Asia World Scene

Asia- list of articles in the section Asia World Scene

  • Dutch navy commander Helfrich signs the Japanese capitulation treaty on board the USS Missour on September 2, 1945 (Wikimedia)
    Remembering the Second World War in the Netherlands: Historical sound from the 1950’s- Part 5, Lt Adm Conrad Helfrich remembers the war in the Pacific
    This programme is part of the series Remembering the Second World War in the Netherlands: Historical Sound of the 1950's  In 1945, the Second World War continued in the Pacific and Southeast …
  • Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s remarks on his arrival in the Netherlands (1957)
    On July 8, 1957, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru paid an official visit to the Netherlands. Dutch Foreign Minister Joseph Luns greeted him at Schiphol Airport and Radio Nederland was there …
  • Ravi Shankar
    To mark the 60th birthday of India’s most famous composer and musician, Ravi Shankar, Radio Netherlands devoted a special edition of its weekly Asia magazine programme “Mainstream …
  • Pete Myers interviews Mother Teresa (1980)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsMother Teresa (1910-1997), a canonised saint in the Roman Catholic Church, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, in recognition for her …
  • Mainstream Asia: October 1, 1982
    During the 1980’s, Pete Myers and his team hosted the weekly magazine Mainstream Asia. In this edition, the programme looks at the plight of the Vietnamese refugee community in the Netherlands. …
  • Dr. Christiaan Barnard: The body machine
    Gerard Rakers talks to South African heart transplant pioneer Dr. Christaan Barnard about his book: “The Body Machine”. Producer: Gerard Rakers Broadcast: 1982…
  • The making of the film “Gandhi”
    David Attenborough’s epic film biography of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) presents a sweeping, masterful image of the life of India’s great pioneer of independence and 20th-century …
  • Salman Rushdie’s novel “Shame”
    In this programme, the renowned and controversial writer Salman Rushdie discusses his third novel “Shame”, published in 1983. The story is set in postcolonial Pakistan and explores the …
  • Pete Myers interviews Anita Desai (1984)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsIn this Mainstream Asia special, Pete Myers meets Indian writer Anita Desai to discuss her life, her preferred writing language – …
  • Family planning in India
    To coincide with the second World Population Conference in Mexico City City, Pete Myers presents in-depth interviews with two experts on India’s family planning programme. It was a prelude to a …
  • Pete Myers interviews J.G. Ballard (1984)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsPete Myers discusses the acclaimed autobiographical novel “Empire of the Sun”, whose main character is based on the …
  • Pete Myers interviews David Lean (1985)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviews“A passage to India” Producer: Pete Myers Broadcast: March 8, 1985…
  • Liberation theology in the Philippines
    Pete Myers reports on how radical theology works in the Philippines, the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia. The programme includes a contribution from correspondent Keith Dalton, an …
  • Mainstream Asia – The Royal visit by Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus to India
    In 1986, Queen Beatrix and her husband Prince Claus paid a royal visit to India. Mainstream Asia and Pete Myers accompanied them. …
  • Interview with the Dalai Lama in November 1989
    This is an unedited 40-minute interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists and one of the world’s most revered advocates of non-violence and altruism. …
  • Silk kimonos
    This special edition of Asiascan focuses on silk, from its discovery, to the production process, to the final product. Maya Scheepers and Mieke Kooistra go on a silk thread route through Thailand. …
  • Happy Station: Ghost singers
    Pete Myers takes a look at the voices behind the gorgeous and glamorous actors who could not sing—the ghost singers who sang for stars like Rita Hayworth and Susan Hayward in the golden age of …
  • Road sign in Spiti Valley, Himachel Pradesh, India
    The next battleground: AIDS in India
    Every day across the globe, 5.000 people are infected by the virus that causes AIDS. More than 14 million people are believed to have been infected so far, mostly in Africa. A new battlefield is now …
