Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: The Lebanese Army is continuing its investigations and will later announce any information that does not affect the confidentiality of the investigation
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: It has not yet been determined whether the detainees belong to ISIS or another organization
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Around 10 people of different nationalities, including Lebanese nationals, were detained
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: The Lebanese army arrested a number of people in the Matn area of Mount Lebanon with possession it has not disclosed
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: We have strong indications that there are martyrs, injuries, and trapped people in the Salah al-Din area
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Citizens should avoid Salah al-Din Street because anyone who approaches it is at risk of being directly targeted
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Reality is that there is a very limited retreat of the vehicles, with the occupation forces providing cover undeer fire up to Salah al-Din Street
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Claims that the Israeli occupation has withdrawn from areas in the neighborhoods of al-Zaytoun, al-Tuffah, and al-Shujaiya are false
Hamas: The two delegations stressed that any negotiations must lead to the achievement of our people's goals and aspirations, foremost among which is ending the war and the complete withdrawal of enemy forces
Hamas: A delegation from the Hamas leadership, led by the head of the leadership council, Mohammad Darwish, met with an Islamic Jihad delegation, headed by its Secretary-General, Ziyad al-Nakhalah

Mind the (Language) Gap

  • Diego Sequera Diego Sequera
  • Source: Al Mayadeen
  • 12 Jul 2021 21:39
  • 4 Shares
5 Min Read

English reading and writing, the supposed language of Empire and global lingua franca, became a bridge between peoples and an instrument of resistance.

  • x
  • Mind the (Language) Gap

Al Mayadeen has decided to launch an English version, taking a step forward to include new trends within the Global South. We, as Venezuelans, can easily belong to and understand what such a decision bares, highlighting the necessity to take this indispensable initiative.

There can be simple reasons and outright options like expanding and reaching a wider audience. On this level we could think about “obvious” and pragmatic reasons that perhaps are reachable, such as the benefits of getting into different linguistic geographies, different cultural circuits, testing the grounds of other ratings, and setting metrics that could be understood as the rationales for market strategies. And sure, it is hard to reject such valid reasons. But only relying on that approach can lose sight of the deeper possible meanings.

There's one approach at plain sight that needs to be stressed, regardless of how explicit it could possibly be. Countries and whole regions that have been subject to intense, multi layered, aggressive foreign meddling, and nations that face economic, military, diplomatic, and socio-political disruption – Hybrid Warfare, can be subsumed under the current conceptual jargon– know that the so-called narrative is the first –and perhaps– the final step. Words that set the story are the basis for every sort of justification, be them legal, diplomatic, institutional, military or plain social perception of several audiences –local on targeted nations, domestic inside the countries engaging in these sorts of operations. 

A clear, descriptive case in point, of course, is Western Asia. In 2003, Iraq could have set the groundwork on other countries; a framework that was established less than a decade after. Libya could be the more extreme example of how this succeeds, Syria perhaps the opposite. A perceived “reality” had to be created in order to advance, notwithstanding widespread opposition to these methods and regardless of political stances inside the targeted countries. A narrative was imposed, humanitarian justifications made. But it was all about the final outcome –regime change, regional political/social engineering, geopolitical realignment, traumatic transfer of sovereignty in order to discipline the local population and meet the strategic interests of desperate Transatlantic economic needs. 

A tandem narrative set between on-the-ground “reality making” confirming a story fit for Western-controlled sensitivities and well-developed metaphysics finally “confirmed” by any or every multilateral body with leverage able to sugarcoat mere brutality. Specific contexts never mattered, shaped (Western) feelings did. Victims annulled. And, above all, control of the alleged story, widespread among different audiences in order to build a staged/managed perception.  Easily summarized now, this mechanical template has been thoroughly exposed during the last decade by many outstanding people. 

Needless to say, the real substance of these technicalities are the lives of innumerable people and every particular universe they bared or keep baring. Narratives also kill. In this last sentence and the previous paragraph, I strongly rely on Sharmine Narwani's work, among a wider and important list of people that have faced and decoded this process. 

Related News

Latin America’s leftward tendencies and lessons from its Middle Eastern counterparts

Maduro: The bus driver that the US cannot stop

This brings me to my next point. Around seven years ago, the country where I live started to go through a similar process, based on the same methodological regime-change framework, or at least its main component became more visible. We started reading the work of Sharmine and others, based on their own knowledge and experience. She and others were writing in English, and some of us were able to compare their notes with ours, bringing them into our own context and trying to set similarities between the readings and our own experiences. This triggered an indirect, rich and insightful exchange process that gave us the tools to cope with and manage our own situation on every possible level. 

English reading and writing, the supposed language of Empire and global lingua franca, became a bridge between peoples and an instrument of resistance. Interesting times.

In 2019, with the Juan Guaidó misadventure in full swing, all these tools –and English properly– became a decisive strategic aspect of how to face this new and almost unexpected situation. With the help of English-speaking Western journalists and activists, along with English-speaking people across the Global South, we started to bring the fight on global terms, overcoming our accustomed Spanish insularity and preventing the info siege from stifling us. This was a silent battle along the rest of them. And I think that it can bring home the point I wanted to prove. 

So, in a way, in several places, we've been also starting to conquer the right to tell our story in their language, not only ours. But this brings to the table a final argument. Perhaps we can't be that knowledgeable of how people live inside transatlantic societies, but we definitely know and understand better how they work outside their borders. And we also know they also suffer domestically, and to reach them would be an act of solidarity and compassion. We're also fighting against their own isolation from the world. Translation, thus, is also an act of solidarity. 

The “in-the-middle” –as George Steiner could suggest– movement within expressing ourselves, the bridge decoding our experiences, makes contact with the deepest elements of our human spirit, and this quadrant doesn't need words to be understood. 

As Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, advisor to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, recently told me that narrative is also a battlefield. And in the same way, it can be turned into the main vehicle for peace. 

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Venezuela
  • media
Diego Sequera

Diego Sequera

Political analyst, writer, journalist, and translator

Most Read

All
How is it that the Western regimes, which claimed to support the fake revolutions of Lebanon, Libya, and Syria, waged constant war against the actual Ansar Allah-led revolution in Yemen? (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Understanding Yemen 1/2: The Revolution

  • Opinion
  • 30 Jun 2025
Why Netanyahu is on the ropes

Why Netanyahu is on the ropes

  • Analysis
  • 4 Jul 2025
Ukraine’s Corporate Carve-Up Collapses?

Ukraine’s Corporate Carve-Up Collapses?

  • Analysis
  • 11 Jul 2025
Africa’s top university’s ‘Gaza Resolutions’ outrages pro-'Israel' lobby

Africa’s top university’s ‘Gaza Resolutions’ outrages pro-'Israel' lobby

  • Analysis
  • 4 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
War on Iran
Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS