BBC's
Thinking Allowed had this week the most exciting, inspiring, romantic and nearly unbelievable item:
The Hole in the Wall project. Laurie Taylor speaks with Sugata Mitra, who started the project which has such amazing and nearly unbelievable results and which among others supplied the basis for a movie success such as
Slumdog Millionaire.
Sugata Mitra placed computers in holes in walls in places in India to allow free access to internet and computer use for underprivileged children. He reports the most astonishing fact that in a matter of months the kids master the software, surf and apply and manage to educate themselves. This even stretches beyond the boundaries of language and into tough subject fields such as bio-mechanics.
It defies common, or at least my, observation. My children of 4 and 7 years old, have free access to a computer in much the same way. They have to rely on self-learning and accommodate the language barrier with the mainly English and Latin letter internet and their Hebrew starting point. After months of finding their way around without much assistance I can indeed report amazing feats of self-learning, however, my kids, as opposed to the slum kids in India, do not use paint and Google, but rather have built an endless supply of arcade games to enjoy themselves for hours on end.
Such observation, but by all means, any critical reception would demand more detailing and explanation than is offered. It needs to be noted again Thinking Allowed is too short. Let's not be discouraged though and explore the questions about this program and this specific issue on the
Podcast Parlor
More Thinking Allowed:
Moral relativism,
Male Immaturity.
After having taken a couple of issues on my player my impression is that the leftist element is tangible in two aspects. One is the choice of subject, for example there was a whole item about the history, position and future of worker unions in the US. The second is in the way in which the speakers and audience are implicitly assumed to share a preference for liberalism and the Democrats and for a leftist style of economic policy. 
If anything, In Our Time is a program about the history of our culture. Needless to say, just as for any culture, history is important and this issue takes on the question how we have been shaping our narrative ever since we started retelling our past. Even if I can recount any specific aspect that stuck with me or any particular piece of interest - this is just generally relevant. And, as said, way into the heart of In Our Time's subject matter.
Het tweede opzicht waarin een goed verhaal de geschiedenis versterkt is dat het je opmerkzaam maakt op bepaalde patronen. Het kan goede, nieuwe vragen oproepen, of nieuwe perspectieven voelbaar maken. Zo ook in het relaas van afgelopen week over de Duitse marine-officier Franz Hipper. Wat altijd domineert in verhalen over de oorlog is hoe slecht de machten voorbereid waren. Het verhaal van Hipper laat zien dat de Duitse Marine echter, door en door modern was en wel goed voorbereid.
The Naxos Classical Music Spotlight Podcast's latest edition is about the composer Bright Sheng. This composer of Chinese descent is not easy to place, just as, host Raymond Bisha compares, the Belgian composer Olivier Messiaen. Not that Sheng is like Messiaen, Sheng is not easily categorized, just as Messiaen was.
