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The AIH Transcript for May 26, 2017

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

CO: Hello, I'm Carol Off.

JD: Good evening, I'm Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight:

CO: Deliver us from evil. Another attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt leaves at least twenty-eight people dead. Our guest has no faith that his government is doing what needs to be done to keep his fellow Copts safe from harm.

JD: Taking her courage from theirs. A nurse who helped treat victims of the Manchester bombing is horrified and heartbroken by the experience -- but also inspired by the grace of the patients.

CO: No shadows without light. The late Denis Johnson wrote about broken characters struggling in a fallen world -- but a friend remembers that his open-mindedness illuminated his life and his work.

JD: Going to one convention probably means flouting the other. But then again, you could wear a suit to the Conservative leadership convention and an elaborate costume to the anime convention -- after all, they're both at the same Toronto venue.

CO: Let the chips fall where in May? A dedicated fan of "The Price Is Right" sets a new record for playing "Plinko", where you win money by dropping discs, and he literally couldn't be happier about it.

JD: And... a look back at how he saw Luke going forward. 40 years after "Star Wars" came out, Hal Hickel is working for George Lucas, but as a teenager, he wrote to the man himself with ideas for a sequel, and the Force was not with him.
As It Happens, the Friday edition. Radio that guesses maybe young Hal focused too much on Chewbacca… Wookiee mistake.

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Part 1: Coptic Christian attack, Denis Johnson obit, Plinko winner

Coptic Christian attack

Guest: Patrick Soliman

JEFF DOUGLAS: It was another very dark day for Coptic Christians in Egypt. Masked gunmen ambushed vehicles carrying a group of Coptic Christians to a monastery south of Cairo. At least 28 people including children are dead. Many more are wounded. An ISIS affiliated group is being blamed for the attack although no one has claimed responsibility. Patrick Soliman is a Coptic Christian activist. We reached him in Cairo.

CAROL OFF: Mr. Soliman, you have spoken with people in Minya where this attack happened. What are they telling you about it? How did it happen?

PATRICK SOLIMAN: I talked to a priest from the monastery there, in Minya, and a friend of mine there. They start talking about they used four cars and they wear like the clothes of the army. Then they stopped a car, a private car of the family, and another car for eight workers, and a bus of church trip that had like 13 children.

CO: OK, just wait. I’m going to stop you there. Just so I understand what you’re saying. So the gunmen came in cars, in vehicles. They were dressed in military gear. And then the three, the Christians who were going to the monastery, were traveling in three vehicles including a bus. Is that right?

PS: Yeah, a bus contained a church trip to the monastery there, St. Samuel monastery, and another workers’ car that had eight workers, and another car for a family.

CO: And so they stopped the vehicles and then what did they do? What did the gunman do?

PS: They were twelve. And they start to ask them about their religion. After that, they asked them to pronounce that testimony of Islam. They asked them to be Muslims. And most of them refused. Then they start to open fire on them. After they open fired on them, they burned out one of the cars.

CO: And how many of those were children?

PS: Most of them are children. Most of them were on the bus.

CO: The other reports we're getting is that that there were two children who were killed. But you believe that there were more children that that were the victims?

PS: Two children only? No no no no. The bus of the children, the fire was open on the bus of the children and the other cars, and I didn't think that only two children. There was a trip for the children in the church, to go to visit the monastery.

CO: What we've learned is that the Egyptian government has launched airstrikes in Libya. Do you know about that?

PS: Yeah, I know about that. But I want to say that if el-Sisi and the government had this capabilities, they should work more on the security of [unintelligible] in Egypt and make that their priority. So what are the role of the government and the role of el-Sisi for the Christians? They are the only victims. No one killed except the Christians in Egypt.

CO: What you're describing is that there were just around Easter, 45 people killed in two attacks on Coptic Christian churches, and then in December, another one at the cathedral in Cairo, 29 people dead there. And so now, and now this attack. And each time this has happened, Coptic Christians have demanded of the government, the Egyptian government, to do more to protect them. What how has the government responded to this most recent attack on the Christians?

PS: The Egyptian government has nothing to give to the Christians in Egypt, except that they are every time going to the church and to the pope in Egypt and asking them that we are sorry for what happened and that will not happen again. Not reflecting what happened to Christians in Egypt at all.

CO: The response seems to be from Egypt that they believe that the attackers are coming out of Libya and they have then launched these airstrikes on the training camps they believe where these gunmen came from that who attacked the Christians today. So you think that will help at all?

PS: No, I don’t think that will help. I didn’t think, because every time they do this, the questions again. That's not, that's not the solution at all.

CO: Can you tell us anything more about the people who were in that convoy and those vehicles who were going to the monastery. Why were they going, what was the occasion?

PS: The bus was for chairs and it was a church trip for the kids to visit the monastery and see what's there and attending the activities in the monastery today. And the workers, they have worked there in the monastery and all. That's like, helped in the Egyptian community that if you have like a holiday or something like that, we can spend our time in the monastery to see what's happening there.

CO: Do you think that people, the Christians will stop going to the monastery because of this?

PS: Yeah. I want to tell you that the Egyptians, the Christians are really scared right now. All of this happened to them in one year and they didn't feel safe and no one do any promises for them. El-Sisi just about every accident and say that will not happen again and everything happen again and they give us a lot, for two days. As I mentioned before, the American Embassy and the German embassy had informed that something will happen and the government didn't move. So what they need more than that, that all the countries know that something would happen. Where is Egypt? Where is the government?

CO: Mr. Soliman, I'm so sorry that this happened. I appreciate you speaking with us tonight. Thank you.

PS: Thank you.

JD: Patrick Soliman is a Coptic Christian activist. We reached him in Cairo.

[Music]

Denis Johnson obituary

Guest: Samuel Messer

JD: Denis Johnson was often called a writers' writer. And in the tributes pouring out on Twitter today, author after author is sharing quotes and expressions of awe at what the poet, journalist, and short story master managed to do with the English language. Denis Johnson died earlier this week. He was 67 years old.
Samuel Messer is a painter and the associate Dean at Yale University's School of Art. Denis Johnson had been his friend since they met in 1981. We reached Mr. Messer in Norfolk, Connecticut.

CO: Sam, first of all my condolences for your loss.

SAMUEL MESSER: Thank you. I appreciate that.

CO: How are you remembering your friend today?

SM: My wife Eleanor and I have been sitting, we first walked, went for a long walk, and we were just sitting down and writing down all our memories of DJ. I called Denis D.J., of all the times we spent together from back, starting from me back in 1981.

CO: How did you meet Dennis Johnson in 81.

SM: We were both fortunate enough to have residencies at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Centre, where there were 10 writers and 10 visual artists.

CO: And what were your impressions of him?

SM: That he was insane. That he was just amazing. Just someone who always had the biggest grin on his face and was always astonished about everything. We just kind of bonded right away and started you know doing things together. You know, he was the first living writer that I ever realized I knew and I think I was the first living artist. Before that we always knew people who were in the history books.

CO: And as your friendship deepened, what did you learn about him?

SM: I learned how to be nonjudgmental. Denis was the least judgmental person I've ever met in my life. He was also someone who never lost that first thing that I first knew of him, which was he never lost his sense of wonder or astonishment. He was always, in a sense, fearless. He was fearless about everything. He taught me not to fear myself because he overcame himself. And you know, just the stories over the years that he would tell me, from meeting Charles Taylor, to being in places, you know, in the world and just without judging anyone. CO: And when you say Charles Taylor, you mean in Liberia?

SM: Yes, he interviewed Charles Taylor. And I think he wrote that article, I think it was in Esquire, about how he and a reporter from The New York Times got ushered in to meet Taylor. Taylor never spoke to them but he had them sit down and Taylor had a reggae band that played for them and then proceeded to show them an 8-track tape of him interviewing and basically torturing and killing Sam Doe. And Denis said he realized the way the chair and the TV were, where Sam Doe had been. Then Taylor gave him these T-shirts with their band's name on it. He came back and saw us in California after that. When he came back he said he washed the T-shirt and it was a Coca-Cola T-shirt that had been painted over. Denis also had been in Kabul when the Taliban took over and he actually was in New York on 9/11. And just his reactions to all of those things showed me he had no hatred and no judgment.

CO: What you're describing are things he wrote about in the journalism or essays he put together based on those experiences. Most of what he wrote though seems to have come from his own expressions and from his own internal world. If you met him in the early '80s he had recovered from horrible drug addiction and alcoholism at that point. Hadn’t he?

SM: Yeah he had just, I think when I met him, I think Denis told me he had been out of rehab for maybe six months, when I, you know a very short time when I first met him in 81.

CO: And how did he draw on those experiences, in his own fiction, and in, I guess the most astonishing of his stories that people have been influenced by, is Jesus' Son. Where did you see his experiences turn up in his fiction?

SM: Well everything in that book was true. So Denis was F--khead.

CO: That's a character in–

SM: Yeah, that’s the lead character. That was Denis. The amazing thing about that book, and when I first met Denis he was only writing at that point poetry, is that he uses the same words as everyone else but the miracle is they don't sound like anyone else's. And so I think… he spoke once, I think in a New Yorker thing, where he talked about he learned about poetry that you just have to write about your life and he said, "Oh, so it's easy to be a poet." And I think you know, that's what he did for the rest of his writing. You know, but he was able to write more than just about himself. Those stories, though they came from his life, he was never selfish. So they were never really to speak about him personally overcoming anything.

CO: The stories though are insane and astonishing, as you've described him. I mean they are outrageous experience and so these were his own, this comes from his own life does it?

SM: Yes and they came from his life because if you knew Denis, you would realize that Denis was so open that he was that way to other people and people were that way to him. Like I’m sure his experience with Charles Taylor was because probably because of just the energy that Denis put out and the way that when you saw him people were not afraid to be who they really were. They were not afraid to have to pretend. I just saw that from every experience whenever I was with Denis in terms of other people.
We did a couple of road trips where he would just interview people about ridiculous things.

CO: How do you think he influenced other writers, because there's been this outpouring on Twitter from writers, students, professors, readers? What influence did he have on other people who wrote?

SM: Well you know, probably 10 years ago or less. We were in in San Francisco and they were doing a reading of Des Moines, one of Denis's plays. And he said the night before a theory or literature theory class had come up from UCLA to meet him, and were sitting around and he said “Yeah I told him” I said. “That's really interesting” because there's no theory in my book.
But a couple of weeks ago I was having dinner with Michael Cunningham who wrote The Hours. And Michael said that of all the books in graduate school Michael teaches at Yale now, he said that the most ripped off writing is Denis in Jesus’ Son. He said you cannot have a class where someone is not imitating Dennis.

CO: And a lot of the tweets and this social media are people who are admitting that, that they stole from him because he inspired them to that degree, that they just wanted, they wanted to write some version of what Denis Johnson had written.

SM: And you know the reason, it's amazing, because the reason Denis told me the book was ever published was because he owed Knopf some money, they had loaned him money to pay his taxes. And he was putting those stories together for a long time I think to make a novel. And so he put it together in that form as a novella just to give them something.

CO: Sam, it's good to speak with you. And again I'm sorry for your loss, but thank you.

SM: Sure. Thank you.

CO: Alright, bye-bye.

SM: Bye.

JD: Samuel Messer is a painter and the associate dean at Yale University School of Art. We reached him in Norfolk, Connecticut. And Mr. Messer made an animated film based on Denis Johnson's story Denis the Pirate. Here is an excerpt from that film narrated by Liev Schreiber.

SOUNDCLIP

[Music]

Ever since the earliest humans learned to sail boats on the sea, there have been pirates. Their main job is to steal treasure and bury it in secret places but they also sink ships, take prisoners, collect strange animals and perform tricks of wild magic.
The most bloodthirsty and terrible pirate ever to sail the Caribbean Sea was my own great great great great grandfather, Denis the Pirate. In the early 1700s, no man left who do not fear his name. The people of the Caribbean islands lived in terror of hurricanes and tidal waves and seagoing monsters. But most of all they lived in terror of the day when Denis the pirate might come to their peaceful island. Nobody knew when Denis the Pirate except that he would come at night. Anyone standing on the beach when this ship arrived would hear no sound, not a breath would stir among his evil crew.
The ship moved more quietly than a puff of wind and the only sign of the pirate’s approach was the dreaded galleon’s towering silhouette blacking out the stars and the moon. And then suddenly the pirates would roar with a single giant voice and their guns would light up the night as they charged out of the ship and attacked the sleeping town.
“Leave no one alive” was Denis the Pirate’s motto. “I'll have no one left breathing among them, not even a dog.” And his men would murder everybody there, even the goats and the chickens and dogs and cats, and pile up all the gold and treasure and take it away leaving behind a lifeless island in the sea.
Denis the Pirate stole so much gold that at one time he must certainly have been the richest person in the world. Somewhere in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, he kept s ship with a monstrous furnace inside in which he melted down his ill-gotten gold. Tons and tons of molten gold poured into the sea until it piled up on the bottom and rose up above the waves to make a gleaning island of pure gold.
He covered it with the bodies of his victims and their corpses rotted, made a rich fertile earth from which coconut palms and banana plants grew to heights never before known.
Some of them towered above the clouds and sailors could see them from hundreds of miles away.
Denis the Pirate wasn't all bad, he performed scientific experiments, flew over Mount Everest in a hot air balloon. He learned to speak 27 languages including several animal languages. He spoke Monkey, Iguana and Elephant. Toward the end of his life, he made a journey across the Atlantic Ocean on the back of an African elephant named Señor Tambourine.
The pirate construct an air pipe over two miles long from bamboo trays attached end to end and Señor Tambourine actually walked the ocean floor from West Africa to the Eastern Caribbean with Denis the pirate riding on his back and the two of them breathing through the long bamboo pipe which reached all the way to the surface far above them. Along the way they saw fish and monsters no one else has ever seen. And Denis the pirate learned to speak the deep sea language spoken by a giant squids. Some people say that sea monsters and giant squids helped him in his battles and nearly helped them to destroy the entire British Navy.
After 100 years, the island made of Denis the pirate’s gold began to look like other islands of the Caribbean. People moved to it and to built homes and they live there to this day. They called the island “Bequia,” which means “Whale Island”. But they should have called it “Golden Isle.” They don't know that beneath their feet like the greatest treasure ever amassed by death and skullduggery. But I know, and you know.

