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Hello everyone. It's great to be here.

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You know, great to be at the stage of my old auditorium,

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my school and, you know,

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what an honor it is to be on this stage at TEDx.

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And, like everyone else here, I'm here.

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I'm a story teller, some people call me an artist.

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And I'm a story teller.

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And I'm here to share with you my story.

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You see, when I first got asked to do a TED talk,

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I Googled it to see what it's all about, and

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one of the speakers came up and she said that

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she was fine until she got up on stage

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and then she saw the timer and then she noticed

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that it was ticking down and it reminded her

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very much of a bomb.

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(Laughter)

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You see I'm from Afghanistan and

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that's the last thing I want to be reminded of.

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But anyway, earlier this year I went back to Afghanistan

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with my father and this photo was taken from

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behind our house, in a tiny little village of Joghori.

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And that's sunset on the black mountains on the back.

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In this next photo is down on the valley floor in front of my house

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and that's me with one of the young ones there.

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And this photo was taken right there, that green door,

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green door to my house that I grew up in.

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You see, back in 2001 when the Taliban were at

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the height of their power everything changed.

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What do you see, what do you think,

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when you think of the word "Afghanistan"?

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What comes into your mind?

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Soldiers, bombs, death, improvised explosive devises,

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just like the ones that were used to kill 5 of our brave

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troops only 2 weeks ago -- but this is my Afghanistan.

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This is what comes into my mind every time I think of home.

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So back in 2001 when the Taliban took over

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when they were at the height of their power, life was bad.

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This didn't exist anymore.

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All concepts of basic human rights were thrown out the window.

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Women were forced to stay at home,

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stay uneducated, or restricted from teaching.

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Men were forced to grow beards and simply accept

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the judgment of the local commander.

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You know, whatever that may be.

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Life as we knew it had changed.

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So there we were in 2001 --

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me and my family being part of the ethnic minority,

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the Khazars, we were persecuted and executed.

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We were seen by the Taliban and their people

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as a tumor that needed to be cut and gotten rid of.

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For half time entertainment at local football matches

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my people were brought on onto the field

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and stoned to death.

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Education en mass for the price of disobedience.

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And so, as you can imagine, my father made the

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decision for our family to leave.

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Seek a fresh start, somewhere new. A new beginning.

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And that new beginning was going to be Australia.

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So we set out in spring of 2001.

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Under the cover of night, we arrived in Pakistan, in Karachi.

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And, already life was different and I was in the next country.

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Our family stayed in a one bedroom apartment

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while our traveling papers were organized.

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And I celebrated my 7th birthday in Pakistan.

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Indonesia was going to be the next step.

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See I remember the journey clearly

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because it was the first time I boarded a plane

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and I can tell you now I was not Star Alliance member.

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Not in New Zealand.

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Cramped into an old rickety plane

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I couldn't understand how we managed to stay in

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one piece when we arrived in Indonesia.

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And oh man, what a difference you know

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the heat, the humidity, the bananas, the neverending expanse of water.

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Where the hell where we?

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But anyway, we stayed in Indonesia for 2 months

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while once again traveling papers organized.

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And you know we had to find a ship,

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someone to get us to New Zealand.

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I'm not in New Zealand at this time obviously,

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Australia, we didn't even know this tiny island nation even existed.

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Then one night, you know, we'd been here for 2 months

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and then one night, I was started awake by my mother

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and she said "We're leaving."

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And me, being unaware, not knowing,

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I was 7 at the time, and anyways I was,

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"OK, you know, let's leave."

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We were leaving tonight, oh wow.

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So I quickly grabbed on to as many clothes as I could

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I checked them on trying to save some space in my bag and

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we were hurried off onto a bus in the middle of the night.

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This was all pitch black darkness so you couldn't see anything

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In the middle of the night, we were rushed off

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to port, port Merak in Indonesia.

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And, in Port Merak we caught up with some

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of the other Khazars families, who were also

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escaping the atrocities back home.

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But we couldn't see anyone

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we couldn't distinguish number or what not.

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So there we were hurried along into the belly of this

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unknown ship and we couldn't understand --

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we knew we were at the port because we could hear

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crashing of the waves, but we didn't know

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where we were, we just hurried along to the ship

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you know, what sort of ship is this?

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How big it is?

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The next day I got the chance to truly explore this vessel you know,

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the MV Palapa 2 as it was known.

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and I hate to think what happened to Palapa 1.

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The MV Palapa 2 was a fishing vessel

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and just like fish, 438 Afghans, mostly Afghans,

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were crammed into a space that was meant to hold 40.

