Asia & Pacific – Pike & Hurricane

The beauty of who we are

Eman Said Omran — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 10:49:49 +0000

If you have plans for exotic travel, then book a flight to South Asia, Pakistan, in particular. Once you arrive in Pakistan, prepare yourself for an interesting road trip on the famous Karakoram highway, where you will be surrounded by serene nature and breathtaking mountains all the way to the Gilgit Baltistan region. From Gilgit Baltistan, take a shorter ride to Hunza Valley, the land of apricot orchards, peaches, apples, mulberry, walnuts, and grapes. The land of glacial streams and forests of poplar trees. In Hunza Valley you will get to meet the famous Shukrat Bibi, the protector of Hunza cultural heritage and one of the guardians of its identity.

Ms Shukrat Bibi’s shop at Karimabad.
Photo credit: Eman Said Omran

Shukrat Bibi is an 86-year-old artisan who uses her needlework to preserve the cultural heritage of Hunza Valley. She owns a small shop in Karimabad, the capital of Hunza Valley. The shop looks like a safe cave made of rocks. At the shopfront, one can see colourful handmade products, decorated with exquisite embroidery hanging on the door. An enchanting sight that lures you into the shop where you will find many more treasures of meticulously handmade beautiful embroidery. Shukrat Bibi uses her magical needle to sew traditional dresses, handbags, colourful caps and festive accessories.

Ms Shukrat Bibi in front of her shop at Karimabad
Photo credit: Eman Said Omran

At the entrance of the shop, Shukrat Bibi sits with her needle in hand. Dressed in the traditional Hunza attire and wearing a colourful Hunza cap, she welcomes national and international visitors into her world. She has a warm and friendly demeanor, an air of serenity. Hanging on the wall behind her a newspaper article is displayed about her precious work. She sees the article as a sign of appreciation and acknowledgement that she is keeping her Hunza heritage alive and flourishing (The Express Tribune). Inside the shop, one sees the Presidential Pride of Performance Award, an award granted by the President to recognize people with “notable achievements in the field of art, science, literature, sports, and nursing”. Shukrat Bibi’s award clearly acknowledges Pakistan’s gratitude for her hard work in “keeping the delicate art of do sutti karhai (embroidery) alive in the region”.

The Presidential Pride of Performance Award, 1992.
Photo credit: Eman Said Omran

At the age of 10, Shukrat Bibi’s mother taught her the art of embroidery. Now, Shukrat Bibi at the age of 86 has passed her skills and talent to hundreds of women in Hunza. The skills which she has passed on to them have contributed to their financial independence and they have become members of her cavalry fighting to preserve Hunza culture. Shukrat Bibi takes great pride in her efforts to keep the culture of handmade embroidery of Hunza alive and hopes that her students will continue this tradition.

Nowadays, the world has become a village. Today, the exotic Hunza Valley is a famous touristic spot not only for Pakistanis but for international travellers alike. Visiting Hunza brings benefits not only for the travellers themselves lucky enough to see it but for the district itself and for Pakistan as a country. However, it is important that the Hunza Valley retains its identity and unique charm in this age of globalization. Hunza Valley is blessed to have inhabitants like Shukrat Bibi and all of her students. A talented group of women who love their culture and identity and are proud to share their timeless history in our modern, globalized world.

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Anti-Asian: The patterns and cycle of racism

Rozarina Bakher — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 10:00:45 +0000

On March 16 2021, a lone gunman shot and killed eight people in Atlanta, the capital city of Georgia, USA. Among those killed were six women of Asian descent, raising suspicion of hate crime. Since then, the social media has been sharing and tweeting #StopAsianHate.

The attack has spiked fears in the Asian American community, which has been experiencing an increase in attacks and harassment since the coronavirus pandemic began. Former US President, Donald J. Trump has been cited as one of the instigators towards the increased attacks during his presidency by using terms such as “the Chinese virus” or “Kung Flu” as a moniker for the virus. Between March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021, around 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents were reported.

The tragedy has prompted me to open up about discrimination against Asians, in particular Asian women. As an Asian woman living in Scandinavia, I have had all kinds of “jokes” and casual racism remarks thrown at me; stereotypes, such as us all looking alike, working as nurses or housekeepers, running a nail salon and massage parlour, or that we are the trophy wives to elderly white men.

The objectification of Asian women

An article published by Forbes.com in June 2020, reported that Asian-American women are less likely to progress and advance into senior leadership. Due to their apparent success in education and in the corporate world, Asian-American women are subjected to higher pervasive discrimination when it comes to advancing into supervisory responsibilities. The article cited how Asian-American women find it difficult to advance the corporate ladder which is created by two competing sets of stereotypes. On the one hand, they are seen as intelligent and hardworking, however, on the other hand as modest and low in social skills. Which led to a dilemma whereby, if they behave submissively to be “quiet and nice” they are seen as Lotus Flower or China Doll, however, if they are to speak up to express ideas and opinions, they are then seen as the Dragon Ladies.

Where did all these references come from? Lo and behold, the pattern and cycle of objectification of Asian Women began with how Asian women are portrayed in films, especially in the Western movies. Hollywood and American media corporations have long contributed to the culture of paranoid xenophobia and presenting a mythological “Other” through two Hollywood archetypes of the submissive, delicate, and overly emotional China Doll, and the threatening, cold Dragon Lady, which were the popular media productions of binary representation of Asian women.

Bruce Lee from “Enter the Dragon”

Shortly after the shooting, ephemeral Twitter users were tweeting “no happy endings” to refer to a colloquial term for offering sexual release to a client at the end of a massage. The reference of “happy ending” massage has been associated with the hyper sexualization of Asian women. Asian women have long been reduced to dehumanizing stereotypes, whether meek and speechless or aggressively sexual robots whose only purpose seems to be servicing white men.

When it comes to racism, there is a pattern that follows the severity of an act, and that pattern is gender. Women were more than two times more likely to experience discrimination this past year, according to a Stop AAPI Hate report. Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, told NBC Asian America that the coalescence of racism and sexism, including the stereotype that Asian women are meek and subservient, likely factors into this disparity. “There is an intersectional dynamic going on that others may perceive both Asians and women and Asian women as easier targets,” he said. It came to no surprise that Asian women reported more attacks, as their image has consistently been misrepresented in the mainstream media, making them vulnerable targets for racist violent behaviour and their lack of progression within the corporate ladder in white America.

Brief history of anti-Asian racism in the USA.

Xenophobia against the Asian Americans is not something new, in fact there is a long history of discrimination and racism towards the community. While they have been labelled as the “silent community” and used as a model minority, as the immigrants frequently seen as having successfully integrated themselves into western communities, Asian Americans have also long been considered a threat to a nation that historically promoted a whites-only immigration policy. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted for the purpose of prohibiting all immigration of Chinese labourers. In the early 19th century a xenophobic propaganda by white nativists about Chinese uncleanliness circulated around the area of San Francisco, referring to them as a “yellow peril” and unfit of citizenship.

