Canoe.ca
New Pornographers battle Internet leaks on their own terms
July 30 2007
“Personally, I don’t have a huge problem with leaks, I’m of the belief that if people get your record for free but they come to your show and buy a T-shirt or whatever, well, it’s the same difference. You’re not really losing much money. It’s better than them not taking the record for free and not coming to your show,” [New Pornographers singer/guitarist/songwriter Carl] Newman says during a two-day stop in Toronto to promote the new disc.
“But at the same time, people not buying music totally hurts the labels and you need the labels. There’s a symbiotic relationship there and because of that we have to be against leaking.”
The Economist
Into Africa
July 29 2007
African markets are so undeveloped that the opportunity there is still quite small. According to Stanlib, a South African asset-management group, the market capitalisation of the whole continent is just $800 billion, of which South Africa itself makes up $600 billion. The rest of the continent’s markets, in other words, are worth a good deal less than Exxon Mobil. Put another way, China could buy every African quoted company with its foreign-exchange reserves.
Bruce Schneier
Conversation with Kip Hawley, TSA Administrator
July 30 2007
In April, Kip Hawley, the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), invited me to Washington for a meeting. Despite some serious trepidation, I accepted. And it was a good meeting. Most of it was off the record, but he asked me how the TSA could overcome its negative image. I told him to be more transparent, and stop ducking the hard questions. He said that he wanted to do that. He did enjoy writing a guest blog post for Aviation Daily, but having a blog himself didn’t work within the bureaucracy. What else could he do?
Los Angeles Times
The U.S. sends the antiwar L.A. band on a diplomatic mission to the heart of the Arab world.
August 1 2007
“These things cost a little bit of money, but compare it to the cost of not having the standing we had in the past, when people thought they knew us and what we stood for,” said U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Francis Ricciardone, who addressed the crowd wearing a black Ozomatli T-shirt. “People talk about it as soft power. But it’s real power.”
A U.S. Embassy official in Nepal heard about Ozomatli on a radio show while visiting Washington last year and approached band manager Amy Blackman-Romero. U.S. officials are eager to present an image of America and Americans different from the footage of soldiers fighting insurgents in Iraq broadcast on Arab news channels.
Months of haggling ensued. “We wanted them to know the band plays a lot of antiwar rallies,” said Blackman-Romero, who joined the group on the tour. “They told us they were completely comfortable with who the band is. But when they’re out here, it’s about the music, not the politics.’ “
Barack Obama
August 1 2007
I will also launch a program of public diplomacy that is a coordinated effort across my Administration, not a small group of political officials at the State Department explaining a misguided war. We will open “America Houses” in cities across the Islamic world, with Internet, libraries, English lessons, stories of America’s Muslims and the strength they add to our country, and vocational programs. Through a new “ America’s Voice Corps” we will recruit, train, and send out into the field talented young Americans who can speak with – and listen to – the people who today hear about us only from our enemies.
