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Playlist: PRX Global Story Project

Compiled By: PRX Editors

 Credit:
Curated Playlist

In late 2012, PRX put out an open call for stories about people and situations outside of the U.S. that will help American listeners better understand the rest of the world.

Now in 2013 we are eagerly listening to and awaiting over a dozen stories! They will be posted on a rolling basis.

Funding for the Global Story Project was provided by the Open Society Foundations.

India's Shifting Gender Roles: One Girl's Tale

From Rhitu Chatterjee | 11:03

India has come under close scrutiny lately for its poor treatment of women and girls. Yet, this is a time when a growing number of women are enjoying unprecedented opportunities. More and more women are getting educated and joining the work force. So how are girls and women in the country seeing themselves and their future? To find out, The World's Rhitu Chatterjee spent some time with one girl in a remote corner of the country. A co-production of PRX's Global Story Project and PRI's The World. (Multimedia elements available for embedding, too.)

Sarita_prx_medium_small

The recent gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in the Indian capital of New Delhi sparked unprecedented demonstrations across the country. It also fueled discussions about the status of women in India. But the recent spike in violence against women also parallels an increase in the number of women in public spaces, a fact that reflects the changing role of women in the society.

These changes have even trickled down to some of the remotest and most conservative parts of India.

But how do these changes play out in an individual’s life? How do old and new ways interact and clash in a family, and in a community? And who and what helps a girl learn what is expected of her what she can and cannot do?

The World’s Rhitu Chatterjee answers some of these questions through a look at the life of 12 year-old Sarita Meena, who lives in a remote village in Northwestern India.

Sarita looks like a boy. She is skinny, and wears her hair very short. People in the village call her father's son. In a region, where most girls and women are quiet and shy with strangers, Sarita never hesitates to strike up a conversation. She is fearless, outspoken and likes hanging out with the boys at school.

She is the youngest of three daughters. Her two older sisters live in a small town an hour away and are among the first girls to leave the village for higher studies. Sarita wants to follow in her sisters’ footsteps and eventually get a job teaching school kids.

But she is also a dutiful, obedient daughter. She is eager to help her mother with housework and help her father on his farm. She worries about who will look after her parents once she and her sisters are married and living with their in-laws.

The contradictions in Sarita’s personality reflect a larger reality in Indian society. As women have more and more opportunities, they  have to decide for themselves how much they want to push back against tradition.

This story takes a close look at how one young girl is making those decisions and choices, and why. 

The Kindness of Strangers

From Kirsty McQuire | 06:15

During the leap year of 2012, Bernadette Russell embarked on a mission to complete 366 Days of Kindness. Her efforts were prompted by the riots that spread through her adopted home town of London and across English towns and cities, between 6th and 10th August 2011.

Kindness_4th-sept-2011_small During the leap year of 2012, Bernadette Russell embarked on a mission to complete 366 Days of Kindness. Her efforts were prompted by the riots that spread through her adopted home town of London and across English towns and cities, between 6th and 10th August 2011.

Bernadette has left sweets in phone boxes, books on trains, £5 notes on buses. She has given away balloons, cakes, flowers and lottery tickets, written letters to a soldier returned from Afghanistan and offered her socks to the homeless. She practiced ‘targeted’ rather than ‘random’ acts of kindness but she says she ‘expected nothing in return.’

Bernadette is now turning her 366 philanthropic experiences into a stage play, in collaboration with Jacksons Lane Theatre in London and with support from Birmingham Rep and Forkbeard Fantasy.


The Symphony of Sirens, Revisited

From Charles Maynes | 13:44

In November of 1923, a Soviet composer named Arseny Avraamov stepped onto a Moscow rooftop clutching two oversized flags. His plan: to conduct an orchestra comprised of the city itself. Enthralled with the Russian Revolution's break from the past, Avraamov envisioned a «music of the future» made from a strange choice of choirs: factory sirens, barge foghorns, soldiers' footsteps, artillery fire, workers songs, steam whistles, and proletarian shouts. Together, it was music. Every city had it. Only how to arrange it? 'The Symphony of Sirens' was his answer.

