public diplomacy

On Thursday [Mar 21], the U.S. Consulate will once again welcome Harvard’s finest a cappella groups to perform a free charity concert in aid of the Bermuda-registered charity, the Family Centre. The Harvard Krokodiloes and the Radcliffe Pitches are in Bermuda for their annual spring break and will sing popular, toe-tapping music from the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, including jazz, swing, ballads, and rock from America’s Golden Age.

In his first 48 hours in the Bronx, Omar al-Mashhadani caught a few echoes of the life that he and his family had left behind in Baghdad. Thousands of people were swarming along 161st Street, toward the hulking stadium on the other side of the El on River Avenue.

A group of foreign college students who came to the U.S. on cultural work exchange visas in December have been protesting their working conditions at a McDonald's in Harrisburg, Pa. In the process, they've wading into a debate about guest workers in the U.S. The students include Jorge Rios, who says three months ago he eagerly did the legwork necessary to get a J-1 visa, used for student work exchange.

In mid-July will be the 34th anniversary of Operation USA's inaugural relief airlift to 44,000 Vietnamese refugees huddled on a water-less, tree-less offshore Island in Malaysia. No different than most contemporary start-ups, the germ of an idea for a relief effort to aid some refugees has now grown into a much-lauded international disaster relief and development organization which has worked in 100 countries.

March 18, 2013

For more than a half-century, relationships with “sister cities” abroad have fostered diplomacy, educational opportunities and cultural growth. Now, however, cities in Washington state — and the South Sound in particular — are using them for economic expansion as well.

“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now.” “Now every one of you has good reason to be critical of me. I want to say to each of you, simply and directly, I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in.” The statements made by Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods, respectively, were attempts to mitigate the damage caused by scandal.

Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun on Monday urged Chinese businesses in Africa to work for mutual benefits and shared development. Zhai made the call at a forum on Chinese businesses in Africa, which was hosted by China Public Diplomacy Association and attended by Chinese enterprises, academics, and African diplomats in Beijing.

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