This article is classified "Real"
In the Volkskrant (Dutch newspaper) of 19940702 there appeared an article describing the following situation. The employees of the Nigerian Dredging and Marine Company in Warri, southeast Nigeria, were very dissatisfied about their wages. This situation, arisen in April, in July led to the employees taking the managers hostage in an oil drenched caravan until the management would fulfil their demands. This was their way of supporting the negotiations that had started a few days ago. In the past there had already been some conflicts between the Nigerian employees and the mostly foreign management. An hour before the world cup football (soccer for the Americans) match of Nigeria against Greece, the negotiators agreed to a rise of 2,300 naira in their wages, thus throwing away the possibility of an even higher amount, all in order to be able to watch the football match. The hostages were released just in time for the lot of them to see Nigeria beat Greece with the score 2-0. As you may or may not have noticed, this story holds the key to how to act in future situations of hostage taking, either during terrorist or criminal acts. Whenever hostages are taken, effort must be put into finding out what nationality the criminals are and what kind of sport or other activity appeals to them most. Then such a thing should quickly be organized. As you have seen in the article, the situation is then resolved without bloodshed. Maybe even smaller events would suffice. Imagine a football match of local football clubs being organized around a hijacked plane. The pleasant side- effect of this method is the pleasure the performers of these events have, possibly combined with financial gain, and maybe even increasing employment for people who join the hostage-solving amusement industry. An unpleasant side-effect of this method is that possibly people start to commit all kinds of criminal acts involving the taking of hostages, just to provoke some kind of performance. Imagine the hoards of horny men robbing banks as an excuse for taking hostages, to enjoy the activities of the Special Stripper Branch (SSB) of the local police.