January 2007 - Posts
By Mary Murray, NBC News producer and Havana Bureau Chief
The news that Miami city officials are planning on throwing a big bash to dance on Fidel Castro’s grave went over like a lead balloon here.
The idea of reserving the Orange Bowl, selling souvenir tee shirts and dancing to salsa bands is being construed as both inappropriate and insensitive. And no matter how hard Miami officials insist the Orange Bowl event is meant to ensure people’s safety and won’t be a party, Cubans here don’t believe it.
Surprisingly, Cuba’s government-run press has refrained from reporting the news item. Normally this is the sort of thing political pundits here milk as headlines for days. The silence is perhaps due to the nature of the story: the imminent death of El Comandante.
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By NBC News' Hasan Zaidi, reporting from Karachi, Pakistan
Last year when a journalist from Indian-administered Kashmir asked me what the "story" was behind Begum Nawazish Ali, I was more than just surprised. The Begum (the term means "Lady" in Urdu) in question is the host of Pakistan's most popular TV talk show – "Late Night Show with Begum Nawazish Ali."
I didn’t think Aaj, the fledgling television channel which broadcasts the show, was even seen outside the country. I asked him how he knew the name of Pakistan’s rising star and he said "Oh, we all watch her program off satellite!"
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| NBC News/Courtesy Aaj TV |
| "Late Night Show with Begum Nawazish Ali" host Ali Saleem in drag. |
Click here to watch VIDEO of Begum Nawazish preparing for the show.
The talk show host making waves in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (and apparently Kashmir) is purportedly a stylish, middle-aged, socialite widow of an army colonel. Her monologues are often laced with sexual innuendo, she flirts openly with her guests, and sometimes embarrasses them with probing questions about their private lives. Her guests include some of Pakistan's most well-known personalities: the urban elite, film and television stars and even some top politicians. Most are nevertheless thrilled to be invited to appear on a program millions are watching.
Viewers are obviously fascinated too. Dinner party conversations here in Karachi are often peppered with anecdotes about her risqué banter and sly digs at Pakistani politics. Women call the television station to inquire about the tailoring of her sequined blouses and where to buy her glamorous saris.
The thing is, Begum Nawazish Ali is actually a man. Ali Saleem, the 28-year-old man who dons lipstick, mascara and a wig to Begum Nawazish Ali, has managed to break many taboos in conservative Pakistan through the character.
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By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
At first sight, Bangkok’s new airport looks impressive enough. To the thousands of tourists who land here every day, the modern glass and steel terminal building, shimmering in the heat, appears every bit the symbol of modern Thailand it was intended to be.
Look closer, though, and you’ll see the workers racing to fill the numerous cracks that have appeared on the runways and taxiways just four months after it was opened and hailed as the Pride of Thailand. It’s now impossible to use 11 of 51 air bridges, and the Thai government said this week that at least some flights will be shifted back to the old airport, while the runways are patched up.
Last weekend Thai aviation authorities refused to extend an international safety certificate for problem-plagued facility. The airport’s general manager said it had yet to set up a safety committee because they were “too busy resolving other problems.”
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By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
With all the media hoopla over the existence of Starbucks in China’s Forbidden City, we reckoned it would be easy to find it.
We turned out to be wrong.
Cameraman Maurice Roper, researcher Ed Flanagan, and I had read up on the Starbucks site. We had to. The Forbidden City – one of China’s great national treasures that dates back to 1420 – covers over 2 million square feet.
But we knew the Starbucks kiosk was somewhere around the Hall of Preserving Harmony, near a gift shop, and news reports spoke of crowds of foreign media staked out outside.
Even if we got lost, surely, we thought, there would be a readily identifiable green circular logo.
Locating the Hall of Preserving Harmony was straightforward. Being a World Heritage site that draws nearly 9 million visitors a year, the Forbidden City is well signposted in Chinese and English.
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| Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images |
| Tourists drink coffee in the Starbucks coffee shop in Beijing's Forbidden City on Jan. 19. |
But nowhere was there Starbucks or a tell-tale crowd of journalists. Signs indicating a "coffee shop" in the general vicinity led us to two stands: one was shut, the other bore none of the familiar green and white hallmarks.
It wasn't until Ed spotted a Starbucks paper cup through a dusty window that we realized we were in fact standing right outside the kiosk.
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By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Tel Aviv Bureau Chief
A few weeks ago I wrote here that after covering all the tabloid stories in London, I was looking forward to getting back to Gaza. Forget it, not anymore.
And here’s why: It’s got too dangerous. Nobody is filming the daily fighting between Hamas and Fatah militias, as well as all the other family and revenge-driven shootings among Palestinians in Gaza because the gunmen threaten to kill the cameramen and other journalists.
And this raises a question about the limits of television news. If there are no pictures of the fighting, do we report the story?
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By Paul Nassar, NBC News Producer
It is a journey that I have made countless times. Arriving in the city I was born in and left -- sometimes even fled -- more times than I care to remember in the past 35 years, has become something of a routine for me. There is no doubt that things have changed here in those years.
The bitter memory of the civil war receded and the battle-scarred buildings and roads have given way to brand new highways and glimmering high-rises. The city has regained the cosmopolitan essence that it had all but lost.
Beirut today reflects the makeup of the whole country, with its diverse population. Muslim and Christian neighborhoods melt into each other, separated in most cases by nothing more than a narrow street. In the historic downtown, minarets and church steeples vie for attention, as if in competition with each other. It is the only city I know where conversations are drowned out by both the muezzin's call for prayer and the chiming of church bells.
My arrival here on Friday should have been no different from the other trips I've made to Beirut. This time, however, things are far from normal. I landed here less than 24 hours after one of the most violent riots between the opposing sectarian groups claimed the lives of at least three people.
As I drove past the Beirut Arab University, I could see some of the remnants of Thursday's clashes: an overturned minibus here, a half burned tire there. Violence is no stranger to Lebanon, but most people had hoped that sectarian strife was something firmly rooted in the (albeit recent) past.
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By Petra Cahill, World Blog editor
Robert Bazell, NBC News Chief Science Correspondent, is reporting from the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq this week for the Nightly News with Brian Williams. He blogs about how an attack in Baghdad hits home in the Daily Nightly. Click here to read his report.
By Chaim Dekel, NBC News Cameraman
Aircraft: Tel Aviv ID, this is EL AL 316 shalom (hello)
Control: This is Tel Aviv ID, go ahead
Aircraft: This is EL AL 316 departure Rome,Destination Tel Aviv, 180 miles from coast,
Line transponder 7205.
Control: This is Tel Aviv ID thank you, clear to Destination.
On frequency 118.80, this is a daily conversation between a captain and the Israeli controller that confirms an aircraft is recognized and clear to approach Israeli’s legal waters.
But since the attacks of 9/11, Israel’s Ministry of Transport has been developing a new security system that they hope will transform civil aviation dramatically and prevent potential terrorists from flying into Israeli air space to commit a “mega-terror” attack on an Israeli target.
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By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
Maadi, a quiet suburb on the outskirts of Cairo, is known for its historic mansions, quiet tree-lined boulevards and American franchises like Gold's Gym and TGIF that cater to its large expatriate community.
But now, according to daily front-page headlines, the formerly peaceful suburb is in the "Grip of Terror.”
Egyptians, unaccustomed to anonymous violent crime and especially serial violent crime, are alternately terrified and titillated by the "Maadi Murderer.”
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By Moustafa Kassem, NBC News Beirut Bureau Coordinator
There is tension on every street in west Beirut, not only at the Arab University when the incident between the government and opposition supporters happened Thursday.
In each area and on each block there are Hariri’s people here (Saad Hariri is the leader of the parliamentary majority and the leading Sunni opponent of Hezbollah), and Hezbollah people there. So there is tension in every street.
The army has now taken over. They pushed back the young men and boys and sent them home. So there is an appeal from all of the leaders in Lebanon – including Hariri, Nabih Berri, the House Speaker, and Hezbollah to calm the streets. But the tension is still there.
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By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief
Missing a goal in Iraq has always come at a cost.
Saddam Hussein's psychopathic son Uday, at one time the national soccer team's overall manager, would order players whipped and beaten if they lost games; some were even forced to train barefoot, kicking a cement ball.
So much had changed by the summer of 2004. The underdog team clawed its way into the Olympic quarterfinals and became the darling of Athens and the pride of Iraq.
Now, the team once again reflects the prevailing political environment: sectarian mistrust. When the Iraqi team lost to Saudi Arabia Wednesday, commentators and fans cried civil war.
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By NBC local journalist in Baghdad*
President Bush’s State of the Union address happened very early in the morning in Iraq, so few people saw it and it was not covered in Wednesday’s newspapers. But Iraqis were aware that the important speech was taking place, and of course have strong feelings about the points regarding Iraq.
In an attempt to get some reaction from local Iraqis, our crew interviewed people about their thoughts. We spoke to 68-year-old Khaddar Khafajee. Last year his nephew was killed when his house was bombed. He has suffered many losses and has strong views about Americans and Bush.
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By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
Theatergoers in Saudi Arabia gave new meaning to interactive theater when they mounted a stage to punch, hit, kick and whack actors with planks during a performance.
The television network al Jazeera broadcast video Tuesday of Muslim militants attacking actors during a play whose theme was both anti-extremist and anti-liberal.
