A new recycle shop, Pass The Baton, was opened in Marunouchi Brick Square in Tokyo, where each story of things becomes like a baton that will be passed to a new owner. The shop interior was designed by Masamichi Katayama. There is hanging a chandelier made of glass bottoles of Martinelli Apple Juice. In the mixture of modern and antique style interior space, they feature about 1600 items of imported products, recycle and original items. In addition to products collected under the theme of recycle, re-make and re-think, they offer new items that should be used as standard ones including interior plants, organic shampoos, candles, stationaries, ties and etc. At the website which was designed by Yugo Nakamura, they will soon start an online shopping site where you can enjoy exhibitors’ portrait photos, bios and stories intuitively. In here the personal value will be converted into the global one.

Pass The Baton is a new type of recycle shop which never be seen before. A must-visit place to experience if you’re in Tokyo for a new treasure hunting.

http://www.pass-the-baton.com/

Cardboard Citizens changes the lives of homeless and displaced people through theatre and the performing arts.

Mission:
- Present plays performed by homeless and displaced people, to share experiences and problem-solve together.

- Work in partnership to widen the reach of the company’s work and underpin its support for participants.

- Make theatre for general audiences so a wider public can share in the company’s learning and understanding of the issues faced by homeless people.

- Enable excluded people to develop skills and confidence through projects and workshops.

- Meet the practical needs of homeless and displaced people, supporting them in matters of housing, education, employment, health, career and personal development.

Vision:
- Cardboard Citizens strives to be a world leader in its field, creating great theatre that makes a real and positive difference to our society and those living on its margins.

- They know that theatre can be a catalyst for change, growth and learning for participants and audiences.

- They are working to further develop theatre projects in and out of hostels for a wide range of audiences, focussed on the lives of homeless and displaced people.

- They will be supporting people in diverse ways, helping homeless people to play their part in the world, and society to understand how life is lived on the margins.

- Their ambition is to enable every hostel resident in London to be able to access the company’s work, as audience or participant.

- And to offer all homeless or displace people who become involved with the company individual help and support.

- They will produce theatre-based and site-specific productions on a regular and sustainable basis, telling stories of the excluded.

- Every audience member at a Cardboard Citizens show will learn about issues affecting the displaced and homeless people they work with.

- The company will be fully engaged in national and international networks, where appropriate joining in alliances and campaigns to bring unheard voices to the fore. 

- All their partners, peers and friends will have the opportunity to share best practice, knowledge, skills and expertise, and to travel further with us on Cardboard Citizens’ future journey.

http://cardboardcitizens.org.uk/p1.html

On an annual basis, Macmillan Cancer Support hosts the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning inviting people globally to participate by getting together with friends and family having coffee, cake and anything else that encourages others to raise money for the work Macmillan carries out. With over £6.5million raised in 2009 to help the charity’s work, 2010’s coffee morning looks set to be even bigger. Macmillan have tapped into an idea that globally, everyone can relate to (drinking coffee) to raise money and raise their profile. A day of tea drinking throughout the UK for instance, could be another idea which has scope to reach everyone, if another charity was to implement it. You can check out the Flickr group of Macmillan’s coffee morning here and be sure to check out the rest of the information on Macmillan’s website here.

PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 by Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein of KleinDytham Architecture as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of conversation (”chit chat”), it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

PechaKucha is currently in 255 cities worldwide and is growing every week. I myself am now part of the London team who have brought it back to the capital, with the first event happening on the Monday just gone. You can join the London PechaKucha Facebook group here.

With a recently re-launched website, you can now view presentations online here and make sure to check out all the other information on the PechaKucha website.

http://www.pecha-kucha.org/

Just like the Brixton Pound, Ithaca Hours is a local currency system that promotes local economic strength and community reliance that will support economic and social justice, ecology, community participation and human aspirations.

In Ithaca, New York, the group who started the alternative currency have gained control of the social and environmental effects of commerce by issuing over $110,000 of their own local paper money, to thousands of residents, since 1991. Tens of thousands of purchases and many new friendships have been made with this cash, and millions of dollars value of local trading has been added to the Grassroots National Product. They printed their own money because they watched Federal dollars come to town, shake a few hands, then leave to buy rainforest lumber and fight wars. Ithaca’s Hours, by contrast, stay in the region to help people hire each other. While dollars make people increasingly dependent on transnational corporations and bankers, Hours reinforce community trading and expand commerce which is more accountable to the concerns for ecology and social justice.

