2024 GLOBAL WINNING ESSAYS

CREATIVE

FIRST PLACE: Justin Yu, USA

SECOND PLACE: Elina Quito, Germany

THIRD PLACE: Zaeemah Mahmud Sarder, USA

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER: Miracle Radityo, Brazil

First Place

Craft a narrative about a fictional character’s firsthand experience of a historical episode. Bring the era to life through vivid details and show how it connects to challenges or values in the modern day.

Justin Yu , CREATIVE CATEGORY

United States of America

Tank Man’s Son

The morning of June 5, 1989, was the last time Wang Wang ever saw his father.

He was nine years old, a boy living in a cramped apartment near Chang’an Avenue, Beijing. Life had always been simple, predictable—his father rose with the dawn to stock the shelves of their little convenience store, while his mother’s broom swept the floor, its soft swish matching the steady shuffle of early customers. Wang Wang would sit on a wooden stool near the counter, doing his schoolwork as the scent of freshly steamed buns wafted in from the bustling street vendors outside.

And then, in a single, shattering moment, that life was gone.

In the weeks leading up to that fateful day, something had shifted. The air in Beijing grew heavy, thick with an unspoken tension that settled uncomfortably into their daily lives. Wang Wang had noticed it in the whispers of neighbors, in the deepening furrows on his father’s brow when he came home late from the store, in the nervous glances his parents exchanged when they thought he wasn’t looking. It had started with the students gathering in Tiananmen Square, their voices rising like a chorus, crying out for something Wang Wang did not yet fully understand.

Hope, his father called it.

Then, the hope curdled into fear. The day before, the air had crackled with gunfire, the sky choked with smoke. Government loudspeakers blared of a crackdown, their metallic voices drowning out the screams of students in the streets below. The once-mighty flow of students gradually disappeared like a slowly drying river, hope and youth dying prematurely under the tracks of tanks. All throats, old and young, were suffocated by fear. White hair on crutches and small hands tugging their parents’ sleeves failed to deter their executioners, deaf to the struggling screams ringing against their helmets. They died by the thousands, their crimson blood staining the earth, poisoning the water.

Wang Wang had never seen his father afraid—until now. He paced their tiny home, restless as a caged bird. Then, at last, he stopped.

“I have to help the students.” That was all.

His mother begged him not to go. She urged him to stay in their apartment, to weather the storm like they had always done before. “You have a son,” she pleaded. “Please, think of Wang Wang.”

His father’s gaze softened as he turned to his son, but his face remained one of resolve.

“I am thinking of him.” That was all.

Dawn broke with the rattling of gunfire, its harsh echoes more effective than any alarm. The pervasive smoke swallowed the sun, blurring night and day into a single endless gray. Wang Wang watched his father move quietly through the apartment, gathering food, water, and medical supplies into two plastic grocery bags.

When he was finished, he stood in the dim light of the apartment, his gaze lingering on his wife and son. A promise. A reassurance. And then he was gone. As the door clicked shut behind him, Wang Wang slipped out, his small feet chasing his father’s fading shadow ahead.

The city he once knew was gone, lost in the ashes of its people. The streets, once alive with the hawking of merchants and the chatter of tourists, were now a graveyard of burned-out cars and broken bodies. Shattered glass glistened like fallen stars scattered across the pavement. Posters that once bore messages of hope lay torn and trampled, their bearers nowhere to be found.

Wang Wang coughed, doubt creeping into his heart as the acrid air stung his lungs. He began to regret following his father. And then—the sound. A deep, rolling thunder. The earth itself trembled beneath his feet. It was tanks. A column of them loomed into view, their iron jaws swallowing the road in their wake.

Ahead of them stood a handful of student protestors, faces streaked with soot and exhaustion. Their banners hung like withered petals in the wind, tattered remnants of a lost cause. Some pressed trembling hands to makeshift bandages, blood seeping through cloth like ink on fragile parchment. Others stood shoulder to shoulder, determined to defy until the end. It was only now, up close, that Wang Wang realized how young they were. How scared they looked.

His father looked at the students. Then, he stopped. And stepped forward.

From behind a rusted bike rack, Wang Wang watched, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. His father stood alone before the tanks, a speck of humanity against the great metal machines. The lead tank groaned to a stop, its hulking frame quivering, its iron maw just inches from swallowing him whole.

A soldier clambered out, rifle raised. A warning. A command. But his father did not move. The tank turned left—he stepped left. The tank turned right—he followed. He was one man against an army, but he would not yield. If they wanted to pass, they would have to pass through him first. If they wanted to kill, they would have to kill him first.

Then, from the side, two soldiers rushed forward, seizing his father’s arms in an iron grip. Wang Wang’s trance was shattered. Before he could think, before fear could hold him back, he sprang from his hiding place. “Baba!” he cried, hot tears spilling down his cheeks.

His father turned. Surprise flickered, then softened into something familiar. He smiled—a quiet smile, warm as sunlight. A smile Wang Wang would carry with him for the rest of his life.

Then he was gone.

Wang Wang never saw his father again. But the world did. That day, a photographer captured an image that would live forever—a man in a white shirt and black trousers, holding nothing but two grocery bags, standing against an army.

The world called him Tank Man. But Wang Wang called him Baba.

In the days that followed, Wang Wang and his mother fled Beijing. The city had become a place of whispered fear. Amnesia settled over it like a thick fog—forgetting meant survival. Neighbors who had cheered the students one day turned silent the next. His father’s name was never mentioned, not out of shame, but out of the knowledge that speaking it too loudly would bring danger. The government labeled him a counterrevolutionary rebel, but Wang Wang knew that lies written in ink could never disguise facts written in blood.

That day ached, but Wang Wang still waited for the dawn.

Years later, Wang Wang and his mother made their way to a new country. He grew up with the image of his father in history books, in grainy photographs, in news broadcasts commemorating that tragic day. Strangers debated his father’s fate—was he executed? Imprisoned? Still alive in some distant labor camp? As Wang Wang grew older, he became obsessed with understanding what had happened that day. He scoured books, dug through news archives, reached out to scholars who had spent years studying the Tiananmen Square protests. But the truth, he realized, was not in the records.

It was in his father’s final moment.

Far from the place where he last saw his father, Wang Wang still remembers. The smell of smoke. The rumble of tanks. But mostly, he remembers the smile of his father—a man who refused to cower.

For history is not shaped by the might of metal, but by the strength of a single, unbreakable man who dared to stand against tyranny—a strength that now lived on in his son.

And Wang Wang vowed that he, too, would stand.

second Place

Imagine waking up to a world where one law of nature no longer applies. How does life change?

Elina Quito, creative category

Germany

When we turned into numbers

Beep. Beep. 6.30 am. Tuesday.

In an instant the relentless ringing of my alarm jolts me out of sleep and thrusts me into the new day. The song of blackbirds. The indiscernible chatter of street workers. Life is budding outside in its myriad of colours and my desire to feel it, smell it, taste it, tugs me out of bed and to my pink, bulky wardrobe. I open the doors and proudly pass through my assortment of trousers to select the mood of the day: Vivacious yellow, serene purple, inquisitive orange, white. White trousers. Why haven’t I thrown them away yet? White trousers are for the common crowd or is it for those who dread judgement…? Inquisitive orange it is. I finish dressing, brush my teeth, grab the car keys and head off to work.

Through the car window I turn to my diurnal inspection of the High Street people: colonies of bees swarming through the street and attending to their mundane habits. The coffee shop is being bombarded by the I-need-my-morning-coffee colony whilst the road is buzzing with the I-need-to-get-to-work colony whose car honking pierces through the crisp morning air. I arrive at my destination: St John’s Hospital.

Upon entering the common room for neonatal nurses, I scan through the white-trousered crowd, trying to seek out my friend Annie by her usual, bright-green trousers. A figure in white approaches me. Annie. Annie, my friend, a white sheep; I‘ve lost her to the manipulative hands of conformity. Clusters of sheep eyes slowly turn towards me, burn holes through my orange trousers, and stumbling back through the door, I seek cover in my work in the newborn nursery: Note down their name and physical features. Name and physical features. I am surrounded by a screeching silence. Where is the whining? The wailing? Strange. I get to work.

James, blue eyes, blond hair, 3.25 kg.

Tom, blue eyes, blond hair, 3.25 kg. Twins, how sweet.

Linda, blue eyes, blond hair, 3.25kg.

Wait. A flood of anxiety propels my limbs down the row of cribs.

Blue eyes, blond hair, 3.25 kg.

It can‘t be. Each baby, each life looks the same, behaves the same, carries the same genes.

Back on High Street: One hand on the steering wheel, one hand on my pounding heart. Through my window I can see the colonies rushing back home, nervously honking their way through the traffic, queuing for their afternoon coffee. They all behave the same. They all are the same. The throbbing in my skull gets bigger, louder, absorbs me, engulfs me as the cars, shops, people emerge into one, one entity, one number, and I realize: Individualism was once a choice; Conformity is now law.

Beep. Beep. 6.30am. Wednesday

In an instant the relentless ringing of my alarm jolts me out of sleep and thrusts me into the new day. I open the doors to my wardrobe and pass through my trousers: Yellow, purple, orange, white. White trousers it is.

White and alien and customary is the figure replicated by the mirror. A repeated image. Good. I can now go to work. The hospital’s doors open, and I am welcomed by a morgue-like stillness. With every step I take towards the newborn nursery, my white disguise slowly tightens around my thighs and by the time I enter the room, it has glued, burned itself into my skin. There’s no crying nor wailing, only blue-eyed, blond, 3.25kg babies sharing the first minutes of a predetermined life. I get to work. At times when I am recording their features, relaxing in the unprecedented ease of it, relishing in the sweet silence, I am injected with a treacherous appreciation for conformity. Is conformity really that evil? Could it not be the solution to perpetual peace? After all, if there’s no distinction in appearance, there’s no envy; no divergence in skill, no pride; no imbalance in money, no greed; no variance in opinion, no wrath, no fight, no war.

A scream. The silence is broken. The law of conformity endangered. The high-pitched, persisting, anguished cry of a baby floods the corridors, followed by the unwavering pulse of tramping footsteps. They are coming. Still, I can feel the suffocating white trousers gradually squeezing out the person I had once been.

I am encircled by a herd of neonatal nurses. The screaming gets louder and closer and my neck wildly twists in yearning for that one face which is dear, one face to lend me escape, one face that belongs to my friend Annie. A white sheep dissociates from the circle and advances towards me- it’s Annie. My friend, my liberator has come to help me flee this preying ambush. A stretch-of-an-arm away to touch, and a gathering of my senses to realize: It is not salvation that she shall bestow. It’s Death.

Blind ecstasy has skinned me of my sight, my hearing, and I did not notice – Oh why, why did I not notice?- that the screaming had arrived, that it was a stretch-of-an-arm away to touch, that Annie bears the screaming, newborn baby in one hand and the syringe that will kill it in the other. It’s Death. I’m looking straight at him, I now see how he pinched and pulled and contorted Annie’s amiable face into that of blankness. I now see how he has starved her of her last droplet of life, her last droplet of identity that had shaped her into Annie. It’s not Annie. It’s not anyone. I am encircled by a herd of white, dead sheep.

Before I could revolt or run away or utter a syllable of dissent, pressed into my hands I now hold the warm, frail child and the cold, unforgiving syringe. Then the bleating began. “It is an error. Eradicate it from the system.” I examine my fate. “It is an error. Eradicate it!” A baby cursed with green, not blue, beautifully innocent eyes. “It is an error. Eradicate it!” A syringe filled with green, viscous liquid. “It is an error. Eradicate!” My fate. “Eradicate!” My doom. “Eradicate!” Green, innocent eyes drowning in tears, “Eradicate!“, a red, scrunched face bleeding with agony, “Eradicate!”, it screams, “Eradicate!”, and screams, “Eradicate!”, and screams, “Eradicate!”, and stops, stops screaming.

Silence. Peaceful. Murderous. A heavy lightness in my hand divulges my sin: I glance down at the pressed-down plunger, the empty syringe. Then at the lifeless lump of flesh in my hands. Then at the lifeless lump of flesh of my hands. Did my hands kill? Did I murder? No. No. There is no my and there is no I. Two lives have been taken; Two errors have been corrected. One was deleted from the system; One, finally, turned into a number.

third Place

Write a story about a character gaining the ability to communicate with animals. Explore the challenges, joys, and unexpected consequences of this connection with the natural world.

Zaeemah Mahmud Sarder, creative category

united states of america

মুহূর্ত
(Muhūrta-The Fleeting Moment)

I wake up screaming.

The sound is small, fragile: a child’s cry trapped in a throat that sometimes belongs to an old man. My hands clutch a pen mid-sentence, knuckles white as bone. The words sprawl like wounded birds across the page: When I Grow Up. The letters stagger, drunk on innocence, each loop of the “p” collapsing like a failed rocket. A story about a boy who wanted to touch the stars.

I don’t remember writing it.

Because yesterday, I was seventy, watching the sunset from a hospital bed, the morphine drip singing lies about permanence. This is the end, I thought, as nurses adjusted my tubes.

But endings are luxuries for linear creatures.

The day before, I was twenty-five, running barefoot through the rain, my lover’s name dissolving on my tongue like a sugar cube. Today, I am seven. Or maybe I am no one. A question mark wearing skin.

It started with a pop. Not a sound, but a feeling—like the universe snapping its fingers, like reality sighing as it let go. One moment, life was a straight line, predictable and orderly. The next, it was a shattered mirror, shards of time reflecting fragments of lives we could no longer hold onto.

Scientists called it Temporal Collapse. Philosophers called it The Unraveling.

We called it hell.

People slipped between ages like ink bleeding through paper. A soldier on the battlefield could blink and become a toddler clutching his mother’s hand. A woman could live an entire lifetime, only to wake up in a crib, staring up at a mobile of stars. Some were lucky, cycling through life like chapters in a book. Others were stuck, waking up every morning to the same childhood, the same wrinkles, the same decay. I met a man who’d relived his daughter’s funeral fourteen times. Each morning, he’d claw at his wrists, trying to bleed out before the clock reset.

