Maz Jobrani (an Iranian comedian) and Elon Gold (an Israeli comedian) have started an innovative humorous appeal for peace in the mideast, called Give peace a dance.
What would you do for peace?
Post your own dance for peace on YouTube tagged with #GivePeaceaDance.
Preparatory Action on Culture in the EU External Relations
The Preparatory Action “Culture in EU External Relations” is an initiative funded by the European Union. It is implemented by the European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture, with the support of a Consortium of eight cultural institutes and organisations, which won an open call for tenders to this effect.
This Preparatory Action was initiated by the European Parliament following its Resolution on the cultural dimensions of the EU external action, which called for the development of a visible common EU strategy on culture in the EU external relations.
The preparatory action will run until mid-2014 and consists of the following stages:
Stage #1
a comprehensive mapping of existing resources, approaches and strategies regarding culture in external relations in Member States and in a number of EU partner countries;
Stage #2
a consultations process involving a wide variety of stakeholders from both the EU and third countries, which should contribute to identifying strategies and visions on the contribution of culture to the development of external relations as well as the positioning of different actors vis-à-vis this topic;
Stage #3
a final conference to be held mid-2014 to draw conclusions and recommendations for a strategic approach to mobilising the potential of culture in EU external relations.
In addition to the EU Member States, this preparatory action covers the following partner countries of the EU:
The purpose of the action is to facilitate and support an on-going process of research, exchange of knowledge and public debate about the role of culture in the EU’s external relations.
Furthermore, the ambition is to engage the broader civil society in the discussion by inviting online debate on this blog and on our social media platforms. Everybody is invited to join the discussion!
The members of the consortium in charge of implementing this action are convinced that culture can play a decisive role in the development of external relations and are committed to bringing new knowledge and research to the attention of policy-makers on a national, European and international level.
List of members of the consortium:
The Goethe Institut, Brussels
BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels
The British Council, Brussels
The Danish Cultural Institute, Brussels
ECF European Cultural Foundation
IFA Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen
The Institut français, Paris
KEA European Affairs
Independent experts:
Prof. Yudhishthir Raj Isar (Team Leader/Scientific Manager)
Rod Fisher
Damien Helly
Associated partner:
EUNIC Global
For the second year , Gonzaga University‘s Master’s Program in Communication and Leadership Studies is offering a graduate course in Derry, Northern Ireland to MA and PhD students. January 2, 2014-Januray 12, 2014 Peacebuilding through Dialogue in Northern Ireland.
Program Overview:
This hybrid on-line and study abroad program, sponsored by the Master’s Program in Communication and Leadership Studies provides a unique opportunity for students to develop understanding and the skills necessary for fostering peacebuilding and storytelling. With pre and post online components as well as eight days of residency in Derry, Northern Ireland, and a day excursion to Belfast, Northern, Ireland. Additionally there is a free travel day to the Northcoast of Ireland. The aim of this course is to introduce concepts from the field of communication that enable an understanding of how local peacebuilding can build bridges across conflicting groups in deeply divided societies. Communication and dialogue are closely intertwined and together act at the heart of establishing shared space and creating a common future. It is in this shared space that the process of peace has begun to take shape. However as Bakhtin (1981) insists, “each word tastes of the context and contexts in which it has lived its socially charged life” (p.293).
The course will reflect on the causes and history of The Troubles (1969-1998) as well as the tortuous peace process following the Belfast Agreement in 1998. Based on that agreement, Northern Ireland’s devolved government finally became reality in 2008. Local peacebuilding through dialogue is central to understanding how peace has been maintained.
Dialogue requires responsiveness which is made possible by qualities of thought and talk allowing transformation to take place: transformation in how people understand the self, the other, and the societies they inhabit. These qualities of thought and talk include a willingness to risk change in one’s own perspective and a commitment to embracing and struggling with others whose worldviews may be different from and threatening to one’s own.
