Imtiaz Sooliman – Jakes Gerwel Commemoration . Lecture
AI: Summary ©
In a series of stories and books, various speakers discuss the importance of faith and spirituality in bringing hope and positivity back to South Africa. They emphasize the need for everyone to be open-minded and not allow negative emotions to affect others. The importance of serving people in a spirit of love and compassion, embracing patience, and following spiritual principles is emphasized. The success of drilling and drilling wells is also discussed, and the potential for future success and success in life is also discussed.
AI: Summary ©
I'm a bit vertically challenged, so I'm gonna have to keep doing
this throughout the night.
It is such an honor to have such a busy man managing one crisis after
the other, both here, locally and abroad, Doctor MTS Suliman, the
man behind the extraordinary gift of the givers, the Bringers of
hope and humanitarian help and relief, although he apparently has
four phones, he replies to his WhatsApp messages within 10
minutes. So for all those who like to blue tick people,
unfortunately, Dr Suleiman couldn't join us physically, but
he is joining us virtually to discuss his book, his biography,
but also just to give our annual lecture.
Oh, not, not yet. Okay, cool. No, there's, there's a lot that we
have in store for you. So I think that's going to be happening a bit
later on in the evening.
Now we will have a beautiful video that has been put together for us
since 2019 130
writers have been to bullet house. More than 20 of their plays have
been performed. 10 of them are now successfully published authors.
60,000 books have been put in the hands of young readers, and 20
youngsters are now published poets. The foundation also
recently launched the hive on its website, this is a platform where
you can get to be a little bit familiar with all the
opportunities from the foundation around workshops, residencies and
a lot more. Um, also on the platform, we have the palette
house stories. These are stories which are written by our jgf
writers. So it's a beautiful masala of languages, genres and
different writing styles. But before you guys think that I've
been paid to do this, I will let a video that has been compiled by
jeremio la Cordia. I had to practice that one.
Jeremia was also part of the jgf and pin residency in 2019
we love to keep it in the family. Yes, please watch the screens.
I'm Angela Briggs, the English language mentor on the bosford
book writing project. The project supports debut writers to develop
their manuscripts in partnership with NB publishers. Over the
years, I've realized that it's the kitchen that most represents the
work that we do on the book writing project at pollette house,
the kitchen is literally at the center of the physical space. You
have to walk through it to access the big, beautiful back garden and
find your way to the new writing rooms at the back, and coming in
from the garden, you have to walk through it to reach the dining
room or the sitting room. So two our writers have to spend time
working with the basic ingredients, their imagination
skills, and the stories they want to tell in our literary kitchen
before reaching the outside World. It is Miche van bake in
mama,
Lee and Van Roy, welcome. You are a playwright. Now you can add that
to your
CV. I was
like, what insane in Yeah, so Jax can well kill a life means is a
drama. Execute
the.
Thought by
the
in
natira.
Can I
open this? A
very
reflective manure on set Africa, a mere the measure steam
tele can Lear in Esteban, amazing. My name is Reginald lafke. I'm
part of the Jake's Kerrville and NBA publishers mentorship program
for 2023
the program really meant a lot for me, I would say it was life
changing simply because I'm writing a memoir. So it's been a
therapeutic experience for myself, a lot of crying, a lot of
laughing, and, most importantly, a lot of healing. I think it's been
a memorable experience, going back the traveling all the way from
Johannesburg, landing in Port Elizabeth, traveling through to
Somerset east, exploring and seeing the Beautiful Eastern Gate.
What are Amazing? Um,
yaldank doesn't next?
Skies, that is the amazing stuff with it was the best experience of
my life. I think it was the first time in my life where I was
confident enough to call myself an author. When I stepped into the
writer's house, I was like, Okay, I must really be a writer to be
here. It was really my brother's moment. For me, what I really like
the most about the guys
in the Jake scowell Foundation is that I feel like they are really
on a mission to make your life as convenient as possible. It's
almost like they go out of their way to accommodate you. From the
very first time I started corresponding with DIO Chem, I
could tell that he really cared, and he wanted this experience
to be as soon as it could be for me, and I really like that. I
appreciated it. He took care of everything, down to my dietary
needs, and I just want to point that out. Oh my god, the food was
really amazing. What makes the Jake's handwritten foundation
residency so special is the way that it takes writers out of their
studies from where they're sitting behind their computers, and puts
them in a house together, and in a way, forces them to interact with
each other in a creative way. And what makes that quite special, I
think, is that it almost brings about an interrogation of your own
writing process and how you see literature and what it should do
in the world today, and how you see South Africa, and what
literature and writing should be doing in that space. And what
makes it also very interesting is there's an international component
to the group. We had writers from Malawi and from Germany. And
questions get asked, you know about what is South African? What
does it mean?
