I was going to write about something else but I’ve been diverted by the Nolan show this morning into consideration of the Michaela McCollum case. You probably remember her – a 21-year-old from Dungannon who was caught trying to smuggle a load of drugs, who spent more than two years in a Peruvian prison, and is now back in Dungannon.
The question being debated was, should she benefit from what she’s done? She’s a criminal, she was involved in a trade that ruins lives, it’s disgraceful, she should be shunned.
WTF? It looks as if society is going to get on its high horse and wax moral about this young woman. How dare she be a celeb. How dare she profit from wrong-doing. A few points, then.
- It’s the media who are in the dock now, not Michaela. At the weekend she was in her family home, where they were celebrating her homecoming. The cameras were sneaking round the back, taking picturesn through the kitchen window. There was even a hint. that the family was at fault for celebrating her return. Spare me. The media were at fault for intruding and boosting her to celebrity level.
- In fact we would never have heard of Michaela McCollum if it hadn’t been for the media, which gave us nightly up-dates on her arrest and trial and conviction. They created her in the public consciousness; they now lament that, out of prison, she is in the public consciousness.
- That granted, Michaela is happy to collude with the media in honing this public image. When she came through Dublin airport a while back, she’d had her hair freshly done and was wearing a stylish scoop-neck. She wasn’t saying to the media “Hey guys, come and get me!” but she was saying something close to it.
- If she appears on talk shows or does an exclusive for some newspaper or produces a book on her prison experience, it’ll all be pointless except the public watch the TV or buy the newspaper or book. So the public themselves are key to the post-prison celebrity of Michaela.
- Chances are that the chat show or the newspaper exclusive or the book will tend to the sensational. I’d have little appetite for that; but I would be genuinely interested in a well-written account of her time in prison. No prison is a pleasant place, and South American prisons don’t have the best reputation. It’d be interesting to know what the reality was like for her. So that’s me colluding in her post-prison success as well.
- On the Nolan Show this morning, there were a number of people talking about whether she should be given “a second chance”. Piffle. She’s committed a crime, she’s served the time adjudged fitting – there should be no question of her being punished a second time or given “a second chance”. She’s entitled to the same chances as everyone else.
- On the drug food-chain, Michaela is a lowly mule. If you wanted to get exercised about the evil of drugs, go after the big guys, not the foot soldiers. Better still, abandon the ‘war on drugs’. The authorities have been waging it as long as I can remember and it’s had zero success. So less smiting of the forehead in horror at the evil that Michaela hath wrought; instead ask if the authorities involved in the ‘fight against drugs’ aren’t literally mad. Isn’t that what the medical world tell us you are, when you keep repeating the same action and hoping for a different result?
- Final point: if you were in Michaela’s shoes and the media or a publishing house came at you, waving fistfuls of money, would you draw yourself up and tell them “No, I’m afraid I cannot profit from my crime. My conscience wouldn’t let me”? Or would you say “So that’s how things are organized. Right. Pass the money, please.”?
Sadly there’s more people in the 6C annoyed at her for travelling on an Irish passport than there are by what she actually attempted to do.
She’s a drug smuggler that when caught lied through her teeth and continued to lie up until a court insisted she tell the truth or suffer the consequences.
Will she profit ? Probably. I won’t be buying the papers with her on the front pages. She won’t profit through my contributions.
Yes the ‘war on drugs’ isn’t working simply because there is too much financial interests in it; from both sides. A bit like ‘the war on terror’ and indeed even the so called dissident ‘threat’ in the north I.e both protagonists are content to see it continues. The ‘bad guys’ make money with its continued existence as do the ‘good guys’ be it continued employment and ‘increased funds’ etc etc. Btw a proper war on drugs would soon put an end to the micheala mc collums of this world but that won’t happen because as I have already alluded to, there’s no money in the prevention but there sure as hell is money in pretending that you are trying to find a way of preventing it.
