August 9

"Far removed from theories of public diplomacy, sometimes the most essential acts of public diplomacy are the banal nitty-gritty aspects that are ultimately so important."

--Paul Rockower, Director of Communications, American Voices; image from

VIDEOS

(a) Here Is a Video of a Woman Grinding Her Ass Into Hillary Clinton’s Crotch at a Dinner Party - gawker.com. Via PVB

(b) Houston Propaganda Video Depicts Photographers as Terrorists - pixiq.com

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Tara D Sonenshine: Like to see more American students in India - Sujata Srinivasan, forbesindia.com: "Tara D Sonenshine is the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs at the US Department of State. In an interview with Forbes India, Sonenshine discusses initiatives to promote public diplomacy with India and how the Indian diaspora in the US is an important voice in this process."

YES Academy Iraq - Paul Rockower, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "Recently, American Voices held its annual Youth Excellence on Stage (YES) Academy in the city of Duhok, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. American Voices, the nonprofit for which I am the Director of Communications, conducts cultural engagement and diplomacy in countries emerging from conflict or isolation. At American Voices, we believe that cultural diplomacy requires sustained engagement and as such this year marked our sixth summer performing arts academy program in Iraq. With support from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government, the YES Academy Iraq program brought together over 300 Iraqi youth from across the country to study music, theater and dance for two weeks. With the still-precarious security situation in Iraq, the program offered students from across Iraq an opportunity to meet, and ultimately jam, with their compatriots.

Meanwhile, it fostered people-to-people diplomacy as the students bonded with and learned from their American teachers. It felt like nothing short of a public diplomacy miracle to hold together a quadralingual program—Arabic, two dialects of Kurdish (Badini and Sorani) and English— for two weeks. ... I ... learned a lot at the YES Academy Iraq, especially about the practical application of public diplomacy. Far removed from theories of public diplomacy, sometimes the most essential acts of public diplomacy are the banal nitty-gritty aspects that are ultimately so important. Things like ensuring that an army of students remains fed; that students are awake and attending class; that there are enough translators in a class who are able to translate the right dialect of Kurdish so the students can understand the professor’s lesson. Sometimes I felt like I was a public diplomacy camp counselor." Image from, with caption: Views of Duhok (Kurdistan) from hotel roof-Paul Rockower

I'm On A Boat! - Digger, Life After Jerusalem: The Musings Of A Two-Spirit American Indian, Public Diplomacy-Coned Foreign Service Officer: "Public Diplomacy in Tallinn this week has had a decidedly military flavor. We had a reception for some Estonian Wounded Warriors who had just returned from a week-long bike ride in Germany with other Wounded Warriors from the U.S. We had some U.S. cadets in town. Yesterday, there were concurrent ceremonies at Arlington Cemetery and Ämari Air Base to honor Major Martin Kommendant, who was an Estonian-born American shot down in Vietnam. His remains were finally recovered and he was interred at Arlington. ... The USS Farragut is visiting Tallinn, and we arranged for the media to get a tour of the vessel. Poor me, I had to go to the harbor and tour the ship with them! Life is hard! And this is the view from the pilot house:

Yep...life as a PD officer is awful! :)" Image from entry

Propaganda in Old Nanjing - Sarah Tynen, you're so cute; i just want to box you up: "I like translating propaganda because it demonstrates the government's agenda in a clear and succinct manner. I also think it displays a sense of insecurity--because if everything was dandy, why do you need to convince people that it's right? It's extremely challenging because the Chinese often use four character phrases similar to idioms that are hard to culturally translate into English, but I'll do my best. These are pictures I took in or around my neighborhood during the past year. [Among them, with caption:

"Create an ancient song that will mix today's splendorous harmony with the historical and cultural tourism of classical masterpieces." They mean to say that we should mix modernity with historical culture to create something more beautiful. Read: support demolition for the creation of something better.] I am currently in China on a 10-month Fulbright research grant to examine the impact of urban redevelopment on socio-economic spatial divisions and concepts of local place-based identity. In my spare time, I train in Brazilian Jiujitsu and powerlifting."

