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FESTIVAL
"I am writing with exciting news: project 'Americana' will play at the Mariinsky Theater's White Nights Festival on June 5, kicking off a series of American Modern Music that will open in
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Public diplomacy: ‘The US govt presents the best case for Pakistan’ - Aroosa Shaukat, tribune.com.pk: "As a democratic government, the United States (US) adminstration has to present the best case to its people to grant aid to Pakistan, Tara D Sonenshine, the newly appointed US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs says. Speaking to The Express Tribune in an exclusive interview during a two-day visit to the country, Soneshine spoke on the challenge of improving ties between Pakistan and the US. She said that Pakistan was the second country she had visited (after China) since being appointed in April. 'The aim of my visit is to listen and explain,' she said. 'It is important to tell people who we are and what we do.' To create political will, governments need to explain what they are doing to their peoples, she said. 'Neither is America monolithic nor is Pakistan,' she said. 'So what the people want is not a monolith either.' A people-to-people dialogue between the two countries is required to better understand issues, she said.
'Violent extremism has caused both countries to suffer major losses,' she said. With Pakistan having lost more than 40,000 lives in acts of extremism, countering it is an interest Pakistan and US share, she said. 'Education is a core pillar in public diplomacy,' she said, speaking about the Fulbright International Educational Exchange Programme in Pakistan. 'The Fulbright programme in Pakistan is the largest in the world,' she said. 'Its goal is to nurture young minds.' Speaking about her engagement with students who had returned to the country after scholarship programmes in the US, Sonenshine said she found it reassuring to see young Pakistanis revitalised about taking their country forward. She said that violent extremism, economic instability and climate change were the major problems facing the world. 'We have several problems but not many solutions,' she said. Speaking about the economic engagement between the two countries, she said, 'At the end of the day, people want good jobs and a feeling of stability. That is what we have to work towards.' Responding to a question on whether economic and educational engagements between the two countries had decreased due to rising political tensions, Sonenshine said that while day-to-day incidents have had an ‘up and down’ effect on the relationship, public diplomacy aims to look beyond it. 'You have to be committed for the long haul and have to ride out these emerging situations,' she said. 'Public diplomacy in the modern age helps bridge gaps between individuals to create strong relationships between countries,' she said. Pakistan and the US have collaborated in agriculture, economics and education, she said. This ‘cross fertilisation of knowledge and intersection of science’ was symbolic of how public diplomacy had put students, researchers, scientists, journalists and entrepreneurs from both countries in a relationship, she said. 'Our goal is to build a long-term relationship with Pakistan that opens the minds of people to understand one another,' Sonenshine said. She said that engagements need to continue between the people of both countries to steer the relations in a positive direction. 'I see a long journey that has to be travelled. I see citizen diplomacy as the way to achieving a long-term relationship with Pakistan,' she said." Sonenshine image from article
Demand Progress petition to stop removal of Smith-Mundt Act restrictions on domestic government propaganda - BBGWatcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "While BBG Watch supports placing all Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) international broadcasts and other programs in the public domain for anyone to use free of charge, some of us are concerned that the proposed Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 is so broadly written that it gives BBG and other US government officials unrestricted power to target American citizens with government information marketing. We would support the modification of the Smith-Mundt Act if it included clear and strict rules and a prohibition on active direct marketing of BBG programs to US citizens and US broadcasters.
There is a real fear that BBG officials would take advantage of the new law, if it passes, to move resources from international to domestic information activities. BuzzFeed reported that the version of the defense appropriations bill that passed through markup in the Senate Armed Services Committee does not include an amendment to 'strike the current ban on domestic dissemination' of propaganda. Buzz Feed quoted Glen Caplin, Communications Director for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D – NY), who is a member of the committee. “Senator Gillibrand is hopeful this troubling language will remain out of the Senate bill and stripped out in conference committee when the House and Senate bills are reconciled,” Caplin said. BuzzFeed – Senate Bill Drops 'Propaganda” Amendment'." Gillibrand image from entry
Public Diplomacy: The most unsettling section of the Smith-Mundt "modernization" bill - John Brown, Notes and Essays: 10 ‘‘'(c) APPLICATION.—The provisions of this section 11 shall apply only to the Department of State and the 12 Broadcasting Board of Governors and to no other depart-13ment or agency of the Federal Government.' http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr5736ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr5736ih.pdf. Question, to reiterate the main point of my earlier piece on this subject: Should not, in fact, the Smith-Mundt Act (stripped of some of its Cold-War anachronisms, e.g., American citizens can't listen to VOA), actually be reinforced to spare the American population from Pentagon grey/black propaganda?"
