17 February Blog: my week in the news

This week we talked about lots of interesting news stories including Nelson Mandela, finding out what the real name for the Coronavirus is, the story behind Valentine's Day, Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle, why the UAE is banning homework in some schools and our review of the book 'Equal to everything - Judge Brenda and the Supreme court'.

So, lets start with the story about Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela was a prominent civil rights leader and fought against apartheid, a system where non-white citizens in south Africa were segregated from white people and did not have equal rights. Because of his work, he eventually got arrested and put in prison for 27 years. He was finally released through international pressure on February 11th 1990, which was 30 years ago last week!. 3 years  later he won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the next year he became Africa's first black president. He sounds like an amazing and very brave man, I'm pleased apartheid was abolished and he achieved what he wanted to. 

So, lets talk about Valentines Day. The name Valentine comes from an old Roman legend which says there was a guy called St Valentine who worked as a priest in Roman times. There are many tales about him , but we don’t know which of them are true and which are false. I like Valentines Day because you get to think about your loved ones. In the podcast I said I didn’t send a card to anyone but shortly after the podcast was published I sent one to my brother Laurie. 

So it’s a goodbye from NewzKidz, but a hello to spring.