PCRF - Intelligent Optimism

intelligent optimism

the other narrative

keynote speech - PCRF Iftar - Dubai
July 2012
by Rama Chakaki

@rchakaki
Tuesday, March 26, 13

Salaam Alaikum ladies and gentleman and ramadan mubarak to you all..

I’d like to welcome you on behalf of our founder and CEO Steve Sosebee, and my fellow board
members to the UAE PCRF annual iftar. The UAE has shown our cause tremendous support
and for that we are eternally grateful. Over the years the UAE has hosted over ﬁfty children,
delivered millions of dollars in medical care, and mobilized thousands of volunteer. I’d like
to extend a special thanks to Al Maktoum Foundation for their support this evening and look
forward to a long term partnership.

i'd like to take 15 minutes of your valuable time to talk about

Intelligent Optimism - a topic that might seem random, but if you bare with me, I will share
its relevance to ramadan, the PCRF and a healthy community.


I begin with a children’s story about happiness, illness and laughter. A court jester who’s job
is to tell jokes and provide entertainment appears in the king’s court, only to be banished
because the king was not happy.


he goes to search for happiness and only sees frowning, angry people and terrible news.


here I lie I have a tumor and you ask me where's my sense of humor.. I’ve been very sick. I”m
so tired of trying. I don’t feel like laughing, I just feel like crying.

"laughter's buried deep within! laughter's like a seedling waiting patiently to sprout. All it
takes is just a push to make it pop right out.. when i get sad or lonesome, or when i get
depressed, that's when i sing my loudest and dance my very best!"


The girl smiled.. then laughed..


Soon laughter leaped right out the window, growing louder as it ﬂew. It spread to every
corner. It ﬁlled up every space. Smiles popped up everywhere! Can't you feel one on your
face?

Optimism is the tendency to anticipate the best possible outcome. Intelligent optimism is one
grounded in reality..

It isn’t just in fairy tales..

many psychology and self-help books preach it. i found over 70million pages on google.. and
google doesn’t lie!

it is in our religion

‫ا654*ا ا(3210 %/."ه و ا,+*ا ا('& %$#"ه‬

In the holy month is a time to reﬂect on the prophetic tradition.. rooted in intelligent optimism.
prophet came at a time when the arab were waring and suffering from years of famine and indi
brought change .. created a new narrative.. one of peace, love, harmony among religions, creat
prosperous ummah. The prophet always smiled, greeted the young and old with peace and in t
harshest times, maintained an optimistic outlook that propelled others to remain certain of cha
have moved far from that reality..

‫"ه و ا,+*ا ا('& %$#"ه‬


in recent history.. the tragic events of Sep 11 divided the world and resulted in a stream of
political media.. the US media embraced a defeating narrative about Arabs and muslims. The
messages were strong, the campaigns long lasting.. eventually the entire world bought into it.

there was little room for other opinions on the matter..

if you searched the web 5 years ago for “Arab, Muslim, Arab Children”.. the only results were
negative images and war propaganda. There was little to no room for the positive narrative
and its connection to our heritage.

9:;+( ‫ وا(+*م ا?<" >4+=0 <+"ا او‬A2% BC*D ‫ #2ن‬BC

our media bought into the international rhetoric and spent too much time defending our
political stance, and adopting an externalized view of our situation.. it left room only for
entertainment and forgetting there was another narrative.

we have challenges - environment, employment, social, yet a lot of organizations addressing
them..


when it came to charities, the media elicited emotions of sadness and despair.. images that
left viewers feeling hopeless and helpless.. the narrative was so weak, that most people
responded with money donations.. few volunteered their time, creativity, energy.


i imagined orphans and other children who needed help had fairy tale happy endings and all
those who helped them were super heroes.. and wanted to get others to see them this way..

plan big

so i set out to change the narrative.. and found inspiration from the most successful social
enterprise in history..

Mohamad PBUH did it and left us with a how-to manual through the Quran and Sunna and the
prophetic tradition (al see rah).. drew inspiration from religion..

start small.. have a big vision

orient - educate

calls for education.. assumes everyone needs it..

reﬂect

reﬂect on nature.. and observe rituals in it

repeat

repeat rituals to conﬁrm values and remind the community of the common goal

communicate - ‫ ا(.:2ل‬G'D 0+:H A‫إن ا‬

use art to elevate spirits and reach the masses

celebrate & collaborate

observe in celebration.. reach everyone

Speak well


relied on men and women of character and knowledge to speak the message..

So we employed the same practices that religions.. the most successful social institutions
employed..


and here I have to pause with gratitude to the woman who involved me in the pcrf.. Iman
Odeh.. who’s looking glamours as usual will probably kill me for using it after the event.. had
a vision to grow the uae chapter exponentially.. she bought into my approach.. and we set out
to work...


we held countless volunteer training sessions


together and with the support of amazing volunteers in dubai.. our ﬁrst PCRF heroes
emerged…

”‫32ر‬H LM2N ‫"ب “#0 ذي‬R(‫=*ل ا‬D
ٍ

showing a digniﬁed.. powerful.. image.. being kids.. . yousef was certainly that


our children like bisan came to the uae for surgery.. but more importantly came to live their
age and show their beautiful childhood

ِ‫3َ2ب‬U(W‫ ا‬Xِ(‫ُو‬W ٍ‫َ2ت‬D ‫^]/َ2ر‬U(‫َرض وَا<5`َفِ ا(4+ْ0 وَا‬W‫:َ 2وَاتِ وا‬b(‫ <4& ا‬Xِ> ‫إِن‬
ْ ْ Z ِ ِ ] ِْ ِ ْ َ ] ِ َْ ]

there were moments where we forgot their disabilities..

1st DOUBLE AMPUTEE CERTIFIED SCUBA DIVER IN THE ARAB WORLD


some inspired thousands world wide...


khalil was featured in the christian science monitor, the national, blogs world wide.. arabia tv
and many other networks.


abdullah


got a hero’s send off


inca trail photo


started with 20 people and became a 400 person strong challenge


provided medical care to over 17 thousand children and spent hundreds of millions in dollars
of donated hours doing so..


Our leading hero and spokesperson is our founder and CEO, Steve Sosebee who represents
the PCRF so eloquently at events worldwide


Rap, spoken word and other artists, like Omar Offendum help us reach young audiences
worldwide through dedicating their time to our cause


Our most amazing public ﬁgures are our Patients. Here, the young Zain - ocular prosthesis is
seen during an interview in Arabia TV


we involved everyone..
this was not done without attention to reality.. optimism does not exclude realism.. our new
found image helped us attract many supporters, our children had teams of volunteers. the
number of our doctors grew exponentially.. and when had sadness we dealt with it
collectively.. giving families room to grieve in dignity instead of using their images to
sensationalize our messages


our work inspired others to adopt the intelligent optimistic narrative..

over 9000 children from the most threatened neighborhoods in the west bank and from
refugee camps in lebanon and jordan. Paces takes Palestinian children to compete
internationally in Australia and Sweeden.

collaborate

Nakhweh engages 9000 youth volunteers in blood drives, traffic management, and a range
of other social and environmental causes.

communicate

A word of gratitude to my business partner who came up with the amazing tagline.. READY -
AIM - INSPIRE... moving away from the “ready aim ﬁre” and laying the foundation of what the
event became.. a series of inspirations. optimistic and intelligent... 1000 attendees, and
thousands of online participants from all over the world.. came together to hear stories of
palestine, as we know it. Much credit goes to Ramzi Jaber for pulling off the amazing event;
again he started as a PCRF volunteer.

‫وه‬c.d "+e(2% ‫(*ا‬fgd

and so the narrative is changing to one that is intelligent and optimistic ..
we have challenges..

our media is persistent on focusing on what doesn't exist or doest work..

our religion compels us to do different.. tafaaalo bilk heir tajidooh

X% ‫ي‬c3N Bh Bb, c^N 27‫أ‬

i leave you with a thought.. a request.. and prayer…

imagine a news narrative dominated by stories of heroes, inspirations, achievements and
overcoming challenges

The next time you watch TV, listen to the radio, read a magazine or see a billboard on the
street, look for the heroes and role models.. look for the success stories of your
neighborhoods and communities.. and if they're not there.. ask yourself, "what can I do to
change that?"

May Allah support us all in changing the narrative for children in Palestine, Egypt, Iraq,
Soumal, Tunis, Syria and everywhere else where children deserve fairy tale happy endings.
Ramadan Kareem.

PCRF - Intelligent Optimism

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