Dr.Michel Jahjah

1994 Vancouver

The following is an interview with Dr. Michel Jahjah, Chairman of the Organizing committee of the World Dental Congress Held last October 1994 in Vancouver.

Because of his extremely busy schedule, it was very difficult to schedule an interview with Dr. Jahjah. Finally, we got an appointment for 7 o’clock Friday morning the last day of the convention.

After a warm welcome, Dr.Jahjah inquired about the Lebanese community in BC and of course, how many dentists are they’re of Lebanese decent; and then we started to ask our questions.

Q: Dr. Jahjah, can you tell us about you’re origin?

A: I am the son of Emile Jahjah from Aramoun, kesrouan. My grandfather Ibrahim left Lebanon to Egypt at the beginning of WW1. I was born in 1940 in Egypt and studied dentistry in Egypt were I graduated in 1964. Our family immigrated to Montreal in 1967. I started my practice in Canada in 1970 as Doctor in Dental Science, which I had completed in 2 years instead of the required 4.

Q: When was the last time you visited Lebanon?

A: We used to go to Lebanon every summer. I spent some memorable summers as a youth in Bhamdoun. The last visit to Lebanon was in 1967, when we left Egypt to come to Montreal. We are still in contact with cousins in Lebanon.

Q: What is your role in the F.D.I.?

A: I was the representative of the Quebec Dental Association at the FDI for 8 years. In 1990, I became the representative of the Canadian Dental Association at the FDI. In 1988, I was appointed Chairman of the Organizing Committee of this convention.

Q: What is the reason behind your appointement as Chairman?

A: I have already successfully organized the similar conventions at the provincial levels and at the Canadian level. This gave me a lot of experience to have been appointed to this position.

Q: As Chairman of the organizing Committee, can you please describe this organization?

A: When we started the preparation 5 years ago, I had only 2 people working on this project; the number increased slowly until today where I have a committee of  5 dentists who have their own subcommittees; we have a total of 120 people working full time on this convention.

Q: Vancouver press considered this convention a great success. What do you think of think of that?

A: I am satisfied with the success people are talking about. It is a success from the scientific as well as the financial point of view. Especially because it is the biggest FDI convention to date, and without a financial deficit, keeping in mind that previous conventions had deficits between ½ and 1 million dollars each, but not this time.

Q: It was sad to not see the Lebanese flag among the participating countries?

A: Lebanon was a member of the FDI, but seized to be one because of war there. This saddened me as it did you. I would like to see a Lebanese formal delegation and not only individual Lebanese doctors. I think that Dr. Barakat can answer this question more appropriately. It is a great pleasure to know that Dr. Barakat is one of the worlds brightest in this profession.

Q: What are the factors behind your success as a private practitioner, as the head of the Canadian delegation and as the organizer of this convention?

A: In Canada you will succeed if you have the perseverance. By nature, we the sons of the Cedars Country are hard working and ambitions people. However, it is important that the ambition is not enough; one has to work hard to complete what was started.

Q: Any advise to the youth of Lebanese origin?

A: Yes, be proud of your origins, of your heritage. I was always proud of my origins. Also, I would like to that perseverance is the key to success.

With this simple, yet very strong message, we thanked Dr. Jahjah and went back to the convention thinking how to tell in this newsletter this success story to serve as an example to our youth.