>> this week global 3000 heads to grenada, in the caribbean, where we meet prison inmates working on a climate protection project. the democratic republic of congo has been plagued by a deadly struggle over natural resources. but some minds just -- mines are conflict free. and we visit the border between india and bangladesh, where an illegal cattle trade continues to flourish. visit our facebook page dw global society where we tell stories that are moving us today, from all around the world. follow us on dw global society.

cows have had been sacred in india for thousands of years. hindus are prohibited from slaughtering or eating them. yet india is the world's second biggest exporter of beef. in the northeast of the country, thousands of cattle are smuggled across the border to bangladesh every day. as pedestrians and cyclists cross from india into bangladesh, border guards check identity papers. but they don't check this vehicle. the driver gets new papers. he barely has to slow down. and that's how cows from india are brought, illegally, into the country to be slaughtered. in hinduism, the majority religion in india, cows are sacred. in the first village on the bangladeshi side, we find a collection point for cattle brought in from india. there are dozens of places like this along the border. traders tell us that smugglers benefittraders tell us that smugglers ask for the equivalent of about 150 euros for a cow

from india. nobody here is keen to talk to us on camera. >> i'm just the driver. >> we ask if they are his cows. >> i don't know where the cows come from. i am just a driver. >> large cattle markets like this one are held every day at different locations near the border. mohamad hasanujjaman wants to sell six cows here today. we ask whether they come from bangladesh. >> there are a few cattle breeders here as well. but i bought these cows at the border. they probably came from the other side. >> sales are recorded at this booth.

at the stroke of a pen, an indian cow becomes a bangladeshi one. illegal cattle trading is an important part of the economy here. so authorities turn a blind eye. at the market, mohamad harun inspects the livestock on offer. he buys cattle to sell to others. he views the animals as raw material for the leather industry. >> they're skinny, but the hides are quite good. the hides need to be firm. it shouldn't hang down like this. >> i -- it's estimated that one and a half million cattle from india are sold in bangladesh every year. kabir riton is a journalist who's researched cattle smuggling. he says it continues to flourish despite efforts by indian authorities to curb it. the cattle from india are crammed on to trucks and transported to the bangladeshi capital dhaka, four hundred kilometers away.

>> the value of a cow doubles by the time it reaches dhaka, to about three hundred euros. the exact price depends on how long the trip takes, and how much in bribes the driver has to pay to local authorities along the way and to the transport mafia. but a cow from india is still cheaper than a home-grown one. >> one of the many tanneries in dhaka. this is the end of the line for the holy cows. kamal hosein has been working here for almost two decades. he doesn't even wear gloves to handle the hides, which are treated with chromium in large wooden drums. the floor is covered in a thick brew of toxic chemicals. untreated, they flow into the drain. that's illegal. but anti-pollution laws are not enforced. for fifteen years, the government has been talking about closing down tanneries like this and opening a new industrial park.

our bosses kept dragging it out. >> they kept saying they needed more time. but a court has now ruled that the tanneries have to close straightaway, and that the new ones must be built now. if that really happens, it'll be a disaster for us. we'll all lose our jobs. >> it's hot, humid and it stinks. two hundred people work here. us investigative journalists recently published a report on child labor in the bangladeshi leather industry. that's why they're keen to show us everything is above board. workers say their shifts are 8 to ten hours long, and they're paid the equivalent of about 150 euros a month. we can't verify those claims. safety measures are minimal, however. there are no guards on the roller presses. and the stench of chemicals is overpowering. >> it is a real problem for us. the dirt and pollution damage your health.

