Yesterday's result is above all
a tribute to the strength of
will of Goncalo Amaral himself
and to those who set out to
support him, chiefly in
Portugal, from 2008 onward,
knowing that a terrible
injustice had been done and
determined to rectify it. If,
on a personal note, we name
Sofia de Landerset as the
exemplar of these it is because
in eight years she has never
been motivated by spite or
chauvinism, has somehow remained
fair minded despite the
inevitable attacks and has
acted throughout without hope
of personal gain. We are proud
and honoured to have encountered
her.
There is much to be said about
the result and the implications,
but that is for another day.
Today it's worth remembering
what a good and genuinely moral
cause all these people, and all
donors, have served. It hasn't been
anti-McCann. It has been about
helping, not hating. This was a
"pro" cause, supporting and
assisting a man in terrible
trouble, rallying to someone
who deserved support and
solidarity, irrespective of just
who it was who set out to
silence and destroy him. The
struggle with the McCanns is a
related but separate cause, one
that is now set to be fought to
the finish.
We've written before about the
unprecedented role of
voluntarism in the wider McCann
affair - the translations, the
court reporting, the donations,
the work of people like Nigel
Moore and Pamalam sacrificing
chunks of their life to ensure
the truth couldn't be hidden.
And all of it tied up with our
thing, the
internet that has made it
possible. All accomplished
without publicity machines,
crisis management monsters,
large scale donors wanting
control, politicians, Hanover
Communications, failed and
doomed spokesmen and all the
other bullshit that everyone
tells us is necessary to make a
cause succeed.
