27/02/2016 Reporters

Now on BBC News it's time for Reporters.

Welcome to Reporters, I'm Phillipa Thomas, from here in the world's

newsroom, we send our correspondents to bring you the best stories from

around the globe. In this week's programme, a scar on India. Naomi

Grimley reports on the women who're victims of acid attacks. After

seeing the mirror, I howled and screamed so much. I said things like

"my face has been ruined" and "it would have been better if I died".

Hard times for Russia. Steve Rosenberg reports from Siberia on

the economic crisis. He's hounded by pro-Kremlin media who blame the West

and the BBC for the country's woes. By now it's clear that we are being

followed. Everywhere we seem to go, local television comes along with

us. The camera suits her...

Sex and the disabled. Comedian Romina Puma talks frankly to people

about disabilities about how they feel their sexuality needs are

ignored. I would have people saying nasty things, parents pulling

children away from me. If you have no confidence, how are you ever

going to have a sexual relationship? They say we get the leaders we

deserve. And, murder, back stabbing and corruption in the American

presidential election, but it's not the real thing. We meet Kevin Spacey

as he's honoured at the National Portrait Gallery. The most

satisfying aspect is when people talk to me about the character I

played as if it's a three dimensional person.

It's the ultimate act of malice committed by a man on a woman, every

year hundreds of Indian women are victims of acid attacks, and its use

as a weapon against women seems to be getting worse. It's often a

vicious response to rejection of marriage offers or sexual advances

and it destroys the women's lives. Victims are frequently shunned by

their own communities, even their own families. But one charity is

trying to help acid attack victims to get back their confidence and

their lives. Naomi Grimley has been to visit the project and meet some

of the women. You may find some images in her report distressing.

Faces scarred irreversibly. Lives changed for ever by acid attacks.

But these women are very much survivors, not victims. And part of

their recovery process is to tell their stories to the outside world.

In the shadow of the Taj Mahal, they've found a sanctuary of

normality in this cafe set up by a local charity.

Like any other waitresses, they take orders from tables and chat to the

steady stream of back-packers who pass through town.

Rani is the newest arrival and the story of her attack which left her

blind is all too familiar. TRANSLATION: There was a boy. He

loved me. It was one-sided love and he used to follow me around. One day

he accosted me in the street and tried to force himself on me. I

slapped him. That made him angry. So after a few days, he attacked me

with acid. My family blamed me. They wanted me

to agree to that man and let him do as he pleased.

But I didn't want to be involved in the trappings of love or marriage, I

wanted to study. Rani says the women at the cafe have

given her the strength and support she didn't get from her own family.

Working here isn't just about earning a living, it's also about

regaining a life and because many of the women here were scarred when

they were very, very young, rediscovering their confidence is

part of the key to survival. These women have already become

local celebrities. Here, they're filming a video for the cafe

website. Dolly was just 12 when she was

attacked, yet another case of a rejected suitor. She recalls the

moment she first saw her face. TRANSLATION: After seeing the

mirror, I cried and howled and screamed so much. I said things like

"my face has been ruined. And "it would have been better if I died,

why did you save me? " But my mother told me that I'm still beautiful, I

don't cover my face any more, I live my life my way. I like that I have a

job here. I like that my parents feel proud of my work and in the

fact that I'm standing on my own feet.

Back in the cafe, I meet mother and daughter Gita and Nitu. Gita's

husband ang ray that he had no heir threw acid on both of them when Nitu

was three. In some communes they might have been kept out of sight.

Not here. TRANSLATION: I just think victims

and survivors should not sit at home. They should shoe the attacker

that you think you have ruined my life but my life is not ruined.

Whatever your dreams are, you should keep at fulfilling them. Don't hide

because you have done nothing wrong. TRANSLATION: What I feel because of

working here is that people now love us. Even the people that wouldn't

speak to us earlier now do. I feel that we are finally respected. I

felt earlier like I didn't have a family and now I have such a big

family. As evening falls, Dolly and her

colleague chat and laugh about the maces they would like to go and the

things they want to do. Their advice to other women who've been scarred

is, try and look forward, not back. Disfigured once yes, but empowered

now too. Through its military operation in

Syria, Moscow has been projecting the image of a Russia reborn, a

global power to rival America. Back home though, problems are mounting

for President Putin. The economy has been hit by a falling oil price and

western sanctions. For now, Mr Putin himself remains popular, but falling

living standards are fuelling criticism of the authorities. Steve

Rosenberg travelled to Siberia and found some of the pro-Kremlin media

blaming the West for Russia's economic woes.

Dawn in the icy heart of Russia. Sleely, almost imperceptibly,

Siberia stares. Falling oil prices and Western sanctions have made life

tougher here. Russia's economic crisis is biting like the cold.

For this family, crisis means cutting back on the weekly shop. We

used to buy quite a lot. Now only sometimes I can buy just one, only

one piece, not a kilo. We used to buy three packets of

milk, now we take one. Well, cheese, I don't buy it because it's

expensive for me. We have a lot of oil, we are a very

rich country. We have a lot of mineral resources, yes, but we live

poor. Really poor. Economic problems are fuelling

frustration. We find the local Communist Party

out on Lenin sqhair. They're demanding bigger pensions and better

government -- Lenin Square. TRANSLATION: I like our President,

but he doesn't show his people enough attention. He's too busy with

Foreign Affairs. Russians are a famously patient

society. They also traditionally trust the man at top, whether that's

the czar or the President. But protests like this one are a warning

to the Kremlin, that with the economy getting worse, people's

patience is running thin. And how do the authorities react to

this criticism? By blaming the West. We are hounded by pro-Kremlin TV

channels here. This one accuses the BBC of telling lies, of discrediting

rush Russia and its President. Next day, we arrange to meet the head of

a local Internet company who's been hit by the economic crisis. Business

is shrinking. Unfortunately, I have to say that a lot of companies is

closing today. Then look who turns up, and barges

in. He demands to know what our report is about. Well by now it's

clear we have been followed. Everywhere we seem toe go, local

television comes along with us. On TV that evening, we are headline

news. Back home from the supermarket,

Marina tells me she doesn't blame the West for Russia's problems.

TRANSLATION: I think our country should be rich and it should go

another way. I'm not understanding all processes. I feel inside that

something is wrong. People here don't want another

Russian revolution. All they want is a better life for their families and

a secure future. Calais has long been seen as a

gateway between France and England. But it's now become a purgatory for

thousands of migrants stuck among its sand dunes. The French

authorities now want what they see as the squalor of the camp known as

the Jungle cleared and they've begun its partial closure. Gabriel gate

house visited the camp as hundreds of residents were given a deadline

to leave and the bulldozers moved in.

They're cold, the mornings in the jungle. The wind whips in off the

coast, blowing with it the elusive promise of a new life from the other

side of the channel. But the bulldozers are ready and there's the

threat of change in the air. Many people spend the nights trying

to cross, so mornings are usually quiet.

But not this morning. Volunteers are trying to make as much noise as

possible. We are here this morning trying to make sure that the maximum

number of people are out of their shelters to give an idea of the

number of people who 're actually in the southern part of the camp. A

magistrate will visit the camp to decide whether to give the go-ahead

to the authorities who want to dismantle it. Refugee charities say

they have drastically underestimated the numbers. We know there are over

300 unaccompanied children in this part of the camp alone. If the

bulldozers arrive and the volunteer who is work with the children here

every day lose track of them, then they're effectively lost in the

system, we don't know what will happen to them.

The magistrate arrives and is treated to a chaotic guided Tour of

The Jungle. The issue is whether the authorities have the official

capacity to accommodate these people. There is a lot of commotion

here as the judge has come to visit the camp. Her purpose really is to

check for numbers. The authorities want to move the inhabitants of the

jungle into this fenced off area. But campaigners have carried out a

census in the camp and they say the population is three times the

official estimate. Plus, most people don't seem to like

the look of these shipping contain. What will you do if they bulldoze

this camp? You know, I don't know, but I have to go. They say you could

live in these containers, you don't want to do that? If I live in

container, that means I'm going to make asylum in France. You don't

want to do that? For sure. Why not? Because as I told you, France they

do not believe that we are in danger, that we are in war, and they

don't believe our cares and problems. And you think that Britain

will be more sympathetic. I guess so. I believe in that.

Rightly or wrongly, almost everyone here thinks life would be better in

Britain than in France. Most have little or no connection to the UK,

but some do and they are not encouraged by the magistrates'

visit. What do you think will happen now? I think the Jungle will finish.

There was no reaction, nothing positive from the magistrate. From

her body language you could tell? Yes. What are you going to do now? I

don't know, probably be on the street or something. Go on the

street? Yes. There are no other choices. Where are you from?

Afghanistan. You speak very good English? Yes, I was a translator in

Afghanistan. Who for? The The British Army.

It might seem perverse for people to be so attached to this mud and

tarpaulin settlement on Europe's northern edge, but there is a real

sense of community in the jungle. There are English lessons in the

warmth of a heated classroom. There's a library called perhaps

inevitably Jungle Books where people while away the hours in-between

attempts to cross the channel. There are restaurants and barber shops,

even a theatre housed in a dome-shaped tent which has become

the Jungle's unofficial Town Hall. It's never been our argument that

this jungle should remain. We have been here for five months and I've

always said the conditions here are not worthy of any human being. The

disease and mental illness we are seeing, it's a treacherous place,

but at the same time, they are trying to evict so many people with

such a short amount of time for them to find somewhere else to go, it's

crazy. Most people who live here aware that

conditions are far from ideal, but there's a lot of resistance to

leaving, not only because of the sense of community that's built up

here, but also because doing so would take them one step further

away from their goal. They've travelled thousands of miles

to get this far, often with great danger and expense, they are not

about to give up now. Where are you going? What are you trying to do?

