"I wish schools would teach the value of cultivating presence."
--Dianne Ackerman, "Are We Living in Sensory Overload or Sensory Poverty?" New York Times; image from
VIDEO
North Korean film exposes Western propaganda - Part 1, 2, 3, and 4 - thepeoplesvoice.org
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Notice to the Press, Office of the Spokesman, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC, June 8, 2012 - melodika.net: "On June 13, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton will welcome more than sixty young African leaders to the Innovation Summit and Mentoring Partnership, a three-week professional development program by the
Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson will provide the
This snafu brought to you by the letter 'S' - Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy: "The U.S. Agency for International Development is pulling the plug on the Pakistani version of Sesame Street, which it was funding as part of its broader development and public diplomacy efforts. The reason given was alleged fraud in the handling of funds, although the Pakistani producer responsible for the program denies any malfeasance. Bottom line: another upbeat moment on the increasngly fraught U.S. relationship with Pakistan. I'm glad to hear that State's money managers are keeping a watchful eye on expenditures, but the whole theory behind this initiative seems dubious to me. Apparently the idea was that if you got Pakistani tots acquainted with cute Muppets like Elmo (the only character transplanted from the U.S. version), they'd develop a greater love of learning, a better sense of social tolerance, and they might even grow up with a more favorable image of the United States. I'm not one to deny the power of television, but this strikes me as a bit of a stretch. The Pakistani version of Sesame Street (known locally as Sim Sim Hamara) may have been popular with kiddies (I don't know) and may even have encouraged some basic literacy and tolerance. But such programs are also justified by the desire to improve the U.S. image in places where it could use some polishing. And if that is the case, as Peter Van Buren notes ... , then canceling the program could negate whatever benefits were previously gained by funding it. More broadly, the assumption underlying most efforts at public diplomacy seems to be the belief that anti-Americanism around the world is a failure of marketing. If we just do a better job of selling what we do around the world (or if we get to them young enough, with clever characters like Elmo or Cookie Monster), then Pakistanis won't mind our launching drone strikes on their territory and will give us a free pass when we kill a bunch of border guards by accident.
The core problem, needless to say, is that a successful public diplomacy effort needs to start with a good product. Defending America's dominant world role isn't impossible, but it's not primarily a question of 'spin,' propaganda, cultural exchange, or better children's TV programming. If U.S. foreign policy is consistently insensitive to others' interests, and if our actions are seen by others as making things worse instead of better, then no amount of clever public diplomacy is going to convince them that Washington is really acting selflessly on behalf of all mankind. Ironically, Obama's first term offers a potent illustration of both the potential and the limits of public diplomacy. In his first year, the percentage of people with a favorable image of the U.S. rose dramatically in most of the world, and even improved slightly in the Middle East (where the U.S. image is especially poor). But while Obama and the U.S. remain fairly popular in Europe, his subsequent policies have produced a profound slide in a number of key areas, including Pakistan. Other societies don't always have a fully accurate view of what the United States is doing and why, but they aren't completely ignorant or ill-informed either. Sorry to sound like Oscar the Grouch, but bringing Sesame Street to Islamabad wasn't going to fix that problem, even if all the money had been spent as intended." Image from article
Online propaganda and the National Defense Authorization Act - Mark Gibbs, Network World: "When it comes to the government we accept, at least theoretically, that it should keep us ignorant of some things; these are things that we conceive of as being so dangerous that we are better off not knowing about them. Of course the problem with this tacit knowledge of state secrets is it makes it really easy to hide stuff we should know about. Ignorance often only feels like bliss. But when it comes to our government telling us lies -- for example, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction so we needed to attack
on all fronts and mediums - especially online.’ I don't know about you [,] but the idea of a U.S.-sanctioned online propaganda war is extremely worrying to me. If there was ever a case where a government program could overreach, this is it. We need government that is transparent and accountable, not an Orwellian state machine that tells us war is right and that having secrets and spreading misinformation will keep us safe." Image from
