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CNN Student News

Aired March 27, 2002 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: Time for your midweek CNN STUDENT NEWS. We get things underway with a preview of the Arab summit. Later in "Chronicle," looking for a way to pay for college, meet MyRichUncle. We tackle more money matters in "Perspectives." Then, we'll discuss a pop-up problem in today's "Business Report." And later, go on the road with Student Bureau.

Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Michael McManus.

Thousands of people are feared dead after a series of earthquakes strike northeastern Afghanistan. Hardest hit, the town of Nahrin, which was virtually destroyed. Rough terrain, bad weather and powerful aftershocks made it difficult for rescuers to reach the victims. The actual death toll may not be known for weeks, and officials fear it could go as high as 4,000 people. And it's the latest blow to a country pounded by problems and peril.

We go now to Walter Rodgers who takes a look at the suffering that the Afghan people are all too familiar with, specifically how they deal with death from a cultural perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A grave digger claws into the earth. Afghanistan is more familiar with death than most places, after nearly a quarter century of war, dreaded diseases and drought, graveyards have filled up quickly here. Although Amina Johed (ph) was 85, most Afghan women scarcely live half that long.

Only men attend Muslim funerals. Women are even barred from her husband's burials under Islamic law.

Once Johed (ph) is laid to rest, a stone vault is built around her and her husband will pull a string attached to her veil, so only Allah can see the face of the departed.

Islamic law dictates ritual here even Afghanistan's poorest families are obliged to give alms to speed the dead to paradise. Beggars haunt cemeteries, creating funereal free-for-alls.

Afghan children play among the dead, as if they were born to it.

(on-camera): Look at this grave, a child's and unmarked. Sixteen percent of all Afghan babies die in infancy. And next to it, another child's grave, just a little larger. Twenty-eight percent of all Afghan children die before the age of five. Diarrhea and respiratory diseases being the greatest killers.

(voice-over): A generation of war has also seared the psyche of survivors. An Afghan doctor told me his 7-year-old son's first words were "airplane bombs."

And not just children are haunted by death; fighters are intimately acquainted with it, too.

"We have seen many casualties and lost children," he said. In fact, he and his wife have had four of their seven small children swept away by disease.

With death so pervasive, mourning is almost never out of earshot. Yet, Afghan funerals seem as much for the living as the dead. Mullahs breathe fire and brimstone, ever warning doomsday that the Day of Judgment are drawing near.

Afghan graves are deep. As a final insult, a man's enemies have been known to dig up his corpse and burn it for revenge.

Amid abject poverty, 95 percent of all Afghans can only mark graves with a stone flint. Only the wealthiest can afford proper grave markers. Even then, women remain anonymous. This woman will only be remembered as the wife of Safi Bonnadine (ph). Her husband's name appears on her gravestone because he was a pious Muslim.

The vast majority of Afghans, however, are simply laid to rest in primitive, unmarked graves that dot the countryside. And there will be many more as a sixth year of drought threatens this parched and ancient land, inflicting more malnutrition and more death.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, in the Afghan countryside.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: For more on the disaster and for information on other earthquakes, head to our Web site. That's CNNstudentnews.com.

International leaders are holding out high hopes for the Arab summit that gets underway today. Arab leaders began converging in Beirut, Lebanon yesterday. The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan say Arabs are ready for peace in the Middle East and they expect the Arab states to endorse the Saudi peace plan. That proposal would offer full normalization of relations in exchange for the return of the territory Israel captured in 1967. But at this point, what is normal?

CNN's Christiane Amanpour tackles that question by looking at Israel's relations with Egypt and Jordan. CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the handshake felt around the Middle East. At Camp David in 1979, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin, and the U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, sealed the peace between Israel and Egypt. They were the first to exchange ambassadors and normalize relations.

It would take another 25 years for the next Arab nation to make peace with Israel, which Jordan's King Hussein did with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. A year earlier, a handshake between Rabin and Yasser Arafat heralded the possibility that the whole Arab world would eventually recognize Israel and live in peace.

