine McCann. More specifically, my feelings towards the fact that Theresa May has just granted Scotland Yard a further £95,000 to put towards their search for her- not forgetting that the search so far has already cost a whopping £12 million. 

I am fuming. Before I continue, you may like to read my original rant, a response to the news of this additional funding, first:

"I'm sorry but this is absolutely ridiculous now! NOTHING makes Maddie more special than any other child- and several hundred children go missing EVERY SINGLE DAY. Why the hell is the country putting so much money into this one child who, let's face it, is more than likely dead, when they could be splitting that money across several other searches for several other children? WHAT is so prestige about Maddie that everyone seems to care so much about this story, about this one girl? If her parents weren't rich fancy doctors, if she were black, if she were from a 'rough' background, you can guarantee this story would be a hell of a lot different and not even half of this money would have been spent. Yes, it would be absolutely insanely amazing if one day Maddie turned up alive and well, it really would, but it's time to let this ONE child go and focus on the one's who still continue to disappear everyday and could also benefit from as much press as this one child has received for the last god knows how many years. Honestly!"

So let's break this rant down shall we. 

Point one: What makes Maddie so special? 

It's sad when any child go missing, and in the UK 140,000 children go missing every single year. That is a staggeringly high number. Yet how many of those do we see on TV? How many of those children make breaking news? How many have books written about them, charities set up in their names, £12 million+ spent looking for them for nearly nine years? The answer, I'm sure you well know, is none of them. None of them except Maddie. Most of the children remain nameless, faceless children. Some will have a photo in one issue of the local paper or retweeted a few times on Twitter in a bid to try and find them. No child has the coverage Maddie did, and continues to even today. Why? Why is she so special? She was (is?) an ordinary child and should not have been treated any differently from anyone else. It is totally unjust and unfair. 

Point two: Maddie's privilege. 

Following on from point one, point two almost answers the questions posed in point one. Maddie received the massive media attention that she did because of her white privilege. Her parents are well respected, white, wealthy doctors. They are at the top of the food chain. If Maddie had been from a family in an ethnic minority, if her parents had been on benefits, if she had come from a 'rough' area or a low income family, several things about this story would be different:

- She would not have had £12 million+ spent on finding her.

- Her parents would have received more scrutiny for leaving their children alone, unattended at night.

- The other two children would have been taken into care. 

- Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents, would have been slated across the news for their parenting skills- the public would never have become so invested in this case.

It makes my blood boil. It really, really does. As I mentioned in my previous rant, in my opinion, Maddie is more than likely dead. As a parent, I know that I would never give up trying to find a child, so of course I don't condemn Kate and Gerry for still trying to find her. What I do have a problem with is the money this country is paying to find one child who is more than likely dead when so many people go missing day in and day out with not even half as much money put into their searches. 

Point three: The money.

Kate and Gerry wrote a book and received money from that. Gerry McCann earned £75,000 a year as a doctor. Shortly after the initial funding to find Maddie was set up, with donations from members of the public as well as the likes of Richard Branson, it was revealed that the pair were using this money to pay their mortgage! They clearly don't really need the money for the search of their daughter- they can easily fund this off of their own back. Funding is going on their living expenses, so to me it seems giving additional money to the police when there is already a Maddie McCann fund being spent on Kate and Gerry's lifestyle seems like a massive waste and incredibly stupid. 

To spend £12 million+, plus an additional £95,000 on one child when 140,000 go missing every single year is excessive and ridiculous- especially when she has her own fund and when her parents are so wealthy and when they receive royalties from their book about her- is sickening to me. I might be biased due to the fact I believe her parents were involved in her death, but this whole tirade is just extremely boring to me now. 

I am bored of hearing about Maddie and I am bored of the endless amounts of money this country is putting in to finding her. We don't have money to help immigrants, to help our own homeless, to give to the NHS, to help people who really need financial aid, but we have an excessive amount of money to find one child who really isn't that significant to this country in the grand scheme of things. 

I can't even begin to imagine how Kate and Gerry must feel about their loss. Losing a child must be absolutely soul destroying. But let's not forget that it is down to their neglect and bad parenting that this situation even came around in the first place. Why are we helping two completely awful parents get over their guilt for behaving like idiots by investing so much time and money into their cause?

Kate and Gerry should continue looking for their daughter, of course they should. But they should be using their own sources of income and their own time now. Other missing children, and even adults, need the attention, the media investment, the public's sympathy- everything that Maddie has had and seemingly no one else is deserving of. Maddie is long lost and far gone. Other children are going missing right now. Collectively, they need the press, they need the funds. Not Maddie. It sounds heartless but it's true. Just imagine how many other children £12 million+ could help, rather than it all being invested into one! It's time for this country to move on. 

Love from,

Florence Grace