BtN: Episode 8 Transcript 29/3/11
On this week's Behind the News:
From the kids of Christmas Island why it's more than just a detention centre.
Duck hunting season is underway but not everyone's happy about it.
And from Kings to kids why speech problems are more common than you might think.
Hi I'm Nathan Bazley, welcome to Behind the News.
Also on the show today we find out why boys are leaping at the chance to do ballet.
But first.
Libya Strike
Reporter: Nathan Bazley
INTRO: There's been a lot of fighting in an African country called Libya.
The guy who runs the country started bombing his own people because they were trying to get him out of power.
But now other countries have decided to help and it all came about because of a very important meeting thousands of kilometres away from there.
So how does one meeting change the course of a war?
Let's find out more about it.
NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Top Gun is heading for straight for Libya.
These fighter jets are from countries like Britain, France and the US and they're all heading to Libya for a joint mission.
Their aim?
To take out anything Colonel Gaddafi could use to hurt his own people, as they rise up against him.
The coalition force appear to have saved the Libyan rebels from near certain defeat.
So how do countries suddenly decide to team up and help out?
Well it might sound like something out of a comic, but there is one group of people who have the job of maintaining world peace and security.
They are the league of the most powerful countries in the world; otherwise known as the United Nations Security Council.
NATHAN: Okay so they might be powerful but they aren't all that exciting to listen to, so to take their place for today, meet the UN security council of kids!
These are the people that decide how and when the world's biggest armies should be used.
The most powerful of these members are the five permanent ones: The US, the UK, Russia, France and China.
Then there are less powerful members; countries that are allowed to join for two years at a time.
And a few weeks ago, representatives from all 15 countries held an urgent meeting to discuss a big problem.
CHINA: Okay, quiet! So you've all seen what's happening in Libya right now. What should we do about it?
UNITED KINGDOM: Well Gaddafi seems to be killing a lot of Libyan people in bombing raids, so maybe we should get our jets up there to enforce a no fly zone, so we can stop his jets dropping bombs.
FRANCE: We need to stop him launching more attacks too, so we should take out his aircraft hangers and radar equipment.
AMERICA: Okay, that sounds like it could help the people of Libya get rid of Gaddafi.
CHINA: Let's put it to a vote then. Who's in favour?
CHINA: Resolution passed!
And with that, the operation went ahead.
BARACK OBAMA, US PRESIDENT: I authorise armed forces to begin a limited military action.
NICOLAS SARKOZY, FRENCH PRESIDENT: France has decided to play its part.
DAVID CAMERON: Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen.
But you might remember there were 5 countries that didn't raise their hands to support a no fly zone.
As permanent members, Russia or China could have stopped the no fly zone if either one voted against it.
CHINA: I'm not sure this is the best course of action.
RUSSIA: Yes, maybe there are other things we could try but there are a lot of people in the area that support a no fly zone.
But they decided to let the other nations try their idea, so they withdrew from the vote.
Now that the no fly zone is in place in Libya and most of Gaddafi's air force has been destroyed, questions are starting to be raised about what should happen next.
Some countries want to go after Gaddafi - the man behind the attacks.
But others say that was not what they agreed to at the meeting.
So it could be up to the Libyans to force him out of office.
And that's exactly what these Libyan rebels intend to do.
The Wire
Last week we told the story of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster through the eyes of 13 year old Hiroshi from Tokyo.
More than a thousand of you sent messages of support to Hiroshi through the BtN website.
And Hiroshi has asked us to pass on his thanks.
Let's get an update on the situation in that country now and find out what else has been making the news in the wire.
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The clean-up is continuing for the people of Japan as the official death toll there continues to rise.
The government says around ten thousand people are thought to have died in the horrific earthquake and tsunami that hit north east Japan more than 2 weeks ago.
Meanwhile the problems surrounding the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant are continuing.
Reports over the weekend said radiation levels on site were now 10 million times above normal which led to evacuations and panic.
But now the operators of the plant have admitted that they got the numbers wrong.
Although they say it's still a very dangerous situation anyone near radioactive water inside the plants would receive four times their maximum annual dose of radiation in just one hour.
And in the sea near the nuclear plant radiation levels are increasing again.
Many people in Japan are now protesting against the use of nuclear power.
