"If we go on explaining we shall cease to understand one another."
--Charles Maurice de Talleyrand; Talleyrand image from
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Drawing the Line: In social media, where does public diplomacy stop and virtual crusading start? - Rory Medcalf, americanreviewmag.com: "From coup rumours in China through crusade-mongering in Africa to revelations of revolution in the US State Department: social media is cutting a trail of creative destruction across international affairs in 2012. I have argued in previous columns how diplomatic and intelligence institutions need to move with the times and embrace social media to gather, share and spin information in their respective nations’ interests. One would think that the foreign services of smaller nations have an opportunity here to erode the tyrannies of scale—social media can be inexpensive and reliably agile. Curiously, though, it turns out that the United States is combining size and speed, taking a lead in the harnessing of internet 2.0 for foreign policy goals, thanks to some sustained and sweeping innovation at the State Department. ... Beyond the headlines of relative decline, war weariness and economic malaise, all of this is a reminder of America’s capacity for reinvention. Even during (or perhaps because of) tight budgetary times, and despite (and most certainly because of) the need to deal with a unique image problem, the United States is leading the way in dragging diplomacy into the 21st century. What is baffling is how long it is taking some smaller foreign services representing liberal democratic societies, including Australia, to get the hint. Yes, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Canberra headquarters offers a quotidian stream of tweets (including rather random-seeming bursts of trade data), but where are the authentic voices of envoys in the field? What is less surprising is the extent to which the public diplomacy and, even more so, the domestic propaganda machinery of uthoritarian states is being thrown off balance by the social media phenomenon. ... [T]he biggest social media story in international affairs for early 2012 would of course have to be the bizarre ‘stop Kony’ war wagon . ...
At one level, it is hard not to be impressed at this no-holds-barred campaign by a California-based non-government organisation, using all the tricks of Hollywood and the web. You can’t have missed its use of leading-edge internet marketing to rally global public opinion against someone who undoubtedly deserves the public enemy mantle: messianic lunatic Joseph Kony, he of the Lord’s Resistance Army, who has led mass murder and enslavement from Uganda to the Central African Republic. But where does the virtual crusading stop? This is a time when America’s comprehensive national power needs desperately to consolidate, concentrate and repair after a decade of expeditionary wars gone awry. Washington heeds the Kony model of net-driven interventionism—led from behind by crowds and celebrities—at its peril." Image from entry, with caption: Rory Medcalf is a former diplomat and program director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Follow Rory on Twitter @Rory_Medcalf
Not Explaining the Why of Terrorism - Ray McGovern, antiwar.com: "After all, people in the Middle East already know how Palestinians have been mistreated for decades; how Washington has propped up Arab dictatorships; how Muslims have been locked away at Guantanamo without charges; how the U.S. military has killed civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere; how U.S. mercenaries have escaped punishment for slaughtering innocents. The purpose of U.S. 'public diplomacy' appears more designed to shield Americans from this unpleasant
reality, offering instead feel-good palliatives about the beneficence of U.S. actions. Most American journalists and politicians go along with the charade out of fear that otherwise they would be accused of lacking patriotism or sympathizing with 'the enemy.' Commentators who are neither naïve nor afraid are simply shut out of the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM)." Image from
The Bin Laden the Obama Administration Wants You to See - Kevin Gosztola, dissenter.firedoglake.com: Comment by donbacon: "U.S. propaganda is defined as 'public diplomacy' at State and 'strategic communication' at Defense. Neither definition has anything to do with truth, but rather 'informing and influencing' and the 'advancement of United States Government interests, policies, and objectives.' State: The mission of American public diplomacy is to support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security by informing and influencing foreign publics and by expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world. DOD: Strategic communication is focused United States Government efforts to understand and engage key audiences to create, strengthen, or preserve conditions favorable for the advancement of United States Government interests, policies, and objectives through the use of coordinated programs, plans, themes, messages, and products synchronized with the actions of all instruments of national power. It couldn’t be otherwise. The main objective of those in power is to stay in power."
