BALANCE of CULTURE

Tehran Plans Hollywood Lawsuit

I wasn't aware that one could "sue Hollywood" over a film that is considered unrealistic, but that is exactly what Iranian officials plan to do with Argo. Yes, the real-life drama of this film just won't go away, even weeks following the Academy Awards.

Citing the movie as propaganda that is "pro-CIA" and "anti-Iran," Tehran has hired French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre to figure out what specific charges to pursue as well as which court to approach. In the meantime, she plans to start an anti-Argo campaign with the intent to block distributors and force them to apologize and admit the film is "a sheer lie." Coutant-Peyre may sound familiar because she also represents "Carlos the Jackal."

Argo's inaccuracies have already been widely discussed, but I don't see this issue to be about mere facts. It's very likely that a generational gap is at play here: the older generation Iranians who went through the 1979 Islamic Revolution seem to have much more issues with the story compared to their younger fellow citizens, who are much more open to other perspectives on what they have been traditionally taught to believe. At any rate, the one thing that should be considered at this point is how Argo is a movie based on a true story--not a documentary film.

Regardless of how this strange lawsuit pans out, it guarantees to cast a negative light upon Iranian officials and their policies towards our universal understanding of imparting and exchanging information, ideas, and art. Their reasoning and harsh reaction alone unfortunately does not seem to cultivate much empathy even for the most reasonable onlooker. 

(If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it--the first twenty minutes are incredibly gripping, and it's one of the few films that doesn't seem to lag whatsoever even though we all know how the story ends!)

Traditional Culture Control Over Females

Today marks International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). It's hard to believe that such a barbaric practice still exists today in our world, but the tradition remains widely practiced in regions--mainly Africa and the Middle East--where gender inequality remains high. 

Thankfully, progress continues. According to UNICEF Egypt, 91% of females aged 15-49 have undergone FGM procedures in that country--but Egypt's Population National Council will hold a press conference tomorrow "to discuss means of countering the practice." And Uganda has recently joined Kenya in its efforts to eradicate FGM, stating that "unless the two countries worked together, the practice would not be wiped out."

But FGM isn't confined to the countries where the ritual originates anymore. With globalization comes diaspora, and many females that live in Western nations are still potentially at risk--as unfathomable as this sounds. According to a recent survey conducted in Ireland, immigrant families are still often under pressure to inflict FGM on their daughters. For these girls, the context is completely different yet the lack of knowledge on the dangers of the practice remain ignorantly high. 

The culture must shift in order to provide circumstances that do not consider this a "normal" action. There are zero benefits to this crude and outdated practice. It is simply a way to control women and maintain their status as mere property throughout the world. 

Baby Burka Fatwa Continues the Perennial Coverup

Although this Saudi cleric's fatwa was suggested on a television interview several months ago, the mainstream public is now reeling about the idea of forcing female babies to wear full burkas as a deterrent from sexual abuse.  

Sheikh Dauod's statement is in full accord with the sensibilities of societies that harbor deep gaps in gender equality--it's the victim who needs to prevent the wrongdoing. But where is any accountability for actual perpetrators? Females are traditionally not required to wear burkas until they reach puberty, so this idea clearly shows an inherently tunnel-visioned bias towards hiding the criminal actions of sick individuals. This reminds me of a popular sentiment in the protests following India's recent horrific gang rape that swept the world. 

Furthermore, even if putting burkas on baby girls does somehow prevent sexual abuse, it does nothing for male children (just ask Cardinal Mahoney and his "holy" cohorts if a piece of cloth would have stopped their heinous actions). 

Wearing burkas may be a cultural choice for many women, but this perennial cover-up of an established global "boys club" is ultimately a scary thing for both genders no matter where you live on the planet. 

The Timing of Russia's New Soft Power Plan

If timing is everything, then Russian President Vladimir Putin's three-year soft power initiative is right on schedule. The plan, which Putin ordered last July, involves the usual checklist for improving a nation's image abroad: building new (and modernizing currently existing) science and cultural centers, hosting youth festivals, and promoting the Russian language. 

So back to the timing of this…last summer Putin began stressing the importance of soft power, lamenting that Russia's image abroad was "lopsided" and thus needed attention by government officials.

But did this frame of mind just pop out of nowhere? It's difficult not to notice that Putin's July appeal for aggressively pursuing soft power conveniently occurred within four months of the arrests of feminist punk band Pussy Riot for their "hooliganism"--a case that produced perhaps the biggest media frenzy surrounding Russia in years. 

Putin has publicly discussed the subject of his country's image abroad in the past, but before states look to exercise soft power in order to counter unattractive domestic cases they might want to consider some self reflection.

Without acknowledging or dealing with the Russian Orthodox Church's exorbitant influence on not only Pussy Riot's criminal investigation but also their internal propaganda to their trusting citizens, Moscow's self-promotion of "youth," "culture," or even "science" abroad probably won't be received as very organic or even very trustworthy--at least not to most Western audiences who enjoy freedom of speech without a backlash from their local church, and so forth. According to polls by Levada Center, public opinion in Russia veered heavily with the Orthodoxy and even considered the global reactions to the arrests and harsh sentences as "unfair" and "hysterical." 

Ironically, despite Moscow's good intentions, Pussy Riot is the real winner from this situation. There are very few speedier ways to reveal a progressive sensibility in an unlikely setting than by getting arrested and jail time for playing a punk song that challenges conservative society. In this case, the soft power of the "unlikely setting" will probably get a lot less traction than anticipated simply because Pussy Riot's philosophy is already the status quo in many parts of the world.

al Jazeera's New Role in Global News

One of the meatier developments in the media over the holidays was the announcement of news network al Jazeera purchasing Al Gore's Current TV in order to enter mainstream American households. While plenty has been discussed on how ironic the $500 million sale is, most commentary thus far has centered around the spectacle of the transaction (Gore is estimated to gross approximately $70 million).

While the financials are definitely eye-opening to how this sort of business can muscle itself around despite the inherently divergent politics of the involved parties, hardly anybody is pointing out how al Jazeera may not be the straightforward news network it purports itself to be besides CFR's Elliot Abrams. 

In his blog post, Abrams brings up a simple test: Is al-Jazeera capable of candid reporting on Qatari affairs? Unfortunately, the answer ends up as  no--a questionable conclusion since the network is well known as property of the oil-rich Qatari royal family.

Despite this, al Jazeera is still one of my favorite news outlets. I often find it to be a rich resource for events outside the radar of, say, the ubiquitous New York Times. But unlike the UK's BBC, Germany's Deutsche Welle, FRANCE 24, or Voice of America, al Jazeera's direct funding connection to the government of Qatar (via Sheik Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani) is not overtly disclosed in its fine print. So the question is, will people care if al Jazeera doesn't objectively report on Qatari events while on their television sets?

With Time Warner dropping Current shortly after the sale, we'll have to wait and see how the rest of this story continues.

Religious Images to Protect Forests in India

Dozens of artists in India's Bihar region are painting trees using a tribal art form called Madhubani in order to spare them from being cut down. The Bihar state currently has one of the lowest forest coverage areas in India, coming in at less than 7%. Despite the area's flooding problems due to lack of vegetation, climate change is not a well known subject among the native villagers. This unique project was started in September by local NGO Gram Vikas Parishad and is supported by like-minded organizations. 

Because the locals are so deeply religious, seeing depictions of the deities they worship on these trees are likely to incur fear of cutting them down. This is probably one of the few instances of visual art that I've seen utilized in order to literally "save" remaining parts of the environment--potentially a good case study to monitor, especially during the next few flood seasons. 

