I write this short story about my friend Ali because he managed to obtain an American immigration Visa and he needs help to go from Lebanon to the USA! All below is true and genuinely reflects Ali’s personality and character!

Some time ago I read a short but the sweet book of young Turkish writer Hakan Menguc “No Encounter Is By Chance.” It is the guy who stated: “Hopefulness is not a pure optimism. It is not to ignore the tragedy that humanity faces. Hope means seeing every possibility and doing your best for good rather than sitting at your house and cursing evil.” Accepting wholeheartedly that no encounter is by chance and adding the word hopefulness reflects my first meeting with Ali, a young, talented, hardworking, intelligent, humble human being who came from Lebanon to Cyprus to study, having only a travel document and no passport as they do not issue passports to Palestinian refuges. So Ali with his travel document is a stateless human being. I must say that I met for the first time a “stateless” human being and I was impressed. That made me think how the world would look like if we all are stateless, and if the state as we know it has any future? But that is for another story.

So, how it all happened?

Some years ago while we were passionately organizing our Cyprus Toastmasters meetings to be able to deeply enjoy the “Ice breaking” and other theme speeches, “Table topics” and inspiring genuinely human and very emotional evaluations about our oratory, my dear Toastmaster friends Julia and Ersin asked me if I would like to join them for the trial Toastmaster presentation at the American Corner of the Near East University of Nicosia. I accepted it and invited some other friends to join us. Shortly after our group was ready for a go. We passed “green line” check point that divides beautiful island of Cyprus and went to the other part of Nicosia, the last divided capital of Europe, to reach an impressive Near East University. After some time we found the “American Corner” and the nearby classroom that was granted to us for a meeting, and started to organise ourselves.

Then Ali Mohamad Miari appeared and greated us as the President of Creativity & Diplomacy Club. He was keen to show hospitality and proudly, with captivating smile explained to us that the club he was a president of has been created to organize meetings, delegate tasks to committee members and plan campus events centered on developing youth leadership, cultural exchange,and team based learning. It also gave emphasis in developing communication skills of the members organizing public speaking workshops and hosting symposiums and tv shows about, believe it or not, genetics! Genetics because Ali was studying Molecular Biology and Genetics!

At the very first moment ” I saw something in Ali, but did not know what it is”. I learned that he is the same age as my youngest son, and that he is a passionate environmentalist, saving turtles and protecting their nests at Alagadi beach.

Like in all other situations I allowed my intuition to express itself and send me signals knowing that it has never disappointed me before and i must say never after. I felt that Ali is a very talented and curious human having high moral standards! Ali radiated genuine positivity and was very keen to participate in the meeting with his opinions that showed his strong integrity as well as his wisdom that is rare for his age.

Our Toastmaster meeting had many nationalities involved presenting and explaining with shining stars what Toastmaster is all about! Connecting people! Toastmasters promote and unite and respect diversity. Toastmasters are less about nationalities and more about human beings and human values! Let me mention some participants nationalities: Greek and Turkish Cypriots as well as human beings from Kazakhstan, UK, Iraq, Morocco, Moldova, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Palestine, Lebanon…

The toastmaster meeting was very successful as Julia and Ersin encouraged the students to express themselves with some of my “back stage” teasers that helped to melt the ice! We learned more about each others fears, dreams, passions and ideas, what does it mean to be alive and contribute to the general goodness of us and the people we encounter. The feeling of Togetherness, the word I love using and practically exercising its deepest meaning, has quietly overwhelmed the classroom and I can say, stayed with all of us and particularly with Ali and me as we continued our friendship after that meeting, that continues till today. Cheers to unique Toastmasters International that gave us the opportunity first to learn about the club and then to inspire us to participate and then transfer that knowledge to other human beings! That is called HUMBLE HUMAN POWER! Do never forget that! Ali did not, neither me, and we both hope if you forgot that you will regain the understanding where the real power lies.

As i said Ali and me continued to communicate and arranged a couple of meetings with his friends. We discussed many issues that have remined me of my school friends and our discussions of decades ago, when we were escaping some classes to go in the nearby cafe, not to drink coffee, but to discuss and try to find the answers to the existential issues that are constantly “bothering” human beings, and were not discussed in the dry teaching concept.

I particularly remember the meeting over the beer and french fries with Ali and then his and now our common friends Aria and Abdelmalek. They are coming from Iraq and Morocco respectively. Oh dear friends, I must confess that these three young man made me think that humanity is not lost at all! That all of us have the inner power that can not be taken by anything except by a humble good deeds towards the others. I remember that we tried mathematically, as Abdelmalek is very exceptional Mathematician, genetically, as both Ali and Aria were highly successful in studying Molecular Biology And Genetics, and politico economically with also electronic studies background as me, to find the answer where this world is going and where is our place in it. And if we live for today or for the future? Ali shared with us some points they were discussing in Creativity and Diplomacy club like conditional moral questions and dilemmas whether love is more about selfishness or selflessness, whether the death penalty should be allowed and if we would press the button for launching the war knowing that after we will be clean of all the madness that is surrounding us. Well the conclusion and the answer for our last question was that WE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO PRESS ANY BUTTON even if all the madness in the world would disappear but we need to use hard way to awake one soul at the time and make it human again!

The year of those encounters was 2019! What we, all four of us had in common and still have is simple common sense and respect for the diversity and the views of each other. That made our friendship stronger and we rise from being simple acquaintances to become real friends. Being a real friend means that you understand each other from far away and do not need to talk every day. You feel from distance and communicate without words. with feelings. That is happening to all of us. Didnt you have the experience when thinking of someone and that someone appears in front of you, or sends a message or calls you?

That is what has happened between Ali and me. We stayed in touch feeling the concerns of each other and when we talked it was like we saw each other just the previous day.

After successfully finishing his university Ali went back to Lebanon where he continued his life with many activities like Laboratory Instructor at American University of Beirut, Biology Department, Bee keeping where he is managing more than 20 hives and producing organic honey.

Also he was working part time as a Journalist and in the UN relief and work agency for Palestinians in the North East, Tyre area office.

In the mean time he got involved with the youth Rotarians and became their member!

He applied for the USA immigration visa and got it!

He is currently trying to get the funds to go to the USA and start a new life as young high moral values human being with a tremendous prospects. The USA will be very fortunate for having him there.

If you would like to help you can donate to Ali using following links:

https://paypal.me/emilybehr194

Or you can use philosophyofgoodnews.com link below

If you want to donate a substantial amount we can send you Ali’s bank account in Lebanon and you can contact him and donate directly.

Kindly note that we would like all of you who will donate to write a message here or send mail at philosophyofgoodnews@gmail.com stating your donation as Ali will be thanking you personally one by one. This is not a scam. It is genuine call for small donations to help this talented human being keep his integrity and proceed with his life!

Below you can find Ali CV also.

August 13, 2024

Philosophyofgoodnews.com

Connect and Respect