human rights

87: Will We Just Forget Afghanistan?

As the formal US occupation of Afghanistan comes to an ignominious close, human rights defender Basir Bita joins us again from Kabul. We discuss the recent offensive by the Taliban that has seen it taking large swathes of the country, the varied interests and involvement of the key international players in Afghanistan’s present and future, and perhaps most critically, the legacy of US abandonment of those Afghans who have put their lives on the line to aid its two decades of foreign occupation.

And for US citizens, this document has all the info you need concerning whom to call in Washington, and even a script for what you need to say to them to help evacuate as many Afghans as possible.

We can throw our hands up and wish that somebody would make things better, or we can be those people right now, today. The choice is yours. Let's move!

 
 

Also Recommended by Our Guest:

 
 

Revisited: No Name Kitchen (with update interview)

For this re-released episode we include the entirety of 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.


 
 
 
 

73: Africa, Race, and Racism in the Aid Community (2 of 2)

This episode is the second of a two-part conversation with Tity Agbahey. Tity is an attorney and a staffer at Amnesty International. Based in Senegal, her current work focuses on central Africa, though her previous work has focused elsewhere on the continent, and her life and travels have taken her to points beyond.

This pair of episodes should appeal to two types of listeners, those who know what it feels like to be the only one who looks like you in your university class, in your staff meetings, or on a discussion panel at a conference, and those who don’t but who want to understand.

This is also a conversation about colonialism, paternalism, and racism in one of the last places you should expect to find it, in the international aid and development sector. It’s also a conversation about the world’s general ambivalence towards African suffering, the benefits and limitations of African to African-American solidarity, privilege within an African cultural context, racism in France, internalized colonialism, an African perspective on racism in the US,  and everything else we could think to get off of our chests during a very open conversation.


72: Africa, Race, and Racism in the Aid Community (1 of 2)

This episode is the first of a two-part conversation with Tity Agbahey. Tity is an attorney and a staffer at Amnesty International. Based in Senegal, her current work focuses on central Africa, though her previous work has focused elsewhere on the continent, and her life and travels have taken her to points beyond.

This pair of episodes should appeal to two types of listeners, those who know what it feels like to be the only one who looks like you in your university class, in your staff meetings, or on a discussion panel at a conference, and those who don’t but who want to understand.

This is also a conversation about colonialism, paternalism, and racism in one of the last places you should expect to find it, in the international aid and development sector. It’s also a conversation about the world’s general ambivalence towards African suffering, the benefits and limitations of African to African-American solidarity, privilege within an African cultural context, racism in France, internalized colonialism, an African perspective on racism in the US, and everything else we could think to get off of our chests during a very open conversation.

Also it is in no way our intention to suggest that the opinions and points put forth in this episode represent the full depth and breadth of views held by 1.3 billion Africans. This is not the first, and it will certainly not be the last conversation about Africa and its 54 nations on this show, and we sincerely hope that you will check out our back catalogue and listen to previous episodes on related topics, from contemporary politics and economics in Zimbabwe, social entrepreneurship in the DRC, the Fulani people, and the role of women in Sudan’s ongoing revolution, to name just a few.

 
 
Take action for justice in Central Africa now…

Take action for justice in Central Africa now…

Recommended reading from our guest…

Recommended reading from our guest…

 
 

Episode 57: Special Report from Greece and Turkey

Much has changed in recent weeks since we left Greece, and before bringing you the personal testimonies and field interviews that we gathered from refugees, volunteers, Greek citizens, and stakeholders during our time in Lesvos and Athens in January and February, we wanted to touch base with some people on the ground in Greece and Turkey to get up to speed on the fast-changing situation in and between these countries.

In 2016, in response to the growing alarm at the continuing movement of peoples towards Europe, the European Union struck the so called EU-Turkey Deal, effectively promising to pay Turkey approximately 6 billion Euros to contain the flow of people to within its borders. Turkey now leads the world hosting a refugee population of more than 4 million people, 3.7 million of them from Syria. At the end of February president Erdogan ordered Turkish border police to stand down resulting in a rush on Greece’s land and maritime borders, and enflaming what was already a highly tense situation in the Greek islands.

Douglas Herman a journalist and co-founder of Refocus Media Labs, a nonprofit organization that teaches media skills to asylum seekers. Douglas has been based on Lesvos for several years and more recently he’s been documenting the escalating situation on the island for a variety of news sources.

Deman Güler is a human rights attorney in Turkey and manages the Human Rights Center and Commission for Refugees for the İzmir Bar Association. Those familiar with the geography of the migratory routes will recognize Izmir as one of the principal staging areas for smugglers and for those trying to cross by sea to the Greek isles.

Are You Syrious is an indispensable resource for those trying to stay on top of policy changes and events on the ground along the migratory routes. an indispensable resource for those trying to stay on top of policy changes and events on the ground along the migratory routes.

This special podcast report is the first in a multipart podcast series covering the conditions of refugees and communities on the borders of the European Union and part of a collaborative project between Latitude Adjustment podcast and Croatian nonprofit Are You Syrious. Be sure to check out the Are You Syrious written accompaniment to this episode as well. This AYS special report is intended to provide a helpful timeline of events and offers more context for the podcast.



Correction: the initial publication of this podcast indicated that cases of COVID-19 had been reported on both Lesvos and Chios. However the case(s) on Chios are not yet confirmed, while it appears that one case has been reported in the general population on Lesvos.

Left to right: Moria Refugee Camp, Lesvos, Greece, Douglas Herman, and Deman Güler

 
 
 
 

Come for a three-minute walk through Moria Refugee Camp.

 

Organizations that we recommend supporting.

 
 

Episode 38: Hong Kong Protests - Local Perspectives

In June more than 2 million Hong Kong residents took to the streets to protest a proposed law that could see residents of the global financial center subject to extradition and criminal prosecution in China, undercutting the delicate "one country, two systems" policy that was to remain in place for 50 years after the 1997 handover from the British. Today, on the anniversary of the handover, the protestors stormed and occupied the Hong Kong legislature.

For this show we speak with two guests: a professor of cultural studies in Hong Kong whose research focuses on youth activism, and an anonymous guest from Hong Kong who returned to participate in the protests in June.

Photo credit Nextvoyage on Pexels

Photo credit Nextvoyage on Pexels

 

Episode 30: Fatma Naib - We Need To Talk About FGM

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a non-medical procedure that involves partial or radical removal of young women’s genitalia, and while widely practiced in parts of Africa and the Middle East, is neither limited to these regions nor defined by theology or religion. The practice is typically linked to a right of passage, sexual purity, or as a marker of cultural identity (or all three), and its impact on the lives of tens of millions of women is both cruel and often deadly. The UN is working to eliminate the practice by 2030, and it is the subject of Fatma’s Peabody Award-winning film, “The Cut”, which she and her team completed for Al Jazeera English in 2017. Our conversation also focuses on the broader questions around navigating multiple cultural identities and contexts.

The subject of FGM makes some of us more than a little squeamish, but it’s important to move past our personal sensitivities and make some time to inform ourselves about a practice that is impacting the lives of women around the world, and perhaps closer to where you live than you might realize. And while the practice itself might be fundamentally rooted in ignorance so are a lot of the popular perceptions about the it, so it’s important that we leave our assumptions and pre-judgements at the door and listen so that we can take meaningful action to help eliminate the practice.

 
 
 
 
“Saleema initiative was launched in 2008 by the National Council for Child Welfare (NCCW) in collaboration with the UNICEF Sudan, with the aim to support the efforts to abandon Female Genital Mutilation“…

“Saleema initiative was launched in 2008 by the National Council for Child Welfare (NCCW) in collaboration with the UNICEF Sudan, with the aim to support the efforts to abandon Female Genital Mutilation“…

 
 

Episode 29: Malta & Refugees in the Mediterranean

Maria Pisani PhD is a Maltese citizen, lecturer, former head of office for the International Organization for Migration on Malta, and co-founder and director of Integra Foundation. As the EU’s smallest and southernmost member state, Malta has long been on the front lines of one of the busiest and the deadliest migratory paths on earth, where more than 14,000 people have lost their lives since 2014, attempting the crossing from North African shores to the EU.

We discuss Malta’s role in the refugee crisis, the features of Maltese policies and how they have shifted over the years, and the moral, political, and logistical implications of the EU’s policy of containment and deterrence since 2015 when Europe saw the largest numbers of refugees since the Second World War.

 
 
From: Malta Today

From: Malta Today

 
 
From: Times of Malta

From: Times of Malta

Episode 19: No Name Kitchen

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.


Photo credit clockwise from top left: image 1 No Name Kitchen; images 2-4 Maria Feck, No Name Kitchen, Šid, Serbia.