Ghosts of Bush House
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2012
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Natasha Breed on how the population of Kenya's expanding fast, urban areas are eating up the countryside. And it's proving disastrous and sometimes fatal for the country's wildlife. A weird fungus which grows out of the heads of caterpillars is being harvested in parts of the Himalayas. Craig Jeffrey, who's been investigating, says it's proving a valuable cash crop for some of the mountain villagers. Latvia has the fastest-growing economy in Europe. Damien McGuinness has been to the capital Riga to see how they've made austerity cool. The Nigerian president's been speaking of the importance of family planning. The BBC's Jane Dreaper's been to a part of his country where having seven children is far from unusual. And Anna Horsbrugh Porter is one of the BBC World Service staff who're leaving their headquarters in London, Bush House in the Strand. She's been talking to colleagues about a much-loved broadcasting institution.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This download from the BBC is the very last radio for from our own correspondent |
| 0:05.0 | to be broadcast from Bush House in London. |
| 0:07.0 | We're moving house and here to introduce this program is Kate Adi. |
| 0:11.0 | Today the King of the Jungle down and out as Kenya's towns and cities invade his territory. |
| 0:18.0 | It's the fastest growing economy in Europe where in Latvia finding out how they've made austerity cool. |
| 0:23.7 | A fungus that attacks caterpillars is transforming fortunes in the high Himalayas. |
| 0:29.1 | And the BBC World Service moves house and leaves a building filled with the ghosts and voices of the past. |
| 0:37.0 | Driving into town from Nairobi Airport, you used to be able to see Zebra, giraffe and wildebeast roaming free from your car window. |
| 0:45.8 | And there was a sign at the side of the road saying, Welcome to the Green City and the Sun. |
| 0:50.4 | Well these days, the city stretches all the way to the airport. |
| 0:53.7 | There are no longer any wild animals to be seen, |
| 0:56.5 | and there's no longer a green city. |
| 0:58.6 | Much of what used to be parkland has been built over. |
| 1:01.6 | And it's a similar story throughout Kenya. The |
| 1:04.8 | populations exploded. Urban areas consume more and more countryside each year. |
| 1:10.0 | And all this, Natasha Breed tells us, is disastrous for the wildlife. |
| 1:14.0 | The sign at the entrance to my neighbourhood |
| 1:17.0 | read, |
| 1:18.0 | To all our dear residents, |
| 1:19.0 | Lion Seen Macoma Road. |
| 1:21.0 | The area borders Nairobi National Park and we're |
| 1:24.8 | used to hearing lions calling at night and sometimes leopard and hyena too, but the |
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