I hate war

War is tragic. People fighting one another is pathetic. This article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/world/middleeast/lebanese-port-drifts-amid-conflicts.html?pagewanted=2&ref=world is just one reminder in one country in one region. People suffer everywhere because of war. The war in Syria is no different. 

A Useful Cross-national Exchange on Public Diplomacy

Thanks to John H. Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review for posting this story, copied below, from
http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2012/12/04/cultural-diplomacy-plays-role-in-building-societies/

Cultural diplomacy plays role in building societies

KUWAIT: Sheikha Hussa Al-Salem Al-Sabah welcoming the participants on Monday.

KUWAIT: The role of cultural diplomacy in building bridges among different people came under focus at a symposium organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Monday at the UN House in Mishref. The symposium, a first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa, saw experts from various walks of life bringing their experience to the table.

These included Sheikha Hussa Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Director of Dar Al-Athar Al- Islamiya. Iman Y. Ereiqat, Chief of Mission of IOM Kuwait, noted that ‘diplomacy’ is a science, a way of management, and the art of handling contradictions and negotiating for achieving results that could satisfy all concerned parties. “In view of the importance of diplomacy, we find it necessary to hold this forum, which is the first of its kind in the Middle East and Northern African Region, to highlight the role of diplomacy in understanding cultures of different people, and building bridges among them, to enable discussion based on mutual respect and sharing with others,” she pointed out.

The main theme of this conference was “The Role of Cultural Diplomacy in Building Bridges between Cultures”. “We, at IOM Kuwait, are proud that, in cooperation with “Aware Centre”,we managed to take this leading step of introducing such an important, distinguished and modern subject in the Arab World,” she added. “We look at you, young people, as our future, and thus decided that the invitees to this forum should be university and highschool students who have a genuine desire for learning and benefiting from the experiences of the speakers.

We all work together for participating in building real societies capable of accommodating different strata ; societies that understand others, respect them, and defend their privacy; where everyone can live without discrimination or exclusion,” Ereiqat further said . Terming the forum as a first step along the path, she said, it would be held annually and would focus on one area that can “help bridge gaps between cultures.” “We are working (so that) that the next versions will be on a regional level,” she concluded.

On his part, Dr. Ebraheen Al- Adasani from the Aware Center said that although cultural diplomacy existed since long, still many regard it as a means of exporting cultural values of one country to another, rather than engaging in a cultural interaction. “For the purposes of this symposium, I define cultural diplomacy as the pursuit of better mutual understanding with the aim of eliminating differences of perceptions between nations. Knowing one another is the essence of cultural diplomacy. And in order for it to be effective, it should be an exercise of give and take rather than a one way street. The goal is not to prove that one culture is superior to the other, but rather to understand that certain concepts are perceived in a different manner in other cultures.

This awareness will help us avoid misunderstandings,” explained Al-Adasani. Nowadays, the internet and different social media platforms have made interaction between countries and individuals of different cultures much easier and more intense. “This means that cultural diplomacy has become essential in contemporary relations. While classical diplomacy is handled almost exclusively by the State, cultural diplomacy requires the involvement of multiple actors from various sections of society.

This includes higher education institutions, NGOs, sportsmen, artists and professional associations,” he pointed out. “The Aware Center, one of the NGOs in Kuwait, works towards combating the risks of misperception and misunderstanding through cultural exchange and constructive dialogue,” he concluded. The Ambassador of the United States of America to Kuwait, Matthew Tueller, said, “We as Americans see great value in cultural exchanges and cultural diplomacy.

While we do not have a Ministry of Culture as many other countries around world do, there is an entire branch of our Department of State which promotes U.S. culture abroad, brings international visitors to the United States for cultural exchanges, and promotes U.S. Education.” On the cultural diplomacy in the Middle East, he said, “Many of you may recall President Obama’s “New Beginning Speech” that he delivered on June 4, 2009 in Cairo, Egypt.

I was fortunate to be among the audience that day and I can tell you that the atmosphere was electric. Never before had an American President embarked on such an ambitious plan to bridge the gap between America and the countries in the Middle East,” and proceeded to quote the President. “What the President articulated in Cairo is something that our Embassies around the region endeavor to put into practice every day.

At times this work can be quite challenging as many peoples’ views of America are influenced heavily by movies and TV shows or by media that distorts the image of the U.S. So, working overseas, our Embassies, and particularly our Public Affairs Sections, seek to offer a more realistic picture of the American people,” stressed Tueller. “Facilitating exchanges and face-to-face interactions between individuals is the bread and butter of our public diplomacy work.

Our Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs works around the clock to maintain a wide range of high-quality exchanges between youth, students, educators, artists, athletes, and emerging leaders in the United States and more than 160 countries,” he noted. Finally he spoke about the future of cultural diplomacy and the role of technology in helping reach even more people. “The importance of social media and connective technology is to help us reach local communities that we previously did not engage with directly.

Listening to local communities is a key element of successful cultural diplomacy. Kuwait has the highest levels of social media usage compared with other countries in the region, in spite of its small population. Kuwaitis are more active than ever on social media like Twitter and Instagram,” concluded Tueller

By Nawara Fattahova, Kuwait Times Staff

A great dream continues...

To me, President Obama's speech [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/06/us/politics/06-obama-election-night-speech.html] was a message about the importance of shared -- national -- identity. It was about living together through the good times and increasingly tough times. You could forgive him the moments of triumphalism as efforts to encourage and praise the citizens. I am a little less worried this morning, even though our process of "self"-government is harder and harder because of all the problems we face. Change can be good, but with all of these problems and all the uncertainty, good change needs to be sustainable. Sustainability means we work through the problems together, and it's going to take more than four more years. That's why we need to stick together and show each other our shared commitment. I can't imagine another way.

This 'Jersey Girl is inspired...

I'm so relieved that my parents have arrived home safely, to a re-electrified house and neighborhood, and I am so inspired by our local poet, who has spent days singing on the campaign trail for love of country...

BRUCE’S SPEECH FROM MADISON, WI

Let me begin with a shout out to all of our neighbors in the Northeast who are reeling from Hurricane Sandy and its immense impact. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

So, it’s good to be here with you today–and it will be great to feel the power of your votes and voices tomorrow.

I’m here today for Wisconsin, America, and for President Obama. For the last 30 years I’ve been writing in my music about the distance between the American dream and American reality. I’ve seen it from inside and outside: as a blue collar kid from a working class home in New Jersey–where my parents struggled, often unsuccessfully–to make ends meet–to my adult life, visiting the 9th Ward in New Orleans after Katrina, or meeting folks from food pantries from all around the United States, who work daily to help our struggling citizens through the hard times we’ve been suffering

The American Dream and an American Reality: Our vote tomorrow is the one undeniable way we get to determine the distance in that equation. Tomorrow, we get a personal hand in shaping the kind of America we want our kids to grow up in.

I’m a husband and a dad, my lovely wife Patti is here with me. We’ve got three kids growing up and on their way out into the world, I’m 63 (Patti is much younger)… but we have both lived through some galvanizing moments in American history: the Civil Rights struggle, the Peace Movement, the Woman’s Movement, we played in East Berlin one year before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and we were with Amnesty International a year before the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid. These were days when you could feel the winds of change moving and the world shifting beneath your feet.

And… we both remember another galvanizing moment, the night that President Obama was elected.

It was an unbelievable evening, when the hope of your heart felt fulfilled, when you could feel the locked doors of the past being blown open to new and previously unimaginable possibilities– to fresh Hope and Change.

Today we have another battle. Now we are charged with the hard daily struggle to make those possibilities, those changes real and enduring in a world that challenges your hopefulness, a world that is often brutally resistant to change. We’ve lived through that struggle over these past four years when the forces of opposition have been tireless.

I stood with President Obama four years ago and I’m proud to be standing with him today. Because…

I’m thankful for the historic advances in healthcare.

I’m thankful for a more regulated Wall Street that will begin to protect our citizens from the blind greed of those who over reach.

My father worked on a Ford assembly line when I was a child and I’m thankful that we have a President that had faith in the American automobile industry and that General Motors is today making cars. What else would I write about.

I’m thankful that we have a decisive President working hard to keep America safe… and I’m appreciative of the fact that, as promised, he has ended the war in Iraq and is bringing the war in Afghanistan to a close.

I’m here today because I’m concerned about Women’s Rights and health issues both at home and around the World. I don’t have to tell you about the dangers to Roe versus Wade under our opponents policies.

I’m also troubled by thirty years of an increasing disparity in wealth between our best off citizens and everyday Americans. That is a disparity that threatens to divide us into two distinct and separate nations. We have to be better than that.

Finally I’m here today because I’ve lived long enough to know that the future is rarely a tide rushing in. Its often a slow march, inch by inch, day after long day. We are in the midst of one of those long days right now. I believe that President Obama feels those long days in his bones for all 100 per cent of us. He will live those days with us.

President Obama ran last time as a man of hope and change. You hear a lot of talk about how things are different now. Things aren’t any different–they’re just realer. Its crunch time. The President’s job, our job–yours and mine– whether your Republican, Democrat, Independent, rich, poor, black, brown, white, gay, straight, soldier, civilian–is to keep that hope alive, to combat cynicism and apathy, and to believe in our power, to change our lives and the world we live in. So, lets go to work tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.. Lets re-elect President Barack Obama to carry our standard forward towards the America that awaits us.

accessed 11/6/12 from http://brucespringsteen.net/

Mother Nature Strikes Back...

This past week has been a trying one for most people along the Northeast seaboard, and to the west, in West Virginia. Hurricane-Post Tropical Storm-Sandy has changed the lives of thousands. Over eight million lost electricity and phone service. It hurts. Home has changed. Thank goodness for talented artists to help us make sense of our situation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BiWZ7w_vhM

More -- more credible -- news resources

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/10/20121019124036610672.html
Al-Jazeera English is blogging by the minute about the blast. Watch the video if you don't want to/have time to read the story.

This and other links are available at one of the best blogs on Lebanon: http://qifanabki.com/2012/10/19/bomb-hits-achrafieh-updates-commentary/

Considering the source, but staying abreast, and still dreaming about peace...

