Frankenstein!

Photo courtesy of crazy-frankenstein.co

Halloween is upon us and everyone is talking about ghosts, ghouls and monsters. Children get dressed up and go trick-or-treating, while adults are looking after them like hawks. I have some scary stories to tell as well, so sit back and read on.

There was once upon a time a Lord. HE was all that was good and merciful, however, individuals decided to pool together their interests and act wrongly, in HIS name. In their laboratory, they created a monster, just like the more famous Frankenstein.

I am asking you, do you believe the Lord needs a monster to scare people in order to spread HIS message of good?! Does the Lord need people to be killed by the monster while spreading HIS message? Does the Lord love to see the bloodshed of innocent people as a price of spreading HIS message?

I don’t think the Lord would love any of this. The Lord wants peace, wants love, stability, safety. This cannot be done by using guns, tanks, missiles, bullets, or fighter jets and helicopters. It can only be done by using reason, dialogue, and negotiation, convincing and allowing the freedom of thought. The Lord is about free thinking, free movement, free society and freedom for all.

Individuals from different parts of the world are justifying the killing in the name of the Lord just to fulfil their political and economical desires. They created a monster in their back yard and kept feeding him for years and allowed him to kill everyone in the neighbourhood until there was nobody in the neighbourhood to eat and kill but the master who created him.

I leave my story for now with Goya's wise words: “The sleep of reason produces monsters.”

What motivates me? Part four

My fourth motivational stop came (surprisingly, if I may add) from the warm desert. It came from a rich Gulf country, a country with one of the highest annual incomes per capita on earth. I met with two leading humanitarian agencies there, to discuss what is next in store for Arab and Muslim charities.

My question was: how can we raise the profile, build capacity and increase the connectivity within the humanitarian movement. The discussion wasn’t centred on funding or implementing traditional humanitarian projects. Instead, we discussed how to build the capacity of local partners, change the culture of giving and the philosophy of traditional projects. We talked about how to involve the youth and women in national and international work and how to create new humanitarian ambassadors. We talked about how to find a new role for new emerging countries after the Arab Spring.

Quite often, organisations go to the warm desert to fundraise. We have been witnessing a plethora of international, global and western agencies seeking funds from the warm desert.  Even the appeal for Somalia was geared towards the rich Arab and Muslim majority countries.

The contrast between our discussion in Doha and the image that Doha, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait present at the back of the mind of fundraisers is huge. It is the difference between the one who reads the mind of an intellectual and the one who looks at how strong their body is.

Physical strength is short lived; it can be affected by disease, age and fatigue. The power of the mind is superior, growing with experience, age and knowledge. We should bank on the wisdom which comes out of the warm sands, not on the hot air brought out by the gas and the oil of the warm sands.

Let us celebrate the intellectual capability not keep smelling hot air.

What motivates me? Part three

I want to tell you about my trip to Japan and Japan’s unsung heroes. It was a 13 hour flight to get there and a distance of over 10,000km.  I would like to thank the sponsor for their generosity in offering me a business class ticket, thereby enabling me to sleep for 7 hours before arriving in Tokyo, via Osaka.

I spoke at the Fourth Annual Seminar on Islam and Disaster Response, held at Tokyo University. The Seminar was made special for me by two Non-Muslim Japanese ladies, joining hands with the local Muslim community. One of them had travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, while the other had visited the dangerous area affected by the tsunami.

Both of them had taken a great risk internationally (being kidnapped) and nationally (the effect of radiation on their bodies).  The only common fear amongst them was their fear of travelling or coming closer to Muslims.
One of them said: “I was a little bit scared, suspicious and bewildered. I have been cautioned by my relatives and family”. After her experience she came back with a more positive feeling towards the fellow Japanese and Asian Muslims in Japan.

I have to bow down to the two ladies, who don’t just talk the talk, but can walk the walk! They became the source of my motivation and the power behind my drive during my visit to Tokyo which lasted 48h.

To be continued....

What motivates me? Part two

The lady who overshadowed my talk

The idea of delivering a talk in Egypt about the role of civil society organisations in building nations and creating civilisations was discussed between myself and a few young volunteers in Cairo.

