"An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it"
-- Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian dramatist
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"An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it" -- Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian dramatist
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Get Involved
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August 29, 2008 | |||||||
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 GoodThings on Public Radio May 9, 2002 We want to hear from you. What's the best public radio story or show you heard this past week? Share. If you want to listen, you'll need RealPlayer on your computer. (If you don't already have it, it's a FREE download.) Visit Real Networks. FRIDAY, May 3 | Freedom for A Voice of Hope With the recent release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, better known as Burma, may be on the road toward political reform. A constant target of the military dictatorship that wrested power from her democratically elected party in 1990, Suu Kyi is among 200 other political prisoners who have recently gained their freedom in Burma. A debate has ensued on whether the international community should lift economic sanctions for a nation where most of the inhabitants face deplorable poverty and various health crises. Many think the world can wait no more to help the Burmese people. Others think the current government must demonstrate a deeper commitment to change. [The World] Listen (3:56). :: Learn more about Aung San Suu Kyi and the current situation in Burma (Myanmar). SATURDAY, May 4 | The Music of Change Last week marked the ten-year anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which came in the aftermath of a trial that acquitted four white police officers of beating African-American motorist Rodney King. As part of broad National Public Radio coverage of the anniversary, charting the differing perspectives of many different people and ethnic groups, host Scott Simon plays clips from some of the hip-hop music that emerged from the social discord that the riots symbolized. Rapper Chuck D. of the influential group Public Enemy has called rap and hip-hop music "the black man's CNN." [Weekend Edition Saturday] Listen (2:56). :: Follow more of NPR's coverage of Los Angeles, ten years after the 1992 riots. SUNDAY, May 5 | A Doctor for the Streets The streets of Mumbai, India are filled with so-called "pavement dwellers," or Sadak Chhap. The Sadak Chhap are boys, usually teenagers but sometimes much younger, who have fled their families for a variety of reasons. When they reach the city, they find their opportunities few and the challenge to stay safe and health great. Many loom in Mumbai's Dadar train station and struggle to survive. A former pavement dweller himself, 22-year-old Dinesh -- "The Barefoot Doctor" -- is on a tireless campaign to ensure that these boys have the benefit of basic health care. Not formally trained as a doctor, Dinesh learned first aid during a street apprenticeship with a doctor. He not only helps the boys with their wounds and the medicines they need, but he also offers them support should they need to have surgery or enter the hospital. [Weekend Edition Sunday] Listen (13:35). :: Learn more about the "pavement dwellers" of Mumbai, India. [more] MONDAY, May 6 | Appreciating Teachers This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week in the US, but with the publication a new book, sincere gratitude for the influence and support of a beloved school teacher is something to be celebrated year-round. David Shribman's book I Remember My Teacher offers first-person tributes from famous and ordinary people to the teachers who inspired and challenged them. As Shribman suggests in this interview, the tributes share a common view: that a good teacher is one who "cares enough to push a student." Among those sharing their tributes in this piece is Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, the author, and NPR's Alex Chadwick. [Morning Edition] Listen (5:43). :: Buy a copy of David M. Shribman's book I Remember My Teacher: 365 Reminiscences of the Teachers Who Changed Our Lives. :: Learn more about National Teacher Appreciation Week from the National Education Assocation, the National PTA, and Education-World.com. TUESDAY, May 7 | A Chinese WWW (Win-Win-Win) In far western rural China along the former route of the legendary Silk Road, few people have benefitted from the economic development in the country's east. But now, a Beijing-based Taiwanese entrepreneur has a plan to use technology to break the region's cycle of poverty in a way that he hopes will succeed where others have failed. He hopes to help the people of the Yellow Sheep River valley leapfrog the culturally and environmental destructive forces of industrialization that normally define the first step in economic development and, instead, take advantage of the information economy in ways that some parts of India already have. He wants to people to stay and nurture the economy close to home, rather than flee rural areas for the lure of opportunity in the cities. His company has provided computer equipment and is helping boost local foreign language standards in an effort to make the region's people attractive to the world's knowledge-based service economy. [Morning Edition] Listen (8:05). :: Learn more about the effort to bring the information economy to the poorest parts of the world from www.yellowsheepriver.com. WEDNESDAY, May 8 | Shelter from the Storm One Nepal-based non-profit organization -- known as Child Workers In Nepal, or CWIN -- is achieving its aim of saving the country's "ragpickers" (a local name for street children) from a life of devastation. Such children scrape out a meager living salvaging plastics from garbage bins and selling them to recyclers for a pittance. But in addition to their poverty, the children often fall victim to infectious disease and even the horrors of the country's prostitution rings. CWIN offers these children a place to sleep and meals to sustain them. But more than that, the organization spends a great deal of effort on outreach with a longer term benefit. By helping street children gain perspective on the concept of "the long view," CWIN may be helping keep the children focused on educational opportunities that are available to them. [The World] Listen (6:39). :: Learn more about the health and safety of children around the world from the organization Child Workers In Nepal (CWIN), Global Health Council, and the Web site for the current United Nations Special Session on Children. THURSDAY, May 9 | Strange Bedfellows In North Carolina, unlikely partners are working to ensure the survival of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Seems the colorful bird is losing much of its habitat in the Fayetteville area to the deforesting effects of urban sprawl, so it's retreating to the relative security of the largely wooded Fort Bragg. Still, Fort Bragg is not just any huge forest -- it's the site of one of largest US Army bases and its largest munitions training center. How does the woodpecker have any hope where the Army is concerned? The Army needs a training range that's properly buffered from off-base residential areas, while the woodpecker needs healthy habitat that's buffered from those some houses and the shopping malls and parking lots that surround them. Enter The Nature Conservancy and its Private Lands Initiative, a project that uses funds to buy up undeveloped land just outside the perimeter of Fort Bragg to accomplish both goals. [Morning Edition] Listen (8:30). :: Learn more about this unlikely quest to save the red-cockaded woodpecker. [ : previous week : ] WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. Did we miss a good public radio story this week? Want to recommend one for next week? Share it with us! 
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