And you find that the South Africans, who are all from various
backgrounds and races and ages, don't necessarily agree on those
answers, and I think that leads to a very interesting discussion that
is held at a table in Jake's herbals lounge, where you see his
books and his library, you are literally under a portrait of the
thinker himself. And
I think what happens then is the sort of a family dynamic develops
between the various writers, obviously given different ages and
so forth. It becomes a bit like the rituals of a family that sit
down for dinner every evening and return to similar discussions that
were held in previous days, and also interrogate how that has
influenced their own writing. When I got the news that I had made it
into this residency by the jakes fairbault Foundation, I was
ecstatic, and this mostly came from a place I.
Of you know, knowing that I've always wanting to write, knowing
that I always wanted to write, but being afraid of it for the for the
most part. And so I came to this residency in a different province,
and I realized that a lot of us are scared. The place is really,
it's so pretty, it's so inviting, it's calming, it's peaceful, it's
like conducive for writing. And so I really, really appreciate that.
And I think a lot of people are going to say that, but chef
Gilbert,
I can't the food here is, I don't know how I'm gonna get back home.
It's gonna be very sad. I think the thing I'm gonna miss the most
is the food 49 bullet house,
mountain skies and waterfalls. This place a creative call here at
bullet house,
the place where concepts up and down, our stories can fly now,
here at ballet house, blade house
stories but also tell,
but his stories
would also tell, it is really beautiful to see the entire
experience, you know, it becomes like a family, you know, it's a
warm place. There is food, there is laughter, there is music and
and, yeah, it's I feel. I feel like I have become one with with
everybody that has been to palette house with me. So now I think we
are ready for the main event.
Um, this is a man that we all know have all heard of, and a man who
is extremely busy always managing one crisis after the other. Dr MTS
Suleyman is giving our lecture tonight. And like I mentioned,
because of some health issues, he will not be joining us physically,
but he is coming through virtually, and we're good to roll
so again, please turn your eyes to the screen.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you very much for the invite. I'm
sorry it has happened the second time when we have supposed to have
the event earlier in the year. I haven't eaten to theater and and,
and as it happened, I ended up going to theater again last week,
so unfortunately, I could not be with you this evening. But in any
case, still. Cam, thank you for inviting me and the management of
the Jake's caramel foundation.
I know the country and the world is caught up with sadness, people
not showing uncertainty about life, what the challenges are,
where the world is going. My
talk to you is about spirituality. It's about faith. And I'd like to
bring many examples in about what I'm about to say. Let's start off
with the man, James Cabral himself. You see, last year I was
in kabeha, and we got called by the city council, the mayor at the
municipality, health engineers, and by the business chamber to say
that the city is in big trouble. They're heading for Day Zero. Can
become an assist and see what's possible. We started drilling
boreholes. We put in 50 boreholes in various parts of the city to
save the city.
Along the line, a school teacher from a principal from Patterson
high sends a message to one of my teams, and they said, Can you
please come here and look at the possibility of putting a ball in
Patterson high so my teams go, I haven't been there. I look at the
site from what they've sent me. I said it's authorized. Go ahead.
A few weeks later, I come to open up a borehole in St Albans school.
That principal is very, very alert. Says, I know you come to
Saint Albans school. Can you just please come pass my school for
five to 10 minutes? So I said, Madam, I'm not sure if it's going
to be possible, because I've got multiple engagements whenever I
come, but I'll see what's what's possible.
The life had it that I managed to get there to the school. Rose the
donkey, the principal invites me. She takes me to the bowl and says,
Thank you very much. And as you walk you around the school, I see
seven burnt classrooms, matric classrooms. I said, Madam, how
long has this taken place? She says, 2015
I said, How do you manage? She said, We 55 kids in a class. And I
said, has anybody not fixed this thing up? She says, No. So I said,
if I fix it up, is it fine? She says, Yes, but they said it has to
be scrapped. So I walk around the school build the burn buildings,
and I said, No, just I'm not an engineer. I'm not a builder, but I
can tell you now this thing doesn't have to be scrapped,
and so once you're walking she says, Do you know what came to the
school,
which person
was taught in the school? I said, No, I don't know. She says, Jack
scarbo was a person who grew up and learnt in the school. She said
Dennis Brutus was from here, and I think the third person she mentors
mentions was George Bucha, George water, all critically important
people in the anti apartheid movement. And during the time of
pre 94
I said, Madam, we have a very historical school. She says, yes.
