Hey, this is Sham, your very own news curator. As I'm finishing up this issue, Nigeria is still counting votes. Expect an update next Monday on the most exciting presidential election this year.
In issue #325, I focus on the people at risk of falling off the radar in the aftermath of the earthquakes in Turkey, Kurdistan and Syria, a BBC documentary that reveals that slavery still exists in Kenya (and two companies from the United Kingdom are funding it) and a rare win for an environmental justice case in Peru. Plus, some good news from South Korea (yay for same-sex couples!), Sierra Leone (best education minister in the world) and Vietnam (new musical instrument unlocked).
If you like this newsletter, yay! If you have any feedback or comments, I'm always happy to connect; just reply to this mail. These lengthy emails take me hours and hours to write, research and make fun-to-read. If you would like to support me on a regular basis, you can do so by becoming a Patreon subscriber or by buying me coffee now and then on PayPal.
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The death toll of the earthquake in Turkey, Kurdistan and Syria surpassed 50,000
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Refresher: On February 6, 2023, a Mw 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey, Kurdistan and northern and western Syria. It was followed by a Mw 7.7 earthquake nine hours later, and by February 20, more than 6,000 aftershocks.
Last Friday, Reuters reported that the death toll in Turkey due to earthquakes rose to 44,21. With Syria's latest announced death toll of 5,914, the combined death toll in the two countries rose to above 50,000. Millions of people have been made homeless and without food, potable water, and medical care. Thousands of people are still missing. There's aid, yes, but a lot of people are in risk of falling under the radar. An intersectional, transnational perspective to aid must be practiced.
Why this matters: The natural disaster was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the Levant. It was felt as far as Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus, and the Black Sea coast of Turkey. It was the deadliest seismic event in the history of Turkey since the 526 Antioch earthquake, and the deadliest in Syria since the 1822 Aleppo earthquake. Furthermore, it was the deadliest earthquake worldwide since the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the fifth-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century.
What's the latest?
Amnesty International last week said that aid has been slow in coming and is applied in a discriminatory fashion on the basis of nationality, ethnicity, religion, migration status, and political views and, more than two weeks after the initial quakes, the needs of people and communities in the affected regions and countries continue to grow.
Do you have any concrete examples?
- For example, the central government of Syria has prevented or restricted aid from entering areas outside its control. As a result, at least four million people living in northwest Syria and Kurdistan under the control of opposition groups are left with little or even no access to aid and essential services. To be very concrete, according to Amnesty International, the Syrian government has prevented aid from reach majority-Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo city.
- But it's not just the Syrian government that is differentiating between who it wants to help. The Amnesty International report continues, "In northern Aleppo, armed opposition groups supported by [Turkey] restricted the delivery of aid to Kurds living in Syria." The New Arab's William Christou confirms this.
- In Turkey, refugees from Syria living there have experienced a lot of aid discrimination as well. "There have been credible reports from [Turkey] that Syrian refugees have been targeted by both civilians and state actors for physical abuse and verbal harassment in racist attacks and/or with hate speech. Reports also indicate that Syrian refugees have been evicted from emergency camps in [Turkey] to make room for Turkish survivors."
- Plus, The Sydney Morning Herald's Tawar Razaghi has talked to Kurds who claim, "The [Turkish] government has something against Kurds and other minorities and those who don’t support [Erdoğan’s government] … there are even a lot of Turkish areas, which support the opposition, that have not been given aid."
Kurds and Syrian refugees are discriminated against. Who else?
The Amnesty International report warns that, generally, "Women, children, displaced people, older people, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, ethnic and racial minorities, and other marginalized groups often face compounded challenges in crises, including natural disasters, and require special protection against discrimination and racist attacks and abuse."
For example, for older people and people with disabilities, aid must come to them and a center-based approach makes little sense. Or LGBTQ+ people might be afraid to access shelter, medical care and other aid in countries/regions who are not known to be very LGBTQ+ friendly. Women and girls, whenever there is a disaster, are often at risk of sexual violence, exploitation by traffickers and reduced access to menstrual products and healthcare.
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BBC documentary revealed that there are still tea plantations in Kenya run colonial-era-style by two British companies
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More than 70 women on tea farms in Kenya, owned for years by two companies from the United Kingdom, claimed in this BBC Africa Eye documentary (Warning: Disturbing content) that they had been sexually abused by their supervisors.
Why this matters: The two companies implicated in this scandal supply some of the United Kingdom's most popular tea brands including PG Tips, Lipton and Sainsbury’s Red Label.
Tell me more
The documentary reveals sexual abuse of women by plantation managers, backbreaking and lowly labor, and that mechanization simply increased the opportunity for exploitation as jobs become rarer and competition for them even stiffer. Some of the women interviewed in the report said they were impregnated and infected with HIV by the perpetrators, yet no action was taken on their reports despite the companies having a "zero-tolerance" policy on sexual abuse. (The East African)
Which British companies are involved, and what did they do?
