Nii Ayikwei Parkes
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niiayikwei.bsky.social
Nii Ayikwei Parkes
@niiayikwei.bsky.social
Ga-speaking father. Happyfied self-hypnotist. Daydreamer, writer, editor, idea whisperer. Bylines: Guardian, Nat Geo, Vice, Financial Times, Condé Nast Traveller | Writes for kids as K.P. Kojo https://t.co/V3GydO5tbs

#BookSky #BlackSky #GhanaSky #Poet
Pinned
In honour of my #science roots I named a new #poetry #form I developed THE GIMBAL. You're welcome to try one if you feel it. I'll be posting one after this outline thread - one that is in my 2020 collection #TheGeez . The image here is a drawing with gimbals.
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
TODAY: @kolatubosun.bsky.social on the exquisite artistry of Benin and the opening of a new West African art museum, which was "scuttled by protesters connected to the Ọba of Benin, who stormed the museum, insulting attendees and demanding that they leave." flaminghydra.com/issue-443/#b...
Troubled troves
Kọla Túbọsún on the entwined beauty and tragedy of Benin’s looted treasures
flaminghydra.com
November 15, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Another horrific story from these times, featuring the tireless and heroic work of my Cornell Law colleague Liz Brundige and her clinic students. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/u...
She Was Deported in Error. Her Child Was Left Behind.
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
ICYMI: A judge’s ruling that legal action by authors against OpenAI for copyright infringement can go ahead reveals the “the ease with which generative AI can devastate the market,” according to the Publishers Association 👇 #BookSky
OpenAI copyright case reveals 'ease with which generative AI can devastate the market', says PA
ebx.sh
November 15, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
This is rape culture.

This is why so many people don’t come forward.

A young girl was being bullied at school by a boy who made AI generated nudes of her.

She told the principal. She told the guidance counsellor. They didn’t stop it.

Finally she hit the boy responsible, and SHE got expelled:
A Louisiana girl hit a boy who was sharing deepfake nude photos of her. She was expelled.
“This girl was abused,” one of the family’s attorneys said, noting that she endured sexual exploitation and harassment. And the expulsion “was like pouring salt in the wound.”
www.nola.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
READ: Jenin refugee camp was completely emptied of its residents during Israel's ethnic cleansing operation earlier this year. These are photos of life in the camp before its most recent Nakba. mondoweiss.net/2025/11/in-p...
In photos: The ongoing Nakba of Jenin refugee camp
Jenin refugee camp was completely emptied of its residents during Israel’s ethnic cleansing operation earlier this year. These are photos of life in the camp before its most recent Nakba.
mondoweiss.net
November 15, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Amid a 24-hour news cycle and personalized algorithms, a wave of young artists are reviving bold, plainspoken protest music that cuts through the noise. n.pr/47Rs40o
There's a new generation of folk protest singers on TikTok
Amid a 24-hour news cycle and personalized algorithms, a wave of young artists are reviving bold, plainspoken protest music that cuts through the noise.
n.pr
November 13, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
“‘This Sucks’: Trump and the GOP Thought They Survived the Epstein Scandal. It’s Back”

⁦‪Asawin Suebsaeng‬⁩ reports for Zeteo on how Trumpland is annoyed that GOP lawmakers aren’t running effective interference for the president and are getting ‘played by Democrats.’

Read/share/subscribe:
‘That Sucks’: Trump and the GOP Thought They Survived the Epstein Scandal. It’s Back
Trumpland is annoyed that GOP lawmakers aren’t running effective interference for the president and are getting ‘played by Democrats.’
zeteo.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
The absolute devastation of these last lines:

"If you can hear me there,
if this reaches you,
forgive us,
we did not know who we were."

-- @joriegraham.bsky.social in @lrb.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 9:19 AM
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The UK govt: "Hmm, we might have to ban VPNs & a whole range of otehr basic privacy safeguards, to Protect The Children, y'know."

