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Amanda Lindhout [1981-0] Canadian

Rank: 103
Journalist, Humanitarian

Amanda Lindhout is a Canadian humanitarian, public speaker and journalist. On August 23, 2008, she and members of her entourage were kidnapped by Islamist insurgents in southern Somalia.

Christmas, Anger, Dreams, Education, Home, Humor, Imagination, Positive, Strength

Quote	Tags	Rank
After being in captivity for so long, I can't begin to describe how wonderful it feels to be home in Canada.	Home	101
The road to recovery will not always be easy, but I will take it one day at a time, focusing on the moments I've dreamed about for so long.		102
I went through an extremely trying ordeal, but I never forgot the world outside was a beautiful place.		103
The book is called 'A House in the Sky' because during the very, very darkest times, that was how I survived. I had to find a safe place to go in my mind where there was no violence being done to my body and where I could reflect on the life I had lived and the life that I still wanted to live.		104
It was a slow understanding that the lack of education in a country like Somalia creates these huge social problems.	Education	105
With awareness come responsibility and choice.		106
Christmas was the one time of year when my brothers surfaced at home, when my parents and grandparents congregated to eat my mother's roast turkey.	Christmas	107
You have a responsibility to move your dreams forward, no matter what.	Dreams	108
I think it's the human spirit inside of all of us that has an enormous capacity to survive.		109
Going into Somalia, I didn't anticipate how many people's lives would be affected by it. In hindsight, I certainly wish I had taken more time to think about that, but I can't change it.		110
Hamdi Ulukaya and Chobani have made the decision to feed 250,000 victims of the Somali famine. Their compassion speaks for itself, and is a shining example of how the business community can have an enormous positive impact on the world.	Positive	111
Somalia is an important story in the world, and it needed to be told.		112
When you see a 14-year-old boy who has never known what peace looks like for a day in his life, there's part of you as a human being that feels some degree, you can say, compassion for the fact that these boys have known war, famine, violence and death from the day they were born.		113
What happened to me in Somalia doesn't define me.		114
The greatest gift you have been given is the gift of your imagination - what do you dream of wanting to do?	Imagination	115
Contemplating Christmas when you are isolated and far from home brings its own unique pain.	Christmas	116
I must thank my good friend Nigel Brennan. His strength of character in the midst of extreme hardship inspired me during the darkest days. Despite our separation, he always managed to find small ways to remind me that there are gentlemen in the world, even when I was surrounded by just the opposite.	Strength	117
Somalia is very dangerous, and no one knows that better than I.		118
My faith in human decency was sorely tested at times during my captivity; however, after my release, I am humbly reminded that mankind is inherently good by the tremendous efforts and support of fellow Canadians.		119
Sometimes, you have to make the choice to forgive 10 times a day when you have these pockets of anger come up. That's a lot of work, but to me it's worthwhile.	Anger	120
I used my captors' names every chance I had. It was intentional, a way of reminding them that I saw them, of pegging them, of making them see me in return.		121
Maintaining my dignity is so important for me.		122
Forgiving is not an easy thing to do.		123
Because travel has always been such a vital part of myself and so essential to who I am, I have made the decision to continue to put myself back out into the world. And that's not an easy decision to make.		124
For a while, the world for me was like a set of monkey bars. I swung from one place to the next, sometimes backward, sometimes forward, capitalizing on my own momentum, knowing that at some point my arms... would give out, and I'd fall to the ground.		125
I have a general sense of excitement about the future, and I don't know what that looks like yet. But it will be whatever I make it.		126
I think that I find a lot of my healing out in the world.		201
The same men who are placing all these outrageous restrictions on women's freedoms in southern Somalia - that type of mentality - that's what I had to deal with in captivity.		202
I'm not afraid of IED's, bullets, mortars.		203
What a woman is taught, she shares with her family.		204
The big-time journalists generally had kidnapping insurance through their news organizations. Usually, it would pay for a crisis response company to help negotiate for a hostage's release. Freelancers most often had none.		205
After spending 460 days as a hostage, I did emerge a fundamentally changed person. But I think, like everyone does as they grow older and probably wiser, I can look back at my earlier life - my history, my mistakes, the joy I felt as a young woman traveling the world - with some objectivity and even some humor.	Humor	206
I made a vow to myself while I was a hostage that if I were lucky enough to live and to get out of Somalia, I would do something meaningful with my life - and specifically something that would be meaningful in the country where I'd lost my freedom.		207
I am so proud to be a Canadian.		208
Friendships that don't fit my life anymore have faded away, and new ones have come in.		209
Women in Somalia face almost unimaginable oppression.		210
I'm afraid of the dark, but I choose to sleep in the dark. I can fall right to sleep with the lights on. But I want to be someone who can sleep in the dark, so that's the choice that I make.		211
Getting on a plane is hard for me, but I do it, because travel is vital to me.		212
A little goes a long way in Somalia: $5 will feed a person there for about two weeks.		213
Hillary Clinton has a strong and powerful voice regarding ending violence against women and girls.		214
Many, including the Canadian and U.S. governments, try to provide family support while also maintaining a hard line about further fuelling terrorism and hostage-taking through ransom payments ... Still, try telling that to a mother, or a father, or a husband or wife caught in the powerless agony of standing by.		215
Every day I have many choices to make about who I want to be.		216
It was a slow understanding that my kidnappers really are a product of their environment.		217
I don't think I'm unusual in that, in my 20s, like many people, I felt invincible.		218
I know firsthand how critical support systems are.		219
My confidence came from the way I grew up, and I'm grateful for it.		220
Being in the dark, there's a real weight to it. It's heavy.		221
It's difficult to put into words what freedom feels like. You only know what freedom feels like if you know what it feels like to not be free.		222
I must try desperately to absorb all information I can about the Middle East. I want to excel. I want to speak articulately about the politics of the Middle East and its religion.		223
I don't only long for the thrill of being in the middle of a war, I must understand it; I must make other people understand.		224
The countries with the greatest problems have the kindest people.		225
War dehumanizes everyone.		226
My captors were definitely aware that what they were doing was wrong. It came out in small ways - occasionally through a show of guilt or compassion. One of the boys bought me a gift. Another used to sneak me acetaminophen tablets.		301
Accompanied by an Australian photographer named Nigel Brennan, I'd gone to Somalia to work as a freelance journalist, on a trip that was meant to last only ten days.		302
I would like to especially acknowledge my home community of Calgary, and the people of central Alberta who made my dream of freedom a reality.		303
Sometimes it's nice for people not to know anything about me.		304
I never felt an obligation to say every single terrible thing that happened to me.		305
I'm afraid of elevators, because they are an enclosed space, but I get in.		306
I have watched lives change. I have seen women gain confidence.		307

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