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From Our Own Correspondent: Cracks in the Facade

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Cracks in the Facade

25/06/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Cracks in the Facade

Stories from Macedonia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Ecuador's mining belt and Japan's geisha houses

Stories from Macedonia's 'colourful revolution', the fragile peace of Iraqi Kurdistan, the mining strongholds of Ecuador and a small-town Japanese geisha house

In Skopje, Lucy Ash finds out why the Macedonian capital is now so festooned with graffiti - and finds it is nothing to do with art, but a visual part of a widespread anti-government protest movement.

Richard Lim notices some ominous signs of economic stagnation amid the apparent optimism of Iraqi Kurdistan. Erbil might seem like a haven of peace to Iraqis from outside the region - but can it really draw visitors from further afield?

Contributors to From Our Own Correspondent often end up having a drink with their interviewees - but in the gritty mining town of Portovelo in Ecuador, Joe Gerlach was not expecting to find that even his shot of firewater had a strong metallic after-taste.

And in Japan, Juliet Rix recently sat down for tea and polite conversation with a couple of modern geisha - and ended up learning some very unexpected facts about their much-mythologised world. 

(Photo: Anti-government graffiti marks a monumental arch in Skopje, Macedonia. June 2016)

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