Avraamov_moscow_1923_small

In November of 1923, a Soviet composer named Arseny Avraamov stepped onto a Moscow rooftop clutching two oversized flags.  They may as well have been magicians’ wands. For his plan was audacious enough: to conduct an orchestra comprised of the city itself.  Enthralled with the Russian Revolution's break from the past, Avraamov envisioned  a «music of the future» made from a strange choice of choirs: factory sirens, barge foghorns, soldiers' footsteps,  artillery fire, workers songs, steam whistles, and proletarian shouts.   Together, it was music.  Every city had it.  Only how to arrange?  'The Symphony of Sirens' was his answer.  

2.5 attempts were made – in Baku, Moscow, and (.5) Nizhny Novgorod.  Yet no recordings exist – making the performances all the more the stuff of legend.

Equal parts detective story and R. Murray Schaeffer's sound treatise 'The Tuning of the World',  this radio feature revisits Avraamov's famed magnum opus by mining for details about Avraamov.  What did he hear?  And are there traces still to be heard today?  Using flights of audio fancy and real world reporting, Moscow-based producer Charles Maynes introduces listeners to both the sirens that were, and the symphony that has become.  


China's Undocumented Children

From Jennifer Dunn | Part of the China's One Child Policy: Stories of Struggles with its Unintended Consequences series | 07:01

Since the implementation of the one child policy in China 3 decades ago, a severe gender imbalance has emerged. This imbalance is evidence of families’ struggle between the economic and political consequences of violating the policy, and the cultural consequences of not having a son. The selective abortion of females is a widely documented cause of China’s skewed birth rate. But the birth rate imbalance is also due to the fact that millions of female births go unreported, so that families can try again for a boy.

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China's One Child Policy: Couples struggle to find the loopholes

From Jennifer Dunn | Part of the China's One Child Policy: Stories of Struggles with its Unintended Consequences series | 05:59

Pressed by paternal grandparents to have a boy, couples in China engage in creative ways of tricking the system and having a son without openly violating the one child policy.

Grandma_boy_small

China’s one child policy puts many couples in the difficult position of balancing the consequences of violating the policy against the cultural and familial consequences of not having a son. While some couples- including rural farmers- are allowed a second child if their first child is a girl, public and government employees don’t have this option. If they have a second child, penalties for violating the one child policy can include heavy fines, loss of housing and demotion from their jobs. However, failing to have a son can put families in turmoil, due to deeply held traditional beliefs that only sons of sons can carry on family lines and properly worship ancestors. Many couples (who have a daughter first) resort to complicated ways of tricking the system, and finding a way to have a son without openly breaking the law. 

Hainan's Bachelors: Lack of women in China leaves many men without wives

From Jennifer Dunn | Part of the China's One Child Policy: Stories of Struggles with its Unintended Consequences series | 07:23

China's one child policy has led to a severe gender imbalance and surplus of men unable to find wives.

Hainanmen_small 30 years ago China instated the one child policy, limiting urban families to one child and most rural families to two children. In a country dominated for thousands of years by a preference for boys, many families have resorted to extreme measures, including sex-selective abortion, to ensure that their only child would be a son. The first generation of one child policy babies are now of marrying age, and the number of men in China unable to find wives is approaching 20 million. This story explores the consequences of China's skewed gender ratio-and surpluss of bachelors- in one rural region struggling with one of the severest gender imbalances in the nation.

Overnight Metropolis

From Ashley Cleek | 11:13

Istanbul is a massive city of around 15 million people living in 3 million apartments. But Istanbul is also a city that is slated to have a major earthquake in the near future. Civil engineers predict that 2 million apartments - two-thirds of all apartments - could collapse in a major earthquake. This is the story of the government's preparation plans and their effect on a neighborhood.

Dsc_0506_small Turkey is in the midst of a debate on how its biggest city, Istanbul, should prepare for an earthquake. In 1999, an earthquake struck about 50 miles from Istanbul, killing 17 thousand people. In Istanbul, cracks from the earthquake still mark residents' balconies. Like San Francisco or LA, newspapers and academics predict that a huge earthquake will hit Istanbul sometime in the near future.