On public diplomacy and nation brand: the end of propaganda? - sad0469, Public and Cultural Diplomacy 2: A group blog by students at London Metropolitan University: "One word was repeated over and over in the course of this module: propaganda!! It seems we all think differently about it, regarding it negatively when referring back to the Cold War period, or still doubtfully when trying to put it into today’s perspective. Academics also seem to have different opinions. But it seems the trend in the use of the term is declining. In a research programme, Leonard argues that public diplomacy has moved beyond propaganda, by having knowledge of the audience targeted, by abstaining from one-way communication and by establishing relevance. In other words, public diplomacy is a better form of propaganda. In an address to the European Parliament, Simon Anholt denounces the imprecision of terms such as communication and brand, but he is clear on one thing, with globalisation, propaganda does not work anymore. Anyone doing propaganda is assuming the audience is stupid and will definitely not get the message across, or get the opposite outcomes. In an interview in the Huffington Post, US diplomat Peter Van Buren declares that no matter what the US seem to be trying to show 'actions speak louder than words and misplaced drone attacks, atrocities by soldiers and videos of Abu Ghraib' undo the work and effort of their human right diplomacy in the Middle East. In that case to go back to Anholt notion of brand as nations, the image of the brand US, or 'the perception of the product' is not positive. Regardless of their efforts, the US does not control its brand image even with all its propaganda efforts, the consumers, foreign public do. To change their mind about the brand, they need to see results, in foreign policy or else. In that sense, propaganda is failed public diplomacy I would argue." Van Buren image from
A Foreign Office for a World Power - Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner: "The arc of U.S. public diplomacy might be more aptly described as a spiral: always in motion and nearly making a full circle as it goes up or down and covering an always changing surface area."
State Department Revises Foreign Student Job Program After Abuse Complaints – Julia Preston, New York Times: "The State Department, responding to a wave of complaints from foreign students about abuses under a summer cultural exchange program, issued new rules on Friday significantly revising the types of jobs the students can do, prohibiting them from most warehouse, construction, manufacturing and food-processing work. The rules are the most extensive changes the State Department has made to its largest cultural exchange program since several hundred foreign students protested last summer at a plant in
Hershey’s chocolates. The students said they were forced to work on grueling production lines lifting heavy boxes, often on night shifts, isolated in the plant from any American workers." Image from
Sam Liebert, Janesville City Councilmember, Selected to Participate in International Exchange to Northern Ireland Political Study Program to Focus on Citizen Diplomacy - Sam Liebert's Blog: Sam Liebert, of
relationships and friendships. The program is arranged by ACYPL and made possible by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State. ‘ACYPL has the unique mission of proving select young leaders with an opportunity to travel internationally and engage firsthand in public diplomacy,’ said ACYPL Chief Executive Officer Linda Rotunno. ‘Our delegates have access to key leaders in the nations and regions they visit. They engage in dialogue on sensitive issues, gain a unique perspective on the country’s politics and its relations with the
U.S. government’s Radio and TV Marti call Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega a lackey - William Booth, Washington Post: "Criticism of the leader of the Catholic Church in Cuba, who has been negotiating with the communist government to expand religious and political freedom, intensified last week when the head of Radio and TV Marti called the archbishop of Havana a lackey who is colluding with an oppressive regime. The stinging editorial against Cardinal Jaime Ortega — signed by Radio and TV Marti’s director, Carlos Garcia-Perez — is significant because Marti is a U.S. government agency, with its board of directors appointed by the White House and its policies coordinated with the State Department to direct messages to Cubans. Some analysts said the editorial could undermine Ortega’s position in Cuba and they wondered whether it signaled a lack of support for the Church’s delicate position on the communist-run island.
Marti broadcasts, according to spokeswoman Lynne Weil, “are editorially independent, although supported by U.S. taxpayer dollars. Their editorials, unless otherwise stated, represent the views of the broadcasters only and not necessarily those of the U.S. government.” Weil said she did not know when the State Department saw the editorial or whether there was any discussion of its content. “I would suggest that this is equivalent to a U.S. government statement and that people may conclude, rightly or wrongly, that this is a U.S. government position,” said Phil Peters, a Cuba analyst at the Lexington Institute." Via LB on e-mail. Image from article, with caption: Pope Benedict XVI visits Mexico and Cuba: After his first visit to Mexico, Pope Benedict stopped in Cuba, formerly an officially atheist country.
Bureaucrats grasp for power at Broadcasting Board of Governors - Ted Lipien, washingtonexaminer.com: "When the U.S. officials in charge of persuading foreign audiences must themselves be persuaded by the Dalai Lama not to end Voice of America radio programs to Tibet, it is apparent there is something rotten in the management of U.S. international broadcasting. The Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency in charge of VOA, has been taken over by career bureaucrats with a self-centered agenda. Like the spineless State Department officials who coaxed Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng out of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, BBG staffers seem to think they know best what serves America's interests -- and as it happens, it coincides with what's best for them. According to these bureaucrats, producing English lessons with juvenile humor to be placed on iTunes in China is more important than VOA news. They wanted to cut news broadcasts to generate more nonpolitical online content that Beijing's cyberpolice will not try to block. These permanent executives have found some allies among the presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed board of five Democrats and four Republicans. At the same time, they kept other members of the part-time board out of the loop as they hatched plans to limit congressional oversight. At least on China and Tibet, their plans were blocked, first by bipartisan votes in Congress, and most recently by the board members themselves. These presidential appointees were finally shamed by numerous protests and a powerful plea from Holocaust survivor Annette Lantos, who continues the human rights advocacy work of her late husband, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif. But it took relentless efforts by the BBG's senior Republican, former Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe, to persuade his colleagues that the executive staff is taking the agency in the wrong direction. Ashe was supported on Tibet and China by two Democratic members of the BBG -- Michael Meehan and Susan McCue, who even suggested that broadcasts to Tibet should be paid for from cuts in management expenses. Eventually, all the BBG members voted to restore funding for Tibetan and Cantonese broadcasts. The struggle for public control of taxpayer-funded U.S. international broadcasting is, however, far from over. The BBG staff, with the support of some board members, is still pushing forward with the proposal to merge the independent surrogate broadcasters -- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks -- under a single administration headed by a new CEO who would not be directly answerable to Congress."
Soviet-style fake photo or is Broadcasting Board of Governors staff making fun of absentee Board members? - BBGWatcher, USG Broacasts/BBG Watch: "A photo on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) website shows Governors Michael Lynton and Dana Perino at the BBG meeting in Miami on April 20, 2012.
There is only one problem with the photo: neither Michael Lynton nor Dana Perino attended the Miami meeting during which BBG members who were present voted to reverse the Board’s earlier decision to end Voice of America Tibetan radio broadcasts and to shut down the VOA Cantonese Service." Image from article, with caption: Photo on the BBG website shows Michael Lynton and Dana Perino attending the BBG meeting in Miami on April 20. Both Lynton and Perino were absent at that meeting.
India Targets the Young to Bridge Gap With Africa - daijiworld.com: "Accra (Ghana)... India is attempting to bridge the gap with Africa by roping in the young through a four-year long programme that comes on the back of increased trade. This latest engagement with Africa is likely to see a further improvement in the relationship as trade between India and Africa blossomed over the past few years. The Indian government says it has targeted to grow trade to Africa to $90 billion by 2015. In addition to this growth in trade, the external affairs ministry has embarked on an ambitious campaign to win the hearts of the continent's youth through a new programme called, 'Indiafrica: a shared future' over the next four years (2011-14). Udita Das, a consultant at New Delhi-based company IdeaWorks, which is coordinating the campaign, said: 'It is part of an effort to implement the decisions of the India-Africa Forum Summits.' The Public Diplomacy Division of the external affairs ministry has drawn up a number of programmes to engage the youth in Africa for promoting India-Africa relations, she added. ... 'There is a progressive demographic advantage of a youthful population between India and the continent that must be used to benefit the people of both regions,' said Udita Das. Das said the programme is intended to give a 'platform to the youth so that they can compete, collaborate and co-create'. She said that it 'is a unique public diplomacy and youth outreach project that aims to create a dynamic platform for students and professionals across India and Africa to collaborate through competitive, innovation and entrepreneurship'. For this year, Das said, there would be contests in business plans, poster design, photography and essay writing."
