Any idea how much is given to charitable causes every year?
There are no hard and fast global numbers, but the best estimates put it north of $500bn (£382bn), or $16,000 a second.
That seems like something worth celebrating in a week in which it was established that the 26 richest people own as much as the poorest 3.8 billion. Of course, charity cannot make up for inequality or social injustice. But it’s good to know there are millions of givers out there.
Take Scott Wellenbach. He is a rather successful poker player, and as such, a man you might think more likely to take money off you than give anything back. You’d be wrong. Wellenbach is also a Buddhist. And this week, he gave a six-figure sum that he won at the tables to charity. Haroon Siddique found out more.
Then there are the people who give up their time. A British survey published on Friday came up with surprising findings that four in 10 people say they have volunteered in one form or another over the past year. Some readers expressed scepticism at this. Others simply opened up on why volunteering makes you feel good, such as TheDudleyOmmer in the comment thread:
As someone who has been a volunteer in supporting a scout camp in my area for more than 50 years, I can fully endorse the benefits it has given both myself and my family.
In other news, we were mildly encouraged by the latest innovation to remove plastic from household products by expanding the idea of “refills” into the supply chain. And we liked the idea of endpaper, which will never change the world but makes it ever so slightly more beautiful.
There were promising spots of data too this week. The number of young working Europeans earning so little that they are at risk of poverty fell to its lowest level since 2014. And surprisingly, particularly for French gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protesters, it emerged France devotes more of its wealth to social spending than any other rich country.
And a report from Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre found worldwide terrorist attacks fell by one-third in 2018 compared with the previous year, to the lowest level since 2011. Matthew Henman, the head of Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said:
Over the course of 2018, JTIC recorded a worldwide total of 15,321 attacks by non-state armed groups, which resulted in a total of 13,483 non-militant fatalities. The attack figure represents a significant 33.2% decrease from the recorded number of attacks in 2017.
What we liked
This is a little old, but extremely noble: an attempt by Bastian Berbner of the German newspaper Die Zeit to get adversaries to simply sit down, talk to each other and find out what they have in common. It’s mostly in German, but some pages have been rendered into English.
We also liked an important focus in Positive News on the destruction wrought by pornography – and the people taking it on.
What we heard
Just a note to thank you for this weekly update and for the work of the journalists who write the articles you select. It is so inspiring to read these stories and it restores one’s faith in human nature.
Elizabeth Watkins, by email
Every day, I check out the website globalgoodnews.com. They pull stories about positive developments, actions, initiatives and so on from all over the world. You might want to use it to get leads on what might be a good story for your ‘the Upside’ segment. And thank you for adding this segment to the Guardian.
Lu Emanuel, by email
Where was the Upside?
In Nithora, northern India, where Komal Hadala is leading a toilet revolution.
Also in Geneva, where the Upside won its first major award.
@soljourno team is thrilled to have given the very first "future of journalism award" together with @ConstructiveIn to Sarah Boseley and @GuardianUpside for this amazing SoJo story : https://t.co/PX3hTy2V0S@markriceoxley69 @dnbornstein @NinaFasciaux @boseley #ConstructiveConf pic.twitter.com/BTI4kzVxVW
— Solutions Journalism Network (@soljourno) January 18, 2019
If you have a thought, a comment, a criticism or a suggestion of story ideas or subject matter, do please get in touch with us by email at theupside@theguardian.com.
If you like this type of journalism and and would like to help us to uncover more valour, enterprise, altruism and innovation, please support our work with a single or recurring contribution. Support the Guardian.
