NOVEMBER 2006
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Wednesday, 22nd November,2006
VANUATU LAND GRAB
Normally, when you think of a place like Vanuatu what springs to mind are beautiful beaches, an unhurried lifestyle and a rich Melanesian culture are the first things that spring to mind. But as Mark Davis discovered on a recent visit, right now, all is not well in that Pacific paradise.
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Wednesday, 22nd November,2006
WHEAT WARS
This Friday, the final report of the Cole inquiry into the AWB's $300 million in alleged kickbacks to Saddam Hussein will be dropped on John Howard's desk. While key players in the scandal will be hoping to avoid prosecution, in the US, angry farmers and lawyers are busily preparing a class action against the AWB. If successful, it would make the $300 million involved in the Iraqi kickbacks look like small change. Here is Bronwyn Adcock.
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Wednesday, 22nd November,2006
THE WORST RAMADAN
Here at Dateline, we make a virtue of the fact that our VJs, our video-journalists, shoot their own pictures and record their own sound. But, that does not mean that out in the field they are always on their own. Take conflict zones for instance, where, pretty much like journalists all round the world, we lean heavily on the help of 'fixers' - local guides who keep us out of trouble and help us with contacts, with translation and transport - all vital to getting the job done. For some years now, in the Gaza Strip, Raed al-Atamna has been our fixer. When Thom Cookes reported on an Israeli assault there earlier this year, Raed was by his side
REPORTER: They came over with tanks?
RAED al - ATAMNA: Tanks and bulldozers.
Well, two weeks ago, we were shocked to hear that Raed's home in Gaza was shelled by the Israeli army. 17 members of his extended family were killed. The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, expressed regret at the loss of Palestinian civilian lives. As it turns out, Raed had only just finished working with our VJ, David O'Shea, on a story about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
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Wednesday, 15th November,2006
ELVIRA'S SANCTUARY
In the US, where last week's Republican "thumping" - as George Bush himself put it - has created a seismic shift in that country's politics for the remaining two years of his presidential term. Apart from the fog of war in Iraq, one of the major issues the new Congress will need to address is immigration. Indeed, what to do with the 12 million "illegals" already in the country was a major headache for the White House even before last Tuesday's result. Sophie McNeill reports from the streets of America's major cities where, in some quarters, Spanish is the new lingua franca.
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Wednesday, 15th November,2006
POLITICS, PAMPHLETS AND PRAYERS
Earlier this year John Howard acknowledged that he'd met with members of the Exclusive Brethren, an ultra-conservative Christian group described by some observers as "a moralistic sect". The group which bars their members from voting in elections, the results of which they say are ordained by God - have been accused of campaigning against the likes of the Greens and the Labour Party both here and in New Zealand. They've also been connected with a campaign for John Howard's re-election in Bennelong, his Sydney electorate. "We don't run a police state in this country," the PM has said. "Unless people are an unlawful organisation, they are entitled to meet with the Government. I've met a lot more fanatical people in my life than the Exclusive Brethren," he added. Well, you make up your own mind. Here's Chris Hammer.
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Wednesday, 15th November,2006
AL GORE INTERVIEW
Back in September when he was last in this country, Al Gore likened John Howard to a 'flat-earther' on his pet subject of climate change. In fact he accused the Australian PM of being isolated on the whole issue. These days, though, it seems John Howard is no longer a complete sceptic. In fact, he's displaying the zeal of a fully-blown convert. Well, with conditions, that is! Having refused to sign the original Kyoto protocol, he's now promoting his own approach to climate change, including carbon emissions trading - the "New Kyoto", as he calls it. But the belated flurry of green rhetoric hasn't stopped him from having a go at Mr Gore. Yesterday, he said an 'Inconvenient Truth' - the former US vice-president's box office hit on climate change - was "alright" but didn't make the earth move for him. Earlier today, George Negus talked with Al Gore, back in Australia to train a 75-strong volunteer team of local 'Inconvenient Truth' messengers.
