The peace of our world is indivisible. As long as negative forces are getting the better of positive forces anywhere, we are all at risk. It may be questioned whether all negative forces could ever be removed. The simple answer is: “No!” It is in human nature to contain both the positive and the negative. However, it is also within human capability to work to reinforce the positive and to minimize or neutralize the negative. Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable goal. But it is one towards which we must continue to journey, our eyes fixed on it as a traveller in a desert fixes his eyes on the one guiding star that will lead him to salvation. Even if we do not achieve perfect peace on earth, because perfect peace is not of this earth, common endeavours to gain peace will unite individuals and nations in trust and friendship and help to make our human community safer and kinder.
After enduring many years of house arrest for her pro-democracy resistance against Burma’s (now Myanmar) dictatorship, Aung San Suu Kyi, now a member of Myanmar’s Parliament, was free to receive her Nobel Peace Prize today in Oslo. The prize was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.
Full text of her Nobel lecture delivered today in Oslo is available at this link.
In 1990, the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (“Seven Samuri,” “Rashomon,” “Ran,” ) wrote and directed a series of short films based on his own dreams. “Mount Fuji in Red” is one of the “dream tales.”
In our real and present world news reports say the earthquake crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant reactor is leaking radioactive water into the sea. According to the Wall Street Journal a sticky resin is being applied, an unorthodox approach, to prevent contamination. They will use barges to carry the resin:
The oceanside city of Shizuoka, 100 miles down the coast from the plant, said Friday that it had agreed to lease plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. its 450-foot-long so-called mega-barge, which the town uses as a platform for fishing and taking in views of Mount Fuji.
My interest in state dinners are all about details: protocols, attire, guest list, entertainment, menu. I’m collecting a little data from last night’s dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao.
From jump…
First Lady Michelle Obama looked FABULOUS
This dress outshines everything on the red carpet of the Golden Globes Sunday. (IMO)
House Alexander McQueen produced this stunning gown. The hands on-designer is creative director Sarah Burton. From a cultural perspective, the color was perfect – red, symbol of fire, courage, the south, fortune, success, passion, fertility, happiness. Red is good. Red is great! Red looks fabulous on the First Lady.
Blurb from NY Times Cathy Horyn: Made for the McQueen’s 2011 resort collection, the style originally came with short sleeves, which Mrs. Obama evidently had altered to suit her taste. Most of all, her choice had a just enough pomp to signal the importance of this state dinner.
UPDATE: This just in from Robin Givhan, now culture and style editor for The Daily Beast/Newsweek. Robin is settling into her new job after 15 years as fashion editor for The Washington Post where she became the first fashion journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize. Robin published her first article for today’s The Daily Beast. And I’ll quote:
In Mrs. Obama’s considered fashion message, her full-skirted dress, from a British design house worn in celebration of a Chinese president, struck a blow for creativity. In grand and sweeping terms, one could argue that it symbolized the ability of a designer’s imagination to cross borders, connect different cultures, and ultimately express itself in a singular moment of beauty.
Yes, those are human rights protesters you hear outside the White House gates. I guess that gave the Chinese president a little taste of our “free speech” customs.
It’s no accident that Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue and designer Vera Wang (who has design houses in China) were on the guest list. Part of the talks included intellectual property issues. Fashion, IT and entertainment have been the commercial victims of China’s casual acquaintance with copyright, especially when the country’s national appetites for designer labels and the latest media gadgets and block busters are on the rise with a growing consumer class.
Two former U.S. Presidents were guests: Jimmy Carter and William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton (the Secretary of State’s date).
But this didn’t deter American business tycoons from attempting to get an audience with President Hu even if the Speaker of the House John Boehner declined attending the state dinner in favor of a meeting with Chinese president on his “Hill turf. Afterwards, President Hu goes to Chicago.
Dinner was in the Blue Room of the White House.
The official menu from the official program (interesting reading):
Surf-and-Turf, pears, spinach. This suspiciously resembles the Food & Folklore menu I posted yesterday. Hmmm.
We haven’t heard much about the President’s trip to Asia since the breakdown of trade talks in South Korea. A bust according to news outlets. Was it a total bust? No one’s talking about it now. Personally, I like this photo of him having green tea ice cream on a visit to the Great Buddha of Kamakura at the Kotoku-in Temple in Japan. Will the President’s moments of Zen be interpreted as being out of touch?
