Original version

BBC World Service Online

From Our Own Correspondent

News

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers.

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.

From Our Own Correspondent: Historic Figures

Historic Figures

11/04/2015

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Historic Figures

S Africa's statue row; a S Korean-Japanese spat; Cuban connectivity and vaping in the USA

Insights and wit from BBC correspondents worldwide. This week: South Africa's statue row; a diplomatic spat between S Korea and Japan; Cuban connectivity; and vaping in the USA.

Around the world, countries glory in their history - but also interrogate it, rewrite it, and sometimes use it to cultivate current disputes. Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from BBC correspondents around the world touching on battles old and new:

Andrew Harding explains why in a South Africa beset by unemployment and poverty, 'racist' statuary can still cause a campus rumpus;
Steve Evans in Seoul sees many a sign of increased South Korean animosity towards Japan, whether it's over sea islands or alleged war crimes;
Will Grant meets Cuban artist K-Cho, revolutionising the island's internet services as its leaders prepare to connect with the US at the Summit of the Americas in Panama;
and in the USA itself, Owen Bennett Jones gets a case of the vapours - by talking to Californians who've taken up the trend for vaping instead of smoking. 

Photo: A statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes is tied by straps to a crane, before its removal from the University of Cape Town, 9 April 2015. South Africa's oldest university voted on April 8 to remove the monument from its campus after a month of student protests against a perceived symbol of historical oppression. (RODGER BOSCH/AFP/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

From Our Own Correspondent

Historic Figures

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service