Persuasive rather than polarising . Kwame kwei armah, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you so much for having me. It is a great pleasure to have you. Now, youve been in the Theatre Business as an actor, a writer and a director for the best part of three decades. Ijust used that phrase, some would call it a cliche, about the culture wars. Does it feel to you that today there is a somewhat toxic culture war . I think youve framed it beautifully. It is toxic, but most importantly, its disingenuous. In my humble opinion. Its used to kind of create political fear. And ourjob as artists is, i think, fundamentally to take away that fear, to take away the binaries that i think this farce of the culture wars are. You know, i often hear politicians and im not one to diss politicians, but i also often hear politicians use race or class or immigration or use history as a Battering Ram to get themselves into the hearts of the populist. But those issues youve just outlined race, immigration they are centr
Ijust used that phrase, some would call it a cliche, about the culture wars. Does it feel to you that today there is a somewhat toxic culture war . I think youve framed it beautifully. It is toxic, but most importantly, its disingenuous. In my humble opinion. Its used to kind of create political fear. And ourjob as artists is, i think, fundamentally to take away that fear, to take away the binaries that i think this farce of the culture wars are. You know, i often hear politicians and im not one to diss politicians, but i also often hear politicians use race or class or immigration or use history as a Battering Ram to get themselves into the hearts of the populist. But those issues youve just outlined race, immigration they are central to your work, because theyre central to your own life story. Yeah, totally and utterly. But. And have you been frightened off entering this territory at times . Again, i think its framed brilliantly. Fortunately for me, or unfortunately, when im afraid o
presidentjose ramos horta, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it is a great pleasure to have you in the studio. i think it s fair to say you ve given most of your life to the struggle for freedom in timor leste, east timor, as we used to know it, and you have served as its president, not just once, but twice. you decided to come back in 2022 to seek the presidency again. was that a tough decision, to come back? yes. on a personal basis, yes. it was not in my plan, but then mr xanana gusmao, now prime minister, whom i deeply respect, he asked me to run again. ..to put timor leste back on the map of the world, because it was neglected, forgotten for a few years, because we ve been living in peace and tranquillity, so we did not constitute news. but at the same time, with so many conflicts in the world, we were running the risk of being forgotten. so. and then our asean accession. so i was asked to serve, to be the visible face of the campaign for our asean accession.
presidentjose ramos horta, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it is a great pleasure to have you in the studio. i think it s fair to say you ve given most of your life to the struggle for freedom in timor leste, east timor, as we used to know it, and you have served as its president, not just once, but twice. you decided to come back in 2022 to seek the presidency again. was that a tough decision, to come back? yes. on a personal basis, yes. it was not in my plan, but then mr xanana gusmao, now prime minister, whom i deeply respect, he asked me to run again. ..to put timor leste back on the map of the world, because it was neglected, forgotten for a few years, because we ve been living in peace and tranquillity, so we did not constitute news. but at the same time, with so many conflicts in the world, we were running the risk of being forgotten. so. and then our asean accession. so i was asked to serve, to be the visible face of the campaign for our asean accession.
learn from his extraordinary life? presidentjose ramos horta, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it is a great pleasure to have you in the studio. i think it s fair to say you ve given most of your life to the struggle for freedom in timor leste, east timor, as we used to know it, and you have served as its president, notjust once, but twice. you decided to come back in 2022 to seek the presidency again. was that a tough decision, to come back? yes. on a personal basis, yes. it was not in my plan, but then mr xanana gusmao, now prime minister, whom i deeply respect, he asked me to run again. ..to put timor leste back on the map of the world, because it was neglected, forgotten for a few years, because we ve been living in peace and tranquillity, so we did not constitute news. but at the same time, with so many conflicts in the world, we were running the risk of being forgotten. so. and then our asean accession. so i was asked to serve, to be the visible face of the