The Buckwheat Barometer
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2014
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Despatches. Steve Rosenberg sets out to discover who the Russian public holds responsible for rising prices and the ailing rouble? Owen Bennett Jones has a series of encounters in Tunis which offer clues to the direction in which the country's heading. Germany takes in more refugees than any other EU country - Jenny Hill in Munich says it's costing a huge amount and there's uncertainty over who will pay the bills. The giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands may be used to playing a long game but Horatio Clare, who's just been visiting, says the islands' human residents are having to prepare for change. And Carolyn Brown has been finding out why a steady stream of travellers is choosing to stop off at a small town in the north of France
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to hear from our own correspondent. We do two versions of the programme, one for the BBC World Service, and this one's a download of the latest edition from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:11.0 | It's introduced by Kate Adi. |
| 0:13.2 | Hello. Today prices are rising, the currency sinking, there's panic buying, but |
| 0:19.2 | who do Russians blame for their current problems? |
| 0:22.0 | 200,000 refugees seeking asylum in Germany, |
| 0:26.0 | the authorities say it can't go on. |
| 0:29.0 | The iguanas are still there, |
| 0:31.0 | so are the giant tortoises, but islanders in the Galapagos no longer |
| 0:35.1 | light cigars with $20 bills. |
| 0:38.1 | And why on earth is a grisly collection of pigs' body parts, drawing the crowds to a small town in northern France. of from President Putin of Russia about what might happen if the Rubel continued its slide. |
| 0:55.3 | And slide further it did this week on the news from the Oil Producers Group OPEC that they would |
| 1:00.1 | not cut their output. |
| 1:02.2 | The President's been facing mounting international |
| 1:04.8 | opposition to his country's involvement in Eastern Ukraine. Relations with the |
| 1:09.1 | west have deteriorated sharply. They've been heated exchanges, sanctions and rising military tension. |
| 1:15.8 | Mr. Putin insists Russia won't allow itself to become isolated behind another iron curtain, |
| 1:21.6 | but Steve Rosenberg says the pressure's mounting on him and on the Russian |
| 1:25.4 | economy. |
| 1:27.2 | Legend has it that a thousand years ago when Greek monks spread Christianity to Russia, they brought with them more than just the Bible. |
| 1:34.8 | They brought a grain, a seed, so magical, nutritious, and so delicious, that it struck an instant |
| 1:42.4 | cord with the Slavic soul and the Russian stomach. |
| 1:46.8 | That grain was buckwheat. |
... |
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