It takes me further down. She says, yes, the lab, the first lab
in the name of the person, the first person as killed in
detention in South Africa. This lab is named after him. I said,
given the names, your commitment, the dedication, you've got the
ball, we're going to put the seven classrooms in, and we'll see what
else we can do. And subsequently, with that, we put an extra turf in
the school. That school, being a public school, has kept up the
honor of Professor Jakes helvet. They won the quest competitions
and beat every other private school and government school in
the region. They've excelled in sports and they've excelled in
everything else, the community, the principal, the teachers, the
kids are incredible in everything that they do. That's a great
memory for Professor Jake, and I'm so impressed and so proud to be
part of the school. A month ago, we went again and principal, Rosa
Docker arrange a gathering of 185
principals in the city to talk, to motivate them, to learn about
their problems, how to come into education, how to upgrade our
children and how to bring hope to our people. People are hopeless.
They say it's a failed state. Is there any hope? What will happen
to our children? What will happen to us? People are leaving South
Africa. We can't go. We don't have the means. We are afraid. Is there
any hope?
There's absolutely nothing to fear.
This is a great country. Yes, it has its problems, like every other
country the world, but no problem is insurmountable. I know I'm a
disaster specialist. 33 years of my life, that's all I've done, go
to the most horrific places on Earth where people tear each other
apart, war, international strife, civil strife, several wars,
neighbors, friends, families, communities tear each other apart.
Cyclones, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, drought, famine. Does all
the kind of things that I see and do for the last 33 years of my
life. We nowhere near a failed state, no problem is
insurmountable. Why are they telling you people are leaving the
country? Have they told you how many people are coming back? Just
last night,
a man called one of my team members. He says, I'm from the UK.
I've been here for 13 years. 21st December is my last day in UK. I'm
coming back home to this greatest country on Earth. I'm coming back
to South Africa
in the same city of Quebec.
I was What German investors, they invest in alloys. All the alloys
for all the motor industry are made by this company. And they
said to me, whilst I was doing a presentation at the business
chamber, they came to me and said, You people of South Africans are a
crazy nation.
So I said, What do you mean? You said, You guys fight about
everything, but when it comes to common issues, you guys always
stand together. And he said, There's something different about
you, not me, South Africans. And I said, what's different about this
is there some kind of innate spirit that you have, a spirit of
goodwill, of holding hands together, of being together, of
standing for each other. He says, I'm a German.
We come from Europe. But for the last year, I've come repeatedly to
South Africa, and I've brought my wife with me. What an ulterior
motive. I wanted to get used to this country, because if there's
any country in the.
World that I would like to stay in. It's South Africa. That's a
sentiment that people all over the world have been expressing. South
Africans need to understand that. But what takes away the fear and
anxiety
the narrative has to change. Two critical components are missing in
the dialog, and those two components are faith and
spirituality. You see, whether we like it or not, faith is the
essence of everything. All of us have gone to some kind of
religious school, religious education, been to the church, the
synagogue, the temple, the mosque, whatever we've had some kind of
background in our lives. Without faith and spirituality, there is
no positivity and no hope. Source of hope and positivity only comes
from faith and spirituality.
A few months ago,
our trucks came into Queenstown. Komani,
a black lady, the emphasis on race is deliberate, comes out from the
rural area at 5pm It's almost dark, it's winter.
She looks heavenwards on crutches, and she says, Thank you.
You never let me down.
No food in the house, no income, nobody to depend on, nobody to
share with, no hope of anything coming from anywhere. We landed on
komani. I don't know why, but we were there and she got her support
for whatever it may be,
her gratitude was profound. People of faith. Have profound gratitude,
no matter how small or how big it may be.
20th, January, 2010
eight days into the Haiti earthquake that took place on 12
January, 2010
513, in afternoon, 7.0 on the rafter scale, convulsions for 40
seconds wiped out 220,000
people
day eight in the collapsed Catholic Church. My team's ear
sounds in the rubble, and three hours later, they pull out alive,
64 year old, erazizi, no oxygen, no food, no water, fractured hip
completely unmeshed in the rubble.
Her first verse to my team was, I love God Almighty. A sense of
faith and spirituality is what kept our life. Faith and
spirituality gave hope and positivity, and eight days later,
it was rewarded. She was pulled out alive. Her next words to my
team was, I love you.
The essence of faith and spirituality and religion is love,
and that's what needs to return to all of us out in our country, in
our country, in our continent and in our world. So let's go a little
bit a bit back, further back from where all the started. I told you,
it's all about spirituality,
if not the givers. Is not my organization. I
didn't get up one morning and say to myself, I think today I'll form
an organization, give it a name, get some founder members, write
some points and draw up a constitution. It never happened
like that. It was a calling in a true sense. Everything about the
organization is spiritual. People know, six August, 1992
is the official date to meet. The spirituality started in 1985
Let me explain. You see, 1985
I was doing internship in King Edward Hospital in Durban. That
point being young, all young people like me have aspirations.
And I said to myself in the following year, in 1986 I would
become a medical officer and then a registrar, and then I would
become a specialist and internal in internal medicine, I will be a
physician, and they have to go for even further if I want to. But it
never happened like that.
