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CNN Student News

Aired May 10, 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.

SUSAN FREIDMAN, CO-HOST: The UN Special Session on Children is winding down. We'll tell you what's happening there. And glint some kid's unique vision of New York City. Young people are still front and center in "Perspectives" as we return to the UN to discuss education. Then Student Bureau shows us Lebanon's cultural diversity.

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

The third and final day of the United Nations Children Summit gets underway. Build a better world fit for children, that's the message resonating at a Special Session in New York. During the past week, children from around the world have offered their partnership and advice on making the world a better place. The struggle to make the world safer, healthier and more educated has united young and old, rich and poor and nations around the globe.

There are individuals like Ted Turner who have stepped up to the plate to help UN causes. And yesterday, Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced a multimillion-dollar gift to the UN for programs promoting child health care and nutrition. Those are top priorities among leaders because more than a 150 million children in this world are malnourished.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke with Bill Gates about his gift and vision for the future.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The richest man in the world can't wait to give his money away.

BILL GATES, CHAIRMAN, MICROSOFT: It was the urgency that made me change my view that I should get involved.

GUPTA: With the same intensity he used to create and sustain Microsoft, Bill Gates is honing in on another endeavor, children's health.

GATES: One out of 12 children die in the world at large before age 5. I think within the next decade, we ought to be able to eliminate virtually all of those deaths.

GUPTA: Gates, a private citizen, spoke of his mission before nearly 80 heads of state at the U.N.

GATES: As we got more involved and saw the depth of these problems, we said, OK, we are going to be very careful about how we spend our money. But we also have to help raise the visibility here so that governments -- rich world governments in particular -- also are allocating more to these causes, and so have become a bit more evangelical.

GUPTA: But Gates is not just preaching, he's spending. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has already donated $2.1 billion for children's global health, and now another $50 million to help fortify foods and prevent illness in the first place.

GATES: Making sure that a kid has the Vitamin A or the iron they need to survive childhood diseases and to have the mental development that lets them go on and achieve their potential.

GUPTA: Gates and wife Melinda know firsthand.

GUPTA (on camera): We've seen some pictures of you actually inoculating children in New Delhi and things like that.

GATES: Well, I remember when my wife took her first trip to India, a lot of her time was in AIDS clinics and talking with the patients, and the sense of dignity they had, that they -- because they were being given some kind of treatment they had a chance to help out their children. You just feel it so directly, mostly when you sit down one-on-one with the people who are getting the help, and yet there are millions and millions who need it.

GUPTA (voice over): So while the world's richest man looks at things a little differently, it is not with any less intensity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREIDMAN: A big concern among many children at the United Nations Special Session is that their voices be heard. Many young people there want not only government leaders to get their message but they want their peers who are not at the session to understand what's going on as well. Young journalists are taking the lead in getting the message out as our Kathy Nellis explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The eyes of the world have been focused on New York for a landmark conference of the UN General Assembly, the first Special Session on Children.

KOFI ANNAN, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL: Distinguished heads of state and government, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.

This is not just a Special Session on Children, it is a gathering about the future of humanity.

NELLIS: Journalists from around the world converged to record the news-making event. Among them, young journalists reporting themselves and looking for ways to make a difference.

ATSUSHI OKATA, AGE 17, JAPAN: Well I belong to a newspaper. And we had a talk and debate what was good, what was bad, what we can do and we made an article. I asked Mr. Annan, Kofi Annan's wife, she said a donation is the best thing that I can do to the UNICEF so that many kids can have medicine and those kind of things.

NELLIS: But kids can also speak up and speak out. They can work on their school papers or school broadcasts. They can go online and exchange opinions.

Several young delegates are keeping online diaries, reporting on their experiences at the Children's Forum and the UN Special Session on Children. What will they be talking about?

ABIGAIL FABRIGAS, AGE 16, PHILIPPINES: About the people I meet. That's the greatest thing I've been looking forward to, meeting different kinds of people from different kinds of cultures, having different kinds of languages. And also, of course, the issues that we'll be back of on how -- on how to improve the lives of every child in every part of the globe.

NELLIS: The young journalists are outspoken on the issues and emphatic about the need for a free press.

LINE LARSEN: Well it gives people the opportunity to hear everyone's thoughts and ideas and not just to hear just one certain person's ideas and thoughts and things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what makes the world interesting because when you have different point of views you can get into conversations and then explain your point of view to another person and this other person explains yours and you both change your minds after all. Maybe you even switch point of views.

KIBUCHI BANFIELD, AGE 15, UNITED STATES: People have to know everything you know then they can't find out firsthand and that's why there is press. Press is there to give out all the information. And that's why certain times press are -- press are -- press people are looked at as evil or people that aren't good is because they have to tell the dirty work -- the dirty truth about things and that's what the press is there for. So free press is really good and it's useful.

NELLIS (on camera): These young people have a vision and concerns to voice. They want to take that message to the world.

(voice-over): They had a chance to tour the UN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the press section. So if any of you covered a meeting or maybe in the future one day you'd sit right here.

NELLIS: And they learned about the UN's role in the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You remember, the United Nations consists of how many main bodies?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Six.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six main bodies, right. One of them is the Security Council. It is -- has the primary responsibility to maintain world peace.

BANFIELD: Well the major role that the UN can play in the lives of children is of course giving them a voice.

GINDRAS: Children are the future of the entire earth. I mean if we -- if we do not protect children and you give them rights and make sure these rights are applicated through all children throughout the world, I mean children -- the earth will not have a future and it's really important to invest in the kids.

LARSEN: Well I think they have different opinions and they look at things differently than adults. Maybe sometimes a bit more dreamy and not -- I think adults might be -- have a bit more concrete answers and a little more realistic. But again, I think dreaming is good because it gives you bigger ideas and you can height to succeed even bigger things.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You look beautiful.

NELLIS: Their succeeding with pretty big things already. By raising their voices at the UN, they're reaching the world.

Kathy Nellis, CNN, The United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREIDMAN: You don't have to be a journalist to chronicle the world. Since the World Trade Towers were built in the 1970s, they've been photographed by countless people in thousands of different ways. The pictures you're about to see reflect an innocence that artists struggle to capture and often never do. What may also surprise you is the group of photographers that was able to do it.

CNN's Hillary Lane reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY LANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Give a child a camera and he'll show you things in a way you've never seen before, capturing the purity and innocence photographers often work a lifetime to achieve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was taking the sky but I put the World Trade Center to make it better.

LANE (on camera): So was this to describe blue...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, blue.

LANE: ... or to describe tall?

(voice-over): Armed with a list of adjectives and disposal cameras, last June a second grade class set out on an assignment to photograph their world, their neighborhood downtown.

BETH SCHIFFER, PARENT: And if you look down there, you can see how close that's the backyard of his school.

LANE: Beth Schiffer's son Jesse (ph) was one of the photographers. She runs a commercial photo lab and knew the photographs should be put on display.

SCHIFFER: It's that innocent kind of pure vision that is so beautiful about them.

LANE (on camera): Sometimes the children have trouble explaining why they took a certain photo or if they were trying to convey something. In some cases, even whether they meant to photograph the Twin Towers or whether they were just such a visible part of their neighborhood.

You don't expect to see that kind of color downtown do you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not anymore. You don't see bright, happy yellow. Now we see white, gray and black now.

LANE (voice-over): The brightness and vibrancy these children remember is something they and their parents desperately want back. Ryan Wu chose the word reflection to describe his favorite photo.

RYAN WU, STUDENT: But I think it sort of just reflects like memories of it.

LANE (on camera): So the hard part is that it's not there anymore?

WU: Yes.

LANE: You hope they rebuild it?

WU: Because I sort of miss walking under the bridge when I go to school.

LANE (voice-over): One more step toward restoring normalcy and letting kids just be kids.

Hillary Lane for CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREIDMAN: The cleanup at New York's ground zero is expected to be completed this month. With most of the remains and debris removed, the site there is an eerie resemblance to what the ground looked like before the towers were built. With so much attention on the tower's collapse these past seven months, an exhibit in New York reminds us of the accomplishment of the construction of what were once the world's tallest buildings.

CNN's Phil Hirschkorn reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL HIRSCHKORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the idea for the World Trade Center was conceived in the 1960s, in America, bigger was considered better.

LESLIE ROBERTSON, WTC CHIEF ENGINEER: It was the project of the century. Everyone wanted to work on the World Trade Center.

HIRSCHKORN: Leslie Robertson was the chief engineer overseeing construction, which began in 1966 by digging the 70-foot hole for the foundation. Robertson's innovative design had the steel exterior frame bearing much of the weight so there were no bulky interior columns. Steel beams connected the outside walls to an interior tube. The result was an acre of office space on every floor.

ROBERTSON: The structure of the World Trade Center was not unlike a cardboard box that just went up very high.

HIRSCHKORN: Each tower has four million square feet in rentable space for the building's owners, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The first tower was finished in 1971, the second in '73.

Before last fall's terrorist attack, Carol Willis was putting together this exhibit on building the World Trade Center for the New York Historical Society. When the buildings opened, some architectural critics called them an intrusion on the skyline.

CAROL WILLIS, THE SKYSCRAPER MUSEUM: The towers were set apart from the rest of the city in a sort of isolated space. They were a little bit alienating, they were imposing, they were easy to respect, but I think they were a little hard to love.

