Pointed the pope said the recent Amazon fires were worldly phenomena he said they were fueled by profit and by those who sought to promote only their own ideas attempting to wipe out difference he implied they devoured peoples and cultures words that would have resonated with them as an indigenous representatives gathered for the Synod many will see his words as a rebuke of the Brazilian president. A climate change skeptic who's promoted economic development over environmental or indigenous rights Hong Kong police have used baton charges in tear gas to break up peaceful demonstrations by thousands of masked pro-democracy protesters opposition legislated failed in their latest legal attempt to overturn a government ban on face coverings Robin Prentice in Hong Kong. Their aim was to make their contempt for the emergency law banning face masks they marched in their tens of thousands almost all of them wearing something to cover their face police watched as protesters me peacefully chanting Hong Kong resist as they walk through the heart of the city but after a few hours of disruption officers moved in to end it to gas canisters were fired on the crowd from police a walkway bridges above video showing small groups being targeted by charging offices on the ground as Iraqis in Baghdad hold funerals for the latest protesters killed in clashes with the security forces the government has issued a series of planned reforms intended to diffuse the growing crisis promising learned distribution and increased welfare payments for poor families Jeremy Bowen reports the prime minister addle abnormality has so far offered little more than vague promises and an appeal for calm perhaps it's surprising that it's taken so long for demonstrators to go onto the streets Iraq has the world's 4th biggest oil reserves it should be rich but it's also one of. The most corrupt countries in the world decades of war have inflicted terrible damage on Iraq and its people and employment is high the World Bank estimated that 22 percent of Iraqis lived on less than 2 u.s. Dollars a day North Korea has cast further doubt on the future of its denuclearization talks with u.s. Officials the Americans had proposed a further meeting in 2 weeks' time but the foreign ministry n.p.r. Niang said it didn't expect Washington to come up with satisfactory proposals by then. World news from the b.b.c. Officials in central Afghanistan say Taliban militants have released more than 40 civilians abducted in Gaza a province they said the villagers were released after the local tribal elders negotiated with the insurgents reports said local people had clashed with the Taliban when the militants warned them not to vote in the presidential poll late last month police in Kansas City say 4 people have been killed in a shooting in a bar in the early hours of Sunday morning 5 others are reported to have been injured their condition is described as stable reports suggest they had only been one gunman. You know for what is in the Indian state of money poor have imposed a temporary ban on air guns in a district to protect move folk and which migrate through the region thousands of birds are either trapped or killed every year and sold in local markets is under a sun in Toronto residents in the district of thumbing long in money port state have been ordered not to shoot the birds would spend several weeks in North East India feeding on termites before continuing the long journey between Siberia and Africa the ban on agonise will remain in force till the end of November from Northeast India the Falcons fly nonstop for 5 to 6 days to the next stop over in Somalia in recent years local governments have initiated a number of steps on Falcon conservation in Nagaland state a weeklong festival is organized in November every year to celebrate the arrival of the birds which attracts tourists the British drama and co-founder of the rock band cream Ginger Baker has died at the age of 80 nicknamed Ginger for his flaming red hair the musician was born Peter Edward Baker in south London in the 1960 s. He began his career in the city's burgeoning blues scene cream the band he formed with Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton became one of rock's 1st super groups they fused blues and psychedelia b.b.c. News. Hello this is the b.b.c. World Service I'm Harry Gilbert welcome to World Book Club Well this month we've been reading a memoir a son's account of his father's life and murder in 1907 by rightwing Colombian paramilitaries praised by a galaxy of writers from Fatima Bhutto who described it as a treasure and a heartbreak to read the Mario Vargas your son Javier sack us the book is called Oblivion and here to answer questions about it from an invited audience and b.b.c. Listeners around the world is its internationally award winning author the Colombian novelist and journalist ect or about. Act or a big welcome to World Book Club Oh thank you for the invitation I am so happy about being here with you we're very happy you accepted it as well as being a writer journalist and author I gather you started a publishing house dimity in a few years ago why on earth did you do that did you not have enough to do well it was an old dream I had since I was young and 3 years ago with my wife who is here alter we decided to put to this dream in the real world and there we are publishing young very young authors many times the 1st book the 1st novel The 1st poetry book and very young people and we are happy with have we have these Anglos they're publishing house and goes there is is the title of one of my novels and we're very happy with the public got it sounds really exciting but today actor Robert you're here is a writer specifically is the author of oblivion a book of who's heart stuns Actos