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The AIH Transcript for April 13, 2018

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello, I'm Carol.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Good evening. I'm Jeff Douglass. And this is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight…

CO: A layover that’s never over. In a place where everyone else is passing through, he's staying put. Tonight, a Syrian man who has been stuck at Kuala Lumpur International Airport for more than a month tells us his story.

JD: Shudder to think about it. After a respite that lasted two years the town of McAdam, New Brunswick is rattled by the return of so-called earthquake swarms — and no one knows exactly why.

CO: Meeting expectations. The guest list at this weekend's big Trans Mountain Summit includes the Prime Minister and two premiers. But one of the pipelines that First Nations opponents isn't surprised he didn't get an invite.

JD: Getting with the programs. It looked like it was curtains for hundreds of old theatre playbills. But now thanks to an enormous restoration project in New York the future of those ancient cast lists is no longer cast in doubt

CO: Good news for Irish naturists and for any nearby pharmacy that sells sunscreen. Ireland is getting its first ever officially sanctioned nude beach.

JD: And…He got lodged and it became his lodging. After losing control of his car, an 87-year-old Newfoundland man gets stuck in a ravine and two days after he found himself in that predicament someone else finally found him. As It Happens: The Friday Edition. Radio that never steers you wrong. [Music: Theme]

Part 1: Stranded Syrian follow-up, TransMountain Pipeline: First Nations Opposition, Newfoundland Car Accident

Stranded Syrian follow-up

Guest: Hassan al Kontar

JD: Airports are the worst. Now imagine living in one for more than a month. Yesterday on the program we told you about a Syrian man who has been stuck in the Kuala Lumpur airport for 38 days. He is still there. Hassan al Kontar’s story is complicated. He left Syria to work in the United Arab Emirates. When his work permit expired he was deported to Malaysia. There again, his visa expired. But when he tried to leave Malaysia for Ecuador he was not allowed on the flight, likely because he lacked visas for the countries in which his long flight had layovers. With an expired Malaysian visa he is not permitted to re-enter the country. So in the Malaysian airport he remains — and that is where we reached him.

CO: Hassan, I'm sorry to hear you're still at the airport. Just describe what your life is like? What's a day like for you in the airport? You've been there for 40 days.

HASSAN AL KONTAR: Almost, yes. In my case is out to get yourself out of here. But the second point is how to solve your temporary problems just to make your daily life easier. Things you never thought would be a problem become a huge issue. Just try to have a normal life, like having a shower or sleeping or cleaning your clothes or where to dry them. It's exhausting. I'm tired. I cannot take it anymore. I'm trying to be strong. But I’m even tired of acting strong.

CO: I'm going to give a little summary of how hard you've tried to find some place to go and relax. I know you were working in the United Arab Emirates until 2012, your passport expired. Syria wouldn't give you a new one. You stayed in the UAE for five years illegally working. You were caught by the UAE authorities, they deported you to Malaysia. So you were given a three month tourist visa, which has expired and then you tried to go to Ecuador. Can you tell us what happened then?

HAK: Well, Ecuador as Malaysia, was my only choice as a Syrian because it's a listed refugee a country and I desperately need to be legal somewhere. So tried to go there, I booked the ticket, I tried to avoid all the suspicious things that normally happen with Syrian people. We are not allowed in any European airport or U.S. airports.

CO: Hassan, I'm so sorry. I know it's very frustrating but we cannot hear you.

HAK: This is how it looks like to live in an airport. I was telling you as Syrians we are facing this rejection and kind of racism since almost 2011 when the war started. Unless we are some people with hundreds of thousands of dollars in our accounts, or businessmen, or have a good traveling record, we are not allowed. We will be always afraid from airlines not to board us because they would suspect us. It's not a matter of my issue, it's a matter of the Syrian people what they are facing for almost six years. The little power some people have, they are thrilled by it and they are just happy to use it against us, the weak people who have done nothing wrong. But the war is taking place in our country so people are judging us regarding that. I keep shouting trying to get my voice to reach as much as I can that I'm not a bad guy, I can fit in any society easily. I am open-minded, civil, educated, cultured — but yet I'm facing these problems wherever I go, whatever I do, and I cannot take it anymore.

CO: So you went to Turkish Airlines because the European ones wouldn't help you. So what happened with them?

