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CNN Student News
Aired May 16, 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.
SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: Here's a quick look at what's in store for you today. First on our news agenda, we go inside Castro's Cuba to gauge reaction to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's speech.
SUSAN FRIEDMAN, CO-HOST: Later, we get a little out of this world education when we sit down with former astronaut John Glenn.
WALCOTT: Our space travels continue in the "Science Report." This time we're on the lookout for unidentified flying objects.
FRIEDMAN: We end up asking what do these people know that these people don't? We'll tell you later on.
WALCOTT: Let's get started with your CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Shelley Walcott.
FRIEDMAN: And I'm Susan Friedman.
Thanks for joining us on this Thursday, May 16.
Carter, Castro and a call for reform, that's what tops our show today.
WALCOTT: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is urging Cuban leader Fidel Castro to allow more democracy. He made the call for human rights reforms Tuesday during a live broadcast to the Cuban people. Now Carter followed that speech with visits Wednesday to a rehab center and a school for disabled children. The former president has been in the limelight all week, but it's his address to the Cuban people that's garnered the most attention.
CNN's Lucia Newman has more on the unprecedented speech.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): It was an extraordinary moment, not just because of what Jimmy Carter had to say, but because of how and where he said it. With President Fidel Castro sitting in the front row, Carter addressed the Cuban people in Spanish, his words broadcast live all over Cuba. He has come, he said, as a friend to share his vision of the future.
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (through translator): The time has come to change our relations and the way we think and speak to each other. Since the United States is the most powerful country, we should take this first step.
NEWMAN: While he said he hoped the U.S. Congress would soon revoke the U.S. trade embargo and the travel ban on Americans going to Cuba, he also insisted Cuba needed to take major steps to become a true democracy.
CARTER: I am not using the American definition of democracy, but rather the definition consecrated by the universal declaration of human rights, which Cuba signed in 1948. All citizens are born with the right to choose their own leaders, define their own destinies, speak freely, organize political parties, unions and non-government organizations.
NEWMAN: Carter urged Cuba to allow an opposition petition for sweeping political reforms to go forward, an initiative most Cubans hadn't even heard of until Jimmy Carter's speech.
LAZARO GONZALES, GRAPHIC TECHNICIAN: I am in agreement with what the comrade former president of the United States has to say. Hopefully, his words will be heard here.
NEWMAN: If President Castro didn't like what he heard, he didn't let it show. Both men were applauded as they left the University of Havana to go to a baseball game. Carter was allowed to throw the first pitch, while Castro coached him on his technique.
(on camera): So far, the Cuban leader is making good on his promise not to take offense with anything Carter has to say, but then there is a big difference between taking offense and taking advice.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: And for more on President Carter's historic trip to Cuba, check out our Web site, CNNstudentnews.com. There you'll find a complete transcript of Mr. Carter's speech plus in-depth reports on the Castro regime and the history of the Cold War.
Now on to Susan who has the latest on a new political day (ph) in Africa, right, Susan?
FRIEDMAN: That's right, Shelley.
The people of Sierra Leone went to the polls Tuesday for the country's first presidential and parliamentary elections since a bloody civil war. In fact, many voters who turned out for this election had their hands cut off by rebel fighters the last time they tried to cast a ballot.
Ben Wedeman has the story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Freetown's amputee camp, the simple act of dropping a ballot in the ballot box isn't so simple. And it's an act with the darkest of associations. After the last election in 1996, rebel fighters cut off hundreds of peoples' hands. Punishment, they said, for taking part in an election the rebels had boycotted.
During the war, rebels and renegade soldiers hacked off not only hands, but also arms, legs and ears. In Tuesday's voting, a toeprint sufficed to mark the ballot for those without hands, toes marked with indelible ink as proof of voting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here, in this camp, we have 230 amputees now. All of them, they are coming out for vote. They are here.
WEDEMAN: In this camp, and across the country, turnout was reported to be high.
(on camera): Some of these people arrived here almost three hours before the polls opened. Voter apathy is not a problem here.
(voice-over): Voter enthusiasm did pose a problem. Some couldn't wait to cast their ballots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, I am trying to create a line for you people, here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we are already standing in a cue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on. I have that instructions. I've been told. So I'm trying to create a line for you, but perhaps, it seems you are forcing the issue.
