World Have Your Say will be in Fort Myers, Florida this week meeting people who listen on WCGU and talking about the big stories of the day. Here's where we'll be:

Thursday 6th October

We will be broadcasting live from the streets of Florida at 1700 GMT. If you'd like to join the conversation, come down to Sugden Plaza, right by the Sugden Community Theatre in Naples. We'd love to see you all there.

On the evening of Thursday 6th it would be great to meet up with some of you, so join us for drinks at Bar Louie at the Gulf Coast Town Centre in Fort Myers, from 1730 - 1930 local time.

Friday 7th October

We'll be live from WGCU's TV studios with an audience of 170 people. It's sold out !

You can follow WGCU on Facebook and on twitter.

 

The Times Newspaper's Africa correspondent Jonathan Clayton has written a controversial column accusing aid agencies of "crying wolf" and hyping up the drought in East Africa.

As the BBC has been reporting, aid agencies say the Horn of Africa is having its worst drought for 60 years. The BBC's Ben Brown sent this report from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.

But Jonathan Clayton is sceptical:

"In 22 years of working in Africa, I can barely remember a summer when there was not an emergency appeal for the Horn. The aid industry has grown immensely in the past two decades - a lot of jobs depend on rattling the can."

"This month we have been told that East Africa, including Kenya and Uganda, where virtually anything grows and banana trees line the roads, is suffering the worst drought for 60 years. But let's be sceptical.... what is happening in the Horn has not yet met the criteria [to be defined as famine] and probably never will."

Clayton writes that the real reason for famine in Africa is war - NOT drought, and there's not much aid agencies can do about it.

"By hyping up a localised "drought" and playing down the real causes of the turmoil in Eastern Africa, the aid agencies are crying wolf. What happens when there's a real emergency? Will we believe them?"

What do you think ? Will you believe the aid agencies next time they come up with some drastic statistics ? Post your comments here.

 

Should women stay with unfaithful men? Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife Maria Shriver has left him after he revealed he fathered a child with a member of his household staff. Many people stay with their partners after they have been unfaithful. Journalist Jane E Allen writes about why many  "wives of unfaithful high-powered men grin and bear the infidelities" while other women leave. 

Malibu Cookie‎ tweeted: "Women think "trice" before you "stand by your man" don't b so quick to defend him.

Rhoda posted on the LA Times blog: "Arnold had lots of affairs during his marriage, hidden with the support of Maria no doubt to armor their own children together."

And S Gayres posted: "Everyone is assuming that Maria did not know until now.  You really believe she is blindsided by this at this time? There's a saying that says "a woman always knows".  This was in the same house,  C'mon."

Can you forge ahead with a marriage if trust is broken ? We're talking about this at 1700 GMT.

 

A twitter user has been revealing the names of footballers, actors and TV hosts who use gagging orders which stop newspapers reporting their private lives. Some have been inaccurate. Should social media be controlled ?

Emma Barnett  writes in the Daily Telegraph that anyone "who tweets or re-tweets a piece of information they know is protected by an injunction, is actually in contempt of court," but it's unlikely the authorities will begin "a witch hunt of thousands."

Danvers Baillieu, a social media lawyer at Pinsent Masons, says "unless we want to a situation like Iran, where we block off whole swathes of the internet, we cannot silence the thousands of people publishing anything they like online all of the time."

The Guardian reports that journalists' twitter feeds could be regulated under the Press Complaints Commission later this year. And Roy Greenslade has more about the complexities of controlling twitter here.

What do you think ? We're talking about this at 1700 GMT today. Post your comments here.

 

American sports journalist LZGranderson recently spotted an 8 year old girl at an airport with long blond hair. She had a tanned midriff, halterneck top and trousers with "juicy" on the backside. In a column for CNN, he writes: "She was "the sexiest girl in the terminal, and she's not even in middle school yet .....What in the hell is wrong with us?"

More than 400,000 people shared the article on Facebook and there were 6,000 comments on his article.

Tracy Clark-Flory writes about the backlash in Salon.com:  "If you ask me, this all amounts to a sartorial freak show that represents our deep anxieties about young female sexuality."

Hadley Heath blogs that "parents are the ones with the money!  Mom and Dad can say no to the bad decisions their kids want to make."

And Jennifer Moses recently asked in the Wall Street Journal: "Why do so many of us not only permit our teenage daughters to dress like this-like prostitutes, if we're being honest with ourselves-but pay for them to do it with our AmEx cards?"

Her article had more than 600 comments including this one from Shannon Shacka:
"My kids are free to dress as they wish. The clothes DO NOT make the person or character! I could never look at a 12 or 13 year old and think them as a prostitute...SHAME ON YOU!!"

 

I've been working at the BBC for seven years, and have just arrived at World Have Your Say.

After studying history at Cambridge, I started my life in journalism in the usual grimey way with a series of reporting jobs in local and trade magazines ... mortgages reporter at a Financial Times business trade magazine, that kind of thing. For a whole year I wrote about nothing but mortgages.

Eventually I snuck in to the BBC where I started working for Radio Four's Today programme and Radio Five Live Breakfast, producing the economics and business news.

I then moved to BBC Radio Five Live's Victoria Derbyshire programme, a daily news show which has just been nominated for 3 Sony awards. I spent lots of time producing big politics OBs ("outside broadcasts") all over the country where politicians were grilled by an audience of 200 people live on the radio.

It was all about hearing the views of "real people" and it's the same idea at World Have Your Say. On many programmes professors and pundits dominate the airwaves but I like finding new voices for the radio. I'm always searching around for new Chinese bloggers, housewives in Mumbai with opinions about everything, people tweeting from the streets of Yemen and chatty teenagers telling us on the phone what they're seeing and hearing from their windows as they lie low in their homes in Tripoli.

Outside work, I play classical cello and play regularly in string quartets. I sing and adapt music for various world music acappella groups. I've been deeply involved in a number of creative, artistic and community projects in London, but that's a WHOLE other story. Favourite writers: Chinua Achebe and Doris Lessing. Favourite magazine: The New Yorker. Currently reading: Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi, a biography of an Iranian human rights lawyer. Favourite country: Ghana, because they put sound systems on the pavements and dance on the streets!

Have a listen to what the rapper NYOil did with our jingle.

Here's the link to our original jingle:

And here's the jingle adapted and recorded by NYOil, a rapper in New York who's also a World Have Your Say listener:

If we like it, we really will use it !

 

The world's attention has been on the tragedy in Japan as radiation levels increase, nuclear reactors burn and foreign governments tell their citizens to leave.

The BBC livepage has the latest updates and here's an interactive map of the quake damage.

But while Japan tries to cool its nuclear reactors, events have been escalating in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen.

In Manama today, security forces used tanks, helicopters and jeeps to clear protesters from Pearl Roundabout, two days after the king of Bahrain brought in troops from Saudi Arabia. Doctors have told the BBC that many people are injured and but that they can't get medical attention. You can get live updates on the crackdown here.

PraveenDabre has tweeted: "Troops have stormed into #Bahrain's Salmaniya hospital. What kind of ghoulish behaviour is this? Who attacks the injured?"

His son Saif al-Islam claims today: "Military operations are over. Within 48 hours everything will be finished. Our forces are almost in Benghazi. Whatever the decision, it will be too late."

Some tweeters suggest it's a good time to to ratchet up the pressure in Libya and Bahrain:

Suhalevorajee‎ says on Twitter: "Gaddafi taking the opportunity to 'bury' bad news. Shame, Arab world not taking a stronger lead on this??"

Sleathcorps tweeted:‎ "Saudi troops entering Bahrain to crush revolt.''A good day to bury bad news'' comes to mind. Hope Gaddafi not allowed to do same."

What do you think ? Post your comments here.

See listeners' comments about this programme

This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 11 March 2011. Listen to the programme.

A major earthquake in Japan has triggered a tsunami on the north east coast, sweeping away cars, ships and buildings. Many buildings have collapsed or are on fire, and there are fears many people could be killed or injured. The Cosmos oil refinery outside Tokyo has exploded. You can watch footage of the devastation here, and the BBC Japan tsunami livepage has live updates on the situation.

We'll be talking about the Japan tsunami today on BBC World TV at 1500 GMT.

Residents in Tokyo felt the tremors, reporting shaking and rocking buildings, even though the epicenter was 373 kilometers (231 miles) away from the city. People spilled out into the streets for safety.

Adel emailed us from Tokyo: “My house just got hit with the earthquake and I am bleeding all over. My house just fell and I have got three sons and one daughter. PLEASE HELP???”

The tsunami warnings have spread to the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Pacific coast of Russia and Hawaii.

Shashan in Tokyo emailed us: “I work in a merchant ship as an engineer and our ship was unloading the cargo at the port. Suddenly in the afternoon our ship starts vibrating heavily. We went to the deck and found the whole city shaking and a building near by caught fire.”

Have you been affected by the earthquake ? Post your comments here.

See listeners' comments about this programme

 

There is an interactive poll running on the homepage of the Yemen Times which asks: "Do you think khat affects the political process in Yemen?" You can vote on it here.

Khat is illegal in the United States and the World Health Organization classifies it as a drug that can cause mild psychological dependence. But 80 per cent of men and 45 percent of women in Yemen are regular khat leaf chewers writes Mary Slosson.

Thousands of people have been protesting in Yemen during the past few weeks. But Khalid al-Hamri, a student in Yemen, tells the Washington Post it would be pointless to protest in the afternoon: "In the morning, all the government officials are in their offices. They will hear our protests. In the afternoon, nobody will listen to us because everybody is chewing khat."

Khaled Abdullah suggests in an article for Reuters that khat addiction may stem the protests. The article quotes aluminum worker Ahmed al-Hazoura: "Nothing quiets people like khat ... If it wasn't for khat, everyone here would be in the streets protesting."

Yemenforchange tweeted: "We were drugged & unfortunately most of us still drugged but it's time to wake up."

But this blogger totally disagrees.

How does khat addiction affect the political process in Yemen ? Post your thoughts here.

 

Today you can talk to Colonel Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim live on BBC World TV at 1500 GMT. He'll be answering your questions and explaining why Colonel Gaddafi is not stepping down.

Gaddafi told the world in a speech earlier this week: "I dare you to find that peaceful protesters were killed" and blamed young people on hallucinatory drugs for the violence. You can ask his spokesman Moussa Ibrahim yourself about that.

Mr Ibrahim told CNN the rebels are led by Al Qaeda and there has been no government massacre of civilians.

"I invite ... every fact-finding mission possible in the world. All NGOs, governments are all welcome to check that there are no massacres, no bombardments of civilians, and that the case in Libya is a case of an armed rebellion against a united country. "

"Thousands of highly trained al Qaeda affiliates who operate in Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Algeria, and Afghanistan have hijacked this movement ... These are young people who are led by al Qaeda fanatics."

You can read the full transcript of Moussa Ibrahim's interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper here.

Mr Ibrahim has also told BBC radio that the International Criminal Court's plans to investigate Gaddafi for crimes against humanity are "close to a joke."

For the latest development in Libya see the BBC's Middle East Livepage.

Call, text, email, post your questions to Gaddafi's spokesman. You can talk to him live on World Have Your Say on BBC World TV at 1500.

 

This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 1 March 2011. Listen to the programme.

"Nothing has changed. Our demand was the fall of the regime - not just Mubarak - and this has not happened yet," says Khaled Ibrahim, one of the Egyptian protesters back in Tahrir Square.

New rulers are in place in Egypt, Tunisia and parts of Libya. But how new are they?

Half of the new Egyptian cabinet were ministers under Mubarak. Tunisians just got rid of the second prime minister in two months because he was a remnant of the old regime. And the new interim government in Benghazi is headed up by Gaddafi's former Justice Minister, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who only resigned from the Gaddafi government a week ago. (Time magazine looks at who's in charge here).

In Egypt, protesters have returned to Tahrir Square to demand the resignation of the new Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq. Egyptian blogger Zeinobia writes that the new Egyptian cabinet "is not a new interim cabinet but rather a ministerial reshuffle."  

But in the post-revolution Middle East, new rulers may still need the people with experience and know-how, and that means the old bureacracy. The Los Angeles Times describes the potential for chaos where the ruling order has collapsed.

"Even with Qaddafi gone, the country may face a continued contest between the forces of a free Libya and the regime's die-hard elements" says Frederic Wehrey in Foreign Affairs magazine. "The National Oil Corporation, the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company, and the various popular committees may be arms of the Qaddafi-run state, but they are also reservoirs of technocratic, administrative, and economic expertise."

One of the protesters back in Tahrir Square this week, Bahaa tells journalists: "It seems that many are not taking this revolution seriously." Will new cabinets full of old ministers cut it for those who fought for change ?

Tonight we'll be asking what's really changed in the Middle East. Post your comments here.

 

Hillary Clinton has flown into Geneva to meet other foreign ministers today to talk about the crisis in Libya.

Colonel Gaddafi is clinging to power in Tripoli but seems increasingly cornered as rebels take over town by town. More army officers defected over the weekend in nearby Az Zawiya and an interim government in Benghazi is getting on with running things.  Even the Colonel's "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse has gone home.

Hillary Clinton said: "We've been reaching out to many different Libyans who are attempting to organize in the east and as the revolution moves westward there as well ... we're going to be ready and prepared to offer any kind of assistance."

A refugee humanitarian crisis is growing as thousands of people head for the Libya Tunisia border each day.

And the wave of protests continues elsewhere in the Middle East today. In Oman, people are out on the streets again after clashes with police over the weekend. Hundreds blocked the road to an oil refinery calling for wealth to be shared, and hundreds more gathered in the central Globe roundabout.

In Yemen, tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating today calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to go. In Tunisia, huge rallies over the weekend led to the resignation of the new prime minister. And in Bahrain, hundreds of anti-government protesters have blocked access to the parliament today.

What do you think western foreign ministers should decide at their meeting today? And if you're in any of these countries, what is your experience of the unrest ?

 

"People are locked in, the city is under siege, that's without a doubt, Tripoli is under siege right now. People are scared and the panic is spreading by phone. We have families who are not allowed to take the bodies of the deceased, right, unless they sign papers declaring they were shot by the opposition to the current regime. There haven 't been funerals going on where obviously if you don't have a body you don't have a funeral."

A doctor who has just arrived from Libya to the UK has told the Libya Feb 17 blog:

"A massacre and a crime against humanity are currently going on in Libya. There have been deaths of at least 50-70 civilians arriving to different hospitals in Tripoli every night. I am a doctor at Sheffield Northern General Hospital and have personally seen bodies with bullet wounds to the head, neck and chest.

Eyewitness reports from people I have spoken to personally are that security forces are turning up in hospitals, threatening doctors and forcing them to treat pro-government supporters and neglect demonstrators, at gun-point. There are incidents where blood bags have been ripped prior to transfusions so that injured supporters don't receive treatment. There are cases of sabotage. Corpses are being removed from hospital before being identified and not being returned. There are reports that ambulances carrying the injured are being stopped and patients being executed."

Yesterday Colonel Gaddafi said the rebels were on drugs. The New Yorker talks to people who met Gaddafi in the past and thought he was on drugs. Life magazine has compiled a list of his "craziest quotes".

See listeners' comments about this programme