Things are really bad,
but things have never been better?

I came across Ian von Memerty’s review of the book “Factfulness”written by Hans Rosling recently. Because of the ongoing contest between ‘good news’ and ‘bad news’ in the work I do, I ordered it immediately and found it a fascinating read, it makes the fundamental point that we divide the world into two distinct sides; good vs bad, because this is:

1. a) simple and intuitive,
2. b) dramatic because it implies conflict, and
3. c) something we do all the time.

Hans Rosling, writes “Journalists know this. They set up the narratives as conflicts between two opposing people, views, or groups. They prefer stories of extreme poverty and billionaires to stories about the vast majority of people slowly dragging themselves towards better lives. Journalists are storytellers. It’s easy to report on all the bad things happening in the world, it’s much harder to report on the good things, billions of improvements that go unmentioned
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Youth sport, a sensible development approach?

From Grassroots to Greatness: The positive after-effects of the West Coast’s first sports youth development program

By Jessica Vogel

The first sports community outreach programme for children from previously disadvantaged backgrounds ever to be held on the West Coast in the discipline of boxing took place at the Navy base SAS Saldanha in 9 December 1998, with the positive after effects still lingering to this day…

This community outreach program served firstly, to positively influence children; providing role models, exposing them to a healthy activity and thereby turning them away from a life of crime.
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Can Artists change the world?

Let’s stop talking about the problems in our country and let’s start talking about how we’re going to solve them.

By Sebastian Daniels

Rocking the Daisies is a festival just outside Cape Town where musicians blare out beats and let out lyrics to get the crowd moving and on their feet. Music is one of the most powerful ways to connect with a human’s soul and because of that, it has the ability change the world. In that vein, we wanted to find out what got some of the artists’ blood pumping and asked them: “How do you believe we can change the world?”

While hustling my way back stage, I bumped into Nick Hamman, MC for Rocking the Daisies and a 5FM DJ. He jumped at the opportunity to share his view on changing the world saying: “Great minds can come from anywhere. You have to give every person you meet the time of day because they might just be somebody who can change the world.”
...[read more]

THIS WEEK'S FAST FACT

Life expectancy

In South Africa, the average life expectancy for women is highest in the Western Cape at 72 and lowest in the Free State at 62. Similarly, for men, it is also at its highest at 66 in the Western Cape and at its lowest in the Free State at 55. The life expectancy is calculated with the absence of HIV/Aids-related deaths. (http://bit.ly/2OkVsTj) 

According to researchers from Imperial College in London, South Africa has the 76th shortest average height for women in the world at 158 cm, while South African men are ranked 47th overall for the average height of 167 cm. Dutch men and Latvian women are now the tallest people in the world at 183 cm and 170 cm. (http://bit.ly/2RGR1UH) 

Source www.Eighty20.co.za

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