Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers

Imtiaz Sooliman
AI: Summary ©
The transcript discusses the spiritual teach of a Christian, Jews, and Muslims-arian organization that was designed to serve all races, cultures, political activism, and religious affiliation. The importance of belief in oneself and not just trying to achieve something is emphasized. The transcript also touches on the devastation of the South African population due to drought, a earthquake, and the loss of schools and healthcare, and the use of racist tendencies and social service to encourage people to stay strong. The crisis in Afghanistan is described as a crisis for everyone, and the medical team is preparing for the meeting.
AI: Transcript ©
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Good morning everyone. Professor, Teo volma, person who spoke before

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me, sorry, I didn't catch your name, guru, and the one person

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introduced me and everyone here, it's great to be at this

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university. I'm born in Pakistan. This is the first time I walked

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into this university.

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What the gentleman before me spoke in the introduction was very

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critical in terms of the type of challenges that the country and

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the continent has, the emphasis on ethics and morality. In my

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business, we come up all people who have no morality and no

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ethics. The sadness about that is they they interfere with people's

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lives and people die. We've seen that on many occasions in our in

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our relief work throughout the world, and we would think people

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would blame Africa for shodding work. Strangely enough, those

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people who do those kind of practices come from northern

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countries, from what we've experienced. People try to put us

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down. Say we are the begging nation. We carry the begging bowl.

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They insult us, and they take our spirit away, so much so that we

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don't believe in ourselves. We don't believe in our capability

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and the things that we can do. My presentation focuses predominantly

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on international projects, those are the most difficult ones. But

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at the end of the presentation, you can ask me about the local

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projects. We're involved right now with the Cape Town drought. We're

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involved in setting up a big ball in Beaufort West we're involved in

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nice down the fires and from November, from August till

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December, we delivered 40 million Rand worth of animal fodder to the

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farmers in southern Northern Cape, parts of Eastern Cape and parts of

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Western Cape. So we're involved in a lot of different projects, but

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let's go to the presentation the ethics and the morality. Gifts of

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the givers is a spiritual organization, not a Muslim

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organization. A spiritual organization. It encompasses all

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faiths, all creeds, all religions, all races, and I'll explain that

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as we go along. The story starts in 1991 August.

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I get sent to Istanbul, but it was because I did a project with

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government before gift of the givers. But the reason I got there

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was the man I met in 1986

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he had moved to Peter marisburg. He had come from Pretoria. I had

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moved to Peter marisburg from Durban. The man was an Africana.

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He told me, you need to go to Turkey to meet a spiritual man. He

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said, the spiritual man that I know, the one that he knows. He

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met him in America. But that man passed on in 1985

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and 1986 there was a new teacher, a new spiritual leader in Istanbul

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that you should meet. So I started laughing. I said, Mr. Muller, it's

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1986

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I still haven't seen Cape Town. When am I going to see Istanbul?

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He

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said, something very important. He said, What the almighty worlds

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will happen? There's a time and place for everything. The Time and

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Place came in August, 1901 when we moved the ship, lot of aid, the SA

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is raquelsburg. We took it from the government, and we moved aid

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to Bangladesh for the cyclone. At that point, we arrived in

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Istanbul, and I was taken to a place the lead, or the one of the

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disciples of the spiritual master. I had to go to his house because

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he came from America. He speaks English, and he sent a man with me

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and my wife to take us to the place where we're going to meet at

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night, a Muslim holy place, and we're going to meet this man. This

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man passed on in 1999 my spiritual teacher, Muhammad Safiya, Afeni

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aljarahi,

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when I went inside there, my wife and I were completely confused.

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This was post Gulf War as we know. The Gulf War polarized nations and

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civilizations. There was a perception that east and west were

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against each other. Samuel Hunter, Hunter, spoke of the clash of

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civilizations. We spoke about Christians and Jews and Muslims,

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all at holograms with each other, and coming from an apartheid South

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Africa didn't help at all.

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But coming to that place, I was stunned. I saw Christians, Jews,

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Hindus, Muslims, even those who say they don't believe in any God,

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all working together in a very harmonious way. And

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when I looked at the teacher, he saw the confusion in my face.

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He said, What do you see? I said, I can't understand. We fought each

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other in so many different countries. How come we all in the

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same place and we're not fighting. You said my son, mankind is one

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single nation.

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The God of all mankind is one. We just call him by different names.

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The bad behavior or unacceptable behavior of a small group of

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people is not indicative of an.

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Nation, religion or country. He went on to say that any spiritual

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teacher

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in spite of his external paraphernalia, be he rabbi, Imam,

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church, Sheik, Pastor, please, pundit. It doesn't matter if that

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man promotes terrorism, violence, extremism, conflict, the taking of

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life. That man is not a man of God. Don't follow him.

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Any person who promotes love, kindness, compassion and mercy. He

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is a man of God. Follow him.

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I looked at that. I saw the people that night and something Mahat

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told me, I want to come back here. It happened six August, 1992

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it was a Thursday night. I walked in again. Spiritual teachers saw

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me again. Now the the confusion was gone.

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He looked at me at 10pm

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in Islamic culture, Thursday night is beginning of Friday. Islamic

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day starts on Thursday after sunset. We follow that calendar.

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It was 10 o'clock at night because Thursday is very important to us.

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This is a Sufi place. It's one branch of Islam. And in a Sufi

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place, they they start chanting the names of God Almighty in

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Arabic, in the Bible and in other books, you will know it as the

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self sustaining, the one and only, the eternal, the loving, the kind,

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the Compassionate, the Merciful, all those qualities of God

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Almighty. We chant them in Arabic at

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the end of the chant around 10pm you're sitting in the corner of

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the room. I'm sitting on the side. He looks me straight in the eye,

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but I can see that whilst he's looking at me, he's connecting

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heaven with and that's why I said this is a spiritual organization.

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It was a spiritual instruction from a spiritual man that came to

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a divine command. And he says in FLUENT Turkish, and I don't

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understand the word of Turkish, but I understood every single word

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that he said, Brother, he said, My

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son, I am not asking you, I am instructing you to form an

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organization. The name in Arabic will be walkful wakife, translated

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means gift of the givers. You will serve all people of all races, of

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all religions, of all colors, of all cultures, of all classes, of

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any geographical location and of any political affiliation, but you

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will serve them unconditionally. You will not expect anything in

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return, not even a thank you. In fact, in what you're going to be

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doing for the rest of your life, expect to get a kick up your back.

