Episode

5/9 Guatemala’s Stolen Children; Sudan’s Year Of Wartime Horrors w/ Rachel Nolan, Raga Makawi

May 9, 2024

It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Rachel Nolan, historian of Latin America at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies, to discuss her recent book Until I Find You: Disappeared Children and Coercive Adoptions in Guatemala. Then, she speaks with Raga Makawi, editor at African Arguments, to discuss the ongoing conflict in Sudan. First, Emma discusses President Biden’s recent CNN interview with Erin Burnett, where he makes the claim that he’d withhold aid to Israel if a full-scale invasion into Rafah occurs. This led to some predictably normal responses from Prime Minister Netanyahu reposting a video of himself speaking about Israel acting alone if it needs to, and National Security Minister Ben-Gvir tweeting out that Hamas loves Biden. Rachel Nolan then joins the program to discuss her book on the crisis of the disappeared children in Guatemala, and how little media coverage and understanding is attached to this subject. All of this in the backdrop of a severe and violent sectarian conflict within the country, which led to the conditions from which disappearances and the for-profit adoption boom out of Central and South America began to increase and expand. Rachel dives into the number of organizations that have participated in the adoption racket out of Guatemala, the erasure of birth parents stories when it comes to understanding the “adoption triad” (birth parents, adoptee, & adopted parents), the idea of the “white savior” complex and how that intersects with these types of adoptions/dismissals of indigenous communities both domestically in the U.S. and abroad, as well as how, if at all, Trump’s family separation policies impacted this industry. Raga Makawi then joins the program to provide some additional context to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, which has now surpassed a year of fighting. Raga outlines the central players, including the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Sudanese government and military, and how both sides staked their positions in the conflict not only over the past year, but stemming back to the 2018 revolution as well as the 2004 conflict in Darfur. Raga also emphasizes the serious famine concerns in the area as a result of this conflict, who some other external players are geopolitically (Iran, as an example), how economic extraction and plunder from outside forces factor into the conflict itself, and what Western audiences don’t understand about the conflict due to lack of media coverage/literacy on the issues germane to the situation.

And in the Fun Half, Emma, Matt Binder, Brandon Sutton, & the entire MR Crew react to Likud Knesset member Tali Gottlieb melting down over Biden’s pledge to not provide aid to Israel if their forces invade Rafah, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene taking on the “uniparty” by filing the motion to vacate against Speaker Johnson, “social entrepreneur” Chris Pan’s cringeworthy BitCoin-themed commencement address/magic show at Ohio State University, Elise Stefanik attempting another witchhunt in a congressional subcommittee hearing, this time directed at the Chancellor of New York City Public Schools, and the inevitable Vivek Ramaswamy-Ann Coulter meeting of the minds on Vivek’s “TRUTH” podcast, where…Ann Coulter tells him she couldn’t vote for him for President because he’s Indian (Vivek appreciated the candor!). Plus, your calls & IM’s!

Check out Rachel’s book here: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674270350

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Check out this GoFundMe in support of Mohammed Nasrallah, whose family is trying to leave Gaza for Egypt: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-mohammed-nasserallah-and-family-go-to-egypt

Check out this GoFundMe in support of Mohammad Aldaghma’s niece in Gaza, who has Down Syndrome: http://tinyurl.com/7zb4hujt

Check out the “Repair Gaza” campaign courtesy of the Glia Project here: https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/rebuild_gaza_help_repair_and_rebuild_the_lives_and_work_of_our_glia_team#!/

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