Do we live on a bubble? Is it possible for the heavily indebted American economy to collapse and take all of us down in a free fall with it? Have the days of the dollar been counted? Is it really unimaginable that we will see the time of the Great Depression repeating itself? VPRO Backlight and Dutch national newspaper NRC Handelsblad present this ‘what if’ scenario. What if the dollar collapses?
What we think about diamonds, is in fact, a myth. At the center of that myth is an illusion, that diamonds are valuable because they are rare. When writer Edward Epstein set out to investigate the diamond trade, he discovered that diamonds aren’t rare at all. Second only to Christmas, Valentine’s Day is the holiday when diamonds are most often given as the ultimate token of love. Central to the di
He had one regret in his life which was being too late to save a young Nepalese girl from prostitution. So he and his brothers decided to make a career out of fighting trafficking, AIDS and female foeticide. Against the apathy of social service agencies and the authorities, the three men went against the tide of conventions to rescue girls from their abductors, teach prostitutes about AIDS prevent
In 1966, General Motors, the most powerful corporation in the world, sent private investigators to dig up dirt on an obscure thirty-two year old public interest lawyer named Ralph Nader, who had written a book critical of one of their cars, the Corvair. The scandal that ensued after the smear campaign was revealed launched Ralph Nader into national prominence and established him as one of the most
Can you launch a nuclear missile by whistling into a payphone? The unofficial story of Kevin Mitnick, possibly the first citizen in American history to be jailed without a bail-hearing. He went to jail for nothing more than copying software, but was "convicted" by the media both for breaking into NORAD as well as causing millions of dollars in damage to a software-company. This documentary introdu
Political commentator Peter Hitchens takes a look at how the recent avalanche of security legislation has affected the civil liberties of ordinary people in Britain.The result, Hitchens explains, is that we are sleepwalking into a Big Brother state. Travelling across Britain, Hitchens meets ordinary people who have suffered needlessly because of new legislation and increased police powers.
The abnormal conditions of jail life cause some inmates to look for and find love in different ways.
Could it be that Nostradamus, the “go to” prophet of all time, is reaching forward into the 21st century to give us a last warning? Is it already too late? In 1994, Italian journalist Enza Massa was at the Italian National Library in Rome conducting research on old texts, when she stumbled upon an unusual find in its stacks; a mysterious manuscript dating to 1629. The name of the book was surprisi
For five months Brian Deer has followed the personal story of Ryan Wilson, who nearly died in the trial. When Ryan was brought out of a two-and-a-half week coma he was told he had suffered irreparable damage to his hands and feet during his fight for life. With exclusive access to the 20-year-old trainee plumber, Dispatches captures the events of that day and the impact it has had on Ryan and thos