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From Our Own Correspondent: Matters of Life and Death

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Matters of Life and Death

31/12/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Matters of Life and Death

China's idealists; prejudice in Hungary; Gough Island birds; a British/Senegalese family

The things that matter: stories of China's awkward idealists, xenophobia in Hungary, culling mice to save birds on Gough Island and parenting advice (via Skype) from Senegal

In China, Carrie Gracie's been wondering about the role of principles - whether they're personal, ethical, religious or political - in a conformist society whose leaders don't encourage alternative ideas. Yet despite the Communist Party's iron grip on power, she's met people in surprising places who still insist they won't give up on what they consider right. 

Nick Thorpe has lived and worked in Hungary for years - as has Dr Ussama Bourgla, a medic originally from Syria. Last year they met as the doctor tried to help migrants on their way from the Middle East to Germany. This year, facing a rising tide of prejudice within Hungary, the doctor and his family have decided to leave the country and start life anew elsewhere.

Gough Island is 'an outpost of an outpost' - a speck of land in the South Atlantic, near Tristan da Cunha. Chris Carnegy recently met a man who's trying to save its unique and endangered albatross species... with a carefully-planned cull of giant mice, brought here by human contact, which are devouring the birds' hatchlings.  

And Jane Labous gets some parenting advice from her mother-in-law - with the added 21st-Century twist that the tips are beamed from Senegal to the UK, via Skype.

Photo: Demonstrators shout slogans outside the Hong Kong Legislative Council on November 13, 2016, during a rally (AFP/Getty Images)

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