Gabriel Thompson

HR: Cited Article

https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/diplomacy/news/bangladesh-get-3b-concessional-loans-south-korea-3311091

 

The News Article I’ve selected discusses new framework signed and put in place between Bangladesh and Korea. Korea agreed to give Bangladesh $3 billion dollars in concessional loans. The money will be given over a course of five years leading up to 2027 under the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF). Kisun Bang, first vice minister for Economy and Finance in Korea, and Sharifa Khan, secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD), signed the agreement during a ceremony that took place on the 56th Annual General Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank. Along with the signing, the repayment plan was also put in place, over a period of 40 years, including 15 year Grace period, with the annual interest rate between 0.01% – 0.05%. Additionally, this plan makes Bangladesh the second largest recipient of Korea’s Official Development Aid (ODA). The Korean Government has supported 30 developmental projects in Bangladesh with an aggregate amount of $1.7 billion through EDCF. Ambassador Lee Jang-Kuen hoped the $3 billion would serve as a catalyst for improving the daily lives of people in Bangladesh, and overall in enhance the relationship between the citizens of Korea and the citizens of Bangladesh.

Tweet #1:

https://twitter.com/OpIndia_com/status/1630749701430738944

This tweet by OpIndia addresses the arrest of several Christians in the Kurdeg village of Jashpur, Chhattisgarh a central Indian state. The tweet claims that there have been various reports in the region about the forceful conversion of Hindus under the pretense that Christianity would cure their medical ailments . In the article attached to the tweet, the report speaks on how the pastors were handed over to the police who are affiliated with the BJYM an Indian Hindu nationalist political party in the region. Throughout the article, the journalist characterizes the Hindu’s as helpless and innocent and the Christian pastors as intrusive. This article is the perfect example of political media biases that are filtered into social media websites. To an uneducated and uninformed twitter user in India, this is perfect bait for social and political tensions especially in regards to ongoing religious conflicts in India. With that being said, OpIndia is a verified account on twitter and seems to provide scanty and untrustworthy information for the sake of publicity.

Tweet #2:

https://twitter.com/RShivshankar/status/1630764968433053696

This tweet is from Rahul Shivshankar a popular Indian News Anchor. In the tweet he shows his disdain for the Islamic renaming of cities in Jammu and Kashmir, a highly disputed territory between India and Pakistan. He makes the argument that we don’t see the Spanish city of Toledo being named after their Moor conquerers during that period of history. This is an obviously Hindu sympathetic tweet, likewise a muslim reporter from India or Pakistan may not make such and argument. Nonetheless, this is further evidence as to how there are still widespread religious issues within India and in the disputed borderlands. His vocabulary highlights his animosity towards Muslims and is resemblant of an American conservative bashing a liberal. Furthermore, his stance is more ideologically fueled and leans towards Indian and Hindu nationalism as a whole.

Important discussion with @RapporteurUN Andrews on addressing the human rights crisis in Burma. Promoting accountability for the military’s horrific violence is vital for ending the crisis and establishing genuine and inclusive democracy in Burma. pic.twitter.com/69exPgvslo

— Derek Chollet (@CounselorDOS) January 24, 2023

In February of 2021, Myanmar’s military directed areal assault and organized military attacks on pro-democracy advocates. Following the assault the United States has imposed significant sanctions on Myanmar’s militant government. Essentially resulting in a civil war that continues today, this tweet, which was retweeted by the US Embassy of Myanmar, demonstrates that the United States stands with pro-democracy fighters and is proactive in Myanmar’s journey to free democracy and protection of human rights. Questions that rise from this tweet include but is not limited to: who is funding the anti-democracy military government? What other aid has the United States and other nations provided, if so, to the pro-democracy party? How are world leaders, especially in surrounding countries, holding the instigators accountable?

The tweet that I have chosen to write about is from Pakistan’s current president, Dr. Arif Alvi. In the tweet, Dr. Arif Alvi is stating that he has become aware and has taken “serious notice” of the rising trend of online banking fraud where scammers use banking contact information and impersonate bank officials to steal customers’ information and their money. One thing that Dr. Arif Alvi admits in this tweet is that online banking fraud is on a upward trend, meaning that any measures that they are employing to combat the fraud is not working. This brings me to my next point, Dr. Arif Alvi offers no comfort to citizens that they have a plan to combat online fraud or that they are even taking any measures at all. This aligns with what we have been talking about in class about southern Asian countries like Pakistan not being able to take full advantage of the internet and media and having numerous flaws like online safety issues.

