International Perspectives in French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and English
Everywhere on the planet everyone is focused on the same issue: How do we and our loved ones survive the pandemic and its economic, political, and social consequences?
Some 200 countries and some 7.66 billion individuals are currently focused on the same thing: Survival.
The Editor, James Rowles, who also writes as The Observer, has been following coronavirus developments and discussions in a number of countries, reading newspapers in Germany, France, Spain, The United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries. Listening to news and discussion programs on the radio (via internet) in these countries, and in Cape Town (South Africa), Guayaquil (Ecuador), São Paulo (Brazil), and Argentina.
Everywhere the preoccupations are similar, though in certain sections of the population in many countries, and in many poorer countries in particular, the challenges are greater, much greater.
But one thing that is striking about these conversations is that they are largely taking place within the limits of a national consciousness that is limited to the single country directly involved. To be sure, educated elites may read stories in leading newspapers about what is going on in other countries. This has been particularly true in Europe, where readers have followed what was going on in Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. There was a particular interest in the experience of e.g., Italy, as the hurricane came bearing down on, e.g., Spain.
Still, around the world the coronavirus pandemic has been viewed largely through the prism of a national lens, as a national story.
This has been particularly true in the United States, where cable television channels long ago gave up any pretense of covering international and foreign news.
Now, in order to provide a window into what is going on and what people are thinking in other countries, The International Coronavirus Journal will provide links to news and opinion articles, and sometimes brief commentary, on what others are saying in news and conversations around the world.
If you do not know the language in which a commentary or linked-to article is written, you can copy and paste into Google Translate the text you want to read, and then read it in English or the language of your choice. Alternatively, you can use Google Translate to translate the website on which the article appears. For details, see the Translation page, here.
Contributions
We solicit contributions by readers, who we urge to send in links to interesting articles or their own contributions, in English, French, German, Portuguese, or Spanish.
Contributions and inquiries should be addressed to observer@internationalcoronavirusjournal.com