A little good news

I think there is big demand for news that is more positive. Our marketing driven world thrives on catastrophe....it sells better than miniscule progress. Years ago an average snowfall was a regular weather item, now it's often a major storm event. Average is still average it's made major by agressive editors who are more interested in selling than providing useful news.
My proof of high demand for the positive is the proliferation of celebrity news. The trivial gossip that is passed off as news. It started, it seems, with the chase of OJ Simpson in LA in the late nineties. It's not that celebrity gossip is itself so interesting. We could get by without knowing what's happening to Paris Hiltion. It's just news that it's an alternative to high selling but depressing parade of catastrophies and threats. Celebraty new is an alternative but not the right one.
I'm sure we could find hours / pages of findings each day on progress made in science, medicine, climate change, environment, conservation, education and host of other issues more relevant to peoples lives.

Hilarious and so true!

Three words. TEDTalks on YouTube.

In October of 2006, the province of Saskatchewan, along with the municipal governments of several cities, began an initiative that provided fifteen-dollar-a-month bus passes to low-income people in receipt of any social assistance benefits (including employment supplements). The Council of the City of Saskatoon voted unanimously to provide Leisure passes, good at any city recreational facilities, to people eligible for the bus passes.

These are marvelous initiatives that make a huge difference in the lives of the lowest income people of the city. They make possible greater (or easier!) participation in employment, in education, in volunteer work, in recreational opportunities, and in social activities. Children from low income families are able to access swimming pools; teenagers can go to the gym, or across town with their friends to the "cheap" movie theatres.

Simple things, that many people wouldn't even think of as privilege, become possible -- one grandmother mentioned that she had taken her grandchildren on bus-trips to look at the Christmas lights in other areas of the city.

The bad news? These programs may be discontinued in Saskatoon in January because of wrangling between the two levels of government . . . but hey -- even the black-footed ferret suffered setbacks, right?

And even if the programs are discontinued, they still deserve mention in hopes they will be picked up again, or initiated in other places.

Here's an interesting new environment wise;
A car maker in india has started manufactering
a car propeled by compressed air. Even thought the autonomy of the vehicule is limited, it is an interesting solution for urban areas since the car emit only clean air, no dust and no polutant. It has an integrated electric air compressor to "refuel" the car. And there is currently ongoing development toward that simple yet ecological solution for land transport.

The best research I've heard in years was the development of DCA, a simple little drug that kills cancer cells. It's already been used to treat metabolic disorders, but they need to test its effectiveness according to our laws, so it's not being used yet. However, the University of Alberta has had some near-miraculous results using it in vitro, it completely destroys cancer without harming healthy cells. Using DCA could reduce the side-effects of chemotherapy drastically and save many lives, and here's the best part: the molecule is so simple that the drug companies can't patent it, so it'll be inexpensive as well.

Cancer is such a variable disease that I'm sure DCA isn't a magic bullet, but it's a huge step towards being a cure and it's giving hope to thousands of people.

good morning, the good news this a.m., a beautiful sunrise over the lake and a flock of chickidies at the feeder, a warm fire and a mug of fresh coffee, these are my good news from Francois Lake.Have a good day, Frank.

