During a balmy 60ºF December morning, Rene Zepeda is driving a Volunteers of America minivan through Salt Lake City, Utah, looking for the homeless who may be camping by the railroad tracks or over by the river, sometimes in the foothills. Cold weather is on its way, so the van is packed with sleeping bags, thermal clothing, coats, sock, boots, hats, protein bars, nutrition drinks and canned goods. According to Rene, once the day is finished, everything will be gone. “I want to get them into homes,” he says. “I tell them, ‘I’m working for you. I want to get you out of the homeless situation.’”
Rene works for a program called Housing First. It has decreased the number of homeless by an extraordinary 72% — mainly by providing permanent free housing. Critics bemoan the expense, but once the numbers were thoroughly crunched, it was discovered the program actually costs the state far less than if people were left on the street. Moreover, in a nation where a large proportion of the homeless population are military veterans, adopting such a program is not only a social or financial imperative but a moral one…
Read the whole article by Carolanne Wright in Wake up world.
The Sharing Economy is a socio-economic ecosystem built around the sharing of human, physical and intellectual resources.
It includes the shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services by different people and organisations.
Whilst the Sharing Economy is currently in its infancy, known most notably as a series of services and start-ups which enable P2P exchanges through technology, this is only the beginning: in its entirety and potential it is a new and alternative socio-economic system which embeds sharing and collaboration at its heart – across all aspects of social and economic life.
The ‘Sharing’ in the Sharing Economy refers to the use and access of shared physical or human resources or assets, rather than the fact that there is no monetary exchange. A Sharing Economy enables different forms of value exchange and is a hybrid economy.
“Shareconomy” is going to be a documentary film about the rise of the “sharing economy”. The film will examine the benefits and drawbacks of the sharing economy movement.
A basic income is a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.
That is, a basic income has the five following characteristics:
Periodic: it is paid at regular intervals (for example every month), not as a one-off grant.
Cash payment: it is paid in an appropriate medium of exchange, allowing those who receive it to decide what they spend it on. It is not, therefore, paid either in kind (such as food or services) or in vouchers dedicated to a specific use.
Individual: it is paid on an individual basis—and not, for instance, to households.
Universal: it is paid to all, without means test.
Unconditional: it is paid without a requirement to work or to demonstrate willingness-to-work.
A wide variety of Basic Income proposals are circulating today. They differ along many other dimensions, including in the amounts of the Basic Income, the source of funding, the nature and size of reductions in other transfers that might accompany it, and so on.
Although BIEN has not endorsed any particular proposal, and it is open to people who favor very different proposals, BIEN’s 2016 General Assembly endorsed a very broad description of a proposal in the following resolution:
A majority of members attending BIEN’s General Assembly meeting in Seoul on July 9, 2016, agreed to support Basic Income that is stable in size and frequency and high enough to be, in combination with other social services, part of a policy strategy to eliminate material poverty and enable the social and cultural participation of every individual. We oppose the replacement of social services or entitlements, if that replacement worsens the situation of relatively disadvantaged, vulnerable, or lower-income people…
We are providing quality reporting that focuses on progress and possibility. Owned by our readers and journalists worldwide, Positive News is also the first global media cooperative financed through crowdfunding. As a magazine and a movement, we are changing the news for good.
Media has a powerful influence on our world. We believe excessive negativity in the press is destructive for society, so instead we are working to create a more constructive and compassionate media.
The news can only ever capture a tiny fragment of reality, and it tends to focus on humanity at its worse. Positive News helps you see the bigger picture, keeping you informed without leaving you feeling cynical and hopeless. Be informed, be inspired.
Drama, blame and conflict-focused news stories can often divide us, but positive news stories can foster a sense of community.
Research has shown that negative news can lead to mental health problems, while positive news can boost your wellbeing.
This information comes from the website of Positive News.
With Quantino electric vehicles, a Liechtenstein-based company want to prove that its nanoFlowcell® technology can free mobility from its dependence on fossil fuels and current battery systems. It doesn’t plug in to recharge the way electric vehicles do (which are not as green as you think). It runs on flow cell technology – a battery that uses salt water solutions to store electrolytes that can undergo reactions to produce electricity.
Able to travel 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) for 14 hours on a single tank and reach speeds of 200 km/h, Quantino cars are electrical, silent and give off zero harmful emissions – unleashing a new energy storage within the new field of electric mobility. Two ionic fluids generate electricity by means of a chemical process. One holds a positive charge and other, negative…
Norway Proves That Treating Prison Inmates As Human Beings Actually Works.