In addition, working with former combatant’s of these troubles, students will complete a profile writing component of using storytelling and photography to tell the story of a local community member for our Faces and Voices of Derry Project.
Course Objectives:
Given full participation in the course, the student will be able to:
Program Highlights:
Additional Information: See an archive of the student work and reflections in the program.
Health Communication: Building Professional Skills
The Clinical Communication Collaborative (CCC) is proud to announce the release of its first iOS APP for clinicians! Now you can have quick and ready access to theory-driven and evidence-based communication tools that are useful in difficult conversations. Endorsed by the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium and renowned palliative care physician Diane Meier, this APP provides easy-to-deliver responses when communicating in moments of tension, sorrow, fear, anxiety, awkwardness, and hesitancy. Health Communication guides you to provide compassionate and culturally sensitive care to serious and critically-ill patients and their families.
Features:
* Over 100 different communication strategies
* Search by scenarios
* No need for Internet access
CCC also offers free teaching materials on this Website to advance a patient-centered training program called COMFORT. Based on years of clinical research, COMFORT offers healthcare professionals extensive materials – PowerPoint presentations, knowledge assessments, example cases and standardized patient assessment forms – designed to teach communication strategies for patient-centered palliative care.
This iOS app has been designed for healthcare clinicians and students. Built from the COMFORT communication curriculum, an acronym that stands for the seven basic principles of palliative care communication, Drs. Elaine Wittenberg-Lyles (University of Kentucky), Joy Goldsmith (University of Memphis), and Sandra Ragan (University of Oklahoma) have translated health communication theory and research into the first ever
communication studies driven tool to assist clinicians with difficult conversations. Feel free to download the APP as a discussion tool for coursework in health communication, end-of-life care, communication and technology and the like – or better yet, pass it on to a clinician who may be teaching clinical communication.
CCC advances palliative care by fostering clinical communication practices for healthcare
professionals, including nurses, physicians, social workers, chaplains, students, and other members of interprofessional healthcare teams.
Cultural diplomacy all about blending cultures: ICCR DG
Dhrupad music incorporated into a choreographed Mohiniyattam work, a tandem of classical ballet, Kathak and Flamenco or even sharing of stage space by Qawali troupes from Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Sounds unique?
Well, that’s the new definition of ‘cultural diplomacy’ according to Suresh K Goel, Director General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
“It is not mandatory that the audience in India will only enjoy classical art forms or the new generation will only enjoy contemporary forms, we need to experiment, exchange and then enjoy,” Goel told the Press Trust of India in an interview.
The ICCR, he says, is undertaking efforts to ensure that various art forms in India reach audiences worldwide while people within India get opportunities to witness and enjoy the different art forms across the world.
“The latest programme we conducted was a unique musical arrangement with Los Angeles-based Grammy nominee Donna Summer who has also created music for Whitney Houston,” says Goel.
Another recent programme by the cultural body featured work by musician Mac Quayle who seamlessly brought together a unique blend of world music with Kerala rhythms, Dhrupad and Rabindra sangeet.
“This was perhaps for the first time Dhrupad has been incorporated into a Mohiniyattam choreographic work. So that’s how we blend different art forms and hence different cultures,” Goel elaborates.
ICCR does not just aim to facilitate or ensure Indian cultural penetration into other countries but also aims to create a dialogue and hence facilitate exchange of cultures.
Originally posted by: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/cultural-diplomacy-all-about-blending-cultures-iccr-dg-113072400354_1.html
An interesting approach to applied intercultural dialogue is a program called the Human Library. Here’s the basic description from the organization’s website:
“The Human Library is an innovative method designed to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and encourage understanding.The main characteristics of the project are to be found in its simplicity and positive approach. In its initial form the Human Library is a mobile library set up as a space for dialogue and interaction. Visitors to a Human Library are given the opportunity to speak informally with “people on loan”; this latter group being extremely varied in age, sex and cultural background. The Human Library enables groups to break stereotypes by challenging the most common prejudices in a positive and humorous manner. It is a concrete, easily transferable and affordable way of promoting tolerance and understanding. It is a “keep it simple”, “no-nonsense” contribution to social cohesion in multicultural societies.”