We’re told how hard the American government are clamping down on drugs, but I seem to remember them doing a financially mind-blowing drugs deal with Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian dictator on the pretext that the profits accruing would go to some great humanitarian cause.
Again, selective hypocrisy!
A couple of points, clearly the notion of celebrity is a problem full stop.
On the question posed in number 8 above, clearly, the moral thing to do is walk away from the money.
And a third and related point, perhaps a contribution to an education programme which seeks to warn people away from the drugs scene is an alternative option.
As for “the media”, we have freedom of choice in which outlets we read, watch or support; not all are equally worthwhile.
We are not talking about shoplifting or bank fraud or the likes here. This is anti society on a par with sex crimes. There should be a register for people involved in drug offences and prospective employers should be informed and let them judge accordingly. I mean, do you hire a person on the sex register as a nanny or a teacher? Some type of crimes shouldn’t get a second chance.
One more thing, yes, she has served her time and is now free, and that should mean free like any other citizen.
yep,pass the money.she knew what she was doing and when your in the smuggling game the only crime is getting caught.certainly she should jump on the bandwagon with the press,book,film ect.why worry what people will say sure she will be a long time dead,
Was in the newsagent this morning.
Virtually every front page headline was along the lines of “Drug Smuggler must not become Celebrity”
Irony is lost on these headline writers/editors.
People say she must have done it before. Had tha teen the case it would have come out in her trial. Perhaps the bigger picture is that they were set up to be caught. The drug dealers obviously are rich enough to have bought people in the security forces. The girls were sought out by the customs because they knew who they were. In all likelihood other drug mules were able to get through. This satisfied the drug dealers and also the government who were able to show they were tackling the problem.
It would be interesting to know how many other “attractive ” girls have been caught doing the same thing as Michaela. And yes, I know I’m a cynic.
Fiosrach – are you suggesting that bank fraud is a less culpable crime than trying to transport 10 kilo or so of cocaine?
Drug gangs are nasty but their lives are short and brutish. Bank fraudsters, on the other hand, get to keep their ill gotten wealth and are not obliged to compensate the families of suicides whom they drove to their deaths, nor the families they left homeless on the streets of our cities, nor the many others robbed of pensions and welfare, struggling to pay bills and keep food on the table.
A handful of these respectable bankers, who wrecked so many lives, will get off with a pleasant relaxing term in an open prison. The remaining fraudsters will get off scott free and so will the politicians who colluded in their crimes.
Michaela was a young and foolish twenty-year old when she committed her crime. She has paid for her folly. Her family are entitled to welcome her home and the begrudgers should mind their own business. I seem to remember that Jesus approved of welcoming the prodigal home with a fatted calf and great big party.
I hope Michaela will now make enough money out of her ‘celebrity’ status to enable her to make a fresh start on her largely innocent life. I will follow her career with interest and good wishes.
I was being slightly ironic in my choice of crimes, mary jo. If you clamp down on all the financial hooks there will be nobody left. These drug donkeys may be naive about the chances of being caught but they are certainly not naive about the drug trade and their effects on the young people especially. Would I hire her? No!
Mary Jo, Whilst you show compassion for this “young and foolish 21 yr old”
Mary Jo, Whilst you show compassion towards this “young and foolish” woman, there is no mention of the countless victims of the evil drug trade. It is obvious that you have no experience of the devastating effects this has on individuals, families and society in general.
Can we use her age as an excuse for her crime, well the young men who beheaded a priest on the altar recently were not even in their twenties. Perhaps you would describe them as “young and foolish”.
The issue is addiction. The evidence is staring us in the face in terms of the number of deaths associated with drug abuse. Films and television are full of it, with agents and police in fast pursuit of ‘tough’, well armed drug dealers, in fast cars, fast boats and helicopters.
