Ireland's Big Issue 272 (February 2022)

Digital Edition Feb 2022 Is 272 Vol 20

Sex Trafficking A way out for sex trafficking victims

“Those girls were commodities; they were canned goods on a shelf, and you could pick whichever ones you wanted.”

Lots of great articles inside

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Is í ár dteanga féin í.

It’s our language.

BAILE ÁTHA CLIATH · BÉAL FEIRSTE · RÁTH CHAIRN · DÚN SEACHLAINN · GAOTH DOBHAIR

forasnagaeilge.ie

Going Forward The Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll on us, like it has on many other magazines, organisations and businesses globally. Among the problems facing us are: Our new landlord’s reluctance to come to a compromise on rent for an unused office during the pandemic and threat to hike rent meant we had to vacate our home of 20 years, The genuine public fear of physical interaction makes putting a magazine on the streets problematic.

The advent of a cashless society.

Unfortunately, all have contributed to a landscape that has irreversibly changed since the Big Issue first hit the streets in 1995. To meet this challenge, Ireland’s Big Issue have reluctantly decided to host the magazine digitally-only for the immediate future. We will revisit this decision as time moves on and circumstances change.

We thank you for your support to-date and ask that you continue to help us help those on the margins of society.

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Contents

Aimee Knight reports.

Page 6

Page 22

Letter to my Younger Self – Marty Wilde

Rags to Riches: From Orphan to Royal Portrait Painter

This issue singersongwriter Marty Wilde (82) takes on the challenge.

Sam McMurdock looks at the life of John Lavery, one of Ireland’s most respected artists.

Marty Wilde

Page 8

Page 30 San Francisco: The Great Divide

I was an AntiVaxxer

Division Street: Photographer Robert Gumpert talks about how his new book illustrates how visible the wealth gap has become in San Francisco.

Niamh Coyle was “I was an anti-vaxxer.” an antivaxxer, indoctrinated by Covid deniers on plaforms like BitChute - until she caught Covid and was bed bound.

Page 36 Bitcoin ‘Experiment’ Leaves Digital Poor on the Sidelines

Page 12 Exodus Road: A Way out for Sex Trafficking Victims

A way out for sex trafficking victims

As El Salvador makes history by adopting Bitcoin, Salvadorans who do not have smartphones and digital literacy skills are struggling to understand the change. AnnaCatherine Brigada and Anastasia Moloney report.

For Laura and Matt Parker, witnessing trafficking first-hand Will Smith in the King Richard while working Page in Thailand was a call to The Podcast Review action. Cat Evans reports.

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We review some of the best new podcasts.

Page 16 Movie Biopic: King Richard.

A look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams became who they are after the coaching from their father, played

by Will Smith in the movie, King Richard.

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Regulars 20/21– Photo World 26/27 – Screen Scene 34/35 - Book reviews

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Issues: Talking Point

The Violence Must Stop!

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n light of the death of Ashling Murphy - we must stand together and fight for change now. Sineád Dunlop reports.

Ireland collectively mourned the death of 23-year-old Co. Offaly primary school teacher, traditional musician and sportswoman Ashling Murphy on 12th January. A beautiful young woman’s life was viciously stolen from her on her jog along Grand Canal, Tullamore leaving her family grief-stricken. Ashling could have been anyone’s daughter, sister, girlfriend, or friend going about her normal routine; that’s what makes this savage crime even more disturbing. Her death cannot be in vain - as we mourn collectively; we must stand united as a society and demand major change, because without it, this will happen again and again.

violence strategy. McEntee said the new criminal offences for stalking and non-fatal strangulation will be included in a bill that is set to be published before Easter.

Speaking in the Dail recently, she said changes to existing legislation will “make the law clearer and stronger” and she hopes these changes will “encourage victims to come forward and report what has happened to them”.

When Sarah Grace came forward she described the ordeal as worse than the rape, with notes from private therapy sessions disclosed in court and having no preparation in how to defend herself in the courtroom.

It is just over a year since 48-yearold Urantsetseg Tserendorj was We must also change the mindset stabbed to death near the IFSC of young men, education is needed. in Dublin’s city centre whilst Conversations must occur in the walking home from work, a classroom, in the home and in the 15-year-old young Dublin youth workplace about women’s safety, was charged; a year-and-a-half sexuality, violence and consent. It’s before that, solicitor, Sarah Grace was violently sexually very saddening that some men still believe a woman is assaulted by depraved stranger, Ibrahim Elghynaoui who “asking for it” if she wears figure-hugging clothing like came in the window of her Dublin apartment. Sadly, the jog-wear. These mindsets must be challenged. list of women who’ve been raped, abducted, tortured and/or lost their lives at the hands of a violent male is While education plays a significant role in enlightening alarmingly long. As women we are told we’re more attitudes, there will always be evil likely to be attacked by someone we know individuals who commit heinous ...some men still - but if we cast our eye down the list of crimes and these must women raped or murdered in Ireland be dealt with. Perhaps believe a woman is “asking for over the past ten years, this hypothesis it is time to consider it” if she wears figure-hugging would need to be queried. mandatory sentencing. clothing like jog-wear.

A sentence should be a This tragedy must make us all focus on deterrent and patterns of social change and be prepared to pressure our previous behavior should be taken into government for it. Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who account in determining that. Long after perpetrators was genuinely moved by Ashling’s murder stated in are walking the streets, victims are still living with allparliament recently, consuming PTSD and anxiety.

“We want and need a zero-tolerance approach to violence against women and this will require all of us, as a society, to commit to lasting change.”

But how will this be implemented?

Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee has been working for the past year on a new domestic, sexual, gender-based 5

Now is the time for affirmative action, educate our girls on potential dangers and our boys on the importance of being allies in the fight against the few ‘bad apple’ misogynistic predators who objectify women, viewing them as inconsequential. As individuals, men and women, we must demand change.

Issues: Life

Letter to my Younger Self Marty Wilde

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ach issue we ask a well-known name to write a letter to their 16-year-old self. This issue 82-year-old singer-songwriter Marty Wilde takes on the challenge.

At 16 my musical world was about to explode, because complexes about ourselves, but then that’s part of being as a child I had always adored music, but had never young, it’s still a bit sad when I see this 16-year-old in my completely settled with any particular musical style, but old photographs and think it’s a shame that he couldn’t this was about to be rectified with one of the greatest have enjoyed that period of his life more. musical influences that any young person could be privileged to have experienced, and it was called rock’n’ At 82, I view this world so differently, now, ......long roll....... gone are some of the fundamental things that as a child I had learnt I was being to play encouraged simple to believe chords on a in........, and ukulele when religion was I was around one of those 11, which things. led me to For many the guitar .... years I the chords believed my were similar parents sent in many me to Sunday ways, and I School to delighted in encourage me playing to to be a better people, as it person, but made me feel now when good inside, I look back because on it, that I was struggling at school with my education ,which one afternoon was the only chance my parents had to be unfortunately had been decimated by the war years, and really alone together, and it must have been a big relief now somehow ,when I sang to people, they looked up to knowing I was just over the road every Sunday afternoon me in some strange way. in that little church hall in Halstow Road, singing some of the great hymns “Being young , and 6’4” I had left school at 15 to work as while they were having those I felt so embarrassed, at being this a messenger boy in London, and special moments together. stupidly tall giant!” would catch an early morning train to London Bridge, which, from In front of me sits my computer screen, Greenwich took about 30 minutes. The trains would be and tucked into the right-hand corner of it I managed to packed, so for most of those journeys I stood with my wedge into it a post card, sent to me by my father during arm in the air, holding on to leather straps that stopped the war years. My father wrote, one from being thrown around. Being young , and 6’4” “To Reggie, wishing you a lovely birthday, and may God I felt so embarrassed, at being this stupidly tall giant! It’s bless you and watch over you always.........from your everstrange that as young people, we carry with us so many loving Daddy”, and below his blue inked pen writing, 6

there were 14 kisses that he had just managed to scratch onto the corner of the post card. These were tough times for most parents who were sadly involved in fighting a terrible war that had now cruelly separated loved ones but because of the dreadful bombing that London was taking, my mother and I were eventually moved, and we were fortunate enough to be able to follow my father as he was posted around different parts of Great Britain.

My father died at 48, and although our relationship struggled a bit when I reached my teenage years, I have missed him every day.

many years but were never ever my friends. Tell someone who does both and most times they will deride any logical warning you may offer them, and when I was young I would have argued with anyone that both were simple pleasures, and what was wrong with that…..?

I am now 60 , and one night just before going on stage, I seen small flecks of blood in my urine, and thankfully after acting quickly, I managed to find a specialist, and after tests, I’m sitting apprehensively in a cancer specialists surgery. The surgeon puts up on a screen a large X-ray of my bladder, and points to different shaded areas in the picture….. “you have cancer of the bladder, Mr Wilde.”

I wish people would study history a bit more, particularly world leaders. At present we have China and Russia leading their countries through some very uncertain times, and like so many leaders before them, have taken total control of most of the information their people After the initial shock, I ask how could I possibly have are receiving, building up their military bladder cancer, what could have might, and acting at times just caused that?

“I would advise all like the bullies you can often “Smoking,” he says in a matter16-year-olds to live your life being a experience in schools. of-fact way....... free thinker.”

Military parades, fantastically And I realise that if I had coloured military uniforms covered in continued smoking whilst in my fifties, medals, with unsmiling soldiers who believe they will be I would have died .... invincible because they are the toughest, and of course they must be seen parading lethal weaponry. I’ve seen it I have since, over the years, lost friends with different all before, and it’s too sad, because most people, just want cancers, and have also seen good people’s lives ruined by to get on living a decent life with their neighbours. alcohol abuse, but I managed, mainly by luck I suppose to shake off their hold on me, and can honestly say, I don’t Try not to be pushed into areas you are not comfortable miss drinking and smoking one bit........but who is going with, as in life, wrong decisions we make earlier in life to listen to me............? I’m now 82. can come back and hurt us emotionally. Making mistakes by your own decided upon decisions, is a much better Extracts from Marty Wilde’s forthcoming autobiography. learning process, than learning from someone else’s Used by kind permission. mistakes made for you by them. I have realised over these last years that making your own mistakes is just as © Copyright Marty Wilde 2022 important as making successful decisions.

Wilde Productions Ltd. Smoking and drinking were two of my pleasures for 7

Issues: Real Life

I Was an Anti-Vaxxer - Until I Contracted Covid

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iamh Coyle in her mid thirties from a county in Ireland was an avid anti-vaxxer, indoctrinated by Covid deniers and conspiracy theorists on platforms like Reddit and BitChute - until she caught Covid and was bed bound.

I was an anti-vaxxer. Something I defended vehemently, now makes me recant in contrition as I begin the process of deconstructing, what I can describe as nothing short of indoctrination.

I not only viewed those who had the Covid-19 vaccine as ’sheeple’ (sheep people, or uninformed followers) but I attempted to discourage family members from having their kids vaccinated against MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) citing, what I now believe is pseudo-science from the likes of Andrew Wakefield. How did I fall down the anti-vaxx rabbit hole and in a relatively short period of time?

(discussion platforms on the Internet) on why it was important to resist this “insufficiently tested” vaccine. I read initially, merely to better understand the opposition, but as I perused more and more and followed the hyperlinks to further ‘information’, I found myself caught in a neverending maze, of what I now know to be conspiracy theories. There were so many plausible arguments. I read the phrase ‘plandemic’ for the first time and started to wonder, could the coronavirus pandemic have been concocted (by a shadowy global elite) for sinister purposes? I became quite captivated by a well-known I’ve always been interested in conspiracy theorist who gave dissenting viewpoints and riveting lectures on how “I was coughing, wheezing and regularly read blogs and the pandemic had been struggling to take in a deep breathe.” watch YouTube content in the pipeline for a long I strongly disagree with. time and was part of the Like military strategist Sun “totalitarian tiptoe” to take Tzu said in The Art of War, control of our lives. There was a link to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

“The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly, is to take a little of their freedom I’ve always believed we need to know the perspectives at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and and counter-arguments of those we disagree with to almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the proper cement our own positions and justify them. When people will not see those rights and freedoms being I first heard of the Coronavirus and followed the progress removed until past the point at which these changes of the vaccine I began reading lots of sub-Reddits cannot be reversed.”

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This made sense to me. I could see our rights being eroded more as each week passed, from complete lockdowns to masking out kids - to Covid Passes that prevented the unvaccinated from eating in restaurants.

few weeks I focused purely on vaccine ingredient suspicion, as I did have genuine concerns, but after that I seemed to plunge into a neverending rabbit hole, with thousands of off-shoots - thanks to Hitler once the good old said that one algorithm who controls that provided the media, me more controls the and more masses - and I (extreme) looked at how, content. ‘whistleblowers’ From vaccine were being components silenced, like Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan who I discovered that cells derived from human foetuses claimed the virus was “man made” in a Wuhan lab electively aborted decades ago make their way into the and had to go in to hiding. When Big jabs (Pfizer and Moderna use mRNA, Tech companies like Twitter, which is synthetic, I’ve since Facebook and Google started discovered). This led me ….the more accounts that suspending accounts of down the ethics path and, were barred on YouTube and other well-known individuals, within just a couple of platforms in a bid to banish anti-vaxx and (in a bid to tackle mismonths I realised I’d anti-lockdown groups from mainstream - the slipped into quite farinformation) who spoke bigger these groups became as they went out against the vaccine, right territory, through airing their suspicions quite an innocuous ‘underground’. about the pandemic, I initial Google search). I became even more dubious - as actually wasn’t aware of this until did hundreds of thousands or even radical content was being offered on millions of others in chatrooms across the Internet. my newsfeed. I was perplexed but put it down to some sort of fault in the algorithm (I now know that white Unfortunately, the more accounts that were barred on supremacist and right-wing groups are capitalising on YouTube and other platforms in a bid to banish antivaccine hesitancy to distribute conservative ideologies vaxx and anti-lockdown groups from mainstream - the to new audiences). Covid-denial content seemed to be bigger these groups became as they went ‘underground’. everywhere I looked.

I followed my favourite de-platformed whistleblowers (which included highly respected GPs and other medical professionals) to unregulated sites like BitChute and I Caught Covid Telegram. I was invested.

The Speedy Plummet to Indoctrination

How did I become indoctrinated so quickly? In the first

On New Year’s Eve I woke up with my head swirling and debilitating dizziness. I put my foot on the floor and couldn’t keep my balance. I was terrified! I’d never ever felt anything like this. I had pains across my eyes, a blocked nose, I was coughing, wheezing and struggling to take in a deep breathe - my chest felt hollow - it was 9

the most frightening experience of my life. I was freezing, my 180-degree turnaround. There’s even fear in my literally one community that moment and the vaccinated boiling hot the are a danger to next. I couldn’t eat and I slept them, but most for up to 18 believe they hours a day are resisting waking only to evil globalist take pain killers forces who for the endless want to corrupt new pains in them and their my body. In my children - and waking moments whilst many will I felt angry and laugh and think deceived. If they’re provincial there was no - they are people such thing as I’ve grown up Covid - what was with and people this? After three I respect. I could weeks of more of well lose many, the same and no many friends respite I became incredibly bitter and acquaintances if they discover and vowed that if (because I I’ve “given in” and am now I live in a small, rural area with didn’t think ‘when’ - that’s longer “awake” but I no how ill I felt) I got better, longer believe what a large anti-vaxx movement who believe I would not only they believe - and this lockdowns are “medical apartheid” never read this kind of has been a very difficult content again but I would journey - illness aside. use my story to warn others (I haven’t had the courage to do this yet). I also contacted my local pharmacy to book my vaccine.

It is indeed shocking to see how dangerous, false information and content In Secret spread across the Internet can influence rational minds.

The use of algorithms by I live in multi-nationals -while a small, boosting their obscene rural area profit margins – is a major with a large contributor, leading people anti-vaxx into areas that reinforce movement who believe lockdowns are “medical viewpoints with dubious apartheid”, having the Covid vaccine is akin to content which inevitably “experimentation at Nazi concentration camps” that have consequences for both a tracking chip is inserted in the skin if vaccinated the individual and society. and many of these people are family, friends and even

Editors Note.

businesses I visit on a daily basis. I fear admitting

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Making a Difference

Sex Trafficking Exodus Road: A Way Out For Sex Trafficking Victims

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or Laura and Matt Parker, witnessing trafficking first-hand while working in Thailand was a call to action. Cat Evans reports.

