Cartoons on Hilary’s Campaign
People’s perception is very important for candidates running for political office in a national election. Bad media images can result in loosing an election or nomination to political offices. Thus, the national and international press have a huge influence in creating positive or negative images of candidates. Political cartoonists and caricaturists have a lot of power in Internet and digital age. I have looked through some of the political cartoons on Hilary Clinton, campaigning for the Democrat Party nomination for the next President of the United States. Most of the cartoons on and about her did not give a positive image of her to the public. Just to give an example from the collection in Daryl Cagle”s International Cartoon Index. One cartoon shows Hilary planting seeds for questions.
The other cartoons show her being under fire
and in passing memories.
Other negative catoons, showing her holding a dog on-leach to bite Barak Obama.
The worse is the one of Bill Clinton having his hand under her skirt.
In contrast, I don’t see many cartoons of Barak Obama doing something funny with his wife Michelle. Both men and women have to struggle when they run for political office. Barak Obama has negative cartoons about being a “Black “ candidate, although I don’t think of him as representing “Black Americans” because he is half-white. He is a multi-racial/cultural person. In the same way, I don’t think Hilary represents American women. She does not even have any experience similar to majority of American women. Her experience is that of an elite graduate from a prestigious Wellesley University. She has a successful lawyer career, and a wife of President Bill Clinton. Last year in my Blog on Political Wives and Daughters, I said that if Hililary wins the election she is following the traditional woman’ s route - gaining political power through the prestige and network connections of the husband, or the father. Some people says that she has broken a glass-ceiling for other American women in politics. A role model. I don’t think she is a role model to other American women who struggle for achievement based on her own political connections and network. She is a role model only to other ambitious wives of male politicians. I have to admit that many people don’t want to see “women in national and international leadership positions”, but I don’t think Hilary gets negative press because of being a woman running for election. She has image problem because of peculiarity of her behavior, her marital connection to President Bill Clinton, and what she did when she was the “First Lady”.
“Responsibility to Protect”/ Nargis Cyclone Victims
To speed up global assistance for the victims of the Nargis Cyclone in Myanmar, the UN Secretary-General Ban Kee Moon will travel to the country this Wednesday. Diplomatic persuasion is the best way to handle the sensitive situation in Myanmar. Many people have rightly criticized the behavior of the Myanmar’s military leaders in their reluctant to allow foreign aid volunteers, or “the Good Samaritans” to come into the country to help with this gigantic emergency situation. But we must understand that there is pride involved here. Government officials want to show that they can handle the distribution of foods, tents, clothes and medicines to the people themselves with only the help of neighboring countries like India, Thailand and China. It is their right to decide to do things their way. I am certain that the United States Government would behave the same way in this kind of situation. Just imagine, a planeload of Chinese Buddhists and Indian Hindus insisted on flying into New Orleans to help the people directly during the Hurricane Katrina. I am quite certain that the US Government would not let them into the area without its permission. And yet, right now, we see the US and French navy ships sailing off the coast of the Irrawaddy delta. The French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner ignited a firestorm around the United Nations by invoking the “Responsibility to Protect” principle to force the government of Myanmar to accept humanitarian aid. The “Responsibility to Protect” principle does not apply to “natural disaster” or as some people called “the Act of God”. Countries that accepted this principle of intervention by international community only when it applied to crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing. We will have chaos if one country can barge into other countryon any emergency without the permission of national authority, no matter of what form of government the country has. Respect of International Law and country’s sovereignty are key elements of the United Nations Charter.
Filed under United Nations, World Affairs | Comment (0)Guided Tours of the Sky
A very good addition to browsing “Goggle Earth” or “Goggle Sky” is the browsing of the new Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope (WWT), the new Web 2.0 software, released on May 13. This new online tool can be downloaded on to our own computer free of charge. Microsoft researchers have dedicated this new computer program to the memory of Jim Gray, the famous American computer scientist who disappeared last year when he went sailing alone in California. He spent a large amount of time in his life to explore with astronomers on how to present map and satellite images of the world and the universe online. Thanks to Curtis Wong, head of a new media research group at Microsoft, who continues this challenging work, I can now make a virtual tour of the night sky to see the images of the universe from the best ground and space based, by just sitting in my own room. I can use my own computer to zoom in and out for a good look at different planets in the night sky. Better still, I can get close in to see the dust of the Milky Way Galaxy condenses into stars and planets in vivid 3-dimensions. The Worldwide Telescope inspires me to become an amateur explorer of the Universe without space traveling. I am sure that scientists and educators will also find this new software most useful to stimulate interest in astronomy. This is a real innovation, a contribution to public education and the scientific study of the Universe.
Filed under Science, Travel | Comment (0)Macho Stereotype Behavior
The return to power of Silvio Berlusconi as head of the Italian Government is not the occasion for women to celebrate. For many years, I have been following his macho behavior, his stereotype remarks on women, and his jokes on female prostitutes as a part of my “men study”, the other side of the coin of the “women study”. Berlusconi has failed miserably, both as owner of media establishment and as a government leader, in the promotion of a balanced and non-stereotype portrayal of women in the media and society as a follow-up action to the Beijing Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which his country, Italy, had voted for in 1995. His appointment of four women into the cabinet is fine but he based his selection of them on their good looks. He recently criticized the Spanish government as “being too pink” because Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has appointed more women than men in the Spanish cabinet, and has actively promoted a policy of gender equality. Berlusconi’s sexist comment upset both women and men, not only in Spain, but also in many countries, who are trying to make some changes towards gender equality. Italian women should confront him on this kind of unacceptable macho behavior since it was them that elected this kind of a man to lead the country.
Filed under Gender Issues, World Affairs | Comment (0)Art, Climate Change, and Human Security
An Art exhibition, under this theme, which takes place this week in the South Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, is a great boost for people to change intolerance attitudes towards caring for the environment and human security. Seven contemporary artists, representing Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America and Western Asia, contribute their art works for public display. Mia Hanak, Executive Director of the Natural World Museum, said that the exhibition seeks to use the universal language of art as a catalyst for action and social change. She hopes that art will trigger an emotional response on environmental issues and climate change, usually are presented in a dry scientific ways. Catherine Chalmers’ and Cecilia Paredes’ arts explore the links between human and animal world, while the other artist, Subhankar Banerjee, prefers to show his artistic photographs depicting the Arctic and the life of indigenous peoples of the North. These artists, environmental activists and scientists are attending a seminar and panel discussions to find creative approaches in dealing with climate change and human security in a holistic way. Together they have an opportunity to share strategies relating to ways in which communities and government around the World can use art to promote changes in their own cultures and the different ways of life. The Outreach Division of the United Nations Department of Information and the United Nations Environment Programme, who organized this event, are doing an excellent job. The exhibition is open to the public until the end of May.
Filed under Art, United Nations | Comment (0)A Recipe For Romance
Singapore is the only country in the World that I know of that has a government policy to promote romance in a big way. Commercial airline joins in the action by advertising “Singapore girls “ as sexy and alluring, the best way to fly”. “Not enough romance” is identified as the country’s problem – causing the falling down of the country’s birth rate, which already is, the lowest in the World. For more than two decades, the Government has made efforts to achieve its’ plan for population growth. When I was working with the United Nations Population Fund, a Singaporean friend said, “Don’t come to Singapore if you are for birth control, for you will not be welcome there”. I was surprised, then, that there could be a government program to promote romance. But she explained to me that her government, worried about decline in birth rate, has a pro-natalist national policy – to find ways to get educated young girls to produce more children. For years, the government have been making a lot of efforts backed up by budgetary resources to organize campaign to encourage marriage. Incentives are given to couples that have more than two children. Places have been set-up where young girls and boys can meet and mingle, and also has organized social occasion such as tea – dances or parties for them. Seth Mydans, journalist of the International Herald Tribune, recently wrote that Singapore government appears to succeed at managing everything - except dating. After all the years of trying, Singapore girls continue to be “too” career-minded, wanting to stay single. They would rather have achievements in work and job than a successful family life. Achievement-oriented girls do not want to be burdened by having a double-workload, especially when most Asian men do not pitch-in to do domestic work and child- rearing. Now polytechnic and higher education institutes have joined in to help the government by setting up training courses to teach young boys and girls on the subjects of romance, love and sex – the modern mating ritual - to be fruitful and multiply. This kind of intervention by government in affairs of the hearts and in the citizen’s sex-life is interesting! Rather funny, when one comes to think of it. I can’t help but wonder, who would be considered “qualify” to teach such a course on love and romance? The old fashion Confucian, autocratic male bureaucrats, or their counter-part, single career-minded women, who themselves do not know how to fall in love, marry or have children? I wish the students good luck in this endeavor, performing their citizen’s duty of making babies for the future of the country.
Filed under Funny, Gender Issues | Comment (0)