To the east of Kandahar, the Shoraback base in the Afghan province of Helmand is home to 4000 soldiers of the Afghan National Army. A portion of these troops are members of a commando trained by American soldiers. In this territory, the struggle against the Taliban is an absolute priority. Helmand is a major entry point for insurgents organizing to the south in the Balouchistan region of Pakistan. In addition, this province is the largest producer of opium in Afghanistan. Like gold, the Taliban uses this drug to finance its insurrectional operations. The Diamond Force, the unit name for the commandos based at Shoraback, must respond daily to endless insurgent attacks while...

Ramadan comes to an end. My female contacts from Damascus and myself are in one of the illegal brothels of the city, in the district Garamana. In a corner of the room, five women are dancing, but the most of the women are sitting at the tables with the men. All women in the room are Iraqi, a few of the nearly 2 million Iraqis who fled to Syria during and after the war. Most of the women living alone have lived on their savings right after they fled, but when this money ran out, many ended up in prostitution. Many of the girls worked as cleaning ladies in a hotel and then were offered to work as prostitutes. Syria is trying to deal with the nearly 2 million Iraqi refugees, and faces an...

St Petersburg is located at 59 degrees 57' North (roughly on the same latitude as Oslo, Norway, the southern tip of Greenland and Seward, Alaska). Due to such a high latitude the sun does not go under the horizon deep enough for the sky to get dark during the end of may until the beginning of July. Night turns almost into day during this period. An old legend says that during this period there is a bigger chance to fall in love. In other parts of some Northern countries the legend says that you have to pick 7 specific wild flowers and lays them under your pillow. The person you will dream about that night is the one you’re going to marry. Vadim and Alexandra met each other on the...

We went to Iraq to see how the global hunt for the black gold has affected the Iraqi people. It is now widely acknowledged that oil was one of the reason to the 2003 invasion, but not many could have envisaged that it would take over six years to begin talking about the investments. Panic is now setting in. There has been no modernizations and Iraq is not producing more oil now than before the invasion. Instead, the oil has leaked through a sieve into the black market. Oil pirates and corrupt officials have become wealthy. Civilians have been hit the hardest. But how has the oil mafia managed to get its hands on Iraq’s black gold with the military just around the corner? The only ones...

Malmö has a feeling of a great building site. I toured the former site of the shipyards – where the building of new housing is pushing the trading port towards the north; where Scandinavia’s highest skyscraper – the Turning Torso – has taken the place of the huge Kockums crane; and from where one can see the bridge which links Malmö to “the continent”. In this town of immigration, I then went to meet the men and women who come together each week at the Serbian Orthodox church. This Orthodox presence in the heart of this Scandinavian city represents the complexity and the richness of an urban identity in transformation.

At the far end of Montana, in middle America, lies the little town of Hungry Horse. This place embodies the desolation of today’s USA. Hungry Horse has 900 inhabitants. Most of them work in other towns of the valley or are unemployed. The city is just a forced way for the Glacier National Park visitors. 70% percent of inhabitants live in trailers, and drugs consumption is a way of forgetting about loneliness and boredom for an hour or two. Lost in the Rocky Mountains, people escape with the help of crystal meth. In an attempt to counter the issue of drug abuse, Hungry Horse church set a program in which former drug addicts go to the streets at night to help young men and women who...

Off Barcelona, Majorca island lives at the catholic hour. At the bend in the lanes of Soller, Pieter Ten Hoopen follow the preparations of the Sainte Week. We prepare the religious festivities, and ghostly processions are leaving. Come out of the night, hooded faces are witness of ancient rites, they update painful pictures, but enchained, they are inoffensif.

On December 27th 2007, Kenya turned into a war zone, after presidential elections were rigged. More than 1000 people were killed and more than 600.000 are still displaced. Ethnical cleansing and violence hit the rift valley and bigger parts of eastern Kenya. Many towns all over the rift valley and mostly the western part of the country were looted and burned down. Neighbouring tribes attacked each other and people started fleeing their hometowns. Police lost control over the demonstrations that took place all over the country, and shot people with live bullets. The morgues were overfilled and there wasn’t anybody to collect the bodies. The peace talks are still ongoing and...

Old Cairo was founded by the Arabs in 642 AD. Today the city of Cairo is the largest in Africa and the 16th biggest metropol in the world, with a population of more than 18 million. The city is expanding faster than ever. The historical Old Cairo is suffering hard from the fast growth of the city. This part of the city was originally not built for so many people. One of the main causes of the destruction of the area is the pollution caused by traffic. At the same time the number of lung diseases and cancer is increasing dramatically. Half a million people are suffering from diseases linked to pollution. Unesco launched a plan in the 1980's to preserve the old city. Most of the...

Their oldest son had just died. When I visited the Bengtson family two years ago Michelle was nursing her husband Jim and their youngest son Austin, before leaving for work. When she returned they would be waiting for her care. But there was nothing she could do to reverse the fatal course, for halting a killer illness there is little hope. Huntington runs on the male side of the Bengtson family, it is lethal and it rages more and more aggressively for every new generation. After years of frustration, researchers believe a new frontier might be opening in treating Huntington's disease. When i return two years after my first visit Jim just past away, half a year before that Austin died in...

The year 1200 the city Kitezh in Russia got attack by the Mogul army. Under the attack the city became invisible. From this day no one knows where the city and its people went. Once a year people from all over Russia come to visit this place. Today there is a lake on the place the city once was. The lake is situated just beside the small town of Vladimirskoe. Some people from this small town say they have seen the City of Kitezh coming up from the water around midsummer. Other people have seen an armed guard walking around the town. Few of the tourist visit the city of Vladimirskoe. The daily life is hard for many in this area. Alcohol abuse and the unemployment rate is high....

On the 8th of October 2005, a destructive earthquake hit the Northern parts of Pakistan. The Provinces of Kashmir and the North-West Frontier suffered the hardest. More than 73.000 people have died, 100.000 got injured and over 3 millions have lost their houses. The city of Balakot is situated in the Kaghan valley in the NWF province, one of the places which totally turned into ruins. Only in Balakot and surroundings, tens of thousands of people have died. More than 2 months after the earthquake, people were still digging, hoping to find their relatives and friends.

Grana Louise and her mother She has been singing blues and jazz for her whole life. The focus in the world of blues has often been on the male artists in Chicago, one of the greatest, Muddy Waters, ruled the city for many years. Grana Louise is 52 years old and grew up in Colombus (Ohio). It was a struggle growing up in those days as an Afro American. ?I remember seeing Martin Luther King marching through the streets." As a small girl she was going through her mother's jazz collection and was singing all the time. To break through as a coloured young woman wasn?t the easiest thing to do. "Many men are frightened of an independent woman" says Grana Louise with a smile on her face.

The city of Quibdo is situated in the Western part of Colombia. The province of Choco is one of the major drug routes because it's close to the border with Panama. Every year 30.000 people get killed and 3000 kidnaped in the countryside. Today Colombia has over three million internal refugees. People flee their homes in the countryside because of the violence. Quibdo is one of these cities they come to. The city is overpopulated and many are unemployed. The atmosphere is tense and people are afraid to be sent back to their homes. For most of the people this is a temporary refuge.

This church was originally founded in California, USA by Sonny Arguinzoni in 1967 with the intention of helping people addicted to drugs. Today there are about 500 churches and monasteries in 24 countries around the world.

Hotel Rembrandt is better known in Arnhem as the "Lonely men Hotel". Situated in the heart of the city, but a non-existing place for the travel agencies. Built straight after the Second World War, it has remained unchanged, except for the growing collection of fake Rembrandt paintings. Almost all the guests are men, many of them recently divorced. Some of them are staying for months in their low budget accommodation. 20 euros is the regular price, but a special deal will be offered to long time residents. The manager enjoys their company, and he is pleased with the secure earning. Two of the men have made the hotel there permanent home.