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To NSW now where Barry O'Farrell has been sworn in as the state's 43rd premier following the Coalition's landslide victory on the weekend.
The result is one of the strongest election wins in Australian history.
Labor was wiped out in the state after a record swing of almost 17 per cent.
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And famous landmarks both here and overseas had their lights pulled for an hour to raise awareness for climate change.
The event is called earth hour and it encourages everyone to turn off their lights and to consider ways they can help the environment at home.
Christmas Island
Reporter: Natasha Thiele
INTRO: Anyone watching the news over the last few years would be forgiven for thinking that Christmas Island was nothing more than a great big detention centre.
Well there's actually a lot more to Christmas Island than that.
Aussies have called the place home for generations way before the detention centre was ever built.
So we asked a group of local school kids to give us a tour to show you a side of Christmas Island that you don't often get to see on the news.
Here's Tash.
NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: This is what we've recently been seeing on our TV screens of Christmas Island.
Asylum seekers protesting at the island's detention centre, damaging accommodation buildings and setting alight tents!
They want to live in Australia, but say the government's taking too long to decide if they can stay.
They also reckon the detention centre is overcrowded.
But is the detention centre the only thing we really know about Christmas Island?
REPORTER: What do you know about Christmas Island?
WOMAN: A place they take refugees perhaps.
MAN: Isn't that where boat people go?
REPORTER: If I showed you a map, where do you think Christmas Island is?
WOMAN: I would say it's around here somewhere.
MAN: Up here I reckon.
WOMAN: I think it's that little island right there.
MAN: Somewhere here.
REPORTER: What if I told you it was this little dot here?
MAN: Really? It's almost as if it's part of Indonesia or something.
WOMAN: No I wouldn't of thought it was that far away from Australia.
So even though it's a part of Australia, it seems we don't know too much about Christmas Island.
And that's something the locals would like to change. They've made us a video to show what everyday life is like for people who live there.
BEN: Hey BtN, my name's Ben Robertson, we watch your show all the time!
BEN: Although we're isolated, life here is just like life on the mainland. People go to work, they hang out in coffee shops, they play and they go to school! This is our school.
SCHOOL KIDS: Hi BTN!
Australia bought Christmas Island in the 1950's, mainly because of the valuable phosphate on the island, which is used in fertiliser.
So, as part of Australia the people here get to vote in our elections and they even have an Australian postcode!
The 12-hundred people living here permanently mainly speak English and like in other parts of Australia there's a mix of ethnic backgrounds.
BEN: This is the pink house on Christmas Island. It's where the Chinese people used to live, Chinese person. It's now a temple. Apparently it's haunted, like super
haunted.
BEN: Right in front of us is the cove area.
BEN: When we get rain, it's kinda weird. In Perth when it rains, huge amounts of areas are just covered, here sometimes this national park could be raining on that's it.
But despite the weather, there are lots of recreational activities around.
BEN: Like fishing.
BEN: And spear fishing.
Before the detention centre came, the island was well known for its rare and unusual wildlife like these red crabs.
Millions of them live on the island and at the end of the year, they migrate from the forest to the ocean to lay their eggs.
BEN : Ah it got me!
So next time you hear about Christmas Island on the news, keep in mind there's a whole lot more to the island than just the detention centre!
Quiz 1
You heard about Christmas Island's famous red crabs there.
That's going to be the subject of our quiz.
How many red crabs are estimated to live on Christmas Island?
120,000 1.2 million 120 million
Answer: 120 million
The whole island is only 135 square kilometres so people have had to learn to live alongside the crabs.
Duck Hunting
Reporter: Kirsty Bennett
INTRO: Now, it's that time of year when you just wouldn't want to be mistaken for a duck.
Duck hunting season is underway in some parts of Australia and it's got a lot of people in a flap.
Animal rights groups want the sport to be banned but hunters say it's both fun and good for the economy.
So Kirsty checked out this ongoing debate.
KIRSTY BENNETT, REPORTER: All these animals have something in common.
They can be hunted in parts of Australia. And lately, ducks have flown into the firing line.
