by Toru Yamamori | Aug 17, 2016 | News
Pirates of Southwestern Finland is hosting a workshop and seminar on Basic Income in Nordic countries, with the support of Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Finland, Pirate Party of Finland and Pirate Youth of Finland.
Time:
Thursday 25.8.2016, 14.00 – 18.00
Venue:
Vanha Raatihuone (Old City Hall)
Vanha Suurtori 3, Turku, Finland
At the workshop, BIEN Finland will facilitate four group discussions on the theme of ‘UBI for (enhancing of ) Nordic cooperation’, .
Confirmed speakers at the seminar are:
Ville-Veikko Pulkka, from The Social Insurance Institution
Albert Svan, Pirate Party of Iceland
Christian Engström, Pirate Party of Sweden
Jouko Hemmi, BIEN Finland
Tapani Karvinen, whom BIEN contacted about the event, told the Basic Income news team:
We hope that our seminar will broaden the basic income discussion by showing what’s happening at the moment in Nordic countries.
Iceland, Sweden and Finland are all having a serious thought about fixing social security, at least in part, by basic income. Leading countries will be first to see what to do and what not, so sharing that information without borders will bring the threshold lower in other states to consider basic income – which in turn, will accelerate the discussion further.
The detail can be found at:
https://varsinais-suomi.piraattipuolue.fi/basic-income-seminar-2016/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1009751985812851/
by Toru Yamamori | Jul 7, 2016 | News
The 16th Basic Income Earth Network Congress has just started on 7th July in Seoul, Korea. People from around the earth are attending.
Karl Widerquist, a co-chair of BIEN, is posting live reports on Reddit. He is encouraging everyone at the conference to contribute their perspectives to the thread as well.
The conference will run for 3 days, until 9th July.
by Toru Yamamori | Jul 4, 2016 | News
The Swiss referendum has been covered in Japanese media. While some media coverage, especially televised reports, uses the photogenic scenes which were created by Swiss activists, many reports don’t cover the activists’ bottom line message: ‘What would you do if your income were taken care of’.
An exception is this short article by Hideaki Nakamura, an editorial writer of the Mainich Newspapers, entitled “Question from Switzerland”. He cites a voice of an activist (from Toru Yamamori’s interview with Enno Schmidt, a founder of the Swiss initiative), who says that they would like people to think about how to live.
Nakamura presents a recent poll on what university students in Japan would like to work for. According to the poll, 25% of students would like to work for others and society. Nakamura suggests that this shows a possibility of a basic income in Japan.
中村秀明Hideaki Nakamura, “スイスからの問いQuestion from Switzerland”, 毎日新聞the Mainich Newspapers, 15th June 2016
by Toru Yamamori | Jun 22, 2016 | News, Research
The Productivity Commission of the Australian Government has released a research paper entitled ‘
Digital Disruption: What do governments need to do?‘ on 15th June 2016. The paper looks at the role of government in the face of ‘potentially disruptive technological change.’ A universal basic income is refereed as a long term consideration:
While Australia’s tax and transfer system will continue to play a role in redistributing income, in the longer term, governments may need to evaluate the merits of more radical policies, including policies such as a universal basic income.(p. 69).
by Toru Yamamori | Jun 3, 2016 | News
acTVism Munich, an independent, non-profit and grassroots media outlet, will broadcast a program on Basic Income Guarantee on 3rd June 2016.
In the program, Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister, and Noam Chomsky, MIT-professor, an established linguist who is also known as a radical activist, will speak.
The program can be watched on acTVism Munich from 3rd June.
