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A taste of Cuba at the presidential inauguration today Monday January 21st from Public Radio International the BBC World Service and WGBH Boston. This is the world. I'm Marco Werman a more subdued inauguration this time we get a foreign perspective and hear about the first Cuban-American inaugural poet. And later India's national debate over sexual violence sparked groundbreaking conversations I had this very challenging conversation with some of the family members who were like Why are Indian men violent. You know and I'm like men are violent everywhere Indian men it's not unique. We're all parts of the system. Plus China's censors taking aim at the latest Bond movie. But no matter. Anyone who really wants to see the original film can just go down to their local pirated DVDs shop and you can pick it out for a dollar fifty. BBC News with David Austin. President Obama has told hundreds of thousands of people in

Washington that a decade of war is now ending and economic recovery has begun. In his inaugural speech at the start of his second term Mr. Obama said America's possibilities were limitless and urged Americans to seize the moment. More from Jane Little in Washington. The crowds cheered as President Obama took the oath of office. His left hand placed on two bibles one belonging to Abraham Lincoln the other to Martin Luther King. He used his second inaugural address to remind Americans of their unique heritage and of the need to come together to seize this moment. He spoke of an end to a decade of war and an economic recovery that's begun. And he outlined an ambitious agenda for his second term. Climate change immigration reform gun control even women's rights and gay rights got a mention. French forces in central Mali have captured two towns from Islamist militants following a week of heavy fighting and airstrikes. France says its forces have taken control of jumbling which had been seized by rebels earlier this month.

Some 400 kilometers to the east. Mark Doyle has been to jumbling and sent this report. The main military base in Diyala Lay is a dreadful mass of smashed buildings and unexploded ordnance. The base was targeted by French military aircraft before French ground troops moved in. Abandoned army uniforms testified to the fact that the Mahdi army fled away in a hurry dressed as civilians when hundreds of Islamists invaded the town. A week ago this is the first major defeat the Islamists have suffered since they seized the whole of Northern Mali nearly a year ago. But that is just one small town. The French have a lot of work to do. The Algerian prime minister has been giving more details of the attack by Islamist militants at a remote gas plant last week. Abdul Malik Selar said the militants had planned the attack over the past two months researching the layout of the plants with the intention of blowing it up. The group crossed the border from northern Mali he said and included 11 tunas IANS. And at least one Canadian.

Russia says it's sending two planes to the Lebanese capital Beirut to evacuate any Russians who want to leave neighboring Syria. Russia has been one of the Syrian president's strongest backers from Moscow Steve Rosenberg has this report. The aircraft had been dispatched to evacuate around 100 Russian citizens medical teams will be on board the planes. This does not appear to be the start of a full scale evacuation of Russian nationals. There are thought to be thousands of Russian citizens living and working in Syria. Moscow has made no secret of the fact it has made contingency plans for a possible future evacuation. Such an operation would almost certainly involve the Russian navy. Steve Rosenberg Well news from the BBC the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made his final appeal to undecided voters on the last day of campaigning before Tuesday's general election. Mr. Netanyahu once again laid out his campaign promises to keep Israel safe and resist

international opposition to building more Jewish settlements. The latest polls show Mr. Netanyahu remains likely to win. Colombia's Fark rebels have reportedly launched their first attacks since ending a two month long unilateral ceasefire on Sunday. The state oil company said part of a pipeline in the South was blown up. Reports say two police stations were attacked to the left when rebels declared their truce when peace negotiations began in Cuba. But the Colombian government refuses to hold military operations against them until a final peace accord is signed. An ethnic Kurd in France is being formally investigated over his alleged involvement in the killing of three Kurdish women activists in Paris earlier this month. Kurds blame elements within the Turkish state for the killing. But Turkey says there may have been an internal feud in the PKK. CHRISTIAN FRASER reports from Paris. The 30 year old man now in custody was one of two ethnic Kurds detained last week by specialist anti-terrorist unit leading the investigation. We believe he is likely to have been the killer or

one of the killers said the Paris prosecutor. The other man who was detained with him was freed without charge. The three women who were each shot in the head were Turkish born activists within the PKK movement. The key figure was Sakineh Johnson a co-founder of the group in the 1980s. The suspect was her occasional driver gunshot residue was reportedly found on his clothes. Football at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa are an equalizer from Allen try already late into injury time to draw one all against Nigeria in Nelspruit earlier Ethiopia to help the defending champions Zambia to a one all draw. Those are the latest stories from BBC NEWS. PR rise the world is supported by the Medtronic foundation helping patients take action for their help preparing frontline health care workers who help them along the healthcare journey and ensuring that more people around the world living with chronic disease get the proper care they need.

