PRI's The World » 11/03/2009

Entire program – November 3, 2009

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:30:56 +0000

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Newly re-elected President Hamid Karzai is under increasing pressure to address corruption in Afghanistan, residents of Mexico’s most violent cities are seeking refuge across the border, and the story of Ghana’s first Winter Olympian.

Fighting corruption in Afghanistan

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:25:46 +0000

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has vowed to remove the “stigma” of corruption, a day after winning a new five-year term. In his first remarks since being declared winner of August’s fraud-marred poll, he also pledged to lead an inclusive government. President Barack Obama has asked Karzai to intensify efforts to eradicate corruption, but are the two leaders on the same page? The World’s Matthew Bell reports. Download MP3

BBC coverage
Profile: Hamid Karzai

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World. Hamid Karzai is about to begin another five-year term as president of Afghanistan. And today Karzai responded to calls for his government to do more about corruption. In a moment an Afghan lawmaker tells what the president’s first steps should be and who might well stand in his way. But first The World’s Matthew Bell reports on just how big a problem corruption has become for Afghans and for Washington.

MATTHEW BELL: President Karzai today described corruption as a stain on Afghanistan. He vowed to launch an anti-corruption campaign but he gave few specifics about what that means.

HAMID KARZAI: We are aware of the difficulties of our governance and the environment in which we live. We’ll keep trying our best to address the questions that we have facing Afghanistan and to make sure that the wishes of Afghan people come true towards an effective, clean government.

BELL: The truth of the matter is that Karzai’s government is far from effective or clean. In fact doing almost any official business in Afghanistan means dealing with corruption.

SARAH CHAYES: Getting a death certificate. A friend of mine whose father was actually blown up in a suicide bombing and he had to pay bribes in order to get an official death certificate.

BELL: Sarah Chayes is an American advisor to the NATO command in Afghanistan. She’s lived in Kandahar for most of the last eight years. Chayes says Afghan corruption is an entrenched system that runs up to the highest level of government.

CHAYES: It’s organized so that what we might call petty corruption on the kind of street level like the police officers who stop your vehicle and just ask for a couple of dollars. That, it’s systematized because they will pay some of that up the chain and it keeps up going up the chain until you get to the point where you know you get to the chief of police of a province and he’s actually purchased his position. So he owes a certain amount of money every month or every six months or something like that up the chain.

BELL: Chayes says people in Kandahar feel stuck. They’re threatened by the Taliban on one hand and they’re victims of government corruption on the other.

CHAYES: There’s almost no punishment for this because that’s part of the deal. The summit of the government provides protection. And it will only punish those people who actually go against the system – kind of go against the criminal enterprise. It’s really … . How to put it. It’s kind intolerable to live under because it’s just everywhere you turn and there’s no recourse against it. That’s the real problem.

BELL: To make matters worse Afghan officials are notoriously ineffective even once the bribes have been paid. South Asia expert Daniel Markey of the Council on Foreign Relations says it would be one thing if the government were corrupt but competent.

DANIEL MARKEY: Then it wouldn’t be so bad. The problem is that you have this combination of corruption and lack of capacity or lack of delivery and that’s what’s really getting people angry and alienated from their government. It’s that two-fold combination that really hollows out the legitimacy of the current Afghan state.

BELL: Markey says the Obama Administration has started to play hardball on the issue of corruption. But he says that approach toward Hamid Karzai hasn’t worked very well.

MARKEY: What that tough line has often done is pushed him away; made him feel uncomfortable, alienated, and thrown him into the arms or the laps of a variety of really unsavory characters who he feels he needs to help him get his job done in Afghanistan. And so I see a two-fold problem. He’s not a particularly strong character in the presidency and the United States’ leverage, at least its coercive leverage, has often backfired.

BELL: The administration is reported to be working on a new anti-corruption compact for the Afghan government. It would include measures such as arresting or at least cutting off some corrupt officials and local strongmen. One of them is thought to be Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who’s suspected of being involved in the drug trade. James Dobbins is a former US special envoy for Afghanistan. He says when trying to assist in ridding Afghanistan of its insurgency it’s important to keep a little history in mind.

JAMES DOBBINS: All of the countries that the United States has supported in similar circumstances since say 1950 have been to one degree or another corrupt and incompetent. If they weren’t corrupt and incompetent they wouldn’t have insurgencies to start with.

BELL: Dobbins says it’s also key to maintain realistic expectations for Afghanistan. It’s no Switzerland he says. In other words Afghanistan probably won’t be a model of clean, efficient government by western standards any time soon. For The World I’m Matthew Bell.

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Copenhagen Climate Summit: Deal or No Deal?

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:20:34 +0000

Negotiators from around the world are meeting in Barcelona this week in the last round of climate treaty talks before a global summit next month in Copenhagen. The Copenhagen meeting was supposed to produce a new treaty to address the rising threats from global climate change. But as the World’s Marina Giovannelli reports, prospects for an agreement this year are growing dim. Download MP3

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. Time is the enemy when it comes to climate change and climate change negotiations. The clock is ticking as negotiators meet this week in Barcelona, Spain. It’s the final week of talks before a global climate summit next month in Denmark. That’s when nearly 200 countries will try to agree to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. But as The World’s Marina Giovannelli reports time may be running out on prospects for an agreement this year.

MARIAN GIOVANNELLI: It’s been seen as zero hour for climate change. Amid a growing sense of scientific urgency world leaders agreed two years ago to meet in Copenhagen this December to finalize a new climate treaty. Now the deadline is approaching and the heat is on.

GORDON BROWN: We cannot afford to fail.

GIOVANNELLI: That’s British Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaking at the Major Economies Forum last month.

BROWN: If we fail now we will pay a heavy price. If we act now, if we act together, if we act with vision and resolve, success at Copenhagen is still within our reach. But if we falter the earth will itself be at risk and for the planet there is no plan B.

GIOVANNELLI: Climate scientists around the world back Brown’s sense of urgency. Reams of new scientific data suggest that climate change is moving even faster than was thought. But science and diplomacy each have their own timetables.

ELLIOT DIRINGER: Unfortunately I think it was unrealistic from the start to expect that we would get to a final agreement in Copenhagen.

GIOVANNELLI: That’s Elliot Diringer of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

DIRINGER: Perhaps the major constraint on these negotiations is the fact that the US isn’t ready to put numbers on the table and sing onto a binding commitment.

GIOVANNELLI: The US never adopted the 1997 Kyoto Climate Treaty and it remains the only developed country without a plan for emissions cuts. But the US is the largest historic emitter so much of the world expects it to take the lead. A climate bill is pending in the senate after narrowly passing the house earlier this year. But prospects for the bill are uncertain. And the Obama Administration says it won’t commit to an international deal without the backing of congress. One reason for reluctance in Washington is the fact that China and other developing countries won’t commit to specific cuts in their emissions, this despite the fact that China recently passed the US as the largest annual greenhouse polluter. But China’s position is starting to soften.

JULIAN WONG: We’re seeing China for the first time act on curbing its growth of carbon emissions. It announced plans to implement some sort of carbon intensity target going forward until 2020.

GIOVANNELLI: That’s Julian Wong of the Center for American Progress. He’s referring to China’s recent announcement of aggressive new clean energy targets that would sharply reduce its emissions growth. India has announced similar plans for its booming economy. The moves are part of the pre-Copenhagen diplomatic jockeying. But the issue of which countries should make what kinds of commitments is unresolved and it remains the biggest stumbling block to a deal. Another big sticking point is financing. Richer countries are responsible for most of the greenhouse pollution to date. So poorer countries argue that rich countries should help pay for the global transition to a cleaner economy. The issue of how much aid should be provided and on what terms also remains an open question and it’s unlikely to be resolved in the next few weeks. For many observers the growing likelihood that there won’t be a deal in Copenhagen is setting up the US as the fall guy. But Julian Wong says it’s important to remember that congress and the Obama Administration have had to make up a lot of ground on the issue.

JULIAN WONG: The US is moving very quickly to recover from eight years of inaction on the climate change front. So I think that there needs to be some realistic expectations on how quickly the administration and the government can move.

