As the world focuses on whispers of the return of 1929 and tries to see the world through the rose tinted glasses of Sarah Palin (and by the way shame on you Zardari - hasn't it been less than a year since Benazir - who if nothing else, was considered the intelligentsia's pinup girl - and you're trying to act fresh with a to-be VP in front of the world's cameras? I mean , really! Pack it in for a while will you?), the harsher stories hide in smaller fonts, their words lost in the folds of the morning paper. Here in Melbourne, there is a strikingly higher respect for human life - these people talk of 5 pedestrians killed per year due to road rage as a "statistic". Five! A single digit! Every house robbery makes the morning news. Every rape has follow ups for at least a week. And this is not for lack of political news - the freedom of expression that society has ensures plenty of sensational media statements and rebellion. With comparison to the 12 fatal muggings per month in Atlanta (one occurred last month just 200 metres from where a friend lives) and the 200 that die at the hands of a lathi charge in India, these Aussie local "tragedies" are merely a source of amusement to me over my morning cup of tea. The most recent case that has captured the city's attention for almost weeks now is the search for missing 21 year old Melbournian Britt Lapthorne, who was last seen during her backpacking world tour at a Croatian nightclub. The parents - who have set their house on mortgage to get the 20,000 euros promised to any informant who helps locate her - claim Facebook has given them more leads than the Interpol, that the Croatian and Australian diplomats have made this a red tape show more than a woman hunt. Meanwhile, the public is having masses at the city's churches to pray for her - candles, singing et al. Maybe I'm in a cynical mood, and the shadow of Liam Neelson's worst fears in Taken (which I will NEVER allow my father to watch, by the way!) is haunting me. But if I assume the worst, and the fact that all her luggage and money lies untouched in her hostel proves it, she is probably being sold off to a potbellied Sheikh somewhere as part of their monthly trafficking auction. And while the world prays for her to be alive, I think all this attention might just mean that even if she is alive, she will be more trouble than use, and it might be enough incentive for her "owners" to do away with her. So are the millions of girls who aren't written about, who stay alive on heroin as their captives milk them of all youth and dignity, actually better off? The world sucks sometimes doesn't it.
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