Good News

BULLETIN 14 November

Good afternoon, here is your Good News:

# South Africa and the Netherlands are today celebrating 30-years of South African democracy and longstanding Dutch solidarity at the Freedom Park heritage site in Pretoria. Dutch ambassador Joanne Doornewaard is joining former Justice minister and South Africa’s ambassador to Sweden, Brigitte Mabandla, who will deliver a keynote address. The event, titled Beyond Borders, will also feature performances by the spoken-word duo Yamoria and the University of Pretoria youth choir, celebrating shared values of freedom and unity.

# The iconic South African visual Ndebele artist Esther Mahlangu’s celebrated exhibition, Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting, is set to be showcased at the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg from next week Wednesday until April next year. The exhibition chronicles Mahlangu’s artistic journey through archival works such as her BMW Art Car, and a series of prints she created in collaboration with the late former president Nelson Mandela. Curator Nontobeko Ntombela says Mahlangu’s work has had a profound effect on South African contemporary art.

# Legendary singer Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Foundation has made an over 800-million-rand investment to help launch the Nashville Public Library’s new early literacy programme, Begin Bright. The programme will help ensure that every child in the city in the American state of Tennessee starts reading early. According to the Nashville Public Library Foundation, this investment marks the most significant gift in its 27-year history. Parton says she hopes the programme can make a huge impact on inspiring a love of reading for children and families.

# Hollywood actor, writer, and director, John Krasinski, has been selected as People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2024. He takes the mantle from last year’s honouree, Patrick Dempsey. The accolodade is now in its 40th year and the first Sexiest Man Alive was Mel Gibson. Other past recipients include Brad Pitt, George Clooney, John F Kennedy Junior, David Beckham, Michael B Jordan, and Pierce Brosnan. Krasinski told the magazine he couldn’t believe it when he heard the news:

# And finally: A new kind of border patrol agent could soon start work in African ports, sniffing out illegally smuggled goods. The African giant pouched rats have been trained to identify pangolin scales, elephant ivory, rhino horn and other items from at-risk species. They are trained in Morogoro, Tanzania by a nonprofit that deploys scent-detection animals. The creatures have an incredible sense of smell, are agile and relatively inexpensive to care for, compared to the dogs traditionally used. The group already trains rats to sniff out landmines and detect tuberculosis.

Stay tuned for more news………….