Lawyer honoured for his volunteerism, community service

Aly Alibhai’s job as a lawyer helps keep a roof over his family’s head, but his volunteer work pays a different kind of bill.

“I really view this work as the rent I pay for living on this planet,” Alibhai says. “I’m a really big believer in a concept that has existed for a long time, which is the notion of the citizenship role of a lawyer.”

Alibhai, a 45-year-old senior lawyer with the Department of Justice’s international program, has been named the recipient of this year’s Lincoln Alexander Award by the Law Society of Upper Canada. The award, which honours an Ontario lawyer committed to community service, recognizes Alibhai’s volunteer work with more than a dozen organizations.

There’s another reason why Alibhai’s achievement is notable: he is the first non-Torontonian to receive the Lincoln Alexander since the award was created in 2002.

Born in Kenya, raised in Vancouver and a resident of Ottawa since 1993, Alibhai says he’s particularly happy to help the legal community in Canada’s capital get some recognition.

“I’m not one of those people who hate Toronto. I love it,” he says. “But I think, like a lot of other things, the legal profession can be a little too Toronto-centric.”

Alibhai speaks from experience — he began his legal career in Toronto as a civil litigator with a major Bay Street law firm. But he quickly realized private practice wasn’t his calling and moved to Ottawa to take his first public-sector position as a senior policy advisor to Herb Gray, who was solicitor general at the time.

Gray, who was the longest serving MP in Canada’s history, says he remembers Alibhai as a bright and promising employee.

“I found him a very efficient and effective assistant,” he says. “I’m not surprised that he’s earned this award.”

Alibhai’s zeal for public service has always extended beyond his job.

One summer while he was in law school, he worked for a camp in Haliburton for children with learning disabilities. He enjoyed it so much that he was inspired to do more community service.

Today, the list of organizations he has volunteered, fundraised or served on boards of directors for includes Legal Aid Ontario, the Aga Khan Foundation of Canada and the John Howard Society of Ottawa.

Melanie Adams, executive director of the Queensway Carleton Hospital Foundation, has worked with Alibhai during his term on the institution’s board of directors. She says he’s especially good at using his contacts to find and organize support.

“He brings a level of professionalism and expertise from his own profession,” she says. “He’ll have different insights from what other people would have when we’re having discussions.”

Alibhai’s volunteer interests are broad, spanning from libraries and children’s choirs to prisoner’s rights. He says the only common thread is a desire to focus his attention where he can make the most difference.

“If there is a connection, I think it’s really helping where I can help those who need it most,” he says.

But balancing a legal career with a heavy load of community service comes at a price. His workday can go late into the evening and his volunteer work can go even later — sometimes as late as 2 a.m. especially when preparing for a board meeting.

Alibhai’s wife also has a busy professional career as a family doctor and they have daughters in Grades 2 and 6.

“You make sacrifices,” he says. “My family doesn’t necessarily see me as often as they’d like and I’d like.”

But family, tradition and faith are major reasons why Alibhai endures the long hours. He was raised an Ismaili Muslim and the importance of volunteerism is one of the major teachings of the religion’s spiritual leader, the Aga Khan.

Alibhai says his parents, who immigrated to Canada when he was 61?2, are proud of how he’s worked their traditional values into his life.

“I think they’re genuinely proud that I’ve chosen a career where I’ve found happiness, where I feel like I’m fulfilled and self-actualized and making a meaningful contribution.”

Source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/
Helping+those+need+most/3133879/story.html#ixzz0v4JVx5cA

The Donor: Gulnar Carlisle

The Gift: $52,000 and climbing

The Cause: The Aga Khan Foundation

The Reason: To support development projects in Kenya

When Gulnar Carlisle was 21 years old her parents made a fateful decision.

It was 1977 and Ms. Carlisle and her family were living in Kenya. Neighbouring Uganda was in turmoil at the time because of the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin. Fearing the trouble might spread across the border, Ms. Carlisle’s parents sent her to Vancouver to live with an uncle.

Over the next 30 years, Ms. Carlisle built a new life, family and career in Canada, never returning to her native country. That changed in 2008 with news that a global Ismaili sports festival, sponsored by the Aga Khan, was going to be held in Nairobi. Ms. Carlisle jumped at the chance to visit Kenya and entered the tennis competition, winning a place on the Canadian team.

Before she went to the games she decided to raise some money for Kenyan development projects run by the Aga Khan Foundation. “When I had the opportunity to go there I knew I had to make some difference in the level of poverty in Kenya because I had seen that first hand,” she recalled.

Ms. Carlisle raised $17,000, which was used to build a water reservoir and a school in a remote village called Chanzou. During her trip to Nairobi for the competition, Ms. Carlisle and her husband, Jack, visited the village to see the projects. “I was actually blown away by how these villagers had become completely self-sufficient on such little money from the Aga Khan Foundation,” she said.

After returning home to Vancouver, Ms. Carlisle started raising more money for the foundation. She raised $35,000 last year and hopes to raise $25,000 this year at the upcoming World Partnership Walk, which takes place on May 30 in several Canadian cities.

Ms. Carlisle, a financial planner with Investors Group, said the trip to Kenya left a deep impression. “It was unbelievable how poverty had just taken over the country,” she said. “When we went to these really, really remote villages that’s when it hit me. They live on less than $2 a day. It really inspired me that I have to do something to make a difference for these people.”

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
giving-back/homage-to-the-villagers-of-kenya/article1577741/

In her work, Zainab takes inspiration from Arabic Calligraphy and Islamic art and architecture, such as the historical mosques of Turkey, Spain, and Cairo. She uses traditional elements in her work like ceramic tiles, mirror and glass––materials that were used in the architecture and décor in the Fatimid era as well as in the time periods of Mughal and Ottoman Dynasties. “Developing a unique pattern and style which is uncommon within the art world is a success in its own way,” notes the proud artist.

“I feel that by adapting and practicing my art I have not only been able to expand my skills as an artist but also been able to gain a better understanding of the concepts of my faith, societal beliefs, and extremism of politics in the world.”

Her style does manage to set her pieces apart. Take for instance her breathtaking olive Faiths Girdle piece on canvas that draws you in toward a single focal point with the word “Allah” in the center, encircled by colored mirror pieces or Luminous Glow which almost sails afloat the name of the Creator in a fiery orange. Dragon’s Eye is a slightly different but bolder piece that is done in a haunting palette—the bright reds and the eager greens combined with the subtle blues to soften the overall effect. The elements in that composition show a budding artist wanting to break forth and establish her mark on the art world.

Dragons Eye – Acrylic on Canvas

Faiths Girdle – Glass and Mirror work on Canvas

Luminous Glow – Acrylic on Canvas

Zainab’s creative journey began at the age of three, when she first started dabbling with watercolor and pottery. Over the years, that passion continued but she found herself also getting very interested in politics and law. Zainab, who is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in political science and art from Houston Baptist University, is inspired by some of Houston’s most renowned artists such as Michael Collins and Virgil Grotfield. “At school, I am the only artist generating Middle Eastern concepts and designs of calligraphy in general within the art department,” says Zainab. “By viewing my work, some of my fellow student artists and professors have been able to develop a better understanding and appreciation for Muslim art and architecture in general.”

Zainab’s art has been acquired by many private collections. “I do hope in the near future to showcase my work on greater spectrum,” says the hopeful young artist and we wish her the very best in her journey.

Links to the artist
Contact link to purchase: Galerie.Khuwaja@gmail.com

Source: http://hyphenatedspirit.blogspot.com/2009/06/zainab-khuwaja-american-muslim-with.html

Plans call for the building of a museum named after the Aga Khan, an Ismaili Centre and the creation of a park. The massive project is slated for completion by 2013.

