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class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>Nikola Jokić takes center stage at NBA Finals and Serbian fans are loving it

As the NBA Finals kickoff, the 28-year-old Serbian basketball star is making waves with fans back in his hometown of Sombor, Serbia. 

The WorldJune 2, 2023 · 4:45 PM EDT

• By Daniel Ofman

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) shoots over Miami Heat guard Kyle Lowry (7) during the second half of Game 1 of basketball's NBA Finals, June 1, 2023, in Denver. 

Jack Dempsey/AP

With the NBA Finals underway, Nikola Jokić, the two-time MVP playing for the Denver Nuggets, is at the center of attention. 

On Thursday, Jokić led his team to a decisive Game 1 victory against the Miami Heat. 

And the 28-year-old, 7-foot Serbian basketball star is certainly making waves with fans back in his hometown of Sombor, Serbia. 

“Nikola's success [means] so much to Serbia fans because Serbia is [a] country of basketball and especially Sombor, people talking on every corner about finals today,” said Srdjan Vlaskalic, a Sombor resident. 

Last night, Vlaskalic said he was at a watch party with over 100 people, where the game started at 2:30 in the morning. He anticipates this level of enthusiasm at every game in the series.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, right, jogs on the court during the second half of Game 1 of basketball's NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, Thursday, June 1, 2023, in Denver.

Credit:

Jack Dempsey/AP

Another fan, Miroslav Ćuk, was also watching the game from his home in Pancevo, a town just east of Belgrade. The electrical engineer is also a diehard Denver Nuggets fan.

For three years now, he’s hosted podcasts about the Nuggets in both Serbian and English, and he talks a lot about what makes Jokić stand out. 

“We kid, in our Denver Nuggets circles, that [Nikola Jokić] has a supercomputer inside of his head, and is just so quick you think it’s not even computing at all, it’s just perfection in an unathletic body,” Ćuk said. 

Many commentators have said that Jokić doesn’t necessarily look like a superathlete but that his decision-making and passing ability is pure genius.

Yet, Jokić has never been a typical player.

His official introduction to the league came  during the 2014 NBA draft. However, when he was selected by the Denver Nuggets, the ESPN broadcast cut to a Taco Bell ad. And he wasn’t chosen until well into the second round, where players rarely go on to become big stars.

Jokić is now one of the highest-paid players in the NBA, but he doesn’t seem to relish speaking with the press and he is definitely not on Twitter. He enjoys his privacy and has also said that he thinks social media is a waste of time. 

In the offseason, Jokic tends to a stable of racehorses in Serbia and he said that’s the only reason why he would get online. 

“My goal is to [not] use my phone when I finish my career so I can go without most of them, I just need YouTube to watch horse racing and that’s basically it,” he said. 

Jokić fans are now hoping for him to become an NBA champion.

Ćuk said that Jokić is a prime example of how the game is taught in Serbia, which was formerly part of Yugoslavia.  

“When we speak about the Yugoslav school of basketball, when you have young boys and girls that start to learn basketball, you don’t put them into separate groups, like these will be the guards, these will be the forwards, these will be the centers. No, everyone needs to learn everything,” he said. 

Everyone needs to learn how to dribble, pass, shoot and defend — and that’s what Jokić does. Some say he is the best player in the world right now — but an NBA championship would be a first. 

“This would be actually the first championship where the guy from Serbia is the main guy. Right now, Dirk Nowitzki is the greatest basketball player of all time from Europe, and if Nikola wins it, it will be the change on the throne, that’s a really really big thing to be excited about,” Ćuk said. 

Jokić was the leading scorer in Game 1 of the Finals, with 27 points.

After winning Game 1, the Denver Nuggets are now three wins away from their first title in franchise history.

And Jokić fans are on call to celebrate.

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class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>Brazilian Congress moves to limit Indigenous land claims 

​​​​​​​A bill making its way through the Legislature in Brazil could limit Indigenous land claims in the country, and potentially call into question large swaths of land already demarcated for Indian reservations.

The WorldJune 1, 2023 · 3:00 PM EDT

• By Michael Fox

Cattle graze on land recently burned and deforested by cattle farmers near Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil, Aug. 23, 2020. In a rejection of early moves by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who took office in January, Brazil’s Congress stripped on June 1, 2023 powers from the new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, showing the increasing power of Brazil’s cattle businesses and soybean growers who together control the majority of both legislative chambers in the country.

Andre Penner/AP

This week, Brazil’s lower house approved a controversial bill aimed at gutting Indigenous Land Rights.

Conservative congressmen who are tied to the country’s big ag caucus applauded the vote. The bill now moves on to the Senate, but Native peoples are concerned that if approved, it could roll back gains made over the last 35 years.

“Today, you have Indigenous blood on your hands,” said Indigenous lawmaker Celia Xakriabá on the congressional floor. “When you negotiate the rights of Mother Earth, you are negotiating the possibility of life on this planet. You are selling off your own mothers.”

This was no ordinary bill.

Bill 490, originally drafted 16 years ago, questions Indigenous peoples' rights to their land based on a theory called marco temporal or “the timeframe.” The Supreme Court will decide on marco temporal constitutionality on June 7. In essence, it states that only those Indigenous peoples recognized as being on their land on the day of the passage of Brazil’s Constitution in 1988 have legal rights to their territory today.

Some lawmakers fear that the bill’s passage could lead to a cascade of lawsuits questioning Native peoples' rights to their land, even those territories that are already well-established or demarcated.

“This is going to decide the life of Indigenous peoples,” Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara said on Instagram, in an appeal to Brazilians to reject the vote. “It blocks any type of process of demarcation of Indigenous lands.”

This week, Indigenous peoples blocked major highways in several spots around the country against the impending bill. In São Paulo, they sang and chanted. They set fire to debris on the highway to stop cars from passing. Their demand: No to bill 490.

“We are not aggressive or violent,” local Indigenous leader Arapotu told a Brazilian news outlet. “We just want to be heard. Because this bill 490 is a law that will kill us. It will exterminate us.”

Anthropologist Antenor Vaz, who worked for many years at Brazil’s Indigenous agency, said that all Indigenous peoples will be impacted by this bill, adding, “but isolated and recently contacted peoples will be impacted drastically, because it’s almost impossible to prove that they were on their land on Oct. 5, 1988.”

Fourteen other bills are tied to the legislation, which could open Indigenous territories to mining and resource extraction from outside entities.

The vote, which was fast-tracked last week, caught many people by surprise.

“I didn’t think that this would even come up now under Lula,” said Cleyson Juruna, the young chief of the Juruna people in the Amazonian state of Pará. “Because Lula’s discourse before he was elected was that he was an environmentalist and in favor of Indigenous peoples, but today we don’t even know what to expect.”

Since his election, Lula has advanced Indigenous rights, creating an Indigenous Peoples’ Ministry, pushing back on illegal miners and recognizing six new Indigenous territories last month.

All congressional members of Lula’s Workers Party voted against the bill. But Brazil’s Congress is the most conservative in decades. The country’s big ag caucus — the Congressional Agriculture Front — wields tremendous power.

According to the leader of the group, Pedro Lupion, 300 of 513 congressional representatives in the lower house are members of the groups. And it has long been looking to open up Indigenous land for development. The group's allies say Indigenous peoples have acquired too much land.

“This bill is so important,” said Rodolfo Nogueira, an ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro who voted for the bill. "And without a doubt, it will contribute to food security for the whole world.”

Indigenous peoples have promised to continue to fight to defend their land and their rights.

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class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>Cambodian American graduates: More than victims of genocide

Ariya Tok is one of nearly two dozen Cambodian American graduates who took part in the Cal State Long Beach cultural ceremony, an event with special significance to the Cambodian Americans living in an area that has the largest such population in the United States.

The WorldJune 1, 2023 · 1:45 PM EDT

• By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

Ariya Tok poses with her fellow graduates after they received their certificates at a Cambodian cultural graduation ceremony at Cal State Long Beach.

