May 11

"Indeed, insofar as the copying [of texts by monks] was a form of discipline -- an exercise in humility and a willing embrace of pain -- distaste or simple incomprehension might be preferable to engagement."

--Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (2011), p. 41; image from

CONFERENCE

"Melbourne Conference on China: Wednesday 30 May 8:30am – Thursday 31 May 5:00pm. A two-day conference hosted by Asia Institute, Centre for Advanced Journalism and Radio Australia (the ABC). The conference theme this year is ‘Global media and public diplomacy in Sino-Western relations’. Sidney Myer Asia Centre. For more information and to register:  http://www.chinastudies.unimelb.edu.au/c…. Enquiries: Ramila Chanisheff 8344 3559 /  ramilac at unimelb.edu.au" -- Staff News No 416, 11 May 2012, University of Melbourne

VIDEOS

(a) USA Pavilion Student Ambassador Rachel Geller is excited to go be a representative at the Yeosu Expo in summer 2012 to meet people from all over the world and learn more about their cultures -- while showing them just what the United States means to her - Americagov. Via JJ on facebook

(b) The ancient traditions of the Olympic Games: bloody silly dances and Nazi propaganda - Tom Chivers, telegraph.co.uk

(c) Steve Jobs and Woz in a Crazy Apple Ghostbusters Spoof - gizmodo.com: "It seems all of Apple's secret 1980s propaganda videos are leaking out of Cupertino. Just a week after we saw Steve Jobs bizarrely masquerading as FDR, here's another super-corny cameo-ridden treat for you. Apple's 1984 Ghostbusters spoof, called Bluebusters, takes the fight to IBM."

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Foreign Tongues - Charles Kolb, Huffington Post: "America needs a far more geoliterate population in the 21st century.

As former President George W. Bush once noted, learning a foreign language is not just an education priority; it also relates to our economic security, our national security, and the effectiveness of our public diplomacy. President Bush also observed that when you take the time to learn someone's language, you are sending messages that you also care about that person -- her country, her heritage, her future. And these are messages that Americans need to be sending in an increasingly globalized world.  In 2006, the Committee for Economic Development published a well-regarded policy statement entitled 'Education for Global Leadership: The Importance of International Studies and Foreign Language Education for U.S. Economic and National Security.'" Image from

Yelena Osipova - Facebook: "and there goes public diplomacy: down the drain" re
BBC News - Pentagon condemns 'war on Islam' US training class: America's top military officer condemns a training course taught at a US military college that advocated a "total war" against Muslims.

WikiLeaks: T.M.G.Chandrasekera Is A Key US Contact - “The Colombo Telegraph found the related cable from WikiLeaks database, which details T.M.G.Chandrasekera’s biographic data and justifies his nomination to ‘TV BROADCAST JOURNALISM’ project. The cable is signed by the Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead May 20, 2004. The US Embassy wrote ‘Post nominates T.M.G. ‘Chandrasekera’ Deputy Director News and Current Affairs, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, for participation in subject project. Post confirms that this nomination has ‘full country team approval.’ ... [comment by Daya Gamage]I was in Colombo’s American Embassy from 1970 through 1995 as ,first, public affairs specialist, and in the last 15 years, as political specialist. The embassy’s pu[...]blic affairs office or the political office nominate Sri Lankan personalities in arts, culture, trade/commer...]ce, political and media who are not necessarily known to them but who have potential to influence the Sri Lankan society, policymakers or those who assist policymakers. They are sent to the US on many programs such as International visit[o]r Program on which

Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa went as one of my nominees, and other programs funded by the State Department. When[...] they return, of course, the embassy ma[...]intain[s] close contacts with them, something called public diplomacy any foreign country does for its own ben[e]fit, although Sri Lanka does not know what public diplomacy means. ‘Potential Leaders List’ is another devise to recognize future leaders to manitan close repport. Sri lanka, at this crucial time needs to learn these man[eu]vers. – Daya Gamage."  Chandrasekera image from article

U.S. Travel Association Hails National Travel and Tourism Strategy - News Wire: "The Obama Administration's announced National Travel and Tourism Strategy is an important step that officially elevates the travel industry to what it should be: a national priority, Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said in statement.

