Solidaritas #37
Burmese garment workers take on international fashion brands, and the beginning and possible end of free childcare in Australia
Good morning and happy Monday! I hope you’re all doing well wherever you are these days, be it at home or a temporary home or your parents’ place or quarantine or…
As always, if you’d like to shift to a paid subscription, click the button below! For just US$5/month or US$40/year, you’ll be helping take care of the ~50 street cats we feed in Jakarta. We feed them, sterilise them, and take them to the vet when they’re ill, and while it’s not cheap, it is worth it to give them better lives.
Afghanistan
One of the most devastating pieces of news I’ve possibly ever read: two babies and 14 mothers and nurses were killed in a terrorist attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul. Ezzatullah Mehrdad takes a deeper look at the impact of such an attack and what it means for peace in Afghanistan, while Reuters followed up and discovered that nursing mothers were volunteering to breastfeed the 17 babies left without mums.
Australia
The Australian government introduced free childcare during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the industry wouldn’t collapse. Now, they’re looking at removing those temporary subsidies, but many parents are hoping childcare will remain free.
A domestic violence removalist company in Queensland says coronavirus isolation has increased their workload by 60 per cent.
Law reforms in Victoria have removed the requirement for transgender people to first have "sex affirmation" or gender reassignment surgery before they could legally change their sex.
Burma
Predictably, COVID-19 has deepened the inequity between garment workers and the fashion labels they supply clothes and accessories for. The brands have been rebranding themselves as saviors through ensuring store staff receive full wages during lockdowns and shiting their factories to produce PPE, but Nishita Jha says the facts on the factory floor tell a different story.
Fiji
Battling climate change and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, Noelene Nabulivou says the challenges facing Fiji are intertwined.
India
The Keralan health minister, KK Shailaja, deftly handled and essentially defeated coronavirus in her state. She’s a former teacher whose deputy health ministers are all medically-trained, and who acted fast (way back in January!) to stop COVID-19 from devastating Kerala.
Reema Nanavaty, director of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India, writes about her organization’s findings on how the lockdown is affecting women in the informal economy.
For decades, millions of Indian men have migrated away from rural areas to seek employment in cities. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing men to go back home, a reverse migration crisis is exposing risks to rural women’s resilience.
Indonesia
An Indonesian student initialed IM has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by over 30 women, including two in Melbourne where he is currently studying under the Australian government-funded Australia Awards program. You can sign the petition demanding they withdraw IM’s scholarship here.
Julia Winterflood takes a look at the impressive array of transwomen’s support initiatives that have popped up in response to COVID-19 across Indonesia. The initiatives are particularly heart-warming and reassuring when you remember how rampant transphobia remains.
How palm oil is exacerbating gender inequality in Indigenous Dayak communities in Kalimantan.
Will Indonesia see a baby boom following COVID-19 lockdowns? It’s quite possible, with many couples unable to access their regular family planning services.
Malaysia
The Immigration Department carried out a series of raids on migrants last week, detaining thousands - including hundreds of women and children - from Burma, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and other countries. It is unclear what will happen to them.
Nepal
Sadly, Nepal has recorded its first COVID-19 death: a 29-year-old woman who had given birth in hospital a week earlier. She was discharged following the birth and both her and her baby returned home, where she began to experience a fever and respiratory difficulties. She died on the way to hospital.
Papua New Guinea
PNG’s health system is already under huge pressure from maternal mortality and a huge array of deadly diseases. Can the government use COVID-19 to re-assess health services and improve them?
Women in East New Britain are facing increasing domestic violence, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse in their communities as logging and oil palm plantations have moved in. Women say they’ve felt sidelined in discussions about this type of land “development.”
Regional
How is the #metoo movement going in different countries? Well, it’s complicated, say activists.
Singapore
A look at new research from LBTQ organisation Sayoni about violence and discrimination against queer and trans women in Singapore at home, in schools, and in public spaces.
A really enlightening Twitter thread from HOME about the impact COVID-19 is having on the 250,000 domestic workers in Singapore.
Taiwan
Antonia Timmerman writes about the Homemakers United Foundation, who have been raising awareness about environmental issues in Taiwan - which used to be nicknamed ‘Garbage Island’ - for more than 30 years.
Vietnam
Tu Nguyen never had a formal sex education class when he was at school. So what made him and his friends set out to teach teens about sex?
The Vietnamese government has introduced a new family planning policy that aims to increase fertility rates. Young Vietnamese people will be encouraged to marry by 30 and start having children by 35. Local governments may even be tasked to run matchmaking classes. (via Mike Tatarski’s Vietnam Weekly)