‘Hunger’ Thai series for Netflix.
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JHARGRAM, India—The U.N. World Food Programme describes it as “eating last and least.” Alaka Mahato calls it “eating light.”
The small rice and vegetable field behind her home that supplies much of her family’s food yielded only 40 percent of its normal half-ton harvest after unusually heavy rains last November, well after the monsoon ended in September. The result is that the 52-year-old’s budget for groceries is suffocatingly tight, and her pantry is bare: no onions, potatoes, or any of the other staples found in most Indian kitchens.
On days when there isn’t enough food for her household of three, Mahato will make do with what’s left after her husband and youngest daughter finish eating—a handful of rice and some water. Sometimes she asks her adult daughter, who lives in a separate household, for financial help, though this creates conflict at home.
JHARGRAM, India—The U.N. World Food Programme describes it as “eating last and least.” Alaka Mahato calls it “eating light.”
The small rice and vegetable field behind her home that supplies much of her family’s food yielded only 40 percent of its normal half-ton harvest after unusually heavy rains last November, well after the monsoon ended in September. The result is that the 52-year-old’s budget for groceries is suffocatingly tight, and her pantry is bare: no onions, potatoes, or any of the other staples found in most Indian kitchens.
On days when there isn’t enough food for her household of three, Mahato will make do with what’s left after her husband and youngest daughter finish eating—a handful of rice and some water. Sometimes she asks her adult daughter, who lives in a separate household, for financial help, though this creates conflict at home.
“My husband says we will not take money from our daughter. But then we will have to die,” Mahato says.
Around the world, women eat less than men under tough conditions such as conflict, famine, or disasters. The World Food Programme predicts that climate change will produce economic and environmental shocks that will exacerbate this inequality, and it says this impact can already be seen in places like Mahato’s hometown. Jhargram, a district not far from the Bay of Bengal and the Sundarbans rainforest, is one of West Bengal’s many climate hot spots—areas that are especially affected by global warming. Over the past decade, agriculture here has been disrupted by intense flooding, cyclones, and sea level rise.
The hunger gap between the genders had been shrinking in exact decades, but it rose dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. CARE International, a global humanitarian organization, estimates that 150 million more women than men went hungry in 2021, compared with a difference of just 17.9 million in 2018.
Its analysis drew from several global data sets, including the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s latest report on the state of food security, which found that the hunger gap grew in 2020 and 2021, fueled by widening disparities in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. The U.N. attributed this to the disproportionate impact that the pandemic-triggered economic crisis has had on women, saying they were more affected by job and income losses and bore a larger caregiving burden, looking after sick family members and children out of school.
Researchers at CARE say this should serve as a warning about the likely impacts of climate shocks on hunger levels among men and women. One shortcoming is that sex-disaggregated food indicators in major global data sets focus mainly on women’s reproductive role, such as statistics about anemia among women of childbearing age. This means policymakers can fail to detect a nutritional crisis in which men are relatively well-fed compared with women, unless it shows up in anemia statistics. It also means food crises disproportionately affecting older women don’t register at all.
“Yes, it’s true that women eat last and least, but what we’re trying to unpack is the root cause,” says Gregory Spira, the head of the gender, food, and climate justice programs at CARE. Not only do patriarchal norms in many vulnerable countries result in policy responses designed primarily with men’s needs in mind, he says, but they also create social pressure on women to put men’s needs ahead of their own.
“When there’s a shock or misallocation of resources, we really see women not having the power to take action. Women don’t have the power to make decisions about what they eat, when they eat. Without that decision-making power, women cannot control basic questions. As climate change advances, there is increased competition when it comes to food and everything else, and women lose out because they’re disadvantaged compared to men.”
The CARE report highlighted the problem in India, where many women and girls suffer from hunger in spite of strong economic growth that has led the International Monetary Fund to project the country will become the world’s third-largest economy by 2027.
