Focus on Africa

Will Kenya’s labour deal with Germany work?

Kenya’s President Ruto has struck a labour deal with Germany, but how will the policy work, and will the skilled and semi-skilled workers arriving from Kenya be well-received?

Is Tanzania's increasing involvement in the tobacco industry sacrificing the health of its population?

And why did a student take Ghana's education department to court over his hairstyle?

Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Charles Gitonga and Frenny Jowi in Nairobi. Yvette Twagiramariya, Benjamin Woodroof and Nyasha Michelle in London Senior Producer: Patricia Whitehorne Technical producer: Francesca Dunne Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

Broadcast on:: 17 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

Hello and welcome to this podcast from the BBC World Service. Please let us know what you think, and tell other people about us on social media. Podcasts from the BBC World Service are supported by advertising. Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no behind bacon rap hot dogs. - Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. - Hi, I'm Maita Gomez-Rajon. - Our podcast, "Hungry for History," is back. - And this season, we're taking an ignorant beggar bite out of the most delicious food and its history. - Saying that the most popular cocktail is Margarita, followed by the Mojito from Cuba and the Pinucula from Puerto Rico. - Listen to "Hungry for History" on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hello, I'm Audrey Brown, and today in Focus on Africa, Tanzania is expanding its involvement in the tobacco industry by growing and processing it. But it's the government promoting an industry that is damaging to the health of its citizens. And we catch up with a young man who took Ghana's education ministry to court when it refused him entry into a very prestigious school. Tyrone Margay explains exactly why he did it. - If every rest of the period kid that's coming to school has to cut their hair, then it doesn't feel right. We have to go to the human rights courts. - Would you have got your locks to go to Acimoto because I mean, it's really, truly a prestigious school. - Okay, that simple as I know, 'cause I knew that it was going to affect an entire community if I choose to cut my hair. - It's Tuesday, the 17th of September. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - First, we go to Kenya. (upbeat music) President William Ruto and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, recently signed a labor deal in which Kenya will send skilled and semi-skilled workers to Germany. The European country needs labor. Kenya has a very young and energetic labor force. Sounds like a no-brainer. But the deal is controversial for different reasons in the two countries. President Ruto said 250,000 Kenyans would be allowed to work in Germany. The Germans say no numbers have yet been agreed. - I think this framework gives us an opportunity to avoid illegal migrants because illegal migrants pose a problem both to us and to Germany. - Kenyans have received the news of possible job opportunities in Germany with mixed emotions. This is Mukami. She lays bare her conflicts about the deal. - Would I want no? Do I need to? Yes. There is a safety net that comes from being home, just safety of knowing your home and no racism and all that because those are issues that come up when working abroad. So if I would have worked here, then I would want to work here. But right now, the current situation in the country, there are no jobs for young people. So many young people are jobless. It's a necessary evil. But people go out there and look for better avenues to empower themselves, especially financially. And despite this being a necessary evil, I do acknowledge the efforts by the government to salvage the situation by looking for help outside. I myself have applied for a job in Germany. I did my first interview. It's a hotel job. And I'm awaiting my second interview. Some of the pointers I actually learned also from all of these applications and opportunities is that they need to also learn the German language. I really hope many young people are going to embrace these efforts by the government. It's important to also think about our future. - Germany has its own issues to deal with concerning foreign workers coming into the country, even though it doesn't have enough people from Germany to fill the numbers of jobs it has available. Christoph Kanan Geesser is the CEO of the German African Business Association in Berlin. We've been talking about the political and economic issues highlighted by this deal with Kenya. Let's talk about this deal between Germany and Kenya. It's become somewhat controversial because the numbers that are being claimed by Kenya. So from your end, can you tell us the broad strokes of the deal that you are aware of? - So first of all, there are no numbers in the deal. There are no quotas. How many Kenyans respond to the invitation of German companies and the German government to come to Germany to work here and to get qualified here is up to the interest of young Kenyans. - So why were there no figures? - Because we don't need figures. The challenge is to get enough young people from all over the world to fill the gaps on our labor market. We need about 400,000 workers each year from abroad to keep our labor market working. So we