But it's a new millennium now, and it hasn't' turned out that way. And yet, with Saudi Arabia's new proposal for the Arab world, normal relations with Israel in return for a withdrawal to its 1967 borders, fragile hope has again resurfaced.

SHIMON PERES, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Normally it would mean normalization, I mean, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) open borders and open gates as far as the economy is concerned, fighting together the dangers which are regional like (UNINTELLIGIBLE) narcotics, pollution, AIDS. They want to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a world to test potentials (ph) or remain in a world that there is only dangers.

AMANPOUR: Israel exchanged ambassadors with Egypt and Jordan, their flags fly in each other's capitals, and there have been exchanges of commerce and tourism. But more than just a state of peace between two nations, normalization implies a binding together of peoples, and that has not yet happened, even in the two Arab countries at peace with Israel, where the Palestinian intifada has hardened an already skeptical public opinion.

HABIB KAMHAWAI, JORDANIAN ANALYST: After 17 or 18 months of devastation to a land, people and infrastructure, every single Arab and even every single Muslim looks at Israel as the enemy, looks at Israelis as the enemy, as the killers. And this is a very bad time to ask about normalization or even to try to measure it.

AMANPOUR: A measure of normalization may one day show up on maps like these. In Lebanon and other Arab countries, maps don't even show Israel existing on the land that was once called Palestine.

(on camera): Despite the bitterness and fear that has now arisen in both sides over the past 18 months, the Arab countries here say the main aim of this summit is to reach out to Israeli public opinion, to convince Israelis that the Arab countries as a block want now to have peace and final normalization with Israel in return for a withdrawal to the 1967 borders.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Let's take a closer look now at the summit host. Before the civil war, Beirut was a flourishing tourist center. Much has changed since that time as CNN's Brent Sadler reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an image reminiscent of the civil war years, anti-aircraft guns on Beirut's sea front, the famed Corniche, and the heaviest military presence in more than a decade as Arab leaders assemble in the Lebanese capital. In a nation once consumed by terror, the authorities say they're taking no chances and have spent months preparing. The conference center facade suggests the one time playground of the Middle East is regaining its luster.

It's true that parts of Beirut are a flashy place to be. Not many fast food outlets in the world provide valet parking and downtown reconstruction boasts redevelopment on a grand scale. Pavement cafes are bustling. Gulf states invest heavily in a country they say is shaky in the economic present, but shows promise in the future.

(on camera): The remodeling and reuniting of a city once blasted into a deserted ruin takes more than just money and manpower.

(voice-over): For 15 years, Lebanon tore itself apart on sectarian lines during the civil war. Muslims and Christians battled for dominance. When the guns fell silent some 11 years ago, Beirut began to rise from the ashes. Political power shifted in favor of Muslims. But progress is now being hindered, says this former warlord, by old rivalries.

WALID JUMBLATT, DRUZE LEADER: But don't forget that we are in a state of no war and no peace. But it's very dynamic and challenging compared to the rest of the Arab world.

SADLER: Sunset and the sound of religious coexistence echoes across the city -- church bells and Muslim calls to prayer competing for attention, a sound of progress after the years of violent confrontation.

ASSEM SALAM, ARCHITECT: But there is definitely a clear atmosphere, a cultural atmosphere, a political atmosphere that still divides the two cities.

SADLER: And along the old battle front called the green line dividing Christian East from Muslim West Beirut stands an enduring symbol of the war riddled with bullet holes and shellfire, left untouched, claim the distraught owners, because redevelopment plans were frozen by politically motivated red tape.

CHARLES FARES, BUILDING OWNER: It's not only by building new buildings or renovating buildings that the results of the civil war are achieved or we can say that it's over. No. The mentality should change in this country, too. It's a bad souvenir we should definitely erase from our minds.

SADLER: One of the last war time relics awaiting a new lease of life.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: In Canada, judges convicted a 16-year-old girl of criminal harassment. Now this judgment is different than any other in the country's history, the conviction is for bullying a teenager, which eventually led to her suicide.

