Originally published on Global Voices

Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mustafa Dzhemilev (1990s). Source: The Sixties Museum in Kyiv, used with permission.

By Radomir Mokrik

This story is part of a series of essays written by Ukrainian artists entitled “Regained Culture: Ukrainian voices curate Ukrainian culture.” This series is produced in collaboration with the Folkowisko Association/Rozstaje.art, thanks to co-financing by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through a grant by the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. It has been translated from Ukrainian by Iryna Tiper and Filip Noubel.

In his essay “The Power of the Powerless,” Czech writer Václav Havel once explained why the term “dissident” annoyed him. He said it gave the impression of being a “professional member of the opposition,” although in reality those who were called “dissidents” were, first and foremost, people with their own professions, families, and fears. The dissident movement within the Soviet bloc (1922–1991) took shape in different ways. In Czechoslovakia, it was in the musical underground; in Poland, in factories; and in Ukraine at literary evenings. However, in 1975, it gained a common denominator in the form of the Helsinki Accords and the human rights movement.

In Czechoslovakia, local dissidents created the  “Charter 77,” in Poland, they founded the Movement for the Protection of Human and Citizen Rights (ROPCiO), and in the USSR, Helsinki groups (human rights watchdogs) began to emerge — in Moscow, Yerevan, Tbilisi, Vilnius, and Kyiv. In Ukraine, national movements fighting the Soviet empire were intertwined with attempts to protect human rights. Former political prisoners of the Soviet regime, such as Mustafa Dzhemilev, Yosyf Zisels, and Miroslav Marynovych, share their experiences of fighting against the empire, then and now.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Group: ‘I refuse to be afraid’

Yosyf Zisels, a Ukrainian Jew, as he calls himself, describes the significance of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG). He spent a total of six years in labor camps in the late 1970s for participating in the human rights movement.

Human rights, this was the new essence of the dissident movement. With this, Ukrainian dissidents entered the space of international human rights protection. The fact that the UHG aligned itself with international human rights standards was extremely important; it meant that Ukrainians subordinated their aspirations to the general aspirations of Europe and the world. It was a story about democratization, about human rights. It was a symbolic, but important step.

Zisels adds that the desire to demonstrate the falsehood of the Soviet system was also important, so that the West would have no illusions that discussing the USSR could ever be done in a truly legal context. “This is somewhat reminiscent of the illusions that can still often be found in Europe regarding Russia.”

The UHG was founded in 1976 by just 10 brave people who understood that this initiative would land them in prison. Regardless, they decided to move forward in pursuit of personal, national, and pan-European interests.

Joining the European logic of human rights protection meant that Ukrainian human rights defenders had to ask a hard question: was their struggle primarily for universal human rights, or also for the national rights of the Ukrainian people? After all, many people were pushed to join the dissidence precisely because of  Moscow's policy that marginalized Ukrainian culture and grossly discriminated against the Ukrainian language.

Philosopher and religious scholar Myroslav Marynovych recalls how he joined the UHG in November 1976. He felt the burden of national discrimination; thus, when a specific initiative arose, he decided to act, saying, “This ubiquitous falsehood and lie of the system was disgusting to me. I refused to be afraid.”

Marynovich’s name appeared alongside nine others — people who openly declared that they were legally founding a human rights group. For Marynovich, the combination of the national and the universal was quite organic:

Of the five groups that existed in the USSR, only the Moscow group was wholly ‘democratic.’ It raised questions exclusively about civil liberties. But all the other groups in other Soviet republics also fought for their national rights. The Moscow dissidents did not like this. That is, they did not block documents from us, but they scowled, saying: ‘Why are you doing this? You are mixing it all up… Focus on civil rights.’ The dual nature of the Soviet system — as a totalitarian regime and a Russian empire —  was rejected in Moscow even in these dissident circles.

Solidarity of the enslaved 

Mustafa Dzhemilev has served as a leader of the Crimean Tatar national movement for many decades. He was born in Crimea in November 1943, but six months later, he — like the entire Crimean Tatar nation — was forcibly deported from Crimea to Central Asia by Soviet authorities. Dzhemilev uses the word “genocide” several times during our conversation, and this is not a metaphor.

The Crimean Tatars survived the horrors of the occupation, but their experience of living under the Soviet regime was not much better either:

Of course, during the Nazi occupation, people saw horrors — the killing of Jews, mass executions, and violence. There can be no illusions, both Nazism and communism are evil. And the Crimean Tatars have a different fate: their deportation of the Crimean Tatars was in no way connected with their behavior or actions. It was part of Russia's overall strategy towards Crimea and the Crimean Tatars in particular. Crimea was to become a completely Russian place. This ‘relocation’ became genocide for us. Everything related to the Tatars was destroyed — mosques, cemeteries, settlements were renamed. The goal was to destroy the people.

Dzhemilev’s life became a constant struggle for the right to return home, which soon became the root of his dissidence. But he emphasizes that he quickly moved from the national to the universal.

The Crimean Tatar movement of the 1960s was “radicalized” by a Ukrainian, Petro Hryhorenko. “It was Hryhorenko who explained that we should not ask, but demand. No Tatar has done as much for our national cause as Petro Hryhorenko,” recalls Dzhemilev.

Dissidents — whether Ukrainians, Jews, or Crimean Tatars — defended their own culture, but this did not prevent mutual support; in fact, it rather strengthened it.

It was in the camps that the “internationalism” declared by the Soviet Communist Party took on real shape. “The support from people from the Baltics and the Caucasus was self-evident; we were on the same wavelength. But the strongest was the union of the Trident and the Star of David,” said Dzhemilev.

Myroslav Marynovych went on to explain the Ukrainian-Jewish solidarity: “The Jews who ended up in the camps usually already supported the national state of Israel. They were people with a national conscience, so for them, the position of the Ukrainians was understandable. Because both simply loved their people.”

Josyf Zisels agreed and emphasized how beneficial the influence of the Ukrainian national movement was for him personally:

I am a Jew. My whole family is Jewish. This is my culture and my identity. But both my dissidence and my general development later led me to more universal, democratic things. And Ukrainian dissidents told me indirectly but implicetly that you cannot bypass this path and ignore your ethnic and religious trace. You must live through them. You can then go further, reach the universal level. But you cannot pretend that this does not exist. That is why I then took a step back […] created the first specifically Jewish organization after my second term.

Myroslav Marynovich’s remark that Russian dissidents did not like it when the question of national identity was discussed should not be perceived as a retrospective rewriting of history. Without in any way belittling the role of Moscow dissidents, and of figures such as Andrey Sakharov, the question of national identity was not something that bothered them. After all, Russians were not the object of daily discrimination simply because they spoke their own language; they were not affected by latent anti-Semitism, and the impetus of their dissidence was not the desire to return to any “stolen homeland.”