Medtronic foundation dot org. I'm Marco Werman this is the world. But coming up the uncommon purpose with passion and dedication. Let us answer the call. History and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom. A line from President Obama's second inaugural speech delivered today as per tradition from the west front of the U.S. capitol hundreds of thousands gathered on the National Mall to hear it big as it was this crowd was much smaller than the one that witnessed Obama's first inauguration four years ago. The smaller numbers match decreased expectations for a second Obama term. Gary Young of the British newspaper The Guardian is in Washington. He feels several factors contribute to a subdued atmosphere on this Inauguration Day. In the Webster shot day it's never as good as a fast. There's a sense in which all inaugurations are historic but this was the first black president the second time it was like a renewal of vows which is never quite as exciting as when the

first wedding. But there is a symbolic residence of it taking place a mountain for King diversity and the second time that's happened the 50th anniversary of the I Have A Dream speech in the March on Washington 100 the 50th anniversary of the emancipation. So anyone who knows the history now has the symbolic importance of this occasion but it does not have the historic. Once and it did. There are other reasons too. Certainly why this inauguration feels different from four years ago and that the country has changed a lot. Well there was a sense in 2009 of the country possibly even the world being in a kind of economic freefall and there was no sensible saying of where it was going to stop and that sense of it being in in freefall has gone. And therefore the weight of expectation that there was on Obama to solve this mess which I think was intimately wrapped up with the historic nature of it there was this sense of him being some people talked about as the super

Negro that he was going to come in and save the day. And the expectations of him probably the kind of rhetorical force with which a Bamma that stood as a candidate fest them is evoking also the civil rights movement the suffragettes and give the sense of a kind of radical departure. And this time the fact that America might elect a black president is now but now almost a banal fact of life it can still be something we stop and think about it but you would have to stop thinking about it. And you as a Brit I mean when you look on this debate and you know what does it all mean. How does it strike you. I find it intriguing and I'm not just a bit but a black Brit. When people ask me well could this happen in Britain. I generally say well the thing about America is compared to Britain. But people can travel. And that there are moral black men in prison. They're meant as slaves and I think if one doesn't get in the bad. But there was just one other

thing that I find intriguing. As someone who is not American which is this celebration of the integration is of the trappings of democracy America doesn't really do pageantry. You know Council horses go to 18th century as we would have been in Britain. But there is this kind of level of civic engagement that you don't see elsewhere. You know I was in London to gather opinions of U.S. leadership in the presidency prior to the November election and was surprised how cynical Europeans have become about Barack Obama. I'd have thought that at least the broad stroke narrative of President Obama would have continued to glow there but many had a tarnished feel and I remember hearing from people abroad when Bush 43 was president that their feelings about him didn't affect their view in respect of the American people. Has that change do you think. Well it has. There was very I'm offended expectation that a bomb as an action would signal not just a radical departure and I think it has been a significant departure from the Bush era. But a Radical

Reconstruction reform measure of American foreign policy amassed hasn't happened such as almost any comment about Obama the symbolic resonance people say yet droughts runs Pakistan. Guantanamo there are these touchstones abroad that make people think well it's great that he won. I don't think according to the polls there was any country with the possible exception of Israel that wanted Romney to win. And so there is a satisfaction an Obama won and he is still popular abroad. But American foreign policy is more popular than it was under Bush and still pretty I'm popular. Gary Young a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian He's in Washington for the you know your ration. One major foreign policy issue that faces President Obama today as it did four years ago is the war in Afghanistan. Some might say not much has changed. Early in his first term in 2009 the president tried to turn the conflict around by ordering a troop surge into Afghanistan. Stanley McChrystal was a general in charge then appointed by

President Obama himself. McChrystal had to resign in 2010 after a magazine profile of him was published in which his staff was quoted mocking senior administration officials. McChrystal now has a memoir out called my share of the task. He says the surge changed everything. It actually did quite a lot of you look at this from a few thousand times sense of foreboding. Imminent collapse the idea that the Taleban had momentum and that they century own the areas like the Helmand River valley they don't anymore. And the idea that there is rising violence has been reversed there's rapid violence the Afghan army has got a long way to go it doesn't ask us to leave but they come an awfully long way and the Taliban they are not a National Liberation Front coming to rescue the people on the government. In fact they are steered by the Afghan people as a negative thing. So what the Afghans you gotta do is stand up and take responsibility for their security and their sovereignty. They can do it. They have to do it.

Recently you did a Q&A with the New York Times and when the reporter asked if you had any regrets about Afghanistan you said you wish you could start again on September 12th 2001 and send tens of thousands of people to language school. Explain what you mean. Absolutely. As well-intended as American actions and interventions are we can do those things which are insidious for us for most conventional which we think will work the most quickly. And really what we need in my view is what we need to do in areas like Afghanistan is develop a cadre of people who actually understand the area who speak the language who understand the cultural build long term relationships. We can always send a number of troops somewhere but they were. Always be hampered by not understanding the area and also there are any bodies that are produced when two large American forces go almost by definition. We wander around with less appreciation and less care than we would if we understood the area so I think that America needs

to increase its cultural acuity dramatically. If you could go back and change one thing regarding your time in Afghanistan or undo something or do something differently what would it be. Well I was I believe that the strategy of counterinsurgency if you had were going back to 2001. But I think that's what you mean. We had no choice but to increase our focus on counterinsurgency in the Creech forces because the situation had gotten to where it was. I'm very comfortable with it. I would have containment of course much harder on relationships from the reach of Malaysian ships between my shelf and leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan may progress but at the end of the day I found that connection with the Afghan people and the leaders to be actually the highest payoff activity is if you did and if you had one piece of advice for the White House as they head off into the next four years and obviously focusing heavily on Afghanistan in the next two years what would it be. Yeah I think I've given a lot on Afghanistan in terms of

trying to understand the complex problems and think of it that way. The big thing I'd say is we're at a point now where we're not going to be able to solve problems from the two ends of the political spectrum that the salt settle and I'm hoping that both parties will move toward the center and end. Except that we just can't afford it. Retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal thank you very much. My pleasure. McChrystal was a top commander in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010 His memoir is called My share of the task as Washington prepared this weekend for all the inaugural festivities. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ruffled some feathers in China. Clinton made some remarks on the ongoing island dispute between China and Japan. Her words did not go down well in Beijing where officials accuse Washington of siding with the Japanese. The islands are known as giu in China and Senkaku in Japan. We call the World's Mary Kay maggot in Beijing for an update. I asked her first how today's inauguration is playing if at all in China.

It's getting white coverage. You're basically I think from the Chinese perspective this is a continuation of the Obama presidency so they don't see another big starting point. But. When it comes to the Deol you send Kaku conflict or tensions. The Chinese were very upset with Hillary Clinton's comments. Basically what she had said is we the United States don't have any particular view that we're going to state on who has sovereignty over the islands. But they are under Japanese administration and we don't want to see anyone act to undermine Japans rights to administer these islands. Now there is quite an outcry here. It was basically seen as the U.S. moving away from a more neutral position to one where it was siding with Japan. This seemed to be an important marker for Secretary of State Clinton to lay down because in recent weeks and months the Chinese military has been becoming much more aggressive in those waters starting in December. Military planes from China have started flying over the

what Japan says is its air space and just today three Chinese ships went in and out of those waters for about nine hours before leaving. I think the U.S. is looking with some concern at how much tensions have been ratcheted up by these sorts of actions. Well Secretary Clinton says she's going to be stepping down in the coming weeks what kind of challenges does this bring for President Obama in the next secretary of state I mean could these little islands Be The Mouse That Roared. Possibly but it seems that while there certainly are bellicose military types in China who are saying you know what we need are a few short sharp wars to remind everyone that China is a serious rising power a military power as well as a political and economic power. At the bottom line China really doesn't want or need a war. So it might be a good way to cool things down that the new Japanese prime minister Shinzo abbay is sending a personal letter through an envoy who's

coming to Beijing tomorrow basically calling for more dialogue and for improving relations that would at least take it down a notch. And from there the two sides could talk about what to do from that point on. Mary Kay before I let you go double 0 7 where is he when you need him. Apparently Skyfall the latest James Bond installment finally opened in China this week and I know that China routinely censors foreign films but is there anything noteworthy in what they cut from Skyfall. So there was a Chinese guard being shot in the head that was taken out. And there's a scene where someone saying I was tortured by Chinese security forces and it was terrible in the Chinese subtitles. The fact that the person was Chinese is not mentioned. But for Chinese watching the film who speaks in English still get it nonetheless. Have you heard of any Chinese Bond fans kind of being upset that the scenes have been cut out I suppose they'd want you know the more the merrier.

Well keeping this all in perspective anyone who really wants to see the original film can just go down to their local pirated DVDs shop and you can pick it out for a dollar fifty. Easy solution. The World's Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing thanks a lot. Thank you Marco. Still to come on the program an army hampered by an enemy and the unpredictably shifting loyalties of the local population. It's not the war you're thinking of. The world is brought to you with support from the Medtronic foundation helping patients take action for their health. Preparing for health care workers who help them along the health care journey and ensuring that more people around the world living with

chronic disease get the proper care they need. Medtronic foundation dot org. I'm Marco Werman this is the world. Israelis go to the polls tomorrow for a parliamentary

election. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict it turns out isn't the top issue on the minds of voters it's the economy. But the conflict still receives plenty of attention globally. Take the Oscar nominations. Among the five nominees for an Academy Award in the best documentary category are two films on the subject The World's Matthew Bell tells us about them. One of the film's Five Broken Cameras is very much a work of citizen journalism. It's about a Palestinian peasant his family and their village in the West Bank Billina has been a hot spot for what Palestinians call popular resistance since about 2005. That's when Israel started building its security barrier through the area cutting off the village from some of its land. And it's where the film begins how solid I know what I mean. OK I'm going to talk about also opens a video not his narrator co-director one of the main characters in this very personal story of the conflict. We're not shot much of the footage himself over the course of five years

beginning with the start of weekly demonstrations against Israel's fence. He went through five different cameras in the process as each was damaged during protests. Let's go live it to that letter I think there. Near the beginning of the project Bernazzani Jabril was born or not seems to keep his camera rolling constantly capturing some of Jabril first words the ongoing protests clashes with the Israeli army and arrests of his own family members. Want to do. The right thing. This footage shot by Bernard was what convinced Israeli filmmaker Guy Davidi to get involved with the project in 2009. It shows an older heavyset Palestinian man trying to prevent Israeli soldiers from arresting someone by climbing on the hood of their jeep. We're very sorry. I asked him and he actually told my 5 year thank you nice Roger Craig and.

So what. To be joined in as co director he says he wants this very Palestinian story told to one audience more than any other. His fellow Israelis the Oscar nomination changes everything for a small film like this he tells me. And if Five Broken Cameras does manage to win an Academy Award DVD says he hopes the Israeli government will not be able to say no when he tries to get the film shown in Israeli high schools. Should be drummed out of a room though America divorced. The other long form documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that's up for an Oscar. It's called the gate keepers. Its creator also had the Israeli audience in mind when he got to work. But in just about every other way these are two very different films. The Gatekeepers is much larger in scope it covers more than four decades of the conflict. The production has a big budget feel and rather than hearing from ordinary citizens the only character speaking in this film are six

former directors of Israel's intelligence service the Shin Bet convinced them sides to use. One. Man still. Is the number one man's freedom fighter. And the most important thing to this message comes from the secret of these ready security forces Israeli filmmaker drawer Moray told me it was vital for him to find the right messengers. People Israelis would take seriously and let them deliver an on assessment of how Israel has handled its conflict with the Palestinians doesn't come from the left doesn't come from those people who are used to speak against the occupation. It comes from the heart and the center of the defense establishment in and out of them. The reason I was thinking that this was not in the sphere drawn from dozens of hours of interviews with modern Israel senior most spymasters Moray covers a lot of ground in this film. Israel's response to both intifada sir Palestinian uprisings mass detentions and harsh interrogations targeted

assassinations of Palestinian militant leaders the emergence of violent Jewish extremists and the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In a sense the gatekeepers is more blatantly political than 5 Broken Cameras Moray wants to convey a sense that Israel's political elites on the right and left have failed to deal with the conflict strategically. And he says that's been evident in the current election season in Israel. Regrettably I'm sitting there I think. The neck of the ship among these really need to be something that is just it's the most dangerous. But was this election more a might one Israel's occupation to end but politicians who feel precisely the opposite are poised to do well in this week's election. A spokesman with Israel's foreign ministry I spoke with said the Israeli government welcomes the news that these two films are in contention for an Academy Award. Even if they are critical of Israeli policy art by definition is political he said. And if it isn't critical it's not art for the world I'm

Matthew Bell in Jerusalem. Check out the trailers for those two Oscar nominated documentaries and see interviews with the directors That's all at the World dot org. Cheating in sports has been in the news a lot lately especially since Lance Armstrong's televised confession in which he finally admitted to years of doping his dishonesty cast a long shadow over cycling even over its honest competitors which isn't fair of course to all the honest athletes out there. Luckily a story from Spain offers a more hopeful example of an athlete doing something good. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Barcelona event that at 9:00 this is a pretty big deal in Spain. He's a long distance runner who's won a bunch of regional titles mostly in the northern Basque region where he's from. Now he's an even bigger deal. No I don't think there's a risk of your species become part of it. Last month anon This was running a race here in Spain set to take second place behind a guy from

Kenya named I want to bronze at the London Olympics in the steeplechase competition. So it has a comfortable lead a few yards before the finish line and he just stops running for an underskirt is up but he doesn't pass and if I don't talk we are done for now there's told the Spanish TV crew what happened he said. I pulled up short and started waving to the public. He thought he'd already crossed the line. As I came up people were cheering urging him on but he couldn't understand them so I grabbed him and guided him forward and across the real finish line. Time had apparently become confused because the last few yards of the track were a different color and the sidelines were crowded with people. Ferdinand this crossed second because he said the race was already won. If he'd crossed first by taking advantage of his mistake he'd have gotten a medal some money. Instead his prize has been praise. This happened in early December but the video on YouTube has made veteran and this world famous for his good sportsmanship. His small gesture apparently struck a chord with sports fans after listening to Lance Armstrong tell Oprah about his

obsession to win at all costs. The way he turned on friends and colleagues suing them to shut them up when they were right Armstrong was a cheat. That story's been dominating headlines but the good guy stuff actually happens more than you'd think. And at all levels of sports. Thank you. This is from a high school track meet in West Liberty Salem Ohio. Last year 17 year old Megan Fogle was the favorite to win. Instead she stopped to help a stumbling rival to reach the line. As a result the two came in last and second to last. They could have been disqualified as well but the judges let it slide. Disqualifying confessed cheats may be easy but no one wants to punish real heroes when they come along for the world I'm Gerry Hadden. News headlines are coming up this is P. R. II Public Radio International.

