Bryce Zabel's FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

Got Green?

Charlotte Safavi is an Iranian-American journalist who writes for numerous publications, including the Huffington Post

Last week as Iran's Tweet-A-Thon raged on my Facebook, an unrelated post caught my eye from an American Facebook friend, "Green twitter pictures are stupid as f***." I knew my friend did not know what the green images meant. But his comment made me stop and think.

Since the disputed election results of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's win came out of Iran on June 12, 2009, green wheels started turning on the Internet. The clamp down on international press coverage in Iran only meant green-colored avatars spread faster than the plague on the social networking sites, now operating as de factonewsrooms.

I scroll through my Facebook friends' profile pictures. Among them, I see simple statements of protest on green backgrounds: Where is My Vote? Where is Their Vote? Free Iran. I see bold graphics on green squares -- a clenched fist, the black snail-shaped map of Iran, a splatter of red. I see recent photographs with green elements -- a pair of green-ribbon bedecked fingers and thumbs forming a heart-shape, green-painted fingers making the V sign, defiant Iranians demonstrating on the streets of Iran in green clothing and accessories.

I am most touched by my American Facebook friends, many of whom are not multicultural mutts like me, who have taken on green avatars, some by green-washing their regular profile pictures. Of course, I know those who have not changed their profile pictures -- I have not -- also support the Iranians. A plea for democracy in real time spreading throughout the Web is potent and addictive.

Color for a cause is also powerful. Think of the pink ribbon of breast cancer awareness, the yellow ribbon of wanting to see loved ones home safely, the red ribbon of AIDS.

WGA Politics 2009: One for the History Books?

This year I served as a member of the Writers Guild of America west's "Officers Nominating Committee." It was our job to come up with two candidates each for the offices of President, Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer.

We've just concluded by phone conference our final meeting. While I'm sworn to secrecy until the WGA announces those candidates and the candidates who will also run for the Board of Directors in this year's election, I think it's pretty safe to say that this is going to be one astonishingly competitive election, maybe even one for the Guild history books.

Some people around town already know what's going on (obviously, since the candidates and their supporters talk). The likelihood is that either Daily Variety or the Hollywood Reporter or even Nikki Finke are likely to break this news before the WGA gets around to announcing it. Hell, at dinner on Friday, one of my friends told me what the news was and he was spot-on. That was 48 hours ago.

Anyway, after last year's strike, the WGA is about to put a couple of presidential and vice-presidential candidates out there who will have dramatically different takes on what it meant, what we won or lost, and what we should do next. That's democracy, folks, and the WGA is about to practice it, big-time. Stay tuned...

Green is the Color of Growth

Charlotte Safavi is an Iranian-American journalist who writes for numerous publications, including the Huffington Post

I am a child of nowhere--at least I thought so until this week. Though born in London and educated at Oxford, my heritage is Iranian. Both my parents are from Tehran, where I also spent part of my childhood. I immigrated to Los Angeles in 1985, later married an American and gave birth to an American son. When it comes to explaining my cultural identity, my head spins uncontrollably like that of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. No single country defines me, rather a combination of all three, depending on the situation. Living far from Iranian family and friends in suburban DC, Iran has been creeping lower on my totem pole.

But this week feels different. The Iranian in me is piping up. All you halves and mutts, like my son, all you multicultural schizophrenics, like me, there will come a time when parts of you come to life when you least expect them. However long or for whatever reason you suppress them, those parts of you that are from somewhere else will be at the fore.

For me, it started on Facebook. At first, the election in Iran meant little to me as an American bystander with no Iranian passport and no right to vote, except that I think a dangerous president who denies the Holocaust should be in a lunatic asylum, not running a large country.

Giving Peace a Chance: Between Shalom and Salaam

If you live anywhere near Santa Barbara and you care about bringing peace to the Middle East, I'd like to invite you to come visit us at the 2009 Israeli-Palestinian Film Festival.

Hi, I'm Lauren Zabel, the Head Chair of the Event.

This year's festival is being held between Monday, May 4 and Thursday May 14.  We have a collection of films that are guaranteed to expand your horizons, make you think and see the world with just a little more perspective.  We open with "Waltz with Bashir" but keep the momentum going with 11 more truly impactful films.

Please feel free to visit our website for details.

Or you can download a PDF of our flyer.

We hope you'll think of us as an organization worthy of your support.  We're student run and we appreciate whatever you can do but mostly we'd like you to come see one or more of these films.

UCSB's very own Israeli Palestinian Film Festival grew out of a tiny film club that met weekly to watch and discuss the latest and classics of Israeli cinema. Looking for a way to dive into the societies of Israel, beyond the news and the surface facts, was the main purpose for many of the club's initial members. Many had a solid understanding of Israeli history and current events, while many others were completely new to the culture and just looking for an approachable angle.

Whatever the cause, the club spawned a similar chapter when founder Herschel Colbert arrived in Santa Barbara. While not the film major or film buff he is often thought to be, Herschel took a liking to the window into daily life that films can bring and the healthy environment that UCSB fosters for debate and the Middle East. He wanted to show fellow students "the real Israel" that he lived in, not the one spoken of by both news media and university professors.

Israeli Palestinian Film Club joined forces with several on-campus organizations and departments in Spring quarter 2007 to bring to UCSB the world's first and only festival dedicated to both Israeli and Palestinian cinema. The first festival spanned an entire quarter and had highlights of the composer and ensemble of the film West Bank Story and a powerful visit by director Eytan Fox and his film Walk on Water. Now planned and run by a student committee, the festival enters its third year and we are determined to make it even better.

We are now a collaboration between the following groups: American Students for Israel, Amnesty International, Lebanese Club, The Muslim Student Association, Persian Student Group, Santa Barbara Hillel, Students for Justice in Palestine and Students for Understanding the Middle East.

We're not going to lecture you, though.  We're going to give you a film experience that you're just not going to have in a multiplex.

Hope to see you in Santa Barbara.  Our site has directions and more information.  Come early on film days and enjoy the wonderful ambience of Santa Barbara.  Springtime is truly spectacular in our wonderful town and campus.

When Tomorrow Is Now

This essay by Jared Zabel is an entry in the L.A. Youth essay contest

Even the future will be the present someday. It’s never too early to start planning, something that’s true for people, businesses and even countries. Ten years from today, I’ll be in my twenties and – based on the way the world looks as we start 2009 – it will be the time to be alive and making a difference. I can’t wait.

In a world running out of oil, food, money and even fresh drinking water, there is one precious resource that may soon be more abundant than any time before in human history – hope.  Barack Obama just got elected president of the United States by talking about this resource.  He inspired millions to start thinking that tomorrow – no matter what our problems may be – can actually be better than today.

President Obama is on to something big here.  If enough people believe they can make a difference, they can become a force for change that will spread throughout their lives, their homes, and across every border on the planet.  If, as Gandhi said, we all need to “be the change you wish to see in the world,” then it’s time to get started.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words...

This pretty much says it all... so, just this once, I will shut up and let it speak for itself. Happy New Year, America!

Obama's Main Competition

In less than a month now, President Barack Obama will stand before a crowd in Washington, D.C. and take the oath of office. We already know that this will be historic simply from the point-of-view of Obama's background and race. The other competition, however, is performance. We know he's a great orator and people will expect a barn-burner of an inspirational speech. He won't have any problem eclipsing others that went before him like George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon or even Bill Clinton. No, the man Obama has to stand up to by way of historical comparison is President John Kennedy.

48 years ago, the inaugural was similarly a piece of history. Not only was it jeopardized by bad weather, but it brought generational change to the White House. It was at that tiime that newly elected President John Kennedy spoke those words we still remember.

"Ask not what your country can do for you..." We've heard this so many times, we can finish JFK's words in our sleep. That speech, delivered on a brutally cold January day in 1961 where a blizzard threatened to shut down the entire affair, still goes down as the best inauguration speech, probably ever, certainly of the 20th century.

This is actually my favorite newsmagazine cover -- the day that John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency. It's a color photograph that Time's editors had decided two weeks earlier should be taken at the precise moment when he raised his right hand and took the oath as the nation's 35th President. Just possibly this was the last inauguration where Americans were absolutely filled to the brim with the possibilities that life would be getting much, much better.

At Least They Spelled My Name Right...

Google sent me an alert this morning that my name was in the New York Times.  It's an article called "World Falls for American Media, Even as It Sours on America" which pretty much explains the gist of the whole thing.  The author, Tim Arango, had called me up a few months ago to talk about such matters, based on the fact that I was chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences when 9/11 hit.  He was interested in the fact that I'd attended those high-level Hollywood meetings that were called by Karl Rove in the immediate blow-back from the attacks. 

I'm not a big Karl Rove fan but, at the time, there was nothing insidious about the meetings.  After 9/11, everybody wanted to talk about what they could do to help.  Hollywood knows how to communicate and a lot of people out here were wondering if there was a piece of that in a solution.

In any case, here's my bit from the article:

Bryce Zabel, a television producer who was chairman of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the time and a participant in the 2001 meetings with the White House, argued then that the United States needed to regard itself like a consumer brand.

“Products like Coca-Cola are far more effectively branded around the globe than the United States itself,” he wrote in a memo that was circulated around Hollywood. “The American entertainment and communications industry has the technological and creative expertise to improve relations between our country and the rest of the world."

It seems like a perfectly fine quote, I think, except for the context which may cause some people to think I was advocating the dreaded "P" word, or propaganda.  So, for the record, I most emphatically was not doing that.

My point then, and now, is simply that while every freaking corporate enterprise in the entire damn world spends time, money and effort on their "brand," the United States of America, arguably one of the potentially strongest brands on the planet, acts as if it's an irrelevant concept for us.

Personally, I think we have taken a massive step forward in "re-branding" America by our election of Barack Obama.  Let's hope so.

Mr. Obama Goes to Washington

EDITOR'S NOTE, ELECTION DAY-AFTER 2008.

It feels like a movie, this rise of Barack Obama. 

Besides its compelling lead actor, this blockbuster has had plot twists, villains, conflict, a heroic journey, incredible stakes and a great ending.  These are all, as it is, also elements expected to be in any film or TV pitch I might make out here in Hollywood.  Dramatically speaking, this one has it all.

So far this year, I've voted for him twice, supported his campaign financially, gone to a rally, and even worked on "Ready to Believe," a professionally-produced song that's been well-received everywhere from YouTube to iTunes.  Mostly, though, I've followed the campaign like a member of an audience glued to an on-screen spectacle. 

President-elect Barack Obama's journey has felt like an epic film, but the way it's sucked us into caring about a character in a show where anything can happen, it's really played more like a TV series.  But there hasn't been a reality show created that could match this one.

No matter who you voted for yesterday, a President Barack Obama promises to continue as a compelling chapter in American history. 

I was born on the exact day the Supreme Court issued Brown -vs- the Board of Education.  My father taught American history and was shamed by having to explain our country's shortcomings in civil rights.  As a kid, I actually remember seeing news coverage of people having dogs and water hoses set on them because they wanted basic dignity.  To see this change in my lifetime -- from the awful images from the south to this man of progress chosen to lead us -- is a profound thing. 

There's so much hard work ahead, but right now a black man just proved that anybody CAN grow up to be president.  That's good for our country and it's good for our citizens, especially our kids.  And, coming back from Europe just two days ago, I believe the support Obama receives from world leaders will help with leading on the global financial mess and getting them to kick in more troops in Afghanistan.

You see: the Barack Obama movie not only has done incredible domestic box office, but it's about to play just as successfully in global markets.

The United States of America, for a few years anyway, has a brand to equal Coke and McDonald's on the world stage.  The President of the United States of America, Barack Obama.

In the fall of 2007, before the first primaries, I first wrote about Barack Obama on the FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH blog.  I just re-read it today and thought it was worth the re-post.  Here it is then, as it was:

The world has probably not been holding its collective breath waiting to find out who the FWIW blog will throw its weight behind in the presidential campaign. We have yet to serve our billionth daily reader, Tim Russert stubbornly refuses to quote us on "Meet the Press," and the campaigns have apparently missed the opportunity to bookmark us on their browsers. Even so, I've been watching the presidential campaign from the sidelines long-enough, and it seems like the right time to get in the game.