  • Indian women writers
    By the mid-1990’s when this programme was made, a number of Indian writers like Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie had made a huge impact on the international literary scene. In this programme, we …
  • Child labour in Bangalore, India
    Children without dreams – The first in a 2-part series on child labour in the Indian subcontinent
    No one knows how many children around the globe are forced to work, but a large percentage of the world’s child labor force is located in the Indian subcontinent. In India alone, the government …
  • Shoeshine boy
    The ins and outs – The second in a 2-part series on child labour in the Indian subcontinent
    Working children are everywhere to be found in all of India’s major cities. They work mostly on the streets, peddling one thing or another, shining shoes or doing other menial tasks. In rural …
  • They call her madam
    In this award-winning edition of “East of Edam”, Dheera Sujan and Maggie Ayre pay tribute to some of the powerful and influential women who are changing India and are doing so in spite of …
  • Safia Bhatti, a teaching assistant in Pakistan
    Just ’cause you’re a woman: a look at women living in a Muslim society, Pakistan
    It’s hard to imagine a country where women have a more difficult life than in Pakistan. Literacy rates among women are abysmally poor. Female infanticide is widely practiced, and women generally get …
  • Microchips yes, potato chips no
    India relaxed its laws on foreign investments in 1991 and opened its doors to market liberalisation. By the time this programme was made a few years later, India was being referred to as the …
  • Indian village cook
    Standing on their own legs: The fight against poverty in India
    In the mid-1980s, a non-governmental organisation near the southern Indian city of Bangalore began an experiment to help people in nearly 150 villages to create a better life for themselves. Praxis, …
  • Huis ten Bosch
    Huis ten Bosch in Japan
    During the period from 1641 to 1859, Nagasaki was the only Japanese city that allowed to trade with the outside world. The city developed close ties with Dutch traders. To commemorate this …
  • Child literacy in India
    The strength to move on: Literacy in India
    India is fighting a losing battle to achieve literacy for all. The country’s population is growing so quickly that the educational system simply cannot keep up. Every year, India needs 175,000 …
  • Save Bombay: The environmental impact of urbanisation
    Eric Beauchemin visits Bombay, which at the time had a population of 10 to 15 million people. The city is comparable to the many sprawling urban areas emerging through the developing world and which …
  • Kashmiri man and his shikara
    Kashmir: The sad valley
    As the British raj left the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the rulers of the princely states were given the right to join India or Pakistan. One maharaja, wanting full independence for his state, …
  • Turning a new page: Japanese youth in transition
    For decades, the Japanese young person’s recipe for success later in life has gone something like this: study hard, pass exams, get into the best university, get a job for life and then work 12 …
  • Anne no Nikki
    Mirror Images: Japan special
    The weekly survey of arts and culture, “Mirror Images”, spotlights Japan, with an animated film version of the Diary of Anne Frank, the popular all girl rock group Shonen Knife and the …
  • Survivors of the A-bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
    50th anniversary of the A-bomb attacks: The ongoing research into the effects of radiation
    In 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 75,000 people instantly. Tens of thousands more died in the following years as a result of the effects of radiation. A few days …
  • The girdle of emeralds: Dutch colonial rule in the East Indies
    In August 1945, Indonesians proclaimed independence from the Netherlands. After hundreds of years of Dutch colonial rule, the East Indies was one of the world’s largest, richest and most …
  • Hiroshima mushroom cloud nuclear bomb explosion
    The survivors of the atomic bomb attacks in Japan
    On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. 75,000 people died instantly. 75,000 more were injured. Thousands were killed in the fires that ravaged Hiroshima in the following …
  • The colonial muse: The East Indies as an inspiration for the Dutch novel