I'm Marco Werman ahead why one young man volunteered to serve in the British army during the American Revolutionary War. By the time he was 15 or so he had quite enough of working in the coal mines so he went into the Army looking to better his life. He wanted a more stable profession he wanted something that had more prestige to it. BBC News with David Austin. President Obama has told hundreds of thousands of people in

Washington that a decade of war is now ending and economic recovery has begun. At the start of his second term in office Mr. Obama said America's possibilities were limitless. Urging Americans to seize the moment linking his country's founding ideals of freedom with equality. Mr. Obama said prosperity must rest on the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. French forces in central Mali have captured two towns from Islamist militants following a week of heavy fighting and airstrikes. France says it's now gained control of jumbling which was seized by the rebels earlier this month and some 400 kilometers to the east. The Algerian prime minister has said that Islam is militants who attacked a remote gas plant last week had planned the assault over the past two months and intended to blow the plant up. He said the militants crossed the border from northern Mali and included 11 to museums and at least one Canadian. A former youth leader from Ivory Coast has been charged with war crimes for his role in

post-election violence that swept the country two years ago Ivorian state television said sharp blade Goodday was also charged with murder and theft of public funds. He denies the allegations. Russia says it's sending two planes to the Lebanese capital Beirut to evacuate any Russians who want to leave neighboring Syria. It's the first such announcement since the uprising began. The price of European Union permits to produce carbon dioxide and other gases contributing to climate change has reached a record low. It means that companies have little incentive to invest in new technologies to cut emissions. Undermining the aim of the scheme. At the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament a late equaliser from a land show or a allowed bikini a fast so to draw 1 all against Nigeria earlier Ethiopia drew one all with the defending champions Zambia BBC News. PR rise the world is supported by the Medtronic foundation helping patients take action for their health preparing frontline health care workers who help them

along the healthcare journey and ensuring that more people around the world living with chronic disease get the proper care they need. Medtronic foundation dot org. I'm Marco Werman and this is The World a co-production of the BBC World Service PRI and WGBH in Boston. In India the trial of five men accused of gang raping and murdering a young woman in Delhi got underway today. The 23 year old woman was brutally assaulted on board a bus last month. Her attack and death sparked outrage across India and around the world. The world is in Delhi. There's been a motion to move the trial out of Delhi that often happens here in the US when a case is so in the public eye and there is a sense that defendants won't get a fair trial what's driving the proposal to move the trial out of Delhi. You know a month and a half after this incident the public mood is still pretty hot. People are angry people are

emotional and people want reform and people want justice for this particular victim. And that's why the defense lawyers are asking for the case to be moved out of Delhi because they feel like the alleged rapists will not get a fair trial in Delhi. What's the public mood right now and how has interest either waxed or waned in this trial. I was actually expecting that most people would have gone back to their own lives and they might have forgotten or nearly forgotten about this case. But that's not the case you know yesterday I visited this place called junk their mother in Delhi which has been the site of a lot of vigils and demonstrations. And there is still people there there's there was a group of people doing rotational Fost for asking for justice. So they're taking turns fasting. There was some people who've been fasting for several days. And you know there were four or five different groups of people all asking one

justice in this case justice for other rape victims and change and reform in laws and you know asking government to put in measures that put in shore justice for cases of sexual violence and measures to help reduce the number of cases all together. Ritu I know you had been avidly following this terrible story as it unfolded from Boston and now you're there in Delhi. What's really struck you so far about the mood and public reaction to the case so far and the upcoming trial. What's really struck me is the fact that so many people ordinary people have been moved enough to come out and and protest. And you know everybody I talked to keeps telling me that this is still it's such. A part of their everyday conversations I mean I've had friends tell me that cab drivers or auto rickshaw drivers or people in shops have brought up the topic of sexual

violence and are discussing how awful this is how we as a culture should change how the government should put in measures to you know prevent these cases for happening to make public places safer for women. So really for someone who's lived away for 10 and a half 11 years this is a huge difference. Now finally the victim's father urged the fast track court to deliver swift justice and sentence her attackers to hang. What is the likelihood of these men receiving death sentences death sentences. Very rare but on the other hand I have to let you know that a lot of people I have talked to including a couple friends of mine are still so enraged by the incident that they do feel very strongly that these men should be hanged. The world's free to chatter Gee speaking with us from Delhi who read his blog about how this crime has changed the way people talk about sexual violence in India is that the world dot org. The debate in

