"The tax code is longer than the Bible, but without the happy ending."
--The incoming House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan
"The 'happy ending' of the Bible: the Apocalypse."
--The artist formerly known as Princess Sparkle Pony; image from
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Assistant Secretary of State Ann Stock to Address American Performing Arts Presenters Conference, Jumpstart New Year of New Cultural Diplomacy Efforts - Media Note, Office of the Spokesman, U.S. Department of State: "Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) Ann Stock will address the annual American Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) Conference in New York City on Friday, January 7, at 1:00 p.m. During the plenary session, Culture in Diplomacy: A New Era for Arts & Cultural Relations, Assistant Secretary Stock
will outline the Obama Administration’s efforts to use cultural diplomacy as an important foreign policy tool. Following her formal remarks, she will lead an interactive conversation with the Québec Minister of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women as well as the Chief Executive Officer of Cultural Ireland. ... The plenary session will also be webcast live at, beginning at 1:00 p.m. Updates will also be available via Twitter at @AnnatState with the hashtag #culturaldiplomacy. Questions for the panel discussion may also be submitted via Twitter using #culturaldiplomacy. During a special interest session on Saturday, January 8, staff representatives from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will participate in a discussion regarding CenterStageSM, a new and dynamic international exchange program. CenterStageSM will bring international performing arts ensembles to the United States beginning in 2012. ECA and the New England Foundation for the Arts, will hold a discussion for APAP members who may be interested in hosting the international performers and learning more about this new public diplomacy effort."
Hey Moe! Implications of al-Sadr Return to Iraq - Lawrence Dietz, psyopregiment.blogspot.com: "On 5 January 2011 the Washington Post reported that Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr returns to Iraq after self-imposed exile . ... Iraq and its new government are now in charge of their own destiny, unless something really bad happens such as an increase in sectarian violence, a power grab by Sadr or some other development that pushed Iraq back on the brink of disaster.
Now is the time for contingency planning by Executive Branch Strategic Communications, State Department Policy & Public Diplomacy, MISO personnel. Alternative scenarios need to be developed and considered. Intelligence and fact gathering needs to be on-going and file footage for potential information operations should be compiled. Additionally it would be useful to track press releases and other activity by the Maliki government as well as profile and track the public affairs apparatus of the Sadr organization." al-Sadr image from article
The American Perspective on Hard and Soft Power - The National Interest Online: "The characteristically American engineer's outlook as applied to soft power tends to focus more on messaging than on underlying substance. We see this in the perpetual hand-wringing in Washington over public diplomacy. For years it has been seen as broken and in need of fixing, although there is much disagreement over how to fix it. Hands are wrung because of the disconnect between the basic goodness that Americans see in their own country and the anti-Americanism that exists overseas. Many who disagree over the best techniques to employ in public diplomacy in effect agree on the idea that if we can just do a better job of getting our message across, the sentiment overseas is bound to change. Fewer people engaged in the debate point out that messaging can only do so much, and that whether you are selling toothpaste or foreign policy, the substance and quality of the product matter at least as much as the advertising.
American attitudes toward soft and hard power can be summarized as follows. Soft power is seen as an asset—but exactly that: as an asset, more than as a policy instrument. It is seen as flowing out of America's essential goodness rather than out of any concerted effort, apart from messaging, to shape whatever it is that gives rise to the soft power in the first place and can be used as a tool of influence. It is, in short, taken for granted more than it is seen as something in need of nurturing and shaping. An implication is that the United States probably does not gain as much influence from its soft power as it could with more concentrated attention to the subject. The United States exhibits an overall bias toward the instruments of hard power, and especially military power. This is not because Americans are militarist; they are not. They see this particular tool as one that they have necessarily unsheathed from time to time to do battle with foreign threats that raise their heads, after which they resheathe it. The bias exists first because of the insufficient appreciation of the role of soft power. Second, because of the signal successes, such as winning World War II, that have come directly from using this hard power tool. Third, because of enough confidence in America's ability to accomplish what it sets out to accomplish overseas that Americans are not permanently discouraged by lack of success, such as in the Vietnam War. And fourth, because of insufficient ability, for the reasons I have mentioned, to perceive and understand the broader side-effects of the U.S. use of military force, particularly on the perceptions and affinities of foreign populations. A greater understanding of those side-effects would represent one of the most significant ways in which discourse about U.S. foreign policy could be improved." Image from
13.3.2007: NORWAY: MISS[I]LE DEFENSE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND OUTREACH - aftenposten.no: "C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 000248 ... SUBJECT: NORWAY: MISSLE DEFENSE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND OUTREACH 1. (C) Summary: As reported in ref b and c, Norway,s government remains opposed in principle to missile defenses writ large and skeptical of U.S. plans to base missile installations in Central Europe. Embassy Oslo continues to engage with media, government and think tank researchers to present the facts on our missile defense plans and to encourage Norwegians to rethink their reaction to missile defense plans and to speak out against Russian mischaracterizations and complaints. Our outreach has been successful in presenting the facts of the issue to a limited audience but general skepticism among political elites on missile defense combined with disinterest from the public have hindered our efforts to have the GON make public statements on this issue. End Summary."
