Imtiaz Sooliman – Business Caf 22 June 2023 PART 3
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So I left, came back home, and the heart started jumping. It wanted
to go back six, August, 92 the official date, Thursday night, the
zikr again, 10pm the spiritual teacher frees the zikr is sitting
on the floor. He lifts his head up, and he makes eye contact with
me, and I'm on the other side of the room, and he looks heavenward
at the same time
he says in FLUENT Turkish, and I don't speak a word of Turkish, but
I understood every single word that he said in Turkish that
night, he said, My son, I'm not asking you, I'm instructing you to
form an organization. The name in Arabic will be walkful wakifin,
translated gift of the givers. You will serve all people of all
races, all religions, all colors, all classes, all cultures, of any
geographical location and of any political affiliation. But you
will serve them unconditionally. You will expect nothing in return,
not even a thank you. In fact, in what you're going to be doing for
the rest of your life. I was 30 years old, expect to get a kick up
your back. If you don't get a kick up your back, regard it as a
bonus. Serve people what love, kindness, compassion and mercy,
and remember the dignity of man is foremost. Ladies and gentlemen,
Eskom will not destroy a country. Race differences will not destroy
a country. Financial differences will not destroy a country. What
will destroy a country is when people lose all dignity, when they
lose dignity and there is no hope and there are no consequences,
because you've got nothing more to lose than your country is gone
because they have nothing more to lose. They've lost everything. How
do you tell a parent or the parents you know, I'm very sorry,
your two year old child fell down a pet toilet and drowned in feces.
What will happen to you if your child or your grandchild drowns in
in feces. What will happen to your soul? It happens all the time.
It's been happening for years. Have you seen violence? Have you
seen anger? Have you seen people interrupting and killing anybody?
They bear it with patience, because it's the same mentality of
27th April, 1994
we are abusing that.
We need to change the system. We need to share an old hands and
take to people are not asking for much. I told you what they asking
for. We need to return the dignity of people as South Africans,
because we are all one people in this country. We've been
advantaged another people have been disadvantaged. We need to
level the playing field. They don't want everything that you
have. All they want is a little dignity, not too much ask to ask
and not too much to give, clothe the naked, feed the hungry,
provide water to the thirsty, and in everything you do be the best
at what you do,
not because of ego. If anything destroys the community and the
country, it's ego. It breaks relationship between husband and
wife, between parents and children in the families, in the church, in
the NGO sector, in government, in the corporates. The biggest
monster on Earth is ego and greed, not because of ego, but because
we're dealing with human emotion, human suffering and human dignity.
My son, remember that whatever you do is done through you and not by
you.
For 30 years, I'm a loving witness that all the things that you guys
think I do is not humanly possible.
Everything is laid out for you. You need somebody. They call you.
You need a contact. The contact is put in front of you. You need an
item that comes to you. Everything is put out for you. And I'll give
you an example in a little while, everything is put out for you in
the most magnificent way, because when you have faith and
spirituality, something is taking care of you all the time. Mario
can give you that story also, it's incredible what happens? So I
asked him. I said, I got a little bit of a problem here. I am a
doctor. I have three practices in a place called Peter merricksburg
in South Africa. What am I supposed to do? And when am I
supposed to do this? Like after hours, weekends, long weekends,
public holidays. When he
told me one line
you will know
for 30 years, I do know what to do, how to do, what to touch, what
not to touch. The most glaring example was sixth January, 2014
al Qaeda contacted us after six months we were.
Saying we need to talk about South Africa that you guys have
captured. And
on the seventh of January, 2010
they told us come to Aden, and my team member goes to Aden in Yemen
in four days. No training by the FBI, no training by the Americans
of Europe, no training by anybody in hostage negotiations. We take
out Yolandi Koki alive, Ransom free in four days. How we just
knew what to do, how to do, when to do.
It's a spiritual gift. What you need comes at the right time.
But that same night, when I walked out on the sixth of August, 1992
it came to be the same night respond to the civil war in
Bosnia, not five months later, the same month six, August, 92 I took
in 32 containers of aid into Bosnia alone. Three months later
we took it eight containers of winter items the two affected
Eastern Europe in winter can reach minus 21 degrees.
So what took away from South Africa, we got a great country in
great weather. We're not going to get this anywhere else. In 93 came
the big challenge. We designed the world's first containerized mobile
hospital, and that's where I met Johan Van der beetheren.