WEDEMAN: For one man the wait was too long. United Nations peacekeepers stood by in the event of trouble at a beachside polling station. There wasn't any. Election staff explained the necessary steps to vote. It was a new experience for many. In a Freetown suburb, the process slowed to a trickle. The problem, too many voters, not enough ballot boxes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we are supposed to have four ballot boxes. But as for now, we have only two.
WEDEMAN: So they just had to stuff them in. Minor complications, but here they see the bigger picture.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So everybody wants to contribute. Everybody wants to have a say.
WEDEMAN: Tuesday's vote is seen as a test for this country's ability to cement the peace in place since January. Many of those who cast their ballots believe they have passed that test with flying colors.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Freetown.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone is the world's biggest peacekeeping operation with more than 17,000 troops deployed around the country.
WALCOTT: OK. Well today our "College Crunch" series looks at a common phenomenon known as grade inflation. You know an increasing number of A's are being doled out at some of the nations top universities. Are students getting smarter or are teachers becoming more generous? Well that's a question that's under debate.
CNN's Bill Schneider takes us to Harvard no less where the best of the best may soon have to work a little harder for that title.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Ever hear of the Lake Wobegon effect? That's named for the mythical Minnesota town humorist Garrison Keillor talks about where all the children are above average.
Well, we are here at Harvard University, where all the students are not just above average; they are all top-ranked. About half the grades given at Harvard last year were A's and A-minuses. More than 90 percent of the senior class graduates with honors. It's a scandal. And a committee of students and faculty is looking into it.
How did this happen? Oh, there are lots of theories. Like most university problems, this one goes back to the '60s. In 1966, fewer than one-quarter of Harvard undergraduates got A's.
Grade inflation started, some people argue, because professors knew that male students who got bad grades could be shipped off to Vietnam. Lenient grading may also have encouraged minority students, many of whom were less prepared for college when they started arriving in the '60s.
Then there's the money factor. Parents spend upwards of $30,000 a year to send their sons and daughters to Harvard. They do not want to spend that kind of money to be told that their kid is anything less than a genius.
Here's another possibility: Students are smarter these days. Well, I've taught at this and other universities. And let me respond to that assertion: poppycock, irrisibilis (ph), as they say in Latin. The big change over the years is that students work a lot harder and they care a lot more about their grades. There is no such thing as a gentleman's C any more or even a gentleman's B, because there are very few gentlemen or ladies who are going to inherit their father's business.
It's a tough, competitive world out there. And Harvard students, like most students at elite universities, are strivers. Professors know that if they give low grades, they won't get many students, but they will get a lot of hassles. So what happens? Grades become meaningless. If everyone is outstanding, no one stands out.
Quod erat demonstratum.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRIEDMAN: Now on to some people who stand out in a pretty outstanding field. We here at STUDENT NEWS like to keep our eyes on the sky. Recently we told you about a teacher being prepared by NASA for a mission to space and a multimillionaire from South Africa who bought his ticket into orbit.
Well reporter Kim Abbott recently sat down with space pioneer John Glenn to get his thoughts on the future of space travel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIM ABBOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What do you think the relevance of space travel in general is? After 9/11, do you think the government should be...
JOHN GLENN, ASTRONAUT: Well...
ABBOTT: ... should be focusing on that today?
GLENN: Well 9/11 sort of rekindled an interest in government and things like that and a patriotic feeling I guess. The space program is not just an interest point, though, or a travel point, it's basic research. And we're now using the new laboratory of space and we're doing this in development of pharmaceuticals and materials and things like that.
I was up on my second flight in 1988 looking into some of the problems of aging and the similarities between what happens to the human body here as you age on earth and what happens to the younger people up there that have some of the same symptoms. And by looking at some of these correlations there can we find out within the human body what turns the system on and off. In things like osteoporosis and the body's immune system changes and things like that that are -- if we can learn some of these things, maybe we make it possible for longer-term space travel but also take away some of the frailties of old age right here on earth.
ABBOTT: What...
GLENN: So it's all that kind of experimentation and research that makes space valuable for everybody right here.
ABBOTT: What did you bring home from that trip personally in those sorts of settings (ph)?
GLENN: Well the main thing you know, I came out very well in all the tests and everything. Some of those the follow up research hunt (ph) is still going on, and we hope that -- and some of the doctors you know had thought that I might be in worse shape than I was at the end of that flight. The biggest thing that came out I guess is probably that we now can send other people up there in the same age bracket I was in at that time, late 70s, I was 77 at that time, and because that will mean a lot more as a database for research in the future. Right now a database of one in this age bracket doesn't mean that much to the scientists. But the people at the National Institute of Aging and the doctors at NASA were very interested in pursuing this, and I just had a great time being there.
ABBOTT: What do you think about sending teachers to space again?
GLENN: The teachers to space? Yes...
ABBOTT: About sending teachers to space.
GLENN: Well you know that was short cut before of course with the Challenger accident. Barbara Morgan now is in training for this as a regular astronaut and as a representative of teachers, and I think that's great. She'll be able to relate back to her fellow teachers and the schools and kids all over the country.
ABBOTT: What do you think about people buying tickets to space?
GLENN: Well I've not been really for that. I think you know we spend tens of billions of dollars designing and building a space station to do basic research and then for one of the partners, mainly the Soviet Union or the Russians, to take that and sell tickets on it is not using it for the purpose for which it was built. And I appreciate the desire of people to go. I wish everyone could go up in space, it's a great experience, but I haven't -- you know I'd like -- I want to see us fully support the research role that that space station is up there to do.
ABBOTT: Tell me what you should -- you would tell a child today who wants to be an astronaut? What would you tell them to do to realize their dreams?
GLENN: Well main thing, math and science. Study your math and science, do good in school and keep yourselves in physically good shape and that's about it. And be interested in it. And if a kid is interested in following a course of study, write to NASA. Write to the Johnson Space Center at Houston, ask them for advice on what to do and they'll send out some material to the kids. It's great.
ABBOTT: Do you still fly your own plane?
GLENN: Yes, I do. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ABBOTT: How often? Is it -- is it something you can do...
GLENN: Oh I get about 115 or 120 hours a year, something like that. And it's a Beech Baron -- a pressurized Beechcraft Baron twin engine. And Anna likes to fly, my wife, and so we enjoy it very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
"The Clones" are coming later in "Perspectives." ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
WALCOTT: Well, as you know, the conflict in the Middle East has gone on for decades, and one of the main points of contention is land rights. But it's not just the ground that's in dispute, it's also what's running under it.
Natalie Pawelski explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Sea of Galilee, a rare and life-giving source of water in a parched land. But to get to this Israeli lake, the water has to flow through a tough and thirsty neighborhood, from Lebanon, Syria And Jordan, then through the Golan Heights.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There really isn't enough water to go around, so there's a high risk of conflict between these countries over who will control these crucial sources of water.
PAWELSKI: For Israel and the Palestinians, most water comes from under contested land. Drawn from aquifers beneath the West Bank, Gaza and Israel itself, it is water that both sides need to survive.
PROF. MICHAEL KLARE, HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE: Neither one can live without the water.
PAWELSKI: But a growing population is pumping water out faster than nature can replace it, and already there's not enough water to go around.
SANDRA POSTEL, DIRECTOR, GLOBAL WATER POLICY PROJECT: There's not enough water to grow all the food that the region needs to grow for itself and to provide enough drinking water and water for industries.
PAWELSKI: In the West Bank, Israeli authorities control who gets to sink wells and pump water.
KLARE: Eighty percent of the water resources right now are in the West Bank. And only about twenty percent of those are currently used by the Palestinian authority.
PAWELSKI: Experts estimate Israeli settlers in the occupied territories use three to five times as much water as their Palestinian neighbors.
POSTEL: Well, I think water is an undercurrent to the tensions that exist between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Palestinians will say that they -- they point across the road to an Israeli settlement, where they see a swimming pool being filled. And then they point to their own community, where there's barely any water at all, and they express a great deal of anger about that.
PAWELSKI (on camera): People who study water issues say there may be one hopeful thing about the situation. Even countries with bitter histories, they say -- India and Pakistan, or since 1994, Jordan and Israel -- have managed to stick to water-sharing agreements, even when fighting over everything else.
