Lest we forget:
http://minnea.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/portugal-dangerous-place-for-children.html
I confess, I don't find the heading to the blog particularly helpful.
A missing child (anywhere in the world!) is a trauma and potential tragedy.
But I think we need to keep a proper perspective. Per head of its native population, I don't suppose Portugal has any more paedophiles than Britain, or France, or Spain or any other country in Europe.
And I think, what's meant by such emotive headlines as
Portugal, a haven for paedophiles (and the like) is,
not that children are in greater peril in Portugal than most other places, simply that monitoring of paedophiles is not as rigorous in Portugal as, perhaps, other places.
There's maybe an element of national pride that comes into it as well -- to which we can
all be subject.
I freely confess, it took me
much longer than it should have to accept that British police shot dead an innocent Brazilian man, Jean Paul de Menezes, on a tube train at Stockwell Station.
But the fact is, they did ...