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October 30, 2007

Kidnapped BBC journo's tale; 235 science journals simultaneously tackle poverty, human development

I'll be on the road today. I'm looking forward to the trip to this event.

Free at last: BBC 's Alan Johnston: My kidnap ordeal. "As he neared the end of a posting in Gaza, the BBC's Alan Johnston was seized at gunpoint by militants. Here he tells the full story of his 114 days as a hostage."

At one point, he was allowed a radio.

In those calm, measured tones of the BBC, I heard reports of a claim that I had been executed.
It was a shocking moment. I had been declared dead.

And I thought how appalling it was that my family should have to endure that.

But of course, I knew that I was far from dead, and after a few minutes I could not help recalling that famous Mark Twain line: "Reports of my death are exaggerated."

I was worried though, that perhaps the announcement of my execution was just a little premature. I knew that my kidnappers' demands were not being met, and I thought that perhaps they had decided to kill me.

A small note: Johnston wore disposable contact lenses when he was kidnapped. After he disposed of that pair, the world went fuzzy for him.

Spotlight on poverty: The Council of Science Editors has organized journals around the globe to participate in its 2007 Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development in which science journals throughout the world simultaneously publish articles on this topic of worldwide interest on October 22, 2007. The goal of the CSE Global Theme Issue is to stimulate interest and research in poverty and human development and disseminate the results of this research as widely as possible. This is an international collaboration of 235 journals from 37 developed and developing countries...

From Nature.com: The Nature journals are pleased to contribute the content highlighted on this page, all of which is free...

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Posted by Sheila Lennon at 1:06 AM | Permalink

Comments

Very cool, Sheila -- have you checked out other science blogs liked Wired or blog.bioethics.net or the women's bioethics blog?

Posted by: Halle Akala on October 30, 2007 8:22 PM