Istanbul is a massive city. About fifteen million people live 3 million apartments. Civil engineers predict that two million of those apartments – two thirds of all the apartments in Istanbul – could fall in a major earthquake. So the government recently passed a law granting it eminent domain in neighborhoods where there is a high risk of earthquake damage. Zeytinburnu is one of the riskiest neighborhoods. It's soil is sandy. It's buildings are old and haphazardly built. And it's only 20 miles away from the faultline. The government has told the residents of Zeytinburnu, they have to move.

(PRX homepage image from Shutterstock.)

In India, Everyone Wants To Be An Engineer

From Bianca Vazquez Toness | 06:22

Getting into the top engineering schools in India is statistically harder than breaking into Harvard. So hard that students study for two years in special cram schools. That's because parents push their children. especially boys, to be engineers. The pressure is too much for many kids.

Bansal_small Indians are obesessed with engineering. The profession is considered one of the most pragmatic options since it doesn't require more than four years of college and job pays well, especially if you graduate from the top engineering schools. Problem is half a million students take the entrance exam each year for approximately 12,000 seats in those schools. 

Indian students determined to crack the vaunted Indian Institute of Techology go to extremees. Some leave high school and seek special full time tutoring for math and science for two years. The students who don't get in can be devastated, and many experts have called this system a waste of energy and talent. 

The Things They Carry: Specialist Lackey

From Jake Warga | Part of the The Things They Carry: U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan series | 03:03

Part of a series that asks U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan what they have to carry around with them every day—from the physical to the emotional...

Jakewarga_warga_121222_055_small

A soldier’s personal experience of serving in Afghanistan through what they have to carry—from the physical to the emotional: The helmets, the guns, the reminders of home, the hardships of deployment, things they brought with them, the things they will leave behind.

And the memories they will have to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Inspired by Tim O'Brien's Pulitzer-nominated book “The Things They Carried”

The series offers a larger look at what America, as a nation, will have from its longest running war.

This production is part of the Global Story Project, with support from the Open Society Foundations. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.

The Things They Carry: Corporal Dan Elenhof

From Jake Warga | Part of the The Things They Carry: U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan series | 03:19

Part of a series that asks U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan what they have to carry around with them every day—from the physical to the emotional...

Jakewarga_warga_121224_087_small

A soldier’s personal experience of serving in Afghanistan through what they have to carry—from the physical to the emotional: The helmets, the guns, the reminders of home, the hardships of deployment, things they brought with them, the things they will leave behind.

And the memories they will have to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Inspired by Tim O’Brien’s Pulitzer-nominated book “The Things They Carried”

The series offers a larger look at what America, as a nation, will have from its longest running war.

This production is part of the Global Story Project, with support from the Open Society Foundations. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.   

The Things They Carry: Captain Jason Pace

From Jake Warga | Part of the The Things They Carry: U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan series | 02:49

Part of a series that asks U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan what they have to carry around with them every day—from the physical to the emotional...

Jakewarga_warga_121223_004_small

A soldier’s personal experience of serving in Afghanistan through what they have to carry—from the physical to the emotional: The helmets, the guns, the reminders of home, the hardships of deployment, things they brought with them, the things they will leave behind.

And the memories they will have to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Inspired by Tim O’Brien’s Pulitzer-nominated book “The Things They Carried”

The series offers a larger look at what America, as a nation, will have from its longest running war.

This production is part of the Global Story Project, with support from the Open Society Foundations. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.   

 

The Things They Carry: Staff Sergeant Christen Cohen

From Jake Warga | Part of the The Things They Carry: U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan series | 02:34

Part of a series that asks U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan what they have to carry around with them every day—from the physical to the emotional...

Jakewarga_warga_121223_026_small

A soldier’s personal experience of serving in Afghanistan through what they have to carry—from the physical to the emotional: The helmets, the guns, the reminders of home, the hardships of deployment, things they brought with them, the things they will leave behind.
And the memories they will have to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Inspired by Tim O’Brien’s Pulitzer-nominated book “The Things They Carried”

The series offers a larger look at what America, as a nation, will have from its longest running war.

This production is part of the Global Story Project, with support from the Open Society Foundations. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange. 

 

 

 

The Things They Carry: Captain Rich Evans

From Jake Warga | Part of the The Things They Carry: U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan series | 02:49

Part of a series that asks U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan what they have to carry around with them every day—from the physical to the emotional...

Jakewarga_warga_121225_028_small

A soldier’s personal experience of serving in Afghanistan through what they have to carry—from the physical to the emotional: The helmets, the guns, the reminders of home, the hardships of deployment, things they brought with them, the things they will leave behind.
And the memories they will have to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Inspired by Tim O’Brien’s Pulitzer-nominated book “The Things They Carried”

The series offers a larger look at what America, as a nation, will have from its longest running war.

This production is part of the Global Story Project, with support from the Open Society Foundations. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.   

 

 

Permission to Speak

From Anna Sussman | 59:00

As Burma transitions from dictatorship to democracy, hundreds of political prisoners have been freed after decades behind bars. In this story, eight of these freed political prisoners struggle to rebuild their lives, and test the emerging democracy. They suffer from severe PTSD, their friends and family are scared to speak with them, fearing they too will be arrested, and many are shunned by a public that still lives in fear the long arm of the military dictatorship. Some freed political prisoners are denied access to university, denied passports and denied professional licenses. Still, many of the freed political prisoners continue to test the limits of the emerging democracy, and face profound consequences.

Win_maw_pic_small As Burma transitions from dictatorship to democracy, hundreds of political prisoners have been freed after decades behind bars. Many former political prisoners suffer from PTSD from decades of torture, others have family and friends who refuse to speak with them, still fearing they will be arrested. In "Permission to Speak " we travel through Burma and  meet former political prisoners who are trying to rebuild their lives, and build a democracy from the ground up. The characters are both national heroes and broken people. We meet a former army captain who resigned from the military and was then arrested for pro-democracy activities,  a hip-hop artist, turned political prisoner who now represents the National League for Democracy in Burma's new parliament and a Burmese rock star who was imprisoned for rewriting the words to Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." Some freed political prisoners are being denied access to university, passports and professional licenses.  Still, many of them continue to test the limits of the emerging democracy, and face profound consequences.  In the end we learn that many of these former political prisoners are still at risk of being re-imprisoned for peaceful activities, and we meet a new generation of pro-democracy activists, the children of former political prisoners, who themselves are on trial and facing ten years in prison.

Rare Earth

From Benjamen Walker | 29:59

An investigation into the stuff that makes anything digital actually possible: rare earth minerals. Host Benjamen Walker uncovers the dark story behind them, in a gonzo journey to the Chinese mines where 95% of the world's rare earth minerals come from.

Rare_earth_small An investigation into the stuff that makes anything digital actually possible: rare earth minerals. Host Benjamen Walker uncovers the dark story behind them in a gonzo journey to the Chinese mines where 95% of the world's rare earth minerals come from.
Besides experts like  
Dr. Alexander H. King. Director, Ames Laboratory; Dr. Karl " Mr. Rare Earth" Gschneidner and the BBC's Paul Mason, Ben encounters shady characters, enviromental messes, and the Chinese underworld. This program is part of the PRX Global Story Project made possible by the Open Society Foundations.

Italian Artisans: Shuttered Workshops in the Renaissance’s Birthplace

From Nancy Greenleese | Part of the Made In Italy...For Now series | 07:37

Italian artisans craft exquisite objects with their hands, particularly in Florence. Yet aging artisans crippled by Italy’s bureaucracy aren’t able to train the next generation. An artistic tradition predating Michelangelo could die out.

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Aging Italian artisans are regretfully closing their shops in Florence.  The artistic ancestors of the Renaissance’s Old Masters aren’t able to find capable hands to continue their work.   Soon no one will know how to craft these unique objects made from metal, leather, marble or wood.  Italy’s onerous bureaucracy is preventing the artisans from training apprentices.  However, a U.S. company has a fresh idea that could rekindle the tradition.   

Italian Bakers: Mafia Slicing Into Profits

From Nancy Greenleese | Part of the Made In Italy...For Now series | 06:09

Italian breads and pastries are favorites among foodies. But Italian artisan bakeries are shutting down. Changing eating habits, the crisis and the Mafia are slicing into profits.

