The main pub in Stanley, Falkland Islands. Photo: Flickr user WoolieDales

With just over 3,000 inhabitants, this small island archipelago in the South Atlantic recently made it back into the headlines, as Argentina and the U.K. dispute sovereignty issues surrounding oil exploration by a British firm.

Known in English as the Falkland Islands and in Spanish as Las Malvinas, we want to look at why this little-known place brought two influential nations to war in 1982 — a conflict that now threatens to reignite.

Martin Savidge hosts Juanita Brock and Professor Maria Victoria Murillo to discuss:

• Falklands history: 1982 war, Argentinian claims, British control
• Current dispute: Nationalism, oil resources, trade relations
• U.S./Big Picture: Hillary’s visit, Latin American diplomacy, American intervention

GUESTS:

Maria Victoria Murillo is a professor of Latin American politics at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She has done fieldwork in Argentina, Chile and Venezuela.

Juanita Brock is bureau chief for the Falkland Islands News Network, which is a part of the South Atlantic Remote Territories Media Association. She resides in Stanley, the capital city.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producer: Ben Piven

The president visits Ruhango. Photo: PaulKagame on Flickr

The East African nation of Rwanda has come a long way since a horrific genocide 16 years ago resulted in the death of around 800,000 Tutsis, as well as “moderate” Hutus who opposed the genocidaires.

President Paul Kagame’s Tutsi-dominated government has achieved economic, political, and military stability at a time when many surrounding governments face major crises. Many Western admirers look at the Rwandan president as a model leader in the developing world.

Martin Savidge hosts journalist and author Stephen Kinzer and human rights activist Noel Twagiramungu to discuss:

• Post-genocide politics: moving forward, justice & ethnic divisions
• Regional rivalries: security concerns, Rwandan alliances & Congo wars
• Big Picture/U.S.: Sarkozy visit, Clinton regrets & Obama policies

Guests:

Stephen Kinzer is a foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents for The New York Times and Boston Globe. Kinzer’s most recent book is A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It.

Noel Twagiramungu, a PhD student at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, worked as a rights activist in Rwanda from 1991 until he fled in 2004. As general secretary of the Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, Twagiramungu documented government abuses.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producer: Ben Piven
Associate Producer: Connie Kargbo

Monks protesting in Yangon in 2007. Photo: Racoles on Flickr

The country formerly known as Burma — now called Myanmar — has found itself on President Barack Obama’s long list of countries deserving of direct diplomatic engagement.

Many international observers are hopeful that the Southeast Asian nation of 48 million people will not only respond to overtures by the U.S. — but will also hold a free and fair parliamentary election in fall 2010. Yet, the date has not been announced, and critics aren’t holding their breath.

Joshua of BurmaVJ and Suzanne DiMaggio join Martin Savidge to explore these issues:

• Junta background: military rule, media crackdown, & ethnic oppression
• 2010 elections: fair vote, Constitution, & Aung Sang Suu Kyi
• U.S. interests: high-level talks, economic engagement, & policy shift

Guests:

Joshua is a Thailand-based journalist for Democratic Voice of Burma. He is also the main character in Burma VJ, an Oscar nominee for Best Documentary Feature this year.

Suzanne DiMaggio is Project Director of the Asia Society’s Task Force on U.S. Policy toward Myanmar. As the Director of Policy Studies, she oversees the Society’s task forces, working groups, & Track II initiatives.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producer: Ben Piven
Assistant Producer: Gizem Yarbil

A U.S. soldier and 3 children in the Mashtal area of East Baghdad. Photo: USArmy on Flickr

Almost 7 years after the start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the international community still struggles to help the 2 million refugees and almost 3 million internally displaced persons who have not been able to return home.

Under the U.S. Refugee Admission Program, 19,000 Iraqis were offered sanctuary and resettled in 2009 alone. Yet, critics allege that these refugees have not been afforded decent opportunities in their new home — and that resettling thousands may be just a drop in the bucket.

