LONGS: This Is Manila, this is a stunner

Hello friends!

Here’s the ELEVEN (bonus one at the end) things I read from around the region this month that really made me stop and think or I low-key obsessed over for a couple of days or found myself trying to recount in bar conversation and not doing any justice.

I know I say this a lot, but this really is very Philippines heavy this month. If you’re a regional-based journalist who does work that fits with what I’m doing here, please let me know! Send that link!

If you’d like to sign up to the regular twice-weekly Asean news and analysis wraps do so here for $6 a month/$60 the full year:

See you next month!Erin Cook

How a little-known pro-Kremlin analyst became a Philippine expert overnight - Coda and Rappler

Rappler has done an extraordinary job documenting the links between the Duterte administration and Russian trolls who have turned Philippine social media into an abusive minefield. But this investigation with Coda is unlike anything I’d read previously. It looks at how one commentator, Adam Garrie, has become a familiar face in Philippine media. Garrie seemingly came out of nowhere but the investigation shows he has long been linked to Russian state media. Yowzers.  

Is tourism endangering these giant lizards? - Science

In January, Indonesian authorities said it would shut down the Komodo National Park for a year to sort out the reptile population. It’s a bit of a trend at the moment to shut up shop in Asean’s top tourist destinations but that’s usually got a bit of a stronger basis than this situation. Researchers can’t think of any good reason for the national park to be shut down but do say that protecting the komodo population outside of the park’s perimetre is a real good place to start.

When the story comes before the survivor - Columbia Journalism Review

I know this one, on the callous reporting methods in Bangladesh’s Rohingya camps, was widely spread but I can’t get over it. It speaks for itself: There are good reasons to interview survivors of sexual violence. Their stories can attract international sympathy and assistance, and the act of recounting trauma, and of having one’s story told, can sometimes be healing. But journalists who assume their reporting will only have positive consequences are often wrong.

Know Nothing, Say Nothing: What it’s truly like to get an abortion in Thailand - Coconuts

Abortion is one of few things that truly unites Asean. A lack of access and information is widespread, if not entirely illegal. This piece from Coconuts looks at what the law says in Thailand and a women’s health community keen to arm young Thai women with the information they need to make informed choices. Allegations that medical schools, even in Bangkok, boycott training in procedures are alarming. And even if a doctor is trained in how to conduct an abortion, many medical experts have their own sexist ideas about health and the role of women.

Myanmar's LGBT community: between old laws and enduring stigma - Frontier Myanmar

Much like abortion, attacks on Asean’s LGBT community binds. In Myanmar, outdated laws criminalise the community and feed cultural fears. To identify as LGBT in Myanmar is often seen as an admission of wrongdoing in a previous life and brings with it isolation and stigma. And then there’s the local filmmakers, intent on turning LGBT Burmese into punchlines or deviants. “We don’t need more rights [than others]. Our demand is for equal rights without discrimination,” advocate Ko Nay Lin says.

How the world got hooked on palm oil - The Guardian

I wonder if this is the same in Malaysia. Here in Jakarta, talking about palm oil production and exports (and imports for home countries if foreign) is a lot more complicated than the ads with orangutan I grew up watching would have me believe. This longread from the Guardian touches (very) briefly on these challenges, but it’s largely a look at how palm oil came to dominate consumer products. The role of the IMF in Indonesia is particularly interesting to me but I do have a gripe that the implication is that the industry was developed by the impetus of neo-liberalism without reflecting on the very real people reliant on that industry now.

‘This is Manila’ - Washington Post

Anyone who follows Lynzy Billing on Twitter has been taken along for this journey. This is a stunner so I’ll just leave it to her and Regine Cabato to explain. The Washington Post found the victim’s name: Ferdinand Jhon Santos, or Dingdong to those who knew him. He was 44. His life unraveled after a bright beginning: dreams of ad­ven­ture, striving for a foothold in Manila’s middle class. Then came drugs, a shattered marriage and the lure of fast cash.

I would like to add that Lynzy and Regine (as well as the WaPo) have been under attack online by the usual suspects and their ‘fake news’ nonsense. Not only is this one of the best pieces of reporting out of Manila in an age, the push back to it shows just how deeply its impact is felt. Good on them! Imagine ever producing something as tough as this.

44 Philippine species at risk of disappearing - CNN Philippines

This is a bit different to our usual LONGS fare. This is more a listicle of the very sad kind. After the news the tawilis fish, endemic to the Philippines, is now under threat CNN Philippines has brought together other flora and fauna at home in the archipelago which are also endangered. Some of them are sadly kind of obvious. Five out of the world’s seven sea turtle types are in the Philippines and all of them are endangered. Others are more curious, like the destruction of wild Arabica beans.

How Manila was destroyed in a bloody, brutal battle that killed 100,000 civilians - Esquire PH

This piece, and no doubt the actual book, sparked some conversation on Twitter over the historical veracity of the claims but I still included it because: whoa. Esquire Philippines spoke with author James M. Scott about last year’s Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila. It looks at General MacArthur after he left the Philippines and Japan seized Manila and the ensuing battle. MacArthur fully thought the Seppos had the Philippines on lock and wanted to have a big parade when a journalist had to be like ‘ummm literally no offence but Imperial Japan has invaded and now no one can get into the capital.’ So what did the Americans do? What they do best, of course! An estimated 100,000 to 240,000 civilians were killed.

Female artists challenge Vietnam’s gender stereotypes - OZY

Pham Hong is a Vietnamese multimedia artist using her work to question the country’s traditional gender roles. She’s not alone. This piece from OZY looks at the new crop of women artists as well as new gallery and performance spaces. Both the artists and these new public spaces have faced censorship. But they’re pursuing the push for change they’ve started, and their work, experts say, could transform broader gender equations in Vietnamese society. There’s a couple of paragraphs looking at the historical role of women in Vietnam, particularly during the Doi Moi-era and I’m fascinated.

Heat Waves: I’m a Survivor - Wheeler Centre

Friend-of-the-letter Luky Annash, macet and Destiny’s Child? Say no more!