It's duck hunting season, which is only legal in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory. When the season is, can change from year to year but in most states it runs from around February or March until June. Each year the
government looks at duck numbers and if they reckon there's enough they'll approve a hunting season. In that time, there's a limit on how many ducks can be killed and that differs between states. This year in Victoria each hunter is allowed to kill 10 ducks each day. But for some, killing even one duck would be too many and that's why duck hunting is such a controversial sport.
At this farm in Victoria, hunters have come together for what's expected to be a great season. The wet weather earlier this year has flooded paddocks and provided a great breeding ground for ducks. That's a good thing for these shooters who've haven't had a full duck hunting season in years. What they catch here today can be taken home for dinner but for some it's more about the enjoyment.
MAN 1: I'm a shooter myself and I enjoy the camping and things like that and the majority of the people are very good they're city people and it gives them a chance to get out of the city to come up to do their camping and shooting.
KIRSTY: There's also an up-side for the local towns where ducks call home. The hunting season brings more people into the area and that means more money for local shops selling things like food and petrol.
MAN 2: You get a minimum of 3,000 shooters and they each leave 200 dollars in town that's a great boost to our community and that's what we're pretty excited about.
KIRSTY: But not everyone feels the same excitement about this sport. Angry protests can sometimes be the reaction when duck hunting season rolls around. And leading many of these campaigns are animal rights groups. They want the sport banned.
LAURIE LEVY, COALITION AGAINST DUCK HUNTING: Bird numbers are just starting to breed again especially in Victoria and it would take about five years of the sort of flooding rain we have had to get their numbers back to normal again.
KIRSTY: Animal rights groups also have concerns about the way ducks are shot.
A normal bullet punches one hole through a target like this. But the shotgun cartridges used in duck hunting they shoot out sometimes hundreds of these little pellets that go out over a really wide area. So say if the duck is up here or down here it could actually get injured rather than killing it straight away.
KIRSTY: But the hunters say they do their best to make sure the ducks are always killed humanely. There's no doubt that duck hunting splits opinions. But no matter which side you're on, there's one hope that's shared. To make sure ducks will always be in our sights.
Presenter: OK that's an issue that has divided opinion so let's make that our poll this week.
Online Poll
The question is: Should duck hunting be allowed in Australia?
To vote just head to our website.
Poll Results
In last week's poll we asked you if you thought Australia should build nuclear power plants.
86% voted no.
Thanks for taking part.
Stutter
Reporter: Kirsty Bennett
INTRO: Now, speaking is a skill that most of us take for granted.
But for some people putting a sentence together confidently can be a bit of a struggle.
It's a speech disorder called "stuttering" and it affects hundreds of thousands of Aussies.
So Kirsty checked out how kids and adults are trying to overcome it.
GEOFFREY RUSH (LIONEL LOGUE): Feel the looseness of the jaw.
KIRSTY BENNETT, REPORTER: The movie The King's Speech took home a stack of film awards. But it also received applause for raising awareness about stuttering. It's a true story about the Queen's Dad - King George the sixth - and how he overcame his stutter with the help of an Australian therapist.
GEOFFREY RUSH (LIONEL LOGUE): Why should I waste my time listening to you?
KING GEORGE IV (COLIN FIRTH): (Yelling) Because, I have a right to be heard!
GEOFFREY RUSH (LIONEL LOGUE): Heard as what?
KING GEORGE IV (COLIN FIRTH): (Yelling) I have a voice!
GEOFFREY RUSH (LIONEL LOGUE): Yes, you do.
KIRSTY: King George isn't the only one who's experienced these frustrations. People in this group in Sydney have been struggling with their speech for most of their lives.
And they meet up regularly to work on techniques to improve their speech.
Stuttering is when a person's speech is interrupted by repetition, long sounds or pauses. Back in the day, stuttering was thought to have been caused by a scary or upsetting experience in childhood. But nowadays researchers reckon it's a physical condition that comes from a problem in the brain. One idea is that the signals sent from the brain to the vocal muscles don't properly develop when you're young. It's more common in boys and it could be genetic because stuttering has been found to run in families. But there is help available. And just like in the case of King George -
At the Australian Stuttering Research Centre, their program for young people is proving to be a huge success. The idea is to work on overcoming the stutter at a young age because it's harder to get rid of the stutter once you've grown up. 7 year old Jayda has come here with her mum to get help for her stutter.
TEACHER: Now where are we now?