In that time, pre 94 there were not many posts, so I couldn't
study further. I had a choice of performing the cartwheels, sitting
in a corner, moping, being depressed, and saying it's the end
of the world totally, plus nothing to do.
Or I can say there's faith, there's spirituality, there's
hope, there are alternatives. God is great, and I decide to go into
private practice in Peter marisburg. I lived in Devon. I'm
born in Potter school. Moved to Durban in 1974 and in 1986 after
qualification, I moved to the.
I said, I'll set up private practice in Peter marisburg. It's
something I never wanted to do. But in life, there are lot of
things that we don't want to do. We just have to go forward and do
what has to be done. You see, we have a teaching. We don't pray for
what we want. We pray for what is good for us, because what you want
may not necessarily be good for you, and that's why, when your
obstacles, road bumps, things don't work out. That doesn't work
out doesn't doesn't work out for my child, for my wife, for myself,
don't look at it negatively. Go back and look at it with a
positive mind's eye and say, Why? Why this didn't happen, and quite
often, you'll find that why it didn't happen because it was not
in your interest, something better was planned out for you, and you
need to embrace it, but you need patience. It doesn't happen
overnight, it doesn't happen in five minutes or five days. It may
take weeks, months or years. Faith asked you to embrace patience.
So I learned that in marysburg in January 86
and I meet an Afrikaner man.
My new neighbor in my new building is a butcher.
He comes to me and he says this, Afrikaner guy from Pretoria moved
to marisburg to teach French at the University. He's got a medical
problem. He needs a doctor.
So Mala and I meet, and after some sessions, it tells me of a
spiritual teacher that he met in Turkey, I mean, in in America,
that had come from Turkey.
And he says, I need you to meet the spiritual teacher. He's a
Turk, a Muslim, a Sufi, but when I talk to you, and I think of
experience with him, there's a lot of similarities. So it has been
1986
you need to go to Turkey. So I joke with him. I said, Mother,
it's 1986
I still haven't seen Cape Town. When am I going to get to Turkey?
He looks at me and he says something very profound. Every
message that I'm telling is very important for you to reflect on.
He says, My Friend, what God wants happens. There's a time and a
place. His words didn't go cold.
August 91
my wife and I landed up in Turkey. It's a very long story, but when
we got there, it was the most critical time in the world. It was
post Gulf War.
Gulf War had polarized nations, religions, civilizations. Samuel
Huntington spoke of a clash of civilizations, and the perception
was Christians, Jews and Hindus on one side, and Muslims on the other
side, east on one side, west on the other side. And coming from an
apartheid pass just didn't help. And as he walked into the
spiritual place of that Turkish Sufi Muslim person in Istanbul, my
wife and I thought we came to the wrong place in that place,
Americans, Russians, Russians, people from Sweden, Norway,
Denmark, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Australia, New
Zealand, parts of Southeast Asia and Africa. Hindus, Christians,
Jews, Muslims, people of other faith and people of no religion,
all in a Muslim holy place, post Gulf War, no friction, no
fighting, no discord, no anger. How is this possible?
The spiritual teacher looked at the shop on my face, and they
said, What do you see? I said, I'm totally confused. What are people
of different religions and different nationalities, doing in
a Muslim only place, we fought with this people all over the
world. Why are they? He
said, my friend, my son, you see, right?
Mankind is one single nation.
The God of all mankind is one. We just call him by different names,
any Imam, Priest, Sheik, Pandit, Rabbi, Sufi, or anyone else that
preaches violence, extremism, Discord, terrorism, conflict,
confrontation or disorder is not a man of God. Don't follow him.
Anyone who preaches love, kindness, compassion and mercy, is
a man of God. Follow him. He says, My son, we don't look at the
negativity in people. The bad behavior of one individual or a
group or a slightly bigger group is not indicative of an entire
religion and.
Entire nation and an entire community, we need to have an open
mind. And even when we engage people, we don't look at the
faults in the people. We look at the good in the people. In our
business, we save souls. We look at the people. And even no matter
how many, how much negative they have in them, we don't ever
mention the negative. We always say, my friend, you did this good
and you did that good and you did that good. And as the law of
spirituality is, and the law of universe is, as you keep
mentioning the positive, the positive comes up and the negative
goes down. You said, My son, none of us, even we spiritual teachers,
none of us are perfect. There is no imperfect human there is no
perfect human being. We all all have our faults, and it says we
all may have bad habits, but it doesn't make us bad people. When
you relate to people, remember that they may have bad habits, but
it doesn't make them bad. People. Don't be judgmental. Be open
minded. Embrace love, show compassion. Save the soul.