GIOVANNELLI: Such realism observers say means looking beyond Copenhagen to what British Prime Minister Gordon Brown might call a plan B. Robert Stavins who directs Harvard’s environmental economics program says negotiators might settle on the basic outline of an agreement in Copenhagen and then hammer out a detailed agreement next year.

ROBERT STAVINS: I don’t see Copenhagen as being the do or die moment. You know there’s a cliché that’s used about the American baseball season that really applies to climate policy. And that is it’s a marathon; not a sprint.

GIOVANNELLI: For The World I’m Marina Giovannelli.

Remembering East Germany

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:15:21 +0000

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, young people in Germany don’t give a lot of thought to what was once known as the GDR or East Germany. The communist state once carved out a large portion of their homeland, dividing it not just geographically, but also ideologically. But now few know much about a place that ceased to exist before they were even born. Though Germany was unified in 1990, much of the eastern part of the country still lags behind in unemployment, investment, and innovation. And while some teachers and parents would rather not dwell on a recent but painful past, others say remembering is the only way to move the whole country forward. Susan Stone reports from Berlin. Download MP3

MARCO WERMAN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered a speech today to a joint session of the US Congress. Merkel grew up in what was communist East Germany. Today she thanked US law makers for America’s support in the years leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. That happened 20 years ago next week. Now there’s a whole generation of German’s born after the wall came down and as Susan Stone reports from Berlin many young Germans know little about their country’s recent painful past.

SUSAN STONE: As the autumn sun sets a group of 15 and 16 year olds from the central western city of Selm have just about had their fill of history. Still they crowd around Hans-Michael Schulze, a guide at Berlin’s DDR Museum. The boys perk up when we get to the Trabant exhibit. Schulze tells them how long East Germans waited to get these cheap plastic polluting cars and why they were nearly the only autos available.

HANS-MICHAEL SCHULZE: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

TRANSLATOR: Giving a tour like this now, 20 years after the end of East Germany, well it’s really astounding how little is known.

STONE: The kids have the basics. They know there was a Berlin Wall and the Stasi, the secret police, but not much more. History teacher Nicole Abendroth is accompanying her class. East Germany is on the lesson plan for later in the year. She says the tenth graders don’t have much of connection to the former East.

NICOLE ABENDROTH: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

TRANSLATOR: I think in the end the DDR amounts to a feeling. What people experienced here essentially confined to their country and that is truly how to convey I have to admit. That’s why I think it’s important to come here. That the students really get a chance to get to know what it was like.

STONE: Across town at the Stasi Museum 18-year-old Kathrin Weiss and her classmates gasp and laugh as a guide describes the miles of files the Stasi kept on ordinary citizens. Weiss says she’s heard a bit about East Germany from her godmother who grew up there. It wasn’t so bad, her godmother told her. As long as you didn’t criticize the system you could have a normal family life just like in the West. But Kathrin is starting to question that.

KATHRIN WEISS: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

TRANSLATOR: It’s not right what she said but she probably just didn’t know. She never realized. She never noticed. And maybe, my God, when you’re not seriously confronted with it you don’t really deal with it. She grew up that way so she didn’t know anything else.

STONE: Kathrin is from Bavaria what was once part of West Germany. Students like her often know more about the former East than young people living in the region today. That’s according to the Stasi Museum’s Uwe Hillmer. He and colleagues at Berlin’s Free University spent three years interviewing students about this period. But Hillmer says it’s not just students who are uninformed.

UWE HILLMER: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

TRANSLATOR: The division of Germany in the post-war period is probably one of the most documented in history. But the reality is that the collective historical memory is at zero. And all these countless 20^th anniversary events aren’t changing everything. We’re stuck at zero.

STONE: Not far from the Stasi Museum sit two teenagers, Robin and Robert, whose parents grew up in East Germany. Have they visited the Stasi Museum, the DDR Museum, or the Berlin Wall Memorial?

ROBIN AND ROBERT: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

STONE: The answer each time is no. And that’s not uncommon for young people in Berlin. Robert says he’d like to visit a museum with his father to give them a better venue for discussing this history than the car or the breakfast table. Robin hasn’t talked much about East Germany with his parents but he does remember this comment.

ROBIN: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

TRANSLATOR: My mother told me for example, it was a very socially-minded time. That there was work for everyone. Not like today where we have so many unemployed people just sitting around. Actually it wasn’t such a bad time. I think it was good.

STONE: These are troubling statements for some Germans who view it as a dangerous nostalgia. But they’re also legitimate memories that contribute to a national fabric of understanding says Leopold Gruen. Gruen is a Berlin-based film maker who grew up in East Germany, later married a West German woman, and had two kids. The fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification paved the way for his family.

LEOPOLD GRUEN: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

TRANSLATOR: For me the most important thing in relaying history is that you have to search for traces in your own biography, in your family. Then ultimately you have the chance to share the experience of history. Private histories are the tiles of the mosaic. They’re like the pieces of a puzzle that can somehow be put together.

STONE: As successive generations grow up and pass on complex histories to their own children, it’s important again in Germany not to forget the past. The hope is that in this anniversary year marking the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow the shadows of the past will illuminate Germany’s future. For The World I’m Susan Stone in Berlin.

Ghana’s first skier off to the Olympics

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:10:31 +0000

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Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong (pictured) was born in the Scottish city of Glasgow, but he grew up in Accra, Ghana. That never stopped him from dreaming of becoming a professional skier. He honed his skills on an artificial slope in Britain. And now, the “snow leopard” as he’s known will be Ghana’s one-man ski team next year at the Vancouver Winter Games. The World’s Alex Gallafent tells us more.

Watch the Snow Leopard in action:

Ghana Ski Team

MARCO WERMAN: This is The World. I’m Marco Werman. Every time the Olympic Games roll around there’s usually one or two competitors who are just a bit surprising – fish out of water. Take the famous Jamaican bobsled team who took part in the 1988 winter Olympics in Calgary. Well the next winter games get underway 101 days from now in Vancouver and there will be another unusual participant but he won’t be there just to make up the numbers as The World’s Alex Gallafent reports.

ALEX GALLAFENT: Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong is a slalom skier. He happens to be from Ghana. Not a lot of snow there. But he happens to love throwing himself down snow-covered mountains at high speed.

KWAME NKRUMAH-ACHEAMPONG: Unless you’ve been at the top of a giant slalom or super [PH] G course looking down and looking at the slick slope, all the gates, and everybody looking in your face, waiting to see what you can do, it’s really hard to understand why people go into ski races when they know they can break their legs, their necks, their back. It’s just a wonderful sport.

GALLAFENT: And Acheampong is good at it. He’s just qualified to represent Ghana at next year’s Olympics – the country’s first representative at the winter games. Oh and he only started skiing six years ago.

ACHEAMPONG: I got a job at the indoor ski center, picked up a pair of snowblades and had a go.

GALLAFENT: That indoor ski center was in the UK, the country where Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong lives today. He’d left Ghana to pursue a master’s degree in tourism management but school was expensive. He had to get a job. Working as a receptionist at a sport’s center seemed a good fit. Free indoor skiing was a bonus.

ACHEAMPONG: I just did it for the fun of doing it. [INDISCERNIBLE] every staff member who worked there. So I just had a go. And it’s kind of snowballed and I find myself heading to Vancouver.

EDDIE EDWARDS: I just think he should go there and enjoy every minute of it.

GALLAFENT: That’s Eddie Edwards also in the UK. Over two decades ago he captured the world’s attention at the Calgary games. Eddie Edwards was known as the Eagle. In regular life Edwards worked as a plasterer. He still does in fact. But at the Olympics his quixotic mission was to excel at the ski jump. He didn’t. Eddie the Eagle Edwards was depending on your perspective a hero of amateurs everywhere of simply the worst ski jumper ever to appear at the Olympics.

EDWARDS: There were those who thought this is great and that was exemplifying the whole Olympic spirit. And there were those who felt I wasn’t an athlete and shouldn’t have been there.

GALLAFENT: Eddie Edwards expects Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong will get the same kinds of reaction in Vancouver.

EDWARDS: I think he knows and everybody else knows that I don’t think he’s going to win a medal or go even close. But he should go out there and enjoy the whole experience of being in the Olympics and do the best he can. That’s all everybody can expect of him and just enjoy it really.

GALLAFENT: But hold on says the Ghanaian skier who has a nickname of his own – the snow leopard.

ACHEAMPONG: I think Eddie the Eagle let the whole fun side of what he was doing take over you know what he was trying to achieve and instead of being looked upon as a professional sports person he became a joke.

GALLAFENT: Ouch. The snow leopard isn’t messing around here. When he has the funding he trains in the Italian Alps and he’s far from the worst Olympic level skier around. Still Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong is realistic about his Olympic chances.

ACHEAMPONG: I can’t win the races I go into. [INDISCERNIBLE] tough. So skiing is a sport which just has an endless challenge for me. And I don’t want to look at the final table of athletes and see myself at the bottom. I’d want at least five other athletes to be behind me.

GALLAFENT: You wouldn’t bet against him. For The World I’m Alex Gallafent.

Interview with Afghan parliamentarian

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:04:16 +0000

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Shukria Barakzai, a member of Afghanistan’s parliament and a supporter of President Hamid Karzai, tells host Marco Werman how she thinks Afghanistan’s president should go about eradicating corruption in her homeland.

MARCO WERMAN: Shukrai Barakzai is a member of Afghanistan’s parliament. Ms. Barakzai as we’ve just heard President Karzai is promising to eradicate “the stain of corruption.” Those are Mr. Karzai’s words. That has tainted his country and government. Explain to us just how he’s going to do that.

SHUKRAI BARAKZAI: We need to make modern laws to stopping corruption. A special court even somehow for corrupt people and the most important one, the law must replace the culture of impunity in Afghanistan and everyone must be prosecuted by the law. It doesn’t matter if anyone is president’s family member or somebody ordinary people in Afghanistan. According to the law everyone is equal and we have to enforce law.

WERMAN: Well I don’t want to dwell on this but the perception internationally is that Mr. Karzai is corrupt. That is a major problem isn’t it?

BARAKZAI: What is the legitimacy for government? It’s not only the international community which is they are giving legitimacy for the government. Although to date President Karzai he got lots of messages from around the world including the President Obama [INDISCERNIBLE]. But another legitimacy which is coming from the people it’s the government to providing services. To provide service and assisting people and taking responsibility and asking people and citizens to be responsible. It’s also a sign of legitimacy.

WERMAN: Many say that to set a positive example in the fight against corruption President Karzai should start with his own family. We’ve all heard the reports linking Hamid Walli Karzai, the president’s brother, to the opium trade. Should the president sever ties with his brother?

BARAKZAI: I think I as a lawmaker I can’t blame anyone because of a family. I can’t blame Karzai because of Walli Karzai. As he mentioned today he should work beyond his family for the nation.

WERMAN: And so even though you are a supporter of President Karzai you believe then that his brother should not be immune from the law and should be investigated as to his lengths with the opium trade.

BARAKZAI: Nobody, nobody including the president himself. This is the crystal clear article in Afghan constitution. All civilians are equal to the law.

WERMAN: Okay that … .

BARAKZAI: Crime is crime.

WERMAN: That civilians, you mentioned a special court. What about President Karzai’s ties with people like General Abdul Rashid Dostum? He’s accused of killing thousands of Taliban prisoners of war in 2001. Should the new government put him and other warlords on trial?

BARAKZAI: I wish to see all warlords, not only Dostum. Dostum is not the only warlord. Even those whom they are supporting American, direct and indirectly until today in Afghanistan, they must be responsible for those crimes which they did in Afghanistan.

WERMAN: Ms. Barakzai, as a member of Afghanistan’s parliament and a Karzai supporter I presume you’ve had meetings with Karzai and corruption comes up. What’s his response to how you feel this transparency should occur?

