http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/opinion/25pintak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

May 25, 2008
OP-CHART
Misreading the Arab Media

By LAWRENCE PINTAK, JEREMY GINGES and NICHOLAS FELTON

“ARABIC TV does not do our country justice,” President Bush complained in early 2006, calling it a purveyor of “propaganda” that “just isn’t right, it isn’t fair, and it doesn’t give people the impression of what we’re about.”

The president’s statement, along with the decision by the New York Stock Exchange to ban Al Jazeera’s reporters in 2003, is a prime example of how the Arab news media have been demonized since the 9/11 attacks. As a result, America has failed to make use of what is potentially one of its most powerful weapons in the war of ideas against terrorism.

For proof, in the last year we surveyed 601 journalists in 13 Arab countries in North Africa, the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula.

The results, to be published in The International Journal of Press/Politics in July, shatter many of the myths upon which American public diplomacy strategy has been based.

Rather than being the enemy, most Arab journalists are potential allies whose agenda broadly tracks the stated goals of United States Middle East policy and who can be a valuable conduit for explaining American policy to their audiences.

Many see themselves as agents of political and social change who believe it is their mission to reform the antidemocratic regimes they live under.

When asked to name the top 10 missions of Arab journalism, they cited:
political reform,
human rights,
poverty and
education as the most important issues facing the region,
trumping Palestinian statehood and
the war in Iraq.

Overwhelmingly, they wanted the clergy to stay out of politics. And, aside from the ever-present issue of Israel, they ranked “lack of political change” alongside American policy as the greatest threats to the Arab world.

Though many Arab journalists dislike the United States government, more than 60 percent say they have a favorable view of the American people. They just don’t believe the United States is sincere when it calls for Arab democratic reform or a Palestinian state, as President Bush did again this month in Egypt.

Make no mistake, the Arab press has many flaws:
1. including being subject to state control;
*only 26 percent of our respondents said they felt their fellow Arab journalists “act professionally” and

*only 11 percent said they were truly independent in their work.

Nevertheless, Arab news outlets are more powerful and free today than at any time in history.

If the next administration is going to try to reach out to the Arab people, it won’t get far by blaming the messenger.

Lawrence Pintak is the director of the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at the American University in Cairo and the author of “Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam and the War of Ideas.” Jeremy Ginges is an assistant professor of psychology at the New School for Social Research. Nicholas Felton is a graphic designer in Brooklyn.

Is liberty defined more by politics or economics?
Submitted by SHNS on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 16:31. By THOMAS P.M. BARNETT, Scripps Howard News Service editorials and opinion
While America remains the world's sole superpower, numerous rising great powers re-grade the global landscape, making it flatter than it's been at any time since the early 20th century. Some experts naturally expect we'll face all the same strategic challenges of that age, including great power war, while others are more sanguine, judging this era's dynamics to be quite different.

Two new books by political commentator Robert Kagan and journalist Fareed Zakaria provide a nice contrast along these lines.

Zakaria's "The Post-American World" describes the "rise of the rest" as hardly constituting America's decline. Rather, it reflects our nation's long-standing role as "the creator and sustainer of the current order of open trade and democratic government -- an order that has been benign and beneficial for the vast majority of humankind."

While "economics isn't a zero-sum game," Zakaria notes that geopolitics remains a "struggle for influence and control." So as these rising great powers naturally become more globally active, they're "taking up more space in the international arena than they did before."

That obviously crimps America's freedom of action.

Despite fielding the world's preeminent military force, the United States inevitably faces a realignment of our strategic principles. As Zakaria wisely notes: "In today's international order, progress means compromise. No country will get its way entirely."

Rising powers might seem to have two choices today: join the dominant Western order or reject it. But emerging pillars like India, Russia, China and Brazil, says Zakaria, appear to be forging a third path: "entering the Western order but doing so on their own terms -- thus reshaping the system itself."

The good news? So long as America views this as a problem of success and not failure, and our liberal international trade order remains both hard to disrupt and easy to join, then rising great powers will "want to gain power and status and respect, for sure, but by growing within the international system, not by overturning it."

So America's role seems clear: an organizer and leader of collective great power efforts to supply global public goods -- security being but one. As long as we foster system stability, argues Zakaria, the rising "rest" are highly incentivized to continue reaping the economic benefits such peace provides.

Robert Kagan's extended essay, "The Return of History and the End of Dreams," offers a far darker picture: the return of "strategic and ideological conflict" and "struggles for status and influence" as the "central features of the international scene." Much like the Cold War, we see the world's great powers divided between two familiar camps: the West's "axis of democracy" versus the East's "association of autocrats."