'It also recognizes the industry for its fundamental contribution to our economy, national security and public diplomacy.' 'The National Strategy sets a goal of increasing U.S. jobs by attracting and welcoming 100 million international visitors annually by the end of 2021. This is no small effort, but the opportunity for economic growth and new jobs is too great. The travel industry stands ready to work with the Administration in achieving this goal,' Dow said. Dow commend the effort that required extensive government-wide coordination and broad outreach to the private sector in a short amount of time." Image from article

US international broadcasting "taken over by career bureaucrats with a self-centered agenda," he writes - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting. Re the article by Ted Lipien, "Bureaucrats grasp for power at Broadcasting Board of Governors," Elliott notes: "Ted does not want to 'cut news broadcasts' on USIB outlets, but he also opposes 'a new CEO who would not be directly answerable to Congress." If a news organization has a CEO who is "directly answerable to Congress,' it's not really a news organization. The only thing wrong with the proposed merger is that it does not include VOA. The merged grantees will form a dynamic, independent global news organization. VOA, a duckbill platypus news agency that is also a government agency, won't be able to keep up. The animosity towards the BBG staff would not be an issue if USIB consisted of one entity. The staff would no longer hover over the entities, but would work for the management of the one entity. The board would hire senior executives and decide on major questions, e.g. addition or deletion of language services, but otherwise leave day-to-day management to management."

Radio-TV Martí editorial, signed by its director, calling Cuban cardinal a "lackey," quickly withdrawn from website - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting. Elliott comment: "As a news organization, Radio-TV Martí should not have 'views.'

The BBC is prohibited from broadcasting editorials. This would be a good rule for US international broadcasting and, in fact, a necessary one if USIB is to reach its goal of becoming 'the world's leading news agency.'" Image from entry

Outstanding reporting on Chen Guangcheng’s story by RFA and VOA is unnoticed by Broadcasting Board of Governors - BBG Watcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch

Broadcasting Board of Governors – A View from Jakarta - The Federalist, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "Some years ago, the Indonesian government enacted a law that regulates the live broadcast of news from foreign news outlets over Indonesian radio and television. Enter Norman Goodman, chief of the Voice of America (VOA) Indonesian service. During a visit by Indonesian lawmakers in April, the article ['Voice of America Leans on Indonesia to Alter Broadcast Law,' text of which is included in entry] reports that Goodman 'requested' that the Indonesian House of Representatives make changes to their Broadcast Law to amend prohibitions against live broadcasts by foreign media."

Secret talks may affect status of Voice of America historic buildings - BBG Watcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "One of the great things about the Voice of America (VOA) is its location at 330 Independence Avenue, SW in Washington, DC, near the Capitol and within easy access to all Washington area news sources and events. Former BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson, who had resigned earlier this year, wanted to move VOA to an office building somewhere near the Dulles airport. It would have been a foolish idea for a news organization like the Voice of America to give up the best possible real estate in downtown Washington. Mercifully, it died with Isaacson’s departure.

In these difficult economic times, US taxpayers are in no mood to pay millions of dollars in relocation costs to support grandiose plans of government officials who are political appointees. But there may be another potential threat to VOA’s use of the two buildings on Independence Avenue that are owned and maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA). Sources have told BBG Watch that a group known as L88, which describes itself as Government Strategic Operational Asset Investment Program targeting global assets of U.S. Government agencies in partnership with its stable of investment partners and others, has been engaged in secret talks with GSA officials about the buildings used by VOA. The General Services Administration owns and leases over 9,600 buildings nationwide. ... Since these are valuable historic government buildings used by the Voice of America as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are legitimate concerns about the outcome of any talks or negotiations." Image from entry, with caption: VOA building in Washington, D.C.

