or out with the police were out with statistics. i'm scared that more children are going to grow up in the country that think says no racism, but they're more likely to end up in the criminal justice system. been there all the fellow friends in daycare. mm. a ah mm hm. mm. mm.

welcome to was the part. it's been 80 years since philosopher eric from identified 2 types of freedom. freedom from to be no one slave and freedom to to be the master of your own faith. and while we all idealized the latter achieving, the former, the freedom from use and abuse is no small feat in this day and age, especially for africa, which has been exploited for so many centuries under various pretext. what needs to happen for the continent to truly take its deserved place in the world? to discuss that i'm now joined by vice president of liberia jewel hoard taylor. madame vice president is a great on a great privilege. great, great pleasure for me to talk to you. thank you very much for allowing us some time . thank you for this opportunity. i'm really truly grateful. now most countries including russia, have the names given to them by history. it's, it was shade by certain chain of historic events, but you represent one of the very few countries in the world that consciously

chosen its own name. and they are very meaningful, as well as somewhat controversial name. liberia, the land of freedom. is that still an aspiration, or is it already a reality? well, you know, we were deliberate about the name that we chose. liberia, the land of liberty and freedom, were the 1st country on the continent that was free. we were not colonized anyway, even though those who came to create liberia had been slaves. but i think the freedom that they sought from which they had been denied for more than 400 years, definitely played into what they decided to do in the end. so it's no longer an aspiration as it relates to freedom to be the issue that we're dealing with now is economic freedom. how do we now make sure that we use the resources god has given us human natural resources to benefit and encourage our young people to take control of their destinies? we will definitely touch on the economic issues, but i have a few historical questions because i think, you know,

the history of your country is fascinating and very timely in a way. i know that liberia was founded by former african american slaves on the land purchase when the help of the american colonization society, which was an all wide group motivated by the decrease of the number of free slaves in the united states. there was an explicitly race, this proposition of without which your country may not have existed. isn't it fascinating to you how an outwardly negative proposition can result in something good? and that is the way of life. you know, there are opportunities that come our way and depend on what you do with that opportunity can become a negative thing or a positive thing. and i'm sure of those who took that voyage across the seas, not even being sure where they were going and what would happen and where glad in the end that they were able to establish such a nation of great is

a nation of history. and i think is something that is a good story even though he might have started of as a. busy as a bad seed, god uses whatever he chooses to make whatever he has made, and i think we are grateful. now he said it was a good story, but it wasn't without its own blemishes. at least from what i've read. the 1st settlers, despite their experience of objectification and exploitation, did do the same thing to the aboriginals and they bought and sold people who initially lived on that land and they treated them as humans. not over a 2nd, but even the 3rd kind. and i think that's not so much for something about your history, but about human psychology. do you think it's inevitable that those who are discriminated in the past some time sometimes become discriminated themselves? is that inevitable? and i believe people are part of what they know. i mean, they grew up in slavery, all this saw was slavery. and in the midst of the slavery,

there was discrimination depending on the color of your skin. if you were lighter, you had a little bit better opportunities. if you are a darker, you know, you were in the sunshine and in the fuels. and so that was what they knew. unfortunately, they come to liberia. and what did you is what they put into place? good and bad. now your former colonial master of the united states is now having its own brush with their racist question. and it's, it's a very interesting time because on the one hand and people are becoming much more aware of the deep seated and not always a parent roots of races. but on the other hand, you know, people who feel that they were unfairly treated as sometimes eager to meet out the same discrimination on 2 other groups. i wonder if liberia offers any wisdom, if your own history offers any wisdom to the united states and how to deal with this, such an intricate and such a complicated,

multifaceted problem. and there's something strange that happened in our country that makes our store a little bit different. after a while, the racist mixed into marriages. it wasn't easy in the beginning. people were forbid it for marin natives or aborigines, but love always finds his way. and so by the time we get to my generation, there are no true congo families or america liberian families they've all been mixed in. so makes it easier for us now. because if you look at the name and my maiden name is howard, even though my father was an aborigine, an original, his family is an original family. we don't have any mixed blood. but because he happen to have been trained by missionaries in those days, you have to take on that name there. so we have the name howard. so sometimes

people see me and they're like okay, she's one of them. but i always ask them, is there any one of them today? i don't think so. and so i believe we've been able to into relate, we've been able to manage our crisis, or remember to become one people offend. we have become one people or remember 40 years ago when the crisis began in 1980 odd, they hold. so call of america liberian leaders was overthrown. a lot of people were killed in the process because the native liberia's felt that they had been dis, advantage for so many years. and. busy this was their country over the past 4050 years. that is no longer the case. this situation in the united states has come about because a fear of the true blooded americans now feel that they are the minority. and that could be true if you look at the numbers there. actually a lot of you men, the white ones called it,

