Enforced, even within muslim countries. It fact it only plays a dominant role in the Legal Systems of very few islamic communities and countries. Elsewhere, its generally referred to in private affairs like marriage, divorce, cases of inheritance. On top of that, theres seems to be no single interpretation of sharia law. It is interpreted and implemented in different ways. And those usually have more to do with local traditions than with any rules found in the koran. Flashlights illuminate the dark corners. Sharia police cars patrol the streets of banda aceh at walking pace. Theyre looking to catch young couples unawares. They warn go home, its late. These officers are making sure people abide by sharia law. Alcohol, Holding Hands and even flirting outside of marriage are all prohibited. Weve ordered them to sit further apart. Or to go home. If we have to tell them again to make more space between them, well take them to the police station. Anyone caught by Sharia Police is in for a gruelling punishment a public beating. Theyve got 8 people tonight, who are brought to the mosque in handcuffs. Among them 22 year old kurnia. I have sinned. Id advise young people not to overstep the boundaries of sharia. Because it hurts. the men and women are each sentenced to 25 lashes. Among them is kurnias girlfriend. A masked man is waiting with the cane. The couples crime wouldnt raise an eyebrow elsewhere just a date between two people, maybe a kiss. But these young people are made to pay. The cane hurts, but the physical pain is just part of it. The punishment is meant to humiliate them publically. This is the end of you shouts the crowd. Next time youll be dead . Many people pass out from the pain and stress. Indonesia has long stood for secularism and moderate forms of islam, but that appears to be changing. In the capital jakarta, muslim hardliners recently pushed the Christian Governor out of office. He was sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy against islam. Money has been pouring into indonesia from conservative saudi arabia, for new mosques, schools and universities. Ratna sary tells us conservative forces are on the rise here in aceh. 340 people were caned in aceh in the past year. There could be more than that this year. The Sharia Police are abusing their growing power. It affects women worst of all. Theyre deemed immoral. After a public beating, women often cant get back on track again. They have to move away, they lose their jobs. the public caning continues. Its the young man kurnias turn. He also gets 25 lashes from the algojo the executioner. And then the show is over, the audience is sent home and and kurnia is a free man. He spent four months in prison for his forbidden relationship. We go with him to a cafe, where he tells his story. Ive never committed a crime in my life. I never want to experience anything like that again. My heart was pounding. Kurnia is relieved to have it all behind him. His girlfriend cici cheechee saw him being beaten today. But he has great plans for their relationship. I want to visit my girlfriends parents and talk about the future. Maybe i can marry her soon. the Sharia Police are back on patrol. This time we ride along with the female officers, but the cameraman isnt allowed in the truck. Men and women mustnt be in such close proximity. The moral enforcers use a loudspeaker to remind women to wear a headscarf and avoid tight clothing. Just another day under sharia law. According to the un, by 2050, almost 70 percent of the worlds population will live in urban people. And 2 billion of these people will be living in slums where the quality of life is substandard. In argentina, several organisations are now trying to reverse the rural flight trend and get people to head back to the country the nearest major city lies 140 kilometers away. Out here in the remote argentine grasslands, most people make a living from cattle breeding or growing grain crops or soy. Daniel tron is a fifthgeneration famer here. His village, Colonia Belgrano, is struggling. Its population is no longer growing, because many young people move away to cities like buenos aires and santa fe to look for work. Including his sons. The older generation wonders why so few people want to stay. Marcela benitez offers a glimmer of hope with her organization responde. Shes trying to rescue villages on the brink of extinction places like Colonia Belgrano. There are plenty of people who are tired of city life and dont live well there. These villages are wonderful. Theyre hidden gems. I want people who arent doing well in the cities to have the opportunity to live in a village. More than half of all argentinians now live in cities. Its hard to lure young people back to the villages. They need work, after all. But the lopez and rodriguez families have taken the plunge. Argentinians now live in cities. For a few weeks now, theyve been renting a house in Colonia Belgrano. This project offered me a way out. I used to live in the city in a very dangerous area. I didnt like it because i had Young Children mathilda, francisco and florencia and as they got older the issue of safety became more pressing. One man is an airconditioning technician, the other a plumber both useful jobs out in the country. In the city, the tradesmen barely scraped by. They lived in a poor neighborhood, and worried about their children. We had to work long hours just to afford our living costs. And its too dangerous to let your kids play outside, so you have to pay to send them to a club outside school hours. The arrival of new families has sparked hope in the village. Residents even pitched in to spruce up the local church. Among them farmer daniel tron. Theyre also receiving Financial Support from various organizations that promote the move from city to country life. In the village and surrounding areas, there just arent enough Small Business owners or tradespeople even though thered be plenty of work for them here. 70 percent of global migration is motivated by economic factors. We know people have to work to live. And helping Small Businesses to carve out a niche giving them an opportunity