On Diversity Day, A Challenge - bbg.gov: "During remarks at the Broadcast Board of Governor’s annual Diversity Day celebration, IBB Director Richard Lobo noted that the agency is among the most diverse in Washington.

Still, he challenged employees at all levels to do more to build bridges among the many cultures, races and religions represented in the BBG workforce." Via LK on facebook. Image from entry

Taiwan’s Public Diplomacy at a Time of Institutional Change - Kwei-Bo Huang, The Brookings Institution: "Following a long period of tension in cross-Taiwan Strait relations, an impression has developed that Taiwan and mainland China are moving closer together. President Ma Ying-jeou declared in 2008, early in his first term, that Taiwan would undertake a 'diplomatic truce,' under the policy of 'flexible diplomacy,' with mainland China. At the dawn of such a mutually accommodated cross-strait relationship, public diplomacy, which is either 'government-to-people' or 'people-to-people with government support' in nature, appears to be an increasingly important foreign policy tool for Taiwan. Public diplomacy can be implemented as a cluster of measures that are more productive than the confrontational steps such as 'checkbook diplomacy,' in which Taipei and Beijing competed for formal diplomatic partners. In the new atmosphere, rather than spending financial resources and political capital wooing foreign governments with development deals, through successful public diplomacy Taipei can increase the understanding of Taiwan among the general publics of a larger range of countries and thereby generate a significant amount of goodwill. ... The goal of public diplomacy, which is based mostly on soft power, is to present an accurate picture of where Taiwan is and where it’s going. This is a difficult challenge for any country, but it is made even more difficult for Taiwan, particularly in the short run, because of the ongoing changes in the structure of Taiwan’s central government and the institutions responsible for Taiwan’s external image. ... It is ... reasonable to expect that the consolidation of major public diplomacy organizations in Taiwan

will create problems similar to those experienced in the United States, or in any restructuring of a bureaucracy. ... It seems that the top leadership in Taiwan has understood clearly that public diplomacy is important but has not sensed the consequences of potential problems, either existing or emerging, once GIO [Government Information Office]’s international programs begin to merge with MoFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs]. MoFA will have to collaborate with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Education, the new Ministry of Cultural Affairs, and other to launch appropriate public diplomacy programs worldwide. Reconfiguring and reengineering its public diplomacy programs will become one of the urgent tasks for MoFA in the near future. Otherwise, the integration of GIO’s international information and communication programs into MoFA would not be a helpful way to improve Taiwan’s public diplomacy." Image from article

Georgia-Israel Love Affair Now a Messy Divorce - Michael Cecire, worldpoliticsreview.com: "After Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution propelled a new generation of Western-educated modernizers to power in Tbilisi, the country sought to leverage its 130,000-strong diaspora in Israel for investments and partnership. Georgian officials praised Israel as a model and frequently drew comparisons between Israel’s difficult journey to statehood and Georgia’s ongoing conflicts with Russia over Georgia’s separatist regions. ... 'From 2006 up until the [2008 Russia-Georgia] war, there was a real love affair,' notes Brenda Shaffer, an American-Israeli social scientist and Caucasus expert at the University of Haifa. 'Georgia became one of the most popular destinations of Israeli tourists. Tickets to Georgian cultural performances would sell out [in Israel], and President [Mikheil] Saakashvili was an admired leader.' ... Tbilisi’s objections to Israel’s realignment with Russia were quickly outweighed by the tangible benefits to Israel of the shift. ... 'The change in relations between Israel and Georgia following [the August 2008 war] could be the poster child for realpolitik and the limited effect of public diplomacy,' says Shaffer. 'All that public good [between Georgia and Israel] does not add up to much when there are strategic interests at stake.'”

Theory and Practice in Public Diplomacy: Diplomatic dish-washing - Efe Sevin, Reaching the Public: Personal Reflections on Public Diplomacy and Place/Nation Branding;  "For the last couple of months, I have been working on the latest project of Turkayfe.org – our online coffeehouse project.

