Weekend reads: Switching grades for Switch games

Is this hottie mayor a future president of the Philippines?

Hello friends!

As promised to premium readers, I think this weekend reads is the best yet. So many great features from all over the place covering such a broad range of subjects. 

Also just a lil news. I’ve joined the smarties at Coconuts Jakarta to take over the Indonesia Intelligencer newsletter. Take a look and join us. 

I haven’t done too much this month because my sister got married and her constant screeching at me really ate into productivity. But! I did have a Hot Take on how Australia always bleats on about how we need to Know Indonesia Better but then do nothing to actually deepen that relationship, despite all the great reporting from both Australian and Indonesian media. Great, now I’ve triggered myself again.

If you’re not on that premium list and would like to get on it, do so here! It’s $6 a month or $60 for the year and group memberships are available:

Thanks, everyone!Erin Cook

I haven’t finished this yet, but I chose to read the first section over watching Succession on a flight this week which is probably the highest praise I can give anything. Steven has been very helpful to me for years as I try to deepen my understanding of the Philippines, always quick to send through a link or two or clarify a take. Now it’s in book form! I’m also super into just the concept and set-up of this — do it for the rest of Asean! 

This is a fascinating read from Lowy Institute’s Interpreter on how postage stamps (I think I remember those things) have historically been used by the government to “send political signals.” This piece makes the case that a fresh release of stamps released by Myanmar Post celebrating various ethnic groups shows it is continuing under Aung San Suu Kyi. And where there’s talk of ethnicity in Myanmar, there’s controversy.  

We have been talking a lot about the Mekong lately in the premium Dari Mulut ke Mulut, especially around dam construction in Laos. This piece from NYT looks at how dropping water levels are destroying lives along Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake. The Mekong is a gorgeous feat, but the lake is even more special. Home to critically endangered species and a specific type of sediment, what’s at stake is jarring.  

A great complement to this one is another from NYT, this time from Hannah Beech. It’s more straight-reporting looking at the Mekong River Commission and what’s at stake with all the damn damming. 

The aspara dance, performed by women in royal courts, goes all the way back to the 7th century and now one all-gay troupe is upending tradition. Detractors say by casting gay men in the roles, the group is undermining Khmer culture. But, founder Prumsodun Ok says, it’s “very important to create new stories and new images of what it means to be Khmer.”

I am thrilled friend of the letter Stanley Widianto wrote this. Englishbusters and accounts similar to it are big fans of shaming influencers (and smaller accounts!) for their English language mistakes. It’s very mean-spirited and gets extra on my nerves when we think about how Indonesians are more likely than anyone else on earth to speak three or more languages. What’s an errant apostrophe when your brain is a language-genius! Read it, he does a better job (as always) of explaining it. 

In education-obsessed Singapore, the eSports career path isn’t an option for most. Most young Singaporeans are expected to enter the job market with a degree (and two years of NS under their belts), but with eSports rising is their room for another option? I really struggle to take eSports reporting seriously because most gaming I do is Duolingo and the NYT Crosswords app but this is a really interesting one touching on more than just Fortnite. 

Rising waters are forcing families living along the Mekong to flee for Ho Chi Minh City. Around 20 percent of the country lives in those river areas, causing mass migration as more and more flee. But young Vietnamese people won’t just sit and wait for the water to lap at the doors. They’re getting out there to make a change. 

The filthy wealth of the well-connected Cambodian elite has been well established, but this report from Reuters really digs into where the money is. Mostly on Instagram, being embarrassing. Members of Hun Sen’s family and his inner circle are flaunting their possibly ill-got riches and paid-for European citizenships while the Prime Minister rages on with nationalism. It’s not just cringey social media flexing though, it’s notorious figures from the country getting away with it while ordinary Cambodians struggle to get by.

Vico Sotto, the new mayor of Pasig in Metro Manila, first came onto my radar a few months back when he complained to media that too many people ask him about his marital status and love life. The 30-year-old cutie is the son of actors — though his uncle being ol’ Senate President Tito Sotto is more immediately relevant — and represents a new generation of leadership. That new generation is facing some very old-school problems though, can he fix Pasig? And then what?

I think this will be one of Asia Foundation’s most-read pieces this month, it’s been everywhere! Laura McDowell looks at the Teki Toke radio show, broadcast across Timor-Leste on community radio. The show, part of an Asia Foundation project, discusses gender and family violence. In Timor-Leste, it’s a valuable resource. One survey found that 59 percent of Timorese women and girls between 15 and 49 years old have experienced sexual and physical violence in their lifetimes. 

With one year to go until Myanmar’s next election, the Dateline gang at Irrawaddy has gathered to discuss what we should expect to see in the months ahead. Rumours about the poll date being brought forward are swirling and, the team says, the Union Election Commission must do more to calm worries. It’s long and dense but shows how much work is left for reform. 

Singapore has been consumed with the nasty story of the SG Nasi Lemak group chat on Telegram. The chat, which had over 40,000 members before it was nuked, shared photos of women including porn and upskirt shots. Yuck. There are criminal investigations underway but in the meantime, here’s a ripping read on how women fought back online. 

Chan Nyein Aung is in big trouble. The Burmese activist is the subject of this damning report from VICE investigating years of allegations that Chan Nyein Aung, through his Charity-Oriented Myanmar, sexually harassed and even assaulted multiple women. This looks at how he has been protected by some in the humanitarian sector and how women are fighting back. Sadly, VICE is able to link it to a broader trend across the region. 

I never get tired of Maria Ressa profiles, but this is a new standard. I think I really like it because it goes more into her career instead of just focusing on the post-Rappler/Duterte stoushing. Also, because it’s American, it flirts with the ‘Trump of Asia’ bullshit I hate, but does a very, very good job of laying out that uh, Duterte’s worse. Plus it speaks with Salvador Panelo, whom I am obsessed with. Nothing else to say but: read it. 

What’s lost when a quietly iconic feature of daily Myanmar life is replaced with the ease and convenience of plastic bottles? 

Hannah Beech has been very hard-working this month. This on a visit to Rakhine State isn’t her longest work I’ve seen, but I think it’s the most jarring. We all know the government narrative on Rohingya repatriation isn’t right but to see her explain it through photographs, videos and audio drives it home. I’m not sure how this works on mobile but I super recommend reading it on desktop.

Great video from Al Jazeera on Wa State, how it exists and what it looks like there. Don’t expect them to get involved in peace talks. 

This profile on Siti Aisyah is the perfect complement to one of my fave ever Asean long reads (the GQ one on the assassination itself). It looks into how she went from a gal hoping to be a television star to jail in Malaysia all the way back to her parents’ place in Java. This is so obvious it’s nearly not even worth saying, but holy smokes these blokes are scumbags for what they did to her and Doan Thi Huong. 

Tse Chi Lop is a baaaad guy. Mr X, who? Asia’s drug kingpin is the China-born Canadian-national who, as Reuters reports, controls much of the Asia Pacific’s drug trade and supplies “Japan’s Yakuza, Australia's biker gangs and ethnic Chinese gangs across Southeast Asia” among others. Here’s his story of how a boy from Guangdong became the subject of investigations including police from half the freaking planet.  

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