This Belgian town will pay you to protect your home from burglars
And it will also advise you on the right way to do this
28 December was The Holy Innocents Day
Fake news is one of the scourges of modern societies and much has been written and said about their harmful role in changing the perception of the public in order to reflect a particular mindset. Whether we call it misinformation, propaganda, conspiracy theories, fake news is obviously nothing new and it has existed under one form or another ever since the dawn of human civilization.
Yet, occasionally it can give us a break to remember that there can be a lighter side to misinformation, specifically when it is intended to serve as a joke or satire. A reminder of this side of ‘fake news’ is El Día de los Santos Inocentes (‘The Day of the Holy Innocents’) celebrated in Spain every year on 28 December. It is basically the Spanish version of April Fool’s Day and there is a tradition in the media sphere to also publish a small satirical article which ‘masquerades’ as real news but is not.
There is however a dark and not humorous origin to who the Holy Innocents are. These are supposed to be all the male children under the age of 2 who were killed upon the orders of the Judean king Herod when he heard the prophecy that the real king of Judea had been born.
Somehow in modern Spain it came to be a day when it is acceptable to make light mockery of someone or pull off a prank with the excuse that the one doing the joke is ‘innocent’, or that he did not know any better that he is sinning.
This year for example, a small football club in Barcelona, called Martinenc, announced on its website that the subway station located near its premises will be renamed from Guinardó | Hospital de Sant Pau to Martinenc | Hospital de Sant Pau in the club’s honour.
Likewise a non-profit organization, also in Barcelona, called Promotion of Public Transport (PTP) posted an article on their site and social media claiming to have initiated a proposal for the introduction of an air tram that will solve the long-standing issues with public transit along the Upper Diagonal area of the city. In that way, they brought attention back to one of the issues they work to resolve.
It is common and good practice to finish off these types of articles by wishing everyone smiles during that day, reminding the reader that it is 28 December and that the news item should be taken with a grain of salt and in good spirit.
And it will also advise you on the right way to do this
Despite the good news, preliminary data from the national census reveals a dire shortage in the housing market that will not go away anytime soon
The innovative project received funding from the participatory budget in Lille, France
The town of Makarska has recently launched a new mobile service, aiming to cut down on paper use and stimulate citizens to go contactless
The invention promises to be revolutionary as it can decouple food production from agriculture and its environmental impacts
Commercial unmanned aerial vehicles will far outnumber their crewed counterparts by the end of the decade and solutions are urgently needed
The property, together with others that have been confiscated, will be converted for social welfare uses
The city also led awareness-raising actions to show the impressionable youths how circularity is created first-hand
The invention promises to be revolutionary as it can decouple food production from agriculture and its environmental impacts
The property, together with others that have been confiscated, will be converted for social welfare uses
The city also led awareness-raising actions to show the impressionable youths how circularity is created first-hand
This is just one of many measures that the municipal authorities have taken to tackle this social ailment
These will be spread across 11 EU countries and will serve to support the EU Missions
The European Commission has accepted to develop the idea
An interview about AYR, one of the 2021 New European Bauhaus Prize winners
A conversation with the Mayor of Matosinhos, Portugal’s first UN Resilience Hub
An interview with Nigel Jollands and Sue Goeransson from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
An interview with the President of the City of Athens Reception & Solidarity Centre