Speaking in tongues
Cultural and linguistic programs are an oldie but a goodie in soft diplomacy – and I have a feeling they are going to enjoy a substantial boost in a world scrobbling to create “a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”
IHT is reporting on the US State Department’s English-learning programs and their effects on the outlooks of young Muslim women in the Middle East, and Monocle is reporting on the BBC’s new World Service channel in Farsi.(See this month’s Monocle for full article.) The advantages of lingual and cultural exchange I would take as self-evident.
Less glamorously though, literacy is still being overlooked as a diplomatic value and a security value. Aside from perpetuating poverty, illiteracy also perpetuates closed minds, which are fertile grounds for extremist thought. Pakistan’s literacy rate, for instance, is less than that in Angola, Malawi or Sudan. The bombs of the 21st century need to be educational. I for one would like to see a cataclysm of education. Clusterbombs of schools. A massive arsenal of universities. You could build a lot of education for the cost of the wars that have been waged.
Communication and lingual exchange are a two-way street too. Al-Jazeera’s English language service is fascinating. But more needs to be done to get Westerners understanding Arab cultures – I think I read somewhere recently that the US only has six universities teaching Arabic – maybe the Arab world could divert some more of that oil wealth out of follies in Dubai and into activities that foster a real and deep intercultural engagement.
