Worlds Apart 2007

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Programme 1: 9th October 2007
Darfur: A Desert Genocide

Rodney Rice reports from Chad on the life and death of people from Sudan's Darfur province, victims to Arab militias who do not share their culture. Refugees tell Rodney their stories and their hopes for peace talks which are due to start in 2 weeks time.

For more information and pictures from Darfur please CLICK HERE.

Programme 2: 16th October 2007
A Congolese War - Gorillas in the Midst

Mountain gorillas, already a threatened species, fall victim to continued violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo 

For more information and pictures from The Democratic Republic of Congo please CLICK HERE.

Programme 3: 23rd October 2007
Iran: Between Mohammed and Modernity

From its Ayatollahs to the blond highlights below saucily-worn headscarves, to its Moslem tradition and nuclear ambition, Iran presents a complex contradiction.

For more information and pictures from Iran please CLICK HERE. 

Programme 4: 30th October 2007
Zimbabwe: Mugabe Destroys his Creation

Human Rights Defender and Zimbabwean lawyer Trust Maanda talks to Rodney Rice in this week's Worlds Apart, as they overlook the Zambezi river into a crumbling Zimbabwe.

For more information and pictures from Zimbabwe please CLICK HERE.

Programme 5: 6th November 2007
The Maldives - Repression in Honeymoon Heaven

It may be an Indian Ocean paradise for newly-weds and sun worshippers, but for Maldivians, life on the archipelago is rather more dependent on the whims of an autocratic president. 

For more information and pictures from The Maldives please CLICK HERE.      

Programme 6: November 13th 2007.
Kenya - A Woman's Challenge in a Man's World

Njoki Ndungu pushed her Sexual Offences Act through parliament against male opposition. She had landmark vistories, but met some red lines. An extended interview with one of the leading women activists in Kenya.

For more information and pictures from Kenya please CLICK HERE.     

Programme 7: November 20th 2007.
Guatemala - The Indians and the Multinationals

It's a story replayed throughout the developing world; indigenous tradition meets international capitalism. Can it ever be an equal struggle?                 

For more information and pictures from Guatemala please CLICK HERE.   

Programme 8: November 27th 2007.
Human Rights: Defending the Defenders

Irish NGO Front Line hosts its annual Human rights platform in Dublin. Worlds Apart meets some from various continents who have chosen to defend the rights of their fellow citizens.

For more information and pictures please CLICK HERE.  

Programme 9: Decemeber 4th 2007
Kakuma: The Forever Refugee Camp

If we think of refugee camps as temporary accommodation to alleviate short term needs, a visit to Kakuma camp in arid northern Kenya tells a different story of a 15 year old campsite which has taken on an air of permanence.

For more information and pictures from Kakuma please CLICK HERE.  

Programme 10: December 11th 2007.
Tanzania: Who benefits from tourism?

The developing world needs the tourist dollar. But does the money stay in the destination country, or does it return to lands from which the visitors came?

For more information and pictures from Tanzania please CLICK HERE.  

Programme 11: December 18th 2007.
Colombia: Journalism in armoured cars

Covering news is so dangerous in Colombia that many reporters have been killed, even more driven out of work, and some offered armoured cars and bodyguards. But is this protection and double-edged swords and are these journalists really safe?

Programme 12: January 1st 2008.
Mozambique: Does Aid give value for money?

Has 30 years of development aid really helped in Africa? Worlds Apart visits the Irish Aid programme in Mozambique to see if there is value for money - for both donor and recipient.

For more information and pictures from Mozambique please CLICK HERE. 

ABOUT THE SERIES
There's a refugee camp in northern Kenya which in 15 years of existence has developed an air of permanence. In Guatemala indigenous Mayan people still find themselves losing their land to mining concessions. And in Darfur, the horror that is genocide continues. As the south Sudanese slowly leave that Kenyan camp to return home to test the post-war mood, their fellow countrymen from Darfur replace them at the same camp as their lives at home remain under threat.

This year Rodney began his journey in that Kenyan camp where small numbers of Darfuris and large numbers of Somalis replace the home-going southern Sudanese. He continued to Tanzania where he visited its game parks as well as the exotic spice island of Zanzibar to see if international tourism is alleviating the poverty in what is still one of the world's poorest nations, or if its profits slip overseas to hotel and tour groups.

Next came Mozambique, a favoured country by international donors. But does aid offer value for money even in a calm and ordered land? There's calm and order in the Maldives, a honeymoon heaven for, among others, increasing numbers of young Irish brides and grooms. But behind the calm, a dictator is being challenged and is trying to juggle the demands of democracy with his own desire for political survival.

The Q'equchi' Indians, a Mayan people of Guatemala, are also trying to survive. But their claim to land is being over-ridden by a government deal with a mining company. Who will win that one?  And whoever wins drug wars that scar Colombia's image, the journalists there will remain nervy as their attempts to report accurately bring death threats - and sometimes death - from the vested interests. Some of them tell their story to Worlds Apart.

Back in Africa, Darfur and Somalia apart, internal war increasingly looks like a thing of the past. But how is the massive Democratic Republic of Congo faring in its attempts to recover from the destruction of recent war? How are ordinary Zimbabweans coping, not with war, but with the hardship forced on them by the delusions of their own President? And, back in Darfur, can the latest UN peacekeepers re-established end the misery, the internal and cross-border displacement, the horrific murder of so many?

Rodney Rice's annual travels end - and Worlds Apart returns to the schedule on October 9th at 10.02 pm.

Research by Elizabeth Laragy