Saturday 25th August 2012
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Sunday 26th August 2012
| The Future is Halal |
You've heard of halal meat, but what about halal paintbrushes, halal perfume or halal holiday resorts?
A recent report by The Economist proclaimed to businesses: ignore the Sharia-conscious consumer at your peril. The global Muslim population is now 1.8 billion and rising fast; it's predicted that Muslims will account for 30% of the world's population by 2025. More than half are under 25 and many are tech-savvy, brand-conscious and increasingly flexing their consumer muscle. In response, there's been an explosion of goods and services aimed at Muslims.
While Britain has been slow to wake up to this new consumer trend, other countries are already reaping the economic rewards of serving Muslim needs. Malaysia has become the leader in halal certification and in promoting the global halal industry. Each year Kuala Lumpur hosts World Halal Week, bringing together a remarkable array of Islamic scholars, scientists, producers of halal products and services and big multinational companies. Malaysia is also home to the first international university to teach Islamic finance.
There are many concerns about how to ensure credible halal certification. Nonetheless, this new drive to meet Muslim consumer demand beyond halal food is bringing together religion and business in an unprecedented way - and giving Islam a new identity in the 21st century.
But is this burgeoning international industry simply driven by the desire for business profit or is it really supporting Muslim values? And how far will these halal products and services cross-over to non-Muslim consumers? Navid Akhtar investigates.
| The Thirties in Colour |
Four-part series using rare, private and commercial film and photographic archives to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s, a decade which erupted into colour as polychromatic photographic technology came of age and three important processes - Dufaycolour, Technicolor and Kodachrome - were patented and brought to the market.
This opening part looks at the work of socialite and amateur film-maker, Rosie Newman, who used her high society contacts to secure extraordinary access to the social elite. Between 1928 and her retirement in the 1960s, Newman criss-crossed the globe and shot some of the most important colour documentary footage of the period.
Some of her colour films have been seen before, but this programme features some of Newman's work that has never been broadcast and has not been seen publicly for over 70 years.
| Toughest Place to be… a Ferryman (2/3) |
57-year-old Colin Window, the bridge officer of the Woolwich Ferry, travels to Dhaka, Bangladesh to train and work as a ferryman on the Buriganga River.
Hosted by 70-year-old Muhammed Loteef in one of the city's slums, Colin is introduced to his new vessel, a small wooden rowboat known as a Sampan. In temperatures of up to 40 degrees, Sampan operators row passengers and goods across the quarter mile stretch of river every days, dodging the huge barges and passenger ships that dominate the Buriganga. As Mr Loteef shows Colin how to master the sampan, he meets the other people who live and work on the river - and who have seen it transformed by sewage, rubbish and industrial waste. Once the lifeblood of a traditional fishing community, the Buriganga is now officially a dead river.
However the changes to the Buriganga are just a glimpse of the transformations disrupting life in Bangladesh. Every day some 2000 people a day leave their villages and travel to Dhaka, desperate for work as traditional professions such as farming are threatened by climate change. Yet even in Dhaka, over a quarter of a million children live rough on the streets of the city.
After ten days of training Colin faces his final challenge: to operate the Sampan alone during the rush hour, taking passengers and dodging the huge ships.
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Monday 27th August 2012
| The F-Word: a History of Federalism |
The euro zone crisis boils along like a tea kettle left screaming on the stove. But once this situation is resolved, the fundamental problem of the euro will remain; it's a single currency serving 17 countries - with 17 different governments, operating on 17 different electoral timetables, setting 17 different tax policies. Can 17 into 1 ever go?
Some have suggested Europe's single currency needs an independent central bank, a single fiscal policy, and a single democratically elected government to oversee the economy it serves.
There's a word for this arrangement among states. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher knew it well: Federalism. Federalism was fine for America but she was dead set against it for Europe.
That was more than twenty years ago. Now the F-word is resurfacing in the euro debate. Jorg Asmussen, the German representative on the board of the European Central Bank, recently gave a speech in Berlin calling for greater federalism to strengthen the euro.