>> the unfiltered, unprocessed chemicals spill out onto the street and eventually into a river. there are two hundred tanneries in the hazaribagh district. 75,000 people live here. they pay a high price for dwelling alongside bangladesh's booming and poorly regulated leather industry. health and environment take a back seat in hazaribagh. the liquid in the river is viscous and black, and it stinks. we follow a load of leather to see where it goes, and what is made out of it. we're allowed into this shoe factory. it's clean and modern, and supplies retailers in europe. by chance, we meet a representative from an italian fashion brand.

he tells us that european firms do pay attention to working conditions here. we ask if he just means the final stage of manufacture, in factories, or the entire production chain. >> i can't possibly comment on that. that's a matter for the government. i'm just a technician. it's the government's problem. >> the footwear in these boxes will be sent to italy. and customers there will probably never know that their shoes were made from the hides of holy cattle taken from india. ♪ >> and now in global snack we find out what people around the world love to eat. ♪

>> sete on the french mediterranean coast, no wonder this harbor town is known as 'little venice.' george brassens one of the best known chanson singers in france used to live here. his music is an important part of the town's heritage. just like the snack that sete is famous for. ♪ >> the guilietta cafe is one place you'll find the hearty pastry called tielle. it's sold as a small snack, or as a meal. cedric annarumo is the chef. >> tielle is originally from from italy immigrants brought it here. it was originally a meal for peasants. it was filling but cheap. the tielle from sete is tomato sauce and seafood wrapped in a

pastry. >> cedric won't reveal his exact recipe. but he hasn't changed the main ingredients for decades. a simple dough made from water, flour and salt. a tomato sauce with spices, and diced octopus or squid from the mediterranean. all covered with another layer of dough. >> the consistencey of the dough after baking is not the same everywhere. it has two different flavors. here in the middle it stays soft because of the sauce. but the edges are crispy. >> cedric opened his shop two years ago. his employees follow his grandmother's tielle recipe down

to the letter. >> i can't say exactly what's in the tielle. as far as i know it's tomatoes and squid. it's a small delicacy, and very typical of the region. and very tasty. >> the specialty of the house, a tielle made with eggplant and parmesan cheese. ♪ >> more than 4 billion people worldwide currently use mobile phones. china accounts for more than 50% of global projection -- global production.

450 billion mobile phones a year. in industrialized nations, people purchase a new mobile phone everyone a half -- every 1.5 to 2 years. they contain a treasure trove of precious metals. the biggest producers of this metal are china, rwanda and the democratic republic of the condo. united nations soldiers patrol the streets of goma every day. it's the biggest un peacekeeping mission ever launched. the blue helmets are here to protect the people against the violence that has raged in the democratic republic of the congo for years. the main reason for that violence lies in the hills outside the city, where there's an ongoing battle over precious

mineral deposits. can laws passed in europe or the us really help to drive out the militias? to try to answer that question, we take a trip to what's called a 'certified' mine. the journey takes us into the highlands. it's a region with no infrastructure, with unpaved roads that are little more than dirt tracks. this region has seen repeated rebel attacks. they're trying to seize untapped sources of one of the most sought-after minerals coltan, also known as tantalite. it's an essential material in smartphone production. after a few hours drive, we reach a ramshackle mining camp. two years ago these mines were certified conflict free. signs everywhere appear to reinforce the claims, no rebels, no child labor, no pregnant women.

but are these claims true? it took us weeks of negotiations to receive permission to film here at luwow, one of the biggest coltan mines in the region. between 2 and 5,000 laborers dig here every day. the coltan-rich sand begins where the red-earth deposits end. landslides are frequent here. even so, hardly anyone wears safety helmets or boots. but at least the digging is now only done above ground, and not in the deep and dangerous shafts. workers here say things used to be much worse. each of these sacks weighs 50 kilos. the mixture of rocks, sand and minerals is shoveled into

sluices, where it's washed and sieved. eventually all that's left is what looks like sand spotted with tiny black specks. coltan, black gold. the mine is owned by a congolese family. but they don't directly pay the workers, who are pooled together as members of a state run cooperative. for an annual fee, each miner is given a strip of land to mine. the output is then sold to the owner. some of the miners employ cheap casual labor to boost yield. this is the most poorly paid and precarious of jobs here. mathis ndoki is a day labourer. after he finished high school a year ago, he wanted to become a teacher but couldn't find a job. now like so many other young people he's working at the mine.