beloved and profoundly loving father a doctor and university professor actor about Sr had a radical theory of public health. Instead of focusing on medicine and surgery he believed the priority should be given to social changes to ensuring for instance that everyone had access to sufficient food and clean water and outspoken activist in a country aflame with political violence his life was always lived on the edge and one late August afternoon when he was 66 years old he was shot down in the doorway of the teachers' union headquarters in metal in. Oblivion which has now been translated into 12 languages is his son's phoned and poignant and often very funny memorial and we have a question from the world but club audience here Broadcasting House in London for actor about about Oblivion could have soon Ector Good afternoon Vince My name is and he said the Escala i was born in but that Columbia but they have live in many many years hearing the London my question to you is if you have said that or believe you took you 20 years to write why did you feel compelled to write it yes when I tried to rival book in the beginning in the 1st years of my father was killed I was so sad I was so confused I began crying. I couldn't I really couldn't I think you need to forget sometimes you need to forget you need years for getting the open wound you have in your in your body in your heart and everywhere and I understood that the wound was open when I tried to write. Then I tried to write it in a fictional way invented in an imaginary character that was not exactly my father he was changing in many ways he was not a doctor but I lawyer or something and then I was not satisfied either so almost 20 years after I began to write without without tears without that pain and I understood that I could now write the real story without fiction without tears without too sentimental wording too sentimental writing I need this tense and some dryness some yes this tense for writing it in a very calm way after about thank you very much for that and this is a strange question in a way because obviously the book Oblivion is a portrait of your father among other things but for somebody who hasn't read the book would you just sum up the kind of man your father was. He was a strange man for for the mountains from where I come from where we come because this mountain self Antiochian our heart also the men are very hard they treat usually children with a heart hand. But my father was a very sweet man and he was totally different from my grandfather prick sample who educated my father with strong manners he was heated by what you mean literally really hit him Yes yes literally that and instead of that my father was such a kind person in the house with my all my sister's 5 sisters and with me he never touched us he never he never used violence only words. And also outside he was a teacher very beloved by his students because he was more than teaching he was asking questions all the time he was taking them out to see jails to see poor neighborhoods to see the real diseases of poverty in Colombia so he was kind of her romantic person a romantic in his private life in family and not a romantic in his public life in in the university or in society. What would you like to read for us from your book from oblivion this is a passage which expresses very well I think your childhood feelings for your father their intensity. Yes I loved my father with an animal love I liked his smell and also the memory of his mail on the bed when he was away on a trip I would beg the maids and my mother not to change the sheets of the pillowcase I liked his voice I liked his hands his Ima Kool-Aid clothes and the meticulous clean linen as of his body. I felt for my father the same way my friend said they felt about their mothers when I was afraid during the night I would go to his bed and he would always make space for me i've his side to lie down he never said no to me my mother protested she said he was spoiling me but my father moved over to the edge of the mattress and that Misty I inhaled my father's scent put my arm around him stuck my thumb in my mouth and slept soundly until the sound of the horses' hooves and the jangling of the milk cart announced the dawn. I thought about thank you very much and another question from the World Book Club audience at my niece's 9 days I live in London you describe your father someone with a very relaxed approach to vice and children how unusual was his philosophy at that time in Colombia Well he was seen as a very strange peculiar man. He was they began to think he was a kind of a communist. I think they were for letting you sleep in the marital. And. Many people spoke about him in a very in very bad ways it was always a surprise for us because what are you thinking what are you saying about him because he defined himself as a Christian in religion as a Marxist in economy and a liberal in politics or he was he loved freedom he loved equality he loved justice and he treated everybody in family and outside with this very familiar very how to say very warm away and very happy way he was all the time laughing and celebrating life and beauty and everything but that this in some ways for some kind of people that was suspicious in term ways yes. But his philosophy was very open very open and as a father in particular. You know remarkably indulgent there are many fathers these days certainly in this country who would not be as. Kind as your father was to you . Yes but he was he was very kind he was not indulgent in some ways he was not indulgent when you don't understand this the poverty the sufferings of all the people when you don't have empathy in the primally he could be also very clear and very sharp in stopping you doing that kind of thing