One the mask. He is almost like a character in a pantomime the 1st expert witness is journalist Toby Young He's an associate editor of the right leaning Spectator magazine for stumps some was its editor in the mid 2000. But they go much further back to the 1980 s. When they were students at Oxford University Toby Young has known and observed Boris Johnson for over 30 years. In British history we have had these kind of stock characters on the national stage and Boris is a very recognizable archetype he is the kind of self-deprecating Penta mind solve it was at the Oxford Union the ancient debating society where want to be prime ministers hone their oratory skills where Toby Young 1st remembers watching this comedy tough perform he was making a case for the abolition of capital punishment only to catch him self after about a minute's start scratching his head and then look up in a slightly before the old way at the audience and say and on a 2nd we also motion is good and then I'm not against capital punishment so you then cross the floor and started making the argument for capital punishment it was brilliant the audience were in gales of laughter he had been eating out of his hand most of us would be desperately trying to play it by the book but there he was breaking every single rule 6. Toby Young says that students from well to do backgrounds tended to dial down their passion us it was a way of diffusing any hostility that their privilege might provoke but in Boris's case his way of defusing. That hostility was to turn the volume up to a level and become a kind of pastiche. The visual image is also carefully manicured he always wears these kind of robot ill fitting. Soups quite often one of his shirt tails is hanging out bars his tie is always kind of a bit askew he does look a bit like overgrown schoolboy and his trademark shaggy blond hair style not a hair in place. So was it all a performance to find out when and why Boris Johnson adopted this character we have to delve a little further back in his life his real name is Alexander Boris fretful Johnson. By all accounts he was a quiet shy young boy his nose often found between the covers of a book he want to scholarship to the famed English private school Eton a year later he learnt his parents were splitting up his mother spent 8 months in hospital with depression. It was at school his alter ego began to emerge Al was becoming Boris in a sense to people he's out to his family and close friends and to the outside world he's Boris. I don't know when and how the came Boris but I suspect it was at a very young age maybe when he 1st went off to school it was a form of armor a way of protecting himself to turn himself into this sort of comic character if he becomes prime minister will he discard the bumbling caricature in favor of a Polish statesman if it was once upon a. A mosque that he was able to put on and discard I think those days are gone it's a mosque that eaten into his face and he can't now take off However even before he's won the leadership election there are signs he's adapting his caricatural in preparation His hair is neater he's making fewer gags he's wearing a well tailored suit he's just well more serious this is the role he's been preparing for for the last 3540 years this is his time he's hand is almost no on the kind of steering wheel of history at a really critical moment in Britain's history I don't think he's going to mess it up I think he's going to seize seize the opportunity if that's how Boris wants his image to be what will he be like behind the scenes. Part 2 behind the mask. He was an officer to so we were working very long hours at the time it was joining the negotiations on the mastic Tracy and that's how I got to know him in. Our 2nd expert witnesses Boris Johnson's biographer Sagna pronoun they were together in the Daily Telegraph's Brussels bureau he doesn't really like working in team he's a really sort of solitary person likes to work only. He often locked the door to his office he didn't have introducing to anybody he was sort of in a way quite obstructive he certainly didn't want to collaboration stories or with contacts or ideas. Boris Johnson started out in journalism at the Times newspaper but he was sacked for making up quotes in Brussels he was taken on by a competitor paper. He has a knack of spotting a gap in the market and began churning out stories poking fun at the European Union and he rapidly became the European skeptic sweetheart. Snails of fish says. He never wrote stories that was an outright completely false as far as I know but what I did see was that he would take a germ of truth and then stretch it stretch it stretch it to a point where it kind of didn't really remember the truth any more Brussels recruits sniffers to ensure that you're a man you're smells the same threat to British pink sausages. On the B.B.C.'s Desert Island Discs Boris Johnson was asked about those stories it really I wrote from Brussels I thought I was going to I was just chucking these rocks over the garden like this and this in me using crash from a greenhouse next door over everything and as I wrote from Brussels we're having this amazing explosive effect and it really gave me this I suppose. Rather weird sense of power how will a man who has a taste for power a liking for solitude and a flexible relationship with the truth get along as prime minister. And then there's the question of his temperament he has something that became known as the 4 o'clock Grant and he himself has needed to listen how on one occasion he pressed so hard on a pirate that he drew blood from his palm and this was when he was keeping himself up to writing stories is a brilliantly crafted invectives if you like to get the European Union and he had to get himself into a certain sort of fired up state and it was an extraordinary thing I mean I was in the office next door I would have to put the phone down he would shout abuse as an innocent young plant on his desk. It wasn't only the Yucca plant that took the heat the episode I suppose the shocked me most was when Marina he just married her when she was heavily pregnant with their 1st child was in labor and called me in the office