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 286,820 viewers in April. 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

A majestic palm that flowers once in its life is in bloom in Trinidad

The Talipot Palm (Corypha umbraculifera) flowers once every 25–80 years and then dies soon thereafter. The tree has the largest natural cluster of flowers of any palm or plant and is known for its bright yellow palm flowers. The once-in-a-lifetime flower was visible at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Port of Spain, Trinidad last month. (24,595+ views)

Bangla

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. (10,177+ views)

English

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 perfect their landings, pushing against gendered stereotypes, bullying, and sexism in Ethiopia, as they do so (2,125+ views)

English

Controversy in Hong Kong involving a Dubai prince-turned-pop star highlights due diligence missteps

This bizarre story featured Sheikh, a case of obscured identity, 500 million dollars, and a Tagalo-language pop star from Dubai. Sheikh Ali Rashed Ali Saeed Al Maktoum pledged to invest USD 500 million of his family’s fortune into Hong Kong, leading to city officials welcoming him with open arms and inviting him to numerous prestigious investment conferences and events. However, in failing to do due diligence the state missed that the Sheikh was far further from the throne than he claimed, may not have had access to the USD 500 million he promised, and had a hidden identity as a famous popstar in the Philipines. (1,750+ 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 practiced among Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda, as well as some Catholic denominations.(1,577+ views)

Portuguese

Angola: O Alambamento e os Rituais do Casamento

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. (1,459+ views)

English

The true cost of Japan’s Linear bullet train

This article examines Japan’s new Linear Chūō Shinkansen bullet train which costs a whopping JPY 9 trillion (USD 60.7 billion). In addition to the staggering financials, the train is also having some environmental costs as it has led to significant environemntal disruption in the surrounding communities and also triggered some public protest and discord. The bullet train can reach speeds of 500 kilometers per hour and is scheduled to link Tokyo to Nagoya in 40 minutes by 2027 and to Osaka in just 67 minutes by 2045. (1,032+ views)

Spanish

Escándalo de plagio que implica al ministro de Ciencia y Educación sigue agitando Croacia (Plagiarism Scandal Involving the Minister of Science and Education Still Stirs Croatia)

In January 2017, Croatia’s parliament-appointed Committee for Ethics in Science and Higher Education (CESHE) concluded that the current Minister of Science and Education, Pavo Barišić, copied another scholar's work without attribution in a 2011 academic paper. This sparked debate about intellectual integrity and government officials lying to the Croatian public. (880+ views)