JD: That was an excerpt from Samuel lessors film of Dennis Johnson's story Dennis the Pirate. Dennis Johnson died earlier this week. He was 67 years old.

[Music]

Plinko winner

Guest: Ryan Belz

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: Applause, Plinko machine]

GEORGE GRAY: 30 thousand. 31 thousand.

RYAN BELZ: Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.

GEORGE GRAY: 31 thousand, 500 bucks.

JD: I know it just sounds like a regular Friday here on As It Happens but that was the moment when Ryan Belz won a record breaking $31,500 U.S. dollars playing a game called Plinko on the game show The Price is Right. And in case you couldn't gather from that clip, when when he won, Mr. Belz lost it. And pictures and videos of his, let's say extremely delighted response have been shared widely on social media since that episode aired. But only one person truly knows what that moment felt like for Ryan Bellz, and that's Ryan Belz. We reached him at his home in Millerton, Pennsylvania.

CO: Ryan, congratulations.

RYAN BELZ: Thank you so much. It literally is a dream come true.

CO: So you are clearly a big fan of The Price is Right.

RB: Yes, been a huge fan ever since I was little, watching it with my grandparents any day that I was home from school sick, or even working my Penn State schedule around is that I wouldn't miss an episode.

CO: So how did you end up being on this show?

RB: A friend of mine was headed out to Sunny Southern California for spring break and wanted to know if I wanted to go with him and his brother and his brother’s friend, and I was like “Definitely, count me in.” And while we're on the plane I already knew, and the first time I got this chance going to California, the only thing that I cared about doing was going to a taping of The Price is Right. We’re the airplane. He's making a list. “Oh I think we should do this” and I'm like “Woah woah woah. I'm going to take a nap because all I care about, number one, is going to The Price is Right. Make sure that's on the list and we’re good. And that morning that we went, we went on March 6 so I've had to keep the secret for the last few months. I wanted to go to the 8:00a.m taping that way we had the rest of the day to do whatever, we didn't waste a whole day, and we missed it by five people. But the producers realized how excited I was and offered us priority guaranteed tickets to the 1 o'clock taping. So we came back to the one o'clock taping and it took like a good four hours outside in line, going through all of the interview process and all the things you have to sign. And the interview process was probably where it sealed the deal. Even though I was running up and down, high fiving everybody, screaming, starting chants, during the interview process he asked “What's your name, where you're from and what do you do.” And I said “Well my name is Ryan Belz, I'm from Millerton, Pennsylvania. And I am a manager at Target. But you know, on the side I also imitate George Gray,” who's the announcer for The Price is Right. He's like “OK, can I see it?” and I was like “Of course, from the Bob Barker studio at CBS in Hollywood, TV's most exciting hour of fantastic prizes on fabulous 60 minute on Price is Right. For tickets to The Price Is Right, send a self-addressed envelope to get two tickets to The Price is Right. CBS Television City, 7800 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles California 90036. Back to you Drew.”

CO: So what… I just can’t believe I heard that. Now so you–

RB: Neither can I, neither can I.

CO: Now so you, you did that. And what was the reaction on the part of the producer who saw youi do that.

RB: He was literally speechless And I'm like “OK you're speechless. Well, help control the pet population have your pets spayed or neutered. Good-bye everybody.” And he’s like “This kid is gold. This kid is great.”

CO: And so you finally, there. I mean there's so much to this story but let's get to, you got to play Plinko, which is–

RB: They announced that I was going to play Plinko, where you drop the chips down for to win a max of $50,000 dollars. And literally I lost it. That's like the best game ever. There's nothing better than Plinko.

CO: In the world.

RB: Yeah, in the world, nothing. Nothing. And now to be the daytime record holder is, it still has not sank it yet.

CO: So you just gave it away. You played Plinko, you drop these chips down and they make their way down to the bottom where they can land on sums of money, and you have five of them. And so you, what did you win?

RB: I got to win all five chips, five of only ten that are in existence. So I was sort of freaking out about that too. Got to drop the first one down. It landed in $10,000. Literally lost it. Like part of me died that day. And I'm like OK that's great. Like if I don't get anything else, you know, I’ll be content. $10,000 is, that’s a very nice chunk of change and then I drop it and I get a second $10,000 one. And I literally can't, I thought it was a dream. Like when we got out of the show I'm asking all my friends and like literally “When am I going to wake up here? Like is this real?” Drop it down the next two times, and I get 1000 and 500. And the last time I drop it down and it lands in the $10000 by yet again for a total of $31,500 dollars

CO: And that's a new record for Plinko.

RB: A new daytime record for The Price is Right.

CO: So you, I mean what are you going to do with that money?

RB: Everybody’s been asking me. Definitely going to put it towards those Penn State student loans, just graduated from there. Everybody says that I definitely should celebrate. So you know, probably at least a little bit of that will enjoy.

CO: So you're 23 years old and you’ve clearly peaked.

RB: That's for sure. I don't know what more there is, literally. I can't put my phone down for 2 seconds without 100 notifications. It's amazing.

CO: So what do you aspire to do?

RB: My ultimate dream is to be an on camera meteorologist or do weather, or you know if Drew ever wants to retire, you know, I can take over his hosting job.

CO: You sure could. Anyway, Ryan, it's great to talk to you. Big Congratulations.

RB: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

CO: Bye.

RB: Good-bye.

JD: That was superfan Ryan Belz in Millerton, Pennsylvania. If you would like to see a video of that moment when he played Plinko and won, and you should, visit our website: cbc.ca/aih.

Back To Top »

Part 2: Manchester nurse, Star Wars letter

Manchester nurse

Guest: Joe O’Brien

JEFF DOUGLAS: Even those of us who were distant to witnesses to the attack in Manchester were affected by its violence. Joe O'Brien saw it up close.
Ms. O’Brien is a nurse in the surgical department of one of the city's hospitals. She and her team treated six of the people who were badly injured. She's still thinking about those patients, and the harm they suffered.
We reached Joe O'Brien at Stepping Hill Hospital in Manchester. And a warning: some of the injuries she describes are disturbing.

CAROL OFF: Joe, first of all, can you tell us how your patients, the people who are hurt in the bombing, how are they doing now?

