Satire
It's Monday, January 14th.
An American archeological company is fighting a legal battle with Spain over the discovery of half-a-billion dollars worth of ancient, colonial sunken treasure. The company says it has rights to the find because it was found in international waters.
Currently ... that's funny. That's almost exactly what Spain said about South America.
This is The Current.
Residential Schools
In Canada's aboriginal communities, the stories are all too well known. Tales of violence and sexual abuse in residential schools; of native children who died or simply went missing; even dark plots involving mass graves and outright murder.
For more than 75 years, Ottawa ran residential schools across Canada in conjunction with four Christian churches. And over the years, many of those stories -- especially the most extreme among them -- have never really been fully investigated. That's set to change next month, when Ottawa will open a truth and reconciliation commission for survivors of residential schools. One of the main issues that will face the commission is how to account for the children who -- to date -- have never been accounted for. Many aboriginals say that, above all else, they want the commission to answer two simple questions: What happened to native children who died in residential schools? And where are their bodies?
Yesterday morning, a group of native protesters confronted Rev. Glenn Dion, Rector of the Holy Rosary Cathedral at a Mass at the Cathedral in downtown Vancouver, and demanded answers.
We didn't have to look far here at CBC Radio to find a family directly affected by this issue.
Emma Saganash is the Area Manager for the CBC's Northern Quebec service. She is Cree from northern Quebec. And her oldest brother John was taken away to a residential school in 1954 at the age of six before Emma was born -- and never returned home. Emma Saganash joined us from our Montreal studio to tell her family's story publicly for the first time.
Listen to The Current: Part 1
(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)
The Current: Part 2
Hazelnuts
There's a pretty simple lesson in this story: don't put all your eggs in one basket (and be careful with your hazelnuts while you're at it).
Turkey is by far the world's largest supplier of hazelnuts. The tasty little nuts are used as a flavouring for cereals and as an addition to chocolate, and they are all harvested in a two week period. And those two weeks mean economic life or death for thousands of people who have invested time, land and energy in growing this one crop.
But the harvest this year was poor. And when the only crop going tanks, so does the economy of the region.
And that's the problem. The simple lesson often goes unheeded. The Turks aren't the first to invest in a single crop that promises riches and they won't be the last to experience disaster when it doesn't pan out.
Freelance journalist Dorian Jones traveled to Ordu, Turkey and prepared a documentary on this subject, part of our on-going series, Diet for a Hungry Planet.
Music
Artist: Twelve Girls Band
CD: Romantic Energy
Cut: #3, "River Shule"
Label: Domo Records
Listen to The Current:Part 2
(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)
The Current: Part 3
Aquatic Dispute
The last lines uttered by Jim Hawkins, the protagonist in Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island, summarized his feelings about his wild search for Captain Flint's treasure and the bloody toll it took on he and his companions.
The search for sunken treasure has spawned no end of fiction over the years. But in fact, there are an estimated 3 million very real sunken ships all over the world,. many of them thought to be full of gold and silver.
Archaeologists believe about eight thousand of them are from the old Spanish Empire. In May 2007, when a private U.S. company called Odyssey Marine Exploration uncovered a shipwreck off the coast of Spain, it made waves with the Spanish Government. To date, Odyssey Marine Exploration has recovered 500,000 silver coins worth an estimated $500 million. That's prompted Spain to take Odyssey Marine Exploration to court in an attempt to figure out where the wreck is located, and if the coins are Spanish.
Mark Gordon, the President of Odyssey Marine Exploration, spoke to us from Tampa, Florida, to explain the case.
Aquatic Dispute
This underwater treasure trove is causing a perfect storm of controversy across Spain. It's made headlines and has prompted the Spanish Government to start thinking about what other kinds of sunken treasure might be buried deep under the ocean. Spain's Minister of Culture has called for a comprehensive Subaquatic Archaeological plan to map out all known shipwrecks.
For his thoughts on what the Spanish Government should be doing in this case, we were joined from Madrid by Gustavo Aristegui, a member of the Spanish Parliament with the opposition People's Party.
Aquatic Dispute - Mel Fisher
One of the most famous modern day treasure hunters was a man named Mel Fischer. He devoted his life to treasure-hunting and literally struck gold when he found the Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita, two Spanish galleons that sank during a hurricane back in 1622 near Key West, Florida. The haul from the Atocha alone included more than 40 tons of silver and gold, including 100,000 Spanish silver coins known as "Pieces of Eight." In all, it's estimated to be worth US$450 million.
Mel Fisher died in 1998, but The Current caught up with his grandson Shawn Fisher, who shared these memories of his treasure-hunting grandfather.
Last Word - Of Paradise and Failure
We closed the show with a short preview of a documentary called "Of Paradise and Failure" by producer Nelofer Pazira, to be aired on Tuesday, January 15 on The Current. (Note: this preview not available for Internet use)
Listen to The Current:Part 3
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