The British owners of the plantations at the time of the abuses, Unilever and James Finay, expressed shock about the revelations, said they are investigating and fired four managers. Supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury’s – which have been buying from these estates – have also condemned the actions. Coffeehouse chain Starbucks issued a statement on Monday saying it had immediately suspended purchasing from James Finlay & Co in Kenya. (The Star)
What about the government in Kenya?
Last Monday, legislators have formed a committee to look into the allegations. National Assembly Deputy speaker Gladys Shollei said the committee will investigate the allegations and report back within two weeks. (The East African)
- Quote: "Today I’ve been reminded that slavery still exists in this nation. I cannot explain how a man has violated women in tea plantations for 30 years and nothing has been done," said lawmaker Beatrice Elachi.
What care will the victims now receive?
The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) has demanded that the two companies pay damages for physical and emotional health to the affected individuals. In a statement last Wednesday, the unionists also demanded that the government "moves with speed" to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 190 on the elimination of violence and harassment in workplaces to prevent such abuse from recurring in workplaces. (Standard Kenya)
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The murderers of four Indigenous leaders in 2014 have finally been sentenced to jail in Peru
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Refresher: On September 1, 2014, four Ashéninka people were murdered at the Peru/Brazil border.
Last week, a court in Pucallpa in Peru's part of Amazon sentenced five people to 28 years and three months in jail for the murder of four Indigenous leaders in 2014. (The Guardian)
Why this matters: This is a huge win for environmental justice, as the murders were one of the most notorious crimes against environmental defenders in Peru's recent history. Impunity in Peru, however, is still a huge problem.
Say the victims' names, please
Edwin Chota, Leoncio Quintisima, Jorge Ríos and Francisco Piñedo. Here's a picture of all four of them. The names of the murderes (illegal loggers and timber businessmen) are Eurico Mapes Gómez, Segundo and Josimar Atachi Félix, Hugo Soria Flores and José Estrada Huayta. Together, they tortured and killed the four victims near Peru's Amazon border with Brazil. At the time of the crime, the four Indigenous people were on their way to a meeting of Indigenous leaders in the Apiwtxa community, also of Ashéninka ethnicity, located on the other side of the border in the Brazilian state of Acre. (Actualidad Ambiental, Spanish)
I have heard the name Edwin Chota before. Who is he again?
He was one of the most famous environmental defenders in Latin America. This was Edwin Chota with his son. Chota was the leader of Alto Tamaya-Saweto, an Ashéninka community in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region, fought for his people’s right to gain titles to their land (which finally happened in 2015 after his murder) and expel illegal loggers who raided their forests and smuggled drugs on their land (this one not yet). Chota got a lot of international attention, as he was featured in reports by National Geographic and the New York Times that detailed how death threats were made against him and other members of his community. But... this saved nor his or the lives of the other three community leaders. (Amazon Watch)
What do their families say about the verdict?
"We are happy [about the jail sentences] after so many years of struggle and many threats," Lita Rojas, 48, the widow of Leoncio Quintisima, told the Guardian by phone. Diana Ríos is still searching for the dead body of her father, nearly nine years later. (OjoPúblico, Spanish)
What now?
The violence does not end with the death of environmental defenders. Their family members and the rest of the community have not stopped receiving threats, according to a report by OjoPúblico in July 2022. Indigenous and environmental land defenders must be given much more protection. Unfortunately, corruption and very limited access to justice for Indigenous people lets illegal loggers do whatever they want to the Amazon region's river basins of hardwoods, especially mahogany and tropical cedar.
Did you know that the wood from a single old-growth mahogany tree can fetch more than $11,000 on the U.S. lumber market? (Amazon Watch)
Zoom out: More than 1,700 environmental defenders have been killed around the world over the past decade, according to a Global Witness report (PDF). During Covid-19, things got even worse. Most of these murders take/took place in the Amazon regions of Brazil, Peru and Venezuela.
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More you might have missed
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Syria / Israel: Five people were killed and fifteen others were injured by an Israeli airstrike on Kafr Sousa, Damascus Governorate, according to Syrian media. (Yahoo! News)
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Afghanistan: Taliban fighters have stopped the sale of contraceptives in two of Afghanistan’s main cities, claiming their use by women is a western conspiracy to control the Muslim population. (The Guardian)
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Botswana: In the past five years, Botswana lost 214 rhinos; that's about half of the wild population it had. Most of them were killed by people likely to have been poachers who trade in rhino horns, wildlife authorities in the country said last week. (The Continent, issue 117)
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Brazil: At least 35 people were killed in São Sebastião and another person was killed in Ubatuba during heavy floods and landslides in São Paulo. (Al Jazeera)
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Global: Africa's share of global gas supply will almost double by 2050. This will make Africa responsible for the second-largest growth in gas supply, by volume, globally, after the "Middle East" during the period. (Quartz)
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African Union: The African Union announced the organization of a peace conference to address the instability in Libya. (AFP via France 24)
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United Kingdom / Cambodia: United Kingdom authorities repatriated 77 pieces of Khmer jewellery from indicted art trafficker Douglas Latchford's family to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia. (AFP via The Jakarta Post) Btw, Project Brazen is coming out with a major new podcast on said Douglas Latchford; "Dynamite Doug" will be released on March 1. Unlike the Elgin Marbles and Benin Bronzes, famous looted art works taken in the 1800s and displayed in Western museums, Latchford was stealing in the present day, from the 1950s right up until his death in 2020.
