A Pig of a Sea
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
More and more migrants are trying to cross the Mediterranean and there are suggestions the new force charged with rescuing those in danger of drowning isn't up to the job. Emma Jane Kirby's been to Europe's southern shores to see how it's coping. Andrew Harding was in the parliament building in Cape Town when President Zuma's state of the nation speech was interrupted by hecklers. He considers whether the chaos was a sign that democracy's in decline in South Africa. The global crude oil market has collapsed, the price has plummeted. Jon Sopel has been to Texas where the mood is, perhaps surprisingly, not altogether pessimistic. Elections in Nigeria have been postponed. Will Ross says many people there view the decision with deep suspicion. And carnival season's underway in many parts of the world. Dany Mitzman's been witnessing preparations in one Italian town where there were fears this year that this was a party which would never happen.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to hear from our own correspondent. We do two versions of the programme, |
| 0:05.0 | one for the BBC World Service, and this one's a download of the latest edition from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:11.0 | It's introduced by Kate Adi. |
| 0:14.0 | Hello, we can't just leave people in the sea. A dilemma for ships captains as more migrants drown in the Mediterranean. |
| 0:22.0 | Rumour and suspicion in Nigeria, the President's accused of postponing the elections because he's frightened of losing. |
| 0:30.0 | The price of oil halved, workers laid off, Wells Mothbold, has the Texas oil boom turned |
| 0:35.9 | to bust, and a miracle in a small town in Central Italy, carnivals going ahead against |
| 0:41.9 | all the odds. |
| 0:44.0 | Hundreds more would-be migrants drowned this week trying to cross the Mediterranean in the hope of new lives in Europe. |
| 0:50.0 | Their deaths have raised questions about why the European Union decided to cut back its maritime rescue operation at the end of last year. |
| 0:59.0 | It had been run by the relatively well-equipped Italian Navy. Now it's in the hands of what many see as the |
| 1:05.3 | under-resourced EU Border Control Agency, Frontex. |
| 1:09.8 | Lattest figures suggest more migrants than ever are trying to make the crossing, despite adverse weather conditions in recent weeks. |
| 1:16.5 | Emma Jane Kirby's been to Sicily to see how Frontex is fairing. |
| 1:21.0 | Clinging to the safety bar of the top bunk in the hot and |
| 1:25.4 | airless cabin, I decide I want to die. For 24 hours now the sea has boiled beneath us, |
| 1:33.3 | catapulting us upwards on the swell, |
| 1:35.6 | and then crashing back down. |
| 1:37.8 | The 15-foot wave squeezed and squashed |
| 1:40.8 | under the ship's hull with a jodering force of a pneumatic drill. |
| 1:45.8 | The metallic stench of bile and acrid engine fuel is choking me. |
| 1:50.8 | I've been sick so many times now that I'm shaking. And there's no getting off. |
... |
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