Brussels on Edge
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Correspondents' stories. In the wake of the attacks in Paris, nearby Belgium has been portrayed as a dysfunctional place with failing state structures, a country where terrorists can go about their business unchallenged. Tim Whewell's been to Brussels to talk to some who feel alienated and abandoned by the Belgian state. Eight months of war in Yemen -- and Iona Craig has been finding out how people living in the country’s third city are now relying on smugglers to bring in vital supplies. Fifty-one thousand refugees are now living in Berlin -- Chris Haslam's been hearing that for some, their problems are only just beginning. Preparations are underway for the big climate conference starting in Paris next week. Some say global warming is a problem that's just too difficult to solve. But David Shukman believes there's reason for some guarded optimism. And Juliet Rix has been to Malta, the scene of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting. The Mediterranean island long ago ceased to be a British colony but she finds some lasting affection for the old motherland although a continuing fondness for the traditional English breakfast might be doing more harm than good!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You have downloaded from our own correspondent. This edition is the latest one broadcast on BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:06.0 | And here to introduce it is Kate A.D. |
| 0:09.0 | Hello. Today, eight months of war and Yemen is now not just one failed state, it's two. |
| 0:16.3 | Another refugee family arrives in Berlin, |
| 0:18.9 | six thousand pounds poorer, frightened and desperate, |
| 0:22.4 | their problems are only just beginning. pounds poorer, frightened and desperate. |
| 0:22.6 | Their problems are only just beginning. |
| 0:25.0 | The big climate conference opens in Paris on Monday. |
| 0:28.2 | There are signs that this time there might be progress on global warming, the Queen's in Malta at the Commonwealth |
| 0:34.9 | Heads of Government meeting. But will she be having a word with the grumpy lady |
| 0:39.4 | at the Villa Guadamangia? The city centre in Brussels has been getting back to normal after several days |
| 0:46.3 | in which the capital was in lockdown because of fears of an imminent attack. Its metro system |
| 0:51.8 | has now reopened children back are back in school. Tourists have returned to the |
| 0:55.6 | Grand Plas and Christmas shoppers are out on the streets again. The authorities reduced their |
| 1:00.5 | official threat level on Thursday, even though neither of the two named suspects linked |
| 1:05.7 | to the terrorist killings in Paris two weeks ago has been detained. |
| 1:09.8 | Tim Hewell tells us that people in Brussels are clearly relieved to be able to go about their daily |
| 1:14.6 | business again. But there's concern that some in their midst feel they've been abandoned by |
| 1:19.8 | the Belgian state and they're angry. I'm hurrying down a scruffy backstreet in Brussels, |
| 1:25.0 | bent forward against the wind and rain, |
| 1:27.0 | when I'm stopped by a young man parking his car. |
| 1:30.0 | Do I have a 20 cent piece for the meter he asks? I rummage around and give him one, but he |
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