Worldfocus Radio: Sudan, beyond Darfur
I produced this online radio show for Worldfocus.org.
Conflict and bloodshed in Sudan are not limited to the Darfur region — separate crises are flaring in the north, the south and in the central Nuba Mountains.
Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explores tensions in South Sudan, the site of a two-decade civil war between the Muslim north and mostly Christian south that killed more than 1.5 million people. The south is also home to 80 percent of Sudan’s oil.
The war came to an end in 2005 with the signing of a peace agreement that exempted the south from Islamic Sharia law and established a regional southern government as well as a system of shared oil revenues. But with increasingly deadly tribal violence in South Sudan and a humanitarian crisis that could soon eclipse that in Darfur, trouble is brewing once more.
In a conference on Sudan in Washington last week, leaders from the north and south pledged to avoid a return to war.
South Sudan is set for a referendum on independence in 2011 and many in the region hope that the vote will allow a break from Khartoum once and for all, creating a new African nation. Others remain wary, pointing to corruption and incompetence on the part of South Sudan’s government and accusing leaders of squandering oil revenues.
Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted the following guests:
Jen Marlowe is a filmmaker, writer and human rights activist. She traveled to South Sudan for the forthcoming documentary “Rebuilding Hope,” funded in part by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Eric Reeves is a professor at Smith College and has spent the past 10 years researching Sudan. He has testified several times before the Congress and served as a consultant to human rights and humanitarian organizations in Sudan. He is the author of “A Long Day’s Dying,” a book about Darfur. He contributes to the blog Making Sense of Darfur.
Sunday Taabu left South Sudan at the height of the civil war in 1991. She is the founder of the South Sudan Institute for Women’s Education and Leadership and previously worked for the Government of Southern Sudan’s Mission to the U.S.
The show also includes audio clips from:
A Worldfocus interview with Scott Gration, the U.S. envoy to Sudan, on the importance of the region to the United States.
Peter Wankomo, who fled Sudan during the civil war and now lives in Canada. He’s the editor of a website, “South Sudan Nation,” which lobbies for the south’s independence.
A clip from Jen Marlowe’s forthcoming film, “Rebuilding Hope,” featuring a minister in the government of South Sudan and a woman living in the rural village of Akon. Both comment on what’s changed since the peace agreement and the end of the war.
Worldfocus Radio: Statelessness
I produced this online radio show for Worldfocus.org.
Imagine you have no birth certificate, no passport and no legal rights. You’re trapped in the country where you were born, but no document indicates that you even exist. The state doesn’t recognize you, so you can’t vote, you can’t access education and you can’t obtain formal employment.
This is a worst-case situation, but across the globe, between 12 and 15 million people live in various stages of statelessness, which means they lack citizenship in any country.
Some of the most notably stateless people include the Palestinians of the Middle East, the ethnic Tutsis of Central Africa, some Roma in Europe and Haitian children in the Dominican Republic.
Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the common themes that surface among stateless people — economic discrimination, social exclusion, identity and the feeling of invisibility.
Martin Savidge hosted the following guests:
Bill Berkeley, previously an investigative reporter and editorial writer at The New York Times, teaches journalism at Columbia University. He is the author of The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe and Power in the Heart of Africa and a forthcoming book on statelessness.
Dawn Calabia is a senior adviser for Refugees International. She has 30 years of experience with foreign policy analysis, human rights issues and public advocacy. She has handled governmental and non-governmental relations in the U.S. and the Caribbean for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and has led numerous fact-finding missions to Central America, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa.
The show also includes audio clips from:
Julia Harrington, a senior legal officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, who explains how her organization uses legal channels to advocate for stateless people. Julia has brought cases before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Adam Hussein, who was born stateless as a Nubian in Kenya, and is currently the project coordinator of the Open Society East Africa Initiative.
Samira Trad, the director of Beirut-based Frontiers-Ruwad, a human rights NGO.
Worldfocus Radio: Mexico’s war on drugs
I produced this online radio show for Worldfocus.org.
During the last year, more than 6,000 people have been murdered as a result of Mexico’s escalating drug violence, which is now more deadly than the war in Iraq.
The Worldfocus signature series on Mexico’s drug war ventured to Tijuana, featuring its fearful residents, its corrupt officials and the popularization of “narco” culture amoung youth.
Drug violence is especially heavy on border cities like Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez, and has spilled over into the U.S. American officials have reported a spike in kidnappings and killings connected with Mexican cartels.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has placed some of the blame on the U.S., pointing to growing American demand and U.S. guns coming over the border illegally. He stated that the drug problem is “not an exclusively Mexican problem; it is a common problem between Mexico and the United States.”
Under the three-year Merida Initiative, the U.S. has pledged $1.4 billion to Mexico to help fight drug trafficking. But as violence continues to soar, critics worry that the money will end up in the hands of corrupt police or politicians.
Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored Mexico’s drug wars, life on the border and U.S. policy in Mexico. Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests.
Natalia Almada is a Mexican-American filmmaker who splits her time between Mexico and the United States. Natalia and her family have lived in Sinaloa, Mexico for six generations. She directed and produced the award-winning feature documentary “Al Otro Lado - To The Other Side.” The film looks at immigration and drug trafficking through Mexico’s tradition of Corrido music. Her latest documentary film, “El General,” received the best director award at this year’s Sundance film festival and will be broadcast on PBS’s documentary program P.O.V.
Tony Payan is an associate professor of political science and an active researcher who resides on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. He teaches subjects such as foreign policy of the United States, the politics of Mexico, Latin American politics and border issues, among others. His research agenda focuses on United States-Mexico relations and border issues, including border security and cross-border cooperation. He has written several articles on these subjects as well two pertinent books, “Cops, Soldiers, and Diplomats: Explaining Agency Behavior in the War on Drugs” and “The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration and Homeland Security.”
Ambassador Andrés Rozental has held numerous positions in the Mexican government, including deputy foreign minister, ambassador to the United Kingdom and Sweden, and permanent representative of Mexico to the United Nations. He served as ambassador-at-large and special envoy under President Vicente Fox, representing Mexico to surrounding nations, and in 2006 and 2007 he advised Felipe Calderón on foreign policy issues. He is also the founding president of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations.
Worldfocus Radio: Lawlessness in Somalia
I produced this online radio show for Worldfocus.org.
Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explores the worsening situation in Somalia, taking a look beyond the pirate frenzy offshore and examining the causes of instability onshore.
Martin Savidge hosts a panel of guests and address viewer questions about the region. In addition to the audio interview, here are some written answers to user-generated questions regarding the history, politics and the humanitarian crisis in Somalia.
Lynn Fredriksson is a researcher on the Horn of Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, for Amnesty International. She co-leads missions to the Horn. Most recently she has traveled to Nairobi, Kenya and Hargeisa, Somaliland to interview refugees from the armed conflict in southern and central Somalia.
Abdi Samatar is a professor and chair of the department of geography and global studies at the University of Minnesota. He was Fulbright Scholar to Ethiopia and Botswana. His research focuses on the relationship between democracy and development in the Third World in general and Africa in particular, and he has written extensively about Ethiopia and Somalia.
David H. Shinn is a former Ambassador to Ethiopia and has served in several posts in the U.S. Department of State. Amb. Shinn’s research interests include Africa, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism and U.S. foreign policy in Africa. He also blogs regularly here.
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