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Global Voices on the BBC

Lisa Goldman, Sokari Ekine, Haitham Sabbah and I headed across town yesterday to the legendary Bush House to appear on Have Your Say, a new radio show that our friend Kevin Anderson is helping put together. Have Your Say is an “interactive radio show” – one of the producers said, “Don’t ask us what that means, because we don’t know.”

What it seems to mean is that it’s an hour-long radio show that tries to integrate input from phonecalls, skype, instant messages, emails, discussion group posts and, I suspect, via mental telepathy. Alongside host Steve Richards is Rabiya Parekh, who sits beside him in the studio, managing messages coming in from emails and SMSs and reading them on the air.

our crew at the bbc
Our gang with Steve and Rabiya

While Steve tried very hard to integrate the four of us into the flow of the show, the content made things a bit challenging for us. The show began with a focus on the bombings earlier in the day in Bangladesh, moved on to a debate about whether or not California inmate Stanley “Tookie” Williams should be executed, and ended with a debate on the superiority of the World Cup or the Olympics as the world’s dominant sporting event.

This led to odd questions like Lisa trying to offer the Israeli perspective on Tookie Williams and the Crips (“there isn’t one”) or us trying to channel our respective regions’ opinions about football versus the olympics (football in every case). But we all got to speak a bit about blogging in our regions and the goals of Global Voices. I’m hoping the crew at Have Your Say will think of Global Voices as a way to find participants for these shows in the future.

It’s interesting for me to think about how a radio show adapts to take advantage of the Internet. I’ve worked a bit with the team behind Chris Lydon’s Open Source radio show, and it’s a fascinating contrast to this show. Have Your Say is devoid of opinion from the hosts – it’s designed to be a space without agenda or bias. Open Source is strongly opinionated and agenda’d, has a strong dose of Chris’s personality, and focuses on a single issue for an hour, which makes it a bit easier to engage than when the issue changes every ten minutes. I think I prefer the long-form model Chris uses, but I’m cognisant of the fact that Have Your Say is very new – about five weeks old – and I’m very excited to see where it goes as it grows up. Thanks, Kevin, Steve, Rabiya, for having us on your show.

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  4. For Immediate Release

    11 March 2006

    PAGA CROCODILES ATTACK FILM CREW

    A film crew from Creative Storm was attacked by crocodiles at Paga, on the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso Thursday 9 March 2006. The crew was filming a documentary by Director, Kwesi Owusu for the Environmental Film Festival of Accra. Alhassan Yidana, a tourist guide suffered deep cuts on his legs and was rushed to hospital.

    ‘It was like a scene from the film, Jaws. Unusually, several crocodiles came out of the pond when we arrived late afternoon. The guide said this was because we were good people. We had also been asked to buy chickens for them, so I knew the crocodiles were not vegetarians. Suddenly, all hell broke loose as we filmed the close ups. The crocodiles charged from the pond, tails rattling furiously, jaws wide open in what seemed like a coordinated attack. The guide fell, struggling in the pond as a crocodile grabbed his leg. I run for my life! Later, another guide told us the crocodiles must have been simply hungry.”

    The dramatic attack was filmed and will feature in the film ‘Music Comes from the Soul of the Land’, to be premiered at the Environmental film festival of Accra.

    PRESS CONFERENCE – Wednesday 15 March at 10am at British Council, Accra.

    CREATIVE STORM

    Contact: 0244 715602 / 021 775 072

    End

  5. PRESS RELEASE

    For Immediate Release

    11 March 2006

    PAGA CROCODILES ATTACK FILM CREW

    A film crew from Creative Storm was attacked by crocodiles at Paga, on the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso Thursday 9 March 2006. The crew was filming a documentary by Director, Kwesi Owusu for the Environmental Film Festival of Accra. Alhassan Yidana, a tourist guide suffered deep cuts on his legs and was rushed to hospital.

    ‘It was like a scene from the film, Jaws. Unusually, several crocodiles came out of the pond when we arrived late afternoon. The guide said this was because we were good people. We had also been asked to buy chickens for them, so I knew the crocodiles were not vegetarians. Suddenly, all hell broke loose as we filmed the close ups. The crocodiles charged from the pond, tails rattling furiously, jaws wide open in what seemed like a coordinated attack. The guide fell, struggling in the pond as a crocodile grabbed his leg. I run for my life! Later, another guide told us the crocodiles must have been simply hungry.”

    The dramatic attack was filmed and will feature in the film ‘Music Comes from the Soul of the Land’, to be premiered at the Environmental film festival of Accra.

    PRESS CONFERENCE – Wednesday 15 March at 10am at British Council, Accra.

    Contact: 0244 715602 / 021 775 072

    End

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