Kuwaiti women look forward to new political rights

June 4, 1999
Web posted at: 10:49 p.m. EDT (0249 GMT)

By Scott Herron, CNN World Report

In this story: Angolans caught in war without end Hands reach out to poor in South Africa, Zambia Russian inmates plagued by hunger, disease Polish miners demand government subsidies Balkan broadcasters examine embargo, Milosevic Shanghai pulls the shades on 'light pollution A moving tale about a minga MORE ABOUT CNN WORLD REPORT

Women in Kuwait can now look forward to new political rights beginning in the year 2003

Women in Kuwait have new reason to celebrate: the right to vote and hold public office, beginning in 2003.

But their new franchise doesn't come without opposition. Some conservatives in the country oppose universal suffrage, despite its support by Kuwait's ruler, Sheik Jaber-Ahmed al- Sabah.

Imams have even spoken out against it from their pulpits, and have criticized lawmakers in parliament who support increased rights for women. This is happening, despite a government warning not to breach the subject of upcoming parliamentary elections from the pulpit.

Kuwait z provided background on the extension of political rights to women in Kuwait on a recent segment of CNN World Report. Reporter Najwa Assran explained how Kuwaiti women make up more than 50 percent of the population, and 30 percent of the work force.

"Kuwaiti women are regarded as the most liberal in the gulf region and already occupy many important positions in the society, as ambassadors, heads of newspapers, business women, and even the head of the Kuwaiti University is a woman," she says.

Children in Angola face a grim future in a country still at war after years of fighting

The story in Angola is not so much one of women's rights but of the right of virtually every person in the country simply to survive. Many don't.

Angola is a country saturated with violence -- of self- inflicted genocide. For the last 25 years, since independence was won in an earlier blood feud with Portugal, a fratricidal conflict between government troops and UNITA rebels has destroyed a generation of Angolans.

Superpower influence and mercenary soldiers of various stripe once played a role in the conflict. But most outsiders eventually grew tired of the killing Not so the Angolans. They've kept at it.

Peace came briefly earlier this decade. But it didn't stick. Fighting resumed again last December. Both sides routinely claim victory.

TPA Angola recently told viewers of CNN World Report what it's like for people caught in the middle who seek the most minimal of comfort in refugee camps:

"Those that manage to arrive to these makeshift camps must deal with the worst subhuman conditions imaginable.

"There are more than a million refugees that depend on outside assistance for their survival. The government authorities and the humanitarian organizations have already forewarned that if there is no increase of international aid, we may face the perils of a major catastrophe."

Two other broadcasters who contribute to CNN World Report recently reported on different struggles taking place in Africa. In them, the fight is not against marauding armies in the night, but the more mundane forces of persistent poverty that inhabit daily life in developing countries.

United Nations Television reported on efforts to provide decent housing to the poorest of the poor in South Africa.

Both U.N. agencies and South Africa's government are involved, cobbling together a combination of self-help programs, community involvement and government subsidies and loans.

The efforts described by ZNBC in Zambia are more modest, a low-key program to help children who live on the streets of Lusaka reconnect with their families, or benefit from government and nongovernment-financed social welfare programs.

The story told by ZNBC reporter Henry Ngilazi involves little more than the Zambian government inviting the street children of the nation's capital to partake of one wholesome meal on one special day.

After describing the modest efforts to help the children, Ngilazi concluded: "Some of these kids will still find their way back on the streets. The onus is now on society to look after these children. Some of them can become better citizens if given the right incentives and proper direction."

Inmates at a Moscow prison are forced to contend with overcrowding, hunger and disease

There seemingly is little incentive, little hope, for the inmates of a Russian prison portrayed in a report by Swedish TV 1. Reporter Eva Elmsater visited Matroskaja Tishina in Moscow, along with cameraman Don Titelman, and revealed what she described as a man-made hell.

She told CNN World Report viewers: "The conditions are probably worse today than when it was built 100 years ago. There's overcrowding, hunger and disease.

"Each man has about one square meter of living space. There are beds for only a third of them, and the prisoners sleep in shifts."

Elmsater adds: "Tuberculosis is a real killer. Almost a hundred prisoners die here every year. There's just not enough money for treatment."

Another tale about a downtrodden segment of Russian society that aired on CNN World Report -- this one after English translation -- originally was broadcast on the Russian network ORT.

It examined the once successful woodworking industry town of Zelinogorsk in the Murmansk region near Norway and how the closing of four wood factories has had a devastating effect on the town and its people.

ORT disclosed that among the town's 10,000 inhabitants, only 1,300 are still employed, and those without jobs haven't received unemployment benefits for two years.

The report showed townspeople receiving humanitarian aid from Norway, and chronicled the discouraging burden of shame that often comes packaged with handouts to proud people accustomed to working for a living.

One man told viewers: "Wouldn't you feel bitter? After working so many years I have to come here for food!"

"I wish we had jobs and not this humanitarian aid," a woman told ORT.

Police in Poland clash with striking coal miners who take their protest to the streets of Warsaw

Many workers in Poland also are out of work, and in the case of laid-off coal miners, they're not quietly accepting their fate. They're demanding government assistance.

Polish Television reported on a recent protest in the capital Warsaw that turned violent and included clashes with police.

The miners want more government subsidies for workers who have decided to leave Poland's unprofitable mines. There are plenty of them. TVP reported that only two out of 61 mines made a profit last year.

TVP explains that the restructuring of Poland's mining industry means cutting jobs by more than 40 percent, and that the government has not allocated enough funds to satisfy all of those miners who lose their jobs, or seek retraining.

A Solidarity trade union official told TVP: "I will not agree to dismissals of miners without a severance package. The government wants to close down the mines, so the government must take full responsibility for the well-being of the employees of these mines."

Still two other CNN World Report contributors examined how the conflict over Kosovo has affected their countries.

In the case of Romanian TV, that meant reporting on the government's efforts to enforce the oil embargo against Yugoslavia. The two nations are neighbors -- with the Danube River serving as their common border.

TV Slovenia provided the other report. It was a simple form of journalism, consisting mainly of Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek and President Milan Kucan recounting their past associations with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and offering insights into his character.

"If Slobodan Milosevic is a person who has a political credo, then this credo is the principle that in politics all means are legal, that in politics there are no opponents, only enemies, which result in the principle: Those who are not with me are against me," Kucan said.

In describing a conversation he once had with Milosevic, Prime Minister Drnovsek said: "He started with some historic thesis about greater Serbia, and his political career actually started in Kosovo. It's obvious that his political career is also coming to an end with Kosovo."

New government regulations limit the amount of glass on new construction in Shanghai

Several recent submissions to CNN World Report from China have focused on the Chinese government's reaction to NATO's airstrikes against Yugoslavia, and on the strains in China's relations with the United States over U.S. allegations of spying.

But one contributor, Shanghai Television, told viewers a rather unique tale about urban "light pollution" and efforts to stop it.

Reporter Huang Zheng explained how Shanghai is the first city in China to restrict the use of glass in buildings, partly due to safety and security concerns in the advent of fire, but also because of objections to the harsh glare of the sun reflecting off the glass.

Huang concluded: "As a new type of external decoration, glass walls have been well accepted by city people, but in order to create a safer and healthier life, modernization has to be compatible with the environment."

Another unique story came to CNN World Report by way of Chilean National Television.

It takes viewers to an island village in southern Chile to witness a minga, a word that comes from the ancient language spoken in the archipelago of Chile.

It describes a form of communal solidarity in which an entire village helps to move a building from one place to another, relying mainly on people and animal power.

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Chilean National Television's Claudia Corvalan takes us to the minga
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