 

Help Received: Twitter

Aaron Metz

President Dr. Arif Alvi has taken serious notice of the rising trend of online banking frauds where fraudsters obtain contact details of bank clients and impersonate bank officials to obtain account and banking information from them, and using such details swindle money out pic.twitter.com/xNU4ifGxow

— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) January 21, 2023

For some context the most recent tweets from Myanmar will be from 2021 because the military rulers blocked Twitter and Instagram until further notice.  Aung San Suu Kyi, the former State Councilor of Myanmar and Minister of Foreign Affairs tweeted, “In the history of human race, every evil regime is overcome by the forces of good. If they could do it.. We BURMESE can certainly do it too.”  There was a picture of Hitler and three other dictators attached to the tweet.  This was the last Tweet that was written before she was arrested, and Twitter was blocked there.  This is important because she was comparing the coup to other dictatorships that plagued history.  We can currently see what is happening there to see that this situation is turning into a repressive dictatorship.

AungSanSuuKyi on Twitter: “”In the history of human race, every evil regime is overcome by the forces of good. If they could do it.. We BURMESE can certainly do it too.” #Burmese #myanmarmilitarycoup #MyanmarMilitaryTerrorists #Myanmar #AungSanSuuKyi #PDF #NUG #UN_RecognizeNUG https://t.co/et6hXyqrDF” / Twitter

Thein Sein, the 8th President of Myanmar tweeted, “In North Korea, soldiers smash bricks and bend iron bars with bare hand (https://bbc.in/3AznSjf ) but in Myanmar , soldiers crush skulls and break limbs of unarmed civilians. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar” on October 13, 2021. This clearly shows that he is not fond of the military force that is being used to persecute the people of Myanmar.  He is currently living in silence in that state, and I wonder why he was not arrested by the new government as he could be seen as a potential opponent of the government.

Thein Sein on Twitter: “In North Korea, soldiers smash bricks and bend iron bars with bare hands ( https://t.co/t5Ynxflni9 ) but in Myanmar , soldiers crush skulls and break limbs of unarmed civilians. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar” / Twitter

“#DASSK There is no Genocide in Myanmar. We stand together with our leader. #Myanmar” -RangoonToday 12/10/2019

Rangoon Today seems to be a media source or news group that reports news that goes on in the Myanmar city of Rangoon, which is now known as Yangon. This tweet, made by RangoonToday, claims that there is no genocide going on against the Rohingya peoples. The current crisis in Myanmar involving the military acting against the Rohingya insurgents, and intern is driving Rohingya citizens of Myanmar out to surrounding  countries is being called a genocide by officials from multiple groups around the world. Currently, the UN is looking into whether or not these acts could actually be classified as a genocide.

I would say, based off of prior research, that this is a case of media outlets in Myanmar being influenced in some way by the state. People in Myanmar and even across the world are calling the current crisis a genocide. In mass, Rohingya are being arrested and even killed by military operations to root out Rohingya insurgents. I wonder if this is a case of government involvement in media or if Rangoon Today is just another anti-Rohingya source in Myanmar. There seems to be a lot of anti-Rohingya sentiment in Myanmar due to the fact that they are not originally from Myanmar from Buddhists in the state.

UNICEF Bangladesh, which stands for United Nations Children Fund, tweeted out on December 9th, 209 about the effects of the cyclone that recently hit the country of Bangladesh. The organization shared an image of local people in Padma Pakur, Khulna, Bangladesh attempting to build a flood barrier by creating a human chain to pass materials along to quickly build the barrier.  This cyclone stayed in Bangladesh for 36 hours, making it one of the longest cyclones the country has faced in five decades. There have been lives lost, property damaged, and social impacts across mainly costal communities. With the horrible after effects of flooding from the cyclone, the tweet calls for action to help prevent the climate change that is rocking the world. Climate change and sea levels rising have increased the destructivness of these natural disasters, and leading to even more damage and loss of life. 

UNICEF is a subunit of the United Nations, so, if they are out reaching on social media about the crisis, what are they physically doing to help those impacted by the natural disaster? Is there anything the Bangladesh government can do to repay those in the costal communities that were horrifically impacted by the cyclone? What can foreign nations, such as the United States, do to decrease the lasting effect of the disaster? What does the long term impact of the cyclone look like for the country and for its citizens? How much foreign aid is Bangladesh getting? Is it more or less than a western country gets during a natural disaster?