For the less athletic, there is a steady supply of ‘recreational drugs’, available while gambling on line. There is no cause for concern though about gambling. Richard Needham reminds us regularly that the Rank Group will divert some of its profits in order to fund addiction treatment facilities. Perhaps it is long past time to go after the “big guys.” Prisons are full of mules, some streets and parks are littered with syringes and many individuals are six feet under courtesy of the drug scene. PF is on the right track. It is time to spend more on education services. Prevention is better than cure. Unfortunately it is too late for some.
Dave was a casualty of peace. He was ‘befriended’ by some of the “big boys” in Dublin. He had an apartment, a car, money and a regular supply of drugs. In return, Dave plied his trade all over the country, he had no time for borders, religious or political conflict, his sole interest was money and drugs. Dave’s body was found in a river. He was 25 years of age.
It’s strange that it seems to be Unionists that are up in arms with her. Is it because she travelled on an Irish passport?
Surely most employers already include a “previous and spent convictions” section on their application forms?
‘I hope Michaela will now make enough money out of her ‘celebrity’ status to enable her to make a fresh start on her largely innocent life. I will follow her career with interest and good wishes.’
Yip with that attitude we should then encourage all the young people to get involved too.
It should not matter what passport she had. She got involved in a greedy business that cares little for others and should be rightfully condemned. Btw perhaps the reason why banking fraudsters etc get away with their crimes is because too few of the peasants don’t demand it enough? Maybe the peasants are too busy living/distracting themselves with the pros and cons of the drug trade? Perhaps then that’s why the ‘war on drugs’ will always be endless, I.e it keeps the peasants distracted,tamed,less motivated and indeed frightened to challenge the criminality of the respected class.
According to one’s personal abacus, one’s fingers, Esteemed Blogmeister, seven of the eight points of today’s blog focus on the media. If anything that displays admirable restraint on your part.
Truly do the media dominate our day to day.
No surprise therefore to find down here on Liffeyside that duo of dominators – O’Reilly and O’Brien – have regarded the media as the biggest beads (beadia?) on their respective retailing rosaries. For O’R and O’B , the media monopoly was the crucial link to becoming an, erm, O’BE.
Hence the caveman-like clubbing of each over the other’s noggin till the debt , for the hunter and news gatherer prize of (gulp) Dependent House. Result of the primitive row:
-O’Brien on Saville Row; O’Reilly on Skid Row.
This weekend there were two drug-related stories emanating from South America with a Norneverland dimension. One story was sordid , and dealt with Michaela, the other concerning Joan, was uplifting and, naturally, went unrecorded. In one instance, a young lady from Tyrone, in the second case, a young lady from Fermanagh.
Whereas the first drug story with a Norneverland connection was centred on the Western Coast of South America in Peru the second story was set on the Eastern Coast of South America, in Brasil.
Geography was not the only point of difference; there was also a divergence in the drugs involved in both cases. Now, while coke and rum go together like Abbot and Costello in this case one needs to tread carefully, as distinct from sprinting to the finishing line.
Although coke and rum were in fact the two drugs involved – it was cocaine in the case of Lima and rum in the instance of Rio. Now, while coke is short for the Puruvian cocaine rum is not short for rhumba though it is integrally related to this particular narrative. Not least where Joan of Fermanagh is concerned.
Incidentally, there are those who contend that rum is a more potent drug than either coke or its longer version, cocaine.
The ultraviolet Usain Bolt, of course, has many nicknames, not all of them fit for publication, but one of the more apt is ‘The Jamaican Rhumba’ to describe his eye-catching rhythm of running. We Warbecks take a particular interest in the exploits of the umpteenth Olympic gold medalist, not least because he was named (aptly) for one of the ancestry:
-Usain Warbeck.
Old Usain, who lived in Tudor times, was known to whistle as his signature tune, a prototype of the popular song (arranged for lute and flute) ‘If I’m not near the wench I love, forsooth, I love the wench I’m near’. This resulted in many a speedy exit from many a lady’s bedchamber and it was said he could get a leg over the wainscoted window ledge with all the edgy speed of a departing hart at the first sound of the hunter’s horn.