The world didn’t end. It just… rearranged.

Playgrounds echoed with elders sobbing for lost pensions, their dementia-stricken minds convinced they were late for meetings. Maternity wards filled with infants bearing old souls’ frowns.

Cities cracked open like eggs, spilling people of all ages into streets they no longer recognized. Parents lost their children to time, children lost their parents to the past. Hospitals overflowed with patients who couldn’t be treated because their bodies changed faster than medicine could adapt. Schools became revolving doors of ages, switching between calculus and the alphabet depending on who walked through the door.

The first weeks were chaos. I remember seeing a man drop to his knees in the middle of the street, his face buried in shaking hands, whispering, “I was supposed to get married today”. I saw a girl no older than ten, wandering alone, clutching a wedding ring in her tiny palm, her face blank, hollow.

I wanted to tell her it was going to be okay, that maybe she'd wake up old enough to understand it tomorrow—but I didn’t lie to children.

Not anymore.

Some people tried to hold onto the past, scribbling desperate notes on their arms in case they woke up someone else tomorrow. Their skin became a manuscript of erased lives: grocery lists overwritten with suicide notes, phone numbers dissolving into nursery rhymes. Others stood at the edges of rooftops, staring down at a world that no longer made sense. It was strange, watching people age backward, seeing their suffering rewound—replayed in different bodies, different times. No one escaped grief. They just circled it, orbiting around the same pain in new skins.

We tried to survive.

Then came the taxes.

Governments, desperate for control, introduced Chronological Contributions. If you woke up in your prime—strong, capable, profitable—you paid. The logic was cruelly simple: when you cycled through prosperity, you owed a debt to those trapped in childhood or old age.

It sounded fair.

It wasn’t.

The rich cheated the system, paying time brokers to stabilize their years, trapping themselves in endless primes. They hosted dinner parties where champagne never went flat, their laughter frozen at just the right frequency: not too youthful, not too frail. The rest of us were at the mercy of the roulette wheel. A doctor might wake up as a toddler before ever stepping into an operating room. A child might blink and become an old man, with nothing to show for the life he never got to live.

A new class system emerged—not based on wealth, but on when.

There were the Anchored—those who could pay to remain in their thirties and forties, eternally useful, eternally untaxed. And then there were the Drifters, the ones who woke up as ghosts of themselves, who never knew if today they would be strong, weak, alive. Some people, the Lost Ones, simply stopped trying. You’d see them wandering the streets, their eyes distant, waiting for the next leap to take them somewhere, anywhere, else. They stopped speaking in futures, only in fractured pasts. I think I was a teacher once. Maybe a father. Maybe neither.

I’m writing this as a 30-year-old, in a rented room in the 30s district. My neighbor was 16 yesterday, 50 today. We swap stories over cheap coffee, trying to make sense of a world that refuses to be understood. But I know it won’t last. Tomorrow, I could be anything.

Or nothing.

I have memories that don’t belong to me. I remember my mother’s lullabies, but I also remember the way my wife smiled on our wedding day, even though I don’t know if I ever had a wife. I remember standing at a podium, receiving a diploma, yet I have no proof I ever attended school. My past is a puzzle with missing pieces, my future an empty canvas that paints itself in real time.

Sometimes, I stare at my reflection and wonder—who am I, really? The face in the mirror is a stranger, and yet I have worn it before. I trace the curve of my jaw, the slope of my nose, and try to recall if this is who I was meant to be. But it is impossible to have an identity when it keeps shifting beneath my fingertips, crumbling like sand.

Some tried to resist. The Clepsydra—a cult of physicists and poets—believed time shattered when humanity stopped dreaming forward. “We traded wonder for widgets,” their graffiti reads, spray-painted on the ruins of observatories. They work in abandoned subway tunnels now, carving equations into concrete with rusted scalpels. I followed one once—a woman with Einstein’s equations tattooed across her eyelids. She’d built a machine from salvaged MRI parts and childhood teeth, convinced she could reverse the Collapse by aligning every possible version of herself. “The answer ’s in the overlap,” she hissed, her hands flickering between ages 12 and 97. But when she threw the switch, the machine spat out only a child’s crayon drawing: a stick-figure astronaut falling through a cracked sky.

The Clepsydras say time broke when we stopped looking up. When we traded constellations for spreadsheets, miracles for algorithms. They whisper of a fix—a grand equation that could mend the fracture. But I’ve seen their chalkboard cathedrals. The numbers always end the same: ERROR. DIVIDE BY ZERO. INFINITY UNDEFINED.

I haven’t seen them around lately. Some say they were captured, others say they disappeared mid-sentence, time erasing them before they could finish their work.

But maybe they were never real to begin with.

I met a woman once—a painter who tried to capture the way time folded over itself. She painted the same portrait over and over, layering faces of different ages on top of each other. A baby’s round cheeks, a teenager’s defiant glare, an old man’s weary eyes. When I asked who it was, she only smiled. “Watch,” she said. The paint began to drip—the child crying black tears, the old man’s eyes melting into the teenager’s scowl. By morning, the canvas was blank again.

I wonder if she’s still painting. I wonder if she remembers me.

I dream sometimes. Of being still. Of waking up the same person two days in a row. I dream of falling asleep knowing who I will be tomorrow, of making a promise and keeping it. Last night, I dreamt of holding a funeral for all my selves—lined up tiny coffins labeled Age 7, Age 25, Age 70. But when I tried to bury them, the graves kept reopening.

I press my hand against the paper as if holding something fragile, something that could slip away. The ink smears, like time itself bleeding through the pages. I clutch the notebook tighter as if anchoring myself to this moment, this version of me.

I stare down at the unfinished words of my childhood, the ones I don’t remember writing.

When I Grow Up.

I don’t know if I ever did.

Time doesn’t flow anymore. It spirals. It loops. It folds.

And the ink keeps running.

english language learner

You receive a message from your future self, dated 10 years from now. In it, your future self outlines a major decision you’ll soon have to make, one that could change the course of your life. As you read, you begin to question whether the future is truly set in stone, or if it’s shaped by the choices you make today. Explore how the knowledge of a future event alters your present decisions and how you balance fate with free will.

Miracle Radityo, creative category

INDONESIA

What If I Have Jumped?

I have often imagined the moment just before impact.
The split second where the body, ungoverned, hovers in a liminal purgatory between two absolutes—the leap and the landing, the before and the after. Perhaps I have been falling my entire life, not in the dramatic, catastrophic way one might envision, but in quiet increments, in the small hesitations, in the moments I chose not to act. It is an endless descent through uncertainty, waiting for something, someone, to catch me—or to tell me that I never needed catching at all.

The first time I stood at the edge of a rooftop, I wasn’t thinking about death. I just wanted to see. The city stretched below me, indifferent. My breath fogged the night air, my hands pressed against rusted railings. The world hummed on, unaware of my existence. I felt both infinitesimal and infinite, as if I could dissolve into the skyline and no one would ever know.

A door slammed behind me. My father’s voice, rough as gravel: “Only cowards hesitate. Jump or don’t jump. There is no in-between.”

But all I have ever known is the in-between. He believed the world could be divided into the strong and the weak, those who take the plunge and those who never leave the ground. He built his life upon absolutes, carving out certainty where there was none, as if standing too long in hesitation would erode his very being. Strength was the currency he understood best. A man who flinched was a man left behind, and he refused to raise a daughter who did not know how to choose. And so I learned to choose—not out of conviction, but out of necessity. Out of fear that hesitation itself would break me. He trained me in decisiveness, in efficiency, in the clean, cold precision of logic. When he spoke, it was in ultimatums. When he taught, it was through edges, through the unspoken lesson that to love him, to be accepted by him, meant to forsake doubt. I did not realize, then, that doubt was not a disease, but a part of being alive.

Years later, I watched my mother standing at the ocean’s edge. Dawn broke behind her, streaking the water in gold. The tide kissed her ankles, stole the sand beneath her feet, but she did not move. “The ocean never stops,” she whispered. “That’s why it never breaks.” Three months later, she was gone. She had always been a creature of movement. She spoke in half-finished thoughts, left books open on the table, let wind take her hair in wild directions. She never belonged to a single place, only to the currents that pulled her from one moment to the next. My father saw her as untethered, an unfinished idea, a contradiction he could never quite solve. But she was more than that. She understood something he never could: to be still is to invite ruin. That life is not a structure of stone but a river, carving and shifting, shaping and surrendering.

The absence hollowed out the house, filled it with unspoken things. My father refused to speak her name, and in his world, things that could not be controlled did not exist. But she existed everywhere: in my restless hands, in my inability to commit, to belong. I imagine her still moving, carried by unseen currents, shifting between places the way I have always shifted between versions of myself. Once, during a long drive, she had glanced at me, the weight of something unspoken in her eyes. "If only," she had murmured, but never finished the thought. And now I wonder—if only what? If only she had stayed? If only she had chosen differently? Or was it about me, about the way she saw herself in my hesitations? In my unwillingness to let myself be carried by the tide? For years, I dissected the mechanics of choice, as if breaking it apart would reveal some hidden circuitry, some undeniable answer. I thought if I could just find the right logic, the right philosophy, then maybe I could anchor myself to something real. But certainty never came. Only more questions. I was never afraid of the fall. I was afraid of what came after.

Perhaps that was why I stood on rooftops, on bridges, on the precipice of something nameless—searching for a moment that would strip me down to the rawest version of myself. Not to end, not to escape, but to understand. Because if I could stand at the edge and feel nothing, then maybe I had already disappeared. And if I felt everything—if my pulse roared in my ears, if my breath came sharp and uneven—then maybe there was something left to salvage. I have spent my life teetering between absence and presence, between drifting and staying. I have longed for something to shake me awake, to pull me out of the endless in-between. And so, the jump is not about dying. It is about asking the only question that has ever mattered: What if I survived it?

Today, I stood on the rooftop of an old library.
The wind howled through the steel railings, an impatient symphony. I was not thinking of death. I was thinking of my mother’s ocean. The way it moved, the way it refused to break. The way I have been trying to be like her, even as my father’s voice lingers in my mind, demanding absolutes. For a moment, I felt it—that fleeting sense of weightlessness, that unbearable suspension of self. And I understood. The jump is not about falling. It is about surrender. It is about trusting the wind, the ocean, the unseen forces that carry us forward. It is about shedding the old self, about leaping not to escape, but to become.

I did not jump. But in that moment, something profound shifted. I sat still, the world outside my window buzzing with its usual indifference. The city, with all its noise and movement, was a reminder that life did not stop for loss, it felt quieter now, somehow. The letter held me in its grasp, each sentence unraveling a thread I didn’t know I’d been clinging to for so long. The ocean, my mother, the jump—these fragments of my life had always felt like pieces I couldn’t quite align, moments that never fully made sense. I had spent so much time on rooftops, standing at the edges of things, waiting for a signal, a clarity that would push me to move. But now, as I sat there, reading her words once again, I felt something shift in me—a quiet surrender. Not to her absence, but to the understanding that her absence was not something to be fixed or filled. It simply was. And so was I. I tucked the letter back into its envelope, the words still echoing in the back of my mind. There was no grand epiphany, no dramatic conclusion to this chapter of my life. Instead, it was as if a veil had lifted, and I could finally see the quiet beauty in the in-between moments—the ones I had spent so much time running from, fearing they meant something was broken. For so long, I had been caught between two worlds: the certainty of my father’s ideals and the fluidity of my mother’s wisdom. One pulled me toward decision, toward absolutes, while the other invited me to float, to move with the current. I had tried to choose between them, to carve myself into one shape or another, but in the end, I had always been a bit of both. And that, I realized, was not something to fear, but something to honor.

I looked out the window once more, the faint hum of the city below, the horizon stretching endlessly. There was no need to make a decision now. I didn’t need to leap. I didn’t need to fall. I simply needed to be. For the first time, the weight of hesitation felt like something I could breathe into, instead of something that threatened to crush me. There was space in the stillness, a kind of quiet surrender that wasn’t defeat but an invitation to grow. The ocean, my mother, had known this: that life would never be still, that movement, in all its forms, was both the journey and the answer.

Perhaps the jump had already happened, not in the falling, but in the letting go. And yet, somewhere within me, What if I had jumped? Would the fall have been softer than the landing? still whispered—a question, not for what was, but for what could be. Not to make sense of the things left undone, but to remind me that there will always be a choice. And in that quiet moment, I felt something inside me unfurl—something soft, yet strong. It was a knowing, not of the future, but of the present. Knowing that I was already here, already whole, even in the spaces between the leap and the landing.

ARGUMENTATIVE

FIRST PLACE: Aarav Jain, India

SECOND PLACE: Carolina Taylor Castro dos Santos, Brazil

THIRD PLACE: William John Banthorpe, United Kingdom

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER: Fernando Alonso Cruz Ng Ying, Peru

First Place

Is it the responsibility of wealthier nations to ensure equitable access to vaccines and healthcare for developing countries? Make a case for or against this obligation.

Aarav Jain, Argumentative

INDIA

Beyond Charity: Who Owes Who?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, C-17's and C-130's painted with national flags took over the empty skies, carrying vials of hope. However, it was clear—these were not just medical shipments but geopolitical statements. These lifelines became loaded favours for developing nations. Nations like China, India, Russia and the United States wielded vaccines as diplomatic weapons, manipulating them to extend influence, force half-hearted alliances and deepen economic dependencies.

Wealthier nations are not bound to global healthcare equity, though it is portrayed as an act of goodwill. It has been a means of control rather than pure humanitarianism. The so-called “vaccine diplomacy” showed the world how healthcare aid could be moulded into political leverage, where dependent countries feel pressured to align with donor ideologies out of fear that the supply tap might suddenly shut off. Vaccine diplomacy, then, is simply a modern iteration of a much older game.