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If you don't get a kick up your back, regard it as a bonus. Serve

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people with love, kindness, compassion and mercy, and

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remember, especially you guys bring the MBA. The dignity of men

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is foremost when somebody is down. Don't be like the bank and then

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take the umbrella

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away. Make sure that you look after the dignity of people when

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somebody's down the ground, lift them, hold them and pick them up.

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Wipe the tear of a grieving child. It's free. Doesn't cost anything.

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Caress the head of an orphan, say words of good counsel to our

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widow, be honest in everything that you do, clothe the naked,

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feed the hungry and provide water to the thirsty, and in everything

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that you do, he told me, be the best at what you do, not because

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of ego. Well, I am the guy. No, you do it because you're dealing

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with human emotion, human feeling, human dignity and human life. For

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you to understand that more tangibly, put yourself on the

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other side, be a refugee in your mind, and understand then, how

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would you want somebody to treat you when they come to bring you.

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Do you want torn plots? Do you want blown up cans of food? Do you

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want expired medicines? Or do you want to be treated as a proper

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human being? If you can understand that, apply it in your business,

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and you will know then how to treat people with dignity. Be the

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best at what you are, be close to dealing with human life. He went

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on to say in Arabic, Hai, unas mein, fah, unas best among people

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are those who benefit mankind. He said it three times. He didn't say

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Muslim, but he didn't say Indian. He didn't say Arab. He said best

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among people are those who benefit mankind unconditionally. He said,

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Now go back to South Africa and remember that whatever you do is

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done through you and not by you.

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I'm a loving proof. 25 years now.

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That the kind of things that I do are not humanly possible.

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Don't think you're an MBA student. You're very clever that you got

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here. I'm very blunt. Sorry you are here purely by the grace of

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God Almighty. They can take it away with one single accident, a

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stroke, brain damage, loss of speech, loss of hearing in a split

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second, when you think I'm the eye,

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the more gratitude you give, the more you will prosper, the more

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you will grow. But it will not come without challenges, because

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challenges is put in front of men that what makes us grow and find

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solutions. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to be the best everything

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comes to us. He then told me, now go for the rest of your life. Life

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you will know what to do. Believe me in every aspect, in every

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field, I do know what to do, not because of me, because of

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spiritual force that comes and guides you in every part. I'll

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show you as we go along with some of the slides. Everything is shown

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to you. And at one point, I asked him, I've been to Turkey 22 times,

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asked him, my teacher, how come when you speak Turkish, I

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understand, but when somebody else speaks Turkish, I don't

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understand. One word

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he says, My son, when the hearts connect and the souls Connect. The

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words make meaning because of the heart and the soul connecting.

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It's a spiritual gift. There is a thing as spirituality. People say

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they don't believe they're really losing out something, but we don't

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impose belief on everyone. Belief is free world. It's free choice.

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It has to come from inside yourself.

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Instantly I got home, we got involved in the war in Bosnia. It

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came get involved, not a feeding scheme or a food parcel or a

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blanket. The organization did not form. What craziness The first

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thing we get involved is in the war in Eastern Europe,

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1992

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university of University of Sarajevo, totally destroyed.

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We go in. We take in 31 containers of food ate

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August, 92 to save me a month. Three months later, in November, I

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go back, but before I go back, I'm in Johannesburg. I'm at an arms

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show I see in containers, a theater, a sterilization unit and

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an x ray Well, the arm score X ray unit. And this is implanted in

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mine. November. I go to Bosnia. I take it eight containers. When I

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say I It means with me, eight containers of eight.

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It's winter. The Church factor is minus 21 degrees. There is no

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heating, no gas, no electricity. If they had escort, it would make

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no difference,

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no blankets, no roof, no window, no doors. They bleeding. They

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infected hypothermia. People died from that.

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So we took an appropriate intervention, eight containers of

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winter items, jackets, tents, blankets. At that point, when I

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saw the destruction all over Bosnia, I told them, and I don't

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know why I said this, do you want the hospital in containers?

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So they asked me, What's that? I said, I don't know.

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Sorry, I've got a flame for a whole year.

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I said, even I don't know what's that, but the thought was

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implanted in my head. I came back and I found the company on the

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road, when you drive, most of these trailers will stay at the

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bottom. Says, effort afrit for the virtual engineering. What the

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people I contacted, but why did I contact them? Would I have gone to

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an Africana? Would have gone to a white guy? Would have gone to a

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Christian because of what it's South Africa? The answer is, no, I

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would not have gone,

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but because the spiritual teacher showed me that human beings are

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all equal. Don't put people in boxes because of a particular

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color, a religion or a way of life. They are good people amongst

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everyone. So I met him, and I'll explain to you why, how this

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developed. They came to my house in February, 1993

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I said, Johan, we're going to sit and design the world's first

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containerized mobile hospital.

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We don't believe in ourselves, don't we don't believe in

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ourselves, but South African engineering designed the world's

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first containerized mobile hospital delivered to the port of

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Trieste in Italy, a product of engineers and skills that have

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come from all our 26 universities in this country, and we achieved

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that. And where did we take a universal a hospital from Africa.

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We took it to Europe,

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the continents who say that we are begging bowl, that we don't have

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skill yet. They want our doctors. They want our engineers. They want

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our nurses, our.

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Teachers and accountants. Why come to the stupid continent? Now,

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somebody calls us a shithole.

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The ambulance and everything was carried on the SAS autoniqua. You

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have to give a story, the spiritual story behind this. We

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don't have the time, but there is a spiritual story behind this.

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Also we took it, a generator,

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the heaters. That's Johan and me when I was much older in those

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days.

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That's the theater. Theater unit. That's Glenn Beck, the South

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African ambassador to Italy. Another view of the theater,

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sterilization unit, X ray unit. Three years ago, when you went for

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X ray, you saw the guys walking around with aprons everywhere.