have to motivate young people to come and not define limits. - What kind of jobs will people be doing? - All kinds of jobs. We have labor shortages in almost all sectors here in Germany. We discuss a lot about the healthcare sector and this is a very relevant one, but it is also about engineers, about handicraft, about people in the IT sector. So a lot of qualifications are needed and so for a lot of young Kenyans with different qualifications, there are options and opportunities in the German labor market if they want to come. - And what kind of things will people need and how would you make it possible for them to want to come to Germany? - Yeah, so first of all, they have to get language skills because it helps very much in the labor market and also to integrate in our society. You don't need a high level of language skill from the first day on, but working on that is an important step and that's why we ask the German government to provide an infrastructure to learn, a better infrastructure to learn German. The other thing is an appropriate and matching qualification for needs in the labor market, but there is also the opportunity and the possibility to add qualifications here in Germany but also locally in Kenya itself, as German companies are very much interested to recruit young Kenyans. They are also ready to provide the needed structures to support them learning what they need to fulfill the needs on their jobs. - And how hospitable are you going to make it? Because we've all been reading about far-right parties gaining ground in Europe and in fact, in Germany, one of those parties has just won regional elections. We see people being treated very badly. How are you going to prepare people for racism in Europe? Because these are Kenyans, where they come from, they're not subject to this kind of behavior. - Yeah, I understand that. And it is something which is also in our mind as German companies and German private sectors and we are very much lobbying here in Germany for what we call a welcoming culture to be open-minded to people coming from abroad. And we fight racism and xenophobia here in our country. And I would like to convince you that the vast majority of Germans are very friendly and open also to people coming from Kenya. But there is a radical minority and this is an issue of concern here in our country and we have to do everything what is necessary to also protect people coming from abroad and living here in Germany against these kinds of activities. - A minority is all it takes, right? So what I'm wondering is, because Germany was very welcoming for instance of Syrians not so long ago and also Ukrainians. But we're talking about Africans who had looked different to the Syrians, they looked different to the Ukrainians. So what kinds of things would you be looking at? Because the Turks, for instance, they've been complaining about racism for the longest time they've been in Germany for very, very long as migrant workers and foreign labor. - I have people in my stuff coming from Africa. So I know these stories from very close and of course we are concerned about that and we are doing what we can to change the mindset. But if you have radical parties, they are playing with these resentments in some parts of the population and they are trying to radicalize the society. - With some success though, isn't it? - Yes, with some success. - So is there government policy and business policy to try and reverse it at least in the workplace and to make people aware of their rights for instance? - The workplace is the best place to overcome any kind of prejudice and clichés and the workplace is where integration takes place and the workplace is where people learn that people coming from elsewhere are the same as they are. So my personal opinion is the more we have young people being integrated in our labor market, the less radical political parties have success by stimulating xenophobia and racism. We as companies and private sector, we do everything to overcome this climate in our society which is a big concern for all of us. - Which other countries will people be coming from? Which other countries have been invited to send workers to Germany? - We send an invitation to all over the world but we are of course also trying to specifically cooperate with countries. In Africa for instance, with Morocco, with Ghana, with Kenya, with Nigeria, but also in Eastern Europe, with for instance, Uzbekistan, of course also in Asia in countries such as India, Indonesia and Malaysia, for instance, Vietnam and also from Latin America. But Africa of course is our neighboring continent compared to our very favorable demography. So I think it makes sense to strengthen our cooperation with African countries and to add to the migration agreement with Kenya, others with other African countries. - Now we can see what Germany would get out of this agreement. You'd get goods and services, your economy will be stimulated. What are the social and political implications you think of migration to both sender and recipient countries? - First of all, when it comes to the sending countries, it takes some pressure from the labor market and it opens perspectives for young people. I think this is politically important. This is also an incentive to invest into qualification for young people because they have more opportunities than the currently relatively limited one on the