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Thursday May 24, 2012

Foreign slaves serving the U.S. military machine

Sarah Stillman has won several awards for her investigation of America's "Invisible Army".  (Photo by Alan Chin)

When the recruiter offered Lydia and Vinnie high-paid jobs in Dubai, they jumped in, not realizing they'd been sucked in, like so many other foreign workers.

 

By some estimates, as many as 70,000 work in appalling conditions on American military bases, locked into punitive contracts by unscrupulous contractors accountable to no one.

 

They're America's "invisible army."Journalist Sarah Stillman was struck by their stories during her time in Iraq in 2008, especially when she looked into how they were living.

 

The article she wrote about those workers -- which appeared in The New Yorker last year -- has won several awards. This month she picked up the Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism and a National Magazine Award for her story.

Hear Rick's interview with Sarah

Sarah Stillman is a freelance journalist and visiting scholar at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

She is in Washington, D.C. Her story about foreign workers on American bases first appeared in The New Yorker.

Hear the rest of this week's Dispatches

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Sunday May 20, 2012

Ukraine feminists use sexuality as weapons to fight for equality

Inna Shevchenko (R) and Sasha (L) are the most prominent members of FEMEN, which uses female sexuality, including nudity, to demand women's rights in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe.   (REUTERS/Gleb Garanich)

Feminism laid bare in Ukraine

Well, the spark that ignited the Orange Revolution in Ukraine just a few years ago is more like a damp squib. Seems the days of political protest are mostly over.

Except for a small and controversial group trying to revive them in the name of women's rights. Controversial, because they use their sexuality to gain attention.

They went topless at KGB headquarters. And the Vatican. This week one of them peeled off and grabbed the Euro 2012 soccer trophy. Anything to advance the cause. They put their half-naked bodies on the line, occasionally with brutal result.

But Dispatches contributor Saroja Coelho says some wonder just what their cause is, and went to see whether their tactics help or hurt it.

Listen to Saroja's dispatch         Listen to the rest of this week's program.

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Friday May 18, 2012

Reporter caps Zimbabwe gig with 24 days in grotty jail

New Zealand photographer Robin Hammond was imprisoned for 24 days by the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe, atfer photographing people fleeing the country. (Photo: Amnesty International)

Tales of jail in Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, the police are pretty good at scaring people, according to Robin Hammond.

Maybe not so good at police work. The New Zealand photographer found out first hand.

He was jailed for taking pictures of Zimbabweans fleeing the political violence of the Mugabe regime.

He might still be in there if the police had promptly patted him down and seized his cellphone.

They didn't.

Long story short, Robin Hammond was held for twenty-four days and only released last week. We caught up with him in Paris to hear more about conditions in Zimbabwe.

Listen to Rick's conversation with Robin

New Zealander Robin Hammond is an award-winning photographer whose work in human rights and environmental issues.  He is now completing his retrospective on 32 years of Mugabe rule in Zimbabwe for the Carmignac Gestion Foundation.

Hear the rest of this week's program.

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Sunday May 13, 2012

Mean Home Alabama. Mixed results from law pushing Hispanics to self deport

Immigration law protestors gather outside the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama.  There's been a steady backlash against House Bill 56, which is considered one of the toughest law in the U.S. aimed at finding and expelling undocumented immigrants, many of whom do jobs American can't or won't do. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Deport thyself?

Alabama has a problem. Some people think it has too many illegal immigrants. Not as bad a problem as in some American states, but bad enough to look like a political problem.
Its solution is to get the illegals to deport themselves. And to craft a law, the notorious HB-56, making lawbreakers out of anybody who doesn't report them.

The result is a frightening mess for illegals and Alabamans alike, according to journalist Paul Reyes.

He wrote a major piece on the issue in a recent edition of Mother Jones magazine called "It's Just Not Right: The Failures of Alabama's Self-Deportation Experiment".

Listen to Rick's interview with Paul

Hear the rest of this week's episode of Dispatches.

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Saturday May 12, 2012

Brazil man makes musical treasure from trash

David Rocha finds wood for his instruments in vacant lots like this one in Villa Nova. (Photo: Lisa Hale)

 

A story now, about making the best of what you've got. You know the old adage about life givng you lemons, so make lemonade.

 

As Lisa Hale reports from Brazil, life gave David Rocha garbage. You won't believe what he makes of it.

Listen to Lisa's documentary

 

Click here for the rest of this week's episode of Dispatches!

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Friday May 11, 2012

Dutch recession restaurant: bring your own food!

Owner Michiel Zwart takes an order for drinks from some regular customers, who've come with their own food, at Basis Restaurant in Amsterdam (Photo: Anik See)

A recessionary repast

We already have restaurants where you bring your own wine. But your own food? With a little help from the recession it's beginning to happen, and Anik See takes us to one in Amsterdam.

