What is love?

“Love is a four letter word, just like hope. Love is a translation of human feelings. Love is a positive phenomenon. Love is an art and artists are the great lovers of humanity. We see their love in paintings, we hear it in their music, feel it in their poetry.

When we love life, we try to maintain it. When we love our country, we try to develop it. When we love humanity, we try to serve it. When we love ourselves more than humanity, we destroy it. Love is a forward-looking process to care, build, develop, invent and leave a legacy for generations to come.

How can we smile without love? Love is a key component of every smile. The feeling is only the trigger and the heart is its engine. Smiling is a highly complicated process of chemical, physiological and psychic interaction and action. Smile is the image the eyes can see. It is one of the most difficult to things to draw; even artists fail to get it right every time.”

This was supposed to be my speech at the first anniversary of the flood in Pakistan. I decided to step down and let the children deliver a more powerful and dynamic speech that I cannot write or deliver. The children’s speeches and their heartfelt drawings reflected their feelings and love for their country.

Sometimes, children turn out to be the best speech writers and orators, sharing their smiles and love for humanity.

Rain for Somalia...

If it doesn’t rain, people die. If it rains, people die. If we don’t see and listen, people die. We must become the drivers, instead of taking a back seat. We mustn’t fear bullets, climbing mountains, crossing borders or even spending money. If we are afraid, people die.

I am writing this from the refugee camp at Dadaab, Kenya, thinking that the time to look in and talk from the outside has finished. We must bring hope to the people who need it most and bring smiles to faces who have even forgotten how to smile.

The time has come to act and work with everyone to ensure that the people who need help will be soothed and the people who want to help will be able to do so.

May God save Somalia! May God save Africa! May God save the whole humanity!

The net works...

While I was visiting a village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, I was discussing with Habib (Malik) about how can we network, communicate, connect, rebuild and strengthen our society. We arrived by the banks of the river Swat and admired the beauty of the high speed - flowing water.

We were surprised to see workers by the river bank, bending, cutting and connecting aluminium wires to create a net, strong enough to prevent stones from falling.

I asked Habib: “Which is stronger? The heavy, mighty stone which two men have to carry? Or is it the wire being assembled by a man? Habib answered: “It is the stone”.

I replied that he was right, as long as he was talking about only one wire. When a person creates a net with these individual wires, it can hold thousands of stones. It becomes the foundation on which a bridge can be built to ease the life of thousands of people. It can save their lives by preventing the flooding of the river bank.

An individual wire cannot stand against one stone. A network of weak wires can prevent thousands of stones from coming and blocking the river floor and save lives.

This has to be felt when we talk about our individual organisations. Do we need to network and connect?

We have to look at the practicalities of the difficult humanitarian circumstances we are facing in the world today. The scale and complexity of disasters demands that, no matter what resources we have or how good we can be, we have to work in partnership.

A single wire will never stand strong against tsunami of man-made disasters. If you want to break the wind and the speed of flow of the flooding rivers you have to create a network.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one... Nelson Mandela special

Photo courtesy of thisislondon.co.uk

Is Nelson Mandela a beacon? Is he an icon? Or is he a legacy?

He is a living legacy, whom everybody admires and respects. He is a beacon across centuries, across cultures, faiths, history. He reminds us of a great man called Gandhi and of great leaders, dead or alive. In my opinion, we need a global figure identical to Nelson Mandela. I challenge each and every one of us to take Mandela’s legacy and make it a driving component of our culture.

Our philosophy of thought should fuel our dreams of respect and peace for mankind. Nelson Mandela and his vision for a better new world ought to be embedded in the hearts and minds of generations to come.

I am finishing the description of a new, better world, by saying that I cannot imagine a world without Nelson Mandela or somebody like him in it.

Read parts 1 and 2 of the “Imagine” trilogy.

Imagine all the people, sharing all the world... Part 2

I believe that something has to give in order to have a brand new squeaky-clean world. For example, if we allow drugs to be planted around the world, how can we stop them coming near our families? If we allow people to get drunk and drive, how can we prevent them from having accidents and killing people?

A new world should start with a discussion about what is right for future generations to come. A new world doesn’t just start from scratch. It has to stand firmly on the foundations laid before, acknowledging the past achievements and giving credit to thinkers, prophets and messengers of God.

A new world should allow people to talk, engage and partner without any hidden agendas. A new world would not have elitist clubs, which dictate things left, right and centre.

I imagine a new world where everybody would be equal and everyone’s dignity has the same “price”.

To be continued...

Imagine all the people, living life in peace... Part 1

Inspired by the famous song, a colleague asked me to imagine a new world. At first I was amused by the suggestion, but then, when I started thinking more seriously about the subject, I realised that the more we pencil in the details of an ideal world, the closer we are to overcoming challenges.

So let us imagine together what new look we would like the world to have. For example, we always go to the hairdresser, beautician, and gym and maybe even to a plastic surgeon for them to help us create a new look. It can even cost us all our life savings so that we can finally hear someone say to us: “You look different!” What they wouldn’t realise is that, underneath it all, we are still the same.

I ask you: if a surgeon could work his magic on the world, what would we want it to look like? Do we want this world with a new look, or a new world with a new look?

Realistically, the world in which we live in is run by business tycoons, corporations, arms and drugs dealers, human traffickers and adult industry bosses. If we weigh their power and wealth against sectors such as agriculture, education, health, local economy, we realise the world is not as it should be. And this is happening in countries all around the world- it doesn’t matter if it’s East, West, North or South.

To be continued...

Made in Yemen

I was watching the news the other day and saw some brief images about the unrest in Yemen.  It looked similar to other images of unrest within the MENA region. It may have looked similar, but different countries face different challenges. Where can we find the solution for each and every one? What is the price of such a solution?

In my view, it is fairly easy to put a solution on the table for Yemenis. I believe they need to focus on common and shared values that benefit all parties involved and the greater society. It has to be a “homemade” solution, made in Yemen itself. It seems to me that “imported” solutions don’t meet with success.

One of the reasons behind the MENA “quake” could be the weakness of the role of civil society. The local organisations need to be encouraged and supported to plant their feet firmly and be able to speak up.

There is a saying: “Wisdom is Yemeni, belief is Yemeni and jurisprudence is Yemeni”. We need to use this statement to find the solution for the sake of Yemen and the whole region.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Eight years ago, an important figure told me very lightly, as he would have been discussing the evening menu at the restaurant or the weather: “Sudan will not be just North and South. There could be 5 or even 6 Sudans”.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I dislike this statement. I don’t like seeing it in writing, I don’t like thinking about it and I most certainly don’t enjoy talking about it. I don’t like it because I know what the consequences would be if the statement came true.

It seems people have forgotten how to listen. Very few people listen to reason; gunshot noises become the answer to problems. The language of guns is deadly. The language of reason is life saving.

I am asking you: Do we need to pull the trigger or do we need to pull our hands together? Do we need to bomb the ground or do we need to harvest the bounty of the ground? Do we need to keep “them” out or do we need to keep our doors open for “them”? Do we need to sit and look at what’s happening or do we need to make it happen ourselves?

The most important thing is our intentions. Do we need one Sudan/two Sudans or do we need fragmented, conflicting Sudans?  Is this our wish as Sudanese? Good intentions lead to many solutions on the table.

May God save Sudan and its people!

Halas.

Famine in Somalia is by no means a new concept. It does not take us by surprise the way an earthquake or a tsunami does.  We are not unprepared, yet we always seem to be bewildered by the situation.  My question is: why? Why are we so surprised, when the cause is plain for everybody to see?

In my view, we are witnessing the results of long-standing negligence. After all, Somalia has been having problems for the past 40 years. It seems to me we are just cosmetically treating the problems, as we would do with a blemish on the skin. Put some cosmetic product on and pouf!  The blemish is gone. Only you and I and the rest of the people know it’s not gone; the blemish is still there, covered skilfully.

During my last visit to Somalia, I was stunned to see that most INGOs were based in Nairobi, Kenya, not Mogadishu, Somalia. I was shocked and started thinking that maybe Nairobi was the new capital for Somalia and I was behind with the geo-political news.  Somebody assured me that indeed, that was not the case and I was in the right place, due to security.  Halas.

It is my turn to ask some uncomfortable questions: Who is creating this conflict? Who is alimenting this conflict? Who is creating the famine?

Remember: When you neglect your house, it becomes ruined. When you neglect your land, there will be no harvest and no food for you to eat. When you neglect your family, they will all become homeless. When you neglect your country and community, your neighbours become refugees and IDPs.

Do not cry for famine alone. Cry for stopping the conflict as well and cry for stopping the people of Somalia taking up arms.

7/7 and the TREE

Today is 7/7. Yesterday was 6/7 and tomorrow will be 8/7. In the same way, today could be 9/11, yesterday could have been 9/10 and tomorrow could be 9/12. Around the world, people celebrate their birthday today, take their children to school, go to work, meet friends, pray, and eat pasta and sleep. However, 7/7, just like 9/11, is a date which brings sorrow at the horrifying deaths of people in London and New York. Six years have passed from 7/7 and nearly 10 years have passed from 9/11 and yet, the pain in collective memory will not diminish.

My question is: what have we been doing in order to prevent such terrible events from happening again? Are security measures working, or are they creating a bigger hole of mistrust?

The answer to my question should be the planting of a TREE (Trust, Respect, Empower, Engage) within local communities and in the midst of ethnic minorities. Everyone must feel they have a say, in order to make a positive contribution to society.

From my medical experience when treating the sick, we should turn to major surgery and amputation only as a last resort. There are preventive methods to be taken before reaching the stage of crisis. Letting everyone participate in the discussion is the first step.

Let us pray for the souls of those who lost their lives on this day 6 years ago and work hard together to make the good TREE grow!

If you leave me now...

You’ll take the biggest part of me... The song continued on the radio and I started thinking about what happens when someone you trust and depend on leaves. More specifically, I was thinking about what happens when international NGOs and UN agencies leave a country.

My first question was: what were the INGOs actually doing when they were there?  If the philosophy of the NGOs belonged to the HOPE spectrum (Humanitarian Operational Engagement), as The Humanitarian Forum stated two years ago, they will not leave a gap upon their departure. That is because, ideally, during the period they would have been building partnerships for operational engagement. To you and me, that means to leave capable, trained staff from the local communities to work towards achieving a great civil society.  It is known as the hand in hand or “bottom-up” approach.

However, if INGOs do the opposite (most cases, some say), taking a heavy handed “top-down” approach, they will leave a bigger gap than the existing one! To you and me, that means nobody looking after the interests of the local communities.

I believe we need to learn that our resources do not belong to us but to the local community. Even our presence in the field doesn’t belong to our organisations, but to communities. All our fundraising activity is not for us, but for the local community.

We have to be accountable to local communities before we leave their country and ask them a few straightforward questions:” Are you satisfied with us or not? Do we need to stay behind or not? Who is our friend, if we have any?”

In my view, we can meet the standard of the people in need only by stretching out our hand to them and treating them as equals.

Libyan Diaries Part 2

We are trying our best to extend our hands with limited resources to the west of the country as suggested by Panos Moumtzis, UN OCHA   Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya.  Our message is the citizen of Libya is to look at their needs through building one nation. If they meet the needs of the nation, their own needs will be fulfilled.

I remember when we were distributing the course graduation certificate, it felt like a celebration. People came wearing the best clothes they had at home.

The graduates weren’t just celebrating getting the certificate; they were celebrating the birth of the civil society in Libya. People didn’t want to end the celebration and we had to delay our departure for more than 2 and half hours.

To tell you the truth, the trainers were even in better spirits than the actual trainees. The experts were rejoicing even more than the students.

Our team said to trainees:  “We have to come back to learn more from you. We gave you the tools; you gave us the meaning for life”.

This was the message for the visitors to the citizens of Libya.

Libyan Diaries Part 2

We are trying our best to extend our hands with limited resources to the west of the country as Panos Moumtzis, UN OCHA Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, suggested to us. Our message to the citizens of Libya is to look at their needs through building one nation. If they meet the needs of the nation, their own needs will be fulfilled.

I remember when we were distributing the course graduation certificate, it felt like a celebration. People came wearing the best clothes they had at home. The graduates weren’t just celebrating getting the certificate; they were celebrating the birth of the civil society in Libya. People didn’t want to end the celebration and we had to delay our departure for more than 2 and half hours.

To tell you the truth, the trainers were even in better spirits than the actual trainees. The experts were rejoicing even more than the students. Our team said to trainees:  “We have to come back to learn more from you. We gave you the tools; you gave us the meaning for life”. This was the message for the visitors to the citizens of Libya.

To be continued...

Libyan Diaries Part 1

Quite often we visit other people to inspire them.  Even when we visit refugee camps, community centres for the homeless or training facilities for the unemployed, we try to inspire. 

Sometimes, it is us who are inspired.  This is what has happened to The Humanitarian Forum team who has been in Libya for the past 3 weeks. We felt that the level of enthusiasm rose sharply from Benghazi to Al Bayda to Darna and Tobruk. In Benghazi, we trained 110 people from civil society organisations. In Al Bayda, the number of participants rose to 220, but Darna had the highest number of people in the workshop:  266.

People joined the training workshops in different cities such as Tobruk, Al Marj and Ajdabyia. Some participants travelled hundreds of kilometres every day to start the workshop before 9 and to leave workshop after 5. The level of discussion varied but the level of enthusiasm was the common factor.

In Benghazi, we found youth groups consisting of Libyans brought up in Europe and America. We found a city culture which allows you to talk to youth, governments, local organisations, as well as international organisations. 
In Al Bayda, we found the local charity insisting on finding local donors to save costs of workshop.

In Darna, the local government and organisations did their best to offer us accommodation and the use of a conference hall to save more money.

We have been witnessing the birth of a new civil society sector, which will allow them to strengthen the nation.

To be continued...