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And I remember, I remember needing to go to the

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bathroom when I discovered that it was simply a hole,

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in the deck that ran straight into the ocean,

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I didn't need to go to the bathroom anymore.

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But anyway, on the second day, the engine failed

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and that night a storm hit and here you know,

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this was the scariest moment of the whole journey.

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Not for me, but for everyone,

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as a kid, you know, I thought I was on a big adventure.

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But put yourselves in my father's position,

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he thought that he was offering us a chance,

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his family a chance at a fresh start

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and now, in this situation when the most,

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when our fate was at the mercy of the waves

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he thought that he had condemned us to death.

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The men all reached the lowest point of their lives at this point.

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And still thinking back at it today I think,

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how the hell did we survive that night?

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Because it was a miracle

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the men at that point we were praying, praying to God

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that please save us

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you know, if we're to drown tonight, please wash our

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bodies on some shore so we can be buried on land.

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But the next day, it eventuated and a small plane

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flew overhead and you know as you can imagine

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there's a sense of hope that

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this plane would see us and

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we would be rescued but nothing happened.

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And the one man who's sitting at the back of the

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auditorium thought he could speak some

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English could write the letters S O S

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and put it up so that the next time a flight

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pass they will see us and it did

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but again nothing happened.

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Morning turned into evening

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and all sense of hope was lost again.

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But that evening God heard our prayers

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for out of the horizon came the MV Tampa --

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MV Tampa is a Norwegian cargo ship heading from

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Fremantle in Wiston Australia to Singapore

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and had picked up our distress signal that the

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captain had put up.

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And that's our little boat right there anchored next

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to the MV Tampa.

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And so as the last man got out of the Palapa,

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the Palapa sank

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taking with it everything that we brought from

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Afghanistan and Pakistan to start our new lives elsewhere.

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It sank and is now at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

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Here we wanted to go

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We slept in containers, empty containers

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and we prayed on deck, and we wanted to know

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we wanted to go to Australia to Christmas Island

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because it was under Australian control and hopefully

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here we would be processed and sent to Australia

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this was it, here we are,

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the last stepping stone, we're going to go.

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But Australia at this time was in the midst of an election

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and policy had changed --

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John Howard closed the doors on Australia

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to further his campaign.

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And so Captain Rinnan, a brave man, a risk taker,

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he chose, he headed straight for Christmas Island

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but you know within 10 kilometers of Christmas Island

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we were forced back by SAS troops.

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And under pressure from his own bosses

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Renner could not hold us anymore because

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he needed his freight to Singapore.

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He could not be a host for us anymore.

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And so we changed, we were transferred onto

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the HMS Minora, a navy frigate.

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And this was a lot better for we had bedding

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and shower facilities, but still we had no sense of direction

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we had, we were just waiting out on the ocean with nowhere to go.

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While we were on there, 9/11 happened

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but we were unaware.

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Because New Zealand put up a tent.

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Who or what is a New Zealand?

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(Laughter)

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That's what we were thinking

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but we didn't care for New Zealand was the end

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of our 6 month journey from that little village you saw

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at the first picture.

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So we arrived in New Zealand 28th of September 2001

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and at the tarmac of Auckland Airport we felt home.

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For the first time, we felt on solid ground

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and so we transferred to Mangere Refugee Center

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and from there we've been living in Christchurch

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for the past 11 years.

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That's me and my dad right now when we went back

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this Saturday to Afghanistan and to think

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where we've come from and where I am at right now

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where I'm standing on this stage today is a story of hope

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and I want to tell all of you this is my message to all of you.

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We're all going through a tough time right now

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this country right now is the last land mass to be colonized.

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Everyone in this auditorium is either a migrant,

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a refugee, or a descendant of one.

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It's forever enriching its identity

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with people from all over the world.

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And so if I, in final remark, regards I just wanted

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to tell you we're all going through a tough time

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you know, never lose hope because there are other people

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going through tougher times.

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We all have the power to make a difference

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as I graduate and head off from this stage and go

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to University down the road I wonder,

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"How can I make a difference?"

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But the reality is we all have the power to make a difference.

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And that can be as easy as listening to someone tell their story.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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(Moderator) No, don't go, don't go,stay,

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we gotta talk a bit about your family.

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(Applause)

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(Moderator) The word "Tampa" looms very large in history

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and so to have met somebody who came here from

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the Tampa is a huge privilege.

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You asked, "Who or what is New Zealand?"

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The simple answer is "You are!"

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and you didn't come on your own.

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and so we would like to acknowledge family and friends

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in the audience if they would like to stand please?

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You're out there. Thank you very much indeed.

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(Applause)