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

For 21-year-old Ariya Tok, the Fancy Cuts hair salon in a strip mall in North Long Beach is a sort of hyperlink to the past, present and future of her Cambodian American self.

“[My mom] renovated this entire place by hand with my dad,” she said as she sat in a salon chair while her mother curled her short hair.

Ariya Tok's family has owned and run the salon since 1994. Her mother styles hair there and gave jobs to family members.

“She helped put everyone through college because of the salon … it's the sole reason why my family is thriving here and why I'm able to graduate.”

On Sunday, Tok, her mother, father, brother, grandmother, aunt and uncle met at the salon at 9 in the morning for Tok to get her hair done for a very important graduation ceremony. She's earned her bachelor's degree in art history from California State University, Long Beach. The university ceremony took place earlier in the week, but on this day she would take part in an on-campus ceremony organized by the Cambodian Student Society (CSS).

“I feel so proud of her,” said Dannaly Tok, her mother. “She’s grown up, not a baby anymore … I feel like I’m graduating with her.”

Ariya Tok prepares for her graduation ceremony by getting her hair done by her mother Dannaly Tok.

Credit:

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

Ariya Tok is one of nearly two dozen Cambodian American graduates who took part in the Cal State Long Beach cultural ceremony, an event with special significance to the Cambodian Americans living in an area that has the largest such population in the United States.

Some family photos on display at Fancy Cuts, the hair salon owned by Ariya Tok's mother, Dannaly Tok.

Credit:

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

Nearly 50 years since a genocide in their home country brought thousands of Cambodians to Long Beach and other parts of the US, people in that community say the awarding of college degrees to this third generation of Cambodian immigrants symbolizes both a response to that genocide and the strengthening of a people they hope US society will begin to see in their full scope as human beings, not just the victims of genocide.

The ancestors are in the salon

In many ways, Fancy Cuts feels like the model of a modest hair salon, with its black leather chairs, assortment of hair products, and the hanging photos of gleaming hair styles.

Then you notice the other touches, linking this place to a faraway land, other times, and possible futures. There’s the Buddhist altar with used incense sticks atop a hair product shelf, and black-and-white photos of people in studio portraits.

Ariya Tok’s mother keeps two framed photos near her chair. In one, a man in a white shirt and skinny black tie tilts his head in a pose like that of a Hollywood headshot. It’s Tok’s grandfather.

“He worked for the American embassy back then because he spoke seven languages,” said Dannaly Tok of her father.

He disappeared after the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, while Dannaly Tok was a small child. She was 14 years old when she left Cambodia in 1981 with her mother.

People urged her over the years to go back and look for her father. Her eyes began to well up with tears as she said that she refused to do so.

A picture of Ariya Tok's paternal grandparents is tucked into the mirror at her mothers station.

Credit:

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

“I don’t want to talk about it too much,” she said.

Tok said 80% of her family died in the Cambodian Genocide. Her two kids have heard her pain.

“I was the first generation to be born here,” said Matt Tok, Ariya Tok's older brother.

“We carry a lot of weight on our shoulders to honor something that we personally didn't experience but we hear it all the time,” he said.

Ariya Tok gets help from her mother Dannaly as she puts on traditional Cambodian attire to attend her graduation ceremony at California State University Long Beach.

Credit:

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

Architects of genocide tried to kill off Cambodia’s educated people

The Khmer Rouge was a Maoist revolutionary group that sought to eliminate perceived Western influences and class structures within Cambodia. It sought to transform Cambodia into a wholly agrarian society. It carried out its ideology after seizing power in April 1975 by clearing cities and shipping people to the countryside. People with higher education, professionals, anyone perceived to be “educated,” were targeted for death. The Khmer Rouge murdered three million people in the ensuing genocide, one-quarter of the country’s population.

While some Cambodian students had settled in Long Beach in the 1950s and 1960s after enrolling at Cal State Long Beach, thousands arrived in the region after the Khmer Rouge took over, and even more arrived in the early 1980s after Vietnam invaded Cambodia.

People in the United States may know the rough outlines of the genocide. In Southern California, people also know the many doughnut shops popularized by Cambodian Americans.

The Pew Research Center found that just 21% of Cambodians residing or born in the U.S. have a bachelor's degree. That’s lower than for all Americans (33%) and all Asians (54%) in the United States. Every degree has signficance.

Cambodian Student Society Adviser, Dr. Leakhena Nou.

Credit:

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

“This is a rebirth of Cambodians,” said Leakhena Nou, a Cal State Long Beach sociology professor and the only tenured Cambodian faculty at the university.

Long Beach City College says 1,138 students of Cambodian descent enrolled this past academic year. Cal State Long Beach says 591 students of Cambodian descent were enrolled in the most recent spring semester.

“We want to prove to the world that Cambodians are more than just victims of the Khmer Rouge,” said professor Nou, who’s also the advisor to the Cambodian Student Society.

Long Beach is a 'sacred' space for Cambodian Americans

Long Beach is officially a sister city with Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital.

“Long Beach is a very sacred city in the history of the Cambodian people because it gave us an opportunity to survive,” said Sotheara Lim, a 2012 Cal State Long Beach graduate who works for Microsoft as a project manager.

“For Cambodian graduates … for them to … graduate and attain education is a very sacred thing because at one point in the history of our people, if you were educated, you were going to be killed,” he said.

Graduates line up to receive their certificate at the Cambodian Cultural graduation ceremony at CSULB on May 21, 2023. 

Credit:

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

Lim attended the Sunday graduation ceremony to give the keynote speech to about 200 people.

The families at the Cambodian cultural graduation ceremony cheer on their graduates.

Credit:

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

The speech was equal parts reminder to be grateful for the support from their families and warning of the challenges that come with being Cambodian in today’s United States. He reminded graduates that if Asian Americans are an “invisible” group that’s hardly understood by mainstream America, Cambodian Americans are even less understood.

Only about 10% of Cal State Long Beach’s Cambodian students are active in the Cambodian Student Society. The current generation is growing up without seeing positive images of themselves in popular culture.

Richthida Bovannat opens the Cambodian Cultural Graduation at CSULB with a traditional performance.

Credit:

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

“Before I joined CSS, I didn’t have a strong sense of our community and sometimes I felt like I didn’t know what it meant to be Khmer,” said Emily Touch, a third year student and co-president of the Cambodian Student Society this academic year.

Ariya Tok's name, and the other graduates, in the program at the Cambodian cultural graduation ceremony at CSULB. 

Credit:

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

Khmer, pronounced kuh-MY, is the word for the Cambodian language and the Cambodian people.

Touch gave the closing remarks at the ceremony. Before she congratulated the graduates and their families she shared the insight she gained from her involvement in the student group.

“It helped me realize that we all have different answers to what it feels like to be Khmer,” she said.

Carrying out the legacy of her ancestors in a different home

Ariya Tok was at the end of the line as graduates walked to the stage during Sunday’s ceremony. Names and majors were called, “Pomp and Circumstance” played on the PA, and each graduate held a certificate as photos were taken.

Ariya Tok and her family just before they head to her graduation ceremony at California State University Long Beach. 

Credit:

Ariya Tok and her family just before they head to her graduation ceremony at California State University Long Beach.

Ashley Balderrama/LAist

Ariya Tok majored in art history. Her goal is to have a career in US museums, and along the way help institutions do more to bring Cambodian Americans into galleries.

“Someone in our family many hundreds of years ago loved art as much as my sister,” said her brother Matt Tok, who is nine years older and has a nursing degree.

“It's kind of a full circle thing … she's honoring somebody in our lineage that we've never met before,” he said.

The feeling that he and his family are standing on the shoulders of many generations of Cambodians, he said, makes the burden of the genocide easier to hold.

An earlier version of this story was originally published by LAist.com.

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class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>Ukrainians embrace tattoos as a form of patriotism

In many ways, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has become a war of identity and self-expression. Many Ukranians are turning to tattoos to show their patriotism.