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Belize: For the first time in many years, Belize did not make the top ten most murderous countries in the world. A recent report by Insight Crime suggests that the murder rate of Belize has decreased from 125 to 113 in 2022. It brings Belize's homicide rate to 25.6 per 100.000. (Channel 5 Belize via Central American News)
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South Korea: A court in South Korea ruled that same-sex couples are entitled to the same spousal coverage under the national health insurance service as heterosexual couples – the first time the country has recognized the legal status of a gay partner. More than 30 countries, including Taiwan, have legalized same-sex marriage, but it is still illegal in South Korea and Japan. (The Guardian)
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Japan: The Japanese government plans to criminalize sex with children under age 16 by raising the legal age of consent from 13. (Kyodo News)
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Vietnam: Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient stringed musical instrument crafted from deer antler in southern Vietnam. The instrument is 2,000 years old, dating from the period of Vietnam’s pre-Óc Eo culture that lived along the Mekong River. (Heritage Daily)
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Sierra Leone: David Moinina Sengeh, the education minister of Sierra Leone, won the Best Minister in the World award at the World Government Summit in Dubai, UAE. Sengeh is a biomedical engineer with degrees from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His 2019 appointment to lead the ministry is part of Sierra Leone's push to transform its education sector, in which it now invests 22% of its annual budget. (The Continent, issue 117)
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Podcast trailer: "The Sound: Mystery of the Havana Syndrome" about the strange noise U.S. and Canadian officials kept hearing in Cuba in 2016
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Have you ever heard about the Havana Syndrome? Wikipedia describes it as "an alleged set of medical symptoms with unknown causes experienced mostly abroad by U.S. government officials and military personnel. The symptoms range in severity from pain and ringing in the ears to cognitive difficulties and were first reported in 2016 by U.S. and Canadian embassy staff in Havana, Cuba."
There are many, many theories as to what is behind this bizarre mystery. To this day, it's not very clear. However, this Project Brazen podcast and journalist Nicky Woolf is peeling back the layers and beginning to piece the evidence together.
"It's a story about how the Cold War, maybe, never really ended."
Listen to the podcast trailer here.
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Article: "As wheat prices rise, a food staple in the DRC gets reimagined" by Zita Amwanga
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Have you ever had Cassava pasta? It looks like this.
Zita Amwanga for the Global Press Journal looks at the way pasta is being reimagined in Kisangani, a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, short DRC. Some 1.6 million people live here. It's the third-biggest city in the country. Did you know that people who live here are called Boyomese? Anyway, a very popular breakfast here is pasta. With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, wheat prices have risen, and it's become a lot more expensive to cook pasta the way they've done it so far, which is with wheat flour (DRC imports nearly all of its wheat).
However, now, local street food vendors and restaurant owners have switched/are starting to switch from wheat to another type of flour that is widely available in the region, the cassava.This was the idea of some ten biotechnology students at the University of Kisangani.
- Quote: "Each day, the students can produce over 100 packets of 250 grams (9 oz) each, which they sell for 1,000 Congolese francs (49 cents). In Kisangani, a similar size package of wheat spaghetti sells for up to 30,000 francs ($14.77)."
Read the entire article here.
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Netflix: "The Exchange" tells the story of the first women on the stock market of 1980s Kuwait
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It's the first Kuwaiti Netflix original series, and has been translated into five different languages (yes, English, too). The series is inspired by true events and is a Kuwaiti drama set in 1987, telling the story of two women, Farida (Rawan Mahdi) and her cousin Munira (Mona Hussain), making their way at the male-dominated Kuwait Stock Exchange, tackling many delicate themes including women’s empowerment. (Kuwait Times)
"The Exchange" was created and written by Nadia Ahmad, Anne Sobel and Adam Sobel; produced by Abdullah Boushahri; and directed by Jasem AlMuhanna and Karim El Shenawy. Variety talked to Nadia Ahmed about it; the story stems from her personal background.
- Quote: "My mom was a single mom — she was solely financially responsible for me, and she wanted the best for me. So she entered the investment banking world, and I was consistently around women who were also doing the same thing, who were shattering stereotypes of Khaleeji [people of the Arabian Peninsula] women."
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Archaeologists in northern Britain may have found a Roman sex toy from almost 2,000 years ago. It sure looks like it.
Read the academic paper here.
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That's it from me.
Have you checked out this newsletter's very own Spotify playlist Go Global Weekly yet?
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