Saturday Morning for Saturday 9 July 2022

8.10 Prof Tim Bale: UK Tory government rebuilds after Boris freefall

It’s been a phenomenal week in UK politics with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a humiliating defeat, resigning as leader of the conservative party on Thursday following 59 government ministers - at last count - handing in their notice. New ministers are now being sworn in, while Johnson has stated his intention to stay on as prime minister while a leadership contest is held, an action many within his party have questioned.

Tim Bale is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London. Books he has written or co-written include The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron, The Conservatives since 1945: the Drivers of Party Change and The British General Election of 2019.

  

8.40 María Jimena Duzán: Colombia goes left and faces its truths 

Colombia’s Truth Commission has presented its final report on the country’s civil conflict, announcing that at least 450,664 people were killed over nearly six decades. 

Meanwhile, for the first time in 200 years the country has moved to the left with the election of Gustavo Petro as president. The former Bogotá mayor and guerilla fighter campaigned to expand social programmes, tax the rich and move away from fossil fuel dependency.

María Jimena Duzán is a celebrated journalist and political scientist, known for her fearless reporting for both Colombian and international media. In 2010 she published My Trip to Hell, telling the story of the murder of her sister at the hands of paramilitary groups.

 

 9.05 Dr Anthony Fauci: catching Covid and the rise of the BA.5 subvariant

The most transmissible variant yet of the coronavirus is threatening a fresh wave of infections in New Zealand. The subvariant of Omicron known as BA.5 is reported as now dominant in the United States, and is likely to make up the majority of community cases here within a couple of weeks. 

BA.5 is considered to be probably 40 to 50 percent more transmissible than the BA.2 variant, responsible for the majority of our cases to date. The WHO says global reported Covid cases are up 30% in the last two weeks driven by BA.4 and BA.5 waves.

Dr Anthony Fauci is director of the United States’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He has been Chief Medical Adviser to both Presidents Biden and Trump. 

9:30 ​Jackie Flynn Mogensen: Shortage of primates for biomedical research

Jackie Flynn Mogensen is a reporter with the American magazine, Mother Jones.  Her recent article 'A Plane of Monkeys, a Pandemic, and a Botched Deal: Inside the Science Crisis You’ve Never Heard Of' takes a look into the famously secretive trade in research monkeys in the midst of a pandemic and a primate shortage.

Whilst Mogensen accepts that for most people, testing on our closest animal relatives is troublesome, it’s clear the practice has saved—and is saving—human lives: before their vaccines were released to the masses, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson trialled them on monkeys first.

Experts say the dire shortage of primates for biomedical research is putting human lives at risk.

 

10:05 Kate De Goldi: coming to terms in fiction with love and loss in post-earthquake Christchurch

One of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, Kate De Goldi’s short fiction, novels and picture books engage children, teenagers and adults alike.

Novel The 10pm Question was published to critical acclaim, quickly becoming an iconic piece of New Zealand literature. Her latest, Eddy, Eddy is being met with similar excitement. Described as a coming-of-age story, love story, earthquake story and a story of finding your way back from grief, this richly layered novel follows orphan Eddy Smallbone as he grapples with identity, love, loss and religion.

De Goldi is marking the release of the novel with a series of national speaking events and writing workshops.

 

10:30 Floris Niu: empowering Pacific women farmers with chocolate

Floris Niu is an organic cacao grower and chocolate producer in Samoa. She grew up in New Zealand, but after a series of illnesses left her corporate life for native Upolu, where her family have farmed cacao for four generations.  Niu founded Ms Sunshine Organic Farms, which exports produce to New Zealand boutique chocolatiers and food manufacturers.

Despite facing resistance, Niu farms using the traditional, organic methods of her ancestors and also works actively to promote and empower other Pacific indigenous women farmers.

Her charitable trust is running the first ever Pacific Cacao & Chocolate 2022 show on 23 July in Auckland, in collaboration with SPS Biota and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Go here for more details.

11:05 Playing Favourites with NZ screen legend Aileen O’Sullivan

Aileen O’Sullivan has been directing innovative drama and documentary on stage, radio, television, and film since the 1970s. 

After time at The Press and as an RNZ producer, her first screen outing was acting in iconic TV miniseries The Governor. A passionate advocate for telling New Zealand stories, after directing Gloss and The Billy T James Show,  O'Sullivan set up her own documentary production company, with her subjects including Witi Ihimaera, Ngaio Marsh, and Black Grace Dance Company. 

Her latest project sees her co-directing Whetū Mārama – Bright Star, the story of Sir Hector Busby and a renaissance in oceanic star navigation. It is screening throughout July in over 30 cinemas nationwide.     

 

Books mentioned in this show

Mi viaje al infierno (My trip to hell)
by María Jimena Duzán
ISBN:9588912164
Published by Anguilar

Eddy, Eddy
by Kate De Goldi
ISBN: 9781988547152
Published by Allen & Unwin

Songs featured on the show

Buked and scorned
Odetta
Played at 10.05am

Not Alone
Moana and the Tribe
Played at 11.10am

Anchor Me
The Muttonbirds
Played at 11.25am