Putting the World in Worldwide

I had a moment of serendipity just now as I realized I’m listening to Wo’Pop with Derek Mazzone (a worldbeat, global music show on KEXP) while I do research on international blogging on Global Voices Online. “Global Voices seeks to aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online.” The site is pretty cool and its aim is to bring attention to what people are saying in other countries, which many of us rarely hear. Usually the farthest I get in terms of a blog is Canada or the UK. So onward!

Since I’m half Polish, I decided to check out blogs from Poland on the GVO site (I’m also half Italian–a very common mix in Buffalo. Those are also my favorite kinds of sausages. But I digress). A few quick observations about the global bloggers I visited: 1) those who write in English do it impeccably (yes, some are Americans living overseas, but many are native to the country), 2) Their photos are very poignant, and 3) their postings are more journalistic and detailed than most of what I see in American blogs.  

I found it very easy to get lost in the postings of people either in Poland, or elsewhere in Eastern Europe writing about Poland. I find Eastern Europeans to have a very reverential view of politics and the political leaders who helped shape history in those areas. Often there is some kind of revolutionary overtone and/or some kind of relevence to the Holocaust.  It’s also fun to get lost in the archives of previous posts. For example, where else you can get this kind of news?

Either the law turns a blind eye to it or it’s perfectly legal for employers to discriminate against people on the grounds of age and sex in Poland: “shopgirl wanted,” “waitress wanted,” “male receptionist wanted,” “woman aged 30 to 40,” “men aged 18 to 40″… and so on. Some clown in Warsaw is looking for native speaker English teachers with a “good accent.”

So what is the point of reviewing foreign blogs? Well, for starters, this is the “worldwide” web, meaning it covers the world (blew your mind, didn’t I?)  and it’s important to hear what is happening in the world in a context other than what you read in the paper or watch on TV. There are real people writing about what they see. Poland may not be the most controversial country, but I’m willing to be that some blogs from places like Israel or Iraq would be real eye openers.  Imagine if you were able to read a blog from somebody in North Korea? That would be incredible. Even what you see from people in a place like Iraq is pretty amazing (now that I’m addicted to Global Voices Online, I’ve been looking at all kinds of countries).  Anyway, as bloggers and Americans, we should definitely see what is happening in the world in the words of the people living there. There is far more news than the media can handle and blogs help provide that outlet.