27 January 2014

‘Over one thousand people shortlisted for life on Mars’ republished

The Big Issue in the North (UK)
A mission to put humans on Mars received more than 200,000 applicants. Mars One was set up by two Dutchmen with the goal of establishing permanent life on the planet by 2025. Of the 200,000 who applied, just over 1000 have been picked for the shortlist which will be whittled down to just 24 via a series of rigorous mental and physical tests.

The final two dozen will establish a colony on Mars and take part in a documentary/reality TV programme to finance the mission. The 24 people who are chosen to go into space will never come back to Earth.

This quirky story by Reuters was republished by The Big issue in the North, based in the north of England.

It can still be downloaded here.


‘Mehr als tausend Menschen auf Auswahlliste zur Marsbesiedlung’ wieder veröffentlicht 

Mehr als 200 000 Menschen haben sich um die Teilnahme an einer Mission zur Besiedlung des Roten Planeten beworben. Das Projekt „Mars One“ wurde von zwei Niederländern gegründet, die es sich zum Ziel gesetzt haben, auf dem Planeten bis spätestens 2025 eine ständige Siedlung aufzubauen. Aus den Bewerbern wurden 1000 Personen ausgewählt, die sich nun einer Reihe von harten körperlichen und mentalen Tests unterziehen müssen; schließlich werden nur 24 Kandidaten übrig bleiben.

Die zwei Dutzend, die es bis ins Finale schaffen, sollen eine Kolonie auf dem Mars gründen und an einer Fernsehdokumentation beziehungsweise Reality-Show teilnehmen, mit deren Einnahmen das ganze Projekt finanziert wird. Die 24 Auserwählten, die ins All fliegen, werden nie zur Erde zurückkehren.

Der Bericht der Agentur Reuters über dieses schrullige Projekt erschien in „The Big Issue in the North“ in Nordengland. 


Ein Download steht hier zur Verfügung.

23 January 2014

VIDEO: Alex Salmond talks to James Naughtie

At INSP's public event last Thursday, the First Minister was interviewed by BBC presenter James Naughtie. Watch the full interview here:



The event was organised in partnership with The Herald newspaper as part of their involvement with the Fraser of Allander Lecture Series with Strathclyde University.

The second event in the series will see James Naughtie interviewing MP and ‘Better Together’ leader Alistair Darling on Thursday 13th March. Tickets can be purchased here.

All ticket sales proceeds from both events go towards INSP’s work fighting poverty and homelessness in Scotland and around the world.

21 January 2014

Alex Salmond praises INSP's "huge success"

Photo: Jamie Simpson/The Herald
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has commented on INSP's 20th anniversary noting the "huge success" of the street paper model. He went on to say "It’s been an incredible story, and not just, obviously, The Big Issue in Scotland and the UK but the spread of the street paper idea across the world".

Salmond made his comments during an interview with INSP's Callum McSorley after the first of two INSP events in Glasgow.

At the public event last Thursday, the First Minister was interviewed by BBC presenter James Naughtie, who currently has a key role in the BBC's referendum coverage, presenting both Radio 4's Today Programme and Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland.

In front of a packed Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow, Salmond spoke out about identity, currency, referendum polls, the economy, his pride in Scotland's "mongrel nation" and even the Danish political TV show 'Borgen'.

During the lively audience Q&A session, one of the most important questions of the evening came from Big Issue vendor John Hill who brought the conversation on to homelessness and long term unemployment, asking the First Minister what he proposed change under independence.

The Principal of Strathclyde University; & INSP's
Maree Aldam welcomed guests & sponsors to the event.
The event was organised in partnership with The Herald newspaper as part of their involvement with the Fraser of Allander Lecture Series with Strathclyde University. A full-length video recording will soon be available via the INSP website.

INSP’s General Manager Maree Aldam said: "We are delighted and very proud to be able to add to the referendum debate at the start this very important year for Scotland.

