Month: March 2013

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Is the Kenyan election already decided?

Kenya votes for its next President on 4th March. The opinion polls show that it is neck-and-neck between the two main candidates but an influential Kenyan political scientists has warned that the polls are wrong. Mutahi Ngunyi?s predicting a win for Uhuru Kenyatta and his Jubilee Coalition because of what he describes as ?the tyranny of numbers? - there are simply more registered voters from the ethnic groups that are likely to support Kenyatta than those for his rival Raila Odinga. But will Kenyans vote along ethnic lines ? Ruth Alexander finds out. Also, was the Pope the subject of divine intervention when lightning struck St Peter?s Basilica at the Vatican just after he announced he was stepping down? Or was it just a coincidence. More or Less looks at the chances of this occurring.

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Start the Week - Feminism: Natasha Walter and Catherine Hakim

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy explores the state of feminism today. It's fifty years since Betty Friedan's landmark book, The Feminine Mystique, questioned the role of women in society. Anne McElvoy discusses that role today with the Living Dolls author, Natasha Walter, the proponent of erotic capital Catherine Hakim, the radical feminist Finn Mackay and the journalist and academic Shereen El Feki who has been looking at the changing sexual attitudes and behaviour in the Arab world.

This programme will be followed by a phone-in edition of Woman's Hour on feminism. If you would like to take part in the programme you can email now via the Woman's Hour website or phone from 0800 on Monday 4th March on 03700 100 444.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

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World Book Club - Romesh Gunesekera – Reef

This month on World Book Club Harriett Gilbert will be talking with one of Sri Lanka’s leading writers, Romesh Gunesekera, about his acclaimed novel Reef.

Reef is the moving, multi award-winning story of young Triton, a talented young chef who goes to work for Mister Salgado, a marine biologist obsessed by swamps, sea movements and the island's disappearing reef.

So committed is Triton to pleasing his master’s palate that he is oblivious to the political unrest threatening his Sri Lankan paradise, and yet subtle undercurrents of impending doom do ripple through Triton’s haunting story of memory and friendship.