In this Sights & Sounds video, explore the desolate landscape of the Salar de Uyuni and its surrounding areas. 

Morales’ policies have won him praise in some circles, but he’s also made some powerful enemies. Recently, his government said he was the target of an assassination plot.

Morales joins Worldfocus’ Ivette Feliciano to discuss the assassination plot, why he chose to expel U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg and the future of U.S.-Bolivian relations. 

The year 2007 was a turning point for the world, marking the first time when the majority of the global population lived in cities rather than in the country.

The world’s population is expected to surpass 9 billion by 2050, and increasing urbanization will push the urban-rural divide even further.

Do the world’s cities have the jobs, infrastructure and space to support this kind of growth? The answer might be found in the explosion of world slums over the past decade. The United Nations predicts that 2 billion people worldwide will live in slums by 2030.

In his 2006 book “Planet of Slums,” urban historian Mike Davis paints a dark picture of the future to come, writing:

The cities of the future, rather than being made out of glass and steel as envisioned by earlier generations of urbanists, are instead largely constructed out of crude brick, straw, recycled plastic, cement blocks, and scrap wood. Instead of cities of light soaring toward heaven, much of the twenty-first-century urban world squats in squalor, surrounded by pollution, excrement and decay.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored urbanization and the rise of slums, examining how such deplorable conditions might be addressed, even as the global economic crisis looms.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests.

Erhard Berner is an associate professor of developmental sociology at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. He has done extensive research on urban poverty and community responses in the Philippines and elsewhere and served as a consultant to UN-Habitat, NGOs, and government institutions.

Robert Neuwirth spent two years living in shantytowns across the developing world to write “Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World.” He is now at work on a book chronicling the global reach of the informal economy.

Mary Wiltenburg is an independent reporter, now following a year in the life of a refugee family in the U.S. and Tanzania in a series called Little Bill Clinton, a real-time multimedia project with The Christian Science Monitor and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Worldfocus producer Ara Ayer is in Manila and sends in this report of the conditions he’s witnessing:

 

Below, view a slideshow of life in five major world slums.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Bijan Rezvani, Nicole E. Foster and Katie Combs

For more on Bolivia’s complex relationship with coca, watch the Worldfocus signature story “Bolivians depend on coca plant despite anti-drug efforts.”

The Old City of Jerusalem is home to several key religious sites, such as the Jewish Temple Mount and its Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.

During the Crusader era of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there were four gates to the Old City, one on each side. The current walls have a total of eleven gates, but only seven are in use, each with its own name in Hebrew and Arabic.

Environmentalists and others may balk at the world’s rapid population growth, as the global population is expected to surpass 9 billion by 2050 — but in Russia, the opposite is true.

Facing dual threats of low birth rates and soaring mortality rates, the Russian population is aging and dying, according to a recent report from the United Nations Development Programme.

Life expectancy in Russia is some 12 years less than life expectancy in the U.S. Russia lost more than 12 million people over the last 16 years, and may lose another 11 million by 2025.

In an effort to combat the trend, the Kremlin has launched a pro-natalist campaign, expanding maternity leave benefits and offering financial incentives to mothers with more than one child.

The population decline has also impacted Russia’s national discussions on reproduction and abortion.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the factors driving Russia’s population decline and its implications for Russian society and public policy.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests:

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia and blogs at “Window on Eurasia.” Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Previously, he worked in various capacities at the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau, as well as at the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has been decorated by the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for his work in promoting Baltic independence.

Vladimir Lenskiy is the New York bureau chief and correspondent for Russia’s Channel One television, the country’s oldest and largest television network with an audience of 100 million viewers throughout Russia and Eastern Europe. He has over a decade of experience as a reporter for Russia’s independent national television networks, including NTV (Nezavisimoye Televideniye), TVS and TV-6, a Moscow-based independent channel.

