February 2013 by The Washington Diplomat

A World of News and Perspective

■ INSIDE: MEDICAL

SPECIAL SECTION

MEDICAL ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ VOLUME 20, NUMBER 2

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

■ February 2013

■ FEBRUARY 2013

Inova

DIPLOMACY

FIL LS G AP

As America’s Top Diplomat, John Kerry Has Big Shoes to Fill

A rendering of Inova Health System’s proposed comprehensive cancer center

Comprehensive Cancer Care Coming to Northern Virginia

by Gina Shaw It’s a surprising gap. For years now, the only national Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive that’s only one comprehensive cancer center in the Washington cancer center to serve a metropolitan metropolitan area has been area of some 5.8 million the lombardi Cancer Center people, an area that is growing at Georgetown any other faster than University. Both of maryland’s eastern Seaboard city, according nCI-designated cancer centers to the 2010 census are in Baltimore (the University (3 percent between 2007 of maryland’s Greenebaum and 2009, compared with Cancer Center and 1 percent just about Johns hopkins University’s for new york, Philadelphia Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center). and Baltimore). the Philadelphia virginia’s are in Charlottesville and metropolitan area, by contrast, has four cancer Richmond. centers for a similarly See inova, page 28 February 2013

MEDICAL The Washington Diplomat

Page 25

Though he may lack Hillary Clinton’s star power, John Kerry, her successor as secretary of state, is a respected Senate statesman with a solid history of foreign policy achievements — which will come in handy because he’ll wrestle with many of the same intractable issues Clinton did. PAGE 6

POLITICS

After Newtown Tragedy, U.S. Confronts Deeply Ingrained Gun Culture Just as other nations have done in the wake of mass shootings, Americans are responding to the Newtown massacre by taking a hard look at their deeply ingrained connection to guns — one that is unrivaled in the developed world, both in gun ownership and gun deaths. PAGE 9

culture

Warm Reception For Nordic Cool The Kennedy Center is going north for the winter with Nordic Cool 2013, its first festival devoted to Nordic culture. PAGE 30

CaRibbean Rum WaRs

In an exclusive group cover profile, The Washington Diplomat talks with Caribbean ambassadors about an issue that may seem obscure to many Americans, but one that means big business for their small island states: Washington’s generous excise-tax rebates that are used to subsidize rum production in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. PAGE 15

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

CAUCASUS

Ex-Hostage Says It’s Time to Talk to Tehran

Georgian Envoy Exits After Leadership Shakeup

Despite being held hostage in Iran more than 30 years ago, to this day veteran U.S. diplomat John W. Limbert believes Washington will accomplish more by engaging rather than confronting Tehran. PAGE 4

Georgia’s gregarious ambassador is stepping down March 1 not because he wants to, but because he feels he can no longer do his job in Washington, in the wake of political confusion back home. PAGE 12

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Page 2

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

February 2013

Gun control

[ news ] 4

Inova Cancer Center

American Music Abroad

INSIdE ThE ChambEr

32 22

dIPlOmaCy As America’s top diplomat, John Kerry has given some clues as to how he’ll take on the myriad issues he’ll face as secretary of state: talk to everyone, even if they’re not your cup of tea.

POlITICS The Newtown massacre is prompting unprecedented soulsearching among Americans about the country’s deeply ingrained gun culture, one that has few parallels with the rest of the world.

POlITICS Temuri Yakobashvili, Georgia’s blunt, cigar-smoking ambassador, pulls no punches when it comes to representing his nation in Washington, but he’s stepping aside for someone he says can better represent the new leadership in Tbilisi.

[ medical ] 25

Bioethics is a critical field of research that wades into the murky moral and legal quandaries spurred by the ever-advancing march of medicine.

COvEr: Photo taken at the Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago by Lawrence Ruggeri.

FIlm rEvIEWS Michael Haneke’s critical smash “Amour” has become an Oscar darling, earning a rare Best Picture nod for a foreign-language film.

FIlm “Zero Dark Thirty,” the vivid depiction of America’s 10-year quest in search of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, took top honors at the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards.

CINEma lISTING

EvENTS lISTING

dIPlOmaTIC SPOTlIGhT

FESTIvalS

aPPOINTmENTS / WOrld hOlIdayS

A blizzard of events is taking over the Kennedy Center for the next two months as part of Nordic Cool 2013, the center’s first festival devoted to Nordic culture.

ClaSSIFIEdS

rEal ESTaTE ClaSSIFIEdS

[ culture ] 30

dINING Celebrity chef Bryan Voltaggio has outdone himself with his sprawling yet tightly focused new endeavor, Range.

bIOEThICS

COvEr PrOFIlE: CarIbbEaN Washington’s generous excise-tax rebates that are used to subsidize rum production in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have galvanized the city’s Caribbean envoys like never before.

CaNCEr CENTErS Washington, D.C., only has one comprehensive cancer center to serve a metropolitan area of some 5.8 million people, an area that is growing faster than any other Eastern Seaboard city. But Inova is looking to change that.

muSIC The American Music Abroad program represents the evolution of the great Jazz Ambassadors tours organized by the State Department that once had the world enthralled with a swinging new rhythm of U.S. public diplomacy.

dIPlOmaCy Ambassadors and their diplomatic teams work hard to represent their countries, but there is another parallel track at each embassy that often works just as hard, sometimes 24/7, in a less obvious way: the consular corps.

SCulPTurE The world may not have ended on Dec. 21 like some thought the Maya calendar predicted, but the ancient civilization is back with a stunning show of jade treasures.

The U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council aims to dispels myths and misunderstandings between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, which unbeknownst to many is America’s biggest export market in the Middle East.

PEOPlE OF WOrld INFluENCE A veteran U.S. diplomat and former hostage in Iran, John W. Limbert believes it’s high time for the U.S. to start filling the black hole of knowledge between Washington and Tehran that he says has only led to decades of mutual demonization and misunderstanding.

P.O. Box 1345 • Silver Spring, MD 20915-1345 • Phone: (301) 933-3552 • Fax: (301) 949-0065 • E-mail: news@washdiplomat.com • Web: www.washdiplomat.com Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Victor Shiblie director of Operations Fuad Shiblie managing Editor Anna Gawel News Editor Larry Luxner Contributing Writers Michael Coleman, Carolyn Cosmos, Rachel Hunt, Stephanie Kanowitz, Sean Lyngaas, Ky N. Nguyen, Gail Scott, Dave Seminara, Gina Shaw, Gary Tischler, Karin Zeitvogel Photographers Jessica Latos, Lawrence Ruggeri account managers Chris Smith, Patrick Thomas Graphic designer Cari Bambach The Washington Diplomat is published monthly by The Washington Diplomat, Inc. The newspaper is distributed free of charge at several locations throughout the Washington, D.C. area. We do offer subscriptions for home delivery. Subscription rates are $25 for 12 issues and $45 for 24 issues. Call Fuad Shiblie for past issues. If your organization employs many people from the international community you may qualify for free bulk delivery. To see if you qualify you must contact Fuad Shiblie. The Washington Diplomat assumes no responsibility for the safe keeping or return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork or other material. The information contained in this publication is in no way to be construed as a recommendation by the Publisher of any kind or nature whatsoever, nor as a recommendation of any industry standard, nor as an endorsement of any product or service, nor as an opinion or certification regarding the accuracy of any such information.

February 2013

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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

John W. Limbert

Former U.S. Envoy for Iran Says Policy Shouldn’ t Be Held Hostage by Politics by Larry Luxner

ohn W. Limbert hasn’t been back to Iran since the day he was airlifted out of Tehran with his 51 fellow U.S. hostages, ending a 444-day ordeal that forever scarred relations between the United States and its former Middle East ally.

“It was not as long as it was supposed to be,” Limbert says jokingly of his assignment in Tehran,“but it was longer than I wanted it to be.” The experience left an indelible mark on the veteran diplomat, who would go on to serve at American embassies in the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Guinea, Mauritania and Sudan. In 2010, Limbert ended his Foreign Service career as the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Iran — a position that had never existed before — and is now a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he teaches a course on U.S.-Iran relations. Limbert, 69, talked to The Washington Diplomat from the comfort of his Arlington, Va., home, surrounded by mementoes of a life lived abroad: exotic wood carvings from French-speaking Guinea; intricate Persian carpets from Tabriz and Isfahan; brass coffee pots from Saudi Arabia. The retired diplomat, who shares the house with his Iranian wife Parvaneh, was born and raised in the District, graduated from Tenleytown’s Woodrow Wilson High School, and has a doctorate in history and Middle Eastern studies from Harvard. The two met in the mid-1960s when Limbert, then a Peace Corps volunteer, taught English at a school in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj where Parvaneh was also working. Although Limbert joined the Foreign Service in 1973, he says it wasn’t until five years later — as a junior officer in Saudi Arabia — that his eyes were opened to the reality of politics in the Middle East. “It’s 1978, the Iranian Revolution is brewing, and a congressman comes to visit Saudi Arabia and I’m his escort,” he recalled. “A Saudi military official gets up and does a very professional briefing about his country’s strategic location. On his map, Saudi Arabia is surrounded by red Marxist states — Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Iran. The Saudis believed the Iranian Revolution was communist-inspired, so their conclusion was,‘We are surrounded.’ I ask him, ‘That’s a very interesting map. How did you put all that together?’ He says, ‘Our American advisors did it for us.’ That’s when I lost my political virginity. The Americans were whispering in the Saudis’ ear something both sides wanted to hear.” More than 33 years after the hostage

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crisis, U.S.-Iranian relations have not budged.Iran is still on the State Department’s list of terrorist-supporting countries, along with Cuba, Sudan and Syria — even as other nations like Libya and North Korea have been taken off that blacklist. The United States still has no embassy in Tehran, not even a U.S. Interests Section like it has in Havana, and there’s no indication that the two countries even talk to each other. “We do have so-called official ways of passing messages. We can go to their U.N. representative in New York, or we can go through the Swiss Embassy, which represents us in Tehran. But in terms of officials talking directly to officials, the last time that happened was 2009, when thenUndersecretary Bill Burns spoke with the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, in Geneva.” Since then, said Limbert, “there’s almost no talking” between the two sides — a black hole of knowledge that he says has led to mutual demonization, which, as he put it in a 2012 op-ed, “has imputed the worst possible motives to the other, creating an adversary both superhuman (devi-

“

Photo: Larry Luxner

For 33 years, we’ve been trading insults, threatening each other, calling each other names, and it hasn’t changed anything. Do we like each other? No, probably not. But you don’t have to. You talk to your neighbor because you’re better off talking than not talking. — John W. Limbert former U.S. envoy to Iran and hostage in Tehran from 1979 to 1981

ous, powerful, and implacably hostile) and subhuman (violent, irrational, and unthinking).” “I expected better relations by now,” said the diplomat, who first fell in love with Iran during a 1962 visit there to see his parents, who were working in Iran on contract for the U.S. Agency for International Development. “I can’t say I was optimistic, but I guess it’s part of your training as a Foreign Service officer. Your profession is based on communications, not necessarily friendship — if only to make your own

”

position clear and to listen to what the other side is saying. The U.S. and Iran do have things to talk about, regardless whether Iran is a monarchy or an Islamic republic.” One of those things, of course, is Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons — a subject Limbert says has been greatly exaggerated, largely to create a convenient bogeyman where none exists. “In teaching my course about Iran, I have to explain that the phrase ‘Iranian threat’ is actually two words,” he joked.“To

put it very simply, politicians have found it useful to blow up, exploit and play on the threat from Iran. The question I always put to my students is, what is this threat? Where does it come from? What lies behind all this talk? There’s a great deal of debate over this in Israel, a debate which is not reflected here. For Israel, [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad is the gift that keeps on giving. If you need an enemy to get votes, what better one than him?” As for the rabid anti-American populist’s repeated threats to wipe Israel off the map, Limbert said this kind of rhetoric has even generated criticism within Iran. “It was interesting that when he came to New York last September for the U.N. General Assembly, he toned down some of this stuff. Maybe it was finally getting through that this was counterproductive,” said Limbert, who recently traveled to Israel with his wife to discuss Iran at several venues including Tel Aviv’s Museum of the Diaspora. Regardless of Ahmadinejad’s blustery rhetoric, Limbert points out that the nuclear program is not his domain. “The presi-

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

dent of Iran was never that powerful. His job is to cut ribbons and officiate at ceremonies. The sooner Ahmadinejad learns that, the easier a time he’s going to have,” Limbert said, observing that the president “couldn’t even visit one of his colleagues in prison.” The real power lies in the hands of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who’s frequently clashed with Ahmadinejad. But analysts are torn as to whether Khamenei sees nuclear weapons as Iran’s salvation in its struggle for regional influence over Sunni heavyweights like Saudi Arabia and U.S. allies like Israel — or whether he has no intentions of building a bomb and really believes what he says, that “holding these arms is a sin as well as useless, harmful and dangerous.” Limbert said he’s not seen anything that convinces him Iran — which argues it has a legal right to nuclear enrichment as a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — is pursuing weapons of mass destruction. “What’s clear is that the Iranians have not been particularly forthcoming about their nuclear program. But the reasoning I often hear is that one, the Iranians are doing something with nuclear power and enrichment.Two, the Iranians are bad people.Therefore, they must be building a nuclear weapon.” However, such a policy “doesn’t do anything for them in terms of what they say is the threat to their survival,” according to Limbert. “I believe them when they say the threat is internal — the same thing that brought down [Egypt’s Hosni] Mubarak and [Tunisia’s Zine elAbidine] Ben Ali, and what’s bringing down [Syria’s Bashar al-] Assad. They call it sedition, fomented by outside powers. If that’s true, then a nuclear weapon serves no purpose.You can’t use a nuclear weapon against street demonstrators.” Complicating things is Iran’s lack of allies in the region. “Historically linguistically, religiously, Iran is an island surrounded by Turks, Arabs, Pakistanis and Sunnis. It’s not any of those things. They’re really by themselves,” Limbert said. “Add to that some monumentally bad diplomacy where they managed to make enemies left and right, and you have a country which essentially has only two friends: Syria and Armenia. And if Assad fails, Iran could be facing a new Sunni regime in Syria. That’s probably the worst nightmare. Iran then loses its access to Hezbollah, one of its few friends in the neighborhood and probably its only friend in the Arab world.” For years, Limbert noted, Iran used the Palestinian cause “as its passport into the Arab world” — providing missiles for Hamas jihadists in the Gaza Strip and offering, among other things, bounties for the families of suicide bombers who killed Israeli civilians.“That worked for a time, but when they end up supporting Assad, who is murdering Arabs and Sunnis, that passport doesn’t have much validity anymore.” With fewer friends on the outside and more disgruntled citizens on the inside, pressure is coming at the regime from all sides. Protests erupted in 2009 after Ahmadinejad handily won the election, though the government was able to clamp down on dissenters and the controversial president retains the support of many rural, older voters. Since then, however, unprecedented U.S. and European sanctions have choked off energy profits and pounded Iran’s economy, causing the value of its currency to tank. And with Iran heading into another presidential election this June, there’s no doubt U.S. officials hope the country’s dire economic straits spark a renewed challenge to the regime. But Limbert says that while the U.S. government can wish for regime change, it shouldn’t intervene to make that wish come true. He’s not at all optimistic when it comes to Washington’s promises of bringing democracy to the Middle East. And he certainly doesn’t think the United States can or should foment a counter-revolution to topple the Islamic Republic (the last time Washington interfered, to prop up the embattled Reza Shah Pahlavi, an Islamic revolution ensued, resulting in the current republic). February 2013

Photo: DoD via Pingnews

Recently freed Americans held hostage in Iran disembark the Air Force’s Freedom One plane at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Jan. 27, 1981. The 444-day ordeal for 52 Americans forever scarred relations between the United States and its former Mideast ally.

