Kill That Hi

Matt Welch | January 3, 2006

You probably missed this dispatch from the front lines of the Propaganda War, but the State Deptartment's Public Diplomacy czarina, Karen Hughes, has pulled the plug on hearts-and-minds glossy Hi Magazine.

What the hell's Hi Magazine? It's a two-year-old English-language lifestyle monthly, financed by American taxpayers, cranked out by some publisher-of-mediocrity called The Magazine Group ("our name says it all"); and aimed at the ever-elusive youth demographic in North Africa and the Middle East. As The Toronto Star wickedly put it,

There is sadness in the Arab world today among NASCAR fans, aficionados of U.S. men's fashions and those seeking more information on Washington's healthy eating pyramid or American dating standards.

If you don't trust the shifty Canadians, check out Hi's surviving website, which State Dept. Spokesman Sean McCormack insisted is "a cost-effective endeavor." Some sample headlines from the front page include: "Cooking Up a Career: Can You Stand the Heat?"; "All in the Family: Long part of the culture in the Arab world, multigenerational living is now being embraced by more young Americans" (we're getting there, praise Allah!); and my favorite, "Ask America," in which inquisitive young Syrians and Yemenese can get their questions "answered by an expert and published on the website."

One question that suggests itself is, "How much of our tax money does this stupid crap cost?" Answer: $4.5 million a year, for a monthly with a circulation of 55,000. Compare that to say, Reason magazine, which publishes about 45,000 copies on a budget of around $2.5 million. And you don't even have to cough up your $19.95 a year involuntarily!

As for the policy consideration, I'll turn it over to Daniel Pipes:

[E]ven had Hi been better conceived and executed, it - and to a lesser degree, such US government efforts as Radio Sawa and Al-Hurra Television - is misconceived. Like generals fighting the last war, diplomats recall the successes of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe in providing precious information to Soviet bloc peoples and thereby helping to bring about the demise of the Soviet Union and its satellites. Doing what they know worked once, they largely adopted the same informational model for Hi, Sawa, and Al-Hurra.

But Muslims generally and Islamists specifically do not lack for reliable information; much less do they (as did Soviet-bloc populations) prefer Western sources of information to their own.

World War IV -- still not World War III!

Comments

|1.3.06 @ 8:24AM|#

One recent issue featured an article on male grooming that began: "These days, more and more men use skin moisturizers. In fact, some of them, like Michael Gustman, a 25-year-old public relations account executive from Boca Raton, Florida, even have separate moisturizers for the face and body. Facial pores can clog with too heavy a salve, it seems.''

But which moisturizer is the best to use before a suicide bombing? Too heavy a salve will leave a greasy residue on your hands, which means your fingers might slip when it comes time to press the "kill" button.

|1.3.06 @ 8:35AM|#

"All in the Family: Long part of the culture in the Arab world, multigenerational living is now being embraced by more young Americans"

Except in Virginia, where your extended family don't count as relatives.

Ed|1.3.06 @ 8:37AM|#

So what is Mondial?

|1.3.06 @ 8:58AM|#

All joking aside, this perfectly demonstrates how utterly clueless our government is when it comes to handling all this Middle East (and Iraq/Afghanistan) mess. You're trying to appeal to a culture that still keeps its females under gender-based house arrest, and you think that articles explaining the joys of being a metrosexual Alan Alda is the way to do it?

|1.3.06 @ 9:13AM|#

Since it would be cheaper to just send Reason to the Middle East, I have a totally serious idea for a project to spread liberal values:

Start a fund offering cheap Reason subscriptions to people in the Middle East. I will gladly pay an extra $19.95/year so that somebody in Saudi Arabia can read this magazine. Just charge the Saudi Subscriber for the extra shipping costs, and I'll pay the subscription costs.

Who else is with me?

s.m. koppelman|1.3.06 @ 9:14AM|#

It reminds me of the 1980s English-language Soviet magazine "Life in the USSR" or something like that. Same stale, regurgitated Parade-caliber content, same misfires at hipness, same patronizing tone. It was one of the most popular magazines in the English-speaking world.

Oh, wait.

Also, was there a coherent explanation of why they published Hi in English? Wouldn't it have had several times the readership, no matter how bad it was, if it were in Arabic? Aren't young English-speakers in that part of the world, like their counterparts in the Soviet Bloc, generally the sort of people who would seek out real American magazines if they wanted to read an American magazine?

Maybe the publisher can salvage Hi by retargeting it at U.S. dental office waiting rooms.

|1.3.06 @ 9:17AM|#

thoreau, that is a great idea, we just need a name for the campaign, like "give 'em a Reason to like us"

|1.3.06 @ 9:24AM|#

Why do I have a hunch that our names will end up on a list for sending pro-gun literature to Saudi Arabia?

Aw, hell, let's do it anyway.

