ALTERNATIVE CULTURE NOW: THE POLITICS OF CULTURE AT THE PRESENT CONJUNCTURE

Call for Proposals:

‘Alternative Culture Now: The Politics of Culture at the Present Conjuncture’
Conference and Event
Budapest, Hungary
April 8-10, 2010

Proposal Deadline: January 25, 2010

How do things stand with respect to the fate of the alternative? Branded and normativized, incorporated into a whole ensemble of mainstream discourses, and no longer the threat it once posed to capitalist and communist states alike, the political and social force of the alternative seems to have faded away. And yet the dream of the alternative continues to inspire political and social movements, artists, theorists, and all kinds of creative practices. How might we begin to situate and think alternativity as a global phenomenon at this precise conjuncture in world history? What is alternative about culture today? And what might or can it become?

The alternative, of course, has always been phraseable in the singular and the plural. On the one hand, it is a phenomenon locked into local configurations, a multi-polar and non-totalizable practice of myriad deviation. Here, its ambit can be that of a family drama or workplace, a national concatenation, or the homogenizing logic of a dominant cultural medium or genre. The dreams it holds in reserve are vitally minor: the fissuring of a regime with a joke or dissidence, the freedom mobilized in small, almost imperceptible defections or reversals. The production of the alternative is in this sense the aggregate, spontaneous effort of innumerable cultural agents to resist every species of stasis and capture, every grammar and vernacular, every gestural hierarchy and total system.

At the same time, this molecular vision of the alternative, of a plurality of fissions and margins, has always been accompanied by attempts to think what it is in the tendency of a moment which suppresses cultural possibilities on a global level. This is a dream of a communication or inter-mediation between margins, a system of deviances which comprehensively address the conditions which negatively hypostatize the life of the virtual. Global patriarchy, violent state expansionisms, the inhibiting logics of capital, and the globalization of the English language can be envisioned as transnational, systematized normativities that threaten cultural specificity or possibility in a way that is never exhausted by its expression on the register of the local. Is there, in this sense, only one alternative: an alternative to which there is no alternative? This notion of a single alternative-a universal difference necessary to shelter the future lives of difference–immediately sets into motion its own paradoxical dialectics of alternativity, itself appearing to erase the thing it promises. How do we escape this vortex, or at least make its impasses productive?

Is one alternative more important than another? Can alternatives be exhausted or rendered obsolete? What kind of method could we develop to test the valences of alternatives? Can or should alternative culture polemically charge the space of its own marginality, or would this degenerate into an infinite sectarianism?

We understand “alternative culture” to include diverse forms of cultural expression and activity, which are connected by their shared goal of creating just, humane, and equitable human relations by means of their opposition to existing cultural, social, and political forms.

This conference encourages contributions from scholars, educators, artists, cultural workers, policy makers, journalists, and others involved in alternative culture and international cultural policies. We are especially interested in contributions addressing alternative culture in Central/Eastern Europe and countries/regions of the former Soviet Union.

Areas of inquiry for submissions may include, but are not limited to, the following general topics in relation to the politics of alternative culture today:

Aesthetics – Collectivity – post-Communist Culture – Creativity – Cultural Studies – Eastern Europe – Geography -Globalization – Higher Education – Media – Memory/Nostalgia – Music – New Media – ex-Socialist History – ex-Soviet Urban Spaces – Visual Culture

The “Alternative Culture Now: The Politics of Culture at the Present Conjuncture” conference will take place at the OSA Archivum in Budapest, Hungary, April 8-10, 2010. It is organized and sponsored by the International Alternative Culture Center, with the support of the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology (Central European University) and the Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies (University of Alberta). The conference format will be diverse, including paper presentations, panels, round-table exchanges, artistic performances, and exhibitions. We encourage individual and collaborative paper and panel proposals from across the disciplines and from artists and community members.

Paper Submissions should include: (1) contact information; (2) a 300-500 word abstract; and (3) a one page curriculum vitae or a brief bio.

Panel Proposals should include: (1) a cover sheet with contact information for chair and each panelist; (2) a one-page rationale explaining the relevance of the panel to the theme of the conference; (3) a 300 word abstract for each proposed paper; and (4) a one page curriculum vitae for each presenter.

Please submit individual paper proposals or full panel proposals via e-mail attachment by January 25, 2010 to 
alternativeculturenow@gmail.com with the subject line “Alternative Culture Now.” Attachments should be in .doc or .rtf formats. Submissions should be one document (i.e. include all required information in one attached document).

Website: http://www.alternativeculture.org

Conference Organizing Team: Sarah Blacker (University of Alberta, Canada), Jessie Labov (Ohio State, USA), Andrew Pendakis (University of Bonn, Germany), Justin Sully (McMaster University, Canada), Imre Szeman (University of Alberta, Canada), Maria Whiteman (University of Alberta, Canada), and Olga Zaslavskaya (OSA, Hungary)

Sarah Blacker
Department of English and Film Studies
3-5 Humanities Centre
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
T6G 2E5

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Let’s agree on a few things:

1. GDP is a simplistic indicator ;
2. Prospective is a hazardous exercise ;
3. I may be right. Or not.

Prolonging my recent post on G2, I wanted to make a quick projection. I may be simplistic but I tend to think that the simplest and less sophisticated methodology is sometimes the most robust.

As we can see, China will take the lead in 20 years… which is fast.  I cannot be accused to be bearish concerning the US (4% growth per year, when considering the way the US economy has evolved this last 20 years is not that bad).  I may feel awkward to be accused to be too bullish on the Chinese side: these last few years –excepted 2009- China was constantly above 10%.

At the same time, China seems not ready, or more precisely, not impatient to take on the role.  They probably know that some responsibilities will come along with, and they have domestic problems to deal with: an aging population is the main consequence of their one-child policy (pensions), their quick industrialization gave birth to an increasing level of pollution, and last, wealth disparities could put at risk the social harmony they are focusing on.  All this, by nature, does not correspond to the trendy “sustainable development” aspirations that are currently voiced throughout the World.  China will need to tackle these problems efficiently.

The United-States are not yet number 2 as well… and they could never step down to this position.  As far as I know, Harvard, MIT or Stanford are American, and Google, Apple or Facebook were developed on their Pacific side.  We should never under-estimate the Americans’ ability to constantly reinvent them.

In short and according to me, “G2” is a convenient expression… but it should be seen as a strict merger between the two most powerful (and polluting) economies in the World.  I believe we should not give too much credit to the theory that they may soon merge to lead cohesively the World, rebranding their country in a too-quickly-named “Chimerica”… even if my simplistic projections prove right… meaning they would finally box in the same weight category: indeed, they may become equally powerful, I bet Chinese will still eat with chopsticks, whereas Americans will still launch new entertainments, new companies, new stuff we will desire.

The cultural divide will always be.  Americans are young, smart, inventive teenagers.  Chinese are wise, culture-minded, and long-term sighted.  US is a few hundreds century old. China was built over thousands of years.  I may be conservative, but I would not grant much time to a wedding between an Old Confucius and his sexy Britney-wife…. US and China both know it.  As pragmatic people, I bet both will rather enjoy their engagement period.

Health

HEALTH, EMBODIMENT AND VISUAL CULTURE: ENGAGING PUBLICS AND PEDAGOGIES

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Conference: “Health, Embodiment, and Visual Culture: Engaging Publics and Pedagogies”

November 19-20, 2010
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Conference Co-Chairs:
Sarah Brophy, Associate Professor, Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University
Janice Hladki, Associate Professor, School of the Arts, McMaster University

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: January 15, 2010

CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION:
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore how visual cultural practices image and imagine unruly bodies and, in so doing, respond to Patricia Zimmermann’s call for “radical media democracies that animate contentious public spheres” (2000, p. xx). Our aim is to explore how health, disability, and the body are theorized, materialized, and politicized in forms of visual culture including photography, video art, graphic memoir, film, body art and performance, and digital media. Accordingly, we invite proposals for individual papers and roundtables that consider how contemporary visual culture makes bodies political in ways that matter for the future of democracy. Proposals may draw on fields such as: visual culture, critical theory, disability studies, health studies, science studies, autobiography studies, indigenous studies, feminisms, queer studies, and globalization/transnationalism.

CONFERENCE EVENTS:
Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
*Rebecca Belmore,* internationally recognized Anishinabekwe artist, Vancouver (exhibitions of her performance, video, installation, and sculpture include: Venice Biennale, Sydney Biennale, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Art Gallery of Ontario, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts);
*Lisa Cartwright,* Professor of Communication and Science Studies and Affiliated Faculty in Gender Studies, Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego (/Screening the Body: Tracing Medicine’s Visual Culture/; /Moral Spectatorship: Technologies of Voice and Affect in Postwar Representations of the Child/)
*Robert McRuer,* Professor and Deputy Chair, Department of English, George Washington University, Washington, DC (/Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability/; /The Queer Renaissance: Contemporary American Literature and the Reinvention of Lesbian and Gay Identities/);
*Ato Quayson,* Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto (/Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of Representation/; /Relocating Postcolonialism/).

The conference will also feature /Scrapes: Unruly Embodiments in Video Art,/ an exhibition curated by Sarah Brophy and Janice Hladki, at the McMaster Museum of Art.

POSSIBLE THEMATICS:

1. Technologies
– medical technologies (e.g. medical imaging, drug therapies, prosthetics and other devices) and their implications for embodiment, subjectivity, community, kinship, and politics
– corporeality and the senses as sites/forms of knowledge-making
– biopolitics and surveillance
– the relationship between “old” and “new” technologies
– how technologies mediate social spaces of embodiment and interaction
– interrogations of the human and posthuman in medicine, science, and art

2. Cultural Production
– cultural pedagogy; the production of knowledge in sites of cultural production (e.g. galleries, festivals, classrooms, online, etc.)
– counter-publics (e.g. disability culture)
– indigenous modes of cultural production
– diasporic/transnational issues and practices
– new representational modes (e.g. digital arts, graphic memoir)
– documentary practices
– “doing politics in art” (Bennett)

3. Disability
– medical, scientific, and cultural discourses of disability
– performing and witnessing embodied difference
– interrogations of impairment
– genetics, reproduction, eugenics
– dis-ease and disorder
– “ability trouble” (McRuer)
– “radical crip images” (McRuer)

4. Affect
– explorations of “ugly feelings” (Ngai), “aesthetic nervousness” (Quayson), “moral spectatorship” (Cartwright), “empathic vision” (Bennett), and “seeing for” (Bal)
– relationships to medicalization, regulation, and surveillance
– affect as generative/productive in relation to concepts of ethical spectatorship and witnessing
– relationships between corporeality and theorizations of nature as dynamic and agentic (Barad, Grosz, Haraway)
– can we/should we move beyond the theories that posit /negative/ affect as a prime site for ethics?
– affect and global politics: representations of global mobilities, violence, war, terrorism

HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL:
We kindly invite submissions from scholars, artists, health professionals, community members, and activists in all areas and disciplines. Concurrent sessions will be 90 minutes in length. Proposals for the following formats will be considered:
1) Individual papers: 15 minutes in length
2) Roundtables: 4-5 participants, including a designated moderator and a plan for facilitated discussion of ideas
All submissions will be peer-reviewed.

Individual paper submissions should include:
1) affiliation and contact information
2) a biographical note of up to 200 words
3) paper title and a 300-500 word abstract; the description of the paper’s content should be as specific as possible and indicate relevance to one or more of the conference thematics.
4) Details of audiovisual needs (e.g. DVD, LCD projection, and/or VH S). Note that participants will need to bring their own laptops.

