MEET THE PRESIDENT

With the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students coming to the town, the atmosphere in Pretoria has begun to thicken with refreshing anticipation for the week long celebration of youth ahead. All hands are on deck with the organizing committees and government departments working regular overtime in order to produce one of the most exceptional youth and student festivals of all time. 1800 local volunteers have been stationed all over the Tshwane municipallity in order to receive visitor from 153 different countries

 

I recently had the privilege of shooting the breeze with the President of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. I must admit that I was a more than a little surprised when I met him as I was expecting to meet a suit-clad politician with presidential aspirations, but instead I met this cool hand regular Joe with a passion for life, a love for his country and the belief that united as a youth we can change the world. I don’t know if it was the burning desire in his eyes or his easy going logical demeanour that strikes a chord first, but listening to him describe his vision, a collective vision for all the organizations related to WFDY, made me understand why he is the elected president of this youth organization.

Name: Tiago Vieira

Country of Origin: Portugal

Age: 25

 

 

 

What do you do for a living in your country?
I work full time for WFDY in Budapest, Hungary as an on the IOC for this festival as a Coordinator.

  

How far is Hungary from Portugal?
5000km

 

Do you work every day from 9-5?
It depends. WFDY deals with youth issues and organizations all over the world so often, as the president, I have to go to other countries. Sometimes we’ll finish our meetings and discussions early then I’ll just go and relax.

 

What is your position on the IOC?

 

I am the President, but that only means that I represent the organization as the head. No one in WFDY or the IOC has positions. We are all just a bunch of guys passionate about making a difference. Our responsibilities are different, but we are all the same. The leading voice is the voice of the majority.

 

What are your responsibilities in the IOC?
Besides coordinating, I deal directly with visas.

 

What would you like to see come out of the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students?
I would like every delegate to go home after the Festival sure that the world can be changed by defeating imperialism and despite the difficulties and obstacles ahead of us that the victory depends only of our efforts to unite the peoples’ of the world in our struggle.

How would you describe your contribution to the struggle?
I am militant of a party ready for the challenges that we face in our life, whether it is in university, working place or neighbourhood. My contribution is to give the best of me to mobilize other people to the challenges we need to face to change the world.

 

What has been the highlight of your visit to South Africa?
I must say I was really impressed to visit Port Elizabeth in Nov 2009, the land of our late President Andile Yawa.

 

What was your most memorable moment in the Youth Struggle?
It is a very difficult choice to make. All struggles are memorable but i would definitely name the time spent in high school when despite our young age we were so active organizing strikes and demonstrations. That had an impact for all my life until now.

 

You were recently detained and kicked out of Morocco, what happened and what was that all about?
I have to admit that I am still not sure. I arrived in Morocco shortly after there had been an incident of a 14 year old boy who had been killed. I landed in Casablanca and got onto another plane. Before take-off the Moroccan Police stopped the plane and detained me. After a long interrogation I was told, without reason, that a plane had been booked and that I would be going back to my country. A few weeks later 200 Moroccans where gunned down. In retrospect, I think that the killings may have been related to my being kicked out. I believe that whoever is responsible was afraid that my being in Morocco would have changed the course of that action.

This festival is about defeating imperialism, who is the Imperialist?

 

Well, imperialism is the upper stage of the capitalist system; therefore our main enemies are those that live from the exploitation of the work or resources of other people and/or countries. Surely states like USA, Colombia, Israel, Japan or the European Union must be named, but this is not about a personal based struggle. As life shows those who rule those countries or structures are nothing but puppets of the big economical interests.

 

Tell me 5 things that the youth would like about the country you are from? 

• The warm welcome of our people,
• the great food of our country,
• the democratic culture of our people,
• our history of fighting colonialism and fascism
• and our wide and beautiful culture.

  

If you could implement any change in your country pertaining to the Youth, what would that change be? 
I would implement measures at the level of employment and education to allow the young people to take it upon their destiny in their hands by being able to live a decent life and have time and possibility to be actors of change.

 

What can young South Africans hope to learn from attending the festival?

That it is up to unite and build their future, just as the youth of the world learnt from the South African youth that defeated the apartheid.

 

 Name 2 cuisines that your country is famous for.

 

I’m great at eating, but not at describing food.

 

Complete the following sentence: “In my country....

 

... the young people don’t accept imperialism, so let’s reinforce the chain of solidarity among all youth of the world and once and for all defeat imperialism!

 

 

Aluta continua!