The disappearance and probable murder of 43 university students in the Mexican state of Guerrero has sparked outrage and protests across the country. The official story is that the mayor of Iguala, Guerrero, and his wife ordered the disappearance of the students, who were kidnapped by municipal police and handed over to the local crime organization Guerrero Unidos. However, Vice News , coupled with Mexican print magazine Proceso, report that there’s a lot more to the story than President Enrique Nieto’s government is claiming. Vice‘s investigation of the incident in Iguala has been thorough and excellent all the way through. Priscilla Mosquedo‘s addition to the series is no exception.
BuzzFeed has a fantastic list on the best books by women in 2014–including Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven , and Megan Amram’s Science…For Her ! It’s been an amazing year for books, especially books by women, and this list by BuzzFeed is a great inspiration for your holiday reading.
In other news, the podcast Serial wraps up tomorrow, and it seems unlikely that we’ll find out who killed Hae Min Lee back in 1999. The show has been accused of being exploitative and racist, although that hasn’t resulted in the loss of its rabid fan base. Such fans have become so dedicated that they’ve thought of just about every theory, including, according to Time, one in which Sarah Koenig is the perpetrator of the 1999 crime. Funny or Die has released a hilarious parody of the absurdity of these theories. And at The Daily Dot, Ben Branstetter writes about how the problem with the podcast isn’t creator and host Sarah Koenig’s reporting, but rather the podcast’s voyeuristic listeners:
“Despite telling a true story, Serial and its fanbase often feels like those surrounding True Detective or House of Cards. As Slate’s Willa Paskin writes, ‘everything surrounding Serial, all the elements that make up the Serial-related experience, are familiar: the Reddit page, the think pieces, the in-jokes, the dedicated recaps.'”
It’s sadly unlikely that Sarah Koenig will be able to prove or disprove Adnan Syed’s innocence and find who truly killed Hae Min Lee. But what she–and her listeners–can offer is respect. Let’s aim for that with tomorrow’s final episode.