I’m still trying to figure out why the headline, “Michelle Obama Wears Headscarf…” on Huffington Post. Michelle Obama in a hardscarf visiting a mosque Indonesia — how bizarre (read sarcasm). Fortunately, someone put things in context at the Washington Post in this slide show “Women, power, and the headscarf.” The First Lady’s Prova scarf was made in the USA. Her suit was by another American designer, Stephen Burrows. Burrows also designs for Target. Are we talking a trade deal boost for American designers?
Just breathe.
This administration not only inherited a massive national economic and mental meltdown, but must adopt big agendas when the time comes to make a move. “Change” is fast in elections; slow in governing. You go to Asia to talk security, trade, reaching out to Muslims, you’re not going to get everything you want out of the trip.
Just breathe.
Time to bring it home.
President’s Weekly Address
As President, time and again, I’ve called for new limitations on earmarks. We’ve reduced the cost of earmarks by over $3 billion. And we’ve put in place higher standards of transparency by putting as much information as possible on earmarks.gov. In fact, this week, we updated the site with more information about where last year’s earmarks were actually spent, and made it easier to look up Members of Congress and the earmarks they fought for.
The earmark debate is going to produce some interesting political drama in the months to come. We heard this in the 2008 elections. The problem with earmarks is they have benefits and abuses associated with them. When it comes to legislation, they can be necessary spending evils — for people who consider earmarks evil. States get building and infrastructure projects. Universities get research grants for science, humanities. Medical centers may get new state-of-the-art equipment. Someone may get a job thanks to their representative or Senator. Someone may get a big cash bonus.
On the website mentioned in the President’s Weekly, you may find earmarks worth fighting for and money well spent. And then, President Obama, offers an example of earmark abuse. We can’t afford Bridges to Nowhere like the one that was planned a few years back in Alaska.
President Obama’s Fellow Nobel laureate and Myanmar’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released on Saturday. She had been under house arrest for nearly 15 years. This was not the first house arrest for Suu Kyi in her political career. Because the powers that be are still in power Myanmar, will the press call her weak as well?
Culture always moves before politics. Think of how Jackie Robinson’s Major League debut preceded Brown vs. Board of Education, or how Ellen Degeneres’ coming-out preceded court rulings on same-sex marriage and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Cultural change is often the dress-rehearsal for political change. Or put in another way, political change is the final manifestation of cultural shifts that have already occurred.
Jeff Chang’s interview in Colorlines Magazine has been circulating for over a week — at least in my mailboxes and from mailboxes of friends and cohorts. Many know Jeff Chang as the guy who can explain Hip Hop culture and the generation to you (Can’t Stop Won’t Stop). This time Jeff nearly explains my eclectique916 blog to me — yep,
Culture
is bigger than politics.
…and below the fold, The President’s Weekly
After Tuesday’s mid term, President Obama offers the olive branch:
“Let’s start where we agree. All of us want certainty for middle-class Americans. None of us want them to wake up on January 1st with a higher tax bill. That’s why I believe we should permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for all families making less than $250,000 a year. That’s 98 percent of the American people.”
Then draws the line:
“…I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.”
Republicans got the House; Democrats keep the Senate with a smaller majority. Who’s message was heard? The midterm elections were the most confusing in terms of messaging. Simple answer: someone won, someone lost. The same old speeches about “children are our future” just don’t do it for me. I heard the same platitudes when I was a child. Did my generation hit the skids? Did we get lost and now its time to move on? Cutting taxes and deficits simultaneously just doesn’t make good math or people sense to me. Are cuts for the services that support the unheard? Honestly, there’s very little I can do with “tax breaks,” except pay a utility bill or treat myself to an extra night or two of take out.
What did the winners win? A short lived victory lap. I hear the bubbles going flat fast in the champagne glasses.
Maybe the President will bring home treasures from the East. Wise men have to find a star. This trip to India has many layers, politically, economically, and culturally. It’s a country of past and future, of caste and color. To see the First Lady and the President in this narrative, changes India’s own narrative.
[Update – sand art in India]
But as E-bert alludes, is this the dance for India and the drones for Pakistan? Is there no land for wise men?
Transcript for the President’s Weekly available here.