The website, which started out as an online “social diplomacy” / place branding project is going offline, and meeting people on the street with “Mobile Turkish Coffee House” project." Image from entry, with caption: Mobile Turkish Coffee House in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC

An eternally misplaced person - thebookofrevelations.co.uk: "Martti Ahtisaari is a hero of mine. A former Finnish President (1994-2000), he entered Finland into the EU and helped my country fight depression during his term in office, but the majority of his career has been spent working for the foreign office and the UN, making him a well respected peace negotiator and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2008). After his presidency Ahtisaari set up Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), an independent non-profit organisation based in Finland that 'works to resolve conflict and to build sustainable peace.' ... NGOs are incredibly important in work towards peace and as independent organisations are able to get where governements can’t. 'We can take the risk and protect the government,' Ahtisaari says.

If they weren’t able to do that, govenments couldn’t get involved in the first place. The support and financial backing of governments is important to NGOs, and in turn the independent nature of NGOs protects the mutual goal of peace. 'I always say that if we win we share the glory, if we fail we take tthe [sic] blame.' He says it’s important to give credit to all the parties, even if they don’t deserve it. You have to have a healthy confidence about these things, he adds, but says that you have to be careful when doing public diplomacy. You have to stay in the background and you can’t rally the media. When I was negotiating peace I couldn’t at the same time be an activist. I’m lucky because I could always use my colleagues who were at the barricades, I couldn’t have done what I have without them.'” Ahtisaari image from entry

'Should I Join the U.S. Foreign Service?' - Peter Van Buren, Huffington Post: "After 24 years of service myself, what I tell interested applicants is this: think very, very carefully about a Foreign Service career. The State Department is looking for a very specific kind of person and if you are that person, you will enjoy your career. I have come to understand that the Department wants smart people who will do what they are told, believing that intelligence can be divorced from innovation and creativity."

RELATED ITEMS

Pentagon Propaganda ‘Fiasco’ Gets Scrutiny in House: Wasteful war propaganda and the dirty deeds of the Pentagon's corporate contractors are exposed - John Glaser, antiwar.com: A member of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday threatened an amendment to block funding for Pentagon propaganda efforts, citing reports critical of their management and others exposing the Pentagon’s contractor for tax evasion.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), is threatening to target the information operations program, calling it a “fiasco” and saying contracts with the largest propaganda contractor, Leonie Industries, should be immediately suspended.  Johnson also called for an investigation into the apparent retaliation attacks against the USA Today journalists reporting on the program, whom he said were “targeted in a possibly criminal disinformation and reputation attack.” Image from

Afghan commanders show new defiance in dealings with Americans - Kevin Sieff, Washington Post: Afghan commanders have refused more than a dozen times within the past two months to act on U.S. intelligence regarding high-level insurgents, arguing that night-time operations to target the men would result in civilian casualties, Afghan officials say. The defiance highlights the shift underway in Afghanistan as Afghan commanders make use of their newfound power to veto operations proposed by their NATO counterparts.

Iran summons Afghan diplomat - en.trend.az: The Afghan charge d'affaires to Tehran, Shah Mardan Qol, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Thursday to hear Iran's complaint about Afghan media campaign against the Islamic Republic, Mehr News reported. Mohsen Pak Ayeen, director of the Afghanistan Department at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said the media propaganda against Iran is in line

with the goals of the countries which seek to damage "the friendly and brotherly relationship" between Tehran and Kabul and expressed hope that "this situation would be managed by the Afghanistan government." The charge d'affaires expressed regret over the propaganda move against Iran and vowed to announce Tehran's worries to his government. Pak Ayeen also pointed to Iran's concerns about the security consequences of the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the United States and Afghanistan and said Iranian officials have repeatedly reminded Afghan officials that Tehran is worried about the U.S. security threats to the region. Image from article

Sorry, Joe, most of Iran’s nuclear progress has come under Obama - Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post: So with all respect to Joe Biden, this administration’s record on Iran is not one he should be touting on the campaign trail. President Obama’s bold declarations notwithstanding, the oceans are still rising, the Earth has not healed, and Iran is closer than ever to building a nuclear bomb.

Obama’s foreign policy: Dealing from a position of strength - David Ignatius, Washington Post: What’s striking about Obama’s management of foreign policy, as the campaign season opens, is that he knows what he knows. To take one delicate example, he understands that China depends on good relations with the United States during its bumpy time of leadership transition — and he knows it’s important not to gratuitously embarrass the Chinese leadership. Obama is beginning to think about what he would do in a second term, and it’s a predictable list — addressing climate change, reducing nuclear weapons, reviving the Palestinian peace process, managing the “Arab Spring” constructively and improving development assistance for Africa. But it isn’t so much the specific things he wants as the one big thing he has learned: how to make decisions in the Oval Office.

America’s outdated view of China - Perry Link, Washington Post: It is regrettable that American experts on U.S.-China relations continue to use “China” and “the Chinese” to refer exclusively to elite circles within the Beijing government. U.S. acceptance of the China = “Communist Party leadership” formula dates from the

Nixon-Mao breakthrough. In the early 1970s, the regime’s rulers were indeed the only Chinese whom Americans could reasonably approach. But to persist with such a constricted understanding today is obtuse, even dangerous. The question persists: If “China” means only “the regime,” what happens, some day, if it is not there? Image from

The Case of Chen the Party Crasher: Normal Diplomacy Meets Crisis Management  - Patricia Lee Sharpe, Whirled View: "Just a few days before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to arrive in China for the climax of an important bilateral dialogue a well-known Chinese human rights activist sought refuge in the U.S. embassy in Beijing. If Chen Guangcheng were turned away, the Obama administration would be lambasted for abandoning America’s historic position of pressuring China to respect the civil liberties of its citizens. If he were given refuge, China would protest and an important bilateral conference might go up in flames. And so a long-scheduled event collided with a totally unexpected incident. Diplomats need to be able to hand both, but they seldom have to do justice to both at the same time. My impression is that the people at the U.S. embassy did a pretty good, even impressive job of handling a difficult situation precipitated by an admirable, but impulsive, vacillating and conflicted petitioner."

China’s Little Dutch Boy - Elizabeth C. Economy, blogs.cfr.org: China’s public security apparatus and all its friends in the propaganda and censorship departments must be exhausted. Within the past month, they have had to figure out what to do about a blind political activist who escaped from illegal house arrest and traveled hundreds of miles to Beijing to take refuge in the American Embassy. They have had to keep an eye on 300 million Chinese micro-bloggers to determine who might have crossed a line here or there as the weibosphere has gone nuts over tales of leadership corruption and Chen Guangcheng’s harrowing journey.

And they have had to keep watch over all those pesky foreign journalists who have had the temerity to practice actual journalism. Then, of course, there is the 800 pound gorilla—mapping out a strategy for managing the investigation and subsequent trials of former Politburo member Bo Xilai and his wife, Gu Kailai, who have been charged with “serious disciplinary infractions” and murder respectively. A job maintaining control in China is not for the faint of heart. And it seems that even with all the time, money, and effort they expend to keep the dam from breaking, they are like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. The pressure behind the Great Wall just keeps mounting. All those people, all their interests, and all their voices just won’t stop coming. Image from article, with caption: A policeman stands near the Great Wall on a hazy day in Juyongguan, China.