HAK: One employee just decided to not allow me to board. And I lost all my money. It was all my fortune. He at first asked me to lose my bag. I just threw my bag, all my personal clothes and all my memories was in my bag. I went to the toilet, I give it to the employee because I just wanted to get in a plane to somewhere safe. Then he kept me waiting for two hours, and after two hours he sent me my passport with one of his colleagues telling me we canceled your ticket.

CO: You spent all your money buying this ticket from Turkish Airlines to fly to Ecuador because it was the only place that would take you. You got rid of all of your personal things, your memories, because they wouldn't let you have a bag and then they wouldn't let you board?

HAK: I will be frank with you. This would never happen to someone who is holding a Canadian passport for example. It's not my fault that I'm born with a paper saying that I am Syrian. I can be an extra and add value in any community. I am a very good worker, an expert man. I keep trying to prove myself. Yet I'm not able to find a place, a safe place, a clean place where I can't be legal.

CO: I'm so sorry to hear this, it’s just awful. Can I ask you if you have a Syrian passport, as you say, what would happen to you if you went back to Syria?

HAK: I'm wanted there since 2011 because there is the military service, so I’m wanted to join the fight. I'm a brave man but it's not my fight. I cannot just be a part of a killing machine to destroy my own home.

CO: There are people in Canada with a fund raising campaign.

HAK: They made me believe again in humanity. They are just a group of volunteers, amazing people. They will be in my soul, my mind, my heart for the rest of my life. No matter what the consequences will be, if I’m jailed or deported to Syria, these people, I'm in their debt. I'm grateful for them as long as I'm staying alive.

CO: And what about coming to Canada? Have they discussed that with you, if they're trying to help you do that?

HAK: They are approaching solutions. Canada is one of the greatest nations, one of the greatest societies. I know all about Canada since my relatives are there. It's a dream for anyone.

CO: Hassan, do you still see any light at the end of the tunnel? Do you see that you will be out of this situation, you'll leave this airport and go somewhere?

HAK: I don't believe in miracles anymore but I believe in something different. I believe that the special circumstances I was in normal people don’t experience all of these bad things, but it happened for a cause, that because my circumstances were special then my destiny will be special. So I don't know if it's false hope. I will pray that it's not, but I don't care any more. I am tired I just want to rest.

CO: And I know that it's after midnight now in Malaysia and.

HAK: It’s ok, I’m not sleeping anyway.

CO: Where will you go to sleep tonight?

HAK: My bed is next to me. There are time that I cannot feel my body parts actually. I can’t feel my legs and my arms, but it's okay. I keep telling myself that I never heard about someone who died because he was sleeping in a chair. So I will be okay. I am always convincing myself.

CO: Hassan, I so admire your spirit and your courage and your strength. And I wish you a good night, if that's possible. Thank you so much for talking to us.

HAK: Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity. Good night.

CO: Good night to you.

JD: Hassan al Kontar has been living in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia for the last 39 days. We reached him there earlier today.

[Music: Arpeggiated Tones]

TransMountain Pipeline: First Nations Opposition

Guest: Bob Chamberlain

JD: The Prime Minister's People are busy preparing for his pipelined summit on Sunday with the premiers of Alberta and British Columbia. They say they're looking at ways of de-risking Kinder Morgan's plan to pump bitumen from Alberta's oil sands to tankers on the shores of Burnaby in British Columbia. Bob Chamberlain says the meeting itself is a move onto dangerous ground. Chief Chamberlain is the vice president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs. We reached him in Vancouver.

CO: Chief Chamberlain, the Prime Minister's people are saying that this pipeline is going to get built and they're looking at all options to make that happen. What does that say to you?

CHIEF BOB CHAMBERLAIN: Well, to me it shows that the federal government, and both the provincial governments of Alberta B.C., have missed the most obvious constitutional challenge here, or complication. And that's the underlying Aboriginal title to land. And the Constitution recognises Aboriginal rights. The Supreme Court of Canada has given directions to the governments for decades now and now that they've embraced the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous people, free, prior and informed consent is nested squarely within that human rights definition. And so when they talk about carrying on and building this without First Nation consent, they're talking about running right through the human rights of Aboriginal people in Canada.

CO: There are those who are pointing out that we're saying this is very similar to the build-up to what happened in Quebec, and what happened in Oka, which was 78 days of standoff between the province of Quebec and the Mohawk Nation. Do you agree that this this could be, well perhaps even, bigger than Oka?

BC: Oh certainly. I believe it started to be bigger than Oka. And the reason I say that, what I want Canadians to understand is, we have when you see First Nations, whether they take to the blockades or protests or certainly find themselves on the court steps trying to defend their people and their lands, what they're doing is standing up and pointing and seeking judicial relief to the government ignoring the law of Canada. And I think that that concept and that understanding is what Canadians need to arrive at.

CO: But if we're going to talk about Oka, we're going to remember that this was a time that there was there was shooting, there was a policeman that died and we saw that the army was called in to try and stand between this situation and try and deal with it, it went on for, as we said, 78 days. Can you see a potential situation where the army has to come in?

BC: Well, that would be really disappointing on the Canadian government side if they make that choice yet again, given the state and elevation of Aboriginal rights within Canada's judicial system. The state of Aboriginal law in Canada is such that the government needs to change exactly how it deals in terms of the function and decision making. But the government’s continued to disregard and minimise Aboriginal rights. And in doing so it is the government that holds the responsibility when things escalate because they're ignoring the constitution of this country and they're ignoring rulings of the Supreme Court of Canada.

CO: We spoke with Rachel Notley, premier of Alberta, on the show on Wednesday. I asked her about the possibility of protesters, Indigenous and other Canadians coming to block the pipeline from being built. And this is what she had to say.

SOUNDCLIP

ALBERTA PREMIERE RACHEL NOTLEY: Well, I mean, I think that is going to be their choice. Canada is a country where we respect the law and where I think the progressive, moderate majority tends to rule the day. And I hope that that's who rules the day here as well. I mean, we have just come through a recession where well over 100,000 people have lost their jobs. And I say to anybody who is so passionate about this pipeline that they need to go into their homes and look the people in the eyes who have gone through that experience. And I think that were they to be in that position of having to talk to those people, look at their families, sit at their kitchen tables and ask themselves whether they have found the most moderate path forward, that many of them would second guess that.

CO: All right, that's Rachel Notley. What do you say to the premiere?

BC: Well, I find it rather hypocritical that she'll talk about respecting the law when the federal and provincial governments, as I've mentioned a number of times, are disregarding the Supreme Court of Canada and the constitution of this country. And in terms of coming into people's homes to witness how things are, to me she is demonstrating that a clear lack of awareness of societal issues that are found within First Nation communities and the poverty which has arrived in many, many to too many communities. And that poverty is as a result of our people being removed from our lands, being removed from benefit of resource extraction that has occurred. And when we consider that the Supreme Court of Canada has spoken about Aboriginal title and its territorial nature in Canada vis-à-vis the Tsilhqot'in decision. We have to understand that title represents jurisdiction and we have to understand that title represents a clear alignment with benefits. And so what we're seeing is the government continues to disregard the law and ensuring the state of poverty is continued in the First Nations across this country.

CO: 51 First Nation communities have signed comprehensive mutual benefit agreements with Kinder Morgan with half-a-billion-dollars of job benefits, training, education, skills that would help to lift some of those communities out of poverty. What do you say to them?

BC: Well, I say that they have the full authority to make decisions within their territories. And that is something all First Nation leaders will stand up and argue for until the end of our time here on this planet. But by the government accepting the answer yes, the principle of the question needs to be understood and respected if the answer is no. And that is something — if you ask me if a First Nation wanted to develop a top three list of economic development opportunities, I doubt very much many would say ‘I'd love a pipeline to go through the middle of our territories, putting at risk the environment and the traditional foods that are found there and river systems and valleys so on.’ I just think it's more of a resignation, but I'm not questioning the nations that have agreed that this is a good idea. Every nation has the authority to make such decisions, but the decision and answer of ‘no’ must be respected in the same fulsome way that ‘yes’ is.

CO: And yet we're seeing this meeting on Sunday between the premiers and the prime minister to talk about how to break this impasse. Are there any First Nations are going to attend that meeting?

BC: Well we have the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs waited for an invitation, but oddly enough we did get one. But I don't know of any First Nations that have been invited. So here we have the government again squirreling away into private rooms amongst themselves at the exclusion of First Nations people. So this is what status quo looks like.

CO: Chief Chamberlain, we'll be following this story and we probably will be talking again and I appreciate speaking with you tonight.

BC: Well, thank you for your time. Thank you.

CO: Bye.

BC: Bye.

JD: Chief Bob Chamberlain is the vice president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.

[Music: Ambient Bass]

Newfoundland Car Accident

Guest: Stan Lafitte

JD: Newfoundlanders are in general tough folks. But even the hardiest Newfoundlander is tipping a hat to Stan Lafitte today. The 87-year-old was enjoying a drive along the TransCanada Highway on Newfoundland's West Coast last Thursday. He lost control of his car and ended up wedging it, and himself, in a narrow snowy ravine. He was out of cell phone range. He could not open the doors he would end up trapped in that car for two long nights. We reached Stan Lafitte at home.

CO: Stan, how are you doing today?

SL: Oh, I'm doing very good today. Actually, I didn't have any bruises or anything else, I just have a sore back from sitting in the car for about 50 hours.

CO: 50 hours without any food or just a little bit of water?

SL: No food or drink or nothing.

CO: That's crazy.

CLARISSA LAFITTE: Not bad for 87, hey?

[LAUGHTER]

CO: Hi Clarissa. That’s your wife in the background, is it?

CL: Don't mind me.

SL: She's helping me because I use a hearing aid one of them kept falling out so I had to return it.

CO: So how did you lose control of the car?

SL: I really don't know. All of a sudden I was across the highway and across the highway going in the other direction. And all I could see was the car was going up over the embankment. And all I could see was rocks and everything else coming towards me. But the car kept on going, circled down into a sort of a valley like, with wood and trees and everything else. I ended up in what I call a gorge. And the gorge was just the width of the car.

CO: Could you open the car doors?

SL: No, I could not, no. I had nothing to drink or eat, but when the car finally came to a stop, first thing I did was get my cell phone and I dialed it came up on my screen, out of range. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, so I said maybe by later on this evening somebody may know that I'm missing but nothing happened. And when evening came, I turned the lights on the car and the flashers and stuff like that. I thought maybe somebody from the highway would notice it. But unknown to me the car was in this what I call a gorge, and it could not be seen from the highway. It got cold, it was -1 all night — not all that bad, but I had a blanket that belonged to my wife in the other seat. I wrapped that around me and eventually just sitting there I never slept a minute through the whole ordeal. I was just sitting there and finally morning came and I said ‘Well thank God it’s morning, they’re looking for me now, they'll find me sometime today.’ But the day came and the day passed.

CO: You were there for a second night?

SL: The second night was the worse because I tried the motor in the car but there were no heater. And the second night the temperature dropped to -5 and it was -5 all night. So it was pretty, pretty cold.

CO: Two nights. What did you think was wrong? Why was no one coming to get you in your mind?

SL: Well I figured somebody’s got to come pretty soon but eventually what happened, I was told after, that they used a helicopter and they contracted the search and rescue people they finally came on Saturday just before noon sometime. I was just there sitting in the car staring into space and a tap came on the window.

CO: Oh boy.

SL: And that was the rescue crowd.

CO: So how did you feel at that moment when you got that top of the window and they were there?

CL: How did you feel at that moment?

SL: Oh at that moment I said ‘My God, there’s finally somebody here. But they finally dragge me and got me up to the top. And when I got to top the first person there to meet me was an RCMP officer, who handed me a bottle of water. And that was the best tasting water I ever, ever, ever tasted.

CO: Stan, what was the worst time for you? What was the worst stretch of time down there in that gorge?

CL: What was the worst stretch of time down there?

SL: The worst stretch of time, I think, it was second night. It was chilly. I was I was shaking with the cold. The hours are awful long when you're down there all alone by yourself. And I had no idea when they were going to find me. I said I hope they find me, I don't want to spend a third night here.

CO: Was there a time when you gave up hope or you didn't think that they were going to find you?

SL: I didn't let that cross my mind. I said I knew that people get lost and always get found. You know, sometimes they're found not alive I know that.

CO: Can I ask Clarissa a question, your wife?

CL: Hello.

CO: Hi Clarissa. What were you going through during all this?

CL: I never gave thought to the him being dead or anything like that. And I always had faith that he was going to come back, you know.

CO: What did you say to him when you finally saw Stan?

CL: Well, I don't think I said a word, I just threw my arms around him and that was it.

CO: Did he ask for anything special to eat when he got out of there?

CL: No he didn't ask for a thing. He didn't ask for a thing.

CO: Stan were you thinking about something that you were hoping you'd get to eat, the meal you were going to have when you got out of there?

SL: Someday I'll have a big stake in honour of this.

[LAUGHTER]

CO: Stan and Clarissa, you're both great. I'm glad you're OK and I'm glad you're there Clarissa. And I hope you get that big steak, Stan.

SL: Someday I will, someday I will.

CO: Take care of yourselves, both of you, thank you.

SL: OK thank you now.

CO:Bye.

SL & CL: Bye.

JD: We reached Stan and Clarissa Lafitte at their home in Newfoundland.

[Music: Ambient Bass Tones]

Rhubarb Sounds

JD: If you're looking for a new track for your next mixtape look no further because the answer is rhubarb. Now not just any rhubarb. What you need is forced rhubarb. It grows in complete darkness and it grows fast — nearly three centimetres a day. And that is so fast you can actually hear it. The rhubarb grows in a dark shed, close together, doesn't need photosynthesis, which means that it is tender and less tart. But as it grows the stalks rub together. Those squeaks and creeks were recorded at David Westwood and Son Rhubarb Farm near Wakefield, England. The audio has been cleaned up a little bit but it isn't real time and it is our sound of the day.

SOUNDCLIP

CLICKS AND POPS OF RHUBARD STALKS

JD: That is pretty cool. Our sound of the day the beat of forced rhubarb growing in real time.

Part 2: New Brunswick Earthquakes, Old Playbills

New Brunswick Earthquakes

Guest: Kenneth Stannix

JD: It's one thing to shake up your life on your own. It is something else altogether when it is shaken up for you — repeatedly. In 2012 we told you about the village of McAdam in New Brunswick, which had been hit with something called earthquake swarms. Well those earthquakes haven't gone away. They happened in 2016. They happened again this month. Kenneth Stannix is the mayor of McAdam.

CO: Mayor Stannix, what's it been like in McAdam lately?

MAYOR KENNETH STANNIX: It's been pretty quiet here the past week. We had had, I guess, upwards of around 22 earthquakes here between the middle of March and the 3rd of April, but those earthquakes have been low in intensity. I think the highest magnitude was 2.6 and the majority of them are coming in at around 0.1-0.5.

CO: What's it like though to have so many earthquakes?

KS: In 2016 we had 90 of the swarm earthquakes so it was a little more intense then, the earthquakes got up to about a magnitude 3.2 and we had a lot of people that were quite concerned about what was going on and how bad they were going to get. So we had some seismologists come in and they set up some seismographs around the village, kind of pinpointed where the earthquakes were centred and then tried to determine what might be causing them. Unfortunately they weren't able to determine that. But they did find that the earthquakes were happening in the top kilometre of the crust and therefore it wasn't too bad.

CO: So people's houses weren’t going to start coming down?

KS: No. The houses shook a little bit at the 3.2. There was some window rattling and a couple of people claimed that their basements had cracked. But for the most part that was the extent of the damage that they caused. And then they kind of stopped for a couple of years and then they just started in March again.

CO: I guess people are a bit jumpy then in McAdam?

KS: Certainly in 2016, as the intensity of these earthquake swarms or clusters increased, it caused a certain level of anxiety here. You didn't know what was coming next. They seemed to come in in waves, there would be five, seven of them in a row of varying intensity. And this time around that it's much more laid back, I guess, with the population here. Most people have experienced that 2016, so the 2018 seems to be more of a routine. And the, I guess, the lack of knowledge about what was happening in 2016 has been replaced with a level of knowledge which makes people more comfortable with what's going on.

CO: Does it wake you up at night?

KS: I was awakened two nights we had those 2.6-ers. And it comes across as just a large bang and it will wake you right up in the middle and you'll sit up and you'll say ‘OK that was an earthquake’ and then you'll hear a smaller bang and then a smaller bang as they're lowering in intensity. So it does wake you up, it does startle you when you first hear them, but some people are now sleeping through those.

[LAUGHTER]

KS: Yeah, I'm not one of those people.

CO: It takes quite something to be able to start sleeping through earthquakes.

KS: When they first started I thought it felt like there was a water tank or something exploding in the basement. Nobody quite knew what they were. So we get up and we run downstairs and what can there be no damage or anything you'd be thinking OK what was that. And then people would start talking about earthquakes and that kind of thing. So that was our, I guess, our eye-opener to them back in 2016. And it was at that time everybody was talking about it. But now with this latest round Facebook does not light up every time there is an earthquake. The first couple they said did you feel it. Did you hear it? You know, that kind of thing, but that since has died off.

CO: They call these earthquakes swarms, I guess?

KS: Yes. It's because they happen in multiples. So one person the other night said that they thought they felt 13 all in a row. Now I didn't feel that and I didn't see that recorded. But normally with these swarms you'll have four or five larger ones and then you'll hear the little smaller ones as they dissipate, I guess, the energy.

CO: Are there any people who are thinking this makes me too nervous and too skittish, maybe I don’t want to live in McAdam anymore?

KS: Well, it's actually quite the opposite. Since 2016, in the last 15 months we've probably sold about 47 houses here to newcomers who have come into the village. They’re coming in from Texas, Newfoundland, Yellowknife, Ontario and Quebec and they're settling in here and making McAdam their home. So we are one of the few areas in rural New Brunswick that's actually growing.

CO: Maybe it's become an attraction.

KS: Maybe it is.

[LAUGHTER]

CO: You can say, well you come to McAdam and you get in to bed and the Earth moves.

KS: I had one person say to me today I've never felt an earthquake and I'd like to feel one. And I said well if you stay here maybe you will.

CO: Interesting things go go bang in the night in McAdam.

KS: Yes they do.

CO: Mayor Stannix, it's good to talk to you. Thanks.

KS: Thank you very much, you have a great day.

CO: You too. Bye.

KS: Bye-bye.

JD: Kenneth Stannix is the mayor of McAdam, New Brunswick. That's where we reached him.

[Music: Ambient Guitar Plucks]

14-year-old Shot At

JD: He wanted directions but 14-year-old Brennan Walker was shot at instead. The Black teenager lives in a suburb of Detroit. Yesterday morning he went to catch a school bus. He missed it, so he started walking, got lost, didn't have a cell phone so he decided he would ask someone for help. He saw a house with a Neighbourhood Watch sticker in the window. He thought that's a safe bet. So he knocked on the door. And here is Brennan Walker, with his mom Lisa Wright, telling the story to a local Detroit TV station.

SOUNDCLIP

BRENNAN WALKER: Got to the house and I knocked on the lady's door. Then she started yelling at me. She was like, “Why are you trying to break into my house?” And I was trying to explain to her that I was trying to get directions to Rochester High and seek kept yelling at me. The guy came downstairs and he grabbed the gun and I saw it and I started to run and that's when I heard the gunshot.

REPORTER: Your son almost became a hashtag.

BW: Almost became — exactly. And that's exactly how I feel like wow. Because you were trying to get to school. One of the things that stands out that probably angers me the most is while I was watching the tape you could hear the wife say, “Why did these people choose my house?” Who are these people?” And that's what set me off because I didn't want to believe it was what it appeared to be — to look like. And then when I heard her say that it was like whoa, but it is.

JD: Lisa Wright and her 14-year-old son Brennan Walker speaking to a local Detroit TV station. Brennan says he knocked on someone's door yesterday asking for directions. The homeowner responded by shooting at him. Thankfully the shots missed. Today a 53-year-old man was charged with assault with intent to murder and felony firearms violations.

[Music: Oboe]

Women In The World Summit

JD: There was a common detail in the accusations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein. The common backdrop for the allegations, the threats, the unwanted advances, the coercion, sexual assaults — hotels. A spokesperson for Mr. Weinstein has denied quote “Any allegations of nonconsensual sex.” But a new announcement from the entertainment union, or an entertainment union, seems like a response to these stories about him and other alleged predators. In a press release yesterday, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called for an end to quote “Auditions, interviews and similar professional meetings taking place in private hotel rooms or at private residences,” unquote. On the same day Italian actor and director Asia Argento was part of a discussion at the Women in the World Summit in New York. Last year, Ms. Argento came forward with disturbing allegations against Mr. Weinstein, including sexual assault, which she said took place at a hotel. Here's part of what she said during yesterday's panel.

SOUNDCLIP

ASIA ARGENTO: I don't think a lot of people know what happened to women when they are agressed by men. We fear for our life. We are paralyzed. A lot of us, a lot of us are able to run away. Depends on what conditions we are brought up, what traumas we had in our childhood. But what happened to me, I froze. This happens to a lot of women, and that's why we need to keep this conversation going. That's why I am here to talk because I think that this movement is the most important thing that has happened to women since the right to vote. And if we stop this conversation then we're really doomed. It's the one chance I've had in my lifetime to advance the whole human species, because the betterment of the position of women in society is the betterment of the whole society, everybody will benefit from it.

