:00:00. > :00:25.Now on BBC News it's time for Witness.
:00:26. > :00:29.Hello and welcome to Witness with me, Tanya Beckett, here
:00:30. > :00:40.We've got another five witnesses who have shared their personal memories
:00:41. > :00:42.This month, we'll hear from the British
:00:43. > :00:47.scientist who helped alert the world to an environmental tragedy,
:00:48. > :01:03.one of the thousands of Danish Jews who escaped the Holocaust, and
:01:04. > :01:06.But we begin with an assassination which shocked
:01:07. > :01:10.In 1981 the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, was gunned down
:01:11. > :01:24.Our first witness is his widow, Jehan Sadat.
:01:25. > :01:27.I knew from the beginning, since he took the decision, to go to Israel
:01:28. > :01:30.and make peace with Israel, I knew that my husband would be killed.
:01:31. > :01:38.He was the first leader, the Arab leader, to make peace with
:01:39. > :01:42.Israel, and it was such a very difficult time for people to
:01:43. > :01:46.absorb what he was saying, but he believed in peace as a mission that
:01:47. > :01:58.Clouds of black smoke rose from piles of burning tyres and
:01:59. > :02:01.piles of refuse, set alight by the Palestinians and the Lebanese
:02:02. > :02:04.leftists in protest against the visit to Israel of President Sadat.
:02:05. > :02:07.But my husband believed he was to bring up the new generation
:02:08. > :02:19.Since my husband went to Israel, every time - everyday, every minute
:02:20. > :02:21.he was out of the house meeting for something -
:02:22. > :02:24.I always believed he would not come back, that he would be killed.
:02:25. > :02:33.We received many threats telling him that they would kill him.
:02:34. > :02:37.He knew it, I knew it, but we didn't talk about it because we didn't want
:02:38. > :02:45.I remember he was saying, while we were walking, you know, Jehan,
:02:46. > :03:06.I was watching the parades for the 6th of October.
:03:07. > :03:11.That day, I told him to put on the bullet
:03:12. > :03:20.He said, no, no, no, if the bullet comes to my head, am I
:03:21. > :03:27.Then, as the parade was reaching its climax,
:03:28. > :03:31.with most people distracted by an air display, two grenades exploded.
:03:32. > :03:34.When it happened, my bodyguard pushed me, because the
:03:35. > :03:44.bullets were coming in the window, and I said, what are you doing?
:03:45. > :03:50.He said, this is my duty, Madam, and really he saved me.
:03:51. > :03:53.When the bullets stopped and the fire stopped, I rushed to the
:03:54. > :04:04.NEWSREADER: The assassins managed to cut down at least ten people,
:04:05. > :04:08.President Sadat was rushed straight to a helicopter which took him
:04:09. > :04:16.The hospital was crowded with people.
:04:17. > :04:20.The chief of doctors was there, and I told him, why are you here?
:04:21. > :04:29.He looked at me and he said, I can't bear it.
:04:30. > :04:45.I knew what happened when he said, I can't.
:04:46. > :04:54.I knew it would come, but when it came it was such a big shock,
:04:55. > :04:57.to lose not only my beloved husband who I had loved
:04:58. > :04:59.all my life, but he was my partner.
:05:00. > :05:01.It was something very hard, to face life
:05:02. > :05:17.After the fall of the Soviet Union, scientists were able to assess
:05:18. > :05:20.environmental conditions behind the Iron Curtain for the first time.
:05:21. > :05:22.And on a trip to Central Asia in 1990,
:05:23. > :05:25.they confirmed that the Aral Sea was shrinking at an alarming rate.
:05:26. > :05:27.Witness spoke to Professor Denys Brunsden, of King's College, London.
:05:28. > :05:30.The Aral Sea is in a special category of its own.
:05:31. > :05:37.It is the fourth biggest inland lake in the world, and it shrank
:05:38. > :05:46.This is the greatest loss of water caused by human beings
:05:47. > :05:55.A Russian professor invited us to go to a conference,
:05:56. > :06:02.I think it was an adventure for any British academic to go
:06:03. > :06:04.into the Soviet Union, let alone to go to Uzbekistan
:06:05. > :06:18.As we flew over the Aral Sea, we began to realise there was
:06:19. > :06:30.Stalin needed cotton for the army, for his tents and clothes,
:06:31. > :06:34.so he introduced cotton growing in the area and
:06:35. > :06:37.the only way you could do that was by irrigation in a semiarid area.
:06:38. > :06:40.The result of doing that is that you do get salination
:06:41. > :06:44.of the soils over time and the soils lose their fertility, so the obvious
:06:45. > :06:49.thing to do if you are losing fertility is to use fertilisers.
:06:50. > :06:52.You will use pesticides and then the next step is to
:06:53. > :06:56.defoliate, get rid of the leaves, so that the picking is easier.