Given yesterday's horrific news about the bombing in Beirut, many who are tied to Lebanon are glued especially hard to online and satellite reporting. Here is the first story I read this morning.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/10/20/lebanon-protest-bombing-general/1645983/

Protesters block roads in Lebanon after car bomb

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(Photo: Hussein Malla, AP)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Friday's explosion in Beirut's mainly Christian Achrafieh neighborhood wounded dozens and killed 8
• Casualties included the head of the intelligence division of Lebanon's domestic security forces
• Lebanon's government declared a national day of mourning Saturday for the victims

5:57AM EDT October 20. 2012 -

BEIRUT (AP) — Protesters burned tires and set up roadblocks around Lebanon on Saturday in a sign of boiling anger over a massive car bomb that killed a top security official and seven other people a day earlier — a devastating attack that threatened to bring Syria's civil war to Lebanon.

The Lebanese Cabinet held an emergency meeting Saturday as the country's opposition called for Prime Minister Najib Mikati to resign. The state-run National News Agency said security commanders would attend the meeting to discuss how to keep the peace.

The government declared a national day of mourning for the victims, who included Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, head of the intelligence division of Lebanon's domestic security forces. Dozens were wounded in Friday's blast in Beirut's mainly Christian Achrafieh neighborhood.

Many observers said the attack appeared to have links to the Syrian civil war, which has been raging for 19 months. Al-Hassan, 47, headed an investigation over the summer that led to the arrest of former Information Minister Michel Samaha, one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's most loyal allies in Lebanon.

Samaha, who is in custody, is accused of plotting a campaign of bombings and assassinations to spread sectarian violence in Lebanon at Syria's behest. Also indicted in the August sweep was Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, one of Assad's highest aides.

Al-Hassan also played a role in the investigation of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri with a massive truck bomb. A U.N.-backed tribunal has indicted four members of militant group Hezbollah, which along with its allies, now holds a majority in Lebanon's Cabinet. Hezbollah denies involvement in Hariri's killing and has refused to extradite the suspects.

Al-Hassan's department also had a role in breaking up several Israeli spy rings inside Lebanon over the past few years, Lebanese officials said.

Lebanon's fractious politics are closely entwined with Syria's. The countries share a web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries, often causing events on one side of the border to echo on the other. Lebanon's opposition is an anti-Syrian bloc, while the prime minister and much of the government are pro-Syrian.

The civil war in Syria has laid bare Lebanon's sectarian tensions as well.

Many of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims have backed Syria's mainly Sunni rebels, while Shiite Muslims have tended to back Assad. Al-Hassan was a Sunni whose stances were widely seen to oppose Syria and Shiite Hezbollah, the country's most powerful ally in Lebanon.

Lebanon's top Sunni cleric, Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, condemned the assassination, calling it a "criminal explosion that targets Lebanon and its people." He called for self-restraint saying that "the criminal will get his punishment sooner or later."

Police and army troops sealed off the site of Friday's blast as military intelligence agents investigated what was the deadliest bombing in Beirut in four years.

Sharbal Abdo, a Beirut resident who lives down the block from where the car bomb detonated, on Saturday brought his six-year-old son Chris and 12-year-old daughter Jane to see what happened the day before. They were both at school when the blast ripped through the area.

"They were very afraid yesterday, and cried a lot late into the night," Abdo said. "Today I decided to bring them here and show what happened. They need to face this situation. It may be their future."

On Friday, protesters in mostly Sunni areas closed roads with burning tires and rocks in Beirut, the southern city of Sidon, the northern city of Tripoli and several towns in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The highway linking central Beirut with the city's international airport was closed, as well as the highway that links the capital with Syria, the officials said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Rafik Khoury, editor of the independent Al-Anwar daily, said the assassination was an attempt to draw Lebanon into the conflict in Syria, which has been the most serious threat to the Assad family's 40-year dynasty.

"The side that carried the assassination knows the reactions and dangerous repercussions and is betting that it will happen. Strife is wanted in Lebanon," Khoury wrote.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Considering the source -- a mainstream U.S. service that tends to over-simplify complex situations -- it sums up the history fairly well. I'll post more stories as the hours and days pass. It's really concerning, but a good idea, that the roads from Beirut to the airport and to Damascus are shut down. I keep remembering that the majority of Lebanese do not want another war in their country, but I also know how many probably feel it's the only way to make peaceful progress. Maybe Robert Frost's sentiment that the best way out is often through (for example, search on "through" at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Servant_to_Servants) sums up how they feel. But I feel that enough peace-oriented change has occurred since the "end" of the civil war in 1990/1991 that the Lebanese and international communities can spare the country from another war. Maybe all the civil society-government efforts in conflict mediation (peace in Ireland, the Balkans) and practitioner work in collaborative dialogue and peace-building projects will embolden political leaders to have the will to prevent another war in Lebanon. Maybe this situation will embolden the U.S. government to push for a Palestinian state, the absence of which is one of the main reasons Hizbullah is so strong in Lebanon.