Do Not Rebrand Greece Now! - Ares Kalandides and Mihalis Kavaratzis, greece.greekreporter.com: "There is an approach that people often forget and which goes hand in hand with Place Branding: Public Diplomacy. But with the Greek public administration at a comatose state for the time being, they will need time to build that. Maybe a look at how other countries (e.g. Germany) did it will help. So, if we were asked to re-brand Greece today, we would probably say no.
But we’d sit down at once and think about what can be done do now, so we’re ready the day after. Until then, what Greece needs is crisis management not re-branding." Image from article, with caption: A pre-crisis campaign: "Greece the true experience"
Critical Review of “Report on Foreign Cultural Policy 2005/2006” by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany - isabelletreat, Public and Cultural Diplomacy 6A group blog by students at London Metropolitan University: "[F]or a nation lacking a word for this very activity, Germany seems to have taken on board some of the lessons of the ‘new public diplomacy’... by emphasizing the importance of listening and exchange, believing that an open cultural dialogue will be able to address the conflict potential arising from the
clash of different cultural values. ... [I]t is somewhat disappointing that the report does not make any reference to a theoretical underpinning of its activities and shows no awareness of the existing discourse on public diplomacy. Further, it establishes no connection between the advancement of the stated aims of cultural diplomacy and the outcomes of the various activities." Image from article, with caption: Images from the ‘Year of Germany’ in Japan and Poland
Regarding The Egyptian Delegation To the Kingdom - egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com: “At the same time we were watching on TV the clashes between the military police and the protesters at MOD sit in , many Egyptians were shocked from what they were seeing on Al Arabiya TV channel on air from the Saudi Royal palace in Riyadh from humiliation to their Egyptian dignity. A public diplomacy headed by the Speaker of the People Saad El Katatanini and MPs from different parties including Freedom and Justice Party and Al Nour Party as well the leaders of Al Wafd Party 'Sayed Badawy' and Ghad El Thawar Party 'Ayman Nour'. There were representatives from religious institutions in Egypt like Al Azhar and the Orthodox church of Alexandria along with Salafist Sheikh like Sheikh Mohamed Hassan. There were also actors in the delegation that was received warmly by Saudi. The delegation went to apologize for the insults the Kingdom and the King endured during El Gizawy’s case and for the insulting graffiti written on the walls of the embassy from couple of weeks ago as well to demand the return of the Saudi ambassador. Everything would be fine if it were not for the humiliating begging way the delegation acted.”
Forum Christian Youth in Russia 3.-5. May 2012 – Report - besslov.wordpress.com: "The Forum Christian Youth in Russia was held from 3-5. May 2012. It took place in the Spa ‘Bekasovo’ – Naro-Fominsk. The results were presented on the 5th of May 2012 at the Moscow House of Nationalities. Out of 100 participants announced, about 50 attend the forum.
The pool of participants consisted mainly of representatives of Russian NGOs, working in the areas of Christianity, youth work, and journalism; as well as representatives of different cultural and denominational Christian groups. ... [Among the guest speakers [was] ... Alexandr Sokolov – Chairman of the Working Group on International Cooperation and Public Diplomacy of the Russian Federation . ... In the aftermath of the presentation [s], the audience expressed its comments. Besides speeches of praise and the expression of hope for more results and cooperation, above all, the speech by Alexandr Sokolov seems worth mentioning. He stressed how important it was that representatives of NGOs have dealt with the issue of youth and value education. However, he pointed out that the presented results and analysis do exist already in a similar way at the governmental department for youth work, and that a deeper, more practical approach was required." Image from entry: (Forum of Christian Youth of Russia)
The Transitive Problem - William Lafi Youmans, Take Five - The IPDGC Blog on Public Diplomacy and Global Communication: “[A] problem facing public diplomacy practitioners and states’ strategic communicators. How does one better a country’s image when it is vulnerable to 'guilt by association' when that country’s friends are seen as bad actors? ...
