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 15 July 2007

Read all about it!


Hello!


Two or three bits of exciting news this morning.


Firstly, we've only got 80 more people to find - which sounds simultaneously quite daunting and very easy. 80 people isn't very many. It's possible, although unlikely, that we could find them all in one go inside one of London's famous bendy buses. It really isn't many people at all.


Secondly, we're in the Observer today. A lovely article by Juliette Jowit and photos of Benjy, Ligia, Berdia and Paola.


Thirdly, we're planning our forthcoming 'The World in One Picnic' on Sunday 22nd July. If you're one of the 112 people we've met so far you'll be getting an email this week about it, but if you're from Andorra, the Marshall Islands or the Central African Republic (etc) and want to come along then email us (worldinonecity@hotmail.com) and we'll let you know where it is!


Owen and Alex

3 comments:

Ernesto said...

Hello, I found about your blog on yesterday's Observer. I'm a Mexican living in London. I found your project really interesting.

I often write about my experiences in London in my main blog, Never Neutral.

Cheers,
Ernesto
University College London

Uncle Unvoid said...

Hey guys,
nice project. I moved here from germany 7 years ago and I been since counting the different countries my friends come from. I make it to about 29 at the moment. As an artist my work is a lot based on people and the patterns they create through mobility. The stories are always amazing, lets you forget most of the stick-ups;)
I am currently working on a project called 80DAYS, so I might blog you in my project blog.

BookClover said...

Hi guys, first of all congratulations on your big achievement: an article in the Observer is great -though you can do better!;-) - and secondly well done for this project. That's amazing and I hope you're gonna find more people soon.Cheers, Anna