I work with Shahzad, but I don't know him very well. Until today, I only knew him as a nattily dressed and wonderfully courteous person, who always has a smile and a greeting for everyone. I also knew that he is originally from Iran and that there was some difficulty associated with his past life there. Today, Public Address published an interview transcript with him. It is a truly amazing and moving story of how he came to New Zealand as a refugee, and it's well worth reading. (Particularly now, when people here and in the US seem to have such negative associations with immigrants and refugees.)