The basic dilemma: how to communicate persuasively values and ideals when a close friend is violating them?” Image from entry
RELATED ITEMS
Coming clean on drones: The Obama administration should be applauded for lifting the veil of secrecy even slightly on the drone attacks, but there's still too much we don't know - Doyle McManus, latimes.com: The administration should be applauded for lifting the veil of secrecy even slightly on the drone attacks, which for years weren't even officially acknowledged. (Most of them are still
officially covert.) Americans have a right to know how their government makes these decisions. The people living in countries that are being bombed are entitled to an explanation too; we're unlikely to win many hearts and minds solely by buzzing them with drones. But there is still too much that the administration ins't divulging. An ABC News/Washington Post poll in February found that 83% of Americans approve of the use of drones, including 77% of liberal Democrats. Someday, other countries will deploy killer drones too, and they may not all be our friends. We have a chance now to set precedents and propose rules that we'd like to see other countries such as China and Russia live by, even if they're unlikely to meet every standard we might want. Image from
The Beijing News: a clown with a conscience - David Bandurski, China Media Project: May 4, 2012, was a day of feverish conversation on Chinese social media about editorials in four Beijing newspapers attacking the United States for its “scheming” over the case of blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng. Much of the response domestically to the editorials in
The post was accompanied by a black-and-white photo of a circus clown taking a sad and solitary drag on a cigarette, and read: In the still of the deep night, removing that mask of insincerity, we say to our true selves, “I am sorry.” Goodnight. Image from article
Joseph Nye talks on the rise of Chinese soft power - english.pku.edu.cn: Upon the invitation by School of Marxism and Research Center for Chinese Culture, Peking University (PKU), Professor Joseph Nye from Harvard University paid a visit to PKU and delivered a lecture on the rise of Chinese soft power at Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center on April 24, 2012. The concept of soft power was first developed by Professor Nye in his book Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power in 1990. Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes that people want, which could be done in three ways: coercion, payment and attraction. He realized that the conventional methods, such as economic and military resources, could explain coercion or payment, but not attraction and persuasion, which made him to develop the concept. ... The usage of soft power, for good or bad purposes, has a long history even if the terminology of soft power is quite new.
Professor Nye admitted that Chinese culture has a good understanding of soft power and gave an example of Lao Tzu. He then introduced the resources of soft power, culture, values and diplomatic policies. These are the key factors that translate soft power into attraction. Professor Nye talked about Chinese soft power in detail. In the past decades, China published over a hundred articles on soft power and the term appeared on Chinese official language as well. He also pointed out that China has important resources, Chinese traditional values for example, for generating soft power. “China doesn’t export its values, but others come to see them”, he cited Henry Kissinger’s words. In recent year, China has tried different ways to enhance Chinese soft power by setting up over several hundreds of Confucius Institutes all over the world to teach Chinese culture and broadcasting or 24-hour cable news externally. Moreover, China adjusted the diplomacy to increase its attraction to neighbors. “There are aspects of our relationship which involve competition and there are aspects which involve cooperation, but in the long run, we are going to have much more to gain from cooperation”, Professor Nye welcomed the rise of Chinese soft power in U.S. and he believed that if Americans have a better understanding and attraction to China, there is less likely that the competition will lead both countries into conflict. Image from article
Poisoned By Propaganda - Seeing Red in China: In China today, State propaganda is pervasive, intruding in every aspect of life. From the number of children you have to where their loyalties should lay. But propaganda does not silence opposition, it aims simply to yell the loudest and drown out competing voices.
U.S. abandons consulate site in Afghanistan, citing security risks - Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post: After signing a 10-year lease and spending more than $80 million on a site envisioned as the United States’ diplomatic hub in northern Afghanistan, American officials say they have abandoned their plans, deeming the location for the proposed compound too dangerous. See also (1) (2).
Conservative Putin in unpredictable environment - Fyodor Lukyanov, valdaiclub.com: Putin does not doubt that Russia is an object of permanent and mostly unfriendly influence – from military challenges (such as missile defense, other high-tech improvements and NATO’s expansion) to attempts to impose other forms of social arrangement on it by way of media campaigns and “illegal instruments of soft power.” Via DF on faceb
The American in Paris - Rosecrans Baldwin, New York Times: France is glad to be rid of Nicolas Sarkozy, who lost the country’s presidency in a runoff election this weekend to the Socialist candidate, François Hollande. Mr. Sarkozy was never particularly “French” as we know it.
