http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Governance & Transparency) en-us Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:14:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-baby-business The thin line between human trafficking and international adoption is frequently blurred by children's homes in India. "A Baby Business" is an eye-opening investigation into the growing business of selling children to Western adoption agencies, children who were put into shelters by loving parents without the means to support them. Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:14:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-baby-business India, Human trafficking, Governance & Transparency, International adoption, Human rights, Orphanage, Link TV Presents the World, NDTV Profit The thin line between human trafficking and international adoption is erased in this film on the shady practices of children's homes in India. "A Baby Business" is a moving expose on the growing business of selling children to Western adoption agencies who have been put into shelters by loving parents without the means to support them. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-ifie-and-tina Gas flaring in Nigeria is rampant, even though its toxicity and effects on health and the environment make it a violation of human rights. Tina and Ifie are filming testimonies so that people around the world can see the local cost of oil. Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:24:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-ifie-and-tina Nigeria, Environment, Niger Delta, Gas flare, Oil well, Oil spill, Sub-Saharan Africa, Millennium Development Goals, Climate change, Governance & Transparency >> TITLE: Element>> TINA: The fuel you?re using comes from our area. It should be making Nigeria rich, but if you come to the Niger Delta, you don?t see any of that. Especially the environment. We don?t have anything. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #7: ensure environmental sustainability>> IFIE: This project, it?s like a voice to the people. >> IFIE: Tina is my small Auntie, and she?s always challenging me because she has that title, Auntie, she?s always preaching to me. >> TINA: She wants to oppress me. >> IFIE: You?re telling people that I oppress you. See, you?re quarreling again. >> TINA: See, this is the oppression I?m talking about. >> IFIE: Since apparently I?m oppressing you, I?m leaving!>> IFIE: She?s always taking all my time; she?s a kid. She?s wild, someone can call me an idiot and I can?t say anything. She?ll say, ?Call my sister an idiot again. I?ll fight you.?>> IFIE: Since we can?t fight, we don?t have guns, the only voice we have is this video editing. Now we can make our own documentary and send it to the Internet, and the whole world will see it. Everybody clap for me. We?re watching the documentary that we did on the oil spill and trying to see the response from the community. >> TITLE: Niger Delta: an oil spill pollutes the land. The oil company refuses to clean up, claiming the pipe was deliberately broken.>> MAN 1: All our food, all our fish have died. So we are hungry. >> WOMAN: And even the snails. The oil has killed everything. Small children are dying because of the effects of the oil. >> IFIE: When I saw the oil pipe I was angry. I was so angry that I didn?t know what to do. I felt like I was poisoned with anger. >> IFIE: He says he wants water, good water to drink. >> IFIE: Oil pollution is not only damaging to the environment, but it is also causing conflict and disrupting peace in our communities. >> MAN 2: We are begging them to come and clean up their oil. If they don?t come and clean it up, we will be forced to fight back. >> TITLE: Gas flaring: burning off usable gas while refining crude oil. Gas flaring, Nigeria: contributes more greenhouse gases than all of Sub-Saharan Africa combined -- the World Bank. Status: Illegal. >> TINA: They should do something about this gas flaring. I don?t see why they?re burning money while people are dying of hunger.>> TITLE: If sold, this gas could be worth $2.5 billion a year -- the World Bank. Three out of five Nigerians live on less than $1 a day. >> TINA: This is hell.>> IFIE: Maybe it?s easier to waste the gas and the oil, maybe it?s easier, and that?s why. If not, then I can?t understand. Me, I?m not a scientist, but something is happening. Everywhere is getting hotter, and I think it?s all this gas that they are burning. It?s not only us who are suffering. Everywhere around the world, people are suffering. We need a different kind of energy instead of using this petroleum that is destroying our environment. People should talk to these oil companies and to the government to stop polluting the environment. They should be active, they should come out a lot, and people should see the action. Even if people are far away, they can work together in a way. With this videotape that we are making, the youths will stand up and send it to the oil companies, send it anywhere possible for the whole world to hear. If at the end we will die, then we will start fighting today. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals: Eight goals for a better world by 2015. Every one counts. www.element-tv.net. Element. For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-bombay-jungle Khurshida Bano and her family live in a slum that is being demolished by the government because of its proximity to a national park. Architect P.K. Das works with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority of Bombay to relocate the slum residents. Will they be able to navigate a bureaucratic system filled with corruption to successfully relocate people like Khurshida? Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-bombay-jungle India, Slum, Governance & Transparency, Water & Sanitation, Mumbai, A Dollar A Day, Poverty reduction, Poverty, Electricity, Economic development >> TITLE: EMF Films and Global Visions & Associates present>> TITLE: A Dollar A Day: Bombay Jungle>> TITLE: A film by Frank Vellenga>> VOICEOVER: Within the city of Bombay, or Mumbai as it is now called, a battle is waging. Like many megacities around the world, as populations grow, space becomes more and more precious. In Bombay, the battle lines are drawn between the "nobodies" and the "somebodies." Ironically, their battlefield is the border area of a vast national park, a hilly area populated by wild animals, and thousands of people who cannot afford to live elsewhere. But now, due to a political decision to reclaim the forest, lifelong squatters are being violently uprooted and forced to move. And unless they can prove they are "somebodies", they have no rights, and no access to shelter and other basic needs.>> MAN 1: The people tried to stop the bulldozers. But they broke our homes. They beat a lot of people. My son also broke his leg. That's what happened.>> MAN 2: On March 27th around 10:30 am the bulldozers came from up there. The people were there by the rim. People from the Congress Party had come. Both men and women had come and formed a human chain. Until about 1 pm they didn't do anything. After that, the police started to beat the people and they started bulldozing. >> P.K. DAS [Architect]: What we have is the city of Mumbai, which is surrounded by sea on almost three sides of it. And you have a profile that then has creeks, and in the heart of it, actually, which is amazing because Mumbai is one such city that has a national park within it, within its boundaries. Now, what is happening is that this national park has been encroached by slums over the years. Some of them have been actually here for over fifty years. The High Court gave a ruling that the national park needs to be protected, and therefore ordered for eviction of over 80,000 families.>> VOICEOVER: Even in the poorest slum areas, systems are created by dwellers to accommodate their basic needs: water, shelter, and a clean spot to relieve themselves. To be evicted from a slum is to be denied even these primal rights.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Here you can still make ends meet. Two square meals a day are what we barely make. We don't have any land back in the village. Nor do we have anything here. Just this house. We depend on this house only. We all live in this house. Where else can we go? Where will we stay? We don't have that much money. We cannot rent a house. We all live together, even with our grandchildren. Our two sons do everything and look after us.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Please, give me a bit of bread.>> P.K. DAS: Sadly, the court did not consider the rehabilitation as being important. That's why housing rights organizations like ours got in the picture of demanding rehabilitation as necessarily being a condition prior to demolition. What we finally did was, we negotiated with a private owner who has a piece of land here. This happens to be an exhausted quarry. This rehabilitation is carried out under the principles of the state government. Three players are responsible. The state government contributes sanctions and other facilities of infrastructure. The private developer brings in the investment required for construction. And you have the community of the slum dwellers who are affected. These three form the alliance of the partnership for the slum's redevelopment.>> RAMESH SHAH [Real Estate Developer]: Here we are going to build three towers with two apartments on each floor. This is also for upper-class people. It is a three or four bedroom apartment. Each apartment is about 200 to 260 square meters in size. The total number of people that can live here is 300 to 400 people can live here basically.>> SUMER SHAH: I have to see it first. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?>> VOICEOVER: For Ramesh and his father Sumer, the trade-off for the right to build a luxury apartment complex is to also build low-cost housing for uprooted slum dwellers.>> SUMER SHAH: It is lying with you, what can I tell you? The invitation is with you, so what can I say? Yes, send it to me. My chap is sitting there, so let him take the invitation with him. Yes, send it to me at my residence.>> VOICEOVER: This Bombay "jungle" is not only about the land, it is also about the bureaucratic system that has put the cart before the horse. Long before completing the low-cost housing, bulldozers began the slum demolition, further compromising already shaky living conditions.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: This wall was broken at that time by those bulldozers. The house is totally unbalanced now. It can fall on us any time. This house is not stable anymore. We are staying here at a big risk. The three walls are out of balance, in the living room as well. We are at great risk. We live in fear.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Mohammed, how much did you pay for the chickens? How much did you pay?>> MOHAMMED: It's 60 kilograms.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Have you worked out the calculations?>> MOHAMMED: Let me sell some and we'll see.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: But how will you work it out?>> MOHAMMED: Let the sale happen.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Will we at least break even? We owe people money. How will we manage to get rice and flour?>> MOHAMMED: We will return the money, but let's first earn and then pay back.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: How will we do this? At least work out the logistics.>> MOHAMMED: Let's at least make some sale. We can pay them back once we've made some money. We cannot sell at a loss, you know that.>> SAIRA BANO: Water leaks from everywhere, it's a big problem. I keep vessels here and there. I also cover the roof with plastic, but it is of no use as water seeps in from everywhere. We have been here for a long time now. My husband passed away here. I have two children, they both work. I came here because of my aunt Khurshida, and because of the bad situation in my village. Things were bad there. So I thought why not come to Bombay. Maybe I will be somebody, my kids will have a good life. It was a very poor situation over there. That's why we left.>> TITLE: Chandivali - relocation site for slum dwellers>> P.K. DAS: Look at Mumbai's demography. It's a city of approximately 12 million people. Of the 12 million people approximately 60 percent, that's about 7 to 7.5 million people, live in slums. They constitute the majority of the city's population. Unfortunately, due to lack of planning, we have not provided adequate land for housing of the urban poor.>> RAMESH SHAH: The level is up here. This is seventy-two. This is fifty-nine. The difference is one to one and a half meters.>> P.K. DAS: The idea of clusters, that's what we are working on. In clusters people will live as communities, or as groups together, the way they're used to living in their present areas. Apart from the clusters, we also have little neighborhoods with their own open spaces. Multiple open spaces form the main idea of this plan.>> UJJWAL UKE [CEO, Slum Rehabilitation Authority]: Suppose a railway, a road, or any vital public project has to be built. In such a situation the slum dwellers have to be shifted from that spot to another spot. Here we are having a situation where a whole complex is coming up with various facilities all earmarked for the people of the Sanjay Ghandi National Park. The land is needed by the Forest Department, because encroachments in the forest have to be removed. Instead of keeping them homeless, since these people have been staying here since first January 1995, it is the duty of the government to give them alternative accommodation, as per law.>> P.K. DAS: Let's say this is a slum pocket, filled up with slums. The policy says that the builder, who comes in and re-houses the slum dwellers into a part of this land, provides housing to them. The balance land that is available is then developed and sold in the open market. The profits provide housing for the slum dwellers. This is the logic, the principle. >> UJJWAL UKE: For a period of time the city does need the watchmen, it needs the postmen, the paper deliverymen, the taxi driver. These people can't afford housing of 600 rupees and above. They need houses of a smaller size.>> RAMESH SHAH: In 1990 we started this project. The last two are the end of number one and two Sumer Tower. Then we started with number three and four, and this is number five. I am going to build there also; we've already built Wimlachal Tower. On the next road we are building an identical tower, 22 floors high.>> TITLE: High Court>> VOICEOVER: In order for slum dwellers to be eligible for relocation, there?s a catch -- they have to prove that they?ve lived in the slum since 1995. And in order to prove that, they must verify their identity through official paperwork. The many who cannot produce documentation that proves their status as "somebodies" are caught in a desperate conundrum. Lawyer P.A. Sebastian sees the glaring flaw in a system that defeats the very citizens it relies upon to serve the privileged, and is passionate about helping them get access to their basic needs and fundamental rights as Indians.>> P.A. SEBASTIAN [Lawyer]: There's a system that generates slums. The people who stay in the slums are not responsible for that. The people who denounce them as criminals, trespassers, they are responsible. Their system has generated the slums, because it suits them. It gives them cheap labor and luxury. On 2000 rupees, no person can live in a place of his own which he legally possesses or owns. You can't do that. He has to live. You can demolish their houses because they are illegal. But you can't deport them. If you deport them, if you throw them out of the city, then there is no India. India ceases to exist.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: We did have electricity every now and then, but we do not have a meter here. Sometimes the electricity was given to us directly by the meter people. Then the forest wallahs cut the electricity lines. Now, we haven't had electricity here for three months. Not only in this house. The whole of Krantinagar is without electricity. The Forest people say, "Don't give them water and electricity." Because they are afraid that, once given to these people, they will not move from here anymore.>> VOICEOVER: By denying people shelter, water and electricity, authorities are actually denying their existence. The responsibility is on each individual to prove his or her identity. >> SAIRA BANO: I have to go to that meeting, but I don't have proof of any kind.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Of course you should go there.>> SAIRA BANO: But how?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: You will not achieve anything sitting at home.>> SAIRA BANO: That's true.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: You need a voting card. Otherwise nothing will happen. You have two kids. You really should go there. Now you don't have a ration card and you are not registered.>> SAIRA BANO: But no one ever told me anything. I have no idea what to do.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: You should go there. Otherwise nothing will happen.>> SAIRA BANO: But who will listen to me?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Sitting at home, nobody will give you a house. Nobody is going to say, "Here is a house." You have to make an effort. >> VOICEOVER: People who have lost their papers, like Saira, feel so disenfranchised that the extra efforts that have to be made seem overwhelming.>> P.A. SEBASTIAN: They always complain. Residents have no place to walk on the sidewalk because trespassers, illegal occupants, occupy it. They say that the people in the slums pollute the air, and citizens can't breath good air, fresh air, clean air. Which means: They are citizens and residents, but the people in the slums are not citizens and residents. In the last three months not much progress has been made, but in Chandivali houses are being built. How many houses are being built there?>> MAN: Around 16,000 houses is the target. Of which 8,000 will be allocated as soon as possible.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: They have taken the money from us, by fooling us.>> P.A. SEBASTIAN: You can say this in court: That it is has been three months now, and there is still no water or electricity.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: I don't think the court will listen to us. The city just couldn't give us water and electricity. After we paid them, they came to threaten us.>> MAN: They think that you will refuse to move out when they give you water and electricity.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: How can we move away from here when we have nowhere to go?>> VOICEOVER: P.A. Sebastian encourages his clients to keep fighting for their rights and to be sure their papers are in order. Khurshida and Saira heed his advice by checking their status at the Rehousing Registration Office. >> TITLE: Rehousing Registration Office>> KHURSHIDA BANO: These are my papers.>> MAN: Your number is 715.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: That's right.>> MAN: Where is your voting number?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: The voting list is here. There is one from 1990 and one from 1992.>> MAN: And 1995?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: We voted then, but we don't have a receipt of that.>> MAN: Where is the 1995's voting receipt?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: I think this is 1990.>> MAN: There is a verdict by the judge. They will check whether you're on 1995's list as well. You have 1990, but do you have 1995's voting number?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: We have made an application for that.>> SAIRA BANO: My house was demolished, but I rebuilt it. I still live there.>> MAN: Have you paid money?>> SAIRA BANO: Money?>> MAN: To the Forestry people?>> SAIRA BANO: No.>> MAN: But you have a number?>> SAIRA BANO: My papers are -->> MAN: Did they put a number on your house? Even though bulldozers ruined it, you had to remember the number. The Forest guys gave a number to every house. That is, put it in their register. This authorizes a person to a house.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: During the tear down of our homes, there were a lot of police that beat us. They broke all the pots and pans into little pieces. >> MAN: This is forest land. You don't have any rights. The court decided: 1995.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: But they did not even listen to the court. They just started bulldozing. People have died. When Shabana came, they stopped. Thanks to the support we got, we are still here.>> MAN: Listen to what I have to say: I don't want anything from you. When your house is demolished, we will give you a new accommodation. We do it in a different way than the people of the Forestry Department. The Forestry people collected 7,000 rupees and filled their pockets. Their attitude is, "Just drop dead.">> KHURSHIDA BANO: I will look for them. I need those papers to take care of everything. Here they are. These papers need to be laminated. Will you keep an eye on the place?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: I would like to have these two documents laminated. How much will it cost?>> MAN: Twenty rupees.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: When can I get them back?>> MAN: In fifteen minutes. You really have to take care of these papers.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Yes, that's why I'm having them laminated.>> P.K. DAS: We opposed forced evictions. We demanded that a viable or an acceptable rehabilitation scheme must precede eviction. People have not merely come here to just get a house. They have come to work in the city and earn their living, which they can't earn back in their villages. So it's a question of livelihood. They can't be displaced from their income. It is a basic human right.>> SIGN: Slum Rehabilitation Authority - Reception>> UJJAWAL UKE: The Chief Secretary has given an affidavit in the High Court, and I will also be making an affidavit. Next week we meet and we take a final decision on this matter, because I don't think I can afford any further delays on this project.>> P.K. DAS: But Mr. Uke, this is a very unique example and -- one second. Let's discuss a few larger issues. This is a very unique project. It is a very interesting tripartite. This is going to be a model example for slum rehabilitation, at the same time, clearing up an area of the national park, which needs to be protected.>> UJJWAL UKE: In the past we've always had the SRA and the developer, the SRA and the NGO. This is the first time the three of us have come together for the benefit of the citizens of this city.>> VOICEOVER: While striving to reach their common goal in this unique joint project, tensions arise as each representative protects his organizational interests. Meanwhile, the community continues to wait for decisions to be made.>> MOHAMMED: 250 grams costs you twenty rupees.>> MAN: Give him five rupees. Are you happy now?>> VOICEOVER: As project delays continue, the slums also continue to expand, reaching deeper into the national forest and clashing with its wild inhabitants.>> SIGN: Wild animals in forests dislike sound of mobiles. Please switch off your mobile>> ASHOK KHOT [Ministry of Forestry]: By the end of March we have to remove them. Before that we removed already 20,000 encroachments. All these 60,000 people, when they encroached, along with them the dogs came, the chickens came. Then sheep, goats, then cows, buffalo, all these animals came. Leopards, like any animal, if they can get an easy prey, and for leopards the dog is one of the easiest preys. There were a number of dogs in the area where the attacks were taking place. About fourteen incidents of leopard attacks have taken place, in June. A lot of these attacks were taking place only in a remote place and late at night. I don't think anyone should enter in the forest. In another case, an early morning walker, he went into the deep forest at three o'clock in the morning. He was trying to do yoga. That is not a place to do yoga. Unfortunately he was killed while sitting there. This leopard doesn't attack a large animal, or a man who's walking. If a person is sitting, or if a small child is there, then he doesn't see the difference between a human being and an animal. He wants his prey, so it attacks. It is not the leopard's fault. It is the human being that is encroaching. The men, they're at fault.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: We are the residents of India. We have a right to be here. Everywhere in India, in Maharashtra, Delhi, Calcutta. Since we are born in India, we have every right to stay anywhere freely. Who are these people from the Forest Department to tell us to leave? Is it the property of the people from the Forest Department by birth? Indira Gandhi said India belongs to us all. We made her Prime Minister. She said that the whole of India is ours. Who are these Forest Department people to say that this land belongs to them? Has God decided that?>> WOMAN 1: They release tigers.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: And now our children suffer.>> WOMAN 2: These tigers are not from a circus. The Forestry people release them. There are a lot of tigers there. One tiger is enough to frighten people. They deliberately starve the tiger to death, so that it will attack.>> MAN: We all come from Krantinagar. Our neighborhood has been destroyed. This new housing project is taken shape under supervision of the Nivara Association. These clusters are numbered from one to six. A cluster consists of 16 buildings. On each floor there are seven apartments. The work starts early in the morning. Bamboo scaffolds are there for plastering that starts tomorrow. This means that 80 percent of the work is completed. Please, follow me.>> VOICEOVER: Ramesh pushes to complete the luxury towers. He is doubly invested in finishing them, since he and his father will profit greatly from them and will also live there themselves.>> RAMESH SHAH: This is going to be my living room, and this is going to be my dining. For formal occasions. This is going to be a guest room. This is going to be a regular dining room. A regular dining room for every day. This is going to be for every day and formal dinners over there. The view is excellent. From the Oberoi Hotel to Narriman Point you can see the buildings. I am going to stay here myself also. Nowadays I am staying with my parents. After all, my father is the owner of the house. So, I am going to stay with him. He is not going to stay with me.>> VOICEOVER: While Ramesh makes the luxury building construction his priority, Khurshida and her community must wait, and wait, and wait.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Sonu, please get me some milk and tea.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: They gave us false hope. They keep on saying we're getting a house soon, but we've been waiting five years. How much longer? We should be informed, for the sake of the future of our children. How much longer will it take? Today they say this, the next day something different. I really don't understand it anymore. I might go crazy here.>> MAN: The mafia and the police are in it together. Both knew precisely to whom this land belonged. Listen to me. Whose place is this? The police. Why would a cop want to sell this place? The mafia and the police let us build our home after taking a bribe from us. I'm telling you the truth.>> SAIRA BANO: We stay until we are being kicked out. When they start to demolish, we will see. Until then we will stay and live here. I don't have any other place to go anyway.>> SIGN: Slum Rehabilitation Authority, Fifth floor>> UJJWAL UKE: This is a joint scheme between the NGO, the developer, and the slum dwellers. You can say this is an agreement between us and the developer. Certain payments have to be made; on behalf of the developer, we are making these payments. We'll receive the check. But you have to pay this gentleman. There he is.>> P.K. DAS: Speaking about the devil.>> UJJWAL UKE: Come in. We were talking about certain things, which was short. Keep it off the record, please. While in this transition, we were talking about certain things, which I'm not officially supposed to tell.>> RAMESH SHAH: Mr. Das, this project we started in 2003. You know you too have to pay money sometimes. Why are you taking so much time? Because of this, the project is delayed.>> P.K. DAS: I'm sorry Ramesh; this decision to delay the project has arbitrarily been taken by you. Let me complete. I'm sorry to intervene.>> RAMESH SHAH: One second. We are talking about money from March and from January.>> P.K. DAS: I've got your point. You have arbitrarily decided to delay the project. This project is not singularly yours. This is a State Government approved scheme in the larger public interest, for the social priority of clearing the National Park and to start rehabilitation.>> RAMESH SHAH: You are saying, I am a developer. So what's that question about misleading?>> P.K. DAS: One second. The contribution that the slum dwellers are going to make is not for the total value of the project. It is less than about 10 percent of the total value of the project.>> UJJWAL UKE: My only concern is, we have to go on with the project, it has to be completed.>> P.K. DAS: We have come to an understanding.>> UJJWAL UKE: You have to narrow down the differences.>> RAMESH SHAH: And you pay! That's all. That's my only request.>> UJJWAL UKE: I believe that now, that you've narrowed down your differences.>> RAMESH SHAH: From their account, already, from my pocket, I have paid.>> UJJWAL UKE: I would not like to go into whatever your accounting differences are. My only request and desire is that you narrow down the differences and come down to a level by which you can see eye to eye, and start the project in earnest.>> VOICEOVER: Of course, all of this infighting eventually lands on those waiting to be relocated, year after year.>> RAMESH SHAH: That's not the issue. Okay, okay. I'll get back to you by the evening.>> VOICEOVER: Although Saira has not yet been able to qualify for relocation, she still has hopes that she can come through, for the sake of her children.>> SAIRA BANO: Our dream is to get a house, so we could all live there. My children are afraid that their mother will die just like their father. Once I can get my two children to marry, I can die peacefully.>> RAMESH SHAH: For slum people this location is too expensive. People are squatting here on the sidewalks. In principle, it is very costly to live here. Today the squatters are not paying anything for maintenance, for electricity. They are not paying any water taxes. They will have to start paying the water taxes and the electricity and all. Today they are getting it all for free.>> VOICEOVER: Expressing an attitude that is felt throughout the world, Ramesh represents the "haves," who simply don?t want to see those "have-nots." Not in their neighborhoods, not in development deals, nor anywhere in their community, except when they are needed to perform a service. But even if Saira?s dream is invisible, she is not. Nor are the basic needs of millions like her, regardless of their official status.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Come, I'll show you the apartment that they're going to give me. I've seen it once already. It's in here. It's from here on. You can go in here. Come along, we're going inside.>> SAIRA BANO: Is there no door?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: This is the living room and this is the kitchen. This is the toilet.>> SAIRA BANO: But the toilet in the kitchen? Isn't that unhygienic?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: There will be an extra door. And there's a tap and all.>> SAIRA BANO: Two doors?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Here you can open the doors and air it out.>> VOICEOVER: While Khurshida has a chance to step out of poverty, Saira?s future remains in question. When her home is bulldozed, where will she go? Without an official identity, the system that needs her labor denies her existence. She has no rights -- not to shelter, water, or electricity. Certainly not to her dream. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-the-prince Rafeh Malik, the young prince of a powerful Pakistani family, was given the poverty-stricken village of Ratrian on his eighteenth birthday. He is attempting to implement the UN's Millennium Development Goals in the village, yet soon finds out that resources and determination might not be enough to challenge the status quo. Mon, 16 May 2011 08:25:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-the-prince Pakistan, Millennium Development Goals, Governance & Transparency, Water & Sanitation, Health, Islamabad, Education, South Asia, Poverty, Life on the Edge >> VOICEOVER: This is the beginning of a fairy tale. It might not end like one. The prince has come to sell his people a dream.>> RAFEH MALIK: A group of the world's nations have come together and agreed on eight basic targets for development that all countries should achieve. We can achieve these targets.>> VOICEOVER: The question is, are they interested?>> TITLE: The Prince>> VOICEOVER: Our prince is Rafeh Malik. His kingdom is Ratrian, a poverty-ridden village in the North of Pakistan. He inherited the village from his vast family estate on his 18th birthday. Rafeh is the only scion of a powerful family, both in terms of the land they own and the political influence they wield. Any attempt by him to change the status quo here will lead to a dilemma: how to modernize without alienating his father, his friends, maybe even the villagers.He spends most of his days and nights about two hundred kilometers south in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. He's an outward-looking man. His friends include TV journalist Shehryar Mufti. In their many evenings together, an idea came up. Why not try and implement the Millennium Development Goals in Rafeh's own village? The MDGs are eight ambitious development targets signed by world leaders in 2000. The deadline: 2015. The prince has some catching up to do. We asked Shehryar to film Rafeh's progress. >> SHEHRYAR MUFTI [Television journalist]: So you do think that your family's political legacy might actually depend on the success of this project?>> RAFEH MALIK: Oh yeah. Political legacy entirely will depend on its success. >> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: So aren't you afraid that this might not work? Aren't you scared?>> RAFEH MALIK: I am scared, but I'm willing to take the risk.>> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: First you've got to get past your dad. How do you think that's going to happen?>> RAFEH MALIK: Well, I'll sell him the idea; tell him how it is. It'll be quite difficult. >> VOICEOVER: A visit to Rafeh's family home lends some insight into his dilemma. Life for Rafeh's family here has never really begged for drastic change. For generations, this house has been the headquarters from which Rafeh's family has practiced politics. Today his father, Malik Atta Mohammad, is hosting a meeting of other influential men from nearby villages. This is also a training session of sorts for Rafeh, although his lack of facial hair renders him almost out of uniform. The guests are uneasy at the presence of what they see as a film crew representing the "Western media." They're also uneasy that development agendas like the MDGs may reflect a misplaced sense of superiority in the West. >> MALIK ATTA MOHAMMAD: What the West is projecting; I do not know what they have in their mind when they are trying to propagate this policy. Because I met a lot of NGOs; so they say we have told them how to wash hands and how to -- in Islam, you see, we are supposed to wash hands five times a day. We call it ablution, 'wuzu.' So we do it five times. So who the hell are they to tell us how we should keep ourselves clean? We know how to keep ourselves clean! >> VOICEOVER: Malik Atta doesn't openly oppose his son's plan. But he does question how he can make it happen.>> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: In a way, for you to take this initiative now would almost be an admission of guilt, in the sense that: why hadn't you done it earlier? Do you think that'll be a problem?>> RAFEH MALIK: It's not a problem that we could have done it earlier. But over the years, certain things came one way or the other; we weren't able to fully implement them, due to political repercussions. >> VOICEOVER: These are the people of Ratrian. Their standard of life, even in comparison to that of other village-dwelling Pakistanis, is pretty low. Rafeh's uncle's political connections paved the way for an erratic electricity supply here a year ago. Life otherwise hasn't changed much for these people for generations. The only local source of water is an occasional hand pump. This young man is idly walking the dung-ridden streets of Ratrian at the peak of the school day. There is a school in Ratrian, but he's not playing truant -- the teacher is. >> SIGN: Welcome>> VOICEOVER: It's padlocked and desolate. The only signs of life here are pages of notebooks and textbooks strewn about. Even the hand pump here is dry. With an estimated ninety percent of livelihoods here depending on sharecropping, poverty is rampant. The tenants earn enough in food not be malnourished. But having money in their pockets is, for most, a distant fantasy. They don't blame their local royal family for their poverty, at least on camera, but they do believe the family has the power to change things.>> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: So what if they decided to get these problems solved? Could they?>> MAN 1 [Villager]: Of course, absolutely.>> VOICEOVER: And so Rafeh calls the men, as well as the women, of Ratrian to talk about life and how it can be made better. Rafeh wants to know what they think it might take to achieve these goals. Despite finding themselves in a completely unrecognizable situation, the villagers begin to open up. Water is a popular topic of conversation, as is the state of literacy in the village.>> MAN 2 [Villager]: We need a hospital and a school for girls. If something could be done about the drinking water, we'd be grateful. >> VOICEOVER: Women speak openly of their worries for their children.>> WOMAN 1 [Villager]: One day it's diarrhea, the next day it's fever, the next day vomiting. >> RAFEH MALIK: Their query about electricity and all, I made it clear to them that I couldn't help them with that, that's the government's thing. But I will aid them with that as well, but our major primary concern is about the UN Millennium Development Goals, and implementing them over here. So, I think when I told them this would be a humble beginning, I was being honest with them. I think that was the turning point. >> VOICEOVER: Back in the big city, Rafeh begins the critical journey from good idea to solid plan. He makes contact with the Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation.>> ALI ASGHAR [Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation]: I mean, how do you sit with them? Do you sit on a charpai? You know? Have you got a special position over there? Have you got extra takiyas behind you? Or are you sitting on the ground with them and sort of, you know, talking to them?>> VOICEOVER: The village would have to be studied closely by people with no vested interest in it. They volunteer the services of their own organization, an offer that Rafeh accepts. Ratrian will be profiled. This village profile is a missing piece in the puzzle for Rafeh. He has met with people from the government as well as the World Bank. Both have identified a village profile as a critical document central to the whole plan. Maybe even a prerequisite to having one. The Bank has also recommended that he visit a water supply project in nearby Balkassar. At the meeting, several new possibilities are discussed. Rafeh is told of a widely implemented development program. Villages can be rewarded with safe drinking water hand pumps. To qualify, they must end the practice of defecating in the outdoors. It sounds achievable enough, but Ratrian will need help. Several other opportunities are identified and contacts are exchanged. By the end of the meeting, the mood is upbeat.>> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: Do you feel you've bitten off more that you can chew?>> RAFEH MALIK: I don't think I've bitten off more than I can chew. It's just that I need patience. I need perseverance. >> MUMTAZ [NGO team leader]: We're here to help you identify your needs. The point of today is to make a plan, the plan for Ratrian. >> VOICEOVER: As activities commence, the villagers seem to be somewhat bewildered. A handful catches on quickly. They proceed to help Mumtaz's team to construct what is the first ever map of Ratrian. >> MAN 1 [Villager]: If you're ready to do things, we're ready for them to be done. People come, conduct their surveys, and then just disappear!>> VOICEOVER: The village profile is now firmly on track. >> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: You're not used to this, are you? Knocking on doors and stuff like that.>> RAFEH MALIK: No, things were different; we never really went about it this way. >> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: How's your father taking this whole thing?>> RAFEH MALIK: Well, so far he's just standing by me.>> VOICEOVER: Malik Atta Mohammad speaks for himself.>> MALIK ATTA MOHAMMAD: I don't think I can help him much. Of course, the connections that I have, he can benefit from them. And where politically we're opposed, he will face the same music. You see, somebody could say this is a crazy lot, talking about millennium goals when people are suffering. Unless you see something happen before you, something concrete, only then you will believe it. At present it is all in the air. >> VOICEOVER: You'd think meeting the MDGs is a matter of resources and will. But it's not that simple. The prince is caught between two worlds. Should he risk disrupting a society that, for better or for worse, has at least functioned for centuries? It's a tough choice. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-the-tunnel-and-other-lies In post-war Bosnia, Omer Bjelonja and Redjo Seferovic fight different battles, each facing tremendous odds against a government that has respectively taken their homes and jobs. These two men find out first hand how corrupt governments and a lack of transparency can deter any attempted escape from poverty. Fri, 06 May 2011 08:15:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-the-tunnel-and-other-lies Bosnia-Herzegovina, Poverty, Governance & Transparency, Sarajevo, Poverty threshold, Siege of Sarajevo, Human rights, Sarajevo Tunnel, Ethnic group, Roma >> TITLE: EMF Films and Global Visions & Associates present: A Dollar A Day - The Tunnel and Other Lies, a film by Vuk Jani?.>> MAN 1: I smoked Turkish cigarettes when I couldn't find any from Sarajevo.>> SIGN: TUNNEL>> SIGN: THE KOLAR HOUSE>> SIGN: TUNNEL B(utmir) - THE KOLAR HOUSE>> VOICEOVER: In 1993, during the siege of Sarajevo, a tunnel was built to bring to an entrapped city the supplies and weapons vital to the survival of hundreds of thousands of citizens. >> TOUR GUIDE: This is the first part of the museum, and here you can see some equipment that we used for transport, digging. Before you see the film here about Sarajevo and about the tunnel, I will explain to you what is the tunnel actually. This red line on the map was the frontline during the war, and the Serbian troops were all around Sarajevo; the city was surrounded completely. This is here the airport; United Nations took it for delivering of the food and medicines for people of Sarajevo. We got food and medicines, but practically we needed weapons for defense, and fresh food. We had to find another way, the tunnel. >> TITLE: TUNNEL>> TOUR GUIDE: Only one-meter wide tunnel, you know, 160 approximately height. It was very small, but big enough to help 300,000 people to survive. We used tunnel for everything, for weapons, for food, medicines. >> MAN 2: Mr. Bajro, excuse me.>> MR. BAJRO: Yes?>> MAN 2: What is "gate" in Turkish?>> MR. BAJRO: "Kapi".>> MAN 2: "Kapak"?>> MR. BAJRO: No, "kapi".>> MR. BAJRO: This was the gate to Sarajevo, the entrance into the city. It was the way in and out.>> MAN 3: That was once my house.>> MR. BAJRO: Every night, three to four thousand people and 30 tons of equipment went through.>> TITLE: Sarajevo -- Butmir, Bosnia Herzegovina>> WOMAN 1: Hello, Omer. How are you?>> OMER BJELONJA: Fine.>> WOMAN 1: And your wife?>> OMER BJELONJA: Also fine.>> WOMAN 1: And you and the children?>> OMER BJELONJA: We're all well. And your husband?>> WOMAN 1: He works in Saudi Arabia.>> OMER BJELONJA: Really?>> VOICEOVER: The Bosnian army ordered Omer Bjelonja to let them use his house, which was located on the frontline, as a hidden entrance to the tunnel. For the past 13 years, Omer has been struggling with the government to regain his property, or at least be fairly compensated for it.>> OMER BJELONJA: Hi, Sena. Still alive?>> SENA: And you Omer, where is your wife?>> OMER BJELONJA: She's fine. She's with the grandchildren.>> MAN 4: Hi, Omer, my friend.>> OMER BJELONJA: Hello, all's well?>> MAN 4: Fine, and you?>> OMER BJELONJA: Could be worse.>> MAN 4: And how's the family?>> OMER BJELONJA: Fine. And yours?>> MAN 4: I read in the papers that the government is going to build a museum complex here. Finally the legal issues about the house would be solved. But now it's stuck?>> OMER BJELONJA: I won the case at the Supreme Court about the damages to my house. But the State refuses point blank to pay me. Look at those ruins. What a mess.>> MAN 4: But it's a national monument and you can't do anything to it?>> OMER BJELONJA: Correct. It's a State monument and I'm not allowed to touch it.>> SIGN: MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE TUNNEL. POLICE CHECK POINT WAS HERE.>> OMER BJELONJA: In the documents I've got, it says that the whole house will be expropriated. Eventually the curator of the museum will use it.>> VOICEOVER: A museum was created in a nearby house to commemorate the tunnel as a historical monument. Now plans are being made to expand the museum and use Omer?s house as part of the complex. A further insult to Omer is that the nearby house has been designated the official tunnel entrance, rather than his own house, which the government confiscated.>> MAN 4: Why haven't you informed the media about it? You could take part in one of those debates on TV and explain how your rights were violated. How you got no compensation for the damage to your house, and that you were in fact robbed of your house.>> OMER BJELONJA: Let me tell you, I tried through the media. The cantonal TV people came to see us. To my daughter and my daughter in law, who are both well educated, they said: ?The canton pays us, so we say what they tell us to say.? Bastards. What can I do now?