Past Programs
Unrest, Conflict and War - 2008
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003
No Excuse Not To Know
16/11/2008
From within the Jewish Australian community voices of dissent are emerging, people who are challenging the mainstream version of the history of Israel and the current conflict the country is involved in. They speak about how they came to their understanding of history and the friends they have lost as a result.
Israel's official history has been challenged for some time now by Israel's New Historians and one of the latest books challenging Israel's historical narrative has come from Israeli society itself. Avraham Burg's The Holocaust Is Over argues that Israel's use of the holocaust has created a nation with a self image of victimhood, which allows all sorts of atrocities against The Palestinians...
'be it fences, sieges ... curfews, food and water deprivation or unexplained killings. All is permitted because we have been through the Shoah (catastrophe) and you will not tell us how to behave.'
In Australia, where the largest community of holocaust survivors lives, it has been difficult to break through the grip of the belief that Israel is the solution to ending discrimination and persecution of Jews, and must always be defended.
But, this emerging voice among the Australian Jewish community is questioning the dominant story and actively supports Palestinian aspirations for justice and peace in their homeland.
We speak to three Australian Jews who have thoughtfully and courageously spoken out, acted in support of Palestinians and battled their own families and communities to live their lives with integrity and candour.
Always on my mind
27/07/2008
No-one knows why a significant number of service men and women develop post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their experiences of conflict, and others do not. But for these veterans of the Gulf War and East Timor, the impact on their lives has been profound.
The onset of symptoms often means the end of their military career, and their ability to adapt to other employment is limited. Some days, motivation returns -- and on others they can barely get out of bed in the morning. They feel isolated and worthless, and it affects every aspect of their lives. Some turn to alcohol to blur the memories, but it doesn't fix the problem. Relationships are a likely casualty; post-traumatic stress disorder wreaks havoc on families and loved ones, and for the young partner of a soldier who served in Afghanistan, the consequences were devastating.
Tricks of theTrade
29/06/2008
New technology is increasingly breaking down barriers for the blind community. Global positioning systems, mobile phones with scanners and cameras, screen-reading software, as well as less sophisticated but equally useful stuff like talking kettles and measuring jugs - they've become the 'tricks of the trade' for people who are visually impaired.
Even shopping on the internet creates new opportunities - as Jenny explains "I've never been able to browse before, and now I can". And there's a website where folk share information about how to use new consumer items - things the manuals don't tell you, like whether the 'on/off' switch is at the top or the bottom!
Five people who have no vision talk in this program about their lives, and about the way new technologies are making a difference.
Speech Is Silver, Silence Is Gold
13/04/2008
Young people in Iraq are living through a dangerous war, resiliently maintaining a sense of humour and optimism. On their blogs they talk of the profound and the mundane; dodging bombs on their way to school and trying to study without any electricity.
March 20, 2008 marked the fifth anniversary of the allied military invasion of Iraq.
May 1, 2008 will mark the fifth anniversary of US President Bush's declaration that the war was over, yet fighting has continued and approximately a million people have been killed. Before the invasion Iraq was a country with high regard for education and moderate views towards women's role in society. Now between 30% and 70% of schools across the country have been closed because of insecurity. Teachers and students have become targets for bombings and kidnappings.
Large percentages of students have chosen to discontinue their studies, or have left Iraq, yet there are those who have chosen to stay and continue. Their commitment to a strong, educated Iraq is what keeps them focused.
Rather than the standard tales of military operations this program is about living through the war and attempting to maintain normality in the face of adversity. Iraqi bloggers HNK and Sunshine and Bassam Sebti, a postgraduate student and former Iraqi correspondent for the Washington Post share their stories with us.
Green Tea and Landmines
09/03/2008
We're heading to the Thai-Burma border to the highly politicised town of Mae Sot. The streets of Mae Sot are full of stories of loss and death and flight. Some Burmese people crossed the border into Thailand illegally and have been living here for twenty years, many for more than ten, while thousands are arriving right now.
Another fifty thousand people live in Mae La, the nearest refugee camp. And there are a hundred thousand more refugees in other camps in Thailand. But possibly the most overwhelming fact is that about two and a half million Burmese have fled their country for Thailand, many simply in search of work. Burma remains one of the poorest countries in the world and the protests against the military dictatorship last year did little to change the lives of people.
While we're in Mae Sot we visit the extraordinary Dr Cynthia Maung's Mae Tao Clinic. It's as much haven as clinic. Funded mainly by foreign donations, Mae Tao Clinic runs the training centre for the Backpack Medical Teams and the Free Burma Rangers, both of whom illegally cross the border back into Burma to help the country's ethnic minorities survive the onslaught of the Burmese military.
The clinic is also where people come to vaccinate their babies, to be treated for malaria or cholera, or to receive a prosthetic leg when they've lost theirs to a landmine. Many of the villagers who come to the clinic are fleeing the Burmese military after being forced to act as unwilling porters, or even as human landmine detectors.
We also meet long-time political prisoners from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, as well as Karen and Shan ethnic Burmese working to help their own people in their struggle against the military inside Burma. Over the last ten years the Burmese army has destroyed around three thousand ethnic villages. Some of the people from those villages are now living in hiding inside Burma; some are in Thailand. Many of them are children who have crossed the border alone.
- Watch the short documentary Steps to Freedom, filmed inside Burma by the Free Burma Rangers.
