Rodwell has been living on Mindanao for about a year, despite an Australian government travel advisory issued in 2005 not to travel to the region, where there have been 16 kidnappings since January 2010.

An aging foreigner with perceptions of grandeur meets an attractive, 20-something local girl in a high-risk rural area in a developing country on the Internet and quickly marries her. The foreigner blows off offers of police protection due to the local kidnap threat and instead buys a pistol to protect himself from a large number of experienced kidnappers armed with assault rifles. The result is that the foreigner contributes to his plight by resisting a kidnapping and being shot in the process. Nevertheless, he is taken away by Abu Sayaaf, the same group that sank the Super Ferry 14 in 2004, the deadliest maritime act of terrorism in the world on record.

All and all, Rodwell's situation is somewhat victim-precipitated: He chose to live in high-threat kidnap environment; he obviously ignored the security advice of his own government; he ignored offers of police protection; and imprudently concluded that his overconfidence in procuring a pistol would save the day. Wrong on all counts.