International Translation Day celebrates those who work behind the scenes to make the world a smaller place
 
Imagine you are visiting a foreign country and you have to ask for the nearest pharmacy. How would you do it? Google Translate, right? Well, now imagine you’ve been given a literature book for you to translate. What about now?
 
Breaking language barriers is everyday life for translators and interpreters. Translating isn’t only about making information available to all, is about giving a chance for the reader of the translated version to feel the same as the readers of the original. Struggling when certain words exist in one language but not in the other. Interpreting the heart and spirit of the original author’s words into a completely different language.
 
They help science develop by transferring knowledge through translation in all fields, from mathematics to chemistry, and medicine. They have an essential role in diffusing culture by translating books, movies, video games, news, and social media. Hundreds of millions of people use translations every day.
 
United Nations recognizes: “the practical contribution of language professionals, both in conference servicing and in the field… including in the maintenance of peace and security, peacekeeping, the promotion of human rights and operational activities for sustainable development.”
 
It’s believed that translation is an easy, one-to-one process. People aren’t aware of how much translators affect their lives. For instance, I believe that almost all of us, when thinking of translation, we just imagine Google Translate and not all the work that is behind it. We are used to thinking that translation is a direct equivalence between words, and therefore it can be automated by machines. But that’s not like this. Language professionals can not be replaced by technology.
 
So why such a complex and so demanding job, it’s hardly recognized? Professionals are ignored and underpaid. Their names don’t appear on the covers of books, and even when they do, it is in a small font and placed such that they wouldn’t stand out. According to a recent report, called Translators on the Cover, “the profession of translation for the creative and cultural sectors has become unattractive due to poor working conditions, low remuneration and precarious status, as well as a lack of recognition and visibility.”
 
The United Nations is one of the world's largest employers of language professionals. That makes Europe the owner of nearly half of the industry. However, economic and social measures must still be taken to improve the working conditions of language professionals. Some specialists argue that a public fund is the best option to give financial support to translators and interpreters. Literature award events should also recognize the work of these professionals, not just the authors.
 
As for what we can do to help in our day-to-day life, you can be part of awareness-raising campaigns. Use and like posts with hashtags like #DiscoverTranslation, #TranslatorsOnTheCover or #namethetranslator. And also, just learning about translators is already a way of recognizing their work.

​Excess neutrons and energy are shed while fissile isotopes attempt to become stable.
 
That is how nuclear weapons develop their explosivity. There are almost 9,000 weapons in the world. Thousands of which are ready to be used in an instant. Many of them hidden away in bunkers, carried by submarines across the world and stored at airfields and naval bases. One nuclear bomb could destroy a city centre. A nuclear war would threaten life in its present form.
 
But how large exactly would be the effects of a nuclear explosion? And how small are the atoms that cause the danger?
 
It is 1938. Three nuclear physicists in a laboratory in Berlin, Germany make a small discovery that should forever change the world. Their names: Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman. What they discovered: a sudden, powerful release of energy is created when an atom of radioactive material splits into lighter atoms, the so-called nuclear fission. They made the very first atomic bomb possible. 
Exactly seven years later, in 1945, the world’s first-ever nuclear weapon was detonated at the Trinity test site in New Mexico, United States, marking the beginning of the Atomic Age. Since then, the development of nuclear weapons has increased considerably and triggered the idea of a nuclear world destruction time and time again.
 
But although many war strategies and weapon mechanisms have changed over the past 70 years, the science behind the most disastrous ones – the nuclear weapons – has largely remained the same. Nowadays, we distinguish between nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. The first describes the production of large amounts of energy through a nuclear chain reaction that starts when heavier unstable atoms are broken apart into two smaller atoms. In contrast to that, fusion does not contain breaking two atoms apart, but putting them together to build a third unstable atom. Also the sun is fuelled by this process. During the merging, neutrons are released which then fuel the fission reactions of heavier atoms creating an explosive chain reaction. Hydrogen bombs make use of both splitting and merging atoms, whereby the fission reaction is amplified by the fusion producing a much more powerful explosion than atomic bombs. These atomic bombs are using either uranium or plutonium to create an explosion through a domino effect of several fission reactions. 
While the atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man fully destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, modern hydrogen bombs can produce much more energy and damage. The Soviet bomb Tsar Bomba, tested in 1961, is to this day the world’s most powerful nuclear weapon with 51,000 kilotons of produced explosive energy and a destructive radius of roughly 60km. Little boy, in comparison, only produced 15 kilotons of energy. 
 
During the catastrophes of Hiroshima alone, 250,000 people died both at the moment and during the following weeks because of radiation. In the first weeks, most of the deaths were caused by thermal injury and super-lethal radiation exposure, after 10 weeks people mostly died from ionising radiation. Numerous health complications have arisen after 20 weeks due to the exposure, including infertility, sub-fertility and blood disorders. The individual chance of dying of cancer has increased during that period. The Children of Chernobyl are further proof of the devastating consequences a nuclear explosion has on the human body. It is the name given to children born after Chernobyl which present malformations, no hands, cysts on head and eye or cancer. New studies show, however, that these mutations are not genetically transmitted. 
 
Based on the events in 1945, some climatology hypotheses include the so-called nuclear winter. Nuclear explosions can light urban areas on fire – areas as big as several football fields. Copious smoke will be produced which will rise above the surface. As it happens after forest fires too, the smoke will be propelled into the stratosphere by solar heating where it will spread globally within a month. The ozone layer will be destroyed due to the absorption of sunlight by the smoke and by heating the stratosphere by 100 °C. What happens without ozone? Earth’s surface is exposed to harmful UV light and cools. Agriculture and ocean life will suffer from cooling and reduction of light. When freezing temperatures at mid-latitudes arise, the food chains get disrupted. The result: Global starvation. 
 
To prevent not only the horrible health issues and deaths that follow a nuclear explosion, but also to save the planet Earth as we know it, it is crucial to eliminate nuclear weapons from the world. Only then we can live in a human togetherness free from fear and destruction. And although diplomacy has proven itself effectful throughout the last 40 years – multiple treaties and agreements reduced a total of 64,000 warheads in the 1980s to roughly 9,000 today – it is still a long way to go. A way of peace and hope.

If you listened to our broadcast on Rodon FM last Tuesday, you had the opportunity to listen to Blowin’ in the Wind by Bob Dylan. Or maybe you just know this song, which was published in 1963 on the album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
Either way, we have taken a closer look at its poetic lyrics, which summarize the different aspects of peace pretty good.
Let’s start with one of the first lines:
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
This line is a really good summary of the entire song. As a white dove is one of the main symbols for peace, it shows that the movement for peace has existed for many years. And even though it had many positive effects, there is still much to do to get to peace. Still, the movement (or, in Bob Dylan’s words, the „white dove“) can’t stop and rest and „sleep in the sand“.
One of the things the peace movements of the past fought for is having no war. There were and are so many anti-war movements, especially during the Cold war, but also in our time. 
And still, since the beginning of 2020, the Doomsday clock is at 100 seconds before midnight, which is the nearest it has ever been to 12 o’clock. This clock shows the symbolical time humanity has till a man-made worldwide catastrophe happens (which would happen at midnight). The clock includes mostly nuclear risk and climate change. (If you want to know more about the topic of nuclear weapons, you can take a look at our article " Threat of nuclear weapons for peace " ).
So, as long as so many countries have nuclear weapons, real peace is not possible. You can see the risk of these weapons for example in the ongoing war in the Ukraine, where a nuclear war has been feared since it began.
Or, as it is said in the song:
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?
Another problem on the way to peace is that many people ignore unpleasant issues. That can be politicians who decide about something important, but also on a smaller scale people on the street who ignore things like racism or other forms of discrimination.
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see? (...)
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?
As you can see, peace is about many topics, and of course world peace is kind of an utopia. And even though the answer is still blowin’ in the wind, it is clear that if we treat each other with respect and kindness, we do the first step towards a life that is more peaceful for everyone.​