“These projects represent a major investment by His Highness in this country’s cultural fabric and are a reflection of the Aga Khan’s commitment to Canada, which serves as a beacon to the rest of the world for its commitment to pluralism and its support for the multicultural richness and diversity of its peoples,” said Farid Damji, of the Ismaili Council for Canada.

The Aga Khan Museum — announced in 2002 — will be built on a 7-hectare site on Wynford Dr. and is the first of its kind in the English speaking world. The 10,000-square-metre structure will house collections of Islamic art, including ceramics, metal work and paintings covering a 1,000-year period of Islamic history. The design was done by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki.

The second part of the project is the Ismaili Centre — a community centre that includes a place of prayer, library, youth lounge and public spaces for cultural activities. It will be located on the same spot as the museum and is designed by Indian architect Charles Correa.

The park on Wynford Dr. has been designed by award-winning Lebanese landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic. It will surround the museum and project a sense of a traditional Islamic garden.

“I’m excited this is happening because (the Aga Khan) is one of the few Muslim leaders who have reconciled with modernity,” said Tarek Fatah, author and founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress. “He offers a very clear alternative to the Islamism that is being spread by Jihadis. (People in the GTA) will get a view of Muslims and Islam without looking through the prism of Saudi or Iranian-tainted politics.”

The Ismaili Centre Toronto is the second in Canada — the other was built in 1985 in Burnaby, B.C. and opened by prime minister Brian Mulroney in the presence of the Aga Khan. Other Ismaili Centres have been built in London, Lisbon, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Dushanbe.

Toronto was picked as the site of the museum because of the city’s cultural diversity.

Nearly 100,000 Ismailis are settled throughout Canada — more than 30,000 of them live in Toronto.

Source: http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/05/24/14064286.html

Fixing potholes isn’t the sexiest way out of the recession.

But for Aziz Tejpar, an entrepreneur who runs a company that destroys drain grease in restaurants and hospitals by using live bacteria, pothole repair might just prove to be the best way.

“America is built on strip malls,” says Tejpar. “And strip malls have a lot of potholes.”

So Tejpar, president of Bradenton-based Environmental Biotech, has created a new franchise-model business to harness a technology he says will turn the staid industry of filling potholes into something efficient and entrepreneurial. Even better, says Tejpar, this system has no need for jackhammers and is environmentally friendly.

Tejpar calls the system, and the new company behind it, B Pothole Free. The technology revolves around a patented, infrared asphalt heater that is placed over a pothole.

Then, using short, medium and long wave thermal induction, the temperature is raised to 200 degrees Celsius, so heat permeates the entire pothole. The heater is removed after about 10 minutes and a two-man crew reshapes the area with the new road material.

The area is then compacted down and smoothed over while still hot. The entire process takes about 20 minutes.

B Pothole Free charges $99 for each standard size repair, which covers a pothole as big as 3 feet by 3 feet. It costs a county or municipal government about $250 to replace a pothole using traditional methods, says Tejpar, for a job that takes at least twice as long and usually requires twice as much manpower.

Tejpar discovered the pothole repair system in England, his native country, on a business trip last year. Tejpar bought the technology and imported it to Bradenton, where he and a team of researchers spent the past six months refining it.

“[This] is a project we’ve dedicated ourselves to for a long time because we believe in its many benefits,” says Tejpar. “It’s a safer, cleaner and quieter process than current pothole repair methods.”

Tejpar has already begun deploying the system. Clients include a mall in Bradenton and about 45 Starbucks stores in the Jacksonville area, for which Tejpar sent out two-man crews to fix potholes in the store’s parking lots.

Company executives are also targeting Wal-Marts in Florida, thinking that well-traveled lots are in greater need of this kind of service.

But Tejpar believes the future of the business lies in a franchise model. He is planning to lease a full B Pothole Free operation for $35,000, as well as charge a royalty fee on revenues. The operation includes the asphalt heater and related equipment, which is packaged into a hitch-ready cart that includes company signage. Tejpar’s crew from Environmental Biotech will train the franchisees.

