Risking It All ~ AlJaz on Earning a Living...

Amazing AlJazeera series Risking It All about people facing great dangers in order to earn a living...

The Promised City ~ AlJaz on Palestine's Rawabi

AlJazeera Witness spotlights new Palestinian urban real estate development Rawabi in The Promised City...

Al-Nakba ~ Palestinian Catastrophe on AlJaz...

AlJazeera shares Al-Nakba docu on Palestinian catastrophe...

World's Richest City ~ AlJaz Spotlights Singapore

AlJazeera's 101 East spotlights the world's richest city, Singapore...

Bad Seeds ~ AlJaz on People & Power in Pampas

AlJaz spots People & Power politics in the Pampas revealing what filmmakers Glenn Ellis and Guido Bilbao call Bad Seeds...

"For much of the past decade Argentina has seen a commodities-driven export boom, built largely on genetically-modified soy bean crops and the aggressive use of pesticides. Argentina's leaders say it has turned the country's economy around, while others say the consequences are a dramatic surge in cancer rates, birth defects and land theft. People & Power investigates if Argentina's booming soy industry is a disaster in the making."

I'm not sure this is GMO fear-mongering and unscientific sensationalizing of the root-causes of real ailments or something more sinister and deeper. The bullying and fire-starting and land-grabbing I'm afraid is an age-old story in modern guise.

Sinai Future? ~ AlJaz Explores the Fault Lines...

Very interesting to hear and see AlJaz special Fault Lines report The battle for the Sinai...

"Half a million people live in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip. For decades, they have been governed by a strong security paradigm [...] Now they are back in the international spotlight because of an increase in militant attacks, arms smuggling and human trafficking. When Egyptians took to the streets against Hosni Mubarak’s police state [...] the insurgency here continued long after his ouster [...] Fault Lines explores the roots of Sinai’s ongoing uprising and, as Egypt’s new leaders vow to crack down on militancy and smuggling, the dangers of following an old script. How did the Sinai Peninsula become a crucible for geopolitical tensions?"

At root, it seems to be inequitable development with connected Cairo elites taking and locals languishing, but judge for yourself...

Orient Excess? ~ AJ on China's People & Power

AlJazeera's People & Power channel shares Orient Excess about China's contradictions...

Dawkins on Religion ~ AlJaz Asks If Good or Evil?

In an AlJazeera Special Programme, Mehdi Hasan interviews renowned atheist -- and author of The God Delusion -- Richard Dawkins on Religion asking...

"Is religion a force for good or evil? Can it co-exist with science? Is science the new religion? And why if god does not exist, is religion so persistent? [Especially given] fanaticism, fundamentalism, superstition and ignorance. Religion is getting a bad press these days. Much of the conflict in the world, from the Middle East to Nigeria and Myanmar, is often blamed on religion."

More Cape Town ~ Multi-Faceted SA Supercity...

Here's some additional perspectives on Cape Town, South Africa... See also post on Mapping Cape Town and AlJaz Witness story on Township Cinderellas, which I'll re-post here since it's so provocative...

Pirate Fishing ~ AlJaz's P&P Catches Criminals

AlJazeera's People & Power investigates illegal fishing by international criminals in Sierra Leone's exclusive zone...

How to Rob Africa ~ AlJaz's P&P Investigation...

AlJazeera's People & Power shares How to Rob Africa, an expose investigation asking...

"Why does the Western world feed Africa with one hand while taking from it with the other? [...] International money laundering regulations are supposed to stop the proceeds of corruption being moved around the world in this way, but it seems the developed world's financial system is far more tempted by the prospect of large cash injections than it should be. Indeed the West even provides the getaway vehicles for this theft, in the shape of anonymous off-shore companies and investment entities, whose disguised ownership makes it too easy for the corrupt and dishonest to squirrel away stolen funds in bank accounts overseas. This makes them nigh on impossible for investigators to trace, let alone recover. [...] The continent is rich is natural resources that are being exploited for big profits, but the money is rarely used for the benefit of the people. Instead it goes to line the pockets of corrupt officials who then often smuggle it out to be deposited in secret offshore bank accounts in the developed world. So who facilitates these transactions? And how and why does the developed world make it so easy to launder this dirty cash? In this revealing investigation for People & Power, [Zimbabwean journalist Stanley] Kwenda and the Ghanaian undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, set off to find out."

Desalination ~ AlJaz Spotlights Aussie Progress

Al Jazeera on Australian desalination...

Resource Conflict 2.0? ~ Corporate Grab for Africa

AlJaz OpEd piece by OpenOil founder Johnny West spots The corporate scramble for Africa, arguing that...