domestic labor market. I'm also convinced that we will see not only migration to Europe and Germany, but that we will see also more and more remote work within the country. So German companies working with young Kenyans, young Tanzanians, young Nigerians in Nigeria, in a way we have already experienced with India for instance. Those who come here can also serve as kind of a cultural and economic bridge between Germany and Europe and the African continent. - Thank you very much. That's been really interesting. - Yeah, interesting for me as well and I hope it was useful. - Very useful. - That's Christoph Kanan Geese, CEO of the German African Business Association in Berlin. (upbeat music) We're popping over to Tanzania for our next story. And again, it involves governments doing what governments think they need to do to grow their economies and employ their citizens. In this case, President Samya Sirluhu Hassan recently broke ground on a new $300 million cigarette factory in Serengeti. It's part of a broader push to grow the tobacco processing industry in Tanzania. The country's been expanding the number of tobacco factories at an astonishing rate since 2021, bringing in potential revenue of up to $700 million a year. Sounds good, doesn't it? Depends on where you stand on smoking tobacco though. Governments around the world are actively trying to limit the numbers of smokers because of the health burden it creates on national health systems. Tanzania is one of those governments. Nearly 22,000 of its citizens die of tobacco related illnesses every year. And tobacco companies are accused of directing their most aggressive marketing tactics at young people in Africa. So why is the Tanzanian government going against the direction of travel on this by seeming to promote the growth of an industry that is deemed harmful by health experts? Timothy Mbage is executive director of the Agricultural Council of Tanzania, an umbrella private sector organization lobbying for policies and business environment issues affecting the agricultural sector. So how does he feel about these moves by the government in the last few years? - He just inherited the policies because you know, Tanzania was traditionally growing the tobacco, the source of income for us, on a farmer's special in the Western zone, in Tabora regions particularly. So there was no option for her to do anything rather than supporting the industries because there's not any other alternative for those farmers though she wishes if possible, she could have got some kind of like international community supporting to give the alternative crop and subsidy to the farmers so that they can do away with the tobacco. And if you for a reason she has inaugurated the new tobacco processing company in Morogoro and she was like saying that she think it's better even those people from all those investors can also support the health of the people. So in the other way, she's still very sympathetic to the health of the people but the economical is alternative with limited. - But you can't have it both ways though, can you? Encouraging a tobacco industry, which is quite damaging, more than 20,000 Tanzanians die from tobacco-related illnesses and then on the other hand saying, you want to encourage the health of people. What are the options? - For me, what I'm thinking is, it is just international community which has just like living aside the farmers, not supporting them because those farmers really wish, even myself I've been working in that area, I was a trainer and researcher in that area, all they came to find that it's very difficult, the crop is difficult rice and it's tedious, it's troublesome, it's disturbing. - You mean tobacco, to grow tobacco? - Yes, tobacco, yes, but the farmers, they don't have any alternative crops to generate their cash. - Don't worry, I mean, lots of countries used to grow tobacco, but they stopped because of a decline in tobacco smoking around the world, but tobacco smoking is encouraged quite aggressively by African countries. Surely, Tanzania can forge its own direction and its own policies and encourage the growth of food crops or even flowers, for instance. It's not forced to grow tobacco, is it? - They are growing foods. Remember that, I'm talking about the cash crop here, it's not the food crop, even the people in that area, they're not buying food, they're producing their own food, but we are talking about the cash crop, but the issue is there's no any support, serious support from the international community. - But I think that's the center of my argument, that's the center of my argument. Do you need the international community to do this? Or should Tanzania-- - Yes, even myself, I have participated in different foreign organizations by World Health Organization, and now a farmer, we are already, even from yesterday, to do away with tobacco, if at all, they will get assistance for alternative crops, they'll need subsidies while they acclimatize the new crops. For example, the tabora is very good place for the cashotats, they can grow cashotats, but it can take five years, to 10 years, from the day of planting, the day of harvesting. So how are they going to survive in these 10 years? So they will need some kind of subsidy, some kind of alternative, that is what the farmers are caring for. - Must it come from the international community in the form of subsidies? Or can Tanzania actually