Recently broadcasted

New Grapes of New Wrath

(September 2010)
Bosnia and Herzegovina received in war and postwar period 80 billion dollars international donations, but no one will probably ever know how much of this money was really spent for planned projects and how much money ended up in private pockets. The government of BiH, any government has not made a general report on the overall post-war aid that has arrived in the country. What is known that more money has been donated to BiH than to to rebuild Germany and to Japan from the ruins of 2WW. Observers say that now, 15 years after the Dayton Peace Agreements the new grapes of wrath are growing in the schools of the country.

A Paradise Lost

(October 2010)
Switzerland, world’s greatest tax haven is facing problems. How long the Swiss banks can keep on protecting tax evaders and money lauderers keeping their fortunes on Swiss bank accounts? Will the Swiss be forced to open their lockers now when governments in EU and USA are hunting criminal money hiding in Swiss safety boxes?

Next Bubble, China

(October 2010)
At the end of 2009 Chinese economists promised economical growth of 11 per cent. Now they see some dark clouds on the sky – inflation is running and the house prices are skyrocketing.
Now economists are warning that the next bubble is growing in China.
It is bad news for the Chinese but it is very bad news for the Americans – since China is USA’s creditor, the most important one.
It is bad news also for the Europeans. If the investments made to China stop making money where to go next? Nokia is not the only one facing this problem but the management does not sleep well if the bubble bursts.

WW2 Is Not Over
16.09.2009

Were the Baltic States - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – liberated after the 2nd World War or forcefully brought to Soviet Union? When did the 2nd World War actually end in Ukraine – in 1945 or in the beginning of 50’s when the last national resistance was defeated? Questions seem to be simple and old but they are neither simple nor old there. A visitor can’t avoid the feeling that WW2 is not over there. Russia has accused her neighbors for falsifying the history and of glorifying the Nazis. Baltic and Ukrainian veterans of WW2 defend themselves saying that they didn’t fight for Stalin nor for Hitler, they fought for their own country. For Russian regime comparing Stalin with Hitler is a wet rag against mouth. For Russia history is part of policy today. For Kremlin all deviations from their history writing are political attacks against Russia.

A SUNSET IN CALIFORNIA
23.09. 2009

“Our wallet is empty, our bank is closed, and our credit is dried up.” Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California
Can a state go bankrupt? California can, the state is financially bankrupt. The state coffers are bone dry, confronting a $24.3 billion budgetary deficit.
Southern California was a hub for sub-prime mortgage lenders. Those mortgages started the global financial crisis, which has driven the region into recession.
Brazilian soap opera ”Rich People Also Cry” is true in California. House prices have collapsed also in Beverly Hills. Compulsory auctions have been held in Santa Barbara.
All the indicators for California’s economy are pointing south with abandon. California is experiencing its worst unemployment rate since the Great Depression. Factoring in discouraged and underemployed workers, the actual unemployment rate in California exceeds 20%.
If California is headed towards a devastating economic depression, how can America avoid a similar destination?

1989 – Autumn of the Crowd
(November 2009)

According to a common phrase in current history writing “The fall of Berlin Wall started a chain of revolutions in Eastern Europe and ended communism”. But which way did the dominoes really fall – from Berlin Wall to Prague, Bucharest and Moscow - or vice versa? Secret Soviet documents tell that that Mr Gorbachov actively worked to overthrow Erich Honecker and his regime. And what was the role of small Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who challenged Moscow 1988 declaring independence?

China - The Last Engine? 13.05.2009 
The whole world lives deep economical crises but in China the economy goes rocketing up. Will China be the next New Engine for Global Economy? 

When the Sun Stopped Shining 01.04.2009 
More than one million unsold apartments, bankrupt constructors, more than four million unemployed people. The sun is still shining but it does not warm – as the most famous Spanish song promises (”Cuando calienta el sol”) . 

Lessons of the Gas War 18.03.2009 
When the Russian – Ukrainian Gas War hit Europe in January there were no winners, only people in cold. What was the lesson for Europeans? don’t trust the Russians any more, build up your own gas pipe lines. But on what price? 

The Crises According Krugman 11.03.2009
Why did it happen? Nobel Price Winner on Economy, Paul Krugman tells the reasons, the back grounds and what is there still to come. 

Congo, the Damned Land 18.02.2009
Congo is rich of natural resources, metals and mineral. But what makes Congo rich makes it a damned land. The brutal civil war has reached 15th year. It is all about power over metals and minerals. The hurman suffering is collateral damage. 

The Good Soldier Švejk at Star Wars (2008)

In August 1968 was ruined the Czechoslovakian dream about communist society with more human face: so called Prague Spring. Soviet invasion ended the short period when literature, films and arts flourished freely and there was no censorship.

That was the darkest period during the Cold War and this tiny Central European state was only an instrument in a big game between two blocks. Dark period ended only in 1989 when the communist regime was ousted by so called Velvet Revolution. Now this former Soviet satellite is a member of European Union and NATO.

Today many Czechs are commemorating the 40th anniversary of Soviet invasion with strange feelings. There are again fears that Czech Republic may become a part of some bigger game.
Two years ago was announced that the United States is planning to build a new Missile Defense system in Europe. The project was nicknamed as a Son of the Star Wars, as a reminder for the utopist Cold War era space defense plan, announced by Ronald Reagan at the beginning of 1980´s.

New radar base is planned to be based in Czech Republic and a new missile base in neighboring Poland. Since then this particular issue has dominated domestic politics in both countries.

“As the Soviet troops left our country, there was a commitment, that no foreign troops will ever be based in Czech Republic any more. I definitely don’t want American radar to be based here”, says Václav Hudec, head of Štítov village, located at two kilometers from the planned radar base.
Hudec is not alone. According to opinion polls, more than 60 per cent of Czechs are against government plans to join in American Missile defense plan.

Also, strengthening Russia is reacting aggressively to American plans. Russia has already threatened with harsh countermeasures. Anticipants of radar plan claim that Czech Republic is at risk to become again as a frontline, when relations between United States and Russia are worsening.

“We do not need that radar just because of radar itself. We need it because of its symbolic importance. The American radar base is a strong message, telling that Czech Republic is a part of Western world. Russians should already understand, that they are not any more land lords here”, says Michael Kocab, famous rock musician and a one of the key players of 1989 Velvet Revolution.

But there are lots of obstacles to be solved before the American radar is a reality. Czech parliament has not yet approved the radar plan and on the other hand the fore coming presidential elections in USA can change a lot. Political analyst Jiří Pehe criticizes Czech government commitment to join the US plan without having a clear support even in own parliament. Pehe says that Czech government is going to political adventures like the classic Czech literature figure Good Soldier Švejk.

“It is possible, that the new American president just does not see this project worth of spending so much money. It is possible this project is just cancelled. And at the same time this absurd Švejkian political drama that we have witnessed here in Czech Republic for last two years, is just over”.

A Genocide Growing Cold (2008)

”Murder never grows cold”, as Raymond Chandler wrote. In Cambodia people are afraid of a genocide growing cold.
The bloody regime of Khmer Rouge ended 30 years ago, in January 1979. So far not a single leader has been convicted for the deaths of at least 1,7 million people.
“I want to see them in the court”, says a Khmer Rouge victim Aol Pov. She lost her parents and five sisters and brothers. She escaped the death only because the driver of the truck she was travelling did not hear the orders on the radio to take them to the killing fields.
“I am afraid they will escape the court because they are old, over 80”, says Sek Seng, a former nun. She was tortured in the prison and accused of being a capitalist and a CIA spy. “What is CIA?” she still asks.

In December 2008 the Khmer Rouge victims waited the first trial to start at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal – officially called the Extraordinary Chambers of Cambodia (ECCC) – consisting of a majority of Cambodian judges sitting alongside international judges, with international and Cambodian co-prosecutors.
Kaing Guek Eav – also knows as Duch – former head of the Khmer Rouge most infamous torture and detention centre, Tuol Sleng, was supposed to be the first of the five senior leaders of Khmer Rouge, currently in custody, to stand trial.
“I still feel as if I were in a Khmer Rouge prison”, says a man in capital Phnom Penh meeting his psychiatric and bursts out crying. “Every night I dream that they are torturing me.”

Chum Mey, another “Duch’s” victim, one of the seven who survived the Tuol Sleng says that he only wants the accused Khmer Rouge leaders to confess their crimes.
“If they confess, they should not be convicted”, if they don’t confess, I want them to spend rest of their life in prison”, he says.
The four other detainees are Noun Chea, “Brother Number Two2 – as he was known in Khmer Rouge hierarchy, former Democratic Kamputchea prime minister Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, Khmer Rouge former minister of social action.

“Cambodians are confused – why they only have these five in the court, they ask”, says Yin Men Ly who travels around the Battambang province, old Khmer Rouge territory, to find witnesses for the Tribunal. Cambodians are also afraid. “They are still there, even in high positions”, is a common answer among the victims. One of Tribunal’s tasks is to answer to the question – “why did this happen”, explains Robert Petit, a Canadian co-prosecutor.

Still, 30 years after, it is very difficult to understand what made it possible to Khmer Rouge to force the people out of the cities and to make everybody a farmer to make Cambodia self-sufficient. And to destroy families, to separate children from their parents, to execute lawyers, doctors, teachers as intellectuals and as enemies of the people.

It was possible because the Maoist China protected the Khmer Rouge to stop Vietnam and Soviet Union to enlarge their influence in Asia. The Chinese shared this interest with the United States whose leaders turned a blind eye on what was going on in Cambodia. That is why people are still suffering from nightmares, that is why people tell their stories to investigators. But why only five?

“We have five accused persons, but only two cases”, says Robert Petit, a Canadian prosecutor. “Yes, we want to bring more people to the tribunal”, he says.
“Five is not enough, but thousands can not be prosecuted”, says Theary Seng, “ a daughter of the killing fields”, as her book’s title says. “And yet we know that thousands still have bloody hands”, she says.

