Tag Archives: democracy

Clinton on Bahrain / Hip-Hop in Tajikistan / Civil Society and Democracy

Posted on by

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urges restraint in Bahrain. Egyptian Americans are hopeful about the future of their homeland. This March, the Kennedy Center will host Maximum India. The United States and China are growing relations through a new garden. American hip-hop dancers bring the beat to Tajikistan. And finally, what is civil society? This photo gallery has some answers.

U.S. Urges Restraint in Bahrain
(mobile version)
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton telephoned Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa to express U.S. concerns over violence by Bahraini security forces against anti-government protesters. Clinton says she had telephoned the foreign minister earlier in the day and “emphasized how important it was” that the Friday prayers and the funerals of the victims that will be held February 18 “not be marred by violence.”

Egyptians Americans are Hopeful
(mobile version)
Egyptian Americans, proud of the victory of pro-democracy protesters in Egypt, are looking to the future of their homeland with a mix of optimism, hope and a dash of realism.

Maximum India
(mobile version)
This March, the Kennedy Center in Washington will host the Maximum India festival, which will include performances, events and exhibitions by 500 artists in cooperation with the Indian Council for Cultural Resources. Maximum India marks the culmination of the Kennedy Center’s five-year exploration of the arts and cultures of the peoples along the legendary Silk Road, including Japan, China and the Middle East.

U.S., China Grow as Partners
(mobile version)
The United States and China have committed to construction of a classical Chinese garden at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington. “Today’s signing ceremony illustrates the commitment our two countries have to horticulture, science and the arts,” says Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a ceremony with China’s ambassador to the United States, Zhang Yesui.

Hip-Hop in Tajikistan 
(mobile version)
In 2010, the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe and the private cultural-exchange group American Voices arranged a series of dance workshops in Tajikistan led by two U.S. hip-hop dancers. The workshops highlighted the upbeat hip-hop sound that has had unexpectedly universal appeal worldwide, with a fast-growing fan base in Tajikistan.

Lech WalesaPhoto Gallery: Civil Society
(mobile version)
Civil society “is the conscience of our communities,” President Obama has said. Human progress, he said, has been shaped by individuals who can freely join forces and by nongovernmental organizations. But what is civil society, exactly? Why is it important? And what does it need to flourish? Explore this photo gallery about civil society around the world. In Poland, Lech Walesa, right, a shipyard electrician, was able to establish Solidarity, the Soviet bloc’s first independent trade union. At its height, the union had some 10 million members and was instrumental in the downfall of communism in the country.

#democracyis Twitter Contest

Posted on by

My friends at the Democracy Video Challenge want you to tell the world what democracy is – by tweeting it.

The rules are simple. Follow @demvidchallenge and tweet a statement using the hashtag #democracyis. The person with the most retweets wins a digital video camera.

What is democracy? Basing it off of some of my favorite previous blog entries, I could tweet “#democracyis persuading your friends to supply you with chocolate.” Or I could say “#democracyis the freedom to not exercise your right to vote.” So many options, but alas, I don’t think I am eligible to participate since my employer is one of the contest’s sponsors.

The contest continues through January 21. Go to twitter.com/demvidchallenge and get started!

Is Democracy a 21st Century System of Governance?

Posted on by

This question came to me from a Facebook friend. I’ve been asking readers lately to suggest ideas for future blog topics, and this one was suggested by Owen.

So I’m taking his challenge. Is democracy a 21st century system of governance? It’s an interesting question to ask when we still have about 90 percent of the century to go.
The 20th century ended with far more democracies than when it began. Of course, it also ended with far more countries, nations whose founders used the tenets of democracy to form and strengthen their young nations. But had you asked people in 1909, during a time when the word “communism” had yet to enter the mainstream, I’d wager most would not have anticipated the political developments of the coming decades.

Seems to me that while democracy has its flaws, it is a system of governance here to stay. In large part this is because it is a system that has mechanisms – like elections – that provide opportunities to correct these flaws. And yet, there are some leaders using the labels of democracy – like elections – to hide their nondemocratic behaviors.

