Philippine media under pressure as Marcos Jr courts influencers

Critical journalists expected to remain in sights of administration as new president invites social media vloggers to the palace.

Journalists came under increased pressure during the Duterte administration. His successor, who rode to power on the back of social media, is expected to take a similar approach 

[File: Aaron Favila/AP Photo]

By Michael Beltran
Published On 20 Aug 2022

Manila, Philippines – Journalists warn the new administration of Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr is set to take the same hard line against media critics as his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, after attacks on press freedom grew during the transition of presidential power.

In June, more than two dozen sites were blocked and accused of having links to “Communist-Terrorist Groups”. Two media organisations were among those targeted by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) – independent news site Pinoy Weekly, and Bulatlat, the country’s longest-running online publication.

The same month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) upheld its ruling to revoke the operating licence of Rappler, the Philippines’ most popular news site.

Duterte’s National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr cited resolutions from the Anti-Terror Council that designate the Communist Party of the Philippines as “terrorists” to crack down on the sites.

But Ronalyn Olea, secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and the managing editor of Bulatlat, says the publication has no such links.

“This has nothing to do with Bulatlat,” Olea told Al Jazeera. “He is just trying to censor our organisation because we are telling the truth about government.”

This month, Bulatlat won a preliminary injunction against the order and the NTC was told to stop blocking the site.

“Under Duterte, press freedom was systematically attacked as punishment to those the regime didn’t like and as a warning to others. There are no signs this policy will change with the new administration,” said Luis V Teodoro, veteran journalist and Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) trustee.

Towards the end of his term, Duterte admitted to shutting down ABS-CBN, the Philippines’ biggest broadcaster, because of its unfavourable coverage of his administration. Rappler, which was founded by veteran journalist Maria Ressa, is facing a number of court cases, as does Ressa herself.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was found guilty of “cyber-libel” last year in a decision that was seen as a blow to press freedom. A higher court upheld that verdict last month.

Rappler founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa faces multiple lawsuits, but has promised to continue her work and fight any attempt to close the independent website 

[File: Jam Sta Rosa/AFP]

Rappler’s Executive Editor Glenda Gloria says the website’s staff had “survived” the six years of Duterte, and remained “hopeful that the cases against us will eventually be dismissed. A significant chunk of Philippine society knows the value of independent media.”

Since 2018, Bulatlat has been the target of distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) during which hackers try to crash a website by overloading its servers. The last incident happened in May 2021.

An investigation by Swedish digital forensics group Qurium Media Foundation found that the IP addresses of the hackers belonged to the Philippine Army, with infrastructure set up by the Department of Science and Technology. In September 2021, the Department of Information and Communications corroborated Qurium’s findings. The army has denied any wrongdoing, saying it was only visiting the news sites.

Vloggers in the palace

When Bulatlat was blocked, Qurium helped set up a mirror site replicating all of Bulatlat’s content on a different URL.

The site’s lawyers won an injunction against the NTC after arguing that no law in the Philippines allows for the state to initiate a web takedown.

According to the court’s decision, the ruling takes effect once Bulatlat comes up with a cash bond of 100,000 Philippine pesos ($1,787) “which will answer for the damages the defendants (NTC) would suffer due to the injunction should it be proven that the news outlet is not entitled to it”.

Olea hopes the recent win will be upheld and eventually set a precedent for other media outlets under pressure.

She attributed the decision to “the support from fellow journalists, readers and various organisations,” but conceded that the political climate in the country remains geared towards “state-sponsored censorship”.

Amid the challenges faced by independent media, Marcos Jr’s government is seeking to promote a new type of media, one which heavily supported it during the elections: vloggers.

In recent years, video content creators have emerged as a major political force in shaping public opinion in the Philippines. Teodoro says some vloggers – even without formal training – adhere to journalistic standards by “reporting what’s actually going on,” but warns many others are just “spreaders of disinformation”

.

ABS-CBN, the Philippines’ biggest broadcaster, was forced to close in 2020. 

A tycoon linked to former president Rodrigo Duterte wrested control of its signals this year

 [File: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters]

In one of her first announcements as presidential press secretary, Trixie Cruz-Angeles said the new administration intended to allow vloggers to report from the presidential palace. Cruz-Angeles said the move was part of “opening up discourse and looking at issues of misinformation”.

But while the move might suggest a democratisation of the flow of information, Olea is sceptical. “We want greater access for the public. But many of the vloggers we saw during the election only flooded the internet with lies,” she said.

She called the government’s move a “two-pronged approach. On the one hand, they discredit legitimate sources of information. On the other, they open the door for trolls. The objective is to drown the public with lies and for their narratives to reign supreme.”

Cruz-Angeles, who herself made her name through social media, told reporters last month that the number of followers and engagements will be a factor in determining which vloggers are allowed into press briefings with the president. Her office says the final guidelines for vlogger accreditation are still being drafted.

“Followers doesn’t mean much. It doesn’t have anything to do with truth-telling. The question is, which vloggers will they accredit, those who have been telling the truth or those who spread disinformation?” asked Teodoro.

At the same time as the administration considers accreditation for vloggers, it is still deciding whether professional journalists will be welcome.

Duterte banned two Rappler reporters from the presidential palace in 2018. Marcos Jr’s team has still to confirm whether they will be allowed back.

“We’ll have to take a look at the existing policy first and determine then make a decision later as to how appropriate they are for the current times. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Influencer Cocky Rocky, who has a background as a teacher of classical arts and literature, backs the new administration’s plans to invite vloggers to the palace press briefings.

His career in content creation took off during the Duterte presidency – first with memes and then videos

.

Traditonal media came under increasing pressure during Duterte’s six years in power, and journalists expect the tough approach to continue [File: Getty}

The self-described “Marcos loyalist” saw his popularity explode during the 2022 election campaign when he posted a video on TikTok attacking Leni Robredo, Marcos Jr’s opponent.

“I know I translate well on video and I have a theatre background. So I dressed up with my hat and put on a costume. I made an Anti-Leni Robredo ad. It was fun,“ he said.

In addition to his TikTok fame, Rocky manages multiple pages and accounts on platforms such as Facebook.

Like many of the new president’s supporters, he claims that established media are deliberately publishing slanted reports, which heighten distrust.

“We have a preconceived bias that you will be unfair and rude,” he said.

Rocky insists the legal cases have not prevented professional journalists, including newspapers such as the Inquirer and PhilStar, from reporting.

But he says it is unlikely he will join them at the presidential palace.

“I am a propagandist, I’m not a news person,” he told Al Jazeera. “I can do it, but it turns me off.”

Meanwhile, despite closure orders, Rappler remains unbowed; its reporters covering key issues from politics to health.

The group has asked the Court of Appeals to reverse the SEC decision and is prepared to take its case to the country’s highest court if necessary.

“We see a long legal battle ahead,” Gloria told Al Jazeera. She points to the website’s reputation for providing journalism that can be a “constant source of support in the darkest of times. We’re here for the long haul.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

Apple supplier Foxconn to invest $300 mln more in northern Vietnam - media
Reuters

A motorist passes by a Foxconn office building in Taipei, Taiwan, July 14, 2020. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo

HANOI, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Apple supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) has signed a $300 million memorandum of understanding with Vietnamese developer Kinh Bac City (KBC.HM) to expand its facility in the north of the country to diversify and boost production, state media said on Saturday.

The Taiwanese company's new factory, on a plot of 50.5 hectares (125 acres) in Bac Giang province, will generate 30,000 local jobs, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said.

Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, and Kinh Bac City did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move follows a report this week that Foxconn has started test production of the Apple Watch in northern Vietnam. read more

Foxconn, which has been in Bac Giang for 15 years, has moved part of its iPad and AirPods production to Bac Giang's Quang Chau Industrial Park, Tuoi Tre reported. It did not say which type of products would be produced at the new factory or its capacity.

The Vietnamese government said last year Foxconn had invested $1.5 billion in the Southeast Asian country.

 

'They are reunited in Heaven': Dog in China dies after going on 2-day hunger strike following owner's death

AUGUST 19, 2022PUBLISHED AT 11:35 PMByYINGJIE WANG

A handout photo. A dog in China went on a two-day hunger strike and died following the death of its owner.

South China Morning Post

A dog in southwest China died this week after it went on a hunger strike for two days following its master's death from an illness, according to the man's granddaughter.

The village dog who was over 10 years old had accompanied the old man since it was a puppy. It spent its final two days laying next to the coffin, not eating, drinking or even moving.

In its final moments, the dog also fulfilled a dying wish of its owner by visiting a family home that the man's oldest son had recently renovated, which the grandfather had wanted to see before he died.

"The dog then went to my family's old house and died there, which was also my grandfather's unfulfilled wish," the granddaughter, surnamed Sun, said.

Sun also said that the dog died on her grandfather's birthday, a coincidence that led many people to say it made them "believe in fate".

Online, one person commented: "The dog was afraid that the grandpa would be too lonely by himself in Heaven, so he went to keep him company."

The dog that went on a hunger strike after his owner died.
PHOTO: Weibo

The story went viral on the mainland Chinese internet, garnering 230 million views on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, as of Friday morning.

Many people shared their experiences with their dogs.

"My grandfather passed away on the 13th, and his dog did not sleep after that," a person shared.

"The dog eventually fell asleep while lying on one of my grandpa's clothes, which my grandmother had taken out and laid on the floor."

Read Also

Cash-strapped Britons give up pets as living costs soar

Another commented: "They are reunited in Heaven and will be together forever."

Following the Lunar New Year last year, another dog named Big Yellow, an eight-year-old dog, sneaked out of his new master's house and ran 40km back to the village where his old owner lived.

The incident drew comparisons from Chinese people to the famous 2009 film Hachi: A Dog's Tale starring Richard Gere.

In May this year, a similar incident happened when a Shibu Inu ran 8km to return to its old owner after the woman had to give the dog up because her asthma was getting worse due to the dog's hair.

The owner estimated it probably took the dog two hours to trek back to its original home. The woman interpreted the moment as a sign and built a new dog pen so she could keep it for the remainder of its life.

In 2013, a dog in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, spent all of its days searching buses that stopped at a familiar stop after its owner went missing. Bus staff said it had been searching the buses for two weeks.

As the Ukraine war drags on, a grain export deal could be a sign of hope

Many obstacles stand in the way of negotiated peace in Ukraine but shoots of diplomatic pragmatism may be emerging

Paul Rogers
20 August 2022

Russia and Ukraine signed a deal to free up grain exports from Ukrainian ports |
UPI / Alamy Stock Photo

Six months ago, Poland’s air force included large numbers of obsolete Soviet-era planes. But it is now furiously re-arming and has just signed a major arms deal with South Korea.

The US$14.5bn deal with Poland includes 1,000 K2 main battle tanks, nearly 700 self-propelled howitzers and 48 FA-50 combat aircraft. It’s just one example of the rapid expansion of re-arming now under way across Europe. As Sean Howard put it recently, making a killing is a lot easier than making peace. It is certainly far more profitable, at least in the short term, even if almost everyone will lose in the long term.

The war in Ukraine, meanwhile, drags on with no end in sight as it approaches six months of killing and destruction. A violent stalemate has persisted for five of those six months, sometimes with Russia appearing in the ascendant but more recently Ukraine edging ahead. Neither can win and neither can lose. NATO will ensure that Ukraine is sufficiently well-armed to resist sudden Russian advances, but if Russia faces defeat it can threaten nuclear escalation.

Since early July, when Russian forces were still on the offensive, the transfer of new Western weapons to Ukraine has enabled its army to take the initiative. It is now combining accurate long-range rocket attacks with the greater use of special forces and irregulars operating behind Russian lines, especially in Crimea.

Even so, while Volodymyr Zelenskyi is now speaking openly of Ukraine reclaiming the whole of the Crimea from Russia, seasoned diplomats see this as principally for home consumption. If a deal was possible, then Ukraine would almost certainly be prepared to negotiate over territory, post-war governance and many other issues, and there is plenty of expert advice around on how to approach a negotiated settlement.

There are, though, many obstacles to a negotiated peace, three of which stand out.

One is Putin and his power group, which remains fixated on victory. They may no longer see much prospect of an immediate takeover of the Kyiv government, even if that remains the ultimate aim, but controlling much of Russian-speaking Ukraine in Crimea and Donbas is still the intention.

There is also little doubt that Putin himself remains committed to the grand vision of a greater Eurasia with Russia at the head. This exercise in ethno-nationalism with decided neo-Fascist and Tsarist undertones is his counter to Western hegemony, especially the global power of the United States.

Then there is the second obstacle. The hawks in the West, and especially in the United States, see the war as an extraordinary opportunity to cripple the Russian economy for a generation, freeing Washington to face up to its real enemy – China. There are shades here of the hawkish attitudes of the influential John Birch Society and other right-wing groups in the US back at the height of the Cold War era in the early 1980s. Spending the Soviets into an early grave was the mantra, and it came close to becoming the reality with the economic collapse of the early 1990s.

It is always possible that thoughtful analysts and perhaps even one or two political leaders will begin to question the consequences of the war

That economic crisis and the contempt with which a failing Russia was treated by the West has greatly helped Putin, especially with older Russians, but this is quietly forgotten as the war provides a new opportunity for US hawks to embrace old approaches. Their hope is to see it lasting at least a couple of years, with enough Western military support for Ukraine to wear down Russian forces. The next step may well be to ensure that Kyiv gets F-16 American strike aircraft, perhaps through a third country.

Finally, the war may actually be welcomed by the world’s military complexes, especially the major arms corporations, and is also something of a relief for NATO as a whole. There may be political divisions among member states, but the extensive NATO community is at last able to get back to ‘proper’ wars after the appalling consequences of its wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Even memories of the chaotic and lethal retreat from Kabul a year ago can at last be forgotten in the face of Putin’s Russia, just the kind of enemy that NATO military thinking is used to and believes it can handle.

If this all seems thoroughly Doomwatch then perhaps it is, but it is always possible that thoughtful analysts and perhaps even one or two political leaders will begin to question the consequences of the war, perhaps aided by occasional more positive developments.

This week, for example, saw President Zelenskyi inviting UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to a summit meeting in Lviv, with Guterres going on to the grain-exporting port of Odessa the following day.

The stated aim was to discuss the whole grain export issue, and no doubt the security of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant also came up, but it was a reminder that Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN diplomats are actually engaged in coordinating grain export from Ukrainian ports, signing a deal in Istanbul on 22 July.

There may be political judgements determining Russia’s going along with this, not least the risk of governments across the Global South blaming Moscow for food shortages, but it still an indicator of a wedge of pragmatism intruding in a seemingly intractable conflict. As so often, UN diplomats are quietly working away with little publicity. Perhaps this time their efforts may be the start of something substantial.

SPACE RACE 2.0

Khayyam satellite; Iran’s surprising advance in world

TEHRAN, Aug. 20 (MNA) – Launching the joint-project "Khayyam" satellite with a wide range of environmental functions has illustrated that Iran has made a surprising advance in the realm of the aerospace industry.

Named after Persian polymath Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), the joint-project "Khayyam" satellite was put into orbit by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan at 10:22 local time on August 9, 2022.

The "Khayyam" satellite was launched from a station in Kazakhstan in cooperation with Russia.

The Khayyam satellite was launched by Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The first signals from Khayyam Satellite were received at Iran's Mahdasht Space Station which is in charge of controlling the satellite about 90 minutes after it was launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.

According to the initial assessments of technicians at that station, all the systems in Khayyam are functioning properly.

After analyzing the telemetric data received from the satellite it was made clear that all its systems are functioning exactly as programmed and that the satellite's situation is in its ideal orbit.

“Khayyam” is a sensing type with high imaging accuracy that is capable of shooting from the earth's surface in different visual spectrums with a resolution of one meter.

The Iranian Space Agency, in a statement, said the satellite will be fully controlled by Iranian experts and technicians “from the first day” of its launch. “No other country will have access to such information, and rumors about using satellite images for another country's military purposes are false,” the agency added.

The satellite will help improve productivity in agriculture, survey water resources, manage natural disasters, confront deforestation, and monitor border areas and mining explorations.

On February 4, 2009, Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei in a statement thanked the Iranian aerospace researchers for their latest accomplishment in launching a domestically-built satellite named Omid (hope) into orbit.

Also, on April 28, 2010, the Leader pointed to Iranian scientific development in stem cells and aerospace technology and said Iran is one of the few countries having such technology, achieved amid sanctions and without the assistance of others.

Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, on several occasions, has praised and supported conducting research and making discoveries in the field.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi described the successful launch of the Khayyam satellite into orbit and receiving of telemetry data from the indigenous satellite by the Iranian experts as a source of pride and power.

In the future, the country will witness new space achievements, he further noted.

Speaking in a Cabinet meeting on March 13, 2022, President Raeisi Referred to the successful launch of the other Iranian Satellite named “Noor”, President Raeisi termed a significant move taken by scientists of the country in achieving advanced technology “very valuable and honorable” and said that achieving this technology is one of the manifestations of national authority.

The launch of the "Khayyam Satellite" into space, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, was another golden page in the history of the Islamic Republic's scientific triumphs.

Nasser Kan’ani responded to the launch of the Khayyam satellite in a tweet on Tuesday with the hashtag #The-Strong-Iran, saying that it was the latest accomplishment of Iranian space scientists for peaceful purposes and another illustrious chapter in Iran's proud scientific history.

The spokesman for the Foreign Ministry stated that despite the adversaries' pressure and harshest sanctions, the Islamic Republic’s scientific and technical prowess continues on its shining path.

The Iranian Space Agency will continue its scientific and technological collaboration with nations that are pioneers in the space business, according to Issa Zarepour.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Issa Zarepour said launching the Khayyam satellite will usher in strategic cooperation between Iran and Russia in the space industry which will be continued until indigenizing space technology.

Iran launched its first satellite Omid (Hope) in 2009 and its Rasad (Observation) satellite was sent into orbit in 2011.

In June 2020, a spokesman for the Iranian defense ministry, Seyyed Ahmad Hosseini, said that the Zoljanah satellite launch vehicle has been tested again for research purposes.

 Zoljanah, also spelled Zuljanah, was made by the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics and was unveiled on 1 February 2021.

Also, IRGC Aerospace launched the 'Noor-2' Satellite by the domestically-built launcher Qassed (messenger) on March 8, 2022, and placed it into orbit at an altitude of 500 km. The mission of the satellite is reconnaissance, and it was placed in orbit after 480 seconds at a speed of 6.7 km/s.

***Iran and Russia's cooperation in aerospace

Iran and Russia have good capacities for broadening aerospace cooperation and both countries should use this opportunity.

Iran has many capacities in air industries in terms of manpower, airport equipment products, and aircraft repair and maintenance.

Designing 150-seat passenger planes started several years ago in Iran and in the construction of airplane engine parts.

Russia is one of the prioritized countries for scientific and technological relations with Iran. Since 2016, various specialized working groups formed by the two countries in the fields of space, aerospace, cognitive sciences, biotechnology, nanotechnology, university cooperation, mega-science, information technology, energy, and regional cooperation.

During the last 5-6 years, the capacity for international interactions has been considered by Iran and Russia, and this cooperation has expanded by forming bilateral agreements through inter-sectoral coordination.

Tehran and Moscow have signed documents to expand cooperation in the fields of communications and information technology. In July, Zarepour and Russian Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media Minister Maksut Shadayev agreed to develop relations in digital services, communications, software, hardware, and telecommunications.

Meanwhile, the Iran-Russia Joint Technology Center was established in May at St. Petersburg Polytechnic University with the aim of implementing joint projects and developing bilateral technological cooperation.

The launch of the satellite marks a watershed moment in Russia-Iran collaboration, according to Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov.

"The successful launch of the satellite for and an order from Iran has become a landmark event in the Russia-Iran bilateral cooperation that paves the way for implementing new and more dimensional projects," he said.

On August 11, 2020, Iranian Government Spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said that Iran intends to build three more versions of the Khayyam satellite.

Saying that the stabilization of the Khayyam satellite was done successfully, Bahadori Jahromi wrote in a tweet that Iranian knowledge-based companies will use imagery and data received by the Khayyam in various spheres.

The building of three more versions of the Khayyam satellite with the participation of Iranian scientists is on the agenda of the administration, he added.

In terms of the satellite manufacturing industry, Iran can now design and build remote sensing satellites with imaging accuracy of 5 to 10 meters and is on its way to designing and manufacturing satellites with imaging accuracy of one meter or lower.

It goes without saying that Iran will continue to expand its space programs despite the oppressive illegal sanctions imposed by the US and the West.

Reported by Amin Mohammadzadegan Khoyi

INFLATION IS PRICE GOUGING

Rising prices, harder lives: Soaring inflation leaves people poorer across Asia
Tan Tam Mei, Hazlin Hassan, Linda Yulisman, Nirmala Ganapathy and Yong Li Xuan

Rising inflation, particularly since the beginning of this year, has made lives harder for people in South Asia and South-east Asia. Asian Insider looks at the reasons for the rising costs, how people are coping and what governments have been doing to mitigate the impact.
Inflation hampers pandemic recovery in Asia


Rising inflation is making the road to recovery from the pandemic a rough one for countries in Asia.

While price rises in the region are relatively moderate compared with those in other parts of the world, persistent inflation will hinder growth and add to issues such as food insecurity and diminishing real wage growth, said analysts.

This rise in cost of living is caused by both supply chain gridlocks as a result of the pandemic as well as the Russia-Ukraine war, which drove up the prices of commodities including food and fuel.

READ MORE HERE
In Indonesia: Family copes by making small adjustments


For the young Wijaya family of four, home-cooked meals have become a little blander in the past months as soaring food prices have hit them hard.

