There Is Hope For An Inspiring New Year

By Goodnews team

The usual chaos and drama aside, there were plenty of heartwarming moments in 2018 to encourage Malaysians and the world to tighten our grip on hope, and to be inspired.

The most outstanding example is likely the thrilling rescue of the Thai soccer team that got trapped in a flooded cave. It had all elements required to keep the world on tenterhooks – suspense, tension, conflict, wonderment and unfortunately even tragedy, but most of all it was the way the world rallied around to give technical and practical support, messages of hope, vigils and prayers, that remain the standout moments of the human spirit in 2018. There is hope.

Black Panther became the highest grossing superhero movie ever, in its wake taking social media by storm and creating the kind of euphoria that had everyone from children to adults, of whatever colour or creed, crossing their arms on their chests to create the “Wakanda Forever” symbol.

The phrase and the fictional world of Wakanda, with its admirable qualities of how a state ought to be governed, couldn’t leave our heads – even as a boorish leader continued with his divisive policy of separating desperate migrant families at its borders. Let us continue to believe in Wakanda Forever. There is hope.

It has been a momentous year for women too. Saudi Arabia voted to grant women the right to drive, with the country issuing the first licences to women in June.

Two women journalists won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, awarded for their groundbreaking, watershed reporting that detailed decades of alleged assault by a notorious Hollywood film producer.

Finally, a bi-racial, American divorcee married a British prince in a breathtakingly beautiful ceremony, which also turned out to be a lovely, celebratory moment for women of color. There is hope.

Malaysia too made positive international headlines with 2018 going down in history as the year the longest-serving political party in the world was defeated. The real victory was in the way we achieved the transition with calm and dignity, qualities rare in this era of unrest. There is hope.

‘Beat plastic pollution’ was declared the theme of World Environment Day 2018 by the UN, which also admitted that growing levels of plastic waste were becoming unmanageable. On their parts, KL, Putrajaya and Labuan have been spreading the message on plastic straw ban effective 2019. There is hope.

Even as society keeps moving away from the real world to spend more and more time behind screens, the world’s superpowers are fighting to roll out 5G networks expected to be a hundred times faster than current wireless networks, which means doing many tech-tasks within the blink of an eye, and, an explosion of new mobile services.

Whoever wins will support a riot of connected devices, and unleash unimaginable breakthroughs/woes.

Here’s hoping 2019 is the year of apps that teaches us how to wean ourselves from the increasingly virtual lives we are made to live, instead of even more apps to buy likes and followers.

There are also numerous stories in this portal which tell you how we can help each other. Do take your time to read, share and do something positive.

Let’s not lose hope. Stay inspired!

In the meantime, enjoy this collection of illustrated Best News of 2018, courtesy of boredpanda.com

I’m Honestly Fed Up With All The Bad News So I Illustrated The Best News Of 2018 (And Recent Years)