Imtiaz Sooliman – SABC Robinson Somalia Interview Sooliman Gift of the Givers
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the loss of life and negative publicity in various countries due to the lack of functioning government and the need for people to get food and water. They emphasize the importance of building relationships with people to avoid harm and negotiating attitude to avoid harm. The success of their team in South Africa and the importance of their relationship with the African Union are also highlighted. The speakers emphasize the need for support from the government and the public to address issues related to South Africa, and express their belief that South Africa is a compassionate nation and will respond to the situation.
AI: Summary ©
Somalia doctor, welcomes. Nice speaking to you. Good evening.
Thank you very much. I've asked the question in the first part of
this program, but how did this particular operation differ from
others that you've done in other parts of the world, in Haiti and
Pakistan and Iran and so forth. Every operation is different, but
this has been the biggest one, the most tragic, the greatest loss of
life, the greatest support from South Africa, and our biggest
project in our 19 year history. It's very challenging in terms of
going to a country that has no proper functioning government that
is under war that has only five or six kilometers of the city under
its control, that has au forces in sight, that has people who don't
know who they are, who the enemy is, in inverted commas, they could
be very ordinary people who target foreigners, specifically,
especially media and people from different countries. Social
bombers take you out. You need your own security, your own
compound. You need to get food in. Beside the famine and the volume
of people, the sheer numbers of people require attention, the
areas to get to, the shortage of water, no functioning streets, no
proper roads. There's potholes between roads. I mean, it's so
badly destroyed. And besides that, you have a 21 year history of war,
those people require surgical intervention. And besides that,
you have normal people for the last 21 years with very normal
diseases who require attention also. So you have to factor all
these things in, and the fact that Mogadishu and Somalia has such
negative publicity over the last few years that nobody wants to go
in. How do you learn? What do you do? How do you get in? The sea is
closed because of answer some of those questions. How do you get
in? For instance, if there's no functional government, how do you
arrange to get in? Well, I went in on the 20th of July. My luck is I
met the president, the prime minister, and those people who
went control at that time, and just to explain how things change,
48 hours later, the entire government was replaced. You know,
no cabinet was changed, but it gave me enough time to see the
camps on the ground, to meet South Africans who were working the
airport in Mogadishu, who were involved in the clearance of cargo
and in also inside the stone forces, there were South Africans
were involved in the EU forces. And they said, Look, you can land
here. Basically the civil servants, wherever they are, are
running the country. So he said, let's take a chance. And we flew
the first plane in, and it went in very smoothly. We arranged through
I had a Somali on the ground who lives in South Africa, who's
working with me for the last six years, because we were involved in
puntaland, in the tsunami, you know, in 2004 Yeah. So I know him
from then, and the key factor here is, how do you negotiate your
attitude towards people, building relationships, strengthening ties
with all people, knowing the different clans, knowing the
mentality, the mindset. And you need somebody who understands all
that. This man, Dr Hashi, understood all that, and letting
that link, we open up all the doors together. You told us
earlier about the bad publicity of Somalia. What kind of a people are
they? Because we, we hear about the pirates at sea and the Al
Shabaab and how terrible it is and so on, but they are the people.
Not all of them can be like that. No, the first relationship with
Somalis was in harfun. And then, of course, in South Africa,
there's a huge Somali community. In South Africa, it's not
consistent to see the Somali community and then walking with
guns. It just doesn't match. Because they are such a docile
people, so calm, so hospitable, so loving, they won't harm a fly. So
it doesn't make sense to see them with guns. You know, yes, they are
clans. There are people because now for survival of fittest, but
deep down, wonderful people. The main I'm gonna explain to you how
the lady in the front of the queue went to the back of the queue. The
other phenomenon about Somalis is they, if there's a program like
this, they'll bring all the kids first. Even the doctors witnessed
it in the hospital that we set up the first few days, only the
children were brought, then the pregnant women came, then the
normal women and last men. So they are very giving, very patient and
a very, you know, resilient people who won't harm a fly. They want to
invite you into their homes. They want to share with you what they
don't have. So they are a warm, wonderful people. You fall in love
with them. Every member of the team I took in 9794 people, all of
them fell in love with the Somalis. And then you spoke about
relationships earlier. But obviously he was also work with
the with the African Union. He was work with the UN and with other
organizations. Tell us a little bit about that, the interaction
that you would have, that you had for those organizations. Well,
when we went in, you know, the AU forces, we met the Ugandan
component, I couldn't low check. Low, look, sorry, low catch. He
was very humble guy. We met him. Then, from the civilian sector,
there was a lady called Jackie amamo. We met her. We immediately
bonded, because Colonel low catch has trained in South Africa. He
was, you know, it was common ground for him. So already the
link was made. And I think the biggest asset we had is that we
were from South Africa. South Africa is a big name.
