91Èȱ¬

We don't always begin with callers and this was one of those times. We did our own round up of what one caller said was Australia's biggest news story this year, the rescue of the miners. We compiled a montage of audio from radio and TV from across the country.

Bob from New Zealand texted the show to ask

Why did it take the 91Èȱ¬ so long to cover the mining disaster?

We then spoke about the violence between Hamas and Fatah. We spoke to Ghazi Hamad - Palestinian government spokesperson - and former Fatah minister Dr Sufian Abu Zaida.

These email's came in straight away. Justin from the US wrote:

How can Hammas, blame the world for it's problems? Is it not the world, nor international community who specifically told Hammas to commit acts of atrocities against innocent civilians.

And this one form Jason in Wisconsin

I have a question for the Palestinians. I remember quite a few years ago the ruling Fatah party stating they will not crack down on Hamas as it would precipitate a civil war. Now we have Fatah and Hamas shooting at each other. What happened to Palestinian unity?

If you needed any proof of the global nature of World Have Your Say here it is. We heard from Ali, a Ugandan Asian in Stockholm, Ajay, on a ship between India and China and Alex a Texan, all talking about Hamas!

Ajay and Ali thought:

It's the responsibility of Palestinians to deliver peace to their people.

And Alex said

It's the not the responsibility of the Americans to put money into the hands of Hamas.

And Kwame in London texted the show to say

Hamas is being irresponsible, trying 2 be a resistance movement & governing party at the same time. They can only be one of that. The people shd sort it out.

And we had quite a few comments via text message:

Bashir in Calabar said:

The palestinian people elected HAMAS democratically.What's the big fuss? Why punish the people 4 electing a group of their choice?

Yahya, in Abuja Nigeria sent us this message:

U.S.A is to be blamed for the problem in Palestine because their personal interest is opposed to their claims that they love democracy.

Nof in Lagos had this to say via text message:

Hamas is de one starving de palestines people. If de palestinians want aid, then they shd ask hamas 2 give-up Violences. De choice is theirs 2 make.

School uniforms

Next up was school uniforms. We kicked it off by speaking to Zoe Redhead, she's the principal of A.S Neill's Summerhill School, where the children decide the rules. And you've guessed it, they chose not to wear school uniforms.

Zoe said

I can't imagine why a democratic free thinking society would want to force children to wear school uniforms.

Ian in France agreed he said

Uniforms crush individualism. I'm against them. Their advocates often use the argument that they are a social leveller: but as a teenager at grammar school with very strict uniform rules we ALL knew who was rich and who was poor from the quality of the blazer, the shirt etc etc.

But the majority of people who contacted the show were in support of school uniforms.

Graham in Holland emailed the show to say

I think a school uniform is a good idea. It helps students to identify with each other and with the school or college they attend. Surely pride in one's appearance and in one's school is a part of self-discipline.

That's it for another night, till tomorrow.