Hi, this is Alan Johnston. We make two editions of From Our Own Correspondent.

If you'd like to hear the version I introduce on the BBC World Service,

you can find it by going to the BBC Eye Player.

But here's the one broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

It's presented by Kate Adi.

Today, a brain-drane Ireland can ill afford a whole new generation forced to consider emigration.

The dysfunctional family that is NATO tries to work out its role in the 21st century. The peacekeepers who've made sure

there's a corner of Africa that is forever India and why a remote tribe up the Amazon

reckons our correspondence the funniest thing ever to have

stumbled into their forest. The Irish government is meeting later today to

finalise a four-year plan to cut its huge budget deficit. The details are due to be

published by Tuesday. Sources within the European Union say a financial aid

package for Ireland will be unveiled at around the same time. But the authorities in Dublin

are thought to be reluctant to sign up to a deal they fear could harm their

country's chances of economic growth. Little more than a decade ago the Irish economy was riding high, its people

elated with their new prominence in Europe. Today, as Gavin Hirtz been finding out, the

mood is much more subdued.

A taxi ride in Dublin is rarely silent.

The drivers like to talk, to savour the crack, to shoot the breeze.

But there was something in the tone of the grey-haired driver with his pale blue eyes that made

me study him in the mirror. He was talking about his daughter who was 15. He feared that in a few

years he would lose her. She would emigrate. The thought gnawed away at him to the

...