Roundtable submissions should include:
1) affiliation and contact information for each participant
2) a biographical note of up to 200 words for each participant
3) roundtable title and a 500 word proposal. The proposal should both indicate the relevance of the roundtable to one or more of the conference thematics and outline the organization of the proposed discussion.
4) details of audiovisual needs (e.g. DVD, LCD projection, and/or VHS). Note that participants will need to bring their own laptops.

All submissions should be sent via email attachment to
viscult@mcmaster.ca <mailto:viscult@mcmaster.ca> by January 15, 2010.
Please use the subject line “Proposal for Health, Embodiment, and Visual Culture.” Attachments should be in .doc or .rtf formats.

If electronic submission is not possible, please mail or fax proposals to arrive by January 15, 2010.
Address: Sarah Brophy & Janice Hladki: Health, Embodiment, and Visual Culture Conference
c/o Department of English & Cultural Studies
Chester New Hall 321
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4L9
Fax: 905-777-8316

ACCESSIBILITY:
Presenters are encouraged to explore ways to make physical, sensory, and intellectual access a fundamental part of their presentation. Suggestions include: large print (18 point font) copies of handouts, large-print copies of paper or panel outlines, and/or audio descriptions of any film or video clips and images. Presenters are also encouraged to consider open or closed captioning of films and video clips.

POST-CONFERENCE PUBLICATION PLANS:
Papers from the conference will be considered for a special issue of /The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies/.

CONFERENCE SPONSORSHIP:
Sponsored by the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario (John Douglas Taylor Fund).

Sarah Brophy
Associate Professor
Department of English and Cultural Studies
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
L8S 4L9
brophys@mcmaster.ca

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

I presented at Technology World 2009 held in Coventry, UK on 23/24 November.  What was disappointing was how few UK companies supported the event with their presence.  UKTI seem to have worked hard to organize an event where delegates from 48 countries were encouraged to visit the UK and see some of the UK’s finest technology companies yet from what I saw today, I would say less than 200 UK companies bothered to attend either to exhibit or even just as a visitor.  I do sometimes wonder when UK businesses will open their eyes and realize there’s a big world out there with new customers and extremely capable talent pools just waiting to be discovered.  Growth in some countries exceeds 5% per annum yet the vast majority of UK companies seem content with slugging it out in a crowded market where growth is nonexistent. I really do wish for their own sakes that they would wake up and realize what’s going on.

On another note, the event was held at the newly built Ricoh stadium in Coventry but the hotel was about 20 miles away to the east of Birmingham.  Having spent last week in San Francisco right near the Moscone Center where Salesforce.com were holding their annual Dreamforce conference with numerous quality hotels within a block of the venue, it is an indication of the lack of ambition in the UK to see such poor quality venues and supporting infrastructure.  I would imagine you could count on one hand the number of high quality venues in the UK capable of holding and accommodating a 500 person event in the same place.  Now contrast that to venues in Asia and the US and you realise that the UK lost its way somewhere.

Some time back in class, we were talking about a couple of things. Globalization, technology (as always)  and virtual learning. People can even take tuition from a tutor halfway across the globe.

Virtual learning has tried to creep into our schooling lives since before i could remember (when it started that is :/). i guess thats not all too long ago considering im still kinda young *coughs*. But the thing about it is, it’s kinda a bad idea to me. Not in its entirety of course, more like, if we delve much further into trying to incorporate it extensively into education.

Think about it. What is school to you? Lets think primary level. School was , recess, hop-skotch, blind men, catching, five-stones, okay fine class rooms, music lessons, PE, the occassional computer lab lessons. Yeah back then we still had typing tutorials. Think thequickbrownfoxjumpedoverthefence. Now i suppose it’s more of Typing Maniac in kindergarten.

My point is, if the day comes where everyone is virtually home schooled. These are the things they stand to lose. Social life and skills, physical activity ( obesity percentage rising?), hands-on practice sessions, as in science labs.

 Do we want to have everything we know in our life based on theories only? Even socializing? I definitely dont want that. period.It’s not to say that technological advances aren’t welcomed. It’s just that I feel that it should be a part of our education to enhance it) rather than to dictate it.

Communication enhancements has contributed to the world wide effect of globalization. Yes. Globalization. 

With the world wide web, I am no further to any countries out there than my classmates who sat beside me in class. The internet has open our eyes to cultures and religions of people all around the world. In the past, that would have taken us more than a lifetime to acquire the knowledge. It seems like I am living in a relatively smaller world as days goes by. Technology has made globalization feasible. It hit us, mould us, influence us in the most subtle way.

Ironically for me, living in a small island with internet access is a bliss. Internet helps me extend my reach to places I’ve never been before and would take a lifetime to roam places of interest when I could do so in the comfort of my snug, cozy dwelling. Others have gone before me, traveling the world, journalist (agents/minions of the internet. haha) who provides all I need to know. On the flip-side, I may never get the satisfaction of living the world I see through that box of information (Or rather, no longer a box since such designs for computers are obsolete).

One issue we discussed in class is that globalization helps to reduce racial tensions and bonds us by our interest. In my opinion, that is true to a certain extent. It is true only if people uses the internet to study the culture and practices of another race with the intention of developing understand and racial tolerance. Most of the time, I see racial discriminative comments spewing all over. We live in a much smaller world, we are connected with six degrees of friends. We see conflicts and quarrels on forums, “hate” sites are set up daily, and those who have internet have access to it. Which makes it doubly scary as information travels in a flick of an eyelash. A minor mistake/step you take might make you famous/infamous overnight.

In any case, I still enjoy my rights to the internet, making friends via social network, butting in a forum or two, going to places I would never go, exploiting the internet. The World is getting Smaller (not literally), we are connected in a closer manner, however, there is a flip-side to everything. Just like a star that is getting smaller, it is a sign that it will eventually implode (if not explode). If you get what I mean, with all the issues that comes with globalization…

How to end this… lets make the world a better place

David Farr is the CEO of Emerson Electric, a $1.7-billion-dollar company heavily involved in manufacturing. What does he think about the job that the Democrats are doing in Washington?

