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tv   Global 3000  PBS  July 5, 2016 7:30pm-8:01pm PDT

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>> this week global 3000 heads to the nile delta, home to some delightful and nocturnal fragrances. we go to china, where tragically child abductions have become part of every day life. but first, we visit honduras in central america. why does this small country have one of the highest murder rates in the world? for many years, sen free for all america has been overrun by the brutally violent maras, street gangs involved in drug dealing, prostitution, and protection rackets. honduras is just one country very much under the maras' control. but how did this come about? in the 1990's the u.s. government waged war on gangs in cities such as los angeles.
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as a result, more than 20,000 gangsters were deported to el salvador and honduras. of all the street gangs in honduras, two are particularly brutal -- mara salvatrucha also known as ms 13 -- and 18th street, which originated in los angeles. the honduran government has responded with an iron fist, locking up thousands of gang members. but that's had no effect on the influence of the mar as, and membership numbers have continued to rise. in honduras, every day life is permeated by violence. >> this is tegucigalpa, one of the most dangerous cities in the world. 38-year-old jaime jael soriano has just been called to the local police station to confirm the identity of his brother.
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soriano's 33-year-old brother was shot on the street just a few hours ago. >> people are killed here and the police never investigate. that's what happens to the poor here. >> murders are a daily occurrence here. >> soriano now has to pass the sad news on to his father. honduras is considered one of the most violent of all nations that is not at war. rigoberto leiva valle sees the results of that every day. he works as an embalmer at a morgue, preparing bodies for
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funerals. >> most of the bodies i see here have gun wounds. some are mutilated. they've had limbs cut off. sometimes they're decapitated or otherwise maimed. >> valle says he receives around 12 new corpses every day, more than ever before. >> there was a time, years ago, that you could go out at night and enjoy yourself. you could walk around on the streets without any problems. now you get scared just crossing two or three streets on your own. >> the body in the coffin is jaime jael soriano's brother. soriano wants to know how many times his brother was shot. valle explains the bullet holes show he was hit two or three times in the chest. many of the murders in honduras are either directly or indirectly related to maras,
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gangs such as ms-13, and the 18th street gang. organized crime has dramatically increased here over the past two decades. to understand the nature of the gangs, german andino has spent the past four years visiting gang members in prison and on their home turf. this man's street name is taylor. andino draws portraits of gang members like taylor and has recently published a graphic novel about life in poor neighborhoods. he asks when the gangs came to the area. taylor replies, four years ago. andino says poverty and lack of prospects are key motivations for joining gangs. >> they pretty much don't have anything. all they have is the mara, so --. >> by joining the maras, young men are gradually transformed into dangerous criminals, extorting money from people, and yep gauging in territorial
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drug wars with rival gangs. >> did your gang kill the thieves in this neighborhood? >> sometimes i feel really close to these guys. and others, when i see what they are capable of, i feel like these guys are animals. you know? i don't know. >> we join police officers on patrol in a neighborhood controlled by maras. one of them, jose sandoval, points out 18th street gang graffiti. the presence of the gang intimidates many of the residents. >> young people disappear. they're kidnapped and beaten. >> in an attempt to restore order, in in 2014 the government of honduras passed its iron fist legislation. thousands of suspected gang
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members were arrested. it led to repeated confrontations between police and gangs. >> all these holes are from gunshots. they are from a shootout between the federal police and members of the 18th street gang. seven members of the gang died and three police officers were wounded. it was a success because we managed to incapacitate a part of this antisocial group. >> was it a success to kill them instead of arresting them? >> no, but it was a shootout, and they refused to surrender. >> that hard-line approach has caused the murder rate in honduras to decline to some extent, but it's also led to harsh criticism with regard to abuse of power by the authorities.
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that's in addition to long-standing suspicions of corruption among the security forces, judges, and politicians. >> so this is the protest. >> german andino, who has come close to the gangs, has also taken part in several demonstrations. >> i mean, they are protesting against corruption and the violence in the country. >> a united people will not be defeated, they chant. >> if you can kill someone and get away with it, then that's just what's wrong with the government. that's why we are in this situation. >> and the demonstrators call for people to fight for their rights in latin america.