Russia and China might replicate America's brutal markets, but because their political systems remain dominated by single parties, the world once again enters into an "age of divergence" that produces, in Kagan's words, "ideological fault lines where the ambitions of great powers overlap and conflict and where the seismic events of the future are most likely to erupt."

Today's revived Russia, Kagan boldly proposes, resembles inter-war Germany: armed with a "stabbed in the back" vindictiveness that presages a turn toward Nazi-like fascism. China's stunning economic rise is likewise compared to Germany's scary early 20th-century trajectory. Moreover, because China and Russia make autocracy attractive, Kagan opines that their successful economic model examples might spawn fascist regimes around the planet, just like fascist Italy, Spain and Germany once triggered similar developments in Latin America decades ago.

Sound extreme?

Here's the essential difference between these geo-strategic diagnoses: the India-born Zakaria sees a world where economic similarities trump political differences, while the Brussels-based Kagan sees the exact opposite.

This is the ideological argument of our age: is liberty defined more by politics or by economics? In an age marked by the explosive growth of a global middle class, this entrepreneur is betting on the latter.

(Thomas P.M. Barnett is a distinguished strategist at the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies and senior man

Product Description
Taegel shows us how to use aspects of our personalities to lead us on the pathway to our true identity, our essence. On this great journey we learn that the most natural movement in the world is the mystical move between levels of reality ... there we breathe easy and know who we really are.

About the Author
William Taegel received his master and doctorate at Emory University and the University of California at Berkley, GTU, SFTS, respectively. His Native American heritage is a point of origin in his integrative approach to psychology and the mystic journey. In the service of that journey he has written extensively, including The Many Colored Buffalo and Nature and Intimacy, as well as being a co-founder with his spouse, Judith Yost, of the spiritual community, the Earthtribe.

3 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
This book Is a must have Reminds me of I Ching, 30. Juli 1998
Von Ein Kunde
Diese Rezension stammt von: As a Man Thinketh (Taschenbuch)
I cant believe Amazon has this book I have an ORIGINAL copy with picture and signature of James Allen. Authorized Edition New York Thomas Y. Crowell Company Publishers. Hard cover 47 pages Its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that "They themselves are makers of themselves" I have had this book all my life and always wanted to share it with others. I found it in my over one hundred year old house. I read it and re-read it. It reminds me of I Ching or the Bible it leads one to think and helps to explain the behavior of others. You can plant the seed but dont expect to see what you want right away or ever. Live to inspire others and learn from others. Only at the end of your life can others look back and see what you have done. "You will be what you will be" By the thoughts you choose to encourage. Enjoy this Book and try to undrestand how easy and sometimes how difficult it is to make people se! e things your way. Frank S. sang it I did it my way - Because thats the only way he could do it. If he did it MY way he would have played the drums and never sung a note or made a movie. So be thankful people do it their way but always be ready to help them do it better.
Kommentar | Kommentar als Link | War diese Rezension für Sie hilfreich? (Rezension unzumutbar?)


2 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
dynamite, 15. Dezember 2003
Von Larry Hehn "author & speaker, www.larryhehn.com" (Toronto, ON Canada) - alle meine Rezensionen ansehen

Diese Rezension stammt von: As a Man Thinketh (Taschenbuch)
James Allen proves that it is possible to pack dozens of valuable nuggets in a small package. The language is often lofty and dated, which in other works detracts from the material. In this case it reads like the writings of a wise old scholar, enhancing the content and its weight.
If you enjoy highlighting key points, keep the cap off your highlighter while reading this. More than just an essay on positive thinking, Allen walks the reader through applications for personal growth, putting thought into action, using personal gifts to achieve right purposes, persevering to develop character, sacrificing and putting forth your full effort.

Powerful nuggets in a tiny package. Dynamite.

Larry Hehn, Author of Get the Prize: Nine Keys for a Life of Victory

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1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Changing your thoughts, changing your life, 27. Juni 2000
Von Judith E. Pavluvcik (on the beach in California) - alle meine Rezensionen ansehen

Diese Rezension stammt von: As a Man Thinketh (Little Books) (Gebundene Ausgabe)
This excellent compilation of essays by James Allen truly holds the key to success, amongst other things! I feel so inspired after reading this book, so ready to put into practice what this powerful, little book is teaching. This "classic" has been around since the turn of the century and it seems to be even more relevant in today's stressful and competitive society. I underlined so many wonderful and inspiring passages that I intend to refer to on a daily basis. As Allen states, "a man is literally what he thinks", or as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out! Or put another way, "All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts."
I have learned that I cannot blame others for my life, or my state of affairs - they are my creation, the end product of my thoughts and actions. Allen states that man makes or unmakes himself by the thoughts he keeps and cultivates. Man is truly is his own worst enemy!