Bastoy is an open prison, a concept born in Finland during the 1930s and now part of the norm throughout Scandinavia, where prisoners can sometimes keep their jobs on the outside while serving time, commuting daily. Thirty percent of Norway’s prisons are open, and Bastoy, a notorious reformatory for boys converted in 1982 to a prison, is considered the crown jewel of them all.
A small yellow van driven by a smiling officer carried me to a cabin where I checked my phone in, the first thing that remotely suggested “prison.” Tom, the governor ― not warden or superintendent but governor ― looked like Kevin Costner. He offered me a cup of coffee, and we took a seat in his office, which, with its floral drapes, aloe plants and faintly perfumed, cinder scent, reminded me of a quaint bed-and-breakfast somewhere in New England.
“It doesn’t work. We only do it because we’re lazy,” Tom said flatly. He was talking about the traditional prison system, where he was stationed for 22 years before running this open prison. A fly buzzed loudly by the window as Tom went on.
“I started skeptical. That changed quickly. More prisons should be open ― almost all should be. We take as many as we can here, but there isn’t room for everyone.” Prisoners from around the country can apply to move to an open prison like Bastoy when they’re within three years of release. The island is home to about 115 men overseen by over 70 staff members, and there is a waiting list of about 30.
“There’s a perception that, ‘Oh, this is the lightweight prison; you just take the nice guys for the summer-camp prison.’ But in fact, no. Our guys are into, pardon my French, some heavy shit. Drugs and violence. And the truth is, some have been problematic in other prisons but then they come here, and we find them easy. We say, ‘Is that the same guy you called difficult?’ It’s really very simple: Treat people like dirt, and they will be dirt. Treat them like human beings, and they will act like human beings.”
The fleet of plug-in electric vehicles in Norway is the largest per capita in the world, with Oslo recognized as the EV capital of the world.
As of July 2016, the market concentration was 21.5 registered plug-in cars per 1,000 people, 14.2 times higher than the U.S., the world’s largest country market. Norway’s fleet of electric cars is one of the cleanest in the world because 98% of the electricity generated in the country comes from hydropower. In March 2014, Norway became the first country where over one in every 100 passenger cars on the roads is a plug-in electric, and the segment’s market penetration passed 3% in December 2015.
The stock of light-duty plug-in electric vehicles registered in Norway totaled 121,330 units at the end of September 2016, making the country the fourth largest plug-in market in the world after the U.S., China and Japan. As of September 2016, the Norwegian fleet of plug-in electric vehicles consist of 92,813 all-electric passenger cars, 26,225 plug-in hybrids, and 2,292 all-electric vans. The total stock includes more than 14,000 used imported electric cars from neighboring countries. The Norwegian plug-in electric vehicle market share of new car sales has been the highest in the world for several years, reaching 22.4% in 2015, up from 13.8% in 2014. The highest-ever monthly market share for plug-in electric segment was achieved in March 2016 with one in three passenger cars registered being a plug-in electric car (33.5%). Registrations of light-duty plug-in electric vehicles in Norway passed the 100,000 unit milestone in April 2016. Norway is the largest European market for both the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S.
Among the existing government incentives, all-electric cars and vans are exempt in Norway from all non-recurring vehicle fees, including purchase taxes, and 25% VAT on purchase, together making electric car purchase price competitive with conventional cars. Also, the government approved a tax reduction for plug-in hybrids in effect starting in July 2013.
The Harvard education professor Howard Gardner once advised Americans, “Learn from Finland, which has the most effective schools and which does just about the opposite of what we are doing in the United States.”
Following his recommendation, I enrolled my seven-year-old son in a primary school in Joensuu. Finland, which is about as far east as you can go in the European Union before you hit the guard towers of the Russian border.
OK, I wasn’t just blindly following Gardner – I had a position as a lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland for a semester. But the point is that, for five months, my wife, my son and I experienced a stunningly stress-free, and stunningly good, school system. Finland has a history of producing the highest global test scores in the Western world, as well as a trophy case full of other recent No. 1 global rankings, including most literate nation.
In Finland, children don’t receive formal academic training until the age of seven. Until then, many are in day care and learn through play, songs, games and conversation. Most children walk or bike to school, even the youngest. School hours are short and homework is generally light.