The Asian-Indian community was not spared the xenophobic propaganda. They were called “dusky peril” in the fear described as “Hindu hordes invading the state” and by 1917, the Asiatic Barred Zone Act was enacted which prohibited immigration from British India, most of Southeast Asia, The Pacific Island, and the Middle East. During World War 2, more than 120,000 Japanese American, many of whom US citizens, were sent to internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

In 1982, at the height of Japan’s powerful auto industry, a Chinese American, Vincent Chin, was beaten to death by two white males. They mistook him for Japanese, the attack came at a time when Americans were losing manufacturing jobs. Vincent’s death a few days before his wedding saw the mobilization of the Asian-Chinese community to fight for their civil rights.

Is there a pattern of violence in the USA towards the Asian community that seems to occur only when there is an economic crisis, and the privileges of white Americans are at risk?

Anti-Asian: The aftereffect of global pandemic?

Anti-Asian racism is not isolated to the USA. In Australia, where there is a large community of Asians, reports of increased anti-Asian racism since the pandemic continues. One of the sensationalized events was when two sisters of Asian descent living in Sydney suburbs, were spat on and verbally abused by an assailant who called them “Asian dogs”.

Australia too has had a long-racialized history with its Asian communities since the early gold-rush era that saw massive migration of Chinese workers into the continent. It adopted the White Australia Policy 1901, the purpose of which was to limit the immigration of Asians into the country and restrict the labour of the community to specific industries.

In Europe there has also been an increase of reported abuse and acts of violence towards Chinese and other Asian-looking individuals since the pandemic. In Sweden, a journalist of Korean descent, raised in the country, wrote about how, since the pandemic, people had begun to ask of her origin, or tried to avoid her in public transports.

The EU has been criticized for lacking to show the actual make-up of European societies. In the European Parliament, for example, people of colour make up only 3 percent of MEPs; they exist on the margins and have little possibility to challenge the established norms and values within EU institutions in any fundamental way.

There has always been a pattern of discrimination targeted at the Asian community: the pandemic has brought attention to the casual and subtle racism members of this multifaceted community have continued to suffer in silence. Does society at large have to allow for a tragedy to happen to react against anti-Asian racism and other forms of racism? Or can society proactively engage itself to change its behaviour and stop discrimination and racism altogether? There seems to be a pattern and cycle that clearly needs to be disrupted.

Perhaps only by promoting a greater Asian representation in the process of equality policy-making and changing the perceptions and portrayal of Asian men and women in the media and in society at large can the Anti-Asian phenomenon cease to exist for good.

Related articles:

Unheard South Solidarity: The Asian-African Conference

The Social Network of Ethnic Conflict

Photo credits:

#StopAsianHate Community Rally in San Jose by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Bruce Lee from “Enter the Dragon” by Lexinatrix (CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0)

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The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020(1): Can it change the way the Olympics Games are held in the future?

Rozarina Bakher — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:11:09 +0000

The coronavirus pandemic has seen many events either postponed or cancelled. The most globally known event by far would be the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo which was originally scheduled from 22 July to 9 August.

The global sporting event is now rescheduled to be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 instead, but will still retain the name as the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Despite general worry from the Japanese population on the pandemic and its aftereffects, The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that there is no “Plan B” and that the games will go ahead as planned. Around 206 National Olympic Committees are scheduled to participate and approximately 11,091 athletes in various sporting games are expected to compete. The choice for the organizer to carry out this event is being met with declining support from the general population over renewed concern of a new strain of the coronavirus. Japan will only begin its vaccination program late February (as of the date of this article, Japan has begun local clinical trials with the Moderna vaccine in January). Many believe vaccination of its 127 million citizens is crucial for the game to take place. A massive $14 billion has been set aside by the government to roll out the vaccine before the games begin, despite growing uncertainty amongst a population which has a history of being deeply wary of vaccines.

A question remains, why is the Japanese government planning to go ahead with its plan to host these Olympic games amidst the threat of the pandemic?

Surely, a potential Plan B would be to cancel it all together? In the Olympics history, the games have been cancelled three times before, in 1916, 1940 and 1944. In fact in 1940, both the summer and winter Olympics were scheduled to take place in Japan but were cancelled due to WW2.

Too far gone

Hosting an Olympic is a big deal for any country, but it also carries huge financial implications. Going ahead with it is a way to recoup the investment that Japanese government and its public sponsors have spent on the games. Japan reportedly spent $75 million for the campaign to host the games and provided a $7.3 billion budget during its bidding in 2013. The coronavirus delay reportedly cost around $2.4 billion, and since then the Tokyo organizing committee has upped the outlays to $15.4 billion. It is now set to be the most expensive summer Olympics. So, the show must go on as the IOC depends on selling broadcasting rights and sponsorships which accounts for 90 percent of its revenue. Note, that this game could go ahead without the anticipated spectators that would bring additional income through ticket sales. It was reported that around 70 percent of tickets are reserved for buyers in Japan and sales are expected to be worth $800 million to local organizers. The remainder is reserved for overseas visitors, who may not be able to travel if the pandemic’s infection numbers continue to rise.

Postponing the game further would also jeopardize plans for the 2024 Olympic games to be held in Paris. A few reasons put forward by IOC President, Tomas Bach was that they simply cannot have overlapping games one after another, the next Olympic game scheduled, the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022, is only 6 months away, neither can the committee keep employing the 3,000 – 5,000 people for an indefinite time. If Tokyo Olympics 2020 does not go ahead this year, it could lead to the games taking place further along in 2024, Paris will be 2028 and LA in 2032.

The proud nation

Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike has a vision for Tokyo and is betting on Hong Kong’s losing appeal after Chinese crackdowns and Singapore becoming more expensive for investment, that Tokyo will win back some of its former glory as a regional hub for foreign companies in Asia. The Tokyo metropolitan government has launched marketing campaigns, particularly aimed at high-tech and fintech firms, and the Olympics are an excellent chance to highlight the city.

There is also a sense of pride in reliving the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in which Japan gained fame for showcasing to the world how the country recovered from the devastation of the WW2 less than two decades later and how it reformed from an aggressive empire-seeker to a model of peace and democracy. It still craves to showcase the glory of the ’64 successful event, and what better way to reclaim the fame than by hosting the very event that demonstrates the best of Japan and help the world celebrate as it turns the corner on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Forfeiting the games is not an option, as the world’s next global sporting event will be the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. In the realm of Asian rivalry, this is one that Japan would not want to see itself losing. Japan was the 2nd largest economy after the US from 1968 to 2010, before losing the spot to China, and a few billion dollars to make the games happen may be a small price to pay for a chance at glory.

At this point, pulling off the Olympics is not just a matter of economic damage-control. It is a national project, a matter of honour and saving face from being seen as a nation of give-ins.

The Playbook

The IOC announced on February 3 that the game would take place and have issued the Tokyo Olympic playbooks meant to outline measures against Covid-19. Some of the actions-in-plan from the playbook which aims to keep participants and citizens of Japan safe are:

A vaccination will not be compulsory for those attending the games, although a negative test for Covid-19 is required four weeks leading up to the event and athletes will be tested every four days.
Those coming to the games will be asked to cheer by clapping instead of chanting or shouting.
Athletes, and those attending the games will not be permitted to visit tourist sites or travel on public transport.
A 14-day activity plan is to be submitted ahead by those attending.

