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I don't think we could really have avoided it any longer.

With only a couple of weeks left until the kicks off in Johannesburg, we've got into pre-match mood this week on Over To You, with a look at what seems like an imaginative way of adding a bit of background to the matches themselves.

A bus-load of journalists from the English networks and some of the language services are going on a journey through west Africa, starting in Ivory Coast, travelling through Ghana, Togo and Benin, before they end up in Nigeria ten days later.

The first ever World Cup to be held in Africa kicks off on 11 June. (Picture: Getty)

This is all being masterminded by Joseph Warungu, editor of African programmes, whom you can hear talking to Rajan on this week's programme.

He chose west Africa for the trip because this is the "football factory" of Africa - the region that produces the highest number of international players, Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and Emmanuel Adebayor among them.

The programmes that Joseph and his travelling companions will be producing sound absolutely fascinating.  It's true that football will be providing the theme, but there's a lot more to it, as Joseph explains in the interview.

Now, I should possibly admit at this point that I'm not particularly interested in football, although Rajan's enthusiasm more than makes up for it in the Over To You office.

But if there's anyone out there who shares my feelings - well, perhaps we can compare notes at the end of the tournament as to whether there was too much football-related coverage. I look forward to hearing what you think.

Lend your voice to the accent debate

This week I've enjoyed the lively debate amongst listeners on the subject of accents. If you heard the programme last week, you'll know that listener David Corbett gave us his thoughts on the use of accents used on the World Service, particularly in voice-overs.

He feels that something neutral - Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú English in fact - is what's needed. But not everyone shares his view, as you can hear on this week's programme.

Reith lecture

And we also have an interview with this year's Reith lecturer, the astronomer Martin Rees.

He talks about his theme, which is the importance of science, and how we must all be able to understand it if we're to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Do let us know what you think, both of what he says in our interview, and of his lectures, which start on the World Service on 5th June.

Cathy Packe is the Producer, Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

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Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Network Africa's Veronique Edwards recently embarked on a massive journey. Flying around Africa, she exclusively interviewed no less than five first ladies - the wives of men in power on the continent. You can . For the Over To You blog, Veronique reflects on meeting and interviewing some of Africa's most influential women:

Sia Nyama Koroma, Sierra Leone
Profession: Nurse and a chemical engineer

"Once a nurse, always a nurse," is a mantra for Mrs Sia Nyama Koroma, first lady of Sierra Leone, as she says in her soft and gentle voice.

These were soothing words to me as l arrived in Freetown feeling exhausted and hungry after traveling all night and all day from London. I knew my search for the elusive African First ladies had begun.

Sierra Leone is struggling to get back on its feet after years of a bloody conflict. I felt l had just arrived in the middle of a big bonanza. Most of the people l met were happy and optimistic. Roads are being constructed, big houses, small houses and large mansions are springing up all over the country - and I am constantly reminded that peace has come to stay. Who better reinforces that but Mrs Koroma? A strong woman who comes from a very assertive ethnic group of the country - lovely, soft spoken, caring and a very approachable stateswoman.

With all the diamonds in Sierra Leone, none were on the fingers of the first lady. No bling to be found - you would be hard pressed to see it anywhere on her person.

She did something unexpected. She took me out for lunch in a modest restaurant in town. A girls' lunch, just the two of us. I had to pinch myself to remind me where l was and with whom l was dining.

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As I write, the centre of the city of Bangkok is in some turmoil as the confrontation between government troops and the opposing Red Shirts protesters appears to have reached a climax.  Who knows what will be happening in the city when you read this.

One of the buildings caught up in the fighting was the state-owned Channel 3 TV station in Bangkok - and it's not the first time in Thailand's recent history that a broadcaster has been attacked by demonstrators.

As Professor Duncan McCargo from Leeds University and an expert in Thai politics explained to me this week, both sides of the political divide have targeted the media in the past, recognising the symbolic value of gaining influence over the broadcasters in Thailand.

But perhaps more important is how local residents receive their information about on-going developments. Increasingly these include tweets and other social media. But in recognition of their power to mobilise support, many websites have been censored or closed down.  

I've been talking this week to a listener, Tracey Martin, who lives and works in Bangkok - and she told me that although many TV stations and the English-speaking newspapers are pro-government, she has learned to see through the spin.

And staying with the issue of bias in the media, some listeners objected to a recent Witness programme, in which two Israeli veterans share their memories of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. 

Critics argued the edition was not balanced and should have reflected the displacement of many of thousands of Palestinians in order to accommodate the new citizens of this hotly-contested area of land.

It raises the whole question of how balanced can a subjective account of an event be?  And is this what we want anyway? 

Don't we want to escape from the norms of balance when we move away from conventional news and current affairs story-telling to a more immersive narrative. 

As the editor of Witness, Kirsty Reid, points out, she has chosen to reflect the Palestinian experience in a separate programme very soon.

Are there any personal accounts we would deem to be too offensive? I'd be interested to know from you for instance whether it's actually more instructive to learn the motivation of a perpetrator of violence rather than the victim in, say, a civil war or ethnic cleansing programme?

Or would you feel that was unbalanced?  Let us know....

And just to finish off this week's agenda on Over To You - and to show we don't shy away from controversy - do you get frustrated by foreign voices and accents translating non-English-speaking interviewees on news and documentaries?

One listener in London David Corbett, certainly gets annoyed - and he cites the case of his former students in Spain who struggled to understand the translations unless they were spoken by people with "received pronunciation" - or what is sometimes known as "Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú English". 

Would English spoken only in British tones make the World Service a very boring place?  Over to you.... we want to hear your multi-accented opinions on this one!

Rajan Datar is the Presenter, Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

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World Service reporters don't just make great radio - they also take fascinating pictures wherever they go.

The below is a tiny selection from the past couple of weeks - be sure to which is updated often.

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Paul Adams reported on how the US military is dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - and finds a variety of radical new approaches to the issue.

(8 more pictures)

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This week's blog entry is written by stand-in producer, Louise Adamson:

I hadn't been expecting to produce Over to You at the start of this week.

But when my colleague Cathy Packe - who usually looks after the programme - rang to say she was stuck in Spain under a volcanic ash cloud, I was intrigued to have the chance to step in.

It was a great chance to hear the views of listeners to the World Service and to find out more
about some of the recent programmes on the network.

Our main item this week has been about Steve Evans' documentary - 'Would You Kill The Big Guy?' - an intriguing title for an exploration of one of the big questions of moral philosophy. 

Over to You has already covered listeners' views about whether it had been trailed too often.

But what about the programme itself?

We've persuaded two of our listeners, Peter Olsen and Catherine Cook, to turn radio reviewer.

They joined Rajan to tell him what they did and didn't like about the programme:

It's a fascinating discussion, which is well worth a listen. The full documentary is available to listen to here.

Election fever

And here in London we've been following the twists and turns of the British General Election and its aftermath.

As someone who's normally followed UK politics on the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's domestic networks, I was really interested to find out more about how the World Service has covered the extraordinary events of the past week or so.

UK Election Editor, Michael Duncan, spoke to 'Over To You' about the challenges of interpreting the UK political scene for a global audience.

That's all on this week's 'Over To You.'

Cathy is now safely returned to the UK so I'm handing the programme back to her for next week.

Louise Adamson is the Producer of this week's Over To You.

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

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For any feedback programme, be it television or radio, the debate over the use of programme trails has always rumbled on.

Recently, in Britain, Doctor Who fans were up in arms when .

Meanwhile here on World Service, listeners have been getting in touch about the trailer for 'Would you kill the big guy?', a programme which first aired this morning in the Wednesday Documentary slot.

Here's the segment from this week's Over To You - in which you can hear the trail in question:

Opinions split down the middle, it seems.

"I figured that if a programme needs that many traliers, it must be really bad," said Catherine, an "avid" listener of the network.

Is this the case?

Find out for yourself. You can listen to the full version of 'Would you kill the big guy?' right now by clicking here. Or, if you're the sort who prefers to listen on a train, you can download the podcast version here - and just hope your journey isn't interrupted by a big guy.

Once you've had a good listen - come back here and let us know: Did the trailer live up to the programme?

And would you kill the big guy?

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Can programmes, albeit unwittingly, act as platforms for strongly-held religious or political views?

According to an irate listener, Patrick O'Mahoney, one edition of World Have Your Say, broadcast from "God's Littlest Children" orphanage in Haiti last week did just that.

The programme's format is normally studio-based with callers and emailers from around the world contributing to a global debate on issues of the day.

The World Have Your Say team visited Haiti three month's on from the devestating earthquake.

The issue in this Haiti special from the WHYS team was the ethics of the international adoption of children from a disaster zone. But Patrick felt this was eclipsed by the amount of time given over to interviews that emphasised the importance of Christianity to those who administer or live in the orphanage.

Patrick objected to the frequent references to God and Jesus by both the adult carers and the children themselves.

He felt these were best left to what he called "revivalist meetings", and not to a programme that is usually "informative and stimulating".

I put these points to the editor of the programme, Mark Sandell, who defended his programme in typically feisty fashion:



You can hear the full debate on Over To You this weekend.

Writer-In-Residence

You can also hear an interview with the first ever Writer-In-Residence at the World Service.

Hamid Ismailov is a charming man and a prolific writer - as well as Head of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Central Asian service - and in his new role he's charged with the fascinating responsibility of injecting a fresh perspective on current affairs and news stories that are covered more conventionally by regular journalists.

And Hamid wants you to join in too.

Starting this week he's going to be blogging at bbcworldservice.com/writer - and he'll be asking questions that are designed to get you to leave your comments.

Which of course is what we want you to do with our blog, too!

Rajan Datar is the Presenter, Over To You

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