Which brings one neatly to the name of another central figure in this brief narrative: Arthur Benjamin.
In 1938 this Australian composer visited Jamaica, overheard a street song, made his way back to his Steinway and arranged it is a suite for piano. Altering the original name of the colloquial melody from ‘The Mango Song’ to ‘The Jamaican Rhumba’.
So globally popular did this eminently catchy rhumba becumba that the Jamaican Government showed their gratitude to the arranger/composer by gifting him with a barrel of local rum, year on year. Just as well he had taken the precaution to change the name of the tune.
Coming to the Norneverland connection and the Fermanagh one in particular, indeed to the Enniskillen one specifically, one must first go back a score years before Arthur Benjamin actually committed his most celebrated score to paper, in 1938. If a young member of the Luftwaffe had his way there would have been no such rhumba arranged for piano.
For in 1918, while A. Benjamin was attached to the Royal Flying Corps he was shot down by Hermann Goring (for it was he !) and confined for the remainder of the great Eselrennan to internment chokey near Berlin.
Arthur Benjamin, the young Australian, resumed his studies in musical composition in the Royal College of Music on Thamesside under the direction of a Liffeysider, Charles Villers Stanford, after whom Stanford Green in Dublin 12 is named.
But it was to another Irish person he dedicated his most famous arrangement/ composition. This time to his student of the piano rather than his master, a young lady from Enniskillen, a town right well known at a later musical epoch to the great Jim Aiken, on occasions when the immortal impresario used to ferry the legendary likes of Roy Orbison, oratorio singer manqué, around the highways and byways in his four door family saloon.
-Jamaican Rhumba, dedicated to Joan Trimble.
Joan T. of course, went on to become no mean composer/ arranger herself. As anyone who has ever caught her ‘A Gartan Mother’s lullaby’ or ‘ The Cows are a-Milking’ will attest.
Now the media this Monday morning, EB, was faced with a simple choice between two stories: each involving a heady mixture of mules, drugs, music, South America and Norneverland, one concerned with Michaela, one involving Joan. Predictably, they went with one rather than the other.
If the Perkin’s inner impartial reporter had ‘ve having had his way, he would not necessarily had’ve having done ditto.
I ve been in Lima airport. Arriving is one of the most friendly and welcoming experiences Ive had.
Leaving is different. All passengers are subject not only to stringent searches but also digs. Lots and lots of dogs. Dogs everywhere.
Unless you are some kind of Scarlet Pimpernel character you will be caught and punished severely. Their sentences were quite lenient by Peruvian standards but now they have served their time..
Here come the Holy Heidis, who are aghast that this woman even exists!
Listened to part of Nolan this morning and couldn’t believe my ears when your counterpart declared: ‘But she lied’.
A supposedly experienced journalist expressing faux abhorrence that someone who was involved in law breaking would resort to porkies – does she not realise that breaking the law by its very nature involves telling lies.
‘But she hasn’t shown remorse’ – to whom should Michaela show remorse, how much remorse, and where does ‘remorse’ come into the legal system? Surely you get all the remorse you want in a jail sentence.
How many of our local ‘celebs’ or politicians have taken out super injunctions to prevent us knowing what law-breaking they have been up to, and so they don’t have to apologise or show remorse?
English politicians, exemplified by Jeffrey Archer, did jail time for various offences, came out and wrote of their experiences. Did Holy Heidi tell him he should give away all the profits from his book and TV appearances to any charities?
