How much the world pays attention to sub-national elections in the #US is extraordinary.
I get it, but the scale is too much. For example - why are #Japanese I meet so more aware about the #Kansas senate race than the #Taipei #Taiwan mayoral election?
Some of this is me, the strange guy who grew up in Kansas but more closely follows #Taiwanese, #Indonesian, or #Chinese politics.
Can #algae challenge corn ethanol? While 40% of US corn goes to fuel, startups like #HutanBio are growing marine algae strains in coastal deserts, seeking to develop a more sustainable alternative.
My first piece for @Ambrook explore whether long-awaited, potentially carbon-negative #biofuels can scale & replace fossil fuels.
https://ambrook.com/offrange/sustainability/dont-sleep-on-algae
Ever wonder why wearing masks is so common in #Japan every spring? A post-WWII reforestation policy to plant just two types of fast-growing trees has triggered a mass-allergy crisis. My latest for @bbc looks at the roots of this 70-year-old blunder and the massive challenge of fixing it. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260515-the-1950s-blunder-which-causes-mass-hay-fever-in-japan
Rare that I get a chance to dig into a passion of mine - #urban transit development!
Read about my one-time home, #Jakarta & how its transformed from the world's most congested city to a model for the global south - but there's still a long way to go.
https://indevelopmentmag.com/jakarta-transit-transformation/
#Indonesia #southeastasia #SEAsia #transportation #transport #trains
Just saw an article refer to a village as being located in "#Indonesia’s Eastern Borneo province."
Strangely, later the article mentions "South Sulawesi" and not Southern Celebes...
Another reason to not use #Google - they'll readily share your data with the government and give you minimal opportunities to respond. It's not worth it.
https://newrepublic.com/post/206088/homeland-security-67-year-old-us-citizen-criticized-email
Moderating a panel next week and asked participants to send presentations in advance.
The two #globalsouth panelists sent them in not only in advance, but wonderful, detailed presentations.
The two #globalnorth panelists? Sent them not only late, but half-hone, bare-bones presentations that they promised to "finish before the panel"
I feel like this is a metaphor for something...
So, in a group I'm in, someone shared a campaign call calling on #Google to stop supporting the #Israel government and end its complicity in war crimes in #Gaza
The platform they're using to share these messages? #GoogleGroups of course. The email account the initial person sent the notice from? #Gmail of course.
Should I call them out and say - shouldn't we stop using a genocide-supporting #platforms?
East #SoutheastAsia have the most populated time zones in the world.
Yet most so-called "global" #civilsociety calls or meetings are set at times that are incredibly inconvenient for those of us here. And, as a result, you see so few #Asians participating in a lot of global networks. It's a self-defeating cycle.
Really sad news from #Myanmar. Ma Wutt Yee Aung sounds like a true hero. We've lost another bright, young leader, someone we should have empowered and elevated, not ignored and allowed an oppresive regime to murder.
It's hip to joke about how ignorant youth are about analog technology and things like payphone because they're "digital natives", but I often find it's older people who are far more dependent and addicted to their phone, big tech platforms like #google or #whatsapp and far more resistant to trying new tools.
The amount of resources being used to find the murderer of a CEO really show how certain lives matter more than others.
If the victim was an immigrant, or a minority in a low-income neighborhood, you can bet there won't be drones spread citywide nor non-stop media attention.
Looking for a #journalist who is in, or has covered, #environmental issues in #India-administrated #Kashmir for a potential cross-border collaborative investigation.
So far, it's been very challenging, so please share widely, or send suggestions to me.
The fact that the deaths of six tourists (all westerners) in #SoutheastAsia (#Laos) is a far bigger story than the 174 #Rohingya who died when their boat sank last week says a lot about how the world values some lives over others.
Both were, technically, groups of travelers. One made up of privileged members, with western passports, whose deaths will likely results in extensive investigation.
The others, nameless, unwanted stateless #refugees left to fend for themselves.
One Japanese #NGO has, with no warning and no inkling of a reason, just stopped responding to me and removed me from their press lists.
The strange thing is that I know people at their other regional offices, and international HQ, in fact, quite well, as we worked together in my pre-journalism days. Interviewed one of them last week for a non-Japan story! I asked them, and higher-ups there, to follow-up and they also never got a response. Really strange.
There are probably at least 50 journalists - nearly all journalists of color working in the global south - that I would rank as more deserving of being freed than #Assange.
For example,
- Huang Xueqin, a #Chinese feminist who covered #MeToo
- #Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj
- #Vietnamese pro-democracy reporter Pham Doan Trang
- Saudi journalist Nazeer Al-Majed.
Why don't their cases get as much attention?
#China #India #SaudiArabia #Vietnam #PressFreedom #Journalism