some of them i makes. some of them have had marriages with spanish, a black american. so there's a whole group of americans that are mixed. you know, you hear them say i'm, i'm, i'm african american, i'm spanish, american, and british american. so the blood lines have been mixed. but i believe that there is some families that are just still pure american families without any large infiltration of blood from other from other sectors. and what is important is that they get up one morning to find out that if you look at the numbers, the, his hispanic numbers are overwhelming. we now have a country where we are nanda, minority, and maybe a sphere. am of the large numbers of, of, of, of, of, mixed race is that they have and i would like to add in a human since look at that, maybe a sphere that has them react in the way they have. what it takes is that those who have the larger numbers, let's continue to assure that there are just humans and that they want a chance to live in the land of liberty and the opportunity this should be provided

. because if you look at it, the other way is really scary. let's go to the economic issues because you've been a vocal advocate of the african industrial revolution. turning the continent from a source of raw materials for everyone else into its own self sustaining power house. and it's been an obvious and long overdue proposition. why do thing it has not so far been realized. you know, we've been talking about that for decades and decades. and decades, and we're still talking about it. i hope this is a did the decade of change. i believe some of the things that have prevented this whole thought process of the industrial revolution is there are still some members of our elite members like the they did the those we had our governments that still believe they can't do anything with out outside influence. i like the fact that many leaders are not talking about the fact that hey, we can buddhist,

if we just manage to put ourselves together, we have the last, maybe 40 percent of the remaining resources in the world. what makes this time more important is that there are now innovations that have been done across the world that we can take advantage of what we wouldn't be doing cold plants, for example. we now have solar energy in high hydro energy, a wind energy. so we could do green energy across africa. the good thing is we are the bottom of the ballot barrel and we can build what we want. people need to now look at what we have in terms of us. it has to be an us perception is not about the 10 percent already have it. and that's why we have some of the crisis that we have . but the back of the matter is if we don't find a way to form these partnerships, that will help us build, develop, innovate what we have, the west suffers, look at the amount of migration that, well, let me actually, i have a question about advocacy or leading perfectly to you said that recently that

africa is now at a point when we quote, we need mutually rewarding partnerships. not just grants. and i want to ask you whether the world, the developed world is ready to offer you that not just a helping hand, but the firm and an equal handshake. you know, a fair share, it'll have a toys. and the reason is look at some of the negative things that you're having. if you go to the countries that are around the african shore, hundreds and thousands of young people are dying in the seas, but some of them keep reaching to your shores. and in time, there's a crisis on african continent people spill over into the western world. so i think is in the advantage of both africa in the rest of the world to begin to look at these partnerships. can you sustain africa in a way bring your, your, your, your technology, bring you a industrialization, help us build to secure job opportunities for young people. so they can start thinking that is better across the seas than it is there. so it is in their

advantage to do that, madame vice president has been 10 years since the arab revolution and the disintegration of libya, which i think played a major role in enabling those migrant flows. and over the last decade, many politicians across western europe have been talking about investing, as you said, in africa, to make sure that people stay put, that they have good prospects for life. that they don't have to take this very dangerous journey. and they, they don't have to, you know, comment to those societies and such large and skewed numbers because it's primarily young males who go there and that is associated with its own set of issues. is that still at the level of rhetoric, or do you actually see in being realized in your continent or in your country or across the continent? i think there are some businesses that are taking that literally, there are more companies now moving to africa in terms of bringing what did know

and helping us manage our resources. we need much more than that because for every country that is in the state of crisis and instability, then you have people saying, hey, i don't want to be here. how can i find somewhere else that has greener pastures? africa is ready. i think the rhetoric of how the media sees africa needs to change the rhetoric. is that or there's always crisis. there's always war. there's always disease well and now, but now they're real where it is everywhere. and the fuck is we didn't create a corona. it came from somewhere in the west to us. how can you know, looking at the way that we are integrated? all it is one person leaving liberia in the ball. i should just traveling somewhere else and no one knows he has a bullet that can effect an entire community. so that is the fear that is on both sides. we need to really integrate. we need to provide better educational opportunities for our young people, innovation and i c t training so that we're able to say where we come from. and i

think every african will be proud to be where you are. be able to be what you want to be a society that provides the abilities and the opportunities that we all want to see . while a matter my friend for the time being, we have to take a very, very short break, but we will get back in just a few moments stationed. ah, mm. mm hm. with

ah welcome back to the 4th, 5th liberians, vice president jewell over at taylor, not on weiss prison before the break. you mentioned the covet 19th and dammit, can paradoxically, this is a one area where african may be ferrying better than the rest of the world. despite the shortage of vaccines, because the continents case fatality ratio is much lower than the global one, i've heard some experts attributing that to the are relatively younger median age of your population. but the pandemic is still spreading, as you said, how big of