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Bought the aprons. They don't want radium to go through them. How

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thick is a shipping container? It's a thermal walled shipping

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container. If you take radium today, it will penetrate the walls

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and cause cancer on the outside. South African engineering we built

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lead into the walls of the container. What's the point of an

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x ray machine if you can't develop the film? So we put a dark room in

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the back. What's the point of a dark room if you hold don't have

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the X ray film and the powder? So we took 28 containers of state of

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the art medical equipment, but 10 containers of backup supplies,

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sutures, IV fluids, medicines, X ray, films, everything, a

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generator and fuel to run a hospital for a whole year, one

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year. So if they bomb us, close the roads, close everything, you

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will still be able to see patients for one year. MBA, it's about

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planning, for planning, locate the options, thinking of the

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possibilities. You have to apply your mind and watch this business

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in my life, if I make a mistake, people die.

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Incubators, orthopedic unit, burns unit, dental unit, outpatient

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unit, admin unit and the warehouse, underground warehouse,

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where we put it 2005

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before that, in 94 CNN film hospital, the CNN commentator said

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the South African container hospital is equal to any of the

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best hospitals in Europe.

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He was not comparing a container hospital from Africa to Container

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hospitals in Europe, because there are no container hospitals in

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Europe.

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He was comparing it to proper hospitals. It shows the quality,

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the caliber of our students and our engineers and our people in

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this country. But we don't believe in that. We all want to run

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away in 92,000 and finds I was invited by the Bosnian government

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to come as their guest. They said, 12 years later. We know it's 12

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years later, but we like to show gratitude. I said, you don't have

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to do that. They said, If you don't come, we feel insulted. I

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went back. Before I left, I told the doctor in chartered hospital,

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when the war is over, break the containers, take the equipment out

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and put it in the most central place. It's feasible to use it

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like that. The war is over when I get back in 2005 that's exactly

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what they did. They broke the containers. They put a Copa in the

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military barracks, which became the biggest hospital in the

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region. He tells me, my friend, remember in 93 you told me that we

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can do everything besides heart surgery in this theater. I said,

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Yes, that's what I told you. It says, meet this lady. And brings

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the lady to me. Said, you see this lady? She had shrapnel in her

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heart. We removed the shrapnel in her heart from this theater, in

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this hospital in the war that you South Africans provided. Then he

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said, you see this four children. These four children were born to

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this lady after the shuttles moved in the same hospital that you

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South Africans provided. That's why the Bosnian president called

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you to say that South Africans are identified with giving life. But

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do we understand that we fight with each other every day, we

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fight with each other the whole year. Why do we only excel in

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situations like this, or when the Rugby World Cup comes and Mandela

00:19:02 --> 00:19:05

wears a shirt and Franco stands out, or the World Cup where we

00:19:05 --> 00:19:08

don't even make it to the other dogs, but we still stood behind

00:19:08 --> 00:19:08

the team.

00:19:10 --> 00:19:15

Why do we do that? Why do we have this racist mentality or just

00:19:15 --> 00:19:19

prejudice against each other? We need to take the box out and look

00:19:19 --> 00:19:22

at as human being as a human being, because somebody is

00:19:22 --> 00:19:25

anybody's blood blue here or green or white,

00:19:26 --> 00:19:30

blood is the same. The pain is the same, the anxiety is the same, the

00:19:30 --> 00:19:33

hunger is the same, the emotion is the same, the needs are the same.

00:19:33 --> 00:19:37

We are one nation. We need to understand that. We need to stand

00:19:37 --> 00:19:37

together.

00:19:39 --> 00:19:44

So he calls us and we go back. 2004 I finally got to Cape Town,

00:19:47 --> 00:19:52

but the moment I walked in, boom, the new tsunami hits 13 countries

00:19:52 --> 00:19:57

in the Indian Ocean, Thailand, Indonesia, Burma, India, a whole

00:19:57 --> 00:19:59

lot of countries India says we don't want any.

00:20:00 --> 00:20:03

Up. Everybody runs to Thailand, Indonesia, because all the MBA

00:20:03 --> 00:20:07

students, all the big economic countries have their factories in

00:20:07 --> 00:20:09

Indonesia. And they go for the past time in Thailand. So they run

00:20:09 --> 00:20:14

their first they forget about the foreign countries. Africa got hit

00:20:14 --> 00:20:17

in a place called hafun. I'll explain to them. Just now, Sri

00:20:17 --> 00:20:21

Lanka got hit. The Sri Lankan President comes on TV and says, we

00:20:21 --> 00:20:22

don't know what to do.

00:20:23 --> 00:20:27

26 December, my team had just landed in Dubai. They were about

00:20:27 --> 00:20:33

to go to India. I have this information. A tsunami has hit Sri

00:20:33 --> 00:20:35

Lanka. Doesn't know what to do. You don't settle that information

00:20:35 --> 00:20:39

and like the guy say, Go, put it in the cupboard. Doesn't help you.

00:20:39 --> 00:20:43

I take the information and you use it. I stopped my teams. I said,

00:20:43 --> 00:20:47

You are diverted. You are flying to Sri Lanka right now. And they

00:20:47 --> 00:20:50

moved to Sri Lanka. We were the first team in the world that

00:20:50 --> 00:20:54

responded to the tsunami in Sri Lanka. The president at that time

00:20:54 --> 00:20:56

was Chandrika Kumaratunga,

00:20:57 --> 00:21:02

ships, trains, houses, everything was blown apart, moved away

00:21:02 --> 00:21:07

kilometers by the sheer force of the tsunami. We partnered. We were

00:21:07 --> 00:21:11

the first people that met the president within 48 hours, and we

00:21:11 --> 00:21:16

partnered businesses. This is your role again, your social

00:21:16 --> 00:21:18

responsibility, as per when you go into the big companies, don't

00:21:18 --> 00:21:21

forget that President, I'll remind you,

00:21:24 --> 00:21:28

we partnered with companies, and within five days, we delivered 7

00:21:28 --> 00:21:33

million naira weights. We hired planes. Flew medicines over blown

00:21:33 --> 00:21:35

up bridges. When I say blown up, I don't mean by war. I mean by

00:21:35 --> 00:21:39

tsunami, by weather, over bridges to areas that were not possible.

