[Swprograms] BBCWS previews from week of Nov 17

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

** U K. UNDERCOVER IN TURKMENISTAN: THE FIRST OF FOUR NEW WORLD SERVICE
INVESTIGATIONS === ASSIGNMENT, November 16-19, BBC WS

Reporting from the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, one of the world's
most secretive and repressive states, was never going to be easy - but this is
the challenge undertaken by Lucy Ash and researcher Sian Glaessner who spent a
week undercover on tourist visas reporting for Assignment on BBC World Service.
Their graphic account of life for ordinary people denied both basic necessities
like healthcare as well as freedom of expression is the first of four
investigative programmes. 

Other programmes will cover gang warfare in Rio, the plight of failed
asylum-seekers returned to the Congo and corruption in Costa Rica.

"It's almost impossible to over-state the degree of control exercised by
Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov," says reporter Lucy Ash.
"Thousands of his opponents - real and imagined - have been imprisoned after an
alleged assassination attempt in 2002. And life for ordinary people has become
increasingly harsh with a lack of even basic health-care. Recently there have
been unconfirmed reports of outbreaks of bubonic plague. At the same time,
President Niyazov - known for his bizarre rulings - has announced that
hospitals outside the capital, Ashgabat, are to be closed. Reporters are seldom
given entry visas - and those that are have phone calls monitored, their
movements restricted and are invariably shadowed by members of the KNB - the
Turkmen successors to the Soviet KGB. 

Yet there are important issues to report in this energy-rich central Asian
country of five million people. We were determined to find out more about life
inside Turkmenistan. Reluctantly - and after much discussion - we decided the
only practical way was for her to visit the country for a week on a tourist
visa. We talked to people who are struggling to exist in a world where one
man's whim is law and where the basic functions of state have long since
collapsed into an anarchic quasi system of corruption. The stories we heard
told of a country on its knees, practically a 'failed state'. There is massive
unemployment as the government launches repeated waves of job cuts. In the past
10 years the country has continued to suffer a massive brain drain, as everyone
who can leave does so."

Assignment's producer, Andy Denwood, adds: "There are huge problems recording
surreptitiously in a country like Turkmenistan. When public criticism of the
government is a one-way ticket to the gulag, Lucy and
Sian had to be paranoically careful not to lead the KNB to contributors. The
interwiewees are given anonymity within the programme. At the same time, Lucy
and Sian had to maintain the fiction that they were on holiday. By day they and
their official guide - who
knew nothing of their real purpose - toured carpet bazaars and archaelogical
sites. Every evening they slunk out of their hotel unaccompanied to rendezvous
with dissidents and anyone else brave enough to speak to the BBC. 

The result is a rare and vivid series of snapshots of life inside Turkmenistan.
>From the nurse-turned-prostitute who lost her job during
massive cutbacks in the old Soviet health system, to the brave and earnest
campaigners who warn of a rising generation of children, uneducated and
vulnerable to indoctrination. Lucy was able to record conditions inside a
Turkmen hospital, and hears heart-wrenching stories of unnecessary medical
deaths, and the desperate plight of the seriously ill who seek treatment by
illegally crossing into neighbouring states."

Assignment: Inside Turkmenistan, on Thursday 17 November in Europe, launches a
short series of four investigative programmes. It can be heard at the following
times (GMT) in the following regions:

Europe:      Thu 0906 rpt 1306, 1906, Fri 0106, Sat 0306, 1306
Australasia: Wed 2206 rpt Thu 0306, 0806 1506, Sat 0306
East Asia:   Thu 0306 rpt 0706, 1306, 1906, Sat 0306
South Asia:  Thu 0506 rpt 0906, 1406, 1906, Sat 0306
East Africa: Thu 0706 rpt 1306, Fri 0006, Sat 0306
West Africa: Thu 0906 rpt 1406, Fri 0006, Sat 0306
Middle East: Thu 0806 rpt 1306, 1906, Fri 0106, Sat 0306
Americas:    Thu 1406 rpt 2006, Fri 0106, 0606, Sat 0306

Dates for other programmes in the series are:
Rio Death Squads, 24 November;
Message from Mavembo, 1 December;
and Costa Rica Corruption, 8 December.
(BBC Press Office via Mike Barraclough, DXLD)

** U K. BBCWS Previews from week of November 17:

ONE PLANET - A WORLD WITHOUT WASTE

The world?s consumers are producing an ever-increasing mountain of rubbish and
we are running out of places to put it.

