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CNN Student News

Aired April 19, 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.

SUSAN FRIEDMAN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN STUDENT NEWS for Friday has a preview of the French election. Learn about the candidates and issues in today's "Lead Story." Get ready to have a blast Broadway style. That's coming up in our "Chronicle." Then, get a new "Perspective" on working out from a high school with its very own ski jump. From working out to eating right, get the 411 on organic food in our CNN Student Bureau.

Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Susan Friedman.

Voters in France head to the polls this weekend for round one of this year's presidential election. The outcome of France's presidential election is wide open. One thing that's almost certain, however, is that there will be a runoff between two of the main candidates, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and presidential incumbent Jacques Chirac. The two have won much support for their years in office, Jospin partly because of his sincerity and Chirac partly because of his charisma.

CNN's Jim Bittermann and Robin Oakley have a profile of each.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was in many ways Jacques Chirac's best day, May 17, 1995, when he drove across Paris from the city hall where he was mayor to the splendor of the Ellysse Palace (ph) where he was to succeed Francois Mitterrand as the president of France.

For three decades, Chirac had labored to emerge from the political wilderness to follow in the path of his role model, post-war President Charles de Gaulle, and his highly visible political wife and his powerful media-minded daughter were there to share the moment.

But if his 18 years as mayor of Paris proved a launching pad for his first presidential campaign, it became a liability during this round of elections because of a dead man and a fugitive. The dead man, a former aide, electronically arose from the grave to accuse Chirac on videotape of having personally accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to finance his political party. And the fugitive, a former civil servant, came back from seven years on the run to write a book confirming the dead man's story and to wonder why Chirac did not come clean.

DIDIER SCHULLER, AUTHOR, JE REVIEWS (ph): To say look, OK, what I did everybody was doing the same, but I explain to you now what I was doing.

BITTERMANN: That Chirac was not more forthcoming about the affair contributed to the most enduring caricature of the French president, Super Monture (ph), the big liar, something the cartoonists loved to highlight by giving him a Pinocchio-like nose.

Close acquaintances will tell you that characterization is just not fair, that Chirac's truthfulness is on par with any other politician.

PIERRE LELOUGHE (ph), CHIRAC SUPPORTER: He studies a lot and he reads a lot. He's a very warm person. He's a nice guy.

BITTERMANN: If Chirac does get reelected, it will be that nice guy image which carries the day, something that did not work on what must have been one of President Chirac's worst days, June 2, 1997. Chirac, trying to firm up his party's government coalition, dissolved parliament for anticipated elections, a strategy that backfired and propelled Lionel Jospin, his opponent, into leadership.

So for five of his seven years as president, Chirac has had to get along with a government leader who, according to analysts, has come to despise Chirac. It's been power sharing which has proved just how little power a French president really has.

(on camera): The president controls only foreign and defense policy, and even then the purse strings remain in the hands of the prime minister. Short of dissolving the parliament and calling for new elections, the president can really do very little about crime, the economy and other election issues without having the government on his side.

(voice-over): And so if Chirac really wants to follow through on his election promises and avoid another term of what some have called a spectator presidency, the 69-year-old must win more than just this election, he must also convince voters to give him a victory in the legislative elections coming in June to bring conservatives back into government. It's a tall order, even for someone with 35 years experience along the campaign trail.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Americans run for office, the British stand for parliament, taking his message to the electors in Sharlaville Misia (ph), close to the French border with Luxembourg, Lionel Jospin campaigns sitting down. It was perhaps an effort to seem casual, more approachable, because the common verdict on the man who's been French Prime Minister these past five years is that he's decent, hard working, but definitely less than cuddly.

SYLVIE MALIGORNE, JOSPIN BIOGRAPHER (through translator): Lionel Jospin is somebody who is very straight, serious, honest, but at the same time, he has a tendency to judge everybody, which can be unpleasant. The French are people who are not very obedient. They don't like rules too much, and somebody who puts discipline forward as a personal principle is annoying and that is his weakness. He should relax a bit, show some warmth.