JOE OBRIEN: I know three of the patients who are still in the hospital. And two of them I know have required further surgery. They will have a long time really to recover from the injuries they’ve recieved. But they're doing fine at the moment.

CO: Any children still being treated?

JO: We had one child. She's still withered. But she's doing OK.

CO: Can you just take us back to Monday night, and I know you had just worked a full day shift at the hospital and you were at home, and you heard the news on the radio, is that right?

JO: Yeah I have the radio on when I go to bed. I think it was the 12 o'clock news. My son is a student and he lives in the centre of Manchester. So I just shot out of bed literally and ran downstairs, my husband was downstairs and said “There's an incident in Manchester. We need to call Declan. We need to know Declan’s OK.”

CO: This is your son, Declan.

JO: My son, yeah. So we rang Declan and established that he was OK. So I immediately rang in work and asked if they knew what was happening and I was needed at that point.

CO: What time did you get into work?

JO: 1:30.

CO: In the morning. And can you describe, because the kinds of injuries that would come from this kind of a bomb, which is full of shrapnel, what kind of injuries did you see?

JO: Oh absolutely awful really. I’ve worked in theatres for 28 years and these are the worst injuries that I've ever personally seen. The pieces of shrapnel with large nuts and bolts, about an inch across maybe. So you know they’re traveling at high speeds. So they go into a limb and out the other side and just cause trauma obviously all the way through. Certainly, the lady I was with in theatre had injuries like that, so large pieces of metal like completely go through the legs, some pieces still in her legs. But the magnitude of it was quite shocking. And I suppose even more so because she knew that this was a deliberate action.

CO: Can I ask you about the woman you were with and you’re treating. What, was she conscious, were you able to talk to her?

JO: Yes she was conscious. She was obviously you know going through a major life event. She was an absolutely inspirational person to me because she kept smiling. And I remember thinking “Gosh, how can you smile? You must be frightened or confused.” But when she was going off to sleep she just said “Thank you.” And to be able to do that…
And I looked after the lady when she woke up after her surgery as well and she still managed to smile and we’d brought her husband in to see her and I think she was wanting to show him that she was OK and it must have taken great strength from her.
And I'll always remember that’s the sort of positive thing that I think comes out of an event like this. There's no explanation for what happened and you can’t even begin to comprehend that. When you meet people like that, it’s really affirming because you know, I'm not special in any way, I was just a little part of a big team that helped that lady. But I’ve got absolutely no doubt that somebody like that wouldn't even think twice about helping me.

CO: How is that woman doing now.

JO: The lady had more surgery yesterday. I deliberately didn't look after her. Because it's very emotionally involved and I thought I've been thinking about her so much that I think it would be better if somebody else did that. But you know, she’s coming on.

CO: So you haven't been in to see her but you're keeping in touch with how she’s progressing.

JO: Yes. I think what might get within a few days when you know she's had a chance to come to terms with things and get over things, I’ll probably send her a message and ask if I can be in touch with her, because you want to respect people's privacy as well really and not intrude. But I'd like to think that I'll be able to see her again in future.

CO: And how about you? Coming to terms with things and absorbing things. Has that happened yet?

JO: I think it takes a while. I’ve got to say I did have to really going to cry the next day. It's so full of adrenaline. But then it wears off when you go home after a while. And I don't know if I should have done it or not but I put the news on to see what had actually happened because we'd been in a bubble all night. And I saw this poor poor lady asking for information about her daughter, who she couldn't find, her daughter was missing. And although my experience is nothing like that lady's experience it just took me back to how frightened I was for Declan, my son when I woke up and heard those words on the radio. And so I’ve got a lovely Labrador dog, and I just curled up with her and just had a really good cry.

CO: There were surgeries that went on for hours, some of them overnight, trying to extract these bits of metal nuts and bolts and things. When you were removing these things from people, did you at some point contemplate that somebody took time and effort to load all of these things into a pack in order to do what you were seeing? Did you just try to avoid thinking about that? Or did you ever reflect on that.

JO: Well, you know it's a funny thing but when you when you're actually looking after patients in theatre, you don’t sort of think about them, so you’re focused on your task. But I think that came home to me when we had a message from the police officers involved asking us to bag up any clothes that the patients were wearing, any belongings that they had, and for anything removed from the patients to be saved and labeled very carefully and not cleaned because it will be needed for evidence. I think we all just looked to each other because that brought it home that it was criminal act, that somebody had done it. And the evidence.

CO: Well, Joe, I'm glad you were there for that young woman and for all the others. And it sounds like there was just extraordinary response on the part of the hospitals and doctors and nurses. So it's. it's just it must give you some pride to know that Manchester could do that.

JO: I'm very proud of them. Proud to have just been a little part of it as well.

CO: Joe thank you for speaking with us.

JO: Thank you.

CO: Bye-bye Joe.

JO: Bye-bye.

JD: Joe O'Brian is a nurse in the surgical unit of Stepping Hill Hospital in Manchester and we reached her in Manchester. You can find that interview on our website, cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Zuckerburg Harvard

JD: You may curse the hours that you have wasted creeping around Facebook with no real purpose. But the founder of the social setwork had a clear message for Harvard's Class of 2017. Don't just find yours. Find a purpose for everyone on Earth. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard in his sophomore year to develop Facebook. But yesterday he received an honorary doctorate degree from the university and he also delivered the address at the university's commencement ceremonies. Here is some of the advice he offered to this year's graduates.

SOUNDCLIP

MARK ZUCKERBURG: I am honored to be here with you today because let's face it: you accomplished something I never could. If I get through this speech today, it will be the first time I actually finish something here at Harvard. How many of you remember your first lecture here at Harvard?
Mine was computer science 121. I was running late for class, so I threw on a T-shirt and I didn't realize until afterwards that I put it on inside out and backwards my tag was sticking out the front. I couldn't figure out why no one in class would talk to me. Except for this one guy can K.X. Jin. He just went with it. We started doing our problem sets together and now he runs a big part of Facebook. And that, class of 2017, is why you should be nice to people.
Today. I'm here to tell you that finding your purpose isn't enough. The challenge for our generation is to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.
Let me tell you a secret. Ideas don't come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them. You just have to get started. If I had to know everything about connecting people before I got startef, I never would have built Facebook.
Movies and pop culture just get this all wrong. The idea of a single eureka moment is a dangerous lie. It makes us feel inadequate. Because we feel like we haven't had ours yet. And it prevents people with seeds of good ideas from ever getting started in the first place. If I didn't know that I was going to be fine, if Facebook didn't work out then I wouldn't be standing up here today. And if we're honest, we all know how much luck we've had to get to this point in our lives.
Millennials are already one of the most charitable generations in history. In our generation, the struggle of whether we connect more, whether we achieve our greatest opportunities comes down to this: Your ability to build communities and create a world where every single person has a sense of purpose.

JD: That was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg addressing the class of 2017 at Harvard University's commencement ceremonies yesterday.

