"Cultural cooperation, youth exchanges and interaction between public organizations play an important role in bilateral cooperation," the ministry added. "The Russian-German Year of Youth Exchanges is worth mentioning, its closing ceremony due to be held in Berlin on July 13-16. New possibilities for bilateral years are under consideration."

The 24-year-old Massey masters student, along with her sister, Tamra Ewing, now heads up a literacy charity called Motorbike Book Club - a mobile book library for village children in Vietnam. As the name suggests, the books are transported on the back of a motorbike to places where books - let alone libraries - are hard to come by. "I'm passionate about education. I see the value in it - the power of literacy to really transform and open up children's worlds."

The Embassy of the United States of America today partnered with United Village Transformation (UVT), an American NGO, to present a “Culinary Diplomacy” program highlighting the orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP). [...] “There’s another first in Malawi: Malawi is the first country in Africa to host a “culinary diplomacy” program. Culinary diplomacy is a wonderful way to share culture and traditions.

“The basic strategy and premise of the Container Artist Residency is using existing economic infrastructure as an infrastructure for cultural exchange,” the project’s website says. “Container Artist Residency identifies the shipping industry as a driving cultural and economic force in the contemporary world, and encourages artists to rethink their practice from this unique perspective.”

Skateboarders can often be proudly stupid. We relish in action, not thought. So whenever someone starts talking about how skateboarding can be a passport to connect with people across cultures, or starts going off about the power skating can have for the marginalized, we’re often quick to get defensive and write off such thoughts as self-serious pretention.

Trump's US presidency is putting American-Mexican relations in the international spotlight. It is therefore particularly important for countries like Germany to show their solidarity with Mexicans, and that can happen through culture, because we're all dependent on mobility, globalization and exchange.