A lot has been said these days about Out of Captivity, the book of the three American former FARC hostages Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes. Focus has been almost exclusively on their remarks about Ingrid Betancourt. Not even a quarter of the book mentions her. One can wonder: who is looking for sensation here, the Americans or the press? The word sex is used perhaps three times in the whole book.
The book shows the struggle of three military trained Americans to survive in captivity and in a context which is uncommon for them: Colombia and its jungle. Moreover, during some time they are forced to live with Colombian politicians. They feel uncommon in the group. They are militaries and feel more comfortable with the Colombian militaries. Moreover they are Americans and used to a different way of relating to people. Quite human and understandable.
They are honest about their uneasy way to handle the situation. For example, Thomas Howes is the only one who speaks Spanish. He has to translate all the time for the other two, which is a burden sometimes. When they are brought to ‘the politicians’, it is a relief for Tom, who easily starts relating to them. Marc and Keith recognize they are jealous.
The only thing which makes me feel uneasy is that they now and then write quite personal things about others. Not only the -- according to them -- affective relationship between Ingrid Betancourt and Luis Eladio Pérez or that between Gloria Polanco and Jorge Eduardo Géchem. Also other appreciations, which for other persons perhaps are offensive or too intimate to be published in a book.
They give quite an interesting view of what the FARC are and of course their way of dealing with the hostages. Incredible how cruel and mean that sometimes is. Two hostages are quarreling but only one is punished and chained. That is a very nasty way to create hostility between them.
Out of Captivity is valuable because of the insight it offers in what it means to be a hostage for such a long time in such physically difficult circumstances. It is a cruel and mean crime which reduces human beings to beasts. Gonsalves, Howes and Stansell show that very clearly. But why do they give so much personal information about others? Is it eagerness to sell like Colombian opinionleaders have said? The only ones who can give the answer are the authors.
Author Wies Ubags is a Dutch freelance journalist in Bogotá, works for media in her country and has her own weblog.
gringo michae
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... It is not just Colombian opinion leader who will claim they included such inth ebook to sell, it is fact in the USA such things help sell something, Look at the tabliods( rumor rags as some would call them) they sell big time in th eUSA wether waht they publish is true or not, |
JMB
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... The book is about their personal feelings and observations. Its subjective since a person's views are based on that person's experiences. Military personnel are trained to exacting in their reporting. Those guys were former military before becoming civilian contractors, no? Why would anyone expect those three to be writing extensively about Ingrid? She is capable of writing her own book just as any of the other former prisoners. |
kmansfield
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... Americans aren't private about personal or sexual things as hispanics are. I saw them on a tv interview, and they really want to get the story out, and they don't want to forget one single thing, so the book is cathartic for them. For this book, it's probably a good thing that they tell all so we can understand what happened and why. Every Government puts a diffferent story forward, so it's good to get as much as we can of the whole truth. Bentacort is french, so she probably doesn't care, and she may not ever write a book, and if she waits her memory wont be as reliable. Thanks for the review, and gringo michae, I'll read the book now because I know it's chock full of sex and stuff. |
