Postkiwi

Olaf Wiig, one of the hostages recently released in the Gaza strip, says that being a Kiwi saved his life.

Last night on Close Up, on New Zealand’s TV One channel, Wiig talked about the two weeks in which he and US reporter Steve Centanni were held captive by the Holy Jihad Brigades. When the kidnappers accused Wiig and Centanni of being implicated in American oppression of Muslim Palestinians, Wiig said, “Dude, I’m not American, I’m a New Zealander”. He explained that New Zealand had a difficult relationship with the US, did not support war in the Middle East, and had no soldiers there. “We’re a different sort of people altogether”.

Wiig said that the conversation ended with the abductors saying “We realise you’re a New Zealander, we know New Zealand doesn’t kill Muslims. Unfortunately you’re with a very very dangerous American and we’re going to kill him”.

Centanni, obviously, would not have been glad to hear that news. Olaf kept the accusations to himself until after their release. The fact was Centanni was working for Fox, an American news conglomerate owned by an Australian-born naturalized American, Rupert Murdoch. Maybe these guys were getting Centanni to stand in for Murdoch? Centanni did work as an embedded journalist with the Navy SEALs during Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq.

Olaf Wiig is a NZ born freelance photographer living in Sussex, England. Through this kidnapping ordeal he’s earned himself a Wikipedia entry.

I used to work in the same building as Olaf’s father, Roger Wiig, at that time editor of Crosslink, the newspaper for the Presbyterian and Methodist denominations in New Zealand. Last I heard Roger was living over in the UK, after a stint here in Brisbane. The world is full of Post Kiwis!

See the story at Stuff.co.nz and the video interview at TV One.