To explore the Iraqi refugee crisis in more depth, Martin Savidge hosts Aidan Goldsmith and Sawsan Al-Sayyab. The show addresses:

• Post-Invasion situation: refugee numbers, host countries, and NGOs
• Humanitarian progress: social challenges, educational uplift, and extremism
• Big picture/U.S.: future displacement, sectarian strife, and policy change

Guests:

Aidan Goldsmith is the country director for the International Rescue Committee in Baghdad, Iraq. Originally from Australia, he previously worked for the IRC in Nepal.

Sawsan Al-Sayyab is an Iraqi refugee who spent two years in Jordan before arriving in Baltimore, MD, in 2008. She is currently an advocate for the International Rescue Committee.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producer: Ben Piven
Researcher: Cari Machet

A statue of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar. Photo: Ben Piven

Caste has existed in India for over 3 millennia, and many people view caste - in addition to curry and the Taj Mahal - as one of India’s defining features.

With several thousand castes that each contain sub-castes and even smaller groups, the system varies according to geography and language.

Last week, India commemorated the 60th birthday of its Constitution, which banned untouchability.

The show focuses on:

• Cultural background: Upper/lower castes, Urban/rural differences, & discrimination

• Politics: reservation system, reverse casteism, & Dalit political party

• Big picture/U.S.: Dalit diaspora, parallels with black Americans, anti-racism movement

Joining Martin Savidge to discuss caste in India are Vivek Kumar and Corey Washington.

Guests:

Vivek Kumar is a sociologist at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. His areas of specialization are social stratification, Dalit movements and the Indian diaspora.

Corey Washington is a PhD student at Columbia University in New York. He is currently producing two documentaries about caste in rural areas of the Indian states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Worldfocus Signature stories reported by Martin Himel — India’s untouchables trudge through sewers and One woman fights for members of India’s lowest caste — explore the lives of Indians who perform degrading caste-based occupations.

Looking beyond the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, Worldfocus Radio examines the economy of one of the most isolated countries on earth.

North Korea has a per capita income of around $1,800 and continues to be the poorest nation in East Asia. The country still relies on heavy industry and military spending — in addition to huge amounts of food and fuel aid.

But we know little about the country’s black markets. And we struggle to find accurate statistics on the nation’s true standard of living.

A propaganda poster in Pyongyang. Photo: Ben Piven

Martin Savidge hosts Barbara Demick of the LA Times and Leon Sigal of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project. They discuss:

• North Korea’s post-Cold War isolation
• recent currency devaluation
• impact of closing underground markets
• China’s strategy of engaging North Korea
• prospects of U.S. economic engagement
• other investments (such Egypt’s Orascom)

GUESTS:

Barbara Demick is the Beijing bureau chief for the LA Times and author of the new book Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. She has reported extensively on economic and social changes inside the country.

Leon Sigal is director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York. He has authored several books, including Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Ben Piven and Lisa Biagiotti

Visit Behind the Korean Curtain for our extended coverage and Inside the Hermit Kingdom for exclusive Worldfocus video from the inside.

In the aftermath of last week’s earthquake in Haiti, the Dominican Republic has expressed solidarity with its neighbor.

Though Haiti and the DR share the island of Hispaniola, their histories, cultures and economies greatly differ. Racial tensions, stateless children and immigrant violence have created tensions along the border.

Martin Savidge hosts Marselha Gonçalves Margerin of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights and Michele Wucker of the World Policy Institute to discuss these unequal neighbors.

Dominicans of Haitian descent.

The show explores:

• the intertwined but distinct histories
• Haitian migrants in the DR and Dominicans of Haitian descent
• migration and trade along the border
• the statelessness of children born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian migrants
• the role of the Dominican Republic, the U.S. and international community

GUESTS:

Marselha Gonçalves Margerin is the advocacy director at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights working with RFK Human Rights Award Laureates from Latin America and North Africa. She works directly with Sonia Pierre of the Dominican Republic on issues of race and discrimination facing Dominicans of Haitian descent. She has also worked with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, as well as other non-governmental, academic and international organizations.

