Alastair McCready
@AlMcCready1
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News producer covering Gaza and APAC for @AJEnglish Former APAC editor with @viceworldnews and Editor-in-Chief at @sea_globe
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Joined November 2016
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Special Economic Zones across the Mekong region are becoming little more than officially sanctioned criminal enclaves. In Laos, some of the most infamous of these SEZs exist. I went to a couple of them last month for Nikkei — they were extremely bleak places…
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Our APAC team has been decimated amid widespread layoffs today at VICE World News. A sad day for us all, but that means some of these fantastic reporters & editors in Hong Kong, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia & Japan are available. Hire them!
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Incredible that this indigenous group, all of whom are illiterate, signed a contract with a private company under the impression it was for free housing. Turns out, they signed away their land to a plantation – all with government officers present
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There were once North Korean restaurants all across Asia. Today, outside of Russia and China, there are five. Four of those are in Laos (one in Hanoi)—I visited them two weeks ago, and at the risk of falling into NK cliches, they were strange, eerie and baffling places 🧵
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@post_vermouth
@RobinVochelet
@anthonyocampo
The FAQs on this website are unreal. Like they're talking about a pet.
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Hello Twitter friends. Really happy to announce that this week I assumed the role of Southeast Asia editor for
@VICEWorldNews
. Email address and call for pitches to come – but for now, here is my first piece ...
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Last July, international outcry began growing around Cambodia’s scam industry. A year on, we’re still waiting for a similar moment with Myanmar, where scam parks are thriving.
@amendelson_
and I spoke with experts and survivors—we heard some unimaginably brutal accounts 1/11
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The economic outlook in Laos is incredibly bleak, and we don't even know the true scale of the crisis. In my latest piece for Nikkei,
@LowyInstitute
economist
@mariza_cooray
told me "Laos' debt crisis is a lot bigger than the world realizes". But it's shrouded in secrecy🧵
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But hard to capture all this context in a few tweets (Xs?). Check out the full story for Nikkei below, edited by
@sharp_writing
.
“Will Laos' economic zones boost growth or bring in criminals?”
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A hornbill eating out of a trash can feels very Phnom Penh
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So while it’s impossible to know for certain, best guess is that these empty, utterly depressing and seemingly purposeless restaurants could be playing a (small) role in sustaining Pyongyang’s WMD programme. Read my full piece for AJ
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I've spent the past month piecing together the global harm caused by the rise of
#pigbutchering
scam centres in
#Cambodia
. From human trafficking victims, to people like Cindy Tsai, a terminally ill woman scammed out of millions of dollars.
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Even by Cambodian standards this is quite the road-closing convoy
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@theycallmelyd
@VICE
Hi Lydia. Sorry to see this, it's incredibly disturbing. I'm the editor at
@SEA_GLOBE
in PP, I want to highlight what's happened here. Would you be up for a chat? DM me with contact info if so. Thank you.
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Weirdest of all was perhaps the fake Western brands. As convincing as it may look, this is not a real KFC (I confirmed it with their APAC office). There was also a fake Starbucks in the zone until recently.
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Things I did not expect to see in Phnom Penh today, part 1:
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About to take a bit of break from this whole editor thing after 18 months of non-stop work. Thought I'd mark today with my final piece of reporting for a while – something looking at the ill-fated,
@USEmbPhnomPenh
-funded CambodiaCheck project
#Cambodia
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First was Boten, a small cluster of shoddily built high-rise towers jutting out of northern Laos’ mountainous landscape on the border with Yunnan province. It’s basically Chinese territory now, running on Beijing time and using the Chinese yuan.
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But this isn’t just a Laos issue.
@rshorsey
told me the trend of criminal SEZs across the Mekong region is a “huge concern” for the international community in that they facilitate transnational crime like money laundering, drug smuggling and online scams.
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I've spent today hearing haunting testimony from survivors who've escaped Myanmar's scam industry. Shutting this down in all its forms, wherever it exists, is vitally important. The first step is awareness it's happening, & Dubai has flown under the radar
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But scratch the surface and you’ll see why it’s the most infamous SEZ in Southeast Asia. Within 10 minutes of arriving, a guard from Myanmar approached me on the street, warned me of all the online scam centers in the zone and offered to sell me 20 yaba pills (meth) for $14
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At the market, I was offered pangolin scales ($1.50 each), bear teeth ($7) and elephant skin ($14) to boost libido. But while Boten is attempting to be a legit SEZ,
@Jason_Tower79
told me its economic prospects look bleak and it’s in danger of once again taking a criminal pivot
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They are a wonderful and talented bunch
@hellokoyu
,
@alanwongw
,
@natashya_g
,
@gav_butler
,
@rachel_cheung1
,
@SaharHGhazi
,
@calebquinley
,
@pallavipundir
,
@JCGotinga
,
@HanakoMontgome1
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I saw a guy walking down the street holding a protected baby macaque. A falcon was held in a cage. These are small-scale examples of why the SEZ’s owner, Chinese gangster Zhao Wei, has been sanctioned by the US for leading a “transnational criminal empire” out of the zone
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In the interests of transparency, the Globe is hosting a free webinar open to the public tomorrow morning at 9am Indochina time regarding the
#myanmar
press tour we embarked upon with
#CNN
. We'll be opening ourselves up to questions from the public. Register below to join.
