[Music]
freedom people talk about freedom every
day freedom of press fear on speech
freedom of expression but have you ever
thought of how much of a freedom that
you have on your daily life and most of
us take freedom for granted right but
how would you feel when you ended up in
a situation that your basic rights and
freedom are suddenly not there anymore
this happened to me back in year 2004 I
was quite unexpectedly thrown into
prison today I’m going to share my story
I’m a news publisher and I’ve been in
this industry for nearly two decades now
I love publishing I love the smell of
inks smell of the paper I love the noise
of the running printing presses a lot of
people think I’m crazy but for me it’s
my passion I could find it near my Times
newspaper back in year 2000 and actually
my background still is printing I didn’t
understand about publishing or anything
whatsoever
let me give you a bit of context before
year 2000 there wasn’t a real private
owned newspaper
most of the newspapers a state-owned
and basically we are trying to we are
basically testing the ground there were
a lot of issues though everything has to
run by the censorship board if they
don’t like one word they will reject the
whole story
but it was a fun challenge for us we
became number one within two years time
it’s simply because there wasn’t enough
competitions that time we were flying so
high until November 2004 when unexpected
problems struck me from unexpected angle
and got me into big trouble
there was a time military government
purge military intelligence and I
happened to be get caught in the middle
because of my father my father used to
be the air force brigade your journal
from the Intelligence Unit who was
overseeing the International Affairs too
soon after his arrest
I was taken into custody and nine months
later I was sentenced to 14 years
imprisonment for censorship offense
seven years for English version and
seven years for Numa version my very
first day in prison was nothing else but
Wow
the biggest wall of my life and took me
a couple of days to to swallow it I
neither have thought of ended up in the
place like that no experience the prison
before all I knew was my normal routines
are gone and
felt so empty but the true this when I
was taken away for everyone only me
sunny is gone but for me everybody is
gone in my life nothing left just like
that I have to be very strong physically
mentally and all I know is I’m being
forced to make the biggest adjustment of
my life by stranded somewhere that I
felt that I didn’t belong they put me
straight into the solitary confinement
it’s a it’s a small cell sixty square
feet six feet by ten feet and I got to
see out of the cell 15 minutes twice a
day that includes shower laundry and
exercise and I’m being locked up the
rest of the 23 hours in 30 minutes and
there was the door with the iron bars
that completely blocking my freedom and
I totally hated but the option was
whether I just hate it or just make use
of it so pretty soon that door become my
gym equipment for my exercising right
then
notice that the wallet that I’m staying
in
it’s very square everywhere I look at
ask where’s the cell the door the walls
all are squares
all right there are some rectangles just
you know but indulge me right I really
had to push myself to the limit in order
to cope with this major adjustment and I
wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone but I
really needed the companies so I started
talking to the little insects in my cell
and I named them individually and they
all become my friend for instance
they’re two little spiders John and Mary
they fell in love they got married
bang plenty of babies good for me I have
more friends
I’ve been to five different prisons yes
I call myself prison tourists each
prison has a different DNA that means
every time I get transferred I have to
make whole new adjustment all over again
different prison different game
after sentencing I could transfer to
Lasher prison and large who is actually
the best among five good people good
management good weather and most
importantly good meals and suddenly my
life is much better compared to nine
months ago and I really wanted to keep
myself positive and keep myself occupied
and I want to keep myself gain in terms
of gaining and knowledge or gaining a
merit or both if I’m lucky everyday
don’t have years later I was out of the
solitary confinement it’s a huge
improvement and I became a teacher a
photographer and a handyman you know in
prison trust is equal to freedom once
they trust you you can get away with so
many things I not only teach English to
the prisoners I also teach English to
the prison guards and the management and
the officers and I also volunteer to
help very sick people at the hospital
and all aged people mainly on their
medical requirements and they are little
kids though in their eighty nine of them
to be exact most of them they have never
seen the outside world before is simply
they were born there or just too young
to remember when their mothers were
arrested and they left candies and the
snakes and so forth and I try to
feed them whenever I have chance and I
also convinced other fellow inmates to
help them support them any amount of
money or anything they can to support to
these little kids well I needed a lot
more money in order to keep doing what
I’m doing so you know what I did i
financed the smugglers who smuggle in
illegal properties into the prison such
as alcohol cigarettes DVDs and so forth
for me prison is like a square
supermarket seriously as long as you’re
willing to pay two three times more than
the market price you can get anything
they’re just so easy and I always feel
