Article Archive for March 2013
Writer, Lecturer and Media Reform Campaigner: Dr Benedetta Brevini on Italy, her Career and her Books
Dr Benedetta Brevini is coauthor of a book on Wikileaks and its aftermath and is writing a new one on Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) online and media regulation. She worked as a journalist in Milan, London and New York and contributes to The Guardian‘s Comment is Free. She is also a lecturer in Media …
Viewpoint – Alternative: Education that Says what it Means, the Original Free Schools
Taught by volunteers and inclusive to all, squat schools provide an alternative to Cameron’s Big Society free schools, without cost to the taxpayer.
Talia Rose, 28, who has been an English Foreign Language (EFL) teacher for the last nine years, volunteered as a facilitator in free schools in squats. She passionately …
Planet Issue: Long after Pythagoras – The World of the Flat Earth Society
Flat Earth believers have been around since biblical times and even photos of Earth taken from space have not deterred them.
Michael N Wilmore, 27, was born in London and moved to Ireland in his teens. He is the vice president of the Flat Earth Society, which he joined in 2006. …
Viewpoint – Planet: Europe’s Dirtiest Capital?
London smog.
In 1952 an estimated 4,000 people died as a result of severe air pollution in London. Today the same number are estimated to die early each year because of poor air quality in the Capital.
Dr Benjamin Barratt, of the Environmental Research Group at King’s College London, measures air quality …
Alternative Issue: An Alternative to Life – Welcome Collection, Death a Self Portrait
A skeleton leans sideways on a park bench, the essence of where life once was now just bare bones remain. As you look up a spectacular chandelier made of 3000 plaster cast bones by British artist Jodie Carey hangs eerily from the high exhibition ceiling and strikes you as you …
Planet Issue: Food for Thought, Re-using what can Still be Eaten
The UK is one of the richest countries in the world, but there are still massive issues of food waste and poverty. According to FoodCycle an estimated four million people are affected by food poverty in the UK.
Inspired by an American campus kitchen project, Foodcycle is a charity tackles food waste, …
Alternative Issue: Old Walls come to Life with Injection of New Culture
Illegal street art has been plastered on the walls of London’s East End for many years. The formerly known working class district is slowly transforming into a street art Mecca.
You only have to take a turn into a side street along Old Street to find a piece from the movement. …
Alternative Issue: Recipes on walls – Gourmandizing, what are you Hungry for?
Two Americans have launched a project that uses public art to share recipes, which are painted across walls in South East London.
Gourmandizing London is an artwork and community project that aims to celebrate the diversity of people, through a series of recipes collected for residents living in the nearby communities.
Jason …
Alternative Issue: Palestinian Hip-Hop a Product of its Environment
Out of great hardship comes great art. From the heart of a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, a defiant voice is crying for freedom and justice.
In the narrow alleyways of Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, a Palestinian Hip Hop band was born in 2007. Three young rappers who …
Country in Focus the Alternative Issue: What do you think about the recent legal changes towards marijuana laws in the US?
Mary Stevens, 21, from North Carolina studies at City University and speaks about the recently passed changes to marijuana laws.
I personally think that it can be useful for medical reasons and is less dangerous than cigarette smoking; it can be fun as well. I believe that the US have taken …
Alternative Issue: Street Crime Beaten Back by Boxing Clubs
Dave Ryan doesn’t just deliver mail around one of London’s toughest neighbourhoods he has spent most of his life and spare time trying to improve it.
Having been a community volunteer and local postman for over 42 years he has put blood, sweat and tears into his local boxing club where he …
Viewpoint – Alternative: Occupy, where are they now?
It’s a year since Occupy London left the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral, but many of the group are still campaigning for change.
George Barda was one of the most recognisable faces of Occupy London. With his long dark hair and wiry beard he often appeared as a spokesperson for the …
Planet Issue: Deaths on Britain’s Roads can put off Cyclists Despite Londons Mayor’s Encouragement
Cycle hire scheme in London “Boris Bikes”.
Cycling is a great way to exercise and a form of travel environmentalists will always favour. To them, the more who choose to cycle rather than travel using vehicles that emit harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the better.
Last week Green party member Jenny …
Planet Issue: Peacepainting – Catrine Gangstø
Catrine Gangstø leading a Peacepainting workshop.
Peacepainting is an organisation that exists to remind the adult world what it means to think like a child. Using the same format, same frames and same canvas’s children across the world are taking part in painting workshops to express themselves.
“Children think what they say …
Alternative Issue: Dark Parks – the Photos of Stjepan Sedlar
Seeing the world through Stjepan Sedlar’s eyes requires a lot of patience and having no fear of the dark. His parents are from Croatia and this Hamburg born photographer, who lives in Berlin, would stray into parks at night taking colour photos without lighting.
It is late afternoon on a cold Sunday in …
Alternative Issue: Dive Tourism Threatens Marine Life
In the last two decades, the dive tourism industry has exploded into a global giant and has become a welcome source of income in less economically developed countries.
According to The Professional Association of Diving Instructors statistics, its membership numbers have increased by almost 70 per cent since 1993. Experts believe …
Censorship Issue: Bulagaria’s not so Free Press
Bulgarian newspapers.
Bulgaria has the lowest level of press freedom of any European country according to this year’s Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index.
This widely accepted measure of how free the world’s media are, described the small Balkan state as a country “whose promise of reform came to nothing and where the …
Alternative Issue: Burkina Faso’s Paralympians Pave Way for Equal Rights
When Burkina Faso’s Paralympic team arrived in London with nowhere to stay, nowhere to train and not enough money to salvage the situation in a strange country, 24 year old Liam Conlon decided to take matters into his own hands.
The Cambridge graduate put some of the athletes up in his …
Alternative Issue: Islamic Finance Investments on the Rise, but are there any Jobs?
Investments in Islamic finance are increasing at a rapid rate globally. According to Ernst and Young global Islamic banking assets held by commercial banks are set to reach almost two trillion this year, up from the US$1.3 trillion of assets held in 2011. The sector has seen a 150% increase …
Alternative Issue: Tourism Threatens Balinese Culture
As immigration and tourism soars in Bali, locals are clamping down more than ever to preserve their unique Hindu culture and island beauty.
Made Dedik, Balinese local and owner of Double D Surf School at Seminyak Beach is no exception, and vehemently believes in protecting the island he grew up on. …
Viewpoint – Planet: Will British Aviation get a Second Wind?
In 2010 plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport was dropped by the new coalition government. Now, in response to other European countries’ growing aviation capacity, the issue has resurfaced.
The Howard Davies aviation commission will spend 2013 determining the future need for expansions and deliver their report to the …
Viewpoint – Alternative: Squatting Faces its Death Blow
Co-authored with Christian Jensen.
A new campaign will try and make squatting completely illegal. In September 2012, squatting in a residential location, the act of living in a building without paying rent, was made illegal. But now the government is considering extending this to all squatting.
Mike Weatherly, Conservative MP, is one …