Louisa Vinton is a senior program manager at the United Nations Development Program’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, where she is responsible for UNDP activities in seven countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Previously, Louisa worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit and as a senior research analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user eurutuf under a Creative Commons license.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Nicole E. Foster, Katie Combs and Bijan Rezvani

Iraq’s massive oil reserves, the third largest in the world, are well-known. But small businesses represent about 90 percent of the country’s businesses.

More than a quarter of young men in Iraq are jobless, according to the United Nations, and this high rate of unemployment and lack of prospects can often contribute to instability. Some 450,000 people will enter the workforce in Iraq this year — but only a fraction of them will find jobs.

The country is also not immune from the global financial crisis, and dropping oil prices represent a threat in a country where oil accounts for about 95 percent of the government’s revenue.

As the new administration in Washington prepares to scale down the U.S. presence in Iraq and the world’s focus shifts to Afghanistan, Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the state of the Iraqi economy, from small shoe shops to large oil corporations.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests:

Ali Alnaemi was born in Baghdad, Iraq. He worked as a freelance reporter for the BBC and Voices of America in Iraq, and from 2004-2007 worked as the newsroom manager for The New York Times’ bureau in Baghdad. Ali’s main interests include politics and issues that affect minorities in the U.S.

Eric Davis is a professor of political science at Rutgers University and past director of the University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His research has included the study of the relationship between state power and historical memory in modern Iraq and the impact of oil wealth on the state and culture in Arab oil-producing countries. His publications include “Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq,” among others.

Robert Looney is a professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. He has been an adviser to the governments of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Panama, Jamaica and Mexico. Robert’s regional interests are government budgets, defense expenditures and economic planning in the Middle East/South Asian region. He has written twenty books on various aspects of economic development, including “Economic Development in Saudi Arabia: Consequences of the Oil Price Decline.”

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs, Nicole E. Foster and Bijan Rezvani

Goksel makes an appearance in Worldfocus Signature Story Hezbollah heads into mainstream Lebanese life and politics.

The Red Cross is warning of a catastrophe as the Sri Lankan government launches a “final” assault against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE ), who ignored the government’s calls for surrender and are now cornered in a small piece of coastal territory

Tens of thousands of civilians are caught in the crossfire, although some 50,000 others escaped to government-controlled areas. Both the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government have been accused of humanitarian abuses.

The Tamil Tigers have long fought for an independent state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil ethnic minority, which is often at odds with the majority Sinhalese community. Seen by some as a prototype for modern terrorism, the Tamil Tigers pioneered the suicide bomb jacket and the use of women in suicide attacks.

The 25-year civil war is one of Asia’s longest-running conflicts, and was more deadly than the war in Afghanistan last year. Watch a video of Tamils in New York protesting the Sri Lankan offensive: Sri Lanka launches “final” assault against Tamil Tigers.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the root causes of conflict and life in Sri Lanka.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests:

Rohan Gunaratna is the head of Singapore’s International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research. He is a senior fellow at the Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy’s Jebsen Centre for Counter Terrorism Studies and at the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in Oklahoma. He was invited to testify before the 9-11 Commission on the structure of al-Qaeda and is the author and editor of 12 books including “Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.”

Ahilan Kadirgamar is a spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Democracy Forum and contributing editor of Himal Southasian magazine. In that capacity he has worked on the peace process in Sri Lanka. His interests include state reform in Sri Lanka and political solutions to the ethnic conflict. He has written about the international dimension of the peace process and worked on human rights concerns related to the conflict.

Jeffrey Lunstead is a former U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He entered the Foreign Service in 1977 and has also served in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia. He also served at the State Department as the chief of South Asia analysis, director for Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and as Afghanistan coordinator. He is the author of “The U.S. in the Sri Lanka Peace Process” and “Big Powers and Small Conflicts: The U.S. and Sri Lanka.”