Scrimping to save money, Ms Trie Gusnia Lanasha, 25, has cut back on key ingredients like shallot and chilli. She has also stopped using expensive ready-to-use seasoning, and has started growing her own chillis. The price of shallots rose 113 per cent to 80,000 rupiah per kg in July from 37,500 rupiah (S$3.50) in May, while that of chilli rose 199 per cent in the same period to 140,000 rupiah.


READ MORE HERE
In Thailand: Young home owner forced to tighten belt as prices rise

At just 27, Mr Krit Raksajit owns a three-storey house in the suburbs of Bangkok. And while some might envy his position, the office administrator is in fact regretting his decision to purchase a home.

"The housing and renovation loan payments, they're soul sapping," said the young Thai, who spends more than a third of his 35,000 baht (S$1,360) salary paying off the mortgage each month.

But lately, the mortgage payments have become harder to bear as prices for petrol, electricity and groceries have risen across Thailand, pushing up his expenses. Inflation rose to 7.61 last month from 3.23 per cent in January.

READ MORE HERE
In India: Small cutbacks help street food vendor get by

Struggling to keep from falling behind on the rent for his street stall, Mr Pradeep Kumar applied for a loan of 20,000 rupees (S$348) two months ago even though he was already 300,000 rupees in debt.

As inflation rises in India, hitting 7 per cent this year, the 65-year-old street vendor hopes desperately that the loan will help tide him over his immediate difficulties, the result of price rises after two years of disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I applied for a loan but the bank is not giving it to me. They say come tomorrow, come day after. How can I leave my food stall and run to the bank every day?" said Mr Kumar, who has been running the stall in Bhikaji Cama Place, a busy office complex in the Indian capital, for the last 35 years.

READ MORE HERE
In Malaysia: She turns cake shop into cafe to draw customers

In March last year, cake maker Hayudi Kastor had just moved her business into new premises when the Malaysian government announced yet another lockdown to contain rising Covid-19 infections.

By the time the movement curbs were finally lifted in October and she could reopen her shop in Kuala Lumpur, she had taken a financial hit.

"I regretted moving into my new shop at the time. I had thought things were getting better, that's why I made the decision to move," said the 52-year-old, who is originally from Sarawak.

READ MORE HERE
In Singapore: Main breadwinner won't let cancer stop her

When Ms Anna Ng opened a new economy rice stall at Nanyang Girls' High School on Aug 11, it had been less than two months since she underwent surgery to remove her uterus, ovaries, 11 lymph nodes and a 13cm tumour.

The 58-year-old said in Mandarin: "After being diagnosed with cancer, the doctor told me that my health is more important. But I still have to live my life, I still have to pay for living expenses."

Her profits have fallen significantly due to soaring food prices, especially those of vegetables d meat, which have risen by "at least 30 per cent to 40 per cent".

Bangladesh tea strike boils as lowest-paid workers stand ground

Seeking $3 a day amid inflation, protesters draw sympathy from beyond industry

Striking Bangladeshi tea workers stage a demonstration at 

a plantation in the northeastern Moulvibazar District. 

(Photo by Mintu Deshwara)

SYFUL ISLAM, Contributing writer

August 20, 2022 

DHAKA -- A strike by the tea workers of Bangladesh is becoming a rallying point for the country, as accelerating inflation adds to frustration over meager wages.

Workers from over 160 tea plantations across the nation are demanding a raise to the equivalent of $3 per day, from the present standard of $1.20, which makes them the country's lowest-paid workforce.

"The tea garden owners have agreed to raise wages to only $1.40 per day, which we did not accept. We will wage a greater movement to realize our demand," said Nripen Pal, acting general secretary at the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union.

"We won't make any compromise unless we get proper wages," he said after a meeting with owners and government labor department officials on Wednesday night.

On Thursday, the union called for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's intervention.

The strike, which reached its seventh day on Friday, comes amid surging living costs in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has fueled price rises worldwide. In June, the nation's inflation rate soared to 7.56%, the highest in eight years, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Earlier this month, sudden fuel price hikes heaped even more pressure on consumers.

But tea workers have it harder than most -- a fact that has moved people from all strata of society to support their cause.

Abdus Shahid, a member of parliament in the tea production area of the Maulvibazar district, demanded that the minimum wage for the workers be $5. In universities in Dhaka and Sylhet, students have also rallied, calling the tea workers victims of "modern-day slavery."

On Friday, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -- the main opposition party -- issued a statement urging the plantation owners to accept the workers' demand. "Steps need to be taken to enhance tea workers' wages to help them come out from starvation, poverty and sufferings," said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the BNP's general secretary.

There are 100,000 permanent tea workers and 50,000 more temporary laborers in 167 tea plantations in Bangladesh. They support some 500,000 dependents. But even their $1.20 a day is not guaranteed: If they collect less than 23 kilograms of leaves, they get paid less.

The Bangladesh Tea Association (BTA), a body of landowners, said in a statement that the workers earn the equivalent of $4 a day, including benefits such as free housing, 3.5 kg of wheat rations per week and access to medical care.

"We will settle the wage issue and [have] requested the workers to resume work," said M. Shah Alam, chairman of the BTA.

The workers argue the medical facilities mentioned by the BTA are poor and inadequate, while the housing amounts to shanties that they are expected to pay for.

Tea workers union leaders speak at a meeting on Aug 17. 

