River of Darkness
When Spanish ships first reached the Americas in 1492, they had no idea of the size of the lands on which they’d set foot, nor did they realise that they were twin continents in their own right. Columbus died believing he’d found an alternative route to the ‘Indies’, because although the early explorers new the […]
There’s a global housing crisis and politicians must do more to tackle it
Access to safe and affordable housing is vital in both the north and south. But how much will it cost and do politicians care enough about the urban poor? The official figure for the number of people who live in slums is 863 million people, but that number is more likely to be 1.3 billion […]
The slum dwellers’ Nobel Peace Prize nominee
He missed out to Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, but Jockin Arputham’s nomination is a landmark for the grassroots. In nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, grassroots activists usually compete with politicians. Few of the latter, however, have spent their adult lives searching for peaceful solutions to conflict. Among nominees for this year’s prize, one […]
The houses were made of cardboard
Worldwide, one billion people live in slums. By 2050, it might be two billion. India has the world’s second largest slum population, after China. In 2009, the government launched a plan for a ‘slum free India in five years’: since then, slum growth has continued unabated. Mumbai has more than nine million slum inhabitants, up […]
Brazil ♥ India
Britain may have invented the soap opera but nowhere has the format been promoted more vigorously than in Latin America. For decades, telenovelas have been produced in Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina and elsewhere, and viewed by hundreds of millions daily from Mexico City to Buenos Aires. Their reach extends to the US and (on a more […]
John Perry lives in Masaya, Nicaragua where he works on