Hey, That’s Me!

My friend, Jason Miks, is a good reporter and writer, although he may be too humble to admit that. Currently based in Japan, Jason works for the English newspaper Daily Yomiuri, which is probably the least interesting job he is doing right now. It is not that working for a paper is boring (knock wood), but other works he does fascinate me more. As a freelancer, he has been writing for numerous entities, such as TCS Daily, World Politics Review, etc. He is also the managing editor of International Affairs Forum. To me, writing about international relation issues as a freelancer sounds like a dream job.

We know each other because I translate some of his works into Chinese online as a practice, which are later found out by Jason via Google search. Then we start to do emails, and finally meet each other in person in Tokyo in July this year, when I was going to attend iSummit. It’s a joyful experience to meet people face to face after so many exchanges and contacts via internet, especially to me.

Anyway, since we know each other, I have provided a tiny little help when he tries to write something about Taiwan regarding politics and others. His excellent writing skills transform my poor words into fine articles. In the post No to Apathy! he writes for a new British magazine Total Politics, Jason touches upon voter turnout issue in elections. He looks at why turnout in Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, are much higher than that in European countries. I and my opinions are luckily included in this piece.

Before the presidential election in Taiwan in March 2008, he also interviewed me for IA-Forum because he wants some perspectives from a nobody, which I am perfectly qualified. I am not used to baing interviewed, so it takes some time for me to reply. Overall, however, I hope the results are not too bad.

So far, seeing my name on others’ posts is still quite surreal to me. It’s like two little people in my mind, one saying “Hey, that’s me!”, while the other saying “Is that me?”

Is it?

To Take Or Not To Take

(photo by Flickr user shinyai) 

I am not good at photography. I usually enjoy watching others’ pictures on Flickr more than uploading mine. I have been struggling whether to pay $24.95 to upgrade my Flickr account for at least two months. In the past, I am really hesitant to take photos, as it costs much to buy films and develop them. Making mistakes will lead to a waste of money.

Several years ago, my brother bought the first digital camera in the family, but it didn’t encourage me to take photos. Although it doesn’t need films anymore, and it can save files online or in the computer, that camera is very big and heavy. By the way, my brother is good at buying heavy stuffs. My last laptop, which he bought, weighs 2.6 kg, for example. It seems to have many fancy functions I will never use, so I am still not interested in photography.

Last year before the Hong Kong & Macau trip, I finally picked up my first digital camera, a Casio EX-Z75. It’s lighter, and it has a 2.6-inch screen. From Hong Kong, Macau, Budapest, Tokyo to Sapporo, I gradually manage to take more photos. I also learn to take a photo of me by myself. It is a necessary skill if you travel alone or if you don’t want to bother others, although it looks pathetic sometimes.

This time in Sapporo, on a bus ride to airport, I see a beautiful scene. I instantly look for my camera, but it goes away so fast that I fail to capture. I feel disappointed, but at the same time in a meta-analytical way, I question myself when I start to be addicted to taking pictures. Before I have a camera, I feel satisfied just to see many things by myself. Now with a camera in hand, however, I lose the pure pleasure of seeing things. Maybe I have spent too much time trying to record with technology, but not enough for simple appreciation of what in front of me.

Then I put down my camera.

Music for Summer

Summer is very hot and humid in Taiwan, in my opinion, so I am always looking for some ways to cool down. Sometimes, the most effective way can be music:

This is a duo from Taiwan named 昊恩家家 (pronounced as Hao-En Jia-Jia). I love their album so much, probably the best one I have heard in Taiwan for the past two years. The following is another one from this duo:

 

It’s a Japanese old song she learns from her grandmother. Some of you may be surprised that they sing in Japanese. In fact, Taiwan is deeply influenced by Japanese culture, not just because of geographic proximity. Taiwan was colonized by Japan for 50 years during our grandparents’ generation. Many people then, including my grandmother, received their education in Japanese. The younger generation is attached to Japanese culture because of pop culture, such as manga, music, literature, movies, etc.

Anyway, these two songs are very cooling to me in summer. Maybe their album can be the best present for the next GV summit!

My friends, what do you listen in a hot and humid summer?

Someday They Will

Breaking news in Global Voices are often appreciated by some English media. Our serial posts on South Ossetia is the latest example. Some people in GV Lingua do translate those breaking news into their languages quickly; others don’t. I do that seldomly. Breaking news translations sometimes bring sudden hikes to Lingua sites, such as the Akihabara post from Japan. This particular post increases traffic of Chinese site almost fourfold on the day.

Most members never think we can compete with mainstream media, and I don’t think we should. Actually, we don’t intend to do that. It’s not our mission, in my humble opinion. GV Lingua has a role to enrich the online contents in each language. Our Lingua Bangla editor Rezwan said in GV Budapest summit that in certain subjects, there is virtually nothing in Bangla online. By translation, people will find GV content useful one day when they need to find some information online. GV provides contexts to them, in their own languages.

I share his view. If you want to look for news more than a week olds online in Taiwan, you have to pay to access media archives. Once GV Chinese contents are online, they are always there (unless we take them down). It’s free to use and read.

Our Rising Voices Director David says he was a bit disappointed when “no one seems to care” even if he is “begging you to read what they write”. No one leaves encouraging comments to these new bloggers. Rising Voices is really a meaningful project. It helps people in developing countries learn to use blogging and other online media tools. They has many inspiring projects, including Prison Diaries, FOKO Madagascar, Voces Bolivianas, and many more. They all worth a visit. Rising Voices is trying to close the digital divide, and David has been doing a wonderful job.

I had the same little disappointment towards Lingua in the past.

Although we offer great contents regularly in many different languages, we receive only a few, if any, comments or feedbacks. The traffic stays the same no matter we publish three posts a day or one post every three days. Some editors say we need to think about our readers when we choose and translater posts, but it is very difficult to imagine them when I have no idea about their preference at all. We don’t know what our readers want.

Some people have questioned me: “Who cares about those news in Georgia, Chile, Pakistan, or other places afar? Who will read them?”

This question is somewhat solved one day when I was reading Google Analytics July statistics of Lingua Arabic. The top three posts, if we link back to English sites, are this, this and this. If you take a closer look, these posts were published in late June, last November and last October. Interesting, uh?

The same phenomenon appears in other Lingua sites as well. The second most popular post in July on Lingua Japanese site, for example, is about Tata Nano car, published in January. The most read post in July on Lingua Spanish site is the one appeared in early May.

This emphasizes my belief. Content is still the most important matter. Readers are always there. They may not be reading our posts today, but someday they will. Whenever they want to do some researches, or want to know something not on local media, GV and Lingua will always come in handy, even if it’s about a country afar.

Someday they will.