The Historical Precedent

After World War II, Europe was in ruins — economically, politically and medically. Public health infrastructure had collapsed, and diseases like tuberculosis and polio surged due to malnutrition and poor sanitation. In response, the U.S. launched the Marshall Plan (1948-1952) - a $13 billion economic recovery program designed to rebuild Western Europe. Medical assistance played a pronounced role, as political stability and economic recovery depended on a healthy workforce (Eichengreen).

However, it was not just about European recovery; it was a calculated effort to prevent war-ravaged nations from turning communist. The Soviet Union had already begun expanding its influence through healthcare programs in Eastern Europe. The U.S. isolated Soviet-controlled governments by providing allies with modern medical equipment, vaccines and antibiotics, improving public health systems in western Europe (Gimbel). Funding was allotted to repair healthcare facilities, especially in war-torn regions of Germany and France. Furthermore, food programs were implemented to support the famine-stricken nations of Italy and Greece.

The Marshall Plan reinforced American political influence in Western Europe, ensuring nations aligned with capitalist, democratic values rather than turning to Soviet Socialism. European pharmaceutical industries became closely tied to American medical technology (Milward). Since aid was given selectively, it deepened international divisions further.

During the Cold War, medical aid became a direct proxy battle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Both superpowers used health interventions to gain influence in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Ethiopia. The USSR also played a role in global smallpox eradication efforts, providing vaccines and healthcare personnel to allied nations (Bristol). It also sent thousands of doctors and nurses to Cuba, North Vietnam, Angola, Mozambique and Afghanistan to train medical professionals (Marks). Hospitals were built in newly independent nations like Ghana, Ethiopia and Angola in exchange for political loyalty and military cooperation (Hopkins).

To counter Soviet influence, the U.S. funded public health campaigns, but recipients often had to adopt pro-Western economic policies to receive aid due to the threat of economic isolation (Landsdale). U.S. health initiatives prioritized family planning in many developing countries, sparking debate over whether this was a means of controlling non-Western population growth (Connelly). Moral limitations accompanied U.S. aid, particularly to HIV/AIDS programs, where contraception funding was denied in Catholic-majority nations like the Philippines and Latin America (Epstein).

The Cold War set the foundation for what would later evolve into vaccine diplomacy, where nations wielded public health resources for geopolitical leverage — something that became glaringly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Power Play Behind Vaccines

India’s ‘Vaccine Maitri’ supplied vaccines to over 96 countries and UN forces and was celebrated as humanitarian (Chattu). However, it also served a larger geopolitical purpose — strengthening trade and economic ties while countering the growing Chinese presence in the region, who supplied vaccines to 92 nations, securing economic and political footholds (Zhu; Banerji; Apolinário Júnior). China linked Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines deliveries to debt restructuring agreements (Teng), securing cheap labour and guaranteeing future returns.

Chinese spokesperson Hua Chunying framed it as being “ready to contribute to accessibility and affordability of COVID vaccines in developing countries” (Ministry Spokesperson). However, China prioritized nations that did not recognize Taiwan's independence, whereas Paraguay – a supporter of Taiwan – struggled to access Chinese-made vaccines (Londoño). Similarly, Belt and Road Initiative members like Pakistan, Hungary and Serbia had priority access (Khan; Huang; Rudolf; Apolinário Júnior). In the Philippines, Chinese vaccinations were embraced under President Rodrigo Duterte, but as tensions grew over South China Sea territorial issues, supplies slowed and became challenging to procure (Heydarian).

This pattern of selective vaccine distribution was not unique to China, and at first, Western governments hoarded vaccinations, distributing them to poorer nations only after securing domestic supply. The U.S. provided Pfizer and Moderna doses through COVAX, but only to aligned nations (Elliot). Russia, though lagging in global influence, used Sputnik V vaccines to forge ties with South America and Africa (Pozzebon). In every case, vaccine diplomacy served strategic interests rather than global health equity.

The Hidden Costs

One of the most insidious effects of vaccine diplomacy is how it perpetuates corruption and dependency. A study on Sub-Saharan Africa showed that a 1% increase in foreign health aid was associated with a 0.19% decrease in domestic healthcare investment. (Farag).

Significant cutbacks were made to foreign assistance, particularly HIV/AIDS initiatives, under the term of President Donald Trump. About 90% of USAID's contracts were discontinued in 2025, impacting international humanitarian initiatives, such as South Africa’s HIV programs, which faced immediate repercussions (Imray). The U.S. government's move for convenience and national interests highlights how aid can be influenced by domestic political agendas and how countries dependent on such aid can immediately be left with nothing if their provider abandons them.

Foreign medical personnel were essential in containing Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea during the 2014–2016 outbreak. However, foreign support stopped once the crisis ended, leaving fragile healthcare systems behind. By 2019, Sierra Leone had less than 500 doctors for 7.5 million people (Ministry of Health and Sanitation). Similarly, Malawi’s government-run clinics struggled to retain doctors, as international aid groups offered better compensation (Mandeville).

During the COVID-19 crisis, these patterns repeated. Vaccine-receiving nations often had to accept disadvantageous economic agreements. Corruption flourished - 1,500 cases of bribery, favouritism, and inappropriate use of COVID-19 aid monies were reported worldwide (Citizens Report Corruption), accompanying tales of local elites manipulating vaccination deliveries in return for political allegiance

Breaking the Cycle

If history has taught us anything, it is that true medical security comes from self-sufficiency. Some nations have already begun charting this path. India’s Serum Institute demonstrates the power of domestic production. India vaccinated its massive population and became a major supplier to over 96 countries (Chattu). Cuba created its own COVID-19 vaccines (Abdala, Soberana 02, and Soberana Plus) independently of Western corporations and assistance, despite decades of economic sanctions. Through investments in state-run biotech research since the 1980s, an emphasis on public health infrastructure, local vaccine production through the Finlay Institute and BioCubaFarma, and international cooperation for sharing technology, Cuba was able to fully vaccinate over 90% of its population using domestic vaccines by the middle of 2022 (Gonzalez).

Africa is also making strides with the African CDC to reduce reliance on foreign organizations and push for localized vaccine production in countries like Senegal and South Africa (Dunleavy). Furthermore, in Rwanda, studies examined the relationship between foreign aid and government investment in rural health centres, and findings suggested that an increase in foreign aid at the health facility level did not crowd out government investments and was positively associated with service provision for child and maternal care and infectious diseases (Lu). This indicates that when foreign aid supplements rather than replaces government funding, it can enhance healthcare.

Beyond just vaccine production, governments should subsidize R&D, create incentives for biotech startups and allow foreign and local businesses to invest in health infrastructure while maintaining government oversight, as seen in Thailand. Countries must invest in stockpiling of essentials, regional disease monitoring and medical research. Digitalization of healthcare supply chains, improved disease modelling and public-private partnerships in biotechnology ensure that future pandemics do not leave nations scrambling for aid as the next pandemic is not a matter of if, but when, and nations must be stronger to handle such crises independently.

Self-Sufficiency

Vaccine diplomacy may appear benevolent on the surface, but history reveals it as a double-edged sword. Whether during the Cold War or the COVID-19 pandemic, medical aid has often served as geopolitical rather than purely humanitarian. Even though aid is rarely just altruism, nations use it to secure economic and political advantages. Wealthier nations will always prioritize their own interests. Instead of waiting for their aid, developing nations must stop relying on goodwill and take control of their own medical future through self-investment in vaccines, biotech, and regional alliances. Africa’s CDC and India’s Serum Institute prove that self-sufficiency is possible. If developing nations fail to act now, they will remain at the mercy of wealthier states—not just in the next pandemic but in every future global health crisis.

Works Cited:

Banerji, Anuttuma, “India’s Flawed Vaccine Diplomacy.” Stimson, 25 June 2021, https://www.stimson.org/2021/indias-flawed-vaccine-diplomacy/ .

Bristol, Nellie, “Smallpox Eradication: A Model for Global Cooperation.” Center for Strategic and International Studies, 13 May 2020, www.csis.org/analysis/smallpox-eradication-model-global-cooperation#:~:text=An%20initiative%20for%20global%20smallpox,that%20the%20plan%20was%20approved.

“Citizens Report Corruption in COVID-19 Humanitarian Aid.”, Transparency International, 25 Aug. 2021, www.transparency.org/en/press/citizens-report-corruption-in-covid-19-humanitarian-aid-quarantine-health-care.

Chattu, Vijay Kumar, et al., “The Rise of India’s Global Health Diplomacy Amid COVID-19 Pandemic.”, PubMed Central National Library of Medicine, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10790121/#:~:text=India%20distributed%20vaccines%20not%20only,Maitri%20(Vaccine%20Friendship)%20program .

Chunling Lu et al., “Does foreign aid crowd out government investments? Evidence from rural health centres in Rwanda”, PubMed Central National Library of Medicine, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5656131/ .

Connelly, Matthew. Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population., Harvard University Press, 2008.

Dunleavy, Kevin, “African Union Gains $45M Package to Boost Vaccine Manufacturing in Senegal.”, Fierce Pharma, 26 Jan. 2022, www.fiercepharma.com/manufacturing/african-union-gains-45m-package-boost-vaccine-manufacturing-senegal.

Eichengreen, Barry, The European Economy Since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond., Princeton University Press, 2007.

Elliott, Andrea., “Poor Countries Face Major Obstacles in Accessing Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine.”, The Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/world/coronavirus-vaccine-access-poor-countries-moderna/2021/02/12/0586e532-6712-11eb-bf81-c618c88ed605_story.html.

Epstein, Helen, The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS., Picador, 2008.

Farag, Marwa, “Does Funding From Donors Displace Government Spending For Health In Developing Countries?”, Health Affairs, https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.28.4.1045

“Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying’s Regular Press Conference on January 20, 2021.”, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The People’s Republic of China, 20 Jan. 2021, https://www.mfa.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xw/fyrbt/lxjzh/202405/t20240530_11346970.html .

second Place

Should freedom of speech have stricter limitations in the context of misinformation and hate speech online? Argue for a balanced approach to protecting individual rights while maintaining public safety.

Carolina Taylor Castro dos Santos, Argumentative

BRAZIL

Democracy at Risk: The Role of Social Media in Fueling Extremism

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire’s words resonate chillingly in the digital age, where online misinformation and hate speech can drive people to commit unthinkable acts of violence. In the early hours of January 8, 2023, Brazil’s democracy faced an existential crisis. Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Brasília, vandalizing the Supreme Court, Congress, and Presidential Palace. Their violent actions were fueled by months of conspiracy theories and inflammatory rhetoric spreading across social media. This insurrection was not an isolated event—it was the predictable result of unchecked digital extremism, where falsehoods, left to fester, spilled over into the physical world. This pattern is not unique to Brazil. From the United States to Myanmar, India to Germany, the spread of harmful content online has incited violence, discrimination, and societal division. What was once seen as a localized issue has revealed itself as a growing global threat, transcending borders and highlighting the urgent need for a collective, international approach to regulation. Today’s challenge is not whether online speech should be regulated, but how to do so without suppressing legitimate discourse. Striking a balance between protecting freedom of expression and preventing digital platforms from becoming breeding grounds for violence is essential to preserving democracy in the modern era.

The January 8 riots in Brazil mirror the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack in the United States, where mobs driven by false claims of election fraud attempted to subvert democratic processes. Both events exemplify how unchecked online misinformation can escalate into real-world violence. A 2023 study by the University of São Paulo found that during Brazil’s 2022 elections, misinformation surged on platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram, spreading far faster than fact-checking efforts could contain. The spread of falsehoods—claims of rigged votes and government conspiracies—fueled a sense of urgency and rage, leading people to justify their violent actions as a defense of democracy. Beyond political extremism, online hate speech has inflicted deep harm on marginalized communities in Brazil. Research into the January 8, 2023, insurrection revealed that many involved in the riots had actively participated in online groups where extremist rhetoric had been nurtured for months. The country’s long-standing issues with racism, homophobia, and religious intolerance have found new life in the digital sphere. ObservaDH reported over 293,000 cases of online hate speech between 2017 and 2022, with more than 76,000 involving direct incitement to violence. Additionally, during the 2022 elections, hate speech targeting Indigenous populations and the LGBTQ+ community surged, reflecting how political polarization often intensifies discrimination. From xenophobia to religious intolerance and misogyny, these online environments cultivate hostility and encourage perpetrators to act on their hatred. One particularly alarming example was the rise of anti-Northeastern sentiment online. After Bolsonaro's defeat, Northeastern voters—who overwhelmingly supported Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—were subjected to an avalanche of xenophobic slurs, with some posts even advocating violence. These digital attacks mirrored historical patterns of regional prejudice but were amplified to an unprecedented scale by social media algorithms designed to prioritize engagement over safety.