saying some distress she couldn't get hold of of Boris and would I try and find him Sonia did everything she could to find him she resorted to phoning the London desk at The Telegraph and also them if they knew where he was finally he was found the next time I saw him which is a day or 2 later I thought you know whose joyous news daughter being on is all wonderful I've never seen anyone more fear yes in my life to the point of it being really quite intimidating he was absolutely incandescent with me. It may have been because he's so sensitive about his private life that he flew off the handle but Sonya would never be sure because she never asked and never mentioned the incident again it wasn't something I that I felt able to raise ago. And or willing to raise again because I would do anything to avoid risking another outburst like that I don't ever see that again but that tendency to lose it to the point of being intimidating for no clear reason she says is a worrying trait for a future prime minister personally I've seen Boris Johnson have a bit of a hissy fit when I was following him on the campaign trail but then again many politicians can show a flash of anger or have a temper tantrum so no though has other misgivings about Boris Johnson suitability to be Prime Minister I think in many ways he's a workaholic my issue with him though all that workaholism. What's the end cause how does it benefit anyone ever except for some self so the idea of him becoming prime minister what for if Boris Johnson becomes the U.K.'s prime minister does he have a clear ideology. Part 3 all about me. I met portions in for a drink to ask his advice you know run through a few ideas I had There's one particular metaphor I was playing with about the Tory party that we discussed offered expert witness is the Times journalist Rachel Sylvester and then Sally to my surprise the next day he wrote the column that I had discussed with him using this metaphor which I'd thought spent ages thinking about the day before I was able to do it in my own column Rachel Sylvester says that Boris Johnson is an opportunist and she seemed that kind of behavior repeat itself on a larger scale it's career before principle can you talk me through one example of a policy that he has sort of slightly changed over time for whatever reason Immigration is a really good example because when he was London mare he was very liberal on immigration he talked a lot about his Turkish heritage have proud he was of that but then when it came to the e.u. Referendum he was joining the campaign that was very hostile to immigration and talked about Turks coming into the u.k. And it was using an issue really for his own purposes then again when he became foreign secretary he reportedly told a group of ambassadors that he was very pro free movement and very relaxed about it which wasn't government policy so I think probably it sounds like an instinct all quite liberal on it but he's not afraid or ashamed of putting on different ideological clothes when it suits the audience I'm not sure why he's in politics apart from the power so he famously said as a child his ambition was to become world king and his whole life has been on this trajectory of getting to number 10 Rachel Sylvester says. It's a worrying sign that when it comes to policy he flips and he flops with such ease and frequency and then those bricks it. Cannot be reported I like what they come out and say something in 2016 Britain was gearing up for the referendum asking whether the u.k. Should leave the European Union you might have thought that after all those stories he penned from Brussels Boris Johnson would know which side he was on but. I'm I built up a great deal of how to I don't think there's anything else I could do I would be advocating. Leave or whatever later it emerged that he'd written 2 articles before he made that announcement one supporting bricks it the other in favor of remain and he said he wanted to run through the arguments trying work out in his own mind which side he was on but actually it's such a defining issue and most people know instinctively which side they are arm and you just wonder was he really working out with a resume in favor of Bracks at all was he working out which was the best political position for him to take how would it work out than this this man who doesn't have the clear ideology or beliefs in his politics how does that play out do you think when he is actually or could become prime minister when he sees himself more as a sort of Chairman figure I think he's going to be setting the direction the public mood you know standing up for the nation abroad you know representing Britain in photo opportunities but the problem is if there's a vacuum at the top about the direction of government then that leaves space for all his cabinet ministers to try and fill that vacuum. So you can really see tensions developing between different departments in different ministers. If he does become prime minister Rachel Sylvester says he will already have one eye on his political legacy his political hero is Winston Churchill he wrote a biography of Churchill and he'd love to be seen as this great national wartime hero who saved the country restored national pride and he is facing another national crisis but the problem is not enough just to have hope for a good outcome he you have to actually deliver it to make decisions and Churchill did that and I'm not sure Boris Johnson has the same level of principles. In. Part 4. Of the people. Time far off final expert witness. Hello hello. Who has a lot more faith in the type of Prime Minister Boris Johnson would make. We catch our next expert witness on the Boris Johnson campaign trail by phone in the northwest of England it's a bit of a dodgy connection. I I don't know you weren't answering I thought that we had James cleverly is a current Breck said Minister but when Boris Johnson was mare of London he was one of the assembly members he can tell us about Boris Johnson the leader he was chatting with people in a community center and it was clear that he was just very comfortable during gauged and they were really really keen to chat with him but that was my 1st