The week in good news
Philip Matthews
looks on the bright side.
Brexit, politics, measles outbreaks ... it’s easy to believe that the world is a dark and crazy place. But there is good news too if you know where to look.
Free lunches
Only the most cold-hearted of curmudgeons could fail to be pleased by this initiative. The Government will roll out a lunches in schools programme from term one of 2020, initially to cover all year 1-8 pupils in 30 schools that will form part of a trial before expanding to 21,000 children in 120 schools by the beginning of the following year. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Children’s Minister Tracey Martin delivered the good news at Kaitao Intermediate School in Rotorua on Thursday. ‘‘Do we want our kids to go hungry?’’ Ardern said. ‘‘The obvious answer is no. That’s why the Government is rolling this school lunch programme out to the kids in New Zealand who need our support the most. Children themselves told us during the consultation on the strategy that going to school hungry was a barrier to their learning. That was heartbreaking to hear and this prototype starts to ensure children are fed and have the best chance to succeed.’’ National’s Nikki Kaye called it nanny state-ism and worried it takes away the ‘‘autonomy’’ of parents to feed their own kids.
Former enemies
Muslim Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Christian Pastor James Wuye have travelled to more than 60 countries to show how vengeance can turn into forgiveness, how enemies can become friends. The two men were on opposite sides when Muslims and Christians clashed in Kaduna, northern Nigeria – Wuye lost his hand in the conflict and now wears a prosthesis. ‘‘I hated them with a vengeance,’’ he said of Muslims, ‘‘but now I love them with a passion.’’ The men were in Christchurch to spread their message of interfaith unity. ‘‘What happened in Christchurch should be a turning point for the Muslims,’’ Ashafa said. ‘‘It’s time to open their hearts to know their neighbour, and for their neighbour to understand what they represent.’’ He added that since March 15, New Zealand ‘‘has created a new model’’.
Live longer
Feeling optimistic? Studies have previously shown that people with optimistic outlooks are less likely to suffer from chronic diseases and die prematurely. Now, according to research published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), ‘‘optimism is specifically related to 11 to 15 per cent longer lifespan, on average, and to greater odds of achieving ‘exceptional longevity’ that is, living to the age of 85 or beyond’’. Lead author of the study Lewina Lee, of the Boston University School of Medicine, told the Guardian ‘‘a lot of evidence suggests that exceptional longevity is usually accompanied by a longer span of good health and living without disability, so our findings raise an exciting possibility that we may be able to promote healthy and resilient ageing by cultivating psychosocial assets such as optimism’’. A thing about chicken
Who says that the C in KFC has to actually stand for chicken? The global fast food giant tried something new in Atlanta, Georgia, where it trialled fake chicken from Beyond Meat in its nuggets and boneless wings.
It was one small step for fast food but a giant leap for meat alternatives.
‘‘When companies like KFC embrace plant-based meat, it means plant-based has arrived on Main Street, USA,’’ Zak Weston of the nonprofit Good Food Institute told Ad Week magazine. Plant-based meat is said to be both environmentally beneficial and healthier. Th’ Dudes abide
The greatest song ever written about being drunk in New Zealand was actually devised in Sydney. Singer Peter Urlich explained that Bliss by Th’ Dudes came from the band’s experiences playing in Australian booze barns in the late 1970s. ‘‘Forget about the last one, get yourself another ...’’ Perhaps that’s a universal sentiment. Some 40 years after Bliss and other classics – Be Mine Tonight, Walking in Light, That Look In Your Eyes, Right First Time – the band, which also launched the career of Dave Dobbyn, will finally be inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame and honoured with the 2019 Legacy Award at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards in November. The group will reunite and perform for the first time in more than a decade. ‘‘The songs have lasted. I don’t really know if we have, but the songs have,’’ Dobbyn told the media this week.