India has led some in the South Asian community here in the U.S. to open up about another related topic and that is how sexual violence is sometimes. Export it to America. The world's Monica Campbell has that story. Some enima sued remember certain childhood moments far too well when she was a girl in Pakistan raised by her Indian family. Relatives would visit her home and some paid too much attention to her. Even though I was part of an educated family I had to suffer through a lot of sexual exploitation as a young child at the hands of male relatives and it was deadly to talk about it or even acknowledge it leave alone ask for legal or social or psychological help for it. Masood eventually left Pakistan studied abroad and now works in San Francisco as a therapist and one of the reasons I started studying psychology to become a therapist was I never had a therapist to talk to and when I try to broach the subject of my sexual abuse with my family it was such

an awkward conversation and it caused so much pain and disable that you were taught that the best way is to just close your eyes and close your ears. Say a word and slip through it. Masood has worked for years with South Asian women facing sexual and domestic abuse including at San Francisco's Asian women shelter the shelter is in an undisclosed location. Reporters aren't allowed to visit. There been threats against the women living there. Advocates stress that women seeking shelter at Asian crisis centers like this are like women fleeing domestic violence anywhere. But they also know that South Asian immigrants face particular challenges. Of course we're at Maitri a nonprofit in the Bay Area focused on South Asians domestic abuse and cultural alienation. It's located in an office park. There's no sign outside and there's a separate entrance for clients. Sonia palaeo runs may traces the hotline. Absolutely please come in.

Polio says South Asian cultural norms coupled with immigration complications can leave some women feeling trapped in a scenario common in Silicon Valley. A South Asian woman joins her husband who already works here. She holds an H for or dependent Pisa which means she's not allowed to get a paying job. It can be isolating when there are problems is when the challenge starts happen. When marriages fail or turn abusive immigrant women can worry about their visas or deportation and sometimes there's the shame and stigma of a failed marriage. We would have young women call us and see I'll kill myself here but I won't go back. The families are being told well you must have done something to deserve this. You know there must be something defective with their daughter. We find many times to the violences office treated long distance and abuse cuts across class lines police says. It's not just poor an educated women who face it.

It happens to women with physicians who are nurses who are ingenious who are highly educated. But I think societal pressure is the key denominator here miters hotline gets thousands of calls a year from immigrant women seeking help. The group assists them in finding jobs apartments transportation and immigration lawyers in some cases attorneys file Freedom of Information Act requests to recover paperwork from husbands who can hide documents. Still says things are starting to change. When we first started doing outreach when I joined the agency 1000 years ago I could spend an entire day in a crowd of 5000 people and not one person would come by. And you know it was considered that we were making much ado about stuff that should be fixed and song within the family. She says now women come in asking about their rights. Bells ring at a Hindu temple in the Bay Area during one of several vigils following the

December gang rape in India. Pretty shaker a young Indian immigrant organized the first vigil. She runs near Reka a group focused on domestic violence in South Asians. Shaker says that since the rape in India calls to Rico's hotlines have gone up. And like many Indian Americans she says there's been some tough conversations at home. I had this very challenging conversation with some of my family members who were like Why are Indian men violent. You know I'm like men are violent. Everyone thought Indian men it's not unique. We're all parts of the system. We're re sometimes willingly or unwillingly have embraced a lot of these regressive notions of women. Shaker embraces discussions like this. In fact she's working with other activists here to hold a large public discussion about gender violence in the South Asian community next month for the world. I'm Monica Campbell. San Francisco and you can find an additional Indian-American perspective on this complex story. We posted an editorial by New America Media

that's at the World dot org. Let me read the opening lines from a new book by historian Don haggis. It was one of America's longest conflicts the government's professional army sent volunteer career soldiers accustomed to overseas deployments to fight in a land that was not well understood by many of the policy makers overseeing operations. Tactically the army was hampered by a Morpheus enemy and the unpredictably shifting loyalties of the local population. So guess what we're talking about Iraq Afghanistan. Nope I'm talking about the American Revolution and the government's professional army I referred to there was the British government's army the King's Own better known by the colonial insurgents as red coats. Don Haggis is with me in the World Studios His book is British soldiers

