World Scene

World scene- list of articles in the section World Scene

  • Window on Holland 1957
    Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective. The annual newsreel looks back at the main events that affected Holland and the world in 1957: scientific …
  • Window on Holland 1958
    Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective, with interesting little facts and sound bites about Holland and the world in 1958: Queen Elizabeth I and …
  • Window on Holland 1960
    Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective. This newsreel-style programme contains interesting little facts and sound bites about Holland and the …
  • Media wars: Radio propaganda past and present, Part 2 – You are my enemy Pass the sugar, please.
    This programme is part of the series Media Wars: Radio Propaganda Past and PresentThis second episode on the history of radio propaganda looks at the media wars in the Dutch East Indies, present-day …
  • Media wars: Radio propaganda past and present, Part 5 – The method of attack
    This programme is part of the series Media Wars: Radio Propaganda Past and PresentThis episode looks at clandestine broadcasting across Africa, illustrated with unique off-air recordings from the …
  • Pete Myers interviews Kyung Wha Chung (1982)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsBorn in Seoul, South Korea in 1948, Kyung Wha Chung became an internationally renowned violinist. She was a child prodigy, even by the …
  • The Illusion of nuclear superiority: A debate organised by the Free University in Amsterdam in 1983
    In June 1983, at the height of the international debate on the proposed deployment of Cruise missiles in Europe to counter the deployment of Soviet SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe, a panel …
  • 100th anniversary of the Concertgebouw
      The Royal Concertgebouw is one of the world’s greatest concert halls, renowned for its nearly perfect acoustics, and the host to performances by some of the most memorable musicians of …
  • VIP Lounge: Joris Ivens
    This programme is part of the series VIP LoungeVIP Lounge was a series of portraits produced in the late 1980’s of well-known Dutch people who gained international fame for their professional …
  • The 1989 Edison classics
    The Edison Award, the annual Dutch distinction for achievement in music, is one of the world’s oldest music awards. First presented in 1960, the Edison goes to musicians and performers in many …
  • Zubin Mehta
    Born in Bombay, the charismatic and cosmopolitan orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta has had an international career that has spanned the continents and brought together the Western classical music …
  • Brief encounters: Pete Myers’ diaries, Part 1 of 3
    As a young rising star in radio at the BBC, Pete Myers interviewed some of the most memorable people in the entertainment world of his time. He decided in 1972 to keep a record of his impressions of …
  • Great balls of fire: Popular music in the 1950’s, Part 7 – 1956
    This programme is part of the series Great Balls of FireIn this nine-part radio essay, Pete Myers tells the stories behind the music and the people that created the sounds of the 1950’s. This …
  • Happy Station New Year’s Day special 1992
    Music and thoughts about the big events expected in the forthcoming year. In this special edition of Happy Station, Pete Myers looks forward to the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, the U.S. …
  • Newsline: Radio Netherlands’ daily current affairs programme
    At the start of 1980’s, the Radio Netherlands’ English department led the transition from mainly entertainment shows to high-quality feature programmes. The focus also switched from being …
  • 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 …
  • Butchered Lamb (©Flickr/Burkazoid)
    Bringing home the beef: Meat production and consumption, Part 1 of 2 – The human factor
    Everyone now knows the facts. And the facts keep coming: mass production and consumption of meat and dairy products cannot be sustained. Meat is not a viable global source of nutrition or income, …
  • Butchered lamb (© Flickr/Burkazoid)
    Bringing home the beef: Meat production and consumption, Part 2 of 2 – The animals
    Everyone now knows the facts. And the facts keep coming: mass production and consumption of meat and dairy products cannot be sustained. Meat is not a viable global source of nutrition or income, …
  • Poor Kenyan boy in Nairobi rubbish dump
    The challenge: The eradication of poverty
    The United Nations proclaimed 1996 the international year for the eradication of poverty. The goal was to lift a quarter of the world’s population out of extreme poverty, which, for over one billion …
  • Titanic: A 20th century parable
    The sinking of the luxury ocean liner RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage in 1912 continues to fascinate people. The loss of over 1,500 lives made it one of the greatest peacetime maritime disasters in …
  • The senses: Smell, Part 1 of 5
    This programme is part of the series The Senses  In the first in a five-part series on the senses, we look at one of our most overlooked senses, the sense of smell. And yet it is difficult to …
  • The senses: Sound, Part 2 of 5
    This programme is part of the series The SensesThis second part of a “Siren Song” special series looks at our sense of sound. How would we communicate without speech and laughter even in …
  • The Senses: Sight, Part 3 of 5
    This programme is part of the series The SensesThis third part of a “Siren Song” special series looks at our sense of sight. It is said that eighty percent of our perception comes from …
  • The Senses: Taste, Part 4 of 5
    This programme is part of the series The SensesWith its inevitable link to food and drink, taste is probably the one sense that links health to pleasure more closely than any of the other senses. …
  • The Senses: Touch, Part 5 of 5
    This programme is part of the series The SensesIn this last part of the series on the senses, we discuss one of the most controversial of our senses: touch, the subject of numerous rules and rituals …
  • The Battle of the Atlantic
    The Battle of the Atlantic, a fierce five-year battle fought in the ocean during World War II, was one of the most intense and violent naval confrontations in history. It is the story of the ships …
  • Millennium: Waiting for the end, Part 1 of 2
    In Western Christian culture, the arrival of a millenium, a one-thousand-year milestone measuring the time since the birth of Jesus Christ, is a date of great psychological significance. This …
  • Millennium: The threshold, Part 2 of 2
    It’s just a number, you might say — the year 2000. And yet, the start of a new millennium has been the focus of great fears of destruction and extinction, on the one hand, and …
  • International Woman’s Day 1997
    Marking International Women’s Day 1997, Siren Song presenter Dheera Sujan speaks with two leading writers: Marilyn French (1929-2009), whose many thought-provoking books include “The …
  • Médecins sans Frontières accused of boosting refugee figures in Zaire
      In 1997, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) was accused of inflating the number of Rwandan refugees it helped in Zaire, in order to boost donations. In this edition of Wide …
  • Contemporary art: Documenta 10
    Roughly every five years, a world summit of contemporary art is held in Kassel, Germany. In 1997, “Documenta”, as this 100-day event is called, was held for the tenth time. Documenta X …
  • Mary Robinson: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
    This is a live UN-organised, one-hour interview with the appointed UN High Commissioner, former Irish President, Mary Robinson. The interviewers come from a range of radio stations, including VOA, …
  • Siren Song: PEN/UNPO
    Two features in this programme: Michele Ernsting meets three women leaders from very different cultures at a conference of the UNPO, the Unrepresented People’s Organisation. Dheera Sujan …
  • The thirsty Earth: Thirsty towns, thirsty cities – Part 3 of 3
    Water resources are getting scarcer all around the world. Even in a country such as the Netherlands—for centuries the victim of flooding—pollution and population pressures are putting ever greater …
  • The thirsty Earth: The rain in Spain – Part 2 of 3
    Water resources are getting scarcer all around the world. Even in the a country like the Netherlands, for centuries the victims of flooding, pollution and population pressure are putting ever greater …
  • Childless by choice
    It’s assumed that just about everybody loves babies and wants to have children. That is, of course, a fallacy. So why do some people never have children? Overpopulation, a dislike of children, …
  • The way it is: UNICEF at 50
    The United Nations Children’s Fund is an organisation which resonates with hope for our tomorrows but rings with despair for all our yesterdays. Hope because children are our future, despair …
  • The thirsty Earth: To pump or drown – Part 1 of 3
    Water resources are getting scarcer all around the world. Even in the a country like the Netherlands, for centuries the victims of flooding, pollution and population pressure are putting ever greater …
  • Hemp: Raw material of the future
