Fear and Fun in Baghdad
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Reporters. In this edition: a sign reads: 'Welcome to Baghdad'. But residents in the Iraqi capital fear their city, and the country, are doomed. What will Greeks say, fifty years from now, about what happened in their country during the turbulence of summer 2015? As the talks in Vienna over Iran's nuclear programme inch, perhaps, towards a deal, our correspondent sees evidence of Iran's continuing suspicion of the United States on the streets of the capital, Tehran. We're overwhelmed by music as we trace the route of the first missionaries along the River Congo in Africa and find out how a million dollars, raised in the United States, is helping to train dogs to save lives.
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, Fear and Fun in Baghdad, a city of contradictions amid the relative calm of Ramadan |
| 0:16.4 | as talks drag on in Vienna about Iran's nuclear program a guided tour of the building |
| 0:22.4 | in Tehran they call the CIA's secret |
| 0:25.1 | wing. |
| 0:26.3 | We go looking for Jerusalem on the shores of the Congo River in Africa, and in California |
| 0:32.4 | meet a woman who lives in an aircraft hangar and teachers rescue dogs to rescue people. |
| 0:37.0 | President Barack Obama told reporters this week the American-led coalition was intensifying its campaign |
| 0:44.8 | against Islamic State fighters but he warned that the jihadis were nimble and |
| 0:49.6 | opportunistic and the battle would be a long one They now control much of Iraq and there are fears |
| 0:55.0 | they could eventually overcome the capital Baghdad. The overall level of violence |
| 1:00.0 | in the city is down on last year, the fewer bomb explosions and shootings, but the people |
| 1:05.3 | who live in Baghdad, as Johnny Diamonds been finding out, remain deeply pessimistic about the future of |
| 1:11.1 | their country. |
| 1:12.1 | The air is heavy with sand and dust tonight, |
| 1:15.0 | so thick that there's a fine mist of it between finger and thumb, |
| 1:19.0 | so thick that the tall buildings in the middle distance |
| 1:22.0 | appear soft and smudged in the twilight. |
| 1:25.0 | A thin layer of grit covers the keyboard. |
| 1:28.0 | Baghdad is both different and very much the same. |
| 1:32.0 | The airport, once dirty and weary with neglect, is now shiny and clean. |
... |
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