host: hello and welcome to "global 3000." so here we are again in this pre-holiday season that for some reason always turns out to be hectic and stressful. in this edition of our program, we'll take the opportunity to slow things down a bit and introduce you to people who turn to the calming powers of nature. we'll also hear from someone whose reflections about political crises are really good food for thought. so here are the stories we have coming up for you. on a quest for the meaning of life, a trip to the arctic ice of greenland. what our millennium teen enjoys about his life on the islands of the seychelles.

and why people on the indodschi lake in myanmar pin their hopes on tourism. while the search for safety and security is prompting thousands to flee to europe, an increasing number of people in rich, european and other western countries are in search of something else entirely -- the search for the meaning of life. there's money to be made with that, up to 25 billion euros in germany alone. >> the quest to find peace, quiet, and the meaning of life leads people to distant places, including to the very northern tip of our globe: to greenland. where inner peace is supposed to be discovered by watching ice sheets and listening to ancient chants. [man vocalizing] reporter: angaangaq comes from a family of traditional healers in

greenland. no one here is left unmoved by his prayer song. "the big ice-changing" is the title of this tour run by his organization ice wisdom. participants have come from central europe and north america for a week-long spiritual journey at the edge of the western greenland ice sheet. the cost of camping in the wild without electricity or running water is about 3,000 euros. the quest for spiritual awakening is no longer an esoteric niche market. it's a global phenomenon. clients have different motives, but everyone here is looking to slow down. >> i hope to find something within myself that i can't find in the stress of daily life. >> a friend recommended this trip as a way to help me find stillness, see something

different and live in a way that's different to my normal life. >> it's a search for spiritual realization, an enrichment of my previous experiences, expanded consciousness. >> i studied anthropology when i was in college and so i like to learn a lot about cultures, as well. reporter: the program includes several hour-long walks amid the breathtaking scenery. they stay in a group, but our silence, and don't eat, each to his own. the goal is to calm the mental chatter in our heads. >> most people have lost the connection with mother nature. one day you and i we should learn to walk, with only what we think and what we feel. but because we're humans, what we think is very powerful. reporter: the "big ice," as greenlanders call it, is another focus.

the impact of global warming on the ice sheet is alarming. angaangaq has long been fighting to raise awareness about the dramatic melting, representing arctic peoples on united nations panels, but to no avail. >> mankind is like a teenager. they don't care about what's going to happen tomorrow. they care about what we have now. it makes me sad that people don't know how to listen. they don't know how to hear. but they listen here, but if they begin to listen here, they will change. but now it's too late. this big ice will melt - in your lifetime. catastrophe is on its way.

catastrophe, you and i, we cannot even imagine. reporter: for many participants, first-hand experience of the melting ice is a moving, even life-changing experience. >> i felt almost a weeping from it. you know, the crashing, when the ice breaks and caves and you that h and 's a roar, it's like tnder but deeper and louder and more charismatic. i felt her. >> we all need to become aware of how we are treating the earth. what we are tang from it and that we're taking far more than we need. the more conscious you become of that, the more care and respect for the earth you will have. >> you get a shock and feel you share responsibility for what's happening. reporter: critics of such even say they're nothing more than commercial adventure trips sold in esoteric packaging -- rackets cloaked by promises of spiritual awakening.

angaangaq and the participants say that's not true. >> i'm not there to pump money out of people. i'm there to give them. but of course it costs money to come here. it costs money to establish a camp. so it had to be paid. >> is it part of a money-making spiritual machine? i think, i trust my intuition more than that. and i know the difference. reporter: the hours-long hike under the midnight sun to the top of a mountain is challenging for all of the participants. but no one complains. it's what they came for. and tonight, the reward is a special natural event. >> i don't know if you can feel the energy.

this is the midnight sun. and this is the full moon. completely opposite of one another. reporter: the shaman's song that follows will resonate with visitors long after they've returned home. [man vocalizing] [song changes] host: listen to traditional chants, revel in nature, and have this calm you down -- there's got to be something to it. now, teenagers tend to be less in search of peace and quiet, and more in that of dancing, and parties. in our series millennium teens, teenagers from around the world tell us what they enjoy doing, and music and dancing is right on top of their list. but fifteen-year-old angel is growing up in the seychelles, an island state less renowned for

its clubs and parties than for its unspoilt beaches. so let's hear from angel what he likes to do in his spare time. >> i have 15. >> i am millennial. ♪ angel: my name is angel estico. i'm 16 years old. and i live in seychelles, beauvallon, which is a small town in the north. i always have a ball with me. i always play football when i come to the beach. sometimes we just meet up with some random people like today and play football. i like ronaldo, i like messi, i like neymar. all the great players. i look up to them.