I went to his place, him and his brother. I met them in Victoria
and Rosalind. A few weeks later, they came to my house, and I said,
Johan, we got to design this hospital and make it a world first
we built 28 state of the art units, a world first theater unit,
ICU, sterilization, X ray, dental unit, Burn Unit, casualty,
outpatient, orthopedics, gynecology and the whole range and
a bus and an ambulance and a generator to go with it. But when
Johan came to the house, I said, Joan, we've just been formed in an
organization. I don't have money. I can't guarantee I'm going to pay
you. I'm not sure we want to get it done. He said, How much you got
until I can give you 300,000
men? He said, It's fine. I'll build it. I said, at that time, we
were looking at about five or six containers, around 1.21 point 3
million. And I said, if I can't pay you, then what? He said, It's
my gift to you.
You see, I prejudiced against Christian, against white, against
Africana.
And the teacher said, We don't judge anybody. We look at as human
being, as a human being. We keep an open heart and an open mind. We
don't put people in boxes.
People may have bad habits. Doesn't make them bad people. And
he said, look at people without all his labels. And that same
night, it left me, and that's why I contacted him, a man from
another religion, another color, another race, was prepared to give
a hospital for a Muslim people inside Bosnia, and our
relationship has started ever since then, it was the world's
first, a hospital built in Pretoria, built in South Africa, a
world first taken from Africa into Europe. But how many South
Africans believe in themselves, in our capacity, in our capability to
be world class? CNN film, the food hospital on the first of February,
1994
and they said the South African containerized mobile hospital is
equal to any of the best hospitals in Europe. All credit goes to that
man and his company.
I'm
going to give you two more examples, and then we call it
today,
12, January,
8, 12 journey. 2010
the earthquake hits Haiti, eight days later, 20th, January, my
teams are in the collapse Catholic Church, and yes, I was in the
rubble,
and they pull out alive, 64 year old in Azizi, no oxygen, no food,
no no water, completely covered in the rubble, fractured hip. They
pull her out alive. Eight days into the earthquake, her first
words to Ahmed bam, my team leader, leader and money house,
two team leaders. She tells them, I love God. You instill hope and
faith in somebody several 1000 kilometers away. The second words
to them was, I love you. The essence of religion is love and
service. My teacher told me, there's no point sitting in the
corner and reading the rosary. There's not going to help anybody.
It's time to get out of the corner and go and serve people
unconditionally. That is the essence of real religion and
service is the best thing you can do to climb the spiritual ladder
in 2023
we repeated that feat
seven February.
I call general particular Western Cape police commissioner. Well,
let's go a little bit back. I truly I'll give an example of what
spirituality, how spirituality works. In November last year, my
friend calls me from Cape Town and says, the general manager of
Turkish Airlines from San Francisco is moving to Cape Town
to be the general manager in Cape Town. Would you like to meet him?
I said, Yes, I need an airline partner. But since covid,
everything is sort of not non functional, but we need to prepare
for something in the future. So he says, Fine, but you can't see him
now. He's arranging his work permit, distracting the other we
see him next year, first February, I'm jumping the plane from German
to Cape Town. It strikes me out of the blue, hey, this man said, This
guy from Turkey is coming from America, is coming. I call him. I
said, is the guy here? Called me back in a few minutes? Yes, he is
here. Will you see me? But I can only see him nine o'clock at
night. He says, Yes, he was. You will take him for supper.
Srinan comes. We speak, we make the introduction. My words to him
on the first of February, 2023
is I'm looking for an airline partner on whom I can move search
and rescue equipment in the event an earthquake hits some country.
Five days later, four and a half days actually, 417, six, February,
Monday morning, the earthquake hits his country.
On the fourth of February, I fly from medicine, from Cape Town to
Joburg, because my mother, my wife, said, You're ducking all
family weddings, you better come. So I figure also from Madison book
to Joburg, and I fly to Joburg on the first somebody forgot to book
medicine flight to Durban. So be very philosophical about it. It's
God's will. You're meeting the rest of the family. We haven't
seen your brothers and sisters for a long time. Nice to spend some
time together. I knew it wasn't that but anyway, yes, we have been
staying in Merck. It's like on the sixth of February, 4 17, when the
earthquake hit. I understood why there was no return flight for me
on the fifth of February, because I needed to go see the texture
ambassador. Because she called me and she said, we need your teams.