B Pothole Free is also partnering with Sarasota-based Insignia Bank on equipment leasing, as Tejpar says he realizes a lack of financing is a steep hurdle for entrepreneurs to get into a new business these days.

Tejpar projects that an ambitious, fully trained B Pothole Free operator, working with commercial landlords, can be filling 30 potholes a day. That can translate to $3,000 a day in sales.

Source: http://www.review.net/section/detail/smooth-move/

Years later, Jessani finds herself not only at McGill, but playing an active role in providing that friendly welcome to non-Canadians as the president of the McGill International Students’ Network.

“My grandfather, who didn’t go to any university, knew of McGill,” says Jessani, who is in her fourth year in a BSc program, majoring in anatomy and cell biology, with a minor in psychology.

Jessani began working with the MISN last year as vice-president, communications. She sought the presidency last year with a few ideas in mind for improving the lot of the University’s 3,000 international students.

For instance, one of her priorities is finding a housing solution for exchange students who number roughly 400 annually. Because these students stay only four months, they frequently have trouble finding accommodation.

Working with Off Campus Housing and the Student Exchange Office, Jessani hopes to enlist the “buddy system,” whereby recent arrivals are matched with well-settled students, to help such students find accommodation. She also plans to lobby nearby landlords to offer short-term leases.

Her work on this dossier has impressed Pauline L’Ecuyer, the International Student Adviser. “I’ve met lots of students with great ideas and projects, but she realizes them fast; she’s very pro-active,” says L’Ecuyer.

Fostering communication seems to be one of Jessani’s strong points. Last year, for instance, she initiated the newsletter MISiNformed, to keep MISN members abreast of information. A glance through the current issue reveals articles on the Network’s new home in the new student services building, a regular advice column penned by L’Ecuyer, a page on culture and events listings.

Winter events, such as skating at the Bell Amphitheatre and planned trips to the winter carnivals in Quebec and Ottawa, figure in the list.

“We try to give people Canadian experiences,” says Jessani, who has become an enthusiastic floor hockey player since coming to McGill — she played field hockey in Kenya as a child, and, later, in the United Arab Emirates, where her family moved when she was a teenager. She has also become an avid skier.

Still, Jessani recognizes that adapting to this culture, this climate and this distance from home is harder for some international students than for others. While Jessani herself is Kenyan-born, she lived in Canada for a few years when she was a toddler. Her mother’s family lives in Alberta. “I suffered no culture-shock nor weather-shock,” she laughs.

Many members of the MISN “are like me” and have some previous Canadian experience, she says. There are also members who are not international students but who join MISN out of an interest in helping the newcomers and in learning about a whole slew of countries. Among McGill’s roughly 3,500 international students, 145 countries are represented.

Next year, Jessani hopes to find herself doing volunteer work in the health field, in some corner of the developing world. Last year, while working in Pakistan teaching children how to read, she caught the bug for development work.

She enjoyed the experience of rubbing against the realities, as opposed to the stereotypes, of people from other cultures. The people she encountered found Jessani to be something of a revelation as well.

In the village in northern Pakistan, for instance, “They couldn’t believe that we [of Indian origin] could speak French and English so well and they couldn’t believe that [Canada's] prime minister is not Muslim,” chuckles Jessani, herself a Muslim of the Ismaili community.

“It’s amazing the questions you get, which is why it’s so important to work or travel internationally.”

Source: http://reporter-archive.mcgill.ca/Rep/r3207/scope.html

These provide an overview of the Islamic world’s finest artistic achievements in wood, stone, gold, bronze, ivory, ceramics and textiles, and on parchment and paper. The different Islamic dynasties can be seen, identifying the territories over which each dynasty ruled following the Abbasid caliphate at the end of the 9th century. The Umayyads held sway over al-Andalus, the Fatimids and the Mamelukes reigned in Egypt, the Ottomans in Turkey, and the Safavids in Iran and the Mughals in India.