image of him when Boris Johnson won the London Merril election in 2008 it confounded some of his critics who did written him off as the joke candidate he proved them wrong therefore officially declare Boris Johnson to be elected as the next mayor of London. And I hope that everybody who loves this city will put aside party differences to join in the making of Greater London greater still let's get cracking tomorrow let's have a drink tonight but his opponent the outgoing mayor Labor's Ken Livingston hadn't underestimated him always makes people feel good about themselves it's incredibly powerful force that in politics not many people got that he therefore can get away with a lot and he was proved right Boris Johnson went on to win a 2nd term. So what was his leadership style the mayor's office had a big table it was around which the team sat and what Bob Morris who would do was he was his or the head of able or leaning back in his chair there'd be a tour of the room in terms of people expressing their views their opinions their ideas and he would often hear sit quietly listening it shows that Boris Johnson is willing to let staff take the lead when asked on the campaign trail what skills he had to lead the country he said he would govern the. As the head of a strong team that's his style which is to to trust the people his appointed to do the job that he's appointed them to. And you're not trying to micromanage but thank you very clear that he expects things to be delivered but critics say Boris Johnson's lack of attention to detail can have very serious consequences that was shown most clearly in 2017 when his foreign secretary he said that now as an inside Gary wracked with a British rainy and woman jailed in Tehran for alleged spying was teaching journalism her family have always insisted she was there on holiday visiting family his comments were seized on by the Iranians and 4 days later she was backing caught in Iran. Some commentators have speculated that Boris Johnson will rule like a cane and his cautious will vie for his attention but James cleverly sees it differently he's wrong likely to be more the captain of the rugby team actually on the pitch rather than just shouting orders from the from the sidelines. More 1st among equals rather than presidential. James cleverly says that his stint as London mayor has proved he has the credentials to be an effective leader when you are a leader whether it's at city hall or in number 10 you have to be willing to make decisions difficult decisions you work hard to make sure you make those decisions well and they're well implemented but I won't all be fantastic they won't all be brilliant but better to make decisions and actually the time that he was mayor of London the big decisions the big judgment calls in terms of delivering the Olympics in terms of cutting crime in terms of building houses the really big judgment calls he got those right. So what kind of Prime Minister will Boris Johnson be. His style will most likely be a mixture of all the versions we've heard about in this inquiry the comic caricature of the ruthless opportunist the good listener the team builder. But Hill most probably be preoccupied with working out how he can hold on to the crown that he spent his whole life fighting for. This edition of the enquiry was presented by Becky Milligan the producer was Sally Abrahams and the editor was Richard. You're listening to the b.b.c. World Service home of the world's news room I'm new McGovern presenter of b.b.c. O. S. Which comes to you live every weekday from our news room in London I'm surrounded by hundreds of journalists that are working on all different stories always various expertise in different parts of the globe and you can very much feel the energy particularly if a story is breaking interesting that it's been really a lot of coverage Greece has had been circulating I think the thing that is most shocking is when I suspect of the show that I feel is unique and probably contributes to a different sound is that you the listener is very much involved on him in the form of moderate people c o s My name is this is a meaningful connections very exciting to be at the heart of where news is breaking and developing b.b.c. Away at b.b.c. World Service dot com slash away. I had on the b.b.c. World Service at Boston calling with me Marco Werman In Nigeria it was legal to own a slave until 1916 and today the descendants of slaves still face discrimination it's clearly a taboo topic people ashamed of it it's something they hide now author Adobe Trishala Bonnie is writing about the descendants of Nigeria's slaves but it's not something people want to talk about they're people I've known all my life who I know a descendant of slaves and we've never discussed it on Boston calling after the news b.b.c. News with. The meter of Hong Kong has strongly condemned anti-government protesters for an attack on China's main representative office in the city county Lamb said the targeting of the office was a challenge to national sovereignty the Beijing government has also responded angrily at the same time over 40 anti-government protesters were injured by an unidentified gang who stormed a train station the party of the new anti-corruption Ukrainian president the former comedy actor and then ski is set for a decisive victory in parliamentary elections consolidating his political power the b.b.c. Correspondent in Kiev says that would be an astonishing achievement for a party that was only registered last year Iran says it has arrest is 17 spies who were working for the CIA and sentenced some of them to death intelligence ministries said the suspects have been collecting information in vital sectors including military and nuclear areas of activity voting is due to close later today in Britain and the Conservative Party leadership contest that will decide who becomes the country's next prime minister the results are due to be announced on Tuesday there are reports from Somalia of a car bomb exploding at her checkpoint near the airport in the capital Mogadishu a loud explosion was followed by gunfire. The president of the Philippines Rodriguez deter Tate is about to give his annual State