Ed|1.3.06 @ 9:32AM|#

Wouldn't it be easier to give "them" the url to Reason Online?

|1.3.06 @ 9:43AM|#

Ed, do you really think their opinion of Americans will improve if you expose them to Carpet Humping Guy?

Handsome Dan|1.3.06 @ 9:48AM|#

$4.5 million? Damn. I should've pitched some article ideas...

Ed|1.3.06 @ 10:11AM|#

Ooh, good point Jennifer.
And once those A-Rabs I mean fine Muslims see what we have been saying about them in H&R I would anticipate Holy Jihad on our buttocks.

|1.3.06 @ 10:15AM|#

Matt, g*dd*mnit, don't be so g*dd*mned negative! The important thing is, Karen Hughes has a job! A real job! A job that lets her fly around the world at taxpayers' expense talking about how much she loves being a mom! And if that isn't the essence of modern conservatism, I don't know what is!

|1.3.06 @ 10:34AM|#

Don't feel bad, Ed. At least your bad idea didn't cost taxpayers mucho bucks.

I remember reading an article pointing out how utterly stupid Karen Hughes' Mid-east tour was: trying to appeal to conservative Muslim women by sending a woman in Western dress who cannot speak their language? If the Saudis sent a woman here to try and win the hearts and minds of American women, I doubt they would have been dumb enough to send a woman wearing a full chador, who has to speak through a translator because her entire mastery of English consists of the phrase "I am glad to meet you" spoken with a thick accent.

They couldn't find one woman in America who knows how to speak Arabic and has some semblance of a clue regarding their culture? Not even one?

|1.3.06 @ 10:47AM|#

If the U.A.E. is any indication, among the non-Emirite Muslim population (a plurality of Muslims in the country, almost certainly) who aren't horribly destitute imported labor (somewhat destitute or higher), the metrosexual culture - at least in dress and fragrance - is very much alive.

So too is the cell phone culture (97% of the population owns a cell phone, including the destitue imported labor), and you can't take a leak without peeing on a cell phone or cell phone accessories store - or auto parts and accessories.

And judging from personal experience interacting with natives, ex-pats and all the like, they prefer to speak English wherever possible when not speaking among themselves, even to speakers of different Arabic dialects. In other words, if an Arab doesn't speak Hindi or Pashto or a particular strain of Arabic or whatever very well, they fall back on English immediately. Ex-pats of all nationalities default to English if their language isn't well understood.

It's sometimes humorous to see a business meeting with an Arab and a Frenchman being conducted in English, as it almost always is, as they attempt to use their first-tongue idioms in English to a fellow English-as-second-language speaker.

|1.3.06 @ 10:52AM|#

Jennifer, I must ask you to never again use the word "expose" in the same sentence as "Carpet Humping Guy."

|1.3.06 @ 11:04AM|#

It's sometimes humorous to see a business meeting with an Arab and a Frenchman being conducted in English,

As a teen I worked in a restaurant owned by Iranians and staffed mainly by Salvadoreans. I used to have to translate for them both. An amusing sight since all involved were speaking english.

|1.3.06 @ 11:37AM|#

Excellent post, but quoting agitproppist Witchfinder-Pursuivant Daniel Pipes to make a point that literally 100 million more authentic others could have made is a bit of a drawback.

|1.3.06 @ 11:41AM|#

"Start a fund offering cheap Reason subscriptions to people in the Middle East. I will gladly pay an extra $19.95/year so that somebody in Saudi Arabia can read this magazine. Just charge the Saudi Subscriber for the extra shipping costs, and I'll pay the subscription costs."

thoreau,
How about just looking around the neighborhood, locating a Waki Paki and being nice to him? You'd both learn something, and he'd translate your philosophy to his buddies back home. And you'd get to translate his waki philosophies occasionally here on H&R.

|1.3.06 @ 12:01PM|#

Oh damn, I thought this was going to be about Hi and Lois.

|1.3.06 @ 2:26PM|#

What kind of Arab reads Playboy?

|1.3.06 @ 2:38PM|#

"What kind of Arab reads Playboy?"

If I had to guess? Lonely ones. The same as Arab and non-Arab guys here in the US who can't get a date, much less a wife...

|1.3.06 @ 3:38PM|#

Well, the veils probably make the Arab edition of Playboy less alluring, so they must be reading it for the articles...

|1.3.06 @ 4:55PM|#

"All in the Family
Long part of the culture in the Arab world, multigenerational living is now being embraced by more young Americans."

And here I thought it was just the high cost of housing....

Lazlo|1.3.06 @ 8:51PM|#

dead_elvis, I probably shouldn't admit it that's exactly what I thought too. What the hell is wrong with us?

koppelman, you're probably thinking of "Soviet Life". I remember running out of other magazines to read during free period in the school library when I was a kid, and making the mistake of picking up a copy of Soviet Life. It didn't take long for me to decide I was better off going outside to look for interesting pieces of gravel.