Perspective

In today’s Perspective, FRANCE 24 speaks to an activist who wants us all to cherish the clothes that we already have hanging in our wardrobes. The former fashion designer and obsessive keeper Orsola De Castro has just published a new book called “Loved Clothes Last”. Eight years ago, after the devastating textile factory disaster in Bangladesh, she co-founded the global movement “Fashion Revolution” which calls for a change within the fashion industry.

Today's Perspective is dedicated to the crisis in Myanmar - a crisis triggered by the army's take-over of power last month, and a crisis which has escalated because of the generals’ handling of the ongoing street protests. UN human rights experts have forcefully denounced the junta’s forced evictions, arbitrary detentions and killings of pro-democracy demonstrators. We speak to Phil Robertson, a researcher on Myanmar at Human Rights Watch.

From brain drain to brain gain, and from expats to repats. In this edition of Perspective, FRANCE 24 talks to Oyin Solebo who is one of the co-founders of the Movemeback start-up - which has been opening doors of opportunity across Africa since 2014. It was created by two former colleagues who decided to create this new community platform with the aim of connecting employers with employees and leaders with talent.

She was Britain’s first nurse specialist on the blood disorder sickle cell anemia, and she’s been honoured by the Queen for her work to try to stamp out racism in the National Health Service. Dame Elizabeth Anionwu was initially inspired as a child to become a nurse after a Catholic nun looked after her severe eczema.  She entered the NHS at 16 as a school nursing assistant, and rose to become a professor and dean of the nursing school at the University of West London, before taking up the baton to tackle racism.  She spoke to us for Perspective.

Boris Johnson “lies to embellish reality but also as an instrument of power”. These are the words Sylvie Bermann, France’s ambassador to the UK until 2017, uses to describe the British prime minister in her new book “Goodbye Britannia”. Bermann says that when she arrived to take up her post in 2014, London was a city of extraordinary dynamism and optimism, with French cabinet ministers queuing up to visit, all searching for Britain’s recipe for success.  Then came Brexit, which saw all that blown up, deliberately, and for what? Bermann shared her experiences and insights with us.

Ten years on from the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, around half the population remains displaced – either abroad or within the country itself.  The situation remains dire for many people – living either in camps or below the poverty line, often relying on charity for their survival.  We spoke to Mego Terzian, head of Médecins Sans Frontiers, or Doctors Without Borders, here in France.

France's equivalent of the Oscars – the César awards – are taking place this Friday, after last year's ceremony sparked fury (and the mass resignation of the board of the César Academy) by honouring disgraced director Roman Polanski with no fewer than three prizes. We discuss the ongoing fight for better representation of women and minorities in French cinema with Véronique Le Bris, author of "100 great films by female directors". She's also editor-in-chief of French feminism cinema website cine-woman.fr.

Last week it emerged that Pontins, a British holiday park company with sites across England and Wales, had a blacklist of 40 Irish names, with anyone with a name deemed "undesirable" simply turned away from bookings. The UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission described the revelation as a clear-cut example of a company illegally discriminating on the basis of race. We discuss the ongoing prejudice faced by Irish and Gypsy Traveller communities in the UK with Sarah Mann, Director of Friends, Families and Travellers.

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is currently sending extraordinary images back to Earth from the surface of Mars, with a Chinese spacecraft set to join it in a few months' time. We speak to Jean-Yves Le Gall, Director of France's CNES (National Centre for Space Studies), about his hopes for the latest Mars missions, his scepticism that humans will be colonising the red planet in the near future, and why the Moon is as relevant to space exploration as ever.

The trial of Derek Chauvin has brought the killing of George Floyd, policing in the US and the question of systemic racism back into the spotlight. After Floyd's death, protests took place not just across the US but around the world – including Canada, the UK and France – with Black Lives Matter chants ringing out. History professor Jean Pierre Le Glaunec has looked at the impact Floyd's death and the ensuing protests have had on the wider context and how they have sometimes been interpreted as "foreign" values that divide more than they unite. He joined us for Perspective.