The New York Moment
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
New York was hit hard in the pandemic, and more than 29 000 died since the first outbreak there. Residents and workers saw a changed landscape – gone were the tourist throngs, and bustling streets – social distancing signs thinned out the crowds and demarcated the streets. Now the city is re-opening and the soul-searching has begun. But Nick Bryant takes solace that the city will still find its way back to recovery. This week, nurses across Kenya went back to work after a three month strike. Doctors who had also walked off the job in December returned last month. There is widespread relief because many feared industrial action in the middle of a pandemic could cost even more lives…So far Kenya is relatively unscathed by Covid-19. But, as Lucy Ash reports, the death of one young doctor from the virus has stirred outrage and exposed some of the failings in the country’s health system. In Belarus, a journalist is on trial for investigating the death of a protester in another example of the crackdown on independent media in the country. Since mass protests started last August following a general election widely deemed unfair, more than 400 journalists have been detained. Abdujalil Abdurasulov visited the capital Minsk last August and witnessed how brutally the authorities dealt with anyone who dared to challenge the regime. Since the 16th century, French streets have regularly been named in honour of notable people. But only a tiny proportion of them bear the names of women. In 2011 - the authorities in Paris decided to tackle the problem by choosing extraordinary women after which to name its newest streets and transport systems. But, as Joanna Robertson reports from Paris, the process of renaming is proving too slow for feminist groups
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts |
| 0:06.0 | Today, after a year in which healthcare has been deemed so vital, in Kenya, doctors and |
| 0:11.4 | nurses have been on strike for three months, protesting about poor working conditions and |
| 0:16.6 | low pay, and trying a creative approach to gain attention. |
| 0:21.0 | First, you suppress the street protests, then you go for the people who report them. |
| 0:26.7 | Here in Belarus, where President Lukashenko's re-election last year sparked huge demonstrations, |
| 0:33.4 | and we hear what happened to journalists who don't tow the official line. |
| 0:38.4 | And in Paris, what's in a name? A street name. Recently, the predominantly male street |
| 0:44.3 | names have been undergoing a feminist overhaul. In one activist stunt, 1,400 streets were |
| 0:50.9 | given women's names overnight, something of a challenge for the tourists at least. |
| 0:57.7 | First to New York, which is reopening slowly after a dreadful year, the long narrow streets |
| 1:03.3 | of Manhattan echoing night and day to racing ambulances, and a city used to pop up cafes |
| 1:09.9 | and shops getting makeshift morgs instead. And now there's some soul-searching. Could |
| 1:15.8 | it have been handled better with the Governor Andrew Cuomo coming in for criticism? Nick |
| 1:21.3 | Bryant looks at the road to recovery. |
| 1:25.0 | I write in celebration of the New York moment, those exhilarating and enchanting experiences |
| 1:32.1 | and encounters that make New York New York. Let me give you an example from the blackout |
| 1:39.4 | that immobilized this city in 2003. A power outage late one lazy August afternoon. The |
| 1:46.3 | many of us feared signal the start of another terror attack, a second 9-11. Thankfully the |
| 1:52.6 | lights had gone out because of America's decrepit power grid, rather than anything more |
| 1:57.1 | sinister, and relief quickly turned to revelry. Bars, spilled out onto the sidewalks, blocks |
| 2:03.6 | of Manhattan became the venue for twilight raves, park carnival, park catharsis. |
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