Life360 2015

Feast of Insects

Would you munch on locusts for lunch?

Rise of Radicals

Meet the leaders of Europe’s political movements.

Concious Clubbing

Join the sober dance raveolution.

Passport to Free Travel

How to see the world without spending a penny.

Global door way to an epic

2015

New trends, big ideas and pressing issues

October 2014 â‚Ź9.99

Editor’s Letter

Cheers to new

beginnings

Life360 invites you to open the door to 2015 to discover what is meaningful this coming year.

In this issue we bring you the best trends from business to travel, and food to fashion. Our international team has gone around the world to discover what will matter this year.

Our news section follows the pace of the four seasons to tell you what will happen in the upcoming months. We also want you to have an in-depth analysis of what is new with our sixteen features.

Explore the new frontiers of partying without booze and drugs: follow our reporter Victoria on her journey into conscious clubbing. This year travelling doesn’t need to be expensive: find out how to travel without even spending a penny.

We guide you through the burning squares of Athens and Valencia to explain who

the new bigwigs of European politics are.

And have you ever thought about eating insects? The result is not as off-putting as you might think.

We believe that curiosity plays a big role in life. We have arranged our features in four sections that represent it from different angles: discover, live, observe and explore.

At the end of our journey we interviewed one of Kenya’s top news anchormen about his views on Africa’s future. Then, by showing you four bags from different corners of the globe, we will unveil some of the world’s issues that are still ongoing and remain unresolved.

You are the essential part of your 2015 and we leave you with your own propositions to write at the end.

The world is so big and loud. Life360 is here to make sense of it. May 2015 be a great year for you.

03

2015 FEATURES 12 Discover360

22

Feast of insects

When our ecological and economic situation is taken into account, will insects be our staple source of food in the future?

Paraglide and see the world

12

Paragliding is not simply a sport. It is something one should definitely try at least once in a lifetime.

Get a job abroad

Trouble finding a job at home? Here’s another option. Migrate and work abroad!

20 Live360

Cakes can be gay too

The battle for protection of LGBT rights extends to unexpected area: the bakery industry.

A jar of waste

20

Challenge yourself to minimising the amount of trash you produce in a year to fit in a jar and save the environment.

The forbidden art of Shibari

An artform that’s making its name known in the world. Xiaolin shares with Life360 his affair with the Taiwanese BDSM art.

London Fashion Week 2015

Bold patterns? Floral prints? More garments from Asian designers appear on the catwalk.

40

Eat. Sleep. Rave. Repeat?

There’s a new concious clubbing movement set to change the future of rave as we know it.

32 Observe360

Rise of the radicals

As the world economy fluctuates, the radicals rise promising change in the EU.

Euro tsunami

The currency is affecting businesses and consumers alike. Here’s why you need to know.

25

Christians in China

Chinese Christians have frightened the Chinese government who is undertaking suppressive campaigns against them

Hold your breath

What’s happening around world about air pollution? A serious problem is associated with you and me. Let’s have a look.

04

18

44 42 Explore360

Airbnb–The truth behind open doors

The online hospitality website will be under fire in 2015.

Find out why.

26

Passport to free travel

Get your free ticket to see the world from house swapping to couch surfing or WWOOFing up.

Ancient nomad in modern times

Zahariz leaves the modern mundanity behind and travel the world with nothing but his belongings on his back.

Athens at first impression

36

With its ancient architecture among modern day buildings, Athens can be a Sin City or a Holy City.

NEWS Winter

15

Facebook’s legacy contacts enables heir to take over their account.

Spring Catch the rare eclipse that will only happen again in the year 2026.

Summer Bask in the sun at the hottest music and arts festival in the world.

34

Autumn

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released December 18th.

BACK Bagged issues

We highlight ongoing world conflicts that is still unresolved.

What do you want to accomplish in 2015?

23

Readers let us know what they want to achieve in this coming year.

Follow Life360: www.jomec.co.uk/life360/2015/

38

Life 360 @life360_maga

05

Contributors

Maryam Zainol Music Enthusiast

Katherine Yang Feminist Chef

Alba Charles

Davide Salvi

Oasis’ Passionate

Coffee Addict

Wanyu Zhao

Sophie Gardner-Roberts

Yuxiao Zhao

Edyta Kadula

Perfume Collector

Frenchie Bookworm

Kindle Fanatic

Smiley Chocoholic

CONTRIBUTORS

Life360 team is proud to have international writers on board. We may love different things but we work towards a common goal.

We live up to Life360’s mission–to Inform, Empower, and Inspire.

06

Victoria Lewis

Jipai He

Yijun Liu

Linhui Wong

Charming Photographer

Clock Collector

Drawing Maniac

Fashion Devotee

Yao Lu

Charlotte Huang

Meihong Yu

Postcard Maniac

Koala Fan

Avid Reader

Gengnan Zhao Doll Admirer

WINTER Tsipras addressing the masses.

Picture: Lorenzo Gaudenzi

Person to follow Alexis Tsipras Age: 40 years old Nationality: Greece Political Party: Syriza Position: Leader of the Opposition (2012), leader of the Syriza party (2009) Running in the 2015 election to be the youngest Prime Minister in history.

Follow Tsipras at www.alexistsipras.eu @tsipras_eu

Glasgow Film Festival 2015 The 11th Glasgow Film Festival will be held from February 18th to March 1st in the Scottish capital. During this festival, there are daily showings of movies as well as live performances, old movie screenings, short films, directors’ discussions, cast meet and greets, and a roller disco.

Many famous actors, such as Alan Rickman and Alan McKenna, will be in Glasgow during the film festival, so you may get a chance to see your favourites!

For information and tickets, log on to http://visitgff.glasgowfilm.org/

Red Bull’s Crashed Ice A world tour of winter extreme sports involving ice cross downhill across four countries. Watch the heated action on ice live.

Red Bull Crashed Ice 2015 is set to kick off on January 22nd at Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Extreme skaters will be skating downhill in an urban environment, on a track which includes steep turns and high vertical drops. This world tour takes place over seven weeks, with the season opener taking place in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to the first qualifier rounds in Helsinki, Finland and second qualifier rounds in Belfast, Northern

Ireland before the big finale in Edmonton, Canada.

A huge fan of winter sports and hockey, Canadian Ed Cox enthuses, ”I can honestly say I have never been more amazed by a live sporting event like Red Bull Crashed Ice.” Cox is rooting for the defending champion Austrian Marco Dallago. 24 years old Dallago has been playing ice hockey in a premier league club since he was five years old and transcended to become an ice speed skater on his way to becoming the 2014 Ice Cross Downhill World Champion.

Facebook: Beyond the grave Facebook’s ‘legacy contact’ enables users’ ‘digital heir’ to take over your account when you die.

The new setting, within Facebook’s ‘security options’, allows a trusted family member or friend to act as a substitute of the deceased, to make their last post as well as manage friend requests, update the cover and profile photos, and archive content. The new option for posthumous care of a Facebook account highlights an important issue of what happens to your digital possessions and persona when you die. it would be nice to see more tech companies follow its lead in thoughtfully addressing what happens to users’ data when they pass away.

Voxpop: Will you use this new function?

Jikyung Kim, 34, Journalist, South Korea “I do not want to use this function. I do not want to leave my data on Facebook, because it is meaningless.”

Yiren Wang, 28, Officer, China “I want to use it, because if my child misses me, they can open it and see my pictures and messages.”

Alex Ioannou, 23, Marketing Strategist, UK “I don’t see the point as you can deactivate it with just a death certificate.”

Dan Sanduleac, 26, Engineer, Romania “Sounds like a good idea on the face of it, could more easily let friends who are not in close contact know what happened.”

Contestants going hardat it.

Picture: www.redbullcrashedice.com

Skaters to look out for: Marco Dallago – Graz, Austria Cameron Naasz – Minnesota, USA. Kyle Croxall – Alberta, Canada Scott Croxall – Ontario, Canada Follow the action live or catchup online at www.redbull.tv/live For information and tickets visit www.redbullcrashedice.com

07

News

Total solar eclipse

A total eclipse will occur this March 20th. This total eclipse is the first since 2009 and won’t take place again until 2026.

People from Svalbard in Norway will be able to see it in its totality, while in Europe, north-east Asia, Greenland and Western Russia will be partial. The eclipse will start at 7:41am and will have its maximum point at 9:45am UTC. Its longest duration will be 2 minutes 47 seconds off the coast of the Faroe Islands.

Dr Kate Russo Picture: www.paulmcerlane.com

Chasing eclipses Dr. Kate Russo is an Australian eclipse chaser that lives in Belfast, UK. She has been travelling the world chasing eclipses for her whole life and has seen 8 total solar eclipses.

She is aiming to bridge the gap between psychology and astronomy by researching and communicating about the eclipse experience. She’s going to be in the Faroe Islands to see the totality of the solar eclipse.

Why do you chase eclipses?

It’s just something that I feel compelled to do. My first eclipse experience had a really profound effect on me. I was just so amazed and awestruck after that first one that I knew I would see every one that I could.

What emotions do you experience when viewing an eclipse? At first there is such a relief. Then there is the long wait as the partial phase continues, and the closer it gets the more the excitement builds. But then the last five minutes things happen so quickly. The light becomes strange and I always get goosebumps. This is the really eerie awareness that

Apple Addicts, rejoice! 2015 promises to be an exciting year for the California giant.

A smartwatch, named the Apple Watch, is the first of these new releases and Apple has been announcing the arrival of this gadget since September 2014. Fan of Apple products, Aiden Zulkifli from Singapore says that the Apple Watch will rival the android wear. Apple’s CEO confirmed that it will be released in April 2015.

Rumours are also circulating around an upgrade on the Apple TV and the launch of the Macbook Air Retina, however, dates have not been confirmed. And the iPhone 7 is already subject to speculation, one of them being that it may have a sapphire screen, which is supposed to be more scratchresistant to the current glass one.

2015 Elections Where and when the elections are happening:

Egyptian parliamentary elections rescheduled

North Cyprus presidential on April 19

the shadow is coming. In that moment, nothing else matters. Then there is the euphoria, the awe, excitement, and then it’s over.

Meant to be the final trasnlation from military rule, elections were expected to take place in March but will happen in June.

Is this total eclipse going to be special somehow?

All eclipses are unique in some ways but I have been working with the people of the Faroe Islands since 2013, and I’ve helped them prepare, plan and coordinate aspects of the eclipse outreach and media. I have had quite a challenging two years because of health issues, and this eclipse just feels important in some way. Like it is an acceptance of health limitations and that it will all be ok at the end.

Sudanese general election in April

Northern Cyprus is a self-declared state only recognised by Turkey. The favourite candidate for the election is incumbent President Dervis Eroglu, not in favour of settlement with the southern part.

SPRING 08

Apple’s new release

The last saw the re-election of Omar al-Bashir, currently wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.

Finland parliament This will take place in April. The country has been suffering the rise of the right euroscepticism with the “Finns Party”.

UK general elections on the upcoming May The two main parties, Conservaties and Labour, are currently in the shadow of the UKIP. The far-right party made an astonishing breakthrough during the European elections in 2014, historically beating Conservatives and Labour.

SUMMER Music and arts festivals 2015 Fancy going to music and arts festivals in the hot summer time? Here’s our brief timeline of six popular music and arts festivals around the world.

Tomorrowland, Belgium.

Picture: Sebastien Camelot

Going to an amazing music festival should be the number one thing on your ‘summer time wish list’ this year. Here are six popular summer-time music and arts festivals all over the world - just prepare your ears and eyes!

America: Summerfest - the world’s largest music festival Date: June 24-28/June 30 – July 5, 2015 Place: Milwaukee,WI, USA Belgium: Tomorrowland – the world-famous EDM festival Date: July 24-26, 2015 Place: Boom, Belgium

Tomorrowland, Belgium.