Insider Quote: Everything Rushing at You at 110 Miles an Hour - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: "Below is an excerpt from a USIP interview on lessons learned from the PRTs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The interviewee, a Foreign Service Officer, served as the senior public diplomacy (PD) officer at Baghdad PRT, Iraq, from November 2009 to November 2010. ... 'To me the PRT was kind of like ... everything is coming at you at 110 miles an hour, and you have colleagues that don’t know what public diplomacy is, who didn’t have an officer at their PRT [Provincial Reconstruction Team] asking them 'What are you doing?' so that we can help promote it or talk about it, either back home or in the local media. They didn’t know what to think of me. I was an alien to them – 'Leave me alone and let me do my projects and stop bothering me.' It took a while to develop those relationships. Just the work itself is different, and so going forward to another assignment in an embassy with a normal structure and a public affairs officer and two assistants working, I think I’ll unlearn my bad mistakes and bad habits and see things in a more normal environment, but I’ll always have a favorable view of my time in Iraq. It had its frustrations, but I think in the end it was rewarding and I’m glad I went.' – Foreign Service Officer (INTERVIEW #128) Senior Public Diplomacy (PD) Officer Baghdad PRT, Iraq (November 2009 to November 2010) Interview date: Jan. 20, 2011"
TV version of BBC's Focus of Africa launches 18 June, "first in a range of new programming for Africa" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: [Elliott comment:] "VOA already has successful television products placed on African television stations, e.g.Straight Talk Africa. The BBC world services have been late to develop international television because of a ruling by Parliament a few years ago that the Foreign Office grant should be spent only on radio, with international television self-funding through advertising. That stipulation is now relaxed, and BBC Global will likely move quickly into noncommercial television programs of regional interest and in languages other than English."
APO launches new website - theghanaianjournal.com: "The African Press Organization (apo), leading press release wire in africa, and global leader in media relations related to africa, last friday unveiled its new website,http://www.apo-opa.org.
The new website has a dedicated section for each of APO’s eight media relations and consultancy services related to Africa, with: Press Release Distribution & Monitoring - Online Press Conference - Interactive Webcast - Media Interactions - Strategic Advice - Public Diplomacy - Government Relations - Event Promotion [.]" Image from
Taiwan In Ma’s Second Term: International Implications – Analysis - Wen-cheng Lin, theprophecyblog.com: "The PRC believes firmly in long-term unification with Taiwan but recognises that this dossier cannot be solved in the near future. It agrees that cross-strait exchanges should be conducted under the principle of ‘economics first, politics later’; tackling easier issues be- fore the more complicated ones. But Beijing opposes the notion that the cross-strait talks focus on economic issues only.
It believes that economic exchanges are to pave the way for political negotiations and that such negotiations of a political nature are inevitable. Beijing has invested in public diplomacy to win the hearts of the Taiwanese people and to create a better environment for peaceful unification. It is likely it will continue in this vein, increasing its concessions to Taiwan’s business community and efforts towards the greater part of its disadvantaged population." Image from entry
Vandana Shiva (1): Earth Democracy - lankaweb.com: "Geeth Says: June 10th, 2012 at 7:11 pm I think we must reach out to ordinary Indian masses and their grass root level organizations to educate them about our problems that directly related to Indian politics of Delhi and Tamilnadu. India is a vast land and is abundant in ideological diversity. We definitely can find some solidarity there. This is a good time to build some network through public diplomacy."
Gregory L Garland - Facebook: Re Cuba injects doctor diplomacy into Africa www.globalpost.com: "Oil-pumping Cuna's soft power. Now, is this public diplomacy? And how many of the doctor defectors are now practicing in South Florida?"
RELATED ITEMS
O'Grady: Castro Endorses Obama: The dictator's daughter gets a visa to make speeches here while the regime continues to hold an American hostage - Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal: President Obama has received yet another endorsement, this time from the daughter of Cuban military dictator Raúl Castro. Mariela Castro proclaimed her support for the sitting president 10 days ago, during a visit to the United States. "I believe that Obama needs another opportunity and
he needs greater support to move forward with his projects and with his ideas, which I believe come from the bottom of his heart," she said in a CNN interview in New York. The dictator's daughter, who is a vociferous proponent of the Cuban status quo, was ostensibly in the U.S. to discuss matters pertaining to her field of expertise, which has something to do with advocating for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights. As the Cuban-born writer Carlos Alberto Montaner put it in a syndicated column last week, "Mariela is tolerant of sexual preferences and intolerant of all the rest." Mariela Castro image from
The market for Russia's weapons: The U.S. wants Moscow to stop shipping arms to Syria. But we're buying Russian helicopters for the Aghans - Editorial, latimes.com: By continuing to buy Russian weapons even as it calls for Russia to stop selling weapons to Syria, Washington demonstrates that there will be no consequences if Russia fails to comply. It signals that the U.S. cares more about its mercantile or strategic interests than the human rights of the Syrian people — just as Moscow clearly does.
