A curated selection of public diplomacy-relevant news from a global cross-section of English-language media outlets, including independent, corporate-owned, and state-sponsored sources. The stories featured don't necessarily represent CPD's views nor have they been verified by CPD.
New Year’s Eve in Dubai
Before traveling to Oman on the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study (YES) Program, Dylan Hoey had never left the United States. Yet through this YES Abroad experience, Dylan proved he could not only live in another country but thrive there. “I think what I’ve taken from Oman is a newfound sense of confidence,” says Dylan. “I have a clearer sense of what I want to do in my life, what I want to achieve career-wise, and what truly makes me happy.
Multilinguals Get The Jobs
Patrick Chew felt devastated at his grandmother's funeral 27 years ago because he had never learned her mother tongue, Toisanese, a dialect in southern China. Today Chew, 44, uses two to 10 languages every day as the international-community manager for Change.org, a website that conducts online advocacy campaigns in 196 countries. Before that, he traced the source of spam in 33 languages at a network-security firm in San Bruno, Calif.
A View from Indonesia - Beyond Bali
Every time I travel for work in Indonesia, I'm tempted to describe the journey. The road to (insert destination) was smooth or twisting or pockmarked and broken. I passed roadside stands selling fruit and fried snacks. The traffic was horrendous, more stop than go, or people passed us like maniacs, swerving at 75 miles an hour on snaking back roads. Such details give a sense of place and remoteness. They also convey the vastness and contradiction that is Indonesia, the world's largest island country by population, and the dysfunctional state of its infrastructure.
Painting Politics in Yemen
On Saturday, Yemeni artist and activist, Murad Sobay, launched the '12th Hour' campaign, a series of graffiti murals that will be displayed across the walls of the capital Sanaa to address 12 issues facing Yemenis today. Sobay, 25, said that while art was once thought to be religiously forbidden or 'haram', many Yemenis now join him in painting the walls of their capital. In the first hour, Sobay tackled gun ownership. According to 2012 figures, Yemen has the second highest rate of gun ownership in the world, with nearly 55 guns for every 100 Yemenis.
Are Colombian Police Prepared for the Guerrilla Militia Threat?
Colombia's police are already strategizing for the end of the country's conflict with Marxist rebels, even as the task of combating the guerrillas is increasingly falling to the police instead of the military. With talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) now almost a year old, General Jose Roberto Leon Riaño, who was director of the Colombian National Police until earlier this month, declared "the new model of service [for the police] is anticipating a post-conflict scenario, a scenario of peace."
Tourism: A Sector With Global Responsibility
Tourism has evolved over the past decades into one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world and a transformative force in global development. More than one billion people travelled the world in 2012. Tourism represents today up to 9 percent of global GDP in direct, indirect and induced impacts), 30 percent of service exports and employs 1 in 11 people around the world.
NCCT Tasks States, Others on Nigeria’s Domain Name
To further advance Nigeria’s course on the cyberspace, the National Council on Communication Technology (NCCT), has recommended that all state governments and their agencies should switch to the country’s domain name and adopt the gov.ng platform. NCCT, which gave August 18, 2014 as deadline date for the switch to have been completed, noted that this would not only create a better cyberspace, but also engender economic growth.
Surprising Ground Truths on the Release of US International Aid Data
Adeso is a humanitarian and development organization that has emerged to change the way people think about and deliver aid in Africa—that is, from within. Formerly known as Horn Relief, Adeso has expanded from one community to other parts of Somalia, South Sudan and Kenya. As a current implementing partner of US foreign aid in the Horn of Africa, Ali agreed to sit down with me to take a look at foreignassistance.gov, where USAID, MCC, and the Treasury Department released new data last month. What would she be able to find out about her own organization’s programming there?
Pages
Visit CPD's Online Library
Explore CPD's vast online database featuring the latest books, articles, speeches and information on international organizations dedicated to public diplomacy.