[Music]

Star Wars letter

Guest: Hal Hickel

JD: Yesterday, fans all over the world celebrated the 40th anniversary of a small-town boy blowing up a fancy space station full of jerks, or at least a film of those events: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.
Back in 1977, like pretty much every other 13-year-old, Hal Hickel was a fan. And like other Star Wars fans, he had some fun ideas for what might come next. But unlike most fans and like kids his age, he was very serious about those fun ideas. And he was in fact, serious enough that, in 1978, he wrote a letter to the people at Lucasfilm -- and put himself forward as the writer of the sequel. Unfortunately for the teenaged Hal, he was rejected. But since then, his luck has changed: now that he's a full-grown adult, he works for Lucasfilm.
We reached Hal Hickel at San Francisco International Airport earlier today, and the location is why you'll hear some announcements in the background.

CO: Hal, what was your idea for a sequel that you sent to Lucasfilm?

HAL HICKEL: Well as I recall, my idea had to do with Luke and Leah, because at that time of course we didn't know yet that they were brother and sister so I imagine that they had perhaps gone off and had children and that these children were now involved somewhat, and their adventures evading the Empire et cetera. Beyond that, I don't think I remember too many of the specifics but I'm sure it was naive and silly and you know, exactly what a 13 year old boy might imagine the sequel to Star Wars should be.

CO: What is it about Star Wars that affected you that way as a kid.

HH: You know I was already interested in movies and special effects before Star Wars came out. I'd seen the original King Kong on television when I was six or seven. That got me interested in stop motion animation. And I'd seen Ray Harryhausen films like Jason and the Argonauts and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. But I had a big competition in my head for what I wanted to be when I grew up, and part of it was movies and the other thing was, I was very interested in the space program. I wanted to be an astronaut. But Star Wars really just kind of blew my mind. I mean I’d never seen anything like it it. It sealed the deal for me in terms of my love affair with movies and it broadened my whole interest in visual effects beyond just making monsters to sort of all the different things. You know there were the lightsabers, and Luke’s landspeeder and the way the spaceships moved and just you know so many things and so you know, it just really captured my imagination like some of the others that work in my industry.

CO: Yeah and millions of people who just were blown away by just watching it. But now you see you got you got a letter back, I've got in front of me a copy of it. “Star Wars” it the letterhead. And it's to you, Hal Hickel, this 13 year old boy. And what did they say in their rejection letter?

HH: You know they were, it was very polite. And part of it was very sort of formalized, talking about how you know they say return story ideas unread because their lawyers urge them to do so. But the letter was typed by Gary Kurtz who was the producer, so it was by his assistant Bunny Alsup, but she wrote on there “Getting into movies takes a certain combination of talent and luck” and then went on from there. And then you know years later, I still had the letter with me and I was working at ILM, and we had just finished work on Episode 1: Phantom Menace and we were having a big crew breakfast. And George Lucas was there and I showed him the letter and he smiled at the underlying talent and luck and wrote “You have it” and signed it. And so it was kind of a big closing of the circle for me. Almost 20 years later.

CO: What was that like?

HH: You know, it was it was kind of quite a moment for me after you know having seen the film at 13 and then really kind of keeping my eye on ILM all those years. And then I finally ended up working there in ‘96 and I've been there ever since. So it’s been a little over 20 years for me.

CO: And you've actually worked on a Star Wars sequel.

HH: Yeah. Well, two of the prequels and then one of the… well, the last Star Wars film I worked on was Rogue One, which is either a sequel or prequel or both.

CO: And so what did it mean to you to be able to do that? To actually end up working on the very thing that you dreamt about it as a 13 year old boy watching Star Wars?

HH: Oh it's so exciting. I mean, when I first, you know the first Star Wars film I worked on was The Phantom Menace, that was back in ’98, ‘99 and you know it was it was completely amazing to me to be sitting there in dailies with George Lucas, this director I’d been hearing about since I was a kid. And to have him giving me feedback on my work and directly and to just think that I was going to finally get a chance to contribute to that whole universe was… it's super rewarding and exciting.

CO: What is it that George Lucas did that was so different, because there wasn't… sci-fi was it kind of cult thing till then and then 40 years ago it suddenly, and they didn't even run it in very many theaters when Star Wars came out, until they realized what they had, what a thing they had to work with. But what is it that George Lucas did that made it so special?

HH: You know, one of the things George did is that science fiction movies prior to Star Wars were often shiny and pretty. There's lots of chrome and white plastic and George created a very lived in sort of used universe where things were scuffed and damaged and old and beat up and nobody had ever seen anything like that before and I think that really grabbed people's imaginations and made it relatable in a way that science fiction hadn't been previously.

CO: So it wasn't just stuff made out of tinfoil and bits of stuff they found in someone's basement.

HH: Exactly. The Star Wars universe that George created is just so huge and feels so unlimited that it just provides, you know, certainly a great opportunity for us to make many more films about it but also for the audience, to just imagine you know whatever they want is in it because it's just so vast. And I think that's one of the appeals for sure.

CO: Hal, that’s a great little story and I appreciate you telling it to us.

HH: Thank you very much for having me on your show. It was really a pleasure.

CO: Take care, bye-bye.

HH: Bye.

JD: Hal Hickel is an animator who has worked on three "Star Wars" films. In 1978, though, when he was thirteen, he sent a letter to Lucasfilm pitching an idea for a sequel to the first movie that was rejected. You know, Mr. Hickel probably appreciates a belated correction, issued yesterday by the Dallas Morning News. 40 years after the release of Star Wars, the newspaper has finally apologized for referring to the character of Chewbacca as a "Wookie". Of course, Chewbacca is a wookiee. But he's a "Wookiee" with two Es at the end, not a "Wookie" with one, as the Dallas Morning News originally had it. In its apology, the newspaper said, "We regret the error, and apologize to the seven-foot-tall hairy alien biped community."

[Music]

Car Squirrel

JD: A ridiculous bumper sticker. A pompous vanity plate. Pair of plush dice strung over the rearview mirror. A nose pick.
Checking out the goofy stuff happening in or on the car next to you at a red light is a guilty pleasure. Rarely however does it lead to a full-speed pursuit. Unless, of course, you spot a wild animal hitching a ride in the car of front of you.

SOUNDCLIP

ROBERT FLEET: That’s a squirrel, look at it. Left hand side. No we’re blowing yellow light.

JESSICA FLEET: Do you think it’s his pet?

RF: I don’t know. Oh my god.

JD: That is what it sounded like when Robert and Jessica Fleet spotted a large grey squirrel in the backseat of the car in front of them, and being good Fredericton, New Brunswick Samaritans. They followed the car until the driver finally pulled into a parking lot.

SOUNDCLIP

RF: How are you doing?

FRED SHARPE: How you doing?

RF: Do you have a pet squirrel?

FRED SHARPE: What?

RF: Do you have a pet squirrel.