Listen to Anik's dispatch

 

Click here to listen to the rest of this week's Dispaches!

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• May 2012
  • Thu., 24 – Foreign slaves serving the U.S. military machine
     
  • Sun., 20 – Ukraine feminists use sexuality as weapons to fight for equality
     
  • Fri., 18 – Reporter caps Zimbabwe gig with 24 days in grotty jail
     
  • Sun., 13 – Mean Home Alabama. Mixed results from law pushing Hispanics to self deport
     
  • Sat., 12 – Brazil man makes musical treasure from trash
     
  • Fri., 11 – Dutch recession restaurant: bring your own food!
     
  • Mon., 7 – Reporter goes on sting operation in Amsterdam to get "family" bike back
     
  • Fri., 4 – What do China's twin crises mean?
     
• April 2012
  • Mon., 30 – Award winner for human rights reporting on Argentina's dirty war
     
  • Sun., 29 – Diplomatic Impunity: filmmaker's bluff lets him smuggle diamonds
     
  • Fri., 27 – Azerbaijan: a lot of grief for the spotlight of a pop song show
     
  • Thu., 26 – Yemen: A lesson in insecurity
     
  • Thu., 12 – Peace without justice in Liberia
     
  • Thu., 5 – Turkish minorities tread carefully in opening doors to multi-culturalism
     
• March 2012
  • Fri., 30 – 20 years ago, Bosnia war like bad dream
     
  • Fri., 30 – Cape Town "car guards" offer "protection"
     
  • Fri., 30 – Liberian journalist hides, for reporting sexual mutilation
     
  • Thu., 29 – Mexican tabloids: Black & White -- and dead all over
     
  • Thu., 22 – The trials of Tweeting in China
     
  • Wed., 21 – In Italy, a long drink of yesterday's wine
     
  • Thu., 15 – China's painful healing, with bee-stings
     
  • Thu., 15 – Rwandans find new uses for malaria nets
     
  • Fri., 9 – Italy's crisis endangers its guilds
     
  • Thu., 8 – Mexico's vigilante mayor
     
  • Wed., 7 – Lanse kòd animate Jacmel Carnival
     
  • Fri., 2 – Plus ça change, in Change Square
     
  • Thu., 1 – Self immolation: Tibet Buddhists debate non-violence
     
• February 2012
  • Wed., 29 – A box full of light saves lives
     
  • Tue., 28 – They die so we might know
     
  • Mon., 27 – Oscar winner on Dispatches
     
  • Thu., 23 – Young Senegalese "fed up" with regime
     
  • Wed., 22 – A special court for post-trauma vets
     
  • Mon., 13 – Syrian refugees' defiance and division
     
  • Tue., 7 – Colombia's no-name dead
     
• January 2012
  • Tue., 31 – Costa Rican government responds to cane-cutter investigation
     
  • Thu., 26 – Jamaicans say "we should have remained a British colony"
     
  • Fri., 20 – Why was it Kandahar for Canada's troops?
     
