Sunday Morning for Sunday 17 July 2011
8:12 Insight: MMP on Trial
Insight speaks to supporters and opponents of MMP, ahead of a referendum on the voting system that's being held alongside this year's general election.
Written and presented by Julian Robins
Produced by Philippa Tolley.
8:40 Sam Zarifi – Justice in Sri Lanka
In the wake of reports of Tamil asylum seekers heading for New Zealand, Chris talks to Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director, about the situation for Tamils in Sri Lanka following the end of the civil war two years ago. He says there is growing international pressure for an investigation to address reports of human rights abuses inflicted on thousands of civilians as the Sri Lankan government moved to wipe out the Tamil Tigers.
9:06 Mediawatch
On Mediawatch this weekend we look at the fallout from dirty deeds at the British newspaper The News of the World. Editors have been arrested, journalists jailed and the biggest deal of Rupert Murdoch's career has been derailed. Some are even calling all this 'Britain's Watergate'. Our papers here insist they don’t use illegal tabloid tactics, but are there lessons to be learned nonetheless? And could calls to curb the power of the press in the UK end up having an impact here?
Produced and presented by Colin Peacock and Jeremy Rose.
9:40 Liz Garbus – The Bizarre World of Bobby Fischer
Liz Garbus directed a new documentary that tells the story of chess champion Bobby Fischer. From a lonely childhood which saw Bobby obsessed with chess by the time he was six, he went on to beat Russian Boris Spassky in a fraught competition in Iceland, disappeared for a time, became a fugitive from US law, then re-emerged, seemingly in the grip of mental illness. It’s a fascinating story, brilliantly told in ‘Bobby Fischer Against the World’, which is screening at the New Zealand International Film Festival.
10:06 Regan Potangaroa – Engineering Change
For nearly 15 years, Dr Potangaroa has been involved in humanitarian aid and post disaster work in places such as Haiti, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia. More recently he has been working in Christchurch and he talks to Chris about humanitarian engineering – applying engineering principles directly to helping people hit by poverty and disaster, by providing clean drinking water, roads and houses. He also has a few things to say about building a better, fairer Christchurch, and taking care of the poorer parts of town where the most vulnerable people live.
Dr Regan Potangaroa is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture at Unitec Auckland. He is attending this weekend’s Engineers without Borders NZ conference at Auckland University.
10.40 Notes from the South with Dougal Stevenson
Dougal is worried that Dunedin City Council is having a bunch of very bad ideas.
10:45 Hidden Treasures
Trevor Reekie features the music of young English jazz ensemble The Portico Quartet, as well as Auckland-based singer songwriter Tiny Ruins.
Produced by Trevor Reekie
11.05 Ideas: The Cost of Drugs
There are many life-saving medicines that cost just a few cents to manufacture but remain outside the reach of most of the world’s population. And then there are the diseases of the developing world for which drugs could relatively easily be developed but aren’t because there’s simply not enough money in it. Ideas talks to philosopher Thomas Pogge about an idea he says could radically change all that. Dr David Hadorn, the director of the Centre for Access and Prioritisation in Health at the Wellington School of Medicine tells Ideas about a proposal that he says has the potential to see New Zealanders at the front of the queue for innovative new drugs. And Otago University lecturer in health economics Des O’Dea discusses the pluses and minuses of the Pharmac model.
Presented by Chris Laidlaw
Produced by Jeremy Rose
11.55 Feedback
What you, the listeners, say on the ideas and issues that have appeared in the programme.