Saturday, October 16, 2010

Memories of USA

I miss the USA pretty much. The 5 months I spent there was unforgettable, travelling to many cities and meeting many people. It was definitely an eye-opener for someone aspiring to be a foreign correspondent. Here are some previously unpublished photographs I took during the first half of 2010. Enjoy.


A little child looks back at me while on the Chinatown bus. The bus is the cheapest mode of inter-city transport in the USA and I use it extensively while at the east coast.

Missouri was freezing when I arrived there. The land was covered in snow. This is a photograph taken outside Hawthorn Hall. The lights are beautiful because they come from the floodlights at a football field nearby.

Hollywood drama. I took this photograph at the Universal Studios in Los Angeles. They were demonstrating to me how some action shots are taken. 

The bean at Chicago. I like this picture because it reminded me that USA is a kind of parallel universe. Many things are similar, and yet some other stuff are just so different. 

A couple at the benches in MIT. At these Ivy League universities, groundbreaking research is done and changing the world we live in. 

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Degree-holding Iraqi refugees start from zero

By Xue Jianyue
May 8, 2010


Iraqi refugee Kamal Mohammedali delivers the Columbia Daily Tribune to them stand in the middle of the night, earning a meagre living in comparison to his days as a civil engineer in Iraq.
Just as most Americans in Missouri are preparing for bed, Mr Kamal Mohammedali, a 51-year-old Iraqi refugee from Baghdad, heads to work at midnight, delivering the Columbia Daily Tribune to the newsstands across Columbia.

Even before the sun rises, Mohammedali starts his second job at 4 a.m., doing maintenance at public schools here.

Both Mohammedali and his wife, 49-year-old Bushra Faris, are overeducated for the jobs they currently hold - Muhammadali holds a degree in civil engineering and had helped the Iraqi government construct dams for many years. Faris holds a doctorate in Obstetrics and Gynaecology but works as a medical interpreter in Columbia.

"Our degree certificates are not recognized in America," he said. "We are expected to start from zero."