The essential characteristics of Islamic courtly culture can be seen in generic portraits of respective sovereigns in profile. The works of art on display also emphasize the high cultural level of the Islamic courts responsible for spreading knowledge of Ancient Greece to the west via translations in Arabic.

The exhibits are divided into three large sections. The central section is devoted to The Qur’anic Faith while the other two guide viewers through various Islamic courts using as a metaphor a journey in two stages –From Cordoba to Damascus and From Baghdad to Delhi.

OTTAWA – Canada will grant the Aga Khan honorary citizenship for what Prime Minister Stephen Harper describes as his exemplary humanitarianism and long friendship with Canada.

Born in Geneva, Shah Karim al-Hussayni is the 49th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and is widely recognized for his work against poverty and his promotion of tolerance.

Now 72, he is the founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, which works in Asia and Africa and is one of the world’s largest private development networks.

Harper told the House of Commons the Aga Khan is “a beacon of humanitarianism, of pluralism and of tolerance throughout the entire world.”

The Aga Khan was in Edmonton on Tuesday to receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Alberta.

He gave an impassioned speech that touched on several global issues, including what he described as “faltering instruments of government in many countries of Asia and Africa.”

“We have learned that simplistic systems don’t work, whether built around the arrogance of colonialism, the rigidities of communism, the romantic dreams of nationalism or the naive promises of untrammeled capitalism.”

The Aga Khan also spoke at length about ethics, not only in government but in all areas of society and the need for leaders and academics to provide an ethical example for people to follow.

“We know from recent headlines about scoundrels from the American financial scene to the halls of European parliaments – and we can certainly do without either,” he said.

“When a construction company cheats on the quality of materials for a school or a bridge, when a teacher skimps on class work in order to sell his time privately, when a doctor recommends a drug because of incentives from a pharmaceutical company, when a bank loan is skewed by kickbacks, or a student paper is plagiarized from the Internet – when the norms of fairness and decency are violated in any way, then the foundations of society are undermined.”

The Aga Khan also mentioned last week’s landmark speech in Cairo by U.S. President Barack Obama who reached out for a fresh start with the Islamic world.

“It continually amazes me…how little is understood about the Muslim civilizations and cultures in the non-Islamic world and how little is taught,” he said.

“When President Obama described the richness of that history in his Cairo speech, he was telling a story which is unfamiliar to many in the West.

“As the world shrinks and as contact among diverse peoples increases, some would argue that we face an inevitable clash of civilizations. My own conviction, however, is that we face today a clash of ignorances.”

Honorary Canadian citizenship is bestowed by the governor general and requires the unanimous approval of all voting MPs.

It has been given to four others: Swedish diplomat and Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg (posthumously in 1985); former South Africa president and Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela (2001); the Dalai Lama (2006); and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi (2007), a Nobel laureate who has spent most of the last 20 years under house arrest in her native Myanmar.

-With files from Jim Macdonald in Edmonton
Source: http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/canada/article/
242814–aga-khan-to-receive-honorary-canadian-citizenship

As volunteers sweat on hot spring days, they’re also forging relationships to overcome barriers during the first interfaith build in the 24-year history of Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity.

Muslims, Christians and Jews are working side by side during weekends over four months to build the two-story house for a Catholic family.

After nailing down laminate shingles on a recent Saturday, Ali Banani climbed down from the roof for the volunteers’ lunch of Indian food.

“The more we work together, the more we get to know each other,” said Banani, 58, a Muslim who lives in Federal Way. And once people know each other, he said, then they can talk about their faiths and beliefs.

Ali was one of about 15 workers building bonds this day, one nail at a time.

Nillofur Jasani said the interfaith build, called “Under One Roof,” dispels stereotypes. And it’s a way to understand the differences and similarities the faiths have.

“We all worship one God,” said Jasani, with house sponsor One Nation: Liberty and Justice for All. “We have different ways of practicing our faiths.”

