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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: Sinking Jakarta

Documentaries

Massive floods in Jakarta

17/08/2018 GMT

Sinking Jakarta

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Sinking Jakarta

A fast-sinking city: what can be done about Jakarta?

Sinking Jakarta; Somali woman poet; overweight monks in Thailand; my home town: Cerro Largo, Uruguay; Kazakhstan changes script; Myanmar festival of spirits.

Experts predict that large parts of the Indonesian capital will be submerged by 2050 unless action is urgently taken.  As a low-lying coastal city, Jakarta is vulnerable to climate change, but the biggest problem is the massive extraction of groundwater, as Mayuri Mei Lin of BBC Indonesian has been finding out. 

In praise of Somali culture 
Water skins, wooden milk churns, leather shoes – traditionally part of Somali nomadic life, and celebrated in a prize-winning poem broadcast by BBC Somali, which organises an annual poetry competition for young women.  Editor Abdullahi Abdi Sheikh discusses this unusual topic for an urban 18-year-old poet.

Obesity in Thailand
The Thai health authorities are urging people to offer healthier food donations to monks. There has been a rise in obesity amongst monks, who rely on donations and are often given food laden with sugar, fat and salt.  Nanchanok Wongsamuth of BBC Thai explains.

My home town: Cerro Largo, Uruguay
In this week's episode of my home town Alejandra Martins of BBC Mundo takes us to the farm she grew up on in Eastern Uruguay.

Kazakhstan changes script
Kazakhstan is changing script from Cyrillic to Latin, a process which can be expensive, confusing and long-winded.  Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan have been through it, and Ibrat Safo from BBC Uzbek and Tural Ahmedzade from BBC Azeri share their views. 

Myanmar's festival of the spirits
The Taungbyone Festival in Myanmar starts this weekend.  It's famous for its elaborately dressed 'natkadaw' or wives of the spirits.  These mediums, usually gay men, dance and tell people's fortunes, and as Myint Thein Naing of BBC Burmese explains, there is a lot of drinking and swearing as well.


Image: Residents in Jakarta during floods in February 2018
Credit: NurPhoto/Getty Images

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