A month after arriving in Hong Kong, the United States’ consul general is getting a crash course in the city’s linguistics. In his first Facebook post introducing himself to local residents, Clifford Hart—a veteran diplomat who has served multiple tours in China—declared that he was thrilled to be the U.S.’s consul general in the former British colony, and was “look[ing] forward to finding out the things that make us alike, rather than different.”

Tags: china, united states, government pd, us department of state, language, hong kong

I spent the past few weeks in the Dominican Republic with United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), witnessing workers’ grassroots efforts to further basic human rights in the workplace. Conducting cultural diplomacy, American college students of USAS also work closely with Dominican workers to reform corporate social responsibility.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, haiti, corporate social responsibility, dominican republic, csr, labor union, free trade agreement, workers' rights

It’s not about saving Syrian lives. It’s about Obama saving face. This is how one Syrian, Abdullah Omar, describes the US proposal to carry out limited strikes against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the wake of a suspected chemical weapons attack against civilians last week. Omar lives in a rebel-held town near Turkey, where he and his family assist refugees turned away from the Turkish border.

Tags: public opinion, syria

A Facebook post said to be written by the 11-year-old son of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and “liked” or commented on by several people who appear to be the children and grandchildren of other senior members of Mr. Assad’s government, may offer a glimpse into the mindset of Syria’s ruling elite as the country braces for a potential Western strike in response to a chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21.

Tags: government pd, social media, facebook, syria, conflict, hafez al-assad

The Indian rupee's crash has swept away banker Nupur Sood's dream of a holiday in Venice: instead the 35-year-old will settle for cold beers on the beaches of Goa on India's west coast. "We are pampering ourselves with a leisurely holiday but it will be domestic. I guess it is the only way to compensate," said Sood, who plans to stay next month at the plush Grand Hyatt hotel in Goa, managed by Hyatt Hotels Corp, as a consolation for missing her holiday of a lifetime in Italy.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, india, europe, tourism, italy, travel, foreign currency, rupee

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said he was ready to start negotiating peace with the country's second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), "as soon as possible". The announcement comes a day after the ELN released a Canadian hostage it had been holding for months, Gernot Wober. Santos hailed the rebels' release and said "the government is ready to start a dialogue with the ELN as soon as possible," in a statement released by his office on Thursday.

Tags: government pd, colombia, south america, conflict, eln

Describing himself as an “accidental photographer,” Edwin Koo is an award-winning Singaporean documentary photographer who produces work that is striking and evocative. So much so that his body of work on Swat, Pakistan, titled Paradise Lost: Pakistan’s Swat Valley, won him the Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography in 2010.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, pakistan, singapore, nepal, photography, edwin koo

After the March on Washington, homegrown protests occurred in countries from The Netherlands to Burundi. The growing criticism of racist policies in the United States was something that President Kennedy was sensitive to as he navigated Cold War politics and his administration struggled to create their own narrative of what the march meant.

Tags: non-state pd, civil rights, march on washington