Cultural diversity and TV

Cultural diversity, as reflected in TV shows

The right question in such situations is not only to have a compulsory dimension of ethnic diversity in the TV productions. By portraying them stereotypically you don't do anything else than enforcing the existing mental images of these minorities. As in real life, it's always a matter of how managing diversity.

Canadian diversity

Ethnic conflict and its solutions, a Canadian perspective

Prejudice Affects Perception Of Ethnic Minority Faces

ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2008) — Prejudice can be a powerful influence, biasing the way we think about and act towards ethnic minorities. Now, a new study suggests that this bias even influences what people believe the faces of members belonging to specific ethnic minority groups look like.

Psychologist Ron Dotsch and his colleagues from the Behavioral Science Institute at Radboud University in The Netherlands, investigated how study participants view Moroccans, a highly stigmatized immigrant group in The Netherlands. The researchers assessed the participants’ prejudice levels via the Implicit Association Test, which measured the strength of the volunteers’ negative or positive associations with Moroccan names.

Participants were repeatedly shown photographs of two blurry faces side by side and they were instructed to select the more “Moroccan-looking” face. Little did they know that both of the blurry faces they saw were actually the same face, just with different levels of blurriness and distortion. Based on the participants’ choices, the researchers were able to visualize average faces reflecting what participants think typical Moroccan faces look like. Then, a separate group of participants were asked to look at these visualized faces and judge how criminal-looking they were.

The findings, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveal that the way people view ethnic faces is related to their level of prejudice. It turns out that the visualized faces based on the choices of prejudiced people were characterized by the second group as being more criminal-looking.

The researchers note that “the present results have important implications with regard to whom people identify as members of stigmatized groups.” They suggest that “prejudiced individuals may find it easier to categorize criminal-looking Moroccan faces as Moroccan than to categorize innocent-looking Moroccan faces as Moroccan.” The authors conclude that this type of generalization “may function as a stereotype-maintaining device.”

Hungarian foreign ministry expresses regret at Slovak President's veto of education bill

The exchange of misunderstandings between Hungary and Slovakia continues.

MTI

December 22

Hungary's Foreign Ministry deeply regrets that Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic has declined to sign a new education bill, spokesman Lajos Szelestey said on Friday.

The new bill would allow the use of Hungarian placenames at first place, followed by the Slovak placenames in parantheses, in textbooks used by ethnic Hungarian schools in Slovakia.

Gasparovic' decision to veto the bill was announced earlier on Friday.

Szelestey said the Hungarian ministry deeply regrets the decision because the introduction of the new law could put an end to a long-lasting dispute. The ministry can only hope that the Slovak parliament will find a solution acceptable to ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia, Szelestey added.

Hungary's deputy education minister Gergely Arato also felt sorry for Gasparovic's decision. He told MTI that he would initiate a meeting of the Hungarian-Slovak joint education committee. He said that a ministry decision in Hungary will come into force in the near future which will simplify the use of textbooks for ethnic minorities written in their mother tongue, extra financing for ethnic minority education will be maintained and extra opportunities will be created to support ethnic minority cultures.

Chairman of the Slovak National Party Jan Slota recently called on Gasparovic not to sign the bill, stating that the amendments were unconstitutional and contrary to the law.

The bill will go before parliament once again and at least 76 supporting votes are required in the 150-member body to get it approved despite Gasparovic' veto.

The loneliness of the last native speaker

Dozens are on the verge of taking to their graves a system of communication that will vanish forever

The Economist

Dec 21, 2008

Think of the solitude felt by Marie Smith Jones before she died this year in her native Alaska, at 89. She was the last person who knew the language of the Eyak people as a mother tongue.

Or imagine Ned Mandrell, who died in 1974 – he was the last native speaker of Manx, similar to Irish and Scots Gaelic.

Both these people had the comfort of being surrounded, at least some of the time, by enthusiasts who knew that something precious was vanishing and tried to record and learn whatever they could of a vanishing tongue.

In remote parts of the world, dozens more people are at the point of taking to their graves a system of communication that will never be recorded or reconstructed.

Does it matter? Plenty of languages – among them Akkadian, Etruscan, Tangut and Chibcha – have gone the way of the dodo without causing much trouble to posterity.

Should anyone lose sleep over the fact that many tongues – from Manchu (spoken in China) to Hua (Botswana) and Gwich'in (Alaska) – are in danger of suffering a similar fate?

Compared with groups who lobby to save animals or trees, campaigners who lobby to preserve languages are a rare breed. But they are trying both to mitigate and publicize an alarming acceleration in the rate at which languages are vanishing.

Of the 6,912 known languages spoken today, 50 to 90 per cent could be gone by the end of the century.

In Africa, at least 300 languages are in near-term danger; 200 more have died recently or are on the verge of death. Some 145 languages are threatened in East and Southeast Asia.

Some languages, even robust ones, face an obvious threat in the shape of a political power bent on imposing a majority tongue. A youngster in any part of the Soviet Union soon realizes that, whatever you spoke at home, mastering Russian is the key to success; citizens of China, including Tibetan ones, face similar pressure to focus on Mandarin, the main Chinese dialect.

Nor did English reach its present global status without ruthless tactics. In years past, Americans, Canadians and Australians took native children away from their families to be raised at boarding schools where English rules.

In all the Celtic fringes of the British Isles, there are bitter memories of children being punished for speaking the wrong language.

But in an age of mass communication, the threats to linguistic diversity are less draconian and more spontaneous.

Parents stop using traditional tongues, thinking it will be better for their children to grow up using a dominant language (such as Swahili in East Africa) or a global one (such as English, Mandarin or Spanish). And even if parents try to keep the old speech alive, their efforts can be doomed by the influence of films and computer games.

The result is a growing list of tongues spoken only by white-haired elders.

One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered and Lost, a book edited by Peter K. Austin, an Australian linguist, gives some examples: Njerep, one of 31 endangered languages counted in Cameroon, reportedly has only four speakers left, all of them over 60.

The valleys of the Caucasus used to be a paradise for linguists in search of unusual syntax, but Ubykh, one of the region's baffling tongues, whose last known speaker died in 1992.

The effort to keep languages alive can lead to hard arguments, especially where limited funds are available to spend on education and official communications. In America and Britain, some feel that, whatever people speak at home, priority should go to making sure that children know English well.

But supporters of linguistic diversity make strong arguments, too. Nicholas Ostler, a scholar who heads the Foundation for Endangered Languages, a non-profit group based in Britain, says multilingual children do better academically than monolingual ones. He rejects the notion that a common tongue helps to avoid war: Think of Rwanda, Bosnia and Vietnam.

Thanks to the Internet, saviours of languages have better tools than ever before. Words and sounds, for example, can easily be posted online.

Educational techniques are improving, too. In New Zealand, Maori-speakers have formed "language nests," in which grandparents coach toddlers in the old tongue. Australia's dying Kamilaroi language was boosted by pop songs aimed at teens.

But whatever tricks or technology are used, the only test of a language's viability is everyday life.

"The way to save languages is to speak them," says Austin. "People have to talk to people."

Slovakia Urged to Take Care of its Roma Population

The situation of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the problems they are facing in Western Europe are one of the most serious concerning European minorities. For the new EU members, improving the situation of the Roma population was one of the condition of getting the full membership, and the general standard improved, but still they are confronted with serious inequalities and discriminations in terms of recognition of their basic human rights. In addition, in comparison with other minorities, they are lacking a strong and self-aware intellectual leadership able to support their rights. In the case of Roma, we can say that as majorities, we could easily identify them on the street, we can shout their ethnic belonging but, in fact, what we know about them is almost nothing. Their world is still a mistery, but not one that propel us towards dreaming, but one when ignorance kills. Isabel Fonseca is among the few researchers who made a personal journey in the life of Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe, experiences gathered in a very interesting book. OSI devoted several exhibitions and studies to Roma, among which Rolf Bauerdick's insights of the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe.

Tolerance.ca

Amidst grand celebrations over its switch to euro and entry into euroclub, Universal Society of Hinduism president, Rajan Zed, has urged Slovakia to take care of its most disadvantaged Roma population and stop human rights violations reportedly suffered by them.

Zed says that in Slovakia, Roma reportedly live in deep poverty and many of their children study in segregated schools offering inferior quality education and many do not attend school at all.

Alarming condition of Roma is a social blight for Slovakia and the European Union as they reportedly regularly face social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, unusually high unemployment rates, etc., Rajan Zed argues.

It is like an undeclared apartheid and it is almost total societal exclusion of Roma. The maltreatment of Roma is outside even the European Union norms. Roma issue should be one of the highest priorities of human rights agenda of Slovakia. Strong political will is needed to resolve this, Zed points out.

Roma inclusion and integration programs need to immediately take off the ground providing them with better health and education avenues, higher economic opportunities, sources of empowerment and participation, etc. Expand their access to preschool education, let their children attend mainstream schools and launch awareness campaigns. Available Roma workforce, if utilized effectively, can bring unexpected economic gains to Slovakia, Zed says.

Rajan Zed suggests that Slovakia might need help in improving the plight of Roma. A comprehensive, sustainable, cohesive and integrated Europe-wide policy with strategic focus is needed to target discrimination against Roma and their integration; providing them equal access to education, employment, public services, housing, and health care; empowerment through participation; increased transparency of authorities; improving their material and human rights situation, etc. Involve Roma in policymaking and its implementation and assessment. Establish a monitoring body for programs and projects.

Zed says that all world religions, denominations and religious leaders should also come out in support of the cause of this distinct ethnic and cultural group of Roma, because religion teaches us to help the helpless.

Intellectual mistakes

Thomas Sowell on the ignorance, intellectuals and their mistakes.

Intellectuals and governments

Fulbright's experience, shared in Ukraine.

Sarkozy acts for ethnic diversity

AP

President Nicolas Sarkozy, impatient with what he said was the slow pace of promoting diversity in France, announced measures Wednesday to put more ethnic minorities on TV screens, in political parties and in elite schools.

A government action plan to be presented by March will spell out the measures in detail. The project is to be overseen by a newly appointed commissioner for diversity and equality, Yazid Sabeg, a son of Algerian immigrants who is known for his efforts to bring equality to the workplace.

"It's not moving fast enough," Sarkozy said in a speech at the elite Ecole Polytechnique, south of Paris, a symbol of the very system that has locked minorities out of the mainstream. France must change so that "no French person feels like a stranger in his own country."

Turning to his audience, Sarkozy said prestigious schools must make room for all.

"We are going to throw open the doors of places where tomorrow's elite are formed," he said.

He wants top schools to reserve 25 percent of their places for students receiving state aid by September — and 30 percent by September 2010. Many students who receive government education funds are ethnic minorities from underprivileged backgrounds.

Increasing diversity was a campaign promise of Sarkozy, elected in May 2007. Long ignored, diversity topped the political agenda after fall 2005 riots in poor French neighborhoods exposed deep anger among people of immigrant origin and revealed the extent of discrimination in France.

The election of Barack Obama as U.S. president sparked renewed soul-searching about why so few ethnic minorities rise to the top in France.

Sarkozy squarely rejected affirmative action for France. But in a significant departure from French practice, he raised the possibility that scientists might begin gathering statistics on ethnicity — long taboo in a country that is officially colorblind.

Researchers are handicapped by the inability to make head counts based on religious or ethnic factors and have pressed for permission to do so. Sarkozy said scientists must be able "to clearly identify lagging and measure progress."

While offering no firm promises or dates, Sarkozy said a dialogue would be opened with scientists on how to advance ethnic diversity in France.

He encouraged companies to accept anonymous resumes from job seekers to avoid discrimination due to name or address as is often the case today.

The government will propose that 100 large companies experiment with using such resumes in 2009, Sarkozy said, adding that he wants to extend the reach of the High Authority Against Discrimination so that it has the right to make surprise checks of work places.

Among other measures, political parties will be asked to sign a "diversity charter" that could become a criteria for receiving public funds, Sarkozy said.

Sarkozy also said TV stations will be required to spell out diversity goals to the CSA, France's audiovisual watchdog.

Hungarian party in Romania, officially in opposition

It's official: the Hungarian party from Romania (RMDSZ/UDMR) is entering in opposition, the first time in the last 12 years. The reasons: the former opposition social-democratic party PSD refused to let them enter in the coalition they made with the PD-L, social-democratic party too. PD-L was through his representatives, for two years, part of the ruling liberal coalition in power between 2004-2008. (Now I just realize how difficult/almost impossible is to explain in a limited amount of space how the political life Romania changed from a day to another - and even many times a day).
Anyway, what it is sure is that at least for the first year - until the presidential elections to be held in the first half of 2009 - the RMDSZ/UDMR will not be part of the decision making process.
Advantages: trying to reform its leadership, who haven't changed too much in the last 12 years; the far-right nationalist party PRM/The Great Romania Party is out of the political game in the next four years, so they are free to get involved in larger society projects in the Parliament; on the other side, the awaited law of minorities was blocked by the former political allies. They could ally with the National Liberal Party/PNL and speak with a common voice on common problems.
Disadvantages: it could experience a radicalization of the political discourse; the leaders already warned that in Romania it could be expected the same tensed situation as in Slovakia - it's depends a lot about the both parts. What it is said about Slovakia is that when something bad is happening, maybe the Hungarians are accountable for it. The economy is expected to have many downs and few ups, and it is still uncertain how the current coalition will handle all the coming difficulties.
Wise behaviors are hard to predict in Eastern Europe. For example, two days ago you had a designated prime-minister. He started to write down the government plan and to find proper individuals to hold ministerial positions and to give interviews in this quality. Suddenly, he realizes "he can't no more" and gave up. Another guy is coming. Until the final confirmation of the Parliament nothing is sure and even then...So, even harder to know how the opposition will evolve.

The Romanian communism in pictures

The Romanian National Archives and the Institute for Investigation of the Crimes of Communism from Bucharest launched today an on-line free of charge archive of official and private photos of communist leaders and events from this period.

Voices of dissent: Ethnic reconciliation in Central and Eastern Europe (I)

The Hungarian-Slovakian relations rarely reached a normal, non-tensed level, after the fall of communism.

As a overall rule, the dialogue between Hungary and its neighbours started from the very beginning on a dissonant tone, right after József Antal's claim of representing 15 million of Hungarians - including all the ethnic Hungarian from Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia - repeated by all the heads of the governments in Budapest, whatever their political orientation, created serious rifts in the dialogue between Hungary and its neighbouring countries.

One of the EU and NATO full membership conditions was a proof of good bilateral relationships with the neighbours, but the reconciliation process took longer than expected. The identity survival and the political tools chosen for supporting it tensioned sometimes this relationships. The Hungarian status law an initiative of Orban Viktor's government but voted - even with some nuances - by all the Hungarians parties, increased the lack of trust and provoked diplomatic tensions, mainly with Romania and Slovakia, hosts of larger Hungarian communities. But, in the same time the evolutions in the two cases are different.

In Romania, the cross-border cooperation, the economic and military exchanges continued in the last 20 years at a very high level, despite the nationalist accents of the public discourse - available as well for members of the Hungarian party, RMDSZ/UDMR. One of the hardest nationalist, anti-Hungarian and anti-Semitic Romanian party, The Greater Romania Party/PRM was left out of the Parliament at the last parliamentary elections, November 30. Since 1996, RMDSZ/UDMR is part of the coalition government, having in this way all the opportunities to be part of the political negotiations, as well as to be part of the decision making process. The process is far to be accomplished as the request of the minority don't get the full agreement of the Romanian parties - the recreation of Bolyai university in Cluj, the full restitution of church properties confiscated by the communist regime, being among the constant claims of the Hungarian party. But, at least, a certain mechanism of discussion and negociation was created in order to prevent serious tensions. Since 2005, they are held periodically Hungarian-Romanian joint Governmental meetings, in Bucharest or in Budapest with an agenda going beyond the issues of minority rights.

A similar evolution was followed in Slovakia. But, since 2006, it was for the first time since Vladimír Meciar's nationalist regime of the 1990s, the Hungarian minority Party of the Hungarian Coalition (Strana madarskej koalície: SMK) was left out of the power-sharing coalition. In its place, the right-wing Slovak National Party (Slovenská národná strana: SNS) gained the unexpected favour of populist Socialist Prime Minister Robert Fico, along with Meciar's People's Party - Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (Ludová strana - Hnutie za demokratické Slovensko: LS-HZDS), although Meciar himself plays a noticeably quieter role than SNS leader Jan Slota. Giving the popular support enjoyed by the ruling coalition and its nationalist discourse, it is hard to predict a change of tone, situation in which it is expected to have a radicalization of the Hungarian political party as well, echoing with a more and more active, visible and organized Hungarian far-right.

It is quite inappropriate to talk about models universally available in terms of ethnic reconciliation, mainly in a region where history is still playing a very important role. But, at least, it is possible to identify a couple of ingredients whose mixture could create the premises for a choice of the dialogue, instead of confrontation - of any kind. The permanent dialogue between representatives of the majority and those of the minority is one of the key. Nationalism ia an intellectually created concept, but it is available too for the reconciliation. Civil society representatives from both parts might constitute themselves in voices for dialogue. The Slovak intellectuals already sent a public message in this respect, and it is an important step forward, that must be continued, diversified and enforced, not only in crisis situation.

In Trust: Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, Francis Fukuyama is stating that the efficient economic and social organizations are emerging from those societies which have wide and efficient trust networks, including in this category the social-society network.

In Central and Eastern Europe, it is exactly this trust who was destroyed, with long term consequences, by the communists regimes. In each of the countries of the former Eastern block, the communist operated differently - from the "goulash Capitalism" in Hungary, to the paranoid dictatorship in Ceausescu's Romania. But, at the level of the society, of people-from-people relations, it is exactly this trust who was extincted, through the repression system. You was educated - in school, or family or society as a whole - to do not trust anybody - because spy of a "foreign" anti-communist power, or a collaborator of the secret polices, or member of the minority groups. The rising stars of communism from yesterday were the today "capitalism's agents", so, who to trust? Not even your family members. And extreme nationalism was an efficient tool to create a wide support for the regime.

It is obvious that the general political, social and economic situation in the last 20 years tremendously changed in Central and Eastern Europe. But, the past/various sentimental interpretations of history are resurgent, in political crisis, in elections times or simply when a need for getting a stronger identity is required. It will continued to be so, but such discourses have to be counter by an open dialogue of the public intellectuals on dissenting topics. It will took longer than winning a political campaign for a four-years term in office, but it is a very basic test of the mission and role of intellectuals in these (still) post-communist societies.

Ph.D. students experiences: UK

Two pieces of articles from the Independent, on the personal challenges encountered by a PhD student and the time pressure in finishing the research in the UK sooner than a couple of years ago.