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KATY CLARK: I’m Katy Clark and this is The World. It will be a few days before we have even preliminary results of yesterday’s presidential election in Afghanistan. But who won is in some ways less important than the fact that the election took place at all. Millions of Afghans defied threats to cast their ballots. That was the good news. The bad news was that turnout appeared weaker then the previous presidential election five years ago and at least 26 Afghans were killed in election related violence. The BBC’s Caroline Wyatt is in the southwestern Afghan province of Helmand. And Caroline yesterday you told us how voters went to the poles despite the background of violence and intimidation but how was turnout overall in Helmand?

Caroline Wyatt: Very difficult to say. We haven’t had the actual figures yet. We’ve been told by the election commission that overall they believe that between 40% and 50% of people across country turned out to vote. We’ve heard one estimate here of turnout in the rural parts of Helmand as being something like 8%. That again though would not necessarily be surprising. A lot of these areas have only very recently been won back from the Taliban and the campaign of intimidation I think would have been much more effective in small villages where everyone knows everyone and it would be very hard to hide an ink-stained finger showing you had voted. So not clear yet. We’ve seen ballot boxes being brought back by British and American helicopters here in Lashkar Gah. The ones coming back from the town Sangin for example looked very indeed. Again a suggestion not many had voted there but that again is a place still under pretty major Taliban influence.

CLARK: Well on the subject of voter turnout, Human Rights Watch is estimating a very low turnout across the south and the east and we have a bit of tape here from the lead researcher for Human Rights Watch in Kabul, Rachel Reid. Let’s play that now.

RACHEL REID: Some of the early indicators I’m getting, in the south, the south east, central regions and in the east – almost half the country – we’re looking at very turnout, significant numbers of attacks, high levels of intimidation. Even if the Taliban didn’t intend to kill many people, they certainly seemed intent on scaring people away from the polling stations. So I’m getting indications that turnout may have been as low as 30% or even lower in many of those areas.

CLARK: Caroline I’m wondering if there is indeed a low turnout could that undermine the credibility of this election?

WYATT: Depends on what expectations were – how high they were pitched. And also how the Afghan people react to them when they come out. And I think if Afghans by and large accept the elections were as free as fair as they could have been then it doesn’t actually matter whether turnout was 20%, 30%, 10%, 40%. It’s not really the turnout that matters so much as people’s response to it, whether anyone feels that the votes were stolen.

CLARK: Are you hearing any particular complaints about some irregularities at the polling places?

WYATT: Oh yes. There has been very lively debate and discussion on Afghan television, Afghan radio. A lot of different stories coming out there about places where people did see ballot stuffing; places where underage voters may have been allowed to vote. Other places where we heard of it ourselves in Lashkar Gah, election agents had been in either buying or selling votes in some of the polling stations and also a colleague of mine was talking to someone who said warlords up in the north where he was had sent people to vote for the people they told them to. While not surprising behavior for a warlord perhaps in Afghanistan. So these are not elections necessarily being carried out under the standards you might expect in places that have had democracy for longer. It has been very rough and ready. But again it depends on what people expected in Afghanistan. I don’t know that their expectations were that high to begin with. I think people will accept a certain amount of roughness around the edges here.

CLARK: Well the poll I guess itself is really just the beginning isn’t it? I mean now comes the counting part. President Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told the New York Times today that the test is going to be in the counting. If the will of the elector it is going to be thwarted it will happen in the counting. What kind of precautions are being taken there to make sure that there is no tinkering with that?

WYATT: As far as we can see the process seems to be pretty well organized. Certainly here in Helmand where you’ve had Americans and British getting involved in transporting the ballot boxes. They appear to be sealed. There are election officials with them. And then at the other end when they’re taking them off there should not be a chance for anyone to tamper with them. Of course we haven’t been able to see what goes on at the actual places where the election took place and a lot of those are very rural areas. But the people there were appointed by the Afghan election commission. I presume they simply have to trust the many employed people that they’ve trusted. What happens with the ballots after this, during that count, very difficult to say again how that process will happen – whether people will feel that their vote was fairly reflected. At the moment you have two candidates both claiming victory and I presume that the count – when it comes out – will tell us who has won or whether it does have to go to a rather difficult second round.