00:21:40 --> 00:21:43

We took in water, food, dishes, clothing, medicines and all kind

00:21:43 --> 00:21:46

of things. We were the first agency in the world given land by

00:21:46 --> 00:21:49

the Sri Lankan President, and we were the first agency in the world

00:21:49 --> 00:21:51

that built a housing village in Sri Lanka,

00:21:52 --> 00:21:55

all from South Africa. Who says it can't be done.

00:21:56 --> 00:22:01

But I told you, a place called her was affected. Her food is on the

00:22:01 --> 00:22:05

east coast of Somalia, across the border from Yemen, very small

00:22:05 --> 00:22:08

population. The tsunami came. Actually, you could feel a tsunami

00:22:08 --> 00:22:11

in Cape Town too. Everybody was on the coast that day. Could feel the

00:22:11 --> 00:22:14

water was very unsettled. The waves were very high. It was

00:22:14 --> 00:22:18

disturbance everywhere. You could feel that Kenya was also affected.

00:22:18 --> 00:22:23

But hafun, the tsunami came wiped out all the houses we decided to

00:22:23 --> 00:22:28

respond. But how do you respond to Somalia? There's no organized

00:22:28 --> 00:22:33

government, there's security concerns. There's no communication

00:22:33 --> 00:22:36

networks, proper networks. How do you work out logistics? There's no

00:22:36 --> 00:22:39

proper runways. Half food is in health.

00:22:40 --> 00:22:45

Health out of *. You have to go to bosaso. You can't go to our

00:22:45 --> 00:22:46

phone. What do you do?

00:22:49 --> 00:22:53

You hire an illusion, an Russian aircraft in the back. You can see

00:22:53 --> 00:22:56

it's first class. You're very relaxed. You don't need seat

00:22:56 --> 00:22:58

belts. You can play volleyball numbers on the telephasic seat

00:22:59 --> 00:23:03

belt. You have a lovely time. The problem is the illusion cannot

00:23:03 --> 00:23:07

land in bosaso. The plane is too heavy, it's too big, and the

00:23:07 --> 00:23:10

runway is too short. So you have to make a plan.

00:23:11 --> 00:23:14

You change some illusion, and you stop in Uganda, and you transfer

00:23:14 --> 00:23:18

all the goods into two antonovs. Antonov is a smaller plane. It can

00:23:18 --> 00:23:21

land in bosaso. It's not too heavy. The runway is ideal.

00:23:21 --> 00:23:25

There's only one small problem. You can't sit in the cargo hold

00:23:26 --> 00:23:29

like an illusion. But if you sit there in 10 minutes, you'll be

00:23:29 --> 00:23:33

dead. There's no oxygen control. But as they say, the budmark plan,

00:23:36 --> 00:23:41

17 of us sat in the cockpit with the pilot below him, behind him

00:23:41 --> 00:23:45

and above him, and we fly to bosaso. And as we get to bosaso,

00:23:46 --> 00:23:47

the pilot says, shit.

00:23:48 --> 00:23:52

So I said, now what's the problem? You said I made a mistake, that

00:23:52 --> 00:23:55

three is 300 meters too short. Boom. He just brings the plane

00:23:55 --> 00:23:59

right down. And we fly all over in the cockpit, but you see advanced

00:23:59 --> 00:24:03

thinking. Who did I took take to fly the plane. I took Russian

00:24:03 --> 00:24:04

fighter pilots.

00:24:06 --> 00:24:07

So Putin is very happy with me.

00:24:09 --> 00:24:10

I know maybe I'll sign a nuclear deal.

00:24:13 --> 00:24:16

The plane stops too short of the runway.

00:24:17 --> 00:24:20

The journey is not over yet. We have to take the truck to go 400

00:24:21 --> 00:24:25

kilometers where there is no road, 16 hours across the grass in the

00:24:25 --> 00:24:29

bush. We come to the bhafun, but you have to wait for the sea tide

00:24:29 --> 00:24:33

to recede. When the sea tide recedes, then you get across and

00:24:33 --> 00:24:36

you deliver the goods. All the boats are destroyed. All the

00:24:36 --> 00:24:39

fishing nets are destroyed. From then up to today, we put in boats.

00:24:39 --> 00:24:42

We put in fishing nets. It's about sustainability. It's about self

00:24:42 --> 00:24:45

sufficiency. It's about catching the fish and having protein to eat

00:24:45 --> 00:24:48

and to sell and to trade. It's to make human beings independent

00:24:49 --> 00:24:51

and to have give them dignity and self worth.

00:24:52 --> 00:24:54

This was the first time in our history. In 2004

00:24:56 --> 00:24:59

we were one notch higher. In 1993 we delivered the hospital.

00:25:00 --> 00:25:03

But we didn't have a medical team. We went to Sri Lanka. We didn't

00:25:03 --> 00:25:07

have a medical team, but in 2004 for the first time, we added a

00:25:07 --> 00:25:10

medical team in our history, and this was a primary health care

00:25:10 --> 00:25:13

team, pediatrician. And thereafter, we built a medical

00:25:13 --> 00:25:16

center in hafun. It's still running up to today. We supply

00:25:16 --> 00:25:19

medicines, medical staff, equipment, the patients, and the

00:25:19 --> 00:25:22

patient population has grown because from agadisha, they all

00:25:22 --> 00:25:23

come into the North.

00:25:26 --> 00:25:28

Whilst I was in Turkey in 2005

00:25:30 --> 00:25:34

on the way back from Bosnia, we saw pictures on the screen of the

00:25:34 --> 00:25:34

famine in Niger.

00:25:36 --> 00:25:39

Our agencies did not pick it up. Our media did not pick it up.

00:25:40 --> 00:25:43

Everybody was sleeping while African children were dying.