Recognizing the dangers of unregulated digital spaces, Brazil has taken steps to address the spread of online misinformation and hate speech, with the Fake News Bill (PL 2630/2020) aiming to compel social media platforms to act more aggressively against harmful content through increased transparency requirements, stricter content moderation, and accountability measures. This legislative effort reflects a broader global struggle, as the consequences of digital extremism are not confined to Brazil. In Myanmar, Facebook’s algorithm inadvertently amplified hate speech that fueled the Rohingya genocide, while in India, viral misinformation on WhatsApp has sparked deadly mob lynchings. Germany has grappled with a resurgence of neo-Nazi groups organizing online, and the UK has struggled to contain conspiracy theories that inspired violent plots. These examples illustrate a troubling pattern: when harmful online narratives go unregulated, they metastasize into tangible threats against human life and democratic stability, across every continent and political system. Brazil can learn from international efforts like the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which mandates the removal of harmful content within strict timeframes , and Germany’s Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), which fines platforms for failing to remove illegal content. Achieving a balance between freedom of expression and public safety requires a multifaceted approach. Tech companies must enhance content moderation, employing advanced detection systems to identify and mitigate harmful content, while ensuring transparency to avoid accusations of arbitrary censorship. Independent oversight bodies, composed of legal experts, human rights advocates, and technologists, could serve as impartial regulators, holding digital platforms accountable without succumbing to political influence. Algorithmic transparency is crucial, as social media algorithms designed to maximize engagement often amplify sensationalist content, including hate speech and misinformation. Platforms should be required to disclose how their algorithms influence content visibility and reform their systems to prioritize credible information over viral content. In addition, investing in global digital literacy programs would empower users worldwide to critically assess online content, recognize manipulation tactics, and resist misinformation. Strengthening fact-checking initiatives across regions could help counter false narratives before they spread. Given the borderless nature of the internet, international cooperation remains vital; countries must collaborate to establish shared standards for content regulation, ensuring policies protect public safety without disproportionately restricting speech. Ultimately, addressing digital extremism is not a localized issue but a global challenge, one that requires thoughtful, collaborative, and rights-respecting solutions from governments, tech companies, and civil society alike. The 2021 EU-wide regulation of hate speech on platforms like Facebook and Twitter demonstrates that such cooperative efforts can be effective in addressing harmful online content while maintaining democratic principles.

However, any regulation must be careful to avoid unintentionally silencing legitimate dissent—a risk highlighted by critics who argue that poorly designed laws could become instruments of censorship, targeting political opponents under the guise of combating misinformation. Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes captured this complexity when he asserted that social networks must not become “lawless lands” where harmful ideologies thrive unchecked, emphasizing that the solution lies not in suppressing voices, but in preventing speech from being weaponized against democracy itself. In the wake of the January 8 attacks, Moraes became a vocal proponent of stronger online regulation, launching investigations into platform administrators and influencers who spread extremist content. While his actions were praised by some as necessary for preserving public order, they also sparked intense debate, with critics warning of judicial overreach and the potential erosion of civil liberties. This tension illustrates the fragile line between protecting democracy and inadvertently stifling it, especially in a country with a history of authoritarianism. For many, the fear is that empowering state authorities to control online speech, even with the intent to curb extremism, could easily be manipulated to silence dissent and reinforce political agendas. In a nation still grappling with the legacy of dictatorship, the possibility of sliding toward censorship is a legitimate concern, making it imperative that any regulatory framework is implemented with rigorous oversight, transparency, and an unwavering commitment to safeguarding human rights.

The evidence is clear: the unchecked spread of harmful content online is a threat to democracy and public order. In the face of rising digital extremism, the imperative to regulate online spaces has become undeniable. However, achieving an effective balance between upholding freedom of expression and curbing the spread of misinformation and hate speech remains a delicate task. The global nature of the internet means that the consequences of inaction are felt far beyond individual borders, as seen in events from Brazil to Myanmar. While regulatory efforts, like Brazil’s Fake News Bill, show promise, they must be executed cautiously, ensuring that any measures taken do not inadvertently stifle legitimate discourse or empower authoritarian tendencies. Transparent content moderation, international cooperation, and a focus on digital literacy are key components of a holistic strategy that preserves public safety and democratic principles. As societies grapple with the complexities of digital governance, the need for collaboration across governments, tech companies, and civil society has never been more pressing. When ignorance and hatred go unchallenged, they do not fade — they fester, waiting for the next moment to strike at the heart of democracy.

Reference List

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Barbosa, Francisco. “Xenofobia Contra Nordestinos Revela a Forte Presença Do Racismo No Brasil, Dizem Especialistas.” Brasil de Fato, 7 Oct. 2022, www.brasildefato.com.br/2022/10/07/xenofobia-contra-nordestinos-revela-a-forte-presenca-do-racismo-no-brasil-dizem-especialistas/. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.

Camazano, Priscila, and Lívia Marra. “Entenda Os Ataques Golpistas de 8 de Janeiro E Seus Desdobramentos.” Folha de S.Paulo, folha.uol.com.br, 7 Feb. 2023, www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2023/02/entenda-os-ataques-golpistas-de-8-de-janeiro-e-seus-desdobramentos.shtml. Accessed 17 Feb. 2025.

Campos, Ana Maria. “‘O Brasil Não é Terra Sem Lei’, Diz Moraes Sobre Big Techs.” Direito E Justiça, Correio Braziliense, 9 Jan. 2025, www.correiobraziliense.com.br/direito-e-justica/2025/01/7030113-o-brasil-nao-e-terra-sem-lei-diz-moraes-sobre-big-techs.html. Accessed 17 Feb. 2025.

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“Germany: Network Enforcement Act Amended to Better Fight Online Hate Speech.” The Library of Congress, 2015, www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2021-07-06/germany-network-enforcement-act-amended-to-better-fight-online-hate-speech/. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.

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Third PlacE

Is it the responsibility of wealthier nations to ensure equitable access to vaccines and healthcare for developing countries? Make a case for or against this obligation.

William John Banthorpe, Argumentative

UNITED KINGDOM

The World is fractured – could healthcare save it?

Fighting HIV in South Africa, building hospitals in Syria, tackling Tuberculosis in Cambodia, stopping mpox outbreaks in the DRC, responding to Ebola in Uganda – these were all programs previously funded by USAID.1 However, on the 20th of January, the White House issued an executive order pausing all international aid by the US, thereby shutting down programs fighting disease in over fifty countries2 3. The US is not the only country categorically failing to support international health – around the world, wealthy countries are failing despite having both a moral imperative and an economic incentive to invest in global healthcare. Countries that claim to champion human rights or have benefitted from colonisation have obligations to do more. Even those who prioritize national self-interest should recognise that investing in global healthcare protects their own citizens, saves lives, and prevents economic disruption. In this essay we argue that wealthier nations have an evident responsibility to ensure equitable access to healthcare for developing countries, a responsibility derived from human rights, the duty of governments to protect their citizens and historical events.

In the words of the late US President Jimmy Carter, alleviating the suffering of people in other countries is a moral obligation, “an act of kindness, a recognition of our common humanity” 4. One of the easiest ways to do this is widening access to healthcare. The Twentieth Century saw revolutionary medical advances such as vaccines that dramatically increased life expectancy, reduced infant and maternal mortality and improved health equality in wealthy nations. Now, wealthier nations can share the benefits of this technological progress globally, recognising humanity’s inherent equality and improving the quality of life of billions. The absolute equality between all humans underpins the modern system of human rights, principles frequently championed by wealthier countries – yet they neglect widening access to healthcare – ignoring its place in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) which has been signed by every member of the OECD5 6. If wealthy nations wish to avoid the obvious hypocrisy, then they have a clear responsibility here to devote more spending to healthcare in developing countries. In the 1970s, a resolution asking developed countries to contribute at least 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) to foreign aid was adopted by the UN General Assembly and accepted by almost all countries with the notable exception of the USA7 8. Yet by 2023, just five countries met this target, not even making up 10% of the OECD’s GDP 8 9. In fact, the OECD average contribution has never exceeded 0.4% of GNI and no country met the target by its original deadline8 9. This underscores how, for decades, wealthy countries have neglected their responsibility to support developing nations and have not met the targets they once accepted as reasonable. If over the past half century wealthy countries had met these targets, the global health landscape could have been radically improved, transforming billions of lives. Wealthy countries have a responsibility to improve health in developing countries not just because of the obvious moral arguments but also because it is a responsibility they have accepted but consistently failed to meet.

There is no denying that some wealthy nations amassed significant parts of their wealth through colonisation, with devastating consequences for global health. When colonial powers seized control, they were not focused on improving the lives of the colonised but rather focused on the ruthless extraction of resources. When colonial powers withdrew, they did not focus on establishing stable, democratic systems; instead, they rapidly disengaged to minimise their own losses. Enter autocratic regimes, civil wars and general chaos – not exactly a breeding ground for positive health outcomes. It has been claimed that in just forty years of British rule in India, one hundred million people were killed by famine and poverty while the damage still endures with life expectancy in India fifteen years lower than that in the United Kingdom10 11. Former colonial powers therefore bear a special responsibility to rectify the damage that they inflicted both in the past, and the enduring harm which has been perpetuated into the modern era. All but two countries in Africa were colonised by European powers, and in 2023 there were 246 million malaria cases in this region12. Yet the R21 malaria vaccine costs an inconsequential $3.90 per dose13. A vaccine for each of those cases would have cost just under a billion dollars, a truly insignificant amount for countries with trillion-dollar economies built partly on colonial wealth, but lifesaving for millions. The aforementioned technological progress made by Western nations in the Twentieth Century would not have been possible without the riches taken unjustly from colonised nations, so countries that benefited from colonialism (which are now invariably wealthy) have a clear responsibility to repair the damage that they inflicted.

Wealthier nations also have a responsibility to protect their citizens, a duty that improving international health fulfils. The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated that contagious diseases do not respect borders. Neglecting healthcare in poorer regions creates an incubator for diseases which will inevitably spread to wealthier nations, potentially devastating populations and crashing economies. Is supporting improved global health not a small price to pay to help prevent another global pandemic? The total cost of the Covid-19 pandemic to the USA has been estimated at $16 trillion while in 2023, the federal government spent just $71.9 billion in foreign aid (which is not all spent on healthcare)14 15. The impact on wealthier countries of diseases originating from developing countries will become even greater as populations in wealthy countries age and are therefore more vulnerable to disease. An example of this was an Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2017 which killed more than 11,000 people.16 If the disease had spread to Nigeria, with its many travel links around the world, it could have become a much greater crisis but thanks partly to the intervention of a group of international health workers on an anti-polio campaign, the disease was contained before it could have an impact on wealthier countries. This example illustrates how foreign aid spent on healthcare protects citizens in wealthier nations, a responsibility of these countries. In 2017, eleven of the US’s top fifteen trade partners formerly received aid from the US17. Trade is mutually beneficial for both economies, so it has helped the US to meet its responsibility to its citizens to deliver economic growth. Moreover, in recent times the USA and China have been competing for influence in global affairs, particularly in key strategic regions such as the Asia-Pacific. As part of this competition, China has developed a “Health Silk Road” as part of its Belt and Road Initiative by which it seeks to invest in healthcare in Africa and central Asia to further its own interests18. To counter this, the USA and its allies should also be investing in healthcare in these regions as by doing so, the USA can simultaneously improve the lives of those in developing countries while also maintaining its authority and expanding its strategic interests. Saving and prolonging lives would be effective methods for building support for the US in developing countries, fostering stronger ties and regional stability. Healthcare spending would make local populations feel valued by the US, creating more popular support for its involvement in their countries.

81% of German citizens think that immigration has been too high in the last 10 years; Donald Trump has bombastically declared that he will “deport 21 million illegal immigrants”; it seems that immigration from developing countries has become a defining challenge for politicians in wealthier countries.19 20 If, however, wealthy nations had spent the past fifty years investing in global health, it is plausible that immigration rates would be significantly lower than they currently are. By improving healthcare, migrants would have a higher quality of life in their home nations, so would be less likely to move to wealthier countries21. Thus, spending on healthcare aid helps politicians in wealthy countries to fulfil their responsibilities to their electorate.

Additional spending by wealthy economies on healthcare in developing countries is critical, morally, economically and politically but it is crucial that this is distributed correctly. Spending must focus on long-term treatment, not proverbial painkillers. Building effective, independent healthcare systems is key rather than systems which engender reliance on wealthier countries. If wealthy countries want their own citizens to be healthier, their own economies to be larger and to have increased global influence, investing in healthcare is a crucial method of achieving these objectives. Wealthy countries have a responsibility, because of treaties that they have signed, rights which they claim to uphold, and obligations to their citizens, to ensure equitable access to healthcare for developing countries, yet they frequently fail to. Critics warn of corruption and preach national self-interest, ignoring how easily the world could be transformed into a healthier, happier, and more prosperous place for all. The benefits are undeniable – wealthier nations have an opportunity to choose action over apathy by accepting their responsibility to invest in healthcare in developing countries. It is not too late.

Works cited

1 Health Policy Watch, Elaine Ruth Fletcher (12th February 2025), From Mpox to Influenza – USAID Collapse and CDC Blackout Upend WHO Response to Deadly Outbreaks. Available from: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/from-mpox-to-influenza-usaid-collapse-and-cdc-blackout-upend-who-response-to-deadly-outbreaks/ [accessed 5th March 2025]

2 The White House (January 20, 2025), Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid. Available from: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/ [accessed 13th February 2025]

3 BBC News, Sophie Hutchinson and Philippa Roxby (12th February 2025), Fifty countries affected by USAID freeze, says WHO. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czj3z290ngyo [accessed 13th February 2025]

4 The Carter Centre, Jimmy Carter and Baroness D’Souza (February 3rd 2016). Available from: https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/editorials-speeches/president-carter-house-of-lords-presentation.pdf [accessed 13th February 2025]

5 United Nations (10th December 1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Available from https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights [accessed 14th February 2025]

6 OECD (Date unknown), Members and partners. Available from: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/members-partners.html [accessed 15th February 2025]

7 OECD (Date unknown), The 0.7% ODA/GNI target - a history. Available from: https://web-archive.oecd.org/temp/2024-06-17/63452-the07odagnitarget-ahistory.htm [accessed 5th March 2025]

8 Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Arriagada (January 22nd 2025), Five developed countries met the UN’s target for foreign aid in 2023. Available from: https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/five-developed-countries-met-the-uns-target-for-foreign-aid-in2023#:~:text=Even%20today%2C%20only%20a%20handful,0.7%25%20of%20their%20national%20income. [accessed 5th March 2025]

9 World Bank (2023), GDP (current US$) - OECD members. Available from: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=OE [accessed 5th March 2025]

10 Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel (January 2023), Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22002169#s0010 [accessed 5th March 2025]

11 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2024), World Population Prospects 2024, Online Edition. Available from: https://population.un.org/wpp/downloads?folder=Standard%20Projections&group=Most%20used [accessed 5th March 2025]

12 World Health Organization (24th December 2024), Malaria vaccines (RTS,S and R21). Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/q-a-on-rts-s-malaria-vaccine [accessed 13th February 2025]

13 Unicef Supply Division (June 2024), Malaria Vaccines: Questions and Answers on Supply, Price, and Market Shaping, Section 2. Available from: https://www.unicef.org/supply/media/21901/file/Malaria-vaccine-Q-A-May-2024-update.pdf [accessed 13th February 2025]

14 Vardavas C, Zisis K, Nikitara K, Lagou I, Marou V, Aslanoglou K, Athanasakis K, Phalkey R, Leonardi-Bee J, Fernandez E, Condell O, Lamb F, Sandmann F, Pharris A, Deogan C, Suk JE, Cost of the COVID-19 pandemic versus the cost-effectiveness of mitigation strategies in EU/UK/OECD: a systematic review. Available from: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10619092/ [accessed 5th March 2025]

15 ForeignAssistance.gov (19th December 2024). Available from: https://www.foreignassistance.gov/ [accessed 5th March 2025]

16 Rui G. Vaz, Pascal Mkanda, Richard Banda, William Komkech, Olubowale O. Ekundare-Famiyesin, Rosemary Onyibe, Sunday Abidoye, Peter Nsubuga, Sylvester Maleghemi, Bolatito Hannah-Murele, Sisay G. Tegegne (2nd April 2016), The Role of the Polio Program Infrastructure in Response to Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Nigeria 2014, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 213. Available from: https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/213/suppl_3/S140/2236430 [accessed 5th March 2025]

17 Patrick Quirk and Caitlin Dearing Scott (29th June 2025), Maximising US foreign aid for strategic competition. Available from: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/maximizing-us-foreign-aid-for-strategic-competition/ [accessed 5th March 2025]

18 Nadège Rolland (4th December 2024), The Health Silk Road, A Branch of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, National Bureau of Asia Research Special Report No. 113. Available from: https://www.nbr.org/publication/the-health-silk-road-a-branch-of-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative/ [accessed 5th March 2025]

19 YouGov, Matthew Smith (26th February 2025), EuroTrack: publics across Western Europe are unhappy with immigration. Available from: https://yougov.co.uk/international/articles/51684-eurotrack-publics-across-western-europe-are-unhappy-with-immigration [accessed 5th March 2025]

20 The Guardian, Robert Tait (8th November 2024), Trump says vow to deport millions of undocumented people has ‘no price tag’. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/08/trump-mass-deportation-plan [accessed 5th March 2025]

21 Rabih Torbay (September 2023) Lack Of Health Care Access Drives Global Migration. Available from: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.00855 [accessed 5th March 2025]

Bill Gates (17th March 2017), How foreign aid helps Americans. Available from: https://www.gatesnotes.com/how-foreign-aid-helps-americans [accessed 5th March 2025]

english language learner

Should there be stricter global regulations on the development and use of artificial intelligence? Argue for or against this position, considering the balance between innovation and ethical concerns.

Fernando Alonso Cruz Ng Ying, Argumentative

PERU

The Cost of Progress: Balancing innovation and ethics in AI regulations

In the not-so-distant past, the unchecked rise of industrialization led to environmental degradation, prompting society to implement regulations to protect our planet. Today, we face a similar crossroads with artificial intelligence (AI). ChatGPT gained 100 million users in just two months—faster than Instagram or TikTok—showing how AI is shaping our world at an incredible pace. But behind its benefits, AI also brings a hidden price tag: massive energy consumption, water shortages, and the use of copyrighted creative work without permission. While AI can write books, compose music, and improve industries, it also raises urgent concerns about its environmental impact and fairness to creators. Can we embrace AI’s potential without ignoring these consequences? This essay argues that if AI continues to grow without proper regulations, we risk repeating past mistakes—damaging the environment and undermining intellectual property. To balance progress with responsibility, we need global rules that ensure AI benefits society without causing harm. As we move forward, we must ask ourselves: Will AI help humanity thrive, or will it become a reflection of our worst tendencies?

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is not just reshaping technology, but our planet—through rising energy and water consumption—making stricter regulations on AI a necessity for the sustainability of the environment. The widespread development and deployment of AI systems have led to a sharp increase in resource consumption, exacerbating ecological pressures. For example, training large-scale models like GPT-3 requires 1,287 MWh of energy—enough to power 120 U.S. households—while emitting 552 tons of CO₂, equivalent to 285 transatlantic flights. This mounting depletion of resources raises a critical question: can we afford to overlook the environmental costs of unchecked AI expansion? Consider the vast network of data centers that sustain AI applications. By 2027, these facilities are expected to consume between 4.2 and 6.6 billion cubic meters of water annually—comparable to the yearly water usage of entire nations such as Denmark. Research from Making AI Less ‘Thirsty’ highlights how AI data centers rely on cooling towers that require continuous replenishment with freshwater, significantly depleting local water supplies. Moreover, each time an AI model like ChatGPT processes 20 to 50 user queries, it consumes approximately 500 milliliters (17 ounces) of water. Given the widespread use of such models, this results in a substantial daily demand for freshwater, further straining global water resources. Without intervention, the unchecked proliferation of AI could exacerbate water scarcity, intensifying competition for this vital resource. The energy demands of AI are equally alarming. The information and communications technology (ICT) sector, which includes AI, accounts for up to 3.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions—surpassing even the aviation industry’s 2.5% share. As AI models grow more complex, their energy requirements continue to escalate, leading to higher carbon emissions and deepening the strain on the planet’s already fragile ecosystems. Addressing AI’s environmental impact is no longer an option but a necessity, requiring a balanced approach that fosters innovation while implementing sustainable practices, ensuring that technological progress does not come at the expense of our planet’s future.

Nevertheless, a counter-point opposing the necessity for stricter AI regulations to mitigate environmental impact posits that ongoing advancements in AI efficiency are inherently reducing its ecological footprint. For instance, Google's DeepMind utilized AI to optimize data center cooling systems, achieving a remarkable 40% reduction in energy consumption, which translates to annual savings of approximately 4.4 terawatt-hours—enough to power around 500,000 homes. AI can be both a contributor to and a solution for energy efficiency challenges, thus technology's evolution may naturally address environmental concerns without the need for stringent regulations. Such innovations indicate that the industry is proactively seeking solutions to curb energy consumption, thereby questioning the necessity for additional regulatory measures. However, this one-sided standpoint does not consider that, without regulatory oversight, companies might prioritize financial gains over environmental sustainability. Without appropriate regulations, there may be insufficient incentives for widespread adoption of energy-efficient technologies, potentially leading to increased energy consumption and environmental degradation Furthermore, between 2022 and 2024, local energy consumption in Phoenix, Arizona increased by 18%, and municipal water usage surged by 12% due to the construction of over 30 new AI-powered data centers. Independent assessments revealed that these facilities contributed an extra 50,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions annually, while significantly straining local water resources and impacting agricultural output. Therefore, relying solely on technological advancements and industry self-regulation may be insufficient to ensure environmental sustainability. Implementing stricter global regulations on AI development and usage is essential to provide a structured framework that aligns technological innovation with ecological preservation. Such regulations would ensure that the rapid growth of AI does not come at the expense of our planet's health, balancing progress with responsibility.

Just as unregulated industrialization led to environmental degradation, the unchecked development of artificial intelligence (AI) poses a significant threat to intellectual property rights across creative fields. In recent years, numerous lawsuits have alleged that AI models have been trained on copyrighted materials without consent, infringing upon the rights of photographers, writers, and filmmakers. For instance, in December 2023, the Authors Guild and 17 prominent authors filed a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of using copyrighted works without authorization to train AI models. This raises a crucial question: how can creators protect their work in an era where machines can replicate human creativity? A clear example of this dilemma is the lawsuit Getty Images v. Stability AI, in which Getty Images accused Stability AI of unlawfully scraping millions of images to train its AI model, thereby creating direct competition with original content creators. Such practices not only diminish the economic value of creative works but also undermine the labor and talent invested by artists. Similarly, in the UK, the government's proposal to allow AI companies to use copyrighted materials without explicit permission has faced strong opposition from artists and industry leaders. Sir Cameron Mackintosh criticized the plan as counterproductive and undemocratic, warning of its potential harm to a creative industry valued at £126 billion. Without stringent global regulations to govern AI development and usage, the foundation of intellectual property rights risks erosion, disincentivizing creators and stifling cultural enrichment. Historically, regulatory frameworks such as environmental laws have balanced technological progress with ethical considerations. In parallel, implementing robust AI regulations can ensure that innovation does not come at the expense of creators' rights, fostering an environment where technology and artistry coexist harmoniously. A future where AI and human creativity thrive together is possible, but only if we establish clear ethical boundaries that protect the rights and contributions of creators.

Many opponents of stringent AI regulations argue that such measures stifle innovation and hinder economic growth. They claim that an open data environment is essential for technological advancement, allowing AI systems to learn from diverse datasets and generate novel content. For example, the global AI market is projected to grow from $93.5 billion in 2021 to $997.8 billion by 2028, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.2%. Proponents of minimal regulation believe that this growth could be hampered by restrictive policies, such as the European Union (EU) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, potentially causing the EU to fall behind in the AI race, where the US and China currently have a considerable lead. However, this perspective often overlooks the critical issue of intellectual property rights. Unrestricted use of copyrighted materials for AI training can undermine the economic and moral rights of creators. Moreover, a striking historical parallel can be found in the case of Napster, a pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing service launched in 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. It allowed users to share and download digital music files, primarily in MP3 format, without centralized control. While Napster revolutionized music access, it also led to widespread copyright infringement, resulting in an annual global downturn in music revenue from $23.7 billion to $14.2 billion between 1999 and 2009. Therefore, treating intellectual property as an open resource not only devalues the labor and talent of artists but also poses significant legal and ethical challenges. While the unrestricted use of data may seem to promote innovation, it is imperative to implement regulations that protect the rights of creators, ensuring a sustainable and equitable environment for both technological and artistic communities.

AI’s meteoric rise mirrors humanity’s oldest dilemma: progress at what cost? Its energy thirst guzzles water and spews carbon, while unlicensed data plunder erodes creativity’s value. Stricter AI regulations are necessary to mitigate environmental harm, as AI-driven data centers consume massive energy and water resources, worsening climate change. Additionally, unregulated AI threatens intellectual property rights, undermining creators. While efficiency advances exist, relying solely on industry self-regulation is insufficient. Will we let AI amplify our worst traits—exploitation, excess—or elevate it as a tool for sustainable, ethical advancement? The choice defines our legacy: Will machines inherit a scorched planet and stolen art, or a world where innovation honors life’s balance? The clock ticks.

References

Strubell E, Ganesh A, McCallum A. Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP [Internet]. arXiv; 2023 Apr 5. Available from: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03271
Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. AI’s Challenging Waters [Internet]. 2023. Available from: https://cee.illinois.edu/news/AIs-Challenging-Waters
Patterson D, Gonzalez J, Le Q, Liang C, Munguia L, Rothchild D, et al. Carbon Emissions and Large Neural Network Training [Internet]. arXiv; 2023 Jun 1. Available from: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00292
Katz C. Artificial Intelligence’s Growing Energy and Climate Costs [Internet]. Yale Environment 360. 2023. Available from: https://e360.yale.edu/features/artificial-intelligence-climate-energy-emissions
DeepMind. Reducing Google’s data center cooling bill with AI [Internet]. 2016. Available from: https://deepmind.google/technologies/data-centre-efficiency/
McKinsey & Company. How AI is accelerating the energy transition [Internet]. 2023. Available from: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/how-ai-is-accelerating-the-energy-transition
World Economic Forum. AI-powered agriculture: How tech is helping farms conserve water [Internet]. 2022. Available from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/ai-powered-agriculture-water-conservation/
Arizona Environmental Council. Impact of Data Center Expansion on Phoenix Resources [Internet]. 2023. Available from: https://www.arizonaenvironment.org/data-centers-phoenix
Pengfei L, Jianyi Y, Mohammad AI, Shaolei R. Making AI less “thirsty”: Uncovering and addressing the secret water footprint of AI models [Internet]. arXiv [cs.LG]. 2023. Available from: http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03271
Authors Guild. Authors Guild and authors file class action suit against OpenAI. Authors Guild [Internet]. 2023 Sep 20. Available from: https://authorsguild.org/news/ag-and-authors-file-class-action-suit-against-openai/
Getty Images. Getty Images statement. Getty Images [Internet]. 2023 Jan 17. Available from: https://newsroom.gettyimages.com/en/getty-images/getty-images-statement
Financial Times. Help is coming in the AI copyright wars. Financial Times [Internet]. 2025 Feb 28. Available from: https://www.ft.com/content/b98979ba-6ae7-4490-97a9-127381440b1f
The Times. AI's 'original sin': how it eats a world of data. The Times [Internet]. 2025 Feb 28. Available from: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ai-language-learning-model-creative-industries-data-m8sbfsz7w
Reuters. Getty Images lawsuit says Stability AI misused photos to train AI. Reuters [Internet]. 2023 Feb 6. Available from: https://www.reuters.com/legal/getty-images-lawsuit-says-stability-ai-misused-photos-train-ai-2023-02-06/
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European Commission. Proposal for a regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) [Internet]. 2023. Available from: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-strategy/artificial-intelligence-act_en
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journalistic

FIRST PLACE: Serena Yufei Li, China

SECOND PLACE: Amna Chaudhry, Bahrain

THIRD PLACE: Eleonore Vecchioli, United Kingdom

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER: Le Thuc Anh Do, Germany

first place

Focus on the contributions of workers in overlooked professions, such as sanitation workers, delivery drivers, or caregivers. Highlight the significance of their work and the systemic issues they face.

Serena Yufei Li, journalistic

CHINA

The Underbelly of China's Food Delivery Industry: the Harsh Reality for Drivers

Profiting Off a Booming Industry

“I would never tell my customers that my child was sick or that I was struggling,” Zhang Weichao says. “Why should people feel sorry for me?”