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Italian bread and pastries, such as cannoli , are gobbled up worldwide.  However, the traditional artisan bakeries in Italy are suffering since people are eating less bread and often the mass-produced varieties offered in supermarkets.  Bakeries are feeling the pinch even more in southern Italy where organized crime wants a slice of the already limited profits.  Many bakeries can no longer handle the heat and are deciding to close.  However, anti-Mafia groups and some brave bakers are fighting back. 

Italian Tailors: An Age-Old Tradition Unravels

From Nancy Greenleese | Part of the Made In Italy...For Now series | 08:20

Skilled tailoring is a dying art. Many of the best tailors hail from Italy where the tradition is unraveling due to a lack of training opportunities and the rise of designers.

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Skilled tailors are no longer on every main street in America.  Those nimble hands that took out pants and redesigned your mother's wedding dress for you were often Italian.  The country has a centuries-old tradition of tailoring that is disappearing due to a lack of training opportunities and too much attention placed on designers.  Soon  not only fashionistas, but anyone who needs clothes altered may be forced to buy new, instead of giving new life to a garment through tailoring.

 

The Soul of Guatemala

From Jesse Dukes | Part of the The Soul of Guatemala series | 30:31

Latin America has been overwhelmingly Catholic for centuries, but that's changing, and Guatemala is leading the way, as Latin America's Evangelical Frontier. Available as a half-hour piece or in abridged form as three 5-6 minute features below.

1-guatesoul-9824_small Guatemala is Latin America's most Evangelical Country by percentage, approaching half Protestant. The small, mountainous country just south of Mexico is leading Latin America in a thirty-year Evangelical revival.

Part I, Miracle Town begins in Almolonga, a small town in the highlands that Evangelicals call "Miracle Town".  A majority of the town converted to Evangelical Christianity in the 1970's and  shortly after, the town transformed, becoming prosperous and one of Guatemala's leading vegetable producers. Not everybody agrees it was a miracle, however.

Part II, Megachurches explores how Evangelical Protestantism grew in the years following a devestating Earthquake, during Guatemala's Civil War, when the Catholic Church was under-represented. Evangelicals have sinceb ecome a distinct movement within Guatemala; a powerful social and political force. Guatemala City has five  megachurches and a new one is being built by an internationally famous televangelist to accomodate 15,000 congregants. Another famous  in Pastor in Guatemala City is trying to transform Guatemala the same way he thinks the "miracle town" was transformed. Many think this pastor, Dr. Harold Caballeros, is on the way to becoming Guatemala's next President.

This documentary is available as a full 27 minute piece, or split un into 10 minute and 17 minute sections to fit Segments A + B in NPR's Special Programming clock. Versions with and without musical tails available. NOTE: Full (31 minute) version with long ambi and musical files available under "addtional files" below. Also available, ambi and music beds to use with hosting, and a SOC.

Also : This same documentary is available, in abridged form, as three 5-6 minute features. See the Series page for details.

Support provided by The Open Society Foundations
and
The International Reporting Project

The Soul of Guatemala Part I Miracle Town

From Jesse Dukes | Part of the The Soul of Guatemala series | 05:56

Part I in a series of three short features about Latin America's Evangelical Frontier.

1-guatesoul-8718_small For centuries, Latin America has been overwhelmingly Catholic. But that is changing—Evangelical Protestantism is growing throughout  Latin America. And, now Guatemala—the small, mountainous country just south of Mexico—has the highest percentage of Evangelical Christians of any Latin American Country. Some experts think Guatemala will soon be majority Protestant.

Part I | Miracle Town , tells the story of a town that converted en masse to Evangelical Christianity. Shortly after, the town experienced renewed agricultural prosperity. Evangelicals claim it's a miracle, but others disagree.