How the Chinese Communist Party Convinced the World to Accept It: A revolutionary party learned to survive by wrapping itself in ‘stability’ - Matthew Robertson, Epoch Times: A word used retrospectively to justify a bloody crackdown has become a commonsense platitude used to explain today’s China, accepted alike by American businessmen and politicians and China’s educated young people. The concept of “maintaining stability”

legitimizes and even defines the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including its vast propaganda machine and the apparatus of physical repression that it has become infamous for. But the idea is a relatively recent invention. None other than Deng Xiaoping—the Party leader who emerged to lead China out of the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, opened up its economy, then ordered the Tiananmen Square massacre—came up with it. Image from article, with caption: People’s Liberation Army soldiers leap over a barrier on Tiananmen Square in central Beijing June 4, 1989, during the bloody crackdown on student pro-democracy protesters.

Africa: How NGOs Are Indoctrinating Young Politicians - Yahya Sseremba, allafrica.com: In Africa particularly, western organisations are busy indoctrinating whoever they expect to gain political influence sooner or later. Their goal is to make the next generation of African leaders receptive to western whims and caprice. Prominent among such organisations is the International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute, Christian Democratic International Center, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. These organisations, ideologically dissimilar as they may claim to be, have a common agenda of entrenching and perpetuating western subjugation of Africa. Their capacity to posture as innocent apostles of good governance, democracy and human rights - concepts that the West defines and twists according to its interests - makes them the least suspected of Euro-American strategies for global dominance. Even after independence, the Whiteman would carry on the burden of civilizing Africans through all possible ways. One such way was - and continues to be - indoctrination through mass media propaganda. In The Passing of Traditional Society, Daniel Lerner convinced the West that the people of the Middle East, and by extension all 'uncivilized' peoples of the world whose traditional cultures hampered their modernisation, would be westernised and hence modernised through constant exposure to western media propaganda. To Lerner and indeed to the West, westernisation equals modernisation and development; any other culture equals backwardness and barbarism. These backward and barbaric cultures would attain 'social transformation' through constant exposure to media propaganda, cosmetically coined as Development Communication.

Sky News Arabia launches: "a measured tone in an otherwise shrill Arabic-language media environment" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Abkhazian "Security Council" denies Russian propaganda - expertclub.ge: At this stage "the security council of Abkhazia" does not confirm information issued by the National Anti-terrorist Committee of the Russian Federation (NAK) that caches of weapons found in Abkhazia yesterday was planned to be used to disrupt the Sochi Olympics.

As sources in the department say, this version had been considered, however, this information cannot be confirmed yet while at the same time they claim that the weapons were to be used in the struggle for power in Abkhazia. We should remind that the National Antiterrorist Committee of Russia issued a statement, which said cache with a large number of weapons was discovered on the territory of occupied Abkhazia and pointed out that terrorists planned to use it against the Olympics in Sochi. Image from

The Hasbara – World’s worst propaganda – There was no occupation before 1967?- First, find out what isn't true…: The following is not an unfounded accusation. It’s not from a propaganda site. They’re the official words of the Provisional Israeli Government of May 1948, as recorded by the UNSC. You decide. On May 22, 1948 UNSC S/766 the Provisional Government of Israel answered questions addressed to the “Jewish authorities in Palestine” was transmitted by the acting representative of Israel at the United Nations. Question (a): Over which areas of Palestine do you actually exercise control at present over the entire area of the Jewish State as defined in the Resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947? “In addition, the Provisional Government exercises control over the city of Jaffa; Northwestern Galilee, including Acre, Zib, Base, and the Jewish settlements up to the Lebanese frontier; a strip of territory alongside the road from Hilda to Jerusalem; almost all of new Jerusalem; and of the Jewish quarter within the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The above areas, outside the territory of the State of Israel, are under the control of the military authorities of the State of Israel, who are strictly adhering to international regulations in this regard.

