Hope for the Unseasoned Visitor to Beirut?

With "Navigating the streets of Beirut, one landmark at a time," The Daily Star reporter Niamh Fleming-Farrell tells us about  a new process for giving people directions in Beirut  (http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Lifestyle /2011/Oct-29/152506-navigating-the-streets-of-beirut-one-landmark-at-a-time.ashx#ixzz1cMUoGnKb) . We'll see if this navigational tool of design firm PenguinCube catches on. It's a series of seven steps that could even fit on a business card. Some Beirutis have reservations about standardizing landmarks in their city and neighborhoods, since explaining to people where places are in their communities is a matter of identity as much as social conversation. Designer Tammam Yamout says he is trying to honor that, though. Who knows, perhaps there is hope for newcomers like me to be less late for appointments while honoring our hosts' cultural identity! 

Lebanons, USA

Fun facts about shared history: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Lifestyle/2011/Oct-19/151605-welcome-to-lebanon--in-the-united-states-that-is.ashx#axzz1b7HTN8tr .

The Lebanese Civil Coalition

The emerging Lebanese Civil Coalition is the first civil society group I have encountered that connects with the "Arab Spring" movements in other countries in the region. Read some preliminary information about the group at http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Oct-13/151155-lebanese-civil-coalition-launch-demands-rule-of-law.ashx#axzz1afBRzXyg and http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=321639 . Unfortunately, I have not yet found a website for the LCC itself.

It's a small, increasingly interconnected world...

... and our diversity is infinite. Because of the Internet and worldwide web, and creative people, including Steve Jobs, those with the money and/or access can learn about and do so much more, minute by minute. With Steve Jobs' passing, I learned about his "halfie" biological connection with a Syrian American (e.g., http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-son-of-a-syrian-is-embraced-in-the-arab-world/, http://www.yalibnan.com/2011/02/28/steve-jobs-is-a-biological-arab-american-with-roots-in-syria-apple/, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44799722/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/arabs-embrace-steve-jobs-syrian-connection/#.TpAzm97nj1Q . But in addition to money and access, when I read these accounts, I think of community, luck, and the power of education. Steve Jobs was lucky to be born into a community that values education and has the resources to nurture children. That kind of culture generates infinite diversity. It's a culture that transcends national or geographical boundaries, yet is profoundly affected by them. I am endlessly fascinated by how we make babies, meaning -- and technology -- from our interconnectedness.

Post 9/11 Tensions between Irish and Irish Americans

Thanks to the University of Southern California's Public Diplomacy Twitter feed, there is an almost daily stream of links to diverse online news and analysis from around the globe. Yesterday, there was one from The Irish Times, touching on Irish economic interests and relations with the Irish American diaspora after the tragedy of 9/11. See http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0908/1224303699425.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WhatsNewInPd+%28What%27s+New+in+Public+Diplomacy%29#When:05:58:40Z .


Author Joe Breen provides an excerpt of his Master's thesis on media and international conflict. He frames the initial Irish government-media response to 9/11 as "consolation diplomacy" toward the U.S.  Indeed, as much as 25% of the 9/11 victims were of Irish descent. However, he writes, homeland-diaspora tension emerged in the weeks and months thereafter. Irish analysts began to criticize "America's appetite for war and revenge" and Irish Americans objected vociferously, including in an Irish American newspaper.

This is an interesting story about the place called "home" in one's national identity and perspective about the world. In my anthropology class on diasporicity, the professor asked each of us what home means. There was a variety of responses. Mine was that home is where my family is. That's complicated, because they are scattered around the U.S., and I also identify strongly with my Lebanese roots and the broader Middle East  generally.

By the end of the article I felt the author's message was that Irish Americans post 9/11 showed that they identify primarily with the U.S., at least in the situation of post 9/11 U.S.-Irish relations. If I were to have a conversation with the author, though, and read his thesis, I would be curious about the nuances of Irish American identity, e.g., across the U.S. and among generations.  

Related to yesterday's post...this just in...

Apparently U.S. Vice President Biden and Ambassador Locke have a less-than-desirable opportunity to wield their diplomatic skills: a friendship basketball game between Georgetown University and a Chinese team in Beijing resulted in a melee. See http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/08/18/world/asia/AP-AS-China-US-Basketball-Brawl.html?_r=1 .

Sally Jenkins sketches the broader political and cultural backdrop of the game at http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/georgetown-basketball-brawls-spark-isnt-clear-but-situation-was-obviously-flammable/2011/08/18/gIQAOkpVOJ_story.html?hpid=z2 . As well, she writes that Hoyas Coach John Thompson showed some diplomatic skill.

A New (Chinese) American Diplomat

Hat tip to John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review for August 3^rd-8^th, 2011, for flagging a China Daily report from August 3^rd reporting on the appointment of Gary Locke as U.S. ambassador to China ( http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-08/03/content_13037261.htm , retrieved 8/17/11, “Locke sworn in as new ambassador to China,” updated: 2011-08-03 07:53, by Tan Yingzi and Qin Jize).

The article features a variety of officially sanctioned Chinese reactions to the appointment. One is a favorable assessment of Locke from a scholar of US-Sino trade relations, who cites the ambassador’s experience as US Department of Commerce Secretary. 

A second assessment, by an analyst at a research institute attached to the Ministry of Commerce, notes that only one of the assignments in Locke’s prior job was trade relations. Overall, the report quoted the analyst, Locke was just trying to “enhance strategic mutual trust” as any other US cabinet member conducting international relations would.  

A third assessment of the new ambassadorial appointment came from a university scholar, who argued that Locke’s Chinese roots will not cause him to behave differently than any other ambassador whose job it is to uphold his country’s national interests, although his experience with Chinese culture might help him: “to understand the mindset of the Chinese…. [A]nd I think his appointment as ambassador reveals the goodwill of the Obama administration.” 

The fourth perspective provided in the article is of an international politics scholar at a university: “Locke's new post shows the inclusiveness of US society, and Washington will take full advantage of Locke's Chinese background to develop its public diplomacy in China.” What I infer from this article is that at least elite Chinese will respond to Ambassador Locke as they would to any other ambassador from the US, with caution, but Locke’s common cultural ground with the Chinese in general may give him an edge, in engaging on both the official level and on the public diplomacy level, with the Chinese public. 

In my dissertation-drafting cave, I look at the appointment of this Chinese American diasporan to the US government’s highest post in Beijing as a wise leveraging of home-grown expertise and cross-cultural sensitivity.  Here’s to stronger Sino-US ties!