>> MAN 4: I see.>> VOICEOVER: Omer and his neighbor know all too well the truth that surrounds the tunnel, but have no power to make it historically valid. In effect, the government has invented its own history.>> OMER BJELONJA: Aisha, please. You were here at the time. You saw the massacre, when those people were wounded and killed. Wasn't it right here?>> AISHA: Yes, it was. The grenade flew over my house and, bang, straight into the crowd.>> OMER BJELONJA: It hit the wall there. The people waiting to get into the tunnel were killed.>> AISHA: Everything happened right here. Nothing happened over there. That was just a manhole into the tunnel.>> OMER BJELONJA: Yes, a manhole for smugglers. The tobacco company rented Bajro's house for storage. When he opened the museum, nobody asked him any questions. Somebody is protecting him. >> AISHA: He gets the money from the tickets.>> OMER BJELONJA: If I'd opened such a museum, I would have been put behind bars. This woman, too, or her children. We would all be behind bars. If we hadn't been shot first.>> TITLE: Sarajevo>> VOICEOVER: Without access to a just system, Omer has been deprived of his home, his rightful compensation, and his dignity. He is trapped in a bureaucratic tunnel with no end in sight.>> JASMIN: Bakir. Hey boys, stop making such a noise. What are you doing? What if somebody calls in?>> OMER BJELONJA: This is where we live, two families in a two-and-a-half room apartment. Seven people on 66 square meters. I live here with my wife, my daughter, my son and his wife and children. My pension is 90 euros a month. Try living on that! We have to survive from day to day.>> WOMAN 1: Don't you want any?>> JASMIN: Yes, he'd like some spinach pie.>> OMER BJELONJA: My daughter is an accountant. My daughter-in-law is an architect. Jasmin graduated as an electrical engineer. I have two engineers in the house, but we can't afford a regular decent meal. I know they earn a minimum wage, and not even regularly. My daughter hasn't been paid for over a year.>> OMER?S SON: First we were proud, now we are bitter.>> JASMIN: I'll explain -->> OMER?S SON: I know what you're going to say. When I was in the army, I thought I was fighting for the right cause. It so happened that they chose our house as the main tunnel entrance. Of course I was very proud of it.>> WOMAN 1: Jasmin, I was proud as well. Every time I came out of the tunnel, my heart swelled up with pride. But they should at least have invited us and talked to us.>> OMER?S SON: Who do you mean?>> WOMAN 1: The State. Government institutions. >> OMER?S SON: The government had decided that our house would be the tunnel entrance. But they should have offered compensation.>> WOMAN 1: That was a mistake by the government.>> OMER?S SON: Yes, a deliberate mistake. They wanted to support their own man from their own political party. They made the tunnel shorter and said that the entrance was at his house. The government is promoting these lies, although everybody knows the truth.>> WOMAN 2: The Institute for the Protection of Bosnia's Historical Heritage stated that our house, Bjelonja House, was the real entrance to the tunnel.>> OMER?S SON: Yes, and it was legally supported.>> WOMAN 2: Jasmin, I'm talking about the law. We're fighting for what is legally ours.>> OMER?S SON: Legally it's all clear. But the State doesn't respect its own laws. Those who make laws don't stick to them. They illegally support another person who is well connected. We've been fighting for 12 years, since 1993 when they took our property away. >> OMER BJELONJA: I spent 36 years of my life in that house.>> WOMAN 2: He built it all on his own.>> OMER BJELONJA: That house is as important as my life to me.>> OMER?S SON: Just as sacred.>> TITLE: Zavidovicí, Central Bosnia>> VOICEOVER: Not having access to fair governance has many consequences. For Omer, it means the loss of his home, monetary compensation, and his pride. For others, it results in some form of discrimination, which often leads to loss of income and self-respect. As a ?Roma,? or Bosnian gypsy, Redjo Seferovi? feels the pain of both. >> TITLE: Redjo Seferovi?>> WOMAN: Look, how cute. You'd think they were Muslims, not Roma.>> BOY 1: Ismet, Ismet. Do you hear me? Over. Do you hear me? Over.>> BOY 2: Edo, Edo. I can't hear you. Over.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: There are 600 Roma in Zavidovici. Only one of them was employed. That was me.>> MAN: So why did you lose your job?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: I was the only Roma in the police force.>> MAN: Weren't lots of people fired?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Seventeen were. But I was the only Roma. I'm really upset. But what can I do? >> MAN: You shouldn't blame it on being a Roma.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Why not?>> MAN: There may be another reason.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: What would you do if you were the only Roma fired? Wouldn't you complain? Imagine you were a Roma and I said, "Mr. Shabanovic, you're fired.">> MAN: Don't go on about Roma, Serbian, Muslim, or Croat. That's not the issue. What matters is being professional or not. There may have been another reason why you were fired. A criminal record, lack of discipline? Or perhaps "technical" redundancy. Who can tell?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Have a look at my file.>> MAN: You don't have a criminal record?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: No, I'm clean. The police and the Court issued certificates that I was never convicted.>> MAN: I can't argue that point. I don't know enough about it. See you around.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Take care.>> REDJO?S MOTHER: Come on children, have some food. Oh, dear God. Granddad can't eat because he is too ill. What can I say? Our life is all pain and misery. We are dirt poor. We don't even have a proper roof. You can't imagine how we survived the winter. We're old people. I am 64, my husband is 72. When my son lost his job, we lost everything. This is no way to live. When they fired my son it was a shock to us. Such a shock. We were stunned. It was as if someone had come and deported us to a strange place far from here.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: We live on my father's pension of 75 euros a month.>> REDJO?S FATHER: What can you do with that?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: We pay for water and electricity.>> REDJO?S MOTHER: I collect cardboard boxes. I get 25 euros for a ton. And that's what we live on.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: We also collect apples and other fruit from under the market stalls.>> REDJO?S MOTHER: My only wish is that he gets his job back and works as he did before. We used to have enough to live on. We have never begged in the street. We don't know what it is to beg.>> REDJO?S FATHER: I have never made my wife beg.>> REDJO?S MOTHER: God forbid!>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Even if we hadn't eaten for two days, we still didn't go begging.>> REDJO?S MOTHER: We didn't even borrow from neighbors.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Not even from my brother. If I borrow from him, I pay him back.>> TITLE: Sarajevo>> VOICEOVER: Despite the terrible odds of winning against a corrupt governmental system, Redjo and Omer have drawn upon their fighting spirits to see justice done. And they have documentation to prove their cases.>> JASMIN: I have to cry when I see him.>> WOMAN 1: To cry and to laugh.>> JASMIN: What tragi-comedy.>> WOMAN 2: Need a hand, Dad?>> OMER BJELONJA: No, I can manage. Don't you start teasing me now. These are the papers of the court case. From the start. The court order -->> OMER?S SON: To have the house requisitioned. The Ilidza Municipal Secretariat gives the order on this day, 3 August 1993. We order Omer Bjelonja to hand over his house temporarily to the First Army Corps, Divisional Command at Donji Kotorac BB. Signed: Beris Belkic, Secretary of the Ilidza Municipal Secretariat. Who later became President of Bosnia and Herzegovina.>> OMER BJELONJA: This is the reply to my complaint.>> OMER?S SON: Find the Court ruling.>> OMER BJELONJA: Wait a moment. This is their complaint to the cantonal Court. This is a motion for the completion of the verdict. Their objection to the motion. The reply to the objection. And this is our objection to their reply to our reply.>> WOMAN 2: That's what we asked for.>> OMER BJELONJA: A reply to our reply. The envelope. These are the laws. This is the reply from the Ministry of -->> JASMIN: Forget about it.>> OMER BJELONJA: Don't interrupt me, woman.>> WOMAN 2: Let him read it out.>> JASMIN: How can he read when he's so upset?>> OMER BJELONJA: This is the State's reply to the Court, claiming that my case was solved. But they meant a different person with the same name as I have.>> WOMAN 1: He's only summarizing.>> WOMAN 2: This is this one. That's that one. He orders it all so systematically.>> JASMIN: He keeps finding more and more.>> OMER BJELONJA: When my wife gets bored she starts nagging me. And when she nags, I feel like ripping these papers to shreds.>> OMER?S SON: She just can't follow it any more, Dad.>> OMER: No, she can't. 15,235 euros. That's what the Court awarded us. That was their estimate of the damage to the house. Even though we asked for 22,000 euros in compensation. But the Court only awarded us 15,235 euros, plus -->> OMER?S SON: Where's the money you were awarded?>> OMER: Yes, good question. That's the whole question. I'll never see it. The government doesn't have it.>> TITLE: Zavidovicí>> VOICEOVER: Redjo is doing everything in his power to reach his goal, including advocating for himself in public.>> MAN: Put it down like this, so the EU logo clearly shows. Wait a minute. I'll turn this over. Give me a stamp so it's official.>> SIGN: THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL CENTER INVITES YOU TO SIGN A PETITION FOR REDJO SEFEROVIC>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Will you sign a petition?>> MAN: Would you like to sign a petition?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Please write down your name, surname and address. Hey, how about signing a petition? I was fired for being a Roma. Your name and signature, please.>> MAN: Redjo Seferovic, that Roma over there, he worked with the police in Zenica. He was the only Roma civil servant in Bosnia and Herzegovina.>> SIGN: EUROPE ON THE MOVE>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Come back and I'll explain. Come on, we're all young guys. I was the only Roma working with the police.>> MAN 2: I know you.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: If you do, sign this. Your name and surname. I can't believe you would just pass me by. If you were in my place, you'd get my signature.>> MAN: Hey girls, how about signing a petition?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Will you sign this petition?>> MAN 3: Why not?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Okay. Every name counts.>> TITLE: Sarajevo>> SIGN: HELSINKI COMMITTEE, HUMAN RIGHTS HOUSE OF SARAJEVO>> MAN: I can't make an appointment with a doctor because I can't get my medical records.>> RECEPTIONIST: You should get them from the Employment Office. You can only insure through them.>> MAN: So I could die here without getting to see a doctor?>> RECEPTIONIST: Please take a seat downstairs. I'll call you when Branka is ready to see you.>> VOICEOVER: The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights offers free service to people with complaints that have not been handled appropriately by the government. >> WOMAN 1: Shall I take this so it's not in your way?>> WOMAN 2: It's not in my way.>> WOMAN 1: I'll go to the downstairs waiting room.>> RECEPTIONIST: That's fine.>> LAWYER: Mr. Bjelonja?>> OMER BJELONJA: Yes.>> LAWYER: The Court President informed us at the Helsinki Committee that a Council of Judges has already been formed. They decide whether or not there will be a hearing. If there isn't going to be one, the Council of Judges will take the decision themselves.>> OMER BJELONJA: Please -->> LAWYER: Yes, go ahead.>> OMER BJELONJA: Please, madam. This all concerns the compensation for damage to my property. As regards the government's decision to designate my house as a historical monument, I found out about it from the newspapers. Nobody has ever informed me in any way. ?The Bjelonja and Sloboda families should get much money for their houses.? That is my house. But I won't live to see my money.>> LAWYER: When was that published?>> OMER BJELONJA: On 3 May 2004.>> LAWYER: Why don't you think you'll see it?>> OMER BJELONJA: I'm 72. You can see how long I've been fighting for my house. I was so proud -->> LAWYER: I think they're trying to postpone the case as long as possible.>> OMER BJELONJA: Yes, yes.>> LAWYER: The expropriation was never official.>> OMER BJELONJA: That's right.>> LAWYER: We also have to find out why they are stalling the matter. What are their reasons? Is anyone making money from the situation?>> OMER BJELONJA: Of course someone is creaming something off the top.>> LAWYER: But who, and in what way?>> OMER BJELONJA: I don't know who's raking in the money. You have to find that out, I don't know. All I know is that my health is suffering and my nerves can't take much more.>> RECEPTIONIST: Did the same lawyer deal with your complaint?>> WOMAN 3: Since the Helsinki Committee started providing legal advice here, in 1999, 32,000 citizens have come to us for help. But I believe there may be as many as 100,000 citizens whose basic human rights have been violated. Every day I face the oligarchic approach of government representatives who divide people into "ordinary" and "protected" citizens. "Ordinary" citizens have a hard time upholding their rights. And I must say, not one "protected" citizen has ever come to us for help. Every day I see what it means to be denied your basic rights. You can't watch an adult cry in front of you and remain unaffected. Or when someone tells me they can't put food on the table, or they can't give their child the money to buy a bun at school. Redjo, the Commission rejected your plea at the second session. What would you say about the way your case has been handled?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Well, on 31 December 2004 it was ruled at the first session that I had been fired on the basis of the fact that I was considered ''technically" redundant. But three or four people with the same qualifications kept their jobs.>> LAWYER: That's interesting. Three or four people kept their jobs?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Yes, one was a telephonist and the other a telephone tapper. The third was a blacksmith and I was a watchman.>> LAWYER: But when they reviewed your case for the second session, they found that you had a criminal record. In 1993 you were said to have committed three armed robberies. What do you have to say about that, considering you issued a statement saying you had no criminal record?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: When I found that I was accused of having committed armed robberies -->> LAWYER: In quotation marks?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: Yes, of course. At their request I went to the municipal and cantonal Courts for a certificate of no previous convictions.>> LAWYER: That certificate is valid. I checked it when it arrived, and I've informed your ex-employer, the Intelligence Security Agency. So Redjo, what do you think is the real reason for your dismissal? After all, you fulfilled all the requirements of employment.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: I'll be frank with you. I think the real reason, and I stress this, the reason is they didn't want a gypsy doing that job.>> LAWYER: So it was discrimination?>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: I'm sure. For them, a Roma can only collect rubbish, not work in a State institution.>> LAWYER: Okay, I'll get to work in order to reopen your case, and call to account the person who accused you of the robberies. For I have irrevocable proof here that you were never criminally charged, which was why you were fired.>> VOICEOVER: Clearly, governments have the power to manipulate facts, tell lies and make them stick. But good governance provides a transparent system of checks and balances to prevent this from happening, and safeguard human rights for all people. >> LAWYER: I sometimes feel such a burden at the end of the day. And I think: My God, how long is this going to go on? The end is not in sight. The citizens don't trust anyone or anything any more. Why? For years they've been cheated and lied to, and fed legal delusions. They are unhappy with everything. The legal system is against them, and Bosnia's government institutions are so dysfunctional. Above all, people are unhappy in themselves, because they can hardly survive. Ministers and government officials put family and friends in important positions. It creates strong chains that are hard to break. They chain you to immorality, filth, corruption and bribery. That's the way the nationalist party governs. As if it is above the law.>> SIGN: PRESIDENT OF THE CANTONAL COURT>> JUDGE: I can't accept one legal side if the other side isn't present. Please don't insist. Please wait in the hall.>> LAWYER: Please don't get upset.>> JUDGE: We can't accept one legal side only.>> LAWYER: I've inspected the case file and it seems to be all in order.>> JUDGE: Due to your intervention, we gave your client's case urgent priority. Although we have so many cases to deal with. We're working hard.>> LAWYER: Can I expect a decision later this week?>> JUDGE: I didn't say that. First the Council of Judges evaluates the case. I don't know when they decide. However, the presiding judge must record his decision within 30 days.>> LAWYER: Because of what the government did, life was taken from the Bjelonja family. Imagine losing everything and having to claim it back via the Courts. Their whole life was taken from them.>> SIGN: WATCH OUT - PARSLEY!>> VOICEOVER: Living in poverty and losing hope are not Omer?s choice. Omer and Redjo represent tens of thousands of Sarajevan citizens, and millions across the globe, who are forced to seek help from independent organizations because their governments are unwilling or unable to protect their rights.>> OMER BJELONJA: I was a worker. I've always done manual labor. And I said my kids would have an education and be better off than me. If I fought for my rights, officials said, "Finish school if you want to talk to us." My children are more highly educated than those officials. But such is fate: They end up like me, in spite of what they've reached so far. Hold my hand. Hey Bakir, don't run too far!>> LAWYER: RedJo, the Helsinki Committee in Bosnia has come to the conclusion that your right to work was violated. The grounds for your dismissal were false. They obviously wanted to remove you from your job. So they had to invent reasons to justify your dismissal. They knew that only by suing them you could hope to get your job back. That was their tactic. They violated the Convention of Human Rights with racial discrimination. Your case is not only legal, but political as well. The Helsinki Committee will insist that you get your job back. I am sure we'll succeed. Not just because I'm an optimist but because I know that we will have the satisfaction of preventing ministers and company directors acting as if they're above the law. Your employer, the Intelligence Service, should not behave like that either. Your job should not depend on the whim of Almir Dzuvo, your former boss. We know this man very well. We know who protects him and which government institution put him in that position. It was he who decided on your case, not the law.>> REDJO SEFEROVIC: They look at me and see a Roma. It's easy to fire a Roma, even if he has the right qualifications.>> LAWYWER: He fired you and gave the job to a friend. That's obvious. I can say that from my own experience. I had to deal with him when he was the housing minister. He always stopped refugees from returning to their homes. And that's a fact.>> TITLE: Zavidovicí>> VOICEOVER: In a system where access to good governance is not assured, where only the protected can thrive, what faith can be passed down to the children? In what can they believe? Whom can they trust?>> SIGN: MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE TUNNEL. POLICE CHECKPOINT WAS HERE. SIGN: TUNNEL B(utmir) - THE KOLAR HOUSE>> MR. BAJRO: This is by the first president of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic. This is by Richard Holbrooke, US ambassador to the United Nations. This is Thomas Miller, US ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ambassadors of Belgium and Malaysia. This is by the actress Juliette Binoche, her impressions of the tunnel. "Bravo Sarajevo.">> WOMAN: Thank you very much.>> TOUR GUIDE: I would like to give you one more present. Put it somewhere in your house.>> WOMAN: Thank you.>> TOUR GUIDE: Sarajevo tunnel, house of Kolar family, salvation during the war, memory for peace. Thank you very much for visiting.>> WOMAN: Thank you very much. Thank you.>> TOUR GUIDE: Miro is my friend, and they are visiting us all the time. >> WOMAN: This is Miro.>> MAN: Not saying for you. Okay. Can I talk to you for a second?>> SOLDIER: He used to live here.>> OMER BJELONJA: This was the main entrance and exit. There was the reception, administration and telephone switchboard. This was the main checkpoint for people passing through the tunnel. Here used to be the circuit board. From here, the whole city was supplied with electricity. This was the entrance to the tunnel. Now it has all collapsed. In this house, history was made.>> WOMAN: Can you show them where those people were killed?>> OMER BJELONJA: That's where the grenade landed. On this wall, where the grey bricks are. They put a memorial plaque over there, as if it happened there and not here. And now who can prove otherwise?>> SIGN: ON THIS SPOT, SERBIAN CRIMINALS KILLED NINE CITIZENS OF SARAJEVO, MAY 7th 1995>> MAN 1: Honored citizens -->> MAN 2: Hold on a second.>> MAN 1: -- and relatives of those killed. We commemorate the fact that ten years ago on this day, nine of our fellow citizens lost their lives and twelve were badly wounded. There are many such places in Sarajevo. People who were here during the war know how to appreciate these moments. Like others here today, I have passed through this tunnel countless times. I'd like to ask for a minute's silence to pray for the victims.>> MR. BAJRO: I'd like to invite the minister and other guests, especially from the media, to come with me and visit the museum.>> WOMAN: Do you like it?>> OMER?S SON: Where will your room be?>> BOY: Mine will be over here.>> OMER BJELONJA: We had renovated our old house at the time. We took the roof off and added a floor to it. We worked hard to turn it into a home. But we haven't slept a single night in it.>> GIRL: Dad, can I bring my toys?>> OMER?S SON: You can bring all your toys. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-the-mothers-index Being a new mom is rewarding and challenging. But what extra burdens do mothers in poor and rural communities face? Take a tour of the world's best and worst places to be a mom, in this report from Save the Children and ViewChange.org. Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:27:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-the-mothers-index Save the Children, Maternal death, Child mortality, Childbirth, Pregnancy, Ashta no Kai, Education, Gender, Nepal, Malawi >> VOICEOVER: Next up: an all-new mother's day special. Being a new mom is rewarding and challenging -- but what extra burdens do mothers in poorer countries face? Come take a tour of the world's best and worst places to be a mom, in this new report from Save the Children and ViewChange.org.>> VOICEOVER: ViewChange is about people making real progress in tackling the world's toughest issues. Can a story change the world? See for yourself in ViewChange: The Mothers Index.>> VOICEOVER: You've heard the term "lottery of birth." More often than not, children born in rich countries win it, while those in poor countries lose. A child's life expectancy, health, education, and so much more hinges on where he or she happens to enter the world. But there's also a lottery of motherhood, and expectant moms in developing countries are facing the toughest odds. Every year, more than 350,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth -- most, simply because they don't have access to basic delivery care. >>WOMAN: Push hard!>> VOICEOVER: And the ripple effect is dramatic: when a mother dies, her children are more likely to be poor, more likely to die before the age of five, or to drop out of school if they survive. But private aid groups and governments are working hard to change the odds in the lottery of motherhood. In Sierra Leone, a place that Save the Children ranks as one of the very worst places to be a mom, a new government program is trying to turn the tide, as we see in this short film from ViewChange.>> TITLE: Where Every Pregnancy is a Gamble. Lauren Malkani and Ami Vitale, Sierra Leone>> VOICEOVER: After a brutal decade-long conflict, Sierra Leone has the highest child and maternal mortality rates in the world.>> FATIMATA KONTE [Expectant mother, Kroo Bay]: My name is Fatimata Konte. I'm 36 years old. We women suffer too much. Women in Sierra Leone suffer too much! I've lived in Kroo Bay for four years. When I wake up at 5am I get out of bed, and the kind of pain that I feel is from my waist bone down to the bottom of my belly. I cough and I'm very sick. I'm really sick but it's like this for all women. From the day a child is born, she must work. Every day I must go to the market. There I have to bargain for fruits. It's a strain to go to the market. I must sell the fruit to have money to buy food to sell for the next day. It's all I can do to survive. I work for my daughter so she can go to school. She is in class four. I want her to learn. Let her learn. I want her to be somebody.>> DR. TAGIE GBAWRU-MANSARAY [Doctor, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital]: When a woman is educated she can take care of herself, she can take care of the children, she can take care of her husband, her home. It benefits the population, the family, and it will help Sierra Leone in the long run. I'm a medical doctor, house officer here at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital. When you're in school and you're studying to become a doctor, you read about all the fanciful techniques, all the wonderful drugs, the magic pills that you give to patients, all the different things that you can do as a doctor. When you come into the real world and you see that even basic things we don't have here -- the basic drugs, simple equipment -- and you are limited. At times you see a particular case and you think to yourself, if only I had this, if only I had that, I would have been able to save a patient's life.>> VOICEOVER: One in five children die before their first birthday, and one in eight women die during pregnancy.>> FATIMATA KONTE: I have two children and I've lost five, so this is the eighth pregnancy. So right now, I am remembering the past. I am worried this one can die too. My biggest fear is that this child will die.>> VOICEOVER: The one referral hospital in the capital of Freetown services a population of over 400,000 people.>> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE [Doctor, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital]: Hello, good afternoon. My name is Dr. Ibraham Thorlie. In this hospital we have four gynecologists. One doctor can serve over 100,000 people.>> VOICEOVER: Though the hospital is severely understaffed, it is not the only reason so many people are dying.>> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE: The delay starts from home. If a woman is pregnant, she wants to give birth, and the husband is not around, she cannot be taken anywhere without the husband coming, because he gives the money. If you come too late, we cannot help you.>> VOICEOVER: And, often, those patients who come too late are very close to death.>> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE: It's a big dilemma. If the patient can pay you, then it's good. But when they cannot pay you, you need to help them.>> VOICEOVER: Rather than watching their patients die, many doctors and nurses like Rebecca pay for the worst cases from their own small salaries.>> REBECCA MASSAQUEI [Nurse, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital]: I'm a poor nurse. I don't have money to take care of this baby. But the baby should have died, because there was nobody to take care of the baby. So that's why I decided to take the baby. He will live to tell this story. So he's the victory child. That why I call his name Victor.>> VOICEOVER: Victor is one of the few lucky survivors in a place where so many die. However, the government has just launched a program providing free healthcare for pregnant women and children under five.>> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE: Now things are picking up with the pronouncement of the free healthcare system. It's a big incentive and we hope that will surely bring a difference. But to sustain it is not an easy thing.>> FATIMATA KONTE: We women are all very happy that women will finally get treated.>> TITLE: On April 16, 2010 Fatimata Konte gave birth to a healthy baby boy.>> TITLE: [end credits]>> VOICEOVER: So where are the best and worst places to be a mom? For its "State of the World's Mothers" report, Save the Children studied 164 countries, and compiled a "mothers index." At the top of the index, women have what they need to thrive: excellent medical services, plenty of skilled health workers, and opportunities for education and advancement. But the gap between the top- and bottom-ranked countries is stark. At the bottom, one in three children suffers from malnutrition, and one in 30 women will die from pregnancy-related causes. And how does the United States stack up? Number 31. America's maternal mortality is the highest of any industrialized nation. >> VOICEOVER: But the study is also clear about solutions that work. And the very best solution for helping moms and children? More health workers on the front lines. The equation is simple: more doctors, more midwives and community health workers means more mothers and children surviving childbirth and the early years of life. Nowhere is this more clear than a place like Nepal, which is ranked 133rd on the Mothers Index. This ViewChange short film from Living Proof tells the story. >> TITLE: In one of the world's poorest places, the day a woman gives birth is the most dangerous day of her life, and her child's life. Can one woman and her baby beat the odds?>> TITLE: Dangerous Day. Living Proof, Nepal>> TITLE: Western Nepal >> TITLE: People scratch out a living in the Himalayan foothills, and life is hardest for women>> MAHESWORI: My name is Maheswori. I'm 19 years old. My husband went to India to work. Here there is no food, no rice, no nothing. Around here, there's no work. >> TITLE: Maheswori is pregnant and past due.>> MAHESWORI: I am very, very scared. Everyone has been asking about it, and that makes me even more scared. My first child was breech born, and I might just die this time. If I will live, I will live. If I will die, I will die. >> TITLE: The nearest hospital is four hours away. >> MAHESWORI: Some said take her to the hospital, some said drive her down. Everyone had opinions. But how would you get a car without money?>> TITLE: She plans to deliver in the same place she gave birth before.>> MAHESWORI: In November my daughter was born. I had the baby in our cow shed. >> TITLE: By local custom, mother and child are quarantined as "unclean.">> MAHESWORI: For 12 days after the birth, the baby and I were kept in the cow shed. On the 13th day we were allowed out. You can't take a newborn in the house, God gets angry. You're better off in the cow shed. >> TITLE: Because of Maheswori's high-risk pregnancy, an aid worker traveling with the camera crew makes a case to village elders. They consent to having a birth attendant, and she won't give birth in the cow shed. >> MAHESWORI: I am going to die. Oh my mother! I am dying ...>> WOMAN: Get me the gloves, quickly.>> MAHESWORI: I am dying ... am dying. Please ... I can't.>> WOMAN: It's a complete breech situation. Push hard!>> INDUKA KARI [CARE Program Officer]: She was completely unaware of the fact that she would need medical care because her first child was breech born. >> TITLE: She gives birth to another daughter, Seema. >> INDUKA KARI: If she hadn't gotten proper care by a trained birth attendant, she would've died. >> MAHESWORI: I'll rest for seven days, but then it's back to work. I have to pound the rice, carry water, cut grass, and chop wood. Life is tough here. >> TITLE: Living Proof. Real Lives. Real Progress. >> TITLE: In Nepal, 80 percent of births occur at home with no skilled birth attendant like Maheswori had. But support from global partners is helping train Nepal's 45,000 female health volunteers, and they are dramatically improving Nepal's health outcomes. >> VOICEOVER: If there's one overwhelming success story in maternal and child health, it can be found in Malawi, where almost half the county -- 40 percent -- lives in poverty. But, for years, the government has been investing in all sorts of new plans for life-saving care. The result? The number of deaths in children under five has been cut in half over the past 20 years. Malawi's striking results are strongly linked to efforts on the ground, house by house, community to community, to give mothers the support they need. Living Proof has this success story from Malawi>> TITLE: Grandparents Shaping Safe Childbirth. Living Proof, Malawi >> TITLE: Wacapati = Pregnancy>> TITLE: In Malawi, the word for pregnancy also means 50/50. Conventional wisdom says there is just a 50/50 chance a woman will survive childbirth. >> TITLE: Agogo = Grandparent>> TITLE: Agogos are known as the guardians of wisdom and are responsible for passing on tradition.>> TITLE: Can agogos help improve the odds of wacapati? >> TITLE: Ekwendeni, Malawi>> LYTON CHAWINGA: My name is Lyton Chawinga, and I have six grandchildren. I was born at home, in 1948. In previous days, pregnant mothers were using unsafe methods. Some would have their babies in grass huts. After giving birth, they would leave babies on the ground in the cold. We didn't know better. We had a lot of deaths. One day, hospital workers asked us to be a part of the Agogo Program.>> TITLE: The Agogo Program teaches village elders about proper natal care and helps agogos pass along those messages to their communities. >> LYTON CHAWINGA: We go to their house. We talk to both the man and the woman. We are here to chat with you about the importance of going to the hospital when you are pregnant. We show them pictures and tell them what can happen if they give birth at home. That the mother or baby can fall sick or die. >> WOMAN [Agogo]: After three months, start going for checkups. Escort each other. Many husbands refuse to escort their wives, which is not good. >> TITLE: Agogos also use traditional methods to teach modern messages. >> WOMEN: Pregnancy doesn't kill, the hospital is good, and all our children should be taken there.>> LYTON CHAWINGA: Deaths have decreased, diseases have decreased, and life has improved. I am really happy because if the student fails you are not a good teacher. I see fruits of what I teach and I am proud that I am a good teacher.>> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. >> TITLE: With support and funding, 4,000 agogos have been trained in Malawi.>> TITLE: As a result, Ekwendeni Hospital has seen a 60 percent increase in pregnant women seeking antenatal care.>> TITLE: To accommodate them, the hospital is building a new, larger maternal ward.>> VOICEOVER: Access to health care isn't the whole story, of course. Helping women must include an investment in education. In rural Bangladesh, communities are learning the real value of empowering women. This film from Save the Children shows that giving girls a voice can be the most powerful solution of all. >> TITLE: Shilpi's Story. Save the Children, Bangladesh>> TITLE: This is Shilpi's story. Tiler Char, Barishal, Bangladesh.>> VOICEOVER: Shilpi's father died when she was very young. Her mother worked as a maid to support Shilpi and two younger sons. She earned only enough to feed them one meal a day. When Save the Children started the Girls' Voices project nearby, Shilpi joined. She met with other teenage girls to build self-confidence and learn new skills, like making a budget and saving money. Shilpi realized she could help support her family, even without working outside the home. She started her first business weaving mats. >> SHILPI: Later, I thought about how I could use the money I earn from weaving mats to do more. So I bought a small cow. After a year it gave birth. At that time we got 2 to 2.5 liters of milk from the cow every day. I sold that milk and used the money for my family. Later, when I had earned more money from weaving mats, I saved it. Our house was very small. It was awful to live there during the rainy season. So I decided we should build a new house. I sold the calf and used the money from my savings to build this house. If I had not joined "Girls' Voices" I would have been married by now, like all the other girls. Then I would not have been able to build such a big house or buy a cow. Now my plan is to buy a piece of land since we do not have any. The other plan I have is for my brother. Because he is handicapped, I am supporting his studies. That way he can get a job and earn his own living. My mother used to think if I had been a son instead of a daughter our life would have been much easier. But now she thinks "my daughter has done more for our family than a son would ever do.">> VOICEOVER: Around the world, communities are coming together, not only to save the lives of mothers and children, but to improve them. To give women real opportunities to change the courses of their lives. Basic health care can solve the most urgent crises, but a bigger sea change -- one that empowers women to learn, to marry later, and to decide when to have children -- will ultimately close the gaps in the odds that mothers face. Those changes are happening every day, country by country, and girl by girl. Sometimes, in places like India, something as simple as a bicycle can make all the difference.>> TITLE: Hubub Films Presents>> TITLE: Sone Sangvi, India>> TITLE: Pedal=Sight. Jacob Seigel-Boettner, India >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: My name is Bharati Phakad Date. I am 14 years old. I live in Sone Sangvi. I am going to Nimgaon Bhogi High School. I am learning in the ninth standard [grade]. My favorite actor is Mithun Chakrabothy because he always plays a humanitarian, someone who helps other people. My favorite actress is Rani Mukherjee. I like her husky voice. There are a lot of people who live on the streets. I will help them. There are so many people in this world who do not even get one meal a day. I will help them. >> TITLE: Pedal = Sight>> ARMENE MODI [Director, Ashta No Kai]: For about a couple of years, we only focused on adult women and literacy for them, and I noticed many of the girls who came to the class were very, very young girls with mangalsutra, which is a gold-and-black beaded necklace, around their necks, which in India is a symbol of matrimony, and they had babies on their hips, and I started to ask, "What's going on?" and, "Why are such young girls married off already?">> BHARATI'S MOTHER: My life, my generation, was full of darkness. I have to make sure that my daughters get a good education. It is our duty. If you are uneducated, then it is as if you only have one eye. >> ARMENE MODI: In many villages, there were only schools until seventh grade. There were no high schools. So we worked in 10 villages at that point of time, and there were only three high schools. So then I asked the parents, the mothers, "Well, what happens to the boys? How do you send the boys to school?" And they said, "Well, we give them bicycles." And I said, "Well, what about the girls?" And they said, "Oh, no. It's a waste of money to give a bicycle to a girl. She's going to turn around and get married." There's a famous Indian saying: Why water a plant that's going to grow in a neighbor's garden? So, I thought, my God, if it's only a bicycle that's keeping girls from going to school, let's go ahead and give it to them. >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: The bike has been really useful. Now, the time that I save commuting to school can be used to study. Also, now I can ride to school with my friends. It's a lot of fun. I used to have to walk to school. >> BHARATI'S MOTHER: Initially, she had to walk to school. It took her more than an hour. Now she can ride to school in 15 minutes. She now feels very motivated and enthusiastic to attend school. >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: I want to become a District Supervisor, because then I can make big decisions, and also have the power to implement them. I would be able to make decisions regarding the welfare of the poor and downtrodden. I would be able to help transform society. My name is Bharati Phakad Date. I am 14 years old. I live in Sone Sangvi. I want to eradicate poverty from this country. >> TITLE: [end credits]>> VOICEOVER: Like what you saw? Then visit ViewChange.org, Link TV's brand new multimedia website. Watch over 200 stories about new solutions to the developing world's biggest challenges, get involved with the issues, share the stories with friends, and help change the world, all at ViewChange.org>> VOICEOVER: To read the full 2011 "State of the World's Mothers" report, and to learn more about Save the Children, visit savethechildren.org.>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-made-in-china The jobs that ex-miners in Minnesota see disappearing to China stand for new opportunities for the young Li Jieli to improve her and her family's living condition. Three people from very different worlds and expectations show how they struggle to maintain their security in a shifting and uncertain global economy. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:25:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-made-in-china China, Globalization, Global economy, Manufacturing, Mining, United States of America, Iron Range, Jiangsu, Wujiang, A Dollar A Day >> TITLE: EMF Films and Global Visions & Associates present>> TITLE: A Dollar A Day>> TITLE: Wuijang Economical Development Zone, Jiangshu province, China>> GIRLS: Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl. Her name was Xiao Wei. She was born with eyes so soft. She made my heart race. Xiao Wei, you know I love you. I want to fly away with you.>> GIRL: Then it starts:>> LI JIELI: When I feel bad, I come and sit on the roof. Work brings a lot of pressure and sometimes I feel homesick.>> VOICEOVER: Every day in modern China, thousands of young women are willing to leave home and family behind to take jobs in faraway factories in the hope of escaping poverty.>> LI JIELI: This queue makes me think of how bad I felt when I arrived. When I see these girls at the gate it brings back bad memories. I spent 24 hours on the train to get here. I didn't have a seat, so I had to stand up the whole journey. Because of travel sickness I vomited all the time.>> TITLE: Made in China>> TITLE: A film by Eline Flipse>> MAN: As an employment officer, I send hundreds of workers to this factory every year. We come from a remote mountainous area. There aren't many jobs available. That's why we send many workers away. Of course they make much more money here than they do at home. With their savings they can invest in a house back home.>> WOMAN: Have your diploma, ID card, and a pen ready. You'll need them soon. Put down your luggage. Welcome to Delta Zhongda. This is the admittance procedure although I know you've all had a long and tiring trip.>> LI JIELI: My parents sent me here because they didn't have the money to buy a new house. I really hated my parents when I had to leave home. In fact, it was not necessary for me to leave. I was not the best pupil at school, but I could have gone to university. But according to my parents they couldn't afford university for me. Every month, as soon as I get my salary, I send money home. My grandma was disappointed that I didn't go to university. She said: "If possible you should have further education. Or you'll always be a frog at the bottom of a well who can only see a small part of the sky.">> HERO TSAI [Manager Delta, Zhong Da facilities]: Our company makes different kinds of electrical appliances. It is mostly about components that need to be assembled. That's why we prefer working with girls. They are much more precise and they are also easier to manage than boys. This factory employs 10,000 people. The average annual salary of our workers is about 15,000 yuan [RMB] per year or USD$150 per month. Most of our products are sold in the US and Europe and the rest in Asia. We supply to the five biggest IT companies in the world: Dell, HP, IBM in America, and in Japan to Sony, Sharp, Canon.>> TITLE: Iron Range, Minnesota, USA>> VOICEOVER: The changes in the global marketplace that have affected jobs in China are rippling throughout the world in both anticipated and unexpected ways.>> WAYNE PETERSON: I'm a label nut. I bet I can't find one here that's made in America. Well, I'm glad someone's working in manufacturing. Well, they're trying to get, they're trying to label McDonald's as a manufacturing outfit because they assemble hamburgers. Then they can change the statistics to show: "Look at all the manufacturing jobs!" Ain't that something? It was proposed, in Congress. Now that's getting desperate to try to fudge statistics. Bangladesh: sounds like a disease. Those are kinda nice. Nope, made in China. I don't think I'll get a pair of shorts today. I'd say it started years ago, with electronics. I think to keep the Chinese out of the Korean War, we allowed them to start manufacturing a lot of electronic goods. VCRs, televisions, things like that. Nixon did that to keep them out of the war. Same thing with Vietnam, it continued. And then it got to be a good idea. Cheap labor, and no environmental concerns and costs, and no pensions, no taxes. Huge profits. Well, that's made in Pakistan. Even a Minnesota Vikings shirt. Made in China, but there aren't any made here, so I don't have a choice.