    Hemp can be used for rope, textiles, clothing, shoes and insulation; the seed is edible; the oils can be used in cosmetics and even in cancer and AIDS research. In short, hemp is a very useful …
  • Crazy: A modern look at schizophrenia
    Schizophrenia hits one in every 100 people around the world – men and women, old and young, rich and poor – yet scientists are still not entirely sure why and how schizophrenia occurs. Is …
  • Entering the old age of plastics
    Mention the word plastic nowadays and you immediately envision piles of toxic trash swirling around the oceans and choking the fish and seabirds. But there is also the problem of the loss of valuable …
  • The spice lords: The history of the VOC, Part 3 of 4
    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 …
  • Diamonds: The seven “C’s”, Part 1 – Carat, colour, clarity and cut
    Experts traditionally judge the quality of a finished diamond by four criteria: cut, clarity, colour and carat. But there is a dark side to the story of this brilliant, beautiful stone—the hardest …
  • Diamonds: The seven “C’s”, Part 2 – Cartels, confidence and concessions
    Experts traditionally judge the quality of a finished diamond by four criteria: cut, clarity, color and carat. But there is a dark side to the story of this brilliant, beautiful stone—the hardest …
  • Travel writer Redmond O’Hanlon
    Dheera Sujan meets Oxford don but most of all travel writer and jungle explorer Redmond O’Hanlon and finds out why he undertakes these difficult, uncomfortable and dangerous journeys. Producer: …
  • The hunters and the hunted: The ongoing controversy over whaling
    The hunting of whales is a very sensitive environmental issue. Most European countries have harshly condemned the practice, yet it was not so long ago that their own fishing fleets were aggressively …
  • Postponed parenthood
    Around the world, women are postponing motherhood, usually in order to take time to study and start their careers. When this programme was made, Dutch women were on average 29 years old when they had …
  • Four unusual gay activists
    David Swatling visits the 11th International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. Its “gay” programme featured several impressive films. David meets the maker of “You can’t …
  • Stories of Our Century: “All Quiet on the Western Front”
    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 …
  • Stories of our century: “The diary of Anne Frank”
    In 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each programme, a guest speaker gives us the historical background behind …
  • Stories of our century: “Brave new world”
    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 …
  • Stories of our century: “Doctor Zhivago”
    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 …
  • Grinding clarity: The discovery of the telescope
    One thousand years ago, an Arab scientist described the amazing magnifying properties of a glass lens. It took another three hundred years before an accurate lens was made, and another three hundred …
  • A tale of three staples: Part 1 – Rice, The white goddess
    Rice, often called “the white goddess”, is the staple food of half of the planet’s population. Its history is the history of organised agriculture. It has changed societies, played …
  • A tale of three staples: Part 2 of 3 – The search for the perfect potato
    How did potatoes get to Europe? How did they become so popular? Michele Ernsting answers these questions and many more as she travels from Holland to England, Ireland and the Andes mountains in …
  • A tale of three staples: Part 3 of 3 – Noodles
    Noodles can be made of wheat, buckwheat, rice, potatoes, beans, peas…you name it. Noodles are cheap, convenient and keep almost forever. Jane Murphy explores the Chinese, Korean, Japanese, …
  • Pulling the plug on pox
    Smallpox is regarded as one of the most consequential of all the pestilential diseases that have plagued humanity for the past ten thousand years. One in three could die from it during an epidemic, …
  • A war requiem: The soldiers’ experience of war
    When the young soldiers who had fought in the trenches of World War I returned home after the armistice of 1918, they were no longer boys but men. Many of them traumatised by their experience of the …
  • Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander on water management
    At the Second World Water Forum in The Hague in 2000, Saskia van Rhenen speaks to Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander, the chairman of the meeting. They discuss what the Netherlands can offer the …
  • Gold: Part 1 of 3 – What price gold?
