Nigeria's New President
(CNN) Post-election violence continues in northern Nigeria, highlighting the deep divide between the mostly Muslim north and the majority Christian south. On Friday, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan warned armed protesters that “enough was enough”.
The incumbent won the April 16th election against former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, sparking chaos in the north. The violence has killed more than 150 people and displaced thousands from their homes.
Our Christian Purefoy was at the polls during the presidential election and witnessed the moment when the winner was announced.
What's Not to Love About Italy?
The history, the art, the culture and the charm make it one of the greatest destinations on earth. So when The Revealer decided to do a piece on the Pantheon in Rome, the whole team was excited.
We were eager to investigate an exciting new theory that this majestic building, one of the oldest in antiquity, may actually have been built as a colossal sundial. It’s a complex piece of academic research that involves how shafts of light pour into the Pantheon at different times of the year. Make sure to watch the piece on the website to fully understand it.
As we planned the shoot, we imagined filming CNN correspondent Nick Glass pouring over diagrams in quaint cafes and filming sunsets over Rome’s cobbled streets. That would be the set-up, but we couldn’t cover the story without actually going inside the Pantheon itself. Or could we?
Like so many historic buildings, you need permission to film for professional purposes. Easy! Or so we thought. Hordes of tourists pour through the building’s doors every day. The only difference between them and us is… well, a few large broadcast cameras, some lights, miles of cables and oh, about seven big boxes of filming equipment. This is where we found ourselves up against the formidable barrier that is Italian bureaucracy.
What should have been a fairly straightforward process turned into a jumble of e-mails sent back and forth in English and Italian. Official requests were sent off and verbal agreements were made, but we still needed written permission to step foot in the Pantheon. When we were just days away from flying from London to Rome, the permission finally came through. We thought we were sorted, but then another peculiar request came through…
Nick asked for a wheelchair. Not for him, for the camera. There was some uncertainty as to whether we’d be allowed to put our tripod on the floor. To this day, we’re still not sure why that is. Perhaps it’s a bid to protect the floor – maybe they thought we’d be bringing in the amount of gear needed for a full feature film. In the end, they did let us use the tripod – which was fortunate, as we needed this piece of kit to make sure cameraman Dave’s pictures weren’t all wobbly.
The wheelchair didn’t go to waste though. We used it to capture the stunning, sweeping shots of the building’s majestic columns and gigantic doorway. As the researcher on the show, I was relieved that the team did use it, as acquiring the chair wasn’t as easy as you might think. Most of the rental companies are miles out of the city, so I enlisted the help of Hada and Livia from the CNN bureau inRome.
Italian bureaucracy and wheelchairs aside, another looming issue which we had no control over was the sun. It’s not easy to film a piece on a giant sundial with no glimmer of the sun; or even worse, if there’s rain. Flights were tentatively booked, but nothing confirmed, as we anxiously monitored the weather in one of the world’s oldest cities, occasionally hurling abuse at the weather predictions.
After weeks of negotiation, and a transport strike in Rome thrown into the mix, we came up trumps. The sun came out. It’s the one thing you have absolutely no control over. Although, I think we can thank our guest Guilio Magli for its appearance – he’d promised to do a special sun dance just for the occasion.
Adventures in the Arctic
As Matthew Chance and his crew headed to the Russian Arctic for their trip out on the icebreaker, they hit a few delays along the way. The team got held up in Murmansk Province, where they spent some time exploring a Soviet-era hotel, with surprises along the way.
Aboard an Arctic icebreaker
Matthew Chance takes us to one of the coldest corners of the Earth, the Arctic Circle, where he gets the rare opportunity to go on board a Russian icebreaker that's helping clear the way for ships moving into the oil-rich Arctic region.
Friday Note From Michael
Greetings all, and Happy Friday!
Massive storm front approaching Atlanta and will arrive right in time for the evening commute – great way to start the weekend, especially when drivers here seem to have nervous breakdowns when the weather is anything other than fine and sunny.
Over the past couple of weeks, BSHQ has seen quite a few discussions on tax – it's tax time here and folks are approaching the deadline to file with varying emotions (me: "yay, a little refund!"; Kendra "ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! I OWE THEM MONEY?????").
We should all move to Pakistan, where barely one percent of people pay any income tax at all. Yes, ONE percent. Why? Well because they can get away with it, thanks to a combination of corruption, a crumbling collection system, and the ability to pretty much "disappear" off the taxman's books.
Here's where it gets interesting. Among the country's weapons to battle tax avoiders, transgender collectors. In a country where you can be sentenced to death for blasphemy, the government sends transgender men out to embarrass people into paying up.
Armed with lipstick, attitude and a secret weapon ("pay or tomorrow six of us will come back and dance and sing outside your door"), they wander from errant citizen to errant citizen trying to collect.
Regular CNN freelancer Nick Paton Walsh is in Pakistan and filed a fascinating piece about this quite frankly bizarre tactic, but we had more questions so we debriefed with him earlier.
Also today, I've been hearing some pretty good, rather terrible and laugh out loud funny Matthew Chance impersonations. Matt sent in some classic BackStory material which has had the folks around here both fascinated and in hysterics.
Emily has been filling in for Ann and I've heard constant giggles and "oh my goodness's" from my left.
What's the story? Well, the main part is Matthew and crew getting exclusive access to one of Russia's biggest and most powerful icebreakers, the Yamal, for a report on how the Arctic oceans are becoming more and more accessible for ship transport and exploration, partly because of global warming.
Of course, it's a double edged sword – on the one hand, transport ships being able to cross the arctic seas is a massive shortcut, making their journeys shorter, cheaper and less damaging to the environment (ie less fuel used).