Human trafficking is an ongoing and widespread problem that the majority of society knows little about.

There is no discrimination when it comes to the victims of trafficking; it impacts men, women, and children internationally. Statistically, however, women and girls are disproportionately impacted.

According to freetheslaves.net, “an estimated 71 per cent of enslaved people are women and girls, while men and boys account for 29 per cent.”

Once they were overseas, Matt began working at an allgirls home. Trafficking wasn’t even on his radar until he heard about ‘Johns’ – people who recruited young girls and trafficked them. “It brought this overwhelming sense of responsibility to me,” he says. “I was running a children’s home with 48 girls in it; they were all from these villages.”

From there, Matt started to investigate different Trafficking villages to is highly find out if lucrative; with the rumours global profits were true. sitting around Everywhere roughly $150 he went, billion a year – trafficking humanrights. was a org estimates known issue $99 billion – and even of trafficking profits come from commercial sexual worse, it was a normal issue. “It struck me that something exploitation. The majority of trafficking was happening that was systemic,” Matt tells comes into the United States. It’s me.

Everywhere he estimated that 50,000 people per went, trafficking was a year come from Mexico and the He and his team met with law known issue – and even worse, Philippines. enforcement, who invited them to it was a normal issue. be their consultants and do research Laura Parker is the co-founder, on human trafficking. They realized no president, and CEO of Exodus Road, a one was looking for victims of trafficking. donation-based organisation that develops and The civilians and nonprofits rely on the police, and engages people with programs to end human trafficking. the police are often corrupt and preoccupied. “This was a She and her husband Matt Parker started the organisation significant discovery for us,” Matt explains. about ten years ago after a life-changing experience when Matt, a youth pastor, received an offer to run a children’s To get the police involved, there needed to be solid home in northern Thailand. evidence and verifiable information. Matt sought out 12

informants to do the job and find tangible evidence but fell short because of the significant dangers that going undercover imposed.

they were canned goods on a shelf, and you could pick whichever ones you wanted.”

Matt was able to speak to one of those girls, whose Growing more name was Belle. frustrated, he She recounted and a couple of how someone his close friends came to her family took matters into offering Belle a their own hands. job for massage Matt was as work, and once serious about this she arrived, she cause as he was was told she owed about his wife a debt and that and children. there was no job; she had to dance.

Knowing the When Matt asked work was dangerous and that he was risking his life why she couldn’t leave, Belle explained that doing more than just research, Matt asked she didn’t know how to get home.

Laura for her permission. Laura, This is a typical way victims of ...the team came upon who was hesitant, assumed Matt’s trafficking get trapped. The a location where girls were lined project would take a short time to trafficker entices them up on a stage wearing numbers.. complete, and then, that would be with promises of great that. Even though she feared for her opportunity. Then, the husband, she ultimately agreed and gave trafficker takes ownership of the him her blessing. victim in his possession, delivering on none of the What Matt promises he made. and his team discovered, as Upon returning home, they dug deep Matt was so moved by into the world what he experienced of trafficking, that he talked to Laura was disturbing about continuing with and shockingly the undercover work. casual. At one Thinking of her own point, the team children in a similar came upon a situation, Laura agreed. location where She tracked Matt’s every girls were move as he continued lined up on a to work undercover – stage wearing as he went in and out numbers. In of brothels, studying turn, the Johns what was going on, chose whatever and secretly recording number girl different spaces filled with suited them, paid a set amount of money, and got to take underage girls for sale. the girls upstairs to do whatever they wanted with them for an hour.

After eight months, Matt turned over plenty of sufficient intelligence to the authorities, but nothing came of it. He As Matt explains, “With human trafficking, people are provided footage shot inside different locations and spoke turned into a commodity. Those girls were commodities; with various women regarding their situations. As a result, 13

he and Laura began to question whether or not what they were doing even mattered.

to. Speaking on why it’s such a rarity, Laura, who in the past two years opted into a leadership position as president of Exodus Road, states,

As time went on, Matt was introduced to a 15-year-old girl named Sarah, whom he and his team tried to rescue multiple times to no avail. Each time they’d go in, there would be an internal, corrupt tipoff from authorities, a common issue among law enforcement with corrupt ties.

“Trafficking is an issue people are intimidated to talk about, particularly in a sex trafficking space.

There’s something about sex trafficking that feels very taboo, so people kind of want to shut their eyes to it.”

With the cards seemingly stacked against them, Matt and his team were relentless. They finally saved Sarah and the other girls, and the involved traffickers were arrested during a full-swarm hit on a known trafficking space. From then on, they achieved more and more success. That’s when they knew they could really make an impact.

There are also extreme complexities and misunderstandings of how relevant it is to daily life.

“People aren’t even really sure what sex trafficking is.

Most people think it’s happening somewhere far away, and they often miss the reality that it’s right here, as well.”

“With human trafficking, In order to train, deploy, and people are turned into a commodity. map at large scales, they What’s most needed money. Then Those girls were commodities; they were worrisome about the came the idea of founding canned goods on a shelf, and you could pick misunderstanding of Exodus Road, which they trafficking is the major whichever ones you wanted.” viewed as “a path out of lack of information in slavery.” A frequent mantra knowing what to look for, and for Exodus Road is, “We must the best response and intervention make trafficking a dangerous thing to methods. do.” The model of Exodus Road exists to support other law enforcement officers, social workers, and different Pointing to the universal presence of trafficking, Laura impact groups – to celebrate good work and make it explains, known what’s happening in the world and to all who are involved.

“This issue is really hidden in plain sight. You see what you’d expect, but then you also see people who are One of the largest issues with trafficking is that it’s rarely professionals – whether they’re users (knowingly engaging mentioned in spaces of action. Over the years, as the with trafficked people) or traffickers.” organisation has grown, it has become more and more evident that trafficking is uncharted, neglected, and a There are varying types of trafficking. One common necessary cause for Laura and Matt to devote their lives form is familial – where people are trafficking out of 14

program that educates law enforcement, nongovernmental their own homes. Often, people who are trafficked are in unfortunate or desperate situations, like teens in the foster care system, LGBTQ+ youth, and homeless youth of all organisation practitioners, students, and communities with genders. Often, undocumented workers are used in labour high-level content from the countertrafficking. Trafficking also shows up in trafficking community. The places like massage parlours, bars, domestic household help, city intervention program involves Trafficking also shows up in places training, case building, streets, and lower-income neighbourhoods. technology use, and law like massage parlours, bars, domestic enforcement support. The household help, city streets, and loweraftercare solution provides “It’s hard because it is income neighbourhoods. crisis workers and social everywhere. Traffickers are workers on search and rescue always looking to exploit the vulnerable,” Laura says. teams.

Over the past 10 years, Exodus Road has intensified its focus on information distribution. They now have three prominent programs: prevention, intervention, and aftercare.

Recognising that every shot is one worth taking, the Exodus Road team moves with a trauma-informed approach to help those in greatest need. As of now, Exodus Road has rescued 1,505 people, arrested 820 traffickers, and is currently operating in six countries.

In the prevention category is TraffickWatch Academy, a

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Issues: Movie biopics

King Richard:

“You know, I fell in love with Richard Williams.” (Will Smith)

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look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams became who they are after the coaching from their father played by Will Smith in the Movie King Richard. Aimee Knight reports.

The biopic of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams is not so much about them and tennis as it is about their family, especially their father and coach, the titular King Richard, played – in potentially Oscar nomination form.

so comfortable that her lion wasn’t gonna let anything happen to her. You know, I fell in love with Richard Williams.

“That was 20-something years ago, and when the opportunity to be part of this Will Smith in the titular role of King Richard came up, that was the first thing I remembered. I wanted to show a father protecting a daughter like that, to the world.”

In 1995, budding tennis star Venus Williams, aged 14, was needled on TV by a white male journalist questioning Smith plays the sincerity Williams in the of her heartfelt biopic adolescent King Richard, confidence. directed by Her Reinaldo Marcus coach and Green (Joe Bell). firebrand The richly detailed father, drama charts the Richard patriarch’s plan to Williams, mould his modest intervened. preteen daughters, Venus and Serena, into the Grand “You’re dealing with a little Black kid,” Slam champs we know today. he told the reporter in the now “You’re dealing with a infamous clip. “Let her be a It may seem counterintuitive, even little Black kid,” he told the reporter kid.” male-centric, to make a film about in the now infamous clip. “Let her be a Actor Will Smith was struck the Williams sisters – two of the kid.” by the segment when it first world’s greatest living athletes – skewed aired. through the identity of their divisive father, whose boisterous extroversion is nailed by coach Paul “The look on Venus’ face burned in my heart,” he Cohen (Tony Goldwyn, Scandal) when he tells Richard, says. “That’s how I wanted my daughter to look when I “You are the most stubborn person I’ve ever met, and I showed up, like she had a lion. She was so confident and coached McEnroe.”

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But centring the story in Richard Williams’ experience opens up thematic and narrative territory beyond that of an ESPN special. Though the tennis sequences are plenty exciting, King Richard scores more points off the court, around the dinner table, in the Compton home shared by Richard, his wife Oracene (Aunjanue Ellis, If Beale Street Could Talk) and their five spirited children.

“That was a new parenting idea for me, of aligning with your children versus directing your children,” Smith continues. “It wasn’t, as a parent, I know and you don’t.

You’re going to do what I say because I’m right and you’re little. It was a very different approach that was somewhat eye-opening.”

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1942, much of “I wanted Richard’s to make a early life – movie that referred to my mom in oblique could see,” drop shots says director throughout Green, the film – seated on was marred a tennis by rampant court with racism in his cast and the Jim key creatives Crow-era alongside South. King Venus and Richard Serena hints Williams at that this the film’s adversity global press catalysed conference the brash Will Smith as Richard, alongside Demi Singleton (Serena) & Saniyya Sidney (Venus) in LA. personality that made “She’s never seen a tennis match before, but she him both a thorn in the side of hoity-toity tennis parents understands what winning and losing is. She understands in 1990s SoCal, and an easy target for media ridicule what family is, what love is, what struggle is. as his daughters rose to sporting prominence. Williams “Will and Aunjanue [were] the backbone of the family was oft seen animating prim and proper Wimbledon – not only in the film but on set, creating grandstands, brandishing a whiteboard with handwritten an environment for everybody missives like “Welcome to the Williams “You are the most stubto excel. It was amazing to Show!!”, prior to experiencing his first of born person I’ve ever met, and I have those co-captains on several strokes in 2016. coached McEnroe.” the field.”

So reverent is King Richard in rendering This isn’t the first time Smith its title character that some critics have called has played a parent up against the odds. A the film a hagiography, bobbing and weaving as it does father of three, he starred alongside his real-life son Jaden around the fact of Williams’ first family: the five children in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and After Earth he seemingly forgot after shifting focus to his prodigiously (2013). He brings ferocity, tenderness, wisdom and, well, gifted daughters (whose career he mapped in an 85-page willpower to his portrayal of Richard – a man who, by tome before they were even born). all appearances, dedicated every waking minute to his family.

“That vilification is still out there,” says his stepdaughter, “My father was military,” says Smith. “When I was Isha Price. An attorney by trade, she joined the project as growing up, the kids don’t get a vote. You do what’s laid an executive producer alongside her little sisters, because out for you, what’s established for you. establishing trust and maintaining mutual respect with “In our first meeting, Venus said, ‘You know, it’s almost the filmmakers was a key concern. “It took some time like they brainwashed us. Our punishment was that we to get there with my family, because there was a bit of couldn’t play tennis,’” he laughs. “It was like a Jedi mind distrust – as you can imagine, being in the public eye for trick. It wasn’t the standard thing of a parent pushing a as long as they have. Oftentimes in sport, you get one child. It was throwing fuel on a fire coming from inside of chance – one time to step up to the line and serve that Venus and Serena. ball – so you to want to make sure it’s right.

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“I might have gotten on a couple of people’s nerves on Serena clarifies, tongue in cheek. set, but I had a responsibility to my family,” she explains. “It was a cool conversation,” Singleton continues. “We King Richard may be named for their patriarch, but got to speak to them as people. Serena and Venus,” she Price wanted to ensure says, addressing Venus and Serena Williams due credit was laid them, “you are two upon their fiercely women I’ve looked devoted mother, up to my entire life, Oracene “Brandy” so it was really fun Price. to get to know that “We have these side of you.” stories where you “It was important have the heroic male I let people know figure,” says Aunjanue just how big of a Ellis, Oracene’s heart Venus has,” on-screen conduit, adds Sidney, 15, who transforms the who’s appeared narrative when her in Roots, Fences character confronts and Hidden Richard over his Figures. “I had paternal and spousal such an amazing shortcomings. experience getting “To do something to create this where we did not see family. And I was that Miss Oracene was excited to try a co-conspirator of this tennis.” crazy dream would That’s right: have been dishonest. both Singleton We tried to give her the presence she deserved because and Sidney had to learn to play the game like two of that’s the truth.” its all-time masters – a daunting prospect familiar to Tennis may not be a team sport, but filmmaking is, Smith, whose 2002 turn as indomitable heavyweight and Ellis is also quick to recognise her co-stars, Demi Muhammad Ali was Oscar-nominated. “There Singleton and Saniyya Sidney, who play are professional fighters who “It’s a family film. Even Serena and Venus, respectively. “I can’t move like Muhammad if you don’t understand tennis, you worked with these amazing young Ali,” he says. “There are understand family...” women,” she says. “They educated professional tennis players me. They make it look easy: I’m that can’t play like Venus and just having a good time with Will Smith Serena. I want the world to know today. But that’s the deception of their genius. [Not] that not only did Saniyya learn to play like everybody can have such a lived-in experience like that Venus – Saniyya is left-handed. She learned to play like on camera.” one of the greatest tennis players of all time with her off Just shy of 15, Singleton is hand,” he says with pride. an actor, singer and dancer “Being able to step into previously seen in the crime Venus’ shoes helped me drama Godfather of Harlem. grow as a young woman,” To prepare for this major adds Sidney. “They were undertaking, she says, “Saniyya so humble at such a young and I did a lot of research. It age, and they had such a was really important to us that great father. Again, family is everything we did was real, everything.” because this is not our story, it’s “That’s what I really loved theirs.” Surprising, then, that about this,” says Venus. their conversations with the Williams sisters touched on “It’s a family film. Even if you don’t understand tennis, everything but tennis. “We spoke about their life, their you understand family, and with a family, you can do childhood, the people they dated growing up,” says anything. Some of us are born with that, some of us have Singleton, laughter volleying across her castmates. to create those families, but surrounding yourself with “To make sure we were portrayed in the right way,” family can take you higher.”

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s e k o J

Because laughter is the best medicine!

These three guys are out having a relaxing day of fishing. Out of the blue, they catch a mermaid who begs to be set free in return for granting each of them a wish. Now, one of these guys just doesn’t believe it.

“OK, if you can really grant wishes, then double my I.Q.” “Done.” Suddenly, the guy starts reciting Shakespeare flawlessly — and analysing it with extreme insight.

The second guy is so amazed he asks the mermaid to triple his I.Q. All of a sudden, the guy starts to spout the solutions to mathematical problems that have stymied chemists, physicists and mathematicians since the beginning of time. The last guy is so impressed that he asks the mermaid to quintuple his I.Q. The mermaid looks at him, very concerned.

“I don’t normally try to change people’s minds when they make a wish, but I’d really wish you’d reconsider.”

“No way. I want you to quintuple my I.Q., and if you don’t, I won’t set you free.”

“Please,” says the mermaid, “you don’t know what you’re asking... it will change your entire view of the universe...won’t you ask for something else...10 million dollars, anything?”

But the man remains steadfast. The mermaid sighs and says, “Done!” And he becomes a woman.

An attractive young girl, chaperoned by an ugly old crone, entered the doctor’s office. “We have come for an examination” said the young girl.

“Alright,” said the doctor. “Go behind that curtain and take your clothes off.”

“No, not me” said the girl. “it’s my old aunt here.”

“Very well,” said the doctor. “Madam, please stick out your tongue.”

The physical training instructor was drilling a platoon of soldiers.

“I want every man to lie on his back, put his legs in the air and move them as though he were riding a bicycle,” he explained. “Now begin!”

After a few minutes, one of the men stopped.

“Why did you stop. Smith?” demanded the officer.

“If you please, sir,” said Smith, “I’m freewheeling for a while.”

A circus owner walked into a bar to see everyone crowded about a table watching a little show. On the table was an upside down pot and a duck tap dancing on it. The circus owner was so impressed that he offered to 19

buy the duck from its owner. After some wheeling and dealing, they settled for $10,000 for the duck and the pot.

Three days later the circus owner runs back to the bar in anger, “Your duck is a rip off! I put him on the pot before a whole audience, and he didn’t dance a single step!”

“So?” asked the duck’s former owner, “did you remember to light the candle under the pot?”

Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources Officer asks a young tech engineer fresh out of technical college.

“And what starting salary are you looking for?”

The engineer replies, “In the region of €125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package. “ The interviewer inquires, “Well, what would you say to a package of five weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every two years, say, a red Ferrari?”

The young engineer sits up straight and says, “Wow! Are you kidding?”

The interviewer replies, “Yeah, but you started it.”

Santa Maddalena village, Dolomites mountains in background, Santa village, Dolomites mountains background, Val diMaddalena Funes valley, Trentino Alto Adige region, in Italy, Europe Val di Funes valley, Trentino Alto Adige region, Italy, Europe

Issues: Famous Irish Artists

Rags to Riches: From Orphan to Royal Portrait Painter

S

am McMurdock looks at the life of John Lavery one of Ireland’s most respected artists.

John Lavery was born in what is now the Cathedral Quarter of North Belfast on 20th March 1856. The area was filled to capacity with factories, producing everything from cream crackers to cigarettes and the area was a hive of activity, smoke and pungent smells - a far cry from the arty, creative and cultural hub we now know and enjoy.

For the first three years of John’s life his father was a spirit grocer who ran a small shop opposite St. Patrick’s Church on North Queen Street. The little shop was unsuccessful and so, desperate to provide a better life for his wife and children, Mr. Lavery set sail for the United States to seek his fortune. Having heard great tales of prosperity to be had, Lavery planned to find work and somewhere to live, with the intention of sending for his wife and kids when settled, but sadly this never happened as the vessel he sailed on, The Pomona left Liverpool and was caught in a gale in the Irish Sea, sinking off the coast of Wexford. Lavery perished beside the shipwreck.

John is Orphaned

and uncle in Moira, Co. Down - the theory being that the boy could learn a trade in farming and help his uncle in the process, however, at the age of ten his aunt felt he was getting too big for his boots and sent him off to Saltcoats, Ayrshire in south-west Scotland to earn his keep in her cousin’s shop, and for the next few years he resided in the small village and worked hard to eek out a living.

A Fascination with Drawing is Born One day, John was in a neighbouring shop in the village when he saw a commercial traveller drawing cartoons and caricatures down the strip of a newspaper; he was fascinated and started asking him about his influences.

Something about the imagery really awakened a dormant love of drawing within him and he began sketching things he would witness in his everyday working life.

Yearning for new adventures, John moved to Hamilton to work as a pawnbroker’s assistant, but having almost no mind for figures, had to give it up as a bad job! He then secured employment as a railway clerk in the mineral department of Scottish Railways but hated it. Despite being a

.….he managed to obtain a sitting from the queen…

As news broke back home, Mrs. Lavery was heavily pregnant and soon found herself in labour. Sadly she died giving birth and John and his brother and sister were left orphans in need of shelter. The extended Lavery family stepped in and John was sent to his aunt

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talented and highly driven individual, John struggled to remain stimulated in jobs he had no interest in but Moonrise (1908) always found solace in his sketch pad.

Brimming with wisdom, John returned to Glasgow and was associated with the Glasgow School (who were part of the international Art Nouveau movement).

A Step in the Right Direction

The Commission that Changed Everything

Motivated but unable to find work that interested him, John was delighted when he was accepted as an apprentice with J. B. McNair, a photographer in Glasgow, where he was employed to touch up negatives and add colour to photographs.

At last, John felt he was moving in the right direction and enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art, which was then The Haldane Academy, attending a class before work and taking evening classes when the working day was over.

Under the tutelage of his art teacher he started copying engravings, which artists did at that time and began producing his own work to sell. That year, ‘Pious reflections’, was hung at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and sold for ten guineas.

In 1888 Lavery would receive a commission that would transform his career into a society painter: recording the visit of Queen Victoria to the International Exhibition, Glasgow.

Not without tenacity, he managed to obtain a sitting from the queen herself, and so he had no difficulty in persuading some 250 individuals to sit for him. The size of the finished work in 1890 was approximately 2.6 m x 4 m. The painting now rests in Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery.

Lavery was now a A-List Celebrity After this Lavery claimed “every door opened to me” as once the aristocracy and dignitaries of the west of Scotland realised he’d been to Windsor and the Queen had given him a sitting, they literally lined up in their droves to be painted.

Lavery was then the only Irish portrait painter recognised internationally.

Feeling he needed extra tuition to refine his skills, he went off to Académie Julian in Paris in 1881. Some of the happiest days of his life were passed in France at Grès-sur-Loing; he returned to the artist colony there in 1884.

On the Riviera ‘Under the cherry tree’ (Ulster Museum) was painted at Grès. ‘Night after the battle of Langside’ was acquired by the Belgian government.

Lavery falls in love In 1890 John met and married Kathleen MacDermott, a street flower seller, but sadly she died within a year of the birth of their daughter Eileen from Tuberculosis.

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Lavery’s first one-person show in London was at the Goupil Gallery the following year. He became an obsessive globetrotter, some say, to keep his mind off his grief, and in 1892 with two of his Glasgow artist friends, Alexander Roche and James Guthrie had a successful European tour.

Lavery’s name was on the lips of the upper echelons of society worldwide.

was elected president of the Belfast Art Society the next year and served for five years, exhibiting and attending exhibitions. On Easter day 1919 he presented a triptych or altarpiece to St Patrick’s church, Belfast, where he had been baptised.

Belfast was never far from his mind and he wanted to give something back to his city.

John finds love again.

In 1921 he was elected an RA (member of the In 1909 John Royal Academy). remarried an In London John Irish-American and his wife by the name of opened their home Hazel Martyn. to a diverse group Hazel was a very of friends and attractive, graceful acquaintances. woman and He and Hazel became the artist’s were both very muse. Hazel had a daughter from a interested in Irish heritage and offered previous relationship, Alice his home in London to the Trudeau. John’s new wife Irish negotiators during the ...he painted on commission from the Irish was depicted in more than Treaty Negotiations. John government, reproduced on Irish bank notes from 400 of his paintings. The was in Dún Laoghaire 1928 until 1975... sumptuous The Artist’s (then Kingstown) at the Studio: Lady Lavery with her time of the death of their good Daughter Alice and Step-Daughter friend Michael Collins, who of course Eileen, currently is in the National was shot in an ambush in Co. Cork. He Gallery of Ireland. painted Collins in the mortuary chapel in Dublin, and this work is in the Hugh World War 1 Lane Gallery, Dublin. Several of the first ministers of the Irish Free State Lavery was employed as an official government sat for him. artist in the First World War, but poor health prevented him from travelling Hazel modelled for the allegorical figure to the Western Front. (he hated war of Ireland he painted on commission and regarded his efforts as “totally from the Irish government, reproduced uninspired.”) He remained in the UK on Irish bank notes from 1928 until and mostly painted boats, aeroplanes 1975 and then as a watermark until and airships. the introduction of the Euro in 2002.

Despite thriving as a successful artist and In 1918 Lavery was knighted. He doting on Hazel, John discovered that 24

his wife was being unfaithful. John threw himself into his art and worked very long hours, opening the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery at Stranmillis (1929), presenting a collection of thirty-three works, including ‘Michael Cardinal Logue’ (lent to the Irish Exhibition at Brussels, 1930); ‘Hazel in green and gold’ (1926); and ‘The twelfth of July in Portadown’ (1928). When he received the freedom of Belfast (1930), he became the first artist to be so honoured.

Self portrait

John loses his wife and daughter Lady Lavery died in 1935, the same year as his only child, Eileen. In memory of his wife, he presented thirtyfour pictures to Dublin, including portraits of Winston Churchill, Éamon de Valera and George Bernard Shaw. During WWII he left London to live with his stepdaughter Alice at Rosenarra, Kilmoganny, Co. Kilkenny, and died there on 10 January 1941. He was buried at Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin, but reinterred in 1947, beside his wife in Putney Vale cemetery, London.

He was the only twentieth-century Irish artist with an international reputation to rise from appalling hardship to a life of opulence - and what made him even more remarkable was the fact he never forgot his Irish roots.

Word Power

O

ver the next few issues we’ll be attempting to increase your word power. Have a look at the words below and afterwards see if you know their meaning.

Word Pronunciation

Answers

1. Egalitarian 2. Fortuitous 3. Iconoclast 4. Indolent 5. Milieu 6. Patrician 7. Salient 8. Syntax 9. Industrialsm 10.Onomatopoeia 11.Beguile 12. Circumvent

1. Characterised by belief in the equality of all people.

2. Happening by chance.

3. A person who attacks cherished beliefs.

4. Having a disposition to avoid exertion.

5. Surroundings, especially of a social or cultural nature.

6. A person of noble or high rank.

7. Prominent or conspicuous.

8. The study of the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences in a language.

9. An economic organisation of society built on mechanised industry rather than commerce.

10. The formation of a word by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.

11. To influence by trickery.

12. To go around or bypass.

Ih-gal-it-tair-ee-uhn Fawr-too-i-tuhs Ahy-kon-uhklast In-dl-uhnt Mil-yoo Puh-trish-uhn Sey-lee-uhnt Sin-taks In-duhstree-uh-liz-uhm On-uh-mat-uhpee-uh Bih-gahyl Sur-kuhm-vent

U score?

How did YOPerfection!6-9 – 10 or more t. n Brillia ne.

3-5 Well do o better.

0-2 Must d

25

Screen Scene The Tragedy of Macbeth ***

Iontais na bhFarraigí Ceilteacha ***

Starring: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Corey Hawkins.

Run Time: 105 mins Streaming on: Apple TV+ Available: Currently

Starring: Eoin Warner Streaming on: TG4 Catch-Up Available to stream: Currently

The latest adaptation of this classic Shakespeare play sees Macbeth played in true tour de force-style by Denzel Washington, and Lady Macbeth played equally as brilliantly by Frances McDormand.

Those who are familiar with the story know how this one plays out. Macbeth is visited by three witches who prophesy that he is to become King of Scotland, and becomes resolved on fulfilling this supposed prophecy and stopping anyone who gets in his way. Naturally, murder and chaos result. While the film is a rather straightforward adaptation, the basics are made up for through powerful and committed performances from all involved.

Washington and McDormand are a brilliant duo and Brendan Gleeson is splendid as King Duncan.

An admirable, confident take on the classic Shakespeare play.

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In this nature documentary series, Eoin Warner explores the Celtic coastline between Ireland and Wales and the wonderful sea-life that inhabits its shores, shallows and depths.

From the majestic whales in the deep to the tiniest fish in the shallows, we get new insights into the daily quest for survival of these marine animals who inhabit this world between the shore, the shallows and the deep.

Educational as well as highly entertaining.

My Best Friend Anne Frank *** Starring: Aiko Beemsterboer, Josephine Arendsen.

Streaming: Netflix Run Time: 90 mins Available to stream: 1st February.

This Dutch World War II biopic tells the story of the friendship between Hanneli Goslar and Anne Frank and the story is told from Goslar’s perspective.

The film is based on Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend written by American author Alison Leslie Gold. It is the first Dutch cinema film about the life of Anne Frank.

Aiko Beemsterboer does a great job portraying the famous diarist.

In the Earth **** Starring: Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith Streaming: Sky TV Run Time: 107 mins Available to stream: 1 February 2022

Free Guy *** Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer.

Streaming: Disney+ Run Time: 115 mins Available to watch: From 23 February

Love Actually****

As the world searches for a cure to a disastrous virus, a scientist and park scout venture deep in the forest for a routine equipment run.

Starring: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon AStreaming: bank teller (Ryan PrimeReynolds) discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world Run Time: 129 mins. video game, and decides to become the hero of his own story. Now, in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way before it’s too late. Not for everyone but comic relief for those who love a bit of action adventure.

Through the night, their journey becomes a terrifying voyage through the heart of darkness, the forest coming to life around them.

British horror from acclaimed director Ben Wheatley, starring Joel Fry (Game of Thrones), Reece Shearsmith, (A Field in England) and Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake). Terrifying!

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Proud Supporters of Ireland’s Big Issue & Homeless Street Leagues

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@paulmurphy_td

@tdpaulmurphy

A voice for workers’ rights and eco-socialism

Download our new app Dublin Rough Sleeper Alert

28

Issues: IHSL News

It’s All Systems Go For Irish Homeless Street Leagues

A

ll Ireland Street Soccer finals 2022 set for Wednesday 27th April. Sean Kavanagh reports.

We are please to announce that the All Ireland Homeless Street Soccer Finals will take place on Wednesday 27th April in The Postal Club, Andy Moore Park, Kiltipper Road, Old Bawn, Dublin.

The event kicks off at 10 am on Wednesday the 27th April. Up to 24 teams will participate and this will be followed by an awards ceremony for the individual leagues.

Since Covid-19 arrived two years ago it has played havoc with life as we knew it. The sporting calendar was among events badly hit.

Nevertheless the Homeless Street Leagues continued, although in limited fashion. We were forced however to cancel major tournaments like our All Ireland Championships in 2020 & 2021 and of course the Homeless World Cup was also cancelled.

The top prize is the All Ireland Trophy and 2019 male winners Mullingars -with the colourful name - ‘It gets messi’ and our female winners Sari will be back to defend their trophies.

Our World Cup coaching staff will be watching the players closely and will use the finals, among other criteria as a basis to form a panel of players from which a team will be selected to represent Ireland in the Homeless World Cup, which will hopefully take place in New York in September. More about that in our next issue.

But alas, all things come to an end and as of now we seem to be winning the battle against Covid with normal service slowly resuming. We have decided, therefore to go ahead and organise our all Ireland Finals for 2022.

A big thank you to all our friends and supporters who stood by us during the Covid years.

Male & Female Teams from the Irish Homeless Street Leagues throughout Ireland will take part, in what promises to be a festival of football.

For full details of our leagues please see above.

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Issues: Our World

San Francisco: The Great Divide

D

ivision Street: Photographer Robert Gumpert talks about how his new book illustrates how visible the wealth gap has become in San Francisco

Just before conversations, San advertising, graffiti Francisco messages, poetry hosted and Superbowl commentary fill 50 on 7 the pages of this February new book and give 2016, the a sense of change then-mayor in San Francisco, sent police changes familiar to and Public many around the Works world. employees to “encourage” The stark unhoused inequality people to and violent move from displacement of Bus shelter tax return ad says “Get you Billions Back America” while an the city’s homeless people unhoused man takes a moment to rest before moving on. tourist areas is terrible, but it is to the wide not new. The gold sidewalks and decidedly non-tourist rush of 1848-1855 brought San Francisco The stark inequality and Division Street corridor, that is into being. For today’s San Francisco, violent displacement of homeless where and when the Division as with cities around the world, the people is terrible Street project began. gold is in speculation and kowtowing to corporate planners.

Since then, the unhoused population has grown and The late historian Don encamped in Parson, in his 2005 many other parts book Making of the city, and A Better World: I have followed, Public Housing, The documenting Red Scare, And the San Francisco’s Direction of Modern changing “culture”, Los Angeles, wrote that building boom, and the early 1950s shifted growing numbers of government housing unhoused residents. and social policy from “community Street photography, modernism” still lifes, portraits, to “corporate recorded interviews, modernism”. In Division Street homeless Kathy, 51 year old transgender woman. overheard corporate modernism, 30

housing is property, a signifier of worth and status.

Public housing and affordable rents are considered breeding grounds of crime and laziness, the residents as undesirables. Parson was writing about the 1953 Los Angeles public housing Homeless on Division Street at fights between Harrisson. advocates of “shelter-asa-right” and corporate development forces.

Then, as now, the fight was about race, “communism” and property.