WOMEN TEA WORKERS NOT REPRESENTED BY THEMSELVES, 

NON TEA WORKERS, MALES ARE THE SO CALLED UNION LEADERS

(Photo by Shafiqul Islam)

Either way, their situation compares unfavorably to their peers in other sectors, including day laborers and rickshaw pullers who can earn around $8 to $10 a day. Tea workers in neighboring countries are relatively better-paid as well: In the Indian state of Assam, just opposite the Bangladeshi tea plantations in Sylhet, the authorities on Aug. 10 agreed to raise wages by about 34 cents to the equivalent of about $2.90, amid strikes and legal cases in upper courts. Last year, in India's Tamil Nadu, wages rose to equal about $5.35 a day, while Nepali and Sri Lankan tea pickers earn around $3 a day, according to local reports.

The tea pickers are not Bangladesh's only frustrated workers. Laborers in the vast garment industry took to the streets in June, clashing with police in some cases.

On June 6, Shajahan Khan, a government representative and former shipping minister, pledged to form a wage board as soon as possible to establish a new pay structure for the garment workers. He also said the government would arrange ration cards for workers so that they can buy some basic commodities at subsidized prices.

Neither the wage board nor the ration cards have materialized.

Now there are signs of an emerging united front among workers' groups.

Labor leaders are calling for immediate wage hikes in all trades. "There are no other options but to raise wages without delay to help workers survive," said Nazma Akter, a former child worker and executive director of the Awaj Foundation, a labor rights organization.

Noting the lack of follow-through on the wage board and rations, she said, "The wage hike issue is being discussed among the labor organizations separately, and we may sit together soon to devise a strategy to press home the demand."

Still, garment factory owners insist they cannot afford to increase pay due to a steep increase in production costs. "The government can provide workers commodities at a subsidized rate," argued Shahidullah Azim, vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

On Chile rivers, Native spirituality and development clash

LONG READ


MELIPEUCO, Chile (AP) — Mist suddenly arose from the Truful Truful River as it flowed below the snow-covered Llaima volcano, and Victor Curin smiled at the sun-dappled water spray.

A leader in one of the Indigenous communities by the river’s shores in the Chilean Andes, Curin took it as a sign that the waterfall’s ngen — its owner and protector spirit — approved of his visit and prayer that mid-July morning.

“Nature always tells you something, always answers,” said Curin, who works as a park ranger in Conguillio National Park, at the river’s headwaters. “Human beings feel superior to the space where they go, but for us Mapuche, I belong to the earth, the earth doesn’t belong to me.”

In the worldview of the Mapuche, Chile’s largest Indigenous group and more than 10% of its population, a pristine river is home to a spiritual force to revere, not a natural resource to exploit.

That has led many Mapuche across Chile’s water-rich south to fight hydroelectric plants and other projects they see as desecrating nature and depriving Indigenous communities of essential energies that keep them from getting sick.

“Being part of nature, we cannot destroy part of ourselves,” said Lientur Ayenao, a machi or healer and spiritual guide who draws water from the Truful Truful for his ceremonies. “You have to keep the balance, and this is broken when one intervenes in natural spaces for a selfish purpose.”

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Some 200 miles to the south, another machi, Millaray Huichalaf, has led a sometimes-violent battle against hydroelectric plants on the Pilmaiquen River, which flows through rolling pastures from a lake in the Andes’ foothills.

After her resistance and cultural consultations with Indigenous communities, an energy company froze plans for a plant by a riverside sacred site and said it would return ownership of the land to the Mapuche.

But construction is continuing on another plant, so the fight isn't over — just as it isn't on the Truful Truful, where a proposed plant is under review.

“I am the river too, we’re as sacred as the river,” Huichalaf said as a thunderstorm pounded her wooden cabin. “At the same time as we’re fighting for the river, we’re in the process of territorial recovery and spiritual reconstruction.”

It’s on the question of rights over Indigenous land, a volatile issue in Chile’s politics, that spirituality gets entangled with ideology. Several Mapuche leaders say spirits appearing in dreams encourage the fight against capitalism in their ancestral territory.

Next month, Chileans will vote on a new and controversial constitution spotlighting Indigenous rights and land restitution. But they’re also dealing with growing violent attacks against agricultural, logging and energy industries, particularly in the Araucania region, including by some groups claiming Mapuche ancestral lands that were never fully conquered by the Spanish empire and only fell to the Chilean state at the end of the 19th century.

For most Mapuche, such violence further destabilizes the desired balance between people, the natural space they belong to and the spirits that inhabit it. A first step against it is to ensure non-Natives understand how nature matters to the Mapuche, Indigenous leader and mediator Andrés Antivil Álvarez said.

“The world is not loot. Everything that’s outside is also inside ourselves,” he said, sitting by the fire in his ruka, a traditional building outside his house near Araucania’s capital, a two-hour drive from the Truful Truful. “You have to understand that the spirit of this fire, present here, is as sacred as the Christ in a church.”

And trampling a crucifix — as some protesters did in 2019 mass uprisings — is as painful and evil as damming a river, he said. He cited as an example construction in the early 2000s of the Ralco dam, which flooded sacred compounds and generated an uproar that prevented similar massive projects and energized cultural resistance to smaller ones.

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Mapuche community members' reverence is evident when they walk alongside rivers like the Truful Truful, whose name means “from waterfall to waterfall” in the Mapudungun language.

On a chilly afternoon, Ayenao approached the river’s largest waterfall, the proposed site of a new hydroelectric plant, with a bag of seeds in his pocket. That would be a reciprocity offering for the river’s ngen should Ayenao decide to draw water to treat his patients’ physical and spiritual ailments.

“Ngen existed before us and it’s they who allow us to live in a place. And there are some predominant ngen to whom we need to pray” like the Truful Truful’s, he said.

Failure to ask the ngen’s permission to approach the water, or to explain the need to do so, means transgressing on the space, alienating the spirits protecting it and making you, your family and even your animals sick.

But if the ngen permits it, then Ayenao can use the falling water’s distinctive “energy power” for healing purposes, either in riverside ceremonies or by taking large soda bottles full of it back to his house.

Relocated to Temuco when he was 6, Ayenao eventually moved to Santiago, Chile's capital, to study and there got so sick he couldn’t walk or talk. His family realized the only remedy was to accept that the spirit of his great-grandmother, also a healer, was asking to come back in him.

He apprenticed for three years and returned to practice traditional medicine on a tiny plot of land in the broad valley downstream from the village of Melipueco, named for the union of the Truful Truful and three other waterways.

Now the spirit of a nearby river where a fish farm is planned has been asking in dreams for Ayenao’s help.

“The ngen asks me and demands of me that I need to protect it, and thus contribute to health,” said Ayenao, 28. “We as human beings ... are the messengers of the ngen mapu to stop” the extraction and sale of natural resources.

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More spiritual guides like Ayenao are needed to remedy the loss of environmental, medicinal and linguistic knowledge caused by enforced assimilation policies in the past, when many Indigenous people grew up alienated from their roots in marginalized big-city settlements, said Artemio Huenupi, a Mapuche elder.

“Our wisdom is entirely based on the territory of nature. We live in this space to take care of it. It’s other cultures that say that they own the land,” he added, speaking in the small museum of Mapuche culture he curates in Melipeuco.

At a July nighttime village concert to raise funds for Ayenao’s thatched-roof gathering space, community members recounted how they have banded together to oppose a hydroelectric plant on the Truful Truful.

After nearly a decade of multiple environmental and cultural evaluations, as well as legal appeals, the plant has been temporarily blocked in court, said Claudio Melillan, a Melipeuco city councilor who recently returned to his ancestral lands for what he called “a stage of reconstruction” of his Mapuche identity.

The community hopes a final ruling will definitively scuttle the project, which threatens to harm the waterfall that’s considered a crucial source of spiritual energy, said Sergio Millaman, the attorney who won the latest appeal.

But some human impact is already evident, from an increase in tourism to the diminished flow compared with the powerful river many remember from their childhood.

Despite this winter’s abundant rain and snowfall, Chile is facing a worrisome climate change-driven drought, which has compounded tensions over water use, said Juan Pablo Herane, a hydrology expert with the Global Change Center at Santiago’s Catholic University.

In April, after more than a decade’s legal wrangling, the country’s water code was updated to better protect various rights including the use of water at its source for conservation or ancestral customs, said Juan José Crocco, an attorney specializing in water regulation and management.

It’s unclear, however, if a new constitution might alter that and how the code will be implemented in the case of hydroelectric plants that technically don’t extract water but reroute it to create energy, said Benjamín Bulnes, a water rights attorney who worked on the new code and has fished on the Pilmaiquen River.

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The first hydroelectric plant on the Pilmaiquen, built in the mid-20th century, sits across the road from a Mapuche-administered botanical garden spotlighting native trees.

A bitter battle under Huichalaf’s leadership started a decade ago to stop three other plants several miles downstream. Like Ayenao, she got seriously ill as a child in the nearby city of Osorno until her family realized it was an ancestor’s spirit wanting to come back in her as a healer.

During years of training to assume that role, she started having dreams about Kintuantü, a ngen living by a broad bend of the Pilmaiquen.

“I am a medium of energy. Through dreams and visions in trance, Kintuantü told me that I had to speak for him because he was dying,” Huichalaf said.

A plant would have raised the river right to the cliffside caves where the ngen lives. Atop the cliff is a Mapuche ceremonial compound, including a cemetery, from where souls are believed to travel via underground water flows through the caves, into the Pilmaiquen and on to eventual reincarnation.

Huichalaf led an occupation there. A private home burned down, and protesters clashed with police. More protests and lawsuits followed, dividing the Indigenous communities around the river.

Huichalaf was jailed for several months. But she said she doesn’t fear prison because she managed to save the site, where she gathers medicinal herbs and performs sacred ceremonies: “The ngen is still there.”

Statkraft, the Norwegian state-owned energy company that bought the Pilmaiquen projects, is working with the Chilean government to return ownership of the ceremonial compound. Construction was stopped after the company realized the proposed plant’s cultural impact was “unacceptable,” said Statkraft’s Chile manager, María Teresa González.

González said the company learned the importance of understanding the Indigenous worldview and engaging different communities from the start, and it’s doing just that with another plant being constructed on the Pilmaiquen.

But she condemned ongoing violence such as the recent burning of a truck carrying a half-dozen workers. Nobody has been charged in the late June attack.

For Huichalaf, the fight continues: “Our big goal is that the companies on the river will leave."

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Back on the black volcanic field crossed by the Truful Truful, as a snowstorm approached a nearby peak with thousand-year-old araucaria trees, Curin defined his people’s goal in more essential terms.

“What does the Mapuche world fight for? What does the Mapuche world protect? Not a world of money,” he said. “Mapuche culture is very spiritual, very much of the heart. It’s not random that we’re still here.”

Then he knelt to sip from the river’s water and got back to his park ranger post.

 

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Giovanna Dell'orto, The Associated Press

'The paycheck has died': Argentine workers hold funeral for wages
AUGUST 19, 2022

Demonstrators carry a coffin during a symbolic funeral for their wages, as they march towards the Casa Rosada Presidential Palace, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Aug 19, 2022.
Reuters

BUENOS AIRES – Some women wore black funeral attire and sported flower crowns. Other people in the procession in Buenos Aires carried a gigantic coffin. But this funeral procession in the Argentine capital was not honouring a person.

