Typically it takes some good old school draw back information to ship the upside, if that doesn’t sound oxymoronic. Which it does. However by no means thoughts.
Examples abound. My colleague Nils Pratley has been writing all 12 months concerning the absurdity of booming supermarkets receiving big dollops of presidency money as a part of Covid reduction measures. Public strain constructed, commonsense prevailed and the businesses have returned almost £2bn to the public coffers. That’s an upside with 9 zeroes on the tip.
Journalism can inadvertently elevate funds for good causes in different methods too. Libby Brooks wrote recently about the heartbreaking tale of a Scottish teenager who took his personal life after fighting the restrictions of lockdown. The article helped his dad and mom elevate thousands for charity.
In the identical vein the Guardian has launched its Christmas charity appeal. We do that yearly, selecting completely different beneficiaries every time. This 12 months the hope is {that a} slew of items concerning the adversity of younger individuals within the face of the pandemic will drum up funds for admirable charities working on this house. In case you will help please do.
Typically, good draw back/upside journalism even wins prizes. This week, several of my colleagues were rewarded at the British journalism awards for items that led to real-world change. Matthew Weaver was instrumental in exposing Dominic Cummings’ springtime wanderlust, a narrative that hounded the Downing Avenue operative all the way in which to the exit.
And our investigative workforce was honoured for revealing allegations of prodigious misappropriation of funds by Africa’s richest woman, the Angolan Isabel dos Santos. She is now below felony investigation in three nations and blocked from accessing a lot of her belongings abroad.
None of those had been Upside tales. However they’ve an upside impact. It’s usually value recalling this when studying gloomy information. It’s solely after we be taught that issues are flawed that we are able to begin to put them proper.
In any other case, this week we had been mildly inspired by:
• Day One in all vaccination. Three-minute read
… And the way we bought right here. Four-minute read
• Tesco cuts again on the Xmas plastic. 90-second read
• Lab-grown meat. Two-minute snack
Fortunate numbers
The variety of People keen to get a Covid 19 vaccine has risen from 50% in September to 63% now, according to a new Gallup poll. In the meantime, a brand new Chinese language vaccine was reported to have an efficacy of 86%after assessments within the UAE.
Additionally international carbon emissions fell by a record amount in 2020 – around 7% – and aviation air pollution is about 40% decrease than it was this time final 12 months.
What we preferred
We’ve all the time very a lot cherished night time trains, so the prospect of many more in Europe is salivating. There’s nothing fairly like falling asleep in a single nation and waking up in a totally completely different one (certainly, that is what Britons shall be doing on 31 December).
We had been intrigued by this research which links happiness to places teeming with birds.
We had been cheered by this piece from the World Assets Institute which famous six broad areas of climate change progress for the reason that Paris settlement was struck 5 years in the past. And we admired the UK’s first electric car forecourt.
Oh, and that is enjoyable if a bit pointless – the piano made from plants.
What we heard
We had some nice responses to our request for the perfect issues to have come out of 2020. We’ll be collating extra into an article later within the 12 months, so there’s nonetheless time to write to us with your silver linings.
In Victoria, Canada, Leanne Harrison welcomed the way in which the digital world opened up alternatives.
At age 75, one factor I hope carries ahead because of pandemic is the big array of Zoom displays I used to be capable of entry this 12 months. Worldwide occasions I’d not have been capable of attend had been at my iPad fingertips, newspaper journalists interviewed at size individuals I’d not have seen, on-line train gurus led me by way of fascinating routines, and programs and lectures got here to my lounge: such a bonanza of mental richness.
In Florida, Thomas Olsen was grateful for small issues.
The most effective of this dangerous 12 months is – having been compelled off the world’s Merry-Go-Spherical. It has given me an opportunity to understand my environment – the younger squirrels chasing one another in play on a big oak; the appreciation of a sundown and moon-rise; the return of direct and unhurried dialogue with my mate; the pattern to telephone calls moderately than texting and a chance to plumb my religious depths. I’m grateful.
And in Edinburgh, Susan Marr discovered some assist from the opposite aspect of the world.
I’ve a cousin whose daughter lives in New Zealand. She determined that one technique to hold her kids comfortable was to have a day by day theme and costume up accordingly. This was large enjoyable. I’ve been Cilla Black, worn stripes, or yellow, or any method of colors, been a fortune teller in a circus, worn back-to-front outfits. All this primary factor within the morning to catch their day on WhatsApp in NZ. I used to be so grateful for these challenges on the grim days once I was upset about being unable to see my kids/ grandchildren in Edinburgh, my mom in Manchester, and when an in depth buddy died.
The place was the Upside?
The upside actually resided with starling murmurations, and this beautiful set of pictures.
