HIV vaccine promise

My uncle once joked that this blog should be called 'reasons to be cautiously optimistic'! Well, that moniker could well apply to today's linked article from the Bangkok Post. The world's largest and longest HIV vaccine trial - conducted in Thailand - has just released some promising outcomes, showing that trial participants who received the experimental vaccine were 31% less likely to be infected with HIV over the 6 year trial period than those who received a placebo. So, not good enough to use more widely - but the kind of modest success that could yield significant clues as to what might work better. And with more focused research we may just get an HIV vaccine that bit quicker. Definitely a reason to be cautiously optimistic...

Planting the seeds of hope

What a wonderful story this is from the BBC! It's about an Indian civil servant, SM Raju, who just led an effort to break the world record for the number of trees planted in one day - but that's really the least of his achievements. He took advantage of an Indian government commitment to guarantee families living below the poverty line 100 days of work a year, and used monies from this program to employ villagers to plant and protect trees. In his state, Bihar, almost half the population is below the poverty line, and on 30 August alone 300,000 of them planted trees that they will tend over the coming years in return for a living wage. SM Raju's initiative not only has environmental and economic benefits, it brings hope to communities that had been hopeless. As a result, fewer people are moving away from the area. And with his success story attracting more attention to the government policy that made it possible, it's quite likely others across the country will seek to replicate it.

Go, tennis mother!

I can't help but rave about Kim Clijsters - along with the article linked above from the New York Times! What a woman! After retiring from her tennis career, having a baby girl and raising her through her first 18 months of life, Kim returned to tennis this summer and today won the US Open women's singles title. On the way, she claimed victory over both the Williams sisters (quite a feat in itself) and several other top-seeded players, though she was at the tournament on a wildcard. She really is an inspiration - such character, dedication and grace. In a tournament that has seen a few tantrums on court, there were none today - from either Clijsters or her toddler daughter. Just some good tennis, and a great comeback story.

Improving health and cutting crime

Poor RTBH has been neglected of late. Sorry about that! I've found recently that my creative, intellectual and emotional energy has been sucked into a range of other things - but I have to say that I've also struggled to find compelling, positive news. The continued anxiety around the world's financial and economic situation seems to have infected reporting on other issues. Perhaps the mood will lift a little now that a few big economies seem to be pulling themselves out of recession? Or perhaps reporters and readers alike will grow weary of the gloom and push towards optimism and hope... Who knows.

Anyway - I did find this interesting story today, in Newsweek (linked from the title above). It's a tantalizing piece on the ways in which some aspects of US healthcare reform may have knock-on social benefits. Specifically, there is evidence from pilot programs that home visits by nurses to support disadvantaged and teenage mothers have helped to cut crime. How? Well, it seems that the assistance given to mothers helped them stay healthy and happy and also reduced substance dependence. This translated into kids that were less likely to commit crime, being arrested half as often and convicted 80% less than similar children whose mothers weren't supported. It's a very interesting approach - and it's in the current draft US healthcare bill... though only time will tell if it'll stay there. Definitely one to watch.

------------

RTBH reader Karn just sent me something very cool. It's a film about how thousands of Estonian volunteers cleared their nation of garbage in just a day last year. It's 5 minutes long and well worth a watch - very inspirational and translatable to many other contexts. In fact, Karn tells me that Portugal is planning a similar event in March 2010. Hopeful happenings are infectious, it seems! Thanks, Karn!

East Africa gets bandwidth

Long-time RTBH readers may recall post 311 from August last year, which referred to the new undersea cable gradually being laid along the East African coastline. It's all part of a grand plan to get Africa connected to high-speed internet services, with all that means in terms of tapping into knowledge and market opportunities. Well, now it's finished. According to the BBC article linked from the post title above, launch ceremonies were held in Kenya and Tanzania this week, and some large companies have already started exploiting the new bandwidth. Bit by bit, governments in the region - Kenya's, for example - are laying fibre-optic cable to connect towns to the network, in the hope that schools will be able to access an expanded range of educational materials. The question, as the article points out, is when smaller towns and villages will benefit. Surely something worth funding by international donors and local governments alike?