In a new four part series, co-produced with the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation, One Planet ? A World without Waste, Lynn Malcolm explores the
international drive by governments, scientists, environmentalists and
communities towards to the goal of ?zero waste? from Thursday 17 November.

Lynne says: "?zero waste? is all about reducing waste while at the same time
taking a new approach to managing our planet?s dwindling natural resources. The
aim is to build-in sound ecological principles from the outset into every area
of manufacturing, design, industry, energy and domestic life and to do this
across all cultures. It?s a vast challenge, some may say impossible, but one
which some countries are trying to tackle head-on." 

Reducing Waste is a big issue for many cities but nowhere more so than San
Francisco. California is the US state leading the way in waste management and
recycling and San Francisco, the designated city for World Environment Day
2005, is out in front with an ambitious target of zero waste by 2020. 

On Thursday 17 November Lynne learns that even food scraps from over 3000
restaurants are collected each day, composted and then sold onto farms and many
of the state?s 8000 vineyards whose produce is then sold back to the
restaurants. The city has state of the art recycling facilities and has even
banned things like the sale of disposable batteries and leaded paint to ensure
that nothing gets dumped. 

Incineration, burning everything down to ashes, is how a large amount of the
world?s waste is still dealt with. It?s dirty and a serious health risk, but
profitable for waste companies will little conscience. On Thursday 24 November
Lynne discovers how The Philippines took the brave step of banning
incineration. Manila?s record on waste dumping and landfill is not good ? with
tens of thousands of people living in garbage-ridden slums on the edges of the
big cities. 

But one community has taken a stand and taken control of their own waste
management situation. On the edge of Quezon City, a part of Metro Manila, Lynne
meets members of the Baranguay Bagumbuhay, a settlement of around 10,000
people. In 2001 they created their own ecological solid waste management
company, which collects sorts and recycles the waste of the whole community. 

Until recently Japan had one solution to waste: burn it. Over 1800 incinerators
burnt the countries 50 million tonnes of solid waste each year. Recycling
exists but even some of that ends up in the incinerators and only now is the
government waking up to the fact that waste can be a resource if treated in the
right way. On every street corner there are separate rubbish bins for paper,
plastics and glass, and people generally do observe these rules. But the
statistics across a decade show some depressing figures: nearly every year,
recycling rates have remained level.  

On Thursday 1 December Lynne visits the site of Japan?s largest incinerator on
the edge of Tokyo and finds out if the non-stop urban buzz of Tokyo?s 24-hour
consumer culture can ever learn to slow down. 

China is the industrial success story of the last decade and looks set to
continue for years to come. Unfortunately it?s also likely to be the global
villain in environmental terms, unless its scientists can find a solution to
waste and pollution. Greener, cleaner technology is what the government has
pinned its hopes on, having made a Kyoto-style energy research pact with
countries such as Australia and the United States. On Thursday 8 December Lynne
learns that China is one the few countries in the world where bicycle use is
declining, whilst car ownership increases rapidly along with mobile phones,
computers and household gadgets. 

This year, Beijing hosts the worlds largest zero waste technologies conference,
involving hundred of researchers from around the world, all seeking to find
ways of making sustainability a reality. With China hosting what they claim
with be the greenest Olympic Games ever, in 2008, the world is watching. 

Presenter/Lynne Malcolm, Producer/Rami Tzabar --- A World Without Waste is a
co-production with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Broadcast Times:	One Planet: 4 programmes x 25 minutes 
Thursdays from 17  November, 
[European stream & webcast]  1006, 1506, 2006, Fri 0206
[Americam stream & webcast] 1506, 2206, Fri 0206  
Listen online http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/index.shtml
(BBCWS Press Office via Rich Cuff, via gh, DXLD)




	
		
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