Sept 2023: Clothes, Colors and Smiles

[ssandino]

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Clothes, Colors and Smiles

written by Aurélie

Up & down

Kids born today will likely see the end of global population growth! While discussing the worldwide increase of internationally displaced people with my fellow students, I came across the research of an economist that concludes the world population will rise to 10 billion by 2085 and then rapidly decrease to up to 2 billion by 2150.

Worth waiting

I recently had a discussion at university about a failure of a Finnish universal basic income program, which included mention of an article in The Guardian claiming it had failed. Hold your horses, I said: the final results were published a year after the article. Guess what? It was a success. Should I buy my classmate this Tolstoy shirt?

Colorful clothes

I see a lot of gray while walking around the university. I miss the colorful clothes I saw on my last trip to Sierra Leone. This is why I just rewatched this awesome ARTE doc about the booming fashion scene there. It's all about powerhouse ladies rocking traditional fabrics.

On stage

Speaking of strong women and fashion, our co-president Kabelo was on stage to introduce Social Income at the African Fashion Night in Zurich. She highlighted an impact that is one of my reasons to donate my 1% : “Instead of one-time assistance, we support people in need for three years, enabling them to become self-reliant. This continuous aid alleviates the stress that comes with extreme poverty.”

Opposing views

Did you see the clash between AI-researcher Mustafa Suleyman and historian Yuval Harari? Their opinions, on what AI looks like in five years, couldn’t be more different. Hariri compares it to a potential "alien invasion" (which we could also abbreviate to AI 🤷🏻‍♀️), while Suleyman is more positive and looks forward to seeing AI being thousand times more capable than it is today.

Smiiiile

As the nights get longer and rainy days the new normal, we all can use an extra boost of happiness. Did you know that smiling in the mirror can make you feel happier and can even decrease anxiety? So next time you pass a mirror, smile!

My World in Data

Stat of the month

40'000'000

I didn’t know it until I saw it myself – there is a huge ship close to Freetown’s shores (map) that produces electricity. But, this month, Sierra Leone was hit by power cuts after the Turkish-owned power ship was switched off due to a $40 million debt.

For the Germans amongst us

No, I am not talking about Oktoberfest, but about a crazy calculator that crunches numbers around the feasibility of a UBI in Germany. In one model it says that 75% of the basic income would refinance itself in Germany! I highly recommend experimenting with this basic income calculator.

My World in News

• A recent study found that cash transfer programs were associated with significant reductions in mortality among women, and children under five years of age. (Nature)

• Another day, another successful multi-year test of universal basic income. (University of Groningen)

• Sierra Leonean women are building a new state-of-the-art maternity unit. (The Guardian)

• A young Sierra Leonean entrepreneur produces briquettes out of coconut waste. (YouTube)

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