Imtiaz Sooliman – Haiti Tribute Cape Town Gift of the Givers Foundation

What a great morning.

What a great experience

in the spirituality of the St George's cathedral among great

religious leaders and people from diverse faiths in this church

today, in this cathedral,

I know God Almighty is smiling today

because he said,

we created man from a pair of a male and a female,

and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each

other,

not that you may despise each other.

Verily, the most honored of you in the sight of God Almighty, is he

who is the most righteous of you. And it doesn't matter from which

religion you come.

Religious leaders have shown maturity. Followers have shown

maturity that we could unite together for the memory of those

who have suffered in another part of the world, but actually,

Haiti has done more for us than we have done for Haiti. I'm

going to tell you a story.

A few years ago, I was at an airport in Blantyre,

and I met a malavian diplomat, and he said to me, my friend, you

know, in Africa, we are always behind and we are always battling,

but I want to tell you a story. He said, many years ago, I was in a

conference in Europe, and

they were discussing a lot of issues about the world, and this

conference took three days. He said, at the end of three days, I

realized that the only word not mentioned in the conference was

the word Africa. And

I'm wondering why they spoke about Australia, New Zealand, America,

and all other countries in the Middle East and Europe and Asia,

but not one mention of the word Africa. So

he said there were not many diplomats in this conference, and

we felt a little shy because we are always begging and we don't

have faith in ourselves.

And after the third day, I mustered a little bit of courage

to go and speak to the convener of the conference, after supper,

after the big farewell dinner,

and I said, my friend,

we've come from Africa. We've been studying for three days in this

conference. How come? How come? Nobody mentioned the word Africa,

even once,

he said, Do you know what he said to me?

He said to me that Africa is not relevant.

Well, brothers and sisters and members of the faith, on the 19th

of January, 2010

in the late afternoon,

Ahmed bam, JC and the team from the north west made South Africa

relevant, and they made Africa relevant when they pulled out 64

year old nrzizi, in full view of the international media, they made

humanity relevant, and they showed ya in South Africa and Africa, we

can be counted among the Best in the world because they took out

Anna's easy, 64 year old lady from the Cathedral Church.

Not only did we become relevant when Anna came out, she said, I

love you and I love God from several 1000 kilometers away, we

rekindle the feet of God Almighty in the individual line for seven

days in the rubble. If we can do that, then it means God Almighty

is smiling on us. A few days later, big Africana guy like this

and his team went and they got on the floor and they washed the

walls of the cathedral to prepare al mekhis hospital, to do the

amputations and to do things service for the poor people of

Haiti. Haiti is Africa. It is us. It is our people. We are the

slaves that came from Africa, and we went to the rescue of our

brothers and sisters, not looking at color, not looking at religion,

not looking at class or politics or geography, we went as a common

humanity. And when the mixed team came, and I tell you about the

mixed team, anywhere in the world you go, when you see Chinese, they

look the same. When you see Japanese, they look the same. When

you see them from India, they look the same. Because when you see

them from Europe, they look the same. But when you see them from

South Africa, they look confusing. I and they asked, What is this?

One big white Afrikaner, one other white guy speaks English accent,

an Indian guy, a Hindu guy, a black guy. What a different

African language. What is this? This is the rainbow nation of God

Almighty from this country. I.

The rainbow nation that we sometimes are destroying, what

petty fights and conflicts and negativity we are all brothers in

faith, brothers in humanity. I'm going to send a mixed team across

who were taught Africa, and a Christian and an Indian Muslim

would go together with black people from South Africa to help

people in the other part of the world, but God smiled on our

country. He brought peace and harmony and understanding and

rationality. So when they went across, and when the medical teams

followed, what happened? When the Americans saw them and the friends

saw them sitting there, they said, there is no equipment, no X ray

machine, no MRI scan. We don't know how to operate on these

people. And the South Africans went there and said, This is a

breeze for us. We can do anything. And they got down to work while

everybody from the first world stood back. South Africans got

into the middle of it at the Seven Day Adventist Hospital. So much so

give them due to the Americans and the French, they acknowledged.

They said, if you want service, come to the Dream Team. The Dream

Team is from South Africa.

We made South Africa and Africa relevant because we went together,

not on ego, not for favors. We went as human beings, as a common

humanity, to our brothers and sisters on the other part of the

world, they were tired. Ahmed and JC and his team, they got there

late in the morning. Came for 44 hours and longer to get there, and

the first night within few hours of sleeping, gun shots outside the

compound, bullets hitting the gates. But that did not deter them

from doing their service, to their country, to their people, to their

continent, and for the people of Haiti, these are examples for all

of us to follow, brothers and sisters, the religious leaders

have set the trend. It is time we understand and appreciate each

other for the common cause of this country, this continent and the

world over. South Africans have made us proud. Little children in

schools took their 50 cents and one Rand the day's money, pocket

money. And they're not rich. They come from poor homes where there's

not enough food, and every day they collected in a poor school

and raised 9700

Rand from that money they stayed without things on the taksha for

the whole week, Catholic schools, ellicotts, churches, mosque,

temples, all of South Africa has got together so much so that we

managed to send in more than 12 million bands of aid. As we speak

now, 27 containers of aid are on the ship on the way to Haiti,

because of your efforts, because of your love, because of your

prayer. Let us stand together enjoy this unity in diversity, and

don't enjoy the unity in the different religious ways, because

the parts of God to the paths to God are many. Is not one. God is

diverse. His creation is diverse. His humanity is diverse. So the

paths to him are diverse. It is not a means of conflict. It's a

means of understanding, of appreciating, of enjoying and

coming together. My special thanks to the Saint George's cathedral,

to Archbishop Mahoba, Reverend brotherwood, and all the religious

people are here, people from my organization, the marshals on the

road, the police, the premier, the Premier's representative, and

everybody who's made this a success. And finally, thanks to

God Almighty for bringing us together as human beings. Thank

you very much. Thank.