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109.127.86.78 (talk) this reads like an online hagiography. why is her "return to Africa", for example, notable? It's not covered in mainstream media. |
Rocker striker (talk | contribs) |
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==Journalism career== |
==Journalism career== |
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Lindhout worked for Iran's [[Press TV]] in [[Baghdad]], Iraq.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/08/23/the-work-of-kidnapped-journalist-amanda-lindhout.aspx |publisher=[[National Post]] |title=The work of kidnapped journalist Amanda Lindhout |date=2009-08-23 |accessdate=2009-11-25}}</ref> She also wrote for her hometown newspaper, [[Alberta]]'s [[Red Deer Advocate]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/> |
Lindhout worked for Iran's [[Press TV]] in [[Baghdad]], Iraq.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/08/23/the-work-of-kidnapped-journalist-amanda-lindhout.aspx |publisher=[[National Post]] |title=The work of kidnapped journalist Amanda Lindhout |date=2009-08-23 |accessdate=2009-11-25}}</ref> She also wrote for her hometown newspaper, [[Alberta]]'s [[Red Deer Advocate]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/> |
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John Goddard wrote in [[Toronto Star|The Toronto Star]], that her reports for the Iranian [[Press TV]] "begin to raise questions about her judgment. As a reporter, she became a propagandist for the Iranian regime, oozing anti-Americanism and contempt for Western media."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/645338 |title=Canada's 'gutsy' forgotten hostage |publisher=thestar.com |date= |accessdate=2011-08-06}}</ref> |
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==Abduction== |
==Abduction== |
Revision as of 22:27, 12 December 2011
Amanda Lindhout | |
---|---|
Born | June 12, 1981 |
Nationality | Canadian |
Occupation(s) | Journalist, Humanitarian |
Organization | Global Enrichment Foundation |
Website | www.globalenrichmentfoundation.com |
Amanda Lindhout (born June 12, 1981)[1] is a Canadian humanitarian and former journalist. In 2008, she and members of her entourage were kidnapped by Islamist insurgents in southern Somalia. She was released 15 months later on November 25, 2009,[2] and has since embarked on a philanthropic career.[3]
Journalism career
Lindhout worked for Iran's Press TV in Baghdad, Iraq.[4] She also wrote for her hometown newspaper, Alberta's Red Deer Advocate.[5]
Abduction
On August 23, 2008, Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, a 37-year-old freelance Australian photojournalist from Brisbane, were kidnapped along with their Somali translator, Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, their driver, Mahad Isse, and a driver from the Shamo Hotel, Marwali. They were believed to be traveling in a vehicle and were stopped by gunmen as they were going to visit a refugee camp.[6] The abductors were teenage insurgents from the Hizbul Islam fundamentalist group.[3]
On September 17, Al Jazeera featured footage of Lindhout and Brennan in captivity surrounded by gunmen.[7] On October 13, 2008, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of US$2.5 million by October 28. On February 23, 2009, the Canadian Association of Journalists urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to help secure the release of Lindhout and Khadija Abdul Qahaar, a Canadian woman who was kidnapped in November.[8]
Elmi and the two drivers were released on January 15, 2009.[9] The kidnappers later lowered the ransom demand to $1 million.[10]
On June 10, 2009, CTV News received a phone call from a tearful Lindhout who seemed to be reading a statement: "My name is Amanda Lindhout and I am a Canadian citizen and I've been held hostage by gunmen in Somalia for nearly 10 months. I'm in a desperate situation. I'm being kept in a dark, windowless, room in chains without any clean drinking water and little or no food. I've been very sick for months without any medicine.... I love my country and want to live to see it again. Without food or medicine, I will die here."[11]
On November 25, 2009, after 460 days as a hostage, Lindhout was released following a ransom payment made by her family.[12] She was hospitalized in Nairobi for two weeks and treated for acute malnourishment.[13]
Return to North America
No longer working as a journalist, Lindhout studied Development Leadership at the COADY International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia and is the executive director of the Global Enrichment Foundation.[14] Lindhout has yet to speak publicly about the specific details of her time in captivity but has become a much sought after speaker on the topics of forgiveness, compassion, social responsibility and women's rights. She refuses to discuss the specific details of what happened to her in captivity. [15].
In 2009 Lindhout spoke alongside Eckhart Tolle, best-selling author of Power Of Now in Vancouver on the power of forgiveness.
