Image by: http://www.searise.org

Northeast of the San Francisco Bay is “The Delta,” a patchwork of islands and rivers where farmer Steve Mello has put down roots. But climate change is threatening the levees which protect Delta farms. Can we defend our farms from the impacts coming with climate change? Producer Claire Schoen and Associate Producer Erica Mu bring us Steve Mello’s story.

Special thanks to Jan Stürmann, Stephen Most and Scott Koué

Featuring:
Steve Mello, 3rd generation farmer and co-owner of Mello Farms; Dr. Jeffrey Mount, University of California at Davis Geology professor & Center for Watershed Sciences founding director; Gary Mello, Steve Mello’s son; Ann Mello, Steve Mello’s wife; Roberto Guzman, laborer at Mello Farms.

Script: see below.

For More Information:
RISE: Climate Change and Coastal Communities
UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences
Coalition for a Sustainable Delta
California Department of Water Resources on Climate Change
Association of California Water Agencies
Pacific Institute
Claire Schoen

Articles, Videos:
Delta Solutions
Climate Change May Transform California’s Bay Area
Transitions for the Delta Economy
Congressional Research Service- Biological Opinions for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: A
Case Law Summary

Music:
Original music by Jonathan Mitchell

Script: The Delta — Steve Mello’s story.

Host: This week on Making Contact.

Steve: We are on a levee that uh is holding back the Mokelumne River from inundating the land.

Host: Northeast of the San Francisco Bay is “The Delta,” a patchwork of islands and rivers where farmer Steve Mello has put down roots.

Steve: My father literally worked a lifetime to create a legacy to pass onto their offspring and future generations.

Host: But climate change is threatening the levees which protect Delta farms.

Jeff: If we’re going to go in and fix every one of these, we’re looking at billions of dollars over time.

Steve: The environmentalists that say that the Delta is not sustainable long-term are full of hooey.

Host: Can we defend our farms from the impacts coming with climate change?
Producer Claire Schoen brings us Steve Mello’s story. I’m Andrew Stelzer and this is Making Contact, a program connecting people, vital ideas, and
important information.”

Narration: This is the story of a farmer. And his land.
(Runs under opening water sounds)

MUSIC: (Theme)

Narration: Sea level rise. We hear about it more and more. It’s described like a looming disaster movie – in slow motion. Climate change is causing the seas
to rise. But, what will this mean for all of the cities, towns, villages, farms along the world’s coastlines? It may mean a big change: families forced to
move off their land, communities broken apart, a way of life erased like footprints on the beach. Are we willing to face this reality? So far, not many
of us. As the seas rise along the coast of San Francisco, the waters within the San Francisco Bay are rising as well, of course – affecting 7 million people
who live and work in cities ringing the Bay. And while many of us do understand what’s coming, there are countless reasons why we want to ignore it. Why are we turning our backs on the rising tides that threaten our coasts?

Music: OUT

Narration: Steve Mello’s family has been farming in the Delta for three generations; his son is being raised as the fourth. The Delta is an extension of the San
Francisco Bay, where the waters from the Sierra Mountains to the east and the ocean tides from the west mingle. But the waters from both river and
tides are lapping at the levees protecting Steve’s land.

Steve: Hey you copy?

Gary (on other end of phone): Yeah.

Steve:How’s progress? You get the digger fixed yet, or no?

Gary (on other end of phone): I’m just about done with the first digger.

Steve: Alright, I’m going to be there in a minute and a half, two minutes.

Steve: We’re going to go check on my son’s progress on fixing a crack in the frame of a trenching machine. And that’s what’s on tap for right now.

Narration: That’s Steve Mello.

Steve: I’m Steve Mello, I’m a farmer here in Sacramento County California. Uh, this is Tyler Island. It is comprised of 8,500 acres of
cropland. On this island, you have grapes, cherries, pears, alfalfa, asparagus, potatoes, corn, tomatoes – both fresh and cannery.

Jeff: In places like Tyler Island you cannot ignore the fact that conditions are changing…

Narration: And… who’s that?

Jeff: Okay so who am I, uh real quickly, my name is Jeff Mount, Dr. Jeffrey Mount. I’m a professor here at the University of California,
Davis and I’m the founding director of the Center for Watershed Sciences here on campus.

MUSIC: (Debate)

Narration: Jeff Mount worries that the levees protecting Tyler Island will wash away with rising sea levels, brought on by climate change.

Jeff: The likelihood of Tyler Island and Staten Island and Brannan Island and all those islands in that area, their probability of failure is
steadily going up every year.

Steve: The environmentalists that say that the Delta is not sustainable long-term are full of hooey.

Jeff: Tyler Island will fail at least once in the next fifty years. Nine in ten probability that in the next fifty years Tyler Island will fail.

Steve: I don’t believe that Tyler Island will flood for a hundred years if we continue to take the steps to deal with whatever forces that nature throws at us.

Narration: The farmer and the scientist see this same land from two very different perspectives.

Music: OUT

Steve (Driving): Uh what you’re seeing is field corn. We’re lookin’ at corn, corn and more corn.

Jeff: We’re in the conference room in the Center for Watershed Sciences. We are not in the Delta. But if we stand on top of the building we can see the Delta from here. Steve and Gary at work on the farm

Steve: This is Gary who came back to the ranch after being away for a few years in the construction thing.

Narration: Young Gary Mello. Steve’s pride and joy. Steve met up with Gary at the shop, where his son is repairing one of the big trenching machines.

Steve: What happened is our frame broke on this uh dirtbox on the digger, and it looks like you got it fairly well gussied up.

Gary: All I’ve been doing is welding.

Steve: You’re gonna have to uh.

Gary: I gotta get inside o’there.

Steve: Okay.

Gary: So why don’t you stay here for a minute. Let me get in there. In
case I need you to hand me anything.

Steve: Alright … This is where being skinny helps.

Gary: Mmhmm!

Steve: Okay here’s the helmet. Here’s the stick. You want me to turn it on?

Gary: Yeup!

Steve: Okay you ready?

Gary: Yeah.

Ambience: Welder on

Steve: Yeah when you’re welding you have all the sparks going everywhere. And they lodge somewhere and start a little fire and you start feelin’, “Boy something feels hot!” And then boy when you find out you’re on fire, you should see people move.

Ambience: Welder stops

Steve: You went through that hole?

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: [laughs]

Gary: I told you! I used to go through, what was it, 14-inch pipes.

Steve: Hey I used to go through a hole like that too, my hips have gotten quite a bit wider since then. [laughs]

Steve: Sympathy growing pains when your mother had ya.

Gary: Uh huh!

Mello: Well okay, I’ll see you later if you need anything holler.

Gary: Alright.

Narration: That’s life in the Delta, from a farmer’s view. Jeff Mount sees the land in a broader context.

Jeff: So, where is the Delta in California? Well, you’d be amazed how many people haven’t a clue, including the people of San Francisco. It’s flanked on the east by the Sierra Nevada, and all of that runoff from the west slope of the Sierra Nevada is gathered into the Sacramento River on the north and the San Joaquin River on the south. Where those two rivers come together – that’s the Delta. And in that area, a tremendous maze of islands and, and levies and marshes. Then all that water in the Delta eventually moves to the west and into San Francisco Bay. So that’s what the Delta really is.Steve: In the old days prior to uh, the Europeans if you will, around here you had the Miwok and the Midus, and they were huntergatherers, fishermen. So uh, it was markedly different place.

Jeff: When you would come into the Delta from San Francisco Bay 200 years ago, you got lost. It was a maze of channels. And lining these channels were tall gallery forests with cottonwoods and oaks, um, surrounded by these would be huge immense tule marshes that would go just as far as the eye could see so that you could just walk over the tules they were so concentrated.

Steve: In order to farm, we put up the levees. They put up the levees, I was a little young for that.

Jeff: They then drained the land so they could plant their crops, and in the process of draining the land, they oxidized their soils. The land started lowering. So today, all your islands are basically holes in the ground surrounded by levies. In the central Delta some are as much as
30 feet below sea level.