CLARK: The BBC’s Caroline Wyatt speaking with us from a British military base in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Thank you.

WYATT: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: President Obama today praised the way millions of Afghan voters took part in yesterday’s election. Mr. Obama has made Afghanistan one of his top national security priorities. He’s revamped the entire US strategy there and sent more troops to fight the Taliban. The World’s Jeb Sharp reports on why the Obama administration is closely monitoring the fallout of yesterday’s election.

JEB SHARP: President Obama reiterated his commitment to Afghanistan in brief remarks today in Washington. He called the election an important step forward and reminded Americans why US troops are fighting there.

BARACK OBAMA: This is not a challenge that we asked for. It came to our shores when al Qaeda launched the 9/11 attacks from Afghanistan. But America, our allies and partners, and above all the Afghan people share a common interest in pursuing security, opportunity, and justice. We look forward to renewing our partnership with the Afghan people as they move ahead under a new government.

SHARP: It’s not so much who ends up president in Afghanistan that matters to the United States, it’s how the Afghan people perceive the new government. Alex Thier of the US Institute of Peace says it will be a real problem if the election results are not decisive.

ALEX THIER: The danger of a contested election or indeed an outcome that is not broadly accepted by all sides is the danger that the Afghan population will not see the next government as legitimate.

SHARP: And that could turn Afghans away from their government and toward the insurgency. Thier says that would be a disaster for the United States as well.

THIER: US policy in Afghanistan is very heavily invested in the existence of an Afghan government that is supported by its people and which is increasingly seen by the Afghan people as being in favor of increasing security and justice and economic development. And so if we don’t have a government that is a reliable partner then we can’t do any of these things ourselves in Afghanistan.

SHARP: And that might well increase the political pressure for the United States to pull out of Afghanistan. Thier says that would be a calamity. He favors the long-term strategy outlined by the Obama administration and that’s true regardless of yesterday’s election.

THIER: The current US strategy is continued intensive investment in the building up of the Afghan government, particularly focusing on the Afghan government security forces, the army, and the police so that, as we used to say in Iraq, they can stand up so we can sit down. But that is not a short-term endeavor and I don’t think that the Obama administration sees that as a short-term endeavor.

SHARP: Andrew Wilder of the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University tends to agree.

ANDREW WILDER: I don’t think that the elections themselves will have a specific bearing on how long our troops are going to stay in Afghanistan. You know I think there’s already been a commitment to send more troops there but also quite clear that you know we need to see some turnaround in the situation in the next year or so.

SHARP: But a messy outcome would affect public opinion here in the United States and that would certainly affect the debate about troops down the line

WILDER: We are clearly already seeing a fairly significant shift in American domestic opinion regarding Afghanistan. Afghanistan used to be the quote-on-quote good war and had strong bipartisan support as well as public support in stark contrast to Iraq. But now that we’re exiting from Iraq there’s much more tension in Afghanistan and also much more tension that things aren’t going terribly well.

SHARP: That things are not going terribly well has only been underscored by the additional press coverage occasioned by the election. Now that it’s passed, the election itself isn’t the core issue. What matters is how well the next government performs. First though, there’s the tricky business of determining who won and whether the contest was fair. For The World I’m Jeb Sharp.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: This is the last weekend the government will pay you to trade in that clunker for a new more fuel-efficient car. The Cash for Clunkers program ends Monday. That leaves just three more days to get a rebate of $3500 to $4500 when you unload your old gas guzzler and buy something a little greener. The deal was a big hit with American car buyers. So much so that Russia is planning to implement a similar program. From Moscow Jessica Golloher tells us about what you might call Rubles for Wrecks.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: Russia’s trade and industry ministry hopes to boost auto sales by offering motorists who trade in their dilapidated cars about $1550. There are two conditions. The cars have to be more than 10 years old and the rebate only goes towards the purchase of a Russian-made car. Lawmakers hope to implement the plan by early next year. Anton Antonov just bought himself a brand-spanking new Ford Focus. When asked whether he would have turned his old clunker in for a rebate towards a Russian-made model.

