Dramatic Developments
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2018
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The twists in Brazil's politics recently would shame the most melodramatic TV soap opera - but as she reported on last week's tense stand-off, with ex-President Lula da Silva at bay, Katy Watson was also moved to reflect on how polarised the political climate has become. As some Brazilians blame Lula for everything and profess nostalgia for the days of dictatorship, others denounce the media as lying right-wingers. In South India there's more drama as Andrew Whitehead traces the intimate relationship between the Tamil-language cinema box office, and the ballot box in local elections. Lorraine Mallinder reports from Guinea Bissau on whether international efforts to suppress the cocaine traffic have really driven the drug trade out, or just driven it underground. As the city of Basel prepares to mark the 75th anniversary of history's first LSD trip - with a commemorative bicycle ride - Matt Pickles traces the long and strange relationship between this rather staid place and one of the world's most notorious hallucinogens. And Simon Parker bats his way to cricketing glory - at least briefly - as an international in the Easter Cup, played last week in San Salvador at it sweltered in 40-degree heat.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:04.0 | Today you're big at the cinema box office, so why not head for politics? |
| 0:09.0 | Southern India has a well-trotened path from screen to power. Our correspondent on the west coast of Africa |
| 0:16.0 | is offered a kilo of cocaine on the streets of Guinea Bissau and wonders if the drug trade is really |
| 0:22.2 | under control. |
| 0:24.0 | Drug research in Switzerland where tripping out on LSD might be making a comeback of sorts. |
| 0:31.0 | And cricket, not the game accompanied by cucumber sandwiches and tea, but the Central American |
| 0:36.6 | variety with cheese and refried beans. |
| 0:41.3 | First to Latin America, where the taint of corruption and the reaction against it known as |
| 0:46.0 | La Vajatu or Operation Car Wash is rocking several governments. |
| 0:51.1 | Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, and the epicenter |
| 0:56.3 | Brazil, where former President Lula da Silva has just started a 12-year prison sentence. Amid dramatic scenes he initially refused to hand |
| 1:05.8 | himself in and his fall from grace is stirring strong emotions according to Katie |
| 1:11.1 | Watson. Brazilian politics has all the ingredients of a juicy novella, |
| 1:16.0 | one of those TV soap operas that Brazilians tune into religiously from their sitting rooms |
| 1:21.0 | living vicariously through badly acted and cheesy plot lines |
| 1:25.2 | that nevertheless enthrall. But not even the best television can compete with the twists and turns |
| 1:31.5 | of real life political drama here and last week I was in the thick of it. |
| 1:36.7 | I spent four days outside the office of the Metal Workers Union near Sao Paulo. |
| 1:41.9 | That's where former President Lula de Silver was holed up with his |
| 1:44.9 | supporters before eventually handing himself over to police. Along with the |
| 1:49.9 | rest of Brazil I was gripped by the events. Throughout the day |
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