00:25:44 --> 00:25:47

We call the embassy international relations. I have a very good

00:25:47 --> 00:25:50

relationship, but international relations and I said, I need

00:25:50 --> 00:25:53

diplomatic support. We need to get to Niger. They say, We don't have

00:25:53 --> 00:25:58

an embassy. The closest one is Ivory Coast. So I said, but it has

00:25:58 --> 00:26:02

to be done. It was taking time. Whenever you land a plane, you

00:26:02 --> 00:26:05

have to kill it with civil aviation. So we call civil

00:26:05 --> 00:26:08

aviation in Niger, and we asked the guy, what's the conditions

00:26:08 --> 00:26:12

like? He said, children are dying in the 1000s. Can we come? He

00:26:12 --> 00:26:18

said, please come. So we go to the our first class, business class

00:26:18 --> 00:26:18

plane,

00:26:19 --> 00:26:23

and we fly in the middle of the night. We land in Asia at two

00:26:23 --> 00:26:26

o'clock in the morning. I get out of the plane, the guy we spoke to

00:26:26 --> 00:26:30

was a guy called Muktar. I said, is it muktaria? Because yeah, me

00:26:30 --> 00:26:34

Muktar, and yeah. I said, Mukhtar. I got one small problem. He said,

00:26:34 --> 00:26:39

What's the problem? I said, we don't have visas. He said, My

00:26:39 --> 00:26:42

brother, this is Africa. Anything is possible.

00:26:46 --> 00:26:49

He brings the stem and he stamped all the passports.

00:26:52 --> 00:26:56

I said, now we need a hotel. He said, We got intercontinental, not

00:26:56 --> 00:27:00

the European one, very different. Then I said, we need transport. He

00:27:00 --> 00:27:05

bids, broken down. Cars crack windscreen, flat tire. I wouldn't

00:27:05 --> 00:27:08

trade that for any German, expensive car. You know why?

00:27:09 --> 00:27:13

Because it was brought with love. It was brought with heart. It was

00:27:13 --> 00:27:16

brought with gratitude, not that we wanted gratitude. And it was

00:27:16 --> 00:27:22

brought to spirituality. We go to the hotel, I tell him, Muktar, my

00:27:22 --> 00:27:27

team's hungry. Four o'clock in the morning, the cook came walking, no

00:27:27 --> 00:27:33

car, no bicycle, came walking with the pot in his hand, and he cooked

00:27:33 --> 00:27:36

for a meal that everybody could eat your fingers, because it was

00:27:36 --> 00:27:40

cooked with love. I said, Mukhtar, I have one more request. I need to

00:27:40 --> 00:27:43

speak to the president of the country. He said to her, tell you,

00:27:43 --> 00:27:46

this is Africa. The all of the hotel is a friend of the

00:27:46 --> 00:27:46

President. So we

00:27:49 --> 00:27:52

speak to the President. I said, I need somebody from your office,

00:27:52 --> 00:27:55

not you personally, just to receive us, because the South

00:27:55 --> 00:27:59

African media is here. He said, Fine. I need trucks. I need mini

00:27:59 --> 00:28:02

busses. I need wheelhouses. I need staff, and I need to know one

00:28:02 --> 00:28:06

important thing, God. You see, we are very clever South Africans. We

00:28:06 --> 00:28:10

come from North University. We're very sharp. We come from wits and

00:28:10 --> 00:28:13

new city and protect turkeys. We're great people. We can do

00:28:13 --> 00:28:18

anything. You never say that. You send my Mr. President, we are here

00:28:18 --> 00:28:21

as your African brothers. We're here to see how we can fit into

00:28:21 --> 00:28:24

your program. Where do you want us to assist our brothers and

00:28:24 --> 00:28:28

sisters? He said, My Friend, I need you in tele buddy, everything

00:28:28 --> 00:28:31

will be available for you in three hours. They will come. You think

00:28:31 --> 00:28:33

of African time. It doesn't mean three hours. Doesn't mean 30 hours

00:28:36 --> 00:28:39

in less than three hours. He was there. The lady next to me is the

00:28:39 --> 00:28:42

President's personal adviser, the three people next to our ministers

00:28:42 --> 00:28:45

and the guys next to our directors General. We're not a government.

00:28:45 --> 00:28:49

We don't even have an embassy in India. But the respect they

00:28:49 --> 00:28:53

afforded us because fellow Africans came to have Africans,

00:28:53 --> 00:28:57

they gave us the trucks, the laborers, the warehouses and the

00:28:57 --> 00:29:01

minibusses. That's not the desert, that's the river

00:29:02 --> 00:29:03

Cape town's being the same

00:29:05 --> 00:29:09

way. That's the animals. One of the caters already suffered that

00:29:09 --> 00:29:12

1000s of animals have died like this because of the drought.

00:29:13 --> 00:29:14

That's the people,

00:29:21 --> 00:29:24

I told him, We have a free service. He said, We need to

00:29:24 --> 00:29:28

announce it. They announced it in 42 degree heat, 15,000 people

00:29:28 --> 00:29:30

turned up. I had seven doctors. I

00:29:32 --> 00:29:36

went to the crowds. Two things stood out. One, no adult males.

00:29:37 --> 00:29:43

Two, not two. 7.1 No. Adult males, no teenagers, no big kids, no

00:29:43 --> 00:29:47

mothers ask for help. That is the spirituality of Africa, which we

00:29:47 --> 00:29:48

don't see.

00:29:49 --> 00:29:53

And after that, I said, the quiet dignity of the people of Africa.

00:29:54 --> 00:29:59

They smile. They sat in patience that we saved this child and we

00:29:59 --> 00:29:59

saved every.

00:30:00 --> 00:30:03

Every single child. And you know why? Because they walked out of

00:30:03 --> 00:30:08

the queue. They made it easy for us to see those that were really

00:30:08 --> 00:30:09

sick, so we could save them.

00:30:10 --> 00:30:13

When we talk about religion, when we talk about faith, do we really

00:30:13 --> 00:30:17

believe? Can any of us do that with our children? Ask yourself

00:30:17 --> 00:30:21

and answer that question honestly, before we profess to be this great

00:30:21 --> 00:30:23

spiritual people ask that question, if you can answer it

00:30:23 --> 00:30:27

honestly. You know, this is what the people of Nigeria went through

00:30:27 --> 00:30:29

the same year, October eight, 2005

00:30:32 --> 00:30:37

earthquake hits Pakistan. This is a massive earthquake. Why is it

00:30:37 --> 00:30:42

massive? An earthquake strikes one city. Thus, earthquake wiped out

00:30:42 --> 00:30:46

the entire northwestern region, from rom pan Pindi to the India

00:30:46 --> 00:30:50

border, everything, 400 villages on the way, everything sank into

00:30:50 --> 00:30:50

the ground.