"If it continues to be business as usual in Africa, it could set the stage for Resource Conflict 2.0. [...] the struggle we are witnessing -- workers and local communities against corporate giants and in some cases their own governments -- is not just unfolding in South Africa. There is a new corporate scramble for Africa's natural resources. [...] Conflict exists at two levels. Across the continent governments are stirring, feeling that now is the time to increase their take. [...] But it's the community level where the conflict is more explosive. [...] Local communities are more assertive and more connected -- mobile phone penetration is expected to top 70 per cent across the continent by the end of the year, and even casual visitors cannot but be struck by their ubiquity. The companies have noticed this too. Surveys consistently show resource nationalism is their biggest concern, and their literature now makes much of obtaining a "social license to operate" and the need to get the message of all their community activities out there. But the typical big extractive company's view of corporate citizenship is about as evolved as a Victorian gentlewoman's programme of good works. For many, corporate social responsibility departments are window dressing and, deeper in the bowels of the company, closer to its real power centres, the view persists that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and the more they can fly under the radar the better. [...] Three things are needed: levelling up the playing field when African governments negotiate with Big Oil or Big Mining so that agreements are fairer; commitment by the companies to radical growth of the local skills base; and by governments to radical transparency, of a kind not seen before."

Read the whole thing, please.

ANC Hypocrisy? ~ Bloody Rulers of Modern SA...

Al Jaz reveals the hypocrisy of today's ANC rulers of South Africa...

West African Mining ~ Big Corporate Action...

Spotlight on international mining and resource extraction in West Africa, starting with this FT piece on Sierra Leone's new chapter... And a survey piece on SL's mining sector... Corporate promo video by London Mining in Marampa, Sierra Leone... Also one by Koidu Holdings, Sierra Leone. ArcelorMittal in Liberia Mines Again: From Dream to Reality... And more from AM in Liberia... Al Jazeera on Chinese reviving Bong Mine, Liberia...

Vision Quest ~ Al Jaz on India's Aravind Eyecare

Al Jazeera's 101 East spotlights Vision Quest, a documentary on India's Aravind Eye Care System...

"Founded in 1976, surgeons working for Aravind are among the most productive in the world, with fewer complications than British doctors. But what is truly astonishing about Aravind is that nearly half of the 300,000 procedures it conducts every year are free. Aravind treats everyone from presidents to paupers, regardless of what they can pay."

Gaza Lives On ~ Life and Hope Amidst Blockade

Al Jazeera World spotlights Gaza Lives On...

"Since 2007, most of the approximately 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have suffered gravely from an intensified land, air and sea blockade imposed by Israel [...] deemed illegal by the United Nations. [...] After more than two decades of tight sanctions and even though Israel eased the restrictions on non-military goods in 2010, the blockade continues to take a heavy toll on Gaza's civilian population, with many essential and basic goods banned from being exported or imported. This has led to rampant poverty and a massive unemployment rate in Gaza"

Beautiful Transplant ~ Most Extensive Facial Yet...

Breathtaking progress in the world of medical transplantation and reconstructive surgery! The DailyMail shows the case of...

"Richard Lee Norris, 37, who suffered horrendous injuries in a gun accident in 1997, is recovering well and already brushing his teeth and shaving after last week's surgery, according to doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center in United States. Pictured (left) is Mr Norris before his accident, (center) shortly after his accident and (right) as he now looks following his face transplant."

Kudos to lead Dr Eduardo Rodriguez and the whole surgical team! See also my earlier write-up on Connie Culp and Isabelle Dinoire plus also the Spaniard "Oscar". Also, here's AlJazeera coverage of the press conference and more backstory...

Township Cinderellas ~ AlJaz on SAfrica's Youth

Al Jazeera's Witness spotlights South Africa's challenges in Township Cinderellas, a documentary film by Paul and Sam Sapin...

"...about teenagers from the Cape Flats area of Cape Town in South Africa preparing for their high school graduation ball on the biggest night of their lives. Most of these students were born in 1994, the year Nelson Mandela became president, apartheid ended and South Africa became a democracy. This means that the high school graduating classes of 2011/2012 are the first generation of apartheid-free South Africans. These are 'Mandela’s Children', and they were promised a bright future. But 17 years on from the birth of democracy in South Africa, the outlook for many is far from bright. In the town of Manenberg where we made this film, only a quarter of the children who began school together at Manenberg High School made it to their last year of school and only about 50 per cent of those passed the exams required to graduate."

Qatar ~ 60 Minutes Spotlights Powerful Force

CBS's 60 Minutes spotlights Qatar, a tiny country asserting powerful influence and internal inconsistency...