my family makes me happy. i have a younger sister who is 12 years old. and i have an older sister who is 24. my older sister is miss seychelles 2014. so i'm lucky i guess. ♪ >> ♪ go, go, go angel: any type of music, as long as it's no metal rock or something crazy. like rap, hiphop, modern music. the moment has to be right. ♪

angel i think war is the main : conflict right now. people from syria, syrian refugees moving out and going elsewhere because there is issues there. i think war is the biggest problem right now. and also corruption. ♪ host: let me introduce you to this young lady, katarschinna pisarska. because she is very smart and very promising, the world economic forum has selected her as one of its "young global leaders." katarschinna prepares young people in poland for work in international organizations, and she shares with us her thoughts about the crisis in ukraine.

>> i think that vladimir putin and russia has done a huge favor to ukraine by this conflict. i know its very controversial , but i'm saying this because it has built a certain national unity that was not possible for out the 20 years of ukrainian independent existence. and the ukrainians for the first time understand that they are fighting for their identity, for their survival. and they have just one chance. they can make it right or they will disappear. ♪ katarschinna: my name is katarzyna pisarska. i'm the director of the european academy of diplomacy in warsaw. it's a leadership and diplomacy academy. a lot of our activities is focused around such themes like rule of law, fighting corruption, human rights. so how to improve our societies.

katarschinna: so we were signing an association agreement with ukraine. we can not see this as any type of threat for the russian federation, because this is a global world. ♪ katarschinna: i think what is happening in ukraine and the conflict that ukraine has in russia is a consequence of a certain self doubt of europe, of a certain weakness of europe. ♪ katarschinna: but we do have

to remember. it's the most peaceful, prosperous region in the world. i think we need to understand what we have and value it. and also project that outside. ♪ for me it was a huge surprise. not only that we have put these sanctions together but that we have been able to uphold them. ♪ katarschinna: which shows that we are able to constrain our short term interest, so the export of our apples, cheeses, food, or big gas deals for now, for something that we believe is bigger, more important, as a common interest. but which is critical for the survival of the eu as a project.

my advice to ukraine is, that it has to declare dombas an occupied territory, and close it down. ♪ katarschinna: and give the full responsibility under the geneva convention to the russian federation for the wellbeing of people there. and say we can not do anything. it's a huge power, fighting with us. so ukraine saying the minsk agreement has failed and we need to recognize this as for what it is an occupied territory on our sovereign state. and continue the reforms that are going to be painful, that are going to take time. but at the end of the day will allow ukraine to survive as a state.

host: giving up part of a country in order to preserve the country as such, that's actually an interesting thoughts. a city with over 20 million inhabitants, like mexico city how do people live there? impossible to say for all those 20 million at once. which is why we have picked just one person and asked him to show us his home and life in mexico city. ♪

>> hello and welcome to my home. my house is your house. please come in. so this is my house, my studio, my dining room. this is where i eat, sleep, and work. i live in a studio, not a normal apartment. this is where i sleep. the sofa folds out into a bed, and it's pretty comfortable, too. the rest of the space is my studio, for work. ♪ this is oil paint on thin brass leaf. it's applied in many layers. i think its a good piece of work. ♪

this is a spinning wheel. a friend from pakistan gave it to me. he didn't have room for it in his apartment. i like it, and enjoy being surrounded by beautiful things. ♪ >> i carved this small dragon out of a bone. i used to have dogs and they were always bringing me bones like this. ♪

thanks for visiting. i have to go make dinner for a friend so i'll say goodbye now. safe travels. bye-bye. host: south east asia is a popular destination for tourists but there's one country, , myanmar, which has only slowly been opening itself up to tourism, following the end of its military regime. yet myanmar boasts a special attraction: one of south east asia's largest inland lakes, lake indodschi. a tour of the lake in a canoe may let you catch a glimpse of rare birds and wetland species. reporter: change in his country has been slow in coming.

but a new era is on the horizon. most of the men at lake indawgyi earn their livelihoods from fishing. that has always been the case. zwe zaw zaw win is ambitous. the 20-year-old has a bachelors degree in economics. >> i want to be a tour guide, it's a great job. tourism could be an economic motor for this region, we make a better living. i can offer them a great experience here and can make money. it's a win-win situation. reporter: currently northern myanmar is still not a big tourist draw. it takes an entire day to get here from the capital, and it's

a five-hour drive to the nearest airport. zwe and ten other young locals aim to put their home on the tourism map. they've been learning english for six months. >> how are you today? >> yes, i am fine. reporter: how do you conduct small talk with foreigners? or sell them a hiking or kayak tour? skills that must be learned. just five years ago, it was illegal to do business with foreigners. >> at the start i was afraid i couldn't express myself properly. but the questions are always the same. what's your name? where do you come from? what's the lake's history? it's more important tourists understand me when i talk to them. reporter: the lake is a bird watcher's paradise, a major selling point. international environmentalists are helping its development as an ecotourism destination.

