120 words
Lancaster, ‘‘Kidnapping in Yemen Is Hospitality’’
‘After plucking him from a street in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, on Thanksgiving Day, Mahoney’s captors slaughtered goats in his honor, invited him to join in daily sessions of chewing khat, a mildly narcotic plant—he declined—and tried to keep his spirits up with cookies, tea and cigarettes. They also arranged for him to teach an English class in a local school. “Kidnapping in Yemen is hospitality,” said Abdullah Ahmar, speaker of the Yemeni parliament and the leader of Yemen’s Hashid tribe, the country’ largest. “Kidnapping is part of tourism; it’s an adventure for th etourist, because the tourist will end up learning about the customs of the tribe, as well as their good hospitality.”’
References
Lancaster, John, ‘‘Kidnapping in Yemen Is Hospitality’’, Washington Post (1997). |