And I said, I need all arrangements made on the ground.
Who's going to receive me, where we going into how we going to get
there. My first priority is how we going to get out, not how we're
going to get in, in any disaster. So I went and said to them and the
teams had to come to come to Joburg, and we started doing
everything. Had I been in marysburg, I would love time, and
I would have come back to Joburg. So God, made it such efficient,
not wasting time. I was there
on the seventh of February when the team started getting across. I
realized they're not going to manage. So I phoned general
particular, the head of the Western Cape provision
commissioner and I said, General, we need alike. Made the call. We
need the dogs. We can stick in our own private dogs and our own
private handlers. But I told you, we need to build the country
together. When we upskill the several servants, they benefit the
country when they come back. That's why, as part of our
disaster management teams are guys from disaster management. As part
of our medical teams are guys from the Public Service converted to
come and they can come back and use their skills again. So before
the ministry and Ali calls them and says, we need the dogs, he
says, My friend Ali, the person who deals with the dogs
internationally, sitting right next to me before him all the
time. The guy wasn't sitting next to him before the day, we need him
sitting right next to him. And there is hope for government. You
see, in five minutes, they took a decision to give us five dogs and
six handles. Five minutes is history. Historical. You got to
write it down. Never happens. They come to you after disaster
and SAP. Saps asked us, How did you come right with SAP is what
SAP is, dogs and SAS handers, we can't do this in three days. How
did you guys do this? I said, we bribe them.
The dog chief understood spirituality, he understood
service. He understood importance of the dogs to go in 12 hours,
five dogs and six handlers were waiting in the airport to fly to
Turkey.
There is good in the government, and there's a lot of things we can
do together. So the dogs get to Hatay.
We're the only NGO in the world. What our team? Such an SQ team.
All the other guys who've come there are government, Chinese,
Italian Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian Bahraini, Saudi Arabian, Omani and
the Turkish Government teams all come with their own planes, their
uniforms, their equipment. We're the only team in the world that
went at our own cost, our own equipment, and we took our
government with us. That's the difference.
But those dogs were very clever. You.
After a while, they said, you the only guys who got five dogs. We
only got like, two dogs. And they said, your dog can smell a live
person and the deceased person. He knows the difference. Our dog
can't do that. We need one dog for live person, one dog for deceased
person. One dog can't do both.
So they asked my teacher, like, how come the dog can do that. So
we said, the dog is South African.
If the dog can do that, what can't we do as human beings? Nothing is
insurmountable. And they ask, How does he know the difference? So
the dog lies down like this when there's people, and the Turkish
Government thanked us, because in one building where the dog did
that, they picked up 200 bodies, and the building,
the other building where the dog started digging, we said, like,
how, you know it doesn't live person. We said, the dog goes
crazy, starts digging. And in that building, the dog was right,
Donna. The dog's name was Donna. People pulled out a 90 year old
Turkish old woman from the rubber thank you to the dog.
Brigadier vamla mudli, who was in charge of that dog, got called by
the Turkish president, and she received the Presidential Award,
which recognized saps the dog unit, the dogs and our country.
It's a huge achievement. It's just simply by taking him across. So
let's go to something more spiritual. Before that, last year,
people from our unit called us and said they bought us these nice,
big Land Cruisers for the dog unit, but they forgot to cover it.
Now you can't go to land cruiser everybody that dog in the back
that's open and jump out and run away.
So we closed the Land Cruisers. Not doing me doing it for her.
The same lady that we closed the Land Cruiser for was the same lady
called to lead the saps team. The same lady's dog found a live
person in the country that's close to me, because that's why gift of
the givers was born. I mean, there 28 times,
and as a spiritual thing, she gets the President gives her the award.
She comes back to South Africa, and on the first of June, guess
who's the new head of the South African canine units. The new head
of the South African canine units, the government recognize the skill
put in charge, and we already think, as a first measure, we're
going to give them 60 dogs, because they don't have dogs. The
biggest problem is, in the case of them, floods realized there were
no dogs.
The last two spiritual messages, one is, let's talk about saps.
