A state religion many are helped by it but children often suffer from its decreased but first lets look at the humble banana the most popular fruit in the world could soon be wiped out. In one way germany is certainly up and then a republican its citizens and twelve kilograms of the yellow fruit every year on average americans are the only nationality to consume more in twenty sixteen around one hundred thirteen million tons of bananas were harvested worldwide but the vast majority of them were from a single cloned variety the cavendish. Huge monocultures are an open invitation to pests and pathogens one of them a soil fungus called t. R. Four has spread rapidly insult east asia and caused major damage in many countries there and t. R. Four is far from the only destructive fungus experts have long said the days of the cavendish are numbered thats causing major concern in ecuador. Or the countrys number one export. No theres not an airport ahead this sign is warning drivers about low flying aircraft spraying banana fields in southern ecuador with fungus sides as a preventive measure they make their runs two or three times a week their target is black sea good talk a fungus. It is to bananas what bubonic plague once was to humans Darwin Palacios owns four conventional nonorganic banana plantations its a Family Business and they dont know when. To go talk to its not a disease you can eradicate you have to learn how to live with it but it will always be there. Its a fungus that drives under these favorable human conditions all we can do is carry out regular checks to make sure there isnt an outbreak that will damage the non across that. And make sure that leaves on the fruit stay healthy. Once the fungus has taken hold its hard to fight ecuador has been mainly spared so far due to its climate nothing is humid and rainy as Central America for example where fungus side is needed three times as often bananas are propagated asexually from off shoots the main plant produces smaller shoots at its base theyre removed and transplanted generally the young shoots bear fruit within nine months. I mean this is why we can select the best plans but we actually get them cloned in the laboratory so they have the same genetic properties. That guarantees that we always get the best possible fruit the best clusters with the highest weight. So we get the best production to hector. You. That but a sexual reproduction has a major risk the plant is no longer able to genetically adapt and that makes it vulnerable to natural enemies. Practically all the bananas eaten around the world are the fruit of a single culture of our the cavendish and unfortunately its not resistant to blacks a good talker. The fungus sides being sprayed here dont pose a health risk to consumers but they do to plantation workers. Organic bananas are an increasingly important sector making up ten percent of total production for ghana growers are taking a new approach like here in el pinko agronomist gonzalo marks pinout it was exposed to farming chemicals for three years he worked for a pesticide wholesaler until he got sick. Who wanted i worked for a company that sold farming products like pesticides and so forth i had to work on the fields that were being sprayed by the airplanes thats how i got sick. Aside use makes the plantation workers sick. Once theyve reached a certain age they lose their nails they get cancer. They lose their hair and their eyesight. Its all too much. Its hard to get official figures on Health Problems caused by pesticides but in this region everyone seems to know someone whos gotten sick. The organic plantations only use natural substances like manure bacterial extracts algae extract and oils that may help slow the growth of pests like the cedar took a fungus i dont know if youve got it on a conventional plantation you can go walking at night and you wont encounter anything on the ground on an organic farm youll find weed ants and all kinds of different insects. Ecuador is undergoing some changes after the country switched its currency to the u. S. Dollar in two thousand the economy made a modest recovery and thats also encouraged a new ecological way of thinking on his farm Darwin Palacios has standardized his production the yields in the various parts of the farm are systematically monitored that help apply fertilizer water and pesticides more efficiently and in the process he can save money. Here we get all kinds of information about the harvested trees. The most Important Information is the white. We can also determine the age of the plant where the fruit came from. And using that information we can see if something is wrong with that section and we can intervene and improve things if necessary. Then the fruit is prepared for shipment from a challenge to europe. The bananas are still green when theyre sent off ripening will be initiated using ethylene gas once theyve reached their destination but Research Continues the goal is to breed plants that are completely resistant to the fungus. From the sides will then become unnecessary at least until the next pathogen strikes the plantations. Leaving Science Behind so lets consider matters of a more spiritual nature practices may vary but millions of people around the planet are united by a belief in something otherworldly take crop circles for example some see them as supernatural phenomena others as messages from extra terrestrials. Give russia a third of the population believes in astrology the nation as a whole spends an estimated twenty two Million Euros a year on spiritual services. The isle time mountains. This is where russia borders mongolia kazakhstan and china. Its a destination for generations of pilgrims. That come from miles around seeking spiritual guidance. Legend has it that this is a place to embark on a path of inner change. Where the most in doubt go right out meet a load will say that if you think out loud dont cause then you saw us come true already on the way to avoid this fall now its important to remind yourself of that and spiritual places like these i miss the sea you left