Too much plastic, not enough coffee

Das estimates that Myitkyina has up to 400 Hare Krishna followers, making it the largest of the movement’s communities in Myanmar. Waingmaw Township, across the Ayeyarwady River from the state capital, has some followers among the township’s Gurkha community, which was estimated at 15,000 in 2016.

There are twelve brahmachari living at the Hare Krishna temple in Myitkyina, many of whom are from other parts of the country. They include Sana Thanda Ram, 19, who moved to Myitkyina in 2010 after hearing a visiting brahmachari speak in Aung Lan, his hometown in Magway Region. His daily activities include chanting, studying and helping with communal cooking.

So what are the alternatives for producers and consumers? I put the question to Andre Dananjaya, Line Producer of Pulau Plastik (Plastic Island), a collaborative campaign tackling the issue of single-use plastic in Bali and beyond. Pulau Plastik leverages popular culture through social media campaigns, short videos, and a feature-length documentary to increase awareness about the hazards of single-use plastic, change people’s behavior, and advocate for change.

“One of the most effective methods for coffee outlets to reduce waste is to offer incentives to customers who bring their own tumbler,” Andre contends. “But make sure it’s clean so baristas don’t have to do that for you,” he adds. “Another incentive could be a reward for customers who return their plastic cups, which can then be brought to a waste bank or recycling center.”

As an altar server, I had to be very careful of my actions lest I be reprimanded or laughed at by our leader. I had to be obedient to my parents if I wanted to please God. Sticking to the rules defined my faith.

I know something was fundamentally missing with that kind of faith, but that was how I was taught. Growing up and slowly realizing the limitations of my image of God, I had to unlearn many things from my childhood for me to be able to embrace God's love.

The problem in the real world is that other people and other mosquitoes keep migrating into the areas being treated, messing up the experiments. But from a theoretical perspective Simmons sees Wolbachia as potentially a way to wipe out dengue entirely.

"If you had a big island," he proposes, "[and] you stop people from moving in and out of that island, and you put Wolbachia across all the mosquitoes on that island, the science suggests that you'll eliminate dengue in that location."

Chang has a simple hope. If Taiwanese people understand Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand more, they will treat the migrant workers on the basis of friendliness and equality. Brilliant Time now employs three staff members and rents a three-storey building in New Taipei City, instead of Taiwan’s capital of Taipei, in order to keep down operating expenses and commuting time. Chang and Liao fund the store from their own pocket, along with some donations.

“We hope Taiwanese people know there is a bookstore and the books inside are written in Bahasa Indonesia, in Thai, and the Taiwanese people would be surprised,” he says. Understanding grows from knowledge, as both he and Liao chant together.

Martinez remembers that their village wasn't always like this. She recalls basketball tournaments and grand feasts that their community once held, so popular that visitors from nearby towns would flock to watch performances, and celebrate mass at the church.

The court is now fully submerged, and the church that was once filled with devotees is stained with moss.

Still, Arnulfo Abad, 51, the engine-room fitter, who has spent most of the last three decades on cargo ships, said he was grateful for the work. “The sea gave me my life,” he said.

The men on the ship are the sons of fishermen, carpenters and rice farmers. To be an officer — which most men aspire to — requires a college degree. Some who graduated paid for those degrees on the earnings from backyard piggeries, or made their pocket money selling Popsicles on the street.

They left behind lives in provincial villages where they could expect to make $100 a month. They earn 10 times that amount, often more, at sea.

But Singapore’s elite have other concerns. A senior official told the Financial Times that the PAP government “is terrified that something similar could happen in Singapore,” and that contingency plans are being crafted in case Singaporeans get ideas.

Contingency plans are fine, but it’s a bizarre fear. While some Singaporeans might be sympathetic to Hong Kongers’ aspirations for universal suffrage and civil and political rights, it’s highly unlikely that the heat of Hong Kong’s summer of dissent will spread to the city-state.

They wanted people and lawmakers to care about the bill like they did. In September, nearing the end of the term of the previous House lawmakers, they pitched in some money to buy large flower boards for lawmakers. One of the boards said, “Pak and Bu lawmakers, 10,000 people have fallen victim to sexual violence while the bill has been deliberated. Pass the bill.”

In the end, the lawmakers did not pass the bill as they ended their term on Sept. 30. Some did not agree to some of the articles and argued that the bill would encourage free sex and LGBT sex.

Indhira did not understand these arguments. To her, this bill is crucial to prevent other people from what she and her youngest daughter had suffered for years.

They had spray-painted the phrases “If Andres were still alive," "Abolish de facto martial law,” and "What is the leader’s answer to martial law?" in Filipino on posts in the LRT’s Recto Station in Manila.

They were later caught by the Manila Police District (MPD) for vandalism and allegedly “interfering in police duties.” The police claimed that one of the artists resisted arrest by pushing the arresting officer.

According to a statement from Panday Sining, the four artists were allegedly “manhandled and beaten while being dragged out of a jeepney by officers in plainclothes.”

“I think he’s a new citizen and I don’t think he blended in, he didn’t integrate well,” Goh said, echoing the views of most respondents in a survey by the Institute of Policy Studies research centre. Close to seven in 10 of 4,015 citizens and permanent residents polled thought immigrants were not doing enough to integrate into Singapore.

Trinity Joan, an administrator for a start-up, said the anger towards Erramalli was “not race-based” but rather about nationalism.

“We need to protect our own. If someone misbehaves and is not from our country, we need to have a sense of nationalism and say: ‘You disrespected a Singaporean, so you’re out’,” the 30-year-old said.

The arrests underscore a heightened sense of fear and paranoia in Negros, where activists regularly report receiving anonymous threats, being followed by unidentified men and subjected to police or military “visits”.

A number of Teatro Obrero members said their families continue to receive such “visits” and that they are afraid of returning home – a tactic that Clarizza Singson, chair of the Negros chapter of Philippine rights group Karapatan, described as a possible attempt to “force them to testify” against other detainees.

Through interactive exhibitions, artifacts and recreated spaces; the museum captures seven decades of known and secret history, from Patpong’s origins, to the American spooks plotting coups in its safehouses, its days as a corporate crossroads and emergence as one of the world’s most notorious red-light districts. 

“Everybody knows Patpong, but they don’t really know the stories behind Patpong,” said Michael Messner, the Austrian founder who several weeks ago achieved his long-held dream of opening the museum.

Vibeke Lengkong of I'm an Angel, a local charity that provides water aid to villages in drought-stricken parts of Bali, said the authorities had exacerbated the crisis.

"The government has built pipelines to divert water up there from the central lakes, but there's no water flowing in the pipes because of a lack of funding and corruption that impacts every level of government in Bali," she said.

"They talk about providing the basic needs of the people, but then they go and sell huge amounts of water to companies like Coca-Cola and Danone-AQUA that have big factories in Bali."

Lengkong estimates that the average tourist uses between 2,000 and 4,000 litres (528 - 1,057 gallons) of water a day, a figure based on daily water use in luxurious resorts and villas, as well as for swimming pools, gardens and golf courses and building ever more tourist infrastructure.