On the 10th of September 2021, from 362 points across Denmark, distributors gave the World’s Best Morning newspaper to passers-by.
Every year, Verdens Bedste Nyheder hosts the “World’s Best Morning”, with the intention of spreading information on challenges and progress of the Global Goals. This year, the theme was Sustainable Cities, SDG 11.
Members of SDG Watch Europe based in Denmark woke up early in the morning to represent the alliance, and joined Nyt Europa’s activists. Together, we started at 06.30 AM at Nybrogade, located in the beautiful heart of Copenhagen, where Nyt Europa’s office is based. We prepared coffee, packed the newspapers and enthusiastically walked towards Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square), while the warm Danish sun was slowly waking up the city. We carried boxes of hundreds of small leaflets with the World’s Best News, and hundreds of chocolates ready to be handed out to the early birds of Copenhagen.
We arrived at Rådhuspladsen at 7AM sharp. By then, only few were the passers-by, few were the cyclists, and few were the cars. Slowly sipping coffee and handing the first dozens of leaflets, we saw the city waking up. At 8.30AM the city was awake: more full speed cyclists and passers-by grabbing newspapers from our hands, and bus drivers smiling at us.
But we were only a few among the total of 2567 volunteers who on that morning, have pulled on the white t-shirt with the orange “World’s Best News” logo. The rest were scattered around Denmark. Activists were youngsters, politicians, volunteers, students, ambassadors, journalists.
Activists were all around the city. A group of dancers from Copenhagen Contemporary Dance School in collaboration with Caritas, performed to draw people’s attention and raise awareness on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Klara Trane, from Mellemfolkelig Samvirke described The World’s Best News as “cool, wonderful and fantastic journalism that provides a counterpoint to the other news that mostly spreads negative news. Of course, everything should not be on the pink cloud, but it is important to also talk about the positive ”, reported World’s Best News on their website.
To end the morning, a wonderful morning full of hope and activism, ambassadors from the Netherlands and Albania, as well as Jens Christian Wandel, chairman of the United Nations and former adviser to UN Secretary-General António Guterres helped handing out the newspapers too.
We were glad to be part of this great initiative, an initiative devoted to the spread of constructive news on progress and solutions to the world’s challenges. We would also be happy to participate in the future.