What’s that you say? You haven’t heard of the Global Readiness Forum? Don’t worry. Neither had we, which is why we had no choice but to create it! But who are we and what exactly is it that we do, you ask? Simply put, the Global Readiness Forum is a group of global business leaders and language industry veterans who study current events and trends at the intersection of language, culture, ethnicity, geopolitics and global business — you know, the types of things that led many of us to be curious about the world and language in the first place, but which, too often, go unnoticed in our traditional day-to-day work.
Can’t make it? Don’t currently qualify? Tune in to our sister podcast, The Venn Diagram, hosted by Michael Reid, and be sure to check out this week’s curated topics below!
October 8, 2021
What an interesting day Monday was with an hours-long timeout for all of us from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. I feel like I got so much more done without the distraction of my main social media outlets. This week, we’ll discuss the outage and our reliance on social media as businesses and individuals around the world.
In indigenous news, with the infamous Columbus Day coming up after the weekend, we’ll have a look at the trending transition of this holiday toward being celebrated as Indigenous Peoples Day. Then we’ll head north and look at Canada’s newest holiday, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation or Orange Shirt Day, September 30. And then south to Mexico City where a Columbus Statue will be replaced with an Indigenous woman monument on Día de la Raza, October 12.
In the news, we’ll discuss self-censorship by Chinese translators for Australian Chinese-language news, and, while we’re on the subject of China, we’ll have a look a couple of news pieces around the 2022 Beijing Olympics: No One Outside Of China Allowed To Attend 2022 Winter Games In Beijing and Beijing Olympics open in 4 months; human rights talk absent. Then we’ll turn our heads toward COVID and border issues around Point Roberts, a Washington state exclave along the Canadian border and the darker side of working from home—surveillance and monitoring by the big boss. Finally, we’ll circle back to social media with a recent Australian court ruling that Australia media could be sued for social media comments.
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My interest is piqued! How do I get in on the action? We’re currently accepting applications to join our client-side discussion group, reserved for senior-level professionals working in client-side roles in global operations, which meets at 9 am Pacific Time every other Friday.
