James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar has becoming something of a political rorsarch test around the world. The story of the alien Na'avi's struggles against the invasion of Earth's military-industrial complexhas taken on some surprising allegorical means for movements around the world:

• Palestinian protesters in the town of Bilin dressed up as Na'avi recently to protest the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
• Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales has praised Avatar as a "profound show of resistance to capitalism and the struggle for the defense of nature."
• Chinese bloggers have compared the film's story to the exploitation of Chinese citizens by government-backed real estate developers -- a factor that may have contributed to the film being pulled from Chinese theaters.  
• Activists ran ads in the Hollywood newspaper Variety comparing the Na'avi to India's forest-dwelling indigenous tribe, the Dongria, whose territory is now threatened by a planned bauxite mine.
• Environmentalists Lori Pottinger compared the story of Avatar to the Brazilian government's plans to build dams in the Amazon Basin.
• Russian Communists described the film as an attempt to justify Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. 
• New York Times columinist Ross Douthat called the movie "an apolologia for pantheism."
• David Boaz of the libertarian Cato Institute says the movie is about "defending property rights".
• Last but not least, Cameron himself says the movie is an allegory about the U.S. war on terror. 

Personally, the movie struck me as a critique of counterinsurgency: the humans talked a good game about cultural understanding and minimizing civilian casualties to reassure the folks back home, but they were really just on Pandora to conquer and exploit.

Then again, it could have just been a movie about aliens.

A "prophet row" has emerged in Turkey after Emine Erdogan, wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was denied access to a military hospital because of her headscarf. Heated exchanges in the Grand National Assembly followed, as opposition politician Osman Durmu of the Nationalist Movement Party sarcastically called Prime Minister Erdogan a prophet:

How dare you not allow the wife of a prime minister, who is accepted as a prophet, to [the Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine]? Who do you think you are?

Erdogan was not amused:

My wife was not allowed to visit a patient only because of her headscarf. Rather than criticizing this prohibition, they are joking about the incident... It is unbearable to hear such a definition about me. They claim ‘Erdogan would like to be the prophet’… What a silly argument. It is obvious they are sinking to new lows.

The hijab has long been a divisive symbol in Turkey. Erdogan's Justice and Development party (AKP) passed legislation to ease the Turkish ban on headscarves in universities in 2008, but the statute was overruled by the Constitutional Court later that year.

There's no two ways about it: The last year of foreign policy had more drama than a Scorsese epic and enough thrills to put Avatar to shame. From the fearsome battle in the Afghan hills to the U.S.-China love-hate relationship, and from the serious al Qaeda threats in Yemen to the hard-to-take-seriously pirates off the Somali coast, 2009 was arguably a much more interesting year for global politics than for movies. So with Oscar nominations due tomorrow, we're taking nominations for our own FP Oscars.

Who would you pick for the best actor of the year? Is President Barack Obama holding his own in an unfriendly world, or does the ubiquitous Brazilian President Lula deserve an Oscar? Is Muammar Qaddafi's persona just too good to be true, or do you prefer the smooth, suave diplomacy (and wacky domestic antics) of France's Nicolas Sarzoky?

You tell us what scandals, dramas, tragicomedies, and personal stories are your picks for the history books in 2009. Listed below are the categories and a few sample entries. Send your own nominations to Joshua.Keating@foreignpolicy.com or paste them in the comments below. May the best news win!

Best picture: What one story encapsulates the year?

Best drama: Spies, dissidents, treachery, and truth. Were the adrenaline-pumping protests following the Iran elections the most dramatic event? Or perhaps it was the long, drawn-out U.S. decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. If you have a humanitarian bent, the crises in Haiti, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan might come a heart-wrenching first.

Best comedy: If it isn't a tragedy, the dysfunction of the U.S. Congress is certainly good for a laugh. Then again, how about the Copenhagen Climate conference that ended in a collective shrug? Or the British MPs who used their expense accounts to buy fancy rugs and re-dig their backyard swimming pools?

