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Hear Ye, Hear Ye

David Mazower | 11:32 UK time, Friday, 2 March 2007

It's James here: Roll up, roll up, it's time for the morning meeting. Click here to find out how the meeting works and how to contribute, or read on to see what we're talking about today. If you'd like to participate, give us a call on +44 20 7557 0635.

In the office today we've got David captaining the ship, Ben, Rozita and Christiane, and running the show over at TVC is Dicky, assisted by Tania.

And following some compliments from the team on Dicky's choice of image to accompany his blog post, 's finest gives us his pitch:

He thinks we should be talking about "What should we do about fat kids?"

It's an idea that was also suggested by listener Robert in Utah. Ben says we'd get a huge response US, but we're wondering how it would play in the rest of the world - would people in Africa really care? There were reports last year about rising obesity in China, and as fast food becomes more common, the problem is becoming global.

And what's the question - what should we do, or perhaps are parents responsible? Christiane suggests "Who is responsible?" Is it parents, modern lifestyle. David likes it, and Dicky's "feelin' that as a good question." I think that means he likes it. What do you think?

What else:

Ben thinks we should talk about the controversy surrounding . The spanish government transferred the convicted Basque separatist from prison to a clinic in the Basque country, where he will serve out his term under house arrest. This was done on health grounds after he went on hunger strike. Should he have been released?

Ros is also keen on the , suggesting that the question should be "should hunger strikers be allowed to die, or treated against their will?"

There's general agreement that this is the better question. Should we try to get a few Spaniards together round a good line so we can hear them discuss the issue?

Christiane suggests looking at the . Do you want to hear personal stories and experiences from people who have been affected?

Dicky says it's a big tragedy, and a huge news story, but unlike Hurricane Katrina, there's no story of government incompetence to make it a discussion point. Things like this happen round the world quite a lot, and a sense that we might just be covering it because it happened in the US.

And I have to agree with Dicky , something that doesn't happen often, and that he's requested be immortalised here in cyberspace for posterity.

Another possibility suggested by David is that the Nigerian Finance and Transport ministers are in London, to . If we can get one of them in to the studio, there's certainly lots of issues regarding Nigeria to talk about at the moment. David suggests:

A new dawn for Nigeria? Government ministers in London do a deal to end Nigeria's commercial debt, meaning that the country's vast oil wealth has now been used to wipe the debt slate clean. So will this mean a new dawn for Nigeria and open the way to foreign investment? Or could the money have been better spent on health and education ? We're inviting the foreign minister or transport minister onto the show to discuss these and other issues, such as corruption, the upcoming elections and - all big talking points in Africa's most populous country.

And there's also this from David:

The end of ideology - has US foreign policy finally changed tack?...We talked about this yesterday but crystallizes it:

Dicky thinks this could be a whole programme, and Rozita thinks it's good, but needs a stronger peg - wait and see til something happens - as Dicky says, wait til somebody's shaking somebody's hand.

And now it's my turn, I like the idea sent in by one of our listeners during last night's show. Richard in Sierra Leone wants to talk about the role of NGO's in Africa. He wants to know if they've achieved anything. If you're in Africa, what's your view on NGO's? It's a great idea, but there's a feeling that this could be a whole programme - perhaps something that could be tied in with the 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence. This leads to suggestions from the team that maybe we could do something on whether independence has benefited Ghana, or Africa more generally.

And that's about it for today. And the winner is ...

What should we do about fat kids / who's to blame? Followed by the ETA hunger-striker story - should people on hunger strike be allowed to die? And the Nigerian ministers answering your questions if we can get them.

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