good whenever I think about it and there
is no such great feelings like breaking
all the rules in prison in order to
support the others on the other hand I
do regular exercise
lots of readings meditation playing
chess playing Scrabble and before I go
to sleep every night I think of the
numbers ID numbers
car registration numbers but this office
addresses home addresses so that my
brain won’t be dusty rusty you know the
minute I get out of prison
even half years later I was released in
an amnesty for everyone
he is back for me everybody is back in
my life again it’s always good to have
everybody back in your life but trust me
it can be very overwhelming sometimes
because everywhere I go people ask me
man how was it like in there do you mind
if I ask you for this are you okay
physically mentally how did you cope
with it
any plans what are you going to do you
know that sort of questions that I get
everywhere I go
same old questions same old answers and
I really wish that this TED talk should
have been four years ago so that I
didn’t have to repeat all my answers I
just send them this TED link right my
brain was like a brand-new sponge that
you buy from supermarket it’s so ready
to absorb everything as much as you can
as much as I can all good and bad
meanwhile I was restoring my network
meeting different people and catching up
on the things that I’ve missed meetings
after meetings parties after parties
trips after trips pretty soon I realized
how difficult it is to be back again
because simply I was so used to survival
in prison
and I got back to news publishing
straight away crazy right and turning my
long lasting dreams into reality it’s my
favorite part
looking for the right partner building
the team and seeding the new publication
it’s a lot of work and I need great luck
on top of that and giving everything
that I have and keep on fighting it’s
where I’m at now and I’m always proud to
be a publisher because I’m selling the
news I’m selling the truth and I’m
selling the knowledge and a country like
niyama needs a lot of good publications
publications with very good unbias
ethical journalism reporting and I
believe that a good publication bridges
between the government and the people I
might have started publishing by chance
but I’m staying in this by twice now 13
years ago I was thrown into jail without
a failed trial I was so used to that the
Richard system and the square in style
of prison life but one thing I have
noticed though today I woke up in the
square bed looking at square ceiling and
going into the square twilit and then
going into my square car then to my
square office then looking at the square
monitor and typing away on the square
keyboard I’m still living in the square
life but this time the
differences it’s going to be fair and
square
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
freedom people talk about freedom every
day freedom of press fear on speech
freedom of expression but have you ever
thought of how much of a freedom that
you have on your daily life and most of
us take freedom for granted right but
how would you feel when you ended up in
a situation that your basic rights and
freedom are suddenly not there anymore
this happened to me back in year 2004 I
was quite unexpectedly thrown into
prison today I’m going to share my story
I’m a news publisher and I’ve been in
this industry for nearly two decades now
I love publishing I love the smell of
inks smell of the paper I love the noise
of the running printing presses a lot of
people think I’m crazy but for me it’s
my passion I could find it near my Times
newspaper back in year 2000 and actually
my background still is printing I didn’t
understand about publishing or anything
whatsoever
let me give you a bit of context before
year 2000 there wasn’t a real private
owned newspaper
most of the newspapers a state-owned
and basically we are trying to we are
basically testing the ground there were
a lot of issues though everything has to
run by the censorship board if they
don’t like one word they will reject the
whole story
but it was a fun challenge for us we
became number one within two years time
it’s simply because there wasn’t enough
competitions that time we were flying so
high until November 2004 when unexpected
problems struck me from unexpected angle
and got me into big trouble
there was a time military government
purge military intelligence and I
happened to be get caught in the middle
because of my father my father used to
be the air force brigade your journal
from the Intelligence Unit who was
overseeing the International Affairs too
soon after his arrest
I was taken into custody and nine months
later I was sentenced to 14 years
imprisonment for censorship offense
seven years for English version and
seven years for Numa version my very
first day in prison was nothing else but
Wow
the biggest wall of my life and took me
a couple of days to to swallow it I
neither have thought of ended up in the
place like that no experience the prison
before all I knew was my normal routines
are gone and
felt so empty but the true this when I
was taken away for everyone only me
sunny is gone but for me everybody is
gone in my life nothing left just like
that I have to be very strong physically
mentally and all I know is I’m being
forced to make the biggest adjustment of
my life by stranded somewhere that I
felt that I didn’t belong they put me
straight into the solitary confinement
it’s a it’s a small cell sixty square
feet six feet by ten feet and I got to
see out of the cell 15 minutes twice a
day that includes shower laundry and
exercise and I’m being locked up the
rest of the 23 hours in 30 minutes and
there was the door with the iron bars
