Monday, August 02, 2004
After reading about the infamous trial that convicted Lindy Chamberlain for murdering her baby, I finally get Oz's band name -- Dingoes Ate My Baby.
"The whole thing began on the evening of August 17, 1980, while Lindy and Michael Chamberlain and their three children were camped at Ayers Rock, a massive rock formation in the central Australian outback. Lindy began shouting that a dingo had carried off her youngest child, nine-week-old Azaria. Other campers also saw a dingo near the Chamberlain tent. Aborigine trackers found signs that a large dingo had carried a heavy object away from the campsite. There were bloodstains in and on the tent, and several tattered items of the child's clothing were discovered later some distance from the camp. But the body was never found.
An initial coroner's inquest exonerated the Chamberlains and held that the baby had been carried off by a dingo. But police and prosecutors were skeptical that the animal was capable of such a thing, even though there had been dingo attacks at Ayers Rock not long before Azaria's disappearance. They consulted experts and collected enough new evidence that a second inquest was held, this one finding that the child had been murdered. After a widely publicized trial the parents were convicted and the mother spent several years in jail.
Many Australians were outraged. A grassroots campaign to clear the Chamberlains' name began, with a number of scientists and other interested parties devoting a substantial amount of time to examining the prosecution's evidence and undermining its conclusions. In 1987 an official inquiry agreed that the case hadn't been adequately proven. The convictions were quashed and the Chamberlains eventually received $1.3 million compensation.
In the end dingoes weren't officially blamed for Azaria's presumed death--the cause was held to be unknown. But the trial seems to have established that a dingo consuming a baby is at least physically possible."
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Last Friday, my mom gave me my salary as an employee of our family corporation, in what capacity I have no idea. My fate has been sealed.
Now I don't know whether I should pursue the job openings I found in the classifieds yesterday.
"The whole thing began on the evening of August 17, 1980, while Lindy and Michael Chamberlain and their three children were camped at Ayers Rock, a massive rock formation in the central Australian outback. Lindy began shouting that a dingo had carried off her youngest child, nine-week-old Azaria. Other campers also saw a dingo near the Chamberlain tent. Aborigine trackers found signs that a large dingo had carried a heavy object away from the campsite. There were bloodstains in and on the tent, and several tattered items of the child's clothing were discovered later some distance from the camp. But the body was never found.
An initial coroner's inquest exonerated the Chamberlains and held that the baby had been carried off by a dingo. But police and prosecutors were skeptical that the animal was capable of such a thing, even though there had been dingo attacks at Ayers Rock not long before Azaria's disappearance. They consulted experts and collected enough new evidence that a second inquest was held, this one finding that the child had been murdered. After a widely publicized trial the parents were convicted and the mother spent several years in jail.
Many Australians were outraged. A grassroots campaign to clear the Chamberlains' name began, with a number of scientists and other interested parties devoting a substantial amount of time to examining the prosecution's evidence and undermining its conclusions. In 1987 an official inquiry agreed that the case hadn't been adequately proven. The convictions were quashed and the Chamberlains eventually received $1.3 million compensation.
In the end dingoes weren't officially blamed for Azaria's presumed death--the cause was held to be unknown. But the trial seems to have established that a dingo consuming a baby is at least physically possible."
-->
Last Friday, my mom gave me my salary as an employee of our family corporation, in what capacity I have no idea. My fate has been sealed.
Now I don't know whether I should pursue the job openings I found in the classifieds yesterday.
"A man can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days." -- Goethe
"Maybe that's what love is --
finding someone that makes you feel
a little less alone." -- Taken, Episode 5
