Pensacola, Florida

Boats in Pensacola harbour.

Working on a report for Euronews about the oil spill. Went to a fish market to see how they cope with the crisis. I have already sent it and hopefully you can see the report soon! I also did what's called a stand-up, where I talk to the camera or public. We do that either to give information for which we don't have pictures or to let people know that this news organisation was at the scene themselves and didn't just receive the footage from others.

Florida

Just saw the interview we did with the new President of Kirghizia, Rosa Otunbayeva while she was in a regional cooperation meeting in Astana. You can see it here.


http://www.euronews.net/2010/07/16/roza-otumbayeva-we-have-the-nation-waiting-to-reconstruct-itself/

I'm looking into doing a story on the oil spill but as it has been plugged, the interest for world news has diminished. But, a good story on the clean-up and the long-term effects on the people here would be interesting. The local press talks about how it is difficult to get pictures of the spill because BP doesn't want those pictures in the press. I want to do a story about how BP is hiring fishermen and their boats for the clean-up. Our neighbor, who's brother has a charter fishing boat is now working for BP. He says for his brother, it is a big help. Although he really doesn't do much cleaning up, he is still paid $1200 a day for 2-weeks a month. He won't loose money this year, but signing up to BP employment, he gives up his right to sue or receive any other compensation. For the immediate future, it might not be too bad for him and his colleagues. They receive their money right away and don't have to wait for maybe years going through the courts. The question still is of course, how long the clean-up will take and how long such programs will last. 

Florida

Time for vacation! I try to get to Florida at least once a year to visit my parents and this year, like last year, I take my two nephews with me. I did bring my camera with me to keep an eye on the oil leak in the Golf of Mexico. So far there is no oil here near Pensacola and I hope there won't be. I will be looking for a story to do on this subject. I don't like it when the area where my parents live is in the news... it is usually a hurricane that puts Pensacola in world headlines.

Day one: Repairing pants

Luxembourg

Today I worked for RTL local television and as it is a weekend, I film mostly sports. But today was a great day in sports for Luxembourg and any Spanish fans here. First of all, I filmed in the studio comments about the Tour de France. Andy Schleck, our Luxembourg cyclist, won this étape and is only 20 seconds behind the leader!

This evening there was a huge gathering of football fans. Even those who don't care too much for watching the sport were there because the atmosphere was great. I would have gone even if I didn't have to film. Spain won in with a last minute goal in overtime and the crowd went wild.

Luxembourg

Our report on South Korean women... http://www.euronews.net/2010/07/09/a-woman-s-place-in-a-modern-world/ What do you think?

Luxembourg

Here is the film we did on Astana's architecture... you can see it on the Euronews site at http://www.euronews.net/2010/07/08/an-astounding-cityscape-springs-from-the-steppes-of-kazakhstan/

You can choose the language you want to hear it in too.

Astana, Kazakhstan

Today is a day off. We had planned two days off, but it didn't work out. So, today we head out to бурабай (Burabai), a natural park about 200 km north of the capital. The road is a smooth six-lanes and the speed limit is 140 km/hour! The President also has a house out here.

So in the car and in nature we philosophise a bit, the work being done. We talk about how culture and language is so closely related that you can't understand one without the other. That is why I love to travel here, entering a different culture and being able to understand everything around me, except when the speak in Kazak, but that isn't so often.

Also, there are some left-over's from the communist times in how people think. For instance, in Europe or America, we don't have police posts at the entry/exit points to the city. But here, they consider this absolutely normal. I was also asked if I had "registered" at the hotel or with the police when I arrived. Again, many think this is absolutely normal and unquestionable. I don't think that rule even exists anymore because I haven't expressly done it on the past few trips here.

Next discussion is about the political system in Kazakhstan. I have been able to meet President Nazarbaev a number of times and personally have a good opinion of him. Of course I don't live here, so can't really judge how things work from day to day. I just see a lot of progress and that many people seem happy and full of energy... at least in the capital. Nazerbaev has been leader for decades and that isn't usually a good sign. On the other hand, an argument can be made that a young country needs a firm hand to get things done. I am sure that corruption and worse were just as present when the United States was expanding, building railroads, heading West, killing indigenous peoples, etc.

Kazakhstan is an up and coming new frontier. The young people we met seem happy and very eager to learn and get ahead, even if they might hesitate to criticise the president. But democracy must be learned (we are still learning, correcting). Maybe it is the Chinese model of economic freedoms with political limits. I also hope the Chinese model is just part of an evolution towards greater freedoms. As people get richer, they automatically want more freedom. If you can't eat or take your children to a hospital, you don't have much time to think about democracy.

Anyway, those were the thoughts of the day.

Astana, Kazakhstan

"At first we believed that everything from the West was the best quality, but we learned to develop a verification process," admits Amanjol Chikanaev, who heads the General Development plan of Astana. I had asked him if in building a sparkling, modern capital city out of the wind-blown steppes in just a few years, quality didn't suffer. We had heard of some complaints about beautiful exteriors but shoddy work. But early errors built Mr. Chikanaev's experience and he is a busy man. He has to at least double the size of this city in 20 years. His agenda is booked until 2030. He opened up his offices, coming in on a holiday, to show us a huge maquette of the future city. The model buildings in blue were yet to be built and those in white exist. Blue covered well over half of the floor. Mr. Chikanaev moved his very long pointer from point to point indicating new schools, universities, sport complexes and hospitals. If you are an architect, this is your heaven.

Rosa Otunbaeva, the recently proclaimed new President of Kirghizia, is in town. I was able to first interview her in her capital of Bishkek during the uprising in April which brought down the corrupt government of Kurmanbek Bakiev. As in April, I was left with the impression that she is a very intelligent, sincere person. She has a tremendous job ahead of her to rebuild the country and find investors to help better the lives of Kirghizia's 5 million people.

Astana, Kazakhstan

Another beautiful day in Astana. First item on the list... an interview with President Nazerbaev on architecture. He has a busy schedule inaugurating new buildings and we caught up with him at the Moscow Business Center. Even the mayor of Moscow was there, Mr. Luzhkov. Mr. Luzhkov is a small, stocky man who has lived through a lot to be mayor of Moscow for at least the past 15 years.

The presidential car arrives with security men jumping out of accompanying jeeps. He greets Mr. Luzhkov and then his aide says Euronews wants to talk with him. He comes right over to us and I am able to film him in the sun with a background of the city, one can say, he built. He was very nice and seemed to be in a good mood. Tuesday is his birthday and Monday is also a holiday, called the City Day. The cameramen from different Kazak televisions were very friendly and calm. Usually such events are a scram for position, but here things seem to go very smooth, but I think I also have a privileged position because Euronews has a very good reputation here and is very respected.

Next up, an interview with the "Head Designer of the City" Mr. Djambulatov. We have a point in common in that he is also a pilot. I mentioned that I had a helicopter's license from the military aeroclub of the former Soviet Union, DOSAAF. He learned to fly there as well. He smiled and held out his hand to shake and said "you are my real comrade"! He said the buillding in which we were standing is the site of the old DOSAAF airfield! We talked airplanes for a brief moment which was a lot of fun.

For a small break we went to have a coffee with a journalist friend, Ainash and some of her friends. They were very interested in talking with us and were filled with questions and ideas. One was a young lawyer and prosecutor, others working for an organisation to promote the city of Astana. All seem very motivated, polite and anxious to learn what they could from encounters with foreign visitors.

Next we went for a walk in the city park. Kids were pedalling small go carts around and you had to dodge them sometimes. Even smaller kids were in even smaller plastic cars remotely controlled by their parent, giving them the sensation that they were driving without being a danger!

Last assignment; take night pictures of the city from the 40th floor of the railway company's building. I will post those pictures when I can get into the blog without using a proxy. By the way, I still haven't got to the bottom of that story, whether the blog sites are blocked by the government as some people say or caused by a technical glitch as others think. It seems a bit fishy in that I can still connect using a proxy. Anyway, in the last floor of this building a few different TV crews have been invited to take pictures also of the fireworks from above. Presse TV from Iran is here too. They introduce themselves and we shake hands. When it comes to our interpreter, Ms. Medina Mahomedova, the Iranian journalist refuses to shake her hand, explaining that islamic law forbids him to do so. Just before entering the building Medina was proudly explaining the arabo-islamic origens of her name. She was a bit shocked at the rudeness of the Iranian. One rule of travel is you should respect the customs of the places you visit. The Iranians were accompanied by two women dressed in black hijabs. Kazakhstan strictly separates religion and state and their form of islam is very moderate.

Astana, Kazakhstan

Today, we are editing our report in the hotel. We will send it by FTP which is a way of sending large files. I am sending almost 500 MB for 5 minutes of video. If you notice a different style of writing on this blog entry it is because I have to pass through a proxy server because this blog site is apparently blocked by the Kazak government. I don't know what they have to hide, but when I try to open the site it says connection is not possible. I was able to do it earlier. Through the proxy site, I can't send pictures, but will do it as soon as the site is unblocked, whenever that will be! (back home now and have added the pic of Constantino and I editing in my hotel room) I am told there are opposition members with blogs filled with negative information about the current Kazak government. As you can tell from my past blogs, things seem to be very open and free here, but blocking this new expression seems to be a bad remnant of a recent past.

This evening we again filmed this beautiful city with a wonderful light. I could film for days here! Even the police are nice here and just ask with a smile for which channel I am working. I am more used to police asking for papers or permission to film, but things seem more open here and I haven't had any problem filming anywhere.

Astana, Kazakhstan

Today is the beginning of the 3rd Astana Economic Forum, the reason why I am here. Economic conferences are not the most exciting thing to film, but you do meet interesting people. I didn't get to meet him personally this time, but did film Nursultan Nazerbayev, President of Kazakhstan. I met him the first time in 1991, just a few weeks before the coup d'etat which saw the end of communism. At the time, he was not well known outside Kazakhstan and we did a portrait of him, filming him playing tennis and with his family at his datcha (summer house).

Today, he is president of the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He has made enormous changes for Kazakhstan. The system may

not be the most democratic here, but if the strong man improves life for most of the people, it might not be so bad, especially for a young country. He made 3 suggestions in his speech. First, that the world needs a new world currency. Second, we need a world-wide Maastricht agreement (world-wide monetary union and currency). Third, he wants to build a highway from China to Europe. The man has many ideas and he is one who realises them!

We also interviewed Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister of Canada. He is a good speaker and made the crowd laugh. He also said he was no longer in politics but if anyone wanted him to come to speak at their gathering, he was available.

This last shot is of сыр чечел (Syr Chechel), a Ukranian speciality we had tonight in Astana's row of international restaurants which looks a bit like a culinary Epcot center. All the buildings are built differently, for instance, like an Uzbek Madrasa or a Ukrainian windmill, etc. Anyway Syr Chechel are strips of baked cheese... very good!