Picture: Sebastien Camelot

France: The Festival of Giants – one of the most spectacular in-your-face, visually grand festivals Date: July 12-14, 2015 Place: France Australia: Splendour in the grass – the summer festival in winter Date: July 24-26, 2015 Place: Byron Bay, Australia The 41st Annual Omaha Summer Arts Festival – one of the best Fine Arts Fairs in the US Date: June 5, 6, & 7, 2015 Place: Omaha, NE, USA The United Kingdom: Notting Hill Carnival – Europe’s biggest street festival Date: August 30, 31, 2015 Place: London, UK

Picture: Edwin Lee

Beijing World Athletics Championships

There’s a lot of sporting action to look forward to this summer as August 22nd to 30th sees the World Athletics Championships take place in Beijing.

The fastest, strongest and best athletes from all over the world will come together to compete for gold medals. Be part of one of the year’s biggest sport events and support at China’s National Stadium, known as the bird’s nest.

Festival survival tips: Do pick a festival just because it sells your favourite food.

Don’t book too many festivals all in one go if you’re a festival virgin. One at a time!

One change of underwear isn’t enough and £50 spending money won’t suffice – take more!

Don’t model yourself on Kate Moss if you’re more M&S the rest of the year.

Don’t forget, what happens at the festival stays at the festival Don’t get too carried away especially when drunk.

Expo 2015 World Fair The Universal Exposition is a world fair showcasing the technological innovations, food, culture and creativity of 140 countries.

This year’s theme, Feeding The Planet, Energy For Life, focuses on the international problems of food availability and consumption.

The 2015 Expo is to be held in Milan, Italy, from

Picture: Susan Allen

May 1st to October 31st. It includes themed pavilions, a future food district, biodiversity park and garden containing 12,000 trees!

For information and tickets, visit www.expo2015.org

09

News

Autumn/Winter Fashion Week Autumn collections will arrive in September 2015.

New York fashion week 2015/2016 will kick off the global calendar of fashion weeks on February 9th to 16th and will be immediately followed by fashion weeks in London, Milan and Paris.

Vivienne Westwood, Jil Sander Navy, Alexander Macqueen, Balenciaga and other leading global brands have highlighted their men’s collection on their official website.

In autumn, the collections will not only be full of print, colour and rich fabrics, but also stable and solid style.

United Nations anniversary The United Nations will celebrate their 70th anniversary of their foundation. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon announced the start of a Global Celebration to remember the history and the role of the organisation. Here’s the timeline of its history leading up to the anniversary.

1941 – US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, a diplomatic act to reinforce peace keeping and security.

1942 – The word United Nation is officially used for the first time: Representatives from 26 nations at war signed the Declaration by United Nations, later followed by 21 others.

1946 – The General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the United Nations. UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi were also designated in international territories.

2007 – Onwards: With new Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the UN has intervened with peacekeepers in crises including the War in Darfur in Sudan and the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sent observers and chemical weapons inspectors to the Syrian Civil War. 2015 – 70th anniversary of UN foundation.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Rugby World Cup 2015 For sports fans, September’s Rugby World Cup tournament will mean five weeks of epic international showdowns.

Hosted by England and Cardiff, the tournament will last from September 18th to October 31st 2015. A total of 20 teams from five continents will play in the final tournament.

We interviewed Crystal, who is originally from China, holding the T-shirt of the Welsh rugby team.

Crystal cannot hide her enthusiasm for the sport.

“I didn’t even know what Rugby was before I came here. Now I am a huge fan of it. You cannot resist that gorgeous power.

Just come and you’re gonna love it.”

Picture: Scott Smith

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, episode 7 of the Star Wars series which will release on December 18th in America, is going to rock this autumn.

The stars from previous films, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, new cast men Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver, as well as Daisy Ridley and John Boyega will come forth on the big screen in the new chapter.

The release of the new movie is also going to be a

AUTUMN

time to witness the result of Disney’s buyout of Lucasfilm two years ago, an acquisition aimed at the revenue of Star Wars and its copies as well as its derivatives.

In the trailer that was released in the end of 2014, which quickly became one of the most viewed videos on Youtube, the lightsaber, an important weapon and mark of the movie, is quite different from in the former instalments. The director

of the new movie is J. J. Abrams and the famous former director Lucas admitted that his original ideas about it had been largely changed.

Despite the suspicious change after the takeover by Disney, Star Wars’ magnetism never seems to diminish.

Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney company, anticipates worldwide box office sales of four billion.

Discover360

Feast of insects

by Yijun Liu

Do you scream and hold a slipper in your hands when you are faced with a cockroach? What a reckless waste of food! Discover the benefits of eating insects in this article.

12

Discover360

D

on’t like insects? Would you feel scared and sick from just glancing a tiny worm? Then here comes some horrible news to you: eating insects is a global trend now and you may have to eat insects for life in the future.

In a conference named ‘Insects To Feed The World’, held in May 2014, eating insects was shown as a trend. Actually, since 2013 a report announced by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has started to encourage people to eat insects and explained this diet change as reasonable in aspects of ecology and economics.

Indeed, along with the increase in population, humans are facing a threat: a lack of food. Moreover, animal husbandry has imposed a heavy burden to our planet. Large amounts of land and water resources have been consumed and the excretions of animals pollute soil and water to some extent.

Faced with this situation, the idea of eating insects in order to feed people all over the world with enough protein has risen in popularity recently.

How could insects take over the heavy burden of protein supply? Are those little tiny bugs able to provide enough protein to satisfy human demand? The answer is yes. “Almost all the edible insects contain rich amounts of protein and trace elements,” said Lixing. Xiaoou Chen, a professor at the

Chinese Academy of Forestry concluded in his essay ‘Nutrition analysis of insects’ that the protein content of various kinds of insects is between 20%-70% and the fat content is between 10%-50%.

However, like nuts, most of the fat found in insects is unsaturated fat, which is a benefit to human health.

Moreover, the protein content proportion in some species of insects is higher than that of animal meat. For example, bees contain 80% protein and crickets contain 76% protein, which is higher than the protein content of beef in the same units. Besides, the large numbers of insects found throughout the world also could guarantee the sufficiency of our protein supply. There are more than 3650 kinds of edible insects in the world. In this case, insects could be a huge food resource for us.

Another advantage of eating insects is its economical efficiency and environmental protection when compared with livestock. Because insects are cold-blooded, they consume less energy to maintain their temperature or keep warm so they need a smaller food supply. Even more, some species of insect could be resistant to drought more than cattle, pigs and poultry so they would need to be fed less water. For instance, according to the Songshuhui-Association of Science Communicators in China, 10 kg of feed would be consumed to produce 1kg

Bittern silkworm chrysalis (South Korea)

of beef while it only requires 1-3 kg of feed to produce the same quantity of insect protein. In this case, the cost of feeding insects is much lower than feeding cattles.

In addition, Insects don’t need as much space as livestock and they produce lower greenhouse gas emissions than livestock do.

Challenges However, eating insects is not easily acceptable to most people. Indeed, some insects such as species of spider and scorpion are poisonous.

In another aspect, the bacteria in or on insects are also a concern for many people. Nevertheless, these problems could be solved by high-temperature cooking. In a passage published by Guokr (a non-profit scientific teaching website) on 20 November 2013, a detailed description of Asian chefs cooking scorpions in order to eat them safely was presented to encourage people to eat insects.

Though the safety issues could be solved, there is a tough problem that cannot be tackled easily - people just don’t want to eat them. The common impression of insects being disgusting and dirty, or even scary is a nightmare to insect food producers. Some insect food producers or restaurants try to change the appearance of insect food to improve people’s impressions.

Taste around the world

Bittern is a traditional way of cooking cold dishes in Asia. In this way, you will need many spices such as cinnamon, anise and bay leaves mixed with salt, sugar and soy sauce, and then keep heating the mixture for1 hour. After that shut down the cooker and leave the mixture alone for cooling, you can have your feast of silkworm chrysalis!

Roasted termites (Australia & Africa) As there are lots of termite mounds in Australia and Africa the termites are a good choice of cuisine. An original but exotic recommended way of cooking termites is just fire on the termite mounds! Though it is a little bit ‘bloody’, you will be impressed by the taste.

Yellow mealworm burger (Netherlands) Are you on a diet? Missing the taste of cheese? Yellow mealworm burger meets your needs. The creamy taste of the yellow mealworm will give you a similar great taste to cheese.

Stir-frying locusts with Chinese pepper (China) A good alternative to hot chicken wings. Stir-fry big locusts with onion and Chinese pepper and add some sugar and a little soy sauce, you will taste a crunchy hot feast.

Spider Burrito (Mexico) Spiders would become very crunchy after been cooked in a Mexican style. Try a spider burrito then you may forget the taste of crab.

Bamboo worms (Thailand) Love fried prawn? Why not try fried Bamboo worms? All you need is just olive oil or healthier—an Airfryer!

13

Discover360

Picture: Texaus

Paragliding, another way to see the world

by Yuxiao Zhao

Paragliding is not simply a sport. It is something that one should try at least once in their lifetime.

P

aragliding is possible almost anywhere in the world. If you live near a steep cliff, you’ll have seen these brightly coloured parachutes soaring and swooping. Even if you live in a flat area, you could still see the giant coloured fellows travel across the sky.

Paragliding is a sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, footlaunched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a gear suspended below a fabric wing.

The pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the forces of air flowing over the outside keeps the craft in the air. Despite not using an engine, paraglider flights can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometres, though flights of one to two hours covering some tens of kilometres are more the norm. By skilful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of thousands meters.

“It’s a new lifestyle,” says Wayne Thompson, a paragliding lover from London. “My first experience with paragliding was when I went on >>

15

Discover360

Fun Facts of Paragliding Paragliding was named by NASA. It’s more comfy than the chair you’re sitting in right now.

You’ve got brakes and gas.

The first paragliding world championship was held in Kssen, Austria in 1989.

The world’s oldest paraglider recorded in the Guinness World Book of Records is Baruch Gurwitz at 77 years old. holiday in South Africa. We started off a tip of a mountain near Cape Town.

It was so different seeing everything when you are flying 400 metres off the ground. I have to say there’s no other sport that compares to paragliding.”

The thrill and excitement paragliding gives is unique compared to any other sport that people do. Even though it is considered a less extreme sport than free running or ice climbing, Wayne found it the most enjoyable by far.

When floating in the air hundreds of metres above ground, it feels like there are only two things in the world, you and then the rest of world.

“I felt it was the most peaceful way to be flying. You don’t get the noise of engines propelling you like when you sit on a plane, nor do you get the fear of falling to your death when you skydive,” Wayne says. “You could say walking or jogging is just normal sports, but paragliding is a stereoscopic model. You shuttle in the air and you communicate with wind and sunshine. It’s definitely worth trying.”

Flying, how?

Don’t think for a minute that paragliding is a specialist sport. Between the French and Germans alone there are around 70,000 pilots. These figures are based on registered flyers. In addition, there are many good places for paragliding: Miraflores in Peru, Hautes Alpes in France, Otago in New Zealand, Dolomites

16

in Italy, Danyang in South Korea… basically you can fly virtually everywhere in the world. All of these places have stunning views and are perfect either for beginners or professionals. But for a totally greenhand, how to make a start?

“Do not try to learn paragliding on your own,” explains Patrick Humphries, an experienced paragliding instructor from Cambridge Paragliding Club in the UK. This is the first thing Patrick says when he is asked questions about paragliding techniques.

“Many paragliding schools have training classes. The training progression has three stages: ground practice, short flights and long flights. We would tailor the training according to your experience. All of these stages will have some theory thrown in, in which your instructor will teach you in a classroom or a similar place.”

For people who don’t have previous experience in any air sports, the first two or three days will be ground practice. People will learn what the paragliding gear is composed of and will spend hours on a training hill doing different exercises: inflating the canopy, running with the canopy over your head and dropping the canopy. Once your instructor decides you’re ready, you’ll pass to the next stage.

According to Patrick, many schools offer tandem flights before the first solo flight, but in some schools this is not mandatory. “Flying in tandem allows

you to get the feeling of flight without the anxiety of thinking you could make a mistake at any moment, but at my school many people fly solo for their first time and there’s never been a major problem,” he explains.

A game of the brave “My heart remains peaceful when travel across the sky. There is only a sense of pride and satisfaction that arose deep in your mind. I feel like a little bird who finally hits the blue sky. I’m a paraglider.

I see paragliding as another way to see the world,” says Qiang Ma from China, champion of Paragliding Accuracy World Cup. “But meanwhile, it is a dangerous and expensive sport that only suits a minority of people.”

