USC Center on Public Diplomacy | John Brown's PD Review

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Published: MAR 3, 2005 - 6:05AM PDT

John Brown's Public Diplomacy Review
John Brown aggregates all the most recent public diplomacy related news, including current issues in U.S. foreign policy, international broadcasting and media, propaganda, cultural diplomacy, educational exchanges, anti-Americanism, and the reception of American popular culture abroad.

MARCH 3, 2005 EXCHANGES SUPPLEMENT
by Jennifer Brigham

C) WEEKLY EXCHANGES SUPPLEMENT
(A weekly supplement to John Brown’s Public Diplomacy Press Review.)

The following articles are related to educational and cultural exchange programs. Specific topics in this supplement include USG-funded exchange programs (e.g., Fulbright scholarships, Ron Brown Fellowship, International Visitors) as well as issues relating to student visas, study abroad, and NGOs involved in exchanges. The articles are aggregated weekly by MS. JENNIFER BRIGHAM, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

A) USG–FUNDED EXCHANGE PROGRAMS (SCROLL DOWN TO SECTION B FOR OTHER TOPICS)

1. POLISH AND AMERICAN SCHOLARS GATHER IN WARSAW TO ANALYZE HOW MEMORIES ABOUT RACE AND NATIONALISM CAN BE DISTORTED, FORGOTTEN (Ascribe Newswire - Feb 23, 2005): ROCHESTER, N.Y. The American Studies Center at Warsaw University and the University of Rochester will address some of the most intractable issues that strain relations among people - race, nationalism and how they’re remembered - during two days of discussions in Warsaw, Poland, on March 7 and 8. Scholars from both universities and other American and Polish institutions will speak on the cross-cultural theme of “Comparative Perspectives on Race, Nationalism and the Politics of Memory: Poland and the United States.” (Funds from the U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program are supporting the conference and two years of academic collaborations between the University of Rochester and Warsaw University.) http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050223.130135&time=13%2027%20PST&year=2005&public=1

2. CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING STUDY BY CU-BOULDER SOCIOLOGIST REVEALS ... (AScribe - Feb 28, 2005): “People often think that all child sex traffickers kidnap their victims, but in many cases the children end up funneled into the system by their own families because of extreme poverty,” according to assistant Professor Ann Janette Rosga. “Sometimes the children leave home voluntarily because of abuse or other harmful conditions.” Fulbright scholar, Rosga oversaw all aspects of a study that resulted in the report “Research on Child Trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” commissioned and published in October by UNICEF and Save The Children Norway. http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050228.095052&time=10%2035%20PST&year=2005&public=0

3. AMERICAN, SRI LANKAN ARCHITECTS JOIN FORCES TO REBUILD TSUNAMI ... KIRINDA, SRI LANKA (AP) (China Post, Taiwan - Feb 23, 2005):...A group of architects has come to Kirinda with a plan to redraw it in a way that they hope will improve their lives and become a model for rebuilding tsunami battered communities in this island nation, where at least 31,000 people were killed. The group’s plan is to rebuild Kirinda on a 7 hectare (17.5-acre) patch of hinterland owned mostly by the government. It includes a school, health clinic, marketplace, public gathering places and semidetached houses linked with a road that leads to a rebuilt harbor, Shah said. (Samir Shah, 29, from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, an architect with the nonprofit group Architecture for Humanity which is involved in formulating plans to rebuild Kirinda, was studying the building traditions of Sri Lanka on a Fulbright grant when the tsunami struck.)
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=26566

4. FESTIVAL CELEBRATES ALL CULTURES - ANDREA J. COOK (Rapid City Journal, SD - Feb 25, 2005): BOX ELDER - Students sampled thin crepes, spicy chicken gumbo, Indian tacos and crispy plantains while sipping Japanese green tea at Douglas High School’s Multi-Cultural Festival this week. Rosetter Freeman, who teaches social studies at Douglas, started the festival four years ago after a trip to Japan sponsored by the Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program. Because Douglas has a small population of African American students, Freeman, who is black, decided that celebrating all cultures in February would have more significance than focusing on Black History Month. http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2005/02/26/news/local/news04.txt

