Hey, this is Sham, your very own news curator. I'm going on vacaction next week, hence why I packed a lot into this week's read for you. I'll mail you again on July 31.
In issue #341, I give an update on the situation in Sudan, specifically Darfur (it's not looking good), Afghanistan's taxi industry (because it's highly political) and the debate on facial recognition technology in Brazil (São Paulo really wants to install 40,000 AI-assisted cameras). Plus, more and more wives in Singapore make more money than their husbands (and research is showing this is f*cking with traditional gender roles), Marshall Islands is confidently asking for more money from the United States for all the nuclear weapons testing in their country, Barbie is banned in Vietnam, the 50 best book covers of 2022, Argentina's election and its presidential candidates, a late Indian rapper's deepfake song gets viral, and so much more.
If you like this newsletter, yay! These lengthy emails take me hours and hours to write, research and make fun-to-read. You can support my work if you become a paid subscriber or buy me coffee. Or, just forward it to a friend.
|
|
Estimated reading time: 10 min
You have access to all of my sources by clicking on what's underlined.
|
|
'History is repeating itself in Darfur' – a mass grave of at least 87 bodies has been found
|
|
What happened
The United Nations (UN) is calling for an investigation over a mass grave in Sudan’s West Darfur which contained at least 87 bodies. The UN's human rights chief said there is credible information that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are responsible; a claim they deny.
Refresher: Since April 15, the Sudanese army has been fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, short RSF. At least 3,000 civilians have died in Khartoum, Darfur and beyond. Outside Khartoum, the worst fighting has taken place in the western region of Darfur, where a quarter of Sudan’s 48 million people live. Many more have died due to lack of access to food, water and medical care. More than three million people have been displaced. "Grass-roots organizations such as the neighborhood resistance committees have provided the most consistent humanitarian responses to this war," writes Bayan Abubakr in a guest essay for The New York Times.
Why this matters
Sudan is Africa’s third-largest country by land area, with some 48 million people living here.
Tell me more
The UN said the mass grave includes the bodies of Masalit people (who are non-Arab), raising concers that this might have been ethnically motivated. People were forced to bury the bodies near el-Geneina, West Darfur's capital, between June 20 and June 21, a UN statement said. Rights groups have reported attacks by the RSF and Arab militias against the Masalit people in the region. 'Why is the International Criminal Court so silent on Sudan?' asks Sarah Nouwen, professor of Public International Law at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy on Al Jazeera.
This has happened in Darfur before...
Yes. In fact, many pundits say that "history is repeating itself in Darfur" when describing the current situation. By this, they refer to the war crimes, crimes against humanity, if not genocide, that were committed in Darfur after 2003. More than 300,000 people, belonging mostly to the Masalit and other African ethnic groups, were killed in what amounted to ethnic cleansing. The former president (and ex-dictator) Omar al-Bashir was afraid of a rebellion in Darfur, as non-Arab people living there wanted more political say as well as social and economic equality, so he sent troops to suppress it. Back then, another militia, the Janjaweed, was behind all of it. Today, the RSF is supposedly behind the latest attacks in Darfur, specifically against the Masalit community, and the RSF is the 'son' of the Janjaweed; many of its soldiers have been drawn from the former militia. The two general now fighting for power – Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the army and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan of the Rapid Support Forces — were accused of being deeply involved in what happened in Darfur.
How is the war in Sudan affecting the neighboring countries?
The UN has said 740,000 people from all over the country have fled across borders to Sudan’s neighbors, who themselves are not the most economically or politically stable. For example, in South Sudan, the already fragile humanitarian situation has become even more fragile, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. In the Central African Republic, people have begun engaging in "small arms smuggling" across the border.
What now?
Last week, representatives of the Sudanese army and the RSF have returned to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for talks. Another mediation attempt began on Thursday, launched by Egypt. Aid groups and health workers continue to demand safe humanitarian corridors, so that people can at least receive the medical care they need and access some food to survive while peace is being negotiated. "If the international community really wants to help, it needs to stop playing God. It must stop counting on military leaders to solve our problems and start directing support to the grassroots organizations that have been our only salvation," writes Bayan Abubakr in a guest essay for The New York Times.
|
|
Afghanistan's taxis are changing color – this says a lot about how the Taliban govern
|
|
What happened
 In May, Kabul's General Directorate of Traffic Police and the Ministry of Interior announced a color change for taxis in the city: from yellow and white to blue and white (they look like this). Some are happy about the new taxi rule, others say it is distracting from the real problems at hand.