of the Nation speech in which he's expected to stress that his controversial war on drugs is making people feel safer Israeli security forces have begun destroying homes in the Palestinian village of Seward by her close to Israel separation barrier Israel says the buildings pose a security risk and 4 people have been beaten to death in eastern India after being accused of practicing witchcraft and black magic the victims all aged between 60 and 65 were dragged from their homes by a mob of masked men b.b.c. News. Hello from Boston I'm Marco Werman and this is Boston calling from the b.b.c. It's a program as you know that puts a global perspective on the American experience great to be with you as always this week let's talk right now we're not even giving a fair chance for people to tell their stories it's clearly a taboo topic people ashamed of it it's something they hide it's a metaphor it's a very poetic metaphor it speaks to the heart at a certain point we just need to put it all out there on the table let's be blunt let's be direct and yeah let's talk about the legacy of slavery in Nigeria so called reeducation camps for wiggers in China and yes the immigration debate here in the u.s. That's where we'll start our program today there are upwards of 10000000 unauthorized immigrants living in America we often use the term undocumented and if you're undocumented here in the u.s. The sight of a van driving through your neighborhood bearing the logo of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ice can give you a jolt students at a high school in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis know that feeling almost all the students of the small charter school are Latino or of indigenous descent and many have family who are undocumented the trumpet ministration has been promising a wave of raids to round up undocumented immigrants and Norma Garces executive director says her students are scared this a lot of fear in the community and concern and they are known so we have meetings where we prepare the families to what could happen we bring lawyers they hear from their right sources about how to be prepared real tangible things that are going to help them to be prepared for anything in the past when these headlines have popped up possible raids I mean what kind of advice do you give your students do you give the staff we have a farm like a checklist they put an older documents ready in a box so that the kits know like there's where the passports are this is where you're very. Certificates are this is your vaccinations this is your bank accounts because I'm a high school so a lot of the kids might be responsible for their siblings if their parents would be picked up so if the parents were picked up then the kids are suddenly I mean that they have the materials they need but boy that's really tough because they're still kids right and suddenly they have rushed into adulthood How do you get them ready for that they have to talk about it I have family members and I documented and I talk about it with my students have you ever been concerned that there might be a possibility that the alcohol or here school itself would be rated ice will park a couple blocks from here and the kids were no because they will get off the bus and they will walk to school petrified because they so when they were good enough the bus when we talked to the politicians they said that they were looking for someone there so that's why they stopped right there at their schools that were nearby will call each other and we'll let each other know where ice was but what we had to do with the students was that if I as was nearby we blow a whistle in the playground and the kids will come in no questions asked and it happened twice while what we had to do that is that still a concern they can come into a school and arrest a student because they're already doing so we don't know if they will show up. I mean that's got to be really tough for the kids to see you know ice patrol cars on their way to school when you brought those immigration attorneys to the school to talk to students about their rights how did that go akin to what kind of questions of the students ask they're very concerned for their parents they're very concerned for their aunts and uncles who don't have documents they might have an older brother that is not documented and everybody else is citizens so everybody has somebody so they were asking a lot of questions about that why did they go back what it what if you have a green card will you be deported or what if you get detained as a citizen they're very concerned that they will get confused how would they prove that they're citizens and what about your staff Norma I mean they're the ones who have to come for the kids how are they feeling well we have to be there for the kids right and in here we're all helping each other and my staff knows what to say where in a community that we're safe that we have created that more intentionally in the last 2 years these rate announcements the White House announced one a few weeks ago and then President met some resistance and said they'd be postponed due the on again off again announcements impact students at your school of course you could see like the on site and the kids you can see everybody on their phone texting their friends like I'm Ok but I was in the corner all we needed was one person to put 2 blocks from a call if you know if I'm a parent of color here I'm going to be worried do you have a particular story about a student who is worried about all this maybe even worried about deportation or being separated from their family and I only have a green card and my son who's a u.s. Citizen worries about it and gets inside of I like Mom would they take you and because of their job that you do they come in. And I will be the one dealing with eyes outside so would I be arrested because I'm drifting to take one of my students so she worries about that what do you tell him that I'll be Ok. That we have a lot of communities that a lot of communities that will back us up and that will not let me you know take away but if they take me away in 24 hours I'll be in Mexico probably And she'll join me in your