FRED SHARPE: No.

RF: You've got a squirrel in the back of your car there.

FRED SHARPE: I have?

RF: You do, yeah.

JD: OK so here's unsuspecting squirrel chauffeur Fred Sharpe, along with Robert and Jessica Fleet -- speaking to Norma Lee MacLeod, host of CBC Radio's Maritime Noon about his drive around town with his furry stowaway.

SOUNDCLIP

FRED SHARPE: Well, I left home here about 20 to 6:00 in the morning. We go to Tim Hortons, the whole bunch of us go there every morning and he was in the car then. He must have been. And then I left there and I went to the condominium bank and I went to Giant Tiger and Canadian Tire. Then I went across the river to get cigarettes and I went up to Brookside drive to see if people were selling fiddleheads there. Then I got some fiddleheads and I come back down and drove down Main St. across the bridge and up to [unintelligible] Rentals. And that’s the first time I knew the squirrel was there.

NORMA LEE MACLEOD: Well he had quite a tour for sure. You didn't hear anything? Obviously you didn't see anything.

FS: No, I couldn’t see because, well when I stopped, he was right behind the headrest in the backseat.

NLM: Do you have any food in there? Do you think that's why the squirrel was in your car?

FS: Oh yeah, this is probably the sun flower seeds and stuff in there because I feed the birds and squirrels and stuff all year round.

NLM: Well what did you think when Robert and Jess pulled you over and said “You have a squirrel in your car.”

FS: They asked if I had a squirrel. I said no. Then he said, well you’ve got one in the backseat window.

RF: Fred took charge. He grabbed the broom. He’s the one who got the squirrel out.

NLM: You grabbed a broom. You just happened to have a broom Fred?

FS: Yeah, I keep a broom in the back seat all winter for wiping snow off the car. And it was still there and I start, getting pushed the squirrel with the end of it, with the brush part of it and he went out the door.

NLM: Well it is fun to watch. Fred have you seen the YouTube video?

FS: Yeah.

NLM: Good.

FS: I was [unintelligible] first thing this morning at Tim Hortons.

NLM: The boys had quite a laugh I’ll bet.

FS: Yeah.

JD: Hope the squirrel got a timbit. That was squirrel chauffeur Fred Sharpe and Robert and Jessica Fleet speaking with Norma Lee Macleod, host of CBC Radio's Maritime Noon.

Back To Top »

Part 3: Anime-Tory convention, Indonesia gays, terrorist award

Anime-Tory convention

Guest: Iris Robin

JEFF DOUGLAS: Well you won't be confused about which door to go in. I guess… probably. This weekend, members of the Conservative Party of Canada will gather at the Toronto Congress Center to choose a new leader. They will be wearing formal wear or dress casual, but attendees of the Anime North convention will also be at the Toronto Congress Center. They will be dressed as Pikachu or Sailor Moon or any of dozens of other characters.
Iris Robin is attending the latter. And she's created a costume that pokes a little fun at the coincidental events. We reached Ms. Robin at Anime North in Toronto.

CAROL OFF: Iris, can you describe the costume that you’re wearing to the Anime North convention.

IRIS ROBIN: Because I am wearing it is General Hux from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s a military uniform and it has two stripes on the left arm and I’ve replaced the symbol of the organization he works for with the Conservative party logo because the Conservative Party convention is in the same general location.

CO: Tell us a bit more about why you’ve done that.

IRIS ROBIN: Because I thought it would be fun to do because there’s been some humor surrounding you know the signage for it. I know the Conservative Party put out a tweet saying you know “You've been warned.” Because if they mix up the buildings then the Conservative delegates will end up you know amongst all the Anime fans and vice versa. It would be kind of amusing to replace it. Because I could kind of capitalize on the irony of it. Like the two events are very very different from each other. One of them, like they're voting on a new leader and this one is a fan gathering.

CO: OK. Is any danger that you might wander into the Conservative convention and just get and just blend in?

IR: Well I did do that just a second ago. And I did get one person asking me, “Are you an Anime conservative?” and I said “Yes, pretty much.” And then I said “Oh do you like Star Wars?” and he said “Oh, I’ve got it” like he kind of recognized who I was. But in general, I think that you would actually have to try quite hard to end up at the conservative convention, because they're in, although they're in the same building technically, they’re quite far away from each other.

CO: Well apparently the conservatives were worried that people might get mixed up because there was a tweet that the Conservative Party put out that it says “Remember everyone go to the Noth building tomorrow. You've been warned.” And there are two pictures: the Anime drop off with an arrow going in one direction, and the Conservative Party of Canada with an arrow going in the other direction. They put those photos side by side to make sure that nobody will get them confused. What do you make of that?

IR: I feel like it's not so much that they’re concerned that people will get it mixed up. The implication is that if someone intending to go to the conservative convention ends up at the Anime one, that they will be surprised or shocked or otherwise. It's kind of, I feel like it's kind of like a light-hearted kind. It all assumes that whoever is going to the Conservative convention wouldn't be the kind of person to go to the Anime convention which I couldn't speak to, but I'm sure that there’s got… you know, there’s so many people here, there's got to be a handful of people who are going to both.

CO: But is it possible that someone who was intending to go to the Anime convention would be just as bewildered to walk into the conservative convention?

IR: Quite possibly. For me personally, I know what is involved in political conventions. So I mean generally I would expect people to be kind of you know dressed up, wearing lanyards. They’ll be very serious because there's a leadership race going on. Most of my friends at this convention are very politically aware. You know we have some panels going on where we're going to discuss things like you know, Anime in relation to current affairs, and representation in Anime. You know, and other related media.

CO: Just for people who don't know what Anime is, can you describe what the phenomenon is?

IR: In a very general sense, it's a Japanese style of animation. Like, it’s popular. And it's like, it’s here on television. So there's been various Animes dubbed into English. So if you want to find those, like those on television too.

CO: It's a very special look, isn't it? I mean that's mostly what it is this is what you say, the animation, but how are people dressed? There are people who have exaggerated their appearance and proportions to appear as the character would appear in a kind of cartoon show. There are people who have built their own kind of armor and weapons out of foam of course because that is convention regulation. There's some very impressive takes on kind of classic characters you know, because sometimes people will take a canon character and they will put a twist on it. They'll go as a modern version or they’ll go as a steam punk version. They'll kind of play with it a little bit.

IR: Now just to get back to the dueling conventions there. So were there any, did Anime North, did they post any warnings or tell your convention goers about how to approach the conservative convention? Yes. There wasn't a warning necessarily but did ask us specifically not to troll them and that amused me a lot because the implication was that we would interact with the conservative convention in a way that they might not necessarily appreciate, whereas the conservative sign wa more “You've been warned” and it was, it doesn't expect that the conservatives will want to interact with us.

CO: Well that suggests that the Anime North people think that that's your fellow conventioners may want to disrupt the conservative convention. Any indication of that anyone would want to do that?

