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World Service,08 Nov 2010,25 mins

08/11/2010

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THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED HERSELF This weekend a woman in Taiwan had one of the most unusual weddings in history: she married herself. Chen Wei-yi, who also goes by her English name 'Only', carried out the ceremony as a protest against the pressures on women in Taiwanese society to get married. A SURFER'S TSUNAMI EXPERIENCE The country of Indonesia has suffered terrible natural disasters over the last few weeks. One man who was caught up in the tsunami was Australian surfer Rick Hallet. He's been riding the powerful waves in the area for more than ten years, and makes his living by chartering boats to take others for surf safaris in the area. When the tsunami hit he was on a boat with ten other Australian surfers off the remote Mentawai Islands. THE SILENT MONK Father Christopher Jamison is a Benedictine monk who spends long periods of his day in complete silence. He and his fellow monks are not allowed to speak or take part in noisy activities from nine in the evening until eight the next morning and they also keep two half hour periods of silence during the day. Father Jamison believes that the world is suffering from an epidemic of 'busyness' - and that people are losing out because they cannot stop and listen.

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