MUSIC: (Debate)

Narration: It’s those levees, running between the river channels and the sunken farmland that protect Delta Islands like Tyler from flooding. Most of the
time.

Steve: We are on a levee that uh is holding back the Mokelumne River from inundating the land. On the right there is farmland that is
lower than the levee. And on the left I see water that is … Also way lower than the levee.

Jeff: You have eleven hundred miles of levees. All of those levees are on pretty rotten foundations. They just plopped dirt on top of what was there.

Steve: There’re actually Chinese pottery and old bottles.

Jeff: They started with Chinese laborers with wicker baskets, dumping sediment where they could

Steve: They would put pottery in it to displace dirt. There was less dirt to take, less shovels to throw in.

Jeff: And there’s all kinds of stuff in those levees. I mean there’s literally stuff. So the thing to keep in mind about the levees of the Delta, they are not engineered levees. These are agricultural levees, they’re not strong; they’re not stout levees.

Steve: We maintain the levees much differently than the old timers did. And Delta levees can be raised uh over a period of time.

Jeff: If you live behind a levee, you are at risk of flooding. Because there’s two kinds of levees: those that have failed and those that will fail. And they fail in a couple of ways. One is overtopping during the, during the winter here when you have high tides and high inflows. The second way is that the water actually erodes the levee from the inside out. Finally, I want to tell you the most diabolical and difficult way levees fail um is beavers. How unglamorous is that?

Steve: But the Delta is not as fragile as people would have you believe.

Jeff: They slip, they slump, they get holes in them. Rodents burrow in them. And you’ve got 1100 miles of them.

Steve: We in the Delta have built our levees up higher than they were before, broader than they were before. We study them closer, uh, we
have all the uh modern equipment at our disposal to uh deal with these flood threats…

Jeff: It’s not like levee failures are rare events in this system – they’ve failed 144 times in the last 100 years. So, on average, about one a year. But it doesn’t work that way. Levees fail in this system in clusters. I like to call them cluster floods [laughs] I’m sure you won’t repeat that! [laughs]

Steve: The people that are saying, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling” – I don’t worry about what they say because we can handle most anything nature can throw at us.

Jeff: Let me put it this way – all the things we’re fighting about today are worse under climate change. Increasing winter floods and rising
sea level are increasing the risk.

Music: OUT

Narration: The risk from climate change is not only to the Delta levees – but also to an entire way of life. The Mello family is part of a farming community with roots in this land that go back generations.

Steve: My parents were Jack and Louise Mello, I have five siblings. Everybody lives within 30 miles of each other, we’re a very close family.

Jeff: The history that you see is one that it stretches all the way back to the mining era so you have a mixture of Chinese immigrants and Europeans, Japanese who came in before and after World War II. Some, African-Americans, a lot of Hmong, various Asians. um the, the norm here is a white landowner with Latino laborers–that’s the norm.

Steve: My grandparents came from Portugal with the shirts on their back. And while my dad only had an eighth grade education, he was a
very, very smart man. And uh, very hard worker. My dad basically built the company, uh, Mello Farms. Called it the Mello Ranch. It was
his ranch, he bought it, he could name it what he wanted.

Steve: Oh yoohoo!

Ann: Nice to meet you!

Steve: This is Ann … my better half … I’m going to wash up and I’ll start making you some sandwiches. Whaddya got ?

Ann: Turkey, roast beef…that’s about it.

Steve: And we have Dr. Pepper, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew…

Ann: I have extras…

Steve: And we have plenty of ice…

MUSIC: (Nostalgic)

Narration: Steve and Ann grew up as neighbors.

Ann: I used to ride my bike from over there across these fields and go to his house to play with his sister.

Steve: You know, I’ve always hunted and fished, you know you ride bicycles, you do the simple things. You take a walk.

Ann: Right by my mom and dad’s place, right there, the railroad tracks there, we’d go up there, we’d jump off of ‘em. You’d go on the end of it and you could jump into the river from there, even though we weren’t supposed to be doing that, well we did it anyway! And we’d get in trouble all the time.

Steve: There’s no way in heck I was jumpin’ off that bridge. [laughs]

Ann: We got really in a lot of trouble when they found out what we were doing and where we were going. [laughs]

Ann: The train would come on Sunday’s. It would come every Sunday about two or three in the afternoon, and there was always a hobo that would get off, most of the time, not always but most of the time.

Narration: Ann and Steve’s childhood memories, shared over turkey sandwiches and Mountain Dew, begin to feel a bit like a Norman Rockwell painting.

Ann: My grandma lived there. She would leave out some homemade chicken soup in a glass jar, and he would come and get it.

Music: OUT

PART II
The Last Big Flood

Narration:But life on Tyler Island is not always a picture of tranquility. The flood of 1986 ripped open Tyler Island’s levees – and ripped apart the lives of it’s residents.

Steve: The north fork of the Mokelumne River rose in 1986 and caused this island to flood for the first time since 1906. And as the levee broke, the water actually came over the top of the levee, so you can imagine the force of the water when it’s falling 15 to 18 feet into the island.

Jeff: It is spectacular when a levee fails because the levee will unzip, it’ll open up to the size of a football field uh as the water flows through it.

Steve: It looked like a roaring tumult of the biggest waterfall that you’ve ever seen.

Jeff: The velocity of the water is so high it’ll scour a hole inside the island 30, 40, 50 feet deep and chunks, literally chunks of the peat will be hurled out into the island. It’s really spectacular to see!

Steve: Way back at that time we had a Motorola radio system and I heard that we lost it – the island’s gone. And when I came the next day, the next morning, uh, my house was not visible. The water was over the top of it. And it wiped out the most of the lower-lying buildings. Uh, you could see the tops of the grain bins. Uh we lost 5,000 tons of grain storage, three sheds, equipment sheds, and a shop.

Ann: You brought me out here finally to see everything.

Steve: Oh yeah…it was kind of traumatic. And she was pregnant.

Ann: It was scary. It upset me. Everything was floatin’ around. Water everywhere. Garbage. I said, “There’s our bathroom wall in another yard!” And people at work kept asking me, “You went back there?” “Yeah!” “Aren’t you afraid?” “Yeah, you can’t just think about that!” You have to just go on!

Steve: You know I was young, there’s time to build back. Jesus crimony. And we were near the edge of bankruptcy, but through a lot of hard work we put it back together. How will climate change affect the Delta

MUSIC: (Debate)

Narration:Flooding has always been a risk for Delta farmers. And “The Big Flood of ‘86” makes for a thrilling tale. But Jeff Mount says that climate change is now a game changer.

Jeff: A lot has changed since 1986. There’s two drivers, climate drivers of change in this system, um, one is coming in from the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River. We are seeing a shift in the ratio of rain to snow, so floods are getting bigger. The second aspect is sea level rise. What happens with sea level rise is you start getting an increase in the frequency and an intensity of extreme high tides. And it’s those high tides that do in levees in this system. So the combination of increasing winter inflows coupled with increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme high tides leads to the obvious – more levee failures. And we think that we can actually see that in the record now. And that’s having an effect on the Delta.

Steve: Sea level rise is not going to happen all at once, it’s going to happen incrementally. And there is plenty of time to go ahead and continue to bolster the levees to make them broader, to go ahead and make them taller. And what they’re made of is fine. I mean, uh, the levees are sustainable.

Jeff: People in the Delta they fail to consider that the past is not a predictor of the future. It’s going to be different tomorrow, and that tomorrow it’s going to be a lot tougher to hold those levees together.

Steve: The safety of this island has never been in such good shape as it is, right here and now.

Jeff: What we the scientific community are saying is that your risk is increasing every year. We did all this risk analysis. And in the end we stepped back and we said if we go on with business as usual, you know a little band aid here, raise a little levee here, within fifty years, at least half of these islands will have failed.

Steve: Statistics can be used a lot of different ways. Okay, let’s do a study and if that study finds what you didn’t want to know then you just suppress it and fund another study until you get somebody that will tell you what you want to hear.