One Nation, a Gig Harbor group promoting pluralism and awareness of Muslims, is paying $65,000 for building materials. Founded by local businessman George Russell, the group hopes the project will result in better understanding of Muslims, said Jasani, a Muslim and program manager for One Nation.

“When people get to know each other, they understand each other,” she said.

Building a house – not religious diversity – was foremost on Laurie Lasky’s mind as she cut plywood with a table saw for window frames on May 30.

“We’re here for the common good,” said Lasky, 49, who is Jewish and a member of Tacoma’s Temple Beth El. “There’s one God.”

There are key differences between the three Abrahamic faiths. Jews don’t accept Jesus as the messiah. Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet but not the divine son of God.

Christians believe Jesus is the divine son of God.

There are different groups within each faith as well. Some of those building were Shia Ismaili Muslims. Others were Sunni Muslims.

Whether Sunni or Shia, Muslims have sought to dispel negative stereotypes surrounding Islam since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The biggest falsehood is that Islam teaches violence, Jasani said. “Islam is a religion of peace,” she said.

Henry Izumizaki, a Buddhist who works as chief executive officer of One Nation, said the group hopes to sponsor similar interfaith builds with Habitat for Humanity across the country. They hope to spread their work with a green component; the house under construction will be the local Habitat affiliate’s first with solar panels.

The religious bridge-building for the project involves more than hammers and nails. Muslims, Christians and Jews participated in an interfaith Passover Seder in March at Temple Beth El. An interfaith comedy show was held Sunday in Tacoma. A salmon bake is planned for July.

By the end of July, volunteers are expected to finish building the four-bedroom, 1,295-square-foot house for Patricia and Noe Gabriel, and their four children, ages 4 to 15. The Gabriels will move from their 10-by-50-foot mobile home in South Tacoma where they pay $470 a month for their lot and electricity.

Their house is one of 12 to be built by several volunteer groups in Habitat’s Larabee Terrace project on East Gregory Street Court on Tacoma’s East Side. Monthly mortgage payments will range from $500 to $880 a month, depending on the family’s income.

Three houses already have been completed. The Gabriels’ house will be the 162nd that Habitat, a Christian-based housing ministry, has constructed in Pierce County.

Habitat sells homes at no profit with no interest to people with low incomes. Each family must work a total of 500 hours on its own or other Habitat homes.

Maureen Fife, chief executive officer of Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity, said the timing was right for the interfaith project. She said the goal is to build relationships and break down barriers. Over the four months, an estimated 250 volunteers – including some American Indians – will work on the house.

Lan Ma was in the minority on the interfaith building site. She doesn’t have a particular religion.

“I’m none and I’m all,” said Ma, of Sammamish. She wasn’t bothered that people of different faiths were working around her.

“It doesn’t matter so long as they don’t force any ideas on me,” Ma said. “I just want to help.”

One of the ground rules for volunteers is no proselytizing.

Ma took turns pounding one nail at a time with Habiba Karim, a Muslim from University Place. Ma pounded once, then Karim pounded the same nail.

Amir Abdul-Matin said a blessing at lunchtime for more than 80 volunteers working on several houses in Larabee Terrace. He thanked God for an “environment that is conducive to inclusion.”

Abdul-Matin, 59, said the interfaith project unites people to work together.

“A Muslim isn’t going to hammer a nail any different than a Jew or a Christian,” said Abdul-Matin, president and imam of the Islamic Education and Community Center in Tacoma. Sonja Miller, of Agnus Dei Lutheran Church in Gig Harbor, called the build a miracle as she swept up sawdust inside the framed house.

“We have these differences but we won’t let them divide us or make us anything less than God’s family working together for the common good,” said Miller, 70.

“To me, this is what life is all about: just helping to make life better for other people,” Miller said. “It’s what makes you rich.”

Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647
steve.maynard@thenewstribune.com
Source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/topstory/story/772236.html