BARAKZAI: I am a Karzai supporter no doubt. Why I support him? Because I believe still Karzai is better than Abdullah. But it not necessarily means that I’m supporting all Karzai’s agenda. Since eight years I’m tired enough from making a loud voice for the not choosing corrupt people and implementing the rule of law must be the top priority. Karzai himself as a person, as an individual, always welcoming this idea. But unfortunately the palace mafia and Karzai office and outside of their office [INDISCERNIBLE] allow those real voice from the people. Therefore Karzai as a president sometimes he’s not really receiving the right information about the people.

WERMAN: Shukrai Barakzai is a member of Afghanistan’s parliament and a Hamid Karzai supporter. Thank you so much for your time Ms. Barakzai.

BARAKZAI: Thank you very much.

UN official looks at US housing crisis

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:00:30 +0000

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A United Nations official is taking a first-hand look at the impact of the economic crisis on the lives of American homeowners and renters. Reporter Anna Sussman has details.

MARCO WERMAN: The economic crisis has hit American homeowners and renters especially hard. You can read the impact on the faces of the homeless and in the yard signs that say foreclosed. Now a UN official is seeing it for herself on a tour of the United States. Reporter Anna Sussman went along for the ride in L.A..

[BUS STARTING]

ANNA SUSSMAN: We are on a bus in South Central Los Angeles and we’re here with the first ever United Nations fact-finding visit to the US to investigate foreclosure and evictions and housing issues in America. Advocates on this bus are calling Los Angeles the homeless capital of America. We’ve just pulled up outside a so-called for-profit shelter. These are places where homeless families are paying for beds because the regular shelter beds are all full here. This mission is being led by Raquel Rolnik. She is the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing. She’ll be hearing from advocates about housing conditions, evictions, and the demolition of public housing.

RAQUEL ROLNIK: So let me just tell you why I came to the United States. As a rapporteur we received complaints from residents about housing rights violations.

SUSSMAN: Here in America?

ROLNIK: Yeah. And I had received as a rapporteur complaints that dealt with the issue of demolishing of public housing. So combining the issue of financial crisis with foreclosures that gave me the ground to ask for a visit here, for a mission here. When the government changed I got the permission to come.

ADVOCATE: In this area in 2008 and 2009 there were over 3500 foreclosures.

SUSSMAN: We’re driving through a neighborhood now where the advocates on the bus say that about 18 percent of the homes had been foreclosed on. You can see for sale signs at about every third home that we’re passing.

ROLNIK: I had the opportunity to meet with officials. I had the opportunity to meet with residents. With advocates. And I had the opportunity to do side visits and see things with my own eyes. So I really think that the US is living a affordable housing crisis.

SUSSMAN: Raquel Rolnik we’re hearing a lot of stories about poor housing conditions and evictions but the US doesn’t recognize housing as a human right, so why are you doing this investigation?

ROLNIK: You don’t need to ratify a international treaty or have this in your constitution in order to enforce adequate housing as a human right. So I didn’t see that as a problem. It depends on what kind of housing policies you do.

SUSSMAN: What do you hope will come from your fact-finding mission?

ROLNIK: I really hope, and that’s how I will try to after the mission present my recommendations to national authorities of what I have seen and what I have heard and then be able to discuss with them some recommendations to reform housing policies. It’s very clear that housing has been seen here as a financial asset and as a commodity and not as a social concern.

WERMAN: That was UN special rapporteur Raquel Rolnik. Anna Sussman sent us that report from Los Angeles.

Fearful Mexicans flee deadly city

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:57:26 +0000

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Juárez is Mexico’s deadliest city with 2,000 murders so far this year. Some residents are breaking the law to save their lives. They’re fleeing north to Texas on tourist visas and they intend to stay. Correspondent Monica Ortiz Uribe has the story.

caught at the official US ports of entry. Roger Maier is a spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection.

ROGER MAIER: Our officers in El Paso encounter, any week, probably 125 to 150 immigration-related violations.

URIBE: Maier says visa violators have always existed even before the violence erupted in Mexico. Many use their tourist visa to work in the United States.

MAIER: During the course of our interview and inspection you know in some cases we’re able to determine that that person is either residing in the United States or working in the United States which is not allowed under that visa class.

