Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-02-2017 i The Big Issue

WE BELIEVE in a hand up, not a handout... Which is why our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50. WE BELIEVE in trade, not aid… Which is why we ask you to ALWAYS take your copy of the magazine. Our sellers are working and need your custom. WE BELIEVE poverty is indiscriminate… Which is why we provide ANYONE whose life is blighted by poverty with the opportunity to earn a LEGITIMATE income. WE BELIEVE in the right to citizenship… Which is why The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and financial exclusion. WE BELIEVE in prevention… Which is why Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…

Trust is an intangible commodity but a highly lucrative one. Businesses are on a permanent quest to convey authenticity, an image customers can engage with, feel part of. Trust. After the financial collapse in 2008, trust in banks crumbled; phone hacking eroded trust in mainstream media; the brazen gutting of high street icon BHS at the cost of thousands of jobs was a low point for trust in business. So we get surveys that tell us people trust their hairdresser more than politicians, journalists or business leaders. Not to doubt hairdressers’ trustworthiness but our once rock-solid institutions, ones that impact our lives daily, are now in the gutter. So in dark or doubtful times, the social enterprise movement is a beacon. It is easy to see why they are trusted.…

A social enterprise in the US has come up with a novel way to help keep homeless people warm as the worst of winter bites: a coat made from recycled car materials. The EMPWR coat is warm, water-resistant and transforms into a sleeping bag or an over-the-shoulder bag. Made from materials including durable Cordura fabric from Carhartt and upcycled auto industry insulation from General Motors, they are manufactured by homeless people who receive training, skills and income. From its origins in Detroit the EMPWR coats are now distributed throughout 40 US states, seven Canadian provinces and a few international cities. So far all 34 homeless employees of The Empowerment Plan, who make the coats, have moved on to full-time employment. The coats are bought by sponsors at $100 each to…

“Social Security has to be turned into Social Opportunity. It could be a powerhouse of innovation” There’s a private member’s bill going through parliament called the Homelessness Reduction Bill. It’s very simple. It will make local authorities legally responsible to start helping people BEFORE they fall homeless. Rather than saying, as they often say now, “come back when you’re homeless”. By which time the desperate person has become more desperate. Even the threat of homelessness can dis-establish the toughest among us, and cases of mental angst going through the roof at such times are legion. I am a supporter for this bill because I believe it could in some way present a bit of a sea change in how we deal with problems. That is, PREVENT the problem from occurring…

“People like me were always at the edge of the frame or absent. I wanted to be at the centre of it” At 16 it was all about school, school, school. I didn’t go out very much, and if I did it was with my family. I’d never eaten in a restaurant, I’d never eaten Chinese or Italian food – it wasn’t part of my parents’ culture to go out to eat [Chadha was born in Nairobi; the family moved to west London when she was two]. I lived the simple life of a goodie two-shoes Indian girl. But I did refuse to wear Indian clothes. I didn’t want people to think I was just another goodie two-shoes Indian girl. I knew I was much more than that. So there…

“We were there for every council meeting, every surgery. You have to let them know you’re not going away” Since we launched our campaign to keep libraries open and fight for wider access to books, we have received incredible support from readers, authors and literacy campaigners. Last week the urgency and scale of the challenge was thrown into sharp relief when the Local Government Association highlighted the scale of cuts looming over communities across Britain, warning that cash earmarked for libraries and other services will be diverted to meet a £2.6bn funding gap by 2020. But there is hope. Many under-threat libraries across the UK have been spared closure thanks to vigilant and passionate campaigners. In our essential library-saving toolkit, they share the keys to their success. 1. UNITE AND…

While we spend our days plugged in, or worrying about where we can next plug in to recharge, it’s easy to forget that the age of electricity dawned relatively recently. One hundred years ago, potential applications for electricity were being eagerly explored by scientists, inventors – and hairdressers. Yes, this picture is not some crazy attempt at mind control but a pioneering perm from 1923. Electricity: The spark of life is an exhibition tracing the story of mankind’s quest to master electricity, and brings together more than 100 objects – from ancient spark-inducing amber and early electro-static generators to radiographs, photographs, models and films.…

