"All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination."
- Barbara Harrison
Get Involved
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"All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination." - Barbara Harrison
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Get Involved
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August 28, 2008 | |||||||
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 GoodThings on Public Radio April 18, 2002 We want to hear from you. What's the best public radio story or show you heard this past week? Share. If you want to listen, you'll need RealPlayer on your computer. (If you don't already have it, it's a FREE download.) Visit Real Networks. FRIDAY, April 12 | Children Helping Children When one dentist brought the story of Bolivian orphan Alfonso Figueroa back to his own Seattle-area community, the children of his community responded in an extraordinary way. After seeing Dr. Sherwin Shinn's photographs from his regular dental-care mission to Bolivia, area schoolchildren were so concerned about the tuberculosis that threatened Alfonso's life that they began a campaign to bring him to the US for life-saving surgery. Along the way, they convinced an entire hospital and a major airline to donate all the services necessary to help the eleven-year-old with the winning smile. [All Things Considered] Listen (length of clip 4 min 31 sec). :: Learn about Dr. Sherwin Shinn's Smile Power Foundation. SATURDAY, April 13 | "Enough of Blood and Tears" Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon reflects on the "most memorable speech" he ever heard. It was delivered by the late Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin in 1993 around the time of what appears to have become an obsolete peace accord with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians. Up to that point, Rabin had spent much of his adult life as a leader in the Israeli army, but he was not convinced that war was an answer to the conflict. In the speech, he lamented that Israelis and Palestinian shared a history during which no family had ever enjoyed a month without tears. Simon's commentary recounts the speech's most important moments. [Weekend Edition Saturday] Listen (3:00). SUNDAY, April 14 | Love Over All Recent news that an American Jew spent the night in Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank has created an uproar. But for Adam Shapiro and his Palestinian-American fiancee Huweida Arraf, it's all a matter of love. Shapiro had been part of an effort to rescue people trapped in the headquarters when it was recently besieged by the Israeli army. Shapiro and Arraf are dedicated peace activists, and their love defies odds. They met while working at Seeds for Peace, an organization that attempts to find common ground among Israeli and Palestinian teenagers. The two are planning a wedding in the US before returning to live in Ramallah in the West Bank. [Weekend Edition Sunday] Listen (4:07). :: Learn more about Seeds of Peace. MONDAY, April 15 | "Goodwill, Confidence, and Guts" People throughout Afghanistan are celebrating the opportunity to contribute to the decisions that will shape the country's post-Taliban future. In villages across the countryside, people are electing their representative to the Loya Jirga, or Grand Council, which will meet soon in Kabul to elect a transitional government. The nationwide Loya Jirga elections have buoyed Afghan spirits, with many seeing the body as a "tool of peace." And while some are skeptical of the Loya Jirga's ability to withstand pressure from warlords, the pervading sense is that hope will prevail. [The World] Listen (3:16). :: Learn more about the election of Afghanistan's new Loya Jirga. TUESDAY, April 16 | Removing Incentives to Sprawl Sacramento, California's downtown core has deteriorated in recent years as commercial businesses have moved to the suburbs. Many say the thirst that small communities have for sales tax revenue is what incentivizes them to recruit and approve sprawling "big box" retail that destroys downtowns and cripples the central city. But a new state legislative measure could change all that. The proposed law would enable sales tax sharing among the six counties comprising the Sacramento metro area. A percentage of the growth in sales tax among all the communities would be distributed equitably to municipalities throughout the region. Despite the proposal's benefits, it's created a political firestorm that began with a huge anti-tax measure in the 1970s. [Morning Edition] Listen (5:30). :: Learn more about the effort to combat sprawl in Sacramento and places like it. [more] WEDNESDAY, April 17 | Seeing Things Differently Sabriye Tenberken, a blind German woman, has made great strides in her ongoing effort to improve the lot of the blind of Tibet, and particular children. The blind face extraordinary marginalization in Tibet, exacerbated by the fact that the Tibetan language had never been interpreted in Braille. Tenberken navigated the complex language and developed a version of Tibetan Braille that she has been teaching since 1998 in a school she started. She recently traveled to Beijing to demonstrate her efforts and to continue her impassioned advocacy for the blind, who she emphatically believes do not lead "sad" lives. [The World] Listen (4:50). :: Learn more about Tenberken's Tibetan Braille script. [more] THURSDAY, April 18 | Reinterpreting Globalization In the global war on poverty, a major international non-profit federation has bucked what might have been considered a party line and is offering a new perspective on globalization. To refute what it calls a "caricature of extreme views" on trade, Oxfam International has recently published a report suggesting that poor countries might actually be able to benefit from expanded international trade if the rules were changed. Arguing that poorer nations face far higher tariffs on trade that do Western, industrialized countries, Oxfam has said that relaxing such tariffs would even the playing field for developing nations, making it more likely they would reap benefits from trade rather than be crippled by it. But Oxfam's former non-governmental allies have accused the organization of blasphemy. [Morning Edition] Listen (4:31). :: Learn more about Oxfam International and the group's position on globalization. [ : previous week : ] WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. Did we miss a good public radio story this week? Want to recommend one for next week? Share it with us! 
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