Trying to go to London. London? Yes. Day in day out they hide

themselveses in the backs of lorries trying to get across. Most of the

time they get caught. It's a little over an hour's journey

from here to Lord's cricket ground. These people are so close. And yet,

the prospect of attaining their goal seems to slip further and further

into the distance where the bulldozers are waiting.

Being told you're not sexual, that you have to accept you can't have

sex, seeing friends visibly recoil when the topic is raised, well

that's the kind of thing some disabled people say they face on a

regular basis. For many people, sex or the lack of

it isn't an issue, but for others it can be, and that leads to feelings

of isolation. Romina Puma is a comedian diagnosed with muscular

dystrophy ten years ago and has used a wheelchair for the last three

years. She's talked to people about disabilities and what for many is a

taboo subject. Her film contains frank sexual conversations from the

very beginning. Now, I have muscular dystrophy which

is Sa rare muscle waste condition. To give you an idea of the effects

it has on me is like my facial muscles are falling down, and so is

my vagina. Until a few years ago, my life was

pretty normal. I used to have a boyfriend, I used to go out on the

pull, get with guys, but then my condition got worse and I started to

use a wheelchair. Sense s since then, it's been very difficult to

have sex. Guys just aren't as interested.

I want to know if our society is ignoring disabled people's rights to

sex. To learn more, I'm off to Sheffield

to meet one couple who lived with their disabilities from birth.

When you don't look the same as everybody else, people are afraid of

that. I had people around me saying nasty things, I would have parents

pulling their children away from me, so that kind of destroys your

confidence quite a lot. If you have to confidence, how are you ever

going to have a sexual relationship? I pushed it aside, because in my own

mind, I was totally undesirable. How was it meeting Shital? We were

friends years before we met and Jamie knew who I was and who I am

and, as we got together and developed our relationship, we had

sexual confidence with each other. And how has this relationship

changed you? We've got that stability and you get somebody who

is there for you no matter what, that makes you happier and more

confident. There is no way I'm ever going to be able to do all the

positions in the Kama Sutra, but hey, show me a person that can! I

think what's more important is that we are actually happy together. What

would you like to say to the people who still don't recognise the fact

that even if we are disabled, we still need and want a sex life? We

are absolutely no different no anybody else, we are human with the

same needs, wants, desires, as anybody else. Until disabled people

are seen as that, the rest isn't going to happen.

I was doing some research and I found the Kama Sutra for disabled.

Even from my comedy, I'm trying to raise awareness and, you know, I

hope that we are going to get to the point where we are going to be

considered like any other person and not just, you know, a disabled

person. Romina, Puma reporting. The National

Portrait Gallery in Washington has a complete painting of US Presidents.

Now there's also an impostor on the walls, Frank Underwood, the

fictitious President from the House of Cards played by Kevin Spacey. It

raises questions about the crossover between popular culture and

politics, something many observers of the current presidentern campaign

have been pondering. Jane O'Brien went to meet President Underwood.

They say we get the leaders we deserve... The political

machinations of Frank Underwood have mesmerized audiences for years. Now

his character, played by Kevin Spacey, has stepped off the screen

and on to canvas at Washington's National Portrait Gallery. I suppose

I shalled be pleased that I'm going to be hung in our nation's attic. Of

course if they knew what was in my basement, they wouldn't hang me so

close to Lincoln, they would hang me next to Booth instead. It was

unveiled at a gala with all the razzamatazz of show business. Who is

in that portrait, Frank Underwood or Kevin Spacey? Frank Underwood. This

to me is the most satisfying aspect of what I'm able to do for a living,

is when people talk to me about the character I played, as if it's a

three-dimensional person. The painting is the work of one of

Britain's leading portrait artists Jonathan Yoe who's painted Spacey in

character before. You are trying to find the inner truth of someone,

trying to unmask them and get through to who they are, whether

it's something they are trying to show you or not. The actors are

basically in the deception business, trying to convince you that they are

someone else. The better they do their job, the harder it is for me

to do mine in a sense. The gallery has a long tradition of showing

actors in character, but rarely have the lines between reality, fantasy

and contemporary culture been so completely blurred. This whole event

is utterly surreal. You have a genuine work of art by a real

British artist of an actor pretending to be an American

President against the backdrop of an actual race for the White House

that's had so many different plots, twists add turns, that frankly, the

producers of the House of Cards couldn't have made up. It's a life

of imitating art. Season four of House of Cards seeing Frank

Underwood campaigning for re-election. I'm Frank Underwood and

I approve this message... So what does he or Spacey think of the real

thing? Americans generally get it right and we'll probably figure it

out. We'll look back on this time and go, wow, that was crazy. There

have been times when the presidential rest's felt like

episodes of the House of Cards, hopefully though no-one will vote

for Frank underwood! That's all from Reporters for this week, from me,

Phillipa Thomas, for now goodbye.