Al Jazeera World

The Venezuelan people struggle to cope with the toxic effects of hyperinflation, severe debt and chronic food and medicine shortages, as Venezuela - once the wealthiest country in the region - is mired in the worst economic crisis in its history. "Venezuelans today cannot eat. You see people eating from the garbage," says Professor Margarita Lopez Maya, Central University of Venezuela. So how does a country boasting the world's largest oil reserves find itself on the brink of economic ruin? It's the country's very history that sheds light on what has gone so drastically wrong in Venezuela today. When Hugo Chavez was elected president in December 1998, he promised to tackle corruption and poverty. He used Venezuela's rapidly growing oil wealth to set up social programmes, known as the Misiones, with the aim of eradicating poverty and reducing inequality. It was, many claimed, a much-needed intervention in the entrenched disparity between Venezuela's rich and poor. As Chavez strived to transform the nation with what he called 21st century socialism, his populist policies began to take a more radical turn. He nationalised industries and bloated state bureaucracy at great national expense, all funded by high oil prices and unchecked borrowing. Venezuela became saddled with record-high levels of debt. By the time of his death in March 2013, Chavez handed over both the reins of power to his handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro, as well as the poisoned chalice of an economy about to implode. "Maduro has inherited a legacy of oil dependence at a period when Venezuela has gone bust, and at a time where the oil price has gone bust," says Professor Julia Buxton, author of The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela, adding that Maduro "has simply not addressed any of the problems or the legacy that he inherited from President Chavez." "The collapse of economic activity makes this period, from 2013 onwards, the largest recession in Western Hemisphere history - significantly larger, almost twice as large as the Great Depression of the US," says Ricardo Hausmann, former Venezuelan minister for planning. The IMF predicts that in 2018, the Venezuelan economy will contract by 15 percent, and inflation will reach 13,000 percent. But will those now tasked with governing a struggling nation learn any lessons from its troubled past? - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

For more than four-and-a-half years, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani has been in limbo on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG). He was sent there by Australia in 2013, after he tried to reach its shores by boat. As a journalist in Iran, Boochani published stories that promoted the Kurdish language and culture. He co-founded a Kurdish magazine, but after its offices were raided and several of his colleagues were arrested and accused of undermining the Iranian state, Boochani fled, fearing for his safety. "I fell into trouble with the government ... I hid myself for more than a month in Tehran in a friend's house," says Boochani. "After that I received some information that they [were] going to arrest me too and they [had] some plan ... I decided to leave Iran." He travelled through south-east Asia and then by boat from Indonesia to the Australian territory of Christmas Island. But while his boat was at sea, the Australian government announced a new radical immigration policy - denying settlement to all asylum seekers arriving "illegally" by boat. Soon after his arrival on Christmas Island, Boochani was deported to Australia's new offshore 'processing centre' on Manus Island. It was part of a deal in which PNG - in exchange for billions of dollars - would accommodate asylum seekers who tried to reach Australia until their claims to be refugees were decided. "When we arrived they put us in a temporary place and they didn't allow us to call our family....I thought I arrived in Australia as a free country, [but] after 20 days, they said 'we are going to exile you to Manus Island and you must live there forever or you go back to your country'," recalls Boochani. Australia's detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru have been criticised for its poor conditions by human rights groups including Amnesty International, who recently published a report criticising Australia's immigration policy as one of 'cruelty and neglect'. "For us, it's a prison, [it's] even worse than a prison," he says, describing his experience as "systematic torture". "Six people already died under this policy in this prison camp.... Their policy was to create hate... They were happy for people in Manus prison to hate Australia, to forget Australia." Following a ruling by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea in October 2017, the camp was closed. Medical and support staff left, power and water supplies were disconnected. But most refugees refused to leave. For three weeks, they lived in the former prison, surviving on rainwater and food smuggled in by locals. "It was like a war zone," says Boochani. "But in some ways we were happy because we were out of the systematic torture. The officers were not there... We were controlling our lives." The following month, those remaining were forcibly evicted by police. Some were hit with sticks and dragged onto buses to be relocated elsewhere on the island. Ever since he was sent to Manus, and especially during the siege and the eviction, Boochani has used his journalism to draw attention to the conditions refugees and migrants face on Manus Island, where media access is tightly controlled. He has written for international and Australian media, and, in 2017, shot a film on his mobile phone, which showed the reality of daily life in the detention centre. "I don't think of myself as a journalist or a refugee," he says. "I feel that I am a human, I am fighting for humanity, for [refugees]. I know their suffering, I know them ... I know their stories, so it is important to me. "It is my duty as a journalist, it is my mission ... to work on this issue and to tell people. Also the important this is that I am working to record this policy and history of this prison camp for the next generation." More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

Geopolitically placed between the East and the West, Turkey plays a hugely important and strategic role in many of the region's crises and conflicts, including the ongoing Syrian war. On January 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch, an air and ground offensive against Afrin in northwestern Syria. The region is controlled by the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which Turkey considers a "terrorist group". "There have been YPG / PKK terrorists in Afrin region and they were sending harassment fires and rockets to Turkey... It became a serious threat to our security and to our borders," Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Al Jazeera. "We warned them. We warned the countries who have been engaged with them. Nevertheless, they increased the harassment fires. That's why we launched this operation ..." Asked about US-made weapons that were captured from Kurdish fighters and the United States' open support for Kurdish fighters, Cavusoglu said: "Those weapons have been given by the United States to YPG. We have asked the US not to give them weapons, but they did. We asked them to stop and President Trump promised Erdogan that they will stop giving weapons to this organisation. In the last phone conversation between the two presidents, President Trump told Erdogan that they stopped ... giving weapons to this organisation." The US Department of State, however, has stated that it still considers the YPG as an ally in the fight against ISIL. "It's called [a] double standard. Particularly in our fight against terrorism we see this double standard everywhere ... The US ... are fighting all sorts of terrorist organisations in the world, but in Syria, they are collaborating with a terrorist organisation," the Turkish FM told Al Jazeera. US-Turkish relations have been strained in the past few years, especially since the attempted coup in July 2016. In 2017, the US imposed travel restrictions on Turks and Turkey reciprocated with similar measures for Americans. "Normally, we don't have any problems with any allies ... But ... if they take any action against Turkey, it will be reciprocated by Turkey. Turkey has changed," said Cavusoglu. He explained that in recent years US-Turkish relations have not been easy, because of "their support of YPG ... which is a terrorist organisation and posing a direct threat to Turkey. Secondly, after the attempted coup, we asked the US to extradite Fethullah Gulen ... So far, they haven't." "These two issues have fuelled anti-American emotions and sentiments in Turkey. And overall, there is a lack of trust," he added. "First, we need to rebuild this trust." 'Why are you trying to divide the Muslim world?' When in, June 2017, neighbouring countries imposed an air, sea and land blockade on Qatar, the Turkish foreign minister travelled the region in an attempt to broker an end to the GCC crisis. From the start of the crisis, Ankara has played a pivotal role in assisting Qatar to weather the blockade. "The decision against Qatar was not fair ... It has been a very unfortunate situation. We don't want to see such a division in the GCC or in the Muslim world. Stability in the GCC is so important for all of us," Cavusoglu told Al Jazeera. "There are some claims and accusations, but so far, not even a single evidence has been shared. And each time I see someone from Kuwait leadership, I ask them if they have a received any evidence about these accusations, and they say 'No' ..." He believes that "it was a very much political decision, and unfortunately, it didn't serve the interest of any countries in the region. I hope they will overcome this situation soon, and we still believe that Saudi Arabia can lead the process to overcome this situation." More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

