"You know, we're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we're not willing to be murdered for it."
--Gen. John Allen, who has directed U.S. and other foreign forces in Afghanistan since mid-2011 and who will be replaced by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., assistant commandant of the Marine Corps; image from
BLOG OF INTEREST
Robert Albro Public Policy Anthropologist
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
USA to Pakistan TV ads provoke criticism from Pakistan to the USA - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: Elliott comment: "For public diplomacy purposes, there is probably no better way to reach a large number of people in the target country than TV ads."
Chef Corps to Help Build Bridges through “Culinary Engagement” - Darci Vetter, Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, blogs.usda.gov: "Some of the nation’s top chefs have signed on to help promote American food and culinary traditions around the world through the new American Chef Corps. The corps is part of the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership Initiative, launched earlier this month by the Department of State and the James Beard Foundation.
USDA is delighted to support this initiative, which is an excellent complement to our ongoing work highlighting the quality, variety, safety and sustainability of U.S. food products to our customers around the world. As part of this new endeavor, more than 50 renowned U.S. chefs will serve as resources to the State Department, preparing meals for foreign leaders and participating in public diplomacy programs that engage foreign audiences abroad as well as those visiting the United States. This initiative builds on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of 'smart power' diplomacy, using a full range of diplomatic tools – in this case, food and hospitality – to enhance how formal diplomacy is conducted. Members of the American Chef Corps will use their culinary skills to cultivate cultural understanding and help strengthen bilateral relationships." Image from
Against Foodie Diplomacy - Noreen Malone, tnr.com: "[W]hat the White House and State Department wish to accomplish with the Chef Corps (as part of the larger 'Diplomatic Culinary Partnership') is to rebrand U.S. food culture abroad. Thanks to the many Golden Arches strewn across the globe, the rest of the world has a certain fixed idea about American cuisine, and perhaps Americans more generally: A horde of preservative-popping tramplers of local culture. Unfortunately, Foggy Bottom’s effort to show off the more diverse and human side of the Yankee kitchen seems focused primarily on the $100-a-plate foodie category of culinary life—something out of reach for most Americans, not to mention the foreigners with whom our toque-wearing ambassadors will soon be engaging." Via PR
For Foodie Diplomacy - samuelchapplesokol, Culinary Diplomacy: "Noreen Malone’s article .... takes cheap shots at a program in its infancy." Via PR
Why There are No Women in Jazz Or, “How Globalization Has Changed U.S. Music Diplomacy” - Stephanie N. Stallings: artsdiplomacy.com: "There are many women who buck the trend and become outstanding jazz musicians. Likewise, jazz still has many adherents in the world, and from a public diplomacy perspective it still presents a heritage that offers an attractive narrative and is fully American. But to reach youth around the globe, the immediate future of music diplomacy belongs to hip hop."
Ambassador McFaul Participates in a Twitter Q and A - "U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul participates in a Twitter Q and A at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia, September 26, 2012."
Pioneering collector of African music retires from Voice of America - Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post: "Long before there was ping-pong diplomacy or perestroika, a short, balding, Armenian American was lugging an enormous reel-to-reel from village to village, sweet-talking people into singing and playing for him.
Leo Sarkisian had the kind of career that today lives only in legend: Hired by famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, he was paid by the U.S. government to travel throughout Africa, visiting every country over half a century and returning with thousands of rare recordings of music that most of the world had never heard. On Friday, Sarkisian, 91, officially retired from the Voice of America, where the weekly radio show he started 47 years ago, 'Music Time in Africa,' is VOA’s longest-running English-language program." Image from article, with caption: Leo Sarkisian, left, records top musicians at Kabul Radio in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the 1950s, using gear he was given when he left a job in Hollywood.