Jeff: ALL LEVEES FAIL. Okay? All levees do is they reduce the frequency of flooding – they don’t prevent flooding. Flood control maybe the ultimate oxymoron. The moron’s oxymoron.

Music: OUT

Narration: Those are fighting words. Steve Mello thinks outsiders, armed with their statistics, can’t see the reality of his world. But Steve’s perspective is also
colored by his need to support his family – and other families as well.

Steve: Roberto is in the process of cleaning out the bottoms of the ditches.

Steve: We’ll stop here and check with him and see what’s cookin’.

Steve (In fractured Spanish): For now, work on the bottom part of six.

Roberto: Good.

Steve: (In fractured Spanish): Because here it’s very different. In the two sides and in the center the dams and cut-arounds. So…

Roberto: Sure.

Steve: Thanks.

Steve: There’s about a two, two and a half foot area of soft dirt that you need to excavate by hand. My son will be helping him tomorrow as will I. Gives the guys a little sense that if the Patron is ready to come out and dig with them that they can dig as well. And it helps work the gut off, you know. Roberto (Spanish with overdub): We work many hours. And it’s hard. It’s hot under the sun. And the temperature, there are days when the temperature is up to 95 degrees. And one has to be able to stand being in the sun.

Steve: Roberto, he lives in ranch housing while he’s here. And then when the season is done he goes back to Mexico to be with his family, but he sends most of his money home, very frugal, frugal person. And very hard worker.

Roberto (Spanish with overdub): My name is Roberto Guzman. I’m here for three years, two years, sometimes one year at a time. I must go to see my family in Mexico. There the situation is very difficult. The money you earn is not enough. So I send money to Mexico. So my family there can eat. [chuckle] It’s very difficult for us poor people. But there isn’t any alternative, we don’t have any choice. The situation in Mexico is difficult. That’s life.

Steve: Repercussions are not only for me and my family, but my men and their families and their extended families as well. Should we save Tyler Island?

MUSIC: (Debate)

Narration: So, lives, livelihoods, lifestyles are all at stake here. But whose responsibility is it to protect all of this?

Jeff: If we’re going to go in and fix every one of these, we’re looking at billions of dollars over time. And so there’s a new policy by the state that says we’re going to selectively sink our resources into protecting the important infrastructure first and the islands which have high economic value. And then the big icky unpleasant question is, when an island fails, do we decide to leave it or repair it?

Steve: They talk about prioritizing uh what districts would be allowed to expend public monies and what districts would not. But there is uh
inherent dangers wherever you live in the world.

Jeff: Somewhere between a quarter and a third of the islands of the Delta, it makes no economic sense to repair them. That is, from a statewide, macroeconomic view, you can’t recover the costs through the economic production of that island in enough time for it to make sense.

Steve: I would suggest that all the other areas of the state that are subject to natural disaster be on their own also. If there’s an earthquake in San Francisco, and everybody’s house falls down, the Bay Bridge falls down, why should I pay for it? If LA uh has a big wildfire, why should I care?

Jeff: It’s okay to walk away from a field, but you don’t walk away from a city. Downtown, I mean San Francisco, the value of the land is so high, it’s worth it to build big dikes and protect it. Manhattan–it’s worth it to build it there because the value is so high. The assets that you’re protecting is of such high value.

Steve: We’re not an empty slate out here. You know there is a vibrant economy. This is privately owned property that’s still on the tax roll, still basically contributing to the local economy.

Jeff: For Tyler Island you have to make a decision. This is a triage question: is this one of the islands we’re going to save? Tyler is one of those that falls on the edge. It’s producing good crops. But it is considered at reasonably high risk of flooding um and I could easily see how Tyler, because it doesn’t have really important infrastructure within it, would be one of those that falls on the cusp.

Steve: Jeff Mount has got a PhD, he can say whatever he wants to say. I don’t believe Jeff Mount understands the Delta, I don’t believe Jeff Mount has spent enough time in the Delta.

Jeff: One doesn’t want to be the island God, but I’m ambivalent about Tyler.

Narration: Putting a price on a family’s history and heritage is not so simple.

Steve: My father literally worked a lifetime to create a legacy to pass onto their offspring and future generations. And uh, I’ve continued in his footprint. And I am trying to build upon and pass the legacy down to my son.

Jeff: And I completely understand why people love living down there. I get it, I completely get it. But, that said, the state is not necessarily in the business of supporting peoples’ lifestyles.

Steve: The battle of farming is staying in business, right? Staying in business, making money, raising your family, moving forward…

Jeff: But at the state level, you have to make decisions that are best for the state of California.

Steve: When you sit on a tractor all day long, you’ve got a lot of time to think. If they think they’re going to make this into wetlands. They have a heckuva lot to learn.

Music: OUT

Narration: Steve’s right – Tyler Island can never be converted back to its original state. The land is just too far below sea level today for wetlands to develop. Letting the levees go will turn this land into a flooded island, essentially a lake.

Jeff: I see three general options for the Delta. There are some parts in the central and western part of the Delta where we are going to transition to flooded islands. There is a large arc of the Delta from the south to the north Delta which is high-quality farmland and will be for generation upon generation in the future. We will continue to farm the Delta. Portions of the Delta that have not subsided will be ideal for restoring critical habitat for the native species that we desire so much in this system.

Steve: There’s two sides to this story, you need to take everything with a grain of salt including what I say, but I’ll tell you what – what I’m doing is protecting the ranch.

Jeff: You will never get consensus. There will be winners and there will be losers, and somebody has to have the political fortitude to say, “This is the way it’s going to be and we’re going to try and compensate the losers.” Um, so you can move on.

MUSIC: (Theme)

Narration: Steve Mello has a family legacy to protect up in the Delta. It’s really all about his son Gary.

Gary: After what, my seventh grade summer, I started working with him. I’d ride the wheat planter – wasn’t very good at it, because the rope would pull me across the back of the wheat planter, I didn’t weigh enough.

Steve: Gettin’ outta high school, oh I said, “Don’t think you’re going to sit your skinny ass on my couch watching my TV.” [Gary laughs] You stay here for five years, five years, he starts to get shares in Mello Farms Inc. And he will shortly be owning part of the company.

Narration: The Mellos are just one family living along the shore. Their story is personal. But the challenges they’re up against are not unique. Human society has built along the shores of waterways throughout the world. How will we handle sea level rise? We don’t know, yet. But we must start asking the question.

Music: OUT

MUSIC: (Making Contact)

This program was produced and directed by Claire Schoen. Associate producer was Erica Mu. Original music by Jonathan Mitchell. Special thanks to Jan Stürmann, Stephen Most and Scott Koué ((koo-AY’)). You can see photos of the Mellos and their farm on the Making Contact website at: www.radioproject.org

Javier Sicilia in 2011. Photo by Flickr user sarihuella.

We’ve all heard about the violence resulting from the Mexican drug trade, but how did things get so bad? Six years into a militaristic drug-war strategy employed by Mexico’s government, why are things even worse? On this edition, political science professor David Shirk sheds light on the history and politics of the war on drugs in Mexico. Plus an emerging movement in Mexico points to how both Mexicans and Americans can play a role in creating change.

Special thanks to the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico for sharing their recording.

Featuring:
David Shirk, political science professor at the University of San Diego; Raul Romero, Movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity organizer; Janice Gallagher, Cornell University Department of Government PhD student; Javier Sicilia, poet and father of drug war victim; Eder Sanchez, pro-marijuana legalization advocate

Web Extras:
David Shirk’s full length lecture at the Lannan Foundation

David Shirk and Peter Smith’s post lecture discussion

For More Information:
Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego
Stop the Drug War
Serapaz
Blog del Narco

Articles, Videos:
L.A. Times’ series on the Mexican Drug War
Mexican citizens demand justice for drug-related deaths
“Mexico’s Drug War in Context” Free Speech Radio News’ Documentary
Mexican Scribe Javier Sicilia Brings Campaign for Peace to U.S.
A Deadly Syndrome Stalks the Mexican Elections

Music:
Le Reina del Inframundo by Lila Downs

Love and peace. Without solicitation, boys in the Jerash Palestinian refugee camp gather together and raise their hands to show peace signs. Photo by (cc) Flickr user Omar Chatriwala.

