LONGS Cleaning up Cambodia, one village at a time

Hello friends!

Here are your best reads from the last month or so to work your way through over the week.

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Erin Cook

🇵🇭 ‘I’ll keep fighting’: Philippine women keep alive memory of sex slave horrors during World War II - Washington PostA dark chapter in the Philippines’ (already dark) history is going to be gone in just a few years. Surviving Filipina comfort women, that is women forced into sexual slavery by the invading Japanese Imperial army in World War 2, are growing old quickly. Their story has been hidden for decades but those left are making sure it will never be forgotten. This is a very moving, depressing one from Regine Cabato.

🇮🇩 Chinese Indonesians in Taiwan struggle with language and identity to find acceptance - SCMPIt doesn’t matter how long Chinese-Indonesians live in Taiwan, they won’t be accepted. “When I am in Taiwan, I am considered a foreigner. But when I go back to Indonesia, I am also considered a foreigner,” Darwin Chandra says. The ethnic minority community fled to the island in huge numbers from the late 1980s until 2007, National Museum of Taiwan History data shows.

🇻🇳 50 years later, a daunting cleanup of the Vietnam War’s toxic legacy continues - PBSIn Bien Hoa, an industrial city near-ish to HCMC, a decades-long clean-up is underway. It used to be home to the busiest airport of the war and now the canals are full of dioxin — the byproduct of Agent Orange. Cleaning it up is a joint effort by the US and Vietnam but it won’t be easy. “It will involve the treatment of enough contaminated soils and sediments to fill 200 Olympic-size swimming pools, and it will cost at least $390 million, and possibly much more.”

🇹🇱 The revered crocodiles of this island nation have suddenly started killing people - New York TimesWe’ve talked in Dari Mulut ke Mulut before about how crocodiles from Northern Australia are swimming further north to Timor-Leste leading to an increase in attacks. Nightmare stuff. But this one from New York Times looks deeper into how the Timorese feel about it all. “The people believe that these crocs are our ancestors, and ancestors don’t go attacking people,” Demetrio Carvalho says. “Our grandparents don’t kill us.” Cracking photos too.

🇲🇲 For Rohingya refugees, there’s no return in sight - Foreign AffairsIn our regular Dari Mulut ke Mulut, we’ve followed along as the Bangladeshi government becomes increasingly stressed and frustrated by the Rohingya crisis in Cox’s Bazar. Despite being initially welcoming to the Rohingya minority, as the months become years it’s clear there are no easy solutions and Dhaka is scrambling. This from Foreign Affairs looks at how and why this all got so complicated.

🇮🇩 Indonesia's first all-Trans Girlband: AMUBA - VICE IndonesiaAnother brilliant video from our pals at VICE Indonesia! This looks at Amuba, the four-piece all-trans band in Yogyakarta. It’s more than just a band though, the group offers a place for other young trans Indonesians looking for a community.

🇲🇲 The village where hairstyles are a dating code - BBCA hair style in Yay Pote Gyi, central Myanmar, tells us much more that personal preference. A centuries long tradition has women using their hair to signal their life stages — young, old, married, not ready yet. “Before I had this hairstyle, boys were not interested in me,” says one young woman in the video. Maybe I should try it, this sloppy girl top bun isn’t working.

🇵🇭A popular Philippine cop show is real political theater as its actors run for office - Washington PostAng Probinsyano isn’t like many of the other soaps airing on telly at the moment. It’s ditched the blurred lines of love triangles and betrayals for a straight good vs. evil cop drama. It’s also turned into a breeding ground for lawmakers. At least seven actors who have appeared on Ang Probinsyano ran in May’s elections, with three picking up seats.

🇹🇭Could serial child killer and cannibal Si Quey, bogeyman for Thai children, have been an innocent scapegoat? - SCMPThis one has been a few weeks coming. The remains of Si Quey Sae-ung can be seen as Bangkok’s horrible forensics museum, but the story that has long accompanied his body is probably not accurate. He was executed in the 1950s and dubbed a child serial killer, with police saying he mutilated the bodies of victims and cannibalised remains. What probably happened, amateur true crime sleuths say, is he killed one child and has been held responsible for other unresolved cases.

🇰🇭 Cambodia’s islands are under threat. This woman is trying to save them. - CSMOeun Sina is the deputy head of fishing village on a small island off the mainland of Cambodia. She’s seen her local environment and the livelihoods of her community destroyed by plastic waste and over fishing, but she’s got a plan to save it. She says education is key and helping her community understand the dangers.

🇲🇲 As a Child, She Fled Violence. Now Her Fists Could Bring Her Stardom - OZYEh Eh moved to Yangon from the sticks about a decade ago. She’s training to be Myanmar’s top woman fighter, taking up Lethwei, a local bareknuckle boxing style, and MMA. It was a long and bloody road that got her to taking up martial arts with a childhood spent hiding from the conflict in her home Kayin State. Fighting doesn’t pay well, but she won’t be shaken.

🇲🇲Orban and Aung San Suu Kyi gave in to hate the same way - Foreign PolicyI was proper off it the other day when Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi met up with Hungary’s Viktor Orban and the pair sounded off about how much they hate Muslims and the community is ruining their respective continents. The pair have much more in common than just being revolting, both were once seen as hopes for the future and both are ultra-educated. Oddly, Myanmar and Hungary also have some things in common. I love this read!

🇲🇾What really happened to Malaysia’s missing airplane - The AtlanticI haven’t read this and I probably won’t. I have horrific anxiety around flying and this won’t help. Of course, I need to include it regardless! There’s been a lot of talk around this piece and what the Malaysian government does and does not know so the fall-out may be even more interesting.

🇧🇳Are politics regressing to premodern forms? - The AtlanticI am not a fan of the lede in this, but moving beyond it and it’s an interesting read. It isn’t a great one in you’re looking for long analysis on Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and his rule, but a more esoteric history of deference for leaders. It is American, so heavy on the American comparisons. Still, Graeme Wood has a loooong career in covering Islam and his input on sodomy laws in the Islamic world is brilliantly illuminating.