Continent of snow and ice. In 1911, the norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first person ever to reach the south pole, the last region of earth that was still unexplored and uninhabited by humans. In 1959, 12 nations signed the antarctic treaty, pledging to use the region only for peaceful purposes, and particularly for scientific research. Today, there are around 80 research stations in the antarctic, used by 4000 scientists f from all over the world. We wanted to know what its like to spend months in the cold and ice, and so we headed there, starting at the airport close to the russian Polar Research station, novolazarevskaya. Reporter approaching antarctica from the air. On board t this aircraft are scientists frorom ten differet countries. Theyll be spending the polar summer doing their research here. Thisis year, the team from belas is especially large. Aleksey belarus has very big program for science. Biologists, cosmologists, and geophysicists. Now, were building our station. Reporter india has also sent a large team. Members will be making their way to the countrys two Antarctic Research stations. Jeeva the climate study is based upon together what we are studying. So it is not a year or two. An accumulation of all the data we have and the trend, what are the conditions of the ice, for example, the receding of the glacier. Reporter nearly all of antarctica is covered in ice. Leonid vasilenko comes from russia. He works at the novolazarevskaya station close to the airport. Hes a veteran researcher. Like most of the russians here, he started working in the polar regions during the soviet era. Leonid my wife was pregnant. Pregnant . My daughter, she was eight months, first time. Reporter having been observing the environment for many years, the researchers have been able to monitor the changes taking place. Aleksey when you have results from any year, you can know about how change weather on our planet. Reporter one subject of interest involves lunar observations. Its well known that the moons gravity affects ocean tides. But its exact effect on weather has not yet been well explained. The russian team cooperate with the seismologists at the german neumayer research station. Its 700 kilometers away. Few visitors comome here. The neumayer station is, after all, in a very remote location. Josefine stakemann and edith korger study the earths Magnetic Field and measure the strength of earthquakes. Theyre not the only ones. Researchers from several other nations conduct similar work. Still, the Scientists Say thereres nowhere e near enoughh exploratation underwayay on antarctica. Josefine antarctica is still a fundamentally unexplored continent. Thats why there are actually too few stations to collect data. Reporter Marcus Schumacher agrees. He heads the neumayer stations air chemistry observatory. Hes worried about the rise in the percentage of co2 in the antarctic atmosphere. Hes also concerned that the untouched southern continent could fall victim to economic exploitation. Marcus its hard to say what will happen and how things will develop. Especialally if some areas bece icefree and amazing Raw Materials are unearthed. But years ago, the antarctic treaty was agreed and extended. I see that as a good sign that it will continue to go in this direction. Reporter birgit steckckelberg leads the Research Team at neumayer. The work done here is purely scientific. Anything else would be forbidden, in accordance with the antarctic treaty that the International Community agreed to in 1959. Bibirgit there are regular, unannounced inspections that take place at the stations. Up to this point, there havent been any conflicts. But considering world history, one can only hope that the intentions remain purely scientific. Reporterer one big drdraw for reresearchers atat neumayer ise emperor r penguins. The scientntists want t to exae the animals breeding behavior in order to predict possible threats caused by climate change. The International Researchers share their results with each other. Marie charlott people always talk about the antarctic family. All the conflicts that exist elsewhere in the world fall by the wayside. Everyone helps each other, and people try to get along. At times, under truly inhospitable conditions. Its nice to see that in spite of all the bad news in the world, it can really can work. Reporter successful collaboration on the most sparsely populated continent on earth. Host while some researchers are busy in the antarctic, others focus their energy on hahappine, asking what people really need to live contented lives. Money, say some. Lots of money. But there are other important factors. Deep, stable relationships, good health, educational qualifications, and a job that matches ones skills. Happiness experts have long been ininterested in n where the haht pepeople live. The uns world happiss report sees nwaway and nmarark rang high, and finland topping the list for the s second year running. Bhutan, meanwhile, features further downwn t the small nation in the ststern hilayayas haits owown b if you go straight you go to furtimphu. Wnwn if you go left you go to paro. Reporter this is a master class in navigation. There is no autopipilot, no rad, just pure flying skill. The airfield in paro sits in a valley. Its a very narrow valley. So you do not have much scope to maneuver the aircraft. And then the valley is bending and it is turning and meandering its way, so you have to actually fly the airplane in the valley and d land. Terrain, the monasteries, the hills, the valley. Reporter the pilot tells us that it takes time to learn to navigate the terrain. The pilots orientate themselves using buildings, monasteries, and the landscape in general. A little luck never hurts when flying into bhutan. Every landing is different, but these professionals know what they are doing. Obviously all those blessings are going and helping the nation. The people are happy, the people are blessed. Thats the way i think it should be. Reporter bhutan is different. Its the only country in the world where welfare is measured not in terms of gross domestic product, but by Gross