The WorldMay 31, 2023 · 5:00 PM EDT

• By Daniel Ofman

Tattoo artists in Kyiv working on clients getting tattoos that express Ukrainian culture and history.

Credit: Anastasia Vlasova/The World

It’s hardly surprising that Ukrainians are embracing symbols of their national identity — like their language, their flag and their music.  

But another way many Ukrainians express their patriotism is on their bodies.  

Mykola Dubrovin got his first tattoo eight years ago — and he didn’t start small.

“The first design was [a] rose, and the session was, I think, five or six hours,” he said. “After this session, I said, OK, please book me on the next one.”

The next one was 10 hours, and Dubrovin said he was already imagining the design for yet another tattoo.

“The feeling that I make something special on my body and maybe inside of me something tells me that OK, this is art. [If] you like the art, you need to continue doing this.”

Mykola Dubrovin, a tattoo shop owner in Kyiv.

Credit:

Credit: Anastasia Vlasova/The World

Tattoos became his passion.

In 2019, he opened his own studio in Ukraine’s capital, and the business thrived — up until Feb. 24 of last year, when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Dubrovin said all of his windows were broken because a rocket fell onto his apartment building.

He was forced to shut down his business while everyone was scrambling to get their families to safety.

Three months later, when life in Kyiv felt safer, he reopened the tattoo studio.

“The first three or four months, 80% of people [wanted] patriotic tattoos,” Dubrovin said. “People want to make Ukrainian symbols to improve their feelings and show the Ukrainian culture.”

People came in and got Ukrainian flag tattoos, the Ukrainian trident, a map of the country, and other national symbols, Dubrovin said.

And the trend continues to this day.

Andriy Lukachyk is one of the tattoo artists at Dubrovin’s tattoo shop.

Andriy Lukachyk (L), tattooing client, Andriy Vasyanovych (R).

Credit:

Credit: Anastasia Vlasova/The World

“At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, a lot of military people would come, and I would do a lot of tattoos for the soldiers,” he said. 

Lukachyk said that many soldiers would get tridents, symbols of their units, their battalions, and some would get portraits of their relatives.

At the time of this interview, Lukachyk was working on Andriy Vasyanovych’s right arm, which is almost completely covered in ink. 

A close-up of Andriy Vasyanovych's tattoo of a Ukrainian warrior, the famous Motherland Monument in Kyiv. 

Credit:

Credit: Anastasia Vlasova/The World

Vasyanovych pointed to the image of a Cossack, a Ukrainian warrior, the famous Motherland Monument in Kyiv, and a quote from the Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko.

He said he wanted to get Ukrainian-themed tattoos before the invasion, but the war gave him that final nudge.

Darya Kurudymova is 27 years old, and she said she’s wanted to get a tattoo since she was 16.

“I’m a pretty indecisive person,” Kurdymova said. “But with war, there’s a feeling that you might not get a chance to do the things you’ve dreamed about for a long time.”

She said that the war helped her overcome many of her fears, and one thing she was afraid of at first was facing the tattoo needle. 

Darya Kurudymova.

Credit:

Credit: Anastasia Vlasova/The World

Kurudymova also said that during her sessions at the tattoo studio, air raid sirens went off on a couple of occasions, and they even heard explosions outside.

But she said that they would just keep going, no matter what.

The whole tattoo experience, she said, has had a calming effect on her.

Tattoos are not just art, Dubrovin said; in many cases, tattoos can give people confidence and and even courage, which he hopes can be another permanent outcome of his work.

“We are making big projects, [and] for these projects, we need to spend at least seven days, so while in this [process], we are [getting to] know each other really good,” Dubrovin said. “We are starting with clients and finishing with friends.”

Volodymyr Solohub contribute to this report.

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class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>Is the fictional film 'The Kerala Story' cautionary or propaganda?

“The Kerala Story” is a fictionalized film that has sparked debate in India. It's about Hindu women being tricked into joining ISIS. The filmmakers say they are uncovering a hidden truth, while others say the film is exaggerated and divisive.

The WorldMay 26, 2023 · 3:00 PM EDT

• By Raksha Kumar

Bollywood actresses from left, Siddhi Idnani, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, Adah Sharma and producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah during a press conference for the movie "The Kerala Story" in Mumbai, India, May 17, 2023.

Rajanish Kakade/AP/File photo

A film called “The Kerala Story,” released in India earlier this month, claims that thousands of Hindu and Christian women from the southern Indian state of Kerala are being tricked into converting to Islam and then being forced to join the terrorist group ISIS.

The filmmakers have claimed that it is a “never-before-told true story — revealing a dangerous conspiracy that has been hatched against India.”

But many have objected to this message, saying it is divisive. Last week, a heated debate on social media soon escalated, leading to dozens of people gathering outside the police station in the central Indian town of Akola, where one person died and eight others were  severely injured. Authorities suspended the internet in the region and arrested more than a hundred people.

Meanwhile, the state of West Bengal — which has a significant Muslim population — had preemptively banned the film in order to prevent such violence from breaking out.

The filmmakers took the ban to India’s Supreme Court. And last week, the court reversed it, but directed the filmmakers to add a disclaimer that the film is fictionalized. 

Art or propaganda?

In November 2020, the US State Department stated that only “66 known Indian-origin fighters” were affiliated with ISIS, and that not all of them were from Kerala, nor were they all women. About a year later, India’s National Investigation Agency said that it had arrested 168 people connected to 37 cases linked to ISIS. But there is no evidence that anyone was coerced or tricked into joining the group.

“It was quite obvious from the trailer itself that this was propaganda through and through. It is toxic, divisive propaganda.”

Deepanjana Pal, managing editor of the website Film Companion

Therefore, critics say “The Kerala Story” grossly exaggerates true events and indulges in significant misrepresentations of the Muslim community in Kerala.

“It was quite obvious from the trailer itself that this was propaganda through and through,” said Deepanjana Pal, managing editor of the website Film Companion. “It is toxic, divisive propaganda.” 

Pal said that youth radicalization is an important topic that should be discussed, and that there should be films made on the issue. But, she added that “The Kerala Story” is as simplistic and Islamophobic as inciting WhatsApp forwards.

According to her, the film presents a clear cause and effect: “When a good Hindu woman is not aware of her faith and its rituals, etc., she becomes vulnerable to Islamic propaganda, and obviously the next thing is a) to become pregnant by a terrorist and b) to join ISIS.”

Sowmya Rajendran, a film critic originally from the state of Kerala, said the film gives the impression that every Muslim in Kerala is evil and is out to convert people from other religions, and then force them into terrorism.

“Every single Muslim in the film is represented as a violent savage person who just has one agenda,” she said. 

Such messaging plays into the narrative of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has endorsed the film, while two BJP-ruled states made the film tax free. And some political leaders even hired buses to ferry their constituents to theaters to watch the film.

“The film is clearly an attempt to defame the state,” Rajendran said.

Kerala is known for its religious diversity and high levels of development.

Meanwhile, some film critics drew parallels to another film released last year called “The Kashmir Files.”

“Both ‘The Kerala Story’ and “The Kashmir Files” have been used by the politicians for their campaigning and exhorting the public to watch [them],” managing editor Pal said. 

Film does good business

“The Kerala Story” was released on May 5 and has made about $25 million.

“That is an obscene amount of money for a low-budget film to make,” Pal explained. “This is a producer’s dream.” 

It was marketed as a movie that reveals a certain truth that had been deliberately hidden from the public. This raises everyone’s curiosity, said Rajendran. Moreover, these films are popular because it is easy to convince people that they are absolutely true, she said.

“That happens because we are already a society that has ghettoized Muslims. That divisive communal feeling is there in a lot of people and it has only become more acceptable in India to voice it,” she said. “And people who voice this are being rewarded.” 

Not only are ideas of bigotry acceptable, but the subjugation of women seems to be another popular theme that resonates with the audience.

“We are a deeply patriarchal society. So, it appeals to us when somebody comes and says you have to keep your girls at home and only men from our community can have access to them,” Rajendran said. “When men from other communities develop relationships with them, then it cannot be an equal relationship. It can only be seen as a relationship where the woman is being lured into something. Or is being cheated. It is not as if she has made that choice.”

Related: Indian govt removes parts of Muslim history from federal textbooks

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class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>This Jerusalem tattoo studio is part of a centuries-old Christian tradition  

The Razzouk family in the Old City of Jerusalem has been doing Christian themed tattoos going back to the 1300s. Today, tattoo artist Wassim Razzouk and his sons carry on a Coptic Christian tradition of tattoo artistry, attracting people who come from all over the world to the family shop to get inked. 

The WorldMay 26, 2023 · 1:30 PM EDT

• By Matthew Bell

Nizar Razzouk (left) is doing a tattoo for Debora Magina, a Christian pilgrim visiting Jerusalem from São Paulo, Brazil. 

Fuad AbuGosh/The World

Debora Magina is taking part in a religious ritual that goes back to the Middle Ages.

“I’m here in the oldest tattoo studio in the world,” said the native of São Paulo, Brazil, who is Catholic and on a pilgrimage in Jerusalem.

“This trip has lifted my faith, so I’m marking this moment with a tattoo and that’s really important for me.”

Magina’s new tattoo is simply the word, gratidão (“gratitude” in English), written in a delicate script across the inside of her wrist. It’s the sort of religious-themed body art that the proprietors at Razzouk Tattoo have been doing for generations.

Wassim Razzouk is showing off his Harley tattoo. 

Credit:

Fuad AbuGosh/The World 

“We are a family that continues the tradition of tattooing pilgrims in the Holy Land,” Wassim Razzouk said. “I am the 27th generation, and my two sons are continuing this beautiful tradition.”

The Razzouks are Coptic Christians, originally from Egypt, who’ve been doing religious tattoos since the 14th century. They relocated to Jerusalem around 500 years ago, and the family has been tattooing Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land ever since.

Razzouk grew up in the Old City of Jerusalem.

“I watched my father do tattoos, my aunt do tattoos,” he said. “I can’t remember my grandfather because he died when I was 3 years old.”

Today, the family tattoo business is located in a quiet alleyway of the Old City, not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites on Earth for Christians.

“I would easily say 90% of the people who come here get tattoos as pilgrimage tattoos,” Razzouk said.

In Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Christians make up less than 2% of the overall population. But Christians make up more than half of the tourists who visit the Holy Land every year. Most of the people who come to Razzouk’s studio looking for a new tattoo are Christian pilgrims from abroad.

“I would easily say 90% of the people who come here get tattoos as pilgrimage tattoos,” Razzouk said.

Mike from Holland is one of the tattoo artists at Razzouk Tattoo in Jerusalem.

Credit:

Fuad AbuGosh/The World

In ancient times, Razzouk said that pilgrims wanted to go back home from the Holy Land with a tattoo showing that they’d successfully made the perilous journey here. It was also a status thing, he said. Nowadays, people like the idea of carrying on the tradition.

“They want to feel that they have become different now after they have become pilgrims, that they have renewed their faith, that they have walked the steps of Jesus, that they have lived the Bible that they have read on paper.”

Razzouk said he’s done tattoos for people in their 70s, 80s and 90s who never had any interest in tattoos before coming here on pilgrimage. A lot of his customers are Westerners. But he also does tattoos for Christians who live in this region.

Stickers from Razzouk Tattoo in Jerusalem. 

Credit:

Fuad AbuGosh/The World

“We are the minority here, in Israel and in the Holy Land. Because we are the minority, they think we are weak,” Razzouk said.

“It’s not easy. It’s very difficult to be a Christian in the Holy Land. It’s very difficult to be a Christian in the Middle East among people who sometimes never even heard about Christianity. And sometimes, they know that you are a Christian and that is a reason to hate you even more, and not only to persecute you, but also to attack you.”

And for that reason, he said that some people get religious tattoos on parts of their bodies that their clothes will cover.

Some of the most popular tattoo designs at Razzouk Tattoo go back centuries. 

Credit:

Fuad AbuGosh/The World

Still, some Christians from the region, Razzouk said, choose to get something like a cross on their lower wrist, to identify their faith, whatever the risk.

Some of the most popular tattoo designs here in the studio go way back in history. There’s the image of St. George slaying a dragon, and the Jerusalem cross — that’s a plain, Greek cross surrounded by four smaller ones.

Razzouk has a Jerusalem cross in red on his left arm, next to another much larger tattoo.

“This is one of my Harley tattoos with the eagle and the engine of the Harley. It’s the heart of the Harley Davidson. I love Harleys. I love bikes. It’s part of my life.”

Razzouk said he managed to do a pilgrimage of his own a few years ago, traveling to the Black Hills of South Dakota for the annual motorcycle rally at Sturgis. He said that he didn’t end up getting a tattoo on that trip, but that he did bring home more than one T-shirt. 

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class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>Ukrainian rock band Vopli Vidopliassova and fans rediscover an old hit 

​​​​​​​In 1989, the Ukrainian punk rock band Vopli Vidopliassova released an album called “Tantsi” or “Dances.” In 2019, the original session tape was rediscovered, and in 2023, Tantsi was finally officially released.

The WorldMay 25, 2023 · 4:30 PM EDT

• By Daniel Ofman

Oleg Skrypka, lead singer of Vopli Vidopliassova.

Anastasia Vlasova/The World 

Oleksandr Pipa was the original bass player for the Ukrainian rock band, Vopli Vidopliassova, just as an underground rock scene was beginning to emerge in Kyiv in the 1980s. 

The band recorded hits like “Tantsi,” or “Dances,” the title track on a 1989 album. People would copy it, share it with friends or sell it on the black market.

Now, the album, “Tantsi,” is being rediscovered by a new generation of fans — it was rereleased last month. 

“Tantsi,” which was originally meant to be a demo tape and was mostly recorded in one night, is a time capsule from late Soviet Kyiv, as the Record Store Day website says. It’s also about rebelling against repressive rule from the Kremlin, and imagining new possibilities. 

Songs like “Politrok” and “There Were Days” poke fun at Soviet-era politics.

Another original member of Vopli Vidopliassova, Oleg Skrypka, who’s still the frontman, said the band’s popularity started with the song, “Tantsi.”

Oleg Skrypka, lead singer of Vopli Vidopliassova.

Credit:

Anastasia Vlasova/The World 

 “When we played this song, it was like [an] explosion, people [went] crazy.”

At the time, Kyiv bands were imitating Russian bands.

“So, when we started to sing in Ukrainian, we instantly became legends and stars and it was time to record.”

Pipa, who now has his own band, Attraktor, said it came about because Maria Sonevytsky, a professor from Bard College, was working on a book in 2019 about “Tantsi,” called “Vopli Vidopliassova’s Tantsi.”

After she got in touch with Pipa, he said, he dug up the original recording. 

Oleksandr Pipa, original Vopli Vidopliassova bass player.

Credit:

Daniel Ofman/The World 

“I gave it to Maria, she took it and flew to the United States, found the studio, and then, the master engineer, really; he made it even better than it used to be.”

Pipa said that hearing those old recordings after so many years was a welcome distraction from the war in Ukraine.

“Kyiv was under constant missile attacks from Russia. On [the] one hand, there is this horrible war, and at the same time, some connection to normality; and it made me kind of feel that everything is going to be OK.”

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Email AddressEmail AddressSubscribeI have read and agree to your Privacy Policy.Related ContentThe long fight for arts and culture in Ukraine as war rages onStarting over in France: How some Ukrainian families are trying to embrace their new livesEthnic minorities in Russia are campaigning for the breakup of the countryUkraine's air defense adapts with more sophisticated technology, equipment

class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>Will Brazil’s ‘Fake News Bill’ regulate disinformation or stifle free speech?

