The San Story is an investigative report about the San Bushmen of the Kalahari, how they have been forced off their land by the Botswana but have fought back and recently won back the rights to the land. This is a rare positive story of successful indigenous political activism and ancestral knowledge that may secure their financial future.

Part 1 of the report is below: click on for Part 2 and more details:

Two investigative journeys deep into the heart of the Sahara to explore rumours that slavery was still not consigned to the history books. In both Mauritania and Niger, masters still keep slaves. Two separate reports aired on ABC News Nightline (2004) and Al Jazeera People & Power (2006), with the assistance of Anti-Slavery International.

Read more about this project.

Investigative documentary about the challenges and opportunities faced by South Africa in hosting the 2010 World Cup. The World Cup 2010 will be hosted twenty years after Nelson Mandela was released from prison and spoke to 100,000 people from a football stadium in Soweto of a new South Africa. Can the next one bring reconciliation, unity and identity to the rainbow nation?

Part 1 of the report below. Click on to read more and see Part Two:

Living with the Kombai Tribe in the lowland swamps of the West Papua, New Guinea co-presented a Discovery & Travel channel series with jungle guru Mark Anstice. The traditional hunter-gather way of life of the Kombai has changed little for thousands of years - tools are made from stone, family groups live in tree houses, the men where penis gourds, the women grass skirts, tribal conflict is common and life expectancy is low. Spirits infuse their world where sorcery and witchcraft occurs, the repercussions of which are to be killed and sometimes eaten. 25 years ago a Dutch Missionary made first contact, today only 4000 Kombai remain but there traditional way of life is severely threatened. Read on

Photos

Have a look at my thoughts from the trip and a couple of video interviews with Mark and myself

Known as the toughest foot-race on earth, 6days, 6+ marathons back-to-back across the Sahara Desert, carrying all your own kit – who in their right mind would want to do this? I ran it to raise money for research into Lupus. Sadly despite good intentions, the Marathon Des Sables became the Marathon Des Sades. Read my journals as I crumble like the weakling I am… and if you still want to do it – seek immediate psychiatric care.

Someone else was mad enough to do all this and take a camera with them…

I wrote a short article that appears on the St Thomas’ Lupus Trust website as well as a longer piece that you can download (PDF, 197KB). WARNING: this last one is essentially unedited journals and may be offensive if you are French.

Have a look at the Marathon Des Sables official website, the St Thomas’ Lupus Trust site to see why I put myself through all this and also my ramblings from the race.

A couple of investigative reports from inside Burma - working alongside Global Witness to uncover and document the $300million of illegal timber that’s being smuggled from Burma’s interior across to China – the financial lifeline that’s keeping the junta in business. In the immediate aftermath of the demonstrations, a return to Kachin State to examine whether the armed ethnic insurgent groups like the Kachin Independence Army and their political wing, the Kachin Independence Organisation, could present any meaningful military or political opposition to the Generals. Read on 

Expedition to research the Grass Silk Road - one of the greatest communication highways in history – a road, last travelled in the 13th Century, that led from Genghis Khan’s capital Karakorum in the steppes in Mongolia across the Gobi Desert to Xanadu, Kublai’s Khan’s pleasure dome in China. It became one of the worst organised expeditions in the history of exploration. (read on)