OAKLEY: There's no doubting either Jospin's desire for the top job or his eagerness for revenge on Chirac who beat him in 1995. At 64, Jospin knows the loser's political career could well be over.

Jospin has pleased French workers by introducing the 35-hour week, but concerns over the economy have featured high on the campaign's agenda. And at street level, the French still seem undecided whether they would prefer him as president to a 69-year-old clouded by corruption allegations. Indeed many reckon that a mistake he called Chirac old and worn down.

PHILIP MECHET, POLLSTER: France is politically correct so there are things that we can think but not say, especially when we are a candidate.

OAKLEY: Jospin and Chirac have been forced to cohabit as president and prime minister these past five years. The result, one's had the glory, the other's got the kicks for issues like rising crime.

PASCAL BONIFACE, POLITICAL ANALYST: The chief of government is a person to be blamed for everything and the president is more on the stage of to speak or to ask for a solution, not to give the solution. So every time it is a prime minister who is responsible for all the things who are not coming well.

OAKLEY: Then there's the soggy saneness of their programs with the socialist prime minister cautiously insisting his program for the presidency isn't socialist.

Cartoonists have had fun suggesting he sold out to capitalism while Jospin's campaign team explain away the red rose which faded.

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN, JOSPIN'S CAMPAIGN: Wanting to be a president, you need to address a large audience than only the socialists. So you're not to be a socialist president, you're supposed to be the president of the Republic of France.

OAKLEY: It may mean, though, that Jospin's vote in the first round will be eroded by other more vibrant voices on the left. In the end though, the key factor may be whether the French find their prime minister just a little bit too buttoned up to be president.

(on camera): As an experienced prime minister, Lionel Jospin has developed respect and authority, but it seems the French look for a little something extra in their president. The question is whether in the second round Jospin can find a style to counter Jacques Chirac's potent brand of earthy, amiable outre (ph) and perhaps whether he can unbend a bit and start looking as though he's enjoying himself.

Robin Oakley, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Mr. Jospin and Mr. Chirac face more than a dozen challengers. Each of them have staked their positions on major issues like employment, the economy and the new four-day workweek.

We turn again to Jim Bittermann for a look at how voters feel about these hot button topics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BITTERMANN: To voters what could be more seductive, work less for the same money and create jobs at the same time? That was the promise the French Socialist Party made five years ago and it played a large part in bringing them to power. So how did the utopian notion of the 35-hour workweek work out?

With new elections around the corner, four out of five of those on a 35-hour week think it was a great idea because some, in fact, now only work four days out of seven and are reveling in their extra time. The 7,000 employees of the Marino Perfume shops (ph) are an example. Their boss even figured out a way with government financial support to cut his employee's workweek back to 33 hours. He's happy, they're happy, well up to a point, the point where they begin worrying about the impact working less is having on the overall economy.

Personally, Mary Billangeon loves the extra time off, but she's not sure it makes sense.

MARY BILLANGEON, CHEMIST: I think it's really crazy, very crazy. I think it's probably the worst thing which has been made from the economy, you know.

BITTERMANN: In fact, experts are just as divided on the issue.

MICHAEL SHORT, UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR (ph): In economic terms, the 35-hour week is clearly, plainly, simply ridiculous. It's an absurdity in economic terms. In real terms in political -- in a political economy, there have been some clear advantages.

BITTERMANN: Polls indicate one voter in four believes the economy is the most important issue of the presidential campaign with voters concerned that despite the 35-hour workweek meant to cure it, unemployment could rise and that state pensions could now be further in jeopardy.

JACQUES ROUDT (ph), ECONOMICS PROFESSOR: Not only we're the shortest working week of the European Union but we also have the lower percentage of people over 55, 60 working at work. We're the highest percentage of people retired and we are unable to be able to pay for that.

