|
|
How did $900m end up in Najib Razak's private bank account? PHOTO: Reuters
|
|
- Former Malaysian PM Razak plead not guilty in the first 1MDB trial
-
Heavy rainstorms killed dozens and injured hundreds in Nepal
- U.S. investigators said Barr downplayed Mueller report findings
- Debris from India's satellite-destruction test put the ISS at risk
- Australia outlawed online live-streaming of violent acts
-
Mackenzie Bezos walked away from Jeff with $35b in Amazon shares
- Justin Trudeau ousted two senior female colleagues critical of him
- Research revealed poor diets kill more people than smoking
- U.K. lawmakers propose breaking up the 'Big Four' accounting firms
- A Libyan rebel general marched on the failed state's capital
|
|
|
|
Babasaheb Ambedkar, dead for half a century, looms over the Indian election. PHOTO: AFP
|
|
|
It's the election issue. There's a lot to get through this week. We'll start in Bratislava and trace our way east and south, across Europe and Asia, to India. To our Maldivian and Andorran readers: we're sorry we couldn't fit your votes in.
Nationalism, populism and other euphemisms
On Sunday Slovakia elected its first female president. 48-year-old Zazuna Čaputová is an environmental lawyer who sees liberalism and participation in the European Union as key to the country's future. The political novice rocketed into contention on an anti-corruption platform at a time of endemic government graft. In a region awash with masculine right-wing nationalism, she cuts a solitary figure. Slovakia's Polish neighbours to the North are ruled by the conservative and Eurosceptic Law and Justice Party, while to the south lies Hungary, and Viktor Orban's reactionary Fidesz party.
On Slovakia's eastern border, Ukraine held the first round of its presidential elections. The popular TV comic Volodymyr Zelensky came out ahead and will face President Petro Poroshenko in a run-off later in the month. The incumbent's austere and nativist message of "army, language, faith" was evidently not as appealing as the comedian (who rose to fame playing a teacher who accidentally becomes president). Life imitating art? Ukraine is not only grappling with right-wing reactionaries, rampant nationalism, and corruption, it's also in the midst of a dirty war with Moscow. When faced with such adversity, what else is there to do but laugh.
Old dogs, old tricks
Heading south from Ukraine, and across the Black Sea, we end up in Turkey. Here the country's would-be-Sultan has been dealt a ringing blow in local elections. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP has spent over a decade amassing power and eroding Turkey's institutions. Although Erdoğan's base is made up of Turkey's rural and working-poor voters, he began his political life as the mayor of Istanbul, which makes last week's losses even more pronounced. AKP clung on to a narrow lead nationwide, but the CHP (Republican People's Party) opposition won the mayorships of Istanbul, the capital Ankara, and Izmir. Change is afoot in Turkey.
Continuing our southward journey from Turkey, Israel goes to the polls on Tuesday to confirm or deny Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tilt at a fifth term. Trump's recent declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Syria's Golan Heights has given Bibi a small boost in the polls, but his chances have been shortened by Benny Gantz's Blue and White Party, and by continuing charges of corruption. While Bibi is fighting for his political skin a new crop of politicians is coming to the fore. Moshe Feiglin – who may just be a kingmaker in the Knesset – typifies the surreal nature of modern Israeli discourse: he is a firm advocate of both the legalisation of marijuana, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. But don't write-off the man they call King Bibi just yet.
Full power, 24 hour
Next week voting begins in 91 constituencies (across 20 states) as part of India's Lok Sabha (lower house) general election. It will take a full month for each of the country's 900 million registered voters to have their say in the world's largest democratic exercise. Their woes are many: soaring unemployment, unprecedented ecological and agrarian collapse, and the rise of radical Hindu nationalism. But whether these will be enough to topple Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP government remains to be seen. And while the Congress Party opposition (home of the Gandhi political dynasty) has run a populist campaign promising a minimum basic income ($1000 to the poorest 20% of households) – many voters simply don't believe them.
There are two constituencies whose votes will carry outsized importance this year: rural women and lower castes. Women in rural areas have traditionally had significantly lower participation rates than those in the cities. Exacerbating this problem of under-representation was the common phenomenon of rural women being coerced into voting as their families wanted them to. This is changing rapidly. If the current trends are correct then women across India will have a higher participation rate than men: a momentous occasion. Still, it must be noted that there are at least 20, even possibly 30, million women missing off India's voting roll, almost all of them in the north of the country.
Despite the fact that it was formally banned in 1950, the caste-system remains an unavoidable part of millions of lives in India. It has been in place for more than two thousand years, after all. Those living in India's larger metropolises and southern states have dissolved these social binds more quickly than the 70% of people who call the country's numerous small villages their home. This year the lower caste groups (some having been sidelined for a millennium) have become a must-win demographic for both the BJP and Congress. In 2014, Modi swept aside the parties representing lower-caste Indians, but they have grown in significance since then. Massive street protests in 2018 helped reshape the perception of lower-caste parties as a meaningful political bloc. It's why you'll see images of B.R. Ambedkar (like the ones above) next week; more than half a century after his death, the 'untouchable' who became the architect of India's constitution remains an inspiration for the country's 200 million Dalits.
As with the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, and the Sabarimala protests, this election will reify the collision between India's modern political form and its ancient cultural heritage.
|
|
|
|
. PHOTO: Jill Mead / Guardian
|
|
Mind the gap
April 2 is Equal Pay Day so hopefully you spent it interrogating your friends, family and colleagues about their earnings. In the United Kingdom April 4 is the date set for British companies to report their gender pay gap. It's a very simple way to hold companies to account, and last year's figures showed that eight out of ten companies and charities with more than 250 employees had a pay gap that favoured men (to the tune of, on average, 14%). This year is scarcely better.