I use to consider myself a news conscious person, aware of the things going on in the world. However in the last few months I have consciously decided to stop watching the news and have become seriously desensitized to the newspaper headlines as nothing seems to shock me anymore. Whether it be climate disintegration, the war in Afghanistan, suicide bombers, the increasing number of homicides happening in my city and not to mention the homeless crisis in Vancouver, you name it and we've all seen or heard it. I myself have worked for non-profits, I have joined coalitions and have written the "angry plea for justice letters" to my local newspaper. I am running out of steam, as are most people. What is wrong with this approach is the questions we are asking. Rather than saying "What's wrong with the state of our World" we should be asking ourselves and our leaders "What's right with this World". A shift in focus is needed. How about the fact that we may be witnessing the First Female President to ever be sworn into the White House, or the fact that Cancer Research has come so far that it has kept my mom alive and well with aggressive stage 4 breast cancer for the last 7 years, or women in the Middle East beginning to have a voice and the freedom to vote, and the amazing work that is being done in Africa on the Aids crisis by amazing people like Stephen Lewis. Finally, I will mention from first hand experience what I have seen in my line of work. I deal in Insurance for the agricultural and logging industry and I will tell you as fact that there are companies emerging who are working with local farmers on how to lower their CO2 Gas Emissions. This process is underway and those producers who are lowering their emissions by more than 12% are being compensated and the results are positive. Change takes time and its sometimes not as "sexy" as the scandals and the horrors of the world, but I for one am tired of being driven by fear. How about a little Hope People!!!

I am also prone to anxiety attacks. It is no wonder your headline snatched my attention like the American weasel snatched your cat. I crave good news. I no longer watch TV or read newspapers and I read all the news I need from the CBC web site amongst other interesting subjects. That is all I can handle. I did not even watch our famous tasering video. But I am very aware that it is absolutely necessary to show it to people as, in effect, it is good news to expose the security paranoia of the people in position of authority, the jadedness, and the lack of involvement we have towards our fellow human. We are a society that is driven to anxiety by bad news never mind having skewed genes like mine in the first place.
But what I am concerned about in your article is this: If a woman with your talents, beauty, brains, and worldly insights need our help in finding good news,.…. I am speechless in Surrey BC.
I believe the good news we need has to counteract the bad news directly not so much reading about the survival of furry little mutts as it is bad news when furry little mutts are more important that humans.

Nothing is stopping any person from refusing to burn any fuel. But to get around and be warm we need to use vehicles and heat our homes. We need electric cars, cheap solar panels for homes and hundreds if not thousands of wind farms immediately. Problem solved. Governments need to think about a date in which to end the burning of any fuel of any kind.

Also include the recovery efforts of the Vancouver Island Marmot in possible future stories. See www.marmots.org for more information.

And there are more coyotes in The County (Prince Edward, that is) and Bald Eagles, Fishers, too. On the other hand, there are more and more Torontonians here with cats. I'm betting the Fishers will beat it back to the Adirondacks. One man's good news may well be another man's good bye.

So good to read stories from an author of "GOOD NEWS" - good happenings. 5% are bad in everything so let them suffer. We only come this way but once - let us enjoy it.

Good news for ferrets bad news for white tailed prairie dogs.
How about not reporting shootings and murders? It would be good news for Toronto's mayor because people would start wanting the police budget reduced. No crime no police. No fires no fire service. Unemployment up - damn just cannot win.

This same "bad news" effect is devastating the war in Afghanistan. If an Editor has to choose between two articles for a cover story, and the choices are "Canadian Military Successfully Captures a Former Taliban Stronghold" and "Two NATO/Canadian Soldiers Injured in a Roadside Bomb" they always pick the latter, and make no mention of the success. The article will often note that the injuries were not serious, and the soldiers continued on with their mission. Therefore, the people of the world see the war as being lost, and support is slipping. Publish what's relevant, not what sells, people like to see success.

Why not high light the stories of the young people I started to post on our Governor General's web site Citizen's Voices under the Youth Section.

They are young Canadians who are making a difference in people's lives or are over coming hurtles to become our future leaders.

If anyone knows any youth who need to be celebrated and acknowledged,add their names to the list.

Yes Patricia, while we need to know the worrisome news about the environment and other matters, too much nay-saying is counter productive.

Where environmental challenges are concerned there is a great need for informed journalists ( including editors ) who really know their stuff and can inform us of both the dangers and the important efforts being made to rescue the biosphere. In short, we desperately need balanced reporterage.

Ken's(Toronto) comments are so true. We need more positive news. The good things that are happening in our world need to highlighted. This in turn inspires hope and positive change.

It is as if you have read my mind! I read several papers first thing every morning and I have been thinking that there needs to be some focus on the good things that happen on this earth. I work as a social benefits advocate and survived the cruelty of the Tory government that made being poor/disabled in Ontario a reason to be nasty and disrespectful towards an individual. In the past five years I have seen a major turn-around in the attitude and behaviour of those who administrator the benefits and the members of the Administrative Tribunals who hear the cases. As a result of the mistreatment experinced by our vulnerable population, groups a frontline workers in our community have established links and support systems to help individuals and each other. This group consists of Registrated Practical Nurses,available to fill out disability forms for clients without doctors and turned away by Walk-In Clinics, community nurses who work with new immigrant populations who attend hearings as witnesses, frontline workers who go beyond the call of duty and attend appt.'s with their clients to ensure their story is heard, organizations with no funding but still operate based on volenteers. Daily I see the good unfolding in the world, with one person and the rippling affect in our community. Today I have hope that there are still many in our community who care about those with no food, no heat in winter,and the isolation that comes with poverty. Our stories don't make the news but one case at a time, acts of kindness on a daily basis, can change a life.

The sensationalization of doom and gloom in the media has reached the point where I can hardly bring myself to follow world events anymore. Unfortunately, the CBC is completely guilty of marketing bad news as well...Just scanning over the list of today's headlines, and this is what we have:

1) 33 killed in mine explosion in eastern Ukraine
2) Aid workers struggle to reach cyclone survivors in Bangladesh
3) Bomb kills 2 Canadians in Afghanistan
4) Cyclone death toll passes 1,700 in Bangladesh
5) Evidence of climate change 'unequivocal': UN report
6) Saudi court punishes rape victim with 200 lashes

...The list goes on. By pushing only the bad news, media agencies generate cynicism and desensitize their audiences. As a result, truly awful stories receive less attention then they otherwise would, and issues like Darfur or the AIDS crisis in Africa fail to spark much public reaction anymore. I do not think that we should ignore the negative news--I do want to stay informed, of course--but there are uplifting and positive stories constantly occuring around the world which are getting sidelined in favour of the grisly and sordid reports which the media decides to feed us. I love the CBC, but I really wish they would give us a more balanced perspective of the bad AND the good.

PLEASE give us some good news. I quit listening to the news on TV and reading the paper years ago. Sometimes I can feel left out of a conversation when everyone starts discussing the latest murder or celebrity divorce. When I talk to my mother who is telling me all the latest illness in the seniors home and worried about the crime and wondering if anyone should leave their home we talk about the need for some good news. It is hard to find but I am sure it is there. I did find www.happynews.com which has more interesting upbeat stories. Journalists, I fear, are only interested in sensationalism!
The lack of comments on this page indicates to me that everyone is pumped on doom and gloom.

Truth. I loved this article. It is enlightening.
In a time where the human condition is being
Broadcasted as insensitive and uncaring; we can now
Learn that through all of these negatives that are affecting each one of us, there are still positives.
There is still light at the end of the tunnel.
There are still people out there that still think it terms of US, instead of ME.

A major concern would be to remember who you deal with on your day to day basis; whether it’s a fast-food clerk or your children. These people are going to directly affect the world you are living in; In turn, IF everyone on our planet was treated with RESPECT, LOVE and COMPASSION, there would be no negatives.
All there would be is good News and Optimistic ends.
That’s where the battle comes in, not an external one, but one that is fought
within. To be a positive person takes work, it’s a state that can be reached
through being consistent, and not basing how you’re going to treat people on your mood.
WE want change? Start with the man in the mirror. At this juncture in our lives, we cant
Wait for someone else to do it, NOW, it starts with YOU!

I think Patricia has a good stance, however I would like to point out that we are only in the Western world and for the most part we only get the Western news. Granted, by using non-mainstream sources we here in the West can now get news from around the world without the Western spin, but I'll assume the vast majority of Westerners DON'T get their news from alternative sources.

Have you ever seen the news in Japan? All they talk about is good deeds and success stories! A far cry from mainstream North American news and media. That's a population based 1/3 the size of North America, yet they don't get bombarded with bad news.

Hence my point; this prediction of doomsday is a very Western phenomenon, and other cultures around the world are NOT exposed to this type of "brainwashing" (for lack of a better word). The vast majority of our (read: Western) news is about violence and problems and death, and as such we as a society are led to believe our world is crumbling.

Now I'm not saying the Japanese news is perfect - rather its far from it. Unfortunately there's more to the world that just success stories! But I hope everyone realizes that our North American media is NOT pervasive around the globe, and as such there are other spins on events. Without this realization it appears the entire globe is predicting impending doom-and-gloom, which is a very North American focused view. Don't forget - we're not the only people on the planet, and we (North American's) make up on approximately 5% of the worlds population...you'd think things somewhere in the other 95% might be different than here at home, eh?

We certainly can use good news. Hurray for the ferrets!
Fran.

The best news I've heard recently was a statement by a scientist that, if humanity all collaborated and put as much effort and resources into curbing human effects on climate change as we put into World War II, we could avoid that catastrophic "tipping point" beyond which there are no guarantees of survival. I had rather assumed that it was already too late for our self-involved, id-driven society, but that note of hope perked me right up. Maybe it's not to late for the black-footed ferret (and human beings) after all. Maybe (if we all recognize the REAL threat and resolve to deal with it) we can indeed develop into a truly intelligent species -- one whose self-indulgence and short-sightedness can be set aside before destroying all sentient life on this planet. Yes-- to me, THAT is a glimmer of hope and reason for celebration!

Very well written.., its articles like these that give me a sense of hope. If the the media spent as much time covering stories like this one, versus tagging paris hilton, britney spears and the next apocalypse, the public would become more educated, better informed and less scared. Hmmm, but maybe thats exactly what they are trying to prevent... I put very little trust into news corporations anymore ( However CBC is pretty good :) ), or government. I refuse to be fed useless information sent over television (I stopped buying cable, everything I need is on the net!) As a Canadian living in the US, it seems the only way to get an unbiased, uncensored form of information anymore is by scattering your sources over multiple web pages. That way, I get both sides of the story. Sometimes it requires additional reading to understand WHY certain things happen. I dont need a news agency to TELL me something is right or wrong, I can make that decision on my own. Remember, the top 1% of the world own 40% of the world's wealth... and they are the least taxed (percentage wise) in the US.

It had to happen ..a media person being positive . thank you . the ultimate in negativity . fifth estate recently ran an article on the Jane/Finch area .... I will restate my position ..... 99.9 per cent of the residents do a good job .. if you would like to meet a cancer research scientist.a factory manager or a regionalmanger for a food chain ... all raised in that area .let me know. They are my sons

I'm a linguist who works with Canadian aboriginal languages, which, like aboriginal languages across the world, are in serious danger of being lost in favour of English, French, or other languages. The familiar statistic is that the world loses a language once every two weeks, and with each one goes a whole way of viewing the world, and a whole way of expressing culture and thought. Good things are happening, though. Linguists and concerned people within Aboriginal communities are working to revitalize Native languages and encourage youth to speak them and pass them on to further generations. Aboriginal languages are gaining ground academically, with many linguists expressing an interest in them, and the First Nations University of Canada through the University of Regina (with campuses also in Saskatoon and Prince Albert)now offers full B.A. courses in both Cree and Saulteaux, and it trains people to teach aboriginal languages to children in schools. There is a lot of work to do to keep Native languages alive in our country, but step by step, Aboriginal people and linguists are making positive changes in many cases.

Good to hear! Funny at the beggining "would you like some coffee with your decleration of impending doom?"

Natural and Organicly grown food are on the rise!
This means a number of good news items
1. Supply and demand, Demand for saffer more nutrishes food is growing!by safer I mean grown and shipped as well as shelved without the aid of man made toxic chemicals.
Demade is growing therefore supplly is growing therefore the enviroment is slowly but surly being cleaned up. How does purchasing food grown natualy or organicly help the environment? Well less chemical used on the farms that grow every thing we eat! less ground water polution, Farmers that die of exposure, People who injest chemicals just by eating what is presently on every grocey stores shelves. The ideolgy is however growing and credit(athough it is monatarily driven) must be given to the big chain super markets who now have at least one ile which is devoted to organics.
The other good news is that the familly farm can once again exsist and be a viable why to make a living!Not only are Crops are crown this why but so to are live stock! thus making the meat, eggs and milk we eat saffer to consume.

I am a volunteer at an elementary school. One of the children I read with is very concerned about global warming and asked me on what date we would all die. I would love to have Ms Pearson's article in an appropriate form for a 10 year old.

I originally heard about the doomsday clock in the early 1980's. I decided to look up some information about it: it's been around since 1947; it is affiliated with the University of Chicago, and not a London-based organization as you suggest; we are currently at 5 minutes to midnight, the closest times were 2 minutes in 1953, and 3 minutes in 1984. The farthest time was 17 minutes in 1991, and we've been getting closer steadily since then. So, out of all this, the good news is that we're not as close as we've been in the past, although we could be doing better.

Perhaps part of the problem with all the doom-and-gloom in the news is shoddy work by writers and journalists, who just want to meet a deadline, rather than taking the time to actually research an interesting and perhaps uplifting story. There always seems to be an ample supply of bad news, so it becomes easy to meet a deadline by simply repackaging this bad news. With so much information out there, it would be nice if somebody focused on quality, rather than quantity.

What a great idea your page is. So interesting that so few people have posted after 24 hours, whereas postings of condemnation (for instance on the recent taser deaths) pour in faster than moderators can post them.
I think that this can be viewed in two ways. The first is what a skeptic would say; "That good news is uninteresting".
The second is that it proves, beyond doubt that as a culture we are conditioned to seek gloom, doom and despair to imbibe with our morning coffee. The lack of postings here proves the greater need for such a page as this.
I go with the latter view. The best of good luck to you.

Interesting article. We have lived in Flin Flon, some 8 hours north of Brandon for 27 years now, and regularly drive down there.
In the early years it was a tremendously exciting thing to see a bird of prey - a hawk or Owl or eagle. Now, for the last decade or so, we will see 2 or 3 birds of prey per trip - usually hawks, but sometimes owls and occasionally eagles. If you go out in the bush a little ways, you WILL find eagles.
It used to be something special to see black bears with twin cubs ... now we see twins REGULARLY and often TRIPLETS!
So, there is some good news happening.

Loved this article. I agree that there's too much doom and gloom reported these days. Disturbingly, I have also noticed a common tagline to many of these negative stories. It starts with the words "The fear is that .....". Not only is the news typically bad but there's always an "expert" around who will predict that it will only get worse. This is NOT news - just fear-mongering.
In fact, even if the news is good, there is commonly an analyst/critic who will spin us to the negative side to the story.
Thank you, Patricia, for finding some good news to complete your story instead.

I love your country as much as mine but this is a wonderful section of cbc radio that I did not know of before. I am a farmer, living very near the Quebec border.
Last week I was invited to a tour of the Kheops International farm in Ham-Nord, Quebec as well as a chance to visit their Universal School of Life. What a wonderful experience, joining the families for their noon day meal and to see all the children with their parents. Where there are healthy children and smiling parents there is good news and there is hope.
The future of life is in our children and the greatest gift that we parents can give is our time and teaching so these children can do the same for their own.
Keep up the good news and when I have time I will be back with more.