The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, and have been working on (re-)building the country, introducing new rules, scratching old ones. People living in Kabul and other large cities in Afghanistan deserve to experience improved civil public transport infrastructure, including taxi services. Some 40 million people live in Afghanistan.
Tell me more
This new rule affects some 67,000 registered taxis in Kabul. Afghanistan's capital, however, doesn't have standardized taxis. As a result, there is a lot of crime happening, think drivers seeking to extort or kidnap their passengers, and so on. The plan with the new taxi rule is "to reduce the criminal activities that have plagued urban taxis and develop a safer and more uniform transportation system for the country," writes Fazelminallah Qazizai for New Lines Magazine. The color change comes in accordance with the International Convention on Road Traffic, according to the Kabul traffic officials.
What do people in Afghanistan think about this new rule?
Mixed feelings. The Taliban did change some superficial (but not irrelevant) stuff in Kabul. For example, it's cleaner, there's order on the streets, roads are painted with light atmospheric colors and minarets are shiny. There's also fewer suicide attacks (to be fair, the Taliban were mainly behind them) and fewer airstrikes. But some residents say that it would be better if the Taliban put their energy into resolving the issue of the education of women and girls (they cannot go to school beyond sixth grade in Afghanistan, with the education ban extending to universities) or gave more people jobs. One interviewee says, "The Taliban need to bring order with the same yellow and white color; there’s no need to change it."
Context: The Taliban are not the only (but main) reason girls do not have full access to education. Even before the decision to suspend girls’ access to beyond primary education, most families in more conservative provinces did not let their girls go to school. For example, most girls and women in Logar province are illiterate. UNESCO is helping over 1,000 women and young girls there learn how to read, write and calculate for the first time in their lives.
Did you know that it was the Taliban that introduced brand-new taxis to the residents of Kabul when they first ruled in the mid-1990s? "They issued thousands of taxi plates for Toyota Corolla wagons. Many ordinary Afghans, however, did not have enough money to actually use them. And then there was the fact that, in those early years, those taxis were all vehicles with the steering wheel on the right side of the car, even though Afghans drive on the right side of the road," writes Qazizai.
'Fun' fact: In 2015, I read this article about the country's first female taxi driver, Sara Bahayi, in The Independent. Earning around US$20 a day, she was putting her life at risk doing business that's historically ruled by conservative men in the country. When the Taliban took control, Bahayi fled the country. Today, she is settled in Portugal.
|
|
São Paulo in Brazil is installing up to 40,000 cameras with AI technology in the city
|
|
What happened
 The city of São Paulo, Brazil, is currently preparing to roll out thousands of surveillance cameras with facial recognition. Experts are worried this might make problems such as structural racism and inequality even worse, while also posing risks to data privacy and cybersecurity.
Why this matters
Tell me more
The Smart Sampa project is the latest among a series of initiatives involving modern surveillance techniques in various Brazilian states. The goal is to have a single video surveillance platform that works with the emergency and traffic services, the city’s public transport network, and police forces. By 2024, up to 20,000 cameras will be installed, and an equal number of third-party and private cameras will be integrated into the network. The new cameras will enable the city to monitor schools, medical practices, public spaces such as squares and parks, as well as social media content relevant to public administration.
'Fun' fact: In the Brazilian state of Ceará, the police department already relies on facial recognition systems to identify suspects. Last year, the system came under fire when a photo of Michael B. Jordan, the (Black) star of the Black Panther movie, appeared on the police’s wanted list for a mass shooting that left five dead on December 24, 2021.
How good is this idea?
'With the help of real-time analytics and facial recognition technology, we're going to identify wanted criminals, stolen cars, missing persons, and lost objects much faster than usual. Oh, and we also can stop traffic jams from happening,' (basically) said São Paulo Mayor Ricardo Nunes in May. Apparently, the buses in the city have long waiting times (too long for many), and muggings have gone up in relation to 2021. "With real-time data from the cameras and algorithms, the city expects to predict and act upon occurrences faster. It also hopes to anticipate traffic patterns and potential congestion points and use insights to adjust bus schedules, for example," writes Angela Mari for Al Jazeera.
And: How bad is this idea?
