Afghanistan - Bagram’s Creature Comforts
- 8' min 11'' sec [8 March 2010]
Kandahar next NATO target
The Bagram Air Base is an American Oasis in the middle of the Afghan desert. Troops can shop, have a burger and even have a massage. But soon the mall will be shut down to make room for new troops.
The Kabul we know from the news is a dusty, broken cityscape…But just an hour's drive north, 20 000 US soldiers bask in the creature comforts of the Bagram Air Base. Gaudy signs offer ‘Burger King’, ‘Harley Davidson’ and ‘Karaoke’, and you could easily forget you’re in the middle of a war zone. “For a lot of people, this is a slice of home”, says Lieutenant Koczera, joining the long queue for Burger King. He’s grateful for the opportunity to get a souvenir for his loved ones, free from the constant fear of fire: “going off the base is not the time to really shop”. But with more American troops on the way, space is getting tight. The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General McChrystal, has ordered the more indulgent services to close. Many of the 4,000 civilians from Russia, India, and Pakistan who work on the base face an uncertain future. “They say if you are not Afghan, you are going to be closed”, says one. McChrystal wants his soldiers focused on the main game now more than ever. And whilst the soldiers here admit that the shops are a bonus, they know they’re here to fight, not to shop.
SBS
India - Banking On Change
- 12' min 00'' sec [8 March 2010]
Microfinance improving the fate of women worldwide
J.S Parthibhan is a bank manager with a difference: he’s interested in people, not numbers. Through micro loans, he helps villagers in rural areas develop a sense of entrepreneurship and self-respect.
Travelling on his moped to isolated villages, Parthibhan has made it his mission to bring his bank to the people, not the other way around. For him, reforming the system should happen at the most basic level: face to face. "It is about more than just dealing with money. It is dealing with people, with their aspirations." These villagers need a loan for a new kiln. He educates them about money and talks them through the process of opening an account. "If I were a doctor I would care for the people coming to me the same way as I do now." In the past years, he’s successfully backed countless similar ventures: “You can talk about financial crisis, but the importance is cultivating people. If you do that, everything falls in to the right place". Now here’s a role model for bankers from Wall Street to Tokyo.
Andrew Hinton
Thailand - The Price of Labour
- 9' min 32'' sec [8 March 2010]
Thailand to impose security laws on protests
Thailand has become the assembly-line for the world’s electronics and textiles industries. Long hours, little pay and unfair dismissals are standard fare, and workers are taking to the streets in protest.
Half a million Thai people are now employed in Thailand’s booming electronics sector. At this factory supplying Sony, HP and Dell, 12 hour shifts are standard fare, and salaries are less than 100 euros a month. “Most of the workers are young, unmarried women”, says a journalist. To encourage investment, new companies in Thailand are exempt from taxes for several years. After this exemption period, factories close, and re-open under a new name, hiring new staff. Workers across Thailand are now demanding unpaid wages and preventing the management from starting again with cheaper labour. “It was a thorn in the side of the managers that we had organized ourselves”, they say.
ORF
Italy - Elegy To Silence
- 25' min 00'' sec [8 March 2010]
Sacrificing all for your beliefs
For the Carthusian monks, a life of solitude and self-denial is easy to bear for their religion. With exclusive access they lift the secretive veil from the monk's daily lives.
“Solitude gives us time to be with God”, explains Father Lopes. He decided to become a monk at the age of 20, whilst at university, and now spends 20 hours a day in his cell and eats only two meals a day. “I rowed and swam until the age of 20 but not since then…I have not seen the sea since then”. But the greatest sacrifice is being away from family: “we won’t ever visit our relatives and they wont come to visit us here.”
SIC TV
Pacific Ocean - The Real Treasure Island
- 5' min 57'' sec [20 January 2010]
Tree houses and Jacuzzis!
A Robinson Crusoe playground for the rich and famous, this tiny island has been converted into a holiday resort with treetop suites providing a beautiful haven for its super-rich guests.
Previously owned by Huglio Iglesias, this idyllic paradise cost over $23 million to create. “I think it is better to use this wealth for projects that are helpful to our society, rather than trying to become even richer.” It’s nature driven design and exotic sands formulate a truly amazing private holiday retreat for celebrities and billionaires wanting to get away from it all.
