Transcript

Peace by Chocolate: Newcomers’ message | Tareq Hadhad | TEDxDalhousieU

if I ask you now who would be happy when they eat chocolate please raise your hand the second question is tossing them who would be emotionally neutral when he is chocolate please raise your hand well it looks like you all have sweet tooth that was exactly the idea that my father was passionate about in 1986 when he started his small chocolate business he went to a celebration and he saw that people they were really happy with each piece of chocolate chocolate was the symbol of the celebration at that time that was he was really excited to start his own ideas and translate his own skills of making chocolate and make people happy in his mother's kitchen started by making few pieces of chocolate then my grandmother told him that this is not a factory move outside he started his own shop in Damascus and it took him a while he then got married to my mother then I was born well I'm telling you now all the student mothers 99% of the senior mothers they want their children to be doctors and one person the other 1% wants them to be engineers the other the other professions are not considered in the minds of the Syrian mothers so when I was born my but my father and my mother they were just asking what should we name him my mother said doctor my father said we should name him he said Tarek she said yes Tarek doctor I was really passionate since I was born to be a physician that was the really humanity profession on earth and I was always trying to connect between my father's version between my family identity of making people happy in Syria and my profession as treating people from their pains continued in Syria our social life was amazingly being in one building with my grandmother in Damascus the city that goes back on 5,000 years old it's so sad now when we hear when you open Google and you type Syria and the first thing you see is Syrian walls here in crisis Syrian blood Syrian victims but Syria is not about that Syria is the country when you go out in the old Damascus in the old city and you smell the death Jasmine Syria's the city is the country where the cities have impacts and achievements in the entire humanity history the most old cultural region in the Middle East and maybe the entire world this social life when we were living all my relatives having the suburb every night sharing stories and experiences happiness all said the sadness every struggles or challenges that the family could solve by together by unity as a community the small unit after the Syrian crisis started while my father started exporting to the neighboring countries to Iraq Jordan Lebanon Turkey and started to Europe hiring more than hundreds of students in distribution networks around the country more than 35 employees in the in the factory in Damascus when the crisis started in our building we stayed five nights in the basement without food without water without medicines and then we had to leave to a safer place I was then doing medicine in my fifth year in Damascus and I was coming back one night from my one day from my university I saw my brother he was washing the car I joined him and they rocketed near us I couldn't see anything then I was just asking my brother are you find these move your hand just show me that you are alive that was so painful for me to stay in Syria after that day and I told my family it's not time to do medicine for me it's time to survive for the entire family after that we hear that the factory was bombed our original home was been stolen and then burned by a plane I have no idea what we have done for these people to do these horrible things for us we were all living in one country we are all brothers we are all Syrians that's the painful thing we had to leave Syria and that was the hardest decision we have ever taken worse than even these borders we became refugees and we stopped the car we said we where shall we go now there are no place that we can go to we went to the United Nations the other day in Lebanon and they called me tarik Haddad number zero zero one three four eight I went to the I said I'm not a number I'm a human being before just one week when I was until I had dreams I was going to become physician my father had big chocolate company which was the second largest chocolate company in the Middle East that was really horrible things when I went to a refugee camp to join the Syrian children there one night and I hear them they were screaming from the cold how you can imagine that the code would be painful to the degree that the children will start screaming of it without food without medicines in the refugee camps they couldn't go out they couldn't work moving to Lebanon which is the small country in the Middle East that received two million students that was too much to Lebanon to handle then when is the relation is four millions they receive two million Syrians that was really too much and they had their own problems they don't have the infrastructure to receive this huge number I said to myself I'm not going to stay in refugee camp I have an ability to help I joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and I started volunteering with them with the World Health Organization taking advantage of my experience in the healthcare field etc then we joined like a local team started getting fundraising to help the syrian get into the hospitals in Lebanon then I thought about the idea of traveling to continue my medical studies I remembered when my friend when I was in Syria he called me he got invitation to come to Canada and he called me he said I arrived to Canada and well everybody speaks English well actually I saw that the person who received me is from the Middle East the other person received me at the hotel is from Africa I saw some Korean and some people from Far East Asia some people their accents are from United Kingdom and from Holland some polish people he said but I couldn't see any Canadians I I told him that was in 2005 I told him there should be some Canadians there after that it took me a while I realized that this is Canada the nation that received immigrants from all over the world to be one nation to be one country to celebrate their differences to celebrate their differences and where everybody is welcome to bring his own culture when I was in