The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best stories of 2020 from our premium syndicators, including The New York Times, Financial Times and The Times of London.
Today we look at life as a paediatric neurosurgeon, Alan Bollard looks at what lies ahead for the NZ economy, the people living alone in ghost towns, the surprise Instagram stars modelling other people's laundry and a uniquely Kiwi solution to pandemic hunger.
'If you get emotional you make errors'
For parents, a paediatric neurosurgery ward is the most terrifying place in the world. For Jay Jayamohan, it's the office.
What he likes about brain surgery is basically that it's difficult. A broken leg is a broken leg, but a broken brain could be broken for any number of reasons, none of them obvious. Factor in how small his patients can be, some of them newborn, and surgery can go pear-shaped, as he puts it, much more quickly than on adults.
Jay Jayamohan in the operating theatre at the John Radcliffe hospital. Photo / BBC/Landmark Films
Alan Bollard: Into the deep - where to from here for NZ's economy?
Earlier this year the world suffered a pandemic shock: sudden, unexpected, highly contagious, not particularly fatal, but nevertheless causing global health concerns. The pandemic hit the world's economy in a devastating way, causing an unusual synchronised contraction. The International Monetary Fund notes this is the first time that most of the world has gone into recession.
Where the world's economies go next depends on our success in containing Covid-19.
This is the first time that most of the world has gone into recession. Photo / Getty Images
They live alone in ghost towns
There are some 3,800 ghost towns in the United States, most abandoned in the 19th and early 20th centuries in favour of bigger cities, or casualties of changing industry. Some languish as ruins, others are designated as national parks. And a rare handful are in the midst of being developed into luxury vacation spots.
In March, one of the entrepreneurs, Brent Underwood, left for a trip to the lonely location that was only meant to last a week or two. Instead, a pandemic and then an unseasonable snowstorm hit, making it close to impossible for him to leave
An unseasonable snowstorm and coronavirus kept Brent Underwood stuck for months in the ghost town in California he is developing into a resort. Photo / Brent Underwood via The New York Times
He's 83, she's 84, and they model other people's forgotten laundry
At Wansho Laundry in central Taiwan, most dirty clothes dropped off to be steamed or washed or dry-cleaned end up right back in the hands of their rightful owners, cleaner than when they arrived. Abandoned garments, however, can end up on Instagram.
Chang Wan-ji, right, and Hsu Sho-er run a laundromat in Taichung, Taiwan. They are also an Instagram hit. Photo / Reef Chang, @wantshowasyoung Instagram
A solution to pandemic hunger, eyeballs and all
Leo Mulipola found a lifeline in a load of fish heads.
Mulipola, 49, has struggled to find even an entry-level job at a gas station during the coronavirus pandemic. So, with a household of six to feed, he jumped at the chance to pick up donated snapper and bluenose heads at a Māori community hall in Auckland.
A Māori community centre in New Zealand is distributing bags of donated fish heads to families in need.