Local people in Padma Pakur, Khulna, #Bangladesh, form a human chain to build a new flood barrier after Cyclone.

Climate change is robbing millions of Bangladeshi people of their livelihood.

#COP25 #ClimateAction pic.twitter.com/i9syT8GXWs

— UNICEF Bangladesh (@UNICEFBD) December 9, 2019

HR: https://reliefweb.int/report/bangladesh/cyclone-bulbul-month-impact-bangladesh-s-coastal-communities

A tweet sent out by the Awami League on November 30th, 2019 reports on an article stating that, according to the International Organization for Migration, Bangladesh is currently hosting the most stateless people in the world. This calculation is following the Rohingya refugee crisis. In the Rohingya refugee crisis, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were displaced after brutal discrimination, mainly in Myanmar. Bangladesh opened up their boarders to the Rohingya, housing them in refugee camps spread all across the country. While these refugee camps are in very poor condition, and the Rohingya are still fighting for themselves and Bangladesh officials are looking for a location that they can possibly one day call home. This crisis leads to some uncertainties, such as how the government is actually treating these refugees, and what the future holds for these stateless citizens.

Is this refugee crisis going to have long term effects on the political relationship between Bangladesh and Myanmar? The United Nations has added their say on some issues regarding this crisis, such as UN authorities not giving their support to Bangladesh moving some of these citizens to the remote Island of Bhashan Char, however, is there more the UN can do to provide aid to the situation? How can the United States step up and provide aid to these displaced citizens or to Bangladesh? Is there a way to improve the refugee camps these people are forced to live in? If so, what would be the political and economic strain on Bangladesh for providing such aid?

#Bangladesh hosts most stateless people in the world: @UNmigration https://t.co/OlcmOTOm0Q

— Awami League (@albd1971) November 30, 2019

HR: https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2019/11/29/iom-bangladesh-hosts-most-stateless-people-in-the-world 

https://mobiletwitter.com/narendramodi/status/1204788395613966336

“Glad that the #CAB2019 has been passed in the #Rajyasabha.

This tweet was made by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. In relation to this tweet, the man in-charge of the BJP’s national information and technology, Amit Malviya retweeted it. This is a great example of the social media activity that Prime Minister Modi has that can be compared to the article that we read about his journey to obtaining the Prime Minister position. In essence, he was one of the first big politicians to utilize social media as a tool to help spread his name and what he stands for so that he could connect with his voters and the people of India. To contextualize this tweet, the Prime Minister was sharing a recent law that just passed in India that made it easier for people to obtain an Indian citizenship. The reason that this tweet is so important is because of all of the refugees that are still fleeing Myanmar by the thousands. By passing this legislature, it helps for India to provide an easy transition for Myanmars that have fled the genocide in their home country and hope to find a more welcoming home. After understanding more about the Myanmar refugee situation, it is interesting to see India so accepting of migrants. Within other countries in Southeast Asia, it is almost obvious that they do not want the refugees because of the possible terrorist activity that may come with the insurgent groups within the larger migrating group. An example of this is Bangladesh and how they seem to be mistreating the refugees by turning off their wifi and supplying poor living conditions within the camp. I wonder as more refugees enter India, if there will be an increase in terrorist related activity. By retweeting the tweet posted by Modi, Malviya helps to bring even more awareness to the topic and this may result in even more countries helping in the same way that India is. It will be interesting to see where this goes but for now it is good that many of these refugees seem to be finding a place that is finally welcoming them. 

 

Tweet #2:

This tweet is referring to the Citizenship Amendment Bill that is currently under debate in India. Many people are questioning the intent of the bill, with some claiming that it favors sheltering persecuted minorities, while others believe that it itself is persecuting minorities. Twitter user @sankrant tweets “what if it had called the act, more accurately – “Sheltering Minority Refugees Act” instead of #CitizenshipAmendmentBill?” claiming that the bill does not punish minority refugees in the manner that he believes they deserve to be. From reading up on this topic on Twitter multiple times this past week, it seems to be a very controversial topic in India currently, and many people are split between the two sides without many people being neutral. This debate reminds me a bit of the debate currently going on in the United States about the Second Amendment, as there are people on both sides of the spectrum with very few people sitting out of the debate. I can imagine that their government is having the same issue with solving the debate, which will only drag out the whole ordeal.

Link: https://twitter.com/sankrant/status/1204457615343771648

HR: Twitter