URIBE: Those who are caught can lose their visa and be prohibited from returning to the United States. For Ortensia and her parents it’s a risk they’re willing to take right now.

ORTENSIA: I try not to think about it very hard. I just let God do his work. I already did mine.

URIBE: It’s much more difficult to track visa violators once they’re already in the country. Ortensia has submitted paperwork to secure her parent’s residency, a process she expects will only take a couple of years. In the meantime she and her parents miss their lives in Mexico every day. But going back is just not realistic.

ORTENSIA: I’m very proud to be a Mexican. And if I had a chance to survive with my family, to have the chances for them to study, yeah I’ll be happy to live there. But there’s no chances. Not for us.

URIBE: For The World I’m Monica Ortiz Uribe in El Paso, Texas.

China sends mob “godmother” to prison

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:53:03 +0000

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A Chinese woman known as the “Godmother of the underworld” was sentenced to 18 years in jail today for bribery, illegal gambling, and other gang activity. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad has been watching the trial in Beijing.

MARCO WERMAN: The Mexican city of Juarez may be getting more dangerous but the Chinese city of Chongqing may be getting a little safer. At least that’s the hope of Chinese officials now that a woman described as the godmother of the underworld has been put behind bars. Xie Caiping was sentenced to 18 years today. She was said to have run gambling dens in nightclubs and tea houses and protected drug users and the court concluded that Xie bribed police to turn a blind eye to her crimes. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad is monitoring the story from Beijing. This trial captivated a lot of Chinese Mary Kay. What were some of these lurid and sensational details that caught people’s attention?

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: Well first of all there was the personality of Xie herself. You know she came into the court and cussed at the judges. And of course the judge reprimanded her. But you know the people who were watching ate it up. Then there were the totally unsubstantiated reports in some of the Chinese press that she had a stable of 16 young lovers. There’s the fact that her brother-in-law was the deputy chief of police in Chongqing and the former director of the justice department and that he seemed to have facilitated her being able to run these gambling dens. So I think part of it is just the sheer soap opera value of this sort of a trial with this sort of a woman who the Chinese media were portraying as a dragon lady. But then you have to go beyond that and ask why this trial? Because there’s a lot of corruption in China.

WERMAN: Well precisely. I mean Xie is believed to have earned more than two million yuan – or 300,000 dollars. It seems kind of like small change compared to other cases. I mean why would this draw so much attention?

MAGISTAD: Chongqing’s party secretary is Bush e Lai. He’s a very ambitious, media-savvy person who drove this anti-corruption campaign. And he’s been getting a lot of credit in the Chinese media for bringing people like Xie to justice. But I think part of why this is getting so much attention in the state-run media is that it makes the state look good. It makes the government look good. It makes Bush e Lai look good that they’re cracking down on corruption. But it doesn’t actually hurt the interest of people at very senior levels. There have been corruption cases that have been linked to family members of people at very senior levels. And if you try to do a search on the internet for stories about those cases you’ll find that your computer freezes.

WERMAN: When you hear about the mafia or underworld we have images of a certain kind of organized crime. How does the culture of the Godfather compare to what you’re talking about in Chongqing with the godmother?

MAGISTAD: Well I think she ran a much smaller racket than the Godfather of the films. You know she had something like 20 casinos. You know there certainly were some unsavory stories about things that she did in the course of running her businesses. At one point she allegedly hired thugs to beat up an undercover police officer and they ended up stuffing his body in a bag and dumping him in a field. He survived it. Another time, it was said in the court, she was tipped off that there was going to be a raid and she made off with a suitcase full of money. You know she had her ways of making things work for her. I think probably not as much murder and mayhem as in the Italian mafia and in the Godfather films. But you know she kind of tried to hold her own.

WERMAN: She’d put a horse in somebody’s bedroom. But a living horse.

MAGISTAD: [LAUGHS] Perhaps.

WERMAN: The World’s Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing. Thank you so much.

MAGISTAD: Thank you Marco.

