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Focus Teenagers in Ljubljana, retired Britons, disabled Filipinos, South African students…. Around the world, millions of volunteers are waging a battle to help their peers marginalized by economic hardship and violence. Along the way, they are generating a social capital that might still be invisible, but is destined to play a role as pivotal as the state and the market in years to come. Dossier concept and co-ordination by Lucía Iglesias Kuntz, UNESCO Courier journalist. Sydney: the beauty and the vice What happens when you live in a city that’s a travel agent’s dream? You start seeing yourself through tourist eyes, unless you open your umbrella and follow one of the locals around. Then, the mood shifts, but the city loses none of its magnetic power Photos by Trent Parke; text by David Marr. Trent Parke is an Australian photographer who spent five years documenting sydney street life, which resulted in his book “Dream Life.” David Marr is a journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald and author of a biography of the Australian writer Patrick White. Global warming: ignorance is not bliss At the seventh international climate conference that opens in Bonn, Germany on July 16, scientists will confirm their alarming forecasts while political leaders are likely to give them the cold shoulder. Why? Michel Bessières, UNESCO Courier journalist. With Bolivar we go Taking aim at corruption and vested interests, Venezuela’s government has launched a far-reaching education reform. Some see Cuba at the doorstep, while others applaud the will to shore up an ailing system Fabrice Losego, freelance journalist, with additional reporting by the UNESCO Courier. Efforts in invisible ink By Sharon Capeling-Alakija, Executive Coordinator of the Bonn-based United Nations Volunteers programme. Children in chains At the start of the new millennium, the trafficking and exploitation of children is one of the world’s greatest scandals, enslaving around 100 million youngsters. Getting the upper hand on it means attacking the root causes of poverty and boosting law enforcement Louise Corradini, UNESCO Courier journalist. NGOs: gladiators of freedom Working on the ground and in international campaigns, NGOs have managed to shed a glimmer of hope on the lives of hundreds of thousands of child slaves L. Corradini and Asbel López, UNESCO Courier journalists. A local train named desire The railroad that chugs across Austria’s Semmering pass is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. More than a technological achievement, this local train evokes memories of a vanished, melancholy world Sylvia Treudl, writer, publisher and political science researcher in Vienna (Austria). None so blind as those who will not see Why don’t stories on starvation and clean drinking water make it onto the front page of South Asian newspapers? An Indian journalist rails against the growing rift in his country between mass media and mass reality, a trend driven by increasing corporate control P. Sainath, Indian journalist and author Chinua Achebe: no longer at ease in exile Although confined to a wheelchair far from his native Nigeria, the founding father of African literature in English is as close to his beloved home as in student days, when revolt awoke the writer within Interview with by Amy Otchet, UNESCO Courier journalist.