A beat that inspires: Looking at humanity’s forward push
The drivers of real progress are often universal yearnings – for compassion, for equality, for shared responsibility. This writer scans the globe for tangible outcomes.
It’s important to pay attention to what’s going right in the world.
Covering the search for solutions – and humanity’s positive growth – has been central to the work of The Monitor since its founding in 1908. One of the regular features that most clearly highlights that aim is Points of Progress, launched in the weekly magazine in 2014 as an outgrowth of a Progress Watch series of reported stories.
The points are currently being discovered and written up by staff writer Erika Page.
“I’m trying to compile a selection … that offers proof that progress is happening not just in a couple of parts of the world,” Erika says, “but really universally and across a whole host of realms.”
That can mean presenting an item on tree-planting that’s mitigating flood damage in Mozambique, or the launch of a bus system in Pakistan that allows women to travel independently and safely. The drivers for such progress, Erika tells the Monitor’s Clay Collins, are often rooted in such qualities as compassion, courage, integrity, equality, and responsibility. They are universal yearnings made tangible.
Erika’s work calls for hewing to credible definitions of progress, for checking good intentions against measures of genuine advancement. It’s work that Erika says often leaves her in awe.
“As a society, we’ve gotten very good at critique. We are really good at pointing out what’s wrong,” she says. “But I also think that we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we totally ignored everything that we’re getting right. ... All around the world, despite what we’re hearing, people are using whatever tools that they have available to push humanity forward.”
Episode transcript
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Clay Collins: Welcome to Rethinking the News. I’m Clay Collins, this week’s host.
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Collins: In the summer of 2014, the Monitor launched Points of Progress, a weekly global survey of where on a world map things are really going right. Senior editors wondered at the time how sustainable that franchise might be. But eight years later, after a short succession of capable overseers, it continues. Its current editor, Erika Page, joins us today. Welcome, Erika.
Erika Page: Thanks. It’s nice to be here.
Collins: So you’re doing the hard work of tracking credible examples of progress week after week. Where do you look and what do you look for in creating a set of these?
Page: So I’m looking through some of the more mainstream news outlets and scanning news around the world. I’m trying to compile a selection of points that offers proof that progress is happening not just in a couple of parts of the world, but really universally and across a whole host of realms. Ultimately, you know, that progress that we’re looking for is evidence that these universal human values – like compassion, like courage, like integrity, equality, responsibility – are operating. It’s been incredible just to see, over the past six or so months, every week, my trust has grown that I am going to find that evidence.
Collins: Can you think of a couple of specific points of progress and what those were about?
Page: These can be really wide-reaching. We have examples of women in coastal Mozambique who replanted 125 hectares of mangroves that had been damaged by flooding. Or Cuba, which commemorated Latin America’s first LGBTQ History Month. A safe new bus system in Pakistan, which means that more women are able to travel independently throughout the city. So they can really be any number of things.
Collins: Lots of news organizations today have good news franchises. And what’s different about the Monitor’s approach?
Page: Good news can mean any number of things. Sometimes you need that story about the dog that was rescued. You need that smile. But that type of good news can end up feeling a little bit flimsy, as if it was the exception rather than the rule. I think that progress goes beyond just “feel good news.” I think that the progress that we’re really looking for is – at least I feel this way – it actually restores your faith in humanity in some way. We’re really talking about progress that is concrete, even replicable potentially. And it’s not oriented one way or another politically. I think it can be easy to link the idea of progress to a concept of progressive. And I don’t think that that has to be the case. And that’s not the case in the types of points of progress that I’m looking for. I tend to think of it as growth. Growth is one of the most natural elements of life in any form. And I think that as we grow in our humanity – and our humanity is not political – we grow in our understanding of what progress can look like.
Collins: The evolution of progress is a really interesting point. And I wanted to ask you if you’ve seen recent examples of progress that you think reveal broader and deeper shifts in culture?
Page: Definitely. I wrote a point recently about a new project to write the first Oxford Dictionary of African American English. After so many decades of linguistic discrimination, this new dictionary demonstrates that black lexicon is finally gaining the recognition that it deserves, given all of these contributions that it has made to the English language. And I think 100 years ago, our conception of progress may have been too narrow to even consider that within the realm of progress.
Collins: In sizing up progress, are you able to place, or do you place value on credible intent to make change, or do you look for metrics that indicate change is already happening?
Page: Really what we’re looking for is progress that has already shown evidence that it’s working, and that it’s having some kind of tangible impact on the world. You know, I think about recently, there was a law that was ratified in Brazil about drinking and driving. And the fact that the law was ratified – that was the news, but that wasn’t the crux of the progress. The real progress was that this law had actually been in place, though not formally ratified, for the past ten years. And a recent study came out suggesting that because that law was in place, over 400,000 hospitalizations were actually prevented. And so the progress there was that measurable success had been found.
Collins: What do you think is the real value of this franchise to society or societies? And why is it needed now?
Page: So often I am just in awe of how many of these points of progress stem from one small, good idea. You know, one person who realized that they could do something differently. And then they led by example. As a society, we’ve gotten very good at critique. We are really good at pointing out what’s wrong. And I think we absolutely need those critiques. But I also think that we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we totally ignored everything that we’re getting right. Because we can learn from those things. All around the world, despite what we’re hearing, people are using whatever tools that they have available to push humanity forward. And not just to a more technologically advanced state, but to a kinder, more balanced, more thoughtful and more inclusive heights.
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Collins: That’s great. Thank you, Erika, for being such a good steward of the Points of Progress franchise. And thanks for being with us today.
Page: Thanks for having me.
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Collins: Thank you for listening. To find our Points of Progress columns, go to CSMonitor.com. This story was hosted by me, Clay Collins, and produced by Jingnan Peng, with additional editing by Samantha Laine Perfas. Our studio engineers were Tim Malone and Alyssa Britton. Copyright by The Christian Science Monitor, 2022.
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