:06:57. > :06:59.What happens when the sea level goes down is that it actually goes out,
:07:00. > :07:03.and it exposes the sea floor, and that sea floor was salt and mud, and
:07:04. > :07:06.silt and sand, and all the human waste from the Zardoya River, and
:07:07. > :07:09.all the pollutants from all of the agriculture as well,
:07:10. > :07:38.What then happens is that you have seasonal winds blowing,
:07:39. > :07:42.and particularly the Northeast wind, which sweeps
:07:43. > :07:46.right across this exposed sea bed, picks up a dust cloud, and it is
:07:47. > :07:49.It goes over towns and it causes untold damage.
:07:50. > :07:51.The young children were getting respiratory illnesses,
:07:52. > :07:53.they couldn't breathe, there were problems with the women
:07:54. > :08:19.I can remember walking from the hotel, and there were women just
:08:20. > :08:22.sitting under loquat trees all the way down the road, they had nothing
:08:23. > :08:31.and they looked very hungry and poor, so
:08:32. > :08:33.with a few colleagues we went into a
:08:34. > :08:36.nearby shop and bought a bag of goodies and took them back,
:08:37. > :08:40.and chatted to the ladies and just walked on leaving the paper bags for
:08:41. > :08:43.the food there, and the next day when I came back one of the women
:08:44. > :08:46.was still sitting there and she had obviously wanted to give
:08:47. > :08:50.us something back, and I can remember her just reaching up to
:08:51. > :08:53.the loquat tree and picking a seed and just putting it in my hand.
:08:54. > :08:57.It was all she had to give me, and I brought it home, and it is growing
:08:58. > :09:03.A shorter line is the only place on earth where the land and the ocean
:09:04. > :09:06.and the atmosphere meet, and it meets in a long narrow line, because
:09:07. > :09:09.it is a shock absorber, absorbing all the energy of the sun, through
:09:10. > :09:11.the wind, into the waves, and the beach goes, 'thanks very
:09:12. > :09:32.If you haven't got the sea there, crumbs.
:09:33. > :09:35.And now to the elegant world of ballet.
:09:36. > :09:38.In recent years some of the most exciting dancers have
:09:39. > :09:41.come from Cuba, and that is largely down to a remarkable prima ballerina
:09:42. > :09:44.She founded the Cuban National Ballet company more
:09:45. > :11:38.than 50 years ago, and she spoke to Witness in Havana.
:11:39. > :11:40.NEWSREADER: Immediately following the
:11:41. > :11:44.revolution in 1959, Alicia and her first
:11:45. > :11:47.husband, Fernando Alonso, were given the money and support needed to
:11:48. > :13:40.found the National Ballet company of Cuba.
:13:41. > :13:49.A recent prima ballerina, Alicia Alonso, now in her 90s. Remember you
:13:50. > :13:54.can watch Witness every month on the BBC News channel or can catch up on
:13:55. > :13:56.over a thousand radio programmes on our online archive. Just go to our
:13:57. > :13:57.website. Now to an incredible story
:13:58. > :14:00.of survival. When Nazi Germany invaded Denmark
:14:01. > :14:03.during the Second World War, the Jewish community feared
:14:04. > :14:15.for their lives. But, miraculously, almost all of
:14:16. > :14:25.Denmark's choose managed to escape to neighbouring Sweden. Our next
:14:26. > :14:30.witness, Bent Melchior, was one of them -- Denmark's Jews. When we
:14:31. > :14:37.closed the doors to our apartment, we did not know whether we would
:14:38. > :14:41.ever come back. My father was then the acting rabbi of the Jewish
:14:42. > :14:50.community and was therefore one of those that was first informed, when
:14:51. > :14:59.the German Navy Aketxe gave away three days before it happened that
:15:00. > :15:03.the Germans were going to deport -- Aketxe. If they were going to be
:15:04. > :15:06.arrested, they should try to leave home and find a place where they
:15:07. > :15:14.could hide. My parents decided to try to find a way to Sweden. The
:15:15. > :15:19.fishermen that brought Jews over had to charge people, because besides
:15:20. > :15:23.being in personal danger they also had the danger that there are boats
:15:24. > :15:33.would be taken and they would not be able to have any livelihood. This
:15:34. > :15:41.day on this boat was anyway on pleasant, but that was part of the
:15:42. > :15:46.situation -- unpleasant. It was especially unpleasant for my mother
:15:47. > :15:52.who, which I did not know at the time, was pregnant. There were a
:15:53. > :16:01.number of miracles necessary, but we actually found their way to a place
:16:02. > :16:05.in southern Sweden were no refugees had arrived before, and where is
:16:06. > :16:13.little boy at the age of six was playing at the shore. When he saw
:16:14. > :16:18.our little boat for a way. He was the son of the fishermen. The moment
:16:19. > :16:30.when the father said, welcome to Sweden, welcome. That was the moment
:16:31. > :16:45.where we could breathe. And it was unbelievable.