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on the outskirts of tegucigalpa, jaime jael soriano helps carry the coffin as their family take their leave of his brother. it's been just six hours since the man in the coffin was shot and killed. what remains is a shattered family and a community burdened by even more grief and fear. >> and now there's the potential threat of the honduran gangs developing into worldwide drug and human-trafficking syndicates. human trafficking is a growing market, according to unicef, 3,000 children worldwide are sold every day. that's one-third of all uncovered cases.
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at least 20,000 children disappear in china every year. the majority of them are taken to rural areas. here, human trafficking is often seen as a tradition, rather than a crime. and few ask any questions when new children arrive in a village. >> when wu xinghu drives through the streets of pucheng, he turns up the melancholy music. ♪ he's looking for children who have been abducted and sold. about seven years ago his own son was abducted and he's been searching for him ever since. always keep an eye on your kids, he says, as he hands out calendars and fans printed with photos of missing children. maybe somebody will recognize one of them and call him. he has information on more than 3,000 children in his files.
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one of them is his own son. >> his name is wu jiacheng, born november of 2007, abducted on december 10, 2008, at 2:00 a.m. >> he's been looking for his son for nearly eight years. it's so sad. >> yes, it's hard to bear. >> 20,000 children are abducted and sold in china every year. boys are sold mainly to farmers who have no children of their own. girls are sold as future wives -- there's a shortage of women in china after years of its one-child policy. the village where wu xinghu lives, zhaoyuan, is small. a mere 60 families live here. he and his wife have two other children who were born after their first son disappeared.
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the other villagers show their support for the wu family. still, not a day goes by when the parents don't think about their first-born child. >> my feelings of sadness are unchanged. he was our first child, and that emotional bond cannot be replaced by anything, even if we now have two more children. his birth really enriched my life. >> he's now put bars on his windows for security and all the other villagers have followed his example. >> on that night i slept here and my wife slept there. i held our baby in my arms as i did every night. we didn't have bars on the windows at the time. >> the kidnappers climbed in and drugged the parents.
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>> i woke up at about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and our baby was gone. i ran outside right away. the light was on, but i couldn't see anything. i was so frightened that i cried. the police started an investigation, but they soon discontinued the search. authorities only rarely succeed in breaking up child-trafficking rings. when they do, they're often able to free hundreds of children at a time. >> wu xinghu decided to take action. he rode his rickshaw 3,000 kilometers across the country in search of his son and became well known as a result. >> i've devoted my life to searching for lost children. i no longer have a regular income. that's why i took the rickshaw. in china, any gathering of just seven people is regarded as disruptive to the social order. that's why i rode alone. >> on his journey he met many
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other parents who share the same fate. they've started an online network. one of them contributed a car. the group has been able to find a handful of children by raising awareness in cities and towns. the parents feel the penalties to child trafficers and people who buy children are far too lax. those who have been looking for their missing children the longest feel especially abandoned by the state. they get no help from the government. on the contrary, parents who look for their children are seen as trouble makers. >> it's been 28 years since my son disappeared. i've been searching for him the whole time. i'm now 58 years old and i hope to see him at least once more. that would be enough for me. in ever finding my child. aith i hope that through our efforts there will be fewer kidnapping
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cases, fewer tragedies. perhaps our campaign will cause parents to hold on tighter to their children. >> hundreds of people stand at the street corner and the police allow them to -- a small victory for the parents of abducted children in china. >> it's just one of the places of remembrance, a place to think and perhaps come to terms with the past. today the church in nyamata as memorial site, housing the remains of thousands of victims of the 1994 rwandan genocide, the mass slaughter that was the climax of the civil war between the country's hutus and tutsis. in just a few months, more than a million people lost their lives. since then, much has changed in the small african country. today it is seen as politically stable. its population is young and there's great optimism about
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the future. coffee from the highlands of wanda, harvested by smallholders, small scale farmers. >> it's a hundred percent arabica. it's fresh actually. this is a small grain in terms of the screen size. it is very small but it's really good quality. >> three tons of coffee are roasted here every day. the machine is brand new and comes from italy. 27-year-old ephraim rwamwenge believes in this new company and advises the rwanda farmers coffee company, a coffee growers' cooperative already exporting to britain and south korea. the amounts they produce are still manageable. the business is just developing. the aim is to ensure a livelihood for as many small-scale farmers as possible. gorilla's coffee is an
