world we all want to come together for one thing just taking care of each. other been similar signs of normality in the city where corona virus was 1st identified who hands strawberry music festival was the largest outdoor concert in china today events was canceled last year but the government says the city is now almost completely virus free. this is al-jazeera these are the headlines india has reported on 300000 new coronavirus infections for a 12th straight day the official death toll is now 20900000 but experts say the true figure is likely to be much higher elizabeth purana has more from new delhi the situation very much critical karnataka the southern state of karnataka is the latest state wicklow that 900 patients and other patients actually who were on

oxygen supply have died after the shortage ran out of a shortage of oxygen that we're seeing is not just limited to jelly of the surrounding states it is a nationwide problem international aid is arriving the government is using it the indian air force to airlift cryogenic tankers from germany bring them here deliver them around the country but the cases are going up so much so fast that it is a mammoth task and it is not reaching people in time to save many lives indian prime minister narendra modi's hindu nationalist party suffered defeats in a fiercely contested regional election seen as a barometer of his handling of the coronavirus crisis forces in the battleground state of west bengal overwhelmingly backed the all india trinamool congress over more the speech a.p. party. the number of argentina's covert cases has now passed 3000000 the government has extended a nighttime curfew in the capital and schools schools and with

a small number of people have been faxon ace's and supplies one little one of myanmar as was powerful rebel groups the christian independence army says it shot down a military helicopter near the town of will mock fighting between the army and ethnic armed groups as intensified since the general seized power in february colombia's president is withdrawing a controversial tax reform proposal after days of violent protests across the capital at least 6 people were killed demonstrators for security forces the government insists the reform is vital to stabilize and colombia's finances. and at least $26.00 people have died after 2 boats collided in central bank with police in overcrowded speedboat and a vessel transporting sand hit each other and happened on the pad in a river near the town of ship char and those are the headlines keep it here and al-jazeera she will be on script is is up next. on counting the cost of china's

navy and its maritime militia dominate the south china sea has the u.s. lost control could the pandemic usher in the 4 day workweek and environmental racism opposition grows to a u.s. pipeline. counting the cost on al-jazeera. nor i doubt this is just a store to store its allies or whose story is a psychologist is a philosopher my name is wallace. being a novelist like country like turkey is a bit like being slapped on the once again being kissed on the other cheek at the same time i am in a shock. people like to think that then nationalism is not as ugly as someone else's one of the

major fears i had when i was in exile was a they might get me because i've been declared want to elaborate. your identity is one which. would also admit it applies not just to write as a cause. in fact it's other part of the. of the sort of diet. list which plagues europe for this sort of identity has become. seems to become a critical issue. generally in the world and yet there are human beings. who transcend not always in a positive way the nation for instance certain religions certain religionists feel

that they are all more and that their identity should be seized. related to through their religion ultimately a writer like myself especially who draws a so much from this society and of course who's a global wonder aspies are pretty articulate well i know high seas by sell my subsidies or i know why that is but what really a my 2 to the other m i defined by mission a watch. what's your response i was i think i'm a bit more prepared to. write about our emotions but a whole season i did it or you see it in your you know it's it's it's a question that matters a lot to me because i do not think that we have to have a monolithic identity despite what they say to us there's

a lot of pressure on so many of us to belong into one single box and stay in that box you know are you a muslim just be a muslim i you this just be of art and stay there forever but i think as human beings we have multiple belongings and it's worth fighting for that multiplicity when i look at myself i realize very clearly of course and they attach to stumble and i carry it with me wherever i go but i'm also very attached to the age in the balkans i carry in my soul so many elements from the middle east my european by birth by choice the values that i share over the years i became a londoner a british citizen and despite what our politicians say today i think i would like to think of myself as a world citizen and the global soul why can't i be multiple things people like to think that there nationalism is not as ugly as someone else's nationalism that

