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CNN Student News

Aired May 08, 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: President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon, was there a meeting of the minds? That story up first.

SUSAN FRIEDMAN, CO-HOST: Followed by a forum for the voices of the world's youth. We'll "Chronicle" that.

MCMANUS: And a report on how you can become a gaming master. The ways and means may surprise you.

FRIEDMAN: Once again, young people take center stage as they strive for a united planet. Student Bureau fills us in on the details.

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

MCMANUS: And I'm Michael McManus.

Israel and the Palestinians reach a deal to end the standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, but some logistical problems still remain.

FRIEDMAN: Close but not complete, that's the word from Bethlehem. Negotiations to get Palestinians out of the Church of the Nativity hit a sticking point yesterday when no country came forward to take some of them as exiles. The arduous task and volatile situation there were among a number of things discussed yesterday by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and U.S. President Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And one of the things we've got to make sure that we do is anything; any vision understands that there are people in Israel who long for security and peace. People in the Palestinian world who long for security, peace and economic hope. To this end, I've told the prime minister that George Tenet will be going back to the region to help -- to help construct the -- design the construction of a security force, a unified security force that will be transparent and held accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I believe that there is a chance now to start and move forward. We discussed as issues how to move forward. We emphasized about the need for reform in the Palestinian Authority and I think that is very important. And we discussed the original peace conference that I advocated and I believe is very important. We hope that can take place. Altogether all of us have defined the importance of (ph) peace, the need for peace and I think that we are committed to take every effort and every step to reach peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRIEDMAN: The relationship between the U.S. and Israel is a longstanding one. Through the years, the U.S. has repeatedly tried to influence events in the Middle East, but not always with success.

CNN's Jeff Greenfield looks at the past and future of American influence in the region.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Headline: President meets with Israeli leader amid Mideast crisis. We haven't seen that story more than 300 or 400 times in the last half-century.

So, let's look past the latest photo-op and diplomatic un-speak and look at those moments when the United States has, with its deeds, actually changed events in the Middle East.

(voice-over): It began at the very beginning. In May 1948, Israel declared itself a sovereign nation. Would the United States recognize it? Secretary of State George Marshall urged President Truman not to do it. It might endanger the Arab oil supply, he said.

But Truman did it anyway, a key gesture of support for Israel and one that angered Israel's Arab adversaries. But eight years later, the U.S. showed its support was not unconditional. In October 1956, Israel, Britain and France planned a military strike to retake the Suez Canal back from Egypt. President Eisenhower blocked that plan and made the U.S. a permanent player in the Middle East chess game.

America's boldest and perhaps most dangerous ploy came in October of 1973 in the midst of the Israeli-Egyptian Yom Kippur War. When the Soviet Union, a strong Arab ally, threatened to send its troops in to enforce a cease-fire, President Nixon said no to that idea and put U.S. forces on worldwide nuclear alert, the tensest moment in the Cold War since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

There were also, of course, moments that promised peace. In September 1978, President Carter brought Israel's Begin and Egypt's Sadat to Camp David for 16 days of talks that ended with a treaty. In 1988, the U.S. agreed to deal with the PLO after Yasser Arafat formally recognized Israel's right to exist. Five years later, President Clinton brought Arafat and Israel's Yitzhak Rabin to the White House lawn to sign the Oslo peace accords.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I have to set a good example.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: But the last major U.S. initiative, Clinton's Camp David meetings in 2000 with Arafat and Israeli's Ehud Barak, failed to hammer out a comprehensive, detailed agreement.

(on camera): So, how to tell if today's meetings -- and tomorrow's and tomorrow's and tomorrow's -- really signal something significant? It may be that, for now, the answer does not really lie with the United States at all. For all of this nation's vaunted power, it is hard to see how anything really changes unless the Mideast players themselves decide to change.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Alberto Vignieri from New York, New York asks: What is the difference between a prime minister and a president?

BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The presidency, Mr. Vignieri, is an American invention. The men who wrote the Constitution wanted an executive in charge of the government, independent of the legislature, and the president would be elected, not by Congress, but by electors in each state. The Constitution set up three branches of government and lots of checks and balances. Only the Congress could pass a law but the president could veto what they passed but a two-thirds majority could override the veto and so on.

The system sometimes produced divided government. All through Ronald Reagan's two terms, the House of Representatives was Democratic, for instance. But over time, presidents have probably become more powerful than congresses. They dominate the news coverage, for one thing.

Prime ministers are in the legislature. Britain's Tony Blair ran in his district, not nationwide, but his Labor Party won nationwide and he, as its leader, became Prime Minister. He could lose if his party lost a new election or if the Labor MPs decided to replace him.