I fell in love What what I heard and what I saw. I came back to
South Africa,
the yearning, like an addiction was there strongly. Six August,
1992
seven years later, from the first spiritual thinking in 1985
came the official date
of the formation of gift of the givers,
10pm Thursday night, like tonight after a spiritual session called a
Zika. In a Zika, you celebrate God's names in Arabic, the
spiritual teacher picks up his head, makes eye contact with me
and looks heavenward at the same time in FLUENT Turkish. And I
don't speak a word of Turkish, but I understood every single word
that is said in Turkish that night, they said, My son, I'm not
asking you, I'm instructing you to form an organization.
The name in Arabic will be wagful 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, you life. 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 with
love, kindness, compassion and mercy, and remember the dignity of
men is foremost no matter what happens. Remember the dignity of
men is foremost. When somebody is down, don't push them down
further, hold them, elevate them. Wipe the tear of a grieving child,
cares the head of an orphan. Say it was a good counsel to a widow.
These things are free. They don't cost anything, clothe the naked,
feed the hungry, provide water to the thirsty, and in everything
that you do, be the best at what you do,
not because of ego. Ego is destructive. Ego is a monster. Ego
is horrendous. Not because of ego, but because you're dealing with
human life, human emotion, human suffering and human dignity. My
son, this is an instruction for you for the rest of your life. I
was 30 years old, and then he said, remember
that whatever you do
is done through you and not by you. There is no place for ego.
31 years in the business, and I'm not stupid, intelligence tells me
that the kind of things being done is not humanly possible.
I asked him,
How is it that you speak Turkish? I understand and when other people
speak Turkish, I don't understand.
You, said, My son,
when the hearts connect and the souls connect, the words become
understandable.
I said, I'm a doctor.
I have three practices, private practices in a place called Peter
manisburg in South Africa. What exactly am I supposed to do, and
when am I supposed to do this?
He looked at me
deeply in my.
Eight,
and he just said one line,
you will know
for 31 years, I do know what to do, what not to do, what to touch,
what not to touch. In fact, the moment I walked out of that place
on the sixth of August, 1992
it came to me respond to the civil war in Bosnia. The same month in
August, I took in 32 eight containers of aid into a war zone,
all alone, three months later, eight containers of aid, of winter
items. The Chill Factor in Eastern Europe can reach minus 21 degrees
in winter. Took that 18 and the following 93
we designed the world's first containerized mobile hospital, a
product of South African technology, a product of South
African engineering, built in South Africa and taken to Europe,
a world first CNN, 28 state of the art, containers for 10, backup
containers, theater, ICU, X ray, sterilization, dental unit, burnt
unit, orthopedics, Gynecology, obstetrics, pediatrics, every
aspect when CNN fell in the hospital on the first of February
1994 the CNN journalist said the South African fontari mobile
hospital is equivalent to any of the best hospitals in Europe. You
said, Be the best save lives. Be the skilled in whatever you do. So
let's take an extension of that hospital, and Let's reconnect it
to spirituality. You see that instruction to help Bosnia came in
1992
and it came from Turkey. So remember Turkey and Bosnia? So
let's go to Cape Town, where I eventually got to after 1986 and
several times in the year after that tour. So in November, 19,
november 2022
my friend from Cape Town calls me and he says, Would you like to
meet the new general manager of Turkish Airlines is moving from
San Francisco to Cape Town. Would you would like to meet him?
I said, NISS, in my business, I'm a disaster specialist. I connect
with airlines, what ships? What networks, what ambassadors, what
governments, what communication systems. That's what I do. Yes.
Naan says yes, but I said, let's leave it for when it's supposed to
happen,
first February this year,
I'm getting to the plane at King Shaka airport to fly to Cape Town.
The boss upstairs reminds me, remember your friend called you in
November last year. You need to make the call,
so I call this up and I say, is a turkey Shika here, sir,
I'll call you back in two minutes. Pass it back in two minutes. We're
having some half past nine tonight at survey the Turkish restaurant
to the waterfront,
half past and that's a half past nine. He says, I get off the plane
straight to the restaurant, and I pass man, I get there, my first
words to Muhammad Sinan, General Manager of Turkish Airlines, I'm
looking for an airline partner
in the event there is an earthquake in the country, and I
need to Move such an excreted personnel, dog handlers, dogs,
medical personnel, medical equipment, search and rescue
equipment and humanitarian supplies, food, blankets, 10s,
medicines and the works, but I need to move them fast, without
hindrance, without delay, to get to the zone and to get faster, way
to stay Quiet. Is this possible? What your airline?
Yes, it's possible.
Five days later,
417, in the morning, 7.8 on Earth to scale,
the earthquake hits his country.
What's the chance of that being a coincidence?
12 hours later, our teams are ready to fly to Turkey, because
that arrangement was made not in November last year, but on the
first of February. 2023
there's a time and a place. You will know everything is
politically directed. 172
teams. 272 countries. Sorry, respond to the Turkish earthquake.
