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ALI STUDENT AND... REFUGEE
Ali is a good-natured fellow with sparkling eyes and a disarming smile. His birthplace, ‘city of mosques’, is better known to us as Fallujah. Flashy war footage combined with a journalistic voice-over that invariably concluded with an endless death toll. This city gave the term breaking news a distinct meaning; a mention in the media was always accompanied by the terms destruction, war and many, very many, casualties.
Ali carries an invisible yet leaden backpack with him, filled with all the calamity he has already endured in his young life. He doesn't talk much about it. He wants to turn the page and look to the future with an open mind.
Ali has a passion for photography, which is where he rules time. He can capture the beautiful moments and look back at them later. He values the beauty of the everyday. As a counterbalance to the ballast he carries? Who knows?
Ali was a refugee and a dry statistic figure. Not any more, now it is merely Ali, the good-humoured young man. Ambition and work ethic are not empty words for him, as he must and will do his bit to our society. A lone success story or that exception that proves the rule? There are undoubtedly countless other Ali's walking around.