there nationalism is actually the right type of nationals and that is a civilized nationalism and i don't i don't believe in that i think the core of nationalism is quite ugly it is divisive it is based on a distinction between us versus them and their assumption that are somehow better than them and it takes one financial crisis or takes one political crisis for that core to surface so when i say that i do make a distinction between loving your country loving your culture you know being attached emotionally it is a. useful feelings as an author every time you know i have written a book in turkey people said oh short of a couple i mean instead she must be sick that i mean that i wrote another book let's say another story they say oh she must be a secret jew emission must be a secret code because all these conspiracy theories in places where there's no democracy but underlying is the assumption that if it's not your story why should

you even care you know if it's not your identity why would you even try to write about someone else's story and i think we need to be very aware of thought and very critical of that. in west africa some years ago. the nigerian government decided to expel all gummy arms from niger in fact as an expression in niger today called god i must go. and i phone by solve. personally violated i feel that evolution i've taken place on my behalf in my name yeah and i found it very repugnant in fact in my university my department became a kind of a refuge and i defied anyone to go and touch them or was it because

i could not understand why there should be such a distinction amounting to the right of expulsion between them and me. and we've had that experience all over the continent and as soon as there's a slight problem created by ms government mismanagement of economy the immediate impulse is to look for scapegoats of course the 1st line scapegoats are those who are quote unquote foreign as well and of course see what's been happening in south africa the amounting even to the link chain the pursuit of the lynching of a foreigner as before mozambique affected at one time zimbabwe nigerians of course see this leaves one in such a weak position when one now house to decry the ultra nationalism

and the waves are which are sort of taking over europe effect in politics immigration policy. even the internal governance in which the the machinery of the government is arranged primarily against. foreigners what are my sort of guide in my interest is a let nations die that humanity may survive it. the problem i have is i don't know what will take its place missions will become surely long in the tooth to me do. explode bent to strew but never really know what but they all seriousness is a safe we have no memory as if we have forgotten and i'm not talking about history that took place long time ago and that effects everything there is a complacency as well. preserved this a lot as if some parts of the world were more solid lance more safe and steady you

really didn't have to worry about them or krissy in those countries most of the western world was seen in the sway you really didn't have to worry about human rights or freedom of speech or women's rights or minority rights you would have to foot think about these issues in liquid plants outside the western world and i think after the year 2016 that perception has been shattered to pieces but still there is this assumption that some countries are inoculated against the far the rise of far right germany was thought to be one of those countries because people thought after experiencing the horrors of fascism people would never make the same mistake ever again and now for the 1st time since the 2nd world war we have a far right group within the german parliament and of course sweden was regarded as another inoculated country because it's the welfare state and the bust in of social

democracy now we have the rise of the far right in sweden and the u.k. was thought to be inoculated against the rise of the far right why because it's of it has very different traditions it doesn't even have a written constitution a very strong hold of you know liberal democracy and so many other historical reasons but again we can't say it why it will never happen again and we are seeing the rise of. hate speech hate attacks particularly targeting minorities immigrants suddenly this toxic language in politics made it ok for people to say things were that were unsaleable until recently. and yet i sense this contradiction in me you do. so does for instance on the african continent. i feel closer. to africans in the diaspora and i

feel to be my grab region in north africa. i feel closer affinity definitely and i found myself far more interested in the fortunes of cultural of course retentions in brazil for instance where you have the eureka young people in cuba etc i know i have a kind of visceral connection even in sports i must confess i'm a racist when it comes to sport i'm interested i'm interested in tournaments or only once a rematch or we lost williams playing. golf i don't care for golf but any time i hear tiger woods name i want to know has got to go on. so that is that and i wonder whether we should be thinking more in terms of cultural blocks but definitely a confers to the contradiction in me that what i say is that i can contradiction is

that i think it's visible to feel that kind of attachment emotional belonging isn't i don't associate that with you know lashing the stick way of thinking or any more reductionist way way of thinking so the opposite i find find it important that we feel those emotional attachments that's why i insist on making a maybe distinction between patches and man nationalism i think the truth is way too important to leave to the nationalists i also think faith for instance is way too important to leave to the religious i think politics is way too important to leave to career politicians and i'm curious about your views on the language tour how does it feel to write in english and did you get any reaction because i did get a lot of reaction for i do write in both english and turkish but more and more i write in english and it's difficult to explain to people sometimes only think in nationalistic terms because for. it's always an either or choice so if you writes

