走出伊拉克，把夢想放在世界彼端 ── Ahmed Loqman Yousify (伊拉克)
Ahmed Loqman Yousify，畢業於扎湖大學(University of Zakho)，主修資訊科學，目前在該校擔任研究助理。專長是資訊處理、電腦視覺圖像、網頁程式設計、人工智慧和數位學習。
他參與加過很多國際學術研討會，也曾經舉辦過幾場。其中，他在札湖大學第二國際科學會議擔任媒體與網路委員會成員。Ahmed和他的同事負責更新會議的資訊，像是，論文繳交、會議活動和住宿登記等，他也負責做整場會議被使用的簡報。
另外，Ahmed也曾帶領全日的工作坊－「青年領導發展的新方向」。他幫助參與工作坊的青年成為一個代表，也印製執照給每位成員。同時，也幫助青年擬議庫德語與英文的邀請函。
你可以與我們分享你的家庭與信仰嗎？這些因素會影響你的生涯抉擇嗎？以及你在35歲前的人生願景是什麼？
我出生在五個兄弟的家庭裡，我是中間的那一個，我兩個哥哥都已經結婚了。我們是庫德族人，身為穆斯林的我們很驕傲。這些因素確實會以某種方式影響我的生涯選擇。
我在35歲之前的人生願景是拿到了碩士學位，娶了一個妻子，有了兩個孩子，也想擁有一棟房子，最後，我想要成為一個能夠激勵人心的講者，對這個世界有影響力。
伊拉克國內的衝突和騷動，對生活與求學有什麼樣的影響呢？伊拉克對你的生涯規劃是個理想的地方嗎？
國家的衝突直接影響我的生活，舉例來說，在打擊恐怖組織伊斯蘭國後，導致了庫德斯坦的經濟危機，我每個月只能拿到55%的薪水，大部分的員工也都如此。對我來說，因為我想要做的專案在這裡沒有太大的發展空間，所以我想要在國外攻讀碩士學位，但在戰爭導致經濟危機的情形下，我無法負擔我在國外就學的費用。
也因為伊拉克公民這個身分，限制了我們很多向外發展的機會。舉例來說，如果申請簽證到歐洲或美國，他們可能會因為你住的地方審問你，會問相當細節的問題，也必須填很多相關的表格，你很可能會被拒絕入境。如果不能自由地進出世界其他地方，通往世界的大門就會被關上。
可以在伊拉克發展生涯，但你往往會碰到瓶頸。我是可以在伊拉克發展我的生涯規劃，但絕對不是最理想的地方。首先，因為伊拉克仍然是個開發中的國家。接著，你可以看到戰爭，在我住的地方庫德斯坦有經濟危機，這絕對會影響我的規劃。在未來，我猜測危機會不復存在，但我那時可能已經不再是二十幾歲的青年了。
現在伊拉克的教育情況為何？是否嚴重的被戰爭影響？
很糟，伊拉克的教育情形很糟糕。在庫德斯坦，當他們將我們的薪水減少一半，說之後會付清給我們，一些老師決定抗議這個新規定，所以有些學校比平常晚開學。除此之外，有些家庭沒有錢提供食物和住所給孩子，這也影響了他們思考和接受教育的方式。大部分的家庭看電視來接受資訊，如果大部分的時間電視談論的都是戰爭，這樣環境並不是明亮多彩的。
教育部每年都在用新的教育制度，但應該使用同一種方法直到看到它的效果，因這是一段過程，並非一年就有轉變可以看到成效。
因為伊斯蘭國，有些人開始懼怕來自於中東的人，尤其是穆斯林。你會如何看待這個議題，或是澄清這樣的誤解？
這很重要，我們都是人，我們都同住在一個地球上。差別在於我們每個人出生在世界上不同的地區。當中東的人們移居到其他國家，大部分的人並非他們想要離開故土，而是他們被迫不得不這麼做。他們在故鄉歷經艱苦，而大部分這些移居的人。國家都處於戰爭狀態。
穆斯林也是人，當移民潮開始，不論是穆斯林、基督徒、亞茲迪教徒或猶太人，他們都一起開始移動的旅程，沒有什麼區別。你不能只因為一些個人的行為評論一個宗教或是民族。伊斯蘭國是個恐怖組織，他們真正的目標是摧毀文明和製造國家間的戰爭去玷汙伊斯蘭神聖的名號。
青年的未來也是國家的未來。伊拉克經歷這麼多艱難的狀況。據你所知，伊拉克青年背負著怎樣的未來，你有什麼樣的計畫去度過這樣艱難的時刻？以及你想要對伊拉克青年說甚麼？
確實，青年是我們的未來。在現在這個時刻，他們試圖發展自己，試著學習新的技術，他們會抱怨體制和現況，但他們也在有力量的時候表現到最好。至於我的規劃，是去試著激勵人們不要放棄他們的夢想，繼續他們的學業，因為我認為教育使人證明自己。我會盡力在工作坊和會議獲得新的經驗，在現實生活當中運用這些知識去幫助我自己、我的家庭和我的國家。
「接受教育，不要放棄希望，盡你所能，不要因為兩三次的失敗而放棄。持續往前、持續嘗試直到你得到你想要的。去成為一個偉大的人物吧！讓這世界上留下你的足跡。」
23, Bachelor of Science (Computer Science, University of Zakho), Assistant Researcher and Web Developer at The University of Zakho, Assistant Manager at Global English Institute – Zakho.