00:30:51 --> 00:30:53

There the Twin Towers of Islamabad.

00:30:55 --> 00:30:57

Tarpon doesn't know there's another Twin Towers.

00:31:00 --> 00:31:02

Destruction is a mountain.

00:31:03 --> 00:31:07

We land in Rawalpindi, the Pakistani military comes to us.

00:31:07 --> 00:31:11

Now, you think Afrikaners are for who you haven't met the Pakistani

00:31:11 --> 00:31:17

military, yet powers don't take it seriously. We meet the Pakistan

00:31:17 --> 00:31:21

military generals come to me. He says, My Friend, I don't know you,

00:31:22 --> 00:31:25

but your South African Government has recommended you, do you mind

00:31:25 --> 00:31:27

not going to the earthquake?

00:31:28 --> 00:31:33

So I said, that's fine. So my team said, What did you come for? I

00:31:33 --> 00:31:37

said, Wait, I tell the man, Which hospital are you giving me? So he

00:31:37 --> 00:31:40

says, you understand? I said, Of course, I understand. So they

00:31:40 --> 00:31:42

asked, What is he saying? I said, what this guy is telling you?

00:31:43 --> 00:31:46

There is nothing left there on the mountains. Everybody is dead. The

00:31:46 --> 00:31:49

hospitals are gone, the politicians are gone, that we

00:31:49 --> 00:31:50

don't worry about too much.

00:31:51 --> 00:31:54

Other guys are gone, and there's no people, nothing. You can't do

00:31:54 --> 00:31:58

anything there. So I said, Okay, which hospital to give me? But I

00:31:58 --> 00:32:01

need to take my teams to the mountain to stabilize those in our

00:32:01 --> 00:32:06

life. He said, All the helicopters are gone. Now. The First Secretary

00:32:06 --> 00:32:09

of the South African Embassy is with me. The Americans are there.

00:32:09 --> 00:32:11

This is the helicopters. So he said, maybe we need to speak to

00:32:11 --> 00:32:14

them. I said, my friend, you're going to write to them. Take three

00:32:14 --> 00:32:16

years, start going to work. We need to get it now. I said, Leave

00:32:16 --> 00:32:20

this to me. So I walk around, I see a big black guy, American

00:32:20 --> 00:32:25

soldier. I said, my friend, you're from America. He says, Yes, I'm

00:32:25 --> 00:32:28

from America. I said, but first, you're from Africa? He said, Yes,

00:32:28 --> 00:32:29

first, I'm from Africa.

00:32:31 --> 00:32:34

So I said, Me, also I'm from Africa. I got a small problem. I

00:32:34 --> 00:32:37

need a helicopter. He said, Omni. I said, What can you give me? He

00:32:37 --> 00:32:40

said, Take three. Two Minutes. I got three helicopters,

00:32:42 --> 00:32:45

Black Hawk, two Black Hawks and another one. We put our teams. We

00:32:45 --> 00:32:48

send them to the mountain to stabilize the patients. We come to

00:32:48 --> 00:32:52

this hospital, praskranton hospital of Rawalpindi, given to

00:32:52 --> 00:32:56

us. When you walk in, you know, we complain too much. We complain a

00:32:56 --> 00:33:00

little too much. When you walk into the hospital, there's a child

00:33:00 --> 00:33:03

that's lying on the stretcher for three days for the smell of

00:33:03 --> 00:33:09

gangrene, no drip, no medicines, no food, no parents and often, no

00:33:09 --> 00:33:12

medical care. And patients like all of the Oswald or the stink of

00:33:12 --> 00:33:14

gangrene all over the hospital, no proper nursing care, no

00:33:14 --> 00:33:18

facilities. So I go back to the military guy. I said, is this an

00:33:18 --> 00:33:21

organized killing field? Will you bring your mother here. So he

00:33:21 --> 00:33:25

says, What do you mean? So he comes with me, he puts his head

00:33:25 --> 00:33:28

down in shame. So what happened? The superintendent says, we're

00:33:28 --> 00:33:30

about to shut this hospital down. I said, You guys are crazy.

00:33:30 --> 00:33:33

There's nothing wrong with this hospital. So I said, I'm going to

00:33:33 --> 00:33:36

give you a shopping list. If you give me this, we'll show you what

00:33:36 --> 00:33:37

South Africans can do.

00:33:38 --> 00:33:43

In less than 24 hours, they brought the equipment, and the

00:33:43 --> 00:33:46

South African medical team converted the Pakistani hospital

00:33:47 --> 00:33:51

that was about to shut down into a 400 bed emergency hospital, and we

00:33:51 --> 00:33:55

did 75 operations a day because of skills acquired in this country.

00:33:55 --> 00:33:59

For that, the Pakistan president gave us a Presidential Award, the

00:33:59 --> 00:34:04

only agency in Africa to get that it was indicative of our skills,

00:34:04 --> 00:34:10

amputations, big problem, not major in Copeman, but we did our

00:34:10 --> 00:34:10

job.

00:34:11 --> 00:34:16

This a lovely story. You see, we have this racist tendencies. We go

00:34:16 --> 00:34:19

against each other. This lady's name is Karina extien. She's an

00:34:19 --> 00:34:23

Africana Christian from Pretoria University, her specialty spinal

00:34:23 --> 00:34:27

rehab. When does she decide to go to Pakistan

00:34:28 --> 00:34:29

on Christmas?

00:34:30 --> 00:34:33

She gives up her Christmas for the family, her religious time to be

00:34:33 --> 00:34:37

with Muslim country people in the Muslim country, to give social

00:34:37 --> 00:34:41

service. This is the quality and the caliber of the boot of our

00:34:41 --> 00:34:46

people, no race, no religion, no color, no geography. She goes and

00:34:46 --> 00:34:49

she does it for three weeks. She gives that service to Muslim

00:34:49 --> 00:34:53

people as a Christian. And when she leaves, the patients cry.