India slipped from 94th place in 2020 to 107th out of 121 countries in this year’s Global Hunger Index, a report compiled by Irish and German aid agencies. The country is home to a quarter of the world’s undernourished people, according to the World Food Programme.
The Fuller Project and Foreign Policy interviewed several women in Jhargram, including Mahato, who said they regularly eat less than their husbands and children. The impact can be glimpsed in the prevalence of anemia cases in West Bengal among females ages 15 to 49, which rose from 62.5 percent in 2015-2016 to 71.4 percent in 2019-2020, according to the latest available data from the Indian government’s National Family Health Survey. Officials in the region point to climate change as the primary factor behind the increase, with the data covering a period before the pandemic had a significant impact in India.
The late rains last year came after Jhargram, like much of the southern part of the state of West Bengal, had already been hit by several cyclones and floods in exact years. The region is home to over 30 million people.
“If there is drought, there is extreme drought. When there is rainfall, there is extreme rainfall,” says Joy Chakraborty, an assistant director with the local government’s department of agriculture in Jhargram. “The maximum temperatures are shooting up, and the soil is so hot that you will find it difficult to breathe.”
Most of the population here belongs to groups officially designated as marginalized tribes or castes, a population the World Food Programme says will “face the brunt” of a climate-driven rise in hunger. Chakraborty says almost everyone here relies on a system of government rations—food supplied by the government to those who live below the poverty line.
Under strain from the impacts of climate change and the pandemic, the system is falling short. Indigenous women have staged protests over claims that they haven’t been paid for work they’ve performed under West Bengal’s guaranteed rural employment scheme, as the state budget struggles to cope with the demands placed on it. The Right to Food & Work Campaign, a network of advocacy organizations in the state, said at a news conference that the nonpayment of wages significantly affected hunger among single women and widows.
Women are increasingly becoming primary breadwinners for their homes as climate change pushes men to migrate away to find work outside their towns and villages. As agricultural production in the area suffers due to climate change, males are prioritized in terms of getting fed, leaving women and their girls so hungry they say they struggle to function and focus at work and school. Predatory behavior has also increased as local economies collapse and people become more desperate. Over the past decade, there has been a steady rise in trafficking in the Sundarbans, with young girls getting kidnapped by neighbors or sold by family members to traffickers or into early marriage.
Bedani Shabar, a woman belonging to an Indigenous group who also frequently eats less than the rest of her family, says the food distribution system broke down during the first pandemic lockdown in 2020. “There was a lot of distress then,” she recalls. “It was a situation where there was no food. And there were no rations. We had to survive on rice with salt.”
Then there’s the lack of protein. Families receive only rice, wheat, and whole-wheat flour from the government.
“No eggs, no milk, no lentils,” says Shabar’s 10-year-old daughter, Padmarani, when talking about her diet. Mahato’s 14-year-old daughter, Urmila, says she can’t focus at school and gets frequent headaches. She says her periods are irregular, missing one every other month—a common problem for girls who lack adequate nutrition.
Three out of five pregnant women in West Bengal are anemic, and their protein-poor diet will have generational impacts, warns Abhay Bang, a doctor and community health researcher, adding that the effect will be particularly pronounced in the area’s Indigenous communities.
“When an Indigenous girl transitions into adulthood, she has smaller body size, less height, and low weight—when she gives birth, the baby born to her will also be small in size,” he says. “The next generation will be affected, and this cycle will continue.”
Maher Sattar in New York contributed to this article.
Sample EBT cards used by Iowa recipients of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP. (Gazette Archives)
When Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley goes to church, he apparently hears the Biblical injunction to balance the budget. Caring for the least of these or feeding the hungry is pagan, I guess, and certainly not a Republican priority in the Legislature today. I want to help broaden their vision to include a tiny bit of fact and, hopefully, understanding of others’ less affluent lives
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) began in 1933 as part of the New Deal’s Agricultural Administration Act. It helped farmers survive low prices as it helped feed the unemployed and under employed. SNAP saved the economy in rural Iowa and fed otherwise hungry in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, as well. Many recipients today are children, elderly and the disabled. There is a work requirement there today as well.