Michele Wucker is the executive director of the World Policy Institute in New York City and the author of “Why Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians and the Struggle for Hispaniola.” She also was a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow working on evolving notions of citizenship, belonging and exclusion. Her work involves the politics and economics of immigration and integration, transnational political processes, the politics of culture, Latin America and the Caribbean and international finance.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven

For more Worldfocus coverage of Haiti, visit our extended coverage page: Haiti’s Poor.

Mutallab purportedly has links to radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki, the cleric known to have contacted alleged Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hassan.

Martin Savidge hosts Christopher Boucek and Sudarsan Raghavan.

We examine the situation with al-Qaeda in Yemen and then address additional angles of the shifting circumstances.

The show analyzes the background of three different ongoing conflicts:

• al-Qaeda in Yemen (current activities, terror threat, government efforts)

• Houthi rebels in North (independence goals, Iran v. Saudi, Shia minority)

• South Yemen separatists (historical roots, central government weakness, clans)

The Yemeni capital of Sana’a. Photo: Flickr user Eesti

GUESTS:

Christopher Boucek is a research associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on regional security challenges. He has written widely on the Middle East, Central Asia, and terrorism.

Sudarsan Raghavan is the Washington Post’s correspondent in Yemen. He was recently their Baghdad bureau chief and next month will become their Africa bureau chief. He has reported from more than 50 countries and nine war zones in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the former Soviet Union and Central America.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Ben Piven and Lisa Biagiotti

From entrepreneurship in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war to reverse brain drain in China and Baha’is in modern Iran, listen to the most popular shows from 2009:

	ETHIOPIA Entrepreneurship in Ethiopia	The Ethiopian government is trying to strengthen local businesses and attract foreign direct investment. Martin Savidge hosts Ermyas Amelga and Phillip LeBel to discuss how easy it is to do business in Ethiopia and who’s investing.
	CHINA Uighur Unrest in China	Ethnic clashes between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese turned deadly when riots erupted in early July. Martin Savidge hosts Enze Han, Andrew James Nathan and Alim Seytoff to discuss Uighur political aspirations and Han Chinese migration.
	IRAN Baha’i Faith and Modern Iran	Iranian leaders view the banned Baha’i faith as heresy, and its followers have been arrested, imprisoned or executed. Martin Savidge hosts Dwight Bashir, Kit Bigelow and Trita Parsi to discuss the religion’s history of persecution in Iran.
	RUSSIA Russia’s Population in Peril	Facing dual threats of low birth rate and soaring mortality rate, the ethnic Russian population is aging and dying. Martin Savidge hosts Paul Goble, Vladimir Lenskiy and Louisa Vinton to discuss pro-natalist campaigns and national debates on abortion.
	PHILIPPINES The Forgotten Terrorist Front	Since 9/11, the U.S. has stationed 500 to 600 troops in the Philippines to root out terrorists from the lawless jungles of the heavily Muslim south. Martin Savidge hosts Eliseo Mercado and Zachary Abuza to discuss Filipino counter-insurgency.
	CANADA Canada in Afghanistan	Canadian troops have served alongside Americans in Afghanistan, with 2,700 currently posted — primarily in Kandahar. Martin Savidge hosts Amb. Ron Hoffman, Nipa Banerjee and Terry Glavin to discuss Canada’s role and Afghan public opinion.
	CHINA & INDIA Reverse Brain Drain	Does the U.S. risk falling behind as skilled immigrants return to their home countries? Martin Savidge hosts Vivek Wadhwa and Michele Wucker to discuss emerging opportunities for highly-skilled immigrants and U.S. immigration restrictions.
	SRI LANKA Sri Lanka’s Bloody Civil War	As the Sri Lankan military waged its final bloody battle against the rebel Tamil Tigers, civilians were caught in the crossfire. Martin Savidge hosts Rohan Gunaratna, Amb. Jeffrey Lunstead and Ahilan Kadirgamar to discuss war and peace in Sri Lanka.
	IRAQ The Business of Iraq	Small enterprises — “mom and pop” shops — represent about 90 percent of the Iraq’s businesses. Martin Savidge hosts Ali Alnaemi, Eric Davis and Robert Looney to discuss Iraq’s high unemployment and ability to rebuild itself.
	ISRAEL Jerusalem United or Divided?	East and West Jerusalem are divided along ethnic and religious lines — in addition to the separation fence that Israel built to secure the city. Martin Savidge hosts Mustafa Barghouti and Gershon Baskin to analyze the shared city.

‘The Stans’ are the five post-Soviet Central Asian republics — Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — with similar historical, political and cultural roots.

These nations are asserting their cultural identity by proposing ethnic language policies — potentially banning the use of the Russian language.

In Kyrgyzstan, there’s a proposal to make Kyrgyz the dominant governmental language, and in Tajikistan, there’s another to ban the use of Russian in public institutions and official documents.

This week, Chinese President Hu Jintao opened a new gas pipeline that extends from Turkmenistan to north-west China — the first without Russia’s Gazprom.

Martin Savidge hosts William Fierman, a professor of Central Asian studies at Indiana University, and Nikolay Petrov, a scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Ethnic map of Central Asia. View a larger version by Pmx

They discuss:

• Common political, cultural and historical roots but not a homogeneous entity
• Post-Soviet relationships between ‘The Stans’ and Russia — how ethnic tensions and discrimination continue
• Economic crisis, drug trafficking, oil and migration
• How Russia, China and the United States are vying for ‘The Stans’
• Political instability and poor economic well-being raise concerns about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism
• Could Central Asia become the next conflict zone — even the next Afghanistan?

GUESTS:
Nikolay Petrov is a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center. He has served in the Supreme Soviet and Russian Presidential Administration. Nikolay writes a regular column for The Moscow Times.

William Fierman is a professor of Central Asian studies at Indiana University. His research focuses on the politics of Central Asia, especially policies affecting language, Islam and state identities. He’s currently researching language politics and problems in Kazakhstan.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Christine Kiernan, Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven
Researcher: Michael Ramirez

This week, world leaders from almost 200 countries are meeting to discuss the future of our planet. From Tonga and Mauritius to Japan and Brazil, the community of nations hopes to enact lasting change.

Watch all the videos from Worldfocus’ signature series: Green Energy in Denmark.

While a host of difficult decisions often scare business leaders, voters and politicians, global pressure continues to mount. China and India, as well as the U.S. and E.U., have already committed to significant cuts in the release of harmful greenhouse gases.

Will China accept slower economic growth, stricter rules and higher energy costs that could result? While virtually no one in China denies climate change, debate focuses on the speed of the shift to renewable energy.

Joining Martin Savidge from Beijing is Greenpeace China’s senior campaigner Rashid Kang and from Washington D.C. Julian Wong, senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress.

Windmills in China’s far western Xinjiang provice. Photo: Flickr user gzlu

They explore the following issues:

• how China is greening rapidly and developing many alternative energy programs — from the world’s most efficient coal power plants to vast wind power fields and solar water heating technology
• why nuclear power could be the wrong alternative energy solution for China
• how food security affects China’s alternative energy strategy
• why there are no climate change skeptics in China, but why China can’t go green overnight
• and, the holy grail of renewables — energy storage.

GUESTS:

Rashid Kang is a senior campaigner on climate and energy issues for Greenpeace China. Originally from an overseas Chinese Malaysian family and trained as an engineer, he has worked on development and democratization issues in different parts of Asia over the past 10 years.

Julian L. Wong is a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a think tank in Washington, D.C., where he works on climate change, energy and environmental policy. Julian researched clean energy as a Fulbright scholar in Beijing and writes regularly at GreenLeapForward.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Ben Piven and Lisa Biagiotti

Chile’s economic “miracle” has lifted many Chileans from poverty and become a fiscal model for Latin America. Since the 1980s, Chile’s has halved the number of people below the poverty line.

But while the middle class grows, the divide between rich and poor deepens. Moreover, middle-class Chileans are under more stress and working longer hours than before.

Martin Savidge hosts Peter Winn and Victoria Hurtado to discuss the underside of Chile’s prosperity, focusing on the middle class, growing inequality and the younger generation.