“Look at our record. It usually has terrible consequences. I personally would love to see a more humane government in Iran. But is that the U.S. government’s task? I don’t think we’re capable of it. Our record in other places suggests that when we make such attempts, the results are usually not very good.” He added that in Iran,“you have an entrenched power structure that over the years has become more and more detached from the concerns of the people. They’re concerned with enriching themselves. Either it collapses of its own weight or it does not.” On that note, the current joke in Tehran is that “Tunis could, Iran could not.” The double entendre is funny because the word “Tunis” in Farsi means “could.” A candid, colorful academic at heart who aspired to become a teacher rather than a diplomat, Limbert has written four books — all on the subject of Iran. He’s a past president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and is also the proud recipient of the State Department’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, as well an Award for Valor, presented to all the hostages after their 14-month ordeal. “I’ve often said that I don’t so much blame the 20-year-olds who did this, because they were acting on emotion,” Limbert told The Diplomat. “If there’s blame, it’s the people who should have known better, who instead of stepping in, in fact ended up supporting it. In fact, they still debate it. Officially, they claim the embassy takeover was a good thing. They celebrate it every year on the fourth of November.This is chutzpah.” Memories of that traumatic ordeal came flooding back with the recent release of Ben Affleck’s award-winning political thriller, “Argo.” Affleck not only directs the movie but also plays its protagonist, Tony Mendez — a CIA “exfiltration” specialist who travels to Iran to fly out six trapped Americans disguised as Canadian movie scouts filming a fake Hollywood sci-fi production. Limbert and Mendez spoke at a recent Washington screening of “Argo” for 300 diplomats, dignitaries and others that was organized by AFSA (also see “Tony Mendez: The CIA Spy Behind ‘Argo’ in the January 2013 edition of the Diplomatic Pouch online).“Argo” was based on a true story, though the ruling mullahs in Iran likely aren’t fans of Affleck’s latest movie. “A number of Iranians have said this is a terrible film.They say it shows them as violent, irrational and fanatic at the time,” Limbert said.“All I can do is say that at the time, they were violent, irrational and fanatic. The good thing is that it’s forced people to confront a very ugly part of their own past.” Limbert jokes that the Iranians follow the “Cleopatra policy” — and that Cleopatra was the queen of denial. “Now they claim they never held guns to anybody’s head, that there were no mock execu-

tions, that nobody was ever beaten up.The longer time goes on, the more this narrative has taken root. Even President Ahmadinejad has bought into this version of events,” he said. Limbert said he sees two currents within the Iranian-American community: one that supports dialogue with Tehran, and the other that rejects any interaction with the Islamic Republic and still blames Jimmy Carter for all the loss of U.S. influence in Iran. As for Carter, now 88, Limbert says, “I’m very careful about criticizing what he did or didn’t do. After all, he did get us out of there alive. It was his presidency — basically [then Deputy Secretary of State] Warren Christopher — that negotiated our release.” However, Limbert did say that Washington’s decision to grant asylum to the Shah for cancer treatment was like throwing him and his former hostages under the bus. At the time, Reza Shah Pahlavi was facing mounting opposition in Iran for stifling dissent and being a puppet of the United States. Carter was reluctant to grant the unpopular, cancer-stricken ally entry to the United States, for fear of reprisal against Americans in Iran, but he eventually relented, reportedly on humanitarian grounds. “The U.S. government had been told, ‘If you admit the Shah, you can kiss your mission in Tehran goodbye one way or another.This was not rocket science,” Limbert said. Both Carter and then Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (who later resigned to protest the failed secret mission to rescue the hostages) opposed giving the Shah safe haven, but Limbert claims Henry Kissinger and former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller were pushing for it. “Kissinger denies it but I think he’s lying. His friends were pushing too.Vance didn’t agree, and Carter didn’t agree. The embassy told Vance it was a bad idea. On Oct. 25, 1979, the U.S. government learns after five and a half years that the Shah has cancer, and needs urgently to come to the U.S. for treatment. Vance changes his mind and says we have to let him in. Carter is now by himself,” he said. “Here’s where the Benghazi parallel comes in. Having made that decision, knowing that would put us in danger, why did he leave us there? The answer is the Cold War, and Iran was the prize.We had competed with the Soviets there since 1945. We were not about to pack up and leave, and turn the whole place over to our Cold War enemies. From what I read, [former national security chief Zbigniew] Brzezinski still believed that opposing the Soviets could be the basis of some understanding with the government in Iran.” The recent independent review of last year’s violent attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya — which killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others — doesn’t specifically mention the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. But Limbert says “there are

definitely echoes of Tehran” in the report. “The issue is, what’s the balance between mission and safety? Does it require you to be present, to have people on the ground in places that are very dangerous? And if it does, then what measures do you need to take? You’ll never make people perfectly safe, but if you can’t take those measures, you should not be there.” We asked Limbert if the United States should renew its diplomatic presence in Iran, one of the most virulently anti-American climates in the world. Could the State Department, for example, open a U.S. Interests Section in Tehran, sort of like the interests section Washington maintains in Havana, under the protection of the Swiss Embassy? “This was talked about at the end of the Bush administration,” he said. “I would say yes, if we could have some reasonable assurance that the first time there was a disagreement, we don’t have 1979 all over again. That possibility is still there. It happened to our British friends [in 2011 when Iranian protesters stormed their embassy]. It might have been people who were nostalgic for the good old revolutionary days. I would put this condition:The least we should ask is that the Iranians no longer mark Nov. 4 as something to celebrate.” He added: “The experience of what I went through was truly awful, and it’s still going on. But the question is, what’s in the interests of our country? For 33 years, we’ve been trading insults, threatening each other, calling each other names, and it hasn’t changed anything. Do we like each other? No, probably not. But you don’t have to. You talk to your neighbor because you’re better off talking than not talking.” There is a good chance that with Iran increasingly squeezed by sanctions and Obama embarking on his second term with a renewed mandate, the talks over Iran’s nuclear program will restart very soon. Iran has indicated a willingness to return to the table, though Washington and Tehran remain far apart in their bargaining positions. Iran insists that negotiations encompass a broader agenda, which Limbert supports. He points out that for many Iranians, resentful of what they see as U.S. bullying, the nuclear issue is a source of national pride.A wide-ranging discussion could give Iran’s leaders a way to save face if they have to make concessions. Plus, he says, there are important areas — Afghanistan, drug trafficking, etc. — where the two enemies could find common ground. But Western powers want to deal strictly with the nuclear question, wary that an expanded focus would be just another stalling tactic to let Iran quietly fortify its nuclear program. Nevertheless, Limbert says President Obama’s re-election and his nomination of Sen. John Kerry as secretary of state gives him some hope when it comes to U.S.-Iran relations. “Hillary [Clinton] is a very skilled secretary of state and I have great respect for her, but her instincts are very political. Kerry is the son of a Foreign Service officer. If you listen to him, he talks like a Foreign Service officer. And Vietnam gives him credibility.” Pundits are debating how much that war might shape Kerry’s tenure as secretary of state (and Chuck Hagel’s as defense secretary, if he’s confirmed). Likewise, being held captive in Iran for more than a year has had a profound impact on Limbert’s career, although the pragmatic diplomat has never turned his back on the country he fell in love with 40 years ago. He still ardently believes in engagement over confrontation. For the time being, though, neither Limbert nor his wife are allowed to set foot on Iranian soil. “None of the former hostages have gone back to Iran,” he said, adding that his two grown children have not been back to the country of their birth since they were 9 and 7. “That’s a red line for the Iranian government. I don’t know why. I think we remind them of something they’d rather forget.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat. The Washington Diplomat Page 5

Diplomacy

State Department

Foreign Policy Vet John Kerry Set to Take Over State Department by Karin Zeitvogel

eeks before hearings had even begun to confirm Massachusetts Senator John Kerry as U.S. secretary of state, diplomacy watchers were writing opinion pieces about the Democratic lawmaker that started with the phrase “when John Kerry is confirmed” — rather than “if.”

And indeed, at his confirmation hearing on Jan. 24, in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he’s chaired for the past four years, Kerry received a warm welcome. His successor on that panel, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), at one point even slipped and referred to him as Mr. Secretary. To many on both sides of the political aisle in Washington, Kerry was always a shoo-in for the post that Hillary Clinton is vacating. President Barack Obama said when he nominated Kerry to the top diplomatic position in December that “few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers, or grasp our foreign policies, as firmly as John Kerry.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), an outspoken critic of Obama, supported the choice of Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate who entered the Senate in 1985. Hillary Clinton called him an “excellent” choice, citing his “decades of service to our country and deep experience in international affairs.” Diplomacy, said the highly popular secretary of state, was in Kerry’s blood (his father was a Foreign Service officer). Though he may lack Clinton’s star power, Kerry, 69, is a respected Senate statesman with a solid history of foreign policy achievements and a deep reservoir of contacts, both within the U.S. government and around the world. That will come in handy because he’ll face many of the same issues that Clinton grappled with, including the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan; political instability in Pakistan; nuclear saber-rattling by North Korea and nuclear stonewalling from Iran; unrest and uncertainty in the Middle East, especially Syria; the long-running Israeli-Palestinian saga; African coups; and China’s expanding ambitions in Asia and, for that matter, Africa. Kerry has given some clues as to the stance he’ll take on some issues and what

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credit: UN Photo / Albert Gonzalez Farran

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I think it’s fair to say that few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers, or grasp our foreign policies, as firmly as John Kerry, and this makes him a perfect choice to guide American diplomacy in the years ahead. — President Barack Obama his form of diplomacy will look like: talk to everyone, even if they’re not your cup of tea. In fact, at his Senate confirmation hearing, Kerry vowed that as secretary of state, one of the first things he would do is invite members of the Foreign Relations Committee to “really dig in and talk” about the pressing global issues ahead — because, he stressed, political and fiscal dysfunction at home is the biggest threat to U.S. power abroad. “More than ever, foreign policy is economic policy,” he told the members, noting that “in many ways, the greatest challenge to America’s foreign policy will be in your hands, not mine.” Interestingly, pundits have noted how much Kerry, who effortlessly glided through his confirmation hearing to Foggy Bottom, has in common with Obama’s pick for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, a former Senate colleague who’s expected

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to have a much rockier path to the Pentagon. Both men volunteered to fight in the Vietnam War, both were decorated soldiers, and both came away scarred from the experience — and sober about the realities of war. As such, many observers say Kerry and Hagel will complement Obama’s judicious, deliberate approach to foreign interventions, preferring diplomatic engagement and covert counterterrorism over the kind of costly, messy wars that tainted President George W. Bush’s expansive freedom agenda. “Both will likely stand fully with Obama’s scaling-down of American military commitments abroad, and with his extreme stringency in applying U.S. military power in new crisis spots such as Libya and Syria,” wrote the National Journal’s Michael Hirsh.“For Obama’s sec-

U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) addresses a crowd of Sudanese displaced by fighting between the Khartoum government and rebel forces across Darfur in 2011.

ond term, that suggests that any future ‘Obama doctrine’ will also be a KerryHagel-Biden doctrine.” That’s not to say Kerry is completely averse to military force — he supported a no-fly zone over Libya and Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan. Yet in a 2011 Senate hearing, he also said “there is no purely military victory to be had in Afghanistan. What we face is a political resolution…. Reconciliation is more promising in the long run, but it will not be fast and it won’t be a silver bullet.” Likewise, at his January confirmation hearing, he stressed that diplomacy and development — not just military might — must play a critical role in U.S. foreign policy.“President Obama and every one of us here knows that American foreign policy is not defined by drones and deployments alone,” he said. “American foreign policy is also defined by food security and energy security, humanitarian assistance, the fight against disease and the push for development, as much as it is by any single counterterrorism initiative — and it must be…. It is defined by keeping faith with all that our troops have sacrificed to secure for Afghanistan.” Kerry’s diplomatic chops will surely be called upon as U.S. troops withdraw from

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

Afghanistan. A loyal Obama ally (who helped the president prep for his debates against Mitt Romney), Kerry was sent to Afghanistan in 2009 and reportedly spent 20 hours convincing the country’s prickly president, Hamid Karzai, to hold a runoff after a fraud-marred election. A strong proponent of diplomatic dialogue — who’s said to have coveted the secretary of state job back in 2008 — Kerry does not shy away from direct dealings with controversial figures, including the leaders of what George W. Bush dubbed “rogue states.” Notably, Kerry held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad five times from 2009 to 2011. The aim was to promote peace between Syria and Israel, and a WikiLeaks cable of the talks between Kerry and the emir of Qatar in 2010 reveals that Kerry praised Assad as a Middle East leader who “wants to change.” Those talks were held before the Arab Spring uprisings spread to Syria, and before Assad began his heavy-handed assault on his own people in a bid to cling to power. As soon as he was nominated to replace Clinton at the State Department, conservative media jumped on those talks with Assad and called Kerry’s relationship with the embattled Syrian leader “a bromance.” Though that may be a stretch, Kerry was way off in his prediction that “Syria will change, as it embraces a legitimate relationship with the United States and the West.” Since fighting broke out, however, he’s suggested that the United States should consider establishing a safe zone in Syria and arming the rebels. At his confirmation hearing, Kerry also defended his approach, saying Assad was cognizant of Syria’s restless youth population and knew he had to change. “That never happened. And it’s now moot, because he has made a set of judgments that are inexcusable,” Kerry said, concluding that the leader’s time is up, though he didn’t delve into how the United States should speed up his ouster. On Iran, though Kerry has often spoken out in favor of greater dialogue, at his confirmation hearing he made it clear that U.S. policy was not containment but prevention, and a military strike remains on the table. But he also pointed out that tough sanctions against Iran have taken their toll and pledged that,“I will work to give diplomacy every effort to succeed. But no one should mistake our resolve to reduce the nuclear threat.” While on the Hill, Kerry supported those sanctions against Iran, but he also voted against a bill designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization, saying the move was unnecessarily provocative. As for another nuclear problem child, Kerry has called for direct engagement with North Korea. In a 2011 opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times, he also pressed for the progressive denucle-

credit: UN Photo / Mark Garten

President Obama’s nomination for secretary of state, John Kerry, left, greets U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a 2010 Capitol Hill visit. With more than 25 years of experience in the Senate, Kerry has built up a large rolodex of contacts, both inside the U.S. and abroad.

arization of the Korean peninsula and a resumption of U.S. humanitarian aid to North Koreans. “Achieving complete denuclearization will take time, but in the near term we should try to negotiate an end to the North’s enrichment of uranium, a moratorium on nuclear weapons and missile testing, the removal of fresh fuel rods capable of producing fissile material and the final dismantlement of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor,” wrote Kerry, who’s well-versed in nonproliferation issues, having spearheaded the effort for Senate passage of the New Start nuclear reduction treaty with Russia. “We should also resume carefully monitored U.S. food assistance to hungry North Korean children and other vulnerable populations,” he added — a point he echoed at his Senate hearing. On that note, Kerry also stressed that despite the economic downturn,America’s foreign affairs budget — which makes up less than 1 percent of all federal spending — should be kept intact to preserve U.S. influence abroad. Indeed, further crowding Kerry’s agenda will be brewing and chronic instability in Africa, where a litany of humanitarian crises has received scattered attention. The most immediate challenge will be Mali, which is struggling to

contain al-Qaeda-linked insurgents who seized the north of the country after a military coup last March. U.S. diplomatic personnel were also recently evacuated from the Central African Republic as a rebellion threatened to overthrow the regime of President François Bozizé, who himself came to power in a coup in 2003. Meanwhile, the world’s newest nation, South Sudan, is struggling to carve out a future for itself, free from the influence of Khartoum, which is still waging battles against rebels in Darfur and elsewhere. A low-level war is still roiling eastern Democratic Republic of Congo; the United States is mulling, as it has done for months, whether to name the Islamist Boko Haram group in Nigeria — a key U.S. ally and oil producer — a terrorist organization; and Somalia is inching ever so slowly away from years of lawlessness, war and famine. The United States will also keep a watchful eye on parliamentary and presidential elections in Kenya in March. Some 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 displaced as violence raked the East African country after its 2007 elections. Key elections are also coming up in Iran and Tunisia, both in June. Long before then, Kerry might have to deal with a post-Hugo Chávez Venezuela, where the United States has called for a transparent and fair process if the ailing leader is unable to take up office because of his battle with cancer. Elsewhere in Latin America, there are voices calling for Kerry to place a greater focus on helping Mexico and its new leadership finally break the back of drug cartels. “The United States should redouble rule of law and economic assistance to Mexico, with an emphasis on professionalizing the judicial sector and creating economic alternatives to a life of crime,” David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute, wrote in a special report for the Council on Foreign Relations about the country’s bloody drug wars, which have claimed more than 50,000 lives since Felipe Calderón took office in 2006. The new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has questioned Calderón’s security-heavy strategy (backed by Washington) that targets the cartels, pledging to focus more on reducing violence against civilians. But PolicyMic’s Tom McKay says it’s doubtful Kerry will deviate from longstanding U.S. drug policy and “would likely support aggressive overseas action to fight drug trafficking, as well as efforts to shore up Central and Latin American countries’ legal systems in pursuit of more effective anti-drug operations. However, there will be no real change to the status quo.” Perhaps nowhere is the status quo more evident — and progress more elusive — than with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After an

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John Kerry, a diplomatic troubleshooter for President Obama over the years, visits the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur. In 2010 and 2011, Kerry conducted a series of trips to help ensure peace between Sudan and the newly independent South Sudan.

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early push by Obama to curb Israel settlement growth, Hillary Clinton and special Mideast envoy George J. Mitchell made little headway in restarting peace negotiations. Now, with Israeli politics taking a hard right turn, Kerry’s chances of getting the Israelis and Palestinians to even talk to each other are bleak. Haaretz has called Kerry “a staunch supporter of Israel” who “has repeatedly stood up against global anti-Semitism and believes in a muscular American posture against Iran’s nuclear designs.” During his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. presidency in 2004, Kerry’s campaign highlighted his unflinching support for Israel. In 2010, for instance, he said that Israel had “every right to defend itself” after the deadly attack on a Turkish aid flotilla bound for Gaza. Others though have said Kerry is unreliable on the issue, while others still label him a realist.As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he called on Israel to “freeze new settlement activity,” saying it would show a “commitment to peace.” He has also said that Israel should one day return the Golan Heights to Syria as a way to bring peace to the volatile Middle East, though that was months before Syria plunged into civil war. In that same speech, he reiterated longstanding U.S. policy that the best possible way to ensure Israel’s future would be a two-state solution. “The big question is how we get there,” he added. From new conflicts to seemingly neverending ones, it’s a lot on one person’s plate, but a secretary of state must not only deal with immediate crises, they must also tackle the long-term challenges to U.S. foreign policy. Clinton left her stamp on the State Department by elevating the role of women in foreign policy and trying to streamline diplomacy and development initiatives. With Kerry at the helm, climate change might become a bigger priority at State. Kerry, a long-time environmental advocate, “may be capable of redirecting the debate over … climate change,” speculated an editorial in the Los Angeles Times, calling Kerry one of “the most forward-thinking members of the U.S. Senate when it comes to understanding both the threats of and the practical responses to global warming.” Although Clinton was lauded for effectively representing Obama’s foreign policy vision, she did not appear to have a major hand in shaping that vision. Likewise, it remains to be seen if Kerry will formulate policy or be a loyal foot soldier executing it. The Foreign Policy’s James Traub thinks he will be the latter. “The big thinking in this administration comes from the Big Thinker in the White House, and a very small circle of

The Washington Diplomat

aides. That is unlikely to change,” he wrote last November. “And Kerry, though deeply familiar with everything and everyone, poses no danger of trying to impose a worldview of his own. He is an implementer, not a thinker.” That may be, but Kerry has shown in the past that he’s not afraid of racking up air miles like Clinton, or of standing up for what he believes in — even if it goes against what his boss, the U.S. president, thinks. In 1986, shortly after entering the Senate, then President Ronald Reagan dispatched Kerry to the Philippines as an election observer of the hotly contested race between longtime ruler Ferdinand Marcos and Corazon Aquino, the widow of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., who was assassinated in 1983. Kerry and the other observers reported back to the Reagan administration that the voting in the Philippines had been “marred by deaths and violence and [Kerry] said he personally had seen signs of vote-buying and ballot rigging,” a February 1986 report by the Associated Press said. According to the AP, Kerry said the White House “either totally ignored or dismissed out of hand” the observers’ reports and refused to drop its support for Marcos. But the young Senator stuck to his guns and eventually brought the Reagan administration around: The United States stopped backing Marcos around three weeks after the contentious elections, Cory Aquino was declared the winner, and Marcos fled the country, a large entourage in tow. Despite racking up a string of diplomatic victories over the years, Kerry has a lot to live up to when he follows in the footsteps of the immensely popular, tech-savvy and workaholic Clinton, who was chosen by Americans as their “most admired woman” for 11 years in a row and traveled to 112 countries in four years — more than any other U.S. secretary of state. Kerry will move into a State Department that was pushed into the digital age by Clinton. But he’s unlikely to flounder in the midst of new technology and media.The Massachusetts senator has more than 57,000 followers on Twitter and has tweeted just over 500 times. It appears that @JohnKerry writes and sends the tweets himself, but the punishing schedule imposed by his new diplomatic duties will likely change that. And while we don’t expect Kerry to be named “most admired woman,” he’s shown no aversion to travel and could beat the outgoing chief diplomat’s record for countries visited and controversial leaders dialogued with. “Speak softly, speak with everyone, and carry a smart phone so you can tweet” could well become his catchphrase.

