The Weekly Wrap for Saturday, 5 January 2019

Talking points Feted by the West, fateful in Brazil. PHOTO: Evaristo Sa / AFP Jair Bolsonaro targeted minorities on his first day as Brazil's president Trans-mediterranean migration slowed dramatically in 2018 North Korea's ambassador to Italy went into hiding  Apple shares dropped 10% after revenue forecasts were slashed A NYE gas blast collapsed a Russian apartment block, killing at least 39 An unexpectedly severe tropical storm killed 122 in the Philippines  Netflix censored a comedy show critical of the Saudi regime Ethnic fighting exploded again in Myanmar's Rakhine state Taiwan searched for 152 'disappeared' Vietnamese tourists The DRC cut off internet and radio during a fraught vote count  Deep Dive Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga. PHOTO: AFP Last year India's Supreme Court kicked a hornet’s nest by allowing women of all ages to pray at the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The decision, couched in the modern parlance of equal rights, has crashed up against a southern Indian religious tradition that stretches back to the 3rd century. It is one cultural flash point amongst countless others, but one that has precipitated extraordinary behaviour on all sides.    The ineligible bachelor  The Sabarimala Sree Dharmasastha temple complex sits amid the Periyar Tiger Reserve, surrounded by the dense rainforests of Kerala's hinterland. It is a shrine devoted to the Hindu god Ayyappan, the offspring of Shiva and one of Vishnu's female incarnations. He is an immensely popular deity: ethical, handsome and - crucially - celibate. So popular is he that South Indian Buddhists consider Ayyappan an incarnation of the Buddha and even local Muslims honour him.  Each year some 50 million Hindus make the pilgrimage to Sabarimala to pay their respects in what is by far the largest religious journey in the world. Devotees gather in December and January, ready to climb the tracks winding through the jungle. But there is a conspicuous absence: there are no women of a fertile age. This is because of Ayyappan's celibate status, and also because some Hindus equate menstruation with uncleanliness. Hence only young girls and women of advanced age have been allowed into the temple complex.    Supreme Court v Supreme Being The centuries-old practice of discrimination was codified into law in 1991 by the Keralan High Court. Following a petition the state's highest judicial body banned all women between the ages of 10 and 50. In its ruling the court relied on the argument that the practice had stood since time immemorial.  And so it did, until September last year, when the Supreme Court in Delhi overturned the ban 4-1. The justices did not hold back in their opinions, arguing that the ban was unconstitutional and a form of "religious patriarchy" rather than an essential religious practice. It sparked days of protests. In October two women of a menstruating age approached the temple complex under heavy police guard. They were promptly warned by the temple custodians that the sanctum would be locked if they tried to ascend to the centre of the site. As is so often the case in the lead up to a major election, the legal-religious dispute was politicised by just about anyone who stood to gain from the division. The country's ruling BJP, a Hindu-nationalist party, rejected the Supreme Court ruling. It plays well with their base. But the Communist state government in Kerala is a strong advocate for women's equality and has agitated for access. Tensions rose during the closing months of 2018 as protests devolved into violent clashes between opposing groups.   A wall and a breakthrough On January 1 something remarkable happened in Kerala. A gargantuan peaceful protest began taking shape around the state. Women gathered by the thousands, taking their place shoulder-to-shoulder along major roads. For fifteen minutes they stood together, right arms raised in defiance, creating an unbroken wall from one end of the state to the other, 620k in total. Organisers expected three million women to attend. More than five million turned up. All of them stood in solidarity with the right for their mothers, sisters, daughters and friends to pray at Sabarimala. Then came the breakthrough: in the early hours of the next day two women in their 40s entered the temple complex at Sabarimala. Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga entered through a side gate under heavy police guard. Clad in black, the two women stepped into Ayyappan's gold-plated inner sanctum to pray. History was made. And after they exited, priests rushed in to "purify" the shrine.  Outside, the descent into pandemonium was swift. Outraged devotees began rioting near the temple. In the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram BJP supporters (and their more ideologically rigorous RSS cohorts) clashed with police and local Communists. One person died and over 100 more were injured. Much of the state has ground to a halt late in the week as wildcat strikes took hold.  If this whole affair of change and violent reaction seems familiar, you might care to know that Ayyappan is the god of growth. Worldlywise Four decades of cross-straits cooperation, now what? PHOTO: Reuters A "message to compatriots in Taiwan" This week has been a tale of two speeches. On January 1 Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen proposed her "Four Musts" as a framework for future Taiwan-China relations. As expected, they include some hard pills for Beijing to swallow: recognise Taiwan's independence and relinquish any claim to the island.  