The reporter Jalis de la Serna returns this Tuesday to La Sexta with the fourth season of a Special Envoy (10:30 p.m.) that travels through Asia, Africa and America to once again highlight and denounce some worrying issues that hide behind what They are considered normal phenomena of our lifestyle. The first episode of the new course will address the environmental tragedy hidden behind the clothes we throw away. And in subsequent weeks, sexual exploitation in tourist paradises or the child labor behind the chocolate we eat, among other topics.
Is the objective of the program to find out what could be behind our daily actions?
Exactly. Many times, without realizing it, simply leading a standard life for the West, we participate in global actions that harm the planet or specific countries.
Give us examples that we will see this season.
We have discussed how, for example, we have turned Ghana into the garbage dump of the West by believing, on top of that, that we are donating clothes. We have filmed mountains and mountains of clothes in illegal landfills, which are some of the most shocking images I have ever seen. We also show how, for a child to have instant chocolate for breakfast in Europe, another child in Africa has to pick up a machete and go grow cocoa.
What other topics do they address?
We denounce that the Dominican Republic has become a brothel for the West. One in five trips made there are for sexual purposes. We have shown to what extent, believing that you are going on a bachelor party to have a good time with a group of friends, you end up participating in a regrettable form of slavery.
And in India what have they discovered?
We made a prior report of what the next pandemic is going to be. We have had the help of Bruno González Toro, who is a Spanish scientist and the highest authority on antibiotic resistance. We have seen the extent to which antibiotic resistance will end, according to experts, causing the death of ten million people by 2040. We tour hospitals in endemic areas and farms where chickens are already fed antibiotics.
They have also visited the most hermetic country in the world.
Yes. Turkmenistan. A country that is at the bottom in terms of press freedom and with a very precarious democracy in which the current president is the son of the previous one. Elections are always under suspicion.
And in Dubai they explore an almost unknown topic.
We always see Dubai as the country of luxury but what has not yet been reflected in its proper measure is the extent to which this implies a huge carbon footprint: in the middle of the desert you have to refuel the cars, the tour helicopters tourist attractions, the boats that circulate inside the city and along the coast… And now Dubai has jumped on the sustainability bandwagon and is starting to do amazing things like generating rain through technology. In the end, thanks to the money they have accumulated, they may end up being leaders when it comes to adapting to sustainability.
Have you experienced any dangerous situations during the filming of this season?
There are always uncomfortable situations. Perhaps the most in Ivory Coast. In the jungles of the country we have passed military checkpoints to reach the cocoa farms where we have finally documented that there are children working. In Ghana it has been difficult to enter towns converted into landfills and talk to the people who live there. And in countries like Turkmenistan and Dubai, information control is very important and as soon as you go a little out of line a security guard always comes to put you in the booth to ask you what you are doing.
After addressing all these issues, do you have any confidence in human beings?
Well, honestly, everywhere I have gone I have found people who have wanted to collaborate with us to find solutions. The human being as a collective is really a sleeping entity but there are always individuals who are really worthwhile and are taking steps to wake us all up.
