This Sunday and Monday, October 15-16, residents of SL (and people around the world in RL) will get the chance to help set the first Guinness World Record for the greatest number of individuals to stand up in support of the eight Millennium Development Goals of the United Nation’s Millennium Campaign to help fight extreme poverty worldwide.

Aimee Weber of Aimee Weber Studios is the brains behind the SL effort and explains more here (you can also listen to a SecondCast interview with Aimee here):

"To be counted in this historic endeavor, all you have to do is locate a ‘Stand Up’ kiosk and obtain a free wrist band. There are nearly a hundred Kiosks around the grid already, including in the central plaza of Midnight City. On October 15-16, click on the wrist band to assume the ’stand up’ pose and register yourself as a supporter of the Millennium Development Goals. Your participation will be recorded and included in the final count for the Guinness World Record. Our contribution will make a thunderous statement to policymakers everywhere."

It’ll take just a few minutes of your time to make history. Wow.

Take the public relations industry, for example. Next to the practice of law, perhaps no other profession is as misunderstood, criticized and even vilified as PR — yet at the same time desperately needed (and being connected to both, it’s interesting for me to see them go head-to-head on a regular basis).

Matthew Stibbe’s critique of the PR industry in The Top Ten Lies of PR Companies (which he prefaces with the observation that "not all PR companies are skunks. If you find a decent one, let me know.") and this post providing links to "more examples of PR madness" is one of several recent ones.

Of course (and this is not unique to the PR industry), the actions of some practitioners don’t help positively enhance the profession’s reputation. A good friend of mine becomes livid whenever he sees certain PR "experts" make pronouncements that he feels harm the profession. But what do do? Nothing? Self-police and point out inaccuracies? Become a stronger example for best practices? Well, my vote’s with the latter two.

And while the stakes regarding PR industry reputation management are not insignificant, the stakes in other areas are much higher, such as on the international relations stage.

Earlier this year I wrote about bloggers being ambassadors of sorts and referenced the Business for Diplomatic Action’s suggestions for how to be worldly Americans. Yesterday a Reuters article reported on the Washington D.C.-based Coalition for Citizen Diplomacy’s efforts to "turn millions of Americans into ‘citizen diplomats’ who use personal meetings with foreigners to counter the ugly image of the United States shown in a series of international public opinion polls."

The Coalition, with its impressive roster of member organizations, regularly-held community summits and a July 2006 national summit, believes that "by engaging greater numbers of Americans in meaningful person-to-person encounters with citizens from around the world, we can have a significant effect on our national well-being." 

The Coalition’s three overarching goals are:

1. Recruitment—Increase exponentially the number of Americans who are engaged internationally through their local organizations and see themselves as citizen diplomats;

2. Recognition—Increase the visibility of citizen diplomacy, both its impact and its potential, so that citizens recognize the importance of assuming their responsibilities in building positive and effective foreign relations;

3. Resources—Identify and secure appropriate financial resources—both public and private—for this vital work, as well as expand the role of the federal government in promoting and funding international exchange and education initiatives that advance economic, diplomatic, and social relations with the rest of the world.

These are ambitious goals, no question about it. What’s particularly exciting about the Coalition’s efforts is that it is relying on the dedication, commitment and support of average people to improve the reputation and status of the United States and its citizens (a 32-page downloadable toolkit provides guidelines on how to go about this; PR practitioners may find pp. 15-21 on media relations interesting).   

Juan Manuel Mora, the Communications Director of Opus Dei, wrote a letter to the editor stating, in part:

"The photos of the discipline [a small whip] and the cilice [a chain] presented them in such a way that readers might not know whether they were looking at instruments of torture or a means of Christian penance that could fit in the palm of one’s hand. Their use is healthier and less painful than having an ear pierced or getting a tattoo."

Mora’s letter, using such terms as "healthier" (by what standards?) and "less painful" (by default admitting that pain is a result), does little to minimize the frequent perception that corporal mortification is a strange act practiced by members of a religious fringe. As Communications Director, an official voice of Opus Dei, was this the impression he meant to give?

Of course, the explanation of corporal mortification found on Opus Dei’s online press room doesn’t entirely alleviate this impression either:

"The Da Vinci Code makes it appear that Opus Dei members practice bloody mortifications. In fact, though history indicates that some Catholic saints have done so, Opus Dei members do not do this.

The Catholic Church advises people to practice mortification. The mystery of Jesus Christ’s Passion shows that voluntary sacrifice has a transcendent value and can bring spiritual benefits to others. Voluntary sacrifice also brings personal spiritual benefits, enabling one to resist the inclination to sin. For these reasons, the Church prescribes fasting on certain days and recommends that the faithful practice other sorts of mortification as well. Mortification is by no means the centerpiece of the Christian life, but nobody can grow closer to God without it: “There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2015)….

Some Opus Dei members also make limited use of the cilice and discipline, types of mortification that have always had a place in the Catholic tradition because of their symbolic reference to Christ’s Passion….The Da Vinci Code’s description of the cilice and discipline is greatly exaggerated and distorted: it is simply not possible to injure oneself with them as the book and film depict." 

]]> http://andreaweckerle.com/2006/05/does-opus-deis-communications-director-miss-the-mark.html/feed 10 http://andreaweckerle.com/2006/03/add-this-one-to-your-insults-list.html http://andreaweckerle.com/2006/03/add-this-one-to-your-insults-list.html#comments Tue, 21 Mar 2006 03:08:00 +0000 Andrea Weckerle http://andreaweckerle.com/?p=153

Political insults are often biting, but also original and even funny. Thanks to North Korea, there’s a new way to insult your enemies: Accuse them of having the "spasm of a lunatic."

As this year comes to a close, let’s hope that virals like this Top 10 Viral of 2005 aren’t taken seriously on the global front. I certainly don’t want to be grouped together with these Einsteins (from Bore Me via Site-9 Weblog).

Based on their responses, the people in the video must not watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart’s audience tends to be better informed politically than viewers of The Tonight Show or the Late Show, according to a 2004 online quiz by the National Annenberg Election Survey (quiz link in third paragraph): The Daily Show viewers scored an average of 3.59 out of 6 questions correctly, The Tonight Show viewers scored 2.95, Late Show viewers scored 2.91, and viewers who don’t watch any late-night comedy scored 2.62. By the way, I scored 6 out of 6 on my first attempt. Feel free to share your score.