The Great Escape

 Miller Caldwell Camp Manger at Mundihar NWFP Pakistan 2005-2006.

 

The Danish cartoon caused the pain

An offence abounding beyond their shores

As I sat covered in a Pakistani car

As voices urged to kill a Dane.

 

Their anger boiled to boiling over

We moved so slowly at knife point

“Where’s the Dane?” they asked the goffer.

‘”No Dane here,” said the frightened driver.

 

I dare not move under anxious feet

 Blanket covered, despite the heat

At last we sped out of the town

“Mundihar is next,” I had to groan.

 

Mon Dieu. Mon Dieu la vie est la

Simple et tranquille

Cette paisible rumeur la

Viens de la ville.

 

The car slowed down the mob approached

I heard them say they had a rope.

The Holy Quraan place on the seat

Gave promise of an eager hope.

 

 Inch by inch we made our way

Still breathing hot and sticky air

Until we reached the Earthquake camp

More friendly faces to greet me there.

 

‘Salaam Alaikum, you made it Miller’

‘Alikuum Salaam,’ I replied in a dither.

‘But tell me from where you came?’

‘I think you think, we’re all the same.’

 

Dumfries is a border town on the Nith

Doonhamers, just like kin and kith.’

“So you are not a Dane, it is fair to say?”

‘No but can I get back to base today?’

 

“We’ll hatch a plan to get you back

By varying the time we travel.

Work on till dark then pack your pack

Your safety is in peril’

 

And so it was each morn and night

The journey was an effort

As I lay hidden in the car

Tied up and almost tethered.

 

I hold no grudge no pain nor fault

They saw my life in danger

It was the price I had to pay

For being a helping stranger.

ends

 

This is an account of the aftermath of the Danish Cartoon riots in the NWFP of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan where I was sent to be the Camp Manager at Mundihar but was given a room to stay at Manserah. The 12 mile journey each day was the locus of this poem. For a fuller account and my confrontation with Usama bin Laden, you can read about it in my diary entitled 7 Point 7 on the Richer scale or in my autobiography Untied Laces.