Reactions to Red Dawn's North Korea

MGM's Red Dawn remake sparked plenty of controversy even before the film's release just before Thanksgiving last week, mainly for the producers' decision to swap the "bad guy" roles from Chinese to North Korean people. For most viewers, North Korea hardly represents a feasible existential threat of any kind.

Strangely, emotions continue to run high regarding the portrayal of North Korea. In a Times Square theater in the middle of New York, a handful of North Korean sympathizers actually picketed outside the film's screening and later stormed the venue to protest the "complete nonsense" showing inside:

These individuals, who are associated with the World Workers Party, are clearly an extreme side to this dialogue. As a Korean American highly interested in North Korean issues, I question the motives behind this incident.

But this doesn't mean there aren't any other issues, such as the backlash towards the archaic "yellow peril" theme of the movie. A snippet of post-Red Dawn tweets shows how volatile our country's racial atmosphere is even today:

While a movie is just a movie--just as a book is just a book--stories are powerful things that can both inspire as well as stain minds. I think the only valid criticism of using North Koreans as villains (nobody wants to anger Chinese viewers anymore because big projects now depend on that very audience) is that the plot seems to take the easy way of storytelling by reliving the ignorant days of old Hollywood. Remember "classy" movies like Breakfast at Tiffany's, where some white actor depicts an Asian character with astounding amounts of aggressively-racist features, most of which are far from realistic or accurate. 

Red Dawn didn't fare too well at the box office. Maybe that's just because the movie itself sucked, but it certainly is a positive sign that old-fashioned racism as a premise is no longer compelling and simply isn't what moviegoers wish to spend their time on any longer. 

Video of the NYC protest:

China's Passport Propaganda

China is upsetting its neighbors with a new addition in their Beijing-issued passports: maps showing disputed border territories belonging to China. Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines are a few of the states compromised in this peculiarly aggressive "passport propaganda," but it is perhaps India who is the most infuriated. China has been a long-time weapons provider to Pakistan, so this move comes under particular scrutiny by Delhi. 

Passports were always like quaint relics of the past to me. I've always been surprised at how this sort of important record keeping comes in the form of a flimsy, paper object that can be burned or lost at any given moment (social security cards are in the same category as well). 

But because of the fact that this medium seems here to stay for the time being (at least until an innovative government steps up to the plate, which is probably inevitable), this was a very contemporary way for China to utilize a "new" rendition of public art to their territorial advantage. Revisionist history is everywhere. 

Military Invasions Leading to Cultural Influence

Stuart Laycock started researching for his new book after his 11-year old son asked him a very simple question: How many countries has Britain invaded overall?

Britain's history is much better documented than most countries, and for obvious reasons--at the end of Laycock's two-year research cycle, he concluded that all but a mere 22 nations in the world had at one point experienced some kind of British invasion. Again, that means every single country in the world except for 22. That's just stunning.

To be entirely accurate, Laycock actually suspects that some of the untouched 22 (such as Mongolia) could have been invaded by Brits at some point but the lack of hard evidence restricted him from including such cases. 

The next country to top the list of most world invasions is France, which shouldn't surprise anybody who can remember their high school history classes. 

And the connection to today? Notice how these countries have extremely active and well-funded cultural organizations that work as ambassadors for their people instead of their governments. Britain has the British Council, France has Alliance Française, and I'll also throw in Germany's Goethe Institut.

None of these organizations are embedded within their government structure, as that would be adding unwanted baggage to an already difficult task. Sometimes the role of people and culture is to try to balance out their government's mistakes as well as to ensure the distinction between citizens and states. 

Definitely on my reading list now: All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To

The Mo Yan Cultural Experience Zone

Similar to its preparations for the Beijing Olympics, China plans to polish the image of eastern province town Gaomi for international attention following Mo Yan's Nobel prize announcement. 

+100 million USD will go a long way in turning this corn-producing town into a "Mo Yan Cultural Experience Zone." Some of Mo Yan's stories are set in Gaomi, which will probably give this town a boost in both domestic and foreign visitors.