and now we re putting together this liberty congress as an action oriented alliance that will help the movements to promote grassroots activism. we re almost out of time, so this is the last question. when you meet these other democracy activists in countries where the situation is, like in venezuela, extremely difficult, do you leave these meetings very downhearted? because as you ve just said to me, the autocrats seem to have the answers. they control the media, they control the security apparatus, they are prepared to use violence if necessary. i m just not hearing any solutions from the democracy side of the argument. no, i appreciate very much your question, because that s basically our main challenge. our main challenge is not to surrender. it s not to kneel to the pessimism, because many times when people go these are very difficult circumstances, they only focus to tell the bad story, to tell the sad story of what s happening in our own countries. and what we are trying to do
for me, stephen, it has been a very growing experience to meet people from africa, asia, latin america, eastern europe that we couldn t be more different with skin colour, religion, history. but when we talk about our struggle for freedom it s exactly the same story, it s exactly the same reality, and that s why we are coming together. we had the launching of what we call the world liberty congress last year in november. we held it in lithuania because we wanted to do it in the border with russia. and we had 180 leaders from 44 countries. and now we re putting together this liberty congress as an action oriented alliance that will help the movements to promote grassroots activism. we re almost out of time, so this is the last question. when you meet these other democracy activists in countries where the situation is, like in venezuela, extremely difficult, do you leave these meetings very downhearted? because as you ve just said to me, the autocrats seem to have the answers. they contr
something that we all share. for me, stephen, it has been a very growing experience to meet people from africa, asia, latin america, eastern europe that we couldn t be more different with skin colour, religion, history. but when we talk about our struggle for freedom it s exactly the same story, it s exactly the same reality, and that s why we are coming together. we had the launching of what we call the world liberty congress last year in november. we held it in lithuania because we wanted to do it in the border with russia. and we had 180 leaders from 44 countries. and now we re putting together this liberty congress as an action oriented alliance that will help the movements to promote grassroots activism. we re almost out of time, so this is the last question. when you meet these other democracy activists in countries where the situation is, like in venezuela, extremely difficult, do you leave these meetings very downhearted? because as you ve just said
to promote grassroots activism. we re almost out of time, so this is the last question. when you meet these other democracy activists in countries where the situation is, like in venezuela, extremely difficult, do you leave these meetings very downhearted? because as you ve just said to me, the autocrats seem to have the answers. they control the media, they control the security apparatus, they are prepared to use violence if necessary. i m just not hearing any solutions from the democracy side of the argument. no, i appreciate very much your question, because that s basically our main challenge. our main challenge is not to surrender. it s not to kneel to the pessimism, because many times when people go these are very difficult circumstances, they only focus to tell the bad story, to tell the sad story of what s happening in our own countries. and what we are trying to do with this alliance is to be hopeful, is to look forward, is to learn from each other, is to figure out ways in w
learning from each other. they are using repression. they are manipulating media. they are manipulating the social control mechanisms. they are imprisoning. there is a growing pandemic of political prisoners in the world that is coming undermined by the public opinion, and that is something that we all share. for me, stephen, it has been a very growing experience to meet people from africa, asia, latin america, eastern europe that we couldn t be more different with skin colour, religion, history. but when we talk about our struggle for freedom it s exactly the same story, it s exactly the same reality, and that s why we are coming together. we had the launching of what we call the world liberty congress last year in november. we held it in lithuania because we wanted to do it in the border with russia. and we had 180 leaders from 44 countries. and now we re putting together this liberty congress as an action oriented alliance that will help the movements to promote grassroots activism.