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Vietnam Symphony — In 1965, as the Vietnam War intensified, Vietnamese music students and teachers built an entire campus underground, creating a maze of hidden tunnels, connecting an auditorium and classrooms. SBS, Thursday, October 13, 8.30pm. Message Stick: Wave Hill Concert — A major two part commemoration and celebration of the 40th anniversary of the 1966 Wave Hill Walk Off featuring prominent Aboriginal bands who performed during the three day event. ABC, Friday, October 14, 6pm. Cuban Missile Crisis Declassified — Presents a compilation of authentic historic images, eyewitness accounts from the United States, USSR, Cuba, Germany and the Vatican. SBS, Saturday, October 15, 7.30pm. Ordinary People — Follows One Nation candidate Colene Hughes through two election campaigns in Ipswich as her belief in the party is sorely tested and her idealistic fervour slowly turns to disillusionment. ABC, Monday, October 16, 2.25am. The Dark Side of Democracy — Drawing on more than 40 interviews and thousands of documents, the documentary provides a step-by-step examination of what happened inside the councils of war in the US. SBS, Tuesday, October 17, 8:30pm. How Vietnam Was Lost — In October 1967, in a jungle in Vietnam, a National Liberation Front ambush nearly wiped out a US battalion, prompting some in power to question whether they could win this war. SBS, Tuesday, October 17, 10pm. The Price Of Victory — Chronicles a three-month period in Baghdad seen from the perspective of US soldiers from the 27th Field Artillery Regiment. SBS, Wednesday October 18, 2pm.

On September 12 Venezuela’s left-wing President Hugo Chavez announced the expansion of the Development Bank for Women — Banmujer — during a meeting in the Teresa Carreno Theatre to celebrate five years since the bank’s founding. Chavez offered another 100 billion bolivares (A$65 million) in resources to the bank.

On October 3, North Korea’s foreign ministry issued a statement announcing that US “threats of nuclear war, sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to conduct a nuclear test, which is essential for bolstering its nuclear deterrent and as a corresponding measure for defence”. Western spy agencies estimate North Korea has enough plutonium to make up to 10 nuclear bombs.

The Indonesian government recently issued a ministerial decree to implement a citizenship law passed in July. The law will clarify the status of hundreds of Indonesians studying abroad during the alleged 1965 coup attempt who had their citizenship stripped by the Suharto regime after the overthrow of President Sukarno for alleged links to “subversive movements”. People’s Democratic Party chairperson Dita Indah Sari argues that dealing with the exiles’ status should not be an administrative question, but one of justice for victims of Suharto’s New Order regime.

Last year the Chilean polling firm Latinobarometro published results from 20,000 face-to-face interviews in 18 Latin American countries. Venezuelans, more than any other nationality polled, described their government as “totally democratic” and expressed an optimism in their country’s future that outpaced any other. This response sits in stark contrast to what would have been found just a decade earlier if a similar poll had been conducted. To understand this phenomenon we must take a look at Venezuelan politics before President Hugo Chavez came on the scene.