Diego Casaes

Global Voices: Five Years On

December 23rd, 2009 § 3

When I had the idea to create this personal blog, my main motivation was to reach a different audience, one that speaks English and therefore can follow my struggle into becoming a global citizen and achieving an international career.

I can say that part of my motivation is due to Global Voices. Why? Because Global Voices is little by little enabling me with the tools I need to keep myself motivated. The GV network is giving me tools to keep me inspired and fighting for my beliefs. This is absolutely not something that is achieved easily, since many people give on their goals when they’re discouraged to keep fighting or when they’re doing something they do not like to do. On the other hand, in Global Voices I do what I love to do.

From my brief experience in Global Voices Online, I already had the chance to feel the essence of the project. I’ve already been introduced to people who believed in me and in my ideas. This year, GV is completing 5 years, which means it has been five long years that thousands of people are being continuously inspired by the work of an amazing team of special people. People who hope for a different world; people whose job is to help raising the voices that are usually unheard in the noise of traditional media.

I joined Global Voices in May 2009, which means my experience in far more brief comparing to others who already write and translate for GV since the beginning of the project. But still, I already feel like being part of the whole group. I have always looked for something that would give me the ability to work in a global perspective and yet share my views on a local level. In addition, the grandiosity of the GV network is expressive and it feels magical that we can relate to friends in Sub-Saharan Africa, or from Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe and other corners of the world. With that in mind, it is safe to say that GV is somehow a “place” where you find out that the world really exists.

My participation in GV is due to Paula Góes. I was interested in participating as an author and she was kind to help me with that. Somehow, part of my happiness and my accomplishments in this year are due to my work in Global Voices and the inspiration that Paula gives to me. Paula is someone special. She keeps me motivated, she helps me with my posts, she encourages me to try so many things, that somehow if I hadn’t the same kind of support, I wouldn’t do half of what I did this year. I would linger. Our friendship is growing everyday, and maybe because we are originally from the same city, we share perspectives, experiences and goals for our lives. Thank you so much, Paula! =)

Many stories that were brought by Global Voices touched me and influenced the way I see life and the world around me. Among these stories, Jillian C. York brought the case of the Moroccan girl Zineb Chtit, who was beaten by her employers and triggered the discussion of child labor in Morocco. The follow-up of the story made us aware that there is still much to do when it comes to Human Rights and the struggle against child labor.

Mong Palatino, the Regional Editor of Southeast Asia told the story of Mingjie Cai, a Singaporean taxi driver, blogger, and PhD holder from Stanford University. Dr. Cai lost his job and started a new life as a taxi driver. Unbelievable, but true. I remember that after reading Palatino’s blog post I spent the whole night reading Dr. Cai’s blog and his amazing reports on the life of ordinary people who he drove through the city. Some of these stories were so touching that made me cry. Another story by Palatino contemplated the complaints of Human Rights groups on the attitude of the Cambodian government of creating a de facto AIDS colony when it resettled 40 families with HIV and AIDS to a village 25 kilometers outside Phnom Penh City.

Not being narcissistic, one of my favorite stories of this year was actually wrote by me. The story of Januário Alves da Silva, a black man who was beaten and punched by a couple of security guards as he waited for his wife and children in the car park of one of the largest international retailers in Brazil. He was accused of trying to steal his own car. The attackers clearly thought that because he was black he wouldn’t be able to afford a Ford EcoSport (a model of car considered upmarket in Brazil). Januário’s story clearly highlighted the way racism is driven in the Brazilian society and how reptile it is.

My passion for Japan lead me to listen carefully to the words of Scilla Alleci about endangered languages in the Japanese archipelago and to discover that is still a lot to learn about the places we love and the things we want to see during our lives. The value of languages for Global Voices is such, that by publicizing this story and the fragility of these languages [and other tribal languages in many countries of the world] are a way to raise awareness among people and let them know that we need action to preserve people’s traditions.

For 2010, and for the next five years, I hope to contribute even more with Global Voices. I hope to meet other authors and translators, and I want to bring more contributors to our network. GV is changing the life of many people for good and words are not enough to describe the happiness we feel when we talk to each other, even though we are so far way. This is what faith and friendship really means.

At the brink of a new year, I can say I’m entirely happy. Never before I’ve been so fulfilled in my life.

Tagged: globalvoices