American war and you center on a collection of accounts written by a handful of British soldiers. We heard U.S. veterans of today Don who read your book and say that they can identify in some ways with these British soldiers even though they were America's foreign enemies. What parallels do you see. There are actually quite a lot of parallels and many of them are summed up right there in the introduction. There's a tendency to look at historical wars strictly in terms of good guys and bad guys so we lose sight of the idea that the armies are made up of individual people and they all had lives they had reasons for joining the army and the British army during this period was very similar in a lot of ways to the US Army today in that it was an all volunteer force. People who joined the Army as a profession they didn't sign on for a two year stint and then get out. They joined the Army with the expectation that that being their profession for the rest of their serviceable life kind of like West Point cadets almost without going to West Point. You could argue that yeah except that these men are not joining Service officers they have no expectation of

rising through the ranks during this period when we have a caste system in society anyway. They're expecting to be in the working class. They just happen to be in the working class of the military. Well I want to get to a couple of individual stories in a moment but I got to say as I went through your book I realized that my understanding of British soldiers was pretty shallow and kind of fit into maybe the stereotype you know we have this certain image in the popular imagination of the redcoats is mindless automatons you see in movies like The Patriot. But that doesn't kind of fit your description in this book. What do you base these stories on. Well these are all stories based on personal accounts of course and the focus of my own research is on the demographics of the British army there what kind of people served in it. Well tell us about one of them who was for example your favorite character in the book. One of my favorites is Thomas Watson. He actually left one of the shortest memoirs but fortunately there are some other documents related to his life that tied in and we should point out there's precious little evidence or memoirs of any of these records anymore.

That's very true that was another motivation for this book is with a very small number of first hand accounts. I wanted to try to pull as many as possible together in one place. Watson who I mentioned was very much like other British boys and young men. He was born in Cheshire and doing what a child would do during that time period he went to work as soon as he was old enough to work which is about seven years old then he went to work in the coal mines. As you might guess by the time he was 15 or so he had quite enough of working in the coal mines so he went into the Army looking to better his life he wanted a more stable profession he wanted something that had more prestige to it. And while he was in the Army he learned how to read and write. And this again goes against the conventional wisdom that the soldiers were among the lowest people of society they were all illiterate. They had no aspirations. Here's a person who joined the Army because he did have

aspirations. One of your profiles begins with with this discussion of a soldier who might have gone a wall and just like the discipline that these guys feared. And that's another part of the myth that you kind of bust open that the British soldiers were brutally disciplined with constant floggings. You kind of found the opposite. Not exclusively the opposite but largely the opposite. This is where I like to look at these things with a large amount of data. It's certainly true that those soldiers who required brutal discipline received brutal discipline but the majority of soldiers didn't require the brutal discipline they enlisted voluntarily. I often use the analogy of remember when you were in high school and there was some portion of the student population that was in trouble all the time. And then there was another portion of the population that was in trouble maybe once or twice throughout their entire school career. But the vast majority of them had pretty clean records. Well I gotta say your book has certainly added to the body of information on

the subject of British soldiers. Don Haggis author of British soldiers American War Voices of the American Revolution Thanks for coming in. Really interesting stuff. Thank you very much for the opportunity of talking about it. I want you now to listen briefly to a recording it's your background or for today's Geo Quiz. That's not someone knocking at the door or hammering up on the roof. In fact it's not even human. It's a wildlife recording one of hundreds of thousands at Cornell's Macaulay Library in Ithaca New York. The collection has just been digitized and put online. Pretty cool as you'll find out in a moment. So is this a mammal or a bird. Is it on land or under water. It could be a part of a mating ritual or is it an attack on prey love or war. Anyway try to narrow it down identify the species and imagine where you'd hear it. This is a toughie. We'll get the answers in just a minute. Nope that was in a minute. Answers still coming up with a bit of poetry on.

I'm Marco Werman this is the world sounds from one of the world's largest natural sound

archives inspire our Geo Quiz today from Alice to elephants song sparrows to ostrich chicks still in the egg. That's the range of wildlife recordings in Cornell's Macaulay Library archive and it's now online. Greg Bunny is the audio curator So introduce us to this collection Greg with a single sound. MARCO What I'd like to play for you first is the largest of all lemurs. It sounds like an orchestra doing some modern composition. It's remarkable tonal quality how much it sounds like a trumpet. And as these lamers vocalize they actually flare their lips. And where were these lemurs recorded these Indri lemurs were recorded in Madagascar the only place on earth where they're found.

