It’s easy to look at the racial dynamics of America and believe that’s not who Australia is. Yet, the Asian Australian Alliance recorded 337 hate crimes against Asian Australians over the span of a month and half. In fact, 1 in 5 Chinese Australians reported being threatened or attacked in 2020 because of their heritage. But this is happening in a vacuum. Australia has a racist past to reckon with, starting with the very structure of law. In the 1900’s, legislators passed multiple laws to stop non-white immigrants from gaining legal citizenship. These collections of racist laws that kept immigrants from gaining citizenship were called the White Australian Policy. Why? After World War II, Australia’s population was stagnant and needed new people to rebuild their country. By 1975, the Racial Discrimination Act made it illegal to discriminate against migrants based on race. Remnants of White Australian Policy are ingrained in white Australians psyche. Refugees are met with unwelcomed sentiment in political campaigns like “stop the boats,” migrant populations are given hateful and reductive names, First Nations people are disproportionately met with police brutality, and Asians are blamed for COVID. Racist and xenophobic laws in the past have influenced how white Australians act towards non-white people. Australia is a home for so many, and to be the safe and thriving multicultural it hopes to be, there is further reckoning to be done.
Anime is pop-culture. Dragon Ball Z has been translated to nearly 35 different languages. The wildly popular series One Piece aired more than 1000 episodes. Half of Netflix’s 200 million subscribers watch #anime. Anime is so popular that in 2021 the industry was valued at a whopping $24 billion and demand is only going up. However, the working conditions for the people who make our favorite anime does not match the industry’s wild success. Animators in Japan are overworked and underpaid, earning as little as $200 a month. It’s been so bad that in 2010, an animator working at A-1 Pictures, makers of Sword Art Online and Fairy Tail, committed suicide. He was overworked to death - claiming that he was working 600 hours a month. Japanese work culture is famous for overworking their employees to the point of death that that there is a word ‘かろうし’ (Karoshi). Reforming the industry is difficult. For now, fans can support the artists in various ways whether it’s donating directly to them, or informing themselves and others about the realities of the industry, and tweeting at / writing letters to company heads to demand they increase pay.
Nearly half of the world’s unsafe abortions occur in Asia. Why? Long-standing social shame has led to misinformation / a lack of information about how to get an abortion in Asia safely. Here’s Keshia Hannam on how abortion laws are different, factors that contribute to the attitudes around abortions, and the path forward. Why not make abortions legal in Asia? Because liberal abortion laws alone do not ensure safe abortions. To reduce illness and death from unsafe abortions, experts have suggested Asian countries will need to use multi-pronged approaches that solve challenges from society to law. Just because no one talks about it, doesn’t mean it doesn't happen. Sex education could be taught in school to reduce social stigma and to promote safer sex, service provision guidelines could be adopted and disseminated with women’s mental and physical wellbeing considered, providers must be trained, and governments must be committed to ensuring that safe abortions are available, just to name a few options. Check out more on: https://wgnrr.org/
Where are all the Brown football players? Given how popular soccer is on the streets of South Asia, the fanbase is not reflected on the field. It’s rare to see #Indians, #Pakistanis, #Nepalis, #Afghans or anyone else from #SouthAsia to be seen in world events like @fifaworldcup or @premierleague. Although often cited, the reason is more complex than the typically offered: “Asian parents don’t let their kids play sports professionally.’” Here’s Keshia Hannam on how football is failing South Asians at a systemic level and making football related professions inaccessible.
The Indigenous languages of Asian countries like Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos have recently become at risk of dying out. There are many reasons why languages die - most often for political, economic and cultural reasons like the Indonesian government has pushed a nationalist agenda to create a sense of identity for the country. This is important because languages are the connective tissue of traditions, cultures, and communities. Historically, Thailand’s government has forced indigenous groups to assimilate to one unified language under a nationalist agenda. However, linguistic diversity is crucial for understanding our capacity for language - linguistic diversity helps us preserve culture and it's a tool for knowledge sharing. Because a language dies out every two weeks around the world, Stephanie Tangkilisan dove into how languages die and whether there’s any way to maintain linguistic diversity before erasure.
Aung San Suu Kyi was once an icon for peace who stood against military dictatorship in Myanmar. Now, she’s a politician under trial for over a dozen corruption charges. How did this former Nobel Peace Prize Laureate fall from grace? Or is there something more to the charges against her? Suu Kyi was an icon even before she became the elected leader of Myanmar. In 2016, after 15+ years of house arrest, she was elected as State Counsellor to nurture Myanmar’s democracy. But then she went from a political prisoner to someone who imprisons those who speak truth to power. In Dec 2017, Aung San Suu Kyi arrested two Reuters investigative journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who investigated the Inn Din massacre of the Rohingyas. A genocide she was accused of downplaying. This caused international controversy, given the million Rohingya refugees who now live in Bangladesh. But even as she undergoes trials, she still has strong support. In fact, many say this is all a way to stop a civilian government from improving Myanmar. What do you think happened to Aung San Suu Kyi?