As Patrick said, it is relatively safe to do tandem paragliding with the instructor. But paragliding on one’s own is rather different. Qiang had a breathtaking experience when he tried to fly over Mt. Tai-hang in Linzhou, China, where he came across a strong current.

Qiang hit a stony cliff when landing in order to avoid hitting a pylon. He was scared but luckily unharmed. Accidents can happen anytime if you are not careful enough.

“People may die paragliding at anytime. It’s dangerous yet also manageable,” Qiang says. “It is an experience of a lifetime, something that one should definitely try at least once in his or her lifetime.”

Discover360

Start your career in a foreign country

by Wanyu Zhao

5 things to consider

before leaving your nation.

1. Language

Different culture, fresh surroundings and new relationships make working abroad an adventure, to which many people are choosing to rise to the challenge.

Communication is something we take for granted, but when you are in a foreign country you might not be able to walk right up to someone and express yourself...

2. Where to go?

There are many factors that go into your choice of a new home country: climate, political stability, crime, proximity to the U.S. for a quick flight home, cost, language and customs.

Picture: Sticky Note

3. Taxes and insurance You’ll probably also want to stay upto-date with your health insurance, and many people conveniently forget to tell agencies that you don’t live in their motherland any more so it doesn’t cause complications.

4. Medical It’s important to be aware of the medical services available in your new communities, and how they are rated for quality and consistency, as well as access to prescription medication.

5. Residency and Visas Some expats want to become citizens of their new nation; some are content staying there on extended tourist visas. Different countries have different rules, so do your homework and talk to other expats.

Picture: Alexander Kaier

O

ne of the extremely challenging things for a person is breaking the routine of an old life and dropping into a totally unfamiliar nation to start a long-term life, because moving to a new country to live is a wholly different experience to going there on holiday.

Nowadays, there is an increasing number of people choosing to find jobs beyond their own country. According to the research from Global Intelligence Group (an organisation doing researchbased intelligence for a wide range of international intelligence markets), 68% of the global labor force is willing to work abroad. This figure is an increase of 7% in comparison to 2006 and continuing the trend that was measured from 2009 to 2014.

With the development of globalization, working abroad may well become a reasonable option for some who want to work in a specific field but where their own country has few vacancies for them. Last year, 207,000 British people left the country permanently or semipermanently. Also, a survey carried out

by Global Post among 2,361 South Korean students from 132 universities on February 6th 2015 suggests that 59.3% of them prefer overseas jobs over local jobs.

Although it sounds attractive and interesting, there are some things that should be weighed up carefully. Can you face leaving behind family and friends?

Are you ready to start things again in a new location? Edmund Bana, 33 years old, has been working as an English

teacher in China for four years.

His family moved from their motherland, Ghana, to Britain for business reasons when he was three years old. “My father recommended me to go to China because our family business always deals with Chinese companies, so I got a job in China through a website which is called 51 job,” he says.

The life in China is not as easy as Edmund thought before arriving there.

He experienced many awkward situations.

“I remember someone asked me if my blood was also red, just because I am black. And a taxi driver asked me if you could touch me to see if my colour would fade. These questions or actions made me speechless, but these experiences also taught me how to embrace discrimination. I am much more tolerant compared to before,” he smiles.

Enduring loneliness Indeed, getting used to a new way of life, new people and a new culture takes time and effort. To deal with this problem some young people choose to study abroad for a period of time in advance, in order to allow more time to adapt to a fresh environment.

However, some of them also find it not that easy to fully integrate into the circles of native people. Juri Cai is from Malaysia, and can speak English, Chinese and also Cantonese. After four years of university study in Taiwan, she decided to stay and find a job there. “I do not want to back home, because the salary in Malaysia is relatively low, and my language advantage gives me more promotion opportunities here,” she says.

Nevertheless, Juri expresses her negative

feelings about working in a strange culture background as well.

“I am extremely lonely. I almost have no friends here. Taiwanese are social and outgoing, but I think they are exclusive essentially. I can speak Mandarin, so it is easy for me to conceal my nationality at first, but when we talk for a while, they will find I am not a native person, and begin to alienate me.”

Leaving comfort zone Creating new interpersonal circles is quite difficult for many overseas applicants, but there are still many people who treat this problem with a positive attitude.

Yifan Zhao, a Chinese software engineer, who has been working in the UK for two years, says that he already got used to working with people from different countries. “I think you really should try to force yourself out of your comfort zone. It is just too easy to stick to what you are already comfortable with,” he says, “It gets into a vicious cycle. As time goes by, you’ll find it harder and harder to accept the difference. The best way to buy into a foreign culture is to get to know the people from that culture.”

Emily Travis, the Internship manager of Global Opportunity Centre of Cardiff University in Wales concludes after sending hundreds of students to different countries to do their internships: “I believe even a short stint abroad can be beneficial, it can have advantages for your long term career and expand your cultural horizons. You never know what it is like until you try it out.

19

Live360

Grooms on wedding cake.

Picture: Wowsy

Endless gay cake revolution

by Jipai He

The battle of protection for LGBT rights extends to an unexpected area, the bakery industry.

S

esame Street’s Bert and Ernie have been embroiled in a gay rights controversy. In July 2014, Ashers Baking Company, a Northern Ireland bakery run by Christians, refused to bake a gay-themed cake depicting the Sesame Street couple Bert and Ernie. In February this year, the Christian bakery went to court for breaking anti-discrimination laws.

The anti-gay Christian Institute seeked donations to help Ashers Bakery. A full-page advertisement published in the Belfast Telegraph said, “we’re supporting Ashers Baking Co as they face court for upholding marriage.”

Currently, Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where same-sex marriage is still not legal.

“The law of the UK and most of Europe does not allow service-providers to treat any customer in a discriminatory manner for any reason that relates to a feature of the customer’s life,” said

20

David Allison, an 80-year-old volunteer who has worked with OutRage!, a British LGBT rights group, since it started in May 1987. David argued that in a society where most of the citizens believe in equality, it would be wrong to allow a religious believer to let his beliefs stand in the way of another citizen’s right. “If someone chooses baking and selling cakes as his career he must be prepared to accept cakeorders from anyone,” said David.

Similar to this case, Oregon Christian bakers in the US, who refused to supply a wedding cake for a lesbian couple in January 2013, could be forced to pay up to $150,000. According to a ruling issued by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries on February 2, 2015, bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein, were guilty of “unlawful discrimination under the Oregon Equality Act.” Ben Carson, likely GOP (Grand Old Party, namely the Republican Party in

the US) presidential candidate in the US, even made a “joke” about anti-gay bakers. “What I have a problem with is when people try to force people to act against their beliefs because they say, ‘they’re discriminating against me,” Carson told reporters, according to The Hill. “So they go right down the street and buy a cake, but no, let’s bring a suit against this person because I want them to make my cake even though they don’t believe in it. Which is really not all that smart because they might put poison in that cake,” he added.

Gay-friendly bakeries Another gay cake case in the continuing cake battle is an exception. A Colorado baker in the US declined to put an antigay message on cakes. The customer who asked for Bible-shaped cakes, also asked for anti-gay messages such as “God hates gays” onto the cakes.

Marjorie Silva, owner of Denver’s Azucar

Live360 Bakery, refused the request.

Compared with the frequently reported cases about anti-gay bakeries, there is an increasing number of gay-friendly bakeries. EnGAYged Weddings, which is an online LGBT wedding directory located in Florida in the US, has been running for nearly five years since 2009. Every year, many gay couples order wedding cakes through EnGAYged Weddings. “The hottest thing of our LGBT wedding cakes is a white fondant or buttercream cake with a rainbow surprise interior. Beyond that, our couples like what they like, just like any straight wedding. They are either trendy and want the pantone color of the year which is radiant orchid, or some other cake that would never suggest or imply it was a gay wedding at all,” said Britt Jamrock, CEO of EnGAYged Weddings.

Over the past years, some cases of discrimination against same-sex couples that got large attention have been wedding vendors, and especially bakers.

Gay cake has been increasingly seen as an important area to defend gay rights.

More than a cake “The issue here is more than just a wedding cake”, said Pliny Soocoormanee, assistant to the director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation which is a human rights organisation in the UK. “The LGBT community for a long time has been discriminated against. Refusal to provide awedding cake usually has the undertone that ‘your love does not matter, your union is inferior’.”

Handmade cake by a gay couple.

Picture: Flipsy

Vancouver Pride Parade 2014.

Picture: GoToVan

Pliny lists three steps that LGBT rights organisations could do for the fight against discrimination. Open dialogue with the anti-gay bakers about discrimination is the first step.

“If it fails, name and shame those involved or picket the venue so as to let other people know of the attitude of the business”, Pliny called the second step as the direct action step. Then, if the law is unclear and unspecific, LGBT organisations could lobby to ensure that the law prevents such discrimination.

Many countries have acknowledged the LGBT rights but society has a long way to go. Many couples are still waiting for the law to allow the union of two gay people.

Let them eat cake. Continuous calls appear all the time with heated arguments. When same-sex marriage is spreading worldwide, a truce is still hard to seal.

21

Live360

A jar full of trash

by Alba Charles

Bea Johnson fits all her one year waste into a glass jar. Could you?

T

ake a look around you and check how many things you’re likely to throw away. On my table there are three napkins, two pens about to run out of ink and the plastic packet of the pistachios I bought earlier this morning.

All of this is going to end up in the bin in less than one hour. If I had to put it in a jar, it would fill half of it.

But how does French lifestyle blogger Bea Johnson manage to put all the waste her family produces in one year into only one jar?

The Johnsons generated one jar of trash last 2014.

Picture: zerowastehome.com

Since she started her new lifestyle in 2008, Bea Johnson agrees she and her family have a better life, Picture: zerowastehome. com

The Johnsons only own what is necessary at home.

Picture: zerowastehome.com

Less becomes more Bea Johnson lives with her husband and two kids in Mill Valley, California. She acknowledges they started their ecolifestyle almost by chance. “In 2006 we chose to move downtown to be able to walk or ride everywhere.

Before finding the ideal home, we rented a small apartment for a year, moved in with only a few necessities and stored the rest.” It was then when they realised that living with only those few necessities was actually enough.

Simplicity allowed them to have more time to do other things, such as spending time with family and friends and exploring the outdoors. “We then bought a house half the size of the previous one and let go of 80% of our belongings, including the ones we had stored. It was then when I started reading up on environmental issues. Some shocked me and others even made me cry. That was when my husband and I decided to change our lifestyle for the sake of our kids’ future.”

They got very involved in the matter.

Bea’s husband quit his job and started a sustainability consulting company and >>

23

The non-recyclable waste the Johnsons made in 2014 Picture: zerowastehome.com

Some of Bea’s tips on how to lower your waste at home The kitchen…

1. Find alternatives to disposables: switch paper towels to cloth rags and sandwich baggies for stainless containers.

2. Buy in bulk at local markets.

3. Invest in a pressure cooker, it reduces the cooking time.

The bathroom…

1. Use 100% recycled and unbleached toilet paper.

2. Use an alum stone or baking soda as an antiperspirant.

3. Refill your bottles with bulk shampoo or conditioner.

Laundry and cleaning…

No plastic envelopes inside the cabinets Picture: zerowastehome.com she tackled the house and re-structured their lifestyle. She agrees that since they started in 2008, their lives have changed.

“We found out that zero-waste is not just good for the environment. Overall it has also made us healthier, simplified our cleaning and made our professional work much more efficient.”

Cutting down the waste The transition to a zero-waste lifestyle didn’t happen overnight. The biggest challenge for Bea was finding balance, figuring out what worked for them and what didn’t: “There were no books or blogs on how to do zero-waste when I started in 2008, so I googled alternatives and tested my own recipes.

I got wrapped into homemaking. At some point I was making cheese, bread, yogurt, milk… but this was too extreme and too time consuming.”

One of the aims of living a zero-waste life was to make things easier, but this

24

wasn’t going in the correct direction.

“We then realised that there was no need for us to waste time making bread if we could buy it unpackaged directly from the bakery.”