00:34:53 --> 00:34:57

Their families cry, the doctors cry, and even the military cries

00:34:57 --> 00:34:59

because of what this lady did. Arif.

00:35:00 --> 00:35:03

Action of what we as South Africans, again, can do on the

00:35:03 --> 00:35:07

outside. Why can't we do it here? That is the question. And the

00:35:07 --> 00:35:10

change can only come from us, not from anybody else.

00:35:11 --> 00:35:14

This is the last Friday I'm going to give you, and then we can open

00:35:14 --> 00:35:16

it for questions. 12 of January, 2010

00:35:18 --> 00:35:21

I just walk into my house, I get a call from seven or two at 610, in

00:35:21 --> 00:35:26

the morning. Have you heard there's an earthquake in Haiti? So

00:35:26 --> 00:35:28

put a TV on. I look at the pictures,

00:35:30 --> 00:35:34

and I say to myself, in the space that I'm seeing on the screen, at

00:35:34 --> 00:35:36

least 25,000 people are dead.

00:35:38 --> 00:35:41

250,000 people died in that earthquake.

00:35:42 --> 00:35:46

Pakistan was another milestone to us, primary healthcare team in

00:35:46 --> 00:35:51

Somalia, trauma team. We took the Pakistan. We had a new addition in

00:35:51 --> 00:35:51

2010

00:35:53 --> 00:35:56

for the first time, we had our own search and rescue team. The search

00:35:56 --> 00:36:00

and rescue team was headed by Ahmed BAM sitting. Ahmed, set up,

00:36:01 --> 00:36:03

stay up. You're so short they can't see you.

00:36:06 --> 00:36:08

And money house you see them just now,

00:36:09 --> 00:36:12

when, within one hour, the search and rescue team is ready. Within

00:36:12 --> 00:36:17

the next hour, the medical team is ready. We were ready to respond to

00:36:17 --> 00:36:21

the crisis, but now we had a choice. How do you go either

00:36:21 --> 00:36:25

through America or to France. Now, going to America is going to be a

00:36:25 --> 00:36:28

big problem. The bigger the beard, the bigger the terrorist. So

00:36:28 --> 00:36:32

that's going to be a bigger problem. So it's a direct

00:36:32 --> 00:36:34

relationship. Mathematically, the longer the beard, the greater the

00:36:34 --> 00:36:36

you are the terrorist. So you have no beard, you are safe. So they

00:36:37 --> 00:36:39

said that that's not going to work. We're not going to go

00:36:39 --> 00:36:43

through Hashima. I got no chance of going to America. Any case,

00:36:43 --> 00:36:46

they don't pick it there. And so they blocked all the Muslims from

00:36:46 --> 00:36:50

going there in any case, too. So we said, we'll go to France. I

00:36:50 --> 00:36:54

found International Relations for the French government. The French

00:36:54 --> 00:36:58

council said, please come. No problem. In five minutes, we get a

00:36:58 --> 00:36:59

Schengen visa,

00:37:00 --> 00:37:04

no form, no pictures, but you know what's the best part? It's free.

00:37:04 --> 00:37:07

Re engines, we Indians. We like three things.

00:37:09 --> 00:37:14

So we get the visa, and then we said, Okay, we'll give Air France

00:37:14 --> 00:37:17

the business. I tell Air France, we give you the business. Will you

00:37:17 --> 00:37:21

get my teams to border Prince? They said, Yes. I said the airport

00:37:21 --> 00:37:24

will close. They said the airport is open. I said it will close.

00:37:24 --> 00:37:26

They said it's open. I said, you give me a guaranteed writing. They

00:37:26 --> 00:37:29

give me a guarantee in writing. They'll get my team support a

00:37:29 --> 00:37:32

prince. I knew that's never going to happen anyway. I take the

00:37:32 --> 00:37:33

guarantee. My teams go

00:37:35 --> 00:37:40

all the big border guys, Ahmed and everybody go to the airport and

00:37:40 --> 00:37:43

they leave, but I'm making arrangements now. Remember, I told

00:37:43 --> 00:37:45

you, it's about forward thinking.

00:37:46 --> 00:37:50

From gladysburg, I fought the Catholic society in Joburg. I

00:37:50 --> 00:37:53

said, I need the Pope. The guy gets ice cold on the other side.

00:37:53 --> 00:37:55

Why does the Muslim guy want the Pope? I tell

00:37:56 --> 00:37:58

you, I want to tell us ama Bin Laden where he is

00:37:59 --> 00:38:03

for the guys will stunt I said, Why do you need a pope? How are

00:38:03 --> 00:38:05

going to get hold of him? I said, Aren't you Christian guys

00:38:05 --> 00:38:08

connected all over the world? We Muslims, you connected everywhere.

00:38:08 --> 00:38:12

So it's okay. I'll get back to you in three hours. They said, What do

00:38:12 --> 00:38:16

you want? I said, I want a Catholic society to meet the South

00:38:16 --> 00:38:20

African team, not in Port au Prince in Dominican Republic.

00:38:21 --> 00:38:24

Firstly, three hours later, it's arranged Catholic Relief Services,

00:38:24 --> 00:38:29

CRS and Caritas, will meet your team in Dominican Republic. Amber

00:38:29 --> 00:38:32

lands on the team in Paris. He said, You got a problem. I said, I

00:38:32 --> 00:38:35

know what you got a problem is, how do you know? I said, I'm sure

00:38:35 --> 00:38:38

the airport is closed. Yes, the airport is closed. In the

00:38:38 --> 00:38:41

meantime, I already spoke to Air France. I said, you see, you can

00:38:41 --> 00:38:43

be guaranteed in writing, in email, look at my team's

00:38:43 --> 00:38:48

supporter, Prince reroot, my teams to Dominican Republic. They said,

00:38:48 --> 00:38:50

that's not a problem. I said, in two hours, is your flight to

00:38:50 --> 00:38:53

Dominican Republic? Change flights. They get there. They land

00:38:53 --> 00:38:58

in Dominican Republic. Caritas and CRS is waiting. South African team

00:38:58 --> 00:39:02

food, bottle water, hotel food, everything arranged the Caritas

00:39:02 --> 00:39:06

teams. You see how important was that meeting with a spiritual

00:39:06 --> 00:39:09

teacher. You don't see race, you don't see religion, you don't see

00:39:09 --> 00:39:12

color, you don't see anything else. The teams now are mixed of

00:39:12 --> 00:39:16

all religions, and they stay with the Catholic people in their

00:39:16 --> 00:39:20

compound, while the UN teams work three hours a day. The South

00:39:20 --> 00:39:23

African team with the Canada people about nine hours a day.

