September 23

"You will never be alone, with a Poet in your Poket."

--John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 14 May 1781; image from

PBS VIDEO

Author Shteyngart Envisions Love Amid Ruins of a Collapsed America: Author Gary Shteyngart takes a satirical approach to the economic meltdown in America, combined with a love story in a world of tech-crazy savages in his new novel "Super Sad True Love Story." Jeffrey Brown sits down with the author. Via VD

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Bondy Journal: Feeling Slighted by France, and Respected by U.S. - Scott Sayare, New York Times: "France is home to five million to six million Muslims, Europe’s largest Muslim population, and the banlieues have long been considered potential incubators for religious extremism. But anti-American sentiment, once pervasive in these neighborhoods, seems to have been all but erased since the election of Mr. Obama, who has proved to be a powerful symbol of hope here and a powerful diplomatic tool. Many suggest the Americans’ warm reception is a measure of these communities’ sense of abandonment. Others say it is the presence of Mr. Obama in the White House. Whatever the case, the United States is now more popular in the banlieues than at any other time in recent memory, say French and American officials.

Much of the embassy’s outreach is meant to dispel 'mistruths' about the United States, the ambassador, Charles H. Rivkin, said in an interview, adding, 'It’s easier to hate something you don’t understand.' With an annual public affairs budget of about $3 million, the Paris embassy has sponsored urban renewal projects, music festivals and conferences. Since Mr. Obama’s election, the Americans have helped organize seminars for minority politicians, coaching them in electoral strategy, fund-raising and communications. The International Visitor Leadership Program, which sends 20 to 30 promising French entrepreneurs and politicians to America for several weeks each year, now includes more minority participants, and Muslims in particular. The embassy began a similar program for French teenagers." Image from article: A mural outside a school in Bondy was created as part of an artistic exchange with the Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia." Bondy image from

Comment to America The Invisible By Patricia H. Kushlis - Whirled View: "Philip Breeden [of the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in London] said... America the Invisible [in London]? I think not. If you had touched base with the Public Diplomacy team at the Embassy while in London, they could have reassured you on that point. London is crawling with American artists and other exemplars of U.S. culture. The video pioneer Bill Viola is currently involved in projects at St. Paul's (the one you didn't visit) and the Royal Festival Hall. The Wyeth family is the subject of a major retrospective at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. The American soprano Renee Fleming closed the final BBC Proms concert this month - the most popular classical music event in the U.K. Wynton Marsalis was in residence at the Barbican earlier this year. The Old Vic Theatre, led by American actor Kevin Spacey, is selling out its Bridge Project productions, which bring U.S. and British actors together to perform modern and Shakespearean classics around the world. Jonathan Franzen's new book 'Freedom' comes out today and is already a best-seller. Both the NBA and the NFL will play sold out games here this Fall. The public diplomacy team at the Embassy is involved in most of the examples cited, often using them to create unique outreach opportunities to the kinds of diverse audiences you think are being neglected.

So the next time you come to London looking for America, give them a call and they will give you a few tips on where to find it. Patricia H. Kushlis said... Phil - I very much appreciate your taking the time to comment but what you've written tends to support my point, not refute it. London may well be crawling with American artists, I don't doubt it, but where are they? Where are their works? And frankly, I think those who are working in the Embassy's public affairs office should pay attention to what bloggers like Robin Brown are saying about the state of American pd. Are they? Presumably the NFL and NBA games will have the highest visibility - the few days the pro-teams are in town and making money for their sponsors. ... And as far as trying to contact anyone in the fortress, I would be considered and treated as 1) either a non-person or an interloper but 2) that's beside the point and another story. What I was reporting was simply what I saw - from the street while visiting family and friends. I did not explore every nook and cranny - who could? ..." Image from

US Embassy planned for London uses defenses from Middle Ages - Bob Morris, polizeros.com: "A US embassy is expected to extend the welcoming hand of democracy—while maintaining a 30-meter zone of blast protection. Gosh, sure sounds welcoming to me. Um, if the US needs an embassy built like a fortress in London, in the country of our closest ally, then maybe we should start re-thinking our foreign policy? But if the US is going to get medieval on London, then go all the way.