Supermarkets and big stores are out of the question. Instead, the Johnsons buy their groceries at local markets, specialty shops, farms, breweries or thrift shops that offer package-free goods. “We bring reusable totes, cloth bags and jars to fill them with food sold in bulk.”

Bea admits that these seven years that she’s been living producing almost no waste have changed her way of seeing things. “I no longer see products that are packaged but only those that are unpackaged. Once you have that vision, you see and find bulk everywhere!”

What’s the secret to generate only one jar of trash per year? Bea talks about the 5 R’s they follow to eliminate waste.

“We Refuse what we don’t need, Reduce what we consume, Reuse what we have, Recycle only what we cannot refuse, reduce or reuse and finally we Rot the rest to make compost.”

Eliminating all the waste you generate might seem a bit extreme, but cases like Bea Johnsons’ family show that it is achievable and not as complicated as it may seem. Bea is delighted with how she’s been living for the past seven years. “In the end it’s all good! I wish everyone realised and enjoyed the great hidden benefits of this lifestyle.”

1. Use natural cleaning alternatives: castile soap on floors and sinks, baking soda for scrubbing and vinegar for mildew.

2. Have houseplants that absorb toxins and clean the air.

3. Dry on a line when possible.

The table...

1. Consider serving tap water with lemon slices instead of fizzy water.

2. Discard napkin folding to decorate your table and use seasonal fruits or branches instead.

3. Use ceramic dishes and cloth napkins.

The office…

1. Refuse free-pen giveaways.

2. Sign up for electronic bills and statements.

3. Reuse paper clips instead of staplers.

Your closet…

1. Buy secondhand clothes.

2. Learn some sewing tips, so you don’t throw away something slightly broken.

3. Stick to minimal wardrobes.

Medication...

1. Clean cuts and scrapes with soap and water, forget the plastic band-aids and let air-dry.

2. Choose tablets in a glass or recyclable jar instead of the ones wrapped in aluminium.

3. Do not use everyday antibacterial products, they make bad bacteria stronger.

Live360

The art of shibari

by Yao Lu

Shengwu Xiaolin (Lin), a Taiwanese, wears a pair of glasses to hide his true identity. With them he is a university tutor. Without them he becomes a shibari artist, a Taiwanese BDSM art.

B

DSM includes bondage and discipline (B&D), dominance and submission (D&S), and sadism & masochism (S&M). Enjoying BDSM is just one facet of someone’s sexuality and lifestyle. “It’s just regular people who happen to get off that way,” writes sex expert Gloria Brame. Maybe it is more common for Western people to accept BDSM. However, it is not what happened in China whose traditional culture does not accept BDSM yet.

Lin is the person who wanted to create a channel through which BDSMers’ voices could be heard by the vanilla world, as well as an active representative supporting and co-operating with other sexual-minorities. Therefore, he founded the first public BDSM Company 11 years ago in Taiwan. In order to protect his life and for the convenience of the performance, he gave himself a stage name - Shengwu Xiaolin - ‘sheng’ meaning ‘rope’, which he also uses

Lin’s Shibari performance. Picture: Against Again Troupe in his performance. He was a little worried about being found out by his conservative boss, but he does not care much. “If I’m found, I will just let it go,” he smiles brightly, eyes slightly narrowed with the eyeliner, a wisp of iconic silver hair hanging down his neck.

He always wanted to be a shibari artist but tutoring was important to him.

At the end of 2014, he came to a club in Taiwan University to have a lecture on BDSM culture in Western countries.

Attracted by this topic, “boys in red woolen cloth skirts, men with nose rings and girls dressed in black came,” said Lin with a proud face. He talked about the development of BDSM (BDSM was put forward for the first time in 1991 and gradually became popular).

An ever more popular art Lin wants to strengthen this culture through his BDSM Company. On their official website, they write: “We aim to be a visible and active BDSM community speaking for Taiwanese BDSMers.”

In Lin’s BDSM Company, there were lots of performances and parties. “Munch” was a monthly activity: Lin and his friends get together, have discussions and practice shibari. “This kind of activity was not only for members, but also open to everyone who signed in,” said Lin. “If you are interested, you can also come and join us,” he told me during the interview. Through these events, Lin and his members always take group photos, but he hides faces on the public photos. “Although we would like to show up in front of the public, we

try to hide our special habbit so as not to be found by our families,” Lin says with a lower voice.

Once a boy was found learning shibari by his parents. They said that their son was stepping on a wrong road and pulled their son home violently.

“These things are common to us,” Lin says with a bitter smile.

A brighter future for BDSM For the convenience of performances, Lin and his members founded a troupe for BDSM Company. However, this troupe needed to be authorised by the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Taipei City Government. They wrote that they were a “visible, voice and movement”, the government did not let them pass. They had to change their aim to “To show the beauty of human body” to get permission.

They only got a small and remote performance area in Taipei Arts Festival, as the government was afraid it would have negative effects on young children. So he attached notes on the performance information: 12 years-old or older can also enter, but should be accompanied by adults.

After Lin’s lecture on BDSM, students in Taiwan University were inspired. The students planned the first BDSM society in the university. Although they wrote “safety, sensible and informed consent” on their leaflets, their application still met with opposition by the university.

Lin is looking forward to real change: “Maybe in 10 years BDSM will finally be popular,”says Lin, “watch out for me.”

25

Live360

Rise of Asian design at London Fashion Week 2015

by Linhui Wang

One of the highlights of this year’s London fashion week saw more garment designs from Asian designers appear on the catwalk.

A

s a classical design of garment, Shirts have dominated one of the key positions in the field of fashion for almost 60 years. Wei Huang, a Chinese designer, sticks out from the crowd and brings her shirts to London fashion week for the second time in 2015. When models walk out wearing her shirts in the spotlight, all attentions are paid to the big leather pockets, which constitute the important parts of her design. Compared with normal classical shirts, she added the big pockets and buckles to distinguish form other designs successfully. She never thought her work would be welcome at the fashion week. Also, to her surprise, there were even several Asian designers involved in London fashion week.

However, why has this change happened in London? In other words, what actually makes London fashion week different this year.

of the fashion industry has been a testament to the popularity of the UK’s fashion industry. It drives innovation and growth of British buyers from across the globe to the UK every year.

In 2011, consumers from all over the world spent £53bn on clothes and shoes alone in the UK. In the recent five years, the number of consumers from China was raising rapidly. By 2015, the figures increased to 68%, which was twice higher than 2010.

Xueshu Li, an economics doctor of China Agriculture University, says:“If fashion industry dominates the major of UK GDP, London Fashion Week will be the key to drive the development of economics.”It a significant platform to report the fashion goods first hand.“The speed of communication is fast, and the influence is huge,”he adds.

Picture: Consumer

The connection between fashion weeks and UK GDP A recent story in the Guardian says:“The fashion industry accounts for 1.7% of UK GDP – twice as much as publishing, car manufacturing or the chemical industry – and supports 816,000 jobs. There are encouraging signs that on a small scale, British manufacturing is on an upswing.”

Fashion directly made 2.8% of total employment in the UK. The direct value of the fashion industry to the UK economy is £21bn. In total, the fashion industry in UK contributes at £37bn.

The statistics highlight the crucial role of the cutting-edge British fashion industry, it especially reflects in the showcasing events such as London Fashion Week. Since 2009, the growth

26

The profit from developing Asian designers This year, Asian designs started to contribute to fashion weeks. Han Wu was graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. His designs were famous for fat profile.

He used philosophic thinking to show his different understanding of fashion.

Minbin Tian made his oversize coats welcome in London Fashion Week.

Eudon Chio is from Korea, with the intelligent use of the colour, he brought the spirit of spring to the fashion week.

Although the number of Asian designers has increased in London Fashion

Week, Chinese designers still took the significant places.

The recent story in the Guardian says:“China is getting more expensive time-to-market is ever more important for retailers. This means there is now the opportunity to make clothes in the United Kingdom, and to remain competitive.”

This year, London Fashion Week invited six young Chinese designers in order to stimulate British market, as well as attracting more Chinese retailers to pay attention to British fashion design.

Xiangfang Liang, a vice-president of Huayixiongdi fashion and media group in China, says: “Chinese people consume

Live360

Picture: Yofond more and more luxury goods. The power of purchasing is rising. The more Chinese design is showcased at London fashion week, the more Chinese buyers pay attention.”

It contributes to increase the sales of design in UK, as well as activates a healthy domestic competition in Britain.

“China is developing its fashion industry with a rapid rate. It means that Chinese designers have become popular with their design,”says Zidong Xu, who is a young fashion designer who works for Huayixiongdi.

In 2015, there are not only Chinese designers, but also Asian designers from Korea take their place in London fashion

week. The change illustrates that Asian design are becoming welcome and theyare developing with an invaluable speed.

It is the second time for Wei Huang to be involved in London fashion week. As the same as the other young designers across the world, her works could be one part of the fashion week.

When Lady Gaga invited Wei Huang to be her image designer, she realised that her dreams had come true.

There will be possible the third, fourth and fifth times to be involved in London Fashion Week. At that time, she will be more confident to stand under the spotlight.

Wei Huang is a Chinese fashion womenswear designer with excellent skills in pattern cutting and sample development.

Picture: Yofond

Eudon Choi was born in Korea, initially trained as a menswear designer in Seoul, acquiring an in-depth knowledge of tailoring techniques and a great eye for detail.

27

Eat. Sleep. Rave.

Eat.Sleep.Rave.Repeat?

by Victoria Lewis

Conscious clubbing is changing the future of rave as we know it.

Rave your way into the day: conscious clubbers at Morning Gloryville London Picture: Carys Maggie Lavin

A

sea of sweaty lycra-clad bodies move as one on the dancefloor, lost in the hypnotic house beats resonating from the bass-heavy soundsystem.

It’s 6am. Ecstatic, glowing faces smile at each other, sharing moments of pure euphoria in one of East London’s trendiest club spaces. But, this is an early morning rave with a difference. Everyone at this party is stone cold sober and most will be heading straight from the club to the office. This is conscious clubbing, the sober raving movement taking the world by storm at the moment.

Alcohol and recreational drugs have Alcohol always and beenrecreational inextricably drugs linkedhave to the always been They inextricably linked the club scene. are also neverto far club They headlines. are also never far fromscene. the news Just days from news into the 2015, the headlines, deaths of whether four menit be frightening accounts of the latest were being linked to a deadly batch clubbing casualties or the current of Superman-branded ecstasy pillstrend inin legal highs.

Granted, only the the UK. Granted, only thethe horror horror the headlines. storiesstories make make the headlines.

The papers More than the not, thousands the papersoffail to fail tooften mention mention revellers who revellers the whothousands get high of every weekend get live to andhigh live every to tellweekend the tale.and Nevertheless, tell the are tale.starting Nevertheless, a number of many to question people starting substances to questionthat whether whetherareimbibing are imbibing substances essentially essentially poisons isthat theare only route to poisons the So, onlyisroute to a clubbing good a good israve. conscious rave.

So, is conscious clubbing the the alternative? alternative? >>

Live360

“It’s about breakfast raving like it’s the 80’s, only you’re completely sober, awake and authentic.”

For Tegan Hecht, an organiser at conscious clubbing event Morning Gloryville, the answer is a resounding yes. “The term rave has often had negative connotations,” she explains, “so we are trying to change how people feel about the word by turning clubbing on its head. It’s about breakfast raving like it’s the 80’s, bringing the same sense of euphoria, ecstasy and oneness only you’re completely sober, awake, conscious and authentic.”

Changing the way we rave The idea was conceived in 2013 by friends Samantha Moyo and Nicholas Thoemmes, who loved the club scene but were tired of the come-downs and hangovers that followed – a lifestyle they saw as unsustainable. Enter Morning Gloryville: a mid-week, 6-10am, sober raveolution where the only stimulants on offer are gourmet coffee, pre-dancing wake-up yoga and a good old-fashioned natural high. “It’s such a fun experience,” enthuses London regular Jenna Nichols, 24, who insists clean clubbing is better than its conventional cousin. “I can have a completely healthy rave before work with no after-effects and I’m buzzing with energy throughout the day. It’s totally inclusive and free from egotism too.”

The events’ inclusivity seems to be as, if not more important to its success than its sober policy. Yes, you’ll find the aging ex-ravers and hippy types on the dancefloor, but you’re just as likely to see doctors, office workers and even parents with their kids getting their sober groove on. As a result, the last 18 months has seen Gloryville go global, setting up parties in 15 cities worldwide: from the hedonistic strongholds of New York and Berlin, to Bangalore and Rio de Janiero. And with it, the conscious clubbing concept is becoming an international trend.

While Tegan insists Gloryville isn’t anti-drink or drugs but is instead pro-people’, Swedish club night SOBER makes no bones about its stance on

30

Lose the booze and have a smoothie or mocktail Picture: Maltman23 alcohol. All clubbers are breathalysed on entry: the message firmly being to lose the booze if you want to boogie.

Admittedly, this sounds like no barrel of laughs but former comedian Marten Andersson’s parties have been a sell-out since they started in August 2014. SOBER has even been endorsed by the Swedish Temperance Association.

There’s evidently a call to revolutionise the way we rave, to focus on the music as well as more meaningful, not to mention memorable, socialising.

A more natural high But does music and meaningful conversation alone quite cut it? Many lifelong clubbers like Ben Stevenson, 34, think clean clubbing would kill the buzz. “Drugs enhance the music, always have,” he maintains. “I couldn’t imaginethe club scene without them. People just need to be sensible about what they take and not overdo it.” It’s true, recreational drugs have long gone hand in hand with music scenes, but it’s also widely accepted that music is a powerful and positive force of its own.

Researchers at McGill University’s Music Perception and Cognition Lab in Canada make it their business to study the effects of music on the brain. Their groundbreaking 2011 study found that listening to pleasurable music of any genre induces a phenomenon called musical chills - essentially the release of the body’s own ‘natural high’ chemicals.

Put bluntly, music is good for us, and we don’t need to take drugs to feel its benefits. The established field of music therapy is testament to this, explains Grace Watts from the British Association of Music Therapists. “Music and rhythm are innate to our being. Music therapists draw on its powerful qualities to facilitate changes in emotional wellbeing and communication, not only moving the body but the mind too. And it all happens naturally, of course.”

Only time will tell if conscious clubbing is the real deal or just a flash in the sober pan. But the fact that

there’s now a choice has to be a good thing. While drugs and booze often give clubbing a notoriously bad name, like that kid down the street your parents always warned you about, sober parties are opening up a new world of music and experiences to people who wouldn’t have thought it was their ‘thang’. And to that, conscious clubbing, I’ll raise my mocktail-filled glass!

Consious club your way around the world sobersweden.se

Saturday night Swedish clubnight.

morninggloryville.com

Early morning sober raving in Amsterdam, Bangalore, New York, Barcelona, Dublin, Montreal, Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, London, San Francisco, Zurich, Liverpool, Leeds and Brighton.

ecstaticdance.org

Three-hour barefoot moving mediation sessions in Berlin, Paris, Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Ibiza, Ghent, Amsterdam, Byron Bay and throughout the USA.

conscioousclubbing.co.uk

Kundalini yoga + dance + cocoa = love in London and Bristol.

chocolateclub.nl

Raw food sober dance party in the heart of Amsterdam.

consciousclub.com

Not raving but ‘enlighter-taining’ evenings of music, film and disscussion in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

Alexis Tsipras. Prime Minister of Greece.

Picture: Charls Tsevis

Observe360

Inside the radicals

by Davide Salvi

Tsipras and Iglesias: the rise of a new generation of anti-austerity politicians.

A

s the sky was darkening and the temperature becoming colder, thousands of people gathered outside the Athens University Main Building in January 25th. A blazing crowd was cheering Alexis Tsipras, the man of the day, that had just been elected as Greece’s new Prime Minister.

While a bunch of red flags were being lifted from the square, analysts and economists all over the world were looking with a mixture of interest and concern at the rise of the new radical party Syriza. As if Greece had been a long dormant volcano, now ready to erupt. What could be the implications of Syriza’s victory on the fragile European balance? How this is going to change the relations with Germany and the Eurozone? Will the Greek awakening facilitate a similar process in other Mediterranean countries?

Some thousands of kilometres away, a similar crowd had gathered in Valencia, in one of Spain’s biggest arenas: they too wanted to celebrate this moment of change. To warm the crowd’s hearts was Pablo Iglesias, personal friend of Alexis Tsipras and leader of the leftwing movement Podemos – we can, in English. “The sun of hope rose over Greece,” he said, “tic tac tic tac, the final countdown for Rajoy’s Government has just begun.” From November, the two men could end up meeting more frequently, as Podemos might gain enough seats to form a Government in the forthcoming general elections.

The voters’ voice “Syriza is a beacon of hope” says Veronika Merkova, a 19 year old Greek migrant who currently lives in the UK. “If they are going to maintain their promises, things are going to get better for us.” However, for the new Government it won’t be easy to cope with the hard facts. The headline grabbing promise of writing off most of the country’s €319billion debt will have to deal with the firm opposition of austerity’s hawks.

First among everyone, German Chancellor Angela Merkel whose country’s debt, Syriza argues, was cut down by half after World War II. “I

have nothing against Germany or the Germans,” says Veronika. “But in my opinion they have taken advantage of their position: they have economic power and they are wielding it at the expense of Greece.”

Rousing a sense of pride in disgruntled Greek voters was key for Syriza to win the majority in the Parliament. But the aim to radically reform the country’s unbalanced system has been fundamental as well. In addition to the renegotiation of the debt, Tsipras has promised 300.000 new jobs, a burly increase in the minimum wage and up to 300kWh of free electricity for 300.000 households below the poverty threshold. “Tsipras made a mistake by not threatening to leave the EU.” says Mark Donovan, a senior lecturer in Politics at Cardiff University. “A real European integration is in danger, but we have no indicators of what would happen if Greece decides to leave the Eurozone.”

Different origins for similar battles But social justice is not only the leitmotif of Syriza’s economic policy.

Podemos allies in Spain have launched a 68-page document, symbolically called Un proyecto economico para la gente an economic project for the people in which public injections of money are depicted as the only solution against lasting austerity.

“Podemos is a breath of fresh air for Spain, they give back the hope that this social and political crisis are putting in danger,” says Javier Uceda, a member of the European Society now taking his PhD in the UK. “They want to bring politics closer to people, they don’t want it to be just a matter of casting the ballot every four years.”

However, one substantial difference marks Syriza and Podemos. If Syriza is born as an aggregation of radical leftwing minority parties, the ideological trait is slightly faded in Podemos.

The Spanish movement is the political evolution of 15-M, the Indignants Movement, which in 2011 demanded a radical change in Spanish politics by camping for days in Madrid and 58 other cities. “I was there, I was one

of them in Madrid, in Plaza del Sol,” proudly remembers Javier. “But today, I am still not sure whether or not I would vote for Podemos: they are too new, they do not have a political structure yet.”

Radical parties in the world Radical parties are not only rising in Greece and Spain. Northern Europe too is showing the same trend. Left and right wing extremist parties which, in the past, have been relegated to the margins of the political system are now gaining consents and votes. It is the case of the National Front, in France, where the glossy leader Marine Le Pen deprived the party of its old quasi-fascist structure. At the last May’s European elections the party got before everyone, with 25% of the French votes and sent 24 MEPs to Strasbourg, an eight-fold gain on the last parliament.

There is a relation between right and left-wing populist movements. But we also need to understand that in many countries there is a rising sense of indignation towards the existent political system,” says Dr. Mark Donovan. “At the same time, though, the economic crisis has profoundly affected the political debate all over Europe.”

In Great Britain the UK Independence Party came first in the last European elections and is expected to gain an unprecedented result in May when the British voters will be called to vote for their representatives in Westminster.

Two sides of the same coin, we could think. Left and right wing radicals, even though different in many respects have at least in common the desire to levy the disillusion towards the same system.

It is no coincidence that Marine Le Pen publicly praised Tsipras at the eve of the Greek elections. “Recently many things have happened that only few years ago would have considered to be political fiction. Politics is changing.” says Dr. Mark Donovan.

Goodness knows if in two years some of that crowd in Athens would do the same for Marine Le Pen, when it will be hdent of France. Whatever the outcome, something big is going to happen in the EU.

33

Observe360

Tourists rush into a shopping mall in the Europe. Picture: NetEase.

Euro tsunami sweeps the world

by Katherine Yang

Think currency rate has nothing to do with ordinary people’s lives? Horrible mistake!

S

oon after the crash of the ruble last December, the euro became another infamous currency in the global financial market.

Recently, the euro tumbled to its lowest level against the dollar in nearly 11 years amid complicated factors from countries like Greece and Switzerland.

Since the euro plays such an important role in the global economic market, this sharp slide in value has had an immediate and profound effect. However, many people still consider currency fluctuation as a state issue. The following stories from ordinary people like you and me might change your mind.

34

Observe360

“I feel sorry for my parents.”

Maria Beligianni from Greece Maria is a 24-year-old Greek student in Cardiff, UK. Having failed to find a satisfactory job after graduating as an undergraduate student in 2013, she applied for a postgraduate programme in Cardiff University last year in order to gain a competitive advantage in the job market now.

Being a full-time student in the UK, Maria is funded by her parents.

However, when she decided to come to Britain last summer, the currency rate between the euro and the pound was about 1:0.75 and now it is only 1:0.6, which means about twenty percent of the currency value has disappeared.

“I even get more cautious on daily shopping now. If I used my credit card from my Greek bank to buy things and then I returned it for some reasons, the money would be less than the amount that I paid because the value of euro is dropping almost everyday,” she says.

According to the newly released statistics from 2014, there are more than 57,000 EU students in the UK and most of them would be affected by the crisis. “I feel so regretful that I chose to pay the tuition fees by installment plan instead of paying them all at the beginning. I am going to lose a lot of money because of it. I have to say I feel sorry for my parents,” Maria says.

Now Maria is trying hard to find a job in Britain instead of going back to Greece due to its collapsing economy.

Talking about the future, she uses ”disappointing” to describe it: the nonstop decreasing euro value and more importantly, she is still finding it very hard to get a job.

“Nice treat thanks to the euro crisis.”

Luying Yang from China Luying Yang is a 32-year-old manager working in a securities company in Shanghai. The national holiday for the Chinese Lunar New Year is now around the corner and she has already ordered her ticket to Paris to travel right after New Year’s Day. “It is a great chance to go! You have got a vacation and

you have the requirements to shop, and we heard the euro is dropping rapidly!”Luying says.

Similar to Christmas, the Spring Festival in February is the most important festival in China and also requires a large amount of gifts. At the same time, Chinese tourists are famous for being addicted to luxury goods from big fashion houses and people from the middle classes like Luying also regard it as a symbol of social status. “I can save at least 2000 yuan (about 200 pounds) on the Chanel bag I want, a nice treat for the Spring Festival thanks to the euro,” Luying tells us happilly.

Many people made the same choice as Luying. Ctrip, the biggest travel agency in China told Jmedia that 50% more people are taking package tours to Europe this vacation compared to last year and the number of people who go travelling on their own, doubled.

“I can save more money!”

Lysiane Adamini from Switzerland Lysiane Adamini comes from Geneva in Switzerland. Being located on the border, Lysiane and her family like to go to France to shop. “Even when the Swiss franc wasn’t that high, France was cheaper than Switzerland,” Lysiane says.

However, after it was declared that the value of the Swiss franc would not be connected with that of the euro anymore, the currency rate between the euro and the Swiss franc experienced a sharp drop from 1:1.25 to 1:1. Talking about the biggest impact on her, she says, “I can save money! I buy nothing but fresh food in Switzerland. Last week, I bought a pair of 70-euro ski trousers in France which would have cost 125 euro in Switzerland. And I was in the north of Switzerland and there was a traffic jam on the driveway to Germany.”

Actually, even many of the prices are now declining in Switzerland because many products are coming from the eurozone and they have to be more competitive to attract the customers.

This is how the world is today.

Quick Q&A with economist Patrick Minford, the former advisor of Lady Thatcher to talk about the euro crisis.

How can life differ so much from Spain to Finland with the same currency and rate?