No, I don’t think so – its just selective ‘I thank thee Lord, I am not like the rest of men’
Nobody’s hands are clean , unless you live in a cave on a mountaintop and have no contact with the minor and major corruptions of society outside. Sure it’s distasteful to see a young, silly woman making a killing from her crime but society is completely complicit in all sorts of crimes of taste and criminality. How do you explain all those rubbish “reality ” television shows that are made about zilch.They’d make a tv programme about any old tosh…”Big Brother” is a study in the worst foolish aspects of humanity , filmed without any irony or reference to Orwell’s book “i984”. As for “the media”(or should we say “Meedja”) …it’s a known journalistic technique to harry and harrass any poor, unfortunate family who has experienced a death or some other horror. This involves a two-pronged attack where one journalist distracts the bereaved , possibly helping to make “a nice cup of tea” in the kitchen , while the other scopes for family photographs to better reveal the family dynamic for the readers and the viewers.
I experienced the full weight of this “doorstepping” technique while fending off various telephone ploys from both newspapers and television upon the horrific death of my -mother-in-law while holidaying abroad some years back.. What they wanted was access to the family or the family home , the better to get some film of “tears at tea-time” for another passing story.You know the drill by now …Some poor beleaguered family member, corralled and weeping ,on the six o’ clock news, in a story that will be old news withi a day or two.The public loves that kind of shit which is why certain kinds of newspapers sell well.
So it’s a bit rich to condemn the same silly , young girl for getting just a little bit of sense late in the day and grabbing some of the proffered cash that is already being made out of her foolishnesss and misfortune.It’s distasteful of course …but the when was “taste” ever a consideration when money talks?
Was she a SILLY young girl, a silly YOUNG girl or a silly young GIRL or just an ordinary josephine trying to get her naive hands on some naive money. Is two years in jail enough for the – possibly- thousands of lives she might knowingly have ruined? Sell papers, thats what reporters do.
…So what’s your point , fiosrach ?Does it matter that she was a SILLY YOUNG GIRL.who thought that moving case loads of drugs through an airport was going to be easy.You’d really neeed to be daft to think so, wouldn’t you? Did she never read the right newspapers, journals or books or watch any of those documentaries about all the men and women who have fallen foul of thedrug lords and ended up in gaol or dead?Has she not heard about the thousands of dead in Mexico who were be-headed in this past year or so due to wars within the drug cartels?These are not pleasnt people to deal with. They’re not unlike our own homegrown criminals.
Reporters haven’t got clean hands, either .They don’t simply report the news .They write the news in any way they want that news to be reported …..whatever suits the agenda of the newspaper’s owners.That’s not necessarily the truth.They also know what the public really wants in their newspapers and they are the ones paying their good money to read them specifically for certain kinds of stories.They choose to read them too.Make no mistake. They buy the newsrags that suits their personal agendas.
So where do we go with this conversation about the rights and wrongs of drugs? Everyone knows that the two most legally obtained drugs are tobacco and alcohol .They are the ones that are controlled and taxed and they are also the ones that kill more people than any other substance on the earth.Is the bartender in a pub not complicit when someone destroys their life and family’s lives with alcohol because they happen to be the unlucky small percentage who falls through the cracks.He’s complicit alright but the majority of people can chug down their drink and still maintain control of their lives. We’re complicit too because we don’t want the bars closed down either.It would be the same with other less-lethal drugs such as marijuana or cocaine if they were taxed and controlled. Criminality, imprisonment and murder would leave the equation and all would be down to individual personality and personal choice. There’d be no “War On Drugs” which has never worked . it’ll never work because if you make something illegal that people want to buy , you’ll turn them all into criminals overnight ,like they did during Prohibition, Even at that some would choose to indulge and some wouldn’t .. just like some people like olives and some don’t.Some would always fall off the perch and some wouldn’t but the choice would be their own to make and the gaols would not be full of drug-mules like this “SILLY YOUNG GIRL” on holiday.Instead, she’d probably be dancing in some club in Ibiza to make a few easy euros off foolish male punters or would have long-since finished her holidaying and returned home without having to spend a few years of her youth in an overseas prison..I’d say that’s every parent’s nightmare right there.It could be avoided with a little bit of common-sense..