    Gold is an essential element in the cultures of many lands. In most African and Asian countries, births, marriages and deaths feature gold in the rituals. But just what that price has been in human …
  • Gold: Part 2 of 3 – The Argonauts
    The legendary Golden Fleece of Greek mythology was the prize for the best men of the times. Since then, there have been many generations of Argonauts who have undertaken journeys to the edges of …
  • 30 years of Poetry International
    Radio Netherlands recorded the programming of Rotterdam’s Poetry International Festival from its inception in 1970. A wide variety of international poets are heard reading their own work, including …
  • More dog days
    Following the success of “Dog Dag Afternoons” in 1988, David Swatling continues his story about the emotional life of canines and the relationship between man and dog. And, of course, we …
  • In his search for Enlightenment, Buddha at first practiced extreme fasting and asceticism, a practice he later exchanged for the middle way (Wat Umong temple, Chiang Mai in Thailand)
    Food philosophies”: Fasting, Part 1
      The Sound Fountain series on food philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. Having said that, this first programme in the series is not about what we eat, but rather what …
  • Food philosophies: Vegetarianism (fruit or flesh), Part 2
    Douchi – fermented black soybeans (© Flickr/Ogiyoshisan)   The Sound Fountain series on Food Philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. With the occasional exception …
  • Food philosophies: Food obsessions, Part 3
    The Sound Fountain series on food philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. In this programme, three women — Sharon, Vicky and Tracy — tell of their phobias and eating …
  • Food philosophies: Meat, morals and murder, Part 4
    “Meat, morals and murder” is the story of three campaigners: one is a scientist who warns of the effects of what she calls: the dangerous alliance between science and industry. A second …
  • Erick de Mul
    Erick de Mul – Looking back at a unique and unusual career with the United Nations
    After three decades with the United Nations, Dutchman Erick de Mul was about to retire. He began his U.N. career in Venezuela, then moved to Africa, and then back to Latin America and then back …
  • Red Rubber
    Rubber has been crucial to the modern age. The pneumatic tyre made modern car and plane travel possible. The substance has a long history. It’s been known for well over a thousand years, …
  • Dingo Fence in Australia
    Fences: Fencing off Australia, Part 1 of 4
      The Sound Fountain, a weekly documentary program produced by Dheera Sujan and Michele Ernsting, produced four different stories in 2000 about various fences that mark us off from our inner and …
  • Separation, painting by Edvard Munch, 1896 (Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway)
    Fences: Erik and Milene, Part 2 of 4
    From the Sound Fountain, the programme “Erik and Milene”: a story about love. It’s about a boy meeting and getting his girl. All set to live happily ever after when suddenly disaster …
  • Research File: Polio and the eradication of disease
    When this programme was made in 2000, the world celebrated the 20th anniversary of the global eradication of the dreaded smallpox disease. Encouraged by this tremendous achievement, a global campaign …
  • Allan B. Polunsky Unit, West Livingston, Texas
    Fences: Billy on death row, Part 3 of 4
    What happens when you do something that makes society decide to fence you off completely from the rest of the world? When you live 23 hours a day inside a tiny cell with no human contact? When you …
  • Saints Alive
    For well over a thousand years, the saints have been held up as examples for Catholics around the world. Though the Church sets the standards for sainthood, the choice of saints is often dependent on …
  • Carol Bellamy on her career
    Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, talks to Ginger da Silva about her career, from Peace Corps worker in the earlier 1960’s, to lawyer, politician and now head of UNICEF. She also …
  • Home: Leaving behind or going to, Part 1 of 3
    Home is where the heart is. What if your heart lies somewhere in a territory just beyond your reach? What if you are an exile, an immigrant, a refugee? What if your parents’ home was not yours? …
  • Home: Can you go home again?, Part 2 of 3
    Our guests in this programme are from many different backgrounds and countries: Iraq, Tibet, India, Pakistan, Australia and Surinam. They all live in the Netherlands, and they have different answers …
  • Home: Longing and belonging, Part 3 of 3
      We all feel the need to belong, but what is it that shapes our sense of belonging? What happens when we’re transplanted to new cultures where we form new roots? Can we long for a home we know …
  • Interview with retired senior Dutch diplomat Peter van Walsum
    In 1999 and 2000, Peter van Walsum (1934-2019) served as the Dutch ambassador to the United Nations, at a time when the Netherlands had a seat on the Security Council. Much of the interview focuses …
  • Professor Hoosen Mahomed (Jerry) Coovadia
    Jerry Coovadia on HIV/AIDS in Africa
    Dr. Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia is a professor of HIV/AIDS Research at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa. He chaired the 13th …
  • The food of the gods: Cocoa bean to chocolate bar
