Tuesday, 20th January

On the 20th January, 1987...

"Anglican Church envoy, terry Waite, was taken hostage in Lebanon."

Terry Waite, with friend

Terry Waite was an adviser to and a diplomat of the Anglican church, and first came to national attention as a successful negotiator in the middle east, even going so far as to visit Colonel Gadaffi to secure the release of British hostage in Libya.

Here's something from the BBC website (from an 'on this day' for feb 22nd, when news broke):

Reports from Lebanon say Church of England envoy Terry Waite has been kidnapped by an Islamic militia group.

Mr Waite, 47, disappeared on 20 January, eight days after arriving in the capital, Beirut, to try to free four hostages, including British journalist John McCarthy.

News of his imprisonment came after key militiamen from the Shia Amal and Druze factions held separate meetings with Vice-President Khaddam of Syria in Damascus.

The BBC site also states that "Islamic Jihad [...] claimed the envoy had betrayed them over the release of American hostage David Jacobsen in November. [They] said Mr Waite had not fulfilled his promise to supply arms to Iran and to secure the release of the 17 prisoners in Kuwait."

And this short account from Waite himself is worth reading:

I went back to Beirut and for the first few days spent time visiting various people in the town, trying to pick up leads and I didn't get very far.

Then the telephone rang and I recognised the voice of my contact and he asked me if I would meet him.

I said I would - that's why I was there, I wanted to try and see if we could pick up the negotiation again.

I arranged to meet him at the doctor's consulting room and on the evening in question I went there without guards, arms or a locater device.

...which, with the benefit of hindsight, would seem foolhardy. Waite spent 4 years in captivity, and the first year reportedly was spent in solitary confinement. He was released on the 18th November, 1991.

On his release, according to this post on b3ta, he ordered a massive great curry from his favourite Indian restaurant in Blackheath, which for a time was named the "Terry Waite Special". This consisted of, according to the aformentioned poster,

"a bed of curried mince beef, 4 whole curried eggs, and a whole curried chicken. There were two enormous plates of rice with cheese melted over the top, sag aloo and two nan breads stuffed with (you guessed it) curry."

Quite shocking, when you come to think of it.

The Quote!!

"A house without books is like a room without windows"

A quote from Horace Mann. And yes, books open up the world, they educate, they enlighten. We should never forget books, even when almost all the media is being beamed onto floppy paper-like hand-held devices which you can take on the tube and roll into your pocket. And the noted educationalist Mann would be pleased, I'm sure, that his quotes have lived on, enduring across all manner of media (here we have two, I mean - the internet and the desk calendar!)

But - and it's a 'but' I aim squarely at the compilers of the calendar, remember, and not Mann himself - I wouldn't choose quite the same words around Terry Waite. He's spent his time in windowless rooms, and they're probably a hell of a sight worse than a house with no books.

Just saying, is all.