Life at 50°C:
Mauritania
BBC Arabic
Postproduction
script
SUMMARY
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AUDIO |
Captions |
Pre-title
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Sidi: It’s really hot here, not just normal heat. Like fire. If you pour water, it’ll evaporate
because of the heat. Tough, tough, tough. Extremely hot. |
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Here it gets hotter than 50
degrees C, so Sidi has to dig at dawn. |
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Sidi: Working in the mine is getting worse year
after year, because of climate change. |
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Global warming is now
driving people from their homes. |
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Sidi: Take care of yourself. |
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Mohammed:
I’ll look for a job at sea or in the fishing industry. |
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in search of a better life. (SS suggestion -- we lose this caption, it’s split over subs and implied). AGREE |
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Life at 50C: Maur |
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Place
caption: Zouérat Salt Flats |
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Name
caption: Sidi Fadoua Salt miner |
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Sidi:
This is the best salt in the whole
of Africa. |
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My ancestors used to work this land. |
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I have no choice but to look for work elsewhere. |
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Caption:
Fdérik, 20km from Zouérat |
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This is a sheep and this is a sheep. |
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And this is a goat. |
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The climate has changed in the last decade. |
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It’s got a lot hotter and there’s
less rain. |
Name
caption: Mohammed Cheikh Choumouh Goat herder |
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It’s why we don’t have enough food for our livestock. |
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We give them cardboard instead. |
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They didn't like it at the beginning. |
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But then they accepted it, |
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because otherwise they'd starve. |
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GFX Map |
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Captions: Because of climate change, this former oasis is being
swallowed by the Sahara. Chinguetti is a UNESCO site. Once
it was home to 20,000 people. Today there are less than 1,000
and they’re fighting to
save their homes. |
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Caption:
Mohammed Lemine Date farmer |
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Mohammed: This is a big sand dune. |
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There was no sand here before. Now it’s full of sand everywhere. |
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This is home. The small dune there
came over the wall. |
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When the sand gets this high, we take the shovel and throw it out of the door. |
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This is the grove I inherited from my
father. These are the palm trees. |
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We’re going to build a fence to protect them from the dune. |
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Caption: Fdérik |
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Mohammed is leaving town. |
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Mohammed: Zouérat is
extremely hot. |
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We’re taking our sheep to sell in Nouadhibou. We’ll look for a decent life there. |
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I’ll look for a job at sea or in
the fishing industry. |
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Or maybe I'll set up a business or open a shop |
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with the money from selling the animals. |
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Zouérat is the point of departure for one of the
longest trains in the world. The train carries iron ore from
the mines to the coast. (SS suggestion: The train
carries raw metals from Zouérat’s iron ore mines to
the coast CM – it’s the mined iron ore that’s carried, not the metal itself) And sometimes, people too... |
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Sidi: I need to get everything ready for my trip on the train. |
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I have to make sure the torches work. |
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CAPTION: Sidi is taking the train because
he’s looking for a better job. (SS suggestion: “Sidi is taking the train
today to find better work”, perhaps seems a bit off when we see he has so
little?) But it means leaving his family. |
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Sidi: Come and help me. |
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Don't be afraid. |
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Mauritanian girls are never afraid. |
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My wife's name is Maynatu. |
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Most men here are jobless. |
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They leave us for a long time, looking for jobs, |
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and we women are suffering too. |
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Ali, give me a kiss. |
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Goodbye, sweetheart. |
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Take care of yourself and the kids. |
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Bye-bye Aychatu, give me a kiss. |
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Take care of yourself. |
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My dream is to find a stable and decent job
in Nouadhibou, |
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and to take my family to live there, |
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so my children have a good future. |
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The train’s
coming. |
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Look, the train. |
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The train is meant to carry freight, but they let us ride for free. |
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Caption:
The train is 2km long. The |
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Caption Mohammed is hitching a ride too.
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Pull
the salt up. |
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It’s
heavy. |
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The bag’s too heavy. I’m going to throw them one
by one. |
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We’ll
travel day and night. |
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It’s
a long and tiresome journey. |
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It’s
good. |
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This
is water. |
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This
is the Sahara, the desert. |
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No
rain, there’s nothing at all. |
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Nothing but misery. |
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Caption: 30km from Chinguetti
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Mohammed is taking his son Deddah to this local landmark. |
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Mohammed
Lemine: Look here. |
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CAPTION:
On the peak of Agrour Amogjar
are prehistoric rock paintings. |
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What you see here was made by our ancestors. |
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By
the grandfathers of our grandfathers. |
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This
is a giraffe. |
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This
is its head. |
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Here
are its long neck and legs.
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When
the sands come, there’ll be nothing left. |
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It
breaks my heart to see it fading. |
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Mohammed and Sidi are halfway
through their journey to Nouadhibou. |
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We
Mauritanians need our tea, |
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especially
when travelling. |
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It’s
good tea. |
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Add
some sugar, please. |
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By day the temperature can be 50C.
At night it plummets to near freezing. |
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Caption:
Chinguetti has a unique heritage as a medieval centre
of Islamic learning. |
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NAME
CAPTION: Seif El Islam Librarian |
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This
is the library. |
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In
the name of God. |
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Peace
be upon you. |
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How
are you? |
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What’s
up? All good? |
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All ok, thank God. How’s your health? |
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All good, thank God. How are you? |
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Seif’s library houses over 700
Quranic manuscripts from the Middle Ages. |
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What
you see here isn’t a toothbrush. It’s
the famous key from that era. |
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You
open it like this. |
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We’ve begun making our
best efforts to preserve them. |
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Look
at the oldest book that we have. |
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And
here you can see the impact of climate change and the expanding desert. |
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This
book has been badly damaged by the heat. |
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It's
falling apart, |
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the
pages are broken. |
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And here’s another one that’s worn out, |
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for
the same reasons. |
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An
original manuscript of one of our most precious poems. |
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‘I remember a giant tree that lived for centuries here.’ |
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‘But it died and was gradually buried under the shifting sand.’ |
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‘Nothing lasts forever, everything disappears.’ |
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‘Only their stories remain.’ |
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Our journey was enjoyable, even if we were covered in dust all the way. |
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My clothes are filthy because of the dust, |
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but it’s not a big
problem. |
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The most important thing is that we’ve arrived in Nouadhibou. |
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Hold them carefully. |
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Ok, he’s got it. |
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Caption:
The goats are about to have their first decent meal in months… some bread. Caption:
Mohammed will now sell his livestock
to fund a fresh start. |
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Place
caption: Nouadhibou |
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Sidi: I came to Nouadhibou, Mauritania’s economic capital, |
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hoping to find work and a better way of
life.
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I came from a place of heat. |
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Here the weather is nice and cool. |
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Summer temperatures in Nouadhibou
rarely reach above 35C. |
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I’m happy by the sea. |
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May
God help me find work here. |
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I’m
hopeful, very hopeful indeed.
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Sidi didn’t find work on this
trip. But he plans to return to try again soon. |
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Credits
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