Anne McPhail.

Missing and Exploited Children

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Sunday, November 16, 2014

Many will remember the abduction of Madeleine McCann in 2003. She was one of thousands that year and in all the years since. The statistics from the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children detailed in the article below are horrifying.

http://www.icmec.org/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_X1&PageId=4896

The global problem of missing children is an issue that needs the immediate attention of law enforcement and officials around the world. It is estimated that at least 8 million children worldwide go missing each year. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that nearly 800,000 children will be reported missing each year in the United States. Other sources estimate that 40,000 children go missing each year in Brazil; 50,500 in Canada; 39,000 in France; 100,000 in Germany; and 45,000 in Mexico. An estimated 230,000 children go missing in the United Kingdom each year or one child every 5 minutes…

About the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) 
The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children is a private 501(c)(3) non-governmental, nonprofit organization. It is the leading agency working internationally to combat child abduction, sexual abuse and exploitation. The Organization has built a global network of 22 nations, trained law enforcement in 121 countries and worked with parliaments in 100 countries to enact new laws on child pornography. ICMEC works in partnership with INTERPOL, the Organization of American States and the Hague Conference on Private International Law among others. For more information about ICMEC visit: www.icmec.org.

Canadian statistics are provided by the RCMP here: http://www.canadasmissing.ca/pubs/fac-ren-2013-eng.htm

Just for readers of the blog:

The Child on the Terrace: The latest in Anne McPhail’s Dangerous Journeys is back to the publisher after proofreading. Difficult not to edit as well but that’s not the stage we’re at now. Reproofing at Cambridge Books and then back to me again.

Anne McPhail, retired pediatrician, shattered by her experience in Bermuda, rents a tiny house in Setenil, Spain, hoping to reconcile what she learned about herself and Thomas after the gunfire in that dark room on the island. 

But she sees a child on the terrace of the local café who doesn’t seem to belong to her minders and then Ari, the Mossad agent who saved Anne’s life, seeks her out with a plan to rescue the child from kidnappers. Should she trust him? Three days later, she is on the run with Ari and the little girl, with killers Esti and Sergio on their trail. She glimpses a man she thinks is Thomas. Is he, too in Spain? And why?

How far will Anne go to save Naomi?

From Spain to France to Italy, this is Anne’s most dangerous journey. 

Titles for my latest Dangerous Journey novel.

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Over the last few months, I’ve worked on the 4th book in my Dangerous Journeys series. The title? None as yet.

Anne McPhail, doctor and genealogist vacationing in the Spanish village of Setenil, risks her life to save a child. An arms cartel kidnapped Naomi to pressure her grandfather, an Israeli cabinet minister, into voting to extend the settlements. The cartel’s goal: to foment war and increase the sales of its arms to both sides.
The story begins 16 days before the vote and 18 days until Anne leaves Spain.

Titles

1.The Child in the Plaza
2.Running
3.The Ransom
4.The Child on the Terrace
5.Naomi’s Donkey
6.Saving Naomi
7.Journey with Naomi
8.Rescuing Naomi
9.18 Days
10.Eighteen Days
11.Sixteen Days to the Vote
12.Sixteen Days
13.A Child as Pawn
14.The Red-haired Girl
15.Race to Italy

16.Abduction from Spain
17.Abduction from Setenil
18.The Spanish Rescue

Which title would you prefer? You can vote below.

A May Morning

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Spring: the leaves popped on the Manitoba Maples along the creek back; serviceberry bushes bloomed white together with the spirea;  daffodils, mine at any rate, ended yesterday; the hummingbird returned last weekend, a few days early; the red-breasted grosbeaks returned to the feeder.

A long, harsh winter left some ornamental bushes bereft of leaves. My gorgeous Vibernum “Shasta” has growth only at the base, but the branches are green when I scrape them so I have hope. No hope for the Purple Smokebush and the Blue Mallow, I’m afraid.

Most of the roses and clematis have survived except for a little beauty—Blue Sprite clematis—that appears to be gone. But one’s never sure with clematis and it was buried deep so it may come along.

At the local nursery—Hills—I found two hybrid tea roses on their own root! I couldn’t resist and bought four: 2 dark red Royal William and  2 pink Royal Kate. They are supposed to be disease resistant and have a strong fragrance.

Writing: I’m within sight of the end of my first draft of my new Dangerous Journeys mystery with Anne McPail. This time she’s in Spain, her life endangered by her concern for a mysterious little girl.

Ontario is in the midst of an election. I see the Conservative Party is trying to position itself as the party of hope. Hope, as demonstrated by planning to eliminate 100,000 civil service jobs. A mythical number, neatly dissected by an editorial in the Globe and Mail. Hudak appears to pull these numbers from an imaginary hat. How many civil servants do you know? I can count at least three, not including the teachers, hospital workers, doctors, nurses, firefighters, police and whomever else the party fears to cut. That leaves social service, and labour and the environment, all unnecessary from its collective point of view. The ones I know are not at the top, not even managers, but workers who are on the wrong side of senior and likely to be cut first. Hope? Not too much. Read the editorial here. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/can-tim-hudak-win-election-by-100000-job-cuts/article18629579/#dashboard/follows

That’s about it for this Sunday in May.