New.

I don't know about you, but I never really feel that the year has really gotten underway until the Chinese New Year, when the light has begun to grow in earnest; when we root out our dress for the day in something less oppressively solid than pitch darkness; when the coming Spring is glimpsed at last.

Now it is new, now we are waking up, and maybe uncomfortably so; after all, when does the screeching cock crow allow a gentle fumble into the morning light? This is the time to wake assertively, ready-armed; to jump into the empty space beside the bed and instantly to claim it.

Claiming space is what this year is all about - and even as we assertively claim, or reclaim, the space that is rightfully ours, I intend that reclaiming to be compassionate, wily, wise and dignified. No spit-flying roar as I drive in the stake - no. There is a better way, and, anyway, we can see what such dibs-y aggression can result in. We are seeing it played out on a global scale now as we have seen it or lived it or read it times before.

In light of this, director Wissame Cherfi and I are making a new series, called Human1st.

It is about claiming space, indeed. Not in a loud, separatist bawl, but in a quiet way: one that observes the small heroic acts of "ordinary" people, those we pass on our daily journeys without much interest, but who, like us, who are as seemingly ordinary as they (who isn't?), carry within them magnificent stories of struggle, triumph and inspiration. Knit together these quiet, ordinary, neighbourly stories weave a fabric hardy enough to resist any strike against the inherent oneness of all humanity. These are stories that remind us all, whenever we might be in danger of forgetting it, that we are, always have been, #Human1st.

We can't wait to share this with you.

Coming soon to wearehuman1st.com.

To find out more in the meantime, follow us:

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