Yves Trevalec Productions
Iraq - City of Walls
- 45' min 00'' sec [13 May 2009]
Violence Threatens Elections
Behind Baghdad’s 12ft walls, the relics of civil war were incubated. Mourners would never forget and orphans were brought up by militia. We reveal why Sunni and Shia are now more divided than ever.
“Only killers and the killed ever come here”, says our guide. We’re on the edge of Sadr city where almost 3000 sectarian murders have taken place over the last 3 years. As the sun sets on this rubbish tip of corpses one man remains. “This is my son Omer”, he says, “his best friend Ali lured him to Qahira and sold him to militias”. Ali was a Shia and Omer a Sunni. Where once Iraqi children had no idea who was Sunni or Shia, the walls have made it mortally apparent. Childhood friends have turned against each other. “The city is like a woman who has rediscovered her make-up”, says one Iraqi. In the news we hear of the resurgence of art and literature. Old men sing songs in the street like they used to: but their eyes are full of sadness and hate. The city seems more peaceful but the arm-guarded checkpoints remain, and many feel that the press have glossed over Baghdad's problems. “There is no improvement!” says one grief-stricken mother, “they organise proxy killings now”, whilst a taxi driver confides that: “it’s worse than Palestine here..no one tells the truth”..
Guardian Films
India - Hair Tomorrow Gone Today
- 20' min 50'' sec [1 March 2010]
India’s market booms
How does a deeply spiritual offering from India’s poor become a must-have accessory in the salons of Europe? As fashion and faith collide, religious sacrifice is fuelling a multi-billion dollar industry.
Every year millions of Hindus shave their heads in offering to the gods. It’s called tonsuring, and it’s big business. “On average we are getting in excess of five tonnes…”, says hair dealer Mayoor Balsara as he finalises his latest purchase from the temples. It’s a classic globalisation story: the sacrificial hair is cheaply sourced in the developing world, and is lining the pockets of those in the west. David Gold is one of them. Each year his company turns over $150 million selling hair extensions sourced from India’s temples. He deflects questions of ethics, arguing that the temples pour profits back into local welfare projects. It’s a dubious claim, and yet many Hindus seem happy for their hair to be spun into gold: “We gave it to God, and it’s come back like this. It’s beautiful.”
ABC Australia
Denmark - Shipping Slows Down
- 9' min 42'' sec [1 March 2010]
Stable outlook for shipping industry after severe crisis
No other industry has benefited more from globalisation than the shipping industry. Yet in the wake of the recession, ship owners, shipyards and crews are all finding themselves struggling to survive.
“We have been stuck here with no food and no gasoline. We cannot send money to our families." Francis is a sailor from Ghana. For months, he has been stranded on a rusty tanker in the port of Las Palmas. When the owners went bankrupt, the crew was left hanging with no means of getting home. Situations like these are common in ports all over the world. “A ship usually has several owners; banks, pension funds and private individuals, and everyone washes their hands of it.”
ORF
Palau - Shark Alarm
- 15' min 30'' sec [1 March 2010]
Animal activists call for more respect for marine life after SeaWorld death.
The tiny pacific nation of Palau has declared itself the world’s first national shark sanctuary. A large proportion of the 100 million sharks killed each year, are hunted in its territorial waters.
This carnage is being fuelled by Asia’s rapidly growing appetite for shark fin soup. The sharks are captured, have their fins hacked off and are then thrown overboard to die. “If you are a guest of honour they give you a bowl of shark fin soup”, says Johnson Toribiong, Palau’s president, “sometimes they catch sharks illegally, sometimes they catch tuna illegally”. This tiny island has warned the world it will protect its natural resources, but with only one patrol boat, can the shark sanctuary ever be enforced? Shark activist Dermott Keane believes they can’t do it alone; “Palau needs assistance in enforcing this sanctuary”.
SBS
Japan - Concrete Dancefloor
- 16' min 21'' sec [1 March 2010]
Japanese figure skater Mao Asada, take second at the winter olympics.
Spectacular moves and thumping beats liven up the streets of Tokyo at night. Japanese kids practice their moves in every thinkable style to show off in a host of trendy new underground dancing clubs.
“We’re all students and have no money to go to a dance studio". In the concrete jungle, crowds of young Japanese street dancers come out at night to use the smooth floor and reflecting glass walls of office towers as their improvised studio. Eccentric and loud, those kids like to make a statement and the trend is taking the Japanese youth culture by storm: “Instead of learning ballet, more and more join the street dancing crowd”.
