Latitude Adjustment

This episode is the first of a two-part discussion about the erupting COVID crisis in India. Be sure to catch episode 80 as well, which deals with the status of press freedom in India and how it relates to reporting on the pandemic.

Those following the world news headlines for the past few days will be aware that that Mumbai and its surrounding state of Maharashtra are at the epicenter of a massive spike in COVID cases, with India far and away leading the world, and with an infection rate that shows no signs of slowing down during its second wave.

Our guest is Amitabh Sinha, an editor with the Indian Express, based in Pune, about 150 kilometers from Mumbai. Visit the post for this episode at LatitudeAdjustmentPod.com for more resources and for information on where you can donate and get involved with organizations working on the ground in India.

Perhaps one of the least represented perspectives we've covered on this show is that of the forests that feed and shelter us, provide our medicines, replenish our soil, sustain our wildlife, color our landscapes, and which address the most basic of all human needs, the need to breathe.

Originally from Chile, Nicolas Salazar Sutil currently resides in the UK where he's a professor at the University of Leeds. Nicolas founded Forest Guardians in 2019 in response to wildfire emergencies happening around the world. With a focus in communication, education, and advocacy, Forrest Guardians designs and delivers online courses focused on ecological apprenticeships, indigenous forest schooling, and traditional ecological knowledge, and in partnership with Earth Law Centre they consult on the legal rights of forests. That's right, the trees have rights too, and given that we wouldn't be able to breathe without them, that's a very good thing.

There's also a time sensitive matter that we would like to bring to your attention. Nicolas' organization is about to commence with "Guardians of the Forest", an online course lead by practitioners from 30 different nations who will focus on traditional forest knowledge to understand the spiritual, ecological, cultural, and legal aspects of forest guardianship. The deadline is Monday, May 3rd, 2021. Look here for more information about the Guardians of the Forest course, and about Nicolas' other work with Forest Guardians.

For this bonus episode I'm going to be doing something I've rarely done on this show, I'm not going to interview anyone. This is me speaking with no notes or preparation, just off the cuff and from the heart about some issues that have weighed heavily on me for a long time, issues that I think a lot of people in my line of work are afraid to talk about, especially in the US. It deals with why we rarely see Western media and Western nonprofits representing the perspectives of Palestinian youth with any depth or nuance.

I first recorded the following remarks as a video on my phone. If you want to watch the video version you can do so by visiting the original Facebook post. This audio version has been lightly edited for pacing and clarity.

For this re-released episode we've included our original interview, completed in late 2018, and we catch up with Bruno for a detailed update about his current work with No Name Kitchen. If you want to skip to the new interview from April 2021 it starts at: 43:43

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.

Less than a week after the January 6th attack on the US Capital building attorneys Diala Shamas and Tarek Ismail co-authored a piece for the Washington Post titled, "Calling the Capital riot 'terrorism' will only hurt communities of color."

Our conversation explores some of the less publicized consequences of anti-terrorism legislation and law enforcement priorities going back decades, to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

Diala Shamas is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and Tarek Ismail is an associate professor at the CUNY School of Law.

We speak with Dr. Amanda Rogers about infiltration of the U.S. military and law enforcement by white supremacist and white nationalist groups, and provide a brief history and contemporary overview of white supremacist movements in the U.S.

Be sure to check out Dr. Rogers' recent article, "Dismantling White Supremacist Infiltration of the Military and Law Enforcement," as well as our previous interview on the troubling history and application of "Terrorism", in episode 70 of this podcast: "The Terrorism Discourse".

Dr. Amanda E. Rogers is a fellow at the Century Foundation visiting assistant professor of Middle Eastern studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, with expertise in political violence and non-state armed groups, ranging from ISIS to Christian Identity neo-Nazis. She has a PhD in art history and Middle Eastern studies from Emory University. She has served as a subject matter expert for the U.S. Department of State, a consultant for the United Nations consultant on non-state armed groups and propaganda output, and commentator on international affairs for The Intercept, Al-Jazeera, BBC, and CNN, among others.

On February 1st, 2021, Myanmar's military seized power in a coup in response to a sweeping electoral victory by Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party. The past few weeks have seen mass protests across the country by a diverse range of groups, and the military regime's response has grown increasingly bloody, with night raids and detentions, and live rounds being used to maim and kill protestors.

We spoke to a young protestor in Yangon, Myanmar about what she has seen and to get her thoughts on the current situation in her country. Her identity has been concealed for her protection.

Kiki a.k.a. "Captain Alpha" was not new to life as a refugee when he arrived in Moria Camp in October of 2019. By that time his long journey has already caused him to flee his home in Burundi, and to spend years in a refugee camp in Rwanda. One year ago he started @the_humans_of_moria Instagram account, to help asylum seekers on Lesvos share their stories and expose their conditions. But now, for his first podcast episode, it is Captain Alpha's turn to tell his own story.

After listening to this episode be sure to check out the other episodes produced by and for displaced peoples through the Latitude Adjustment Podcast Academy. And help more displaced peoples to become podcasters by supporting our campaign.

In observance of Black History Month we've re-edited the opening and closing thoughts to two episodes that were first published back in September of 2019. A lot has happened since then, but we the conversation and the history contained in these episodes remain as relevant as ever:

In this second of a two-part conversation I talk to Major Joe Womack (USMC-retired) about AfricaTown. Now part of Mobile, Alabama, AfricaTown was founded by survivors of the last slave ship to bring Africans to the US. The shipwreck was discovered in 2019. Joe was born and raised there and now he is leading a fight to prevent its ongoing exploitation and pollution by toxic industries. It's a story that goes to the heart, not only of the Deep South, but of America's failure to reconcile itself to the darkest chapters of its history. It's also a story of how those events might be used to breathe new life into a struggling community.

In observance of Black History Month we've re-edited opening and closing thoughts to these episodes that were first published back in September of 2019. A lot has happened since then, but we felt that the conversation and the history contained in these episodes is as relevant now as ever:

Now part of Mobile, Alabama, AfricaTown was founded by survivors of the last slave ship to bring Africans to the US. The shipwreck was discovered in 2019. Joe Womack (USMC-ret) was born and raised there and is now leading a fight to prevent its ongoing exploitation and pollution by toxic industries. It's a story that goes to the heart, not only of the Deep South, but of America's failure to reconcile itself to the darkest chapters of its history. It's also a story of how those events might be used to breathe new life into a struggling community.