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Alexander Göbel, Germany

August 13, 2013
https://p.dw.com/p/19JqO
Alexander Göbel, Studioleiter des ARD-Hörfunkstudios für Nord- und Westafrika in Rabat. Teilnehmer und Finalist des Deutschen Medienpreis Entwicklungspolitik 2013, Region Deutschland.
Deutscher Medienpreis Entwicklungspolitik 2013 Medienpreis Alexander GöbelImage: privat

While Alexander Göbel was busy with courses in American studies, politics, history and economics in Bonn, Cologne and the US, he was also working as a freelancer with German broadcasters and TV production firms in Washington DC. During a traineeship at Deutsche Welle from 2002-2004, his focus began to shift to Africa as he took a closer look at the continent's politics, contemporary history, culture and development. He began participating in projects in DR Congo, South Africa, Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and other countries.

In 2009, he moved to the Moroccan capital Rabat to become a junior radio correspondent for public broadcaster ARD covering north and west Africa. In 2012, he was promoted to studio director there.

Göbel's finalist entry, a radio feature for German public radio, reveals one of the downsides of globalization – the shipping of electronic scrap from the "first" world to developing countries. He goes to Agbobloshie, an apocalyptic landscape in the middle of the Ghanaian capital Accra. Every day, hundreds of refrigerators, copiers, computers, TVs and other electronic waste are burned here. Especially tragic is the sight of young children who collect burned metal here instead of going to school, hoping to make a few pennies. The listener is fully drawn into this nightmarish world, one which Ghana's government would apparently rather ignore.

Link to story: "E-dumping: Electronic Scrap in Ghana" ("Endstation Agbobloshie – giftiger Elktroschrott aus aller Welt in Ghana").