For years, Zhang has worked as a takeout deliveryman for one of China’s largest on-demand delivery providers, Meituan. Despite his seven-year-old son being diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, leading to his hospitalization, Zhang remains optimistic and committed to his work. “The job suits me, and it allows me to save money for my son.”

China is officially the world's largest food delivery market. The "2024 China Catering Industry Annual Report," released by the China Restaurant Association, reveals that a total of 545 million citizens had their food delivered, and the industry grosses approximately 1.2 trillion yuan (or $168 billion USD) annually. Last year, there were an estimated 12 million food delivery workers in China, and that number has likely grown since then, with Meituan and Ele.me, the two biggest platforms, employing 7.45 million and 4 million active riders, respectively. The incredible size of this sector is partly due to the lure of convenience: not only can customers stay in the comfort of their homes, they save time and energy that would otherwise be spent cooking or dining out.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many residents were barred from leaving their homes, delivery workers played a critical role keeping communities afloat, since they were tasked with transporting essential goods like food, medicine, and other daily necessities. Lao Ji, one of the thousands of delivery workers in Wuhan, brought meals and supplies to doctors and hospitals during that difficult time. "Doctors are saving lives, but they need to eat to have the strength to work,” he stated. Continuing, he said that he was not afraid, and that with his mask securely fastened, he felt ready to go anywhere. He rushed around for his neighbors and clients, hurrying to pharmacies, supermarkets and hospitals, helping the elderly shop, bringing textbooks to students, and in some cases even helping to feed pets.

Optimal Choices, Harsh Conditions

According to a survey conducted by the Beijing News in 2020, the top three reasons people become a delivery worker are the flexibility of working hours, the stable and high earnings, and the minimal skill requirements.

The survey also found that 85.6% of Chinese food delivery workers possess a high school-level of education or below. In China, there are limited career choices for workers with this level of education, and many choose to become factory workers that earn meager wages, serve as hotel staff members thousands of kilometers from home, or chase after unreliable bosses for unpaid wages at construction sites. Compared to those jobs, working as a food delivery worker provides a relatively stable employment opportunity with a decent income.

In 2023, the “China Blue-Collar Employment Research Report" showed that the average monthly income of food delivery workers was 6,803 yuan ($934 USD). This was higher than the average monthly income of 6,043 yuan ($830 USD) for blue-collar workers, and ranks among the top three in terms of income for employees without a college degree. The pay-per-order model also offers riders like Zhang a relatively stable income. “I can earn over 10,000 yuan a month ($1373 USD) if I work more than 10 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he said. “This money helps cover our current household expenses as well as the medical expenses for my son.”

Additionally, since takeout delivery work does not have strictly defined hours, their schedules can be adjusted to accommodate their personal needs. Zhong Li is one such example. As a single mom with a one-year-old daughter, Li describes her situation: “I am raising my daughter alone, so I need a job with relatively high income as well as flexible hours, and it is one of the few optimal job choices available at the moment for me. I think many mothers choose this job for the same reason—we need a stable income and flexible hours to care for our families.”

Growing Responsibilities, Shrinking Incomes

In August 2024, a viral video from Hangzhou showed a delivery driver kneeling before a security guard after being fined for climbing a fence to save time. This event greatly intensified the public discussion about the challenges faced by the 12 million Chinese delivery riders who are operating under uncertain, often difficult conditions. Delivery workers are under intense pressure to make speedy deliveries, since late deliveries can and do result in complaints and fines. According to a Meituan delivery rider’s feedback: “40%-70% of the-per order income gets deducted for a delay,” and “I can’t fight against the delivery time allocated by the system, so if I don’t break traffic rules, the income I could earn in a day could be halved.”

These strict on-time delivery rules have led countless workers to run red lights, exceed the speed limit, and even get in harmful and sometimes fatal accidents. As Zhang recalls, “One rainy day, I was running late with a delivery and the customer cancelled the order. I was immediately fined 50 yuan ($6.8 USD) by the platform, no questions asked, and my first thought was that a third of my son’s daily hospital fee was gone.”

Within the hierarchy of the food delivery industry, delivery workers are at the bottom of the pyramid, below the restaurants, customers, and the delivery companies themselves. The system's estimated delivery time starts counting when a customer places an order and only stops when the rider delivers the food to the customer. However, many restaurants intentionally start preparing the meal after the rider arrives to ensure the quality of the food. When delays in food preparation lead to late deliveries, only the delivery workers are penalized. Additionally, restaurants and customers are allowed to rate and complain about delivery workers, but the workers have no means to rate them. Sometimes, delivery workers are forced to even take the blame for the restaurants’ failures, since complaints about the food often appear in the workers’ negative review sections.

On top of the pressures faced by food delivery workers, the paychecks have started to shrink. According to Meituan's annual reports for 2023 and 2024, the average amount earned from one delivery was a meager 3.65 yuan ($0.5 USD), which was 12% lower than the 4.17 yuan ($0.57 USD) average in 2023. “They are working long hours, really being squeezed,” said Jenny Chan, an Associate Professor of sociology at Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, “and they will continue to face pressure as delivery platforms have to keep the cost low.” For these reasons, many riders have appealed to change the system, but almost none of the appeals have been successful.

Necessary Reforms

The Chinese government has made some progress in protecting these workers. Last year, the two largest food delivery companies piloted an anti-fatigue system that sent messages to workers after 8 hours of continuous work and automatically logged them off for a break after 12 hours of deliveries. Despite these efforts, the dominance of the major food delivery platforms means that they can shift the cost burden to their workers by cutting corners and leaving few opportunities for them to push for better wages and working conditions. In 2020, Meituan launched an appeal system, but many riders have reported that when they reasonably appeal customer negative reviews, a significant number of these appeals are not approved instantly by the system. Even if they manage to contact a customer service representative, they are often told that the representative does not have the authority to cancel the penalty. “I don't have time to be upset over fines, because I know arguing with the company is futile most of the time. If I stop making deliveries, what happens to my son?” said Zhang.

Another key element complicating the situation of delivery workers is China’s “hukou system.” This system restricts rural migrants from enjoying the same rights and access to public services as their urban counterparts. As a result, many migrant delivery riders lack access to essential social welfare services such as housing, healthcare, and education. With their labor officially tagged as "flexible employment," they are not bound by formal employment contracts. It is reassuring that Meituan has begun taking steps in this area. In 2022, a nationwide pilot program was initiated, in which about 4.5 million delivery workers were covered by insurance for occupational injuries. However, other necessary worker protections, such as unemployment, medical, maternity, and pension contributions are still lacking. “We need to buy necessary insurance by ourselves if we are not covered by the company, because this is a high-risk job,” said Zhang. “The cost of medical treatment and lost wages could impose an unbearable financial burden on us.”

Significant changes are still necessary to protect delivery workers’ fundamental rights. As Zhang said, “This is a high-risk, low-prestige job, and without the overdue changes, I will consider changing fields after my son recovers.”

Works Cited

Sina finance. “ Life of Chinese food delivery riders: some bought houses, while others persist in writing poetry” sina.com.cn, 5 August, 2022, https://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/cyxw/2022-08-05/doc-imizmscv4959814.shtml accessed 12 February, 2025.

Jiang lin, Zhou yuan. “Over 10 million Chinese food delivery riders” sina.com.cn, 16 January, 2025, https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2025-01-16/doc-inefcvrz6915967.shtml accessed 13 February, 2025.

21 Jingji. Com. “545 million online food delivery users, China has become the world's largest food delivery market” www. 21 Jingji.com, 17 January, 2025, https://www.21jingji.com/article/20250117/herald/1e54e06185e1ebed23de9209bf0d74de.html accessed 13 February, accessed 13 February, 2025.

Xu kuang. “Food delivery riders Lao Ji, 100 reasons to love Wuhan.” Hubei Daily, 22 February, 2020, https://www.hubei.gov.cn/zhuanti/2020/gzxxgzbd/ys/202002/t20200222_2145078.shtml accessed 14 February, 2025.

Wang xiaojuan. “Meituan's 7.45 million delivery riders” sina.com.cn, 22 September, 2024, https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2024-09-24/doc-incqfssv1378340.shtml accessed 14 February, 2025.

Cai Zhongshe. “The real income of Meituan delivery riders: average monthly salary less than 900 yuan.” 163.com, 20 September, 2024. https://www.163.com/dy/article/JCH4NQ8O05568V7Z.html accessed 13 February, 2025.

Chris Lau, Marc Stewart and Martha Zhou. “Really squeezed: Why drivers in the world’s largest food delivery market are having meltdowns.” CNN business, October 18, 2024 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/17/business/china-food-delivery-drivers-meltdowns-intl-hnk/index.html accessed 14 February, 2025.

Xin Shang “Meituan, hiding behind 7 million delivery riders”, donews.com, 20 August, 2024,

https://www.donews.com/article/detail/5099/74268.html accessed 2 March, 2025

Yang Xiaosheng, Gao Xiang. “ Beijing population development report (2022)” Pengpai news, 9 September, 2023,

https://m.thepaper.cn/kuaibao_detail.jsp?contid=9096383&from=kuaibao accessed 2 March, 2025

Ye Haoming. “ Last year, Chinese delivery riders were 6803 Yuan”. Xin Hua news, 11 December, 2024,

https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_29616232 accessed 2 March, 2025

Huang Mengqi. “A Female Delivery Rider's Double Bind: Trapped by the System, Yet Empowered by It.” sina.com.cn, 25 August, 2021,

https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2021-08-25/doc-ikqciyzm3593609.shtml accessed 2 March, 2025

Ji Leilei, “The number of users has reached 545 million!” Economic Daily, 25 January, 2025,

https://news.cctv.com/2025/01/27/ARTIjwRmBk7CNKlDmMykoARg250127.shtml accessed 3 March, 2025

Di Ruifang, “Could Meituan solve their Issue?” sina.com.cn, 3 January, 2025,

https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-01-03/doc-inecsvuv4724468.shtml accessed 3 March, 2025

second place

Investigate how protest movements have adapted to the digital age. Consider how online activism complements or challenges traditional forms of demonstration.

Amna Chaudhry, journalistic

Bahrain

The Hashtag Revolution: How Protest Movements Have Adapted to the Digital Age

"The revolution will not be televised, but it will be tweeted."

On September 16, 2022, the world was shaken by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. Just days after her arrest, she died in police custody. Her death would become the catalyst for a movement that would spread far beyond Iran, demonstrating just how much protest movements have evolved in the digital age.

Within hours of Amini’s death, the internet erupted with outrage. The hashtag #MahsaAmini trended worldwide. In comparison to earlier protest movements that were covered traditionally in the media, protestors turned to digital platforms to share their message quickly and instantly. The phrase “Woman, Life, Freedom,” drawn from Kurdish feminist movements, appeared as a unifying cry that spread around the world.

This digital uprising illustrated how online activism complements traditional protests. Social media platforms became a battlefield where activists bypassed state media to document abuse and rally support. Despite the Iranian government’s efforts to suppress information by restricting internet access and blocking platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, activists found ways to bypass censorship using VPNs and encrypted messaging apps. The world was exposed to reality in Iran after videos of women burning their headscarves and enduring violent crackdowns went viral.

The impact of online activism extended beyond Iran. Online, human rights organizations, politicians, and celebrities demonstrated their support for the cause. The hashtag #MahsaAmini was used over 300 million times on Twitter alone, demonstrating the sheer scale of digital engagement. Protests erupted in cities from Los Angeles to Berlin, with protestors carrying Amini’s image and chanting for freedom.

The protests in Iran are far from an isolated example of the way social media has changed protest movements in the past few years. Across the world, social media has played a critical role in shaping politics and influencing public opinion. Over the past few years, governments have become increasingly aware of the power that digital platforms hold when it comes to shaping public opinion. An evident example of this is during 2016 presidential elections in the United States, specifically Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Allegations of interference during the election by Russia and the role of companies like Cambridge Analytica and Meta revealed how easy it is for social media to manipulate and sway public opinion. More recently, the U.S. government's attempts to control TikTok under the pretext of national security has raised doubts over whether the motivation behind this is truly about data privacy or just a strategic move to control a foreign-owned platform which could sometimes be used to affect American public opinion and bring social unrest by a perceived enemy.

In some cases, governments do not just suppress the use of social media during protests or social movements, but actively use it to shape public opinion. India presents a prime example of how political parties leverage social media platforms to their advantage, especially when it comes to promoting propaganda and censoring views that may not align with their own. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there has been an extreme rise in Hindutva - Hindu nationalism, with growing violence towards Muslims and Sikhs. The current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been accused of using social media platforms to spread propaganda, whilst simultaneously implementing internet shutdowns to suppress the opinions of the people that differ from their own. At the same time, communities that are not considered “tech savvy” like farmers, have heavily relied on the use of social media to organize and intensify their protest movements. For example, Indian Sikh farmers from Punjab and Haryana used social media platforms and the help of the Sikh diaspora across the world to fuel their “Dilli Chalo” (Let’s go to Delhi) movement when the Indian Parliament in Delhi passed three bills affecting farmers. The protestors were successful in engaging the global diaspora, even those who normally do not engage in political matters, and were also able to counter the state media narrative.

While some governments use social media to shape public opinion and promote certain ideas, others can take a more extreme approach - shutting it down entirely. In June 2024, many of us saw massive student-led protests in Bangladesh that were organized mainly through social media platforms and other online spaces. Students came together to mobilize against the government's controversial policies about education and employment quotas. What started as relatively small protests at university campuses quickly attracted international attention through social media. As the protests intensified, the Bangladeshi government responded by trying to stop communication between protestors by blocking access to social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook in an effort to slow down or disrupt already planned protests. Despite this, protestors continued to use messaging apps that were encrypted like Signal, or Virtual Private Network's (VPN's) to bypass these restrictions and continue their protests. The Bangladeshi government's efforts to suppress protestors raised concerns about the balance between national security and the right to freedom of expression, as is the case with many other examples noted previously.