    Chocolate is an aphrodisiac, an addiction, with a complex chemical composition and a dramatic history. Montezuma, the Aztec king, is said to have drunk it to gain the strength to satisfy his many …
  • The fiery fruit: Chili peppers
    The history of chili is fascinating. Traced back to 7000 BC in South America, the chili comes in dozens of different shapes, sizes, colours and degrees of hotness. There are cults of chili eaters, …
  • Civil liberties vs national security
    After September 11, 2001, security became a major issue. But how far should security measures go and will they really protect us? How much loss of personal freedom is acceptable? Laura Durnford has …
  • Commandeering the waves
    What is the shape and size of the Earth and of the cosmos containing it? For thousands of years, man has tried to map the world accurately. For a long time, no effective means existed for determining …
  • Confronting Fear of Flying
    According to psychologists, one out of three people are likely to develop a fear of flying, most likely during particularly stressful periods of their lives. Flying phobia is often an expression of …
  • The nuclear debate
    More than a decade after the end of the Cold War, the only remaining superpower once again seems to be contemplating the use of nuclear weapons. Ann Marie Michel looks at the strong anti-nuclear …
  • The 2002 Arctic Science Summit Week
    The 2002 Arctic Science Summit Week was held recently at the University of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. The main focus of the summit: the interaction between the Arctic and the …
  • Research File Special: the 14th AIDS conference
    This programme is part of the series Research FileWhen the 14th AIDS Conference was held in Barcelona, the battle against HIV was in what was described as the “good-wish-list” phase. …
  • The Arctic dream: The story of the conquest of the Northwest Passage
    For centuries, European explorers sought a westward route to Asia, a short-cut which would guarantee untold riches for their patrons. The Northwest Passage became a deadly obsession, and from the …
  • Biodiversity under threat
    When this programme was recorded in 2002, there were 1.7 million known species. Scientists estimate that there are an additional 20 to 100 million species that have not yet been described. 90% of all …
  • Research File: Manned vs. unmanned space missions – Wrong Audio
    Speakers: Dr. Piet Smolders: Dutch space expert and former director of the Artis Planetarium, Amsterdam, Netherlands Artemis Westenberg & Jim Volp: Spokespersons for the Lunar Explorer Society …
  • 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 …
  • Here to be dragons!
    Dragons appear in mythology in all parts of the world. In the Far East, dragons tend to be benevolent and intelligent. In the West, they tend to be symbols of  an evil force. David Swatling …
  • Short circuit: The mental landscape of synesthetes
    This edition of Sound Fountain is one of a series called “stigma” on various forms of mental phenomena that we tend not to speak about often or candidly. One such mental quirk, …
  • Rivers of the World: The Vecht in Holland
    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 …
  • Into the light: The near death experience
    What happens to a person who has an out of body experience? People who have had a near death experience often describe floating above the operating table, for example, or moving towards a brilliant …
  • War of words: Stop the music, Part 5 of 5
    “War of words” was a five-part series in the weekly Sound Fountain programme about information in times of conflict. Some of the world’s leading experts in the field of communications and peace …
  • World Water Day
    Dam Busting: How? Why? Who Benefits? Thijs Westerbeek with Dr. Jack Schroeder, University of Nebraska, Omaka; Dr. Michelle Marvier, Santa Clara University, California; Dr. Peter Kareeva, United …
  • Looking for terrorists
    An Israeli woman tracks down the man who shot her in a terrorist attack 23 years ago and works for his release from prison. A young Polish woman travels to Algeria to look for terrorists and falls in …
  • Weapons of mass destruction: Part 1 of 2
    “Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real”: Jules Verne probably never imagined how right he was when he wrote those words. At the start of the last century, the notion of a …
  • Weapons of mass destruction: Part 2 of 2
    50 years ago, few people understood the threat posed by a nuclear arms race. The destructive power of these new weapons was simply beyond the comprehension of most people. But one man – the British …
  • Poetry in a small Language: Minority languages at Poetry International
    Rotterdam’s Poetry International Festival 2003 had a special programme to highlight minority languages, such as Welsh, Mayan, Corsican and Livonian. This programme features interviews with the Welsh …
  • Research File Special: 100 years of aviation
    December 17, 2003 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of aviation, when Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights in their first powered aircraft. This special edition of the Research …
  • Buffoon playing the lute by Frans Hals (1620-1626), Louvre
    A Harmony of Lutes: Homage to an ancient worldwide family of instruments
    This musical journey through the centuries and across world cultures takes us to the Middle East, Japan, India, China and 16th-century Europe. Guest musicians introduce us to string …
  • Shades of blonde