Karin Zeitvogel is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. February 2013

Politics

United States

Newtown Tragedy Prompts National Soul-Searching on Guns by Sean Lyngaas

he massacre in Newtown, Conn., in December that left 20 schoolchildren dead has struck the American consciousness where other mass shootings have not. It is causing lawmakers who are avid hunters and military veterans to reassess a culture of gun ownership that is among the highest in the world. “This tragedy is different than what we’ve experienced in the past,” Congressman Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) recently told The Washington Diplomat. “I’ve had people in my district, lifelong NRA members who have never talked to me about gun violence, approach me and say, ‘We should do something about assault weapons.’” The NRA, of course, is the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobby groups in the country. The challenge for those crafting a policy response to the tragedy will not only be to go up against the NRA, but also to reconcile America’s love of hunting and its deeply cherished constitutional right to bear arms with sensible measures that reduce the likelihood of another Newtown.

New Frontier? Thompson thinks he is up to the task. He is an enthusiastic hunter from pastoral northern California whom House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tapped to head the congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. Thompson has met with NRA leadership and with House Republicans because, he explains, “everyone needs to be part of the conversation” on curbing gun violence. There is a big difference, however, between talking with pro-gun groups and lawmakers and actively working with them to write legislation. You won’t find any Republicans on Thompson’s task force. It is up to the majority party in the House to form their own group on the issue, a slim prospect given how entrenched the pro-gun platform is with conservative lawmakers. It is no coincidence that public figures in favor of gun control like Thompson have been emphasizing their gun-toting credentials. For any legislative action to win broad support from the American public, it would have to be cast as being in gun owners’ best interest rather than an attack on the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that pro-gun groups tend to paint these initiatives as. Thompson is convinced he can win this argument.“It would be very shortsighted” for the NRA not to participate, said Thompson. “They might win this battle on gun control but they would lose the war.” Nevertheless, the NRA is gearing up for battle, vowing it will wage “the fight of the century” in response to President Obama’s recent gun-control proposals, which include a ban on assault weapons, limits on high-capacity magazines, universal background checks, eliminating armor-piercing bullets, tougher gun trafFebruary 2013

Photo: Stephanie Frey / bigstock

“

This tragedy is different than what we’ve experienced in the past.

”

— U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) ficking laws, and strengthening mental health and school safety resources. Obama admits the opposition to what he calls “common-sense” gun-control measures will be fierce. “There will be pundits and politicians and special interest lobbyists publicly warning of a tyrannical, allout assault on liberty — not because that’s true, but because they want to gin up fear or higher ratings or revenue for themselves,” he said, alluding in part to the NRA. Formed in 1871, the NRA was largely a hunting, marksmanship and conservation organization for many years until about the mid-1970s, when it morphed into the formidable lobby shop it is today, with annual revenue of over $200 million. The group has spent a good portion of that revenue on political races (about $20 million in the last federal election cycle, according to Opensecrets.org) and lobbying to prevent any gun-control measure it views as a threat to the Second Amendment, which states that,“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The NRA’s base of grassroots support is strong, with 4 million members and growing in the wake of the Newtown shooting. But its critics say the NRA represents the interests of gun makers and sellers (a $12 billion-a-year industry) rather than the average gun

owner, and that the new frontier in gun control may be enlisting hunters and gun owners disillusioned with the group’s unyielding stance. Obama personally appealed to this segment of the population when he rolled out his recent proposals.“I respect our strong tradition of gun ownership and the rights of hunters and sportsmen. There are millions of responsible, law-abiding gun owners in America who cherish their right to bear arms for hunting, or sport, or protection, or collection,” he said at the Jan. 16 White House press conference. “I also believe most gun owners agree that we can respect the Second Amendment while keeping an irresponsible, law-breaking few from inflicting harm on a massive scale.” Likewise, when former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly recently announced their organization to combat gun violence, Americans for Responsible Solutions, they, too, spoke of their understanding of America’s gun culture. Kelly stated: “I’ve taken a gun to work. I flew in combat in Operation Desert Storm off the USS Midway, carrying a 9-millimeter. I certainly understand the importance and the right to own a firearm in our country.” The couple launched the group on the second anniversary of a mass shooting in which Giffords was gravely wounded. But whether the effort gains momentum in the wake of the Newtown tragedy remains to be seen. In a USA Today op-ed, Giffords noted that even after her own high-profile shooting, which “left one of its own bleeding and near death in a Tucson parking lot, Congress has done something quite extraordinary — nothing at all.”

Grim Statistics For many foreigners, what’s extraordinary is the sheer level of gun violence that seems to be an accept-

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cies and prompted two foreign interventions. Yet more Americans die from guns in a sixed fact of American life. Although homicides month time span than have been killed in 25 have been trending downward for years, the years’ worth of terrorist attacks and the Iraq and statistics on gun violence in the United States Afghan wars combined. are staggering compared to other developed The last major piece of gun legislation that nations. passed Capitol Hill was the 1994 ban on assault There are roughly 300 million civilian fireweapons, which critics say was riddled with arms in circulation in the United States, about hundreds of loopholes, and the 1993 Brady Bill one gun for every American — more firearms mandating background checks (though it per capita than any other country in the world exempted gun shows, where as many as 40 (Yemen ranks second). The United States also percent of all gun purchases are conducted far outstrips other OECD (Organization for without a background check). Economic Cooperation and Development) Since then, even relatively noncontroversial countries in gun homicides. In fact, there are measures have encountered stiff political resisnearly 10 times more gun murders in the U.S. tance, such as allowing the Bureau of Alcohol, than all of the other high-income OECD counTobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to use tries combined. (Notably, when it comes to computer databases to trace gun sales, or fundother forms of crime, such as burglary and ing public health agencies to study the causes of assault, the United States is relatively on par gun violence (even doctors have been discourwith other developed nations.) aged from discussing gun safety with patients). According to the National Vital Statistic After the Newtown shooting, Obama’s instiReport, more than 30,000 Americans were tuted 23 executive actions aimed at, among killed by firearms in 2011, including about other things, encouraging better information 11,000 gun homicides (the rest were largely sharing among federal and local law enforcesuicides). That’s roughly one gun-related death ment and directing the Centers for Disease every 20 minutes. In comparison, the United Control and Prevention to research gun vioKingdom had 41 gun homicides in 2009, accordlence. ing to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime Polls have indicated growing support for (UNODC). Canada had 173, France had 35, these and other measures. A Jan. 14 Pew Greece had 29, and Israel had six. Research Center survey showed that 85 perHowever, it’s difficult to establish a direct cent of Americans favor making private gun corollary between the number of guns in circusales and sales at gun shows subject to backlation and gun violence. Finland, for instance, ground checks, with broad support across party has 45 guns per 100 people (about half as much lines. Similarly, 80 percent support laws to preas the United States) but recorded 24 firearm vent mentally ill people from purchasing guns. homicides in 2009, UNODC reported. At the same time, polls have consistently Moreover, even though gun laws have actushown overwhelming U.S. support for the right ally been loosened in many states, homicides in to own the kinds of guns that are responsible the United States have decreased markedly for the most deaths. Some 80 million Americans since the 1980s. Today, the United States ranks own a firearm, typically a handgun, which is in the mid-range of gun murders worldwide, used to commit a majority of the nation’s murwith a little over three homicides per 100,000 ders — not the kind of semi-automatic weapons people — versus, say, a gun homicide rate of 68 used in Newtown. And as research by Rand per 100,000 for Honduras. NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure admore is free in spelling Corp.your found, than of 95 mistakes percent of U.S. homi- and But the numbers clearly show a yawning content it is ultimately up to thecides customer to make the final proof. involve a single victim. Mass shootings discrepancy when it comes to similar devellike Newtown, though tragic, are the exception, oped nations. norm. The In firstJapan, two faxed changes will be made at not no the cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes which tightened already-strict Yet there is dismal will or public will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed ads political are considered approved. restrictions after 22 people were fatally shot in support to remove handguns off America’s 2007, there were 11 gun homicides in the counstreets or,for matter,amend the Constitution. this ad carefully. Mark anythat changes to your ad. try in 2008. ToPlease put thischeck into perspective, that Even Obama took pains to affirm that, “Like same year, nearly 600 Americans died from accimost Americans, I believe the Second dental guncorrect discharges If the ad is signalone. and fax to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes Amendment guarantees an individual right to The United States also leads the world in bear arms.” shootings.Diplomat The Associated Press(301) compiled The mass Washington 933-3552 data on mass shootings and found that 15 of the 25 worst mass shootings over the last 50 years comPArison cAvEAts Approved Every country that engages in a meaningful occurred__________________________________________________________ in the United States. According to Mother___________________________________________________________ Jones magazine, there have been more national debate on gun violence does so on its Changes than 60 mass murders in the U.S. since 1982 own terms, through its own cultural code. In ___________________________________________________________________ — and in the majority of them, the killer the United States, it is a matter of accounting for the deeply ingrained connection citizens see obtained the firearm legally. As such, many people from other nations are between guns and liberty. In Australia and perplexed as to why even modest gun-control Switzerland, two countries with high rates of measures have become so taboo in the United gun ownership, the national dialogue after mass States. The 9/11 terrorist attacks forced a mas- shootings was entirely different. Australians sive restructuring of government security agen- looked to unite behind the common goal of

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public safety, while the Swiss sought to restore popular faith in responsible gun ownership. Proponents and opponents of gun control in America have cited these two countries in recent weeks to make their case for policy action or lack thereof. It is therefore worth clarifying the state of gun control in Australia and Switzerland and how the national debates took shape after mass shootings there. In April 1996, a disturbed young man shot 35 people dead with a semi-automatic rifle in Port Arthur, Australia. Australians, who share with Americans a tradition of hunting and a frontier spirit, came together to support tight restrictions on semi-automatic weapons. Conservative Prime Minister John Howard initiated a large buyback program that is not feasible in the United States due to the proliferation of guns here (300 million guns in America versus 3 million in Australia). “Overall, the mood in Australia was markedly different following the Port Arthur shooting compared to what I witnessed after the Columbine and Newtown shootings here in the U.S.,” CNN International anchor and native Australian John Vause wrote in an email. “It was pretty clear to Australians that guns would have to be dealt with in some way…. As far as I can remember, there was never a suggestion that the answer to gun violence in Australia was to make guns more available,” wrote Vause. Prime Minister Howard’s political coalition included farmers and rural Australians. “At a fair degree of political risk, Mr. Howard and Tim Fischer, the leader of the [National Party], took on their base,” wrote Vause. “I vividly remember Mr. Howard wearing a bulletproof vest under his jacket when he met with gun owners and farmers to argue the case for gun reform, so there was this sense of both real and political danger.” Societal differences aside, Australians and Americans have made simple demands for solutions in response to the Port Arthur and Newtown shootings — namely restricting the kind of high-

NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and content it is ultimately to the customer to make the final proof. ban army rifles from homes, opting toup rely ambassador wants to be seen as treading on an

powered guns meant to maximize carnage.There was a policy debate in the Australian press, the mostly on existing gun laws to tackle the prob- American political issue this delicate. But as the The Like first Australia, two faxed changeshas willnot be had made no costpress to the advertiser, subsequent kind of soul-searching now taking place in lem. Switzerland a atAmerican continues to invoke these coun-changes American media. It remains to be seen whether mass since national debate (though tries’ experiences with violence, it is worth willshooting be billed atthis a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed adsgun are considered approved. politicians like Mike Thompson can successfully a shooting an early January killed three people). remembering how open debate thrived at a time persuade gun owners of the merits of gun con- But unlike Australia, Swisscheck gun policy remains of national Please this ad carefully. Mark angst. any changes to your ad. trol, as John Howard did with his base. Australia largely unchanged. does not have any comparable lobby group like Anyone wishing to apply the Swiss or Australian Sean Lyngaas is a freelance writer ad istocorrect sign andwould fax to:be(301) in Washington, D.C. needs changes the NRA nor does it have a constitutional right to If the examples American policy wise to949-0065 bear arms. consider cultural context.American gun violence Diplomat (301) 933-3552 But it is hard to argue with the efficacy of the The is aWashington beast unto itself, fueled by numerous societal policies put in place by Australia. According to a and historical factors. But one positive sign after Harvard University study, there have been no Approved Newtown __________________________________________________________ is that Americans are engaging in an mass shootings in Australia since Port Arthur, open debate much the way Australians and Swiss compared with 11 in the decade before that Changes did after ___________________________________________________________ their own gun horrors. tragedy. Moreover, a 2010 American Journal of ___________________________________________________________________ The Australian and Swiss embassies declined Follow The Diplomat Law and Economics report found that gun homi- to be interviewed by The Diplomat for this story Connect at www.washdiplomat.com. cides in Australia dropped 59 percent between because of the sensitive nature of the subject. No 1995 and 2006. The year 2009 saw a total of 30 gun homicides in the country, according to the United Nations. Whereas gun-control advocates like to invoke the case of Australia, American opponents of gun control often point to Switzerland, where arms are rife and violent crime is low. The Swiss have more guns per capita than Australians, at nearly Certified Public Accountants one gun for every two people, according to the Small Arms Survey. But the context is entirely different. Switzerland requires all men to serve in the army reserves and there is a culture of communal responsibility tied to gun use. According to a Brenner & Elsea-Mandojana, LLC specializes in recent Time magazine report, Swiss kids as young as 12 belong to groups that teach sharpshooting. U.S tax, financial planning and business advisory needs The federal government tracks details of every licensed firearm and owner in the country, as of U.S expatriates and the international community. well as all firearm transfers. But, of course, a culture of responsible gun E-mail: info@globaltaxconsult.com ownership is no guarantee against a mass shooting. When a gunman stormed a local parliament Houston tel: (281) 360-2800 near Zurich and killed 14 people in 2001, the Website: www.globaltaxconsult.com gun debate reopened in Switzerland.This debate did not come to a head until 10 years later when Swiss voters rejected a national referendum to

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Politics

Caucasus

Georgian Ambassador to Step Down, Citing Unease with New Leadership by Larry Luxner

emuri Yakobashvili’s shiny new aviator wing desk — a mini shrine to Georgian aircraft engineer Alexander Kartveli, who designed the P-47 Thunderbolt and other World War II-era bombers — is covered with aluminum patchwork and exposed steel screws that give it a uniquely retro feel. Too bad the blunt, cigar-smoking diplomat will have to leave his beloved desk behind. Effective March 1,Yakobashvili steps down as Georgia’s ambassador to the United States.The gregarious diplomat is quitting not because he wants to — but because he feels he can no longer do his job in Washington, in the wake of political confusion back home. “America is our biggest and strongest partner, and for a country like Georgia, this is the most important diplomatic post you can imagine,”Yakobashvili, 45, told us in a recent interview. “And because it’s such a high-profile post, it requires that whoever represents the country should have direct links with the top leadership. All my predecessors had that, and that was the case with me as well. But now it’s different.” What’s different is the country’s new prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili. In last October’s widely watched parliamentary elections, the billionaire businessman’s Georgian Dream coalition — composed of six diverse political parties with sometimes competing agendas — won 54 percent of the vote, gaining 85 of 150 seats in Parliament. President Mikheil Saakashvili now heads the opposition during his last year in office, and the two adversaries will have to find a way to work together to guide Georgia on its stillrocky post-Soviet path. Saakashvili rose to prominence in the Rose Revolution that ushered him to office in January 2004. The Westernoriented president quickly set about steering Georgia away from Russia, pushing for NATO membership and sending troops to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. He won plaudits for his “zero tolerance” approach to the country’s rampant crime and for embracing democratic and economic reforms. But he was roundly criticized for misjudging Western support during a brief but bloody war with Russia in 2008, after which Georgia lost control over two disputed territories to Moscow. The Columbia-educated democratic icon was also criticized for some undemocratic tendencies, including the use of tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse antigovernment protesters in recent years. That’s why tensions were high that the October vote might spark more clashes. But Saakashvili surprised and impressed many by promptly conceding defeat. Yakobashvili says “losing elections is the price you pay for reform. Obviously, reforms are never popular. You’ve seen it in the Baltic countries.The unique thing is that it’s happening peacefully and within democratic norms.” Indeed, the ambassador proudly notes that last year marked the first time in Georgian history that the people changed governments through democratic elections.