Corporate interests won in the 50s and in the globalized world of 2020, corporate interests are winning still.

real estate speculation are symptoms of a public policy catering to “corporate modernism”. Development abounds, but so do unaffordable rents and homes prices, underfunded services and growing numbers of people living rough on the streets.

Division Street begins on the city’s eastern edge in the heart of SOMA, San Francisco’s tech and start-up district.

Leaving the hightech developments behind, Division Street still looks a bit like old San Francisco, a mix of warehouse buildings, building supplies shops, art and paint stores, even a coffee roaster. Two to four Loss of union wage jobs, story apartments in the classic San the tech driven boom-bust economy, Franciscan railroad flats style and rampant real estate speculation are abound. symptoms of a public policy catering to

From the late 1930s San Francisco was a center of “community modernism”: well-paid working-class union jobs, “corporate modernism”. city programs, affordable Many years ago, a block from housing, clean streets and a Duboce—Division by another name—, I diverse social and economic culture. Today “corporate accompanied two homicide detectives into such a flat. modernism” They didn’t find has remade the estranged Corey Trosclair, 46 the economic husband of a at his encampment and social murdered woman at Divison and San landscape they were looking Bruno. of San for; they did find Francisco into 12 other men a model for living in the one21st century bedroom flop. society.

I didn’t realize Division it then but that Street flat represented ponders those San Francisco’s changes. working-class past and its coming Loss of union tech boom. wage jobs, the Today employees tech driven in all economic boom-bust sectors arrange economy, “co-living” and rampant accommodations, 31

modern versions of the overcrowded flops of the past.

Then as now, “co-living” is a response to unaffordable rent.

The voices of the unhoused and others are integral to this project. Firstperson storytelling, messages left on the street and on neighborhood list serves, media headlines and politicians’ characterizations make Division Street a collaboration between many communities.

San Francisco, CA. AirBnb 880 building is around the corner and Zynga can be seen in the background. To the left is a building occupied until recently

by Dolby. There are perhaps 20-25 people living in this encampment at any given time at the southern end of SoMa.

Division Street, in photos and words, has become a metaphor for the “division” of communities, between the wealthy few and the expendability of the many, in San Francisco, in the US and the world.

In corporate modernism, housing is property, a signifier of worth and status. Public housing and affordable rents are considered breeding grounds of crime and laziness, the residents as undesirables

Homeless moved from 15th and Vermont. Police took whatever the homeless could not easily take with them when they were moved on. “Baby Face” “downsizes” as one cop put it. Police officer helps by cutting some of the restraints.

32

Jamie Crisco. homeless 8.5 years. Lived in a box he made until the police distroyed it. Now (as of this date) living in the “Bat Cave” with several others.

Division Street is now a book, due out in March from Dewi Lewis Publishing (accepting pre-orders now).

Some of the book and project can be seen at: https://robertgumpert.com.

With thanks to Quiver Watts from Street Sheet Courtesy of International Network of Street Papers All Photos by Robert Gumpert

Fancy a game?

And the chance to represent Ireland at the Homeless World Cup? Fancy helping us make it happen?

The Irish Homeless Street Leagues is looking for players and sponsorship partners for our 11 leagues in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, www.ihsl.ie Portlaoise and Drogheda.

Please contact lev@irishstreetleague.com for more details

www.irishstreetleague.com Instagram: irishhomelessstreetleague Facebook: IrishStLeague Twitter:@IrishStLeague

33

Issues: New Book Releases

Patricia Scanlan’s Book Club Patricia Scanlan was born in Dublin, where she still lives. She is a #1 bestselling author and has sold millions of books worldwide. Her books are translated in many languages.

Patricia is the series editor and a contributing author to the award winning Open Door Literacy series.

This issue, Patricia brings her favourite books of the moment.

Breaking Point - Edel Coffey – Sphere An innocent mistake. A lifetime of guilt.

Susannah has two beautiful daughters, a high-flying medical career, a successful husband and an enviable life. Her hair is glossy, her clothes are expensive; she truly has it all.

But when - on the hottest day of the year - her strict morning routine is disrupted, Susannah finds herself running on autopilot. It is hours before she realises she has made a devastating mistake. Her baby, Louise, is still in the backseat of the car and it is too late to save her.

As the press close in around her, Susannah is put on trial for negligence. It is plain to see that this is not a trial; it’s a witch-hunt. But what will the court say?

This impressive debut novel will resonate with every woman who juggles motherhood, relationships, careers, expectations, and the notion of having it all. A rollercoaster of a read that will bring tears.

The Winter Guest- W.C. Ryan – Zaffre January 1921. Though the Great War is over, in Ireland a new, civil war is raging. The once-grand Kilcolgan House, a crumbling bastion shrouded in sea-mist, lies half empty and filled with ghosts - both real and imagined - the Prendevilles, the noble family within, co-existing only as the balance of their secrets is kept.

Then, when an IRA ambush goes terribly wrong, Maud Prendeville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan, is killed, leaving the family reeling. Yet the IRA column insists they left her alive, that someone else must have been responsible for her terrible fate. Captain Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and Maud’s former fiancé, is sent to investigate, becoming an unwelcome guest in this strange, gloomy household.

A haunting, atmospheric mystery set against the raw Irish landscape in a country divided, The Winter Guest is the perfect chilling read.

The Paris Apartment - Lucy Foley - HarperCollins Welcome to No.12 rue des Amants.A beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine.Where nothing goes unseen, and everyone has a story to unlock. The watchful concierge. The scorned lover. The prying journalist. The naïve student. The unwanted guest. There was a murder here last night. A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three. Who holds the key? The unmissable new murder mystery thriller for 2022 from the No.1 bestselling award-winning author.

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Your One Wild and Precious Life: An Inspiring Guide to Becoming Your Best Self At Any Age – Dr. Maureen Gaffney – Penguin Life Once you’ve got a few decades on the clock, life can seem sort of cross-roadsy. Once you’re no longer thinking of yourself as ‘young’, you may be looking back, thinking ‘How did I get here?’ And also looking ahead, wondering: ‘What do I do now?’

This realization that neither time nor choices are limitless is both daunting and exciting. This is the moment to take stock and figure out how to make the best of every precious moment of the rest of your life. And to develop the tools to be able to do so again and again.

Your One Wild and Precious Life is an eye-opening account of this surprisingly liberating process. Using the latest groundbreaking research, leading psychologist Maureen Gaffney has written an inspiring and practical guide for getting to grips with time. Taking the key stages of our life - from infancy to old age - she explores what we learn at each stage. And, crucially, she explains how, no matter what has happened in the past, and what age you are, you can find a better route forward. Profound and reassuring this will transform your thinking, connect you with who you truly are and help you to reclaim control over your life. Crucially, it will empower you to face the future with optimism.

The Book of St. Brigid Paperback – Colm Keane, Una O’Hagan – Capel Island.

Feminist, farmer, abbess, bishop, convent founder and miracle worker, St. Brigid has inspired Irish women and men down through the ages. She cared for the poor, healed the sick, and managed monastic settlements. She became patron saint of revolutionaries and women fighting for their rights. She is also credited with inventing the Rosary beads, brewing ale, and inspiring the first tiered wedding cake and Buy Irish campaign. Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley, Lady Gregory and Maud Gonne MacBride regarded her as a guiding light. All of them, including Brigitte Bardot, Bridget Hitler and Cromwell’s daughter Bridget, are featured in this book. The book also describes her holy wells, St. Brigid’s Crosses, churches, miracles and cures - providing you with all you will ever need to know about Ireland’s female patron saint, as we celebrate the arrival of spring, the season she is synonymous with.

Any Girl: A Memoir of Sexual Exploitation and Recovery – Mia Döring - Hachette Books Ireland It became untenable for me to remain silent about a part of my life I had long kept secret. I had to follow the persistent, uncomfortable pull of truth, wherever it would lead me.”

From the outside looking in, the young life of Mia Döring seemed unremarkable, as she pursued her studies at a prominent Dublin art college, immersed in a vibrant social scene. Unbeknownst to those around her, however, Mia’s life was anything but ordinary. At age sixteen, she had been sexually exploited by an older man, which carved a direct path into the Irish sex trade, where she remained for several years until finally leaving it behind over a decade ago, at age twenty-four.

