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CNN Student News

Aired May 06, 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: First off, we head to France. Find out how voters cast their ballots in today's "Lead Story."

SUSAN FRIEDMAN, CO-HOST: Later, we "Chronicle" the power of poetry.

MCMANUS: We're school bound in our "Culture Report." You'll never guess what the students are learning.

FRIEDMAN: Then, Student Bureau drops in on a young Afghan man we met a few months ago.

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

MCMANUS: And I'm Michael McManus.

French voters hand President Jacques Chirac a decisive win and a second five-year term in office.

FRIEDMAN: Incumbent President Jacques Chirac stormed to victory in yesterday's runoff election, handing his far-right opponent Jean- Marie Le Pen a crushing defeat. Early results show that Chirac got nearly 82 percent of the vote. His victory was helped by a high voter turnout, much higher than the first round. An estimated 80 percent of France's 41 million eligible voters went to the polls. Before any of these ballots were cast, many people predicted Mr. Chirac would win.

The incumbent president's career has made him something of a constant in French politics as CNN's Jim Bittermann reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jacques Chirac has been around politics long enough to know that no election is in the bag until the votes are counted. But never in his 35-year political career could he have gone to the ballot box so confident of winning, as he did Sunday.

Yet it's not something that should go to his head, because despite his resounding victory, he was the first choice of less than one voter in five. Chirac was in a unique position to win because he was to many voters, the lessor of two evils. The greater being his opponent from the extreme right.

The French, as Chirac himself pointed out in a final campaign speech, really did not have much choice.

JACQUES CHIRAC, PRESIDENT, FRANCE: (through translator) We must reject extremism and remain with the honor of France. In the name of the unity of our own nation, I call on all French to massively vote for the Republican ideals against the extreme right.

BITTERMANN: Of course, even if one is elected by default, by virtue of a vote against, rather a vote for, becoming president of France is not all that bad. As Chirac, after seven years in office, knows better than anyone else. But if Chirac wants to avoid the acrimony and unproductive politics of most of the last seven years, when as head of state, he had to share power with the prime minister, who was his bitter political rival, the president must now have very long electoral coattails.

He must make sure his supporters sweep to power in the National Assembly, so that the prime minister is his political ally after the legislative elections are held in June.

(on camera): Those elections for the national parliament here are now crucial, mainly because French voters, according to analysts, will grow more and more cynical, more and more tempted toward extremist politics if the two main political parties here try once again to govern together.

(voice-over): Chirac's advisers believe another period of power sharing will produce another period of dysfunctional government.

PIERRE LEQUILLER, CHIRAC ADVISER: It would be horrible. I think it would be terrible because he would give instability again the country. The French people would be furious. It would be disorder.

BITTERMANN: So now that he has won himself, the 69-year old Chirac, if he's to be truly victorious, must lead another successful campaign, one over the next five weeks for the national parliament. A substantial burden for someone tainted by financial scandals and viewed by the critics as being tired and predictable.

Still, it may not matter that each passing election indicates Chirac does not inspire the electorate as he once did. The constant campaigner has outlasted his opponents. And in politics, survival can be everything.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in Washington to present a new peace plan to President Bush. Aside from proposed buffers between Israel and the Palestinians, Sharon hasn't released any details of the plan and it's uncertain just how far Israelis are willing to bend.

CNN's Jerrold Kessel looks at the many variables in this complex equation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Off to Washington, Ariel Sharon headed for what's being billed crucial talks with President Bush. Into the lion's den or can Ariel Sharon emerge as lion tamer as he seeks to coordinate with the United States future Mid East strategy for peace and war?

The massive declared Israeli counter offensive against terror is over, but Israeli forces continue to mount sporadic raids into Palestinian towns, pinpoint preemptive strikes Israel defines them, Mr. Sharon appearing still to be acting according to his own agenda, his own timetable.