In 2010 Lindhout addressed the United Nations Association in Ottawa, Canada about women's rights. [16]
In July 2010 Google Ideas had Lindhout moderate a panel of former violent extremists at the Summit Against Violent Extremism in Dublin, Ireland. The event was the largest gathering of former violent extremists to ever take place and was organized by Google, the Council of Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival. Lindhout moderated a panel which included a former Somali militant with al-Shabaab, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shepard observed the tension on stage:
"The only detectable moment came during a panel moderated by Amanda Lindhout, the Canadian journalist who was held hostage in Somalia for 460 days, and Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who left Toronto to fight with Al Shabab during Ethiopia’s invasion in 2008.Lindhout had asked Mohamed how he justified the deaths and injuries of civilians while a part of the Somali group, but instead he spoke of the political motivations as to why he went to fight with the Shabab."[17]
Lindhout is currently writing a memoir, titled A House In The Sky to be published by Simon and Schuster in 2012.[18]
The Global Enrichment Foundation
In 2010, Lindhout founded the Global Enrichment Foundation to create more opportunities in Somalia by offering university scholarships to women. Lindhout currently serves as the organization's Executive Director, with Ahmed Hussen, the president of the Canadian Somali Congress, acting as the Fund's co-director.[3] Aurala Warsame, a Somali researcher at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, supervises the program and vetted the first applicants.[19]
In response to why she established the Foundation despite her ordeal, Lindhout told the CBC's The National "You can very easily go into anger and bitterness and revenge thoughts and resentment and 'Why me?'[...] Because I had something very, very large and very painful to forgive, and by choosing to do that, I was able to put into place my vision, which was making Somalia a better place[...] I've never questioned whether or not it was the right thing to do[...] What else to do after the experience that I had, than something like this?"[19]
In conjunction with various private university institutions across Somalia, the GEF's Somali Women's Scholarship Program (SWSP) offers higher education opportunities to women in Somalia on a contribution basis.[20] Lindhout's foundation aims to annually send 100 women in the country to university for the next four years,[3] and is sponsoring tertiary education for 36 women, who are expected to go one to become teachers, doctors, environmentalists and engineers, among other professions. The GEF also started the SHE WILL micro-loan initiative to financially empower widows and other Somali women.[21]
In response to the 2011 Eastern Africa drought, the GEF put into motion its Convoy for Hope program.[22] The initiative received a $1 million USD donation from the Chobani Yoghurt company.[23] As part of the GEF, teachers with the Memorial Composite also raised funds to sponsor the Sankaroos women's basketball team of Abaarso Tech in Somalia,[24][21] and a group of high school students in Alberta raised over $23,000 to support the GEF's educational work.[25]
Return to Africa
Lindhout's work for the Global Enrichment Foundation eventually drew her back to Somalia in July 2011. Accompanied by CBC's The National, who filmed a documentary about her titled Return To Africa,[26] Lindhout visited the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya to research a $60 million educational project for children in the camp, many of whom fled the conflict in southern Somalia. Lindhout attempted to reconcile her fear of abduction with her deep commitment to helping the asylum seekers. However, her efforts were criticized by Badu Katelo, Kenya's commissioner for refugees, who suggested that the best solution to the issue was through military intervention in Somalia's conflict zones. Katelo characterized Lindhout's initiative as "small [...] It's a drop in the ocean. It's not anything to rely on to bring peace to Somalia. I think if education was to bring peace in Somalia, then it should've happened a long time ago because in 1991, when refugees came here, they were all educated". Lindhout responded that "to anyone who's questioning us right now, that's fine[...] That's fair. It is an incredibly challenging environment to work in, but time will tell the story."[27]
On August 4, 2011, Lindhout travelled back to Somalia for the first time since her captivity. Leading a large convoy carrying food aid for 14,000 people in the southern Somalia town of Dobley, she was welcomed by Somalia's Transitional Federal Government. Lindhout described the trip as also "an opportunity for me to look at that fear and maybe let it go — this fear that I have been carrying around with me for some time".[28] Her Convoys For Hope project has continued to provided relief and expects to assist 300,000 more people.[29]
See also
References
- ^ "Amanda Lindhout turns 28". 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout freed". CBC.ca. 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ a b c d "Amanda Lindhout Speaks out for women in Somalia". Toronto Star.
- ^ "The work of kidnapped journalist Amanda Lindhout". National Post. 2009-08-23. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
autogenerated1
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Canadian journalist reported abducted in Somalia". CBC.ca. 2008-08-23. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "Foreign media say Somali kidnappers will kill Lindhout if ransom isn't paid". 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "No word on Alberta journalist kidnapped in Somalia". CBC.ca. 2009-02-23. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "Cbc.ca". Cbc.ca. 2009-01-16. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ Dawn Walton. "Theglobeandmail.com". Theglobeandmail.com. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ "Kidnapped Alberta journalist calls CTV News". CTVcalgary.ca. CTV. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ "Canadian Amanda Lindhout freed in Somalia". CBC.ca. CBC. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ "Freed foreign journalists in Kenyan hospital". Seattletimes.com. Seattle Times. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ "The Global Enrichment Foundation, founded by Amanda Lindhout-developing strengths already within women to assist them in changing their lives". Globalenrichmentfoundation.com. 2010-08-24. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ Concrete / Visia. "Amanda Lindhout | Global Enrichment Foundation | Lavin Speaker Profile". Thelavinagency.com. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ "Kathleen's interview with Amanda Lindhout". CBC Radio. CBC.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ Shephard, Michelle. "Ex-skinhead, former Islamic radical open summit against extremism". Toronto Star. Toronto Star. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ "Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett". Curtisbrown.co.uk. 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ a b "Amanda Lindhout Forgives Captors". CBC.
- ^ Somali Women's Scholarship Program
- ^ a b Amanda Lindhout - GEF
- ^ Convoy for Hope
- ^ "Chobani Pledges $1 million to Famine Relief in Africa".
- ^ Teachers spread hope through sport
- ^ "Students answer call to empower women half a world away".
- ^ "Amanda Lindhout - Back to Africa". CBC's The National. CBC. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ "Lindhout returns to Africa after kidnapping". CBC.ca. CBC. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- ^ Snow, Kate. "Once a kidnap victim in Somalia, she returns to help". The Today Show. MSNBC. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- ^ "Lindhout's mission aims to feed 300,000 Somalis". Red Deer Express. Red Deer Express. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
Further reading
- Brennan, Nigel (2011-06-27). The Price of Life: A True Story of Kidnap and Ransom. Penguin Books (Australia). ISBN 9781921518782. OCLC 704565552.