More than good enough

I found this a bit late (it's from last weekend) but it's an extremely interesting piece - sad in some respects, but ultimately hopeful - from the UK's Guardian newspaper. It's about Alex Goodenough, a teenager from the UK with Asperger's syndrome, who has struggled to navigate his way through the UK educational system even with his mother battling on his behalf. Despite being let down along the way, Alex has emerged from school with a raft of A grades at GCSE, several more at AS and A level, and a place to study engineering at Cambridge later this year. It's an amazing story, of one woman's determination to get the best education for her son, and of a young man's eagerness to acquire knowledge - but to do that his own way. Alex seems happy in his own skin, whatever labels are applied to him by others. And so he should! His educational achievements thus far should make him, and his mother, proud, as well as offering hope to other children with Asperger's.

An entrepreneurial stimulus

Over recent months, I've been boring my economist husband with views on what governments ought to be doing in response to the financial crisis, beyond bank bailouts - i.e. extending bridging funds to small businesses and putting in place more effective safety nets for individuals and families in trouble. Well, today I found a great article on CNN about an Ethiopian woman who is working to support communities in New Jersey in exactly this way. Alfa Demmellash watched her mother struggle to thrive economically, first in Ethiopia and then in the US. This inspired her to develop ways to support underserved entrepreneurs - especially women - to develop their business management skills in order to increase their prosperity. She founded the non-profit Rising Tide Capital, with her now husband, which has so far provided training and other support to more than 250 small businesses. 70% of those helped are single mothers. The CNN article includes several quotes from business owners who have increased their profits significantly whilst working with Alfa and her colleagues, which is amazing in the current economic context. If initiatives like these were taken to scale, it might be possible to stimulate the economy from the bottom up - possibly more effective than hoping bank bailouts will somehow trickle down...

A river runs cleanly through it

I've been out of action for a while - my laptop expired! :-( But I got back online today, just in time to find this great story on NPR. It documents the progress made in cleaning up the Cuyahoga River in Ohio, USA, over the last 40 years. Amazingly, this river was so polluted in the 1960s and 70s it caught fire (more than once). Most fish couldn't survive in the water, and it would certainly have been foolish to swim in it. But media coverage led to environmental activism, which in turn spawned regulation and ultimately the birth of the Environmental Protection Agency - and the Cuyahoga got cleaned up. Now, people kayak up and down the river, which is filled with all kinds of fish. As the NPR article points out, the waters aren't pristine, but they are much healthier. It seems the public spotlight is quite an effective bleaching agent!

Environmental justice comes to those who wait

A very positive milestone has been reached in the name of environmental justice, as reported in Nigerian newspaper This Day. For more than a decade, the Ogoni tribe in the Niger Delta has struggled to protect their land and their people from the damage done by local oil exploration and extraction. In the 1980s and 1990s, local protesters - many of them targeting their ire at Shell as the major corporation operating in the region - had some success in attracting international attention, but were then suppressed by Colonel Sani Abacha's military regime. Ultimately, several protesters - including local leader Ken Saro-Wiwa - were tried and hanged, all as Shell turned a blind eye. Indeed, many have postulated that Shell gave a helping hand to the Nigerian authorities... We may never know the details. However, the families of the protesters have now secured something of a victory, following a 13-year attempt to take Shell to court under an ancient US federal law, now winning an out-of-court settlement of $15.5m. Saro-Wiwa's son and other plaintiffs will use some of the funds to establish a community trust for the Ogoni, which will support projects in areas such as education, agriculture and small enterprise development. It's not a huge amount of money, but it will help. Perhaps more important are the ramifications of this case across Nigeria and globally, as the concept of corporate social responsibility is reinforced and multinationals are shown not to be above the law. This is Saro-Wiwa's legacy.

Ghana going green

I often feature stories about the pace of positive change and the rapid adoption of technology in low-income countries, and here's another story in that vein, from the Ghanaian Chronicle. According to the article linked above (from the post title), Ghana's environment minister has announced plans to revolutionize waste management across the country through widespread recycling. The minister made her commitment as she inaugurated a non-profit plastic recycling enterprise. The Cyclus Elmina Recycling Plant will employ local people to collect waste from communities for recycling and aims specifically to create jobs for young people in the surrounding district. The initiative couldn't be more timely, as wealthier Ghanaians are increasingly opting to buy water in plastic bottles and sachets (as tap water is not yet properly treated), and the use of other packaging materials is also on the rise. Unlike many high-income countries, however, Ghana is investing in recycling from the outset, hopefully leading to a more sustainable growth model and a cleaner environment.

--------

Just to let you know - I am now using Twitter. (I resisted for some time, but eventually caved!) I am posting positive news and other morcels there on a regular basis, so if you need a more frequent dose of good news and other mind-stimulating stuff than you get through RTBH alone, please follow me on Twitter.

Virtual reunion

Social networking, email and other 'new' technologies are often cited as barriers to forming genuine and meaningful human relationships. So I was interested to find this story on BBC today, about a woman who found her long-lost son through Facebook. Avril Grube from Poole in the UK had not seen her son, Gavin, since he disappeared with his father in 1982. Her former husband had taken the boy to his native Hungary. She and her sister had been searching for Gavin ever since, and her sister finally found his Facebook profile through an internet search engine. Eventually, direct contact was made, and Avril and Gavin were reunited. Now, apparently, they are happily catching up - face-to-face, at last.

Drillbit doctor

Thanks very much to RTBH reader Robert for sending me this story from the BBC today. (I'd spotted it there myself earlier, in fact, and was already resolved to post it - it's such an amazing little tale!) According to the article - and accompanying video clip - an Australian boy's life was saved recently thanks to a household drill. Nicholas Rossi's parents took him to hospital after he fell off his bike and suffered a head injury. The hospital doctor, Rob Carson, believed Nicholas had bleeding between his skull and his brain, which had to be drained – but as the hospital didn't have any specialist staff or equipment Dr Carson had to use a household drill under instruction from a neurosurgeon via telephone. Fortunately, the procedure worked, and Nicholas was stabilized and transferred to a bigger hospital. He recovered in time to go home on his 13th birthday!

Changing the world 2.0

I thought I'd share this article from Treehugger today. It's a great list of some of the things you can do to change the world for the better, using social media. The list includes actions like rating a company online, using Twitter to raise funds for charity or to stimulate activism, and working as an online citizen journalist when you travel - and the article provides all kinds of links to help you get started. Definitely some options worth investigating, I'd say. And you don't even have to leave your couch...

---------

Check out my cousin Maps' new single, which was released yesterday. It's called 'Let Go of the Fear' - the perfect RTBH anthem! Turn it up loud, put YouTube on full screen - and enjoy.

Marathon effort

What an inspirational tale from the UK's Times newspaper today! It tells of an army major, Phil Packer, who just finished the London Marathon - 13 days after it started. Packer was injured on duty in Iraq and was told he'd never walk again. But he managed to complete the marathon's 26 mile course on crutches, at a rate of 2 miles a day (the most his doctor would allow). In doing so, he was attempting to raise £1m (about $1.5m) for a charity called Help for Heroes, which supports soldiers injured in action. As part of the same fundraising campaign, he's already rowed the English Channel and completed a sky-dive. Next he's planning to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in California, USA. A truly amazing effort.

-------

You can visit Phil Packer's website to find out more about his fundraising efforts and to contribute.

When soccer feels like home

This is a great article from today's New York Times. It focuses on the ups and downs of New York's Street Soccer team, one of 19 US soccer teams for the homeless. Street Soccer NY is made up of players from a homeless shelter on Ward's Island, who now play in a men's soccer league at Chelsea Piers (one of the city's premier sports-entertainment complexes). The team started shakily, as the players didn't know each other's names, let alone trust each other - and some turned up drunk... But with regular practice, donated shoes and other equipment, and a burgeoning team spirit, the team has improved. They won for the first time this week. But it's not just the winning that's important. As some of the players have testified, it's a way to feel normal, interact with others and get fit again - all of which heightens the players' ability to cope with their tough circumstances. One thing's for sure - they'll have lots of people rooting for them now! (PS - there's a nice little video on the NYT website if you go to the article there.)

Some good news for planet Earth

Thanks very much to RTBH reader Emily for sending in this article from the Good News Network, which highlights seven positive steps taken in recent years that will benefit the environment. GNN surveyed a range of leaders from NGOs and public bodies to identify the list, which ranges from the emerging consensus on and response to climate change, and the growing competitiveness - and attractiveness - of renewable energy, through to the importance of the internet in mobilizing social change. All this does give some cause for optimism that we are at least moving in the right direction, even if we are not yet "at one" with our planet. Let's hope that we have even more than seven good stories to tell when we look back again in 10 years time.

Nature rebounds

Thanks to RTBH reader Paul for sending me this article today, which comes from the UK's Guardian newspaper. It's perfect for Earth Day! And, funnily enough, it echoes something I posted about this time last year - post 187 on April 15th 2008 - about the amazing recovery of destroyed coral reefs. In that case, the reefs concerned had been damaged by underwater testing of nuclear warheads. Today's article considers the Great Barrier Reef near Australia, part of which was bleached a few years ago due to warm seas and a suffocating seaweed that covered it. However, the reef has grown back, in very little time, amazing scientists with its resilience. The case is significant as it shows damaged reefs can recover swiftly if presented with the right conditions - previously, it was thought they needed to reproduce over many years. There's no room for complacency, though. Many of the world's reefs have died off in recent years. They'll recover if left to their own devices, it seems - provided we keep the seas around them healthy. A 'natural compact', if you like...

Hidden talent has opportunity to shine

If you haven't yet heard of Susan Boyle, then you're not spending enough time on the internet! ;-) The 47-year-old singer from the small community of Blackburn, West Lothian (Scotland) wowed the world with her stunningly beautiful voice recently, when she appeared on the UK TV show "Britain's Got Talent" - a performance that has since been watched over 5 million times on YouTube by viewers around the world. An interesting opinion piece on Susan's performance, and the studio audience reaction, is linked from the post title above. It's from the Scottish newspaper The Herald; another article, this time from MSNBC is linked here. But to be honest, you just have to witness her performance. She's going to go a long way, and thrill so many more people, with her gorgeous voice - that's for sure. (Photo from MSNBC.)

And, as if that wasn't enough talent, check out another act from the same show here. Hilariously funny, this duo - a British man of Greek Cypriot heritage and his 12-year-old son - had the TV audience and me in tears of laughter. I pretty much guarantee they'll cheer you up too.

But, there's more to this story. First, it says wonderful things about Britain - its rich diversity, its 'have a go' mentality, and the ability so many British people have to keep their feet on the ground and not take themselves too seriously while at the same time celebrating their talents. Some of the many things I like about my birth nation! Second, it just makes you think about how much more talent is surely out there, not just in Britain but around the world. Great minds, great voices, stunning abilities in all walks of life... What if all that richness of humanity were exposed and had an opportunity to shine? To delight all those who witnessed it? That really would make the world a brighter place. I hope fervently that we see that kind of equality of opportunity in my lifetime. "Britain's Got Talent" is just the tip of the iceberg.

It's a dog's life

Many thanks must go to RTBH readers Ol and Liz for spotting this story today and sending it in. (They saved my blushes, in fact, as RTBH has been a tad neglected recently - I was ill for a bit, then on vacation recovering!) But it's a lovely tale, from the UK"s Telegraph newspaper, about a very tough and clever dog. Sophie Tucker (yes, that's the dog's name) was on a boat with her owners off Australia's Queensland coast when she fell overboard. Her owners searched for hours, but they'd missed her. She swam five nautical miles to an island inhabited only by other animals - including baby goats, which she eventually feasted on to survive. Human rangers appeared on the island and they spotted her looking out of place. Fortunately, her owners were still searching for her and they were soon reunited. Everyone reckons it was a miracle she survived, what with the sharks and all... I'd have to agree. I don't think I'd have made it - and as a vegetarian I wouldn't have been eating many goats either... (Photo AFP from the Telegraph.)

Schoolboy rescued by superhero

Thank you to RTBH reader Robert for sending in this lovely story from Thailand, as reported on Yahoo news. Apparently, a young autistic boy at a school in Bangkok escaped his frightening first day at school by going to sit on a quiet ledge - the only problem being that the ledge was outside a third floor window. Firemen and teachers tried to coax him back inside to no avail. When his mother revealed his love of cartoon superheroes, however, quick-thinking fireman Somchai Yoosabai saw an opportunity. He rushed back to the firehouse and changed into a Spider-Man suit he uses for school fire-drills, then returned to rescue the schoolboy from the ledge. This time, the boy was easily persuaded back indoors. All in a day's work, as they say!