For 40 years, Xanana Gusmão has worked for the freedom and development of his native country of Timor-Leste. During these 40 years, Xanana Gusmão has held many roles including: resistance leader, poet, political prisoner, negotiator, diplomat, and politician. Despite the numerous and important roles he has held, one of his most famous and important roles has been as a leader of forgiveness and reconciliation in Timor-Leste.
Akbar Ganji, born January 31, 1960, is an acclaimed and widely celebrated Iranian journalist and writer. Often referred to as not only as the country’s preeminent political dissident, but also as the Iranian Vaclav Havel.
Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy became Minister of Oil and Gas of the Sultanate of Oman in December, 1997.
Dr. Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi is the Yemeni Foreign Minister. Born in 1942, Al-Qirbi was extensively educated in the United Kingdom and holds degrees from the universities of Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London.
Oscar Lopez Rivera is a Puerto Rican independence activist, serving prison time since 1981. Rivera was born in San Sebastián, Puerto Rico on January 6, 1943, which is a holiday in Puerto Rico, but he wasn’t registered until January 8th, 1943. “I was five years old when I started school. By the time I started school my sister Clary had taught me how to write my name and the numbers from one to ten. She had also forced me to learn to write with my right hand although I was left handed. I was the youngest and the smartest kid when I started school but I had the habit of sneaking out of the classroom to go with my second cousin to the river. That’s how I learned to swim when I was five. I always stayed ahead of my classmates because my sister treated me as her student. In school I was full of mischief, fights, and pranks. During all the years I was in school in Puerto Rico I never stopped being me—an honor student with a bad boy attitude.”
Jaber is a Palestinian refugee, in the Gaza Strip and one of the most truly remarkable people I have ever encountered. I first got to know him in 2004 when I moved to Gaza. His story, in many ways, is a typical Palestinian one. His mother and father were refugees from Palestine, fleeing in the 1948 war. Jaber was educated in the refugee camps, after his graduation, he worked as a physics teacher of physics teacher in Cairo. He later became active in leftist political struggles in both Palestine and Egypt.
Recent Comments