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Two men sitting, one on stool, and man to right standing is holding a thick stick. The men sitting have weaved baskets at their feet. Surrounded to left by large piles of coconut husks and shells that are split. Background of colonial buildings and behind tropical foliage including palm trees

How Samoans Resisted Coconut Colonialism

In the Early 20th Century, the Fruit’s Farmers Sowed the Seeds of Today’s Global Labor Struggle

by Holger Droessler |

Coconuts are everywhere. If you walk into a grocery store pretty much anywhere in the United States, you’ll find a cornucopia of coconut products: coconut water, coconut oil, coconut macaroons, …

Baseball player Shohei Ohtani smiling at the camera. He wears a white Dodgers jersey and a blue L.A. cap.

California Is Taking a Page From Shohei Ohtani’s $700 Million Deal

Newsom’s Proposed State Budget Has More Deferrals Than the Baseball Star’s Contract

by Joe Mathews |

Shohei Ohtani is famous for being the world’s best baseball player, the only major leaguer of the past century who can both hit and pitch at an elite level.

Perhaps he …

In Mexico, a New Vocabulary for Grief and Justice | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

In Mexico, a New Vocabulary for Grief and Justice

Most Murders in the Country Go Uninvestigated. Activists and Writers Are Coming Together to Demand Accountability

By Natalia Villanueva-Nieves |

“Almost everyone lost someone during the war,” writes Cristina Rivera Garza in The Restless Dead: Necrowriting and Disappropriation.  

In 2006, Mexican president Felipe Calderón initiated the …

Will Indonesia’s Youth Install a Political Dynasty? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Will Indonesia’s Youth Install a Political Dynasty?

On TikTok, Gen Z Voters See the Candidates as Father Figures and Kindly Uncles. They Don’t Get the Whole Story

by Amalinda Savirani |

President Suharto’s New Order regime was a dictatorship in which he often liked to refer to the Indonesian nation as a “family” with himself at the helm—a patriarchal …

In Indonesia, an Election Without Artists | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

An Election Without Artists

The Outgoing Indonesian President’s Campaigns Inspired Songs, Paintings, and Poems. Creatives’ Silence in This Race Speaks Volumes

by Sheila Rooswitha Putri |

The absence of art in Indonesia’s presidential election has been noticeable.

Back in 2014, when Joko Widodo—known as Jokowi—campaigned to become the seventh president of this republic, …


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