Innholdsfortegnelse for 21-01-19 i The Big Issue

01 DON’T MISS Massive Attack: Mezzanine Live One of the last true classic albums of the 20th century, Massive Attack’s moody trip-hop magnum opus turned 20 in 2018, and the Bristol group are resurrecting it in full for an anniversary UK and European tour. Enigmatic Cocteau Twins singer Elizabeth Fraser will make some rare live appearances to sing the mighty Teardrop. Dates in London and their home town follow later in the year. The Hydro, Glasgow, January 28 and Manchester Arena, Manchester, January 29; massiveattack.co.uk 02 SEE Robots  Bow down to your robot overlords, at a major exhibition examining mankind’s 500-year quest to make machines in the human image. From early clockwork prototypes to a modern recreation of renowned British robot Eric and sci-f stars including…

Thank you for your spot-on editorial piece [Editor’s Letter, January 7-13] – “There they are, the hordes”. If only our politicians could get as worked up about the nation’s shameful lack of social housing and increased homelessness, as they do over the miniscule number of “invaders” braving the winter weather in the Channel to come and better themselves, then we might give them more credibility in their claims to be actively socially aware. Most immigrants, indeed such as my own parents, have expected very little of us, other than to be allowed to work hard for their families and to become welcomed contributors to British community life. Re your mention in the same article that the invading “hordes” might even take all our vegan sausage rolls, I feel compelled to…

Sarah Lamptey’s innovative ShowerBox is already offering a dignified and free way for homeless people to access washing facilities – but now she has the task of finding a home for more. The radio presenter was named as one of our Top 100 Changemakers in last week’s Big Issue magazine after installing an eco-friendly solar-powered shower at a Tottenham Court Road shelter in London. Her progress caught the eye of tech company Navitron and they have now donated a large number of solar-powered showers for her to continue her mission to boost homeless people’s mental wellbeing. Lamptey is now on the lookout for a community space or organisation to collaborate with her on “providing eco-showers and company to those who need them, just as public baths used to in this…

So divided are we that it would probably take an alien invasion from outer space to unite us. Last week’s rejection of the deal proffered by the Prime Minister for leaving the European Union showed a momentary outbreak of some form of unity: MPs voted decisively against it, and by more than two to one. So the incredibly united House of Commons, the chamber that voted 10 to one for a referendum in June 2015, have savaged the result of two years’ labour. And now, with less than 70 days to go, we have to come up with something fast. Or plead for injury time. I was on an early train the morning after the historic defeat when I heard a woman declaring that “it’s all our own fault”. That…

What is the worst thing that has happened to you? The moment I was separated from my parents. But I will tell you the road that led there. The Germans’ planned extermination of the Jews was a very slow process, very cleverly calculated. Just as the eye cannot observe the metamorphosis of a flower from bud to rose in full bloom, we too did not notice the small, almost imperceptible steps that would lead, eventually, to the full execution of their plan. All of a sudden, a change for the worse was introduced, but you could live with it. It would pass, we thought. It did not pass. Instead, there was another change. One of the lessons from the Holocaust is this: never get used to injustice. An injustice is…

Franz Kafka’s writing has alienation and estrangement at its core. As a man, too, his defining feature (aside from his sense of failure) was his indefinability and his almost perverse refusal to belong. During his lifetime, he was under-appreciated and his best-known novel, The Trial, was left unfinished. Yet after his death in 1924, his work became a battleground, with competing factions desperate to co-opt his legacy as a prop for their own fragile identities. So great was the need of others to have the German-speaking/writing Czechoslovakian Jew in their corner, they used his texts as a palimpsest on to which they inscribed their own narratives. This is the paradox at the heart of Benjamin Balint’s fascinating book Kafka’s Last Trial, which flits between a fiercely fought contemporary court case…

In the Oscar-winning The Big Short, a star-studded examination of the fnancial skullduggery that triggered the 2007/8 economic crash, writer/director Adam McKay was praised for demystifying stodgy and distinctly non-cinematic concepts like sub-prime mortgages in an entertaining way, even if his main tactic seemed to be to pulling a handbrake on the narrative and cutting to a scene of Margot Robbie in a bathtub. For his follow-up Vice, McKay has tasked himself with demystifying a stodgy and distinctly non-cinematic-looking politician, albeit one who wielded a disproportionate amount of influence in the volatile aftermath of 9/11 (enough shadowy power, the film posits, to “change the course of history for millions of lives”). The result is an enthusiastically disrespectful biopic, and while it might not fully succeed in revealing the psychology of…

