>> welcome to "global 3000." fighting corruption. why climate funds are going astray in nepal. ♪ goalkeeper for hire. how wealthy brazilians find their eleventh man. and, money to spare, just how much tax should the ultrawealthy be paying? ♪ global heating, the pandemic, conflicts and crises.

the challenges facing us are vast. and they are pushing more and more people to the brink. the gap between rich and poor keeps on growing. more than half the world lives in desperate poverty, on less than 5 euros a day, while the top 1% owns almost 45% of global wealth. these "ultra-rich" include tech billionaires elon musk, bill gates, and mark zuckerberg, the owner of dior, bernard arnault, o tycoon mukesh ambani and water king zhong shanshan. international ngo oxfam says if the top 1% were taxed just 0.5% more over 10 years, nearly 300 million children out of school could be educated and more than 3 million people could get life-saving health care. and even some u.s. millionaires themselves want to pay more tax. >> every morning before sunrise, stephen prince takes a walk on the beach, and has revolutionary thoughts.

prince is a multimillionaire, and a thorn in the side of his peers. he's calling for rich people like him to be taxed. it's the battle cry of the "patriotic millionaires," an exclusive club with 220 members. they say tax injustice is endangering the united states. >> i hate to pay taxes. nobody likes to pay taxes. but i love this country and the fuel that runs this country is tax revenue. we wealthy people and large corporations that are all getting away with murder by not paying our fair share of taxes. we have to pay more taxes. there's just no way around it, it can't go on. >> stephen prince lives in a penthouse right on the beach. an idyllic location. but his ideas won't give him any rest. he made his fortune with a gift card business and is now worth around $40 million. people like him in the top one

percent own more than 30 percent of the wealth in the us. well-paid lobbyists ensure them more and more tax giveaways. >> our tax system is fraht, loaded with loopholes. and the only way you take advantage of them is to do what we wealthy people do, and that is we hire very expensive attorneys, very expensive cpas. we hire some of the largest banks in the world to help us hide our income to protect it from taxes. >> stephen prince is not about g about to give up all his luxuries. his private jet, for example, in which he sometimes flies to bermuda to golf, and other times to nebraska to hunt pheasant. his calls for a fairer tax system are above all patriotic, he says. but to many of his financial peers, he is a traitor. >> they call me a class traitor. in many ways, i feel like they

are traitors to the nation, because they are only concerned about their own wealth, their own personal well-being. we can still have airplanes, we can still have big boats, we can still sail around the world. we can still do all of these things and just pay more taxes. but people don't want to realize that that's the case. >> the "patriotic millionaires" are indeed a minority among america's wealthy, even in potomac, just outside of washington, d.c., which has an unusually high density of high-net-worth individuals. the owners of such sheltered mansions benefit greatly from ex-president donald trump's tax reforms. no wonder the local country club charges 120 thousand dollars just to join. builder monte gingery is a member. and like stephen prince, he also enjoys pheasant-hunting, travel, and fast cars. but that's where the similarities end. gingery opposes higher taxes, and disagrees with those who

support them. >> if it really bothers those people that much, i would say, send a couple of extra zeroes in your tax check to the irs. and i guarantee you, not one of them has done so. they can say one thing, but then all their money's over here in switzerland or down in the islands. >> instead of taxpayer-funded social programs, he feels the rich should make charitable contributions, via donations and foundations that retain control over their money. president biden's plans to expand the welfare state? gingery calls that wishful socialistic thinking, and the wrong approach. >> so if you are staing out losing 30% or 40% of everything just because you are mismanaging it, or it is administration, or anything else, they need to really work on that. a job is ten times more effective than any government subsidy program. because there's wages, there's,

you know, you become a taxpayer, you can do stuff. and, you know, their tax rate can be adjusted down. >> back in georgia, stephen prince visits his latest joint real estate project with his daughter. courtney prince will inherit her father's fortune, and agrees with his views. he, in turn, has high hopes for her generation, >> what i'm hoping is, is that the mess and the hole we have dug for ourselves and this undertaxing of our whole generation, that they can recover. and i hope that we just haven't messed it up so badly that they can't fix it. 'cause i don't think we have the will to do so. my generation does not. we're too greedy, we're too selfish. >> courtney prince would like to be more optimistic, but she has doubts. >> in the 1970's, we were all about peace, love, and happiness, and doing the right thing. and i don't know, holding the hands across the planet. and then as they got older and really started making money they started changing, and it became about me, me, me.

