What is Ultra Fast Fashion? It’s a quicker, more exploitive way of making clothes that’s trending right now. Especially on #TikTok. Not only is it destroying the planet, but for Asian women, this method of making clothes to meet Western demand has been called modern day colonialism. Approximately 80% of garment workers are women, mostly 18-24 year olds, from countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Cambodia. The only reason clothes can be this cheap to the Western consumer, who buys sometimes thousands of dollars worth of apparel at a time, is because in Asia someone isn’t making a living wage. One of many needed reforms is for Western countries with spending power to buy less, and for policies to create safer and equitable working conditions for garment workers. We should think about how we feel about our contribution to this culture when we look back on this era of ultra fast fashion? Will we be proud of the massive consumption?
No candidate capitalized on the anti-feminist movement like Yoon Suk-yeol, who narrowly won South Korea’s most recent election to become the President (Yoon claimed 48.6% of the vote, and his opponent Lee won 47.8%). As the leader of the conservative People Power Party (PPP), his campaign appealed to men who are anxious about losing ground to women, and helped turn a fringe online community into a major political force. And there are real consequences to this: Yoon has called for the abolishment of the gender equality ministry because it focuses “too much on women’s rights and is no longer necessary.” He’s even said he would enhance punishments for false accusations of sexual violence, a move advocates for women’s rights has said will discourage women from reporting incidents. Though women are and have been fighting back since the 2016 murder of a 23-year-old woman in Gangnam neighborhood—in a random attack by a man who said “he hated women for ignoring him”—the outpouring of rage and the so-called “feminism reboot” has prompted a ‘reverse discrimination’. In a June 2021 poll, 84% of Korean men in their twenties, and 83% in their thirties, said they had experienced “serious gender-based discrimination.”
Malaysia’s ethnic minorities have always faced adversities and inequity through systemic racism that plays out in every aspect of society and the economy. Disadvantages from decades of discriminatory laws in Malaysia’s legal system have left ethnic minorities with less education, less wealth, and poorer health. This racial inequality has also led to institutional discrimination, like police bruality—nearly 55% percent of police custodial deaths are Indian. Malaysia’s racial majority continue to benefit from a policy enacted in the 70s called the New Economic Policy, putting other marginalized groups at a stark disadvantage. Here’s Sanjna Selva on how Malaysia ended up with these laws. Where does racism manifest in the country, and what can be done about it?
South and South East Asian migrant workers are the backbone of the economy for Gulf Countries. As world class events such as the #Qatar2022 #FIFA is imminently close, Asian migrant workers will be an integral part to host and participate in these events. However, 10,000 Asian migrant workers die in the Gulf states every year because of harsh labor conditions. Migrant workers account for 52% of the Arab Gulf’s entire 58 million population mostly occupying the low paying sectors like construction and domestic service. In these jobs, they often face abuse and work for long hours in conditions that put their mental and physical health at risk. So why not leave? Complicated work contracts keep and trap migrant workers in harsh labor conditions in their sponsored countries by withholding their passports. The practice is beneficial to the employer and they avoid structural labor reforms. Gulf countries must recognize that their infrastructures are made with the blood and sweat of Asian migrant workers. How did this happen? How can we save migrant workers from the South and South East Asians in harsh labor conditions?
The United States and Taliban authorities are contributing to the dire suffering of Afghanistan, disproportionately women and children. Bombings continue – particularly in places or worship, attacks on minority groups are on the rise, and 22M people are facing extreme hunger according to The World Food Program. It’s expected that a million children under the age of 5 will die within this year for hunger related reasons. President Biden’s executive order to divert half of Afghanistan’s ($7B) aid to 9/11 victim’s families has been met with criticism: a statement by 14 U.N. independent rights experts also blamed the U.S. government for making life worse for Afghan women through blocking billions of dollars that could be used to provide desperately-needed humanitarian relief to tens of millions in the country. Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar reminded Europe on Tuesday: “You spoke about Ukraine, I remember what happened less than a year ago in Afghanistan where an entire civil society was thrown under the bus by the world,” he said in response to a question asked by Norway’s foreign minister, Anniken Huitfeldt. Here’s Keshia Hannam with what has been happening since the Taliban took over and how the US contributed to, and needs to be held accountable, for the crisis in Afghanistan. Link to support: https://linktr.ee/AFBT
Sri Lanka is in its worst economic crisis and the country is facing a steep challenge to pay back its crushing 4.5B debt problem. These are debts accumulated through borrowing from foreign countries to build large scale projects to revive the economy after a natural disaster in 2004. Unable to pay off these debts, equity of these large scale projects now belong to countries like China. The country’s 22M people are facing the most painful economic downturn since the country’s independence in 1948. With no food, no fuel, or no medicine available to Sri Lankans, the people are losing confidence in their President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Protests swelled demanding the president to resign and crowds have attempted to storm the homes of government leaders. On April 19th, Police in Sri Lanka opened fire on crowds protesting at fuel shortages during the economic crisis, leaving one man dead and 11 others wounded.