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Photo: Larry Luxner

“

I am not distancing myself from Georgia…. I just think the best I can do now is not get into internal Georgian politics, but to labor for Georgia on an international level.

”

— Temuri Yakobashvili

ambassador of Georgia to the United States

“All previous governments were changed through either revolutions or violence,” he told us. “According to international observers, it was the best election we ever had.” That may be, but the election hardly ended the political uncertainty in a nation beset by a long history of bitter power struggles. As the New York Times noted, “Because of recent changes to the Constitution, Georgia will become a parliamentary republic in 2013, and many executive powers will be transferred to the prime minister. But many months of compromise stretch out before then — a danger in a political culture geared toward obliterating one’s opponent.” And it didn’t take long for Ivanishvili, a reclusive philanthropist, to go on the warpath. Ivanishvili rode to victory on a wave of dissatisfaction over poverty and unemployment. His fortunes were boosted by the last-minute release of a graphic video that showed prison guards sodomizing inmates. Though Saakashvili had earned praise for tackling crime, under his term the prison population quadrupled, and abuses were well documented. Though Ivanishvili has pledged to clean up the system and change his predecessor’s heavy-

Georgian Ambassador Temuri Yakobashvili says that because Washington is such an important posting, “it requires that whoever represents the country should have direct links with the top leadership. All my predecessors had that, and that was the case with me as well. But now it’s different.”

handed ways, his first three months in office have also not been very pretty. In fact, within an hour of Saakashvili’s concession, Ivanishvili suggested that the president should just go ahead and resign now — quickly rescinding his comment amid widespread outrage. Since then, however, Ivanishvili has set about prosecuting — some say persecuting — many of his political rivals, charging nearly two dozen former officials under the previous government with various crimes and alarming democratic observers who were hoping for a smooth transition. “As we speak, harassment is still unfortunately taking place,” Yakobashvili told us. “There are no more arrests, but we still get some worrying news from different parts of Georgia,” said the departing envoy, adding that it’s obvious the recent arrests were politically motivated. Giorgi Kandelaki, a media consultant for Georgia’s United National Movement, now in opposition after eight years in power, says Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream (GD) party has turned up the heat on local elected officials. Since the October 2012 elections, he says 43 heads of local self-government bodies have been forced to resign throughout Georgia, including 13 local council chiefs and 30 executives. “Pressure includes physical and verbal assaults, threats on family and the storming of municipality buildings by GD representatives,” said Kandelaki, adding that police have been ordered not to intervene or prevent attacks on local government officials — and that any official who resists will be punished.

The Washington Diplomat

See georgia, page 14 February 2013

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Georgia “These actions constitute part of a nationwide campaign launched against the local government by the GD, aimed at revising results of the 2010 local elections,” Kandelaki says, referring to municipal elections that overwhelmingly endorsed Saakashvili’s party. “The widespread nature of these illegal actions threatens to undermine the very constitutional order of Georgia and defy the democratic choice of people expressed in the 2010 local government elections.” To that end,Yakobashvili says his nation of 4.7 million people needs to escape its take-no-prisoners mentality of governing. “It’s not backsliding toward authoritarianism, but toward ‘winner takes all,’” he explained.“The winners have to understand that they won only parliamentary elections, not presidential or local elections. There’s not only been intimidation of former government officials, but very clear attacks on the institution of the presidency. We had multiple cases of mobs attacking local governments, hindering their ability to function and pushing local governors and council members to resign.That raises alarms.” The ambassador said lawmakers on Capitol Hill raised the issue with Georgia’s new foreign minister, Maia Panjikidze, during her recent visit to Washington. “Congress was very worried about the intimidation. I think their message mostly got through,” he said.“But it’s one thing to get the message out. Whether people comprehend the message is another.” Both sides, though, have engaged in a sort of messaging war when it comes to winning over Washington. Tbilisi-based business journalist Nicholas Clayton told The Diplomat that the pre-

vious government developed a significant amount of “soft power” on Capitol Hill, and Saakashvili is still widely viewed there as a heroic democratizing figure. “So far, Ivanishvili has gathered few champions and has had to fight the perception, largely spread by Saakashvili supporters, that he is a proRussian plutocrat bent on returning the country to endemic corruption and subservience to Moscow. “During the election campaign, GD accused the country’s ambassadors — and the previous government — of smearing the coalition with their counterparts and fear-mongering about the prospect of a GD victory,” added Clayton, a correspondent for the Financial Times Group’s Mergermarket. “It appears the new leadership remains distrustful of its own diplomats and has therefore largely used its hired lobbyists in Brussels and Washington to carry many of its messages and arrange meetings — and this has led to a lot of clumsiness.” Saakashvili’s administration also hired its own fair share of lobbyists and sent the charismatic, tough-talking Yakobashvili to head the embassy in D.C. (also see “Georgia’s ‘Force of Nature’ Blows Into Washington” in the August 2011 issue of The Washington Diplomat). But now Yakobashvili — an art-collecting, jazzloving former activist who during Soviet times was arrested for staging a pro-Israel rally in Tbilisi — is stepping back from the political fray. He feels he should “vacate this job for somebody else that would have better relations with the new leadership and more trust from them,” said the envoy.“I was not asked to leave. It’s my decision, and the president has accepted it.” He added: “Obviously, the new government wants to have their people representing its policies. Ambassadors can be appointed and recalled only by the president. So we have a situation

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PHOTO: LARRY LUxNER

A flag flies outside the Georgian Embassy in Washington, where Archil Gegeshidze has been nominated to take over as the country’s new ambassador.

where we have a new prime minister, but without the president he cannot recall or appoint ambassadors.” Nevertheless, in early January, Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs nominated Archil Gegeshidze to replace Yakobashvili. Gegeshidze, an academic, now has the tough task of convincing Washington that his boss — an enigmatic, some say eccentric billionaire who earned a fortune in Russia — won’t abandon the West in his quest to normalize relations with Moscow. Janusz Bugajski, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), for one, remains unconvinced. “Despite its official statements, the new Georgian government seems to be moving backwards in its commitments to NATO membership and maintaining a close relationship with the United States,” said Bugajski, who’s written 18 books on Europe, Russia and transatlantic relations. “Politically motivated arrests, an atmosphere of political vendetta, a less ambitious regional policy and a naïve approach toward Russia’s

ambitions in the Caucasus are creating increasing uncertainty about Georgia’s stability, security and future international integration,” Bugajski added. It’s the new prime minister’s attitudes toward Moscow that Yakobashvili, who saw firsthand the ravages of Georgia’s bruising war with Russia in 2008, finds particularly objectionable. “It became routine that every new government tries to fix relations with Russia. I don’t think one should be criticized for the will to do that,” he said.“That’s what Saakashvili tried to do. I don’t know any Georgian who’s against normalization. I just believe that his assessments are unrealistic. Specifically, he stated that he’s going to convince Russians by talking to them that Georgia’s membership in NATO and the EU is not bad for Russia. I understand he’s new in politics, but my fear is that these kinds of naïve statements are not bringing results, and can potentially cause harm.” Yakobashvili said fellow diplomats from other

See GEorGiA, page 46

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February 2013

COVER PROFILE

The Caribbean

Caribbean ambassadors to the United States sat down with The Washington Diplomat at the Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago to discuss an ongoing row with Washington over rum. Pictured from top row left are Duly Brutus, permanent representative of Haiti to the Organization of American States; Ambassadors Deborah Mae Lovell of Antigua and Barbuda, Paul Altidor of Haiti, Sonia M. Johnny of St. Lucia, Hubert Charles of Dominica, Jacinth Lorna Henry-Martin of St. Kitts and Nevis, Nestor Mendez of Belize, La Celia A. Prince of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and from bottom row left, Bayney Karran of Guyana, Stephen Vasciannie of Jamaica, Neil Parsan of Trinidad and Tobago, Anibal de Castro of the Dominican Republic, and John Beale of Barbados. Photo: Lawrence Ruggeri

Caribbean Rum Wars: Brewing Tax Battle Stirs Frustration With U.S.

by Larry Luxner

rguing about who bottles the best rum in the Caribbean is sort of like debating which country produces the tastiest gourmet coffee, or who exports the finest cigars. Ever since the 17th century, when slaves on West Indies sugar plantations began fermenting molasses into rum, connoisseurs have pondered that question — with modern contenders for the “best rum” title ranging from Jamaica’s award-winning Appleton Estate and Haiti’s legendary Rhum Barbancourt to pricey Mount Gay Rum from Barbados and the three Bs of the Dominican Republic: Bermudez, Brugal and Barceló. Within the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom), however, few would dispute the biggest threat facing the rum industry today: Washington’s generous excise-tax rebates that are used to subsidize rum production in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Despite its relative obscurity, the surprisingly emotional issue — replete with arcane terms like rebate caps, coverovers and zero-sum incentives — has done more than just spark a spirited trade debate. It has galvanized the Washington-based ambassadors of all 15 Caricom member nations like never before. Together, they’ve gone up to Capitol Hill, pleaded their case with the administration, and brainstormed on ways to get U.S. policymakers to pay attention to an issue that may be obscure to most Americans, but one that means big business for their small island states. These countries, ranging in size from tiny St. Kitts and Nevis (population 53,000) to Haiti (population 10.2 million), accuse the United States of violating World Trade February 2013

Organization rules by essentially subsidizing domestic rum production.And they threaten to pool their collective clout and take their case to Geneva if the situation is not resolved to their satisfaction. “We have had four legal opinions, and it is quite clear that while there may be different approaches, the WTO would probably rule in our favor,” said John Beale, the ambassador from Barbados. His is one of the countries most affected by U.S. subsidies, since 90 percent of rum produced in Barbados is exported, either in bulk or bottled form. Beale was among a group of Caribbean ambassadors who spoke for The Washington Diplomat’s exclusive group cover about an issue that has threatened the region’s vital rum industry. The issue is complex but comes down to subsidies — or a roundabout version of them. The United States currently charges a $13.50 excise tax per gallon on all rum produced in or imported to the United States. That money — amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars —

then gets funneled to the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S.Virgin Islands, which in turn use it to offer generous tax breaks to international rum producers that have set up shop on their territories. Despite their extensive campaign, Caribbean nations such as Barbados,Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica and others failed to convince the U.S. government that the tax amounted to a subsidy. Buried in the so-called fiscal cliff tax deal that passed Congress in early January was a provision extending the rum excise tax. Now, Caribbean states are left pondering whether to haul the United ALSO SEE: States before the WTO to resolve the row, though doing so would be a Puerto Rico’s Rum costly, lengthy undertaking. Rivalry With USVI At the 35th meeting of the Caricom ‘Race to the Bottom’ Council for Trade and Economic PAGE 17 Development, which was chaired by Jamaican Foreign Affairs Minister A.J. Nicholson, delegates urged the trade bloc to “pursue all avenues available” to secure a resolution “that restores the competitive balance in the marketplace.” Beale warned that Barbados and its fellow Caricom states could very quickly find themselves priced out of the market if cheaper rums from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are allowed to flood U.S. liquor-store shelves thanks to unfair and possibly illegal trade preferences.

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 15

Continued from previous page “This is not just a subsidy to assist someone. It completely distorts and wipes out the competition,” Beale complained.“Diageo has more money than we can ever dream about. Something seems a bid odd there. Something doesn’t add up.” Added Trinidadian Ambassador Neil Parsan: “The Diageo plant’s production capacity is far greater than the total production capacity of the Caribbean.There’s an economy of scale coming out of the U.S. Virgin Islands that renders the [rest of the] Caribbean uncompetitive.” Diageo, for those not familiar with the drinks world, is a British conglomerate and the planet’s largest producer of spirits, with annual sales of $17 billion — an amount that far exceeds Jamaica’s annual GDP. Its brands include Smirnoff (the world’s best-selling vodka), Johnnie Walker (the world’s best-selling Scotch whisky), Baileys (the world’s best-selling liqueur), and Guinness (the world’s best-selling stout). But its opponents throughout the Caribbean paint Diageo officials as modern-day pirates, looting their struggling countries’ treasuries of hard-earned foreign currency in the corporate quest for more and more profits. In 2009, Diageo rocked the beverage industry when it announced it would move production of its popular Captain Morgan Spiced Rum from Puerto Rico to a sparkling new distillery in St. Croix in the ILLUSTRATION: ARMANDO PORTELA U.S.Virgin Islands (USVI).The drinks giant had considered Honduras the Caribbean.” and Guatemala as possible low-cost options as early as 2007, but Forum (Cariforum). Diageo also defended Washington’s “cover-over” program and said At least 15,000 workers are directly employed in rum production decided on the USVI after the territory’s government agreed to prothroughout the region, and another 60,000 people indirectly hold its distillery in St. Croix has to date only produced branded rum for vide it with $2.7 billion in tax benefits over a 30-year period. The move prompted bickering between the two U.S. possessions jobs in that sector — though some countries are more vulnerable to the premium U.S. market. “This means that Diageo is not flooding the U.S. market with rum, amid calls for a boycott of Diageo products by the New York-based large-scale competition than others. “The Barbados rum industry is severely threatened by subsidies and Diageo’s premium rum does not compete with, much less disNational Puerto Rican Coalition (see sidebar). Frank Ward, chairman of the Barbados-based West Indies Rum and given to Puerto Rico and the USVI,”Ward said.“Our beef is really with place, the bulk rum produced by WIRSPA members,” the company Spirits Producers’ Association (WIRSPA), said the Diageo deal in St. the subsidies given to the rum companies, not with the program said in a press statement. “And none of Diageo’s USVI rum is sold Croix “opened the floodgates” — much to the Caribbean’s disap- itself. Some of our member companies have already seen massive outside of the United States.” NOTE: Although every effort is madelosses to assure your ad isinability free oftomistakes in spelling is ultimatelyBill upWatson, to the acustomer trade policy analyst at the Washingtonbecause of their compete on price.” and content it Nevertheless, pointment. to make the final proof. In an interview with BeverageDaily.com, however, Diageo coun- based Cato Institute, called the rum excise-tax rebates “a tool of “The USVI started the ball rolling, and Puerto Rico began matchthat the firm sourced the same amount of rum from Caribbean industrial policy and corporate welfare.” In a Jan. 3 story headlined ing it dollar for dollar,” heThe complained. money being will diverted to tered first two“The faxed changes be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. WIRSPA reported its members exported to the U.S. “Rum Subsidies Included in Fiscal Cliff Pork,” he warned that “the those two territories is globally distorting our trade. It’s also a viola- producers that Signed ads are considered approved. potential for an embarrassing WTO challenge grows greater now market. tion of America’s WTO obligations.” Caricom rum exports to the United States also rose 39 percent in Ward, who’s been chairman of WIRSPA since 2007, said rum Please check this ad carefully. Mark any changes to your ad. that the program has been extended.” An article in the New York Times suggests an even bigger fallout exports generate about $700 million a year in foreign exchange and the first four months of 2012, the firm said, before warning:“These could be disrupted by a Caricom at Diplomat (301) 933-3552 more than $250 million in correct tax revenues Caricom states valuable relationships If the ad is sign for andthe fax15to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes The challenge Washington See cAribbEAn, page 18 and the Dominican Republic,which together comprise the Caribbean the WTO, which would force Diageo to re-evaluate its activities in Approved _____________________________________________ Changes _____________________________________________________________________

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Puerto Rico’s Rum Rivalry With USVI ‘Race to the Bottom’ Puerto Rico isn’t a country, so it doesn’t have an embassy in Washington. And it’s not a state either, so it can’t send to Congress the eight lawmakers — two senators and six representatives — its population of 3.7 million would warrant under statehood. What it does have on Capitol Hill is Democratic Rep. Pedro R. Pierluisi, the island’s non-voting resident commissioner. And Pierluisi isn’t too happy at the moment. He claims that the U.S. Virgin Islands — Puerto Rico’s much smaller neighbor to the east — is using federal subsidies to fuel its growing rum industry at the expense of Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands (see main story). Funny, because that’s exactly what Caribbean diplomats are accusing Puerto Rico of doing, too. The complicated debacle has put Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth since 1952, in the ironic position of having to urge Congress to limit the amount of rum excise-tax rebates U.S. territories such as itself may earmark toward luring giant rum distilleries to their jurisdictions. The rebates are a financial windfall for Puerto Rico, bringing in more than $449 million in fiscal 2011. Pierluisi believes the rebates — which subsidize rum production — distort fair competition and are needlessly excessive. He also says too much of this money gets directed back to rum distillers instead of being used for economic development. In an interview with The Washington Diplomat, Pierluisi said that since taking office in 2009, he’s introduced two bills — one in the 111th Congress and one in the 112th — attempting to curb the practice. The first bill called for a 10 percent cap on the amount of “cover-over incentives” either Puerto Rico or the USVI could offer rum producers.

When the bill went nowhere, Pierluisi reintroduced the legislation, this time with a 15 percent cap. But that second bill failed to gain traction as well. “My longstanding position on this issue has been that rum producers should be competing among themselves based on the quality of their products and the prices they sell them at — not the amount of incentives or subsidies they get from territorial governments,” Pierluisi told us. “Unless Congress imposes some caps here, Puerto Rico would have to offer similar incentives, and that’s what has ended up happening,” he said. “Unfortunately, the attitude in Congress at the leadership level is, let the territorial governments agree with each other and let’s not get involved.” It’s not that Pierluisi completely disagrees with the rebates. “If the cover-funds were 5 or 6 percent, there would be no issue. All governments give incentives to promote industry. But these incentives are excessive,” said the congressman, noting that the USVI is now using 47 percent of these “cover-over” funds to offset the cost of constructing a $165 million distillery on the island of St. Croix. In effect, he argues, this amounts to a massive tax break for Diageo, the British drinks conglomerate that recently shifted production of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum to that St. Croix distillery. Previously, the premium rum brand was produced by Destillería Serrallés in the southern Puerto Rican city of Ponce. The USVI has also entered into a similar deal with Fortune Brands, which produces Cruzan Rum in St. Croix. In response, Pierluisi said, “Puerto Rico ended up enacting a law allowing the local government to give exemptions at the rate of 47 percent of cover-over funds to local producers Bacardi and Serrallés. So now, both territories [Puerto Rico and the USVI] are using close to half of these funds to incentivize their respective rum industries. That’s not

Photo: Larry Luxner

The Bacardi rum distillery in Cataño, Puerto Rico, established in 1936, is the largest of its kind in the world. an ideal situation. It’s un-American. It’s not the way we run businesses in America.” Pierluisi says he’s been working closely with two Democratic senators — Robert Menendez of New Jersey and New Mexico’s Jeff Bingaman, who just left the Senate — to impose reasonable limits on the amount of cover-over funding that can be used by each territorial government to subsidize its rum producers, but that “this effort has been resisted by Diageo and by the USVI.” Pierluisi said he’s tried to reason with Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh and the territory’s non-voting delegate in Congress, Donna Christensen, “but from day one, their position was this deal was cut in stone. The USVI was committed to defending the deal and not doing away with incentives they promised Diageo.” In a recent letter to constituents, Christensen called the accusations

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Caribbean

Continued from previous page against her territorial government “baseless” and denied that Caribbean rum exporters are suffering as a result of the Diageo or Cruzan Rum deals. In fact, she said, imports of rum into the United States from the Caribbean are up year on year. According to U.S. International Trade Commission data, rum imported to the U.S. market from Caricom (Caribbean Community) member states and the Dominican Republic actually increased over the past year by 12.8 percent in value and 17.5 percent in volume from 2011 figures. “Moreover, Caribbean producers enjoy many protections from their own governments in the form of tariffs and taxes that are inconsistent with their own WTO [World Trade Organization] obligations,” said Christensen. “Many of the Caribbean rum producers are owned by multinationals similar to those with which the USVI has partnered. Some commentators like to portray this issue as David versus Goliath, but I can tell you that David in this story is the USVI, fighting to grow its own rum industry and keep its economy afloat.” She pointed out that the Virgin Islands, home to only 110,000 people, was hit hard by the recent closure of the Hovensa oil refinery, which had employed thousands of locals. “This devastating development increased unemployment, decreased tax revenues and caused thousands of citizens to move off the island of St. Croix. As a result, the rum cover-over revenue is providing hope and stability in a time of dire economic need.” Christensen further warned that efforts by the 15-member Caricom to seek legal action through the Democratic Rep. Pedro R. Pierluisi WTO “would succeed in causing unnecessary friction and animosity.” In contrast, Pierluisi said he completely understands the position that Caricom finds itself in. “Ever since the 1980s, we’ve had a law imposing a 10 percent cap. The purpose of this law was to ensure that the government of Puerto Rico would use the funding for meeting its fiscal obligations in a wide range of areas — economic development, social well being, education and conservation of natural resources,” he said. “If we don’t regulate the use of these cover-over funds, this will become a race to the bottom. Puerto Rico will have no choice but to match the incentives the USVI is giving. Otherwise, producers could end up leaving our territory just to get a better deal.” — Larry Luxner

here at home. “The aftershocks could even change what people drink in the United States,” writer David Kocieniewski predicted back in October 2010. “The tax incentives are so generous that Virgin Islands producers might ultimately try to use highly subsidized sugar cane to make blended whiskeys, vodka and gin, distillers on the mainland say.That could threaten the jobs of grain farmers and distilleries in the American heartland.” At the heart of this complex issue is the U.S. excise tax on rum, which stands at $13.50 per proof gallon (roughly $2 a bottle).This amount is collected on all bulk and bottled rum produced in, or imported into, the United States. Permanent law stipulates that $10.50 of that $13.50 must be returned or “covered over” to the governments of Puerto Rico and the USVI to be used any way they choose. Under the program, each receives a share of the money based on how much rum it produces relative to the other. Since the Clinton administration, however, temporary law — which expires annually and requires recurring congressional approval — provides an additional $2.75 per proof gallon, meaning the two territories get a total of $13.25 per proof gallon. “The additional $2.75 lapsed in Congress at the end of 2011, but was among dozens of temporary tax breaks renewed through 2013 under the cliff deal,” reports Caribbean Business, a San Juan weekly newspaper, noting that the Washington Post cited the rum extender as one of the “10 weirdest parts of the fiscal cliff bill.” How much does all this add up to? Quite a lot. In fiscal 2011, Puerto Rico, which has benefitted from this program since 1917, received more than $449 million in rum excise

Photo: Larry Luxner

From left, Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago Neil Parsan, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic Anibal de Castro, and Ambassador of Barbados John Beale compare their nation’s rum brands.

tax rebates. The USVI, which began receiving similar benefits in 1954, got $133.5 million in revenues in fiscal 2011. Interestingly, Cuba, the Caribbean’s largest island and one of the world’s top rum exporters, couldn’t care less about U.S. excise-tax rebates because Washington’s 50-yearold trade embargo prevents it from selling a single drop of rum in the United States anyway. Nevertheless, its Havana Club brand, which the Castro regime produces in a joint venture with French drinks giant Pernod Ricard, ranks third in international sales — right behind Bacardi and Captain Morgan — and enjoys particularly strong sales in Spain and Italy. Beale said he and his fellow Caricom ambassadors have met with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office to plead their case, but to no avail. “Back in June, WIRSPA came up here and met with people from the State Department and the USTR. My back-

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February 2013

“

This is not just a subsidy to assist someone. It completely distorts and wipes out the competition. — John bEALE

”

ambassador of Barbados to the United States

ground is in business, and it was quite clear to me that the USTR is in no position to take on something that is absolutely minuscule.We would get nowhere with them,” he told us. “We should consider going to the WTO, because that’s the only way to get Washington’s attention.” Bayney Karran, Guyana’s ambassador to the United States, agrees with Beale. NOTE: is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and content it is ultimately up to the customer “In Guyana, such a large part of ourAlthough economicevery outputeffort is agriculto make the final proof. PHOTOS: LARRY LUxNER ture-based, and we suffer from the lack of value-added products. Sugar is the largest sector of our economy, and rum adds value.When because of the subsidies would not make their rum industry sustain- From left, Ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis Jacinth Lorna Henry-Martin, first ittwo changeson willemploybe madeable, at no to the advertiser, changes willbulk be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. andcost at some point we would subsequent face a major collapse of the our exports of rum are The affected, hasfaxed consequences Ambassador of the Dominican Republic Anibal de Castro, Ambassador of ads areifconsidered approved. rum industry Signed in the Caribbean something isn’t done.” ment,” he explained. Antigua and Barbuda Deborah Mae Lovell, Ambassador of St. Lucia Sonia M. But the issue is more than economic, say the ambassadors. It’s also Guyana, unlike most of its fellow Caricom members, isn’t an island Please check this ad carefully. Mark any changes to your ad.Johnny, and Ambassador of Haiti to the Organization of American States Duly but a poor, tropical South American country nearly the size of Great an emotional one, given the central role that rum has played in shapBrutus proudly display bottles of rum produced by their Caribbean nations. for changes the past 400 or so years. It’s hard to find a Diplomat Britain (and its capital, home to ing Caribbean history If the ad isGeorgetown, correct signhappens and faxtoto:be (301) 949-0065 needs The Washington (301) 933-3552 country in the region that doesn’t produce its own rum — and these Caricom’s gleaming new headquarters). like Bacardi and Havana Club but also lesser- of total Dominican exports and 7 percent of the country’s agriculAlthough Guyana’s El Dorado and Demerara premium brands are include not only giants Approved _____________________________________________ Changes _____________________________________________________________________ known worldwide, most Guyanese rum is exported in price-sensi- known brands like English Harbour (Antigua and Barbuda), tural exports — yet that percentage will grow as demand ramps tive bulk form Changes — leading ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ industry leaders to warn that unfair com- Chairman’s Reserve (St. Lucia), One Barrel (Belize) and Black Cat up. “The Dominican Republic is very much in favor of free trade, and petition from Puerto Rico and the USVI could further impoverish (Suriname). “Rum creates jobs, taxes and foreign exchange, but in the case of the Dominican rum industry has invested a lot of money in the last Guyana, where per-capita GDP stands at only $2,700 a year. “We’re struggling to increase our GDP and develop our econo- Barbados, it goes even beyond that. It’s a question of psyche,” said few years to improve the capacity and quality of Dominican rum,” mies for the benefit of our people,” said Karran. “It’s hardly accept- Beale.“Rum was created in Barbados. It’s a traditional product involv- said de Castro. “But this is an obstacle to compete on equal terms. able that we would have setbacks because other countries are flout- ing sugar cane, agriculture and manufacturing. If Barbados cannot This subsidy eliminates the competitive advantage and goes against the rules of free trade. We hope the Americans will pay attention to compete in rum, what can we compete in?” ing the WTO rules.” Dominican Ambassador Anibal de Castro, who’s also passionate our demands, and that they will accept that it’s a mistake and will Meanwhile, the Caribbean ambassadors seem to have found an ally in U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke, a Democrat who represents New about this topic, told The Diplomat that “rum is part of our culture take the necessary measures to eliminate it.” Adds Guyana’s Karran:“We are in the process of dialogue with the and tradition. It is deeply associated with our history, so when we York’s 9th District in Congress. U.S. and we want to resolve the matter in an amicable way. Our “The Caricom nations have a very valid concern, and I certainly talk about rum, we’re talking about the Caribbean.” In 2011, the Dominican Republic exported $120.6 million worth objective is to sit down as friends.” want to use my office to get to the bottom of the thinking of the USTR,” the congresswoman from Brooklyn told the New York Carib of rum, mainly to Spain, Chile, the United States, Haiti and Italy; the News. “The competition Caribbean rum producers would face U.S. share of that total was $8.7 million. Rum accounts for 2 percent Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 19

Inside the Chamber

United Arab Emirates

U.S.- U. A.E. Business Council Touts Billions in Bilateral Trade by Larry Luxner

he United Arab Emirates boasts the world’s biggest artificial archipelago (the Palm Islands), its largest indoor snow park (Ski Dubai), its fastest roller coaster (Ferrari World Abu Dhabi) and — as of January 2010 — its tallest skyscraper (the 160-story Burj Khalifa). But here’s one superlative you might not know: this South Carolina-size desert nation with only 7.8 million inhabitants is also America’s biggest export market in the Middle East. Danny E. Sebright, president of the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, is proud of that fact. He said that in 2011, bilateral trade came to just over $18.3 billion, making it a better customer for U.S. goods than oil-rich Saudi Arabia, staunch ally Israel or vastly larger Turkey, which has 10 times the UAE’s population. And trade figures for 2012 are expected to be even higher. Part of this is explained by the country’s extravagant prosperity. Despite the global economic meltdown that shook Dubai’s overheated real estate market in late 2009 and forced it to borrow $10 billion from fellow emirate Abu Dhabi, the country still managed to make sixth place in the latest Forbes ranking of the world’s wealthiest nations, with annual per-capita income of nearly $47,500. But that alone doesn’t explain everything. Nearby Qatar has a per-capita income of some $88,000, yet that country’s total trade with the United States in 2011 amounted to only $4 billion. “The United Arab Emirates is the hub between East and West, so not everything we export stays in the UAE,” Sebright explained.“Many products are repackaged or reshipped, or assembled with pieces made into a whole system and re-exported throughout the region.” The UAE consists of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi accounting for 85 percent of the country’s land area and 90 percent of its oil and gas reserves. Dubai, by contrast, has little oil, so early on it diversified into shipping, trade, tourism and banking. Its free-market capitalism, combined with some of the world’s most liberal tax, investment

Page 20

Photo: DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Reynaldo Ramon

Guests attend the Dubai Airshow in the United Arab Emirates featuring more than 100 aircraft. Last year, the UAE spent an astounding $6 billion on Boeing jumbo jets, principally for the country’s two dominant airlines: Emirates and Etihad Airways.

The United Arab Emirates, a South Carolina-size desert nation with only 7.8 million inhabitants, is America’s biggest export market in the Middle East. Yet even though the UAE boasts the world’s seventhlargest reserves of both petroleum and gas — the source of much of its wealth — the United States does not import a drop of its oil. and residency laws, have lured tens of thousands of Americans to move there. (The other five emirates — Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain — are economically insignificant compared to Abu Dhabi and Dubai.) Of last year’s $18.3 billion in twoway trade, $15.9 billion was U.S. exports to the UAE — mainly aircraft, computers, electronic products, chemicals, machinery and finely finished metal products. Last year, the country spent an astounding $6 billion on Boeing jumbo jets, principally for the UAE’s two dominant airlines: Emirates and Etihad Airways. In addition, the United States imported $2.4 billion from the UAE, primarily steel, aluminum, other raw materials

and some petrochemical products. Yet even though the UAE boasts the world’s seventh-largest reserves of both petroleum and gas — the source of much of its wealth — the United States does not import a drop of its oil. Correcting such common misconceptions is one reason the Washingtonbased U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council came into being. “The council was formed in 2007 after the Dubai Ports World crisis, with the key purpose of being a platform to provide timely, accurate information so that something like that could not happen again,”Sebright toldTheWashington Diplomat. He was referring to a bilateral crisis that erupted the year before, when DP World bought British shipping giant

P&O. As part of that sale, DP World was to assume the leases of P&O to manage major U.S. port facilities in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans and Miami, as well as operations in 16 other ports. However, once the transaction became a matter of public record, many Democrats in Congress — along with a few powerful Republicans — questioned the deal on the grounds that it could make the United States more vulnerable to terrorism. In February 2006, then-President Bush threatened to veto any legislation passed on Capitol Hill to block the deal, a veto that would have been his first. In the end, Bush never had to wield his veto threat. DP World eventually backed off from its plan, transferring operations to an unspecified American entity. A year later, in May 2007, the U.S.U.A.E. Business Council was inaugurated by Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the country’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. “We have one primary mission and one secondary mission: to be a platform that provides opportunities for government officials, corporate executives, NGOs and others involved in various aspects of the relationship to dis-

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

cuss matters of mutual concern, advocate on behalf of that relationship, and dispel falsehoods and innuendoes,” said Sebright. “Our secondary mission is to help companies [in both countries] broaden our business, create partnerships and make them aware of business opportunities.” The council, which began with 30 companies, now has 125 members on its roster. Prominent U.S. corporations that belong include Boeing, Occidental Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, General Electric, ExxonMobil and Raytheon. Membership is available at three levels — founding ($50,000 a year), corporate ($25,000) and associate ($5,000) — and members must be headquartered either in the United States or the United Arab Emirates. In addition to its business contacts, the council apparently enjoys some clout on Capitol Hill. In December 2009, the UAE and the United States signed a landmark accord on peaceful nuclear cooperation. The deal, known as the “123 agreement” establishes a legal framework for Washington to transfer sensitive information and materials, like nuclear fuel, to the Emirates — in return for a promise to abide by nonproliferation agreements and forgo domestic production of sensitive elements of the nuclear fuel cycle such as spent fuel plutonium reprocessing.Yet unlike America’s other “123 agreements” with various allies, this one gives the United States the right to stop nuclear cooperation and require the return of materials or technology if the UAE changes its mind. Emirati officials say the country needs nuclear power to keep up with rising energy demands, though critics have cited the UAE’s proximity to Iran, whose nuclear ambitions have worried Israel and other U.S. allies in the region. Supporters of the deal though say it’s a clear rebuke to Iran’s covert nuclear program, strengthening the worldwide nonproliferation

“The global downturn caused them to review regime and codifying unprecedented steps the all megaprojects, and the ones that made sense UAE is taking to prevent proliferation. “Inside the Chamber” continued. It was as a result of a very stringent The business council organized briefings on is a new series by The and disciplined review process,” he said. the issue with congressional aides to get that Washington Diplomat that One issue that has received widespread conpoint across. Among its corporate members are each month will profile a demnation is the UAE’s dismal record when it Akin Gump and DLA Piper, which together different chamber of commerce, business council comes to the treatment of construction workwere paid $1.6 million to lobby hard for the or society in Washington, D.C., that is actively pronuclear deal. A third K Street lobbying firm on ers and housemaids from India, Nepal, the council, Patton Boggs, doesn’t represent the Bangladesh and the Philippines. Laborers are moting the economic, political, cultural and other UAE government but maintains offices in Abu routinely forced to live in substandard condiinterests of a particular nation in the United States. Dhabi. tions and their employers often confiscate their “Initially we were worried there might be passports to prevent them from leaving, even Sebright said that for every $1 billion increase though the practice is illegal. opposition in Congress to the nuclear issue. So the business council and the U.S. and UAE gov- in exports, some 5,000 to 10,000 U.S. jobs are Things are so bad that in an interview with ernments all teamed up to inform Congress created. So if total U.S. exports to the United The Diplomat nearly three years ago, the counwhat was happening, what was really being Arab Emirates come to $16 billion, that trans- try’s ambassador in Washington,Yousef Al Otaiba, approved, and what it means from the nonpro- lates into some 80,000 to 160,000 new jobs called it “absolutely horrendous and bordering liferation standpoint,” Sebright recalled. “The here at home. In the case of the UAE, those jobs on inhumane.” deal went through at the end of 2009 without a are going mainly to places like Dallas-Fort Sebright agrees, though he insists the labor whimper from Congress. Widespread opposi- Worth, Seattle, Boston and the Washington, D.C., situation is improving. area. tion never occurred.” “A number of our members, such as New In addition, UAE companies are investing York University and the Cleveland Clinic, are Sebright, who’s headed the council since 2008, is a native of East Berlin, Pa. He studied directly in the United States. building new facilities in the UAE, and they Abu Dhabi-based Globalfoundries expects to want to make sure the construction companies international affairs at the George Washington Although everyitseffort is made to assure free those of mistakes spelling create 6,400 jobs when $6 billion microchip University and public administration at Harvard NOTE: theyyour hireadtoisbuild facilitiesintreat their and content it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. factory opens in upstate New York. The plant is University’s John F. Kennedy School of workers according to the highest international Government. He then spent 10 years with the being built in partnership with Advanced Micro standards,” he said. Systems, the world’s second-largest chipmaker. first two faxed changes will be made at no “I’m cost not to the advertiser, subsequent changes Defense Intelligence Agency. He also worked in The going to deny that there haven’t UAE-based various positions at the Defense Department, willInbeaddition, been some problems in the past, but the UAE billed at a rate offirms $75 are per investing faxed alteration. Signed ads are considered approved. including director of the policy executive secre- heavily in hotels and real estate ventures around government has taken a very firm stand on thecheck Unitedthis Statesadis carefully. seen as establishing tariat for the global war on terrorism from 2001 the country because guidelines tothat must Please Mark any changes yourcompanies ad. to 2002, during which time he participated in an attractive investment in times of trouble. adhere to,” Sebring told us. “They’ve been out “Dubai was overextended, but it’s also patrolling and inspecting facilities and foreign oversight of Operation Enduring Freedom in If the ad is correct sign and fax to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes Afghanistan and Operation Noble Eagle, the plugged into the global economy in a way that workers’ living quarters. I know they take this no other economy in the Middle East is,” very seriously.With the amount of activity going defense of the U.S. homeland. The Sebright Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 said.“Even Qatar isn’t nearly as exposed Among other things, he served at the U.S. on over the last three or four years, obviously the as Dubai was three years ago. ” Embassy in Tel Aviv during the 1991 Gulf War, task may have been a little bigger than they were Sebright said the UAE economy is likely to geared up to handle, but they’re doing their and he’s a part-time consultant to the Approved __________________________________________________________ Washington-based Cohen Group, founded by grow 3 to 4 percent next year, and that 80 per- best.” Changes ___________________________________________________________ former Defense Secretary William Cohen. cent of the country’s big construction projects ___________________________________________________________________ are largely back on track after the 2008 world- Larry Luxner is news editor of The Sebright speaks conversational French and basic wide economic crisis. German, Russian, Chinese and Hebrew. Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 21