The problem with privilege is that it is often invisible to those experiencing it. When you point it out, we are often affronted. I write “we” because it is only in recent years that I have realised just what a brilliant deal I get as a white, middle-class, straight male. I need excess baggage allowance when I check in my privilege. I don’t need to feel ashamed, but I should make sure I am aware. There are many things that were accessible to me that have often not been easily accessible to everyone. I need excess baggage allowance when I check in my privilege In The Trouble with Social Mobility, Byron Vincent discusses the problems of moving class and culture. He talks of the barbed-wire borders around the presumption of…

Our guide this week: Aldo Scaiani, 67, was born in Milan and sells street paper Scarp de’ tenis. After losing his job and family he lived on the streets for two years, becoming what he calls an “invisible traveller”. Every night he would go to one of Milan’s airports for shelter, returning to the city early the next morning. 01 My favourite area Vigentino I’ve always been a nomad, but I like the Vigentino district, maybe because there is Opera Cardinal Ferrari, an institution that for almost 100 years has helped the homeless and families in need. But there is another area of Milan that I like, Porta Vittoria, especially the side that extends towards Corso XXII Marzo. It’s a lively area, there are lots of small shops and this…

A hand up, not a handout... Our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50. 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. Poverty is indiscriminate… That is why we provide ANYONE whose life is blighted by poverty with the opportunity to earn a LEGITIMATE income. The right to citizenship… The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and financial exclusion. Prevention… Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…

THIS WEEK WE ASKED YOU... Yet another new diet says we should change what and how much we eat for the sake of the planet, limiting bacon to just a quarter of a rasher a day and beef to a measly two-pence piece-sized chunk daily. But what's the one food you really couldn't cut out completely? Garlic. Imagine how dull and flavourless life would be. @comedy_doc, Twitter Couldn't live without a latte. A massive 600 calories in one hit. Cheaper than a breakfast @bigissuegraham, Twitter Bread or milk. You can keep the leeks, they’re nasty! Helen Kemp, Facebook Beer Stephen Baxter,  Facebook Mushrooms Julie Dawn Harris,  Facebook…

Can you tell Ann that a Debt Relief Order might help with her debt problems? [My Pitch, January 7-13]. Your debts have to be below £10k I think and you have to pay a nominal one-off fee. I think [it was] £80 but it helped me clear all my debts. Citizens Advice helped me with my application. I too suffer from anxiety and depression so can relate to what Ann says. I live in Plymouth but the next time I'm in Exeter I hope to buy a Big Issue from her! Dave C, email It was good to hear that Ann is getting back on her feet, but not good that her debt hasn't changed. As a volunteer at my local Citizens Advice Bureau, I suggest and recommend that she…

An interesting question is posed at the end of Withnail and I . “If you’re hanging,” Danny says to Withnail, “onto a rising balloon, you’re presented with a difficult decision – let go before it's too late or hang on and keep getting higher… how long can you keep a grip on the rope?” Of course it can be facile to attach utterances from popular culture to the pickle the nation finds itself in, but this one gets to the heart of something. How long will people – on each side of Brexit – hold onto their rope before they realise that sooner or later they’ll have to drop down and sort things out? It's been quite a while so far, and looks like it’ll go longer.…

If there was any debate about the food poverty emergency, then look no further than the fact that army rations are to be donated to feed Britain’s most vulnerable people. Earlier this month, the Environmental Audit Committee warned that the government has allowed the crisis to “fall between the cracks”, with almost two million people undernourished in the UK. The Ministry of Defence announced last week that thousands of the boxes, intended to deliver 4,000 calories each to 10 soldiers for 24 hours, will be given to FareShare to tackle hunger. We’re all too aware of how much the food waste charity contributes – FareShare CEO Lindsay Boswell was named in our Top 100 Changemakers list last week for helping more than 10,000 charities feed 750,000 people each week. The…