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Wednesday, 8th November,2006
A PATRIOT ACTS
Back in 1974, when Richard Nixon was forced to resign as US President over the Watergate scandal, one name had dogged him from the very beginning - Daniel Ellsberg. During what was a highly charged political period, Ellsberg - arguably the loudest whistleblower the world had ever seen - became a household name after he infamously leaked the Pentagon Papers. Now, more than 30 years later, he's still at it. Dateline's David Brill reports that he's just as committed, just as passionate, and many would argue, just as subversive.
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Wednesday, 8th November,2006
VINCENT/DANBY INTERVIEW
Federal Labor MP Michael Danby claims bias is, in fact, a cause for concern in Australian tertiary institutions, and one of his prime targets is the Centre for Middle East Studies at Sydney's Macquarie University. Well, earlier today, Dr Andrew Vincent, the centre's director, joined George Negus here in the studio to face his critic. George Negus began by referring to a parliamentary speech in which Michael Danby himself a Jew, accused Dr Vincent of imparting "endless one-sided propaganda" in his courses that examine the Middle East conflict.
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Wednesday, 8th November,2006
CAMPUS CONFLICT
With the history wars, the culture wars and the Australian values furore, allegations of bias have been flying thick and fast in this country. We in the media have sort of grown used to it over the years. But in the US right now, those same sort of allegations, at least where academics are concerned, are not to be sniffed at. A lobby group calling itself Campus Watch has American professors of Middle East Studies in the crosshairs. Here's Chris Hammer.
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Wednesday, 8th November,2006
MARTIN WALKER INTERVIEW
As Dateline goes to air - with the polls closed in the US midterm elections - as predicted, voters have dealt a serious blow to an increasingly unpopular George Bush. Earlier this evening, George Negus spoke with Martin Walker, the editor of 'United Press International', in Washington, about the results in both houses of Congress and the ramifications.
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Wednesday, 1st November,2006
BURMA: INSIDE THE SECRET CITY
The video journalists on this program often find themselves working in pretty difficult locations. But, now and then, an assignment comes along that really takes the cake. Imagine this scenario: you're on the job in a country where the government is so paranoid and secretive it wont have a bar of independent reporting. It's a country where the locals are petrified at being interviewed and using a secret camera is often the only way you can record what's going on in the place. That was precisely what Ginny Stein faced when she recently sneaked into Burma. Ginny's idea had been to report on Burmese dissidents who've lately begun to speak out despite years of harassment. Along the way, Ginny found herself in that pariah nation's new capital city. It's only been seen by a handful of outsiders and, according to many of the locals, is built on the regime's curious belief in astrology and numerology.
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A little over the top to be taken seriously? -
Wednesday, 1st November,2006
BOB BROWN, GREG HUNT INTERVIEW
Both overseas and in Australia this week it has been near impossible to turn on the television or radio or pick up a newspaper without hearing the loaded terms "global warming" and "climate change". They are definitely the hot ticket political items right now.
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From the UK, the Stern Report delivered a dire warning about the economic consequences of global warming. Coincidentally or otherwise, the Howard government reacted by announcing that the world's biggest solar energy plant would be built in Victoria, suddenly found a lazy $60-million for clean energy projects and telegraphed plans for a "new Kyoto" after repeatedly dismissing the original and refusing to sign its protocol.
Meanwhile, a former UK environment minister has described Australia's approach as "sleepwalking to oblivion". So are we doing too little too late? Earlier this evening, George Negus put that question to Greg Hunt, the Federal Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, and the Greens' Senator Bob Brown. -
Wednesday, 1st November,2006
IT'S IRAQ, STUPID
The pundits are forever telling us that opinion polls carry only so much weight. But when they're all saying the same thing, only a foolish politician would ignore them! Right now in the US, the polls - if, as we say, they can be believed - are predicting that the Republicans are in for a drubbing in next week's mid-term Congressional elections, a result that would drastically alter the last two years of George Bush's presidency. The big issue, of course, is Iraq and how to get out of there. Sophie McNeill reports from the vital swing state of Pennsylvania, where both sides are desperate to win.
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