Stamina of the Strongmen
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2017
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Controversial votes in Turkey and Kashmir, and a university challenged in Hungary. Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories: Justin Rowlatt is in Kashmir on election day where he sees plenty of police and protestors, but where are the voters? In Turkey Mark Lowen finds that paranoia has reached the level of absurdity ahead of the country’s referendum.
Not only are TV chefs accused of being spies, but our own correspondent comes under suspicion of being a foreign agent, though thankfully not for long. In Cuba Linda Pressly meets the scientists behind a cancer vaccine now being trialled in the US; they owe everything to Fidel Castro, they tell her. As part of the World Service Life Stories season, Sahar Zand meets the Toraja people of Eastern Indonesia for whom death doesn’t always mean goodbye. And in Hungary Nick Thorpe dips his toe into the stream of controversy that surrounds the government’s ongoing war against liberalism.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:04.0 | With a tale of a university challenged in Central Europe and other stories, |
| 0:09.0 | here's Kate Aide with from our own correspondent, which was first broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday, April 15th, 2017. |
| 0:18.6 | Hello, today the belief that a so-called strong man, looking good, sounding tough, can cure your |
| 0:26.3 | nation's every ill, is alive and well. |
| 0:29.6 | Our correspondence in Cuba, in Turkey and in Hungary are watching such men in action. |
| 0:35.0 | In Kashmir, a very small turnout of voters |
| 0:39.0 | prompts another election, |
| 0:41.0 | and we observe very long-running funerals in Indonesia. |
| 0:47.0 | Tomorrow is referendum day in Turkey, with voters having their say on constitutional changes that seek to replace a parliamentary |
| 0:55.3 | system with a presidential one. A yes vote would significantly increase President |
| 1:01.2 | Edouan's power and could allow him to stay in post for at least |
| 1:05.0 | another 12 years. |
| 1:07.4 | He claims this would help provide stability at a time of turmoil. |
| 1:11.7 | His opponents fear it would mark a slide towards dictatorship. |
| 1:15.4 | Mark Lowens been traveling around the country ahead of the vote. |
| 1:18.8 | The president wasn't at home, though we didn't get as far as knocking. |
| 1:24.6 | Regip Taib Erdogan's summer mansion in his family hometown on the Black Sea |
| 1:29.6 | is predictably surrounded by high walls and off limits to journalists. |
| 1:34.4 | So we drove back down the bumpy mountain road surrounded by lush tea plantations |
| 1:39.7 | and into the path of a police car. |
| 1:42.1 | We assumed they were chasing us away from Shay Erdogan, but it turns out |
... |
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