Diplomacy

Consular Corps

Consular Corps: Behind the Scenes, But on Front Line of Diplomacy by Gail Scott

mbassadors and their diplomatic teams work hard to represent their countries, but there is another parallel track at each embassy that often works just as hard, sometimes 24/7, in a less obvious way: the consular corps. According to former U.S. Assistant Chief of Protocol Lawrence Dunham, the members of the consular corps are “on the front lines of diplomacy.” “Many people don’t appreciate all the work they do,” said Dunham. “Consular work is the backbone of diplomacy. Besides passports, visas, providing services and promotional work, they are in charge of emergencies if a citizen is arrested or a foreign national has trouble on vacation. They are the ones that get the call at 3 a.m.” While ambassadors and diplomatic staff are devoted to bettering all categories of the bilateral relationship with the host country, the consular corps is in charge of looking after their own foreign nationals in the host country — helping with medical or legal issues like overseas voting, divorces, births and even deaths — as well as processing visas for travelers wishing to visit their home countries. In addition to dealing with personal emergencies like lost passports, consular officials also assist with large-scale crises, such as mass evacuations in the wake of political upheaval or natural disasters. For example, both Hurricanes Katrina and Isaac, along with 9/11, were exhausting times for all the consular officers in the United States attempting to find their own nationals and alert their families — breathlessly awaiting word — on their whereabouts and safety. In Washington, D.C., a complicated city even for a seasoned foreigner, a professional membership group called the Consular Corps helps these officials network and navigate life inside the Beltway. The organization was founded in 1968 by former Chilean Consul General Hernan Navarro, who passed away a year ago this month. At one time, several well-known personalities were members, including former U.S. Ambassador Shirley Temple Black and, for several years, U.N.

Page 22

Photo: Hassen Khraibani

A sampling of members from the Consular Corps of Washington, D.C.: From left, Hassen Khraibani, vice president of sales for USI Insurance Services and Consular Corps board member; Dennis Grech, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Malta; Mauro Kolobaric, minister-counselor (management) and consul general at the Embassy of Australia; Sabine Jenkins, consul at the Embassy of Switzerland and former president of the Consular Corps; Ingrid Richardson-McKinnon, retired consular officer from the Embassy of Austria and Consular Corps treasurer; Eric Hepburn, consul general and counselor for corporate services at the British Embassy; and Mario Bot, consul general and minister-counselor at the Embassy of Canada.

“

Consular work is the backbone of diplomacy. Besides passports, visas, providing services and promotional work, they are in charge of emergencies if a citizen is arrested or a foreign national has trouble on vacation. They are the ones that get the call at 3 a.m. — Lawrence Dunham former U.S. assistant chief of protocol

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The Consular Corps is open to consuls, consul generals and consular officers posted to the United States (i.e. those accredited by the State Department), as well as officials in the federal and D.C. governments who work with the diplomatic corps. Membership fees are $60 per person a year, and the group currently has 73 individual members (Canada and Australia have the most representation). Corporate members who work directly with the diplomatic community in Washington also

”

make up about 18 percent of the membership (their annual fee is $600). One very appreciative corporate member is Hassen Khraibani, vice president of sales for USI Insurance Services and corporate member representative of the Consular Corps. “I’m very enthusiastic and have been a member for six years. This group is extremely valuable, a great avenue because the membership is an important target market for us. It’s a great way to meet prospective clients from the diplomatic community and foreign gov-

ernments,” he told The Diplomat.“I go to everything from happy hours to monthly luncheons. Other corporate members are targeting the same market so it’s a great way to meet prospective clients, especially since the embassy people rotate in and out every few years and you can maintain and build upon the other business friends.” Another long-time corporate member, Charles Sharkey, remembers U.N. Secretary-General Ban serving as Consular Corps president for several years. At the time, Sharkey represented America Bank Note, which produced passports, visas, foreign currency and birth certificates — and, as he put it, “anything that someone would want to counterfeit.” Long-time member Dunham said the organization has evolved over the years. “I have seen the changes. This used to be mostly just ‘a luncheon group,’” he said, “but lately they have had very important programs.” Today, in addition to monthly luncheons with presentations by top-level

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

©Disney

officials and monthly happy hours, the group agencies like it since it’s easier for them to work hosts several half-day programs and an annual with us when we have more information … and ball — like the one coming up this month at a point of contact when needed. the Austrian Embassy on Feb. 9. Since it is the “For example, for one celebrated case, I weekend before Lent, the Consular Corps has needed to have someone extradited. I arranged chosen to host an Austrian Faschingsball, or the help of the U.S. Marshals to escort the perCarnival. In the past, the annual balls have been son in question to avoid media and extra publicheld at the Australian, Russian and Indonesian ity. I’ve also had help in cases of missing chilEmbassies. dren. In those situations, it was smoother The annual ball, luncheons and happy hours because I knew what could be done.” represent the light-hearted side of some serious She added: “Our meetings also give us the business for the Consular Corps. opportunity to get names and contacts of colOne of the group’s signature achievements leagues who would know how to do something was a roundtable that’s led to a permanent ini- if you hadn’t already learned.” tiative at the U.S.Federal Emergency Management Anne-France Jamart, counselor and consul at Agency (FEMA). According to Andrew R. Slaten, the Belgium Embassy, has been a member for FEMA’s deputy director for international affairs, the past year and serves as the group’s secrelast February’s Consular Corps roundtable on tary. disasters was such a good idea that FEMA has “My former posting was New Delhi so this now repeated similar consular roundtables all group is extremely important,” she said of reloacross the country. More than 20 separate cating to the United States and being in such a roundtables have been presented to over 1,000 different environment. “Especially when I first consular officers from Seattle to Puerto Rico. arrived …Washington is such a big place and “This is a very important initiative,” said we live so far apart. I got to know my colleagues Slaten, “because at any given time there are an from the EU countries but in the Consular estimated 30 to 40 million foreign-born individ- Corps we can meet others from different parts uals within the U.S. when you count travelers, of the world.” business people, students and dual citizens. The current president of the Consular Corps, Chances are very good because of these num- Anna Lambert, consul at the Swedish Embassy, is bers that someone will be in some kind of proud of the organization’s membership roster disaster because of so many foreign-born or dual but does wonder why there aren’t more members when consuls from the 180-plus embascitizens in this country.” From that original February roundtable that sies in Washington would qualify and memberthe Consular Corps in Washington organized, ship is so rewarding. FEMA’s Whole Community initiative has brought “First, it’s the networking itself. The food is together consular officials from throughout the always fantastic but our educational luncheons United States, the State Department, state and are so helpful. For instance, we learned what to local emergency management offices and vol- do when we have citizens, unfortunately, in untary organizations like the Red Cross. trouble. You get to know how to work with all “We applaud the Consular Corps’s interest in the federal agencies. In our positions, each time helping us get out the word,” Slaten said. you move to a new country, you must discover “Everyone has a stake in disaster prepared- how things are done in each country,” Lambert ness. ” Although every effort is made to assure said. “Iyour learned what it sometimes NOTE: ad isright freeaway of mistakes in spelling and The Consular Corps also sponsors a wide takes a whole posting to learn.” content it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. variety of professional and social events during The reason she suspects that the Consular the “Diplomatic Year” from September through Corps doesn’t have more members is that The faxed changes be made at“Washington no cost to has the so advertiser, subsequent many networking groups,changes ” June,first withtwo a membership drive will in September. will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed ads are considered approved. to The half-day seminars and training sessions she says,“and there are only 24 hours a day” focus on critical topics led by high-level train- get everything in. thatany note, Katherine “Kit” ad. Moss, who ers from the federal or local governments. Please check this ad carefully. On Mark changes to your Programs have discussed ways to make handles programming for the Consular Corps, said, “The consuls’ jobs are extremely demandembassies more energy manageIf the ad is correct sign efficient; and faxcrisis to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes ment; how to discover fraudulent documents; ing and emotionally draining. While they are labor and wage issues; plans for detained or ill certainly not the only diplomats to be on call Theforeign Washington Diplomat 933-3552 24/7, they toil selflessly and behind the scenes, nationals; new international(301) protocol for high-level arrivals at Dulles Airport; and reor- often under great duress, during times of crisis, ganizations within the State Department, Census in sometimes desperate and even dangerous Approved __________________________________________________________ Bureau, ___________________________________________________________ U.S. Customs and Border Protection and situations to help their nationals in need,” she Changes Homeland Security Department. said. ___________________________________________________________________ Ingrid Richardson-McKinnon, a retired con“Their workload is tremendous, and each sular officer and long-time member of the case or application is by someone who needs Consular Corps, was the group’s treasurer in them to handle it ‘now.’ I have extraordinary 2007 when the organization achieved 501(c)(3) respect and affection for the consular communonprofit status. She had been at the Austrian nity. They work so hard and give so much of Embassy for 20 years as consul for social and themselves.” legal matters. “Our members learn how things work in this Gail Scott is a contributing writer very big country,” she told us,“and the American for The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

MEDICAL ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ February 2013

Inova

FILLS GAP It’s a surprising gap. For years now, the only national Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in the Washington metropolitan area has been the lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University. Both of maryland’s nCI-designated cancer centers are in Baltimore (the University of maryland’s Greenebaum Cancer Center and Johns hopkins University’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center). virginia’s are in Charlottesville and Richmond.

Photo: Inova health SyStem

Comprehensive Cancer Care Coming to Northern Virginia by Gina Shaw

that’s only one comprehensive cancer center to serve a metropolitan area of some 5.8 million people, an area that is growing faster than any other eastern Seaboard city, according to the 2010 census (3 percent between 2007 and 2009, compared with just about 1 percent for new york, Philadelphia and Baltimore). the Philadelphia metropolitan area, by contrast, has four cancer centers for a similarly

MEDICAL February 2013

A rendering of Inova Health System’s proposed comprehensive cancer center

See inova, page 28

The Washington Diplomat Page 25

5.11.2013 WASHINGTON, D.C. Thanks to you, Komen has invested $32 million in the D.C. Metro Area. For 22 years, we’ve been providing the D.C. community with breast cancer screenings, treatment, and support services, as well as funding innovative research to ﬁnd a cure. Join us this Mother’s Day weekend and keep the support going. It won’t just make Mom proud, it’ll make you feel good, too.

Page 26

MEDICAL

(MECHANICAL SCALE = 100%)

KEYLINES DO NOT PRINT

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

[ bioethics ]

Human Subjects African Bioethicist Urges More Oversight for Clinical Trials

by Carolyn Cosmos

few years ago, medical ethics expert Paul Ndebele, a noted African scholar, saw something at a malaria research site in Malawi that disturbed him: The project was using junior staff as bait to collect mosquitoes for research colonies and feeding the malaria-carrying insects human blood — straight from the source. When the staffers offered their arms at mosquito mealtimes, they naturally risked infection, Ndebele said, warning that those who continued doing this while taking drugs to prevent or treat malaria were potentially sparking malarial drug resistance in mosquito populations. Using humans as insect bait — a practice that has its own scientific label, Human Landing Catch (HLC) — is considered the most effective way to capture adult mosquitoes, but Ndebele questioned the ethics of it in an article for the Malawi Medical Journal in 2011. Ndebele, assistant director for research ethics at the University of Botswana, was recently tapped to be a bioethicist contractor by the Henry Jackson Foundation in Bethesda, Md. With research sponsors at the National Institutes of Health and the European Commission, he’s a well-connected, peripatetic activist and academic. He alerted his networks throughout sub-Sahara Africa about the issue of HLCs. He visited multiple malaria study sites in a number of nations. He brainstormed at his workshops for professionals and laypeople who monitor medical research. Ndebele’s resulting report dealt with the tensions between existing scientific standards and the principles of justice and “human dignity” written into contemporary medical research worldwide. “It was an ethical choice involving mosquitoes, humans and science,” Ndebele told The Washington Diplomat. Still, his report was labeled an opinion piece. Human Landing Catches are considered common medical practice — and are even called the gold standard for estimating malaria transmission by mosquitoes. A 2012 study on the incidence of malaria among mosquito collectors in western Kenya conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health groups found that if properly treated,“concern about increased risk of malaria among collectors should not be an impediment to conducting HLC studies.” But Ndebele questions the practice, and his report offers practical alternatives, such as using anesthetized animals to feed mosquitoes or getting blood from transfusion services. It also suggested ways to use existing products to protect workers from bites. In addition to being a dogged problem solver, Ndebele doesn’t mince words when it comes to thorny bioethical issues. He chastised the principal investigators and other researchers in malaria vector studies for “resting in their comfortable homes” while their low-literacy and poorly paid staffers endured mosquito bites overnight for hours on end — and he even listed the bite rates to make his point. Not only were such things ethically dubious, he warned, they could stir public controversy and thus do serious harm to important research. Bioethics itself is a critical field of research that tackles the murky moral quandaries spurred by the ever-advancing march of medicine — a field that’s been around as long as medicine has been in existence. Though debated in ancient times, bioethics grabbed the public’s attention after the Nazis’ horrifying medical experiments on humans during World War II. The subsequent Nuremberg Code outlined a set of international standards for research involving human subjects. But bioethics as an academic interdisciplinary field evolved and solidified throughout the 1960s and ’70s in the wake of game-changing advances such as organ transplants and end-of-life care. Key standards for governing ethics in

Paul Ndebele and his wife Sharon attend a reception for international scholars at Michigan State University. After political unrest in his native Zimbabwe threatened his work on bioethics, Ndebele was able to leave the country in 2003 with the help of a fellowship from the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund.

medical research were set by the 1967 Helsinki Declaration and by groups such as the World Medical Association, World Health Organization, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences, the Council of Europe and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has established extensive regulations on human testing. But just because standards have been set and regulations adopted doesn’t mean they’ve always been followed — or that they’ve kept up with the rapid pace of medical innovation. In 2010, a six decade-old injustice resurfaced when the U.S. government apologized to Guatemala for deliberately infecting hundreds of Guatemalans with venereal diseases in an attempt to study the effectiveness of penicillin. The experiments, conducted between 1946 and 1948, were particularly egregious. As documented by the New York Times, “American tax dollars, through the National Institutes of Health, even paid for syphilis-infected prostitutes to sleep with prisoners, since Guatemalan prisons allowed such visits. When the prostitutes did not succeed in infecting the men, some prisoners had the bacteria poured onto scrapes made on their penises, faces or arms, and in some cases it was injected by spinal puncture.” Today, though not as extreme, clinical trials on human subjects continue around the world — and particularly in the developing world. An eye-opening 2011 exposé by Vanity Fair called “Deadly Medicine” investigated how pharmaceutical companies scour far-flung corners of the globe to test their products on communities where recruiting patients is cheap and safety standards are lax or nonexistent — all in the hopes of eventually marketing their drugs to

MEDICAL February 2013

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The Washington Diplomat Page 27

Continued from previous page Americans for a healthy profit. Though the ultimate destination is America, human drug testing in the United States has dwindled, while the number of such clinical trials abroad has skyrocketed — nearly 60,000 in more than 170 countries, according to the National Institutes of Health. “Throw a dart at a world map and you are unlikely to hit a spot that has escaped the attention of those who scout out locations for the pharmaceutical industry,” wrote Vanity Fair’s Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, noting that China and India are home to hundreds of drug trials. Other popular pharmaceutical testing grounds include Russia,Thailand and Turkey. Africa, of course, is also represented in this cocktail of questionable clinical trials — and that’s where Ndebele’s specialty lies. Ndebele, who’s worked in Botswana and Malawi, began his career in Zimbabwe, where he’d been a researcher with the principal monitoring agency for all medical and clinical trials in the country. But Ndebele was not immune to Zimbabwe’s political unrest, which made his work increasingly impossible. He was able to leave the country in 2003 with the help of a fellowship from the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund. The fund supports “persecuted academics” at risk around the world — 450 of them in 48 countries over 10 years. In 2012, it highlighted Ndebele as one of 10 scholars featured to celebrate its decade of work. But the scholar wears many hats, serving on the editorial boards of journals and advising governments about medical research. However, his most important contribution, colleagues say, may be his campaign to train and strengthen the various boards, committees and agencies in developing nations that are supposed to oversee medical research that recruits their citizens — much of it spearheaded by large international corporations, including many based in the United States. Monitoring of such research is done by research

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Inova

“In the 1980’s and ’90s, there was an expansion of international medical research conducted by developed countries in less developed nations.” — Paul Ndebele, bioethicist ethics committees, or RECs, that can approve, reject and track a medical project. (They’re called institutional review boards, or IRBs, in the United States.) However, in many countries their oversight has been unsophisticated, and even in nations with tough regulations, including the United States, scandals are not uncommon. “In the 1980’s and ’90s, there was an expansion of international medical research conducted by developed countries in less developed nations,” Ndebele said. “I became concerned about weak local oversight of this research and issues of justice, and asked myself,‘What can I do?’” His work started in 2001 with improvements he initiated at the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe. His efforts to strengthen REC oversight have continued throughout sub-Sahara Africa ever since — with, he says, some success. The extent of the problem became painfully clear to Ndebele in 2007 when he became part of a group that examined studies of RECs and IRBs around the world and took a detailed look at research ethics committees in nine African nations.The results were not encouraging. Most African committees they examined were weak, with poorly trained staff and insufficient funds. So Ndebele set out to strengthen them, focusing on training, support and, through his published research, creating new cross-cultural understandings of the ethics involved. Sorrell L. Schwartz, professor emeritus of pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and an expert on RECs, praised Ndebele for his granular approach, bringing specifics and sophistication to the recruitment and training of people on research review boards.