RFE/RL's "Voices of Solidarity," and why it is not a good idea to confuse Belarusians - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "The public diplomacy and international broadcasting are each vital professions.
When the two functions -- advocacy and journalism -- are jumbled together, however, each loses energy." Image from
Firewalls versus cyberattacks: "How the Kremlin Harnesses the Internet" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "This essay [by Evgeny Morozov] covers important ground for US international broadcasting. With Russians largely out of the habit of listening to, or even owning, shortwave radios, and with VOA and RFE/RL forced off of Russian domestic FM and television stations, the internet is becoming the best available means of getting USIB content into Russia. Russia, so far, unlike other countries, has not engaged in any large scale internet blocking. Morozov compares today's internet blocking with the shortwave jamming of the Cold War era.
It is debatable -- and it should be objectively assessed -- whether shortwave or the internet is more resistant to interdiction (jamming, blocking). I think Morozov underplays the effectiveness of national firewalls, especially among average internet users, who are the majority of internet users. As for cyberattacks, defensive techniques are available. I've noticed how most attacked sites manage to get back online, usually within 24 to 48 hours. RFE/RL and VOA have the advantage of not using 'prime Internet resources' inside Russia, except, of course, the final circuits needed to reach Russian users. Any interruption of those would constitute a firewall." Morozov image from
US Jewish groups to address Israeli-Arab difficulties - Hilary Leila Krieger, Jerusalem Post: "While the Israeli press has recently been filled with stories of rising anti-Arab sentiment, a coalition of Jewish organizations in Washington is looking to raise awareness and improve the situation of Arabs in Israel. 'It’s in Israel’s strategic and moral interest to try to diminish the disparities' between Jews and Arabs there, said Melanie Maron, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Washington office. The organization is a major sponsor of a forum on the subject to be held at the Washington Jewish Community Center on Sunday. ... More than 200 members of the local Jewish community are expected to attend panels run by both Jewish and Arab speakers. The event will kick off with an address from Noam Katz, the Israeli Embassy’s minister for public diplomacy, detailing the government’s efforts to reach out to and integrate the Arab community."
Danon: Palestinians must get only 'Facebook state': Likud MK says Israel must initiate a public diplomacy counter-attack and enlist overseas Jewry to the struggle against recognition of state - Rebecca Anna Stoil, Jerusalem Post: "Israel needs to make Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s fear come true – that the Palestinian state will be no more than a ‘Facebook state,’
MK Danny Danon (Likud) told the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Public Diplomacy Committee on Tuesday. The panel met to discuss Israel’s response to the recent recognition of a Palestinian state by Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador. Danon, its chairman, said that Israel must initiate a public diplomacy counter-attack and enlist overseas Jewry to the struggle. ... The Foreign Ministry must help enlist the Jewish communities to active public diplomacy efforts, he said." Image from
Public Diplomacy - english.cri.cn: "Pingpong diplomacy may sound like a household phrase in China, but public diplomacy, a more general term that describes any type of diplomacy targeting ordinary people abroad, is a more recent vintage. China is certainly not the only country that understands the awesome power of sports as a public diplomatic tool to handle the tricky part of its foreign relations. Diplomats in the US may also find they can do some of their best work in dealing with countries like Cuba, wearing baseball gloves. Over the years, the influence of public diplomacy has become a force to be reckoned with within many governments. For example, the division tasked with carrying out public diplomacy in China's Foreign Ministry last year was graduated to the public diplomacy office, bringing public diplomacy to the fore in its overall foreign policies. So how is public diplomacy playing out in China compared with the United States? And how are the media, the Internet and social networking technologies shaping today's public diplomacy? Ni hao, you're listening to People In the Know, bringing you insights into the headline news in China and around the world, I'm Zheng Chenguang in Beijing. In this edition of the show, we'll discuss the rising influence of public diplomacy. Today, we are joined by Alan Henrikson, Associate Professor of Diplomatic History with the Fletcher School in Tufts University and Guo Ke, professor of Shanghai International Studies University."
From National Peoples Congress to Chinese People is Political Consultative Conference - Rocky Leviton: "In 2010, from National Peoples Congress to Chinese People is Political Consultative Conference, from local government to various think tank, the corpus of public diplomacy continuously expands; From a life time Bo in Shanghai to Guangzhou Asian Games, the domestic holds of the large international activity equally become the comprehensiveness satge [sic] of public diplomacy. 'Beijing leadership and all levels officials,
and the large movable organizer, staff member and volunteer is going to count with must account of common people, all stimulate the public diplomacy in this satge aggressive participant.' Chinese people outward friendly association president of association Chen Hao Su says. How tell is 'Chinese story' well? To the policy establishment of China but speech, relate 'Chinese story' in addition to lending the dint hair the dint, even need to increase affinity and inspiration dint.I n Wu Jian Min is eyes, 'humanization' of the angle of view and description method is exactly a contemporary Chinese public diplomacy to need most of special feature." Image from
Challenges await China this decade - He Wei, english.peopledaily.com.cn: "Today, the power shift from the West to emerging powers, like China and India, has reshaped the global geopolitical structure, said Jin Canrong, deputy director of the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing. ... China should go to great lengths to dismiss concerns of its neighbors through independent diplomatic efforts, Jin said, adding that it helps to 'reduce its excessive dependence on the US by developing other important relations'.
This has been evident since the Foreign Ministry hosted its first public diplomacy forum in December under the theme of the 'Asia-Pacific situation and China's Asia-Pacific policy', Jin noted." Image from
Devesh Kapur & Nirvikar Singh: Hands across the waters, PPP style - "One way to deepen relations with the diaspora is to establish the Indian community or cultures. This has long been seen as an important component of a country's public diplomacy, although this is not a necessary part of the efforts to engage the diaspora. Examples include the American effort with the United States Information Agency, UK with the British Council, France with Alliance Française, Germany with the Goethe Institutes and Spain's Cervantes Institutes. The most recent – and ambitious – push in this direction are China's efforts to establish Confucius Institutes for training in Chinese language and culture. According to a recent report in the China Daily, 322 Confucius Institutes and 369 Confucius Classrooms have been established in 96 countries; and 303 institutes and 265 classrooms are already operating. As many as 360,000 students were registered in these programmes in 2010 (130,000 more than last year). An average Confucius Institute receives $500,000 and a Confucius Classroom gets $60,000. They expect to dispatch 2,000 teachers and 3,000 volunteers from China and train 10,000 Chinese teachers and 10,000 local teachers next year. The effort is overseen by Hanbanan, (an arm of the Chinese Ministry of Education) which aims to establish 1,000 Confucius Institutes by 2020. ... Can India be more creative about its public diplomacy efforts and move away from the top-down, state-driven efforts to a grass-roots level, bottom-up approach? First, this would be less of a drain on the public exchequer. Second, since the key stakeholder is the local community, it will be more integrated and raise fewer suspicions. And third, at least for now, the Indian government simply lacks the wherewithal to mount a large state-run and directed effort that is effective and does not degenerate into something worse. An excellent model that could be supported, hence replicated and scaled up, is the India Community Centre (ICC) in Silicon Valley,
near San Francisco. The ICC was conceived as a place where every generation of the Indian diaspora could find comfort in various facets of their culture, preserve and practise unique traditions and celebrate festivals and social milestones in a welcoming environment. It was also designed to be a centre where people from other cultures could explore and experience Indian traditions and values." Image from
India-Russia ties in the neoliberal era - M. K. Bhadrakumar, sikkimchamberofcommerce.blogspot.com: "A reverse osmosis is happening in the Sino-Indian partnership. For China, public diplomacy in India has assumed great significance.