that completely blocking my freedom and
I totally hated but the option was
whether I just hate it or just make use
of it so pretty soon that door become my
gym equipment for my exercising right
then
notice that the wallet that I’m staying
in
it’s very square everywhere I look at
ask where’s the cell the door the walls
all are squares
all right there are some rectangles just
you know but indulge me right I really
had to push myself to the limit in order
to cope with this major adjustment and I
wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone but I
really needed the companies so I started
talking to the little insects in my cell
and I named them individually and they
all become my friend for instance
they’re two little spiders John and Mary
they fell in love they got married
bang plenty of babies good for me I have
more friends
I’ve been to five different prisons yes
I call myself prison tourists each
prison has a different DNA that means
every time I get transferred I have to
make whole new adjustment all over again
different prison different game
after sentencing I could transfer to
Lasher prison and large who is actually
the best among five good people good
management good weather and most
importantly good meals and suddenly my
life is much better compared to nine
months ago and I really wanted to keep
myself positive and keep myself occupied
and I want to keep myself gain in terms
of gaining and knowledge or gaining a
merit or both if I’m lucky everyday
don’t have years later I was out of the
solitary confinement it’s a huge
improvement and I became a teacher a
photographer and a handyman you know in
prison trust is equal to freedom once
they trust you you can get away with so
many things I not only teach English to
the prisoners I also teach English to
the prison guards and the management and
the officers and I also volunteer to
help very sick people at the hospital
and all aged people mainly on their
medical requirements and they are little
kids though in their eighty nine of them
to be exact most of them they have never
seen the outside world before is simply
they were born there or just too young
to remember when their mothers were
arrested and they left candies and the
snakes and so forth and I try to
feed them whenever I have chance and I
also convinced other fellow inmates to
help them support them any amount of
money or anything they can to support to
these little kids well I needed a lot
more money in order to keep doing what
I’m doing so you know what I did i
financed the smugglers who smuggle in
illegal properties into the prison such
as alcohol cigarettes DVDs and so forth
for me prison is like a square
supermarket seriously as long as you’re
willing to pay two three times more than
the market price you can get anything
they’re just so easy and I always feel
good whenever I think about it and there
is no such great feelings like breaking
all the rules in prison in order to
support the others on the other hand I
do regular exercise
lots of readings meditation playing
chess playing Scrabble and before I go
to sleep every night I think of the
numbers ID numbers
car registration numbers but this office
addresses home addresses so that my
brain won’t be dusty rusty you know the
minute I get out of prison
even half years later I was released in
an amnesty for everyone
he is back for me everybody is back in
my life again it’s always good to have
everybody back in your life but trust me
it can be very overwhelming sometimes
because everywhere I go people ask me
man how was it like in there do you mind
if I ask you for this are you okay
physically mentally how did you cope
with it
any plans what are you going to do you
know that sort of questions that I get
everywhere I go
same old questions same old answers and
I really wish that this TED talk should
have been four years ago so that I
didn’t have to repeat all my answers I
just send them this TED link right my
brain was like a brand-new sponge that
you buy from supermarket it’s so ready
to absorb everything as much as you can
as much as I can all good and bad
meanwhile I was restoring my network
meeting different people and catching up
on the things that I’ve missed meetings
after meetings parties after parties
trips after trips pretty soon I realized
how difficult it is to be back again
because simply I was so used to survival
in prison
and I got back to news publishing
straight away crazy right and turning my
long lasting dreams into reality it’s my
favorite part
looking for the right partner building
the team and seeding the new publication
it’s a lot of work and I need great luck
on top of that and giving everything
that I have and keep on fighting it’s
where I’m at now and I’m always proud to
be a publisher because I’m selling the
news I’m selling the truth and I’m
selling the knowledge and a country like
niyama needs a lot of good publications
publications with very good unbias
ethical journalism reporting and I
believe that a good publication bridges
between the government and the people I
might have started publishing by chance
but I’m staying in this by twice now 13
years ago I was thrown into jail without
a failed trial I was so used to that the
Richard system and the square in style
of prison life but one thing I have
noticed though today I woke up in the
square bed looking at square ceiling and
going into the square twilit and then
going into my square car then to my
square office then looking at the square
monitor and typing away on the square
keyboard I’m still living in the square
life but this time the
differences it’s going to be fair and
square
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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