This is particularly important in countries that don’t have regulations controlling oversight, Schwartz added — because very detailed understandings are needed to monitor and judge the merits of a clinical trial. “You can be a Nobel Prize winner and still lack the insight to understand good human research protections,” Schwartz noted. Much of that insight comes down to culture.To that end, Ndebele has studied the issue of “informed consent” and whether trial participants know what they’re getting into. For example, he’s written finely grained field studies of medical confidentiality in cultures where family members share everything and examined the independence of women who must offer informed consent before enrolling their children in medical research. In addition, he’s questioned the meaning of “voluntary” participation in medical studies conducted in regions where health care is scarce and researchers entice participants with access to high-quality Western medicine as part of the deal. One of his papers took a hard look at a clinical trial for two new drugs to prevent HIV transmission (they ultimately didn’t work). The research was conducted in a farming community in Africa, and Ndebele found that most participants didn’t understand the basic concepts behind scientific trials. Most had a poor grasp of three key research fundamentals — “randomization,” “double-blinding” and “placebo use” — which was so poor that many felt cheated or deceived at the end of the trial. Ndebele and colleagues then developed research explanations that used story-telling tech-

“We want to provide our patients with a true world-class, multispecialty approach to cancer management — really, an academic, university cancer center model.”

sized population; greater Boston, with about 4.5 million people, has two. But by 2017, the number of cancer centers in the area will double, as Inova Health System has begun preparations to open a new comprehensive cancer center on undeveloped land in Merrifield, Va., adjacent to its Fairfax campus. It’s a logical step. In 2010, the system hired Dr. John Niederhuber as CEO of its Translational Medicine Institute. Niederhuber’s storied background in oncology includes four years as direc— Dr. John Niederhuber tor of the National Cancer Institute and five chief executive officer of the Inova Translational Medicine Institute years as head of the University of Wisconsin’s Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center. With that kind of leadership in place, and some 3,500 comprehensive cancer center on the Fairfax campus. “We’re new cancer cases already being diagnosed and treated within the actively working with architects and consultants on the planning Inova system every year, it would be strange if the system wasn’t phase now,” Niederhuber said. “Once we get all of the county’s planning to take some giant leap forward in cancer care. approval processes under way, I expect that it will take about four “Although we have a variety of cancer programs in place, we years to get our doors open.” felt that we weren’t doing as good a job as we could do in terms The goal, Niederhuber says, is to develop a complete, one-stop of serving this metropolitan area,” Niederhuber told The center that incorporates screening and prevention, diagnosis and Washington Diplomat. “We want to provide our patients with a state-of-the-art treatments for all major organ sites in both adult true world-class, multispecialty approach to cancer management and pediatric cancer. — really, an academic, university cancer center model.” The project is still in its early phases, so no new faculty have Inova had the seeds of such a plan in mind when it first hired been officially recruited yet, but Niederhuber says that he’s Niederhuber in 2010 to build the Translational Medicine Institute already been speaking with several prominent oncologists about — a genomics-based research institute that aims to be a leader in plans for the new center. “They see how exciting it is and have personalized medicine —but he insisted on doing due diligence indicated that they may be interested in coming on board to help with a series of outside consultants before committing the health build the programs here,” he said. system to such an ambitious initiative. The new cancer center would be one of only a handful in the In November 2012, the results of that preparation received country to operate without a close, direct affiliation with a uniunanimous approval from the health system’s board: a $250 mil- versity medical school. But although Inova, a nonprofit giant in lion commitment to build a 340,000 square-foot, seven-story the local medical community, is not officially part of an academic

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African scholar and bioethics expert Paul Ndebele gives a lecture on responsible authorship at the Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre at the University of Botswana. Ndebele has pushed for greater oversight of research ethics committees that monitor clinical trials and other studies using human subjects.

niques popular in the local culture and everyday examples taken from their farming employment to help participants understand the scientific concepts behind clinical trials. One factor in Ndebele’s persistence to advocate for vulnerable trial subjects — and wade into territory fraught with thorny ethical debates and unglamorous research analysis — is his family’s roots. Ndebele says his native Tonga ethnic group of Zimbabwe, a culturally distinct people who have traditionally lived by farming in a harsh climate, has an ethos of hard work. His father, a farmer, eventually became a pastor “and encouraged me and my brothers to work hard in school as well. It’s the reason why we all went to university.” And perhaps it’s why the quiet scholar continues the hard work of asking tough questions to hold the medical industry accountable.“I’m glad I can say I’ve contributed an African voice internationally in my professional work.” Carolyn Cosmos is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

health center, Niederhuber calls it “an academic institution without a university.” “We have a full range of post-M.D. training programs in surgery and medicine, and about 40 or 50 medical students on the campus every day, mostly from Virginia Commonwealth University.” The Translational Medicine Institute was formed to serve as a leader in personalized medicine, which applies sophisticated technologies to distinguish a person’s unique genetic code to determine if they are at increased risk of developing a particular disease and to tailor the most effective treatments for that disease. “The goal is to provide the right treatment for the right patient at the right time, and ultimately prevent disease in the first place,” the institute’s website says. “The long-term work of ITMI will enable Inova to successfully and quickly translate advances from genomics (the study of genes and their function) and the molecular sciences to patients, optimizing individual health and well being.” To that end, the institute eventually aims to assemble the world’s largest amount of whole genome sequence data in a single database. In the meantime, it will also play an important role in the growth of the cancer center. “Because of the presence of our Translational Medicine Institute, we will also be able to bring a new frontier of highly personalized genomic medicine into cancer care as well,” Niederhuber observed. “We have a very active bio-bank that will allow us an unprecedented amount of genomic input into making all therapeutic decisions. We want to conduct translational research studies and be in the forefront of the application of genomics to therapeutic decisions in cancer.” The system expects to break ground on the new center in 2014. When it’s completed, the new center will also serve to coordinate cancer care at Inova’s five existing campuses — Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun, Mount Vernon and Fair Oaks, which recently broke ground on its own 100,000 square-foot cancer center. Gina Shaw is the medical writer for The Washington Diplomat.

MEDICAL The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

culture & arts

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

entertainment

■ FEBRUARY 2013

SCULPTURE

Maya Live On The world didn’t end on Dec. 21, 2012, with the “end” of the Maya calendar, but the doomsday predictions did resurrect an ancient civilization whose stunning jade treasures are now on display at the IDB Cultural Center. PAGE 31

MUSIC

Resonating Diplomacy From jazz icon Louis Armstrong to hip hop poet Mahogany Jones-Live, America is dispatching the next generation of musical diplomats to win over foreign audiences, one beat at a time. PAGE 32

DINING

Voltaggio’s Range Celebrity chef Bryan Voltaggio is clearly at home on the Range — his epic new dining creation in Friendship Heights. PAGE 34

Cool Idea Photo: Bjørn Furuseth

FESTIVALS

Nordic Cool 2013 at the Kennedy Center will offer Washingtonians a blast of Nordic culture with more than 700 artists and dozens of theater and dance performances, concerts, art and history exhibits, food tastings and films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, as well as Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Áland Islands. PAGE 30

FILM REVIEWS

FILM

The Oscars have fallen in love with the French flick “Amour” — with good reason. PAGE 36

The political drama “Zero Dark Thirty” won over the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association. PAGE 37

[ festivals ]

Chills and Thrills Kennedy Center Expects Warm Reception for Nordic Cool Photo: hörður sveInsson

by Stephanie Kanowitz

[ Page 30

his year, the Kennedy Center is going north for the winter with Nordic Cool 2013, its first festival devoted to Nordic culture. The event boasts dozens of theater and dance performances, concerts, art and history exhibits, food tastings and films with the purpose of increasing awareness about this distinct region in Europe. “This festival encompasses an experience for all the senses,” said Danish Ambassador Peter Taksøe. “Over the course of a month you will see, hear, smell and feel all good things Nordic.” Past festivals of this scale at the Kennedy Center have highlighted China, India and the Arab world. Nordic Cool runs from Feb. 19 to March 17 and will include more than 700 artists from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Áland Islands — a part of the world not well known here, said Alicia Adams, festival curator and vice president of international programming and dance at the Kennedy Center. “In conversations with many colleagues in the arts and others, it became obvious that Americans are not as aware of Northern Europe and particularly the Nordic countries as they are of other countries,” said Adams, who expects Nordic Cool to reach more than 1 million people. “The goal is to reflect the art and culture of this region in a way that is almost as effective as traveling there. This festival explores the interplay of themes central to Nordic life, such as nature, technological innovation, environmental sustainability, entrepreneurial spirit and youth culture.” Exposing people to Nordic culture is the goal of the Royal Norwegian Embassy’s participation, said Linken Berryman, press and culture counselor there. “It seems self-evident to those of us who work at the embassy that Norwegian culture is vibrant, exciting and contemporary — but does America know that? Does the world? We want to show people,” she said. The festival aims to do just that, with a plethora of events that showcase the region’s breathtaking natural landscape (such as its midnight summer sun and sparkling pure water), its progressive attitudes on social issues such as womNordic Cool 2013 en’s rights, and its world-renowned reputation Feb. 19 to March 17 for design, technological innovations and green Kennedy Center initiatives. “During our international festivals, the build2700 F st., nW ing is transformed by visual art exhibits, perforFor more information, please call mances fill our nine stages, there will be panels, (202) 467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org/programs/ film screenings and literature from the region, festivals/12-13/nordic/. and even the cuisine in the café and restaurant reflect the culture of the festival,” Adams said, adding that a light installation representing the Northern Lights by a Danish artist will be beamed onto the façade of the building during the festival. Other exhibits running throughout the festival spotlight Nordic architecture and contemporary design, the history of the Nobel Prize and, of all things, plywood, which was invented in Sweden and is one of the oldest mass-produced products in the world. Adams noted that among the must-see shows are performances of “Fanny and Alexander” by Sweden’s Royal Dramatic Theatre from March 7 to 9 and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” by Vesturport Theatre of Iceland from Feb. 20 to 22. Other highlights include the opening concert by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic on Feb. 19, a March 2 knitting workshop by Icelandic designer Steinunn Sigurd that incorporates music, and a special section for children featuring LEGOs — created in Denmark — and interactive games.

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The Washington Diplomat

Photo: erIK IK Ber BerG G

Among the many performances and events featured in nordic Cool 2013 at the Kennedy Center are, from top: the sunna Gunnlaugs trio from Iceland; norway’s Carte Blanche contemporary dance company’s “Corps de Walk”; and the Danish Dance theatre’s “Love songs” set to Danish jazz singer Caroline henderson’s music; as well as terje Isungset’s “Icemusic” (pictured on the culture cover), in which his instruments melt during the concert.

“The festival gives Denmark an opportunity to showcase the Nordic region we are part of and our mutual cultural heritage,” said Taksøe-Jensen, who looks forward to the Danish Dance Theatre’s “Love Songs” performance set to Danish jazz singer Caroline Henderson’s music on March 1 and 2.“We are one region — and still very diverse. It’s important and fun to showcase our similarities and our diversities through art and culture.” Norway will be represented by a dance troupe, six musical acts, two plays, two films, art exhibitions, writers and architects. “I think people will be surprised to see such a wide presentation of art and culture from a country as small as Norway,” Berryman said. One of the more unique shows will be Terje Isungset’s “Icemusic” on Feb. 23. “Mr. Isungset makes his own instruments out of ice from ancient glaciers,” Berryman said. “Over the course of his concerts, his instruments melt, changing the way they sound.” Norway will also host a Nordic tasting at the embassy on Feb. 25. Berryman expects about 60 guests to attend this $100-per-person meal, where the food will be prepared by the embassy’s executive chef, Simon Idsø, using Norwegian techniques and methods, including the preservation methods of salting, curing, smoking and pickling that the New Nordic cuisine movement embraces. Recognizing that the fastest way to cultural understanding may very well be through the stomach, the festival spotlights New Nordic cuisine, the creation of which is often credited to Denmark’s René Redzepi, who co-founded and is head chef of Noma, a Photo: BjarKe ørsteD

see NordiC, page 35

February 2013

[ sculpture ]

Maya Resurrection ‘End’ of Calendar Just Start of New Era for Ancient Civilization by Gary Tischler

From clockwise top, a miniature he world didn’t end on mosaic of a noble wearing a sun god Dec. 21, 2012, as some headdress, a jade diadem, and an had feared would hapeffigy censer (container for burning pen with the “end” of the incense) are among the jade jewelry Maya calendar. But the and other items in “heavenly jade ancient, rich civilization of the Maya” at the Interthat flourished in large Development Bank Cultural Center. parts of Central America and Mexico Photos: natIonaL MuseuM oF arChaeoLoGY anD between 250 and 900 A.D. endures ethnoLoGY oF GuateMaLa / jesús LóPez today through its culture, legacy and mysterious allure. Solidarity and Creative Affairs. The Maya got quite a pop culture preserva“We are helping with preserva jolt this year when an important part tion and restoration projects; of their culture — the cyclical end we’re helping to celebrate the of the Mayan long count calendar, culture of the region, bringing or bak’tun — somehow got trans-together El Salvador, Belize, lated and transformed into an end-ofGuatemala, Honduras and the-world scenario, heightened by last southern Mexican states.” year’s ominous 12-12-12 calendar coinci coinciIDB President Luis Alberto dence. Movies were made, stories were writ writ“repreMoreno said the exhibition “repre ten, rituals were held, and some people made apocalyptic sented an encounter with the history and sensibility preparations while others gathered at a bar to toast the end of of one of the most important cultures of the continent. mankind. It is a way of honoring the ancestors and highlighting the Dec. 21 passed by though largely without a peep, but that’s not to people of Mayan origins that today continue to enrich our say nothing happened. No doubt the remaining indigenous society.” Mayan peoples living in Guatemala, parts of southern The objects in the exhibition hail from royalty — the Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize did indeed celejade-encrusted possessions of the ancient kings and brate the completion of a major calendar cycle in some queens of the Maya. fashion. A series of figurines from a king’s court, found Throughout the rest of the world, the doomsday predic-between 600 and 800 A.D, offers a true sense of tions inadvertently resurrected interest in a dormant culture what a Mayan court might have looked like. We — one that comes alive at the Inter-Development see not only find the late king among the figurines, Bank (IDB) Cultural Center with “Heavenly Jade of but also wrestlers and fighters, priests and scribes, the Maya.” and even a dwarf and disfigured members of the The ambitious exhibition — based in part on court — people who might have been shunned in recent archeological finds — features rare jewjew other civilizations but are honored here. elry made of jade and other items never Looking at the figures — placed in several circles before seen outside of Guatemala. The — you get the feeling that they might come alive, objects get to the heart and scope of like some hierarchical night at the museum. Among this advanced Mesoamerican civilizaciviliza them is a female shaman, who would also figure tion —its rituals, values and their devodevo ceremostrongly among the Aztecs. Shamans led the ceremo tion to studying the stars and trying to nial rituals that explained the cosmos, the rhythms of explain the relation of the individual nature and the stars. to the cosmos. At its center of this It helps to have some grounding in the universe is jade, the beautiful ancient civilizations of the Americas, includHeavenly Jade of the Maya green stone treasured above all ing their origins and beliefs, to fully apprecithrough Feb. 15 else (even gold) by the Maya. ate these objects, but they nevertheless hint inter-American development Bank The earliest Maya settlements date at something huge — a cradle of creativity, Cultural Center back to around 1800 B.C., but the empire rose to promias seen in jade-dotted masks of jaguars, 1300 new York ave., nW nence beginning in the year 250, building large pyramid ceramic and jade offerings that symbolized For more information, please call structures and a highly structured society of their own. creation, and elaborate headdresses that (202) 623-1213 or visit www.iadb.org/cultural/. But “Heavenly Jade of the Maya,” composed of precious honor the sun god. objects from the National Museum of Archaeology and The Maya worshiped otherworldly forces, Ethnology in Guatemala City, is more than a look back at a once-powerful but unlike so many other civilizations, they also studied them, meticulously civilization. The Mayan calendar, measured in intervals of 394 years, may be producing scientific calendars that rival any we have today — and clearly still embarking on a new phase, but as a cultural force, the Maya haven’t attracted enthrall us. much attention outside the region and Guatemala. With the exception of the Perhaps the most misunderstood message of the recent “end of the world” fuss over the doomsday predictions, the Maya have not intensified their place hype is what it overlooked. The end of the 13th bak’tun cycle actually marks in the historical imagination. This exhibition is clearly an attempt to re-estab- the beginning of a new era — which, the IDB Cultural Center hopes, will lish a connection to an ancient civilization. spark a new dawn of appreciation for the Maya and all they left behind. “This is not just about art, or art objects — it’s also about preservation, and resurrection,” said Iván Duque Márquez, chief of the IDB Division of Culture, Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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February 2013