Collapse, disintegration, decolonization?

The number one issue today in Ukraine is undoubtedly Russia’s defeat in the war. What will it look like — disintegration, collapse, decolonization? Decolonization is a common idea in Ukraine that some researchers are trying to popularize in the West.

The Ukrainian former political prisoners are rather cautious optimists.

Joseph Zisels says that he is in touch with a handful of old acquaintances in Russia:

Of course, I sympathize with them, but I also tell them that with such a history, within such borders, Russia cannot become a democratic country. At one time, I wanted the collapse of the USSR, because I understood that a democratic USSR simply could not exist. But they are still building it there.

Zisels is convinced that what is changing is only the geopolitical context, but not Russia's imperial identity, and the West should understand this.

For Mustafa Dzhemilev, the issue of Russia's defeat is also the issue of the possibility of finally returning home, because as long as the Russian Federation exists in its current form, Crimea remains in the grip of the occupiers. Marynovych has a similar view:

In March 2022, I said ‘I sense the stench of a dying empire. Russia will not be able to swallow Ukraine — it will choke on it.’ I said that I am happy because I smell the cadaverous smell of the Russian Empire. And I still smell it. It will not swallow Ukraine; it will choke on it. I have no doubt about this, but the question is when and how? The same questions were raised about the Soviet Union when I was in the camps. Nobody knew when, but they knew that it would definitely collapse.

Originally published on Global Voices

Photo by zhendong wang on Unsplash

Our mother language is much more than a system of communication. It shapes our identity and our points of view. It cultivates our emotional ties to our culture and our community. It holds the history of humanity’s connections as well as the future of humanity’s resilience.

For those very reasons, the world observes International Mother Language Day each year on February 21, celebrating the importance of protecting and promoting linguistic diversity and multilingualism.

To mark the occasion, we asked the Global Voices community — quite the multilingual bunch! — to answer a simple prompt: What does your mother language mean to you? The responses we received were intimate and honest, ranging from highlighting the beauty of the language in question to detailing personal and political struggles related to its usage.

‘Grounding me in a sense of belonging’

Rami Alhames is the Arabic translation manager for the Global Voices Lingua project. He called the Arabic language “the heartbeat of my identity”:

It carries the echoes of my ancestors, the warmth of family gatherings, and the richness of my culture. Through its poetic verses and intricate calligraphy, I feel a deep connection to my heritage…It shapes my thoughts, dreams, and expressions, grounding me in a sense of belonging. Every word feels like a bridge to my roots, a reminder of who I am and where I come from.

For translator Ghaydaa Alnakhal, Arabic as a mother tongue is a point of pride:

Arabic language is a treasure that everyone likes to discover. It's the language of the Holy Quran; every single word has a meaningful connotation. I'm proud of my mother language, as wherever I meet foreign people they ask me to teach them some Arabic words.

Writer and translator Elisa Marvena said she has come to appreciate her native language of Spanish in new ways, thanks to the experience of living outside of her country of origin:

Living in Germany, my mother tongue has also become the entry point to many friendships, a space where I feel safe, comfortable, and most “myself.” It led me to fully understand, intimately, why foreign communities anywhere in the world tend to stay close and spontaneously build what some negatively call “ghettos.”

Furthermore, Elisa said, passing on Spanish to her trilingual toddler will ensure that he stays connected to his maternal extended family. The same is true for another important language in her son’s life: Arabic, which is what her son’s father speaks.

Elmira Lyapina, who is a writer and translator for Global Voices, similarly described her mother tongue of Tatar as a tool for forging bonds with other people:

As part of the Turkic language family, Tatar gives me a sense of home when speaking with older generations of Turkish or Azerbaijani communities. Sharing similar names for cultural and historical concepts, as well as traditional dishes, it connects me more deeply with Central Asian culture. It also gives me a sense of relatedness to Arabic and Persian cultures, due to the borrowings from or through these languages.

And translator Tchahenewa Israel, whose mother tongue is Tupuri, explained how the language anchors him:

Ma langue est l'identité par laquelle je m'identifie et je me reconnais dans la société.

My language is the identity by which I identify myself and recognize myself in society.

‘I will make my language sovereign’

Malagasy may be the official language of Madagascar, but the economic pressure to favor globally dominant languages instead is strong. Liva Andriamanantena, a translator for the Malagasy language team at Global Voices Lingua, recognizes the risk that this poses for her mother tongue:

The Malagasy language faces a major problem because many Malagasy citizens do not know how to write it correctly and moreover in schools, the French language is used much more in educational programs. As a translator, I strive to revitalize this rare and precious language because I hope it will one day become one of the most sought-after languages ​​in the field of translation.

Miora Stéphanie Radifera, one of the translation managers for the Malagasy language team, spoke about how Malagasy is like “a piece of home I carry with me, no matter where I go”:

And though I love learning other languages, none could replace it — it’s unique, beautiful, and an inseparable part of me. As we say in Malagasy, “Andrianiko ny teniko, ny an'ny hafa koa feheziko!” (I will make my language sovereign; as for the languages of others, I will master them and make them mine as well).

Malagasy is among the most active language communities at Global Voices, the result of the collective passion that the team of contributors feel for their mother tongue. Imanoela Fifaliana, an editor and translator for the Malagasy language team, put that passion on display in her response:

My greatest wish is to share this beauty with others, to see more people discover the richness of our language and culture, so that it can continue to thrive for generations to come. Tiako ny teniko! (I love my language)

And Raveloaritiana Mamisoa Isabelle, a translator, summed up the connection she feels to Malagasy in brief: “My mother language is my identity, my life, a bridge to my culture and heritage.”

Unjust realities, complicated relationships

As much as a language can be a source of beauty, it can also be employed for ugly ends. Throughout history and still today, people in power have sought to erase native languages and replace them with their own in order to weaken cultural connections, sever community bonds and cause conflict, all to subjugate peoples and steal their labor and resources.

Writer Candice K. Stewart’s mother tongue is Jamaican Patois. She talked about her personal experience with this weaponization of language as a legacy of British colonialism:

I can remember being corrected and scolded as a child the second I uttered any bit of Patwa. In the moment, the real effects were not noticed. However, many years later, it is evident. Many of us have to figuratively fight for our lives to speak Patwa, write it, and understand the varied sounds. This is all thanks to what we were brainwashed to believe — that to speak Patwa and communicate with it is indicative of being primitive and uneducated. I am forever grateful for local linguists and champions of Patwa who continue to push Patwa.

When personal, cultural and political histories collide, the term “mother language” can become tricky to unpack. Associate editor Ameya Nagarajan commented that she wasn’t sure how to respond to the prompt:

Is it your mother's language? And her mother's language? Then it's Gujarati, which I do not speak at all and cannot understand. But what people mean, in India, is the “family” language which is usually your father's language. Then it's Tamil, which I speak more or less okay, mainly because I've grabbed every opportunity as an adult to do it and get better. I can barely read or write. Is it the language you think and dream in? That you grew up speaking? That your parents and grandparents spoke to you when you were a child? Then it's English.

Ngo Ngimbous Fidèle Juliette, the French translation manager, spoke of her relationship to the Bassa language and how she does her best with the skills she has:

Le bassa représente mes origines. Cette langue a bercé mon enfance. Malheureusement, bien que codifiée, je n'ai pas eu la chance d'apprendre à la lire ni à l'écrire. Je le fais en tâtonnant.

Bassa language represents my origins. This language cradled me in childhood. Unfortunately, although it is codified, I did not have the chance to learn to read or write it. I do it by trial and error.

And Arzu Geybullayeva, writer and editor who covers South Caucasus and Turkey, drew a distinction between the ideas of “origins” and “roots” as it relates to her mother tongues of Azerbaijani and Russian:

I think, in the grand picture, it is the only thing that connects me to my origins. I would refrain from using the word roots because I have come to learn that roots can be planted elsewhere and hence, I don't see it as a connection to the roots but more to my country of origin. It remains the language which sometimes has the best word to explain a situation or a state or an emotion.

Unique words and idioms

Each language is a universe unto itself, with unique vocabulary and creative turns of phrase that aren’t easily translated. Iryna Tiper, the Ukrainian translation manager, talked about the melody, nuances and richness of the Ukrainian language:

One of my favorite words is затишок (zatyshok), meaning a cozy, warm place — it perfectly reflects the sense of home and belonging that Ukrainian gives me.

Writer Prudence Nyamishana said her mother tongue of Rukiga connects her to her ancestors:

Some of the phrases and proverbs in Rukiga reveal how generations passed on wisdom and traditions. My favourite proverb is “Nyantahurira akambukira omu bwato bwibumba” — he who doesn't heed a warning will eventually try to cross a sea in a clay boat.

Sanjib Chaudhary, a writer and Nepali translation manager, described how his native language of Eastern Tharu has been shaped by the environments where the Tharu people have lived:

I think and dream in my mother language… Tharus have lived in the southern plains of Nepal for thousands of years and they have unique relation with the forests, wild animals and nature which reflects in the language, unique words, phrases and idioms.

And writer Abhinash Das offered up a preferred word in Assamese, one of the official languages of India:

I feel so good and happy expressing and communicating in my mother language… I am sharing one of my favourite Assamese words: “ভালপোৱা” which means “love” in English.

‘The only one I speak from the heart’

Our mother tongue is fundamental to how we relate to ourselves and others, be they near or far. This is true for Francophone sub-Saharan Africa editor Jean Sovon whose language of origin is Ewé:

Ma langue maternelle représente une richesse immatérielle que je partage en commun avec les membres de ma communauté ou ethnie. Je suis fier de parler cette langue et de voir d'autres personnes s'y intéresser.

My mother tongue represents an intangible wealth I share with the members of my community or my ethnic group. I am proud to speak this language, and to see other people interested in it.

Ioana Dobre, the Romanian translation manager, said that Romanian “connects me with my childhood, family, first friends and it represents a big part of who I am,” while
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe, the Spanish translation manager, put her relationship with Spanish succinctly: “It's how I communicate with everybody else and how I acquire knowledge.”

For Marisa Petricca, the Italian translation manager, her mother tongue provides a special bond to the arts:

The Italian language can also be considered a universal language: every musician can understand even two or three words in Italian, finding them on the pentagram, like allegro, maestoso, etc. The Italian language identity often embodies disciplines like humanities, music, poetry, literature, and art that our ancestors made. And for me, these are the most important values of my language, actually.

She also pointed out the connection it gives her to speakers of other Romance languages, something that translator Ursu Ilona-Alexandra also highlighted about her mother tongue of Romanian, adding: “My mother language means both the origin and originality to me.”

The condition of our mother language being intertwined with our very identity was a common one across the responses we received from the Global Voices community. Perhaps translator Maria Dabija summed it up perfectly when she said:

Ma langue maternelle est la seule que je parle avec le cœur.

My mother tongue is the only one I speak from the heart.

This position has been filled. 

Global Voices is seeking a dynamic Managing Director for our unique and groundbreaking organization. The Managing Director will be responsible for the daily management of the organization, working closely with Executive Director Malka Older to guide the organization and plan the next chapter of our work as we enter our 21st year. The candidate will succeed Georgia Popplewell, who is stepping down from her role as founding Managing Director after more than 16 years.

Global Voices is a respected international, multilingual community of writers, translators, digital activists and researchers around the world, with a large network of partners in media, digital rights and information access communities. We work to amplify voices usually excluded from online spaces, promote digital rights, and forge international, multilingual, and cross-cultural connections.

Candidates for this role should be passionate about the vision articulated in our mission statement: building understanding between communities, cultures and languages; creating trustworthy information in a contested and complex world; and supporting spaces for people to represent themselves and assert power in media environments. The successful candidate will be committed to sustaining an environment of mutual support, kindness, and willingness to see people as complex individuals, possessing multiple identities, unique histories, and diverse affiliations.

The next Managing Director will ideally:

• Have at least 5 years’ experience in a senior management role.
• Be an inspirational leader who communicates clearly, listens well and is empathetic and responsive to Global Voices’ diverse community, including managing interpersonal relationships and problem-solving.
• Be effective in promoting and amplifying the organization’s work, and representing the organization at public events and in community conversations.
• Have experience overseeing budgets and nonprofit finance and accounting administration, technical needs and staff management.
• Be tech-savvy, process-oriented, highly organized and comfortable with multi-tasking.
• Be a strong writer and editor, with written and verbal fluency in English and at least one other language.
• Have significant experience in at least some of Global Voices’ core activities, including community-based journalism, digital and online human rights advocacy and research, activism, internet and online research methods, and network and community mobilization for under-represented communities. Newsroom leadership experience is a bonus, but not required.
• Be an entrepreneurial thinker, adept at implementing programs and initiatives.
• Be enthusiastic and effective in supporting, motivating, and mentoring the Global Voices team and community to take on roles of progressive responsibility and commitment.
• Be skilled and experienced in organizational planning and growth, managing teams, designing processes, and configuring resources to support a healthy and strong team and community.
• Have substantial international experience and be comfortable working in distributed, global, multilingual contexts with diverse values.
• Be able to travel internationally.
• Be able to work on a flexible schedule to accommodate meetings with team and volunteers in different time zones, including evenings, mornings, and weekends.