>> congo is very rich but people like me don't see any of it. i can't afford the annual mining fee. that's the problem. that's why nothing's changed for me and a lot of young people. we remain day laborers. >> mathis confirms that at least he's seen no armed groups at the mine lately. but he can remember the days when the rebels used to control the area. the militias killed his father. but since the mines now need certification to export legally, the responsible government departments have begun taking action against the rebels. so at least in this case, the us law did indeed make a difference. no weapons. that's the slogan for the town of rubaya, which also gives an ironic welcome to sun city. rubaya is reminiscent of wild west gold rush settlements. there's no electricity, and just a handful of wells to supply

water. but the people survive. at least no one goes in fear of their life, and no one seems to go hungry. that's no small feat in one of the poorest countries in the world. mathis lives in a tiny hut here together with his mother and 4 siblings. he makes around 1 euro 70 a day that's all the family has. as the eldest son he's responsible for the family. his mother's unhappy with his efforts though, and complains he's not doing enough. she had to take the smaller children out of school because she couldn't pay the fees. mathis has just worked for 9 hours solid at the mine. he often feels despair. >> it's really hard for me. it's almost impossible to pay the school fees and feed the family. i can't manage both.

i've hardly got anything. >> the laws passed in the us and eu may have fended off the improvement in living conditions thhere. that's one flaw in the legislation. another is the barcode system used to identify sacks. since the us passed its mineral mining laws, the democratic republic of the congo has been trying to make the supply chain transparent. each coltan sack is weighed, then stamped with a code. for buyers, this is a guarantee that the coltan comes fom a certified mine. the problem is that the plastic tags can be counterfeited. then sacks from illegal mines in rebel-held territory can be smuggled into legal exports of coltan. ben mwangachuchu is the mine's owner. he says you can't expect everything to start functioning

perfectly overnight in a country like the democratic republic of congo. but the laws are at least a step in the right direction. >> what dodd-frank the law really did to me, was to stop armed troops to be involved in the mining. they pushed them really on the side. we have heard many multinationals who have come to our mine, you know, and they visited they looked at the system. and they said, now we feel comfortable. does that mean in congo we don't have problems? you know. that that would be lying. >> it's sunday in rubaya. a day off, and a chance to go to church. the day is sacred for mathis too. it's the only one in the week where the miners can pray and rejoice without fear. doing something to resist violence and giving the democratic republic of the congo a chance,

certification appears to be at least one effective first step towards justice in the minerals trade. >> and now to our global ideas series, where we meet people committed to preserving our planet's climate, flora and fauna. islands that live off tourism often lack the resources to meet their own energy requirements. grenada in the caribbean wants to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels, and promote renewable energy. our reporter katja dohne took a closer look at biogas production there. >> richmond-hill prison in grenada. some 450 inmates are incarcerated here. a few are allowed outside; the biogas plant needs a new load of liquid manure. the prison has been producing its own biogas for several months. and the prisoners are responsible for keeping the gas flowing. like loxley, who's serving a

sentence for theft. he's been here for six months. >> my favourite part, as you see, is putting the manure in the bucket. you must mix it up in a way. it has to be soupy. that is like fun to me. >> more than 100 kilograms of pig and cow dung are mixed with water. the slurry has to flow easily through the loading pipe. the prison runs a farm that covers several hectars, so there's always enough manure. the inmates work with the animals as part of their rehabilitation program. >> the only problem i should say is when you are done with it, you smell like, i should say like a pig. you know, like a pig i should say you smelling as. >> is that a problem for you? >> no it is not a problem. when i am done i change my clothes and it's like, and all pig scent is gone.

>> the biogas is used mostly to power the slaughterhouse. for example, to heat water. chickens are plunged into it to loosen feathers before plucking. the excess dung left over at the end of the process is gathered and used as organic fertilizer. it's enough that the prison no longer has to buy chemical fertilizer, which is expensive on the island nation. around 110,000 people live on grenada. and 5 times that many tourists visit every year. the island feels like a caribbean paradise. but here you'll also find brown streams full of manure that's run off from farms. and they feed directly into the sea. >> because grenada is a small island, the pollutants quickly end up in the sea. that's why it's important to revise the process right at the beginning of the chain, working with the farmers themselves, so we can avoid this ecological

