Christmas Tv - Strike Is Back!
Film, Media & TV2 mins ago
Having only recently found this site, I will use it as an opportunity to ask a question which has been eating at me for ages.
In October last year the British hostage Ken Bigley was murdered by terrorists in Iraq. I don't know whether a body was ever discovered, and I'm told that the UN aid worker Margaret Hassan was handed over to the same group, and also apparently murdered. Immediately after the report of Mr. Bigley's death, the Sun even went so far as to plaster it's front page with a story of how an elite SAS unit was actively looking to capture the chief terrorist (his name escapes me). There was much outpouring of grief, especially in Bigley's home city of Liverpool, and the public at large, including myself were understandably shocked at his killing.
I believe that the aid worker Margaret Hassan was Irish, and had for many years worked in Iraq delivering aid and medical care. She was even I believe married to an Iraqi national.
I am 22 years old. I spent 4 years in the Army cadets when I was younger, and just over a year in the TA. At the age of 17/18 I was fully prepared to join the Army, and in hindsight would have certainly gone to Iraq had I done so. I believe the area Bigley was in was close to that where 6 army policemen were murdered in 2003.
My question is what on earth was a 62-year man, with a wife and closely-knit family, including a frail elderly mother, and despite numerous Foreign Office warnings, doing in the most dangerous region of the most dangerous country in the world???
No best answer has yet been selected by Andy008. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.I understand that Mr Bigley was looking to make a last batch of cash to last himself and his family through retirement.
I am sure that anyone in his situation would weigh the prospect of the money he could earn against the risks he would be taking - and maybe come up with the answer he did. It's easy to imagine that kidnap and death are things that heppen to 'other people', until it's your own turn to be the 'other person', as happened in Mr Bigley's case.
I think based on these answers it's perhaps interesting to think what Ken Bigley would have done for money had Iraq never been invaded, and Saddam Hussein was still in power, and the country was still in dire need of repair.
He would still have been aged 62 and facing retirement, and no doubt in need of cash, yet I can't see Saddam as being overly happy about the British digging up his roads, or more to the point, where the money to pay them would have come from.
Ken Bigley and all the other british / american etc contract workers are housed in the 'green zone' in Baghdad which is the safe area of the city, v high security and so not as dangerous as the rest of the city. I seem to remember hearing that he had left the safety of the green zone for some reason, and it was then that he got kidnapped.
I would agree with the point.
Interestingly, I was watching "Wall Street" on dvd last night, and one particular line stands out when Bud Fox's boss warns him that "the terrible thing about money is it makes you do things you don't want to do".
Had Bigley seen the film he might have thought twice before happily starting work in a warzone.