A ‘contagion effect’ among GenZ protest movements, researcher says • FRANCE 24 English

A ‘contagion effect’ among GenZ protest movements, researcher says • FRANCE 24 English

joining us. We’ve been reporting in this program about protest across the world. In particular, we’ve featured Madagascar and Morocco. There is a phenomenon sweeping the world, young people taking to the streets with a common aim, united by social media, and a utopian Japanese manga comic. Uh, the symbol, a link between the protests from Paris to Madagascar to Nepal to Morocco to Rome, the one piece straw hat pirate flag. The manga is themed on the following lines. Anti-globalization, anti-fascist, loosely socialist. Themes that resonate with young people who see corruption and cronyism deny them their chances in life. Selena Sykes has more on Generation Zed and their world protests. We want to live, not survive. The rallying cry of thousands of predominantly young demonstrators taking to the streets across Madagascar since last Thursday over long-standing water and power cuts. Inspired by so-called Gen Z protests elsewhere, they are the largest Indian Ocean Island has seen in years and has led the president to dissolve his government. They call us the Tik Tok generation, a generation of idiots. and when we rise up, they won’t even let us speak about the country’s problems. Led by a group called Gen Z212, young Moroccans have also been voicing their discontent over the last few days, accusing the government of pouring money into hosting international sports events, the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations and the 2030 World Cup, while neglecting health and education. Young people are demanding schools and hospitals. What they are asking for is not impossible. These are necessities in Morocco. How can the authorities not understand this? In response, authorities have arrested dozens of protesters. Like their peers elsewhere in the world, Zoomers born between the late ‘9s and the early 2010s are more connected than ever and want their voices to be heard. But their discontent is often met by a heavy-handed response. A generational rift that has also swept through South Asia with Jenzi protests toppling governments in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and most recently in Nepal. Santosh who lives in a small town an hour away from Catmandeue sees his own struggles reflected in the country’s recent turmoil. There’s a big problem with jobs here. Even after getting a degree, people don’t find work, so they have to go abroad. And those that do only earn€1 to €150 a month. That’s not enough to live on. In an increasingly connected world, Gen Z also see their struggles reflected in movements elsewhere with technology brokering a sense of solidarity between young people protesting against corruption, inequality, and economic crisis in different countries. demonstrated by this pirate flag from the popular Japanese anime series One Piece seen during recent protests in Peru and the Philippines as well as on batters in Madagascar and Nep. Let’s get the analysis of the situation. Dr. Sabir Senior joins us. He’s director of the Southeast Asia Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Dr. Sior, thanks for being with us here in France 24. Uh, we appreciate your thanks for having your presence. I hope you can throw some light onto this for me as to how this this this manga figure this this One Piece uh pirate flag with the straw hat seems to become central to what is going on around the world. We’ll get into discussing the wise and wherefors of what people are unhappy about. But how has this symbol become in many ways this kind of like flag bearer for all these movements? Well, all of these movements basically have rallied around this anemig as you say and they’ve given it a new meaning that somehow this stands for freedom, it stands for liberty, it stands against corruption, it stands against the elite. So you know we are living in a populist world and uh some a sort of a figure like this you also mentioned Tik Tok and social media and the way in which uh the Gen Z has a connection with its with their mobile phones. uh there is an entire global subculture around many of these uh figures and I think the gulf between elites and people of an older age group and the youth on the other hand is reflected in exactly the perplexity of your question which is uh the difficulty that many of us have when something coming out of a slightly underground uh culture uh which has spread around the world via new mechanisms of communication and new tools that youth are so connected to has acquired a meaning in so many different countries which otherwise have some similarities but uh a lot of differences between them and I think that is really interesting. It’s not the only time this has happened of course uh you know you we’ve looked at uh popular cultural things uh in in the Korean movement for example but the global spread of uh this particular pirate flag is is is very interesting in in terms of the fact that there is a an entire subculture which is specifically youth subculture cuts across geographical boundaries and even language that those of us who are slightly older and not so much into anem culture uh or into social media or the phone uh will be will will fi find it hard to understand. Dr. S, I will admit I had to talk to I had to talk to my uh my son who falls into the generation zed uh bracket. He’s uh now in his mid to late 20s. He gave me the full briefing on One Piece on the flag on what it means, what it stands for. He reads and consumes these mangas. And so he’s he’s kind of helped me to sort of have a more informed look on this one. So in terms of what is going on, we’re not seeing something kind of united uh via social media and inspired together to do that. But in the same token, this one piece element has somehow brought it all together with almost a common aim. Uh not not necessarily a common aim, but I think you can find across cases uh some of the themes that resonate with the meaning that has been you know that this image particularly carries at the moment. So for example anti-corruption I think that has been a theme that has been running around across many of these countries uh a kind of a distancing with and a discuss with the ruling elite uh particularly because uh they feel that they don’t understand the issues of the youth and remember when we talk about the catastrophes facing the world whether it is the environmental catastrophe the catastrophe of human rights economic catastrophe places like Nepal can visibly see the effect of climate change in the severity of the floods and things like that. Uh rampant privatization including of things like pension funds as in the case of Peru or uh problems with public services as in the case of Madagascar with water. Uh these are really you know issues that are cutting across the world at the moment. And so there are some kinds of issues which are similar but also remember the differences here. uh in some of these cases you’ve had youth movements that have done that have then struck a chord with other other social groups like in Indonesia with women uh or middle classes as in the case of Nepal and also middle classes as in the case of Madagascar or in the case of Peru and just the idea from Morocco that the government is really involved in making so much sports infrastructure at a time that the youth feels cost of living but specifically issues of employment which is a difficult one all around the world at the moment and you can see that you know these these are the cross cutting issues so they’re not they’re not sort of coordinated across uh the world but we have seen also previously as in the case of the Arab Spring for example there is a kind of a contagion effect these days with movements and that is precisely because of the technologies through which images from one particular country are easily travel they travel easily across other places and people consume them. So if if you take a look at what just happened with the Gen Z idea, uh now movements which are coming up later than in the case of Nepal or later than Indonesia, they actually say sometimes that we are the Gen Z of Madagascar or we are the Gen Z of of of of Morocco and they they make a kind of an equivalence uh with some degree of accuracy. But I think that a basket of issues is facing the youth. Uh there is a question mark over their future which does not at the moment look very bright and in this kind of a situation they don’t see governments reflecting their concerns and their worries or doing much to address them. Dr. Suba thank you so much for that analysis which we really appreciate. Director of the Southeast Asia Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Dr. Sior, thanks again for joining us here on France 24. We appreciate your time, sir.

Speaking with FRANCE 24’s Mark Owen, Dr Subir Sinha, Director of the South East Asia Institute at SOAS University of London, says that, much like during the Arab Spring, there is a contagion effect among GenZ protest movements across the world thanks to social media, even though the issues at the heart of the protests may be different.
#GenZ #Madagascar #protests

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