Good news from 2022
War, inflation and galloping electricity prices – 2022 will not go down in the history books as the best year of all time. Men it have actually good things happened this year, too!
Need something to talk about at New Year’s dinner? Which is not about the fact that there is apparently no prospect of Russia ending the war of invasion in Ukraine?
Fear not! Here you get news that is either really good for the world or reminds you of something that happened this year. Or maybe any of them just might make you laugh.
1. The arrows point the right way for the tigers
Tigers have long been threatened with extinction. For more than a hundred years, the stock has been getting smaller and smaller.
But now things are better! According to WWF are the populations in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia and China either growing or stable. In total, the number of wild tigers in the world has reached 4,500 – up from around 3,200 ten years ago.
2. Lowest infant mortality ever
The latest figures from the World Bank shows that child mortality in the world is still falling. For every 1,000 children born, 37 die before reaching the age of five.
It may sound like a lot (and it is, too), but it is more than halving what the number was 20 years ago!
3. 95-year-old received the “newcomer of the year” award
Have you heard of the Latin Grammys? Maybe you haven’t, but at least it’s a music award to honor the very best in Latin music, typically from Central or South America, Portugal or Spain.
The woman who won the New Artist of the Year award, Cuban-American Angela Álvarez, also won the award at the ripe old age of 95.
– Don’t give up. I love you, it’s never too late, said the young Álvarez when she received the award.
4. Cease fire in Ethiopia
In the East African country, civil war has raged this year between the government on the one hand and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Tigray on the other.
According to the UN around 5.2 million people needed humanitarian aid in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Therefore, it was a big step up when a ceasefire agreement was signed between the rebels and the government on 3 November this year. Since then, the ceasefire has persisted.
5. Sami shaman drum back to the old country
In 1692, the Sami shaman Anders Poulsson was deprived of his drum. Poulsson was sentenced for having “practised the wicked and impious art of sorcery”, but before he received the sentence, he was killed with an ax by a servant boy who thought he was a sorcerer.
And what happened to the drum? The diaper confiscated and taken to the Danish King’s Art Chamber in Copenhagen.
Last year, the Sami Parliament sent a letter to the Danish queen to have the drum permanently returned to the Sami museum in Karasjok, where it has been on loan. And in January there was news: Denmark gives up the shaman drum!
– It feels good to have formal ownership of something that is already ours, said museum director Anne May Olli to VG.
6. End of charger chaos soon?
Are you tired of the charger you have in your hand not fitting the gadget you need to charge?
That may soon come to an end. On the third day of Christmas, a new EU directive came into force, which means that it is mostly sold in the EU and Norway must have USB-C input.
You may have to be patient, because the companies have until 2024 to adjust. But it’s just starting to rejoice!
7. More and more people are getting access to rented drinking water
In many people’s minds, progress in the world happens steadily and steadily, and progress is rarely so fast that it gets a place in the media. This also applies to access to renting drinking water in the world.
But a little improvement year on year becomes quite a lot as the years go by. In September, a report came out World Health Organization which shows that the proportion of people who have stable access to rented, safe drinking water in the world is at an all-time high.
Well, 74 percent of people in the world have it, up from 62 percent in 2020!
8. A head of lettuce survived a British Prime Minister
Should one rejoice in full political chaos in one of our most important trading partners? No, you don’t have to.
But it was difficult not to go little on the smiley face when the British tabloid newspaper Daily Star to smell the blood until it began recently appointed British Prime Minister Liz Truss. Then it was someone in the newspaper who came up with the idea of putting up a picture of the prime minister next to a head of lettuce and letting a web camera follow it.
The question was as simple as it was vicious: How long, Truss’ time in the Prime Minister’s chair or the shelf life of the head of lettuce?
Is this part of the social mission of the press? Not at all. Is it at all something a newspaper should spend resources on? Well, the scholars argue about that. But is it fun? Yes! And if you don’t think so, you’re either Liz Truss or a head of lettuce.
Who won the duel in the end? The head of lettuce. Panty withdrew after having been prime minister for just 44 days.
9. Four thousand kilometers by tractor for income for the children’s cancer ward
The stjørdalingen Svein Kirknes went on an unusual trip this summer. He had to drive from Stjørdal in Trøndelag to Nordkapp, round trip – on a tractor with a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour!
The trip took him six weeks. His only travel partner was the dressed-up female doll Lura, which sat at the front of the tractor.
– I wanted to bring my wife, but she didn’t want to be part of this, Kirknes told VG in July.
He also boasted a story about when he tried using the engine heat to roast a leg of lamb.
On the way, Kirknes inn collected money from passing motorists to support the children’s cancer ward at St. Olav’s hospital.
VG called Kirknes on the morning of New Year’s Eve. He could report that the collection stopped at DKK 72,000.
– Will it be relevant to do the same in 2023?
– Nope, it probably isn’t.
Then he thinks about it a bit.
– But the tractor is from the Czech Republic. It would have been fun to drive yours.
Whether Kirknes makes the trip, the year 2023 will show. Happy New Year!
10. End of corona measures
It may feel like it’s been longer than a year, but when we entered 2022 it was actually extremely strict corona measures. The meter applied, the New Year’s party had a maximum limit of ten guests and the beer taps closed at midnight.
But on 12 February came the good news we had been waiting for for almost a year: Norway removed all corona measures.
Norwegians looking forward to dancing and follow Jonas Gahr Støre with throwing away the mask.
No war, no corona restrictions… This may have been the happiest moment in Norway this year?