Patrick Reevell is Pro Journo‘s managing editor and a multimedia journalist specializing in Russia and the former Soviet Union. He is a currently ABC News' Moscow bureau reporter. Alongside ABC, Patrick has worked for numerous international outlets, including The New York Times, Rolling Stone and the Associated Press, reporting from various countries, including most recently France and India. Patrick holds a masters in journalism and international affairs from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), where he focused on legal reform in the post-Soviet space.
A couple of years after the financial collapse of 2008, David Enrich, the award-winning Europe banking editor at The Wall Street Journal, went sifting back through his clippings from that chaotic period, looking for stories that might have anticipated it.
Moscow just hosted its very first social innovation conference. Held between Stalin’s gothic skyscrapers and the city’s brand new financial district, where they’re throwing up twisted glass towers three at-a-time, the organisers did well for symbolism.
“Down there you’ll see the State Opera, to your right you’ll see the Wenceslas Square. And over there, a prostitute was beaten to death for refusing to give the client what he wanted…”
Incongruous, but incongruity is what you get with Pragulic, a Prague-based social enterprise, which is taking on the city’s homeless as tour guides. Karim, a former male prostitute and Peter, an ex-police officer, are leading a group of around 20 tourists (mainly Czech, with a small contingent of Germans) through the underside of the Czech capital. Pragulic is only one of a handful of homeless tour organisers around the world.