Afghan refugee at Texas base on why he tweeted photo of paltry meal
By Sheila Flynn
Excerpt:
The 28-year-old Fulbright semi-finalist didn’t expect the response he got after tweeting a photo of his paltry meal as an Afghan refugee at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Hamed Ahmadi posted the picture – showing two small pieces of chicken, a few slices of fruit and bread – to prove to people that life as a refugee was neither glamorous nor coveted.
Instead, responses included taunts and demands that he be more grateful or “go back to Afghanistan.”
“The point of that tweet was not ... to be complaining, to be very critical,” Mr Ahmadi told The Independent. “I was just describing a situation of Afghan refugees that are in the situation that they never really wanted to be in.
“I had a pretty good job back in Kabul. I had a decent life. I had my family,” he said, adding: “I was forced to flee Afghanistan ... if I had more space [on Twitter], I would have added more explanation – because I wanted to say that this is the refugee life. And we need to be patient.” The journalist and scholar, who spent the past five years in Kabul with his parents and siblings, did not want to flee Afghanistan – and certainly didn’t want to leave his family behind.
His tweet about meals on base may have earned him attention, but food is pretty low on his list of worries, Mr Ahmadi said, as he re-evaluates his life view while still hoping for a better future.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/afghan-refugee-hamed-ahmadi-texas-b1914039.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
... when I got drafted. Basic Training was at Fort Bliss. "But it was a DRY heat".
