European Journal: The Magazine from Brussels
By DW.DE | Deutsche Welle
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Podcast Description
European Journal is a 30 minute magazine on DW that delivers the inside take – reports on important political, economic and cultural developments in the EU with a strong focus on the European integration process. European Journal features issues that move Europeans and shows Europeans on the move.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
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| 1 | CleanVideoUkraine: Racist Fears for Football Euro | Controversy abounds as Ukraine prepares to co-host the soccer European Championships. With the case of Yulia Tymoshenko ongoing, there is also growing concern about racist thugs assaulting visitors during the event. A range of politicians across Europe have refused to attend the championships in protest against the harsh treatment of Yulia Tymoshenko. The jailed opposition leader’s appeal has now been delayed until late June, a couple of weeks into the event. Meanwhile, there is the prospect of the event being overshadowed by local hooligans. Some have threatened to attack non-white fans visiting the country. Anti-racist campaigns like the one started by Arsenal Kyiv are currently the exception rather than the rule. | 23 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 2 | CleanVideoIreland: Decline of a Once-daily Ritual | Instead of going to pubs, the Irish are saving their money. Yet at the same time pubs are proving important social spaces for people during the economic crisis. Pubs were once an Irish institution where Guinness flowed by the pint. Not too long ago, many Irish visited pubs on a daily basis. That's because in Ireland pubs weren't just a place to eat and drink but also a social institution a place where people could discuss all of life's matters, and where poets once recited their verses to a willing public. But as belt-tightening in Ireland continues, guests are staying away from pubs - and one after the next has shut its doors. | 23 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 3 | CleanVideoTurkey: Putting the Brakes on the Dolmus | The drivers of Istanbul's 6,000 minibuses called the dolmus are up in arms. The city's mayor wants to replace the vehicles with regulated, air-conditioned city buses. If you don't have a car in Istanbul you take the Dolmus. That's a minibus with 14 seats but more passengers often squeeze in when needed. The minibuses operate in an informal and chaotic way. The door usually stays open so that passengers can jump in at intersections. If someone wants to exit, the driver simply hits the brakes. The mayor of Istanbul says the vehicles are a threat to road safety and wants to introduce modern buses instead. He’s offered the Dolmus drivers that they can drive the newer city buses instead. But they remain skeptical. | 16 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 4 | CleanVideoFrance: A Perfectly Normal Couple | Francois Hollande and Valérie Trierweiler want to remain just another couple after moving into the Elysée Palace. There is growing pressure on them from the public, however. They are France’s first presidential couple not to be married. In addition, the electorate has been further annoyed by the low-profile stance taken by the country’s new Première Dame. During the election campaign Valérie Trierweiler had helped give her boyfriend a bit more character and charisma in the public eye. Now, however, she has no plans to stay in the limelight and instead intends to return to her career as a journalist. It’s a different story with the new president’s previous partner Ségolène Royal, who will again have a big voice in French politics after helping him on the campaign trail. | 16 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 5 | CleanVideoSweden/Germany: Forced Laborers for IKEA | IKEA’s assembly network in the 1980s included sites in what was then communist East Germany. It appears that the workforce there included political prisoners forced to work. Documents in the Stasi archives are now said to show that some of the furniture giant’s products were assembled by forced laborers. The company says that if it did happen, then without its knowledge. IKEA has now said it is willing to talk to the former political prisoners in question to clarify the issue. | 16 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 6 | CleanVideoBosnia: The Open Wound | The trial of the former Serb paramilitary commander Ratko Mladic has opened in The Hague. In Bosnia, the wounds of the Srebrenica massacre are far from healed. Bosnians are glad to see Mladic, one of the main perpetrators of the massacre, now on trial. But many still resent that the international community did not fulfill its responsibilities. In 1995, a Dutch UN peacekeeping unit failed tragically when, instead of protecting Muslim civilians, it delivered them to Mladic's paramilitaries. Last year, a Dutch court determined that the Netherlands were liable in three cases. The families of the victims are now hoping for compensation. | 9 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 7 | CleanVideoAzerbaijan: The New Dubai | As host for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, Baku is planning to show the world what it’s made of. Oil and natural gas have brought new wealth to Azerbaijan, and made the capital Baku a modern and