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The Fifth Floor

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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

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The Fifth Floor: Should Celebrities Run for Office?

Documentaries

Kanye West

11/09/2015 GMT

Should Celebrities Run for Office?

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Should Celebrities Run for Office?

The actors and musicians who have won and lost on the political stage

Celebrities as politicians; Tanzanian singer banned; learning your ABC; an inside view of the Habre trial; nostalgia for Egyptian royalty.

The first round of the Guatemalan elections has been won by a TV comedian. Jimmy Morales once played a blundering cowboy turned accidental president but now he's one step closer to the real thing. A couple of weeks ago US rapper and super celebrity Kanye West announced, in a rambling and probably not altogether serious speech, that he would run for US president in 2020 provoking a flurry of speculation on what he might bring to the White House. So what can celebrities do for the world of politics? David is joined by Fifth Floor friends to discuss

Why has a popular Tanzanian singer been banned?
Tanzanian singer Shilole has been banned from performing by the country's National Arts Council and told that she cannot associate herself with music for one year. It goes back to an incident in Belgium when she had a wardrobe malfunction and revealed a little too much flesh. BBC Africa's Kulthum Maabad and Zuhura Yunus discuss what's been happening

ABC
To mark World Literacy Day this week we traverse the Fifth Floor to hear the clever tricks and songs used in different languages to teach their ABCs.

Hissene Habre on trial
As the former president of Chad appears in court accused of war crimes, BBC Afrique reporter Nathalie Magnien describes reaction in the capital N'Djamena to the long-awaited trial.  Alongside Nathalie is her husband, former BBC journalist Mahamat Adamou, who experienced the fear and oppression of the Habre regime first-hand.

Nostalgia for King Farouk 
A milestone was passed this week when Queen Elizabeth II became Britain's longest-reigning monarch. She came to the throne in 1952, the same year that King Farouk of Egypt was forced off his. But why, 63 years on, are young Egyptians so nostalgic for an era they never knew?  Angy Ghannam of BBC Monitoring in Cairo sheds light on Egypt's love affair with the past.

And Fifi shares her favourite stories from the web this week.


(Picture: Kanye West
Credit: Getty images)

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