Also the UK govt: "It's perfectly fine to let Nazi billionaire & friend of Epstein Peter Thiel trawl through the entire corpus of NHS personal data on your children."
November 13, 2025 at 9:28 AM
21st Century Privilege Riddle: people who keep saying they were/are cancelled but still have 1000x more exposure/media than 1000 people 1000x more productive and talented than they are...
a man in a suit says oh god it 's pathetic ..
ALT: a man in a suit says oh god it 's pathetic ..
media.tenor.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:40 PM
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1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Religion, money, regional divisions, and volatile politics have produced a combustible situation in Nigeria—one that could turn into a roaring fire if the U.S. chooses to intervene, Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún writes.
Why Is Trump Suddenly Talking About Invading Nigeria?
A U.S. military intervention would be a disaster in an already divided country.
foreignpolicy.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
"World's first potential trillionaire has killed 600,000 people, including 400,000 children" is the only headline that anyone should ever read about Elon Musk
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
In November, states, experts, journalists, climate activists, and representatives will gather in Belém, Brazil for COP30, the 30th annual United Nations climate change conference.

Here are three things to know about Brazil, COP30 host ⤵️
November 3, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
I've never done this on social media before but...

...my brilliant assistant is moving on to pastures new after three years. I am looking for someone to help me out. They need to be able to *get to North London easily, regularly*, energetic (it's often a dashing-around/carrying stuff job)...
November 3, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
The average new car costs $50,000. The average used car is $25,000. Insurance, repairs and maintenance are soaring. But America's car-centric habits also cost us in more subtle ways. n.pr/47B4pRT
Cars are essential in most of the U.S. They're also increasingly unaffordable
The average new car costs $50,000. The average used car is $25,000. Insurance, repairs and maintenance are soaring. But America's car-centric habits also cost us in more subtle ways.
n.pr
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
"people... showing each other their roots"; I see what you did there!!
I've seen so much of this place. I'm like Rutger Hauer at the end of Blade Runner 😂 it is by no means perfect and I have had my own share of horrid experiences. But weirdos want to pretend we're not the majority in this country. Two people on a train, showing each other their roots lol. But we are
November 3, 2025 at 10:19 AM
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"Even as the hunger and fear of living under siege and bombardment made him desperate to leave, Douda remained inside El Fasher, constantly working to let the outside world know what was happening to the people there."
He told the world what was happening in El Fasher. Then they sought him out. How Sudan lost ‘a true hero of the war’
For months, Mohamed Khamis Douda shared accounts of what life was like under siege. He was killed when RSF fighters finally took the Darfur city, raising fears activists and civil society figures are ...
www.theguardian.com
November 2, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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Look out for 'Barter' by Nii Ayikwei Parks from The Makings of You on your November commutes 👀

www.peepaltreepress.com/books/making...

@niiayikwei.bsky.social @poemsonthetube.bsky.social
November 3, 2025 at 10:12 AM
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The spineless way this govt lets Musk get away with his white supremacist lies it's breathtaking. They should be ashamed someone is running around broadcasting this shit to a fan base of fanatical incels and bigots with no consequences at all. Pathetic.
November 2, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
History's Most Epic Fails is @booktrust.org.uk book of the day. Big up non fiction November. Scorpion season fully in session.
Proper stoked

www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2...
November 2025 = @booktrust
See Instagram 'November 2025' highlights from BookTrust (@booktrust)
www.instagram.com
November 2, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
This is true but it's also what the Guardian has insisted on euphemising as "populism" for over a decade

The mainstreaming of far-right politics would not have happened without mainstream actors enabling it (see BBCQT etc). It's not too late to seriously reflect and change course.
Matt Goodwin’s stance on migration is pretty much indistinguishable from that of the BNP in the past 1990s and not a million miles from that of the NF in the 1970s.
Matt Goodwin attributes a crime that he now knows appears to have been committed by people born in Britain in the early 1990s to "mass uncontrolled immigration"
November 2, 2025 at 6:24 PM
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And when the suspect is white what do we see? Pure empathy and excuses. remember how we were supposed to like that drugged up guy who drove into a crowd because he lived in a semi detached like Hyacinthe Bucket? The press embarrass us all. And betray the victims. It's a travesty
November 2, 2025 at 11:10 PM
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Revealing the ethnic background of suspects (when they are not white of course) does not pacify the far right. It's the equivalent of giving a two year old 5 hours of screen time and a diet coke. It sends them completely feral. But they knew that already
November 2, 2025 at 11:05 PM