Instead it was to mourn the "death" of the wages of Argentine workers in a country where inflation is expected to hit 90 per cent by the end of this year, eating up workers' purchasing power despite years of government attempts to curb price increases.More from AsiaOneRead the condensed version of this story, and other top stories with NewsLite.

"The situation for the workers is devastating. Before the middle of the month we don't have any more salary, it's not enough," Melisa Gargarello, a representative of the Front of Organisations in Struggle (FOL), the protest's organiser, told Reuters.


One protester carried a "clinical history" for Argentine wages, a chart showing how inflation has eaten up the value of paychecks.

Demonstrators hold a graph showing the changes in minimum wage in the past months, during a symbolic funeral for their wages, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Aug 19, 2022.
PHOTO: Reuters

While much of the world is battling high single-digit inflation this year, Argentina's struggles are in a different category.

"The paycheck has died" read a banner in the symbolic procession, which toured the main streets of Argentina's capital and ended in front of the Presidential Palace.

The flower crowns worn by women carried the message "RIP the minimum wage."

The country's official monthly minimum wage stands at 45,540 Argentine pesos (S$465.57) while a basic food basket for a family of two adults and two children costs more than twice that amount at 111,298 pesos, according to the national statistics institute Indec.

Years of political efforts to curb inflation have done little to abate price increases, and in July the country registered its highest inflation rate in 20 years.

The latest effort involves the appointment of a new economy minister, Sergio Massa, who has been granted expanded powers to try to tame inflation. Argentines have dubbed him a "superminister."

"Today we are holding a symbolic funeral for wages, which we have to say expresses the situation that all workers in Argentina are experiencing," said FOL's Maximiliano Maita.

Source: Reuters

Transgender kids can play girls sports in Utah after ruling

Fri, August 19, 2022



SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Transgender girls in Utah will be given the opportunity to participate in girls' sports as the school year begins, after a judge on Friday reversed a ban pending legal challenges from parents.

Instead of an outright ban, transgender girls will now be sent before a commission that will determine on a case-by-case basis if their participation compromises fairness. Utah's Republican lawmakers created the commission in a law passed earlier this year as a fallback plan to be implemented in case of an injunction against the law.

Under the law, the panel will be allowed to ask for and assess the child's height and weight in making decisions about whether a transgender girl would have an unfair advantage. The commission, which is set to be convened in the coming weeks, will include politically appointed experts from athletics and medicine. When proposed, the commission was criticized by advocates for transgender student-athletes — who worried they would feel targeted having their bodies measured — and proponents of an outright ban, who argued it didn't go far enough.

The commission is set to go into effect while the court weighs the legal challenge to the outright ban. Members have not yet been appointed but will be in the coming weeks, legislative leaders said.

The state's association overseeing more than 80,000 students playing high school sports has said only one transgender girl competed in their leagues last year and, with school sports already underway, it's unclear how many will go before the commission and when its decisions will take effect.

Utah's ruling marked the latest court development in a nationwide debate over how to navigate a flashpoint issue.

At least 12 Republican-led states — including Utah — have passed laws banning transgender women or girls in sports based on the premise it gives them an unfair competitive advantage. Transgender rights advocates counter the rules aren’t just about sports, but another way to demean and attack transgender youth. Similar cases are underway in states such as Idaho, West Virginia and Indiana.

Utah's ban took effect in July after its Republican-supermajority Legislature overrode a veto by Gov. Spencer Cox, also a Republican.

Utah state Judge Keith Kelly said in the ruling putting the ban on hold that attorneys representing the families of three transgender student-athletes had shown they've suffered significant distress by “singling them out for unfavorable treatment as transgender girls.”

The transgender girls and the parents filed the lawsuit last May, contending the ban violates the Utah Constitution’s guarantees of equal rights and due process.

The ruling was thrilling news to the girls and their families, said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who also represented same-sex couples in a landmark court case against Utah last decade.

“The pressure, the strain this was putting them under was so enormous,” Minter said. “It is just a huge relief to have that weight lifted.”

Utah state Sen. Stuart Adams, a Republican, said in a statement Friday that the commission that will now make decisions in a way “to protect equitable and safe competition while preserving the integrity of women’s sports.”

The commission will include a medical data statistician, a physician with experience about “gender identity healthcare”, a sports physiologist, mental health professional, collegiate athletic trainer, representative of an athletic association and a rotating member who is a coach or official in the sport relevant to each case.

Minter said he hopes the commission will act merely as a safety net, with the presumption being that transgender girls can play unless there is an obvious issue of competitive fairness.

“How it is done is very important,” Minter said.

The ruling follows a revelation this week by the Utah High School Activities Association that it secretly investigated a female athlete — without telling her or her parents — after receiving complaints from the parents of two girls she had defeated in competition questioning whether the girl was transgender.

The investigation — which was roundly criticized by Gov. Cox — determined she indeed was female after poring through her school records dating back to kindergarten, its spokesman David Spatafore told lawmakers this week. The sequence of events laid out how similar

Critics of the ban were upset but said they weren't surprised by the investigation. They said it highlighted how the impact of politicizing girls' sports affected more than transgender student-athletes and subjected all girls to scrutiny in ways they anticipated.

“It creates such a negative atmosphere based on stereotypes about girls and how they should look,” Minter said. “It is really is harmful to all the kids in the state.”

The sequence of events also laid out how officials may pursue complaints now that youth sports and the associations governing them are the subject of state laws. Spatafore said the complaint was among several the association had looked into in its efforts to comply with the Utah law, which went into effect in July.

Brady Mccombs And Sam Metz, The Associated Press