Amjad Al-Nour is a person of many talents. He’s a highly-respected filmmaker, a journalist and a TV presenter. He can even add songwriter and part-time rapper to his impressive credentials. Originally from Sudan, he’s at the forefront of media and cultural discourse in the Middle East and beyond.
Al-Nour’s creative drive is evident in his every venture and his work often touches on human and social concerns as seen in his satirical videos, many of which have gone viral. “I’m always thinking about my next idea, how I’m going to top whatever I did previously,” he remarks in an interview with Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
In 2023, Greenpeace MENA had collaborated with Al-Nour for #COP28 in Dubai to produce the Polluter Pays music video highlighting the destructive impact of international oil and gas companies on countries in the Majority World.
Ahlamouna (Our Dreams): young voices rise for a better tomorrow
In his latest collaboration with Greenpeace MENA, Al-Nour fulfilled another dream by working with children in the Ahlamouna music video, bringing his latest vision to life in an unusual way. Before the shoot, he and his team opened up casting auditions in various schools in Istanbul, Turkey. Al-Nour found 35 young talents (ages 8 to 15) with impressive acting and rapping skills.
Ahlamouna— Arabic for “our dreams”— is a great example of how he fuses art with activism. Filmed in an amusement park in Istanbul, the music video may sound and look playful but it delivers a powerful message to global leaders and financial decision-makers to prioritise what is truly essential: education, healthcare, a safe and sustainable environment. “I think this music video is a cry for help from the children,” Al-nour explains. “A cry to project their demands, in a way that addresses the adults.”
In the video, children take over the school trip and confront the adults in the park. They sing how their dreams are not for sale and long for a world that is fair, safe, and more sustainable. Al-Nour believes kids should be heard more often, and adults should take their concerns seriously. “Children are the future, and whatever we do as adults will affect their lives,” he says.
Calls for a global Wellbeing Economy
Relevant to the times, the Ahlamouna music video is a message to all the grownups to heed the call of the young to protect and safeguard their hopes, dreams and future. Across the region and in the Majority World, nations are struggling with multiple crises, including devastating conflicts and the increasing toll of the climate crisis. The world’s 26 poorest countries are facing the highest levels of debts since 2006, and societies are trapped in extractivist and neo-colonial economic models that are fueling an ongoing debt crisis.
“Children across the MENA region are already bearing the brunt of a global climate crisis they did not cause. The Majority World faces further injustice as wealthy polluting nations continue to uphold unfair global financial rules that do not work in the people’s favour”, says Hanen Keskes, Campaigns Lead for Greenpeace MENA.
“To redress the inequities and ensure a sustainable future for our children, we need an economy that shifts beyond GDP and puts the wellbeing of people and planet at its centre.”
For the sake of our children and their future, it’s time to change this outdated, unfair and neo-colonial economic system that is destroying the world. We need to reform the rules so that our economies work for the living world, not against us, and prioritise the wellbeing of people and planet.
Watch the full Ahlamouna video on Greenpeace MENA’s Youtube channel.
Wellbeing for All
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Therese Salvador is the Global Creative Partnerships Coordinator for the Wellbeing Economy, based in Manila, Philippines
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Theresa Salvador www.greenpeace.org
