Amar Diwakar

London

Journalist at Freelance

Labor and Tech Fellow at Rest of World

Conjuring up words on global affairs, tech, music | @SOAS alum | usual disclaimers

Articles

UAE’s Golden Visa attracts Western tech workers to AI jobs

1 month ago | restofworld.org | Amar Diwakar |Jane Seidel

Ameca, a humanoid robot, smiled and blinked at the crowd at Dubai AI Week 2025, a celebration of all things artificial intelligence. Landmark announcements marked the event, including a $545 million hyperscale data center to supply Microsoft and Dubai’s first PhD program in AI. AI engineer Nair, 29, felt inspired. Since moving to the United Arab Emirates last October from Kerala, India, she had applied to hundreds of entry-level jobs and faced rejections, scams and exploitative offers.
Dubai’s drone performances open new doors for creative workers

Mar 17, 2025 | restofworld.org | Amar Diwakar

On a chilly night in January, Ajay Sreekumar stood outside Dubai’s Museum of the Future and craned his head up to the sky. He watched a swarm of 600 drones whirl some 400 feet above in the dark, humming as they formed an LED-illuminated portrait of the city’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Over the next nine minutes, the drones transitioned seamlessly between multicolored and animated 3D images, including a spinning globe and a scientist inspecting the DNA double helix.
From Uzbek disco to Uighur rock: Forgotten sounds of the Silk Road

Oct 12, 2024 | flipboard.com | Amar Diwakar

Culture9 hours agoWomen in the Celtic World: Everything You Should Knowthecollector.com - Rachel Sweeney • 9hMany conventions from historical, Western societies have been patriarchal in nature.
From Uzbek disco to Uighur rock: Forgotten sounds of the Silk Road

Oct 12, 2024 | aljazeera.com | Amar Diwakar

On an early morning car ride from Tashkent to Samarkand after a performance in 1983, the Uzbek pop singer Nasiba Abdullaeva tuned in to an Afghan radio station by accident and found herself entranced by a song that was playing. “From its first notes, the song fascinated me, and I fell in love with it,” Abdullaeva recalled. She asked the driver to pull over so she could quickly memorise the lines.
Karak Chai is Really the Story of South Asian Migrants

Jan 17, 2024 | thejuggernaut.com | Amar Diwakar

The accessible, diasporic brew is a byproduct of Gulf modernization — and its insidious underbelly. Hani A. pulls up in a Toyota Land Cruiser outside Oyoun Al Reem, a cafe in Dubai’s Za’beel district, and honks twice. A young man hustles out and comes up to the car. Hani gestures using rapid finger movements: two orders of karak chai. We promptly receive the brew, piping hot, in six-ounce paper cups for 1.50 dirhams ($0.41) each.
Best Music of 2023

Dec 30, 2023 | funkychapati.wordpress.com | Amar Diwakar

From infectious Scandinavian soul to ominous Irish doom-folk, alongside sumptuous electronic pop, uplifting spiritual jazz and disco revivals done right, 2023 was packed with sonic delights. It was also a year of comebacks, with Britpop icons Blur, Zamrock legends WITCH and shoegaze royalty Slowdive all dropping excellent LPs after decades-long hiatuses. For those with an end-of-year list fetish, these were my top 100 albums of the year (with a Spotify playlist at the end):
Amid Calls for Peace, Many South Asians are “Utterly Heartbroken”

Nov 16, 2023 | thejuggernaut.com | Amar Diwakar

Millions have called for a cease-fire in Gaza. Yet, they are disappointed with governments that aren’t doing enough. “I don’t know if there are words to describe the horror of seeing hospitals, schools, and children in refugee camps being pounded by bombs in an area where people have no escape,” Arun Devasia, an Australian Indian union organizer living in the U.K., shared. “It’s unbelievable and makes me sick.”Devasia feels “utterly heartbroken” seeing the carnage Israel has inflicted on Gaza.
Electronic Jaglara: The ‘cosmic’ dance music rocking rural Sudan

Sep 7, 2023 | middleeasteye.net | Amar Diwakar

On the outskirts of Khartoum at a groom’s henna celebration, an unassuming forty-something man leads a crowd into a trance-like state with virtuosic stabs on his Yamaha. Inside a tent equipped with a modest sound system, men raise kaskara swords as they sway to magnetic rhythms. One whips out a pistol in the middle of the dancefloor before firing into the air. Soon a mosh pit develops and the simmering rowdiness progresses into a scuffle.
Saffron Curtain: How Buddhism Was Weaponized During the Cold War

Aug 24, 2023 | lankaweb.com | Amar Diwakar

Amar DiwakarMarch 23, 2018The U.S. tried to foment an anti-communist Buddhist bloc in Southeast Asia—with deadly consequences for the region’s politics today. Tang Chhin SothyAFP/GettyOf the world’s major faiths, Buddhism is often characterized as being a religion of peace, tolerance, and compassion. The Western encounter with Buddhism has largely been distilled through yoga, the beatniks, Hollywood, and Dalai Lama quotes shared on Facebook.