The international justice is expensive, really expensive: The tribunal has already spent over 50 million dollars for these five cases. The allegations on corruption have not made it easier for international donors to fill the gap of missing 100 million dollars more to safe guard Tribunal’s work.

At the end of 2008 the victims got another reason to disappoint with the Tribunal. The trial of Kaing Guek Eav – alias Duch – was postponed until “beginning of 2008”. The co-prosecutors and defend lawyers are exchanging words of the nature of Duch’s prosecution: is it “genocide” or “crimes against humanity”.
“The public opinions talks of genocide, but this is not correct”, says Francois Rouge, Duch’s defense lawyer, a French. “We can accept ‘crimes against humanity’ but not genocide.

This is the nature of the Tribunal: the genocide – or crime against humanity – is growing cold. 

Exporting Nurses (2008)
More than 100 000 nurses have left the Philippines in hope of a better salary. Part of their salary sent home is important for the economy but the exodus of nurses deteriorates the health care system in Philippines. Hospitals have been forced to close down since it is not only nurses, also the doctors are leaving. Is the developing country able to produce enough health care professionals to meet the needs of aging European Union without the collapse of her own health care system?

The Legacy of Putin (2008)
In March Russians will elect a new President. Who will follow Vladimir Putin? Which kind of Russia Mr Putin will pass to the next President? – A country with a de facto one-party system, a country where the press freedom is a privilege of a few rich men? A country where both economical and political life is controlled by FSB, the almighty security organisation, once run by President Putin.

Cuban Voices (2008)
Cuban president Fidel Castro steps down after 49 years in power and younger brother Raul takes over the presidency. Is it the beginning of change in Cuba? Or is the shadow of Fidel still there as long as he lives, to put on hold any reforms?
49 years of revolution has created a double system in Cuba. Double economy, double currency, double moral. People are debating more openly these days, challenging the official truth. Line Out meets young Cubans who are challenging the limits of expression, ex-prisoners of conscience, revolutionary heroes who are struggling to make ends meet, Cuban voices of discontent.

India - Year of Records (2008)
Indians expect 2008 to be a year of new records. Sensex, the Indian Dow Jones, already hit the magic number of 20 000. India is firmly on the road of 10 per cent annual growth rate and on the way to the group of richest countries in the world. Other experts expect India to make another new record on a GHI scale. GHI – Global Hunger Index tells that India has the largest number of undernourished people in the globe. The growth is possible, says Finance Minister, “if we can put ideologies aside”.

Belarus - Licence to Kill (2008)
In the first years of the millennium several political opponents to President Aleksander Lukashenko died in mysterious conditions, some disappeared, among them ex prime minister Viktor Gontshar. The opposition in Belarus started to talk of death squads. Government strongly denied any involvement and accused organised crime of killings. Belarus is the last country in Europe completely controlled by one man, President Aleksander Lukashenko. It is also the only country in Europe where death penalty is left in the crime code. Mr Oleg Alkajev, former director of a remand centre in Minsk now living in Germany, says that all death penalties were executed in his remand centre in Minsk, also illegal executions.

Dudú, the Invisible Man (2007)
In 2006 over 30 000 illegal immigrants from Africa arrived in the Canary Islands – exhausted after sailing a week in wooden boats. Immigrants call Span “a promised land” but the streets of Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla are cold to those entering illegally. They walk the streets with no job, no money, all they have in their pockets are the deportation orders given by the police. They say they feel like invisible men – people look at them but do not see them.

A Deceived Revolution (2007)
In the 1970´s the world watched the civil war in small Nicaragua: vaguely known Sandinista guerrilla group against US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza. Dictator was overthrown, Sandinista-leader Daniel Ortega became president and stayed in power 10 years, even though the United States funded a civil war against the Sandinista government.
2007 Ortega returned to President´s office. What has happened to Sandinistas, what has happened to Ortega, what is left of the ideals of the revolution? “Very little”, say the veterans. “They have deceived the revolution”.

Socialism or Death (2007)
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez says he´s building a new socialist Venezuela. What does it really mean? “More than socialism it is authoritarianism and personality cult built around Chavez”, his critics say.
Recently president ordered Venezuela´s most popular television channel to be shut off air. This was the latest example of how Chavez is tightening his grip on the country´s independent mass media. Where is the Venezuelan president leading his country?

Beautiful, Rich, Sick (2007)
A bird concert on an African river at sunrise is the most beautiful music. Gold and diamonds make South Africa the riches in Africa, but AIDS figures make it one of the sickest. 47 million inhabitants, 5,4 million are HIV-positive, more than a million AIDS – orphans. It is not only people who are sick – many sectors of the country will run out of work force when young people get sick and die. At risk are agriculture, mining industry and the army.

Barbed Wire and Free Trade (2007)
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) agreement promised to create jobs, to bring Mexico investments and reduce the need for illegal immigration. On the contrary: it was a success to American corn producers – and drove millions of Mexican farmers to the U.S as illegal immigrants.
NAFTA forced millions of Mexican farmers to seek they fortune in the U.S. – one fourth of Mexican campesinos have left their fields since the agreement took effect in 1994.

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Vesa Toijonen                            Nina Varis
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