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Outlook Weekend: Childhood Memories

A Syrian swimmer remembers life before war, and a Chilean artist uncovers his father's incredible secret

Ibrahim al-Hussein is a Syrian swimmer who was inspired to compete by his sports loving father. In 2012, during the Syrian Civil War, he lost part of his leg to a bomb while trying to rescue a friend. Now, having moved to Athens, he hopes to compete at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Nikolai Kozak grew up thinking his father Roberto was a quiet diplomat. Then one day he found out he'd helped save 30,000 political prisoners from persecution under Augusto Pinochet's regime in Chile. As Pinochet began persecuting his opponents, Roberto was determined to help them. He negotiated a deal to allow political prisoners to go into exile, and at great risk to himself, he personally escorted people to airports, or safe locations - he even hid people in his house. Nikolai, now an artist, tells the story of his father, and Rodrigo del Villar Canas - who as a student had been detained by Pinochet - describes how Roberto helped him flee.

John Wilson, the British conductor and arranger trying to rescue a piece of Hollywood history. From The Wizard of Oz to Singin' in the Rain, he's spent years piecing together the lost scores of classic movie musicals - note by note.

Tanzin Norbu grew up in the ancient Himalayan kingdom of Zanskar, now part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. His village is so remote and high up in the mountains that it is cut off from the rest of the world for seven months of the year. In 1981, when Tanzin was seven years old, his parents decided it was time to send him to school. But the nearest one was five days walk away, across a notoriously dangerous mountain pass.

When American author Nathanael Johnson moved to San Francisco from the countryside, he was sad that his young daughter would not experience nature the way he had growing up. But as she grew older she surprised him with the way she saw nature in the city. He has now written a book encouraging others to become amateur urban naturalists.

L-Photo: Roberto Kozak. Credit: IOM.
R-Photo: Paralympic hopeful Ibrahim al-Hussein. Credit: Louisa Goulimaki/Getty Images.

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Mon 4 Jul 2016 01:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sun 3 Jul 2016 00:32GMT
  • Sun 3 Jul 2016 07:32GMT
  • Mon 4 Jul 2016 01:32GMT

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