Provision of “affordable” housing is increasingly becoming an extremely challenging as well as complex issue. There is no tailor-made, well-defined definition of “affordable” where urban housing is concerned. Large metropolitan cities such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and so forth, have teeming populations living in large slums. The Burrabazar or Bara Bazar area in Central Kolkata is extremely populous. This also shows how dire the necessity of proper shelter for these poor migrants as well as other laborers and poor of the area. A sample of 100 laborers (both migrants as well as locals) was selected randomly and surveyed with a questionnaire comprising 41 main questions from the Burrabazar area, starting from the Ganesh Talkies area. The respondents were semiskilled to unskilled workers involved in physically hazardous occupations like handheld rickshaw pullers, “mutiyahs,” manual scavengers, small deliverymen, domestic help, and so forth, mainly in the age group of 25–55 years. The entire sample survey was started and carried out in the month of February 2016 in all the wards of Burrabazar. A two-pronged approach is suggested as a remedy for this problem of an affordable place to stay. The first is to provide hostel-type “homes” where they will be able to stay in groups and obtain meals at cheap prices. It will be of a minimum value so that not only they obtain a safe and secure place to stay, and a bed but also at least a couple of healthy and nutritious meals as well as medicines (in times of emergency). The second option is “mobile homes.” This is not only a very interesting concept but is also extremely useful. Since these mobile homes can be moved they can be kept anywhere with proper permission from the municipality and the other concerned authorities, say the local police. But then, effective guidelines must be there to identify the beneficiaries properly.
{"title":"Tangible policy framework for affordable housing in India: Analysis and policy Prescriptions","authors":"Sampriti Biswas, Pranay Prakash","doi":"10.1111/aspp.12665","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12665","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Provision of “affordable” housing is increasingly becoming an extremely challenging as well as complex issue. There is no tailor-made, well-defined definition of “affordable” where urban housing is concerned. Large metropolitan cities such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and so forth, have teeming populations living in large slums. The Burrabazar or Bara Bazar area in Central Kolkata is extremely populous. This also shows how dire the necessity of proper shelter for these poor migrants as well as other laborers and poor of the area. A sample of 100 laborers (both migrants as well as locals) was selected randomly and surveyed with a questionnaire comprising 41 main questions from the Burrabazar area, starting from the Ganesh Talkies area. The respondents were semiskilled to unskilled workers involved in physically hazardous occupations like handheld rickshaw pullers, “mutiyahs,” manual scavengers, small deliverymen, domestic help, and so forth, mainly in the age group of 25–55 years. The entire sample survey was started and carried out in the month of February 2016 in all the wards of Burrabazar. A two-pronged approach is suggested as a remedy for this problem of an affordable place to stay. The first is to provide hostel-type “homes” where they will be able to stay in groups and obtain meals at cheap prices. It will be of a minimum value so that not only they obtain a safe and secure place to stay, and a bed but also at least a couple of healthy and nutritious meals as well as medicines (in times of emergency). The second option is “mobile homes.” This is not only a very interesting concept but is also extremely useful. Since these mobile homes can be moved they can be kept anywhere with proper permission from the municipality and the other concerned authorities, say the local police. But then, effective guidelines must be there to identify the beneficiaries properly.</p>","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"14 4","pages":"536-549"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71919451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Media coverage of Ukraine crisis and its implications on India–Russia relations","authors":"Abhijit Anand, Gaurav Pathak","doi":"10.1111/aspp.12667","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12667","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"14 4","pages":"560-563"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71975311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can ASEAN Take Human Rights Seriously? Alison Duxbury and Tan Hsien-Li Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, 405 pp. ISBN 978-1-108-46590-8, GBP 37.99","authors":"Francisco (Kiko) Bautista","doi":"10.1111/aspp.12663","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12663","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"14 4","pages":"564-566"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71976553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Global political economy: Theory and practice Cohn, T.H. & Hira, A. Routledge. 