BITTERMANN (on camera): The only answer, the economists say, is to tax more or to make people work longer by changing the rules. But on the eve of the elections here, no major candidate would be willing to tamper with pension plans or the 35-hour week or to suggest that taxes should be increased. And so you begin to see why even non- experts here are more than a little nervous about the shape of the economy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People want a salary, they don't want a job.

BITTERMANN (voice-over): For small business owners like Claire Decircourt, the government's economic policy has made life more and more difficult. But as important, she believes the increased leisure time has eroded the work ethic, something that becomes apparent when French workers leave their offices every weekend.

CLAIRE DECIRCOURT, DECIRCOURT ASSOCIATES: It's not even Friday now, it's Thursday. Everybody's on the road and they don't come back Sunday night like before, they come back on Monday. How can a country last like this?

BITTERMANN: Answering that question will be the real economic challenge facing the next president.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Next up, we take you behind the scenes of a Broadway show gone global. It's the 2001 Emmy Award winner for best choreography and the 2001 Tony Award winner for best special theatrical event.

Our Kathy Nellis has more on a show that's a blast for the audience and the performers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Take 2 rain sticks, 65 cymbals and a couple of dozen didgeridoos and you get just a hint of the musical variety that is "Blast!" From bongos to bugles, wind chimes to whistles, it's an audio adventure that resonates.

DAVID COX, PERCUSSIONIST: Music speaks a different language, I think, than just -- it speaks performance language, it speaks kind of the language of the soul that people their outlet is through art or their outlet is through just whatever they do. But I think music is just one of those natural outlets that everybody has, an innate human thing.

NELLIS: "Blast!" is a celebration of music and movement, a young and enthusiastic cast taking the art form another step.

ALEX MCDONALD, TRUMPETER: The way I see music is, you know, it's just -- it's another form of communication. And I think one of the best things it does is it -- is it -- sometimes you hear of music painting a picture or telling a story, but the way I think of it is more just harnessing an energy. And you know when you see people dancing around this kind of an expressions of that energy that music has and that's one of the great parts of this show is that it's music, yes, it's a big part of it, but more than just music, it's the energy. And so that's probably my favorite part of music and I think that's why it's such a global thing.

NELLIS: A global thing headed for a global stage.

(on camera): The show is going full blast from Broadway to London and now a tour of North America. It actually evolved from a youth drum corps.

COX: "Blast!" got started with the Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps. That was formed in the summer of 1984. They performed every summer up until 1993. After the 1993 season, they went inactive and pursued what was called brass theater. And brass theater basically put drum and bugle corps on stage, mixed it with theater and dance and "Blast!" was what evolved out of that.

CHRISTOPHER "KIT" CHATHAM, PERCUSSIONIST: Basically we're trying to portray music through all the senses. And like we try to portray a piece of music with a color and then we try to portray that music with the appropriate movement. And being like if it's a fast energetic, you know we do fast movements. If it's real sharp, we'll do sharp movements. But if it's a slow like piece, we'll do a lot of ballet- type movements along (ph). So it's basically like music and movement with color.

DEBBIE BARRIGAN, VISUAL (ph): And if we were to have a theme, color would actually be the theme. What we do is we play different musical selections based on various colors of the color wheel. So for instance, if you were in a purple mood what would you listen to and what would you see.

NELLIS (voice-over): Color drenched with a crescendo of sound, a loud and joyful noise. Styles range from jazz to techno-pop to classical.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

NELLIS: There are three performing sections, brass, percussion and visual ensemble. Each group, each performer doubles as a musician and athlete. The fast paced show requires constant motion, so much motion that you wonder how the performers can catch their breaths to blow a note.

COX: We started actually working out in gyms and doing a lot of cardiovascular training in addition to rehearsing for about sometimes 14 hours a day. So imagine the show, the physical training that went into the show and then from there we just conditioned our bodies, conditioned our playing abilities so that we could actually perform at peak performance for two hours straight and never miss a beat.

MCDONALD: One of the comments I hear the most is people just feel almost exhausted watching the show. And because they're so fully a part of it, you know, they almost feel drained at the end and then they kind of go home and collect their thoughts. And I just want people to have fun and really like feel the energy that's coming off the stage and give it back when they watch, you know. I just love the interaction that our show is all about.