There is no geographic requirement associated with this position; Global Voices has no office or physical headquarters. Candidates must have consistent, reliable access to broadband internet connectivity, be comfortable working in a wholly virtual environment, and be able to travel internationally when necessary. The Managing Director will report to the Executive Director.

We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe and encourage people currently contributing to Global Voices to apply.

Compensation: The position will be treated as a freelance contract. The rate for the position will be determined by our compensation policies together with the skills and experience of the candidate. Because Global Voices is wholly virtual, our rates are applied independent of location.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Malka Older, Global Voices’ new Executive Director. Photo by Allana Taranto, Ars Magna. Used with permission.

September 15, 2024

Global Voices welcomes its new executive director, Malka Older, an acclaimed science fiction writer, academic, and former aid worker with more than a decade of on-the-ground experience in humanitarian relief and international development work from Sudan to Indonesia.

Older, who was selected by the Global Voices board in a rigorous, global, six-month search, succeeds Ivan Sigal, Global Voices’ transformational executive director, who over the past 16 years strengthened and expanded Global Voices’ work and community of contributors. Sigal announced in February his intention to transition to a new chapter and is now working with Older to ensure a smooth and successful transition.

“For the past 16 years, Ivan has led Global Voices with grace, empathy and wisdom through profound changes in the world and the media we use to understand it. It’s hard to imagine Global Voices without him,” said Ethan Zuckerman, a cofounder of Global Voices, along with Rebecca MacKinnon, both of whom are current board members. “But it's also hard to describe just how excited we are about Malka Older and her truly unique combination of skills and experiences. It's easy to imagine a Global Voices under her leadership that transforms to meet this moment while maintaining the values of diversity and engagement we've always held.”

Global Voices board chair Mary Kay Magistad, who led the search for a new executive director, said Older impressed the board with her deep understanding and respect for Global Voices’ values and mission, and her visionary thinking about the work Global Voices does and could do.

“Malka told us that she believes that ‘transparent, ethical, multi-perspective information is one of the most critical levers we can use to improve democracy, equity and empathy’,” Magistad said. “She says she sees Global Voices as ‘an incredible experiment, community, and platform for building a better world.’ That’s exactly the mindset Global Voices needs in its senior leadership, and that it has had in Ivan, and in managing director Georgia Popplewell. We will always be grateful to Ivan for his extraordinary work in leading Global Voices over the past 16 years, and are delighted to welcome Malka as his successor.”

Global Voices, founded in 2004, is an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, and human rights activists in dozens of countries that leverages the power of the internet to tell stories that build understanding across borders. Older has long been a fan of Global Voices, and sees synergies between her own interests and Global Voices’ areas of focus.

“In joining Global Voices, I'm thrilled to become part of an organization that engages with so many of the issues I care about: information; cross-cultural and cross-linguistic connection and empathy; human rights and democracy; community, decentralization, and governance; indigenous and endangered languages,” Older said. “I'm incredibly impressed with everything that the Global Voices community has accomplished, and I look forward to working together to continue building understanding and telling important stories among the new challenges and opportunities in this rapidly changing media environment.”

Older’s thinking about such challenges and opportunities are reflected both in her science fiction writing and in her academic work as a faculty associate at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society, and as a research associate at the Crisis Lab at Sciences Po in Paris. It was also at Sciences Po where Older completed her PhD in sociology, focused on the dynamics of post-disaster approaches by governments. Her own decade of experience in humanitarian relief and development work included running Mercy Corps’ office in Darfur, Sudan, and serving as Mercy Corps’ director of programs in Indonesia, as well as doing consulting projects in Ecuador, the Solomon Islands, Japan, Myanmar, Uganda, and Sri Lanka.

Older’s first three science fiction novels, Infomocracy (2016), Null States (2017) and State Tectonics (2018), form the Centenal Cycle trilogy, a finalist for the Hugo Awards’ Best Series award in 2018. Infomocracy was also named one of the best books of 2016 by the Washington Post, Kirkus. Older’s novella The Mimicking of Known Successes (2023) was a finalist for a 2024 Hugo Award, and has been followed by The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (2024).

“As I read Malka’s work, it seemed as if the conversation I was having daily with Global Voices colleagues could have been transposed into her stories. It was uncanny,” said Sigal. “Her polymathic and unconventional approach to questions of information orders, governance, and how communities and organizations emerge out of crisis really resonate with Global Voices’ mission and aspirations.”

Older, a U.S. citizen with Cuban heritage from one parent, currently lives in Europe. Besides her native English, she is fluent in Spanish and Japanese, and speaks conversational French, Italian, and Bahasa Indonesia.

Older can be reached through her Global Voices author page.

– The Global Voices board

Global Voices seeks a person to design and advance a multilingual framework across our projects and sections. The role includes: overseeing the Lingua translation project, a community of primarily volunteer translators who translate our stories into upwards of 40 languages; working closely with the newsroom to support original creation of stories in multiple languages and building out non-English websites; collaborating with the Rising Voices project in support of minority language rights; and being an advocate for language diversity and equity in a range of internal and external forums. The Lingua Director will be a member of Global Voices’ core team, helping to oversee the overall direction of the organization, and will oversee our translation services initiative as well.

The ideal candidate will have a passion for multilingualism, be a creative thinker, a booster of language diversity, and an enthusiastic promoter and supporter of community participation.

We are interested in candidates with multilingual editorial skills and experience, editorial and advocacy partnership management, deep knowledge of translation practices, community leadership and guidance, project management skills, fundraising skills, and high technological fluency, including facility with WordPress publishing platforms and other editorial management applications. 

The ideal candidate will have fluency in English and at least one other language, and at least five years of experience in the following areas:

• Advancing the interests of multilingual information and knowledge
• Working collaboratively in editorial contexts, such as journalism, publishing, advocacy, or academia
• Supporting and managing communities of volunteers
• Designing and working with online community-driven or grassroots activism projects
• Working in diverse, multicultural communities comprising participants with varying levels of experience
• Fundraising, grant writing, and project design
• Having a broad base of international experience, having lived, or worked with collaborators in multiple countries
• Participating translation networks and communities, and have deep familiarity with current issues and concerns in the field
• Implementing WordPress or equivalent content management systems (actual coding skills are not required) and working with datasets

And have proven skills in the following areas:

• Translation in professional and/or volunteer contexts
• Project management
• Effective writing and editing
• Communication and facilitation in multicultural settings
• Working independently as part of a distributed team
• Designing creative and innovative approaches to complex challenges at the intersection of languages and networked societies
• Public speaking
• Using social media platforms to share information and engage in discussion

Location

There is no geographic requirement associated with this position; Global Voices has no office or physical headquarters. Candidates must have consistent, reliable access to broadband internet connectivity, be comfortable working in a wholly virtual environment, and be able to travel internationally when necessary. The Lingua Director will report to the Executive Director and the Managing Director.

