Gap Between Race and Wealth Widens

Published on Mar 8, 2013
Despite platitudes about living in a race-blind society, a new study from Brandeis University shows that the wealth gap between Whites and Blacks tripled in the last 25 years. The study surveyed 1,700 households of working age between 1984 and 2009. There’s no better to see how wealth and race meet face-to-face than Washington, DC. RT producer Gavino Garay sits down with Maurice Jackson, Professor of African American Studies at Georgetown University, to understand why, after so many years of racial ‘equality,’ Blacks are nowhere near the same socioeconomic status as Whites.

We Had No Idea He Was Homeless – Blackboard Wars

Published on Feb 16, 2013
When a student shows up to school out of dress code, the guidance counselor discovers that his disheveled demeanor is because he is currently homeless and does not have a place to wash his clothes.

Smartphones come to Ugandan farmers’ aid

Technology helps subsistence farmers solve issues with livestock diseases and keep track of market prices.

Published on Feb 16, 2013
Africa has the world’s fastest growing mobile phone market in the world.

Ronnie Dunn – Cost Of Livin’ (2011)

LYRICS
Everythin’ to know about me
Is written on this page
A number you can reach me
My social and my age

Yes, I served in the army
It’s where I learned to shoot
Eighteen months in the desert
Pourin’ sand out of my boots

No, I’ve never been convicted of a crime
I could start this job at any time

I got a strong back, steel toes
I rarely call in sick, a good truck
What I don’t know I catch on real quick
I work weekends, if I have to, nights and holidays

Give you forty and then some
Whatever it takes
Three dollars and change at the pump
The cost of livin’s high and goin’ up

I put Robert down as a reference
He’s known me all my life
We attend the same church
He introduced me to my wife

I gave my last job everythin’
Before it headed south
Took the shoes off of my children’s feet
Food out of their mouths

Yesterday my folks offered to help
But they’re barely gettin’ by themselves

I got a strong back, steel toes
I rarely call in sick, a good truck
What I don’t know I catch on real quick
I work weekends, if I have to, nights and holidays

Give you forty and then some
Whatever it takes
Three dollars and change at the pump
The cost of livin’s high and goin’ up

I’m sure a hundred others have applied
But rumor has it you’re only takin’ five

I got a strong back, steel toes
I’m handy with a wrench
There’s nothin’ I can’t drive
There’s nothin’ I can’t fix

I work sunup to sundown
Ain’t too proud to sweep the floors
The bank has started callin’
And the wolves are at my door

Three dollars and change at the pump
The cost of livin’s high and goin’ up

True Believers in Justice: A Young Public Defender’s Struggle in the South

Published on Jan 24, 2013
The filmmaker Dawn Porter follows Travis Williams, a young public defender in the Deep South, who struggles against long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads to bring justice to all.

DC School Delivers a Good Education for African-Americans Girls

Published on Feb 2, 2013
A school in Washington DC is making a difference for young African-American girls. Many of their families live below the poverty line of $35,000 for a family of four, in communities where more than half of all students drop out before they reach high school. VOA’s Chris Simkins has more on how this special school is turning around the lives of girls.

Too Short – The Ghetto (1990)

Germany: Homeless Students

Published on Nov 29, 2012 by deutschewelleenglish
Affordable housing is becoming increasingly hard to find in Germany’s big cities. The main reason is the euro crisis; those who can afford it are buying – because property is seen as a safe investment. Big cities like Hamburg have a shortage of affordable housing. Students and trainees are hardest hit, as are low-income families. Many of those affected have no choice but to stay with their relatives, and/or are forced to commute long distances. The authorities have pledged to invest in new building projects – but finding vacant plots of land in cities isn’t always easy

More Afghan Opium May Mean More Pakistani Addicts

Published on Nov 28, 2012 by VOAvideo
In addition to economic challenges and insurgent violence, analysts say Pakistan is facing a growing drug problem that is likely to worsen after international troops leave neighboring Afghanistan, the world’s leading opium producer. The opium and derivatives come to Pakistan from neighboring Afghanistan. Sharon Behn reports on the impact that narcotics, which are easily available, are having on Pakistani society.

Growing Up in a Still-Wounded South Africa

Published on Nov 28, 2012 by TheNewYorkTimes
The filmmaker Nadine Cloete explores childhood in a part of South Africa plagued by gang culture and violence.

Eric B. & Rakim – In The Ghetto (1990)

Euro-Crisis: Separatist Movements Mount

Published on Nov 11, 2012 by deutschewelleenglish
It’s tough times in the EU. In the face of stunning austerity, separatist movements are blossoming all across the Union. They believe, they would do better on their own. Is this the end of unity? It’s tough times in the EU. In the face of stunning austerity, separatist movements are blossoming all across the Union. They believe, they would do better on their own. Is this the end of unity?

Money woes limit Irish abortion options

Published on Nov 3, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
Many countries are condemned in the West for organised religion and its effect on peoples lives. Societies throw their arms up in horror if countries like Iran or Afghanistan deny women basic rights. They tend, however, not to mention Ireland. In Ireland, a woman cannot have an abortion if she has been raped. She cannot have an abortion if the man who made her pregnant is beating her. She cannot have an abortion if the baby will die outside her body. She cannot even have an abortion if the fact of being pregnant is in some way threatening to her life. The absolute ban on abortion in Ireland creates some very stark choices for women. The choice has traditionally been for women to travel, often alone, to England for a termination. There is just one small organisation which exists to help women who want an abortion but cannot afford it, but it is in England. Requests for financial help have tripled in three years, mirroring Ireland’s financial crisis, as women discover they are pregnant with a baby they cannot support and with no recourse to help where they live. Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee reports from Dublin.

People & Power – America’s prison problem

Published on Nov 1, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
The US locks up more people than any other country in the world, spending over $80bn each year to keep some two million prisoners behind bars. Over the past three decades, tough sentencing laws have contributed to a doubling of the country’s prison population, with laws like the ‘Three Strikes and You’re Out’ mandating life sentences for a wide range of crimes.

The politics of global food security

Published on Nov 1, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
Researchers are warning that rising global temperatures could see a shift in the world’s traditional staples and who grows them. They predict that maize, wheat and rice will decrease in many developing countries – forcing farmers to replace them with crops more resistant to heat, drought and flooding.