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From Our Own Correspondent: Anything Goes

04/10/2014

Anything Goes

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Anything Goes

A Frank Sinatra song is strangely apt in Russia, and why Egyptians complain about nothing

A Frank Sinatra song is strangely apt in Russia, Egyptians complain about nothing, the mafia's arbitrary rules in Sicily, and the price of sheep.

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg is surprised to hear an old Frank Sinatra tune while waiting on hold in Moscow. But he reflects that 'Anything Goes' is actually quite an apt backing track for life in Russia these days. 

Orla Guerin in Cairo has been hearing complaints about nothing and grumbling about Mr Mafeesh - 'Mafeesh' being Egyptian slang for 'there is none.' She has been finding out why some feel President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has failed to deliver anything of value.

Antonia Quirke meets a man raging against the mafia's arbritrary rules in Sicily, and Alex Duval Smith is in Mali, where demand for sheep drives prices up to astronomical levels before this weekend's Muslim holiday.

Plus, our correspondent in Mexico City encounters a helpful bureaucrat who swiftly processes paperwork with ease - so perhaps, as that old Sinatra song goes, 'the world has gone mad today ... and day is night today ... anything goes!'

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