ANTON ANTONOV: Are you kidding me? Russian cars are crap. I would never buy a Lada.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: I’m Katy Clark and this is The World. The global stocks of fish are declining. Scientists say that overfishing will destroy most populations of saltwater fish within 40 years – that’s if current trends continue. And so marine ecologists and fisheries managers are trying to make sure that current trends do not continue. This pattern of overfishing and then putting restrictions on fishing has played out all over the world. Reporter Jori Lewis has an example. She visited the West African nation of Senegal which has depended on the riches of the sea for decades.

JORI LEWIS: It always seems simple enough. Take your boat out into the water, drop a couple of hooks or a net or a bow, and wait. Et voila. Food for days. Food for a nation. And for many people a real living too.

[SOUND CLIP OF WATER AND DRUMS]

The beach in the Senegalese resort town of Nianing is full of drummers and dancers on this cool afternoon. Mansour Thiaow stands to the fray and gestures to the boats in front of him and the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

MANSOUR THIAOW: All is from the sea.

LEWIS: Everything Thiaow has he says is thanks to the fish – The fish that he and his brothers catch with their six small boats.

THIAOW: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: Before there wasn’t any electricity at our house. For us it was candles. Now there is electricity. There wasn’t water. Now there is a tap at the house. There is a telephone. There are plenty of little things.

LEWIS: The Thiaow brothers haul in squid for local hotels, mollusks for the Asian market, and any fish that swims for the local daily thieboudienne habit. Thieboudienne is Senegal’s national dish. A meal of fish, broken rice, and vegetables. And the Thiaows have lots of company. Fishing and related businesses employ more than 15% of Senegal’s workers. And fish products are the country’s primary export. That’s because in the 1970s Senegal saw the ocean as its road to economic development. It made sense. Senegal had fish. Europe wanted fish. It would be trade not aid. So the government subsidized the expansion of the industry and thousands of locals entered the trade – men whose fathers had been miners and bureaucrats. Farmers driven off their land by years of drought.

[SOUND CLIP OF PEOPLE TALKING IN BACKGROUND]

Children play on the beaches of the small city Foundiougne in Senegal’s Sine-Saloum Delta. The Delta’s estuary system is home to hundreds of fish species and some of the region’s biggest shrimp. It’s also home to Moustapha Diakhate, the president of the local shrimp fisherman’s association. Long ago he was seduced by the lure of the fishery.

MOUSTAPHA DIAKHATE: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: I came here, I look at the sea, and other people doing the fishing and I left with them. I tried for two days and I understood more and more. It will be 30 years now.

LEWIS: Diakhate says it was just that easy. Find a boat to share, buy a net, and go. Too easy perhaps.

DIAKHATE: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: There are a lot of fishermen and each person does what he wants. There are norms that you should respect. Norm of net size and capture. But there are people who don’t respect anything.

LEWIS: And it’s not just fishermen who are concerned.

ABOUBACAR SIDIBE: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: Today we are definitely in a situation where the available resources can’t satisfy everyone.

LEWIS: Aboubacar Sidibe is a marine biologist in Dakar and a scientific advisor to seven West African governments.

SIDIBE: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: Some ordinary person will say, “no but there are fish there.” And it’s true that you can find some beautiful fish but that doesn’t mean that the stocks are doing well. On the contrary I know what I’m talking about because I’ve done the evaluation. I know that the numbers shows the abundance of fish is declining.

LEWIS: After years of encouraging fishing Senegal’s government is finally taking some steps to curtail it. It suspended agreements with the European Union that allowed EU boats to fish in Senegal’s waters and it’s taking steps to regulate its own legions of small fishermen.