yes it's that's that's clear in the book that if you behave in a way that he thinks is unkind or just stupid towards other people his comes down firmly but he did let you when you decided you really didn't want to go off to school is Ok well then we'll wait another year if you don't want to go to school. Yeah that sounds lovely. I thought about we have a question for you now that was wrong in from Canada by so our charter Barney in Toronto and here she is to ask it hello Hector my name so I cheer up Bonnie I live in Toronto and Iraqi but I live in 2 I have been living in Toronto for me a long time I love your book so the question is this Fall Out Why did your father take only you I'm going to his wing and not your sister's it is very unfair and very steer typically match of seem. Surprising because at the same time he was such a gentle soul and fair minded. That that certainly comes across that your father you have 4 sisters 5 sisters Yeah and you know your father was considerably more concerned with you than with them yes that's that is true and that is sad anyway I want to say hello to Toronto because I'm McLean one of the translator of this book and she made a great work with this translation she is from Toronto and she's living there so hello and if you're hearing and yes the answer is in some ways my father couldn't be totally not a match or not I'm mighty stuff I mean with my with my sisters he was also so kind but he didn't educate them in a more intellectual way so he was a son of his age in some ways and he didn't care that for example. His beloved 1st child my lose my eldest sister didn't went to university and I wanted to marry before she ended even the high school for him probably this is a macho attitude university and working was not that important for women but my my mother was a very contrast to that because my mother she opened her own office and she educated all my sister in being much more realist eke than than I am much more strong than I am and I think they are happier than I am. Because I did I couldn't even speak at home because only the only the girls were speaking all the time so I think. My father saw that and probably he understood that my only way of communicating was writing so he helped me so very much in writing in studying in making a mind of an intellect or let's say that way and that's not always beautiful that's sometimes his is difficult and being a match it's also difficult I think my sisters are they complain a little bit about the situation but they love also the father their father they same as I love him. Probably they miss a little bit a little bit more of intellectual education by the book is real the book is the truth and yes he was a much Easter sometimes that's a pity I tried to change that with my daughter. That Thank you actor about thank you very much. Hello Hector I am Hassett Russian from London and my question is Why do you think your father would provoke such hostility from some of his university colleagues and from the authorities were probably because you have an amount of money and you can use that money for very modern hospitals and clinics and very modern buildings and everything or you can use that money for. A very basic things like water like. Boxing nations like how seeing minimal conditions of life and we live in Colombia in 2 worlds we are dreaming of a very developed country that has the best techniques in everything but we live also in a. Country that has many many problems with poverty and basic things that are not. Satisfied by by the state had he prepared the basic things and not the and not the 1st grade developed countries things so he was considered Ok you're all the time thinking about poor people he was conceived. Revolutionary because that. I thought about thank you very much for that and it would be good not to have a 2nd reading from oblivion which I should say is translated by a team and McLean and Rosalind of it the other translator Yes I want to say hello to Rosalie and also did a beautiful work also because she's British and for this edition the British some British war were very important right because they have the American edition and the British are the shut your very privileged to get to English language editions Yes that's not it was this reading in there in the British translation it's when your mother is trying to get to your mother this comes from a very religious family and she's trying to get you into a Jesuit school a religious school where she knows the rector and what becomes clear in the interview she and you go along to meet the rector and it becomes obvious that he Thorold disapproves of your father's antique Larry call views and in this passage is explaining his system he says he's got 3 filing draws where he puts applications to the school. I call this 1st one heaven and it is for the students who get in straight away my mother seen better than I did where things were headed said and I am sure we are not in there precisely then there is poor Toreador where we will put your son top occasion with these implications we must conduct a meticulous analysis of each child's family in order to determine whether or not he should be admitted whether perhaps there might be some sort of negative influence or even up an issues one from a moral or doctrinal point of view he stopped for a minute staring hard at my mother his eyes still wide open as if to show her the image there in his mind's eye of the bold doctor who are out so much anger throughout the city and finally we have the Hell joy which is for those who have not even the slightest hope of coming here sometimes they go straight in but sometimes they fall in a seafood by gravity from the purgatory above at this point my mother could take no more and with a distant smile she