GOOD NEWS!
This week we’ve decided to be STUBBORNLY OPTIMISTIC.
At Potential we invest, create and help people at the edges of society who do impactful things and can become conscious leaders of the next generation.
If you look in the right places, you can already see GOOD people doing GOOD things across the globe.
This makes us very giddy.
We’d like to share 5 stories that have happened in 2022 thus far, that have made us hopeful.
So buckle in.
1. Women Building a Sustainable Future
Let’s kick off with some good old girl power, the Mexican violinist who saved the Sierra Gorda.
Martha Isabel Ruiz Corzo, known as Pati, lived two hours North of Mexico City. The first violinist in her area, a soloist in two choirs and a music teacher.
Pati had a successful career. Nonetheless, she followed her inner desires to live a simpler life and moved her family to Sierra Gorda.
There she was met with drastic change. No more urban comforts, living without electricity for over 5 years.
Throughout this time, she developed a closer connection with nature, realising the extent to which the environment was being ruined.
This inspired her to work closer with the local community, replanting trees to bring back the forest. Their activism escalated into a project to have Sierra Gorda declared a protected biosphere reserve.
“We are the only protected natural area in Mexico that was conceived for the bottom up” — Pati.
The protected area covers almost a third of the state of Querétaro — 385,000 hectares.
Pati began touring schools in the mountains, singing with children and educating them on the environment — education is the best weapon.
Today, more than 17,000 members of mountain communities take part in activities to improve sanitation, education, training, agricultural diversification, food production and regeneration of forest resources.
2. Northern Ireland Introduces Paid Miscarriage Leave
Not as cheerful but definitely progress for workers’ rights.
On 7 January 2022, Northern Ireland Assembly passed legislation which will provide parents with two week’s paid leave following the death of a child including stillbirths.
This makes Northern Ireland the FIRST place in Europe to introduce such a measure.
“The trauma of losing a child is impossible to overstate, and it is completely understandable that working parents who experience such a bereavement will need the compassion and support of a caring employer” — DUP MLA Diane Dodds who, introduced leave when she was Minister of Economy.
This will support families and workers through difficult times, many quote this Bill was overdue and are glad to see it passed the final stage.
These new entitlements will be effective April 2022.
3. China’s First Vertical-Home
China’s first vertical-home has been completed, providing a home to around 500 people and over 5,000 shrubs and trees.
“The inhabitants of the residential towers have the opportunity to experience the urban space from a different perspective while fully enjoying the comfort of being surrounded by nature” — Stefano Boeri, Architect whom has been experimenting with tower blocks as green spaces for decades.
You can see more tree skyscrapers popping up in other parts of the world such as Milan and Australia.
Could this be a glimpse of what urban living could look like in the near future?
To those who crave contact with nature but don’t want to give up urban living may soon have the best of both worlds.
4. France Criminalise Conversion Therapy
France has passed a new law criminalising the use of conversion therapy — an attempt to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQIA people.
Anyone convicted faces fines of up to €30,000 and two years in jail.
“Being oneself is not a crime.” — President Emmanuel Macron.
The Bill is now currently in force, the law comes as France marks 40 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Similar legislation has now been passed in a number of countries around the world, including Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Malta, Albania and Germany.
5. More Than 500 Acres of Redwood Forest Returned to Indigenous Tribes
In California, 523 areas of Redwood Forest have been returned to a group of Native American tribes whose ancestors were forcibly removed from the land generations ago.
The land is home to 200 areas of old-growth trees and federally threatened animals such as the northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet.
The Sinkyone people lived on the land in California for thousands of years, travelling, hunting and fishing throughout their territory. But white settlers arrived in the 1800s and decimated the Sinkyone population through state-sanctioned murders, starvation, diseases and other atrocities.
“It’s a gift — a real blessing to our tribes. I believe that our ancestors’ spirits and ours are connected together today in a happy time” — Priscilla Hunter, chair of Sinkyone Council and a tribal citizen of Coyote Valley Band.
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M:)
