#KhorReports infographic on #coronavirus #covid19 #lockdown in #socialmedia data. Notably, #India under lockdown, Prince Charles tests positive and Greta Thunberg says she reckons she has been recovering from it. Tokyo Summer #Olympics2020 postponed. #dirumahaja #DudukdiRumah #StayHome #StayAtHome #Quedateentucasa #Ficaemcasa #RestezChezVous #iorestoacasa And more hashtags... #StayHomeStaySafe #NotDying4WallStreet #QuarantineandChill #LockdownNow #Covidiots #MyPandemicSurvivalPlan #FlattenTheCurve #SocialDistancing #TogetherAtHome
The Busiest Land Crossing in Southeast Asia: Part #2 - Adjustments & Rethinking for Daily Commuters
Continuing from our first post on the closing of the Johor-Singapore crossing, drastic adjustments and rethinking for Malaysian commuting daily to the Singapore for work. As swathes of people flock the causeway into the city-state, Singapore authorities and employers scramble to facilitate temporary accommodation. Many workers who successfully crossed the border had to sleep rough at train stations (see picture). Those left behind were later allowed to resume work in Singapore.
Accordingly, Singaporean online public interest in matters related the Johor-Singapore crossing lockdown spiked around the time when the Movement Control Order was announced (17 Mar 2020) and enforced (18 Mar 2020) (see graph and map).
On our previous post about the Johor-Singapore crossing see Part #1.
The Busiest Land Crossing in Southeast Asia: Part #1 - Virus Closes It
At the stroke of midnight on 18 Mar 2020, the Johor-Singapore border sealed shut following the enforcement of the two-week Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia. The MCO left one of the busiest land crossing in the world strangely empty the following morning, a stark contrast from the night before when Malaysians workers scrambled to cross into the city-state before the borders were closed.
Data from the Beat the Jam! app shows a comparison between the time typically taken to clear the immigration checkpoints and the time taken on 17-18 Mar 2020. Also see photos showing the difference in traffic congestion on the Causeway at midnight and the morning of 18 Mar 2020.
On the next post about the Johor-Singapore crossing, see Part #2.
Online Public Interest: Part #3 - Coffee, Child Labour, and the Coronavirus
Here's the final #KhorReports short review on public opinion about #coffee. This time, we also take a look at how the coronavirus is affecting coffee demand. Our case study is Starbucks in China and Indonesia and we also note that it expects at 50% yoy global sales drop for 1Q2020!
As for online worries about child labour in the coffee industry, we turn to a one-year chart of the ups-and-downs of public sentiment (note the right hand side axis on the bottom left chart shows 0, so above is positive sentiment and below is the opposite). Public sentiment dived recently, and Nespresso also got caught up in this, while Starbucks was no stranger to it. The associated hashtags, the key influencers and emoji associations are listed above. There were over 13,000 mentions in the last year of coffee and child labor/labour and the bulk of them were in the United States and United Kingdom.
On our previous posts about coffee & child labour concerns, see Part #1 and Part #2.
Online Public Interest: Part #2 - The Third Wave Coffee Movement
Here's another #KhorReports snippet on online public interest in the issue of #coffee and #childlabour. The article that caught our attention this time explained that despite the current “third wave coffee movement”, which focuses on the principles of traceability and fair trade, farmers are still not getting their dues.
Online Public Interest: Part #1 - The Price of a Cup of Coffee
Here's a #KhorReports snippet on online public interest in #coffee and #childlabor and #childlabour. Recently, we read an article concerning this problem on Guatemalan coffee farms. But the issue has been already of interest for months, including in the US and elsewhere.
Gender Issues: Women in Palm Oil Plantations
For women, there’s a bit of good news on the international front: Harvey Weinstein is finally found guilty. In global news headlines, concerns surrounding women at the workplace, attention is on the Weinstein case as well as Michael Bloomberg’s offer to release female employees from three non-disclosure agreements.
These appalling situations have come to light under the #MeToo movement. They highlight a shift in public opinion and there is hope the law changes the way it addresses gender discrimination and sexual allegations. Wall Street Journal’s Laura Kusisto (referring specifically to the Weinstein verdict) explains that factors which would have jeopardised a conviction before (such as the victims having to maintain cordial relationships with Weinstein even after his attacks), no longer hold the same currency today; the courts and the people in general are beginning to acknowledge that such complications do not invalidate the fact that misconduct occurred.
These issues turned our minds towards gender issues in the palm oil sector and its plantations. While rather distant and very different from the elements present above, there is concern about systemic issues and the discriminatory treatment of women at work. Our preliminary research into the matter revealed some issues at the estate and farm level:
Women have been largely hired as temporary workers and casual day labourers. Lacking permanent employment status, many female workers do not have pensions and other benefits including maternity leave, and they are vulnerable to sudden termination.
Field work is still largely gender segregated, especially since a fresh fruit bunch of palm oil can weight 20-30kg and mechanisation is limited. Women are generally given less physically demanding tasks: spreading fertilisers and spraying pesticides. Many female workers are exposed to harmful chemicals and there is concern about the adequacy of personal protection equipment and use compliance.
Many women (and occasionally even their children, but this should only be in their spare time after school), help their husbands, who are plantation workers tasked with collecting fruit bunches, to reach their husbands’ daily collection targets and bonuses. The work that these women may be largely unpaid (an example otherwise is the ‘Mama card’ in PNG where women earn on loose fruits collection).