Sebastian Stein
Sri Lanka - Hell Or High Water
- 23' min 05'' sec [22 February 2010]
EU suspends trade befits over human rights
If they stay they face intimidation and violence. If they go they run the gauntlet of naval controls and treacherous seas. Yet the Tamils of Sri Lanka are taking the high water over the hell at home.
“If there is an opportunity to leave Sri Lanka – I will not hesitate, even if it poses a risk to my life”. The Tamil Tigers - both a liberation army and a terrorist group fighting for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka – was all but wiped out by the Sri Lankan army last year in a bloodbath that shocked the world. Former UN spokesman, Gordon Weiss, believes that Tamil civilians were also targeted: “about 300,000 civilians, plus the Tamil Tiger forces, were trapped in an area about the size of Central Park”. According to Weiss, the Sri Lankan authorities deliberately underestimated the number of trapped civilians, “as a ploy to allow the government to get on with its business.” Tamil Civilians who survived the offensive have been relegated to camps and accused of spurious crimes. They’re now risking everything to find asylum. “Asylum seekers are drug dealers and traffickers”, dismisses President Rajapaksa, “now that the Tigers have been destroyed, national unity will prevail”. Yet the thousands of Tamil civilians prepared to flee their families and risk their life savings on a dangerous journey, tell a different story.
ABC Australia
Mozambique - Me and My Brothers
- 33' min 52'' sec [22 February 2010]
Aids breakthrough - retroviral the secret?
There are over 600,000 AIDs orphans in Mozambique, with an average life expectancy of just 41. Under the weight of these depressing statistics, four children are slowly building a life for themselves.
When Sergio is asked if he knows how his parents died he claims ignorance; “I don’t know…it seemed like malaria”. The name of the disease is never spoken here; there is still too much stigma attached. Sergio’s wishes are simple, “ I ask to live well with my brothers, without any serious problems.” Yet even feeding his younger siblings is a daily struggle, and there is little support for their all too common situation. Arriving at school with an empty stomach, their teacher remarks, “They’re old enough to go 12 hours without eating.” Local initiatives such as Graca Machel’s Foundation for Community Development offer them some hope for a more stable future. For now however, it is up to Sergio and his brothers.
SIC TV
Greece - Mob Madness
- 8' min 18'' sec [22 February 2010]
We don't need a bailout
Greece faces further economic uncertainty with debts more than 100% of its GDP, and its incongruence to see mass protest for more money in tandem with the financial collapse.
The EU is watching Greece closely and remains undecided. “The EU should help Greece and other countries, because that would strengthen the cohesion of the community”, explains a University lecturer. But the crisis is now affecting his own graduates the most – “With €700 (a month) you can hardly do anything", explains one student “We can’t move out of our parent’s homes…we cannot live on what we earn”, says another. Angry and restless, youths frequently take to the streets in riots and protest. And if they aren't protesting, all too often they're leaving the country. They accuse the government of undervaluing them and say its their skills that will solve the financial crisis.
ORF
India - Happy Birthday Loki
- 33' min 00'' sec [22 February 2010]
The flip side of slavery
Mumbai is full of tragic stories of girls who have been prised from their families and sold into an abusive life of slavery. Yet for Loki, life as a domestic servant is a priceless social net.
Like all of the domestic servants working in Mumbai, Loki’s past is marred by tragedy: sold at a very young age for a couple of rupees and sexually exploited, Loki has no understanding of human rights. Yet with an employer who treats her with respect, Loki has it better than most. She eats more than a growing boy and is addicted to television. “It's like she's part of the family”, says Loki’s employer.
Tenten Films
New Zealand - Oh My Godwit
- 11' min 53'' sec [22 February 2010]
Spring Hits the Southern Hemisphere
In New Zealand thousands of tiny birds are readying to escape the coming winter. They're one of nature’s great mysteries, so how do these athletic birds actually survive the colossal journey?
Every year tens of thousands of Godwits leave New Zealand en-route to Alaska. A team of biologists implanted satellite transmitters to follow their adventure and try to unearth some of the mystery surrounding the birds. “This is unequivocally the longest known flight of any bird in the world” says Phil Battley, of the biologist team. This is an incredible feat for an extraordinary creature.
TV New Zealand
(Ref: 4750)
E-mail us to receive 'The Journeyman Weekly' each week.
view transcript
Get free Real player