Afghan New Year
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2012
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Afghans enjoy New Year celebrations but Lyse Doucet finds they are concerned about what the months ahead may bring John James travels to the west African state of Guinea-Bissau and finds unexpected charms amidst its shadows The Burmese are finding out that recent reforms in their country have encouraged tourists to return. Caroline Hawley has been seeing what it has to offer the international visitor The Egyptians are preparing to vote for a new president and Jon Leyne has been finding out there are hundreds of people who feel they should have the job Gavin Esler meets Chancellor Merkel in Berlin and considers to what extent Germans feel obliged to help the poorer nations of southern Europe
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello this download from the BBC is the latest edition of the Radio 4 program from our own correspondent. |
| 0:05.7 | It's introduced by Kate Adi. |
| 0:07.7 | Today, Afghans celebrate New Year with a bang, but the months ahead look uncertain and dangerous. |
| 0:14.9 | In Germany a dilemma over thrift and responsibility for the most powerful woman on earth. |
| 0:20.3 | They're getting ready to vote in Egypt. |
| 0:22.2 | Hundreds reckon they've got what it takes to be the new president. |
| 0:26.0 | And we find unexpected charms amid the shadows on an evening stroll in Guinea-Bissau. |
| 0:32.0 | The British and American mission in Afghanistan has seldom seemed as precarious as it does this weekend. |
| 0:38.0 | The death of another British soldier there on Wednesday came amid fresh speculation that the withdrawal date for foreign forces |
| 0:45.2 | currently set for the end of 2014 will be brought forward. But Lees Dousette, who used to live in |
| 0:50.6 | Kabul and is still a frequent visitor tells us the mood there despite |
| 0:55.0 | the instability isn't all pessimistic. |
| 0:58.2 | The first explosion sounded at midnight. |
| 1:01.2 | Across Kabul Afghans froze, held their breath. Some were jolted from sleep. I also stopped |
| 1:06.8 | and listened closely. Was it a bomb? The night went silent. Then a staccato burst of sound rang out. Gunfire? I went out to the roof terrace to see if the black night sky would reveal its secret. And there it was, a cascade of brilliant orange lights, flaring, fizzling, then exploding again. |
| 1:28.0 | Fireworks to usher in the Persian New Year, Nauroz, celebrated by Afghans and some neighbors too. |
| 1:35.8 | There hadn't been a celebration of this kind for as long as most Afghans could remember. |
| 1:41.5 | On the roof terrace next door, children's excited squeals of laughter |
| 1:46.0 | was the other sweet music of this night. And when night gave way today, a new year dawned. The roof terrace became the stage for a symphony of bird song. |
| 1:56.0 | Sparrows tweeted, swallows trace long sweeping arcs in the sky, signaling a long hard winter, was over. And then a black magpie came to rest with its distinctive |
| 2:07.3 | stripes of white and blue. Afghans call it the good news bird. And what good news it brought that day? News of nothing more but nothing |
| 2:15.8 | less than the kind of day you might call, well, normal somewhere else in the world, but |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.