2021, ISBN 9780367521981. ( 8th ed., p. 468).","authors":"Makmor Tumin","doi":"10.1111/aspp.12661","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12661","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"14 4","pages":"567-570"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71965911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia David, M. , Lampton, Selina Ho, and Cheng-Chwee, Kuik University of California Press, 2020, ISBN 978-0-520-37299-3","authors":"Robert Joseph P. Medillo","doi":"10.1111/aspp.12654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12654","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"14 3","pages":"453-456"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71967678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<p>In the first week of April 2021, as the Philippines had yet another lockdown due to the B1 variant of the novel coronavirus, a video of a motorcycle rider delivering rice porridge or <i>lugaw</i> went viral. A local official prevented the food delivery because, supposedly, “lugaw” was not “an essential” under current lockdown rules. Thus, sparked a plethora of memes with “#Lugaw is essential” hashtag and forced the government to clarify the issue. The incident was reported in local and international news agencies (Gotinga, <span>2021</span>; Robles, <span>2021</span>) to illustrate the Filipinos’ exasperation over a chaotic pandemic response and the flip-flops of the government's lockdown policies.</p><p>This review discusses some of the prominent memes during the pandemic in the Philippines to tease out (1) the dynamic interplay between government and citizenry (2) and to show the shift in the nature or theme of the meme, as a “political meme” under Duterte.</p><p>The memes chosen here were the ones that attempted to “drown out” Duterte's supporters and the troll machinery as reported by media (Tomacruz, <span>2020</span>). A thorough study of these memes in their lexical and visual qualities is not possible for our purposes, and instead, the chosen memes are qualified for their subject matter or point of dissent, or to illustrate a shift in public perception. The intent is to make a case for further studies of memes given that it might have been the remaining expression of dissent while the citizenry could not avail of the usual avenues due to the pandemic.</p><p>Memes are participatory in nature and in their virality can serve as political tools (Calimbo, <span>2016</span> qtd. in De Leon & and Ballesteros-Lintao, <span>2021</span>, p. 2). Moreno-Almeida suggests that memes as alternative forms of communication can play the role of criticizing power, especially in conditions where media or political actors cannot thoroughly address crucial issues for the citizenry (Moreno-Almeida, <span>2020</span>, p. 1549). Indeed, under Duterte's authoritarian rule and chilling effect on media, this can ring true. Pulos (<span>2020</span>) points to the “crisis meme” as making social commentary about living under a crisis, and particularly, a “salient” part of the COVID-19 public discourse. There is, thus, a political meme and a crisis meme. Under Duterte, both are contained in one meme. The memes would be deployed to counter what Gideon Lasco calls, Duterte's “medical populism” (Lasco, <span>2020</span>).</p><p>During the Philippines’ first lockdown in March 2020, the memes in the Philippines in terms of themes followed the track in the international scene. Essentially, their themes were similar to those in Pulos's study relaying in humorous ways the experience of lockdown, which in that study were: (1) social distancing crisis memes, (2) N95 respirator crisis memes, (3) stay at home crisis memes, and (4) COVID-19 vaccine crisis memes (Pulos, <span>
{"title":"Memes expose Duterte's dismal pandemic response","authors":"Myra Victoria C. Beltran","doi":"10.1111/aspp.12649","DOIUrl":"10.1111/aspp.12649","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the first week of April 2021, as the Philippines had yet another lockdown due to the B1 variant of the novel coronavirus, a video of a motorcycle rider delivering rice porridge or <i>lugaw</i> went viral. A local official prevented the food delivery because, supposedly, “lugaw” was not “an essential” under current lockdown rules. Thus, sparked a plethora of memes with “#Lugaw is essential” hashtag and forced the government to clarify the issue. The incident was reported in local and international news agencies (Gotinga, <span>2021</span>; Robles, <span>2021</span>) to illustrate the Filipinos’ exasperation over a chaotic pandemic response and the flip-flops of the government's lockdown policies.</p><p>This review discusses some of the prominent memes during the pandemic in the Philippines to tease out (1) the dynamic interplay between government and citizenry (2) and to show the shift in the nature or theme of the meme, as a “political meme” under Duterte.</p><p>The memes chosen here were the ones that attempted to “drown out” Duterte's supporters and the troll machinery as reported by media (Tomacruz, <span>2020</span>). A thorough study of these memes in their lexical and visual qualities is not possible for our purposes, and instead, the chosen memes are qualified for their subject matter or point of dissent, or to illustrate a shift in public perception. The intent is to make a case for further studies of memes given that it might have been the remaining expression of dissent while the citizenry could not avail of the usual avenues due to the pandemic.</p><p>Memes are participatory in nature and in their virality can serve as political tools (Calimbo, <span>2016</span> qtd. in De Leon & and Ballesteros-Lintao, <span>2021</span>, p. 2). Moreno-Almeida suggests that memes as alternative forms of communication can play the role of criticizing power, especially in conditions where media or political actors cannot thoroughly address crucial issues for the citizenry (Moreno-Almeida, <span>2020</span>, p. 1549). Indeed, under Duterte's authoritarian rule and chilling effect on media, this can ring true. Pulos (<span>2020</span>) points to the “crisis meme” as making social commentary about living under a crisis, and particularly, a “salient” part of the COVID-19 public discourse. There is, thus, a political meme and a crisis meme. Under Duterte, both are contained in one meme. The memes would be deployed to counter what Gideon Lasco calls, Duterte's “medical populism” (Lasco, <span>2020</span>).</p><p>During the Philippines’ first lockdown in March 2020, the memes in the Philippines in terms of themes followed the track in the international scene. Essentially, their themes were similar to those in Pulos's study relaying in humorous ways the experience of lockdown, which in that study were: (1) social distancing crisis memes, (2) N95 respirator crisis memes, (3) stay at home crisis memes, and (4) COVID-19 vaccine crisis memes (Pulos, <span>","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"14 3","pages":"441-448"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aspp.12649","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45324667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<p>It is not a good time for the global economy. Many countries are experiencing an economic downturn due to several factors. COVID-19 remains a persistent challenge to many countries despite high vaccination rates. In Asia and beyond, a new surge of cases has been delaying the ability of economies to recover and “normalize” since early 2020. Another factor is the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war that started in February 2022. With no end in sight, the war has taken a toll on global supply chains including food (i.e., wheat, potatoes) and oil. Rising food and oil prices have affected societies worldwide unequally with the poor and marginalized receiving the greatest negative impact of actions and decisions made beyond their states' borders.</p><p>Governments will face tremendous challenges in addressing the economic hardship experienced by their people. Their pandemic response has drained their fiscal resources and led many states to borrow extensively. In the Philippines, for example, government debt has doubled since the pandemic began. This has severely limited the ability of its government to effectively respond to inflation and jumpstart the economy. But it is in Sri Lanka where a full-fledged economic crisis wreaked havoc with the resignation of the government. Without sufficient foreign currency reserves, the Sri Lankan economy virtually shut down with a shortage of oil and gas as well as basic food necessities. As seen in the past, such economic hardship caused popular outrage with massive protests unseen in its contemporary history. The global economic downturn is a serious legitimacy challenge to governments of all types.</p><p>The dire global economic situation requires states and international institutions to immediately act, seriously work in a collective manner, and commit to uplift everyone from the crisis. This is not an easy decision as retreating to protectionist measures is the easy and rational path in the short run. The looming food crisis around the world is not because there is a lack of supply but with political decisions that seek to protect domestic markets at the sacrifice of foreign markets. This “protectionist reflex” could cause more hardship, especially in low-income economies and highly unequal societies. We will have to wait in the coming months whether the global economy can indeed fix these market distortions on its own but as history has taught us, previous international economic crises required proactive measures of states and international organizations.</p><p><i>Asian Politics & Policy</i> has published numerous articles on the linkages between economic crisis and political factors. Yu's (<span>2010</span>) study about China's proposal to develop a Western Economic Triangle has been met with skepticism given the various challenges in the country's western frontier. This inequality within one of the world's biggest economies will continue to impact the ability of China to recover from the current economic downt
{"title":"Crisis and opportunity","authors":"Aries A. Arugay","doi":"10.1111/aspp.12659","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12659","url":null,"abstract":"<p>It is not a good time for the global economy. Many countries are experiencing an economic downturn due to several factors. COVID-19 remains a persistent challenge to many countries despite high vaccination rates. In Asia and beyond, a new surge of cases has been delaying the ability of economies to recover and “normalize” since early 2020. Another factor is the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war that started in February 2022. With no end in sight, the war has taken a toll on global supply chains including food (i.e., wheat, potatoes) and oil. Rising food and oil prices have affected societies worldwide unequally with the poor and marginalized receiving the greatest negative impact of actions and decisions made beyond their states' borders.</p><p>Governments will face tremendous challenges in addressing the economic hardship experienced by their people. Their pandemic response has drained their fiscal resources and led many states to borrow extensively. In the Philippines, for example, government debt has doubled since the pandemic began. This has severely limited the ability of its government to effectively respond to inflation and jumpstart the economy. But it is in Sri Lanka where a full-fledged economic crisis wreaked havoc with the resignation of the government. Without sufficient foreign currency reserves, the Sri Lankan economy virtually shut down with a shortage of oil and gas as well as basic food necessities. As seen in the past, such economic hardship caused popular outrage with massive protests unseen in its contemporary history. The global economic downturn is a serious legitimacy challenge to governments of all types.</p><p>The dire global economic situation requires states and international institutions to immediately act, seriously work in a collective manner, and commit to uplift everyone from the crisis. This is not an easy decision as retreating to protectionist measures is the easy and rational path in the short run. The looming food crisis around the world is not because there is a lack of supply but with political decisions that seek to protect domestic markets at the sacrifice of foreign markets. This “protectionist reflex” could cause more hardship, especially in low-income economies and highly unequal societies. We will have to wait in the coming months whether the global economy can indeed fix these market distortions on its own but as history has taught us, previous international economic crises required proactive measures of states and international organizations.</p><p><i>Asian Politics & Policy</i> has published numerous articles on the linkages between economic crisis and political factors. Yu's (<span>2010</span>) study about China's proposal to develop a Western Economic Triangle has been met with skepticism given the various challenges in the country's western frontier. This inequality within one of the world's biggest economies will continue to impact the ability of China to recover from the current economic downt","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"14 3","pages":"311-312"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aspp.12659","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71918397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fadhila Inas Pratiwi, M. Muttaqien, Muhammad Samy, Jilan Hanifah Fadli, Angelique Angie Intan, Nugraha Ryadi Kusuma
This policy review analyzes the international cooperation experienced in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically concerning vaccine cooperation. It examines the policy debates of vaccine cooperation within Indonesia from the government, parliament, religious organizations, civil society, and mass media. Although some feel pessimistic about vaccine cooperation, the results found that vaccine cooperation has a positive impact on Indonesia. This is because gradually after the highest COVID-19 cases in July 2021, the government continued to increase the vaccination rate and by the end of September 2021, Indonesia finally reached the lowest case numbers. Therefore, the vaccine cooperation between Indonesia and other countries proved to be effective in reducing the COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. International cooperation is necessary in times of crisis.
{"title":"International cooperation during COVID-19: Case study vaccine cooperation and its impact in Indonesia","authors":"Fadhila Inas Pratiwi, M. Muttaqien, Muhammad Samy, Jilan Hanifah Fadli, Angelique Angie Intan, Nugraha Ryadi Kusuma","doi":"10.1111/aspp.12643","DOIUrl":"10.1111/aspp.12643","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This policy review analyzes the international cooperation experienced in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically concerning vaccine cooperation. It examines the policy debates of vaccine cooperation within Indonesia from the government, parliament, religious organizations, civil society, and mass media. Although some feel pessimistic about vaccine cooperation, the results found that vaccine cooperation has a positive impact on Indonesia. This is because gradually after the highest COVID-19 cases in July 2021, the government continued to increase the vaccination rate and by the end of September 2021, Indonesia finally reached the lowest case numbers. Therefore, the vaccine cooperation between Indonesia and other countries proved to be effective in reducing the COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. International cooperation is necessary in times of crisis.</p>","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"14 3","pages":"403-422"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aspp.12643","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46162475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}