We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe and encourage people currently contributing to Global Voices to apply.

Compensation: The position will be treated as a freelance contract. The rate for the position will be determined by our compensation policies together with the skills and experience of the candidate. Because Global Voices is wholly virtual, our rates are applied independent of location.

Applications will be accepted until 11:59pm EST (GMT -4) on April 26, 2024.

Global Voices is seeking an Administration and Operations Manager to ensure the smooth running of the organization, maintaining operations and human resources, nonprofit administrative and financial systems, monitoring finance risk management, working with budgets and financial forecasts, and supporting projects to meet technical obligations of grants and contracts.

Finance, administration and operations

• Working with accounting service on managing organizational finances 
• Managing human resource processes, including drafting of contracts and invoicing
• Project administration and expense tracking
• Drafting, reviewing and managing contracts related to mission-related services 
• Process/workflow design and management, scheduling of meetings, management of filing systems
• Board support
• Managing documentation for audits, legal status, insurance, banking, and related organizational governance tasks

Project management

• Coordinating project managers and leads to meet technical obligations of grants and contracts
• Managing project and program workflows, timelines, and logistics 
• Communicating with team members about deadlines and project outputs
• Organizing and coordinating online meetings
• Managing logistics for workshops and other in-person events

Skills Required

• Have demonstrated skills in project management, problem analysis, and systems creation
• High technological fluency, including advanced knowledge of Excel, database programs such as Airtable, Google Workspace, as well as familiarity with financial CRM software, and open source communications technologies
• Able to travel internationally
• Be able to work on a flexible schedule to accommodate meetings with team and volunteers in different time zones, including evenings, mornings, and weekends

Desirable attributes

• Knowledge of a language or languages other than English; Spanish especially useful 
• Experience working internationally
• Be comfortable working in distributed, global, multilingual contexts with diverse values

Location

There is no geographic requirement associated with this position; Global Voices has no office or physical headquarters. Candidates must have consistent, reliable access to broadband internet connectivity, be comfortable working in a wholly virtual environment, and be able to travel internationally when necessary. We strongly welcome applications from candidates outside North America and Western Europe.

The Administrations and Operations Manager will report to the Executive Director and the Managing Director.

Compensation: The position will be treated as a freelance contract. The rate for the position will be determined by our compensation policies together with the skills and experience of the candidate. 

To apply: Email the following items to jobs@globalvoices.org, with the subject line Global Voices Administration and Operations Manager: [your name]

• A cover letter in English that highlights your work and explains why you would be a good fit for the position
• Your CV

Applications will be accepted until 11:59pm EST (GMT -4) on March 14, 2024.

Dear Friends, Partners, Readers, and Supporters of Global Voices,

Today, with bittersweet feelings, we are announcing that Global Voices’ Executive Director Ivan Sigal will be leaving Global Voices and transitioning to a new chapter later this year. 

Ivan has been a transformative, innovative, and compassionate leader over the more than 15 years he has headed Global Voices, an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, and human rights activists who leverage the power of the internet to tell stories that build understanding across borders.

Under Ivan’s leadership, the Global Voices community has grown in size, ambition, and impact. A shortlist of Global Voices’ achievements in that time includes:

• Empowering local, underrepresented communities that want to tell their own stories using participatory media tools
• Breaking some of the most important stories of the last 15 years, such as the Arab uprisings of 2010-2011, and Russian global disinformation operations, from 2008-2016
• Building a stronger multilingual newsroom, with reporting by people whose voices and experiences are rarely seen in mainstream media
• Expanding translation by our Lingua volunteers, making Global Voices’ stories available in dozens of languages, to ensure that language is not a barrier to understanding
• Advocating for digital and human rights online, especially for those who speak out in the public interest
• Monitoring media environments in parts of the world where censorship and disinformation are used to sway public opinion about political outcomes
• Innovative research into the impact of narratives on information ecosystems, which undergird coverage of local events around the world, providing analysis of and insight into local conversations

Global Voices was created in 2004 by Rebecca MacKinnon and Ethan Zuckerman as a global network of bloggers, sharing insights and ideas with each other and with the wider world. An enormous amount of Global Voices’ subsequent success is due to Ivan’s leadership from early in the project’s lifetime, and to the extraordinary team he has led.

Throughout his tenure at Global Voices, Ivan has drawn on a rare blend of skills, experience, and emotional intelligence to strengthen a sense of community within Global Voices. He has encouraged ever better journalism and more effective advocacy, supported local and indigenous  communities that face systematic impediments to online participation, and created original and innovative participatory research projects about civic technology, documentation of threats to online expression, and investigations into the functioning of information ecosystems. We are deeply grateful for all Ivan has done, and we and the entire Global Voices community will miss him.

Fortunately, Ivan is not leaving immediately and we have time to recruit new leadership. We have launched a search for a new Executive Director—see the job announcement below:

With gratitude and warm regards,

The Global Voices Board

Global Voices is looking for a dynamic and thoughtful leader to lead our unique and groundbreaking organization. Our next Executive Director will guide the organization as we enter our 20th year, and plan the next chapter of our work. The candidate will succeed Ivan Sigal, who is stepping down from his role as founding Executive Director after more than 15 years.

Global Voices is a respected international, multilingual community of writers, translators, digital activists and researchers around the world, with a large network of partners in media, digital rights and information access communities. 

Founded during a period of optimism about the possibilities for open, participatory, online media, Global Voices was created by a community of bloggers, translators and online rights activists seeking to expand access to narratives and perspectives rooted in local knowledge and expertise. Through this work, Global Voices has acquired deep knowledge about the threats and possibilities in the social and informational spaces of today’s media.

The Executive Director should embrace Global Voices’ core values. Crucially, the successful candidate will be committed to sustaining an environment of mutual support, kindness, and willingness to see people as complex, with the potential for multiple identities, unique histories, and diverse affiliations. Candidates for this role should be passionate about the vision articulated in our mission statement: building understanding between communities, cultures and languages; creating trustworthy information in a contested and complex world; and supporting spaces for people to represent themselves and assert power in media environments.

