CRISTINA PEDLER WRITES – Sri Lanka is leading the way in banning palm oil imports and phasing out cultivation. In an unexpected turn of events, Sri Lanka has banned imports of palm oil and new palm plantations, and told producers to uproot existing plantations in a phased manner. An announcement…
Full Article SRI LANKA: THE WAR ON PALM OIL MAY SAVE THE WORLD
SOPHIA JARAMILLO WRITES — As newly elected Vice President Kamala Harris will be endlessly discussed for her diplomatic relations and duties, her fashion will also be discussed, as it should be. It is necessary to bring light to the impact of all areas of her identity. Being of South Asian…
Full Article SOUTH ASIA: VICE-PRESIDENT ELECT KAMALA HARRIS CUTS A STRIKING FIGURE ON THE WORLD STAGE
SARA ALTUWAIJRI WRITES – India is one of the world’s poorest countries, with 68.8 percent of the population living on less than 2 dollars a day and more than 30 percent earning less than $1.25 per day. India’s women and children suffer the most. Is there any hope? Maybe. India aims…
Full Article INDIA: IS MODI 2.0 STILL GOING STRONG?
LIAM ROGERS WRITES — On June 30, 2020, the 14th corps. commander Lt-General Harinder Singh (of India) and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Lui Lin (of China) launched a third round of de-escalation meetings while The Indian Times reported that India will, among other things, be pushing for…
Full Article SINO-INDO RELATIONS: PAKISTAN’S COMPLICATED INVOLVEMENT
ASSOCIATE EDITOR ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES – When Albert Einstein warned about the danger of nuclear weapons, he famously said: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Recently, tensions between Chinese and Indian…
Full Article CHINA AND INDIA: THE STICKS AND STONES WAR
SARA ALTUWAIJRI WRITES- At the very end of 2019, India’s Parliament issued a new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) granting citizenship to refugees who entered the country prior to December 31 of 2014. This act covered refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, among other countries. CAA was supposedly…
Full Article INDIA: DOES CITIZENSHIP ACT AMENDMENT TARGET MUSLIMS?
SAMANTHA CLANCY WRITES — The Royal Kingdom of Bhutan has recently announced that it would be levying charges on tourists from India, Bangladesh, and the Maldives, all of which could previously enter at no cost. And therein lies a tiny tale about this small, land-locked nation in Asia, perched so prettily…
Full Article BHUTAN: SUSTAINING TOURISM AND AN ECO-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT
SAMANTHA CLANCY WRITES — Earlier this month, Bhutan launched Prizm, a national cryptocurrency, which the kingdom hopes will increase income levels and decrease poverty levels, as it will be accessible to all. In fact, every citizen will be granted 100 Prizm. This project has been completely backed by the government, which has…
Full Article BHUTAN: CAN A NATIONAL CRYPTOCURRENCY BE GOOD FOR ALL?
SAMANTHA CLANCY WRITES — In a time of rising carbon emissions, one country is commendably focusing its efforts on environmental sustainability: Bhutan. Located between China and India, its mountainous terrain and dense forest areas provide a sort of natural inaccessibility, allowing ecosystems to flourish, thanks to both the current administration’s…
Full Article BHUTAN: AN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY WITH BITE AS WELL AS BARK
SENAY EMMANUEL WRITES—Last weekend, a delegation of Burmese representatives traveled to neighboring Bangladesh to speak with some of the 1.2 million Rohingya refugees situated there. Their goal was to confront this humanitarian crisis and somehow convince these beleaguered refugees to return to Myanmar. This isn’t the first time the…
Full Article MYANMAR: IF MERE TALK WAS CONVERTIBLE TO RICHES, THE ROHINGYA WOULD SURE BE IN THE CHIPS
NICOLE ALAVERDIAN WRITES – It is no secret that humans are amid a most severe environmental problem — global climate change. Ecological reports and scientific evidence point to the possibility of the “sixth great mass extinction” taking place. Countries have suggested climate change guidelines: The Paris Climate Agreement, of course.…
Full Article Asia Round-Up: As Election Season Looms in the Region, Why is the Environment a missing topic of concern?
LAMA AL TAHER WRITES– Who was the mass murderer? Despite ISIS taking credit for the gruesome Easter bombing on April 21, Colombo authorities continue to link the attack to the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), a radical Muslim group based in Sri Lanka. However, it is believed that NTJ operatives are…
Full Article SRI LANKA: A MOST UNHOLY HOLY SEASON, WHATEVER THE RELIGION
AASHNA MALPANI WRITES– Kollaboration, a non-profit, hosted the EMPOWER conference last week. The organization held its fifth annual event on March 23 and 24 at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. The two-day symposium aims at bringing people across all communities together to learn more about filmmaking, music…
Full Article LOS ANGELES: EMPOWER 2019, A CUTTING-EDGE ASIAN-AMERICAN ‘KOLLABORATION’
PAULA MARKOW WRITES– Outfest Fusion, a film festival that showcases the LGBTQ community, ran from March 1 to 5 at the Chinese Theatre, offering an array of short films. One segment that caught my attention was a series of shorts about the LGBT community in India. The first short, Yaman,…
Full Article LGBTQ: The Indian Films From Outfest You Need to See
MUHAMAD ALOTHMAN WRITES– Kuwait and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding in November of 2018, in Beijing. This non- binding agreement gives Kuwait the opportunity to expand and even become a leading global financial hub in the Gulf. Oil prices, Kuwait’s main source of income, have been declining over the…
Full Article Kuwait: Dreams of ‘Silk City’
AASHNA MALPANI WRITES– Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, victims of Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing, are packed into refugee camps just 20 miles from the city of Cox’s Bazar, in Bangladesh. Their everyday life is riddled with little access to education and restricted cellular reception. And they are social pariahs. “The average…
Full Article BANGLADESH: Rohingya Exodus – What’s Happening in Cox’s Bazar?