The Documentary Podcast19 Marras 2020

Martinique: The poisoning of paradise

“First we were enslaved. Then we were poisoned.” That’s how many on Martinique see the history of their French Caribbean island that, to tourists, means sun, rum, and palm-fringed beaches. Slavery was abolished in 1848. But today the islanders are victims again – of a toxic pesticide called chlordecone that’s poisoned the soil and water and been linked by scientists to unusually high rates of prostate cancer. For more than 10 years chlordecone was authorised for use in banana plantations – though its harmful effects were already known. Now, more than 90% of Martinicans have traces of it in their blood. The pollution means many can't grow vegetables in their gardens - and fish caught close to the shore are too dangerous to eat. French President Emmanuel Macron has called it an ‘environmental scandal’ and said the state ‘must take responsibility’. But some activists on the island want to raise wider questions about why the pesticide was used for so long – and on an island divided between a black majority and a small white minority, it’s lost on no-one that the banana farmers who used the toxic chemical and still enjoy considerable economic power are, in many cases, descendants of the slave owners who once ran Martinique. Reporting from the island for Assignment, Tim Whewell asks how much has changed there. Is Martinique really an equal part of France? And is there equality between descendants of slaves and the descendants of their masters, even now?

Produced and presented by Tim Whewell Editor, Bridget Harney

(Image: Sunset on a beach in Martinique. Credit: DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(2000)

China: The rise of a science superpower

Roland Pease explores how decades of strategic investment and diligent educational reform have brought China to the brink of global scientific dominance. As the world’s other scientific superpowers se...

23 Elo 49min

Secret phone calls from a Saudi jail

In a sprawling prison in the Asir province of Southwestern Saudi Arabia, hundreds of young Ethiopian men are currently sitting on death row, not knowing when their name might be called and to be told ...

22 Elo 26min

Flying with kids: Cabin chaos

Noisy and disruptive children can turn a normal flight into a living nightmare. Earlier this month, a flight in Canada was cancelled after a young child refused to wear a seatbelt. The incident has op...

22 Elo 23min

What in the World: Will AI make your degree pointless?

AI isn’t just occasionally going rogue…(Open AI and Meta we’re looking at you) it’s also changing the world of work. Nearly 70% of college students in the US said they thought AI would make it harder ...

21 Elo 16min

The Vatican's AI battle

As Silicon Valley races to build machines that can think, create and perhaps surpass human intelligence, the Vatican has emerged as one of the most prominent global voices questioning the path the tec...

21 Elo 26min

LA: Rising from the ashes

On 7th January 2025, the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighbourhoods of Los Angeles suffered two of the most destructive fires in the city’s history. Twenty-one people died and 15,000 buildings were...

20 Elo 26min

The Kansas City cycling revolution

When the BBC’s Richard Hollingham and his producer, Will Grant, arrived with their bikes in Kansas City, Missouri in 2008, it had just been named as the worst city for cyclists in the country. The res...

19 Elo 31min

Raiders of the lost art

What do the stolen love letters of John Keats have to do with homicide on the streets of New York? Prosecuting both crimes falls under the remit of assistant district attorney Matthew Bogdanos. A ret...

18 Elo 33min