    Blonde is the chosen colour of princesses and prime ministers. It’s the sexy look of Marilyn and the woman in power makeover of Hilary. It’s been the colour of choice of harlots through the ages, of …
  • Escaping God’s closet: The revelations of a queer priest
    Fifty years ago at the age of twenty-five, Bernard Duncan Mayes (1929-2014) entered a Yorkshire monastery to become an Anglican priest. However, his life would take many twists and turns. He became a …
  • Intersex
    A group of women talk of their experiences with a rare condition: intersexuality. They are women who have the male XY chromosome. One was forcibly raised as a boy. One only found out about her …
  • Bertrand Russell
    “Pure Wickedness”: Bertrand Russell and the People’s Tribunal
    What happens when you set up a court without a judge or a real prosecution or a proper defence or even an actual jury? What happens when you fill that room instead with concerned citizens? Some might …
  • Research File special: Global warming and phenology
    Climate change inevitably affects the life cycles of plants and animals. In this special award-winning edition of the Research File, reporter Daniel Grossman explains the science of observing how …
  • Soldiering on
    “Throughout the history of warfare technology changes rapidly. A revolution in technology can occur in the space of 20 odd years, but the human emotions of those involved in a battle remain the …
  • Research File special: Threats to the coral reefs
    Sun, fun and snorkeling among the beauties of the sea is what we would like to associate with coral reefs. But disease, bleaching and unsustainable fishing practices are destroying the Earth’s …
  • The winged muse: Swans
    Swans have inspired some of the world’s most beautiful music, poetry and legends. Many people from saints to kings have been identified with swans, like the Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova …
  • Biodiversity: a Research File Special
    Anne Blair Gould asks what biodiversity is and why it’s important to stop the loss of biological diversity (animals, plants, fungi, bacteria). Scientists estimate that species are now going …
  • Games afoot: The world of board games
    Why do people play board games? Who invents them? What makes a game so good it is played for thousands of years, while others flop? In this programme, we meet Paul Clark, who has just launched his …
  • Growing old globally
    Although this programme was made in 2005, as part of a Radio Netherlands’ theme month on aging, the basic facts have not changed: the world is “getting older” because we are living …
  • The quest for mechanical man
    For centuries, we have been obsessed with creating machines just like us. In this programme, we look at how our expectations of machines has changed over the years. Do we want robots to be our slaves …
  • International Criminal Court in The Hague
    In its own words: The International Criminal Court in The Hague
    The International Criminal Court began its work in 2002, having been granted the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war …
  • Building the Bomb
    The detonation of an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 marked the start of a deadly new race for military supremacy. The blast in Hiroshima, Japan was the largest the world had ever seen and was …
  • Imagination is the instrument of compassion
    New York author Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is part of a wave of what has been dubbed “post-9/11 fiction”. But some critics say not enough time has passed to …
  • All but gone: The last chance to save the great apes
    In 2005, the United Nations held an emergency to announce the startling fact that within the next 30 years, the world’s great apes will ALL be extinct. In other words, by 2035, there will be no …
  • Radio Free Europe
    The Radio Free complex
    During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty played a crucial role in the struggle against communism. With the collapse of the Iron Curtain, they needed a new purpose. In the wake of …
  • Hiroshima after the atomic bomb in 1945
    The end of war: An impossible dream?
    We called the First World War the “war to end all wars”, but even considering the monstrous killing that invariably followed and continues to this day, there are some who believe, …
  • Failed States Index 2006
    Sinking, swimming or simply paddling – Part 1 in a series on failed states
    The term “failed state” first emerged in the 1990’s. Today it is being used more and more frequently by diplomats, policymakers, charities and the media when they refer to countries such as …
  • U.N. peacekeeper General Patrick Cammaert
    Retired Major-General Patrick Cammaert of the Royal Dutch Marines is one of the world’s most experienced and distinguished professional peacekeepers. He was appointed In December 2018 to …
  • The State We’re In: Language rights
    Language is the greatest tool of communication we have and it brings people together. So why is it that such a precious and essential tool is often at the heart of ethnic conflict and injustice, even …
  • Baghdad Calling
    The State We’re In – 2008 year-end special
    This edition of The State We’re, a weekly programme on “human rights, human wrongs and how we treat each other”, features the right to silence, the right to sex and a conversation with the author of …
  • Marsh Arabs in a mashoof
    Earth Beat: War and its effect on the environment
      Earth Beat, a.k.a. “clean green radio”, was a weekly programme about our impact on the planet and its impact on us. There’s probably no human activity more destructive to …