Mini-Grant Recipients: Part III

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m posting the new grant recipients’ intros as I get them e-mailed to me. Batting fourth and posting under the moniker “River Ledger,” I’ll let him speak for himself from here on out.

River is an Asian activist who’ll be joining the History Commons team focusing first on the timeline on the global efforts to carve out culture (i.e., cultural goods and services) from the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime of multilateral, bilateral and regional “free trade” agreements. He has some twenty years of activism behind him, and was personally present at two successful urban uprisings that toppled oppressive governments. He writes press statements and leaflets, is into swapping books, is indulging his Facebook addiction, and is also an officer of the alumni organization of a most prestigious high school in his country.

River will focus initially on building the timeline on the global efforts to carve out culture (i.e., cultural goods and services) from the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime of multilateral, bilateral and regional “free trade” agreements. Among the WTO multilateral agreements, this will focus on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) which is the onus of dispute regarding “audiovisual services” (meaning the film, recording and music industries) and other cultural industries (as publishing, animation and advertising, among others). He will necessarily touch on the rise of the global cultural diversity movement, marked by the adoption of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in 2005 and the formation of the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD), made up of national coalitions of cultural professionals in more than 40 countries. He keeps tabs on the current global economic recession (River insists we’re already in a global economic depression) and might be able to help out later on building the timeline related to this.

Max again. We’d be very glad to have your help on the Credit Crisis timeline (which will probably be renamed to something more general, like “Going Down the Economic Tubes — Aieeee!” or something equally informative and non-judgmental). We’re glad you’re part of the community.