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Abstract
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n the late 1980s, Terry Waite was seldom out of the news. Along with John McCarthy and Jackie Mann, his name will forever be linked with the hostage crisis in Beirut, Lebanon. Waite, a peace envoy for the-then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, was taken prisoner in Jan, 1987, and spent 1763 days in captivity before being released in Nov, 1991.
During an event entitled Fear and Resilience at the Edinburgh International Science Festival on April 9, 2015, Waite discussed how he coped with nearly 5 years in captivity, including 4 years in solitary confinement. He was joined on stage by Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience and philosophy at the University of London, UK, and by Mary Baker, immediate past president of the European Brain Council. The session was chaired by Richard Morris, director of the Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Waite highlighted three rules he lived by during his captivity: not to regret what had happened to him; not to get over-sentimental about not being able to see his family and friends; and not to have self-pity. He pointed to experiences that had prepared him for imprisonment, such as negotiating the release of hostages in Iran and Libya, and witnessing Idi Amin's coup in Uganda. “That was the first time I saw people being murdered right in front of me.”
Waite structured his incarcerated days by carrying out mental arithmetic, writing the first draft...
Language: en |