"Hysteria Lane" is nothing compared to this...

Wait and see what happens, just like people normally do, in other cases.

I guess that's pretty much the view of people around the world; only in the UK people seem to be taking it so personally, and the media are definately responsible for the hysteria, no doubt about that.

According to English tabloids, the Portuguese press "smears" and print "unfounded claims"; while the brilliant UK media is the paladin of truth and wholesome journalism, as we can see by their own dodgy style... pitiful and biased. The Portuguese press claim they have an inside "source" - they may have or not, butat least they try to do their own investigation, and no one is pressuring them nor throwing money at them, to side with one side of the story...

Discounted the obvious bias and the intentional MCs campaign to discredit the police work and the investigation, what is more revolting is that the UK media has been acting as the main vehicle for all the slurs, the pressure and the persecution, which borders xenophobia...It's unheard of, I think the word is acctually "LUDICROUS"!

All the fuss surrounding this case is indeed adding insult to injury in respect to parents of other missing children...

On the upside, though, all the fuss and hatred about the PJ work in Praia da Luz is not hurting the Tourism as it's claimed by the PJ detractors, but is in fact helping -Let me put it this way: "There's no such thing as bad publicity"...

Praia da Luz is now world famous, and even after the McCann left, many people still flock there in a sort of "macabre" peregrination to see the church, the resort, etc where everything took place...

The news teams alone sold out every room available in and about the area...

Besides, Portugal is much more than just Algarve, and thanks to all the publicity, even Americans now know that Portugal is not a Hispanic country in South America...

Also, many people have pledge to come next year to Portugal, on account of the beautiful scenery divulged on Tv and as a reaction to the vicious attacks the country unfairly received from the UK media and MCs supporters. After all, to believe in the parents own version, it could have happened anywhere in the world, since they stated the 3 very small children were left alone, to chance, and the door opened...

Anyway, the more the spin, the more people cry "wolf", the worst it looks for the MCs; it's quite sad when people resort to insults instead of arguments. Innocent or not, they are fast becoming the least favorite couple of the year. And how they are helping...

The Media that Bit the McCann

It is sadly interesting to see how too much speculation has led people to such misinformation...
To suggest that the McCanns have suffered any type of "aggression" by the Portuguese media or the general public, is a clear evidence that the tabloids have done their job "right"; and to find people that actually believe such bull, it's not only pitiful, but revolting....

The McCanns have been having nothing but public displays of sympathy from the Portuguese people since their ordeal started. The Portuguese press does NOT have a campaign against the couple, unlike the british media - bordering defamation - against the Police, and previously against C.Ronaldo, in what seems to be the "silly season's Portuguese bashing open season"...

The Portuguese press merely reflected the change of course in the investigations, puting aside the victimization of the parents, whom, like it or not, are partly responsible for what happened. For the UK tabloids, it's just more easy to find escaping-goats that are foreign - provided they’re not Iranian, as we had the chance to see recently, and you don't want to aggravate this people...

Claims that the UK Police would have opened and closed the case in a snap, are just hilarious and refuted by blunders like Jean C. de Menezes and many, many other cases that fortunately Portugal does not have to deal with.
By the way, the British Police is involved in the McCann investigations as well... but once again, it's more easy to blame foreigners...
Who has ever heard of a "public investigation"? I don't se how all the fuss can help the little girl...

Lastly, if this had happened in the UK to Portuguese "McCannos", you can bet your cuppa of tea they would not have any special attention from the police, the media or anyone else, nor the chance to be ungrateful and say people were turning on them - because the media would not focus on some foreign-speaking couple staying in a country were crimes like this happen quite frequently.
Some Brtis are even of the opinion that people in Britan would instead start screaming about how much the investigation is costing the state, how neglectful this couple was and how arrogant they were, bla, bla, bla...
Let's leave it alone, leave it with the police, and wait for the outcome of the investigation, before we start assigning blame or shame.

#3 "M" for Mourinho

I can't stress enough the importance of the role Portugal played in History and its influence in the world. Despite all of this, Portugal is still pretty much the remote relative that we all heard about, but never met. Part of the explanation for such, is that we hardly publicize or gloat about our own good stuff, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" The remaining part of the explanation, evidently, is that other countries take credit for stuff we did (eg. “Port Wine” made in Spain, discovery of Australia, etc.). We have a clear marketing issue to sort out.

So when you think of Portugal, what do you immediately think of? Wine, sunny beaches, the mean, lean, winning machine, called José Mourinho?

Although C. Ronaldo is tenderly nicknamed by the Portuguese "soccer" fans as "boy-wonder", the Portuguese manager once again takes a title - the 3rd wonder of Portugal is in fact, the 1st wonder out of Portuguese football. Not so much because of his undeniable trainer skills, but because he is probably the only Portuguese man who publicly defends his own and gloats to the verge of madness about his conquests and those of his group.

Granted, he often lacks sportsmanship and blabbers too much; but it's exactly that which makes him so different from his countrymen, therefore, such a damn good model for his nation - a marketing genius! Not a bad leader of man, and a damn excellent coach too...