In this Bloomberg article, he explains:

Emerson Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer David Farr said the U.S. government is hurting manufacturers with regulation and taxes and his company will continue to focus on growth overseas.

“Washington is doing everything in their manpower, capability, to destroy U.S. manufacturing,” Farr said today in Chicago at a Baird Industrial Outlook conference. “Cap and trade, medical reform, labor rules.”

Emerson, the maker of electrical equipment and InSinkErator garbage disposals with $20.9 billion in sales for the year ended September, will keep expanding in emerging markets, which represented 32 percent of revenue in 2009. About 36 percent of manufacturing is now in “best-cost countries” up from 21 percent in 2003, according to slides accompanying his speech.

Companies will create jobs in India and China, “places where people want the products and where the governments welcome you to actually do something,” Farr said.

The unemployment rate in the U.S. jumped to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level since 1983. Emerson, which Farr said employs about 125,000 people worldwide, has eliminated more than 20,000 jobs since the end of 2008 to lower expenses.

“What do you think I am going to do?” Farr asked. “I’m not going to hire anybody in the United States. I’m moving. They are doing everything possible to destroy jobs.”

[...]Mature markets such as the U.S., Western Europe and Japan continue to decline in importance and the company will keep investing in emerging markets, Farr said during the presentation.

“We as a company today are putting our best people, our best technology and our best investment in these marketplaces to grow,” he said. “My job is to grow that top line, grow my earnings, grow my cash flow and grow my returns to the shareholders. My job is not to shrink and roll over for the U.S. government.”

[...]In renewable and alternative-energy markets, Emerson had 2009 sales of $50 million and plans to increase that to more than $800 million in five years.

“But you are not going to see Emerson going out there with fancy commercials or sitting at the right hand of some president, talking about this,” Farr said. “We do it.”

When it comes to manufacturing jobs, the only person whose opinion counts is the CEO of the manufacturing company, because he makes the hiring decisions.

Why Obamanomics will not improve the economy

I noticed the Bloomberg article because it was linked to this American Thinker article, which was linked at Marshall Art’s blog.

The American Thinker article analyzes why Obamanomics will not improve the economy.

Excerpt:

The reason that Obamanomics will not and cannot work is because an economy cannot be managed from the top. Economics is a bottom-up process that depends upon individual incentives. Critical incentives have been diminished or destroyed by recent economic policies. Fear, uncertainty, threats, tax increases, penalties, and violations of the rule of law are but some of the conditions anathema to entrepreneurs, small business, and large business. Businesses will not hire, invest, or expand in a climate of disincentives. No commands from on high can force economic activity. That was a lesson that should have been learned from Eastern Europe and the former USSR.

If these disincentives are left in place, our economy will continue to shrink and our standard of living will continue to diminish. Capital has no nationality, and it will start to flee our shores. Talent will follow. We will not recover from this economic downturn until businesses and individuals have a more favorable incentive structure.

You can’t argue with the 10.2% unemployment rate, and it’s only going to get worse. Everything that Obama has done has been bad for business, and has contributed to raising unemployment. Democrats, (and the people who voted Democrat), know less about economics than my keyboard.

Been real busy these days. Lot’s of school projects and internship work to juggle with… BUT, tomorrow will be the last day of school before everyone starts on their internships.

Ping and Ms Nga played us a little ‘goodbye’ clip today. *sobs* Can’t believe three years have passed just like that. Compared to Primary and Secondary school education, Poly life is da best. Am already missing everyone. >.<

Anyways, here’s my long overdue write-up that i had promised weeks ago (i have decided to touch briefly on Social Media Machines and concentrate more on the Future of Public Relations in relations to social media instead):

During every New Communication Technologies (NCT) tutorial classes, we are introduced to new terms and tools that we either have not used/heard before or bother to find out more. Here are some of them:

* RSS Feeds

Believe me. I used to think that RSS was such a silly invention. Who would use it when they can just access the proper website?

However, after the presentations by Kev and Flo, I have learned that firstly, RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ (really cheesy name eh?).

Secondly, it is ‘really simpl-y’ a one-stop destination where you can read about a particular topic or website that you have subscribed to (via Google reader, Feedreader and so on). There is no need for you to open gazillion tabs and toggle between them anymore! Now, all your favorite site’s contents can be read off the same place! Definitely save a wee bit of time!

Here’s a video that hopefully can help you understand the term better:

Psst. Do subscribe to my RSS feeds if you find my entries interesting! *grins*

* Continuous Computing

This phrase simply refers to how information is readily available on the web and that they are constantly being updated. This is especially evident in today’s society as people make use of social media tools and even their own mobile phones to share information online.

You can find out more about continuous computing here.

* Continuous Partial Attention

Ah, i love this term. Though i do not really like the effects that it brings about…
Continuous partial attention, or CPA in short, is not multi-tasking although the two terms can sometimes be used in the wrong contexts. They actually differ in terms of their objectives.

For multi-tasking, you pay equal attention to every single thing you are doing (i.e. Munching on your supper while reading this post now). In a way, you want to be more productive and get things done fast.
However, for continuous partial attention, you focus on one thing at a time as you do not want to miss anything (i.e. Checking your tweets before reading a book). CPA can happen anytime and at any place.

Here’s an excellent article on Huffington Post on the differences between CPA and multi-tasking.

So, what are you currently doing? Multi-tasking or paying CPA?

* Social Bookmarking

One popular site is delicious.com. Social bookmarking allows you to share with other users the websites that you like.
Similar to RSS feeds, I did not think that it would be of any use until today.
One advantage of using this tool is that it allows you to drive traffic to your website/blog!

Check out these videos to find out about what social bookmarking is in general:

If you are interested in trying out social bookmarking, you can watch this clip about delicious.com:

It’s really cool to learn about such things in school. Now, I am more aware of the various tools and platforms online and will definitely utilize them to the max. Isn’t technology awesome?