Lebanon went to the Canadian embassy and I the first thing that I was shown is the Canadian Charter of human rights and freedom then we decided to come to Canada went back home I got the scholarship then they called me they said we are sorry you are your age is 23 and the age limit for the scholarship is 22 that was frustrating after one month they called me again they said you are invited with your family to travel to Canada went back home and I taught the family that well we are accepted to go to Canada they said Canada is too cold we waited six months till we did the interview with the embassy then we traveled arriving at the Canadian airports I arrived before my family then my family followed me after two weeks arriving at the Canadian Air which means that you as a Syrian a newcomer we become Canadian since the first time you are on the airplane the Canadians has done this thing amazingly where the other countries are closing their borders they shipped us here with Royal slides on the airplanes they were telling us about Canada this amazing country where everybody can succeed because they will offer them about cities to succeed we didn't know where we will come in Canada I arrived in Toronto they asked me where are you where are you going I said I have no idea where is my destination they said you travel effects I said what's Halifax they said when I arrived in Halifax they said you will not stay in Halifax to travel to Antigonish and I googled Antigonish I even couldn't find it on Google open the map if you can see the map now if you can call this map nowhere and Turkish is the middle of nowhere my family arrived with me after that 20 Ganesh when we receive them at the airport they started their life they started get used to double double Canadian hockey teams well actually I lost all my Canadian friends after first week because maybe my I was a fan of unpopular team we continued them the family found everything ready people in an ticklish they worked for around a year to prepare everything for the entire family so when they arrive they find the house they found the schools they find the education system for everybody the health care was ready the employment committees they were all well organized to receive the Syrians because they really knew that the Syrians they lost their country they didn't choose to come to Canada they were forced to leave their countries and they were looking for a place that can carry them that can embrace them none of the immigrants would be happy to leave his homeland we were really forced to leave our homeland Syria but we were really proud and honored to be on the Canadian soil now after people in Antigonish they worked really hard to help us after the first month in Canada the culture shock started as usual for any newcomer I went to the family and I told them that this is time for us to start giving back to the community they worked really hard they didn't care about our religion about our background about our culture it didn't care about any of these things so we should really start to think how we can give back to these people my father said okay you can go back to medicine but it will take you time here I started actually the process to become physician in Canada but then I told my family that we can start our own business my father started making few pieces of chocolate went to the farmers market everything was done in a few minutes that was the very encouraging start for him then he continued making chocolate to a bigger occasions we realized that we are here for a message and for entrepreneurship I have a concept for it the first is being unique and equal being different than the others being remarkable the second thing is you should go out you should speak out about your ideas so if you have the most brilliant ideas on earth if you don't go out and tell others nobody will come to you and knock on your door and ask you what are you thinking thinking sir that's very major concept we worked on it then we said that we should name our business it was straightforward after two weeks of fighting inside the family with a piece by charted piece is the most noble value in the entire human beings that they should fight for without without which you cannot go to your university you cannot work you cannot build yourself and why is our bridge to the Canadian Society and chocolate is the magic product of happiness continued by then our chocolate company was really expanding very fast we were honored to donate to the Canadian Red Cross to help in relief efforts in Fort McMurray after three months we were sitting on a supper table I received a call my friend told me that the Prime Minister is talking about you in the United Nations summit in New York I said I really mean like I couldn't believe that it was really huge honor to be inspiring the entire humanity all over the globe the thing that started in small place in Antigonish inspired lots of people because it was real because 50 people in Antigonish they helped us to be in our factory plumbers electricians business counselors everybody could ever help even the marketers after that I received a call after one month from the prime minister's office they said the Prime Minister really wants to meet you that was really huge honor and the success of the business was really growing very fast having all of these successes encouraged us to do more and more and open this it's not chocolate business as you all think it's all about a message from the new comers to their new community by the end of 2016 we were one of the top 15 chocolate company in the country we will be always honored to be in a country that welcomed us we will be always proud to the country that has given us such a limited joy and happiness piece by chocolate today has three messages to you the first best method to face anxiety and fear is offering embracing and welcoming community the second message kindness begets kindness and fear we get fears and anxiety the third one and the most important when ever in your life you will face challenges but now you have two options you will not have a third one the first option is to sit down and complain and I say I can do anything I can do that and the second option is to dig down and find solution and be creative and the second one works way more better trust me thank you so much [Applause]