PREVIEW: CNN International Programme Information 2013 – Weeks 1 & 2
Living Golf
Shane O’Donoghue with Branden Grace
Host Shane O’Donoghue (pictured left) spends time relaxing with Branden Grace (pictured right), the outstanding breakout player from the 2012 European season, and he also has a private clinic with Dr Sherylle Calder, the woman who taught reigning Open Champion Ernie Els how to putt again.
Plus, ‘Living Golf’ looks at how far South African golf is moving, post-apartheid, to reach beyond its traditional white heartland in the search for new black and Indian talent.
cnn.com/livinggolf @shaneodonoghue
Inside the Middle East
Khalil Gibran stage play, Abu Dhabi
For the first show of 2013, ‘Inside the Middle East’ travels to Tunisia, the nation where, in 2011, the Arab Spring protest movement was born. Upset by a lack of opportunities Mohammed Bouazizi – a young Tunisian fruit vendor – self-immolated, sparking a wave of popular anger that quickly swept across the tiny North African nation and eventually much of the Middle East.
Two years later, what has changed? Where the economy is concerned, not much, say many young Tunisians. The country is, however, becoming much more conservative – especially with regard to arts and culture. The programme meets several artists whose work has recently been deemed ‘un-Islamic’, as well as a conservative Salafist sheikh who explains why some forms of expression should be contained.
‘Inside the Middle East’ also visit the north coast of Egypt, where millions of World War II landmines and other unexploded ordnance left buried in the desert sands are still – 72 years after the crucial Allied victory at the Egyptian town of El Alamein – creating problems for Bedouins living in the area.
The programme also takes a look at a new play being staged in Abu Dhabi which brings to life the work of Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran, exploring the heroic – and occasionally dark – history of Gibran.
CNN.com/IME
CNN Business Traveller
Emirates airliner – Bloomberg via Getty images
Hosted by Richard Quest, January’s ‘CNN Business Traveller’ looks at how the gulf states of UAE and Qatar are asserting an ever increasing influence over the aviation industry.
Eighty-six per cent of the world’s population, and sixty-three percent of the world’s GDP, is within an eight hour flight of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. Add to the mix the fact that the local carriers are owned and operated by oil rich, corporately unfettered royal families and it quickly becomes apparent why the gulf carriers are shaking up the airline alliances, to create the new epicentre for global travel.
This month, ‘Business Traveller’ speaks to the CEOs of Emirates (Tim Clarke), Etihad Airways (James Hogan) and Qatar Airways (Akbar Al Baker) about the future of air travel to the region’s cities – primarily as transfer hubs, but also as ambitious destinations in their own right.
cnn.com/businesstraveller @AyeshaCNN