Periscope may 2021 Summary

Written by: Aaron Wong Jielun (21-I4), Chao Fangning, Nicole (20-U5), Katelyn Joshy (21-U1), Lay Kai En, Ashley (21-O1), Lim Zi Loong, Zexel (21-E2), Rakshita Murugan (21-E1), Soh Iwin (20-E5), Young Wai Ming, Nicholas (20-E5)

Designed by: Tiew Zuo Yuan Richard (21-I2)

Welcome back to another edition of our monthly summary of the happenings around the world! From COVID-19 happenings like the second wave in India to global affairs such as the rise of Asian American attacks, we have various interesting news summaries in store for you! Read on to find out more!

Global

Pandora’s pledge to cease the sale of mined diamonds 

Pandora, the biggest jewellery maker in the world, has pledged to cease the usage of mined diamonds in an effort to stop unethical production practices. 

The mining of diamonds causes a myriad of negative consequences, including human right violations in which miners are exploited to work under harsh conditions with wages as low as a dollar a day. Environmental degradation also occurs when soils erode and wildlife habitats are destroyed from over-mining. Moreover, mining diamonds spur the rise of civil wars such as the one in the Central African Republic, with military rebels fighting over mining sites and trading diamonds for weapons. While Pandora’s pledge is a heartwarming gesture toward the raising of ethical standards of businesses, more efforts still have to be done to combat this issue. As for Pandora, it is now wholly reliant on laboratory-grown diamonds made of more than 60% of renewable carbon for environmental sustainability. In its pursuit for carbon neutral operations, the jewelry giant also mentioned that it will only utilise recycled metals by 2025. 

The Oprah Winfrey Interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle 

The recent CBS interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was controversial and uncannily mirrored Princess Diana’s historic panorama interview with the BBC. In the interview, Meghan and Harry divulged a few reasons why they chose to leave the Royal family. Firstly, it was because of the lack of support, in which Meghan suffered intense media scrutiny and the Palace did nothing to alleviate the constant harassment by British tabloids, severely affecting the couple’s mental health. She was unable to receive the mental health support she required and was turned away multiple times when she approached senior members of the Royal family and PR staff. There was also alleged discrimination, in which concerns were raised about Meghan’s child’s skin tone. 

The rise of Racism against Asian Americans

The Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Centre revealed that they had received 3795 incidents from 19 March 2020 to 28 February 2021. This is a huge rise compared to about 2600 incidents reported last year. Among the 3795 cases, verbal harassment is the most common type of discrimination at 68.1% of total cases. Shunning and physical assaults are other forms of discrimination, making up 20.5% and 6.2% of cases respectively. The rest are civil rights violations and online harassment. Asian women reported hate incidents 2.3 times more than men, and verbal harassment these women receive involves racist and sexist intentions.

Asian Americans have been discriminated against for generations due to anti-Asian sentiments. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about another “reason” for this discrimination, which caused the sharp rise of Asian discrimination cases this year.

Fortunately, there have been actions taken to address this issue. President Biden urged Congress to swiftly pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. Prominent figures such as tennis star Naomi Osaka, have expressed their feelings about Asian hate and raised awareness of the issue.

Regional

India’s second wave 

In the past few weeks, Indian social media has been flooded with SOS messages; citizens frantically voicing out for urgent oxygen supplies and hospital beds, healthcare frontliners working past 12 hours without food and loo breaks; their bodies drenched in sweat below the layer of protective clothing. Outside the hospitals, bodies are cremated and buried. Such heartbreaking scenes illustrate the dire implications of a brutal second wave of COVID-19 in India.

As cases decreased from September 2020 to mid-February 2021, the Indian Government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ignored the warnings of a second wave despite COVID-19 variants identified as far back as in January.

“We kept warning that the pandemic was not over but no one was listening,” commented Rakesh Mishra, a senior principal scientist and director of the Hyderabad-based Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology. He is currently investigating whether a new homegrown variant — B.1.617 — is the reason behind India’s second surge. 

India broke the world record for COVID-19 cases per day and had passed a whopping 330,000 cases. This surpassed the previous record set by the US. 

COVID-19 situation in Malaysia 

On 15 May 2021, Malaysia broke its own record for the most deaths in a day due to COVID-19 with 44 fatalities. Since the start of the pandemic, Malaysia has seen more than 460,000 of its citizens be diagnosed with COVID-19 and nearly 2,000 deaths. Most cases have been from Kuala Lumpur and Johor, and 466 clusters have been identified in the country. 

In line with the third wave of COVID-19 infections in Malaysia, the country has gone into lockdown for the third time and implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO) to prevent further spread of COVID-19. Under the MCO, visits during Hari Raya Aidilfitri were banned, while wedding banquets were cancelled and schools were closed. Dining in at restaurants is now prohibited while a maximum capacity of 50 people at Aidilfitri prayers in mosques was enforced. 

Prime Minister Muhyiddin has emphasised on discipline while coping with the pandemic, and health officials have warned that the number of infections per day may rise to 8,000 if Malaysians fail to comply with restrictions. 

Local

Singapore returns to Phase 2 Safe Management Measures 

In recent weeks, the number of community COVID-19 cases in Singapore has increased sharply with the health ministry reporting 24 new cases as of last week, the highest daily number since last September. Furthermore, 11 clusters are now active in the community, including places such as the Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Changi Airport’s Terminal 3. As such, Singapore has returned to Phase 2 Safe Management Measures (SMMs). For example, starting on May 16, dining-in is no longer allowed and social gatherings have been capped at 2 people. Education Minister Lawrence Wong has stated that such stricter measures are necessary as many members of the public would have visited Changi Airport in the last few weeks - when the Terminal 3 cluster was more active, hence, there may be hidden cases in the community that have yet to be detected, partly due to the rise in unlinked cases. 

SPH’s Media Business Restructuring 

In what is perhaps the company’s most newsworthy event of all, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH)—Singapore’s media giant which has existed since 1984—revealed on May 6 that it will transform its media business model into a non-profit entity. The transformation is to involve moving its media business over to a newly incorporated daughter company, SPH Media Holdings.

The dramatic move comes amidst a volatile time of the COVID-19 pandemic where its business has been disrupted more heavily than ever. Moreover, before the pandemic, SPH’s revenue had been dipping steadily as print advertisements and print subscriptions declined over the years.

SPH expects the restructuring to ease the financial burdens ailing its media business as the not-for-profit model will enable it to seek funding from public and private sources and let it no longer face the scrutiny of shareholders chasing profitability. This will allow it to focus on quality journalism as well as strengthen its digital capabilities. 

We have now come to the end of this month’s summary. See you in June! 

Bibliography:

1. Bhowmick, N. (2021, May 04). Why India's massive COVID-19 surge is breaking tragic records. Retrieved May 16, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/how-indias-second-wave-became-the-worst-covid-19-surge-in-the-world

2. Conflict and Blood Diamond Facts. (n.d.). Brilliant Earth. Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://www.brilliantearth.com/conflict-diamond-facts/

3. Gupta, M. (2021, March 26). Here Is What You Need To Know About Asian Hate — And How You Can Help. Prestige. https://www.prestigeonline.com/hk/people-events/people/here-is-what-you-need-to-know-about-asian-hate/

4. Lai, L. (2021, May 14). No dining in, social gatherings capped at 2 people from May 16 as S’pore tightens Covid-19 rules. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/no-dining-in-social-gatherings-capped-at-2-people-from-may-16-as-spore-tightens

5. Low Zoey. (2021, May 15). Malaysia reports new daily record of 44 deaths as COVID-19 cases continue to surge. CNA; CNA. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/covid-19-malaysia-44-deaths-new-daily-record-cases-surge-mco-14816024

6. Lyall, S., & Mzezewa, T. (2021, March 8). What We Learned From Meghan and Harry's Interview. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/world/europe/recap-of-harry-meghan-oprah-interview.html. 

7. Qing, A. (2021, May 12). 16 new Covid-19 cases in S’pore, including 7 linked to Changi Airport cluster. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/16-new-covid-19-cases-in-spore-including-7-linked-to-changi-airport-cluster

8. Reuters. (2021, May 13). Singapore reports most COVID-19 cases in 8 months amid airport cluster. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/singapore-reports-most-covid-19-cases-8-months-amid-airport-cluster-2021-05-13/

9. Rob Picheta and Mia Alberti, C. N. N. (2021, February 26). Prince Harry says he left royal life because UK press was 'destroying' his mental health. ABC7 Chicago. https://abc7chicago.com/prince-harry-mental-health-james-cordon-meghan-markle/10372375/. 

10. Tampus, C. (2021, May 14). Changi Airport and other Covid-19 clusters in S’pore: What we know so far. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/2021/05/singapore-covid19-clusters/index.html?shell

11. Tham, D. (2021, May 7). SPH to restructure media business into not-for-profit entity amid falling revenue. Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/sph-media-restructure-not-for-profit-falling-revenue-14753484

12. Tho Xin Yi. (2021, May 10). Malaysia to be placed under another nationwide MCO from May 12: PM Muhyiddin. CNA; CNA. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/malaysia-nationwide-mco-muhyiddin-may-12-june-7-14781314

13. World’s biggest jewellery maker Pandora will no longer use mined diamonds. (2021, May 6). The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/worlds-biggest-jewellery-maker-pandora-will-no-longer-use-mined-diamonds

14. Yam, K. (2021, March 17). There were 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents, mostly against women, in past year. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/there-were-3-800-anti-asian-racist-incidents-mostly-against-n1261257