My major was Computer Science and some of my favorite courses in my undergraduate study were (Information Management, Computer Graphics and Vision, Web Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Visual C#, E-Learning).
I attended more conferences and workshops than I organized, but the ones I organized my roles were as the following: Media and Website Committee in the Second International Scientific Conference – UoZ, me along with my co-worker where updating the info on the Conference on its website like paper submission, activities, hotel registration and so on, I also helped in extracting the names of the authors for certifications, I made a PowerPoint slideshow that was presented during the whole conference in the background.
Organizer of a Workshop entitled “New Directions for Youth Leadership Development”, I helped them reach the delegates who were invited to the workshop, I helped them Print Certificates, I also helped them formalizing the Invitation Letter and make it available in both Kurdish along with the English one, and I lead a table of discussion during a day of the workshop.
Could you share your life background like family and belief? Do these factors affect your career choice?
We are five brother and a mother and a father, no sisters, I am the middle child, two of my brothers are married. We are Kurds, and our family’s belief is that we are Muslims and proud. Somehow it does affect my career choices but not in a small way.
My visions of life before turning into 35 is that God willing I will have a master’s degree, a wife and two kids, own a house, and last maybe I will become a motivational speaker and have more impact in this world.
There exist conflicts in your country. What do those crisis affect your life and study? How do you want to develop you career? Is Iraq a ideal place for you career plan or does the country have any potential?
The Conflicts in my country affects my life directly, for example:
After the Fight against the Terrorist group ISIS and the Economic Crisis in Kurdistan, I as an employee get only 55% of my salary each month and most of the employees get the same amount with a little difference.
For me personally I want to study my master’s degree abroad because the projects that I want to make are not well recognized in this area, but I cannot afford my study abroad in this situation.
Just because of Being an Iraqi citizen, it closes a lot of good opportunities for us from around the world.
For example, if you apply to a visa to just visit Europe or to America, they will judge you based on your location, they ask detailed questions, you fill a lot of forms, and you are most likely to get a refusal. So if you cannot
travel easily to different parts of the world, you are not getting most of what is in this world.
You can develop a career, but that career mostly will be the thing that you will get stuck to it for the rest of your life. Iraq might be an average place for my career plans but definitely not an ideal one, first because it is still a developing country and from time to time you see a crisis, in Kurdistan-Iraq the place where I live we have an economic crisis, so this matter for sure affects my career plans.
In the future, I guess the crisis will no longer exist, but then I might not be in my 20s anymore!
What is education situation in Iraq now? Is it affect severely by crisis?
Bad, the education situation is bad in Iraq. In Kurdistan when they started to cut off our salaries to around half and saying that they will pay us later, some of the teachers decided to protest this new rule. So, the schools started their academic year later than usual. And other than that, some families do not have money to provide food or a shelter for their kids, this also affects the way the think and the way they get education. Most families are watching T.V and news channels, and if most of the times they talk about the crisis the atmosphere will not be bright and colourful. The ministry of Education tries different techniques every ear, but you should stay on a certain thing and wait until you see the outcome because it is a process and it cannot be shown in one year.
Due to the ISIS thing, there is a sad truth that, some people started to raise fear towards people who came from Middle East, especially the Muslim. If it is possible, would you give any comment on this issue, or to clarify the misunderstand?
This is important, we are all humans, and we are all living on the same earth. The thing is each person is born in a different area around this earth. When people from Middle east immigrate to other countries, they are most likely not doing that because they want to but because they need to. They are facing hard times in their local regions and countries and most of those countries are at war. And for the second part, Muslims are also humans, when the immigration starts they all go together in that journey, there is no difference between a Muslim, a Christian and an Ezidi or a jew. You cannot judge an entire religion or an ethnic group based on actions of individuals. ISIS is a terrorist group that their true goal is to destroy civilization and make wars between nations and to abuse Islam’s sacred name.
The spirit of our project is youth’s future, but youth is also future of a country. Iraq has experienced such a hard circumstance. What do Iraqi young people, as you heard so far, bear toward your future? Do you have plans or motivation to go over this hard time? What do you want to say to the young people in your country?
Indeed, Youth is the Future. Here our youth at this current moment try to develop themselves, they try to learn new skills, they complain about the system and the situation and circumstances, but they also try to be the best they can be when they have power. As for my plans, I do have plans, I myself try to motivate people to not giving up on their dreams, to continue their studies because in my point of view education will make people speak for themselves. I will try to do my best to gain new experiences by going into workshops, conferences and seminars and then implement those gained knowledge into real life and help myself, my family and my country.
Stay Educated, do not lose hope, try your best, don’t quit after one or two or three failures – keep moving forward and keep tying until you get what you want. Be great and leave a footprint in this world.
