Sunday Morning for Sunday 9 September 2012

8:12 Insight: Politics and the Status of Pacific Women

Insight looks at the status of Pacific women and asks if greater involvement in politics could help change some woeful statistics when it comes to violence, health and education.
Written and presented by Megan Whelan.
Produced by Philippa Tolley.

8:40 Susan Sawyer – Adolescent Health

Professor Susan Sawyer from the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, talks to Chris Laidlaw about young people’s health worldwide, including discussion of such issues as smoking, obesity, mental illness, drugs and HIV/AIDS.

9:06 Mediawatch

Mediawatch talks to some overseas experts about the ways ‘new media’ are now colliding with the old – TV, radio and newspapers - in the digital age. Fast-growing online outlets now deliver news quickly, cheaply and directly to people, wherever they are. But by speeding up the news, are they also undermining it? And should the likes of Google contribute more to the creation of the content that they make so freely available online? Also: some startling mistakes made in recent reports of the death of the world’s best-known names, and newspapers having a makeover.
Produced and presented by Colin Peacock and Jeremy Rose.

9.40 Anders Jägerskog – Global Food and Water Crises

Dr. Jägerskog is the director of Knowledge Services at the Stockholm International Water Institute, and editor of a new report that issues stern warnings on the future of global food and water supplies. It warns the whole world may be forced into a vegetarian diet by 2050 to cope with water shortages and feed an overpopulated planet. You can watch Dr. Jägerskog's TED Talk here.

10:06 Ideas: Fairness in the Welfare System

In 1898, New Zealand became the first country in the world to introduce an old age pension; in 1926 it became the first to introduce a family benefit; then in the 1940s we led the way in introducing a universal family benefit. And each of those pioneering innovations was under-pinned by concepts of fairness. An historian, economists, and someone who works in the sector discuss the search for universal fairness in the welfare system.
Presented by Chris Laidlaw.
Produced by Jeremy Rose.

10.55 Today’s Track

History (I Was Born Blind), by the Aboriginal singer/songwriter Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, from his 2008 album Gurrumul.

11.05 Down the List

Where does the real power in New Zealand lie? That’s right, with a bunch of bureaucrats, underlings, officials, and lowly-ranked list MPs that you and I have never heard of.  Whether it’s in sport, politics, commerce, education or the arts, the only way to find out what’s really going on in this country is by going Down the List. Written by Dave Armstrong and produced by Radio New Zealand’s Drama department. Today, the Americans can’t understand our Prime Minister’s accent. We might have to help them or things could go very wrong in the Pacific.

11.12 Tim Weiner – History of the FBI

Enemies: A History of the FBI is a definitive account of the FBI’s secret intelligence operations, from an author whose work on the Pentagon and the CIA won him the Pulitzer Prize. Tim Weiner talks to Chris Laidlaw about what his research revealed on J. Edgar Hoover, Martin Luther King, and the hidden side of America’s War on Terror.
Enemies is published by Random House.

11.40 Wayne Brittenden’s Counterpoint

A new addition to the programme from Wayne Brittenden, who has been Radio New Zealand’s correspondent in several capital cities over the years. He will be giving us fresh insights into a wide variety of topics of national and international concern, followed by Chris Laidlaw’s discussion of the issue with guests. This week Wayne is discussing civil liberties – timely in the light of the Julian Assange and Bradley Manning cases.
Guests: Thomas Beagle from the New Zealand website TechLiberty; and civil liberties lawyer Stephen Rohde, chair of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation in Southern California.

11.55 Feedback

What the listeners have to say about today’s programme.

Music played during the programme

TITLE: Desire
ARTIST: Alela Diane
COMP: Diane
ALBUM: Alela Diane & Wild Divine
LABEL: Rough Trade 700616
TIME PLAYED: 09:58

TITLE: History (I Was Born Blind)
ARTIST: Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
COMP: Yunupingu
ALBUM: Gurrumul
LABEL: Skinnyfish 900279
TIME PLAYED: 10:54