This documentary is available as a full 27 minute piece , or split un into 10 minute and 17 minute sections to fit Segments A + B in NPR's Special Programming clock. Versions with and without ambi beds available.. See series page for details.
Support provided by The Open Society Foundations
and
The International Reporting Project

The Soul of Guatemala Part II A Shaking in Our Souls

From Jesse Dukes | Part of the The Soul of Guatemala series | 04:48

Part II in a three part series about Guatemala, Latin America's Evangelical Frontier.

1-guatesoul-8022_small
For centuries, Latin America has been overwhelmingly Catholic. But that is changing—Evangelical Protestantism is growing throughout  Latin America. And, now Guatemala—the small, mountainous country just south of Mexico—has the highest percentage of Evangelical Christians of any Latin American Country. Some experts think Guatemala will soon be majority Protestant.

Part II | A Shaking in Our Souls
explores the origins of Evangelical Christianity in Guatemala. The first evangelicals were missionaries, but the faith didn't take off until a massive earthquake in the 1970's.

This documentary is available as a full 27 minute piece , or split un into 10 minute and 17 minute sections to fit Segments A + B in NPR's Special Programming clock. Versions with and without ambi beds available.

The Soul of Guatemala Part III Christian Citizens

From Jesse Dukes | Part of the The Soul of Guatemala series | 05:56

Part III in a series of three short features about Latin America's Evangelical Frontier.

1-guatesoul-2109-2_small For centuries, Latin America has been overwhelmingly Catholic. But that is changing—Evangelical Protestantism is growing throughout  Latin America. And, now Guatemala—the small, mountainous country just south of Mexico—has the highest percentage of Evangelical Christians of any Latin American Country. Some experts think Guatemala will soon be majority Protestant.

Part III | Christian Citizens tells the story of Pastor Harold Caballeros, one of the most famous religious leaders in Guatemala. Caballeros is trying to reform Guatemala politically, using the values of Evangelical Christianity. Many believe he could be Guatemala's next president.


This documentary is available as a full 27 minute piece , or split un into 10 minute and 17 minute sections to fit Segments A + B in NPR's Special Programming clock. Versions with and without ambi beds available.

Support provided by The Open Society Foundations
and
The International Reporting Project

Cancer here and there - living with breast cancer in the U.S. and Uganda

From joanne silberner | 08:15

American reporter Joanne Silberner compares her experience with breast cancer to what happened to a Ugandan woman.

Img_0067_small There are some things about breast cancer that are universal. There's the initial fear.  There's the sense that your body has betrayed you in a very personal way. But some parts of the breast cancer experience very much depend on where you live. Reporter Joanne Silberner of Seattle, Washington, compares her experience to that of a woman in Uganda, where there are few treatment options and the disease is highly stigmatized. 

The Boundaries of Love in the Holy Land

From Bending Borders | Part of the Love is Complicated series | 12:18

It is rare for an Israeli and a Palestinian to fall in love. There are physical barriers, as Israelis can’t enter Palestinian areas, and Palestinians can’t enter Israeli areas, without special permits. There are also cultural barriers, of course. But a year ago, two 29-year-old men - one from Jerusalem, the other from a West Bank village - met one another and demonstrated that sometimes love can be found. Reporter Daniel Estrin brings us their story.

Boundariesoflove_small This production is part of the Global Story Project, with support from the Open Society Foundations. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.

Bartolo's Honey

From Diane Bock | 05:05

Keeping an ancient Maya tradition alive, in the jungle of Mexico's Yucatan.

Yucatan_honey_small Produced for the PRX Global Story Project, Bartolo's Honey is a narrated, sound-rich piece that illustrates the ancient, and rapidly disappearing, Mayan art of beekeeping. The story incorporates lots of ambient sound, active tape, and music from the region.
With news from Mexico dominated by violence, stories like Bartolo's Honey shine a light on the country's multifaceted and all-too- often misunderstood culture. 

Love in the Time of Refugee Camps

From Bending Borders | Part of the Love is Complicated series | 06:29

Two Syrians, separated by war, go to great lengths for love.

Dsc_0092_small Merium and Ahmed grew up in the same village, but never took notice of each other until their families ended up in the same refugee camp in Turkey.  But even with fighting all around them, customs were observed.  They could not talk to each other. So, Meriem's young sister, like a kind of carrier pigeon, carried secret letters between Meriem and Ahmed. But war is the ultimate wild card. Before long, their families fled in separate directions and the two feared they would not see each other again.