Well how many recordings do you have to choose from and are they all that. Christine there are 190 5000 recordings in the Macaulay Library. They're not always as beautiful as this but many are. I gather took 12 years to digitize all of the recordings you've got in the archive. Why I put them online now I mean up until now these records probably were useful just to research. Now everybody can happen. Absolutely true. These sounds are of interest to anyone who has a desire to learn more about the natural world. Certainly those who investigate the natural world like researchers have tremendous need for access to recordings like this. It dramatically extends their ability to detect and survey and rare elusive species many of which are quite vocal. So Greg take it somewhere far away for today's Geo Quiz. Play is a recording. I'll try to guess what it is and hopefully maybe where it was recorded I'm not giving myself too much

over that. And lizard is it safe to play this game at home too. Very good. The sound I'm going to play for you is characterized by researchers who study it knocks and bells. All right knocks and bells. I'm going to say a pileated woodpecker knocking away at one of those fake cell phone towers that looks like a tree. That's an excellent go. Excellent first your second hit. It's underwater. OK something underwater a fish knocking against a submarine and another to drink. Yes but you're not quite there. I'm bailing now. This is the sound of a male walrus courting from that gong like sound to my mind is just absolutely

spectacular. It has an ending. Yeah yeah. Where does it come from. That recording of Walrus was made in the Arctic Ocean so listeners if you got Canadian Arctic or Arctic Ocean that is the answer to the Geo Quiz today I mentioned earlier these ostrich eggs the chicks that are still in the egg. I mean you have recordings of these chicks coming out is that right. Right. It's going to take them probably hours to break through the shell you can imagine that's a pretty durable shell. So they begin peeping during the process of breaking the egg shell and that peeping serves to let everybody know it's time fellows. If you want to hear some of these sounds go to the world dot org will link to Cornell's Macaulay Library. Greg Buckley thank you very much. My pleasure. President Obama's second inaugural ceremony today featured a poem read by

Richard Blanco. It was titled one today one the sun rose on us today. Kindles all over our shores peeking over the Smokies greeting the faces of the Great Lakes spreading a simple truth across the Great Plains and charging across the Rockies. That's just the beginning of the six minute poem on the theme of unity. Richard Blanco is the first openly gay poet and the first Cuban American to compose an inaugural poem. Here's more from the World's Alex Gelfand Blanco's friends were listening with pride today. I wrote in to congratulate him. A few weeks ago and so we were back and going to light a candle for me. But I'm going to let you go you know which is what Cubans are going to wish me good luck. This is Gustavo Perez Fermat. He's at Columbia University in New York. He's known Richard Blanco for many years back in like the 90s and there was a group of young Cuban Americans who call themselves generation any

sort of the Cuban American version of the American Generation X I guess and the Spanish letter that's an N with a tilde on top. And Roger was out of the blue. The poet of that group in his collections of poetry so far Blanco has among other things worked to capture a sense of ongoing cultural negotiation negotiation about his own identity. He was conceived in Cuba. Born in Madrid and raised in Miami Blanco likes to say he was made in Cuba assembled in Spain and imported to the United States. It's a neat personal narrative knowing two in its nod to the globalization of well people the questions a difficult which places and cultures way more in a life. He makes his home in Maine these days. Where does that fit. It's territory that's personal for Gustavo Perez from up to. Unlike Blanco he was born in Cuba and raised in Miami. He was assembled in the U.S. if you like a few years ago he wrote a book called Life on the hyphen.

Every point of the book because I live on the hyphen that both joints and divides Cuba from America and that hyphen sometimes feels like it's a bridge that draws you to identity between nationalities had two cultures the two languages. Other times it feels like it's a barrier between the two and I think that experience of bi culturalism some. It was a multiplication and sometimes a division is something that one finds in Richard's work. That idea of an American forging a distinct individual identity negotiating a personal Americanness that's probably familiar to President Obama. He's written books about his need to build personal narrative bridges between Kansas and Kenya or from Hawaii to Indonesia to Chicago. The president is fond of calling his journey to the steps of the Capitol improbable. Richard Blanco said much the same to the PBS Newshour recently when I think about my background and being a little Cuban kid from Miami and all of a sudden you know

being asked to sort of speak before the nation for the nation to the nation I mean it's just amazing and just beside myself today at least the hyphen is a bridge for the world. I'm Alex kind of and we leave you now with a bit more of Richard Blanco's inaugural poem One Today from the nan and Bill Harris studios of WGBH in Boston I'm Marco Werman. Thank you for listening. We head. Home. Through the gloss of rain or weight of snow or the plum blush of dusk but always always home. Always under one sky our sky. The world is a co-production of the BBC World Service PRI and WGBH supported in part by Nan and Bill Harris committed to supporting objective unbiased reporting on national and international issues by the Scole foundation supporting social entrepreneurs and their innovations to solve the world's most

pressing problems at s k o l l dot org. The loose foundations Henry R. Luce initiative on religion and international affairs by the Annenberg Foundation and by the PR I trust for innovation which enables informed risk taking in the creation of new content for public radio donors to the trust included Marguerite steed Hoffman the tag me Jones family fund and the Rose family fund. Public radio. International. Next time on the world Dim Sum warriors as little Chinese snack foods know kung fu and they're bilingual. But it seems. Their comic book adventures are an i-Pad app. Kids learn Mandarin as they scroll and tap through the story. It's like you're doing two things at once but you don't even know. Learning Chinese with an app. Next time on the world.