cheers, Rumrunner.

Those are measured and insightful comments as journalists of any better class should present to an audience (possibly with the exception of expletives). Yet, I myself am not a journalist, however, I am someone in search of reasoned argument, but then again also human and prone to falling under the weight of passion (by my own admission).

Regarding this tragedy (due to my own professional experience in behaviorism and mental healthcare) I cannot accept that these events could never have been foreseen by the authorities and that the mother (grandmother that is) was entirely unaware of “the other situation downstairs”. This I feel is borne out by the hasty declaration by all those in power to say it is/was unique and that the social services had no complaints and leads to yet another still more interesting aspect to this whole situation is that I believe that Austria is still convinced of its superior and unbleamished nature which has (in my view) grown out of an actual or post-authoritarian society - where people truly believe that “AT” is best and that the rest of the world is suspect.

I teach professionals who often hold strong opinions on the rightful nature of Austria and little introspection except the taboos demanded by the state. It is my considered opinion that Austrians mislead themselves on the security of “the Austrian way”, something better than the German way, the Italian way, ways of the east, a world apart from the criminality of Romanians and Chechnyans. Austrians need to be more outward in their thinking as well considering the dark realities which still, until this day, lurk within the minds of many. A kind of aloof superiority quietly trickling through the minds of the masses and only really put their by the country’s authoritarian title-led system. God bless Austria…with the foresight to realise that it is not perfect. Maybe then there wouldn’t be this blind acceptance of authority and blind hope in the system that they themselves are told not to question, because all that they would succeed in doing is harming themselves.

If you accept my suggestions then you must also then accept that this mindset was created a long, long time ago and maybe even under the Imperial classes of old and used to vile consequences in the 1930s and 40s and then in more minor instances today.

Regards - Crikey

“It is also a society that, as the Guardian’s former diplomatic editor Hella Pick has pointed out in her book Guilty Victim, has a very dark side. For years, it used slick marketing skills - promoting its mountains and Mozart - and the title conveniently given to it by the allies as “Hitler’s first victim” to avoid confronting the central role it played in the Holocaust. One should be wary of taking this parallel too far, but this country knows and has ingested the rules of how to cover up.”