Browse content similar to 05/03/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Witness. I am back at the British library in | :00:00. | :00:37. | |
London, with more remarkable insights into history from the | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
people who were there. This month, we will hear from the Filipino | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
novelist who took part in the uprising against the notorious | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
Marcos regime. A survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor. And the | :00:52. | :00:58. | |
first woman chess player to humble the world champion. But first, it is | :00:59. | :01:05. | |
20 years this month since Serb forces retreated from the Bosnian | :01:06. | :01:12. | |
capital, Syriza. Ending the longest siege in history -- Sarajevo. Heavy | :01:13. | :01:25. | |
bombardment in salary a vote as forces defended their positions | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
against attacks from the Serb army. I grew up in war, overcame what I am | :01:30. | :01:41. | |
today during the wartime. When the siege started in 1992I was 16, | :01:42. | :01:47. | |
living with my mother, my brother and my grandmother. We lived in the | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
centre of Sarajevo. It was a battle to survive. We would get | :01:54. | :02:03. | |
humanitarian aid, mostly macaroni, some rice. Sometimes we got American | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
army lunchboxes that would contain a meal, enough for one soldier. But my | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
mother would spread it to four people for two days. The airlift was | :02:16. | :02:24. | |
what was feeding us. Each day, in order to get to work, I would have | :02:25. | :02:31. | |
to cross a bridge, and that bridge was extremely dangerous because it | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
is very open to a hill, and a particular spot on that hill where | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
the sniper was. Each morning, you would have to cross a bridge, | :02:42. | :02:48. | |
knowing that you might be watched by a sniper person on the hill. And at | :02:49. | :02:55. | |
some point, there was this guy with the camera who appeared out of | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
nowhere. First morning we were crossing the bridge and we didn't | :03:03. | :03:04. | |
really see him until the point that we stepped on the bridge, then we | :03:05. | :03:11. | |
saw him get out and prepare his camera. Then we realised he was | :03:12. | :03:17. | |
waiting for one of us to get shot. We felt like we were watched, and | :03:18. | :03:25. | |
everybody is watching these terribly bitches, but just watching them and | :03:26. | :03:35. | |
doing nothing about it. -- terrible images. I thought I would live in | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
war, my children would live in war, there would be no one left and we | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
would all die. But in 1995 real felt it was coming an end. Then it became | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
really scared, because not only did I know what shrapnel can do to you, | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
but also because I didn't want to be the one who dies at the end of the | :03:57. | :04:04. | |
war. That is just irony, you know. If I was going to die should have | :04:05. | :04:11. | |
died in 1992, not 1995. I expected to have an official announcement or | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
something like that that the war was over. I expected liberators to come | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
to the city. I expected there to be a huge joy and celebration and | :04:25. | :04:33. | |
everything, and... It was just... It was quiet. I expected that people | :04:34. | :04:42. | |
will live finally the lives that we deserve as someone who went through | :04:43. | :04:49. | |
the siege and terrible war with so many atrocities, so many massacres. | :04:50. | :04:58. | |
Very often I remember people that are not here any more, and very | :04:59. | :05:09. | |
often I asked myself why. She is now a successful actress. Next, to the | :05:10. | :05:15. | |
Philippines. A country dominated for decades by Ferdinand Marcos and his | :05:16. | :05:21. | |
wife in Melbourne. In February 1986, they were brought down by a wave of | :05:22. | :05:29. | |
popular protests. One writer was one of hundreds of thousands who took to | :05:30. | :05:39. | |
the streets. At the beginning, it sounded like it was a military coup | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
or uprising. We began asking ourselves if we should go out there | :05:45. | :05:51. | |
and support that uprising. For that instant, people were of one mind. | :05:52. | :06:03. | |
Get Marcos out whatever it takes. We had been under martial law for 14 | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
years, and people in a way had got used to martial law. President | :06:10. | :06:17. | |
Marcos and his wife in ruled together, very dark and Krul | :06:18. | :06:35. | |
dictatorship. -- cruel. When Marcos cheated his opposition out of the | :06:36. | :06:38. | |
presidency, it led to a massive protest revoke of the few military | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
officers who could no longer take Marcos and his men. The people came | :06:43. | :06:51. | |