Some, sending one, some, sending two, some, sending three teams.
Let's average it to 300 teams from all over the world.
You don't decide where you want to go. The Turkish government.
Decides where you go, because they please all the teams. So 12 teams
go to her time,
the most destroyed city in the whole of Turkey. 16 million people
were caught up in that earthquake from the 12 teams, there's only
one non governmental team that's us, gift of the givers, two teams
from China government, two teams from Turkey government, one from
Italy, one from Croatia, one from Serbia, one from Bosnia. Remember,
keep that in your mind, one from Saudi Arabia, one from Oman, one
from Jordan and the gift of the grievous team.
Day eight,
exactly what happened in Haiti on day eight, the dog of brigadier
Francis Woodley comes and says, You better check there.
So the teams go to the building and they pull out alive a 90 year
old grandmother,
the other teams were impressed and at the skill of the South African
search and rescue team and the dogs that we had.
And they said, your dogs are highly skilled. Your dog is
different.
How is a dog different?
And she asked, What do you mean the dog is different?
And they said, our dog can only smell and one dog is required to
smell a live person and another dog is required to smell a
deceased person. One dog can't do both.
How come your dog can do that boat smell a live person as well a
disease person the same time your dog can do that. We said, yes, our
dog is South African. South Africans can do anything.
We need to believe in ourselves,
but that South African dog can only get that kind of skill
because it's got a handler that's got that kind of skillet. It's got
a handler that's got a spirit of Ubuntu, the spirit of
spirituality, that can transfer that to the dog.
And then
let's say I mentioned the word turkey and Bosnia specifically,
after I said I'm going to take you on a spiritual journey.
One of the teams I told you was the Bosnian team.
A few days into the earthquake, the Bosnian team member comes to
my team leader,
pats him on the shoulder, and starts sobbing.
So my team member said, What happened to
you? He said,
we know the name of your organization.
So my team member asked, What do you mean?
It takes out a wallet. I need a wallet. It takes out a picture,
and in the picture there's a mother and a baby.
He says, That baby is me.
That lady is my mother.
We know your name,
so we ask again, what do you mean? He
said, You see, in 1993 there was an organization called gift from
the givers that came from South Africa and put a containerized
mobile hospital in Bosnia. I was born in that hospital. That's me.
We associate life and living. What gift of the givers? 172
countries, 300 teams.
Only 12 teams get selected to go to a tie. From the 12 teams, one
is South Africans and one is Bosnian, and from the Bosnian
team, the member that was born in the hospital comes to be as part
of that team. What is the chance of that being a coincidence faith
and spirituality is a source of all hope and all positivity.
2012
I walk with my team member into Syria.
The country is falling apart.
We not a failed state. We far from our failed state. We have people
who don't have vengeance, who don't have anger, who forgive, but
all the ends of the past, they forgive and they build a country
we're not anywhere near that when members, neighbors, friends, same
religion, same culture, tore each other apart, and I walked into
that country, and I meet a doctor, and I said, we want to help you,
but I need a building that can be convert converted into hospital.
Let me tell you some spiritual things, which will be a little bit
difficult to understand because it's rooted in Islamic culture.
In any case, the.
He says, this town we just liberated 10 days ago from Assad's
forces. You've come at the right time. Here's the building that was
supposed to be used for all people. No people want to stay
here. You can have this building
now apart before that, you see, I've gone all over to Surya. I
just couldn't find the right place to intervene in.
I came to this place the spiritual order that I belong to, the Sufi
order, is called HAL vetti jarahi.
I look at the mosque in the town in the village called darqush,
where eventually landed and met this cardiothoracic surgery.
The name of jarahi comes from an Islamic scholar called Abu obeda
bin Jara. Jarahi, coming from Jara,
a man takes me to the mosque, and after a while, he speaks just
casually, out of the blue, he said, This mosque was built by Abu
obaidah pinjara.
Total coincidence. Is that possible?
Anyway,
we go to the building,
and I said, my friend, this building is too small.
We need to go upwards, backwards, sidewards, forwards. I need to
land across the road and four or five other buildings.
He looks at me, said, but you haven't even started with the
first patient yet. How do you want all these other things?
I said, we give from the givers. I know what's going to happen. This
building is too small. Is
it okay? If you need to go up,
we need to find an engineer
now, because the town got liberated 10 days ago, and I came
with the same gift shirt and walked into Belgium, where every
foreigner is treated with suspicion because they don't know
where, which side you're coming from, but the fact that I was with
Doctor Ahmed gandur, the hero of the town, people thought, maybe
it's fine. So other people came, walked into the same building that
doctor gandur took me, took took me into that building, and the man
came, and he said, I'm sorry. I said, You speak English. He says,
yes. I said, I'm sorry, but I over your conversation. You said you
need an engineer.