ROBERTSON: It was intended to be economically competitive with other office buildings and was. So unlike any other tall building actually before or since, it put a huge amount of real estate up high in the air.

HIRSCHKORN: And revitalized Lower Manhattan with thousands of new jobs.

WILLIS: They were like magnets or like batteries in an engine that were meant to charge up a whole new area for business.

HIRSCHKORN (on camera): At 110 stories, the Twin Towers stood 1,350 feet. Each tower also had 43,600 windows. When the buildings were destroyed on September 11, so were all the architectural models stored inside the Trade Center except for this one. ROBERTSON: I think the issue of the -- of the loss of life is still very, very tough to take. It's pretty hard for me to get tense about the loss of the -- of the buildings.

HIRSCHKORN (voice-over): Robertson says the World Trade Center site was a place of commerce and should be rebuilt as one. Different buildings this time, including a memorial.

Phil Hirschkorn, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

FREIDMAN: We told you earlier that children's health has been a key topic at the UN Session on Children. Well now we turn our focus to another subject in the spotlight, education. Millions of kids never get the opportunity to go to school. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that should be a basic right of every child male or female.

Once again, our Kathy Nellis reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NELLIS (voice-over): The United Nations Special Session on Children is more than a report card for the world, it's also the impetus and inspiration to move forward, a call to take up the challenge to ensure freedoms for every child in every country.

CAROL BELLAMY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: My first dream for kids would be that every one of these political leaders who comes to the United Nations would listen to the kids who are here because I think they would hear more honest words than they have heard from their cabinet officials in the last six months.

Secondly, I hope that the first 10 years of the 21st century will be a time when the young people will really begin to understand that they can be a force for change.

And finally, I really have a passionate desire that all girls, as well as all boys, will be able to realize their full potential.

NELLIS: One of the most critical issues involved in reaching that potential, education.

DAVID MORRISON, PRESIDENT, NETAID: There's nothing more important than education for children and that goes equally for children in rich countries as it is -- or as it does for children in poor countries.

NELLIS: David Morrison is president of NetAid, a community of companies, church groups, school groups and Web users who have come together to fight poverty over the Internet. One of NetAid's primary initiatives is the NetAid World Schoolhouse, a campaign designed to put poor children in school and keep them there. (on camera): Going to school provides a world of opportunities. Imagine if you never learned to read or write or add. Well millions of children around the world never get those opportunities.

(voice-over): According to UNICEF, there are 100 million children who are not in school, most of them girls. Yet experts say the education of girls is vital.

MORRISON: Girls' education is a real miracle in terms of development. It's said that when you educate a girl you educate a family, an entire village and therefore the whole world.

BELLAMY: We know, for example, if a girl just gets a basic education she's more likely as an adult to grow to adulthood in a healthy way. She's more likely for her children to be raised in a healthy way. She's more likely to be economically more secure and that came from that very simple understanding, invest early, invest in children.

NELLIS: That's why UNICEF and NetAid put so much focus on education to help end the cycle of poverty that keeps people from getting an education. NetAid estimates that it would take $7 billion a year to ensure that every child would be able to go to school. That may sound like a lot, but according to NetAid it's less than Europe spends a year on ice cream, it's less than the United States spends on cosmetics and it's less than India spends in a year on its military.

And if you still think it sounds like a lot of money, consider the alternative. As one sage adage goes, if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. Something to think about as world leaders come together to plan for the future and the children who are that future.

Kathy Nellis, CNN STUDENT NEWS.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREIDMAN: A deal has been reached to end the five-week standoff at the Church of the Nativity. The 13 suspected militants Israel wants deported will be sent to several different countries, including Italy and Spain. The deal caps off a week of high level Mideast negotiations, some of which played out in the White House.

Joel Hochmuth has our "Week in Review."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOEL HOCHMUTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A flurry of diplomacy in Washington this week as leaders from the Mideast came in search of peace. Among the visitors, Jordan's King Abdullah, a moderate Arab voice in the region, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Sharon held talks with President Bush Tuesday, the fifth time the two leaders have met. A central issue was the status of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Sharon tried to convince the president that Arafat must go, that there must be new Palestinian leadership before any serious peace talks can begin. Mr. Bush was unconvinced. He maintains it's up to the Palestinian people to decide who leads them. The two men did agree on one thing.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I told the prime minister there's nothing more that I want then to be peace in the region and that I look forward to working with him and his government to achieve that peace.

Mr. Prime Minister, welcome.

HOCHMUTH: As the two leaders wrapped up their meeting, they were just getting word of the latest suicide bombing in Israel. The Palestinian group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack that killed 15 Israelis south of Tel Aviv Tuesday night. The attack raised new questions about Arafat's ability to prevent such bombings and forced Sharon to cut short his Washington visit. Before leaving, he lashed out at Arafat.

ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I depart now to Israel with a heavy heart, heavy with grief and heavily with rage, the rage of every man and woman in Israel.

HOCHMUTH: For his part, Arafat did condemn the attack. And in an unprecedented move, spoke in Arabic on Palestinian TV and said he ordered his security forces to prevent future attacks.

BUSH: I was pleased that Chairman Arafat spoke in Arabic against terrorism. That's good; that's a positive development. Now it's up to Chairman Arafat to perform; to keep them in jail -- arrest them and keep them in jail. In order for there to peace -- be peace, there must be -- we must root out terror.

HOCHMUTH: Mr. Bush is leaving it up to the Israelis to determine how to respond to the latest attack but his administration is urging restraint on both sides and urging both Israelis and Palestinians to think peace.

COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Yesterday's events were troubling, and every time one of these events happens, it takes us off a course that we were on for a while, but I think it's a course that, ultimately, we have to get back to, because no matter how many military operations one conducts or how many suicide bombs are delivered, at the end of the day, we have to find a political solution.

HOCHMUTH: The question now is whether Arafat will be part of that political solution. He still enjoys the full support of his own people and much of the Arab world. But unless he makes good on his promise to crackdown on terrorists, U.S. patience with him may run out.

Joel Hochmuth, CNN STUDENT NEWS.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FREIDMAN: More on the Mideast as we turn to our "Student Bureau Report." Despite its small land area, Lebanon has always been a lively crossroads of cultures and religions, not that the country hasn't had its share of problems, but these days the Lebanese appear to be having a comfortable co-existence. We look back at some holiday celebrations and forward to the future.

Let's head to Lebanon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Lebanon is home to many different religions and sects, Muslims, Christians, Armenians and Jews, living side by side in co-existence.

"Lebanon's cultural diversity is in the delicate balance between being a blessing and being a curse. This is why Lebanon is always on the brink of conflict."

One of the dark periods of Lebanon's history, the Lebanese Civil War, left behind a devastating trail of death and destruction.

PROFESSOR GEORGE HAJJAR, MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: The effects of the civil war in Lebanon did of course severely affect the psyche of the Lebanese people. On the one hand, you could find the Lebanese people as a community very forgiving, but with such a war and such damage to homes and people, etcetera, it's had a negative impact on the psyche of the Lebanese.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Plus, it has been a decade since the last of the conflicts. Today, Lebanon is a mosaic of cultures and religions pieced together through the centuries. Historically, Lebanon started as a crossroads of different civilizations and refuge for people escaping persecution.

"The Lebanese have been able to embrace all these cultures. A cultural richness does not always mean a homogeneous society but an integration of the different civilizations that have helped form your history and have made you who you are."

Despite the difficulties facing it, will Lebanon ever achieve an ideal state where cooperation will replace confrontation?

GHASSAN SALAMEH, LEBANESE MINISTER OF CULTURE: I do believe that it all depends on generations. I very often feel that the younger generation is more aware of the necessity to build something together than the older one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A contemporary sign of cooperation is the rise in mixed marriages where two religions are represented in one family. In the Mostouri's family, Adel Mastouri is a Christian while his wife is a Muslim.

ADEL MASTOURI, LEBANESE RESIDENT: Provided there is a -- some extent of understanding of both cultures, I would say both -- mixed marriages are quite beneficial culturally. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "There is nothing like living together that shows us that humanity is one and that the values of all religions are the same. We should be united by the richness of our diverse religions and not divided by our differences."

This idea of unity is evident in Lebanon during Christmas and Ramadan, the Christian and Islamic holidays occurring in late December. The festive decorations from both holidays drown out the sectarian tensions. One might even see a Christmas tree set beside a palm tree.

MAJDA MASTOURI, LEBANESE RESIDENT: My children, they celebrate both Christmas and Ramadan. We celebrate Christmas at my house and we celebrate Ramadan and my mother house. And they go with me always.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even in its harshest times, Lebanon is bound by this spirit of unity and is in the eyes of many people like the Mastouri family that mosaic image of a culturally rich and embracing nation.

Rimal Harsh, CNN Student Bureau, Beirut, Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" established immediately after World War II, official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, name coined by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Can you name this place? United Nations.

FREIDMAN: Everyone mark your calendars for some special programming coming your way next week. Starting May 13, we'll take you to the bottom of the deep blue sea. Because we're online and on TV, you can log on to cnnstudentnews.com to preview our "Deep Blue Sea" special. The Web page has everything from quizzes to photo galleries. So log on today and tune in on Monday.

Have a great weekend. Bye-bye.

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