    The most famous Dutch novel of the 19th century is “Max Havelaar” by Multatuli (pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-1887). It not only became a classic of European literature but also …
  • Women living under Muslim laws
    Women Living Under Muslim Laws is an organisation or network set up in 1986 by Muslim feminists to take action against Islamic legislation which discriminates against women. Hélène Michaud talks to …
  • Robert van Gulik
    The Dutch mandarin: Robert van Gulik
    In his time, Judge Dee, a historical figure of the Tang Dynasty, earned fame as a magistrate, detective and statesman. Though never forgotten in his own country, it was only in the 20th century that …
  • The King’s brew: Darjeeling tea
    In the beautiful northeastern hills of India lies Darjeeling. And it is there that the true aristocrat of teas is grown. It is there that tea lover and world traveller Dheera Sujan indulged herself …
  • America’s newest immigrants: The Indian diaspora
    The United States of America has been a country built on the blood, sweat and tears of generations of immigrants: the poor, the hungry and the tired who came to the New World to begin a new life. The …
  • The double-faced mask: Homosexuality in Japan
    Homosexuality was quite common among the samurai, the military class in feudal Japan, and there are many literary works, dating back several centuries, which deal with love between men. But, as Eric …
  • The linguistic tug of war in Hong Kong
    It’s a truism to say that language is fundamental to culture. In Hong Kong, political change is laying a path for cultural change, and language is an important aspect of that shift. When the …
  • Nien Chen: Victim of the Chinese Cultural Revolution
    Before the Cultural Revolution, which started in the mid-1960’s, Nien Chen (1915-2009) held a high position at Shell in Shanghai, was privileged and had servants. But almost overnight, she was …
  • Siren Song: Rohinton Mistry & Udayan Prasad
    In this edition of the programme, Dheera Sujan has two guests, both Westernised Indians who talk about the way their culture influences their art. Rohinton Mistry is a writer who has lived in Canada …
  • Hong Kong
    Revolution at midnight: Hong Kong, China
    Marijke van der Meer examines the future of Hong Kong on the eve of its return into the Chinese fold on July 1, 1997. She meets the locals: a legislator, a businessman, an asylum seeker, a dissident …
  • Effects of the revolt in Cambodia
    A month ago, the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh was rocked by tank and gunfire. The leader of the coup, Hun Sen, ousted his government coalition partner Prince Norodom Ranariddh and took power. But …
  • Partition: India and Pakistan separate in 1947
    This programme was broadcast to mark the 50th anniversary of the partition of the subcontinent, when India and Pakistan gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Floris van Straaten …
  • The other side of midnight: Pakistan 50 years after partition
    When British India was granted independence in 1947, the subcontinent was divided into two countries: a predominantly Hindu India and to its east, and to its west a predominantly Muslim Pakistan. The …
  • The Indian cinema
    Dheera Sujan focuses on the phenomenal success and popularity of Indian films. Guest speakers include critic Derek Malcolm, the director of the Indian International Film Festival, Malti Sahai, …
  • The struggle for the Caucasus oil
    The French oil company Total has defied the U.S. government and signed a 2 billion dollar deal with Iran to develop offshore gas fields. In response, Washington has threatened to impose sanctions on …
  • Bhutanese newspaper editor Kinley Dorji
    Dheera Sujan visits Bhutan, an ancient, pristine land with none of the problems (overpopulation, environmental degradation, crime, etc.) that beset most of the world. But for how long will it be so …
  • Bhutan’s traditional music
    Dheera Sujan visits Bhutan’s National Institute of Traditional Medicine. She finds out how to use tiger bones to cure epilepsy and how turning a prayer wheel could affect your health. Producer: …
  • Toilets in India
    Bombay is India’s most cosmopolitan city. Its sheer scope, hustle and bustle, its mass of human can overwhelm. On a taxi ride to the city, chances are, you will be greeted by the sight of a row …
  • Casting off: The Vietnamese boat people