5. HELPING OTHERS - JUDITH WHITE (The Saratogian, NY - Feb 25): SARATOGA SPRINGS “I want to help, and I have no skills other than music,” confessed Michael Limoli, explaining why he is performing a clarinet recital on Sunday afternoon to benefit victims of the tsunami. “It was such a shattering event, and I thought perhaps I could use my music to raise some money for those people who suffered so much,” he said, remarking that he hadn’t noticed much response to the crisis from the classical music community… (Limoli earned both undergraduate and doctorate degrees in clarinet performance from Indiana University, and was a Fulbright scholar in music, earning a diploma from Salzburg’s Mozarteum.) http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1169&dept_id=17776&newsid=14033576&PAG=461&rfi=9

6. TRIBAL CUSTOMS MEET MODERN WAYS - GEORGIA TASKER (Bradenton Herald, FL, Feb. 27, 2005): SEPIK RIVER, Papua New Guinea - The wildest contradictions are everywhere: A guard at one of the world’s top wilderness lodges protects the clientele with bow and arrow; a Catholic altar seems tentative and lost inside a vast and dark animist spirit house decorated with carvings of long-worshiped ancestors; the raised scars forming a crocodile pattern that have been cut into a young man’s chest and back disappear into his low-slung blue jeans… (Contemporary anthropologist Nancy Sullivan went to Papua New Guinea as a tourist, then returned to collaborate on a video movie called Stolen Moments. She traveled back and forth between the States and New Guinea working on her doctorate, then settled on the island for good with a Fulbright scholarship.) http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/living/travel/10978015.htm

7. MAIZE AND GRACE: PROFESSOR’S AFRICAN FINDINGS SHOW CONTINENT IN AGRICULTURAL TURMOIL -ABIGAIL KLINGBEIL (B.U. Bridge, MA - Feb 24, 2005): James McCann’s new book, Maize and Grace: Africa’s Encounter with a New World Crop 1500–2000explores how maize has emerged as a major food crop throughout eastern and southern Africa in recent decades. It also poses tough questions about maize’s impact on the continent, including its link to increased incidences of malaria. (McCann is fluent in Amharic, Ethiopia’s national language, and he received a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship to conduct fieldwork on the phenomena in the Burie district.) http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2005/02-25/mccann.html

8. STUDENT FULBRIGHT RECIPIENTS TEACHING, CONDUCTING RESEARCH…- PATRICIA DONOVAN (University at Buffalo Reporter, NY - Feb 24, 2005): Two graduate students and a graduating senior at UB received teaching assistantships for 2005 from the J. William Fulbright Foundation Student Program and are teaching English and American culture in universities, high schools and junior high schools in Europe and Asia. http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol36/vol36n23/articles/StudentFulbrights.html

9. FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR TO STUDY MAORI—ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY (Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand - Feb 24, 2005): Fulbright Scholar to study Maori self-representation in the 1950s Professor Chadwick Allen, Associate Professor of English in the Department of English at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, has been awarded the 2005 Fulbright scholarship. Professor Allen’s research project, entitled An indigenous 1950s: self-representation and the seeds of renaissance, will focus on Maori self-representation during the 1950s. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0502/S00089.htm

B) OTHER NEWS ON EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE ISSUES

10. BEYOND THE WORDS AT BEIJING + 10: HOW U.N. POLICY FALLS SHORT OF WOMEN’S BEST INTERESTS - JENNIFER A. MARSHALL, MELISSA G. PARDUE, AND GRACE V. SMITH (Heritage.org, DC - Feb 28, 2005): This year, the U.N. observes the 10th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration (Beijing + 10), with special attention during the annual meetings of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (February 28– March 11, 2005). The 2005 anniversary of the Beijing Conference on Women provides an opportunity to unite countries in solidarity to improve the lives of women through improved education, access to health care, economic empowerment, and freedom from exploitation. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=%22educational+exchanges%22

11. THE KNOXVILLE ROTARY CLUB CELEBRATED THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION’S 100TH BIRTHDAY ON WEDNESDAY (Knoxville Journal Express, IA - Feb 28, 2005): Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations and helps build goodwill and peace in the world,” according to its Web site. The foundation takes in more than $80 million annually to support humanitarian grants and educational programs to promote international understanding today. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14052387&BRD=1463&PAG=461&dept_id=180222&rfi=6

12. ASSEMBLY MAY CANCEL FESTIVITIES FOR KOREA-JAPAN FRIENDSHIP YEAR - SEO DONG-SHIN (Korea Times, South Korea - Feb 28, 2005): Many events are planned for this year as part of celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo. The National Assembly is considering canceling some of the festivities planned as part of celebrations for the “Year of Korea-Japan Friendship,” a lawmaker said. “There’s no need for a friendship year when an ambassador representing a country that distorts history and claims another nation’s territory makes thoughtless remarks,” Rep. Lee Mi-kyung of the ruling Uri Party said. http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200502/kt2005022820283310160.htm

13. MCCAIN CALLS FOR PERMANENT AFGHAN BASES - STEPHEN GRAHAM, The Associated Press (Washington Post - Feb 23, 2005): Arizona Senator John McCain, part of a five-member Senate delegation that met President Hamid Karzai at his palace in the Afghan capital, said he was committed to a “strategic partnership that we believe must endure for many, many years.” Asked by reporters what such a partnership would entail, he identified “economic assistance, technical assistance, military partnership including - and this is a personal view - joint military permanent bases and also cultural exchanges.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44744-2005Feb22.html

14. RUSSIAN CONSUL PRAISES CULTURAL ACTIVISTS: VLADIMIR VOLNOV NOTES THE EFFORTS OF THE VALERY P. CHKALOV CULTURAL EXCHANGE COMMITTEE IN VANCOUVER - ALLAN BRETTMAN (OregonLive.com, OR - Feb 28, 2005): VANCOUVER - As consul general for the Russian Federation’s consular office in Seattle, Vladimir I. Volnov serves 11 states stretching from Washington to Wisconsin. In Vancouver, in a speech to about 50 people at the Clark County Public Service Center, most of Volnov’s speech focused on the perception that diplomatic relations are faltering between the Russian Federation and the United States. Since its creation in 1999, the Valery P. Chkalov Cultural Exchange Committee of Vancouver has sponsored frequent programs on Russian and U.S. affairs. http://www.oregonlive.com/metronorth/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_north_news/1109595565200751.xml

15. PEACE CORPS. VOLUNTEER RETURNS FROM AFRICA - JASON F. SMITH (Phoenixville News, PA - Feb 28, 2005): MONT CLARE - Chantal Pasquarello, 24, of Mont Clare, has a fresh perspective after completing her Peace Corps duty in Togo. Pasquarello said the Peace Corps is currently active in about 80 countries, and a lot of people don’t understand that the U.S. government funds USAID, and USAID funds the Peace Corps. It’s actually called the United States Peace Corps,” said Pasquarello. “Each country has a director. The ‘main hub’ is in Washington, D.C., and the programs are different in each country.”
http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14053836&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=6

16. NUMBER OF AU PAIRS INCREASES SHARPLY -SUE SHELLENBARGER -THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (AZ Central.com, AZ - Feb 28, 2005): A quiet change last year in the State Department’s rules on au pairs, the foreign child-care workers who come to the U.S. under a cultural-exchange program, allows them to stay longer. That is contributing to a 37 percent increase in the number of au pairs residing here, to 15,297 in 2004 from 11,171 in 2003. Under a nationwide pilot program through 2007, au pairs are allowed to stay as long as two years with host families, up from one year. The total cash cost of an au pair is about $13,000 to $14,000 a year. http://www.azcentral.com/families/articles/0228fam_aupair.html