Many key plantation companies have taken major steps to address these problems. (Ask us if you’d like to know more about the move to estate level gender committees and more). The position of women in palm oil is similar to the situation faced by women in other agriculture segments. There are systemic issues, but this is no longer an acceptable excuse. Only time will tell when more women workers gain more equitable outcomes in terms of permanent work status, job risks, pay and pensions.
Online Public Interest: 15 Years of Virus Outbreaks, Coronavirus, and Dr Li Wenliang
Here's a #KhorReports snippet on online public interest in the #coronavirus and other related issues, including comparisons with other #virus #outbreaks in the last 15 years and public attention on the death of Dr Li Wenliang.
Indonesia, the Environment & Health: Sugar Tax, Plastic Tax & Carbon Tax?
#Indonesia #sugartax #plastictax #carbontax? "Indonesia plans to impose excise duty on plastic bags, sugary drinks and vehicle emissions with the new levies expected to net the government about $1.7 billion in additional revenue annually." There are likely fewer to challenge sugar and plastic duty/taxes, but a move on vehicle emissions could become challenging for diesel usage, which has become a rising policy for the #palmoil sector.
Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Photo credit: Antara/Sigid Kurniawan.
#KhorReports contacts in Jakarta finance see a high possibility of implementation, with a senior economic advisor also explaining that “it could happen, considering the big short fall in [fiscal] revenue.” But naysayers see it as “desperate, with a 0% chance of implementation. It’s a last gasp for Sri Mulyani, who has to go.”
Khor Reports coverage of the sugar in popular local drinks, sweetened beverages, bubble tea and juices is here: Boba Boom: The Rise of Boba and the Sugar Strikes Back. The issue of waste plastic (especially on Malaysia) is covered here: Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Waste Plastic Imports to Malaysia.
Vegan Watch: Plants Galore!
Recent anecdotes and news on the vegan front suggests that plant-based diets may be more than just trendy.
On the anecdote front, a number of senior experts in our network (out here in Southeast Asia) doubt they can cut meat, but some muse that they could trim meat to a meal a day. We have been regularly showing our ‘Vegan Map of ASEAN’ and asking about diets during lulls in meetings and at meal gatherings. We are hearing more about a spouse, a child or a grandchild going plant-based; with some knock-on effects. There is also awareness that such diets have to be carefully researched (so as not to be deficient key amino acids and such), and we just heard a grandparent assure that his 12-year old grand daughter has done this thoroughly (and convince her siblings too).
In fact, it is my parent’s (the war) generation who told us stories that having chicken was a treat; and they sometimes used to carry around a (raw) fresh egg in their pockets rather than pay more for an egg to the street food vendor frying up their ‘char kway teow’ (friend rice noodles). Now, the ‘haves’ in Southeast Asia, can afford to eat chicken three times a day - at breakfast (with a nasi lemak, porridge, noodle, sandwich; depending which ASEAN food culture you are tapping), at lunch and at dinner.
On the news front, there are plenty of things to read. This year, 400,000 people around the world signed up for Veganuary, pledging to practice a vegan diet for the whole month of January—in comparison, only 250,000 signed up in 2019, and 170,000 in 2018. The growth in the number of vegan practitioners is eliciting response from the market, with various food chains, including KFC and Burger King, now offering plant-based products and menu items. There is even an app called Pay-a-Vegan that credits users for every vegan meal consumed in effort to encourage restaurants to offer more vegan options and connect vegans to eateries that cater to their dietary lifestyle.
Several celebrities and prominent businessmen have also lent their support in the vegan way of life. Joaquin Phoenix recently led an animal equality protest in London urging people to switch to a vegan lifestyle, and successfully convinced the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to serve its first all-vegan menu at the Golden Globes in January 2020.
In ASEAN, Malaysian tycoon, Tan Sri Vincent Tan (who turned vegan four years ago), shared his strong beliefs about the health benefits of eating greens during the 9th Malaysian International Conference on Holistic Healing in Cancer in August 2019.
All in all, it is clear that plant-based diet habits are getting a lot of mind share (and possibly taking root), especially among the younger generations. This is consistent with the findings from our survey on diet habits among the Khor Reports network and friends: “Knives Out? A Nibble on Food and Diet Habits”. With new relevant terms such as flexitarians, i.e. a person that has a primarily vegetarian diet but still occasionally consumes meat, cropping up, it would be interesting to see how this vegan movement will develop in future.
But let’s not forget there are also negative social media conversations on vegans. There is also research suggesting that plant-based diets may not be as environmentally beneficial or health friendly as it may seem—meat-alternatives, for example, have been criticised to be heavily processed and containing high levels of salts, while nutritionist Dr Graeme Coles alleges that a plant-based diet emits the same amount of nitrogen as a meat-based diet. Moreover, in the UK, vegan activists are among the groups included on the UK’s counter-terror list (which seems surprising to many). Does this portend more contestation to come as farmer segments really start to worry? Does this indicate that some important folk reckon that plant-based is getting more than just flash-in-the-pan trendy?
(20 Feb 2020) Edited to include article from the Food Navigator on research suggesting that plant-based diets may not be as environmentally and health friendly.