[SOUND CLIP OF WAVES AND CHILDREN PLAYING]

In Ngor village, just outside of Dakar, the waves of the Atlantic crash on a beach crowded with hotels, fine restaurants, fishing boats, and children playing soccer on the sand. The side of each boat is painted with its name in the red, yellow, and green Senegalese flag. Each of the boats is also being fitted with a computer chip containing its registrations records. Ultimately the government hopes to use the chips to track the country’s thousands of registered small fishing boats by GPS. Masserigne Mbow is a technician working on the project.

MASSERIGNE MBOW: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: If you want to manage the sea’s riches you have to know how many boats are in the sea fishing. We have to count them.

LEWIS: Of course the chip won’t help track Senegal’s illegal and unregistered fishing boats. Not to mention the industrial trawlers and foreign ships that work far off shore. But it’s a start. The government is also supporting the local councils to help small fisherman monitor themselves. In Nianing, where the brothers Thiaow fish, the local council has instituted a periodic ban on catching certain species. Mansour Thiaow says he hopes that the ban will give the fish a chance to reproduce.

THIAOW: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: Now when it reproduces there will be plenty of fish. The species are going to flourish.

LEWIS: But fishery officials, conservation organizations, and academics all say that the best thing for the fisher would be to get rid of some of Senegal’s fishermen – maybe most of them. And some outside groups are trying to help the country take this next step. Vaque Ndiaye works with the World Wildlife Fund an USAID program that supports sustainable fishing in the Sine Saloum Delta. He says they want to crack down on the guys who are only in it for a quick buck.

VAQUE NDIAYE: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: We’re thinking about how to establish access rights and how to do it so that professional fishermen can access the fishery because the traditional fishermen know the sea and will fight to preserve the resource.

LEWIS: But every former fishermen just swells Senegal’s soaring unemployment rate – it’s nearly 50%. And with so few jobs those out-of-work fishermen add to the problem of illegal migration to Europe. For years Senegalese migrants have been embarking on the long and dangerous ocean journey to Spain’s Canary Islands. Some of them make it but many others don’t and instead become victims of the waters they once plied. And in small coastal towns like Foundiougne, all sand and salt and people taking refuge from the unremitting sun, that leaves people like the shrimper Moustapha Diakhate without a lot of options.

DIAKHATE: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: Here in Foundiougne imagine if you didn’t fish. Look at this city. Everyone’s sitting around drinking tea. There is nothing, nothing to do. There is just the sea. Imagine 30 years of work without stopping. And the sea’s tired. And us we are tired too.

LEWIS: For The World I’m Jori Lewis, Foundiougne, Senegal.

CLARK: You can see Jori’s photos from Senegal on our website, The World dot org. While you’re there check out this week’s science podcast. It’s all about animals. Crocodiles in Cambodia, jaguars in Panama, and harp seals in Canada. Just go to The World dot org slash science.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: I’m Katy Clark. This is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. Former Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi is spending his first full day back in his home country. Yesterday the Scottish justice minister freed the man convicted of killing 270 people in the Lockerbie airline bombing stressing that al-Megrahi is terminally ill. The decision to release him was controversial in itself but the celebrations marking his return to Libya has generated a fresh wave of anger. The World’s Laura Lynch reports.

LAURA LYNCH: The convicted murderer who hid his face from the cameras as he left Scotland found adoring crowds as he descended from the plane in Tripoli. A young girl gave him flowers. Young men chanted and sang and on the streets of the capital Libyan’s welcomed al-Megrahi back.

LIBYAN MAN 1: [SPEAKING ARABIC]

TRANSLATOR: This is our biggest celebration and happiness. This person is innocent. Thank God he’s coming home.

LIBYAN MAN 2: [SPEAKING ARABIC]

TRANSLATOR: This is really great, great news. There’s doubt it gladdens the hearts of all Libyans and all people around the world who care about justice.

LYNCH: Libyans are suddenly praising Scots making a point of waving the Scottish flag during the airport celebration. That made for uncomfortable viewing for some back in Glasgow, even those who supported al-Megrahi’s release.

SCOTTISH WOMAN 1: I think him being released was fine because he’s ill but I was disappointed that they celebrated it when they got back.

SCOTTISH WOMAN 2: He’s getting home to his family and the people that were killed didn’t get home to their family. I don’t agree with it.

SCOTTISH MAN: That’s just totally wrong. This does Scotland no good at all.

LYNCH: The condemnation grew much sharper at the political level. Britain wrote to the Libyan government yesterday pleading with officials to keep al-Megrahi’s return low key. Foreign Secretary David Miliband labeled the homecoming anything but.

DAVID MILIBAND: The sight of a mass murderer getting a hero’s welcoming in Tripoli is deeply upsetting above all for the 270 families who grieve everyday for the loss of their loved ones 21 years ago but also for anyone who’s got ounce of humanity in them.

LYNCH: In Washington White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs echoed the sentiment. President Obama’s request to put al-Megrahi under house arrest was ignored.

ROBERT GIBBS: The images that we saw in Libya yesterday were outrageous and disgusting.

LYNCH: Scotland’s government has faced the brunt of the criticism for deciding to allow the release in the first place. Officials there thought they had a deal with Libya – no party, no celebration. So Scottish leader Alex Salmond didn’t like the images either but he still defends the decision no matter what Americans think or say.

ALEX SALMOND: We have to do what we think is right and proper and that’s what the justice secretary did. You know our relationship with America is a strong and enduring one. It doesn’t depend on always reaching agreement. Well that can’t be the case.

LYNCH: Libyan specialist George Joffe of Cambridge University believes the government in Tripoli did make good on its promise – at least by Libyan standards.

GEORGE JOFFE: The fact is there was a small crowd that welcomed Mr. Megrahi back and since Libyans in their vast majority believe that he was in fact innocent anyway it’s hardly surprising that they were there. The most important thing is that there was no Libyan minister there. Colonel Gadaffi himself wasn’t there.

LYNCH: Nevertheless Britain is considering canceling what was to be a high-profile visit to Libya by Prince Andrew. Beyond that though there’s little talk in either Washington or London about any further steps to punish Libya. Perhaps that’s no surprise. After years of bitterness both the United States and Britain have worked hard to improve relations with Muammar Gadaffi – and both now have extensive business interests in the oil-rich nation. They may all believe now isn’t the best time to mount fresh battles over a crime that happened more than two decades ago. For The World I’m Laura Lynch in London.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: There’s no question that South African runner Caster Semenya is fast enough.

SOUND CLIP OF ANNOUNCER: Semenya is away and gone. Looks behind. Has got the gold medal sewn up in the bag.

CLARK: The question is whether Semenya is woman enough. Semenya easily won the 800-meters at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin Wednesday. Her time of one minute, 55-point-45 seconds put her more than two seconds ahead of the second place finisher. But now international track officials are investigating whether the 18-year-old athlete is indeed a woman. Farayi Mungazi has been following the controversy. He hosts the BBC African sports program, Fast Track and Farayi Mungazi is in London. Farayi first things first. How much faster in Semenya from the rest of her competitors?

FARAYI MUNGAZI: Oh she’s very fast. I mean the way she won that 800-meters title on Wednesday was absolutely incredible. And this is someone, let’s not forget, this is someone we hadn’t heard of until about three, four weeks ago when she won the African junior title. And she’s effectively come out of nowhere to the gold medal and the manner in which she won was absolutely dominating. And people said look if this is the way she runs at 18, heaven help the rest of her competitors when she really picks up into her twenties.

CLARK: Well now the president of South Africa Athletics or track and field in this country is saying that Semenya is being unfairly targeted because she’s African and that the Europeans who are questioning her gender don’t understand her physique. What does he mean by that?