Yam/n, Jov and I presented on ‘Future of PR’ as part of our CA the other day and I had learned much from it.
Yam/n started off our presentation with the history of public relations in both US and Singapore before launching into how PR made use of traditional media in the past.

PR companies are presently using new media tools such as websites, emails and forums to reach out to their clients’ target audiences although traditional media still exists. For example, print press releases are still being used nowadays.

However, there is an emerging trend on the use of social media right now and social media tools such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook allow the building of strong relationships between an organization and its customers.
PR practitioners no longer hold key roles in influencing organizations’ reputations.
One thing that may be seen as a disadvantage from an organization’s point of view is that they will not be able to control what people says about them as anyone online can say something that might affect their reputation.

However, there are many benefits of using social media in PR today.

At present, not many companies are leveraging on social media to promote their brand or services/products.
In the near future, perhaps more companies might join in in order to stay competitive with their rival companies. Hence, it might no longer if ‘exclusive’ anymore. In fact, a realistic prediction would be that in three to five years time, social media tools might turn into an extra ‘compulsory’ platform where PR professionals must utilize on in order to compete with other companies for customers.

What do you think?

As judged by the balance of trade expressed in per capita terms, thus adjusting for the sheer size of each nation, the effectiveness of the United States’ trade policies ranks near the very bottom of the nations of the world.  (See U.S. Trade Policy Ranks Among World’s Worst.)  Since the near-total collapse of the global economy last year, most economists who once shrugged off the effects of global trade imbalances now admit that these imbalances were the root cause of the collapse and can’t be sustained. 

The biggest trade imbalance has been between the U.S. and the rest of the world.  In spite of the best efforts of American manufacturers to get leaner and become more competitive, the trade deficit has been worsening for decades.  It begs the question whether there are factors at work that make these trade imbalances inevitable in a free trade environment. 

In Five Short Blasts,  I used U.S. trade data to argue that disparities in population density are a major (if not dominant) factor behind the U.S. trade deficit in manufactured goods.  But if population density is a factor, then the same impact on trade should be evident in the trade data for all nations of the world.  Densely populated nations should tend to have trade surpluses in manufactured goods while more sparsely populated nations should tend to have trade deficits.   To test my theory on such a global scale, I’ve completed a study of trade data for all nations of the world, using trade data provided by the CIA in its World Fact Book.   I began by breaking down the trade balance into exports and imports.  The following spreadsheets rank the exports and imports of all nations* in per capita terms:

Exports Per Capita, All Nations    Imports Per Capita, All Nations

You can see that the U.S. ranks 46th out of 154 nations in terms of exports per capita, and 118th in terms of imports.  But I soon realized that the top of the exports chart and the bottom of the imports chart were dominated by wealthy, developed nations.  That’s why I included the per capita Purchasing Power Parity (PPP, roughly equivalent to per capita GDP) for each nation in the charts.  To determine whether wealth was a factor, as logic would seem to suggest, I plotted x-y scatter charts for each:

Exports vs PPP Chart    Imports vs PPP Chart

As you can see, the wealth of a nation has a powerful influence on the volume of its exports and imports.  It makes sense.  A wealthy oil-producing nation, for example, may export oil in exchange for imports of manufactured goods.  A poor nation, on the other hand, has little to sell and, thus, has little money to buy.  That’s why this effect wasn’t evident when we looked only at the overall trade balance.  A poor nation is just as likely to have a balance of trade because it has nothing to sell or buy as a wealthy nation that exports and imports a great deal while maintaining an overall balance.

Therefore, it becomes necessary to confine our analysis of trade to developed, wealthy nations in order to avoid having other influencing factors muted by the wealth effect.  So I chose to confine my analysis to those nations with purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita (roughly a measure of GDP per capita) of $25,000 or greater.  (For reference, the U.S. had PPP in 2008 of $47,500.)

The following spreadsheet ranks the balance of trade of the 31 nations with a per capita PPP greater than $25,000. 

Trade Balance Per Capita, PPP GT 25K

I included a column with each nation’s balance of trade in oil and natural gas because I noticed what seemed to be a strong correlation.  High-lighting the net oil-exporting nations in yellow, it becomes easy to see the effect.  Like the effect of wealth, the effect of oil isn’t surprising either.  Naturally, those nations that export huge volumes of oil and gas are going to have favorable trade balances.  (As an aside, I found it interesting that, among developed nations with a deficit in oil and gas, America’s deficit, when expressed in per capita terms, is rather mundane – about the same as other nations.)

Since natural resources tend to be distributed unevenly around the world, trade in resources is vital and beneficial to all.  What’s really important is how nations use trade in manufactured products to offset deficiencies in natural resources and to maintain an overall balance of trade.  Unfortunately, no data for manufactured goods is available.  (If it is, I haven’t found it.)  However, I know from my experience in analyzing U.S. trade data that oil and gas tend to dominate trade in natural resources.  Subtracting them from the overall trade balance usually yields a pretty good approximation of trade in manufactured products.  So, using the CIA’s data and subtracting oil and gas from the overall trade balance, the following is a ranking of developed nations’ balance of trade in manufactured goods:

Manf’d Good Trade Balance, PPP GT 25K

Because my goal in analyzing this global trade data for manufactured goods was to determine whether or not there is any evidence of population density having an effect, it was here that I included the population density data.  And a relationship seems to jump out at you when you compare the population density of the nations at the top of the list (those with the most favorable balance of trade in manufactured products) to those at the bottom of the list.  (Here I should note that the overall population density for this group of 31 nations combined is 30.4 people per square kilometer.  The United States is almost right on this figure, at 31.3.  But the only proper way to determine whether a relationship exists is to plot the data on an x-y scatter chart and then have the computer generate a trend line.  A flat line indicates no relationship while a sloping line indicates the presence of a relationship.  Here’s the chart:

Manf’d Goods vs Pop Density

There is a fairly strong relationship evident.  But the slope of the line is somewhat muted by the presence of what is known in statistics as an “outlier” – a data point that is so far out of the range of the other data points that it’s statistically insignificant.  In this case it’s Qatar, the world’s champ in oil exports, at least in per capita terms.  Qatar exports so much oil that it has no need whatsoever of producing anything else.  They simply kick back and enjoy the good life with a PPP that far exceeds that of any other nation, net oil exporters included.  So, if we delete that data point, the chart changes as follows:

Manf’d Goods vs Pop Density2

Now the trend line conforms more to the data.  And if we were to eliminate Ireland, the data point at the other extreme end of the scale, but not quite an outlier, it’s easy to see that the trend line would conform to the data even more closely. 

