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Wealth of ideas

Kate Chisholm

Wednesday, 9th April 2008

The relentless downgrading of the News to a series of shocking revelations about child abuse, bearded terrorists and the ghastly incompetence of our Olympic pretensions sent me straight to the World Service where even the shortest of hourly bulletins contains enough information to remind us that life goes on beyond our own limited horizons.

Encouraging students to listen to the World Service might be a cheaper option. Another new series this week was produced as part of the Documentary Bursary Scheme, by which staff from the BBC’s non-English-language services are encouraged to make programmes in English highlighting stories from their own countries. This year’s One Planet entries (broadcast on Thursdays) included a feature by the Hindi Service presenter Shivani Sharma about the slum in Mumbai where over one million live off the proceeds of recycling the city’s waste products. Aluminium, tin, plastic, glass, paper; you name it, the people of Dharavi will have come up with a way to ensure that it can be used again. Seventy per cent of workers there are self-employed; 90 per cent of them have invented their own methods of breaking down materials for reuse. Now, of course, the developers want to clear the slum and house everyone in high-rise flats. This programme was made with such immediacy and atmosphere that I could almost smell the air and feel the heat rising from the dusty street.

Simon Hoggart’s television column returns in a fortnight.