in english it means you have abandoned your essence your mother tongue and yes i think this is the in which so many of us dream in what more than one language and so when i look at my writing i realize if i'm writing about melancholy sadness longing i find of these antics for instance thinks i'm talking but the humor i don't mean particular and that much is being with us. but there's no question at all for me leonard is both a vehicle. it's a technicality for use at the same time it has this extension and to be a repository of ideas of history of philosophy so the pop for me i'd seen a reason why he wanted to come out have its cake and eat it yeah and that's the way to talk about being multi-lingual for me this is a deal if you walk the streets of nigeria for instance the start of english and up

in europe switching to broken english for me is an expression of. of the complexity of the thinking process but it's instinct if you don't find expression in one language you switch naturally to the language from which the idea derived originally of course i've got this flak also why do you write in english lesson that english is in fact the language oh cool make us you nigeria when i want to take over and take over you know control of our lives speak in english so you can get anything more basic. sudden transformation of yourself from even a partial democracy to outright dictatorship but anyway you know but i think it's about time we brought him in go through the. as for there is a god there i was wondering if you have ever felt the state's particularly

frustrating 8 about the lack of impact given the rising. erosion of democracy enshrined in civics space saw do you think that the language and narrative of human rights defenders including yourselves somewhat should try and change to reach out more effectively to the people that currently seems to be lured more by the demand by the language of the far right nationalists and populists in this age we all need to become more engaged citizens to me that's incredibly important and there's one thing that worries me when i read the memoirs of writers and poets who have survived the worst calamities in human history including the holocaust almost all of them are saying something similar they're saying bad things happen not because people are bad there are some bad people but

relatively speaking their numbers are small and so they're saying the opposite of goodness is not necessarily bargains the opposite of kindness is not necessarily evil. the opposite of goodness is in fact moments is the moment we become numb desensitized and indifferent that is a very dangerous turning point because upon the ground it can sow the seeds of all kinds of racism all kinds of sexism and xenophobia once enough people become numb so it matters to speak about human rights and each other's stories but you're so right something is to change in our style as well sometimes populist among works are better in terms of addressing people's emotions than their liberal counterparts it's so dualistic they talk about the people versus the elite but i think more and more of us deliberately need to start using the words the words in a break them into pieces so i deliberately use populist elite because populist and

have a problem with elitism as long as they are the elites when they're not really criticizing if the man many of them are the elites in fact when we take a closer look and the 2nd thing is they think of the people as a homogenously hall but they feel they divide people into real people who are says on real people people who really matter 1st as people who don't matter that months much so all i'm trying to say is the problems are real but populism is the wrong answer to those real problems and we need to do a better job in terms of addressing those real problems and remind each other and ourselves that human rights matters. thank you i wanted to ask you both about your periods of exile when you've been unable to return to nigeria or to turkey for your own safety but yet you continue to write about these places what is it like being so intimately connected

to a place so absorbed emotionally intellectually in a place but physically separated and how has that influenced your writing i found it very difficult to accept that i was in exile very very difficult especially the major one the 2nd one which was forced on me and it was actually a life and death scape escapade if you like i think a current. that but sense of belonging with me so deeply that one of the major fears i had when i was in exile was that they might get me in exile because i've been declared want to live by that the dictator was actually setting up a consulate to hunt down the opposition but. from peace this is a self revolution was that i would go looking for

a place where i would be buried if i was got outside my fear was not so much being killed outside but. my family or some well meaning friends take my body back why are the dictator was there now that's how you know i for not wanting to come by the way i was at peace with myself so good don't take my body back if that kind of still in charge i don't want him trumpeting all over my corpse. i still laugh at myself so look at you and sort of buy more weeks for disguising yourself you're paying the money to go out but that's exactly you know what i did it's part and parcel of. but once composition. does the sociable to call changes in your country's interest you for example still affect your writing style as much as it used to when you started writing it's so so

