Ontelly

From Our Own Correspondent - 04/11/2010

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We explore the glittering new capital city built by Burma's generals. The population count in China that will shed light on more than a billion lives. Anger and fear in Indonesia's restless province of Papua. And in a forest in the Czech Republic, we tap into the local passion for sausages, cold beer....and a game that you've probably never heard of..... Burma is about to hold its first election for twenty years. But there's no sense that Sunday's vote will be any great triumph for democracy. The military government's leading opponent, Aung San Suu Kyi -- who's currently under house arrest - has urged her supporters not to vote. Her party is not participating. But Sue Lloyd Roberts has been meeting some pro-democracy activists who have decided to fight the election.... Right now, China is trying to find out exactly how vast its population is. The world's biggest census is underway. Officials doing the count will have to knock on the doors of about four-hundred million homes altogether. And as Damian Grammaticus explains, when this colossal task is finally done, we'll know much more about the powerful social forces that are re-shaping the nation... At the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, lies the troubled province of Papua. It's long had a fraught relationship with the government in far away Jakarta. A low level insurgency has simmered for decades, and foreign journalists are rarely allowed to visit. But Rachel Harvey has just been allowed in on condition that she travelled with a government minder. And in the provincial capital, Jayapura she found a deepening sense of frustration.... There's just been a major shock to the Argentine political system. It lost a huge figure last week when Nestor Kirchner died of a heart attack. Mr Kirchner was half of the husband and wife team that's dominated Argentina's politics for years, and many credit him with having saved the country from economic collapse nine years ago. In Buenos Aires, Daniel Schweimler has been reflecting on the implications of the sudden, stunning departure of this powerful man... Almost everywhere....from Afghan villages, to bars in Tokyo, and beaches in Brazil...you find a passion for football. Great swathes of the world have fallen in love with what they call "the beautiful game". Very much at the other... more obscure...end of the sporting spectrum, lies a pastime dreamed up in Prague ninety years ago. Mike Wendling has been having a shot at a game that's enjoyed in the forests of Bohemia....but not in too many other places....