Fakhruddin Ahmed

Fakhruddin Ahmed leads Bangladesh’s interim government

Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since the beginning of 2007. This came after serious violence erupted in the run-up to last January’s general election. Two of Bangladesh’s most prominent political figures, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, were arrested and remain in custody on corruption charges.
 
The caretaker government has said elections will take place before the end of 2008. It has also pledged to clean up corruption in a country that is ranked by the UN as one of the poorest in the world. The interim government is led by Fakhruddin Ahmed, a former head of Bangladesh’s central bank.
 
Ahmed joins Sir David to discuss preparations for the elections, wielding out graft and his own future in politics.

Tenzin Wangmo Dunchu

Tenzin Wangmo Dunchu is the EU coordinator for the Tibetan Government in Exile

In recent days Tibet has experience some of its worst unrest for years. Many Tibetans have been detained and one report claims as many as 100 people have been killed. It is thought the protests began after a number of Buddhist monks were arrested in the Tibetan capital Lhasa following a march to mark the 49th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule.   
 
Most Tibetans dispute China’s claim that the Himalayan territory has been part of their nation since the 13th century. Many Tibetans also feel they have been denied the same political, religious and economic freedoms granted to the increasing number of Chinese migrants in the disputed region.
 
Sir David is joined by Tenzin Wangmo Dunchu, the EU coordinator for the Tibetan Government in Exile. 
 
Mead Treadwell and Ariel Cohen

Ariel Cohen compares the race for the Arctic to the ‘scramble for Africa’

A recent European Union report warns that we could be entering an era of conflict over energy resources. It singles out the Arctic as the most immediate and serious potential flashpoint. The melting of the ice caps there is making vast energy and mineral resources accessible for the first time.
 
Last year, scientists placed a Russian flag on the seabed of the Arctic to strengthen the country’s claim to part of the territory. But a number of other countries, including the US, Canada, Norway and Denmark, claim portions of the Arctic as well. Mead Treadwell and Ariel Cohen, two experts on the subject, join Sir David to discuss the situation and the possibility for conflict.
 
Treadwell says the energy resources in the Arctic are very significant and suggests the area could rival the Suez Canal as a shipping route. Cohen compares the race for the Arctic to the ‘scramble for Africa’ and calls for an international regime to adjudicate the competing claims. 
 
Manu Chao

Manu Chao has sold more than 5 million albums

Manu Chao is both a musical revolutionary and man of the people. He has been compared to Bob Marley selling over 5 million albums around the world and performing to crowds of over 100,000 throughout Latin America. In France, his groundbreaking album Clandestino is one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Born Jose-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao in 1961 in Paris to Basque and Galician parents, radicalism was in the family. His mother was a refugee from Franco’s Spain. 

Chao has now released a new album, Radiolina, incorporating over four different languages and his unique blend of protest music.

He talks to Sir David about language, love and politics and performs a song he wrote for the Argentinean footballer Diego Maradona. 

Arvind Panagariya is the author of India: The Emerging Giant

It has been yet another week of turmoil in the financial markets. But the question of a global meltdown remains. We have heard so often now that whatever happens in the US and Europe, the world will be cushioned by China and India. True or not the evidence suggests otherwise. This week, the Chinese stock market fell by more than 10 per cent, and the Indian one by 8 per cent: the two worst falls anywhere.

So are the emerging superpowers really the world’s insurance blanket?

Arvind Panagariya, a professor of Economics at Columbia University and author of India: The Emerging Giant, joins Sir David from New York.

David Trimble discusses Northern Ireland’s progress since the Good Friday Agreement

It has been 10 years since the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland – the blueprint for peace in the British province. After decades of violence the two sides, Republicans and Unionists, agreed to share power. 

David Trimble was one of the key players in the negotiations and the first Unionist leader since the 1920s to negotiate with Sinn Fein.

He was rewarded for his efforts in 1998, winning the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside the SDLP leader John Hume.

In 2005 David Trimble resigned as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, after losing his Westminster seat in the UK general elections. He was made a British Lord in 2006.

Lord Trimble joins Sir David to discuss Northern Ireland’s progress since that historic day in 1998.