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Nicole E. Foster and Katie Combs

Violence is heating up in Sri Lanka’s north, in what’s left of a government no-fire zone near the town of Mullativu. Tens of thousands of civilians are caught in the middle of what the Red Cross calls a catastrophe, although some 50,000 others escaped to government-controlled areas.

Both sides have been accused of humanitarian abuses.

For more on the conflict, listen to our online radio show on Sri Lanka’s civil war.

As the government presses forward, protests are rising up around the world from London to Oslo to Ottawa — as Tamils living abroad demonstrate against the Sri Lankan offensive.

Below, watch a video of a protest at New York’s United Nations building in the U.S. Many of the Tamils present at the April 17 rally have family members in Sri Lanka, and often expressed varying opinions of the Tamil Tigers.

Bloggers in Sri Lanka have also reacted to the developments in the north.

On Monday, a blogger at the “Serving Sri Lanka” blog reacted as civilians escaped the conflict zone:

Today, as I watched thousands of helpless civilians flock to leave the no fire zone and enter the government controlled areas, the tragic scenes of the aftermath of the boxing day Tsunami flashed across my mind. Yes I believe that the situation is as grave or even worse now. I was trying to imagine what might be going through the minds of these frightened and weary looking human beings. They have suffered untold miseries during the past several months, their lives are uncertain even at this very moment, may be they have lost a loved one. What do they want? What could they want?

The answer may be as simple as a better tomorrow. The question is can we provide them that. If we are to win anything we must gradually improve their battered lives. Their condition should improve day by day. These are people who have suffered a life time. They have grievances, they have their doubts. We must allay them. We must provide them with a much better alternative and give them hope. We can not afford to wait. We should not think that it is the sole responsibility of the Government, the NGOs, the INGOs and the like.

I feel that it is my responsibility and duty as well. I can not for a second think that I am not responsible for their sad plight. I should take my fare share of blame as a Sri Lankan citizen for all the senseless deaths that have taken place in this bloody war of over thirty years. The military offensive may be nearing an end. The challenges of tomorrow I feel are colossal. At the very same time we are also presented with a tremendous opportunity for making Sri Lanka a better place for every one, irrespective of race, religion, cast or creed. Let us begin by going out of our way to make the lives of these suffering humans a better one. How soon we succeed in doing this will ensure how soon the healing and mending can begin.

Displaced civilians at a makeshift hospital in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan blogger Indrajit Samarajiva describes visiting the Vavuniya hospital in northern Sri Lanka to deliver medical supplies and other basic necessities:

Vavuniya town itself is a fully functional town. Big petrol shed, Cargill’s Food City, roads, buses, road construction. The hospital is a big greenish grey building near the center of town. It is one of the better equipped hospitals in the region and not directly in the warzone. However, it’s built for like 500 and there’s currently more than double that, plus their families. Looks like they could use more roll-out mattresses, water mattresses, pillows, sheets, clothes, etc.

A lot of women and children, lot of nursing mothers. Lot of limb wounds, bandaged feet, arms, etc. This is not meant to be political, but I would like to note that these people are Sri Lankan, they’re being treated in government hospitals and protected by our security forces. I’m Sinhalese and I’m not genocidal. I’m trying to live here and I do respect and look out for the Tamil people as my family and neighbors. There are literally millions of Sri Lankans like me. I just wish the LTTE would let its human shields go and accept amnesty. And let our people go.

“Bobby,” a Sri Lankan living in Australia, comments about his own experience with the war:

I am Jaffna (sri lanka) born tamil. Been living in Australia for the last 15 years. I was in the civil war over there for the first 15 years of my life. War is not a nice thing to be in. I know the feeling. When the fighter jets bombing, ships from the ocean bombing and the army on the land bombing, what do you do? I have lost 2 of my cousins, 2 uncles killed by the Sri Lankan army. I can tell you right now they were innocent as you and me. One of my cousin who came from SL to Aust a year ago, brought a grade 3 school photo of me and him in the same class at a school in Jaffna (sri lanka). We looked through the picture and i asked my cousin ‘i remember this guy, i remember this guy’ cousin’s answers were ‘he is dead, he is dead. Finally, i found out that out of 30 boys on the picture 20 of them are dead.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user aquaview under a Creative Commons license.