But with Yasser Arafat emerging from his long isolation, the confrontation has definitely moved from head-on battles to an evolving diplomatic battleground. Mr. Sharon is expected to confront the President on how the proposed upcoming international conference can indeed move Israelis and Palestinians away from war and back into a political embrace.

Asher Levy, a former Israel general who used once to be Ariel Sharon's commander had a word of advice for those who want to shepherd Mr. Sharon along.

ASHER LEVY, SHARON'S FORMER COMMANDER: Knowing him, beating him over the head will not do the trick. He has to be convinced that this is the right decision. He has to be convinced that this is his solution, not somebody else's pressuring him.

KESSEL: Inference that Ariel Sharon remains comfortable with the idea that any settlement should include a Palestinian state. He know, however, he'll have to keep looking over his shoulder at his Likud Party colleagues who remain dead set against that.

RUEVEN RIVLIN, ISRAELI CABINET MINISTER: He will have to face a central party meeting a week after he would meet along with the American President in front of the Likud Party. It would be quite difficult for him, I must say so, because most of the members of that political party are rejecting the idea of the Palestinian State being headed by Arafat, God forbid.

KESSEL: Yasser Arafat is widely seen to have done well in having survived the declared Sharon objective of making him redundant for any forward-looking Middle East planning. But according to sources close to the prime minister, he still wants to convince Mr. Bush that Yasser Arafat would be a force for instability not stability.

DAVID LANDAU, HA ARETZ NEWSPAPER: When the President says that Arafat has a last chance to show that he can do what he needs to do, Ariel Sharon believes he won't - Arafat will not take that last chance, will do nothing to exercise authority over the militants in his own factions, and if he failed as Ariel Sharon believes he'll fail, then again Sharon's position visibly the American administration will be enhanced and strengthened.

KESSEL: The mistake is to imagine there can be any stability without Yasser Arafat. Here's the counter arguments.

AHMAD TIBI, ISRAELI ARAB LEGISLATOR: Noboby, nobody can fight but Yasser Arafat, neither here in Palestine or in the Arab world. If somebody is thinking about bypassing Yasser Arafat by talking with Arab leaders, he is dreaming.

KESSEL (on camera): Whether Yasser Arafat has a role, whether he should or should not have a role in this latest diplomatic phase of the conflict remains a crucial issue. The message that the Bush administration seems to be conveying to both Israelis and Palestinians alike is that it believes that Yasser Arafat can still be a force for stability provided he reasserts his authority forcefully and restabilizes his Palestinian Authority regime.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Two different viewpoints, two different cultures, two different religions, differences in girls growing up Israeli and Palestinian, but both have lived amid terrorism and bloodshed and because of that have some things in common.

To Jerusalem now and our own Jason Bellini.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Morning assembly at a school in Gaza. One girl reads a poem she wrote. "Our brothers, give us your hand. Your human hand. Come quickly with your guns."

Outspokenness and strength are encouraged here. The timid, easily ignored. Even in a male-dominated society, the girls growing up here now have learned to express themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And sorry to say this, but Mr. Bush has no rights to say that this is -- to Mr. Sharon and give him this green card to do whatever he want. This is not his country.

BELLINI: Evidence in their personalities perhaps, that a generation of young Palestinian women are quickly becoming products of their times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't give you a secret or I don't tell you a secret, that a lot of girls here want to bombing their -- to bomb themselves.

BELLINI: At an all-girls school in Netanya, the Israeli city where 30 people died nearly a month ago in the Passover attack, growing up here now has made them less carefree, more cautious.

TANYA LANXNER, ISRAELI STUDENT: And our vice principal told us do not sit on the grass in groups of more than four or five girls.

BELLINI (on camera): Like we're doing now.

LANXNER: Yes. This is not -- this is not legal. This is not acceptable. There is dangerous.

BELLINI (voice-over): Most of these girls knew someone who died in the Passover suicide bombing. Tanya Lanxner was supposed to be there herself, but her younger sister told her parents she was too afraid to go.

