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5 Bullet Friday: Circular Design, special features and smugglers

by | Jan 17, 2025 | 5 Bullet Friday

5 Bullet Friday - Jacob Warn

Good evening friends! 

What a week! Full of winding down and starting up projects, hand-panning, video editing and getting accustomed to wearing glasses! Amongst all this, a big thank to all of you who responded so kindly with feedback to my email request earlier this week. It’s not too late to get in touch, so please do hit reply! So, with a line-up tonight that mainly involves sharing some more personal recent publications on topics and themes close to my heart, please enjoy this second 5 Bullet Friday of 2025!

1. What I’m publishing: Recipes for Magical Events and Convening Communities of Practice – These two blog pieces, prepared for Comic Relief, have been part of the wrap-up of almost 5 years of work with their fabulous Across Borders cohort of NGOs. Together with Tanya Murphy, we have been convening a learning programme stretching from Glasgow to Cairo – and what an adventure it’s been! These two short articles synthesise some of our key learnings along the way.

2. What I’m launching: Circular Design, a new brand and look for our non-profit design agency – Over the past months, together with my brilliant colleague and friend, Cyril, we’ve been working on a new look, name and brand for the old GSF Creations. We’ve just gone live with our new website, better communicating who we are, what impact we’re having, and what work we’re producing. What this space for big things coming this year!

3. What I’m reading: Invisible Walls: How AI Tech at Europe’s Borders Threatens People Seeking Refuge – This just released article is a thorough and important investigation on the use of AI in the contexts of migration. The depersonalisation of border security is something  

4. What I’m promoting: Phone Free February 2025 – This year’s challenge got off to a brilliant start with us being featured in the New York Times’ major article ’12 Predictions for Life in 2025′. This has led to a huge surge in sign-ups for this year’s edition of the challenge. Now is the time to sign yourself up to join the digital detox this year. Together with the wonderful Charlotte, we’ll be hosting this year’s challenge complete with check-ins, daily challenges and bespoke habit trackers. Visit the website to find out more and start re-negotiating your relationship with your phone! 

5. What I’m rejecting – All this talk of smugglers – the above article on AI at Europe’s borders includes the passage: ‘Justifying the drive for border tech, a senior Greek government source said that “arrivals of more than 30,000 a year are challenging, so we have to focus on stopping criminal smugglers from pushing migrants into Greece any way we can.”’ This language from the Greek government is novel to me. It wasn’t commonplace between 2015 and 2022 and I can only assume draws some ancestry from the UK (Tory and Labour) government’s own rhetoric. I believe we need to do much more to avoid governments focusing on smugglers – not by challenging directly this focus, which will only further entrench and emphasise the point – but by bringing the conversational focus whenever possible back to the people on the move. The subtle shift in political and linguistic nuance is part of wider government strategies to legitimise more stringent and violent border control – less about ‘smashing the gangs’ per se and always more about making it harder for asylum seekers to reach safe shores. 

📣 Opportunities from me and my network

💸 Check out this volunteer fundraising opportunity with Babylon Project
📖 Don’t forget to order your copy of Remnants of War, Migration, Love by Taha Salim.
🎨 Looking for fabulous art to gift? Support my brilliant friend and artist Nadine here.
⭐️ Know someone critically-minded? I’d love to nominate them for Aspen Rising Leaders.
💻 Time for a new website? Pick us, the non-profit agency for a more sustainable and fairer world.

That’s it for this fortnight! As ever, please let me know your thoughts and feedback – and send anything you’d like me to include in upcoming editions this way.

Welcome!

Welcome to my online blog, home of my 5 Bullet Friday: the social edition, as well as an assortment of creative, social, practical and indulgent articles related to charities, music, veganism, the environment and the passage of life!a selection of serious, creative, light and ponderous thoughts. Please enjoy exploring an assortment of professional, personal writing from past and present.

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