It is a hard climb up the Chicago political ladder. Did Obama get his hands dirty on the way up? Leading American commentator John Kass thinks so. ‘The only way to rise [in Chicago] is to look the other way’
Chicago is a byword for corruption. ‘27 councilmen have gone to prison in the last 25 years, 3 govenors’ says journalist John Kass. 'The whole town is one crooked mess'. It was here that Barrack Obama came as a 22 year-old fresh out of college. But those who knew Obama say that his public image as a dreamy idealist is off the mark. 'Obama is a very smart politician… a very tough guy' says political consultant Don Rose. 'He knows how to play the game and he knows how to employ people who play the game.' Obama's dealings with Tony Rezko, a corrupt property dealer, has caused embarrassment to supporters. Toni Preckwinkle, who has known Obama since the early days claims Obama is a hard pragmatist who could not have won political office ‘if he was going to make corruption an issue.’ Obama, they say, has done things ‘the Chicago Way’.
ABC Australia
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Afghanistan - Two Tales of Kabul
- 16 min 18 sec [8 September 2008]
Kabul is divided between the rich and poor, optimism and pessimism, development and disappointment. As entrepreneurs pump money into a steadily increasing economy, the poor are being left even further behind.
'We want the fighting to stop and a Caliph, an Islamic state. If there was an Islamic state... there would be no need for foreigners to be here." Says refugee Nandoy Mama. He and his family fled from the Helmand province when their tent was burnt down. Now Mama must fight off 70 people for water at his nearest well to make mud for a new house. Meanwhile entrepreneur Farhad Ghafoor sips coffee at a 4-star hotel in Kabul. 'It's really a nice place where you can bring your guests and impress them.'”After living in the US for several years Farhad returned to his homeland where he now runs a successful internet business. “You have to have the vision. If you don't have the vision, you never go ahead in life.” Meanwhile, people like Mama are fighting to survive: "Why is it such a struggle just to fill our stomachs?”
SBS
(Ref: 4140)
UK - Nuking the Future
- 9 min 20 sec [8 September 2008]
The British government claims that nuclear power is the answer to climate change. Yet, its plans for building more reactors have been met with scepticism and concerns from environmentalists.
Green activists living near the Sizewell nuclear plant are worried that the additional reactor planned for 2018 will create a health hazard for generations to come. They feel the population is kept in the dark: ‘Children are playing here. People go for walks. The people should at least be warned.’ Greenpeace believes that nuclear energy is ‘nonsense’ as ‘electricity generation contributes little to Co2 emissions.’ Waste disposal is also an issue. Near the reprocessing plant at Sellafield, radiation levels are as high as those found in the area around Chernobyl. Yet surprisingly, ‘over half the population supports a resurgence of nuclear power.'
ORF
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Spain - Spanish Water Crisis
- 14 min 32 sec [8 September 2008]
Spain’s worst drought in almost a century has left reservoir levels dangerously low. However, government plans to solve the crisis are being met with fierce criticism.
Although ‘dam levels are watched as closely as petrol prices’, protesters believe that a scheme to pump water from the Ebro River is only a short-term answer and a more sustainable solution must be found. Environmental activist Joan Antoni Panisello fears that this will spell disaster for the river as it is polluted and water levels are low. He complains that politicians ‘just want to divert the water to areas which are already rich and to finish off despoiling the Ebro basin’
SBS
(Ref: 4142)
Switzerland - The God Particle
- 11 min 13 sec [17 September 2007]
It’s one of the great unanswered questions of science. What gives matter its mass? By generating conditions present moments after the big bang, scientists hope to locate the elusive ‘God Particle’.
“This is going to take us to the next layer of understanding”, enthuses Prof Taylor. The Hadron Collider at CERN will shoot beams of energy around a 27 km loop, smashing them into each other at the speed of light. It’s all in the hope of detecting the Higgs Boson or ‘God’ particle, thought to give matter its mass. Scientists will also create mini black holes and search for dark matter.
SBS
