Global

It is feasible for China to continue playing an important role in mediating Middle
East conflicts. In fact, it already has. In the case of the Israeli occupation of Palestine,
however, mediation is hardly the issue.
 
Even before Beijing successfully managed to achieve reconciliation between Saudi
Arabia and Iran last April, Chinese diplomacy has shown exceptional maturity.
 
For many years, China has been perceived to be an outsider to global affairs,
supposedly contending itself to economic expansion or to regional economic
integration.
 
Former US President Donald Trump forced, or rather, accelerated China’s global
outreach when, in 2018, he launched an unprecedented trade war on the powerful
Asian country.
 
Trump’s plan backfired. Not only did Washington fail to dissuade Beijing from
bowing to American diktats, it also inspired what became known as China’s wolf
diplomacy – a self-assertive Chinese approach to foreign policy.
 
From an American - or Western - viewpoint, the new tactic was perceived to be
hostile and aggressive.
 

Movie Against Child Abductions

Movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn reputedly once snarked: “If you want to send a message, use Western Union!” But one way socially conscious filmmakers can cleverly “sneak” messages into movies is by sandwiching their ideas into popular genres that audiences are familiar with. Film Noir and murder mysteries are good examples: Author Dashiell Hammett was a Communist Party member who put anti-capitalist notions about greed and obsession with money into works such as The Maltese Falcon. While the content of leftist filmmaker Costa-Gavras’ 1969 Oscar-winning Z depicts political assassination and the colonels’ coup in Greece, it is in form a whodunit: Who killed the Greek peace candidate?   

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son/nephew of a political dynasty and current candidate for president

running in the Democratic Party primaries, is widely portrayed by the corporate press as a kooky
conspiracy theorist. But he has scored as high as 20% in the polls. Is Bobby Jr. being accurately
represented or a serious competitor to Joe Biden for the Democrats’ nomination, who is being
maligned and misrepresented? To find out for myself, I attended a press conference/campaign
rally for the presidential contender on August 3 at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills.

High Profile Political Journeys