glittering metropolis. The days when Baku was drab and dreary are long past. Now many facades have been clad in gleaming natural stone, and new high-rises and luxury apartments are shooting up everywhere. Baku is trying to recast itself as the Caspian Sea’s answer to Dubai. But the newfound affluence is benefiting mainly the city’s oligarchs, who have a stranglehold on the local economy. As a result, ordinary residents are finding it increasingly difficult to afford life in the upscale - and expensive - metropolis. | 9 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 8 | CleanVideoGreece: A New Political Force Emerges | The new Independent Greeks party is using anti-German slogans to garner votes. Polls suggest the right-wing, anti-austerity group could end up as the third strongest party in the upcoming parliamentary election. The founder of the Independent Greeks is Panos Kammenos, a former New Democracy MP who was ousted from the conservative party's parliamentary group after he refused to back President Lucas Papademos. Since then Kammenos has been stirring up resentment against Germany's role in the Greek bailout. The party's official founding session took place in Distomo, the scene of Nazi atrocities during World War Two. Kammenos rejects what he calls "blackmail" by the EU and IMF and is calling on Berlin to pay war reparations to Athens. | 2 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 9 | CleanVideoSpain: The Egg Trade | Jobs have become scarce in Spain as a result of the economic crisis. Now some Spanish women are trying to earn a living by becoming a paid egg donor. In some cases, they are risking their health. Young university students are among those looking to become egg donors. They see it as an easy way to earn money - up to 1,000 euros per donation. Many women donate several times a year, even though doing so is risky to their health. Although Spain’s ethics commission has enacted limits on egg donation, these are nearly impossible to enforce, in part because donated eggs are a lucrative business for fertility clinics. Even though Spain is regarded as a stronghold of Catholicism, its laws on reproductive medicine are among the most liberal. | 2 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 10 | CleanVideoSpain: Cannabis instead of Olives | A village in north-eastern Spain wants to defy the economic crisis by cultivating cannabis. The project is the subject of heated debate in the community. The mayor hopes to create new jobs for the 900 residents of Rasquera in Tarragona province and reduce the public debt. The villagers would lease their fields to an initiative from Barcelona that wants to plant the drug. The cannabis would be only for private use, as dealing is strictly forbidden in Spain. Many towns in Spain are now looking into farming, even though most of them are investing in less controversial crops. Many are looking for alternatives to office jobs endangered by the crisis. | 25 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 11 | CleanVideoTurkey: Syriac Orthodox Christians under Pressure | It's one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world: the Syriac Orthodox Mor Gabriel Monastery in south-eastern Turkey. But the order lives in conflict with the surrounding Kurdish villages. Several lawsuits have been brought accusing the monastery of having illegally appropriated the land surrounding it. And the national forest authority is one of the plaintiffs. The monastery's abbot considers this to be a sign of religious discrimination. In the past few years, members of the Syriac Orthodox church have been returning in increasing numbers to make a fresh start in their homes around the holy mountain Tur Abdin. More than 300,000 Christians left the country in previous decades to escape persecution and oppression. | 25 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 12 | CleanVideoHungary: The Rapper | In his aggressive lyrics, the rapper "Dopeman" expresses the frustrations of many young Hungarians. Now right-wing extremists are trying to use state prosecutors to silence him. An internet portal calls on its readers to report the gangsta rapper to the police, claiming his songs defame the Hungarian nation. And, in fact, state prosecutors are investigating him. The rapper's popularity hasn't suffered in the least. His video clips have had hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube. On Hungary's national day, opponents of the regime even chose him as "alternative president." On the other hand, at the same time, tens of thousands of supporters turned out to cheer the hard-core conservative prime minister, Viktor Orban, who is still firmly entrenched in power. | 25 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 13 | CleanVideoRussia: The Buranovo Grannies | The Buranovo Grannies are a long-standing favorite in Russia. The folk group is made up of six elderly women from a village in the Ural mountains, shaking a leg to a disco beat. The group is to represent Russia at the Eurovision song contest in Baku this year. The women, all over 70 and some past 80, beat other acts hands down in the qualifiers. The group of six has been around for decades, and hail from the village of Buranavo in the Udmurt Republic, a three-hour flight from Moscow. They sing in their native Udmurt language and have plenty of young fans. | 18 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 14 | CleanVideoPoland: Dispute over Atomic Power Plant | Poland wants to build its first nuclear power plant near the German border. Protest is coming not only from politicians in Germany, but also from people living near the sites under consideration for constructing the plant. Shortly after the reactor disaster in Fukushima, Japan, Poland’s head of government Donald Tusk made it clear that he still believes in the future of nuclear power. The first Polish nuclear power plant is slated for completion within 10 years. Two more plants are planned, and various sites for them are currently under discussion. One of them is the city of Mielno, on the coast of the Baltic Sea. But the citizens of Mielno fear such a plant could spell the end of tourism there, and so they have voted against their government’s plans in a referendum. | 11 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 15 | CleanVideoFrance: The Last Farm in Paris | Right in the middle of the upscale Montparnasse district of Paris is an old farmhouse in a state of increasing dilapidation. An initiative has been started to defend the site from profit-seeking speculators. Paris used to be home to 500 farmhouses, providing the French capital with fresh milk and other produce. They have now all disappeared except for "Ferme Montsouris", although it has been abandoned for some time. A real estate company bought the site, planning to build luxury apartments there. Hoping to stop its demolition, however, an artist founded a special association with plans to restore it as a working farm - one aim being for children to be able to see what life in Paris used to be like. | 11 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 16 | CleanVideoCzech Republic: The Fate of the Tymoshenkos | After a controversial corruption trial, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is serving out a seven year jail sentence. In January, her husband Oleksandr Tymoshenko was granted asylum in the Czech Republic. Oleksandr Tymoshenko had made his request for asylum months before. He said he did it to prevent the government in Kiev from putting even more pressure on his wife by persecuting her relatives. The government in Prague already granted asylum to Yulia Tymoshenko's former minister of economics, Bogdan Danylyshyn, in 2011. Meanwhile, Yulia Tymoshenko is said to be suffering from serious health problems and her daughter Eugenia says she fears for her mother's life. | 4 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 17 | CleanVideoFrance: A New Anti-Semitism | France has been stunned by an Islamist gunman’s attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse. The incident showed that France is also vulnerable to homegrown anti-Semitic terrorism. The perpetrator shot dead three pupils and a teacher in cold blood, days after murdering three soldiers. The brutal nature of the attacks has startled people in France. But observers report a worrying trend - a rise in anti-Semitic attacks in recent years. France’s Jewish community numbers over half a million, making it the largest in Western Europe. | 28 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 18 | CleanVideoSpain: Too Many Horses | More and more Spanish farmers are giving up raising horses due to the financial crisis. There's hardly anyone willing to take them, so the animals are usually slaughtered- or set free. Spain's biggest horse resuce operation is located in Malaga in Andalucia. When police find abandoned horses, they bring them there. At night the horses pose a big danger on the unlit country roads. Most of the abandoned horses don't have a microchip and can't be slaughtered. Horses with the chips are ending up in slaughter houses more and more frequently, even steeds that once cost 15,000 Euros. Many farmers just can't afford their expensive upkeep anymore. | 28 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 19 | CleanVideoArmenia: Compulsory Chess | Armenia is a country facing many problems. Its ceasefire with neighboring Azerbaijan is rocky, and its economy is struggling. Now Armenia is hoping chess could help improve its fortunes.Armenian schools are introducing chess as a compulsory subject. The idea comes from chess Grandmaster Smbat Lputian, who founded a chess academy in Yerevan. The game is said to hone analytical skills and improve memory and concentration. Lputian says that could help children in other subjects too. And he's convinced that a country of chess players is capable of many achievements. | 21 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 20 | CleanVideoBritain: Yorkshire Uproar | The building of a huge potash mine promises to make Yorkshire once again a mining centre and could create up to 5000 new jobs. But environmentalists fear for the future of one of the most beautiful protected landscapes in England.Some of the potash deposits lie directly beneath the North York Moors National Park and extend under the nearby North Sea. Environmentalists fear that building the huge mine and the countless tons of waste material that will be produced will destroy part of the national park. The mayors of surrounding communities, in contrast, are celebrating. They hope that, after decades of decline, the pits could provide new impetus for reviving the local economy. | 21 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 21 | CleanVideoFrance/Germany: The Oradour Massacre | In June 1944, the SS killed at least 642 people