To our affiliate now for the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CINDY WESLEY, VICTIM'S MOTHER: For all kids that are being bullied across Canada, this isn't about Dawn-Marie any more. This is for you.

KATHY TOMLINSON, CTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was another emotional day and a very tough year for Cindy Wesley. In court, she got the justice she was hoping for. For the first time in Canada, a school yard bully has been convicted of criminal harassment.

The girl in the pink shirt is one of three teens who tormented Wesley's 14-year-old daughter. They can't be identified under the young offender's act. Their victim, Dawn-Marie Wesley, hanged herself just hours after the girl threatened to kill her.

WESLEY: It's overwhelming to think you lost a 14-year-old daughter, and now you're looking at all of you standing here and saying to this country, please, please learn from her death.

TOMLINSON: The group started grade nine as friends. There was a typical teenage girl dispute over who started a false rumor about someone else. The others ganged up on Dawn-Marie. This girl was also charged, but acquitted because the judge found she didn't intend to be threatening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It wasn't a big thing. Nobody really -- I don't know. I guess it was a big joke and I believe at schools, they need to do more talking than just once a month or once a year of bullying assemblies.

TOMLINSON: A third girl is still set to go to trial and the case has attracted a lot of attention. The girls fear other bullies might now get more threatening because they will fear criminal charges.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I believe now it will be more of, if you say anything, I might kill you or you know...

TOMLINSON: But Cindy Wesley believes others will learn from the hard lesson these girls have had and she doesn't want them to blame themselves for her daughter's death.

WESLEY: Please, please do not hold yourself accountable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Interesting picture there of the mother of the victim comforting one of the girls blamed in this. It's definitely an issue that deserves further discussion.

But in the meantime, stick around, we have more news right around the corner.

OK, in just a few weeks students across the country will start getting college acceptance letters. And with college tuitions on the rise and the economy in a slump, many students will need financial aid to pay the bill. One company says they have found a solution for students who are short on cash but long on promise.

Our New York correspondent Mara Wilcox has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARA WILCOX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two of every three middle income college students receive financial aid, but not Marie Gjoni who goes to NYU. She has MyRichUncle. Well, not my rich uncle.

MARIE GJONI, NYU STUDENT: With MyRichUncle it's nice because I can pursue anything I want and I won't have to worry about making a lot to pay off a substantial amount of loans.

WILCOX: MyRichUncle is not a relative, it's an investment company, a company that invests in students.

VISHAL GARG, CO-FOUNDER, MYRICHUNCLE.COM: MyRichUncle connects students with a network of investors who fund student's education for undergraduate or graduate studies in exchange for a set percentage of the student's income stream for a set period of time.

WILCOX: It's still a tiny company investing in just a few dozen students. But here's how it works.

The program gives undergrads money to pay for college. But when that student graduates and gets a job, they pay back a percentage of what they earn. Students who are expected to earn a bigger salary, law students, medical students, pay a lower percentage. Students in lower paying fields like social work pay a higher percentage but less money.

Marie thinks it's a good deal.

GJONI: It's income sensitive so I can pay - you know if I'm making less, I can pay less. If I make more, I can pay more.

WILCOX: Sound good, right? But experts still see benefits in the old fashioned way. Financial consultants say federal student loans are plentiful right now and interest rates are low. If you have trouble paying back your loans, lending companies will work with you to lower your payments. And you can deduct loan interest from your taxes. But what you pay MyRichUncle.com is not tax deductible. And the program is so new it's not clear how they'd enforce payment.

College financing expert Kal Chany isn't sold.

KALMUT CHANY, PRESIDENT, CAMPUS CONSULTANT: It's rather difficult. Obviously the people running the program and investing the funds aren't doing it out of the goodness of their heart. So they're really betting that you think you're not going to be as successful as they think you're going to be.

WILCOX: That's a bet MyRichUncle is willing to make and a deal it says is generating a lot of interest. That's probably because college costs are on the rise. Four-year private colleges cost about $17,000 a year. Four-year public colleges run roughly $3,700. For two-year private colleges, the cost is almost $8,000. Two-year public colleges average $1,700. In all cases, the tuition is up from last year.