forge its own path and say, well, we are going to find a way of transitioning from this crop to different crops in order to preserve the health of our people, and to be more beneficial in general to the economies? - I think the issue here is about the economic capacity of the country, our country's especially African countries, are the very poor, they are always-- all the times they are getting loaned from outside for other developments, so they don't have that capacity of any capability, economic capability of giving the subsidies to the farmers, that's why they have no choice. But the other way, if our government could be a rich government, like European country government, which it's subsidized even the farmers, they could have done so for some years. - I'm wondering how much influence the tobacco industry is actually exerting on an economy like Tanzania, taking advantage of the fact that Tanzania considers itself to be a poor country, and also that its markets, its growing markets, are in third world countries like Tanzania. So I'm not accusing you of making propaganda for the tobacco companies, but I am wondering whether tobacco companies are not lobbying governments in order to build their business rather than look to the concerns of the economy of a country like Tanzania and the health of the people of Tanzania. - To me, I think the way forward is to see on looking the way with the current technology, how we can help our people, because not only the health, but also it is in the expenses of the environment, because growing the tobacco would cut a lot of trees, a lot of forests are put down every single years. So we are losing a lot of electricity, we are contributing to the challenge of the climate change. So I think the way forward is also to look into how we can use the current technology, and today the world technology has to make sure that we are not in extreme the environment anymore. For instance, we can use the technology of drying the tobacco by using the sunlight rather than cutting down the trees using the fuel route. So those are the kind of the thing that we probably have to think on how we can go even to put pressures, a lot of the pressures to those tobacco companies to promote those kinds of the methodology of drying tobacco, those are the issue that we can do today. And when we are ready now to subsidize the farmers and getting them out of the tobacco, then we can have the other crop. - You mentioned Cashew Nut as an alternative crop to tobacco, what else, what other crops? - I think the question, because it's like, it's kind of the like piment kind of crop, but also because I have been working in that area, it is also, the sunflower is really wonderful in that area. They can also have that kind of crop as well. - What about coffee? I spoke to somebody recently in Kenya, and you were saying that in that area, would you be able to grow coffee? - No, no, we cannot do coffee in that area. You can do, you know, it's still like, no coffee is kind of like, it needs a low temperature, a kind of crop, it goes into high art studio, like in Kilimanjaro, in Bukobah, in Southern Highland, Tanzania. - Now, President Hassan indicated that tobacco producers could contribute to Tanzania's universal healthcare scheme. I suppose in compensation for the fact that so many Tanzanians are dying from tobacco smoking and that tobacco companies aggressively marketing their products in places like Tanzania. Do you think that will happen, and it should happen? - By the way, you know, it's very strange enough. Tanzania is the second producer of tobacco in Africa, behind Zimbabwe. But the company which are producing cigarettes in Tanzania is only 5% which is solely within the synthetic market. - But many of them are dying, and tobacco companies actually rely on local markets and in third world countries to grow their markets, because in first world countries people are smoking less. So it's a general point, not necessarily specific to Tanzania, but my question was, do you think that it should happen that tobacco growers and tobacco producers should contribute to their healthcare bill in Tanzania as the president suggested? - Yeah, of course, it has to be so not only for the healthcare, but also for the environment. That's why we are saying that maybe the government should put some pressures and a lot of the pressures which will force them to buy the tobacco which has been dried by using sun, rather than buying the tobacco which has been dried by using the fuel road, because it has to also health harder. If you are drink tobacco using the fuel road, it's a very terrible kind of business, a health wise, lot of smokes inside and a lot of things. - Are the tobacco companies actually lobbying the government to keep producing tobacco in the country and also to build tobacco processing companies and factories in Tanzania? Is there a lobbying going on? - No, I'm not sure of that things, because, for example, there was a lot of crying from the tobacco companies that they haven't even been paid back the VAT returns, so there was a lot of issues. Even as I'm talking today, there was some tobacco company which even left the countries because of that kind of, like, they have seen that the government is not supporting their presence. So it's not that they are lobbying for the government, but it's just because of the economic pressure that the government cannot