Food Politics at the Department of State: Culinary Diplomacy - foodpolitics.com: "I’ve been sent a copy of the Department of State’s Diplomatic Culinary Partnership Initiative. called 'Setting the Table for Diplomacy.' Its mission statement: ['] The Diplomatic Culinary Partnerships initiative builds on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of 'smart power' diplomacy, which embraces the use of a full range of diplomatic tools, by utilizing food, hospitality and the dining experience as ways to enhance how formal diplomacy is conducted, cultivating cultural understanding and strengthening bilateral relationships through the shared experience of food.['] I particularly like the idea of 'using food as a foundation for public diplomacy programs to learn about different cultures and discuss important related issues such as nutrition, sustainability and food security.' Yes! Everybody eats. This is my kind of diplomacy."

Malaysia - Malaysia getting ready to assume Asean chair - "Malaysia is making early preparations for its chairing of Asean in 2015, with the Foreign Ministry planning to work closely with diplomatic missions, ministries, civil societies and relevant agencies to promote awareness of the 45-year-old association. Deputy Foreign Minister Kohilan Pillay said this was among the initiatives undertaken by Wisma Putra to further strengthen the relationship among the member countries when Malaysia assumes the chair.

He said several programmes have already been initiated, especially for students. 'Through Serenta (outreach and public diplomacy programme), we inform students on how Asean was conceived and its successes to date,' he said, adding that more activities were being planned." Image from

Eliminating Breaches to Peace Through Diplomacy - jesterivan: "(A speech delivered by Rep. Jester Ivan O. Ricafrente, Chairman of the Policy Board of The Political Science Forum as Opening Remarks during the conduct of the seminar entitled, 'International Public Diplomacy' held on September 12, 2011 at the Continuing Medical Education Auditorium, University of Santo Tomas, España, Manila.)[Excerpt:] "[P]ublic diplomacy is set to shape the communications environment overseas in which the foreign policy of the states is played out, in order to reduce the degree to which misperceptions and misunderstandings that might complicate and endanger the state-to-state relations of one to another. This process is evidently using the power of dialogue in order to have a peaceful status quo that promotes political stability and economic prosperity among nations while closely cooperating to each other. The use of diplomacy is prevalent and is a powerful tool commonly used by the states to confront their problems affecting them directly or indirectly. This process is continuously promoted by the United Nations, along with its member- states telling one another that in case conflict or dispute may arise, they must go and sit together and employ all peaceful means and deject all breaches to peace and sustainable living. Therefore, forwarding diplomacy is inevitable. The call to forward the matter at hand has been heeded by The Political Science Forum, because this seminar is set to help us better understand the thresholds of international public diplomacy, to locate the platform where it stands, and to indentify the factors and constraints that continuously challenge public diplomacy."

RELATED ITEMS

Getting around a dead-end in Syria - Editorial Board, Washington Post: The only workable policy in Syria is one that aims at ending the civil war as quickly as possible with a victory for the opposition. A coup by regime elements that removes Mr. Assad may still be possible, but only if generals perceive that the war is lost. That means supplying the rebels with the arms they need to stop the tanks and planes of the Assad forces. To protect civilians, safe zones can be established along Syria’s borders with Turkey and Jordan, with help from Turkey or NATO. Image from

Obama AWOL in Syria - Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times: The United States shouldn’t invade Syria. But we should work with allies to supply weapons, training and intelligence to rebels who pass our vetting.

How to End the War in Syria [discussion] - New York Times: The Assad regime continues to lose crucial support, most recently with the defection of the prime minister and other prominent Sunnis. Meanwhile, opposition factions inside the country continue to jockey for power, many of them financed by foreign entities that have their own agendas. And earlier this week Iran framed the unrest as part of a wider struggle fueled by the United States and “other hostile world powers.” Some are already calling the conflict a civil war. What can be done to end the fighting, or at least contain it?

Amnesty International: An Instrument of War Propaganda? - Felicity Arbuthnot, globalresearch.ca: "I do not seem to remember Amnesty blasting the British and Americans soldiers for killing, raping, murdering whole families of Iraqis and Afghans, also illegally invaded, who simply wanted their countries back, or were totally innocent victims."