IR: I think that is the implication of the post. But I actually haven't, you know, I haven't really heard of anyone saying oh I'm going to mess up a convention or do anything like that. It's just a matter of hey, like, just in case you end up there, you know, don't kind of sort of go in there make a scene.

CO: Well since you've been to you've seen both of them, who which convention do you think people will have more fun at?

IR: Well I mean I'm biased. I’m here for the Anime convention so definitely. But you know, the people who kind of are political junkies, and you know hard-core conservatives, I’m sure they’re going to have a great time.

CO: OK we'll have fun Iris.

IR: Thank you very much.

CO: OK bye-bye.

JD: Iris Robin is attending the Anime North convention this weekend in the same building as the Conservative Party's leadership convention. She's in Toronto. And of course, the CBC will be covering the convention -- the Conservative convention, I believe -- starting tomorrow morning with "The House" on CBC Radio One. And there will also be a special on CBC News Network, starting at 4 p.m.

Iris Robin is attending the Annie Mae North convention this weekend in the same building as the Conservative party's leadership convention. We reached MS Robyn in Toronto and of course the CBC will be covering the convention the conservative convention I believe starting tomorrow morning with the house on CBC Radio One and there will also be a special on CBC News Network again about the conservative convention starting at 4:00.

[Music]

Jeremy Corbyn

JD: The election campaign resumed today in the U.K. Since the bombing in Manchester, however, the focus of the campaign has changed.
Terrorism and security are now at the top of each party's agenda. But it will come as no surprise that the party leaders disagree on the causes, and the appropriate response.
Today in London, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK Labour Party, linked an increase in extremist threats in Britain to British actions overseas. Here is part of what he said.

SOUNDCLIP

JEREMY CORBYN: Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed out the connections between wars that we've been involved in or supported and fought in other countries such as Libya. And terrorism here at home.
That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will for ever be reviled and implacably held to account for their actions. An informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of our people that fights rather than fuels terrorism.
Protecting this country requires us to be boasts strong against terrorism and strong against the causes of terrorism. The blame is with the terrorists. But if we are to protect our people, we must be honest about what threatens our security. We must be brave enough to admit that the war on terror is not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.
That's why I set out Labor's approach to foreign policy this month. It is focused on strengthening our national security in an increasingly dangerous world. We will support our armed forces, foreign office, international development professionals, and diplomats, engaging with the world in a way that reduces conflict and builds peace and security.

JD: That was the leader of the UK Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn speaking today about the Manchester attack and Britain's foreign policy. Conservative Party leader Theresa May responded to Mr. Corbyn speech while in Sicily at the G7 summit. Here's part of what she said:

SOUNDCLIP

THERESA MAY: What's happened today is I have been here, at the G7, working with other international leaders to fight terrorism. At same time, Jeremy Corbyn has said that terror attacks in Britain are our own fault, and he's chosen to do that just a few days after one of the worst terrorist atrocities we have experienced in the United Kingdom. And I want to make one thing very clear to Jeremy Corbyn and to you and it is that there can never ever be an excuse for terrorism. There can be no excuse for what happened in Manchester. And I think that the choice that people face at the general election has just become starker. It's a choice between me working constantly to protect the national interest and to protect our security and Jeremy Corbyn who frankly isn't up to the job.

JD: That was Theresa May, responding to Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn's speech earlier today.
Campaigning for the general election in the U.K. did resume today, after it was suspended following the attack in Manchester. The election takes place on June 8th.

[Music]

Indonesia gay punishment

Guest: Rebecca Henschke

JD: Some months ago, two gay men were caught having sex in the Indonesian province of Aceh. And this week, they were cruelly, brutally punished for it in front of a jeering crowd. They were "caned" -- thrashed by men in hoods and robes.
It's the first time such a punishment has been meted out. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that officially practices a form of Islamic sharia law.
The BBC's Rebecca Henschke witnessed the caning. She also met one of the two men beforehand. We reached Ms. Henschke in Jakarta.

CO: Rebecca, what can you tell us about these two young men who suffered this punishment?

REBECCA HENSCHKE: Well they are both men in their early 20s. One of the men that I met was a medical student in his final years doing a practical session at one of the hospitals there. He's from a village around five hours from Banda Aceh, which is the capital of the province. The other man I know little about but what we do know is he was his partner, and that they were together in a rented room in Banda Aceh.

CO: How were they caught?

RH: They were caught by neighborhood vigilantes that broke down the door and caught them both naked and very sort of intimate. This raid was filmed on a mobile phone. The footage of it is being widely shared on social media and it shows that men clearly terrified, pleading for help. One of them trying to call someone on a phone. And then they will march down to the Sharia police.

CO: And what laws did they break? What were they charged with?

RH: They’re charged with gay sex, which is a crime in Aceh. It’s the only province in Indonesia that has the right to enforce Sharia law. And new by-laws that came in two years ago banned gay sex in the province.

CO: So they have been in prison since they were caught and then their punishment was earlier this week. Can you tell us how they were punished?

RH: They were given eighty three strokes of a cane after two months in jail which appeared to be a very difficult time from them given the way they were treated by the inmates. They were marched on to a stage in front of a mosque. They were dressed in white, and executors, as they call them, were dressed in hoods so you couldn't see their identity. And then in front of a crowd of hundreds of people, men and women separated, they were marched to the front of the stage, told to stand still and then they were whipped or lashed their back with a cane in 83 times while a man counted the number of loudspeaker and the crowd cheered, booed. Some men in the crowd saying “Hit them harder.” Others yelling “Let this be a lesson to you” and they crowd had to be contained with a metal fence and before the caning took place, the organizers told the crowd not to attack the men because they were also human, and they also told the crowd to take the children home because this was not a sight for children.

CO: The two men who were being flogged, and each took 83 of these lashes, you could see their faces.

RH: You could see their faces. They did try to kind of hide their face in a way but you could definitely see their emotion. They were gripping their hands tightly. It was clearly a painful experience for the second man, the one that I met in jail. They caning stopped and he seemed to have tears in his eyes and he was given water and asked if he was fit enough to keep on with the punishment.
I should say that when I met him he was greatly relieved that the caning was going to take place. It seems that the two months in a prison with men, many who hold strong homophobic views was a very difficult time for him and he was very glad that the caning was taking place and he could now return to his family, he said.

CO: Have you had a chance to speak with him since this punishment?

RH: No I haven't. He was sort of whisked away and he was very keen to stay out of any kind of limelight and he was extremely frightened and shaken. And he said he just wanted to get back to the life that he had before. But that will be very difficult after the public shaming. His name, address, his full name were read out to the crowd and published in the local media. His family I understand has received intimidation in the village and may need to move. And they also didn't visit him in prison for the two months, so he has a very difficult journey ahead of him.

CO: And what about his plans to finish medical school and become a doctor?