Conservative Margaret Thatcher's party didn't lose an election, instead, her fellow conservatives in Parliament decided to replace her and did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Well here's a little something for all you students out there, the next time you wake up dreading a day of school consider how lucky you really are. Getting an education in the U.S. isn't nearly the challenge it is in other countries, countries like Somalia, which is still trying to rebuild its infrastructure after the civil war there.

Catherine Bond has the report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Somalia most schools are no longer schools, they are ruins, buildings laid to waste by various warring factions now used as squatter camps for Somalia's armies of homeless people.

One man trying to help fill the void of education here is an Islamic scholar, Sheik Sharif (ph). We visited his home where every morning he opens his doors to a group of homeless boys and teaches them the Koran, a traditional not radicalized version.

So Somalia's capital is full of teaching initiatives, still few Somali children ever learn to read or write.

(on camera): This is obviously packed, but there are statistics indicating that fewer than 20 percent of Somali children go to school.

(voice-over): This school was a displaced person's camp until one of the very few Western aid agencies working here fixed it up. Having to rebuild the education system, it says, has made parents more involved.

ABDIRASHID, CONCERN WORLDWIDE: We are seeing in the first time of the history of education in Somalia the school (UNINTELLIGIBLE) were at the very center of the education of their children.

BOND: As for higher education, there is one private university in Somalia's capital. It has the country's only nursing faculty. A language institute has been set up nearby. The most sophisticated equipment: old manual typewriters and a television.

ABDIRASHID: I'm going to ask you another question about the news.

BOND: Lessons cost one dollar per class per month. Probably the cheapest place in the world to learn English or Italian or French. Fine for these students, but even that paltry sum is too expensive for most Somalis to afford. A whole generation has already lost its chance of education.

These young militiamen from the security force at the hotel where we've been staying were 8 or 9 or 10 years old when the war began. They tell us they'd rather be teachers than warriors.

"But," says Shuki (ph), "we didn't have the chance to study."

Another young gunman, Ahmed (ph), says, "I really hope our country will totally change. Maybe our children will have the opportunities we missed."

Catherine Bond, CNN, Mogadishu. MCMANUS: College bound kids here in the U.S. have their own sets of issues to deal with. Next week we'll take a closer look at the college crunch, some of the more controversial issues facing kids pursuing an under grad education. That's next week on STUDENT NEWS.

For now we head over to Susan who has a story of young people on a different kind of mission -- Susan.

FRIEDMAN: Thanks, Mike.

You just heard about young people in Somalia struggling for an education. Somalia is one of only two countries around the world which have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. What's the other country? Well it's the U.S. And the U.S. could come under heavy fire this week as the U.N. kicks off its Special Session on Children. Youth delegates from around the world have been meeting in New York to share their views and their vision.

Kathy Nellis has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CHILDREN SINGING)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Children's Forum provides a voice for young people from around the globe and they have a lot to say.

LAUREN HANNANT, AGE 16, CANADA: When you are talking about different issues, you always invite the experts. When you talk about medicine and you invite doctors, when you talk about science you invite scientists and you talk about children and it's never been natural to invite kids. We're the experts on children's rights and we have to be involved.

RESHAM PATEL, AGE 16, UNITED STATES: Governments have to not only just protect children and do things for children but work with children to protect them.

(CHILDREN SINGING)

NELLIS: These young people have come from around the world to discuss the issues which they believe are most important for the health and welfare of children everywhere. So what's on their minds?

ABIGAIL FABRIGAS, AGE 16, PHILIPPINES: The street children -- street children. Many children are very visible in every street, especially in the Philippines and I know, of course, also here in America. In the USA it is very evident. And I think it is very important for children to have a good start, for them not to be exposed mostly in the streets wherein they would get mostly negative things.

KARLIS ROKIS, AGE 18 (ph), LATVIA: Well once they're (ph) thinking of drugs. These problems are connected each with one another because people start to use drugs and then (UNINTELLIGIBLE) money to buy the drugs he starts to do a crime.

NELLIS: Many of these delegates have seen the problems up close. Karlis, for example, was mugged by a junkie who broke his nose. Now he's started a youth organization to help poor children. And Wisdom Murowa, orphaned at 14, has become a child rights activist and works for AIDS education.

WISDOM MUROWA, AGE 17, MALAWI: I feel HIV/AIDS is a big issue because it's killing the multitude of people then any country, even international disaster.

RHYS CAMPBELL, AGE 17, JAMAICA: In the Caribbean we are very intense on fighting HIV/AIDS. The Caribbean has the second highest AIDS rate, second only to sub-Saharan, Africa. But you know, more afflicted countries you know in the Middle East, in the Eastern European countries, their focus is on exploitation, particularly in children, from violence, preventing children from taking part in armed forces.

NELLIS: The issues may seem overwhelming. They are serious things for children to be thinking about. But this gathering does more than pinpoint problems, it also spotlights solutions.

(on camera): The Children's Forum provides an opportunity for young people from around the world to share their hopes and dreams and to work for change.

HANNANT: I think the biggest thing is to believe in yourself as a child. Around the world the rights of children are being violated. Twenty-eight thousand children die each day and many of them from things that we prevent.

But a big issue also is that children around the world are not being listened to. Many children are told that because we're young we have no voice, no opinion and no rights, and that has to change. If anything's going to happen to improve the situation of children, children have to be involved. My call to you is to stand up for what you believe in, for what you are passionate and whether it's at home or in your school or in your community or in the world.

(APPLAUSE)

FABRIGAS: I think the world would be a better safe -- a better place and a safer place if only every child would have a chance to be heard. Who knows, that simple thing that a child might say could be the greatest solution among all problems.

(CHILDREN SINGING)

NELLIS (voice-over): Young voices raised in a chorus of concern, working for harmony around the world.

Kathy Nellis, CNN, The United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

MCMANUS: Government leaders from around the world will in fact be listening to the children we just heard from. Kicking off today is a three-day U.N. session all about kids. So you ask why is this meeting so special? We return to Kathy Nellis now for an explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NELLIS (voice-over): What's special about a U.N. Special Session? Basically it's devoted to a particular topic or theme. There have been Special Sessions on HIV and AIDS, the environment and population and development, for example.

(on camera): On average, the United Nations General Assembly calls for a Special Session once every two years.

(voice-over): But for young people around the world, one Special Session is extra special. This will be the first Special Session focusing on children.

CAROL BELLAMY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: The fact is when you've looked at the world as a whole, the majority of people living in poverty are women and children. This is unconscionable as we go into the 21st century. The status of children is not acceptable in the time we live in today, and we have got to be reminded of this every moment of every day.

NELLIS: The U.N. hopes to do more than just focus on the problems, however, it plans to actively involve children in the process.

AMBASSADOR PATRICIA DURRANT, JAMAICA: That is what is so exciting about this Special Session, the children can participate as in government delegations or in non-government delegations. And before the Special Session actually takes place, there will be a Children's Forum in which children will prepare their own views and present their own views subsequently to the General Assembly.

NELLIS: The United Nations is a global force with its pulse on the challenging issues facing children. Health and education are at the forefront.

BELLAMY: The fact is there's nothing that will better establish a positive future for kids than the fact they get a good education. And yet in a world that has Internet and speed of light and modern technology, we still find over a 100 million children around the world who should be in primary school who are not in school. If there could be one change that could make a difference it would be that every boy and every girl gets a good education. That would strengthen countries, that would strengthen society, that would strengthen families and that would give these young people great opportunities.

NELLIS: Those opportunities could begin at the United Nations with those youngsters who are taking part, but leaders hope the benefits will spread to span the globe. DURRANT: I think the Special Session should be an exciting time for children whether they're here in New York or whether they are in their own countries or in schools. We believe that this Special Session should focus the world's attention on the plight of children.

BELLAMY: I think it's always important for people to understand that they can influence their own lies and kids can do that as well, but they shouldn't think that they can only do it in a single way. It might be in their own neighborhood, it might be in their own community, it might be through a youth parliament. It may be through a youth vote, it may be through polling, it might be through their church or their religious organization. It might be out there helping people who are less fortunate than they are. I think what it is it's encouraging a young person to figure out what he or she themselves think that they're capable of doing because they should understand that every single solitary person can make a difference somehow in somebody else's life.

NELLIS: A difference that can begin today and build tomorrow.

Kathy Nellis, CNN, The United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: We talked about the PlayStation 2 and XBox last week. These are the newest models of home video game machines. And as they become more sophisticated, the demand for world class design talent intensifies. And how do you nurture the next generation of developers? You send them to game school.

To Hong Kong now and a school day you'll never want to skip.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. GINO YU, HEAD, MIC: This is actually a digital camera, using a Gameboy Advanced. So we built a prototype. We're tying a blue tooth interface to it right now, so we're doing a lot of wireless applications as well too, because that's another one of these technologies that have a lot of technical application.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You hacked into a Gameboy.

YU: Yes, we hacked into a Gameboy, basically.

STOUT (voice-over): Such high tech hijinks are par for the course at Hong Kong's Multi Media Innovation Center or MIC, the ultimate training ground for tomorrow's game box wizards.

YU: We just started this year a new Master's Program. It's the first of its kind in Asia. It's a Master's in multi media and entertainment technology. It's a unique program, where we're combining art design students with traditional technology engineering students into a new program.

This is developed by a student in our training program in six weeks, so complete textures and models and everything. This is what our studio looks like in the VR world. They have (UNINTELLIGIBLE), a blue screen facility. We used to run our training workshops here, and if the students don't do a good job, you just kind of fry them.

