East meets East

Let's talk about what happened last week:

• The new (and old) President of East Timor is in da house
• South Africa's xenophobia problem aka the death of Mbodazwe Banajo "Elvis" Nyathi
• Mexico's misogyny problem aka the death of Debanhi Escobar
• Plus, a bunch of good news from Ecuador, Slovenia, Malaysia and Yemen (yeah, I know)

Now without further ado, here's what happened last week:

what happened last week

We elected a new president in East Timor -- Hi (again), José Ramos-Horta
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, has a 'new' President, and his name is José Ramos-Horta. I wrote 'new' because he's not really new as he was President of East Timor before (2007-2012).

Refresher:
East Timor is an island country in Southeast Asia. Dili is its capital. Portugal colonized it for more than 300 years (until 1975). Nine days later, Indonesia was like, 'nope, it's ours' until 1999 (supported and armed by the United States). Over 100,000 East Timorese died during that time. The country became fully independent on May 20, 2002 (next month, it's turning 20!).

Why this matters:
East Timor is Southeast Asia's youngest country, and one of the least-known and least developed countries in the world. 1.3 million people live here, and 42% of them live 'below the poverty line'. In 2019, the average age was 17.5 years.

Tell me more about Ramos-Horta:
This 73-year-old Capricorn is a pretty huge deal in East Timor, and not new to the politics game. He literally came out of retirement for this new job. Besides as President, Ramos-Horta has also been (the country's first) Minister of Foreign Affairs (2002-2006) and Prime Minister (2006-2007). In 1996, along with Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, he received a Nobel Peace Prize for working "towards a just and peaceful situation to the conflict in East Timor" during the Indonesian invasion -- even though, of his eleven brothers and sisters, four were killed by the Indonesian military. 'Mahatma Ghandi is my greatest hero,' he once said in an interview.

But why come out of retirement for this?
'Francisco Guterres violated the constitution. I have to come back,' he (kind of) said. 'And if I win, I will dissolve parliament.' His topics of interest are more health care for moms and kids, helping the poor get richer, and creating jobs, jobs, jobs.

Fun fact:
The name 'East Timor' is a tautological toponym, meaning 'timor' is Malay for 'east' and 'east' means, well, 'east'. So, East Timor actually means East East.

In pop culture:
East Timor has been in movies and music you probably already know. For example, Oscar Isaac played Ramos-Horta in the 2009 film Balibo (about the Balibo Five journalists and the events preceding the Indonesian occupation of East Timor). Shakira also wrote a song about East Timor, 'Timor' (also in Decolonize Weekly).

We mourn the death of Mbodazwe Banajo "Elvis" Nyathi in South Africa -- he was a migrant worker from Zimbabwe
On April 6, a group of about 30 people brutally beat and burnt to death Mbodazwe Banajo "Elvis" Nyathi in front of his wife Nomsa Tshuma in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Wait, what?!
Yeah, it is as bad as it sounds. The group was going around the township, asking migrants to provide proof of their documents that permit them to be in South Africa legally. Nyathi, a migrant worker, didn't have any. His memorial service was held on April 14.

Why this matters:
Migrants in South Africa are having a really hard time. Xenophobia (fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners) has been on the rise, and so-called vigilante groups, too. The latter take up arms and go around beating foreigners whom they blame for the high rates of unemployment, crime and other social problems in the country (it is not true).

Tell me more about Nyathi
He was a 43-year-old...