After Apartheid, after genocide and after civil wars—how do nations, or people who’ve been pitted against each other, resolve their differences and live together in peace? On this edition—reconciliation. How does it work? And is it even necessary? We’ll be hosting a round table discussion with community organizers from Serbia, South Africa, Azerbaijan and Sudan.

This discussion was recorded at the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism in March 2012, in Mexico.

See the transcript below.

Featuring:

Ahmad Mahmoud, rapper and resident of Khartoum; Ivan Marović, co-founder of OTPOR in Serbia; Arzu Geybullayeva, Azerbaijani blogger & organizer; Anele Mdzikwa, South African journalist and organizer

—WEB SEGMENTS—

Full length reconciliation discussion 
Full length discussion on reconciliation, featuring Ahmad Mahmoud, Ivan Marovic,  Arzu Geybullayeva & Anele Mdzikwa–moderated by Andrew Stelzer. This interview was conducted in March 2012 at the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism in Mexico.

For More Information:

Caucuses Edition—Journal of Conflict Transformation
The Neutral Zone
Nonviolent Resistance Movement
Youth Initiative For Human Rights
Truth and Reconciliation Commission-South Africa
Narco News
International Center on Non-Violent Conflict
Victimology Society of Serbia
Justice in Conflict
Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines
A Force More Powerful
DZA the Dissenter
Nile Rhythmik

Music:

Nile Rhythmik, ”Augmented Realities”
Nile Rhythmik, ”Junkyard Musician”

Script

Andrew Stelzer: Welcome to “Making Contact.” I’m Andrew Stelzer. Today we’ll be having a discussion about reconciliation — the processes by which peoples who’ve been at war or had unequal status or have a history of conflict attempt to move past that conflict towards the goal of living together peacefully and as equals.

It’s a difficult road, especially after decades, if not generations, of racism, prejudice and, in some cases, genocide. How to forgive and how to recognize the past in a way that honors but doesn’t shame?

Those are some of the questions we’re going to explore with four guests from different parts of the world which are all at some stage of the reconciliation process.

So, let’s have the folks here introduce themselves: Anele Mdzikwa, let’s start with you. What’s your background and what does reconciliation mean in your home country, South Africa, at this moment?

Anele Mdzikwa: Well, I’m from South Africa; I stay in Johannesburg. I grew up in Durban in a village called Umlazi. I do a lot of work in the township, in South Africa. I have a very long history, in terms of the apartheid struggle, which is very personal to me and has quite a lot to do with the reconciliation process. Reconciliation, to me, means… At one point, it meant revenge, but I think I’ve gone past that now. Reconciliation means coming together and healing as well as making a connection with your present and your future and, moving on.

STELZER: Up next, we have Ivan Marović. Tell us a little about yourself, your history, and what are the issues of reconciliation in Serbia?

Ivan Marović: I come from Serbia, which is one of the seven countries that came out of the former Yugoslavia after the civil war that happened in the 90′s.

So, for us, reconciliation, and for me, personally, reconciliation is the process by which we are learning to become good neighbors, when we could live in one house, and then we had like a decade-long tension, conflict and civil war with the ethnic cleansing and genocide, which was over some twelve years ago; but, still, the wounds are deep, and there is a need for reconciliation to heal these wounds — but also to have us live. Because we are still in the same region, and we have to live next to each other, if we couldn’t live together.

STELZER: Thanks, Ivan. Arzu Geybullayeva is from Azerbaijan. I think the conflict in your part of the world is a little less well known than that in South Africa or Serbia. So, Arzu, why don’t you introduce yourself and talk just a little bit about what you do in regards to bringing people together?

Arzu Geybullayeva: The conflict that we’ve been dealing with for the last several years since 1994, actually, when we signed the ceasefire with Armenia, is over a territory called Nagorno-Karabakh. And my main job as a co-director of a small non-governmental organization called “Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation” is to work with young people from Armenia and Azerbaijan, bringing them together to dialogue retreats once a year, where we go over history; we go over present-day fears, needs, concerns, and we discuss future project planning. Because the big portion of the project is actually focused on building a relationship between the people of the two countries — especially between young people of the two countries

STELZER: Thanks. And the last of our four guests is Ahmad Mahmoud, a resident of Khartoum in Sudan. Ahmad, tell us what reconciliation means right now, in 2012, in your homeland.

Ahmad Mahmoud: Well, Andrew, the word “reconciliation” I actually got to learn recently, in 2011, after the secession of my country, which seceded into two countries: a geographical North and a geographical South, — after one of the longest civil wars in Africa ended.

I’m involved in a movement of non-violent resistance, and we kind of established a campaign of reconciliation to finish building a school in the South. Particularly in Turalei town, which is a town that the basketball player Manute Bol was born in, and he was actually finishing-, starting… And he started building a school there, but, unfortunately, he died before finishing this school, so… We kind of took on that.

So, yeah, in Sudan, it’s not the only the South and North which now… it’s two separate countries, but we also have to reconciliate with other parts of the country, because there’s so many ethnical conflicts going on and it appears like something happens every day that adds to the fire.

STELZER: And you had a rhyme you were going to kick, or a little poem about the situation?

MAHMOUD: Yeah, I kind of… On the Independence Day of the… Separation Day of the South, like, everyone was, in the North, everyone was kind of emotional about it, and I couldn’t help but try to answer the question, “Why is everyone suddenly all emotional?”

So, it goes something like:
“Last night, I tried writing about unity and such…
Couldn’t draft that much

I couldn’t even write the words: Sudan Unite
Because my pen knows that I memorized a lot of Jahili Poetry
And still don’t know how Nuer tribes write

I learned more about how Sahaba used to fight
But I was never told of how Shilluk people love
Or at the very least, what are their pick up lines

I learned more about Greek mythology, than Dinka mythology…
And, oh, the ghost of Che follows me…
But I hardly know of any Southern prodigy
except for John Garang, maybe — not so true, probably

Because I could have said to him Thank You in five different languages, you see…
‘Thank you,’ ‘Shukran,’ ‘Arigato,’ ‘Gracias,’ and ‘Merci,’
but only today I learned how to say ‘Yin Cha Leech’,
five years after he passed away.”

STELZER: Nice. Ahmad is an MC, and we’ll be linking to his music on our website, but I’m wondering, for the rest of you, hearing what each other have said, and also hearing that poem, what thoughts come to mind about some of the similarities, differences, between… in your different countries, of the reconciliation process?

GEYBULLAYEVA: Well, I specifically liked the part where Ahmad was talking about, you know, how they learned about different histories and how the warriors fought, but they don’t learn how to respect each other or love each other.

I relate to this, in Azerbaijan because, you know, we learn our history textbooks teach us, both in Armenia and Azerbaijan; the other is the enemy; they occupied our territories; they killed women and children, innocent people.

And none of us in Azerbaijan are taught how to reconciliate after that. In the present day, especially, when we have the two governments, together with the Russian government, as well, meet every now and then and discuss the peace treaty, but on the ground, when they come back to their countries, they continue the hatred speech, and they continue propagating aggression,

MAROVIC: Well, for me, the song Ahmad just recited is actually very interesting; because we had our own emotional moment with Kosovo seceded, like, four years ago. It was like a huge blow for the self-esteem of the Serbian people, especially. But, you know, it was like the last episode in the decade-long conflict — which wasn’t as long as the conflict in Sudan, but, you know, it was long enough to create, like, total chaos and disaster in the region.

So, I guess, reconciliation is, you know, also, for at least some of us, learning that, you know, people maybe don’t like you anymore and they don’t want to live with you — but to respect that. And that was probably the biggest challenge for the Serbs, who thought that, you know, Yugoslavia, the country that they lived in was the roof for all its nations. And they just couldn’t understand why all these other ethnic groups don’t want to live with them.