Mean Africa, it's a big name in the world, and we African, the
fact that we came from Africa, as an African organization, everybody
embraced us. The mayor and the governor received us at the
airport. And just today, just today, before I came on to the
program, I got a call from my man on the ground to say, the
president of the country, what six ministers from cabinet visited the
hospital that we took over and said, send a special message to
South Africa that we thank our African brothers for coming to our
aid. And that has you know that link with the May and the May and
the governor brought them to the hospital, because when we got
there the first day, the governor was cheering and the mayor was
steering, and all the commissioners of the 16 districts
met us, and they said, please come to my district. Please come to my
district. My need is bigger than their need. But wherever you go,
you are most welcome. So actually, the foot soldiers, the
commissioners, the mayor and the governor, open the government for
us. And then you mentioned earlier that you also have support from
the South African government here, but also generally about the
public here, because you need a lot of money for this kind of
thing, isn't it? Give us a picture of that kind of logistical side of
it, dealing with the South African government, the public and
institutions here, the country, has been absolutely phenomenal. A
special thank you to all South Africans watching this
parliamentary you guys made it happen. The government came to our
site. I was invited to Parliament to speak to the International
Relations Committee, and I said very clearly how we need to
respond greatly. Government has given us 4 million grand already.
We have been given two Defense Force planes. But besides that,
the different structures of government, the civil servants,
the hospitals, the police force on Friday, the police services in
pubalanga gave us whole lot of aid. SARS has given us aid, you
know, in cash, which they don't normally do, different
departments, ministers, MPs speak of the legislatures all have
gotten from province three house and trailers of stuff came the
government took me over to the EU conference. So in every sector of
government, day with us. Tomorrow, we meet in the treasury. They've
asked us to brief them on how they can put bigger input into Somalia.
So the government has been phenomenal. The media, your group,
I mean, they've carried the picture home, and people have
responded to this picture. Corporates have come like never
before to the party. I mean, corporates normally to be planned,
like to take the register. We gave something this time. It wasn't
taking the register. It was a really, genuinely felt ordinary
people said, I can give only one breath. That's all I have. And
they gave the one that school, kids, churches, mosques, temples,
everybody got together and said, we want to do collecting cans,
collecting toys. The country has been moving. 50 million people
have been mobilized in South Africa. When Jerry Rollins came,
you know, three or four weeks ago to South Africa, he said, I've
never seen anything like this in the history of the African
continent, where entire nation is mobilized to Africa. Tell us just
lastly, if you reflect now of what you've done in Somalia and some of
the other missions, what do you think about humanity and how we
interact with each other? I think I can speak specifically for South
Africa. South Africa, the Somali said, South Africans are an Ubuntu
nation. They will not leave us alone. They said, we've been we
are a forgotten people for 21 years. But if anybody comes to our
aid, it will be South Africans. They said, black, white, Indian,
colored. They are a compassionate people. They will respond to us.
We're afraid they will come. And when we came, they said, You see,
we told you they will come because we know they have compassionate
hearts. There are people that stand out for Africa and for the
world. Doctor, thank you and good luck. Thank you well that the
state of the fruit and as a evil command tower leaves great
Harrison horse by Robinson.