out and protected the rebel army. It was like a huge picnic, actually. I | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
was there with my wife, I was there with our daughter, taking a gamble | :06:57. | :07:07. | |
on freedom. We found our voices, we found the courage that had preceded | :07:08. | :07:15. | |
too far in many of us. But we know that on the periphery of this | :07:16. | :07:22. | |
movement, where Marcos's mass forces, who wouldn't at one command | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
descend on us, it was the people you least expected, the nuns and | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
priests, women, who took to the forefront. They met the soldiers and | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
attack commanders with food and flowers. We were out on the street | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
and there was a sniper up in one of the towers firing down, but not | :07:44. | :07:51. | |
really at people but on the street. People would scatter and then | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
nervous laughter would be heard, and then we would slowly, giggling, | :07:57. | :08:05. | |
crawl back to our previous position. No Filipino really wanted to kill a | :08:06. | :08:08. | |
fellow Filipino. It just wasn't worth it. Marcos wasn't worth it. | :08:09. | :08:15. | |
Defections took place by the minute by the Tower. -- hour. Then in the | :08:16. | :08:30. | |
space of four days Marcos would be gone. 1-off generals has given me | :08:31. | :08:39. | |
the first formal confirmation. Has he left the country? I don't know, | :08:40. | :08:44. | |
but he is no longer there. The nation just exploded in euphoria. | :08:45. | :09:02. | |
Yet it made me feel myself worth again as Filipino citizen, but I had | :09:03. | :09:11. | |
something more to live for. But for myself and my family and my country. | :09:12. | :09:19. | |
Jose Dalisay, who went on to become one of the most acclaimed authors in | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
the Philippines. Now, in the course of history, wars have broken out | :09:25. | :09:31. | |
over many things. Including fish. In the 1970s, Britain and Iceland fell | :09:32. | :09:34. | |
out so badly overfished stocks in the North Sea that there were years | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
of military stand-offs. Witness went to meet Tom Watson, a veteran of the | :09:41. | :09:53. | |
so-called cod wars. Jedinak it was a sort of David versus Goliath | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
confrontation. The British fishing fleet was the biggest in the world, | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
and if we lost the Icelandic fishing ground, it was a major loss to the | :10:02. | :10:09. | |
British fishing effort. You could make something of yourself, you | :10:10. | :10:12. | |
could earn a lot of money. It was a tough job, it was very difficult | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
because you are away from home a lot. The so-called cod wars were a | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
dispute between the British government and the Icelandic | :10:22. | :10:24. | |
government on the right to fish around Iceland. And how many fish we | :10:25. | :10:30. | |
could catch. The Icelandic government wanted to take control of | :10:31. | :10:35. | |
the waters out to 50 miles. The British government said they weren't | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
entitled to that. It was a bit of a joke at first, light-hearted, with | :10:40. | :10:45. | |
them coming along and telling us we couldn't fish there and we would | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
move, and we would say thank you very much and carry on fishing. It | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
gradually got worse and worse, with the Icelandic people getting more | :10:56. | :10:59. | |
insistent. Then they developed a technique for cutting the fishing | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
gear away, which created quite a problem, because once we lost our | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
fishing gear, we lost our livelihood. And we finished up with | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
a confrontation escalating out of control, and we have several | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
instances where there was quite severe confrontations between the | :11:18. | :11:19. | |
fishermen and the Icelandic coastguard. When we were kids will | :11:20. | :11:26. | |
have members of the family who were fishermen. During the summer | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
holidays we would go off to Iceland. I first went on I was ten, so did | :11:33. | :11:35. | |
everyone else. In my class at school. We would go off on board a | :11:36. | :11:42. | |
fishing boat to Iceland, every year. It seemed it was like the national | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
progression to then join the fishing industry, and we left school at 15 | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
and joined. I first became a skipper when I was 23. He was the mother, | :11:52. | :11:57. | |
the father, the doctor, the priest, everything. Everything that happened | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
on board he was responsible for. Each time the weather became | :12:04. | :12:09. | |
reasonable, and Icelandic boat would be among the fleet. They were | :12:10. | :12:19. | |
purposely show that he had his cutter, and he would go across and | :12:20. | :12:22. | |
cut it. We developed what we hoped was a deterrent. We would release | :12:23. | :12:30. | |
the rope when he went across the gear, and it would get caught up in | :12:31. | :12:36. | |
their propeller and they would come to stop. We always hoping that the | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
British government would come to some kind of an agreement, because | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
there were about half a dozen of us left, and a gunboat ordered us off. | :12:47. | :12:58. | |
We felt a bit sad, a bit bitter, unsure of what would happen, and we | :12:59. | :13:04. | |
came away with nothing. No right to fish Iceland, no quotas, the British | :13:05. | :13:08. | |
government had promised they would look after us and they didn't. We | :13:09. | :13:15. | |
were humiliated. If you sat a group of fishermen around the table with | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
the Icelandic government, they would have had an agreement within about | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
ten minutes. I never used to bother early on, because I was looking for | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
new opportunities. But when I sit back and look at it now I feel | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
bitter about the way we were cast aside. North Sea fishermen Tom | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
Watson. Remember, you can watch Witness every month here on the BBC | :13:39. | :13:42. | |
News channel, or you can catch up on over a thousand radio programmes in | :13:43. | :13:43. | |
our online archive. Let's move now to the highbrow world | :13:44. | :13:58. | |
of international chess. Chess was very much a man's game until the | :13:59. | :14:04. | |
emergence of Hungarian prodigy. She's been telling Witness about the | :14:05. | :14:07. | |
day she beat the world champion Garry Kasparov. In my life it was | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
very important that my parents put the goals at the highest, that I | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
should challenge Garry Kasparov and Bebe world champion. My father had a | :14:19. | :14:27. | |
very special idea, the way he wanted to raise his kids. He believed it | :14:28. | :14:32. | |
would be the best if we were homeschooled but much more focusing | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
on a daily basis on playing chess. I have a middle sister, she's seven | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
years older than I am, and I have another sister, Sophia. I was about | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
five years old when I started to play chess. It was very clear that I | :14:49. | :14:56. | |
am talented, I've played good. I started to play against adults from | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
a very young age, practically from the very beginning. Judit from | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
Budapest was up against Israeli grandmaster, needing just a draw to | :15:08. | :15:10. | |
win the whole tournament, she easily took the title. I was the only girl | :15:11. | :15:17. | |
player most of the time already in those competitions. It was difficult | :15:18. | :15:21. | |
for me to get used to the fact that I am playing alone with all those | :15:22. | :15:28. | |
guys. Kasparov was the world champion already in 1988 when I met | :15:29. | :15:32. | |
him. He was watching my game, that's what I heard from other people, | :15:33. | :15:37. | |
that's what they were telling me, and it gave me a lot of inspiration, | :15:38. | :15:41. | |
already he looked at what's going on. When will there be a woman world | :15:42. | :15:48. | |
champion? Maybe she's sitting next to me. I was training daily many | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
hours and I made a lot of efforts and everything in order that I get | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
into the top elite between the male players. | :15:59. | :16:07. | |
I played Garry Kasparov starting from 1994 on many different | :16:08. | :16:18. | |
occasions. It was a very special psychological match with Kasparov | :16:19. | :16:23. | |
for many, many years. I sit down at a table, I had all the respect to | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
him, he's the world champion. And somehow you don't have the | :16:29. | :16:30. | |
self-confidence, the knowledge. He has this appearance that you should | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
know already before the game that who wins the game, right? | :16:36. | :16:49. | |
It was Russia against the rest of the world. I was part of the rest of | :16:50. | :16:58. | |
the world team. Somehow he chose a very bad opening, I think. It was | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
the Beryl in defence and I took my chances, I played a solid game and | :17:04. | :17:07. | |
he made a few mistakes and I took advantage of them. He conceded very | :17:08. | :17:18. | |
well, his body language, his movements, he's shaking his head, | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
holding his head. Of course, I saw it on the board what's going on. | :17:23. | :17:27. | |
When he resigned it was very clear that it doesn't make any sense to | :17:28. | :17:32. | |
