Sunday Morning for Sunday 8 July 2012

8:12 Insight: 50 Years of Independent Radio NZ News

Insight looks back at 50 years since the first independent news was broadcast on Radio New Zealand, and at the challenges ahead.
Written and presented by Eric Frykberg
Produced by Philippa Tolley.

8:40 Bob Kuhn – Shaking up his World

In 2006, when he was 53, Canadian lawyer Bob Kuhn was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. In May this year he set off on a trip to 16 countries to meet others with the disease, record their stories and, he says, shake up his world. He talks to Chris about the way different cultures approach Parkinson’s, and says NZ – along with other developed nations – could help improve the lot of millions of people with the disease who are going without treatment in poor countries.
Bob Kuhn is visiting NZ as a guest of Parkinson’s New Zealand.

9:06 Mediawatch

Mediawatch looks at how the media handled the Scott Guy murder trial, and how newspaper columnists can be caught out by the news. In an extended interview, Mediawatch talks to the Minister of Broadcasting Craig Foss about his government’s “fit for the future” broadcasting policy, and what we get for $230 million spent on broadcasting each year. 
Produced and presented by Colin Peacock and Jeremy Rose.

9:40 Down the List

Where does the real power in New Zealand lie? That’s right, with a bunch of bureaucrats, underlings, officials, and lowly-ranked list MPs that you and I have never heard of.  Whether it’s in sport, politics, commerce, education or the arts, the only way to find out what’s really going on in this country is by going ... Down the List. Written by Dave Armstrong and produced by Radio New Zealand’s Drama department. Today, television viewers love a good story, especially if it’s about murder and violence in a family context and is based on reality.

9.45 James McNeish – Unremembered Past

As a young man James McNeish left Auckland a deckhand on a Norwegian freighter. Ten years later he was back in New Zealand, having met nine people who influenced his life, and later his life as a writer. James says Touchstones was meant to be a character sketch of him, told through the eyes of others, but it turned into an exploration of his Maori background “with strange echoes of an unremembered past”.
Touchstones – memories of people and place, by James McNeish, is published by Random House.

10:06 Ideas: Countries in Focus – Singapore

In the latest of our occasional Countries in Focus series we take a look at Singapore.  Jeremy Rose talks to Rodney King, the author of The Singapore Miracle: Myth and Reality (Insight Press). And Aucklanders Allan Yee and Matthew Ong tell Chris Laidlaw about the country of their birth.
Presented by Chris Laidlaw
Produced by Jeremy Rose.

10.55 Today’s Track

Today we feature a song from a benefit album for the Occupy Wall Street Movement. It’s Joan Baez with James McMurtry and Steve Earle and it’s called We Can’t Make It Here. The four-disc set is called Occupy this Album, from Razor & Tie Recordings.

11.05 Matt Elliott – The Original All Black Skipper

Dave Gallaher is often regarded as the ‘original’ All Black captain – leading the first national team – the Originals – on a major tour of the British Isles and North America in 1905. The team won all but one of its 35 games and Matt says that success was largely due to the leadership and planning of its captain. Gallaher’s life gives an insight into NZ’s early rugby world, and also what was happening in the world around him. Already a veteran of the Boer War, Gallaher signed up to fight in World War One and was killed at Flanders in 1917.
Dave Gallaher – The Original All Black Captain, by Matt Elliott, is published by HarperCollins.

11.40 Musical Journeys

Chris Laidlaw invites listeners to have a say on this musical journey around the world. This week we're playing travelling songs, kicking off with some blues – a great Kiwi song written by Murray Grindlay and performed by Midge Marsden – Travelling On – the title track to his 1993 album. That's followed by a suggestion from listener Katie Mitchell – the Marrakesh Express with Crosby Stills and Nash, taken from their “Demos” album that features early recording of their popular songs. Finally, while we're in Africa, we'll play Ladysmith Black Mambazo with a version of Paul Simon’s Diamonds on the Souls Of Her Shoes, from the 2006 album ‘Long Walk To Freedom’

11.55 Feedback

What the listeners have to say on today’s programme.