In addition to the above, plans are in place to keep strict attendance numbers in the opening ceremony on July 23. Athletes cannot check into the Olympic Village more than five days before the opening and must leave two days after finishing their competition.

Despite all the measures in place, will it be enough to not turn the Olympic Games Tokyo into the “mother of all super-spreader events”?

Certainly, the Tokyo Olympics will be very different from what we are all used to in the past, with a stadium full of spectators cheering and waving their nations’ flag and will be without the grandeur of the opening and closing ceremonies. The IOC have stressed the focus is to host a sporting event without the extravagant hoopla that has become a part of the Olympics. For a while now, the Olympics have been known to cause economic strain to the country that hosts them. Some past examples: Athens spent $15 billion to host the 2004 Olympics, taxpayers in Athens will continue to be assessed annually until the debt is paid and most of the facilities built during the games remain empty. In a nearly similar example of another endemic, the 2016 Olympic in Brazil was affected due to the Zika virus. Extra accommodation was built for the expectation of tourists; however, the virus scares saw the decline in tourists expected during the Games.

While Tokyoites and the rest of the world are Covid-weary, and despite the budget to host the Games having risen, the IOC is still head-on strong to proceed with the Olympics 2020, even if it could mean less spectators and a potential loss in income. The Olympics history has showcased a few past examples as to how the games have caused economic strain to its host country and perhaps the Tokyo Olympic 2020 Games can serve as an inspiration for future Olympics Games and other countries to look for alternative, more cost effective and sustainable ways of hosting.

Note: All currency is in US$

Related articles:

A Volunteer’s View of the Rio Olympics

Photo credits:

Tokyo Tower Special Lightup by t-mizo (CC BY 2.0)

Tokyo Olympics 2020 by Danny Choo on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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The Battle of the Grandmasters

Franziska Fink — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:10:56 +0000

Whilst reading a newspaper, one will often stumble upon catchy headlines such as “What Is the End Game of US-China Competition?” (The Diplomat), “Russian lawmaker on US-China power game: Don’t play us ‘as a card’” (Nikkei Asia) or “Erdogan’s great game: The Turkish problem on the EU’s doorstep” (The Financial Times). Each of these examples makes use of a metaphor depicting politics as a game of some sort. Of course, those headings are phrased as enticing as possible to win the reader’s interest. But by the same token, they subtly (and, most likely, unintentionally) reveal a core feature of political theory and practice.

It is not by a whim of nature that state leaders, transnational corporations and even whole nations are repeatedly referred to as “players” within the discourse of global politics. There is even an entire political and economic theory which is built around the analogy of politics as a game, the classic game theory. Scholars of International Relations, for example, make frequent use of this theory to showcase how international conflict and other political phenomena occur as a result of decisions made by people.

This politics-as-a-game allegory is even further underpinned by one of the oldest and most successful games known to humankind. Chess, which used to be especially popular among the Shahs of Persia and has since enjoyed great renown as a sophisticated leisure time activity of known politicians and state-leaders (Napoleon, Queen Elisabeth II, Willy Brandt and Jimmy Carter to only name a few), is currently enjoying a revival even outside political circles (which, to be fair, might have to be accredited to the less sophisticated leisure time activity of us mortals watching The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, an exceptionally well-made show that follows the life of an orphan chess prodigy, Elizabeth Harmon, during her quest to become the world’s greatest chess player).

Chess is often described as a battle-game, during which both players are attempting to beat their opponent by taking down the king. But the king is of course very well protected and in order to get him into a position from which he cannot flee anymore (to put him in checkmate), you need to move around your pieces on the board tactically and follow a thought-through strategy. It is important to think long-term and often it is an enduring, nerve-racking process during which many victims and losses will occur.

Basically, chess is a miniature version of world politics. This might explain its frequent use among journalists, since the usage of chess terminology is an easy yet helpful way of breaking down complex events into vivid game metaphors. This comes in especially handy when trying to make sense of geopolitical issues.

Even though the Cold War was officially frozen for good by 1991, a new tension between the East and West has become more and more visible. With the difference however, that the Soviet Union has now been replaced by the new warily observed opponent of the US: China. Since 2013, China has massively invested into the establishment and expansion of its intercontinental trade and infrastructure networks. Within the framework of the One Belt, One Road initiative (BRI), China is subtly yet determinedly reaching for a shift in the balance of power among the world’s political players in its own favour. What on the surface seems to be nothing more than an infrastructure project, is actually an immense use of soft power executed by the Chinese state.

To translate this into the world of chess: If the US hegemony was the black king on the chess board, even though still well-protected by its many pawns of economic and military superiority, the white army, China, would be bringing its figures in a seemingly innocent, yet threatening position …

One of the many “points of attack” of the BRI that China is working on can be found in Nicaragua. Through a country that is rather rarely mentioned in the major international headlines, China is building a canal with the purpose of connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. This is neither a new nor a groundbreaking project, since it has already been realized in close proximity to Nicaragua. The Panama Canal has the exact same purpose and has furthermore already been in place since 1914. Why are the Chinese building another one, you ask? Remember: in chess, no unnecessary moves are made. They all have a purpose and follow a grand strategy. In this case, it is to pose a direct threat to the US which is a great ally of Panama. Together, the American and Panamanian marine are securing the Panama Canal. So even though the canal itself is an internationally neutral corridor, its passage depends on the benevolence of the US.

Of course, as an ambitiously ascending superpower, China does not put up with that and instead simply builds its own canal.

Yet, Central America is not the only arena where the two world powers are settling their disputes. China’s massive BRI investments in Africa, for example, have been given much more attention in the international press coverage. It is nevertheless crucial to maintain a global perspective, in order to keep track of all the moves the two grand masters are making during this enthralling game of East versus West.

Related articles:

A game of chess at the Greek-Turkish border

Between waters: the dilemma of the Nicaragua Canal

Photo credits:

Putin vs Obama by Svenn Sivertssen (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-76052-0335 by Ulrich Kohls (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

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Vaccine Diplomacy Clouds Over Southeast Asia

Carl Widegrip Dominguez — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 20:10:06 +0000

On January 20th, Thailand’s government filed criminal charges against Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a 42-year old politician, for alleged violations of a draconian lèse-majesté law which protects the monarchy from insult or defamation. The offense carries harsh penalties of up to 15 years in prison.

What, then, did Mr. Thanathorn do to prompt such heavy-handed punishment?

Two days earlier, during a Facebook livestream, he expressed concerns over what he felt was an opaque procurement and distribution vaccination scheme laid forth by the Thai government. Additionally, he questioned why the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca had granted exclusive local production rights of their proprietary COVID-19 vaccine to Siam BioScience, a biopharmaceutical lab wholly owned and managed by the Crown Property Bureau. The bureau itself is a quasi-governmental agency dedicated to managing the assets and property of King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Like all affairs of the Thai Royal family, the bureau and its subsidiaries remains bereft of public scrutiny.

For his indiscretion, the former political opposition leader now finds himself staring down a lengthy prison-sentence, which may be compounded further if he’s found guilty of multiple counts of lèse-majesté or of the notoriously vague Computer Crime Act.