He wasn’t a gourmand, academic or wonk. He loved America, unabashedly, and Elvis, and wasn’t ashamed to say so. And we, to the extent that we could ever love a French president, took to him. Americans don’t mind millionaires running our business. Mr. Sarkozy, president of the rich, was always more our man than theirs. For five years, we had a man in Europe we could have elected ourselves. Image from
West is trapped by Israel's warmongering policies against Iran - presstv.com: Apart from confirming Israel's concern about Iran's nuclear energy program, Tel Aviv's increasing propaganda against Iran has had other consequences as well. Some of them are linked with the Iranophobia policy which has been adopted by the rightist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while others are of international importance. The benefits of pursuing this policy for Israel can be enumerated.
Armenian Foreign Ministry: Azerbaijan uses UN for anti-Armenian propaganda - panarmenian.net
An economic boom ahead? - David Ignatius, Washington Post: With so much talk these days of America’s decline, it may sound strange to ponder the prospects for an American economic boom a decade or so from now. But that’s the thrust of two new studies, which have me thinking like Dr. Pangloss, Voltaire’s caricature of optimism. These analyses predict the repair of two of America’s greatest economic vulnerabilities in recent times — dependence on foreign energy, with the threat of supply disruption, and the decline of the manufacturing sector in the face of lower-cost foreign competition. Both problems are on the way to being reversed, the analysts argue
Box Office: 'Avengers' has top U.S. debut ever with $200.3 million - Amy Kaufman, latimesblogs.latimes.com: Disney's decision to open the film overseas before it hit U.S. theaters helped to turn the movie's debut into a worldwide event.
Indeed, many Hollywood studios are increasingly beginning to open movies abroad first in an effort to capitalize on international ticket sales, which often account for the majority of the overall gross on big-budget event films. Image from article
American World War II Comic Book Propaganda - markosun.wordpress.com. Among them:
Vitaly Goriayev: The artist and the war - Apresyan Armen, The Voice of Russia. Soldiers during battle or in rare moments of rest, destroyed cities, caricatures of the enemy, propaganda posters «TASS Windows» and the «Frontline Humor» magazine – this is how the Great Patriotic War is depicted in the
works of Vitaly Goriayev, a front-line artist. For him, like other war veterans, the war theme was perhaps the closest to his heart. Since 1941, Vitaly Goriayev worked for the «TASS Windows». Those famous propaganda posters that called for the defense of the Motherland that became popular at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, continued the traditions of the «ROST Windows» that had inspired the Red Army during the Civil War. Image from article
Daniel Boorstin got it right in 'The Image': The historian wrote 50 years ago that U.S. culture was moving away from substance toward sensationalism in an era of mass media. And so postmodernism was born - Neal Gabler, Los Angeles Times: Everywhere Boorstin looked, and he looked everywhere — at journalism, at heroism, at travel, at art, even at human aspiration — he believed that the eternal verities that had once governed life had given way to something cheap and phony: a facsimile of life.
Of journalism, he would say, "More and more news events become dramatic performances in which 'men in the news' simply act out more or less well their prepared script." Of heroism, he would say that it had been replaced by celebrity, which he famously described as "a person who is known for his well-knownness." Of travel, he would say that tourists increasingly demanded experiences that would "become bland and unsurprising reproductions of what the image-flooded tourist knew was there all the time." Of art and literature, he would say that if they were "to be made accessible to all, they had to be made intelligible (and inoffensive) to all," and he carped about what photography, movies and condensed books did to art, which was flatten it. And, finally, of human aspiration, he lamented that "like no generation before us," we believe that "we can make our very ideals" rather than respect preordained ideals that we have to live up to. Bornstein image from article
IMAGE
via KS on facebook
RUSSICA
Via NB on facebook
ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY
"As empires decline, their leaders become increasingly incompetent -- petulant, ignorant, gifted only with PR skills of posturing and spinning, and prone to the appointment of loyal idiots to important government positions. Comedy thrives; indeed writers are hardly needed to invent outrageous events."
--Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia
&docid=uAah6BNwQrFJLM&imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/An_American_in_Paris_poster.jpg/220px-An_American_in_Paris_poster.jpg&w=220&h=300&ei=BUGnT9HTOcL50gGm-eSABQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=86&vpy=44&dur=266&hovh=240&hovw=176&tx=100&ty=210&sig=105627217902804057987&page=1&tbnh=100&tbnw=72&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:139){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment