Stupid internet — and other things

The internet at home is being annoying. It was so yesterday too. It’s being really slow and sometimes refusing to load pages or pictures at all. I had to reload one stupid article five times before it finally loaded. Grr. Hard to update under those circumstances, aye?

I’m thinking of doing a kind of study on the lifespans of parents of missing people. Of course it wouldn’t be scientific and I don’t know how much data I’d be able to collect, but I’d like to know if my hypothesis “having your child go missing tends to shorten your life” is accurate or not. Certainly I’ve made several entries on the parents of MPs dying before their time. But Connie Smith‘s father was still alive last I knew, and she was his only child, and he’s got to be in his nineties by now.

I’m taking a course in Latin American History and this week we have to choose topics for our term paper. We can choose almost anything we’re interested in, as long as it’s relatively modern (late nineteenth century to present day) and deals with South America. A few people in the class want to write about sports in various South American countries and the prof said it was okay. He shot down my suggestion of writing on the life of Pablo Escobar, but he liked my idea about writing on “The Disappeared” in Argentina. He knows about my interest in MPs.

I still don’t see what’s wrong with Pablo Escobar though. The professor didn’t even know who he was. As soon as I said, “He was a Colombian drug lord,” he made a face and said, “No.”

The tragic case of Cemal Cansev

Cemal Cansev, a 16-year-old boy from New York City, was listed on Charley for a long time. He just vanished into thin air. The police suspected he was a runaway, but his family said he would never have done that. And so the matter rested, for over seven years.

I resolved Cemal’s case a month or so ago. NCMEC reported he was found deceased, and I found his sister’s Twitter page where she said he’d been found drowned just a few days after he was reported missing. She was angry that the family didn’t find out his fate sooner. But I couldn’t find any articles about it. Until now.

The Daily Mail, a British newspaper (close to a tabloid) has written about the case. Cemal was found drowned off a pier just ten days after he was last seen, but the body was thought to be from a 25-year-old Asian (Cemal was Turkish). Since it says the body was still listed as a John Doe, I’m assuming the article means the coroner thought he was Asian and about 25, not that it was identified as a specific 25-year-old Asian guy.

Recently, the NYPD got federal money and was able to test all their John and Jane Does against DNA provided by families of missing people. And so Cemal was identified. Where he was in the intervening ten days is anyone’s guess.

The family is suing the city, saying the investigation was inept and Cemal could and should have been identified much sooner.

It is an exceptionally sad story. Cemal’s dad traveled all over New York City and across the country looking for his son. I hope the family has found some kind of peace knowing his fate now. I certainly don’t blame them for being angry that their uncertainty lasted as long as it did.

I forgot my computer today

I feel naked without my laptop — left on the kitchen table as I hurried out the door. And here I am stuck at the university until 5:50 p.m. (it’s 9:40 right now) with only one class to go to and three books to read, and the inadequate campus computers to use.

Muttergrumble.