I said, Yes, we do need an engineer. Can you help?
You said, yes,
okay, I'm an engineer.
So I said, Can you go up here? Can you go upwards? He said, Yes,
without hesitation, two floors. I say, oh, wait a minute, my friend,
what kind of engineer Are you? So he said, What do you mean? I said,
you haven't seen the drawing. You haven't seen the steel content,
you haven't seen the concrete base. You haven't seen how strong
the floor is, the foundation is. How you can tell me just two
floors going up. Which kind of engineer Are you?
He looks at me, and he says, my friend, cool it. I'm the guy that
built this building.
That's not a strange part.
15 million people displaced from Syria, internally and externally.
This man left the city of darqush, where he lived in. He left, he
left many years ago, and never, ever came back the day I needed an
engineer, that very minute in that hour of that day in that building
in darqush, the engineer that never came back turns up in front
of me and tells me, you can go up two floors. Is a co incidence.
I can give you numerous stories about all this kind of things that
happen, but let's fast forward a little bit
to 2017
and let's listen to another spiritual aspect of what happened
in South Africa. You see on third June, 2017
there's a massive fire in Islam.
Few days before that, a man from Pretoria calls me and tells me, I
need to send water to Cape Town. They're approaching day zero. So I
told him, Are you out of your mind? They can just buy bottled
water in Cape Town. What's the point of sending all the way over
Pretoria, the transport cost is more expensive than the water. He
started saying, no, please, men. I took donor money and I did this,
and I did that. I said, Why are you making your problem my
problem? He said, Please, you need to help me so very, very
reluctantly, I take the bottle of water, put it on a truck, and
guess what? Date a water truck passes nicer.
Tell June. I.
2017
we're here in the morning that there's no water because there's a
drought. That same water that I did not want to send to Cape Town
at that part of the night, I'm now looking for the driver. Where are
you?
I'm three sisters. Turn around and drive to nazada. There's no water
in the town, and the first structure arrives at six o'clock
the morning. Is the truck that I just didn't want to send to Cape
Town.
God Almighty works his plan in a very, very strange way. We
provided water, food parcels, hygiene packs, detergents for
20,000 families, we sent in our own firefighters, search and
rescue personnel, advanced life support, paramedics, advanced life
support. Ambulance medical teams delivered babies, both patients
from Niza to Georgia and other hospitals. Looked after the cats
and the dogs. They wanted pet food. We gave them 31 tons of pet
food. We fed 1200 firefighters twice a day. But energy foods,
bottled water, energy drink, hot meals every day. And then came
people and said, What about the animals in the farms? The horses,
the pigs, the cows, the
sheep, the goats, all need help. We brought in fodder for them.
They said, What about the animals in the wild and elephant in the
park, we brought more support for them, and they said, What about
the bees? 22 million bees got destroyed in the fire. We
rehabilitated the bees. Brought 300 new behind, paid for pollen,
nectar substitute, provided the sugar solution, and gave money to
promote new plants, to support a research center for bees. All that
happened. And once that was happening. Sunday. Said, Do you
know there's a drought in Sutherland, that animal count is
dropping. That the price. But you know, shift 442,000
the count is dropping rapidly to 400 to 350 to 300,000 the economy
is going to collapse. The farmers are going to collapse. We need to
save the farms. We sent in 350
million Rand for the fodder to save Sutherland and the Northern
Cape. July, 2018
the farmers called, and they said, Thank you for the father. But we
done.
We can't survive anymore. We asked, What do you mean? They
said, the water is dry. All the balls are dried up. There is no
water. Our sheep are not going to love they can't afford her without
water, they won't survive. So I said, What do you mean? It's over.
Nothing is over.
There's faith and spirituality, what that comes positivity and
hope? I sent in my drilling teams, and we drilled 238
boreholes to save the sheep. We talk about faith and spirituality,
it's 2023
those farmers have been hauling onto fate and spirituality to
survive
for the first time in January, 2022
the sheep count is starting to turn around. It finally dropped to
32,000
it's not going upwards. They didn't throw in the towel. They
didn't gave up, give up. They waited and they prayed. And faith
and spirituality is turning the situation around. God says faith
is not an easy thing. I certainly will test you, and the tests are
not easy. I'm
going to give you probably one more last story at
the same time, once you were in nice round,
the disaster management of Fort Beaufort West called
and said, there's no water. The town is running dry.
All the people said, we will not find water in Beaufort West. We
had serious trouble. I said there's no water in Beaufort West.
Only. Dr hijinhua, the hydrologist that worked with us, says there's
no water. If he says there's no water, then there's no water. If
he says he can find water, then there is water.
So he didn't Hanuman goes to Beaufort West two weeks only,
drilling dust, dust and dust and eating dust and nothing else.