JD: That was as our Argento speaking yesterday at the Women in the World Summit in New York. The panel was entitled #MeToo Outrage From Europe. And on stage with Ms. Argento was a Laura Boldrini, member of Italy's parliament. Ms. Boldrini was wearing a sweater that read ‘Je Parle Feministe,’ which she got in Canada. Here's what she said about it.

SOUNDCLIP

LAURA BOLDRINI: You can really win the battle against violence. You can make it. You can have another future. You cannot accept to live with violence. This is not acceptable — we have to say no at all levels. We have to speak out because if we don't speak nothing is to happen. If we speak we are more united. If we speak we are stronger. If we speak we change things. And this is why I have this jumper here. REPORTER: Explain the jumper.

LB: This jumper here, Je Parle Feministe.

[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]

LB: This jumper comes from Canada. Canada, where a Prime Minister says I am a feminist and so it’s a present, when I visited Canada on the official visit somebody bought it for me and they bought it in a men's shop. You see it’s big, large, because men in Canada like to be fashionable, and to be fashionable means to practice feminism.

REPORTER: I mean we try here too. We don't do as well, but we try.

JD: That was Italian politician Laura Boldrini speaking yesterday in New York.

[Music: Guitar Strums]

Old Playbills

Guest: Morgen Stevens-Garmon

JD: The performers left the stage centuries ago. But they are about to take a belated curtain call online. The Museum of the city of New York is restoring and digitizing playbills from theatrical performances stretching back as far as 1780. Morgen Stevens-Garmon is a curator at the museum. She is the director of this particular preservation project. We reached her in New York.

CO: Morgen, some of these playbills are a couple of hundred years old. What shape are they in?

MORGEN STEVENS-GARMON: Various shapes. So the paper, the actual quality of the paper of a playbills is pretty good, but they're very, very fragile. They weren't built to last. They were meant to be pasted up on a wall and then torn down the next day. So that is what is affecting their condition — the fragility.

CO: It's amazing that any of them even survived.

MSG: It is. It is. And some of them, you know, have not been treated nicely over the years, they've been folded they've been wrinkled .

CO: What's on them, of course, is the most interesting thing. Just describe some of the playbills, the most interesting ones.

MSG: Sure. So these playbills, we have about 700 in the museum's collection, they contain information about the shows, so the complete program of the evening. And this would not just be one show like you would go to the theatres today to see one thing, but this would be an entire evening’s worth of entertainment. So there'd be an interactive piece, or a before piece or side, like dancing or songs entertainers that would happen in addition to the main theatrical attraction. So it includes the information of what shows an audience member would be seeing and it would include information on who was performing the parts. Sometimes a synopsis, sometimes there would be a block print giving illustrated information. There's also the theatre manager is listed.

CO: It's really interesting to imagine theatre in the 1700s in New York City. People flock to Manhattan to see the plays and death and the musical and everything, but it was going on then. Tell us your oldest playbill that you have?

MSG: Yes, so our oldest playbill is for the Merchant of Venice and it was performed in 1785. And the advertisement just says theatre because there was only one. So you didn't have to wonder which theatre, there's just one theatre. Come to the theater, see the Merchant of Venice. Theatre was actually outlawed during the Revolutionary War. So we didn't have theater during the war in New York — sanctioned, professional theatre, but we did coming back after the war companies returned and we had professional theatre.

CO: When you think 1785 for the Merchant of Venice it was just, I mean, just the last century previous to that that Shakespeare was writing it, he died in the 1600s. So this is not contemporaneous play but it seems it wasn't distant history was it?

MSG: Yeah it's closer to Shakespeare than it is to us, I think.

CO: I understand you have one for what's believed to be the first musical ever.

MSG: Right, right. So the Black Crook is considered by many, or it's pointed to, as the first musical. And we have broadsides advertising its performance. It came about when a troupe of Parisian dancers were scheduled to perform in New York and their theatre burned down. A theatre burning down happened quite frequently in the 19th century. And so in order for the producers not to lose money on bringing them over it they sort of mashed them into this melodrama the Black Crook.

CO: But now what are you going to do with these? You got this grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to preserve them. What can you do to save these playbills?