us by dont have visitors here call themselves modern pilgrims that if theyre drawn to yoga healing rituals and self worry. Yet in a goal may unite leads groups of stressed out city dwellers to the aisle to mount and. You know thats what. I was here a year ago as all my wishes were fulfilled i came to relax but also to find miracles that your son is all the clothes that over. A million leaves the visitors to the icons of the village monastery. The confluence of these two rivers is the place to wish for a spouse. Youve got a thank you here when i see my sig we russians in particular were always on a search for meaning with thats the way we are i remember being a small child in the soviet union wolf and one of my relatives went to hilo that kind of thing was normal and the one thing i knew. He needed one. In a village in southwestern russia nattie a mega nova says women like her used to be burned at the stake but nowadays doctors be for their patients to her. Shes known locally as the bush the village matriarch. Ninety offers treatments with water wax and prayers. But she only receives people who have been baptized. More to knew what he was really scary but youre not scared anymore. Who. Everyone comes to me ritual wouldnt even healthy anything if people are afraid i dont hear i dont know how the fight against the evil eye sore throat bad skin inflammation you. One. Thing. Hundreds of kilometers away from not is village is another place where people arrive from moscow and beyond hoping for miracles. Stars eva doesnt have it easy her husband recently committed suicide alcohol was involved and jealousy she has additional scotlands. Im scared about what the doctors say about some dark spots on my lungs and i want to know how my children are doing i have a lot of children i worry about the. Thousands of people have sought help from Vadim Petrovich over the years he tells the dead that the crosses formed by the matches floating in the water symbolize the burden of life. He prophesies as an illness and her daughter and says he sees the shadows in the dead as logs. Petrovich predicts a new man will soon enter her life then he tells her to drink the water that hes blessed payment is optional people give what they can. But i do my best to cleanse away all the negative energy. I was hoping fewer people would make their way here but actually more and more are coming. In the former soviet union belief in the supernatural was an open secret the psychokinetic experiments involving Nina Coolidge gina who claimed to have psychic powers or watched by the government in the one nine hundred sixty s. Shortly before the soviet union collapsed a salt professed psychic named anatoly appeared on t. V. To conduct mass healing sessions to millions throughout the soviet bloc. And to face healer junot really was sought by many in the politburo her famous patients included soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev and later president Boris Yeltsin ones nearly thirty years later countless Healing Services online represents a major enterprise. The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church considers president Vladimir Putins rise to power a miracle of god he also foresees an impending apocalypse. Its not uncommon for a Police Officer to ask a priest to bless the sights of numerous Car Accidents jesus has become an antidote for misfortune. Sociologists point to depression anxiety and a disoriented society as an explanation for the rising belief in magical thinking. But its the label who are going to no idea whats going to happen in the near future and there was really planned their lives from one paycheck to the next maybe a few months of most. Work from the full committees that are. Back in the time mantons the spiritual guide yelena got mail and insists healers are more than a rural phenomena she says her clients from moscow couldnt get by without people like her. In a country where reality is a painful experience for Many Russians cope by hoping for miracles. Russians arent the only ones who believe in higher powers so do people who practice voodoo an ancient religion rooted in western africa. Believers pray to a supreme being and around four hundred other spirits like the gods of thunder or water. The name is considered the cradle of video in the sixteenth century the religion spread to the americas with the slave trade particularly brazil haiti the Dominican Republic and the u. S. State of louisiana. Who has around sixty million adherents worldwide in between around one in five people hold the belief but some of the practices common in voodoo are highly controversial. Performing a dance for the thunder god. She is among the few villages to master the dance she learned it was she was confined to a voodoo convent. Thrown dutchy it was an agonizing three years in which she had no contact with the outside world. Well whats the worst thing was not seeing my family. You know and there was no proper place to go to the toilet or to wash. There was often not enough to eat and we were constantly hungry. Who lives in a small Village People here believe in voodoo and in the practice of confining children in convents in order to heal their illnesses and drive evil spirits out of their bodies. When in doubt she was eight years old she suffered from frequent stomach pains and a high fever a mother brought her to the hospital but the doctors there were unable to help the village priest advice sending her to the voodoo convent which meant years of almost complete isolation in their home i knew that my daughter would suffer under the conditions there theres not enough to eat here on the outside i have enough food but i wasnt allowed to bring anything to her in the convent. Shows is the way from her home back to the convent the place of painful memories lies in the center of the village just metres away from her house but the three years she lived behind this fence in another world inaccessible to her family. And that she brings to the fortune teller who she visited when she was sick back then it was a village oracle who decided her