Many countries struggle to completely control social media platforms. China has taken it a step further by establishing almost total control over its digital landscape, leaving little room for difference of opinion or freedom of speech online. An expansive and vast system of surveillance including "The Great Firewall", a system that blocks foreign social media platforms has been installed. Domestic Chinese platforms such as WeChat and Weibo are also heavily monitored for any criticism of the government. Since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, China has maintained strict control to prevent any chance of political opposition. In spite of that, the Chinese public, when forced, has resorted to digital platforms to show their discontent and to organize for a cause. A case in point is protests against lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic in the city of Xi’An, which affected its 13 million residents. The zero-covid lockdown policy prevented an 8 year old boy suffering from Leukaemia and a pregnant lady from accessing medical care, and Xi’Anese people resorted to social media to express their frustration and grievances against the government.

One of the most prevalent challenges with digital activism today is the blurred line between truth and lie. Misinformation and disinformation are rampant across social media platforms with little regulation by the companies that run them. Major platforms like Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google (YouTube), X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok have failed to effectively address the spread of false or misleading content time and time again. This lack of control means that social media can be a tool for spreading false narratives as much as it is for digital activism and this issue can be connected to all of the examples of protest movements that have adapted to the digital age mentioned above. Recently, the Pakistani Government, frustrated by a continued deluge of false propaganda and organized protests against the state and Pakistan Army by social media activists of the opposition, has broadened the scope of an earlier legislation called the PECA Act with the intention to control and suppress anti-government media. This has raised alarm bells among journalistic communities as the legislation may be used to curb fair criticism of the government as well.

Because there are almost no standards when it comes to the accuracy of information, people can easily be misled or manipulated. False information, whether in the form of rumors, exaggerations, or blatant lies, has the power to influence public opinion and even cause real-life events. For example, during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S., misinformation about violence and protests was widely circulated on social media which led to fear and alarm among black community. Similarly, during protests in Hong Kong in 2019, misinformation and disinformation were used by both pro-democracy activists and the Chinese government to spread fabricated stories about the protest's goals and actions. These are prime examples of one of the biggest risks of digital activism: when the spread of false information overshadows the original goals of a protest.

In conclusion, digital activism has forced protest movements to adapt to the digital age and allowed us to view, comment, and express our opinion about issues around the world, from the #MahsaAmini protests in Iran to the student-led movement in Bangladesh. Governments have responded with censorship, surveillance, and even completely stopping internet access, while misinformation and disinformation have blurred the line between truth and falsehood. Despite these challenges, online platforms have proven to be invaluable tools and have completely changed the way we protest today.

While digital activism is a great complement to traditional forms of protest, a balance between online and on-the-ground action is needed to bring about real change. In the end, protesting in the digital age is a dynamic and ever changing process, shaped not only by the tools available to us but also by the power structures that seek to control them.

Works Cited

Alterman, Jon. “Protest, Social Media, and Censorship in Iran.” Center for Strategic and International Studies, 18 Oct. 2022, www.csis.org/analysis/protest-social-media-and-censorship-iran. Accessed 13 Feb. 2025.

Amrita Madhukalya. “50 Lakh WhatsApp Groups and Transmission Anywhere in 12 Minutes — What BJP Is Doing on Social Media for 2024.” Deccan Herald, 23 Mar. 2024, www.deccanherald.com/elections/india/political-theatre-bjp-on-social-media-2950186.

ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL. “How a Young Generation in Bangladesh Forced PM Sheikh Hasina out of Power.” AP News, AP News, 12 Aug. 2024, apnews.com/article/sheikh-hasina-bangladesh-students-gen-z-protests-2723012c6177c2feafd1e81c20c68309.

Bainiwal, Tejpaul. The Pen, the Keyboard, and Resistance: Role of Social Media in the Farmers’ Protest.

Cadwalladr, Carole, and Emma Graham-Harrison. “Revealed: 50 Million Facebook Profiles Harvested for Cambridge Analytica in Major Data Breach.” The Guardian, 17 Mar. 2018, www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election.

Cidale, Federica . “The Role of Social Media in Chinese Protests.” Vanguard Think Tank, vanguardthinktank.org/the-role-of-social-media-in-chinese-protests.

Confessore, Nicholas. “Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout so Far.” The New York Times, 4 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html.

Corea, Harindrini , and Nazia Erum. “What Is Happening at the Quota-Reform Protests in Bangladesh?” Amnesty International, 29 July 2024, www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/07/what-is-happening-at-the-quota-reform-protests-in-bangladesh/.

Danesh, Afsane, and Seyyed Hossein Athari. “Cyber Activism in Iran: A Case Study.” Social Media + Society, vol. 10, no. 3, July 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241279258.

DPA. “Killing of Student in Iranian Capital Sparks Protests.” Yahoo News, 16 Feb. 2025, www.yahoo.com/news/killing-student-iranian-capital-sparks-094913906.html. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.

Economy, Elizabeth C. “The Great Firewall of China: Xi Jinping’s Internet Shutdown.” The Guardian, 29 June 2018, www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/29/the-great-firewall-of-china-xi-jinpings-internet-shutdown.

Ethirajan, Anbarasan, and Hannah Ritchie. “Bangladesh Student Protests: Why Is the Government Facing Public Anger?” Www.bbc.com, 6 Aug. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5xye1d285o.

Fassihi, Farnaz. “In Iran, Woman’s Death after Arrest by the Morality Police Triggers Outrage.” The New York Times, 17 Sept. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/world/middleeast/iran-death-woman-protests.html. Accessed 13 Feb. 2025.

Ghazal Golshiri, and Madjid Zerrouky. “Fury Grows in Iran after the Death of Mahsa Amini, Who Has Become a Symbol of the Regime’s Brutality.” Le Monde.fr, Le Monde, 21 Sept. 2022, www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/09/21/fury-grows-in-iran-after-the-death-of-mahsa-amini-who-has-become-a-symbol-of-the-regime-s-brutality_5997742_4.html. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.

Harbath, Katie, and Collier Fernekes. “History of the Cambridge Analytica Controversy.” Bipartisan Policy Center, 2023, bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/cambridge-analytica-controversy/.

Jaswal, Srishti. “How Digital Witness Lab Analyzed Data from BJP WhatsApp Groups ahead of the Indian Elections.” Pulitzer Center, 2024, pulitzercenter.org/how-digital-witness-lab-analyzed-data-bjp-whatsapp-groups-ahead-indian-elections. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.

---. “How Modi and the BJP Turned WhatsApp into an Election-Winning Machine.” Rest of World, 15 May 2024, restofworld.org/2024/bjp-whatsapp-modi/.

Kleinman, Zoe. “Cambridge Analytica: The Story so Far.” BBC News, 21 Mar. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/technology-43465968.

Kumar, Raksha. “Not Quite the Arab Spring: How Protestors in Iran Are Using Social Media in Innovative Ways.” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2022, reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/not-quite-arab-spring-how-protestors-iran-are-using-social-media-innovative-ways. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.

Macdonald, Geoffrey. “What’s behind Bangladesh’s Student Protests?” United States Institute of Peace, 22 July 2024, www.usip.org/publications/2024/07/whats-behind-bangladeshs-student-protests.

Perrigo, Billy. “How Volunteers for India’s Ruling Party Are Using WhatsApp to Fuel Fake News ahead of Elections.” Time, Time, 25 Jan. 2019, time.com/5512032/whatsapp-india-election-2019/.

Rahimpour, Rana. “Fury in Iran as Young Woman Dies Following Morality Police Arrest.” BBC News, 14 Sept. 2022, www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62930425.

Schaaf, Marlene, and Oliver Quiring. “The Limits of Social Media Mobilization: How Protest Movements Adapt to Social Media Logic.” Media and Communication, vol. 11, no. 3, 3 Aug. 2023, pp. 203–213, www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/6635, https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.6635. Accessed 15 Feb. 2025.

Sorce, Giuliana, and Delia Dumitrica. “Transnational Dimensions in Digital Activism and Protest.” Review of Communication, vol. 22, no. 3, 3 July 2022, pp. 157–174, https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2022.2107877.

Wang, Yaqiu. “In China, the “Great Firewall” Is Changing a Generation.” Human Rights Watch, 1 Sept. 2020, www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/01/china-great-firewall-changing-generation.

third place

Investigate how protest movements have adapted to the digital age. Consider how online activism complements or challenges traditional forms of demonstration.

Eleonore Vecchioli, journalistic

United Kingdom

Modern melodies, crafty caricatures and hidden networks: how viral audio, visual motifs and technical advances have shaped protest in the digital age.

“For the girls wishing they were boys

For women, life and freedom

For this heaven being forced on you”

In writing the song Barye (“For”), Shervin Hajipour ignited the protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini into the biggest challenge to the Iranian authorities in recent regime history. Fired up by Amini's brutal death while in police custody for violating Iran’s mandatory hijab law, Hajipour composed a poignant account of the suffering of life under the Iranian government. But what could have remained a personal account of opposition became a viral expression of universal frustration, gaining 40 million views in 48 hours.[1] Hajipour’s song illustrates how acts of protest in the digital age rely on visual motifs, audio and technical innovation to evade censorship and reach broad audiences.

Protests movements have long used slogans and songs to galvanise support and subvert propaganda. As early as the 1940’s, songs such as “Bella Ciao” - the partisan hymn against facism - were widely adopted to act as a rallying cry to unify protestors around a central message.

However, Hajipour’s song transcended this role by serving a purpose unique to the digital framework in which modern protests develop.[2] The song enabled protestors to group their posts simply by using the song and in doing so avoided the need for words or hashtags which could have triggered the Iranian internet censors. The strength of Hajipour’s song stemmed not only from its virality but also its ability to meet the increasingly important imperative of modern-day protests: evading digital censorship.[3]

The firewalls, armies of censors and troll farms that police the internet in many authoritarian countries have forced protest to evolve from large displays of discontent to small decentralised acts of disobedience with shared, subtle motifs that are hard for censors to eliminate. The use of Winnie the Pooh to caricature Chinese leader Xi Jinping enabled dissenters to avoid explicit references to the leader in their critiques.[4] China’s Blank Paper protests saw white sheets of paper, absent slogans or political demands, widely shared, with onlookers invited to project their own personal grievances onto the blank sheets.[5] Protests in the digital age, burdened with avoiding censorship, have moved from the explicit to the implicit, utilising visual motifs to make oblique references to the objects of their criticism.

Mass adoption of social media in the late 2000s and early 2010s provided an opportunity for protests to reach new, broader audiences and to surmount the censorship that afflicted dissidents in many of the world’s authoritarian regimes.[6] Looking to the original causes of the internet’s adoption as a protest medium provides insights as to how the digital world shapes protest movements today. The self-immolation of street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi in 2010 in Tunisia in protest at his treatment by local government sparked indignation towards state officials as news of his death was widely relayed on social media. Bouazizi’s death, and the wave of Facebook posts it incited, ignited the Arab Spring.[7] The movement set much of the Arab world alight and sparked the removal from power of the leaders of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen. The “Facebook Revolution”, as the Arab Spring became known, heralded a new age of protest. Protestors coordinated meetings and spread uncensored information, for the first time, en masse in digital spaces. Facebook enabled dissidents to share their grievances by bypassing censored legacy media outlets. Social media also enabled regime opponents to gain immense reach as the most compelling posts or images were elevated to virality. These two early “raison d’être” of digital protest, evading censorship and gaining reach, remain underlying criteria of success for protest in the current digital age.

The censors of the Arab world’s radio, print and television outlets were initially absent from the digital world. Yet, as the ramifications of overlooking digital spaces in their censorship efforts became apparent for authoritarian regimes, censorship was soon also thrust upon digital outlets. Merely migrating from the physical world to the digital became an insufficient means of evading censorship. As protestors adapted to a new age of internet policing, a cat-and-mouse game emerged between protestors seeking to gain reach with their posts and censors curtailing dissent.[8] This cat-and-mouse dynamic between protestors and censors continues to define digital protests to this day. As they seek to fulfil the imperatives of protests in the digital age, evading censorship and gaining reach, dissidents have employed visual motifs, audio and technical innovation to adapt to protest in the digital age.

The occasional fissures that appear even in the world’s most censored online spaces means that digital realms create new dimensions where, through ingenuity, citizens can undertake acts of protest impossible in their analogue, physical worlds. The mass dissemination of information through Apple’s Airdrop system for the 2019 Hong Kong protests exemplified how loopholes in digital spaces could undermine surveillance states.[9] Airdrop allowed protestors to evade aggressive censoring algorithms and enabled the planning of physical demonstrations.[10] Here, virtual transfers of information catalysed street protests, highlighting how digital tools have become indispensable for conventional protests.

On the 1st February 2021, the Myanmar military orchestrated a coup against the democratically elected leader of the country, Aung San Suu Kyi.[11]. Soon, the nation’s 22 million active social media users found their internet access severed at the hands of the military junta. But the impact of this digital shutdown, intended to stifle dissent and prevent organised resistance, was substantially diminished by protestors’ technical know-how. Craftily assembled by political opponents, peer-to-peer networks, where a person uses Bluetooth signals to create an independent network whose range grows with each additional member, exploded in popularity. Apps like Briar, which provided this service, gained more than 1 million downloads in 24 hours. The decentralised nature of these networks has made them hard to trace and difficult to shut-down, providing a stable method of communication and coordination for protestors in tightly surveilled digital spaces. The success of these innovative attempts at overcoming censorship illustrate how technical innovation has become a key pillar of protest in the digital age.