heart of hearts do you believe that but you will be Ok. In my heart of hearts I think it might be a bigger deal. Because I'm a principal and I'm putting everything on the line. Norma we're thinking about you know your students there at the end of high school and many Thank you thank you so much Norma Garces heads l. Called to heal High School in Minneapolis she mentioned that the school has increased its vigilance over the past couple of years but if you think that immigrant crackdowns are recent thing or even a Trump thing think again we are a nation of immigrants but we are also a nation that loves to debate immigration policy and that's been true since day one that's Bill hang a law professor at the University of San Francisco he spent decades working on immigration and he spoke recently with our own Monica Campbell Bill Hing recently went through history and recent presidents to look at immigration and he began with President Jimmy Carter in one critical moment we midnight a noon today 23 boats filled with over 800 Cubans reach Key West Florida Jimmy Carter gave a speech near the end of his administration welcoming refugees to the United States and Fidel Castro actually took him at heart and released many people from Cuban prisons and from mental institutions and put them on flotillas the Carter administration did accept most of those Cubans into United States some of the criminals he put in jail dictatorships and civil wars also triggered mass migration from Central America in the eighty's during Ronald Reagan's presidency at 1st Reagan denied asylum to many of the migrants but at the same time that they were denying asylum to Guatemalans and Salvadorans Ronald Reagan went ahead and sign Urco Immigration Reform and Control Act It did grant amnesty to about $3000000.00 undocumented immigrants and so President Reagan recognized that undocumented immigrants actually benefit the United States the border itself the infrastructure around it was also far different than the border in the 1900. Eighty's it wasn't militarized It wasn't until the Clinton administration when Operation gate keeper is implemented it is wrong and automatically self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years and we must do more to stop it they close off the border and the easiest places to cross and they put up double triple fencing and they began to use high technology with infrared body heat sensors Bill Clinton actually lays the groundwork for what we have today Fast forward to George w. Bush the creation of Homeland Security and in 2003 the creation of ice Immigration and Customs Enforcement we have a responsibility to enforce our laws we have a responsibility to secure our borders they passed the Fence Act in 2006 and I might add that 2 prominent Democratic senators voted for the Fence Act Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama they actually both voted for this bill that would have built a fence all along the southern border just never got fully funded and that's obviously laid the groundwork for Mr Trump's rhetoric on building a wall if we can imagine trying reaching into a tool box when it comes to immigration what are some of the tools that he's reaching for right now the one tool that Barack Obama unnecessarily used that Mr Trump has taken full advantage of is the detention of family court judges or the release of thousands of women and children from immigrant attention centers in Pennsylvania and Texas President Obama admitted all along that he was being tough on immigration enforcement in order to bring Republicans to the bargaining table there are more Border Patrol agents and surveillance resources on the ground than at any time in our history. And we deport almost $400000.00 migrants each year after a certain point I'm not believing entirely his argument that he was being tough to bring Republicans to the bargaining table I wonder if President Obama just had a similar sentiment toward the border and toward undocumented immigrants but it's something that he's never fully addressed since leaving office what would be your recommendation for attending to hundreds of thousands of people coming to the u.s. Over the course of this year. What I would recommend as we exercise the humanitarian nature that is in all of us I would hope I'm not expecting that every person who comes the United States be granted asylum or protection they should be afforded due process but right now we're not even giving a fair chance for people to tell their stories that's Professor Bill Hing from the University of San Francisco speaking with Monika Campbell and you're listening to Boston calling on the b.b.c. World Service with me Marco Werman giving a fair chance for people to tell their stories that's a big part of what we try to do here on Boston calling no matter where people come from no matter their immigrant status now over the years I've spoken with countless people who have immigrated to the u.s. And so often I meet immigrants who are overqualified for the jobs they do here this isn't just anecdotal there are several studies that back this up this summer in New York the Brooklyn public library has been trying to reverse that process by offering a unique learning experience through a program called University open air Alina Simone signed up for class like most of New York City Prospect Park in Brooklyn is often packed but the Rose Garden a grassy hollow built around 2 old fountains isn't a waste this today however it's walled off by a thick patchwork cloth thread of between large posts to get inside you're forced to double back several times since people get frustrated and just start ducking under the barrier Welcome to America it's a metaphor it's a very poetic metaphor it speaks to the heart Yakob horses as with university open air free classes on hot button topics like intersex activism and the immigrant caravans from Central America topped by experts meaning professors immigrants who came here pretty much giving up their and tired of life and career and most of the . Have you ever had the opportunity to teach their subject for Jaco himself an immigrant from Hungary the idea was inspired by an experience the milieu to just anyone