What desperation does to people

Jesus.

Two gunmen took a group of schoolchildren and their teachers hostage in central Manila Wednesday morning, as police cordoned off an area near City Hall, authorities said.

“Our hostages are 32 kids and 2 teachers,” a sign in the bus window said. “We have 2 grenades, an Uzi and a .45-caliber pistol.”

The sign also said: “We want housing and schooling for 145 kids in a daycare center.” [Full story]

I guess if your government has continued to secretly murder or arrest the activists fighting for you, and other governments are pledging millions to catch one man while your children starve, and U.S. servicemen are raping native women and then being returned without punishment to the U.S. government so your military can train with their military, I guess maybe this might seem like your best or only option. I’m not condoning taking hostages, but I can see why maybe people would do it.

But children? When people are driven to take children hostage and threaten their lives, there’s something very broken there.

And I’m listening to the news anchors right now talking about a fancy car some movie star bought or crashed or something in L.A. No wonder most of the people in the U.S. are apathetic toward current events.

EDIT: The children were released; the man who took them hostage was the day care owner, and they were his students, apparently.

The owner of a daycare center gave himself up after taking a busload of his students hostage here today. He had driven them to Manila City Hall, where he railed against corruption in Philippine politics through a loudspeaker and criticized the government for failing to provide education for the poor.

Police said Armando Ducat Jr. and at least two other men were armed with hand grenades and other weapons when they took over the bus with 32 children and two teachers who were on their way to a field trip.

Later, after nearly 10 hours since the standoff began, the hostage-takers released the schoolchildren and the teachers unharmed.

One by one, the children — some of them holding up toys that Mr. Ducat had given to them earlier in the day — stepped out of the tourist bus.

They were calm, even playful, with some of the children chanting Mr. Ducat’s name, as they made their way to a government bus that was to take them to an undisclosed location.

Mr. Ducat and his unidentified cohorts turned over their grenades and guns to the police. Mr. Ducat had earlier said that he was ready to face charges.

…

In his conversation with Mr. Ducat inside the bus, which was picked up by a television network, (Senator Bong) Revilla told Mr. Ducat: “All right, I promise before the Filipino people and God, that I will be responsible for the education of these children.” [Full story]

I’m so relieved that this had a happy ending, and I feel guilty for it because in other places where people are driven to desperation by their living conditions and the oppressions they face it so often doesn’t.