It’s also important to note that by confining this analysis to developed nations – those with per capita PPP exceeding $25,000 – I excluded the most dominant player in world trade today:  China.  If China’s data point were included, it would fall right on the trend line, with a population density of 140 people/sq km and a balance of trade in manufactured goods of $351. 

It’s impossible to overstate the significance of this relationship.  Because economists adamantly refuse to give any consideration to the role of population growth in economics, they have completely overlooked the relationship between population density and per capita consumption, and its ramifications for trade.  (To learn more about the relationship between population density and per capita consumption, see “the theory explained” category on this blog.)

Finally, it’s worth noting here that population density also plays a role in driving trade imbalances in oil.  Very densely populated nations tend to be net oil importers, forcing them to export even more manufactured goods in order to maintain a balance of trade, combining with the effect of population density on their low per capita consumption.  High oil consumption and low domestic consumption of manufactured products team up to make such nations heavily dependent on exports of manufactured products. 

Summary and conclusions:

1. The balance of trade of the U.S., a nation with a low population density relative to most other nations, ranks near the bottom of all nations.
2. Global trade is dominated by oil and gas.  Oil exporting nations use their profits to purchase other natural resources and manufactured goods.  Oil importing nations export manufactured goods to fund their purchases of oil and gas.
3. How successful a nation will be in using manufactured goods to maintain a balance of trade is heavily influenced by its population density.  The effect is real and significant. 
4. The practice of free trade between two nations grossly disparate in population density is very likely to result in a trade deficit in manufactured goods for the less densely populated nation. 
5. Failure to account for the population density effect in global trade policies will likely result in sustained trade imbalances. 

—————————————–

* Small island nations, whose economies are dominated by tourism, are excluded.  Tiny city-states are included in their surrounding or neighboring countries.  (Example:  Hong Kong is included in the data for China.)

There are about 200 million people working abroad, which is a stable 3% of the world’s population. The money that these people send home is called remittances. Remittances can be viewed as a kind of development aid and is a very important bonus for the families that stayed behind in often impoverished countries. In fact, the total amount of remittances exceeds the value of official development aid (see a graph here).

However, remittances aren’t entirely positive, generally speaking. They are of course beneficial for those receiving them, but one shouldn’t overestimate their effectiveness in the fight against global poverty.

Disadvantages of remittances

• Most of the remittances do not go to the most needy. Poland and Mexico receive large chunks of total remittances; African countries much less.

remittances by destination

(source)

• Even the remittances that are sent to the poorest countries don’t necessarily benefit the poorest people in those countries. You need money to emigrate, hence migrants tend not to come from the poorest families.
• It’s impossible to target remittances towards development priorities.
• The emigration that is presupposed by remittances is often a brain drain, although not necessarily. Some groups of immigrants are above average in education, some are below.

Advantages of remittances

• The money goes directly and almost completely to the beneficiaries (minus the commission taken for the international payment by remittance agencies). This is not the case with official development aid where there’s always a margin taken by the overhead of aid agencies or NGOs.
• Similarly, there’s no part of the money deviated by corrupt officials, also contrary to official development aid which is often easier to steal.

All in all, remittances are a powerful, if not very accurate weapon in the fight against poverty. There is therefore a strong case in favor of allowing more migration and lowering the restrictions on the free movement of labor (see here). Migration can of course create problems (especially when it leads to cultural friction), but it is also a solution. The migrants themselves often have a better life. Around 75% of them go to countries with a higher score on the Human Development Index. Their families at home obviously benefit as well. And if we believe in trickle down economics (which we should to a limited extent) then we can assume that when these families have more money, the economy around them also benefits to some degree.

But there’s not only the money. There are also knowledge transfers, and we can reasonably hope that migration promotes intercultural understanding. It’s often easier to fear and hate what you don’t know. The countries of origin, which are often less free and democratic than the countries of destination, may also learn the benefits of freedom.

More on remittances. Some statistics and maps. More on migration. Something on the strange case of reverse remittances is here.

Ian Bremmer and Alexander Kliment published an interesting article in the World Politics Review today called, “State Capitalism and the Future of Globalization.” In it they argue that the assumption that globalization and capitalism will lead to free markets and free ideas must be reconsidered.

Far from blossoming into the pro-Western, market-oriented democracy that the 1990s shock therapists dreamed of, the successor to the Soviet Union has developed into a quasi-authoritarian petro-state, strongly committed to a form of tightly managed oligopolistic capitalism, in which elements of free market ideology coexist with strict government control over sectors that the Kremlin considers vital to Russia’s economy and security.

In Russia today, Bremmer and Kliment point out that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has crafted a public policy that puts the interests of the state and its officials above the interests of investors, domestic or foreign. These state capitalists have codified their behavior by passing the “strategic sectors law” of 2008, where foreign investors must receive special governmental approval to obtain large stakes in Russian companies in the 42 sectors deemed of national strategic importance.

As an example of this state control, Bremmer and Kliment point to the energy sector where the state now controls 50% of Russia’s oil output, up from 10% when Putin initially come to power. Part of this was accomplished by

jailing in 2003 of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the state takeover of his Yukos oil company. [And] several years later, the state pressured the Shell-led consortium at the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project to cede a controlling interest to Gazprom for below-market value.