Worlds apart I have never stopped using and loving libraries, from the days when a whisper might be too loud, to the current blend at my local library – Newton Abbot – of a cafe, learning centre and traditional lending library. The potential of discovery never goes away. I love the serendipity of it all – seeing what’s on the ‘returns’ trolley; picking a book out for the colour of its spine or the strangeness of its title – or because I saw someone else lingering over it. I love the fact it is still open to all. No one is too young, too old, too weird, too educated, too poor to have access to a local library. A library is a hundred-thousand worlds waiting to be discovered. Just don’t…

ESCAPE BY MICHAEL CROSSWAITE Until March 8, this painting can be viewed hanging at Canary Wharf in London, along with other art created by members of Providence Row art group. “I think this picture is a metaphor for escaping addiction,” says Michael, who is ex-homeless. “I started this painting intending to create a Turner-esque tall ship painting but somehow ended up with a rather cartoony rendering of two guys in a rowing boat.” DRIFTER BY MATT NICHOLAS Matt lives in a village in Yorkshire and has struggled with ME for the last 20 years, dealing with constant pain and fatigue. He is trying to support himself through his painting. His paintings take six to eight weeks to create. Last year Drifter won Matt first prize out of 3,000 entrants in…

“Because of austerity, the arts are suffering. It’s more necessary than ever to give disadvantaged voices a platform” Amid the deepening UK prisons crisis, we reported last week on how the government needs to put reform at the centre of policy. This week Sonya Hale reveals how an innovative project has rehabilitated her… I feel like I should give my credentials... I am six years in recovery from heroin and crack addiction, which took me to some very dark places. I was street homeless for the best part of a decade and was always getting arrested for shoplifting and other petty offences. This inevitably resulted in me ending up in prison again and again on many short sentences. As a child I felt desperately alone. I felt like I had…

And Now – Win the Peace (1945) In the history of political advertising, it’s often the Tories who take the plaudits for posters such as 1978’s Labour isn’t Working. But Labour’s 1945 campaign was arguably the most seismic of the past 100 years. John Armstrong designed this image of a clean, modern and idyllic vision of post-war Britain, tapping into Clement Attlee’s campaign pledge to ‘win the peace’. It captured the national mood and delivered Labour the landslide it needed to help establish the NHS and the modern welfare state. Lord Kitchener Wants You (1914-1918) With chiselled looks, outlandish moustache and heroic war record, Lord Kitchener was a celebrated icon of his times. In many ways, this poster was the first example of celebrity endorsement in advertising. Kitchener was British…

World Book Day on Thursday this week is more than just a chance for young readers to get their hands on books and be part of a global literacy movement. It is also being used as a platform to carry out protests to save library services that are being closed off to kids – with a little help from Lord Voldemort. Families plan to dress up as fictional villains, including ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’ and characters from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, outside East Finchley Library to campaign against the council’s decision to slash £2.2m from the borough’s libraries budget. Barnet Council wants to reduce library floor space, make staff redundant and shorten opening hours, which will amount to a de facto ban on children and disabled people using…

“Do you still love me?” ponders Ryan Adams forlornly on the opening track of Prisoner, as the heartbreaker of his lauded 2000 solo debut album becomes the heartbroken some 15 albums later. After the enjoyable but fairly opaque enterprise of last year’s reworking in the entirety of Taylor Swift’s 1989, the North Carolinian alt-country singer-songwriter lets his guard down about the end of his marriage to actor and singer Mandy Moore with an album so confessional it borders on over-sharing. Despite resorting to a few clunky clichés about walking tightropes, runaway trains and hearts in cages – hey, the guy’s just gone through a bad break-up, give him a break – this proves to be one of his finest albums in a number of years, and a lesson in how…