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exemplary fair trade brand. >> the company we work with, our company, we also believe in beyond fair trade. we are certified. we try as much to give back to the farmers and not just give back for the sake of giving back but to empower them so they can increase capacity and they can earn more. even the profit that we earn, we share it across the whole supply chain equally. >> rwanda's population is extremely young. more than half are under the age of 25. 12 million people live in the small east african country. many young row wandans leave capikigal areas to move to the they fou companies or drive torcycle taxies, for instance. a guided tour through kigali -- tourists want to learn about its history. they hear how hundreds of people hid in the hotel des
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mille collines during the genocide. what happened in this period of rwandan history is inconceivable to many people today. within a hundred days more than a million people were slaughtered. >> the genocide is something that affected us quite deeply. some of the buildings are still there where some of these horrible things happened, so we always are connected to that and it can only basically help us see the future. >> they believin the future and in cooperating with one another. it's called umuganda in rwanda where people come together once a month to work toward a common goal. in kigali, dozens of young people are also part of the global shapers community, which is advised by the world economic forum in geneva. they contribute to society as entrepreneurs, students, bankers, and doctors. ephraim rwamwenge is one of them. he grew up in exile because his
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family had to flee. >> i'm young. i'm rwandan. i was one-year-old when the genocide happened. so i'm part of what we call the new rwanda, the people who only know of the past through either knowing somebody, having a relative that you lost, or hearing about it when you're told about it through stories and through exhibitions. >> the doors in his company are open to everyone. he says differences have to be overcome and lays importance on developing the economy. young people need jobs and prospects for the future. ephraim rwamwenge sees himself as a social entrepreneur. >> i truly believe that entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship on the continent, is not a fancy thing that you do like it is in developed countries. it's actually a necessity, because there are so many needs we have in the market.
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the only solution, the only way to do business is to actually come up with a solution for people. >> there's plenty to do. rwanda is one of the world's most densely populated countries. many people live in rural areas, which often lack running water or electricity. but young rwandans in particular believe in the future. >> for thousands of years people have been seduced by scents found in nature -- resin from trees, musk from animals, the fragrances of wood, plants, and petals. perfume production often makes use of the most diverse aromas. the heart note of a fragrance is frequently dominated by intense flowery scents. jasmine is regarded as the king of essential oils. and much of it comes from the nile delta in egypt.
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>> when the sun sets over the nile delta, millions upon millions of blossoms open up and give off their heady, intensely sweet aroma -- jasmine, the king of perfumes. because nocturnal moths, instead of bees, pollinate the flowers, harvesting takes place at night from 2:00 a.m. till just after dawn. it's back breaking work. >> we pick the flowers every year, always for six months, seven days a week, all season long. >> the sweet fragrance suffuses the nile delta. around 10:00 or so jasmine plantations provide jobs to thousands of pickers, men and
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women, at harvest time. the more skillful and concentrated they are, the more petals they can put on the scales in the morning. five kilos per night shift are nothing unusual. after the harvest, everything has to go fast on the fakhry farms near the city of tanta. if the flowers aren't process edmeadly, their precious aroma dissipates. at 9:30 in the morning the pickers' strenuous work is done. the women return home in small groups, walking through one of the most fertile stretches of land in the middle east. everywhere in the region there are small collection points where intermediaries buy up the jasmine and then deliver it to the scent factories. for half the year, everything revolves around the flower harvest. counting all the pickers and
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their families, the jasmine harvest here in the nile delta provides a living for about 50,000 people. hala, her daughter and her husband each earn about 300 euros a month, more than a teacher. although they have to look for other work outside harvest time, for six months their jobs are secure. in egypt's current economic difficulties, that's a blessing. >> i used to love the scent of jasmine in the fields. but now that i know how exhausting the job is, i can't stand the smell anymore. >> hussein fakhry and his wife cherifa now produce 80 different plant essences from a for acacia to y for yarrow. their prod ubblingts are organic and they sell the top quality aromatics to the most demanding perfume labels. good instincts are essential to this business.
