>> welcome to global 3000! this week, we go to lebanon and find out how beirut's art sce is coping after the devastating port blast. in germany, a u.s. military airfield has left a toxic legacy. what are locals doing about it? but first, we learn how the coronavirus pandemic is forcing urbanites to say farewell to their beloved cities. freedom, self-determination and the opportunity to get ahead for centuries, cities have promised all of that.

even today, many people are drawn to urban areas for exactly those reasons. over half the global population now lives in cities. that's more than four billion people. and few places have offered greater hopes of success and happiness than new york city. now, though, the pandemic is laying the dreams of many who live there, to waste. >> in a few days time, celine kaplan will have left new york. she came from paris seemingly a lifetime ago. saying goodbye to the city is hard. celine: very, very. i'll be back, just now i have to go. but yeah, very difficult. i'm moving 30 years, like it's emotional. >> she came for love. then stayed to build a new life

in the city of limitless possibilities,etting up a successful public relations company. celine: it's a great town, the energy was the energy was amazing, you could meet people from every different background on any day. you could be uptown, downtown, meet from an artist's gallery to a banker to whatever. you know the cross-fertilization of culture was really, really great. now she's packing her life into bags and boxes and heading back to paris. business has dried up, but the bills for rent and healthcare haven't stopped coming. what's more the city that enticed her seems to have vanished. celine: and if you have no restaurant, no theatre, no broadway, no opera, no gallery

opening, like, go to the sea and enjoy nature. you know what i mean, like, why do you have to be parked in a a box apartment and do zoom calls all day. >> time square we're meeting trista moldovan and steve tewksbury. for two decades, they performed in some of broadway's biggest productions -les misérables, kinky boots and phantom of the opera. now they're looking for something new. trista: i'm trying to look into industries that are actually hiring right now. perhaps in medical fields. >> you know amazon, and maybe ups. i'm trying to think of anything that's hiring as well. >> trading the bright lights for hospitals and logistics. broadway's theatres will be closed till at least the end of january and possibly longer. some productions have been entirely cancelled. new york's world famous entertainment boulevard now seems like a surreal film set

-- deserted and unnerving. a third of bars and restaurants have gone out of business. steve: nobody's coming back. so, it's scary. it's very scary to think of a lot of these buildings, just having nobody in them, and you start to go down that rabbit hole there's nobody in the buildings, there's no tourists, there's no theaters that are open, and you just start to get concerned and anxious about it. trista: we all have moved to the city which we love so much to pursue our dreams and to pursue the entertainment industry. but if we can't afford rent and there is no industry, there's really no reason to stay in new york. >> 400,000 people have left the big apple since march. office occupancy has dropped to about 10%.

most large corporations have switched to home office. the real estate market is on the brink of a crash. the market for luxury apartments has collapsed by 67 percent. the millions of tourists, students and commuters who used to flood into the city every day have vanished leading to massive financial losses. new york'sourism indtry was worth 70 billion dollars last year. money that's sorely missed especially by those who've chosen to stick it out. amin: honestly right now some 75 percent of our business has died. before quarantine it was very busy, we'd never sit around outside like this. >> amin had a thousand customers a month before the coronavirus struck. now it's around 200. he had to fire his 4 staff and get his son in to help. now they only make enough to cover the 7 thousand dollars-a-month rent. next door, a clearance sale is underway. sierra robinson is the last

employee standing. sierra: i am getting a very small amount comparitive to what i would normally have available not just to survive but to live -- to not be afraid of where my next meal is coming from. to make matters worse, the contract on her apartment is now expiring. she and her partner cannot afford to rent a new place. sierra: in the absolute worst case i would have to leave new york. which is the last thing i want to do. i worked really hard to be here. >> thousands of businesses ruined, dreams shattered, hundds of thousands of jobless. many can't pay their rent any more. there's a moratorium on evictions, but it's only temporary, leaving thousands terrified of ending up on the streets. 200,000 eviction suits were filed here even before the coronavirus arrived.

the city already has 100,000 homeless. new york faces potential catastrophe when the eviction ban draws to a close at the end of the year. that's according to ellen davidson, a legal d society attorney who represents tenants. ellen: at the moment we have an eviction moratorium, but when that eviction moratorium lifts, hundreds of thousands of tenants are at risk. losing their homes, becoming homeless. it would be an unprecedented disaster for this city. >> the city has withstood many shocks. but celine kaplan says this one feels completely different. there's just too much coming together at once. celine: this time it's going to take a bit longer. you have a trifecta effect. you have something similar to the spanish flu, which was a big problem. the great depression of 1929. and trump. it's like, how do you survive? that trifecta.