    Marijke van der Meer explores one of the sad legacies of the war in Vietnam. Over 20 years after the fall of Saigon, thousands of the nearly one million Vietnamese boat people who once sought asylum …
  • Where the tiger roamed
    In the 19th century, 100,000 tigers stalked the Asian forests. But big game hunting, illegal poaching and the destruction of their habitat has shrunk that number to less than 6,000, the majority of …
  • Indian elephants
    Dheera Sujan meets two Indian conservationists who are worried about the plight of the Asian elephant. There are around 25,000 of them in India, but ivory poachers and a shrinking habitat are a real …
  • Mahatma Gandhi: Commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death
    It is difficult to adequately assess the political and spiritual importance of the life of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948). He was assassinated in Delhi on January 30, 1948, but his legacy as an ethical …
  • Chinese author Lulu Wang
    Siren Song meets Lulu Wang, the Chinese author of the Lilly Theatre (and later of other books), a fictionalised account of her experiences in China’s cultural revolution. It was an instant …
  • The spice lords: The history of the VOC, Part 1 of 4 – The company of far lands
    The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly two hundred years, from the time it was established in …
  • The spice lords: The history of the VOC, Part 2 of 4 – “Iron fist, velvet glove”
    The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly two hundred years, from the time it was established in …
  • The spice lords: The history of the VOC, Part 4 of 4
    The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly 200 years, from the time it was established in 1602 to …
  • Back home in Malanday
    Every day, 2000 Filipinos leave their country to take up jobs abroad. The Philippines is the world’s biggest exporter of labour. Hélène Michaud takes us to Malanday, a densely populated area …
  • Old heroes, new heroes: Identity in the Philippines
    On June 12, the Philippines celebrated the 100th anniversary of its declaration of independence from Spain. The irony is that it was, in fact, handed over to the United States for 20 million dollars. …
  • Stories of our century: “Wild swans”
    This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
  • A curse and a blessing: Water in the Bengali psyche
    Bangladesh lies on a delta created by three of the world’s greatest rivers. To them, it is life in the form of food and transport. It is also death as the annual floods drown this most densely …
  • The Black Death: The bubonic plague and its vast consequences
    The Black Death or Great Plague was one of the most devastating waves of disease and death in human history. Modern historians of the Middle Ages estimate that up to 200 million people succumbed to …
  • Taming the river dragon: The Three Gorges Dam – Part 1 of 2
    In this two part series, Jane Murphy looks at the impact of the biggest hydro-electric project on Earth: the massive Three Gorges Dam being constructed on China’s longest river, the Yangtze. …
  • Taming the river dragon: The Three Gorges Dam – Part 2 of 2
    In this two-part series, Jane Murphy visits China to look at the impact of the biggest hydro-electric project in the world: the Three Gorges Dam, being built on the Yangtze River. Part two examines …
  • Refugees en route to Pakistan;
    Children of midnight
    Dheera Sujan looks at 50 years of Indian independence and partition through the experiences of one family. For although the people of India had won the right to rule themselves, the partition of …
  • Celestial China: In search for Uncle Ned
    In this programme, producer Martha Hawley goes in search of her great uncle, Edwin Hawley, known in her family as Uncle Ned. Born in 1881, he left for China as a young man, a staunch Presbyterian …
  • Everest: The coveted mountain
    Crampons and spikes feature heavily in this heady documentary from James McDonald looking at the history of the challenge to climb the world’s highest mountain.  Producer: James McDonald …
  • Malaysian malaise
    Hélène Michaud takes us to Malaysia. This country in southeast Asia has been in political turmoil since the sacking last year of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is now being tried on charges …
  • Immigration: The story of Khaled and Shukria
    Khaled and Shukria Manupal are both physicians. They had a prosperous life and a nice home with their children in Afghanistan, until the Soviet invasion in 1979 forced them to leave their country in …