MUNGAZI: It’s not just the South Africans. We, on our own show here you know today we had views from all offer Africa – Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana. There is an overwhelming sense across the continent that Semenya is being treated like this simply because she’s black and she’s African. In fact, people are saying look there are other white athletes who are more muscular then Semenya but nothing is being said about them. So there is this sense of injustice that she’s being unfairly singled out. And of course the South Africans have gone further to say that you know their athlete is being treated like a leper as if she’s got some disease that is contagious. Her family has come out fighting in a corner. Her mother you know gave an interview to the BBC this morning saying that as far as she’s concerned her girl is a woman and everybody else can get lost.

CLARK: I mean you watch a lot of runners all the time. When you watch a women’s competition and a man’s competition do you see a difference between a male runner and a female runner?

MUNGAZI: There is a big difference between the way females run and the way you know males run. Let me just put it this way, the first time I saw her run I didn’t know who she was. And I was watching on television and I saw her run and I thought to myself, where is that boy from? She doesn’t look like a woman. I have to be absolutely honest. That’s my view. When you look at her first time, the way she runs and you know her strides, you know her posture, her body posture, there is nothing female about the way she runs. And also add to that she’s got this deep, deep voice that if you were to listen to the voice without seeing her you’d think it’s a man speaking. It’s difficult for me to say that she is not a woman because as far as I’m concerned she just happens to look the way she looks and it’s one of those things that people just have to live with.

CLARK: Well I understand that Semenya has passed tests for any kind of performance-enhancing drugs. Now she’s facing some gender tests. Have those tests been conducted yet?

MUNGAZI: No and it is going to take a long time. It’s not a simple issue because a lot of people are saying look what’s the problem? Why doesn’t she just drop her pants? And then everybody sees whether she’s female or male. But it’s more complicated then that. There’s a whole host of experts to be consulted and IFF said that it’s going to take weeks before the results are known and they haven’t even started. Then there’s another issue. The South Africans said today that they will not agree to any tests because as far as they’re concerned she is a woman. Her grandmother was saying this morning that she’s endured these taunts since she was a child. It’s not something that has just come up in Berlin. She has grown up with it – people questioning whether she’s a boy or a girl – and her family is quite angry about it. But I don’t think that’s going to break her down. I think it’s making her even more determined I think.

CLARK: Farayi Mungazi is the host of the BBC African Sports program, Fast Track. Farayi thanks so much.

MUNGAZI: My pleasure.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Click here for a large Google Earth image of “walking in circles”

[nggallery id=7]

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: Now some advice for the less athletic among us. If you go for a stroll in the woods and get lost, think twice before you try to find your way out. A new study by scientists in Germany shows that people really do walk in circles when they lose their bearings. The World’s Health and Science Editor David Baron explains.

DAVID BARON: Researcher Jan Souman admits most of his work can be rather dry. He’s at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in southern Germany. He studies visual perception.

JAN SOUMAN: Normally we do that in like a dark laboratory where we do very boring experiments where people watch dots on a computer screen or something like that.

BARON: But for his latest study he got out of the lab. He and his colleagues recruited volunteers – took them one by one into a large forest and gave this instruction: Head that way – the scientists pointed – and walk for the next four hours.

SOUMAN: They thought they’d been walking pretty straight all the time.

BARON: Souman tracked the volunteers’ movements with a GPS. Now those who were hiking on a clear day, those who could navigate by the sun, they stayed on a pretty straight trajectory. But Souman says those hiking on a cloudy day didn’t fair so well.

SOUMAN: They all walked in circles.

BARON: And the circles tended to be quite small, perhaps three football field-lengths across.

SOUMAN: I mean one of them at some point realized that he crossed a spot where he’d been before and then he actually noticed like a Coke can lying in the middle forest somewhere and oh hang on, I’ve seen this Coke can before. So then he was kind of convinced he had been there before.