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they take care of their workers. in a small school the pickers' children receive free tuition because cherifa says the quality in state schools is abysmal. >> no other plant is as del kate as jasmine. after the tiny blossoms are weighed they have to be process edmeadly. the oils are washed out with an organic solvent in huge steel barrels. the solution is filtered and distilled to produce a waxy mass called concrete. the more fragrant compounds are
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extracted from that into ethanol, which evaporates, leaving the final product, known as absolute. >> this material is what i'm going to be taking in here. and i will proceed by evaporating the ethanol, which i will collect over here for further use, and at the bottom i'm going to be collecting the absolute. this would be about five kilos of absolute, which corresponds to about 3.3 to 3.5 tons of jasmine blossoms. >> the market value of those five kilos of absolute is about 22,000 euros. hussein's father started the jasmine farming business, but the tradition of perfume making on the nile is much older. >> it's quite exceptional. i mean, we connect to the very roots of egypt, both from the land point of view -- this is agriculture and we're planting -- and from the type of
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products that we produce, aromatics. we basically relate to cosmetics and oils and everything dealing with beauty. people can easily imagine how this goes back to ancient egypt and pharaohs and so on. we basically still carry this in what we do. >> soon, the next night shift will begin. the workers will collect grams, kilos, and tons of blossoms and filter out the heart of the jasmine -- a lot of sweat for a whif of expensive perfume. >> and that's all from us for today. you can watch us online anytime and of course we're back next week with a new edition, packed with exciting topics. in the meantime, do get in touch. we love hearing from you.
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steves: while dedicating a month of your life to walk the camino may be admirable, it doesn't work for everyone. but any traveler can use this route as a sightseeing spine and as an opportunity to appreciate some of the joys and lessons
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that come with being a pilgrim. just 5 miles before the spanish border stands the french basque town of st. jean-pied-de-port. traditionally, santiago-bound pilgrims would gather here to cross the pyrenees and continue their march through spain. visitors to this popular town are a mix of tourists and pilgrims. at the camino office, pilgrims check in before their long journey to santiago. they pick up a kind of pilgrim's passport. they'll get it stamped at each stop to prove they walked the whole way and earned their compostela certificate. walking the entire 500-mile-long route takes about five weeks. that's about 15 miles a day, with an occasional day of rest. the route is well-marked with yellow arrows and scallop shells. the scallop shell is the symbol of both st. james and the camino. common on the galician coast, the shells were worn by medieval pilgrims as a badge of honor to prove they made it.
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the traditional gear has barely changed -- a gourd for drinking water, just the right walking stick, and a scallop shell dangling from each backpack. the slow pace and need for frequent rest breaks provide plenty of opportunity for reflection, religious and otherwise. for some, leaving behind a stone symbolizes unloading a personal burden. the first person to make this journey was st. james himself. after the death and resurrection of christ, the apostles traveled far and wide to spread the christian message. supposedly, st. james went on a missionary trip from the holy land all the way to this remote corner of northwest spain. according to legend, in the year 813, st. james' remains were discovered in the town that would soon bear his name. people began walking there to pay homage to his relics. after a 12th-century pope decreed that the pilgrimage
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could earn forgiveness for your sins, the popularity of the camino de santiago soared. the camino also served a political purpose. it's no coincidence that the discovery of st. james' remains happened when muslim moors controlled most of spain. the whole phenomenon of the camino helped fuel the european passion to retake spain and push the moors back into africa. but by about 1500, with the dawn of the renaissance and the reformation, interest in the camino died almost completely. then, in the 1960s, a handful of priests re-established the tradition. the route has since enjoyed a huge resurgence, with 100,000 pilgrims trekking the santiago each year.
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♪ take me in, o tender woman >> memphis, tennessee... it has been written if music were religion, then memphis would be jerusalem and sun studio its most sacred shrine. you are here. with david ford. ♪ time will come >> i'm david ford. very happy to be back at sun studio again and tonight i will be singing songs with jared dickenson and emily growth. this is my third time doing the session here at sun studio. you would think i knew what i was doing by now. it's a great room to be in, whether you're singing son

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