It looks as if I have missed out on the fourth of Simon Reeve’s six programme circumnavigation of the world along the Tropic of Cancer. The country visited was India about which I know something of its history, people and the challenge of improving the welfare of its way as part of internal capitalism. However Simon Reeve has a unique style which captures the essence of a nation, its people and its problems, concentrating on the gulf between rich and poor, the extent to which the people are free or oppressed, the impact of climate change and the affects of population growth and economic development on the animals, birds and fishes.
Whereas I have a basic knowledge of India and Pakistan, that of Bangladesh was limited, especially that its population is over 160 million, the seventh most populated and one of the most densely populated countries in the world. While successive democratic governments have made progress in reducing the numbers in poverty it remains one of the poorest countries. We think of the British Islands as over populated with concerns that the total could rise to over 70 million, yet in Bangladesh 160 million live in an area smaller than England Wales and where over 50% of the land area floods every year, with 700 rivers including the upper reaches of the Ganges.
Simon went the capital city of Dhaka by boat, a city with 13 million now but expected to double. On the way he stopped to watch a riverside village attempt to stop the erosion of its land, erosion which is making one hundred people homeless every year and which Simon argued was being caused by climate change from the melting of the polar icecaps. It was in the city that he experienced the reality of life for children, with thousands living on the streets searching through waste for discarded tins, plastic and other materials which they can sell to recycling shops in order to buy food.
He was then shown a small recycling furnace in which broken glass was converted in small glass bottles in which the young boys assisted the operation working in 40 C plus temperature in order to earn a small bag of rice for their families a day. The United Nations Children’s organisation UNICEF has had to compromise and instead of insisting that children are not employed, arrange for them to have a few hours off in which to attend a centre where they receive a nourishing midday meal, are able to shower, play games and given simple instructions. Before leaving Simon endeared himself to a local community by joining in the national sport of wrestling.
This was an interlude before embarking on his most dangerous visit of both series. His contact was a young Burmese woman living in India because at home she had a price on head from the military junta. Burma was a British colony from 1886 after Rangoon, the capital, and Southern Burma had been incorporated in 1853. Burma was granted self government in 1937 and then became independent from the UK in 1948. In 1962 nearly 50 years ago there was a military coup d’etat and aspects of society- business, media and production were nationalised and brought under government control using a Revolutionary Council. In order to try and legitimise their power an attempt was made in 1942 to create a single party political system in which the military resigned and stood as civilian candidates. Some 300000 Burmese Indians were forced to leave the country and this was followed by hundreds of thousands of Burmese Muslims. There was a further military coup in 1988 in which thousands of people were killed and the country changed its name to Myanmar, not recognised by the UK the USA, France, Australia and Canada.
The main concern remains the lack of basic human rights with the large army using sections of the population as slave labour, estimated at 800000 by the International Labour Office and with reports of major brutality, including rape and forced prostitution. Resistance from Buddhist monks in 2007 was ruthlessly put down and the leader of the opposition to the military has been under House arrest for the greater part of the last decade and subsequently charged with politically motivated offences. Britain and the USA have led pressure for tighter sanctions on Burma but other countries, particularly India have resisted and it is known that India has been selling arms to the Burmese dictatorship. This I find extraordinary.
Because of isolation and mismanagement the country remains one of the poorest in Asia with life based around the village outside of the capital city. Simon Reeve made his way through northern India crossing a river into the country when he walked along tracks to reach an isolated village where a community help organisation was bringing health checks and medicines. There is no road structure in the area. He had to leave during the night following reports of approaching interest by the military who it has to be presumed have established a net work of informants to gain information about indications of opposition or the presence of outsiders.
The last Programme proved just as moving and challenging. The Tropic of Cancer cuts through Southern China but Simon and team were refused admission and forced to travel through Northern Laos. This was a smart move by the Chinese Government as it enabled Simon to reveal that the United States of America had dropped millions of tons of bombs including the infamous cluster bombs which cover a 30 metre radius and which given the population meant each individual had to avoid hundreds of tons of explosives. If this was not bad enough hundreds of thousands of the bombs and other munitions now lay unexploded killing several hundred men, women and children every year. An international organisation does defuse the bombs when they are detected several decades after they were dropped, but why the USA did not set about demonstrating its peaceful attentions by sending teams to make the ground safe should be beyond comprehension. Alas it is not.
At the end of the film on a deserted Hawaiian Island beach to which Simon had been taken by helicopter we were shown the extent to which the sand was becoming colourful plastic. The spot was miles from human habitation and the islands are thousands of miles from mainland’s on either side the biggest ocean on the Earth planet. Given that the plastic is primarily a twentieth century product, the series ended on a pessimistic note.(Cellulite products were developed from 1855, Bakelite pre second World War, Polystyrene and PVC and then the various developments of recent times including recyclable and biodegradable material). A major theme of the series is the extent to which humans in the economically developed nations have created the problem through pollution and climate change and making other changes to the natural habitat
In the programme Simon visited the independent island people of Taiwan about a third of the size of the Britain in terms of area and population but which now has one of the best standards of living in the world having effectively cornered the High Tech production industry with the production of lap top computers the best known example. It also boasts one of the best education systems with an emphasis on maths and sciences according to Mr Reeve. I must admit that I had no understanding of the position until seeing the programme and undertaking some research. It is a country head and shoulders from all the others visited along the Tropic and which as Mr Reeve pointed out usually comprise undernourished peasants and slum dwellers, many illiterate and in ill health, the subject of corrupt and ruthless governments and criminal gangs. He claimed that the ordinary people of Taiwan were richer and freer than and everyone looked happy as they went about their business with his visit to the Tropic of Cancer school a great delight.
The marrying of communist and capitalist enterprise was also evident in Laos where along the Mekong River there are a growing number of Chinese traders following the role of the 19th century British merchant adventurer. Simon was taken to a new hotel and casino complex costing £80 million as the first part of the development of a one hundred square kilometre site by a group of Chinese entrepreneurs. The Las Vegas of the Jungle!
I was disappointed with the visit to Vietnam and Hanoi although the two examples of life he picked out may represent what the country is becoming. He was taken along by his guide to one of the many new golf courses where membership could be bought for $18000 dollars for twenty five years and then to a street in Hanoi full of those keeping bears in small cages in order to farm their intestine bile which is used as part of natural medicines. He then went to a rescue centre where the animals are being given medical treatment before being helped to live more naturally in a protected environment.
The theme of series has been the plight of the ordinary people, of wildlife and the environment. In Laos known as the land of a million elephants the number is rapidly diminishing with some 700 to 1000 in the wild and 500 harnessed into working as slave labourers in logging where they are worn out and unable to build up their strength and allowed to have the time to produce offspring. On Hawaii Simon visited a bird sanctuary which is attempting protect a number of endangered species and where the laying of an egg was treated with acclaim and is followed by night and day after care when the egg is hatched. If only all humans could be given such attention in most of he countries which Simon visited. It is good that so far all the three major political parties have been given commitments to keep present public expenditure on international Aid. Well done Simon Reeve and the BBC. Hopefully his previous series will be repeated and a new venture planned.
Whereas I have a basic knowledge of India and Pakistan, that of Bangladesh was limited, especially that its population is over 160 million, the seventh most populated and one of the most densely populated countries in the world. While successive democratic governments have made progress in reducing the numbers in poverty it remains one of the poorest countries. We think of the British Islands as over populated with concerns that the total could rise to over 70 million, yet in Bangladesh 160 million live in an area smaller than England Wales and where over 50% of the land area floods every year, with 700 rivers including the upper reaches of the Ganges.
Simon went the capital city of Dhaka by boat, a city with 13 million now but expected to double. On the way he stopped to watch a riverside village attempt to stop the erosion of its land, erosion which is making one hundred people homeless every year and which Simon argued was being caused by climate change from the melting of the polar icecaps. It was in the city that he experienced the reality of life for children, with thousands living on the streets searching through waste for discarded tins, plastic and other materials which they can sell to recycling shops in order to buy food.
He was then shown a small recycling furnace in which broken glass was converted in small glass bottles in which the young boys assisted the operation working in 40 C plus temperature in order to earn a small bag of rice for their families a day. The United Nations Children’s organisation UNICEF has had to compromise and instead of insisting that children are not employed, arrange for them to have a few hours off in which to attend a centre where they receive a nourishing midday meal, are able to shower, play games and given simple instructions. Before leaving Simon endeared himself to a local community by joining in the national sport of wrestling.
This was an interlude before embarking on his most dangerous visit of both series. His contact was a young Burmese woman living in India because at home she had a price on head from the military junta. Burma was a British colony from 1886 after Rangoon, the capital, and Southern Burma had been incorporated in 1853. Burma was granted self government in 1937 and then became independent from the UK in 1948. In 1962 nearly 50 years ago there was a military coup d’etat and aspects of society- business, media and production were nationalised and brought under government control using a Revolutionary Council. In order to try and legitimise their power an attempt was made in 1942 to create a single party political system in which the military resigned and stood as civilian candidates. Some 300000 Burmese Indians were forced to leave the country and this was followed by hundreds of thousands of Burmese Muslims. There was a further military coup in 1988 in which thousands of people were killed and the country changed its name to Myanmar, not recognised by the UK the USA, France, Australia and Canada.
The main concern remains the lack of basic human rights with the large army using sections of the population as slave labour, estimated at 800000 by the International Labour Office and with reports of major brutality, including rape and forced prostitution. Resistance from Buddhist monks in 2007 was ruthlessly put down and the leader of the opposition to the military has been under House arrest for the greater part of the last decade and subsequently charged with politically motivated offences. Britain and the USA have led pressure for tighter sanctions on Burma but other countries, particularly India have resisted and it is known that India has been selling arms to the Burmese dictatorship. This I find extraordinary.
Because of isolation and mismanagement the country remains one of the poorest in Asia with life based around the village outside of the capital city. Simon Reeve made his way through northern India crossing a river into the country when he walked along tracks to reach an isolated village where a community help organisation was bringing health checks and medicines. There is no road structure in the area. He had to leave during the night following reports of approaching interest by the military who it has to be presumed have established a net work of informants to gain information about indications of opposition or the presence of outsiders.
The last Programme proved just as moving and challenging. The Tropic of Cancer cuts through Southern China but Simon and team were refused admission and forced to travel through Northern Laos. This was a smart move by the Chinese Government as it enabled Simon to reveal that the United States of America had dropped millions of tons of bombs including the infamous cluster bombs which cover a 30 metre radius and which given the population meant each individual had to avoid hundreds of tons of explosives. If this was not bad enough hundreds of thousands of the bombs and other munitions now lay unexploded killing several hundred men, women and children every year. An international organisation does defuse the bombs when they are detected several decades after they were dropped, but why the USA did not set about demonstrating its peaceful attentions by sending teams to make the ground safe should be beyond comprehension. Alas it is not.
At the end of the film on a deserted Hawaiian Island beach to which Simon had been taken by helicopter we were shown the extent to which the sand was becoming colourful plastic. The spot was miles from human habitation and the islands are thousands of miles from mainland’s on either side the biggest ocean on the Earth planet. Given that the plastic is primarily a twentieth century product, the series ended on a pessimistic note.(Cellulite products were developed from 1855, Bakelite pre second World War, Polystyrene and PVC and then the various developments of recent times including recyclable and biodegradable material). A major theme of the series is the extent to which humans in the economically developed nations have created the problem through pollution and climate change and making other changes to the natural habitat
In the programme Simon visited the independent island people of Taiwan about a third of the size of the Britain in terms of area and population but which now has one of the best standards of living in the world having effectively cornered the High Tech production industry with the production of lap top computers the best known example. It also boasts one of the best education systems with an emphasis on maths and sciences according to Mr Reeve. I must admit that I had no understanding of the position until seeing the programme and undertaking some research. It is a country head and shoulders from all the others visited along the Tropic and which as Mr Reeve pointed out usually comprise undernourished peasants and slum dwellers, many illiterate and in ill health, the subject of corrupt and ruthless governments and criminal gangs. He claimed that the ordinary people of Taiwan were richer and freer than and everyone looked happy as they went about their business with his visit to the Tropic of Cancer school a great delight.
The marrying of communist and capitalist enterprise was also evident in Laos where along the Mekong River there are a growing number of Chinese traders following the role of the 19th century British merchant adventurer. Simon was taken to a new hotel and casino complex costing £80 million as the first part of the development of a one hundred square kilometre site by a group of Chinese entrepreneurs. The Las Vegas of the Jungle!
I was disappointed with the visit to Vietnam and Hanoi although the two examples of life he picked out may represent what the country is becoming. He was taken along by his guide to one of the many new golf courses where membership could be bought for $18000 dollars for twenty five years and then to a street in Hanoi full of those keeping bears in small cages in order to farm their intestine bile which is used as part of natural medicines. He then went to a rescue centre where the animals are being given medical treatment before being helped to live more naturally in a protected environment.
The theme of series has been the plight of the ordinary people, of wildlife and the environment. In Laos known as the land of a million elephants the number is rapidly diminishing with some 700 to 1000 in the wild and 500 harnessed into working as slave labourers in logging where they are worn out and unable to build up their strength and allowed to have the time to produce offspring. On Hawaii Simon visited a bird sanctuary which is attempting protect a number of endangered species and where the laying of an egg was treated with acclaim and is followed by night and day after care when the egg is hatched. If only all humans could be given such attention in most of he countries which Simon visited. It is good that so far all the three major political parties have been given commitments to keep present public expenditure on international Aid. Well done Simon Reeve and the BBC. Hopefully his previous series will be repeated and a new venture planned.
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