play longer. He was very much annoyed that he didn't give a great | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
fight. It was kind of an historical moment that I won finally a game | :17:38. | :17:43. | |
against Garry Kasparov. It was very special. Judit Polgar there, talking | :17:44. | :17:50. | |
to Witness at her home in Budapest. And finally, to 1941 and the | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
devastating Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Our | :17:56. | :18:02. | |
last Witness is Adolphe Kuhn, who is advised the raid that brought | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
America into World War Two. December the seventh, 1941, a date which will | :18:07. | :18:19. | |
live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and | :18:20. | :18:22. | |
deliberately attacked. Everywhere you looked bonds were coming down. | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
All around you you could hear the explosions on different ships. It | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
was a nightmare. Japan had it all figured out. They knew when to hit | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
and that's why they picked Sunday because Sunday was church day and | :18:39. | :18:46. | |
fun day. The day of Pearl Harbor, I was 19 years old, I was on my way to | :18:47. | :18:54. | |
church that morning. Two sailors came along in a model a row for and | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
they said get in, we're at war, and they started heading towards the | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
Pearl Harbor Navy base -- a road for. All around the little car, not | :19:05. | :19:11. | |
a bullet hit us. Oh, God, they were so close. The landing gear was | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
touching the top of the palm trees. You could see how low they were. | :19:16. | :19:22. | |
everywhere I looked there were ships and explosions going on and all | :19:23. | :19:25. | |
kinds of things. Ships were sinking. Some were leaning to the | :19:26. | :19:32. | |
starboard side, some were leading to the port side. The guys aboard were | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
jumping in the water from the ship. Someone with a megaphone," We need | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
help to go aboard these ships". I said I was heading for the Arizona, | :19:44. | :19:47. | |
the Arizona was closest to my barracks. It was all up siding, the | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
hand railing was burnt out and all that, I had to grab the railing and | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
I finally made my way up and by the time I got to the top of my shoe | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
soles were smoking because the steel was so hot on top and there were | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
five bodies all burnt out. You almost couldn't recognise them. | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
Pretty soon I heard a voice, I looked over and it was one guy over | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
by the gun turret and I walked over to him, and St Peters pulled him | :20:15. | :20:21. | |
home. That's the way it went all day long. -- St Peter. Then I got off | :20:22. | :20:29. | |
the Arizona and went towards my hangar, the planes could have | :20:30. | :20:36. | |
exploded, the tyres were already on fire burning. The machine-guns in | :20:37. | :20:39. | |
the cockpit were going off and the bullets were going everywhere. As I | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
was on my way down, that's when the Japanese pilot spotted me and his | :20:45. | :20:50. | |
bomb doors opened up and when I saw the bomb coming towards me, I said, | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
Adolf, this is it, I really did say that, I know that. The bomb came and | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
it went in the concrete, and big chunks like the size of a | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
Volkswagen, and propellers and wings and landing gear landing on top of | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
everything, or I got was these little pebbles. So the Guardian and | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
was looking after me, you know that. With all those explosions | :21:16. | :21:21. | |
going on and all that death going on everywhere, and me being in total | :21:22. | :21:27. | |
safety. That's unheard of, you know? After 19 close calls I'm still | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
alive. So I have to have a guardian angel here. There's no other way. | :21:33. | :21:37. | |
It's not just one of those things you know that happens. | :21:38. | :21:50. | |
Pearl Harbor survivor Adolphe Kuhn there. And that's all from Witness | :21:51. | :21:57. | |
for this month. Next month we will be in her Van Erp to bring you five | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
witnesses to the history of Cuba. But for now, from me, and from the | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
rest of the Witness team, goodbye. -- in Havana. | :22:09. | :22:31. | |
Snow has been causing issues out and about and it still will do | :22:32. | :22:35. | |
Ice a big concern however where we've had showers, | :22:36. | :22:41. | |
even if they haven't been of snow, things are freezing over there now. | :22:42. | :22:45. |