"Sworn Virgins of Albania" on Deutche Welle
Accidentally turned on this programming the other day, and was treated to a story of how an old culture deals with issues of personhood. Women were subjugated in old Albania, with an exception - a woman could take a vow of chastity and was then given all the rights of men - up to and including wearing mens clothing. It appeared from what I saw that these women were powerful in their communities, sitting smoking and talking with the men in charge of the town.
Next came a story about coal miners in Romania suffering from the effects of the world economy, reduced to stealing coal to try and keep their families from freezing. Living in clapboard shacks that you could see through, shivering.
Last was a story of a courageous woman in Spain who made it her lifes work to help homeless men. Many who still had wealth had donated much to help her mission. She said once mostly addicts came to her, now it is often doctors, lawyers and other professionals. They showed the streets of Madrid, once a place for the fashionable to show off, lined with people sleeping on the sidewalks.
After seeing all of this, I had to ask myself, "WTF IS WRONG WITH OUR NETWORK NEWS"? You never hear about any of this on American cable news. To watch them, you would think the rest of the world doesn't exist. The slap in the face came when, after not having turned on the t.v. since watching this, I turned on MSNBC and S.E. Cupp had hijacked "The Cycle", and some wingnut was spouting some crap about how "Baseball is just like God and Religion" or some such utter stinking bullshit. 
