According to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph,  a hostage situation at a bank ended abruptly when nearby shoppers tackled an escaping robber. The video below tells the story.

People care.

The Edmonton Journal reports on Neil Lang,  a volunteer for a community group that gives out energy efficient lightbulbs.  Mr. Lang has given out 500 lightbulbs to his neighbors that protect the environment and save $50 CAN each.

People care.

Photo by AZAdam

Oregon’s Mail Tribune reports on the heroism of Jacob Carr, a family man who was on his way home from buying a cup of coffee and discovered his neighbor’s house on fire.

Mr. Carr’s neighbor, Joseph Frings, was 77 years old and ran a home-based ammunition business.  After his house caught fire, Mr. Frings was trapped in his home, bleeding and surrounded by exploding ammo.

Knowing that Mr. Frings might still be at home and too frail to escape, Mr. Carr decided to enter the burning building to look for survivors.  With the help of another passerby, he located Mr. Frings and pulled him to safety.

People care.

The internet is buzzing over this video from Chile,  showing a dog crossing a busy highway to drag his injured friend to safety.

Dogs care, too.

A boy lay dying in the Democratic Republic of Congo this October,  his arm torn off mysteriously in a part of the world where the wildlife is as dangerous as the people.   By grace, a British surgeon named David Nott was nearby, volunteering with Doctors Without Borders (Medecins  Sans Frontieres). 

But Dr. Nott and his colleagues had no experience performing the rare, extensive amputation the boy would need to survive.  So Dr. Nott did what an increasing number of people in remote parts of Africa do: He sent a text message asking for medical advice. 

The recipient was Dr. Meirion Thomas, a professor of medicine in London, who replied with detailed instructions for performing the surgery.  

Dr. Nott, with only a single pint of reserve blood  and no intensive care facilities then proceeded to save a boy’s life in a war ravaged nation far from his own home. 

People care. 

Full story at the BBC, via Slashdot.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York will forever live in infamy. But one organization has decided to honor the victims by making the anniversary a national day of volunteerism.

Since it started in 2002, hundreds of thousands of people have logged on to MyGoodDeed.org and pledged to perform one good act on September 11. These range from finding a home for a stray dog, to making a child laugh.

Click the banner to make your mark.

People care.

Don Cheadle was nominated for an Academy Award for Hotel Rwanda, a movie about the Rwandan genocide.

But that’s not all. The actor continues to be a voice against violence in Africa, working alongside many non-governmental organizations. Here’s a short message about the role of college students in social movements.

People care.

In 2005, Nicolas Cage starred in Lord of War, a movie about an international weapons salesman who is forced to deal with the immorality of his work. According to IMDB, many of the weapons in the movie, including 3,000 AK-47 rifles and a line-up of tanks, were real. Turns out, fake guns were more expensive to film than real guns.

Anyhow, Mr. Cage also teamed up with Amnesty International in a Lord of War campaign to convince real governments to stop the arms trade. Here’s a video he made about the topic.

People care.

After Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, the federal government and US military spent the first few days (weeks? years?) of the disaster being almost entirely useless to the hundreds of thousands of victims.

…with one exception: US Coast Guard helicopter crews worked 24 hours a day, going without sleep and pushing their equipment to the limit. They rescued 6400 stranded people, one by one, from their flooded homes.

The following video shows the acts of heroism performed by these men and women.

People care.

The Chinese government has been eager to convince the world that the protests in Tibet before China’s Olympics are not a sign of human rights abuses. This week, the government allowed a few reporters back into Tibet to show them how calm and happy Tibetan monks are after a new round of military occupation. During the tour of a monastery, however, a very different story emerged.

About thirty young monks burst into the press room, crying to reporters that the whole tour was propaganda, and begging the world to help them gain their freedom.

These are their words just before being taken away by security forces, according to the Associated Press:

“The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) tricked the people. The cadres and the army killed more than 100 Tibetans. They arrested more than a thousand… We want freedom and we want peace. But after you leave, we are probably going to be arrested.”

Although Chinese officials have since promised not to hurt any of these protesters (a promise that would be difficult to verify, since reporters are prevented free access to Tibet), it is clear that these young men were willing to be imprisoned, tortured, or killed for just a few moments of free speech.

People care, and prove it with their lives.

The Los Angeles Daily News (via the Chicago Tribune) reports on the rise of “alternative spring breaks,” where college students eschew traditional crazy parties in order to make a difference in the world. One travel planning organization has seen numbers of volunteers steadily rising, from 48,000 young people to an estimated 50,000 this year. Many of these students actually pay for the experience out of pocket, and get no university credit for it.

Why do they do it? According to Pepperdine University’s volunteer center director, it’s partly about this generation’s access to information technology:

“Students today have grown up in a global community. They feel a greater connection to global issues and the problems going on. The issues of Darfur in Africa don’t seem that far away to these students … it’s all a part of living in the global community.”

Read the full story at the Chicago Tribune, and consider volunteering for a project like the one pictured above at RedFeather.org, which helps improve conditions on American Indian reservations.

People care.

