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

Friday 20 July 2007

No.115: Angola


Full story to follow ...

Owen Powell - 20th July 2007

Yesterday, Alex and I appeared on BBC World's lunchtime news show, being interviewed by George Alagiah. (The show has a potential worldwide audience of 250 million people - none of whom live in London, so maybe more of a potential humiliation than a help).

Right at the end of the interview, George cheekily threw us a curve-ball and announced, live on air, that he'd met an Angolan the night before. This was amazing. Without taking my make-up off, I left the BBC and went straight to Grays Inn Road - but the Angolan, a chef, had just finished his shift.

Going back today, I managed to meet Miguel. He's working in London for a year, taking a break from his degree in Sheffield, and cooks in a tiny kitchen alongside colleagues from Brazil and Portugal, all speaking Portuguese.

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