had she replied Oh Jorge you can put us a straight into the hell drawer because I'm going to go and find a place at some other school. And with Dart she took my hand as we turned and hurried out of the signing Naseer rectory without shaking hands were looking back at the face of the priest whom we never saw again at their other Thank you so much you are very lucky in both your parents I think your mother is a splendid woman she is yes she is 94 now and she has just published a book at cooking or a book that is recipes of my friends but Amigas Francis is feminine in the sky in this case in Spanish it's clear. I am Akane from London I found this book so fascinating and so moving the question I want to ask is in the book there seems to be a massive gulf in your family between your religious mother and her relatives and your father's pragmatic science based views and yet their marriage was clearly very very strong I wonder how much you felt that conflict during your childhood it was very interesting. My father was kind of an agnostic and my mother was and still is very Catholic and they discuss about religion about afterlife when you die and they were all the time laughing at each other laughing at the believes or not believes of the other one but when my father was fighting with his brother who's an op was they praise that is the right wing of the of the Catholic Church the fights were really hard but my mother is quite open she's quite open about everything she's not against abortion for example even if she's a Catholic. In some ways she's more liberal more open minded than my father I was educated in the UK Gnostic way from my father so when we had to go to the mass he used to turn me Ok Go to the mass everything is sell ice bath. Your mother will be very happy if you go to the church please go to the church and don't say anything and go to church and then they and then come back and I will explain you Darwin. Thank you very much indeed and another question for Dr up. A little Hector thank you very much my name is I mean I am a live in London. I was wondering because your memoir is clearly full cause so much on the father on your father figure and so on the father son relationship did do you miss anything from your relationship with your mother so did. Anything King may be in this mother son relationship could that be an explanation of why you got so close so much closer to your father. That's difficult Well I think when you are the 5th after 4 girls in a macho society My father was very happy so I think my mother problem the beginning understood that she needs to be very close to the girls and to make a kind of a compensation because in these marches aside to the boy the man was very important. That didn't change her love for me but that produces probably a more distant relationship my mother is a kind of a feminist in some ways she she always core us girls and I was included in the girls. In Spanish if there is one man you put the plural in in a masculine way but my mother didn't my mother put that in and that was very very good also for me. And what I feel is that I grew up loving women very much I feel so comfortable with women but the love in some ways the love the even the physical love came more from my father than from my mother and that was totally different from the Society way of dealing with love Ector about thank you very much indeed Well we've got lots more questions for you about Oblivion but 1st we need a quick pause for the news and to remind you that the archive of more than 180 World Book Club interviews you can access from our website back shortly the news after this. This is the b.b.c. World Service where each week for a big name musicians discuss what matters most to them making music the aim of the show is all about but now speaking to musicians from across the globe about how they make their music find you know all about their creative processes in getting to the bottom of why they do what they do do what they do they do what I do I would say that I have a weird relationship to making music in the 1st was because my self-worth is directly connected to the out here is hikes music satisfies me like nothing else and it just makes me so happy to get out my bed every day because it is really powerful and you know it's just such a beautiful way of articulating what's on your heart it's almost like a vehicle to be upset express myself through my subconscious and I as a listener kind of feel like we're all connected while we love music life at b.b.c. World Service dot com slash music life. Coming up with World Book Club with me Harriet Gilbert and this month we're talking with Colombian writer about about his memoir oblivion the book's a moving tribute to his father whose human rights campaigning led to his murder by paramilitaries in 1970 oblivion paints a picture of a remarkable man who followed his conscience and paid for it with his life during one of the darkest periods in Latin America's recent history that's World Book Club with. After the news b.b.c. News with Julie Candler Pope Francis has opened his sin out on the Amazon and it's communities with an attack on the interests that have started fires in the region he also urged the Roman Catholic judge not to be bound by the status quo when considering proposals that include setting aside rules on priestly celibacy to address a shortage of clerics in remote communities. Police in Hong Kong have made their 1st arrests under new emergency laws banning face coverings there have again been some violent clashes as demonstrators took to the streets in defiance of the ban of asses' used baton charges and tear gas to break up the protests the future of the faltering talks between North Korea and the United States on Pyongyang's nuclear program is