This week: Italian women prove they are immune to Silvio Berlusconi’s charms - The corruption racket that has rocked Spain - A new film uncovers German attitudes to race - How an Irish aid worker overcame a Sudanese ordeal - And 20 years after the fall of communism, we look at the legacy of the 1989 revolutions. This week: PolandItalian women prove they are immune to Silvio Berlusconi’s charmsAfter months of reports on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s alleged cavorting with young women and prostitutes, Italian women have decided enough is enough. The Prime Minister insulted a member of the opposition and vice president of the lower house, Rosy Bindi, on Italian public television. Now, hundreds of thousands of Italian women are also saying they’re not at the Prime Minister’s disposal either. Stephanie Raison reports from Rome.An Irish aid worker overcomes a Sudanese ordealAn Irish aid worker has been reunited with her family after being held captive in war torn Sudan for nearly 4 months. Sharon Commins from Dublin and her Ugandan colleague Hilda Kawuki were working in Darfur for the humanitarian organisation GOAL, when they were kidnapped by an armed gang in the northern town of Kutum in July. Last weekend the Irish and Sudanese governments secured the women's release. From Dublin, Anne-Marie McNerney reports. A corruption racket rocks SpainSpain's Conservative opposition are embroiled in a major corruption scandal. At least sixty officials are implicated in a far-reaching racket involving smoking jackets, luxury handbags and millions of euros in public funds. The leader of the opposition has issued a code of conduct for members in an attempt to turn the page, but the damage might already have been done: Nearly three quarters of Spaniards believe the scandal will harm the conservative Popular Party's chances of winning the next election, according to a recent poll. Hazel Healy has this report.A new film uncovers German attitudes to raceA new film by Cologne journalist and provocateur, Günter Wallraff, has hit German cinemas. It’s called ‘Black on White.’ Wallraff has been disguising himself and going undercover since 1977 for his reports. Rarely controversy-free, Wallraff’s new offering shows a year in the life of a black man in Germany. The black man in question is Somali-born Kwami Ogonno. And so we follow Ogonno as he tries to live the German life – renting a caravan spot, renting an allotment, going to football matches. Followed by a small and unobtrusive film team Ogonno’s experiences have been made into a documentary. And as controversial as the less than flattering German responses to a black man is the fact that our protagonist Ogonno is actually Wallraff himself wearing black make up. Tanya Wood reports.The legacy of 1989Many people the world over now associate the end of communism in Europe with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, but in fact the dismantling of the system had started in Poland some ten years before. In 1980, as the shipyards were threatened with closure, the workers formed Eastern Europe’s first free trade union to fight for their future. That the workers had the courage to found the Solidarity movement and stand up to the ruling Communist Party, was in part down to the first visit home by Polish-born John Paul II a year earlier. The communists soon clamped down on the trade unions, imposing martial law, but the spirit of Solidarity lived on. In June 1989 Poles overwhelmingly voted for democracy in the first partly free elections. Sabina Casagrande sets the scene on how the revolution unfolded.Poland's economic successIn 1989 Poland’s economy lay in tatters. The outgoing communist regime had not only mismanaged it on a shocking scale, but it had also run up billions of US dollars in foreign debt. Food queues, chronic shortages and runaway inflation earned Poland the reputation of being the sick man of Europe. But perhaps because of the dire straits it was in, the country was quick to adopt a shock therapy that brought down inflation and created one of the continent’s fastest growth rates. Economists say that Poland has learnt its lesson well. Twenty years on, it now appears relatively untouched by the world downturn – in fact it promises to be Europe’s only economy to show positive growth this year, as Rafal Kiepuszewski reports from Warsaw.Travel helps young Poles shape a new-look countryTaking advantage of an opportunity not afforded to their parents, young Poles have been heading abroad in great numbers to gain a wide range of experience through study and work in the West. Especially after the EU expansion in 2004, countries such as Britain, France and Ireland saw a boom in immigration from Poland. So why were Poles seemingly quicker and keener to travel than their counterparts in other former Eastern-bloc countries? That’s the question Rob Turner put earlier to Marek Matraszek, managing director of CEC Government Relations in Warsaw.How much influence does the Church wield in Polish politics?Historians believe that Poland’s anti-communist Solidarity revolution of the 1980s perhaps wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t not been for one man: the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II. His repeated visits home were said to have given ordinary Poles the courage to fight the system, in a country whose population is 95% Roman Catholic. The church itself became synonymous with the democratic opposition. But since 1989, the church in Poland has been struggling to find a new place for itself in the new democracy. Many see its role now as controversial, because of the close links between it and Polish politics. Rajiv Sharma has more details. Is culture suffering in a democratic PolandAs religious radio and television expands in post-communism Poland, many people look back at the pre-1989 era as the golden age of Polish art and culture. This is exemplified by the films of Andrzej Wajda or the poems of Czeslaw Milosz. Adam Easton spoke to some leading Polish artists to discover how the communist system influenced their work.

[ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:05:00 GMT ]

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