My point is, harry, which of the three words entitles her to a’ get out of jail card almost free’. Would you have been talked into being a drug donkey when you were sashaying around the continent? I don’t think so. So she is stupid and you are smart. No, I don’t think so. No second chances for greedy drug smugglers.
She made a big mistake and learnt from it. Noones perfect.. we’re all human. She’s not a horrible criminal out robbing people or trying to murder people. She does look good, has done her time and i’m sure made the most in prison and studied, better herself and now she is free. If she makes money so what let her be and mind your own business.
Its estimated that at least 50% of the entire population of Earth are on drugs, prescription or illegal drugs. Just to focus in on the North of Ireland, it was reported recently that 50% of adults here are on anti-depressants and that this is rising. Experts have said the reason why so many people are on prescription drugs is because of the legacy of the troubles here. Its been said that increasing numbers of students are taking prescription drugs for anxiety and to help them to sleep.
So 50% of adults here in the North are getting prescribed drugs from their GP. That doesn’t factor in the illegal drugs being took, which I think is just as widespread. Street drugs such as Dope, Grass, “Blues”, Legal Highs, Cocaine, etc are all available on our streets. So, in my humble opinion and estimate, I would say maybe as much as 80% of people are on drugs here in the North and maybe worldwide too. Of course I’m not including alcohol or even cigarettes in all of this, which many regard as a Drug too. And we wonder why mental health issues are sky high when people are pumping these chemicals into their brains…..
Drugs have a long history in humanity, some people think they are a recent problem. Many famous people took drugs. Sigmund Freud the creator of psychoanalysis (modern counselling, psychology, etc) used cocaine, though he believed it could be a cure for many mental issues, which of course it is not. Charles Dickens who wrote many masterpieces took Opium. Few people know that Winston Churchill was a very heavy drinker, he was known to drink excessive Whiskey, many today would regard him as an alcoholic. Even fewer people know that from 1938 onwards Adolf Hitler was on 27 different drugs A DAY, thanks to his Doctor, Dr Theodor Morell. One drug that Hitler was taking we now call Rat Poison. He was also on LSD and Crystal Meth, both very common illegal drugs mainly used in the USA today. Needless to say this would’ve seriously damaged Hitlers health. Indeed, in the last filmed footage of Hitler, just before the Battle of Berlin, experts note Hitlers “Glassy eyed look”, stooping posture and violently shaking left hand (which he attempts to hide behind his back). They say Hitler either had Parkinsons disease or it was the effects of the drugs or both.
Should Michaela be allowed to profit from her crimes? No but there’s nothing we can do to stop her. The worrying thing is, what sort of message does this send out to young people? that if you smuggle drugs then you can become a celebrity and make money? Is that the kind of message that should be getting sent out to our youth, especially young girls?
Apparently Michaela was going to go into Celebrity Big Brother this year or next year. Again that’s more money and fame for her. Unfortunately, young people imitate who they see as “Celebrities” and if you watch TV today nearly all the “Celebrities” you see are famous for having big breasts, being stupid (Joey Essex?…) or sleeping around with as many people as possible.
Yup, that’s what we teach people to respect, admire and aspire to now days……Joey Essex. Forget about Great Thinkers, Religious leaders, Inventors, Musicians, Athletes, Playwrights like William Shakespeare, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, St Augustine of Hippo, St Francis of Assisi, Da Vinci, Raphael, etc and all the works and masterpieces these people have created. No, admire the girl who got a boob job, has a gob with a one inch layer of make up on and who cant do basic arithmetic, aspire to be her…….
And we wonder why our Western society is in such decadence that can only be paralleled with the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, then the Dark Age followed……
Always love it when people in the media get on their high horse about drugs. Sure if it wasn’t for the likes of poor Michaela then however would they get hold of their favourite Colombian export?
“Always love it when people in the media get on their high horse about drugs. Sure if it wasn’t for the likes of poor Michaela then however would they get hold of their favourite Colombian export?”
Very true RJC