Go, go… Go Loco!!!
The team is very busy preparing the next episode (yay, number 5) with @vvbellur taking on the hosting duties! Meanwhile, Episode 4 is still “hot off the press” (hmm, what is the equivalent phrase for a podcast!?!) so do go listen to it (thanks @Shirley )!
So, what is this post all about? Well, we’re looking for participation from you Local Guides (yes… you, you, you… and you, you… ) for Episode 5 and you can read Vandana’s post on this here! The topic is on International Women’s Day and if you’re not sure what it is all about, do check out the official site here and you can also check out the official post that the Local Guides team did two years ago!
I thought I would share a long version of my recorded answer with you all so that you can be motivated to record your own message and send it to us to include in the podcast! Again, do read Vandana’s post as she has laid out 4 questions/prompts that you can follow; you can choose to answer some of them rather than all of them (but yeah… you should try to answer all!!). Enjoy!
-------------------------------------------- Start of Transcript --------------------------------------------
Hey everyone my name is Adrian! I am a Local Guide from Malaysia but currently based in Manchester UK. As you all may know by now, I am part of the Go Loco podcast team and I just wanted to talk really briefly about how this episode came about.
When we first started the podcast, we were thinking of what we were going to do for the first six episodes and as we were publishing once every two weeks, starting from January, episode 5 was scheduled to be published in the first week of March and we were looking around at the various events and things happening all over the world that we could tie in to the podcast.
One of the things that stood out really strongly for me was the International Women’s Day event. I was very keen to highlight gender inequality but as a guy, I felt it was better for a woman to take the lead on this. And I am so super happy that Vandana was keen to host this episode because I think she is totally awesome and would really bring the importance of this event out really nicely in the podcast.
Now we talked a lot about what we wanted to discuss and present in this episode and I am super proud that on the front end we are going to have an all female cast. One of the initial ideas was to get audio submissions from women all over the world talking about what it is like to be a woman in this day and age in their homes, schools, work places, villages, towns, cities, wherever and the idea was to present many stories that showcased the important contributions of women, of gender inequality and also what they hope the future will bring for the next generation of women! I’m mentioning this because Vandana made a very critical point; what about audio submissions from guys?! And it took me a while to understand that because I was on a one track mind that it was enough to just get women on the stage talking about IWD! And then it hit me! For things to change, both men and women have to come together to discuss gender inequality because men need to understand what the problem is, acknowledge its existence and support women in their fight for gender equality.
So, here I am, very proud and happy to be part of this discussion!
And Vandana also put her mark on the episode by changing the focus slightly by incorporating questions related to Google Maps; so it wasn’t just an International Women’s Day special feature but rather what we, as Local Guides, can do in terms of what we put in into the community, the power of our feedbacks/reviews to help bring awareness.
When I think about International Women’s Day I think about my mum, my sister, my female friends and relatives, and what life could have been different for them if there were true gender equality in this world. I think about missed opportunities as well as opportunities taken away from them. And I think about how the world is structured in such a way that girls from a very young age are brought up to think that they should behave in one particular way while boys can behave in a different kind of way. From that personal perspective, it is easier for me to understand the importance of International Women’s Day but if I were to be honest, I think I am only scratching the surface and there’s so much more for me to learn and understand because there’s so many things in life that I’ve taken for granted.
I feel that women are not always properly represented in media and that a guy’s opinion still counts for more even though the facts say otherwise. I would like to see more women role models being highlighted on social media because I think it is very critical that women of all ages from all over the world should have good role models to be inspired by and to aspire to. I am an electronics engineer and in my world I am surrounded by guys. I find that depressing because I feel that we are denying girls from appreciating the joys of science and engineering!
The Google Maps feature that I use the most is the transit feature. Every morning when I wake up I get a gentle reminder on my phone about when the next tram is going to arrive at the nearest station to me. I find it really helpful because I am not a morning person and I absolutely struggle to get up, to get ready for work and to get out on time. So this feature is really helpful.
Manchester is actually a very small city and I roughly know where everything is so I don’t use Google Maps to find places because I know where they are. As a Local Guide though I do use Google Maps from time to time to explore new areas to see if anything interesting pops up that I am not aware of but I still very much prefer to just walk the streets and explore using my own two feet and eyes.
My Google Maps feature request would be for Google to work with local authorities and incorporate information such as where crime was reported so as to create a heat map of dangerous areas. You don’t necessarily have to surface this information but maybe incorporate it in your walking directions so that the route suggested can avoid bad areas. Maybe have a feedback button that users can press to indicate that the place they are walking through does not look safe and that others should avoid.
Well, this has been a very interesting exercise and I hope that it doesn’t just happen once a year. For all the guys out there, ask your female friends about their thoughts on gender equality. Keep your mind and hearts open. Think about what you can do to help change that narrative and bring more positive females voices to the front. Think about your mum, your sister, nieces, daughters and what you want their futures to be.
-------------------------------------------- End of Transcript --------------------------------------------
So, what do you think? Do you feel inspired to record your own message? Please do as it would be nice to hear your story! Let’s get together to celebrate women; their achievements, their strengths and to also recognise the challenges that they face in their day to day life!
#balanceforbetter #IWD2019 #internationalwomensday #golocopodcast #letsguide
