Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

And a preview of the battle:

Love the Usual Suspects bit.

This episode deals with the Burns Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, the largest hospital in the world. It also, and interestingly from an Irish perspective, deals with the last days of a nine month secondment of an Irish doctor, Patrick MacGoey, at the Trauma Unit. He celebrates his final day at the hospital at the end of the second part. He is being posted to the Afghan-Pakistan border by Medecins San Frontiers.

In one particularly emotional scene, a child, Sunishka, is brought by her mother to the Trauma Unit with serious head injuries following a car accident. I was not at all used to the idea of watching a private moment, as Dr MacGoey explained to Sunishka’s mother that her daughter was unlikely to survive, but they would do their best.

As Sunishka’s heart stopped, attempts were made to revive her via heart massage and then a defibrillator. Dr MacGoey asked that Suniskha’s mother watch as attempts were made to revive her. Sunishka was pronounced dead by Dr MacGoey shortly after her mother left. The entirety was filmed. As was Sunishka’s mother and father being brought in to see their daughter’s body.

Harrowing, but real. The part depicting the death of Sunishka begins about 7mins into the first clip, and continues in the second. I can’t help but wonder if this sort of documentary surrounding road traffic accidents would have a positive effect on the numbers killed and injured on our roads each year. Where do you strike the balance?

The Burns Unit parts are equally hard to watch, with one patient showing severe burns following a racist attack, amid the general race violence last year.

You can watch more episodes at the Al Jazeera website.

Yes it was rather comical.

Oprah’s minder shines a light on the ground before her, lest she fall.

Oprah exits the port-a-potty, minder at her side, and straight into the glare of onlookers, who were falling over themselves to get a picture with the TV host/billionaire.

As word spreads, a media scrum ensued.

One guy (AJ Calloway from Extra!) actually bagged a TV interview while she was on her way to the bog. Once she was done with her potty business she was kind enough to give him the interview. In this video AJ explains to me and another Flip Ultra user what happened.

I guess we all have to go, and Oprah is no different. It was an interesting spectacle though.

Other blogs have picked up the story.

Update: At the Obama press conference today, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet said she was injured during the rush to get to see his speech. I’m not sure if it was while this video was taken. Her arm is now in a cast apparently.

The polling station, in one of the bigger districts in Chicago:

A woman exercises here right to vote on West Ontario street.

We had missed the morning rush so it was reasonably quiet. They are expecting a post work rush.

I’m beside a polling station here:

View Larger Map

Update: A viewer says it definitely was “Bruce” they were shouting.

LOL. Number 6 on Google for “Obama Cleveland rally”

I’m at the Obama event in Cleveland, and wifi is available, unlike at the Virginia Beach rally. There is a huge crowd here. I tried to take photos of the queues to give some sense of the length… but at ground level you just cannot capture it. One went on for at least 10 blocks, another one went on for another 10. Miles of people waiting to get in.

I see some other journalists from Ireland, one from the Irish Times, and another from Newstalk.

I took these photos a few minutes ago.

Update:

The crowd waits for Obama:

The press wait:

The interval music from the press area:

Obama in his stride despite the rain:

In this one you can see the start of Obama’s speech, with the press looking on. The BBC was doing a live broadcast while I recorded.

After the event we came across this Pentecostal Christian who was demonstrating against the policies of Obama and preaching his beliefs. The crowd did not receive him well, including two young people play acting around him.