The change is in your pocket

10th Homeless World Cup kicks off in Mexico City

Posted on October 10, 2012  /  Comments Off

The 10th Homeless World Cup is underway in Mexico City. At the Zócalo square in the heart of the city, three custom-built street-soccer stadiums with a capacity of 5 000 are filling up fast. International Network of Street Papers (INSP) editor Danielle Batist meets the world’s most inspirational football players.

When Mel Young and Harald Schmied dreamt up a football tournament between the vendors of their street papers in Scotland and Austria 10 years ago, they couldn’t have dreamt that one day 20 000 people would cheer on 500 homeless players from 54 countries. And yet, that is exactly what happened in Mexico City on October 6. The opening weekend of the 10th edition of the Homeless World Cup exceeded every expectation, of players and organisers alike.

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Mexico’s new president faces long grind on poverty

Posted on August 1, 2012  /  Comments Off

More than 12 million Mexicans have joined the ranks of the poor since 2005, leaving July 1 presidential election winner Enrique Pena Nieto facing a tough battle to live up to his election promises.

Pena Nieto has said he will bring jobs, education and clean water to wide swaths of the country where poverty is a stubborn reminder of successive governments’ failure to unlock Mexico’s full economic potential.

He has made firm commitments: the day his campaign began, he pledged to lift 15 million people out of poverty.

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Oh come all ye unfaithful: adultery site picks politician as poster boy

Posted on July 10, 2012  /  Comments Off

MEXICO: Mexican presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto has become the unwitting poster boy for a website promoting adultery after he admitted cheating on his first wife.

A new Mexican billboard by ashleymadison.com, a site that helps married people arrange affairs, shows Pena Nieto with an index finger over his lips in a hushing gesture. Next to him are the words: “Unfaithful to his family. Faithful and committed to his country.”

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