Stuff YOU Should Know
Another Side of ISIS
American reporters have managed to retrieve over 15,000 pages of documents left behind by the Islamic State (ISIS). These documents–most of which show day-to-day governmental transactions, such as land purchases and marriage certificates–help to explain how ISIS managed to stay in power for as long as it did. The bottom line is that, along with committing the acts of terror for which it is known around the world, ISIS also managed to successfully run a government. Sometimes, they even did a better job of it than the original government had.
Credit: Ingram Publishing
How did they manage this? First, they worked closely with the citizens and with former government employees, threatening them with severe punishment if they didn’t do their jobs. They also taxed heavily–so that while the U.S. bombed their oil fields, they still had a source of income. In fact, it’s estimated that they made six times more revenue from taxation than they ever did from oil. ISIS leaders confiscated land which belonged to people of other religious groups (non-Sunnis), and rented it for additional income. They also set up a Ministry of War Spoils, looting furniture and personal belongings from non-Sunni families. They forced the government employees to work out of fear, which ironically led to the occupied territories being run better than they ever had been before. For example, residents of the occupied city of Mosul claimed that they had never seen their city so clean–but that’s because, under ISIS, garbage collectors could be jailed for not doing their jobs well.
So why did jihadists bother with the day-to-day work of running the cities they occupied? The ultimate goal of ISIS was to completely take over the state and rule it as it had been ruled over a thousand years ago, during the time of the Prophet Muhammad. And though the end of ISIS is viewed as a triumph worldwide, as original governments are restored, some residents must now worry again about the future of their cities.
Dig Deeper What is a “caliphate”? How does this term describe the occupied territories under ISIS?
Safety in Numbers
It’s no secret that Donald Trump’s presidency has been full of controversy, with immigration reform at the heart of several legislative battles. This week, in a movement that is part-immigration, part-demonstration, hundreds of people from Central America will try to make their way across the Mexican border into the United States.
This isn’t a new thing. A nonprofit organization called Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or “People Without Borders,” organizes the march every year. It’s meant to draw worldwide attention to the difficult conditions faced by Central Americans in their home countries and while journeying north. This year’s group has 1,100 members, which is the most ever. While some will only travel as far as Mexico, the group estimates that about 200 of the participants will try to make it across the border into the U.S. About 150 crossed over the border during last year’s march.
So how has Trump responded to the march? First, he threatened to cut U.S. aid to Honduras. Then he deployed the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexican border. Last week, he threatened to cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if Mexico doesn’t intervene to stop the immigrants from crossing the border. He also threatened Democrats that he would kill their deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) plan if the march continues.
Mexican authorities say that they will not allow the U.S. president to control them with threats. And while some of the travelers have broken off into smaller caravans, many insist that they will risk danger and exhaustion to cross the border anyway.
What Do You Think? Some of the immigrants have walked thousands of miles to make it to the United States. Based on what you’ve heard and seen in the news, what circumstances might cause people to make such a difficult journey?
Shooter Opens Fire at YouTube
This week brings another story of a shooting in the news. This time, it didn’t take place at a school. Instead, it happened at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California.
The shooter was 39-year-old Nasim Najafi Aghdam of San Diego. Aghdam was an animal rights activist who was angry because she felt that her online videos–about animal rights, her vegan lifestyle, and other fitness issues–were being censored by YouTube. She accused the company of putting filters and age blockers on her videos to limit their number of views. Before this incident, she had no previous history of violence.
Aghdam was reported missing by her family on April 2, the day before the shooting. On April 3, she visited the shooting range before driving to YouTube headquarters. She passed through the parking garage and entered the office courtyard, where she opened fire. Aghdam wounded three YouTube employees before taking her own life. (It is expected that all three of the other victims will survive: two have already been released from the hospital, while the third has been upgraded from “serious” to “fair” condition.)
There have been 220 “active shooter” situations since 2000, many of them with much deadlier outcomes than the one at YouTube. So why did this one receive national attention? The first reason is because of the high-profile location. The second is because Aghdam is a woman, which is very unusual. And finally, since the February shooting in Parkland, Florida, the controversial issue of gun control has been at the front of everyone’s mind.
What Do You Think? How do you think this latest active shooter situation will change the national conversation around gun control? Do you think that YouTube bears some of the responsibility for what happened? Why or why not?
Airing Dirty Laundry in Hong Kong
Do you enjoy doing laundry? Maybe you’d like it better if you lived in Hong Kong.
Here’s the deal with laundromats in Hong Kong: as of 2014, the city didn’t have any. Zero. But in the four years since then, it’s estimated that over 180 have sprung up. Why?
Hong Kong has the least affordable housing of any city on the planet. And as housing prices continue to climb, people are forced into smaller and smaller apartments. Even if someone can afford a washer and dryer, there isn’t any place to put them. Furthermore, the style of apartments is changing. In the old days, people would wash their laundry at home and then hang it on a pole out the window to dry. And in the poorer areas of the city, this method still works. But most people in Hong Kong can now afford to live in sleeker, glass apartments where hanging one’s laundry out the window isn’t an option.
Enter laundromats. Suddenly, they are popping up all over the city, and something that was once considered a private practice–washing one’s dirty laundry–has become something done in public. The positive spin is that, as more and more people depend on laundromats, the social fabric of the city changes. In fact, while some laundromats are just traditional rows of washers and dryers, others are more innovative, offering coffee or food or entertainment. These laundromats become social centers of the community, where people come to escape their crowded apartments to hang out and chat, while their dirty clothes spin just a few feet away.