This week on The Conversation Global, we brought you first-person stories written by the people who are living the news: two Czech scholars exposed the sorry state of existence among academics in the Czech Republic, and an Arab feminist took on Lebanon’s controversial Wonder Woman ban. We also covered
India’s water shortages, sorted through the hype about exoplanets and examined why millions of migrants are stuck in a risky legal limbo.
Finally, to commemorate the Pride celebrations taking place this weekend in cities around the world, we’re resurfacing stories from the TC Global archives on the state of LGBTQ rights in Mexico, Malaysia
and Vietnam.
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“Hanging Man” by David Cerny - Uncertainty about intellectualism in the 20th century.
James Cridland/flickr
Jaroslav Fiala, Charles University
In some places, the dismal labour conditions of young academics have spurred them to unionise. Not so in the Czech Republic, where students and intellectuals lead lives of “state-ordered poverty”.
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The Lebanese government banned Wonder Woman just hours before its scheduled domestic release.
Mohamed Azaki/Reuters
Lina Abirafeh, Lebanese American University
Why haven't feminists noted that the film is too Western and too white?
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Ratanpura Lake, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, has almost completely dried up.
Amit Dave/Reuters
Asit K. Biswas, National University of Singapore; Cecilia Tortajada, National University of Singapore; Udisha Saklani
Hit by weak monsoons, India faces unprecedented water shortages.
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Earth and Super-Earth in an artist concept contrasts our Earth with the planet known as 55 Cancri e.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC)/flickr
Elizabeth Tasker, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
NASA's Kepler Mission has identified thousands of exoplanets but leaves a lot of questions about alien worlds.
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Refugees or migrants? When it comes to children who cross international borders without papers, there’s no easy answer.
Stoyan Nenov/Reuters
Parvati Nair, United Nations University
There are refugees, there are migrants and then there are the millions of people who live in legal limbo because they defy easy categorisation. But everyone is just looking for a place to call home.
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Mexico is in the midst of a public debate on gay marriage that has focused on ‘traditional family values’.
Carlos Jasso/Reuters
Adán Echeverría-García, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
A proposal last month to legalise gay marriage in Mexico caused widespread protests, defending "Catholic values" and the "traditional family." Deeper analysis reveals flaws in those arguments.
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Walt Disney Studios
Joseph N. Goh, Monash University Malaysia
Objections from certain sectors of Malaysian society to the film neatly illustrates both the fear and lack of understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the country.
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Truong Tan’s catalogue for his first solo exhibition in 1994 documents his tentative exploration of performance art and frequent use of ropes.
Photo by Truong Tan used with permission.
Cristina Nualart, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
LGBT rights are a work in progress in Vietnam. But artists are in the vanguard of the movement, pushing for public acceptance.
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