to grow in this village thats the First Step Towards saying yes we can do this in any village. But the transition isnt always easy. The Village School has to have space for newcomers, and be able accommodate their age group. Regular support and Financial Assistance are part of the ngos program. The families have to be carefully integrated into the community, but there are communal events to help with that. Marcela benitez searched hard before she found Colonia Belgrano. The village may be shrinking, but the quality of life in the area is still high. As an initial step, 20 families were introduced here. Theyre offered an affordable plot of land and a loan. There will be 20 houses each on its own piece of land so every family can build their own Small Business there. The houses are all based on a special prototype. Theyre heated with solar power, and they have better insulation. Each has 2 bedrooms, a dining room and a kitchen. The families can extend the house if the family grows. For many argentinians, those are idyllic living conditions. The governer of the state of santa fe supports the initiative. 2000 families across the country applied, and these are the ones that were selected. Here theyll have less income, but a better quality of life. Responde and a foundation called es vicis are now working with authorities and benefactors to connect more villages and families. The policy has to play a role at the national scale. And not just for argentina, but the whole of latin america. Thats our dream for many communities in the region to profit from this approach. Marcela benitez is convinced that life in the countryside still has a future. She hopes the Colonia Belgrano project will soon be followed by many more. Now we head to spain, to the region around cuenca, where many villages are also struggling with the challenges of depopulation. The minimum number of pupils required to keep a school open in spain is five, and thats how many joaquina reus welcomes every morning. Its a mixed group some are in first grade, others in fifth. Joaquina has taught in schools with more than a thousand students. But she prefers this village, guadalavia despite the challenge of adapting to the two age groups. Besides working with the children, i have a much closer relationship with their parents. That makes everything a lot nicer. When she started here 16 years ago, there were 25 students. All three classrooms were in use. But now they only need one. Joaquinas pupils are lucky. They live close to the school. But in this region, its more the exception. A bus picks up students in remote villages and brings them to school 50 kilometers away. Driving time is an hour each way. The province of cuenca is one of the least Populated Areas in europe. In the countryside, there are ten inhabitants per square kilometer. People here used to work in the lumber business and as farmers. But theres no profit in either occupation anymore, so more than half the villagers have left. Professor Francisco Burillo from the university of saragossa wants new initiatives to stop more people from leaving the village. The International Community needs to develop a Strategic Plan to use the culture and history of the region to the peoples advantage. The land can be used for organic farming and ecotourism. But unlike other eu countries, spain has no Regional Development plans. Funds are spent on more immediate needs. Doctor javier orte works in one of the Regional Health centers. His family, whom he sees only on weekends, lives in saragossa almost 200 kilometers away. He still drives about a thousand kilometers a week to visit villages and see his patients. Everyones getting good medical care, but theres a problem. Everyone in this area gets good medical care. But there is a problem. Older people dont realize when they need medical attention. Sometimes they call because of a problem thats gone away by the time i get there. And at night, theyre afraid to call, because they dont want to disturb me. Next nurse juan carlos soriano, who goes on house calls with doctor orte, is usually the first point of contact for the patients. Im the mailman, the nurse, the social worker. Im a little bit of everything, really. The villagers of Montes Universales in the cuenca province appreciate the attention. Two families live in the village of toril. The nearest village is 15 kilometers away. Carlos, the domingo familys 23 yearold son, works on the farm with his parents. He doesnt want to go away. The air is clean, its quiet, they have everything they need including medical care. But he understands why so many others have left. Many schools have closed; theres no work, no culture. Farming isnt profitable anymore, the harvests bring the same as 50 years ago, but the prices of fuel and fertilizer have gone up. There are no stores here. Its practically an invitation to leave. But joaquina reus wantso stay. She ly h five yearunti tirement. Her schools inanger of wantso closing when the older pupils lee. Thats already happened in two neighboring villages. If they close the school, ill go to the neighboring village, griegos. They have the same amount of students. Or i can go to tramascastilla. But i wont go to teruel or any other big school. The Village School is my life. But maybe it wont have to come to that. Joaquina says three children were born in the village last year. According to spanish law, theyre eligible for preschool at three years of age. And that insures the further survival of the school in guadalavia. Follow us on dw global society. And now we meet people committed to protecting our planet. In our global ideas series. Tourism is booming in sri lanka. By 2020 the island expects to welcome three million holidaymakers annually. But the equipment in many hotels is out of date. Air cons in particular use up tons of power and contain harmful refrigerants. Now hiran cooray owner of the islands Largest Hotel chain wants to change that. Over the next three years, he plans to make his hotels carbonneutral. Our reporter Wolf Gebhardt went to learn more about combining tourism and climate protection. Its an ambitious vision. One of