RH: Yeah the university, we’re are also told, has suspended him. So in order for him to continue his studies, he'll have to move and a number of rights groups here are offering financial support for him so he can do his studies but he seemed reluctant to take that up perhaps just very scared at this stage.

CO: As you point out, Aceh province is the only place where Sharia law is the law of the land. But we have seen in recent days and weeks, a lot of the arrests of gays and lesbian people in other places in Indonesia. What's going on?

RH: Yes there's been a surge, a wave of prejudice or attacks on LGBT people in Indonesia over the last kind of two years. Homophobic statements from senior members of the government, arrests and raids. And it has left the community feeling very shocked and uncertain where it's coming from. I think it's really important to say that Indonesia generally is a very tolerant society, and it does have a rich history particularly of transgender community, or waria as they're known, as having a closer link to God and they’re a very visible side to across Indonesia.
But I think it's a mixture between a growing conservatism, an influx of funding from countries like Saudi Arabia that pump money into Islamic schools and universities here. And they also Indonesians are being told by other Islamic countries that they're not Muslim enough, that they’re Islam is not the true Islam because it is mixed very much with Hindu Buddhism and traditional religions here.

CO: Rebecca I appreciate you speaking with us. Thank you.

RH: Thank you very much.

CO: Good night.

JD: Rebecca Henschke heads the BBC's Bureau in Indonesia. We reached her in Jakarta. You can find more on this story on our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Terrorist award

Guest: Lizeth Villanueva

JD: Lizeth Villanueva gets good grades and takes an advanced learning class at school to help prepare her for college. Earlier this week, she was given a certificate from her teacher during a year-end awards ceremony. But not for any of her scholastic achievements, but for something else entirely. And Grade 7 student, when she saw what she was being awarded for, she was extremely unimpressed.
We reached Lizeth Villanueva in Channelview, Texas.

CO: Lizeth, what is the award that your teacher gave you this week?

LIZETH VILLANUEVA: Most likely to become a terrorist.

CO: You got the award for the most likely to become a terrorist in your class. Why did she give you that award?

LV: I guess that's how she looks at me. I don’t know, she always gives me dirty looks.

CO: What did… describe for us what happened. How did you how did she come to present you with this award.

LV: Like, there were several people getting awards for that program, and she said it's supposed to be a joke. And before she started the awards thing, the fake awards, she said that some people might get offended by she doesn't really care. And then right before she said “Oh I didn't know I was going to get that award,” but right before she said, what told me, she said that she’s scared to give award out because she don't know what might happen.

CO: What went through your mind? How did you feel when she when she did that?

LV: I just turned around like what. I was upset. But showed no emotion. I was upset that she gave me that. And why she would call a student that.

CO: And did she ever explain?

LV: No I was like thinking in my mind, I never actually told her.

CO: How are the other kids reacting? Your fellow students?

LV: Well some of them were laughing and others were just like “Well it's not. It wasn't a joke.” They were just like “Are you serious?” They were surprised that she would do that.

CO: And I understand this wasn't the only of these fake awards that she presented. Can you tell us some of the others.

LV: There is one where, this girl is very emotional and she gave out the award “Most likely to cry for every little thing.” And there’s another one, where they called this kid, they gave him the award “Most likely to become homeless in Guatemala.”

CO: Most likely to be homeless in Guatemala.

LV: Yes.

CO: And then the other one was likely to cry for every little thing. How did the other kids react to this? The ones who got those awards?

LV: They didn't really care. Like they just like shook it off.

CO: And now what did you do? Did you tell your mom?

LV: Yes. Right after school, I told my mom and I told her it's supposed to be a joke and she was like “What is this?” I just told her it's supposed to be a joke and then I was like “This, I don't think this is a joke. This terrorist stuff.” And after what just happened with Ariana Grande at her concert.

CO: Yes so that was something, this was just right very same time, just a day after, isn't it, that you got this award.

LV: Yes.

CO: And so it was an actual thing to show. There was actually kind of a she'd written down this award that she presented, right?

LV: Yes.

CO: What did your mom do with that?

LV: She made a copy of it and we went to go talk to the principal yesterday.

CO: And what did the principal say?

LV: That he was sorry.

CO: Did he know the teacher was doing this?

LV: No. He had no idea. It was [intelligible] lesson for him.

CO: And so what's the principal done about it?

LV: He suspended her from the school but he only suspended her for two days because the school year already ended.

CO: And what do you think is would be an appropriate punishment for this?

LV: I just don't think that's enough to suspend her for two days. Probably like take her out of that school or something.

CO: How do you feel now going to school and being in her class when she's back?

LV: My mom told the principal that she don't want me to be in the same room as the teachers that were in the classroom with me.

CO: And is that happening, are you going back to the same class? Is she still your teacher?

LV: I don't think so.

CO: So you're graduating from Grade 7. How was your school year? How did you do in school this year?

LV: It was good for the most part.

CO: Is this something that's going to stay with you, Lizeth?

LV: Yes. I’m just going to kind of like remember what happened when I grow up. What she said and how like, she always looks, gives me dirty looks. So I’ll just remember that.

CO: Lizeth, I'm sorry that this happened to you and I do appreciate you speaking with us. Thank you.

LV: Thank you.

JD: Lizeth Villanueva is a Grade 7 student at Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Houston. We reached her in Channelview, Texas.
The Channelview Independent School District has since released a statement, saying it apologizes for, "the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom." It also said that the teachers involved have been disciplined, and the incident is still under investigation.

[Music]

Mindfulness study

JD: Just close your eyes and breathe. Just feel your breath go into your breathing bags... your lungs, that's the word. Just inhale and exhale, without judging how you're breathing, unless you're the one whose nose is whistling, in which case blow it or something -- you're distracting the rest of us.
Thaaaat's it. Clear your mind of all negative thoughts. Like for example, don't consider the recent study by researchers from the University of Amsterdam, which suggests that -- despite claims to the contrary -- mindfulness does absolutely nothing to increase our empathy.
That’s it, don't listen when I tell you that the researchers conducted various tests, and discovered that a five-minute mindfulness meditation increased empathy only marginally amongst non-narcissists.
And just keep breathing evenly and non-judgmentally when I say that subjects with narcissistic tendencies actually became less empathetic after doing the exact exercise you're doing right now.
Maybe breathe a little more loudly for a little bit so you can't hear me read from the study because the researchers suggest that, not only did mindful non-judgmental breathing not make the narcissists more compassionate, but "it may have ironically 'licensed' narcissistic individuals to focus more exclusively on their self-aggrandising thoughts." Now some of you may have lost control of your breathing rhythm, or possibly using your breath to form words like "What?" and "Jeff, I don't pay you forty bucks a month for guided meditations to feel less empathy!" Well, first, just return to your natural breath. Second, release your judgmental thoughts, okay? Including the one where you want a refund.
And third, those scientists must be wrong, because I feel nothing but empathy for them -- and the stupid results of their dumb study, and the fact that they're obviously jerks.

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May 26th, 2017 episode transcript

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