help the tobacco farmers. - Timothim Baghe, Executive Director of the Agricultural Council of Tanzania. This is Focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. (upbeat music) - The inquiry goes beyond the headlines exploring the trans forces and ideas shaping the world. - Politics. - Civil society, products and services. - AI. - Each week we ask one big question. - Can Germany's far right win the country? - And go in search of answers with a help for expert witnesses. - Is Turkey getting more dangerous for women? - The inquiry from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Now, let's talk about hair and hairstyles and judgements about hair and hairstyles. Locks or dreadlocks, as it is more commonly known, is a sign of allegiance to the Rastafarian religion. It can also just be a lifestyle choice, unaffiliated to the practice of Rastafarianism. Either way, those who wear their hair that way are often judged, accused of being drug-takers or drug dealers, and discriminated against for acting outside of the norms of the societies. A case came up in Ghana a few years ago, involving a boy who was denied admission to a prestigious school. Tyrone Margai was the child of a Rastafarian physician, and he and his sisters followed that religion too. So he had locks in keeping with the dictates of the faith. When he was denied the right to keep his locks, he took the Ghanaian department of education to court at the Human Rights Division of the Akra High Court. The intention was to enforce his right to an education. He won, and now he is studying in the United States after attaining perfect scores in the West African Senior School Certification examination was he for short, and those who know about was he know what it means for him to have attained those perfect scores. He is studying computer engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, and we had a delightful conversation about his early life as one of triplets, he has two sisters, and the good fortune is intellectual brilliance has brought. Tyrone Margai, you're welcome to focus in Africa, and congratulations! You are going to go to university with no financial worries at all. Not at all. Sometimes I think back in wonder like my background and where I am currently, and it's just overwhelming. Tell us about your background. What kind of a family do you come from? I am triplets. I have a first sister, I second, and then a last sister, and we were born in Kumasi, originally in Ghana. My background is kind of a bit different from others because we had to stay on the bus for like three years in Ghana, and that was partly because my dad is a musician, so he formed a band with all three of us musicians, and that was when we were about 11, 12, they're about. But for my background, we're at a fair and sweet grid look, so I think after the high school, I got into actual test school because I passed the exams, and that is when a lot of the other stuff happened. With the other stuff, I mean, getting into actual test school and being asked to cut my hair before I get into the school. Yeah, and acimota, I mean, to get into acimota, you go down in history when you do. You join a long line of illustrious Ghanaians who've gone to acimota, and I'm not gonna be gonna mention the other schools that are in competition for that particular title, because I don't want to get into trouble with all the Ghanaians. (laughing) But they wouldn't let you go to the school because the school is so upright, it's got this massive reputation and all of that, and dreadlocks, they felt was what? They felt that there was a general conformity that everyone had to be, and that is whether you're a boy or you're a girl, once you're in actual test school, you need to keep a very low haircut. And so it meant that my looks were going down, and also they felt that my looks would interfere with my academics in the sense that locks generally need maintenance, so you just cut it for like the three years that you'll be at the school. - But you dismissed the arguments, or did you agree with them? And also tell us, having the locks, was it part of lifestyle, a choice, or religion? - It was part of culture and religion. I almost agreed with them, but not to a certain extent. First of all, it wasn't just me. If it was maybe only if I was the only unique instance then all the decisions would have dependent on me, but felt like it was an entire community. And so if every rest of the parent kid that's coming to school has to cut their hair, then it doesn't feel right. We had to go to the human rights courts. So over there were arguing of my competence to be in there at the school, and that I qualified to be there. And also the fact that the students cannot be denied enrollment just because of their hair, or their religious backgrounds. - And you won, did you? - Yes, yes, I did. It was like the first case. Yeah, I think the first case of its kind, at least to my knowledge, and the human rights courts. - Well, I mean, you were the first person ever to have locks at Atrimotta, the esteemed Atrimotta. Would you have cut your locks to go to Atrimotta? Because, I mean, it's really, truly a prestigious school. - Okay, that's simple as I know. No, because I understood that it wasn't about me. It felt like if it was only about me, maybe it's something that peculiar to only me, and that I could choose to change and have it later, then it could