Seven good news in difficult times
A victory for equal rights
In the largest lawsuit against discrimination against women in the US, a verdict has now been reached: The US subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has been convicted. The concern is said to have bypassed women in promotion, not paid equal wages for equal work, and penalized pregnant women. The General Court awarded the 12 plaintiffs redress totaling approximately $ 3.3 million.
Our forest is growing again
Greener, greener, even greener: The German forest has regained ground - between 1992 and 2008 it has grown annually by about 176 square kilometers. This corresponds approximately to the area of the city of Karlsruhe. According to the Federal Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate (42 percent) and Hesse (40 percent), the largest share of forests. The bottom is Schleswig-Holstein. There is only ten percent of the state forest. Whether we should give the northern lights a few saplings?
"Happiness" is on the timetable
The most extraordinary subject is luck. Three years ago, it included a Heidelberg school in the timetable. There, actors, psychologists and sports educators teach together that you can learn to enjoy life. Now North Rhine-Westphalia has followed suit, and also in educational institutions in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hesse, "luck" has established itself as a subject. In Austria, six Styrian schools have also been teaching happiness since the end of last year. And in the Swiss canton of Aargau, representatives of the Greens call for luck to be an optional subject! There remains an interesting question: whether Austrians and Swiss define this feeling differently than we do?
Here are kids really good
Gelsenkirchen has been awarded the European prize "City for Children": for special child friendliness. 40 cities from 18 countries applied for the award. Gelsenkirchen convinced the jury with the concept of "education and upbringing from the beginning" - a program that closely links leisure and school. These include a parent school, offers such as "baby massage for fathers" and "cooking for the youngest", an open-parent baby / child club and help for single parents. For 2011, we would like to see more such awards for German cities.
The sun is coming
The weather has been a bad news lately. The coldest May start in Hamburg for 30 years, the sunniest May in Berlin since probably 100 years, fresh snow on the Brocken - in May! The good news: For Pentecost weekend is nationwide improvement in sight. Temperatures over 20 degrees and sun. We would like to promise you at this point that the good weather will be preserved. Unfortunately we can not. Already on Monday, it should be worse again. Until then we wish many sunny hours.
One of the best German actors becomes commissioner
Matthias Brandt is not only the son of former Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt. Above all, he is a gifted and award-winning theater and film actor. He received the Bavarian Television Prize for his role as a less-gifted father fighting for custody of his daughter. As a 40-year-old mother's son in search of a Romanian dream woman, he earned his second Grimme price. And now he has also been promoted to Commissioner - for the Munich consequences of the TV crime series "Police Call 110". He succeeds Edgar Selge, who brilliantly gave the one-armed Commissioner Tauber, and Stefanie Stappenbeck, who in turn left after a brief stint. The fact that Brandt now ensures law and order in Munich is definitely a reason to enjoy watching TV.
Hurray, the old come
In California, a 94-year-old retiree has just graduated from college with a degree in art history. She wants to work in a museum in the future. In China, a 90-year-old is catching up with elementary school. Because of retirement: Elderly people, who have long since retired, are starting to get through the world again. This is used in Germany by the "Senior Expert Service", a foundation of the German economy for international cooperation. SES brings retirees abroad who are experts in a wide variety of fields.Since 1983, senior citizens have been training social workers in Riga, setting up administrations in Cambodia and improving pig breeding; they advised hotel owners in Ethiopia, explained EU quality standards to Romanian bakers, taught English to children in Afghanistan, and trained Mongolian heating specialists. There were about 21,500 missions so far.