National happiness. Anyone who wants to find out more about this should be ready to wear traditional dress. And thats how we got into the government quarter in the capital. The former monastery and fortress is now government headquarters. We were advised to bring a gift for our host, a bottle of whiskey properly wrapped. Perhaps thats another path to happiness. Sound economics is also important. Thinley all countries try and pursue it. In that case what we alslso sees we have to ensure that we are pushing socioeconomic development. We also have to ensure that it does not come at the cost of our environment, our culture, and tradition. If the policies cause less than the threshold level, the policy is sent back to the concerned agency. Reporter the Happiness Commission, the think tank and nerve center of the government. Whatever takes place in these halls of bureaucracy is aimed at achieving one thing, collective happiness. According to the constitution, at least 60 of the bhutans land must be forested. Bhutan absorbs more Carbon Dioxide than it produces, the only country in the world to do so. Compared to other countries,s, bhutan is poor but welleducated, a pillar of happiness. Education is free and standards are high. To outsiders, the nation might look like an outdoor museum, but on the inside its a society that protects and treasures its culture. But is everyone in bhutan really happy . Thinley as you go around, when you ask different people, are you happy . , im sure theyll be a mixed thing, but if you really look at, in terms of the effort the government is making towards, i think we have done very well. Reporter i can yourself, do you consider yourself a happy man . Thinley yes, very much. Reporter and on a scale from one to ten . Thinley one to ten, maybe about seven, eight. Reporter every few years the Happiness Commission asks the public howow happy they are. The last poll indicated around 75 of bhutanese are indeed happy. Peday is one of them. Peday we could have two rice harvests a year, but theres no need. Ones enough. We just dont need m more. Were happy with that. Reporter capitalists would despair here. Maximizing profit is a foreign concept. So is stress. Indeed, the country has its own rhythm. When peday announces that dinner is ready, many come running. Three generations live under one roof. Of course, people in many parts of the world see togetherness as being important, but here, it actually happens. Peday why should we leave this place . The house, the fields, our parents gave all of this to us. Well pass it on to our children. We have work, we have food. Were all happy. Reporter her husband likes to chew on areca nut wrapped in a betel leaf in his garden. Its a mild stimulant, which could also be a factor in happiness. Bhutan is about the size of switzerland, with around 800,000 inhabitants. Tourism is sparse. That could be in an attempt to control influences from abroad. But is that control a good thing in the long run . Smartphones are everywhere. What previously was far away is now at locals fingertips. And the outside world can be tempting with all it has to offer. Whether young people are happy, and whether they will stay, will decide the countrys future. Buddhism is still powerful. Buddhists believe in the close relationship we have with the universe, and astrology. Lopen its like math. We calculate, subtract, multiply. The stars tell us if it will be a good day. Whether we should do things or leave well enough alone. Thats how we e determine happiness. A scale of one to ten, i rate myself an eight. And thats only because there are some things that we all have to endure, like illness and death. Reporter so happiness does have its limits. There is also no guidebook to follow on becoming happy. Not even here inin the land of happiness, in bhutan. Host helping others is another way to boost your happiness levels. In this weeks global ideas, we meet a young entrepreneur from south africa doing exactly that. His aim is to revolutionize the countrys overstretched housing situation. In the townships of johannesburg, where he grew up, poverty is a big problemem, coupled withth an acacute shore of places for peopople to liv. Reporter the township of soweto lies just south of johannesburg. Formerly a home to miners, the region now has around four million residents. No one knows the exact number. Most live in corrugated sheet metal shacks. And thats just what young entrepreneur Nhlanhla Ndlovu wants to change. He wants to have lotots of brik houses built. 50,000 homes are needed in the johannesburg metropolitan area. Nhlanhla we have a lot of people who are coming to johannesburg, coming to look for work opportunities. So most of them actually prefer to live in the townships because it is cheaper to live e there wn you are renting and it is actually convenient for you to leave from wherever you are staying to go to work. So, this creates an opportunity for homeowners to actually create accommodation for those people where they are renting the backyard structures, either in a formal mannerer or they ae renting a shack. Reporter many south africans could never afford to buy a home of their own. So t they rent shacks in other peoples backyards, all crammed together side by side. Nhlanhla ndlovu is a selftaught bricklayer. While building an outbuilding in the backyard of his parents home, he got an idea to replace corrugated metal shacks with brick houses. His customers are the people who own the land. They pay for the building in monthly installments using the rent they receive from the tenants, while the tenants themselves g get to live in a better home. Plus, the whole thing is more environmentally friendly, as the houses are made of special bricks. Nhlanhla they are more like, almost like lego bricks. So, because they are interlocking, you are actually using 70 less cement. So this actually cuts your building costs by up to 30 . You can use unskilled and semiskilled labor to actually build with these bricks. You only use a qualified brick layer when you do the foundadations and just the restf the structure when you have to put in the roofing. Reporter Nhlanhla Ndlovu makes