On the other hand, many folks are worried that oil and gas fields will become more accessible too, and the environmental impact on a fragile part of the planet will be compromised.
Matt's story is great, and his BackStory fascinating as he shows us around the Yamal, which began life as an icebreaker, was transformed into a cruise ship and then moved back into its original role.
But, the gang tells me (I haven't yet seen it) his other BackStory is the highlight. Before Matthew and the crew got to the icebreaker, a delay meant they had to spend the night in a place called Kandalaksha in a Soviet era hotel.
Put it this way, it was no Four Seasons. Matthew was wide eyed as he encountered all manner of strange gadgets – and Matthew's been around. Him being wide eyed is not the norm! The amusing part is Matthew being astonished while his Russian crew were all "meh. No biggie. We used to see this stuff all the time."
Hence the Matthew impersonations around BSHQ.
Right now Matthew is on a train headed to some big scoop and emailing Vickie constantly, worried that everyone being so enamored with his piece means he's gone too far.
Hope you can join us for our Friday show!
Cheers,
Michael
After some delay, Nigeria heads to the polls
Nigerian voters are heading to the polls again this weekend, as part of the country's three-week long election season. This time, they'll choose a new president. Incumbent Goodluck Jonathan is widely considered the favorite; his People's Democratic Party has won every presidential race since military rule came to an end in Nigeria in 1999.
The week after that, Nigerians will vote for local governors.
The first round of voting was delayed for a week, after many areas reported they hadn't yet received the materials needed at polling stations. It was a source of frustration for many Nigerians, who were eager to begin casting the ballots they hope will bring big change to their country.
Christian Purefoy was there as people finally got their chance to vote.
More on Bahrain crackdown: CNN Investigates
Amber Lyon, from CNN’s Special Investigative Unit, continued her conversation with Back|Story about her recent trip to Bahrain.
Hear more about the government’s efforts to conceal a crackdown on protesters. Amber describes scenes of people who are afraid to seek hospital treatment for gunshot wounds for fear of being detained by police.
Amber also answers questions submitted by BackStory viewers on Facebook and Twitter.
Unjust treatment in Bahrain
From Michael Holmes, CNN
Back|Story
CNN Investigations Unit correspondent Amber Lyon got more than a story when she visited Bahrain recently – she and her crew had the experience of being forced to the ground with automatic weapons pointed at their heads.
Amber and team were there working on a documentary which included telling the story of Bahrain's ongoing crackdown on pro reform protesters. Here’s her report, our chat with her about her experience and what’s going on in Bahrain.
Some of Japan's youngest survivors
From Nadia, Sr. Writer
Back|Story
April 11, 2011
(CNN)- A powerful 6.6-magnitude aftershock rattles Japan on the one-month anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The aftershock triggered landslides, which trapped several people in the city of Iwaki. Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were also briefly evacuated. Hundreds of aftershocks have shaken Japan since the initial March 11th disaster, making the road to recovery even longer.
Our Paula Hancocks has been traveling through devastated Japanese communities with photographer David Hawley and producer Jiyeon Lee. In the town of Tome, the team met some young survivors who are learning to cope with losses most of us can’t even imagine.
Gadhafi's son arranges CNN interview with alleged Libyan rape victim
Nic Robertson and CNN Photographer Khalil Abdallah spoke with Back|Story to describe what it was like to be in the room with Eman al-Obeidy, how the interview was arranged and who else was in the room with them as the interview took place.
From Nic Robertson:
TRIPOLI, Libya (CNN) - It has been almost two weeks since Eman al-Obeidy burst into our hotel in Tripoli, desperate for the world to hear her story of rape and torture. We had been trying since then to interview her in person and were finally able to speak to her Wednesday, against the explicit wishes of the Libyan government.
"You should not be allowed to do this," government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told me.
The interview with al-Obeidy was facilitated by Gadhafi's son Saadi and was subject to a government review. We asked al-Obeidy if she would be willing to come to Saadi Gadhafi's office. She agreed and Gadhafi sent a car to pick her up.
She came dressed in ornate black robes and with her head covered. She called herself an ordinary citizen, a good Muslim who is conservative in her social outlook. She spoke with clarity and exuded strength through the conversation, adamant about clearing her name she said Libyan state media had smeared.
"Everything they said about me is a lie," she said.
"I am well-educated unlike the way the Libyan TV portrayed me. I come from a good family, regardless of what they said, I am also not mentally challenged like they said. Just because I raised my voice and talked to the media they blamed me and questioned my sanity. Nonetheless, I want my rights, even without the media."
She spoke of her abduction, of how she was taken to one of the residences of Moammar Gadhafi's soldiers. They were drunk, she said. They tied her up, beat and raped her.
Her bruises had faded, but I could still the see the evidence of her agony around her wrists. She said in the height of her trauma, she took pictures with the camera on her mobile phone, lest people should not believe her later.
"People have blamed me for showing my body," she said. "I was depressed and there was no way to show people how I was tortured. I was brutally tortured to the point of them entering weapons inside me. They would also pour alcohol in my eyes."
She said the men who tortured her are still free, without punishment. Later Saadi Gadhafi told me: "The people responsible for raping her should face charges. She is a strong woman."
About The Revealer
A new Back|Story series that unearths fascinating new secrets about places and stories you thought you knew. Every other Thursday on Back|Story“The Revealer” Game
Join the action on our new series, “The Revealer.” Use the photo clues to figure out what the subject of this week’s episode will be. Click on the picture to the left for more.