This video from Amnesty International shows how volunteers helped inspire and protect Russian reporter Oksana Chelysheva, and free Maldivian journalist Jennifer Latheef from a 10 year prison sentence.

People care.

The city of Vancouver will host the 2010 winter Olympic and Paralympic games. In preparation for the international celebration of athletics, the organizing committee requested that locals volunteer to help with the games.

They set a high bar, requesting 40,000 volunteers in six weeks from a city of only 600,000.

Today, a full month from the deadline, 31,000 Canadians have started the process–a spectacular number of people willing to donate their time to promote international goodwill.

People care.

Former President Clinton and numerous world leaders share their thoughts about how to improve the world, and showcase a few important successes.

People care.

In January, 2008, several prominent companies, including IBM, Nokia, and Sony, promised to donate pollution-fighting patents into the public domain, where they can be used by anyone.  IBM was the biggest donor to date, with 27 patents donated, including a method for stabilizing toxic gases.

Here’s what Nokia’s spokesman had to say about his company’s involvement:

“Environmental issues have great potential to help us discover the next wave of innovation because they force us all to think differently about how we make, consume and recycle products.

From Nokia we have pledged a patent designed to help companies safely re-use old mobile phones by transforming them into new products like digital cameras, data monitoring devices or other electronic items. Recycling the computing power of mobile phones in this way could significantly increase the reuse of materials in the electronics industry.”

People care.

Maggie had only months to live when her breast cancer came back in 1993.

After battling the disease for years, she made the decision that she would not leave this world without passing her insights on to other patients.

With support from her family, she began planning a new kind of cancer support center; a place where patients felt empowered, and where families would receive emotional support.

A year after her death, the first Maggie’s Centre opened in the UK. This week, a new facility is being built for one of the six cancer support centers that bear her name. Read more about Maggie’s story at the Oxford Mail.

People care.

Pizzo. That’s the name for the “protection money” the Italian mafia demands from storekeepers. If they don’t pay, the mafia might burn their businesses down, or even murder them.

In 2004, a couple of young guys were thinking about how much they’d like to drink a beer at their own pub. “Then someone said: ‘What if they ask us for the pizzo?’” So they started a flyer campaign and a website, addiopizzo.org, urging shopkeepers to unite against the mafia, and asking consumers to support them at demonstrations and fairs.

Amazingly, it’s working. According to the AP:

The number of rebels on the Web site is still tiny compared to Palermo’s businesses overall, but their movement has helped to chip away at the Mafia’s psychological hold on Sicilians — long conditioned to believe that defiance would bring ruin or a death sentence. And any consistent crumbling of that culture of fear could ultimately lead to Cosa Nostra’s undoing…

Confindustria, the industrialists’ lobby, has also boosted the movement with a threat to expel members who pay protection money… At the same time, authorities are ratcheting up the pressure on business owners, aggressively prosecuting those who refuse to testify against the Mafia in clear-cut cases of extortion.

“Now it is a bigger risk for us to pay than not to pay,” said Ugo Argiroffi, an engineer who recently added his Palermo construction company, C.O.C.I. to Addiopizzo’s list.

People care.

If you associate rappers with violence, you’ll be surprised by K’naan’s greatest boast: He’s never killed anyone.

You see, he’s had plenty of opportunity, growing up in Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War. He fled to North America with his mother in 1991, aboard the last commercial flight out of the country. Now living in Canada, K’naan honors the poets and singers in his family through his music, in which he discusses the human side of his country’s turmoil.

K’naan’s music is thoughtful, pointing out the ironies of life in a wealthy country, while capturing the tenderness, nostalgia, and horror of a refugee towards his homeland.

What of the rainy season? Do the kids still bury seeds,
and get taken with uncertainty like me scared of leaving?
How are the poets, the women, and the orphans torn?
I miss them all like old opportunities gone.
What of the elders, storytellers and abandoned homes?
Miss them all, like childhood, and reminisceful songs.

-K’naan, Blues for the Horn

People care.

In this short Public Service Announcement, Kelly Slater explains why he’s committed to protecting the world’s oceans.

People care.

As with all wars, World War I was an opportunity for mankind to showcase both its cruelty and its heroism. In 1917, the SS Peregrine (above) was on a mission to rescue women and children from the fighting in Belgium. As it approached England, it was caught in a violent storm and ran aground, losing its own lifeboats. The Peregrine was damaged beyond repair.

Coxswain (a kind of captain) William Hammond, based in Essex, heard the calls for help from the Peregrine’s newly installed radio. Mr. Hammond’s lifeboat crew quickly headed toward the wreck, fighting strong gale force winds in a small underpowered boat.

According to the BBC:

They worked through the night and into the morning to save 92 people and two cats.

The lifeboat was powered only by a small engine and sails and its work in the heavy sea caused serious damage to the port quarter, her gunwale and fender.

Everyone aboard the Peregrine was rescued, and the crew of the tiny James Stevens No. 14 lifeboat were greeted as heroes. In 2000, the lifeboat was honored with a restoration grant. Its place in history has been cemented as one of the 150 most famous ships in the UK.

People care.