This Is Worldtown

On the Road :: Placing Morogoro

Sana Malik — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:24:09 +0000

The last time I was here, I didn’t have luxuries like fresh cheese. Wait - I was actually never in Morogoro or Tanzania before this trip, and yes – access to cheese is a reasonable ...

Worldtown Hearsay :: Ghana ThinkTank

thisisworldtown — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:43:30 +0000

In the aftermath of the Kony 2012 -White Saviourism-comes-undone period, this is the most ingenious counter-example that we’ve seen: Ghana Think Tank is purportedly “a worldwide network of think tanks creating strategies to resolve local problems ...

Save Yourselves First: The White Saviour Industrial Complex

Sana Malik — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:07:54 +0000

I post this article by Teju Cole on the White Saviour Industrial Complex with a heavy heart. This is because while I am broadly engaged in the field of international development that is the target ...

IWD: Women of the Middle Eastern Art World

thisisworldtown — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:38:48 +0000

Happy International Women’s Day! A day to remember the ultimate agency women around the world reclaim through their own daily practices and efforts. Read about four women shaping the future of Middle Eastern Art, their ...

Africa on the Move

thisisworldtown — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:28:16 +0000

I’m looking forward to Al Jazeera’s new series Africa on the Move showing “positive stories of Africans who have changed their lives and impacted those around them through entrepreneurship and education”. Beats the recycled images ...

Axis of Light - A Portrait of Eight Artists from the Middle East and North Africa

thisisworldtown — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:12:16 +0000

Pia Getty’s Axis of Light presents an intimate retrospective of eight well-known Middle Eastern/North African Artists. “The histories unfolding are marked by war and exile yet as Baalbaki serenely expresses it ‘ It is difficult to ...

Critical Take-Back: Critical Muslim

thisisworldtown — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:54:36 +0000

A new quarterly publication hopes to reclaim critical debate about Muslims, latching onto the spaces out of Arab uprisings in the Middle East. Critical Muslim is a response to superficial journalistic tendencies that disservice the very idea of "critical scholarship" in Islamic tradition. A tradition - as Critical Muslim co-editor, Ziauddun Sardar, points out - that is too easily forgotten, most easily by Muslims actively consuming the very media that conveniently disengages them from critically thinking about the world in which they live.

Worldtown Hearsay :: I Am Nobody’s Nig***

thisisworldtown — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:44:34 +0000

In the aftermath of the Stephen Lawrence case verdict, London-based poet Dean Atta saw something that made him very angry. It was not so much an image than an idea that sparked him to pen ...

Picturing Africa: LagosPhoto

thisisworldtown — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:13:26 +0000

Check out Guernica Magazine’s special feature on LagosPhoto - described as “a new annual photography festival aimed at ‘representing African sensibilities’” and showcasing the Africa of “industry and intellect.” As LagosPhoto founder Azu Nwagbogu tells in ...

Worldtown Hearsay :: No One Can Tell I’m a Muslim: All-American Muslim Debuts

thisisworldtown — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 02:10:52 +0000

Here is a response to the debut of TLC’s latest reality series - All-American Muslim. This show is certainly an ocean away from the ethno-stereotyping from reality TV shows such as Jersey Shore. However, does ...