uncertain after breaking up negotiations in Sweden on Saturday North Korea said it didn't expect fresh proposals to have been tabled before the next general drowned in 2 weeks' time a prominent political party in Indian administered Kashmir has said mainstream political leaders must be released of any political protests is to begin the call came after a delegation from the National Conference was allowed to meet 2 of its top officials who've been in detention for 2 months police in Kansas City say 4 people have been killed in a shooting in a bar on Sunday details of the incident in the American city are still sketchy and no arrests have been made police in Iran have arrested a young woman whose cosmetic surgery won her a big following on social media savvy Tabar altered her appearance to look like a zombie version of the film star Angelina Jolie Ginger Baker the drama behind the 1st rock supergroup cream has died at the age of 80 the British musician is considered one of the most innovative and influential drummers of the sixty's b.b.c. News Hello this is World Book Club and here with us answering questions about Oblivion is homage to his murdered activist father is Colombian author act or are part. And we have a question for you now from the World Club audience from the gentleman that mom's Bernard strange I'm from London a significant turning point for your family was the tragic death of your sister Martin how did that affect your father in terms of his work I got the impression from the book that he became less concerned about his own safety he knew the danger he was in but wasn't as concerned about it is probably more to be yes or it should be said that Martin died of an illness that wasn't a death of violence but she died very young and yes how did it affect your father yes I think that being a medical doctor and having a child your beloved child heal is terrible because you you were educated for saving lives for healing anything my sister happened Marta had cancer and they did whatever they could they they they sell the car they went to Washington trying to find treatment for her and he was seeing during some months how this beautiful girl was disappearing was thinner and thinner and thinner every week every day almost So it was devastating for him for my mother and for the whole family. Because she was the singer of the house she was the happiness of the house in many ways she was a brilliant. Singing Cat Stevens all the time and one day she said I cannot sing and I have no voice and at the end of my father I think he decided to put more more more for you morphine morphine to end her life and she was dying she was dying anyway. And yes he was so sad he was so devastated that I think he in some ways his life lose a lot of sense and he decided to dedicate his life to the other totally and when you when you say the others you mean other people generally Yes I mean for something socially meaningful for something that could be very dangerous in Colombia and it was very dangerous but without any fear any more so well maybe he waited for some years that me and my and my younger sister finished the school and then he began to work very hard in human rights totally Fairless And yes I think in some ways his mind changes after martyrs there that is my interpretation anyway but a memoir could be also a novel I think there is my reconstruction of the past you cannot say even if a memoir is without invention is it has a lot of interpretation and that's my interpretation of his change Thank you thank you you're implying in a way not only that he was being fearless but that he didn't mind if he died as a result of his activism Yes he began to to think in the f. And to talk about that in a very relaxed way as if there was also something that is desirable that is that it's Ok. Thank you very much checked off another question from the World Book Club audience yes. Yes Hello my name is Juan Carlos you from Bogota my ancestry is from the coffee region not far away from 1000000 but anyway. I found the book incredibly moving from beginning to end not only as a fellow Colombian but as a human being really but for me the climax came and this is a spoiler alert here when we learned about this very deep and thoughtful point that was discovered in your father's pocket in his body when he was killed and of course we know by then he had received threats against his life because of his work as a human rights activist and we knew that he was probably going to be killed anyway which makes carrying this point around with him all the more meaningful all the more important and really so the question is what was your reaction when you found out about this appointment when you actually read it yes this is this is a poem called epitaph it's by Luis Barcus by the Argentinean poet and this was your father's pocket and when he was shot yes he had 2 papers one piece of paper was a list of people very well known people in Colombia that the paramilitaries said they will kill my father was in the Us list and wrapping that list was the point written by his son calligraphy and my own hand. So it is a message it is a message if I cannot talk you will find something that will speak for me that will speak how I receive that if they kill me so it was he was still talking after death with the point and with the list. But the strange thing is that I don't remember looking into my father spoke it and taking out the papers but I wrote that down in my journal so I know that is true but I forgot this situation the exact situation because we were we wearing a total shock and. The title in Spanish come from the 1st line from the 1st verse of that point that he's just homosexual be Ok said Emma was that is we are already the oblivion we shall be and yes I decided to put