Once Upon A Time There Was Radio Liberty - BBGWatcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "[V]aluable journalists and contributors are gone or have been terminated [at RFE/RL]" Image from entry
Radio Free Europe history in the news, including a 1951 US nationwide TV fundraiser - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting. Image from entry
VOA TV programs in Chinese, Tibetan and English now available in China on Telstar 18 - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
From Ikebana to Manga And Beyond: Japan’s Cultural and Public Diplomacy Is Evolving - Kazuo Ogoura, japancenter.livejournal.com: "At the end of World War II, Japan faced the task not only of rebuilding a devastated country, but also of rebuilding its image in the world. Since then, Japan’s cultural and public diplomacy have gone through a complex evolution and adapted repeatedly to the country’s rapidly changing place in the world. ... Ikebana and tea ceremonies, post-modern features of Japan coupled with age-old traditions of Noh or Kabuki theater, intellectual exchanges based on the concept of a global agenda and innovative ideas of cultural activities for peace-building ― all these elements are mingled with each other in present-day Japanese cultural and public diplomacy. Such a mixture is a strong point of Japan’s public diplomacy but it also harbors a weak point, namely, the lack of a clear focus. This is partly related to a shortage of funds from both government sources and private non-profit organizations, but it is also related to the problem of redefining Japan’s role in the international community ― something that the Japanese themselves have not yet fully determined in today’s world, particularly at a time when East Asia’s responsibilities and interdependence have been remarkably on the rise."
Lesson 132 New Media, Diplomacy and Public Diplomacy - larrylauer, larrydlauer.wordpress.com: "Diplomacy is generally understood to be governments communicating with governments. It is primarily practiced through embassies and consulates around the world, and involves foreign service officers and ambassadors advancing their governments’ foreign policy objectives while collecting and researching essential political and economic information. Some governments argue they also practice 'public' diplomacy. Public diplomacy generally takes two forms: The first form is governments communicating directly with the publics of other nations. It is practiced through cultural and educational exchanges, as well as by providing local libraries, information centers, and educational programming. It is also managed for the most part through embassies and consulates. Government sponsored international broadcasts (i.e. Voice of America, and BBC World Service) and other forms of mass media can also be seen as public diplomacy.
And government sponosred public diplomacy is also usually driven mostly by foreign policy objectives. The second form of public diplomacy is direct people-to-people communication. At one time the United States had a government agency called the US Information Agency, or USIA. It was separate from the state department so many people believe that this 'independence' allowed it to practice this more direct form of people-to-people public diplomacy. But the function and funding of the USIA were significantly reduced during the Clinton administration, and then its functions were moved into the Department of State. Today this more direct form of public diplomacy is practiced mostly by nonprofit organizations such at Sister Cities International, and other similar NGO’s. A business plan for a new independent organization was recently developed during a project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and it will be interesting so see what happens next. Its champions are currently seeking start-up funding." Image from
RELATED ITEMS
Afghan troops get a lesson in American cultural ignorance - Kevin Sieff and Richard Leiby, Washington Post: An 18-page pamphlet, officially titled “Cultural Understanding — A Guide to Understanding Coalition Cultures,” was introduced this month by the Afghan Defense Ministry. Written in Dari, the primary language in much of Afghanistan, it will soon be distributed to Afghan military leaders across the country. The booklet will be taught
in three one-hour sessions to all soldiers as well as new recruits. As NATO winds down its mission here, the “Cultural Understanding” guide marks the Afghan army’s most significant effort to identify long-standing points of contention and confusion between the two forces. It also seems aimed at restoring support for a foreign troop presence that has seen its popularity plummet during the course of the war. Despite widespread misgivings among the Afghan public, in the guide the coalition is depicted glowingly, often in florid language. The United States is “a little like a lovely carpet. Different colored strands combine to make a beautiful whole.” NATO’s coalition is described as a “work of art.” Image from article, with caption: Photos of everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces attempt to transfer responsibilities to Afghan troops.
The foreign policy debate Obama doesn’t want - David Ignatius, Washington Post: Less than six weeks before the election, the Obama campaign’s theme song might as well be the old country-music favorite “Make the World Go Away.” This may be smart politics, but it’s not good governing: The way this campaign is going, the president will have a foreign affairs mandate for . . . nothing.
Snubbed by Obama? There were political reasons for the president not getting together at the U.N. with either the Egyptian or Israeli leaders - Aaron David Miller, latimes.com: America's role as senior partner in the triangular relationship born in the wake of the Camp David accords is going to erode. Egypt and Israel are likely to be increasingly at odds with each other and with America over issues as diverse as the peace process and Iran.
Indeed, Israel and Egypt now say no to America without much cost or consequence. The days of America's unchallenged preeminence in this particular corner of the Middle East are coming to an end. Image from
Iran talk: What’s in a war? - William J. Fallon, Chuck Hagel, Lee Hamilton, Thomas Pickering and Anthony Zinni, Washington Post: A U.S. attack on Iran would demonstrate the country’s credibility as an ally to other nations in the region and would derail Iran’s nuclear ambitions for several years, providing space for other, potentially longer-term solutions. An attack would also make clear the United States’ full commitment to nonproliferation as other nations contemplate moves in that direction. The costs are more difficult to estimate than the benefits because of uncertainty about the scale and type of Iran’s reaction. Iran is likely to retaliate directly but also to pursue an asymmetrical response, including heightened terrorist activity and covert operations as well as using surrogates such as Hezbollah. An increase in the price of oil could keep the market unstable for weeks or months and disrupt the global economy.
Propaganda for Dummies: Netanyahu displays cartoonish bomb diagram at the UN to convince the world to turn against Iran - Jeffrey Heller, Reuters: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew his "red line" for Iran's nuclear program on Thursday - the point at which Iran has amassed nearly enough highly enriched uranium for a single atomic bomb - and voiced confidence that the United States shares his view. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu appeared to pull back from any threat of an imminent Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, saying the Islamic Republic would be on the brink of producing an atomic weapon only next summer.
He added that he was confident the United States and Israel, which have disagreed about the urgency of military action, could devise a common strategy to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Holding up a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb with a fuse, Netanyahu literally drew a red line just below a label reading "final stage" to a bomb, in which it was 90 percent along the path of having sufficient weapons-grade material. Image from article, with caption: Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, September 27, 2012.
The fate of Israeli propaganda - As'ad AbuKhalil, angryarab.blogspot.com: "I have been arguing for years that Israeli propaganda is now as dumb as Ba`thist propaganda. Israeli' propaganda of the 1950s and 1960s was rather smart and effective.
People on FB and Twitter have been mocking the dumb speech and illustration by Netanyahu. Even the pro-Israeli Daily Show mocked it last night. I mean, with all the advisers and American consultants there was no one to tell him how foolish he looks with his cheap prop and stupid illustration." Image from entry
Before you pay to volunteer abroad, think of the harm you might do - Ian Birrell, Guardian: A damning report says that well-intentioned westerners do little to alleviate the lot of poverty-stricken children in developing countries. Orphanages in such countries are a booming business trading on guilt. Some are even said to be kept deliberately squalid. Westerners take pity on the children and end up creating a grotesque market that capitalises on their concerns. This is the dark side of our desire to help the developing world. Via MS on Facebook
Training for Consulate Attacks, in Case There’s a Next Time - Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times: In the aftermath of the attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, the Pentagon sent two teams of elite, specially trained Marines to protect American Embassies in Libya and Yemen and would have deployed a third group to Sudan had not the government in Khartoum said no. To demonstrate what those units — called F.A.S.T. Marines, for Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team — are trained to do, the Marines put on a show this week. At a training center on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, a clutch of reporters observed Marines repelling faux rioters, shooting down doors and clearing a supposed American embassy occupied by militants.