The Afridi Dossier: The doctor who helped the CIA find bin Laden is still in jail in Pakistan - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: Perhaps somewhere at CIA headquarters at Langley is a medal of honor for Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor whose bogus hepatitis vaccination scheme helped the agency locate Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

The Administration's relations with Pakistan have warmed recently, and a new ISI chief is taking a more constructive approach toward Washington. But any rapprochement can go only so far while Dr. Afridi remains in prison. America brought all the SEALs who took part in the bin Laden raid safely home, and the doctor belongs in their company. Afridi image from

Which region gets the most US foreign aid in the FY2013 request? Go ahead take a guess … - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: The following figure extracted from the CRS report on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: FY2013 Budget and Appropriations:

Washington Puts Its Money on Proxy War: The Election Year Outsourcing that No One’s Talking About - Nick Turse, TomDispatch: While the United States is currently engaged in just one outright proxy war, backing a multi-nation African force to battle Islamist militants in Somalia, it’s laying the groundwork for the extensive use of surrogate forces in the future, training “native” troops to carry out missions -- up to and including outright warfare. With this in mind and under the auspices of the Pentagon and the State Department, U.S. military personnel now take part in near-constant joint exercises and training missions around the world aimed at fostering alliances, building coalitions, and whipping surrogate forces into shape to support U.S. national security objectives.

America Needs a Business Pivot Toward Asia: Economic engagement should augment military presence. Start with free trade agreements - Curtis S. Chin, Wall Street Journal: A central benefit of peace and stability in Southeast Asia—which is a goal of the U.S. administration's strategic pivot—would be to open the way for greater commercial opportunities on both sides of the Pacific. It's time for Washington to understand that trade and economic ties can be part of the means to a strategic solution in the region, and not just the ends.

China’s Propaganda Machine Attacks U.S. On South China Sea, American Allies - article by Shen Dingli(China Daily) posted at Peace and Freedom: Beijing has been constructive in handling ties with Hanoi and Manila despite their recent maritime claims in South China Sea.

The United States has termed the establishment of Sansha city in Hainan province by China to administer Nansha, Xisha and Zhongsha islands an “unhelpful” act. This unfair and unhelpful remark of the US is regrettable. Image from article

Bowing to China, Vietnam Prepares for ‘Propaganda’ Trials - Hao-Nhien Q. Vu, highbrowmagazine.com: Contrary to earlier times when the Vietnamese Communist Party claimed the mantle of national liberation, this time the party's oppression of free speech runs counter to the people's patriotism.

And there does not seem an easy way for Hanoi to get out of the quagmire they've dug for themselves: It would be too much of a paradigm shift for the communist rulers to allow the people to freely express themselves. Image from article

And the Olympic Gold for Whining Goes to ... - David Segal, New York Times: There are dozens of ways for a country to measure itself against the world, but for a frenetic two weeks in each Olympic year, it comes down to shiny round medallions of bronze, silver and gold. And these are minted in limited quantities, with a horde of contenders vying for each. So forget all the talk of international fellowship and the thrill of competition. For millions of onlookers, the Olympic experience is largely about the agony of watching their country come up short.

Rogue Regimes Use Olympic Success as a Propaganda Tool - gamingzion.com: So far at London Olympics, Iran won 8 medals, including 4 golds. North Korea got 5 (also including 4 Olympic golds). Another isolated nation, Cuba, as usual, is doing well. Their medal count stands at 7 (3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze). This is better than performance of many more prosperous countries. Why is that happening? The regimes put money into sports at the expense of the impoverished population. This is the strategy of propaganda: If we win at Olympics, then there is nothing wrong with our system.

Ruling America Through Lies, Fabrication And Disinformation - Brandon Smith - libertynewsonline.com: Disinformation does not only threaten our insight into the workings of our world; it makes us vulnerable to fear, misunderstanding, and doubt: all things that lead to destruction.

It can drive good people to commit terrible atrocities against others, or even against themselves. Without a concerted and organized effort to diffuse mass-produced lies, the future will look bleak indeed. Image from entry

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"Every waking moment is a shopping moment."

--Steve Yankovich, head of eBay's mobile business

RUSSICA

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