Competition for natural resources often lies at the heart of human conflict, from oil and water in the Middle East to contested coltan in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In today’s economic environment, the demand for some resources may be declining, but the importance of who controls natural resources like oil and water — and how they control — is of pressing importance as supplies of these resources dwindle.

This proves particularly true for developing countries, where the right decisions can lead to a strong infrastructure and international influence, and the wrong decisions can lead to social strife, war or environmental destruction.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the state of natural resource use, opportunities and dangers for resource-rich developing countries and the role played by the U.S. in this global issue. Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests.

Dave Burdick is the green editor of The Huffington Post. He follows energy, environment and green lifestyle stories. He has also been a reporter, a stand-up comedian and a copywriter for the United States’ only accredited, Buddhist-inspired university.

Michael Cohen is a professor of international affairs and director of the graduate program in international affairs at the New School University. From 1972 to 1999, he worked at the World Bank and was responsible for much of its urban policy development. He has worked in over 55 countries, published several books on urban development and has advised governments, U.N. Habitat, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions around the world.

Alf Hornborg is an anthropologist and professor of human ecology at the University of Lund, Sweden. His research has largely focused on cultural and political dimensions of human-environmental relations in past and present societies. He is the author of “The Power of the Machine” (2001) and lead editor of “Rethinking Environmental History” (2007) and “The World System and the Earth System” (2007).

See some related Worldfocus signature stories:

• Haitians destroy environment in struggle to survive
• Controversy surrounds water forum in Turkey
• Brazil emerges as an oil giant
• Brazil pioneers energy independence with ethanol

See our interactive map: The world according to energy.

Associated photo courtesy of Flickr user AdamCohn under a Creative Commons license.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Bijan Rezvani and Katie Combs

The change from Fidel to Raúl Castro has allowed for increased political expression, and rap group Anonimo Consejo fills the space of artistic protest, admiring past icons of the revolution while demanding more from their country.

Watch the group’s members explain their role in the Cuban hip-hop movement and rehearse their song “Liberate.” This video was produced by Peter Eisner, shot by Ara Ayer, and edited by Bijan Rezvani.

Mob violence in cities like Cape Town and smaller communities has led to the creation of camps to which foreigners escape for safety. Tracey Saunders volunteers at these camps and speaks about South Africa’s difficulties with cultural integration.

Dr. Xolela Mangcu of the Platform for Public Deliberation and the Social Cohesion and Identity Research Programme discusses this divide and the failure of a liberated people to meet the demands of the Mandela promise.

Mobile testing units like the one featured in the video below offer free test results and spread the message that living with HIV is not a death sentence, but a chronic disease.

Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal’s signature story “AIDS ravages 1,000 per day in South Africa” explores South Africa’s AIDS epidemic in further detail.

In Haiti, freedom of expression is alive and well despite nearly constant turnover in the government, from the president and prime minister all the way down to obscure ministers often forced out over corruption charges.

But one of Haiti’s signature political expressions is this: A huge rally for a senate candidate shutting down an already traffic-clogged part of Port-au-Prince, the island nation’s capital. These types of demonstrations are part political rally, part Mardi Gras, and a big excuse to party. There is nothing subtle about these impromptu celebrations, which start small and then drag in people and onlookers with very little political interest into the fracas.

For people living in terrible poverty, the political rallies are an excuse to cut loose and dance in the streets. Haiti’s police help direct traffic and onlookers as the rallies grow and grow.

Haiti’s sanitation, sewage and plumbing are nonexistent for large pockets of people living in crowded conditions in Port-au-Prince. It means that nearly forty tons of trash and sewage and debris literally wash into the Caribbean each year after the storm season. The result is that the large slums in Port-au-Prince like Cité Soleil bleed into the sea. People fashion houses and living quarters out of the mounds of trash and sewage that accumulate.

It creates havoc for fishermen who say the fish are getting smaller, are harder to find and are sometimes poisoned by all the trash and nasty stuff seeping into the water. Also, the storm season each year contributes to the trash problem as rains form mudslides that wash everything into the ocean.

- Benno Schmidt

On the outskirts of Port-au-Prince’s infamous slum – Cité Soleil – we stumbled into this explosion of noise, excitement, money and above all else, anticipation.

We couldn’t understand why the Haitian men, just a few feet from the Caribbean in the outer extremes of the slum, weren’t letting the roosters off their leashes to fight.

This was one of the several cockfights held every Sunday in various parts of Port-au-Prince. The whole point is for two prized roosters to fight it out unrestrained, with betting and bragging rights going to the winners.

In a country where many live on less than a dollar a day, gambling is a way to make a lot of money fast. The men were clearly getting their prized fighters ready: Washing them down, winding them up and pointing them in the direction of their anticipated foe.

But then our Haitian fixer/guide told us they were waiting for us — the Worldfocus crew — to make a bet. They weren’t going to bet their own money and thought the camera crew might be interested in placing a wager. So, the extraordinary images in the above video were as close as we came to seeing an actual cockfight here in Haiti.

No money to wager meant that these roosters got a pass — at least that Sunday. They didn’t have to battle it out because no one was putting any money on the table — at least not for the fights.

- Benno Schmidt

Visit a few inhabitants of Gonaives to learn how the mud has interfered with their lives.

Just over a year ago, many in Iceland praised Prime Minister Geir Haarde for strengthening the country’s economy and Iceland was rated the “best place to live” by the United Nations.

Then the global financial crisis hit, and the country’s three largest banks failed in October. In late January, Haarde resigned following weeks of public pressure and the coalition government collapsed. Up to 32,000 people have participated in protests – more than 10 percent of the country’s population.

The upheaval has led some analysts to call Iceland “the first political casualty of the global credit crisis.”

Haarde’s interim replacement, Johanna Sigurdardottir — Iceland’s first female prime minister and the world’s first openly gay leader – will head the new center-left coalition government. She has plans to revamp the country’s banking system.

Read our Blogwatch for reactions from bloggers on the ground: Iceland in upheaval as banks and government implode.

What went wrong in Iceland, and is it a cautionary tale for the wider world? What does the country’s future hold? Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored Iceland’s rise and fall.

Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests to shed light on Iceland’s situation:

Michael T. Corgan is a professor of international relations at Boston University, specializing in international security studies and Icelandic government and politics. He is the author of “Iceland and Its Alliances: Security for a Small State.” Michael taught at the University of Iceland as a Fulbright scholar/professor in 2001, and has worked for the U.S. Naval Academy and as a political advisor to the commander of the Iceland Defense Air Force.

Tryggvi Herbertsson is a professor of economics at the University of Reykjavík. Before joining the university, he was the CEO of Askar Capital, a Nordic investment bank. He served as the special economic advisor to the prime minister of Iceland during the collapse of the Icelandic financial system. Tryggvi has been a consultant to private companies, institutions and international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the OECD.

Alda Sigmundsdottir is a writer, translator and commentator based in Reykjavík, Iceland. She runs the popular blog “The Iceland Weather Report,” where she wrote about taking part in the recent protests. Alda has worked as a journalist and for the British Embassy in Reykjavík.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs and Bijan Rezvani

Worldfocus’ crew traveled to the start of the railroad line in the town of Arriaga in Chiapas, Mexico. Central American immigrants hang out for hours — and sometimes days — waiting for the next freight train to depart. They climb onto the sides and the tops of these northbound trains.

This video was shot by Megan Thompson and edited by Bijan Rezvani.