The New York Times - USA (2020-07-04)

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONALSATURDAY, JULY 4, 2020 N A

SEMINYAK, INDONESIA

I

Twas trash season on Bali, the time of
year when monsoon storms wash up tons
of plastic debris onto the island’s
beaches. It was also the time for two teenage
sisters, Melati and Isabel Wijsen, to organize
their annual island cleanup.
Standing on the back of a flatbed truck,
megaphones in hand, they kicked off a day
of trash collecting at 115 sites around the
island. Thousands of people came out to
help.
“Not only the beaches, we clean up the
rivers, we clean up the streets,” Melati Wi-
jsen called out on that February day to an
early-morning crowd of hundreds of volun-
teers, many wearing shirts with the logos of
local restaurants and hotels. “This move-
ment is for everyone in Bali.”
Melati was 12 and Isabel was 10 when they
began a drive to ban plastic bags, at one
point threatening a hunger strike to get the
Bali governor’s attention. Now, seven years
later, they have become local heroes and
won international acclaim for their cam-
paign, which resulted in Bali banning plastic
bags and other such items that are intended
for single use.
The sisters, now 19 and 17, are part of a
young generation of global activists, includ-
ing the 17-year-old Swedish climate-change
advocate, Greta Thunberg, calling for urgent
action to protect the planet.
“Us kids may be only 25 percent of the
world’s population, but we are 100 percent of
the future,” Isabel likes to say.
Since starting their campaign, the sisters
have traveled around the world to speak at
major events. At 15 and 13, they gave a TED
Talk in London on Bali’s trash crisis. Time
magazine listed them among the Most Influ-
ential Teens and CNN applauded them as
Young Wonders.
Melati describes herself as a “change
maker” and has been more visible in recent
months, while Isabel has focused on finish-
ing high school and taking care of her health
after discovering that she has an autoim-
mune disorder.
In January, Melati appeared at the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
where she spoke passionately about the
need to pressure companies and govern-
ments to ban single-use plastic. Former Vice
President Al Gore, who was on the panel
with her, drew applause when he said,
“Melati, I’m so impressed with you.”
Now, the sisters are wrestling with a prob-
lem they could not have foreseen: how to be
activists during a time of pandemic and
social isolation.
Shelter-at-home rules have increased the
use of plastic both in packaging for delivered
items and in protective gear for health care
workers, dealing a “major setback” to the

anti-plastic movement, Melati said. But she also welcomes the unintended benefits of widespread lockdowns in reduc- ing pollution and allowing wildlife to return to some urban areas. Climate change, Melati said, should prompt officials to take similar, urgent action. “This is a virus that impacts us directly right now, but climate change will do the exact same thing,” she said. “One of the biggest things we have seen from the coronavirus is that government can act quickly. My question is: Why is that not the case when it comes to climate change?” While they may be young in years, the sisters are poised and practiced speakers who have given countless talks and inter- views. They are also activists for the social media age, often posting videos and mes- sages about their activities. The daughters of a Dutch mother, Elvira Wijsen, a consultant on sustainable business practices, and an Indonesian father, Eko Riyanto, the director of a furniture export business, they grew up on Bali surrounded by spectacular natural beauty and influ- enced by the Balinese tradition of living in harmony with nature. The family home is set on the edge of rice fields a short walk from the beach. But despite the idyllic setting, they have encoun- tered plastic trash wherever they go — in the rice fields, at the beach and in the sea — for as long as they can remember. While plastic refuse is a problem every- where, it is particularly acute in Bali, where it is common for people to toss garbage aside. Some dispose of plastic by burning it with other trash. But even more plastic is washed out to sea by the island’s numerous small rivers, where it drifts in the water, from the surface to the seabed, posing a hazard to aquatic creatures. It is especially bad during the rainy season — or trash season — generally from November to March. The sisters attended the private Green School, which says that its mission is teach- ing children to be leaders and “change makers.” Surrounded by jungle, the school’s elaborate bamboo structures have no walls, and its program promotes independent thinking and innovation. In 2013 the sisters, inspired by a lesson about the lives of Nelson Mandela and Mo- handas K. Gandhi, did some research and found that Indonesia was the world’s sec- ond-largest source of marine plastic pollution, after China. They also discovered that dozens of jurisdictions around the world had banned single-use plastic. They decided to start their own campaign.

