The 12 biggest news stories you didn’t hear about in 2014

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his year saw the disappearance of the Malaysian plane MH370, the Russian annexation of Crimea, the outbreak of Ebola, as well as the World Cup, Winter Olympics, and seminal progressions in the likes of feminism, the legalisation of marijuana and gay marriage.  But amidst this socio-political turbulence, many stories – both good and bad – slipped unnoticed. Here is a small selection of the biggest unheard stories of the year. Feel free to comment below with any stories you think should be on the list!

1. The women who voted in Afghanistan’s Presidential Elections despite threats from the Taliban

July saw what would be the first democratic transferal of power in Afghanistan’s history, and women flocked to the polling stations alongside the men in the face of great risk. While it was not all goods news, with Taliban insurgents committing rocket and gun attacks and seizing ballots in rural areas of the country, Afghans celebrated extraordinary success.

2. The sheer volume of black killings in America and the officers acquitted

#BlackLivesMatter, #Ferguson and #ICantBreathe were arguably the most famous hashtags of this year. And while the police shootings did a lot to show the world how systemic racial prejudice and police brutality is deeply imbedded in the US; there were even more shootings which fell under our radars. Alongside the infamous killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner were the forgotten names of Jordan Baker, Dontre Hamilton, 12 year old Tamir Rice, John Crawford III and Akai Gurley. What’s more upsetting is the amount of times the cops who committed these homicides were acquitted. Completely let off the hook. There are frightening flaws in the American judicial system and it’s time they be addressed.

3. The internally and externally displaced peoples of Ukraine

We all know about the dizzying events that occurred in Ukraine this year, but what has been forgotten is the long-lasting consequences  they have created; consequences which could last generations. Because of the intense conflict in Ukraine this year, literally hundreds of thousands of people – mainly from Eastern Ukraine and Crimea –  have been displaced to other parts of the country and neighbouring countries such as Poland and Belarus. Children and disabled people make up a disturbing proportion of those now living in refugee camps over winter and desperately seeking asylum. It’s a humanitarian crisis, the harsh reality of which cannot be ignored forever.

4. Robin Thicke’s album Paula was a complete failure

This story is largely unheard of because we decided it ought to be. The album, named after Thicke’s estranged wife, peaked at No.200 in the UK and sold a pitiful 530 copies in its first week (as opposed to his previous album Blurred Lines which sold 25,981 copies in its first week). It represents a marked response to the overt sexism and misogyny found in the music industry, and an overdue slap in the face to Thicke’s lewd and grotesque perpetuation of what came to be dubbed as ‘rape culture’.

5. The woman who launched Saudi Arabia’s first all-woman law firm

In January, a woman named Bayan Mahmoud Al-Zahran opened a law firm in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to defend women’s rights and fight for female plaintiff’s problems in ways that male lawyers cannot. “I believe women lawyers can contribute a lot to the legal system,” Al-Zahran said. “This law firm will make a difference in the history of court cases and female disputes in the Kingdom. I am very hopeful and thank everyone who supported me in taking this historical step.”

6. China surpassed the USA in becoming the world’s largest economy

Despite being an extremely important story, the news that China is now the biggest economy in the world was hushed up. Maybe it’s because the West didn’t want to rub salt in their own financial wounds by openly reporting how they’re now second-best? Whatever the reason, this is real eyebrow-raiser despite the media’s inadequate coverage.

7. Yet another mass grave discovered in Mexico

While the disappearance of 43 students in Iguala drew much attention in September, nobody talked about the discovery of a mass grave in the state of Guerrero in October, the second mass grave found that month. It’s important to highlight this because it shows that the Iguala kidnapping was not an isolated incident. The issue of drug crimes and political corruption is endemic in Mexico and has been for decades. The trauma and the tragedy continue to this day despite lacklustre press coverage after Iguala.

8. The brain-dead woman who is being kept alive because of abortion laws

Yes, you read it right. An Irish woman who has been declared by physicians as ‘clinically dead’ is being kept alive on a ventilator against her family’s wishes, because of the 16-week-old foetus she was carrying when she died. In the early 1980s it was ruled in that embryos are considered Irish citizens at the point of conception, and abortion is strictly illegal. This horrific case shows how in countries all over the world women’s bodies are reduced to legislated incubators, with freedom of choice neglected in favour of the narrow, antediluvian views of the clergy and politicians.

9. The net neutrality law was adopted by the European Parliament

And this is good news. The reason why nobody heard (or if they did, cared) about this is probably because few know what net neutrality actually is. In a nutshell, net neutrality is where all data we receive via the internet is treated equally, and some Internet Service Providers want to place speedbumps along your metaphorical road to this data, and then charge you more for a ‘fast lane’ which is exactly what you had before (watch the CGP Grey video on YouTube for a fuller explanation). It’s an ongoing struggle in America, but thankfully Europe protected the freedom to stream without bloodcurdling buffering and exorbitant costs.

10. Yeonmi Park’s harrowing speech about her escape from North Korea

When we think of North Korea in 2014, we think of Kim Jong Un’s addiction to Swiss cheese and the scandal involving James Franco and Seth Rogen’s movie The Interview. But this sadly distracts from the fact that North Korea is run under an oppressive and barbaric regime. In October, 21-year-old defector Yeonmi Park spoke at the One Young World Summit in Dublin, exposing how she was made to watch her friend’s mother be public shot for watching a Hollywood movie, how three generations of a family can be tortured or killed if someone criticises the regime, and witnessing her mother’s rape. North Korea should not be a source of comedy, but of serious international humanitarian attention.

11. The Syria student kidnapping

Boko Haram’s kidnapping of the schoolgirls in Nigeria this year caused international outrage, (and rightly so) spawning the famous hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, a phrase sponsored by a whole host of celebrities and even Michelle Obama. However, on May 30^th, 186 Kurdish boys, aged 14 to 16, were abducted by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and forced into a religious camp, and they remain captured to this day. For some reason, however, they barely received any attention at all. Perhaps it’s an issue of gender; perhaps we’re just so desensitised by the terrorism committed in Syria that we can’t pick out one from the next. Regardless of why these boys aren’t trending (a cold yet resonant word one cannot avoid), all children deserve the same sort of outrage, be they male or female, Nigerian or Syrian.

12. The Nigerian girls who invented a practical way of turning urine into fuel, and other inspiring teenagers

You may have heard of Malala Yousafazai, the 17-year-old teenager who won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. However, there were many other innovative and inspiring teenagers from 2014 who also deserve the spotlight. These include the 16 and 17 year old girls who ‘devised a way to solve world hunger by injecting a naturally occurring strain of bacteria into barley and oats’ and the 19-year-old who ‘designed a floating structure that can take in 70,000 metric tonnes of plastic from the Pacific Ocean’.