In her literary memoir Mia, a psychotherapist specialising in sexual trauma, excavates her difficult history as she sets about integrating her past with her present-day life. Along the way, she presents an ardent and intelligent refutation of a culture that affirms and applauds the industrialised sexual violation of women and girls, ultimately offering something more precious – a way forward for society bedded in true understanding and compassion.

Any Girl is a ferociously honest, intensely tender and utterly unforgettable book that is as thought provoking as it is timely.

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Issues: Abroad

Bitcoin ‘Experiment’ Leaves Digital Poor On the Sidelines

A

s El Salvador makes history by adopting bitcoin, Salvadorans who do not have smartphones and digital literacy skills are struggling to understand the change. Anna-Catherine Brigida and Anastasia Moloney report.

Bertila Garcia has set up her snack stall on the same corner in El Salvador’s capital for four decades - never accepting anything other than cash as payment. Even as her country makes history by adopting bitcoin, she has no plans to change.

Recently, the Central American country became the first in the world to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender, but many ordinary Salvadorans, like Garcia, 65, are struggling to make sense of how the step could affect their livelihoods.

“I don’t understand it. I don’t understand it at all,” said Garcia, adding that none of her customers had asked to pay in bitcoin since the contentious new law took force on 7 September.

Salvador’s official currency since 2001. On the Pacific coast, some tourists and young restaurant and hotel owners have been using the digital currency for up to three years. Shops in the surfing town of El Zonte known as Bitcoin Beach - display signs saying “We accept bitcoin”.

Elsewhere, long queues can be seen outside governmentinstalled bitcoin cashpoints where people can exchange their cryptocurrency for dollars, though some may just be waiting to receive a $30 bitcoin bonus for everyone signing up to Chivo.

‘Lab experiment’ Bukele has billed adopting bitcoin as a way to boost economic development by making El Salvador less reliant on the US dollar and increasing access to financial services among people who do not have a bank account.

Even if she wanted to use the cryptocurrency, Garcia But ensuring use of the Chivo wallet could prove difficult does not own a smartphone and said she had no other among older people and those living in way to download the “Chivo” bitcoin app rural areas, where there are few “I don’t understand it. I and wallet launched by the government. cashpoints, limited internet access don’t understand it at all...” and an entrenched cash-in-hand So far, about a quarter of El Salvador’s 6.4 culture. million people are using Chivo, the country’s young tech-savvy president, Nayib Bukele, said in a tweet About half of Salvadorans have no internet access, on 20 September. according to the World Bank.

Bukele, 40, says bitcoin will help Salvadorans save some $400 million on annual commissions on remittances, but experts cite concerns over data privacy and price volatility, warning that the elderly in particular could be left behind.

The country’s poorest people and those - like Garcia - who do not own smartphones or have digital literacy skills could also struggle to make the jump, cryptocurrency experts said.

Under the reform, businesses must accept payment in bitcoin alongside the US dollar, which has been El

“Bitcoin is not an easy technology to adopt ... especially for old people looking to receive remittances. It will face a lot of obstacles in getting people to adopt it,” said Jean36

Paul Lam, associate professor at Canada’s University of Waterloo.

“I don’t understand how a currency increases so much in price ... it’s confusing,” he said.

El Salvador’s bitcoin rollout is a “little lab experiment that other countries are watching”, said Lam, who is also a research advisor for Goodlabs Studio, a software company.

On 7 September, the day bitcoin became legal tender, its value fell by 18 per cent, said George Monaghan, an analyst at GlobalData, a London-based data and analytics company.

The potential multimillion-dollar savings in commissions for remittances sent home by Salvadoran migrants was another pillar of Bukele’s pro-bitcoin campaign.

“It’s stressful and impedes personal financial planning,” he said.

Remittances from abroad - mainly the United States accounted for more than 25 per cent of the country’s gross domestic ....the day bitcoin became product (GDP) legal tender, its value fell by last year, 18 per cent... according to the World Bank.

“Salvadorans are likely not sufficiently familiar, nor comfortable, with online technology to trust cryptocurrencies,” he added.

But even tech-savvy Salvadorans have reasons to question the adoption of bitcoin “practically overnight”, said Julia Yansura at Global Financial Integrity, a USbased anti-graft watchdog group.

In the northeastern province of Morazan, Israel Marquez, 53, said he receives $100 from his brother and a friend living in the United States several times per year, but was reluctant to test bitcoin.

She said the speedy adoption meant the government had little time to forge a regulatory framework and safeguard the personal data that users hand over to create their Chivo wallets.

“Some people say they’re just going to download the Chivo app to spend the $30 and then they’ll deactivate it.

But I haven’t even wanted to do that,” he said from the mainly agricultural province.

“How will that information be stored, who will have access, and what can it be used for?,” said Yansura, the group’s program manager for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Suspicion about bitcoin is widespread in El Salvador, a poll conducted in August by the country’s Central American University (UCA) showed.

Ultimately the extent to which Salvadorans adopt bitcoin in their daily lives hinges on whether cryptocurrency markets become less volatile, Monaghan said, adding “there’s little the government can do to reduce bitcoin’s volatility”.

Of the 1,281 people surveyed, nine out of 10 said they did not have a clear understanding about the digital currency, while eight in 10 said they had little or no confidence in its use.

During anti-government street protests on 15 September, some demonstrators carried banners reading “No to bitcoin” and one bitcoin cashpoint was set alight.

‘It’s confusing’ Marquez, a small-scale coffee producer, cited bitcoin’s volatility as one of his biggest concerns.

In downtown San Salvador, 65-year-old Pedrona de Saldana, who sells sweets and beauty products at a roadside stall, vowed to stick with cash. Like Garcia, she does not have a smartphone.

“I’m not going to use it even if I had another kind of phone,” she said as she accepted two quarters from a customer buying gum.

“I can’t use another currency that I don’t know.”

Courtesy of Reuters / Thomson Reuters Foundation / INSP.ngo 37

The Podcast Review W

e bring you the best selection of podcasts each issue. This time we bring you Things Fell Apart, Sweet Bobby, Hooked and Carrie Low Vs.

Things Fell Apart (Cancel Culture)

Hooked (Addiction) Tony Hathaway was a Boeing engineer who seemed to have it all. A great family and job living in the Seattle suburbs. After being injured playing hockey in a company league, he was prescribed OxyContin. This led Tony to the depths of the American epidemic of opioid addiction. To feed his habit he turned to crime, becoming one of the most successful serial bank robbers in history. Host Josh Dean interviews him at length, along with family and law enforcement to discuss how everything went wrong. The podcast illustrates how addiction can make everyday people do very bad things.

What are the origins of cancel culture? How did we become such a schismatic society? Acclaimed writer and podcaster Jon Ronson does a stellar job of rewinding themes like abortion, sex education, gay liberation and school curriculums.

This series finds the strange and sometimes touching examples of how things came to be. People who were on the front lines tell their stories.

Whether you agree or disagree, Things Fell Apart takes you through what we can learn from these monumental moments that have shaped our civilisation. It’s a wonderful learning experience.

Carrie Low Vs. (Legal Injustice)

Sweet Bobby (Online Deception)

In May 2018, Carrie Low reported to police that she had been drugged, taken from a bar and sexually assaulted. After a year of police inactivity since she reported her rape, Low filed complaints against them. Low, even through her trauma, took meticulous notes through the whole ordeal. The trials and tribulations of her story are distressing, especially with the unexpected twist at the end. Low’s mission is to shine a light on corrupt police work pointing to why so many rape victims don’t report and receive the justice and sense of closure they deserve.

Journalist Alexi Mostrous was investigating the effects of online porn when he discovered a peculiar catfishing story. Kirat Assi was tormented in an online web of deceit for 10 years as she thought she had found her true destiny in Bobby. The conversations became intimate and, of course, his story is not what it seemed. The reveal is absolutely unexpected and wild. You’ll want to binge-listen the whole podcast for answers. Most importantly Sweet Bobby looks How to: into why there are few consequences for people who Search “Google podcasts” in the Play Store app (if you’ve an Android commit this kind of online psychological warfare. phone).iPhones comes with Apple podcasts app installed. Open the app and type in the name of the podcast you want or you can just browse categories whilst there.

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