October 25th, 2011 | By Round Earth Media
In India, aborting a fetus based on its sex is illegal, but the practice is common due to a societal preference for boys. Up to 12 million abortions have occurred as a result of sex selection. Reporter Hanna Ingber Win gains unusual insight into this quiet practice and its implication for one family near Mumbai.
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October 20th, 2011 | By Round Earth Media
Hilarion Guia, former resident of Culion Island and now its first mayor. | Photo: Katherine Jack
Culion is a beautiful and remote tropical island in the western Philippines — but it is an island with a dark history. It was once the world’s largest colony for people with leprosy. At its peak, Culion Island was home to 16,000 patients. But today, as Mary Stucky reports, this place that was once called the land of the living dead, has undergone a remarkable transformation.
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August 7th, 2010 | By Round Earth Media
Tamia Dakinah is Miss Liberia Minnesota. | Photo: Facebook, Miss Liberia MN Beauty Pageant
To make other cultures real through vivid first-hand stories and to explain the connections between “us” and “them” – that’s our goal here at Round Earth Media, and Linda Sjostrom, our web editor, understands it well. Linda has spent time reporting and editing for print and radio both in the United States and abroad. Here, a recent event prompts her to not only reflect on a story she covered in the past, but to also consider identity.
Just last month, a crowd gathered at the Miracle Empowerment Center to witness the crowning of Tamia Dakinah as Miss Liberia Minnesota 2010. In the same way, others across the country have or will name someone the Miss Liberia of their own state this year.
July 7th, 2010 | By Mary Stucky
Gold mining in El Salvador: Pacific Rim verdict expected in August 2010
As we get closer to our trip to Central America, we will be blogging about some of the most important issues facing the region. One of the most contentious issues facing the country of El Salvador is gold mining. Is it an economic boon or an environmental disaster? From journalist Ambar Espinoza, the latest on the case involving the so-called Pacific Rim mine.
May 20th, 2010 | By Mary Stucky
Rob Scarlett (at left) is a businessman who has long been active in global economic development. Long before it became popular, he has been involved with international micro-finance/micro-lending initiatives, most notably ACCION. We are deeply grateful for his support.
My father’s international business career took me overseas from age 2; and for the ensuing years until I turned 16, my early view of the world was shaped by my immersion in a number of different cultures.
April 22nd, 2010 | By Round Earth Media
Alongside the more traditional fresh food markets in Mexico, US-style supermarkets are beginning to appear. | Photo by Mary Stucky
Visitors to Mexico are charmed by all of the colorful food markets – fruits and vegetables in gorgeous display and, maybe not so appetizing – raw meat hanging from hooks and piled on chopping blocks. But these traditional markets in Mexico are giving way to US-style supermarkets with produce and meat wrapped neatly in plastic. Mary Stucky reports about the recent and dramatic growth of supermarkets in Mexico.
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March 20th, 2010 | By Round Earth Media
School children in Laos work on computers donated by the Jhai Foundation. | Photo by Michael Beebe
Back in 1966 Lee Thorn was a young American serviceman in the Vietnam War. His assignment: loading bombs onto planes bound for Laos, a small country west of Vietnam. The bombing was meant to stop supplies that America’s North Vietnamese enemy was bringing through Laos to Vietnam. Countless Laotian civilians died in the bombing and for years Lee Thorn was tormented by those deaths – until he went back to Laos and found a way to help people there. Mary Stucky reports from the village of Champasak, in southern Laos.
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February 13th, 2010 | By Mary Stucky
Now, a month after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, I’m reminded of the many conversations I had with people in Mexico City over recent weeks. While I struggled to comprehend what it might have been like to feel the earth shake and buildings topple, many Chilangos, as residents of Mexico City sometimes call themselves, were eager to tell me what had happened and how it had felt in 1985 when a massive earthquake killed at least 4500 people – most likely many more.
(Photo of Mexico City earthquake: Wikimedia)
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January 12th, 2010 | By Mary Stucky
From journalist Ambar Espinoza in El Salvador, the country of her birth:
My family took m
e to El Puerto de La Libertad, which is a port that was established in 1824. The pier was built in 1829 to export indigo and coffee to Europe and the United States. Ships no longer come to this harbor to load and unload cargo because the pier eventually became too old and antiquated. Now trade takes place at El Puerto de Acajutla, which has a far more sophisticated infrastructure.
November 14th, 2009 | By Mary Stucky
At Round Earth Media we cover important global issues that aren’t getting attention in the daily news cycle. One story we hope to report may sound pretty dull, even gross: the lack of latrines.
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