April 4: Listen to one of the country's major experts on global climate change

Christopher Flavin President of Worldwatch Institute, discusses global climate change.

When: Wednesday April 4 -- talk 11-12, lunch 12:00-12:45

Where: North United Methodist Church, N. Meridian St. at 38th St.

How much are human practices contributing to sub-stantial and irreversible changes to the environment? What effect are changes to the climate having in different areas of the planet? What response can the inter-national community adopt to lessen the impact of dramatic climate change?

As President of Worldwatch, Christopher Flavin is the Institute’s chief executive officer, serves on its Board of Directors, and represents the organization before a wide range of international audiences. In his long career at Worldwatch, he has helped guide the Institute’s development, serving as vice president for research and later as senior vice president. He was appointed president in September 2000.Christopher is actively engaged in international climate change and energy policy discussions, and participated in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the Climate Change Conference in Kyoto Japan in 1997, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, the Climate Institute, and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

It's part of the Mid-North Shepherd Center's Great decisions series. Questions? Contact 317-924-0959 or mnscenter@aol.com

January 20: Watch high school brainiacs do battle at the Academic WorldQuest Tournament

Qualifying competition for an Indianapolis high school team of geniuses to represent the city in a national tournament of international knowledge and (let's be honest) trivia

When: Saturday January 20 1:00 PM
Where: Marian College Stokely Mansion 3200 Cold Spring Road

Academic WorldQuest is widely played at the adult and high school levels around the country. It is a team game testing competitors' knowledge of international affairs, geography, history, and culture. You can find out about it here. The World Affairs Councils of America holds a national competition for high schools in DC in April. Last year the Indiana Council on World Affairs sponsored a team from Lawrence North High School ... despite it being their first exposure to the compeition, they did very well. (LNHS: More than just basketball.) This year there will be a competition at Marian College to select the representative to the DC tournament. It will be grueling, check out last year's questions. IndyBuzz has a dream of staging a WorldQuest tournament for all comers in Indianapolis next year, let's check out the competition at Marian College on January 20.

Stretch your brain with questions from last year's Academic WorldQuest. If you plan to attend, please contact Janet Jegen by email or phone (849-2691) so that there will be enough chairs and refreshments for everyone.

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January 24-25: Discover opportunities in China at a two day conference

"China: A Two-Way Street: A forum on China's economic growth and opportunities for Indiana" -- An important conference about the opportunities China's economy offers to Hoosiers (It's more than only job losses!)

When: Wednesday January 24 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM, reception 4:30-6:00 PM; Thursday January 25 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Where: Westin Hotel, downtown Indianapolis. Sponsored by Indiana State University.

This conference is organized by Indiana State University's Networks Financial Institute, which "exists to help the financial services industry transform itself through better leadership, creative collaboration, and community-based financial literacy initiatives." They do have a stellar line-up for the day and a half conference.

The January 24 session will focus on two questions:

• Why China? Exchange of ideas and information regarding the opportunities and benefits to Indiana from developing relationships and conducting business with the Chinese, especially related to capital investment and trade will be addressed.
• How to work with China? Specific issues such as Chinese tax law and acquisition, labor law and more will also be addressed.

Some of the stars speaking on the 24th will be Ted Fishman, author of the bestselling China Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges the United States; Xing Yuanyuan, professor at Liaoning University and visiting scholar at Indiana State University; and Jack Perkowski, chairman and CEO of ASIMCO, one of the largest foreign invested manufacturing operations in China (often named one of the "ten best employers in China.")

The January 25 half day session will focus on "China's Changing Financial System: Can It Catch Up With, Or Even Drive, Growth." A panel of Chinese Business relations experts will address to several interesting questions:

• What are the current weaknesses and strengths in the Chinese financial system?
• What is the pace of reform and is it sufficient?
• Is the financial system impairing growth?
• Will the financial sector become a leading sector for rapid growth in the United States?

Speaking will be James R. Barth is the Lowder Eminent Scholar in Finance at Auburn University and a Senior Finance Fellow at the Milken Institute; and Morris Goldstein, the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Economics.

The conference costs $75. For information and a registration form, contact Linda Beckwith at 317-536-0281 or 800-603-7113; or Register Online Here. The registration deadline is 17 January.

If this event sounds interesting, you should check out events at the World Trade Club such as its review of US trade policy February 20. You can get a very different perspective on culture with a Chinese music and art event at UIndy Valentine's Day.

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Visit IndyBuzz's sister site "Views-PRI" for an essay that connects many of the events related to Asian economy and culture: "China, Japan, Indiana: Eastern and Midwestern Cultures Mingle."

February 1: Head to IMA to learn whether weddings in China and Nigeria look all that different

Culture, Art, and World Weddings: China and Nigeria

When: Thursday February 1 6:30 pm
Where: Indianapolis Museum of Art DeBoest Lecture Hall

Participants will learn about Chinese and Nigerian wedding customs in this final installment of IMA’s World Weddings Series, in which representatives from local cultural organizations demonstrate and discuss their wedding customs. After the program, participants are invited to visit the exhibition "I Do" to see examples of wedding attire from these traditions. It's free!

If this event sounds interesting, you should check out see the manifestation of traditional Chinese art and culture at UIndy on Valentine's Day.

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To read an essay about Hoosiers and Africa, "Who Can Help Africans Solve Their Problems?" that connects many of the events relating to Africa this spring, go to Views-PRI, the sister site of IndyBuzz (and forerunner of the electronic magazine Provocate).

Visit "Views-PRI" for an essay that connects many of the events related to Asian economy and culture: "China, Japan, Indiana: Eastern and Midwestern Cultures Mingle."

