Tomorrow marks the 1st anniversary of this blog. When I began writing this last year, I wasn’t sure exactly where it was going and whether anyone out there would be paying attention. A year later, I may still have some doubts about the ultimate direction of the blog but I do know that with nearly 9,000 visitors in a year, some of what I am recording clearly resonates with the wider world. So I thought this would be an opportune time to revisit the purpose and origins for this online journal.
A few years ago, I was an aid worker in a country consumed by conflict. It really doesn’t matter which one – this story could take place in any number of lands where men with guns believe that terror is a worthwhile political strategy. Terrorist attacks in this country were frequent, kidnappings less so. I had been there several months when there was an abduction of foreigners. Several hostages were taken, none of whom I knew personally. There ensued the familiar dance of captors vs. hostage negotiators – death threats, ransom demands, proofs of life, and after several weeks of wrangling the hostages were freed. For myself and the other aid workers in the region, the incident was unnerving perhaps, but we thought it merely was a one-off and continued our work without much change in our daily activities.
Then, a few months later, it happened again. This time I knew the hostage – not a close personal contact, but a good friend of one of my good friends, someone who moved on the periphery of my social circle. The kidnapping occurred just a few blocks from my home at an hour I might too have been returning from work or dinner. Fortunately, this story also had a happy ending of sorts – though this time concessions were made to the kidnappers in order to free the captive without harm.
And then a journalist friend was abducted – someone even closer, a person I lunched with often. His captivity progressed mostly in silence, without demands issued by those who held him. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. Meanwhile, my thoughts kept flittering back to the fragment of a poem, one I had heard recited years earlier that evokes the complicity of Europeans during the Holocaust:
I began to wonder whether my silence equalled complicity. Here I was, in the middle of a maelstrom, and what was I doing to help the situation? And if I were kidnapped, would anyone speak up for me? I looked everywhere for information, of which there was little. Sometimes I’d find a website or article about a specific hostage, or country or profession (e.g. journalists). But I found it disappointing that there was not a single, reliable resource that was looking at the issue on a global scale. Here were my friends disappearing – and who was going to speak for them?
One year ago, I began this blog to do just that. It is a struggle not only to find accurate information but to keep my eyes and ears open to all fronts. I feel sometimes like an army of one, or that this topic isn’t important, even among people who work in the human rights field. I don’t know what exactly I hope to achieve through this blog – I’m not sure how tangible one person’s scribbles can be in changing the workings of the world. But to any of you who have ever been or may ever be affected by a hostage-taking incident, please know that I speak for you. Radiocaptivity is, and will continue to be, broadcasting to the world that this is a crime, and we deserve to live in a world free from kidnapping, a world where everyone is free.
Happy anniversary, darling.
Posted by radiocaptivity 
