大象传媒

Insight, wit and analysis from 大象传媒 correspondents and journalists around the world, presented by Owen Bennett Jones. In this edition:

A tangled tale

For some time, our correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse has been following the allegations about the British torture and internment of pro-independence fighters and activists in Kenya some 60 years ago. The United Kingdom is still coming to terms with what it did: earlier this month a judge in London decided that three Kenyan torture victims could take legal action against the UK government.

But there鈥檚 another, more subtle, aspect to this history lesson. Kenya鈥檚 first generation of post-colonial rulers were also somewhat embarrassed by the torture victims. So it was not only in London but also in Nairobi that politicians, adjusting to independence, manipulated perceptions of the past.

Dutch tolerance wears thin - so what next?

For decades now the war on drugs has been global, violent and unrelenting. Hundreds of thousands of people have been imprisoned, maimed and killed. Some politicians say it鈥檚 a war that can鈥檛 be won, and decriminalisation (or at least more relaxed approach to some drugs) is the answer. But what has happened in places where that has been tried?

The Netherlands has been a byword for tolerance of cannabis for decades, with "drug tourists" blowing in from across Europe to sample the wares of its 'coffeeshops'. But not everyone's happy about that - and a local backlash is under way. Manuela Saragosa visits Maastricht and Sittard to learn more about the current approach.