who's ever been a tourist you see through a cab it turns out that your driver is a poet for your server at the restaurant he's a scientist from another quarter of dessert but as a classroom a taxi turns out to have a lot of advantages in the open field the tents are set up to block the summer sun with a couple dozen fold up chairs a seating and everyone thank you all for joining us so we have here Kendrick and I'm sorry I missed your last name incorrectly Jennifer Kendrick demist bar is here to talk about the history and conservation of science to see palace the only UNESCO world heritage site in his native country of Haiti damage far came to the u.s. After earning a Ph d. In cultural anthropology looking for a job at a university that was 5 years ago and he feels like I'm still in a transitional period as a teacher I need to continue to teach because it's my real cation so nowadays I'm a substitute teacher working mostly in charter school for elementary and high school students but them aspire never stop looking for opportunities to get back to doing what he loves and that's meant looking beyond Linked In when I realized the vent was taking place here I thought he was like an opportunity also to network with a lot of people in the same field if you have a problem with my headaches and you can stop me I'm going to be seeing you on the other side of the park not here Bokhari a journalist originally from Pakistan is here to talk about the origin of Islam she feels like Americans views of Islam have been distorted by coverage of radical clerics and terrorists and she has another mission to eradicate the word Islamophobia So the to some a phobia I don't know who created this lawyer because of word some a phobia if. I'm in peace so if you are going to just read this word it is severe drug solution like be useful be a who who says peaceful Bia The library is trying to spread the message about peace phobia but also the need for jobs by bringing people from local universities and teacher training colleges to sit in an open air lectures or so says they are planning a winter semester this time indoors the help wanted sign is staying up recently Yakob says he interviewed an immigrant from Russia now working as a baker who wants to teach philosophy but he came to the interview he's hands for all though. And we immediately in 10 minutes we were talking about subjects like seriously last August subject and having a bakery explaining retakes hands gesticulating he just put the entire saying in different perspective. Capping off that story from Alina Simone one the smart Baker there and you know who else is smart Yeah boss I'm calling listeners that's who listeners like Kiki in Japan who emailed us to say I listen to Boston calling before I go to University thank you for letting me know about waste problems in Southeast Asia I recently started a program to reduce waste in my dormitory hoping to improve the situation Wow thanks and best of luck to you and your program I told your boss I'm calling listeners are smart and Lyndon and he wrote to us from what he calls the pretty Scottish Borders town of hoick a mostly listen on Sunday mornings with my 1st cup of tea of the day he says I very much appreciate the program as it gives me points of reference for conversation with friends living in the USA Thank you Lyndon good to know we are with you even when we're not on air and thank you dear listeners for all the sweet e-mails that you've been sending please keep them coming tell us where you're listening from and share your thoughts we're at Boston calling at b.b.c. Dot c o u k That's Boston calling one word at b.b.c. Dot co dot u.k. . All right on this let's talk edition of Boston calling there's another difficult subject to broach slavery and its legacy today throughout the world and here in the u.s. Slave meant rain for 250 years on these shores when it ended this country could have extended its hollow principles life liberty and the pursuit of happiness all we got lots of color. But America had other principles in mind that was award winning author Tallahassee cotes speaking at a congressional hearing last month about the debate over reparations for descendants of former slaves this debate is not just happening here in the u.s. In Nigeria it was legal to own a slave until 1918 and today the descendants of slaves there still face discrimination and even shaming when it comes to getting a job getting married or becoming a village leader but slowly things are starting to change Adobe Trishala Bonnie's latest dispatch for The New Yorker magazine is about the descendants of Nigeria's slaves and their fight for equality it's clearly a taboo topic people ashamed of it it's something they hide their people I've known all my life who I know a descendant of slaves and it's we've never discussed it but in the course of writing the story I forced myself to talk about it with some people and for them it was the 1st time in their lives someone who wasn't a member of their families was discussing with them a number of people just said no I can't even discuss this I can't you know and even people who agree to speak with me some would whisper that the entire time it may not be spoken about openly but everybody knows who they are it's talked about behind their backs and people are caution though you can't marry that person remember he's you know the Senate of the sleeve so these are things that I whispered about and I've heard these things all my life as you researched your story you interviewed a lot of slave descendants and their advocates introduced as if you were to get a quote Ma Diao go and tell us about the group she founded Well digital model is a young woman in her forty's in 2017 a close friend of hers was prevented from marrying Asli descent and she saw how devastated her friend felt and from then she decided that she was going to do something to bring an end to the discrimination against slave descendants and today mother who travels around Nigeria to try to convince traditional rulers to remake the rules for slave descendants the traditional powers of the I guess are often baffled by her efforts to shake up the so. Right they are baffled but they