Filmmaker: Sawsan Qaoud The Palestine National Orchestra was first set up in 1936 but was disbanded when Israel was founded in 1948. In 1993, a group of musicians started a Palestinian national music school in Ramallah which has developed into the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. It now also has branches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus and Gaza. In 2010, the Conservatory decided to revive the national orchestra by bringing musicians together from all around the world. "It took us a year to collect all the names, make calls and get the names and numbers...we created a network and they came from all over the world," explains Mohammed Fadel, musician and co-founder of PNO. "People from abroad helped us. So did others from the Arab world. They trained our members on how an orchestra works. It was the birth of the first Palestinian orchestra and gathering of musicians." The musicians are all from different backgrounds but equally proud of their Palestinian origins. They’re thrilled to be invited to join the orchestra and moved by the shared experience of bringing quality western classical and traditional Arab music to their target audience in Israel and the Occupied West Bank. Charlie Bisharat is a professional violinist in California whose Palestinian father and uncles emigrated to the US in 1950. Being part of the orchestra "is a dream for me," he says. "I had never had the opportunity to come to Palestine. Until Tim Pottier and Mohammad Fadel contacted me, I really didn’t know when I would ever have that opportunity. So it was really a great chance to come out and meet people of my heritage and play music with them and it is a very not political situation so it’s really nice because we’re here to spread the word of Palestinian culture and the good side of the culture. " For car mechanic turned musician, Ramadan Khattab, performing in Palestine with other musicians is visceral. "When I perform in Palestine, I have a special feeling that I never have when I perform anywhere else...I believe all the other orchestra members feel the same. If you look at the performers’ faces, you see something that you don’t see somewhere else," says Khattab. "When we perform together, our hearts don’t beat out of fear, but out of love. And this is different from the others." Similarly, Mariam Tamari, a Palestinian-Japanese classical singer who studied in US and is now based in Paris, shares Ramadan’s feelings. "Singing with the Palestine National Orchestra is quite different because it brings together two of my passions; my identity as a Palestinian and also my identity as a musician,". Her father was forced into exile as a young man but through his connection to Palestine, Tamari was able to retain her link with her father's homeland. "All of us feel this sense of very strong identity as a Palestinian and we have something very specific and very passionate and important to communicate to the world and this makes the experience unlike any other because already from the first rehearsal, despite the fact that we’ve come from all over the world, we bond immediately like that. We’ve become like family from the first day of rehearsal and there is an incredible sense of unity and just togetherness that I feel with the Palestine National Orchestra that I think it’s something quite rare," says Tamari. Meanwhile, Mohammed Fadel's efforts have borne fruit. The Palestine National Orchestra has continued to bring Palestinian musicians together to express their love of music and show its power as a unifying force, especially for the Palestinian community. More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

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For decades, people have looked to the United Nations (UN) to resolve conflicts and alleviate suffering around the world. As war stretches on in Yemen and Syria and the number of refugees worldwide continues to rise, whether the UN can now fulfil the lofty ambitions on which it was founded is in doubt. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Miroslav Lajcak, the president of the UN General Assembly, says that the UN is still the best option for world peace, but that reform is necessary, particularly in the Security Council. Veto powers held by its five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - create an uneven balance of power. "There is a general understanding that the composition of the Security Council as it stands now does not represent the realities of the 21st century, these are the realities of 1945. The [reform] process is happening.... It's a process and we can only go as far and as fast as the member states are willing to. But in the General Assembly, there is no veto, in the General Assembly everybody's equal," Lajcak says. The power of veto has drawn criticism from many, most recently when the US vetoed a draft resolution rejecting US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. One-hundred-and-twenty-eight member states voted in favour of the draft, with nine against and 35 abstentions. While it was described as a "pointless exercise" by some Palestinian activists, Lajcak says the session, which he led, sent a strong message. "This session showed that we cannot take multilateralism for granted and therefore we all have to stand up for it," he says. "We have to stand up for a strong role of the United Nations because the General Assembly is our global conscience, it's the only platform where 193 member states are presented and have equal rights and equal say.... Sometimes this moral message is more powerful than a legally-binding one." Despite the US decision and subsequent stalemate in peace negotiations, Lajcak echoed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' statement that there is no plan B to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The two-state solution is the only solution we support…no one has ever presented any other solution and no one has ever proved that any other solution would be better," says Lajcak. Shortly before the interview with Al Jazeera, Lajcak had visited Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the ongoing GCC crisis. Lajcak is confident a diplomatic solution can be reached and has "a lot of trust" in Kuwaiti mediation efforts. "The Gulf is definitely a very powerful voice and this voice is missing right now because of this internal situation in the region and that's why I believe it's in the interest of every country that belongs to this region to find a solution.... The international community is worried but also believes that there will be a solution, there will be a negotiated solution, which will be regionally led," he says. His advice to all parties involved is to "stay calm to avoid any provocations and, of course, to resort to dialogue." In his interview with Al Jazeera Lajcak also discusses the UN's role in the ongoing refugee crisis; why the US should not pull out of the Iran nuclear deal; Myanmar's Rohingya crisis; and the North Korea nuclear threat. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

