To most of us, the Middle East is a puzzling, complex, and often contradictory part of the world. We ask Professor Bill Harris to help make it more understandable to those of us who don’t know anything like as much about it as he does. Bill unravels sectarian tensions, global recession, oil, wheat prices, oppressive regimes, historic politics, and drought as we explore the story behind the Arab Spring uprisings.
(Having set the scene, Bill is coming back on the 4th April to focus on Syria).
Shane’s number of the week: 2,000,000,000. Two billion dollars is the estimated cost of the worst drought to hit New Zealand for 70 years. Droughts such as this are expected to become more frequent under a changing climate.
Sam’s joined-up-thinking: Sam is working Otago Polytechnic’s head of Photography Mark Bolland to explore the changing relationship with photography and nature as photography becomes consumerised.