On air: Is striking selfish?

“The 12 days of misery” is what the newspapers are calling it. Yesterday British Airways cabin crew voted to strike for 12 days over the Christmas period starting on December 22. Nearly one million passengers will be affected as they try to get to loved ones for Christmas and take the holiday many have saved all year for.

On air: Obama receives the Peace Prize

President Obama has accepted the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace. In his 30 minute lecture after receiving the award he gave a justification for the two wars he is leading, saying there is such a thing as a “just war”, and that “instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace”. You can read the full transcript here.

He was awarded the prize for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”.

There are so many issues that this award continues to bring up so we’re going to throw it open to you, to pick up on the aspects that get you going the most….

On air: Do we have a right to judge Tiger Woods?

The fallout from Tiger Woods’ admission that he had “let (his) family down” with “trangressions” has been spectacular. He’s had 12,000 comments on his website’s “comment on current events.” Newspapers are filled with articles pontificating about whether we expect too much of Tiger, and how it’s going to effect his sponsorship deals. Meanwhile, websites are running profiles of the women alleged to have been involved with the golfer. It all raises a number of questions about how we deal with celebrity, and how this particular celebrity deals with us.

On air: Is it time to let Afghans sort out their own country?

Five British soldiers have died in Afghanistan, shot in their own compound, after an Afghan policeman they had been training apparently turned on his mentors.

The policeman, who had been living with the soldiers as part of the training programme, reportedly opened fire, then fled. It has sent shockwaves through the military not only in Britain, but in all countries with troops there.

The team in cupcakes

I know it’s not exactly a world-stopping issue, but it’s my last day working on the team full time, and to mark it I baked some mud chocolate cupcakes with the team’s names on them. Just wanted to share because I was quite proud. (Ros’ has a candle in it because it was his birthday yesterday)

On the use of the word ‘rape’

We’ve just come off air and I want to address an issue that has obviously upset some of you… the use of the word rape.

Where the migrants hide…

These are the bushes where some of the migrants are hiding, in hope of latching onto the next lorry to England.

On air: Trading places

                        
If you live outside Africa, and you give money to causes there, can you ever imagine a day when you won’t do it? Whether the answer is yes or no, you’d also probably say, “but I’d like to”.

Well, Africans would like to get to that point too, but so far, no-one seems to have cracked just how to get the continent off the aid drip. But Rwanda has some ideas.

On air: Will high-speed internet really change Africa?

If you believe the hype, Africa is about to undergo a major digital revolution. Within the couple of months, four high-speed fibre optic cables, lain across the ocean floor, will join the continent up to the rest of the world via broadband. For a continent which has relied on satellites and dial-up, the promise of significantly cheaper and significantly faster internet connections is tantalising. But with the vast majority of the continent’s population still living in rural areas, many still without the basics of clean water and reliable electricity, how much are the much heralded connections really going to change life for the average African?

Computer education Rwandan style

This morning we did some broadcasts from one of Rwanda’s two ICT buses which go out into rural areas to teach people about technology. Each bus has 20 top of the range laptops and is run by a generator – handy for districts which don’t have any electricity at all.

Listen to my two-way with The World Today this morning about the ICT buses.