Finland has also had a difficult time; but it has had better policies for the supply side - it has less hiring and firing regulations for example, this makes a big difference.

Do you think this will have an impact on immigration in Europe?

Yes; the UK is getting massive immigration because it is the main place with jobs and this is causing political discontent now.

Do you believe the euro will keep on dropping?

Probably the euro will now keep on dropping because of the crisis in Greece.

When will Europe recover from this economic crisis?

The problem comes from creating the euro without the necessary institutions to support it- such as a state that can help regions in difficulty without any political difficulty. As it is, all help to Greece was reluctant and came with excessively tough conditions.

What impact has the euro crisis had on the US? For the US the eurozone is economically one of many possible trading partners and places to make investments, so the US is well protected from the euro crisis, I think.

Picture: PhotoSteve101

35

The Three-Self Church, in Zhejiang province in China, has been demolished in

Christians in China

Observe360

by Meihong Yu

A sharp growth of Chinese Christians has frightened the Chinese government who has undertaken waves of suppressive campaigns againts them.

A

s for her and their house, they will serve the Lord.

It is a belief that Xin Xuemei and her husband have held for decades. It is also a belief shared by many christians in the world.

But for a Chinese believer, you have to go through Purgatory first.

As the Chinese government has ceaselessly put pressure on Christians, Xin Xuemei and her husband’s loyalty to God has been tested and strengthened. After they built a church, the government began to keep a close watch on them. When they sent Bibles to other people, her husband and father-in-law were arrested. Because they preached their religion, their place was ordered to be shut down. For decades, they constantly moved from place to place to avoid the pressure from the Chinese government.

Finally, at the end of 2014, her husband was sent to prison and so she lost her spiritual partner.

More than four hundred churches in China have been demolished and many crosses have been destroyed in 2014. Xi Jinping, the president of China, launched his ambitious plan that aims at eliminating “western values” in China last year. The government demanded university lecturers to stop talking about the disastrous results of the policy imposed by Mao during 1950s-1970s, the Chairman of China who had campaigned rigorously against religion in China.

“2014 was the toughest year for Chinese Christians since the end of cultural revolution,” said Bob Fu, a Christian activist who lives in America.

The Chinese government, controlled by the Communist Party that is the biggest atheistic party in the world, is trying to shrink the gradually loud voice of Christian believers.

A sharp growth China is going through a fast increase of Christians now. There are about 80 million Christians in China, according to Yang Fenggang, a sociologist in Purdue University in America. He predicts that

the number is going to climb to 250 million in 2030, which will make China replace America to be the country with the largest number of Christians in the world. The Pew Research Center, an American independent research institution, once said that China had 58 million Protestants and 9 million Catholics in 2010. Dr. Yang predicts that the number of Christians in China are increasing at an annual rate of 10%.

Systematic supression For many years, Christians in China, have been living in bitterness. Since the 1950s the Chinese government has required religious organisations and venues to be registered through government agencies.

Christian and Catholic parishioners must attend churches run by the government.

Religious activities are offending the governmental rules to do their worship in their own house or to go to churches without registration in government department. The members in these house churches are believed to be far more than the ones registered with the government. According to Bob Fu, the number of believers in “illegal sectors” accounts to about two thirds of all the believers. Many pastors and missionaries in house churches have been detained on the ambiguous charges of “illegal business operation” or “disrupting the public order.”

“As the church experienced growth and as various social crises emerged,

“The charge of the church is only an excuse.

I feel so helpless and disappointed.” the Chinese government entered into a ‘stage of maintaining stability through violence. ’That is, the government relied on the police, not the rule of law, to maintain its political power and social stability. As a result, the house church movement began to suffer systematic, widely spread and continuous persecution,” said Bob Fu. Zhejiang province, which accommodates the largest number of Chinese Christians and is labelled as “China’s Jerusalem”, began to demolish the legal churchs as the striking growth of christians. Three-self Churches, one of the biggest churches in Zhejiang, was dismantled under the ambiguous charge of “violating building codes”. Opponents of this policy began to do their worship at the site of the demolition, before they were quickly arrested. “The charge of the church is only an excuse. I feel so helpless and disappointed,” said Hsalon, a Chinese Christian in Zhejiang.

After Dr. Yang released his report about Chinese Christianity, he made a hit among many western press outlets, including the Economist, the New York Times and the Financial Times.

When the massive coverage came, he was waiting for a responce from the Chinese government who might reduce the pressure on its great number of Christians. But, several days later, when the Global Times, a communist party-supported newspaper in China, questioned his methods of the research and announced its nonsense, he realised that they won’t make the change.

Xin Xuemei’s husband is still in prison where he is forced to work hard everyday, and all she can do is pray for him in tears, “I feel pain in my heart. I can only implore the Lord to be merciful and show his grace.”

37

Observe360

The disappearance of blue skies and white clouds

by Charlotte Huang

A night scene of Shanghai Pudong district. Picture: Xinhua net.

Do you care about the air we inhale? Why you need to wear a mask when travelling to developing countries? From a global perspective, it would be a tragedy to lose resorts due to air pollution.

T

he world air pollution crisis, particularly in China, has become a heated topic again since former Chinese investigative reporter Chai Jing’s documentary Under the Dome was published. This kind of environmental air pollution can be found all over the world, either temporarily or in the long term. Everything happens as an equivalent exchange. Economy develops at the expense of the natural environment. Technology improves the convenience and cost of our daily commute and reduces the air quality simultaneously.

Air pollution in Europe In 2014, Paris enforced a car ban to cut dangerous pollution levels. In Paris the police set up 60 checkpoints around

38

the capital to ensure only vehicles with odd-numbered licence plates were out on the streets. Ministers acted after air pollution exceeded safe levels for five days running in Paris and surrounding areas. The traffic policeman on duty

a damaging impact on our health but there has yet decrease to be seen.

Mystery of air pollution in China

said: “Most people on the road understand that this action has a direct

We need to know the current situation of China’s air quality first. What is smog or haze? They can be measured by PM 2.5. In the World Health Organization’s

impact on the reduction of pollution levels on a daily basis in the long run.”

“Today across the south of England there is still high and very high levels of air pollution,” Dr Jill Meara from Public Health England says. According to statistics gathered by King’s College London, air pollution causes 29,000 early deaths each year across the UK and 4,300 in London alone. Road traffic, especially diesel vehicles, is the main source of air pollution and is having

the annual mean concentration of fine particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5, i.e. particles smaller than 10 or 2.5 microns).” They reflect a large amount of visible light, leaving us in a world with very low visibility. The World Health Organisation considers the tiny particles, a carcinogen. The standard PM 2.5 in China is over 6 times higher than the standard in Europe, critically analysed by the Ambient Air Quality Standard GR

words: “Air quality is represented by

Observe360 3095-2012 study. China is the biggest carbon polluter in the world. Vehicles’ exhaust emmissions and coal burning are the two dominant causes of air pollution.

Researcher Bin Fang from China’s power company State Grid Corporation of China, who is a graduate of Tsing Hua University said: “The coal and electric power industry are closely associated. China has announced a statement that the development and construction of the energy industry

should rely on electric power. China’s energy structure is dominated by coal and that is why China’s power industry is mainly coal-fired power. Coal-fired heat could be converted into electrical energy.” He emphasized: “China’s energy development strategy research points out the structure of the electric power industry in China should be diversified, using a variety of energy resources.

However, because of the limitations of natural conditions, even actively developing hydropower, nuclear power, new energy and renewable energy to generate electricity, by 2050 coal-fired power will still account for 50% of the whole energy industry.”

The way to purify our air People cannot control the way electricity is generated, but at least they can make choices about how they travel.

In an air pollution exposure experiment by the Healthy Air Campaign, King’s

College London and Camden Council used members of the public and surprisingly the fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood, who said: “Sometimes I get a running nose and running eyes, but I don’t know what causes it. When I am on the main road in the morning coming to work, I am astonished that how the traffic is so locked, it’s getting so much worse.

I am quite astonished of the actual cause of death in quite a few thousand cases.” This experiment is a comparison between busy routes and quiet routes.

It is expected that the results will demonstrate that the quiet routes show less air pollution.

Governments should reduce the amount of air pollution in the cities while at the same time lowering people’s risk by avoiding exposure to air pollution.

Vivienne said in the end: “We can avoid a certain amount of pollution if we consider our habits from one

place to another. The next hope is that people generally try to change their habits and put pressure on governments to change their habits as well. If governments don’t become engaged with what’s good for people and for the planet, we don’t have any chance. We’ve got to think how the world could be different.”

Some day the dome will be removed and masks will be thrown away. The air would be safe for all. We could then

A close up of the tallest building in Shanghai.

Picture: Huanmin Yang.

39

Airbnb Observe360

The truth behind the open door

by Sophie Gardner-Roberts

T

he little house is on the corner of a quiet street. From afar, it looks like any other of the white, terraced houses. Hannah Cholewka opens the door with a welcoming smile and invites me in – as she has probably done with about 45 people, over the past few months.

Hannah’s home has been listed on Airbnb since August 2014. Airbnb is an online hospitality service that enables ordinary people to rent out either a room in their home or their entire property. The idea behind the website was born in 2007 when two friends, who were struggling to pay their steep San Francisco rent, decided to rent out air mattresses and cook breakfast for 3 three strangers. It worked.

With a third roommate they launched Airbnb.com in 2008. In 2014, the company’s market value was evaluated at $10 billion.

Hannah, a 26-year-old Academic Officer at the Registry of the University of Wales, and Dan, her fiancé first encountered Airbnb when Dan booked a trip to Paris using the website. After doing more research, they decided to rent out the middle floor of their house in Cardiff: a room with a double bed and a bathroom.

“We thought we would try it for a month, and if we didn’t like it, we would just take it off,” Hannah explains perched on the trendy bar chairs in their kitchen. “October and November we were fully booked,” Hannah remembers, “we didn’t realise we would be quite as busy as we actually are!”

Feeling safe Contrary to many people’s natural anxiety when letting strangers stay in their home, Hannah says she feels quite safe. She explains that everything is

40

“centralized”. She appreciates the strict confidentiality set up by the website: potential guests cannot see Hannah’s email address until the booking has been confirmed and the money has been advanced.

Even Heggerness, Airbnb’s country manager for the Nordics and the Netherlands told BBC Four’s radio programme “You & Yours” that safety was a top priority for guests and hosts using the service. “We have a house safety guarantee so we will go and support people if something goes bad,” he explains, “but I want to stress that this is not happening very often.”

He lists several verification systems such as online and offline verification, where for the former, people scan their passport or Identification card, and for the latter, hosts link their Airbnb profile to their Facebook page.

The system works in a way that hosts

“Not that we ever did, but, you know, you can’t walk around the house in your pants!” only receive the money 24 hours after the guest’s arrival. If the guest does not complain or raise any issues, then the money is transferred to the host.

Hypothetically, this ensures a safe stay for guests and a certain amount of quality control for both the hosts and their home.

Although the extra income has been extremely welcome and useful for Hannah and her fiancé, it is not the only reason why she was so eager: “I like getting to know people, to know where they’re from.” So far Hannah and Dan have welcomed people from around

the UK, Australia, the United States, Canada, China and even Vietnam.

Having people in their home has changed the couple’s lifestyles as well.

She says they have to be aware that people are sleeping if they come back late after a night out, or that when Hannah comes home from a long day,

Enid, Hannah’s “biggest selling point” she may have to face guests. “We’re a lot tidier”, she adds, laughing, “and, well, not that we ever did, but you can’t walk around the house in your pants!”

As Hannah sips her tea, a cat with huge green eyes hops onto the table.

“I was worried about Enid”, Hannah says stroking the cat, “I made it clear on the website that the priority was to keep her inside. But I think she’s our biggest selling point.”

A “legal grey area” Since its creation in 2008, Airbnb has known great success all around the world. It is now a self-sustaining community built by millions of travellers.

But some are questioning its legality.

Hannah watches Enid absent-mindedly: “I know a lot of people who would never, ever do this.” Indeed, many people are still sceptical about Airbnb’s safety. People like Timothy Chwiecko, a

Observe360 B&B owners in London have noticed a decrease in bookings.

