An image of Apple founder Steve Jobs is being used to raise awareness of the plight of Syria’s refugees.
Jobs, who died of cancer in 2011, was the son of a Syrian man who migrated to the US in 1954.
An iconic black and white image of Jobs with his trademark rimless specs was tweeted by tech entrepreneur David Galbraith, captioned: “A Syrian migrants’ child.” [sic].
Galbraith sent his tweet in the aftermath of grief after photographs of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi forced the world to acknowledge the migrant and refugee crisis.
Aylan died after the boat he and his family were travelling to the Greek island of Kos from the Turkish town of Bodrum sank.
The little boy’s waterlogged corpse was washed up on a beach in Bodrum last week.
A Turkish gendarmerie soldier moves the body of Aylan Kurdi
Jobs’ father Abdul Fattah “John” Jandali was born in 1931 in Homs. He studied in Beirut and met Jobs’ mother when he moved to the US. The pair were not married and their baby was placed for adoption in San Francisco.
Galbraith, whose message was retweeted more than 13,000 times, told The Chicago Tribune: “I was prompted to post it after seeing the pictures of Aylan Kurdi.
Aylan Kurdi (left) and his older brother Galip (right), who also perished in the sea
“I could barely look as I have two beautiful young children of my own. It seemed to be that what the most precious thing in the world, a small child, was washed up on the sea shore like a discarded object of no value, when a child with a parent of the same nationality, given opportunity had created the largest company in the entire world. And here we are seeing an acrimonious debate, about stopping migrants.”
He added: “[The image of Jobs] contrasted that of Aylan Kurdi in every way and made me wonder what little boys like him could have achieved if they had been given the chance. In a medium restricted to 140 characters, a picture is worth more than 1,000 words.”
