Talking Points for 08 May

Good morning, and thanks to Will and ZK for keeping things going overnight. The Ghana oil story is an interesting one – we have asked (probably a long time) in the past if the discovery of oil is good for a country. Steve brings up something that I was bound to mention – Israel’s 60th birthday.

Your questions to Jeffrey Sachs

All this week we’ve had a team travelling around Tanzania to find answers to the many questions raised by the current food crisis. We talked about this on WHYS on Monday. And tomorrow at 0500 GMT, Jeffrey Sachs, a leading world economist, will be live on air to answer your questions which you’re welcome to leave here.

On air: Do aid agencies sometimes need to take a moral stand?

If you’re in Africa, you’ll have heard John from Ireland in our second edition making a passionate case that aid agencies help undemocratic regimes to stay in power. By assisting people, he argued, they relieve pressure on authorities from inside and outside a country. And by dealing with the authorities, in some way they give validate their position. He argued the aid agencies should’t be Burma. Do you agree?

WHYS in Glasgow update

For a week in June WHYS will be broadcasting from Scotland from the Civicus World Assembly, this year the theme is “Acting Together for a Just World”. The plan so far is to have a number of “guest producers” who will be young people attending the conference. They will come up with issues they think we should discuss on the programme and tell us who they want to hear from and then help fix the programme.

The Night Editor

Courtesy of an excellent idea from Will in Canada, we’re going to have a Night Editor (or Night Editors) every day from Monday to Thursday. Between 1900 and 0900GMT, there are no WHYS staff at work and, as all comments need to be moderated, we get a backlog and the blog slows up. Will suggests that we get you involved in moderating those messages so that the blog stays alive 24 hours day. We’re convinced.

Talking Points for 7th May

Hello, its Priya today on the blog.

It began on our blank page and continues here. Is coming out bad for your career?  George in Nigeria emailed us:

Is this ‘the end’ for Hillary?

That’s how the BBC’s North America correspondent Justin Webb is describing the results in Indiana and North Carolina. Is he right? Is it time for Hillary to realise her dream of reaching the White House is over? Or should she fight on to the convention in Denver? Many thanks to Brett for moderating as the results came in.

Is coming out bad for your career?

This is a discussion that started on Steve and Zk’s Blank Page No.5 at the weekend. ZK suggested the discussion begin with the comments of X-Men 2 actor Alan Cumming. He’s said the media’s attitude towards homosexuality is scaring off gay actors from coming out. It turned in to a far broader discussion about whether gay people fear that coming out will damage their prospects at work. Do you think that’s the case? And they have reason to be concerned?