Fired employee claims bias against environmental views

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:49:06 +0000

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Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Tim Nicholson, a former employee of the British property firm Grainger, who claims he lost his job due to his environmental beliefs. A British court today ruled that Nicholson could sue his former employer under laws normally used to protect people from religious discrimination.

MARCO WERMAN: If doing something about climate change is indeed a marathon, Tim Nicholson is an elite runner. Nicholson says he lives a green lifestyle and he tried to set up a carbon management system for the British property firm he worked for. Note we said we worked for. Tim Nicholson was dismissed from his job. The company says it was because of the economy. Nicholson says it was because of his views on climate change. Now a British court has sided with him. Tim Nicholson joins us from London and Tim you say you were fired for your environmental beliefs. Explain what happened.

TIM NICHOLSON: I was head of sustainability for Granger and I felt that I was obstructed in properly fulfilling that role. And I believe that in part that obstruction was because of my philosophical belief in climate change. And also when I was dismissed in October 2008 I felt that that dismissal was again in part due to my philosophical belief in climate change.

WERMAN: So head of sustainability for Granger. Elaborate what that job entailed and tell us also what kind of company Granger is.

NICHOLSON: Granger is a residential property investment company. So it owns houses and flats across the country and as head of sustainability I was seeking to, or I was required to, promote sustainable measures within the organization.

WERMAN: So if you think you were fired for your beliefs on climate change tell us what kind of things you saw happening at Granger that lead you to that belief.

NICHOLSON: Well unfortunately because my legal case in ongoing I can’t talk in detail about the situation that I encountered.

WERMAN: Just something I read that maybe you can clarify. I understood that your supervisor had another employee fly his Blackberry up to Ireland. Were you kind of blowing the whistle on that? Am I getting the story right?

NICHOLSON: I made reference to that incident in my witness statement for the first step in the legal process back in March and that was the chief executive of the company and he’d been attending a conference in Ireland and indeed he had left his Blackberry, his mobile phone, behind in London and rather than survive for 48 hours or find some other technical solution a member of the IT staff was flown out with the Blackberry to Ireland in order to deliver it to him. Now I suggested that that showed the level of contempt within in terms of an action for the need to cut carbon emissions.

WERMAN: Now for the record we contacted Granger PLC regarding your case today and they issued this statement. They said, Mr. Nicholson’s redundancy was driven solely by the operational needs of the company. During a period of extraordinary market turbulence which also required other structural changes to be made within the company. Tim Nicholson anything you care to say to that in response?

NICHOLSON: I’m not surprised by their statement but clearly it’s not something that I agree with.

WERMAN: Well how would you characterize yourself Tim? Would you say you’re an environmental activist or were you just trying to do your job as sustainability manager at Granger?

NICHOLSON: I was trying to do my job as best I could. But I do recognize the very precarious position that we’re in in relation to climate change. And I think it is important for moral and ethical reasons and lots of others as well but particularly moral and ethical reasons that we cut our carbon emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change and catastrophic climate change that the overwhelming body of scientific research says are manmade and will lead to disaster if we don’t do something about it urgently.

WERMAN: Well you came to our studios at the BBC this afternoon on your folding bicycle in the center of London. What else do you do to keep your carbon footprint small?

NICHOLSON: Well I’ve given up flying. Now that I understand that flying has a very significant carbon footprint, neither my wife nor I fly anymore. We’ve eco-renovated our home. So we’ve implemented various measures to cut the energy consumption of our property. I’m working for a charity that promotes sustainability in our health service. And I’ve joined a campaign called 1010 which is a commitment to cut carbon emission by 10 percent during 2010.

WERMAN: Tim Nicholson, the former head of sustainability for Granger PLC, a property company in the UK. I greatly appreciate your time. Thanks for coming in.

NICHOLSON: You’re welcome.

Geo Quiz

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:44:24 +0000

Download MP3 Our daily geography quiz.

Global Hit and Geo Answer

The World — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:40:42 +0000

Download MP3 American musician Melody Gardot says her introduction to music, and her subsequent international success, have come through a series of accidents. Anchor Marco Werman has her story and the answer to today's Geo Quiz: Toulouse, France.