Autographed Copy- A Thousand Inspirations Fakir Hassen *Sale*

Brand new book and has been autographaed by the writer : Fakir Hassen.This is a Fundraising initiative for the Help Fathima Zahra to Hear fundraiser. Your generosity will be appreciated when bidding as all proceeds will be donated to Fathima Zahra. A beautifully illustrated book to add to your collection or as a gift.

PREFACE I had been thinking about how this book should be structured for more than 18 months when the format it is in finally gelled with the combination of two incidents in the latter half of 2013.First, President Jacob Zuma made a plea for more positive news to emerge from the South African media, and not long after, I was at the launch of the Freedom Fridays campaign in Soweto to mark the start of celebrations of 20 years of democracy in South Africa. Although I do not necessarily agree with the suggestion that “good news” should be created, I realised after the President’s statement that all the stories I had collated for a book from my writings for various local and international media for the past two decades were indeed positive ones reflecting on successes, achievements, often against great odds, and accolades for the activities of the local Indian community, an essential component of the fabric that is South African society.

The past two decades brought with it new opportunities for further advance in this community within a new democratic order where the earlier restrictions no longer existed. Again, these were largely positive tales inclined to inspire others. I am by no means suggesting that I deliberately set out over my career to write only positive stories, but must confess that those are the ones I preferred doing, as they so often served to inspire others from all communities.  Of course there were many reports that could be classed in the “negative” category as well, and I have no doubt that a collection of some of those would, as is human nature, find avid readers as well. But besides that, I do not personally believe that such a book would remain, as I hope the one in your hands will be, a source of inspiration for future generations, so there will be no such action on my part, now or in the future.

As I sat listening to celebrated members of the broader South African community explaining in Soweto on that Friday why we should be celebrating 20 years of democracy despite all the challenges South Africa still faces, the symbolic bulb lit up in my brain. Those seated next to me who were peering into my notebook might well have wondered why I scribbled a numerical list of 20 and then started filling them in with categories such as Freedom Fighters, Community Service, Philanthropy and Social Welfare.

In less than 20 minutes, the 20 years of democracy had solved my dilemma of more than 500 days. The book would list the stories of over 500 people depicted in 20 categories and be released in time to be part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of democracy on 27 April 2014! The stories are reflected as at the time they were written.  Some have gone on to become far greater achievements; others remain at the same inspirational level and a few have faded into time despite the initial good intentions, but have been included for that first inspiration. Milestone anniversaries recorded at the time have also in some cases been exceeded by many more already.

A six-year-old getting an award for her concern about saving the rhino; a man who served the needs of the blind and deaf for nearly four decades; a 70-year-old who walked from Johannesburg to Durban to create awareness of his Gandhian ideals; and someone who emerged from decades as a political prisoner and still bears no grudges against his oppressors – all served as inspiration of different sorts and at different levels, both for me personally and hopefully those who read in the past and will read now what I had written about them and many others in many publications.

This then is that collection of inspirational tales of achievement which was a personal dream.  It was never intended to be and could never even begin to delve into the terrain of historians to be a complete or even partial record of achievements and stories of the community.  Nor does it pretend to cover all the events or people of significance in Gauteng in that period. There would of course be many, many other similar or even better stories, but these are some of those that I have been privileged to write about in my lifetime as a journalist during just the past two decades in line with the determined theme. I trust that it will be accepted in that light and not aggrieve anyone who may have been omitted, even from among those I have written about that had to be unfortunately excluded, with no minimisation of their achievements, only because of the  limitations of the number of pages of this book.

Of course one of the greatest inspirers in my life and that of millions across the globe has been Nelson Mandela, so just as this book was about to go to print, Tata Madiba passed on. Designer Wendy Opperman had no hesitation in immediately agreeing to my request to redo the opening chapter titled Freedom Fighters to reflect what some of the leaders who had spent time in prison with Madiba and other individuals and organisations in the community had to say and undertook to honour the memory of the man who led the country to freedom with assistance from many others, including those who had made the ultimate sacrifice in laying down their lives. There were of course many more tributes across the province and indeed the country and the world to the global icon, but since this entire book is about stories I have actually written and pictures I have taken, only some of the more important ones that I have been involved in have been highlighted. 

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