NELLIS: Interaction that flows from the power and passion of the performers.

MCDONALD: You really just have to have passion for what you do, you know. Whether it's -- if it's something like this show, whether it's music or you know, a dance scene or you know, twirling or spinning, any of those skills, it's just really just having a passion for it. Because you know so much of life is perspiration, you know, instead of, you know, just the -- just the talent only takes you so far. You really have to have that dedication just to continue with it and to love it everyday, you know.

CHATHAM: To be a performer, a lot of practice and drive. You kind of have to have that drive and that want, a musical, you know, need in you. And practice, I would practice all day long. I go home, even when I was watching TV, I'd be drumming on some sort of practice instrument or I would be in a practice room practicing. It takes a lot of dedication. You just got to have the love for it. That's the biggest thing, you got to -- you got to love what you do and you got to -- you know once you pick up your instrument and you start playing it and you love it, you know that's what's going to carry you on.

NELLIS: And carry them on from city to city across the country and around the world.

Kathy Nellis, CNN STUDENT NEWS, Atlanta, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

FRIEDMAN: All week we've been checking out different ways of staying fit. Today, something a little different, instead of the usual rush around to break into a sweat, why not try the rush of adrenaline. Speaking of sweat, an usual heat wave is baking the northeast United States, but just last week people were skiing.

Liz Weiss tells us all about the highs of ski jumping.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIZ WEISS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tucked away rather conspicuously in the back of Newport High School in New Hampshire is this 65-foot ski jump.

ROLAND TREMBLAY, SKI JUMPING COACH: You have to be a daring person because it takes a physical commitment that is not ordinary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a total adrenaline rush. You just feel like totally out there and there's nothing that can touch you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It actually feels like you're flying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's awesome. It's like -- it's we'll (ph) get a rush.

TREMBLAY: Renee (ph) holds the lady's record here.

TAD LANGLOIS, FORMER OLYMPIAN, SKI JUMPING: Nice.

WEISS: Roland Tremblay, Newport's ski jumping coach for 30 years, is joined by three-time Olympian Tad Langlois who took one of his first jumps off this very hill back in the seventh grade.

(on camera): What does it take to be in the Olympics in terms of training?

LANGLOIS: It takes a commitment, a huge commitment. It takes -- it takes -- it takes your life.

WEISS (voice-over): It also took Tad anywhere from 700 to 1,000 jumps in a season and a lot of workouts in between.

LANGLOIS: We do weight training, we do running, things like that, basic fitness. But we also do a lot of specialized training that includes pliametrics (ph) (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WEISS (on camera): Which is what?

LANGLOIS: Basically it's a -- it's a -- it's bounding and hopping. Things to try to make you springy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh boy.

WEISS (voice-over): While everything from ski technology to technique have changed since Tad entered the sport,...

TREMBLAY: There you go. Come at me. Walk up hard.

WEISS: ... one thing has always remained the same...

LANGLOIS: This sport if it -- it's best to be light and thin. Fat don't fly as they say in this sport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What places did you come in in the Olympics?

LANGLOIS: My best was 28th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's pretty good.

LANGLOIS: Well thanks.

WEISS: Tad no longer jumps. He's traded in his jumping skis for hockey skates, but his visit here may have inspired some of these wide-eyed jumpers to pursue their own Olympic dream.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FRIEDMAN: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is a man known for swaying stubborn minds, but he may have met his match with the key players in the Middle East. Powell returned from his mission to the region without securing a peace deal. Despite this, President Bush says some progress was made. For example, Israel began withdrawing some of its troops from Palestinian territory. The question now, what's next on the diplomatic horizon?

We go to David Ensor for that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was Secretary of State Colin Powell who first said the Middle East baton may next be handed off to CIA director George Tenet, then other officials confirmed it.

COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: President is prepared to send director of Central Intelligence George Tenet in the near future to work with the parties to resume security cooperation between the parties.

ENSOR: Why Tenet? CIA veterans say given his and their agency's close ties over time to both Israeli and Palestinian security officials, the assignment is a natural one. He has traveled in the region frequently. He is an intelligence professional, not a politician, both sides say they trust him.

President Bush and Secretary Powell will want to know from Tenet whether the Palestinian Authority can or will crack down on the terrorists in their midst.

WHITLEY BRUNER, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Clearly the Palestinian security authorities are the ones that are going to have to bear the burden here and Tenet is the best one to judge whether they are capable or willing to do that.

ENSOR: Two weeks ago, Israeli forces laid siege to the Palestinian security offices near Ramallah, surrounding 250 people. The CIA negotiated the surrender of Palestinian security officers, a group of women and children and about 30 men the Israelis wanted, most of whom had been inside jail cells there. Now Tenet needs to figure out what West Bank Security Chief Jabril Rajoub and others would need to be willing and able to rejoin the fight against terrorism.

BRUNER: There's been a lot of destruction of communications and records and computers and so on. And I think Tenet again will have to take a look on the ground and see what it is that we need to get these people back up to speed.

ENSOR: And that is not all on the CIA's plate. U.S. officials confirm CIA officers are already trying to mediate between Palestinians who have taken refuge in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Israeli forces which have surrounded it.

(on camera): Can George Tenet make a difference? Aides say it is certainly not a role he has sought, getting between two angry parties. He has had some success in the past arranging security cooperation, but the situation now is much worse.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: This week we've been giving you information about your food supply from where it's grown to where it's sold. Today we want to explain a term you've probably heard, maybe even used but aren't really sure what it means, the term organic foods.

Here's CNN Student Bureau with the explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLEY JELINSKI, CNN STUDENT BUREAU: Organic foods often look just like traditional foods. There's produce, grains, drinks, even cheese. It's really only the label that may look different.

Janet Weinstein says there is a difference. She sells organic food at the East Lancing Food Co-op.

JANET WEINSTEIN, EAST LANCING FOOD CO-OP: It means it's grown without synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, things like that.

JELINSKI: Organic food enthusiast Annette Murphy says she only buys organic foods for herself and her family. The family dog even goes organic.

ANNETTE MURPHY, CONSUMER: I don't have to worry about exposure to chemicals, pesticides, steroids, hormones, that's a scary one.

JELINSKI: Murphy has been eating organically for years. She says in addition to being the natural choice, organic foods help her feel better.

MURPHY: And we feel better, to be quite honest with you, we feel a lot better since we started eating this way.

JELINSKI: Eating an organic diet is easier to do these days, there's a wealth of different products out there. You can even buy in bulk.

WEINSTEIN: It's surprising how many things are available these days that are organically produced and it isn't just fresh fruit (UNINTELLIGIBLE) certainly there's plenty of produce that's available.

JELINSKI: At Michigan State, the agricultural university, there's ample interest in organic food.

(on camera): The university is involved in several different organic research projects. Some of them are off campus on large farms and some of them are right here on campus in the greenhouses. (voice-over): Dr. John Biernbaum and his students are heading up a study growing organic salad greens. They don't use chemicals while growing, they use an all natural compost complete with (UNINTELLIGIBLE) manure.

JOHN BIERNBAUM, HORTICULTURE PROFESSOR: We started a project at the horticulture farm this past year to work on organic production of salad greens in unheated greenhouses. So we've been learning just how to do it so we can develop recommendations for the farmers to help them because it would be something they could produce in the wintertime.

JELINSKI: It's Biernbaum's goal to help farmers learn how to grow foods with fewer chemicals.

Kelley Jelinski, CNN Student Bureau, East Lancing, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" laid out by the Dutch, theater district is known as the "Great White Way" for its dazzling sign? Can you name this place? Broadway.

FRIEDMAN: We're out of time. I'm Susan Friedman. Have a wonderful weekend.

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