Over at Channel 4 News' website, foreign editor Tim Lambon writes about the time the two of us, reporter Sorious Samura and sound recordist Gugu Radebe were imprisoned in Liberia in August 2000 by former President Charles Taylor.
Taylor is now standing trial on 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law at The Special Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague - and you can follow proceedings at the outstanding Open Society Justice Initiative website.
This time of year is always slightly weird for me, as I remember the unbelievable goodness of my family, friends, fellow inmates, Channel 4, British Government ministers, Nelson Mandela and Jesse Jackson for personally interceding to free us from prison.
For sure, there are shocking memories of wailing prisoners in Monrovia Central Prison and fear of rape but then there are the inspirational, slightly surreal ones, like the Parliament of prisoners who would gather in the night to appoint imaginary Foreign Ministers and Cabinet Ministers in this corridor:
For someone who used to walk back home for hours from Adam and the Ants and Buzzcocks gigs late at night and write endless, awful poetry set to the music of Cabaret Voltaire, I am more than capable of writing maudlin meaningful (and dull) sonnets on this experience.
But fact is that there are too many fantastic, wonderful things going on to look back: from the innovation by companies who seek to spread and share prosperity, to the work of social and civic entrepreneurs who want to change the world, from the 1.5 trillion people who use the internet to discover and share knowledge, to the creatives who investigate, entertain and make something new - be it artists like Liam Gillick, farmer Wendell Berry or photographer Thomas Demand to the music of Goldmund and Ben Lukas Boysen, writers like Fiona Sampson, Murakami or Alexander McCall Smith to the design of Steven Holl, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, even YSL Tributes!
Images courtesy of Kathryn Cramer and the others unknown.