fate. And thats here and target. For sure. The oracle said that the thunder god had to be appeased in order to heal and. According to local beliefs that meant years of isolation. Children sent to the convent do not go to school during that time instead they spend their days praying dancing and learning a voodoo language. Though i was healed within three months by the prayers the herbs and the leaves but i still had to stay. Here for three long years during which time she also had to have the tribe symbol cut into her face. Well way they made the markings with a razor blade it really hurt these are the signs of the thunder god. Like the ones on these boys chests many children are marked with scars the cutting is a traditional element of beliefs and part of many rituals. Play a role in this ceremony to all of the children do not actually hurt themselves. This group of children are being released today after having been confined for years in one of bennys thousands of voodoo commons attitudes are changing but only gradually Aid Organizations were able to convince central high priests to sign an agreement limiting the time that children would have to stay in the convent to a maximum of three months. In the new arrangement allows the children to go to school i myself cannot read and write so its very awkward when i have an official meeting i think its important for children to go to school. With. Several hundred priests and local government officials have signed the agreement that enabled the release of more than one thousand children last year who have returned to their families and to school. But while the time spent in the convent has been shortened the practice has yet to be abolished completely while filming we witness how a seven Year Old Girl with severe stomach pains consults the oracle and the voodoo high priest. She unctuously awaits their decision. Then the judgement that three months isolation in a convent in order to heal her. Without even being able to say goodbye to her parents she has brought to the convent directly to the sacrificial altar of the earth god. The girl means a lot of time to calm down the priest say prays and brings initial offerings for the earth god. From there the girl is brought to the small mud hut where she has to spend the next three months. Meanwhile is back in school but readjusting to normal life was not easy. To the birth i didnt recognise my friends. It was so embarrassing after missing three years she still has trouble keeping up but she does still have four years of schooling ahead of a chance to make up for all the precious time she lost while in the convent if. Excuse. In many parts of the world the carefree days of childhood include spending warm days in a Swimming Pool river or lake that makes it easy to forget that swimming is not an innate skill. For a billion people around the globe are under able to swim thats more than half the worlds population droning is one of the most common causes of accidental death every minute on average two people somewhere in the world will drown. My jetta begum trenches had daughters close. One month ago six year old ayyash drowned near their village. She was such a Good Daughter she was always helping me. Everyone loved her. I sure would have loved to have had an education. I asked his older sister phones ana is a great comfort to her mother she misses her sister every day. Hello good plan his school did everything together we walked to school played together afterwards and ate together. One fifth of bangladesh is just a metre above sea level but many here cannot swim the statistics are shocking fifty children drown every day in the south asian country these children have learned to swim and have a lot of fun splashing about just a stones throw from their homes most villages a situated on pools like this one they used as laundry bathing area and playground. I learned to swim last month its great in the water so nice and cool. Before i could swim i was afraid of the water. Now its found. That i have a sneaky. Children who cant swim can only watch from the bank they need to be careful its very easy to slip in the mud and fall in. Four year old ruby all says that he cannot swim but definitely wants to learn. He only baits where shallow. Fasano has set off for the next village with her mother today there are swimming lessons taking place there first on a knows how to swim and now she wants to become a swimming teacher. So shes helping the instructor. Learning how to swim its really important for us kids many die as my sister did because they cant swim. Is ation which has helped to set out more than one hundred courses in bangladesh and im a bit about somebody. Im in the twelfth grade and im very happy about it. She said. Finally after practicing on dry land its time to hit the water here in bangladesh women swim fully clothed a special bamboo practice area has been constructed for begin and so does the floor so that no one can slip and go under. His mothers still understandably nervous thousand are in the teacher trying to help the children overcome their fear of the water. Actually shes still young and quite shy but shell soon get better at it if shes determined shell be a good instructor but perhaps even better than me well its the hope. They practice swimming two hours every day then they head home to help out with the chills almost all of the children can swim after five days according to the Aid Organization that organizes the courses. In bangladesh all too often of diarrhea cholera malaria meningitis another diseases but eighteen thousand children also died by drowning we have to do something about that. Darkness is falling fast on her and her family are eating dinner they missed desperately. Both children should learn how to swim then they wouldnt drown like my youngest daughter did its so important. News move on. The same the tragic loss of her sister means above all that she wants to help others stay safe. Thats it from global three thousand this time around what did you think let us know send us an email and check out our Facebook Page d w