Finally, it's a Friday. It's prayer time for me at 12 o'clock,
come about to start prayer. And it comes to me that hidden is going
to find water today.
So I sent him a message. I said, Doctor fauna, you will find water
today.
When the WhatsApp reaches him,
is on in frustration, on the ground in Beaufort West. He gets
up, looks at the message.
Ish, and he tells Alfred, next spring, we're going to find water
to get today.
So Alfred said, we've been drilling here for two weeks, and
you're eating sand, you're on the ground where we're going to
find this water. Picks up his head across the the ground in a
distance on a mountain. He sees the outline of a white horse. They
call it area. And
he says, there. So
elephant says, My friend been eating too much dust for the last
two weeks. The brain is conked. Where the * are we going to
find water there? He
says, We need to go there. So they take the drilling machine and they
go and they come to a gate, and they ask somebody like, whose gate
is this? They said, Oh, that guy is never going to allow you to go
to his gate. It's never going to happen. So I said, I need a
number. Gets the number of the foreman performance. Said, sorry,
it's not going to happen. But in any case, I'll give you a number
of the farmer you can try.
So the phone rings. The farmer answers and says, Is this Hayden
coronavirus? He
didn't get the shock.
He says, Yes. He said, I've been waiting for this call.
The great number is this? This is the code you may enter.
Agent goes through, sets the drilling machine to start running,
and as is about to drill, it jumps. They
set it the second time it jumps.
They set it a third time it jumps. Agent tells Alfred just drill
where this machine is jumping.
And as they drill, everybody said, no water in bow for the West,
where the machine jumped, 20,000 liters per hour.
We drilled seven boreholes, and we drilled the water from the bowl
into the hamka Dam, brought it into the municipality and in the
reservoir, and put it all around Beaufort West. We put two
additional bowls in all age homes and the schools and Beaufort West
got water so totally spiritual in everything that happened. My final
point, this is a great country. You have faith in God Almighty,
you have positivity. You are willing to share. You are willing
to do good. We are going to go big places. Why is it telling you
people are living the living the country? I told you in the
beginning, they are not telling you how many are coming back. I
met the general manager of of eminence airlines, now ask them,
how's the situation?
He says, pre covid. We had 48 flights a week to South Africa. We
already on 42 flights a week to South Africa. We are expanding Air
France, Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, everybody is
expanding their route because everybody wants to come to South
Africa to the so called failed state investors are lucky. How
much to invest in the country? In PE again, let's go back there.
Rosa donka. I'm the green ammonia. People are going to invest 100
billion rand into our country. Future life is just putting 75
million Rand in a new plant in in Dubai, to the trading course in in
in Durban. So many other companies are coming to invest and expand
their portfolio. Two months ago, there was a cardiology conference
in Cape Town in the cticc, where you guys are not far from. There
2000 cardiologists from all over the world, what their families
came to our country to spend money and and look at our country on the
fourth of December. The world's largest the international
neurosurgical conference is taking place in Cape Town on the fourth
of December. It's conference that I'm going to be opening. Hopefully
I'll be ready enough to fly by that time, otherwise, we'll have
another problem, like tonight. Any case,
people from all over the world are coming into our country. Investors
are seeing the value. And people love our spirituality. They love
our attitude. They love our warmth and compassion. Ladies and
gentlemen, this country has helped a lot of people in our country and
all over the world. Wherever I go, What gift of the givers we've
intervened in 46 countries. People only send prayer for our people
and our country, and God upstairs is listening. Thank you very, very
much for your time. All I need you to understand is there's every
hope in the world, as long as you have faith and spirituality,
guaranteed, you will be tested. That's the law of all religion.
But you have patience and faith, you'll overcome everything.
Nothing is insurmountable. We'll fix the client.
We'll fix transmit. We'll fix Eskom. We'll fix corruption. We'll
fix thy high infection rate. We'll fix everything, because, by the
grace of God, His mercy never leaves a people. Hey, you have a
fantastic evening. May the memory of Professor Jakes carval No
forever that man is an intensely good man, and may his soul be
blessed in heaven. And thank you very much till camp and the
committee for remembering, for remembering Professor Dick's
camera every year. Good evening, good night. And thank you very
much.
You
faith and spirit. Graduality give you hope.
Whatever you do is done through you and not by you. No problem is
insurmountable.
It is truly amazing to listen to someone who has witnessed so much
and is so full of hope. Um, thank you to Doctor MTS, Suleiman for
that beautiful reminder to always surrender to purpose. Doctor MTS,
Suleiman's book is available for purchase at the back over there.
I'm sure you've all got your coins ready. Since we're readers and we
love buying books.
Um, we're going to take a bit of a body break, um, about five
minutes, just to give our next act a chance to set up and do a quick
sound check. So if you want to refill your wine or you need to
take a smoke break or a bathroom break, now's the time to do it.
You.