Students for a Free Tibet helped to save Voice of America Tibetan radio from BBG cuts - BBGWatcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), a chapter-based network of young people and activists around the world
that has been working to help the Tibetan people regain their freedom, played a critical role in getting the U.S. Congress to force the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to cancel its plan to terminate Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Tibet. Many of the signatures for the petition to save VOA radio to Tibet came from the SFT Facebook page." Image from entry
Voice of America: State of Azerbaijan has never existed - panorama.am: "There has never existed a state called Azerbaijan, once it was a part of historic Iran, Iranian 'jamnews.com' news site quotes experts as telling 'Voice of America.' Political anchor of 'Voice of America' Alireza Nurizadeh referred to anti-Islamic propaganda of Azerbaijan, saying: 'Azerbaijani authorities founded a television station which is making propaganda for 'united Azerbaijan' every day. However, not the Turkish speaking Azeris of Iran should join people of Azerbaijan, but the opposite processes should take place. 'Extremist forces are aimed to rename Azerbaijan into Northern Azerbaijan claiming that Southern Azerbaijan is 'occupied.' In fact the territory of today’s Azerbaijan was once territory of Iran,' another expert Mohammad Sahimi said. Iranian Ambassador to Armenia Seyyed Ali Saghayia said recently in Yerevan State University meeting that until 1918 there had not been a state called Azerbaijan."
Week 9 — International broadcasting: VOA - Media English I at Ryudai: "We begin this week studying international broadcasting with a review of Voice of America. Known as VOA, this organization offers lots of materials in English, both written and video. Who owns VOA? Answer: The U.S. government. What is its purpose? That’s a harder answer. VOA is a fundamental part of the nation’s program of public diplomacy — a way of presenting a national image to the world."
In China, Philadelphia Orchestra continues forging special relationship - Peter Crimmins, newsworks.org: "Some members of the Philadelphia Orchestra are on their way in
While cultural exchanges are common among schools and foundations, the
Political and Economic Inequalities - Cultural Diplomacy News By Werner Wnendt (Director-General for Culture and Communication, German Foreign Ministry - battysslaronda95.typepad.com: "Ladies and Gentlemen, If you wanted to describe the main task of diplomacy by reducing it to its basic principles, these would have to include finding ways to balance interests peacefully and using creativity to discover and shape compromises even in complicated situations and difficult times. Public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy are always focused on the exchange of people and experiences across geographic and cultural boundaries. Our cultural relations and education policy has been very successful in this field for many decades. ... With this in mind, I welcome the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy[']s organization of this International Symposium on Political and Economic Inequalities, and the role of cultural diplomacy in overcoming divisions both within and between societies."
Secretary-General Appoints Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal of Austria Under-Secretary-General for Communications, Public Information - sustainabilitank.info: "For the position of Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has selected Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal of Austria, who since 2007 has been the Spokesman and Head of the Department for Communication and Information of the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs. Mr. Launsky-Tieffenthal brings to the position 30 years of experience within the Austrian Foreign Service, particularly in Asia, North America and the Middle East, with responsibilities ranging from public diplomacy and development cooperation to press and information. He has held senior leadership positions in which he was responsible for formulating overall communication strategies, including the extensive use of modern media tools, crisis management and negotiating international agreements. In his current capacity, Mr. Launsky-Tieffenthal works closely with approximately 100 national offices abroad to define, develop and implement an integrated and coherent message for the Foreign Service."
RELATED ITEMS
Ryan Crocker Slips Quietly Away - Kelley B. Vlahos, antiwar.com:
In other words, they come, they go, and
U.S. drone targets in Yemen raise questions - Greg Miller,washingtonpost.com: "The quickening pace of the U.S. drone campaign in Yemen this year has raised new questions about who is being targeted and why. A review of strikes there so far suggests that the Obama administration has embraced a broader definition of what constitutes a terrorism threat that warrants a lethal response. In more than 20 U.S. airstrikes over a span of five months, three “high-value” terrorism targets have been killed, U.S. officials said. A growing number of attacks have been aimed at lower-level figures who are suspected of having links to terrorism operatives but are seen mainly as leaders of factions focused on gaining territory in Yemen’s internal struggle."
Kinsley: To intervene or not to intervene in Syria: What should we do about Syria? For Americans, there's never going to be one set of rules to settle the question - Michael Kinsley, latimes.com: The situation in Syria is further complicated by the familiar question of who's the good guy. The bad guy is clearly Bashar Assad. But his opposition is a mixture of unattractive clerics and their followers, liberal reformers and left-wing radicals. People used to make a great distinction between America's interests, America's values and purely humanitarian concerns. Intervention to protect the first was regarded as mandatory; serving the second and third was not. But in practice, at least in the Middle East, they all get muddled. We have an interest in promoting our values. A Syria without Assad, like a Libya without Moammar Kadafi or an Iraq without Saddam Hussein or an Iran without nuclear weapons, is a safer place for Americans as well as a healthier place for the locals.
For Obama, intervening in Syria would be good policy and good politics - Danielle Pletka, washingtonpost.com: Arming the Syrian opposition, which some claim would be the prelude to another Iraq war, would in fact be an un-Bush strategy of allowing others to fight a war that America wishes won. The administration has fooled itself into thinking that U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan and Putin — whom they hope to persuade to abandon Assad — are the keys to managing the Syria problem. But Syria is proving unmanageable, and the stain of indifference to the death and brutality is spreading. Many have said that a policy pursuing Assad’s ouster is a rare confluence of strategic and moral imperatives. For Obama, it makes political sense as well. Below image from
Shoes give clue to Houla assailants - Michael Peel in Abu Dhabi and Abigail Fielding-Smith in Beirut @ The Financial Times - posted at just-international.org: Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows UN observers at a hospital morgue before their burial in the central Syrian town of Houla on May 26, 2012. The head of a UN mission warned of "civil war" in Syria after his observers counted more than 92 bodies, 32 of them children, in Houla following reports of a massacre there. The men who stormed the Abdel Razzaks’ home while carrying out a massacre in the Houla district of Syria were dressed like soldiers except for one potentially crucial detail, said a ten-year-old family member: they wore white shoes. Hidden in a nearby barn, the boy watched as the thugs left the house and shot dead his 13-year-old friend Shafiq, who was standing across the street. Analysts say the white shoes are one of several indicators that the murder of more than 100 people in this central Syrian cluster of villages was more than just another killing spree by the army of Bashar al-Assad. Nadim Houry, of Human Rights Watch, said the running shoes were one of the details cited by witnesses as evidence the people carrying out the attacks were not soldiers but members of the shadowy and much-feared grouping of pro-regime militiamen known as the shabbiha, who are playing an ever-growing role in the country’s deepening conflict.
The Houla Massacre: Opposition Terrorists "Killed Families Loyal to the Government"- Detailed Investigation - globalresearch.ca: Global Research Editor's Note: This incisive report by independent Russian journalist Marat Musin dispels the lies and fabrications of the Western media. The report is based on a chronology of events as well as eyewitness accounts. Entire pro-government families in Houla were massacred. The terrorists were not pro-government shabbiha militia as conveyed, in chorus, by the mainstream media, they were in large part mercenaries and professional killers operating under the auspices of the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Mutually Assured Cyberdestruction? - David E. Sanger, New York Times: Does the United States want to legitimize the use of cyberweapons as a covert tool? Or is it something we want to hold in reserve for extreme cases? Will we reach the point — as we did with chemical weapons, and the rest of the world did with land mines — that we want treaties to ban their use? Or is that exactly the wrong analogy, in a world in which young hackers, maybe working on their own or maybe hired by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army or the Russian mob, can launch attacks themselves? These are all fascinating questions that the Obama administration resolutely refuses to discuss in public.
Oil Output Soars as Iraq Retools - Tim Arango and Clifford Krauss, New York Times: For Iraq, the resurgence of oil, which it is already pumping at rates seen only once — and briefly — since Saddam Hussein took power in 1979, is vital to its postwar success. Oil provides more than 95 percent of the government’s revenues, has enabled the building of roads and the expansion of social services, and has greatly strengthened the Shiite-led government’s hand in this ethnically divided country. Oil has also brought its share of pitfalls for the fledgling democracy, fostering corruption and patronage, and aggravating tensions with the Kurdish minority in the north over the division of profits, a festering issue that could end up fracturing the country.
Nazi propaganda website starts operation in Iran, government censors do nothing - Reza Kahlili, dailycaller.com: A pro-Nazi association now operates a Persian-language website in
But a Nazi propaganda website is consistent with the proclamations of Iran’s military and political leaders, who have both denied the existence of the Nazi Holocaust and called for the destruction of
How To Spot Twitter Propaganda: Study - Courteney Palis, Huffington Post: They send tweets constantly, many of them just retweets. They connive with other users to send the same exact tweets at the same. Exact. Time. They're Twitter propagandists, and, according to a new study from Georgia Tech's College of Computing, they've all got the same M.O. Georgia Tech's Cristian Lumezan, Nick Feamster and Hans Klein discovered that Twitter propagandists, or "users who consistently express the same opinion or ideology," tend to send high volumes of tweets in short periods of time, retweet without adding much original commentary, retweet others' content fairly quickly and coordinate with others to send duplicate or near-duplicate tweets on the same topic at the same time. To come up with these findings, they studied nearly 100,000 tweets from the 2010 Nevada Senate race (hashtagged #nvsen) and the 2011 debt ceiling debate (hashtagged #debtceiling). Using specific algorithms, they determined groups of tweeters with similar political ideologies, then identified users exhibiting hyperadvocate behavior, defined in the study as "the consistent dissemination of content that subscribes to a single ideology or opinion." In identifying these behaviors, Georgia Tech researchers hoped to make a step towards understanding how Twitter can be used to spread propaganda in the same way that traditional media outlets have been used in the past. "We rely on media to serve as our window on the world, but media can also distort what we see. It can act as a lens or as a filter, enlarging some topics and minimizing others," said Klein in a press release. "Such media effects have long been studied in the mass media. This research looks for similar propaganda-like effects in new media like Twitter." In a separate study released in April, researchers from Georgia Tech, as well as from
AMERICANA
The single-mom catastrophe: The demise of two-parent families in the U.S. has been an economic catastrophe for society - Kay S. Hymowitz, latimes.com: In 1965, 93% of all American births were to women with marriage licenses. Over the next few decades, the percentage of babies with no father around rose steadily. As of 1970, 11% of births were to unmarried mothers; by 1990, that number had risen to 28%. Today, 41% of all births are to unmarried women. And for mothers under 30, the rate is 53%. The embrace of "lone motherhood" — women bringing up kids with no dad around — has been an American specialty.
Slurping less soda in New York - Editorial, Washington Post: 36 percent of Americans are excessively overweight, treatment for which costs the country $190 billion a year. Teenage boys now drink an average of 273 calories in sugary drinks every day.
In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins: Highly religious Americans most likely to believe in creationism - Frank Newport, gallup.com: Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God's guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.
HAIL BRITANNIA
What if America had a queen? - Autumn Brewington, Washington Post: The Guardian newspaper reported last week that 69 percent of Britons say their country would be worse off without the monarchy; only 22 percent said it would be better off.
RUSSICA
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