Myanmar’s de facto military dictator

This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear the answer to the question about the coup in Myanmar. We’ll celebrate International Women’s day with essays from listeners Adita Prithika and Srinivas Rao Nomula, there’s some great music for your listening pleasure, and Ollia is back with her Happy Moment. All that, and the new quiz question too! Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy!

Sound Kitchen Podcast RFI

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winners' names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Do you remember The Sound Kitchen Listeners Cookbook we published a couple of years ago, filled with your recipes? I have good news: our Communications Department has decided to re-print the original, and add some new recipes – from you, of course! So cooks, get your recipes to me, and quickly – we must “strike while the iron is hot”! Include a photograph of yourself, just in case we can include them this time around. Send your recipes to [e-mail] - don’t put it off!

It’s ePOP time!

RFI Planète Radio is sponsoring a video contest, and we want you to enter!

Planète Radio is an RFI department that gives voices to remote populations around the world. They are looking for 3-minute videos about climate change, the environment, pollution - told by the people it affects. Here’s what Planète Radio says about the competition:

“Environmental deterioration, climate change, pollution, everybody's talking about it. But amid articles, figures and expert reports, what do we really know about the feelings of the people already impacted? The video clips produced by the ePOP community in more than 50 countries allow us to hear from those who never ask for anything, yet have seen it all. Those who are already living with these changes that are deteriorating their quality of life.”

Your project should be intergenerational: get together with your grandfather, your aunt, someone older in your community and ask them how they feel about what is happening where they live, maybe in the place where they grew up. How do you feel about it? Tell us what you think, too.

For competition guidelines and more information about the different categories you can enter, click here    

You can also write to us at [e-mail] if you need more help.

We’re very proud that the winner in the ePOP 2020 RFI Club category went to an English language club – Adita Prithika’s RFI Agnichiragu Phoenix Club in Tami Nadu, India. Here’s Adita’s award-winning video.

She won a trip to Paris to attend an ePOP workshop (as soon as we have Covid-19 under control!) and five ePOP turning kits (tripod, lavalier microphone, USB key, report bag, t-shirt). 

Please note that you do not have to be a member of an RFI English Club to enter. Everyone is welcome!

The deadline for entries is 4 April, so time to get creative!

During the French lockdown to fight the Coronavirus last spring, we were constrained to stop broadcasting Paris Live, our afternoon news broadcast.

In the meanwhile, we are focusing on our digital presence, and making our website the best! You can read breaking news articles on our site, as well as in-depth analysis of current affairs, both in France and across the globe.

We are also developing new and exciting podcasts for you. There’s Paris Perspective, Africa Calling, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have a bilingual series - an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present at the RFI English service!  Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists.

Send me your music requests! I’ll make programmes of your favourite music when I can’t be in the kitchen to cook up something new for you … write to me at [e-mail]

To listen to our features from your PC, go to our website and click on the three horizontal bars on the top right, choose Listen to RFI / Podcasts, and you’ve got ‘em! You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our features from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is [e-mail]   If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([e-mail]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([e-mail]) when you write to them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven’t yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English Club, go to the Facebook link above and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).

There’s a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don’t like to do!

This week’s quiz: On 6 February, I asked you a question about Myanmar. On 1 February, as the new Parliament was about to be seated, the country’s military announced that it was taking over the government. The military alleged fraud during last November’s elections and cited the country’s constitution, which gives it the power to declare a state of emergency for a year. It arrested Aung San Suu Kyi — formally the state counselor, but really the country’s de facto leader — as well as other senior officials and a handful of prominent political and social figures. The already-powerful military Commander in Chief is now, essentially, a dictator.

My question to you was: what is the name of Myanmar’s military Commander in Chief?

The answer is: Min Aung Hlaing - “Senior General” is his title. There are daily demonstrations against the coup, and now the military is firing live ammunition at the protestors – as well as deploying its considerable very modern surveillance technology, quietly built up since 2016, at the beginning of civilian-military rule. Ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with illegally importing walkie-talkie radios, violating a natural disaster law by breaching coronavirus protocols, publishing information that may "cause fear or alarm", and breaking a telecommunications law stipulating licenses for equipment. She is currently under house arrest; if convicted, she faces two years in prison.  Her next hearing will be on 15 March.

The winners are: Mrs Asifa Riaz, who’s a member of the RFI Listeners Club in Sheikhupura City, Pakistan, and Jobayada Aktar Jai, who’s a member of the Nilshagor RFI Fan Club in Nilphamari, Bangladesh.

There are three RFI Listeners Club members on the list of lucky winners this week: Richard Wasajja from Masaka, Uganda; Jannatul Ferdoush Lameya from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and faithful listener and postcards-for-students contributor (teachers, write me and let me know if you want some for your students!) Ralf Urbanczyk from Eisleben, Germany.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “1914” by E.T. Mensah, performed by E.T. Mensah and The Tempos; Traditional music for the Myanmar harp; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; the fugue from the Sonata No 2, BWV 1003 by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed on the guitar by Tatyana Ryzhkova; “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” from the Irving Berlin musical Annie Get Your Gun, sung by Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Dance Hall Music” by Neville Livingston, sung by Bunny Wailer, who also plays percussion.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [e-mail]

This week’s question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 29 March to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 3 April podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

[e-mail]

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here