Dispatches, December 24, 2007 - Sinaloa, Mexico; Johannesburg; Toronto; Foggia, Italy

Music that made waves on Dispatches over the past year: from South Africa, where an ode to a war hero revives racial tensions; from Mexico, where drug barons are celebrated in song and a sub-culture is hard to quell; Afrobeat poet and psychiatrist Ikwunga Wonodi has a musical message and a mission in Nigeria; and from the south of Italy, the story of one man's quest to uncover the work of composers once held in Nazi prison camps: "concentrationary music" you can also call haunting.

Right click to Download Dispatches, December 24, 2007 - Sinaloa, Mexico; Johannesburg; Toronto; Foggia, Italy
[mp3 file: runs 54:59]

Dispatches, December 17, 2007 Chennai, Cape Town, Oakland, Mauritania, Tokyo

South Africa's leadership is in transition. We look at the biggest success of black rule since apartheid, and its ongoing failure. The global trade in human bones. How graverobbers empty cemetaries in India to keep medical schools full in North America. If money makes the world go round, Western Union company is the choice of most in the developing world who send remittances back home. So why call for a boycott? Soft Honey Santa Girls and a room at the Inn of Love. Christmas in Japan.

Right click to Download Dispatches, December 17, 2007 Chennai, Cape Town, Oakland, Mauritania, Tokyo
[mp3 file: runs 56:02]

Dispatches, December 10, 2007 - Moscow, New York, London, Ottawa, Hanoi, Thimpu (Bhutan)

Putin's children: Russia's outgoing president invents history and a hammer to fan fearful nationalism among Russian youth. In Israel, the story of a new language from one of the few to see it in a remote village. Agent Orange makes new victims of an old war as chemical hotspots emerge in Vietnam; and in Bhutan, the pursuit of democracy collides with the pursuit of happiness as the country prepares for its first election, and the monks are cheesed off.

Right click to Download Dispatches, December 10, 2007 - Moscow, New York, London, Ottawa, Hanoi, Thimpu (Bhutan)
[mp3 file: runs 56:47]

Dispatches, December 3, 2007

The new Opium Eaters of Afghanistan. The world's oldest narcotic addiction isn't just for adults anymore...children are addicts too. In Borneo, two villages and their two approaches to the disappearing rainforest. Plus, the story of witches and warriors and the struggle against global chaos: how the Hindu of Bali keep the peace in parallel dimensions. And in China, they used to say, "To get rich, build a road." And they did, right across the country. And Rob Gifford has travelled it.

Right click to Download Dispatches, December 3, 2007
[mp3 file: runs 55:16]

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