2021 in review - 27th December 2021

2021 hasn't only been negative news about Covid-19, there's been some wonderful good news as well.

At the Grammys, Beyoncé was awarded with Song of the Year for ‘I can’t breathe’ and Album of the Year went to Taylor Swift. This makes Swift the first woman to receive this award three times.

Women in the Czech Republic fought for language equality. They’re demanding the right to use the same surnames as men to reduce gender discrimination. And from languages to dress codes, Ukrainian airline SkyUp has changed its traditional women's uniforms to feature more comfortable clothes. This happened after women cabin crew shared their opinions in a company survey.

Also in the business world, married women in Japan are entering the workplace in record numbers. This challenges the traditional roles of men and women in the country and the development is proving helpful for Japan’s economy.

Some surprising discoveries have been made in the world of art. Business owners were renovating their bar in Seville, Spain, when they found Islamic art behind a wall. This led to the discovery that the building was a 12th century bathhouse. Across the world in a cave in Indonesia, the world’s oldest rock art has been discovered. The painting of a wild pig is around 45,500 years old.

Statues were also in the headlines in 2021. The University of Cambridge has returned an important bronze cockerel statue that had been taken from Benin City in Nigeria many years ago. And in Mexico, a statue of Columbus has been replaced with the statue of a native woman. Across Latin America and in some US states, the name of Columbus Day has also been changed to honour native cultures and peoples.

Covid-19 has led to changes in human behaviour. Today we consume more TV and video online than before. This shift has brought added success to video streaming companies Netflix, TikTok and YouTube. We’ve also begun to do much more of our shopping online.

Coronavirus has also been affecting zoo animals, but now the Zoetis vaccine has been developed to protect them.

Covid-19 may be part of our everyday realities, but there’s still some good news out there.