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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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 22nd, 2010 | By Round Earth Media
Roger Rumpf and Jacqui Chagnon on their porch overlooking the Mekong River. | Mary Stucky
Per capita, Laos is the most bombed country on earth. For nine years, every day, around the clock, the United States rained bombs down on much of the country. The bombing was intended to stop Communist supply routes running through Laos into Vietnam. Many of those bombs, called cluster bombs, are about the size of a tennis ball and never exploded. So years after the war ended, the bombs were still claiming lives every day.
On a recent trip to Laos, reporter Mary Stucky met an American couple who worked to stop that death toll by buying up shovels.
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April 8th, 2010 | By Round Earth Media
Busy bar scenes like this one in Pata Negra are a common occurrence in Mexico City's Condesa neighborhood. | Photo by Christopher Wilson
Hot button social issues like abortion and gay marriage are a staple of American politics. But in Mexico these controversial issues were rarely a factor in elections – until now. It all started when Mexico City legalized abortion three years ago. And, late last year Mexico’s huge capital city gave legal approval for gay marriage. This in a country that’s overwhelmingly Catholic. As Mary Stucky reports, Mexicans have broken what was once considered a taboo: mixing religion and politics.
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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.
November 6th, 2009 | By Round Earth Media
The mother of 9-year-old Hamm. The boy was killed when a cluster bomb exploded. | All photos by Mary Stucky
The world economic crisis caused a steep drop in the price of metal but that hasn’t stopped a strange and extremely dangerous enterprise in the jungles of Laos. Every day kids and adults trek into the forest looking for scrap metal they can sell for cash. They find fine gauge steel – bombs — or pieces of them — left over from the Vietnam War. Many of these bombs never exploded. Mary Stucky reports from Laos on this deadly business.
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