Anyway, both Russia and India seem content with the way things turned out and are settling for a durable 'strategic partnership' based on 'convergence of interests,' uncluttered by ideals or ideology. There is, of course, no question of infidelity in such a partnership and no scope for adulterous acts — not even flirtatious intimacies. An extraordinary calmness has come to prevail, which is truly rare in relationships." Image from article
Afghanistan's neighbours must ensure its independence: India - Sify: "New Delhi ... In a veiled reference to Pakistan, India Thursday said Afghanistan's neighbours should 'guarantee its independence rather than subvert it' and called for dismantling of the infrastructure of terrorism in the region. 'Afghanistan's neighbours should guarantee its independence and sovereignty rather than subvert it. We must make Afghan security sustainable,' Jayant Prasad, special secretary (public diplomacy) in the external affairs ministry, said here. Although he did not name Pakistan, India has often voiced its apprehensions about Islamabad's meddling in the internal affairs of Kabul."
No set formula for public diplomacy drive - Emine Kart, Today's Zaman: "A brainstorming session among Turkish career diplomats has shown that there is still a long way to go before Turkey can coordinate its public diplomacy efforts through institutionalized mechanisms. In late 2009 the Foreign Ministry took a bold step, reflecting its focus on this issue, by assigning a deputy undersecretary responsible for public diplomacy and communication. Then in the first months of 2010 it created accounts on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter in a bid to make use of current popular communication tools.
Later in 2010, the Directorate of Public Diplomacy was established under the Prime Ministry. Earlier this week, a session titled 'Cultural and Public Diplomacy,' which was held on the occasion of the third annual ambassadors' conference, gathered diplomats, academics and journalists together to brainstorm on these initiatives. Theoretical discussions over public diplomacy are often heated, particularly since the post-Cold War period, as care is required when treading the fine line between propaganda and public diplomacy. The session on Monday demonstrated how ambassadors both at the Foreign Ministry and at missions abroad have given much thought to the theory and practice of better public diplomacy. Almost all participants agreed on the need for more financial resources and staff, while they also admitted that the ongoing process was 'a learning process' with both junior and senior diplomats being subject to with 'on-the-job-training.' Since a considerable part of the session was spent on efforts to find an appropriate description of public diplomacy, an ambassador prudently offered to focus more on the goals of public diplomacy rather than its description, which is subject to numerous academic studies. ... An academic from a think tank on foreign policy issues also emphasized the need for an awareness of the differences between public relations and advertising. ... As expected, complaints by journalists of not being able to receive timely and sufficient background or public information from the ministry in a country where there is intense foreign policy activity was one of the highlights of the session." Image from article, with caption: Turkish diplomats who gathered in Ankara for a week-long brainstorming session were received by President Abdullah Gül on Wednesday.
Turkey and the Arab world - İbrahim Kalin, todayszaman.com: "[T]he Arab world is rediscovering Turkey. A case in point is Prime Minister Erdoğan being named man of the year by the CNN Arabic website. Erdoğan’s growing popularity in the Arab world is well-known. What is interesting is the audience of CNN Arabic chose a non-Arab leader as person of the year. The Egyptian author Fahmy Howeidy, who is visiting Turkey as a guest of the Prime Ministry Public Diplomacy Coordinator’s Office, considers this choice to be a reflection of the realities of the new Arab world. Some may rebuff this as mere anti-Westernism. But this is not true. In Erdoğan and Turkey, the Arab public sees not only a strong leadership on the issue of Palestine but also democracy, rule of law, transparency and good governance, which has made Turkey a major economic power in the last eight years. These are the values they want to see in their countries as well."
Bulgaria's "Euronews PD" - Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos: "After all, diversity and pluralism are at the core of the so-called 'European' identity. Although it might take Bulgaria several more decades to reach its much-desired level of performance (be it economic or political), it has almost as much to add to European history and heritage, as it is currently 'taking' from it. And when it comes to public diplomacy - especially in terms of charming the European public - the themes of culture, history, and progress should certainly lead the way. Sofia and Plovdiv
might be good places to start. But there are many other gorgeous and noteworthy spots to highlight, too. Looking forward to seeing more!" Image from
The Unique Center in Gotland Island - Leonidas Donskis, Baltic Times: "There is a fine institution situated in Visby, Gotland Island, Sweden: the Baltic Center for Writers and Translators (BCWT). I hold this Center to be the jewel of Swedish cultural policy and public diplomacy in the Baltic region. The BCWT is the Baltic region’s symbolic home, a place where Nordic and Baltic languages, literatures, and translators come together."
Abuse Of Kenya's Sovereignty - onganya, International Relations: "The realist approach to international politics holds that states exist to further their own interests. In his Politics among Nations, Hans Morgenthau argues that interest drive the behaviour of states in their international relations. The United States and other European powers are right to force their desires on the developing world. It is the responsibility of the developing world to find ways to counter these forces in an effort to demand relative fairness. Moreno Ocampo
is striving to justify his position and to build his own name internationally. That is why he engages in public diplomacy and politics rather than in curving out ways of countering international crime. Kenya being a regional force ought to lead by example by emphasising its sovereignty. The conduct of foreign envoys in Kenya should be under radar, and any diplomat flouting or interfering with Kenya’s sovereign status should be deported immediately." Ocampo image from
My understanding of diplomacy today - Silvia, The New Diplomacy E: "From Old diplomacy to public diplomacy is just an excuse for states to come together and push their wills, but making it we believe that they do this in a democratic way, nothing but public propaganda."
SA targets reform of Security Council - Loyiso Langeni, Business Day (South Africa): "Clayson Monyela has been appointed as deputy director-general of public diplomacy as the department [of International Relations and Co-operation] aims to improve its communication channels with the public."
China's Ballistic-Missile, Stealth-Fighter Advances Draw Attention of U.S. - Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg: "Huang Jing... [is] a visiting professor at National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Diplomacy."
Barry Zorthian, U.S. Diplomat in Vietnam, Dies at 90 - Douglas Martin, New York Times: "By the time Mr. Zorthian left Vietnam in 1968 after four and a half years, he had become the longest-serving senior American official in Vietnam and one of the most visible. ... Mr. Zorthian’s influence was more than that of a spokesman. In a 1967 article about him, Life magazine said, 'Few major U.S. decisions are reached in Saigon without his approval.' Part of the United States Information Agency’s mission was to win the allegiance of the Vietnamese people — and erode the morale of the enemy forces — through what were called 'hearts and minds' campaigns.
Mr. Zorthian spent $10 million a year on activities that included distributing leaflets in villages; staging plays in which the Communist insurgents, the Vietcong, were always the villains; and rounding up peasants at gunpoint for propaganda lectures. ... In World War II and the Korean War, the military had controlled the release of battlefield information, but that responsibility was given to the information agency in Vietnam. Mr. Zorthian’s mandate from Mr. Rowan was to expand the flow of information at a time when ambitious war reporters like Peter Arnett of The A.P. and David Halberstam of The New York Times were directly questioning official explanations and exposing what became known as 'the credibility gap.' 'In Vietnam, we reached a stage where the government’s word was to be questioned until proven true, whereas in the past it had been the government’s word is valid until proven to be wrong,' Mr. Zorthian said in a 1982 oral history. ... Mr. Zorthian denied that he had ever lied or that he had ever been told to lie, and acknowledged only that he had withheld sensitive information relating to military security or diplomacy. ... Mr. Zorthian’s reputation for an easy sense of humor was evident in two lapel pins he sometimes wore to conferences on Vietnam. One read 'Zorthian, Chief Leak'; the other 'Ambushed at Credibility Gap.'” Via AH. Image from article with caption, Barry Zorthian, center, in Saigon, South Vietnam, in July 1967 with Robert S. McNamara, right.
Barry Zorthian, public diplomacy legend, passes away at 90 - Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner.us: "Edward R. Murrow, as USIA Director and thus Barry’s boss, asked Barry to head the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office in Vietnam. Barry would say this was the first (and largest ever) joint State and Defense public affairs office. According to Barry, to get around the concern based on Smith-Mundt that the USIA should not be speaking to the US public, Barry was transferred to the State Department and USIA reimbursed State for his pay."
PD Grab Bag - Laura McGinnis, manIC: "The Smithsonian Institute is looking for an Associate Director for its Folklife Festival, a longstanding public diplomacy tool. The JFK documentary/PD masterpiece Years of Lightning, Day of Drums is screening at the AFI Silver theater in downtown Silver Spring on January 13. Tickets are only $5.