Join us tomorrow at 9am ICT to learn more about Southeast Asia Globe’s recent visit to Myanmar and engage in a discussion with our team about the details surrounding the trip. It’s free to attend. Register here:
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Truly terrible news for press freedom in
#Cambodia
. Bizarre reasoning given for shutting down
@VOD_English
too, undoubtedly a thinly veiled attempt to get them off the scene after months of damaging scam coverage
PM Hun Sen ordered the Ministry of Information to revoke VOD's license from 10 AM tomorrow. He told staff of this media outlet to find a new job.
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@theycallmelyd
@VICE
@SEA_GLOBE
Hi all. Lydia put me in touch with her father, the surviving brother of Khva Leang (incorrectly labelled as Bora in the story). He told us his brother's incredibly moving and powerful true story, you can that read here.
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But the GTSEZ is economically thriving and Zhao Wei has built an intl airport to serve the zone. It has expanded totally beyond the control of Lao authorities, and is policed by its own security. A Lao enforcement source told me they can’t go inside without permission.
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Suu Kyi also met with former president Win Myint.
"It’s hard to say why this meeting was now allowed," said
@rshorsey
. "But (it) certainly suggests that the regime is feeling more confident – despite the magnitude of the ongoing crisis and resistance."
#WhatsHappeninglnMyanmar
Today, detained
#Myanmar
leader Aung San Suu Kyi voiced defiance in her first public comments since being arrested following a military coup in February, vowing her ousted NLD party would "exist as long as the people exist"
#whatshappeninginmyanmar
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At this point, the word pizza has lost all meaning in Cambodia
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Despite its inability to control the GTSEZ, the Lao government, desperate for FDI, is planning dozens more zones. Sithandone SEZ, on the south border with Cambodia, is perhaps the most concerning.
@jdouglasSEA
told me the mega-casino has the potential to be a new Golden Triangle
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BREAKING FROM PHNOM PENH: Copper is officially declared a good boi
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It was once infamous as a lawless casino town known for drug/Sex trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. Today, it’s reinvented itself as a cross-border commerce hub as the first stop on Laos’ new China-funded railway. Major new buildings are under construction.
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Within 5 minutes of arriving in my hotel room I had two separate cards slipped under my door offering sex workers. I messaged them on WhatsApp — the pimps told me Chinese women were the most expensive, Vietnamese second, and Laotian women cheapest.
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Wrote a piece with
@Teirrabyte
revealing the extent of forest loss in
#Cambodia
at the hands of garment factories producing items for Western brands
@lauriefdparsons
provided us with unseen data showing the worst brands. Top offender was a surprise...
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This might be my favourite piece I've ever reported. All started last week, cycling past the Royal Palace, spotting this crumbling building. Ended up chatting with
@nate_thayer
,
@robinmcdowell
and Post founder Michael Hayes this week, learning of the Renakse's incredible history.
“The Renakse Hotel was a hub of those of us jump-starting the return of the free press to Indochina back in 1991,” said Nate Thayer. In today's feature
@AlMcCready1
explores the history of the now-crumbling landmark hotel
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Journalism is hard. We're real tired over here at the Globe, so for the sake of all our mental health we're doing the unthinkable and ... not publishing for one week.
Take care out there.
Our team works hard to publish original features Monday through Friday, but this type of journalism takes a lot of time and energy to produce. For the sake of our
#mentalhealth
and well-being we're taking a 1 week editorial holiday to reset and recharge.
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A long 10-hour day trekking with government and Wildlife Alliance park rangers through the Cardamoms with
@ahaffner1
. Here they've just found a small logging operation in the forest and unearthed the mechanical buffalo used to transport the wood.
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So much of our reporting couldn’t make it into these two pieces, and we’ll continue to report on this issue in the coming months. Read below.
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In a
@KhmerTimes
article in June,
@ZebHogan
of
@mekongwonders
said that the June discovery of a giant stingray “shows that China’s dam construction doesn’t affect the Lower Mekong’s ecosystem.”
