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The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

The Forum: 22/01/2011 GMT

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22/01/2011 GMT

BBC World Service - The Forum, 22/01/2011 GMT

A radical rethink of the future of rich countries.

Diverting rivers with Dragan Savic, reinstating folk music into the classical canon with Malcolm Gillies, plus economic  insights from Dambisa Moyo.

Rising unemployment, towering debt, sluggish growth rates  and fears of inflation were once the worries of the poorer countries of the world. But now it’s Europe and the USA who are in trouble. 

On the programme today former World Bank economist Dambisa Moyo will be telling us what radical medicine she prescribes for the West, if it’s to avoid permanent decline.

And with a fresh look at why folk music was so important to Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, Australian musicologist, Malcolm Gillies.

Water engineer Dragan Savic, whose pioneering work with mathematical models, is finding new ways to assess the risks of tinkering with nature by changing the courses of rivers.

llustration by Emily Kasriel: The West diverted upstream to a future of poverty while inspired by  the folk harmonies of  Bartók.

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22/01/2011 GMT

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