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

Thursday 11 October 2007

No.172: Swaziland


Full story to follow ...

Owen Powell - 11th October 2007


"One of the first thing I bought when I moved here five years ago was a fishing rod," says Tracey-Ann. "I'm a proper farm girl, I'm outdoorsy, I can't quite get used to the pace of urban life. Walking down a street when everyone's got umbrellas up - that's a mission."

Despite that, Tracey-Ann works in the heart of London, in the Treasury in Whitehall. "I always say to the guys I work with - Look where you work! It's amazing! Some of them don't appreciate all the building and the architecture like I do - I love working here." Compared to the work culture in South Africa, where Tracey-Ann previously worked, she finds British people friendly and less macho.

"My favourite place in London is Camden." Tracey-Ann starts to laugh. "I took my dad there when he came over, and we just wandered around looking at all the freaky people. By the end of the day, I had bruised ribs from all the times he had nudged me."

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