and so i worry as my generation gets older, that we will revert and do the same thing. >> courtney prince and her generation have their work cut out for them. tax justice in the u.s. still appears to be just a revolutionary thought. ♪ >> barely any country has such a wide gap between rich and poor as brazil. for years, its economy has been on a downslide. unemployment lies around 12%. young people from the favelas are worst affected. many are desperate for work, something brazil's wealthy are only too aware of. >> every day, macao souza descends the countless steps from the "morro da mineira" favela. he's on his way to the company sports team of brazil's central bank in rio de janeiro. the age gap is huge.

"maca's our star goalie!" say the men here. most of them work or have worked for the central bank. maca souza is their hired goalkeeper. >> we keepers are booked by the team, just like the referee. i play for money. >> for these older players, it's a good investment. ♪ >> we're always looking for good goalkeepers, to give our game that extra kick. young guys like maca make the game more interesting, more exciting." >> all the players here are over 45. the oldest one just celebrated

his 80th earth birthday. but nobody wants to be in goal, which is why they hire maca souza's services. these older men prefer to dream they're neymar or pele they'd rather put the ball in the net rather than keep it out. so the hired goalie stands in and makes the saves. ♪ >> he sorts us out and ups our game. we can rely on him. >> yet they couldn't come from more different worlds. every day in morro da mineira, maca souza walks by people his age carrying machine guns. we're not supposed to film them. shots are often fired into this part of the neighborhood from the nearby hill which is controlled by a rival gang. maca souza is used to that. he says he doesn't know anything different. but the measures taken to counter coronavirus last year were hard on him.

>> it was bad back then. there was no more soccer, for months. >> suddenly he found himself unemployed. >> that really hit us hard. we had to rely on donations of food and the government's emergency relief. >> years ago, souza was selected to play on a competitive youth team, but he couldn't afford the transportation fare to attend training regularly. to this day, he and his mother hope he'll be discovered, and become a professional, salaried player. >> i'm really only myself when i play soccer. i prefer to kick the ball around than sell drugs. when i play, i forget my troubles. >> at this gym he doesn't play for money. here, the players are childhood friends who play at a higher

level, which helps keep him on his toes. ♪ >> maca's the world's best keeper. he's like one huge wall. we're always together. >> it's game over for the over 45s, so souza's work is done, after three-and-a-half hours of standing in goal. at the bar, the "third half," the post-game socializing, has begun. the men enjoy the chance to shoot the breeze. everyone chimes in, except maca souza, who's sitting off to the side, waiting to be paid. today he gets around 8.50 euros, cash in hand. it's a lowly wage compared to what these men, his teammates, earn at the bank. but souza has other worries.

>> getting injured would be bad. i'd have to give up my favorite sport for a while. >> he may be a goalie for hire in rio, but maca souza still dreams of a career in professional soccer. ♪ >> climate change is taking its toll on many poorer nations. droughts, storms, and floods are becoming more frequent, destroying harvests, homes, even entire villages. most affected are developing countries in africa and asia. people they urgently need financial support to cope with climate change. yet, often funding doesn't get to where it is needed. >> residents from the kaski district bid a warm welcome to employees from transparency international. ti nepal has been coming here since 2020 to combat corruption and protect funds allocated to fight climate change.