i mean, i'm sorry, like, it's just hell. >> once again new york faces enormous challenges and once again it may be time to reinvent itself. >> for many lebanese, the beirut port explosion two months ago was the ultimate proof that their government and political class were failing and had been doing so for decades. lebanon is made up of various religious groups and sects -- the maronites, several christian groups, the druze, sunni and shi'ite muslims. between 1975 and 1990 these groups were emboiled in a bloody civil war. afterwards, the warring parties

divided the country up between them. since the mid-1980s, the shi'ite militant group hezbollah, has also gradually extended its power in lebanon. today it's considered a state within a state. but in their struggle intain iluence, lenon's regional leaders repeatedly block reforms despite angry public protests. jumeina: there is something very special in the port. there's a very special energy, everything passes through here. everything transits through here. it's the heart of the city for me. it's like the energy, the movement, the people working. >> joumana asseily standing on the roof of her gallery, marfa. the name means harbour in arabic. in two old garages she made her dream come true space for

-- space for contemporary art. the explosion on august 4th destroyed that dream. on that tuesday the gallery was closed, and joumana asseily wasn't there. a coincidence to which she os her li. joumana: it's all physical damages at the end of the day and it's going to be reparable but that's not the issue. whether it's someone who has a restaurant, whether it's someone, a librarian or anyone, they want to break it. they want to break this idea, these dreams that you have. they are trying to smash it every time and then you have to wait again and to wait again and to wait again and i wonder how long can one really be resilient at this point and do and do and redo. >> since august 4, the anger in beirut has grown every day. in the quarters behind the harbor no house was left unscathed. recent years have seen the emergence of an art scene with international appeal.

many saw it as a hope for a renaissance of old beirut cosmopolitan and liberal. now thatope is in ruins. >>it was only reopened in 2015 mafter a long renovation as a. place of art for everyone. entry is free. the last visitors had just left the building, while director zeina arida was still in her office miraculously she was not -- office. miraculously she was not injured. zeina: i've already gone through a lot already. i was shot by a sniper in 1978, i was eight years old, i was at the beach. since then i was an insomniac kid. it's our generation, the war generation, who did not want to forget, who wanted to

understand and who through these structures, artistic initiatives. we have been witnessing the non-responsibility of the government and of course civil society that is more and more acting as if it's replacing the state ich it's already been doing for the past 30 years. >> although the civil war ended in 1990, it continues to resonate in the present. it dominated the heart of beirut for 15 years. then came assassinations, bombings, the economic crash in a state where the government is absent. we don't have a government, but a mafia that preys on the state, says writer elias khoury. elias: it's a residue of the political system that was created after the war which i called the system of permanent civil war. there is no civil war in lebanon but these mafiosos, these heads of different militias, ese differt sects, the only way

for them to govern was to threaten us with cil war. >> the explosion was an accident, but it wasn't a coincidence, says khoury. on august 4, the truth that the rulers tried to cover up exploded: it's not civil war that poses the greatest threat, but the government itself. so what now? elias: i don't like to use the term hope in a hopeless situation. when you are after despair, whenou go throh thisotal despr and th you feel lastou are beyd despai then you can call this hope if you want. you cacall this determination to survive. >> the sursock museum will be rebuilt. help is coming from all over the world.

but just rebuilding, on the old foundation that's not enough this time, says zeina arida. zeina: today you know i'm 50, i'm not a kid anymore. today i rely need tohink aboumy future. i'm mmitted the meum, i'mmcommw a kid anymore. long. i don't know how long. i'm committed to my country depending on howt is going to evolve. we areeady to gorn this untry. >> at the end of the 1980's, there were almost 800,000 foreign soldiers stationed in both parts of germany, mainly british, french, and u.s. troops in west germany, soviet soldiers in east germany. following the end of the cold war and german reunification, the occupying powers withdrew most of the troops. they left behind trash, and

contaminated sls and driing water. currently, only u.s. troops are still stationed in germany in large numbers, like in spangdahlem, where residents are fighting back. >>e feels li he is dav facing aoliath. since 1953, ghter jetsave be in his bayard. moving away from the area is not an option. s family h been livi here r centurie >> the rainwater -- i doubt it is conminated beuse we had it checkedegularly.but th: there, it's a very different picture. the water is highly contaminated.

peluorinat compounds o carcinogen chpfcs.lsnown as they origite at th nearby and e polluting terwayin the area the locaauthoritiehave warned locals about the problem. as a precaution, we would still advise against using the river water for irrigation purposes. scientific surveys have heed scientific surveys have helped -- >scientificurveys hav help to shedome lighonto the matter. they've detected toxic chemicals at depths of up to 80 meters in the land surunding the aiase and inconcentrions thu consers critic. günther schneider himself used to work for the american forces and saw soldiers performing fire-fighting drills for ailanerashes. günther: there was a hole in the ground. they pred fuel from the planes into that hole, and then set it alight. and when it was burning fiercely with black fumes, the fire fighters put out the fire

using foamxtinguishing agents, which we now have in our oundwater. that foam contained fluorosurfactants, a chemical that is land waterepellent,anda practicallnon-biodegradable. after decades of using thei agent, the americans banned it in 2011, albeit too late to protect the area's water. >> this fairytale pond is highly contaminated via the surface water, due to pollution straight from the airbase. it's less than 50 meters away. what used to be a paradise is now a chemical cesspit. >> a cesspit that nobody seems willing to take responsibility for. at the airbase, our requests for an interview were ignored. on the german side, the people to talk to are at the federal real estate agency.