“The difference between Airbnb and B&Bs, is that B&B owners do this for a living and are therefore experienced in dealing with customers in a more professional way,” David concludes, “and customers feel safer because B&Bs comply with safety requirements.”

Indeed, it seems that the Airbnb hype will have to give in to the law if it wants to establish its legitimacy within the hospitality business. The ‘sharing economy’ in which Airbnb plays a substantial part is still so recent that it appears only normal that it has to accommodate to the existing laws and regulations. This year will probably be a turning point for Airbnb and its status among the industry.

“I would stop if I became pregnant,” concludes Hannah, “or if we had an awful guest that would change our minds completely about Airbnb. Until then, we won’t stop.”

Airbnb number crunch Hannah Cholewka in her home in Cardiff 30-year-old technical support engineer living in Boston. He has various concerns about Airbnb’s ‘liability’ and understands that the company operates within a legal ‘grey area’.

This ‘grey area’ that Timothy evokes is to do with insurance policies.

He explains that he has dealt with insurance before and feels it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to claim insurance if a guest happened to damage his property. Also, he is worried that possessions within the house may get damaged beyond repair. He is also concerned with theft, “complete strangers walking around [his] place filled with all of [his] worldly possessions”.

In truth, Airbnb is not illegal but it is under fire in several cities regarding

“Complete strangers walking around your place filled with all your possessions.” local housing laws and regulations.

The most commonly broken law regards taxes. In many cities, people renting out property are expected to pay a tax. In 2014, France tackled the

issue by forcing Airbnb to impose a tax which consists of a few extra euros on each bookings for hosts and guests.

Timothy explains that in the United States, you are supposed to report any income (in the UK, if a secondary income stays below £4000 per financial year, taxes are not claimed).

“You can deduct the interest rate you pay on your mortgage from your taxes”, Timothy says, “but if you are using the property to rent, you can’t”. As a result, many people do not report that income, which is currently the issue in New York City where Airbnb is in dispute with the attorney general.

Regarding safety issues, David Weston, Chief Executive of the Bed & Breakfast Association (UK) is campaigning on setting a “level playing field” between Airbnb and traditional bed & breakfasts (B&B). “Our members are tiny,” he says, “to have a fair competition, it seems only right that Airbnb members comply with the same rules and regulations.”

“We have members who are also on Airbnb,” David continues, “it has, in a way, created a new market on a completely different scale.” David underlines the fact that he cannot know for sure how the competition is affecting B&B businesses, although some

$10,000,000,000

25,000,000+

1,000,000+

Airbnb’s evaluation in 2014

Guests in total

Listings in the world

34,000+

Cities

190+

Countries

41

Explore360

Your passport to free travel

by Edyta Kadula

Get your ticket to free travel from couch surfing to house swapping, teaching English and wwoofing it up.

Couch surf Would you sleep in a strangers’ house? For many budget-conscious travellers, a free night’s kip is not as dirty as it sounds. Silvia, 29 from Spain joined a 10 million strong community of couch surfers for a free place to stay. “Me and my best friends didn’t have much money, so we decided to do couchfsurfing,“ Silvia says, “It was totally worth it and I recommend it to everyone, but don’t forget to check feedback before choosing who you‘re going to stay with”.

Picture: Festivities

Couchsurfing’s website “connects travellers with a global network of people willing to share in profound and meaningful ways, making travel a truly social experience.” Strangers all around the world are offering their couches for free, with no strings attached. “My couch surfing experience was the best in the world,” says Anne from Poland who travelled to Vietanam, Challen, 26 from New Zealand, has been a member of couchsurfing since 2007 and she enjoys being a host. “Let’s face it. The prices for hotel rooms have got out of hand so I am happy to offer my couch,” she says.

Swap your house Anyone who has seen the movie The Holiday, which sees Iris (played by Kate Winslet) swapping her cozy English cottage for Amanda’s (played by Cameron Diaz) L.A. mansion, has probably had this idea on the brain ever since. Thanks to the websites like HouseCarters, HomeLink and LoveHomeSwap a home exchange is becoming real.

Picture: The Holiday movie

Caroline Connolly, co-ordinator for HomeLink has been helping like-minded families exchange homes all around the world. “Sharing your home with another family and staying in their home gives a real insight into how that family lives. Many members remain life-long friends with their exchangers,” says Caroline.

House swapping means more than saving more, it adds an extra dimension when you exchange your house. And you can go whereever you want.

42

Explore360

Wwoof it up In return for your voluntary help, WWOOF hosts offer room and board and a priceless experience. This worldwide community spreads awareness of organic farms and give people an opportunity to become friends with individuals all over the globe. You don’t need to have any experience with farming as WWOOF is as much sustaining travel and learning as it is about farm work.

Victoria Duggan WWOOFing in Italy.

Picture: Victoria Duggan

Victoria Duggan, who calls herself an adventure seeker and a rich non-GMO foods freak, started her WWOOFing experience last June, travelling to Italy and Turkey. “WWOOFing is so much more than just free accommodation, it is a complete cultural exchange. You become part of a family from a foreign country with different habits, traditions, and often language than your own,” reveals Victoria. “The best part is you are not in touristic areas of these countries, it is the real deal”.

Win it!

We all know the old adage that the best things in life are always free. This may sound like a long shot, but to get yourself on a road you need to be willing to take a risk. You will be amazed at how many opportunities there are to travel with an empty wallet.

Just google “travel competitions” and there are plenty of options to choose from.

Wojtek, 15, from Poland entered the promotional competition of a popular soft drink and won a holiday to Disneyland for his family. “We had an amazing time, probably one of the best vacations ever,” says Wojtek.

So, a little time and energy invested might get you out of here sooner than you think.

Get paid to travel “I believe travel should be absolutely accessible for everybody,” says Katie Rooke, who funds some of her travels through teaching English. “I taught in Spain, Italy and the Philippines and I got paid in all schools and this turned out to be great fun,” she explains. All you need is the ability to speak English fluently. It is also good to have teaching qualifications such as TESOL and TEFL depending on the country you work in. Katie has experienced a lot in the long run and was able to travel around the countries she visited. “The positive bit is that I learned so much about who I am and want to be as a teacher and was also inspired,” says Katie.

The world is yearning for teachers but remember that this is a job and you will often be expected to work the equivalent of a full-time job.

Katie Rooke with her students in the Philippines.

Picture: Katie Rooke

43

Explore360

Ancient Nomad, Modern Times

by Maryam Zainol

Picture: Zahariz Khuzaimah

Explore360

With the advancement of time and technology, humans have become jaded. It took Zahariz courage to breakaway from modern mundanity and take on a nomadic life.

Z

ahariz Khuzaimah is a city boy from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

With a bachelor’s degree in film animation and a love for exploring rough terrains, he packed his bag, slung his camera around his neck, got onto his bicycle, and headed to Chengdu, China. Tired of working as a university lecturer and an officer in the oil and gas industry, he gambled his life. That first step was five years ago, and he never looked back ever since.

From the musty villages in Vietnam to the lava desert in Iceland, Zahariz continues on his journey to travel the world in search of life experience that money can’t buy. To date, he has lived and tasted the cultures of ten countries.

Five years of living on the road, he chose the mountainous Kyrgyzstan, a country in Central Asia as his home base in between taking on the paths not yet travelled.

Zahariz calls this tent his home.

Silver lining Living on the road, 35-year-old Zahariz is no stranger to near brushes with death. He was challenged both physically and mentally when he fell inside a frozen river in Finland, stranded in a blizzard in the Arctic, and crossed the Kazakhstan desert without sufficient food and water. He has been robbed and beaten up on so many occasions that he has lost count. But he survived.

“I learned and trained myself to keep calm no matter what happens, and I act accordingly in tough situations as best as I can with the knowledge that I have. I would have died at so many different junctures in my life but being the optimist that I am, I tell myself it is not my time yet,” quipped Zahariz.

But for all the times he was knocked down by life, he gets back up and looks for the silver lining in every

situation. Every mountain he conquers is a personal achievement. The struggles make the journey worthwhile.

Zahariz loves the mountains. The amazing view from the top looking down is what he enjoys most. He describes it as quiet and peaceful, with nothing between him and the bluest skies and the starriest nights.

“Even the clouds are beneath me.

It’s exhilarating. The accomplished feeling I have boosts my self-esteem and confidence. And as I descend the mountain, I am immediately on the lookout for another mountain to climb.

The euphoric rush is addictive,” he said with a beatific smile when reliving his most empowering memory.

“I never panic, not anymore. I tell myself I am only wandering the world. I am not lost.”

Humble hero Travelling on beaten paths and exploring new ground, Zahariz has met many characters whom he became fast friends with. Citing a harrowing episode, he recalled a humble nomad he met by chance who saved his life.

He was hiking along the KyrgyzChinese border when he was robbed.

With only two dollars in his pocket and no banks for another 300 kilometres, he just kept cycling. Three days later in the Kyrgyz mountains, while fighting off his grumbling stomach and hallucinations, he met a nomadic horseman. The horseman offered him a place to sleep in his yurt, which is a a circular tent made of felt.

Zahariz was fed with so much food that he fell into a deep sleep, the best he had had in awhile.

“The horseman did more than provide me shelter. He also passed on some of his wisdom. He said, the long road tests travellers in many ways. The same goes for life. Meeting him was humbling.”

Material things Earning his travelling money using only his DSLR camera, a laptop, and a land mine of creativity, Zahariz monetised his travelogues to a local Malaysian television network, Al Hijrah.

He also does some freelance work as a videographer, photographer, and sometimes a part-time lecturer wherever he decides to stop and make camp along his journey.

The Kazakh nomad that saved his life.

Zahariz does not really believe that money cannot buy you happiness. He says, living in the system of the world today, nobody can survive without money. But living on the road has taught him to be moderate and grateful.

The more we want, the more we need, the more we become greedy. He believes that worldly possessions do not lead to happiness because the world is only temporary.

Another Malaysian urban nomad, Elizabeth Tai, says that she had everything that she wanted but she was still unhappy. 32-year-old Tai, who now lives in Australia, says that the nomadic lifestyle gives her freedom. She spends less and keeps her wardrobe small. She has more money to travel because she has no utility bills, cable, parking fees, and no rent to pay.

Zahariz with all his belongings on his bike.

Devoted nomad Leaving his family back in Malaysia, Zahariz still finds it tough. A Skype video call with his parents would still jerk his heartstrings and brings tears to his eyes. But in every difficulty there lies a lesson. He learned to appreciate everything that he used to take for granted much more.

Zahariz still has so many plans drawn up. Journeys to embark on, mountains to conquer – the future still holds many opportunities for adventure.

What’s next for Zahariz? A trip to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia for an adventure up its Treskavica mountain.

“I learned humility. There’s no use living if you’re not humble. Being a nomad, you are not far from heaven.”

45

Explore360

Athens at first glance

by Flora Zhao Athens is one of the oldest city in the world which has existed for thousands of years. It has changed a lot and if you come here, you will find this.

Sin City Have you ever watched the movie Sin City? That dark, hopeless city, full of evil doers sends out the breath of despair all the time. On the night we arrived in Athens, Sin city was my first impression of the city.

Narrow and interlaced streets sit closely side by side. The buildings are not as high and delicate as we imagined. In Chinese architect, Jiyuan Tang’s words, “the economic downturn makes the whole city seem pretty bleak.”

Along the streets from Monastiraki to our hostel, trees are bare and seem almost dead while there are many crueleyed cats strolling around those old and shabby houses. There is a surprisingly amount of graffiti in different colors and styles. Although some of this graffiti is cute and interesting, the majority of it is really scary. It really is like a scene in Sin City.

We met a friend of those graffiti artists, John Lewis Buchan, who told us that some of the artists did the

46

graffiti to express their discontent about the politics and economics of Athens, although the majority of those artists just want their colourful graffiti to add more energy to this holy city.

Holy City However, as we stayed in Athens longer, we found out that it is not a ‘sin city’: the holy city is still holy.

Ancient architecture stands erect among those modern-day buildings.

You cannot only see some of them at a distance but also encounter some of them on a casual corner. It is really an amazing experience to think how ancient people built them and to feel the thousand years’ history of those buildings.