(on camera): Whatever way you choose to finance your education, odds are it'll pay for itself in the long run. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, people with a Bachelor's degree earn on average over 80 percent more than those with only a high school diploma.

Mara Wilcox, CNN NEWSROOM, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN DAVIS, TALENT, OREGON: My name is Susan Davis from Talent, Oregon. I want to ask CNN: The federal budget has been expressed in millions, billions and now trillions of dollars. What denomination comes next?

ANNA BERNASEK, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Well, Susan, probably some day we're going to see a federal budget in the order of quadrillions of dollars, but that's not going to be for a long time. Right now we talk about the budget in terms of billions of dollars. Just look at last year, we had a record surplus of about $237 billion dollars.

Now it is true that we have heard the term trillions used with the federal budget but what that's really referring to is a projected surplus over a 10-year period. And given the economy and our trillion-dollar tax cut, it's really unlikely that we're going to see any kind of trillion dollar budget surplus anytime soon. So for now we really have to be content with a federal budget in terms of billions of dollars.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."

MCMANUS: Well this may be a silly question by now, but do you use a debit card? You know that piece of plastic that takes money straight out of your checking account. It's a fairly common way to pay for things, and now some people are wondering if electronic cash could replace the paper and coins we're so familiar with.

Andrew Brown on what could be the future of currency.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (voice-over): Today, we take money for granted. At the market, live chickens are readily sold for cash.

Of course, it wasn't always like this. Hundreds of years ago, farmers simply used livestock as currency, swapping chickens for cows and vice versa.

It wasn't a great system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You decided, well, 500 chickens equals one cow. It's rather easy to lead one cow back home, but the poor guy who took the 500 chickens has got a problem.

BROWN: And that's one of the reasons why money was invented in the first place, so that instead of having to cart around hundreds of live animals, a buyer and a seller could simply agree a price and then exchange coins.

Now there's something even more convenient, so-called smart cards that store money in electronic chips. Some industry experts believe they are the beginning of the end of cash.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to take about 10 - 15 years for shifting from a purely cash based transaction to a fully digital capabilities for doing those transactions.

BROWN: That will certainly make spending money a lot easier, but will we ever be able to completely trust smart cards the way we trust cash?

Not surprisingly, smart card manufacturers say yes. They are building encryption technologies they claim will protect us from fraud.

Machines will always verify buyers are who they say they are before authorizing a transaction, which is a source of controversy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have these fringe groups who are absolutely convinced that the move towards digital cash, especially digital cash that requires identity, is actually a control move. It's a move, I mean, they refer to it as the rival of the beast. You know, the idea of having a number printed across your forehead.

BROWN: Even that is not an entirely new idea. In Hong Kong, chickens are tagged as soon as they are sold, and a copy of the tag is given to the customer.

Want to know what the monetary system of the future will be based on? You're looking at it.

Andrew Brown, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Now the nation's monetary system isn't all that's evolving. The advertising industry also has entered a new age. Web ads are a sign of the times and more and more they're right in your face. Advertisers are trying to create messages that have an impact.

But as Bruce Francis reports, their tactics can be borderline intrusive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE FRANCIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some find them annoying. Some may even find them titillating. But these days, you find them everywhere -- pop-up and pop-under ads. Unlike a banner ad, these force you to look at them. The X-10 video camera ads are the most common. From almost no hits at this time last year, they soared to 40 million hits at their peak.

STEVEN KIM, JUPITER MEDIA MATRIX: When you look at the statistics beyond that, how long did people spend at that site, how often do they come back -- you know, are they really using the site, the numbers are pretty weak.

FRANCIS: But pop-ups are tame compared to the latest wave of web ads that are taking over your computer screen. This ad for "Planet of the Apes" is just one of many ads from Agency.com that push way beyond the banner. The latest: a screen-spinning new promotion for British Airways. You can't miss it, even if you'd rather.

KULE SHANNON, AGENCY.COM: Companies, in facing a slowing economy, are looking at, how do we sell more stuff, how do we drive more sales? So marketers need to find ways to rise above the noise in order to sell more things.