The next Executive Director will ideally: 

• Be an inspirational leader who listens well and is empathetic and responsive to Global Voices’ diverse community 
• Be effective in promoting and amplifying the organization’s work, and representing the organization at public events and in community conversations
• Be an entrepreneurial thinker, adept at creating programs and designing initiatives
• Demonstrate a strategic mindset to conceive, fund, and operationalize projects and activities that further the Global Voices mission, while working collaboratively with the Global Voices team and community
• Be a skilled fundraiser, with experience in grant writing, direct fundraising, navigating philanthropic missions, and exploring possibilities for private, corporate and governmental funding streams and other approaches to earning revenue
• Be a strong writer and editor, and have written and verbal fluency in English and at least one other language
• Have significant experience in at least some of Global Voices’ core activities, including community-based journalism, digital and online human rights advocacy and research, internet and online research methods, and network and community mobilization for under-represented communities. Newsroom leadership experience is a bonus, but not required
• Be enthusiastic and effective in supporting, motivating, and mentoring the Global Voices team and community to take on roles of progressive responsibility and commitment
• Be skilled and experienced in organizational planning and growth, managing teams, designing processes, and configuring resources to support a healthy and strong team and community
• Have substantial international experience and be comfortable working in distributed, global, multilingual contexts with diverse values
• Be able to travel internationally
• Be able to work on a flexible schedule to accommodate meetings with team and volunteers in different time zones, including evenings, mornings, and weekends 

There is no geographic requirement associated with this position; Global Voices has no office or physical headquarters. Candidates must have consistent, reliable access to broadband internet connectivity, be comfortable working in a wholly virtual environment, and be able to travel internationally when necessary. The Executive Director will report to the Global Voices board.

We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe and encourage people currently contributing to Global Voices to apply.

Compensation: The position will be treated as a freelance contract. The rate for the position will be determined by our compensation policies together with the skills and experience of the candidate. Because Global Voices is wholly virtual, our rates are applied independent of location.

To apply: Email the following items to execsearch@globalvoices.org, with the subject line Global Voices Executive Director: [your name]:

• A cover letter in English that highlights your work and explains why you would be a good fit for the position
• Your CV

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. 

Originally published on Global Voices

Illustration by Adriana García and used with permission.

Global Voices, through its Rising Voices initiative, is pleased to announce a new partnership with UNESCO to produce an open educational toolkit for Indigenous and other under-resourced or minority language communities seeking to incorporate digital media and internet-based tools into their language promotion activities.

According to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the right to free expression and to access information in one’s native language is one of the fundamental conditions for full empowerment of indigenous peoples. Preserving the vitality of indigenous languages helps to preserve and protect traditional knowledge, which often exists mainly in oral form, and at the same time safeguards the culture and identity of indigenous communities.

One of the ways communities are working to exercise these rights is through the use of digital media and internet-based tools. By taking advantage of increasing connectivity and more affordable devices, communities are extending both the reach of content they produce in their native their languages and their access to information and knowledge produced by others, as well as their ability to communicate with their peers in other communities.

At the forefront of this trend are those language digital activists who take a “do-it-yourself” approach to creating digital content, social media campaigns, online educational materials, and communication platforms. The overarching spirit of these activists is one of sharing—of skills, experiences, and knowledge.

These language communities, however, still face a number of key obstacles to optimal use of the internet and digital media to promote their languages online. These include barriers to access, as well as technical, technological, linguistic, socio-cultural, and even legal or political challenges.

The good news is that many of these challenges are being addressed by digital activists around the world, who are developing effective strategies and solutions which could be adopted and adapted to suit other communities’ unique contexts and realities. These lessons and best practices will be incorporated into this resource to provide a broader overview of the various elements that go into creating digital activism projects and campaigns.

The toolkit is not meant to be a step-by-step guide; rather, it will provide a roadmap for digital activism that will be co-designed in close collaboration with existing and new networks of digital activists and other partners, as preparations continue for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032.

In creating this resource for existing and emerging digital activists, the partnership between Global Voices and UNESCO fulfils a recommendation outlined in the Los Pinos Declaration [Chapoltepek] prepared at UNESCO’s high-level closing event of the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages:

“Promotion of networks of digital activists and champions for the teaching and learning of indigenous languages, as well as the exchange of best practices related to the use of technology.”

Originally published on Global Voices

Screenshot from the public video by Shahedul Khabir Chowdhury of the International Mother Language Award ceremony held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 21, 2021.

The International Mother Language Institute (IMLI) of Bangladesh has awarded Rising Voices’ Activismo Lenguas (Language Digital Activism) initiative the prestigious International Mother Language Award 2021, in recognition of the project's “outstanding contribution towards the protection, promotion and revitalization of indigenous language(s).”

Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Chief Patron of IMLI, presented the awards at a small ceremony held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 21, 2021.

This is the first year the IMLI has recognized four individuals and organizations, both national and international, for their language-related work. The awards are given in commemoration of International Mother Language Day, which has been observed worldwide on February 21 since its proclamation in 1999. Criteria for the biennial award include “special contributions towards the innovation of digital technology with regard to the preservation, protection and revitalization of mother language.”

Rising Voices, Global Voices’ outreach and digital inclusion section, launched the Latin America-focused Activismo Lenguas initiative in 2014, following the First Gathering of Indigenous Language Digital Activism held in Oaxaca, Mexico, of which Rising Voices was a co-organizer. Since that initial meeting, similar gatherings have been held in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Chile, with the aim of creating spaces and networks for peer learning and exchange.

In addition to these events, Rising Voices has supported small-scale digital activism projects in four countries, conducted two participatory research projects, created an online directory of digital projects, convened a Network of Indigenous Language Digital Activists, and created the ongoing @ActLenguas social media campaign, where indigenous language activists take turns recounting their experiences with the use of technology for language preservation.

“This award is a testament to the impact that language digital activists are having across Latin America and the great potential of their work,” said Rising Voices’ Director Eddie Avila.

“By leveraging the power of the internet and digital technology, these activists are demonstrating the power of these tools to attract new generations of speakers and for their languages to have a greater presence online. We accept this award on behalf of the hundreds of indigenous language activists and their communities, who have shared their vast knowledge and experience with others and made this movement possible. We look forward to continuing to support them as we head into the International Decade of Indigenous Languages in 2022.”

Other 2021 winners include Professor Mohammad Rafiqul Islam and Mathura Bikash Tripura of the Jabrang Welfare Association of Bangladesh. The other international awardee was Islaimov Gulom Mirzaevich, recognized for his work on the Uzbek language.

Watch a replay of the second webinar in our Global Voices Insights series of live virtual events, on the “Milk Tea Alliance,” the pro-democracy social movement that emerged in several Asian nations in 2020.

Featuring Darika Bamrungchok (Thailand), Brian Hioe (Taiwan), Anna Lawattanatrakul (Thailand), and Oiwan Lam (Hong Kong), and moderated by Mong Palatino (Philippines). The session was originally live-streamed on January 29, 2021.

In this inaugural edition of our Global Voices Insights series, media analyst Maryia Sadouvskaya-Komlach, artist Rufina Bezlova and scholar Gregory Asmolov join Global Voices’ Filip Noubel and Maxim Edwards to revisit the events that erupted in Belarus following the August 2020 presidential elections.

The session was live-streamed on December 14, 2021.

Read Global Voices’ Belarus coverage at https://globalvoices.org/specialcoverage/belarus-in-turmoil/.

Originally published on Global Voices

Group photo of Metamorphosis staff taken during a September 2019 event, published on their Facebook page. Used with permission.

Since November 12, a group of online media outlets and social media accounts in North Macedonia have been waging a coordinated attack against the staff of Metamorphosis Foundation, a Skopje-based NGO. A partner of Global Voices, Metamorphosis has been doing groundbreaking work on freedom of expression and digital rights since 2004, including founding the online fact-checking service Truthmeter (Vistinomer), among other projects.

The attacks have exploited the volatile political situation that currently prevails in North Macedonia, falsely accusing Metamorphosis of colluding with Facebook to censor “patriotic” content from the social media platform. They also include calls for physical violence towards Metamorphosis staff, threats of sharing of their private information, and online harassment. Photos of Metamorphosis staff, including its journalists and managers, have been disseminated online in the style of obituaries or Wild West “Wanted” posters.

Global Voices strongly condemns these attacks on our long-standing partner. We call on North Macedonia's authorities to investigate these activities and to enforce the appropriate legal remedies against the perpetrators, as well as provide protection to Metamorphosis staff. We echo Metamorphosis Foundation's own call to local media outlets that have amplified these attacks to issue retractions as soon as possible.

Since its inception 16 years ago, Metamorphosis Foundation has stood on the frontlines of the fight for freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and protection of digital rights in North Macedonia and the wider Balkans region.

Truthmeter is a certified signatory of the Code of Principles of the International Fact-Finding Network. It has worked with Facebook under its Third-Party Fact-Checking Program since July 2020. Under this program, Facebook employs certified fact-checkers from around the world to identify misinformation circulating on its platform. Truthmeter, like Facebook's other partners, does not engage in censorship of any kind — it merely reviews and rates the accuracy and integrity of content that circulates on the platform and posts fact-checking articles that Facebook attaches to each item that is rated. Removal of content remains at the sole discretion of the company, which uses its own internal mechanisms and applies its own Community Standards in carrying out this function.

After Metamorphosis alerted Facebook about the attacks against them, the company removed posts that the company found to be in violation of its anti-harassment policy. However, investigations conducted by Metamorphosis have revealed that screenshots of such posts remain in circulation on other popular social networks.

On November 13, Metamorphosis released a statement denying the libellous claims against its staff. It also filed a criminal complaint with local law enforcement. At the time of the publication of this statement, Metamorphosis is yet to receive any response from North Macedonia's Interior Ministry.

Metamorphosis Foundation also intends to press defamation charges against media outlets who have backed the hate campaign and refuse to publish a retraction.

Global Voices joins North Macedonia's journalist associations and press freedom advocates, the Civil Center for Freedom, the Macedonian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, and ambassadors to North Macedonia from the European Union and the United Kingdom in vehemently condemning those attacks. We stand in solidarity with our colleagues.

Prague's Old Town Square, devoid of tourists amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Screencap of video by Lukas/Youtube.

Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.

We often associate the sight of an empty city with science fiction.

Movies such as “The Omega Man” (1971), “I am Legend” (2007), and many others come to mind. They all feature memorable shots of their protagonists walking through deserted streets in post-apocalyptic cities whose bustling life had been decimated by a pandemic, a zombie apocalypse, or an alien invasion.

But such scenes are now a reality in several parts of the world, as humanity desperately tries to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. One in every three people in the world are, right now, under some sort of lockdown.

With a community of writers and translators spanning over 100 countries, Global Voices has compiled a list of videos showing emptied cities from around the globe.

North Macedonia

With 854 cases of COVID-19 confirmed, and 38 deaths by the disease, North Macedonia has imposed a nationwide lockdown and a curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays, as well as a full curfew on weekends.

This video by Bube Domazetov shows a deserted center of the capital Skopje. It was recorded on March 28.

Filip Stojanovski, Global Voices’ regional editor for Central and Eastern Europe, commented:

The only time when you can see the streets of Skopje without a lot of people is during summer heat waves or the holiday season. The video feels unreal, almost as if the footage is artificial, like looking at a CGI 3D architectural model of the place.

Czech Republic

The capital of the Czech Republic is one of the most visited cities in Europe — it receives an average of 8 million tourists a year, over six times its resident population.

The country has been under lockdown since March 16, with only grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, and take-away restaurants allowed to operate. Over 5,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, and over 143 people have died by April 13.

Filip Noubel, Global Voices’ managing editor, a Czech native and long-time Prague resident, said:

Seeing those historical landmarks free of crowds feels both unreal and liberating, as the city definitely suffers from over-tourism. Suddenly, the city is returned to us, the residents, and we can't stop taking pictures of a deserted Charles Bridge, an empty Old Town Square.

This video by vlogger Lukas recorded on March 22 shows an empty Prague.

France

One of the city's main football clubs, the Olympique de Marseille, plays its anthem, as sung by the fans, in the stadium's loudspeakers at 8 p.m., every night.

“It's very eerie,” says Claire Ulrich, who translates to Global Voices’ French version.

More than 130,000 cases have been confirmed in France, including over 1,700 in the province Alpes-Côte d'Azur where Marseille is located.

Here's a tweet by the club:

? ??? ??????? ? ??? ??????? ?

Votre voix résonne chaque soir à 20h à l’@orangevelodrome pour soutenir nos héros du quotidien ??

Le #cOMbatquotidien continue pic.twitter.com/xGobsT4jQA

— Olympique de Marseille (@OM_Officiel) April 4, 2020

Tweet: Your voice resounds every evening at 8 p.m. at Orange Velodrome [stadium] to support our everyday heroes.
The daily fight continues with OM.
Song lyrics: “To arms / To arms / We are the citizens of Marseille / And we will win / Go OM!”

Australia

This video by Andaman, a professional drone filming services in Melbourne, shows the 5 million-strong city as if it had stopped in time.

Contributor Kevin Rennie, who lives in Melbourne, said:

A city of over 5 million people, well known for its very heavy traffic, both cars and pedestrians around the central business district (CBD). It's even quieter in the days after this video was taken.