his bricks out of old construction wasaste, so he doesnt need to use sand. That also means the bricks dont have to be fired in a kiln, which saves on energy. Because the Building Blocks are interlocking, the pressure of their own weight is sufficient to make the wall strong and stable. Its an unusual way to build, but its less of a burden on the environment than traditional masonry. Nhlanhla since we are not using the traditional building method, most people were a bit skeptical when it comes to interlocking bricks. Especially when you tell them that you only use cement to build the structureses. So having to have a pilot, this has kind of f unlocked our potential clients. We now have people because they can see, touch, and feel the structure. It is now more convincing for them to be even interested in the technology. Reporter this man was also interested and happy to learn more. Mzwandlie sibiya is among the first tenants to move into one of the brick houses. The 35yearold car mechanic has been living in a backyard for six years, until recently, in a metal shack. But not anymore. Now he has a proper home. He usesed to pay about 35 5 eua month. Now he pays 40. He thinks its worth it. Mzwandlie actually i am very, very, very happy, because if you are staying in the shack it is not like you are staying in the room. Shack is like,e, it is not a ple to be as a human being, actually. To stay in a room is where you feel confident and everything, and shack is not a room. Reporter buililding rubble isa major environmental problem in the impoverished districts of johannesburg. Many Companies Just dump their waste inin the townships to o d papaying disposal fees. Nondndumiso sibibiya knows thil too well. Every day, dozens of trucks come to her neighborhood to illegally dump building waste from more prosperous areas. This bothered her a lot, until it inspired her to become an entrepreneur. Now shes fofounded a startup that processes waste. Nondumiso a lot of peoplele o waste removal, right . They collect wasaste and then ty collect waste. But then we actually take responsibility of where the waste ends up. We rehabilitate roads with the waste. We compost it. We also o redistribute it to organizations that make use of it. Reporter organizazations le Nhlanhla Ndlovus housebuilding together. Ndlovu could use the plentifulr building rubble for his environmentallyfriendly bricks. Now, the two are working on ways to crush the waste and transport it to the construction sites. They hope to get started soon. Nondumiso so we are working out how we can actually collaborate and use the rubble as raw material for making bricks with the rubble. And then i it can be actually me profitable on bumbadotmobis side and actually help hire more people, because then we would need people who are going to make bricks and people who are going to separate the waste and crush the waste as well. Reporter more than ththree million publiclysubsidized homes have been built in south africa in the past 25 years. Even so, the government has failed to meet thehe need for w housing. Nhlanhla ndlovu says that many who came to johannesburg hoping for a better life are now living in worse housing than before. Theyre exactly the people he wants to help, and not just by building homes for them. He has many more ideas for the future. Nhnhlanhla with the informal settlements, the plan is to actually train the people that live here, upskill them to actually build their own structures. So we can replace all their shacks by giving them skills and also training them to build their own houses. These are two areas which we are going to move into, another one being in the rural areas. Reporter all that is the stuff of the future. Right now, each building is a major financial risk for Nhlanhla Ndlovu and his startup. Hes only been ablble to comple three homes wiwith environmnmentallyfriendlyriris so f far. Ree momorere underer hes onlyconstruction. To comple but hes been inundated with requeststsor more. Host youll find d more inspirg stories dw w women, our fafabook page. There you can learn n about won determined to make a real difference, and ange the status quo. Dw womomen gives a voice to th women of our world. This week in global living rooms, we visit a family in colombia. Luzmery hello, welcome. My name is luzmery and this is my home. Please come in. This is our living room, and this is our motorbike. It is standing here because we dont have a garage. The motorbike is really important for our family because its our main mode of transport. We also use it to transport things to other villages. Look, here are a few photos, mementos, and a painting. And our beloved virgin of guadalupe. Her figure stands in the living room because our lady is part of our belief. Thats very important to us. We believe that she protects our home and helps to ensure that everything remains harmonious. Please follow me. Here is the area where we watch tv and relax. And here is the e hub of our ho, the kitchen. Mmm, yummy, valerian. We drink it in tea form. Its about to boil. The herbs buds have a very calming effect. And this is our bedroom. We sleep here. But lets go outside now. This is the most important and also the nicest part of our home. Because its refreshing out here. We sit down here, and chat. And eat here. And we enjoy the fresh air and being surrounded by trees. We hang out the washing here because this spot gets a lot of sun. Thanks for the visit. I hope that you liked our home. Come again at any time. You are always welcome. Ciao. Host next week we head to a village in the state of chiapas in mexico, w where the knonowle ababout traditioional methodsf now, though, that is about ts adadualchan. G g lost thats all from us this week. Do send us your comments. Write to global3000 dw. Com and check us out on facebook, dw women. Bye for now. Contradictions of our current Economic System thehere are only a few. A pandemic that is ways in just. He has to andhatll reveal all of those inn f fissus and obeyey. Of a politically econonomic e. R. This to cut by were. Bill coming up flanders the play for the peoplple to stick on think about to the people doing a walk