The incident occurred about a month ago when the actors were performing at Al Yamamah College in Riyadh during a college-sponsored culture week.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
On Saturday, more than 13 million Germans tuned in to the country's most popular game show, "Wanna bet...?" and were won over by an unlikely American hero.
The show contestants perform unusual stunts while celebrities bet on their outcome. Usually, international stars, like Justin Timberlake or Beyoncé, get the biggest round of applause. But this time, "Sweet Pea" – an American dog – stole the audience’s hearts.
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By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent
PANGLAO ISLAND, Philippines - Given the opportunity, I like to recharge my batteries on one of the Philippines’ 7,000-plus islands but, before booking hotel and airfare, I always ask about the “Three T’s” – typhoons, tsunamis or terrorists before I travel.
Bad weather has always been a worry: God has been mixed in his gifts to the natives of this beautiful archipelago. Every year, hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of Filipinos die in floods, typhoons, mudslides, earthquakes, and other freaks of nature. But concern about local terrorism is more recent.
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Even for a feisty Shanghai local, which our fixer Millie most definitely is, she was being pushy.
"I really need the work," she said. We were stomping our feet in the damp chill of Shanghai's busy tourist shopping area, Nanjing Lu, as our correspondent and crew wrapped up shooting a standup. We were working in Shanghai just for the weekend.
"You don't understand, Adrienne," she said, when I didn't respond. "From last December through February, I have to go to six weddings!"
Ouch. Attending weddings can be an expensive affair anywhere in the world, but especially in China, where guests are expected to give the bride and groom cash.
And the going rate is steep. In a country where a middle-class monthly salary can average roughly $250, single guests are expected to give $100 and couples are expected to give $125. But families - and since Millie and her husband have a two-year-old daughter, they're considered a family – are expected to fork over $200 to the very happy couple.
When I asked Millie why there was such a wedding crush in eight weeks time, she reminded me that the Year of the Pig was coming upon us – the Chinese New Year is Feb. 18.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
What's an eelpout?
The eelpout is an eel-shaped little fish, a funny looking little fellow, who is being used by German researchers to study the effects of rising temperatures in the North Sea.
This bottom feeding fish -- some of which are being held hostage in an aquarium in a northern German laboratory -- have a metabolism which reacts to warming water. The German scientists have discovered that once temperatures reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the eelpout's circulation fails, and the fish dies.
The German laboratory has already established a link between rising sea temperatures and the declining number of fish. Researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Ocean Research in Bremerhaven say the eelpout's fate can be extrapolated to other organisms and believe that global warming will have dire consequences for many local types of fish if temperatures continue to rise.
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By Asif Farooqi and Mushtaq Yusufzai, NBC News Pakistan producers,
Pakistan and the United States have been shoulder to shoulder in fighting al-Qaida and Taliban militants in the rugged mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan since the U.S. declared its war on terror in 2001. But five years down the road there seems to be some strains in the relationship between the allies.
Two strikes within a week on suspected al-Qaida targets by the U.S. forces inside Pakistani territory followed accusations by U.S. military and intelligence officials that Pakistan wasn’t doing enough to root out terrorism within its borders.
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By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Tel Aviv Bureau Chief
When I got the assignment to come to work out of the NBC London bureau I was delighted. That should make a nice change from war and mayhem in the Holy Land, I thought.
After ten days, I can't wait to get back to Gaza.
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By Paul Goldman, NBC News Producer
In August 2002, 19-year-old Sergeant Kevin Cohen was guarding an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. At 7 a.m. he was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper. It was that bullet that killed Kevin and his dream, which he had related to his mother, Rachel Cohen, of one day fathering a child.
But this week, four years after his death, a dramatic ruling by an Israeli court means Kevin Cohen’s dream may very well come true.
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By Mary Murray, NBC News producer and Havana Bureau Chief
There was a popular joke circulating in Cuba before Fidel Castro fell ill:
“Fidel is lying in a coma in an Intensive Care Unit, close to death. So his close family and political comrades have gathered outside his hospital room to pay their respects. For a moment Fidel opens his eyes and everyone watching him through the glass window begins to wave. Fidel turns to his nurse and asks:
“Why are they all here?”
“They have come to say goodbye, Comandante.”
“Where are they all going?”
After Castro’s operation in late July, the jokes stopped as reality set in -- despite the hype, Fidel is as mortal as the rest of us. For the first serious time in 50 years of Castro’s rule, Cubans began asking in public: “What and who comes next?”
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By Richard Engel, Middle East Bureau Chief
Baghdad is a problem.
On a scale of one to ten, it’s an eight: one being a small Greek island in early September -- ten being Armageddon.