FRANCIS (on camera): Advertisers are experimenting with new technologies, too. And they're more and more willing to jump in between you and what you're looking for on the web.

(voice-over): United Virtualities has signed up advertisers like P&G for its animations superimposed over a web page. Up to eight seconds worth each. But is that too much?

DEB BROWN, UNIVERSAL VIRTUALITIES: I guess my answer to that is, hello, this is advertising. And, basically, what our charter is, is to capture a consumer's attention, be relevant and make the brand voice come through.

FRANCIS: And as the recession and ad spending continues, you can bet on more interruptions. Or, as the industry likes to call them, innovations, in the months ahead.

Bruce Francis, CNN Financial News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: OK, one more question for you, what do you plan on doing the day you leave college? If you're like most people, you'll probably begin a serious search for a job, but you could begin an adventure as well if you follow in the footsteps or the tire tracks of some other college grads. Road trip anybody?

Our Student Bureau has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANET MALIK, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): It's been a year and a half since Amanda Gull (ph), Brian McCallister (ph), Mike Marriner and Nathan Gebhard left college. After leaving Pepperdine and UCLA, these four traded their diplomas in for atlases and they're taking a road trip. They are meeting with some of the country's most famous business leaders to gain insight on how to achieve personal and professional happiness.

NATHAN GEBHARD, ROADTRIP NATION CO-FOUNDER: It's just -- it's a pursuit of opportunity and a pursuit of passion. So it's, without a doubt, the best road taken.

MALIK: Amanda, Brian, Mike and Nathan visit the nation's top universities. And at each stop, one lucky student joins them to participate in a roundtable discussion with successes from all different professions ranging from chefs to Supreme Court justices. Modeled after a similar adventure Mike and Nathan took a year ago, Roadtrip Nation began as a way to answer career questions by taking willing CEOs out to lunch.

MIKE MARRINER, ROADTRIP NATION CO-FOUNDER: And there's no rocket science, just total persistence, you know. We get rejected a lot.

MALIK: On this, their second road trip, with help from corporate sponsors, they're interviewing even more business leaders and filming a documentary. Instead of using funds for a fancy set of wheels, they have fixed up an RV themselves. Here they host interviews such as this one with Monster.com's CEO and friend from the first road trip, Jeff Taylor.

JEFF TAYLOR, CEO, MONSTER.COM: And I definitely did things my way and I did it backwards, right, but it has advanced me forward by doing things in a different order.

MALIK: His story is putting students at ease, like Erika Watson, a junior sociology major at Boston University, who joined Roadtrip Nation for the day and participated in their interview. When all was said and done, she realizes it's OK to take things one day at a time.

ERIKA WATSON, AGE 20: I find it's the best way to go because you don't limit yourself to anything and you don't -- I mean you change everyday and with every experience so you don't know who or what you are.

MALIK (on camera): All in all Roadtrip Nation is driving right through old ways of thinking, finding out that this new generation of soon to be employees believes their key to success will not be in their patience but rather in their passion.

(voice-over): And the business leaders Roadtrip Nation meets along their way agree, like leading chef Charlie Trotter.

MARRINER: He said that our generation has no excuse to not take risks when they're 20 years old. You know it's like -- it's like you have nothing to lose.

MALIK: One of those risks is to defy old ideas that say transitioning right from college to work is the best way to succeed. In the end, Roadtrip Nation is not just a literal journey but representative of an entire generation finding its way.

GEBHARD: We often talk about this as like a "modern-day social movement." It's something that if we can ignite the spark right it should continue in.

MALIK: I'm Janet Malik for the CNN STUDENT Bureau, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" natural hazards: dust storms, sandstorms, 95 percent of the population is Arab, 16 year civil war ended in 1991? Can you name this country? Lebanon.

MCMANUS: All right guys, that just about does it. But before we go, take a look at some important medical news on our Web site, CNNstudentnews.com. Tuberculosis is making a comeback and there are some things you should know about this disease. So check it out.

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