On the streets of Santiago, Chile.

GUESTS:

Victoria Hurtado is a lawyer from Universidad de Chile who worked at the finance ministry and now teaches about democracy and governance at Universidad Adolfo Ibañez. She is the founder of Tendencias Politicas and Orbitando, websites that aggregate more than 30,000 Chilean blogs. She has also published two bilingual children books, “The Vegetarian Mosquito” and “The Psychic Penguin,” to enhance values for global citizens. Currently, she collaborates as a writer for “Que Pasa” magazine.

Peter Winn is professor of history and international relations at Tufts University and a senior research associate at Columbia University’s Institute of Latin American Studies. Winn has authored and edited several books on Latin America, including an oral history of Allende’s Chile, Weavers of Revolution, Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, and Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean, a companion volume to the PBS series of the same name.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven
Researchers: Michael Ramirez and Geneva Sands-Sadowitz

In one of the world’s most contentious cities, there are two conflicting claims to sovereignty over holy places and residential neighborhoods. East and West Jerusalem are divided along ethnic and religious lines — in addition to the separation fence that Israel built to secure the city.

Palestinians claim the eastern sections of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state. While successive Israeli prime ministers have announced support for a two-state solution, there is ambivalence about how and when to alter the city’s political fabric.

Martin Savidge hosts Mustafa Barghouti and Gershon Baskin on this week’s Worldfocus Radio show “Jerusalem United or Divided?”

The radio show builds upon three Worldfocus signature videos about Israel — on hi-tech, divorce and settlements — and will focus on the following areas:

• Geography of Jerusalem: East and West, Old City, Temple Mount and security barrier
• Demographic Shift: secular flight, “Judaization,” and “united” capital city
• Shared Capital: unilateral statehood, joint sovereignty and Palestinian government

Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Ben Piven

GUESTS:

Mustafa Barghouti is the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative (al-Mubadara), also known as the “third way.” A Ramallah resident, he serves in the Palestinian parliament (PLC) and was the Minister of Information in the short-lived Palestinian unity government. He came in second (with 19%) to Mahmoud Abbas in the 2005 presidential elections. He also appeared on the Daily Show last month.

Gershon Baskin is co-chairman of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information, a Jerusalem-based organization committed to the two-state solution. He specializes in the future of Jerusalem, strategic cooperation and water issues. He was also on Israeli PM Ehud Barak’s team of Jerusalem experts following the Camp David talks.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Ben Piven and Lisa Biagiotti
Researcher: Mohammad al Kassim

Martin Savidge hosts David Rayside and Rachel Tiven on LGBT politics and gay asylum. We begin the conversation with Jamaica, which makes up 17 of the 55 U.S. asylum cases won by Immigration Equality last year alone. We examine the metastasizing colonial and slave culture, entrenched poverty and rampant violence in Jamaica.

In 1994, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno expanded asylum law to include persecution based on sexual orientation. Sexual orientation has been increasingly used as grounds for asylum. We also discuss how to begin the process of applying for gay asylum in the U.S.

From human rights abuses to political progress, the gay rights movement is at different stages throughout the world. We take a comparative look at the progress of LGBT politics and the gay rights movement in different countries, including the best and worst places to be gay.

A Greek gay rights parade. Photo: Megan Thompson

• Read about one gay Jamaican’s story of asylum: Gay men in Jamaica must lead two separate lives
• Watch signature videos from Jamaica: Violence and venom force gay Jamaicans to hide and Gays in Jamaica worship in underground church
• Watch our signature video from Greece: Ancient Greek values clash with modern treatment of gays

GUESTS:

David Rayside is a political science professor at the University of Toronto. His latest book “Queer Inclusions, Continental Divisions” is a comparative analysis of Canadian and  American political recognition of same-sex relationships, the extension of parenting rights to same-sex couples and the response to sexual diversity in public schooling. For over thirty years, he has also been an activist on issues related to sexual diversity and gender within academic institutions and beyond.

