(Great News! Latest Update) Hold a good thought, please...

…for our friend and colleague Gabriele Torsello, who has been abducted in Afghanistan. If you’re a journalist, he’s your colleague, too. Nicknamed Kash, he is a good man, as compassionate as he is courageous; a photojournalist who has only ever tried in his work to reveal the truth of human love and of human suffering. His work, in Kashmir and Nepal and elsewhere, is here:

http://www.kashgt.co.uk/

And the latest on the story of his abduction is here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1926520,00.html

That his kidnappers want to swap Gabriele, a Christian who became a Muslim, for an Afghani Muslim who became a Christian, reveals somehow the absurdity of those labels and illuminates the greater failings of religious hatred.

I know we argue the war in general terms here, and as a sidebar to political theory. But however you may feel about this war, or about God, please hold Kash in your heart.

UPDATE: Please sign the petition calling for his release at Reporters Without Borders:

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19323

I've posted this on the Journalism Board as well. If you don't want it d_b'ed, mods, feel free to take one down. I just wanted as many of us as possible to see it.

 

Re: Hold a good thought, please...

Sorry to hear he was abducated. Hopefully he is alright and will come back home to the U.S soon.

 

Re: Hold a good thought, please...

Abducated? Was he kidnapped and forced to give up his throne?

Seriously, though, he has some amazing work and I hope for his safe return.

 

Re: Hold a good thought, please...

That would be abdicated, no?

 

Re: Hold a good thought, please...

It was a bit of a joke, Joe. Like when you combine two words (in this case unintentionally with indiansnetwork's mangling of abducted to be a homonym of abdicated) and bring together the two meanings.

I was just trying to be a wee bit clever.

 

Re: Hold a good thought, please...

Do you even know how to read?
Where does it say he is from the US?

 

Re: Hold a good thought, please...

His posts read like Flowers for Algernon, only not in the "fine literature" way...

 

Re: Hold a good thought, please...

To get this thread back on track....

Many, many prayers for his safe return.

 

Re: Hold a good thought, please...

I don't know the man personally, but I will say he has produced some tremendous work. I'm sorry to see a fellow photog (and such a talented one) in a situation like this.

 

Re: Hold a good thought, please...

Thanks, everybody. I'll post updates this weekend as they come in. Here's the petition from Reporters Without Borders. You can sign on behalf of Kash's release.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19323

 

Re: (Petition/Update) Hold a good thought, please...

Update: I'll be bouncing this up the board as often as I can this weekend. The folks negotiating for Kash's release think that a show of broad support for him, in the form of petitions and so forth from the global journalism community, will be very helpful. Please sign it yourself, and, if you can, let others know that a colleague of ours is in real trouble. Thanks.

 

Re: (Petition/Update) Hold a good thought, please...

Nothing new as of this morning, but the negotiations are ongoing. Please take a look at Kash's work, and sign the petition if you can. Thanks.