Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be this week’s guest on CNN’s Connect The World program, including an interview from the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The program has given the public the chance to ask the questions they want answers to.
Using diplomacy and peaceful campaigning, Tutu has spent a lifetime striving to make the world a better place.
Throughout the 70s and 80s he was a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement in his home country South Africa. The cleric was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, and became the first black head of the Anglican Church of South Africa.
Not always popular, he had many enemies during decades of racial turbulence, but his faith, and trust in the universal goodness of humanity, carried him through.
Tutu celebrated with the rest of South Africa when in 1994 the apartheid system was dismantled. Since then, he has had more freedom to spread his universal message of tolerance and optimism – the essential good of man, in the face of evil.
Tutu’s religious and moral code, and his high-profile status, placed him ideally to sit on the TRC – Truth and Reconciliation Commission – a body which eased South Africa in to its new democratic era, with a very simple concept: forgiveness granted in exchange for the truth.
Nowadays, Tutu’s attentions turn to the global community and he throws himself in to many active causes on the international stage. He has travelled to Copenhagen to help secure a successful climate deal in Copenhagen. Tutu has expressed his concern about the rapid environmental changes and called not just for climate change awareness but support for climate fairness at the Copenhagen meeting. The cleric has expressed concern that African countries are often sidelined in International forums – but he hopes that COP15 will be different.
The Connect The World program allows viewers to ask questions to stars and world leaders. In recent weeks it has featured movers-and-shakers such as Bryan Adams, Shakira and Olivia Newton-John.
To find out more about the show, click here. ‘Connect the World’ airs on Monday 14th December at 2100 GMT on CNN International.
Source: CNN
