BBC Radio 4
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2010
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Will economics force the French to rethink their lifestyles? It's a question Christian Fraser in Paris answers in the week a million French people took to the streets to protest at the government's plans to raise the retirement age. On the anniversary of 9/11 Laura Trevelyan in New York's been talking to the Manhattan Muslims about the furore surrounding plans to build an Islamic cultural centre and mosque close to Ground Zero. Mark Tully visits a hill station -- it's the sort of place the British, back in colonial days, would go to escape the heat of summer. Today, it seems, they have a rather different character. Jane Beresford's in the fields of Sierra Leone finding out why women there welcome the sight of new tractors at their farms and Ella Fitzgerald sang of eating baloney at Coney. Today, as Antonia Quirke has discovered, the city has plans for the amusement district of Coney Island ... and not everyone's happy.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to from our own correspondent. |
| 0:03.0 | We make two editions of the programme, |
| 0:05.1 | and if you'd like to hear the one broadcast on the BBC World Service |
| 0:08.1 | and presented this week by Tony Grant, |
| 0:10.8 | you'll need to go to the BBC IPlayer. |
| 0:13.5 | This version's the one aired on BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:16.5 | It's presented by Kate Ady. |
| 0:18.9 | Today, a million people demonstrate on the streets of France, |
| 0:22.8 | but there's a growing belief that lifestyles there may have to change. |
| 0:27.3 | The Manhattan Muslims bewildered at the fuss over plans to build a mosque at Ground Zero. |
| 0:33.0 | We learn that Indians are now enjoying the hill stations |
| 0:36.1 | once seen as Corners of Britain in a foreign land. |
| 0:39.3 | And it's the birthplace of the hot dog, the site of the world's first roller coaster, |
| 0:44.3 | but we find there's little agreement over the future of Coney Island in New York City. |
| 0:50.3 | The French authorities are expecting further protests over government plans to raise the retirement age to 62. |
| 0:58.4 | Much of the country was brought to a standstill earlier this week by strike action and demonstrations. |
| 1:04.4 | President Sarkozy says his government must reform the pension system if France's huge budget deficit is to be reduced. |
| 1:11.8 | But opponents say his plans are dictatorial and unfair. |
| 1:16.5 | Despite their campaign, Christian Fraser says there's a growing body of opinion in France |
| 1:21.2 | that times are changing and that the old ways of doing things may have to change too. |
| 1:26.7 | All right, so they weren't blockading British ferries at Calais or burning English lamb in rural Normandy. |
| 1:33.5 | Nonetheless, the French strikers who brought the country to a standstill this week still have the Anglo-Saxons in their sights. |
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