And the Spring 2011 issue of the Journal of International Service (featuring a paper on public broadcasting [U.S. Radio Broadcasting in Iraq and Afghanistan: A Grand Soliloquy? ('Over the past decade, U.S. radio broadcasts have flooded listeners in Afghanistan and Iraq with information about the United States. However, the unidirectional nature of U.S. radio broadcasting limits its effectiveness as a public diplomacy tool') ] co-authored by this blogger) is now available online. Other manIC-relevant topics include Venezuelan Oil Diplomacy and the Zapatista's Embrace of Strategic Communication." Image from blog
How to become a Foreign Service Officer: Part I - This Blog Describes My Journey As a Wife of a Foreign Service Officer and a Mom to a Boisterous, Loving Little Boy. In August 2010, My Husband Begins His Career with the State Department, and Soon Afterwards We Will Move Abroad to Work in Some American Embassy. We Will Change Countries Every 2 Years. People Ask My Husband Whether I Was OK with All the Projected Schlepping Around the World. The Truth Is--It Was My Idea! We Are Thrilled With Our New Adventure and Cannot Wait for It to Begin [PDPBR highlight of blog title]:
"For the generalist FSO, in the Foreign Service, there are 5 different career tracks you can choose from. You can be a: 1) consular officer, 2) economic officer, 3) management officer, 4) political officer and 5) public diplomacy officer (or as your momma once told you--you can be ANYTHING your ever wanted to be; no, not an American Idol finalist; no, not even America's Top Model or Bachelor contestant; hey, this is the Foreign service, focus!)." Blogger image from article
What is the actual work of a person who works at a US Embassy? - politics-government.otai.info: "Comments to Read I am really considering changing my major to International Studies, and minoring in french, and apply to work at a US Embassy. What types of jobs can a foreign service officer do, and what is the actual work that they do? Is it fun and rewarding? How difficult is the job? Just curious, what is the salary? ... George L said, Like the Colonel says, there is no one job or one track to getting a job in the Foreign Service. The Service divides the work into 5 groups, known as cones in dipspeak; political, economic, public diplomacy, consular and administrative."
RELATED ITEMS
Toppling the statue of Saddam in Iraq: a media moment, revisited - Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing: "Propaganda has been a staple of warfare for ages, but the notion of creating events on the battlefield, as opposed to repackaging real ones after the fact, is a modern development."
In the New Yorker, a re-examination of the events surrounding the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Iraq, and American media's complicity in a set-up: great moments in staged military propaganda. Image from, with caption: As viewers watched on television, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Leon Lambert and Corporal Edward Chin prepared to bring down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad’s Firdos Square. See also.
How broadcasting to Iran on shortwave can cause excitement in the streets and bazaars - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Joint Chiefs of Staff Get New Propaganda Department - The Chosun Ilbo: The Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters has been restructured, adding a new department that will handle propaganda operations against North Korea in peacetime and civil operations in the North in case of a sudden change there or a full-scale war.
"We've reorganized the JCS to ensure efficient operational command and delivery of orders in preparation for the takeover of the wartime operational control of Korean troops from the U.S.," a JCS spokesman said Wednesday. "To reinforce psychological operations, we've established a civil-military department and boosted staff of the command and control room for the rapid and systematic handling of the situation in peacetime." Image from
Read a famous propaganda comic about life in Soviet America - io9.com: In 1947, the Catechetical Guild Educational published Is This Tomorrow: America Under Communism, a propaganda comic classic about the impending Sovietification of America. According to the comic, Communist saboteurs would maintain dissident camps in Alaska and North Dakota.
This comic was marketed as an educational book by Catechetical, which was founded by Father Louis Gales to distribute comic books with Catholic themes. An estimated 4 million copies of Is This Tomorrow were distributed in the late 1940s. The book tells the story of a Red sleeper cell that takes over America after a nation-crippling drought. The saboteurs place agents in the media, foment racial unrest, take over Congress, brainwash schoolchildren, and rig elections. Image from article
Berlin museum extends popular Hitler exhibition - Agence France-Presse: A groundbreaking exhibition in Berlin tackling the personality cult of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler has been extended because of large numbers of visitors, organizers said Thursday. "Hitler and the Germans" at Berlin's German Historical Museum (DHM) had been due to close on February 6 but will stay open another three weeks until February 27, spokesman Rudolf Trabold told AFP. The exhibition, open since October, uses items ranging from propaganda posters, busts of Hitler, children's games and swastika Christmas decorations to show how Nazi imagery was present in almost every aspect of life. These are juxtaposed with exhibits showing the sinister reality of life in the Third Reich behind the propaganda: the fate of Jews, political opponents or the mentally ill with no place in the Fuehrer's "Volk". "So far we have had around 170,000 visitors," Trabold said. Such an exhibition would not have been possible in Germany even 10 years ago, commentators say, and follows a recent change in popular attitudes in Germany towards Hitler. The 2004 film "Downfall" portrayed Hitler as a deeply flawed human, not a monster, for example, and Germans have even learned to laugh at the dictator.