>> the central government allocate a budget to combat climate change. yet just 20% of those funds actually wind up where they're supposed to. that's what we discoverein our investigation. instead of going towards climate change, the money's often used for meetings or seminars with politicians. a lot of funds are spent on things like that. >> and that needs to change. ti nepal regularly asks residents of kaski how climate change is affecting them. often the local authorities aren't even aware of their problems, so the information that's gathered here is sent to them, too. that helps lend a voice to people who've previously gone unheard, and gives them the courage to advocate for themselves.

>> compared to men, we women are often less well-educated. but we've started to address the negative consequences of corruption, as well as the effects of a lack of transparency. we've become far more interested in these issues as a result. [singing] >> the forest is vital to the people of kaski. it provides them with firewood and food for their animals. but now, their very livelihood is at risk. there's been a huge landslide on the other side of the valley. and it's not the only landslide that's happened in the region. normally, the snow-covered annapurna mountains would be visible, but they're shrouded in clouds.

the monsoons have changed, bringing longer and heavier spells of rain. >> look here, everything is still soaked from the rain. it's been like this for 12 days. even my house was flooded. half the grain is ruined. it should have been harvested long ago. >> many here don't understand the cause of their growing problems, and believe they're being punished by the gods. >> you know, we've seen that people don't have any idea about climate change. and even ti nepal, when we are starting from the scratch and we are finding it is so difficult to make people understand what's climate change, what's the environment impact? ♪ >> that's why the ngo asked public broadcaster radio nepal

for help. it's produced ads that raise awareness about climate change. torrential rains have also destroyed crops in the chitwan district, in the south of the country. the farmers try to salvage what they can. the downpours have also caused the water levels of both rivers here to rise. the rivers flood their banks several times a year, often sweeping away homes and farmland. yet instead of shoring up riverbanks, local authorities often spend climate change funds on roads. >> the local government hasn't been able to develop plans and strategies to tackle these problems, so the population suffers. people can't even supply themselves with the bare essentials.

>> the fishers are suffering, too. rising temperatures cause the rivers to dry up in the summer. water quality has also deteriorated rapidly. >> look here. i didn't catch a single fish. before, i could cast my net and get 15 or 20 of them, with a single throw. >> but there's reason to hope the situation will improve soon. staff from transparency international are working closely with the authorities to determine why funding doesn't end up where it's so badly needed. and the local government has promised to allocate more money for victims of climate change, and for protective measures to combat flooding, such as buffer zones.

>> in every sector, each of us have played a small, small role in adding up to the corruption. it's not only like keeping the money in your pocket. it's not only money laundering. but it is also about when you don't really do your duty. when you don't really like to know how to do your duty. then also it adds up to the corruption. so, yeah. >> people affected by climate change can also take action. transparency international helps them obtain the funds that have been allocated to them. it's an important step on the long road to change. >> global ideas are everywhere. everywhere in the world. and not only here in our show. you can find global ideas on facebook, twitter, and instagram. what are the challenges in an increasingly globalized world?

and how can we deal with them? we research, debate, and introduce ideas that aim to answer exactly that! why don't you have a look? ♪ >> an early morning fishing trip. sounds almost romantic. but the reality is very different, fishing is a tough business. harsh competition, over-fishing, and the pollution of our oceans makes life extremely hard for small-scale fishers. in cape town, however, an innovative app is providing support. our reporter julia jaki explains how. >> 5:30 in the morning at the port of cape town. while most of the city still sleeps, skipper jeffrey fraser and his crew prepare to put out to sea. the 10-member crew are going handline fishing for cape bream. they are hoping for a good catch today.

