January 8-9

“We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.”

--Marshall McLuhan; image from

"digital-afterlife management"

--What entrepreneurs are trying to build whole new businesses around

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Parentage goes 'gender neutral' on passport form - Mary Beth Sheridan and Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post: "The State Department has decided to make U.S. passport application forms 'gender neutral' by removing references to mother and father, officials said . ... The new policy is a win for gay rights groups, a vocal and financially generous Democratic voting bloc that has pushed for the change since Barack Obama began his presidential transition in late 2008. ... In 2000, Clinton was the first wife of a president to march in a gay-pride parade, and as secretary of state she has advocated on behalf of gay rights.



In a speech in June she said the United States 'was elevating our rights dialogues with other governments and conducting public diplomacy to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.'" Image from; see also.

#Opensocietyfail - PM's Question Time: "[T]he U.S. has partially embraced freedom, Net neutrality, and everything else cyberrific about the Web because of what it perceives as the instrumental value of those attributes. Famously, the State Department under Secretary Clinton has embraced Twitter as a tool of public diplomacy. During Iran's summer protests in 2009, the State Department even apparently used Twitter as part of a soft-power exercise in attempted regime change. Alerted that the site was about to be taken offline for maintenance, Clinton aides worked to keep the site online during the protests. ... The irony that the same technologies have now become the enabling conditions for the dissemination of Wikileaks, a minor-league public diplomacy embarrassment that has also posed acute risks to specific individuals who may be named or falsely accused of espionage by unfriendly governments, is so obvious as to need no exposition. ... [W]e should remember that Google, Twitter, and Facebook are not communications technologies in the same sense that the printing press was. They are companies that require vast resources to operate and can function only with the permission of a host government. In an open society, they will promote openness. In a closed society, there is no guarantee they will do so. As always, economics and technology are important to determining political outcomes, but politics is primary."

Public Diplomacy 2.0: An Exploratory Case Study of the US Digital Outreach Team - Lina Khatib, William H. Dutton, Michael Thelwall - Social Science Research Network: "Conclusion: A case study is limited and cannot form the basis for generalizing to a larger population. All case studies are unique and the debate surrounding President Obama’s Cairo speech was a landmark event. However, this exploratory case illustrates that technological advances will not automatically realize the vision of public diplomacy 2.0 without creative, strategic thinking about how to implement and use Web 2.0 most effectively in conversations among distrusting adversaries that are often hostile and suspicious. There is no quick technical fix. However, the case study suggests a set of strategic issues that the DOT [State Department’s Digital Outreach Team] and other public diplomacy initiatives might consider.


No text or video speaks for itself, and efforts to interpret and contextualize messages—what might be denounced as spin in the political arena—are necessary and need to be timely and at a scale that competes with adversarial interpretations. Efforts to increase the scale and speed for response and to employ more visual images could help the DOT compete on a more level ground with the critics of US foreign policy in the Middle East. A key threat posed by the Internet is that individuals might lock themselves into virtual 'echo chambers' in which they fail to be exposed to diverse opinions and contradictory viewpoints (Sunstein 2007). The efforts of the DOT to join the conversation seem to stir counter-messages, but they also enable those reading these sites, including the undecided among the lurkers, to hear alternative perspectives. It is important that diplomats around the world recognize the potential of joining two-way conversations about controversial issues in the age of networks, but also systematically explore strategies for grappling with often hostile and emotional arguments where there is a lack of trust among the adversaries. And regardless of how much the USA invests in developing public diplomacy methods, the best way to change attitudes and gain trust in the Middle East is through a positive change in foreign policy that links words and deeds." Image from

"The era of long-distance international broadcasting has faded into the past" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "Quora, 5 Jan 2011, Jonathan Marks, responding to the question 'Which language departments are superfluous to BBC World Service in 2011?': 'I personally think that the era of long-distance international broadcasting


has faded into the past - at least with the exception of about 8 countries where shortwave still makes sense as part of a media strategy - Sudan, Somalia, Burma, Zimbabwe, Nigeria come to mind. But there is a definite role for focused international media which use relevant platforms to share ideas - and I believe the BBC has created an organisation which have become powerful because they have influence. That's been hard work and requires consistent standards of reporting and editorial independence. ... There is an old rule of international broadcasting. No listens or watches it - unless a government bans it or it can provide something different to whats offered by local media. The viability shortwave analogue broadcasting has been severely tested by the rise in oil prices. Many relay stations were built with the notion that oil was 40 dollars a barrel not a 100. The industry itself has been poor at promoting the medium, with the result that SW listening has faded away in countries like Russia and India and the numbers for China are a fraction on what they used to be.' -- [Elliott comment:] By 'long distance,' I assume Jonathan means direct via shortwave. One of VOA's largest audiences is in Indonesia, where they watch VOA Indonesian programs on local television stations. That's long distance, but by another means." Image from

