emilydingwrites

@emilydingwrites@mastodon.world

Independent writer-photographer & editor. Usually in Kuala Lumpur, sometimes Berlin.

Seeks stories with a vivid sense of place to make sense of our rapidly changing world & our place in it.

Of interest: humans & nature, migration & culture, memory politics & the legacies of conflicts.

Essays, journalism & research in Virginia Quarterly Review, Mekong Review, Al Jazeera, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Guardian, CNN, SCMP, Nat Geo Asia, History Asia, etc.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

emilydingwrites, to Malaysia

Increasingly, to prevent land grabs, Malaysia’s communities are mapping their lands and compiling a “profile” of their communities to stake their rightful claim. This is one of a fun series of videos I stumbled upon recently that explains what all that involves:

https://youtu.be/BAKN8pw-fUw

emilydingwrites,

For further reading, this great—and detailed—Rest of World story by Malaysian journalist Liani MK digs deep into how #indigenous communities in the state of #Sarawak are using #mapping technology to fight the expansion of palm oil plantations into their lands: https://restofworld.org/2023/indigenous-land-map-tech/

#Malaysia #Borneo

emilydingwrites,

Speaking of which: currently, the Temoq of Kampung Berengoi Mesau in the state of Pahang, peninsular , is waging a legal battle against a palm oil plantation for encroaching upon their lands. More info here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m1NthgMqS28B5eX3tnBliZOuZ1blFPqKE0Zo91wIZqc/edit?fbclid=IwAR0cU7l180F554iej9-M5lvLu97xWHm5QbKLLiHrgdNHBCkk7pWlgE1E60U

And they need funds!

To help, you can to the Center for Concerns (COAC), which has long been a champion for indigenous rights in peninsular Malaysia, headed by Dr Colin Nicholas.

Bank info here: http://bit.ly/temoqfunds

emilydingwrites, to random

I also have an essay on the river journeys I've taken in the latest issue of Mekong Review.

You can read it here: https://mekongreview.com/peering-around-river-bends/

If you don't have a subscription, get one here: https://mekongreview.com/subscribe/

#edwrites

emilydingwrites,

An excerpt:

// While ambient sounds provided a soundtrack for my thoughts—in one village, it was the muezzin; in another, a neighbour partaking in a passionate karaoke session that seemed to swell the air above the open water—what kept coming back to me was the memory of entering the village of Pitas Laut, narrowing into a winding tributary under the hooded shelter of trees. We could do so only because the water was “turned on”, as the villagers describe it in Malay...

emilydingwrites,

... and even then we had to swap our boat for a slimmer one before we weaved between flanks of bakau kurap, an especially ubiquitous species of mangrove found here. In the rustle of the breeze, they seemed almost human to me—their roots like a dancer’s arched feet, their slim, spear-like seeds hanging from their branches like a woman’s earrings, waiting to fall off and grow new roots in the soil. //

#edwrites #rivers #kinabatangan #sabah #borneo #malaysia #mangroves

emilydingwrites, to random

Over the past two months, I’ve been posting my newsletters online but not sending them out. I’ve been thinking of experimenting with a different way of sending emails: as a digest made up of links to individually published letters, recently published work elsewhere, writing from my archive, other people’s work, and things that have nothing to do with work (though I’ll still dispatch some letters individually sometimes). Hopefully, you’ll find it all a delightfully mixed bag...

emilydingwrites,

So, here it is: https://movableworlds.co/p/findings2

Let me know what you think!

I would also really appreciate it if you would hit the “❤️” button on any letter you enjoy. It’s just nice to know you’re reading!

emilydingwrites,

One of these links is a new letter I wrote recently about a recent trip to Bali—the impetus was a wedding, but we stayed to travel for a bit.

The letter is behind a paywall as it’s quite exploratory, and I’m still trying to refine my thoughts on the current state of mass travel/overtourism, which I may expand on further down the line. If you have a paid subscription or have otherwise been comped, read it here: https://movableworlds.co/p/nusapenida

emilydingwrites,

If you’d like a paid subscription but can’t afford one right now, just write me at movableworlds-AT-gmail.com and I’ll give set you up with a limited-time subscription for free.

Otherwise, it’s currently 50% off an annual subscription for everyone: https://movableworlds.co/subscribe.

Either way, thanks for sticking around! 🙏

emilydingwrites, to Malaysia

, helmed by Yao Hua Law and Wong Siew Lyn, is an independent outfit dedicated to environmental reporting in . They have brought several important stories—requiring meticulous, tedious detail in a place where there is no right to freedom of information—to light, and have given some young local environmental reporters a kickstart. Support them so they can do even more!

https://www.macaranga.org/be-a-macaranga-supporter/

emilydingwrites, to random

& Here's a piece I published on my newsletter in May that I had neglected to share: https://movableworlds.co/p/eating-with-other-families

#movableworlds #newsletters #writingcommunity #newstoriesforthetable

emilydingwrites, to FreeSpeech

Hmmmm 🤔

https://www.piratewires.com/p/elizabeth-gilbert-cancellation

emilydingwrites, to journalism

// Ressa said she resigned last year from the advisory board of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), because of deep concerns about how it compiles an annual Digital News Report.