Here’s how it works: the Ithaca Hour is Ithaca’s $10.00 bill, because ten dollars per hour is the average of wages/salaries in Tompkins County. These Hour notes, in five denominations, buy plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, roofing, nursing, chiropractic, child care, car and bike repair, food, eyeglasses, firewood, gifts, and thousands of other goods and services. Credit unions accept them for mortgage and loan fees. People pay rent with Hours. The best restaurants take them, as do movie theaters, bowling alleys, two large locally-owned grocery stores, the local hospital, many garage sales, 55 farmer’s market vendors, the Chamber of Commerce, and 300 other businesses. Hundreds more have earned and spent Hours who are not in the Hour Town directory.

The Success Stories of 300 participants published so far testify to the acts of generosity and community that the system prompts. A community is being made while making a living. As the Hours do so, they relieve the social desperation which has led to compulsive shopping and wasted resources. At the same time Ithaca’s locally-owned stores, which keep more wealth local, make sales and get spending power they otherwise would not have. And over $10,000 of local currency has been donated to over 100 community organizations so far, by the elected Hour board of directors. We regard Ithaca’s Hours as real money, backed by real people, real time, real skills and tools. Dollars, by contrast, are funny money, backed no longer by gold or silver but by less than nothing- $8.4 trillion of national debt.

HOURS expand the local money supply
HOURS promote and expand local shopping, with an endless multiplier
HOURS double the local minimum wage to $10.00, benefitting not only workers but businesses as well, who find new and loyal customers.
HOURS enable shoppers to afford premium prices for locally-crafted goods and for locally-grown organic food.
HOURS help start new businesses and jobs
HOURS reduce dependence on imports and transport fuels
HOURS make grants to nonprofit community organizations
HOURS make zero-interest loans
HOURS stimulate community pride

http://www.ithacahours.org/index.php

As discussed earlier about people food sharing during the Northeast Blackout in 2003, The Big Lunch is an initiative to get everyone in the UK to stop what they are doing for one moment and sit down and have lunch with their neighbours. They have wanted to put a smile back on the faces of Brits and strengthen communities. The first Big Lunch took place on the 19th of July this year and the original idea came from the Eden Project which encouraged people to get together to solve problems and share things as a community.

Most of us are shy, many of us lead single lives and even when we are together often go our own way. We all know about the problems in our society and don’t need to be preached at. But inside almost everyone there is a notion that, despite our differences, the ties that bind us are important. The shared enjoyment of eating together, laughter, play, music and conversation bring us together and for all the fact that we are so fabulously different in our outlook and experience on many things, we know a simple truth – together we are strong. Wouldn’t it be great if for just one day we remind ourselves about all that is good about us and bring about a moment that ignites a spark. It may be tricky, it may feel slightly uncomfortable to start with. It takes a bit of courage to stop being a stranger. But think of the prize – to be able to walk down the street and into the wider neighbourhood and realise how many good people there are: people who, acting together, can create a real sense of community – a word that in Latin means ‘together, in gift’.

Individual countries are famous for their signature food dishes, England/Fish and Chips, Japan/Sushi, Italy/Pasta, Switzerland/Chocolate so wouldn’t it be great if one day a year the concept of The Big Lunch was brought into action in different countries as well them exporting their signature foods to other countries. Similar to culture festivals, so for example in Japan, one day a year, there would be an England/Fish and Chips festival. I could see that being very interesting to say the least.

http://www.thebiglunch.com/

After speaking to my friend from Toronto, she explained to be about The Northeast Blackout of 2003. It was a massive widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Ontario, Canada on Thursday, August 14, 2003, at approximately 4:15 p.m. EDT (20:15 UTC). At the time, it was the most widespread electrical blackout in history. The blackout affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states.

“A few years ago we had a city-wide blackout that lasted two or three days.  There was no electricity, they had to give food away at the stores because it was going off. People who were neighbours for several years got together in their backyards and shared dinner!  It was amazing. I think this sort of thing should happen once a year on purpose!  We could all get together with a common thread.  Not to mention, it saves so much on the environment.”

If you think about the amount of food you waste, it could be easily shared or reused again, for example as compost heaps. The Ontario blackout forced people to share food, and while not new, food sharing should be publicised a lot more in my opinion. Maybe an ‘organised’ blackout could be arranged monthly, where people have to switch off their fridges in their communities and get together to share all the food.

Brands such as Pret A Manger have already tapped into food sharing for good causes with their Pret Charity Run scheme. They distribute uneaten food at the end of the day from all of their London stores to homeless people around the capital. Over 12,000 meals are distributed every week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003

http://www.pret.com/about/charities.htm