listen to her some of them feel well we'll see how far we can go some say yes we're going to take definite steps and a lot of them a lot of the traditional rulers these days are well educated so they understand you describe how much you are goes to a town called or borrow where the descendants of slaves have had a very rough time and the traditional leaders of the town suggest the slave descendants pay the families who once own their ancestors $80.00 each to end discrimination it's like reparations in bizarro world how does that idea go over this thing else these African solutions for African problems this is a specific issue that has to be dealt with in the way that the people in this part of the world will understand it they're not painted by their freedom I mean they just say it took an amount of evil is a highly spiritual people that economically relieving this group of yes the ethnic evil group very spiritual people Africans generally spiritual people Nigerians very spiritual the people believe in a realm beyond the physical Now the reasoning is that money changed hands you know before one became a slave and the forces that took possession of a human being and perpetrate what we now describe as oppression into these world hunger into that exchange that transaction and so if you want to send back those forces you need some transaction as well for there has to be something for them to to send back of those forces so clearly that some people who have to pay that money can't be happy about this. Well some are and but then they're the the minority believe it or not really and the majority at all they are the majority just wanted to end they wanted to be nation to end so this is strictly an African solution for an African problem and I question so too do people who don't need to get outraged and begin to see how can slaves pay for themselves because it's not about a payment it's about the understanding of the people and something that will work for the culture we're dealing with it is a fascinating look at just what slavery has been in Nigeria what does it all mean to you today Adobe because this is clearly a story that's still evolving I listen to the stories of the sle descendants many of them people you know like me and people that are well educated people that were wealthy people that you know they could have been anything in life and they did tell you their experiences and how their lineage has been such a handicap and it was just so painful to me to realize that the mare fact that someone's great great good good good grandfather was owned by somebody else has money to him that's somebody's life that for me was the part that I found so horrifying so emotional and I thought my goodness this has to end and I'm just hoping that the story will lead to a process of deep soul searching and amongst the evil people of southeastern Nigeria and I hope also that it will encourage more sleep descendants to openly declare themselves yes I am yes I was whatever and then you know bring this issue out into the light and hopefully we can all squash it together finally writer editor Obama speaking with us from Nigeria's capital Abuja thanks so much for being with us thank you. Starting a conversation around a difficult subject like slavery is far from easy we see it here in the us as we struggle to address the legacies of our own history but for some people the pain of being wronged is not rooted in the past it's here and now for years China has been targeting Muslim citizens with surveillance and persecution it's believed to be detaining up to a 1000000 wiggers and other Muslim ethnic minorities in the Far West Region of junk but you don't need to travel far from our Boston calling studio to meet a family deeply affected by that a week or family whose members pledge Injun and now own a restaurant specializing in their own cuisine and a customer want to meet them Monday morning is the slowest time of the week at Silk Road in Cambridge the chefs prep in the back sharpening knives and making the dough for their signature hand pull the noodles and deal a severe open the restaurant in 2017 with her brother in law not many people know about doing this you know so we want to present our culture. Because in here we go as are a mostly Muslim ethnic minority from machine John in northwestern China but their culture and cuisine is closer to central Asia lots of rice pilaf and lamb when Silk Road open disappears says most people who came in didn't know much about weekers now they're asking a lot of questions for the couple constantly just of us my family. My stuff kind of thing so the banks clearly have severe is 27 she's here in the u.s. With her mom younger brother and sister but her father is back in changing He's among the 1000000 weekers believed to be imprisoned in what China calls a reeducation camps they are cut off from their families not allowed to speak their language or practice Islam 30 years father has been detained since June the last time she heard from him was in November in the beginning of the missing I didn't. Speak and think I was just made my partner get felt like in one month or 2 months I made a mint I read in December she stopped waiting and went public she started posting on Facebook in Mandarin with the hash tag me to weaker my posts to be give up exchange online and social media like Facebook and speak of when I ask if she worries this might put her father in danger she says he's already in danger she says sometimes people respond to her posts with pictures of their own family members who are being held in camps city or says when she comes to work at the restaurant she avoids talking politics she estimates around 60 percent of our clientele are Chinese mostly local students she says she doesn't talk to them about what's happening back home and they don't ask. The only non we're working at Silk Road is Jackie limit said the best friend who works in the kitchen American born Chinese East Lynne grew up outside of Boston and spent years working in local restaurants before I worked there I'd never heard of there but that after I worked there like that came with family. Lynn says he feels terrible about what's said here and her family