Yet Thanathorn’s case is merely the tip of the iceberg in a region-wide struggle which pits public safety against political interests.

In what can only be described as vaccine diplomacy, governments around Southeast Asia appear to be favoring unmonitored bilateral relations for political support and economic gain over effective and affordable treatment for their citizens.

Beyond the gaffe between AstraZeneca and Thailand, Southeast Asian nations have struck a string of questionable trade deals on vaccine imports and production. That the vaccines have been commodified for negotiations does little to alleviate the woes of international supply shortages and a near-complete lack of local production capabilities in a time of dire need. Of all the major vaccines available on the market, the biggest player on the Southeast Asian negotiation table is China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

Foreign interests and domestic oversights

The public concerns over inadequate transparency surrounding the vaccine rollouts in Thailand are not unique to the nation, but rather endemic of a larger trend of foreign appeasement present among all member states of the chief regional intergovernmental organisation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Over the past decade, growing Chinese influence in the region combined with low levels of domestic accountability has created a precarious political climate.

Prior to the pandemic, China accounted for the largest single group of international visitors to Southeast Asia. This large presence provides a substantial source of tourism revenue, which certain areas are completely reliant upon. Moreover, China has poured in foreign direct investment into Chinese tourism hotspots such as Sihanoukville in southern Cambodia and Hat Yai in southern Thailand, and a myriad of large-scale joint infrastructure developments has been initiated as part of their Belt and Road Initiative, as well as multiple massive hydropower dam constructions on the Mekong River in Laos.

This asymmetric economic dependence is reflected both in political culture and foreign policy. The negative agricultural impact and environmental degradation stemming from the Mekong River projects have been tacitly accepted. China’s expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea are mostly quietly brushed aside. And when China comes knocking for a show of public support, the ASEAN members are usually happy to oblige them.

Nam Gnouang Dam on a tributary of the Nam Theun River in Laos.

So before many prominent vaccine manufacturers had even published reliable data from their late-stage clinical trials, many Southeast Asian nations had already decided to go with Sinovac as their premier choice.

Indonesia is one such example. After vocalizing early support, authorities signed an agreement with Sinovac as far back as August 25th, 2020—just two weeks after the launch of an Indonesian clinical trial—to import three million doses from China by January 2021 and to later initiate the localized production of at least 40 million additional doses via an Indonesian biopharmaceutical company.

First in line to receive the shot was Indonesian President Joko Widodo on January 13th. In a public display of cosy Indonesia-China relations, a broadly televised event showed President Widodo receiving the initial dose live, along with close-up shots of the Sinovac boxes.

The date is of note, too; two days earlier, on January 11th, Indonesia’s Food and Drug Authority reported their interim findings of the aforementioned clinical trial and claimed the vaccine was 65.3% effective, and was granted emergency use authorization. The next day, Brazil’s local production partner of Sinovac, Butantan, determined the general efficacy of the vaccine at just 50.4% in their late-stage clinical trial.

So while still technically fulfilling the vaccine guidelines set out by the World Health Organization of minimum 50% efficacy, one might expect such low figures to cast the televised publicity stunt into question, or cause some trepidation in the subsequent mass rollout. However, the Indonesian government proceeded with their plan unaltered, and health authorities defended the move citing an urgent need to protect its health workers.

Indonesia is not alone in this regard. Negotiations for the import of hundreds of millions of Sinovac vaccines in aggregate across Southeast Asia have already concluded. The Philippines committed themselves to 25 millions doses due for import in February, at allegedly dubious price mark-ups. Vietnam is primarily looking at importing the AstraZeneca vaccine, but is still in discussions regarding possible Sinovac additions. Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand each had millions of Sinovac doses slated for delivery, but all deals are currently on halt pending more clinical trial data from China after Brazil’s disappointing findings.

Laos and Myanmar, two of the region’s poorest nations, are both notable cases of vaccine diplomacy. Labelled “priority” recipients by China’s foreign minister Wang Yi, the two nations’ low bargaining power and weak international clout render them especially susceptible to foreign interests.

Laos is one of the few nations set to receive the Russian-made vaccine Sputnik V, but is concurrently in talks to supplement national rollout with Sinovac.

Local publication Myanmar Times reports that a multitude of behind-closed-doors bilateral talks between Myanmar’s Ambassador in Beijing and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs resulted in an agreement to ship the Chinese vaccine to Myanmar by early 2021. In order to secure the deal, Wang Yi sought the support of Myanmar’s ruling military junta for the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor—a localized subsection of the larger Belt and Road Initiative.

The afflictions of politics

While negotiations for the right product at the right price occurs all over the world, Southeast Asia’s propensity for non-transparency in foreign affairs create distinctive issues. There are many economically impaired areas in the region without access to adequate healthcare and which lack a strong international voice to bring attention to any shortcomings of governance. Putting the lives and safety of these peoples and front-line workers at risk, to employ under-the-table dealings to cement diplomatic allegiances is unethical at best and possibly devastating at worst.

As mentioned at the start, not only does this secrecy create civil and legal issues for people who dare to ask the tough questions—as for Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit—but create far reaching public safety issues as well.

After being alerted of the legal charges the Thai government levied against Mr. Thanathorn, AstraZeneca may be showing signs of reconsidering their partnership with Siam BioScience, as a planned news conference on the authorization of the vaccine was abruptly cancelled on January 22nd. The fear of getting dragged into political hot waters may be an understandable disposition for AstraZeneca, but it also means that 50,000 doses that were scheduled to be administered in February might now be in jeopardy.

With the Sinovac rollout now also being temporarily suspended, uncertainty looms large over Thailand’s vaccination scheme. With a population of nearly 70 million, and with no available vaccines at the ready, more victims and economic hardships are sure to follow in the wake of callous vaccine diplomacy.

Related articles:

Unheard South Solidarity: The Asian-African Conference

One Belt, One Road – China’s Path to the West

Photo credits:

“Wat Pho. Bangkok.”, by Adaptor- Plug on flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0

“Nam Gnouang Dam (60MW), on a tributary of the Nam Theun River in Laos”, by Eric Baran, via WorldFish on flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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A Vision for the World with Chinese Characteristics

Emilie Yung — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 18:20:46 +0000

When Xi Jinping, leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), began to speak of ‘the China dream’ in 2013, many were unsure as to what exactly this dream encompassed. Some understood it to be anything that comes to mind. Studying hard, working hard, doing something good for the country. The nationalist undertones were exactly what many thought to be the goal of the China Dream; to raise the popularity of the CCP amongst the broad population and strengthen nationalism whilst ensuring internal stability and political legitimacy. In other words, it was believed to be a ruse, a simple propaganda campaign to solidify the Communist Party’s power.

The rise of China

Since 1979 East Asia has experienced massive economic growth and the region has since become the core junction of the global economy. The international market and politics have now pivoted to East Asia increasing the tension between key actors; China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Taiwan. The region is ripe with territorial and maritime disputes, military arms’ races and concerns of North Korean activity, all factors that might punctuate the equilibrium. Especially noteworthy is that the rise of China has enabled them to challenge the US-led international order and position themselves as a force to be reckoned with. Not only does the rise of China’s economic and military power upset the global power balance, but leaves us with no choice other than to pay close attention to whatever political vision they bring forth for the world.

A unique hybrid

A main priority for the CCP is to maintain the rapid growth they have seen in the last decades. Continued growth will ensure domestic stability and broader geopolitical stability, making economic growth a prime object to fulfill in various aspects. It has long been argued by political scientists and Western scholars that sustained economic growth would eventually lead to political realization – and sustained economic growth, in fact, required the latter. So, for China to have kept their one-party rule system for so long, while developing their economy, has been quite surprising. For a long time, the United States’ policy towards China was to induce change, to give economic benefits to China with the belief that China would open their economy and allow for democratization. Despite such expectations, China has stayed on its own course, and has undertaken political and economic reform via bureaucratic means, reaping the benefits of democratization while simultaneously tightening its grip on the state-led economic model.

Hence, China has in fact become an authoritarian capitalist machine and “ha[s] created a unique hybrid: autocracy with democratic characteristics” (Ang, 2018, p. 39-40). China has utilized economic growth as a means of securing the legitimacy of the Communist Party while avoiding the luring possibility of political liberalization.

The Xi manoeuvre

In the obvious power vacuum created by the U.S. President Donald Trump after withdrawing from essential political goals such as the Paris Climate Agreement and the exit from the World Health Organization in one of the most trying times – you know, with the raging pandemic and all – China has been welcomed onto the world stage. The United States’ withdrawal from multilateral partnerships has left a wound to be tended to, one in which Xi Jinping has happily emerged as the new global protector. At the UN 75th Annual General Assembly, Xi Jinping presented the Chinese vision for the world. He pledged to strengthen multilateral cooperation, ensure global public health, and distribute Chinese-developed vaccines to the Global South. Covid-19 has shown itself to be the perfect opportunity for increased Chinese-led leadership, however, it is not the only seized opportunity. Global governance reform, continued globalization and the climate change challenges were important talking points and Xi Jinping seemed to desire to take up the mantle. In direct opposition to President Trump’s political vision of putting America first, China wishes to strengthen multilateralism and live up to their responsibility as a powerful nation underpinning their slogan “community with a shared future”. The China dream manifests, for Xi Jinping at least, as the global technological, military, cultural and economic power to be fully realized in 2049. It is the population’s ultimate reward for keeping the Chinese Communist Party in power.

The Chinese dream has caught on and the promise of a great future has allowed for certain political manoeuvres within the CCP. The term limit of two consecutive presidencies, put in place as a precaution by Deng Xiaopeng in 1982, was removed by the CCP in 2018 allowing Xi Jinping to rule until his death (allegedly with broad popular demand despite no evidence released on the matter), much like the infamous Mao Zedong – and the similarities do not end here. Xi Jinping has had his own political philosophy added to the constitution and with his position as president, head of the CCP, and head of the military, he may just be the most powerful political Chinese leader since Zedong’s rule – possibly even in the world.

A vision or a nightmare?

In Xi Jinping’s closing statement at the 75th Annual General Assembly, he praised values of freedom, democracy, peace and justice and encouraged to show support for a new international order built on such values. Despite the promising and intriguing nature of such a statement, not least in the light of a crumbling United States, let us not forget the authoritarian tendencies that operate within the political decision-making in China. The unique hybrid, that is China, can leave many confused with the true nature of Chinese rule and obscure present actions and future intentions. The China dream does certainly not apply to all peoples of the world. The arbitrary detainment of Uighurs (a religious minority living in the Xinjiang province) in internment camps where they are ‘schooled’ can only be seen as modern ethnic cleansing and so it seems that self-determination and acceptance of minorities are, as a matter of fact, not included in Xi’s vision. The words uttered at the General Assembly and the human rights’ abuses within Chinese borders are best described as paradoxical.

So, what is in fact the China dream and Xi’s vision for the future? It is not yet clear whether an expansionist agenda to safeguard internal rest and economic growth (that will undoubtedly stir up tension in the East Asian region) and the increasing human rights’ abuse led by the CCP will prevail or if China will commit itself to international cooperation, peace, tolerance and security above all else. The China dream’s ambiguity is evident and we may not know its true meaning until we face 2049. However, it cannot any longer be viewed as a ruse to legitimize the CCP’s power since global leadership is without a doubt pivoting to China. It seems only one person carries the answer and he is setting the tone for the global future. To that we should all pay close attention.

Image: 9-COP21_Xi Jinping, Presidente de China, by ConexiónCOP Agencia de noticias, CC BY 2.0

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When everything fails: lessons from Nauru

Isa Tiilikainen — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 09:49:11 +0000

In the Pacific Ocean, 4500 kilometers northeast of Australia, there is a tiny island nation called Nauru. The population today is at around 12 000 and it is one of the least visited countries in the world. In the 1970s Nauru earned the reputation of being the wealthiest nation of all, measured by GDP per capita. But the tragic chain of events that followed can now serve as a lesson for the rest of the world.

A long way to independence

Let’s start from the beginning. The history of Nauru has been a road paved with tears. In the 1800s European merchants brought alcohol and firearms to the island, leading to a ten year civil war during which one third of the population died. Then the Germans took over and Nauru was made part of Bismarck’s Empire in 1888.

After the First World War, the UN ordered Nauru to be under the mandate of Britain and Australia. Then came the Second World War. Nauru was occupied by the Japanese and bombed by the US. Japan took over half of the population as slaves to the Chuuk islands and left Nauru close to extinction.

For the next two decades Nauru was again ruled under Australian mandate, until the year 1968 when the island nation declared its independence.

Nauru’s wealth

But how did Nauru end up as the richest nation in the world? It’s all thanks to a natural resource called phosphate.

In the year 1900 an Australian prospector, Albert Ellis, was the first to discover phosphate on the island. In an agreement with the Germans, the British ’’Pacific Phosphate Company’’ began exploiting the reserves in 1906. Phosphate is a key ingredient in fertilizers, which started becoming increasingly used in intensive farming during the 1950s. For decades, all the money gained from Nauru’s natural resource went to the Brits and the Australians. But with the declaration of independence in 1968, Nauru nationalized it’s phosphate mines. And so the fun began.

The increasing population of the world needed more and more food, which created a huge demand for agriculture fertilizers. Ship after ship of phosphate was transported to Australia and from there onward, and money was flowing to Nauru. There was no need for taxes. Education and health care, everything was free. Phosphate made every single citizen so rich, that by 1970s Nauru had the world’s largest GDP per capita. If we count the total in euros, Nauru exported 2,2 billion worth of phosphate in less than 35 years.

Turning tables

But what follows when one gets too much money too quickly? Foolishness. Nauruans began importing all kind of electrical equipment and refreshments to the island; fridges, freezers, televisions, sports cars, steaks, cheeses, soft drinks. Building bigger houses and establishing its own airline for a nation with a population of then 7000. Buying sports cars didn’t make much sense either, as the country only has one road with a speed limit of 50 km/h. But everyone needed to have a car, or two or even three. And when people didn’t have to work much anymore, traditional professions like fishing practically vanished.