When the Boston Symphony Orchestra Won a Cold-War Cultural Battle - Richard H. Cummings, Cold War Radios: Cold War International Broadcasting, in particular Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: "The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), one of America’s prestigious orchestras, was scheduled, for the first time in its history outside the United States, to tour Europe April-May 1952, including performing at the Paris cultural festival ‘Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century.’ ... The National Committee for a Free Europe (NCFE) board of directors held a meeting on October 2, 1951. The directors were told that the costs of the BSO tour were expensive and full financial support was not readily forthcoming for the planned budget of $200,000. The NCFE directors were told that the Congress for Cultural Freedom (a CIA covert project) pledged $30,000 of support, $40,000 was expected from the European Tour, and $100,000 would come from the United States tour before traveling to Europe. Thus, $30,000 was lacking. ... At a special meeting held on January 16, 1952, the NCFE board of directors passed a resolution ‘that the sum of $30,000 is appropriated as a donation to the American Committee of Cultural Freedom, Inc, in return for which NCFE is secured the rights to broadcast and record the ‘Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century Exposition’ program in Europe,


including all the performances of the BSO during its tour of the American Committee for Cultural Freedom, Inc. ['] ... By the time the 110-piece orchestra had finished playing Ravel’s ‘Daphnis and Chloe,’ the diamond-studded audience was on its feet, shouting, yelling and applauding as never before.’ John Roderick of the Associated Press (AP) wrote in his article on June 1, 1952, 'America has Achieved Cultural Maturity...By the time the 110-piece orchestra had finished playing Ravel’s ‘Daphnis and Chloe, the diamond-studded audience was on its feet, shouting, yelling and applauding as never before.' The Los Angeles Times proclaimed 'Free World Shows Europe She Has Come of Age, Culturally Speaking.’ (In 1956, the Boston Symphony Orchestra was the first American orchestra to perform in the Soviet Union.)" Image and text from article: The Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Charles Munch born in France (September 26, 1891 – November 6, 1968).

China and the Liberal Order - Robin, Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence: "The Danish Institute of International Studies have just issued an interesting paper by Trine Flockhart and Li Xing on the implications of China’s rise for the liberal world order. The growing power of China has inevitable consequences. Flockhart and Xing argue that rather than seeing an inevitable conflict what is required is a pragmatic effort to adapt to the new situation. In particular they argue for a diplomatic focus on ‘conventions’ – what states do rather than ‘convictions’ – what states say they believe. One way of reading this is as a distinction between two versions of liberalism. A ‘conventions’ approach is rooted in the view that liberalism is rooted in enlightened self interest so that an agreement on rules and modes of behaviour does not require any fundamental agreement on values. In contrast the ‘convictions’ approach sees international order as stemming from the nature of domestic political regimes or from a consensus on values. These two positions imply different diplomatic strategies including different public diplomacy strategies. The former will focus on constructing support for particular conventions. In contrast the conviction approach will be quicker to see difference as a source of conflict. In thinking about the future of public diplomacy it is important to give some thought to the nature of the emerging international political order (not just the emerging media environment) because it the intersection between the two that will shape what is an effective 21st century public diplomacy."

Minister Silvan Shalom on public diplomacy, social media and the Palestinian economy - affiliatesintraining.com: "Silvan Shalom,


Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Cooperation, talks about public diplomacy, the peace process and the Palestinian economy." [Video]. Shalom image from

Tweeting for God and Country - Andrew Finkel, todayszaman.com: "I am sure Turkey’s senior diplomats must be trembling at the thought that they will now have to give short and precise answers to actual questions. And they must live in fear of being WikiLeakedTweeted. From confidential correspondence that has found its way to the Internet we learn that the president’s office asked for a Turk to be launched into space in order to clinch a Boeing aircraft contract. Translated into Twittish this reads, 'What does Gül really think of PM -- look up!' I thought to check http://twitter.com/TRDiplomacyPblc to see what really had been posted and I’m afraid all I got was a pictogram of a lock and the message 'This person has protected their tweets.' So we seem off to a very unpublic diplomacy sort of public diplomacy. My worst fear is that someone has insulted Atatürk on Twitter and that access to the whole site will be banned by an impromptu court order."

