This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear the answer to the quiz about the abdicating European monarchs. You’ll hear about the recent Bastille Day festivities in France, listen to some great music, and of course, there’s the new quiz question. So click on that little “Listen” arrow above, and join in!
Hello everyone!
Welcome to The Sound Kitchen. You can catch the programme on-the-air every Saturday, at 4:52, 6:22, and 7:52 universal time. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you have grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and tune in every Saturday.
This week’s quiz: On 7 June, we’d just had news that one of Europe’s monarchs had decided to abdicate in favour of his son. This king was the third to pass on the crown recently: two other European monarchs had done so in 2013. I asked you to send in the names of the three European monarchs who had recently abdicated – and the names of the new kings.
The answer is: King Juan Carlos of Spain, who announced his abdication on 2 June for his son Crown Prince Felipe. The Crown Prince is now King Felipe IV. His coronation was on 19 June, in a very low-key ceremony: no horse-drawn gilded carriages, no foreign dignitaries, no mass. As one commentator noted: "When you ask young people in Spain whether they want a monarchy or republic, they answer that they want a job."
The two others who passed on the royal mantle in 2013 were Queen Beatrix of the House of Orange-Nassau. Her son, Willem-Alexander, became the first king in the Netherlands in 123 years.
And Belgium’s king, Albert II, also stepped aside in 2013, to make way for his son Philippe.
The winners this week are: Mr Inam Ullah Shahid, from Lahore, Pakistan; Ms Sakirun Islam Mitu, from the brand-new RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh – welcome RFI Amour Fan Club! From Burdwan, India, Kalyani Basak from the Short Wave World Radio Listeners Club; Freddy Munywa, from Kampala, Uganda, and Jean Forget, from Attleboro, Massachusetts – whose nickname is, appropriately for this quiz, “The Sun King”!
Congratulations, winners!
This week’s question was about the French Revolution, which we celebrated this past Monday. As you know, on 14 July 1789, the Bastille prison - where political prisoners were thought to be held – was attacked. How many prisoners did the revolutionaries find inside the Bastille on that day? How many people were being held in the Bastille Prison in Paris on 14 July 1789?
Get your answer in by the end of the summer break (there are some great shows in store for you over the summer!): 29 September. Be sure to tune in on 4 October to see if you are one of the lucky winners! As always, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer … and, if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number. Send your answers to:
or
To our new mailing address:
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
or
By SMS … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen cell phone !!!!
Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.
Remember, it’s not just the quiz which wins you a prize. If your essay goes on the air, you’ll find a package in the mail from the Sound Kitchen. Write in about your community heroes – the people in your community who are quietly working to make the world a better place, in whatever way they can. As listener Pramod Maheshwari said: “Just as small drops of water can fill a pitcher, small drops of kindness can change the world.”
I am still looking for your “This I Believe” essays, too. Tell us about the principles that guide your life … what you have found to be true from your very own personal experience. Or write in with your most memorable moment, and/or your proudest achievement. If your essay is chosen to go on-the-air – read by you – you’ll win an RFI radio or a box set of world music CDs, edited by RFI!
Send in your musical requests, your secret “guilty” pleasure (mine’s chocolate!), your tricks for remembering things, your favourite quotations and proverbs, descriptions of the local festivals you participate in, your weirdest dream, the book you are reading and what you think about it, or just your general all-around thoughts to:
Include a phone number, so I can call you. Put that pen to paper! Don’t put it off!
The Sound Kitchen Listeners Cookbook has been published! It is a lovely little book and I am quite pleased. Many thanks to everyone who contributed. We’re using it as a quiz prize, so let me know if the cookbook is what you would like for us to send to you when you win a quiz.
Did you know there is such a thing as official RFI Clubs? Up until now, they have always been French clubs, but now we want to open them up to all our listeners … and open them up we have! There are already 20 brand new official RFI Clubs: in Kisii, Kenya, started by Mogire Machuki; in Ain Kechera, Algeria, with Ferhat Bezazel as president, and in Holguin, Cuba, started by Ivan Carralero. There are five RFI clubs in India: in Murshidabad with Mr Najimuddin as president; in Medinipur with Dr S S Bhattacharya at the helm; in Hyderabad/Miryalguda headed up by Mrs P Sreelatha Reddy; in Sainikpuri/Secunderabad with Hari Madugula as president and in Maharashtra, created by Sandeep Jawale. There are now three clubs in Bangladesh: in Dhaka, started by Wali Ahad; in Rajshahi, with Salahudin Dolar as president and the Kaptai RFI Fan Club, headed by Jahangir Alam. And Ras Franz Manko Ngogo from Tarime, Tanzania, is heading up the Kemogemba Club.
A warm welcome to our newest clubs: the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, with AKM Nuruzzaman as president; the RFI Listeners Club Gambia in Brikama Town, the Gambia, with Lamin Ceesay as president; the RFI Listeners Club GYPC Makassar in Makassar, Indonesia, with Uki Ruknuddin at the helm; the Shawon DX Corner in Lalpur, Bangladesh, with Rajib Kumar Mondal as the head; the Friends Radio Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, Dewan Rafiqul Islam, president; the Green Listeners Club in Rampura Phul, India, with Mrs Sonkia Gupta as president, and the RFI Listeners Club headed up by Hyrum Karyea Mennoh, in Monrovia, Liberia.
What about you? You can either transform your existing radio club into an RFI Club, or create a brand new one. Then, anytime you plan special events – be they humanitarian, cultural, or sports-oriented; if you want to host an environmental program, or a day dedicated to health issues - RFI will help you with ideas and free promotional items for your members. You’ll also be eligible to participate in special RFI Club events, like the recent football tournaments. RFI’s Listener Relations Department sponsored football tournaments for the Clubs to run during the World Cup Football Tournament. RFI furnished the team tee shirts, the footballs and trophies, as well as RFI banners.
If you are interested in either changing your radio club into an RFI club, or if you would like to create a brand-new RFI club, the first step is to read the RFI Club Charter:
http://clubsrfi.blogs.rfi.fr/sites/clubsrfi.blogs.rfi.fr/files/The%20RFI_Club%20Charter.pdf
If you are willing to abide by the Charter, write to my colleagues in the Listener Relations Department and let them know. They’ll help you with the rest of the process.
Sébastien Bonijol
Chrystelle Nammour
RFI – Relations Auditeurs
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130, Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
Which leads me to another item of interest: the RFI Listeners Club. Our Listener Relations department has decided that everyone can belong to the RFI Listeners Club, but you will only be issued a membership number, not an identity card. Only members of an official RFI Club will have identity cards. As an RFI Listeners Club member, you will still win a premium prize if you win a Sound Kitchen quiz. So no reason not to join – although having an official RFI Club is really far cooler.
If you only want to be a member of the general RFI Listeners Club – that’s great, too! Just send me (or Sébastien and Chrystelle) your full name, your postal mailing address, and if you have one, your e-mail address. You’ll receive an RFI Listeners Club number; include that number every time you enter a quiz, and if you are a winner, you’ll get a premium prize!
Nota bene: The RFI Listeners Club used to be called “Club 9516”. So if you are a member of the “Club 9516”, you are already a member of the RFI Listeners Club. Your “Club 9516” membership number still works – no need to reapply. Just include your membership number on your quiz entries.
I look forward to hearing from you soon!
All the best,
Susan
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe