Call Me Stormy

Finding righteous currents in turbulent times

Archive for the tag “SBS Australia”

09 Jul 2013

Palau’s Bomb Squads

In just four years, 23,000 WW2 bombs have been removed from tourist haven Palau. Yet with thousands more littering the island, the legacy of battle remains a deadly threat to people, economy and environment.

“Over there in the mangroves is a 100kg bomb sticking out,” points Steve Ballinger of the demining organization Cleared Ground. The inhabitants of the island are still coming to grips with the extent of the threat. Every search uncovers more bombs: in the waters, caves and even people’s backyards. Acid leaking out of the bombs poisons the water and the animals that people eat. As the race to remove the bombs becomes more hazardous, this report from SBS Australia captures the dangerous task of cleaning up an old mess.

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13 Nov 2012

Looking for Love in China

In a strange paradox, the most successful class of women in China is having trouble landing mates, or even dates. This in a country where there’s a pronounced gender gap with 118 men for every 100 women. Conservative cultural norms are partly at the root of the problem. In China, if a woman is too independent, she can be ostracized. She’s also likely to be labeled “leftover” if she’s over 28.

It means that most successful women struggle to get a date and with a third of China’s millionaires now female, an increasing number of China’s women are prioritizing their work life. The result is “200 million singles in China and it keeps growing,” as Johnny Du, the CEO of one of China’s top internet dating sites, explains. Du says the women also set the bar too high. “Woman are really picky; they want the man to be very rich, young, handsome, educated.” SBS Australia and Journeyman Pictures report.

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05 Oct 2012

Russian Protesters Still Defiant

Despite the jailing of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot and government crackdowns on dissidents, anti-Putin protesters haven’t abandoned their fight for greater civil liberties in Russia. SBS Dateline from Australia reports from Moscow on the opposition movement.

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02 Sep 2012

Drug Crazed

How come US authorities waited so long to ban the insidious designer drugs known collectively as “bath salts?” Why did bath salts remain legal after users began to exhibit signs of advanced psychosis and schizophrenia, sometimes running nude in the streets or violently attacking total strangers?

Reporter Nick Lazaredes from SBS Dateline in Australia journeys to America to investigate the bath salts epidemic and the belated efforts of authorities to control the sale and distribution of these drugs, designed to provide a cheap alternative to cocaine and methamphetamine.

Similar in chemical composition to “meow meow,” another designer drug banned in Great Britain in 2010, most bath salts appear to be coming from China. Under-the-counter sales of the drugs have been linked to smoke shops and convenience stores in cities across the United States. One of the reasons they have been tough to control: As soon as lawmakers ban specific chemicals found in bath salts, the chemists manufacturing the drugs will simply tweak their formulas to create different compounds not covered under the ban.

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Meanwhile, Hank Snow, host of the SciShow, briefs us on the science behind how bath salts affect our brains and bodies.

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