LANXNER: When you're alone, it's dangerous. When you're with a lot of people, it's dangerous.

BELLINI (on camera): It's of course difficult to compare the life of a Palestinian teenager from Gaza to the life of an Israeli teenager from Netanya. The worlds they come from are completely alien to one another.

But all of the girls I've spoken with do share one thing in common, and that's proximity to tragedy. Some experiencing tragedy more closely and deeply than others. But all of them conscious, collectively, that they're growing up in dangerous times.

(voice-over): Ghada Joda's uncle died in Jenin two weeks ago. Not wanting to cry in front of her friends, she's growing isolated.

(on camera): Must be hard for you to be here right now.

"Of course it is," she says. "I am sitting. All the time they are laughing and happy."

(voice-over): The school psychologist asked the girls to draw pictures to show their emotions. Most drew tanks, guns, soldiers and dead and wounded Palestinians.

"In school they try to show how strong they are," the psychologist says. "The rest of the time they are at home taking care of their duties or watching the news on television."

(on camera): Girls don't cry here.

OMINIA ABU-SHALHA, PALESTINIAN STUDENT: No, we don't.

BELLINI: You don't cry in front of the other girls.

ABU-SHAHLA: No, we don't. We don't cry to be strong. But we are crying inside of us for everything is happening here.

BELLINI (voice-over): The young Jewish women at the school in Netanya more readily expressing their fear.

CHEN GINZBURG, ISRAELI STUDENT: We become more defensive. I think if grow up, I'm going to have children, I don't know how I'm going to let them walk in the street, even if things will get better. Even if it will be safer to walk on the street, I don't know. My kid is going to ask me, I want to do this, I want do that. And I'll always have this fright. I'll always be so frightened.

BELLINI (on camera): You're not afraid?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

BELLINI (voice-over): Teenagers in Gaza, in Netanya, are doing what they have to do to adapt in their own way as another generation to inherit a brutal, nasty, long conflict. Jason Bellini, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: The United Nations brings together diplomats from 189 countries. The goal: to make the world a better place in the name of humanity. Finding common ground among the different languages, cultures and religions isn't always easy, but diplomats have found a unified voice through poetry.

Here's a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: If any language is a mother tongue of our common humanity, it is surely the language of poetry.

GERT ROSENTHAL, GUATEMALA AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Beloved, come to the forest. The woodland shall be our shrine scented with the holy perfume of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the vine.

RICHARD RYAN, IRELAND AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: I think poetry does generally speak across all cultures, and what is the United Nations but the assembly of 189 different states and nations with many cultures within them.

JUNE CLARKE, BARBADOS AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: What is this life. It's full of care. We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the bones (ph) and stare as long as sheep or cows.

JEREMY GREENSTOCK, U.K. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: I think that somewhere here, not least with a great leader of peace like our secretary-general in the room, I have to say something briefly about war. What passing bowels (ph) for these who die as cattle. Only the monstrous anger of the guns, only the stuttering rifle's racket rattle can patter out their hasty orisons.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think that poetry could be a forum for dialog amongst these speakers?

KAMALESH SHARMA, INDIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Poetry certainly already is because when we read, let's say, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) poet or an Arabic poet, a poet from India, anywhere in the world, we immediately sense while reading it that this is our brother or sister writing this.

ANDRE ERDOS, HUNGARY AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: The battles our ancestors had to fight resolve into peace in remembrances light. It is time to work together at last on our affairs in common, no small task.

ANNAN: Poetry at its best is not -- not only speaks to people, it speaks for them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

MCMANUS: This week the U.N. Special Session on Children kicks off in New York, the first time the U.N. has devoted a special session to children of the world. That session begins Wednesday. But from Sunday through Tuesday leading up to that event, young people from around the globe are taking part in the children's forum. All week we'll be bringing you stories by and about young people, their hopes and dreams, their problems and fears and the way they are working to change their world which is indeed our world.

