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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

The Fifth Floor: Reporting Accra's Petrol Station Inferno

GHANA

12/06/2015

Reporting Accra's Petrol Station Inferno

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Reporting Accra's Petrol Station Inferno

Floods, fire and tragedy: a hard day at work for the BBC's Sammy Darko

Reporting flood and fire in Ghana; Azerbaijan's Olympic publicity campaign; Kenya's reading challenge; the best and worst of national anthems; and Ethiopia's iconic singer.

Ghana has been in mourning this week after a fire at a petrol station killed 150 people in Accra. Still more people died in the unprecedented floods that contributed to the fire. Now that the official mourning period is over and the floods have subsided, David Amanor speaks with fellow Ghanaian, Sammy Darko about his personal experience reporting on the disaster and how the city is recovering. 

National Anthems
A campaign is underway in Switzerland to change the country's national anthem. Critics of it say it is too religious and too long. This is not the first and surely wont be the last campaign to change an unpopular anthem. Fifth Floor colleagues share tales of anthems past and present. From those written on prison walls in blood and to others so complex that vast swathes of the population are forced to mumble along.

Baku 2015: Under The Spotlight
With the inaugural European Games opening in Baku, the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie looks at how Azerbaijan has prepared for the arrival of 6,000 athletes. She also investigates the attitudes of ordinary Azeris, who are finding it harder than ever to make ends meet at a time when the economy is badly affected by falling oil prices.

Who's reading in Kenya?
There's been ongoing debate in Kenya about why people are reading fewer books. The country produces internationally acclaimed authors such as Ngugi wa Thiongo and Billy Kahora but the culture of reading is in decline. David is joined by two Kenyan reporters from BBC Africa to find out what is on their bookshelves and to discuss why Kenyans are becoming less bookish.

An unusual solution to Bangladesh's peeing problem
For years authorities in Bangladesh have battled to stop men urinating in public but the Ministry of Religious Affairs believes it has found a solution. It is replacing the signs in Bengali, asking men to stop urinating in public, with signs in Arabic. And this appears to be working, even though most are unable to read the language. Bangladesh is a mainly Muslim country and therefore Arabic text is seen as sacred. BBC Bangla's Akbar Hossain has been out on the streets of Dhaka to investigate.

Ethiopia's Edith Piaf
Hewete Haileselasse celebrates the life of an Ethiopian icon, the singer Asnaketch Worku. She was beautiful and passionate, and her behaviour shocked conservative Ethiopia in the 50s and 60s. She died  four years ago, but she and her music are still loved by Ethiopians. A recent film about her, Asni, is currently showing at South Africa's annual Encounters documentary festival.

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