[Swprograms] BBCWS previews, Mondays+

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

** U K. ``My AK47`` - a BBC World Service series 
    
The AK47 is the weapon of choice for guerrilla fighters world-wide,
with an estimated one million of the Kalashnikov rifles in every-day
use. Its reliability and ease-of-use has made it the most widely used
and produced small arm over the last century. BBC World Service sets
out to find how AK47s are distributed and who are the people who use
the weapon in a series called My AK47, going out on The World Today
from Sunday 4 December.

Series producer Leana Hosea says: "The personal accounts given by
people who use, sell and distribute AK47s give listeners an insight
into how the weapon has become a reality of life in many parts of the
world. One interview is with an AK47-equipped child-soldier in Sierra
Leone. According to the UN there are an estimated 300,000 children
involved in armed conflict and nearly half of them are in Africa.
Sangeba was only 12 when his mother was beaten and his father killed
in front of him by rebels who forced him to become a child soldier.
In another interview, an illegal arms dealer in Sri Lanka reveals how
it's routine to obtain AK47s and other small arms, such as grenades
from the army, air force and police."

The series also includes interviews with a UN weapons investigator, a
guerrilla fighter in Colombia, a rehabilitation worker from Sierra
Leone and with Vybz Kartel, the Jamaican dancehall star who sings
about AK47s and violence in the country's capital.

The series will run on The World Today on BBC World Service, going out
at 2300 [sic] GMT and through the night from 4 to 8 December 2005 (via Mike
Barraclough, dxldyg via DXLD)

In case you`ve lost track, TWT is scheduled on the European stream: Sunday
2306-2330, Monday onwards 0306-0400, 0530-0800, 2206-2230, 2306-2400; American
stream: Sun 2306-2330, Monday onwards 0306-0400, 0530-0600, 0706-0800,
2306-2400 (gh, DXLD)

** U K. BBC MONDAY+ DOCUMENTARIES, DECEMBER --- Building Beijing

Set amid preparations for the 2008 Olympics, the dizzying building boom,
make-over and transformation of the Chinese capital is followed in the
four-part Building Beijing from Monday 5 December. 

Dec 5: "For China the 2008 Olympic Games will be a coming of age party for a
fast growing country eager to reclaim its position on the global stage and show
off its new-found confidence as a world power, both economically and in sport,"
says presenter and producer Kate Bland. "The event will mark a new beginning;
the entry of China into the modern world."

Beijing has the largest new infrastructure of any city in the modern world. Its
major engineering works include new subways, motorways and the construction, by
Foster and Partners, of a new international airport. 

148.5 km of railway is being laid in central Beijing and £2.5 billion is being
spent on large-scale environmental projects to improve air quality, energy
supply and sewage. A massive 'greening' of the city is also taking place and a
promise to provide internet access to the majority of homes in the central
urban area. 

Mayor Wang Qishan says hosting the Games will dramatically raise the living
standard of Chinese people, speed up reform and push forward China?s gross
domestic product (GDP) by 0.3 to 0.4 percentage points every year. Building
Beijing finds out what it means in terms of ordinary people's lives on Monday 5
December.

Dec 12: The Chaoyang area of Beijing is set to become a new Manhattan, studded
with glossy, glassy complexes of hotels and shopping malls. The traditional
hutongs and courtyard homes, some of them hundreds of years old, are being
knocked down and replaced by modern, mid-rise blocks.  

When Liu Xiang took gold in the men's 110m hurdles he said "This is a miracle,
but expect many more miracles from China now." Kate Bland discovers how, buoyed
up by its haul of 63 medals and 2nd place at the Athens Olympics, China is
working to further improve its performance in 2008 on Monday 12 December.

Dec 19: Talented youngsters train in government funded sport schools. In an
effort to ensure physical fitness in time for selection and training in 2006, a
?National Sports For All Program? has been introduced to improve the physical
quality and fitness of the whole population. Huge, unprecedented investment is
also going into scientific research of competitive sports and sports
management. 

China?s new sporting idol, the talented and handsome basketball player, Yao
Ming, is the first of a new kind of sports star - successfully bridging the gap
to become a phenomenal success in both China and the US. 

The massive building programme for the Games is explored on Monday 19 December.
Of the 37 competition venues, 32 are in Beijing and 74 existing buildings are
being renovated. Beijing has managed to partner foreign firms with local
architects.

The new National Stadium, the so called Bird's Nest building, is collaboration
between Herzog de Meuron and the China Architecture, Design and Research Group.
The 17,000 seat National Swimming Centre, which will resemble a cube of water
miraculously suspended in air, is the work of Australian architects PTW working
with China State Construction and Design. The massive Z - shaped building for
China Central Television and the huge glass eggshell that will be Beijing's new
music and exhibition venue are partnerships with world-renowned Dutch and
French architects.  

Thousands of new apartments are already being built and sold unseen and 800 new
hotels are being constructed.

Dec 26: But not everyone is happy. Xiao Mo, the architectural historian at
Beijing?s Qinghua University, believes the new sports facilities, in a wide
range of styles from around the globe, will make the city resemble an
experimental building park. We hear from him and others who argue for better
planning and more emphasis on building with an eye to Chinese tradition. 

Beijing is re-inventing itself, conscious that the focus of world attention in
2008 will be much wider than just sporting events. New activities such as
advertising, branding and independent publishing are thriving. Kate Bland
examines the creation of a new image for the city on Monday 26 December. 

The make-over includes energetic PR campaigns; programmes to teach English to
taxi drivers and sports commentators; and the production of a Dancing Beijing
logo. As the cultural as well as the political capital of China, Beijing
considers itself some way ahead of the rest of the country, including
commercial centres such as Shanghai. 

Presenter/Producer/Kate Bland for Just Radio
Building Beijing: 4 x 25 minute programmes Mondays from 5 December: 
[European stream & webcast]: Mons 0906, 1306, 1906, Tues 0106
[American stream & webcast]: Mons 1406, 2006, Tues 0106, 0606
Listen online http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/index.shtml
(BBC Press via Richard Cuff via Glenn Hauser, DXLD)



		
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