Kathy Nellis explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By the box load and the bag full and by computer, ballots pour in from 168 nations around the globe, a campaign by children to change the world for children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the children should have homes, like they shouldn't be homeless, and they should have something to eat.

NELLIS: It's called "Say Yes for Children." The focus: protecting the rights and improving the lives of children everywhere.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CORRINE WOODS, PROJECT DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL SAY YES FOR CHILDREN CAMPAIGN: We believe that children's voices are important and they have the power to change the world and government leaders will listen to them.

NELLIS: Those government leaders will be listening during the United Nations Special Session on Children this spring. But first, the U.N. is asking you to tell them what you think matters most.

Start at the Web page for UNICEF -- www.unicef.org. You can see the goals of the campaign, including educating every child, protecting them from war and protecting the earth for children. You can even vote for the three issues you consider most urgent in your country. No computer? You can get a paper ballot by calling 1-800-FOR-KIDS or write Say Yes for Children, U.S. Fund for UNICEF, 333 East 38th Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016.

(on camera): Say Yes is more than a simple sign up campaign, it's focusing attention on the serious issues facing children today. Millions of pledges are already in, but there is still time to add your voice. (voice-over): Kids are helping to count the votes and standing up to be counted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take care of the poor people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Education is very important for, like, children our age because, like, once we grow up to be adults -- I mean all ages, I mean because when we grow up to be adults, you know, we'll have like a good job and we'll have little children that looks up to us and maybe they'll do stuff good in their lives also.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should we educate every child and should we listen to children? Now I would hope that every single person in the world would say we need to fight poverty, we need to fight HIV/AIDS, we need listen to children, and if so, you need to sign the pledge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Global movement for children. Say Yes for Children. Now your name please.

NELSON MANDELA, FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: My real name is Grandpa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grandpa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Grandpa.

MANDELA: Nelson Mandela.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nelson Mandela.

WOODS: Nelson Mandela, who was one of the first people to pledge, he sat in his garden and he pledged on his Web site -- on the -- on the Web site in his garden, he chose his three priorities. He will be coming to the special session, and he has said he wants to take the voices of the world, hand them over to the Secretary-General Kofi Annan and then let the leaders hear.

MANDELA: Any country, any society which does not care for its children is no nation at all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Grown-ups have their time being children and now they're all grown up. And us children need our lives as children and we need to grow up and be what we need to be.

NELLIS: Celebrities around the world are helping to spread the word and taking the pledge.

("SAY YES COMMERCIAL")

YUE SAL KAN, SAY YES CELEBRITY: I think it's wonderful to do things for children. We always say children is -- were (ph) children is our future and we have to take care of them. And normally we don't really take care of them. It's wonderful to be able to do it for them, and this is the first time we have a chance to do it on a global basis.

CHILDREN: Say yes to children. Say yes to children.

NELLIS: A simple declaration aimed to make a complex world a better place.

Kathy Nellis, CNN, the United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: In the Cape Flats of South Africa, children are trapped in a world of alcohol, drug and child abuse. Many of them end up in the crossfire of deadly gang violence.

But CNN's Cynde Strand reports on one couple helping youngsters get off the streets and on with their dreams.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CYNDE STRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dimitri Slavis, world champion trapeze artist, has come home to the Cape Flats to offer a helping hand. Dimitri left behind big money under the big top in Europe to run this circus school. He is instructor, social worker, father and friend to about 15 core students who jumped at the chance to hang upside down rather than hang out.

JUANITA WILKINSON, STUDENT: Usually we had nothing to do, we just have to sit there, look at each other, sit on a corners, do this, do that. When I first came here, it all changed because these people have shown me all the ways on life.

STRAND: Gangs rule their streets. About the only choice for recreation is alcohol and drugs. For some, just getting to the practices is a death-defying act.

DIMITRI SLAVIS, (ph) ACTIVIST: When they see me coming with the white van it's like (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Red Cross sticker on it, but it's like the Red Cross saving you and getting out of that area now.

STRAND: For most of the students, Dimitri and his wife, Nicky, provide the only safety net they have ever known.

NICKY SLAVIS, SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR: Well some of the families don't really bothered with them, but they come to us, and in fact, one big happy family basically.

STRAND: The Slavis' charge no tuition and are always walking a financial tightrope. Atop a truck that's hardly road worthy, they put their show on the road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Dimitri Slavis Entertainers.

STRAND: On this day, lots of laughs in the roughest neighborhood of the Cape Flats.

MARLIN ROOS, STUDENT: There's nothing but doing (ph) that feeling when people are clapping for you and just seeing people's faces and them enjoying themselves watching us. ARTHUR STEPHENS, STUDENT: If only I was like a ski guide (ph) (UNINTELLIGIBLE) nothing and over and I was lazy and all that stuff. I'm still lazy, but when there's work I like to work.

STRAND: Dimitri and Nicky teach something not even the top most elite schools can guarantee, self-respect.

D. SLAVIS: The first time they had to give autographs they couldn't believe it themselves that people thought so much of them. You can see them, they're all happy-go-lucky characters, but not been like that before they came here.

STRAND: Teamwork, discipline and dedication, if teaching those skills count, then this is the greatest show on earth.

Cynde Strand, CNN, in the Cape Flats, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Last September we met Ahkmal Rouf, a 20-year-old refugee from Afghanistan living in Pakistan. CNN Student Bureau report Sid Akbar talked to him about his life and his dreams. Sid recently returned to Pakistan to find Ahkmal again and to see how his life has changed since the events of September 11.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AHKMAL ROUF: The first time I met Urili (ph), it was before September 11.

SID AKBAR, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Ahkmal Rouf still works in the gift shop where we first met him last summer, but his life has changed dramatically because of the tragic events of September 11. He still has the same dream of one day returning to Afghanistan, but he is now closer to realizing it.

ROUF: Really I am interested going back to Afghanistan, and I'm going to be back soon.

AKBAR: Ahkmal's family fled to Pakistan to escape the Taliban. With the Taliban defeated, his thoughts are on rebuilding his homeland.

ROUF: Of course (ph) I'm not there. I miss my country, but I can -- I can aware myself from the news and I can -- and feel the difficulties that my people having there.

I think Afghanistan is now a country that if you go there we're going to start from almost nothing. I want to do something for my country. I mean we are the one now that our country need us and we are the one that we're going to built the countries. Like our country has lost its both legs and now we're going to be work as the legs like to get the countries up and to work along side the country and to build it.

I have not seen my country for seven years, and I will be there and to help people. I'm going to open some engine (ph) facilities there because I like to know my people. I want to show my people that something is an Internet and they're going to be aware of what is an Internet, what is in (ph) English.

AKBAR: Since September 11, Ahkmal's goals have grown even bigger than one day opening an Internet cafe in Kabul. He now dreams of becoming Afghanistan's leader.

ROUF: I want to study politics and then go to my country and rule there and as a good ruler, not as the bad leaders that we have before. I hope that the West do not forget Afghanistan again and just going to help them because we suffer -- 22 years fighting we suffer so and now it's time to rebuild Afghanistan, to do something for our country.

AKBAR: After his appearance on CNN last September, he has gotten offers of help from the West. Earth Train (ph), an American nonprofit that trains young leaders, is working to bring him to the U.S. to study this summer. For now, Ahkmal is not forgotten.

Sid Akbar, CNN Student Bureau.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Ahkmal's story continues in cyberspace. Log on to CNNstudentnews.com for more. Plus, plenty of other news you can use.

MCMANUS: That's right. Have fun online, but before you do, make sure you do your homework first. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

FRIEDMAN: Have a great day.

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