be worth it. But I knew that it was going to affect an entire community if I choose to cut my hair. - So did the other students and the teachers sort of have issues with you having taken the school to court winning, and then being the student with the locks, when everybody else has got low cut hair? - I later got to understand that it was not really the school that I was in court with. It's more like the school is under the general education system of Ghana. And so when I got into the school, the teachers and the students, it was actually nothing ever happened, because the teachers were all welcome in, the students were all equally welcome. And I think actually when I thought the experience, it was amazing. - Okay, so I know that in Ghana, and I would say up to about 10 years ago, people looked at you finding if you had locks, because I've had that experience. What are people's perceptions of people with locks? How do they regard it? - For me, my main experience is perhaps an actual touchscreen, almost that's all. But I hear stories of older, experienced locks, and they talk about the extreme sense of discrimination in Ghana, because I don't drive, but they talk of stories where, let's say they're driving on the road and they're stopped. It means they're going to search the entire car that they're in for drugs and other kinds of stuff. And I think the general perception, it is good all right, or at least it's gotten better in my experience, but the general idea is that people with locks are bad people. - So do you think that you're taking it, as it were, to the education department? And it was quite high profile at the time that you did do it. Do you think it helped change perceptions about people with locks? - I think gradually it is, or it has, because each time I interact with people, and then I read comments on the posts that we've made, it tells us it is doing a good job, because a lot of people in the Ghanaian communities and across the world are coming to realize that everyone with locks is intending to do bad things all the time. - The issue that you faced with locks, and generally the policing of hairstyles and cuts and so on, is a big problem around the world for, especially young black men, not just on the continent. - So, shall we brag a little bit about how somebody with locks did in one of the tough exams, in West Africa, the West Africa Senior Secondary School exam, your top performing student, you scored eight in your final exam, and you didn't use a calculator apparently for some of those tough exams, so just tell us. (both laughing) - Although I got into the school, there were some challenges. I had missed an entire semester because of the court case, and I was in the district with all these challenges. - It must have been difficult, right? Because that's a lot of pressure. You already have the pressure of exams, and now you have the pressure of public scrutiny as well. You couldn't have been easy. - Yeah, from the search that I did, there are like close to 500 students who scored four E, and all of the total test stickers were like 2,2 million, so that was when I thought I was okay. I think it's not that easy as I thought, but yeah, that was the time. (both laughing) - Exactly. - You thought it was easy to get the top A's for all your subjects, physics, chemistry, math, elective, math, all of that. - I see fear everything, yeah. - And you weren't worried. You didn't think you might have messed up or anything like that. Were you confident? - Not too bad, but I really enjoyed it without the calculator. - What did it teach you? This fight that you had on your hands with the Department of Education, and your success now when going into your life? - I think sometimes challenges come a way to only make us stronger and tougher. Straight up to my background, I remember how the whole court case was going up and down. Sometimes you read the comments that it's so heartbreaking. You know, you really worked hard to get there. But along the entire stress, which I had to get used to, it meant that I could tolerate a lot of intense situation. And at the same time, handling school pressure, the wascy pressure, the signs and mouthpiece pressure. And I feel like my eventual success probably came from the fact that the challenges in the past have done a good job on me. - Tyrone, it was such a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much. - Yeah, thank you too. - All right then. - It's a pleasure. (upbeat music) - That's Tyrone Margai, Braastafarian and future engineer. Also, author of "The Tales from Atchimota School". (upbeat music) Focus on Africa was put together by Charles Kitonga and Frannie Joey in Nairobi. (speaking in foreign language) And Yasha Michel did their bit from here in London. Francesca Dunn was our technical producer. Patricia Whitehorn, our senior producer. Andre Lombard and Alice Medangi are our editors. I'm Audrey Brown. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - The inquiry goes beyond the headlines exploring the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world. Politics. - Civil society, products and services. - AI. - Each week we ask one big question. - Can Germany's far right win the country? - And go in search of answers with a help for expert witnesses. - Is Turkey getting more dangerous for women? - The inquiry from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. (upbeat music)