JAYDA: They are in the lounge room.
TEACHER: Good. Time for two more ticks. That was great.
KIRSTY: So what's the secret? Researchers have found that if people talk in rhythm, almost like a robot, it takes the stutter away. And if you do that with kids when they're really young it could get rid of the stutter for good.
At 21, Matt is only now learning how to control his stutter.
MAT WHITNEY: I can appreciate it more now. Like, I can appreciate every word that comes out of my mouth.
KIRSTY: Now he hopes that The King's Speech will give people a better
understanding of how much effort it takes for stutterers to produce every word.
MAT WHITNEY: I think it might make people react in a less negative way towards people like myself who st ... stutter, stutter and that, and actually, that word is the most feared word I could ever say. I hate saying that word.
Presenter: Seems like a tough word to use doesn't it?
On the subject of speech, let's have a quiz.
Quiz 2
The question is: Where are your vocal cords?
Are they your?
Oesophagus Larynx Lungs
Answer: Larynx
The vocal cords are two bands of tissue which stretch across the larynx.
Let's talk about sport now. Here's the score.
The Score
To cycling first and Anna Meares has helped Australia to its best medal haul at the track cycling world titles by collecting her third gold medal on the final day.
The win has capped an amazing comeback for the Aussie cyclist who broke her neck in a fall in 2007.
Australia finished the world titles with eight gold, two silver and one bronze.
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From the cycling track to the race track now and Sebastian Vettel has started this season of Formula One how he ended the last one.
He took out the Australian Grand prix on the weekend in Melbourne.
Vettel ruled the track from start to finish leaving Aussie Mark Webber struggling to keep up.
He finished a disappointing fifth in front of his home crowd.
Ballet Boys
Reporter: Natasha Thiele
INTRO: Picture for a second a ballet dancer. All right?
Well I reckon there's a good chance most of you would have thought of a girl.
And you see that's been one of the main problems for ballet.
Often boys see it as a girls-only activity.
But hopefully that's now changing.
Tash caught up with some ballet boys to find out more about it.
NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: Their grace, poise and energy flows through their movements. For these guys, ballet dancing isn't about tutus and ribbons. It's about athleticism, art, strength and of course fun!
BRODY: It's just an amazing sport.
TOM: Just everything about it. Just the jumps, the power the girls yeah.
DYLAN: My mum decided, you know Dylan, you're too much of a jock, you're going to do ballet.
BRANDYN: You need to have the mind for it, you need to be able to think.
So what is ballet all about? Ballet is a French word meaning 'dance'. Although ballet is thought to have started in Italy, it developed greatly in France in the 1600s. At that time, only men were allowed to dance ballet. It wasn't until a bit later that women were allowed to join in. And it's that French connection that gives us some of these French names like plie meaning to bend your knees and pirouette to whirl around.
And ballet isn't just popular on the stage. It's also made the leap onto our TV screens in numerous talent shows and even dramas like Dance Academy. Ballet is a great way to keep fit and the physique of a ballet dancer is important. A male ballet dancer needs good core strength. Their legs need to support the weight of the ballerina. And their arms and back must be able to handle lifts.
Even though ballet's a graceful art, the intense physical training involved means ballet dancers are often compared to top athletes. A university study in the UK found the overall fitness of ballet dancers is greater than the fitness of professional
swimmers and rugby players. They were tested for things like their strength, endurance, balance and flexibility.
The study found ballet dancers and rugby players were similar in that they train really hard, often putting long-term strain on their bodies and they're vulnerable to picking-up injuries through their intense training. But when it came to strength, rugby players tended to be strong in shorter bursts, whereas ballet dancers were able to maintain their strength for a longer period of time. A lot of that pressure is
concentrated on the feet of the ballet dancer. And that's why the type of shoes they wear need to be flexible and comfortable.
REPORTER: Girls ballet shoes usually look a bit like this. But if you get the special training, you get to wear point shoes. The ends of these shoes have a flat bit called a
block, which allow them to get on to their tippy-toes. But the guys have the standard ballet shoes.
Even if you're not keen on ballet, there are lots of opportunities and other avenues of theatre and dance to get involved in. But for now, these ballet dancers are hoping the art of dance with point them in the right direction!
Closer
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And we'll see you next time
