Week #13 Articles {February 8, '21}

Articles Written By Ananya Nayar and Misaki Tomiyama, Website edited by Misaki Tomiyama

Articles for this week-

World News-

• Post-Capitol Riots, AOC’s Experience

• Yemen War- Joe Biden Ends Support To Saudi

• Calls for Aung San Suu Kyi release

India News-

• Twitter, Celebrities and the Farmer Protests

Other Articles-

• This Week’s Topic- Should Zoos and Aquariums be banned?

• This Week in History

• This Day Signifies

Post-Capitol Riots, AOC’s Experience

Article written by Ananya Nayar

TW: Violence

The storming of the Capitol building in the beginning of this year was not only seen as an act of terrorism from many perspectives, but also as a violent protest by Republic extremists. It was one of the biggest security breaches in history and people viewed it as Trump’s supporters “last opportunity to overturn the results of the presidential election.”

Recently, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or AOC, a U.S Representative, went live on Instagram to talk about her experience during the Capitol Riots, and the aftermath. Critics falsely claimed that from her location she couldn’t have experienced what she said she did, and that she lied about her location on January 6th. On the date, AOC was on the Capitol Complex, but in the Cannon House Office Building, which is connected to the main building through tunnels.

During her Instagram livestream, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez spoke about how she is a survivor of s*xual assault, and how as a person of colour, she thought that she was going to die. She recounted the experience and said that the building was being evacuated, and that “when I was in my office when I heard loud, violent bangs on my door, like someone was trying to break the door down. And there were no voices. There were no yells. No one saying who they were, nobody identifying themselves.” she described how she rushed to hide in her bathroom, and locked the door behind her. Later, she said that she thought it was a better idea to hide in the closet, and she opened the door to go to hide in the cupboard. She talked about how she head a man who entered her office shouting “Where is she? Where is she?” aggressively, and as she tried to keep completely silent and still, she told the livestream about the trauma she experienced and how she thought she was going to die. “I felt that if this was the journey that my life was taking, that I felt that things were going to be ok, and that, you know, I had fulfilled my purpose.”

Then she heard a man who had entered her office, yelling, "Where is she? Where is she?" As she tried to keep completely still and silent, "I thought I was going to die," she said. AOC also brought to light that the Capitol officer was behaving extremely rough and harsh, and she did not feel protected.

However, AOC’s experience has also been questioned, and many have been saying that this story is highly exaggerated. The false claims about her statements have spread widely online, n Thursday, Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, tweeted, “I’m two doors down from @aoc and no insurrectionists stormed our hallway.” More people’s statements differed from Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s account, and confirmed that the Cannon building was threatened, even though the rioters did not ultimately breach it.

Yemen War- Joe Biden Ends Support To Saudi

Article Written by Misaki Tomiyama

There has been an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen since 2014, the fighting began between the government of Yemen, and the Houthi’s rebel movement. The United States along with a few other countries like the UK and France, against the Houthis, had been backing the government of Yemen, and it’s Saudi-led allies. The backing included the sale of munitions etc.

On Thursday, however, Joe Biden, the current president of the United States, ended support for Saudi Arabia’s participation in the Yemen crisis, and implemented several actions that supported refugees who are suffering in the region.

In his first major foreign policy speech, President Joe Biden had mentioned that "The war in Yemen must end." Approximately 110,000 people are said to have died over this six year long devastation, and Biden is showing support to the refugees, by announcing several policies that include increasing the refugee acceptance in the US. They have increased the refugee acceptances from 15,000 to 125,000.

Joe Biden has also announced that he will appoint Timothy Lenderking, a veteran diplomat, as an envoy for Yemen.

Calls for Aung San Suu Kyi release

Article By Misaki Tomiyama

In Myanmar the military is back in charge, following a general election won by the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Suu Kyi, and has declared a year long state of emergency.

Suu Kyi is an activist who is fighting for freedom from the army generals who have bene ruling Myanmar for many years. She is a receiver of the Nobel Peace prize award, and led her NLD to victory in 2015, in Myanmar's first openly contested election. However, she, along with a few other political leaders, were arrested by the military in 2021.

Aung San Suu Kyi is famous worldwide for restoring democracy in the 1990s. However, she was put in detention for 15 years between 1989 and 2010. On the day she was arrested, she addressed to her allies that they should "protest against the coup". Many people took protests on the streets to call for the release for Aung San Suu Kyi. The protestors showed a three finger salute- symbol of defiance adopted from the protests that occurred in Thailand during their protests- borrowed from the Hunger Games movie.

Currently, the commander in chief, Min Aung Hlaing, has power.

Twitter, Celebrities and the Farmer Protests

Article By Ananya Nayar

Following the Farmer Protests, International Celebrities started speaking about what’s happening in India, including Rihanna, Greta Thunberg, Meena Harris and many more.

The idea that foreign influencers are now speaking about the issue in India angered domestic Indian celebrities, and Rihanna is currently facing backlash for tweeting about the protests. Many Indian Celebrities announced that Rihanna should not be speaking about issues that don’t concern her because she doesn’t live in India, and they said that they should speak about the situation, instead of her because Rihanna allegedly doesn’t have the ‘nationalism and unity that the Indian citizens have.’

She was criticised for putting herself into the protests against laws that were created and supported by the Indian Government. Kangana Ranaut, a supporter of the BJP Party that is currently in power quoted “No one is talking about it because they are not farmers, they are terrorists who are trying to divide India.” Many people have talked about how the Indian Celebrities with major platforms may not have known about the protests or didn’t want to bring unity, but these protests have been going on since September. Nobody is showing the peaceful side of the protest, they are focusing on the violence that unfolded on Republic day after the Government decided to not budge the slightest on these laws.

Thousands of farmers have already suicided after knowing that they will be in further debt after these laws pass.

Rumours have started speculating, however, they are not yet addressed. Apparently, the Indian Government has started taking down twitter pages that have been spreading awareness and speaking about the Farmer Protest situation in India. It depicts the statement on the account saying “this account has been withheld in India due to legal demand.” Many are expressing their concern for the oppressive signs that are coming.

On top of that, private journalists and writers for newspapers have been slapped with legal notices. The media is competitive here, and BBC and more news stations have reported that journalists have been attacked in the past when they wrote about the aftermath of religious riots and protests concerning female harassment. One of the editors from Caravan, one of the twitter accounts that was taken down, stated that “there is a narrative here which is very dangerous. We live in polarized times where critics of the government are branded as anti-nationals. It is the job of journalists to ask questions to people in power,” quoted by Vinod Jose.

Many believe India is becoming unsafe for journalists. Sixty-seven journalists were arrested and nearly 200 physically attacked in 2020, according to a study by Geeta Seshu for the Free Speech Collective.

This Week’s Topic: Should Zoos and Aquariums be banned?

Article By Ananya Nayar

Growing up we’ve all been to Sea World, the National Zoo and more, we’ve all stared in awe and the fantastic animals when they do flips or run after food or just sit and eat in fact. The big debate going around these days is ‘should aquariums and zoos be banned?’

Zoos have existed in some form since at least 2500 BCE in Egypt and Mesopotamia, where records indicate giraffes, bears, dolphins, and other animals were kept by aristocrats. The oldest still operating zoo in the world, Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna, opened in the mid 18th century.

Aquariums and zoos are the prime factor of animal captivity, they encourage it too. Let’s go through the controversy and why these public animal entertainment showrooms are extremely horrible and detrimental for both animals and humans.

Firstly, many zoo employees are not trained or have not studied in the correct field of science or work to understand what the animals and fish require- exotic animals have been removed from their natural habitat and forced to adapt to an entirely new climate, zookeepers can’t even feed them their correct diet! A case of this was a gorilla named ‘Madame Ningo,’ she arrived in the US in 1911 and despite being a herbivore, she was force fed hot meals and cooked meat. This is just one incident, but it happens everyday.

Zoos started with saying that they save animals from extinction, they promote scientific research and curiosity, but now people have seen that zoos and aquariums have started to cause damage to the creatures mentally and physically, imprisoning them, and taking advantage. These places do not educate the public as much as they make out they do, there is no attitude change about wildlife conservation, animal imprisonment, education and more, in fact it seems as if these places are promoting animal confinement!

By nature, all animals require freedom and space, they need to roam around, find their food, and explore their habitats. Zoos and aquariums are so enclosed and caged that animals can hardly do their normal activities that they would do in nature, which damages their physical health by not letting them grow properly in adequate space. Small enclosure studies have shown that 70% of gorillas in captivity have heart problems because of the confinement, and 65% of infant polar bears died due to the limited space provided. It’s also extremely physiologically depressing for them, their entire lives are spent cooped up within a cage. Many animals have shown signs of, or have OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder,) or clinical depression, anxiety and more solely due to the way they are treated.

Humans have previously put blue whales (the world’s largest animal) in spaces just 10’s of meters larger than themselves. Wild orcas and other dolphins live in large, complex social groups and swim vast distances every day in the open ocean. In captivity, they can only swim in endless circles inside tanks that, to them, are the equivalent of human bathtubs.

Recently, footage of employees at SeaWorld and more aquariums has circulated across media and the internet, videos show workers abusing, s*xually assaulting, beating up and tazing endangered animals or forcing them to reproduce.

Furthermore, animals inevitably lose their natural instincts in captivity and they become dependent on humans. So, when they are released into the wild, animals can’t survive on their own and pass away.

Did you know that zoos also aren’t safe for humans? The mental state put them in a place where they lash out and even kill people. Many animals in previous incidents have been killed after humans got too close and they almost hurt the children. If we didn’t have zoos, nobody’s lives would be in danger.

Zoos are the problem, not the solution to animal conservation, and if we don’t help make a change in these majestic animals lives, they will perish and become endangered.

Links for donations + petitions

help.animalsasia.org

change.org

Please visit these links if you would like to donate to save the animals or if you would just like to sign the petition to make a change.

This Week in History

Article by Ananya Nayar

On February 6th, 1952 in Britain, King George VI passed away, and Elizabeth being the older sibling became Queen Elizabeth II. The King had been suffering from illness for a long time, and peacefully passed away in his sleep, leaving his oldest daughter Elizabeth to succeed him.

This day signifies

Article By Misaki Tomiyama

Did you know? February 11th is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science, is celebrated every year on the 11th of February, to celebrate and honor the notable and important achievements in the fields of science (which include several sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics- also known as STEM) made by women. A lot of women in the past, such as Physicist Marie Curie, Katherine Johnson, ​Edith Clarke and more, have accomplished several significant achievements in the past that have shaped the perception of women, and their involvement in STEM, as well as bringing in several advancements in the fields. On this day, people learn about contributions of women to science, by learning history etc, and also encourage girls to seek and learn more about what they are passionate about.