Now the Legislature wants to limit what SNAP can buy. Their original bill had bizarre limitations: no fresh meat, but canned tuna as a substitute. Brown rice was OK, but white rice was not. Flat sluices of cheddar cheese were verboten. White bread was also forbidden; whole wheat was not. The GOP says the menu has changed. Meat purchases with be permitted, lawmakers said.
Pat Grassley said about SNAP, “It’s these entitlement programs. They’re the ones that are growing within the budget and are putting pressure on us being able to fund other priorities.” What exactly has more priority than eating? What they don’t see clearly, if at all, are the hungry who live in every county in the state. They talk of food stamps with disdain, as sinful “entitlements” for which we are spending too much money. The federal government, not Iowa, pays for 100 percent of SNAP’s food assistance. We split administrative costs 50/50. If Iowa can’t pay that, it cannot afford another mile of farm to market roads or tuition to the wealthy for their private schools.
No county in Iowa is without men, women, and children on food stamps. In Linn County, there are about 25,000 people who depend on SNAP for enough food. They spend over $3 million a year buying groceries here, eating what our famers grow, and keeping people working in grocery stores, warehouses and trucks hauling it all. Statewide we have had about 300,000 people covered each year. If hypocrisy had calories, each conservative member of our legislature would weigh about 367 pounds.
What is especially fascinating to me is that the people who will tell you what you can and cannot eat and what you live on also believe regulating guns that kill is invasive control. People die and they do nothing. People live, but only with guidance from the all-knowing Betty Crockers in the Legislature.
I think they need all the help they can get. I wish I could resurrect Marie Antoniette. I would hope the Republicans would invite the beheaded queen into their caucus. When she said, Let them eat cake, they could respond, “Not on food stamps.”
Hunger should not be treated as a budget, bookkeeping problem. If Pat Grassley doesn’t understand that he ought to resign.
Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary, and authored a memoir “From Nowhere to Somewhere.”
Opinion content represents the viewpoint of the author or The Gazette editorial board. You can join the conversation by submitting a letter to the editor or guest column or by suggesting a course for an editorial to editorial@thegazette.com
Everyone is vulnerable in some way, whether it's to natural disasters, chronic diseases or hunger. But some are more at risk than others because of what they are exposed to socially, economically and environmentally. This phenomenon is known as social vulnerability. It refers to the attributes of society that make people and places susceptible to natural disasters, adverse health outcomes and social inequalities.
In terms of income distribution, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. The impact of COVID-19 on the economy has worsened this inequality and increased social vulnerability among poor people. Poverty is inherently associated with food insecurity—a state in which socially vulnerable people can't get enough nutritious and safe food.
Although these social inequalities are well documented in South Africa, not enough is known about the link between social vulnerability and food insecurity for the country as a whole.
Previous studies that investigated the relationship between social vulnerability and food insecurity have been limited to certain places, such as the poor and rural Eastern Cape province or the crowded urban area of Soweto. A better understanding of social inequalities at a national level might help the government provide social relief where it's needed most.
With this in mind, we conducted a nationally representative survey of the prevalence of social vulnerability in the country. We looked at a range of socio-economic, demographic and geographical variables to see who is socially vulnerable. We also investigated the associations between social vulnerability and household food insecurity.
Questions about food
We conducted our study in October 2021 with 3,402 individuals we recruited across the nine provinces of the country. We used a statistical technique to transform the sample of 3,402 into a nationally representative sample of 39.6 million people, aged 18 years and older.
We measured social vulnerability using a social vulnerability index tool developed by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which we adapted for South Africa.
We also used a modified version of the Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project questionnaire to quantify food insecurity.
