Fortunately, Canberra only has a few COVID cases right now and no known community transition, so I spent a few hours at a new friend’s house today, eating soto Betawi and playing with her cat. Time well spent.
As always, if you’re enjoying Solidaritas, paid subscriptions are available for US$5/month or much much cheaper at US$40/year. Have a lovely weekend!
-Kate
Read
The most interesting read of the week for me was this Guardian piece by Chika Oduah on Aisha Wakil, the ‘Mama’ of hundreds of Boko Haram boys, who is trying to get them to leave the terrorist group and return to society.
A good summary (albeit with a US-centric headline) from NYT on increasing autocratic control of digital media outlets around the world.
Amandeep Kaur explores Malay kueh in Singapore for Goya magazine. Now I want ang ku kueh.
Sophie Cunningham wrote a devastating piece for Meanjin called ‘If You Choose to Stay, We May Not Be Able to Save You’:
What a delusion it was that we—that any of us—could dodge what was coming. Our houses were on fire through summer, and now we are hunkering down in them—if we are lucky enough—as a pandemic grips the entire globe.
Angelia Baker on her attempts to read every unread book on her bookshelves during the pandemic. (via Stuart McDonald, thanks!)
This gave me a good chuckle: Indigenous group apologise after accidentally blowing up Rio Tinto’s headquarters, from The Chaser.
I’m three-quarters of the way through Curtis Sittenfeld’s new book, Rodham, which is a re-imagining Hillary Rodham’s life if she’d dated but never married Bill Clinton. It’s superb and has had me lying in bed devouring it until 1am every night recently.
Watch/listen to
In the 1970s, a New Zealand group called The Sisters Overseas Services (SOS) supported women to travel from NZ to Sydney to obtain abortions after the 1977 Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act made it virtually impossible for Kiwi women to terminate unwanted pregnancies in their own country. ABC’s The History Lesson podcast spoke to SOS members about their activities.
I finished season 4 of The Good Fight and it was utterly bizarre and completely addictive, with its lawyers and investigators entrusted with looking into the death of Jeffrey Epstein. If you’ve seen it and are curious how the show’s creators developed a decent finale earlier than expected (thanks, COVID-19), read this interview. Also: Marissa Gold (played by Sarah Steele) is now one of my favourite TV characters.
Cook
I made nasi lemak (Malaysian coconut rice with various side dishes) a few weeks ago and realised I never shared it here. No ikan bilis (dried anchovies), so I made orek tempe (stir-fried sweet and spicy tempe) instead.
The ayam rendang (slow-cooked chicken) was great, but what particularly impressed me was the sambal. I hadn’t made nasi lemak-style sambal before and while it took a good 20 minutes to cook, I was astonished at how close it tasted to ‘the real thing’. I’ll definitely be using that recipe again.