South Korea faces off against the northern neighbor it is still technically at war with at Olympic table tennis on Saturday in what is sure to be one of the most politically charged contests at London 2012. Uncertainty about secretive North Korea and its new leader and rumored development of nuclear weapons have created a tense backdrop for the six players preparing to meet in the team event.

"Culture does matter,” insisted aspiring Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on his return from a three nation trip abroad this week. Readers of Culture Posts and Winnowing Fan surely share the belief. Yet Mr. Romney's words, first spoken at a political fundraiser in Jerusalem's King David hotel, shocked our sensibilities. How and where he spoke the words "culture makes all the difference" revealed the limits of his world. The Culture Post series began with the intent to explore the cultural underbelly of public diplomacy.

“One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is.” Ludwig Wittgenstein

There's a strange sense of deja vu in Jamaica at the moment. Bunting adorns buildings. Roadside vendors sell the national flag. Patriotic songs are on everyone's lips, and breasts swell with pride. Politicians are enjoying a holiday from scrutiny as citizens tune in to Usain Bolt and the gang chasing Olympic glory in London. It's 6 August 1962 all over again.

Waitresses walk past in Swiss lederhosen. ‘Carbivores’ chow down on traditional Swiss potato cakes. And images on the walls depict trains climbing the Alps in the Bernese Oberland. But this isn’t a scene from a Swiss tourism pamphlet. It’s a typical afternoon in a converted English pub—normally known as the Mudlark—a few meters from the London Bridge Tube Station.

The first week of the Olympics may have provided us with enough drama and sensation to last a lifetime but, for many, the real theatre of the Games is only just beginning. Today the classic track and field events begin, including several sports that the Ancient Greeks would have recognised.

According to him, the Council will offer it to the government for adoption and then to the Serbian parliament. Nikolić told daily Danas that he would appoint Defense Minister Aleksandar Vučić as secretary of the National Security Council when this becomes possible and in line with the law. The secretary will have an office in the Serbian Presidency building.

The durability of national governments in the Middle East and North Africa is now determined by the extent to which leaders can expeditiously and effectively address the primary cause of the Arab Spring: shameful levels of underdevelopment of the people in the context of abundant socio-economic potential.