T

HEYstarted a group, Bye Bye Plastic Bags, and posted a petition online calling for a ban on single-use plastic. To their amazement, they quickly collected 6,000 signatures — but it would take them

six more years to accomplish their goal. During the campaign, they came to see Bali not as an island paradise but “a paradise lost,” Melati said. The sisters found that the island produced enough plastic waste to fill a 14-story building every day but had no island-wide system for collecting garbage. In December 2017, so much debris washed ashore during trash season that the government declared a “garbage emergency” along some of the most popular tourist beaches. Yet the growth of the tourism industry and the construction of hotels have continued apace. Even President Trump has plans for a Trump-branded hotel and golf resort here. “The land is being overpopulated with buildings, new hotels, building on top of the rice fields,” Melati said. “We lose sight of the traditional way of living here on Bali without respecting enough the culture that we have.”

T

Ofulfill their goal of banning single-use plastic, the sisters mobilized young people, organized a petition drive and beach cleanups, persuaded shop owners to go plastic-free and lobbied elected officials. They also started Mountain Mamas, a community of women who make reusable shopping bags from recycled material as an alternative to single-use plastic. Over time, they built up a network of more than three dozen Bye Bye Plastic Bags chapters around the world. In 2016, frustrated by resistance from Bali’s then-governor, I Made Mangku Pastika, they borrowed a page from Gandhi and vowed to go on a hunger strike — albeit a modified strike from sunrise to sunset, given their young ages. Within 24 hours, Mr. Pastika agreed to meet with them. With cameras present, he signed an order banning plastic bags, plastic straws and Styrofoam on the island by 2018. But it was one thing issuing an order and quite another enforcing it. That took continued pressure until the ban finally took effect a year ago under a new governor, I Wayan Koster. Melati said she had hoped that 2020 would be a year of action on the environment, building on growing support among young people for measures to reduce plastic waste and slow climate change. But instead, the coronavirus pandemic has meant learning to organize from home, without the social interaction of meetings and rallies. One focus for Melati has been promoting Youthtopia, an international network aimed at helping young people become change makers. She recently posted a video on how to be an activist from home. “There has been this pause that gives us the space to think about how we move for- ward,” she said. “What do we decide to do? Are we going to go back to normal because the coronavirus didn’t do its job and make us think? Or are we going to say we under- stand that there is another way?”

‘Us kids may be only 25 percent of the world’s population, but we are 100 percent of the future.’

ISABEL WIJSEN, right, with MELATI WIJSEN

NYIMAS LAULA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE SATURDAY PROFILE

Teenage Sisters Focus on Bali’s Trash Crisis

By RICHARD C. PADDOCK and NYIMAS LAULA

Dera Menra Sijabat contributed reporting.

