The World Unspun

Addis is a city at a crossroads. A massive redevelopment project is reshaping Ethiopia’s capital into what Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has called the ‘Dubai of East Africa’. His vision of a glistening metropolis of skyscrapers, wide roads and bike lanes aims to draw in investors and tourists alike.
So what does this transformation feel like from the inside? For the past year, journalist Maya Misikir has been trying to answer that question through her Letter from Addis Ababa series - one of New Internationalist’s longest running columns. Traditionally, these letters have been written by women based in the Global South, changing hands every year, and offering perspectives that rarely make the headlines.
Subscribe to New Internationalist magazine to read the full archive of Letter From columns, dating back to 1973. Use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.
Fertile Ground (Bethany Rielly, Maxine Betteridge-Moes and Maya Misikir in New Internationalist)
Cover photograph by Amanuel Sileshi

This episode is brought to you by Shared Interest.
New Internationalist co-owner Kiran Gupta presents The Long Read from NI559: The New Nuclear Arms Race
Further reading from this episode:
Necolonialism in Gaza (Yara Hawari in New Internationalist)
The Long War for Meaning (Ramzy Baroud in New Internationalist)
Support independent media by becoming a New Internationalist co-owner.
No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. Subscribe today using the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.

This episode is sponsored by Path Financial.
Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey.
You may not have heard of it, but West Papua is an extraordinary place. It is home to one of the world’s most important rainforests – third only to the Amazon and Congo basins – teeming with species found nowhere else on the planet. Civilizations here stretch back tens of thousands of years.
But it’s a region that is increasingly under threat from Indonesia’s military occupation. Rapid deforestation, resource extraction and deadly human rights crackdowns are on the rise.
So who's behind the violent plunder – and who's profiting?
Read all New Internationalist's coverage of West Papua and Indonesia
Britain's complicity in the tragedy of West Papua (David Whyte, Samira Saunders, New Internationalist)
West Papua: A Green State Vision (Danny Chivers, New Internationalist)
'Every signature was an act of courage' (Danny Chivers, New Internationalist)
The world's largest deforestation project (Douglas Gerrard, London Review of Books)
Free West Papua Campaign
Get 20% off a print and/or digital subscription to New Internationalist using the code THEWORLDUNSPUN and you'll receive digital access to our dedicated issues 'West Papua: Freedom in sight?' (2017) and 'West Papua: We will be free!' (2002).
No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. To help us continue

Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey.
Join us in Glasgow for our December News Club with Rosie and our editorial assistant Paula Lacey. Tickets are FREE but limited – register here.
New Internationalist co-owner Kiran Gupta presents The Long Read from NI558: Gaza: Genocide and Resistance
Further reading from this episode:
Where is the Left? (Rosie Hampton in New Internationalist)
Support independent media by becoming a New Internationalist co-owner.
No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. Subscribe today using the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.

This episode is sponsored by Path Financial.
Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey.
Despite the latest ‘ceasefire’, Israel’s genocide and engineered famine continues to devastate Gaza. The latest issue of New Internationalist confronts the history of Israeli violence and the Palestinian resistance to war, displacement and annihilation, giving space to voices that are too often sidelined and allowing Palestinians to define their own struggle.
The magazine was guest edited by Gaza-born historian and writer Ramzy Baroud, editor of the Palestine Chronicle. For Ramzy, compiling this issue was highly personal, having lost over 110 family members in Gaza, including his sister. For The World Unspun, Ramzy sits down with New Internationalist co-editor Decca Muldowney to discuss the process of creating the magazine and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the face of genocide.
Read NI558: Gaza and Resistance
Host: Decca Muldowney
Credits: Decca Muldowney (Host) Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Digital Editor & Producer), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)
Guest: Ramzy Baroud
Further Reading from this Episode:
The Long War for Meaning (Ramzy Baround, New Internationalist)
Palestine: From Accord to Apartheid (Zoe Homan, New Internationalist)
Fiddling While Gaza Burns (Hamza Yusuf, New Internationalist)
Singing in Dark Times: Cultural Resistance in Palestine (Decca Muldowney, New Internationalist)
The Interview: Leila Khaled (Marta Vidal, New Internationalist)
No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. To help us continue
Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.