Nose as Destiny

From Bending Borders | Part of the Love is Complicated series | 04:46

Plastic surgery is growing in Afghanistan and more and more women see it as the key to their fate.

Nose-like-a-fist1_small In Afghanistan, a man and woman may meet each other for the first time at the marriage altar.  And when the groom pulls back the veil and does not like what he sees, he can send the woman back -- shamed and tainted-- back to her family.  To avoid such a fate, more woman are considereing plastic surgery in Kabul.  This is an intimate look at the fear that prompts this.  Reporter Greg Warner aand the courage of one woman who is accompanied by the reporter into the surgeon's office.

Texting in Chinese

From sandy hausman | 04:52

Text messaging is a popular and convenient way to communicate using cell phones, but how do speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese and other dialects of Chinese -- a language written using about 10,000 unique characters -- text? Sandy Hausman talks with linguists and locals in Hong Kong to find out how to text in Chinese and what this technique means for the future of one of the world's oldest systems of writing.

Default-piece-image-1 Text messaging is a popular and convenient way to communicate using cell phones, but how do speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese and other dialects of Chinese -- a language written using about 10,000 unique characters -- text? Sandy Hausman talks with linguists and locals in Hong Kong to find out how to text in Chinese and what this technique means for the future of one of the world's oldest systems of writing.

The People the Rain Forgot

From Sophia Tewa | 05:54

For the millions of people living in the horn of Africa, global climate
change is an everyday reality. The traditional rainy season in Northern
Kenya has completely disappeared in the last five years. Farmers and
nomads have had to find new ways to adapt to an endless drought.

Kenya_small

This audio piece, revisioned from the documentary “The People the Rain Forgot,” was recorded in 2012 in Kenya. The film was shown at many festivals around the country and received the award for Best Documentary Feature at the Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood. It explores the drastic impact of climate change on the agricultural areas of northern Kenya, where once-fertile lands are slowly turning into deserts. But it’s also the tale of people who have chosen to not give up and fight back against a force they did not create. From the village people who build a water dam with their own hands, to the farmers who create a microclimate in their valley by planting thousands of tree seedlings, this audio piece tells the story of people who find the courage and determination to try and make the rain fall again.

 

 

I Am Not The Only One

From Arndt Peltner | 20:15

The Rwandan genocide of 1994 still haunts an entire country

Index_small The genocide of Rwanda has not been forgotten and is still shaping the country and the society. In 1994 Richard Gakuba and Freddy Mutanguha were still children, when about one million people were killed in 100 days in the small African country of Rwanda. Their parents were killed, some of their siblings, they lost their community and had to fight for their lives. Both have grown up, they went different paths. Their haunting past is always with them. In this feature they look back and, but are also able to describe their way forward.

(PRX homepage image from Goran Bogicevic / Shutterstock.com)

Bonne Chance Comrades

From Amira Anne Glickman | 52:58

This is a story of a 1940's child's journal, set against the backdrop of WWII, that records the play life of a group of boys reenacting war games in the woods and clay pits of Devon, SW England. Found at a charity shop in 2012, the producers search for the boys, now men in their 70's and 80's, and create an intimate and sound rich journey into what childhood was like during WWII within the small towns and country villages of Devon.

Bcc_journal_pic_small This is the story of a 1940's child's journal, found in 2012 at a recycling centre in SW England. The journal, set against the backdrop of WWII, beautifully records the play life of a group of young boys, some evacuees from London, some from Devon, who reenact war games in the wooded areas and clay pits where they lived.

This sound rich programme follows the producers search for the boys, now men in the 70's and 80's, who were featured in the journal. Could they be found? What would they remember? Throughout the programme listeners hear a modern child reading the journal, interspersed with sounds of the natural world from where the boys played. Revealing intimate memories of English country life during the 1940's, the piece features first hand accounts of D-Day and how English children were impacted by the appearance and dissapearance of American servicemen from their small town and country villages.

This production is part of the Global Story Project, with support from the Open Society Foundations. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.