a challenge is covered 19 on your list of priorities. i think he remains number one because it is number one across the world. systems are shut down. businesses are slowed or close down. however, when you talk about coven, i always small because you know, god has been good to us. we really would not be able to handle the pandemic like he has been in other parts of the world. but i think that is due to maybe the sunshine that we have, but also the fact that we grow up getting a lot of diseases. malaria are immune system is our greatest, i'm stronger than most. and i think that has been our 40 that we have such a strong immune system that even if you get sick, you're not as sick as, as others. and the numbers are really low. but because the rest of the world is shut down, we to have to slow down because we are dependent on the economists of the world. and that's why i keep saying africa was come of age. we must begin to develop our

vaccines. i'm sorry, when i hear leaders talk about the fact that they're angry, that the west isn't given us what we need. in fact, the west needs more than what we need. so, i mean, in addition to the fact that they're making these vaccines, they're paying for it, they're making it available to africa with only as much as they need because they need in the millions of, of those numbers. well, we now begin to do our own. so that when we have these crisis, we're able to, to handle our own situations. now, well, you say that you perhaps don't need her as many work scenes as her as the developed world, but according to their world health organization, only 15 out of 54 african countries have managed to vaccinate at least 10 percent of that population, which is the w h o target, and i know that liberia is not among them your vaccination level, a full full vaccination level is 0.6 percent the last time i check what prevented your country from being higher on the list. and do you in, do you think that this is a number one priority given how many diseases you have to confront?

i mean, it's not just covered 19, there's also a chevy aids. now. malaria, many others. is it even worthwhile? is it logical? is it responsible for years, a government officials to put the covered 19 above all of those challenges and i think we have to handle it collectively because like you say, you look at the statistics, we have more people dying for each i v and is then we have of it, and so even though it is a world wide endemic, the fact is, africa has other issues that him of handle. and so, when the vaccines came to liberia, we did get our 1st doors of about $90000.00 plus doses that was sent to liberia. the negative media, again from the west made people say no, this is the wrong thing. why we took these vaccines unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, i got cove it, i was sick for 6 months and i was in, i see you for almost 4 months. so i became an example. i say, hey guys,

this is real. you know, i've gotten cool of it, so it's not something that doesn't exist, but the majority of our people believe it was just a hoax. and that is why we're our, our vaccine level rate has been very low now. says i have gotten it. i think people have realised that this is something that's possible. there are more requests now for vaccines than we have before. so i'm hoping that you know those who, because it is a, is a, is a choice. those who choose to be vaccinated will get vaccinated. but i think we should also look at finding ways to do some other things we need funding for education. we need money for help here. we need money for it's ivy and a's and so we have to look at it in the holistic way now or some of your colleagues and some african politicians compared the situation of in the morning of vaccines by they develop world to you ever thought i know that for example, former liberian present ellen johnson certainly use that precise term. do you think that too strong of reward or i think is to some of

a word and i usually don't disagree with madame. so leave because i for years of experience and exposure. the fact is, africa must come of his own. i mean, the west has a serious problem. the fact is they have on, on, they have numbers that i have not even imaginable. if you think about the kinds of, of, of crisis they're in. if i'm in a crisis in my home, how do i give the last rise that i have to someone else? i'm going to hold it because my, where if you spend so much of your time pontificating about the goodness and the, you know, sharing a shared humanity and spreading values. then perhaps sometimes you need to, you know, so forth. you appreciate your real actually doing what they can. you must realize that self preservation is the 1st law of nature. well, that is the truth. i mean, as much as we would like them to do more, we need to find a way to begin to have our own vaccines guys now looking into how we can produce vaccines. wanda, is looking into south africa,

is looking into it. so i believe on the african continent, if we're able to put our resources together or minds our brilliant minds, we could even have vaccines that we could explore when as africa, going to start to support other countries. it can not always just be about us. now you mentioned your own very dramatic experience of covered 1935 days in an intensive care unit. 10 days from what i've read, just to get your breathing stabilized what was going through your mind through your body, through your soul. in those days, i felt as if that was the end of my life. i thought that this was going to be the end for me. fortunately that even to i wasn't able to get treated at home because my situation had gotten so dire. i was able to go to ghana and they had all of what i needed to get better and it took a while, but at least here, here i am today in on the go out in western europe. you're wanting to know, i know i went to gonna because i felt that they had

a system that was much better. the president had been talking about all of the core with things that have put into place. and i was really happy that i went to a cra on of what i needed to go, well, was done. so this is a good example of what we can do if we just put our resources in our time together and begin to build everything would need is, is where we are. now. we talked about the country, we talked about the continent. i can't resist asking a couple of personal questions because your own life stories quiet fascinating. you used to be the 1st the lady. then you decided to force your own path and politics winning a senate said and divorcing from your former has been what has been driving you there because i'm sure as a former 1st lady, you could have had the very comfortable, enjoyable, protected life without all this dresses and hustles of the government office. i

