Worldfocus Radio: Haiti and DR — Unequal Neighbors
I produced this radio show for Worldfocus.org.
In the aftermath of last week’s earthquake in Haiti, the Dominican Republic has expressed solidarity with its neighbor.
Though Haiti and the DR share the island of Hispaniola, their histories, cultures and economies greatly differ. Racial tensions, stateless children and immigrant violence have created tensions along the border.
Martin Savidge hosts Marselha Gonçalves Margerin of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights and Michele Wucker of the World Policy Institute to discuss these unequal neighbors.
The show explores:
- the intertwined but distinct histories
- Haitian migrants in the DR and Dominicans of Haitian descent
- migration and trade along the border
- the statelessness of children born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian migrants
- the role of the Dominican Republic, the U.S. and international community
Top 10 Worldfocus Radio Shows of 2009
I produce Worldfocus Radio.
Worldfocus presents radio highlights from our weekly radio show — powered by BlogTalkRadio — which covers underreported stories from around the world.
From entrepreneurship in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war to reverse brain drain in China and Baha’is in modern Iran, listen to the most popular shows from 2009:
Worldfocus Radio: ‘The Stans’ in Transition
I produced this radio show for Worldfocus.org.
‘The Stans’ are the five post-Soviet Central Asian republics — Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — with similar historical, political and cultural roots.
These nations are asserting their cultural identity by proposing ethnic language policies — potentially banning the use of the Russian language.
In Kyrgyzstan, there’s a proposal to make Kyrgyz the dominant governmental language, and in Tajikistan, there’s another to ban the use of Russian in public institutions and official documents.
This week, Chinese President Hu Jintao opened a new gas pipeline that extends from Turkmenistan to north-west China — the first without Russia’s Gazprom.
Martin Savidge hosts William Fierman, a professor of Central Asian studies at Indiana University, and Nikolay Petrov, a scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
They discuss:
- Common political, cultural and historical roots but not a homogeneous entity
- Post-Soviet relationships between ‘The Stans’ and Russia — how ethnic tensions and discrimination continue
- Economic crisis, drug trafficking, oil and migration
- How Russia, China and the United States are vying for ‘The Stans’
- Political instability and poor economic well-being raise concerns about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism
- Could Central Asia become the next conflict zone — even the next Afghanistan?
Worldfocus Radio: Red China Goes Green
I co-produced this radio show for Worldfocus.org.
This week, world leaders from almost 200 countries are meeting to discuss the future of our planet. From Tonga and Mauritius to Japan and Brazil, the community of nations hopes to enact lasting change.
While a host of difficult decisions often scare business leaders, voters and politicians, global pressure continues to mount. China and India, as well as the U.S. and E.U., have already committed to significant cuts in the release of harmful greenhouse gases.
Will China accept slower economic growth, stricter rules and higher energy costs that could result? While virtually no one in China denies climate change, debate focuses on the speed of the shift to renewable energy.
Joining Martin Savidge from Beijing is Greenpeace China’s senior campaigner Rashid Kang and from Washington D.C. Julian Wong, senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress.
They explore the following issues:
- how China is greening rapidly and developing many alternative energy programs — from the world’s most efficient coal power plants to vast wind power fields and solar water heating technology
- why nuclear power is the wrong alternative energy solution for China
- how food security affects China’s alternative energy strategy
- why there are no climate change skeptics in China, but why China can’t go green overnight
- and, the holy grail of alternative energy — storage.
Worldfocus Radio: Chile’s Growing Pains
I produced this radio show for Worldfocus.org.
Chile’s economic “miracle” has lifted many Chileans from poverty and become a fiscal model for Latin America. Since the 1980s, Chile’s has halved the number of people below the poverty line.
But while the middle class grows, the divide between rich and poor deepens. Moreover, middle-class Chileans are under more stress and working longer hours than before.
Martin Savidge hosts Peter Winn and Victoria Hurtado to discuss the underside of Chile’s prosperity, focusing on the middle class, growing inequality and the younger generation.
Theme design by Borja Fernandez.