Yagi brings death and disaster to the Mekong

Hello friends!

I’m writing to you today from the not-so-hot Rote Island of Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province. Yesterday’s planned newsletter quietly died after I accidentally got the slow boat instead of the fast boat (it is slower than slow, but very nice all the same). 

Today, we’ve got two horrendous updates and then a lovely third one. And, of course, I’m using a Moo-Deng photo for click reasons. What a doll! 

Premium readers, I’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow with an update on maritime Southeast Asia. If you’re not on that list and would like to be join us here: 

See you then!
Erin Cook

🇻🇳 🇲🇲 🇱🇦 Typhoon Yagi smashes region

The clean-up in underway after the massive Typhoon Yagi hit across the Mekong region earlier in the month. This happened during peak Pope season, so I have really dropped the ball on it. Mike Tatarski at Vietnam Weekly has a report here of how Vietnam fared. 

As of Tuesday, 291 people had been reported killed and a further 30 remain missing after landslides and flooding wreaked havoc across the country. ‘Industrial production in several northern provinces was halted, 235,000 houses were damaged and more than 300,000 hectares of rice and cash crops were inundated,’ Reuters reports. Another storm is expected to hit later today or early tomorrow.  

For super-economic-growth-minded Vietnam, the typhoon is a financial disaster as well as a human one. Damage is expected to top out at 40 trillion dong (US$1.6 billion) and slow growth down for a year, Bloomberg reports. The Ministry of Planning and Investment estimates it will cut 0.15 percent off this year’s growth. 

In Myanmar, the tolls are similar but the stakes are so different. An estimated 226 people have been killed across the country and the clean-up is monumental — so monumental that the junta has reached out to the international community for aid. 

The BBC has a grim but comprehensive report here which includes United Nations data showing devastation across a huge swath of the country, including spots that have fallen from junta control. In Shan State, where the junta has lost control to local militia, local communities are virtually on their own after flooding cut off access. “We have collected over 100 dead bodies so far, including children and elderly people. We're still searching for over 200 more,” a volunteer told BBC.

A similar story in Kayah State. Khon Matia, an official (of some description, Myanmar’s patchwork is particularly confusing at the moment), lays the situation out: “There is no offer of international aid. People are in a more difficult position here because everything is blocked because of the floods and the war. So it is very difficult to reach us.” 

It’s a bit of a pickle for the junta. If you want to govern (‘govern’), this is the time. In its cynical style, the Irrawaddy is less than impressed with junta efforts at this stage, noting that during previous natural disasters, the military has done nothing — and often actively made things worse — when it comes to rolling out aid or coordinating with foreign agencies. It’s an intriguing and saddening look at how disaster management, crucial to a country like Myanmar, has taken a back seat under the junta. 

It follows a ‘rare request’ issued by Gen. Min Aung Hlaing over the weekend that officials should “contact foreign countries to receive rescue and relief aid to be provided to the victims,” DW reports via a New Light of Myanmar piece. 

The news out of Laos has been typically cagey. I haven’t been able to find a death toll or numbers of displaced, but Radio Free Asia reports local data from last week that at least 35 villages to the north had been affected. 

Channel News Asia reports the Singapore Armed Forces is on the move to deliver aid to parts of Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos. Caritas Singapore, Humanity Matters, Singapore Red Cross, Relief Singapore and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management are all involved in the mission.  

🇲🇾 ‘Cult’ and sex crimes allegations in Malaysia

A horror story emerged out of Malaysia last week after more than 400 children were removed from homes run by Global Ikhwan Services and Business, an organisation with links to the banned religious sect. The children ranged from infants to 17-year-olds, Reuters reports. Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain told media 171 adults have been arrested following raids across two states. The arrests include religious teachers. Razarudin says police had received reports children had been sodomised by instructors and, in turn, gone on to sodomise other children. 

Investigations relating to child abuse and human trafficking are continuing, but GISB has denied all allegations and demanded and investigation into the police. Police allege children were separated from their families ‘for fear of undermining their loyalty to the group,’ SCMP reports here.

Following Reuters’ initial report, the wire has since published a fascinating look into GISB and the sect it is related to. ‘GISB acknowledges links to the religious sect Al-Arqam, which was banned in 1994, and names the sect's late preacher Ashaari Muhammad as its founder, but has largely sought to distance itself from the group's practices and beliefs, which the government views as heretical,’ Reuters report. 

Nine members have been charged with a variety of crimes, including witness intimidation. 

🇹🇭 Welcome to stardom, Moo-Deng

After two dreadful stories, here’s something lovely — though you hardly need me to tell you about it. Moo-Deng, the tiny two-month-old pygmy hippo from Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi, has been everywhere (someone renamed our group chat for her). More than 2.5 million people follow her on TikTok and other platforms and she has broken from the Southeast Asia social media containment zone into a bona fide worldwide celebrity. 

“The moment I saw Moo-Deng born, I set a goal to make her famous, but I never expected it would spread abroad. I thought she could be famous in Thailand but not internationally,” zookeeper Atthapon Nundee told the Guardian in this charming piece. 

It’s been bittersweet. He reports that Moo-Deng (‘bouncy pork’) has brought in plenty of new visitors to the zoo, but some are behaving poorly and harassing the poor baby to perform for cameras. All Moo-Deng really wants is to sleep! “I hope that the cuteness of Moo-Deng will raise awareness for people to come and learn about [the species],” Atthapon said.