Interestingly, the 13 largest energy companies on Earth are owned and operated by governments and these state-owned companies now control nearly 80% of global crude oil reserves. As Russia and China take the lead to dominate sectors domestically, they are also funneling the wealth from these state organizations into sovereign wealth funds, maximizing not only their investment returns but also international political influence.

“A world government is the only solution to world problems, such as climate change.”

Francesco Stipo, Ph.D. Director of the USA Club of Rome, will present his book “World Federalist Manifesto. Guide to Political Globalization” in a Luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

MMD Newswire | Nov 16, 2009

Washington, D.C. (MMD Newswire) November 18, 2009 — The “World Federalist Manifesto” deals with the United Nations reform and the development of an international organization that will represent world nations as a whole and will be able to deal with the global challenges of the new millennium. The “Club of Rome” is a think tank that in 1972 published the report “Limits to Growth”, which sold over 12 million copies worldwide.

The author analyzes different projects of reform of the United Nations.

“The United Nations can’t offer effective solutions because it doesn’t reflect the political and economic balances of world nations. In the General Assembly, a nation like Nauru that contributes just 0.001% of the U.N. budget has the same voting power of a nation such as the United States that contributes 22% of the U.N. budget” Francesco Stipo says. “The General Assembly needs to be reformed to reflect the political and economic balances of world nations”.

World Federalist Manifesto. Guide to Political Globalization

In case the U.N. cannot be reformed, the author calls for an alternative to the United Nations, a new international organization formed by NATO members. “NATO countries have similar economies and are based on democratic political systems” Dr. Stipo says. “The abatement of economic tariffs for countries in the NATO area would create a large free trade area supported by a common military structure. Other countries would be allowed to join once they meet certain economic criteria and they are founded on democratic principles. Such an organization would eventually substitute the role of the United Nations”.

“The economic downturn could have been prevented by a coordinated action of central banks and international regulatory bodies such as the Bank for International Settlements, the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and the U.N. Economic and Social Council” the author says. “However, such coordination does not exist and global solutions cannot be implemented.” The “World Federalist Manifesto” calls for a centralization of the U.N. system and a better coordination of the work of the specialized agencies under the direction of the Secretary General. The book proposes that the different agencies (such as the FAO or WWF) assume the legal nature of Ministries, such as the International Department of Agriculture or the International Department of Environmental Protection).

The author adds that “a world government is the only solution to world problems, such as climate change and the global economic crisis. A world confederation that respects the sovereignty of world nations and that deals with the issues of international economy that cannot be dealt by one nation alone”.

The book “World Federalist Manifesto. Guide to Political Globalization” is available in Barnes & Noble and in the website www.worldfederalistmanifesto.com.

About the Author

Francesco Stipo is Director of the United States Club of Rome. He holds a Ph.D. in International Law and a Master Degree in Comparative Law from the University of Miami. He has been practicing international law since 1999 and worked as a foreign law advisor and of counsel for European and American law firms.

He is the author of “World Federalist Manifesto. Guide to Political Globalization” and “United Nations Reorganization. The Unification of the U.N. System”. He also is the author of “The Balanced Contribution Theory”. In March 2008 he gave a speech at the United Nations on U.N. Reform. Dr. Stipo is an active member of the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

CONTACT: Dr. Francesco Stipo (Director USA Club of Rome)
LOCATION: National Press Club – Washington D.C.
PHONE: (1) 305-867-9653
E-Mail: fstipo@hotmail.com

WEB SITE: www.worldfederalistmanifesto.com

We are being hypnotized by this oblong box in the corner of the room called TV, it’s constantly telling us what to do. People must realize that the major media companies are owned and controlled by Zionists (another word for filthy satanic liars), and they are feeding you and most significantly your children pure garbage, and the sad thing is, you are accepting it, I might even say you’re happy about it.

Our youth, who are supposed to be the architects of a better future, drowned completely in this phenomenon. All day long, eyes fixed on the TV, watching dumb TV shows that has absolutely no purpose (American Idol, The Bachelor, Star Academy, Dancing with the Stars! Oh come on!). What’s more frustrating they think they’re doing a good thing by watching this. So they begin to act like them, eat like them, walk like them, they even think like them!

As a result they become robots, repeaters, materialists, instead of spiritual human beings capable of thinking for themselves. All they do is imitation, which leads to forgetting their identity by entering an egg shell of superstition and materialization. That’s why we see them nowadays; ignoring or even pushing away things that matter the most, religion and science, and that is the saddest thing of all.

As for adults, I find that their situation is even more aggravated. People are in a prison without the bars, which gives them the idea that they are free, and what caused this? Yes, the media. They are fed with news full of lies and distorted facts without realizing that the whole world is a stage, or more like a movie, but since the psychopaths who control the media know what they are doing, they can make you believe lies that serve their secret conspiracy (9/11 attacks, US War on terrorists, The Economic Breakdown of 2009, The ‘s’election of Obama) and they hide the consequences of their lies behind the face of humanity, and peace.  What happens when someone who thinks rationally tries to wake them up?  The response is “Conspiracy! You’re bloody mad! Are you on drugs mate?” in other words, the typical response of a sheep following the herd, a robot sucked in the corrupt system, because of the misinformation.

J. Edgar Hoover said:

“The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.”

So if you don’t believe this conspiracy exists, then you’re under the malignant grip of the satanic cult.

One last word :

TURN OFF YOUR TV!!!

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Copyright: 2005

Genre: Non-fiction, Current events

Recommended: Yes, for those who are interested in global affairs and/or soccer

A very interesting read. I liked it.