Have boiling oil on the rooftops, that sort of thing." Image from article

A New Public Diplomacy Initiative - Snuffysmith's Blog: "From all accounts, approximately 100,000 Chinese students, not including those from Taiwan and Hong Kong, are currently studying in the U.S. and less than 2,000 American students studying in China. Most Chinese students from China mainland are full time students studying science and technology and other critical fields at undergraduate and graduate levels, whereas American students in China are more likely short term students or involved in summer programs. There is an urgent need for a proper balance, but sending 100,000 students to China in 4 years is indeed very ambitious." (article by Staton Jue originally posted at)

Call to Action: Government as a Platform Globally #gov20 and #opengov - Fixing Potholes: Matt Miszewski's Global Open Government Blog: "I sit on the

Board @ the Woodrow Wil­son Inter­na­tional Cen­ter for Schol­ars Pub­lic Diplo­macy Ini­tia­tive and we had a great meet­ing yes­ter­day in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Out­side of the impres­sive resumes of all the folks involved, it was a great con­ver­sa­tion. We have a great mis­sion to go after which the Gov­er­nance com­mit­tee is final­iz­ing after yes­ter­days meet­ing, but will focus upon the need to cre­ate an orga­ni­za­tion that will serve as a Cor­po­ra­tion for Pub­lic Diplo­macy (based roughly upon the remit that the US Cor­po­ra­tion for Pub­lic Broad­cast­ing has served in their area of expertise)." Image: Relief and inscription in the Memorial Hallway of the Woodrow Wilson Center

Life from inside the storytelling machine: an author offers caveats on influence tools - Amy Zalman, MountainRunner.com: "The inside cover promise to 'unveil the workings of a 'storytelling machine' more effective and insidious as a means of oppression than anything dreamed up by Orwell,' was incentive enough for me to pick up and start reading the recent English translation of French writer Christian Salmon's Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind. ... In the history that Salmon recounts, storytelling is a descendant of propaganda, which gained its present negative connotation in the 1920s. Propaganda begat public relations, which begat marketing and branding which, in an unholy coupling with the Internet, gave us storytelling as a technology of control. By the late 1990s, we were in the full swing of a 'storytelling revival.' Now we have storytelling management, storytelling marketing and, in effect, storytelling media and storytelling politics. ... [Salmon's] hopeless conclusion [is] that we have no choice but to be the victims of others' manipulation of our symbolic landscape, whether we think those others are our own government, or a tech-savvy foreign adversary. For the tasks ahead, we will undoubtedly need more imagination, not less, to balance influence, ethics and transparency in our communication work."

Iran blames Mahabad attack on Israel - presstv.ir: "The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says the terrorist attack in the city of Mahabad

is Israel's reaction to Tehran's successful diplomacy in New York. ... 'This terrorist attack coincided with the influential presence of the Iranian delegation headed by Dr. Ahmadinejad in New York and his influential public diplomacy in raising public awareness as well as his defense of our country's rightful stances,' IRNA quoted Mehmanparast as saying." Image from

Strenger [sic] than Fiction / How (not) to defend Israel: Never lower yourself to the level of Israel’s worst detractors. Don’t ever lie, and don’t twist the facts. Don’t use hollow propaganda phrases; you’ll lose your credibility the moment you do so - Carlo Strenger, Haaretz: "We should be happy. After more than half a year of stalling, Israel’s ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs has finally set up the English version of its Masbirim website, which aims to provide those who want to counter Israel’s detractors and enemies with materials to defend Israel. Isn’t that a wonderful idea! Finally we will have the ammunition that will allow us, once and for all, to counter all of Israel’s critics. ... The whole Masbirim project is based on the faulty premise that defending everything Israel does is a useful way of representing Israel’s interests and concerns. Minister Edelstein could have known that this doesn’t work just by looking at excellent data collected for the Foreign Ministry’s Branding Israel project. One of the most important results is that the moment Israeli spokespeople take a self-righteous attitude they lose their audience immediately. ... My suggestion is, don’t try to bullshit ... Never lower yourself to the level of Israel’s worst detractors. Don’t ever lie, and don’t twist the facts. Don’t use hollow propaganda phrases; you’ll lose your credibility the moment you do so. Instead, try to make Israel humanly intelligible." On Masbirim, see.

