The BBC World Service's wide range of documentaries from 2009.
enjamin Jealous is the leader of America's oldest and largest black civil rights group. In a USA fronted by Barack Obama, what are the future battlegrounds for African American human rights?
Bermeja Island is missing. This strategically important island was clearly visible on maps of the Gulf of Mexico until the middle of the 20th century but it's now gone. BBC Mundo's David Cuen goes in search.
What role did the business schools play in last year's financial crisis? In this week's edition of Assignment, Ed Butler investigates whether, as the chair of Harvard's MBA programme insists, the schools were guilty only of teaching a deficient assessment of risk in the business world, or whether something more fundamental was at fault. Some inside the system tell Assignment that there had been a growing disconnect between the schools and society, with insufficient attention being paid to the et...
n the second episode Michael Buerk visits Cairo and experience for himself how bloggers - arguably among the most hounded anywhere in the world - are taking on the Egyptian government.
Enterprise, money, innovation are all there. Is tapping into a continent's optimism the key to Africa's future? Mark Doyles looks at the solutions to solve Africa's poverty.
Rachid Sekkai from the BBC's Arabic Service talks to Muslims currently serving in the Israeli Defence Force and also to former soldiers and hears about the conflicts they face, at home and on duty, and the pride that military service sometimes brings them.
Colin Yu is a teacher who lives in Shanghai. He has a job but still struggles to support his parents on his modest income. Colin would like to spend more money and the Chinese government is offering incentives to people like him to go out and buy Chinese goods. They're hoping that by doing so it will help the country to survive the current global economic downturn. Average savings rates in China stand at around 30% and, as Chris Hogg discovers, most of that money is spent on healthcare. For Assi...
Michael Buerk analyses the potential – and the dangers – of citizen journalism. In part one, he talks to bloggers and critics from Sri Lanka, Iran, Burma, and Iraq.
Accusations of tribalism, corruption and complacency have all been offered as explanations to the question of Africa's poverty. Mark Doyle looks at each of these and asks why the status quo persists.
Violent footage from the Kashmir conflict has been shared almost in real-time by citizen-journalists on video sharing websites. Suvojit Bagchi tells the story of the impact of new media communication in a conflict zone.
Six months ago there was a short military revolt in Bangladesh that threatened to push the country into nationwide armed conflict. But some things remain mysterious. Why was it so brutal? Who was really behind it? What did they hope to achieve? In this week’s addition of Assignment, Mark Dummett has tracked down key participants and eyewitnesses in search of some answers.
Nick Rankin explores how we assess the value of gold.
Mark Doyle crosses the continent of Africa and finds a place rich in natural resources and human potential, which begs the question, why is Africa poor? Outsiders have been coming to Africa for centuries for its raw materials and potential. It was an exploitative relationship that has contributed to Africa's poverty, but can foreigners now turn the fortunes of a modern Africa?
Ko Ko Aung from the BBC's Burmese Service, travelled to Burma to find out why a rebel army of 100 men is taking on the 400,000 strong Burmese army.
Fran Abrams is given rare access to the US base in Djibouti questioning military chiefs, local leaders and ordinary Djiboutians as she explores the role and impact of America's African outpost.
Nick Rankin descends into the deepest goldmine in the world – Tau Tona in South Africa for part two of this series. Five thousand miners extract gold up to four kilometres under the surface but for every tonne of ore they take out, there is only 8 grams of gold to be found. Nick talks to miners about their lives underground and learns about the real price of gold.
Mukul Devichand tells the story of the Europeans who are trying to persuade China's expanding middle class to ditch their noodles and soya in favour of pricey European fine foods.
American physicist Richard Feynman fell in love with the remote Russian region Tuva through his hobby of stamp collecting. He died just before his visitor's visa arrived but his daughter Michelle went to the land of throat singers in his honour.
The Afghan drugs mafia is rich, powerful and entrenched, with connections running into the heart of the Afghan state. But a new, multi-million dollar counter-narcotics justice system has started to get results and is putting senior traffickers in prison. So when people heard that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, had pardoned five traffickers, they were stunned. This week’s Assignment looks into allegations that the pardons were part of a political deal, ahead of presidential elections on the ...
Man's long-term obsession with gold and the lengths we have gone to to get it. From the ancient myth of King Midas, through Alexander The Great and the Spanish Conquistadors to the massive mines of South Africa, Nick Rankin unlocks the history and enduring fascination of the rare yellow metal that has been integral to economic exchange systems for millennia.
Navid Akhtar examines the influence of Islamic design and values in the life of Victorian designer, poet, and craftsman William Morris.
The World Health Organisation has warned that the worldwide spread of the so-called Swine Flu virus is now unstoppable. As cases continue to multiply, reporter Julian O'Halloran investigates the origins of the H1N1 virus and examines claims that it is linked to factory style pig farming.
Iran in the post 9/11 era, a time of friction and unrest over its nuclear ambitions.
A slice of life at a shabby but popular tenement in Hong Kong's teeming commercial district.
Colin Grant reflects on the BBC’s role in boosting Caribbean writing in the region 60 years on from the original broadcast of Caribbean Voices.
The inside story of Iran's war with Iraq, and how the US viewed the conflict - ultimately a battle for control and influcence in this most vital, but unstable, part of the world.
Nick Rankin travels to Fair Isle, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the British Isles, to see how newcomers find their place in a small and tight-knit community on a rocky island which is too windy for trees to grow on.
In this week's edition of Assignment, Jill McGivering travels through Pakistan, hearing the stories of some of the two million people who fled their homes as a result of the fighting between government forces and the Taliban in the country’s North West – and assesses the consequences of the humanitarian crisis for Pakistan and its people.
Award-winning journalist Sorious Samura drops into the middle of an undercover investigation of a Chinese brothel in Accra, Ghana, where 16 women have been trafficked to work as prostitutes.
For the first time, the BBC tells the story of Iran's relationship with the West over the last 30 years - as seen by the key insiders on both sides.
