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what happened last week (whlw) | Subscribe


whlw: no. 257

March 15 – 21, 2021

Hola,
This is Sham, your very own news curator. Simi also says hi. We both stopped reading the news yesterday at 9pm. 

I have good personal news: whlw is an
official fellow at a media startup fellowship program in Germany. This is also why I took a newsletter break last Monday. I was busy preparing and pitching presentations for the jury and it luckily paid off big time. I’m incredibly excited to see whether and how this newsletter can become a sustainable business. If you have any experience in this field and want to share, just reply to this mail. Thank you so much in advance.

More than 14,000 people read this newsletter every week, 205 people (1.9%) support it financially on
Patreon, and sometimes on PayPal.

Now without further ado, here's what happened last week,
Sham

what happened last week

SENEGAL
We are fighting for Senegal's democracy – it's the country's biggest protest in years
For two weeks, people in Senegal were protesting against the government and president Macky Sall (it was the biggest protest this west African country has seen in years, btw). At least eight people have died. They, among other demands, came together to demand the release of political prisoners and an investigation into the deaths of protesters.

Why this matters: Around 16 million people live in Senegal. For a long time, a lot of people thought that Senegal was a "beacon of peace and stability in the region." But if you ask a lot of (mostly young) Senegalese people, they'll say, 'no, we've had enough.'


Enough of what?
Well, of things not only feeling, but being unfair. Senegal has had one of the 
fastest-growing economies in Africa in recent years, but most people have not felt the benefits. In 2019, 17% of the country's population were unemployed, and the coronavirus pandemic made it all worse. More than one-third of the population still live in poverty. And a 2019 study found that 1% of West Africans owned more than everyone else in the region combined. In short, it's really bad.

What now?
Sall did address the nation last week, 
telling protesters that he understood why they were angry and pledging more funding for employment and entrepreneurship. But many felt it was too little, too late.

"Fun" fact: Two months before the protests, 29-year-old rapper Hakill wrote a song called Fii about how fed up his generation was with the government.
More Senegalese rap about the protests (thanks, Nellie Peyton from Quartz!)
  •  #FreeSenegal by Dip Doundou Guiss
    • Favorite line: “What to do with a country that can’t develop? You sold our oil, and we’re asking for water.”
  • “Khekh Yu Bess” (“A new type of combat”) by Canabasse
    • Favorite line: “History repeats itself. We believed in you Macky Sall, but now it’s us against you.”
  • Bayil Mu Sedd (“Drop it”) by rap duo Positive Black Soul
  • Sunu Drapeau by KBC
Although there aren't as many people out on the streets right now, the situation's super tense right now, and the songs suggest that this is just the beginning of a fight. While the songs are sung in Wolof, many of the artists have included subtitles in French or English on YouTube.
SYRIA
We remembered the war in Syria – and it's still going on after ten years

Ten years ago, on March 15, 2011, the war in Syria started and it’s still not over. The United Nations (UN) says the situation on the ground is still a “living nightmare” for people there. 

Refresher: Why is there a war in Syria? Watch this 6-minute
Vox explainer. For more recent updates, follow Syrian freelance journalist @Fared_Alhor. He reports directly from the city of Idlib. 

Why this matters: The war in Syria has led to the world’s largest refugee crisis (over 6.6 million Syrians who have fled to mostly Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon). Over half a million people have been killed and injured since the war started. That includes 12,000 kids

What’s it like in Syria today?
President Bashar al-Assad is
still in power (btw, al-Assad and his wife tested positive for COVID-19 last week), over 17 million people still live in Syria, 60 percent of the country’s population are going hungry because they don’t have access to safe and healthy food and one in four kids there have signs of psychological “distress”. The UN also says 2.45 million kids in Syria can’t even go to school. Also, the economy has basically collapsed. The Syrian pound has lost so much in value to the U.S. dollar.

Decolonize your feed
  • Bu Kolthoum does Syrian rap and R’n’B. When Simi heard his latest single ‘Mamnoun’, she was like, ‘oh, wow, he’s the Syrian Weeknd!’ 
  • Have you ever listened to Syrian pop? Here’s a Spotify playlist for you. 
  • Abu Malik al-Shami (his Instagram) does graffitti (BBC called him “Syria’s Banksy”).
  • Tammam Azzam (his Instagram) does art and he reminds Sham of Gustav Klimt.
CATHOLIC CHURCH / LGBTQIA+
We learned that the Catholic Church is still against same-sex marriage
Last week, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, said ‘sry we can’t bless same-sex marriage’ because God ‘can’t bless sin.’

Why this matters: The Catholic Church is the largest Christian community in the world, with around 1.2 billion members across the globe. Although this new statement doesn’t come as a shock (like, we all knew this), the Catholic Church is and has been losing ‘followers’ (quite literally) over this and other reasons (like the child sex abuse horror stories). The Church has blessed palms, shamrocks, cows, cars and footballs in the past. ‘Why not bless the love between two people of the same sex?’ some are saying.

What do Catholics think about same-sex relationships and marriage?
A lot of Catholics support same-sex relationships and marriage – like
85% of Catholics (who are 18-29 years old) in the United States. In Austria, too, a group of ‘rebel’ Catholic priests are like, ‘we will bless any loving couple, even if the Vatican says not to’. And in Germany, one in three Catholics is considering leaving. In Argentina (the Pope's home country), this former priest said 'k bye' to the Church, too.
EUTHANASIA
We decided that euthanasia and assisted dying is OK in Spain
Spain made it legally OK for patients with incurable and very painful diseases to choose to die. Now, Spain is only the sixth country in the world to say this is OK. Not everyone agrees. 