Deepening the ties between the U.S. and India - Tim Roemer, Washington Post: The "strategic dialogue” between Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna should prioritize the building of stronger trade and commercial relationships to compensate for losses in other global markets and to help people struggling at home.
Syria’s Assads Turned to West for Glossy P.R. - Bill Carter and Amy Chozick, New York Times: With the help of high-priced public relations advisers who had worked in the Clinton, Bush and Thatcher administrations, President Assad and his family have sought over the past five years to portray themselves in the Western media as accessible, progressive and even glamorous.
The Globalization of Propaganda And The Rise of The Alternative Media - Saman Mohammadi, opednews.com: The destabilization of Syria by terrorists funded and armed by the
It is hard to resist and diffuse propaganda that is targeted against large groups of people. In this case, anti-Syrian propaganda by the
UK journo reveals anti-Syria propaganda - presstv.com: A British journalist has claimed that Syria’s armed rebels were trying to get him killed in order to use his death to fuel the West-led propaganda against Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
Avaaz: Empire Propaganda Mill Masquerading as Grassroots Activism - Martin Iqbal, spyghana.com: ‘Activism’ and ‘human rights’ foundation Avaaz blames the Houla massacre on Assad and calls for foreign intervention. A peek into the background of Avaaz explains its pro-empire position, and who is really behind it. The ultra-shadowy Avaaz Foundation is purportedly a non-governmental organisation that seeks to(1) “close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want.” A mere three days after the Houla Massacre in Syria, while all parties were clamouring to figure out what had happened and who was responsible, Avaaz took the opportunity to speculatively blame the Assad regime as part of an online petition campaign. What is even more disconcerting is that this ‘human rights’ organisation also made a thinly-veiled call for foreign intervention – something which would undoubtedly result in astronomical human suffering.
Israel and Palestine Haters Around the World Fuel Conflict With Media and Propaganda - Ahmed Medien It is so unthinkable for the majority of Arabs, now, to accept the establishment of a state of Israel as an independent legal state right in the middle of the Middle East. It is so strange that Jews could “occupy” Muslim lands that Muslims only conquered some 1,400 years ago, and only belonged to the Jews some 5,000 years ago.
Because of the Arab Muslims’ selfishness and stubbornness to say a definite no to any possible compromise with the Israeli people who just want to live in there, people in Palestine were doomed to live under siege, in terror, with no jobs, health care or sometimes drinkable water. Image from article, with caption: Israel and Palestine Haters Around the World Fuel Conflict With Media and Propaganda
Iraqi restaurants are trying to satisfy Western tastes - Jim Michaels, USA TODAY: Iraqis are increasingly seeking out Western or international cuisine when they go out to restaurants. Once cut off from the world, most households now have satellite television and Internet access, exposing Iraqis to Western eating habits. It has made Iraqis hungry for the food they see on television. Generally, that means Western dishes and processed foods. Even if most of the new restaurants specialize in foods such as pizza, pasta or fried chicken, traditional food is kept alive in homes and at working-class restaurants throughout the city, says Nawal Nasrallah, an Iraqi-American who wrote a cookbook on traditional Iraqi food.
Belarus, Pakistan can be good trade partners: Marri - nation.com.pk: Sindh Information and Power Minister Shazia Marri has said that Belarus and Pakistan could be good trade partners. She said that Pakistan had been doing a tremendous job of fighting the war against terror as a frontline state, and a war of atrocities was being waged against Pakistan, which was nothing but propaganda. She was talking to the State news channel of Belarus, correspondent Tengis Dumbadze, at her office here in Karachi. She thanked Tengis Dumbadze and his team for coming here to personally experience the true picture of Pakistan instead of sitting thousands of miles away and believing on the propaganda being hatched to tarnish the image of Pakistan.
The Belarusian journalist Tengis Dumbadze said that the former Prime Minister Shaheed Benazir Bhutto was his ideal politician and that he felt very much sad over her martyrdom at the hands of extremists. Marri said that Benazir Bhutto was a strong supporter of dialogue as war has never been the solution to any problem. Benazir strongly believed in people-to-people contact, trade, communication, socio-cultural and student exchanges between countries for regional and international harmony. Uncaptioned image from article
Welcome to the Balkan Propaganda Machine - David Gibbs, antiwar.com: Ihe “Balkan propaganda machine” comprises academics, journalists, and bloggers who hold tenaciously to a simplified version of the Balkan wars as being caused almost entirely by Serbs; they view the later NATO interventions against the Serbs positively. For these activists, the Balkan conflict has become a great crusade, one that defies rational analysis. Any deviation from the prescribed narrative is considered an act of immorality, deserving of punishment. In addition, this crusade dovetails nicely with a neoconservative political agenda, which celebrates the Balkan interventions as historic achievements for U.S. hegemony.
Kim Jong Eun's mom poses propaganda puzzle for North Korea - wogx.com: North Korea has started to answer The Mom Question. Since Kim Jong Eun took over as North Korea's top leader after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December, one of the unknowns for outside observers of the authoritarian regime was how its propaganda machine was going to handle the story of Kim Jong Eun's mother. Her name is Ko Young Hui, and she had a life that is difficult to square with the main narrative of the North's propaganda, which portrays the Kim family as vanquishers of the Japanese occupiers and protectors of the pure-blood Korean race. Kim Jong Il's mother Kim Jong Suk, who died when he was about eight years old, has been held up for decades by North Korea's propaganda ministries as a "Great Mother" to the nation. Ko Young Hui became a folk dancer and joined North Korea's most prestigious dance company, called Mansudae Art Troupe. Working for them, she caught the eye of Kim Jong Il during a performance in the 1970s. She became the fourth woman he had children with and, by most accounts, the woman who Kim Jong Il loved the most. They never married, however, and she was never depicted in the North Korean media with Kim Jong Il. She died of cancer in Paris in 2004.
Her films glorified Hitler now Leni Riefenstahl’s story hits the screen - scotsman.com: A German actress whose grandfather helped Jews escape from the Nazis has landed the lead role in a new movie about the Third Reich’s genius propaganda moviemaker Leni Riefenstahl.
Maria Furtwaengler, who is best known in her homeland playing a Prime Suspect-style detective in the popular TV series Crime Scene, will star as Riefenstahl in the two-hour film being produced by the ZDF TV network. Hollywood actress Jodie Foster announced more than a decade ago she wanted to make a big screen epic about her but failed to generate enough interest in the project. Now ZDF has stepped in to make the movie, which will be dubbed and sold to the English-speaking world. Furtwaengler said she was “thrilled” to have got the part, adding: “I have a penchant for personalities that have decisively shaped our modern image of women.” ZDF said she was behind the idea. During the war her grandfather, Wilhelm Furtwaengler, was a well-known conductor and composer much courted by the Nazi hierarchy. He earned scorn in the music world for staying on to work under the regime but fled to Switzerland in 1944. Image from article
Business Leadership Programs Ignore the Key Ingredients of Success F- Douglas LaBier, Huffington Post: Leadership development and executive coaching programs have become pretty widespread in companies and organizations today, and with good reason: Positive, effective leadership is essential for success within today's turbulent work environment. Moreover, growing your leadership skills is also necessary for successful career development in today's workplace, where nothing is guaranteed. But there's a problem with these programs: Many fail to help with three crucial areas: building personal growth through self-awareness and self-examination; learning the leadership actions that increase company success in the midst of a changing workforce and fluid environment; and then, learning to align the two. Via GG on Facebook
AMERICANA
Should Colleges Cut Humanities Departments? - Peter S. Cohan, telegram.com: About half of freshly-minted college graduates are unemployed or underemployed.
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