Americas: May 2012 Archives
Thursday May 31, 2012
Child "bomberitos" on Peru's most dangerous highway
Peru's Bomberitos to the rescue
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Bomberito means "little fireman" in Spanish. In the Andes Mountains of Peru groups of them use their homemade carretas to help stranded motorists and truckers along the highway. The tips they earn help support their families. Hevert (left) was a bomberito as a kid, helping rescue stranded motorists and victims of disasters. They get their carretas up the steep highway through the Andes by attaching ropes, or just their hands, to passing transport trucks. (Photos: Romi Burianova) The photo that started it (below). Filmmaker Quincy Perkins saw this picture of two Bomberitos -- kids on their own in the mountains of Peru who make their way to mountain accidents and disasters. Our Dispatches contributor went with him to the Amazon valley as he made a film about them (Photo/StefanSonntag) |
It was one of those dinner party stories that sticks in your head. A rumour about kids racing homemade carts high in the Andes, acting as first responders during accidents and disasters.
They have a catchy name. They're said to do dangerous work in a dangerous region.
But are they real? For Dispatches contributor Lori Chodos and a colleague, the voyage to find out was a story in itself.
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Categories: Americas, News Promo, Promo Box, The View from Here
Wednesday May 30, 2012
May 31 & June 3: from Kabul, Afghanistan - Lima, Peru - Florence, Italy - Hong Kong - Mumbai, India
From our correspondents around the world...
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The photo that started it. Filmmaker Quincy Perkins saw this picture of two Bomberitos -- kids on their own in the mountains of Peru who make their way to mountain accidents and disasters. Our Dispatches contributor went with him to the Amazon valley as he made a film about them. (Photo/Stefan Sonntag) |
There's no fire department, no auto club between the Andes and the Amazon. Just feral kids in homemade carts. Meet the Bomberitos of Peru.
The threat left behind. NATO troops leave Afghanistan but their unexploded shells will wage a protracted war on civilians.
Why Hong Kong's superiority complex is turning into an identity crisis, 15 years after its handover to China.
Italy's doleful demographic. The birth rate's so low, schools are being turned into old age homes.
And, inner-city Mumbai might look like a slum, but the land's worth a fortune to the crafty residents waiting for a developer's payday.
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Read more »Categories: Americas, Asia, Europe, Past Episodes
Wednesday May 23, 2012
May 24 and May 27, 2012: from Florence - Uganda - The Seychelles - Iraq
From our correspondents around the world...
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Tour participants in Florence eat gelato topped with aged balsamic vinegar, a uniquely Italian treat. (Photo: Luigi Fraboni) |
In Uganda you can inherit a wife, marry more than one, and beating them isn't much of a crime. And changing that is proving problematic.
Then, a young award-winning reporter on shoe leather, social media and his first time in a free-fire zone.
And, Florentine steak, well-aged parmeggiano, and an egg-rich gelato to die for. How to find the best food in Florence.
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Categories: Africa, Americas, Europe, Middle East, Past Episodes
Thursday May 10, 2012
May 10 & 13, 2012: from Damascus, Syria - Munich, Germany - Sao Paolo, Brazil - Alabama - Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Port-au-Prince, Haiti
From our correspondents around the world...
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Alabama has America's toughest laws aimed at undocumented immigrants. It makes the lives of Hispanics so hard they are "self deporting", even if they are not illegal. The approach has also had an impact on Alabama citizens, many of whom have been drawn into the state's war on undocumented immigrants. (AP Photo/John Amis) |
The German locomotive hopes to pull Europe's flailing economies out of trouble. But there's a ghost in that machine.
In Brazil, David Rocha makes garbage instruments. Or rather, instruments from garbage. That's why they sound so good.
Illegal immigrant, deport thyself. How an experiment in immigration went wrong in Alabama.
Hotels aren't in the charity business, so why would the Red Cross want into the hotel business, in Haiti?
And from the Netherlands, a cafe where you don't pay for the food. We take repast in a restaurant for these recessionary times.
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Categories: 2010 Season, Americas, Europe, Middle East, Past Episodes
Wednesday May 2, 2012
May 3 & 6, 2012: from China - Toulouse, France - India - Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Amsterdam
From our correspondents around the world...
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China's former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai is the subject of one of two scandals threatening the Chinese Communist establishment. His wife has been implicated in the death of a British businessman. (Photo: Reuters) |
The F-word erupts into French presidential politics. Are foreigners the future of the Gallic identity or its undoing? The campaign revives a rift.
Then, hate camps versus haute couture. A new documentary examines why some girls in India are subjugated, while others are liberated.
In Haiti, the lacklustre government moves to appease restless former soldiers with the promise of a payday but there's a Fifth Column to worry about.
And, a sting on wheels. Bicycle theft in free-wheeling Amsterdam pushes our correspondent to extremes.
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Categories: Americas, Asia, Europe, Past Episodes
- June 2012
- Wed., 20 – June 21 & 24: the last Dispatches
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- Mon., 1 – U.S. Ramadan Road Trip
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- Mon., 2 – War brides return to Britain on QM2
- April 2011
- March 2011
- Thu., 31 – Grand Forks, ND: misinformation on the menu
- Fri., 11 – Plaza del Mayo... marching, remembering
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- October 2010
- Thu., 28 – October 28 & 31, 2010: from Rio de Janeiro - Dublin - Voss, Norway - Huntsville, Alabama - London
- Thu., 21 – Havana...sticking like crazy glue here
- Wed., 20 – Haiti...Rumours Of Glory here
- Fri., 15 – Falkland Islands...music of the long march
- Fri., 15 – When in Cuba, eat as the Cubans eat
- Thu., 14 – October 14 & 17, 2010: from Miami - Cuba - Arizona - Tripoli, Lebanon - Berlin - La Paz, Bolivia
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
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- January 2010
- December 2009
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- September 2009
Air Times
| Network | Times |
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| Radio One | Thursday 1 pm, 1:30 pm NT Sunday 7 pm, 8 pm AT and 8:30 pm NT |
| Sirius 137 | Friday at Midnight & 9 am, Sunday at 10 pm |
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World Headlines
- updated Car drives into crowd at Virginia parade
- About 50 to 60 people were injured after a driver described by witnesses as an elderly man drove his car into a group of hikers marching in a parade in a small Virginia mountain town.
- new Iran hangs 2 men convicted of spying
- Iran's state radio says authorities have executed two men convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad and the American CIA spy agency.
- updated Senior Pakistani politician shot dead video
- Gunmen in Pakistan have killed a senior member of Imran Khan's Movement for Justice (PTI) party outside her home in Karachi.
- Afghan legislators block law protecting women
- An Afghan legislator says conservative lawmakers have blocked approval of a law that aims to protect women's freedoms, saying parts of it violate Islamic principles.
- French president signs gay marriage into law
- French President François Hollande has signed a law authorizing gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.