south africa

It's not a year since the earthquake rocked Haiti and destroyed homes and cities, leaving people in desperate situations. And now as elections are approaching, Haitians face a cholera outbreak on top of everything. Nicolas Rossier, an award winning independent filmmaker and reporter whose latest films include American Radical and Aristide and the Endless Revolution, spoke to exiled former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide about the situation in his country and brought us an exclusive first look at his two-hour conversation. Rossier joins Laura in studio to discuss the situation in Haiti, Aristide's enforced exile in South Africa, and why his party, still popular in Haiti, isn't allowed to participate in the upcoming election. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Expectations were high following the end of South African apartheid. Yet, even though the ANC promised to redistribute 30% of the land in 5 years, by 2000 less than 5% of the land was redistributed. Despite the alleged end to the apartheid regime, there were still familial and ancestral ties to the land compounded by pervading racism. Yoruba Richen made the film, “Promised Land,” to explore the black, the white, and the shades of gray of post apartheid tensions. The film follows the Mekgareng, and impoverished tribe, removed from their land forty years ago as they try to reclaim their land from wealthy, white farmers and developers. The land issue becomes a “ticking time bomb,” posing an ever-present threat to volatile post-apartheid South Africa. Yoruba Richen joins us in the studio to describe the politics and process of her research and film-making, and South Africa as it exists today.

The Kick It Up project at GlobalGirl Media has trained high school girls from South Africa and Los Angeles as videographers and reporters at the World Cup of soccer in South Africa. We are proud to play the first of several clips from opening day at the Soweto Fanpark, where the girls speak to fans and supporters about what the World Cup means, to them and to their country.

“Violence is the product of the polarized nature of our society,” says South African scholar Adam Habib on the killing of white supremacist leader Eugene Terre'Blanche; a triple suicide bombing targets foreign embassies in Iraq; and US non-citizen war vets face deportation despite military promises of citizenship. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.