February 14: Sweeten your V-Day with Chinese and Western art and music at UIndy

Plaisir d'Amour: The greatest living traditional Chinese artist, Master Au Ho-nien, joins singers from Shanghai and Indianapolis Opera for a very special Valentine's Day

When: Wednesday February 14 7:30 PM
Where: University of Indianapolis, Christal deHaan Fine Arts Center

IndyBuzz has never been accused of sentimental romanticism, but this event is worth making a Valentine's Day recommendation. One of the city's underappreciated treasures is the Museum of Master Au Ho-nien at the University of Indianapolis. When the Master is in town, it is definitely worth clearing one's schedule. Watching Master Au create a paiting with such an economy of brushstrokes is a remarkable experience.

The theme of the UIndy Valentine's Day Concert, "Plaisir d'Amour," will be "The Butterfly Lovers," a love story that is to Chinese culture what Romeo and Juliet is to Western. Here's what the disembodied people at Wikipedia have to say:

A young woman named Zhu Yingtai from Shangyu, Zhejiang, disguised herself as a man travelling to Hangzhou to study. During her journey, she met and joined Liang Shanbo, a companion schoolmate from Kuaiji (會稽) in the same province.

They studied together for three years, during which their relationship strengthened. When the two parted, Zhu offered to arrange for Liang to marry her 16 years old fictitious sister. When Liang travelled to Zhu's home, he discovered her true gender. Although they were devoted and passionate about each other at that point, Zhu was already engaged with Ma Wencai (馬文才), a man her parents had arranged for her to be married to. Depressed, Liang died in office as a county magistrate. On the day Zhu was to be married to Ma, whirlwinds prevented the wedding procession from escorting Zhu beyond Liang's tomb. Zhu left the procession to pay her respects for Liang. Liang's tomb split apart, and Zhu dived into it to join him. A pair of butterflies emerged from the tomb and flew away.

You can see a pretty telling of the story here. This story has inspired a wide range of great music and art ... we'll have a chance to hear and see some of it. On February 14th, Liang Zhu's "Butterfly Lovers" opera will be performed as a prelude. (Constant Lambert's "Eight Poems of Li Po" will be performed. So too will be love songs from Chinese and Western opera, sung by singers from Indianapolis Opera, Shanghai Normal University, and the University of Indianapolis music faculty.

If this event sounds interesting, you should check out Indianapolis Opera's free "Music in Art" performance at IMA February 22.

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Visit IndyBuzz's sister site "Views-PRI" for an essay that connects many of the events related to Asian economy and culture: "China, Japan, Indiana: Eastern and Midwestern Cultures Mingle."

February 20: Review US Trade Policy over dinner with the World Trade Club of Indianapolis

World Trade Club of Indianapolis dinner event: U.S Trade Policy Review



When: February 20 5:30-6:30 PM social hour, then dinner
Where: Omni Severin Downtown
More information

February 21: Join Stefan Halper in searching for the "the Rational Center" in policy discussions

Stefan Halper, influential critic of neo-conservative foreign policy, turns his attention to the debasement of public discourse of media-hungry public intellectuals

When: Wednesday, March 21 Social hour 5:30-6:30; dinner 6:30-7:15; talk 7:15-8:45
Where: The Marten House 1801 West 86th Street Indianapolis 46260

A couple of years ago Stefan Halper came to public notice with America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order (written with Jonathan Clarke), a conservative critique of the hijacking of US foreign policy by radical neo-conservatives. Today their argument is well on its way to becoming accepted wisdom among conservatives. In Silence of the Rational Center: Why American Foreign Policy Is Failing, Halper (and Clarke) turn from an ideology to the shrill and sterile DC-centered media and policymaking climate.

Stefan Halper is a Senior Fellow at the Centre of International Studies and a Senior Research Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He directs the Donner Atlantic Studies Programme at the Centre of International Studies and lectures on latter 20th Century US foreign policy, Anglo-American relations, and contemporary international security issues. Stefan Halper holds doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge. He has served four American presidents in the White House and Department of State and is an expert on U.S. foreign policy, national security policy, the United Nations and Anglo-American relations. Dr. Halper's research interests remain centred on Anglo-American relations, US national security issues and international security matters. Recently he has focused on the nature of the political discourse of the right. and the left, the rise of extremist views and their prevalence in the national political discussion, the rise of anti-Americanism among European elites and the implications for US policy in the decades ahead.

Read this early review of The Silence of the Rational Center, and see this film of Halper and Clarke discussing America Alone.

Prof. Halper will participate in an informal discussion at Sagamore Institute the afternoon of February 21. For more information, contact John Clark at john@sipr.org.

If this event sounds interesting, you should check out other discussions of America's disoriented empire such as the debate over Europe vs US January 30, or Pierre Atlas's discussion of the Middle East on January 24.

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March 20: Solve Central Asia's problems with John Clark

Indiana Council on World Affairs, Great Decisions Series
When: Tuesday, March 20 7:00-9:00 PM
Where: Butler University, Pharmacy Building

On 9/11 John Clark was working on a project for the United Nations Development Program in Kazakhstan, trying to anticipate and defuse regional instability and conflicts ... wow, that project changed all of a sudden! Now, five years later, it's time to assess how the US has changed Central Asia, and how Central Asia has changed the US.

If this event sounds interesting, you should check out his talk (with Uzbek Nodra Isamiddinova) March 7.

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April 25- May 4: Make a priority to attend the marvelous Indianapolis International Film Festival

April 25- May 4
Indianapolis International Film Festival