As many of us flock back to neglected gyms in January, we soon realise just how isolating it can be – and not much fun. That was the starting point for Ivo Gormley, 36, who came up with the GoodGym concept after growing fed up with the gym and deciding that a run round the block was “a pain, just pointless”. He fantasised about plugging his bike into an electricity grid, so his energy would go to producing something helpful: not just exercising, but doing good at the same time. Gormley studied anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, and went on to become a filmmaker before moving into the social sector to lead healthcare service designer thinkpublic as creative director. He even turned running into work when he collaborated with…

01 The Elephant Road by Nicola Davies This story follows Wilen, who lives in the forests of Northern India. He persuades his village to plant trees when jungle elephants come too close for comfort. 02 The Wheel Of Surya by Jamila Gavin I loved this trilogy, set in India during partition. It follows a brother and sister, split from their mother, who are determined to travel to England in search of their father. 03 The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling I adored this classic when I was growing up. It’s perfect for curling up with and getting to know all the lovely animals that are part of Mowgli’s gang. 04 Seasons Of Splendour by Madhur Jaffrey This beautiful book shows how important storytelling is to Indian family life. It’s lively,…

If Christian Bale often looks unrecognisable in Vice , Nicole Kidman undergoes a similarly dramatic physical transformation for the scuzzy but gripping crime thriller Destroyer. With ratty garage- rocker hair, hollowed-out eyes and sandpaper skin, she plays a burned- out LA detective forced to confront an ugly episode from her past as an undercover agent. While the squalid urban setting and fractured flashback narrative might not be for everyone, Kidman gives a convincingly hard-boiled central performance. Destroyer is in cinemas from January 25…

House of Fraser, Exeter The prison system is setting people up to fail I came up through the care system, so I was in and out of care from an early age. I don’t really have any family support but I’m a grown man now and I make my own destiny. My friends are my family. The Big Issue was life-changing for me. It started years ago – I came out of prison in 2004 and tried some courses to change my ways but it didn’t work out. I went back to the drugs scene and got kicked out of my accommodation. I thought straight away, I’ve got to do something. I didn’t want to be committing crime. That was the first time I did The Big Issue. I’d finished…

Steven MacKenzie is wrong to assert that meat is a necessary part of human existence [For the chop, January 7-13]. It has been estimated that if veganism became global, there would be no starvation in the world. The argument that it would do away with jobs is true for the livestock sector, but more work would be created growing and harvesting the crops. Having a plant-based diet is a healthy way to live, which has little adverse impact on our environment. It is time for a more enlightened approach if we are to live successfully with an ever-increasing population. Sarah Russell, email @bigissue…

01 Owners of a more perceptive, intelligent and frankly more aesthetically pleasing brain than average, Big Issue buyers don’t avert their eyes, cross the street or suddenly start playing with their phone when they see someone selling the magazine. 02 Stopping to chat with a vendor encourages the release of dopamine that fires around your brain resulting in the lovely tingly feel-good feeling that comes when a person interacts and makes a connection with another in a positive way. 03 Buying the magazine releases yet another wave of fizzy dopamine. Deep- rooted in our hunter/gatherer brains is the need to add more possessions, and some kinds of retail are certainly therapeutic. 04 Reading the magazine and its 100% scientifically accurate lists also makes you feel good. And the best news…

Forty per cent of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime, and nearly everyone has lost a loved one to this disease. This is terrible stuff, and we’ve gotten good at being brave about it. Maybe that’s why many people don’t realise that the odds have recently changed, and that we’re curing cancer, right now. Not all cancers, and not all patients yet, but the field is moving fast. What changed? The discovery by James Allison (awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize) that cancer has a sort of secret handshake – it tricks our immune systems into not fighting. But now that we know about the secret handshake, we can block it, and free the immune system to kill cancer the way it does the common cold. The researchers…

Music festivals: a weekend of forging through endless masses of pongy humanity, warm stale beer, Portaloos like steaming gateways into the bowels of hell and drunken meltdowns at five in the morning where you find a trouserless stranger in a bucket hat asleep in what you are almost completely sure is your tent. And that’s when they go well. As the new Netflix original documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened entertainingly attests, music festivals sometimes go very, very badly indeed. Especially if they’re staged on a Bahamian desert island by a fraudster social media bro, and swiftly descend into a kind of millennial Lord of the Flies. Does Fyre deserve to go down in history as the worst music festival ever staged? A quick look back across the…