02/02/2015

Why Bristol? An insight into the Bristol pound


 Hello.

For those who wonder why I'm going to Bristol and not, let's say, Nigeria where I really wanted to travel ahead of crucial elections, well apart from the Nigerian government's blockade of journalists' visas...

(see here: http://news.yahoo.com/nigerian-govt-blocking-journalist-visas-main-opposition-231229307.html)

... apart from the huge cost of travelling to Nigeria from Paris no newsroom would help supporting,
I'm also willing to prove to myself as well as to fellow journalists and to chief editors that it is actually possible to cover positive stories.

In Europe, yes, in England especially, but also in Nigeria! And anywhere in Africa.

Thus, I'll be in England, my country at heart, my second home, intellectually and socially awakening home, where I spent two wonderful years of my life, in and out, between May 2009 and August 2012.

Now a few facts about Bristol.

As the lovely man in the following video states, Chris Sunderland, director of the Bristol Pound project, "Bristol prides itself on being slightly unorthodox, slightly edgy". Two centuries ago, "we even had our own time"!! Yes. And now the city has its local currency:


What is the Bristol Pound?

Bristol Pounds stick to Bristol, build community connections and work for people not banks to create fairer, stronger, happier local economy.

Love Bristol. Go Local.

The Bristol Pound is the UK’s first city wide local currency, the first to have electronic accounts managed by a regulated financial institution, and the first that can be used to pay some local taxes.
The Bristol Pound is run as a partnership between the Bristol Pound Community Interest Company and Bristol Credit Union. It is  a not-for-profit social enterprise.

More on the video: 





The Story of the Bristol Pound





By Chris Sunderland, Bristol Pound and Real Economy Director

What would it be like if we did a local currency at scale, across a whole city? What would it be like if we had an
electronic means of exchange as well as a paper currency?
These were the two questions which the Bristol Pound set
out to answer. The Transition movement was booming
across the world at that time and everyone was aware that serious changes had to be made, not only to our individual lifestyles, but also to the very structure of our economies. We had benefited here in the UK from some brave experiments. Totnes, Lewes, Brixton and Stroud had all launched a paper currency. They had proved that these systems could attract attention to local traders, but we wanted to explore the possibility of creating systemic change, truly benefiting the local economy by means of the local multiplier effect and for that there was a need to step up in scale.

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More soon! 

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