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.
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.
After being in captivity for so long, I can't begin to describe how wonderful it feels to be home in Canada.
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.
Contemplating Christmas when you are isolated and far from home brings its own unique pain.
I'm afraid of elevators, because they are an enclosed space, but I get in.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The countries with the greatest problems have the kindest people.
I went through an extremely trying ordeal, but I never forgot the world outside was a beautiful place.
It was a slow understanding that the lack of education in a country like Somalia creates these huge social problems.
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.
