Friday, 3 May 2013

WI ‘pirates’ welcome Somali hostage victim


A former ship's captain held hostage by Somali pirates got a red-faced welcome from fancy dress pirates at a Devon Women's Institute (WI).

The Parkham WI thought Colin Darch was going to be speaking to them about piracy, not realising he was held hostage for 47 days in 2008.

“They were more embarrassed than me,” said Mr Darch, 75.

WI treasurer Steph George, 54, said: “He was such a good sport, but we won't be dressing up again for a while.”

What a faux-pas, but I would like to know why the WI booked this guy to, as they thought, speak about piracy.

Is that a burning issue that desperately needed to be addressed at the WI?

Apparently it’s not uncommon for the women to dress up in the theme of the guest speaker, but surely someone would have double-checked who this guy was.

But luckily for Mr Darch he did end up selling some copies of the book he wrote about his ordeal.

I can imagine how that went as soon as the women realised their error, oh you were held hostage by pirates and are not actually speaking about piracy, what’s that you wrote a book about what happened to you, we’ll take the lot please forgive us.  

No comments:

Post a Comment