John Stanmeyer: What drives piracy? Poverty. The unbridgeable divide between rich and poor on this planet. And, malaria. There's a poverty element to it as well. And so spreads the largest killer on our earth after tuberculosis.

We went all over the planet to try to analyze and to try to humanize the thing that's a spreadsheet. So, we went to look at human made malaria. Who would've thought! Guess what? They put a road in the middle of the Amazon in northern Peru, outside of Iquitos. And what happens? You cut down trees people move into formally forested areas and in turn start getting malaria. Why? Because they deforest the forest. They cut down the trees. And when the trees open up they create a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. And so spreads the largest killer on our earth after tuberculosis. They make it into charcoal. There is a whole industry of deforestation that leads to malaria. And these are a group of people who for decades, centuries have lived in open areas. This family is swatting mosquitoes off of them. That's what happens when humans advance. We want to advance in society bringing in a road, sounds great. You end up spreading malaria at-- Catastrophic levels of malaria now in this region.

I went to India, Calcutta. Second largest population on earth one-point-one billion fellow human beings. And there's malaria. Enormous levels of malaria. Humanity packed together. And it's because of poor drainage during monsoon season. I discovered reading an article over coffee in the morning that the launderers in Calcutta help spread malaria because the puddles that they make along the shoreline when they're whacking the laundry create a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. Monsoon season hits, I was there for a week and a half and it didn't rain. And I go, “God, I came here for monsoon season. There's no rain, what are you gonna do?” The last day the heavens opened up and there was almost a meter and a half of water on the ground. And this taxi driver pulled his car into it, and got stuck. And you'd think what does this have to do with anything? When he gets his car out, starts running again there will be pockets of water all over that car creating the perfect breeding ground for malaria, for mosquitoes. In monsoon season I'd run across an area where they're dyeing clothing and the entire ground beneath our feet is purple. This is a perfect breeding ground, again, for mosquitoes. And the government works really diligently trying to avoid it by spraying pesticides right next to people cooking their dinners. It's a very, very odd hodgepodge way of managing a very densely populated city with a very high malaria rate. This family, entire family have all had malaria two or three times, including the girl in the mirror reflected on the wall. It's a constant cycle all because of poor drainage in a concrete jungle.

I went to Tanzania, and in Tanzania in a remote village where people don't have access to education. Many people can't read, nothing wrong with that. Right or wrong, good or bad, but they do street theatre in able to try to educate young children and mothers and-- on how to prevent malaria. In this case, this is a person masked as if it's the mosquito that has malaria and to avoid it, 'cause this is what you could have and possibly die if you're bitten by the mosquito. And it's really simple to prevent malaria. Mosquito netting. This is Africans helping Africa. These are mosquito nets that are affordable for Africans. And I remember walking into this room going “What am I going to do?” It's a barren place, they're sewing. And I see this gentleman, poetically sewing as if he is in a cloud of mosquito-- mosquito nets. And he's just, he's an artist in his own right. So beautiful and it's so simple and yet there's so much poetry in something that simple. And these mosquito nets aren't just used on bedding. They're like mosquito nets on your home. Over doorways, they'll put it in to try to keep the mosquitoes coming in. The Africans in the Masai Mara region of Tanzania are using an Asian plant called Artemisia as a prevention and cure for malaria. So a lot of interesting things happening in Africa for Africa. While I was there, I heard of an outbreak of malaria in Kenya. I jumped on an airplane, went to Kenya and I went to a clinic where everybody was having malaria huge bouts of malaria. This gentleman was almost going cerebral. When it goes cerebral, you're not going to make it. Luckily he had access to a clinic and made it. And then we wanted to look at malaria in the-- the most epic levels of malaria and that is in Zambia, along the Congo-Angola border. The highest levels of malaria on earth. In Zambia though, they have traditional healers 'cause they can't afford or have access to clinics. This is a woman who uses natural herbs and heat underneath a blanket to try to cure a woman who has malaria. Another one, a witch doctor believes that he has a magical toy that he can put on the chest of human beings and to see inside their bodies if they have malaria. Zambia is one of the few places on earth that are using DDT to eradicate the anopheles mosquito. We did this in America. We used to have malaria right here at the ground beneath our feet in Washington, DC. There were huge cases of malaria here. All eradicated because we used this thing called DDT. A lot of nations on earth are saying “enough is enough”, we have to start fighting this killer because it's really one of the largest killers on our planet. There's a small hospital called the Kalene Mission Hospital and this family carried their child for two days. Imagine carrying your child for two days just to get to a clinic, in order for it to live because of malaria, and it did, it survived. Yet another mother spent three days carrying her child just to be able to survive. Every day in this area 40-50 people come in with fever all being tested for malaria. It's just the most epic levels you'll ever see of malaria.