Brazil ranks third in the world for the most social media usage, following India and Indonesia. Now, a controversial, 3-year-old bill is weaving its way through Congress. It could regulate social media platforms in the same way as TV and radio. The “Fake News Bill” has staunch supporters, but some also accuse it of being a form of censorship.

The WorldMay 25, 2023 · 12:30 PM EDT

• By Michael Fox

Leonardo de Carvalho Leal and Mayara Stelle administer the Twitter account Sleeping Giants Brazil, a platform for activism whose stated mission is to attack the financing of hate speech and dissemination of fake news, Dec. 11, 2020.

Andre Penner/AP/File photo

A couple of weeks ago, millions of Brazilians received a text from messaging application Telegram saying that Brazil was about to pass a law that would "end freedom of expression."

The app also claimed that the bill would give the government "censorship powers without prior judicial oversight."

The legislation requires internet companies, search engines and social messaging services to find and report illegal material themselves, or face heavy fines.

Brazil’s Congress is debating the proposed law, which if passed, would be one of the world’s harshest laws against fake news. The bill has already been approved by the Senate and it’s now awaiting a vote in the lower house. But the “Fake News Bill,” as it’s being called, is extremely controversial. 

Congressional leaders attacked the Telegram message on the floor of the lower house.

"They are spreading lies saying that the Brazilian parliament wants to approve censorship. That [it wants] to end democracy. This is scandalous,” said Orlando Silva, the sponsor of Bill 2630. "It’s a scandal that a multinational corporation wants to push the national Congress onto its knees.”

Silva added that lawmakers had specifically invited Telegram many times to participate in the debate over the legislation, but the company had declined.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes then threatened to take Telegram offline for 72 hours if it didn’t delete the message.

The platform finally complied. But it was a sign of just how heated the debate over this bill has become in recent weeks.

Censorship accusations

Analyst Alan Ghani, of the conservative news outlet Jovem Pan, has called the forced removal of the Telegram message: “Censorship, pure and simple.”

He added: “Would we punish a newspaper editorial, when many outlets have come out against the fake news bill in their editorials? It’s the same thing.” 

But the head of the government coalition in the Senate, Randolfe Rodrigues, told the media that the platforms are very different. He said there are government regulations for TV and news outlets, and that the same is needed for social media firms.

“To the heads of the big tech companies and their shareholders anywhere in the world, Brazil will not be no-man’s-land,” he said. “You will not be permitted to do what you want here without punishment.”

David Nemer, a Brazilian media studies professor at the University of Virginia, has researched social media platforms for years.

"These platforms are not neutral,” he said. "These platforms are not just publishers. They are part of the message. And they curate the message."

Fake news has been a major issue for Brazil in recent years.

"[Fake news] has harmed public debate,” said Luciana Santana, a political scientist at the Federal University of Alagoas. "[It’s] gotten in the way of serious discussions over public policies, and influenced political races in Brazil.”

Experts say it played a decisive role in the 2018 election of former President Jair Bolsonaro. During the pandemic, he told Brazilians that getting COVID-19 vaccines could turn them into crocodiles.

Creating transparency

But, this bill isn't just about fake news.

"It’s more about bringing transparency, from the big techs in terms of access to the algorithm, access to reports about the algorithm, understanding how these platforms behave, so we have a more transparent way of understanding … the role of these platforms in everyday life,” Nemer said.

Brazilian journalism professor Rogerio Christofoletti said this bill is also about holding social media firms accountable when dangerous, hateful or misleading content is shared on their platforms.

"These digital platforms have the means to reduce the reach, to adjust their algorithms, to not promote specific content,” Christofoletti said. "The platforms can do more than they have. And a law like this can force these platforms to use their technical power to combat disinformation.”

Nemer added that these companies are pushing back for a reason.

“This is why the big techs are playing hardball in Brazil,” Nemer said. “Because they know that if Brazil passes this bill, then it sets the precedent and the other countries will follow as well. So, they're trying to close the gate as much as they can so other countries will not follow suit and pass their own internet laws.”

Nemer is concerned that the bill may not find the votes it needs to pass, in part, because many politicians elected to Congress ran campaigns based on disinformation, and actually benefited from an unregulated social media. 

And although the bill has already been approved by the Senate, the vote in the lower house has been postponed several times in recent weeks, as the governing coalition pushes to shore up more votes.

Related: The future of Bolsonaro in Brazil remains uncertain

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Email AddressEmail AddressSubscribeI have read and agree to your Privacy Policy.Related ContentChina’s tech weapons roll in to quell demonstrations, identify protestersBlocking BBC documentary on Gujarat riots goes against India's democratic values, journalist says'The torture of political prisoners is real' in Uganda, says poet and free speech activistNew restrictive regulations in Egypt will shut down access to independent information, legal director says

class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>‘Back to normal’ at Jerusalem’s holiest site 

Authorities managed to avoid a worst-case scenario at the holiest site in Jerusalem during the overlapping religious holidays of Easter, Passover and Ramadan that ended a few weeks ago. Now, things are getting back to normal at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The WorldMay 24, 2023 · 4:15 PM EDT

• By Matthew Bell

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem holds an important place in religious scripture.

Matthew Bell/The World

On a recent weekday morning, dozens of tourists are lined up on a pedestrian ramp in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem.

A recorded message reminds visitors of the significance of the place: “Please respect the holiness of the site and the worshippers. Please dress and behave appropriately during the visit.”

The ramp passes by the Western Wall and goes up to the Mughrabi Gate, one of the entrances to probably the most iconic location in the city of Jerusalem. It’s the Temple Mount, as Jews know the site, or the Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, as Muslims call it. This is also the location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and golden Dome of the Rock.

The place holds an important place in religious scripture. It’s where the universe was created, where Adam stepped out of the Garden of Eden, where Abraham told God he was willing to sacrifice his own son, and it’s where Muhammad prayed with Jesus and other prophets before ascending to heaven.

On a recent weekday morning, dozens of tourists are lined up on a pedestrian ramp in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem. The ramp passes by the Western Wall and goes up to the Mughrabi Gate, one of the entrances to probably the most iconic location in the city of Jerusalem. It’s the Temple Mount, as Jews know the site, or the Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, as Muslims call it. This is also the location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and golden Dome of the Rock.

Credit:

Matthew Bell/The World

Recently, the holy compound has seen clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian Muslims, along with vandalism and rock-throwing between groups of Jews and Muslims. But authorities managed to avoid a worst-case scenario at the holy site during the overlapping religious holidays of Easter, Passover and Ramadan that ended a few weeks ago.

In many ways, things are getting back to normal here. But the status quo framework, an agreement between Israel and Jordan from 1967 with roots that go back to the 1800s that governs how the holy site is run, is something that many people on both sides are not particularly happy about.

The holiest site in Jerusalem continues to be an ongoing source of contention between Jews and Muslims.

“We come here to pray, not to make problems for anybody,” said Khalil Maas’hal, who was at the mosque with his two adult sons.

Maas’hal explained that Muslims have a religious duty to visit this place.

“Every prayer on this spot,” he said, “is multiplied 500 times.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy visited the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem in late April.

Credit:

Matthew Bell/The World

Maas’hal, who is from Ramallah, about a 30-minute drive away from Al-Aqsa, said he’s got a special ID card that gets him through the Israeli military checkpoint to come pray here.

“The problems happening here are created by the Israelis,” he said.

Ikhlas Malhi, who came to the mosque from East Jerusalem with her daughter, said that she’s witnessed many instances of violent clashes.

“I have seen Israeli soldiers stamp on the Quran. I have seen them attack the youth. I have seen them hit women, beat them up and arrest them. I’ve seen all this violence against people entering the mosque.”

Last month, Israeli police said they were forced to confront Palestinian Muslims who barricaded themselves inside the mosque with piles of rocks and fireworks. Under the status quo framework, Israel’s police forces maintain security at the Temple Mount. They also control the entrances to the holy site, where non-Muslim prayer is forbidden. The Waqf — a Muslim trust under the supervision of the government of Jordan — is in charge of running the religious and administrative affairs at the Noble Sanctuary.

Abeer Ziad is an archaeologist with the Waqf. And, like many Palestinians, she said that what she fears most is that the Israelis intend to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque to make way for a new Jewish temple.

“This is what they ask for. You can go to all the websites of the Temple groups. This is what they [demand], to demolish the place and build a temple and this a place to be just for them.”

Abeer Ziad is an archaeologist with the Waqf. And, like many Palestinians, she said that what she fears most is that the Israelis intend to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque to make way for a new Jewish temple.

Credit:

Matthew Bell/The World

Lots of Israelis say this fear is entirely overblown, that Israel’s government has controlled the Old City of Jerusalem going back to 1967 and it’s maintained the status quo arrangement ever since.

But some point out that things have changed here at the Temple Mount, with more Jewish nationalists making a point to visit the place on a regular basis.

Groups of Jewish visitors are always accompanied by a police escort here to prevent scuffles with Muslim worshippers and ensure that nobody’s breaking the rules under the status quo.

Jewish visitors are accompanied by Israeli police at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Credit:

Matthew Bell/The World

Only Muslims are allowed to pray at the holy compound. But a security guard with the Waqf, who didn’t want to be identified, said he sees Jewish visitors going against the rules all the time.

Daniel el-Meleh, a retired software engineer from Jerusalem, said that he tries to come here every week, even though prominent rabbis in Israel say the Temple Mount is too holy and that Jews should not be setting foot here.

“I’m not coming for a religious purpose. I’m coming for [a] national purpose. Just to be here. To say, I’m part of it. That’s my home. It’s like you go back to your home, and you want to sit there because that’s yours. So, I’m here to say, ‘That’s mine.’”

Meleh said that he doesn’t agree with the status quo framework.

“It’s not OK [with it], because I’m telling you, that’s the only place in the world, on the planet where I don’t feel comfortable.”

He said that he’s not comfortable because Jewish prayer is forbidden on the Temple Mount, and because Jews are only allowed to visit during certain times of the day.

On Sunday, Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir made his second known visit to Jerusalem’s holiest site. In a video released by his office, he said the presence of Israeli police “proves who’s in charge in Jerusalem.”

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the Biden administration was concerned by Ben-Gvir’s “provocative visit … and the accompanying inflammatory rhetoric.”  

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class=”MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-h1 mui-style-1wnv7m0″>Starting over in France: How some Ukrainian families are trying to embrace their new lives

For many Ukrainians and Russians who’ve fled their homes since the war started, returning is not an option. So, they’re beginning again in new places and confronting new challenges. As part of our ongoing series on starting over, we visit Cazilhac, a tiny village in southwest France, where a humanitarian bus brought dozens of Ukrainian families to safety around a year ago. Today, just three of them remain.

The WorldMay 24, 2023 · 3:30 PM EDT

• By Gerry Hadden

The Toftul children with their mother, Alona Toftul in Cazilhac, France.

Gerry Hadden/The World

For Alona Toftul and her family, most of what remains of their old life on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, is saved on her phone.

She scrolled through some old videos of her children — Agata, 14, in piano class, Arkhip, 11, in their kitchen with his guitar, his fingers barely reaching the highest strings.

“When we fled, we didn’t bring Arkhip’s guitar,” she said. “It was hardly priority luggage. We left with what we could carry in small backpacks.”

The Toftuls’ house was just four miles from the village of Bucha, where Russian soldiers are accused of torturing and massacring civilians at the war’s outset.

Akim and his 14-year-old sister, Agata, enjoying a sunny morning in Cazilhac, France. When they first arrived after fleeing Ukraine they would flinch at the sound of airplanes passing overhead.

Credit:

Gerry Hadden/The World

The Toftuls are Ukrainian, but ethnic Russians, so Russian is their first language. They don’t talk about what they saw at the outset of the war, but Andrei Toftul — Alona Toftul’s husband — said they were lucky that they left when they did. And he’s emphatic on one point: They’re never going back.

“They stole everything, and even booby-trapped some homes with mines.”

Andrei Toftul, Ukrainian refugee in France

“Our house is still standing, but there’s nothing in it. All of the houses were abandoned when the Russians came in,” he said. “They stole everything, and even booby-trapped some homes with mines.”

Millions of Ukrainians fled their country after Russia's full-scale invasion last year. While many have returned, some can't or won't. They're starting over in new places and confronting new challenges.

The Toftuls ended up in Cazilhac, France, which has a population below 2,000 people.

When the war broke out, Toni Carvajal, the mayor of the village, asked locals to open up their homes to refugees.

“I said to the town council, ‘we ought to do our share,’” Carvajal said. “I started collecting clothes, medicine and food from surrounding villages. And I already had a license to drive a bus.”

So, Carvajal recruited a nurse, his friend Jean-Francois Carrasco and others, then drove a bus for two days to Poland in March of last year. They pulled in just as the Toftuls, and hundreds of other refugees, were walking across the border from Ukraine, desperate and dazed.

The Toftul children with their mother, Cazilhac, France.

Credit:

Gerry Hadden/The World

“We brought back 32 families with us,” Carvajal said with a hint of pride.

Among them was a single mother, Elena Khairulina, and her teenage son. 

“War is scary, but I was especially concerned for my son,” Khairulina said. “And as a young mother, well, we all know what’s been happening to young women at the hands of the Russians.”

Khairulina was alluding to rape as a weapon of war in Russian-occupied areas. The United Nations has documented dozens of cases of sexual attacks by Russian soldiers through January. Human rights nongovernmental organizations have actually put the number much higher.

Khairulina comes from a small village right next to one city where atrocities are a daily event: Bakhmut, a city that Russia’s been trying to take for months, even at the cost of tens of thousands of its soldiers. 

Olena Khairulina reached Cazilhac on a volunteer bus driven by village mayor Toni Carvajal. On the bus was French volunteer Jean-Francois Carrasco. Months after returning he and Khairulina fell in love. She’s learning French and working in a hotel, and has no plans to return to her village in Ukraine near Bakhmut.

Credit:

Gerry Hadden/The World

Like the Toftuls, Khairulina said that she’s never going back. She has a job now working in a hotel and is learning French.

She’s also now in a relationship with Carrasco, the mayor’s friend, whom she met during his trip to Poland.

“She’s getting better and better each day,” he said about her language skills.

Khairulina seems happy with the here-and-now. But she still has plenty to worry about. Her son just returned to Ukraine, against her wishes. She said that he wanted to finish high school in his own language — Russian — before returning to France for good.

“It’s not OK,” she said, starting to cry. “I am scared for my boy.”

The Toftul family is divided as well. And they’re not alone. Of the 32 families that arrived in Cazilhac last year, 29 of them have already returned home, despite the risks.

Andrei Toftul found a job as a handyman for the town — painting, fixing plumbing and other odd jobs — while his wife learned how to do manicures.

And the Toftul children are starting to adapt to their new life.

They are safe now, said Alona Toftul. And they no longer duck at the sound of airplanes.

She added that her next goal is to make life feel as normal as possible, saying she plans to sign them up for classes at the local music school, even if they don’t have their own instruments with them from home.

But Andrei Toftul’s parents refuse to leave their home country, despite the ongoing fighting.

“My father wants to die in his country,” Andrei Toftul said. “I understand him. He’s worked hard his whole life for what he has. He can’t just leave it all behind.”

Related: Ukrainian refugees create their own school in Romania

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class=”MuiTypography-root-134 MuiTypography-h1-139″>Tokyo’s trash-collecting samurai takes a fun, zany approach to cleanup

They call themselves the Gomi Hiroi Samurai — or the “Samurai Who Pick Up Litter.” These sword-wielding eco-warriors have turned garbage collecting into a choreographed performance. 

The WorldMay 19, 2023 · 12:00 PM EDT

• By Rebecca RosmanJulia Kim

Kaz Kobayashi and Ikki Goto glide through Tokyo’s bustling Ikebukuro district in full-length samurai outfits, while wielding objects that look like swords. They are members of the Gomi Hiroi Samurai or the trash-collecting samurai.

Julia Kim/The World 

Passersby do a double take when they see Kaz Kobayashi and Ikki Goto.

The two men glide through Tokyo’s bustling Ikebukuro district in full-length samurai outfits, while wielding objects that look like swords. They are members of the Gomi Hiroi Samurai or the trash-collecting samurai.

Kaz Kobayashi and Ikki Goto, part of the Gomi Hiroi Samurai group, are actors who perform as samurai who clean up Tokyo.

Credit:

Julia Kim/The World 

“Yesterday was Friday so people are smoking and drinking around here, so there’s a lot of trash,” Kobayashi said.

On closer inspection, their samurai swords — or katanas — are actually just very long tongs, used to pick up litter. Kobayashi said the tongs are important for novelty value.

“We’re doing this as entertainment … but it can be tiring sometimes. It’s tough, man.”

The Gomi Hiroi Samurai do this three times a week. There’s four of them, and they’re professional actors. In their spare time, they volunteer to keep the streets of Tokyo clean. Goto formed the group in 2009. Since then, they have become a viral sensation on TikTok, with over 700,000 followers and counting.

Kaz Kobayashi and Ikki Goto, part of the Gomi Hiroi Samurai group, are actors who perform as samurai who clean up Tokyo.

Credit:

Julia Kim/The World  

Here in Ikebukuro, they target back alleys and parking lots, which are rife with litter. Kobayashi and Goto, working in sync, slice and spin their tongs through the air, meticulously seizing cigarette butts one by one before tossing them into the wastebaskets strapped to their backs.

Manaka Nishibiro, a nursery teacher trainee, watched them from a distance.

“Picking up trash is unpleasant for most people, but their performance makes it look so fun,” Nishibiro said, adding that she hopes it might encourage others to do the same.

Kaz Kobayashi and Ikki Goto pick up litter in Tokyo as part of an acting troupe, the Gomi Hiroi Samurai, who have an environmental mission.

Credit:

Julia Kim/The World 

An hour later, Kobayashi and Goto took their wastebaskets to a recycling base. There, they separated out every piece of rubbish they’ve collected. They said that they hope to recruit more Gomi Hiroi samurai  in Japan — and around the world — to spread their message: “We punish immoral hearts.”

It means that trash in and of itself isn’t bad. Instead, it’s people and the actions that stem from their negative mindsets. And a growing sense of negativity is something that Kobayashi said worries him.

“This is a problem in Japan,” he said. “People don’t go outside.”

Kaz Kobayashi and Ikki Goto, actors, use their roles in the Gomi Hiroi Samurai as a way to entertain and encourage people to keep the outdoors clean.

Credit:

Julia Kim/The World 

Last month, a government survey showed that 1.5 million people are living as social recluses in Japan. With loneliness and depression on the rise, Kobayashi said he hopes that their fun, zany take on something as mundane as trash-collecting helps people reengage with the outside world.

Kaz Kobayashi and Ikki Goto, part of the Gomi Hiroi Samurai group, are professional actors who volunteer to clean up litter in Tokyo. Their mantra is “clean space, clear mind.”

Credit:

Julia Kim/The World  

“Samurai is a warrior,” he said. “Our philosophy is to help people.”

For these eco-warriors, “clean space, clear mind” is more than just a saying — it’s the way of the Gomi Hiroi samurai.

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class=”MuiTypography-root-142 MuiTypography-h1-147″>‘We were treated as disposable beings’: Waste pickers in Colombia fought for their rights after 11 murders

The people who collect garbage for recycling organized among themselves to change how they are paid and how they are treated. Today, waste pickers are officially recognized as part of the municipal waste system. 

The WorldMay 18, 2023 · 3:00 PM EDT

• By Manuel Rueda

Waste picker Alfredo Rodriguez drags his cart along Bogotá, Colombia's Chapinero district, where he gathers trash that can be recycled.

Manuel Rueda/The World

Back in 1992, security guards at the Universidad Libre in the Colombian city of Barranquilla came up with a way to help the medical school — and themselves.

On quiet nights, they lured waste pickers onto campus to collect old cans and cardboard boxes — it was a trap. The guards beat them with bats, and shot them, according to court documents. Then, they sold the bodies to the medical school, where the students needed cadavers to learn on.

This went unnoticed for weeks, until one waste picker survived. After he was put in a bathtub full of formaldehyde, the man escaped and alerted the police. On March 1, as the city celebrated its annual carnival, officials found the bodies of 11 waste pickers in the university’s morgue.

“It’s something that still makes us feel pain,” said Marisol Mogollon, a waste picker in Bogotá.  “Just to think that we were treated as disposable beings.”

Waste picker Alfredo Rodriguez separates cardboard from plastic at a park in a wealthy area of Bogotá, Colombia.

Credit:

Manuel Rueda/The World 

The crime shocked the nation but it also galvanized waste pickers in Colombia. They went from being one of the most marginalized groups in the country to being highly visible, fighting for their rights in the streets and in courts. Nowadays, Colombia is a global leader when it comes to granting rights to these workers, said Federico Parra, an urban anthropologist who specializes in grassroots organizations.

“This [crime] created a huge movement that impulsed the waste pickers' organizations to fight for their rights,” he said.

Many waste pickers in Colombia are now recognized as public service providers, and they can go anywhere in the city to collect goods that can be recycled — without fear.

Miguel Lugo organizes cardboard at a warehouse run by ARAUS, the Usme Waste Pickers Association.

Credit:

Manuel Rueda/The World 

A lot of them still get around the city on foot, pulling heavy wooden carts. But they have formed associations that own trucks, and collect their trash at designated points. Previously, waste pickers had to drag their carts for several miles to get to warehouses where they sold items like cardboard, bottles and tin cans.

Alfredo Rodriguez is a waste picker in Chapinero, a wealthy district in the north of Bogotá. As he pulled his wooden cart along a street lined with office buildings and expensive apartments, he said the job still pays little, and requires long hours. But slowly, the conditions have been improving.

“We used to fight over trash bags in the street,” he said. “Now, it’s more orderly, and we also get gloves, face masks and boots with steel tips.”

In Colombia, waste pickers have filed several lawsuits against city governments that have privatized waste collection and given some recycling responsibilities to government contractors.

In 2011, the nation’s Constitutional Court ruled that municipal governments had to take actions to protect waste pickers, because they are a vulnerable group that provides an important service.

Miguel Lugo and William Lugo stop at a school where they are going to collect trash that can be recycled. The ARAUS waste pickers association owns a truck that has helped it to increase its monthly haul. 

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Manuel Rueda/The World 

Following that groundbreaking ruling, cities like Bogotá have begun to require that contractors pay waste pickers a portion of the funds that they get from waste management taxes.

So, in Bogotá, waste pickers don’t just get paid for what they sell to warehouses each day. They also get a monthly fee that comes from the waste management tax. It’s known as the tarifa.

“We get anywhere from $30 to $90 from the tarifa, depending on how much [trash] we gathered,” said Sandra Martinez, a waste picker in Usme, a district at the southern edge of Bogotá. “It’s not much, but it helps to pay the bills.”

At the end of the month, waste pickers’ associations also get paid a fee, which varies according to how many tons their members collect.

Waste picker Emiliano Martinez pushes his cart through a neighborhood in Usme, where he collects trash door to door. 

Credit:

Manuel Rueda/The World 

Jorge Ospina directs ARAUS, the waste pickers association in Bogotá’s Usme district. His association has 75 members and gets about $5,000 a month from local taxes.

“Thanks to the tariff, our association has enough money to rent three warehouses, and we’ve also bought a truck.” he said.

At one of the warehouses, two employees stripped labels away from hundreds of plastic bottles, so that they could sell them to a local recycling plant.

Thanks to the warehouse, there’s no longer any need to sell trash to middle men. And the association’s members can get better prices for what they collect.

Waste picker Edgar Rodriguez loads cardboard on a truck owned by ARAUS, the Usme Waster Pickers Association. The truck helps the association to collect more trash and makes things easier for waste pickers in the district of Usme. 

Credit:

Manuel Rueda/The World

But waste pickers in the city still face many challenges. Prices for some items, like cardboard, have fallen recently. And for some waste pickers it’s also become harder to gather decent amounts of trash.

Martinez said many Venezuelan migrants who are out of work are also roaming the streets of Bogotá looking for items that can be sold to recycling plants.

“They open the trash bags before we can get to them,” she said. “And with the economic crisis, even homeowners are holding on to stuff, and selling it themselves to warehouses.”

But the biggest challenge for Bogotá’s waste pickers are large contractors that are also trying to get a piece of the recycling business.

Jorge Ospina, (center) standing with other waste pickers who are affiliated to the ARAUS association. Ospina has been the group’s director for more than 20 years and under his leadership they have been able to rent warehouses and get their own truck.

Credit:

Manuel Rueda/The World 

Ospina, from the ARAUS association, said that some of these companies have even formed dubious associations that are trying to claim some of the monthly payments that are reserved for waste pickers.

“Before the tariff system began, we only had around 40 waste pickers’ associations in Bogotá,” he said. “But now, there are 450. The city government has to eliminate the fake organizations, so that only the authentic waste pickers benefit from the monthly payments.”

Still, for many waste pickers in Bogotá, like Martinez, this is an industry that has changed for the better, even if these transformations were sparked by a horrible set of murders.

“Our job has more recognition now,” she said. “We used to be perceived as junkies, or disposable people. But now, our role in the city is respected.”

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class=”MuiTypography-root-134 MuiTypography-h1-139″>In Mumbai, waste pickers do the heavy lifting of recycling  

Waste pickers collect and send garbage to Dharavi, an informal settlement where thousands of recyclers live and work. They sort through the piles, and clean and separate the different types of materials destined for a second or third life. Without them, much of the city's trash would end up in incinerators or dumped in landfills.

The WorldMay 17, 2023 · 3:45 PM EDT

• By Namrata Kolachalam

Trucks, many of them carrying recyclables, crowd the narrow streets of Dharavi, an informal settlement in Mumbai, India.

Justin Nisly/The World 

Ali Mohammad, a recycler in Dharavi, an informal settlement in Mumbai, one of India’s largest cities, sorts through a mountain of plastic ice cream cartons, which are destined to become anything from hair combs to water buckets.

“The life of plastic never ends. It breaks, then, in one month or so, it comes back as another thing,” he said.

Ali Mohammad sorts through ice cream containers for recycling.

Credit:

Justin Nisly/The World 

After moving here from Uttar Pradesh, a large state in northern India, Mohammad has spent the past four years separating, washing and chopping plastic as part of Dharavi’s bustling recycling operation.

In Mumbai, home to 20 million people, waste ends up in Dharavi ​​with recyclers like Mohammad. A quarter of the people living here are employed in recycling at least 60% of the city’s plastic — a recycling rate far higher than the average in the US.

The recyclables that Mohammad digs through in a one-room, independent shop come from waste pickers who gather the recycling from the landfills and streets. Both groups of workers are crucial — and interlinked — in India, which is grappling with how to manage the rapid growth of plastics and other solid wastes.

Ice cream containers from popular Indian brands wait to be recycled.

Credit:

Justin Nisly/The World 

In Mumbai, a city crushed by the amount of garbage discarded each day, waste pickers help make this metropolis livable. And for every bottle and bag collected, that’s less plastic that ends up in the ocean.

The process begins in neighborhoods like Bandra, 20 minutes from Dharavi where Sheikh Salim gathered litter on the side of a road.

Salim, a waste picker, set down an enormous bag and listed the contents so far: “There is paper, these are bottles, this is a metal container, a thin sheet of plastic.”

He added, “I will take this waste to the scrap dealer who will weigh it and whatever, 150 rupees [$1.80], I will get.”

From the scrap dealer, most of the dry waste will eventually go to a recycler. In Mumbai, that could be a small-scale operation in Dharavi.

Though municipalities often also have a centralized, official version of waste management — for instance, garbage trucks that collect each day from households and some recycling centers — they tacitly rely on waste pickers and unlicensed recycling centers to augment their services. 

Separating the recycling

 Swati Singh Sambyal, an independent waste management expert, said that this interconnected waste management process is convoluted: “There’s a formal system of management, there’s an informal system of management, and that’s where the chaos is.”

Sambyal noted that since the Indian government issued its Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, the mindset of many Indians has been changing — and that is a good thing.

Sheik Salim collects recyclables in his bag along a street in Bandra, in Mumbai, India.

Credit:

Justin Nisly/The World 

These rules, which mandate that homes and businesses should separate dry, wet and hazardous waste, have sparked a growing awareness about the importance of scientifically managing trash.

Still, many households don’t. Instead, they might toss plastic water bottles in with food scraps and diapers. And Sambyal said that even when families do separate their trash, the city garbage collectors might toss it all together.

“Perhaps, if I’m doing it [waste segregation] as a resident, it’s being collected and then mixed, and then, say, going to a facility where it’s burned. Me segregating then goes down the drain.”

​Or, municipal sanitation trucks might just dump everything into landfills that other waste pickers then dig through, which is dangerous work.

As experts consider ways of improving this system, Sambyal said an important question to ask is: “How do we formalize the informal sector, or if we’re not able to do so, how do we bring them into our processes?”

It’s a question Sushila Sable is also asking. She is part of a women’s empowerment group in Mumbai called Stree Mukti Sanghatana.

For decades, she did the hazardous and difficult work of gathering recyclables from a nearby dumping ground. Now, she works to organize them.

Sable said it is high time that waste pickers be officially recognized for their important role.

Sushila Sable, a former waste picker, now manages a women's empowerment group.

Credit:

Justin Nisly/The World 

“From the year 2008, we have been demanding that we be given an identity card, to be recognized and live a life as humane as possible given the circumstances we work in. But [we] have not got the identity card.”

Official IDs protect them from police harassment, reduce the stigma of the job, and waste pickers say it could improve their access to subsidized housing, health care and education for their kids.

New approaches to a growing challenge

 The good news is some Indian cities have already begun to incorporate waste pickers into their waste management systems. For instance, the city of Ambikapur, in the state of Chhattisgarh, has given several hundred waste pickers ID cards, so they can collect garbage from people’s homes — where it’s been presorted.

Later, the dry waste will be separated into a whopping 156 different items.

In Dharavi, an informal settlement in Mumbai, India, men separate plastic and metal components for reycling.

Credit:

Justin Nisly/The World 

Ritesh Saini, based within the city government, is the local officer for the country’s Clean India mission, Swachh Bharat. Saini explained that they divide their dry waste so carefully because “the more we segregate, the more revenue we can earn.”

As an example, he cited an average water bottle.

“The cap is separated, the plastic wrapper is separated, and the bottle body is separated,” and by selling each piece to a different vendor, Saini said, the city generates a lot more income.

Raju Rajput (left) and his colleagues take a break from recycling plastic car bumpers in his shop.

Credit:

Justin Nisly/The World 

Back in Dharavi, Mohammad said that business is booming for recyclers like him, as Indians throw away more trash than ever. In fact, the Indian government predicts that the country’s plastic use will more than triple in the next decade.

It’s a big reason why waste pickers are asking for more protection and recognition for their role in waste management.

“We work for cleanliness of the surrounding living spaces as well as protecting the environment,” Sable said. “Slowly, the world is recognizing us and our role.”

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