Saturday Morning for Saturday 20 July 2019

 

 

08:10  Katie Simpson - Can Justin Trudeau win the Canadian election?

Canada is heading toward a general election on October 21 and the two main opponents are neck and neck.

The country's once "golden-boy" Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was hit by scandal in March when two of his cabinet ministers resigned, citing accusations that Trudeau and his aides tried to influence a bribery case involving a Canadian company.

His main opponent, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has also come under fire from press, for criticizing Canada's new food guide, in a way that is being called "dangerous" by health experts.

Kim will ask CBC political reporter Katie Simpson who she thinks will win and why.

8:40 Anne-Marie Connor - Ebola's deadly return

The latest Ebola outbreak, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been declared a "public health emergency of international concern" by the World Health Organization.

A previous outbreak in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, killed more than 11,000 people.

This time the viral disease has claimed more than 1700 lives, infected more than 2,500 people, and has spread across the border into neighbouring Uganda.

There has been a recent spike in the number of cases in North Kivu, the worst affected area, and it has also been discovered to be spreading, with cases found Goma, the second biggest city in the east of the country, and three recently died in neighbouring Uganda.  

Anne-Marie Connor is the National Director World Vision Democratic Republic of Congo. She is overseeing the agency's efforts in the country.

8:50 Daniel Ryntjes - Iran seizes two UK tankers

Iranian authorities have reportedly seized two vessels, one British-flagged and the Liberia-flagged,  in the Strait of Hormuz overnight.

Iran says it seized a British oil tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz, because it was not complying with "international maritime laws and regulations". 

The actions signal an escalation of tensions between Iran and the West, focused in this instance on the  strategic waterway. Kim talks to Daniel Ryntjes from featurestory.

 

09:04  Victor Rodger and Robbie Magasiva – the revival of Club Paradiso        

Four years ago, celebrated playwright Victor Rodger wrote Club Paradiso for its main star, actor Robbie Magasiva.

The play, the inaugural production by FCC, a Pacific Island theatre movement founded by Rodger, was a stark departure for Pasifika theatre at the time, featuring graphic violence and sexual content. 

Robbie plays Q, a criminal on the run who bursts into a bar, covered in blood, high on P, and being pursued by police.

Victor Rodger and Robbie Magasiva join Kim to talk about why now is a good time to revive the play, this time for a Wellington audience, details here.

 

 

09:35  Professor Michelle Glass -  Understanding synthetic cannabinoids

Synthetic cannabinoids (AKA synthetic cannabis) have caused or contributed to the deaths of up to 80 New Zealanders in less than two years.

They are also the most rapidly growing class of recreational drugs.

Currently little is known about why they are so dangerous and how to treat users presenting at emergency departments.

Professor Michelle Glass, Head of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Otago, has recently been awarded funding from the Health Research Council to try to answer these questions.

She's been studying cannabinoids (both natural and synthetic) for almost 25 years.

 

 

10:04 Susan Buckland - The colourful life of liquor baron Sir Ernest Hyam Davis

A biography of Sir Ernest Hyam Davis - brewery baron, anti-prohibitionist, Mayor of Auckland and Newmarket, and passionate sailor and philanthropist among many other roles - has just been released. 

Beginning his career in liquor in 1892, at the age of 20, when he joined his father's liquor company Hancock and Company, he went on to head up New Zealand Breweries, all the while organising vigorous opposition to prohibition. 

Around the same time he became heavily involved with the Labour Party and paid bond for the Waihi mine strikers to be released in 1921. 

A charitable trust was established under Sir Ernest's will after he died in 1962 at the age of 90 - the Trust recently  commissioned writer Susan Buckland to research and write a book about his life, including speaking to a number of his surviving relatives.  The book is called Man of the People: a biography of Sir Ernest Hyam Davis.  

 

 

Sir Ernest Hyam Davis 

10:35  Peter Falkenberg - 40 years of the Christchurch Free Theatre

Free Theatre Christchurch is an experimental performance company established by staff and students at Canterbury University in 1979 under the guidance of recent German arrival Peter Falkenberg.

Falkenberg founded both FTC and Theatre and Film Studies at the University and was an associate professor in the Department.He remains the FTC's artistic director.

FTC will this year lead the opening of the 2019 Christchurch Arts Festival, with a free public event over two nights that will see Oxford Terrace and Ōtākaro, the Avon River, transformed into a carnival of street-party revelry - featuring light, sound, music and performance.  Details here.

Free Theatre

 

11:04   Justin Pemberton - Filmmaker behind Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Justin Pemberton started his career directing music videos and music television, before setting up his own documentary production company in his 20s with fellow filmmakers.

He won awards for 2005's Love, Speed and Loss which told the story of motorcycle champ Kim Newcombe who was killed racing in 1973.

Further projects include The Nuclear Comeback, The Golden Hour, and the highest grossing New Zealand documentary of all time, Chasing Great, a biopic of former All Black captain Richie McCaw. 

His latest work, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, is based on the best-selling book of the same name by acclaimed French economist Thomas Piketty.  It will play shortly at  the New Zealand International Film Festival, details here.

 

11:40   Joseph Michael -  When art and science collide

Artist Joseph Michael is best known for his full-scale 360° projection of an iceberg onto the Auckland War Museum in 2017.

As the current AUT Artist in Residence he has turned his attention to the Waipoua forest, where ancient trees are at risk from Kauri die-back.

Working alongside AUT Associate Professor Barbara Bollard, who is studying the trees from a scientific perspective, he's aiming create the first ever, life-size, digital reconstruction of Tāne Mahuta, New Zealand's largest known living kauri tree.

He will present Hōpara, a new work stemming from the project, at new Auckland light festival Tūrama which runs between 26-28th of July.

The free festival will see artists, including Michael, present light installations, stories told through projection, interactive sculptures and performances in Albert Park.

Joseph Michael will also be giving a public lecture at AUT on August 6th, details here.

 

Joseph Michael - When art and science collide

 

Books mentioned in this episode:

 

Man of the People: a biography of Sir Ernest Hyam Davis  

by Susan Buckland

ISBN: 978-0-908801-69-5

Magari Publishing 

 

For Mine is the Kingdom

John A. Lee 

 

 

Music played in this show

Song: The Crossing
Artist: Johnny Clegg
Played at 8:12

Song: '66 Wonder Where I'm From
Artist: The Magnetic fields
Played at 10:32

Song: All My Happiness Is Gone
Artist:Purple Mountains
Played at 11:04

Song:Cola
Artist:Arlo Parks
Played at 11:35