In an effort to recognize our writers and translators and be more transparent about our readership each month, we are continuing our Stats4Community series, where we share monthly updates about our most popular stories. We will also be highlighting the top Lingua posts for different languages to showcase the linguistic diversity across the GV community. This month's stories are from our English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese sites.
Our English site saw over 308,863 viewers in March. All statistics here are drawn from Google Analytics and do not necessarily represent the total number of views due to adblockers and other privacy settings.
English
Diving tragedy plunges Trinidad & Tobago into mourning and prompts calls for accountability
Trinidad and Tobago was rocked in late February when four divers on a job for Paria Trading Company Limited, a state-owned fuel and logistics business, were sucked into the 36-inch oil pipeline on which they were working. All four divers were killed, drawing intense scrutiny about rig safety practices, lax government oversight, and the government’s missteps in communicating with families around the tragedy. (11,070+ views)
‘Dirty Vote’ documentary on alleged election fraud goes viral in Indonesia
Ahead of Indonesia’s February 2024 election, a documentary, “Dirty Vote,” exposed the practice of vote buying in Indonesian elections and cast the then-upcoming election in doubt. The documentary alleges that incumbent President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and his associates participated in a corrupt vote-buying scheme during his own election in 2012 and 2019, and also that Jokowi and President-elect Prabowo, who is set to take office in October 2024, colluded to get Prabowo into office, alongside Jokowi’s eldest son, who will be serving as vice President. (9,326+ views)
In Turkey yet another television show finds itself in hot water
A fictionalized television show exploring religious radicalism and cults in Turkey is the latest to face backlash and censorship by the country’s growing conservative communities. The show gained widespread popularity on Turkish television networks, from religious and nonreligious viewers alike, though soonafter, conservative groups soon set it in their crosshairs and began trying to ban the TV show on the grounds it was offensive to religious audiences. (2,822+ views)
Ethiopian girls are changing tradition through skateboarding
This article introduces the growing community of girls and women pushing back on patriarchal norms through skateboarding in Ethiopia. Every weekend, the girls meet up to practice balancing techniques to perfecting their landings, pushing against gendered stereotypes, bullying and sexism in Ethiopia, as they do so. (2,042+ views)
Bangladeshi
যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের নতুন বিকল্প প্রস্তাবে চীনের বন্ধনী ও সড়ক উদ্যোগ কৌশল পুনর্বিবেচনা বাংলাদেশের (Bangladesh reconsiders China's belt and road initiative strategy in US's new alternative proposal)
This piece from 2023 discusses Bangladesh’s shifting strategy regarding China’s Belt and Road Initiative project — China’s megadevelopment cross-regional infrastructure project. Bangladesh canceled numerous contracts for BRI development projects out of concern that the project had left numerous other countries in a debt trap. Many countries have cooled on the once-lauded infrastructure project as countless investments have turned out badly for both the host country and China, as the partner country could not pay, and China was forced to forgive huge amounts of debt with little to no return. (10,552+ views)
Portuguese
Um ritual de proteção para “fechar o corpo” liga tradições religiosas diferentes no Brasil (A Protection Ritual to ‘Close the Body’ Links Different Religious Traditions in Brazil)
In this piece from 2016, Adam Lee discusses how an Afro-Caribbean ritual connects people across religions and backgrounds in Brazil. The “closing of the body” ritual is supposed to ward off evil and is practised among Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda, as well as some Catholic denominations (2,654+ views)
Angola: O Alambamento e os Rituais do Casamento (Angola: “Alambamento” and Marriage Practices)
In Angola, there is a quite strong cultural tradition of asking for the hand of the bride in marriage, called “alambamento.” Considered by some more important than the civil or religious (Christian) marriage, the alambamento consists of a series of rituals, like the delivery of a letter with the request for the hand of the bride, which sometimes comes with money. This discussion of marriage practices in Angola was first published in 2010 and routinely gets thousands of views, indicating the lasting curiosity in Angolan marriage rituals. (1,222+ views)
Japanese
キルギス議会 国旗変更を承認 (Kyrgyz parliament approves national flag change)
In December 2023, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament adopted a bill on changing the national flag in the second and third readings. After the vote, one of the two initiators and the Speaker of the parliament, Nurlanbek Shakiyev, congratulated the deputies for “correcting the flag,” stating that they would “go down in history as the parliament that corrected the flag” and eventually acquire “legendary” status. (1,020+ views)
