Most of the time, news is depressing. Sometimes, news can brighten your day. I have not read a newspaper for a week now but I do follow the news on my mobile which generally results in an even bigger chance of just reading bad news. So, I was very surprised this Saturday when I read the following two news items.
Cheers for the Belgium Government!
In the Netherlands, the coming years over 4,000 teachers will lose their jobs (I know ... just wait). This is due to the fact that the government decided a year ago that during its term (2011-2015) the budget needs to be cut by 18 billion euros (and most likely, after the latest economic forecasts, with an additional 5 billion) to ensure our national debt will not increase too much or actually be reduced. Part of the cut involves making a huge number of civil servant positions redundant, including military personnel (12,000) and teachers (might be more than 4,000). Interestingly enough, in Belgium there is a shortage of teachers so the Belgian government (the recently installed one, congrats to my neighbors!!) this week wrote a letter to the Dutch government requesting their cooperation in getting the redundant Dutch teachers to teach in Belgium (the Flemish-speaking part of course). So in times of crisis, some people actually think out of the box, across borders, and take bold initiatives. This is what European cooperation should be all about!!
26 billion Trees
26 billion trees will be planted in the coming 10 years. Where? In China! After an, again, failed summit, this time in Durban on renewal of the Kyoto protocol, the Chinese are planning on planting an additional 26 billion trees in the coming 10 years. Yes, you are reading it correctly: an "additional" 26 billion! Not only has there been a law on voluntary tree-planting since 1981. Since 1981, nearly 60 billion trees were actually planted. This year alone, 2.5 billion and ... thanks to the "voluntary" help of more than six hundred million Chinese (that is four trees a person). Ok ... honestly, we can learn from that!! I know ... you want to know how many were cut down? And yes, China is currently the biggest producer of CO2-emissions in the world but still ... imagine, 3-5 trees a year planted by each Chinese person between 11 and 55 years old. If we would all do the same thing ... It would be a really nice start.
So, Euro-crisis, failed environmental summit ... life goes on and in the end, action comes from the people on the ground. Which is why, I am guessing, Time made "The Protester" its Person of the Year. Now, after all the protesting, let's get into action and change the lifes of people and the planet, 1 job and 1 tree at a time.
I wish you all happy holidays and a very inspirational 2012!!
See you again in the new year.
Rose
Yay! I love the example of the two governments proposing a transformative solution. Now if only we had states that weren't in such similar circumstances, and politicians that weren't caught up in their own power plays, we could do the same thing. Way to go on positive news! (This is why I read blogs instead of the news:-)
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