Metalinguistic tactics - where internet users exploit subtlety and double meaning in languages - have also enabled protestors to remain one step in front of censors.[12] Students in China enabled their version of the MeToo movement to gain traction despite fierce crackdowns by universities by communicating through homophones and coded language. The term “Me Too” was transliterated to mǐtù (#米兔) and later, using the individual meaning of the characters, represented by rice and bunny emoji.[13] This crafty use of language was easily decipherable to members of the movement but difficult to identify for automatic censors. As a result, posts had to be removed manually, extending the time for which the posts were available. The Chinese ‘Me Too’ movement is a poignant illustration of how protestors have utilised language barriers to overcome censorship and successfully protest in the digital age.

Protestors have also exploited niche regional and cultural references to transmit political messages. The 2019 Hong Kong democracy protests capitalized on the mainland Chinese origin of censors to confuse them by disseminating information in a mix of Cantonese, Mandarin and English.[14] While the overwhelming majority of people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese, few of their mainland counterparts are fluent in the language. The disconnect between dissident’s intended audience and the censors was also exploited during the early stages of COVID-19, when doctors sought to bring attention to the dangers of the virus to Western media. Whistle-blowers from local Wuhan hospitals translated their messages into foreign languages, using French and Italian and a Romanised form of Chinese characters, to evade censorship. In translating their messages, whistle-blowers enabled their messages to remain online for longer and augmented the probability that they would be detected by a foreign outlet. Hence, to gain traction in the most tightly controlled digital spaces, protestors have utilised local dialects and foreign languages to confuse and deceive government censors.

More recently, protestors have countered the increasing sophistication of AI-powered censors by employing graphical tricks to confuse algorithms.[15] Users have altered their text by switching orientation or adding brush strokes and borders to bypass text recognition software. Russians seeking to denounce the war in Ukrainian camouflaged their text by swapping between the Cyrillic and Roman alphabet and by utilising highly stylized fonts.[16] While these design changes did not impede understanding of the text, it enabled them to evade text recognition software. The technical capabilities of activists, coupled with their innovative strategies, have enabled them to continue communicating and continually counterbalance the improvement of censor’s filtering systems.

Technological advances have given the modern-day surveillance state greater tools for data collection and surveillance, but in utilising their technical skills, audio or visual motifs and exploiting language barriers, protestors can seek to craftily avoid the oppressive eye of the censor and achieve virality. Protestors in the digital age are thus engaged in a perpetual quest for a viral melody, a subversive caricature or novel method of protest, as they seek to gain online reach and avoid censorship.

Works Cited:

[1]Bozorgmehr, Najmeh. “Iranian celebrities fan flames of anti-regime protests.” Financial Times, 1O October 2022. Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/eedfd315-b14e-46ea-9bf3-ff08833c9ff1

[2]Pelham, Nicolas. “I’m the same as Mahsa. And I want my freedom”: anger at Iran’s regime spills onto the streets.” The Economist, 28 September 2022. The Economist

https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/09/28/im-the-same-as-mahsa-and-i-want-my-freedom-anger-at-irans-regime-spills-onto-the-streets

[3]Alterman, John B. “Protest, Social Media, and Censorship in Iran”.18 October, 2022. Centre for Strategic and International Studies.https://www.csis.org/analysis/protest-social-media-and-censorship-iran

[4]Morris, Seren.“Why is Chinese President Xi Jinping being compared to Winnie the Pooh?”. 11 April, 2023.The London Evening Standard.https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/chinese-president-xi-jinping-winnie-the-pooh-taiwan-b1073403.html

[5]Murphy, Matt. “China's protests: Blank paper becomes the symbol of rare demonstrations.” 28 November, 2022. BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63778871

[6]Esteban Ortiz-Ospina. “The rise in Social Media”. 18 September, 2019. Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media

[7]“The Arab Spring at Ten Years: What’s the Legacy of the Uprisings?” 3 December, 2020. https://www.cfr.org/article/arab-spring-ten-years-whats-legacy-uprisings

[8]Weber, Valentin.“A Bold Proposal for Fighting Censorship: Increase the Collateral Damage” 31 January, 2019. Centre for Technology and Global Affairs. https://www.ctga.ox.ac.uk/article/bold-proposal-fighting-censorship-increase-collateral-damage

[9]Frosina, Silvia. “Digital Revolution: How Social Media Shaped the 2019 Hong Kong Protests” 8 June, 2021. Italian Institute for International Political Studies.

https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/digital-revolution-how-social-media-shaped-2019-hong-kong-protests-30756

[10]France-Presse, Agence.“Apple limits AirDrop on iPhones in China after filesharing feature was used by protesters.”11 November, 2022. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/11/apple-limits-iphone-filesharing-feature-used-by-protesters-in-china

[11]Bawi Thang, Lian. “Understanding the Military Coup in Myanmar, Two Years Later.15 March, 2023.Centre of Foreign Relations East-West center: https://www.eastwestcenter.org/news/east-west-wire/understanding-military-coup-myanmar-two-years-later

[12]Jones, R.H. Orcid. Metalinguistic tactics in the Honk Kong protest Movement. 11 January, 2022. Volume 21, Issue 11 of the Journal of Language and Politics. https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/99352/1/Jones%20and%20Chau_JLP.pdf

[13]Yang, Yuan. “China’s “MeToo” movement evades censors with #RiceBunny.” 9 August , 2018. The Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/61903744-9540-11e8-b67b-b8205561c3fe

[14]Jili, Bulelani. “China’s surveillance ecosystem and the global spread of its tools”. 17 October, 2022. The Atlantic Council. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/chinese-surveillance-ecosystem-and-the-global-spread-of-its-tools/

[15] Knockel, Jeffrey “Can’t Picture This: An analysis of image filtering on WeChat Moments.” 14 August, 2018. https://citizenlab.ca/2018/08/cant-picture-this-an-analysis-of-image-filtering-on-wechat-moments/

[16]Davies, Katie Marie “ Censored in Russian, anti-war activists turn to indigenous languages” 20 April, 2022. The New Statesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2022/04/censored-in-russian-anti-war-activists-turn-to-indigenous-languages

english language learner

Le Thuc Anh Do, journalistic

GERMANY

Working parents struggle to find a daycare center that lasts longer than 3 pm, while daycare centers struggle to find new caregivers.

Until 3 p.m. is just not enough - and neither is a caregiver’s wage

“What will you do if your parents-in-law can’t take care of your son anymore?” the recruiter asked.

Tida, 35 years old and a mother of a four-year-old son was stunned into silence. When she decided to change her career path, she was faced with that question.

“There was a moment of silence - the moment I realized that I couldn’t take the job” she said frustrated.

She had started applying for kindergarten placements when she was six months pregnant - before her son was even born - yet she was still rejected. This forced her to go to the kindergarten next in town, which is only open until 3 p.m. Each day requires careful planning. Tida’s husband works overtime on several days a week so he can leave early to pick up their son, allowing Tida to at least keep her part-time job.

For Tida, the pressure is not just about managing a work-life balance; it’s about constantly feeling stuck, caught between her desire to work and the lack of support available to her as a mother.

The challenges she faces as a mother are deeply frustrating. The harsh reality that she can't fully pursue her career aspirations simply because she has a son is disheartening and leaves her feeling defeated.

“I feel powerless, I have tried everything to find a place for my son and to return to work. The working world is just not created for us mothers”

Tida is not the only mother who struggles to balance work and childcare. This seems to be a global phenomenon.

A KMPG report highlights that in the U.S up to 1.5 million workers, 90% of whom are women, either shorten working hours or miss work entirely each month because of childcare access.

The absence of reliable daycare services significantly impacts women’s productivity, pushing women further out of the workforce and making economic independence even harder to achieve.

In the end, the daycare crisis affects all working parents’ productivity, yet no changes have been made to relieve the pressure on them

The reality is that the workforce needs caregivers—an occupation that, at first glance, many wouldn’t have thought to be so vital to our society. Now that they are starting to disappear, people are finally noticing their importance.

Although every child in Germany has had a legal claim to a kindergarten place since 2013, parents like Tida still struggle to receive one due to a severe staff shortage in the daycare sector.

According to the Education and Science Union of Germany (GEW) over 430.000 daycare places are missing.

German national news (Tagesschau) reported that 125.000 skilled workers are absent, which means that over two caregivers per kindergarten are required. As a result, daycare centers can only stay open until 3 p.m., while a typical workday lasts until 5 p.m.

This staff shortage creates an overwhelming workload for the remaining caregivers.

Not every caregiver can endure this immense workload. Burned out at just 24 years old.

A short documentary from TRU DOKU reveals the exhaustion faced by caregivers. It follows Caro, who loved working with kids and was passionate about her occupation - until it overwhelmed her. “We have to be there for the kids even if there is a staff shortage, this however made me reach my limits over and over again” Caro reveals. After she came back from her break, caused by the burnout, she wasn’t completely ready yet, however she could not give up.

“You have to give 100% from the moment you step in. You are the strong educator that the kids look up to.

This isn’t like in an office job where you can take a break from your paperwork, because you can’t take a break from kids.”

Working in a daycare center means putting the needs of children above your own, this becomes impossible if you have to prioritize your own first. Caro ended up changing her career. The newspaper Welt has reported that many caregivers are absent due to mental illness created from the extensive pressure due to the staff shortage.

As a caregiver, your job is to attend to the needs of children and be constantly available. You hold the responsibility of caring for them - parents trust you with their most precious belongings. This means you have to be attentive at all times. You are under constant pressure, yet you must remain calm. This constant care, without any breaks, can be mentally exhausting and overwhelming.

Taking care of children is not the only purpose of caregivers.

Caregivers not only care for children, but they also educate them.

However in Germany the term kindergarten “teacher”does not exist, they are referred to as caregivers.

This frustrates many in the field, as they want to be seen as educators. “ I don’t understand why they are not named as teachers, in Thailand there is no difference” Tida explains.

Unlike teachers, caregivers in Germany do not earn a diploma, they only complete an apprenticeship.

This lack of academic recognition is one of the reasons the profession remains unpopular. Many believe that because their training does not take place at a university, their expertise is undervalued.

Therefore, caregiving is often seen as less of a profession and more of a low-skilled position, even though it involves a lot of responsibility.

“You can’t study patience and emotional relationships” Tida argues. She completed an internship at a daycare center and knows what challenges caregivers are faced with.

“It is much harder to educate a child who never heard of rules before. You need patience”.

As a caregiver, you have to connect with the children on an eye-to-eye level, all while setting clear boundaries and acting as a positive role model.

This profession requires emotional intelligence, responsibility and the ability to truly understand and support the needs of children. These qualities required to be an educator might not need a degree but they definitely demand passion and patience.

Educators play a crucial role in child development. Not only do they create a social environment for kids, but they also teach them important morals and values. This is especially vital for children from immigrant backgrounds, who struggle to adjust to a new culture.

Educators carry a huge responsibility, especially since kindergarten kids are at a vulnerable stage where curiosity overwhelms them, and they may overlook potential danger.

Caregivers have to balance supporting children’s spirit and setting protective boundaries.

An educator introduces them to the world, giving them their first glimpses of independence.

One caregiver can enable multiple women to return to work while preparing children not only for school, but for life beyond.

Caregivers are important, society needs them especially in today’s modern working society where working parents rely on them. Not only do parents rely on them but children rely on caregivers too. Caregivers play an important role in their character development by supporting and teaching children about their needs. While this type of education may be different from the formal schooling children receive, it doesn’t make kindergarten education any less crucial to their development. In fact, kindergarten education lays the foundation for formal education.

Nevertheless, caregivers are not appreciated enough. A high school teacher who attended university earns about 6000€ a month, while educators earn roughly 3000€ a month. As a teacher you are granted civil servant status, but not as an educator.

Yet, educators are just as vital to society - especially for women who rely on them to remain in the workforce.

The government knows about the importance of daycare facilities. The Kita-Qualitäts-Gesetz (Kita Quality Act) ensures more qualified facilities and aims to relieve working parents but instead of investing in those facilities they should invest in the people who keep these facilities alive.

Caregivers are just as important to society as teachers and perhaps they should be granted civil servant status as well, after all our working society relies on them, every family with children does.

This would finally give them the recognition and respect they deserve.

We tend to overlook professions without a degree, we take them for granted, even though they are essential to our economic system. A degree doesn’t measure your ability to work with children nor your empathy or your patience, but those skills are exactly what society needs today to be able to balance family and work.

That is why we have to “Start where our future grows“ (Tida).

Citations:

https://www.gew.de/aktuelles/detailseite/in-deutschland-fehlen-430000-kita-plaetze

https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/verbraucher/kita-personalmangel-106.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariaflynn/2023/11/02/us-child-care-crisis-is-holding-back-the-workforce/

https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage-the-scarce-and-costly-childcare-issue

https://www.iamexpat.de/education/education-news/german-schools-and-kindergartens-struggling-teacher-shortage-bites

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/09/us-early-education-kindergarten-access-problem/671379/

https://www.kindergartenakademie.de/fachwissen/kita-personalmangel/

https://kpmg.com/us/en/articles/2024/september-2024-the-parental-work-disruption-index.html

https://youtu.be/hBvswBKp4X0?si=9wKxSmeTmTKk50zs (Tru Doku)

https://youtu.be/_2NvljY6ps8?si=OFQ8ixQIAqaESqB9

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariagraciasantillanalinares/2024/10/18/work-hours-lost-by-the-millions-a-new-index-is-tracking-the-cost-of-the-childcare-crisis/

https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article253081876/Kindererziehung-Kita-Personal-faellt-haeufig-wegen-psychischer-Erkrankungen-aus.html

2024 GLOBAL WINNING ESSAYS

CREATIVE

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United States of America

second Place

Elina Quito, creative category

Germany

third Place

Zaeemah Mahmud Sarder, creative category

united states of america

english language learner

Miracle Radityo, creative category

INDONESIA

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Aarav Jain, Argumentative

INDIA

second Place

Carolina Taylor Castro dos Santos, Argumentative

BRAZIL

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Amna Chaudhry, journalistic

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Eleonore Vecchioli, journalistic

United Kingdom

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Le Thuc Anh Do, journalistic

GERMANY

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