July 2008 - Posts
By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
CAIRO, Egypt –
A relative newcomer to Arab TV, the Turkish soap opera "Noor" has helped narrow the gender gap between men and women across the Middle East.
Women see the lead female character – the independent, aspiring fashion designer Noor -- as a role model. Meantime, her husband on the show -- the blue-eyed former model and athlete Mohannad -- has become the region’s first pin-up boy.
The nightly soap opera has mainly female viewers glued to their TV sets not only because Mohannad is a cuter version of Justin Timberlake, but because he offers something many lack in their lives: romance, tenderness and a supportive partner to his independent wife. Mohannad has become the standard against which many Arab men are being judged, much to their chagrin.
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| Susan Baaghil / Reuters |
| A family watches the Turkish soap opera "Noor" in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday. |
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Music and dancing fill the streets of Santiago, Cuba from sundown to the first light of dawn. Contagious drum rhythms draw people out of their homes into endless conga lines -- some lasting as long as six hours. NBC News' Mary Murray reports on the colorful celebrations that mark the founding of Cuba's second largest city.
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By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
BEIJING – Activists have been rounded up, migrant workers sent home, and restrictions placed on live music venues, bars and restaurants.
Security also is high, with x-ray machines at all subway turnstiles, road checks surrounding Beijing, and 100,000 police, paramilitary and army troops deployed throughout the capital. (See the issues discussed with local officials at a recent Beijing press conference).
A week before the Opening Ceremony, some foreign journalists have dubbed them the "No-Fun Games," the "Fun-Free Games" and the "Killjoy Games."
But, following recent incidents and conversations, it struck me these Summer Games might be better called the "Nationalism Olympics."
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| Adrienne Mong |
| Beijing is awash with smog and Olympic signage. |
'You are disrespecting the Olympics spirit!'
Take, for instance, what happened when our researcher Ed Flanagan was accompanying cameraman Kevin Burke last week on a shoot at the main Olympics ticket booth.
Wishing to get a high shot of the massive crowds of Chinese waiting to buy tickets, Kevin, with his video camera, climbed on top of a table that was supposed to be used to sell tickets.
Immediately, outraged bystanders began shouting at him (in Chinese): "Get off that table now! You are disrespecting the Olympics spirit! You are besmirching China!"
Ed quietly suggested to Kevin that he step down from the table.
Given the uncomfortable conditions – waiting in line overnight in a sticky relentless heat – some of the ticket buyers’ irritation was understandable. But it seemed surprising that they would vent their anger at a foreign news crew and choose to do so in such a manner, resorting to expressions of national pride.
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By Cheryl Gould, NBC News Senior Vice President
Once I returned home from a week in Tunisia as part of a two-person Committee to Protect Journalism (CPJ) delegation, I couldn't get Slim Boukhdir's plight off my mind, nor his wife Delinda's answer when I asked her if her husband would go back to reporting if he were released from prison: "Of course he will," she said, "And I support him in that."
As I reported here earlier this month, CPJ sent us there to focus attention on the treatment of journalists in Tunisia, which jails more reporters than any other country in the Arab world, even while its government enjoys good relations with the United States. But when our mission was over, Boukhdir remained a prisoner and we had no reason to believe that he would be released. I was haunted by the image of Delinda, a soft-spoken but strong woman, who has been raising two little children alone since her husband was thrown in prison.
Back in New York, I was sitting on a lunch-counter stool with an NBC friend, discussing my trip, when I got an email on my blackberry from Joel Campagna, my CPJ colleague and traveling companion during our visit to Tunisia:
"It's still unconfirmed, but I just got word that Boukhdir has been released from prison!"
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"Afganistan under coalition watch has practically become a narco-state," said Owais Ahmad Ghani, the governor of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, in a recent interview with NBC News.
Ghani, who as governor of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province also oversees Pakistan's unruly tribal areas, explained how he believes the challenges of battling the war on terror in the region are compounded by misrule in neighboring Afghanistan.
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
In the countdown to the Beijing Olympics, NBC News' Adrienne Mong spoke with a number of people who know Beijing intimately about how their city has changed and the challenges it faces going forward.
From pollution to the rapid pursuit of progress, below are a series of links where an environmentalist, a businessman, and a Fulbright scholar describe Beijing "In their own words."
Environmental activist
Lo Sze Ping is the Greenpeace Campaign Director in China. A Hong Kong native, he studied and lived in the U.S. for several years before moving to Beijing in 2001.
Lo describes his experience in the Chinese capital, where he says people are aware of environmental issues -- not in the abstract but in the concrete day-to-day sense. He also reminds us that "that China cannot be not part of the picture" when it comes to battling for a cleaner planet."
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An Israeli human rights organization gave out 100 small video cameras to Palestinians to document abuses at the hands of Jewish settlers. NBC News' Martin Fletcher reports.
By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent
LONDON – Just typing his name brings back an old, deeply buried dread. Thirteen years since the end of the war in Bosnia,
Radovan Karadzic – along with Gen. Ratko Mladic – remains, for many of us who covered them, one of that war's "faces of evil," even if the austere, white-bearded version of Karadzic seen today looks nothing like the slick poet-psychiatrist of those days, with his rock-star mane of gray hair and European suits.