Here in Ladbroke Grove, London, we have been working hard for about a year to save North Kensington Library, to little or no avail. Our council, in spite of having plenty of money, has decided to move users out of a beautiful building so wealthy people can use it for a private ‘prep’ school. Fortunately somebody has succeeded in applying to have the old building listed as a ‘community asset’, which will slow down any planning application for the moment. John Bird may be right in his analysis of the changing demographic of west London but this is still a much-used library by a largely local and existent population – who are excluded from the anodyne Notting Hill film – living in social housing and dependent on the library’s assistance…

Renowned artist Wolfgang Tillmans’ first major exhibition at the world-famous Tate Modern brings together his work across a variety of media: photography, video, music… and copies of The Big Issue. Tillmans guest-edited the magazine in 2000, focusing on “the anonymous intimacy of urban life as we experience it”. He conducted special photo shoots of people who effect positive change in society, and captured images of cities that revealed their structure in new ways. The cover image is of Tel Aviv in Israel and copies of the original magazine form part of the new exhibition. The year 2000 was an exciting one for Tillmans. After guest editing The Big Issue he went on to win the Turner Prize. The exhibition at Tate Modern runs until June 11.…

No one understands the blossomy of true nature, the tainted lands. Africa is deceased, the doom painted in its atmospheric breeze – I felt for Nigeria, Africa’s gem… but Dear Citizens are embittered, not a jewel, this fertile land – poverty’s splashed everywhere-The streets, houses, roads, bridges, hospitals, waterways; to the firing squad, a government’s comic showdown, electricity is a gold mine for all, all that’s left preached years of existence. The urgency for a new voice calls but these voices aren’t there too, stranded – morals are diminished, vices; a darkened tunnel, slaves of pleasure and desires – The arts cry bitterly – We hope, we dream leadership, a change – Africa has fallen deeply, but Motherland weeps for a new Africa – the lands of peace. Dele has…

Patrick Stewart arrives late to Claridge’s but, crucially, unflustered. His drive from Leicester Square was “calamitous” he sighs – taking 50 minutes when it should have taken 10. When I, unthinking, suggest he could have taken the Tube, he shoots me a gaze of either pity or contempt that I would even suggest such a thing, given his enormous fame at the helm of two colossal TV and film franchises – Star Trek and X-Men. Patrick Stewart, we can safely presume, is not in possession of an Oyster card. He is slight but sprightly, dressed dandily in a florid shirt, a tweed jacket with elbow patches like a geography teacher and a pocket square like a country squire, black trousers and brown leather shoes with a double side buckle. He…

1. THE SONG OF THE DODO David Quammen An absolute classic. It’s a testament to Quammen’s peerless prose that sections about scholarly brouhahas are just as compelling as the adventurous passages where he tracks birds of paradise and Komodo dragons. 2. THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS Rebecca Skloot Science is not just about awe-inspiring discoveries and life-saving advances. It has a dark side, full of ethical lapses and human costs. Few books grapple with the latter as well as Skloot’s masterwork. 3. THE FOREST UNSEEN David George Haskell Haskell traipses into the same patch of forest over a year. With a keen eye and effervescent writing, he makes the tiniest of moments – a scurrying salamander, a shoot, the rustling of feathers – a window into a wondrous world.…

After eight Oscar and nine Bafta nominations, big screen sensation Arrival is now coming to home entertainment at last. When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team – led by expert linguist Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams – are brought together to investigate. As nations struggle to co-ordinate a response, mankind teeters on the brink of global war, leaving Banks and her team in a race against time for answers. To find those answers, she will take a chance that could threaten her life – and possibly the very existence of humanity itself. Available from March 6 on digital download, and on Blu-ray, Blu-ray steelbook and DVD from March 20, special feature extras include documentaries on the linguistics of Arrival, the sound design and principles of…