Cultural Diplomacy

Art can reflect the soul of a nation. But for the past three decades, Afghanistan has been defined by the art of war that has painted its countryside in broad strokes of red and black. Despite both the conflict and the former Taliban regime, who opposed the depiction of any human or animal forms in photographs, drawings, or paintings, art has not only survived in Afghanistan, but has re-emerged as a creative and provocative force in the capital of Kabul.

Despite soggy conditions, including a brief downpour, more than 100 people still showed up for the St. Petersburg, Russia-based youth ensemble, Golden Gates at Poinciana United Methodist Church last Thursday. By imitating dancers, sampling instruments or copying the rhythmic clapping and foot stomping of Russian dance, the audience got a taste of faraway culture when the youth ensemble performed a 90-minute show providing an entertaining and authentic glimpse into Old Russia.

These types of characters (or caricatures) of Americans abroad behaving badly have been around at least since the days of Mark Twain and Henry James. What's striking is how little, in some ways, the depictions have changed between the late 19th century and the present age of smartphone-wielding mobs stalking the "Mona Lisa," and beery, breast-flashing collegians whom Latin Americans refer to, with eye-rolling exasperation, as los springbreakers.

Colombia doesn’t have a space program, but as of Friday, it does have an elite aerospace engineering team. RoboCol, a group of 15 assorted engineering students and two designers from the Bogota-based Andes University, finished fourth place out of 50 international participants in the Lunabotics Mining Competition held at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its work on “Intensity”, a robot designed to traverse lunar terrain.

Here's a fact: Nearly everyone in America loves Chinese food. Who among us doesn't have childhood memories of takeout dinners served in the distinctive white boxes, followed by a humorous reading of fortune cookies? And Chinese restaurants, with their lengthy menus and Lazy Susans, have been a ubiquitous part of the American landscape for decades. In order to get into the finer distinctions of Chinese cuisine, researchers at the Beijing Computational Science Ressn't difficult to find Northeastern, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Xinjiang restaurants -- all on the same block.

Thanks to the 2013 Chinese Training Program for EU Employees, some 30 officials got the opportunity to know more about China. Launched by the Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters) and organized by Beijing Foreign Studies University, the program, which lasts from July 20-28, is the first such cultural exchange platform in China designed for European Union employees, said Jing Wei, deputy director-general of Hanban.

Popular Colombian band Bomba Estereo has been asked to cancel their free concert in Jaffa as part of a boycott of Israel. The appeal has been made by the Colombian section of the “boycott Israel” campaign has appealed to the band to turn down the invitation to play in Jaffa to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Marking the anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic Games the Prime Minister’s Legacy Ambassador Sebastian Coe, Olympic gymnast and 2012 medal winner Beth Tweddle, Wheelchair Rugby 2012 Team Captain Steve Brown and Paralympic Equestrian 2012 medal winner Sophie Christiansen share their memories of the Games and talk about the legacy of the Games in Britain and around the world.

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