Amika's Asian Studies blog

On Twitter a couple of days ago, I read a story about a guy named John Chau that was killed on a forbidden island in the Bay of Bengal. I read that he was trying to convert the island's residents into Christianity. The Island is called North Sentinel Island and the islanders I've read had a history of repelling outsiders. Indian authorities, along with the fisherman who saw John's body are now trying to figure out how to recover his body. "We have mapped the area with the help of these fishermen. We have not spotted the body yet but we roughly know the area where he is believe to be buried," said Dependra Pathak, a police official in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Sentinelese is considered to be one of the most isolated tribes so his body could be anywhere. Dependra said the group spotted several tribe members carrying bows and arrows walking around the same area where the fishermen said he saw John's body being dragged and buried.

For a woman named Yuki in Malaysia, it is either "cannabis or die". The article talks about a woman named Yuki who relies on smoking weed to help ease her pain from hypokalemia. Malaysia could be considered one of the harshest drug law country. Having a single cannabis plant in your home can result in prison time for life and possession of more than 200g could result in a death sentence. Yuki turned to weed because it helped her deal with her pain, she felt instantly better when she smoked. In her own words, she felt liberated. After several arrests for the possession of marijuana, including her whole entire family being held in a jell cell, Yuki decided to be the face of the campaign to reform Malaysia's drug laws. Since she has become an advocate for marijuana use, she has helped one of her friends escape the death penalty for possession of marijuana. In October, the government announced that it was going to abolish the death penalty completely, but "suspects"

In an article that I found, it told a story about a widow retelling the story of how her husband died because he was overworked. The widow talked about how her husband worked at a food supplier specializing in jangjorim (a Korean side dish). His job was to make sure that production was up to standard and on time. He traveled all the time to oversee production as well. Her husband even worked on Saturdays. The morning before he died, he complained about feeling tired. Around 7pm, his co workers found him collapsed at his office. He was on of hundreds of people in 2017 who died due to being overworked (according to government data). The article also mentioned that South Korea work more hours per week than other countries (OECD countries). Because of the death rate due to overwork in South Korea, in July, the government legislated to reduce the maximum working hours from 68 to 40. President Moon Jae-in said that it would be an "important opportunity to move away from a society of ove

Today on Twitter, I saw an article that said Japan's 28 year old princess Ayako gave up her royal status today (Oct 29th) to marry someone who does not have royal/aristocratic family ties. I decided to search for the article and according to Japan's imperial law, female members of the royal family has to forfeit their titles, status, and allowance if they choose to marry someone who does not have royal or aristocratic family ties. The same rule however does not apply to the male members of the royal family. Princess Ayako married 32 year old Moriya who is an employee of a shipping company. Since princess Ayako decided to marry outside of royalty, she has to give up pretty much everything and take a lump sum of $950,000 from the Japanese government for living expenses. While reading the article, I thought princess Ayako was brave to give up her royal status to marry someone that she loved, despite him not having any royal family ties. I also thought it was odd that the law only

More than 4 million people have casted their ballots in Afghanistan's parliamentary election even though there has been acts of violence and logistical issues. The election had to be extended for one day due to security threats by the Taliban and logistical issues that left people unable to vote on Saturday. On Sunday, up to one million Afghans returned to vote in 76 voting centers. This specific election has been their first parliamentary polls in eight years. The article also mentioned that almost 28 people have been killed in violent incidents while trying to vote on Saturday. The President, Ashraf Ghani thanked everyone from coming out and voting despite the security risks. "By casting your votes, you sent a clear message to the world that you do not want violence, you demonstrated your determination through democracy. You proved to the Taliban that this nation will not surrender to anyone," he said. He also thanked women for also voting as well. "I thank these w

MJ Akbar, a former newspaper editor who is now a junior foreign minister is accused of predatory behavior. Some accusations included inviting women over to hotel rooms for "meetings". Neither MJ Akbar or the foreign ministry have responded to the allegations. Another minister, however said that the allegations must be fake. From other articles that have been posted, I've seen that the MeToo movement has started to grow in India particularly. Because of the MeToo movement, women have started to feel more comfortable about speaking up against harassment and they have also started to come forward about what has happened to them. Since this one accusation, five other women have also came forward with stories about MJ Akbar. Link:  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45808629