This article was published in our Xpress Magazine Sept 2007

by K P and T S  Pioneers workers in South Asia

There is nothing in the world quite like the regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia.  As Sarah McDonald states regarding India,…it “is beyond statement, for anything you say, the opposite is also true.  It’s rich and poor, spiritual and material, cruel and kind, angry but peaceful, ugly and beautiful... It’s all the extremes.” It is a complex mix of life and yet arguably nothing is more overwhelming than the situation found today in this part of the world:  the sheer volume of people, the variety of cultures and range of religious beliefs, the entanglement of corrupt governments and the complications of the massive population of desperately poor people, all mixed together in the melting pot of humanity.

by Ellen Peters - Regional Leader (Middle Asia)

Published in our quarterly magazine "Xpress" in September 2006

I tried to distract my friend’s child as the enraged driver snatched up a crowbar and jumped off our minibus. A mob was already pouring into the remaining spaces around the unfolding scene to see who would win this contest between a Chinese driver and a minority man whose bicycle had been bumped by our bus. Some of the bystanders seemed edgy; others, eager for a good fight—ready to jump in at the slightest provocation.

Angry flare-ups aren’t that surprising in minority areas of China. Many minority people hate the Chinese, resentful that they aren’t given more privileges and freedoms; and Chinese sometimes look down on them as backward and uncultured. The anger often simmers just below the surface, until some incident turns up the heat, causing it to boil over into a violent eruption.