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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
(Certain names in the story have been shortened to protect the person’s identity.) AASHNA MALPANI WRITES– I hear a piercing wail in the background. My source puts the phone on hold for a minute, then returns with apologies: “Sometimes I wish I never had him.” She sounds exasperated, complaining about…
KAISARA WALTON WRITES — Bangladesh’s government recently enacted a controversial new law, the Digital Security Act, invoking sections of the colonial era 1989 Official Secrets Act, which included restrictions in freedom of the press. Press releases from other entities such as the US, the EU, and human rights activists have…
AASHNA MALPANI WRITES — On September 6, India’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of legalizing consensual same-sex relations by striking down a draconian law that deemed LGBT Indians to be “against the order of nature.” The landmark ruling marks the culmination of decade-long protests staged by gay Indians and…
Courtesy of the East West Center: From Singapore, 30 June 2018—From the Himalayas to the Korean DMZ to the South China Sea, the balance of power in Asia appears to be shifting. But beneath the rhetoric, have the fundamentals really changed? At this past week’s 2018 East-West Center International Media…
DELANEY DEWHURST WRITES–Paying for Facebook–a thought that probably hasn’t crossed most people’s minds. It’s a given that you log on at no cost to connect with family and friends by sharing photos, videos and updates on your life. Yet across the globe in Bangladesh, talks are underway about putting a…
MURAD BASRAWI WRITES—Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for women’s education and the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan this past month, six years after she was shot by the Taliban for advocating for women’s education. Security was tight when Yousafzai and her family arrived…
YOUSEF AL HOMAIDHI WRITES — Aadhar is an ambitious project started by the Government of India which functions under the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and came into existence in 2009. Aadhar is a 12-digit unique identification number that is given to each and every citizen by UIDAI. It…