Churchill, The Windsors and 420 Million Year Old Tree Trunk Star in Bonhams Gentleman's Library Sale - artdaily.org: What do one of Churchill’s cigars, a 35 million years old fossilised giant pig, a silver wheelbarrow presented to W.E. Gladstone, historic butterfly cabinets from the Natural History Museum and Christmas presents from the Duke and Duchess of Windsor have in common? They all feature in Bonhams annual Gentleman’s Library Sale on 19 January.
During the war, portraits of Churchill were important propaganda tools but he rarely actually sat for them. In 1944 he did so, briefly, for the artist Frank O Salisbury who had already painted him many times. When the Prime Minister left, he discarded his half smoked cigar which the painter kept as a souvenir. It has been in the family ever since and is estimated at between £600 and £1,000. Image from article: Sir Winston Churchill half smoked cigar. Estimate: £600-£1000.
The Micro-guide to Spotting Propaganda - Lila Rajiva, dissidentvoice.org: The more honest and truthful you are, the more you will recognize it in others.
ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY
"America was transformed from a nation of want into one of wants."
--George Will, summarizing the views of writer Daniel Akst
FOUND ON THE 'NET: IMAGE (WITH TEXT)
I have scoliosis, a deformity of the spine. My body’s asymmetry creates the need for a subtle effort of balancing, in my physical relationship to gravity and space, as well as in my psychic sense of centeredness and wholeness. The conscious awareness of walking, moving, breathing - bodily processes that usually unfold by themselves - has made me attuned to my bones and muscles, nerves and senses, like a dancer. Drawing my body, I focus on this heightened awareness and transform it into visual imagery.
My drawings seek to create a visual counterpart to the texture of kinesthetic experience: that inner-body awareness that is at once the most universal yet most private aspect of being.
Making this work has been a “learning-through-drawing” process. It has given me a deepened visual understanding of my own body and a connection to that which is unique in each individual. Together, the drawings that form The Visible Skeleton Series tell the story of my journey and how I transformed my body’s experiences into art.
I think of the series as being the equivalent of three-dimensional sculpture: a way of being able to view this body from many different angles and perspectives. Using myself as subject and model allowed me to work from the inside out as well as the outside in. The more I tuned in to the interactions of my bones and muscles, nerves and senses – the more I focused on my self, paradoxically – the more I was able to transcend my own personal experience and speak to something universal in my work as an artist.
The Visible Skeleton Series project began almost twenty years ago, when I started to experience physical disability related to my scoliosis, and felt the need to understand what was happening to my body. I had undergone spinal fusion surgery at age thirteen, and had been fine for many years afterward.
Because I am an artist and tend to think in visual terms, I needed to be able to picture what my scoliotic spine looked like. As I began to learn about anatomy, I realized that the imagery was quite visually compelling, and could be interesting on many levels, from the literal to the metaphorical. I decided to undertake “an artistic inquiry into scoliosis.” Scoliosis is a flawed model of the beautifully designed human musculoskeletal system, but I wanted to portray it as having its own more complex beauty, one that viewed deformity as differentness, and differentness as individuality.
I studied anatomy with Irene Dowd, a noted teacher and neuromuscular trainer who helped me to understand the dynamics of the body in motion. I retrieved and studied the records of my surgery, a fusion of the T5-12 vertebrae, with grafted bone, performed by Dr. John Cobb, which was followed by a year in a plaster “turnbuckle” body cast. I also was privileged to be given access to the Anatomy Lab at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where I have spent many hours drawing from the skeletons.
Scoliosis is a complicated rotational deformity, and the process of conceptualizing it three-dimensionally has been challenging but rewarding. At first I used my own x-rays as the basis for my drawings. Later I consulted with orthopaedic surgeons and radiologists for information and help in having medical images made specifically for the purpose of making art. Thanks to Dr. Andrew Litt and Phillip Berman at NYU Medical Center, I was able to have a 3D spiral CT scan, an exciting new technology that allows me to view my skeleton from any angle, rotating and tilting it to match whatever movement or pose I’m interested in drawing.
Creating images of my body that are anatomically accurate, but also personal, has felt empowering, as if I were regaining a sense of ownership of my own body that had somehow been lost when my experience was “medicalized.” The more I understood and internalized the configurations of my unusual body, the more graceful and comfortable I felt in my skin and the more manageable my pain and disability have become.
