André Coelho (News Editor-in-Chief)
For me to contribute to BIEN, particularly to Basic Income News, was kind of a natural progression in my personal activism, after the Zeitgeist Movement. I naturally accepted the basic income concept, after defending a resource based economy, as the former can be seen as an intermediate step towards the latter. BIEN is indeed a “house”, a place where one can feel at home, made up of people who truly believe in the betterment of society, through basic income. I owe very much, and still do, to people like Karl Widerquist, Louise Haagh, BIEN’s co-chairs, and to a whole team of volunteers. This team includes people like Toru Yamamori, Jenna van Draanen, Amanda Wray, Kate McFarland and Tyler Prochazka, amongst many others who dedicate their time and talents to maintain and develop Basic Income News.
I believe that any process of true change comes from a combination of hard work, inspiration and luck, and I think we, at BIEN, are contributing to that change. A desperately necessary process of societal change, for the better, for which we play a small but important part. We help spreading the news about basic income developments throughout the world – benefiting from a truly international affiliate network, sweeping all continents – valuing accuracy and coverage of a wide range of information. There is also a tremendous effort going on to outreach onto BIEN affiliates, in an attempt to straighten bonds, exchange information and widen Basic Income News coverage.
The basic income global movement is set in motion, it is growing, and BIEN is and will continue to be an important part of it. Being able to contribute my small share to this global revolution is both a challenge and a gift.
At the end of 2016, the year in which BIEN celebrated the 30th anniversary of its birth, all Life Members were invited to reflect on their own personal journeys with the organization. See other contributions to the feature edition here.
