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Factual: Life Stories

People reflect on how they will do things differently after living with a deadly virus.

In a series of special programmes recorded as the world gradually ‘unlocks’ during the Covid 19 crisis, we hear from people of all kinds, experiencing life on different continents, in different countries, in rural and urban societies, reflect on aspects of their lives and determine ways in which they want to do something differently. They offer up small and large initiatives; acts that give expression and focus to the change they are undertaking. These echo the Resolves that each of us will also make in recognition of our own preoccupations given the charge of life and the proximity to death, seemingly closer, in the presence of the disease.

We hear Resolves that will bring about a greater awareness of the natural world or the decision to provide mobile healthcare to giving school pupils new educational structures. We also hear the frustration of young Zimbabwean Anele Matshiselaa  who sees the terrible deterioration of health and the natural environment but it has nothing to do with Covid 19 – this is the long term drought that has bought the country to its knees and is the cause of people crying that they would rather die of the virus rather than desperate days of contamination and dehydration without water. He determines an important change in his work in wildlife research and management.

Resolvers include Primatologist Frans de Waal (US), Olympic Gold Medallist Sally Gunnell in the UK, Head Teacher Caroline Hodges (UK), International curator Juliana Engberg (NZ) and Environmental Journalist Gayathri Vaidyanathan (India).

Resolves: Resolves: Frans de Waal

Frans de Waal

20/06/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Resolves, Resolves, Frans de Waal

How a psychologist is trying to find ways for humans to live alongside animals

Frans de Waal, a professor of psychology who is renowned for his work with non-human primates, resolves to find ways in which humans can learn to live alongside animals.

Frans de Waal, a professor of psychology at Emory University in the USA, who is renowned for his work with non-human primates, resolves to find ways in which humans can learn to live alongside animals.

“The problems we have with the diseases that are coming up are all problems of us setting ourselves apart and thinking we can do anything we like with animals, with nature - because we think we are far superior.”

During lockdown, he’s imagined a new system for supermarkets to adopt which will let customers know where the meat they are buying has come from, and make clear what is meant by, for example, ‘free-range’ or ‘organic’. He proposes a scan code on the packaging that customers can read with their smart phones, which gives images and information about the farm and the ethos of the farmer.

A Cast Iron Production for the BBC World Service.
Part of Rethink - a series of programmes on BBC Radio looking at how the world should change post-coronavirus.

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