but they refused to talk on camera, instead sending us a statement that assigned responsibility to the american military. we had better luck after approaching the regional environmental protection authory, who didalk to us.ulri: we know that the pond has high vels of fluorosurfactants. but where exactly the sources are? the airpt compound is very big, and there are certain hotspots. any attempt to clean up will mean taking a very close look at the details. >> amonghose details is the fact that there are still places in and around the airbase where perfluorinated compnds are seeping into the groundwater. cleaninghem up wou cost anyone is willing to foot the llions of rothe bill.ng

which is a politicallrich: we won't be making the decision on clean-up costs. that's something to be resolved beeen the gean and amerin gornments. >> tse negottions cod ta years. and inhe meante, the stus beeen the gean and amerin o remains. ünther: we're standing at the outlet of the spangdlem airbase's sewage plant. th water flows from here i a stream, and from there a further two kilometers to one of the most important rivers in the eifel region, the kyll. but there's growing opposition to the american famics used to be completely saying sometaboo.against the it meant you were a kind of traitor, endangering the prosperity. fortunately, that's changed a bit. residents and environmeal -- >> resides and environmental activists became more optimistic in the summer

when president trump announced plans to withdraw the fighter-jets from spandahlem. they, at least, would have no problem with the americans leaving town altogether. >> now it's time for global ideas and this week our focus is cocoa farming. two years ago we visited a cocoa farmer in ghana whose livelihood was under threat due to increasingly poor harvests. but there was a solution. we returned to see how things have developed. >> saplings in full oom. so of the po are already arly ripe.orlau osmana richocoa harvest this ar. landu: this cocoarows very st. it not like what we used to plant. it would te the d cocoa seeds fourears to be fruit. but with these, it's only 2to ars.t. that's really st for us. it met

and make money earlier. >> it sn't alwaylike this. two yearago, the tes were hiby a disea called swollen shoovirus. which left harvests ruined. here's how orlando described the situation back then. orlando: this is a pod that could have matured, but didn't because of the disease. it's no good for harvest. it's spoiled. >> radical action was needed. orlando osmanu followed the advice of experts and felled his trees. it wasn't an easy decision. orlando: initially i wasn't sure abou what ty told us t i though out itnd cut down one and a half acres out of 14. it's been two years now and i'm very happy.

>> but sick trees weren't his only problem. he also had to look on while part of his land was cleared to make way for a path. orlando: all this is part of the farm. i planted plantain, cocoa and everything here just like in the other parts. but the timber contractors cleared it and didn't give me anything. >> to deal with the problem of illegal felling, locals across the distct are bei trained up to works forestonitors. they use aapp to report their findings. it only takes a couple of taps. obed: we are not just identify illegalities and saying that i is illegal, but we ideify, th we make aeport it, we take actiotogether wh the foress

the problem. are r the clime and thatthey . kn how impornt their tes felling trees leads to drier conditions. that in turn leaves the trees more vulnerable to pests, like an infestation, but he has a h trick. orlando: if i block it this way, no air gets to e ant and they die an infestation, but he has a h tricinside.ndo: >> simple and effective. but just as things were starting to look up for him and his family, the coronavirus struck raising fears about how the d's becoma probleis covid has really worrieds. if i say it hasn't, i'd be lying. before, you could rely on selling small amnts at lea. but buyers dot come, you

have no oice but tlive withthay 're real suffering her >> farmers like orlando often have trouble accessing loans because their holdings are too small to use as collateral. now a local savings initiative has been established to help out and assist farmers in weathering the pdemic. orlandwas among ose who attended araining seion on financial management. eric: we know that after the establishment of the new renovated farms, its takes about 3 years or more for the farms starts so snv under the scafs project thought it wise to link up with financial institutions to see how they can support the farmers during the post rehabilitation phase before the

cocoa farmtarts fruing. >> orlando hoping tose the lo to expandnd developis plantation. he wants to be ready for what happens after the pandemic. the improved prospects have evenrompted hison adama fuseing his joas a teach to give improvement my father is able to get food to feethe family and then some of the food he sale was able to get money tom even attracted to go into fruit farming. >> new generation and a od harvest in sight. for orlando osmanu, things are looking up. >> that's all from global 3000 this week! thanks for joining us! and don't forg to send u

your views, yocan write to: global3000@dw.com and check us out on facebook dw global ideas and dw women. see you next week.

[water dripping] [indistinct chatter] man: just watch your steps, yeah? voice-over: most of the people that work here, they used to work at mines before. so when the mine decides to shut down, they have nothing to do but to go down there and dig for themselves. [coal crunching underfoot] man 2: we find that coal is our national resources. it's the only thing that can generate electricity at this point in time. woman: the owner of the mines are here to get profit. they