BARON: Souman conducted a similar experiment in the Sahara desert and got similar results. Those who hiked with the sun as a guide stayed on course. One who hiked at night veered all over the place. Souman says there’s a lesson for those who think they can navigate through unfamiliar terrain.

SOUMAN: You can’t rely on your senses because your sense often fool you so you really have to be prepared and use all possible tools that you could use to guide your way.

BARON: Like using a distant mountain peak as a guide. Or seeing which side of the trees the moss grows on. Or these days, you could always take out your cell phone and call for help. For The World I’m David Baron.

CLARK: We’ve posted a Google Earth image on our website that shows those German study subjects walking in circles. Check it out at The World dot org.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: Many people in South East Asia swear by a fruit called durian. They say it’s delicious. But here’s the problem. It smells awful. The odor of durian has been compared to that of a diaper pale. Western diners are frequently reluctant to get passed that smell and take a bite. But some restaurants in South East Asia are rising to the challenge. Nancy Greenleese reports that they’re getting patrons to give durian a chance.

NANCY GREENLEESE: Durian looks delectable. Its creamy flesh ranges from pale yellow to red. People in Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia devour it raw, smoked, dried, or fried. But foreigners often need a spoon full of sugar to get this fruit to go down. Zulkifli Razali is chef at Bijan, a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. He offers a sugar-coated treat – chocolate cake with layers of durian inside.

ZULKIFLI RAZALI: Durian chocolate cake we combine durian and chocolate and some cream so it enhance the flavor.

GREENLEESE: And it camouflages the durian says waiter Rajendra Seder.

RAJENDRA SEDER: You see it’s chocolate. Yeah nice. And when they have a scoop then they see this whitish thing in between and oh it smells.

GREENLEESE: Chef Razali admits even many Malaysians think durian stinks. But he’s not one of them.

RAZALI: I like the smell of it because for me the smell is very nice.

GREENLEESE: And the smell for me smells like sweaty socks. And you like the smell?

RAZALI: It’s like you all have that kind of cheese – the blue cheese. The blue cheese smell is like what the hell is this smell? It’s more like very rotten smell.

GREENLEESE: Razali is referring to the fact that a lot of South East Asians can’t get past the smell of stinky cheeses just as westerners balk at durian. So Seder, the waiter, says when his foreign customers order durian cake he makes a point of preparing them.

SEDER: Firstly I always ask them, “Are you feeling adventurous?” They’ll say, “Oh yeah, yeah.” You know the guys want to be macho. Fair enough.

GREENLEESE: He tells them about the stench and the distinctive flavor.

SEDER: So I give them the durian and then they’ll have one bite. You can see the expression on their face. “Oh my God what the hell is this?” You know?

GREENLEESE: Some say it tastes like creamy almonds until a bitter aftertaste kind of like turpentine kicks in. At least it’s healthy. Durians provide vitamin C, potassium, and plenty of carbohydrates.

IGNATIUS STEPHEN: It’s a mythical fruit actually. Lot’s of legends.

GREENLEESE: Ignatius Stephen owns a café in Brunei’s capital city. He sits with me and my friend John Henderson outside the café telling us some of those legends.

STEPHEN: There’s a thing that if you eat durian and you drink a whiskey or something, you’ll die. I mean this is another thing I’ve done. I’m still alive. I’m still talking to you.

GREENLEESE: And Stephen won’t let us get away without trying a little durian – a frothy, cream-colored durian smoothie that we didn’t order arrives at the table.

JOHN HENDERSON: You know is there real durian in this?

STEPHEN: Yeah. Of course there’s real durian in it.

HENDERSON: It’s cold. Let’s put it that way. If you don’t inhale when you drink it it’s tolerable.

STEPHEN: Yeah it’s just like Clinton said.

HENDERSON: Don’t inhale. That’s the key.

GREENLEESE: Back in Kuala Lumpur waiter Rajendra Seder always doles praise to foreign diners who sample durian. His philosophy is you can’t acquire an acquired taste without trying. And he says you’ll return home with something to drag about.