Except he didn't. And he never even spoke to them, says
@HoangThiHaISEAS
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At the Golden Triangle SEZ, my next stop via a 6 hour minibus from Boten, that ship sailed long ago. The GTSEZ maintains a veneer of normalcy, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a normal (if ugly) city of coffee shops, hotels, restaurants and public squares
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This tweet is doing the rounds, so here's a little more on my (ex) colleagues:
There's
@hellokoyu
in Singapore. An enthusiastic, talented young reporter with a great attitude. There are few people I've enjoyed working with more. A bright future in this industry, snap her up.
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Incredible work
@nickturse
. How the callous manoeuvrings of men in Washington destroyed the lives of countless Cambodians, wiping out whole communities.
“I still wonder why those aircraft always attacked in this area. Why did they drop bombs here?”
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It looks at the slaughter of 15 dogs and one cat by authorities in a quarantine centre
#Vietnam
over the weekend, and how that's prompted an ongoing national reckoning over animal welfare in the country.
#standfor16
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Dropping into the old
@phnompenhpost
offices next to Naga on a whim this morn. Strange to see it like this.
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And last, but certainly not least,
@natashya_g
in Sydney.
An empathetic, thoughtful and talented Editor in Chief who built VWN APAC from scratch. A great mentor over the past 18 months, someone I can see rising to the very top of journalism.
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Romanian dictator Ceaucescu in Cambodia in 1978, greeted by Pol Pot and touring Angkor Wat. One of only two foreign heads, the other Myanmar's Ne Win, to visit under KR. Makes you wonder where he stayed, what he ate, how much he knew of what was occurring
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Freed from criminal gangs in
#Cambodia
, people inside immigration detention centers, many of them human trafficking victims, told
@rachel_cheung1
that they are now being extorted and asked for bribes to simply access bedding, food, or just to return home.
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Before we get stuck in, it’s important to note that (in theory at least) none of these should exist. UN sanctions, passed in response to Pyongyang’s intercontinental missile test in 2017, required all member states to repatriate all NK workers/close NK businesses by Dec. 2019
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When Cambodian street mutt meets golden retriever, a Copper is born
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Last week
@ahaffner1
and I set off for the Cardamom mountains. We were set to join
@WildlifeRescue
and government park rangers (pictured) as they patrolled the forest for loggers and poachers. It turned into a very interesting trip for a few reasons ...
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It’s a revenue stream “keeping the regime alive,” NK expert Remco Breuker told me, while an anonymous diplomatic source told me there are indications it’s becoming “the most important source of income for the DPRK.” So how do the restaurants fit into this?
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But you have to leave the capital for the least explicable of Laos’ NK establishments. The town of Vang Vieng is better known for tubing and backpackers, but on its outskirts is another Sindat BBQ. I visited on Sat night, it was totally empty—I couldn’t understand its purpose…
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@ngaphambbc
@karmanomad
Academic Hoang Minh Vu published a great piece on this today, looking at how the conflict shaped the Cold War.
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Powerful piece capturing the wider struggle for land rights among
#Malaysia
's indigenous groups by
@yaohualaw
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The Wanchalearm abduction case is off the radar for most by this point. But important update as his Sitanun sister looks set to be charged for speaking at a rally. She told
@Teirrabyte
and I it was an attempt to silence her campaign for justice
#Thailand
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Stanton said IT workers in Laos would probably be hacking, stealing cryptocurrency and planting malware, the proceeds from which are “good for nothing” until they pass through NK’s money-laundering network, “which, at its outer fringes, involves things like restaurants in Laos”
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There’s the Paektu-Hanna restaurant in Vientiane. A banquet hall at the bottom of a condo block, there were about 10 customers being serenaded by a cover band playing Harry Nilsson’s 1971 hit “Without You” when I visited. I was offered a bottle of North Korean beer for $10
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In China/Russia/Laos, there’s a growing cohort of NK “IT workers” believed to be responsible for the theft of billions of dollars each year through cyber crime. The US estimated each IT worker was earning “more than $300K per year” to finance NK’s “ballistic missile programs”
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@gav_butler
in Melbourne. Top draw writer, dogged and thorough reporter with endless ideas and a fantastic work ethic. A real gem.
@rachel_cheung1
in Hong Kong. A rare combo of excellent researcher, reporter and writer—some of the cleanest copy you'll come across.
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Careful of this account. They've put an uppercase "i" in the username, copied my account and are DM'ing my followers. God knows why, but I'm sure it's not good
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Joshua Stanton, who helped draft US sanctions against NK, told me: “It would be my number one guess that the restaurants are only there to launder money now.” But what money would they be laundering in Laos?