"It's an honour and a privilege to have the First Minister involved in our public events for the second time. And we're so pleased the have James Naughtie as our interviewer for both events this year.

Photo: Jamie Simpson/The Herald
“We’d like to thank our media partner The Herald; law firm Tods Murray for arranging for filming the events; and the staff of Glasgow Life and the Mitchell Library for their help and support."

The event attracted widespread media coverage including The HeraldThe TelegraphThe ScotsmanThe Evening Times and The Big Issue.

The second event in the series will see James Naughtie interviewing MP and ‘Better Together’ leader Alistair Darling on Thursday 13th March. Tickets can be purchased here.

All ticket sales proceeds from both events go towards INSP’s work fighting poverty and homelessness in Scotland and around the world.

20 January 2014

‘The return of Monty Python’ republished

=Norge (Norway)
Surrealist comedy group Monty Python completely revolutionised humour in the UK when its first sketch show was aired in 1969. They went on to make a string of hit films, televisions series and stage performances but retired in 1980 with members embarking on successful solo careers spanning comedy, writing, travel and broadcasting.

It was unclear if ‘Python’ would ever work together again but more than 30 years after splitting the British comedy legends have announced a comeback with a string of sell-out shows at the London O2 arena; tickets for the first date sold out in just 43.5 seconds.

Jane Oriel of The Big Issue UK spoke to Python Terry Jones about recapturing their unique comedy magic, preserving the Python mythology and the possibility of taking the show to the US.

This article was republished by Norwegian street paper =Norge.

It can still be downloaded here.

„Das Comeback von Monty Python“ erscheint in Norwegen 
 
Die surrealistische Comedy-Truppe Monty Python hat den Humor im Vereinigten Königreich von Grund auf revolutioniert. Ihre erste Sketch-Show flimmerte 1969 über den Bildschirm. Es folgten erfolgreiche Filme, Fernsehserien und Bühnenauftritte. 1980 ging die Gruppe in Rente. Ihre Mitglieder starteten erfolgreiche Solokarrieren in den Bereichen Comedy, Schreiben, Reisen und Fernsehen.

Es blieb unklar, ob „Python“ jemals wieder zusammenarbeiten würden. Mehr als 30 Jahre nach ihrer Trennung haben die britischen Comedy-Legenden aber jetzt ein Comeback angekündigt. Sie treten in mehreren ausverkauften Shows in der Londoner O2-Arena auf. Die Karten für die erste Show waren nach nur 43,5 Sekunden weg.

Jane Oriel vom Big Issue UK sprach mit Python-Mitglied Terry Jones darüber, wie die Gruppe ihre einzigartige Magie wiederaufleben lassen will. Dazu kommt die Möglichkeit, mit der Show in den USA aufzutreten.

Der Artikel ist auch in der norwegischen Straßenzeitung =Norge erschienen.

Hier können Sie ihn immer noch herunterladen.

13 January 2014

‘China leads battle against poverty’ republished

CAIS (Portugal)
The United Nations has singled out China – the world’s most populous country with over 1.3 billion people – as one of the key success stories in the longstanding battle against poverty.

Although extreme poverty rates have fallen in every developing region of the world, a new report says China is way ahead of the pack. In China, extreme poverty dropped from 60 percent in 1990 to 16 percent in 2005 and 12 percent in 2010. Following the launch of the report in Geneva, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed China’s work as "the most successful global anti-poverty push in history".

This uplifting article written by Thalif Deen of IPS was republished by Portuguese street paper, CAIS, who dedicated six pages to it in their first issue of 2014.

It can still be downloaded here.

"China führt den Kampf gegen die Armut an" erscheint in Portugal 

Die Vereinten Nationen haben China - das mit 1,3 Milliarden Einwohnern bevölkerungsreichste Land der Welt - als Erfolgsstory im andauernden Kampf gegen die Armut gewürdigt.

