Hello!

This is a project that Owen Powell and Alex Horne started on October 24th, 2006 (United Nations Day), and finished on October 24th, 2007. Our aim was to prove that London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world, by endeavouring to meet and chat to a citizen from every country in the world who currently lives and works in London.

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We managed to meet people from 189 countries. According to the UN, there are 192 countries in the world, so we've proved that at the very least, London contains over 98.4% of the nations of the world!

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We are still looking for people from three countries:

Marshall Islands; Palau; Tuvalu.

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The final encounters during our year appear below, but to follow our story from the start please click on the links under 'How we're doing' on the left-hand side.  The countries appear in the order in which we found their representative. (Any country with an asterisk * next to it has a brief account of the interview - longer versions will appear in the future!)

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To find out more about the project, including our self-imposed rules, then click here.

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Follow this link if you have the urge to see us looking awkward on Channel 4 news.  Or just below you can see us when we were half-way through the project being interviewed by George Alagiah on BBC World.

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Please email us on worldinonecity@hotmail.com if you want to get in touch, or if you know any shy Londoners who are also Tuvaluan, Palauan or Marshallese.

George Alagiah interviews us on the BBC

Sunday 29 April 2007

Sudden Free Paper Excitement!


Owen Powell - 29th April 2007

Hello London!

We've had an amazing response to our article in thelondonpaper, which came out on Wednesday 25th April. To everyone who has emailed so far, thanks so much for your comments and suggestions and offers. We're slightly overwhelmed by how many people want to meet up with us and tell us how they came to London, but keep an eye on your inboxes - we'll be contacting you within days to arrange a meeting. If we manage to see everyone who has shown an interest, I think we'll be up to somewhere in the 90s, which is getting on for half-way to the grand total! Given that the article came out the day after our six-month anniversary, that seems to be appropriate.

What's really nice is the way that many people are suggesting work colleagues, or neighbours, or even people they chat to on the bus - the excitement of being in a genuinely global city is palpable in lots of your messages, and it's inspired us again to get as close as we can to finishing. We think it can be done.

Please do keep reading the blog, we know that sometimes we get a bit behind, but bear with us - the next month in particular should see new stories going up almost daily. And do get in contact as well - the best way is by email on worldinonecity@hotmail.com, but you can also leave comments on any page of the blog itself. (We know we've got some already which we haven't replied to. We're doing our research and will post something soon ...)

Finally, and once again, a big big thank you to everyone who's contacted us. It's good to know that you all think it's a nice idea, and we're very much enjoying meeting all these amazing people. Still searching for that elusive Comorian, though ...
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