BALANCE of CULTURE

BoC Dérive: 8 February 2013

Tea time, Shanghai-style.

Online Dérive:

ASSASSINATION: Tunisia road to democracy is thwarted by new turmoil.

TECH: Joe Nye's latest piece on the "information revolution" and politics.

TRADE: Is Asia slowly leaving its dependence on the West behind?

FAITH: Dalai Lama calls for a new global system of secular ethics that incorporates the diverse beliefs of all backgrounds.   

ICY: The British Museum has an exhibition with pieces from the ice-age, created some 10,000-40,000 years ago. 

MESSAGE: South Korea confirms expanding UN sanctions on North Korea, but some question the efficacy of this decision. 

SIZE: Great visuals that put the size of the US into real perspective. 

CONVENTION: India has a Comic Con.

FUZZY: Adorable video of a Fennec fox romping around in Algeria.

White House Foodie

Most likely to the delight of foodies everywhere, First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted her own kimchee recipe, which uses Napa cabbage from her own garden that inspired her book American Grown:

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 There are zero benefits to this crude and outdated practice.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

Brazil's New Culture Stipend

While many countries have been deemphasizing the importance of culture by slashing arts budgets, Brazil has just announced a unique policy expansion from the well-known "Bolsa Familia" program--a stipend for culture. Under this program, workers who earn up to 5x the minimum wage are eligible to receive 50 real (25 USD) per month for cultural expenses such as movies, books, museums, music, DVDs, etc. 

The program has already been passed in Congress and approved by President Dilma Rousseff, and will probably begin later this year. As a result, Culture Minister Marta Suplicy projects a spending surge of nearly $3.5 billion in Brazil's culture sector. 

This program fits nicely with Brazil's recent efforts to increase its education investment, which has been significant but still lags below the OECD average. 

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. 

BoC Dérive: 1 February 2013

Lovely January view!

Online Dérive:

SOMALILAND: Stolen Seas looks amazing--a documentary on Somali piracy.

FRACK: America's gas extraction options are making Russia and Arab states nervous. 

GENDER: More details emerge from Malian women recounting the abuse they endured under al-Qaeda militants. 

FRIENDS: As India-Pakistan relations continue to prove difficult, India-Bangladesh relations are looking like a different story. 

112: From A-Z, a slideshow of all the nations that Hillary Clinton visited as Secretary of State. 

AWKWARD: When "conservatives" talk about rap.

CD: Photos of historic art in embassies around the world.

HIGH FRUCTOSE: Arab-American groups are angry over this Coca-Cola Superbowl ad.

Art and Diplomacy 2013

After connecting with the State Department on its global art initiatives when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State, I'm thrilled to see a brief piece by Secretary Clinton about our Art in Embassies program. The program now celebrates 50 years of work and continues to contribute to our vast diplomatic resource pool:

In my line of work, we often talk about the art of diplomacy as we try to make people's lives a little better around the world. But, in fact, art is also a tool of diplomacy. It reaches beyond governments, past the conference rooms and presidential palaces, to help us connect with more people in more places. It is a universal language in our search for common ground, an expression of our shared humanity.

This subject really brings me back to my grad school days, where I researched the history and significance of nations using large international exhibitions towards cultural diplomacy. Although I was the only one in my program to combine art with international relations (and got plenty of resistance for it, I should add!), it's thrilling to see this topic discussed more and more in the mainstream media. 

Rare Interview with Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), often known as Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist 65 years ago today. Here's the very first filmed interview of Gandhi, taken at his home in Borsad:

Riding the Biggest Wave in History

According to new footage, North Shore surfer Garrett McNamara may have broken his own previous Guinness world record by riding a reported 100-foot wave yesterday in Nazare, Portugal:

 

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."