Fadi Al Qassar

Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN’s World Food Program, talks about why, in a world with enough food for everyone, people still go hungry, still die of starvation, still use food as a weapon of war. Her vision: “Food is one issue that cannot be solved person by person. We have to stand together.” (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland).

This talk was tweeted by a work colleague who LOVES TED, and that is how I found it! I really identified with what Josette presented because of our work in Uganda. Her stories startled all sorts of emotions in me. But finally I landed on hope. I hope we all feel inspired and motivated to go the extra mile to stop world hunger!

I started reading Searching for God Knows What not too long ago. It is a bestseller written by a Christian author named Don Miller.

Many sections in the book made me pause, mark the page, and think about whatever the author was presenting. I definitely find the book presenting many thought provoking ideas. A few chapters in, he starts to talk about human relationships – with each other and our relationship with God. He called that chapter “Naked”. And not to anybody’s surprise (I’m sure) that title made me pause briefly and chuckle – yes I am a 7 year old boy.

At the beginning of the chapter, Miller talks about the story of Genesis –or the beginning of time. He talks about a place called Eden, which was where Adam lived. Adam was the first and only human being on earth at that point in time. I have always kind of viewed him as a lucky guy, someone that lived the “good life” for a bit, until he decided to screw up.

But that’s not how people viewed him back when the story was written. See, the way that people 4000 years ago wrote their stories was different. They jammed a ton of information into a few short sentences. The story of Adam and Eve was carried down from generation to generation orally. So when Moses came to write it, he assumed that his audience knew all the contextual and cultural background stuff that went with the story to make it more colourful. All of this to say, I always thought Eve appears magically into Adams life a couple of days after God noticed that he was bored. When I think about the story that way, the only thing that comes to mind is: “that is not fair”. Adam never had to wait for anything. God just catered to him like he was special or something – and I am sure he was a very special guy, don’t get me wrong.

Well, the issue for me here is not Eve or how fast she appeared onto the scene. If I want a girlfriend, then I would get one – plenty of Eves around in this day of age. But the idea here is waiting. I am fully aware of the fact that I have talked about this idea previously, but Don Miller made me think about it again. When God noticed that Adam was bored, God told him to go name all the animals. If you look up how many animals there are on the planet, it is something between 50-100 million animals. If you believe in evolution, then that is between a million and 50 million. That is a lot of name-dropping. It is estimated that Adam had to wait a hundred years before Eve came along. Long, lonely and sexless hundred years.

Naturally, this wait period made Adam appreciate, love, and treasure Eve - when she finally appeared. It made him realize that whatever he was waiting for was worth it. I want to be the kind of guy that has the same attitude about waiting. I want us to be a generation that believes that waiting is good. Instant getting is bad – think about instant coffee, for example – and that whatever we are waiting for, will be worth the wait.

Growing up, my parents always talked about how clean and beautiful Amman is. Well, at least compared to other Arabic capital cities. Mom would always say, “Amman stands out because of how clean and modern it is. I have not seen other urban cities in the Arab world that compare to our beautiful Jordanian Capital.”

Fast forward to 2011, now I am a young public relations professional at a communications firm in Canada. I have been living as an expat for almost 6 years in a city called Halifax. My parents insisted that I would attend university abroad, when I finished high school, to expand my horizons and “see the world.” I got totally immersed in the local culture here and started to learn about the world from a western perspective.

I started to notice that my educated friends in Amman and myself cared about very different things. The definition of an intellect in Amman is someone that listens to international music, has a casual alcoholic beverage on the weekend and cares about western TV and movies. While an intellect in my opinion, and from what I have learned, is someone that cares about something passionately and strives to impose change. I’m not talking about caring for the Palestinian cause or Jordanian soccer, but maybe caring about things that will realistically change if we actually put in the effort.

Global development is a big passion of mine. I have been involved in educational and development causes in many countries around the world. Caring for the disadvantaged and underprivileged has become a full-time part-time job for me. I realized that it is a cause that required some dedication on my behalf, but the reward is almost always guaranteed. I have built schools in Uganda, filmed a documentary in the Gambia and taught conflict resolutions in Northern Ireland.

I remember topics discussed in elementary school were all about martyr-ship, past glories of the Islamic Empire and (of course) the Palestinian case. These topics are definitely important, because we all need a story that will give us a sense of identity and belonging. But, sometimes, I wish we had spent more time talking about issues like: global warming, sexual education, technology, etc. Our leaders spent time teaching about things that did not arm us to face our future.

The results are sadly and obviously very prevalent in Amman right now. Our lack of environmental awareness and education has led a once very beautiful clean city to become as congested and as polluted as all its neighbours. Our schools have raised a generation of intellectual fools that know nothing except for English pop culture. We can carry conversations for hours about Kanye's new CD or Gaga's meat dress. We are a generation that was told a story that we don’t believe, struggling to find a new story that we would believe. We are getting hurt in the process and the bruises are showing all over our beautiful Jordan.