Best romantic comedy: Gordon Brown requested meeting after meeting with the U.S. president; Obama just didn't have time. Brown gave him a romantic antique biography of Churchill, and Obama gave him a DVD box set. Let's just say the special relationship isn't all it used to be. But then again, there are other comedies in Europe these days ... Berlusconi anyone?

Best romantic drama: Unclear whether this should be a drama or a comedy, but the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladamir Putin certainly have a relationship worth noting -- as their press photographer has shown time and time again...

Best action: A U.S. ship is seized in the Gulf of Aden and devious pirates take the Maersk Alabama captive on the high seas, demanding a ransom for their deed. But lo and behold! A brave captain sacrifices his freedom to save his crew. And the U.S. whacks three pirates in the end, bringing everyone home safely! Phew!

Best special effects: Hmm, how about that missile launch in North Korea? It hit right on target: the Pacific Ocean.

Best director: Nicolas Sarkozy is a whirling dervish of diplomatic activity.

Best actor: Very few world leaders can also claim their own daily television shows -- and surprisingly humorous ones at that. "Alo Presidente" hasn't exactly skyrocketed Hugo Chavez to fame (his coup attempt back in the 1990s did that), but man has this guy mastered media in the Drudge Era.

Best actress: On a more serious note, few women leaders have been more powerful this year in asserting political freedom than Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi. Or does Hillary Clinton have your vote? As one FP staffer put it, "she's the queen of 'the show must go on.'"

Best supporting actress: Is Carla Bruni the perfect companion for a perfectionist French president?

Best supporting actor: Let's be honest: One man whose entire year has been a story about other people's interests is the ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya. For all his posturing and pontificating, he was never running the show.

Best costume: Libya's Muammar Qaddafi designs his own clothes.

Worst costume: Libya's Muammar Qaddafi designs his own clothes. You decide.

Lifetime achievement award: Fidel? Kim Jong Il? Mubarak? Most of the longest-lasting players on the world stage aren't particularly savory characters. Got someone better?

We'll post a full list of nominees based on your e-mails and comments on Monday, Feb. 8 and give you a chance to vote. The final winners will be announced at the end of the month. 

We promise to keep the musical numbers short.

U.S. conservatives have blasted James Cameron's blockbuster space epic Avatar for depicting U.S. marines as villains, others have critiqued it as a patronizing tale of a white American rescuing a native people from the ravages of imperialism, but the most unique criticism of the film yet may come from the St. Petersburg Communist Party: 

In the recently issued statement they claim that the sci-fi blockbuster is trying to justify the Nobel Prize award given to Barack Obama, but fails in its task as no one would believe that a US marine in the film (who the Communists describe as a “murderer and oppressor of Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Haiti and Somalia”) can stand for good.

It should be noted that the production of Avatar began four years ago when Obama wasn’t even in office.

“It is quite funny to watch how the activists of the national liberation movement of Pandora accept a Pentagon-made mutant instead of judging him by the laws of the revolutionary time,” the communists noted.[...]

“The carefully concealed nature of an aggressor, traitor and maniac quickly discerned itself in Cameron's film – according to the plot, Venezuela has already been invaded, Chavez is killed, and the hordes of G.I. break out into the Solar System, burning everything in their path. Conditionally separating the film’s heroes from the bad ones – Republicans (the head of the human’s colony and the marines), and good ones – Democrats, led by Jake Sully and fanatical botany professor (Sigourney Weaver), Cameron comes to the absurd – taking the side on of an extraterrestrial civilization in conflict with humanity.”

At the end of the statement is the demand “to ban the presentation of all Cameron’s films in Russia until he recognizes the plagiarism and robbing of Soviet science fiction in order to create his low-grade blockbuster.”

The KPLO also claim the the planet Pandora was ripped off from a 1960s Soviet science-fiction novel.