MDZIKWA: Well, what comes to mind, just after listening to what Ahmad was saying, it’s kind of interesting how different divisions cause conflict. Ahmad spoke about geographical divisions but coming from South Africa, we are talking racial divisions. And in terms of the process of reconciliation, I mean, South Africa’s come quite far in terms of trying to build a democracy. But one of our biggest challenges is that as much as we are still very much on a road to healing and trying to move on from our history, the pain might have gone, but the scars don’t heal.

And I’ll give you a specific example. Within South Africa, right now, as much as we are so many years after the apartheid regime, we still struggle a lot with racial inequality, and it’s not “out there”. It’s more of an internal feeling, because you know of your past and you know how your grandparents and your parents struggled and fought for racial equality. You feel the pain of your parents. And we had the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” which was set up to, obviously, give those that felt they were oppressed… to those that, obviously, lost a lot of friends and family members to the struggle. It was, basically, a platform set up for you to almost talk about it, and share similar stories with other people. But it’s almost like you cannot, as much as we try to have sessions and debates and, you know, reconciliation programs, the difficulty in it is, it doesn’t replace what you’ve lost.

I think that that’s the challenge that comes with reconciliation. When we’re talking about thousands of people that died. And it’s very personal for me, in my situation, a mother that died, how do I… reconciliation does not necessarily bring her back. And it does a lot for one’s feelings because how do you… It’s very challenging, like I said, how do you move on from that; how are you accepting? And I think with what you’re asking it really is a matter of the individual. I mean, it really does depend on how you are going to act as an individual going forward.

Do you decide to almost connect your past with your present; do you try to move on? And how do you then educate others, and how do you go through a process of healing with others as well?

MAROVIC: Unlike South Africa, we in the Balkans, I mean former Yugoslavia, had a somewhat different approach which wasn’t based on reconciliation through Truth and Reconciliation commissions. Actually, they tried to set up one, but it failed. Our main kind of mechanism was war crime tribunals. Because of the civil war and all that.

And the first war crime tribunal was actually set up by the United Nation — it was the International Tribunal on Former Yugoslavia which was set up in the nineties, and some of the biggest villains of the war, like Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić and Slobodan Milošević were tried there and some of them are still on trial. And what was obvious in the nineties is that those countries that were born after the collapse of former Yugoslavia, they weren’t capable of dealing with their own war criminals. And that was the reason why the International Tribunal was set up, because nobody was putting these people on trial.

What happened in the meantime, especially in the last twelve years, is that slowly, the internal capacity to investigate war crimes and to process war crimes each in their own country, and also the co-operation between different countries on investigations of the war crimes increased and that wasn’t registered because it never came with a bang. It was something that appearing slowly and slowly over the years. But what turned out to be the case is that even these war crime trials didn’t make an effect that was intended, and the victims, and their families were not, in most cases, satisfied with the outcomes of the trials.

So the question is, is the legal side of the reconciliation process enough? Because it seems it isn’t. And it has to be accompanied with something else.

MAHMOUD: Well, I find that quite, like, funny, because in my country we did not have no course; we did not have reconciliation campaigns whatsoever, but we had the exact opposite.

After the separation in 2011, which was a result of a referendum of two choices: either unity or separation, what happened is… OK, after the CPA was signed, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005, ending the war, we had a small margin of freedom in Sudan for, like, the first time in a long time. Newspapers emerged; cultural centers started opening their doors for people to actually get to know each other.

What happened after the separation is that the government closed each and every one of those newspapers or centers. And there is one official statement that said, “We will not allow Southerners to stay in the North and they should all go back to the South” — even though some of them were born and raised in the North. And here is the point where he said: “We will not medicate them in our hospitals.”

And there is a bastard named Al-Tayyib Mustafa who is the president’s uncle, who was allowed to actually have a new newspaper called the “Intibaha” which he basically preaches the alienation of the Southerners who are in the North. And he established a party as well, the Just Peace Forum party which he also preaches the dangers of — I’m quoting one of their forums — the “dangers of the alien existence of Southerners in the North” where they openly speak about their thoughts.

A friend of mine once said, “Intellectual war does not end by political defeat.” He was referring to the secession. Because what we would really need to start reconciliation and living peacefully is getting rid of the dictatorship and the stupidity of the racists who are actually running the country.

The army that was active in the civil war against the government — there were many armies, but the most active one was SPLM, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement which was led by Dr. John Garang — well, it had leaders. I mean, their military sectors had leaders who were from the North basically. Northerners who picked the arms to fight this government and now most of them are in prisons for treason. So, yeah, basically, you cannot have reconciliation unless you have democracy.

MDZIKWA: But what is democracy? I pose this question because we are almost 20 years in South Africa into so-called “democracy.”

Democracy in 1994 meant black and white live together, black children can go to “white schools”, and I quote, you know, essentially, we are talking multi-racial schools. Democracy meant the right to vote. Democracy meant we cannot get along, black and white get along, live together, we smile together and we forget our past.

If I look back to the Freedom Charter of the ANC — how we will now be equal, we must share. ”The people shall share”, that’s what they say. Yet right now we have a serious problem of service delivery. I mean, if we’re still fighting for housing and water and education have we even reconciled? We’re living in a democracy — I mean that’s what it was in 1994, those were all the hopes and dreams that we had, but it doesn’t feel like a democracy to me.

GEYBULLAYEVA: Well, I kind of look at it in a different way because in this particular conflict there is lack of communication between the people themselves. I mean the governments communicate enough and what we are trying to do, in our organization, and what organizations similar to ours are trying to do, is to actually get in touch with people and we can settle on that level. It’s like the people-to-people diplomacy because what we see, and what we realize, is that the government might be saying a number of different things at many different levels. What’s absent is the communication between the people themselves, and that’s what, essentially, is actually hurting the whole process of reconciliation in Armenia and Azerbaijan, because there’s not enough contact; there are not enough meetings, and you know sometimes when you talk about — Ahmad was talking about dictatorship, I consider it more on, you know, … but what people can do themselves. And I feel like steps should be taken on that level, on the community level.

MAHMOUD: Well, I agree, I totally agree. I think of art, specifically films, as the perfect tool for doing this, for communicating between people, their experiences and their shared ambitions, because we all want the same thing, in the end.

So, yeah, governments do not care about that. Governments need us to be segregated, because that’s easier for them. But in order for us to actually live together, understand that we need to live together, we need to know each other first.

—-BREAK—-

STELZER: Now, the focus by international media and more structured forms of reconciliation is often the recognition of past wrongs. In the case of South Africa, we’ve talked about apartheid, and in other cases we can go as far as genocide. And different countries around the world have taken different approaches to acknowledging the past, and that includes — whether it’s a government statement, all the way down to what ends up in the history textbook in school, what happened in this country. And sometimes the debate over that recognition, itself, is a sticking point, keeping things from moving forward.

I’m wondering what are peoples’ thoughts about… What are the issues tied to recognition, and what works and what doesn’t work in terms of recognizing the past, and is there a value in that? What is that value?

MI: Well, coming from the Balkans, which many people say produces more history than it can consume, and, you know, having, like, lived in a different time — before the civil war — when the history, our history books — although they were unified were pretty much kind of distorted in order for them to be unified. And that created, over time, this alternative history. So, in families, tales were told about the other side. About, you know, people living on the other side of the river or, you know, living in another village or something, and these proved to be very powerful. So, even when we had the unified history books, it didn’t help. And we ended up with a civil war because of the alternative history which was told in the …

And each of those ethnic groups had their own history, and they were like in mirror to one another. And there has been made, some progress has been made to create some sort of unified perception on what happened and to maybe… There are initiatives where history teachers are brought together to coordinate their works on the curricula and sometimes this work makes some progress, sometimes it doesn’t. But, still, the underlying causes for ethnic tension, as long as they’re still there, you know, we’re still going to have these alternative histories, and we’re still going to have people or political forces that will be preaching ethnic hatred.

So, when I look at the former Yugoslavia and the Balkans which is a very complex place. If we look at all those countries, countries that managed to solve their territorial disputes actually are making much bigger progress when it comes to reconciliation, and the countries that still have some territorial disputes are lagging behind.

So, in a sense, we cannot talk about the process of reconciliation independently of the political, economic, social and other reasons for the conflict. And that is the job for the… especially for the politicians, but also for the organized citizenry, to create political action that is going to lead to the solution of the problems that are fueling the conflict.

GEYBULLAYEVA: Well, building up on what Ivan said, What if the politicians are not interested in creating an alternative rhetoric? Which is really the case in both Armenia and Azerbaijan, you know, having the conflict placed to their advantage because, you know, they can gather assistance, or they can constantly talk about it in their talk, saying that: “Oh, we have conflict,” “We have refugees,” “We have, you know, internally displaced people.” That very much affects the whole reconciliation process.

And you know, the Balkans are much more advanced in terms of coming up with common history textbooks because that’s not even a part of the discussion now in Armenia and Azerbaijan. In fact, one of the projects that we did recently was on history textbook projects, together with some of the teachers from the regions. And once you read the two different versions of history, it becomes evident changing the whole educational curriculum of the schools it requires a lot of work on the side of the ministries of education in both countries to actually accept that step. And this is not happening right now.

MDZIKWA: So, there’s something… This is just something that’s just coming to my mind just listening to both Ivan and Arzu. There’s something about reconciliation that I have a problem with, and it’s the “going back” part of it. Is it really necessary, for example, or do we really want to go back to twenty years ago and open up those wounds?

GEYBULLAYEVA: But I think it’s necessary to go back to twenty years ago or, you know, if it’s necessary, fifty years ago, to actually reconcile. Because you can’t reconcile without addressing, a very emotional, very personal issues. And that’s what we try to do, for example, in our Dialogue Retreats, is that we spend two days just discussing history.

And it’s not about, you know, ignoring history; it’s not about forgetting history — it’s actually about understanding that we both had losses. But to get beyond that you really have to go back, and you really have to sit down and explain to the other side why you think that way. It’s a matter of showing the other side that you’ve been taught this way, just like the other side shows to you that this is how they’ve been brought up, and this the history that they’ve been taught.

I think it’s really important to address those very, you know, specific historical facts if you really want to move forward — because it will come up eventually, in the future, if you don’t address them now.

MAROVIC: I guess if I can add to this that can be a bit optimistic, but also it will a bit troubling, is that, for instance, Serbia had a traditional rival, Bulgaria. For the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century we waged many wars and we had territorial disputes.

Currently Serbia and Bulgaria have no territorial disputes, have no problems with one another. So it seems that somehow, over the last fifty years these things, you know, were reconciled.

So if that brings some hope that, you know, like, at least fifty years from now, our children are going to be OK with people from Croatia, with people from Bosnia, and maybe the underlying reasons for the conflicts are going to be resolved as well.

But that also brings us to the troubling part of that — is that if the reconciliation process, if it’s that long, like fifty years or something, is pretty much irrelevant for us today because we will not be, in terms of political, or any other involvement, we ourselves won’t be relevant in fifty years. And maybe we should, you know, think more about what is going to be our small contribution in the long process of reconciliation rather than thinking about some, like, quick fixes that are going to be bringing reconciliation any time soon.

STELZER: I want to thank all of you for a great discussion, Ivan Marović, Anele Mdzikwa, Ahmad Mahmoud and Arzu Geybullayeva thank you all so much for being here.

MDZIKWA: Thank you.

GEYBULLAYEVA: Thank you.

MAHMOUD: Thanks.

Police filming students during the anti-cuts demonstration in London/ Cleaner Croydon' Photo via (cc).

It’s been 20 years since four white police officers were cleared of unlawfully beating Rodney King in Los Angeles. But we might never have heard of Rodney King had it not been for an amateur cameraman who caught the whole thing on tape. On this edition, we hear how video cameras have changed the way we see the police. In a special radio adaptation of the film “Police Tape,” journalist Josh Wolf investigates how law enforcement and amateur videographers across the country have responded to changing technologies.

Featuring:

Chris Drew, artist; Charlie LeDuff, reporter; David Greene, First Amendment Project attorney; Mark Weinburg, American Civil Liberties Union attorney; Geoffrey Fieger, attorney for the family of Aiyana Jones; William Kilgore, cop-watcher; Holly Joshi, Oakland Police former spokesperson

For More Information:

Josh Wolf
Police Tape: The Movie
Oscar Grant Committee
Berkeley Copwatch
American Civil Liberties Union, Illinois
National Police Accountability Project

Articles:

“Who killed Aiyana Jones?“ Mother Jones
“Eavesdropping laws mean that turning on an audio recorder could send you to prison“ New York Times
“Recording Police Making Arrests & the Outrageous Law that Makes it a Felony“ Slate

Youth Speaks performance. Photo by Flickr (cc) user Albert K Law.

Spoken word. Its poetry…its hip-hop…and it’s increasingly, the chosen means of expression for today’s youth. On this edition, to celebrate National Poetry month, we bring you the poets and students of Youth Speaks, from their annual event in honor of another master orator, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..

Special thanks to Youth Speaks.

Featuring:
James Kass, Youth Speaks founder & executive director; Talia Young, Dante Clark, Gretchen Carvahol, Prentice Powell, Justin Jodiatis, spoken word artists.

—WEB SEGMENTS—

Full length recording of Youth Speaks ‘Bringing The Noise for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’ – January 16, 2012 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.

For More Information:
Youth Speaks
Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation, Vona
Read, Write, Think
Hot Water Cornbread
Red Room
Poets
Split this Rock Poetry
National Association for Poetry Therapy
Poetry Foundation
Philly Youth Poets

Articles:
‘This Is the Time for Poetry’: A Conversation With Alice Walker
Adrienne Rich, LA Times obituary

MUSIC:
Dear Mama by Tupac
Hip-Hop by Dead Prez

Domestic workers march for their rights. Photo by Flickr user Nuevo Anden.

Largely working isolated in people’s private homes, the exploitation of domestic workers has been well documented throughout history. But with the passage of New York’s Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010, the tide is beginning to turn. Workers are now organizing in California and other states to win basic rights and protections long denied to this labor force. Along the way, they have had to come up with creative solutions to systemic challenges.

Special thanks to Georgia State University Library’s Southern Labor Archives, Special Collections and Archives Department. Interview conducted by Chris Lutz with Dorothy Bolden on August 31, 1995 in Atlanta, GA.

Featuring:
Ai-Jen Poo, National Alliance for Domestic Workers director; Priscilla Gonzalez, Domestic Workers United director; Premilla Nadasen, associate professor of history, Queens College; Dorothy Bolden, former domestic worker; Jill Shenker, National Domestic Worker Alliance field director; Jessica Lehman, Hand in Hand organizer; Rachel McCullough Jews for Radical and Economic Justice organizer; Katie Joaquin, Filipino Advocates for Justice organizer; Mario de Mira, Filipino Community Center organizer.

—WEB SEGMENTS—

History of domestic worker organizing
While the Oscar-winning film “The Help”, set in 1960s Mississippi, put domestic workers in the national spotlight, workers have been fighting for basic rights and living wages in their workplace for more than a century.

Filipino caregivers in California
There’s an estimated 2.5 million domestic workers nationally, almost 5 percent of whom are Filipino. A majority of them live in California and work as private caregivers to the elderly and the sick. Just like housecleaners and nannies, caregivers have also been
subject to abusive work conditions. But some caregivers have started organizing to demand the rights they’ve lacked. Making Contact’s Lisa Bartfai has more on this story. A note to our listeners: the names of the caregivers you’ll hear from have been changed to protect them from possible retaliation.

Domestic workers create new models of organizing
As in the past, today’s “help” works mostly isolated in other people’s homes. They have historically been left out of the labor movement and many have seen them as unorganizable. And with all the challenges domestic workers face, they’ve had to look outside the traditional ways of organizing. On the way, they’ve formed some unlikely alliances.

For More Information:
National Domestic Worker Alliance
Domestic Workers United
Urban Justice
Department of Labor NY State
California Labor and Workforce Development Agency
International Labor Organization
Mujeres Unidas y Activas
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
Filipino Community Center
Filipino Advocates for Justice

Articles:
Behind Closed Doors: Working Conditions of California Household Workers
A Boon for Nannies, if Only They Knew
Domestic Workers Organize!
Who Profits from the Brain Drain? The Philippine Labor Export Policy
OFWs will be Philippines’ biggest export in 2010
The Decision to Exclude Agricultural and Domestic Workers from the 1935 Social Security Act

Books:
Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy

MUSIC:
Anak by Freddie Aguilar
Making Pies by Patti Griffin
Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round by Sweet Honey in the Rock
Working Class Hero by Greenday
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize by Mavis Staples
Crazy With the blues by Peetie Wheatstraw

Honey Bee on Winter Aconite. Credit: Tie Guy II/ flickr

Honey bees help pollinate 1 in every 3 bites that we eat… They are vital in our agricultural industry and essential for the survival of the almost 7 billion people who inhabit this planet. And, as the world’s population continues to grow, so does our reliance on honey bees. Unfortunately, most pollinating insects throughout the world are endangered today, including the honey bee. On this edition, we’ll discuss the honey bee’s fight to survive amidst a rapidly changing landscape filled with pesticides and parasites. We will also learn the latest about colony collapse disorder and hear from beekeepers, researchers, and gardeners who are trying to protect them.

Featuring:

Hannah Nordhaus, author of the Beekeepers Lament- How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed the World; Gretchen Lebuhn, San Francisco State University professor & founder of The Great Sunflower Project; John Miller, migratory beekeeper; Brian Johnson, University of California, Davis’s entomology professor; Bill Rhodes, David Hackenberg, beekeepers; Dee Lusby, Organic Beekeeping discussion group founder; Dennis Van Engelsdorp, Penn State University entomology scientist; Vince Rosato, Great Sunflower project participant; Khaled Almaghafi, beekeeper & Bee Healthy Honey Shop owner.

Special thanks to the producers of Vanishing of The Bees and Claire Schoen.

—WEB SEGMENTS—

The Great Sunflower Project

Esther Manilla reports on a citizen-led effort to count bees, in order to assess the health of our local environments.

Bee Rescue Service Makes a Housecall

Khaled Almaghafi is not only a beekeeper, he rescues bees when other people want to have them removed.

For More Information:

Vanishing of the Bees
The Beekeeper’s Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America
XERCES Society
Bee Healthy Honey Shop
Harry Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California at Davis
The Great Sunflower Project
Organic Beekeeping Society
Attracting Native Pollinators
Hannah Nordhaus
Gretchen Lebuhn
Dee Lusby

Articles, Blogs, Reports and Videos:

EU bans GM-contaminated honey from general sale
Globalisation and agriculture industry exacerbating bee decline, says UN
As bee colonies die, beekeepers face challenge finding replacements
Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding U.S. Grocery Shelves
A STICKY BUSINESS: Dakota’s Busy Beekeepers
The Almond and the Bee
As honeybees decline, beekeeping booms By Candace Krebs
Forget climate change – the bees are buzzing off
How sweet it is – The economics of beekeeping in Oakland
The Silence of the Bees

Music:

Everybody Loves the Sunshine – Roy Ayers

Locals are using the "passarelle" in Venice to manage urban life amidst rising waters. Photo by Zoe Sullivan.

We’ve all seen how high water devastated New Orleans. But another historic city, Venice, Italy is struggling to plan for sea level rise. Here, we learn about cities that routinely flood because of questionable urban planning.

On this edition, Producer Zoe Sullivan takes us to both Venice and New Orleans, to look at some creative solutions they’re trying, and what other coastal cities might do as the effects of climate change set in.

Featuring:

Tim Kerner, mayor of Jean Lafitte, LA; Dr. Denise Reed, University of New Orleans geology professor; Greg Miller, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers coastal restoration Branch chief, John Barry, ‘Rising Tide” author; Scott Eustis, Gulf Restoration Network coastal wetland specialist; Giovanni Cecconi, Consorzio Venezia Nuova chief engineer; Pino Sartori, Associazione La Salsola vice president; Jane Da Mosto, Venice in Peril research fellow; Emily Clark, Tulane University history professor; David Waggoner, architect, Alberto Vitucci, La Nuova journalist; Gabriele Zennaro, store owner in Venice, Liz & Jody Sigler, New Orleans residents, Carlo Magnani, Venice Institute of Urban Architecture architect, Cristiano Gasparetto, Venice resident; Earl Long, former Louisiana governor.

Freelance producer Zoe Sullivan thanks all of her SpotUS supporters and gives special thanks to David Waggoner, who participated in her documentary and who recently donated $100 to her for distribution. Thanks also to Catherine Komp who edited early versions of this piece.

— RELATED ONLINE EXTRA —
In the below audio slideshow, Zoe Sullivan examines the approaches Venice and New Orleans are using to deal with floods and loss of natural wetlands. Reposted from Miller-McCune.

For More Information:
Venice and Its Lagoon-UNESCO
Venice in Peril
Louisiana’s 2012 coastal master Plan
Gulf Restoration Network
Consorzio Venezia Nuova
Dutch Dialogues
USGS National Wetlands Research Center-Land Changes for Coastal Louisiana
Venice Institute of Urban Architecture
Zoe Sullivan’s Spot.us pitch page

Articles, Reports:
Saving Venice From the Sea by John Keahey
Interview with John M. Barry, author of ‘Rising Tide’

MUSIC:

The Louisiana Waltz by Gal Holiday and Her Honky Tonk Revue
The Weary Blues by The Loose Marbles

Glenn Greenwald; photo courtesy of the Lannan Foundation

Americans claim to live under the rule of law; that no one is above our system of justice. But as we witness more exceptions to that rule, there are growing doubts that fairness is a value we as a nation, still hold dear. On this edition, author Glenn Greenwald talks about his book, ‘With Liberty and Justice for Some.’ Thanks to KPFA radio in Berkeley, CA.

Featuring:

Glenn Greenwald, author.

— WEB EXTRA —
Full length speech by Glenn Greenwald in Berkeley California on November 3, 2011.
Presented by KPFA radio.

For More Information:
Glenn Greenwald on Salon
Wikileaks Bradley Manning Support Network
Jose Padilla
American Civil Liberties Union
Electronic Frontier Foundation
National Whistleblowers Center
Whistleblower Protection Program
KPFA Radio

Articles, Reports:
Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts-New York Times
NSA Spying on Americans Is Illegal
Congress OKs 30,000 flying drones spying on Americans across U.S. cities
A Trial for Thousands Denied Trial by Naomi Klein
Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman

MUSIC: Respiration by Black Star 2 Dope Boyz in a Cadillac by Outkast

Photo by Flickr (cc) user Waponi

It’s not even the crime that counts sometimes. Or the time in prison. It’s that little box on an application that asks you to reveal if you have a criminal history. Checking that box can mean the difference between failure and success. On this edition, the nationwide movement to ‘ban-the-box’, and make criminal histories less of a stigma.

Thanks to The Omnia Foundation for partial funding for this program.

Featuring:

Marilyn Austin-Smith, formerly incarcerated, and member of All of Us or None; Michelle Natividad Rodriguez, National Employment Law Project attorney; Mike Casey, Unite Here! Local 2 president; Mike Hannigan, Give Something Back company director; Donald Washington, Juan Filomeno, Shirley Hollis, formerly incarcerated; Lois Ahrens, Real Cost of Prisons Project prisoner advocate; Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts; Aaron Tanaka, Boston Workers Alliance executive director; Michael Corwin, private investigator; Julie Roberts, Northeastern University School of Law board of directors’ member.

— SEGMENTS FROM PROGRAM —

Massachusetts Leads the Way in CORI Reform

In the United States, an estimated 65 million people have had a brush with the law that resulted in a criminal record. And every year, about 650 thousand of them are released from prisons and jails—reemerging into society with one goal—to get back on their feet. To increase opportunity, some states are rethinking their approach to criminal records. Massachusetts is one. Francesca Rheannon brings us this report, which was co-produced by Deborah Begel.

The Struggle for Private Employers to Ban the Box – see script below

More than 3 dozen states, cities and counties have removed the criminal history question for applications for government jobs. But only about 15 percent of American’s work for the government—the vast majority work in the private sector. And as of March 2012, Massachusetts and Hawaii are the only two states that have banned the box on employment applications for private employers. Several other states and local governments are considering doing the same, including San Francisco. But as.making Contact’s George Lavender reports, the obstacles to banning the box for private business can be difficult to overcome.

For more information:

National Employment Law Project
All of Us or None
EPOCA: Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement
Real Cost of Prisons Project
Boston Workers Alliance
SF Human Rights Commission
Unite Here! Local 2
Give Something Back Office Supplies
Drug Policy Alliance
Neighbor to Neighbor-Massachusetts
Mass Legal Services
Legal Services for Prisoners With Children
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick
Omnia Foundation

Articles, Reports:
‘Do Workers with Criminal Backgrounds Deserve a Second Chance?‘- In These Times
“Too Little, Too Late,” by James Alan Fox
ACLU CORI Reform chart
A Brief History of the Drug War – Drug Policy Alliance
Race, Prison and Poverty by Paul Street
Ex-offenders and the Labor Market by John Schmitt and Kris Warner

Music
Criminal Minded by Boogie Down Productions
Locked Up by Akon
I Tried by Bone Thugs Feat. Akon
Peacock Tail by Boards of Canada
XYZ by Boards of Canada

The Struggle for Private Employers to Ban the B – Script

The ’Ban the Box’ movement has made significant progress over the past 15 years.  More than three dozen cities and counties have removed the criminal history question for applications for but only about 15 percent of American’s work for the government—the vast majority work in the private sector.  And as of March 2012, Massachusetts and Hawaii are the only two states that have banned the box on employment applications for private employers. Several other states and local governments are considering doing the same, including San Francisco.  But as making Contact’s George Lavender reports, the obstacles to banning the box for private business can be difficult to overcome.

REPORTER:

After getting out of prison in 2007, Marilyn Austin-Smith applied for a job at a number of the San Francisco Bay Area’s largest employers.

MAS: My biggest problem was people not calling me back- to say you don’t have the job we’re not hiring at this time or you don’t qualify- something. They didn’t call back and say anything- there goes that ball and chain.  I’m wearing this ball and chain on my ankle because I’ve done my time I did what I was supposed to do, now I want to  become a productive citizen. I’m wearing that ball and chain from now until eternity due to the fact that you can’t get a job. Even though you qualify for it- you might be educated for it you might be overqualified for it- they still will not hire you.

While the State of California banned the box for its own employees in 2010- private employers are still free to do as they choose.  Austin-Smith applied for jobs at Macy’s, Safeway, Footlocker, Lucky’s and Dollar Tree all of which had a question about criminal records on the form.

MAS: See- if the State of California will hire us how come these individual employers, or these other major companies.. that’s making our money ‘cause we shop at these stores, we eat at these restaurants, we go to these gas stations, we go to these doctors but they will not hire you with a felony conviction

None of the companies Austin-Smith tried to work for would comment on their use of the box for this program, But Michelle Natividad Rodriguez of the National Employment Law Project, says there are some common reasons employers give for asking applicants about their criminal records.

MNR: So there was this survey from the Society of Human Resources management- they did a survey of their membership of the different reasons that companies were interested in doing background checks. Certainly, the top 3 reasons were much as you would expect- they wanted to be make sure they would have employees who aren’t going to be involved in criminal activities, they were concerned about liability they were concerned about potential theft. And the criminal record check was supposed to give them some kind of indication.  Unfortunately for them, and unfortunately for our workers, that information is out there, but there isn’t a lot of evidence backing that up. We haven’t seen the evidence or research that someone’s criminal record is any more predictive of that persons’ negative behavior on the job than other things- like having a good interview, having good references, those are the kinds of elements that we advise employers to look at.

A report by the Society for Human Resource Management found that roughly 80% of US employers carry out criminal record checks on job applicants. While this practice is legal, Michelle says the problem is that the checks are being used as blanket bans, stopping people getting work.

MNR: It’s all across the board- and it’s especially, it’s especially affecting our communities of color. African American and Latino communities because the criminal justice system is what it is and they’re targeted more. So communities of color end up being really hard hit with these practices.

In San Francisco, large hotel companies including Hilton and Marriot all have the box on their application forms. Mike Casey is President of Unite Here! Local 2 which represents hotel workers in San Francisco.

MC: I think a lot of employers will take a look at the pile they’ve got because there’s a high number of people looking for work. Probably right away the first thing the employer does is- ‘let’s separate these into two piles- those with a felony conviction and those without’. I think it’s discriminatory in ways that disfavor poor people and working people

A report by the Center for Economic Policy Research found that people with criminal records have much higher unemployment rates than the rest of the population.  Casey says his Union supports removing barriers to employment, for anyone with a record.  It’s an issue he says the labor movement should be taking up. In the meantime, Casey says the union is doing their part.

MC: Many unions- including our own have hiring halls so many of our members get work out of the hiring hall- we don’t discriminate against people because they might have some kind of record. So of course, in our practices we don’t discriminate against people- we don’t believe that employers should discriminate against people. It’s just another form of discrimination against the most disadvantaged in society.

There are a small number of employers in the Bay Area who make an effort to hire people who have been excluded from the workforce for many reasons, including criminal convictions. ‘Give Something Back’ is an office supply company that employs about 100 people.

MH: One of the clear benefits that a company like ours can offer to a community are employment opportunities
Mike Hannigan is ‘Give Something Back’s’ company director.

MH: We recognize that there are many populations which are excluded from the workplace because of barriers. Those barriers could be income barriers, social economic barriers, or incarceration. We make efforts to bring people into our employment opportunities.

Despite these efforts to be a more inclusive, ‘Give Something Back’ does in fact still require applicants to disclose their criminal convictions.

MH: But also on the application- there is in fairly bold print that says if you answer yes it doesn’t exclude you from a job. That in itself doesn’t exclude you from a job.

But even with disclaimers such as this, requiring disclosure at this initial stage is a very real deterrent for many people. It also makes it virtually impossible to prove that widespread discrimination is taking place because employers can claim that a candidate was refused for some other reason.

MH: So you’re saying when they fill out that original application they shouldn’t have to disclose it?

GL: That’s the argument

MH: I’d have to listen to the argument but that would make it clear that employers were seizing on a particular issue to eliminate someone from contention- it would be easier to identify that particular thing if that particular thing didn’t come up until… I think that’s a reasonable issue to consider. I would like people who had the best interests of the community to get that out into the Human Resources world and if it was the right thing to do we wouldn’t have a problem with that

The National Employment Law Project estimates that 25% of adults in the US have criminal records.

MH: If that’s what the demographic is- then the question is why isn’t 1 in 4 people here come from that demographic? That’s a fair question- if we could all be forced to do it without a competitive disadvantage coming to the people who have to jump to the front- I mean we’re willing to do certain things because it’s the right thing to do.

Marilyn Austin-Smith is now a member of All of Us or None, an organization which campaigns on issues affecting formerly incarcerated people, and has been active in the fight to get rid of the box in San Francisco, and elsewhere. She now works as an in-home caregiver, but her daughter, who has been out of prison for over a year, is still unemployed.

MAS: There’s still that ball and chain I don’t care how you put it- we’re going to be carrying that ball and chain forever- it seems like when you really want to make a living like most of these families- they’re stopping you from feeding your children- they’re stopping you from being able to make an honest day’s living. And they wonder why there’s so much crime in the world?

If San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors does pass legislation to ban the box for private employers, they will join a growing number of towns and cities in Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.  Campaigners hope that San Francisco can serve as an example to other major cities in California and across the US.

For Making Contact, I’m George Lavender, in San Francisco.