  • The Bosphorus
    The Bosphorous is the only link to the outside world for the nations of the Black Sea. It runs through the heart of Istanbul with shipping (oil, chemicals, etc.) posing a potential threat to the …
  • Ahmed Rashid
    The Taliban: Ahmed Rashid and his passion for Afghanistan
    By the turn of the century, Afghanistan had been at war for nearly two decades. The Afghans first took up arms to oust the Soviet occupiers and then the conflict descended into civil war. Pakistani …
  • Music along the Silk Road
    This is the first of two programmes about the Silk Road Project, initiated by acclaimed cellist Yo Yo Ma, which brings together music and musicians from around the world. In fact, the project follows …
  • Indian writer Arundhati Roy
    Dheera Sujan talks to Indian writer Arundhati Roy, whose first novel “A God of Small Things” became a world-wide bestseller. She studied architecture, flirted with acting, lived in a …
  • Tajikistan: Teetering on the brink
    Eric Beauchemin visits the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan in Central Asia. It has been independent since 1991, but a civil war has devastated most of the new country’s infrastructure. On …
  • Von Siebold’s treasures
    To mark the 400th anniversary of Japanese-Dutch relations, Liesbeth de Bakker focuses on scientist Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) who left behind beautiful collections of thousands of Japanese …
  • Ai, the chimp who counts
    Liesbeth de Bakker visits the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University in Japan, and she meets Chimpanzee Ai, the chimp who counts, and her research partner, Tetsuro Matsuzawa. Find out what …
  • Of sake and Dutch gin
    On April 19, 1600, the Dutch merchant ship “de Liefde” arrived in Japan, and the sailors set up a trading post. When half a century later, Japan decided to close itself off from the rest …
  • Shakila, aged 5, was born with a short leg
    Disability in Afghanistan
    Afghanistan is one of the countries with the world’s highest percentages of disabled people. It’s estimated that over 800,000 people have some kind of disability, that’s over 1 in 20 Afghans. Many …
  • Afghan family on the move
    The right to life in Afghanistan
    For people in the developed world, human rights mean things like a free press, the right to vote or freedom from torture. But in many parts of the developing world, people are concerned with more …
  • Bollywood for Westerners
    Jonathan Groubert visits Bombay, the movie capital of the world, where more than 1000 flicks are produced each year. The international appeal of these Hindi films is growing. What is their appeal, …
  • Getting clean: Drug addiction in Pakistan
    In Pakistan, there are over three million heroin addicts, and this figure is still rising. Eric Beauchemin meets some of them, sees how and where they live and talks to local groups who are fighting …
  • Break the silence: end child sexual abuse
    Child sexual abuse in Pakistan
    In Pakistan, child sexual abuse is rampant, but it remains shrouded in secrecy. Both girls and boys are the victims of abuse, and few of the perpetrators are ever convicted. Guilt and shame are …
  • Women wearing burqas
    My only wish: The story of four Afghan women
    Much has been said and written about the situation of women today in Afghanistan. Since the ruling Taliban movement took over power in 1996, women have been subjected to what many in the West regard …
  • Cinema diaspora: The impact of the Indian film industry outside of Asia
    Hindi cinema or Bollywood films are a major source of entertainment for many Indians. But these movies are also a major influence on the millions of South Asians who have settled all over the world. …
  • Tokyo
    Dutch jazz in Japan
    In the autumn of 2001, Radio Netherlands organised a Dutch music week in Japan. The crème de la crème of Dutch jazz musicians gave several concerts in Tokyo and Nagasaki. Jonathan Marks and Hans …
  • The real Kamasutra
    The Kamasutra has been used and misused over the centuries. Its name has become synonymous with exotic sex. But in fact, it is a treatise on pleasure. It’s latest translator from Sanskrit, …
  • When strangers meet: The Silk Road project
    This is the second of two programmes about the Silk Road Project, initiated by acclaimed cellist Yo Yo Ma, which brings together music and musicians from around the world in an enriching exchange of …
  • Global Perspective: The McDonaldisation of Hong Kong
    This programme is part of the series Global PerspectiveA group of international broadcasters exchanges documentaries with a common theme. This five-part series examines the way in which global forces …
  • The opening of the chrysanthemum: Japan’s tamed rivers
    In the second half of the 19th century, the Meiji Restoration in Japan was moving the country from a medieval agricultural economy to an industrialised one. It was a time of tremendous change and …
  • Johannis de Rijke: The Dutch sensai
    Johannis de Rijke (1842-1913) was the son of a humble dyke worker from Zeeland. Yet by the time he died, he had reached the highest position ever reached by a foreigner in Japan, and was a regular …
  • Heavenly stories: Bollywood dreams
    Indian literature produced the single longest poem in history, the great epic Mahabharata. Today the ancient story-telling and poetry recital traditions of India live on in “Bollywood”, …
  • Dutch Horizons: Relations between Sri Lanka and the Netherlands
    To mark the 400th anniversary of the Dutch East India Company, plus the fact that exactly 400 years ago the first Dutchman set foot in Sri Lanka, Liesbeth de Bakker sailed forth to find out how Sri …
  • A maritime Pompeii: VOC ship De Avondster
    Liesbeth de Bakker visits Galle in Sri Lanka where, in the bay, a wrecked VOC ship, De Avondster, is being recovered to put on display in a special museum. Experts from the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and …
  • Return to Jagriti
    Dheera Sujan revisits Jagriti, a small school in a New Delhi slum where she taught as a volunteer some years ago. When the Indian government decided to relocate the slum dwellers and bulldoze the …
  • The VOC archives: The records of the Dutch East India Company
    Over 400 years ago, in 1602, the Dutch East India Company was set up with trading posts all over the world, and it grew into the first and biggest multinational commercial enterprise of its time. The …
  • Rivers of the World: The Mun River in Thailand
    This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
  • Rivers of the World: India’s Saraswati
    This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
  • Tagore: The wisdom master
    In 1913, the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). It was the first time the prize was given to an Asian writer. But Tagore was more than a poet. He …
  • Rivers of the World: The Volga
    This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
  • Traces of war: Survivors of the Burma and Pakanbaroe Railroad
    “Traces of War” is a book created by photographer Jan Banning about 24 men who survived slave labour on the construction of the notorious Burmese and Pakanbaroe railroads. The railway …
  • Pascal Khoo Thwe: The land of green ghosts
    Destiny brought together two men from different worlds: one a Padaung tribal from the Hill Tracts of Burma, the other an ivory tower Cambridge don. The meeting would change both their lives forever. …
  • SENSE India for the deafblind
    The world at your fingertips: Helen Keller’s legacy touches deafblind children in India
    Helen Keller said that blindness separates a person from objects and deafness separates that person from people. Without support, encouragement and education the world of a deafblind person can be an …
  • Holland’s black page: The violence of decolonisation
    This is part of a series called “War and Forgiveness” about the victims and perpetrators of wartime atrocities, produced by Radio Netherlands together with WNYC and Sound Print. In this …
  • Adrift in Sri Lanka: The tsunami
    Marijke van der Meer was travelling in the hill country of Sri Lanka in December 2004 when news came of the tsunami. She joined a Dutch nurse and an American doctor preparing and escorting medical …
  • Waiting to go home: The Burmese refugees on the Thai-Burma border
    There are 140,000 Burmese refugees living in camps along the Thai-Burma border. Some have been there for more than two decades. They live a life that is neither temporary nor permanent, in harsh …
  • A Hiroshima story
    On a sunny August morning in 1945, Keijiro Matsushima sat in his math class in Hiroshima. He looked out the window, saw two American bombers in the clear blue sky and suddenly his world was torn …
  • A boat trip through Borneo