the message My father had as a point as the title of the book well I think it would be really helpful and good to hear now this poem it's a sonnet. Ok yes the sonnet Well the real title is not epitaph but a key that is. Here now. Already we are here believe you and we shall be the elemental Darst that does not know us the vast that once was read and now is all men the Darst we shall not see already we are the 2 days on the headstone the beginning at the end the coughing the obscene decade and the shroud their rides and the is not some fool who clings to the magical sound of his song name I think with hope of that man who will never know I walked the air. Beneath the blue indifference of Heaven I find these thought consoling beholding the for N.T.'s who little estimate as your own as from constraint Oh that's the end of the poem. In Spanish act or about thank you very much the very last phrase in this book is thanks to the eyes many or few that might briefly pause over these words the oblivion that awaits can be deferred a moment more this is you writing from which I deduce that you're saying that you hope this book will keep your father alive just a bit longer was this to driving force in writing this book to prevent to live in Waikiki mark too soon this is that it is my return revenge in some ways but is a perspires full revenge because sometimes in Colombia they say when someone is killed probably that person has done something and they imply something bad and yes my father has done something but something very very good for many people thought I must I need to write about the real story the real life the real happy life he gave us the real fight of his life poor poor human well being for human rights for medicine for vaccinations for clean water for for housing for very elemental things that we all humans need. And I know he will be for forgotten I will be forgotten all of us sometimes litter tour is a fight against death against oblivion and Spanish frighted say is like watering flowers that's I try to do that also with words watering my father's memory so ways. You mentioned revenge just there we have an email to the program on that very subject it comes from a Colombian who lives now in Britain in Sussex in the south of the country and her name is Patricia Patterson from there gusts and she says What an incredible book it stirred memories of the violent Colombia that I experienced from the distance of the capital city but that left an indelible mark on me anyway the books moved me deeply thank you and then she says You write about revenge but different times in the book expressing in one section that for you revenge could be achieved by using your words to tell the story of what happened in practice did anything change within you when you'd finished the book or indeed when it was published did you feel avenged do you feel differently about the concept of revenge all these years on so it's quite a long question. Well from a literary point of view I had in my mind 2 books Kafka letter to the Father that in my case is it's also a letter to my father to a shadow but it's a letter of love and not of revenge and the other one and stories that could sound very vain but Hamlet is trying to to revenge his father's assassination and at the end he you found blood everywhere yes stage covered a lot covered in blood Yes And and. What I feel after that what I feel now in my life is. The revenge in words is totally enough I feel no rank or at all you know you don't you don't still feel vengeful towards the man who shot your father not really is nobody hating is remembering someone who doesn't the remembering so I don't remember them I don't want to give them to shake hands but I don't care if they are alive if they die I think that when you think all the time when you are biting all the time the the desire of revenge you live for the other yes is forgiving but forgiving is very important for you is not for the other is not that I am forgiving you know it's I'm not feeling anything so I forgive I forgave So I feel better I feel I feel free because I don't hate forgiving is very important for you not for the other is difficult for me to say that in English but I suppose it's you can understand my broken words understand very well that act of thank you very much indeed my name is mighty mighty I look got it I come from Colombia I was born in many cyclists but I grew up in but what that now I live in London I loved your book absolutely I imagine that writing not kind of book length is a memoir it's inevitable to hurt some people how did members of your family that were not shown in such a good light reacted with this with your book. When you write such a personal and familiar book in some ways you have to ask permission for them. Because I want to. To write the book 1st of all for my children they didn't know the grandfather my father but when I finished the book I gave the manuscript to my mother my sisters and also my children they cried a lot reading the book reading the book but they only helped me in completing some parts they say are you get these and you forget that and you forgot everything you forgot because they have a bad memory but they didn't they didn't ask me to change a single word about thank you very much and we got a question now that was running into the p.c. World Book Club from the USA from Texas it's from a Maria Posada and here she is to ask it hello Ector I am. The lady apostle I am from Walker ta But now I live in Texas in Austin Texas I have read all your books and I have a big fan of your writing your book is an impression of color on Bia as a country that has always been violent throughout its history is that true and if so why thank you Ector That's my question. As has Colombia always been a violent