Karadzic was the perfect front man for the horrors that were allegedly carried out against thousands by his paramilitary henchmen. He was a kind of mafia warlord who was cleverly articulate – even if crazed – when it came to explaining the history of Serbs victimized over the centuries at the hands of the West.
According to investigators, he used "ethnic cleansing" to justify beatings, rapes, mass murder, starvation and unspeakable torture of non-Serbs.
And, for years, Karadzic managed to evade U.N. forces, Serb police and a hoard of international media – including NBC News – only to be arrested, in the end, on a city bus near Belgrade.
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By Karl Bostic, NBC News Producer
Iraq's parliament passed a provincial elections bill on Tuesday despite a walkout by Kurdish parliamentarians angered over how the law would deal with the disputed city of Kirkuk.
The provincial election plan -- strongly backed by Washington -- would shift more political powers to regions and is viewed by Sunni Arabs as path to gain more influence over decisions by the Shiite-led government. U.S. officials see the voting as another key step in national reconciliation.
But a timeline for the elections has been a major source of dispute. The U.N. Special Representative to Iraq, Stephan de Mistura, explains the importance of the local elections to NBC News and why this is a "make or break time for Iraq."
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
BEIJING – Twenty-two days before the Olympic Games open here, the capital is awash in smog – an unseasonably thick haze that seems part pollution, part humidity.
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| Adrienne Mong / NBC News |
| A typical morning seen from a residential high-rise overlooking Beijing's Third Ring Road. |
And while Chinese authorities say the atmosphere has been better than expected, they are taking measures this weekend that hopefully will ease the muddy, gray haze that has stifled the city's residents for the past six weeks.
Beijing's government said it has spent around $20 billion to improve its air quality, deploying a variety of emissions-reducing measures such as cutting fares for public transport; converting coal-fired heaters to electric or other clean-fuel ones; imposing new vehicle-exhaust standards that match those in Western Europe; and shutting down or relocating factories in the capital.
Officials have even brought in more green, literally. They've invested $1.12 billion to build the enormous Olympic Forest Park, on the edge of the Olympic Village. Not only does it help buffer the notorious sandstorms that sweep over Beijing, the park should help clean the air by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing more oxygen.
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The Iraqi government has delayed another vote on the structure of local elections, frustrating Iraqis, many of whom lack electricity and running water - which is particularly difficult during the hot summer months. NBC’s Karl Bostic reports from Baghdad.
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan William Wood discusses on opium production, the Taliban, and the challenges facing the country with NBC News' Jim Maceda.
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By Mary Murray, NBC News Havana Bureau Chief
HAVANA – The U.S. election season is once again in full swing – here in Havana.
There’s so much political reporting here that you’d think Cubans plan on going to the U.S. polls.
A day rarely goes by without the state-controlled media running a story on the presidential candidates, analyzing their positions that go way beyond Cuba policy.
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| AP file |
| A Cuban man keeps up with the news in the Communist Workers weekly newspaper in Havana. |
Television pundits, radio commentaries and pages in the written press have probed a gamut of election issues – from each candidate’s proposed exit strategies in Iraq to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions to the impact of campaign financing on U.S. democracy.
Trading barbs
Even Fidel Castro, retired from public life but still packing a lot of punch, has gotten into the act. He’s written about a dozen editorials bashing both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama.
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By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
HANGZHOU, China – It's become a truism (and a complaint) that most stories that take us out of Beijing require a flight, plus a four-hour drive. In the past two months, our NBC News team has criss-crossed the country, gathering story elements for features that will be broadcast when the Summer Olympics finally kicks off in August.
So we'd become a bit blasé about the reach of development witnessed in every far-flung corner of China until one particularly long road journey when our cameraman Dmitry Solovyov, on assignment here from Moscow, made the observation that, "The roads here are excellent. We do not have roads like this in Russia. Certainly not everywhere like here."
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| Adrienne Mong / NBC News |
| The Hangzhou Bay Bridge spans 22 miles across Hangzhou Bay. |
He's right, of course. We have traveled down four-lane highways that, were it not for the rice paddies and water buffalo, could be anywhere in the United States or Europe.
But while road engineering may be one of the most beneficial aspects of China's progress, it's not the most fascinating aspect about its sprint to first-world development status.
More compelling is the Chinese authorities' apparent obsession with building superlatives: the world's biggest dam, the world's biggest airport terminal, Asia's tallest skyscraper and the world's highest railway. You get the picture.
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By Cheryl Gould, NBC News Senior Vice President
TUNIS, Tunisia – Every once in a while you run across people whose courage makes you ask of yourself if you would act equally heroic should you find yourself in their shoes. That certainly was the question I kept asking myself during my recent trip to Tunisia.
I was there as part of a two person delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-profit organization for which I am a board member.
CPJ advocates for the freedom of expression wherever journalists are threatened, harassed, imprisoned or otherwise prevented from doing their jobs. My traveling companion on the trip, Joel Campagna, is a CPJ staff member whose expertise in press-freedom abuses in the Middle East (not to mention his fluency in Arabic) make him a known and respected press advocate among journalists in the Arab world.
