Asia Calling

A very special final episode of Asia Calling. Some of our long standing reporters look back over particularly powerful moments of reporting in the region - revisiting stories that have shaped them, and rediscovering the most inspiring voices they’ve brought to the airwaves. We also have a very unique audio diary, from an Indonesian woman in central Australia, learning an Aboriginal language. And we hear from the people that have made all of this possible over the years, Asia Calling’s past editors.

A rarely heard eye witness account from the most controversial night in Indonesia’s history - and it’s far cry from what most Indonesians have come to know. We also meet India’s toilet man, who’s on a tireless quest to bring toilets and sanitation to a country where half the population defecates in the open. And later in the program, we revisit our award winning story on Sri Lanka’s elephant orphanage.

After a long time in the making, Australia has legalized same sex marriage. We take a look at the debate. While in The Philippines, another long awaited law is in the making: The country’s first mental health law, which will promise comprehensive mental health care to all Filipinos. And at the end of the show, we hear from Afghan women poets who are risking it all to put pen to paper and write about love.

A group of Turkish teachers in Pakistan have had their schools closed down, and are now being hunted by their own government. The iconic single humped camels of India’s deserts are fast disappearing. We look at some creative strategies to keep their numbers up!

We hear from Tibet’s President in exile. On how the double threat of climate change and Chinese development are putting Tibet’s ecosystem in peril Ending the shame and stigma around menstruation in India. And Indonesian women modeling bigger and better beauty standards.

Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers are in a stand off with the Australian government, living without food, water and power in a detention centre in Papua New Guinea. We hear from those men. We also take a look at a new initiative that supports Indigenous people to secure their land and use it as they see fit. And if you’ve got a few pent-up frustrations, stay tuned. Later in the show we visit a café in India where you can unleash your anger by smashing things.

South Korea is cracking down on corruption, but not everyone is happy about it. In India, an incredible Indigenous man is regenerating water supplies in drought ridden country. He’s using ancient wisdom to find solutions to one of the country’s greatest challenges. And traditional music is experiencing a resurgence in Afghanistan.

Links are being forged between The Philippines and Thailand, as campaigners look to learn from past experience and find ways to bring extrajudicial killings to an end. In India, we get a taste of the world’s largest free lunch program, which is feeding almost 100 million school kids every day. And first up, the case of an abducted publisher and bookseller from Hong Kong, one of the victims of Chinese President Xi Jingping’s crackdown on media freedoms.

Indian villagers are sitting up to their shoulders in water, in a dangerous protest against a massive dam that’s been 60 years in the making. In Timor Leste, the memory of 5 journalists murdered during Indonesian invasion, 42 years ago, continues to inspire a new generation of reporters. And later on the show, we catch up with a Buddhist nun in Korea who has made a name for herself as a celebrity chef.

After a 5 month long siege, the southern Philippines city of Marawi was finally declared liberated. But with the city in ruins, massive challenges lie ahead. And in India, a landmark court case has declared that sex with a minor, within marriage is now considered rape. Many hope the ruling is the first step to criminalizing child marriage, and marital rape altogether. Later in the show we hear from an inspiring Japanese-American legal activist.

Attackers cutting off women’s hair and disappearing. In the Indian controlled Kashmir Valley, the strange attacks have sparked more unrest. Philippines President Duterte, has been called ‘The Punisher’ for his brutal approach to drugs. But now he is beginning to be punished in the polls… as children and teenagers are murdered in his bloody war on drugs. And in Australia, an Aboriginal activist walks his talk. Travelling 6000 kilometres across the country by foot to raise awareness of Indigenous issues.

This week, a special edition, where we focus on food sovereignty and water security. We meet fierce Indigenous women in India’s eastern state of Odisha, who are fighting against cash crops overtaking their land. In Indonesia, Indigenous methods of rice growing keeping one community self sufficient. While in Pakistan arsenic in the water supply threatens to poison up to 60 million people. We look at some solutions to the world’s growing water problems.

On the show this week, we continue to follow the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. This week from India, where the Hindu nationalist government is promising to send Rohingya back to Myanmar, where they’re likely to face extreme violence and persecution. We take a look at Thai politics, and the impact of one very influential family of billionaires. And the ancient art of herbal medicine in Afghanistan.

From Bangladesh, we hear from the Rohingya who have fled their homes to save their lives, but are still struggling for survival in makeshift camps. And inside Myanmar, we ask why it is the Rohingya, one of Myanmar’s many ethnic minority groups, have never been accepted. An outspoken Indian journalist murdered. What does it say about freedom of the press in the world’s largest democracy? And in the US, the undocumented migrants that have become President Trump’s political pawns.

Asia is home to some of the biggest and most vibrant cities in the world. This week, we hear from a few fascinating pockets of urban life. We catch up with the Pakistani women who are fighting for the right to enter cinemas. And in Indonesia, women who are getting on motorbikes, and taking on the male dominated world of motorcycle taxis! We take a trip to Hong Kong’s Little Thailand. And, how fast food is impacting India’s vibrant culinary culture.

More than 150 000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh in the last 2 weeks. We ask if the international community’s focus on Aung San Suu Kyi’s silence is a useful response to the tragedy. When a border was drawn between India and Pakistan 70 years ago, a horrific, bloody mass migration unfolded. We visit India’s new Partition Museum, that aims to tell the personal stories behind that momentous historical event. A food bank in Indonesia bridging the wide divide between rich and poor.

Australia’s First People are still searching for recognition in a country that has never come to terms with its violent past. We take a look at the latest push to acknowledge Indigenous Australians. We speak to young South Koreans, who are extremely educated, but are going through an unemployment ice age. And a hospital in the conflict-rattled Gaza strip, which was built by Indonesians, in a show of friendship and solidarity with Palestinians.

Young Afghan refugees in Sweden hold a 2-week long protest – a peaceful sit-in, as they plead not to be sent back to Afghanistan, where conflict continues to mount. In Pakistan, ousted Prime Minister Sharif has announced he will challenge the Supreme Court ruling that has disqualified him from office. Our correspondent asks why it is that not a single civilian Prime Minister has served a full term in the country. And in Thailand, we meet the refugees and migrant workers who are uniting across ethnic lines that divided them in their home country Myanmar.

India recently elected an ‘untouchable’ President, that is, someone from the lowest caste has the highest office in the country. But at the same time, ‘untouchables’ are still forced to do the worst jobs, clean toilets and sewers in unhygienic and inhumane conditions. Hundreds die doing their job every year. We consider the contradictions of India’s caste system. In Afghanistan, we take a look at the impact of foreign funding on media, and what happens when the money dries up. We visit an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia has become an unlikely refuge for people recovering from drug addiction and mental health issues. Welcoming people from all backgrounds, it’s now known as the ‘Islamic Boarding School for Repentant Metal Heads.’

From Australia, plans to build the country’s biggest ever coal mine have ignited a fierce debate. At stake is the future of one of the country’s best known marine environments, The Great Barrier Reef, and concerns over climate change. This week Indonesia prepares to celebrate Independence Day – which marks 72 years of freedom from colonial rule. But in the far east of the country, some Papuans see Indonesia as a kind of colonial power. We speak with former political prisoner and Papuan activist, Filep Karma. And on the Thai-Myanmar border, we meet refugees who have spent generation living in camps.