country. When I when I was a child in the sixty's I thought Colombia was kind of a paradise and my father was so up to Mystic in the sixty's and I went to school as is normal walking all by myself not feeling fear of anything and I grew up thinking that Colombia will develop into a great country free peaceful and nonviolent country that is also the contrast I lived in my life I was a very happy optimistic child life will be always better and better and better that was the promise my father thought their world is improving he we made a big party when the smallpox these appear from from the air but then in the seventy's eighty's ninety's it became became hell really so now Colombia was not violent all the time we are not genetically. Predisposed yes to violence or something like that and yes and now we are improving and now. I am trying to to say to my children the world would be better but I'm not that sure. Another question from the World Book Club audience My name is pretty matter I'm from London and I really enjoyed your book especially since I visited Colombia just 4 months earlier so I could relate to the places and everything and it was very refreshing to read about the bond you had with your father base strong father son relationship because often you have you know it's quite fraught father son relationships not always but often especially when your teenager etc My question to you is what changes occurred that made you feel it was safe to go back to Colombia in 1902 just because you have lived outside of Colombia I think of at least 2 occasions you've lived in Italy for instance. Yes I decided to go back especially because of the language because I was confusing Spanish and Italian and I really wanted to to write and to write in the best way I could write and and I think you need the language of your childhood you need the language of your family so I went bark because he wanted so hard to be a writer and I was losing the Who losing Spanish I was losing the language of my city and I read to bury important books for me that was. If this is a man by primo Levy and familiar like sick by Natalia Ginsberg and I thought I need I want to do this I want to to make a novel that is an experience a terrible experience like in Levy's case. And a very normal in a very familiar language as is the case of Natalee Ginsburg who so I am not brave us my father was so I for my living I began writing in papers but I prefer to write about very simple everyday things not about politics to preserve my life so. It was Ok That's interesting you say that because indeed pretties question was about whether you felt safe to go back or why I felt like you would still feel it was not safe to be a political journalist Yes especially in the beginning it was quite dangerous talking about some subjects like paramilitaries narcos. Drug dealers drug dealers. Things like that yes so I began writing about very totally different things very poor superficial things and even my books were very different was. Cookbook for sad women. Fragments of love and it was only about. This not not at all politics now. Then I wrote more about politics now I feel now I feel there is sometimes is there is a crisis in journalism so difficult they don't care they don't care papers they don't read papers so. I don't know what to do now. They are they are firing many journalists in papers they are closing papers everybody is. Tweeting or Facebook or even myself I mean Twitter and that's terrible. We need we need papers we need very well informed papers and journalists but we live in a world where it is difficult to. To say to the people that we need time we have to go to places we have to ask many questions to get the truth they they think no they think the real journalists are tweeting and they know the truth or truth is not important and truth is very important but this world is these appearing and I don't know clearly what to do what to do with Jordan and with the our relationship with realities very. After about thank you very much for that we've got time for a couple more questions. The search area from Colombia I actually was born in Go back of an antique here. But I I I live in London I have only been on them for a long time the last time I visited I got your book in but with the and I'm very glad I did I thank you for your persistence in writing it thank you for sharing with us your thoughts pain sadness joy. Joe family and friends and for doing it in such an open very valiant and accessible way I'm sure that you have succeeded in the mud of putting into words the installed in nary a relationship you had with your father his life and these circumstances that framed it the oh believe you we will be ease postpone far more than I need stand as a result of reading your words I think you. Think you so much there's no question attaching to luck just just a statement. Ok thank you very much indeed another question for actor about. Saying yes I. Am from Columbia I think these are many names for your city agent and my question is that simple somebody killed your father do you know not what date who the killers are and if you know. What you feel do you do you know who the bad were killed your father well there is a paramilitary group that were sent to. Us Some years ago and one of them. That is called Don Baer now has his. Us he said. Carlos Christan you know very well known paramilitary man. Was the the man who commanded the group. And the the killers that killed my father I think that is probably true but it's probably true this cause than your was then killed by his own brother this because then you also killed his own brother before that. He was that kind of people and when and he wrote a book that is called My confession and he was confessing in that book that he was deleting the brains of the communists who wear. Contaminating until k. University and he made a kind of list. Of this these brains that he deleted with with. Bullets exactly with bullets and it was also when I read that book I also thought Ok I have to write my own version of this brains what was in the brains of these people they were killing He also referred to a group of of a few very important and very wise men who were. Indicating the cast on your family and the paramilitaries who you need to kill who is really dangerous I don't know if that group is this really existed if that group is is real. But could be could be also and they were the real directors of the assassinations but I don't know that I wrote about that in fiction in my book. That he's fiction that he's a novel is not is not a memoir I put a group that indicates who the paramilitaries must kill so when you don't know when you really don't know the truth you have to imagine some possible truth that is true only in fiction that's what I did. Act on about thank you and there we have to leave it next month British author David Nicholls will be answering questions about his novel us a funny moving account of a man desperately trying to save his marriage and in December we're off to Germany 30 years on from the fall of the Berlin Wall where the writer Jenny up and back will be talking about our haunting novel visitation and if you'd like to ask Jenny a question about the book Nothing easier just email us tweet us at b.b.c. W.b.-c. Or post a question on our Facebook page all relevant details on our website where you can also download more than 180 World Book Club podcasts interviews with the world's greatest authors from Margaret Atwood to Mario Vargas yourself from going to grass to or one Pamela but for now for me Harriet Gilbert and producer Edwina Pittman thank you to all you members of b.b.c. World Book Club wherever you are and thanks especially to this month's guest act or about. Thank. You. This is the b.b.c. World Service 9 close your eyes and listen the watch you people sleep and the see your dreams we had 10 deal nightmares if you have a story to tell why not bring it to life in a radio play international playwriting competition is free to enter and open to anyone living outside the u.k. The international playwriting competition for details of how to enter and the field competition rules guilty b.b.c. World Service dot com slash radio play. You're listening to the b.b.c. World Service Washington Post Antony has more our South America correspondent Katie Watson reports from Brazil Europe regional editor Mike Sanders is here in the studio are America's editor counter Spirit began by telling me about on air online on smartphones and on smart Speaker this is the b.b.c. World Service the world's media station. Hello on Bridget Kendall I'm coming off to the news on the forum from the b.b.c. World Service an invention which quite literally reach around the world the transmission of text messages over a while foreign electric signal the electric telegraph 1st emerged in the mid 19th century along with the Morse code system of dots and dashes used to send telegraph messages before long networks of was laid across continents and underwater cables stretching under Asians turned it into the fastest and easiest way to send messages at speed until it was overtaken by another new technology the telephone even so it was a revolution in global communications which some argue rivals the printing press and lay the groundwork for the Internet so who were the inventors who made it happen and why was it so important I'll be joined by telegraph experts from Germany the United States and the u.k. So you join us after the news. Hello I'm Julie candor with the b.b.c. News Pope Francis has likened the fires that recently devastated large areas of the Amazon region to the greed of a new form of colonialism opening a 3 week sinners the pope said the fires had been set by interests to destroy linking them to a profit motive David Willey reports Pope Francis had harsh words for those responsible for setting fire to vast tracts of the Amazon rain forest for economic gain May God preserve us from the greed of new forms of colonialism he said he prayed for activists and missionaries murdered defending the rights of indigenous communities in Amazonia some Catholic traditionalists accuse him of wanting to change church teaching on priestly celibacy in order to deal with the lack of new vocations this Vatican meeting could turn out to be bitterly controversial Hong Kong police have used baton charges and tear gas to break up peaceful demonstrations by thousands of masked pro-democracy protesters the author artists have also made the 1st arrests under new emergency laws banning facial masks Robin Brant reports from outside a barracks used by the Chinese army on accounting inside of Hong Kong what happened was that personnel inside we don't know if their peril a or the Hong Kong police were shining spotlights down there were already a warning coming from within to the people outside and a fellow journalist as well who was here working for the Reuters news agency saw a yellow flag raised on the roof that warned protesters that they may face prosecution now that is an acknowledgment of the People's Liberation Army inside the 1st time possibly of what the protesters out here are doing on the street so there was no confrontation but that's clearly a sign I think of that the heightened awareness certainly of the people in there of what's going on out here police in Nepal have a rested the former speaker of parliament Christian about how do Mahatma after a female member of staff accused him of rape he denies the allegations is our South Asia editor and Bryson into Rajan Krishna bomb.