in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane. Only now have the German police searched the apartments of the soldiers allegedly involved.To this day, none of the participants in the massacre have been charged in a German court. Now, almost 70 years later, the public prosecutor in Dortmund has ordered that the apartments of six former soldiers be searched for old photographs, diaries, and other documents that could serve as evidence. The accused themselves are so old that they are hardly fit for questioning. In France, the investigations are being followed with interest. The war crime in Oradour remains unforgotten, and the ruins of the village have been left untouched as a memorial. | 14 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 22 | CleanVideoTurkey: Kurdish Smugglers | Iranian border patrolmen are mercilessly hunting down young Kurds who try to smuggle cheap diesel oil across the border to Turkey. Ankara has said nothing, supposedly not wanting to strain relations with Tehran.The Iranian border patrol’s most recent known victim was handed over to Turkish authorities in January. But Ankara has had little response to the captures and killings so far, turning a largely deaf ear to protests from relatives and human rights activists. Turkey imports more than one third of its oil and natural gas from Iran, so it likes to keep relations cosy. The EU is prodding Turkey to change its policies toward Iran and improve the economic circumstances of the region’s Kurds. | 7 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 23 | CleanVideoThe Netherlands: Knocking Eastern Europeans | After targeting Muslims, now Dutch right-wing populist Geert Wilders has set his sights on eastern Europeans, inviting fellow citizens to share negative experiences they’ve had.Wilder’s Party for Freedom seems to have hit a nerve with its anonymous internet gripe line. Within just a few days of its appearance, it had collected more than 30,000 entries by Dutch people reporting negative encounters with immigrants from eastern Europe. The European Commission has sharply criticized the Web site, and several ambassadors of eastern European countries have denounced the exercise in ostracism. It is an embarrassment to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, but he is dependent on Wilder’s continued support and has avoided commenting on the controversial Internet site. | 7 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 24 | CleanVideoGreece and Germany: Blind Fury | The ongoing controversy about aid to debt-ridden Greece has left nerves frazzled, and the relationship between Athens and Berlin at a nadir. Greek President Karolos Papoulias accused Wolfgang Schäuble of insulting his country after the German finance minister likened Greece to a bottomless pit.Other countries, including Finland and the Netherlands, have also expressed reservations about Greece's efforts toward reform. But in Greece, it's Germany that has roused most of the ire. Greek newspapers have depicted Chancellor Angela Merkel wearing a Nazi uniform, and demonstrators have burned German flags in the streets of Athens. The Greek political and economic crisis has fueled prejudices and stereotypes everyone thought had been overcome. | 29 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 25 | CleanVideoRussia: The White Ribbon | The ribbon has become a symbol of the latest protests against Vladimir Putin's rule. Supporters of the movement are calling for a new Russia without corruption or vote-rigging. Bloggers, business professionals and artists are tying a white ribbon to their lapels to show where their sympathies lie.That has been reason enough for Putin, currently Russian prime minister, to mock his critics, claiming in a TV interview, for instance, that the white ribbon resembles a used condom. The movement's supporters include the popular band Rabfak, who titled one of their songs "The White Ribbon", though the musicians also complain that the new movement lacks teeth - it's too weak to effect any real change. But now even some former paratroopers have made an internet video supporting the protests. | 29 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 26 | CleanVideoFrance: Paris - Moscow | Riding the rails without changing trains, from Paris to Moscow via Berlin. After 17 years, this legendary railroad connection is being revived. People who like sitting in trains will love this. The 3,000-kilometer ride from the Seine to the Moskva takes 38 hours. A plane can cover the distance in just three, but the train offers two deluxe carriages.What plane can offer a double bed, a bath with shower, comfortable chairs and an en-suite bar? Those unable to afford such luxury have to bunk up instead in a three-passenger couchette compartment. | 22 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 27 | CleanVideoBosnia: Villages Cut Off | Bosnia has sub-zero temperatures and masses of snow to deal with. Countless villages remain cut off.For a moment it looked as though this harsh winter would manage to do what politicians in Bosnia-Herzegovina have failed to: getting all ethnic groups to stand together in the battle against the snow and ice. But that cooperation appears to have been short-lived. The helicopters of the Bosniak-Croat Federation government are no longer being called out across the border in the Serb-dominated semi-autonomous Republika Srpska, where many villages are still snowed