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Letter from Cuba
The old car was typical of Cuba. This time it wasn’t a half-century old Chevrolet, but a slightly younger and less glamorous Lada. Broken door handles and window-winders had been replaced by locally-made spares; the road was visible through a hole below the driver’s legs, ventilation came from a desk-top fan clamped to the dashboard. …
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Book Review: Planet of Slums by Mike Davis
If you have ever worried that we might be concreting over south-east England, this book could be a useful antidote. The problem is not in Greater London. If anywhere is being concreted over, it’s Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo and the many other southern cities that have grown tenfold in just fifty years.
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What does it feel like having electricity for the first time?
What does it feel like having electricity for the first time? Idalia Cordoba (see picture) puts it like this. ‘When you regularly have to get up at 3.00 in the morning, more than two hours before dawn, and poke around looking for things with a little torch, you could be sure that the batteries would…
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