>> it totally depends on the weather outside, and also the patience of the skipper. [laughs] you know, if you haven't got a good skipper you're not gonna catch nothing. >> there might be some truth in that but it's a little fishy to lay all the blame on the skipper. conditions for artisanal commercial fishing on the cape have grown tougher over the years. >> possibly climate change, overfishing of the baits, change of currents, yeah, plenty reasons i can give you. >> they also struggle with fishing quotas and market access. [protestors chanting] [shouting] [cars honking] a few kilometers away from the port, local fishers are demonstrating in front of the national parliament in cape town. they're demanding fairer quotas. they say it's hard enough for them to make a living as it is. >> our livelihoods are in danger.

the government is giving the quo tas to big companies. but we as the small people as as the people on the ground that , is making a living out of the sea, we don't get anything! >> jeffrey fraser wants to improve conditions for his crew, and has found the solution in the abalobi app. >> abalobi, which means "someone who fishes" in a local language, connects small-scale fishers directly with consumers. daniel smith helped found the app and the ngo of the same name, which began as a university of cape town research project in 2017. >> here in south africa and around the world, small-scale fishers have been excluded and struggle for access to markets. abalobi came about recognising that there was this need and there's an opportunity to then connect these small-scale fishers digitally to markets and for them to be able to

access and own their own data. >> in practice, this means jeffrey fraser and his crew can sell their daily catch to restaurants and private customers directly through the abalobi app, cutting out the middlemen. >> the abalobi is quite a good help for us that we know what we're going for and what we're catching and the price is much better than what we get from the local buyers. so for us it's a big help. >> crewmember reggie schwenk says middlemen only pay fishers roughly a euro a kilo for cape bream. on abalobi, the crew can net over three times that. that means they can generate the same revenue with a smaller catch. another benefit is that abalobi has created a market for local species like cape bream, long considered a "poor people's fish."

>> abalobi is changing the perspective of people on cape bream. so, they've put it into upmarket restaurants and upmarket clientele have eaten it and enjoyed it. so they are changing the perception of the value of that species of fish. >> local species in sustainable quantities, instead of industrial scale fishing. the day's catch is logged into the app, >> the weight was 1-1-2, and the number caught was 357. >> abalobi is financed through donations and outside funding. the ngo behind the app helps the fishers with infrastructure and logistics. catches go by refrigerated truck to decentralized, refrigerated storage facilities. short hauls help reduce the carbon footprint. abalobi employee hahn goliath confirms the weight of the catch. he comes from a fishing family, and wants to help his community. >> i'm a fisher, and i want to remain a fisher. so irrespective of what part of

for as long as i am active in the fishing industry. what abalobi do is to just assist us with the process between after we catch the fish and the end consumer, which is a challenge for generations long. >> and that's exactly what happens, the catches from jeffrey fraser's boat and other abalobi fishers go online and becomes available to customers on the app's marketplace page. >> chef neil swart is co-owner of a restaurant in cape town. he's one of over 400 chefs and 8,000 private customers registered as buyers on abalobi. >> last night, the chef placed an order on the app. this morning, hahn goliath delivers it, five kilos of cape bream. >> the proof is in the pudding or the fresh fish for that

matter, like the quality of the fish we've got, it's just, that's something we haven't worked with before. >> with the app's qr code, the restaurant owner and his guests can trace exactly where a fish comes from, the fisher name, the 's name, the species, and where it was caught. >> i love knowing where the money is going. so i love knowing that the money is going to the fishermen, and not some massive companies just abusing the sea. and the customers also enjoy hearing that. the money they spend goes directly to the fishermen and we can see exactly what they get. >> since its debut, abalobi has put more than 500,000 euros directly into the pockets of struggling fishers. similar projects are already up and running in other countries. all aimed at preserving fish stocks and ensuring local fishers get a living wage. ♪ >> and that's all from us at global 3000 this week.

thanks for joining us. and don't forget to tell us what you enjoyed write to about the program. write to global3000@dw.com. and check out our facebook page, dw global ideas. see you next time. take care!

♪ brent: this is dw news, live from berlin. the author who has lived for decades under an iranian death threat. -- threat has been attacked in new york city. his book the satanic verses offended the leader of the nation s