RELATED ITEMS

China’s Disputes in Asia Buttress Influence of U.S. - Edward Wong, New York Times: Asian countries suspicious of Chinese intentions

see Washington as a natural ally. Image from

Ground Zero Imam Exposed Off-Mic - Nonie Darwish, frontpagemag.com: “'Bridge builder' Imam Feisal Abdel Rauf, the Muslim cleric behind plans for the Ground Zero mosque, has now been exposed as a man of shrewd cunning and as a calculating stealth jihadist who supports the creation of an Islamic State, 'The Ummah,' right here in America. Rauf speaks here like a war strategist who wants to use the media to shape perceptions to promote his strategic action plays in the area of foreign policy. Rauf and I are both of Egyptian origin and I think he is still dreaming of the good old days when the Egyptian media propaganda machine I lived under and participated in was at its strongest. Before moving to America, I was a journalist and media censor in the Middle East News Agency. There is no other way to interpret what Rauf wants: to use the media the way the tyrants and dictators of the Middle East do: as a traditional Islamic tool of indoctrination, misinformation and propaganda."

Kim Jong Il May Promote Son at N Korea Convention - Hyung-Jin Kim, The Irrawaddy News Magazine: South Korean intelligence officers believe Pyongyang has launched a propaganda campaign promoting the son with songs and poems.

He's already being hailed as the "Young General" and "Our Commander," with soldiers and workers pledging allegiance to the son on his birthday in January, South Korean media have said, citing unidentified sources in North Korea. Image from article

Peace Talks As Propaganda - strategypage.com: For the last two generations, it has been Palestinian policy to preach the destruction of Israel, not coexistence. Increasingly, over the last few decades, Palestinians have been indoctrinated with anti-Semitic propaganda, which encourages the young to become suicide bombers and terrorists. This is a very public campaign, and the terrorist killers are showered with praise in the media. Western diplomats and government officials have been increasingly exposed to the Palestinian propaganda regarding Israel, and have made some protests. But the Palestinians just ignore the admonitions, and the Western officials don't press the matter.

Russia gives Poland more Katyn massacre files - Nataliya Vasilyeva, AP: Russia on Thursday turned over to Poland 20 new files from a probe into the 1940 Katyn massacre that could be key in proving that Soviet secret police carefully planned the killing of thousands of Poles.

The Nazis discovered the mass graves during their march on Moscow in the autumn of 1941, but Soviet propaganda blamed the deaths on Adolf Hitler and punished anyone speaking the truth with harsh prison terms. Image from article

Divide & Conquer – A Capra Take on WWII Germany (from the World War WW2 Collection) - geoblog.in: •Divide and Conquer (1943) – 54 minutes running time. In the beginning, the narrator shows Hitler as a clever practitioner of propaganda, which, coupled with a series of brilliant tactical moves by the German commanders and the work of spies and traitors, allowed the swift conquest of so many countries in Europe. The footage of actual battles between the Nazis and the armies of their defeated foes are nothing less than unforgettable.

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"A nation was born in a day. ... It will be acted o’er, fellow-citizens, but it can never be repeated. It stands, and must for ever stand, alone, a beacon on the summit of the mountain, to which all the inhabitants of the earth may turn their eyes for a genial and saving light till time shall be lost in eternity, and this globe itself dissolve, nor leave a wreck behind. It stands for ever, a light of admonition to the rulers of men, a light of salvation and redemption to the oppressed.

So long as this planet shall be inhabited by human beings, so long as man shall be of social nature, so long as government shall be necessary to the great moral purposes of society, and so long as it shall be abused to the purposes of oppression, so long shall this Declaration hold out to the sovereign and to the subject the extent and the boundaries of their respective rights and duties, founded in the laws of nature, and of nature’s God."

--John Quincy Adams, An Address Delivered at the Request of a Committee of the Citizens of Washington; on the Occasion of Reading the Declaration of Independence, on the Fourth of July, 1821; image from

IMAGE


Delicate porcelain handguns - Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing: Artist Yvonne Schultz makes these sweet little Walther PPK and P99 handguns out of delicate porcelain, with a variety of floral patterns: "The fragile weapon, hand-painted in the style of classic tableware motifs, lies next to your coffee and cake, asking to be picked up. Its coolness andcomfortable grip increase the qualms of the user, leaving him in a quandary between the pleasure of luxury and violence."