Some basics of the group’s history (the complete story can be found here):
It started in Denmark in 2000, developed by an NGO, Stop the Violence, based in Copenhagen. Supported by the Council of Europe, and public libraries around the world, the Human Library has spread rapidly. Australia is the first country to establish a permanent Human Library; and an Australian prepared an academic study of the project. In 2013 Canada became the first country to create a National Human Library Day. Programs around the world have received a variety of awards.
The U.S. could learn from Scandinavia
By Robert Shuter
[Published Sept. 15, 2012 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and reprinted with permission of the author]
The United States is plagued by systemic and exploding inequalities in wealth, education, housing, employment and health care, all fueled by rampant vertical individualism. This vertical perspective of people and performance pervades American life and thought. Consider the phrase ” the best and the brightest,” the accolade du jour in America.
A recent Google search uncovered more than 44 million references to “the best and the brightest” in U.S. culture, including the best and brightest schools, movies, companies, presidents, leaders, politicians, hospitals, physicians, scientists, pharmacists, therapists, chefs, teachers – even dogs! The phrase captures the society’s vertical individualism, where performance in all sectors of U.S. culture is ranked on a hierarchy from best to worst, brightest to dimmest.
Even the discourse of Americans reveals their vertical individualism. For example, the language of praise and criticism, which plays a role in all societies, has a distinctly American twist because of the assortment of superlatives used and their vertical arrangement. Americans are inclined to use superlatives such as “awesome,” “outstanding,” “wonderful,” “tremendous,” “delightful” and “great” to describe people, behavior or objects. They are just as apt to use the opposites of these words: “terrible,” “disgusting,” “garbage,” “loser” and “junk” – to name a few. The U.S. language of praise and criticism travels vertically along an emotional register, from highs to lows.
Unlike the U.S., Sweden, Denmark and Norway are founded on horizontal individualism, which they call the Law of Jante, and it emphasizes equality, community and modesty, resulting in sky-high taxes. Their brand of individualism has made Scandinavia among the most economically successful and egalitarian societies, leaders in workforce employment, gender equality, democratic institutions, quality of life, educational achievement, environmental stewardship and digital access, as reported by 2011 World Economic Forum.
Coined by Aksel Sandemose, a Norwegian author, the Law of Jante affects all aspects of Scandinavian life, from social relationships to business communication. At work, for example, managers in Scandinavia are considered “first among equals” and communicate on an egalitarian basis with employees, who are neither reticent nor intimidated by them. Scandinavian praise and criticism – which tends to be emotionally flat, bereft of superlatives and modest – are carefully crafted so as not to inflate and diminish egos or create false expectations.
The inherent conflict between the Law of Jante and the best and the brightest – two brands of individualism – is captured in a story that was told to me by a Norwegian businessman, who had been living with his 12-year-old daughter and wife in the U.S. for several years and decided, quite suddenly, to return to Norway. What finally convinced him and his wife to depart the U.S. was their daughter’s announcement that she was an “outstanding” writer. When they asked her how she knew this, she said, “My teacher told me so.” They both instantly realized it was time to return to Norway.
Scandinavians who hear this story quickly understand the parents’ decision, while Americans are left dumbfounded by the narrative. They can’t understand why this type of praise, so common and so desirable in the U.S., would cause anyone to leave the country. From a Norwegian perspective, praise such as this violates the essence of the Law of Jante by seriously inflating their daughter’s ego, which, in the parents’ view, potentially hinders her re-entry to Norwegian society. Before she became too egocentric, too American in their eyes, the parents decided it was time to leave.