sri lankas Biggest Hotel chains wants to cover all of its energy needs with renewables by 2020. Jetwing runs 30 Upscale Hotels on the island, and welcomes visitors from around the world. No business can be sustained in the long term, if you dont look after your people and the planet. Their strategy is to install cuttingedge air conditioning systems. We can be a role model or we can be a guinea pig. Just how green is jet wing really smart . We visit the chairman of jetwing at home. Hiran cooray is one of the most powerful men in sri lankas tourism industry. His father herbert set up the company in the 1970s. Even back then, the business was environmentally minded. My father always believed, when wherever we go and build hotels, we go in as strangers to that area. So for him it was important that we look after that environment and also that the local communities benefitted, from whatever he was doing the hotel chain is a proper family business. Two of coorays three sons also work in the company. And being green is a private goal as well. Their home is also powered by solar energy. Negombo, a picturesque port on the west coast. There are five Jetwing Hotels in the surrounding area. The islands electricity grid may look oldfashioned. But about 30 percent of sri lankas electricity already comes from renewable sources mainly hydropower. So in seeking to be Carbon Neutral, jetwing isnt starting at zero. Air conditioning accounts for over half the Energy Consumed in the hotels. Conventional Technology Uses electricity to compress refrigerants that are harmful to the environment. But a new type of ecofriendly air conditioning has already been installed in five hotels. Its system cools with water vapor. The German Development agency, giz, trained the technicians involved. The necessary electricity is produced by buing biomass. The hotels will save money from the switch, but only in the longterm. The new boilers are twice as expensive as the old ones. And operating costs are considerably higher. The biomass boiler, you need to keep on feeding, you have to make sure that the pressure is at 8 bar, constantly maintaining 24 7, labour intensive, it is manual feeding, maybe maybe every half an hour you have to keep on feeding the fuel. That fuel is waste wood from cinnamon farming. It only releases the amount of Carbon Dioxide that the tree absorbed during its lifetime. Power just used to come straight out of the socket. But now jetwing has to build up its own grid. 150 kilometres to the south is the center of the cinnamon production on the island. Dinesha silva farms cinnamon as people have done here for generations. After removing an outer layer of bark, they pry off strips of inner bark the quills will later be packaged as cinnamon sticks. We also pack the little bits in and then let the entire thing dry in the sun. Cinnamon is an important cinnamon is an important sideline that the family relies on to get by. Dineshas husband also works as a cabinetmaker. Her brother has an administrative job. Until now, the wood left over from the cinnamon harvest was a waste byproduct. Now the family can sell it to jetwing and earn extra cash. Hiran cooray is visiting another supplier. He has sold the waste wood in the past. Small bakeries for instance sometimes use it as fuel. But since jetwing has started ordering from him, things have grown much simpler. These days i can sell in bulk to bulk buyers. In the past it was all smallscale stuff. Jetwing is sri lankas biggest buyer of the fuel, snapping up around a half of whats available. The rise in demand has also led to a rise in price. And soon supply could become a problem. With us expanding our hotels to different parts of the country, if we are to rely only on cinammon wood, i think there will be a shortage, because we need large quantities. So we have to find alternate, methods of powering our biomass as well. The company is already testing an alternative briquettes made from compressed rice husk. It might be renewable, but burning it is dirty work. The workers have safety glasses and face masks to protect them from the smoke, but they dont always wear them. The power plant has only been in operation for three weeks. Not everything is working smoothly yet. This diesel generator is a stopgap solution. Here, too, cinnamon wood is being burned to dry the rice husks. Is this laborious process really environmentally friendly . That is the challenge that we are facing right now, to minimize the smoke and the dust. Embedded energy on one kilogram of bricketts is what we are tring to work out, to see, whether its really a worthwhile exercise the company is already pushing the limits of what can be achieved with biomass. If the hotel chain really wants to achieve its goal of being Carbon Neutral by 2020, then hiran cooray is going to have to opt for an Additional Renewable Energy source solar power. Hes already invested some in photovoltaics, but to scale it up hell have to plow in a lot more cash. We will need to buy land, because the land by the beach resorts is obviously very expensive and then you cannot convert those into solar parks. But there are lands in the interior, which can be bought to a much lower price. , and there it is possible for us to have big solar park a hotel chain thats one hundred percent green. If the experiment is a success, it could set an example for other hotels in sri lanka and those further afield. Thats all for today. Thanks for joining us were back next week and remember we love hearing from you. Write to us at global3000 dw. Com or visit us on facebook dw global society. See you soon [female voice over] this program is made possible in part by the town of marion, home of the Wayne Henderson school of appalachian arts, celebrating 21 years as a certified virginia main street community. The historic General Francis Marion Hotel and the speak easy restaurant and lounge, providing accommodations and casual fine dining. In downtown marion, virginia. The bank of marion. Technology powered, service driven. Wbrf 98. 1 fm. Bryant label, a proud supporter of our regions musical heritage. cherokee shuffle by gerald anderson