When the pandemic struck the world this year and a lockdown was announced in every country, we had to brace ourselves and be mentally prepared to survive weeks of self-isolation. However, it didn’t stop at just COVID-19. Every month we would wake up to devastating news. Whether it was the Australian bush fires or the death of renowned actors or police brutality and racism, there’s no doubt that 2020 has been the bearer of bad news. But in all this darkness, there has been light on several occasions. Some good news has prevailed, and with the year almost coming to an end, let’s remember some of the positive headlines to start afresh in 2021.
Before we go ahead, let’s give a shoutout to John Krasinski who has inspired our title of this story. He’s the OG man to start Some Good News, which brings all the happy events of the years to the limelight and takes our mind off all the bad news just so that we can remember that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.
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Here’s a roundup of some of the major positive headlines that you might have missed out on in 2020.
1. Female-led nations curbed COVID-19 at a much earlier stage
As compared to countries that have male leaders running it, nations that were under the leadership of women had better results in terms of curbing the novel Coronavirus. The common reason for all was that they acted just in time and responded swiftly to the situation. Strict lockdowns as well as high testing rates were also reasons. Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland (and the youngest Prime Minister of the world), Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, Katrin Jakobsdottir, Prime Minister of Iceland, Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark and President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan are some of the female politicians who’ve made waves with the way they handled the pandemic.
2. Kamala Harris made history
While USA elected Joe Biden as their next President, it was his running mate, Kamala Harris who made history as she became the first woman, the first Black and also the first South-Asian as the Vice President-elect of America.
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3. Marcus Rashford successfully led a campaign to feed hungry children in the UK
It’s not just the Manchester United fans but football fans in general that have a great amount of respect for Marcus Rashford. The Manchester United striker spent his initial lockdown days to help deliver food to families in the UK who relied on free school meals. When the government announced the free meals programme would not be extended over the summer holidays, he wrote a persuasive open letter to the government in order to reverse that decision and help feed over a million families whose children were hungry. He additionally started a petition demanding the same and got more than 1 million signatures, which put enough pressure on the government to take a U-turn and change its decision.
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4. Animals thrived in 2020
Animals thrived this year when humans were caged indoors. When Hong Kong’s Ocean Park Zoo shut down in January this year due to the pandemic, the lack of crowd encouraged a panda couple, Ying Ying and Le Le to mate after ten years.
Kenya reported an increase in the population of its elephants (from 16000 in 1989 to 34,000 today) and lions (from 2000 in 2010 to 2489 in 2020). Uganda saw a gorilla baby boom and the numbers have doubled since 2019.
Sea turtles in Tanzania have increased and 55 endangered whales in the Antarctic made an appearance in a 23-day period as opposed to just one sighting in 2018.
5. British war veteran Captain Tom Moore was knighted by The Queen of England for his act of heroism
In the wake of COVID-19, 99-year old British man and World War II veteran, Captain Tom Moore pledged to complete 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday in order to raise funds for the National Health Service. His goal was to raise £1,000 but ended up receiving millions because he charmed the world with his act of kindness and determination. He was also knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in July for his heroic move.
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6. Good news for the LGBTQIA+ Community
The LGBTQIA+ community had lots to celebrate this year. Same-sex unions were legalised in many countries.
Costa Rica became the first country in Central America to legalise gay marriage this May. Thailand’s cabinet gave a draft approval for same-sex unions. Following the legalisation of same-sex marriages in Northern Ireland in October 2019, the first gay marriage took place in February this year. In October 2020, two same-sex couples joined a mass wedding hosted by the military for the first time in Taiwan and later Bhutan became the second Asian country to legalise same-sex relationships.
Nepal declared they would count people from the LGBTQIA+ community in the national census in order to better allocate government jobs and education set aside for minority groups.
Belgium appointed Petra De Sutter as the Deputy Prime Minister, making her Europe’s first openly transgender cabinet minister.
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7. Scotland declared that period products will be free for all
Scotland made tampons and sanitary napkins free for all, becoming the first country in the world to do so. Labour MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) Monica Lennon who introduced the bill had been campaigning to end period poverty (people with low incomes who can’t afford or access period products) since 2016.
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8. A 6-year old boy saved his younger sister from a dog attack
6-year old Bridger Walker gained immense attention on social media after he saved his little sister from a dog attack and got injured himself in the process. According to his family, Bridger went through a 2-hour surgery, which required 90 stitches. When he was asked by his dad why he jumped in front of his sister, the boy said, “If someone had to die, I thought it should be me.” Anne Hathaway shared the news on her Instagram account about the boy who also happens to be a big Avengers fan. Following Hathaway, Bridger’s sacrifice and his brave move were lauded by some of the members of the cast of the movie itself including Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo and Tom Holland.
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9. The first Indian ballet dancer crowdfunded his way into one of the most prestigious ballet schools
Kamal Singh, a 20-year old ballet dancer and son of an auto-rickshaw driver bagged a spot at the English National Ballet School (one of the most well-known schools for learning ballet) through crowdfunding. Argentinean dancer, Fernando Aguilera has been training Kamal since the age of 17 for free as his family couldn’t afford the fees and the boy showed exceptional skills in such less time, which made him apply to the school online. After receiving a placement, he turned to a crowdfunding site to pay for the tuition fees and living expenses. Kamal managed to raise enough money with the help of Bollywood stars who spread his news of achievement and is now learning ballet in the London school.
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10. Trials for the Covid-19 vaccine have begun
We almost have a vaccine for COVID-19. While it’s still in its trial stage, let’s hope a vaccine that has no side effects and 100% efficiency is released soon. This is certainly something (and probably the only thing) to look forward to in 2021.