To be very honest, I was a bit scared to give a public talk where is, in fact, my birth place without having a strong logistic support from our office, as we don’t have a THF base in Cairo at the moment. Instead, we used the revolutionary technique of Social Media: we advertised the event on my Facebook page and the pages of a few local youth organisations and universities.

The feedback I received from some of my relatives and colleagues when they heard of this Facebook idea was that they believed only 10% people who signed up would attend. We were prepared for disaster. On the day, to my surprise, we found the hall full of people; the organisers had to bring in more chairs to fill the corridors and open the second hall.

The source of my motivation and the power behind my drive is not the number of people who attended the talk for 2 hours, but the actual age of the people. I was pleased to see that more than 80% of them were under 30 and their interaction was positive, lively, dynamic and forward looking towards long-term sustainable solution.

I was even more impressed by a comment made by a retired professor who used to teach French at “Ain Schams” university. She was over 80 and could hardly speak, but managed to deliver a message of motivation. She told us how she contributed towards helping the poor people through giving time, effort, vision, cash. When she used to feel she became too big-headed- for her own good, she used to volunteer for the first aid and ambulance services and go and clean up the wounds and feet of ordinary people.

To be continued...

What motivates me? Part one

I often get this question, either from people who have just met me or Facebook fans. What motivates me is a complex question and requires a complex answer. I will tell you about some of my recent travels and you will be able to glimpse into my motivation and the special people who make everything worth it.

After my journey to the Horn of Africa, I have travelled to Libya, Egypt and Japan. This made me look back at who is the source of my motivation and who/what drives me. I believe I have discovered the source and the drive.

After finishing my work in Mogadishu and Nairobi, I had to go to Benghazi, Libya via Istanbul from Cairo. On 30th September I landed in Benghazi, where I met with Tareq (Bakri, Partnerships Manager for The Humanitarian Forum). 

Our workshop was being held in Al Bayda and instead of waiting in Benghazi; we travelled and meet with our team there, 200km away. The meeting was very fruitful; not only did we meet our team of trainers; we also met the Libyan people coming to join our training programme. They were the source of our motivation and the power behind our drive.

From there, I travelled back to Benghazi to fly to Tripoli, the capital. In Tripoli, not only did I manage to meet the UN officials and Libyan ministers, but I also met with another source of motivation in the capital: 44 local start-up organisations.

Unfortunately on that day, Tripoli airport was closed. This meant I had to travel 8 hours by car to get to the Tunisian border and then take an early flight next morning to Cairo.

In Libya, I found there is no fatigue without reward and that the reward could be immeasurable.

To be continued...

The Somali Connection

In order to save Somalia, I believe we must have a Somali solution. The approach should be bottom up and “glocal” (local with a global dimension). The solution to the crisis cannot come from a boardroom in the Middle East, Europe or the States. The boardroom that can offer a solution is the one underneath the shade of trees within Somalia.

It’s not only compulsory for humanitarian organisations but also for you and me to support this solution. UN agencies, governments, donors should invest heavily in building the infrastructure of the social fabric of Somalia. In my opinion, humanitarian organisations should allocate as much as 20% of their humanitarian expenditure on building the future leadership of Somalia from within.

During our visit to Somalia in September (The Humanitarian Forum, Somali Relief and Development Forum and Muslim Charities Forum), we held two conferences.

The first one, chaired by Muslim Charities Forum, gathered local organisations to discuss the future of humanitarian work in Somalia. The meeting was in the Somali language and we managed to bring 44 organisations to one table to focus on Somalia and created the spirit and the momentum of unity among them. We helped them to look together at one Somalia, whether they came from the east, west, north or south. The group called themselves SHOC (Somali Humanitarian Operational Consortium). I hope you will support SHOC to become one of the new humanitarian and social actors inside and outside Somalia.

In Nairobi, in partnership with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, The Humanitarian Forum organised a two-day conference to discuss the challenges of the transition between relief and recovery. I was very pleased to see that over 100 international agencies attended the conference: UN agencies, DFID, a Somali donor group, USAID plus major actors from the MENA region, South Africa and Asia. Among the key messages from the meeting was the fact that a new humanitarian leadership is emerging from the OIC and LAS countries.

Let us think local and act global to save Somalia!

Stop. Full stop.

I have visited Cairo twice over the past two weeks. I have been privileged enough to discuss different issues with youth groups, social activists, philanthropists and politicians. I felt at the time and still feel this way that everyone is enthusiastic to see the results of the revolution and a real change in society. Everyone wants to see democracy, inclusivity and motivation brought to every citizen in the country.

Egypt was and is a multicultural, multi faith, multi ethnic and multi-racial country. The Egyptians have been living together on this piece of land for thousands of years as one nation. They managed to build one of most magnificent and diverse civilisations. Humankind is still enjoying the treasures and secrets of this civilisation. 


Egypt welcomed many religions, prophets, reformers, many Super- Powers and passengers. Each of them came to enjoy and be a part of one of the greatest civilisations. In my view, if Egypt loses these characteristics, it will lose its greatest asset- its heritage. 

Egypt has been in the news recently, however it pains me to say it, not for pleasant reasons.  I believe that the scenes shown DO NOT reflect the feelings of 85 million Egyptians.

Let me give you an example, close to my heart.  Last Friday, one of my closest friends, a Christian script-writer, invited me to a 7-star dinner in Cairo. He came to listen to my talk about civil society and even insisted to cancel his private meetings to entertain me as a brother, as a friend and as a fellow citizen. This is the true Egyptian spirit and hospitality that 85 million people are enjoying.

The people we see on TV are only but few. They must be advised to be true Egyptians and think about their country, instead of petty interests. Egypt, our mother land has been built by the hands of Muslims, Christians, Jews and others.

In my opinion, the ones who are trying to keep the conflict alive need to be stopped. Full stop. This is not just about Egypt, but the unity of the whole neighbourhood.

Please, kill the conflict, but do not kill me. I have been living on this land with you for the past 7000 years.  Let us live together in peace for the millennia to come!

1 Somalia, 2 Somalia...

...3 Somalia, 4, 5 Somalia, 6 Somalia, 7 Somalia, more. This could very easily and heartbreakingly replace the well-known children’s nursery rhyme.

I don’t want to think of 5 Somalia, 6 Somalia or 7 Somalia because of its assets.  Somalia has a long coastal fronting the Indian Ocean and access to the Red Sea.  Is that the only defining feature?

I don’t want to see Somalia as a pearl necklace that could be torn apart if other countries would like to take a piece each. I would like to see Somalia as a jewel every country would like to preserve.

There are many opportunities for the international community to invest in Somalia. If they have the political power and good intention to save Somalia, they must take it from the relief stage and transfer it to recovery and development.

I recognise that humanitarian organisations cannot do it alone – they need to partner with governments. I want the international community to invest in the Somali Diaspora. I want the international community’s unconditional support to the Somali Diaspora. In my view, if we unite the Diaspora, we can unite Somalia.

The T-shirt and the Tuxedo

We can appreciate the role of governments, when they have good, solid policies on security, economy and diplomacy. What we cannot appreciate is when governments start wearing their humanitarian t-shirts to further political or economical causes.

The Humanitarian t-shirt can only be worn by neutral people, who only side with the people in need.  For example, governments could fund the building of airports in areas such as Puntland, Somaliland, and Mogadishu etc.

We cannot appreciate when governments wear the humanitarian t-shirt. However, we cannot appreciate governments wearing the tuxedo of humanitarian politics either. 

I would love to see governments investing in water and agriculture, fishing and livestock in different areas to bring stability to the whole Somalia and the whole region.

I would like to appeal to the governments in Muslim-majority countries to visit Somalia and assure the people in need that they will be helped. If one organisation takes this lead swiftly and effectively, the rest of the international community will follow.

Back to the future

Picture courtesy of http://themacwire.blogspot.com

In the 1980’s, Back to the Future was a popular series of films, showing the main character drifting backwards and forwards in time, with the use of a time travel machine.

While I was visiting Mogadishu, I thought what it would be like if we took the car from the film and drove it through time and space straight to the year 2030. One would hope that in 2030 we would see a prosperous Somalia. But what if we travelled all the way and saw no difference? What if people would still be talking, instead of acting?

This is a very serious issue. I imagine the international community has spent more than 55 billion USD over the past two or three decades on relief for Somalia and the Horn of Africa. Do we see any impact made by these billions?

I ask you, is it the right time to stop, think, look back to the future and act? Or will it take another 55 billion USD and some more decades? Will 2030 find us having similar discussions?