SEDER: You came all the way. You’re at the end of the ledge. What are you going to do? There’s only one way down. So go ahead. And at least you say you did it instead of turning back and saying I almost did it. True? Just give it a go. Have a piece. You don’t have to buy the whole fruit. Just try because the idea of traveling is to learn things.

GREENLEESE: For The World I’m Nancy Greenleese, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK: Finally today Tarzan of the apes is back. This time he’s paying a visit to the Quai Branly Museum in Paris. The exhibition unravels the mythology surrounding the character. It shows how Tarzan has changed over the years. Genevieve Oger has more from Paris on the man who first appeared in a novel nearly 100 years ago when he raised his eyes to the full moon, threw back his fierce young head, and voice the wild and terrible cry of his people.

[SOUND CLIP OF TARZAN YELLING]

GENEVIEVE OGER: You might hear Tarzan’s distinctive yell at this exhibit. But you won’t hear, “You Tarzan. Me Jane.” This show at Paris’ museum for non-European cultures is aimed at deconstructing stereotypes surrounding Tarzan and examining how the character helped shape western views of Africa. None other then Jane, Tarzan’s wife, greets visitors for the guided tour. And no she’s not wearing a leopard-skin bikini. This one looks more like Meryl Streep in “Out of Africa.”

JANE PORTER: My name is Jane Porter and I was born in September 1890 in Baltimore. There’s this wonderful exhibition about my husband.

OGER: The exhibit walks visitors through Tarzan’s different incarnations starting with Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 story, Tarzan of the Apes. Burroughs lived in Chicago. He never went to Africa. The story is largely the product of his imagination and the preconceptions of his time. Tarzan may not be that big with today’s kids but he was hugely popular in the twentieth century. The Tarzan books were translated into 56 languages. There were 42 movies, countless comic books, and several TV adaptations. Several actors played the ape man in the movies, most notably former swimmer Johnny Weissmuller. He’s the one who came up with the Tarzan yodel in the 1930s. Decades later the Tarzan movies and books were criticized for their stereotypical depictions of women and African characters. Not to mention the portrayals of Africa itself. Curator and anthropologist Roger Boulay says Burroughs didn’t intend to give a realistic picture of Africa.

ROGER BOULAY: [SPEAKING IN FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: Burroughs tried and succeeded in creating a hero like the ones in Greek and Roman mythology. Tarzan has a lot in common with Hercules.

OGER: Some adults who love Tarzan the superhero have come to the exhibit with their own kids.

MAN VISITING EXHIBIT: [SPEAKING IN FRENCH]

OGER: This man says he remembers reading the first book in a matter of days. And Marie Grommier says she adored Tarzan.

MARIE GROMMIER: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

TRANSLATOR: Tarzan represents dreams, beauty, travel, justice, and especially adventure.

OGER: But this visitor, Janine Jones, an African-American, says she’s disappointed the exhibit didn’t delve more into the negative stereotypes.

JANINE JONES: As a child coming up I wasn’t even allowed to have my mind filled with this kind of thing because there was nothing in these things that are positive images really of people of color.

OGER: Defenders argue Tarzan exists in the realm of fantasy. And they say if the character weren’t so compelling he wouldn’t have survived nearly 100 years. For The World I’m Genevieve Oger in Paris.

[MUSIC]

We close today’s program with “Jee Le Le – Tarzan.” It’s a remix by Indian musician DJ Aqeel.

[MUSIC]

Eric Goldberg composed our theme music. From the Nan and Bill Harris studios at WGBH, I’m Katy Clark. Have a great weekend.

[MUSIC]

MAN: The World’s Global Hit podcast is brought to you by the Medtronic Foundation supporting the American Pain Foundation’s efforts to help the more than 76 million Americans living with pain to speak up, speak out, and take action for better pain care. Learn more at Medtronic Foundation dot org.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.