Arriving at the Tunis-Carthage airport is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, efficiency and modernity are in full display: You could just as easily be in an airport somewhere in Europe, especially since all the announcements and signage are in French, and the duty-free shops are filled with over-priced French and Italian luxury items. But that’s where the similarities end.
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By Janet Shamlian, NBC News Correspondent
NICE, FRANCE – "Est-ce-que vous êtes Américaine?"
Boy, am I that obvious I wonder to myself after the taxi driver's question. "Oui," I reply, knowing he already knew the answer.
"Préférez-vous Obama ou McCain?"
It's the most popular question in France. I'm here to cover the Brangelina twins, but the French are mesmerized by America's political stars, the candidates for president – and not just the presumptive nominees.
"Hillary, que fera-t-elle maintenant?" the hotel clerk asks – what now for Hillary? I don't know, I explain in fractured French. "Peut-être qu'elle ne sait pas," he offers. Maybe she doesn't know either, I agree.
As the French worry that their own President Sarkozy is cozying up too much to the United States, our choice of a successor fascinates them. Maybe Obama reminds them of President Kennedy, who still occupies a place in their hearts. Or perhaps they see in McCain a reflection of their military past, another Charles De Gaulle?
Campaign news is often front page news here. Brad and Angelina’s babies stole the headlines, but only for today. Faute de mieux, for lack of anything better, I head over to the hospital.
By Yonatan Pomrenze, NBC News Producer
MOSCOW – Russia’s plethora of national holidays are tricky things. Nearly two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is still looking for its national identity – and nowhere is this seen better than in its holidays.
Some holidays have survived the transition from Soviet superpower to resurgent Russia via a weak and chaotic ’90s. These include New Years, International Women’s Day (March 8), Defenders of the Fatherland Day (February 23) and Victory Day (May 9). Others were done away with, like Constitution Day.
The most interesting batch are those holidays which were either recast from old ones or simply created anew.
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| Yonatan Pomrenze / NBC News |
| A wedding party celebrates Family Day in Moscow's Tsaritsino Park on July 8. |
Take National Unity Day (November 4). It was introduced in 2004 to replace the Day of Accord and Reconciliation, which came into being in 1996 to take the place of the old Soviet Revolution Day, which commemorated the 1917 Communist Revolution. With such a convoluted history, it’s no wonder that polls consistently show low percentages of the population actually knowing what some new holidays are supposed to commemorate.
And Unity Day has become the opposite – in Moscow, ultranationalist groups mark the day with anti-foreigner rallies.
So I was curious to see how the newest of the new Russian holidays – the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, marked on July 8 – would fare. (It should be noted that the day is recognized as a holiday – but it is not an official day off from work.)
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Russia's surging economy reaches out to its Cold War past. NBC News' Yonatan Pomrenze reports on a Soviet-era nuclear bunker in Moscow which has been transformed into a museum by day and a private party space by night.
By John Yang, NBC News' White House Correspondent
TOYAKO, Japan – With climate change high on the agenda, the Japanese hosts of the G-8 summit have worked hard to make the event as green as possible. The temporary, low-emissions press center was built with recycled and reusable material and has many green features: solar panels to generate power, louvers to limit radiant heat and skylights to maximize natural light.
Even the air conditioning is environmentally-friendly: the press center is being cooled by 7,700 tons of snow collected from a nearby ski resort and held in an insulated storehouse in the building’s basement. The runoff from the melting snow is even used to flush the toilets and journalists can walk over glass panels to see the snow below.
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| AFP - Getty Images |
| A photographer takes pictures of snow used in a natural air-conditioning system, through transparent floor panels at the G8 Summit media center in Rusutsu, Japan on July 6. |
But as inhabitants of an island nation slightly smaller than California, but with more than three times as many people as the Golden State, few natural resources and little room to put waste, the Japanese have long been concerned about conservation and recycling.
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By Tom Aspell, NBC News Correspondent
NICOSIA, Cyprus – A Greek tanker carrying about 1.76 million cubic feet of water arrived in the Cypriot port of Limassol on Monday to help the drought-stricken island replenish its dwindling water reserves.
The tanker is the first in a fleet of ships chartered by the Cypriot government at a cost of $65 million to provide water to towns now experiencing emergency rationing.
With the Mediterranean island's 17 main reservoirs now at critical levels – just seven percent full – Cypriots have endured meager water rations since March.
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| AP |
| A worker stands by during the final installation of a pipeline on June 28 which connects a mooring point in the Mediterranean Sea to the reservoir system on Cyprus. |
The main water pipelines have been turned on for only a few nights each week. And some residents, particularly those living in high-rise apartment blocks, have complained of not getting any water at all because pressure has been insufficient to push the water to rooftop storage tanks.
Cypriots have been forbidden to wash their cars or water their gardens. Underground water pumped from boreholes has also become scarce.
Alexander McCowan, a landscape gardener working for several foreign embassies and private estates in Nicosia, said many of the capital's boreholes are now pumping mud.
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