It is reminiscent of scenes from Stanley Kramer's 1959 Hollywood blockbuster “On the Beach,” starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardiner. It was about the end days after a nuclear war.

Afghanistan

Khojasta Sameyee, who reports on her native Afghanistan for Global Voices, shared a video she made herself driving the streets of the Kabul. She says:

The video shows the third day of quarantine in Kabul city. The government has locked down Kabul city for more than three weeks since March 28, and the video shows a usually very crowded area of Kabul called Qale-e-Fethullah.

Kabul’s lockdowns mode. #Covid_19 #CoronavirusOutbreak pic.twitter.com/KHJozmDrQa

— Eng.Khojasta Sameyee (@KhojastaSameyee) March 30, 2020

The reported positive cases of the coronavirus in Afghanistan reached 665 on April 13.

More recent cases include 16 in Kabul, eight in Herat, two in Kandahar, two in Logar, two in Daikundi, two in Takhar, one in Bamiyan and one in Parwan.

Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi capital is widely known for its traffic woes, but since the government ordered general public holidays on March 26, the 21 million-strong city gained a cleaner look.

Here is a video of Dhaka from above, uploaded to YouTube by Naibur Rahman Joy on March 29, 2020. The main streets are almost deserted with the odd vehicle plying, while boats and ferries remain neatly parked in the Buriganga river.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh as of April 13, 2020, is 803 with 39 deaths.

India

On March 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an unprecedented “Janata Curfew” (peoples’ curfew) from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.

With the exception of essential and emergency services, all shops and services were closed during the “people's curfew,” as well as most public transport. On March 24, a 21-day lockdown began. The people's curfew was a trial for the actual, much longer lockdown, which proved to be more challenging for the Indian Government in terms of managing the movement of people.

The YouTube channel of Indian Express Online published a video with stunning visuals of different Indian cities under lockdown — including Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, and Ludhiana.

India has registered 9,635 COVID-19 cases with 331 deaths as of April 13, 2020.

Nepal

Nepal announced a week-long nationwide lockdown on March 24 which was later extended until April 15. As of April 13, Nepal has confirmed 14 COVID-19 cases and no deaths.

On YouTube, there are plenty of drone videos of different Nepali cities under the lockdown, such as Hetauda Bazar, Pokhara, and Dharan.

Here is one of the Harisiddhi suburb in Lalitpur, a city at the edge of the capital Kathmandu, uploaded by Highlights Kathmandu:

https://youtu.be/9A0b8Pmq9RQ

Pakistan

The Sindh Province of Pakistan, of which Karachi is the capital, entered a 14-day lockdown on March 24.

This drone video of Karachi, a city of 16 million people, shows empty streets just before the lockdown. It was uploaded by Shahtaj Bhutto.

https://youtu.be/jiPFCrYyeiY

Pakistan has confirmed 5,496 cases with 93 deaths as of April 13, 2020.

Argentina

Romina Navarro, a Global Voices contributor who lives in Buenos Aires, shared this video from Argentina by the daily newspaper La Nación.

Argentina has registered 2,208 cases as of April, as well as 97 deaths. A nationwide quarantine has been in place since March 20.

Romina says:

What strikes me most is the absence of the crazy, noisy traffic and crowded sidewalks that I used to hate of Buenos Aires, and now somehow I miss them. The capital city that usually was lively and sleepless now seems sad and sleepy, but still so beautiful.

New York

The metropolitan area of New York City and New Jersey is the new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. New York state has registered 195,031 cases by April 13, out of 500,000 in the whole of the US.

Shanori Samea, who writes about Afghanistan for Global Voices, is a graduate student at Columbia University, in New York City. She shared this video by Reuters showing the city's empty subway:

.@cmhettich commutes home from Times Square this afternoon on an empty New York subway pic.twitter.com/3R9hrotoTY

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 30, 2020

Nigeria

Ọmọ Yoòbá, who's translation manager for Yorùbá in Global Voices, shared a video he made in Nigeria's, and Sub-Saharan Africa, largest city, Lagos, with the following explanation:

Lagos, popularly called Lasgidi by the youth population in Nigeria is famous for its busy and bustling culture, but it has ceased to bubble for 10 days now. The part of Lagos in this video is Òkè Afá, along the Ìsọlọ̀ Èjìgbò road, however with the lockdown, people are still seen moving about, some taking a walk, jogging, some to buy food, while others are out to do one thing or the other.

Has your city, town or village been affected by a lockdown, too? Is there a video? Share links in the comments!

Lina Ben Mhenni, June 2013. Photo by Habib M’henni, used with permission, Wikimedia Commons.

Prominent Tunisian blogger and human rights defender Lina Ben Mhenni passed away at the age of 36 on Monday 27 January, 2020.

Lina was a key figure in the Tunisian revolution that toppled the 23-year dictatorship of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. When the revolution began in December 2010, Lina travelled to Sidi Bouzid and Kasserine, where she reported on the very first protests before they spread to other regions of the country. Her reporting helped publicize the authorities’s deadly crackdown on protesters, at a time when media freedom and press freedom were greatly restricted in Tunisia, and the internet heavily censored.

Prior to the regime’s collapse, she blogged and wrote about the human rights situation in the country on her award-winning blog, A Tunisian Girl. She was also a contributor to Global Voices, where she wrote extensively about internet censorship, the crackdown on bloggers and freedom of expression under the Ben Ali regime.

Lina continued her tireless activism after the revolution. She was critical of the rule of the Islamist Ennahdha movement, which governed with two other parties from late 2011 and early 2014. During this period, violations of human rights and individual freedoms continued to take place, including on religious grounds. Ben Mhenni also received death threats for her criticism of the Islamists and the authorities.

Ben Mhenni also campaigned for the socio-economic and cultural rights of all Tunisians. She was a strong supporter of the rights of those who were injured for protesting during the revolution, including their right to compensation and adequate healthcare. In 2016, along with her father Sadok Ben Mhenni, a political activist and human rights defender who was imprisoned under the regime of Bourguiba (Tunisia’s post-independence president), she started a campaign to collect books for prisoners to help fight radicalization in prisons. They collected more than 45,000 books in two years.

The award-winning blogger died of a chronic illness that required her to have a kidney transplant in 2007.

Speaking to a local radio station on 14 February 2019, Lina paid tribute to her mother for donating her kidney to her and for supporting her activism. She said:

Thanks to her I got to live another 12 years I may not have lived, or I would have lived a prisoner in my own body. But I have fully lived these years thanks to her. I travelled, I moved, I filmed, I ran, I screamed, and I lived the Tunisian revolution, something I may not have been able to live…