Posted: 04 Aug 2014 11:30 PM PDT

How should Europe and the United States seek to promote gay rights across the world? Omar G. Encarnación writes that while the West has tended to adopt a model which seeks to 'shame' states that discriminate against homosexuals, in many cases this may be self-defeating and could even increase the prevalence of discrimination within the target country. Reasoning that strong democratic foundations are a prerequisite for gay rights, he argues that a better approach would be to focus on promoting democracy, civil society and the rule of law.

Given the many recent legal and political gay rights victories in the United States and across the European Union, most notably with respect to same-sex marriage, it is hardly surprising that promoting gay rights has emerged as a foreign policy objective for Western nations and a key programmatic priority for multilateral organisations such as the United Nations and the World Bank.

Credit: Guillaume Paumier (CC-BY-SA-3.0)

At least two compelling questions arise from this global push for gay rights by the West: what approaches are being designed in Washington and Europe's leading capitals for the global promotion of gay rights; and how are Western efforts to promote gay rights faring, especially in those places where the lives of homosexuals are most at risk? Both questions echo the prospect for unintended consequences arising from the concern that pushing onto the global stage the issue of homosexuality, an issue that remains the source of controversy even in Western societies, might in the end do more harm than good.

Thus far, the West's playbook of strategies for promoting gay rights looks quite familiar, since it mirrors past efforts by Western nations to promote the rights of other oppressed groups, such as women, throughout the developing world. First and foremost among these strategies is persuasion. At the heart of this effort is an attempt to "socialise" non-Western countries into how civilised nations behave, by encouraging them to embrace gay rights as a component of the international human rights regime. An exceptional opportunity for socialising the world about gay rights was presented by the signing of the 2011 United Nations Human Rights Commission Gay Rights Declaration, a landmark document that calls for the decriminalisation of homosexual behaviour around the world.

In a moving speech intended to rally the world community around the issue of gay rights, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton intoned: "Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights… no practice or tradition trumps the human rights that belong to all of us. And this holds true for inflicting violence against LGBT people, criminalising their status or behaviour, expelling them from their families and communities, or tacitly or explicitly accepting their killing." The speech pointedly echoed Clinton's widely praised 1995 Beijing speech at the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women, in which she famously argued that "women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights."

Persuasion has been accompanied by shaming and, ultimately, pressuring. Undoubtedly, the best example of this is the West's response to an anti-gay law enacted by Uganda last year, which criminalised homosexuality with tough jail sentences. The law stemmed from the infamous "kill-the-gays-bill," an odious piece of legislation debated by the Ugandan parliament in 2009 that called for the death penalty for anyone engaged in homosexual behaviour, and for jail sentences for people who failed to report to the police their gay friends and relatives.

U.S. President Barack Obama denounced the law as "a serious setback for anyone committed to freedom, justice, and human rights." British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened to cut-off all foreign aid to Uganda, a step already taken by Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and The Netherlands. The World Bank has put on hold all loans to Uganda pending a review of the country's gay rights record, while the European parliament has voted to deny visas to Ugandan politicians, and has recommended tough economic sanctions from the European Union that would put in jeopardy some 460 million euros channelled to Uganda every year.

What impact the West's push for gay rights is having is decidedly less clear. Some positive outcomes have come from the efforts made by Spain in Latin America, one of the first forays by any country into promoting gay rights as part of its diplomatic mission. On the footsteps of the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Spain in 2005 (the first for a Catholic-majority nation), Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (acting through Spanish NGOs active in Latin America) began to provide financial and tactical assistance to Latin American gay rights organisations, especially those fighting for "marriage equality." The campaign paid-off handsomely, especially in Argentina, which in 2010 became the first Latin American country to recognise same-sex marriage. Tellingly, Argentina's gay marriage bill is a copy of Spain's own gay marriage bill, and the same slogan anchored the successful campaign for marriage equality in both countries: "The same rights with the same name."

But the Spanish experience in Latin America is the exception rather than the rule, which is not altogether surprising. As I have argued elsewhere, the success of gay rights in Latin America owes more to internal conditions favouring the development of gay rights than to any external assistance received from the Spaniards. After adopting the Napoleonic Penal Code in the 19^th century, most Latin American nations decriminalised homosexuality, more than a century ahead of the U.S. and Britain. In recent years, the trend toward gay rights in Latin America has been intensified by the consolidation of democracy, the growing autonomy of the judicial branch, which has boldly ruled in favour of gay rights, especially in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, a rising wave of secularism in what historically has been an overwhelmingly Catholic region, a thriving human rights culture, and the maturity of the local gay rights movement.

Indeed, the evidence from other parts of the developing world is downright disheartening. Across Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia, where homosexuality remains a crime, in some cases punishable by death, local politicians have been quick to denounce the West's association between gay rights and human rights as "fictitious," by contending that the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not make any reference to the issue of sexual orientation. Hence they argue that in promoting the view of gay rights as human rights the West is actually "inventing" a new human rights norm. Citing this argument, Russia, China, the Vatican, and virtually the entire Muslim world opposed the UN's 2011 gay rights declaration.

Shaming and pressuring by the West is also proving to be counter-productive. "We would rather die of poverty than accept homosexuality," said Uganda's Minister for Ethics and Integrity when addressing the threat of losing Western foreign aid. African leaders have also not been shy about calling out Western leaders, including Obama, for a perceived hypocrisy in the West's push for gay rights. During a 2013 trip to Senegal, Obama was reminded that he had only recently "evolved" on the issue of homosexuality, by coming around to embrace same-sex marriage, a point that directly questioned the American president's moral authority to lead the world on the issue of gay rights.

More worrisome yet, numerous media reports have linked the rise of homophobic legislation and anti-gay violence in Uganda, Malawi, and Nigeria, among other African countries, to the very attempt by the West to promote gay rights in those countries. For some African politicians, enacting harsh anti-gay legislation is the most effective way to thwart what they perceive as a new form of Western imperialism. Less apparent is the rich anecdotal evidence suggesting that the West's push for gay rights – especially in Africa – has harmed gay people by having destroyed, perhaps irreparably, a social environment that, while lacking in civil rights protections for gays, allowed them to exist without fearing for their lives and their livelihood.

All of the above should give pause to governments in the U.S. and Europe. While the cause of gay rights is a laudable one for Western nations to embrace, the prevailing strategies are in dire need of reconsideration. In my own work, I have called for an approach that privileges strengthening democracy, anchored on boosting the rule of law and the institutions of civil society, over promoting gay rights per se – whether by pushing countries into decriminalising homosexuality and enacting "gay" civil rights, such as laws banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and state recognition of same-sex relationships, or by punishing them for the absence of these rights.

My thinking is rooted in what we already know about the development of gay rights in the West. Gay rights cannot be divorced from the maturity of democracy itself. In fact, a strong democracy, one that embraces diversity in all of its forms, appears to be a prerequisite for the rise and persistence of gay rights. While gay rights are not found in every democracy, they are virtually non-existent in countries where democracy is either missing or is under attack. Fortunately for the West, it already has decades of experience in promoting democracy abroad.

Oddly enough, a glimpse of what strengthened democratic institutions might mean for the protection of gays from discrimination came just this week in Uganda, where a court invalidated the harsh anti-gay law enacted in 2013. While the court ruled on a technicality rather than on the merits of the case (it found that there was no parliamentary quorum to pass the law), the ruling nonetheless emboldened local gay and human rights activists and gave them a reason to oppose the law that had little to do with external pressure. Of course, this did not deter supporters of the law from attacking the court as a puppet of Western influence. "This ruling has nothing to do with the will of the people", said a prominent local cleric who had led marches in support of the law. "It has everything to do with pressure from Barack Obama and the homosexuals of Europe."

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Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics. Feature image credit: Guillaume Paumier (CC-BY-SA-3.0)

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About the author

Omar G. Encarnación – Bard College
Omar G. Encarnación is Professor of Political Studies at Bard College, New York, where he teaches comparative politics and Iberian and Latin American studies. He is the author of Latin America's Gay Rights Revolution, forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

How Fundamentalists <b>Promote</b> Atheism

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 06:23 AM PDT

The image below is a composite of a Christian response to the Ken Ham/Bill Nye debate, plus the scientific explanation of sunsets. It is frustrating that there are people who consider themselves Christians and yet seem to be making every effort to promote atheism. Why on Earth would anyone feel the need to choose between belief in God and belief that science can help us understand sunsets? Contrast this with John Farrell's recent piece for Forbes about medieval Christians who pioneered the quest to understand natural causes. Modern American fundamentalism is so far removed from historic Christianity, and yet it has duped many into believing the opposite, that it is its sole faithful representative.

See also Jonny Scaramanga's recent interview on how his Christian education caused him to lose his faith.

How can publishers <b>promote</b> subscriber loyalty? | Econsultancy

Posted: 14 Jul 2014 02:46 AM PDT

Running a profitable publishing business online is no easy task, and success has a lot to do with retaining subscribers.

One way of achieving this is through loyalty programmes, which provide extra value for subscribers, and can even make them valuable advocates for the brand.

I've been asking Nina Gilbert, Account Director at Clock, about the strategies publishers can use to keep customers loyal and reduce subscriber churn...

Can you tell me a little about Clock and your typical clients?

We work with a number of top publishing organisations and have been responsible for helping some of them establish and grow their loyalty presence.

In the last year we were involved in developing major publisher loyalty schemes for News UK, with the Sun Perks loyalty programme which was created to support the new Sun online paywall, as well as a complete redesign on the Times+ subscriber loyalty platform which we originally built in 2008.

We've seen loyalty programmes used with some success by retailers, but how can this be applied to media brands?

In much the same way as retailers want to hold on to their valuable customers, media brands realise that customer defection is a huge risk to their future success.

Given the 'always on' nature of the web: product information, reviews, and access to competitors are all just a click away from a customer's fingertips, so it's more vital than ever for publishers to hang on to their valuable audience.

Additionally, persistent defection means that former customers, people convinced the company offers inferior value, will eventually outnumber the company's loyal advocates and dominate the collective voice of the marketplace, which is then extremely difficult to turn back to their advantage.

Therefore integrating a loyalty rewards programme into the customer experience can be a powerful counterforce to the challenges publishers are facing today.

Publishers are actually very well placed to blend value and experience, to create or enhance audience loyalty and build a sustainable long-term community around their brands and through their various channels.

With so much free media online, how do you persuade customers to subscribe? Is it necessary to find a particular niche as with FT.com, or even Econsultancy?

The incredible explosion in media brands, delivery platforms and competing information sources, and channels through which to consume information, means it is easier than ever for customers to move freely off to competitors to find other content.

This has had a clear impact on media brand relationships with their audience, and it's where they have seen a decline in customer loyalty.

If they find a niche in the market then publishers should work hard to reinforce value with your subscribers.

Customer loyalty is about motivation and behaviour, not just marketing, finance or product development. It is about human values and principles so work out what will help ensure your customers' retention and apply it.

Is it necessary to offer something above and beyond the usual content to attract subscribers?

Times+ can be a powerful tool to attract subscribers and the acquisition rates have certainly increased dramatically, almost quadrupling since the loyalty platform was created.

However, it is as a retention tool that Times+ is so successful. Some research shows it can cost six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than keep an old one.

Therefore, outpacing your competition depends upon retaining loyalty amongst the customers you have worked hard to acquire.

The incentives that have really added value were those that used the brand's key assets: trusted journalism, exclusive access to money can't buy events, and quality, thought-provoking content.

Ultimately, the combination of carefully selected offers, tailored promotions and exclusive experiences are designed to make the loyalty platform a habitual and indispensable part of users' daily lives.

How successful has Times+ been at retaining subscribers?

By generating an exceptional customer experience, not only through great journalism, but also through carefully tailored offers to suit the audience needs, The Times has really understood the value of its subscribers, which has meant it has become extremely successful in retaining them.

Times+ has a positive effect on churn rate of subscribers and its users are also twice as likely to recommend The Times and The Sunday Times.

How does user experience affect customer loyalty?

User experience is key to a successful loyalty programme. Loyalty elements within the media experience must become an integral part of the consumer's experience of the brand.

Access must be enjoyable and in keeping with the brand experience but content must be relevant and targeted to the audience demographic. Interaction with promotions and offers should become a seamless part of their daily lives.

The design flow of publishing loyalty programmes is also vital to success. It must be a believable extension of the brand and integrate naturally but it should have a distinct brand identity of its own, a re-interpretation of the core brand.

The language and tone of voice has to reflect editorial values and finally, the editorial team should (when appropriate) buy into and participate with the loyalty brand.

What are the best strategies for reducing subscriber churn?

Know who your customers are, what they want and how they feel.

Doing business with people you trust and understand is predictable and efficient, which in turn makes them more profitable, than doing business with those you don't know.Understand what is likely to make them churn and what are the barriers to exit, and then try to change this behaviour by offering them more of what they do want.

Some key areas to optimise the performance of loyalty programmes in publishing include data management, creating a community, user experience, design and content.

Ultimately, humans are complex beings, their buying behaviour can be hard to pin down and with the concept of loyalty being so tied to emotion, we need to understand its complexities to better understand our businesses.

Publishers must try to manage an effective cycle of loyalty, learning and value creation. Since the only way a business can retain customer loyalty is by delivering superior value, high loyalty is a sure sign of solid value creation.

Creating value for customers is the foundation of every successful business system, and value in effect builds loyalty, and loyalty in turn builds growth, profit, and more value.

Ethical Blogwalking

Wednesday, 6 August 2014

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