Obwohl die Zahl der in extremer Armut lebenden Menschen in jedem Entwicklungsland zurückgegangen ist, zeigt eine neue Studie, dass China die Anstrengungen anführt. In China ist die Armutsrate stetig gefallen: Von 60 Prozent im Jahr 1990 bis auf 16 Prozent in 2005 und zwölf Prozent im Jahr 2010. Nach der Vorstellung des Berichts in Genf lobte UN-Generalsekretär Ban Ki-Moon die Arbeit Chinas als "die erfolgreichste globale Kampagne zur Armutsbekämpfung in der Geschichte".

Dieser Mut machende Artikel von Thalif Deen von IPS wurde von der portugiesischen Straßenzeitung CAIS aufgegriffen. Sie widmete ihm in ihrer ersten Ausgabe des Jahres 2014 ganze sechs Seiten.

Hier steht er für Sie zum Download bereit.



4 January 2014

With poverty on the rise, do we have more time for talking?

By Danielle Batist

Which continent has one in four people at risk of poverty and exclusion, 26 million people unemployed and homelessness increasing in virtually all states? Hint: it is the same continent that promised three years ago to reduce the number of citizens living below the poverty line by a quarter and lift 20 million people out of poverty. Europe.

They called it ‘Europe 2020: a Strategy to reduce poverty’. If the first three years are anything to go by, it failed. Just before the EU’s Third Annual Convention of the Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion took place in Brussels last month, they got the latest statistics in. They were bad. Things had gotten worse.

I guess I should not have been surprised when President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso opened the convention by admitting that the 2020 strategy was not exactly going to plan: “Unemployment is clearly our most pressing problem. Unemployment, which goes hand in hand with and triggers poverty and social exclusion, is not socially acceptable. […] We cannot say the crisis is over as long as 25% of Europeans are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.”

Setting targets on an EU level when the situation on the ground largely depends on national policy and decision-making is tricky enough, but the real problem comes with the execution. The aim back in 2010 was to create ‘smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’ for Europe. There are indeed careful signs of economic recovery, but it is the ‘inclusive’ part of the growth that has so far failed miserably.

Street papers of course don’t need fancy reports to know Europe is not moving in the right direction. They see the results of broken systems every day, when homeless and marginalised people from all walks of life sign up to become street paper vendors.

One only has to look at FEANTSA’s ‘On the Way Home’ Monitoring Report on Homelessness and Homeless Policies in Europe to see where things go wrong. With the exception of the Netherlands, Finland and Scotland, homelessness has increased pretty much everywhere on the continent. The financial and economic crisis is partly to blame, but policy in many member states is not working to address the issues and too often is making things worse.

Over the course of the conference one politician after another waved the red flag. László Andor, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion commented: "With 125 million people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, action is urgently needed. Since 2010 when the Europe 2020 Strategy was adopted, poverty has grown significantly worse. There are some signs of economic recovery, but it is far too weak to create the jobs and inclusive growth we need."

Hours were spent talking about the implementation of the Social Investment Package, which was invented to “give guidance to Member States on more efficient and effective social policies in response to the significant challenges they currently face”.

Ahead of the gathering, FEANTSA, INSP and other European organisations wrote a letter to Andor, highlighting the urgent need for concrete action at EU level to follow up on the Social Investment Package in the area of homelessness. Throughout the event, many charities and civil society organisations working with homeless and vulnerably housed people joined the call for an integrated homelessness strategy.

As is so often the case, the glimpse of hope was provided by those working on the ground, in the field, on the streets. They know what goes wrong and –more importantly- what needs to be done to fix it. From housing-first policies to a rethink of eviction regulation and from early intervention to quality support services: real and practical solutions were offered up from around Europe.

There will be six more conventions before Europe’s 2020 deadline. In Brussels, there will undoubtedly be more reporting, more analysing and more talking. One can only hope that there will also be more listening to those who have invented solutions well ahead of policy change. Those who invented solutions, simply because the person in front of them could not wait until 2020.


Danielle Batist is a freelance journalist covering social justice and the work of changemakers around the world. She is the former Editor of INSP.