Latitude Adjustment

We hear a lot about Iran in the Western press and from Western politicians, but we rarely seem to hear from the Iranian people themselves. This week's episode is the first of what we hope are many efforts to try and correct that omission.

Our guest is a young woman who is a documentary photographer from Tehran.

Be sure to check the post for this episode on the Latitude Adjustment website for more resources. You'll also find instructions for how you can answer her question from the end of the show.

Txell Donyate is an Italian, French, English, Spanish, Catalan and Finnish linguist. And while she's lived in Barcelona since 2014, she's originally from the Comunidad Valenciana just to the south of Catalonia. She offers a unique outsider/ insider perspective on the independence movement in Catalonia.

In October of 2017 the regional government of Catalonia held a referendum and then declared independence from Spain. This measure was quickly stopped by the central government in Madrid which invoked Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, stripping Catalonia of its autonomy, sacking the regional government, and imprisoning several ministers and prominent activists, while Catalonia's president and other ministers fled and went into exile. This episode attempts to lend some historical and personal perspective to the current political situation. And if you've been wanting to know more about modern Spanish history you may find the speed history lesson at the beginning to be helpful.

Be sure to check out some recommended reading on the post for this episode at LatitudeAdjustmentPod.com if you want to learn more about the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War and about contemporary Spanish history and society.

Bruno Morán is from Asturias, Spain, and is a co-founder of No Name Kitchen, an NGO that provides food, sleeping bags, basic necessities, and a community space for refugees in transit along the Serbian and Bosnian borders with Croatia.

In addition to providing basic services, No Name Kitchen has also become a primary point of contact for those who have been pushed back from the Croatian border, and as a result the organization has found itself involved in documenting and sharing the growing number of reported abuses by the Croatian border police against those who are seeking to cross into the EU, people who have no legal means of registering themselves in bordering countries.

In this episode we cover what is happening on the ground, the practical challenges of running a small front line organization, and some advice on how you can get involved in global events in your community.

Abdul Saboor worked with the US military in Afghanistan before having to flee the country after receiving death threats and having several friends and family members killed by the Taliban. What followed was an overland odyssey across Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, the Balkans, and back and forth across the EU, until he was able to claim asylum in France, where he currently lives. Along the way he endured prison, forced labor, beatings, deportations, and kidnapping. His is one of the more remarkable stories of resilience that I have come across in my years of traveling and working in the Middle East and anywhere else in the world.

We were connected by the people at No Name Kitchen, a Spanish NGO that provides food, sleeping bags and supplies, and a community space for the growing numbers of refugees stuck in Serbia and more recently in Bosnia.

Rosine Hounakey is from Togo, but was trafficked to the US at 13 years old and forced to work for free on both coasts of the US, and later into a coerced marriage, until she was freed with her two young sons as the result of an ICE raid when she was 17 years old.

Rosine then had to go through foster care in various American cities, waking up at 5am every day to take her kids to school before completing high school herself, after years with no formal education, having taught herself English along the way.

We also provide some helpful facts from our research into Human Trafficking, as well as links to organizations that can provide immediate assistance, on the website.

Yaari Walker is a member of the Yupik tribe, and originally from the town of Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. She now resides in Anchorage, Alaska, where, in addition to being an activist, author, and entrepreneur, she works at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Yaari has been on a journey, as a survivor of physical abuse, substance abuse, and incarceration, to recovery, writing a book, starting a business in Native Medicinals, activism, and going back to college to study Psychology. We cover a lot of issues facing indigenous communities in Alaska, North America, and around the world, as well as the issue of community itself and how industrialized Western society often seems to be at odds with the values of sharing, communal responsibility, and compassion.

A warning that we talk about addiction and substance abuse, physical and sexual abuse, and the legacy of boarding school placement amongst the indigenous communities of North America. For those who have personally been through these traumas, or who have loved ones who have, just a note that some parts of this show may be upsetting.

Cory Lee started Curb Free With Cory Lee, a travel blog for people who use wheelchairs and with accessibility needs. So far he's been to 6 continents and also tours as a public speaker. Aside from accessible travel we talk about Spinal Muscular Atrophy, the importance of self-advocacy, educating the public about wheelchair access, working for Obama's inaugural committee, navigating the complex relationships with caregivers, college life, riding a specially adapted camel, why Washington, DC is great for access, and more.

Be sure to go to the link for this episode at LatitudeAdjustmentPod.com for more resources and helpful information.

April Reese is an environmental journalist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, though her reporting has taken her all over the US, and around Australia where she drove clear around the continent. April explains the challenges of maintaining professional distance from subjects that impact all life on earth, and we discuss why it seems to be so difficult to get people to care about the one issue that matters more than anything else... the environment.

Be sure to check out April's recent piece in Popular Science that covers the top science policy issue in every US state, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, DC.

I caught up with David Vrabo in Tijuana after his vehicle was taken away by the Mexican authorities upon crossing the border from California. We talk about pretty much everything you'd want to know about Mexico, from the stories he heard from migrant laborers while he was working as a press translator, the disappearances and mass graves scattered throughout Mexico, the complex realities of narco-trafficking and corruption in Mexican politics and law enforcement, and his 4,000 km bike ride from Mexico through Central America. We also get into the history and current events in Central America, from the caravan currently moving its way towards the US border to the legacy of US interventionism throughout the region.

My intro for this episode is longer than usual, but I think you'll find it helpful, as I give some background on my nearly two years filming, and conducting interviews along both sides of the border with everyone from vigilante border patrollers, to sex workers in Juárez, former US law enforcement, immigrants of all documentation backgrounds, ranchers, and volunteers who leave water barrels in the desert. You can also read the feature story I wrote about the beginnings of The Virtual Dinner Guest Project in Juárez, back in 2011.

And I give a speed-history lesson of the US's role in Latin America from the Mexican-American War up through NAFTA and the Drug War, which should be a helpful resource if you want some context for today's news headlines.

Matthew Derrick is the founder of Squat the Planet, an "online community for misfit travelers". Starting out as a personal travel journal StP has evolved into an online community of anarchists, travel punks, train hoppers, and people from all walks of life connected by a commitment to "travel by any means necessary". Matt and I talk about his travels and what he envisions for the future of StP. Also be sure to check out my appearance on the Squat the Planet Podcast.