So what’s to be learned from these different and conflicting brands of individualism? In my view, what the world needs is less American vertical individualism and more equality, community and modesty at home, work, in government and international affairs – a Jante world. Scandinavia’s unique brand of horizontal individualism has the potential to solve many of the world’s most intractable vertical problems, from income and gender inequalities to disparities in education and employment. It’s time the world learned the secret of Scandinavian success.
Robert Shuter is professor of communication studies at Marquette University, Diederich College of Communication and director of the Center for Intercultural New Media Research. He is the author of “Understanding Misunderstandings” and “Communicating in Multinational Organizations.”
Soliya is an entrepreneurial non-profit organization with offices in New York and Cairo dedicated to improving relations between Western & predominantly Muslim societies by combining best practices from conflict resolution and cross-cultural education with innovative application of new communication and media technologies.
Since its founding in 2002, Soliya has developed a groundbreaking online cross-cultural education program, the Connect Program, that has been integrated into curriculum at over 80 universities in 25 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, Europe & North America. In 2009, Soliya launched a new initiative called The Network, where young adults use the latest in media and communication technologies to expose people in the general public to alternative perspectives and enable them to interact in a constructive, respectful way about the issues currently dividing Western & predominantly Muslim societies. Thousands of young adults from extraordinarily diverse backgrounds have engaged in intensive facilitated dialogue and/or received extensive online training in facilitation or media production through Soliya’s programs resulting in a vibrant and active global volunteer community.
Exchange 2.0 is the primary way we are doing that, based on the belief that, in the 21st Century, it should become the norm for students to have a profound cross-cultural experience as part of their education, whether it is in person or online. We have established an Exchange 2.0 Coalition with key partners to collaboratively make that vision a reality.
The Connect Program is our flagship program that demonstrates the potential of Exchange 2.0. It is an online cross-cultural education program that has been implemented in over 100 universities in 27 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Europe and North America since 2003.
To provide ongoing engagement opportunities to alumni from these programs and to ensure we have dependable pool of high-quality facilitators for them, we also offer Advanced Training programs.
Finally, Civil Media, is the term we use to describe a new strategic model we are developing, which empowers the emerging community of young adults from our programs to amplify voices from civil society that are not commonly heard and catalyze constructive and respectful discourse across divisions about important socio-political issues.
[adapted from the Soliya website]
Two brothers from the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed and Peyman Parham Al Awadhi, are exploring the globe in a new social TV show, Peeta Planet. Their unscripted travels are spurred by online conversations and their twitter followers, and then broadcast on Dubai One. The first show started in April 2013, and they go somewhere new every week; at this writing, they have been to Singapore, Istanbul, Dublin, Seoul, and Tokyo. They are reinventing both travel and television for the social media generation, and in the process demonstrating a new way to begin intercultural dialogues.
Originally, they made schwarma, then that turned into a restaurant named Wild Peeta – with input from many on social media who made suggestions about everything from menu choices to decor. When they needed a vacation, they asked their social media followers for ideas. That went so well, they ended up with a television show of further travels. They connect with fans through Google Plus, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter. Everything they do in each episode, from where they travel to the food they eat and the people they meet, is based on suggestions from their followers. They’re calling their new idea “social travel.” Not only do they get to meet people they’ve only corresponded with, but they also then help their connections meet one another, as when they introduced an app developer in Turkey to a programmer in Ireland. They help break down stereotypes with every trip they take.
“VOICE is a global bi-monthly magazine of the youth, for the youth and by the youth. It is an unbiased untainted perspective of the youth across the world. With 1.2 billion young faces comprising the global “youth bulge”, a platform to give voice to their thoughts and concerns is more than what is needed. VOICE aims to create awareness and engage young people in exploring global issues leading to a search for possible solutions. Through VOICE, the youth can discuss issues and express ideas for a better and promising future.”
Founding partners: Global Dialogue Foundation and Sage Foundation.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 