think what drives me is the fact that women have to be engaged in the development of our countries. and i grew up in a home of 7 siblings that were female and one son. and so my father was interested in me ensure that all of us had similar opportunities for education. fortunately for us, every sibling in my, in my family, have become the best at where, where they want to be. and so we've grown up knowing that were part and parcel of the mix, and we have to give something back. my parents were health care professionals and my father was killed during the war, serving people providing medical care for people and he was, he was killed. my mother lived a little bit longer, but then her primary instruction to us was be the best that you can be in helping others is not always about you. and so i grew up with that fire of helping of see my parents do it. and i realized as a female leader, we don't have that many across the african continent that i didn't get

a chance to become 1st lady out of hundreds of women or become elected by the people have been county out of all of the men that were politicians and i wasn't a politician to just sit in where the pretty dresses and paint my nails. i do that, but the fact of the matter is i have to work. i have to show by example that again, women can be what they want to be. now i just by being one of the most celebrated women leaders in the world, i know that her, your path hasn't been cloudless and you have been pretty, a public about your office facing some budgeting issues about you encountering not only external, both internal hurdles you said that you considered wedding and number of times i do you think those problems that you're encountered? are they primarily due to the fact that the your or this fiery individual or are

they because of you are a woman and an exceptional woman in your own right. i thing because i'm a woman and then i'm fiery is not expected that you would be that at this level. and the position of a vice president is you have to now sit still and wait for someone to give you the instructions. and i'm a active is by nature. i'm an apple kid and so it's been a little bit trouble. some people think she talks too much, she has too much or she has too many opinions on map. does she have to bribe? i think one of those the hamper my opportunities, but again, it is learning as we go as a learning curve. i believe i as some of those things may have been because of that . some of the men in, in positions of trust in my country feel that i should not be as vocal as i am. but i think this is why i was chosen in the 1st place, and so they shouldn't forget the fact that amongst all of the women across like bureau, that president, we could have chosen, he wanted, he vocal woman,

he wanted someone who was educated, he wanted someone who was capable, and so i don't know how this happened and represents a significant part of your population most then. and i don't think was a spect that i will be quiet. i try not to step on too many tools, but sometimes it's difficult because we're, we're still growing our country, we're still developing and there's just so many issues. sometimes i just feel too strongly about them to continue to be silent. now i know that your current mandate is vice president expires in 2020 it's read and you're in just one step away from the post that your former husband are once occupied. do you think you will make even with him politically? well, i think my destiny doesn't. and as vice president, i think there will be opportunities in the future for me to lead my country. i'm actually looking forward to it at the right time. i believe i would bring a lot to the table madam. so leave started a process of empowering women of ensuring that we've been had equal opportunities.

and i think this is a, is a, is a joining, i can't end where we are. and so if and when i do get an opportunity at the right time to become president, i'm going to be continuing that joining because i think we would do more for the women of liberia with the war for the women of africa. we will actually border women over their world. you forgot about all of us here. wow. that's a lot order. but i think when any woman who gets a platform like i have got in contin to speak, speak for women across the spectrum of our world as an example that this can be done. thankfully, there are many examples in europe and across the world where women have taking the mental of leadership. angle angela merkel is, is leaving, and people are wanting was gonna step in such a lot shoe. but again, there are many women that have been grown for this time, and i hope there will come a time where we can harness all of our resources harness or all of our innovation, our passions to just move the words a new level, women, big

a whole new agenda to the table. one of the phrases i've heard, you repeat the lot as the tough times don't last, only tough people do. and i'd like to add to that that the, when the going gets stuff that's going and i think you're a very good example of that. thank you very much for this interview and all the best. the me thank you. i'm, if you're, if you and your endeavors, and i want to say something before, we're close and you get added to that quote. women don't quit. and i think that is important because it's tough getting here. but when you get on the stage, you have to remember that there is so many people looking at you. so many people, depending on you, so many women wish you well that you can quit. and so i've learned out to over the last few years, that once we get an opportunity where ever we stand in the world, whatever sector we're in, we can when we must continue to do the best that we do. so that other women will be encouraged to follow in our staff so that life goes on. it depends on the women. thank you again and thank you for watching hope to see her again next week on the well, the part ah with

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a the 1st ever space film per returns to earth, a russian movie director and an actress are back from 12 days of shooting on the international space station. will bring you the moment of the landing and reactions to the historic flight in our special coverage. to be honest, i feel like i said today, that's the thing hadn't once in a lifetime of so who the was cool was like a roller coaster and we were just enjoying it. and in our top stories of the week, vladimir putin, it rejects claims that russia is weapon, ising or withholding natural gas. as europe grapples with high prices. the president also agrees to boost supplies to the e. u while saying the block brought the.