>> DANA BURNS [Manager, United Taconite mines]: People here refer to this as the Iron Range. It really got a start back in the mid-1800s, with the discovery of iron ore, which ... this area then just prospered greatly. And a lot of the people that came to work in the mines were immigrants, and came from countries like Finland and Sweden and so on. You know, it's ... they have a very proud history here. The steel companies came into financial trouble with high imports. They were exiting the mines; I think there were over 30-some companies that went bankrupt. >> DAVID OLSON: This is my estate. Well, what do you think of it? It's the little green house on the west end of Aurora. This is my windmill, the whole works. That's the only way I go fishing. You go ... whenever that's turned, then I go fishing. Snowmobile season is just over with. This is a 550 Bearcat. And this is my boat, this is the one I take on Lake Superior. This is my pride and joy. I had a good income, yes. In a year, boy, I'd have to ask Sally, I'm not really sure. Oh, it was 63, I suppose, somewhere in there. And I was working a lot of overtime, so that added into that, so that towards the end, it was hard to judge what ... Cause I could make so much at one time and so little at another. Good income, yeah. Until they decided to do what they did to us. Mining companies, they said they weren't making a profit, and decided to get out of the area. They were getting ore from China, getting it from everyplace else, and cheap. Why dig it here if they can go somewhere else and get it cheaper? So that's what happened to us.>> LI JIELI: I am in charge of 105 persons. Talking about pressure: You have to reach the target figures. Not only me, but the whole team I'm responsible for. If we don't make the target, we don't get paid for that day, so that's a heavy kind of pressure.>> VOICEOVER: The demands at this factory are hard for young people to handle. But, unlike most sweatshops around the world, employees here are paid regularly and treated decently.>> SIGN: This production line performed best this month>> LI JIELI: The rule here is that we have to reach a certain quota each month. Once, we reached the highest possible quota. Every month, they determine which production line performed best. Then we get a bonus of 200 yuan or 25 dollars to play with. That amount is for the whole team and we must share it. It allows us to buy some extra fruit and sweets.>> HERO TSAI: The female workers are, first of all, quite young. They are between 16 and 25 years old. Leaving home is more difficult for them than for the men. That's why we pay more attention to human management, 24 hours a day. About 85 percent of our workers come from the interior. The living conditions here are a great deal better than at home.>> LI JIELI: What time are you off? Six o'clock?>> HERO TSAI: We sometimes say jokingly that most of the workers arrived thin and dirty but that they flourished after they've worked here for a few years.>> VOICEOVER: Whether or not the girls actually flourish is a question. They do not have protections afforded by trade unions, but they are at least housed and fed and able to develop a new community of friends.>> ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: Your factory ID, please. Happy birthday!>> GIRL: Thank you.>> LI JIELI: We're going to eat the cake. Happy birthday to you!>> VOICEOVER: Even a few sweets make the adjustment to factory life a little less difficult for these young workers.>> LI JIELI: Look at this!>> GIRL: It's nice.>> LI JIELI: Don't ruin it!>> GIRL: Don't do that.>> WAYNE PETERSON: There's RE/MAX, house for sale. God, there's two of them up here. Lot of people have not found anything and given up. You can tell that one now hasn't gotten any attention for a long time. That looks abandoned. Lot of friends had to leave their friends and family, and no kids in the streets anymore. School's closed down, and you can see the grass isn't even mowed at the school anymore; this used to all be mowed nice. Kids playing, there used to be a playground there. Used to be full of kids, when families could afford to live here, and there were jobs. That used to be a pool. Destitution, job loss. Poverty. To live from check to check. To leave an area where you grew up. Having your credit destroyed because you can't pay your bills. Questioning if you get sick, whether or not you can pay, because you don't have health insurance, cause that was taken away and it's too expensive to buy on your own.>> SIGN: United Taconite. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Laiwu Steel Group Ltd. United Steel Workers of America. Mine Operations>> DANA BURNS: There was a company, Laiwu Steel, Chinese steel company, that was looking for raw materials, iron ore. China has been very hungry for all types of commodities, iron ore and steel. We were actually to help Laiwu take its ore from this mine, and trade it with a Canadian firm, and they would then take the Canadian pellets to China. There's concern that a lot of, you know, products that are purchased in retail stores and so on are being imported from China. But what we have here was ... the story that we have here in, at United Taconite, is kind of a reverse. We were able to come back, bring this mine back up and actually export product to China. So it's ... our situation is somewhat unique, compared to what others are experiencing with the growth of China.>> VOICEOVER: This unique turn regarding exports to developing countries might not be unique for long. However, as the global marketplace expands and levels, and access to jobs becomes more competitive, the question is, how will workers find a fair deal? Who will own the responsibility for establishing fair wages and setting employment standards?>> BILL MATOS [Blaster, United Taconite]: This is a blasting cap in here. And it'll fire on to here, and set this line off, and set the hole off. This is my job. It's called "blaster." My father worked for the mining company too, but he wasn't a blaster. My grandfather was a blaster. He worked with explosives at that time. As far as I know he was working on a piece of explosives, like a piece of dynamite or something and it went off. Well, yeah, yeah. Killed him.>> VOICE: Gate 15, all units in the field. We are now ready for the main shot. Leaving the mike open between each count in case someone has to break in with an emergency. Three, two, one. Clear.>> BILL MATOS: When Evtac filed bankruptcy, they froze my pension at 29 years, 10 months. I could've retired at 30 years. The mine was not exhausted, I mean we probably have one of the best ore bodies up here. And it could probably run for another 30 years. They wouldn't give us any orders for steel, so they just choked us off, choked us off. And, in the end, you're forced ... I think it was a planned closure, myself. And they got away with it. And, it's legal. >> DANA BURNS: Because of the bankruptcy of the prior owner here, these people lost a lot of their pensions and healthcare and benefits. So that's the social cost that comes with bankruptcy.>> BILL MATOS: They could see that 2004, 2005, 2006, there'd be a great amount of people eligible for retirement, so they figured a way to cut their losses and cut their legacy costs. Now, we're still making, still mining at United Taconite, and we're still supplying Stelco Steel in Ontario with pellets. They're still a customer. So instead of being the owner, they divested themselves of all their legacy costs, and became a customer.>> DANA BURNS: It all starts fresh, yeah. We did not ... you don't ... we did not buy the company and those liabilities. Those liabilities were the prior owners', who failed here. We've put together a model, we think that works, and we start fresh.>> BILL MATOS: So now, when I got rehired at United Taconite, I started building a new pension. From zero.>> WAYNE PETERSON: USD$50,000 a year is easy to make in the mines, pushing a broom. If you have a skill or a trade, like a millwright, which I was, you don't need all the overtime to make $50,000 a year. And up here, you know, you can buy a decent home, you can buy a couple cars for the family, and a bunch of toys. Well, I didn't do that right away, because I didn't think it was gonna last.>> DAVID OLSON: You know, at one time there was 3,000 guys out there. Can you imagine, when I first started out there, there was 3,000? And at the end, there was maybe, there was 63 of us left? When I left, I had 34 years out there -- 34 years of my life to end up with nothing. >> LI JIELI: Do not spit on the ground. Do not paste on the wall. Drunkenness will be punished with 50 yuan. Anyone who makes trouble will get fired. Gambling is prohibited on penalty of dismissal. Do not take strangers to the dormitory on penalty of dismissal. All occupants should be in by 22:00. First offence is a warning, then dismissal.>> HERO TSAI: Is everything arranged for your leave?>> LI JIELI: Yes, I will stay away for 20 days. I am going to visit my family.>> HERO TSAI: Who is going to replace you?>> LI JIELI: My deputy line chef will replace me.>> HERO TSAI: Okay that's fine. Now carry on with your work.>> SIGN: Payphone Market>> LI JIELI: Hello grandma, it's me. Where is Mum? Outside? Can you get her? I was planning to come back on the 13th, but I've postponed it by two days. I miss you so much. I feel so homesick. I want to go home.>> WOMAN [Li Jieli's friend]: It's here, isn't it?>> LI JIELI: Do you have a smaller one like this? Yes, a small one.>> SALES CLERK: This is the cheapest at 35 yuan.>> LI JIELI: 30 yuan.>> SALES CLERK: 30 yuan? I wouldn't make any money.>> LI JIELI: 30 yuan is more than enough!>> SALES CLERK: Okay for 35 yuan?>> LI JIELI: 30, no more!>> SALES CLERK: The goods we sell are all good quality!>> LI JIELI: I know, I know, 30 yuan.>> WAYNE PETERSON: I looked around after the mines shut down. I thought, well, you know, a lot of people are gonna have to move. And I'm not gonna be one of them. Hey, I'm going to work. We're gonna go eat at five or so tonight, huh?>> WAYNE'S DAUGHTER: Okay.>> WAYNE PETERSON: Alright, see you later then. >> WAYNE'S WIFE: Yep, okay. >> WAYNE'S DAUGHTER: Bye.>> WAYNE PETERSON: Want to eat at five tonight?>> WAYNE'S WIFE: Yeah.>> WAYNE PETERSON: Somewhere? Aurora?>> WAYNE'S WIFE: Yeah, alright. Have a nice day. Bye-bye.>> WAYNE PETERSON: So I figure, well how am I gonna stay here? Some friends of mine got into nursing. Pays even more than what we made in the mines. It's secure. Howdy! It's long-term, because people are always gonna get hurt and sick and older. And, you know, it'll never go away. Until we start shipping people, maybe to Canada or something, for healthcare. Howdy! Hi there Bill.>> BILL: How do you do? >> WAYNE PETERSON: How's it going today?>> BILL: I hope I feel better after you get done with me.>> WAYNE PETERSON: Okay. Well, this is just a matter of checking your lung sounds a little bit here.>> BILL: Okay.>> WAYNE PETERSON: You wanna breathe in for me, deep? Okay. Okay, and now I'm gonna listen to your heart, a little bit.>> BILL: If it's there.>> WAYNE PETERSON: I found it! Now I'll check your pulse. What'd you used to do for a living?>> BILL: I slaved away at Eerie Mining Company.>> WAYNE PETERSON: Really?>> BILL: Really.>> WAYNE PETERSON: I worked out there, and I got involved in the shutdown. And now I work as a nurse. This is a little more fun, I get to talk to people.>> BILL: And I'm just learning about retiring.>> WAYNE PETERSON: Well, someday I hope I can. I hope I have a pension. I'm supposed to have a pension, when I'm 65, but we'll see about that. They don't even know if Social Security will be there. Hi!>> PATIENT: Hi.>> WAYNE PETERSON: How are you today?>> PATIENT: Fine.>> WAYNE PETERSON: Good. I'm used to barking orders, or hollering back, "The damn machine broke down, get the mechanics." Or, you know, I'm not used to being subtle, quiet -- good afternoon -- soft. But, yeah, after two years of working as an LPN [licensed practical nurse], I've kinda toned down and mellowed out a little bit. >> TRAIN CONDUCTOR: Have your tickets ready. Stay in the queue. You need to show your ticket. Get in line. You there, don't jump the queue. Quicker. Stay in line! Put it up there neatly. This won't do.>> LI JIELI: I've been on the train for over 20 hours, since yesterday afternoon. Train fares are expensive. I always take third class. I don't go back home often. I have only been back once, in the last three years.>> VOICEOVER: Like many young people in her situation, Li has suffered from the pains of transition and homesickness. But on this rare visit home she will have to confront other questions. How will she see life at home now that she's experienced independence? Will she be so relieved to be home that she won't want to go back to the factory? Or will she decide to return?>> LI JIELI: I haven't seen my brother in three or four years. He is grown up, but he doesn't have a house of his own. With us, sons mean more to the parents than girls. My mother prefers my brother to me, which hurts. You could say, I work for my brother.>> MAN: Can you take this for us? Thanks.>>TITLE: Changzhuangcun, Shaanxisheng province>> LI JIELI: Grandma!>> GRANDMA: What is the matter? Darling ... That's a long time ago.>> NEIGHBORS: Come back to the old nest?>> LI JIELI: Mum. Auntie.>> MOTHER: Easy, take it easy. Calm down. It's alright. So good to see you.>> LI JIELI: Dad.>> GRANDMOTHER: Come in.>> MOTHER: Go and wash your hands.>> LI JIELI: Where's Grandma? And there's your uncle.>> DAVID OLSON: Once I retired, we were gonna go, just travel. That was the thing we were gonna do, we were gonna travel. Well, now we stay home. And we go, you know, I mean, we go fishing, and that's about it, so.>> SIGN: Gone Fishin'>> SIGN: Proud to be an American>> SIGN: No Hunting Without Permission>> DAVID OLSON: I had 34 years, I was going for 35. Thirty-five would've gave me just about USD$2,400 a month. I could've lived. Plus the insurance, the insurance was the big thing. Your drugs, your insurance, I could go to, you know, we could've traveled, Sally and I could've traveled. What's the Travel Channel? That's 168?>> SALLY [David's wife]: I have no idea.>> DAVID OLSON: We'll try that. One-six-eight. We live comfortably enough. Well, we didn't pay anything before, in the mines. >> SALLY: Yeah.>> DAVID OLSON: That was ...>> SALLY: When he was working, our insurance was free. >> DAVID OLSON: Yeah. She can explain that a lot better than I can.>> SALLY: And we had a small deductible and we paid a co-pay on our prescriptions, you know. Now we pay hundreds of dollars a month, we have a USD$2,000 deductible a year, so we have to pay that first. And that's both of us, so that's USD$4,000: USD$2,000 apiece.>> DAVID OLSON: They can't really hurt me anymore. So, I'm gonna be on Social Security sooner or later here, in a couple of more years. Hopefully, Bush don't take that away from me, let's hope. And then, now, if something would happen to me, she only gets half my pension. >> SALLY: I don't get half your pension.>> DAVID OLSON: Well, not even half.>> SALLY: With this government takeover thing now, now I have no idea what I would get, but I'm sure it's nothing. >> LI JIELI: My shoes are covered in dust.>> FATHER: It doesn't matter.>> LI JIELI: Should I leave two of them?>> FATHER: If you don't, they don't grow.>> LI JIELI: Shall I leave the largest?>> FATHER: Makes no difference.>> LI JIELI: Leave the one in the middle?>> FATHER: It's up to you.>> LI JIELI: Can I leave more?>> FATHER: Yes, but then they don't grow well.>> LI JIELI: Did you miss me, Dad?>> FATHER: I certainly missed you.>> LI JIELI: Really? I always call you, but you hardly ever call me.>> FATHER: But I did call you.>> LI JIELI: Only once.>> FATHER: Our harvest is more than we can eat ourselves. We have enough to eat.>> LI JIELI: Food is not really the problem. But you can't earn any money. People have hardly any money here.>> FATHER: That's why Jieli left two years ago to work in the city. Maybe she was too young but we had no choice. I did not want her to leave home. She was so young, only 17, when she left. And her health was not so good. But now she is a lot better. Now she looks healthy and strong.>> DAVID OLSON: Can you imagine the water? I used to drive down there. These are Minnesota quartz. That's our beauties, that ... I got them all over the yard. There's still iron here, but it's in finer ... someday the technology will come to where they can take the rest of it right out of here. The technology will take the rest of this. And they'll use all this over again. You know, that's why these dumps are made, where they are made. Because they can always come in here and just take it and recrush them and ... So there's a ... there's a potential. It wouldn't take them long to pump that out with the pumps they have today. They could pump that, nothing to it. >> VOICEOVER: David still has faith in a system that will invent new technologies which he believes will bring prosperity back to his community. But Wayne's faith in the system has been shaken. He feels that answers lie in the bigger question of corporate responsibility.>> WAYNE PETERSON: I used to read The Wall Street Journal and Barron's Magazine, and year after year, since the '80s, I've seen companies sell such and such, moving here, moving there, and they're already exploiting the people wherever they are. And it's irresponsible. I believe that they're being exploited. Most of the time, they're not gonna have any pensions, they're not getting anything but maybe survival for the time being. out of these wealthy, international companies that could very well afford to pay them more than I'm sure they're getting paid. Short-term, Wall Street mentality. We gotta go up 30 percent a year, so we can hide 15 percent of it, buy a bunch of companies, and take the other 15 percent and show the stock holders, "Look, we grew by 15 percent." So we can hang on to them, and raise the value of the stock, and ah! Drives me nuts. But it's ... it happens. >> FATHER: This is the new home we are building.>> BROTHER: This will be my bedroom. We will put the bed there, the TV and the sofa over there. Here we can put another closet.>> LI JIELI: When I was little we all slept in the same bed.>> FATHER: This room is going to be Jieli 's room.>> FATHER: Yes, this is mine.>> FATHER: This is for Jieli. Jieli already knows where she'll put her things.>> LI JIELI: Sons will stay at home and support their parents. Girls will live with their in-laws and that's why they are less valuable to the parents.>> BROTHER: I wouldn't mind moving to Xian. My parents could live with me there.>> MOTHER: I hardly ever go to the city. I don't really like it. It's the countryside for me.>> BROTHER: The city is more interesting to live in. The countryside is a boring place to be. In town there's lots to do. You can go shopping or to the park, the entertainment center or the zoo. The countryside is boring. There's nothing to do. So boring.>> MOTHER: What's the food in the factory like?>> LI JIELI: Much better than here. You made it much too salty.>> MOTHER: Seriously? I bet it's no good over there. Do you eat enough vegetables?>> LI JIELI: It isn't really much better. It's cooked in huge quantities. Have some yourself. Too salty. Life there isn't so different from the life here. Here you're at home all day. There it's factory, dormitory, and canteen.>> DAVID OLSON: I believe in the ... there's a future up here yet. It's just in a slack time right now. >> PETE LICARI [Barber]: What're you doing now?>> DAVID OLSON: I found a job, I work at Iron Gate down here, at the retirement, it's a retirement home for elderly people. And I work for minimum wage, so ... But they're nice people. >> PETE LICARI: Well, the way these people built this area around here, and then all of a sudden they take everything out of here because they can get cheap labor. As far as bringing most people up, and bringing up the standards for all these Third World countries and all this, I believe in that. But you've gotta pay them the same kind of money, give them a decent living. You see, these people up here, in the early days were exploited, just like they're exploiting the Third World countries now. They get the labor for next to nothing and they make millions of dollars. Well, don't misunderstand this, I'm not a communist, I'm not a socialist. Might sound like it, but I'm not. It's just that this thing has to even out. There's not a difference, it's no different here than it is any other place. But that's the way these people are, and they just should be that way. But if you don't have it, you're not going to have progress. It'll come back, because it usually does. When they find they can't make it work someplace else, they'll take them back here. >> LI JIELI: I didn't get on with my brother because he was so useless. He caused my parents a lot of headaches.>> BROTHER: I have been building the house for over two months, all by myself. It's a very big house. I'm working like a donkey. And she hasn't done a thing since she came back.>> INTERVIEWER: Is that right?>> LI JIELI: It is. My mother says that he has been a great help to my father. If he hadn't come back, my father wouldn't have managed. He's behaving like a perfect son. Really. I think I will stay in this factory for another two years. By then I hope I'll have saved enough money to open a small restaurant or a shop. I'm not going to work in a factory for the rest of my life.>> VOICEOVER: Li now sees a future and has a plan. Although determined not to spend more time than necessary in the factory, she can see the possibilities of independence that working there might bring. So can her cousin.>> MEDIATOR: Do you remember me?>> LI JIELI: Of course.>> MEDIATOR: Have a seat, both of you. Weren't you here in 2002?>> LI JIELI: Yes, I left in 2002.>> MEDIATOR: Still working at Zhongda?>> LI JIELI: Yes, still there.>> MEDIATOR: Which factory are you in?>> LI JIELI: Number one.>> MEDIATOR: Do you like it?>> LI JIELI: It's all right. My cousin would like to work there, too. Do you still mediate for them?>> MEDIATOR: Yes, we're going there on Saturday. Also to Zhongda.>>LI JIELI: What would be the costs if she wanted to come with me?>> MEDIATOR: The cost of our mediation is 700 yuan [RMB], same as before. The train is now faster and costs more but we are the only agency that hasn't put the price up.>> LI JIELI: Is it only this form?>> MEDIATOR: Yes, that's all you fill in. Did she graduate from middle school?>>LI JIELI: Yes, she has a diploma. She doesn't want to go to university.>> MEDIATOR: When did she graduate?>> LI JIELI: Just this year.>> MEDIATOR: In what year were you born?>> COUSIN: 1989.>> MEDIATOR: Which month?>> COUSIN: February.>> LI JIELI: That's me!>> MEDIATOR: You only see that now? And you're right in the middle. You looked very young then. You really grew up in that time.>> VOICE [Singing]: Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl. Her name was Xiao Wei.>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/grassroots-justice-in-rwanda Rwanda, with the assistance of the European Union and the United Nations Development Program, has set up a village-based justice system to try over eight hundred thousand people suspected in taking part in the genocide that shattered the Rwandan society twelve years ago. Called "gacacas," it is based on an old customary legal system and is helping establish the rule of law as well as bring reconciliation between guilty parties and victims. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:12:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/grassroots-justice-in-rwanda Rwanda, Gacaca court, Genocide, Africa, United Nations Development Programme, Change Makers, Governance & Transparency, Rwandan Genocide >> VOICEOVER: In Rwanda, men and women wearing pink uniforms are a common sight. Pink identifies prisoners accused of participating in the genocide that shattered this society twelve years ago. In this church in Nyamata, 5,000 people were slaughtered in one attack. Today, it is one of the many memorials to the massacre of up to one million men, women, and children in the course of three short months. The bloodbath left the new government of Rwanda with the daunting task of trying some 800,000 people suspected of having taken part in the killings. It would have taken a century to try all the accused in normal courts. A village-based justice system was created, Judge Celestin Mbarimombazi explains. >> JUDGE CELESTIN MBARIMOMBAZI: The gacaca system is based on our customary legal system from a long time ago.>> VOICEOVER: Years of planning and testing out pilot projects led to the largest experiment in popular justice in modern history. The local judges were elected. They are called Inyangamugayo or "righteous people," and work on a voluntary basis. Christine Umutoni is the gacaca expert for the United Nations Development Program. >> CHRISTINE UMUTONI: All they have is that they are examples, that they are good people, they can't cheat, and they are not sectarian. But that's all. They don't have any legal training. >> VOICEOVER: More than 250,000, close to six percent, of the country's adult population, serve as judges in the gacacas. They were trained with assistance from the European Union and the United Nations Development Program. >> JUDGE CELESTIN MBARIMOMBAZI: We have been trained at three different times. I myself was taught to prepare others, with the help of this booklet.>> VOICEOVER: Today, Thadeo Mbirkanyi is accused of killing two boys. He has no defense lawyer. There is no prosecutor. Everyone in the gacaca court speaks for himself or herself. This makes the grass roots courts different from regular courtrooms in the West, and even in Rwanda. Coordinator Paul Rwangalinde. >> PAUL RWANGALINDE: We are trying to make some investigation to know exactly how genocide was prepared, how genocide was conducted, and the consequences of the genocide itself.>> VOICEOVER: The judge questions Elia Kinyogote, the father who lost two sons in the genocide. >> JUDGE CELESTIN MBARIMOMBAZI: You really saw the attack with your own eyes?>> ELIA KINYOGOTE: Yes, I saw the accused with another killer.>> VOICEOVER: These workers have been convicted in gacaca courts. They have changed their pink prison outfits for a navy vest. The letters TIG identify them as serving their sentence by working in the interest of the community. Convicts cut their penalty by half when they agree to do community service instead of remaining in jail. Stanislas Nyiribambe likes the alternative. >> STANISLAS NYIRIBAMBE: Since I confessed my crimes and asked the victims to forgive me, I think that the gacaca did its job well and I accept my punishment.>> VOICEOVER: The convicts pay for their crimes with the sweat of their brow. They are as poor as most Rwandans who live on a dollar a day and could not pay for the damages they have caused. People in this community accept the houses they build for widows and orphans as a compensation. >> JUDGE CELESTIN MBARIMOMBAZI: You couldn't say that it's a hundred percent, but really there's been a high level of reconciliation between people who are guilty and those who are victims.>> VOICEOVER: The unspeakable crimes of genocide cannot be erased or forgotten. But the gacaca court system, even with all its imperfections, is helping re-establish the rule of law in one of the poorest countries in Africa. The United Nations prepared this report. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/rwanda-gacaca-justice <p>Over a million Rwandans died in the terrible genocide that swept the country in 1994. With peace restored, the government faced the problem of truth and reconciliation. With hundreds of thousands implicated in the slaughter, the justice system was in paralysis. But by 2005 Rwanda had found a homegrown answer to their problem: the traditional gacaca court.</p> Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:49:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/rwanda-gacaca-justice Gacaca court, Rwanda, Tutsi, Hutu, Rwandan Genocide, Governance & Transparency, Law, Reconciliation, Journeyman Pictures, Genocide >> TITLE: Gacaca Justice >> DATIVE BIHOYIKI [Church Guide]: So this place is called Nyamata, and this was a church, it was a Catholic church before 1994. And, at that time, there was the genocide between the Tutsis and the Hutu, and the Hutu they killed the Tutsis. In this village most of the people were Tutsis, they took the decision to come in this church to be safe, because ... The genocide started on the 7th, the people started to run in different places. On the 12th, the people, some people they started to get tired, like women and the kids, and they take the decision to come in here, to be safe in this church. They stayed there for three days; after three days the Hutu militia came to kill them. Around 5,000 people were killed in this church, in this compound. >> ROSE MUKANTABANA [Speaker of Parliament]: The genocide was committed by Rwandans against other Rwandans. The genocide had been stopped by Rwandans, while the international community was looking inactively, even the UN forces who were here during the genocide. >> VOICEOVER: I meet Salaphina in a village called Nyamata. She shows me the barred door of the church that the murderers broke down that day in April 1994. Inside the church thousands of terrified men, women, and children had crowded together. The carnage had been appalling. Remnants of their clothing and pieces of simple jewelry still lie on the church pews -- memories of lives that no longer exist. A few of the murderer's abandoned weapons can be seen on the altar. I ask Salaphina what had happened to her family. Her relatives had been murdered near the church. >> SALAPHINA MUKAMUSONI: My husband's family at my aunt's house. Like I said, they were our loved ones, our menfolk. My husband was also among them. >> VOICEOVER: What had sparked off this mindless killing? Today, Rwanda appears to be a model of peaceful, law-abiding serenity. What had brought about the conflict, I wondered? But that is perhaps the wrong question. >> MARY GAHONZIRE [Chief of Police]: With genocide, it was an ideology. It was not a conflict, it was an ideology, planted by foreigners, planted by the colonialists, accepted and taken wholly as, you know, to be gospel truth by some Rwandese, and got the understanding that some Rwandese were not really entitled to be in their country. >> SALAPHINA MUKAMUSONI: Those who became killers were our friends and neighbors. We went to each other's weddings. We married each other, and we ate together. We were shocked and completely taken by surprise. It would be good if they begged for forgiveness and showed us where the bodies are. We were so shocked. It must never happen again. >> VOICEOVER: The film "Hotel Rwanda" was made about hotel Mille Collines. These days it is restored, spruced-up, and elegant, just like the rest of the capital. One day a month every citizen is summoned to an obligatory day of work: cleaning, sweeping, or digging ditches. The result: Kigali is far and away Africa's cleanest capital, and boasts an extremely low criminality. The country's schools seethe with activity, and there is a determination to catch up with the rest of the world. The use of French is diminishing; these days English is the official language. >> MARY GAHONZIRE: We feel we should run faster, and get this country to greater heights, because there is quite a lot we missed, during the genocide, during all these problems we had. So we feel we should move a lot faster, and actually a lot faster than everybody else. Because time is not on our side. >> GACACA COURT OFFICIAL: It is obligatory for Rwandans to appear at the gacaca court. Anyone who fails to report what they have seen or who bears false witness, will themselves be prosecuted. Failure to witness to what they have seen carries a prison sentence of one to six months. >> GACACA COURT JUDGE: Do you understand? I want us to co-operate, so that none of you will get into trouble for what you have said. Do you see? The law is not a song. It's a law. Listen to chapter 71. >> VOICEOVER: Today is an important day in this little village in Southern Rwanda. Perhaps justice is about to catch up with the last of those responsible for the genocide here. This is the man who is to be tried. His name is Kassian. There are those in the village who say he was involved in the murder of Tutsis, although others dispute this. He, of course, denies the accusation. Witnesses have been called from near and far, and now everyone will try to remember what happened during those terrifying, chaotic days in 1994. A few of the witnesses have already been convicted of genocide. Dressed in their pink prison uniforms, they sit and wait for their turn. Will they support Kassian, or are they going to denounce him? No one knows how the day will end. The first hours are taken up with formalities, but then the witnesses come forward. >> WITNESS 1: He took part in the genocide and there are witnesses to it. I went to gacaca because many people saw him murder my family. It's good that there are people here who can witness. They can say whether he is guilty or not. The people who murdered my family came from here. >> VOICEOVER: During the genocide, Hutu militias set up roadblocks throughout the country at which they captured and murdered fleeing Tutsis. Kassian was seen at one of these roadblocks, several witnesses are certain of this. But time has passed and memories have faded. >> KASSIAN: I admit that I was at the roadblock in Gahondo, but I was forced to go there. >> GACACA COURT JUDGE: And what did you do there? >> KASSIAN: Nothing, they were going to kill me. >> GACACA COURT JUDGE: Did you go there to get killed? >> KASSIAN: I went there to get killed, a group of people came to my house, they hit me on the head. They took me to the roadblock and accused me of not helping them. I didn't want to go there because they had murdered my elder brother in Sazange. They said that his Tutsi relatives had killed him. We were with my relatives, waiting to be killed. The ones who killed my brother wanted to kill me too. They tried to hide the truth and trick me. >> VOICEOVER: Kassian admits that he often carried an axe, but he claims he used it only to chop wood. >> WOMAN 1: There is a terrible wall of silence. If it is true that the Rwandan people are still silent, will we be able to develop and reach our vision in 2020? It's awful the things people admit to. I was in Kanyaru and heard that they had found someone there who had killed some people. Those who participated in the killings were talking about it, they didn't know they would end up in a courtroom. They told us how many people they had murdered and who they were. They are hiding something here but the judge should be able to find out what it is. The defendant says that he went into the forest to chop wood, but in reality it was Tutsis that were slain. We must tell the truth. Tutsis were chopped, not wood. >> VOICEOVER: A man turns up unexpectedly wanting to testify that he actually saw Kassian commit murder. >> WITNESS 2: I swear by almighty God to tell the truth. >> JUDGE: Do you recognize this man? >> WITNESS 2: Yes, that's Kassian. >> JUDGE: Tell us what you know about him. >> WITNESS 2: There was a group of warriors who came from Gahondo, they were called Ibinyangu. When he came to my house he took part in the murdering of my elder brother. >> JUDGE: Did you say that he came with a group of warriors? >> WITNESS 2: Yes, the ones called Ibinyangu. When they came to my family ... >> JUDGE: To your family home? >> WITNESS 2: Yes, to my family. My father and my elder brother were murdered. He also murdered a man called Karissa. >> JUDGE: Your father and brother were killed that day? >> WITNESS 2: Yes, that day. What I saw was how he murdered Karissa. >> VOICEOVER: Then the main witness arrives: a man who has been convicted and served his sentence for participating in the genocide. He has confessed, repented, and has therefore been released ahead of time. He knows that he can be sent back to prison if he lies. He describes the murdering without sentiment. >> WITNESS 3: We searched for him and when we found him we killed him. You asked about the weapons we had. Some had wooden clubs, others machetes. >> JUDGE: Were you with Kassian? >> WITNESS 3: No, I didn't see him until we came to Kabuga. There we scoured the area and I lead the way. There was no way back. This was also where I lived. >> WOMAN 2: My brothers and my nephews! That's where they hid! >> ALOYSIE CYANZAYIRE [President of the Supreme Court]: Clearly, we are nearing the end of the work with gacaca. I believe we have achieved the goals we had expected from the system. One of our aims was to achieve national reconciliation. At the beginning we had about 120,000 people waiting to be sentenced. It was clear that, without justice, it was impossible to speak of reconciliation. >> VOICEOVER: The Tutsis are a minority of the country's population, and when they took power in the wake of the genocide, they realized that justice must include reconciliation and forgiveness, if continued co-existence between Hutu and Tutsi were to be possible. Resolution with those who had committed the genocide demanded a new sort of law. >> ALOYSIE CYANZAYIRE: A law that not only deals out punishment, but which also allows the guilty person to seek forgiveness from the victims and the people. When forgiveness has been granted, the guilty person can then be accepted by the people. His sentence is reduced and he can return to society. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/papua-new-guinea-venomous-problems <p>Snakebites kill hundreds of people every year in Papua New Guinea, but most of these deaths could be avoided if victims were able to receive a dose of anti-venom in time. So why isn't enough anti-venom being supplied to local health centers? This film investigates.</p> Mon, 18 Oct 2010 07:49:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/papua-new-guinea-venomous-problems Papua New Guinea, Snakebite, Anti-venom, Port Moresby, Health, Taipan, Politics of Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands, Governance & Transparency, World Health Day >> TITLE: Venomous Problems >> VOICEOVER: In a deeply superstitious country, this is a dark and fearsome demon that can bring untold trouble. Some here believe the snake embodies an evil old woman who snatches babies in the night. Mythology aside, the Papuan taipan is one of the deadliest reptiles in the world. Remarkably, in some areas here, venomous snakes kill more people then malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. In this very poor country, getting help is out of reach for many snakebite victims. The consequences of that can be devastating. For the past decade, one man's been trying to change that. He's a scientist, medic, teacher, and snake handler, and he's very lucky to still be around. David Williams' single-handed mission to save lives in Papua New Guinea will almost cost him his own. >> DAVID WILLIAMS [Clinical Toxicologist and Herpetologist, Melbourne University]: Although it's not a snake that picks fights, it's a snake that finishes them. >> VOICEOVER: My journey with him will also uncover corruption and incompetence in Papua New Guinea, a scourge that's endangering the lives of its people. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: And this is about proper first aid for snakebites. All right, so we just want to get in, before the snakebite season starts properly. >> VOICEOVER: About an hour's drive from Port Moresby, villagers gather for advice from the man they call "the doctor." David Williams is a clinical toxinologist who heads Melbourne University's Anti-Venom Unit in PNG. Unlike most of his peers, he's also a herpetologist and skilled at dealing with snakes. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: And if a person stays very still and has this pressure put on after the snake's bitten them, it will slow down the poison. >> VOICEOVER: David Williams has come also to inspect the village's tiny health center. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Okay, so let's have a look inside. Just want Steve to see what you've got to work with. >> VOICEOVER: There seems to be no shortage of medicine, but what they need most is missing. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: You still don't have any anti-venoms here? >> CLINICIAN: No, doctor. >> VOICEOVER: Without a fridge, the clinic can't store snake anti-venom and there's often no transport for a dash to Port Moresby. Even the clinic's nurse was a casualty. She died along with her unborn baby. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: It's one of the very few conditions where you can wake up perfectly healthy in the morning, come into contact with a snake after breakfast and be dead in a box by nightfall. Well Mekia district is not very far from Port Moresby, about a hundred kilometers, but it has some of the highest incidence rates and mortality rates for snakebite anywhere in the world. There's a gentleman who's turned up here last night: he was out hunting in the bush and got himself bitten by a death adder. >> VOICEOVER: The man will live because the clinic has a gas-powered fridge and crucial anti-venom. The bite victim is a lucky man. In this country, 90 percent of health centers don't stock the anti-venom. But David Williams has some spare vials, donated by his contacts in Australia. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Even though it's a year out of date, it's perfectly okay. In fact, on Moresby we've given people anti-venoms that were 10 years out of date because we've had nothing else, and that's worked. >> VOICEOVER: It's a national tragedy. No one here can tell you exactly how many people die from snakebites. It could be as many as 600 a year across the country. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Most people here work in their gardens and they don't wear footwear. They've never worn shoes a day in their lives so that makes them especially vulnerable to things that they might tread on. Okay this is how people get bitten by snakes because a snake comes out in the morning like that, curls up, goes to sleep, nobody sees it. And, once you get within two or three meters, the snake becomes defensive. Ah, g'day buddy. All righty. He's cold as… Just hold that bag open, nice and low to the ground before he gets too cranky. Very good. So that's it, you've bagged your first taipan. It's too easy! >> VOICEOVER: David Williams doesn't do this for thrills, nor does he relish the danger. It's an essential part of his job. At his so-called snake house at the back of Port Moresby General Hospital, he's on his milk run with Papuan taipans. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: It's the pinnacle of evolution in the Australasian region. It has the longest fangs, the largest venom supply, the most toxic venoms, and probably the worst temper. That's called "not happy Jan." Look at that. Holy crap. There's enough there to kill all of us and everybody on this campus and then still have some to spare. >> VOICEOVER: This is one of half a dozen taipans David Williams will milk today for his landmark research project. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: So the venom we're collecting here is actually going to be used to produce an experimental anti-venom against Papuan taipan venom and the hope is that it will be as safe and effective as the current products but significantly less expensive. >> VOICEOVER: His aim is to make freeze dried anti-venom so that it won't need refrigeration, but some of the donors in his project are less than willing participants. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: He's going to play up. Why aren't you happy with me? >> VOICEOVER: To find out more about this anti-venom shortage, I went to Port Moresby General Hospital. >> REPORTER: And how often do you get snakebite victims that need to be admitted to intensive care? >> SISTER PATRICIA RAURELA [Nurse, Port Moresby General Hospital]: We receive snakebite victims every day. They really come in through the hospital, especially the emergency department. >> VOICEOVER: Sister Patricia Raurela is the Emergency Ward Head Nurse. She takes me to the medicine fridge. >> REPORTER: How many should you have in there? SISTER PATRICIA RAURELA: We should have three each, especially the polyvalent. We should have three each, otherwise the whole lot of them we should be having enough stock in our fridge. >> VOICEOVER: This is the hospital's fourth shortage of anti-venom in the last 12 months. Often, the fridge is bare. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: The Government of Papua New Guinea simply can't afford to buy all the anti-venom they need. The biggest issue is the cost of the Australian anti-venoms. In 1972 it cost AUD$40 for a vial of anti-venom. In 1988 it cost about AUD$200, now it costs over AUD$2,000. ++++0845 >> DAVID WILLIAMS: All righty. That's a nice-looking snake. I've invested a lot of time and a lot of effort here and every time we go out into the bush and we grab one of these snakes by the tail, you fully have to expect that this is the snake that's going to bite you and it's going to kill you. >> VOICEOVER: They were prophetic words. Less than an hour later, as I prepared to say a few lines to camera, just out of shot, David Williams was in trouble. >> REPORTER: Oh mate. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Oh fuck! >> REPORTER: Are you all right? >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Okay, let's go now. I've been bitten. >> REPORTER: Shit! >> VOICEOVER: David Williams knows the deadly venom is already in his body. While we stand in shock, a cool-headed scientist secures the reptile. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Come on, hurry guys. >> REPORTER: What color? >> DAVID WILLIAMS: No, not the s-kit, the blue bag. Someone come and get me boot off. >> REPORTER: All right just start from here and go down? >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Start from the ... over the bite, yeah. Tight. >> REPORTER: I need a bit of ... any other bandages here? >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Get another bandage, more bandages. Get as many as you have to. >> REPORTER: Get rid of the sock? >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Get rid of the sock. Need another bandage starting higher up. >> REPORTER: Alright. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: You need to get a move on. Just give me a couple of seconds. Get everything in the car. We are leaving, we're heading back to Port Moresby General Hospital and then Steve will come and get you. Okay? Bye. I've got to go, bye. >> REPORTER: Okay, you're in the back? Get in. >> VOICEOVER: Within a matter of minutes David Williams is dangerously ill. He's having an allergic reaction to the venom and is lapsing into anaphylactic shock. >> REPORTER: Alright David, we've almost reached the motorway mate. Not far now. >> VOICEOVER: His vision is blurred, his airway is tightening. He has trouble breathing and speaking. His blood pressure is dropping. >> REPORTER: Alright Dave, we're almost there, mate. >> VOICEOVER: Without anti-venom he will certainly die. >> REPORTER: Trolleys, trolley, trolley. Snakebite, snakebite. Help, help. Get in the other side. You're alright mate. We're here, we're here mate. C'mon. Keep that leg still, eh? Keep that leg still. Okay, emergency: let's go. It's David Williams. >> VOICEOVER: Port Moresby General Hospital is a place where David Williams saves lives. Now, his own survival depends on scarce anti-venom. >> REPORTER: How much stock have you got of that? >> DOCTOR: This is the only vial we have in stock at the moment. So, the next snakebite that comes in, no [anti-] venom to give. >> VOICEOVER: Within half an hour of receiving the anti-venom he's coherent once more and talking to his wife and child. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Yeah, much better than it was 20 minutes ago. >> VOICEOVER: By the end of the evening, his recovery has been remarkable. >> REPORTER: How important was that first aid on the spot? >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Um, probably the difference between you talking to me now and you not talking to me now. I think without it, you might have been giving a eulogy. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Alright Steve. >> REPORTER: Morning David. How are you doing? >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Aw mate, like I've been hit by the Mac truck of the animal world. But I'm going to get there. >> REPORTER: Looks like it. Let's have a look at that ... >> DAVID WILLIAMS: It's really sore, mate. >> VOICEOVER: David Williams will need to convalesce for several weeks after his life-saving treatment but the experience has left him indignant. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: And for a hospital like that, that treats sometimes four or five snakebites in a day, for it to only have one single vial in the fridge is just not good enough. >> VOICEOVER: Papua New Guinea's management of its anti-venom stocks is a national disgrace. Latest figures show, one quarter of its entire pharmaceutical budget is spent on importing the drug from Australian company CSL. Melbourne-based CSL has an exclusive deal to sell to a wholesaler in PNG. That company marks up the price of each vial by about AUD$500 before supplying it to the health department. But then up to 25 percent of stock simply disappears from the government medical stores. I have a tip-off that some stolen anti-venom is for sale at a local chemist. My visit is secretly recorded. >> REPORTER: How much is it per vial? >> CHEMIST: I'm not sure if this is the right price, but ... 8,500. >> REPORTER: Eight thousand, five hundred kina [PGK]? >> CHEMIST: Yeah. >> MARSHALL: For all six? >> CHEMIST: Just one. >> MARSHALL: I've been to a chemist in town here ... >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Yep. >> REPORTER: And they offered to sell me Australian anti-venom for around 8,000 kina per vial. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Yeah come in spinner! You're being ripped off, basically. I'd say it's ... it's probably stock stolen from the medical stores or from the health centers. >> VOICEOVER: David Williams has records of every vial of anti-venom brought into the country and can trace stolen stock. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Okay, it's disappeared from the health department, been sold off by these guys back to a health center. So they're paying for the stuff twice basically and paying for it the second time at more than double the price. >> VOICEOVER: I decide to go through with the deal. This time the pharmacist tells me it's my lucky day and offers me a vial for the equivalent of just AUD$500 >> CHEMIST: But this is from India, not from Australia. >> REPORTER: Yeah … still the same? >> CHEMIST: Yeah ... the same thing. >> REPORTER: You sure? >> CHEMIST: Yeah. >> REPORTER: All right thanks for your help … alright, see you soon. >> REPORTER: So how's the leg today? >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Yeah it's okay mate. It's a bit numb, sort of like if you're given a local anesthetic but other than that fine. >> VOICEOVER: I take my bargain purchase to David Williams for analysis. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, you've got to be joking. Okay, well, this is a big worry. This doesn't work in Papua New Guinea. This anti-venom's worthless. The only things this can be used to treat are Indian cobras, Indian kraits, Russell's, and saw-scaled vipers. This anti-venom can kill people. >> VOICEOVER: Not only is there a black market for stolen anti-venom in Papua New Guinea, but I've discovered a new illegal trade. My next stop was the Health Minister, Sasa Zibe. >> REPORTER: I want you to have a look in here, minister, just to open up the envelope and have a look. Just take your time to read that. Minister I bought that from a pharmacy in town here. It's Indian snake anti-venom. The problem is, is that it won't treat snakebites in Papua New Guinea and if I got bitten by a snake and I was administered that, it might well kill me. >> SASA ZIBE [Minister for Health, PNG]: Gee. Seriously, this is a very serious case. This is pathetic and I cannot tolerate this. Can you tell me which shop you bought this? >> VOICEOVER: Within minutes the outraged health minister had me in tow. >> SASA ZIBE: I am now going to the city pharmacy to check the illegal anti drug venom sold in this shop here. I'm going in to check on that now. Ah ma'am, I think what you are selling is illegal. I am the Minister for Health. And this can kill them! And you are not supposed to sell the drug like this here. And I'm now cracking down, as the Minister for Health. I'm not going to tolerate my people to sell any drugs out in the street and this is to start with you. Thank you. >> VOICEOVER: A poor nation is throwing away millions of dollars on expensive anti-venom. Those in greatest need have little hope of getting help. >> DAVID WILLIAMS: Papua New Guineans have got to wake up to themselves and realize that people shouldn't have to die from treatable diseases or treatable injuries like snakebite. It's completely unnecessary and they shouldn't have to put up with corruption and particularly corruption in health because that costs people lives. >> VOICEOVER: In a country of 800 languages and a multitude of cultures, some here believe that snakebite is just reward for those who commit adultery or steal, but a crime on a much larger scale seemingly goes unpunished. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/new-zealand-pacific-guest-workers <p>While most industrialized nations are trying to prevent economic migrants from crossing their borders, New Zealand has quietly opened its door to thousands of seasonal guest workers from five Pacific Island nations. Not only are Kiwi businesses happy to have the extra labor, but also worker remittances go directly to where they're needed most: poor villages on islands such as Vanuatu and Tonga.</p> Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/new-zealand-pacific-guest-workers Vanuatu, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Guest workers, Farmworker, Foreign worker, Migrant worker, Australia, Emigration, Fruit picking >> TITLE: Pacific Guest Workers >> VOICEOVER: The Pacific Dawn slides into Vanuatu's Port Vila harbor. Onboard are 2,000 mainly Australian passengers. Local traders frantically prepare for the onslaught. The visitors will spend AUD$400,000 dollars in just eight hours in port. But there's one hard economic reality: despite this weekly splash of cash by the cruise ships, Vanuatu cannot survive on tourism alone. A couple of years ago, an international survey declared Vanuatu to be the happiest place on earth -- and while it may be so, when you move away from the cruise ships and all the tourist trinkets here, you find a very different country. By western standards, Vanuatu and many other South Pacific island states are nations in poverty. Here, only one in five people have access to electricity. If you want basic healthcare or any form of education, you have to pay for it. And, like many other countries in this region, people living in the outer islands and villages are being drawn to the city in search of work to pay for these services. The only problem is there are no jobs to be had. Twenty-seven-year-old Rene Nimisa is acutely aware that he lives in a world of haves and have-nots. Like thousands of others, Rene can't find steady work. Up in the hills in the shanty settlements behind town, he takes us to his family compound. >> INTERVIEWER: How many people live here? >> RENE NIMISA: I think 20. >> VOICEOVER: A decade ago his parents sent him here from his home island of Tanna, investing the family savings so he could finish high school, get a job, and support his clan. His wife Gloria works six days a week serving tourists in a cafe. >> GLORIA NIMISA: It's too hard ... it's too expensive to live here. >> VOICEOVER: They can't even afford to keep the family together. One of their two daughters lives with grandparents back on Tanna. Rene wants more than this for his family, but there's never enough money. >> RENE NIMISA: This is my house. >> VOICEOVER: But now there's hope. For first time in his life, the chance of a real job. Rene has been offered seasonal work picking fruit as part of a new guest worker scheme in New Zealand. He doesn't understand the details, but hopes for the best. >> RENE NIMISA: I won't feel good. I'll feel sad. But I have to go -- it's work. We need the money, and when the children grow up they'll need clothing, education, and food. The money will help. >> SIGN: Maximillions >> VOICEOVER: At the local club and casino, the guest workers anxiously await a briefing. >> DICK EADE [Labor Contractor]: Okay, well welcome everybody. Nice to see you all here. We'll have a roll call ... >> VOICEOVER: Kiwi expatriate Dick Eade is a contractor, hiring teams for New Zealand's bold experiment in labor mobility. >> DICK EADE: So I'm going to speak to you in English today, because when you get down there, everybody will speak English. The tax on NZD$750 ... >> VOICEOVER: Taxation, rent, fund transfers, even New Zealand's cold weather -- there's a bewildering amount of information to absorb. The men also learn that they're making history. Facing chronic labor shortages, last year New Zealand took 400 Pacific islanders in a trial scheme called the Recognized Seasonal Employer program, or RSE. It's been such a huge success that this year, 5,000 workers from here, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga, the Solomons, and Samoa are all headed to the "Slice of Heaven". They can stay for seven months a year and will be paid the award rate of NZD$12 an hour -- the same as a New Zealand casual laborer. For these men, it's a fortune. >> DICK EADE: NZD$12 an hour in New Zealand is 900 vatu [VUV] here. Now 900 vatu is one day's pay here, minimum. So they're earning in one hour what they would earn in one day here. >> VOICEOVER: The beauty of this scheme is that remittances go directly to the villagers, bypassing the region's notoriously corrupt and incompetent governments. Lionel Kaluat is Vanuatu's Labor Commissioner. Without a guest worker scheme, he sees a bleak future. He's watched the civil unrest in neighboring Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and worries that expectations of the younger generation will not be met. Already, 10,000 high school students graduate every year, with high hopes but little chance of employment. Eight hundred Ni-Vanuatu are now working in New Zealand, but he wants to send 5,000 abroad. >> INTERVIEWER: Is this, in one sense, a substitute for foreign aid? >> LIONEL KALUAT [Labor Commissioner, Vanuatu]: Definitely. It's going to become the second biggest income earner for foreign income for Vanuatu. If we grow this seasonal worker [program] to an extent where we get up to 5,000 workers, you're looking at probably leading the table in the foreign income exchange, apart from the tourism. >> SIGN: Short flight to the bright lights: fly to Brisbane and beyond with Pacific Blue >> VOICEOVER: Soon, workers may also be heading for the bright lights of Australia. For decades, the idea of Pacific guest workers has been taboo in Canberra due to fears of illegal overstayers and the creation of a permanent underclass. But now the new Australian Government is closely examining the New Zealand model. While Rene and the other laborers ultimately dream of working in Australia, they're wary of the past. This is a culture with a rich oral tradition, and everyone knows the story of when the white man first came from Australia. Arriving not as tourists, but as kidnappers -- the so-called "blackbirders". From the 1860s, more than 60,000 islanders were taken to cut sugarcane in Queensland. The elders remind Rene that some went willingly, but others were forced to leave at gunpoint. >> ELDER: When the elders went out fishing at night with a torch, they came ashore in a small boat and grabbed them. They were yelling out, but they were already taken to the ship. >> RENE NIMISA: Can we trust the white man now, that they won't do what they did before? >> ELDER: I hope the white man will pay you well and look after you, and then you come back here with money and you help your home and island. >> VOICEOVER: The big day has arrived: it's time for Dick Eade's team to leave for New Zealand. >> DICK EADE: There's a lot of joking business going on. I get called a blackbirder, which I deny and say I'm not, I'm a white birder. >> VOICEOVER: For Rene, the excitement is tinged with sadness. He'll be away for seven months before returning to carve out his little slice of heaven for his family. Pacific Islanders and Asians have been working in small ad hoc programs in New Zealand for 30 years, many illegally. What's changed drastically is the scale and organization of this scheme. >> SIGN: Welcome to NZ our Vanuatu orchard staff >> CLIVE EXELBY [Fruit Packing Manager]: How are you? Welcome to New Zealand. We welcome you even though you wear an Aussie shirt! >> VOICEOVER: Now in New Zealand there's a big emphasis on what's called "pastoral care." And that's the job of Clive Exelby, manager of Aongatete Coolstores, a company specializing in picking and packing kiwi fruit. >> CLIVE EXELBY: From the moment that they land in New Zealand we have to make sure -- we don't have to necessarily pay for, or provide for everything -- but we have to make sure that every need is taken care of. >> VOICEOVER: There's a quick introduction to New Zealand's culinary delights, then a drive to the small township of Katikati, on the North Island's "Bay of Plenty". Home for the next seven months will be this caravan park. The workers get their first hard lesson in the user-pays economy. >> CLIVE EXELBY: This is a shower with a NZD$2 slot for the water that you'll get. Nice warm water. Alternative? Just over here there's a cold stream. You can swim in the cold stream if you want to. Not for me, but you might like it. >> VOICEOVER: And there will be other costs: the men will have to repay half of their airfare, and fork out for power, food, and lodgings. >> CLIVE EXELBY: There are six vans that you will occupy and you know which three are going in this van, three in the next one. You only have one key, one chance ... >> VOICEOVER: The vans are small, and will be extremely cold in the New Zealand winter, but there are no complaints from Rene. >> RENE NIMISA: Are there devil spirits here? No devil here? >> MAN: No devil here. >> INTERVIEWER: What do you think? >> RENE NIMISA: Very good, very good. >> CLIVE EXELBY: We are audited on accommodation. New Zealand immigration people will come to make sure that we've complied, we're providing suitable accommodation for these people. It also means that we have to provide transport to and from the workplace, and ability to get to cultural activities: taking them to church on Sundays, all those types of things. >> VOICEOVER: Clive Exelby takes his pastoral duties seriously. It turns out he's a former pastor of this evangelical church. But his team also has a few surprises. Of the 16 men, three are also Christian pastors. They've discreetly signed on as laborers to check out the scheme before recommending it to their congregations back home. While most of the team get in the spirit of things, Rene's not so sure. Monday morning, and it's down to business: the gentle art of picking kiwi fruit. New Zealand horticulture depends on 40,000 seasonal workers each year. Finding staff was a near-impossible task: extremely low unemployment, unreliable backpacker labor, and a steady exodus of New Zealanders to Australia. The Pacific RSE scheme, says Clive Exelby, was born out of necessity. >> CLIVE EXELBY: The alternatives aren't worth bearing or even thinking about. If you can't pack the fruit, what are you going to do? You can't get the work done. I mean, the grower's losing, we as a company are going to lose, and New Zealand as a country would lose a tremendous amount of money. >> VOICEOVER: Across the Tasman in Australia, labor shortages are costing fruit and vegetable producers AUD$700 million a year in lost productivity. >> WOMAN: So, in here, you could probably pick two fruit at once, like that. >> VOICEOVER: But here, the horticultural industry now has ambitious plans to nearly double production over the next five years, all on the back of the RSE scheme. >> CLIVE EXELBY: There is 25,000 people in the Pacific alone who could come onto the workplace, both men and women, at any time, and so our 5,000 are just really scraping the surface, you know? >> VOICEOVER: One of the strongest arguments against guest worker schemes around the world is the contentious issue of illegal overstayers. New Zealand's solution? Laborers are the employer's responsibility, the logic being that a happy, well-paid guest worker is more likely to play by the rules and go home at the end of the contract. >> CLIVE EXELBY: So after their seven-month period here, we have to guarantee that they hop on the plane and go home. Otherwise we will have to pay New Zealand immigration up to $3,000 per person for them to find them in New Zealand and to put them out of the country. >> VOICEOVER: Still, there have been problems. On the streets of Auckland we join Melino Maka of the Tongan Advisory Council. He says most of the 50,000 Tongans in New Zealand live around here in the southern suburbs of Auckland. There are now also several hundred Tongan RSE guest workers in the country. Tonight, he's looking for one who's quit his job and is now wanted by the authorities. >> MELINO MAKA [New Zealand Tongan Advisory Council]: I said think about your family and what is best for you. Organize yourself to go back home before they deport you. Once they pick you up, you know, you're gone. >> VOICEOVER: We find Saia 'Aholelei living in the garage of a suburban home. He claims he was hired under false pretences by another kiwi fruit company, brought in at the end of the picking season and only paid for the few days worked each week. >> MELINO MAKA: By the time they take all their expenses sometimes it's less than a hundred, sometimes you get two hundred. Plus their living conditions were smaller than this for five of them, and they pay $1,000 a fortnight. >> REPORTER: A thousand a fortnight? >> MELINO MAKA: Yes, for a room about same or smaller than this, for five of them living in it. >> VOICEOVER: Saia 'Aholelei refuses to leave, but if immigration find him, he risks being deported and never being allowed back into the country. Another team of disillusioned Tongan workers has already quit and gone home. It's a fine line between opportunity and exploitation. Even the Tongans admit that Vanuatu has done a much better job at hiring workers. Back in Vanuatu, recruiter Dick Eade is on his way to check up on one of his successes. >> DICK EADE: Hey Johnny! Welcome back, good to see you. >> VOICEOVER: Johnny Taleo is just back from four months of strawberry picking near Auckland. He's returned with NZD$6,000, the equivalent of three years' wages in Vanuatu. That's if he could ever find a job. >> JOHNNY TALEO [RSE Worker]: This I built with the money from New Zealand when I came back, yes. And, let's see, material, I just got it again for extension of my house. >> DICK EADE: On the other end, >> JOHNNY TALEO: The other end, yes. I got the cement, I got the timber here, already got some iron roofs, here. >> DICK EADE: So this is the house that strawberries built? >> JOHNNY TALEO: Yeah, that's the house that strawberries build. Yeah, all my house strawberries. >> VOICEOVER: Here it's difficult to see any losers with this scheme. The results for these villagers are tangible. >> DICK EADE: It's like the ripples in the pond. It's that one guy that I'm sending, but he's influencing or having an effect on a whole ring of people like the ripples in a pond. Maybe one person is having an effect on 10 or 20 people back here, and it's good to see. >> VOICEOVER: Over the decades, Australian and New Zealand officials have poured billions of aid dollars into the troubled Pacific region, often with questionable results. Perhaps this simple labor program may finally provide a true course to that elusive "Pacific solution." >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/sierra-leone-where-every-pregnancy-is-a-gamble After a decade-long conflict, Sierra Leone has many challenges ahead including improving child and maternal health. In 2009, one in eight women died during pregnancy. Fatimata Konte, an expectant mother, fears giving birth after already losing five of her children. She hopes the new policy to bring free healthcare to all pregnant women will save her next child and make giving birth safe for all women. Fri, 17 Sep 2010 08:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/sierra-leone-where-every-pregnancy-is-a-gamble Sierra Leone, Maternal death, Physician, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital, Kroo Bay, Pregnancy, Healthcare, Freetown, Childbirth, World Health Day >> VOICEOVER: After a brutal decade-long conflict, Sierra Leone has the highest child and maternal mortality rates in the world. >> FATIMATA KONTE [Expectant mother, Kroo Bay]: My name is Fatimata Konte. I'm 36 years old. We women suffer too much. Women in Sierra Leone suffer too much! I've lived in Kroo Bay for four years. When I wake up at 5am I get out of bed, and the kind of pain that I feel is from my waist bone down to the bottom of my belly. I cough and I'm very sick. I'm really sick but it's like this for all women. From the day a child is born, she must work. Every day I must go to the market. There I have to bargain for fruits. It's a strain to go to the market. I must sell the fruit to have money to buy food to sell for the next day. It's all I can do to survive. I work for my daughter so she can go to school. She is in class four. I want her to learn. Let her learn. I want her to be somebody. >> DR. TAGIE GBAWRU-MANSARAY [Doctor, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital]: When a woman is educated she can take care of herself, she can take care of the children, she can take care of her husband, her home. It benefits the population, the family, and it will help Sierra Leone in the long run. I'm a medical doctor, house officer here at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital. When you're in school and you're studying to become a doctor, you read about all the fanciful techniques, all the wonderful drugs, the magic pills that you give to patients, all the different things that you can do as a doctor. When you come into the real world and you see that even basic things we don't have here -- the basic drugs, simple equipment -- and you are limited. At times you see a particular case and you think to yourself, if only I had this, if only I had that, I would have been able to save a patient's life. >> VOICEOVER: One in five children die before their first birthday, and one in eight women die during pregnancy. >> FATIMATA KONTE: I have two children and I've lost five, so this is the eighth pregnancy. So right now, I am remembering the past. I am worried this one can die too. My biggest fear is that this child will die. >> VOICEOVER: The one referral hospital in the capital of Freetown services a population of over 400,000 people. >> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE [Doctor, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital]: Hello, good afternoon. My name is Dr. Ibraham Thorlie. In this hospital we have four gynecologists. One doctor can serve over 100,000 people. >> VOICEOVER: Though the hospital is severely understaffed, it is not the only reason so many people are dying. >> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE: The delay starts from home. If a woman is pregnant, she wants to give birth, and the husband is not around, she cannot be taken anywhere without the husband coming, because he gives the money. If you come too late, we cannot help you. >> VOICEOVER: And, often, those patients who come too late are very close to death. >> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE: It's a big dilemma. If the patient can pay you, then it's good. But when they cannot pay you, you need to help them. >> VOICEOVER: Rather than watching their patients die, many doctors and nurses like Rebecca pay for the worst cases from their own small salaries. >> REBECCA MASSAQUEI [Nurse, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital]: I'm a poor nurse. I don't have money to take care of this baby. But the baby should have died, because there was nobody to take care of the baby. So that's why I decided to take the baby. He will live to tell this story. So he's the victory child. That why I call his name Victor. >> VOICEOVER: Victor is one of the few lucky survivors in a place where so many die. However, the government has just launched a program providing free healthcare for pregnant women and children under five. >> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE: Now things are picking up with the pronouncement of the free healthcare system. It's a big incentive and we hope that will surely bring a difference. But to sustain it is not an easy thing. >> FATIMATA KONTE: We women are all very happy that women will finally get treated. >> TITLE: On April 16, 2010 Fatimata Konte gave birth to a healthy baby boy. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-power-of-gacaca Rwanda's gacaca courts are part of a system of community justice established in the wake of the 1994 genocide. They aim to promote community healing by making the punishment of perpetrators faster and less expensive to the state, moving the country closer to its ultimate goal of achieving truth, justice, and reconciliation. Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:44:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-power-of-gacaca Gacaca court, Rwandan Genocide, War crime, Rwanda, Rwandan Patriotic Front, Tutsi, Prison, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Governance & Transparency, Law >> PETER SISSONS [BBC Newscaster]: Red Cross officials say tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, have now become victims in the war in Rwanda, where government forces have been fighting Rwanda Patriotic Front rebels for 12 days. >> VOICEOVER: After the genocide, the new Rwandan Patriotic Front government struggled with developing just means for the humane detention and prosecution of more than 100,000 people accused of genocide, war crimes, and related crimes against humanity. By 2000, approximately 120,000 alleged perpetrators of genocide were crammed into Rwanda's prisons and communal jails. The gacaca courts, pronounced as "gachacha," were inspired by tradition and established in 2001 in Rwanda in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when between 800,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsi, were slaughtered. >> VOICEOVER: Originally, the gacaca allowed to settle differences [between] neighborhood families in the hills. They were very decent for more than judicial practices. It was a meeting chaired by former villagers where everyone could ask for the floor. Gacaca means "sweet grass" in Kinyarwanda, that is to say, the place where people gather. The mission of the system is to achieve truth, justice, and reconciliation. It aims to promote community healing by making the punishment of perpetrators faster and less expensive to the state, the reconstructions of what happened during the genocide, the speeding up of the legal proceeding by using as many courts as possible, the reconciliation of all Rwandans, and building the unity. >> VOICEOVER: When we launched the idea of gacaca, [there were] 130,000 prisoners languishing for years in the prisons. It is estimated that it would have taken over 200 years for the Rwandan justice system to judge all of them. No one would have been alive: not the judges, nay the perpetrators, nor the victims. The law of August, 1996 on the organization and prosecution of crimes of genocide or crimes against humanity has created three categories of criminals: planners, organizers, and leaders of the genocide -- those who acted in positions of authority, the renowned murderers, and those guilty of sexual torture or rape; the authors, co-authors, or accomplices of intentional homicide or attacks against a person resulting in death; and those who have committed offenses against property. Until the production of this film, statistics showed that among all cases already judged, 12,000 that were classified in the first category were transferred in tribunal court; 300,896 in the second category; and 819,726 were settled by gacaca courts. >> VOICEOVER: Those tried by the gacaca are encouraged to reveal all that is in their knowledge in exchange for large remissions. The suspects who fully cooperate with the tribunal may well expect a penalty equal to half of what the law provides originally and serve as a work of general interest, or TIG. TIG means "travaux d'interet general" and allows prisoners to complete their sentences through participation in activities such as clearing ground, road building, and construction of houses for genocide survivors. This program of TIG brought unity and reconciliation among the population. >> MAN [TIG participant]: It is a great pleasure for me to take part in TIG program. As a Rwandan who perpetrated the genocide, it's a great forgiveness that I benefited, because I never thought that I could be released from the prison. As someone who is on the TIG program, I am happy to follow lessons related to moral lessons, to learn reading and writing, as well as vocational training that will help me in the future. We are very happy, because people who destroyed this country are the same people who are building it. >> VOICEOVER: This is a great achievement of the gacaca court, done in nine years instead of over 200 years. Therefore, gacaca courts can be an answer to all countries that account similar cases. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/indonesian-civil-society <p>The leader of a tiny Papuan tribe travels to Brussels to urge European states to outlaw illegal Indonesian timber entering their markets. These meetings and the continued work of Indonesian civil society have become integral parts of the negotiations between the EU and the Indonesia government on illegal logging.</p> Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:48:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/indonesian-civil-society Illegal logging, Indonesia, Civil society, Logging, Environmentalism, European Union, European Parliament, Environment, Governance & Transparency, ViewChange Online Film Contest >> TITLE: How do you affect change? >> TITLE: Facing intimidation and violence, [members of] Indonesian civil society continue to combat illegal logging and the widespread corruption in their country. >> ECEP SUARDANIA [Journalist, SCTV]: Mostly the local journalists in Indonesia are being intimidated; they can't make any reports about illegal logging. >> TITLE: In February 2007, a delegation from Indonesian civil society traveled to Brussels to present a seminar in the European Parliament. >> TITLE: The meeting was a chance for EU decision makers to understand the true impact of the European illegal timber trade. >> ECEP SUARDANIA: Local people are now concerned about environmental problems because they are the real victims of violence and crime inside the forest. >> TITLE: The delegation included an indigenous tribal leader who had come all the way from the forests of West Papua. >> TITLE: It would be his first journey to Europe. >> FREDRICK SAGISOLO [Tribal Council Chairman]: Right now we are going to my village to see my preparations for going to Europe. I want to make my farewell with the community, then I can be sent off officially. My name is Fredrick Sagisolo; my nickname is Kadit, Kadit because I was born in the forest. >> CORNELIUS KEMESRAR [Melaswat Church Assembly Chairman]: As the community we have gathered here to release our chairman of the Knasaimos tribal council to go to Europe. We hope our chairman of the tribal council can collaborate with the foreign states to help develop the natural potential of the Knasaimos land. >> TITLE: Brussels >> FREDRICK SAGISOLO: I am going to parliament. Our forest is very limited. In our forest, which upholds us and gives us pride, there is a pressure without compromise. We must all collaborate with the government of Indonesia to help stop the flow of illegal timber and create a better understanding and cooperation with Indonesian civil society. Thank you. >> FREDRICK SAGISOLO: I believe we finally have an answer and I am convinced this is the correct process. I want to describe what I have seen and share this with my community. So I must speak to them. >> TITLE: This is how you affect change. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/realizing-rights-with-street-vendors-in-liberia <p>Street vendors in Liberia are organizing themselves to gain rights and improve their working conditions. Helped by groups such as Realizing Rights, these informal workers are fighting hard for greater security and prosperity.</p> Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:15:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/realizing-rights-with-street-vendors-in-liberia Realizing Rights, Microfinance, Microcredit, Mary Robinson, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia, Africa, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Monrovia, Business >> TITLE: Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. Realizing Rights with Street Vendors. Trade and Decent Work in Monrovia, Liberia. >> WOMAN 1 [Street vendor]: I've been on the street selling for seven years to be able to send my children to school, to feed myself, and to take care of my family. >> VOICEOVER: Realizing Rights has been active in Liberia since 2007 and, responding to their needs, started supporting workers in the informal economy. In November, 2009, Realizing Rights' staff visited Liberia's capital city of Monrovia to hear first-hand the concerns of street vendors and to give voice to those concerns at the highest levels of government. A decade of civil war sharply increased the number of Liberian households headed by women. Without skills and education, their best option is selling on the street surplus goods from their farms, local produce, or whatever they can round up. Men who are ex-combatants need a legal livelihood or risk a return to violence. Realizing Rights' staff interviewed informal traders about their progress in getting organized and improving their situation. >> HEZEKIAH [Bookseller]: The market is very small, especially for Liberians who like to read. So, when you get one customer, everybody wants to sell. So you got to be a real tough businessman. >> TITLE: A tough business >> THERESA [Shoe seller]: In the future, I want to get a store. I want to leave this sidewalk now because I ought not be on the sidewalk, police running behind me every day. >> INTERVIEWER: Every day? >> THERESA: Every day: police running, mirror broken, kicking our slippers. I'm tired. >> TITLE: I'm tired >> SAYON [Group Chairman]: So we work with Monrovia City Corporation to attempt to resolve the crisis between the government and us, to lessen the tension a little bit, because there has been tension since '94 when street vendors started. Street vendors have been formed as an organization before, but this is the first time where the government has contributed support to help us form. Yet there is still tension between us and the government, but, gradually, we will find a solution to that. >> TITLE: Organizing to find solutions >> COMFORT [Lace material vendor]: We don't want to be on the streets forever. We want relocation of site. And we want loans, to help our people, to improve their businesses so they can move from this level, the grassroots level, to another level. The police were really on our backs. They gave us chase and chase. There was no way for us to rest. We would run 24 hours around the clock. But now, we are not running. We are not running because of the association that has come along, and Realizing Rights, who are working really hard. So we all decided to form this organization to see how we can best move ourselves forward. >> TITLE: Organizing to move each other forward >> VOICEOVER: In addition to the on-street interviews, president of Realizing Rights, Mary Robinson, visited the leaders of the Petit Traders Union. These pioneering women provided a deeper insight into the pressing needs of their organization's members and what challenges remained on their path to greater security and prosperity. >> MARY ROBINSON [President, Realizing Rights]: And about how many members are there of the national petit traders association? >> HELEN WALKER [Treasurer, Petit Traders Union]: The National Petit Traders Union has several thousand members. >> MARY ROBINSON: So what are you hoping for now? >> HELEN WALKER: We are currently asking RR to help the organization [NEPETUL] with loans [credit] and to speak with the government to help us find an area for us to relocate to. >> MARY ROBINSON: This morning, I went with my colleagues to speak to two of the women who are involved in this Petit Traders Union of Liberia. In one way or another, they were both indicating that it's very hard to compete. >> ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF [President, Republic of Liberia]: I think one of the missing links in the whole thing is the access to credit. >> MARY ROBINSON: Yes. >> ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF: By the Petit Traders. >> MARY JOHNSON: That's what they said. The first thing that they kept coming back to was exactly what you've said: access to credit that lets them build, and also a space for the market. >> ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF: That is something where we can help them with, and we can certainly work with them through the Minister of Gender, through the Minister of Commerce, so I'll try to get more on that and see how we can be helpful. >> VOICEOVER: Since this visit took place, Monrovia City Corporation has allocated to the street vendors a legal place to vend. Although more space is needed, this is an important first step. In addition, Realizing Rights has provided seed money to the Petit Traders Union for them to rent office space close to Monrovia City Corporation so that they can maintain a regular dialogue with the mayor's office. A partnership with the global network WICO [Women's International Coalition] and others will continue to provide more skills and decent work opportunities for this community. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-forest-of-south-east-sulawest <p>Local people in Sulawesi island, Indonesia have developed a community-based forestry cooperative, the first in the country to achieve Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for sustainability. This has helped to regulate teak production and secure fair prices for producers. However, the group's members face an ongoing battle with Indonesia's endemic corruption.</p> Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:15:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-forest-of-south-east-sulawest Indonesia, Forest Stewardship Council, South East Sulawesi, Logging, Teak, Forest management, Sustainable agriculture, Sustainability, Illegal logging, ViewChange Online Film Contest >> TITLE: The forests of South East Sulawesi, Indonesia >> TITLE: Where loggers seek fresh timber to trade. >> TITLE: But this is not a story about illegal logging. >> TITLE: It is a story about logging with the first Indonesian cooperative to be awarded Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for sustainability. >> ABDUL MAAL [Teak Farmer and KHJL (Koperasi Hutan Jaya Lestari, a local teak cooperative) Member]: The aim of KHJL is to answer the question, is our forest management sustainable or not? So for every teak tree felled we must plant a minimum of 10 seedlings. This wood is then sent to Java, and the industry in Java then exports it. >> TITLE: FSC timber is sold on the international market at a fair price. This enables communities to plan for their future. >> WARMA SAMEDI [Vice Chairman, KHJL]: Before we got ecolabel certification from FSC, the price of timber was very low. But after the cooperative got the certification the price increased significantly. >> ABDUL CHALIK [JAUH]: There is no chance for illegal logging here anymore because all the cooperative members privately own their land. >> TITLE: From 2005 to 2006 exports of KHJL's timber doubled, but the future of the community remains in the balance as Indonesia's endemic corruption begins to catch up with them. >> ABDUL CHALIK: The mission of our cooperative is to do a number of things -- to try to save the forest, improve community welfare, and increase local government income -- so all this creates a synergy. Then every time people from outside try to bribe, we don't tolerate it in the cooperative. However, in reality, the law does not support these good intentions. >> TITLE: Multiple permits are required to transport timber from the forest to the port. This allows local officials the chance to demand illicit payments. >> ABDUL HARRIS [KHJL Chairman]: The transportation of KHJL timber from the forest to industry offers many opportunities for illegal payments. I don't have a problem with paying legal fees, but the problem is that corrupt officials ask for money by manipulating local and Indonesian laws. We are working really hard to improve our livelihoods but, if we have to pay all these bribes, the question is, what kind of business will the cooperative become? >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/time-for-justice <p>Having lost family members in the Khmer Rouge regime, Phreaktra Neath now hosts Cambodia's top-rated television program covering the current UN-sponsored trials of the regime's former leaders. "Time for Justice" looks at what these trials mean for him and for Cambodia as a whole.</p> Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/time-for-justice Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Khmer Rouge, Kaing Guek Eav, Khmer Rouge Rule of Cambodia, Cambodia, Crime against humanity, Genocide, Torture, LinkTV Picks, Governance & Transparency >> TITLE: Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge killed an estimated two million people in Cambodia. >> TITLE: In 2008, the UN sponsored Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which were established to prosecute some Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity. >> TITLE: The trial of Kaing Guek Eav (nicknamed "Duch"), former head of S21, the interrogation and torture center of the Khmer Rouge regime, began on March 30, 2009. >> PHREAKTRA NEATH [News anchor]: My mother is an orphan in the Khmer Rouge regime. Her parents died during the Khmer Rouge regime. So, right now, we don't know why the Khmer Rouge killed my grandparents, not only my grandparents, but also my relatives. Every family in Cambodia lose minimum one member of their family. Cambodian people are victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. We have around two million people die in the Khmer Rouge era. So, it is, right now, time to talk. >> PHREAKTRA NEATH: Our program is a popular program because Cambodian people have no time to watch all of Duch's trial, because they are busy with their daily life, the difficulty in their daily life. They think first, what I have to eat today? They want justice, they need justice, because every family lose a member in the Khmer Rouge regime. Our program is not only to inform the Cambodian people, but also a part of the justice for them, because they can understand why the Khmer Rouge killed Khmer, and how the Khmer Rouge Tribunal brings justice for them. It is very, very important for me and also for the Cambodian people. >> PHREAKTRA NEATH: You know, the Khmer Rouge history is not only a Cambodian problem. It's a world problem. So, people in the world should know what happened in Cambodia. It's a good lesson for the world to learn. Right now, it's a globalization era. It's time to, all people, to learn the lesson in the past and look to the future. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-want-to-help-africa-do-business-here We know the negative images of Africa: famine and disease, conflict and corruption. But, says Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, there's another, less-told story happening in many African nations: one of reform, economic growth, and business opportunity. Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-want-to-help-africa-do-business-here Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria, Africa, World Bank, Economic development, Economics, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Financial services, Tanzania >> TITLE: Remarkable people ... unmissable talks ... now free to the world. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.>> TITLE: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: Thank you very much, Chris. Everybody who came up here said they were scared. >> TITLE: March, 2007. Monterey, California. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: I don't know if I'm scared, but this is my first time of addressing an audience like this. And I don't have any smart technology for you to look at. There are no slides, so you'll just have to be content with me. What I want to do this morning is share with you a couple of stories and talk about a different Africa. Already this morning there were some allusions to the Africa that you hear about all the time: the Africa of HIV/AIDS, the Africa of malaria, the Africa of poverty, the Africa of conflict, and the Africa of disasters. While it is true that those things are going on, there's an Africa that you don't hear about very much. And sometimes I'm puzzled, and I ask myself, "why?" This is the Africa that is changing, that Chris alluded to. This is the Africa of opportunity. This is the Africa where people want to take charge of their own futures and their own destinies. And this is the Africa where people are looking for partnerships to do this. That's what I want to talk about today.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: And I want to start by telling you a story about that change in Africa. On 15th of September 2005, Mr. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a governor of one of the oil-rich states of Nigeria, was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police on a visit to London. He was arrested because there were transfers of USD$8 million that went into some dormant accounts that belonged to him and his family. This arrest occurred because there was cooperation between the London Metropolitan Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria, led by one of our most able and courageous people: Mr. Nuhu Ribadu. Alamieyeseigha was arraigned in London. Due to some slip-ups, he managed to escape dressed as a woman and ran from London back to Nigeria where, according to our constitution, those in office as governors, president -- as in many countries -- have immunity and cannot be prosecuted. But what happened? People were so outraged by this behavior that it was possible for his state legislature to impeach him and get him out of office. Today, Alams, as we call him for short, is in jail. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: This is a story about the fact that people in Africa are no longer willing to tolerate corruption from their leaders. This is a story about the fact that people want their resources managed properly for their good, and not taken out to places where they'll benefit just a few of the elite. And, therefore, when you hear about the corrupt Africa -- corruption, all the time -- I want you to know that the people and the governments are trying hard to fight this in some of the countries, and that some successes are emerging. Does it mean the problem is over? The answer is no. There's still a long way to go. But that there's a will there. And that successes are being chalked up on this very important fight. So when you hear about corruption, don't just feel that nothing is being done about this, that you can't operate in any African country because of the overwhelming corruption. That is not the case. There's a will to fight, and, in many countries, that fight is ongoing and is being won. In others, like mine, where there has been a long history of dictatorship in Nigeria, the fight is ongoing and we have a long way to go. But the truth of the matter is that this is going on. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: The results are showing: independent monitoring by the World Bank and other organizations show that in many instances the trend is downwards in terms of corruption, and governance is improving. A study by the Economic Commission for Africa showed a clear trend upwards in governance in 28 African countries. And let me say just one more thing before I leave this area of governance. That is that people talk about corruption, corruption. All the time when they talk about it you immediately think about Africa. That's the image: African countries. But let me say this: if Alams was able to export USD$8 million into an account in London, if the other people who had taken money estimated that USD$20-40 billion now of developing countries' monies sitting abroad in the developed countries, if they're able to do this, what is that? Is that not corruption? In this country, if you receive stolen goods, are you not prosecuted? So when we talk about this kind of corruption, let us also think about what is happening on the other side of the globe -- where the money's going and what can be done to stop it. I'm working on an initiative now, along with the World Bank, on asset recovery, trying to do what we can to get the monies that have been taken abroad -- developing countries' moneys -- to get that sent back. Because if we can get the USD$20 billion sitting out there back, it may be far more for some of these countries than all the aid that is being put together. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: The second thing I want to talk about is the will for reform. Africans, after -- they're tired, we're tired of being the subject of everybody's charity and care. We are grateful, but we know that we can take charge of our own destinies if we have the will to reform. And what is happening in many African countries now is a realization that no one can do it but us. We have to do it. We can invite partners who can support us, but we have to start. We have to reform our economies, change our leadership, become more democratic, be more open to change and to information. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: And this is what we started to do in one of the largest countries on the continent, Nigeria. In fact, if you're not in Nigeria, you're not in Africa. I want to tell you that. One in four sub-Saharan Africans is Nigerian, and it has 140 million dynamic people -- chaotic people -- but very interesting people. You'll never be bored. What we started to do was to realize that we had to take charge and reform ourselves. And with the support of a leader who was willing, at the time, to do the reforms, we put forward a comprehensive reform program which we developed ourselves. Not the International Monetary Fund. Not the World Bank, where I worked for 21 years and rose to be a vice president. No one can do it for you. You have to do it for yourself. We put together a program that would, one: get the state out of businesses it had nothing ... it had no business being in. The state should not be in the business of producing goods and services because it's inefficient and incompetent. So we decided to privatize many of our enterprises. As a result, we decided to liberalize many of our markets. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: Can you believe that prior to this reform -- which started at the end of 2003, when I left Washington to go and take up the post of Finance Minister -- we had a telecommunications company that was only able to develop 4,500 landlines in its entire 30-year history? Having a telephone in my country was a huge luxury. You couldn't get it. You had to bribe. You had to do everything to get a phone. When President Obasanjo supported and launched the liberalization of the telecommunications sector, we went from 4,500 landlines to 32 million GSM lines, and counting. Nigeria's telecoms market is the second-fastest growing in the world, after China. We are getting investments of about USD$1 billion a year in telecoms. And nobody knows, except a few smart people. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: The smartest one first to come in was the MTN company of South Africa. And in the three years that I was Finance Minister, they made an average of USD$360 million dollars profit per year. USD$360 million, in a market ... in a country that is a poor country, with an average per capita income just under USD$500 per capita. So the market is there. When they kept this under wraps, but soon others got to know, Nigerians themselves began to develop some wireless telecommunications companies, and three or four others have come in. But there's a huge market out there, and people don't know about it, or they don't want to know. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: So privatization is one of the things we've done. The other thing we've also done is to manage our finances better. Because nobody's going to help you and support you if you're not managing your own finances well. And Nigeria, with the oil sector, had the reputation of being corrupt and not managing its own public finances well. So what did we try to do? We introduced a fiscal rule that de-linked our budget from the oil price. Before we used to adjust [the] budget on whatever oil would bring in, because oil is the biggest, most revenue-earning sector in the economy: 70 percent of our revenues come from oil. We de-linked that, and once we did it we began to budget at a price slightly lower than the oil price and save whatever was above that price. We didn't know we could pull it off; it was very controversial. But what it immediately did was that the volatility that had been present in terms of our economic development -- where, you know, if oil prices were high, we would grow very fast. When they crashed, we crashed, and we could hardly even pay anything, any salaries, in the economy. That smoothened out. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: We were able to save, just before I left, USD$27 billion. Whereas -- and this went to our reserves -- when I arrived in 2003, we had USD$7 billion in reserves. By the time I left, we had gone up to almost USD$30 billion. And, as we speak now, we have about USD$40 billion in reserves due to proper management of our finances. And that shores up our economy, makes it stable. Our exchange rate that used to fluctuate all the time is now fairly stable and being managed, so that business people have a predictability of prices in the economy. We brought inflation down from 28 percent to about 11 percent. And we had GDP grow from an average of 2.3 percent the previous decade to about 6.5 percent now. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: So all the changes and reforms we were able to make have shown up in results that are measurable in the economy. And what is more important, because we want to get away from oil and diversify -- and there are so many opportunities in this one big country, as in many countries in Africa -- what was remarkable is that much of this growth came not from the oil sector alone, but from non-oil. Agriculture grew at better than 8 percent. As telecoms sector grew, housing and construction, and I could go on and on. And this is to illustrate to you that once you get the macro-economy straightened out, the opportunities in various other sectors are enormous.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: We have opportunities in agriculture, like I said. We have opportunities in solid minerals. We have a lot of minerals that no one has even invested in or explored. And we realized that without the proper legislation to make that possible, that wouldn't happen. So we've now got a mining code that is comparable with some of the best in the world. We have opportunities in housing and real estate. There was nothing in a country of 140 million people -- no shopping malls as you know them here. This was an investment opportunity for someone that excited the imagination of people. And now, we have a situation in which the businesses in this mall are doing four times the turnover that they had projected.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: So, huge things in construction, real estate, mortgage markets. Financial services: we had 89 banks. Too many not doing their real business. We consolidated them from 89 to 25 banks by requiring that they increase their capital, share capital. And it went from about USD$25 million to USD$150 million. The banks ... these banks are now consolidated, and that strengthening of the banking system has attracted a lot of investment from outside. Barclays Bank of the UK is bringing in USD$500 million. Standard Chartered has brought in USD$140 million. And I can go on. Dollars, on and on, into the system. We are doing the same with the insurance sector. So, in financial services, a great deal of opportunity. In tourism: in many African countries, a great opportunity. And that's what many people know East Africa for: the wildlife, the elephants, and so on. But managing the tourism market in a way that can really benefit the people is very important.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: So what am I trying to say? I'm trying to tell you that there's a new wave on the continent. A new wave of openness and democratization in which, since 2000, more than two-thirds of African countries have had multi-party democratic elections. Not all of them have been perfect, or will be, but the trend is very clear. I'm trying to tell you that since the past three years, the average rate of growth on the continent has moved from about 2.5 percent to about 5 percent per annum. This is better than the performance of many OECD countries. So it's clear that things are changing.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: Conflicts are down on the continent; from about 12 conflicts a decade ago, we are down to three or four conflicts, one of the most terrible, of course, of which is Darfur. And, you know, you have the neighborhood effect where if something is going on in one part of the continent, it looks like the entire continent is affected. But you should know that this continent is not ... is a continent of many countries, not one country. And if we are down to three or four conflicts, it means that there are plenty of opportunities to invest in stable, growing, exciting economies where there's plenty of opportunity. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: And I want to just make one point about this investment. The best way to help Africans today is to help them to stand on their own feet. And the best way to do that is by helping create jobs. There's no issue with fighting malaria and putting money in that and saving children's lives. That's not what I'm saying. That is fine. But imagine the impact on a family, if the parents can be employed and make sure their children go to school, that they can buy the drugs to fight the disease themselves. If we can invest in places where you yourself make money whilst creating jobs and helping people stand on their own feet, isn't that a wonderful opportunity? Isn't that the way to go? >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: And I want to say that some of the best people to invest in on the continent are the women. I have a CD here. I'm sorry that I didn't say anything on time. Otherwise, I would have liked you to have seen this. It says, "Africa: Open for Business." And this is a video that has actually won an award as the best documentary of the year. Understand that the woman who made it is going to be in Tanzania, where they're having the session in June. But it shows you Africans, and particularly African women, who against all odds have developed businesses, some of them world-class. One of the women in this video, Adenike Ogunlesi, making children's clothes -- which she started as a hobby and grew into a business, mixing African materials, such as we have, with materials from elsewhere; so, she'll make a little pair of dungarees with corduroys, with African material mixed in, very creative designs -- has reached a stage where she even had an order from Wal-Mart. For 10,000 pieces. So that shows you that we have people who are capable of doing. And the women are diligent: they are focused; they work hard. I could go on giving examples: Beatrice Gakuba of Rwanda, who opened up a flower business and is now exporting to the Dutch auction in Amsterdam each morning, and is employing 200 other women and men to work with her. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: However, many of these are starved for capital to expand, because nobody believes outside of our countries that we can do what is necessary. Nobody thinks in terms of a market. Nobody thinks there's opportunity. But I'm standing here saying that those who miss the boat now, will miss it forever. So if you want to be in Africa, think about investing. Think about the Beatrices, think about the Adenikes of this world, who are doing incredible things that are bringing them into the global economy, whilst at the same time making sure that their fellow men and women are employed, and that the children in those households get educated because their parents are earning adequate income. So I invite you to explore the opportunities. When you go to Tanzania, listen carefully, because I'm sure you will hear of the various openings that there will be for you to get involved in something that will do good for the continent, for the people and for yourselves. Thank you very much. >> TITLE: TED: New TED Talks each week at www.TED.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/africa-diamonds-are-forever <p>Unlike other African countries, where the discovery of diamonds has turned into a curse, in Botswana the nation's geological wealth has been shared for the greater good.</p> Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:09:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/africa-diamonds-are-forever Botswana, Diamond, Diamond Trading Company, Southern Africa, Gaborone, Debswana, De Beers, LinkTV Picks, Mining, Africa >> TITLE: Diamonds are Forever >> VOICEOVER: For over 40 years in an arid, landlocked country in the heart of Southern Africa, a quiet economic and social miracle has been taking place. Despite the ethnic and economic turmoil that surrounds it, Botswana has risen to become the star of Africa. Around the world, for a thousand years, that most valued gemstone, the diamond, has adorned the bodies of the rich and famous. These sparkling stones have transformed Botswana from one of the poorest countries in the world to, so far, one of the most prosperous and stable countries in Africa. >> KGOMOTSO MPHETLHE [Diamond Trading Company of Botswana Worker]: These ones are fancy. The more they get polished, sometimes they lose their greenness but the white ones will always remain white ones. >> VOICEOVER: Kgomotso Mphetlhe says her life has also been transformed. >> KGOMOTSO MPHETLHE: I am what I am because of the diamonds, whoever is out there, is out there because of the diamonds, the schools, the infrastructure, the whole development that you see, it's because of the diamonds. >> VOICEOVER: When, in 1966, Botswana gained independence from Britain, the nation's best-kept secret was made public. The country had diamonds, and lots of them. At independence, the capital, Gaborone, was a remote cattle station on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Now, thanks to revenue from the mines, it is a thriving modern city. It's how Botswana manages its wealth that singles out this tiny African nation from some of its other resource-rich near neighbors. >> NTETLENG MASISI [Business and Trade Consultant]: Good governance. A government that is not looking at enriching itself, a government that is not looking at using diamonds to fight within and outside. A government that used diamonds to bring about health facilities, education, and a markedly improved quality of life. >> VOICEOVER: Unlike other African countries, where the discovery of diamonds has turned into a curse with the so-called blood or conflict diamonds fueling exploitation, subversion and division, in Botswana the nation's geological wealth -- worth about USD$3 billion a year -- has been shared. >> MATOME MALEMA [Orapa Mine General Manager]: In Botswana, the legislation is such that all mineral rights [are] actually vested in the Republic of Botswana. They don't belong to a tribe or to a community. They belong to the country. >> VOICEOVER: But 50 percent of the diamonds go to the giant of the diamond business, DeBeers. The Republic of Botswana and DeBeers formed a company, Debswana, to mine and market the diamonds to the world. >> NTETLENG MASISI: Well, if you go back to the level of our sophistication at the time when we went into partnership with them, you will realize they did a lot for us. Because, at the time, we didn't really know where to begin, what to do, and we really needed somebody like that to hold our hand and walk us through. >> VOICEOVER: Ntetleng Masisi says it was a business partnership borne out of necessity. >> NTETLENG MASISI: The earnings from our exports of diamonds have really done a lot for us. Agriculture used to be our mainstay and it used to bring us the revenue for government, but once the diamonds came in there was a marked difference, a very big difference. >> VOICEOVER: Kgomotso Mphetlhe started working at the Diamond Trading Company of Botswana straight from high school. She now sorts and grades the precious stones. >> KGOMOTSO MPHETLHE: Young as I was, I think I had the passion for learning more about diamonds. As you know, I think most Botswanans are not exposed to diamonds. They hear about them, they haven't seen them, most of them. So for me it was an opportunity to actually come in and touch them and work with them and feel what they are like. >> VOICEOVER: As a child Mphetlhe grew up in a poor, rural community. But her country was transforming and so were her ambitions. >> KGOMOTSO MPHETLHE: It has always been my dream that I own my home. I had even set a timeframe for it. I had said that before I reach the age of 35 I should have my own home and that I am paying the mortgage and am comfortably set. >> VOICEOVER: She reached that goal ahead of schedule, and now, at 34, she's one of Botswana's growing middle class. And this is the source of Mphetlhe's and Botswana's wealth: Orapa, "the resting place of lions," on the northern edge of the Kalahari Desert. >> JOSHUA DODO [Orapa Mine Worker]: This is the mine that has built this country. All the resources, the money that has come out it has been invested into building this country. >> VOICEOVER: Since mining began here in 1971, more than 336 million tons of soil has been pulled out of this pit along with 272 million carats of diamonds. Although the global economic crisis saw job cuts last year and the mine suspended operations for a number of weeks as demand worldwide slowed down, they say there are enough diamonds here to keep miners busy for decades to come. >> JOSHUA DODO: It is going to get bigger. Since 1971 we have mined two cuts, we are on cut number two. And we will be going to a third cut which will start possibly in the next five or six years from now. >> VOICEOVER: Mine manager Matome Malema says unlike most companies that exploited Africa's resources, and like many who continue to this day, DeBeers did not simply plunder. >> MATOME MALEMA [Orapa Mine General Manager]: One would probably reflect back and say that if you look back at some of the major mining companies in the world, their relationship with governments across the world has not been the best that they could be. But in the case of Debswana, you've got this 40, 41-year relationship that has moved from strength to strength over the years. >> VOICEOVER: This clinic has gone from very humble beginnings to a fully-fledged hospital with money from the mine. But it's not just for the mineworkers: the entire community has access to the facilities. Dr Mwamba Nsebula has worked here for almost a decade. >> DR. MWAMBA NSEBULA: It was a house, a one-room house, like a first aid station. Together with the exploration as the mine was set up, it became two rooms, and then, with that, now we've just added on more buildings. Now we have ... we are at a stage where we have a high-care unit, a resuscitation room, we have a theater, and we have several wards to accommodate inpatients. >> VOICEOVER: Dr. Nsebula says the company cares for two reasons. >> DR. MWAMBA NSEBULA: One is a selfish reason: that we want our workforce to remain productive for as long as possible, but also because the company cares, and would like to demonstrate that caring attitude by partnering with the government and providing a service to the community. >> VOICEOVER: Botswana made an early decision to grow its own workforce, with diamond revenues funding education abroad. Mine general manager Matome Malema owes both his education and his career to diamonds and Debswana. >> MATOME MALEMA: When I finished high school I actually got a scholarship from Debswana, so Debswana basically trained me to become a metallurgical engineer that I am at the moment, and then I came back to Debswana and worked my way up the ranks. So it is a typical story of a rural boy moving from a rural boy to a general manager of one of the largest mines in the world. >> INTERVIEWER: Pretty good going. >> MATOME MALEMA: Very much so. >> VOICEOVER: But for a country that prides itself on being the world's largest diamond producer, there is one hurdle it is yet to overcome. And that's being able to sell the diamonds it produces at home, for jewelry to be made locally. DeBeers has long controlled the sale of diamonds on a global scale. Now it's being pushed to give more back to Botswana. >> REPORTER: So it's time to value add? >> NTETLENG MASISI: Yes, it's time to value add, but then you don't do it in a manner that will destroy partnerships like those. Because you still do need them, because diamonds are a very delicate product to market and so you don't scorn your partners when you think you are there. >> VOICEOVER: Botswana's wealth has a cost. Now almost totally reliant on money from diamonds, the country's welfare, and future, is now in the hands of the diamond traders and at the whims of the international market. But, for Kgomotso Mphetlhe, spending time in one of the growing number of shopping malls that cater for Botswana's new middle class, the possibilities appear endless. >> KGOMOTSO MPHETLHE: I think there are so many opportunities that are still coming, so I want to put myself in a level that I'll be able to achieve what I am dreaming of achieving. So, like, in South Africa, you know there are women who are in the mining industry, there are women who are running the show, so I think I want to be one of those. That's my dream. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/coming-of-age <p>This film takes us on a journey through the three ages of democracy in Kenya, as seen through the eyes of a girl growing up there. From the youthful optimism of the post-independence Kenyatta era, through dictatorship under Daniel arap Moi, to Kenya's third stage of democracy under Mwai Kibaki, this film asks: can free speech and openness ever really come of age?&nbsp;</p> Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/coming-of-age Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, Raila Odinga, Mwai Kibaki, Jomo Kenyatta, Orange Democratic Movement, Kenyan general election 2002, Kenyan general election 2007, Kenya Colony, General election >> TITLE: Why Democracy? >> TITLE: Coming of Age >> SINGING: One-two, one-two-three, what's the meaning of democracy? >> VOICEOVER: I was just a little girl, but I remember those eyes. Eyes that followed me everywhere. Everywhere I went. Jomo Kenyatta was the first President of independent Kenya. >>TITLE: Jomo Kenyatta [served as Kenya's Prime Minister and President] 1963-1978. >> VOICEOVER: My mother and father said he was the one who saved us from the colonialists. >> CHILDREN: C-O-L-O-N-I-A-L-I-S-T-S. Colonialists. >> VOICEOVER: Some kids in school said he was bad. I told them they were lying. You don't kill people when you're the father of a nation. Fathers are nice. Fathers don't kill people. Those days the roads were scrubbed down by the city council until they shone. Shone like my school shoes. Shone like the sun. Everything shone. People were happy. A car jack was the thing you used to fix a tire. And if your car got stuck in the mud, people came from everywhere and helped you pull it out. >> CHILDREN: I pledge my loyalty to the president and nation of Kenya. My readiness and duty to defend the flag of our republic. My devotion to the words of our national anthem. My life, strength, and service in the task of nation building. In the living spirit embodied in the national motto: Harambee! >> VOICEOVER: Then, in 1978, Kenyatta died. Everyone was whispering about losing everything. What would get lost? Who would lose it? Daniel arap Moi seemed nice. >> TITLE: Daniel arap Moi, 1978-2002 >> VOICEOVER: He liked to plant trees. He liked it when choirs sang for him. He smiled when people came and danced for him. Kazi, kazi. Work, work. We honestly believed that we were the most progressive country in Africa. >> SOLDIER: Kuja! Kuja! [Come! Come!] >> VOICEOVER: Then the coup came. The Air Force held the county's only radio station for one whole day. My big brother thought it was fun and kept shouting: There's been a coop detat! A coop detat! [coup d'état] My mother kept saying, be quiet. Be quiet, she said. Shhh. Be quiet. People say that day, Moi cried so much, his eyes turned red for good. And everything changed. Moi began to rule Kenya with an iron fist. >> TITLE: Kenya Newsreel. >> VOICEOVER: Today, His Excellency President Daniel arap Moi went to church. Today, His Excellency President Daniel arap Moi told the West ... Opened an agricultural show ... Warned his political opponents ... Today, His Excellency? Today, His Excellency ... Today, His Excellency President Daniel Arap Moi. We were told Moi was our mother and our father. Baba na mama. Others said he was bad, that he killed his opponents. But fathers of nations don't kill people. And, from every wall, in every shop, and every home, of every town and village and city, his eyes watched our every move. This is what it was like to live under a dictator. At night, people drew curtains, sat close, and whispered rumors about rumors in the dark: of disappearances, of secret policemen, of torture chambers hidden deep beneath our feet. >>TITLE: Ministry of Information & Communications. >> VOICEOVER: The sky suffocated us. The roads fell apart into potholes as big as craters. On the inside, we rebelled. On the outside, we were silent and sullen. Shhh, we said. Shhh, be quiet. Opposition grew, and things began to slip from between Moi's fingers, like control of the airwaves. Those were the early 1990s. I was in my twenties and I liked to party. In Kenya soon the biggest party of all was the multiparty. So dance we did, all the way into what we hoped was a new democracy. Moi was finally ousted from power by a candidate fielded by an alliance of oppositionists. And on December 30th, 2002, in what some people went so far as to call the Second Liberation, Mwai Kibaki was sworn in as president. >> TITLE: Mwai Kibaki, 2002- >> VOICEOVER: Five years on there are youth funds, women's funds, all kinds of funds. There's free primary school education. There are massive traffic jams. Violent crime and unemployment are also on the rise. You might have more money, but someone could shoot you for it. The economy has grown from 2 to over 6 percent. And still, some people say that Kibaki's bad. That he turns a blind eye to financial scandals and a deaf ear to growing complaints. That he has allowed corruption to grow to endemic proportions. Now everyone's lining up to be the next president, with well over 100 registered political parties. It's all we ever talk about these days. Vote Raila, or is he too fiery? Kibaki's a sure thing but is he too old? Uhuru is young, but what's he about? Come on, support a female candidate. Why, just because she's a woman? Now the big one: which party, which party, which party? >> WOMEN: Where we going? / Let's go. / Let's go check out another party. / Another party? >> TITLE: December 27, 2007 >> VOICEOVER: At first the election seemed like any other: peaceful, orderly, and democratic, with more young Kenyans voting than ever before. Despite the economic gains made by Mwai Kibaki's ruling party, Raila Odinga's populist movement struck a chord with the masses. They were leading by over a million votes. Then, unexpectedly, Kibaki's party suddenly caught up. >> NEWSREADER: There are allegations of alteration of figures in ... >> VOICEOVER: The opposition alleged rigging. The ruling party claimed a fair win. And the country cracked in half. Mwai Kibaki was sworn into power in a hastily arranged ceremony. And Kenya began to burn. Within days over 1,000 people were killed, and 300,000 became refugees in their own country. Machetes rose and fell. Poisoned arrows flew and boulders blocked roads. A united Kenya had become a fragmented one and, with this, the economy ground to a halt. After weeks of uncertainty, a power-sharing deal was eventually reached. But no one is certain. Will it hold? Will it work? There is new talk of yet another general election. >> NEWSREADER: Finally the leaders left. Outside they enjoyed a moment ... >> VOICEOVER: And the only people with smiles on their faces are the politicians. On election day, 11 million Kenyans queued peacefully to vote. Many now say they will never vote again. What is democracy? Do we even want it anymore? >> SINGING: One-two, one-two-three. What's the meaning of democracy? >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/you-cannot-hide-from-allah <p>Mr. Ihsan Khan was a taxi cab driver in Washington DC for over 20 years. Then he won a fortune in a lottery and decided to return to his hometown in Pakistan to run for mayor. Naturally, he won&mdash;but soon after a massive earthquake devasted the region. This film tells his story, and asks: what is the relation between money and politics in a democracy?&nbsp;</p> Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:47:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/you-cannot-hide-from-allah Pakistan, Local government, Ihsan Khan, 2005 Kashmir earthquake, Why Democracy?, Governance & Transparency, Islam, LinkTV Picks >> TITLE: You Cannot Hide From Allah >> TITLE: Northwest Frontier Provinces, Pakistan >> TITLE: Batagram, Population 180,000 >> VOICE 1: What would you do if you won the lottery? >> VOICE 2: I don't believe in lotteries, they are forbidden by Islam. >> VOICE 3: What if you had so much money you couldn't count it? >> SOLDIER: No one would ever give me that much money. >> VOICE 4: But someone won the lottery here. >> MAN 1: Say you would spend a night with a girl. >> BOY 1: I don't know. I would marry a beautiful girl and buy a car. >> MAN 2: I would spend the money in the way of Allah, And in the way of our religion. I would spend on the poor for the happiness of God. >> TITLE: And then someone from Batagram really did win the lottery ? >> TITLE: In 2001, Mr. Ihsan Khan, then a taxi driver in Washington DC, won USD$54.5 million in a lottery. >> IHSAN KHAN: That was beautiful. I mean, that's a lot of money, right? No, I didn't like driving a taxi, but I couldn't work with USD$2,000 a month. And then it was getting harder and harder, so thank God I didn't get a heart attack. I was worried much about my son and his education, and my children. I'm not worried about, probably ... and they don't have to worry for maybe another century now. >> TITLE: Four years after his lottery win, Mr. Khan returned to Batagram to run for Mayor. >> IHSAN KHAN: That's the hut house from where I was born. I think maybe a miracle or something that ... it was meant to be that I came here and I am trying to help and I don't want to gain anything from what I do and I don't need any recognition but ... something I had to pitch in back to this society. I am and I was obligated to. So then I could not do anything, and now I am capable to do. >> TITLE: The Batagram mayoral election was held on October 21, 2005. >> TITLE: Mr. Khan won an overwhelming majority. >> TITLE: Two days later, a massive earthquake hit Northern Pakistan. >> TITLE: Of the 65,000 killed, more than 5,000 were from Batagram. >> IHSAN KHAN: I think it's carried and done by God and I think it is for us to understand that we have some shortcomings and we gotta rectify our wrongs, and do good. >> MAN 3: After the earthquake, the mayor pledged 20 million rupees for Batagram. We think he is a blessing from God because he has given so much to Batagram. The wheelchairs are his gift for the local hospital patients. >> IHSAN KHAN: I also pledge more funds for the child MRI imaging machine. Why have you come here? >> BOY 2: No reason. No reason. >> MAN 4: You should have said something. >> TITLE: Temporary City Hall. >> MAN 5: I told the local councilor I am building a mosque. He offered me cheap tin sheeting which I don't need. I said, you should give me steel and cement. He said he is poor. I said, may God make you poorer. >> IHSAN KHAN: I will help you tomorrow, okay? >> MAN 5: Will you give me a receipt for it? So, if I happen to die, there will be a record of your promise. >> MAN 6: Why don't you go to Thailand and marry instead of worrying about this mosque? >> MAN 5: Get me a visa then. >> MAN 6: I will get you a ticket. You won't have to worry about the mosque and will enjoy life. >> MAN 5: You should have offered when I was young. >> MAN 6: Come back for your money tomorrow. Okay? >> MUNICIPAL SECRETARY: I admire the Mayor because he has no personal interests at stake. The Mayor has not accepted any salary nor government vehicle or any other government benefits. >> MAN 5: The old feudal landlords would have never given the money. The Mayor just says, come for it tomorrow. There used to be no political system here. It was a tribal area. The feudal landlords had power, we had nothing. >> MAN 7: The feudal landlords joined with the police to break the law. The people were forced to pay them off. >> IHSAN KHAN: Ninety percent of the rich people in this country are still corrupt. What have the rich ever done for the poor? The only fault of the poor is their lack of education. The rich put the law in their hands but go unpunished. They should die of shame. They are toying with the future of our nation. >> MAN 8: If God brought more honest people like you, the country could progress. If all minds were like yours, we could go forward. >> IHSAN KHAN: We cannot lie. >> MAN 9: After the earthquake, people became more corrupt. Everyone started to run to an organization to get relief. Good people turned bad. The word "relief check" is on everyone's lips. >> IHSAN KHAN: What is the matter? >> MAN 10: I am disabled and need money. No one cares for the poor. >> IHSAN KHAN: This is not a bank. >> MAN 10: Maybe someone could help me. >> IHSAN KHAN: Everyone comes with troubles: cancer, medical, for the mosque. >> MAN 10: It's not for the mosque, it's for me. >> IHSAN KHAN: Come to my home later, I'll help you. >> IHSAN KHAN: Show him in. >> MAN 5: So I told them you'd pay for the mosque reconstruction. People are asking about the money. >> IHSAN KHAN: I will try to find the money for you somewhere. >> MAN 5: Yesterday you said you'd pay, now you're only looking. You cannot hide from Allah. >> MAN 11: The mayor has a lot of money and likes to talk. But he actually does very little. Look at the main road. It is still not paved. >> IHSAN KHAN: If Batagram looks beautiful, I look beautiful. The state won't release the development budget of 40 million rupees. For two years now. Those corrupt ministers cannot keep this money. I have learned two lessons from 24 years in America: Speak the truth and work hard. >> MAN 12: Everyone knows how the mayor got elected. The council members also know how he got there. It is common knowledge he bought their vote. >> MAN 13: They brought someone from America with money to run for the seat. A dollar lottery winner. And so the voice of democracy was diminished by money. >> IHSAN KHAN: People talk and say a lot of things. I know my duties, and I perform them. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I can't run from my own village. >> MAN 5: Tell it to me straight: will you help? The walls are done. The mosque just needs a roof. >> IHSAN KHAN: Everyone says they're building a mosque, but it's just talk. >> MAN 5: No, we are building a mosque. These are just nasty rumors. >> IHSAN KHAN: I'll call someone to give you the steel. If I told you of all the charity I do, God will not accept it. >> MAN 5: With this mayor, you just have to grab him by the shoulder and tell him your need. He does it eventually. I am happy with the mayor. >> TITLE: For his public service, Mayor Ihsan Khan was named one of TIME Magazine's Persons of the Year 2006. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kinshasa-2-0 <p>Technology is helping to revolutionize politics the world over, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When prominent lawyer and politician Marie-Th&eacute;r&egrave;se Nlandu was imprisoned, her supporters used the internet to quickly publicize the case, leading to her release a few months later. This film explores how the arrest affected Nlandu's family, still living in a tense, militarized city where it is extremely difficult to film.&nbsp;</p> Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:43:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kinshasa-2-0 Marie-Thérèse Nlandu, DR Congo, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo general election 2006, General election, Technology, Governance & Transparency, Why Democracy?, LinkTV Picks >> TITLE: Why Democracy? >> SIGN: Free Marie-Theresa! >> TITLE: Hello Carine :) >> TITLE: Hi Teboho, my aunt Marie-Thérèse has just been arrested! She is accused of trying to overthrow the government. She was a presidential candidate during the recent elections, our first elections since independence. I have started an internet campaign to spread the word. >> TITLE: Ok. I will pass on the message? >> TITLE: Kinshasa 2.0 >> TITLE: Congo River, DRC. >> TEBOHO EDKINS: Carine's internet campaign seemed to have worked. After five months in Kinshasa's worst prison, Marie-Thérèse was finally released. All charges against her were dropped. She is now in Belgium getting medical treatment. I decided to go and visit Carine and her family in Kinshasa. >> CARINE NGUZ [Marie-Thérèse's niece]: My aunt's just been arrested and this, and you know we're still, what's like, one, two days afterward ... I think, I think my aunt's daughter sent the email first and then my brother. So, the whole point was to spread out the word. I wanna do something for the people who actually do something, you know. This is what can happen and, I mean, it just happened now and she just got released now, so ... I don't know if she's gonna take up ... she's gonna keep doing what she's doing, and being in the opposition. >> DENNIS NLANDU [Marie-Thérèse's sister]: My sister loves her country, but the treatment she received ... It was wrong. That's all I can say. One can't say more than that. It wasn't right. I have to restrain myself. Our father fought for this country. He crossed the Congo River by canoe, to fetch Maître Croqué, in 1959, who then negotiated independence for our country. >> CARINE NGUZ: Here in Kinshasa it's strange because my aunt is not here and, because of what happened to her, everything is a bit uncertain. For example, now it's difficult for me to phone my aunt straight from a phone in Kinshasa because the lines are all tapped. So the only way we can communicate is through the internet >> CARINE NGUZ: Aunt Marie-Thérèse, I hope your health is better. >> MARIE-THERESE: Thank you my dear, I am doing much better. >> CARINE NGUZ: A friend of mine is here, I am helping him make a short film. >> MARIE-THERESE: I am surprised he even got permission to film. >> CARINE NGUZ: Yes, but everybody feels scared to be filmed, few are willing to talk freely. There are soldiers everywhere ... we are always being watched. >> VOICE 1: Some other people once tried to film here. >> VOICE 2: Will you be working this evening or will someone else take your shift? >> MAN 1: A thousand for each? >> MAN 2: That's four thousand. >> MAN 1: No, how many are there? >> MAN 2: There are four. >> MAN 1: That's fine. >> MAN 2: How much is it in total? >> BEA [member of the Marie-Thérèse's household]: If I meet a soldier, I have to hide or run away. Because, if he catches you, he will search you. If he finds a phone, he will take it. Money, he will also take. He might rape you or even kill you. A soldier represents a danger to me. It's a danger. >> CARINE NGUZ: Marie-Thérèse told me when she was arrested they had planned to kill her that evening. But a general called her to his office and then left, leaving her alone. In that time he saved her life. >> LOURDS BUZANGU [owner of internet cafe]: If I speak in front of your camera, tomorrow they will arrest me. I would speak if I were in some other place. We know lots of stories, but we are stuck here. Instead of calling it a democracy, one should change the term. We aren't democratic, beginning with those that govern us. They don't have the spirit of democracy. You can't criticize them, or tell them the bad things they have done. How will we ever progress? >> CARINE NGUZ: Dear Marie-Thérèse, terrible news! This evening the arrest warrant has been reissued by the state. It's not safe for you to come back, you have to remain in exile. Warrants for certain members of your household have also been reissued. They will have to go into hiding! >> BEA: What do these warrants mean for us? Why are they doing this? >> JEANINE [Marie-Thérèse's household staff]: I don't know. >> BEA: They should let us be. Carine, you have studied well. You also have it; you have politics in your blood. >> JEANINE: It's in your family. >> BEA: Whether or not you'll get into politics. >> TITLE: Marie-Thérèse's extended family >> SINGING: Independence cha cha / We conquered it. >> MAN: You know, we still aren't independent. >> WOMAN: Independence in name only. After almost 50 years of independence, directed by the men, our country is actually regressing. >> MAN: Is that the men's fault, or the women that give us bad advice? >> WOMAN: It is because of the men. Fifty years after independence, you can't say it's a traditional problem. It's a structural problem. Congolese women are well educated, they have important positions all over the world. But what happens to them here? >> CARINE NGUZ: Auntie Marie-Thérèse. Look, I brought you a video. We had a family dinner last Saturday. >> MARIE-THERESE: So good to see you all, even if only here in cyberspace. I have been receiving emails of support from the Congo. But I am really worried about the others. I wonder if things will ever get better? >> TITLE: All animation was filmed in Second Life, an internet-based virtual chat platform. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/colombia-justice-in-the-region-of-death <p>The Mid-Magdalena region of Colombia is one of the most macho parts of Latin America, a place where violence against women is a casual part of everyday life. But change is coming. One of the "change-makers" is Judge Esperanza Gonzalez, a woman in her late 40s who is seeking to bring justice for females both inside her courtroom and out.&nbsp;</p> Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:39:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/colombia-justice-in-the-region-of-death Colombia, Esperanza Gonzalez, Latin America, Domestic violence, Sexual abuse, South America, Women on the Front Line, United Nations, Teenage pregnancy, Sexual violence >> ANNIE LENNOX: It threatens the lives of more young women than cancer. It affects one in three women worldwide. It leaves women mentally scarred for life. "It" is violence against women and girls. According to the UN, this brutality is on the rise. Our series comes from the frontline of the hidden war on women and girls. The field of conflict is just as likely to be the home as the brothel. This time on Women on the Front Line we are in Colombia, to find out if there is hope for an end to violence against the women of this country where a culture of fear, conflict, and machismo still prevails. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ [Municipal Judge, Bolivar, Colombia]: There are many cases of sexual violence, acts of sexual abuse, child abuse, and sexual offences in general. As a judge, I have had to try such offenders. >> VOICEOVER: It's London May 2008, and Judge Esperanza González from Bolivar -- a small town in Colombia -- has come to Europe for the first time. She is sharing a platform with another judge, Cherie Blair, the wife of Britain's former Prime Minister. >> CHERIE BLAIR: Thank you. I'm very humbled to be here tonight and to share a platform with two very strong, very competent women judges. >> VOICEOVER: They're here to mark the publication of an international report on the plight of girls and women in conflict. For the Colombian municipal judge this is a universe away from her small town in the middle of one of the country's most violent regions. This is Bolivar, Judge Esperanza's town. It looks peaceful enough, but it hasn't always been this way. Colombia is home to the world's longest-running civil war, a conflict in which illegal drugs are the fuel. And women are not spared, with one woman a day dying because of the violence. The murder rate in Bolivar and the surrounding region peaked in the 1990s, but has fallen away dramatically with the drive to end the fighting. >> CARLOS IGNACIO CUERVO [Vice Minister, Social Protection]: We used to have an annual rate of 350 murders per hundred thousand; today we have rates of 27 murders per hundred thousand. >> VOICEOVER: But that is still five times higher than in nearby Costa Rica. The people in the Mid-Magdalena region live with the legacy of a time when they had the highest homicide rate in the world. Civil conflict everywhere retards the development of civil society, and the status of women. Colombia is no place to be a girl. If you are a girl, you have a less than 50 percent chance of receiving a secondary education, and run a one in five chance of becoming pregnant while still a teenager. Mid-Magdalena is Colombia's machismo wild west, but there's a stirring of change in the municipality of Bolivar, and that's why Women on the Front Line has come here. We were to find that everyone agrees it's Judge Esperanza who is spearheading the change. >> TITLE: Justice in the Region of Death >> VOICEOVER: Our Woman on the Front Line is 48-year-old mother of two Esperanza González. In her twenties she was made a judge in Bolivar. In this program we follow her on what she says is her personal mission to bring justice for young women and girls, in and out of her courtroom. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: I brought new things to the town and I spoke to women about them, about respecting their rights, about making people respect them in their work and in their homes. Previously you couldn't speak about such things; everything was hidden, everything was a sin. >> VOICEOVER: Judge González is determined to confront what she describes as Colombia's "conspiracy of silence" that surrounds the issues of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and teenage pregnancy. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: Young girls in the rural areas were sexually abused by their fathers, by their uncles, by their brothers and neighbors. But because all of this was kept quiet there were no charges made and therefore no statistics at the courthouse. >> VOICEOVER: The judge hears all kinds of cases in her courtroom. Today, she is hearing a case where a father is accusing a farmhand of sexually abusing his two daughters, aged 8 and 13. Judge Esperanza moved to Bolivar 20 years ago with her biology teacher husband, now headmaster of the town's main high school. In 1986, the judge's husband -- whose masters degree was in sexual and reproductive health -- persuaded her to attend a sexual health workshop with other local experts. It was to be a turning point for Judge González. She was given a list of options and was asked which she would choose if she discovered one of her sons was being taught by a homosexual. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: I added one more suggestion saying, "fire him." I had never felt so bad, I had never felt so small, because here were all these specialized doctors and they asked me how a municipal judge, a lawyer with additional training and all the trimmings, how could I think like this? So they gave me a tough time, they put me through the mill. I felt really bad and I changed. It didn't happen overnight, but I started to change that day. >> VOICEOVER: Part of her personal journey was finding out via her husband, Luis Antonio Figueroa, that teenage pregnancies had reached very high levels in his school of 600 pupils. In Colombia, access to contraception is limited and abortion allowed only in extreme circumstances. >> LUIS ANTONIO FIGUEROA [Headmaster, Judge Esperanza's husband]: I think that one of the major problems here regarding our region is the unity of the family. The fathers and the mothers don't show much affection toward their children and there is also too much violence within the family environment. There is also a huge lack of support from the parents towards their children, due to the fact that they lack sexual education themselves. >> VOICEOVER: Another legacy of the conflict that increases the risks to girls, is the scattering of families. Incredibly, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, there are more displaced people in Colombia than any other country in the world apart from Rwanda. >> CARLOS IGNACIO CUERVO: Conflict and displacement are risk factors. Two out of three adolescent women become pregnant when they are displaced. >> VOICEOVER: Esperanza González believes that the decades of violence have helped keep regions such as Mid-Magdalena in ignorance about sex and all the dangers it poses to young girls. It is still paradoxically a prudish society, as they were to find out one parents evening during the screening of an educational video on adolescent behaviour. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: When the parents heard the word "sex" they did this, they covered their faces with their hands and lifted a finger to watch the video. When we left the meeting, my husband and I were accused of corrupting the community. >> VOICEOVER: Neither Esperanza González or her husband have been put off by such charges. They have taken on the task of helping girls to stay on in education. And this is a huge challenge: 22 percent of Colombian women between 12 and 17 do not attend school, according to the 2005 population census. Judge González is visiting Carolina Mogollón. She is a similar age to the judge's son and they were at school together. They were equal academically. But Juan Luis, the judge's son, will be going to university with a professional life beckoning. His schoolfriend will not be so fortunate. Despite her abilities, Carolina's education is effectively over. The reason is her two-month-old baby. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: Doña Leonor what do you think about this situation? Because you were keen on her continuing her studies, weren't you? >> LEONOR DE MOGOLLON [Carolina's mother]: Yes, she wanted to study further but ... >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: But what? >> LEONOR DE MOGOLLON: There is nothing that can be done now. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: So what you have to do is help her. Because she has a lot of goals in life. Or not? Have you given up on them? >> CAROLINA MOGOLLON: No, not at all. It was very difficult for my family because they expected something different for me. They expected me to study. They had different dreams for me other than having a baby. I did not have and still don't have my father's support. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: The family's reaction was awful and the reaction of the community was awful. She was a student representative, and helped out in the church. >> VOICEOVER: Carolina's parents divorced a few years ago and her father has shunned the family since he found out his 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. >> LEONOR DE MOGOLLON: We wanted her to go onto further education. Whatever she wanted, that's what we wanted for her. Then when Carolina's father heard that she was pregnant it all turned. He hasn't spoken to her since, he hasn't given her money to finish off her studies. Yes, I told her not to go over there ... >> INTERVIEWER: And her father? What does he think of it all? >> LEONOR DE MOGOLLON: Nothing, he doesn't even speak to us. >> VOICEOVER: It is 10 months since Carolina has spoken to her father and their shared dream of a higher education for her has vanished. Carolina is now living alone with her mother, brother, and the baby. Her boyfriend Edgar is traveling, trying to earn a living as a musician. Carolina does her best to keep in touch with him through the local internet café. Judge González has tried -- but so far failed -- to achieve reconciliation with the father and get his daughter's education back on track. Carolina's experience is fairly typical. But the judge does not give up. And we see a much darker side to life in Bolivar. >> VOICEOVER: Esperanza González also finds time to head the Bolivar Committee on Women's Health. While we were filming, Judge González brought to our attention an altogether more serious case for which judicial proceedings are just starting. A 14-year-old girl was brought to the hospital by her mother, complaining of a severe stomach ache. To protect her identity we have called her Maria. >> DR. MONICA ROJAS [Bolivar Public Hospital]: The girl came here with her mother, with a physical problem. But, when the girl was asked to sign a form, instead of signing her name she just wrote "help me." >> VOICEOVER: Dr. Rojas suspected that Maria might be a victim of sexual abuse. The first person Dr. Rojas called was not the police but Judge Esperanza, who came immediately to the hospital to talk to the girl. >> DR. MONICA ROJAS: I told her there were several factors that made us suspicious of a possible case of sexual abuse. Firstly, she changed her behaviour. Secondly, her desire to take a shower. A person who has been abused always feels dirty. There is a need to be clean. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ [Municipal Judge, Bolivar, Colombia]: When she saw me, she took my hand and said, "Help me, help me," and "Bathe me, bathe me. I am dirty." "My father is bad." She told us things that affect you. I am not only a judge, I am also a mother. >> DR. MONICA ROJAS: What surprised us was the reaction of the mother, there was in fact no reaction. She said, "My husband is very good. He works and I never leave the girl alone." It was not the reaction of a woman that just finds out that her daughter is being sexually abused. >> VOICEOVER: While our film crew was recording this story, Maria's father, Angel María Franco, was arrested and brought to court for a preliminary hearing. Judge González told us that her extra-courtroom role meant that she might be called as a witness in the case. So another judge was appointed to preside over the hearing. The town prosecutor lays out the charges. >> ARTURO RASCON: The crime which you are charged with today is that of rape. That means that you committed sexual acts of a violent and psychologically damaging nature that caused trauma to a minor. >> JUDGE: The accused man wants to add something? >> ANGEL MARIA FRANCO [father of "Maria"]: You are saying that I abused my daughter. That is not true. >> JUDGE: Señor Angel Maria Franco you have the right to remain silent. When the police arrested you, did you suffer any injury? How did they treat you? >> ANGEL MARIA FRANCO: Fine. >> JUDGE: Did they read your rights? >> ANGEL MARIA FRANCO: Yes sir. >> JUDGE: Did they say you had the right to have a lawyer? >> ANGEL MARIA FRANCO: Yes sir. >> JUDGE: That you had the right to remain silent? >> ANGEL MARIA FRANCO: Yes sir. >> VOICEOVER: The court has appointed a defense lawyer for the accused man. >> YORELY TELLEZ [defense lawyer for Angel María Franco]: Thank you sir, could you tell my client, the accused, the possible jail time he is facing? >> JUDGE: The maximum sentence allowed, 33 years. >> VOICEOVER: Angel María Franco applied for bail but was refused. >> YORELY TELLEZ: This type of sexual offense takes place in every sphere of society, whether they are rich, poor, social strata one, two, or five. What is happening now is that the government has carried out campaigns, particularly on the television. Consequently there are more accusations. People are more aware. Children are approaching family welfare to make accusations. >> VOICEOVER: After the hearing our crew manages to talk briefly to the accused man. >> INTERVIEWER: Why do you think your daughter is saying you raped her? >> ANGEL MARIA FRANCO: When the mother brought her to the hospital she wasn't in her right mind. That's how things are. She was with her mother the whole time. I want you to help me and find a good doctor for my daughter to find out what's wrong with her. She has made me suffer because of what she's said. >> VOICEOVER: At the time of going to air, Angel Franco is in prison awaiting trial on the charge of "incest and rape of a minor." His wife still maintains she knows nothing about the abuse. No date for his trial has been set. If found guilty, Angel Franco faces more than three decades in prison. In 2007, the Colombian Congress passed new, tougher laws for crimes involving the sexual abuse of children. It is now impossible to get a reduction of sentence for a crime of this nature. >> VOICEOVER: Judge Esperanza has also been working with the Catholic Church, a traditionally conservative institution. It has now joined in on her personal campaign to help the girls of Bolivar. She even has her own show on the local radio. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: In the very beginning it was very difficult to change certain mindsets in people. The first time I asked the priest to join the sexual and reproductive health team, the priest refused. He said that he didn't want to learn anything about sex. So I asked him to accompany me to a workshop on self-esteem, and from then on the priest became part of the sexual health team. >> FATHER OLIVERIO MURCIA [Priest]: It worries us because we see, with great anguish, that such young girls are not ready to take up the responsibilities of motherhood. >> VOICEOVER: If Judge González can change the mind of a Catholic priest in Bolivar, then surely Carolina's father should prove no obstacle. >> JORGE MOGOLLON [Carolina's father]: Since she left she has not come back here because I scolded her. I said, "Why didn't you tell me it was simply dating? And that there were no commitments at all, and now you are pregnant." She left, and she hasn't talked to me since. She hasn't come back here either. >> VOICEOVER: Judge González is doing her best to reconcile father and daughter. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ [teenage mother]: Your dad is hurt because of that. I think you should talk to your dad and if he won't see you today you should go back tomorrow. And if he does not see you tomorrow go back the day after and say to him, "I'm here to show you my daughter, your grand-daughter. I made a mistake and I need your support." Is it too much for you? >> CAROLINA MOGOLLON: No it's not too much, but I am scared that again he ... >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: If you do not knock on the door you'll never get in. >> VOICEOVER: In a country undergoing rapid social change, with family breakdown and teenage pregnancy at epidemic levels, Judge González is convinced that her working as a counselor and health worker together with the United Nation's Population Fund is vital to the health and future happiness of the women of Bolivar. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: So it started as a personal change because one has to, as they say, "modernize." You have to learn, not just to look good in front of the community but to be at peace with yourself. >> JAVIER MARTINEZ [Development and Peace Programme, Middle Magdalena]: Judge Esperanza, she is a wonderful person. She understands this subject as a health issue. An issue which encompasses many agencies; it becomes more integrated. >> ESPERANZA GONZALEZ: There are still incidents, but I think that now we can avoid many things because we are talking openly. Today, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, if there is a domestic violence situation or any kind of problem with a couple, people will say: "If you carry on like that I will report you to Judge Esperanza!" >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mauritania-a-question-of-rape <p>In the Islamic state of Mauritania, women who have been raped often end up in prison. About 60 percent of women who come forward with allegations of sexual violence are accused of Zina, or a crime against morality. It is therefore unsurprising that most choose to remain silent. Fatima M'Baye, the first female lawyer in Mauritania, is part of the movement to blunt the harsher aspects of Sharia, and also help women overturn their convictions.&nbsp;</p> Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:56:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mauritania-a-question-of-rape Mauritania, Women's rights, Sexual abuse, Sharia, Zina (Arabic), Rape, Sexual violence, Islam, Africa, Governance & Transparency >> TITLE: Women on the Front Line >> ANNIE LENNOX: It threatens the lives of more young women than cancer. It affects one in three women worldwide. It leaves women mentally scarred for life. "It" is violence against women and girls. According to the UN, this brutality is on the rise. Our series comes from the frontline of the hidden war on women and girls. The field of conflict is just as likely to be the home as the brothel. This time on Women on the Front Line we are in Mauritania, West Africa, where campaigners and lawyers are challenging a law under which a woman actually risks jail for daring to accuse someone of raping her. >> VOICEOVER: In Mauritania, West Africa, a woman who wants a man to be brought to justice for rape runs a high risk of imprisonment for making the accusation. This is 18-year-old Badia, not her real name. According to her lawyer, Badia claims she was raped and then became pregnant. >> BADIA: I woke up at 4 a.m. I gave birth to a little girl who was stillborn. >> VOICEOVER: Badia has been tried, convicted, and is in prison for the offenses of "Zina" (sex out of marriage) and infanticide, though Badia claims her baby was stillborn. She now risks life imprisonment. >> ZEINABOU MOUSSA [Mauritanian Association for the Health of Women and Children]: There is the term that we refer to as "Zina," which is in Sharia, which is our law. A sexual relationship outside of marriage is considered to be a Zina. >> VOICEOVER: In this Islamic state, the country's law, largely based on Sharia doctrine, insists that if sex results in a pregnancy, it cannot have been rape. Women on the Front Line filmed in Mauritania to follow up a United Nations' report which suggested that hard-line Sharia law was being relaxed in the country, especially in its treatment of women. We soon found that this was not altogether the case. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE [human rights lawyer]: Absolutely. I can tell you that there are victims of rape who are imprisoned for Zina. >> VOICEOVER: We discovered instances which appeared to be in direct contravention to the UN's universally agreed rights for women, something the Mauritanian government signed up to 10 years ago. This time on Women on the Front Line we explore the question of whether secular human rights can co-exist with orthodox interpretations of Islam based on Sharia law. >> TITLE: A Question of Rape >> VOICEOVER: Fifty years ago the capital of Mauritania, Nouakchott, was a tiny fishing village. It is now home to more than 600,000 people. Mauritania is an intensely conservative country undergoing rapid change. Getting Islamic traditions to co-exist with a legal code that complies with internationally agreed human rights norms, is proving to be a struggle. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE: There was a time when we only applied Sharia law, when women were lashed or stoned. We don't do that anymore. Now we have a hybrid law. >> VOICEOVER: Fatimata is herself a sign of that change. She is Mauritania's first female lawyer. We found the laws concerning women and sexual offenses in Mauritania are still imbued with some of the harshest strictures of Sharia law. Ten years ago, Mauritania ratified CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Speaking at a conference, the Minister for Women's Affairs confirms Mauritania's commitment. >> FATIMETOU MINT KHATRY [Minister for Women's Affairs]: We stand with the international community in defending the rights of women and children against all forms of violence. >> VOICEOVER: However, we were to find that when it comes to sexual abuse, the legal system, despite the ratification of CEDAW, still offers women little protection. So we asked a spokesperson for the Ministry of Women if they were now satisfied that the Mauritanian penal code protected women. >> INTERVIEWER: In your opinion do the penal codes protect women? >> MATY MINT BOIDE [Technical Advisor to the Women's Ministry]: They protect to a great extent, they protect to a very large extent. I am not a lawyer, I prefer not to answer that question. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE [human rights lawyer]: There are times when I have helped girls who are victims of rape and who have been imprisoned because, quite simply, the court is not convinced that she is a victim of rape. >> VOICEOVER: After visiting Mauritania in 2003, the UN produced a report stating: "Almost all of the women and girls who reported rape were accused of fornication and ended up in jail. Since 2003, however, no rape victim has been sent to jail." But, on our arrival in Mauritania, we quickly found that this was not the case. >> DIENE KEITA [United Nations Population Fund]: To talk to you frankly, as a UN staff member today, we step back a little bit and today we are re-doing our homework again. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE: A lot of women find themselves being transformed from victim into the accused. Merely an accusation of Zina and it is directly to prison. >> MADAME CAMERA [Governess, Nouakchott Women's Prison]: I absolutely agree with what the lawyer has said, that's the reality. >> VOICEOVER: Madam Camera is governess of the women's prison here in Nouakchott. >> MADAME CAMERA: In 2006 and 2007 we had lots of cases of Zina in here. >> VOICEOVER: Zeinabou Moussa was a midwife, and learnt first-hand from the women who came to see her just how many had been sexually abused. In 2001, Zeinabou set up the country's first rape crisis center. >> ZEINABOU MOUSSA [Mauritanian Association for the Health of Women and Children]: In 2004, we had 45 cases. In 2005, we had 55 cases. In 2006 we had 66 cases and for 2007 we had 77 cases. That is only the women who came here to our center in Nouakchott. >> VOICEOVER: Zeinabou and caseworker Miriam took us under the cover of night to a district of Nouakchott to meet Aisha and her mother. Aisha is a 24-year-old woman who says she was raped. Aisha, veiled and with an assumed name to protect her identity, alleges she was attacked by three young men and raped by one of them. >> AISHA: One of the attackers had a blade or something in his hand. >> MIRIAM [caseworker]: There were three attackers, only one of them raped her. >> AISHA'S MOTHER: Aisha says when he was raping her he had a knife to her throat and he threatened to kill her if she said anything. >> MIRIAM: He slashed her arm and leg with the knife. >> VOICEOVER: Aisha maintains that her violator was in fact her suitor. Her mother claims he raped her to dishonor her. So, if she pursues the case and cannot prove she was raped, she could face imprisonment. >> AISHA: This man wanted to marry me, but my family refused him because he wasn't a good man. >> AISHA'S MOTHER: He behaved this way because we refused his proposal so he wanted to dishonor her. >> ZEINABOU MOUSSA: To prove this rape we need the clothes with blood on them. >> MIRIAM: But two days ago Aisha's mother washed the bloodstained clothes. >> ZEINABOU MOUSSA: The girl, if she doesn't have any proof of rape, can be condemned for Zina. >> VOICEOVER: Because there is now no physical evidence to back Aisha's allegation, Zeinabou worries that Aisha herself may be charged with immorality or "Zina." She arranges for Aisha to see a lawyer at the rape crisis center. Lawyer Bilal puts some searching questions to Aisha about her relationship. >> AISHA: One day, he asked us to sleep together. I said I was a virgin and I would never do that, I said I would never do it because of the shame it would bring on my family. He said, "One day I will do it to you whether you say yes or no, I will do it to you anyway." >> VOICEOVER: The former Public Prosecutor confirmed to us that Aisha would almost certainly be accused of Zina. >> BEN AMAR OULD SALAK [former prosecutor]: The fact that she went out late in the evening and met a man is virtually consent. >> VOICEOVER: According to Imam Salak, Aisha's actions lead him to believe she is also guilty of threatening Islamic morality. >> HADENINE OULD SALAK [President, Association of Imams]: First she went out with a stranger, therefore violating a religious rule. Then she committed Zina (sex out of marriage). Because she is the one who put herself in that position, she doesn't have an excuse. Zina was committed and that is a serious crime in Islamic Sharia. >> BILAL OULD DICK [Lawyer, Rape Crisis Centre]: I have to tell you there is a risk that it will be interpreted as not exactly a rape. Because the relationship you had with him isn't allowed. It's not allowed under article 306, boyfriends and girlfriends it's not allowed, it's forbidden by law. >> VOICEOVER: Zeinabou and lawyer Bilal decide that for Aisha to press charges would be too risky, so she has been "dis-encouraged' -- as they term it -- in pursuing the rape allegation. >> BILAL OULD DICK: We "dis-encourage" her from pressing charges if we think that she risks of being accused of Zina. >> ZEINABOU MOUSSA [Mauritanian Association for the Health of Women and Children]: Sometimes, If I don't think it will be in the interest of the girl, I prefer that she doesn't involve the justice system, but even more, I would prefer that the boys are arrested and the girls get recognized as victims. >> VOICEOVER: We visit Nouakchott women's prison and we meet 18-year-old Badia, who alleges she was made pregnant through rape. She has been charged with Zina and infanticide and now faces life in prison. We also talk to four Senegalese women who are awaiting trial. Every night, police patrol the streets checking identity papers. Under article 306 of the penal code -- "a threat to Islamic morality" -- you can be arrested for anything deemed as contravening this law. >> IRABIHA MINT ABDEL WEDOUD [National Forum for the Protection of the Rights of Women and Children]: If we look at article 306, it says "every person who has committed an outrage to public decency and to Islamic morality ..." What is a public outrage to Islamic morality? Is it leaving your house to take out the rubbish at say 9 p.m. in the evening? So, what exactly is a public outrage to Islamic morality? >> JUDGE ALIOU BA [President, District Court of Appeal]: Anything that threatens good morality. Article 306 is becoming a "catch-all" article where you can put anything you want. >> VOICEOVER: In Nouakchott's women's prison, lawyer Fatimata M'Baye spoke to these Senegalese women who were arrested under article 306. They claim they were simply working as washerwomen, and selling incense in a stranger's house when the police raided. >> WOMAN 1: I have a little business; I bring incense and clothes from Senegal to sell. >> WOMAN 2: There are some young people I wash clothes for. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE [human rights lawyer]: Do you know each other, the four of you? >> WOMAN 3: We don't know each other, we are all Senegalese, we just happened to be in the same house when the police raided and they brought us here to prison. >> WOMAN 4: Is it right to lock someone up in prison for eight months? >> FATIMATA M'BAYE: Absolutely not. >> WOMAN 4: It hurts. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE: It's going to be alright, it's going to be alright. >> VOICEOVER: A prison truck arrives to take the four women to court for their trial. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE: Because they work as cleaners and they are alone in these houses, when the police raid, they accuse these women of Zina. >> VOICEOVER: The women's lawyer has just found out the charges against them. >> MOHAMED OULD LAGHDAF [defense lawyer]: The women are accused of threatening good morality and Zina. >> VOICEOVER: The lawyer goes back into court to argue the case for the women. Our crew was not allowed into the court. Back at the women's prison, we catch up with the story of 18-year-old Badia. Convicted of Zina and infanticide, she faces life imprisonment and is awaiting her sentence. >> BILAL OULD DICK: In front of a judge, she said that she had been raped. She was a victim of rape, who was accused of a Zina, because as you know there are lines between rape and Zina that aren't clearly defined. It would seem that she was raped by a man she knew. She is also accused of infanticide but she alleges that the child was "still-born." >> VOICEOVER: Under Mauritanian law, pregnancy is regarded as proof of having freely "consented" to sex. Madam Camera tries to coax the story from Badia. >> MADAME CAMERA [Governess, Nouakchott Women's Prison]: Do not be afraid or ashamed in front of me, I'm like your mum, that's all. >> BADIA: I can't say anything, what has happened is God's will. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE [human rights lawyer]: They prefer to keep quiet because they know that if they speak out, they themselves will become the accused. They're going to be accused of provoking the situation. They're going to accuse them of being out unaccompanied. They're going to accuse them of having tempted the man into having sex. So they prefer to say nothing at all. >> VOICEOVER: Article 307 of the penal code states that pregnancy is only possible through consensual sex, therefore by definition it must be impossible to get pregnant through rape. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE: For them, pregnancy cannot be the result of a rape. >> MADAME CAMERA: Really? >> FATIMATA M'BAYE: For them it's consensual sex, and that's why girls who become pregnant after a rape sadly find themselves here in prison for Zina. >> MADAME CAMERA: For Zina. >> VOICEOVER: Thus, because Badia was pregnant, her rape allegation is inadmissible under Mauritanian law. Meanwhile, back at the courthouse, the verdict on the Senegalese women is returned. >> MOHAMED OULD LAGHDAF: The other two were accused of threatening good morality, they have been condemned to one year with a year's bail. And for the other women it's two years in prison. It's too long. >> SENEGALESE WOMAN: They are sending us to prison for two years. It's so bad, but God is good. >> MOHAMED OULD LAGHDAF: The only evidence that was presented in court was a packet of condoms that was found on one of the women. It's not a crime to carry condoms. >> VOICEOVER: Two of the Senegalese women were found guilty in this court of law of prostitution and running a brothel and were driven back to prison to serve out the remainder of their sentence. The other two women were charged under the "catch-all" article 306 and are being repatriated to Senegal. >> VOICEOVER: As well as the confusion that surrounds the law of Zina and Islamic morality, Mauritanian law also fails to define rape, leaving it wide open to interpretation. >> ZEINABOU MOUSSA [Mauritanian Association for the Health of Women and Children]: In law they need to clearly define rape and clearly define of all forms of sexual violence, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, and rape. >> IRABIHA MINT ABDEL WEDOUD [National Forum for the Protection of the Rights of Women and Children]: Once a victim, a girl says, "No, I don't want this sexual relationship," and then she is raped, no matter what her situation, whether she is in her room, wearing a nightshirt or even naked, no matter where she is, it is rape. >> VOICEOVER: With the laws as they stand, without access to forensic evidence and a woman's word against a man's, the law is loaded, says Fatimata. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE [human rights lawyer]: Today, how can a woman possibly prove the contrary to a judge? How can she prove that she was a victim of rape? She can't, she has nothing. The only thing she has today to help her is what the Mauritanian justice system gives her. >> BILAL OULD DICK: The fact that the penal codes aren't clear and precise doesn't help anyone, not even the accused. Their right to a defense is also threatened. >> VOICEOVER: A spokesperson for the Women's Ministry says that the government is going to change the codes to bring them into line with the UN convention. >> MATY MINT BOIDE [Technical Advisor to the Women's Ministry]: Certainly there will be a revision of these penal codes. >> INTERVIEWER: When? >> MATY MINT BOIDE: It is a work in progress, we are certainly in the process of doing it for sure. >> INTERVIEWER: Next year, in 10 years, in 20 years? >> MATY MINT BOIDE: The state is certainly taking the problem in hand, so that means it will be very soon for sure. >> VOICEOVER: Though the Mauritanian constitution guarantees equality in public office, 10 years after CEDAW was ratified, there are still no women magistrates, judges, public prosecutors, or police commissioners. >> INTERVIEWER: Can women be magistrates and Imams, here in Sharia doctrine? >> HADENINE OULD SALAK [President, Association of Imams]: No, a woman cannot be a judge or a president of the republic, she has access to all other jobs. >> IRABIHA MINT ABDEL WEDOUD [National Forum for the Protection of the Rights of Women and Children]: I respect the honorable magistrates, but most of them belong to the traditional school of thought. They are all men who read and interpret this text according to their life experience as religious men. >> INTERVIEWER: If you ratified CEDAW, then why aren't the judges applying it? >> MATY MINT BOIDE: It is perhaps because judges are not well informed about the law of CEDAW. CEDAW is an international convention that should be applied to the laws of Mauritanian. >> VOICEOVER: Although there have been some inroads into sensitizing officials, Zeinabou says a lot more work has to be done with the judiciary and law enforcers. >> ZEINABOU MOUSSA [Mauritanian Association for the Health of Women and Children]: There needs to be sensitization campaigns with the doctors, with the police, and the magistrates. >> VOICEOVER: Zeinabou believes that in principle Sharia law contains all the human rights women need. But, she says, it's all down to the interpretation. >> ZEINABOU MOUSSA: We're not looking for more than we are entitled to, which is already in Muslim law and that Sharia gives us. I'd say that sometimes we don't have access to our rights because of interpretation or misunderstanding. >> VOICEOVER: Sharia law was written to protect both sexes equally, says Imam Tah. >> HAMDINE OULD TAH [Professor of Islamic Law]: Islam has a clear vision when it comes to men and women. Islam gives privileges to men and not women and sometimes vice versa. >> HADENINE OULD SALAK: Because these are rules that have not been changed by people according to their interests, they came from Allah. Therefore they are fair and just for all people. >> VOICEOVER: Today, Mauritania faces a more extreme version of the challenges that other Islamic countries have had to face: How to reconcile custom with international norms on women's rights. >> FATIMATA M'BAYE: We want more than we now have, we want a law that protects us. When a woman has been a victim of rape, when she has lost her honor, when she has lost her future, and when she has no hope left to continue to live, it is the state's responsibility to protect her. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kill-or-cure-saving-lives <p>The Advance Market Commitment scheme, formulated by the GAVI Alliance, aims to provide more vaccines to the developing world by fixing their price over a 10-year period. Is it going to deliver, what will be the result, and how did global health institutions and the big pharmaceutical companies manage to agree on such a deal?&nbsp;</p> Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:59:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kill-or-cure-saving-lives GAVI Alliance, Pneumococcal vaccine, Africa, Pharmaceutical industry, Developing country, Vaccination, Vaccine, Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Orin Levine, Julian Lob-Levyt >> TITLE: Kill or Cure >> VOICEOVER: In the summer of 2009, an historic agreement was struck to save millions of children from a deadly disease. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT [CEO, GAVI Alliance]: Each year, pneumonia kills more children than HIV, TB, and malaria put together. >> VOICEOVER: The vast majority of victims are in the developing world, where there's no money to pay pharmaceutical companies for a vaccine. >> BUSAYO OGUNBODE: My baby has pneumonia and the baby died because of the pneumonia. >> VOICEOVER: Now, the international community has agreed to fund a vaccine to prevent such tragedies in the world's poorest nations. >> ANDREW JACK [Pharma Correspondent, The Financial Times]: It's creating a guaranteed market, a form of reassurance to those developing new vaccines, including those specifically for the developing world, that there will be a market at the end of the day. >> VOICEOVER: Five nations and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation agreed to pay USD$1.5 billion in the hope of saving up to seven million lives. >> TITLE: Drug Money >> VOICEOVER: Dr. Orin Levine leads a team from the renowned Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the USA, dedicated to providing a vaccine against the world's deadliest threat to children. His job takes him all over the globe in the fight against pneumococcal disease, which kills more children under five than any other illness. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE [Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health]: We have safe efficacious vaccines against a terrible disease that just aren't being applied. So, not only is it a huge disease, but it's a problem with a solution >> VOICEOVER: Today Orin is visiting Rwanda, a country just emerging from a tragic recent past. Rwanda is staging a huge party and Orin is guest of honor. >> DR. RICHARD SEZIBERA [Minister of Health, Rwanda]: Pneumonia is a leading cause of death among under fives in our country, accounting [for] over 25 per cent of all infant deaths. >> VOICEOVER: The Rwandan minister of health is presiding over a ceremony to mark the introduction of a vaccine to prevent pneumococcal disease. >> DR. RICHARD SEZIBERA: We as a government are determined to make sure that children attain their fifth birthday, their 10th birthday, their 40th birthday, and -- why not -- their 70th birthday. >> VOICEOVER: The minister inaugurated a program to distribute the vaccine for free. A doctor, he delivered the ceremonial jab himself. The project was launched by the Rwandan Government and GAVI, an alliance of international organizations, countries, and companies dedicated to spreading the benefits of vaccines and immunization. Dr. Levine's team helped GAVI make the case for the deal. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: Today is a historic moment because today with the access to pneumococcal vaccines that's been given Rwandan children, we're going to begin the first program through the GAVI Alliance to prevent this important disease in low-income countries. >> VOICEOVER: In cooperation with GAVI, pharmaceutical company Wyeth donated enough doses of the pneumococcal vaccine Prevenar to immunize all Rwandan infants under the age of one. >> JIM CONNOLLY [Head of Vaccines, Wyeth]: This is our personal opportunity to make a difference in this world and we have an opportunity with Prevenar to dramatically change the course of the disease that is a significant killer of children and adults on a worldwide basis. >> VOICEOVER: Wyeth's gesture is cause for celebration in Rwanda but it's only a first step. The Rwandans have been given a vaccine widely used in rich nations. It protects against seven strains of the disease. Developing nations ideally need a more powerful vaccine. And another 70 of world's poorest nations eligible for GAVI help don't have a pneumococcal vaccine at all. In Nigeria, two-year-old Olajumoke lies seriously ill with pneumonia. Without a vaccination, doctors rely on increasingly ineffective antibiotics to treat the illness. She's watched over by her mother, Blessing, who's desperately anxious. Pneumococcal disease kills 1.6 million people every year, and nearly 1 million are children under five. So what exactly is this threat to the world's infants? Pneumococcal bacteria lurks in the back of the throats of 80 per cent of all people. If it breaches a natural barrier formed by mucus, it can cause pneumonia or meningitis, both potentially lethal. The need for a vaccine is much greater in the developing world where more than 98 per cent of fatal cases occur. But it's up to the pharmaceutical industry to develop vaccines, at substantial cost. The industry, historically, has sold its goods to those countries who can pay the most. >> ANDREW JACK: In order to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars that the drug companies have put into developing these products, they've tended to focus therefore on maximizing the returns, having high prices, concentrating on the large, developed markets of North America, Western Europe, and Australia and Japan. >> VOICEOVER: A free market in vaccines has failed to address the needs of the majority of people in the world. The situation was even worse 10 years ago. >> SHANELLE HALL [Director, Supply Division, UNICEF]: We had global shortages of even the basic vaccines: tetanus, measles, DTP. I remember a year, we were short by 80 million doses and I mean this was for 70 to 80, 90 countries, and we were in the midst of a major departure of many of the big pharma companies from producing vaccines for developing countries. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: There was a market failure for public goods, global public goods, and a vaccine is a classic global public good. >> VOICEOVER: Historically, developing countries have had to wait 15 to 20 years for prices to fall after R&D costs have been recouped before they can afford to provide vaccines for their children. Since 2005, Dr. Orin Levine and the GAVI Alliance have been working on an ambitious program to speed up the provision of vaccines to poorer nations, starting with an injection to protect against pneumococcal disease. Today, he's on a research trip to Nigeria. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: I'm a parent. I've got two daughters. They both got pneumococcal vaccine. Why should children who just happen to be born in an African country be denied access to a life saving vaccine for that reason? One of the most important things that we can do during our visit here in Nigeria is to hear directly from the pediatricians who take care of children with pneumonia and pneumococcal disease, to hear from the parents and families who've been affected. >> VOICEOVER: He's visiting University College Hospital in the city of Ibadan, where Olajumoke lies ill. He's meeting with senior pediatricians at the hospital. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: Do children in Africa deserve access to these life-saving pneumococcal vaccines as much as children in the West? >> PROFESSOR ADEGOKE FALADE [Senior Consultant Pediatrician, UCH]: I feel upset, because I think that vaccine is needed more in developing countries like Nigeria than in Europe and North America where it's not an immediate problem today. >> PROFESSOR KIKELOMO OSINUSI [Head of Pediatrics, UCH]: There are some conditions that make children in this country, in Nigeria, particularly susceptible to pneumococcal disease. We now have a critical mass of children who have some immune depression or whose immunity is not good enough. >> VOICEOVER: On the emergency ward, Orin meets Blessing and her two-year-old daughter Olajomoke. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: What was she like when you brought her here. Why were you worried for her? >> BLESSING: When I came here she was convulsing, so maybe I get scared. She ... she was unconscious. Because I was being transferred from a clinic. So she was unconscious but still convulsing when I get here. >> VOICEOVER: When Orin revisits the following day, Blessing is still there. She's now been at her daughter's bedside for six days and nights. The lengthy stay has cost her 30,000 naira [NGN]. That's a very substantial sum of money. Ninety per cent of Nigerians live on less than 10,000 naira per month. >> BLESSING: It's very difficult for me to get the money to take care of her. Sometimes I'll borrow. I'll do all kinds of things to get the money. >> VOICEOVER: But Blessing is praying that she won't have to pay a much higher price: the life of her daughter. In part two: the new initiative that could spare millions of children like Olajumoke their suffering. >> TITLE: Kill or Cure >> VOICEOVER: For the past two years, the GAVI Alliance has been working with donor governments to provide a pneumococcal vaccine for the developing world. They came up with a plan known as the "advance market commitment" or AMC. It's designed to guarantee pharmaceutical companies a market for the vaccine in poorer countries. In the summer of 2009, GAVI chief executive Julian Lob-Levyt announced that funds were finally in place. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: This has been an astonishing international collaboration of political leadership, technical participation at the individual level, financially within the markets, with industry, and with public health community. It really is a very historic moment. >> SHANELLE HALL: Now through the AMC we have an innovative approach to ensure the necessary quantities of pneumococcal vaccines are produced for children in developing countries at an affordable price. >> VOICEOVER: Italy, the UK, Canada, Russia, Norway, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation signed a deal to provide USD$1.5 billion for the vaccine. And GAVI will contribute a further USD$1.3 billion. Unicef, the World Health Organization, The World Bank and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health helped GAVI to construct the initiative, designed to appeal to both profit-driven companies and the recipient nations. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: There've been some extremely smart economists working out of Harvard who've, you know, made almost a lifetime's work in The World Bank and elsewhere to really research the model and see how it works. >> ANDREW JACK: The AMC is essentially designed as a financial incentive to vaccine manufacturers to say: if you develop vaccines that are relevant to those in the developing world, to the world's poorest, there will be a market for those products, so you don't have to worry that you'll spend tens or maybe hundreds of millions of dollars developing something, and then find that none of these poorer countries are willing or able to pay for them. >> VOICEOVER: The architects of the AMC reckon they're tackling the world's most immediately pressing cause. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: The two biggest killers of children at the moment are pneumonia and diarrheal disease and pneumonia is by far the biggest killer, it's a no-brainer quite frankly. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: If we have a serious, common, and preventable disease, shouldn't that be at the top of our to-do list in global health? >> VOICEOVER: Orin's now visiting another mother whose baby son also contracted pneumonia. >> BUSAYO OGUNBODE: The baby is two months old. The baby started with a cough, no, with catarrh and a cold. The cough is very serious. He's two months old. If he's coughing he will be straining all his body like this, all his body was stiff. You know, I'm a woman. So if something is draining my baby, it means the thing is draining me. You understand what I say. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: I do, I'm a parent also. You feel when your children are sick >> BUSAYO OGUNBODE: I feel the pain. When he's coughing, I feel the pains. And I couldn't sleep. He was always crying in the middle of the night, so that's why I took him to hospital >> VOICEOVER: Busayo and her husband spent nearly 50,000 naira on a hospital bill for their baby. >> BUSAYO OGUNBODE: We go through a lot of stress. We borrowed, we sell a lot of things, because we are not OK. We borrowed ... we beg, even beg. We did not think about the money, but we were trying to save the baby's life. The baby died because of the pneumonia. So you go through a lot of stress before the baby die. I would spend a lot of money to save the baby's life, but the baby died. So we lost the baby, sure. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: See, it's unconscionable to me that the technologies that we've helped to develop are reaching only the children who can afford them, who are arguably the children who need them the least, and failing to get to the children who need them the most. >> VOICEOVER: The AMC will come too late for millions like Busayo and her baby. But with funds secured, the process of inviting pharmaceutical companies to bid for contracts under the AMC has begun. Unicef is handling purchase of the product. >> SHANELLE HALL: We're seeing a number of applications, which is fantastic, both from the multinational companies and also from emerging market companies, which is very healthy. >> VOICEOVER: It was crucial to set up competition between the companies. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: You absolutely need competition in this world whether it's drugs or vaccines or soap powder, in order to get the best product and to get it at the best price. >> VOICEOVER: And there's another vital objective which GAVI has set. Current pneumococcal vaccines were developed to guard against varieties of the disease found in rich countries. GAVI is seeking more powerful vaccines to protect against other strains which threaten the poorer nations. The aim is to prevent 80 per cent of infections worldwide. So how has the pharmaceutical industry responded to the challenges and opportunities? The Wyeth corporation, which gave away its seven-strain vaccine to Rwanda, is keen to get involved in the broader plan to sell the improved version to all the poorest countries. >> JIM CONNOLLY: Companies like Wyeth and other pharmaceutical companies have an obligation to make their products available to as wide a population ... With financing mechanisms like the AMC, we think there's a way that's both affordable from a country's perspective and sustainable from a shareholders perspective, and I think we can strike the right chord from a pneumococcal vaccine perspective. >> VOICEOVER: Wyeth and two other pharmaceutical companies, GSK [GlaxoSmithKline] and the Serum Institute in India, are developing pneumococcal vaccines which could be used for the AMC, if they meet standards required by the World Health Organization. In a statement, GSK said that it would review the terms and conditions of the AMC and consider whether to deliver a pneumococcal vaccine to developing countries under the framework. Under the AMC, GAVI will sign 10-year deals, paying USD$7 per shot for the first 20 per cent of vaccinations provided. This will allow the companies to recoup the cost of new factories and manufacturing equipment. After that, the price falls to USD$3.50 for the rest of the contract. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: Once those research and development costs have been absorbed, that vaccine is provided to the poorest countries in the world as at near to production costs as is technically feasible. >> VOICEOVER: So is the industry now interested more in doing good and less in making money? >> ANDREW JACK: All of the big companies have started saying that we can and we should morally and economically make medicines available more affordably to the poor. And in the process we can make some money, we can make this sustainable, but above all many more patients can benefit >> VOICEOVER: Orin makes his last visit to Blessing and Olajomoke. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: Have you seen any progress in this child since the last couple of days? >> DOCTOR: Yes, we have. Initially we had to feed her with a tube and we've been able to take that out. She's feeding by cup and spoon now. And she's very much alert and she's doing very well. She's done very well. >> BLESSING: I am very very happy that she has made it and she has responded to the medicines which have been given to her. >> VOICEOVER: Blessing and Olajumoke have gone through a terrible ordeal. But it's so much worse for all the millions of families whose children don't recover. The AMC may offer real hope that a solution is to hand, but much needs to be done before the first child is injected. The pharmaceutical companies need to develop the vaccines to meet the necessary standard, and the recipient countries need to demonstrate the ability to distribute the vaccines. But Dr. Orin Levine believes the challenges can be overcome. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: The AMC could be delivering life-saving pneumococcal vaccines to children in the poorest countries of the world as early as the end of 2009 or early 2010. >> VOICEOVER: The AMC will lead ultimately to the vaccination of one billion children, saving seven million lives by the year 2030. And that's not all. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: If this model works it should be applied to other vaccines for other diseases and perhaps for drugs to treat other diseases, so this is an innovative instrument. Potentially this could be saving millions of lives, now affected by tuberculosis, by malaria, and so that's the second reason to be quite excited by this pilot >> VOICEOVER: The hope is that the AMC will ensure that children like these and millions more like them will grow up to fulfill all their dreams and ambitions. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: What else, what else does somebody want to be when they grow up? >> CHILDREN: A doctor! / A nurse, a nurse! / Doctor! >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: A nurse, a lot of doctors, and nurses. Really. Doctors ... Nobody wants to be a football player? >> CHILDREN: Yes! >> VOICEOVER: So how welcome would a pneumococcal vaccine be in the countries which need it? >> PROFESSOR KIKELOMO OSINUSI: A lot of time will be saved for treatment of other conditions, and many other savings would be carried out: the cost of looking after the children, the time of the parents who stay in the hospital with children, and all the anguish of losing the children. I think I will be very happy, when ... if this is introduced into the country. >> DR. ORIN LEVINE: What would you say if I told you that in a few years we think there's going to be a vaccine that could prevent the kinds of pneumonia that took the life of your baby? How would you feel about that? >> BUSAYO OGUNBODE: I would be very happy if such a thing could happen. >> TITLE: [end credits] >> TITLE: rockhopper TV http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-real-lady-killer <p>Cervical cancer kills more than half a million women worldwide every year, and is the leading cause of female cancer deaths in the developing world. New low-tech screening programs have begun to reduce cancer deaths but campaigners like Sarah Nyombi, a politician in Uganda, want to see more.</p> Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:29:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-real-lady-killer Cervical cancer, Uganda, Sarah Nyombi, Africa, Developing country, Health, Vaccination, HPV vaccine, PATH, Vaccine >> TITLE: Kill or Cure >> SARAH NYOMBI: In our African culture, you know, they will think they are bewitched. Sometimes women don't know what's wrong with them and they are in huge amounts of pain. So to avoid burdening their families they take themselves to remote areas such as this to die lonely. It is a tragedy. >> TITLE: The Real Lady Killer >> VOICEOVER: Sarah Nyombi, a Ugandan politician, is on a mission. She's trying to halt a silent killer stalking her country, from which every woman in Uganda is under threat. It's called cervical cancer and in the developing world it's the leading cause of female cancer deaths. >> SARAH NYOMBI: It is a horrible cancer, it kills hundreds and hundreds of thousands of women each year, it's not a nice way for women to die >> VOICEOVER: Today Sarah, a former nurse turned women's health campaigner, is visiting Margret Makakoni, a lady whose mother died of cervical cancer. >> MARGRET MAKAKONI: I feel week and drained. >> SARAH NYOMBI: Mmm, of course. It must be the constant reliving of the memory. >> VOICEOVER: Sarah knows exactly what Margret's going through. She's also lost people she loves. >> SARAH NYOMBI: I have known lots of people who have really died of cervical cancer. My auntie, the pain she was going through. Her children couldn't help, we couldn't help, so really we were devastated. >> VOICEOVER: Cancer kills more people than AIDS, TB, or malaria. And there could be an even greater number of cancer victims who don't know what it is they're suffering from. >> SARAH NYOMBI: I have heard about stories about people, but not even knowing that they're dying of cervical cancer. They think that patient was bewitched. In Africa there is that bewitching belief in our heads. >> VOICEOVER: In March this year, as part of her efforts to dispel such myths, Sarah travelled 4,000 miles to Oxford in the UK, to see how the cancer is dealt with in the developed world. Here, screening is widely available and last year, a vaccine which could cut cervical cancer deaths by 50 percent worldwide, was introduced into schools. The vaccine prevents two types of a virus called HPV, known to cause 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases. HPV is sexually transmitted, but unlike HIV, condoms can't prevent it entirely. It infects most people at some stage of their lives, so the aim is to vaccinate girls before they're exposed. In the UK, girls are vaccinated at the age of 12. >> SARAH NYOMBI: I'm going to a school to really interact with girls who have been vaccinated with the HPV vaccination, and to see and find out how they really found it. >> VOICEOVER: Just like in Uganda, knowledge about the cancer is limited. >> SARAH NYOMBI: Did you hear about cervical cancer before? >> ALICE B [schoolgirl]: No. At primary school they told us a little bit about cancer but not cervical cancer. >> SARAH NYOMBI: OK, just other cancers. >> BOTH SCHOOLGIRLS: Yeah. >> VOICEOVER: But when they heard that cervical cancer affects almost half a million women each year, they all wanted the vaccine. >> ALICE B: I think it was popular here. I think everyone wanted to have it, it wasn't just the parents pushing them to do it but I think they wanted to have it. >> SARAH NYOMBI: The students themselves wanted it for themselves. >> SCHOOLGIRL: And I think anybody who didn't was soon convinced by everyone who was like, this is going to save our life in the future, this is a good decision to make. >> SARAH NYOMBI: I had a good time chatting with the girls. This is a vaccine which has that appeal to almost all girls in this world. So if every girl could have it, it would be wonderful. But the affordability ... it is so expensive. >> VOICEOVER: In Uganda, the government hasn't been able to afford to include the cervical cancer vaccine in its national program so far. To buy it privately here would cost at least USD$300, almost the same as the average Ugandan earns in a year. In two districts of the country, however, a project is underway which could change all that. An American NGO called PATH has organized for 12,000 girls to be vaccinated. >> DR. AISHA JUMAAN [Director, HPV vaccine project, PATH]: This is a demonstration project, to demonstrate how the vaccine can be introduced into a country. >> VOICEOVER: They've launched similar projects in India, Peru, and Vietnam. The aim is to show governments around the globe ways in which the cervical cancer vaccine can be delivered in the developing world. One of the things the project hopes to discover is whether a vaccine for young girls will be accepted here as it has been in the UK. In Uganda, it's targeted at young adolescent girls like Aisha. This morning, she's on her way to school where the vaccinations are taking place. Because the vaccination prevents a sexually transmitted infection, there are fears people will be suspicious. >> DR. AISHA JUMAAN: There is a stigma that people think if you give girls a vaccine that protects them against a sexually transmitted disease then you are encouraging them to start sexual activity. >> SARAH NYOMBI: If you bring it, a vaccination, to girls who have not even been exposed to sex, it was like you are now making them think about sex at that early age. >> VOICEOVER: It's something Sarah's worried about, so she's heading to Aisha's school to see for herself how the vaccine is being received. >> SARAH NYOMBI: I really want to see what's going on there and I believe it to be of great importance to Uganda and the whole of Africa. >> TEACHER [to class]: What are we immunizing against? Hands up if you know the answer. What was that? >> SCHOOLGIRL: Cervical cancer. >> TEACHER: Well done, give her a round of applause. >> SARAH NYOMBI [to schoolchildren]: Do you know who's going to be vaccinated for the first time? Are they here? Put your hands up. They will check your vaccination cards. Boys are not vaccinated, only girls. >> VOICEOVER: Everyone, it seems, wants to be vaccinated. And fears that injections for young girls would be viewed with suspicion have proved unfounded. >> DR. EMMANUEL MUGISHA [HPV Vaccine Project Manager, PATH]: We haven't had any negative issues. Instead we are seeing the opposite, that there is much more demand for the vaccine. Many parents ended up lying about the age of their daughters, so even if someone was 13 they would say she's 10 so that they can be vaccinated. >> VOICEOVER: It's Aisha's turn, and as a former nurse, Sarah knows all the tricks. >> SARAH NYOMBI: The medical personnel was telling me that they don't inject on a hand regularly used so there is no excuse for these children to go back to class and say, 'Teacher, I cannot write because my hand has been ...' So, there is no excuse. >> VOICEOVER: All the girls have been told what they are being vaccinated against, but Sarah soon discovers Aisha knows a lot more about cervical cancer than her classmates. >> AISHA [schoolgirl]: Why is it when you have cervical cancer you start bleeding? >> SARAH NYOMBI: You know that because you have seen it? >> AISHA: Yes. >> VOICEOVER: Two years ago, Aisha's mother died of cervical cancer. >> AISHA: My mum started bleeding and vomiting. >> SARAH NYOMBI: So she was vomiting, and bleeding from her private parts? >> AISHA: Yes. After that, she passed out. >> SARAH NYOMBI: Was she taken to hospital? >> AISHA: Yes, she was. Later they took her to a herbalist called Mawenjje who told them if they took her to hospital again she would die. She kept seeing the herbalist but eventually died. >> VOICEOVER: It isn't the only tragedy Aisha has to deal with. On the same day the crew is filming, her cousin Betty dies of malaria. She is buried the next day. Malaria is just one of the health crises with which Uganda has to do battle. Premature death is common here. But it doesn't make losing someone any easier to bear. Each year, the Ugandan health budget is USD$143 per person. The cervical cancer vaccine is USD$300. The next morning, Sarah and the local health worker, Justine [Kajura Justine Makityo], pay their respects to Aisha's family. Her mother's death, like so many others, never made official cancer records. But there's no doubt what killed her. >> MUSA: She was 46 years old and the bleeding went from bad to worse. I was advised to go to Nakaseke to see Dr Mawenjje. He told me to take her back home and visit him regularly for the medicine. But her condition deteriorated. She couldn't walk. Then she kept getting weaker and weaker. I am terrified of cancer after everything I saw my wife go through. I'd rather die from AIDS than have cancer. >> VOICEOVER: He's relieved a vaccine might be able to save his daughters from the same fate. >> SARAH NYOMBI: Mr. Makah wanted all girls in his house vaccinated, from age 1 to age 16, because what he saw and what he went through was so horrible. >> VOICEOVER: By the time the PATH project finishes in 2011, 12,000 girls will have been vaccinated. But families like Aisha's, and thousands of others, will continue to suffer if the government isn't able to keep on vaccinating. Back in her office in Kampala, it's something of which Sarah is acutely aware. >> SARAH NYOMBI: Yeah, there is a lot of work to be done. After this trip, I feel there is a lot of work to be done. HPV vaccine is very expensive. So we have a meeting of members of parliament tomorrow to get an update of the progress of the vaccination of these young girls. I would really wish to get as many women as possible to know about this cancer and get screening and tested early, not really end up dying like my aunt did. >> TITLE: Kill or Cure >> VOICEOVER: Sarah Nyombi is a politician and former nurse. Today, she's visiting a hospital in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Sarah is visiting the gynecological ward where almost a third of the beds are filled with people suffering from cervical cancer. >> SARAH NYOMBI: Greetings to you all. My sympathies for your illness. >> VOICEOVER: It's one of the few places in the country that keeps any cancer records. Each year, cancer causes more than seven and a half million deaths globally. Seventy percent of them are in the developing world. >> DR. EMMANUEL MUGISHA [HPV Vaccine Project Manager, PATH]: But even then that's the tip of an iceberg. Those are the few individuals who are able to go to the hospitals and get recorded. But many of the cancer patients actually don't. Whenever somebody hears of the word "cancer," it means "death." So they go back to their villages and die. So those are not recorded at all. >> VOICEOVER: Here at Mulago Hospital, most patients with cervical cancer are admitted in the advanced stages, when there's little that can be done to help them. Rehema Namusisi is 35. She's been diagnosed with stage III cancer and is waiting to begin radiotherapy. >> REHEMA NAMUSISI [cancer patient]: When I'd wash myself it felt sore. Stuff used to come out of me. It felt like ants crawling on my skin. On the 20th they sent me to the wing where they expose you to electricity. >> SARAH NYOMBI: And do you feel any better? >> REHEMA NAMUSISI: I'm in a lot of pain. >> VOICEOVER: She might not seem it, but Rehema is one of the lucky ones. If cervical cancer isn't caught early, it kills: a quarter of a million women each year. Rehema might have been diagnosed in time to save her life. Most aren't. Across town, for one day only, a center for free cervical cancer screening has been set up to try and spread the word that women over 25 should be regularly checked for pre-cancerous lesions. Even if the vaccine is introduced here, it only protects against the two most dangerous types of HPV and cannot help the millions already infected, so screening is still vital. In wealthier countries, a test called a Pap smear has seen rates of cervical cancer fall dramatically. But such a high tech, expensive service isn't widely available in the developing world. Here, the best option is to try and introduce alternative, low-cost methods such as VIA [visual inspection with acetic acid], the method being used today. Vinegar, applied to the cervix, highlights any abnormalities, which can then be removed with cryotherapy, or freezing. When treated at this stage, cure rates can be 85 percent or higher. Back in the hospital labs, Sarah is finding out about future screening possibilities. >> SARAH NYOMBI: I would like to know, if a woman wanted to be screened, what are the options? >> DR. EMMANUEL MUGISHA: There are newer options which are about to be ready, such as the careHPV which basically tests for the virus. So you can test about 90 women at a go. It can run on a car battery so it doesn't require an electricity supply. >> VOICEOVER: It's hoped, in conjunction with VIA, the test will help screening to become widely available in the developing world. Uganda is one of the first countries to conduct field evaluations of the test. But, as well as screening, Sarah wants the vaccine introduced nationwide too. This morning, she's organized a meeting for MPs to try and galvanize support. >> SARAH NYOMBI: We organized this meeting to really reach out to the members of parliament. Cervical cancer is not to do with doctors only. >> VOICEOVER: Overwhelming opinion is that the vaccine should be introduced in Uganda. >> MAN IN MEETING #1: Madam chair, when do we have the mega-plan of ensuring that we roll it out all over in the whole country? >> WOMAN IN MEETING #1: We should try to catch up different corners of Uganda. >> WOMAN IN MEETING #2: As much as we need to roll out to other districts but even we have to look at the way how it's going to be sustainable. >> VOICEOVER: First, they have to work out how to pay for it. >> MAN IN MEETING #2: He put the question, "How much would be involved?" It is us who is going to pass the budget. >> VOICEOVER: But the Ugandan Ministry of Health will struggle to afford the vaccine alone. >> VOICEOVER: Hope lies in an organization called the GAVI alliance. >> DR. AISHA JUMAAN [Director, HPV Vaccine Project, PATH]: The cost of the vaccine for many of the developing countries is very expensive. GAVI [Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation] helps poor countries purchase vaccines at a subsidized price, like the HPV vaccine. They [governments] may be able to pay 20 cents per dose, where GAVI takes care of the rest of the price. And GAVI is able to purchase quite a bit of vaccine, and therefore are at a very good position to negotiate a better price for the vaccine than individual countries are able. >> VOICEOVER: Four thousand miles away, in Oxford in the UK, a conference on cervical cancer is being held at the university. GAVI's chief executive, Julian Lob-Levyt, is going to be there. And so is Sarah. >> SARAH NYOMBI: I hope now Julian is here, I will talk to him about this program in Africa, the taking up of the HPV vaccine by GAVI. >> DR. EMMANUEL MUGISHA: Yeah I think it's high time they hear from the politicians. >> VOICEOVER: GAVI has expressed an interest in adding the HPV vaccine to the list of those it already supports. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT [CEO, GAVI Alliance]: Yes, I'm here because GAVI has recently made a decision to explore the use of vaccines, including a vaccine against cervical cancer. In terms of effectiveness it's an astonishingly effective vaccine it gives very high protection. >> VOICEOVER: But the current global financial crisis might make any commitment impossible. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: We don't know yet how deep or how prolonged that crisis is going to be, or [what] the impact will be on development budgets. And essentially GAVI relies on the development finance from the rich countries of the West. So we won't really know that situation until 2010. >> VOICEOVER: It's something Sarah is keen to talk more about. >> SARAH NYOMBI: So, it's nice meeting you and I'm glad that you are here. >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: Well, I think the good news is our board has recognized, mid-November last year, the need, and the board has made a decision that GAVI should now explore the support to HPV vaccine introduction. >> SARAH NYOMBI: So how long will that take? >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: It's all going to happen in the next few months, so that should happen fairly quickly. We're then going to want to look at countries for the feasibility of introduction, so we'll be looking for early adopter countries where there's strong political commitment. >> SARAH NYOMBI: OK, like Uganda? >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: Absolutely, absolutely. >> SARAH NYOMBI: So the funding really is so crucial to Africa, and Uganda in particular, so it's glad I met you and I will keep following you up and ... >> DR. JULIAN LOB-LEVYT: Yeah, and you should chase me up on this one. [laughs] >> SARAH NYOMBI: It really went so, so well that the journey was worth it, and I've talked to Julian, the CEO and president of GAVI, it's really exciting, and there is really hope. >> VOICEOVER: Back in Uganda, Sarah is determined to keep up the momentum of her cervical cancer campaign. Over 500 people have turned up to an awareness march, and Sarah is optimistic about the future. >> SARAH NYOMBI: My hope for the women of Uganda is that everyone gets aware that there is cervical cancer amongst us and that it is preventable. I'm a believer. I believe in God and I know God loves his people. These things will happen. >> TITLE: [end credits] >> TITLE: rockhopper TV http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-untouchables-breaking-down-caste-barriers-in-india <p>Despite being rejected by society since birth, millions of so-called "Untouchables" in India are beginning to win the battle against the prejudice that has denied them basic human rights for centuries.&nbsp;</p> Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:03:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-untouchables-breaking-down-caste-barriers-in-india India, Caste, Caste system in India, Social equality, Empowerment, Untouchability, Education, Poverty, Human rights, Marginalization >> DALJIT DHALIWAL: Imagine being rejected by society since birth and being denied access to certain human rights because of your status in the community. Well, that's the reality facing millions of so-called "Untouchables" in India. Although the Indian government has been fighting prejudice against them, it still continues to this day. >> VOICEOVER: They are considered the original inhabitants of coastal Karnataka in South India. They are called upon by their community to beat ceremonial drums, to race and guard water buffalo for the upper caste. They are the Koragas, one among the many Untouchable communities in India. Literally outcasts of society, they live on the edge of the forests in segregated communities, brought up to believe that they are inferior. India's 170 million Untouchables can face a lifetime of abuse, but slowly their status is changing. Basri is an Untouchable. She and her family are illiterate and desperately poor. >> BASRI [Koraga]: It is our bad luck that our community has been cursed for such a long time. >> VOICEOVER: Basri's granddaughter, Jaya, was sexually abused by an upper caste man, a fact she finds sad. >> BASRI: Today, the men folk are not hesitant to touch us as they wish. But the women would not come near us. Sometimes, I can't resist asking: "Do worms grow in our bodies?" >> VOICEOVER: Hindus place people into four castes, based on how they lived their past lives. At the top are the Brahmans: the priests and the scholars; and then the Kshatriyas: the rulers and soldiers. Below them are the Vaishyas: the merchants and traders; and then the Sudras, the laborers. The Untouchables, considered impure and unclean, are unworthy to belong to any caste. By tradition, they are the lowliest of the low. But they do have their champions. For nearly two decades, Keshav Koteshwar, an upper caste man, has been struggling to end the discrimination against Untouchables. At a time when few dared to, he entered the community. His goal: to change attitudes in the entrenched Indian caste system, including a custom in which the Koragas were expected to eat other people's scraps. >> KESHAV KOTESHWAR: Earlier, the Koraga used to go to marriage halls and collect leftover food that was thrown there. They dry them like this and store them in a box. During the rainy season, they re-cook the food and consume it. >> VOICEOVER: Untouchables also have a difficult time finding work. >> KESHAV KOTESHWAR: Members of the Koraga are not given decent jobs. They are given only cleaning jobs in hotels and hospitals. >> VOICEOVER: Historically, there have been many attempts to eradicate Untouchability. The most famous is the hunger strike led by Mohandas Gandhi in 1932. In 1955, the Indian Parliament passed legislation outlawing Untouchability. Today, national and state governments have a minimum quota of jobs set aside for Untouchables, but these are not always enforced, says Shukra, a Koraga working part-time in a government hospital. >> SHUKRA: People promise that there are jobs reserved for the local community people. But no one is bothered. I am not blaming the government, but that is the reality. >> VOICEOVER: For generations, the Koragas have accepted the limitations placed on them, following the traditional beliefs and practices dictated by the caste system without question. Sridhar explains. >> SRIDHAR: In our village, we are not allowed into the house of rich families. We feel sad, but we accept it. Our families think that we are from the lower class. >> VOICEOVER: In 1993, Keshav set up Spoorthi, a residential school for the Koraga kids, to teach them about equal rights and to stand up against such feudal customs. But people in the upper castes were reluctant to release them from work to go to school. >> KESHAV KOTESHWAR: When we first started enrolling the Koraga kids, they asked me if my father would work in their houses if the kids are gone. >> VOICEOVER: Only 10 students were enrolled in the first year. But Keshav persisted. He began staging hunger strikes and peaceful protests to draw attention to the plight of the Koragas. He led a movement to collect alms from home to home, village to village to raise funds to support the children's education. Today, the school provides a 12-year curriculum to 60 students, including a class teaching a dance form that is traditionally practiced only by the upper caste. >> SRIDHAR: Earlier when our parents said that by entering the temple god will curse us, we used to believe them. But not any longer, thanks to my schooling. Now I have the confidence to talk with anyone. Earlier I used to be scared of even facing the upper caste people. >> VOICEOVER: While progress is being made within the younger generation, many older members of the Untouchable communities continue to follow the traditional duties handed down to them. The Koragas lead processions to announce temple festivals, a duty that they have performed for generations, says Santosh. >> SANTOSH: Traditionally my job is to guide the buffalo. This is a duty that I have inherited. If we don't do our duty, then the deity will create problems for us. >> VOICEOVER: More importantly, Santosh and others fear losing the money, the rice, and the coconut they receive as donations for carrying out these rituals. Ganesh, a young Koraga, challenges this tradition. He joins Keshav in his fight to change perceptions about Untouchables. >> GANESH: Only the lower caste participates in the buffalo procession. To bring equality, we suggest all communities participate because it is a program of the entire village. >> VOICEOVER: At the village square, an intense discussion is taking place between members of the upper and lower castes about the procession. After much negotiation, Keshav succeeds in persuading both sides to join the march. >> KP Adyanthaya: Do you have problems if we participate? >> KORAGA: No. >> VOICEOVER: Taking the lead is an influential upper caste man, KP Adyanthaya. He's the caretaker of a powerful local Hindu temple. This may seem like a small step, but it's deeply symbolic. The willingness of different caste members to march together shows that attitudes can change. It offers hope for the Untouchables: the possibility of breaking down centuries-old prejudice and caste barriers. >> DALJIT DHALIWAL: That's all for this edition of 21st Century. I'm Daljit Dhaliwal, we'll see you next time. Until then, goodbye. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/farming-the-waters-java-s-blue-revolution <p>Hydroelectric projects are popular in developing countries. They are clean, renewable sources of energy. But building dams also means flooding valleys and destroying the homes and livelihoods of local people. In Indonesia, a pioneering program is turning this notion on its head, transforming new lakes into lucrative sources of income, and allowing displaced former farmers to become successful fishermen.</p> Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:17:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/farming-the-waters-java-s-blue-revolution Fish farming, Aquaculture, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, West Java, Agriculture, Energy development, Developing country, Hydropower, Tilapia >> MRS. LILY [fish farmer]: Before the reservoir, we led the normal lives of rice farmers in this area. Now, since the creation of the Turada Reservoir, our lives are much improved. >> MAN: It's a better life now. Before the reservoir we were just simple land farmers. Now, we have a whole new environment. >> TITLE: Farming the Waters: Java's Blue Revolution >> VOICEOVER: The Citarum River is the lifeblood of millions of Sudanese people in West Java, Indonesia. The river begins in the mountains, near Bandung, the third-largest city in Indonesia, and flows through one of the most densely populated areas of the world ending in the sea near Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Along the way, the river feeds a complex network of traditional agriculture systems, which integrate rice paddies, waterfowl, and fishponds. Over the last 30 years, three dams have been built on the Citarum River. These dams provide about 1,500 megawatts of new electricity to the island of Java in Indonesia, home of the world's fourth-largest population. The new hydropower dams have brought cheap electricity to millions of urban residents and a secure source of drinking and irrigation water to countless rural people. And yet the costs of the dams have not been equally shared by urban and rural people. Increased dam construction has created enormous social and environmental problems. Large numbers of people have lost their homes, their lands, and their livelihoods. In the case of the Saguling and Cirata dams in West Java, the lives of over 100,000 people were disrupted. Population densities in villages around the new reservoirs, already among the highest in the world before the dams, increased two- to three-fold. Yet today in the economically developing countries, much like the industrialized countries decades earlier, the pace of dam construction speeds ahead due to increased demands for electricity and water. Hydropower is viewed by many as a clean energy source, a more appropriate alternative to nuclear power. But it raises many questions, especially about the people displaced by the dams. In the past and throughout the world, reservoirs created by the dams have seldom been used for restoring the income of the displaced people. In many cases the reservoirs became choked with weeds and refuse, breeding new diseases. Invariably the displaced people viewed the new lake as an unwanted newcomer. But something extraordinary happened in the Saguling and Cirata reservoirs in West Java. A new idea was proposed for the use of the reservoirs and for the resettlement of the local people. >> SCOTT GUGGENHEIM, PhD [anthropologist, The World Bank]: In the crowded countries of Asia -- Bangladesh, Indonesia, China, and India -- there isn't an enormous amount of land that you could just transfer to the resettlers. You need to find new ways to provide productive assets to the resettlers. And in this case we have what's clearly a unique approach by taking the main resource, which is water, and making it into something that produces even more than the land that was taken away to build the dam. That's special. >> VOICEOVER: In these reservoirs, a type of aquatic farming system know as floating cage aquaculture was developed. In this system, fish are grown in nets supported by bamboo and floated at the water's surface by recycled oil drums. This video documents how cage aquaculture and a planned approach to reservoir fisheries development helped the displaced people in Indonesia to dramatically increase their standard of living. Mrs. Lily is an owner and operator of fish cages in the Cirata reservoir. Her entire family was displaced by the reservoir and received compensation, as well as training in cage aquaculture. >> MRS. LILY: Before the reservoir we had only a small shop and we were rice farmers with a production of only five tons per harvest. Now with these floating fish cages we can harvest 10 tons of fish per month, and in one month I sell 300 to 350 tons of fish feed. Since we began working in cage aquaculture, we've been able to send our children to school, to go to Mecca, and to buy goods I could never afford before, like a car. And I've opened a store to sell fish feed. All of this is from the money we've made from fish sales. We've bought a home and have used the money we've earned to develop more fish cages and to invest in this business. The resettled people I know from the same village have all moved here and they're prospering in their lives. Their lives are much better and all the children are going to school. People have built much better homes than their previous ones in the former village. >> SCOTT GUGGENHEIM: We're creating larges bodies of water. This water can support fish. Fish are worth a lot of money, they're part of people's diets, they need them in the cities, they're a tremendous resource, they have a high price. We're creating the asset in front of our eyes, and it's not being used. That's what makes this case so interesting. When we look at Cirata, when we look at Saguling, we see something we see virtually nowhere else in Southeast Asia in terms of resettlement. We see a unique and wonderful solution for resettlement: fish. >> PEPEN EFFENDI [Fisheries Manager, West Java Provincial Fisheries Service]: From the research results from Padjadjaran University, total crop production from farmers in the flooded areas before the Saguling reservoir was about 2 billion rupiah [IDR] each year. After switching to fisheries occupations, the total former gross income for 1993 reached 16.5 billion rupiah. So there was an eight-fold increase from before the project. >> BARRY COSTA-PIERCE, PhD [Professor, Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, Minnesota State University]: At the end of 1993, in that year, Saguling produced 8,300 tons of freshwater fish from floating net cage aquaculture. If we translate this to the surface area of Saguling, this makes Saguling the world's most productive aquatic environment. >> VOICEOVER: The aquaculture developments in Indonesia were funded by the World Bank and the government of Indonesia as part of a loan package for dam construction at Cirata. They were the first attempt ever to resettle large numbers of displaced people in aquaculture occupations using the water surface of newly created reservoirs. >> SCOTT GUGGENHEIM: I can't emphasize strongly enough how much the [World] Bank supports this approach to resettlement. Cases like Cirata and Saguling are so valuable because they provide a way to reconcile the costs and the benefits. From a developing country perspective, they're also extremely useful examples because the [World] Bank can support virtually 100 percent of all the costs it takes to finance aquaculture. >> VOICEOVER: In the mid-1980s, resettlement experts at the World Bank began to ask if cage aquaculture could be used not only to help solve the problem of involuntary resettlement but also to help restore the incomes of the displaced farmers. Farmers in West Java have traditionally combined land and water farming systems in complex ways. They have practiced aquaculture in backyard ponds and integrated fishponds with gardens and animals. >> BARRY COSTA-PIERCE: One of reasons for the extraordinary success of the floating fish cages in Saguling and Cirata has been than the fact that West Java is a fisheries culture. The people know as much about growing fish as they know about growing any other land-based farm animal. They mix agriculture and aquaculture together in traditional systems in order to meet the pressing demands of their high population densities, and they've done this since ancient time. >> T. ASIKIN [Director, West Java Provincial Fisheries Service]: This success is not only due to the fisheries culture of the farmers and fishermen, it's also because they're extremely innovative, clever, and very responsive to new technologies. >> VOICEOVER: Rice fields are used simultaneously as fish nurseries. Small fish -- fish fingerlings -- are harvested from rice fields and sold to farmers to stock their cages in the reservoirs. >> PEPEN EFFENDI: Rice-fish culture gives a number of benefits to traditional rice farmers. The high profits enable them to better manage the costs of rice farming. The fish actually pay for the costs of rice farming. The fish produced from rice-fish culture can increase the production of rice from 5 to 15 percent beyond the rice yield without the fish. >> VOICEOVER: The growth in rice-fish culture in West Java has not only benefited farmers but also the environment. >> BARRY COSTA-PIERCE: Since you cannot put pesticides in rice fields where there's fish, or you'll kill the fish, we've seen a dramatic decrease in the use of pesticides in these fields. Plus, an additional benefit is that these fish act as little pigs, stirring up the soil. They go and they burrow into the bottom of the soil and they move up all the nutrients that's been locked in the soil in these rice paddies. So you actually, when you put fish in rice, you use less fertilizer and less pesticides. >> VOICEOVER: Growing fish in bamboo cages was first practiced in rivers in West Java in the 18th century. Cage aquaculture in rivers may have evolved from the practice of keeping fish in woven bamboo baskets in canals at fish markets so that they would remain alive and command premium prices. While Indonesian farmers have traditionally used cages to raise fish in irrigation canals and rivers, the use the floating cages and lakes and reservoirs was a new idea. In the early 1980s scientists at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, Indonesia proposed that this concept -- developing floating fish cages in the reservoirs -- could create numerous new jobs. >> SUTANDAR ZAINAL [Professor of Aquaculture, Padjadjaran University]: Reservoir fisheries of this type were relatively new to Indonesia. We didn't know at the beginning what type of fish to develop, or what technology was needed here. We then studied what kinds of systems have been developed in other countries, especially the southern nations of Asia like the Philippines and Thailand, where reservoir fisheries are fairly well-developed, and other countries like Nepal which have developed cage aquaculture in reservoirs. We then adopted and modified these systems to conditions found in Indonesia. >> VOICEOVER: An international partnership was formed between Padjadjaran University, the Indonesian Directorate General of Fisheries, and ICLARM, International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management in the Philippines. Together these institutions did applied research in floating cage aquaculture and developed village-based participatory programs to train farmers. >> BARRY COSTA-PIERCE: There was a substantial amount of national and international cooperation in this project. Within Indonesia, a government fisheries department, a state electric company, and a university work together for the first time. These joined together with ICLARM, an international fisheries organization in the Philippines. And ICLARM provided the resources so that members of the Indonesian team could travel to other Asian countries in kind of a south-south technology transfer to look at existing technologies. These were then brought back from Nepal, Philippines, and Thailand, and adapted to the Indonesian situation. This level of national and international cooperation is an example to others who want to develop such reservoir cage aquaculture operations in the future. >> VOICEOVER: The role of the Indonesian state electric company, PLN [Perusahaan Listrik Negara], was critical. PLN granted the displaced people exclusive rights over the use of the water surfaces of the reservoirs. The Indonesian Fisheries Directorate also played a key role. It established a special technical unit to oversee the development of cage aquaculture in both reservoirs. >> T. ASIKIN: The government developed the Cirata and Saguling reservoirs with the idea that people would benefit from them. The development of the fisheries in these reservoirs is for the people in the area. It's not permitted for outsiders to be involved. >> VOICEOVER: The West Java provincial government passed legislation establishing a permitting process to control the number of cages. Each family was limited to four cages to ensure that the carrying capacities of the reservoir environments were not exceeded. >> PEPEN EFFENDI: The development of fisheries in the Saguling and Cirata reservoirs began with Saguling in 1986. It began with farmer training sessions as part of our plan to prepare the farmers to begin the professional fisheries. For common carp, the price of seed has increased steadily. The feed for common carp is currently twice as much as the feed for Nile tilapia and the demand for common carp may be decreasing, while the demand for Nile tilapia is growing. So many farmers are beginning to choose Nile tilapia over common carp. >> VOICEOVER: Village schools were developed to teach reservoir aquaculture methods to displaced farmers and their families. These schools served as centers of farming innovation, where farmers could interact informally with their peers and with experts in developing aquaculture technologies. >> PEPEN EFFENDI: The success of the fisheries in both the Saguling and Cirata reservoirs occurred mainly because we followed a plan from the beginning. Although people lost their livelihoods and had to move when the water levels rose, there was a technology ready for