One of the key problems is that while the gender pay gap is closing (albeit agonisingly slowly) the gender wealth gap is not. Equal pay is a fine goal but until women are hired into the same number of high-paying roles as their male counterparts there will continue to be gender wealth disparity. Dovetailing with this is the fact that equally-paid women are still overwhelmingly more likely to take significant time out of the workforce to raise children and care for family members.
On the other side of the Atlantic the extent of the pay gap has been known for generations: in the last US census women earned 81c for every dollar a man made. Despite this, there is a new collective delusion taking hold. One poll revealed forehead-slapping statistics about how American men view the gender pay gap. 46% of respondents believed that the pay gap has been "made up to serve a political purpose" and one quarter of the respondents aged 18-34 described it as "fake news". Which begs the question: do these men know any women?
|
|
|
|
Please leave these sweet creatures alone. PHOTO: Getty Images
|
|
Komodon't do this
Komodo dragons are truly one of our Earth's great species. They are by far our largest lizard, with adult males weighing in at 70-90 kilograms. The largest one ever recorded weighed 166 kilograms and was over three metres in length. Their sturdy frames waddle all over the eastern Indonesian archipelago, from rocky ridges down to the beaches. Komodo dragons feed on deer, monkeys, snakes and occasionally each other. There are perhaps 5,000 of these noble beasts left in the wild.
And, like so many of our planet's great species – they're under threat from humans. They are both endangered and protected under Indonesian law. But the law, and their venomous bite, hasn't stopped the black market trade. This week nine Indonesians were charged with selling 41 dragons on Facebook (of all places) for tens of thousands of dollars each. While animal smuggling is an easy target –our curiosity is not. Tourism to the Komodo National Park has increased exponentially in recent years, an acceleration that has degraded the dragons' natural habitat. So much so that park authorities have announced a partial closure from 2020 – for an entire year – to revegetate the islands and reintroduce dwindling stocks of prey. Best of luck to these marvellous monitors.
|
|
|
|
Got him. PHOTO: Mohamed Messara
|
|
Bouteflika resigns
Weeks of incessant mass protests have felled one of North Africa's longest-lasting leaders, Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The man who steered the country out of the morass of its insurrection years – but failed to deliver on economic promises – has left the presidential palace after two decades in power. The 82-year-old invalid has not been fit for office by any reasonable measure since he was laid low by illness in 2013. But like so many of his ilk, he blindly clung to power; a fact that he has asked forgiveness for. Algerians are now demanding social and economic reforms that will improve their lives.
Changing of the guard
As the Japanese emperor Akihito abdicates the throne, an era ends. Since 1989 Japan has lived in the imperial era of 'heisei' – a conjunction of two kanji characters that means "peace everywhere". It's true that Japan (if not everywhere else) has enjoyed a peaceful three decades. This week the name of the new era was revealed – with no small measure of pomp – 'reiwa'. The characters are drawn from the 8th century text Manyoshu, specifically from the introduction to 34 poems about plum trees. It means "beautiful harmony". Amen.
|
|
|
|
A UNFAO food delivery. PHOTO: Marco Frattini / WFP
|
|
Idai threatens mutliply
Weeks after Cyclone Idai tore a swath across south-east Africa the dangers continue to mount. Idai tragically washed away a sizeable portion of Mozambique's breadbasket. These were not just subsistence farms – they were the fields that provided grain and produce for the rest of the country (a net grain importer).
The emergency resources unfurled by international aid groups is nought but a stop-gap for the hunger that follows. Right now one million Mozambicans are facing an imminent food crisis, though this number is sure to rise.
Overstaying your welcome
The Ecuadoran embassy in London is rumoured to be on the verge of kicking Australian fugitive Julian Assange out. The Wikileaks founder has been holed up in the protected building since 2012; free to agitate for his cause, and apparently to not look after his room.
While the Swedish sexual harassment case has long since fizzled, Assange's supporters suspect there will be attempts to extradite him to America. To be fair, the American authorities have not exactly disabused them of this notion. Will he face the same fate as Chelsea Manning?
|
|
Quote of the week
"There is no doubt, right?"
– Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's response to reporters when asked whether he thought that Nazism was a left-wing movement. This is a profoundly incorrect and wilful misreading of history. Gallingly, the reporters were Israelis: Bolsonaro had just spent the day at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial - a centre dedicated to the Jewish victims of right-wing fascism. Words don't mean anything anymore.
Headline of the week
Japan: Almost half of workers unhappy about being given extra holiday days, survey claims.
– The Independent
Special mention
Without a doubt our special mention this week goes to a gaggle of Polish Catholic priests who held a book-burning of "witchcraft" texts. What witchcraft texts, you ask? They included the likes of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, and the Twilight books. The group of pyromanic priests is called SMS from Heaven (yes, they mostly send bible quotes to your phone) and has only recently branched into torching "sacrilegious" texts. Full disclosure: we have singed a few copies of Francis Fukuyama's The End of History in our time.
Some choice long-reads
|
|
EDITOR'S NOTE: We debated whether to induce a sense of plodding resignation with another interminable update about Brexit this week, but opted not to.
In its stead, please enjoy this story about the clothing brand Patagonia which sent shockwaves rippling across California (at least from San Mateo to Mountain View) by announcing that it would no longer supply outdoor-wear to corporations with poor environmental records. Now if only AllBirds would do the same...
Tom Wharton
@trwinwriting
P.S. Get the most out of inkl, the fastest and easiest way for you to stay informed. Every month we unlock more than 200,000 articles from 100 of the world's best sources for just 10 cents per article or US$10 per month. Click on this link and choose your plan now.
P.P.S. If you have friends, please tell them about us. If you don't, write to us. We'll write back.
|
|
|
|