in. | 22 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 28 | CleanVideoDenmark: An EU-funded Ski Run in a Flat Land | The EU has given funds to construct a ski run on the Danish island of Bornholm – even though there’s hardly ever enough snow to use it. This winter the snow groomer has never made it out of the garage.Bornholm is known as the “island of the sun” and is the warmest spot in Scandinavia. It’s also quite flat – its highest elevation is 160 meters. But four years ago that didn’t stop EU officials from approving 50-thousand euros in aid to build a ski run here. Then they provided addition funding for the purchase of ski lifts. Now Brussels has come in for criticism for wasting tax payers’ money. | 15 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 29 | CleanVideoRomania: Unused Billions | Romania's government has resigned. Its tough austerity measures brought thousands of Romanians out on the streets in protest. But with EU assistance, the country's educational system, at least, might be helped.Schools in Romania have been subject to drastic cuts. Teachers have been laid off and schools closed. School buildings in the countryside are often too small, meaning that the children have to attend classes in shifts. Romania could apply to the EU for financial aid to remedy the situation. But it appears that the eastern European nation lacks the personnel and know-how to negotiate the bureaucratic hurdles of the application process. Even when such funding does make its way to Romania, it often does not reach the people it is intended for. | 15 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 30 | CleanVideoFrance: The forgotten people of Tonkin | A chapter of colonial history is slowly drawing to a close in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot, where the last of the French citizens repatriated during the Indochina War still live.The first of the repatriated citizens originally from Vietnam arrived in the town of Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot in southwestern France in April 1956. Some were former parachutists; others were the widows of French officers, and their children. Today they are between 80 and 90 years old. For a long time, they lived in dilapidated barracks without indoor plumbing. Only in recent years has an effort been made to build new housing. But the residents of the makeshift repatriate camp never complained publically about their deplorable living conditions in France. | 8 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 31 | CleanVideoGreece and Turkey: The new émigrés | Many Greeks are considering emigration because of the severe economic crisis at home. More and more of them are deciding to leave for Turkey.In the past, Greeks who emigrated abroad most often went to the United States, Germany, France and Britain. But now that the economy in Istanbul is moving full speed ahead, that’s changed. Greek academics are taking positions at Turkish universities, and Greek pilots are working for Turkish airlines. Given the economic crisis at home, pragmatism is winning out over old prejudices. Turkey is nearby and is booming economically, and the lifestyle there is similar to that in Greece. | 8 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 32 | CleanVideoFrance/Turkey: The Dispute Over Genocide | In the future, a person who denies the massacre of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire could be facing a prison sentence in France. For the Armenians, the law is gratifying, but Turkey regards it as a provocation.The Turkish government has accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy of sponsoring the law in order to garner the support and votes of French citizens of Armenian descent. In Turkey itself, a court has fanned the flames of the conflict. It has handed down a life sentence to one man involved in the murder of journalist Hrant Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent. Many accused accomplices have been acquitted. The judge declared that the murder was carried out by a lone man with no political motive. | 1 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 33 | CleanVideoRomania: No more bringing home the bacon | In the village of Gârbova in the Transylvania region of Romania, the old customs of the local ethnic Germans, the "Transylvanian Saxons," guarantee harmony in the community. But now there is trouble with the European Union.All the families bring their bacon to the tower of the medieval fortified church, where it is strictly guarded. Every weekend, the townspeople receive a slab of bacon. The idea is that no one will be out of bacon before spring and thus have to go borrowing or begging from neighbors. The old tradition helps preserve tranquillity in the village. But now Brussels is making trouble. The way the pigs are slaughtered here violates EU regulations, and the church is not considered a suitable place to store foodstuffs. | 1 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 34 | CleanVideoItaly: End of a cruise | The grounding of a huge cruise ship off the Italian coast has shocked the world. The captain appears to have disregarded safety regulations and to have left his ship prematurely.There were more than 4,200 people on board the Costa Concordia, when rocks ripped a huge hole in its rump. It was too close to the island of Giglio, where it is now lying on its side near the shore. There was panic and confusion on board as the passengers scrambled to escape. Reports say crew members took charge of the evacuation as the captain had gone missing. He is facing criminal charges. | 25 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 35 | CleanVideoBelgium: Is Tintin racist? | Tintin is a national hero in Belgium, but he is about to have to answer to charges of racism, colonialism and arrogance. A Congolese man living in Belgium has filed suit, and wants the edition about Tintin's adventures in the Congo banned.The book, first published in 1931, is indeed full of racist clichés. Tintin's creator Hergé distanced himself from it in his later years. The controversial parts have been removed from more recent printings but you can still find them in collectors' editions. Tintin's defenders say the comic books do not contain anything more offensive that what you would find in most literature, and you cannot ban everything. The controversy stems from the fact that the Congolese people were treated brutally by their Belgian colonial rulers. It is still a very sensitive issue in Belgium. | 25 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 36 | CleanVideoKosovo: The EU's forgotten mission | The European Union's EULEX mission was created to ensure lasting stability in Kosovo. But it is not making much headway, particularly in the Serb-dominated north of the country.EULEX has no clear mandate because several EU countries still do not recognize Kosovo as an independent state. The smuggling of weapons and drugs is thriving in the north of the country, and tension is high, especially on the border with neighboring Serbia. Kosovans and Serbs are fighting over who should control the crossings. Clashes continue between protesters from the two sides. | 25 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 37 | CleanVideoGreece: Persistent Poverty | The economic situation in Greece continues to worsen, as it becomes clear the country's austerity measures just aren't effective. As the crisis persists, more and more Greeks are falling into poverty.More and more families can no longer make ends meet, or feed and clothe their children. As a result, some parents have given up their children to charities like SOS Children's Villages; the organization is taking more and more children under its wing. While a number of wealthy Greeks have been able hang onto their assets, ordinary people are bearing the brunt of the crisis. The troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund requires Greece to stay on a strict savings course, but that is now being seen in an increasingly critical light. EU parliamentarians are calling for an alternative: investment as a way of turning the country's fortunes around. | 18 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 38 | CleanVideoPoland's Controversial Calendar | A promotional calendar published by the city of Warsaw has opened old wounds and revived painful memories of Poland's Jewish history.The calendar features a collection of graphic art posters - including one that many say is anti-Semitic. The image, originally created in 1925 for a national newspaper in Poland, features a uniformed man throwing flames at fleeing rats - many of which are wearing yarmulkes. After protests by Jewish organizations in Warsaw, the city administration agreed to cancel a second printing. But Warsaw's mayor has called the calendar a beautiful showcase of Poland's graphic art. The first edition is already in circulation. | 11 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 39 | CleanVideoBritain: Flight into Space | Space tourism may soon be taking off: British billionaire Richard Branson is offering brief excursions for a whole lot of money. The first trips might happen within the year.To take a flight with Virgin Galactic, you have to be both rich and physically fit. Several hundred people have already declared their interest. We talk to one of them, who is busy training for his six minutes in zero gravity. | 11 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 40 | CleanVideoEstonia: Ticket to Ride for Russians | More and more Russians are buying apartments in Estonia - without intending to live there. Owning property in the EU makes it easier for them to obtain a no-borders Schengen visa.Owning real estate in Estonia is no guarantee that they'll get a visa, but it greatly increases their chances. And that makes it easier to take a shopping trip to Paris, for example. Many Estonians are less than enthusiastic about their new, never-seen neighbors. Some of the new owners don't even close the windows in the winter. Others see no reason to pay their bills, leaving neighbors to deal with the consequences. | 4 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 41 | CleanVideoRussia: With Putin Back to the USSR | The dissolution of the Soviet Union is still a sore point with many former Soviet citizens. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is trying to restore Russia’s former power.Putin has called the fall of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the century” and it seems he would like to reverse this chapter of history. Putin uses the giant energy concern Gazprom and Russia’s near-monopoly on natural gas in Europe to apply pressure in foreign policy. He has already done this with success in Ukraine. After the pro-Western Orange Revolution of 2004, democracy is now on the retreat in Ukraine. Putin has spoken of reuniting Belarus with Russia. And if a former Soviet republic seems too self-assured, as in the case of Georgia, then he sends in the tanks - as in the old days of the Soviet Union. | 28 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 42 | CleanVideoFrance: The Fall of the Champagne Communists | The collapse of the Soviet Union was a shock for communists in Western Europe. The Communist Party in France has still not recovered.Many Western European countries including Italy, France, Spain and Sweden had strong communist parties. They were all taken by surprise when their great role model, the Soviet Union, fell apart. Soviet-style communism had obviously failed and within the French communist party Stalinists and reformers engaged in bitter infighting. The reformers wanted to launch a renewal along the lines of their Italian comrades or the short-lived PDS party which emerged after the fall of the wall in Germany. They were prepared to jettison their class-struggle rhetoric rather than become politically irrelevant. But their efforts were in vain: the star of Western communism no longer shines brightly. | 28 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 43 | CleanVideoEstonia: The European Commitment | For the Estonians, the collapse of the Soviet Union brought the freedom they had longed for for so many years. By joining the European Union and introducing the common currency the Euro, Estonia has shown its deep commitment to the West and relations with Russia remain tense.Estonia introduced the Euro in 2011. A difficult decision because the Estonian Krone, reintroduced in 1992, was a symbol of independence from the Soviet Union. The Estonians and their Baltic neighbors in Lithuania and Latvia place great hopes in their Western-oriented policies. They see the development of democracy and human rights as an obstacle to Russian efforts to dominate the Baltic region. The war in Georgia reawakened old fears. When Estonia’s IT infrastructure came under attack, many Estonians were quick to accuse the Kremlin of manipulating a cyber war. The attack was in fact launched by a group of amateurs and Russian nationalists. | 28 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 44 | CleanVideoRussia: Memories of Germany | Almost 600,000 Soviet troops were stationed in East Germany after World War Two. They experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall - and then the collapse of their own superpower.When the Soviet troops left the former East Germany in 1994, the Soviet Union had already ceased to exist. They were refused a joint parade with the US, French, and British troops in Berlin - a humiliating experience for an army that played an essential role in defeating Nazi Germany. But unlike the Western allies, who were soon regarded as protectors and friends by the Germans in the West, the Soviet troops in East Germany were seen as occupiers until the very end, despite the fact that Soviet tanks did not take to the streets of East Berlin in November 1989 when the Wall fell as they had done during the anti-Stalin uprising of 1953. Today the former Soviet soldiers live in houses and apartments paid for by Germany as part of the withdrawal deal. And some of them still have not come to terms with the course history has taken. | 28 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 45 | CleanVideoGermany: The Return of the Russian Community | Four million people in Germany speak Russian. 300,000 of them live in Berlin, home to a vibrant Russian community. The German capital has Russian clubs and discotheques and a Russian language radio station.Most of the four million people are former Russians of German descent as well as Jews and other people who came to Germany from former Soviet republics. Berlin also attracts wealthy Russians from Moscow and St. Petersburg who come to the German capital to shop. In and around Berlin’s elegant Kurfürstendamm you can sometimes hear as much Russian spoken as in the 1920s, when refugees from the Russian Revolution arrived in droves. The developments that began back then found their conclusion in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. | 28 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 46 | CleanVideoComino: One Family’s Island | There are still a few places that have yet to feel the chaos of the economic crisis - like Comino, the smallest island in the Maltese archipelago. While Malta is crowded, Comino is almost empty.The brothers Salvu and Angelu live on Comino with their aunt and cousin. Salvu makes sure they have enough water, and only leaves the island to visit the doctor or if he needs a spare part for one of his machines. A priest visits Comino regularly and in the summer, tourists arrive from Malta by boat. | 21 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 47 | CleanVideoGreece: No money for education | An interim government is trying to save Greece from bankruptcy. But its austerity program is driving ordinary Greeks to despair.To access billions of euros in aid form the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Greece has to stick to a strict plan to cut spending and raise revenue. The debt crisis has hit education funding very hard. More and more schools are threatened with closure. They are running out of textbooks and teachers are being made redundant. Some pupils cannot even afford packed lunches. | 21 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 48 | CleanVideoFrance: Tunisian Refugees | The Arab Spring saw the ousting of long-time leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. During the upheaval, many people fled across the Mediterranean to Europe and are wondering when or if they should go home.The refugees survived a dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean in ramshackle vessels. Many were held in overcrowded quarters in Italy before making their way illegally to France, where they live in constant fear of being caught by the authorities. | 21 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 49 | CleanVideoGermany: The nuns of Zweifall | The financial crisis has also taken its toll on churches. Congregations have had to tighten their belts, and convents too.There are only two nuns left in the Carmelite convent in Zweifall. The Catholic diocese of Aachen wants to close the convent, but the sisters are intent on staying. They make communion wafers for congregations around Germany and sell honey and rosaries in the convent shop. They have a group of supporters who help maintain the grounds. But the diocese could sell the convent and its land. | 21 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 50 | CleanVideoGermany: One Pastor Takes on Coal | The consequences of the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, Japan, were also felt in Europe. Germany is phasing out nuclear power - and coal is experiencing a comeback. But are there alternatives?Swedish power company Vattenfall wants to expand its coal-mining operations in eastern Germany. That would involve razing three villages. One pastor in the area says it is immoral to destroy three villages and 3,600 hectares of land in exchange for cheap electricity. | 21 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 51 | CleanVideoTurkey: The Syrian Opposition | The regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is intensifying its crackdown on the country's political opposition. Its leaders are organizing their resistance from Turkey.The Syrian National Council, the highest-level opposition body in exile, has its headquarters in Istanbul. The Free Syrian Army is also led from Turkish territory. The commander of the armed resistance lives in a refugee camp in southern Turkey. Members of the Syrian opposition often put their lives on the line in order to smuggle humanitarian aid and even weapons across the border. | 14 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 52 | CleanVideoFrance: Running Scared of Germany? | The eurozone debt crisis has laid bare French suspicions of Germany. Relations between the two countries have now become a big election issue in France, characterized by increasingly venomous anti-German commentary.A leading French socialist compared Chancellor Angela Merkel to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who defeated France back in 1871. Many French people are annoyed at the way President Nicolas Sarkozy has described Germany as a role model for France. They see as him as the junior partner in the new "Merkozy" axis. France's minister for Europe, Jean Leonetti, is already talking of anti-German hysteria sweeping the country. | 7 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 53 | CleanVideoHungary: Censorship in the Theater | The tilt to the right in Hungarian politics has also taken its toll on the country's cultural institutions. Now, the New Theater in Budapest is planning to ban all non-Hungarian playwrights from its program.Budapest's mayor has appointed two new theater directors: a right-wing nationalist and an anti-Semite. The move triggered widespread outrage in Hungary's arts scene, but that hasn't deterred one of the new theater directors, György Dörner. He even wants to rename the performance hall. His is an open challenge to the theater establishment, who mostly occupy the left-wing, liberal end of the political spectrum. | 7 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 54 | CleanVideoLithuania: Banking Scandal | Large numbers of Lithuanians are facing a cash crisis. Snoras Bank, one of the country's leading financial institutions, was seized by the government amid major fraud allegations.Elderly people were hardest-hit at first, since many of them don't have ATM cards. Instead, they're accustomed to cashing their pension checks at the counter. Now, even the automated teller machines are out of money. The owners of Snoras, Russian financier Vladimir Antonov and a Lithuanian partner, have been accused of using the bank's capital on business deals, including to buy Swedish carmaker Saab - a deal that fell through. Antonov has since been detained in London. | 7 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 55 | CleanVideoTurkey: "Ala" - "Vogue" for Muslim Women | The new magazine "Ala" is the first Turkish fashion magazine targeting religious Muslims. The model on the cover is wearing a headscarf and inside many of the women are covered up too.But, other than that, the glossy magazine bears a strong resemblance to its famous role model "Vogue". It features ads from brands such as Gucci, Dolce Gabbana and H&M, as well as style tips and articles about working women and health issues. "Ala" is a sign of the growing economic influence of Turkey's religious conservatives -- but also of the new self-confidence of Turkish women who choose to wear the headscarf. | 7 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 55 Episodes |