:16:46. > :17:00.The fishermen himself and his wife died, but the little boy was still
:17:01. > :17:04.alive and continued to live in the very same house so I have visited
:17:05. > :17:12.again and again -- fisher man. Although we were well received, and
:17:13. > :17:22.I often say that we were luxury refugees, I learned that the refugee
:17:23. > :17:29.is a very difficult situation. You are nobody, so if you want to become
:17:30. > :17:40.somebody you have to start from nothing. Denmark was liberated on
:17:41. > :17:49.the 5th of May, 1945. Before the end of May, we actually came back to
:17:50. > :17:54.Denmark. To come back and opened the door again -- open the door. It was
:17:55. > :18:15.like opening the doors to heaven. That was rabbi Bent Melchior there.
:18:16. > :18:20.Our final witness this month has made more of a contribution than
:18:21. > :18:24.most to modern life. He is the Indian businessmen who had the
:18:25. > :18:30.bright idea of opening the company 's first Coll centre in 1998. It is
:18:31. > :18:37.still open today and we went to Delhi to visit. You know, I wish I
:18:38. > :18:43.could tell you there was a Eureka moment, but there wasn't -- call
:18:44. > :18:49.centre. It seemed so surprising nobody thought of it earlier. We
:18:50. > :18:59.were the first one to start because centre in India. -- to start a call
:19:00. > :19:03.centre in India. You could hire a chartered accountant for 14,000,
:19:04. > :19:09.15,000. You could hire a Masters degree. It was just being able to
:19:10. > :19:14.walk around the streets and find gold dust. It was very difficult to
:19:15. > :19:19.convince people initially for the very simple reason that our phone
:19:20. > :19:24.lines did not work. In those days we all had three phone lines at home,
:19:25. > :19:28.or two, because one was down all the time. When we went to the telecom
:19:29. > :19:31.authority, of course they laughed at us. We will let you have a full
:19:32. > :19:36.miser you can dial people all over the world. It is not going to
:19:37. > :19:41.happen. But I am by nature an optimist. That is what gave me the
:19:42. > :19:48.confidence. Also foolishness, fundamental foolishness! For which I
:19:49. > :19:52.am very proud. Slowly, doggedly, we got the phone line. Outside this
:19:53. > :19:59.building, if you go, a true landmark of India. A giant satellite dish.
:20:00. > :20:06.Getting that big satellite dish in place was the start, in some
:20:07. > :20:17.respects, of the entire revolution. The first Coll -- call centre, we
:20:18. > :20:23.did not have its own proved, so we brought saris and curtains, it was a
:20:24. > :20:27.shambles. We had saris everywhere, about 18 people making calls. There
:20:28. > :20:31.was an air of excitement and adventure, men and women working
:20:32. > :20:35.together in a way that did not happen in India at the time much. It
:20:36. > :20:40.was quite liberating, I think, on some level, and people were willing
:20:41. > :20:45.to try. If calls did not go through, you would try again, people would
:20:46. > :20:48.hang up. Clients would call was with a broken down supplies and our
:20:49. > :20:52.people had never seen a washing machine before. You know that thing
:20:53. > :20:57.at the back leaking in the washing machine... What? One customer was
:20:58. > :21:03.kind of wondering where the hell this call was coming from, or what
:21:04. > :21:07.was this funny accent. Lots of us still do. Then teaching our people
:21:08. > :21:13.how to manage that. Don't let them be hostile. If they are, push back
:21:14. > :21:16.after a while. Don't get upset yourself but if somebody is too rude
:21:17. > :21:22.feel free to push back. You know, lots of cultural assimilation,
:21:23. > :21:27.training and handholding. We had accent correction training going on
:21:28. > :21:34.and then feeling out, you know, what do we call ourselves? If I say
:21:35. > :21:39.hello, this is an Indian name, they don't know, but if I say, hello,
:21:40. > :21:44.this is piqued, that is OK. When you are in the throes of it, you don't
:21:45. > :21:49.realise what you've got and what we had was a tiger by the tail -- my
:21:50. > :21:53.name is Pete. Many cities have been built around this industry because
:21:54. > :21:58.these are young kids and if you look at them, they have money, they will
:21:59. > :22:03.spend it. There are kids here who financed homes, tuition, for their
:22:04. > :22:07.relatives. It has changed people's lives. I don't know of anything else
:22:08. > :22:14.like that. You look every day and think, my God, what did we spawn
:22:15. > :22:19.here? Indian businessmen Pramod Bhasin, still proudly working at his
:22:20. > :22:23.call centre. And that is all from Witness this month, here at the
:22:24. > :22:28.British Library, but we will be back next month with another round-up of
:22:29. > :22:31.history, as told by the people who were there. Thank you for watching
:22:32. > :22:41.and goodbye from me and the rest of the team.