What’s euthanasia again?
According to Spain’s lawmakers, it’s when a doctor would give drugs to a patient who is suffering and basically let them die. 
It’s legal in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and some parts of the United States and AustraliaMeanwhile in neighbouring Portugal, the country's highest court said 'no' to a euthanasia law.

Why this matters: 90% of people in Spain (that’s almost 46 million of them) actually support it. The law would now mean doctors won’t go to jail for helping a dying or sick patient end their life on their terms.

Attitudes about euthanasia are changing around the world: 
  • In the United States between 1947 and 2018, people have gone from being mostly ‘no’ to ‘yes, it should be allowed’.
  • In Europe, there were similar vibes (this study says it could be because 'people are less religious nowadays'). 
  • And in South Africa, there’s a debate playing out in court started by a 71-year-old man who is slowly dying.
UNITED STATES
We have to talk about anti-Asian racism – in the United States and worldwide
A white terrorist murdered eight people at three massage parlors in and around Atlanta, Georgia, United States last week. Six of the victims were Asian, two were white. All but one were women.

Why this matters: Anti-Asian racism is real, in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

What does the Asian-American community say?
Members of the Asian-American community have been warning of what happened in Atlanta especially since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. 'You don't pay enough attention to the hate crimes against our communities,' they said. And they were right: Hate crimes
went up by 150% from 2019 to 2020. Also, 'this is not an isolated event. This is an act of white supremacy against vulnerable Asian women.'

Good to know: The media tried to paint what happened as something that just one individual did, saying that 'the murderer is addicted to sex.' But did you know that,
historically, the term 'sex addiction' has been used by white men to prove they're not as guilty?

What can I do to show my solidarity?
Decolonize your feed (for example, follow
Vincent Lee or Michelle Ye Hee Lee on Twitter), invite or suggest more Asian perspectives to formats you own or subscribe to or just donate to the National Asian Pacific Women's Forum, short NAPAWF in Atlanta.

The easiest thing you could do right now, though, is to read
this article written by Tina Tchen, Min Jin Lee, and Sung Yeon Choimorrow about how, more often than not, sexism and racism go hand in hand.
AFGHANISTAN
We made sure that a very sexist law doesn't come into effect in Afghanistan... again
Last week, the women of Afghanistan pushed back against a move to ban young girls from singing in public through a social media campaign and won.

Tell me more
Kabul’s local education ministry published a letter that said anyone older than 11 are not allowed to sing or recite poetry in public unless it’s in front of only women. A lot of
people got angry and took to social media to fight back.

How?
Young women and men started sharing clips of them singing their favourite songs with the hashtag #IAmMySong started with this male ally:
Ahmad Sarmast, the founder of Afghanistan's music institute, followed by these two women. It’s gotten over 600,000 ‘clicks’The country’s education ministry then ditched the almost-law altogether

Why this matters: Women's rights. Also, remember that the Taliban (among others) made the lives of women really difficult. In the meantime, the government is working on a peace deal with the Taliban which has a lot of people afraid of what this could mean for human rights in the country.
HONG KONG
We are losing the fight for democracy in Hong Kong right now
China has written new rules for the way Hong Kong holds its elections. Now, future candidates running for office in Hong Kong will be tested for being ‘true patriots’ (meaning, ‘loyal to China’), says the Chinese government. People who have been fighting to keep democracy alive in Hong Kong are now worried, ‘I do not think we can participate in politics anymore.’
  • Refresher: In 1997, the United Kingdom
    (Hong Kong was ruled by them until then) and China (their new ‘ruler’) promised democracy to Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, that people who live there would some day get to choose their own leaders. It looks like a... 'no.'
Do all Hong Kongers think the same thing?
No. Some are also, ‘maybe these new election laws mean more, and not less, democracy for Hong Kong.’ To which pro-democracy supporters say, ‘We doubt it.’ Others, like Mike Rowse in 
this South China Morning Post opinion piece, say ‘we missed our chance, tbh.’

What’s the situation on the ground right now?

Elections have been delayed for a year, 53 pro-democracy activists have been arrested and are now waiting for their day in court, around 30,000 people have applied to move to the United Kingdom. And, the encrypted chat app Signal was banned last week.

Decolonize your feed

Follow young activists in exile on Twitter, such as Nathan Law, Sunny Cheung and Glacier Kwong.

Did you know that China said it also plans to ban the live broadcast of the Oscars? Because of 'Do Not Split', a film about the Hong Kong protests (you can watch the film on YouTube here). China's isn't a big fan of Chloe Zhao ('too outspoken on Hong Kong') either – she's the very first Asian woman nominated for Best Director at the Oscars and won at the Golden Globes. 
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT FIND INTERESTING

On a funny note

(Government-funded) Lobbyists in Canada are attacking a Netflix children's movie because it is 'anti-oil propaganda'. In case you were looking for a movie to watch, how about Bigfoot Family?

Also, the fact that this is what scares oil companies is a good sign for society. 
That's it from Sham and Simi. This issue was written with Kurdish artist Bana's 'Shetm', translated 'Heartbroken' playing in the background. Bye for now and stay safe.
Copyright © 2021 what happened last week?, All rights reserved.


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