Change Agents 5/6/21 What happens after genocide: Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Producer/Host: Steve Wessler

-Can the surviving victims of genocide and the aggressors work together?
-Is there hope that the two sides can reach peace?

Guests:
Felix Hageniamana, Immigration lawyer in Portland ME. Felix is an attorney whose law firm Hagenimana Law specializes in immigration law. Felix has previously worked as a linguist, translator, and consultant for the BBC and a student attorney in the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic. A graduate of the University of Maine Law School, Felix works as an Asylum Outreach Attorney at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) in addition to managing his own law firm.

Azur Imširovic, consultant on human rights issues in Bosnia Herzegovina and in other countries Holds a BA in English and French studies from the University of Zagreb, Croatia and a MA in Comparative Politics from the University of York, United Kingdom. He has worked for more than fifteen years in the fields of human rights, democratization, security stabilization, judicial reform and elections in international organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia. Currently Azur works as an independent analyst and contributor specializing in post conflict political development and human rights issues in the Western Balkans.

About the host:
Steve Wessler will soon will be starting his 28th year of working on human right issues. He founded the Civil Rights Unit in the Maine Attorney’s Office in 1992 and led the Unit for 7 years. In 1999 he left the formal practice of law and founded the Center for the Prevention of Hate. The Center worked in Maine and across the USA. He and his colleagues worked to reduce bias and harassment in schools, in communities, in health care organization through workshops and conflict resolution. The Center closed in 2011 and Steve began a consulting on human rights issues. For the next 5 years much of his work was in Europe, developing and implementing training curricular for police, working in communities to reduce the risk of hate crimes, conflict resolution between police and youth. He has worked in over 20 countries. In late 2016 he began to work more in Maine, with a focus on reducing anti-immigrant bias. He continues to work in schools to reduce bias and harassment. Wessler teaches courses on human rights issues at the College of the Atlantic, the University of Maine at Augusta and at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in northern Virginia.

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Essential Rhythm 5/6/21: Connectivity in the Ecosystem

Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode discusses the role of alewives in connecting marine and fresh water ecosystems by transporting energy and nutrients between the two.

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/6/21: Cars Today and Tomorrow, Part 1

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Lately, we’ve been seeing car makers stopping or slowing down production lines because of a lack of critical components – computer chips! As auto technology changes, there are lot of new issues that need to be addressed and sorted out: for example, what happens when gas tax revenue disappears because virtually all cars are electric? This is only one of many big questions facing us as our cars become more and more “computers on wheels.”

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

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Healthy Options 5/5/21: TICKS! Those blood-sucking parasites!

Host/Producer: Rhonda Feiman
Co-Producer: Petra Hall
Technical assistance: Joel Mann & Amy Browne

TICKS! Those blood-sucking parasites! (and why you shouldn’t annoy the ticks!): Our annual update with tick specialist Dr. Beatrice Szantyr

-What are the ticks we can find in (or find us) in Maine?
-What diseases can dog ticks, black-legged (deer) ticks, & wood ticks carry?
-How can we protect ourselves and pets from tick bites?
-What can we do to try to keep ticks away from our gardens and backyards? What is their preferred habitat? Do ticks die off in the winter?
-What are some symptoms of Lyme and other tick illnesses? Is there always a rash with Lyme?
-Can Covid symptoms be confused with tick illness?
-When is an antibiotic appropriate for treatment and what is an effective therapeutic dose?
-Are blood tests effective for diagnosing tick illness?
-What do I do if a tick bites me? How do I remove a tick? Why is it best not to “annoy” a tick which is embedded in you? What should you do with the tick once you’ve removed it? Where can I send the tick to be tested, what do they test for, and how might this information be of use?

Guest: Dr. Beatrice Szantyr is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a member of the American College of Physicians, and an Internist and Pediatrician, living in Lincoln, Maine. She is an active member of Maine CDC’s Vector Borne Disease Work Group, as well as the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society. Dr. Szantyr is also the medical advisor for MaineLyme, a non-profit dedicated to decreasing Lyme and related tick diseases in Maine.

Websites of Interest:

Dr. Szantyr at Belfast Library May 3rd 2021 (video glitch; misses beginning)

Maine Forest Tick Survey

University of Maine Orono Cooperative Extension Tick Lab

MaineLyme, dedicated to decreasing tick borne diseases in Maine through awareness, education, prevention and advocacy

I have a tick bite! What do I do now?

Tick testing in Maine

Lyme Disease Association

Midcoast Lyme Disease Support and Education

Tick Management Handbook Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

Repellant Info:

EPA: Find the Repellent that is Right for You

The best bug sprays of 2021 (CNN report)

Dog Not Gone – a Maine company selling permethrin treated apparel for people and pets

InsectShield permethrin treated clothing

Previous Healthy Options show on ticks, & links to other tick shows & resources:

Healthy Options 6/3/20: Ticks and tick borne illnesses

About the host:
Rhonda Feiman is a nationally-certified, licensed acupuncturist practicing in Belfast, Maine since 1993. She primarily practices Toyohari Japanese acupuncture, using gentle and powerful non-insertion needle techniques, and also utilizes Chinese acupuncture and herbology. In addition, Rhonda is a practitioner of Qi Gong and an instructor of Tai Chi Chuan in the Yang Family tradition.

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Maine Currents 5/4/21: Universal Healthcare in Maine?

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

The group Maine Healthcare Action, affiliated with Maine AllCare, is working on a citizens’ referendum that would instruct the Maine legislature to enact universal health care. Along with a group of social work students from the University of Maine, they held an online town hall on the issue on April 22nd. With their permission, we bring that discussion to you today.

About the host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Outside the Box 5/4/21: “Better than US”

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger

About the host:
Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

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