“Douce France….”


Image by h de c
These photos were taken on the 8th of July 2008 at the French Senate.

Ingrid Betancourt returned to France after more than 6 years of captivity on the 4th of July 2008 – after her rescue by the Colombian Army on the 2nd of July 2008, along with 14 other political hostages held by the FARC guerrilla forces.

Naturally, this was wonderful news to those fighting for the release of all the hostages held in Colombia, but there remain close to 2000 people being held in that country.

I would like to believe that the actions of the ordinary citizens who fought to bring the hostages’ plight to the eyes of the world; made a difference and encouraged those in positions of real power to take action. Of course, more needs to be done to bring a final and positive resolution to the crisis in Colombia.

I would like to strongly encourage all those who believe in humanitarian and human rights issues (whichever they may be) to take personal action. Of course each individual has varying amounts of time and effort to afford, yet each act counts and is vital. In this world the political, financial and communitarian interests of many of those who hold real power to bring change are counter to the lives of the weakest and the oppressed in our societies – those who want to bring real change need to act together today for a better and more just world.

Tomorrow shall always be too late….

N.B: The FARC have declared that they shall unilaterally release more hostages shortly – hopefully this marks the possibility for an end to the crisis.