So, Owen, this is a long-winded way of saying, “I don’t know.” Maybe someone else will weigh in with an answer?

“Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions”

Posted on by

Barack Obama

In his speech today, President Obama emphasized the importance of having strong democratic institutions. “Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions,” Obama said.

While democracy takes on different forms from nation to nation, one thing is clear, Obama said: “Governments that respect the will of their own people… are more prosperous, they are more stable and more successful than governments that do not.”

Democracy is more than holding elections, Obama said. “It’s also about what happens between elections.” Nations with strong institutions that respect independent judiciaries, police forces and press are key to democracy, “because that is what matters in people’s everyday lives,” Obama said.

If you’re interested in democratic issues, I recommend you check out America.gov’s blog, By The People.

Working together

Posted on by

Cairo University auditorium

In his speech at Cairo University, President Obama said that in today’s interconnected world, “any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail.” Instead, nations need to work in partnership so that our “progress must be shared.”
The president outlined seven issues “we must finally confront together.” Here is what they are and a brief comment the president made about each one:

1. Violent extremism: “America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam. … We reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women and children.”

2. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “If we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.”

3. Securing nuclear weapons: “This is not simply about America’s interests. It’s about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path.”

4. Democracy: “No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation by any other. That does not lessen my commitment, however, to governments that reflect the will of the people.”

5. Religious freedom: “Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it.”

6. Women’s rights: “Issues of women’s equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam … the struggle for women’s equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world.”

7. Economic development and opportunity: “There need not be contradictions between development and tradition.”

A summary and full transcript of the president’s speech is available on America.gov.

Five Reasons Why Blogging About Democracy Is Cool

Posted on by

Have you read America.gov‘s science blog, Science Planet? It’s one of my favorites. The author, Daniel Gorelick, is a scientist who is taking a year off from research to work at the State Department. I think he’s missing the lab, because on May 20 he published a list of five reasons why scientific research is cool.

So now I’m making my own list of five reasons why blogging about democracy is cool:

1. You are your own free press. Check out this map (PDF) from Freedom House that tracks press freedom throughout the world. You’ll notice that relatively few countries have completely free presses. But with the Internet, a large number of people have found an alternate outlet to express their views without censorship.

2. Surfing the web is your job. Any good blogger has to keep attune to the blogoshpere. Had I not been surfing the web looking to see what other democracy bloggers were up to, I would have missed all the online discussion on Vote Report India, which led to a great story about how the internet is helping people report on political events.

3. You get to talk about yourself. Some people are shy. Others, like myself, enjoy any excuse to talk about themselves. Turns out my life is quite a democratic exercise – I’ve never had to reach too hard to find examples of how my life has been shaped by democratic ideals and practices. In recent weeks I’ve talked about baking, about honeymooning, even about going to the doctor.

4. People hand you ideas. I can’t tell you how many articles or blog entries I have written thanks to ideas suggested by people who comment on the blogs I write for.

5. When you don’t have a good idea for a blog entry, you can just throw up a top five list!

Journalism: the source of modern democracy?

Posted on by

You probably thought it was the other way around, right? But former New York Times bureau chief Bill Kovach illustrated this point for visiting journalists at the State Department’s Foreign Press Center by looking back before the 17th century’s Age of Enlightenment transformed European society.

Back then most, as impoverished commoners, “had no place in the community except to keep their mouth shut and do their work,” Kovach said. “They had no information about how the community was run and how the people and institutions of power did their business because no one told them.”

Occasionally, word would trickle down of the monarch’s latest proclamation, a local religious leader would relay a few pieces of news, or a traveling troubadour would pass through singing about the happenings in a village hundreds of miles away.

But public opinion “is what democracy is based on,” Kovach says. And there was so little information back then that it was basically impossible to have a real opinion on your leaders or how you were being governed.

When people began compiling newsletters of information for their communities, they not only invented journalism, but for the first time they enabled others to have an opinion about anything, which increased the pressure to allow more to have a say in government.

For more on Kovach’s views on the media, see the article “Media Analyst Urges Revival of ‘Independent’ Journalism.”