    In October 2004, the Sebangau area of Kalimantan, in the Indonesian part of Borneo was declared a national park. The region is a very dense, almost impenetrable swamp forest, and it is also the only …
  • Keeping the peace: Dutch peacekeepers in Afghanistan
    In 2002, the Netherlands sent a peace-keeping contingent to Afghanistan as part of ISAF, the International Security Assistance Force. In this programme, we speak with some of the officers and …
  • Indian courtesans and the baiji tradition
    From the 16th century onwards, the guardians of the great vocal music of northern India were the “courtesans”, the tawaif baiji, high-class women schooled in dancing, song and poetry who …
  • Not enough tears
    Rajani Thiranagama was gunned down by the Tamil Tigers in 1989. She was a doctor, poet and scientist. Her crime had been to speak out against human rights abuses being perpetrated on her people. For …
  • ECPAT office
    Used and abused: Child trafficking in Southeast Asia
    Throughout Southeast Asia, tens of thousands of children are being trafficked. Most go to neighbouring countries, but they can be sent as far away as South Korea or Australia. Because human …
  • Billy Barnaart
    Under Foreign Skies: Billy Barnaart
    This programme is part of the series Under Foreign Skies“Under Foreign Skies” is a series of portraits of Dutch people abroad doing remarkable things. Dutchman Billy Barnaart is a physiotherapist, …
  • National Museum of Cambodia
    Cambodia: Starting from scratch – Part 4 in a series on failed states
    Throughout the late 1960’s and 1970’s, Cambodia was a failed state, with governments that were unable to control the country’s territory or meet the people’s basic needs. By the time the …
  • Lea Laarakker-Dingjan
    Under Foreign Skies: Lea Laarakker-Dingjan
    This programme is part of the series Under Foreign Skies“Under Foreign Skies” is a series of portraits of Dutch people doing remarkable work abroad. Over 20 years ago, Lea …
  • Mercy Centre T-shirt
    Thailand’s Mercy Centre and the fight against HIV/AIDS
    A quarter of a century after HIV/AIDS first emerged, the disease continues to wreak havoc in many parts of the world. Initially, one of the hardest hit countries was Thailand. In the mid- and late …
  • Father John Visser
    Under Foreign Skies: Father John Visser
    This programme is part of the series Under Foreign Skies“Under Foreign Skies” is a series of portraits of Dutch people doing remarkable work abroad. When Father John Visser met Silesian …
  • Annelie Hendriks
    Under Foreign Skies: Annelie Hendriks
    This programme is part of the series Under Foreign Skies“Under Foreign Skies” is a series of portraits of Dutch people doing remarkable work abroad. Annelie Hendriks has always been a …
  • A life of ashes: Widows in India
    The ancient Indian practice of “sati” or “suttee” — widow-burning — was banned under British colonial rule in 1829. But in modern-day India, the plight of a woman who loses …
  • The music of lutes and harps: The changing tune of Chinese family life
    In this award-winning programme, we look at the changes and shifts in family life in China in the early 20th century. Maoist China’s family policy had already done away with certain feudal …
  • Durga’s court
    Shabnam Ramaswamy runs an informal court of law in a small village in India. For the illiterate and the poor, India’s unwieldly, corrupt and slow justice system is inaccessible. So she started …
  • Battle of Legnica (legnitz) 1241. From Legend of Saint Hedwig, 1353, Paul Ghetty museum collection
    Cavalry, caravans and Christians: The Mongols invade Europe
    In the 13th century, the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan (1162-1227) and his armies advanced across Asia and created the largest contiguous land empire in history. They reached eastern Europe in the …
  • Modern-day Mongolia
    Mongolia – a country the size of Germany and France and Britain combined with only 2.5 million people – is celebrating its 800th anniversary as a state. In the 21st century, the country …
  • The CCTV Tower in Beijing by Rem Koolhaas
    The daring design of the new headquarters of China Central Television, the state media of the People’s Republic, is controversial for both architectural as well as political reasons. The …
  • The State We’re In: Preserving Afghanistan’s cultural heritage and identity
    One of the lesser noticed side-effects of war and violence is the immeasurable loss to humanity and to a nation’s sense of identity when its art treasures and cultural traditions are destroyed. In …