Abu Dhabi Media’s Hollywood Propaganda - Daniel Greenfield, frontpagemag.com: As Heritage has pointed out, The Promised Land, the troubled piece of lefty
A new film starring Matt Damon presents American oil and natural gas producers as money-grubbing villains purportedly poisoning rural American towns. It is therefore of particular note that it is financed in part by the royal family of the oil-rich
Korean propaganda soars with balloons: Helium balloons carry millions of messages of hope and hate across Korea's heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone each year - aljazeera.com: One could say propaganda is ballooning on the Korean Peninsula. At the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) - the world's most heavily fortified border - North Korean defector Lee Ju-seong organises the launch of six large, helium-filled balloons loaded with "good-will" messages that will float back into the country he escaped from.
Millions of messages are delivered on thousands of balloons this way each year across the DMZ. The balloons soar from the South deep into the impoverished North, where they crash to the ground, dispersing what some call messages of hope, and others deem propaganda. Image from article, with caption: Activists launch six balloons loaded with leaflets from Imjingak on the Demilitarized Zone.
US Comic Book Propaganda, 1939-1945 - retronaut.co: Among the images:
Want To Get Your Hands On Coulson’s Trading Cards? Want To Get Your Hands On Coulson’sbloody Trading Cards? - Susana Polo, themarysue.com: "eFX is a movie collectibles company that prepared a number of really to die for items at San Diego Comic Con, including a set of Agent Coulson’s beloved Captain
AMERICANA
A) "On this morning in the isolated Virginia woods, the Marines practiced shooting down 'doors' consisting of plywood sheets hung from free-standing metal frames. The right way was to aim at a 45-degree angle for the locking mechanism to the right of the doorknob, then fire. When one knob was blown apart, an instructor brought out a piece of wood with a row of three knobs, which was then attached to the plywood door.
(The knobs were lined up so that the Marines could practice shooting down doors with knobs in one of three positions common to doors around the world.) Instructors say that the Marines go through several hundred knobs a day." Image from
--Elisabeth Bumiller, "Training for Consulate Attacks, in Case There’s a Next Time," New York Times
B) Make the World Go Away
Elvis Presley
(words and music by Hank Cochran)
"Make the world go away
Get it off my shoulder
Say the things we used to say
And make the world, make it go away
Do you remember when you loved me
Before the world took you away
Well if you do, then forgive me
And make the world, make it go away
Make the world go away
Say the things we used to say
And make the world, make it go away
Now I'm sorry if I hurt you
Let me make it up to you day by day
And if you will please forgive me
And make the world, make it go away
Make the world go away
Get it off my shoulder
Say the things we used to say
And make the world, make it go away"
-Image from
C) "Souder makes it clear that [Rachel] Carson had enough distractions as it was. She’d worked as a government biologist and writer from 1936 until 1952, when sales of her book allowed her to quit her job and write full time. She bought a plot of land near Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and had a summer cottage built on it. It was there that she met her neighbors, Stan and Dorothy Freeman, and began a romantic relationship with Dorothy Freeman that lasted the rest of Carson’s life.
The women’s letters were unambiguously passionate: In 1954, Carson wrote to Freeman, 'But oh darling, I want to be with you so terribly that it hurts!' While her husband napped, Freeman wrote a letter from another bedroom in her house, telling Carson that she was writing from 'the corner that belongs in my heart only to you — you know where and why.'
One Christmas they shared a hotel room in New York, and the letters leading up to that rendezvous were concerned with whether Carson should register under an alias and whether the women would be able to 'restrain themselves long enough to get up to their room,' to use Souder’s paraphrasing.
In spite of the heated language, Souder suggests that sex 'seems not to have been part of their relationship, or at least not an essential feature of it,' and that their feelings for each other 'existed in a realm above ordinary physical love and desire.' (If someone has done a study of the number of 'romantic friendships' between women that biographers assume to be platonic, as compared with similar friendships between men, I’d like to know about it. I hope such women were far less prim than their biographers assume.)"
--Amy Stewart, "Book review: William Souder’s ‘On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson’," Washington Post
Image from
ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY
“In a republican nation whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion, and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance.”
--Thomas Jefferson
IMAGE
--Via ES on Facebook
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