the young guides are learning to find the best spots. zwe wants to show an australian visitor his favorite bird species. >> the sarus crane is an endangered species. it lives on the lake, but is very rare in other regions. ♪ reporter: the lake is home to ten bird species threatened with extinction. and it's the winter residence 20,000 migratory birds. for frank momberg, mynmar's fledgling tourism industry is an opportunity. environmental protection under the jurisdiction of the army was much less effective. >> if the local population profits from eco-tourism, then it will also stand up for the preservation of the evironment. so naturally it's better if they can make money from watching

birds, rather than catching them for their daily food intake. reporter: this cow carcass has been placed out to lure the rare, shy white rumped vulture. environmentalists want to determine the size of the bird's population in the area. hours of waiting, but no luck. ♪ the vultures are endangered around the world, because often the carcasses they feed on are contaminated by veterinary drugs. >> birds are killed by eating cattle. but in the indawgyi region that doesn't happen, because our agriculture is less developed and doesn't implement the wide

use of veterinary drugs. reporter: offerings and gifts for the monks. the people here are generous, even though many are very poor. they hope tourism can lift them out of poverty. electricity lines were installed just a month ago. and the old military guest house can now be rented out to civilians. but it's not all peaceful here. the northern banks of the lake mark the beginning of territory controlled by the kachin independence army, an ethnic militia that operates at least a hundred illegal gold mines around the lake. environmentalists say that is a disaster for the region. miners use mercury to extract gold, and let it run out with the sand into the lake.

>> mercury definitely accumulates in the fish. the fishermen eat the fish themselves, and sell it in surrounding towns. so naturally the fish poses a health hazard in the mid-to long-term. if it's not stopped in the next five to ten years, the problem will get worse. reporter: zwe zaw zaw win couldn't persuade his australian visitor to take a kayak tour. he makes up to seven dollars a day -- about double the income of a farmer. the shwe myitzu pagoda is the buddhist attraction in the middle of the lake. he comes here every week. his buddha is the tuesday buddha, because he was born on a tuesday. >> i am grateful that we are seeing visitor numbers increase here. recently we even had some from

korea. and they're staying longer, too, for three, four days. so i have more time to show them around our lake. reporter: unlike other attractions in myanmar, this pagoda isn't thronged by visitors. zwe knows tourism offers an opportunity, but that it can also destroy places of beauty. host: and on this note of peace, beauty and serenity, let's wrap up this edition of global 3000. we'll be back next week and do hope you'll join us again. until then, from me and the entire global team thanks for , watching, bye-bye, and tschuss. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

steves: from the destruction of world war ii, europe has steadily rebuilt itself into a forward-looking and united continent. with the creation of the european union, economic integration has made another devastating war unthinkable.

there has been a massive investment in cutting-edge infrastructure projects. efficient high-speed rail systems tie europe together. superhighways and stunning bridges further enhance the continent-wide transportation system. within cities, sleek subways move millions underground. on the streets above, public transit reduces traffic congestion. and nearly every city is creating traffic-free pedestrian zones, making urban life even more people-friendly. as the world grapples with climate change, europe is taking a leading role in developing alternative energy sources.

and while still preserving the historic character of its cities, europe has found a way to integrate innovative architecture into the landscape, giving the old world a modern face. and the human face of contemporary europe is more diverse and vibrant than ever. even as this continent of 500 million people unites, it's finding ways to allow its rich mix of cultures to celebrate their unique identities. from norway to greece and from portugal to bulgaria, people are proud to preserve their distinct languages, foods, and traditions.

announcer: this program is made possible in part by... historic marion, virginia, home of song of the mountains, a main street community in the heart of the virginia highlands. the ellis family foundation-- encouraging economic revitalization through the restoration of historic buildings in downtown marion, virginia, including the general francis marion hotel. teds-- dedicated to providing strategic talent management solutions. the bank of marion-- your community, your vision, your bank. morehead state university's kentucky center for traditional music is a proud supporter of song of the mountains. emory and henry college-- transforming lives since 1836. bryant label, a proud supporter of our region's musical heritage. and wbrf 98.1 fm.