https://www.scmp.com/rss/505577/feed Ricardo is a Southeast Asia-based journalist with a focus in long form multimedia productions. He has reported from Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Burma and Indonesia for the Spanish news agency Efe and collaborated with Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, Southeast Asia Globe, South China Morning Post, Equal Times, DW News and others. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com With a plane passing over­head every five minutes or so, 18-year-old Sevinch Majidi was constantly reminded that her three brothers, sister and parents were thousands of kilometres from the former military hospital near Lisbon’s international airport that became her home when she arrived in Portugal in December 2021. The squat, hillside hospital and its surroundings provide breathtaking views of the Tagus River, but the property had been poorly maintained and its long corridors and big, empty... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3194427/young-afghan-musicians-who-fled-talibans-ban?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3194427/young-afghan-musicians-who-fled-talibans-ban?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Oct 2022 01:45:10 +0000 In Indonesia, environmental activism can be a risky business. Golfrid Siregar knew that. His wife, Resmi Barimbing, knew it, too. Last year, Siregar would tell Barimbing it was no longer safe in the port city of Medan, where since 2016 he had worked as a lawyer for the largest environmental organisation in the Southeast Asian archipelago. “Don’t go too far from home,” she recalls him warning her one day last autumn, not long before Siregar was found lying unconscious, gravely injured beside his... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3112377/death-lawyer-fighting-chinese-funded-indonesian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3112377/death-lawyer-fighting-chinese-funded-indonesian?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Dec 2020 21:15:17 +0000 Andi is in bed dying from a mysterious illness, his body wracked by spasms, but these are no natural causes. This onslaught is spiritual punishment for, among other offences, killing his boss and seducing the dead man’s beautiful widow, Nisa. “I will not succumb to your charms again,” intones a guilt-laden Nisa, “because I have read Koranic verses to dispel them.” Then, thanks to the prayers of a remote Islamic teacher, Andi dies, his body emitting the foul stench of a sinner. Having achieved... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3080213/indonesia-streaming-platforms-offer-tv-producers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3080213/indonesia-streaming-platforms-offer-tv-producers?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Apr 2020 21:00:08 +0000 On an otherwise peaceful Saturday in February, in the hilly Indonesian village of Parlilitan, chickens flap and flee the buzz-saw revving of motor­cycle engines, made all the louder by their lack of exhaust pipes. The rum­blings reverber­ate through the forests and farmlands of North Sumatra, a signal to all in earshot – the exhaust systems having been removed on purpose – that the main event is drawing near. A travelling carnival has set up camp here for the past two weeks, offering... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3020035/how-indonesias-hijab-wearing-female-stunt-bike?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3020035/how-indonesias-hijab-wearing-female-stunt-bike?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jul 2019 00:45:08 +0000 There was a commotion and then there was silence. Many of the guests had gathered around a small stage on which the dancers, and Ezra, were naked. Everyone froze and turned to look at four men wearing fixed, steely gazes. “This doesn’t feel right,” Ezra recalls thinking. “If they are gay, they are not going to look at us in that way.” Then dozens of policemen stormed the premises. It was the biggest police raid on a private gay establishment in Indonesia in recent memory. That day, in May 2017,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3004634/indonesia-lgbt-community-viewed-moral-threat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3004634/indonesia-lgbt-community-viewed-moral-threat?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Apr 2019 07:00:11 +0000 Chrek Sopha and Kao Sochevika arrived on the scene after the worst had happened. Smoke rose from flaming tyres. Stones and shoes littered blood-soaked roads as protesters ran amok. Angry workers tried to take tools and bottles of petrol from nearby stalls. Gunshots filled the air as men in uniform chased the protesters and fired at them with automatic rifles. It was January 3 last year and, minutes earlier, five garment workers demanding a rise in the minimum wage had been shot dead by police on... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1877768/rallying-cry-cambodias-all-female-rock-band-ex-garment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1877768/rallying-cry-cambodias-all-female-rock-band-ex-garment?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Nov 2015 04:45:30 +0000