Years rolled by as Nauruans were enjoying their life. Until the century changed to 2000s and the nation made an observation. The phosphate had run out. So, not only was Nauru now facing economic devastation after losing their only source of income, the mining had left the island’s nature severely contaminated. Nauruans had been digging the land under their feet. It is estimated that 40% of the marine life has been lost as a result of the pollution.

80% of the land mass in Nauru is uninhabitable today. Practically the whole center of the island is in ruins after of the phosphate mining. Where there used to be tropical mango, lime and papaya trees, there now is landfill where the wrecks sports cars lie on top of each other. Nauru has become unable to sustain any agricultural crops of their own and is fully dependent on imported and highly processed food that comes in mostly canned.

During the 80s and 90s, there had already been some talk about the financial state of the island, and the nation had found a brief source of income from becoming a tax haven. Especially the Russian mafia took advantage of this and allegedly laundered several tens of billions in cash through Nauru.

When all the phosphate then ran out, the State of Nauru declared bankruptcy in 2001. This meant that all of nation’s banks fell and the properties that the state had gathered in previous years had to be sold. Nauru turned to cash economy and unemployment rate at the island rose to 90%, a rate which it still is at today. A new plan was needed, to get the nation back on its feet.

Nauru and Australia

Australia came to the rescue, but with a hefty cost.

Around the same time in 2001, a refugee crisis was erupting in Australia and the country had started to adopt strict immigration policies. It was decided that any migrants who came to Australia by boat would not be taken in anymore. However, all these refugees that were turned away, needed to be relocated. And so, Australia made a proposition to start collecting them at Nauru. This decision is known as the ’’Pacific Solution’’ and it ended up becoming Nauru’s economic lifeline.

Today, Australian aids form a large part of Nauru’s GDP. By estimate, the refugee deal benefits Nauru with several tens of millions a year. But the fact which Nauru doesn’t want media attention on, is the conditions at the detention camps. Human rights organisations have reported of assaults, sexual harassment and child abuse. Refugees are not allowed to leave the island. Some have even ended up committing suicide.

Nauruans are annoyed at the negative media attention the country gets. They view the detention camps as a matter of Australian politics which they have little to do with as the camps are largely run by Australians. And as a country with major financial issues, the deal was impossible to turn down. The Australian Labor Party has suggested that the refugees should be moved to Australia, where they originally were headed. But this would then be a another major blow to Nauru’s economy.

Protesters in Perth, Australia, 2015

Climate change as an added threat

Not only has Nauru faced environmental devastation and economic catastrophe in recent years, the island is now also in the front lines of the climate change. It is estimated that if the sea level keeps rising with the current speed, before the year 2100, Nauruans themselves will become climate refugees. Less than one meter rise is enough to cover the only habitable part of the island, the one road where every citizen lives.

While the story of Nauru poses frightful omens for the future of the world, it could just act as a warning example. The rest of us still have a possibility to choose a different path. Just by looking at the historic statistics on increasing global average temperature, average energy consumption or the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it becomes evident that the current rate of exploitation of natural resources is in no way a sustainable plan for the future. It is now up to the world not to replicate the mistakes that Nauru has made. At least the former President of Nauru, Baron Waqa has some hope. In 2017 he was asked: Could the story of Nauru be a lesson to the rest of the world? He answered: “Well yes, it was a learning lessons for ourselves too. We didn’t plan for this to happen. So, could the rest of the world learn from this? I sure want to believe that they would.’’

by Isa Tiilikainen

Photo Credits

Nauru, 2013, casjsa CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Air Nauru Boeing 737-400;C2-RN10, August 1994, Aero Icarus, CC BY-SA 2.0

The site of secondary mining of phosphate rock in Nauru, 2007, Lorrie Graham /AusAID , CC BY 2.0

Love Makes a Way, 2015, Louise Coghill , CC BY-SA 2.0 CC BY-SA 2

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Of brain drain, K-Pop, and other threats at the inter-Korean border

Maya Diekmann — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 09:36:54 +0000

The mayor of Daeseong-dong is concerned. His village is facing an existential threat: The young are leaving increasingly for bigger cities, where they can make twice as much money as through the work in the surrounding rice fields. Barely anyone moves to the village from the outside. Barely anyone can move to the village from the outside. There are strict rules: Only those who have lived in Daeseong-dong before 1950, and their descendants, may live here. Women, who marry villagers, may move in, but not vice versa. Outsiders need to be invited to visit the village and apply for military escorts two weeks in advance. They are, after all, approaching one of the world’s most heavily guarded borders. They are entering the 한반도 비무장 지대; the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the Korean Peninsula.

Broadcasting warfare

Daeseong-dong is one of two official “peace villages” inside the Korean DMZ and it might be the only one that is inhabited. The North Korean pendant, Kijŏng-dong, despite its wealthy and neat appearance from afar, is not actually a place where any North Koreans live. Much like what the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin (Stalinallee back in the day) was to the GDR during the Cold War, Kijŏng-dong is little more than a propaganda tool––a flagship village with colourful houses that couldn’t be further removed from the day-to-day reality of most North Koreans. For a majority of time since the end of the Korean War, the imagery has been accompanied by broadcasts of propaganda messages, blasting towards the south, before hitting South Korea’s own––quite literal––sonic barrier. In a way, the Korean War continued long after 1953, with massive speakers as the weapon of choice.

It wasn’t until the early 2000s that an audio-armistice was first introduced. This was a consequence of the unprecedented meeting between leaders from the two Koreas, which temporarily eased tensions on the Korean peninsula. But after a border incident in 2015, when landmines, believed to have been planted by the North, seriously wounded two South Korean border guards, South Korea decided to reactivate their ear-splitting broadcast. And Pyongyang did not hesitate to resume directing electricity––which isn’t particularly of abundance in North Korea––into their own speaker system. It would be another two years of psychological warfare––with the South firing K-Pop torturous enough for Kim Yong-un to prepare an actual, armed attack against the neighbour’s loudspeakers. Only in 2018, after another inter-Korean summit, did the South dismantle their speakers once again and in return receive a break from the North’s anti-capitalist, Kim-leadership-glorifying tunes.

The scariest place on earth

Prior to the first formal contacts between the Koreas in 2000 and the following decades of easing tensions (at least from a perspective relative to the second half of the 20th century) the DMZ was nicknamed “the scariest place on earth” by former US President Bill Clinton. Particularly the DMZ Conflict, which some refer to as the Second Korean War, painted a picture of terror inside the border zone. During the cross-border conflict, which lasted from 1963 until 1966, over 700 North- and South-Korean as well as American soldiers lost their lives. But there have been other deaths and injuries, resulting from the seemingly slightest missteps: During a routine tree-pruning operation, through which visual contact between the UN observation Post in the Joint Security Area and a UN Checkpoint at the Bridge of No Return was to be ensured, two US Army officers were killed and a group of South Korean severely injured by North Korean soldiers. This “Korean Axe Murder Incident” nearly put an end to the Korean armistice in 1976. Then there was said mine incident in 2015, wounding two South Korean border guards, which the country retaliated with K-Pop at about 147 decibels––the equivalent of an air-raid siren, above the physical pain threshold.

Civilians haven’t been spared by the two states’ cross-border power play either. In 1996, two villagers from Daeseong-dong, a mother and her son, were arrested and detained for five days by North Korean border guards for accidently crossing the demarcation line when picking acorns. This is the risk that comes with the privilege of being allowed to move around the DMZ freely and only having to report back for the nightly headcount at curfew, 23:00.

Free lunch and lush fauna

Despite the looming threat of getting caught in a propaganda cross-fire or being arrested for picking acorns––and other concerns that come with life only a few kilometers away from a rising nuclear power––Daeseong-dong does have its charm. For instance, the primary school. If it wasn’t for the “commuters”, children from nearby villages, the school would have four students. But the possibility to learn English from American soldiers and UN officials, who oversee the DMZ, is perceived as a great opportunity by many parents in the area close to the border and make the primary school a cheaper alternative to many expensive private schools. With lessons (and lunch!) being free, too, places even have to be given out through a lottery.

Just a few hundred meters outside Daeseong-dong stretches one of South Korea’s best kept nature reserves. A very low and strictly managed population density has turned the DMZ, and the surrounding civil control zone, into a wildlife sanctuary. Over 5,000 plant and animal species have been spotted inside the DMZ, including over 100 endangered species. The area is closely observed by the DMZ Ecology Research Institute. Members of the organization have expressed their concerns that increased cooperation between the Koreas may actually pose a serious risk to the unique biodiversity inside the DMZ and its surroundings. Mine clearance, for instance, would destroy much of the local flora. Increased industrial activities and planned railroad services between North and South Korea––and inevitably its buffer zone––would disturb the residing wildlife. Perhaps, it is better to leave the DMZ as it is, thinks Jung Suyoung, researcher at DMZ Botanical Garden nearby.

In many regards, cooperation on the Korean peninsula is at its most active point since the division of the country nearly seventy years ago. And cooperation, particularly across the DMZ, does not solely have to come in the form of economic activity or political acts of clearing mines. Both countries have been pushing for the declaration of the area as a biosphere reserve through UNESCO, very much to the delight of the members of the DMZ Ecology institute. Of course, as for natural resource conservation any kind of industrial human activity is worse than none, and increasing land utilization in the area poses a threat to its natural beauty. But so does yet another broadcast-war or continuing military training just a few kilometers away. Not to forget the threat looming over the area coming from the moody neighbour’s pet nuclear project… Whether cooperation will continue to increase or whether another provoking act in the neighbourhood will cause a resurrection of loudspeakers and other weaponry––for now there is hope. For Korean citizens, the natural beauty of the DMZ, but most of all for the villagers of Daeseong-dong, who have been craving some peace, and mostly quiet.

Related articles

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Photo Credits

Tae Song Dong, Jeffrey Allen, U.S. Air Force, CC BY 2.0

DMZ, Korea, Piero Sierra, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

President Moon Jaein Gangwondo, Kang Min-seok, CC BY-SA 2.0

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Portrait of a female warlord

Oliver Ösmark — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 16:00:11 +0000

The Taliban are well-versed in crime. En masse, they’ve effectively run the gamut of all crimes founded on a total contempt for humanity, in all its forms, except for those that abide by the constrictive and unaccommodating codification of ethics only they have authorship of. As is common among terror organizations and their death-worship, they set those enthralled under their tyranny up to fail, and relish in imparting the brutal—many times fatal—penalties for noncompliance. Amorality and psychopathy are rewarded with the spoils of their “holy” war, and in a society which offers no commensurate glory for the person with little aspiration for the homicidal narcissism of the Taliban Jihadist, fear prevails.

With good reason. More than 10,000 civilians in Afghanistan were killed or injured last year, of which 47% is attributed to Taliban actions. These numbers have been stable since 2014, from which they escalated at a worrying rate in 2009. The UN estimates that civilian casualties have exceeded 100,000 since the organization began documenting the impact of the Afghan war more than a decade ago. Much like ISIL’s genocidal murder and abductions of thousands of Yazidi men, women and children shortly after declaring themselves a state in June 2014, the Taliban have their own sins yet to be answered for.

In the mid-1990’s, the Taliban committed to a strategy of fear and bloodshed targeting civilians. UN officials stated that between 1996–2006 there had been as many as 15 massacres. One such was the attack on Mazar-e Sharif in August 1998, representing one of the single worst examples of killings of civilians in the wars that have raged in the Afghan region since the Soviet invasion of 1979. In what is considered an act of ethnic cleansing, the Taliban launched an attack on the city and began killing an estimated 5,000-6,000 ethnic Hazaras, Tajiks, and Uzbeks indiscriminately. This society of dread and servility under threat of death will have shaped generations that have known little else but war.

Kaftar, the dove of war

In the mountains outside of the Baghlan Province in northern Afghanistan, an ex-commander with the mujahideen that fought the Soviet forces operates out of a compound with an alleged 150 fighters. Her name is Bibi Aisha Habibi and she is Afghanistan’s only known female warlord. She is referred to as Kaftar, or “dove” in Dari; a diminutive sobriquet—by one account—given to her by her father because she would quickly move from place to place as if she were a bird. She was born in 1953, in the village of Gawi in Baghlan province’s Nahrin District, the daughter of an important community leader, or arbob. She was one of the middle children of 10, and, being as she remembers it, her father’s favorite. She’d follow him around as he worked to settle disputes and give advice to villagers on matters of farming and family affairs.

She was engaged at the age of 12 to a man 10 year her senior. This was normal practice for most girls living in rural Afghanistan; where around 80% of the Afghan population live. Unlike other girls she wasn’t removed from public life and it was agreed—and consented to by her husband—that she’d continue to be allowed to act on her father’s behalf as an arbob. She took pleasure in working as an intermediary in marriage disputes; sometimes forcing families to allow women to choose whom they wanted to marry. Also, she implemented rules to reduce dowries, which was an obstacle for many couples not able to marry under previous conditions. In the wars to come, her husband would stay at home with their 7 children while she rode into battle.

In 1979, the Soviets invaded. A group of Soviet commandos swarmed her mountain and killed many villagers, including her son. She took to Jihad and against the Soviet forces for the next ten years. She lost family both to the Soviets as well as the Taliban which was in conflict with the mujahideen. After the Soviets, the Taliban would eventually take Kabul and control up to three-fourths of the country. In the years to follow, Kaftar would lose brothers, sons, nieces, and nephews to the Taliban.

She considers herself a collector of lost and exiled men. Her fighters consist of ex-Taliban, ex-mujahedeen, fighters of dejected ethnic minorities compelled to take up arms against the threat of bandits, brigands, and Taliban. Yet, she has herself lost family that swore allegiance to the Taliban and has, on numerous occasions, been a target of assassination attempts orchestrated by relatives. Regarding this she says, “It’s really painful when your own family members come to kill you, and then later it’s painful when you kill them.”

War all the time

With the U.S. invasion in 2001, she thought that peace would be imminent. The Taliban were routed to the south and east part of the country by coalition forces and trained Afghan security forces. Armed unaffiliated militia groups like Kaftar’s were seen as a destabilizing factor, and in 2006—convinced by the prospect of peace—she agreed to surrender most of her and her fighters’ weapons as a part of the UN’s Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups programme.

But disarmament hasn’t proved an effective strategy for peace in a culture already plagued by unresolved endemic conflicts. The Taliban were revived with a fresh dynamism. Troubled by family feuds of tit-for-tat violence and regular death threats made by the Taliban, Kaftar has experienced none of the peace promised to her by the UN and the “democratic transition of power” heralded by the war against the Taliban.

As the U.S. prepares to withdraw their forces from Afghanistan, many fear the return of Taliban rule. This time, however, her fighters aren’t prepared for active revolt. The legitimacy granted to the Taliban by the current peace talks give them a political advantage over the poorly armed rural resistance fighters. In a 2014 interview, she says that she would like to seek asylum outside of Afghanistan, but has to ensure the passage of 30-40 of her family members first. Without help or enough weapons, she fears that the extremist militants will target her and her family. “I was proud of my career,” she says. “But since I have been getting threats and I’m struggling and suffering, now I think I should not have become a commander. I wish I would have been just a normal housewife. That no one would know me, no one would come to talk to me, and I would have been just a normal housewife. Now I am sitting awake at night, always on guard, with a gun, ready to protect myself.”

Blood can’t wash blood

While she has, in her own way, worked to moderate the divides between men and women, and has taken an unlikely role in her society as the leader of a community and armed fighters, she is not a respected woman among warring factions and squabbling relatives. The old Afghan proverb “Zar, zan, zamin”—gold, women, land—still motivates violence in a culture of guns and rivalries. Until the paradigm of fundamentalism and lawlessness is dismantled by means of education and stable government institutions, the rule of the sword will persist and those able to fight will give their lives to protect those they hold dearest.

Kaftar knows this life all too well, but doesn’t wish it on the generations to come. The life of a warrior is a precarious one, but if it comes to the choice between fighting and submission, the prospect of subservience under Taliban rule will always inspire bloody insurgency. Despite her hardships, she knows this: “It makes no difference if you are a man or a woman when you have the heart of a fighter.”

Photo credits:

Afghanistan Observes 2007 International Peace Day, United Nations Photo, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

High Moon over Nili, Afghanistan, United Nations Photo, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Afghanistan-1, Ekaterina Didkovskaya, CC BY-NC 2.0

100331-F-2616H-011, Kenny Holston, CC BY-ND 2.0

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Hong Kong’s Protests and the reality of news

Nina Kolarzik — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 15:43:47 +0000

What do you think about when you read a newspaper, listen to the updates on the radio, the news app on your phone, the news programme on TV? For me, since it is far away, it often seems like a story, a myth. And I have to stop and take a step back to remind myself that these are things that are happening right now. The burning of the Australian bush. The plague of locusts in East Africa. The spread of the Corona virus from China. All the other news we list under Yesterday’s News, Today’s Reality. It continues while I read about it and people are affected by it.

And sometimes, you are one of these people and the events happen where you are. Be it a catastrophe, a surprising election, anything – there might be the moment when you realise that what is happening around you is a part of history, it will be in the news later. But how does it change our perspectives and focus?

A picture that changes

I have interviewed Maike about this topic, a student from Malmö University who was on exchange in Hong Kong from August until November 2019. Maike studied in Hong Kong during the time of some of the major events of the protests: when Carrie Lam withdrew the extradition bill or the protests during the anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. When police forces entered the university campus in November and students defended it, the confrontations between protesters and government forces caused big destruction of campus facilities and the university was unable to continue the semester and Maike returned home. Since she was directly affected by the protests that were going on in the city at that time, she could reflect on the difference between the news and reality and shared her experience with me.

Pike & Hurricane (P&H): The protests in Hong Kong already started in June and the media reported widely on it. Therefore, you were prepared about the situation of her host country. But talking about myths and the story media tell of an event, did the image you had change when you got there and saw what happened?

Maike: Yes and No. I think Hong Kong is very privileged in how it is being covered. I mean 2019 was a year of global protest, there were in so many different regions of the world protests between governments and citizens and very similar topics actually. And if you look at the coverage that Hong Kong got versus the coverage that Haiti or Ecuador for example got than it’s very different.

What I think changed about my impression of it is that, surprise!, it is not as black and white as presented. What I think for me really changed was that what the media really lacks is this human face behind it. So you see, there is the movement and there is the police, and the government and the protesters. And either you are completely for the movement or you are completely against it. But you don’t show the people that are super torn. And I think that for me was a very important acknowledgement to make. Because I recognised that I in the beginning judged people in terms of that they told me something about the protest and I tried to put them into a category: I think this person is for the movement, I think this person is against the movement.

The media coverage as I said is very extensive, but it’s also very sensation-led. So they look a lot on “this big event happened” and there are so many pictures of fires and the violence, but they show less about the personal struggle of people.

Maike said that after spending several months in Hong Kong, the picture of the events became less clear cut, because she got to know more about the context and different layers of the conflict. “What I didn’t really grasp before I got there, since it is missing from the coverage, was the different levels- that there are not only two parties in the conflict and that opinions are not clear cut. People might disagree with the government, but feel like being culturally Chinese. How does one deal with that? You know these kinds of things and I think it is such an important aspect since identity in general plays a big role in this conflict. And it is lacking in a sense from the media coverage in terms of that it is very categorised.”

P&H: How do identity and character influence your perception of the events?

Maike: I think I would have experienced it very differently if I would have been a Hong Kong local, whereas I am a European, who was there for half a year. I knew from the beginning that I would be able to leave at any point if things would get critical. And I think that is something that still now is very much there.

I know that sounds stupid, but I feel guilty. Because I know that I couldn’t have done anything as such and that it is not my fight to fight and I have no power whatsoever to help and I know that it is not my position to take. But it felt wrong to just be able to leave.

Maike is back in Malmö, but living in a place builds a connection. You know what certain events mean for the people. And at the same time the distance is back. “It is definitely weird now in that sense that I can literally turn off the TV or wherever I see it, Instagram or news outlet, I can just turn off my phone and it will not affect me in a sense.”

Stories we hear about

Media is creating a story, they tell an event in a certain way. And depending on the narrator, this story can differ a lot. “I don’t think the media is wrong in being critical when it comes to police violence and the government”, Maike says, “but you can definitely see that they are very West-centric. So they are very much tempted to make China look like the bad guy, no matter what they do. […] It is very striking when the Chinese government uses the words ‘rioters’ and ‘extremists’ for the protesters, but it is also striking when Western news outlets always use the words ‘democracy fighters’ and stuff like this, it is very much about this language aspect. I don’t say I think it is bad, but neutrality-wise… you could definitely see that a lot.”

Every story is just part of a bigger one. They give a context and meaning to it, describe the actors and their position, leave out bits and are rarely completely neutral. Most people in Hong Kong still lived their normal life. While the news showed a lot of conflict and smoke and fires, this is in reality rather isolated and just in a few parts of the city. And what was in Hong Kong news topic number one, it was for the world one of several news.

by Nina Kolarzik

Photo Credits

“Blätterwald”, Björn Seibert, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

“HONG KONG-INDONESIA-SOCIAL-LABOUR”, inmediahk, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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