Rachel B. Tiven is the executive director of Immigration Equality, a national organization fighting for equal immigration rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive community. Under her leadership, Immigration Equality has doubled in size, quadrupled client services and opened a policy office in Washington, D.C.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven
Researcher: Geneva Sands-Sadowitz

For more information on homophobia and HIV in Jamaica, visit The Glass Closet, a multimedia project produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Martin Savidge hosts Filipino peace negotiator and Catholic priest Eliseo Mercado and security analyst Zachary Abuza when Worldfocus Radio explores the forgotten terrorist front in the Philippines.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage of the Philippines, including original videos, click here.

Since 9/11, the U.S. has stationed 500 to 600 troops in the Philippines to strengthen military forces there. The U.S. counter-insurgency effort in the Philippines has been applauded as a success story for its mix of military action and soft power — including one of the largest USAID packages in the world.

But how lasting is this counter-insurgency success? Does it solve the root problems of poverty and lack of schools and infrastructure? And, if the U.S. pulls out, is the Philippines prepared to stop the tide of terrorism?

The U.S. strategy has been to root out terrorists from the lawless jungles of the south, which is home to the country’s Muslim minority and vulnerable to external terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.

The show:

• explains the current insurgency in the poor, predominantly Muslim south of the Philippines
• evaluates how Filipino counter-insurgency tactics measure up to other Southeast Asian counter-insurgency efforts
• examines the mix of U.S. military might, diplomacy and humanitarian aid to combat local and regional instability
• discusses the importance of peace and reconciliation between the numerous Filipino ethnic groups

Martin Savidge hosts the following guests:

Zachary Abuza is a professor at Simmons College, Boston, specializing in Southeast Asian politics and security issues. He visits the region four to five times a year. Zachary is the author of Conspiracy of Silence: The Insurgency in Southern Thailand and its Implications for Southeast Asian Security, Muslims, Politics and Violence in Indonesia and Militant Islam in Southeast Asia, among other publications. He contributes frequently to the Jane’s Intelligence Review, the Counterterrorism Blog and the Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Monitor.

Father Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, Jr. is a Catholic priest and peace advocate who has been extensively involved in the peace process in Mindanao, the southern part of the Philippines. He is an expert on the role of Islam in the Philippines and led the independent cease-fire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front separatist group. Father Mercado has also been extensively involved in peace process in Mindanao. In October 2007, he was selected to be one of the 20 delegates representing all NGO and CSO accredited at the UN to the High Level UN Session on inter-religious dialogue.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven

Last year, the Economist magazine slotted Ethiopia as the fourth fastest growing economy in the world, ahead of China. The World Bank report “Doing Business 2010” ranks Ethiopia in the top 10 African nations in terms of the ease of doing business. The Ethiopian government is trying to strengthen local and regional businesses and attract foreign direct investment.

Martin Savidge, Ethiopian businessman Ermyas Amelga and economics professor Phillip LeBel discuss how easy it is to do business in Ethiopia, who’s investing and what this means as Ethiopia moves from an agrarian society to a more urban society. The entrenched poverty hinders the robust investment environment, saddling the country with drought, food shortages and inadequate infrastructure.

Some highlights from the show:

• Ethiopia is not a resource-based economy. The sectors that are thriving in Ethiopia are real estate, construction, services, manufacturing, textiles and commercial agriculture with arable land leasing
• A growing population topping 80 million people make Ethiopia a strong consumer society
• Major investors in Ethiopia: China, India, Turkey and Egypt — the U.S. is not a major investor
• Ethiopia’s poverty-stricken image and government-controlled electronic communications and the Internet are potential hurdles to foreign investment
• Ethiopia’s Diaspora community is driving Ethiopia’s real estate boom

Martin Savidge hosts the following guests:

Ermyas Amelga is an Ethiopian businessman based in Addis Ababa. In 1996, he returned to Ethiopia after academic training and working in investment banking in the U.S. He has founded or acquired 11 companies, overseeing more than 2000 employees in the mining, oil, agriculture and financial services sectors. Ermyas also consults investors on entering the Ethiopian market.

Phillip LeBel is an economist and business professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey. He specializes in economics of developing countries, with emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. This Spring, he was a Fulbright senior fellow in Addis Ababa teaching natural resources economics. He has consulted for USAID, the World Bank, UNESCO, WHO, FAO and the U.S. State Department on various subjects pertaining to economic policy issues.

For more coverage on Ethiopia, watch Worldfocus’ signature videos on the coffee industry, a remote village and Ethiopia’s history and beauty. Watch the PBS Wide Angle film “The Market Maker” about one woman who has created a commodities exchange and revolutionized agricultural distribution in the country.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven

For more Worldfocus coverage of Ethiopia, visit our extended coverage page: Ethiopia Past and Present.

Martin Savidge hosts Gareth Jenkins, a British analyst and author, and Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish journalist, to discuss whether Turkey is leaning West or moving East. Some highlights from the conversation include:

• The ruling Justice and Development (AK Party) has been accused of being both too Islamist and too pro-Western
• Islamism in Turkey has more to do with values and identity than imposing Sharia law
• While Islam is more prominent in Turkey today, the paradox is that the Islamicization of Turkish society began with secularist military after the 1980 coup
• Turkey’s religious minorities feel more threatened by hard-line (secular) nationalists than the ruling AK Party
• It’s wrong to think that Turkey’s Islamist groups are posing threats to democracy while the secular groups are serving democracy — it’s not simply black and white
• On eroding relations between Israel and Turkey, when Israel bombed Gaza, Turks sympathized for the plight of the Palestinians and the level of anti-Semitic rhetoric rose in Turkey, but before the Gaza war, Turkey was trying to establish peace between Israel and Syria
• The Turkish government has not been critical of other ruling Muslim governments — like Sudan — for human rights abuses
• On Turkey’s increasing resentment toward the European Union, there have been racial and religious prejudices by prominent members France and Germany
• Do Arab countries fear a dominant neo-Ottoman Turkey in the Middle East? Or, is there a growing sympathy in the Arab world for Turkey asserting its Muslim identity?
• A Turkey that has prestige in the Muslim world and keeps its ties with West is good for peace and stability in the region

GUESTS:

Gareth Jenkins is a British analyst and author based in Turkey since 1989. His book Political Islam in Turkey: Running West, Heading East? was published last year, and his history of modern Turkey is forthcoming.

Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish journalist and a regular columnist for the Istanbul-based Hurriyet Daily News. His upcoming book on liberalism and Islam addresses the East-West divide. Having criticized both secularism and Islamic extremism, he has lectured extensively about faith, science and tolerance.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage of Turkey:

• Watch the Worldfocus signature video: Rising Islamist groups challenge secularism in Turkey
• Read Do Islamist groups pose a threat to democracy in Turkey? by Dr. Ömer Taşpınar, the director of the Turkey Project at the Brookings Institution
• Visit our extended coverage page: Turkey between East and West.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven

Last month, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom declared a “state of calamity” as Guatemala experiences the worst drought in 70 years. Approximately half of the population lives below the poverty line and 50 percent of children are suffering from chronic malnutrition. But these are only the surface casualties of a vulnerable nation ravaged by 36 years of civil war, genocide and now, the encroaching drug war spilling over from the northern border with Mexico.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Savidge hosts Anita Isaacs, Carlisle Johnson and Sam Lowenberg. Some highlights of the conversation include:

• Guatemala in 2009 looks a lot like Guatemala of the 1960s and 1970s
• Malnutrition is connected to poverty, which is connected to the ownership of land
• There is almost no basic infrastructure in rural areas, including access to clean water and sanitation
• The U.S. CIA-orchestrated coup in 1954 gave rise to 36 years of genocidal armed conflict
• Lawlessness on the streets, drug trafficking and rural violence have contributed to the deaths of 6,000 people in 2008
• Indigenous systems of justice punish by means of lynching and public humiliation
• The sitting vice president has called Guatemala a “failed state”
• There has been no justice for war crimes and the civil war hangs over everyday life in Guatemala
• Is Guatemala a feudal society that never stopped being a banana republic?
• Guatemala has the highest per-capita income in all of Central America at $4,000/person, but income distribution is woefully underreported
• As the capital of Central America with it’s entangled history with the U.S., Guatemala does matter

GUESTS:

Dr. Anita Isaacs is a political science professor at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. For the last decade, she has researched democracy, justice and the peace process in Guatemala. She conducts field research in the country four to five times a year. Anita is writing a book with the working title At War with the Past? The Politics of Transitional Justice in Postwar Guatemala. She has also served as consultant to the Ford Foundation, the Inter-American Dialogue, Freedom House and the Open Society Institute.

Stephen C. “Carlisle” Johnson is the producer and host of the television show “Inside Guatemala.” He has worked as a venture capitalist in about 50 countries and traveled to more than 120 countries. Carlisle has lived in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, France, England, and currently, Guatemala. He is the former publisher of the “Guatemala Post” and the former host of the English radio program “Good Morning Guatemala” on ABC Radio International affiliate. He is a chartered interpreter in English and Spanish.

Samuel Loewenberg is a journalist who covers public health and politics. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Economist, The Atlantic Online, The Washington Post and many others.  He has reported from Latin America, Europe, China, Africa, and the former Soviet Union. His work in Guatemala was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Ben Piven

Somalia, Zimbabwe and Sudan topped the list of failed states this year — rankings based on human rights, governance, economic activity and other indicators.

Also among the top 10 are Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Poverty is endemic in many failed or failing states; in others, the government has lost legitimacy and control. As economic pressures increase with the global financial crisis, and environmental pressures contribute to water and food shortages, even more countries are at risk of failure.

But these dire conditions have implications far beyond individual borders, as failed states — with their high rates of poverty and violence — may serve as breeding grounds for terrorists with global ambitions.

Displaced persons in Yemen, which may be on the verge of becoming a failed state. Photo: IRIN

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explores what it means for a state to fail, from the impact on daily life to widespread geopolitical ripple effects.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosts a panel of guests:

Pauline Baker is the president of The Fund for Peace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing war and alleviating the conditions that cause conflict. She has also served as an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and is a professorial lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Christopher Boucek is a research associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on regional security challenges. Before joining the Carnegie Endowment, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and lecturer in Politics at the Woodrow Wilson School. Boucek has written widely on the Middle East, Central Asia, and terrorism.

Georgette Gagnon is the director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch and led a research mission to Darfur in 2004. She previously investigated human rights violations in Rwanda and directed the Human Rights Department at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs and Ben Piven

Political upheaval continues in Honduras, after liberal leader Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup in late June. It is a battle that has played out not only in the streets of Honduras, but also on television screens and over radio waves across the world.

Some, including U.S. President Barack Obama and the Organization of American States, have condemned the ouster of the democratically-elected president, saying it was unconstitutional, illegal and a threat to democracy.

Others point out that Zelaya was pushing ahead with a referendum on term limits that Honduras’ Supreme Court had ruled unconstitutional, and consider his removal the result of healthy checks and balances.

The Honduran military has clamped down on pro-Zelaya channels in the country and blocked the signal of Telesur, a left-leaning television network based in Venezuela. Other state-run media across Latin America have broadcast programs in support of Zelaya.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show on explored the coup in Honduras and how Latin America’s media industry — from state-run stations to independent websites — has become a political battleground.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosts the following panel of guests:

Competing protests have rocked the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa. Photo: Sandra Cuffe

Sandra Cuffe is an independent journalist and photographer from Montréal, Canada­. Sandra has reported from Latin America for several years and is the Honduras correspondent for UpsideDownWorld.org.

Daniel Duquenal is a blogger at “Venezuela News and Views,” which he’s been writing for six years. He hails from small San Felipe in Venezuela and spent 15 years in the US before returning to Venezuela to manage a small family business.

Silvio Waisbord is an associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, and editor of the International Journal of Press/Politics. He is the author of “Watchdog Journalism in South America: News, Accountability and Democracy.”

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Katie Combs, Ben Piven