The Southern Negev is uninhabited desert over which no effective authority has ever existed.” “international regulations” at the time say; it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army"and gt;Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907 Art. 42 SECTION III “Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised.” And again on 12 Aug 1948 the Provisional Israeli Government proclaimed Jerusalem Declared Israel-Occupied City- by Israeli Government Proclamation 12 Aug 1948. None of these areas have never been legally annexed to Israel. Occupation can actually be dated from May 22nd 1948. Image from

Another tack: Dishonest and disgusting - Sarah Hoonig, Jerusalem Post: Back in 1942, George Orwell pointed out matter-of-factly that “so-called peace propaganda is just as dishonest and intellectually disgusting as war propaganda." Peace-propagandists, Orwell noted, “evade quite obvious objections” with “propaganda-tricks” which include “pooh-poohing the actual record of Fascism,” while “systematically exaggerating” alleged “Fascizing processes” within Allied ranks. Orwell was intrigued by the “psychological processes by which pacifists who started out with an alleged horror of violence end up with a marked tendency to be fascinated by the success and power of Nazism.” “Even those who don’t,” he wrote, “imagine that one can somehow ‘overcome’ the German Army by lying on one’s back” and they shun “discussion of what the world would actually be like if the Axis dominated it.” Sound familiar? It should. We have too many peace-propagandists among us who cunningly skew our reality and dodge discussion of the ramifications of their recommendations.

Terence Blacker: This Olympic torch relay smacks of propaganda: Muscular men and nubile girls waft around in robes like extras from Ben-Hur - Independent: Nobody likes to be a spoilsport, least of all in a year when sportiness will be unavoidable in these islands. All the same, there is something about the expensive farrago surrounding the Olympic flame, lit in Olympia yesterday, which brings on an attack of pre-Games queasiness. It is now on its way from Greece, just as it was 76 years ago when Josef Goebbels, then in the Lord Coe role, first

came up with the idea of promoting Aryanism with the help of a torch made by the arms manufacturer Krupp. Today, the idea of purity survives in a less loathsome form – the flame is meant to be lit by the pure rays of the sun magnified by a mirror – but it is still part of a hugely expensive, carefully planned exercise in brainwashing. When sport is used for propaganda purposes, we should all be wary. At this week's silly fauxpagan lighting ceremony – muscular men and nubile girls wafting around in white robes like extras from Ben-Hur – the small delegation from the UK included such representatives of global purity as senior managers from Coca-Cola, Samsung and Lloyds TSB. Image from

The Nazi Origins of the Olympic Flame Relay - Max Fisher, theatlantic.com: Adolf Hitler hadn't wanted to host the Olympics. They were "an invention of Jews and Freemasons," he'd said, a celebration of the internationalism and multiculturalism he loathed. But he loved propaganda, the lavish shows of German power and prestige, and by 1934 Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had convinced him of the Olympics' value in the greater Nazi mission. "German sport has only one task: to strengthen the character of the German people, imbuing it with the fighting spirit and steadfast camaraderie necessary in the struggle for its existence," Goebbels said in April 1933. The 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics were to be, according to Arnd Krüger and William J. Murray's history of "The Nazi Games," a means of furthering Hitler's ethnic and nationalist messages, a tool of Nazi soft power.

Few aspects of the bizarre and highly political '36 games exemplified Hitler's propaganda mission better than the Olympic torch relay and ceremony. Though propagandists portrayed the torch relay as ancient tradition stretching back to the original Greek competitions, the event was in fact a Nazi invention, one typical of the Reich's love of flashy ceremonies and historical allusions to the old empires. And it's a tradition we still continue today, with this morning's lighting of the flame in Olympia, the birthplace of the original games circa 776 B.C., from which it will be carried by a series of relay runners to the site of the games, in this case London. Image from article, with caption: Nazi soldiers salute to greet the arrival of the Olympic torch and commencement of the 1936 games.

Jean Renoir’s Timely Lessons for Europe - A. O. Scott, New York Times: “Grand Illusion” had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 1937, and it has been around ever since, by enduring consensus one of the greatest films ever made. It is true that Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief and cultural arbiter, was not a fan, but Mussolini, patron of the festival and Europe’s leading fascist cinephile, kept a print in his personal collection.

Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that “all the democracies in the world must see this film,” which is still sound advice. The nations that fall within that rubric may have grown in number since those days, but none of those democracies, old or new, is so secure as to be immune to the lessons of Jean Renoir’s great and piercing antiwar comedy. In the film much time is spent planning and performing sketches and musical numbers, including a cross-dressed version of “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” by British soldiers that segues into a stirring, impromptu rendition of “La Marseillaise.” It may not be an accident that that scene prefigures one of the most famous moments in“Casablanca.” One of the singers in that film, Rick’s erstwhile mistress, Yvonne, is played by Madeleine LeBeau, at the time married to Dalio, seen in the role of Emil the croupier. Small world! Which is, in its way, the films’ common moral. “Casablanca” aimed partly to rally Americans to the cause of democratic Europe, a cause that animates the hopes of “Grand Illusion.” Image from article, with caption: Jean Renoir directed the classic “Grand Illusion” (1937) starring Pierre Fresnay, left, and Erich Von Stroheim.

“Hammer of the Gods,” on the origins of Nazism - Judith Ann Moriarty, thirdcoastdigest.com: "During WWII, hordes of European-bound bombers frequently darkened the skies in my rural Iowa hometown. The 'Nazis' I experienced were images in Life Magazine and propaganda cartoons viewed at our local theater. My first taste of racism surfaced when our grocer, a Jew, was rumored to be selling horsemeat in lieu of beef. Signs like “N….get out of town before sundown,' were posted by the mostly Aryan population of Irish, Germans and Swedes, prior to and as late as the 50s. I lived in a mini Third Reich snug in the Nodaway Valley, where folklore lives and sadly thrives in 2012.  And so it is that I purchased a copy of David Luhrssen’s Hammer of the Gods (Potomac Books/2012), an in-depth, 212-page exploration of the Thule Society, an occultist, racist precursor of Nazism.

The book began as Luhrssen’s dissertation in the history department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and culminated in a major effort by a writer who dedicates it all 'to my family.' Seventy-nine pages of notes, bibliography and index supplement the narrative text. The Thule Society does feature an actual prince, one Prince Gustav Franz Maria of Thurn and Taxis, but Hammer of the Gods is not a fairy tale of the 'good' kind." Image from article

Incident in the New Baghdad - documentarychannel.com: In this raw, provocative documentary from independent filmmaker James Spione, one of the most notorious incidents of the Iraq War--the July 2007 slayings of two Reuters journalists and a number of other

civilians by U.S. attack helicopters--is recounted in the powerful testimony of an American infantryman whose life was profoundly changed by his experiences on the scene. Via MVB on facebook. Image from entry

AP uses positive, negative spin - Ivan Hardt, Cedar Rapids, letter to the editor, thegazette.com: A letter writer questions, “When did facts become bias?”. The answer is ever since we had propaganda, advertisements, newspapers, commercials, politicians, lawyers and used car salesmen. In World War II and other wars, it was called propaganda. In the political world today, it’s called “spin.” In either case it is usually not falsehood that someone can totally deny but it is presented using positive or negative words, phrases or sound bites to project the author’s desire to influence others.

The 3 P’s – Program, propaganda, pacify; how the national government grows - forgottenmen.com: Propaganda (n) - information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. Government has become so powerful that its propaganda has framed a debate where Inalienable Rights are no longer authoritative. Propaganda is a primary tool in the arsenal of the less than noble elected official class; they are masters of this. In a liberated society as contrasted with a no holds barred despotic society like North Korea, the people must be gently prodded to accept more and more control by a national government.

Your Portrait as a Vintage Chinese Propaganda Hero - theguiltyhyena.com: Chinese vintage propaganda posters have always been notable for their red and black artistic impressions of a surreal cartoonist style and producing extraordinary poster designs, capturing the stalwart nature of the soaring human spirit of the peoples optimism.

A large number of the posters are quite unique, and will bedazzle forever in the history of Chinese art. Image from entry

AMERICANA

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RUSSICA

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