Critics of Smart Sampa fear that the project will infringe upon citizens’ fundamental human rights, including privacy, freedom of expression, assembly and association. Especially Black people are at risk, who make up around 56 percent of the population in Brazil. According to Fernanda Rodrigues, a digital rights lawyer and research coordinator at the Institute for Research on Internet and Society (IRIS), facial recognition technology has the potential to lead to false positives (wrongly matching a person’s face with an image in the database). This is already proving to be true, with a recent study by the Center for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship (CESeC) revealing that more than 90 percent of the individuals arrested through decisions based on facial recognition in Brazil are Black.
Did you know that, according to 2022 data from the Brazilian Public Security Forum, Black people in Brazil account for over 67 percent of the imprisoned population?
What now?
Civil society is not a fan. There have been calls for suspension of the project. The Public Defender’s Office of São Paulo launched a civil lawsuit in May, alongside the Laboratory for Public Policy and Internet (LAPIN) and Uneafro Brasil, supported by Rede Liberdade, a network of legal professionals working with human rights organizations. To be continued.
Zoom out: Elsewhere on the continent, Argentina banned facial recognition systems in its capital Buenos Aires last year. Globally, the governments of China and India are huge fans of the technology.
|
|
|
Global: It’s been a really, really hot month for the planet, with the record for the average global air temperature broken first on July 3, then again on July 4, and once again July 6. (The Economist)
|
|
|
Iran: At least 60 female students in Iran have reportedly been barred from university for flouting the country’s mandatory hijab law. (The Guardian)
|
|
|
South Korea: At least 37 people were killed, several others are missing, and many injured in South Korea when torrential rains cause landslides and the overflow of a dam in North Chungcheong, prompting the evacuation of over 4,700 people nationwide. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo called for the deployment of the military to conduct search and rescue operations. (AP)
|
|
|
France: The killing of the 17-year-old boy, Nahel M, by a police officer during a traffic stop led to mass protests across the country. Following the incident, the French-language Swiss daily newspaper Le Temps examined the trend of police violence across the world. The data reveals that compared to law enforcement in other European countries, French police tend to exhibit relatively higher levels of aggression. (Le Temps)
|
|
|
Singapore: In Singapore, over one in four married couples where both spouses work have wives in a higher income group than their husbands, and this is challenging traditional gender roles in the country. The Straits Times dug into data from the last three census reports (2000, 2010, and 2020) to see how this trend has changed through the decades. It also highlighted the gender differences that exist when comparing across different income groups. (The Straits Times)
|
|
|
Marshall Islands / United States: The foreign ministry of the Marshall Islands called for more United States compensation over nuclear weapons testing, including on Bikini Atoll, in an effort to improve bilateral relations. (Reuters)
|
|
|
South Africa: The Constitutional Court of South Africa dismissed former president Jacob Zuma's appeal to legalize his medical parole and ruling he must complete his 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court. (AFP via The Moscow Times)
|
|
|
Colombia / Nicaragua: The International Court of Justice dismissed Nicaragua's bid to extend its maritime territory beyond 200 nautical miles, upholding the allocation of seven Caribbean islands to Colombia in a 2012 ruling. (AFP via RFI)
|
|
|
The Philippines / Vietnam: The Philippines' film review board requested that American film distributor Warner Bros. Pictures censor a scene in the upcoming film Barbie that includes a map displaying the internationally contested nine-dash line in the South China Sea before releasing the film in the country. Vietnam has already banned it. (BBC News)
|
|
|
Pakistan: The International Monetary Fund approved a US$3 billion bailout deal for Pakistan to avert its potential debt defaults and regain economic stability. (AP)
|
|
|
Brazil: (Bear with me, this bullet starts off with negative news first.) In 2022, the world experienced a 10% increase in tropical forest loss, which is an area as big as Switzerland. The largest amount of forest loss occurred in Brazil. However, there's some good news, too. According to data from the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute's Global Forest Watch, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped by almost 70% in April 2023 compared to the previous year. This decrease is a hopeful sign that the country's new president is taking a different approach to protect the environment. (Financial Times)
|
|
|
Indonesia: Bali announced the imposition of a IDR 150,000 (US$10) tourist tax for foreign visitors from 2024, aiming to preserve the island's culture and environment. (AFP via Arab News)