I just logged on to the official campaign website and gave a donation to Barack Obama. There are some good candidates I can support if Obama does not get the Democratic nomination but he's my first choice by a mile.

I just can't get behind a George H.W. Bush - Bill Clinton - George W. Bush - Hillary Clinton narrative for America. We try to raise kids to believe that anyone can grow up to be president, and that sends the message that the truth is something else. I just don't buy the "experience" argument anyway. I'm looking for good judgment, character and the ability to make effective decisions by listening to people with different viewpoints and then doing what you think is best, often before all the facts can be known. I'm looking for someone who can then explain those decisions to us in a way that increases our solidarity as a country and not put more distance between us.

President Barack Obama will send a message to the world that America is a new, more hopeful place. It will send a message to Americans that the racial divisions which have plagued our country can begin to truly heal. Hopefully, by being on the ticket, even the election can be about something besides red state-blue state distrust and acrimony. We need a clean break from the past.

The election of Obama, however, won't simply be a message. He's a bright thinker and he brings people together. We've been looking for someone to embody the spirit of John Kennedy for as long as I've been an adult. That's Barack Obama. There is no other candidate in this race for whom that comparison is even possible.

Like John Kennedy having to deal with issues like missiles in Cuba, history won't let Obama simply be the man who opposed the use of force in Iraq but will throw other challenges at him. He will have his own thorny issues to deal with, notably Islamic extremism directed at the U.S., but there will probably be a few we don't even see coming now. From what I can see, he'll be a cool head in the White House and I trust him to make the call for me.

I hope his journey across America during this campaign will allow him to transcend the boxes people want to put him in, and allow him to grow into a leader who will represent all of us.

Anyway, we all know this campaign can't be about who's got the best collection of issue statements and legislative agendas and plans. For me, it's about - "Who do you trust?"

I trust Barack Obama and, for what it's worth, I'd ask you to consider doing the same. Thanks.

FINAL NOTE:  "Ready to Believe" is the title of the rock-anthem I co-wrote the lyrics to that was recorded by LA alt.rocker Cherish Alexander and released a few days before the California primary (while I was on strike for the WGA, no less).  This song has been well-received everywhere from YouTube where it's had over 100,000 plays to iTunes where you can get a quality MP3 of it.  But, because you read to the end of this, you can also get a free copy by clicking here.

They May Just Start Liking Us Again...

I've just returned from a visit to Europe.  We visited London, Venice, Brussels and Bruges.  Everywhere I went, my daughter and I wore our Barack Obama buttons (see photo) and it helped us make a lot of new friends.  Honestly, if Europeans voted in this election, well, they wouldn't have to bother with ballots.  They could just do it by acclamation!

While there, I also picked up a copy of the Newsweek international edition with an article by Stryker McGuire, "The Global Election."  He makes the point that "the world has never watched any vote, in any nation, so closely. In country after country, polls show record-high fascination with the outcome of the U.S. elections this Tuesday."  McGuire makes it clear why they're interested.

"...the election played large and transformational: a 21st-century man with whom the whole world can identify versus an old cold-warrior out of synch with the complex political and economic crises of our age. The election, it seemed, had morphed into a meta-election. If at home, especially as the election neared its end, Obama seemed to be playing down his blackness, his intellect, his eliteness and his progressive ideas, these were the qualities that more and more drew the rest of the world to him. The world loved the idea that a man named Barack Hussein Obama could become America's 44th president after a 200-year string of white guys named Washington and Jefferson, Clinton and Bush."

That was definitely my conclusion.  We were stopped by restaurant owners, taxi drivers, hotel clerks and even fellow tourists; every single one wanting to make sure we knew that they, too, wanted him to win.

I realize that Europeans liking Obama would be red meat for a Sarah Palin speech, using it as evidence of how weak he is: to be supported by the French!

It's no reason, by itself, to support Barack Obama, I suppose.  Even the Europeans think he's going to drive some hard bargains if he wins.  But they seem ready to like America again.  If we give them the chance...