00:39:25 --> 00:39:26

They walk through the rubble everywhere.

00:39:29 --> 00:39:30

They make friends with the Mexican dog.

00:39:32 --> 00:39:33

He didn't speak English.

00:39:35 --> 00:39:36

Then 20th, January, 2010

00:39:38 --> 00:39:42

the most amazing thing happened. I'm speaking to Amit. He says, I

00:39:42 --> 00:39:47

have to go. Eight days after the earthquake, the air sounds in the

00:39:47 --> 00:39:47

rubble.

00:39:50 --> 00:39:53

They go for three hours, they start searching, and three hours

00:39:53 --> 00:39:55

later they pull out

00:39:56 --> 00:39:59

64 year old anazizi In the Catholic.

00:40:00 --> 00:40:05

Church that had collapsed, no oxygen, no food, no medicines, no

00:40:05 --> 00:40:09

water, fractured hip. Eight days later, this lady survives because

00:40:09 --> 00:40:13

God wants her to live. And she lives, and she comes out, and she

00:40:13 --> 00:40:16

says to Ahmed and to manikhost, the first thing she tells him,

00:40:16 --> 00:40:20

tells manikhost, the tall one on that side, she tells him, I love

00:40:20 --> 00:40:21

God

00:40:22 --> 00:40:26

with studying hope and faith in people several 1000 kilometers

00:40:26 --> 00:40:31

away. And then she tells them, I love you. It was the world first

00:40:31 --> 00:40:35

for South Africa and for Africa and for us, nowhere in the history

00:40:35 --> 00:40:39

of the world has any African team taken anybody out of the river

00:40:39 --> 00:40:44

alive in an earthquake outside the African continent. We're the first

00:40:44 --> 00:40:48

to do that, ladies and gentlemen, you need to believe in yourselves.

00:40:51 --> 00:40:53

Then came the medical teams behind them,

00:40:54 --> 00:40:58

and when the French and Americans came, they said, We can't work

00:40:58 --> 00:41:02

here. There's no machines, no CT scan, no. X ray, nothing is

00:41:02 --> 00:41:06

functional. My teams have instruction the day they leave the

00:41:06 --> 00:41:09

first day two, I tell and take the medicine, control, council book

00:41:09 --> 00:41:12

and throw it out of the window. Don't follow the rules. I said, if

00:41:12 --> 00:41:16

you follow the rules, you do nothing in a disaster zone. If you

00:41:16 --> 00:41:20

don't do anything, guarantee the patient is going to die. You guys

00:41:20 --> 00:41:24

are working in outpatient casualty for so many years, you have to

00:41:24 --> 00:41:28

have gut feeling about the situation, do something. So my

00:41:28 --> 00:41:31

team's work, and the French and American said, if you want life,

00:41:31 --> 00:41:36

if you want healing, if you want help, go to the Dream Team. And

00:41:36 --> 00:41:39

the Dream Team is from South Africa. And finally, the last

00:41:39 --> 00:41:43

story, the big paramedics went into the church. They washed the

00:41:43 --> 00:41:47

wall, they washed the floor, and then the patients came. They

00:41:47 --> 00:41:51

walked to the Mexican doctors. The child came. I was talking, we talk

00:41:51 --> 00:41:54

about ethics in the beginning, you see, I told you, from the northern

00:41:54 --> 00:41:58

countries, they went and practiced their medicine on children from a

00:41:58 --> 00:42:02

poor country, and they didn't do the amputation correctly. So we

00:42:02 --> 00:42:07

have to recut the hand or the arm or the leg, not one, hundreds of

00:42:07 --> 00:42:07

them.

00:42:08 --> 00:42:12

And when you're finished, you tell the child, go home, and the child

00:42:12 --> 00:42:14

looks at you, go away.

00:42:15 --> 00:42:20

No house, no parents, no grandparents, no family, no food,

00:42:20 --> 00:42:22

no clothes, no matter where must I go?

00:42:24 --> 00:42:27

But you now robbed him of his hand and his arm because somebody came

00:42:27 --> 00:42:31

to practice my team's witness, I won't say the name, important

00:42:31 --> 00:42:36

country in Europe. The guys walk to the guy's leg. He died from

00:42:36 --> 00:42:36

bleeding.

00:42:38 --> 00:42:41

It's all about ethics, and the other important part of ethics. Do

00:42:41 --> 00:42:45

you know why 250,000 people died? Because the architect passed a

00:42:45 --> 00:42:49

plan for the incorrectly, the engineer scheme the structure. So

00:42:49 --> 00:42:51

when one building fell, they all went boom, like a pack of cards.

00:42:51 --> 00:42:55

But one day it will come back to you. It's not your child, it's not

00:42:55 --> 00:42:58

your wife, it's not judgment. So it doesn't matter. Let me make a

00:42:58 --> 00:43:01

next step back and let somebody else die. Got nothing to do with

00:43:01 --> 00:43:04

me, but it always comes back. That's the law of life. Ladies and

00:43:04 --> 00:43:09

gentlemen, whatever you do in business world, Excel. Be the

00:43:09 --> 00:43:12

best, but don't forget your humanity and your compassion.

00:43:12 --> 00:43:15

We've made the greatest advances in science, in technology, in

00:43:15 --> 00:43:18

every aspect of the world, but we are 400 years back when it comes

00:43:18 --> 00:43:22

to minority human relations, friction and discord, we have gone

00:43:22 --> 00:43:25

back to the dark ages. We need to change that. We need to believe,

00:43:26 --> 00:43:29

but we more than believe, we need to have humanity in us. Thank you

00:43:29 --> 00:43:31

very much. Ladies and gentlemen, great to be here. You.

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