Beyond Borders:“the interconnectedness of all of our lives”

by Katharine Daniels
Founder and Executive Editor, The WIP
– USA –

A colleague of mine in radio news congratulated us this week, saying that The WIP has over delivered on our promise to create quality international news reports from the unique perspectives of women. In our first two weeks, we’ve demonstrated that local stories from around the world are both thought provoking and relevant. We’ve published from women across the globe. Each piece is a journey into the life of someone neither one of us knew before—writers like Viktorija Plavcak, who laments the national heritage and identity lost in Slovenia with the adoption of the Euro. Or Glory Mushinge, in Zambia, who denounces the substandard goods and services that have flooded the Zambian market through increased Chinese investment in her economy. In Mumbai, we met Lara Vogel and her discoveries in a society where doctors, out of circumstance, remain loving caregivers and are forced to practice medicine versus the over-reliance on science and machinery we’ve grown accustomed to in the west. In education, Janelle Weiner exposes what is lost in the culture of standardized testing—genuine and meaningful learning experience.

In just two weeks, The WIP has also posted over 100 entries onto our Byline Portal of regional publications around the globe. We’ve even scooped our wire services, posting stories from local publications before they hit the wire. When reading the Byline Portal, do not be surprised to find stories that are informative where their counterparts in the mainstream are weak. Do not be surprised when you find accounts that tell the full story in their historical context versus a mere reportage of the current facts. In our Byline Portal do not be surprised to discover the feminine perspective.

From this perspective, the interconnectedness of all of our lives becomes obvious.

Dedicated coverage of International News declines each year in the United States. In my lifetime alone coverage of international news stories by mainstream media outlets has dropped by 80%. Unless there is a crisis, or a particularly violent episode, the American news consumer is often isolated from daily global news stories. All of this is happening in an era when Americans are more engaged with the world than we’ve ever been before and when local stories around the globe have economic, social, environmental, and political consequences for all of us. Because local news stories from around the world are rarely delivered, the American news consumer is deprived of the opportunity to make a connection to stories that exist beyond our borders. The WIP is a mosaic, each tile a local story that is engaging, contextual, and often difficult to ignore.

Growing up on the west coast of the United States, I used to sit at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Staring across its great expanse, I spent my time wondering: if I stared hard enough, could I see Japan? Before I could read and years before cable brought television reception, the other side of the Pacific was only part of my imagination. I hoped I could get a glimpse of land, a tree, or maybe someone fishing off the coast in sea boats like the vessels I saw bobbing on the horizon here in Monterey. I imagined how nice it would be rest my eyes on a kid my age staring back at me.

Just over thirty years later, my parents now have satellite television in their living room. On weekend visits to their house, we play around with Google Earth, virtually traveling over our relatives’ homes in Italy and even taking virtual tours of Frankfurt, a town we’ve never visited since my grandmother’s escape during World War II. For both pleasure and work, I’ve traveled to Asia and Europe and throughout Central and South America. After college I took a backpack, a journal, and myself and went by bus throughout Mexico. I met people and learned different languages and each day, the capacity of my thoughts and dreams exceeded what I had been limited to the day before. From all of the strangers who became friends I learned the history that wasn’t told in my school texts. I discovered the stories that filled the void in the daily news. My life somehow was no longer mine when I was made aware of the responsibility that we all share, to do our part to improve the world around us in our own unique way.

Please help us to continue to provide content that inspires and engages by sharing The WIP with your friends, colleagues and neighbors. Mention us to the professional organizations you belong to and the schools that you attend. And here at The WIP, we will continue to work hard to deliver your writers, your voices, and your news.