Saturn and the Indy 500
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Former race car driver and mega car dealership owner Roger Penske has announced plans to buy Saturn from General Motors. The plan could save 13,000 jobs and keep 350 Saturn dealerships open. GM is selling off Saturn as part of its bankruptcy restructuring, but New York Times reporter, Micheline Maynard tells us GM may have lost a huge opportunity in letting Saturn go.
Women’s Health in Nepal
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Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and healthcare is a major challenge. We speak with Dr. Sangeeta Mishra about her work there and how she hopes to improve conditions for women. She has spent much of the past year as a Fulbright Scholar at Johns Hopkins University.
Can Gordon Brown Survive?
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The British Prime Minister is reshuffling his ministerial team today as he tries to recover from a scandal over lawmakers’ expenses, a string of high- profile resignations and poor election results that have seriously weakened his authority. The BBC’s Political Correspondent Nick Childs joins us from Westiminster to talk about the scandal and what might happen next. By the way, among the expenses claimed by members of parliament was a charge for cleaning a moat.
D-Day Prayer
US veteran Bill Ryan, 84, from Melbourne, Florida, before a ceremony held at the German Cemetary in La Cambe near Bayeux, Western France, Friday June 5, 2009. The ceremony was held today to commemorate the 8000 German soldiers who are buried there. Bill Ryan was coming with the Firth Division from England when his boat was hit by a German shell, and he was brought unconscious on Omaha Beach on the D-Day.(AP)
Saturday marks the 65th anniversary of D- Day. There will be ceremonies in Normandy, France to mark the event that helped end World War II. Today, we remember the Allied invasion of Europe with a look back to the prayer that President Roosevelt delivered to the nation over the radio on the night of June 6, 1944. Our guest is Julian Zelizer, Professor of History and Public affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School.
Gayle Forman
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We speak to young adult novelist Gayle Forman. Her latest book “If I Stay” focuses on Mia, a talented 17 year old cellist who is severely injured in a car accident that kills the rest of her family. While in a coma, Mia realizes that she must make a choice: whether or not to live.
Music from the show
- The Lickets, “Serial East”
- Talking Heads, “This Must Be the Place”
- Tito Puente, “Royal T”
- Peter Dixon, “Nagog Woods”
- Ashley MacIsaac, “Sleepy Maggie”
- Glenn Miller, “American Patrol”
- Freddie Hubbard, “Little Sunflower”
- Beethoven, “Sonata No. 3 in A Major for Cello and Piano, Op. 69:II Scherzo-Allegro Molto” performed by Yo Yo Ma & Emanuel Ax
- George Gershwin, “Three Preludes: II. Andante Con Moto e Poco Rubato” performed by Yo Yo Ma
“Women’s Health in Nepal”
Having recently returned from my third visit to Nepal as a volunteer with the courageous intelligent grassroots young human and health care activists and HIV/AIDS prevention and care providers of the Blue Diamond Society (BDS) for sexual and gender minorities, I was very moved to hear Dr. Sangeeta Mishra. “Hear and Now’s” preparation, questions and comments and Dr. Mishra’s sharing and spirit gave, in my opinion, the most comprehensive snapshot possible in such a short time.
In all our cultures, those who are “marginalized” such as women and sexual minorities, suffer great consequences. In a terribly poor country, almost all are
“marginalized” with regard to what we take for granted (adequate food, clean water, electricity, shelter, employment). Nepal has also to deal with the history of caste discrimination. The people are not unintelligent, and their capacity for hard work and endurance, even resilience, is beyond what most of us Americans could imagine or comprehend.
As noted in the program, Nepal experienced more than a decade of civil war. “People power” succeeded in removing the monarchy, but the multi-party parliament has a huge task in reaching agreement to create a democratic constitution and have in the meantime a stable government for the people.
Dr. Mishra was modest and also forthright about how privileged she is to have her education. In addition we should understand that overall Nepal does not have the numbers of doctors and nurses that are needed, let alone with the broad cultural and compassionate understanding and commitment she has. (In the USA we have the numbers, but not enough dedicated to serve our poor and marginalized, especially in the absence of an equitable cost-effective health care system.)
Not a physician or nurse myself, I had never heard the term “prolapsed uterus” (descent of the uterus into or beyond the vagina) until asking a rural health assistant about the problems for the 10,000 people he served. Women give birth and go back immediately to their backbreaking work (e.g. hill farming, wood or boulder gathering for construction). What consequences.
Its girls and women. And boys and men who work to survive. Many children lose a parent (usually the father) for long stretches for emigration to seek work abroad is out of desperation – especially in wanting to be able to provide education as well as basic human needs.
My young friends, most who have been physically and sexually abused as well as deprived of education and employment because of their sexualities, are reaching their poor and illiterate peers in just the ways Dr. Mishra described for rural women.
Those of us who have been fortunate to know the Nepali people – comprised of so many cultural, ethnic, language groups – not only have great love for them. We are
enriched by their spirits. To hear the interview with Dr. Mishra was an example of that.
“Namaste!”
Posted by Augustus ("Gus") Nasmith, on June 5th, 2009 at 1:21 pmThank you for playing classical music clips and for crediting them.
Posted by Mary Pendleton, on June 5th, 2009 at 2:01 pmA correction: the Prelude performed by Yo Yo Ma and ?(pianist) is by George Gershwin, not Beethoven.
Thank you.
Dear Mary,
Thank you for correcting us, we’ve made the change. We appreciate your critical eye!
Jill Ryan, Here & Now
Posted by jryan, on June 9th, 2009 at 7:23 am