All the respondents were asked:
Vulnerable and food insecure
The study showed high levels of social vulnerability in the country linked to food insecurity. Over 20.6% of the South Africans in our sample were socially vulnerable, and 20.4% food insecure. This amounts to about 7.8 million people out of our sample of 39.6 million people.
We also found that the most vulnerable groups in the country were Africans—as opposed to white people or people of Asian or mixed descent.
Also most vulnerable were
- females
-
people living in rural areas
-
those with low socio-economic status
-
people without high school certificates
-
adults older than 45.
These findings are not surprising, given that these groups are known to have higher levels of poverty. But the findings are still important because they paint a troubling picture in which social inequality remains a major and persisting national challenge. It needs urgent and efficient solutions.
Addressing social inequalities
The government uses various initiatives to address social inequalities in the country to good effect. These include public education and health services, school feeding schemes and the tax exemption of staple foods such as brown bread and rice.
Social grants are the largest source of support for many vulnerable groups. They are the government's primary response to poverty, food insecurity and inequality.
The well-established grants system reaches 18.4 million beneficiaries (about 31% of the population).
Despite such efforts, social inequalities have consistently remained high. They are also unlikely to be eradicated with the current social initiatives because of several complex factors. These include the fact that social grants are unable to keep up with inflation in food prices.
Another problem is that recipients use the funds for many non-food necessities—such as clothing and transport costs. Other contributing factors are the gaps in the formulation and implementation of policies to address food insecurity.
There's also a lack of collaboration from different stakeholders in the food system. For example, policymakers often view food insecurity as a rural issue. So, a majority of initiatives to address the problem focus on solutions related to food production. Yet, urban areas are also vulnerable to food insecurity as they depend more on the cash economy than rural areas.
In view of our findings, government and other stakeholders need to implement creative and targeted social strategies to reduce and eliminate food insecurity in highly vulnerable groups. Improving the economy and education system should be the main areas of focus in addressing social inequalities in the country.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Citation: Hunger in South Africa: Study shows 1 in 5 are at risk (2023, February 16) retrieved 19 February 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-02-hunger-south-africa.html
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The most noticeable difference in the TM four-stroke motocross fleet is that it’s down a member—the MX 530 Fi ES 4T. TM’s largest-displacement motocrosser is no longer available, but if you still wish for a bike powered by the 528cc four-stroke engine, the supermoto SMR 530 Fi 4T (which retails for $12,195) or flat track FT 530 Fi 4T (which stickers for $12,495) are the only models that carry on with that engine.
TM continues to produce three full-size four-stroke models and all receive updates for 2023. The MX 250 Fi ES 4T, MX 300 Fi ES 4T, and MX 450 Fi ES 4T all have updated engine maps, new graphics, and have done away with the kickstarter (losing a claimed 2.2 pounds in the process). Both the MX 250 and MX 300 models also have a new gearbox and quieter “Racing” exhausts.
2023 TM MX 250 Fi ES 4T
© Provided by Dirt Rider At $11,995, the MX 250 Fi ES 4T four-stroke costs the same as the MX 300 Fi ES 4T.
At $11,995, the MX 250 Fi ES 4T four-stroke costs the same as the MX 300 Fi ES 4T. (TM Racing/)
The MX 250 Fi ES 4T has a fuel-injected 250cc four-stroke engine that features quieter dual exhausts and a new gearbox. Since one of this year’s changes is that the kickstarter and its mechanism have been removed, it now fires to life only with an electric starter. An aluminum frame with a KYB 48mm coil-spring fork and TM Racing shock make up the chassis with new-for-2022 Maxxis tires continuing to serve as the contact points to the dirt. Typically, fuel tanks are placed toward the front of the bike, but on the TM MX 250 Fi ES 4T and the other TM four-strokes MXers here, the tank trades places with the airbox. The reason for this design? TM says it’s for weight distribution and balance.
2023 TM MX 250 Fi ES 4T Price: $11,995
Related: 2022 Dirt Rider 250F Motocross Bike Comparison Test
2023 TM MX 300 Fi ES 4T
© Provided by Dirt Rider On TM’s MX four-strokes, the fuel tank is positioned toward the back and the airbox is at the front.
On TM’s MX four-strokes, the fuel tank is positioned toward the back and the airbox is at the front. (TM Racing/)
Similar to the MX 250, the MX 300 Fi ES 4T is a fuel-injected four-stroke with an electric starter, and features new dual exhausts and gearbox plus uses a reversed fuel tank/airbox design. Its chassis also consists of a KYB 48mm coil-spring fork and TM Racing shock. The braking package includes a Brembo front caliper with a 270mm disc and Nissin rear caliper with a 245mm disc. The engine is different, of course, with its 299cc displacement and 81mm bore and 58.1mm stroke.
2023 TM MX 300 Fi ES 4T Price: $11,995
Related: 2022 300–350cc Four-Stroke Motocross Bikes To Buy
2023 TM MX 450 Fi ES 4T
© Provided by Dirt Rider Although the MX 450 Fi ES 4T has the highest displacement of TM’s trio of four-stroke motocross bikes, its sticker price is $300 less than the others.
Although the MX 450 Fi ES 4T has the highest displacement of TM’s trio of four-stroke motocross bikes, its sticker price is $300 less than the others. (TM Racing/)
TM’s highest-displacement thumper for motocross is powered by a fuel-injected liquid-cooled DOHC 449cc four-stroke engine that works with a five-speed gearbox. Considering the new updates, the powerplant has revised mapping and only fires to life with an electric starter. Plus, the new graphics provide it a different appearance from the outgoing model. Other elements that carry over from the prior year include the KYB 48mm coil-spring fork, TM Racing shock, aluminum frame, single-side exhaust system, Brembo front brake, Nissin rear brake, and reversed fuel tank and airbox position.
2023 TM MX 450 Fi ES 4T Price: $11,695
Related: 2022 450cc Motocross Bikes To Buy
Feb 3 (Reuters) - Social media images purported to be of an emaciated jailed Iranian dissident on hunger strike have caused outrage online as supporters warned on Friday he risks death for protesting the compulsory wearing of the hijab.
Farhad Meysami, 53, who has been in jail since 2018 for supporting women activists protesting against Iran's headscarf policy, began his hunger strike on Oct. 7 to protest exact government killings of demonstrators, the dissident's lawyer said.
The images of Meysami went viral on social media on the same day Iran released award-winning director Jafar Panahi on bail after seven months in jail. Panahi said the images of Meysami reminded him of survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Iran's judiciary denied the hunger strike claim and said the photos were from four years ago when Meysami, a physician, did go on hunger strike.
As evidence, the semi-official YJC news agency posted what it said was Meysami's latest photo, in which he does not look emaciated and is sitting on the floor of his prison cell with a bag of what looks like chips next to him.
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Reuters was unable to confirm when the pictures were taken.
Iranian authorities released Panahi on bail after he started a hunger strike this week to demand to be freed pending a retrial, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported, citing the Directors Guild of Iran.
There was no official word from Iran's judiciary on the release, but videos on social media purportedly showed Panahi speaking to well-wishers outside Evin prison.
"The images of Farhad Meysami... remind one of the people in Auschwitz or of (Mahatma) Gandhi, since Meysami has written about non violence," Panahi said. "Many are left behind bars... so how can I say I feel happy?"
Iranian authorities detained Panahi in July to serve a six-year sentence which a court originally ordered in 2010 for "propaganda against the system". In October, the ruling was quashed by Iran's supreme court which ordered a retrial.
Iran has been rocked by nationwide unrest following the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 in police custody, one of the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
Morality police arrested Amini for flouting the hijab policy, which requires women to dress modestly and wear headscarves. Women have played a prominent role in the protests, with many waving or burning their headscarves.
Rights groups say more than 500 protesters have been killed and nearly 20,000 arrested. At least four people have been hanged, according to the Iranian judiciary.
