KEY POINTS:
Let's face it, nobody expects an uplifting experience from slogging through the fire and brimstone of their daily news. But in true keeping with my inner Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life, there were some quiet angels out there in 2007 whose faces and stories you may not have stumbled across.
Let me introduce you to my personal list of under-the-radar people and their impact on 2007 that might even restore a little faith in that unruly beast, humankind, when it is most needed at this time of year.
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DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
Coups are not known for being pretty, but this one produced a real gem. The coup in Thailand did the world one large favour - it put a doctor and career bureaucrat, Mongkol Na Songkhla, into the position of Health Minister, a post usually reserved for a politician.
What can one good doctor do when he gets hold of the reins? Mongkol immediately slapped a compulsory licence on Aids drugs manufacturers, thumbing his nose at some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies. He then announced Thailand would start producing its own, cheaper, government generic form tout suite.
Most thought he was spitting into the wind. Even the Director-General of the World Health Organisation initially scolded Thailand, calling the move naive, fearing a new precedent of countries stealing intellectual property. Patients would suffer in a lengthy transition, many warned.
But surprise, surprise - Big Pharma got the shakes. Merck immediately halved the price of their Aids drugs in Thailand, then followed suit by slashing prices in other developing countries. Abbott Labs cut their prices slightly more than half, then lowered the price in 45 other countries too.
Nobody's exactly suffering either. Merck and Abbott both pulled off huge earnings this year, with Merck's net income rising 24 per cent compared to the first nine months of last year, to earn US$4.9 billion ($6.4 billion), according to the Asia Sentinel.
Who really won? Poor Aids patients across the world.
Mongkol Na Songkhla will have to leave his office when the results of Thailand's elections are decided. He was last heard making noises about tackling cancer drugs next. A coup de grace.
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TWO FACES OF A VERY PUBLIC WIFE
When Democratic US presidential candidate John Edwards' wife Elizabeth announced that her breast cancer had returned in a new incurable form this year, the couple held a news conference affirming their commitment to the presidential race.
Talk about a giant political pause. Suddenly people stopped to question their own ideas on ambition versus devotion, or life purpose in the face of mortality. The response was split. Pragmatists didn't want a President who might be torn between the duties of office and a potentially dying spouse.
The New York Times asked, "Is Mr Edwards now the presidential race's real embodiment of hope in all its audacity, or a symbol of blind ambition?"
But Elizabeth Edwards was having none of it. It was she who insisted he stay in the race, saying, "My feeling is, if we gave up what we have committed to as our life's work, wouldn't I be getting ready to die? This cause is not just John's cause, it's my cause."
When a reporter asked if continuing the campaign was an act of supreme denial about her cancer, Elizabeth Edwards looked momentarily struck.
She hurled back, "Absolutely! I am not giving it anything. If it expects to be the boss of me, it's going to have to earn that."
For one brief moment, her determined, now curtailed life-focus gave political purpose a new meaning.
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A GOOD JUDGE
When US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor decided to retire from the bench last year to care for her husband John's rapidly progressing Alzheimer's disease, she never expected what came next.
In a real life version of the stunning film Away From Her, John O'Connor has found happiness with another patient in his care facility, no longer remembering his wife of 55 years.
In an acknowledgement of the heart-breaking choices that define the ravages of this illness, O'Connor says she is happy he is content, after suffering from the disease for 17 years.
Two decades ago, O'Connor was respected for going public when struck by breast cancer, but today, the first woman ever to serve on the US Supreme Court leaves yet another unexpected public legacy, revealing a deeper definition of lifelong love.
When asked how she would like to be remembered, she replied to CNN, "Ah, the tombstone question. I hope it says, 'Here lies a good judge'."
She has indeed accomplished that.
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A MAN WITH A PLAN
English rocker Peter Gabriel's chilling anthem against apartheid, Biko, may be a quarter of a century old, but his political consciousness hasn't faded away.
In 1992, the former Genesis lead singer launched a website to showcase human rights videos called Witness, with the idea that what can be seen will be heard.
This year he's taken it a step further with The Hub, a new site he hopes will be a YouTube for human rights. Now anyone can click on to footage of Egyptian police brutality or protesting Burmese monks captured by camera phone.
Gabriel's real innovation lies in his belief in the unmistakable power of exposing immediate, downloadable video footage of human rights abuses, creating a virtual worldwide watchdog.
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LOAN RANGERS
Two Stanford graduates decided to take the new concept of microfinancing and make it as easy as the click of a mouse.
Log on to founders Mathew and Jessica Flannery's brilliantly simple web concept, Kiva, and trawl through pictures and descriptions of people from 37 countries who need tiny loan amounts to launch or expand their livelihood. The virtual bank has mushroomed in just one year, loaning $1 million last year compared with $16 million in 2007.
"Last year we invested $25 in a single mother who brings watermelons grown in her village to sell in the market in Nairobi. She supports her daughter, her parents back in the village, and two sisters she hopes to put through high school. We were only one of 24 contributors who made up her $1500 loan to establish a second market stall.
"Each time a repayment was made and we were alerted via email, my children would shout out from the computer, 'Hey, Mary Wambuis paid back another $94'."
Across the entire microfinance industry, recipients of loans meet their repayment obligations more than 95 per cent of the time, according to the New York Times.
Big banking should be so lucky.
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THE LAST WORD
Helen Thomas has been a White House correspondent for 57 years.
That's no typo. She is still the same gorgeously razor-sharp journalist who first trailed JFK in 1960, although she is now 87.
But last year, she didn't fare too well under the heavy hand of George W. Bush, when he got wind of a comment she made in print. When asked once why she looked so sad, she had replied, "I am covering the worst President in American history."
She was booted into the back row at presidential press conferences after more than four decades in the front seat.
It's only once a year that any self-respecting journalist can get away with quoting T.H. White from The Once and Future King, but I think he has a solution that Helen Thomas of all people would best understand:
"The best thing for being sad, replied Merlyn, is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then, to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting."
Helen Thomas returned to her front-row seat in the White House this March.
It's bound to be a happy new year.
* www.traceybarnett.co.nz
