I enjoyed our class discussion this week on the global public society and am looking forward to discussing further about celebrities and their influence this week. I think the discussion of celebrities and internet would be interesting - would the celebrities have as big of a reach without social media and the internet? I enjoyed the Dieter and Kumar article as it points out some questions regarding competence when it come to celebrities involved in international relations. I think they also raise a good point about aid money needing to be combined with strategy, not just money because looking historically that has not been as successful in the long term.
I agree with Cooper however who does raise questions about celebrities as diplomats, but does not completely write them off like Dieter and Kumar. They make a good point about celebrity diplomats being able to engage with the masses and state officials, something that officials generally have a harder time doing. At my last job at an NGO working with refugees, our focus was on empowering a vulnerable population, which often required educating volunteers to what it meant to “empower” as they often wanted to provide aid instead of teaching and making a bigger impact in the long-term. I think this is the same with celebrities who lack education on how best to assist, with accountability and strategy with the goal of long-term independence from outside assistance. I look forward to further discussing this in class this week.
Jessica - it is very interesting to pair a study of celebrity diplomacy with the internet. I think that celebrities would defiantly be less able to achieve global recognition without the internet and probably rely more upon regional or simply national recognition. I agree that this might significantly limit their ability and/or capacity to engage in diplomacy.
ReplyDeleteI think your use of the word 'empower' is also interesting. Does it really empower people more to give them AID then to teach them? While I don't think you argue this in your blog, I think it is a core question in our international development system today. Is it better to give a hungry man a fish or teach him how to fish? The answer depends on his access to water...
Katherine - I agree that the concept of "empowering" is a core question within international development today. You make a good point that "access to water" also has to be taken into consideration. Education and support that is not relevant to one's situation would not be empowering. I think a good example of empowering are NGOs that have focused on micro-financing. Aid is provided in the form of loans and creating a local network/group that loans to each other and learn together.
ReplyDeleteJessica, I love the way you highlight the dangers of relying too heavily on non-professionals for aid work. It is one thing for celebrities to raise money for aid groups or even act as spokespersons, much like government officials do; however it becomes something else entirely when celebrities are the go-to for aid work.
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