Conscious vs. unconscious money choices
Another great post from Dumbo Feather.
Do you ever think about how you spend your money and where that money goes?
Author Archive: useadmin
The Innovation of Loneliness
What is the connection between Social Networks and Being Lonely?
Inspired and Based on the wonderful book by Sherry Turkle – Alone Together.
Also Based on Dr. Yair Amichai-Hamburgers hebrew article -The Invention of Being Lonely.
In the Public Eye:: Anthony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FPkXDhddAZk
In the Public Eye: personal stories of homelessness and fines
Anthony became homeless in his late 20s. He slept rough and couch surfed for about two years and he got about $3000 in fines for travelling on public transport without a ticket, having his feet on the train seat and possessing an open container of liquor. Anthony now feels hopeful about his future. He is in recovery, has stable housing and is looking forward to returning to work or study.
There are over 22,000 people who are homeless in Victoria. These people are living in temporary accommodation, staying in refuges, sleeping in their cars, paying over $200 per week for a bed in a rooming house, couch surfing and, for 1,092 people, sleeping on the streets.
People who are homeless are (1) more likely to get fines because they are forced to carry out their private lives in public places; and (2) less likely to be able to address the fines through payment or navigating the complex legal system.
The current fines system in Victoria does not address the underlying causes of a person’s offending. Instead it issues financial penalties that people can’t pay and increases the strain they’re already under.
In the Public Eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eS8aoLoLqPU
Pilch (a Melbourne based law firm offering pro-bono legal services to disadvantaged) has launched a new campaign:
In the Public Eye, personal stories of homelessness and fines.
Through a series of videos telling the stories of homeless people living in the public eye and the risk of being targeted by officers giving fines. They call for greater insight from the people who give fines. They ask the very sensible question: what’s the point of fining people who clearly can’t pay?
Give…
Great post on Dumbo Feather about ‘Why giving could be the answer to your existential crisis’
Melbourne the most liveable city?
For 3 years in a row Melbourne has been voted the most liveable city. Out of 140 cities, Melbourne was given perfect scores for health care, education and infrastructure.
For Victoria’s 23,299 homeless I’m not sure if this would be true for them. One in three of those are children under the age of 12. And almost half were under the age of 25. (2006 census)
For more info see : It takes a home
Blue laneway
Just the other week an artist – Adrain Doyle – transformed this iconic Melbourne graffiti laneway by spray painting it ’empty-nursey blue’. A colour he says sums up his feelings about his childhood.
It wasn’t long before the taggers, graffers, and street artists were were back, painting over the ’empty-nursey blue’.
I went to see the laneway 3 days after it had been sprayed blue, to see it quickly returning back to its bright past. When I arrived there was school students, tourists, grafters alike all there to see the laneway with a camera/phone in hand.
One of my favourite things about street art is its ability to transform a space and bring people together. Here we all were different people, but at that moment all there to wonder and marvel over the ’empty-nursey blue’ laneway.
Guilt Free Shopping…?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jb9naGAiu3k
Ever spent a day shopping, spent lots of money and then walked past a homeless person and felt guilty?
If you shop online for music, electronics etc at Homepage for the Homeless you can donate up 15% from your purchase to youth homelessness via Ladder – a charity run by AFL players.
Step 1: Set ‘Homepage for the Homeless’ as your homepage.
Step 2: Click through a ‘keyhole’ before you shop online.
Step 3: Shop away, and up to 15% of your spend will be donated by the store to help Australia’s homeless – with no extra cost to you.
Think About it…
http://vimeo.com/lizarcus/juliathinkaboutitproject
A bunch of young people share their stories. The eight attitudes associated with the Riddle scale of homophobia are drawn upon as the young people’s voices ‘emerge’, sharing their real life experiences in the hope that the broader community will experience these short films, and then ‘think about it’.