connected with the previous question isn't it exile sometimes self-imposed exile can we have multiple homes multiple homelands can make complex the ever this connect from our home which i think i don't think it's possible. just the opposite perhaps you even follow it more closely when you're abroad you you care about every single detail so it's a very very fragmented existence in a way you're always a bit of an insider outsider. which could be a good position for arts or the art of storytelling because you're enough of an insider to feel attached to places many places but maybe a little bit of cords of distance just a little bit of distance maybe to see things from a different perspective but if it's a good situation position for art i think it's a very long the place for the artist you know you're always in between them and i

and i carry that feeling with me to be honest the number of people from all over the world who have started to feel as if they were in some kind of exile you know that number is increasing more and more people have started to get worried about their mother you know they can't recognize the changes that are happening even when they live in those countries so it happens to me a lot when i give talks there are people you know in the audience they say i come from minnesota and i come from brazil i can't recognize my country either nor can i you know we're all asking what happened to my sweet country i was wondering how you think the colony on mines has had an impact within our culture and ball possible changes you think that we could bring to ourselves us people from different countries who leave you know in europe or in countries that in our countries. to better society in the future. the culture is

a powerful weapon by you know but at the same time cultural come through very very feeble. interest or some real. intractable situations in nigeria or use expression or in those descent into. or in humanity. and i was speaking of. an astronomical arise in kidnapping for ransom in. in rape in pedophilia and ritual killing sex trafficking and we ask ourselves what what's happened to our humanity and what's the. solution solve these girls are sold into prostitution. truly put under some kind of supposed to shows. chain

with they're terrified that if the remarriage on the terms of the of enslavement that terrible things will happen to them and to their family. and they believe it because they come from a superstitious goat but the same culture is being used now to remove that fear from them you have somebody like the above been in for instance some sort of pronounced 1st occurrence you know with his entire family of priests and choose the curves on all. who traffic who continue traffic you know their own people into sex slavery but one should not depend to a belief on the part of cultural cultural. and lightnings relieves entertains strains but at the same

time the negative aspects of culture which just becomes an extra burden even outside on their bermond or just just to follow up on the i i think today it's the major clashes that we're experiencing are taking place in the field of culture we are so obsessed with data you know measurable quantities of data but there are things that matter so much that can't be measured that easily and yet they're extremely important so as you know there are all these predictions about a clash of civilizations small space between the western world and islam that's not what we are experiencing but i think what we're experiencing rather than a clash between civilizations within the nation states within our societies we're experiencing cultural fractures you know cultural battles almost and so there's

a lot of tension going in that in the field about identity belonging who are we how do we raise our children but at the same time of course as writers we also believe in the transformative power of culture when societies are deeply polarized the only people who benefit from that are the populists demagogues so how do we find a way to go beyond our equation armors beyond our comfort zones around and i think that study is also the possible as an adult audience a service in such such a pleasure to talk to you as i said i thought i was sure i knew you. and i hope this kind of coming to. continue on their wide discovery yeah thanks so much thanks. and i make is is the perfect analogy of everything that's wrong in this world and

is broken in this world because it's a curtain raiser for the climate crisis i think what we. were doing something really dangerous because a corporation if it were a human would act like a psychopath. from inside the walls of a west african prison comes home. a chance to create to express emotion and take the 1st steps towards rehabilitation. a renowned choreographer shares his passion for dogs inspiring prisoners to perform and to reach beyond the ill deeds of the past and the confines of their present to the dance of the eyewitness documentary on al-jazeera. we understand the differences and

similarities have cultures across the land. so no matter how much you see al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. al-jazeera. from the north of africa they crossed the mediterranean and made huge their home. building a new future in the secular. and the long to france's 2021 contentious so-called separatism as we look back at the history of muslim immigration to the country into 3 parts it's muslims are from this episode tonight on al-jazeera. a weekly critique of the stories hitting the headlines the news media have been left to sort through mixed messages on a quite complex story from mainstream to street journalism any objective is to get me to send it to the wall to show you what's going on exposing real world threats

to objectivity often of our neighbor turned from moscow 11000 people were arrested listening post covers the way news is covered. this is al-jazeera. hello and welcome watching the news hour live from our headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 60 minutes india's embattled government looks at ways to produce more desperately required oxygen as could be 1000 infections and deaths continue to climb. she's fought for press freedom in the philippines and now the investigative journey.