Making Contact

Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem was founded on a promise to serve all patients with the same, excellent care. This week, against the backdrop of military occupation, we go inside Hadassah’s Mount Scopus maternity ward. There, the separation of Jewish and Arab mothers resulted in conflict between midwives at the hospital.

In a world that increasingly seems to strive for uniformity, afro-descendant Creole people on the eastern coast of Nicaragua seek to hold on to their unique culture through their food. Incoming palm plantations are fragmenting traditional Creole farmland and making it difficult for local coconut oil businesses. Overfishing and pesticides from the palm fields are reducing stocks of fish in the lagoons, making it more difficult to access traditional protein sources. In the towns and cities along the coast, an influx of foreign products is setting a new standard for how you should look, talk and eat. Rondon is one of the most celebrated traditional Creole dishes. Similar to a curry, it has a base of coconut milk in which you cook cassava, dasheen, breadfruit, baby corn and fried fish with fresh herbs and spices. It's a dish with strong connections to Africa. For a people descended from freed blacks, escaped slaves and indigenous Americans, holding on to Rondon is holding on to heritage.

The US military didn’t shrink much under President Obama, and our perpetual state of war has barely waned since 9-11. Author Rosa Brooks says the consequences of this ‘new normal’ reach deep into our society; far beyond the body count of those killed overseas. On this edition, Rosa Brooks speaks about her new book, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. Special thanks to Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington DC Featuring Rosa Brooks, author of How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. Host: Andrew Stelzer

September 11, 2001 ushered in an era marked by the unending War on Terror, dragnet government surveillance programs, and escalating attacks on people perceived to be Muslim. Just last month, Khalid Jabara, a 37-year old Lebanese American man was shot and killed on his front porch in Tulsa Oklahoma by a neighbor who had harassed his family for years, calling them ‘dirty Arabs’ and ‘Mooslems’. This is just one of the many reported attacks on people perceived as Muslims in the United States.  Last year, there were 174 incidents of anti-Muslim violence, and that’s only if you count the attacks that made headlines. This backlash is just tip of the iceberg.  Below the surface is a growing Islamophobia with deep roots in history and empire.  Where does the idea of the ‘Muslim enemy’ come from?  And how has it evolved into what we see today? Fifteen years after 9/11, Deepa Kumar, author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, takes us back nearly 15 centuries to find out.

Millions of people around the world work in jobs that aren’t formally recognized or afforded legal protections typical of wage earning jobs. They’re often not even thought of as legitimate work. On this edition of Making Contact, we’re going to meet people making work where there is no work for them. From recyclers, to border couriers, to waste pickers, we’re exploring the informal labor sector and what some are doing to gain greater recognition, protections, and rights. Featuring   Landon Goodwin, recycler and pastor and also featured in documentary Dogtown Redemption Aicha al Azzouzi border courier Salma al Azzouzi, Aicha’s oldest daughter Charles Gachanga Gichonge, creator of the Mustard Seed Courtyard clean-up campaign Antony Makau, Dandora resident Richard Munene, Dandora restaurant owner Sally Roever, Urban Policy Director for Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Malati Gadgil, KKPKP

It’s the second most-traded commodity in the world after oil but how much do you think about your cup of coffee? From coffee farmers in Colombia to the trash produced by your single-cup coffee machine, Making Contact andGreen Grid Radio team up to count the costs of your morning cup o’joe. Featuring: Jairo Martinez, Mariana Cruz, Suzana Angarita,coffee farmers Jeff Goldman, former executive director FairtradeResource Network Jeff Chean, Principal and Chief Coffee GuyGroundworks Roasters John Hazen, single-cup coffee machine owner Rebecca Jewell, recycling program manager for Davis Street Transfer Station

The alternatives to prison are few and far between.  And after serving time, the options for getting back on your feet are even worse.  Finding food, a job and a place to live with a criminal record can become an almost impossible task.  On this edition, Women building their own support network after being released from prison. We’ll hear “A New Way of Life and the New Underground Railroad” a documentary by Chris-Moore Backman. Featuring: Susan Burton, A New Way of Life Re-Entry Project executive director and founder; Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness author; Alika Savage, Yolanda Brown, Renee Levi, Maisha Bailey, Sabrayiah DeMoss, Samantha Jenkins, A New Way of Life residents. For More Information:A New Way of Life Re-Entry ProjectThe Sentencing Project Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted Peoples MovementCritical ResistanceMichelle Alexander-The New Jim CrowBringing Down the New Jim Crow

Women Rising radio profiles food sovereignty activists from India, Mexico, and Native American communities. If you are interested in GMOs, TTP, seed saving, herbal medicine, food, trade & activism –then tune in! Featuring: Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya Adelita San Vicente Tello, founder of Semillas de Vida Sage La Pena, Native American, ethno- botanist and food sovereignty activist Kanyon Sayers-Roods, Native American youth educator

In the midst of police shooting community members and gunmen shooting police, and as the republican and democratic conventions wrap up, we look back at the history of secret surveillance and disruption of organizations dissenting and struggling against all odds. COINTELPRO, the secret FBI project to infiltrate and disrupt domestic organizations thought to be “subversive,” targeted many African-American, Native-American, and other movements for self-determination by people of color in the U.S..  Between 1956 and 1971, the FBI conducted more than 2,000 COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) operations.  This week we broadcast the second half of the documentary film “COINTELPRO 101," produced by The Freedom Archives. Special thanks to The Freedom Archives.

In the midst of police shooting community members and gunmen shooting police, and as the republican and democratic conventions wrap up, we look back at the history of secret surveillance and disruption of organizations dissenting and struggling against all odds. COINTELPRO, the secret FBI project to infiltrate and disrupt domestic organizations thought to be “subversive,” targeted many African-American, Native-American, and other movements for self-determination by people of color in the U.S.. Between 1956 and 1971, the FBI conducted more than 2,000 COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) operations.  Over the next two weeks, we’ll be broadcasting the documentary film “COINTELPRO 101.” Today we hear the first half of the film, produced by the Freedom Archives. Special thanks to The Freedom Archives. Featuring: Liz Derias, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Bob Boyle, attorney Jose Lopez, Puerto Rican Cultural Center executive director Lucy Rodriguez, Puerto Rico Independence movement leader and former political prisoner Ward Churchill, Native American activist and author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Native American activist and author Leonard Peltier, political prisoner Ricardo Romero, Al Frente de Lucha co-founder Priscilla Falcon, University of Northern Colorado Hispanic Studies professor Francisco Martinez, Chicano/Mejicano activist and attorney.   CORRECTION: Making Contact staff inadvertently misstated attorney Bob Boyle’s name as Bob Doyle in the audioversion of the COINTELPRO 101 documentary (Part 1). We apologize for the mistake.