Positive Thinkers Speak At TEDx Khartoum

Positive thinking simply means that you approach the unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way. You think the best is going to happen, not the worst.

Using powerful positive thinking techniques, visualizations and positive affirmations, it is possible to achieve whatever you want. Professionals and business people can use these techniques to develop personal power or gain a competitive edge. At a personal level it will transform your life, your health and renew the joy and passion for life. 

There are professional courses on Positive Thinking in the developed nations and one pays a lot of money to attend them. On Saturday 28^th April at the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, there were sixteen wonderful speakers from Sudan who spoke about their personal experiences and success stories of positive thinking. It was an open event called TEDx Khartoum 2012 with the theme of Positive Thinking.

TED is a global community. You have an idea worth sharing, TED.com is the forum. Innovative ideas worth sharing not only about Technology, Entertainment or Design (TED) but also about Business, Science, Arts, Culture and Global Issues. TEDx is an independently held TED event in Khartoum

This year was the second year of TEDx Khartoum. Last year it was held in Spark City with twelve speakers and the theme was ‘Who Are We?’

This year the event was in a grand scale with MTN and Sayga as the two main sponsors. We learnt who they are last year and thus this year since they wanted to speak their mind the theme was aptly named Positive Thinking.

There were sixteen speakers or performers. Yahia Elamin spoke about his passion for making robots. Fahmi Iskander spoke of Sudanese people who generally like to smile and sing and not shout, who like to dance and not fight and who want to be happy and not go to war; Amjad Alnour spoke of his dream to change the perception of Sudan to positivity through his medium of film making; Sara Gadalla was the grand lady who spoke how her father inculcated positive thinking into her despite her being physically challenged. This made her get the Life Time Achievement Award for Women in Sports as an International swimmer; Tarig Hilal spoke so well about the positive way of looking at the past, present and future of Sudan; Omer Imam was the inventor of the Lost and Found Box located in various locations for us to deposit lost documents, ID cards and passports; Siham Taha was the proud mother who spoke how positive thinking helped her to fulfill her daughter Ghada’s dream of establishing Ghada Award for Young Writers; Aliaa Isam shared her positive thinking of how we could help the needy through the various charitable organizations by doing our bit; Abubakr S.Eltayeb spoke humbly of the proud moment for Sudan with the first satellite; Amin Bahari spoke of his passion for Animation in spite of his busy schedule in emergency medicine; Elsheikh Mohamed is the Mathematician who spoke of Scientific and Philosophical concepts.

The other performers were Ahmed Elgaily who played his harmonica and took us to the different regions of Sudan through his tunes, props and costumes; Hussam AbdelSalam and his orchestra along with a dance troupe created folkloric music with a contemporary flavor and we also heard the living legend Sharhabeel Ahmed, arguably the best guitarist in Sudan and pioneer of Jazz Sudanese music who rendered a duet with his son Sharief which left the huge audience thoroughly charged in a positive way.

The presence of Presidential Advisor Dr.Ghazi Salahuddin at the event needs special mention. Dr.Anwar Dafa-Alla needs to be congratulated for spearheading all TED activities in Sudan.