Presenter Michael Goldfarb looks at the history of federalism, the intellectual theories behind it and its successes and failures.
From the Act of Union between England and Scotland, arguably the first act of federalism in history, to the debates surrounding the creation of the American Constitution, Michael interviews not just British and American historians, but also contemporary European politicians and policy makers. How relevant is federalism in the euro-zone crisis? And how could a federal United States of Europe work?
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Tuesday 28th August 2012
| The Lifecyle of a Bullet |
A deadly weapon and an economic cornerstone, the impact of a bullet spreads far and wide. In this documentary BBC Defence Correspondent Caroline Wyatt takes an extraordinary journey through the defence industry as she tracks the fate of a bullet. From manufacture to gun barrel, Caroline tracks her bullet from the docks where the explosive propellant are imported, through the Cheshire factory where it is machined, to testing and out to its final destination - war.
With its deep historical roots, its reliance of raw materials from all over the world and its central role in the economy this most basic of military equipment involves a huge cross-section of British society, all working for a war effort that sees millions of rounds produced every week of the year. By the time she sees the shot fired, Caroline will have met the huge variety of people employed in its creation.
As she tracks the bullet's journey, Caroline will ask what would happen to our economy if peace bloomed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how people feel about making products that are designed to kill.
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Wednesday 29th August 2012
| London 2012 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony |
Jon Snow and Krishnan Guru-Murthy present live coverage of the festivities, which include a fly-past, circus performers and the arrival of the Paralympic flame.
| Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies (2/2) |
In the heady years following World War Two, Britain was a nation in love with aviation. Having developed the jet engine in war-time, British engineers were now harnessing its power to propel the world's first passenger jets. By 1960 the UK's passenger airline industry was the largest in the world, with routes stretching to the furthest-flung remnants of Empire. And the aircraft carrying these New Elizabethans around the globe were also British - the Vickers Viscount, the Bristol Britannia and the world's first pure jet-liner, the sleek, silver De Havilland Comet, which could fly twice as high and twice as fast as its American competitors. It seemed the entire nation was reaching for the skies to create the shape of things to come for air travel worldwide. But would their reach exceed their grasp?
| Bomb Squad Men: the Long Walk |
Three former bomb disposal officers who served at the height of the Northern Ireland conflict, return for the first time in 30 years to revisit the defining moments of their careers, and the moments when they almost lost their lives.
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Thursday 30th August 2012
| Crossing Continents: Gold and Governance in Romania |
Tessa Dunlop travels to Romania to investigate why the proposed construction of an open-cast gold mine has caused enormous political controversy in the country. The project, in the rural community of Rosia Montana in the Transylvanian mountains, has brought those who favour the creation of jobs into conflict with others who believe the 2,000-year old Roman mines already located there are the area's only chance for sustainable development.
| Stansted: the Inside Story |
Airside operations manager Dave Cran and his crew must perform major repairs on the runway in the dead of night, and dispatcher Julie Robinson struggles to make sure flights leave on time when thick fog causes a traffic jam. Ranger Dave Haslett also reveals how he deals with birds - one of the aviation industry's greatest foes.
| The Boss is Back |
Jacqueline Gold, chief executive of erotic lingerie retailer Ann Summers, relives a 2001 episode of documentary series Back to the Floor, in which she worked alongside staff at one of the firm's stores. As the company opens its latest branch, she again joins employees on the shop floor and reflects on how the original experience changed her approach to business.
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Friday 31st August 2012
| Imagine: Paul Simon's Graceland: Under African Skies |
Paul Simon's 1986 album Graceland became a global phenomenon with its fusion of South African rhythms and western pop. But it was also hugely controversial, as the musician broke the UN-backed cultural boycott of a country still in the grip of apartheid. Here Simon returns to South Africa for a reunion with the township musicians on the record, and to talk about the backlash it provoked. Famous fans including Quincy Jones, Harry Belafonte, Paul McCartney and David Byrne also pay tribute to Graceland's impact and influence.
