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From Our Own Correspondent: Heavy Haulage

Heavy Haulage

14/12/2014

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Heavy Haulage

Insights and analysis from Russia, Somalia, DR Congo, India and Morocco

Tales of resurgent Tsarist values in Russia, Somalia's new love for Turkey, the wooden workhorses of DR Congo, elephants and other animals in Indian cities, and mayhem in Morocco.

Tim Whewell remembers the songs of his youth in the USSR and why they are paradoxically now part of a revival of older values - imperial, Orthodox, Tsarist - not just in Russia, but even among the militias of eastern Ukraine. Mary Harper is on the streets of Mogadishu, seeing signs of a newly blossoming relationship between Somalia and Turkey - some Somalis even calling their sons Erdogan, after the Turkish president! 

Martin Fletcher delves deep into the history of the chukudu, a wooden workhorse (a kind of handmade giant scooter) invented to ease farmers' lives in one of the world's toughest places to scratch a living. Anu Anand explores the sacred status - and daily trials - of the animals working in India's cities. And, Justin Marozzi bids a fond farewell to Chefchaouen, the Moroccan town where even the hustlers and hawkers tend to take things easy.

(Photo:An elephant grabs a bunch of bananas offered by an Indian man on World Elephant Day in Nagaon, 2014. Credit: Anuwar Hazarika/AFP/Getty Images)

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