The next story was pirates of the Malacca Straits. Very hard story to do. Why is piracy rampant in the Malacca Straits? It is a multi-trillion dollar industry. This piece of clicker that I have in my hand that screen, most of the phone-- every phone you have in your pocket or in your purse every piece of electronic and other things all move through the Malacca Straits. Ships laden with gold, basically. And what drives piracy? Poverty. The unbridgeable divide between rich and poor in my opinion, on this planet. This is on the Sumatran side. An example of just how difficult it is to live. On the Malaysian side the Malaysian military runs patrols regularly with heavily armed ships, trying to protect the boats. But still the desperation is there. And so I hung out with my friends. Not my friends directly but people I knew who were pirates So I said, “What do you guys do? You know, how do you do this?” So, I went out with them one night and they showed me. They hide in these estuaries and they sit there and they wait until just the right ship comes and then they go and they attack it. Now, in our business, in journalism we never say somebody is this, that or the other thing. So, I went to a bar, a billiard hall where allegedly pirates hang out, and allegedly play ball. How does it connect all the way in the culture?

On the island of Bangka, due to poverty and due to corruption and a whole layer of things young children, before going to school set up a casino and start to have gambling before going to school. How does that happen? There's no opportunity, there's no hope. Where does this come, it's in the culture. It's not because they are bad people there's no hope, there's no opportunity. There's trafficking of women related to piracy. In this case when pirates have a good day they go and visit brothels that also Singaporeans go to. And again, on the island of Bangka. In Malaysia, there's a spiritual side to the Malacca Straits. They believe that there's a mystical well along this beach front in Malaysia. And this family believed that their daughter was possessed. And only by being blessed in this water could she be cured. There's a spiritual side to the Malacca Straits. Who would've thought?

Sacred water, looking at our spiritual thirst. We went to Mexico to look at the sacred Cenotes in the Yucatan. They used to be spiritual places for the Mayans today we come and we seek peace and relaxation and meditation. This is a Russian Orthodox community on Epiphany day. Now, you're probably gonna say this “is Russia, Ukraine, right?” No, it's Maine! We went to India for the Ganga Dussehra ceremony. One-point-three million people making offerings in the sacred Ganges. It's a staggering event. Again, where they light candles, say prayers, beautiful. If you ever get the chance to go to Haridwar, do go. And then wait just for dusk, and it becomes the most beautiful, poetic scene of humanity in deep spiritual prayer with the candles moving down the river. We went to look at the commercialization of the spirituality of the Ganges, to Mumbai to Bombay where a giant water park with the symbol of the Ganga is there and you can slide down the Ganga. We went to Turkey to look at sacred water in Islam. Ablutions before going into the mosque to pray. The Greek Orthodox Church in Istanbul. We know about baptisms but let's do it in a little more poetic way. We don't have to see all the nudity. Went to Bali, to look at the spirituality in Hinduism where they pray where the water is considered extremely sacred. Japan, at a meditation center, where people pray under dripping and meditate under dripping droplets of water. The taoist outside of Kyoto line up under candlelight and pray for blessings under cascading cold waterfalls. And if you're gonna work in an onsen, in Japan and everybody is naked, you kinda feel kinda funny you're wearing your clothes and everybody else is naked. So, it's probably the only assignment I've ever done where I worked naked for three days. I just worked naked. South of France in a cave that is believed that the Virgin Mary appeared. Every day thousands come to touch the water seeping from the wall. So desperate are some in pain, they come in their hospital beds praying for relief, to touch that sacred water.