Rwandan Constitutional Law and the Oppression of Political Opposition and Dissidents - David Barouski, Dissident Voice, posted at greatlakesdemocracy.blogspot.com: "The 2003 presidential election legitimized Paul Kagame’s position as Rwanda’s president in the eyes of the international community despite numerous elections observers uncovering widespread evidence of various forms of electoral fraud and rigging.9 The 2003 elections formally established what some political scientists would term an 'illiberal democracy.' Shortly after the 2003 presidential and parliamentary elections, the RPF replaced the 1991 Rwandan constitution.


The new constitution made 'denial' and 'minimalization' of the 1994 genocide a crime punishable by law. It also set forth the crime of inciting 'divisionism,' which is often leveled against dissidents and political opponents who talk about or talk in terms of ethnicity in Rwanda. These terms are all very vaguely defined, allow for a great deal of subjectivity, and provide a potential soft power tool of oppression for the regime. These laws were legitimized through public diplomacy as part of the regime’s national reconciliation strategy and, they claimed, to help prevent another genocide from taking place." Image from

Michigan's public diplomacy includes ads on CNN International - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Obit: Barry Zorthian, VOA program director in the 1950s (updated: advised BBG to "hook" to US foreign policy) - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "Broadcasting Board of Governors press release, 5 Jan 2011, BBG statement on the death of Barry Zothian: 'Barry Zorthian was one of the giants of United States international broadcasting. He understood early in the Cold War how vital broadcasting was to the successful practice of American foreign policy, and he championed the role of 'The Radios' strongly and consistently. The Board was fortunate to have had a chance to hear Barry's views on where broadcasting should be headed and why -- and not a little on how to get there -- just a few months ago. He was passionate that the BBG must put broadcasting on a new footing with a revitalized mission, and he insisted that we hook it once more securely to the timeless principles of American foreign policy.


The Board extends condolences to the Zorthian family and shares in their loss.' -- [Elliott comment:] Which puts the BBG in a dilemma. Does it honor the wish of Mr. Zorthian, a great figure in the history of US public diplomacy, that the BBG should 'hook ... more securely to the timeless principles of American foreign policy'? Or the wish of the audience for an independent, credible news service? The BBG cannot honor both wishes. The BBG must decide whether it wishes to have an audience, or not." Image from Life Magazine, with caption: Barry Zorthian, former Marine, Head of USIA Joint US Public Affairs Office (C), in jeep w. driver & armed guard as they pass well-tended rice paddy during his tour to evaluate the war, north of Saigon. [PDPBR note: Mr. Zorthian, "a great figure in the history of US public diplomacy," was the author of an article, "Public Diplomacy Is Not the Answer" (2004).]

CULTURAL DIPLOMACY

Melange of moods and music - Poornima Gururaja, deccanherald.com: "The recently concluded 10-day-long Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF 2010) brought together performers from over 18 countries. This year, the Festival (established in 2007) played host to nearly 2,000 artistes in 27 venues spread over 10 days. 'I want to place this Festival as a platform for cultural diplomacy and international tourism,' says Prathibha Prahlad, celebrated dancer and Festival director. The accent was clearly on ‘global’ as about 60 per cent of the Festival programmes were from abroad."


Cutting edge and out-of-the-box performances brought in fresh and varied cultural influences into the capital city hitherto unexposed to butoh (from Spain), multi-media literature (from Denmark), etc. An electronic, multi-media Edgelogue Festival saw participants from New York, Japan and Europe in closed-door sessions, discussing the future of electronic creativity. Interesting too was the concept of the ‘World Tea Party’ at the Russian Cultural Centre, which showcased tea presentation rituals from all over the world. The clincher was blending the art of drinking tea with visual art, dance, music and folklore associated with traditional tea ceremonies." Uncaptioned image from article

Nahj ul Balaqa for Children in the Latest Issue of ICN - ABNA.ir: The latest issue of the Iranian Cultural Newsletter (ICN) was released in London on December 31. According to the public relations office of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, this issue features articles on Nahj-ul-Balaqa for Children, the Supreme Leader’s visit to Gilan, North of Iran, the president’s visit to Alborz province, and 'Soft War and Cultural Diplomacy' Seminar. In the field of culture, there is also a report regarding three short films by Abbas Kiarostami as well as an article featuring Water Museum in Yazd province, south east of Isfahan. There is also information about Parvin Etesami, 20th century Iranian poetess. The ICN is a biweekly published by the Iranian Cultural Center in London. It is intended to truly and thoroughly reflect the Iranian officials’ ideas and viewpoints in British educated society and media.

RELATED ITEMS

Empire of Bases 2.0: Does the Pentagon Really Have 1,180 Foreign Bases? - Nick Turse, TomDispatch: Like all empires, the U.S. military’s empire of bases will someday crumble. These bases, however, are not apt to fall like so many dominos in some silver-screen last-stand sequence. They won’t, that is, go out with the “bang” of futuristic Alamos, but with the “whimper” of insolvency.

Al Kamen's In the Loop Guide to CODELS (Congressional Delegations) - Updated Version - diplopundit.blogspot.com

The First Gulf War: Media and Perception Management - Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos

The IDF uses propaganda like an authoritarian regime: Instead of working toward revealing the truth behind the recent death of an anti-fence demonstrator the IDF is reaching into its bag of lies - Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz

No doubt it has always been the dream of South Korea's psychological warfare department to be promoted to a division - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Poets and Propaganda - Christina Croft, Grand Duchess Elizabeth And Other Stories: A Writer's Blog: “The World of Yesterday” by Stefan Zweig presents one of the most remarkable and honest depictions of the world in 1914.



Zweig, an Austrian and Jewish poet and author, captures so brilliantly the ambience of that era – from his thrilling descriptions of the carefree world of innocence and his meetings with literary figures of the time, through the madness of xenophobic hatred that raged at the outbreak of war. His writing is so immediate because he lived through it, and, unlike many of his peers, he had travelled a great deal and made friends all over the continent and so stood aghast at the way in which poets and authors turned their art into propaganda for the war machine. Writing as an Austrian, he speaks a great deal (with horror!) of the German poets of the era and the way in which their anti-English works served to inspire hatred and prolong the war.

Joseph Goebbels: the 'Casanova of the Nazis': A new biography of Joseph Goebbels, the limping Nazi propaganda chief, shows him to be a serial seducer who kept detailed notes of his affairs - telegraph.co.uk: In his 912-page study, Joseph Goebbels: Biography, Peter Longerich, a German academic and history professor at the University of London, has delved into rarely-accessed material from his subject's diaries, which span 30 years, to paint a remarkable portrait of the man who became one of Hitler's most trusted lieutenants.


The book has received warm reviews in Germany and an English language version is planned in the near future - demonstrating the continued fascination, 65 years later, with the limping Nazi. As the influential Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung put it: "He was neither a superior minister nor an influential counsellor, but a devotee of Hitler - and a virtuoso of self-propaganda beyond death."

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"World Tea Party"

--An event at the Russian Cultural Center in Delhi which showcased tea presentation rituals from all over the world; the clincher was blending the art of drinking tea with visual art, dance, music and folklore associated with traditional tea ceremonies

Image from

SENIOR TEXTING (via LB)

Since more and more Seniors are texting and tweeting there appears to be a need for a STC (Senior Texting Code). If you qualify for Senior Discounts this is the code for you. Please pass this on to your children and grandchildren so they can understand your texts.

ATD: At The Doctor's
BFF: Best Friend Farted
BTW: Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM: Covered By Medicare
CGU: Can't get up
CGIP: Can't get IT up
CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center
DWI: Driving While Incontinent
FWB: Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW: Forgot Where I Was
FYI: Found Your Insulin
GGPBL: Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!
GHA: Got Heartburn Again
HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement
IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL: Living On Lipitor
LWO: Lawrence Welk's On
OMMR: On My Massage Recliner
OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas.
PIMP: Pooped in my pants
ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up
SGGP: Sorry, Gotta Go Poop
TTYL: Talk To You Louder
WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?
WTFA: Wet The Furniture Again
WTP: Where's The Prunes?
WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil
GLKI (Gotta Go, Laxative Kicking In)