Natalie Pawelski, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: Most people believe UFO research is strictly for sci-fi buffs and folklore fans, but in China it's treated very seriously.
Kristie Lu Stout reports on her close encounter with some researchers at Hong Kong's UFO Club.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joseph Wong is a man of science. As a lab manager at Hong Kong's City University, his job is to assess the structural performance of buildings. But familiar as he is with hard data, he's also a fan of the unexplained.
JOSEPH WONG, HONG KONG UFO CLUB CHAIRMAN: If something flies over, there's a very good reason to try and understand why they're here, why they come to us. What is their relationship between us and them?
STOUT: Wong is the chairman of Hong Kong's thriving UFO Club, a group that meets once a month to explore other worldly topics like E.T.'s civilization and alien kung fu.
(on camera): Members occasionally meet here, at a cyber cafe called UFO Station where you can find Hong Kong's version of the "X- Files." Books, newsletters, even faded news clippings of past close encounters, material that UFO club members take very seriously.
(voice-over): Members like Professor Albert So, a Hong Kong UFO enthusiast, who is not a dreamy stargazer but a researcher who sees his passion as a science. So much so that he's lobbying for a university degree program in UFOlogy.
ALBERT SO, HONG KONG UFO CLUB: Graduates from this program we will (UNINTELLIGIBLE) at least (ph) all the major knowledge in order to understand UFO phenomena and also other technologies and any skills related to UFOs.
STOUT: Sounds like a tough sell, but it may not be hard to pitch in mainland China where there's little taboo about flying saucers.
SO: It seems that people in the East are more open to discuss issues related to UFOs. Perhaps that is something to do with the culture of the races, in particular, Chinese. Chinese is a kind of race who easily believes in something supernatural. STOUT: And they may have been believing for a long time. This ancient drawing shows the thousand year story of an emperor meeting a flying boat, a compelling artifact in support of UFO study but not the only one.
WONG: For me it's not very important if there's really a UFO that can fly or not, it's when we are investigating this I think it's the process that -- it's the process that actually helps us understand more about ourselves, our interplanet (ph).
STOUT: For Joseph Wong the truth may be out there but the payoff is personal. Study the alien (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a very human curiosity.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRIEDMAN: The federal government is trying to determine how to stop the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease. The disease is closely related to Mad Cow Disease and was first detected 35 years ago. More than a quarter of a million deer killed in Colorado have tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease. Next week a strategy to fight the disease will be laid out before a congressional subcommittee.
CNN Student Bureau reporter Sydney White has more on how the outbreak is affecting animals and impacting people.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SYDNEY WHITE, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): The Tweten (ph) Ranch is quiet these days. Land that used to be home to more than 40 elk is now deserted due to Chronic Wasting Disease, a fatal neurological disease that has left one rancher wondering where to turn.
ADAM TWETEN (ph), RANCHER: I'm just one of the first victims of this and I have to go through it the hard way I guess.
WHITE: There's no way to test an animal for the disease while it's alive. Adam's entire herd was taken away and killed in order to be examined. What remains is empty farmland.
TWETEN (ph): I guess our pastures and fence and facilities are just going to lay there unused until I can figure out some other animal species I can use them with.
WHITE: Chronic Wasting Disease has affected herds in northern Colorado, southeast Wyoming and parts of Nebraska. Now the state's best hope is containment.
Todd Malinsbury (ph) of the Colorado Division of Wildlife explains what they are doing to fight Chronic Wasting Disease.
TODD MALINSBURY, COLORADO DIVISION OF WILDLIFE: We've got two goals. No. 1, we don't want the disease to spread. No. 2, we want to make sure that the prevalence, that is the number of animals that have the disease, is as low as possible.
WHITE: To accomplish this, the Division of Wildlife is selectively killing 20 percent of Colorado's deer and elk population over the next few years. This still leaves ranchers like Adam unsatisfied.
TWETEN (ph): That's one of the biggest heartbreakers for me is not getting to see them grow up and be the elk that I thought they could be.
MALINSBURY: If we sit around and wait and the disease continues to spread, we could end up with a disaster for our wildlife.
WHITE: Despite what's happening now, Adam hopes to see a positive outcome.
TWETEN (ph): Maybe years down the road they'll have a vaccine and testing procedures to test to see if they're negative, maybe we can bring them back someday.
MALINSBURY: If there's some magic bullet, some magic cure that could make the -- make all the elk and deer get better, we'd sure like to find that. Probably not going to happen anytime soon.
WHITE (on camera): Already Chronic Wasting Disease has had a significant impact on ranchers in northern Colorado. Now after two new cases have been reported across the Continental Divide, many ranches are wondering if the entire West may be vulnerable.
(voice-over): Sydney White, CNN Student Bureau, Longmont, Colorado.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
"Where in the World" most populous country in the world, currency: yuan, nation is officially atheist, religions practiced include Daoism (Taoism), Buddhism, Islam and Christianity? Can you name this country? China.
FRIEDMAN: OK, Shelley, if I said to you Jar Jar Binks, what would you say?
WALCOTT: I'd probably look at you like you were crazy.
FRIEDMAN: Oh no. Well for all the folks out there who know and love Jar Jar and his cohorts, it's the day they've been waiting for, "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" opens nationwide today.
WALCOTT: Oh boy! As for those of you who like me aren't so "Star Wars" savvy, here's Jeanne Moos to tell us we're not alone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Star Wars," "Star Wars," "Star Wars."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 9:00, relive the "Star Wars" saga.
MOOS: Relive it? Some of us want to escape it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is useless to resist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: But a few brave souls have tried.
(on camera): Do you guys know anything about "Star Wars"?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a clue.
MOOS (voice-over): What they need is a crash course, "Star Wars for Dummies," led by the biggest dummy of all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have not seen a single "Star Wars" film.
MOOS (on camera): Wow.
(voice-over): A true "Star Wars" dummy doesn't understand a thing kids say about it.
We can't even pronounce the characters' names.
(on camera): Do you know Jar Jar Bink is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
MOOS: Binks. Oh, there's an "s" on the end, sorry.
(voice-over): We stand, or sit, corrected. It's time for the "Star Wars For Dummies" quiz.
(on camera): Obi Kenobi?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A machine.
(voice-over): Tell that to the old guy with the light saber.
(on camera): Jabba the Hutt?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that one got by me.
MOOS (voice-over): Jabba is currently on view at the "Star Wars" exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where you can view the model spaceships used in "Star Wars."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the Millennium Falcon right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just the biggest hunk of junk in the galaxy. MOOS: We found our guides in line awaiting Thursday's opening of "Attack of the Clones."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's our address. We actually do have an address, because we order take-out.
MOOS: Back to the quiz.
(on camera): Wookie? Wokie? Wookie?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wookie, it's a pet.
MOOS (voice-over): Not exactly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A rupee?
MOOS (on camera): I think it's a wookie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's what my wife cooked me for dinner last night.
MOOS (voice-over): Actually, there's a "Star Wars" cookbook that does include a Wookie cookies recipe, and then there's all this sequel/prequel stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now "Episode II" of the prequel...
MOOS: "Episode II" is the fifth "Star Wars" film to come out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like a flashback.
MOOS: There's one character everybody knows.
(on camera): Who is this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yoda.
MOOS (voice-over): Did we say everybody?
(on camera): Did you hear about the lady who thought she won a Toyota when she won a toy Yoda.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
MOOS: Do you know who Yoda is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
MOOS (voice-over): The woman who won the toy Yoda in a contest sued. She made enough to buy a Toyota.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yoda looks like sort of a dog.
MOOS: Actually, we once met a dog that did a Yoda impersonation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The basis of the designer's eyes were Einstein's eyes , because Einstein has very kind and very wise eyes.
MOOS: Were he around today, even Einstein might be a "Star Wars" dummy.
(on camera): May the force be with you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, the force be with you.
MOOS: But what does that mean
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: Well that's it for today, but be sure to check us out tomorrow. We'll check out a flower that's big in size and smell.
FRIEDMAN: Plus, have you and your parents figured out how to pay for your college education? We'll meet a family facing the "College Crunch." And once you get to college, do you think you can take your pet? We'll have that too.
WALCOTT: We look forward to that, and we'll see you then. Have a good one.
FRIEDMAN: Bye-bye.
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