In six and a half pages this paper examines the similarities between the novel Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, the Michael Fey caning incident, and the U.S. missionaries abducted in Afghanistan in a discussion of Americans held captive in foreign countries with issues including personal development, loss of life, and perspective considered. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
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and caning(Reyes, 1994). The fact that a vandal was being punished corporally in Singapore wasnt the disturbing news, the fact that the vandal to be flogged was an American, was.
Despite a personal and formal request from the American President, the caning was only reduced from six lashes to four. The question became not one of his guilt, or even
of his punishment, but of the message that Feys punishment was meant to carry. That message was inferred and seemed to state that just because someone was American they deserved
a worse punishment than others caught in the same act. Indeed there were others pulled from school that day, named by another boy in the various acts of vandalism
that had plagued the township for months. Feys name was mentioned along with an Australian student and several students from Thailand and Belgium. None received the caning, several received the
fines, but they were waved, and none spent any jail time. Why, then did Fey? His age might have been a factor, since he was eighteen at the time, but
more than likely his nationality had more to do with it. In a gesture to show that America had no political control over their government or their way of life,
the student was prosecuted to the fullest extent of their laws. The others left the country quietly. This seems to be a frequent theme emerging around the country, the latest,
of course, centering on the Americans rescued from Afghanistan. Two missionaries from Baylor University in Texas were jailed on August 3, 2001 in Afghanistan after they were arrested for preaching
Christianity. Dana Curry and Heather Mercer were the two Americans arrested, but there were others nationalities represented as well, including Germans, Australians and Afghan nationals(Toronto Star 2001). The penalties are