"My client Farhad Meysami’s life is in danger,” tweeted lawyer Mohammad Moghimi. "He went on hunger strike to protest the exact government killings in the streets." He said Meysami had lost 52 kg (115 lb).
Images show Meysami curled up on what looks like a hospital bed, and another standing, his ribs protruding.
"Shocking images of Dr. Farhad Meysami, a brave advocate for women's rights who has been on hunger strike in prison,” tweeted Robert Malley, Washington's special envoy for Iran.
"Iran's regime has unjustly denied him and thousands of other political prisoners their rights and their freedom. Now it unjustly threatens his life,” he said.
Amnesty International said: "These images (of Meysami) are a shocking reminder of the Iranian authorities’ contempt for human rights."
In a letter published by BBC's Persian Service on Thursday, Meysami made three demands: an end to executions, the release of political-civil prisoners and an end to “forced-hijab harassment”.
"I will continue my impossible mission in the hope that it may become possible later on with a collective effort,” he wrote.
Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Josie Kao
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Investors interested in stocks from the Automotive - Foreign sector have probably already heard of Porsche Automobil Holding SE Unsponsored ADR (POAHY) and Toyota Motor Corporation (TM). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.
We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.
Right now, Porsche Automobil Holding SE Unsponsored ADR is sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Toyota Motor Corporation has a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that POAHY has an improving earnings outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.
Value investors also try to analyze a wide range of traditional figures and metrics to help determine whether a company is undervalued at its current share price levels.
Our Value category highlights undervalued companies by looking at a variety of key metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, as well as the P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that have been used by value investors for years.
POAHY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 3.73, while TM has a forward P/E of 10.12. We also note that POAHY has a PEG ratio of 0.87. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. TM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.96.
Another notable valuation metric for POAHY is its P/B ratio of 0.36. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, TM has a P/B of 0.97.
These are just a few of the metrics contributing to POAHY's Value grade of A and TM's Value grade of C.
POAHY sticks out from TM in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that POAHY is the better option right now.
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Porsche Automobil Holding SE Unsponsored ADR (POAHY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Netflix has revealed the first images from “Hunger,” an upcoming Thai drama film in which a woman in her twenties chases her dreams in the unsavory world of fine dining.
The film stars Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, locally known as ‘Aokbab’ and internationally recognized as the star of “Bad Genius,” in the lead role. She plays alongside Gunn Svasti Na Ayudhya (“Diary of Tootsies”) as the sous-chef who gives her a break and Nopachai ‘Peter’ Jayanama (“Headshot,” “The Secret Weapon”) as her ingenious and intolerant rival.
Directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri (“Sang Krasue,” “Girl From Nowhere”) and produced by Kongdej Jaturanrasame and Soros Sukhum (“Memoria”) through Song Sound Productions, the show is expected to be uploaded in April.
“Hunger” is part of a wider menu of Thai-language films and series content set out by Netflix late last year. Other Thai contnet in the pipeline included writer-director Prueksa Amaruji’s dark comedy film “Lost Lotteries”; veteran director Wisit Sasanatieng (“Tears of the Black Tiger”) directing dark comedy “The Murderer”; director Nonzee Nimibutr (“Jan Dara”) delivering “Mon Rak Nak Pak,” a drama about the good old days of Thai cinema; and “Shutter” director Parkpoom Wongpoom directing and jointly producing series “Delete,” a dark love triangle thriller.
“Delete” also stars Aokbap who was previously named as a former Talent to Watch by Variety and the International Film Festival & Awards Macao.
Thai content, especially comedy and horror, has a track record of doing well overseas. The supernatural thriller “The Whole Truth” spent five weeks in Netflix’s global top 10 list for non-English films and made the top 10 list in 35 countries.
The streamer’s highest-profile Thai original to date remains “Thai Cave Rescue,” a six-part look at the famous underground rescue events of summer 2018 and their impact on a wider group of people. The show was produced for the streamer by SK Global.
We’re following up the TM Youth Motocross Bikes First Look with a glance at the updates and pricing of the upper-displacement two-stroke motocross models from TM. Like the minis, the full-size models also have new graphics and revised engine mapping, but there are a couple more updates to note on the 2023 MX 125, MX 144, MX 250, and MX 300.
Related: 2023 TM Youth Motocross Bikes First Look
2023 TM Racing MX 125 2T
© Provided by Dirt Rider When kids move up from TM’s youth bikes, the next model they’ll be greeted with is the MX 125 two-stroke.
When kids move up from TM’s youth bikes, the next model they’ll be greeted with is the MX 125 two-stroke. (TM Racing/)
The MX 125 2T is significant to TM because it launched the brand off of the figurative starting line and has been around ever since. There have been refinements and updates to the small-bore smoker, a number of which took place last year (new frame, triple clamps, exhaust, plastics, tires, etc.). Two of the key updates this year include updated engine maps and a new clutch pump. As alluded to earlier, TM also gave the bike fresh looks with new decals.
Related: The History of TM Racing
TM does not currently have the 2023 spec sheet, but we do know that this model is powered by a 125cc two-stroke engine fed by a Keihin carburetor within an aluminum frame. Suspension duties are given to a KYB 48mm coil-spring fork and TM Racing’s own shock. Seat height is a claimed 39.0 inches and ground clearance is 14.6 inches.
2023 TM MX 125 2T Price: $9,195
Related: 2020 TM EN 250 Fi ES 2T Review First Ride
2023 TM Racing MX 144 2T
© Provided by Dirt Rider TM is the only manufacturer to offer a 143cc two-stroke motocross model off the showroom floor.
TM is the only manufacturer to offer a 143cc two-stroke motocross model off the showroom floor. (TM Racing/)
The MX 144 has the same 2023 updates as the MX 125. Instead of the nearly square 125cc engine, the MX 144 has a displacement of 143cc with a 56mm bore and 58.2mm stroke. Chassis components are also the same as the smaller-displacement sibling: KYB fork, TM Racing shock, aluminum frame, and Brembo front brake caliper and Nissin rear brake caliper that bite onto 270mm/245mm discs front/rear, respectively.
2023 TM MX 144 2T Price: $9,495
Related: Off-Road Racebikes—Ty Cullins’ 2022 TM EN 300
2023 TM Racing MX 250 ES 2T
© Provided by Dirt Rider The MX 250 ES 2T has the magic button to get it started.
The MX 250 ES 2T has the magic button to get it started. (TM Racing/)
What’s in a name? Well, in TM’s case, it hints at features of the bike. For example, the MX 250 ES 2T is a two-stroke (2T) that has an electric starter (ES). The MX 250 is the first in this list to include the easy-to-use starter. It also brings other engine differences like the 249cc engine (66.4mm bore x 72mm stroke) and an eMoticom ECU (versus Kokusan ECUs of the previously mentioned bikes). The chassis and 2023 updates are the same as the models listed above.
2023 TM Racing MX 250 ES 2T Price: $10,295
Related: BGR Moto 2021 TM EN 300 Fi ES 2T Review First Ride
2023 TM Racing MX 300 ES 2T
© Provided by Dirt Rider At the top of TM’s two-stroke motocross lineup is the MX 300 ES 2T.
At the top of TM’s two-stroke motocross lineup is the MX 300 ES 2T. (TM Racing/)
The MX 300 ES 2T has new graphics, updated engine maps, and a new clutch pump, but it is the only two-stroke motocrosser from TM with an updated power valve. It has a square (72mm bore and 72mm stroke) 293cc two-stroke engine that, like the MX 250, has an electric starter, eMoticom ECU, Keihin carburetor, and similar combination of chassis parts.
2023 TM Racing MX 300 ES 2T Price: $10,395
