Exploring India's Soliga Tribe; BBC Radio Presenter Fired over Racist Royal Family Tweet
VAUSE: For centuries, India's Soliga tribe has lived in a forest nestled in the southern part of the country. Their traditions and culture deeply rooted within the lush greenery which surrounds them. In our "Iconic India" series, we explore how that connection live son today.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Adorned in leaves from the forest the Soliga tribe of India perform a 2,000-year-old ceremony. This is a dance that reinforces the tribes deep connection, with nature and their deity, Gorukana, God of the forest.</s>ACHUGEGOWDA (through translator): For the Soliga tribes, the forest is their father and mother, it is the god that we worship.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For centuries, Achugegowda's ancestors lived off the land but when their hunting grounds were turned into wildlife parks, they lost their livelihood. Today, they manage to survive by selling products from the forest, from spices to crafting, honey making, to coffee farming.</s>ARSHIA BOSE: So this is Achugegowda's coffee plantation. There are some stories to suggest that he might be one of the first Soliga people in this region to actually start cultivating coffee.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arshia Bose has been buying coffee from Achugegowda and other Soliga tribe members for four years. India is the seventh largest producer of coffee in the world. With Karnataka producing the majority, this is coffee country. In the Biligirirangan Hills, the elevation, the sort of the fact that we are on a slope as well as the soil type is really good for the cultivation of coffee. We find the flavor of coffee to be really, really sort of full -- full flavored and quite fruity and quite peppery. It is quite earthy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Working directly with buyers and cutting out the middleman, the farmers here are empowered but there is another effort that seeks to support the whole tribe.</s>HANUMAPPA SUDARSHIN: Gorukana is the song which the tribe will sing, Goru, goru, goru ko, gorukana -- the whole life is like a web. And we thought we would keep that name and also do it as part of that web. Ecotourism is also part of that web.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And flowing around 25 tribe members, this Gorukana Eco Wellness Retreat is more than just a tourist attraction. All proceeds from the retreat were invested into the communities, supporting the local school and hospital, providing a lifeline for the Soliga people for years to come.</s>VAUSE: Before Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor was even born, his parents Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex tightly controlled access to his story and presentation to the world, most likely in many ways, to shield him from this sort of thing -- racist tweets from the likes of BBC Radio 5 live presenter Danny Baker. On Wednesday Baker tweeted a photo of a man and woman holding hands with a chimpanzee in a suit and top hat. The caption: "Royal baby leaves hospital". He deleted it, issued kind of an apology but not enough to save his job. A BBC spokesman said "This was a serious error of judgment and goes against the values we as a station aim to embody. Danny is a brilliant broadcaster but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us." Sandro Monetti, entertainment journalist and former royal correspondent, with us now from Los Angeles. Oh you've got some of the music. Ok. A little bit to talk about here to wrap up the week, but that tweet, Danny Baker, the radio presenter. This was his initial apology. "Sorry my gag pic of the little fellow in the posh outfit has whipped some up. Never occurred to me because well, mind not diseased. Soon as those good enough to point out its possible connotations, got in touch, down it came and that's it. Now stand by for sweary football tweets." It seems he was then told management wanted to see him or something like that. Here's the other tweet. "Once again, sincere apologies for the stupid unthinking gag pic earlier. It was supposed to be a joke about royals versus circus animals in posh cloths -- blah, blah, blah. So rightly deleted. Royalty watching not forte. He then, you know, well, he got fired. He then was quite deep in saying he was a victim of all sorts of silliness. Surely by now the I didn't not know it was offensive defense seems unbelievable.</s>SANDRO MONETTI, ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALIST: He works in the media. One of the major stories in the world has been about, amid all the congratulations to Meghan, giving birth to what is the first biracial baby in the history of the royal family has been so much abuse of a racist nature on social media. So what does one of the BBC's prime broadcasters do? Go and add to this narrative. Utterly idiotic, utterly stupid, an end to a glorious broadcasting career but he had to go and the mealy mouth apology was just pathetic. You know, it's really a landmark for the moment in our culture and it is just vile. You know, Ricky Gervais once said to me, Twitter is one big toilet wall. And so you get one of the most respected broadcasters just adding to it, this was an idiotic move. Don't slam the door on your way out, Danny, you had to go.</s>VAUSE: Yes. Twitter-cide we call it. On the bright side, though, what we are seeing is so unusual with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They are sort of writing their own playbook here. They're refusing to follow in the steps of other royals, notably William and Kate, in a lot of way. Firstly the official photographs of the couple and the queen and also, Meghan's mother, a non royal relative appearing in an official photo like this,</s>MONETTI: She must. You know, Meghan and Harry play the Instagram game so well, better than anyone else in the palace, because on the official royal family Web site, the parents of Archie were named as William and Kate, oops. Someone has not been paying attention at the palace, whereas Sussex Royal has just take an off to 7.5 million followers on Instagram. I think this is fantastic and what I love about the young royals is how they are using this platform for a good. Yes, the eyes of the world are on them. In the last few hours they have launched a crisis text helpline for people struggling with mental health issues. I can't think of any other major celebrity that makes mental health their topic. It certainly never been done in the royal family.</s>VAUSE: Days after she gives birth.</s>MONETTI: Yes, exactly. Yes. So you talk about tradition and a new way of doing things and we are talking about them so much, you know. "Game of Thrones" is about to go off the air and everyone is very sad, but don't worry because the intrigue and drama that surrounds the royals can keep us going.</s>VAUSE: Absolutely.</s>MONETTI: And this one will never be canceled.</s>VAUSE: Ok. Well, there is also no official royal title for Archie. Here's CNN's Max Foster to explain why.</s>MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that suggests that they want Archie to grow up and develop his own career outside the royal fold, unburdened by titles. They also want to argue, I think, that they deserve some privacy for this little child because he's not got a title so therefore he won't take a royal role so he should be exempted from much of the media pressure that has plagued Harry, he would argue, but also his mother.</s>VAUSE: The other interesting thing, he was only given three names, Archie, which actually is a contraction which is the first time I think that has ever happened for a royal. So Archie Harrison Mountbatten. Normally the royal kids, they've got more names than a phone book.</s>MONETTI: Yes, they have. I mean you only need to look at the all the bets, we thought -- Arthur, Philipp, George, all the rest of them, but they are doing things their own way. And it was interesting in that package there about out of the spotlight. The media is very different, of course, the royal family has had its run-ins with the press but now one of the great things about Instagram and Twitter is that the poster can control the story so they are getting in their first and it will be a decision for them, as the most high-profile parents in the world, how much exposure do they give to Archie going forward? You know, will this be the world's most famous child, you know they say there will be no royal title, will it be @Archie coming at us soon or will he be in the background. It's going to be fascinating to watch this very modern media savvy couple and how they handle the fame, controlling themselves, of the most famous child in the world right now.</s>VAUSE: Absolutely. We're out of time Sandro but to that point, they have managed to pull off, you know, this birth and everything else, getting Meghan to the hospital and getting out of the hospital. It was like something out of a Jason Bourne movie. They're probably get it up the tabloids right. It was good to see you.</s>MONETTI: Great to see you. Cheers.</s>VAUSE: And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. The news continues right after a very short break.