Whether you support him or not, few world leaders can kick start a global debate like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
He’s called Israel a ‘racist government’ at an anti-racism conference, some of the audience walked out and France has called it ‘hate speech’. I’ll let you take it from here.
Does the language you speak give you more power? Today WHYS comes from Belgium where they speak Dutch (Flemish), French and German. But the rivalry between the languages has almost torn the country apart.
It’s not just there, where your language is important. Humberto Lopez predicts the USA will have over 110 million Spanish speakers by 2050 and says Spanish should become an official language, maybe even replacing English as the first language. But this blogger thinks it’s vital to keep the US as an English speaking country and this group say they need it to forge one nation out of millions of immigrants.
Urdu is the national language of Pakistan even though only about 7% of people speak it. Whereas 44% of Pakistanis speak Punjabi, which has no official status.
This article argues that imposing Urdu on Pakistan has been disastrous and having English as the official language creates ‘a state of mental slavery’.
Continue reading ‘On air: Does the language you speak affect the power you have?’
Monday marks the tenth anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in the American state of Colorado which left 12 students and a teacher dead. It was a pivotal moment for the movement to crack down on US gun culture. A decade later, gun-related violence in the US continues unabated.
On Saturday, Newshour will take a close look at the gun culture in the US and will ask why it continues to be such a bitterly divisive issue for Americans. It is time to listen to the gun-control lobby? If you own a gun, what does it mean to you?
Boy, there are no shortage of issues raised by this. Latest count put the number of views around the 25m mark. (We did embed it from YouTube but it seems the lawyers have got involved.) This article lashes our response to Susan Boyle as sexist, pompous and guilt-ridden. Do you agree?
We’re going to try and touch on three subject today: this one, and the interrogation and Pirate Bay stories.
Australian diver Matthew Mitcham won gold in Beijing and this week he’s said that his sexuality has cost him sponsorship.
John Amaechi played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, LA Lakers and Utah Jazz (not a bad list is it?), but it was only after he stopped playing that he revealed that he is gay. He’ll tell us why he waited. Here’s an interview he gave when he came out after his retirement.
Is this about the attitude of fans or the attitude of some players? Or do you think if more gay players were willing to come out then this would stop being an issue?
Peter Sunde from the file-sharing website Pirate Bay was on the show in July and he’s on the phone to Tom from WHYS now as I write. He’s not sure if he can speak to you later as he’s just been sentenced to prison for a year. He said call and try at the start of the show and we will. But what about the issues this throws up? Continue reading ‘Do we have the right to share everything on the internet?’
We know what the CIA were told they could and couldn’t do. And that President Obama won’t be seeking legal action against any of those who carried out the interrogations or who ordered them. Was that the right decision?
President Obama banned terror interrogation methods like sleep deprivation and simulated drowning in his first week in office. Now he’s released more details of the ‘torture’ techniques used during the Bush administration. But he says CIA agents who used them, won’t be prosecuted. Should the US punish those responsible? Professor David Cole thinks so. But are certain types of interrogation necessary?
Continue reading ‘Talking Points: 17 April’
Next week on the World Service, Your Story will be presenting citizen reporters telling the story of the South African elections and the issues that matter to them. Asanda Booi was brought up to believe in the ANC, but has concerns about the leader, and doesn’t know who to vote for. Thamsanqa ‘Lucky’ Gadi Siko says his passion is to help his community, and has started up an organisation to do what he says the politicians aren’t – give hope to the youth. Lenny Mkhize lives in a wooden shack on the Joe Slovo informal settlement. The government built him a house, but it was so badly done he still hasn’t moved in. Read their stories on the Your Story blog.
Our two guests today believe we are showing suicidal tendencies. They argue that we now know that climate change will kill our species if we don’t stop it, but that we’re choosing not stop it fast enough. And they want to talk to you about why. Here are a series of questions that they’d like to discuss with you, and then some I’d like to ask you as well.
Continue reading ‘Is the human species suicidal?’
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