Rohingya: Myanmar’s Proving Ground
by Muhammad Yunus and José Ramos-Horta One of the fundamental challenges of a democracy is how to ensure the voice of the majority does not trample the essential rights of the minority. In the founding of the United States this was addressed by the Bill of Rights, some form of...
Ramos-Horta appointed UN envoy to Guinea-Bissau
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed former Timorese President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate José Ramos-Horta as the new United Nations envoy to Guinea-Bissau. Mr. Ramos-Horta, who is also the Chairman of the Advisory Board for TheCommunity.com, succeeds Joseph Mutaboba of Rwanda as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the...
Benghazi Was Not the Beginning of the End
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chairman of TheCommunity.com’s Advisory Board José Ramos-Horta puts some perspective on events in the Middle East. I share the civilized world’s revulsion at the destruction being wreaked by anti-US
Ramos-Horta: Advice for Syrian Rebels
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chairman of TheCommunity.com’s Advisory Board, President José Ramos-Horta offers his perspective to Syria’s freedom fighters. Just four decades ago, at the height of the Cold War, Timor-Leste (known to many as East Timor) was nearly isolated in its struggle for freedom and democracy, like many...
After Rio +20: Asia Should Lead in Sustainable Development
We gathered in Rio from 190 countries, to review what we have done since the historic Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 and what our world should look like in the coming decades. There was no cause for celebration and much to regret and fear as we continue to lack...
East Timor’s long transition to democracy
Over the last ten years I have had the opportunity to travel to East Timor on five different occasions, to have made many friends there, and to have worked on a fairly regular basis with José Ramos-Horta, one of this new democracy’s “founding fathers.” Along the way, I have an...
Ramos-Horta: The US should avoid being entangled in civil war in Libya
by Jose Ramos-Horta Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and President of Timor-Leste While I have welcomed the United Nations Security Council Res. 1973 on the imposition of a no-fly zone in Libya as a means to protect civilians, I have advised our friends to avoid being pulled into a complex political crisis...
Building Democracy Salon
In February, 2009, TheCommunity.com co-hosted a salon with Nobel Laureate and President of East Timor Jose Ramos-Horta to introduce the Zones of Peace program to the Hollywood community. At the private salon, at the home of actress and human rights activist Anne Archer, President Ramos-Horta spoke to approximately 75 artists,...
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Paul Simon in East Timor, Day 2
After the Manatutu distribution, we headed into the mountains to Hatubelico with Dr. Dan Murphy, an American doctor who has been running a clinic in East Timor since 1998. Click on any image to open gallery. Click on image to close. The day started with a drive into the mountains...
Paul Simon in East Timor Day 1
In 2005, musician Paul Simon joined thecommunity.com to help launch distribution of 4000 mosquito nets for East Timor’s malaria prevention program. According to the Global Fund for Malaria, TB and AIDS, mosquito-borne malaria is responsible for approximately 40% of the deaths in East Timor. The island also has the largest...