The author takes us on a journey around the globe looking at soccer and how it interacts or relates to certain regions, peoples, nations, and events. Mr. Foer shows us genocidal soccer fans/owners in Serbia, tackles the “Jewish question” in relation to soccer (specifically in Europe), introduces us to sentimental soccer hooliganism in Britain, explains how soccer has been used by Iranians as a freedom of expression, decries the anti-soccer rhetoric in America as anti-globalization, and provides us glimpses of soccer in other areas of the world as well.

His writing is straight forward and easy to read. He vividly shows how soccer is used and transformed by its participants and by outsiders. He describes some of the visible affects of globalization on soccer and tries to explain how the changes in soccer manifest the changes in the local communities due to globalization.

The one criticism I have for the book is its lack of analysis. The author does provide some analysis, but does not provide the depth of analysis I was hoping for. Perhaps my expectations were unreasonable, but it would have been neat to see the relation between different peoples, nations, societies in the soccer world and how that related to the bigger picture of globalization (he didn’t tie the observations together).

I enjoyed this book. He did not provide as much analysis as I had hoped, but he provided some interesting information and intriguing stories.

Before you write this off, I want to say that I am not a conspiracy theorist. Most of the time, I write these types of theories off, mainly because I know I am not prepared to adopt any new behaviors based on believing them. I am, however, a skeptic by nature and a deep thinker. For whatever reason, I decided to actually sit through this entire documentary today.

Realistically, the most beneficial aspect of this movie is not the specific details or the names of the individuals involved, but rather the message that our society must wake up and question whether our government is acting in its citizens best interests. The government operates for the people, so we must make sure that our needs are being met. If these conspiracy theorists are wrong, there is nothing to lose by considering their ideas and ensuring that they are wrong. If they are right, however, our freedom and the freedom of every coming generation may be at stake. Watch this documentary and check out his website, www.infowars.com. The fact that this video has been provided for free is a testament to the fact that Alex Jones is working to spread awareness rather than for his own personal gain.

Having recently gotten involved in the world of hip-hop music, I’ve been searching for interesting bands constantly. For a long time, I was largely focused on guitar-heavy music, such as blues and classic rock. This was mainly because I was beginning to play the guitar myself and naturally gravitated towards music I could best relate to. This past summer, I was introduced to The Flobots. The first song I heard, No Handlebars, was definitely unique, and really sparked a thought in my mind about the potential for political activism through music. Today, I came across this during my daily youtube time.

First of all, I absolutely love what this person did with the video, it gives the video a great flow. More importantly, however, I felt deeply connected to the overall message, that there is indeed a war going on for our minds. I believe we are living in a very important time in human history, mainly because of the fact that we stand at a fork in the road towards our future that will our children live their lives. The choice is between global tyranny and freedom. We have all been watching as Obama consistently makes decisions in direct conflict with previous promises. Actions speak louder than words, and I am beginning to fear that those in control of our country have motives far worse than anything the general public would ever believe. 

Do your own research. Form your own opinions. Think for yourself. Listen to The Flobots.

Lien vers l’article trouvé hier sur le site de l’IAPTI (International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters), créée en date du 30 septembre 2009 :

http://www.aipti.org/eng/articles/art1-globalization-gone-awry-the-rice-for-intellect-mindset.html

En attendant d’avoir (peut-être) l’autorisation de le traduire en français…

You remember the Banana Republics? The original being Honduras?

Well, now there are Cereal Republics…

From Food First:

Ethiopia’s recent history is punctuated by famine. Severe droughts, on-going conflicts and stagnating agricultural growth have been reproducing widespread food insecurities for decades. Compounded by cereal prices doubling over the last year, many people are struggling to meet even their most basic food needs. Concurrently the World Food Programme has had to reduce emergency food rations due to the high global food prices. Right now, at least 6.2 million people in Ethiopia are seriously threatened by hunger and malnutrition, and require urgent food assistance.

At the same time Esaya Kebede, Director of the Ethiopian Agricultural Investment Agency, revealed that the Ethiopian government has so far designated a total of 3 million hectares of agricultural land, an area around the size of Belgium, to be leased to incoming foreign investors. For a country on the constant brink of famine, this is a perplexing move. What is behind such massive land giveaways?

The land deals are part of a wider global trend, dubbed by many as neo-colonial land grabs. Shocked by the price spikes and distribution bottlenecks during the global food price crisis, wealthy food-importing countries from the Middle-East, India and China are scrambling to buy up enormous tracts of arable land on the African continent in order to long-distance farm for their own domestic markets. Similar to the Central American banana republics of the early twentieth century, foreign agri-businesses are working in close collaboration with their own governments to establish enormous agricultural plantations in African countries. Exploitative labor conditions, peasant land dispossessions and environmentally destructive industrial farming methods spring to mind. The only difference is that the target crops now are not cash crops like bananas, rubber or cocoa, but basic food staples, such as wheat, maize, barley and rice. Are we facing the emergence of neo-colonial ‘cereal republics’ throughout the developing world?

Read the article in full here

http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/commercial.html

Today I watched the making of this Toyota Prius ad and it made me happy. It made me think of why I am a global studies major, as many experiences in my daily life do. I am constantly asking myself: Why do I want to learn about the world? Maybe its because I would like to know what people are like on the other side. I want to know how people think, how people feel. What’s the environment that surrounds them, what’s the culture that whispers into their ears and breathes into their music? Wow, it is all so exhilirating.

At one point in the video, the Japanese director, Hiro, says something along the lines of, “It wasn’t people from different countries that worked on this, it was just people.” So true! Toyota, a Japanese company, employs the Brit dude to shoot the video, an American to choreograph, various other people assisting, and a Japanese dude to direct it all. It took people from around the world to create the world portrayed in the ad.

I would just like to take a moment and say that this is the definition of globalization–for me. There are many people who think that globalization is simply Westernization, when it isn’t. Clearly, there is a mix of ideas coming from East and West that allow such a production as the Prius commercial to happen. There are endless possibilities when the great minds of the world come together and share their dish at the global potluck.