Stories about Ethnicity & Race from October, 2020
The importance of ‘unlearning’ the past: Interview with Balkans expert Keith Brown
"Critical thinking [...] liberates us from the illusion that figures in the past imagined their own identity in terms of the nationalisms of their future."
More than one million voters in Myanmar disenfranchised after government cancels elections in conflict areas
"There are suspicions over whether the government is trying to reduce ethnic parties’ power."
Indian ad featuring Hindu-Muslim family pulled after rightwing backlash
The advert by jewellery brand Tanishq shows a Hindu woman being led by her Muslim mother-in-law to a traditional Hindu baby shower.
Russia's indigenous peoples are in the crosshairs of COVID-19
A raft of social and environmental issues makes indigenous peoples of Russia's Far North uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19 — many of these, say activists, are linked to resource extraction.
The Caribbean's case for reparations: Part III
Reparatory justice can play an important role in dealing with challenges like disease, climate change and COVID-19, all of which pose existential threats to the region.
#AnswerUsElonMusk: Russia's indigenous peoples campaign against Arctic pollution
An oil spill in May devastated large swathes of the tundra. Here's how indigenous rights activists joined forces to demand justice from the culprit — Russia's largest nickel producer.
In the Ural regions of Russia, Finland's linguistic roots live on
Russia's linguistic diversity is as expansive as the country itself. The Finnish writer Ville Ropponen shares his reflections on the past, present and uncertain future of the Uralic languages.
The Caribbean's case for reparations: Part II
"We transformed these broken colonies into functional democracies without any support […] and now we have this debt crisis because we were abandoned by those who plundered our wealth."
‘Lazy’ Nigerian youth mobilize #EndSARS protest from social media to the streets
Described as ‘lazy’ by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, with a significant number unemployed, stereotyped as ‘unserious’, these digitally savvy youth have proved critics wrong.
The Caribbean's case for reparations: Part I
"When a wrong has been committed, it must be repaired. If you recognise that colonization has been a source of massive crimes against humanity, then reparations are legitimate."
Uzbek DJ with a mission to popularize vintage Soviet music
The musicians of the time, like war partisans, overcame a great number of obstacles standing in their way to perform the kind of music they wanted to play.
Turkey's involvement in the Karabakh conflict could harm Azerbaijan, warns journalist Rovshan Aliyev
"This time it seems that Erdoğan wants to go beyond words and to support Azerbaijan with hardware. But authoritarian leaders take advantage of every situation, so Azerbaijan must be careful"
‘The war in Karabakh has made the possibility of conflict resolution even more distant’, fears Armenian politician Mikayel Zolyan
Negotiations can start only once aggression against civilians stops. However, war has widened the gap between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, and therefore for dialogue, says Armenian MP and analyst Mikayel Zolyan
‘We have a strange destiny': a conversation with the Livonian poet Valts Ernštreits: Part II
"That's the idea of the series: to tell the Livonian story to the Latvian public, so they would better understand why Livonian is important."
‘We have a strange destiny': a conversation with the Livonian poet Valts Ernštreits: Part I
"There are only a few countries in Europe who have indigenous people, and Latvia is one of them."
International conflicts are also about names: The case of Nagorno-Karabakh
As in all territories inhabited by different nations using various languages, in this case, Azerbaijanis speaking a Turkic language, and Armenians speaking an Indo-European language, geographic names have more than one name.
Nagorno-Karabakh: An old conflict in a new geopolitical context, says South Caucasus expert Tom de Waal
The most recent of outbreak of violence began on September 27. This time, both combatants and analysts are predicting that the conflict will escalate, with unknown and potentially dangerous consequences.
