Libya and Vietnam

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Alan Johnston introduces despatches and insight from correspondents around the world. In this edition, Mark Doyle finds the Berber communities of western Libya keen to fight not just against Gaddafi, but for their own cultural identity; Nathan Edgerton reflects on how Vietnam's treatment of older people compares with their lot elsewhere. A tale of two villages On the surface at least, the war in Libya is a clear-cut affair. Colonel Gaddafi's forces are fighting to keep him in power, while the rebels are determined to oust him. But civil wars are almost always a little more complicated than they look - and there are obvious signs of those schisms on the ground. Mark Doyle has been reflecting on the local complexities of conflict in the mountains of western Libya. Soft porridge, hot tea, and family love One way to judge a society is by looking at the way it treats its weaker members. Too many elderly people in Europe and North America are rather neglected in their later years - left to lead isolated and lonely lives. Nathan Edgerton found there's quite a different way of doing things in the countryside of Vietnam.