Florence Thomas
A message to Ingrid and the other hostages

During these days of Christmas and at the dawning of a New Year, I often think of Ingrid Betancourt and all the other hostages, but especially of Ingrid; because I had the opportunity to talk with her a few weeks before she was kidnapped; because she is a woman and that allows me to wonder about her actual situation in Colombia, deprived of freedom; because for me she is a symbol of all kidnap victims.

Through Ingrid I can think of all the men and women who are hostages.

Through Ingrid I can wonder about their lives and their dreams;

It is through her that I wonder how they can cope with winter, the cold and this humidity that goes into your bones and your spirit.

It is through her that I wonder how the body reacts to deprivation, to an unchanging diet, to illness; how can the spirit face the uncertainty of each tomorrow and the days of a calendar that contains neither December nor a New Year; how does the spirit fight back when it feels abandoned, when it does not get news from the outside world, a voice of humanity through the wall of silence that is coming from a government that is deaf as well as that of a civilian population that seems to have given in - although that is not certain as I know the unceasing work of some women's organisations that are linked with a possible humanitarian agreement-.

And so the questions come:

Deprived of freedom what fantasies and dreams can one have?

When there is no point in shouting or protesting, how can your heart continue to beat?

How do you repress the need to be close to your family?

How do you appease this desire to feel once again the touch of another, the desire for the tender caress and silly words of love that heal everything?

What do tears taste like when life itself has abandoned them?

What colour is the night when the memories of days of freedom fade?

Ingrid and the women and men who are hostages, resist and dream because these are the only weapons that no one can ever take away from you. Because, as Ernesto Sábato said, resistance is the place where hope lives. Women know this because in fighting back they have survived 5000 years of slavery. It is this ancestral spirit of resistance women have used against oppression that gives us undeniable authority today.

Women and men, who are hostages, do not stop resisting. Make your struggle and your dreams a source of energy for your body and soul. Know that despite the silence that surrounds you, that there are many of us with you in spirit, more than ever this December month, a time of warm greetings and reunions, a month during which we would like to get rid of the frantic commercialism so as to concentrate on the really important aspects of life, such as dreams and FREEDOM.