Spring has well and truly sprung in Canberra. The cherry and plum blossoms are bursting into life everywhere I look, and the weather is finally warming up. I’m sure I’ll be complaining in a couple of months when it’s 40 degrees C and Australia is on fire again, but for now, I’m enjoying this beautiful weather.
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
Writer Jessmyn Ward lost her 33-year-old husband to what appears to have been COVID-19 in January this year. She has now written an astonishingly moving piece about grieving during a global pandemic.
I’ve always loved birds, and now, during lockdown, many others are finding joy in birdwatching for the first time.
Febriana Firdaus on how Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. may be about to be the world’s newest country, and what implications this might have for neighbouring Indonesia with regards to West Papua.
Despite Vietnam’s relative success in controlling the spread of COVID-19, the country’s informal workers are struggling. (via Mike Tatarski’s Vietnam Weekly)
Watch and listen
I’m a huge tea drinker and this short Goldthread video fascinating: it’s about a Chinese couple who make their own green and black tea from wild bushes.
Talking Indonesia interviewed Dr Vanessa Hearman about transnational friendships between Indonesian women and human rights supporters in the West in the 1960s.
7am spoke to Osman Faruqi about the Christchurch mosque massacre and how its perpetrator is inspiring far-right movements around the world.
Cook
For some reason I’ve never cooked san bei ji (three cup chicken) before and I’m now wishing I’d known about it long ago! We made it for dinner last night and it was absolutely scrumptious. Salty and sweet and sticky with the perfect pepperiness from Thai basil and spring onions.