|
|
|
Egypt: In a study published in PLOS One, researchers identify subtle modifications to ancient Egyptian funerary artworks, such as the repositioning of Ramesses II's sceptre and changes in the pigmentation used for skin color, using portable imaging and chemical analysis techniques. These findings suggest a higher degree of creativity among ancient Egyptian artists than was previously recognized. (AFP via The Manila Times)
|
|
|
United States: The Food and Drug Administration approved the first over-the-counter contraceptive pill, the Perrigo-manufactured Opill, broadening access to birth control across the country. (AFP via France 24) Plus, UNESCO accepted the US as a member after it withdrew from the organization in 2018. (Euronews)
|
|
|
Japan: Japan’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that restricting a transgender woman’s use of toilets at her workplace was “unacceptable,” a decision that may help promote LGBTQ rights in the only Group of Seven nation without legal protection for same-sex unions. (NBC News)
|
|
Look at... "The 50 best book covers of 2022, according to AIGA" by Liz Gorny for It's Nice That. On 5 July, AIGA – the professional association for design – announced the winners of its annual book and book cover competition, which has been running since its inception as the Fifty Books of the Year competition in 1923. This year, the event saw over 487 entries. Among the winners was Bloco Gráfico’s design (this) for a catalog documenting the paintings of African-Brazilian scholar, artist, poet, dramatist and activist Abdias Nascimento or Jesvin Yeo's design (this) for a collection of snapshots of artifacts from various forms of Chinese puppet theater in Singapore. One of the books I bought in New York City last year is also among the winners: "The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection (BEID)", an anthology centering design teaching practices, research and stories through a Black/African diasporic lens. Kelly Walters is the Creative Director behind it. After reading the project description, I now know why I was so drawn to it (besides the content): "The initial illustration and design concept for the book stems from the idea of being trapped within a box as a black designer." I also often feel trapped in a box as a Kurdish journalist/thinker. You can find the full gallery of winning entries here.
Listen to... Podcast episode: "Argentina's Election: It's "Finally" on" (33 mins) by Americas Quarterly. The election is in October but the campaigns of all presidential candidates have already started. Americas Quarterly's Brian Winter talks to Argentinian political scientist María Esperanza Casullo about the state Argentina is in right now in terms of economy, political mood overall, and the candidates in detail. In short: It seems like the Economy Minister has good chances of becoming president next, the new right-wing candidate is losing some support, but the old right-wing candidate, a Jair Bolsonaro-affiliated woman in politics for more than 40 years, is not.
Read... Article: "Wagnerian Army – Why is Prigozhin's Russian mercenary force named after Hitler's favorite 19th-century German composer?" by John Mauceri for Air Mail. Why is an army of around 50,000 men which claims to be fighting neo-Nazis in Ukraine (whose president is a Russian-speaking Jew) named after the anti-Semite icon of its arch-enemy Adolf Hitler? Why not name it after Marshal Georgy Zhukov (who led Stalin's army when it put an end to Hitler's terror in Eastern Europe)? The conductor John Mauceri explains.
|
|
|
"Ni Tu Veham Paleya" is a viral deepfake song by the late Sidhu Moosewala, one of South Asia's most influential hip-hop figures. Moosewala was shot dead by gunmen on May 29, 2022. "A whole year after his death, artificial intelligence is being used to generate a number of Punjabi tracks in his voice", writes Yashraj Sharma for rest of world. The late rapper's family isn't too pleased about this development, and has requested that producers putting out AI-generated music to stop. Some producers followed suit, others not so much.
Disclaimer: I've linked to one of the deepfake songs, so you can hear it for yourself. This is not meant to promote AI-generated music, or whatsoever. I have no moral stake in this.
|
|
|
China's biggest gay dating app is a pharmacy: Blued.
(It had to become a pharmacy.)
|
|
That's it from me. I can't wait to see our family dog soon.
For the maps, say thanks to Wikimedia Commons.
Map 1: John Doe / CC-BY-SA-3.0
Map 2: John Doe / CC-BY-SA-3.0
Map 3: John Doe / CC-BY-SA-4.0
|
|
Hey, I'm Sham, the person behind this newsletter. Since 2014, I email a bunch of strangers once a week, curating news headlines from Asia, Africa and Latin America. I work under the assumption that, here in the West (I live in Berlin, Germany), we don't read or know much about the global majority, aka the rest of the world.
My goal is to help you burst your Western-centric bubble.
If you want to know more about me, visit my website or follow me on Twitter or Instagram.
Questions or feedback? Just reply to this email. I intend to write back.
|
|
|
|