problem. >> the german development organization giz supports a pilot project to build ten biogas facilities. here grenada's small size is an advantage. today they received a call for help from someone who's not so easy to reach. farmer sherwin sandy lives with his wife norgah and 3 children in the middle of the rain forest. >> you wanna try this? >> sure. >> sherwin trained as a cook. >> tastes good. >> when i met my wife, she told me that her mother has a piece of land. and when i came here i fell in love with the place. so i said, would you want to live here for the rest of your life. she said yes, no problem. so every day after that we work to live here. you don't wanna eat this? >> sherwin sells his homemade baked goods at a local super market. to meet his power needs, he used

to have to transport gas in tanks to his house. so he decided to invest in a biogas unit. but it's more complicated than he thought. he mostly uses plant waste as a feedstock material. at first it was just too hard to collect the 5 cubic meters of material he needed. he had to get manure from other farms. >> well, it would have taken like two weeks and a half to get all inside. in some cases i would have had to use my bicycle to get from one point to the next. and i had to use a neigbour's car to get the bigger bulk of it to come up. >> his personal biogas plant is producing now, and he'd like to fire up his large oven. but the small flames don't provide enough heat. that's why project leader dieter rothenberger has brought a technician along to have a look. >> good morning. good morning. >> so you have started drilling some of the holes?

>> right, we actually have some of the holes there, yes. >> right now, the biogas only comes through a few small holes that the farmer has bored himself. he had to borrow the drill from a neighbor. for small farmers like sherwin, putting in a biogas plant doesn't come cheap. the plants, which are produced in germany, cost around four thousand euros. but that includes installation and troubleshooting. >> we work with local financing institutions, with banks and associations that can offer credit to the farmers so they can afford to buy a plant, pay back the loan, and accrue some capital. >> sherwin was lucky. because he's taking part in the pilot project, he got the plant for half-price. another new plant is being installed on the campus of a nearby college. the inmates from the richmond-hill prison are providing the labor. it's also training for the day they're released.

by then they'll have acquired skills as biogas experts. loxley gets a special assignment. he's responsible for checking the interior of the plant, before the first batch of pig dung is loaded. >> this is making sure that it's in place. when i come working, i feel like as if i am in the free world. so i could learn something. so when i leave, and i am back in the free world, i could learn something from that. >> when he is paroled in september, loxley wants to work installing biogas plants. and the more plants that are built in grenada in the future, the better his chances of a new beginning. >> that's all for today. but do get in touch. check out our facebook page dw global society or email us at global3000@dw.com. see you next week.

óóóooo?vívvvv"hh@l%$?? steves: venice's sleek and graceful gondolas are a symbol of the city. from the start, boats were the way to get around among the island communities of the lagoon. to navigate over shifting sandbars, the boats were flat-bottomed, and the captains stood up to see. today's boats still come with gondoliers standing up and no rudder or keel. they're built with a slight curve so that a single oar on the side propels them in a straight line. the art of the gondola survives in the quiet back canals.

in this shop, the workmen, who needed to be good with wood, were traditionally from italy's mountains. that's why they maintain a refreshing alpine feel in this delightful little corner of venice. nearby, in an artisan's workshop, visitors are welcome to observe as he provides for the city's 400 gondoliers. working with traditional tools, graceful oars are carefully planed to be true and properly balanced. and each walnut forcola, the stylized oarlock, is like a sculpture -- handcrafted, one-of-a-kind, and honoring the city's heritage. a gondola ride is a traditional must for romantics. gondolas are moored everywhere. wait till early evening, when the crowds are gone and the light is right.

find a gondolier whose personality you enjoy, settle on a price, and hop in. man: [ speaking italian ] steves: on a gondola, you glide through your own private venice, far from the hubbub of modern tourism. lonely bridges, canals without sidewalks, and reflections of once-upon-a-time grandeur.

- this program is made possible in part by, the town of marion. historic marion, virginia, home of the wayne henderson school of appalachian arts. celebrating 21 years as a certified virginia main street community. the ellis family foundation, the general francis marion hotel. the historic general francis marion hotel and black rooster restaurant and lounge providing luxurious accommodations and casual fine dining. the bank of marion. the bank of marion, your vision, your community, your bank. wbrf, 98.1 fm. bryant label, a proud supporter of our region's musical heritage. (bluegrass music)