News Promo

Monday June 18, 2012

Out of a South African jail, former gangster aims at the music charts

South African musician Larry Joe, as he leaves Douglas prison in December 2010.

Larry Joe's songs of redemption

We start with Larry Joe, who we first heard two years ago, when he was locked up in a South African prison for burglary.

He was a troubled convict hoping for a music career when he met a restless music producer unsatisfied with his own.

Aron Turest-Swartz was a co-founder of the popular South African group Freshly Ground. And when he heard Larry sing, he dropped what he was doing and turned the jail cell into a recording studio.

When we last heard from them, Larry was about to be released and so was his first album. And we wanted to know where their story has gone since then.

Larry Joe joined us from Cape Town in South Africa and his producer and friend, Aron Turest-Swartz, was in studio with Rick.

Listen to Rick's chat with them

Listen to Corinne Smith's documentary about Larry Joe from March 2011 

You can see video of Larry recording with Aron in Douglas prison and hear his music at Larry Joe Live!

---

Hear the rest of this week's Dispatches program here

Categories: News Promo

Sunday June 10, 2012

Italy closed the sea to refugees

Eritrean refugees had originally cheered the sight of an Italian ship in the Mediterranean. They'd been adrift for four days. Little did they know that Italy would breach international law and dump them in Libya to face near-certain abuse. (Photo: Closed Sea)

Here's a remarkable sound recorded on video aboard a disabled boat, as African refugees welcome the sight of an Italian helicopter after four days at sea without food and water.

But their delight is misplaced.

Italy is not there to welcome them, but to send them back where they came from.

In 2009, it defied the UN and illegally closed the Mediterranean to refugees.

The impact of that policy of pushback -- or refoulement, as it's known -- comes under scrutiny in a new film called Closed Sea.

It documents the astonishing story of Eritreans fleeing military repression at home, hoping to sail to Italy via Libya, and marooned by politics.

Writer and director Stefano Liberti joined us from Rome.

The June 7 Dispatches program

Categories: News Promo

Friday June 8, 2012

What's cooking in Egyptian politics

Cooking show host Ghaila Mahmoud works in her modest kitchen at the studios of 25TV, a network formed in the wake of the Egyptian revolution in 2011. (Photo: courtesy 25TV)

Political revolution has changed the face of Egypt, and with it the faces Egyptians are watching.

After next week's runoff election, they'll be looking at a new President. But there's another trendsetting personality emerging on TV.

And she's a cook, doing what she does best.

Though the bare-bones economy of her dishes, reflects the sclerotic economy confronting most Egyptians.

The CBC's middle East Correspondent, Derek Stoffel, is with her to suss the ingredients that make up her celebrity.

Listen to Derek's documentary 

The June 7 Dispatches program

Categories: News Promo

Thursday May 31, 2012

Child "bomberitos" on Peru's most dangerous highway

Peru's Bomberitos to the rescue

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.

 Lori's documentary

May 31 Dispatches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: Americas, News Promo, Promo Box, The View from Here

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

Categories: News Promo

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.

Categories: News Promo

• June 2012
  • Mon., 18 – Out of a South African jail, former gangster aims at the music charts
     
  • Sun., 10 – Italy closed the sea to refugees
     
  • Fri., 8 – What's cooking in Egyptian politics
     
• May 2012
  • Thu., 31 – Child "bomberitos" on Peru's most dangerous highway
     
  • Thu., 24 – Foreign slaves serving the U.S. military machine
     
  • 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
     
  • 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
     
  • 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