Its findings include rating Rappler–the outlet Ressa co-founded, and whose work was cited in her Nobel prize nomination–the least trusted media outlet on a list of those surveyed in the Philippines. //

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jun/14/nobel-laureate-says-research-by-oxford-institute-can-be-used-against-reporters

cendawanita, to magASEAN

Wokeh, it is done: @magASEAN - now go subscribe and add stuff!!

https://mefi.social/@cendawanita/110547754595095457

emilydingwrites,

@cendawanita @magASEAN Btw, I'm a total noob about this 😅, but how do we add stuff – via Mastodon or via kbin...?

emilydingwrites, to journalism

Again, something I should have shared earlier.

Here's a story I wrote for South China Morning Post's April magazine about why we should all care more about the increased emergence of diseases: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3217891/deadly-virus-malaysia-shows-how-next-covid-19-pandemic-could-be-just-around-corner

Since SCMP is paywalled though, you can read the story on my website: https://www.emilyding.me/nipah-and-zoonotic-disease

I found this story incredibly interesting to report and research and there will definitely be more riffing off it in a newsletter!

Pau Jeou Ching, a survivor of the Nipah virus, outside the Sungai Nipah Time Tunnel Museum, which chronicles the history of the outbreak in the late 1990s in Malaysia.
The entrance to Sungai Nipah village in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.

emilydingwrites,

@cendawanita Oh, thank you! Been away awhile from here so thanks for the update!

rakyat, to internet
@rakyat@hachyderm.io avatar

How to choose between #Twitter, #Mastodon and #Bluesky - a handy guide by me

emilydingwrites,

@rakyat haha, I have to say I go blurry-eyed and my brain turns to mush sometimes when I think about how I should keep up on social media and what I should post on which platform, and yet it feels necessary...?! 😑

emilydingwrites, to Malaysia

I meant to post this a while back. Do watch this short film shot by Yih Wen Chen for New Naratif telling the story of how large swathes of in Pitas, Kudat were cleared for 's largest farm, which failed to take off (along with any promises of jobs supposedly to alleviate poverty)—leaving local villagers to pick up the mess and rehabilitate what's left: https://rainforestjournalismfund.org/stories/video-struggle-save-mangroves-forests-northern-sabah

emilydingwrites,

Here is my multimedia longread for Between The Lines, a Malaysian newsletter run by the indefatigable Darsh Kanda, with edits also by Edward Gomez.

Unlike Wen's, this story explores how we could practice proactive, not just reactive, stewardship. So often, news stories hinge on disasters that have happened, when it is often too late. The Lower Segama Wetlands may not be facing an immediately dire threat, but there are threats all the same.

https://betweenthelines.my/sabahs-custodians-of-the-mangrove-forests-between-land-and-sea/

emilydingwrites,

...This is a reminder not to overlook them. Let's recognise the gifts of nature we have before they're on the brink of disappearing.

Also, do wait for the page to finish loading before scrolling through: https://betweenthelines.my/sabahs-custodians-of-the-mangrove-forests-between-land-and-sea/

& Don't forget to subscribe to BTL if you're interested in Malaysian news. The team publishes curated summaries as well as original reportage "specials" like my story. Sign up here: https://betweenthelines.my

#edwrites #journalism #mangroves #Sabah #Malaysia

emilydingwrites,

I'm drawn to places I don’t know much about and on which there isn't too much online. #Sabah has #Malaysia’s largest expanse of #mangroves and the Lower #Kinabatangan-Segama #Wetlands forms the largest contiguous tract in the southern Sulu Sea, but I had never heard of it before. I was only familiar with the Kinabatangan tourists visit for wildlife-spotting river cruises. So my curiosity started from a very basic place: What does this place look like? How do the people there live?

#edwrites

emilydingwrites,

I may yet post some reflections on my newsletter Movable Worlds in the near future—but for now, you can follow https://instagram.com/emilydingwrites to see the photo journal I am sharing of my reporting trip.

Start here: https://instagram.com/p/CrNlh91pa2t

These two photos were taken at my first stop: the village of Mumiang.

#Kinabatangan #Sabah #Malaysia #Borneo #wetlands #mangroves

A fisherman in Mumiang village prepares to head out to sea.

emilydingwrites,

Travelling in #Sabah, it's struck me how many #conservation initiatives are funded by #palmoil companies, who have been a major source of #deforestation in the state. I had also noticed many conservationists working with palm oil plantations, in part because they need to access them to better study the #wildlife that are increasingly found to be roaming there. This threw up questions that led to my latest published story: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/6/28/can-plantations-value-more-than-profit-some-in-malaysia-think-so

#edwrites #Malaysia

emilydingwrites,

I had meant to write a story about the mangrove rehabilitation projects done by the Sabah Forestry Department, but once I began to look into it, this other question cropped up and began to interest me more. I hope the story offers some food for thought—though it can be disheartening to see how big corporate actors are often given a pass to do harm first, and because they become too powerful to ignore, how changemakers are then forced to work with them to clean up the mess...

emilydingwrites,

I'll be writing extended reflections on this for my at some point too. Sign up here if you'd like to read it and catch up with the archive in the meantime: https://movableworlds.co—thanks in advance!

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • provamag3
  • mdbf
  • magazineikmin
  • InstantRegret
  • osvaldo12
  • Youngstown
  • khanakhh
  • slotface
  • everett
  • ngwrru68w68
  • rosin
  • kavyap
  • thenastyranch
  • DreamBathrooms
  • JUstTest
  • anitta
  • normalnudes
  • cisconetworking
  • ethstaker
  • tacticalgear
  • modclub
  • GTA5RPClips
  • Durango
  • megavids
  • Leos
  • tester
  • cubers
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •