Cultural war

THE AMERICAN State Department has recruited prominent American writers to contribute to a special anthology and give readings around the globe in a campaign aimed at furthering American diplomatic interests. Participants in Writers on America: 15 Reflections include four Pulitzer Prize winners, Michael Chabon, Robert Olen Butler, David Herbert Donald and Richard Ford; American Poet laureate Billy Collins, and two Arab American writers Naomi Shihab Nye and Elmaz Abinader. All were requested to write about what it means to be an American writer.

Ford, author of Independence Day, told the New York Times that there was a perception in the world that Americans feel culturally superior and are intellectually indifferent -- a stereotype that needs to be burst, he argued. He also added that he was eager to visit Islamic countries to help "humanise America" and present a more diverse picture of American public opinion than the Bush administration has been putting forth.

The campaign is reminiscent of Cold War politics when the US sent orchestras, dance troupes and artists to infiltrate communist societies culturally and use art and literature on behalf of American interests. It includes efforts by Charlotte Beers, under secretary of state for public diplomacy and a former advertising executive, to sell the US to hostile Muslim populations through a television show broadcast by Voice of America in Iran, a travelling exhibition of photographs of the World Trade Center site by Joel Meyerowitz, videos spotlighting tolerance for American Muslims and a pamphlet showing Muslims as part of mainstream American life.

Several articles in the anthology are critical of the US. Butler writes that though the US was "built on the preservation of the rights of minorities, [it] has sometimes been slow to apply those rights fully". Abinader, born to Lebanese immigrants, recalls being subjected to racist remarks by her classmates, a trend that continued throughout her academic career as "feelings towards Arabs became more negative and sometimes bordered on distrust, even from my own colleagues".

Thirty-one thousand copies of the anthology will be available around the world and Arabic, French, Spanish and Russian editions are being prepared, with translations in two dozen other languages expected in the future.

The texts can be read online at http:// www.usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/ writers/

Dialogue with Spaniards

A CONFERENCE for Arab-Iberian- American Dialogue was organised by the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Social Organisation (ALECSO) this week in Tunis under the title "Shared Contributions and Shared Influences". The three-day conference included participants from the Arab World, Latin America, Spain, Portugal and France. It is the first attempt to create bridges of understanding between Arabs and the Spanish-speaking world both in Europe and Latin America. Among the Arab participants were former Arab League Secretary-General Al-Shadhli Al-Qulaybi, Aziza Banani, Gaber Asfour, Zabiya Khamis, Clovis Maksoud, Samir Sarhan and Abdel- Wahab Bou Khadija.

ALECSO hosted a conference last summer for Arab European cultural dialogue and similar conferences promoting interaction with Russia, China and Japan are planned.

No intervention

PALESTINIAN filmmaker Elia Suleiman's Divine Intervention, which won the Special Jury Award at Cannes Film Festival this year, has just won the Screen International Award for a non-European film at the European Film Awards in Rome on Saturday. The main winner was Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar who swept the five top prizes (including best director and best film) for Hable Con Ella (Talk to Her).

Divine Intervention has not been accepted for nomination as the best foreign language Oscar because Palestine is not recognised as a nation by the US academy.

Two Arab films have been nominated for the Oscars, Algerian filmmaker Yamina Bachir-Chouikh's Rachida and Egyptian Magdi Ahmed Ali's Asrar Al-Banat (Girls' Secrets).

Also among the 53 competing films for the best foreign prize is the first Afghan film to be nominated for an Oscar, Jawed Wassel's FireDancer. The director was murdered by one of the producers of the film in October 2001.

No Adab

THIS month's issue of the Lebanese cultural magazine Al-Adab, has been banned by the censors in Kuwait and Jordan. This issue's central theme is "Censorship in Egypt", part of an ongoing series focusing on censorship in individual Arab countries. The issue was initially banned by censorship authorities in Egypt who later went back on their decision following an outcry by Egyptian and Arab intellectuals. Last month's issue focusing on censorship in Syria was not banned by Damascus.

Makhmalbaf in Kabul

IRANIAN filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf is shooting a new film in Kabul. She told the New York Times she inherited her interest in Afghanistan from her father, director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who chronicled the Afghan refugee saga in three of his films: The Cyclist, Afghan Alphabet and Kandahar. The current film, still untitled, was written by both Makhmalbafs and deals with women's aspirations in a changing society. Finding Afghan women willing to participate in the film was a challenge. Only 10 women showed up at a casting-call. Finally a lead was found among the students of Kabul University.

Samira's last film, Blackboards, deals with the Kurds' struggle for survival along the Iran-Iraq border and won the Jury Prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. She also directed a segment, "God, Construction and Deconstruction", of the controversial collective project 11.09.01.

Compiled by Amina Elbendary