Published on Feb 1, 2013
Hukou, China’s controversial household registration system, was originally designed to monitor the population and limit mass migration from the countryside to major cities. LinkAsia contributor Mark Dreyer reports that Chinese have taken to social media to voice their complaints about the injustice of the houkou system.
IMAGE: Zhan Haite poses for a picture at home in Shanghai, December 21, 2012. Police broke up a small protest in Beijing on Saturday calling for reform of China’s divisive household registration system, an action prompted by a Shanghai schoolgirl’s widely publicized plea for equal access to the education system:
Jewish Artists – The Influence of Exiles | Arts 21
Uploaded on Nov 13, 2011
It’s well known that many Jewish scientists and artists fled Nazi Germany. Less well known is their cultural influence in the countries that took them in. A major study by the Moses Mendelssohn Center in Potsdam focuses on just that. We spoke with the Center’s Director, Julius H. Schoeps.
Published on Jan 31, 2013
Student engagement is a goal in schools everywhere. A teacher in the Washington suburbs has found a way to engage and motivate students– by bringing rhythm and fun to mathematics. As VOA’s June Soh reports, the approach works well especially for students who speak English as a second language. Amy Katz narrates.
Published on Oct 17, 2012 by PBSNewsHour
The Philippines have become increasingly vulnerable to human traffickers, who lure women of all ages and circumstances into prostitution and other forms of forced labor. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on how Cecilia Oebanda’s Visayan Forum Foundation has worked with law enforcement to prevent more women from falling prey.
Published on Oct 13, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
After the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s government last year the number of Egyptians granted asylum in the US doubled.
Many of them are minority Coptic Christians facing insecurity in their home country.
The song brings attention to the student protests in Chile, who are challenging the unfair, elitist education system put in place by Pinochet. The video features young Chileans holding signs with their name and school, some declaring, “Apoyo a los estudiantes” (“I support the students”) mixed with soundbites on the protest (with English and French subtitles). Tijoux told Remezcla Musica, “Writing this song, I was inspired by these social movements, writing from my perspective as a mother, musician and citizen. I thought it was important to pay homage to these protesters.”
The song is centered around the idea of the Shock Doctrine, a term coined by author and journalist Naomi Klein in her 2007 book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
A “Shock Doctrine” is the employment of economist Milton Friedman’s free market economic plan during times of great turmoil and upheaval. This is what was referred to in the Fault Lines video when the Chicago Boys were sent from Chile to study economics with Friedman in the 1970s, and employ his Regean-era policies in the fresh dictatorship.
Published on Jul 10, 2012 by NDLONvideos
New Video by Ana Tijoux Defends the Rights of Immigrants in Arizona.
A collaboration with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), National Immigrant Youth Alliance and Puente Movement, Chilean MC Ana Tijoux is the latest artist to lend her support in Arizona as part of the “Alto Arizona,” a campaign focused on the visibility, respect and dignity for immigrants that have been the target of hate and criminalization not only in Arizona but around the world.
…
Hit for hit, kiss for kiss,
with wishes and nourishment
with ashes, with the fire of the present, remembering,
with certainty and ripping, with the clear objective,
with memory and with the history of the future, it’s NOW!
Everything: this trial tube,
everything: this daily laboratory,
everything: this failure, everything: this condemned economic model from dinosaur times.
Everything is criminalized, everything is justified in the news,
they get rid of everything, walk all over everything, open a file on everything and classify it.
But…your politics and your tactics,
your typical smile and ethics.
Your manipulated communiqué
How many of them were silenced?
Cops, hoses and lumas*,
cops, hoses and tunas**,
cops, hoses, DON’T ADD UP.
How many were those who stole the fortunes?
Venom: your monologues,
your colorless speeches,
you don’t see that we AREN’T alone,
millions from pole to pole!!
To the sound of a single chorus,
we will march with the tone,
with the conviction that THE THIEVING STOPS!!
Your state of control,
your corrupt throne of gold,
your politics and your wealth,
and your treasure, no.
The hour has struck, the hour has struck
We will allow NO MORE, no more your doctrine of shock
…
Published on Oct 10, 2012 by NTDTV
It’s an unbelievable piece of satire in a country known for iron-fisted censorship and harsh handling of petitioners. Miao Cuihua, most likely a pseudonym, is doing what countless other migrant workers have done in the past—protest against unpaid wages. But she’s skipped the queue at the petition office. Instead, Miao has created a video that not only demands she receives her quote, “blood and sweat money,” but also mocks the Chinese regime’s propaganda machine—and it’s gone viral.
Above her reads “Migrant Worker Unpaid Salary News Conference” Her rambling rhetoric that follows could be lifted from any of China’s scripted foreign ministry briefings.
[Miao Cuihua, Unpaid Wages News Agency]:
“We are regretted to hear that the official of the Bureau of Civil Affairs said ‘I represent the government. When I say not to give you money, you won’t get money. What can you do? We propose to peacefully, reasonably, and legally request payment. Harmony is precious. Society stability is the priority. So never appeal illegally.’”
The language she uses is typical of China’s well-educated elite, not a migrant worker who mixes concrete for a living.
Her video has been online since May, but in the past few days it’s exploded.
[Xie Liusheng, Shenzhen City Rights Activist for Migrant Workers]:
“It is very interesting. It satirizes the government’s corruption from another angle.”
[Chen Yongmiao, Beijing-based political commentator]:
“In China, if those migrant workers don’t use this kind of special, ironic, and mocking news reporting way to speak up. They would hardly get any public attention.”
Miao worked for the funeral administration department of Hangu district government in Tianjin City. She says a court ruled in 2009 that they owed workers almost $600,000 in unpaid wages, and has never paid up.
Her video is now making Hangu officials take notice, and they have been quick to respond. They’re not paying her though, instead, they say her video is full of distortions and she’s trying to extort more money from the state.
Published on Oct 2, 2012 by chinadailyus
Perched in San Francisco Bay, Angel Island was opened in 1910. For the next 30 years, it was the point of entry for most of the 175,000 Chinese who immigrated to the United States.
One man detained at Angel Island, Show Nam Lee, who is now 91, shared with China Daily his memories of that time.
Chinese companies have invested heavily in Africa, in recent years, and trade among Asian and African nations has soared. As their economic ties have grown, so have the number of African immigrants to China, now estimated at around half a million people. Shannon Van Sant talked with Africans who have re-located to the Chinese capital city about why they decided to move to China.
A recent study by the Pew Research Center reveals that, for the first time, Asians outpaced Hispanics as the fastest growing immigrant population in the United States. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports from Chicago, job seekers of South Asian origin make up the bulk of that Midwestern city’s new immigrant community, filling a critical demand for highly skilled technology workers.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago, millions of people have emigrated from the newly created nations that once were constituent republics of the communist empire. Our correspondent spoke to several of them who have settled in New York. Peter Fedynsky has this report.
The U.S. government is currently reviewing orders to deport thousands of illegal immigrants in two cities, at a time of great division on the issue at federal and local levels. In the past fiscal year, a record 396,000 undocumented immigrants were deported from the United States, with more than 300,000 cases still pending. VOA’s Nico Colombant has more.
Thousands of Haitians sought refuge in the United States after last year’s devastating earthquake in Haiti. Many are young people, now enrolled in U.S. schools, surrounded by a new language and culture. VOA’s Alex Villarreal tells us how one high school in Florida is helping the students adjust.
