Wikimedia Commons / James Lee via Pexels / Corrie Maurik Like many, the first time I heard the term “Wasian” was through social media. The Gen Z term for East Asian–white mixed people was passed to me through a white friend who had come across it on TikTok in the summer of 2021. Recently, the […] More »

A new law will impair Canadian development investments in Cambodia and tighten its government’s grip on civil society. More than two months have passed since the Cambodian government released the second draft of the controversial Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (known colloquially as the NGO law),and the country’s civil society organizations are still holding […] More »

When the Sri Lankan army crushed the Tamil Tigers last spring, it was the end of the war. But for four veteran activists, this is just the beginning I can smell chilies and spices in the cool night air. A few Tamil men and women are handing out biryani in Styrofoam containers to protesters gathered […] More »

When you’re talking international development, words matter There’s nothing like an all-purpose label to bring comfort and order to an otherwise overwhelming world. But what’s comforting to one person can be downright offensive to another. When it comes to the language used to label the “non-Western” world, quotation marks just won’t cut it anymore. What’s […] More »