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
My favourite piece of the past week: a photo essay on the street vendors of Queens, New York. Read this on a desktop if you can.
How western travel influencers got tangled up in Pakistan's politics. This is an astonishing read!:
White travel influencers, who often receive extraordinary privileges such as access to restricted areas and meetings with top officials, have been useful to a government trying to sell a new vision of the country – and the debate about their role has divided Pakistan. “The military wants to control the discourse,” I was told by Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US. “They want to shut down all dissenting voices.” To Haqqani, the influencers were part of the “discourse industry” that the government had promoted.
A new HIV injection appears to be significantly more effective in women than taking daily pills. And you’d only have to have it six times a year!
An interesting look at the Indigenous Seed Growers Network, a US network that emerged during the pandemic.
Fast internet is reaching the Pacific islands, bringing both benefits and concerns.
Watch and listen
I’ve nearly finished watching Long Way Up, in which Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman travel from Ushuaia (southernmost point of South America) to LA on electric motorbikes. It’s great - the scenery is spectacular, the roads are often bad, and the struggle to charge the bikes is maddening.
John and Hank Green make me happy because they remind me there are some very good and kind and generous people in the world.
Eat
I’ve been craving ketupat sayur Padang (compressed rice cakes in curry soup with jackfruit, beans, tofu, and chicken) and an old friend of mine has begun selling it in Canberra through an Indonesian food WA group. It was perfect:
I would also like to recommend this Mother’s Recipe amla (Indian gooseberry) pickle. Sour and delicious.