OK - so how is it that I've always considered myself to be a fairly pessimistic kind of person. As long as I can remember I've always been ready to believe the worst of someone regardless of who they are, and in particular I seem to judge somebody almost instantly - not on their appearance, but more on what they say combined with their body language.
It's like a disability for me.
OK - so the chances of me falling for someones bullshit story and giving them my life savings are minimal to say the least, which I guess is a good thing, but it also makes me jump to conclusions and sometimes wrongly.
Today in the news there is a horrible story about a poor girl in Mosman, Sydney Australia, who had been attacked by a home intruder and involved in some kind of extortion plot. The story goes that at around 2pm local time a man broke into her parents house (she's 18) and fitted some kind of explosive device around her neck in an attempt to extort money from her apparently very wealthy parents. Clearly the job didn't go to plan as news reports only a few short hours later - then on into the night, showed a massive presence from the NSW Police force and other emergency services. In the end the explosive device proved to be a hoax and contained nothing threatening but apparently looked convincing - I'm not quite sure what the difference between a genuine looking and non genuine looking device would be, but evidently it had been good enough to fool 'experts' into believing the poor girl was only moments away from a horrible gruesome death for a period of around 10 hours.
So back to my 'disability' and what makes me a 'bad' person.
I can't help but think, even from the first time I heard the story that during the next news report concerning this matter, that there would be a revelation that the whole thing is either made up by an attention seeking spoilt teenager, or a prank gone wrong. Either she's in on a wider prank or maybe isn't but that the 'perpetrator' is possibly someone known to her.
If I'm right, then there's been a massive waste of resources and someone will be charged with wasting police time and rightly so.
If I'm wrong, there's some real sicko out there that hasn't yet been caught who is prepared to put an innocent through what could be 10 hours of hell leading to a lifetime of therapy.
My problem is that I instantly jump to the conclusion that there is a hidden under story. I'm fascinated by so called conspiracy theories so I guess that I'm not the only one that sees things this way. Is it a personality type or are we made this way through living in a perceived untrustworthy society. Or is society in the main OK? I don't know.
Though I'll have the rest of my life to question this glass half empty attitude, I can honestly say that I am actually quite an optimistic and positive person and enjoy life, making the best of situations and seizing lifes opportunities and dealing with difficulties instead of wondering why the world has got it in for me and rolling over, which many others I know seem to think. This is the dilemma - how can I be one way, yet think another?
The truth regarding this crime will hopefully eventually come out, but we just have to wait and see what on earth was to be gained by doing this weird and peculiar act. It's certainly received a lot of news coverage over the last few hours.
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Update 08/01/2012
OK - like I said - I could be wrong and in this case I was - though I'll also re quote myself and draw your attention to the paragraph:
"If I'm wrong, there's some real sicko out there that hasn't yet been caught who is prepared to put an innocent through what could be 10 hours of hell leading to a lifetime of therapy."
Happily Madeleine seems to be a very well adjusted girl and recovered well from becoming a victim of the initial crime and the ensuing media circus.
It will be interesting to see how the accused fairs in March this year when the case comes to court.
Here's a link to the latest story I could find on this which appears to have now ceased to become national news - you may have to copy and paste to your browser as I'm not sure I've figured out how to make the links work yet.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/mosman-collar-bomb-victim-madeleine-pulver-makes-hsc-merit-list-in-advanced-english/story-e6freuzi-1226222513156
Further Update 10/07/2012
I was amazed to see how little this article is considered newsworthy now - a shocking story at the time, now seems to have warranted hardly a word (certainly nationally) and I searched for details of the court case to find out how the accused had been punished - there was a little bit towards the end of this article but as usual - to be newsworthy something has to be sensational and shocking (and most likely negative) and in the NOW. When was the last time you saw a positive headline on the front page of a tabloid?
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/collar-bomb-hoax-victim-madeleine-pulver-hails-brave-officer-karen-lowden/story-e6freuy9-1226406345265
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