The most famous of ancient architecture, the Acropolis, was built on the mountains thousands of years ago which is now in the centre of Athens. It was the origins of Greece culture. If you stand on the top of the mountain, you can see the whole of southern Athens.

It is really gorgeous because all those white and yellow buildings compose a spectacular scene in front of you.

Nowadays, it has been a little bit ramshackle and is being repaired, but it is still standing there telling everybody that Athens has its character and a rich history which should be respected.

Maybe different people will get different impressions of this city, Athens.

But no matter what they think, I really love it here.

Lifestyle in Athens People in Athens are really nice. They are very friendly. A friend of mine, Zhihao Zhang told me that when he was walking on the streets, some strangers would smile at him and even say ‘hi’ to him which made him happy and moved.

And the peaceful and friendly atmosphere can also be seen from the life scenes of those Athens people. They love enjoying themselves all the time.

In the afternoon of each sunny weekend, people go outside and have dinner with their families and friends.

Open-air restaurants are very busy at this time. We saw that costumers sit around together, talking and laughing happily. Some of those restaurants even hire bands to play live here. With songs and dance, people just spend another happy afternoon in their life.

Living happily is the most intelligent belief of life and Athens people have comprehended it already.

AFRICA RISING

by Alba Charles & Davide Salvi

World Issues opportunity. We have a previous generation which has gone past and we are trying to find our space in the new Africa.

We are certainly not the richest, we are not in power but we are young, motivated and passionate. My own story is about finding opportunity for myself.

Tell us something about your personal story… I was brought up by my grandmother in the poorest part of Nairobi. One night it rained so terribly that it picked up many houses, people were devastated. I was 10. The next day I met one reporter from a big newspaper and I listened to him while he was interviewing the people in my community. I expected to read a nice article in the newspaper and I was so frustrated when I saw just a small piece at the end. I knew it was not a representation of reality. Then, I decided I wanted to be good at doing what this reporter did not do: telling people’s stories. And so, 10 years later, I showed up in the very same newsroom where this reporter was coming from and I went there not as an intern but as their main news anchor. From that point on, my journalism has always been focused on telling that people matter.

Is there more representation of the people in Kenya’s journalism? Of course it is not perfect but my generation, the generation that is now coming out, knows that economy and statistics are not a true representation of people’s lives.

We are starting to see more personal stories: some are good, some are powerful and inspiring. Some others are bad. During colonialism we felt worthless, and then our own Governments reinforced that feeling. Now things are starting to get better.

Picture: James Smart

James Smart is news anchor for KTN Kenya and host of TV programmes about politics and current affairs. Life360 talked to him about his views on Africa in 2015.

M

any of the African presidents have been in power for a very long time, some for decades. Has it been a problem for the African development? It is true that these Governments are elected after regular election.

The problem is that most of the African Presidents went to power after colonialism and the Europeans played a big role at the time. They had economic interests in leaving them there. They are powerful, rich and extremely well connected.

They exploit African resources and bring them to Europe. They even have homes there!

But the African population is one of the youngest in the world. Are they going to play a role in the future?

Yes, we have a new generation of people who want to develop their talents, their creativeness and energy. People who want to work on things they can control: music, beauty products, arts, films. But for politics, it will take time before someone will have a credible chance to change things.

Do you feel part of this generational change? I think everyone who is born in Africa in this particular time has this

When you go and interview the voiceless, do you have the feeling that something is changing? Do you see they have hope in the future? Two things have to happen. The first is about telling people’s stories and is very sentimental, all about hopes and dreams. Then, the people in Government, the people who control the resources, have to be forced to change things, to make them better.

What is the most powerful experience that you lived as a journalist? I remember two years ago I went to Somalia to do a story in a very poor place. I went there for a week without any expectation of what I was doing. When I arrived there I instantly connected with one old lady of about 80 years old. We didn’t speak the same language but in a weird sense we could communicate. The only thing she had was a kettle and one goat to produce milk, and she offered it to me. I felt confused: you see someone with nothing giving you something. In that moment you’re not a journalist, everything gets away from you. There’s nothing you can offer her, you can’t fix her life, but she has hope in you, she’s happy you’ve shown some interest in her life. That really humbled me.

How much do you feel connected to Kenya? How much do you love your country? The most important thing about Kenya is people. If you’re looking for welcoming people, who do not look at colour of skin or religion, who can endure any pain and difficulty, you’ll find them in Kenya. Kenyans are welcoming people to any visitor. If you want to experience serenity, peace, harsh, contrasting beauty, Kenya is the place to go. Different people will fall in love with different things in Kenya. I love it, it’s the country where I was born and I think it can be some many things. Kenya is a country where people can find a home.

47

Bagged Issues We welcome the year 2015 with optimism. But there are still conflicts affecting different parts of the world. This issue highlights China, the Middle East, Europe and USA. The contents of the bags unveil the stories.

Terror vs. satire IS aims to create a new country that is governed as a purist Islamic state.

The terrorist group is guilty of war crimes, defiling human rights and ethnic cleansing. Their tactic of inflicting fear through their violent videos has gone on long enough. Should we just stand still and tremble in our boots? I say we throw their way a humour bomb or two.

American psychologist Dr. Gina Barreca says humour is the one thing that fear cannot abide. Laughter banishes anxiety, and can help replace fear! Libyan-American writer Hend Amry agrees with this. He tweets, “Sometimes, you have to mock, to belittle. Because sometimes, belittlement is your enemy’s greatest fear.” While some blast such humour as insensitive and inappropriate, others defend satire as a way to push back at the Islamic State’s intimidation tactics.

48

World Issues

Hold your breath

In 2004, China was shrouded in a pollution haze.

There are 104 cities suffering from smog weather in China. The air took on an acrid odour, and many of the city’s commuters wore industrial strength face masks as they hurried to work or school. As the air quality hits record lows, the Chinese language has acquired some new phrases, such as “Beijing Smog” and “Blue Sky”.

Here’s how you use it in a sentence: Beijing smog – Something torturous and endless.

“This exam week is like the Beijing smog.”

Blue Sky – Something fleeting and unrealistic.

“Wake up! He is not that into you .His love is like blue sky.”

49

World Issues

Disgruntled immigrants Many people emigrate to Europe with hope for fair pay and better living. “People want to go to countries where they think there are opportunities for them or lifestyles they aspire to,” said Robert McNeil from the Migration Observatory at Oxford University. But each new wave of immigrants has been subject to the same complaints - ‘immigrants are taking jobs’, and they are an economic disaster. Colin Yoe, a British immigration law expert says that the attempts to curb EU immigration would be “meaningless, and achieving it would hurt families, universities and businesses, some of our greatest national assets.” It is important to know that we live in a globalised world. “You can’t impose new rules and at the same time enjoy the benefits of globalisation without wanting migrants in exchange,” said Pablo Valera, 28, who moved to Brighton in 2013 from Spain.

50

World Issues

Buy more guns “How about a road trip? Which states can I go to to fill my trunk with guns and take it back home for my even more dangerous friends?” “CrimAdvisor has a list for that.”

CrimAdvisor is a comedy website in the style of TripAdvisor, which gives suggestions for where in the United States you can buy guns.

The site wants to mock how easy it is to buy and carry guns in some of those states. To date, 27 states still allow open and concealed carrying of handguns without significant gun control implemented.

Plan your perfect getaway at www.crimadvisor.com

51

Skill Up

F

Self Hacks

Why buy when you can DIY? Take the opportunity to use your hands and brain. Have the courage to screw up or make something incredible happen!

itness

Bend it like Elle

Eliza Landgren, or @elle_fit as she is best known by her 140k Instagram followers, is a 23-year old Australian self-taught yogi and her own boss at Elle Fit Active. Her success story is inspiring, to say the least.

Although Elle says she has always been an active person, it is only since 2013 that she decided to put an end to her chronic health issues. She suffered from back pain due to scoliosis, various food intolerances and chronic fatigue.

Elle decided to go on a “yogi bear journey” to get to the bottom of her pain and lack of energy, and revisited her diet to cater for her food sensitivity.

She documented her transformation on her Instagram account which then quickly became viral.

After many questions on how she learned yoga, she decided to launch her Get Bendy guide, available as an A1 poster or a downloadable PDF guide.

The guide goes back to the basics of stretching and prepares newbies for the more acrobatic yoga poses. “When you strip back the fancy-ness of some crazy yoga poses what it really comes down to is stretching the specific parts of your body required for the pose,” Elle writes on her website. “I could go through and tell you how I get into every position […] but I would rather give you the foundation you need to attempt things like that on your own, at your own pace.” @elle_fit Elle_fit www.ellefitactive.com Picture: Elle_fit

52

F

ood

Jamie Oliver Jamie Oliver is a real role model for every aspiring chef and food lover. His TV shows have huge success among the British public and have inspired people to cook easy dishes from fresh ingredients. He’s now writing a weekly column for the Sunday Times magazine on how to cook simple and delicious recipes in 15 minutes.

Chef Jenn Jenn is a 24-year-old Argentinian girl who is becoming one of web’s biggest phenomena. Her quick and simple video recipes are gaining wide appreciation all over the world. What is the secret of her success? Cooking topless, what else? With some gimmicks Jenn hides her breasts behind plates and pots but her dishes, however, are really…spicy!

B

eauty

Picture: The Beauty Dept

Picture: Food Orgasm

Flick of a brush Don’t know how to blush the apples of your cheeks? Trouble with untidy eyebrows?

There’s a whole niche of artists whose sole mission is to help you master your beauty routine, whether it’s figuring out how to create a smoky eye or learning how to style the perfectly undone topknot. Follow The Beauty Department to be your own make-up artist! @thebeautydept @beautydept @TBDofficial

Get artsy at home Spruce up your home, your style, or bond with your family and friends with DIY arts and crafts projects. From crochet to face painting, from tie-dye tops to picture frames, this YouTube channel has it all.

Give it a go with eHowArtsAndCrafts guiding you step-by-step. There are plenty of arts and crafts ideas for home décor, activities for kids, and clothes making.

Susan Morrey, 58, who loves organising arts and crafts projects for her grandchildren, says that she doesn’t look Picture: for project ideas anywhere else but on eHowArtsAndCrafts eHowArtsAndCrafts YouTube channel.

A

rts

2015 As we embark on a new year, we ask our readers what they want to achieve.

Have Your Say

Voxpop: What do you want to accomplish?

Anwen Jones 19, Wales Student

Amir Aizat Kamaruzaman 27, Malaysia Journalist

Fitness goal! I hope to stick to my fitness plan and attend the gym at least 4 times a week.

I plan to get engaged by the end of the year to my girlfriend of 7 years. If I could get her to say ‘yes’, that is.

David Morgan 36, England Funeral director

Thomas Fonsato 23, Italy Student

I wish I could be more patient and be a good father this year. I hope for a happy family life.

I want to live in a country where the language is foreign to me. I want to study the language and the culture.

Kim Sang-bum 26, South Korea Programme director

Anna Lorek 28, Poland Photographer

I want to travel to Thailand with my parents. And make more free time to watch more films.

I want to travel more, spend more time with my family and get to the gym at least 3 times a week.

Charly Clause 25, France Student

Filip Fortuna 24, Croatia Guitar player

I just want to succeed in my university since it takes almost all of my time. I don’t plan to try anything else.

I expect a big change in my life. I want to be successful in the most challenging year so far for me.

Dan Sanduleac 24, Romania Software developer

Han Yue 24, China Student

I want to take a roadtrip in the States or travel through Japan. I want to invest more and spend less.

I want to graduate successfully and find a job in the US because I want to escape the Beijing smog.

Emily Gowdey-Buckus 26, USA Freelance journalist

Jingting Shen 34, Taiwan Nurse

I expect to strengthen the friendships I’ve made, work very hard and produce a portfolio which will impress employers.

I am expecting to finish my nursing internship in a hospital in Taipei and adopt a cute kitty this year!

53

2015

2015 Resolutions

Health He who has health, has hope, and he who has hope, has everything.

– Thomas Carlyle

Relationship Intense love does not measure, it just gives.

– Mother Theresa

54

Travel The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

– Saint Augustine

Career Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.

– Chris Grosser

"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts."

Eleanor Roosevelt