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From Our Own Correspondent

Queen Elizabeth II and the World

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From the Commonwealth country of Canada, to the fifth republic of France, we reflect on how the world remembers Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

As Head of the Commonwealth, the Queen had to negotiate the ever-evolving relationship with its member states as they declared independence and as Britain’s relationship to its former colonies underwent profound change. The British Monarch remains head of state of 14 countries, from Canada to the Solomon Islands. Lyse Doucet is in Ottawa where Canada’s leaders have made warm tributes and reflects back on her own encounters with the Queen.

Despite its anti-monarchist history, one of the more powerful tributes to the Queen emerged from French President Emmanuel Macron. He spoke fondly of her as a ‘great head of state’ and a ‘kind-hearted queen.’ So what was the Queen’s relationship to France? In 1972 Queen Elizabeth famously told former President Georges Pompidou 'we are not driving on the same side of the road, but we are going in the same direction', when he lifted the veto to Britain entering the Common Market. Hugh Schofield reflects on a unique relationship.

The Oscar-winning film Parasite portrays the story of a low-income South Korean family living in a basement apartment. In one memorable scene, the heavens open and floodwater fills the family home. Last month, in a cruel example of life imitating art, Seoul experienced its heaviest flooding in 100 years. Water rushed into homes, trapping residents inside – four people were killed. The city government has since promised to get rid of the basement apartments and create more social housing. But as Jean Mackenzie has been finding out, this offers little comfort to those who live there.

The Gambia is Africa’s smallest nation, where the process of reconciliation is proving arduous, five years after the end of a murderous dictatorship. Former President Yahya Jammeh, who fled to Equatorial Guinea in 2017 after losing a re-election bid, is wanted internationally for crimes against humanity, including extrajudicial killings, torture, forced disappearances, and sexual violence. Because he still enjoys a measure of loyalty back home, the nation he left behind is divided. Most of Jammeh’s hit men fled when he did, and many Gambians say reconciliation is impossible until they are all brought to justice. When Alexa Dvorson visited the country she witnessed a rare act of contrition.

The Republic of Moldova sits on a fault line of geo-politics, with warring Ukraine on one side and Romania, firmly ensconced in the EU and Nato, on the other. Within its borders, is Transnistria, where a Russian-backed separatist war broke out thirty years ago. Today the area is a frozen conflict zone, but Russia still has a military presence. Piggy-in-the-middle between East and West, perhaps nothing tells Moldova’s complicated story more clearly than its main industry – wine - as Tessa Dunlop finds.

Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Serena Tarling Production coordinator: Iona Hammond Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts

0:05.6

Today, canon fire and church bells have sounded across the UK and abroad to mark the death

0:12.0

of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

0:15.1

We hear about the heartfelt response from a deeply republican nation.

0:20.8

In the Gambia, an encounter between an imam and the hitman that tortured him and the

0:26.1

challenges of making reparations after the end of a dictatorship.

0:31.3

As more heavy rain hit the capital of South Korea, residents of basement apartments talk

0:37.4

of living with the continued threat of flooding.

0:41.4

And we hear about the winemakers of Moldova, over whom Russia still casts a long shadow

0:47.9

as they battle against climate change.

0:51.3

At first, as the nation mourns the death of Queen Elizabeth, commemorations are also

0:56.8

being held across several countries in the Commonwealth.

1:00.7

As its head, the Queen had to negotiate the ever-evolving relationship with the member states

1:06.6

as they declared independence and, as Britain's links to its former colonies underwent profound

1:13.0

change.

1:14.0

There have been sincere condolences expressed by leaders across the Commonwealth.

1:20.4

Even so, she had to navigate the impact of the past ever since she came to the throne.

1:26.9

Least a set is in Canada and recalls some personal encounters with the Queen.

1:33.1

This week when tributes to the Queen poured in from all corners of the world, one in particular

1:38.7

caught my attention.

1:40.6

It was from the U.S. state of Louisiana, and a French-speaking community known as the Acadians.

1:46.8

He had quoted Warren Perrin, he's an Acadian lawyer and historian.

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