During the lockdown itself, Ali was in non zamo, the place in PAL
It
was April, 2022
the lockdown was biting. People were hungry. It was time to give
out food parcels. We rolled out over 200,000 food parcels. And
eight o'clock came level five, lockdown, and saps came and said,
curfew, lockdown. Can't food parcels anymore. Ali Causeway, I
said, saps guy, can jump in the lake. I'm breaking the law of law.
I can do what he wants. We break laws. We specialize in that. And
we said, you're going to deliver to the credit of the saps guy, he
says, You are right.
We can't leave all people standing in the cold weather,
he called for reinforcements and said we would put old people in
the vans and take them to the house.
The last old lady gets a food parcel at half past 12 in the
morning. Night into the next morning, it's freezing cold. She
tells Ali she's going home to wake up her grandchildren. She said, at
this part of the morning, I is not right. She says, You see, when I
left home in the morning, my grandchildren looked with hope in
the eyes to me that I'll bring something for them to eat, because
they haven't eaten for days. We don't know what goes on across the
road.
And she said, when I take it home, I have to show them that my wait
for the whole day was not wasted. If the SAP has blocked that that
would have been a serious problem. But they were human, and they
understood that people need help. And she said, I'm taking it home
to wake my grandchildren up to eat in a place called pedi in June,
2024
gave the food parcel. The lady said, thank you very much, in a
very dignified way, and she said, Talk to my children. They will
tell you the taste of every plant because they've been eating plants
for the last three months. There's no food, you see, there was no
violence, no eruption, nothing burning because people have faith
and patience. Let's not abuse that.
The final point
you see, if we all stand together, and I take my uniform off, and you
guys take uniforms off, and the media takes his title off, and
everybody takes the titles off, and we all stand next.
Each other. We don't know who's who.
All we know is we come from the same community, from the same
area. We all want peace. We all want harmony. We all want
education. We want water. We want life. We want everything. We are
South African, all together, standing next to each other. Take
the titles, the branding, the labels all off, and when you walk
together, that's what we did in Western Cape in the floods. It's
the most remarkable intervention we've done. In 13 days. We've been
to 51 areas in 13 days, distributing along the n1 the n2
and the n7 when we were trying came to the bridge in Citrus Delta
was cut off completely. Local knowledge of we asked somebody,
Ali said, Does somebody know I'm on another road? And one farmer
said, yes, there's another farmer that got his own bridge across the
road and go there. So we went, and we found a bridge. The water was
crossing. The police divers came, Ambulance Service came, paramedics
came, helicopter pilots came, disaster management, municipality
councilors, local people, everybody came, and my driver
said, we're going to take the risk and we're going to drive across
this bridge where the water's coming across and the divers are
waiting on the side in case the truck falls into the water to take
them out. But everybody went, and they crossed that bridge, and
expectant people on the other side were crying with joy, screaming,
shouting, because for days they were cut off from basic stuff
working South Africa, not worried about the labels. We did it and we
went across waportal was cut off, and helicopter pilot said, the
wind is right now. Let's jump in and fly. And they went into. My
teams went in. We supplied it. We supplied all the stuff. Every
single item in the flood zone has come from gift of the givers. We
spent 15 million in 10 days already just taking stuff into the
areas yesterday, they will find Cedarburg, see the big area, same
story, with helicopters getting into the area, trucks working
together. We go across into citrus dal The guy said, You gotta be
back in two hours. That water's gonna rise. Your truck won't come
through. So we left the police ambulance, the police van, the
ambulance, the RTI. They took the goods to the balance the house. We
had to be out in two hours today. We can't cross the bridge. The
water is fly. The truck cannot go through that bridge again at the
right time, at the right moment. We got through. So as South
Africans, there's a lot of hope in this country. This is the greatest
country in the world. We need to be positive. We have to have
mindset change. We need to hold the hands of the good guys of
government and kick the bad guys in their teeth and fix this
country. We can do that. The final point, when the Bosnian team was
there in Turkey, the Bosnian team member comes to Ahmed bam, my team
leader, he takes out his wallet, he takes out a picture. Ahmed sees
a picture of a baby and a mother in the picture, and the guy starts
crying,
and he asked, like, like, what happened?
It's his. I know your guy's name.
I know the name gift of the givers, because that baby is me,
and I was born in the hospital that you guys brought that joint
fund the Vietnam brother working together, ladies and gentlemen,
thank you. You.