The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009

Six months ago there was a short military revolt in Bangladesh that threatened to push the country into nationwide armed conflict. But some things remain mysterious. Why was it so brutal? Who was really behind it? What did they hope to achieve? In this week’s addition of Assignment, Mark Dummett has tracked down key participants and eyewitnesses in search of some answers.

Nick Rankin explores how we assess the value of gold.

Mark Doyle crosses the continent of Africa and finds a place rich in natural resources and human potential, which begs the question, why is Africa poor? Outsiders have been coming to Africa for centuries for its raw materials and potential. It was an exploitative relationship that has contributed to Africa's poverty, but can foreigners now turn the fortunes of a modern Africa?

Ko Ko Aung from the BBC's Burmese Service, travelled to Burma to find out why a rebel army of 100 men is taking on the 400,000 strong Burmese army.

Fran Abrams is given rare access to the US base in Djibouti questioning military chiefs, local leaders and ordinary Djiboutians as she explores the role and impact of America's African outpost.

Nick Rankin descends into the deepest goldmine in the world – Tau Tona in South Africa for part two of this series. Five thousand miners extract gold up to four kilometres under the surface but for every tonne of ore they take out, there is only 8 grams of gold to be found. Nick talks to miners about their lives underground and learns about the real price of gold.

Mukul Devichand tells the story of the Europeans who are trying to persuade China's expanding middle class to ditch their noodles and soya in favour of pricey European fine foods.

American physicist Richard Feynman fell in love with the remote Russian region Tuva through his hobby of stamp collecting. He died just before his visitor's visa arrived but his daughter Michelle went to the land of throat singers in his honour.

The Afghan drugs mafia is rich, powerful and entrenched, with connections running into the heart of the Afghan state. But a new, multi-million dollar counter-narcotics justice system has started to get results and is putting senior traffickers in prison. So when people heard that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, had pardoned five traffickers, they were stunned. This week’s Assignment looks into allegations that the pardons were part of a political deal, ahead of presidential elections on the 20th August. Kate Clark reports.

Man's long-term obsession with gold and the lengths we have gone to to get it. From the ancient myth of King Midas, through Alexander The Great and the Spanish Conquistadors to the massive mines of South Africa, Nick Rankin unlocks the history and enduring fascination of the rare yellow metal that has been integral to economic exchange systems for millennia.