MANDALAY, Myanmar — An ominous rumbling was the only warning the young jade miner had that something was wrong. Within seconds he was running, but before he could take even a few steps he was swept away by a huge wave of mud and water. Tumbling underwater, he man- aged to reach the surface, swimming for half an hour before find- ing land. “I thought I would die,” said the miner, Ko Aung Kyaw Htay, 23, on Friday, a day after the disaster at Wai Khar mine in northern Myan- mar left an estimated 200 people dead. “I still can’t believe I es- caped. I have no idea what hap- pened to the other people working around me. I guess they all died.” Mr. Aung Kyaw Htay was one of hundreds of unauthorized jade pickers scavenging on the edges of the Wai Khar open-pit mine in Kachin State, the lucrative center of Myanmar’s jade trade where rebels and government forces are facing off, when disaster struck. Heavy rains from the annual monsoon had filled the giant mine with water, creating a lake. Just after sunrise on Thursday, a wall of the mine collapsed, crashing into the lake and generating a wave more than 20 feet high. He survived with only scratches. But he saw no sign of 50 other miners who were working nearby when the wave hit. By Friday afternoon, searchers had recovered 172 bodies floating on the lake or washed ashore at the mine in Hpakant township. An additional 54 were injured. Similar disasters are an almost annual occurrence in the jade fields of Myanmar, which produce about 70 percent of the world’s jade and generate billions of dol- lars a year. Most of the jade mined there is exported across the bor- der into China. The jade industry, largely controlled by the military and its crony companies, operates in near secrecy. The military is in constant conflict with rebel groups in the region, including the Kachin Independence Army, which is seeking self-rule and is said to extract its own revenues from mining operations. Jade pickers say the rebel group assesses fees for letting them operate on the fringes of the government-authorized mining operations. About 300,000 miners come from all over the country to hunt for jade — about two-thirds of them working illegally — even though it is extremely hazardous. Small landslides, which go un- noticed in the outside world, kill 100 or more miners a year. Major mine collapses, like the Wai Khar disaster, occur about annually. “Actually people are dying from accidents almost every day here,” said U Tin Soe, who represents the region in Parliament. “We just don’t have a record of it.” The Wai Khar mine, which is op- erated legally by a consortium of five companies, had officially shut down Tuesday for the rainy season because of the danger of landslides. It will reopen in October. But the jade pickers — who often work for local bosses and must pay a share of their earnings to rebel groups that operate in the area — immediately moved into the mine this week despite the risk. Mr. Tin said the nature of the region and the miners’ desperation make it difficult to prevent fre- quent disasters. “There is no rule of law in this area,” he said. “All the miners have to take responsibility for the continuous landslides in Hpakant. It happens because of their greed.

Nobody can stop it.” Daw Moe Thandar and her younger brother, Ko Moe Myint, came to Hpakant two years ago from the city of Thandwe in Ra- khine state to work as unauthorized jade pickers. Mr. Moe Myint, 20, began work early on Thursday at the Wai Khar mine. His sister, 28, learned of the landslide around 8 a.m. and raced there. She found her brother lying on the ground in a row of dead bodies. “That moment was like the end of my world to see my little brother lying there,” she said. “I feel like someone took my life too.” Myanmar, once known as Burma, was controlled for decades by the military, which still maintains vast authority and operates autonomously under the 2008 Constitution that it enacted. The military owns two large conglomerates, which have exten- sive operations in a wide range of businesses, including jade. A study by the anti-corruption group Global Witness found that Myanmar’s jade business was worth as much as $31 billion in 2014, almost half the country’s gross domestic product. “The government has turned a blind eye to continued illicit and rapacious mining practices in Hpakant despite vowing to reform the hazardous sector,” said Paul Donowitz, campaign leader at Global Witness.

Mr. Aung Kyaw Htay, the sur- vivor of the Wai Khar disaster, moved to the region three years ago from the city of Magway in central Myanmar. Until a few months ago, he worked independently as a jade picker and said he had to pay a share of his earnings directly to the Kachin Independence Army. His biggest find was a piece of jade he sold for $2,200. He said he paid nearly $600 of it to the rebels. “People from the KIA are every- where and they can smell who is selling the jade and who has the good quality jade,” he said, refer- ring to the rebel group. “If you don’t pay you will be shot and die anonymously.” Mr. Aung Kyaw Htay said he recently decided to work for a local mining boss because he could no longer make it on his own after the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Myanmar has been largely un- affected by the virus, at least according to official data, with only 304 reported cases and six deaths in a population of 54 million. But the pandemic has largely shut down the global market for jade, especially in China, and Mr. Aung Kyaw Htay said he could not survive without buyers. The boss, who operates outside the law like his pickers, typically pays for food and a place to stay and keeps half of whatever they find. Despite Mr. Aung Kyaw Htay’s narrow escape, and the scratches on his arms, legs and face, he has no intention of quitting. “There is no other job for me,” he said. “It’s better to die than to live with nothing to eat. I know this work is very dangerous, but living in hunger is just as dangerous.” And unlike on other jobs, if his luck holds in the jade mines, he hopes one day that he will strike it rich. “If I find a good quality, high- price piece of jade,” he said, “my dream is to buy a house in my hometown and marry a beautiful girl.”

Despite Dangers, Miners

Chase Jade in Myanmar

By SAW NANG and RICHARD C. PADDOCK

Saw Nang reported from Man- dalay, Myanmar, and Richard C. Paddock from Bangkok.

Battling landslides,

military involvement

and rebel fighters.

In the inland Chinese city of
Yichang, the murky water ran
waist-high, stranding people in
their cars and turning streets into
canals. Near the metropolis of
Chongqing, angry torrents of wa-
ter swept away country roads.
The tourist town of Yangshuo ex-
perienced a cloudburst that an of-
ficial called a once-in-two-cen-
turies event.
Weeks of abnormally intense
rains have wrought destruction
across southern China, leaving at
least 106 people dead or missing
and affecting 15 million residents
in the worst flooding that parts of
the region have seen in decades.
One of the hardest-hit provinces
has been Hubei, whose capital,
Wuhan, also had the first emer-
gence of the coronavirus last year.
Late last month, rescuers
smashed car windows to free pas-
sengers trapped in Yichang, a city
in Hubei down the Yangtze River
from the Three Gorges Dam, one
of the world’s largest.

Hubei has had more coronavirus cases than any other part of China. And people there said the last thing they needed was another jolt to their lives, their health and their livelihoods. “Another problem has arisen before the last one subsided,” Deng Jin, 25, a recent college graduate from the city of Enshi, la- mented recently on the social plat- form Weibo. “Hubei in 2020 is both surreal and difficult.” Heavy rains this time of year often swell China’s rivers and cause its reservoirs to overflow. This year, however, the battle against the coronavirus pandemic strained flood preparations, Peo- ple’s Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper, warned in April. After 31 consecutive days of alerts about torrential rain, the in- clement weather shows little sign of letting up. On Friday, the Na- tional Meteorological Center fore- cast another round of downpours in China’s southwest beginning on Saturday. Experts are warning of potential landslides and bursts at reservoirs and dams. In China, most small reservoirs

were built in the 1960s and ’70s and did not follow high construction standards, said Brandon Meng, a hydraulic engineer in the southern city of Shenzhen. “Once there is extreme weather,” he said, “it’s very easy for them to be in danger.” As the rains were becoming intense last month, some commen- tators in China noted how little attention they were receiving in Chi- nese news outlets and on social media. Surely, they said, the con- fluence of a plague and floods should merit wider interest. Perhaps people had grown numb to hardship. Or perhaps China’s government and its cen- sors did not want to draw more attention to people’s suffering. Either way, videos and first- hand accounts of the flooding have since gained wider notice. In Yangshuo, a tourist spot known for its mountain vistas, an official told the newsmagazine Southern Weekly that the area had experienced a once-in-two- centuries burst of heavy rain on June 7. More than 1,000 hotels and guesthouses and 5,000 shops

were damaged, the authorities told Southern Weekly. Qin Hui, a retired history pro- fessor, was vacationing in Yang- shuo when the rain started last month. He and his travel partners were eating breakfast the next morning when they caught a dis- turbing sight. “The swimming pool outside the window suddenly went from clear to muddy,” Mr. Qin re-

counted in an online essay. “It turned out to be floodwater com- ing in from the tube at the bottom of the pool. Soon after, the murky water flooded out of the pool, quickly covered the yard and then flowed up the stairs.” They were rescued after being trapped in the hotel for two nights. In Chongqing, the authorities said last month that flooding along the local section of the Qi-

jiang River, upstream from the Yangtze, was the worst since mon- itoring began in 1940. About 40,000 residents were evacuated, according to official news outlets. Chongqing is in a mountainous part of China, and many structures are built directly into hill- sides. A video from one district showed brown water gushing out of an upper window of a building, like an artificial waterfall.

106 Are Dead or Missing in China Floods

By RAYMOND ZHONG

Wang Yiwei contributed research.

Residents in a flooded area were evacuated this week after heavy rain in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing. Weeks of torrential rain have wrought destruction all over southern China.

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The New York Times - USA (2020-07-04)

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