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Quick Guide & Transcript: New Orleans celebrates Mardi Gras, EU bird flu update
RELATEDSPECIAL REPORTCNN STUDENT NEWS(CNN Student News) -- February 27, 2006 Quick GuideA Mardi Gras to Remember - Attend Mardi Gras in a place where many residents are determined to make the party a success. Dredded Decision - Weigh in on a university's efforts to keep some of its students within the boundaries of a strict dress code. Bird Flu Update - Find out how officials are handling the European Union's first outbreak of bird flu in commercial poultry. TranscriptTHIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to this Monday broadcast of CNN Student News! From Atlanta, I'm Catherine Callaway. The show goes on: with Mardi Gras under way, New Orleans takes a steadfast, and satirical, approach to Fat Tuesday. Going by the code: some Virginia students have a strict set of rules to follow, when it comes to their class-time couture. And it's water any way you look at it... But can you taste a difference? A group of judges in West Virginia can! First Up: A Mardi Gras to Remember CALLAWAY: Rainy weather and lingering damage from Hurricane Katrina haven't driven the party from New Orleans. The Louisiana city is doing one of the things it's most famous for: Mardi Gras. And while some residents say it's the wrong time to celebrate, because there's so much rebuilding to do. Others argue it's more important now than ever, and that the city just wouldn't be New Orleans without Mardi Gras. Susan Roesgen brings us her impressions from this weekend's festivities. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN REPORTER: It could be any Carnival season in New Orleans, because this is the way it always seems to look when the small, neighborhood parades roll down St. Charles Avenue. Most of these folks are locals, out with their children doing what generations of New Orleanians have done for years. And yet while the parades rolled in one part of the city, a salvage company was in another... chopping up the barge that broke through one of the levees in the big flood. This is New Orleans after the hurricane... still struggling...and celebrating at the same time. NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: We need to just show everybody New Orleans is alive and well and we will survive Katrina. ROESGEN: New Orleans is not only surviving Katrina.. but spoofing it. A marching group-- wearing FEMA life jackets. And a float titled: Cat on a Blue Tarp Roof. This woman lost her house in the hurricane.. but she wouldn't miss Mardi Gras. NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: We have to go on. We have to go on with Mardi Gras, this is the human spirit...to celebrate life. ROESGEN: This is how New Orleans celebrates part of her culture...A city letting go of its worries for a moment, but not forever. Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans. (END VIDEO CLIP) Fast Facts CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS REPORTER: Time for some Fast Facts! Mardi Gras, also known as Carnival, is a season of international festivities that include parties, dances and parades. Mardi Gras literally means "Fat Tuesday" in French. And that's when it ends, a day before the Christian holiday of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. The first Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans was held in 1837. In recent years, about 1.4 million people have attended the annual party there, but only about half that number are expected this year. Dredded Decision CALLAWAY: You may not agree with your school's dress code. But try and defy it, and you could be sent home to change your look. Well, the same applies at a Virginia university. And as Gary Nurenburg reports, dredlocks and short skirts are out, if students want to stay in. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GARY NURENBERG, CNN REPORTER: Hampton University graduate student Quentin Miles had a tough morning Friday. QUENTIN MILES, HAMPTON GRADUATE STUDENT: I got up, had a decision to make, went and got my hair cut. NURENBERG: His Mohawk became part of his hair history. MILES: I've had cornrows, plats, two-string twists, gel twist. NURENBERG: All statements about his individuality. MILES: I didn't want to cut it and be seen as though I cut it to conform. NURENBERG: But the MBA candidate has to conform if he wants to attend a weekly seminar with business leaders held at his historically black school; no cornrows, dreadlocks, or long braids. SIDNEY CREDLE, HAMPTON UNIVERSITY DEAN: Its a strict business and dress code. NURENBERG: Suits and ties, no tight or short skirts. Its been a requirement in the schools business administration program for the last six years. CREDLE: We're developing professionals who will go into corporate America for the most part and so we don't want extreme hairstyles or extreme attire. PAMELA FREEMAN: When we think of racism, we don't think of it happening within our own communities. NURENBERG: Pamela Freeman founded cornrows and company in Washington D.C. After she lost a job because of her hairstyle in 1978. FREEMAN: Here you have students who go to an African-American University because they're embracing their culture. And they're telling you we don't want to embrace our culture. NURENBERG: Hampton says the policy isn't racist, that strict business attire can help students overcome the racial stereotypes they can encounter when looking for jobs. CHEDLE: For this program we have 100 percent placement NURENBERG: Some business diversity experts believe it's dated. JOHN PEOPLES, GLOBAL LEAGUE MANAGEMENT: It sends the message that appearance is as, or more important than competence is. NURENBERG: John Peoples says global competition forces companies to push appearances aside. PEOPLES: They've got to make sure they're bringing in the best and the brightest people, regardless of how they look. NURENBERG: At Hampton, some students don't see the dress code as a sacrifice of their heritage SHAKORA LUCKETT, 4TH YEAR STUDENT, PRESIDENT OF THE LEADERSHIP APPLICATION PROGRAM: It's our thoughts and our ideals and our values and our experiences and our education that create the person we are not the way I wear my hair or the way don't wear it. NURENBERG: It is, for these business students, a business decision. QUENTIN : I understand that we live in a world that's not perfect and there are sacrifices we all have to make every day. NURENBERG: Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEO CLIP) Promo CALLAWAY: So how important is a school dress code... And could you come up with one that every student in your class, can agree on? That's the subject of today's learning activity at CNN.com/EDUCATION. Log on and shout out how you feel, about constraints on your classroom clothing! Bird Flu Update CALLAWAY: Chinese officials are warning that a massive bird flu outbreak may be on the horizon there. And the disease continues to spread in Europe. Jennifer Hazelton tells us how French authorities reacted when it was confirmed on their soil. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JENNIFER HAZELTON, CNN REPORTER: Hundreds of birds are dead at Max Cormareshe's farm in the Ain region of France. The cause: An outbreak of bird flu. MAX CORMARESHE, POULTRY FARMER: How was the virus able to enter? It was a turkey farm that was totally enclosed. Did it come through the straw? Did it come in through the ventilation system? Did it come through the water? Nobody knows today. HAZELTON: The European Union's first outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in commercial poultry was confirmed on Saturday. The farm is sealed off; the rest of the birds slaughtered. But French President Jacques Chirac, worried about a possible panic, tried to ease fears. JACQUES CHIRAC, FRENCH PRESIDENT: There is no danger for the French and Europeans in eating poultry and eggs--no danger. In any case, the virus in question is automatically destroyed by cooking. So there is strictly no danger. HAZELTON: It appears the French president has reason to worry. France is the EU's largest producer of poultry, and by some estimates, sales of poultry have dropped by about 30 percent in France over bird flu fears. Japan imposed a temporary ban on French poultry on Friday, and is threatening to impose the same ban on the EU's second largest poultry producer, the Netherlands. Fear has also spread to Georgia, where the government ordered the slaughter of all domestic poultry in eleven villages. The villages lie close to a lake where dead swans infected with bird flu were found on Friday. At a poultry market in Tbilisi, stall holders say sales have slumped. RUSUDANA, CHICKEN SELLER: Customers come, but don't buy anything. They are afraid they will get sick and die. HAZELTON: And the problem continues to widen in Asia. Bird flu spread to a cluster of villages in the Indian state of Gujarat, just a week after the nation reported it's first H5N1 virus infection in a neighboring area. Government officials ordered the culling of all farm birds across 71 villages. VATSALA VASUDEVA, SURAT DISTRICT MAGISTRATE: We will complete the culling by tonight. As far as human infection is concerned, from day one we have a very strict door to door surveillance. HAZELTON: Health officials went door to door looking for anyone with feverish symptoms, and offered money to people for handing over their poultry. So far, there have been no reported human cases of bird flu in India. Jennifer Hazelton, CNN, Atlanta. (END VIDEO CLIP) Shoutout AZUZ: Time for the Shoutout! You may know the formula for water, but, what does the "H" stand for in H2O? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Helium, B) Hydrogen, C) Holmium or D) Hybrid? You've got three seconds--GO! Water is made up of two molecules of hydrogen -- the H2 part of it -- and one molecule of oxygen. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Before We Go CALLAWAY: Before we go... You know you can't live without it. But doesn't all drinking water taste the same? Not according to judges of this West Virginia "water tasting" event! More than 100 worldwide waters whet their taste buds... from bottled and purified drinking water, to plain old tap water. In that last category, a pair of Ohio cities-- Montpelier and Kent --washed away the competition! Goodbye CALLAWAY: And that concludes our show for today! For CNN Student News, I'm Catherine Callaway. We'll see Tuesday, online or on Headline News. 
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