Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Talking of rooms, thank God none of us have had to endure the appalling ordeal of Elisabeth Fritzl and her children.

If there's one thing I hate, it's people like Josef Fritzl, people who knowingly destroy the lives of other for their own gratification in one way or another. Unfortunately, there are all too many of them, and far too many of them in positions of power.

As I've got older, hopes of celebration of a life well lived and much enjoyed have been gradually replaced by despair as I look at the state the world has come to. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Right, thats my cathartic post over. For sanity's sake, it's back to the music. A sanctuary or a bolthole? Whatever gets me through the night, I'll take it.

6 comments:

glasshalfempty said...

Amen to that, tfd. And I'm struggling to imagine Frau Fritzl going 24 years without a hint of suspicion, too...

And, ejaydee, I'm thinking this may not be the week that Maddy picks Etta James' 'In the basement' after all...

goneforeign said...

My wife and I talked about this earlier, the wife issue came up, I can't believe her story. Everytime one of these occurs I get an urge to add a clause to the judicial system, I'd like to introduce torture in special cases, it's not enough to just lock him up with the burglars and bankrobbers, he should suffer proportionally to his victims. At times like this I believe in the eye for an eye system. I get emotional about cases like this.

Blimpy said...

He should have his balls chopped off and flushed down the toilet, before being thrown to a particularly rabid pigeon who pecks him slowly and painfully to death over the course of about 12 years.

steenbeck said...

Stories about this much evil are hard to even think about. And I hate to vilify the wife, but I really don't see how your daughter could give birth to seven children in the same house as you without you knowing. It just doesn't seem possible.

DarceysDad said...

CAVEAT - I'm no ostrich; I'm no hand-wringer; I have no solutions ... BUT ... I turned on the radio news whilst making a coffee this afternoon, and (if you'll pardon the analogy) having out-sprinted my kettle to boiling point at what was being reported, I then heard one thing that clicked and cut the escaping steam in seconds. For my own peace of mind, I have to get something off my chest, so forgive me this rant.

I heard an excerpt from the interview given by last year's found hostage - whose name I don't know - in which she said something which was so bang-on target it was laser-guided:

She said that the hostages should have been left where they were, and everyone involved in "helping" them MUST go to the Fritzl house.

The talking head bozo interviewing her interrupted incredulously with some airhead inanity about "rescue", but was put in his place in no uncertain terms. The point she was making is that the basement was all those kids have known: can you imagine what their involuntary introduction to the outside world is doing to their heads?

Quite frankly, no, I can't!

But yet again, the cure forced on those poor bastards is likely to be as disastrous as the original cancer, all because of the ridiculous, insatiable appetite of too many of us for a salacious read, and a society that is incredulously two-faced about the whole scenario.

With my deepest sympathies to those involved, this is NOT a story we need to hear unless THEY choose to tell us when they feel strong enough to do so. The hypocrisy of the press - who will no doubt call for the Fritzls to get the best of rehabilitation treatment, but then stalk them as long as there's a paper sale in it - sickens me to the core.

I'm with Tempusfugit on this one: the older I get, the less faith I have in the human race. If it wasn't for the sake of my daughters, I'd scream at both [the senior Fritzls who imprisoned those children, and the system which will now almost certainly destroy them] -

STOP THE WORLD: I WANNA GET OFF!

And as for Maddy: the prescience of choosing this week's topic is going to make for a very uncomfortable column on Friday.

I'm off to find some Kronos Quartet to soothe my soul before I dare look in on my girls and go to bed. It's at times like this I wish I did know my way around classical music, because I need wordless balm ........

DarceysDad said...

Found my balm: equal parts bourbon and ice clinking round my the best crystal, and Goldmund's Corduroy Road album (massive thanks, Georgina).

G'night all. God bless ...