BALANCE of CULTURE

Parisian Time Machine

Walking around many parts of Paris is indeed like entering a time machine, as they say--see this striking photo collection that compares Parisian moments from 1914 and 2013. Not too many differences from the WWI days besides the technology (lights, transportation, etc.).

We all know the world loves French culture, and the relative preservation of historic urban Paris surely helps France maintain the status of being the most visited country in the world by tourists (the United States comes in a close second). I would love to see similar comparisons with more French cities as well as other cities around the globe. 

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 There are zero benefits to this crude and outdated practice.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. 

North Korea's Hollywood Dreams and a Hidden Famine

The underprivileged lives of North Koreans are hardly a secret to those who bother to read the news once in a while, but sometimes the details are (understandably) lost in the spectacle of the country's rural poverty. John Everard recently shared some of his own experiences with Pyongyang's elite class and their infatuation with Hollywood and South Korea while he served as Britain's ambassador to the DPRK:

I was often asked for medicines, but not as often as I was asked for DVDs of television soap operas, usually but not always from South Korea. These portrayed a world of which North Koreans can only dream--of people who eat well in smart restaurants, have their own cars and live in flats where the heating always works--and my contacts devoured them ravenously. I once lent one set of DVDs of Desperate Housewives and met the same person the next day with big rings under their eyes. They had sat up all night and watched the entire series in one setting.

While detractors may dismiss a story like this as evidence of a lack of a severe humanitarian crisis, let's remember that this is a country with millions of people--many of whom still barely exist due to the most recent "hidden famine."

Algeria: Contain, Contain, Contain

As we witness the aftermath of the Amenas gas field raid in Algeria where 41 foreigners were taken hostage, Jihadist websites are busy influencing their local audience with images that glorify Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who is believed to have led the raid. Belmokhtar was a long-time al Qaeda commander and recently formed his own splinter group that reports to al Qaeda's senior leadership:

Although rich oil and gas resources often boost economies of developing states, these very assets tend to simultaneously increase political instability by promoting large degrees of governmental corruption while discouraging other sectors to grow domestically. 

North Africa's lack of security issues have hit Western media pretty frequently in the past couple of years, but perhaps with all the foreign hostages involved this time (British, French, Irish, Japanese, American, Norwegian, Malaysian, Romanian) the world won't dismiss the significance of pursuing classic containment in the region. 

Rumors of North Korea Opening to Foreign Investment

It seems like all of the American media is focusing on the Richardson/Schmidt trip to North Korea instead of how Pyongyang has reportedly enlisted German economists and lawyers to lay the groundwork for foreign investment. In other words, North Korea may be getting ready to finally open up.

Details are still sketchy, but one economist involved in the dealings has confirmed the existence of a "master plan" for North Korea to open its economy as soon as later this year. And interestingly enough, he signals a lean towards the Vietnamese economic model, which allowed specific companies to be recipients of foreign investment, instead of the special economic zoning model of close ally China. For econ geeks out there, that's a pretty juicy update if true. 

Who knows how accurate this news is, but there are two elements that make this development pretty compelling. One, we're talking about economists and lawyers from Germany--a country that knows a thing or two about opening up a closed off economy amid reunification. And secondly, this foreign investment news certainly affords a new perspective on Gov. Richardson's and Eric Schmidt's humanitarian trip to North Korea. I don't mean that their trip's purpose isn't to bring back the recently arrested Korean American held there, but I wonder how much more is going on considering a Google executive is on North Korean soil during rumors of opening up to foreign investment. 

Ancient Chinese and Greeks Look Up

I grew up studying the night sky through my little telescope, so this astronomy comparison between the ancient Greeks and Chinese is highly entertaining and intriguing. Both cultures probably wondered if and how others were interpreting these celestial bodies, not knowing that parallel civilizations were documenting the same scenes from opposite ends of the planet. 

The night sky according to the Greeks, from about 1850 years ago:

The same night sky according to the Chinese, from about 2100 years ago:

Love the names for the Milky Way belt: "Spilled breastmilk" (Greek) vs. "The Silver River" (Chinese)…

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

Irish Perspective on The Korean Peninsula

Although Irish culture can be readily found around South Korea at this point (that's a popular restaurant in Seoul in the photo), this sounds like a first: a five-person delegation from Ireland will arrive in Seoul to discuss North-South relations with senior officials at South Korea's unification ministry next week. 

Makes sense--not only are the Irish familiar with living a divided existence both physically and politically (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), Koreans have been casually referred to as the "Asian Irish" for quite some time now (though I've also heard of other comparisons such as the "Asian Italians" and recently even the "Asian Dutch"). The reasons for these comparisons, especially the Irish example, extend from similarities in the food/drink culture to geopolitical parallels. 

No doubt the Irish peace agreement from the 1990s will be utilized as an important reference for the delegation, but Irish ambassador to Korea Eamonn McKee stresses that a key point for his delegation's approach would be to refrain from extending examples from other international conflicts on to the Korean peninsula's situation by simply presenting "what we did." I think this approach reveals a certain level of sophistication in terms of context. 

On my first trip to Ireland I decided it's one of the most beautiful (and underrated) countries in Europe and even the entire world. The people there share a vigorous sense of humor very similar to Koreans which will only aid in the sharing of perspectives on unification. This is an important conversation as both Ireland and South Korea have relatively recent, dramatic political and economic experiences. 

Rothko Piece Vandalized for "Yellowism"

It's hard to get good help these days--especially at a museum, evidently.

Some guy named Vladimir decided to vandalize Mark Rothko's "Black on Maroon" (1958) with permanent black marker at the Tate Modern gallery in front of onlookers and staff yesterday. The bottom portion of the scribble reads "A potential piece of yellowism."

What's crazy and infuriating is how nobody tried to stop him: "I did it in front of many visitors. Then I put the lid on the marker, looked at the painting again, and normally left the room. There was security and videocameras. I was surprised no attendants stopped me from leaving," he told ABC News. 

You'd think that these institutions would realize just how responsible they are for the literal, physical well-being of such historic artworks (this one was worth millions of dollars, naturally)--not just so-called "creative" events and programming centered around these important pieces. 

What's really quirky here, though, is this concept of "yellowism" that this Vladimir character pushes. His site, This is Yellowism, is an interesting look at this seemingly Euro-centric art movement he founded with Marcin Lodyga. 

Greece's Xenophobia Issue

It's a scary time for minorities living in Greece right now. 

WIth all of Greece's economic troubles so well documented in the media the past year, the extreme right-wing antics of Golden Dawn--which include everything from harassment to murder--are finally coming to surface all over. And it isn't only ethnic minorities (Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Tanzanian, to name a few) that have to be careful: flyers were recently distributed in Athens' gay nightclub district stating, "After the immigrants, you're next."

The Nazi imagery is no coincidence here. They are clearly taking advantage of a classic human weakness: when an economy collapses, you can always count on a group of people to resort to racism, bigotry, and violence as some sort of scapegoat. Just look back at Germany's socio-economic stats as Hitler and his cohorts were rising political stars in the years preceding WWII. 

The fact that such a small, extremest political party is able to gain traction now is concerning, to say the very least. What's even more disconcerting is the fact that they are actually trying to expand their influence by opening offices in New York and Montreal. 

Where is the backlash from the ethnic Greeks themselves, or is there a statement from the Orthodox Church that I've missed (I hope so!)? Certainly most Greek citizens aren't on board with Golden Dawn, but it's up to them to counter this kind of backwards movement. 

See the latest Human Rights Watch report on xenophobia in Greece.