Russia Today notes that, "The Communists of St Pete and Leningrad Region are known for their strange statements on all important Russian and international events," and this is not their first foray into film criticism. Two years ago they attacked Ukrainian actress Olgo Kurylenko for consorting with "enemy of the Soviet people" James Bond. 

 

The Holy See apparently has no barriers to the types of jams it rocks. The Vatican's MySpace playlist includes artists such as the rock band Muse, the folksy Fleet Foxes and the thuggish ruggish beats of the late, great Tupac Shakur. The Vatican joined figures such as Lady Gaga and R. Kelly in publishing their "celebrity" playlist, part of the new MySpace Music initiative.

The ‘Pac song included is "Changes," which is about the struggles of poor, African-American, urban-dwellers; and is probably more suitable for a pious audience than, say, "Hit ‘em up."

Not to dwell on the outlier issue, but the Vatican is advertising the fact that it listens to songs glorifying the life of Black Power advocate Huey P. Newton, and this is extraordinary. Most media outlets are making much ado about the graphic nature of many Tupac lyrics, but his underlying message of relief for the poor and suffering seems to fit. The 12-song playlist is rounded out by songs you would expect men of the cloth to listen to; Mozart and some other classical music.    

As far as the infallible-one's affinity for Fleet Foxes, one need not look farther than the striking resemblance of front man Robin Pecknold to, well... you get the point.

Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently attended a rap battle sponsored by the Russian government to combat drug use. Vladimir Vladimirovich shared his thoughts on hip-hop culture and clapped awkwardly, but unfortunately chose not to drop a verse.

Today, The Telegraph reported that Herman Van Rompuy, current Prime Minister of Belgium and "the new front-runner to be the first EU President," is looking to institute a European anthem. Van Rompuy could pull ideas from the EU's website, which nobly proclaims its aims as "Peace, prosperity and freedom for its 498 million citizens -- in a fairer, safer world." Or he might look to the Treaty of Lisbon; "Drawing inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law." These are the sorts of airy proclamations that are grist for a modern-day anthem.

But Van Rompuy may have to edit some member-states' anthems if he wants harmony across the Union. Germany already moved in the right direction, having dropped the infamous "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles/Über alles in der Welt," a couplet that doesn't quite smack of an all-for-one ethos. 

On the other hand, France's anthem could be confused with Glenn Beck's take on international law, saying, "What! These foreign cohorts! They would make laws in our courts!"

Above all, countries just don't have the taste of peace: "March! March, Dabrowski! March from Italy to Poland!" enjoins the Polish anthem.

"To arms, to arms/On land and sea!" exclaims Portugal.

"Soldiers are we..." begins the Irish anthem. 

"...in our hearts forever we glorify a name/Resounding of battle, the name of gallant Trajan," chant Romanians.

Convincing Europeans to change centuries-old lyrics would require "the best prime minister ever" - luckily for Van Rompuy, the man who fits that bill also loves an excuse to sing.

Photo: ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images

 

It was nice of the city of Berlin to organize a U2 concert as part of the celebrations for 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, but putting up 2-meter wall to keep people out was an unfortunate decision:  

True, there were no minefields or watchtowers, but the new temporary wall erected before the performance certainly sent the wrong signals.

Only 10,000 fans in possession of previously allocated free tickets were allowed to pass through the checkpoints — yes, checkpoints — to listen to the Irish band.

 

It seems that even socialists are getting sick of Michael Moore.

Moore recently went on Jimmy Kimmel Live and made a joke about getting drunk with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and helping him write his speeches to the United Nations. Well the Chavistas were having none of that.

Take this paragraph from Eva Golinger, one of Chavez's most prominent defenders:

Moore is exceptionally full of himself towards the end of the interview with Jimmy Kimmel. He says Chávez asked him for advice about his upcoming United Nations speech. Moore sternly told the South American president to "say sorry for calling Bush the devil, "el diablo"" during his last UN intervention. And to say this time around it's all about the "hope"! Way to defend Bush, Michael! Wait, didn't you write, direct and film Fahrenheit 9/11? Right, but when someone "non-US" tells it like it is, you get way patriotic. I get it.

Other outrage followed suit. They lambasted Moore for saying that Chavez drinks, even worse that he drinks tequila. They also got unusually offended at the idea that Chavez would use speechwriters, or for that matter, Teleprompters. The exclamation-point-happy Golinger said, "We know that nobody writes his speeches, not even him! He speaks from his heart, and not from a teleprompter!"

Michael Moore has been called many things in his career, but a supporter of George W. Bush? This has to be a first.

Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

A large contingent of American bands have joined the Close Gitmo Now campaign in direct protest of the use of their music during torture practices at Guantanamo Bay. The new campaign is led by two retired generals: Lieutenant General Robert Gard and Brigadier General John Johns. Robert Gard has spoken out in defense of the musicians, stating:

"The musicians' music 'was used without their knowledge as part of the Bush administration's misguided policies'."

Popular artists such as REM, Pearl Jam, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Morello, Billy Bragg, Michelle Branch, Jackson Browne, and The Roots have signed an open letter to Congress requesting the declassification of government records concerning how music was utilized during "futility" interrogation tactics - making the prisoner feel hopeless while exploiting his psychological, moral, and sociological weaknesses.

Tom Morellon of Rage Against the Machine fame has expressed his peronsal rage against Dick Cheney:

"Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured - from water boarding, to stripping, hooding and forcing detainees into humiliating sexual acts - playing music for 72 hours in a row at volumes just below that to shatter the eardrums. Guantanamo may be Dick Cheney's idea of America, but it's not mine.  The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me - we need to end torture and close Guantanamo now."

But don't except every rock band to jump on board, some view the use of their music at Gitmo as an honor.

Above, Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine performs during the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Target Center September 3, 2008 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Eric Thayer/Stringer/Getty Images

The star of Godfather III star has apparently been enlisted to play the Georgian President in an upcoming film depiction of the August war:

Television pictures showed Garcia holding court in a suit, red tie and a lapel pin bearing the red-and-white Georgian flag in Saakashvili's office in the presidential palace. [See above.]

The plot revolves around an American reporter who gets caught in the crossfire as war engulfs the country, testing his impartiality as a journalist. Papuna Davitaia, a parliament deputy from Saakashvili's ruling United National Movement, is one of the producers on the project.

"Our main concern was to show war as a bad thing," executive producer Michael Flannigan told Georgian television. "We had an opportunity to make a really anti-war film."

Garcia's actually not a bad choice for Saakashvili, though it's pretty doubtful that a film backed by Saakashvili himself and helmed by  the director of "Deep Blue Sea" and "Cliffhanger" is going to accurately capture complexity and moral ambiguity of the August war.

On the other hand, all will be forgiven if they can get Daniel Craig to play Putin. 

IRAKLI GEDENIDZE/AFP/Getty Images

Colonialism has some unfinished business. Like a messy divorce, former partners scratch and claw for who gets what and all too often the colonized lost. Their treasures were stolen; their cultural heritage and national heirlooms were boxed up and shipped to places such as France and the United Kingdom. Now, the fights over who gets custody of these artifacts are starting to sway in favor of the former colonies.

Some 2,000 Afghan artifacts went on display at The National Museum in Kabul on October 6, some as old as the bronze-age. These items were stolen and smuggled into Britain while the two countries fought a brutal war.  The museum was founded in the 1920s, after Afghanistan gained autonomy from the British Empire.

The New York Times reports Afghanistan was a treasure trove for ancient wares, given its geographical placement as a crossroads between China, India, the middle-east and Persia. In the early 1990s, after the Soviet invasion and civil war, the museum's director estimated 70 percent of the artifacts were stolen. Then in the name of Islam, the Taliban destroyed ancient statues of Buddha. The 2,000 pieces from the United Kingdom join nearly 13,000 returned from all over Western Europe and the United States after the Taliban fell in 2001.

Returned treasures don't always come so easily. The French government will return five ancient fresco fragments to Egypt after Cairo threatened to end cooperation with the Louvre. Egyptian authorities say the French bought the frescos in 1990, even though they knew they were stolen in the 1980s.

In a move of cultural sanctions, a British museum isn't returning an artifact to Iran due to the "post-election situation."  Iran threatened to cut off cultural cooperation if it isn't returned. The item in question, 6th century BC cylinder is engraved with what is called the first bill of rights. The Persian King Cyrus ordered it to be made. The British say they plan to return the cylinder, but they are just waiting for the "appropriate moment." The Iranians said their delay is just a ploy keep the cylinder and they will end their relationship with the museum if it isn't returned within two months.

Michel Porro/Getty Images

 

Combating alchohol abuse has always been something of a non-starter in Russian politics. This is, after all, a country whose former president was once found by the Secret Servce thoroughly sauced outside the White House, wearing nothing but his underwear trying to hail a cab so he could get a pizza.

But current President Dmitry Medvedev is trying to change things with a proposal to ban outdoor beer sales in his country, a first step in getting Muscovites to lay off alcohol. He also wants to limit the hours of the day alcohol can be sold.

This week, a bill was submitted to lawmakers that would triple the tax on beer from 3 rubles per liter to 10 rubles per liter by 2012. Wine and spirits would also see a sharp increase.

State prosecutors are also moving to ban liquor sales in airports. Under Russian law, no beverage with alcohol content above 15 percent can be sold in crowded or dangerous places, and prosecutors say this means airports.

Russians drink five gallons of pure ethanol a year, double what is considered dangerous by the WHO. And on average, 30,000 people a year die from alcohol poisoning in the country. Over half of the deaths of the 15 to 54-year-old demographic between 1990 and 2001 are attributed to alcohol.

"I have been astonished to find out that we now drink more than we did in the 1990s, although those were very tough times," Medvedev said.

He is a fan of Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev's anti-alcohol reforms in the 1980s aimed at curbing consumption, even though he acknowledges that the plan had major flaws. Gorbachev destroyed the majority of vineyards and wineries in Georgia, probably the birthplace of wine (This didn't help the growing anti-Russia sentiment in the Southern Caucasus at the time). He also shut down distilleries and breweries. Most notably, the Soviet Union suffered tremendous sugar shortages, because people turned to moon shining. (The Russian word for ‘shine is Samogon) Stores also ran out of window cleaner and aftershave. It is estimated that 13,000-25,000 people died from drinking ill-made moonshine.

Medvedev's plan is much more cautious but many Russians are still wary.

"It's impossible. He doesn't stand a chance," a Russian construction worker told The Los Angeles Times."The Russian man will always be drinking. Russians don't surrender."

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images 

The Sham MCs, a group of nine young rappers, recently released, Crossword, Syria's first rap album. The group's increased exposure reflects the growing diversity of Syria's music culture. Nevertheless, their album has been met with controversy, typical of Syrian reactions to Western culture such as their anti-Facebook policies.

Group members of the Sham MCs voiced their annoyance through their music over such negative reactions:

"The second track [on the album] is called Against the Flow, [because] it's like we're going against everybody's idea and they hate rap because it's like a Western thing."

Furthermore, 21 year old, Sham MC member, Badi Issa, who credits his first exposure to rap as an Eminen video in the sixth grade, argues his group is promoting Syrian, not American, culture, saying the group is trying to:

“do something for us, for Syria, for the youth of Syria, for the land of Syria – something that has an identity of its own.”

Recently, following the end of Ramadan, the Sham MCs played a three day tour in venues normally reserved for traditional Syrian musicians, and this past summer they became the first rap group to perform at a Syrian festival, alongside George Wassouf, Syria's most famous singer.

The Sham MCs are currently streaming Crossword on their Myspace page and have over 1600 friends on Facebook. Jeff Chang looked at hip-hop's rapid globalization for FP in 2007.

Myspace /Sham MC's Pics