Aljazeera’s Investigative Unit unravels a high-stakes international plot hatched by powerful Eastern European oligarchs to make millions of dollars from a crooked deal. According to one Ukrainian analyst: “It sounds like an agreement between criminal bosses. You can sign it with your blood.” The scheme involves using a web of offshore companies and international lawyers to raid US$160 million dollars under the noses of the authorities. The money is effectively being stolen for a second time… the funds were initially frozen by Ukraine’s courts after its former president, Viktor Yanukovych, was discovered to have emptied the country’s treasury. The Oligarchs include an exiled gas billionaire guarded by Russian special forces, a Moscow property magnate and an Olympic show jumper on the run from Ukrainian authorities. The investigation shines light on the ever shifting battle between the oligarchs and global financial regulators.

Human rights activist Nadezhda Kutepova first realised there was something different about the town where she lived when she was on a school trip outside of Ozersk. Her and the other children were prevented from telling people where they were from. "I began to think that [there's] something special [about] our place, but I didn't know what exactly," she says. Codenamed 'City 40', Ozersk in Russia's southern Urals houses the Mayak plant, which is the birthplace of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons programme. Ozersk was built in secrecy for Mayak's workers and scientists after the second world war. For decades, the city did not appear on maps and its inhabitants' identities were erased from the Soviet census. Today the plant reprocesses spent nuclear fuel, but half a century ago, Mayak suffered from what is thought to be the world's third-worst nuclear accident that was covered up until the 1980s. Vast areas of land were contaminated, including Ozersk. Nadezhda Kutepova's father and grandmother died of cancer, as did many others in the city as a result of long-term exposure to radiation. Still, many people stayed in the closed city. "During Soviet times we were like a state inside a state. We always were under leadership of Moscow and we had a good quality of life, which was a big contradition with the people who were living around on the contaminated area because they were really poor," says Kutepova. "You can imagine the closed city like a bottle of glass with a roof and there's a picture around. People who are inside, they see the picture that is around and the government just opens this bottle and gives you the food and then closes it. So we're a little bit isolated [from] society." Kutepova campaigned for the truth to come out and for compensation for Ozersk's residents, but fled to Paris after she was accused of being a traitor. "I felt myself like a traitor of people, because many people in the region connected me with their hopes on justice," she says. Today, she continues to campaign from France. She is wary that her old hometown is still far from safe. "Every day when I go to sleep I think about Mayak and 'my dear God, save Mayak'," she says. "Part of [the] equipment [is] really old ... commercial interest is much higher than the interest in nuclear safety and nuclear security. I think [it] can give us a new nuclear accident." More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

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Typically associated in international media with political instability, disease, poverty, corruption, dictatorships, and a lack of human rights and democracy, African countries struggle to deconstruct the stereotypes. One of the few exceptions seems to be the Republic of Ghana. Ghana today - at least on the surface - is enjoying political stability, with a multi-ethnic polulation coming together in peaceful democratic elections. President Nana Akufo-Addo speaks with Al Jazeera's Jane Dutton on why his country is so different from its neighbours in this respect - and what work still remains to be done in Ghana and in the rest of the continent. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

