Saturday Extra
Saturday Extra brings you a lively array of stories and features covering a range of topics including international politics and business.
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4 Episodes of this Podcast:
Saturday Extra - 2009-07-04
Published: 2009-07-03 09:00:00Obama's healthcare plan SUMMARY: Past proposals to provide the USA with a government funded healthcare system have failed miserably. President Barack Obama is now trying to achieve what presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton could not. It seems that many US voters support the president´s proposal, yet it has a way to go before it gets through Congress. A lot is at stake, both politically for the Obama administration and also for those millions of Americans who struggle to cover their medical bills. Global campaign to release Aung San Suu Kyi SUMMARY: This weekend the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki Moon, is visiting Burma to discuss with the Burmese junta the ongoing detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi is currently being held in Insein Prison after being charged with violating the terms of her house arrest. A global campaign is once again agitating for her release, although to date international pressure has had almost no effect. Education as diplomacy: Peter Quiddington SUMMARY: To say that Australia - as an international student destination brand - is currently suffering, would be an understatement. Headlines concerning violence against Indian students, allegations of the suppression of Coroners' reports into student deaths AND a litany of complaints about support services......are threatening to derail a multi-billion-dollar industry. So,an industry in trouble.... But Peter Quiddington argues that the long-term stakes for Australia and its regional neighbours are much, much higher than monetary: think `education´ as no less than the 'new' diplomacy. What next for Iraq? SUMMARY: It´s being called the beginning of the end of America´s intervention in Iraq. US troops have withdrawn from Iraqi cities but they will remain outside the major urban areas on their own bases, to train Iraqi police and protect the allied forces. Water cooler conversation: Wimbledon SUMMARY: Today's Water Cooler Conversation investigates the sporting brilliance and the spectacle that is Wimbledon. And let's not forget the sleep deprivation it causes in the Southern Hemisphere every year.... Pliny's Warning SUMMARY: Author Anne Maria Nicholson sets her novels amidst volcanoes - in particular Stromboli in Italy, the world´s most active volcano: it has continuously erupted for 2,000 years. She has climbed to the top of several volcanoes including Etna in Sicily, Vulcano in the Aeolian Islands and Stromboli, the volcano island in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
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Saturday Extra - 2009-06-27
Published: 2009-06-26 09:00:00Presidential elections: Indonesia SUMMARY: In Indonesia, there's a fascinating presidential election campaign underway in which the incumbent and his deputy are both contenders for the top job. There are three candidates for president: The incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Democratic Party), Vice-president, Jusuf Kalla (Golkar) and former president, Megawati Soekarnoputri (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle or PDI-P). At present, SBY is considered the favourite for the presidency. Power groupings within Iran SUMMARY: What do we need to know about the big and small power groupings within Iran -- so we can better imagine the conversations that must be underway right now in the halls of power and in the households of Iran. Geopolitical power in the Indian Ocean SUMMARY: In an essay for Foreign Affairs, the correspondent Robert D. Kaplan argued that the Indian Ocean rim will take 'center stage for the 21st century' as a site of commercial and military rivalries. Why does he believe the Indian Ocean is of such strategic importance? Building a bi-lingual Australia SUMMARY: The study of a second language in Australian schools and universities has declined dramatically. Now only around 12% of Year 12 students are studying a second language. Candy Bowers SUMMARY: Candy Bowers is passionate about the need for Australia´s dramatic arts – be it TV soaps or theatre productions – to reflect our cultural diversity. She is also a winner of the British Council´s Realise Your Dream award. This annual award is designed to help young Australians further their creative careers by offering them the opportunity to work with industry leaders in the UK. And she believes that the dramatic arts in the UK better reflects the nation's multiculturalism.
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Saturday Extra - 2009-06-20
Published: 2009-06-19 09:00:00Iran: the supreme leader's next move SUMMARY: On June 19 Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, made his much anticipated speech at Tehran University. This morning we discuss the events of the past week in Iran...and where it all could lead. Third Link Growth Fund: Chris Cuffe SUMMARY: For investment manager Chris Cuffe, June marks a real professional and personal milestone. Twelve months ago, the former head of the investment juggernaut Colonial First State set up the Third Link Growth Fund – with all of its management fees going to charity. So – in these most volatile of times – how is Third Link (and its founder) faring one year on? Work: the modern sweatshop SUMMARY: Richard Watson believes in the value of a good lunch...he says it´s been undermined by our love of new technologies and he goes further: that they might soon result in few of us having any `serious thinking time´. So the so-called glittering prize...the chance to really innovate and create fresh thoughts...could become more elusive. Bali's Silent Crisis SUMMARY: Indonesia's presidential election will be held on July 8 and it´s another important test in Indonesia´s emerging democracy. Bali typifies some of the complexities of Indonesian politics and culture. Bali´s Hindu majority is something of an anomaly in the world´s largest Muslim nation and the region has been, at times, at odds with the Javanese elites, most recently with the Islamist political parties with whom President Yudyhono is prepared to make political deals. Jeff and Belinda Lewis have spent the last 30 years living, working and visiting Bali. Susan Varga SUMMARY: Susan Varga has written a fictionalised account of her mother's acute deterioration of five years ago – it all happened over a rapid nine months. Susan Varga's actual mother, Heddy, survived the horrors of being a Hungarian Jew during World War 2. Heddy then re-constituted her life in Australia, but several years ago went through a remarkable decline.
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Saturday Extra - 2009-06-13
Published: 2009-06-12 09:00:00Barnaby Joyce, John Hewson: soil carbon sequestration SUMMARY: But first...a very complex equation and no-one would pretend to know the final answer yet. The equation´s parts? The leader of the Nationals in the Senate, Barnaby Joyce; emissions trading, soil carbon sequestration... and some urgings from the former Opposition leader John Hewson (also the past chair of the National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development) In a recent and strongly worded article in the Financial Review, John Hewson told Barnaby Joyce to get real about his opposition to emission trading schemes. And he went further than that...arguing that Barnaby Joyce was missing a real opportunity to become a champion of soil carbon sequestration... the practice of making sure that more carbon stays in the ground. The dumping of Chinalco SUMMARY: The challenge to Australia to develop a bigger, more sophisticated relationship with China is certainly being tested and worked on right now — in the wake of various big, dramatic business deals prompted by the paradigm shifts of the global recession. Netanyahu's 'Palestinian state' SUMMARY: It´s being billed as one of the most awaited policy speeches in the Middle East, when Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally commits to the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state at Tel Aviv´s Bar Ilan University tomorrow. Mahboba's Promise SUMMARY: The headlines about Afghanistan tend to refer to either the lengthy military campaign against the Taliban or Afghan asylum seekers. There is little mention of what is happening on the ground for Afghans. Mahboba Rawi tries to encourage us all to be a little more interested in the plight of ordinary Afghans – in particular the enormous challenges facing women and orphans in that country. Insurance scheme for the disabled SUMMARY: One of the big ideas of the 20-20 Summit was the notion of a disabilities levy, and according to Bruce Bonyhady, who wrote a very interesting piece in the recent Australian, now is the time this could be introduced. Serendip: My Sri Lankan Kitchen SUMMARY: My next guest reaches deep into his own family history to evaluate the role of food. His love affair with food began when his family decided to drive from England to Sri Lanka in their Austin minivan in 1968.
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