Rene Ngongo, winner of the 2009 Right Livelihood award
For as long as I can remember, I have played a game with myself - imagining what it is like to be someone else in a different time or a different place. It's just a bit of fun and kept me entertained for hours on long train journeys before I got my laptop. Sometimes though I wonder whether I would have the courage to stand up for what I believe in if I didn't have the luxury of being here in the UK, at this moment in time.
Would I have joined the White Rose movement, students at Munich University who were executed after spreading anti-Nazi leaflets during the height of the Third Reich regime? Would I have had the courage to sit at the back of the bus like Rosa Parks did or demonstrate in the streets in Tehran following the election results?