them that was appropriate for their situation. >> VOICEOVER: Low-cost models for floating cage aquaculture were developed using nets and bamboo, wire, nails, and rope, and with or without recycled oil drums for flotation. A typical cage produced up to two tons of fish in just three to four months, and cost less than US$300 to construct. Even less expensive models were also developed and demonstrated. Illustrated guidebooks in the local language were produced to educate farmers about various aquaculture options. Mr. S and his family were displaced by the Saguling reservoir and received training in aquaculture. >> MR. S: My feelings are that fish farming is great. We get quick results. When I grew cassava I had to wait one year to get money. Now that I grow fish, I can sell them in a few months. It's also much harder as a land farmer than as a fish farmer, much harder. When I grew cassava as a land farmer, I worked from early morning to noon before I took my first break. It's a better life as a water farmer. >> VOICEOVER: Fish cage aquaculture is very profitable and the markets for freshwater fish in West Java are enormous. The province has a population of 35 million people and fish comprise about 70 percent of their total animal protein consumption. Mrs. Noorhani and Mrs. Nangsi own a restaurant in Bongas village near a bay of the Saguling reservoir with hundreds of fish cages. They come to the cages every week to buy fish. >> WOMEN: Can we have 10 kg of live fish in a plastic bag with oxygen? It's a better situation for us now. Fish are cheaper. Before it was difficult to catch or buy fish. Now they're available whenever you want: at night or in the afternoon. >> VOICE: Today we're at the Cisaat Sukabumi Fish Market, which is about an hour outside of the reservoirs in Saguling and Cirata. There's about 20 tons of freshwater fish coming through this market every single day. About 50 percent of this fish is coming from these reservoirs. So this market is a very important way of getting fish in and out to the small communities throughout West Java. >> VOICEOVER: The most preferred fish in West Java is ikan mas, or common carp. Aquaculture of this fish requires that the nursery phase of its lifecycle take place on land in ponds. As a result, the entire enterprise of growing common carp could not be made fully floating within the reservoir and still required precious land. A fish known as tilapia was introduced to the farmers. Tilapia are inexpensive to feed, grow quickly, and can be reproduced directly in floating cages. Introduction of tilapia initiated a whole new suite of successful small-scale businesses that did not require land-based hatcheries or rice field nurseries. As a bonus, the tilapia were found to eat noxious blue-green algae that sometimes fouled the reservoir. The cages have had a multiplier effect on the village and local economies. It has been estimated that for every direct job in the cages, there are three jobs created in various aquaculture support services. >> PEPEN EFFENDI: There is a great deal of business activity connected with the floating fish cages in these lakes. The cages require fingerlings and feeds which require feed mills or feed industries. Also, there must be good transportation for both the feed and the fish. The farmers in Saguling have trucks to transport fish from Saguling to Jakarta and to bring feed from Jakarta to Saguling. And all of these activities have developed because of the new fisheries. >> SCOTT GUGGENHEIM: I found, visiting these communities and talking to the farmers ... I can't just say I found it interesting, I found it thrilling. I've looked at resettlement in Latin America, in South Asia, in Africa, and in East Asia, and most of the time the best you can hope for is that people were not badly treated. But that's not what you see here. You see economic development. You see a thriving ... in fact more than a thriving, you see an exploding economy. You see innovation. You see progress. That's what we should be supporting. >> VOICEOVER: One important question is still unanswered in these developments: how people can be resettled in the fisheries occupations in such reservoirs. >> T. ASIKIN: The Provincial Fisheries Department of West Java had the responsibility for the resettlement fisheries, with the plan to resettle 1,500 families in Saguling and 1,500 in Cirata. Saguling now has 2,400 families involved in fisheries, and Cirata has 2,200 families. So we've exceeded the target. >> PEPEN EFFENDI: At present we have just reached about 9,000 total cages. Therefore, 50 percent of the eligible area of the reservoirs still remains to be developed. So, by developing fisheries, we can resettle far more than 1,500 families at each reservoir. >> SCOTT GUGGENHEIM: Is the aquaculture that we see at Cirata and Saguling a magic bullet that will solve the problem of dams everywhere in Asia? Obviously it isn't. There's some unique characteristics here. It doesn't solve the resettlement difficulty for everybody affected by these projects. There's no question, this is not the magic solution. On the other hand, it's a successful solution for a large number of people and the principle that made it successful in Cirata and Saguling probably can be applied to many other Asian countries as well. >> VOICEOVER: The Indonesian example could be of great value to many countries, especially those with cultural backgrounds in fisheries, with high levels of traditional farming knowledge, and with large market demands for fish. It could also be a model in situations where the political process can establish clear legal tenure over the new aquatic resources for the sole benefit of the displaced people >> SCOTT GUGGENHEIM: One of the things that impressed me a lot after visiting the people that were displaced by this dam is the change in how they think about the reservoir that caused their displacement. So often you see a large body of water with the people far away, who basically see it as the agency of their destruction. Here we see that they've taken this large body of water, and it's worth even more than the land that they lost. You see thriving communities virtually in the middle of the lake, and people making two and three times more per hectare out of fish than they ever made out of rice. This is an amazing phenomenon to see in resettlement. It's pretty rare to see in development as a whole, and it is extremely heartening to see development in action caused by this dam. >> SUTANDAR ZAINAL: This is an interesting case that can be used by a number of countries that have problems similar to ours. There have been many requests to the electric company, PLN, to study the development and operation of the floating fish cages in these reservoirs. This model for resettlement may be very useful to nations with water resources like ours, especially in Asia and Latin America. >> SCOTT GUGGENHEIM: When I went to those villages, the enthusiasm people show for the fisheries is quite striking. It shows that when people are involved in planning and designing the resettlement option, they make it work. It's not just participating in a passive sense. They are the actors. I think this is the only way we can go in the future. >> VOICEOVER: These developments in Java demonstrate how the aquaculture resettlement option can used to restore the productive livelihoods of displaced people, and to improve their environment. Where the reservoirs are treated as a dynamic resource, new water farming systems have been developed to create productive economies. People have been able to change from farming the land to farming the waters of the new lakes. This blue revolution in Java holds the promise of better lives for millions of people. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-breaking-the-cycle-of-poverty-in-kosovo Some 30,000 people in Kosovo who identify themselves as belonging to the Roma, Ashkali or Egyptian ethnic groups are living on the fringes of society. Many lack the identity papers that would entitle them to the benefits available to other citizens: social welfare, unemployment, even schooling. Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:47:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-breaking-the-cycle-of-poverty-in-kosovo Kosovo, Poverty, UNICEF, Ashkali and Egyptians, Pristina, Social work, Education, Health, Governance & Transparency >> VOICEOVER: Central Pristina, where street life in the Kosovo capital is as lively as it is in any other European city. And all European cities have their bleaker sides. In Pristina, it’s out at the city limits, hard up against the decaying remnants of a Yugoslav industrial past. Here live Pristina’s most impoverished inhabitants, an ethnic ghetto of people known as Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, amongst whom unemployment is said to be nudging a hundred percent. For many, this is their only way of life. Every day, scores of men set out to see what they can salvage from the city’s waste. Nor is it just an income they’re hoping for; they search for discarded food to feed their families. >> BESNIK HASANIK [Scrap Collector]: We work in the garbage containers, collecting tin cans, copper, scrap metal, aluminium, whatever we can find. Sometimes I can’t find anything because I’m not the only one out there looking for it. We also search the bins for whatever we can eat or drink. >> VOICEOVER: In Besnik’s family, at least the bread’s home-baked; in a stove fuelled by old shoes and boots. But the ketchup for the kids, well, that’s been scraped from the bottom of dispensers that richer people have thrown out. Besnik and his extended family of 19 are trapped in a terrible cycle of despair passed from one generation to the next. >> TANIA GOLDNER [UNICEF, Kosovo]: This means they will continue to live in this vicious circle of poverty. This means they will not be able to get employed. This means they will not be able to earn income for their own kids, for their own families. >> VOICEOVER: At the local community centre, volunteers like Ridvan are attempting to get more kids not only to go to school but to stay there, offering help with homework to children often far behind their peers from other communities. Social workers say Kosovo’s tumultuous past has left many already deprived people in this community without the birth certificates and registration papers they need to obtain government services. >> BAJRAM MAROLLI [Social Worker]: There are so many problems because if the children aren’t registered they can’t go to school and within a few years those children will grow up, get married, establish their own families and they won't have documents for their children who can’t be registered either. >> VOICEOVER: These are urgent problems because as Kosovo strives to build a nation, as many as 30,000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians are being left behind, and their despair is growing. This is Peter George in Kosovo, for UNICEF Television. Unite for children. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-liberating-liberia-s-war-generation <p>Sunny fought twice in Liberia's civil war: first with the rebels when he was 12 years old, and again for the government when he was 17. Now aged 20, Sunny has been enrolled in a UNICEF-supported program, which is teaching this former child soldier how to be a farmer.&nbsp;</p> Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:33:54 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-liberating-liberia-s-war-generation Liberia, Child soldier, Monrovia, Civil war, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Second Liberian Civil War, ECHO, Education, UNICEF, President of Liberia >> VOICEOVER: Brutal marks of war and neglect are stark in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. But unseen is the damage to an entire generation. Not just once but twice Sunny fought in Liberia's civil war. First when he was 12; drugged up and fooled into thinking war was fun, he fought for the rebels. Then, when he was 17, he fought on the side of government forces. Now, Sunny is planting seeds, but his scars and his memories of being exploited will always be with him: >> SUNNY [Not his real name]: At which time I was a little boy, I was only used: "Go and get, go and do this," and I'd go and do it, and "Go and get me this," and I go and get 'im. But I was with the general and, because, anywhere he goes, I follow; anything he wants me to do, I did. >> VOICEOVER: He is one of more 11,000 Liberian youngsters directly involved in the 15-year conflict. Today, it's drama of a different kind. They're learning Shakespeare, being counseled, and coming to terms with their past. At this resource center supported by UNICEF and ECHO, the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department, young Liberians are beginning to pick up the pieces of their lost childhood. >> CORINNA KREIDLER [ECHO Field Expert]: They don't have any skills or very few: those few they learnt, for those who did some training courses. Their education level is relatively low. And also their frustration ... their tolerance to accept frustrations and to resolve problems with peaceful means is limited because that's not what they learnt. They learnt that if they have a weapon, they are the boss man, they are the strong people, and they can just impose whatever they want on other people. And of course in Liberia in 2007 things don't work that way anymore. >> VOICEOVER: Help from outside has laid a firm foundation, but Liberians themselves have had to make it happen. Daniel Swaray has seen how work and play can rehabilitate former combatants. >> DANIEL SWARAY [Sustainable Development Promoters: Ganta]: The growing stage of a child is very important. Play is one very important aspect of the growth of a child and, if you lack play, you lack your childhood. And this is one thing that they were lacking very much. So, when we came to them, they did not even understand what play was. Most of the trainees we have there were fighting for opposing forces, and they were chasing one another with guns. But now they are playing together, eating from the same bowl. >> VOICEOVER: In the wake of recent elections, all the signs are looking good for the country. Bright-eyed children are back at school, new construction abounds. But Liberia's new government sees children as its most valuable asset. >> ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF [Liberian President]: The government will protect the children, first of all ensuring that they have the means to get an education, and of course in our carrying out of the rule of law, to ensure that any action against them will be dealt with in our laws. This refers particularly to our young girls who have been subjected to rape. >> SARAH CROWE [UNICEF]: What about your vision for the future of Liberia's children, in general? >> ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF: To ensure that all of our children have an educational opportunity, in even the most remote village in the country. >> VOICEOVER: For so long Sunny too was deprived of so much. Going back home and learning a new trade has given him, like so many others, new hope. >> SARAH CROWE: This skills training that you're doing: are you happy with it, is it a good thing? >> SUNNY: I am very happy with it because I want to learn, and then do something to improve myself -- and improve my country as well. So I am very happy with it, it's fine, it's going down well with me. >> SARAH CROWE: What do you want to do when you finish your training? >> SUNNY: When I finish my training if my choice is given to me, I will try to have my own agricultural fields as we are doing, and then try to learn some things, and then practice what I was taught. That's what I want to do, yes. >> VOICEOVER: Progress is promising here but there's concern that the international community may drop the ball on Liberia and not give the youth a fighting chance of a better future. In Liberia, this is Sarah Crowe for UNICEF Television. Unite for Children. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ausaid_02_indonesiahiv <p>In Indonesia, fresh approaches to illegal drug use and the sex industry are helping to reduce the spread of HIV. Now addicts can get access to methadone programs and clean needles, and sex workers are being tought about prevention methods by former colleagues.&nbsp;</p> Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ausaid_02_indonesiahiv Indonesia, HIV, AIDS, Antiretroviral drug, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Drug-related crime, World Health Day, Education, National AIDS Commission, Safe sex >> NARRATOR: Compared to many other countries battling the spread of HIV and AIDS, the percentage of the Indonesian population infected with the virus is low. But it's estimated more than 200,000 Indonesians are living with the virus, and other worrying statistics are emerging >> DR. NAFSIAH MBOI [Secretary, National AIDS Commission, Indonesia]: According to the UNAIDS report, they said that Indonesia was one of the fasting growing epidemic in Asia. And that is because we have more than 50 percent transmission among the injecting drug users, and that goes very fast. >> NARRATOR: Controlling the spread of HIV across this enormous archipelago is a huge task, but Indonesian authorities are taking on the challenge. The growing epidemic has prompted a fresh look at policies including new approaches to education, treatment, prevention, and drug law enforcement. >> DR. NAFSIAH MBOI: There can be the death penalty, actually. So what happened was anybody with drugs were put in jail, so our prisons became overloaded. But, for injecting drug users especially, that meant they went underground and they shared syringes, they shared needles among them, which means the infection went very, very fast: from almost zero in 1997 to very high prevalences in 2007. >> NARRATOR: Measures to reduce the spread of HIV have been scaled up dramatically with the support of the Australian Government, including new needle and syringe programs and methadone clinics like this one, where registered drug users can come, without fear of prosecution, for assistance to reduce their dependence on heroin. They can also access clean needles, avoiding the need to share syringes, a key cause of infection amongst injecting drug users. It's taken a shift in thinking, but it's an approach Dr. Nafsiah Mboi has worked hard to implement. >> DR. NAFSIAH MBOI: If they don't get access to prevention, like condoms and sterile needles, etc, and they don't get access to the medication and service they need, we will fail. >> NARRATOR: Work is also underway to ensure health workers have a positive approach to those at risk of contracting the HIV virus. A trip to the methadone clinic is specifically designed to be a non-threatening experience >> DR. NAFSIAH MBOI: They are our children and they have the right to be healthy, they have the right to live. >> NARRATOR: Across the water in Bali another forward-thinking program is underway. This one is aimed at reducing sexual transmission of HIV. These young women are former sex workers, and their knowledge of the local industry is being used to educate others in safe practices. The island is well known as a holiday destination throughout the region. Unfortunately, it's also where some young Indonesian women get caught up in the sex industry. >> FORMER SEX WORKER [Yayasan Kerti Praja volunteer]: I was from a small village in Java and someone came and said there's work for you in a shop. >> NARRATOR: Now she has been diagnosed with HIV, a direct result of unprotected sex. She has also joined a team of women working with Australian volunteer Emily Rowe in an outreach program promoting condom use in the Kuta sex industry, and encouraging regular health checks. It's a very successful initiative funded by AusAID. >> EMILY ROWE [outreach worker, Australian Volunteers International]: Because they understand the industry, and they understand the way that the male guests think, and because they're not shy, they can talk about all kinds of really, really detailed aspects of the work with the girls. >> FORMER SEX WORKER: For me, it's much easier for me to talk about HIV, because I know how it feels, and I know how it feels to be discriminated against, and how it feels when you get sick with HIV. >> NARRATOR: According to the women involved in the program, male guests -- as they call them -- are very reluctant to wear condoms. Changing that practice is the principal focus of the group's work. >> FORMER SEX WORKER: I think it's very, very important, especially for lots of the guests that are ... maybe they're construction workers, or they're fishermen, and they have very, very low levels of knowledge. >> NARRATOR: Teams pay regular visits to brothels and other known sites throughout the city, not only to educate, but to encourage sex workers to visit the clinic for health testing. >> DR. PUTRI GESAKMADE [Kerti Praja Foundation]: Because of this organization, we have had a really, really big impact, especially in the sex-work industry, especially with regards to condom use, and helping to treat positive sex workers with ARV treatment and therapy. So we are helping to control the epidemic. >> NARRATOR: Dr. Putri's father, Professor Wirawan, established the Kerti Praja Foundation in 1992. It's a medical organization working to provide antiretroviral therapy for patients who need it. That support has now been extended to help meet the health needs of those most at risk: sex workers. >> EMILY ROWE: I think that obviously it probably would have begun with one or two that wanted to stop working, and we thought that's such a great opportunity as peer educators, and so it's growing. We just got recently another two volunteers. >> NARRATOR: For Indonesian authorities, the strategy to fight the spread of HIV -- sexually transmitted or through the use of infected needles -- is not to ostracise the most vulnerable but to embrace them, reaping the benefits of their street-level knowledge. >> DR. NAFSIAH MBOI: So only by embracing them, by recognizing that they are the key populations, will we succeed. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-protecting-young-women-from-human-trafficking-in-vietnam <p>Nguyen Thi Phuong, a victim of human trafficking, is part of a woman's club in Vietnam that is helping her recover from her ordeal. She is also working to educate other women to prevent them from falling into the same trap she did.&nbsp;</p> Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:10:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-protecting-young-women-from-human-trafficking-in-vietnam Vietnam, Human trafficking, UNICEF, Lang Son, China, Cambodia, Foreign Assistance, Gender, Governance & Transparency >> VOICEOVER: Nguyen Thi Phuong enjoys time with her young son, while her husband washes motorbikes nearby. She is happy to have her own family, and relieved she is no longer a prisoner in someone else's. In 1991, Phuong was tricked into going near the Chinese border by a friend in league with traffickers. She thought she was going to buy imported fruit. Instead, she was taken into China and sold to become an older man's wife. >> NGUYEN THI PHUONG [trafficking victim]: I didn't know how old he was or the name of the place we lived. I lost my freedom. I had to go everywhere with his family or else I was locked in a room. I had to work hard. When I was tired or sick, they didn't let me stop working. >> VOICEOVER: She remained there for more than two years, until one night the family forgot to lock her door. Phuong escaped and found her way back across the border to Vietnam. She is one of tens of thousands of Vietnamese women who have been trafficked to neighboring China and Cambodia or elsewhere. UNICEF works with both the Vietnamese and Chinese governments in a joint program to crack down on trafficking of women and children. >> LO HONG LOAN [UNICEF Child Protection Officer]: We have been involved in analyzing law and policy, and to make concrete recommendations to the government on how to improve law and policy to better prevent and to protect victims of trafficking. >> VOICEOVER: UNICEF also supports a community-based approach to the problem, including the establishing of women's clubs that give comfort to former trafficking victims and raise awareness to prevent future cases. >> TO THI LAN PHUONG [Chairwoman, Cao Loc Women's Union]: We include many women who are the victims of trafficking. These women share with us a lot of experience, as well as the situation of many women who are still in China. We also go to these women's homes and talk with their family and encourage them so they don't feel sorry for themselves; they feel more integrated into the society. >> VOICEOVER: Nguyen Thi Phuong is an active member of her women's club. She shares her story as a warning to others. >> NGUYEN THI PHUONG: Together with what I learned and my experience, I can talk to young women in the community. I tell them that, if you are poor, the traffickers will take advantage of your situation and sell you, and you won't even know you were sold. >> VOICEOVER: Words that may help save other women from a similar fate, or one even worse. In Lang Son, Vietnam, this is Steve Nettleton reporting for UNICEF Television. Unite for children. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0906 <p>This landlocked Himalayan kingdom is finding innovative ways to create sustainable progress without sacrificing centuries of tradition and the country's unique culture.&nbsp;</p> Fri, 28 May 2010 21:50:39 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0906 Bhutan, Gross national happiness, United Nations, United Nations Development Programme, Subsistence farming, Sustainable development, Organic farming, Agriculture, Organic certification, UN in Action >> VOICEOVER: Bhutan, a landlocked kingdom secluded in the Himalayas, is now at a crossroads. It needs development, but it also wants to preserve its national heritage. Today, Thimphu, the capital, remains largely untouched by foreign influence. Its architecture is predominantly Bhutanese. National clothes are the standard fashion. There are no fast food outlets or other Western franchise chains. But, with a growing young population desiring a better life, can the country progress without sacrificing centuries of tradition? One answer may lie in promoting the kingdom's organic industry. The Ministry of Agriculture, supported by the UN Development Programme, UNDP, is looking into expanding organic farming. Kesang Tshomo is the Coordinator for the organic program. >> KESANG TSHOMO: Because our country is basically mostly natural, and very little disturbance has been done with our farming ... because our farming area is only about 8 percent of the country, we have still a lot of potential that can be capitalized in [the] organic area. >> VOICEOVER: Bhutan's current largest industry is the export of hydroelectric power. Based mainly on run-of-the-river schemes, it already provides nearly half of the kingdom's revenues. Another industry, tourism, is growing. But the government is not keen to encourage it. More than just economic growth, it wants progress that promotes a holistic development of the people. The concept, advocated by the King, his Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, is called "Gross National Happiness." United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bhutan, Renata Dessalien explains. >> RENATA DESSALIEN: His fundamental idea was that development has to be about more than gross national product. People are not just economic animals, they are social animals, they're religious animals, they're cultural animals. And the development plan has to cater to all these various dimensions of a person. >> VOICEOVER: Subsistence farmers make up over three quarters of Bhutan's 700,000 population. Their crops are free of pesticides and other chemicals. By raising exports for the world's growing organic market, the government hopes to increase farmers' incomes while allowing them to continue living their traditional lives. In 2003, the Ministry of Agriculture began identifying products for export. The criteria is high value, low volume. One particular mushroom variety fits exceptionally well into this category. Deidre Boyd from UNDP. >> DEIDRE BOYD: The matsutake mushroom actually gains high prices on the international market that outweigh the logistics costs and the transport costs that Bhutan has to bear as a landlocked country. >> VOICEOVER: Known for its high nutritional value, some say it also has special aphrodisiac powers. A single stem of matsutake mushroom can sell for as high as USD$100 or more in Japan and Singapore. In pursuing sustainable development, Bhutan faces many challenges, from raising exports to tackling the complex rules of organic certification. But one of the toughest issues remains the effort to maintain its unique traditions in today's increasingly globalized world. This report was prepared by Patricia Chan for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ilo-protecting-filipino-nurses-migrating-abroad <p>The Philippine government has a unique approach to looking after its workers in foreign countries, in the knowledge that it will reap the rewards when they return home with new skills and experience.</p> Fri, 07 May 2010 00:15:49 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ilo-protecting-filipino-nurses-migrating-abroad Philippines, United Nations, International Labour Organization, Migrant worker, Philippine Nurses Association, Foreign Assistance, Governance & Transparency >> VOICEOVER: The Philippines is famous worldwide for its highly skilled nurses. Every year, thousands of Filipino women and men train for a profession that's increasingly in demand, as the world's population continues to age. But the country that produces some of the world's most skilled nurses often can't keep them at home, because they can earn far more overseas. Many nurses migrate to Saudi Arabia: among them, Fernando Urutia, who found his experience hard at first. >> FERNANDO URUTIA: I was crying for three months because, number one, the language. You know, Saudi Arabia, they speak Arabic. >> VOICEOVER: The exodus of nurses has led to a crisis in the country's healthcare. Leah Primitiva Paquiz, of the Philippine Nurses Association. >> LEAH PRIMITIVA PAQUIZ: Now, almost all ... many of our matured and experienced nurses are out of the country. >> VOICEOVER: For some migrants, the dream of finding a new life abroad turns into a nightmare of exploitation, especially in sectors where there is little protection from national legislation says Gloria Moreno-Fontes Chammartin, of the International Labour Organization. >> GLORIA MORENO-FONTES CHAMMARTIN: For us, it is very important. For example, the issues of migration status: are they going abroad documented or undocumented? As you know, when they are going abroad undocumented they are much more vulnerable. >> VOICEOVER: The protection of Filipinos working abroad has been a major concern for the Philippine government. For more than 40 years, it's been building agreements with countries which hire Filipino nurses and other workers. In partnership with overseas governments, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration regulates recruitment, contracts, and employment in destination countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, says Hans Cacdac who works for the organization. >> HANS CACDAC: I think it's a model in Asia because, as far back as the 1970s, there is a network of administrative protection, a set of guarantees of rights of our migrant workers if and when they do work abroad. >> VOICEOVER: Thanks to this protection, Fernando Urutia got help and support whenever he needed it from the Philippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia and from his own government back home. The rest was up to him. >> FERNANDO URUTIA: When going to one country, you have to embrace their culture as well so that you can stay. That's why, that's the reason why I stayed in Saudi Arabia for 15 years. >> VOICEOVER: And it turns out the "brain drain" effect of migration isn't the whole story. >> HANS CACDAC: We're also emphasizing the "brain gain" effect. Which is, at some point in time, when these nurses return, they shall have derived a wealth of experience abroad, more talent, and more skills, and therefore they may bring it back here to either reinvest and share skills or talent that they have acquired abroad. >> VOICEOVER: These student nurses are benefiting from this "brain gain" effect: they're learning from the insights of their teacher, Fernando. >> FERNANDO URUTIA: I want to share my knowledge, I want to share my experiences with these student nurses, because they are the new generation. Nursing is not just like you want to earn dollars. It's a vocation, it's a calling. >> VOICEOVER: This report was prepared by the ILO for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/georgia-juvenile-justice <p>Georgia has no specialized courts for children, so the country is working with UNICEF to introduce juvenile justice reforms. The aim is to avoid criminalizing young people unnecessarily, and instead find ways for them to become better members of society.</p> Fri, 07 May 2010 00:15:48 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/georgia-juvenile-justice United Nations, Georgia, Rustavi, Juvenile court, Child, Criminal justice, Prison, Governance & Transparency, Foreign Assistance, UNICEF >> VOICEOVER: Cameras and the art of filmmaking fascinate Tornike Shubitidze. He is 15 and wants to be a cameraman working in television and film. But last year he wasn't optimistic about his future. Tornike was charged with stealing a washing machine and faced four to seven years in prison for petty theft. Georgia has no specialized courts for children. However, under juvenile justice reforms supported by UNICEF, Tornike was released on 12 months probation. Now he attends filmmaking classes at the Rustavi Rehabilitation Center for Children in Conflict with the Law. The center helps to protect his rights and support him while on probation. Tornike was lucky to find work. >> TORNIKE SHUBITIDZE: First of all, I will certainly buy a camera. I will spend more time to learn. I'll work more and try to become a cameraman. >> VOICEOVER: Each young probationer is assessed. Social workers consult family members to develop a skills training program to help them reintegrate into society. Marika Natadze, team leader. >> MARIKA NATADZE: The center is unique as it offers different kinds of services, including educational and vocational training, various activities focused on crime prevention, and on helping children return and be better reintegrated into society. >> VOICEOVER: UNICEF is working to reduce the number of young people entering Georgia's criminal justice system. Some 200 legal professionals were trained in the rights and needs of juvenile offenders. Benjamin Perks, UNICEF's Deputy Representative. >> BENJAMIN PERKS: The continuum of services that deal with children in conflict with the law are in line with international standards, and to the extent possible prevent the incarceration of children -- which is a last possible resort -- but also ensure that a cycle of criminality and imprisonment is not started. That as soon as possible rehabilitation and alternative processes for those children are developed. >> VOICEOVER: Under Georgian law, probation is currently the only alternative to prison sentences. UNICEF will continue to work with the government on juvenile justice reform to protect the rights of children in conflict with the law and to ensure that no child is unnecessarily criminalized. >> VOICEOVER: This report was prepared by the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-service <p>It's easy to talk about Gandhian principles such as helping others and unity, but Jayesh Patel lives them every day. The founder of Indian NGO Manav Sadhna takes us on a tour through the vast slums of Ahmedabad, and explains that we already have enough good ideas; what we need is a commitment to put them into practice.&nbsp;</p> Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:49:12 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-service India, Jayesh Patel, Manav Sadnha, Slum, Poverty, Water & Sanitation, Child, Social change, Sanitation, Recycling >> TITLE: Global Oneness Project >> TITLE: Living Service >> SIGN: Happiness depends on what you can give and not what you can get >> SIGN: Sabarmati Ashram: Ghandi Memorial Museum >> VOICEOVER: At the Gandhi Ashram, in the city of Ahmedabad, the work of the Mahatma continues through the efforts of Manav Sadhna, an NGO founded by Jayesh Patel, committed to working for the betterment of the poor and needy children living in the slums just outside the Ashram, where 120,000 people make their homes. At the heart of Manav Sadhna is Jayeshbhai, as he is affectionately known, a man whose dedication to the Gandhian principles of truth, non-violence, uplifting the poor and oppressed, promoting health and sanitation, and educating the poor masses of India has inspired thousands of volunteers around the world. >> SIGN: Be the change you wish to see in the world - Gandhi >> VOICEOVER: When we met him, he emphasized that it is not enough to talk about the values of oneness and unity, without living that understanding through our actions. >> SIGN: Love all, Serve all >> VOICEOVER: By providing nutritious meals, hygiene programs, and skills-based educational opportunities, Manav Sadhna works to eliminate child labor, get kids into school, and empower women to be economically independent. >> VOICEOVER: Normally, Jayeshbhai refuses to let reporters or filmmakers interview him, but he let us wire him with a mike and follow him throughout the day, as long as the camera was focused on the people he met. As he led us through the slums, we gained a new understanding of what it means to walk. >> JAYESH PATEL: We all are one, and through service we connect the people, through the various, various types of service. First focus is the needy, the poor. If you can serve the poor, then your compassion comes out. And if your compassion comes out, that compassion goes everywhere: rich, poor, everywhere. So slowly, slowly that experiment becomes an example for others. And others can get involved in that experiment. So, the main thing is to connect the people to people, connect the heart to heart. That is very important. That's Manav Sadhna philosophy. This is the project, all we are doing, that is the project, but underlying is a process. We try to create a process in every human being. This work is just like a drop of the ocean. But a teardrop of compassion changes everything. Not ambition, mission is very important. Mission: I want to do it. That is my responsibility. I'm a human being and I want to do this. Love, work, according to your strength. Don't stretch, never stretch. Simplicity means adjust everywhere. And don't think too much. I am right now here, this is the best place for me, this is the best time for me, and this is the best people for me. That's living in the present. >> JAYESH PATEL: How are you? Make sure you take a good shower. Hey you, doll, did you take a shower? See, they are making a movie out of you. Make sure you take a good shower, OK? How are you ma'am? See the house, come inside. See the house, how they put their vessels, they made themselves. Simple. Very poor people, every day earning and every day eating. They don't know tomorrow's meal. If they work today, they earn and then they eat. Of this type, there are lots of people. Everywhere in the world. Did you take a shower? >> JAYESH PATEL: Up until we die, we are always learning, learning, learning. Life is a learning process. I learn from the children. They are very pure. If they are reading and I say, "please, come here," immediately he comes. If someone, an older person hears that, they think first, "why is he calling me?" So, very pure. Children are very pure. They don't know what is true, what is untrue. They always speak the truth. >> JAYESH PATEL: What's the name of this doll? Lets show these folks. I asked -- her name is cleanliness -- who is clean? So he said, "Yes, I am," then he said, "No I am not." And everybody pointed out this. Let me see your hand. See? Whoever is clean, they get to wear the doll. Let me see your nails, let me see, let me see. Wow, everyone's nails are clean. That's great! Give me a high-five. Very good. If you use your hands to clean your hair, clean you ears, pick your nose, then where will all that dirt go? [mimes eating] And then you'll complain, "Oh, my stomach hurts." >> JAYESH PATEL: See the cross. Children don't know religion. She is a Hindu, but wearing a cross. That's real spirituality. Not religiousness. Let's go. If we can walk just like this, we'll require two days. It's a long, big slum. Religiousness is increasing, spirituality is decreasing. Spirituality means see the truth, love, compassion, goodness, kindness. That's spirituality, not Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad. Buddha means "aware." So, that is the way of life. Here, let me tie this doll to you since I have it with me. You want me to tie this? Someone asked Gandhi: What is the biggest problem after independence, the biggest dangerous thing after independence? Gandhi said: "Heartless intellectuals." So, people think with their minds, not connecting head, heart, and hand in harmony. Harmony between head, heart, and hand is very important. If you work, then you understand. You put your heart, devotion, dedication. And then you put your heart, you think properly. >> JAYESH PATEL: Come, you want to see the house of this old lady? Here, show them your house. This is the royal bathroom of this family. [laughs] See, big bathroom. Come, come inside, see the house. Clothes, utensils, bed, blankets, and kitchen. She made this house herself. >> ELDERLY WOMAN: Yeah, I made this myself. >> JAYESH PATEL: Do you like living here? >> ELDERLY WOMAN: What can I do? Where else can I go? >> JAYESH PATEL: But it's a nice place you've got here. >> ELDERLY WOMAN: Oh yeah, of course, it's great. I live here. >> JAYESH PATEL: What is this? >> ELDERLY WOMAN: This is where this kid sleeps. The old man is sick. >> JAYESH PATEL: What happened? >> ELDERLY WOMAN: He's had a head injury and is in the hospital. >> JAYESH PATEL: Which hospital? >> ELDERLY WOMAN: The nearby one, right here. >> JAYESH PATEL: Well, then, if there are any problems, let me know. My friend Sunil can come and help you. >> JAYESH PATEL: See, the lemon shop. They earn from this. In the evening, they go to this road, the main road, put up the stand, and then open this window, two sides, and sell the lemon juice. If you are thinking, then desire comes and desire brings misery. Problem, problem, problem. But go and work. Work on the problem, see the opportunity, try to involve and doors open. >> JAYESH PATEL: I always walk. When you walk, "W" means "witness the nature." You see and witness small, small things when you walk. When you go by car, you can't see the small, small things. From near, you can't observe. So, when you walk, you observe small, small things. So witness the nature. "A" means then "accept circumstances." Someone is coming and they stop you and talk with you, accept that. Accept circumstances. When you witness nature and accept circumstances, then you love your life. "L" means "love your life." And when you love your life, then "K" means "know thyself." You know what you are, why you are here. So, walk means that. >> JAYESH PATEL: If you can use your heart, then you understand, because if you get involved with some people, don't see the problems, try to see the opportunities. If you see the problem, then your mind works. If you can see the opportunity, then your heart works. So see the opportunity, and try, and then love multiplies. And see the goodness in the people, go into their hearts, and relieve the weakness, try to relieve the weakness. >> JAYESH PATEL: It's a huge slum. 120,000 to 150,000. Be like a ladder, not like a leader. If you become like a ladder, then everyone develops themselves. And try to love all, serve all. Human beings sometimes fall down; they should not feel guilty. Because, after, people's expectation is increasing. Oh, Jayeshbhai is doing good work, but sometimes Jayeshbhai is making mistakes and they see my mistakes so big. So live like the common people. Don't raise your life up: then people see small, small things, your mistakes, your anything, big. And then they value you very small. But if you live like the common people, then they understand. >> JAYESH PATEL: So they are making containers. From waste, they make a nice container for drain and then they sell it. So that is their employment, their special skill. So, we convert that into the garbage cans and we put into the house to drop their garbage. And we give employment: indirect employment, and employment created within, then it's sustained. Then it becomes a concept. And then we put into every house for the garbage. So, they get money, the waste goes for some nice use and people drop the garbage. >> JAYESH PATEL: So, this is the drinking water. See, they put that container ... this is in the line. So we try to give basic amenities: water, toilet, drainage. But it is very difficult to provide that. Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly. Try to convince government. We have a toilet donation program, latrine donation program, just like a blood donation program. We want to develop this area slowly, slowly. But first, we educate the people. >> JAYESH PATEL: Come, come here. See the children. All the children are garbage collectors. Garbage is bread for them. This girl is sustaining her whole family. Her father and mother, both. Her mother has a severe back problem, and her father can't speak because of an infection, and can't walk properly, and paralysis, so these girls, Bharti and Jessy, sustain the whole family. They collect the garbage and then they segregate it, and here there are 21 garbage collection centers. Collection centers, huge clusters. So they sell them, and every day they earn. She earns ... How much do you make every day? You collect worth how much? Fifty rupees. We never give. This hand and this hand is not important, these two hands. This hand is very important. This is the ego, ambition. Dependency, misery. This is self-righteousness and equality. >> JAYESH PATEL: Think globally but act locally. Think globally means you can be aware of the problems of the world. Think globally but act locally: how can I help? Problem and opportunity, both. If action and work is common, then action is a common language to bring people together. Slowly, slowly. If you talk, talk, talk, people won't come together. For two days, three days. Ideas there are lots of here. If all the ideas come together, tomorrow, all the problems are solved. Lots of ideas, good ideas. If all those ideas are implemented, tomorrow everybody lives a happy life. All the ideas are there, but no one is implementing those ideas. So, act locally means implement from where you are. Start to implement without other things. Start. That's: "think globally, but act locally." >> TITLE: www.globalonenessproject.org