Filmmaker: Karim Midhat More than 150 years ago, a musician started a band in Cairo's Mohammed Ali Street, a hub for Arab musicians, belly dancers and instrument makers, near the opera house, cinemas and theatres. Mohammad Hasaballah's brass band became so popular that it gave birth to an entire musical genre, which still resonates with Egyptians today. Hasaballah was a clarinet player in a military band at the time of Abbas Helmi, a Khedive of Egypt under the Ottoman Empire. He was taught by Italians and when he retired from the army, he set up his own band. Classically trained, his players were skilled at picking up tunes, and Hasaballah (the band) turned popular Egyptian love songs into a style that became hugely popular at weddings, parties and national festivities, even spreading to other parts of the Arab world. Celebrated as "the people's music", "Hasaballah was an important development," says Mohammed Shabana of the Popular Performance Department at the Academy of Arts. "They transformed music from its formal, western-style into popular music." "There were two types of music, one for social celebrations and the other elite music," says Ayman Mahmoud, of the Faculty of Literature at Suez University. "Elite music was played in Mohammed Ali Pasha's family palaces whereas popular music was played in weddings and popular celebrations. Hasaballah adopted both styles." Following Mohammad Hasaballah's death, several Hasaballah-styled bands appeared. "We didn't study music or notation," says 69-year-old Izzat Fayoumi who started his own Hasaballah-style band in 1970. "We learn by listening. We hear the music once or twice and then we play it." While musical styles and preferences have evolved over the past 100 years, Shabana believes "Hasaballah will always satisfy certain needs. It interacts with and presents what appeals to Egyptians' musical taste. It spreads joy among those who invite them and make them part of their celebrations and happy times. It's an open space, enabling interaction between the performer and listener and among neighbours and friends who take part in the celebrations together." Hasaballah's halcyon days are over and it's no longer performed in palaces for the upper echelons of Egyptian society or in movies - but many Egyptians still have a soft spot for it today. A new generation of musicians has picked it up and found new ways to keep Hasaballah alive by adapting it with new instruments and rhythms. It keeps the street style but gives it a modern twist. "We adopted the [Hasaballah] line-up of trumpet, trombone, bass and snare drums … but have just added the jumble", says Abdel Azim Mohammed, a member of the Hasaballa Marching Band. "Everything we play is jazz. Different rhythms create different styles of music, like funk and salsa. We play funk and salsa." Shabana says that the legendary Hasaballah "managed to carve his name and his band into the collective Egyptian, artistic memory". More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe

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Pakistan is traditionally seen as an important partner of the United States, but President Donald Trump recently adopted a different tone. "Pakistan often gives safe havens to agents of chaos, violence, and terror," Trump said on August 21, 2017, when he presented his strategy for the war in Afghanistan at Fort Myer, Virginia. Pakistan sees things differently. "There are no more safe havens," Ahsan Iqbal, the country's interior minister, tells Al Jazeera. "We have paid a heavy price. More than 6,000 security personnel have laid down their lives. Over 70,000 people have become victim, either they died or were injured in terrorism-related incidents. A country that has paid such a heavy price can never be friends with any terror groups." Three months have passed since Pakistan's former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, stepped down after the Supreme Court disqualified him from office as leader of the country's government. The ruling came after alleged corruption during his previous two terms in office had come to light in the "Panama Papers". Iqbal admits the sudden resignation of Sharif was a "setback for the democratic process and for the country". "Mr Nawaz Sharif enjoys big stature. He has experience. Pakistan needs very experienced leadership to face some of the complex security challenges that confront us domestically and in the region," he says. Still, he thinks Pakistan moved on from the crisis swiftly. "I think the democratic process is well-entrenched. As a result, what the people saw [is that] within three days a new prime minister was elected, a new cabinet was sworn in and the country is moving forward." More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

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