Iowa Public Television

Global 3000

Harvesting Nepal's 25,000 Water Mills for Electricy (#420)

The Power of Music - How an artist is preserving South African tradition: Fewer and fewer people in South Africa are interested in the traditional music of their homeland. Dizu Plaatjies is working to turn this around. Dizu Plaatjies teaches African music performance at the University of Cape Town. He also founded the Ibuyambo Music and Art Exhibition Center, which aims to keep traditional culture alive in the modern day.

Undocumented - the struggles of the Roma people in Macedonia: In 1999, Macedonia was confronted with hundreds of thousands of refugees who had fled Kosovo. Many of them were Roma and stayed in the capital city of Skopje. We take a look at one of Skopje's 10 municipalities -and one that is home to many Roma. Šuto Orizari is home to over 22, 000 people and also has the largest Roma settlement in the world. Living conditions are poor and most are unemployed. Ljatife Sikovska is Roma herself and wants to help improve the situation for her community. She does this with her organization "Ambrela", which offers programs on education, human rights and gender equality.

Nepal - Efficient water mills produce electricity: How can traditional forms of technology be developed to become more environmentally friendly? In Nepal, farmers have been grinding rice and grains with water mills, called ghattas, for centuries. Now they're being converted to become more energy-efficient and even to produce electricity. Nepal has about 25,000 traditional water mills scattered throughout the country. 6,500 of them already have been converted. These new and improved water mills are a climate-friendly alternative, and could serve as a model for other countries in Asia. [26 minutes]

This episode has not aired in the past few months on Iowa Public Television.