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This description of Sville from a 2010 Lonely Planet in my Air Bnb
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On the banks of the Mekong river is the Landmark Riverside Mekong Hotel. In its basement is another NK restaurant trying to hide its connections to Pyongyang—the Yue Yuan Chinese Restaurant. There you can buy North Korean tiger bone liquor for a bargain $98
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Stumbled across this Cambodian lo-fi music, remixes of Sinn Sisamouth and the like. Give your ears a lil treat this evening.
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Beautiful short film by
@akiramorita
profiling Kong Sovannaro, a deaf tuk tuk driver in Phnom Penh. Being deaf in Cambodia can't be easy, but the community depicted here is so moving. Happy to have helped get this made as part of an
@AngkorPhotoFest
grant
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@HanakoMontgome1
in Tokyo. Incredibly versatile reporter—can go from producing text, to video, to social media content in one day.
@pallavipundir
in India. A fearless, brave and hard working reporter in a journalism climate rampant with misogyny and threats of violence.
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I'm struggling to believe anyone would think this was ok.
@mycolorfulpast
@VICE
please tell me we are missing something here?
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Most countries (except notably China/Russia) have complied. In Laos, almost four years since that deadline passed, restaurants stagger on. With almost no customers, stripped of most NK references, their purpose in Pyongyang’s overseas money-making empire is more opaque than ever
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Read the piece here. There's more on Laos' economy to come from me in the coming week
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About 5 mins drive away is Sindat BBQ (formerly Pyongyang Restaurant). It’s trying to hide its NK connections these days, but there are clues—like the fridge stocked full of NK alcohol and Korean-speaking staff. I went twice, both times it was totally empty
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@SaharHGhazi
in Pakistan. A great mentor/editor, vast knowledge of South Asia and a wonderful eye for an angle.
@calebquinley
in Thailand. An editor with an excellent rapport with reporters. Always on the hunt for a story. Exceptionally strong insight into Thai culture/language
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A deserted riverside in Phnom Penh today. Watch out for
@ahaffner1
's piece tomorrow looking at the human suffering growing from this lockdown with no end in sight
#Cambodia
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@JCGotinga
in Manila. A man of many talents—reporter, editor, video production, social media. He does it all, and with a smile on his face.
@alanwongw
in Hong Kong. As dependable as it gets, sets the standard. I've learned a huge amount from him as managing editor at VICE.
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I wrote something about the continuing trend of forced disappearances of activists, one that is particularly potent across the Mekong region countries.
#Wanchalearm
#ThaiCantBreathe
#save
วันเฉลิม
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Just me, or is it a bit fucking weird that we're all pretty chill that
#Singapore
's ruling People's Action Party still today uses a flash and circle flag—a symbol popularised among far-right groups by the British Union of Fascists.
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Nothing like floating down a river in canoes with old
@ahaffner1
– you can hear a rowdy macaque in the trees. Reporting from the Cardamoms, looking at recent developments in forest destruction down here.
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Every economist I spoke to said they didn't see how Laos was going to get out of this. The debt is just too big (123% of GDP), and their economy too small, to pay it off. Debt forgiveness from China is their only hope, but there's no guarantee of that. What comes next, who knows.
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@vinkjohn
Hi all, this Tweet has taken off. I wanted to speak to a family member of those misrepresented here and spoke with the surviving brother of Khva Leang (incorrectly labelled as Bora in the story). He told us his brother's the true story, you can read here.
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For journos in
#SoutheastAsia
– a safe and secure FB group to connect with others, seek advice, discuss regional
#journalism
issues and pool resources. Join now, share with friends.
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Can't stop thinking about this scene from 1998 North Korean film, A Family Basketball Team, where this woman has to score a penalty kick past her prospective father-in-law to be accepted into the family. Cinema gold.
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I see this young guy leading older women in evening exercise routines on Phnom Penh’s riverside all the time. I’ve created this wholesome narrative in my head that he’s a reformed criminal giving back to society through dance, and I don’t want to know any different
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I hate twitter dogpiles, but this isn't a great response from the artist. If this was the case (which seems doubtful), it 100% should have been stated clearly in the article. It's just not ok to alter historical photographs, particularly of this kind, and not make that very clear
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The EAOs of Shan state are central to the success of any federal army in
#Myanmar
. But decades of mistrust and betrayal, both between one another and the bamar majority, have left alignment with the
@NUGMyanmar
a distant prospect.
Words by
@amendelson_
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Bad govt stats and secretive debt discussions with China—single-handedly keeping the country afloat, but which no one knows the details of—means the debt situation could be worse than we realise. Cooray said she's "never seen anything like" the secrecy in Laos over this.
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Shwe Kokko & KK Park are the most infamous in the Myawaddy area.
@Jason_Tower79
estimated at least 20k workers inside them combined. KK Park (made up of KK I & KK II) has a growing rep for brutality; we saw videos/heard accounts of extreme violence, and one confirmed death 3/11
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