For those who may not be familiar, there is no such thing as a bicycle grants(补助金). As a matter of fact, there are a number of organizations and programs offering bicycle grants to bicyclers all over the world. Now of course, you can't simply receive money, because you want to buy a new mountain bike. Usually, those awarded grants are working on improving the quality of life. People are excited about the bicycle grants. This type of influence and achievement is gaining the attention of various companies that want to help by providing the necessary funding.

Eastman Kodak Company

Kodak has developed a fund called the “ Kodak American Greenways Awards". They are cooperating with the National geographic Society and the Conservation fund. Each year, they present grants as high as $2,500. The“seed” grant award is awarded to organizations that focus on improving blueways, greenways, natural areas, and trails.

US Government

The government has developed their only program for bicycle riders, called " The US Department of transportation's Recreational Trails Program". The government’s program is primarily focused on funding trail projects. The benefits of the fund is recreation, which includes bicycling, hiking, in-line skating, snowmobiling, all-terrain(地面)vehicle riding, and so forth. The great addition to the fund is that they distribute the funding to all the states. This means that everybody has the opportunity of receiving bicycle grants.

Bikes Belong Coalition

The Bikes Belong Coalition makes putting more people on bicycles their priority. They advocate for a better environment, recreation, sports, and better health, by way of bicycling. At the same time, they provide funding for supporting projects and bicycle facilities. Some of the projects they accept are paved lanes and bike paths. Applications for their grants can be submitted by either a facility class or a supporting class. Also, Bikes Belong Coalition are not quick to award bicycle grants to those who have been awarded in the past 3 years. This is partially due to their limited amount of funding

Across the fashion industry, many top designers have faced accusations of cultural appropriation (挪用).

Designer Jane Kellock, who has worked with brands such as Topshop, said she doesn’t believe designers deliberately go out to rip off (剽窃) cultures. “Design is a mish-mash (大杂烩) of different styles, cultures, ideas — and that’s what makes it interesting,” she said. “I really, genuinely don’t think that designers look at other cultures and think ‘I’m just going to copy that and I’m going to rip off that culture’.”

Dr Serkan Delice, a lecturer in cultural and historical studies at the London College of Fashion, is currently researching the debate over fashion and cultural appropriation. He said that fashion designers are often accused of cultural appropriation because of the speed at which the industry moves. “In most cases, unfortunately, designers don’t even have time to undertake proper research and appreciate a culture.”

One question that often comes up when the chat around cultural appropriation happens is: “What about people of color wearing clothes designed by white people?”

In 2016, designer Marc Jacobs appeared to defend his decision to style white models in dreadlocks (细发辫). Responding to the criticism, a comment from his official account said: “Funny how you don’t criticize women of color for straightening their hair.”

Dr Delice said cultural appropriation only “happens when there are power inequalities between different cultures”. “We are still living in a world where white people and institutions are much more powerful than black and brown people and their institutions. So it wouldn’t be cultural appropriation because cultural appropriation implies that a more powerful culture is using another less powerful culture.”

So what should designers do? Dr Delice believes that designers should make sure people from different cultures take part in producing the clothes that are inspired by them. “That’s the only solution. In other words, if you’re doing a runway show (时装秀), then you need to use the original inhabitants of that region, or in the production process.”

Anxieties (忧虑) about children and reading are not unusual, but news that fewer than half of those aged between 8 and 18 admit to actually enjoying it — the lowest level since 2005 — should raise a red flag. The survey, conducted by the National Literacy Trust ahead of World Book Day last Thursday, also showed a worrying picture of growing inequality.

10% of 3,000 parents interviewed across the UK said they were too stressed to read to their child because of economic pressures. And the percentage doubled among those who described themselves as struggling with financial problems. However, the sales data for the last year, released by an organization called Nielsen BookScan, showed a 15% increase in the overall number of children’s books sold compared with 2019. If poorer families are spending less of the money invested in children’s reading, it follows that richer families must be investing more.

Therefore, what is to be done? At a time of financial stress, libraries have a key role to play. A positive sign that they are doing so came with borrowing figures for last year. Libraries are where children of all ages go to choose books for themselves, different from bookshops, which is always influenced by parents’ budgets and tastes.

This is why the libraries are such an important part of the reading ecology. However, libraries have long been in the frontline (前线) of cuts to public services, especially libraries in schools. While prisons in the UK have libraries, primary schools are not. The result, according to one survey, is that 14% of kids have no library space at all. This disadvantage is more serious in the north of England, where children’s reading scores are lower.

As Children’s Prize winner in 2021, the author Cressida Cowell wrote an open letter to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, calling for an annual investment of £100 million a year in primary school libraries. Her demand should be taken seriously, as it directly meets the needs of children most badly affected by the cost of living crisis.