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We legalized cannabis in Malta – it's the first European country to do so
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Malta moved super quickly. First, parliament approved a bill legalizing recreational marijuana, then just days later President George Vella signed the legislation into law.
Why this matters: Europe is talking cannabis. And Malta walked the walk. It is the first European country to legalize marijuana. Germany is thinking about it, Luxembourg is a step closer to following Malta's example and Italy will vote on a referendum this spring.
Give me the details of this law
All adults (18 years and older) will be allowed to have up to seven grams of cannabis and cultivate as many as four plants for personal use. Up to 50 grams of homegrown marijuana can be stored at home.
What's the punishment if you go overboard?
If you have more than seven grams but less than 28 grams (as an adult), you have to pay a €50 to €100 fine. Meaning, no jail time and no criminal record. If you are under 18 and police find you with some weed, you will not face arrest either. Instead, they have something of a 'care plan' for you.
Any critics?
Oh, yes, plenty. Some medical professionals, Church-run organisations, employers and the Nationalist Party are like, 'the law will normalise cannabis use.' Former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi and former president Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca have also made their concerns public. ABBA (a political party, not the music band) wants to start a signature-collecting campagn to force a referendum on this so the law can be repealed.
Zoom out: Before you go and celebrate how 'progressive' Malta is, the country's women's rights situation is super bad. The country has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in Europe; stricter than Poland.
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We are, once again, interested in peace between North and South Korea
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After 70 years, North Korea and South Korea have agreed 'in principle' to formally end the war between them.
- Refresher: The Korean War lasted from 1950 until 1953. It is still unclear how many people died in the Korean War; but up to 70 percent were civilians. As many as four million civilians are thought to have been killed, and North Korea in particular was decimated by bombing and chemical weapons.
Wait. They're still at war?!
Technically, yes. They only have an armistice, meaning that, for 70 years, South and North Korea have only agreed to stop fighting; and this armistice is 'unstable', too, as South Korean president Moon Jae-in calls it. There's a difference between 'stop fighting' and 'signing a peace agreement' in politics. Plus, there's been more tension between them for a few months. North Korea keeps testing its limits and putting on a military-strength-power-show.
Why only end the war 'in principle'? Why not for real?
According to Moon Jae-in, 'it's basically because North Korea is worried about all the U.S. troops that are stationed here and Kim Jong-un wants all of them gone 'cause he doesn't trust the United States.' At least some 28,000 U.S. soldiers are currently still in South Korea. Plus, there's the U.S.-led sanctions against North Korea because the country won't abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
Why this matters: Actually, if I'm brutally honest, this news headline doesn't really matter because South and North Korea have been saying this sh*t for generations almost and a peace declaration has still not been signed. But what does matter is understanding why there needs to be an end to the war ASAP: Healing and justice. A lot of the crimes that were committed have not been fully investigated; take the Nogun-ri massacre for example (the U.S. killed hundreds of civilian refugees in a small town in South Korea) or the Sinchon masscare (Pablo Picasso even painted about it and North Korea has dedicated an entire museum to it). Once this 'war'-chapter finally closes, a new 'truth-finding' one can thoroughly begin.
Btw: Over the holidays, I'm reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee; a novel recommended to me by reader and friend Huyen. It's a historical fiction about a Korean family that immigrates to Japan and the racism they experience there. The Korean War sets one of the scenes. What are you reading at the moment?
For my German speakers: I talked about this on last week's episode of Die Wochendämmerung with Katrin Rönicke and Holger Klein.
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We reminded each other of massacres that happened in Turkey, Pakistan and China
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In China,... the country held a memorial service (look) to mark the 84th anniversary of the Nanjing massacre by Japanese troops during World War II that began on December 13. China says that at least 300,000 civilians and disarmed soldiers were killed in and around Nanjing in 1937. Japan to this day denies this number. The true nature of the massacre has been disputed and exploited for propaganda purposes by historical revisionists, apologists and Japanese nationalists. There are some hotels in Japan even that distribute books saying that the massacre did not take place at all.
In Turkey,... six years ago, the military killed at least 200 civilians in the mostly-Kurdish town of Cizre, according to a report from the Turkish human rights NGO Mazlumder. The mass killings happened between December 14, 2015 and March 2, 2016 when the army imposed a curfew on the town to fight the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an armed Kurdish group. Turkey, the European Union and the United States classify it as a terrorist organisation while some see the group as a protector against the Turkish government. To this day, no progress has been made in the lawsuits filed over the very serious human rights violations in this part of Turkey. But: 'Em ji bîr nakin'/'we won't forget', as Kurdish activists wrote on social media on the day of the anniversary.
- Btw, there is a movie about what happened in Cizre. It's called Whispers of War by German director Florian Hoffmann; watch the trailer. In this interview with cineuropa, he talks about why it was important for him to tell this story. "When I saw the first livestream from Cizre, I was shocked by it and felt helpless. The film is a way to deal with that." I haven't watched it myself yet. Have you?
Unfortunately, there's another massacre that happened in Turkey in December. Starting December 19 until 26, 1978, the right-extremist fascist group Grey Wolves killed more than 100 and and injured around 1000 Alevi Kurds in the city of Maraş or Kahramanmaraş. This time around, however, the courts dealt with what happened. According to Bianet, "a number of defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, though all were released by 1992. The court never probed the evidence and circumstances to discover what lay behind the massacre, how it was planned and by whom."
In Pakistan,... on December 16, seven armed men killed at least 144 people; 132 of them were children. The men belonged to the armed group TTP. It was the second deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistan. However, it took well over three years before a judicial commission was set up to look into how that could have happened. The report came out last year, saying 'oh sh*t, security isn't that high and locals support this group'. The question remains: 'Have we learnt anything from the tragedy of APS Peshawar?'. The families of the children are still awaiting justice and their case has been pending in the Supreme Court. Dawn did a memorial for the 144 children and adults of Army Public School Peshawar who died on that day. (Thank you for the recommendation, Ash!)
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OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT FIND INTERESTING
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India: The country is talking about raising the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21.
United Arab Emirates: Dubai became the world's first paperless government.
Mexico: Mexico City wants to ban bullfighting because of animal welfare.
Australia: Bruno Buzatto, a principal biologist at Bennelongia Environmental Consultants in Perth, discovered a millipede with 1,300 legs. It's a new record by far.
New Zealand: A new law has made it super easy to update your birth certificate if you are trans.
Tunisia: The country is talking about decriminalizing homosexuality.
Poland: They found hundreds of super well-preserved dinosaur footprints. You can even see their scaly skin, look.
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North Korea banned laughing for 11 days to mourn the 10th anniversary of Kim Jong-il's death (Kim Jong-un's dad). On the exact anniversary, December 17, North Koreans were even banned from going grocery shopping.
"Even if your family member dies during the mourning period, you are not allowed to cry out loud and the body must be taken out after it's over. People cannot even celebrate their own birthdays if they fall within the mourning period."
Btw: While Kim Jong-il ruled North Korea, the country went through a pretty dark period. Think of the famine in the 1990ies, for example. It is believed that as many as 3.5 million people died during a four-year period.
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A Personal Note From Sham
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2021 is coming to an end and my battery, too. How are you feeling? This issue is this year's last issue as I will be taking a small holiday break until January 10, 2022. However, I wanted to have a chat with you before I go and take you behind the scenes/newsletter.
A chat? That doesn't sound too good.
Relax. English is my third language; I sometimes miss a few beats.
Okay.
All I want to say is: Thank you for reading. I don't know for how long you've been on this list but I appreciate your attention. If you're one of my 248 paying subscribers, thank you. You're helping me reach the 15,000+ other readers of this newsletter. I truly appreciate every $ or € you put into my work and I work hard to make every cent count. I know that reading the news, especially during a pandemic, can be exhausting and super emotional. My goal is to keep it light, entertaining and informative, all at the same time. I also have a few other goals.
Like what?
I'm working on a website relaunch for this newsletter. I'm also thinking about how the newsletter can beautifully exist on social media (we're already on there, follow it on Instagram and Twitter) and, most specifically, funding. I want to dedicate 2022 to finding out how I can move from "Hi, I'm Sham and I write a newsletter" to "Hi, I'm Sham and I am the founder of a media company called what happened last week [name is a working title lol]."
All of 2021 I was busy trying to find out how that could work. Thanks to a nine-month long fellowship at Media Lab Bayern this year, I now identify as an entrepreneur who also works as a journalist. That was a huge leap, trust me. However, here I am.
My vision is simple: I want to help people think and act more globally by focusing on what's happening in Asia, Africa and South America. As a journalist with a Kurdish background living in Germany, I believe that established news media can/should be a lot less Eurocentric and I want to contribute to that.
Do you need any help?
Yes, yes, yes. I'm looking for
- a co-founder with skills I do not possess, meaning a knack for business and a passion for business development
- support re: growing this readership. I am working on a Product Hunt launch next year and for that I will definitely need your help/votes when the time comes. What else should I do to grow my readership?
- further funding. Do you know of any grants or fellowships I could apply to?
If any of the above applies, please feel free to reply to this email. I'd love to chat with you.
With that said, thank you and a happy new year.
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That's it. 'See' you on January 9, 2022.
Sham
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