STOUT: Going completely ballistic is encouraged in the MIC classroom, while in the motion capture studio the world's best Kung Fu fight choreographers are transformed into digital action figures.

YU: So this is actually one of the top Wushu (ph) people in England that was here visiting. So what we've been doing is capturing very basic primitive moves. And the end goal is to say let's say you knew Sha Lyn (ph) style and I knew the praying mantis style and then we were to fight for two minutes and then I'd -- I'm lying dead on the floor there, you know, make me that scene.

STOUT: Hands-on experience gained in the lab and at local game companies that offer the chance to work on real world projects.

HARRY MILLER, CEO, EN-TRANZ: Hopefully I can provide people who can train the students here, right, teaching them program design art, not just how to do it, but how to do it on a world class level, right, the true polish to make it really, really good. And as they graduate, some of them won't be any good at all, just like any other business, but some of them will really shine. And it's those that hopefully we can convince to work with us, not during the time they're -- the only time they're here but also when they graduate, we can bring them on board and start building a community here in Hong Kong.

STOUT: A community of game developers with a solid portfolio and a pension for blowing up the classroom.

Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Education and children's voices, two themes running through our show today. Add to that the push for peace. President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If we are to live together in peace we must come to know each other better." Some members of a Boston-based group called United Planet are taking up that challenge by using education as a tool to spread peace.

Our Student Bureau has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL LOMBARD, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): As her parents and siblings lived through some of the worst violence their hometown of Ramallah has seen in recent history, Renah Razzaq, a Palestinian- American, is using knowledge to bring about peace. Her efforts are part of a broad initiative by United Planet, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that strives to bring about world peace through cultural understanding. United Planet is a group of 100 international volunteers who work to enhance cultural appreciation and friendship within their own communities.

DAVID SANTULLI, FOUNDER, UNITED PLANET: Each urban area is like a world in miniature. You really don't have to travel 10,000 miles away to experience Vietnam.

LOMBARD: Select members, like Renah, bring such an experience into the classroom through United Planet's cultural awareness project. The program invites international volunteers into local schools to discuss their country of origin, cultural background and customs.

GREGORY TURPIN, HISTORY FACULTY, BOSTON LATIN HIGH SCHOOL: An ever changing and complex world is necessary for the students to understand that they're a part of it. There are others who are affected by these events, which are headlines to us, but are in fact real events to those individuals.

LOMBARD: Giving the headlines a human element, Renah tells of her experiences living in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. She answers point blank questions dealing with everything from the history of the Middle East conflict to suicide bombers.

RENAH RAZZAQ, UNITED PLANET VOLUNTEER: I don't doubt the statistics (ph) but really that the people are desperately doing this and they want to stop (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

LOMBARD (on camera): High school students tackling hard hitting current events are not the only beneficiaries of the program, there are presentations tailored for students as young as 11.

(voice-over): One such presentation is given by Macki Hashimoto (ph), a Japanese woman who serenades students with her native country's national instrument. A licensed koto player, Macki not only entertains the students with music but also teaches the history of the instrument and its significance in the Japanese culture.

JAMES CROWTHER, MUSIC SPECIALIST, DONALD MCKAY SCHOOL: The world is a little bit broader now. I think that we've come in close contact with music and culture that we don't know too much about and I think that helps us understand one another.

LOMBARD: The presenters hope that by removing the mystic from their own cultures students will be less likely to fear what is different and more apt to foster friendships with foreign peoples, a lesson with international appeal.

RAZZAQ: Once Palestinians are able to speak to Israelis and to see that they're more similar than they are different, then maybe the situation will begin to backtrack and go back to the peace table.

LOMBARD: Trying to spread peace through education, the United Planet team publishes a monthly newsletter that features information on the history and customs of different countries. Volunteers are also compiling a book about the world, writing a chapter for each of the earth's 191 countries. A native of the featured country writes each chapter, addressing questions concerning everything from table manners to common superstitions. These projects serve to highlight what makes each culture unique, celebrating the world's diversity.

SANTULLI: What would the earth be if we didn't have mountains to complement the valleys or deserts to complement jungles? My dream would be that we could appreciate the beauty of our diversity.

LOMBARD: By building a large base of support, the United Planet team hopes to spread its message of peace across the globe, serving as a liaison between cultures and working to bring the world a little closer together.

Dan Lombard, CNN Student Bureau, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" principally a desert climate, languages include Italian, Arabic and English, population includes a number of nomads and refugees? Can you name this country? Somalia.

MCMANUS: That's about it for today, huh, Susan?

FRIEDMAN: That's right. So we'll see you back here tomorrow.

MCMANUS: We sure will. I'm Michael McManus.

FRIEDMAN: And I'm Susan Friedman. Have a great day.

MCMANUS: Bye-bye.

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