MSG: The bulk of the funding that comes from that grant will be used for the conservation. So what I'm going to be doing in the next few weeks is packing up hundreds of these broadsides, sending them to a conservation lab, we'll be working with the Northeast Document Conservation Center. So we'll be sending them to the conservators there, those conservators will treat each object, taking all of the little frayed ends and making sure they match up, making sure the objects are stable, taking out wrinkles, doing what they can to minimize stains and really just stabilizing the object. Those will come back to the museum and we will photograph them. So we have a digital lab set up here, we will photograph the objects and then put them on our online portal so that they can be viewable to anyone anywhere in the world with Internet access.

CO: And when will people be able to do that? When will the public be able to see what these look like?

MSG: Right. So it is a two-year project that will be toward the end of the two-year project. The bulk of the time will be spent at conservation. As you can imagine doing all of that work takes a long time. And so they'll spend about 14 months in conservation and then come back here and expect to wrap up the project and by the end of May 2020.

CO: What a great project for the Big Apple.

MSG: Yeah, yeah, it's very exciting.

CO: Thanks Morgen.

MSG: Thank you.

CO: Bye.

MSG: Bye.

JD: Morgen Stevens-Garmon is a curator with the Museum of the City of New York. And we reached her in New York.

[Music: Upbeat Piano]

Chelsea Hotel Door Auction

JD: In a word, New York City's Chelsea Hotel is iconic. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Madonna all slept behind its doors. And now those doors are for sale. In 2011 the hotel began a top to bottom renovation and they were just going to throw away all the doors. But one long-term tenant snapped them up and now 50 of them are being auctioned off. Half the proceeds are going to go to charity. The door to the room where Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road fetched $30,000. Bob Dylan's door went for a $100,000. Another went for $85,000 — the door behind which Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin spent the night together in 1968. That relationship did not endure but the song it inspired did.

Part 3: Retirement Home Death, Hungary Election, Irish Nudist

Irish Nudist

Guest: Pat Gallagher

JD: If you have ever been to a beach in Ireland there's a very good chance you were clothed. And that's mostly because of the weather, but it's also because it probably didn't cross your mind. And even if it had, until recently technically, it was a crime to be nude on a beach in Ireland. But that law was struck down in 2014. And now Irish nudists are getting their very first officially recognized nude beach. Pat Gallagher is the president of the Irish Naturist Association. We reached him near Boyle.

CO: Pat how many days in a year can you actually go out to a beach in Ireland and not be wearing your hat and scarf and your jacket?

PAT GALLAGHER: Yeah there's a bit of a myth about that that we have this terrible bad weather all the time and we don't. Normally from right through to September we can get reasonably good days. We get temperatures of 20-25 on average and that can reach even 30 on some occasions. And I always say if it's a good enough day for the whole population to get in their cars, trains or buses, go to the nearest beach strip down to small swimwear, then it's good enough for us to go to the beach and not wear swimwear. The swimwear is not going to keep us any warmer.

CO: Why is it so important to you? Why do you like this naturism?

PG: Yeah. Well personally I just discovered it many years ago on a small quiet beach having come out of the water, I had a wet swimming trunks. I lay down on the sand, the sand stuck all over to it. And since no one else was around, I simply took it off, toweled myself down and I discovered that I never, ever really needed to wear swimming trunks. It was only just there for other people’s, I don't know, sense of shame or something like that. So since then I've just always enjoyed swimming, sunbathing even gardening, anything at all, without any clothing.

CO: How do your neighbours feel about that?

PG: Well lucky enough I don't have. Ireland is a sparsely populated area outside of the city. I live in a country area and we have extensive land around us so we don't have neighbours as such, you know.

CO: You live in Boyle right?

PG: I live outside of Boyle, about six kilometres from Boyle.

CO: And that's just a few hours from Dublin. So how often are you going to be able to use Hawk Cliff Beach?

PG: Well, personally I don't use it at all, funny enough. But we have quite a number of people who use it extensively. If I want to go to a beach I'll use a different one up here on the west coast.

CO: But you don't have a sign that says there may be naked people past this point?

PG: No we don't, at the moment but we would love to have such signs in any of the areas that we use. That way anyone who might be in any way offended by the sight of nude bathers, at least they would be forewarned.

CO: Well, enjoy yourself. Happy beach bumming out there.

PG: We will do our best.

CO: Thanks Pat.

PG: Bye-bye.

JD: Pat Gallagher is the head of the Irish Naturist Association. We reached him at home in County Roscommon near Boyle, Ireland.

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April 13, 2018 episode transcript

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