ROBIN LUSTIG:

Hugh, what is your question ?

HUGH JONES - BRITISH COLOMBIA CANADA

The American population have been supporting the IRA and making violence possible. 50 years ago there were two IRA’s, the official and the provisional. The official called the truce said no more violence, the provisional says we are the official now and the violence continues. Is history going to repeat itself. Will some splintered group declare itself to be the IRA and will the Americans continue to be the paymasters?

PHILIPPA:

The issue of whether the paramilitaries will split is a real worry and that can happen on both the republican side and on the Protestant paramilitary side, we have seen an element of that with factions splitting away. There will always be hard liners, the question is how much do they have grass roots support in republican neighbourhoods, I think that’s what is really important as to whether they will exert a great influence. As to America being the paymasters, there has been a lot of sympathy here in some American Irish circles for the republican cause, there has been backing for Sinn Fein, but I think what has happened over the last few years and with George Mitchell’s involvement, there has been a lot of support which has shifted from a romanticised view or republican view of Ireland to the mainstream view of bringing the two sides together and achieving some sort of political compromise. The publicity given by President Clinton’s visit to Belfast in Dublin by George Mitchell’s high profile, has made a lot more people more aware of the situation and a lot more balanced in their view although that sort of republican nostalgia is quite strong.

ROBIN: On a different subject, Simon?

SIMON MEAD - BRITAIN

In the news this week there were some more reported hand gun tragedies in the US and I came across some figures which startled me. Apparently the statistics for murders by hand guns in 1996 , in Australia it was 13, in Japan 15, in the UK it was 30 and in the USA it was 9390. Allowing for the fact that the USA has 4 to 5 times the population of the UK, but 3000 times the murder rate by hand guns, my question is since the gun lobby is more powerful than the anti gun lobby, how much longer will the American republic put up with this?

PHILIPPA:

It is quite shocking and every time there is some sort of incident there is this round of public outrage and feeling that something must be done. There have been some very sensible statements from the authority. The mayor of Springfield saying it must be time for us to reconnect to our youth. We have to think about early intervention. What is triggering this? All the right questions are being asked but there simply isn’t a strong lobby for gun control, so almost always the question is what sort of political impetus is there going to be for some sort of practical solution like trigger locks on guns, preventing children from having access to their parents guns, what solutions can the politicians come up with. At the moment I feel rather pessimistic because there is a very strong gun culture which says it’s not the weapons, it’s the people behind them, you won’t be helping the situation by taking the guns away and from a European standpoint that does seem rather bazaar.

SIMON :

I have read a lot about both points of the argument but we don’t have this problem over here. If we have a fight outside a nightclub it is easy to have a gun and stand on the other side of the street and kill someone but if you take away the guns then the trigger effect is not there.

ROBIN : Kenneth from Seattle

KENNETH :

What would make a 15 year old kid kill two of his classmates and wound a score of others because he talked about it days before and why wasn’t he taken seriously ? Was he mentally sick or on prozac or some kind of drug?

PHILIPPA :

That is the question, why wasn’t he taken seriously. He had given a talk in class about how to build a bomb. There were bombs found at his parents house after the police searched it. He was fascinated about guns, he talked of killing people and we have heard in similar incidents that boys have been aggressive and talked like this before and I heard a really chilling statement from one of the local officials saying “well if we raise the alarm for every boy who says he wants to kill people, we would be putting far too many boys out of the classroom”. I thought, could you say that in any country? Do school boys naturally talk about wanting to go out and shoot people. President Clinton in his weekend address has talked about his worries of teenagers in America being desensitised to violence and so it raises a whole host of other questions about television violence and film violence and also a copycat element, we worry about our own media coverage of a news story but are these boys who are looking for attention and see that they get attention in this perverse way.

ROBIN:

That is an interesting issue because the link between the violence and the media, some people suggest that these are kids who want to be noticed, they want to be famous and be on television even if it is for something as dreadful as committing crimes of this kind. Is there an overwhelming desire to be noticed in some parts of America?

PHILIPPA :

It’s a country where celebrities are important and the normal impetus for a school boy might be to show off, or want to impress your mates and the girls etc. I do worry that that translated or blown up into some need to impress at any cost.

ROBIN:

Kenneth, do you agree with that?

KENNETH:

There is a lot of anger in teenage boys. 40 or 50 years ago people settled their disputes with fist fights, you wouldn’t have this.

ROBIN:

You didn’t have access to guns?

KENNETH:

No, no access to guns.

ROBIN:

Do you think part of the problem is that they do have too ready an access to guns now, some of them?

KENNETH :

Yes, and the fact that they are not being spanked with a belt like they were 40 years ago.

ROBIN:

Do you think that would help?

KENNETH:

I think it would both at school and at home.

ROBIN:

Frederick Macden in Bahrain wants to go back to the subject we were discussing last week, the Indian Nuclear Tests. Frederick, what is your question?

FREDERICK:

What would be the eventual fallout of the Indian Nuclear Tests and the US and what would be the attitude of the UN government?

PHILIPPA:

I don’t think there is any problem for the resident Indians in the US, I don’t think there is going to be any fall out for Indians living here but I think the main impetus of the US government now is it wants to make sure that having had these nuclear tests India signs up to the comprehensive test ban treaty and the other fear is that Pakistan might follow suit so there is a very strong focus on both those countries.

ROBIN:

Frederick, what do you think the US response should be?

FREDERICK:

I think it should be fairly impartial in a sense that the US is taking a partial stand in the case of China whereas India is not allowed to continue with it’s tests and become a nuclear power. I feel the US should support India in this regard.

ROBIN: Richard Coleburn calling from Sussex, Richard what do you want to ask.

RICHARD:

America seems a country where religion and family values play a large part yet the alleged misconduct has not yet damaged the opinion polls for the president. In the minds of the American people, has presidency become separated with Clinton as a media celebrity yet at the same time Clinton as a statesman who seems to be immune from the allegations.

PHILIPPA :

That’s really interesting because what surprised us all is journalists here in Washington was the way in which President Clintons poll ratings were sustained and rose with the affair or alleged affair and that does show that private behaviour is being separated from public behaviour, a lot of people saying perhaps if the economy were in a recession he wouldn’t have got off so lightly, but I do think there is that separation and I’m not sure whether it means that Americans are cynical about President Clinton that in a way his moral authority has been deminished from the start or whether it is a street wise quality where they are saying if you try to elect politicians with unblemished backgrounds you wouldn’t have many people in congress.