FEATURE JOHN BIRD
As the founder of The Big Issue, the magazine the homeless sell to
make a living, John Bird has helped countless people throughout the world. He tells
Bernardo Moya how a life of
poverty, crime and homelessness gave him a unique insight into helping others.
J
ohn Bird has strong ideas about what helps the poor and what doesn't. "A hand- up, not a hand-out is
the best possible thing you can do for somebody," he tells me. The man sitting across from me at the TV studio interview has a powerful, animated face topped by receding, greying hair. He seems to me the template for a classic London East End hard man, while his direct manner marks him out as someone who will be heard. Plenty of people have listened. His uncompromising yet caring message of personal responsibility has been spoken into the ear of leading politicians from both left and right.
"Virtually every government
10 minutes, they’re in love with us," he smiles, "because we reduce the amount of people who go to prison... When you see people selling The Big Issue, you know they’re not
STREETWISE AND SAVVY
shoplifting. You know they’re not begging." His message has often been critical of the politicians. His
response to Tony Blair's assertion that "we live in an age of giving" so outraged him that he wrote an open letter to the UK Prime Minister along the following lines: “Dear Tony, if we live in an age of giving, does that mean we
MAIN PICTURE
Portrait of John Bird by Lucy Kane
also live in an age of taking? Do you know what it's like to take? Do you know what it does to you when somebody just gives you a hand? Do you know what it’s like to be a beggar when the people who don’t give money to you, you hate, and the people who do give money to you, you loathe?” He recalls, "I challenged him to create a society where the giving was giving opportunity."
12 |
WWW.THEBESTYOUMAGAZINE.CO
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72