78: What Can Forests Teach Us?

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. Nic founded the Charity Guardians Worldwide in 2019 in response to wildfire emergencies happening around the world. With a focus in eco-restoration, systemic transformation and Indigenous led education, Guardians designs and delivers online courses featuring ecological apprenticeships, indigenous forest schooling, forest and eco-restoration placements, traditional ecological knowledge and more. 

There’s also a time sensitive matter that we would like to bring to your attention. Nicolas’ organization is about to start “Follow the Land”, a transformational online course on land consciousness featuring a physical/ live streaming pilgrim's walk in South-East England followed by placements in four amazing European wilderness destinations. 

Guardians Worldwide is also steering a fundraising campaign entitled The Clootie Tree to support five indigenous forest guardians in the Amazon, Atlantic and Valdivian Forests of South America.

See details for joining and supporting these initiatives below.

Guardians Worldwide: GWW is a UK based charity that supports forest and river guardians worldwide through eco-restoration, cultural transformation and indigenous-led education. Our work supports over 30 guardians in different parts of the world, encompassing over half a million hectares of primary forest.

Clootie Tree Campaign:

Guardians Worldwide is involved in a small fundraising campaign to support post-covid relief in the Amazon, Atlantic and Araucaria forests of South America. Your suport will go toward the work of five forest guardians Flay Guajajara, Tawana Kariri-Xoco, Haru Kuntanawa, Alex Melinir and Yanda Tawra.

Episode 54: The Protests - Chile

In mid-October, 2019 protests broke out in Santiago, and spread across the nation in what quickly became the largest display of civil unrest in Chile since the Pinochet dictatorship. While the proximate cause was a modest raise in Santiago’s metro fares, it’s been clear from the outset that the protests are concerned with larger structural issues, chief among them being Chile’s decades-old commitment to laissez-faire capitalist policies that have seen the privatization of large sectors of the economy, including public utilities and services such as water and roads, and a two-tier system for healthcare and education have also underscored the large chasm between classes. And finally, the state’s privately managed pension system (designed by the president’s brother, Jose Piñera), has been a focal point with its notoriously poor payout structure. While the pension system’s administrators manage to pull in decent profits the system has left Chilean pensioners struggling to survive.

On October 25th an estimated 1.2 million people took to the streets of Santiago demanding Sebastian Piñera’s resignation. While a number of his cabinet ministers were forced to resign, Piñera - a billionaire who made his fortune bringing credit card companies to Chile under the Pinochet regime- remains in office. The protests have been characterized by violence with scores of metro stations burned, looting and vandalism, and petrol bombs. Piñera called a state of emergency on October 19th, which resulted in street patrols by the armed forces and the militarized Carabiñeros. Hundreds of human rights abuse cases have been reported by individuals, human rights organizations, and medical professionals, including at least 19 deaths, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture, sexual assault in police custody, and what appears to be the systematic misuse of rubber bullets and non-lethal projectiles to intentionally maim and blind protestors.

Today we speak with three guests: American filmmaker and journalist Joshua Tucker, Chilean social researcher Lorena Ortiz, and Chilean sociologist and professor Conrado Soto Karelovic.

Left-to-right: Lorena Ortiz, Joshua Tucker, Conrado Soto Karelovic, and Lorena Ortiz. Photos are property of the subjects.

Veins of Resistance (Official Trailer) from joshuatreetucker on Vimeo.

Episode 53: The Protests - Iraq

The current protests in Iraq began at the start of October. Much like the ongoing protests in Lebanon, the protests in Iraq have largely been mobilized by youth, with no clear leadership, and with a decidedly anti-sectarian focus, with demands to address chronic unemployment, and to reform entrenched corruption and rule by political elites.

They are also the largest protest in Iraq since the end of the Saddam Hussein regime. Unlike Lebanon, protests in Iraq have seen a heavy handed response from the government that has already led to more than 300 deaths.

We speak with political analyst Raed Jarrar to get more context, and to learn what and who are behind the protests and just who is running Iraq these days.

This episode is the second in a series that Latitude Adjustment podcast will be putting out on current protests around the world. Be sure to check out the other episodes in the ongoing series.

#LatitudeAdjustment_Protests