I really resonated to his quote on fear, "Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in." How profound and how true. How we let fear run our lives - again proving how powerful our thoughts can be. Allen further expounds by saying, "He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure."

The garden of our mind is only cultivated by us. What kind of crop we want to consistently yield is solely determined on our positive, enriching, and encouraging thoughts or on our doubting, destructive and negative ones. We alone hold the key to our future, and our success, and our attainments in life. We can either have a feast or a famine - it is only up to us.

This highly inspirational book cannot help but to motivate you in some degree. I feel like I have been given the keys to a door that was once rusty and would not open, but now will yield freely in my hand. Another great quote is, "The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, this you will become." This is one book that you will want to keep constantly by your side, especially for those times when you get discouraged, or when the road seems rough. Just reading one page will have you having a change of heart, with its motivation putting you back on that right path.

This book is a MUST read if you are desiring to change your negatives into positives! The power of the mind is incredible - in all areas of our life!

SAfrican anti-immigrant violence reaches Cape Town

May 23 07:53 AM US/Eastern

A wave of anti-immigrant violence in South Africa spread to Cape Town on Friday, even as troops and police appeared to have quelled the unrest in the hotspot of Johannesburg.
Police reported attacks against immigrants and foreign-owned shops in a slum area of picturesque Cape Town.

The southern coastal city is a major draw for tourists and had thus far been spared the mob violence seen in Johannesburg.

At least 42 have been killed, more than 500 arrested and 16,000 displaced in the province of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria, since unrest broke out 12 days ago.

Police spokesman for the Cape Town area Billy Jones said a public meeting to address the danger of xenophobia in the Dunoon slum area 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the city degenerated into violence on Thursday evening.

"Groups within the crowd started to loot shops owned by Zimbabweans and other foreigners," he told AFP, saying 500 had since fled the area and were staying in community centres.

"Some people were assaulted, but mostly shops were looted."

Police also reported pockets of overnight unrest in Durban in the KwaZulu Natal region, where an unidentified foreigner was shot, and in North West province where two Pakistanis were stabbed.

Pakistanis were also targeted in Free State on Thursday. Twenty two people were arrested after a group of people were seen throwing stones at their shops.

"The police are on high alert and we will not tolerate any violence," said North West police spokesman Peter du Plessis. "What we are doing is identifying the areas where the foreigners are staying and then patrolling those areas."

In Johannesburg, the raging violence of the last week and a half appeared to have been brought under control by police bolstered by specialist units trained in public order and the army.

"It's quiet," said police spokesman for the Johannesburg area Govindsamy Mariemuthoo.

For the first time, soldiers deployed on Johannesburg's streets on Thursday to help stem the tide of violence that has seen mobs of armed youths attack foreigners in poor areas around the city.

About 200 soldiers assisted police with morning arrest and search operations in central Johannesburg on Thursday and remain on standby to offer back-up and logistical support.

Spokesman for the defence forces General Kwena Mangope told AFP Friday there had been no further army deployments.

President Thabo Mbeki bowed to pressure to call in the army on Wednesday after a request for support from the police force.

Foreigners in South Africa, many of whom have fled economic meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe, are being blamed for sky-high crime rates and depriving locals of jobs.

The violence, which has done untold damage to South African's reputation as the "Rainbow Nation," is also taking its toll on the country's economy.

Unions and several mining companies reported Thursday that gold mines around Johannesburg, the country's economic heartland, had been hit by the unrest, with employees failing to show up for work.

South Africa's tourism industry has also warned of the impact on visitor numbers and a farming group raised alarm Thursday about the impact of xenophobia in the agricultural sector.

Politicians are increasingly blaming criminals for the anti-immigrant violence, as well as the insanitary and lawless conditions found in slum areas.

But a number of rights groups have said the government has failed to address the problem of xenophobia, with isolated incidents of attacks against foreigners reported since the end of the 1990s.

"These unpardonable acts bring to the fore the need to intensify the implementation of government's efforts to eradicate poverty and reinforce our housing and service delivery programmes," Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils told the National Assembly Friday, SAPA news agency reported.

"We must better educate our people in tolerance, resolutely dispelling any erroneous perceptions about foreign nationals, which are fuelled in circumstances of relative socio-economic disadvantage," he added.

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