The end.

If you have any comments please write below,or hold your peace forever.

Although I was not able to blog during my time in Uganda, I was journaling almost daily. Here is part of an entry that I decided to share:


April 29, 2011- In Canada or Jordan people expect to get things almost instantly. Everything is readily available for our consumption. I can buy whatever I want, whenever I want. So, when it comes to our hardships in life I start to feel that way too. I want whatever I am dealing with to vanish right away. I forget that I was taught a lot of valuable lessons through waiting and patience. I also forget that God has his own timing and plan. He does not play by the rules and He can do anything, anytime.

But in Africa life moves at a slower pace. Getting stuff requires work, and often a lot of time. When I think about it they wait for the harvest to be ready so they can eat, coffee to dry after they pick it off the trees before they consume it or sell it, and they walk to a water pump, pump water into a jerry can and carry it back to where they want it before they can use it (and repeat). And when it comes to life, they wait too. They do not expect everything to happen right away, but they are positive that things will happen when the timing is right.

I guess as much as I think my life here is easier on many level, I am a bit envious of the people of Uganda. They just seem to understand a very essential part of life -waiting- that neither one of my cultures does very well.

I have had an amazing time in Uganada. It was one of the most rewarding trips of my life. But I feel like my first post about the trip has to be about getting to Uganda in the first place.

The trip to Tabiro was about 30 hours long (with transits and waiting) but the action made the time fly by. Leaving Halifax, I was asked to go through a random check that involved scanning my palms to check for chemicals. It was a random test, yet I was the only one selected to do it. I was a bit ticked off. But that was just the beginning of the fun.

I land in London on a Monday at 9:00AM GMT. Ten Canadians and one Arab (me) on the same team going to save the world in Africa. That raised a huge red flag with the English - I guess my type of people only look to destroy the world and not save it. After my whole team went through immigration in lightening speed, I was asked to stay behind for "further questions".

I had a 10 minute conversation with the immigration officer that consisted of four questions. They kept repeating in different orders and speeds - like he was trying to make me trip. This is almost exactly how it went:

Officer: So why are you going to Africa?
Me: I am part of a mission group that is going to build a school and house for a small community in a remote village.
Officer: So do you work in construction in Canada?
Me: No Public Relations
Officer: But you are going to be construction in Africa?
Me: Correct
Officer: But you have no previous experience in the field
Me: You are right, I don't.
Officer: So why are you going?
Me: To build a school and a home in a village
Officer: But you don't work in construction..?
Me: No I don't
Officer: So, again.. Why are you going?

After 10 minutes of also what it seemed to be a random interrogation I was allowed to pass through London. Phew! God does really want me to be in Uganda (I thought to myself).

I hop on my last flight to Uganda. Heart is beating of joy and excitement. Mother Africa here I come to work and love.

The team and I once again head to the immigration officer to get our passport stamped to go in. The officer looks at my passport and says, you do not go through here. You have to go to that office.

I make my way to a crowded office filled with people "like me". It was a strange scene. Who knew my skin colour and light beard would give me the luxury of such an eye opening experience. I see an empty chair in the crowded small room, so I sit down to "get out of the way". A lady comes rushing towards me with blazing fire in her eyes. She stops 2 inches from my face and yells :" Who told you to sit down? You do not sit down until I tell you to!" I get up quickly and apologize. She looks at me and says:"Ok, now sit down!" - Seriously!

Another 20 minute interrogation - not random this time - and then I was reunited with my time.

Stereotypes exist to force us to live in a state of paranoia and constant fear. Fear of the different and fear of the unfamiliar. It was strange experiencing that this trip - especially because I was going to give and love.

.أول ما وصلت على الشغل إليوم شفت ايميل من ماما
.الايميل كان عن كليب على يوتيوب
.سمعتو أول مرة، وتاني مرة، وعاشر مرة
.كل مرة بسمعو بنتبه على اشي
..جمله بتحركني أو بتضايقني

...ثقف حالك ع بلدك! إعرف أكثر عن الولاء والنتماء. ومشان الله سيبك من جستن بيبر وستار أكاديمي

Chances are you are richer than 75% of the rest of the world.



Often I think about all the things that I don't have. Car, ipad,vibram 5 fingers, and the list goes on. I am rarely thankful for all the good things that I have. My family, friends, job and so on. I have never thought that having a place to sleep and food to eat makes me richer than 75% of people in the world.

This post is to remind me [and people with similar attitudes and sentiments towards life] that we have plenty. That we will only be happy when we give more than we receive and love beyond those who are in our backyard.

Less than 1 month to go on my trip. Please donate towards my trip and be part of change in Africa.
click here to donate