Falling to Pieces

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Pascale Harter introduces tales of distrust, disorder and decay from writers and correspondents around the world. In this edition, Tom Masters examines how Han Chinese and Uighur communities regard each other in the cities of Xinjiang - ancient cultural melting pots which once dotted the Silk Road, but now linked by ultra-modern high-speed rail. In the Angolan capital, Luanda, Karen Allen hears from the elite and the ordinary people denouncing them for mismanaging the economy, and suffering the effects of a slump in oil prices. Will Grant, who has lived in and reported from both Cuba and Venezuela, delves into the reasons for rampant black-marketeering, crippling shortages and long food queues in both countries. And in Warsaw, Alex Duval Smith joins a group of volunteers who're helping to tidy up one of Poland's many neglected and overgrown Jewish cemeteries. Photo: Huge, newly-built blocks of housing, which are mostly allotted to Han Chinese newcomers, now abut the ancient walls of the Old City in Kashgar, Xinjiang. (c) Tom Masters 2016