No Change in Climate of Waste at State Department

Helle Dale / November 20, 2009

The challenge thrown down this week by the U.S. State Department to the world’s home video makers is an ambitious one — apparently nothing less than changing the climate of the planet. “Change Your Climate, Change Our World,” is the title of the State Department’s new public diplomacy campaign in the run-up to the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen in mid-December. This is hardly an appropriate use of US taxpayer money or effective public diplomacy for the United States as it advances a tendentious political agenda, not knowledge of the United States.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself launched the initiative using the department’s social networking site, ExchancesConnect, hoping to draw in submissions for videos from all over the world. The website is a prime example of Public Diplomacy 2.0, the newest tool in the governments tool box for reaching publics around the globe at the touch of a computer key board. Teenagers from 14 to 17 are invited to submit their entries between now and January 12 next year, from which four will be selected by a panel of judges. Winners will be awarded all expense aid scholarships, a handsome prize. (more…)