Paris a Continent … the Nike edition

I like the tone and aesthetic of this commercial. It makes Paris look like parts of Brooklyn. We’ll leave the close reading for another day (the relationship between identity politics and consumption for example), except to note it would be interesting if mainstream France engages with this reality, i.e. accepting of difference and diversity. (By director Paul Geusebroek.)

Further Reading

Kwame Nkrumah today

New documents looking at British and American involvement in overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah give us pause to reflect on his legacy, and its resonances today.

Goodbye, Piassa

The demolition of an historic district in Addis Ababa shows a central contradiction of modernization: the desire to improve the country while devaluing its people and culture.