are going through and he supports them and city his mom has taught lamb some fundamentals of weaker cooking like hand pulling noodles so just like that though we just let it show let it sit and then we have to handle it when the noodles are done the chef fried them in a big walk with vegetables lamb and a dozen spices and sauces. Severe has lived in the Boston area for almost 10 years but she still refers to shin Jiang as home she wants more people to know what's happening there if I didn't do anything I'm feel I will fail or I shouldn't fight for my father and so dear says she knows speaking to me a reporter could put her and her family in danger but she's done being quiet and a customer reporting there. And we are done for this let's talk edition of Boston calling you all can keep on talking if you want to hear us talk more catch up with us any time at b.b.c. World Service dot com slash Boston calling or download our podcast where ever you find b.b.c. Podcasts buzzing calling it produce a w g.b.h. In Boston in partnership with p.r.i. N.p.r. X. For me Marco Werman and the rest of our team until next time have a great week this is the b.b.c. World Service space travel is developing at a rapid rate bringing our lives closer than ever to outer space NASA has landed on Mars and space tourism is becoming a real possibility I'm Kevin thrown in this new age of astronautical engineering I'll be joined by 3 of the world's greatest spaceflight engineers to ask what is the future of space exploration the engineers space flight engineering at b.b.c. World Service dot com. And it's. The conversation with him check in it so an American woman who gave birth to 60 plants talks to a South African single mother of one to please about joys and challenges as multiple mother What's it like traveling 46 babies at once next it's world updates on the b.b.c. World Service the world's media station. It's 10 o'clock in London 5 in Washington 12 in Nairobi I'm Julian Marshall with world update from the b.b.c. Amid rising tensions in the Gulf Iranian authorities say they have arrested 17 CIA affiliated spies sentencing some of them to death anti-government demonstrators in Hong Kong are being attacked by an armed gang leaving dozens injured. Woman being attacked and the police who are just turning a blind eye on them and possibly cooperating with them but are arresting anyone in Ukraine the country's newly elected president looks set for a decisive victory in parliamentary elections and Puerto Rico's governor has announced he won't seek reelection after weeks of mass protests of a circle despite everything I recognize that apologizing is not enough in the face of the scenario I am announcing that I will not seek reelection as governor next year but after the latest world news. Hello I'm Eileen McKee with the b.b.c. News leader of Hong Kong Kerry Lam has had an attack on China's liaison office in the Territory on Sunday to challenge the nation's sovereignty activists through black paint on the Chinese national emblem above the offices main door during a protest Muslim condemn the violence we absolutely do not condone that sort of violent acts and I mean that mean made us fear again violence is not a solution to any problem violence will only breed more violence and at the end of the day the whole of Hong Kong and the people will suffer as a result of the loss of law and order in Hong Kong protests began 2 months ago over plans to change the territories extradition rules on the home police have defended their actions following criticism that they failed to protect pro-democracy activists who were attacked by unidentified assailants dozens were injured when a group of men wearing white t. Shirts and wielding sticks beat up protestors as they returned home from a rally police chief Steven knows said the authorities had taken time to respond because officers had to be deployed from other districts the party of the new cranium president for DIMIA Zelinsky is set for a decisive victory in parliamentary elections consolidating his political power nearly half of the ballots of being counted and the party servant of the people has more than 42 percent of the vote Steve Rosenberg is in Kiev we don't have all the numbers yet we still crunching them but we knew yesterday that 7 of the people had done well this morning it emerges that it's done even better than we thought because latest projections suggest that it may have secured an absolute majority there's no confirmation of that but if that's the case then that would be absolutely astonishing because this party was only registered last year it's come from nowhere rather like the. President himself coming from nowhere rising to the presidency so it will be incredible if one party has emerged with an absolute majority Iran says it has arrested 17 spies who were working for the CIA and sentenced some of them to death the u.s. Is yet to respond to the reports Alan Johnston reports those detained were all a rainy and nationals according to the intelligence ministry in Tehran they've been collecting information in vital sectors including military and nuclear areas of activity the u.s. Is yet to respond to the reports but they come at a time of escalating tension between Washington and Tehran President Trump last year abandon the international nuclear deal with the Iranians and the u.s. Has imposed sweeping economic sanctions on them in recent weeks the 2 sides have come close to military conflict in the Gulf Alan Johnston reporting world news from the b.b.c. The president of the Philippines Rodriguez deter tales about to give his annual State of the Nation speech in which he's expected to stress that his controversial war on drugs is making people feel safer halfway through his 6 year term Police say they've killed some 6000 drug dealers human rights groups say more than 20000 people have died many of them innocent victims who in some cases have been deliberately framed by officers the French government spokeswoman side with my g.i. Has described comments about her by a French member of the European Parliament as clearly racist the conservative m.e.p. And Nadine Marano published a tweet on Friday decrying what she did.