But today, for the first time, one of our stringers said, "I can’t wait until I get to Baghdad. It’s much safer."
I was slack jawed.
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By Petra Cahill, World Blog editor
Building on the success of Blogging Baghdad , we’re launching the World Blog to continue providing insight and comments from NBC News correspondents and producers around the world, in addition to Iraq.
This blog will feature the best NBC correspondents and producers from the Mideast region and elsewhere, offering unique insights and analysis on breaking news and trends from Beijing to Beirut and beyond.
As Richard Engel, NBC News Middle East Correspondent and a frequent contributor to Blogging Baghdad explains, "Expanding Blogging Baghdad makes total sense and is completely appropriate. Just as the war in Iraq is expanding beyond the borders, I think the way we cover the war in Iraq must think beyond the confines of the borders of this country." Read Richard’s debut entry here: "Dangers of the Baghdad plan."
NBC News President Steve Capus also noted today, "This is simply a natural extension of the outstanding journalism we've already seen from NBC News correspondents around the world. Given the overwhelming audience reaction to "Blogging Baghdad" there is clearly an appetite for this kind of in-depth analysis and reporting from our international bureaus."
So, please bookmark this link and continue to give us your feedback through your comments. The link to Blogging Baghdad will remain active as an archive of the blogs from the last year, but all future posts from Baghdad will appear in the World Blog.
By Mark Mullen, NBC News Correspondent
The Boeing 747 has just leveled off at 32,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean and for the first time, I tried to discreetly periscope my head to survey the other passengers who would be sitting around us for the next 12 hours.
Everywhere you looked were families with young kids: an expatriate express, ferrying American families back to China from the holidays stateside. Another confirmation was that we are all sitting in the business class section, a glorious perk and incentive Western companies give their ex-pat families.
As I saw the many children sitting around us, I was not thinking, "please I hope none of these young kids are sitting near us." The reason: I am one of those people.
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By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
These are strange times in Bangkok. The city’s still reeling from a series of New Year’s Eve bombs, Thailand’s military-appointed government is rapidly losing credibility -- and Eric Clapton has come to town.
The veteran blues star gave a cool and clinical performance Monday evening at a packed City stadium, which was surrounded by some of the tightest security I’ve seem during my time in the city.
Foreigners, who probably made up half the audience, seemed to take it in stride. Although in reality, the bombs have sent a chill through an expatriate community that had regarded the Thai capital as one of the safest cities in Asia, and had been rather blasé about the coup.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
Germany experienced a big scare last week. In a dispute between Russia and Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government decided to shut down oil supplies on one of the main lines between the two countries - a pipeline that provides Germany with one fifth of the its overall oil supply.
Luckily global warming has brought spring-like temperatures to central Europe this winter. But nevertheless, German politicians hastily came up with emergency plans, immediately addressed the issue among the 27 European Union states and even started a renewed debate on possibly halting the country's ongoing nuclear phase-out.
The German environment minister, who has been promoting alternative energy forms, even challenged the powerful car industry, saying that more fuel efficient vehicles need to be produced soon. Despite Germany's leading role in emission reduction and the development of modern diesel technology, large German luxury cars are still a worldwide favorite.
Even the taxis here are mostly Mercedes and Volkswagen cars. Yet, the future in Germany might look more like a "Brave New World" with little gondola-like cabins wizzing over old train tracks, picking up customers who order them in like taxis.
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By Paul Nassar, NBC News Producer
They come in their tens of thousands, a bedraggled bunch, walking barefoot for weeks to reach the small town of Lalibela. Perched high in the Ethiopian mountains, this former medieval capital is one of the holiest sites for Christians in Ethiopia. It is where King Lalibela -- the monarch after whom the town is named -- decided to build his African Jerusalem.
The churches and monasteries here were not built in the conventional sense. Instead they were carved out of red volcanic rock and their spiritual pull is as strong today as it was when these sites were freed from their surrounding rock more than 800 years ago.
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By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
How things have changed.
When I recall my first visit to Beijing in 1984, one of the more vivid memories was trying to find a meal after dark. Back then, there weren’t many restaurants, and the few that existed weren’t always permitted to serve foreigners - even overseas Chinese were considered foreign. And the kitchen of the city's only hotel, where I was staying, would shut early in the day.
But during subsequent visits over two decades, I watched the Chinese capital transform itself dramatically with the opening of local restaurants, the arrival of McDonald’s and KFC, and now in some neighborhoods a Starbucks ensconced in every couple of city blocks.
So I wasn’t surprised, on my first weekend back in Beijing since 1998, to be enjoying a late dinner at a raucous Taiwanese restaurant in the trendy district of Sanlitun with friends visiting from Hong Kong.
But how much things had changed I had yet to see.
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