The following day Chinese President Xi Jinping placed the reunification of China and Taiwan on a historic arc. The Paramount Leader described reunification "inevitable", and the key to "national rejuvenation". He said, "Chinese don't fight Chinese", only to follow up with an explicit threat of military intervention ("We make no promise to renounce the use of force"). What did he offer as an inducement? The opportunity to to exist under the "One Country, Two Systems" model.  It's not surprising that Xi has begun 2019 with a rose-coloured vision of Greater China. Clouds are gathering; early factory data shows production just holding or sliding, weak domestic consumption is a challenge for companies everywhere, and the Sino-American trade war is by no means over.  Master of the House. PHOTO: Getty New Year's (conflict) resolutions America has entered its third week of partial government shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of government employees are without pay and America's national parks have been overrun by unsupervised holidaymakers (who are producing an unbelievable amount of waste - rubbish and otherwise). Despite the impasse we don't expect it to last (too) much longer - these staring contests rarely do. As it stands the president has demanded $5.6b for his border wall-or-fence. On Thursday Democrats wasted no time in passing a spending bill to re-open the government, but Trump has pre-emptively refused to sign any such attempt that will force his hand. The refreshingly diverse 116th Congress started work on the 3rd of January, beginning by officially returning the speaker's gavel to Nancy Pelosi. This is an achievement: she is the first person in half a century to reclaim the role after losing it. America's first and only female House Speaker did so by fighting off a stiff challenge from the Democratic caucus. Yet her first move was more challenge than compromise: a $1.3b border security package with no new funds for Trump's wall-or-fence.  Also from Washington: a free-wheeling and confusing Cabinet meeting. It featured a potentially copyright-infringing Game of Thrones-style poster promoting the border wall and a rather baroque description of Syria as "sand and death". The Best of Times Not just a Pink Floyd album. PHOTO: c/o Studio Ghibli Greeting neighbours The Moon's tidal lock with the Earth has shaped our world. By turning in tandem with us, the Moon helps stabilise the Earth's orbit and moderates the tide. We can thank it for providing the conditions that allowed life to flourish here. But it means we only ever see one side of it, and the far-side has become a favourite subject for writers and musicians. Now, thanks to the Chinese probe Chang'e 4, we've received our first ever close-up. The lander is also carrying a biosphere that marks the first attempt to grow a complex ecosystem on the surface of the Moon. Another giant leap for humankind.   Meeting strangers  If exploring the far-side of an object 384,400k away is impressive, doing a fly-by of one six billion kilometres away is nothing short of remarkable. Nasa's New Horizons probe, first launched back in 2006, managed to take some snaps of Ultima Thule - a bi-lobed (snowman-shaped) celestial rock - while zooming by at over 50,000kph. It's a huge success for the spacecraft that is currently tearing about the Kuiper Belt. The Worst of Times The Sincerity Ace, ablaze and listing. PHOTO: GCaptain Adrift and aflame Back on Earth some of our vessels are doing a little worse. Until a few days ago the Sincerity Ace (a 655ft car carrier) was en route from the Japanese automobile manufacturing hub at Yokohama to Hawaii. Somewhere in the Pacific an onboard fire began and tore through the ship, killing at least three crew members. As other commercial vessels moved in to save the remaining crew the Sincerity Ace began listing dramatically. It is expected to sink in the coming days and take the 6,400 cars aboard it to the bottom of the ocean.   Ancient ivory poachers The insatiable East Asian appetite for ivory is fuelling a bewildering new industry: Siberian mammoth excavation. The permafrost-covered Yakutia region is rich with the skeletons of the forebears of the modern elephant. Now a race is on - aided by the shrinking permafrost - to dig up as many mammoth tusks as possible. It’s seems there’s nothing we won't try and make a buck off. Weekend Reading Quote of the week "The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there. The problem is, it was a tough fight. And literally they went bankrupt; they went into being called Russia again, as opposed to the Soviet Union" - Donald Trump diverges from the Cabinet agenda to give a brief history of Russia's invasion and occupation of Afghanistan   Headline of the week Australian man screaming at spider 'why don't you die?' triggers full police response - The Guardian Featured long-reads from inkl publishers: Businessweek scouts where to go in 2019 The Economist ponders Trump's next two years The Independent counts America's domestic killings Tom Wharton @trwinwriting P.S. Welcome back and happy new year. And, don't forget to follow inkl on Twitter and Facebook.