  • Tue., 17 – From inside Syria: Evans assesses the state of the conflict
     
  • Fri., 13 – Dispatches on the Web
     
  • Thu., 12 – Dispatches on the web
     
  • Wed., 11 – Dutch pot cafes take heat
     
  • Fri., 6 – Romania outreach for Roma kids a bust
     
  • Tue., 3 – Kampala, 2011: some hope from a gay bar
     
• December 2011
  • Thu., 29 – Deadly larceny over land in Haiti
     
  • Mon., 26 – A small and shining story of good news from Haiti
     
  • Tue., 20 – Defying Kim Jong-il: North Korea's digital underground
     
  • Sun., 18 – Fast food in the land of slow cooking
     
  • Thu., 15 – Rio's Maracana makeover
     
  • Wed., 14 – Mass marriage and divorce, Peruvian style
     
  • Tue., 13 – The concrete issue of carbon emissions
     
  • Thu., 8 – The road from Damascus -- to Libya
     
  • Wed., 7 – Taliban's tweets, friends, social networks
     
  • Sun., 4 – Old pop bottles light up lives of Manila's poor
     
  • Thu., 1 – Amsterdam "Santa's" helpers in blackface
     
• November 2011
  • Wed., 30 – Guyana: jungle tourism and Jonestown
     
  • Mon., 28 – Colombia Kidnap Radio hostage killed
     
  • Fri., 25 – Santa, Peru buries death-squad victims
     
  • Thu., 24 – Twins, a train and art in Brazil
     
  • Mon., 21 – Kudos for correspondents
     
  • Thu., 17 – Surviving is winning in Afghan politics
     
  • Mon., 14 – Detroit "angels" try to thwart "devil" arsonists
     
  • Mon., 7 – Congo DIY: do it yourself or do without
     
  • Fri., 4 – Rebel town overrun in Sudan's Blue Nile
     
  • Thu., 3 – Chinese rebel writer tells his own story
     
  • Wed., 2 – Centuries-old baroque music survives in Bolivian jungle
     
• October 2011
  • Thu., 27 – Pro-Gadhafi Africans confront Canadian reporter
     
  • Thu., 20 – Sudan's "next" civil war in progress in Blue Nile
     
  • Thu., 13 – Bailing out the Greeks' devalued psyche
     
  • Fri., 7 – 5 convicted in Argentina torture/murder
     
  • Thu., 6 – Guatemala's bombero volunteers pick up the bodies
     
• September 2011
  • Fri., 30 – Aid to Africa's starving: is cash better than food?
     
  • Thu., 22 – In Haiti, Connie Watson and the army next door
     
  • Thu., 15 – Peace and death on Tripoli Street
     
  • Thu., 8 – Asian carp approach Great Lakes
     
  • Fri., 2 – Adrienne Arsenault on terrorism's future
     
• August 2011
  • Fri., 26 – Berlin's anti-Nazi cleaning lady
     
  • Thu., 18 – Sudan's Machine Gun Preacher
     
  • Tue., 16 – Urumqi, China's underground 6 City
     
  • Fri., 12 – The Redemption Of General Butt Naked
     
  • Wed., 10 – For Haitian women, credit buys confidence
     
  • Wed., 3 – Thorium: safe nuclear fuel of the future?
     
  • Mon., 1 – U.S. Ramadan Road Trip
     
• July 2011
  • Wed., 27 – Whoonga! What's in the killer street drug of Durban?
     
  • Fri., 22 – From Yunnan: golf in the new China
     
  • Thu., 14 – From Spain via Israel -- Ladino music revival
     
  • Wed., 13 – Nothing but mammals, baby...
     
  • Mon., 11 – This Is Not America
     
  • Wed., 6 – Ex-con released same day as his hit record
     
  • Sat., 2 – Aggra, India: throw our correspondent from the train
     
• June 2011
  • Wed., 29 – Guca, Serbia: brass bands and nationalism
     
  • Fri., 24 – Haiti's disabled: can it be cruel to be kind?
     
  • Fri., 17 – A Space Shuttle, a premier, and an ocean
     
  • Mon., 13 – Jerusalem...covering the never-ending story
     
  • Fri., 3 – Law catches up to El Salvador military men
     
  • Wed., 1 – Hainan Island, China...surfer girl catches waves here
     
• May 2011
  • Fri., 27 – Montebaducco, Italy...what you don't know about donkey milk
     
  • Thu., 12 – Ivory Coast... refugees look for hope in Liberia
     
  • Wed., 4 – Glasgow...Rangers/Celtic matches - no hate songs here!
     
  • Mon., 2 – War brides return to Britain on QM2
     
• April 2011
  • Tue., 19 – Kampala...home of Gadhafi's fan club?
     
  • Sat., 16 – Cairo...security file free-for-all
     
  • Fri., 15 – Kampala...home of the Gadhafi Fan Club!
     
  • Thu., 14 – Tokyo...in the shadow of Fukushima
     
  • Mon., 11 – Dakar's wrestling sandbox millionaires
     
  • Thu., 7 – Benghazi, Libya...on the road with the rookie rebels
     
  • Mon., 4 – Jordan's protests run deep
     
  • Mon., 4 – Beijing: One dissident released, another detained
     
  • Fri., 1 – Benghazi...training the rebels Gadhafi vows to crush
     
• March 2011
  • Thu., 31 – Grand Forks, ND: misinformation on the menu
     
  • Wed., 30 – Tunis...joining the queues of complainers here
     
  • Thu., 24 – Berlin...military brass and Smoke On The Water
     
  • Tue., 22 – The screwy Saudi security syndrome
     
  • Thu., 17 – Kabul... Ormiston on Afghanistanization
     
  • Mon., 14 – Addis Ababa...renting the news of revolution
     
  • Fri., 11 – Margaret Evans' Mideast overview
     
  • Thu., 10 – China rolls back reforms
     
  • Wed., 9 – Oil rules: Saudi democracy runs on vapors
     
  • Wed., 2 – Tunisians demand democracy now!
     
• February 2011
  • Mon., 28 – Kabul's curbside cops
     
  • Thu., 24 – Whoonga -- what's in the killer street drug of Durban?
     
  • Wed., 23 – Urumqi, China..underground music here
     
  • Wed., 16 – Nairobi...vaccine for millions; but none made here