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The Washington Diplomat Page 31

[ music ]

Pitch-Perfect Envoys American Music Abroad Cultivates Next Generation of Voices by Paul S. rockower

The Boston Boys stopped by egypt as part of a recent musical tour through the Middle east organized by american Music abroad, which sends american bands overseas to engage with audiences and communities.

omewhere etched in memories and images of Louis Armstrong being royally greeted by throngs in Cairo and blowing his trumpet to the ear of the sandy sphinx, or of rooms to collaborate with local musiDuke Ellington’s regal jazz cians. ambassadorship as he stared “Communicating through rhythm down at sitars, American cultural diploand melodies is an experience that macy found its groove. transcends boundaries and tranThe American Music Abroad program scends language,” said mandolin playrepresents the evolution of the great Jazz er Eric Robertson with the Boston Ambassadors tours organized by the State Boys, which just concluded a musiDepartment that once had the world cal tour through the Middle East, enthralled with a swinging new beat of from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco U.S. public diplomacy. Today, American to the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Music Abroad artists represent the new I recently toured with the dynamgeneration of citizen diplomats creating ic five-girl bluegrass group Della Mae musical exchanges abroad. for a “Bluegrass on the Silk Road” American Voices administers the tour of South and Central Asia. American Music Abroad program on behalf American Music Abroad activities of the State Department’s Bureau of focus on younger and underserved Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since audiences in countries with little or 1993, American Voices has been conductno access to live American perforing cultural diplomacy as a means to foster mances. As such, Della Mae kicked people-to-people connections. Founded off their tour in Islamabad, Pakistan, with a focus on bringing American music at the all-female Fatima Jinnah and culture to the recently independent University. nations of Central and Eastern Europe, Della Mae’s presence on campus American Voices has expanded its mission Photo: aMerICan MusIC aBroaD / aMerICan voICes was akin to that of the Beatles or the to support youth through cultural and educational programs in Rolling Stones — students at the nations emerging from conflict or isolation. The bands that are sent country’s first female university were overseas participate in public concerts, lectures, demonstrations, so excited to hear the female blueworkshops, media outreach and collaborations with local musicians. grass band that they literally tore the To project the full spectrum of the American musical landscape, all doors off the hinges of the theater to musical genres are invited to apply for the American Music Abroad get in on the sound check warm-up. program. The most recent season included blues, bluegrass, cajun, “We’ve never played for crowds so country, folk, Latin, Native American, gospel, hip hop, indie rock, jazz, excited and enthused to hear live R&B and zydeco. In short, any and all musical traditions that can music,” said Della Mae fiddler Kimber claim roots in the diverse American musical canon are welcome to Ludiker. apply. Meanwhile, the emphasis on colThe crop of musical diplomats for the 2012-13 season were laborating with local musicians on selected from nearly 300 applications; music ensembles applied from songs resonates with local audiences. more than 40 states, as well as D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin While on their tour of Thailand amid a Islands, and represented a tremendous variety of Southeast Asian swing, the Alabama musical styles and world-class experience. From acoustic rock band Act of Congress bluegrass to hip hop to Hawaiian slack key guitar, worked with Thai music students to American Music Abroad is designed to communicate learn and perform “His Majesty’s the nation’s rich contributions to the global music Blues,” a piece written by the Thai scene as it fosters cross-cultural communication and For more information, monarch, borne out of his days jampeople-to-people connections. please visit ming with the Jazz Ambassadors. Prior to going abroad, American Music Abroad www.americanvoices.org. As it looks forward to a new season ensembles perform and work with students in Above left, Della Mae, a five-girl bluegrass ensemble from Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., as they conduct their orientation. recently traveled to turkestan Palace in tashkent, the capital of uzbekistan, of sending American talent abroad, Before heading off on a five-country tour in Africa, the Detroit-based as part of the american Music abroad program. Before going abroad, aMa the American Music Abroad program hip hop group Mahogany Jones-Live had a poignant and inspiring ensembles work with students in Washington, D.C. at right, hip hop artist is building on the rich legacy of U.S. concert at Duke Ellington School of the Arts — poignant because of Mahogany jones-Live engages with students at the Duke ellington school cultural outreach, while shaping a whole new generation of musical the connection to a school named for the pioneering Jazz Ambassador, of the arts before heading on a five-country tour in africa. diplomats. and inspiring as Mahogany Jones rhymed to teach girls respect and empowerment through hip hop poetry. American Music Abroad ensembles traveled to nearly 50 countries around the world Paul S. Rockower is the communications director for American Voices, a nonprofit that partners with the during the 2012-13 touring season.These musical diplomats perform at national halls and U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to administer the American Music offer master classes to music students. And they reach beyond concert halls and class- Abroad program.

to learn

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The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

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[ dining ]

Impressive Range Voltaggio Migrates to Chevy Chase With Emporium of Specialties by rachel G. Hunt

ocally grown celebrity chef Bryan Voltaggio has returned to the Washington area with Range, his new venture in Friendship Heights that gives diners a chance to discover what Frederick, Md., has been enjoying since Voltaggio left Charlie Palmer Steak in 2008 to open Volt, his first solo venture in his hometown. A year later, he and his brother Michael were the finalists on Bravo TV’s hit show “Top Chef,” catapulting both to culinary fame. Michael took the title of “Top Chef,” but Bryan certainly hasn’t done too badly for himself. The James Beard Award nominee continued to rack up awards and acclaim for Volt, which put Frederick on the dining map (also see “After Four Years of Fame, Volt Still Energizes Historic Frederick” in the August 2012 issue of The Washington Diplomat). His success with Volt prompted Voltaggio and his business partner Hilda Staples to consider new projects, and hints of things to come began to circulate more than two years ago. The busy pair opened Lunchbox a few blocks from Volt in December 2011, followed a few months later by Family Meal, a moderately priced yet highly inventive family diner spot a mile from Volt. They also turned their sights on the Washington marketplace to develop an even more ambitious concept. Whereas Volt is upscale and intimate, Lunchbox small and casual, and Family Meal larger and family-focused, Range is just plain enormous. The 14,000-square-foot space includes multiple kitchens; seating for 300 in a combination of bar seats, lounge tables, dining tables and kitchen seating; as well as retail spaces for the kitchen supplies and gadgets used at Range; not to mention a charcuterie station, raw bar, rotisserie, bakery, confections counter, wood-fired hearth and coffee bar.There’s even a swanky new cigar bar next door that’s partnered with Range (see sidebar). The space is big but the ambience is not overwhelming, with a fresh, clean look. Range’s design is sleek and modern, the colors neutral, and the décor minimal.There is nothing in the concept to detract from the focus on the food and its preparation — except perhaps the floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the front side of the restaurant that are built around the central circular atrium of the newly renovated Chevy Chase Pavilion, offering a potentially distracting view of what’s going on inside the mall. With the large variety of seating arrangements at Range, diners may have quite a different experience depending on where they sit. So it’s important to decide what you want out of a visit before you go. The range kitchen bar seats are exciting but frenetic, while the rooms away from the kitchens Chevy Chase Pavilion feel somewhat isolated but are quieter and 5335 Wisconsin ave., nW, more private. suite 201 Voltaggio has taken Volt’s open kitchen (202) 803-8020 concept one step further at Range, where www.voltrange.com dishes are prepared in seven separate open kitchens, each dedicated to a particular dinner: Daily, 5:30 to 11 p.m.; technique or ingredient. Diners can also lunch service still being finalized. have front-row seats at the raw bar, salumePlates: $3 (breads) to $65 ria, bakery, wood-fired oven, rotisserie or (snake river farms wagyu beef tenderloin) wood-burning grill. It takes a big staff to support this kind of desserts: $3 - $10 endeavor, and Voltaggio has assembled a reservations: accepted and recommended team with impressive pedigrees. To coordinate all the various kitchens, Voltaggio dress: Business casual tapped his friend and former colleague Matt Hill to be chef de cuisine. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (as is Voltaggio), Hill replaced Voltaggio as executive chef at Charlie Palmer Steak when Voltaggio left to start Volt. John Miele, another Charlie Palmer protégé, serves as pastry chef for all the Volt family restaurants.At the bakery bar, you can watch Miele and his staff finish the breads that Range serves. Served as small plates (there is no complimentary version), the breads come paired with several different spreads. Individual skillet corn breads, for instance, are accompanied with salty-sweet bacon marmalade; cheddar chive biscuits come with

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The Washington Diplomat

Photos: jessICa Latos

Bryan Voltaggio’s recently opened range features multiple kitchens, a wood-fired hearth, rotisserie and even a confections counter. the result is a wide-ranging menu that never veers off course, remaining tightly focused on the food and its preparation.

sweet pepper jelly; and the crusty, light ciabatta is served with smoked cream cheese and cranberries.All are well done so the easiest choice is the breadbasket that includes a sampling. Be warned though, it’s filling and you might run out of space for the 80-plus (not including desserts or confections) other choices on the menu. The bakery also prepares the pizza dough that is transformed by pizzaiolo Edan MacQuaid. Brought on by Voltaggio to man the pizza oven, MacQuaid has done stints at some of the best pizza places in the city, including Pizzeria Paradiso, 2Amys and Graffiato. MacQuaid knows how to handle a pie and is turning out delicious versions on thin, perfectly crispy yet chewy crusts. The choices of topping combinations are enticingly offbeat and include chunks of house-cured bacon, thick slices of charred onion, cannellini bean, arugula, lardo, olives, potato, meatloaf and rosemary. While one might wish for more meatless varieties (there is currently only one), the meats featured on the pizzas are produced in Range’s kitchens. To handle the meat side of things, Voltaggio selected Julien Shapiro to be both the in-house butcher and charcutier. The choice underscores Voltaggio’s commitment to the whole food concept as well as his emphasis on meat as a central theme at Range. Shapiro learned butchery techniques in Paris, where knives are used to maximize the yield from an animal without wasting anything in the process.At Range, Shapiro brings

February 2013

in whole animals from local farmers and, working to use all parts, includes unusual cuts and offal on the menu. The beef shin, large enough for six, is slow cooked with carrots and red wine and is tender to the bone — as is the garlicky lamb shoulder roasted on the rotisserie. Beef heart, pork cheeks, lamb shanks and sweetbreads all appear in interesting presentations. Shapiro demonstrates his schooling in the complicated and exacting standards for making sausage and other charcuterie in items such as dense garlic sausage, rich pork riblets, smooth chicken liver pudding, duck galantine and foie gras. With so many choices, the tasting plate offers diners the best way to sample Shapiro’s expertise. While meat is featured prominently at Range, there are plenty of seafood options.As an advocate of local food sourcing, Voltaggio strives to highlight regional products. Much of the shellfish on the raw bar comes from Eastern Shore producers while some of the fish comes from sustainable sources further afield. Cured Skuna Bay salmon (craft raised in Vancouver) scented with pine and charred lemon is an excellent piece of fish. But the yellow fin tuna — small slices served with soy, lime and tiny jasmine rice cakes — is a work of art, both in taste and presentation. Range also offers a selection of house-made pastas, some of which are inspired. Diners at the pasta bar get to watch the chef seamlessly put together goat cheese ravioli with a delicious, meaty ragu (lamb flavor dominates). Meanwhile, the tagliatelle served with beef cheek stroganoff and kale is not what you might expect.The thin pasta strips are topped with even thinner slices of meat and dressed in a rich yet light sauce. While the ingredients may resemble stroganoff, the dish is nothing like the hearty Russian classic. Pastry chef Miele’s artistry reappears at the end of the meal with beautiful dessert creations, as well as candy and cookie confections that are available at the table off rolling carts or at a retail counter. Each dessert is an assemblage of the main element and several graceful notes that Miele assembles in strikingly artis-

the most talked about drink is the vegan sacrifice, an unusual concoction of scotch, ginger, cayenne and a puck of beef ice. Range also has an extensive wine program that’s designed with low bottle prices relative to by-theglass prices to encourage ordering by the bottle. In the month following Range’s opening, the restaurant has continued to evolve. The approach behind this massive showcase of Voltaggio’s talents presents some challenges.With seven different kitchens turning out dishes at their own pace, timing a meal is not easy. Wait staff advise you at the start of the meal that dishes will come out as they are ready.This can make for some odd combinations. The best way to avoid any mismatches is to order in rounds rather than all at once. Ordering, though, can present another challenge as the size of the plates varies significantly. Some are small and have only two bites, others are large enough to feed a table.Wait staff recommends ordering three to four dishes per person, but depending on what you order, this can leave you hungry or quite full. It can also result in a reasonPhoto: jessICa Latos ably priced meal or quite an expensive one. Moreover, the With 14,000 square of feet of space, range is enormous and can price of the dish is not a good indicator of its size, so the wait accommodate 300 diners in a combination of bar seats, lounge tables, staff plays a critical role in helping you choose a satisfying meal. dining tables and kitchen seating. A restaurant this size of course requires a huge staff, all of whom need to be trained on what is quite an extensive menu. By tic presentations. The best perhaps is a Meyers lemon tart that in large, however, staff members — decked out in Chuck Taylor includes a semifreddo, passion fruit sauce and mango sorbet. Converse All Star sneakers, Voltaggio’s favorite — have been Another good choice is the chocolate ganache, which centers on pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful. One of the fundamental appeals of Voltaggio’s latest restaurant a small tart dressed up with a dollop of white chocolate mousse and sorbet. Range makes all ice creams and sorbets in house.The is that it reflects his earnestness. Unlike some other celebrity flavors change but the texture has been consistently smooth and chefs, he does not approach his craft with arrogance or pretennone have been overly sweet. The intense espresso ice cream is sion. He is serious about his work and wants you to understand particularly striking. If none of the dessert-as-art choices appeal what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, and to share his enthusiasm. to you or something smaller is in order, the rolling cart offers He prepares his staff to share this vision and has succeeded in brownies, biscotti, cookies and candies all made daily in the creating easy, comfortable atmospheres with his other three ventures, regardless of price point. Early indications are that Range candy kitchen. D.C. native Owen Thomson heads up the beverage program. A will carry on this tradition, despite its size and ambitiousness, and founding member the DC Craft Bartenders Guild, Thomson will solidify Voltaggio’s welcome return to Washington. makes all the syrups, sodas and garnishes that he puts to good use in the inventive cocktails he’s developed for Range. Perhaps Rachel G. Hunt is the restaurant reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

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Nordic restaurant in Copenhagen that has been dubbed the best in the world. Free demonstrations of New Nordic cooking will be presented by award-winning chefs from Finland and Iceland on Feb. 25, and from Denmark, Norway and Sweden on March 3. “Nordic Cool 2013 gives a great opportunity to show northern values, as Nordic cooperation is one of the world’s most extensive forms of regional, cultural Photo: KenneDY Center and political collaboration,” said Anneli Halonen, cultural counsel- In Vesturport’s acclaimed or at the Embassy of Finland.“The production of Franz Kafka’s core values that underpin Nordic “Metamorphosis,” the transsociety include a strong common formed Gregor lithely negotiates a cultural identity, democracy, toler- gravity-defying split-level set. ance, gender equality and freedom of expression.The Nordic countries have a long tradition of global responsibility and working together at the international level to promote these values.” The opening night concert illustrates that cooperation as a Finn, Sakari Oramo, conducts the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, joined by Danish soprano Inger Dam-Jensen. Halonen said music is an important part of Finnish culture, as evidenced by a performance Feb. 26 by Signmark (aka Marko Vuoriheimo), creator of the world’s first sign language hip hop DVD. “We Finns are very proud of our music education at all levels; all Finnish children learn to read musical notation,” Halonen said. Overall, the diplomats agree, their goal for the festival is to further interest in the Nordic countries. “Nations — and with that people — come closer when there is a greater understanding of each other’s culture,”Taksøe-Jensen said. “This festival is an important contribution to bringing America and the Nordics closer together.”

DINING SIDEBAR

Civil-ized Partnership With a confections counter, trays teeming with desserts and a coffee bar, there are plenty of ways to cap off a meal at range. the only thing that might be missing is a cigar lounge if you want to savor a nice long smoke. oh wait, there’s that too. actually, range doesn’t own the recently opened Civil Cigar Lounge tucked away right next door in the Chevy Chase Pavilion, but it’s partnered with the expansive lounge and retail shop to offer a small plates menu developed exclusively by Bryan voltaggio that incorporates ingredients from all of range’s nine kitchens. Civil is owned by john anderson and Matt Krimm, the proprietors of W. Curtis Draper, the oldest full-service tobacconist in D.C. and the third oldest in the united states. and just as range is a treat for Washingtonians who don’t feel like trekking to Frederick, Md., to sample voltaggio’s cuisine, Civil Cigar Lounge is a rare treat for Marylanders, offering up one of the few premium cigar lounges in the entire area. that clubby, upscale lounge features banquette seating, plush leather chairs and cozy nooks. It’s complemented by rows of humidified, cedar lockers (available for annual leasing) and a 500-square-foot retail section offering cigars from nicaragua, honduras and the Dominican republic. and while the space is appropriately dark and intimate, it’s also surprisingly spacious, with 93 seats and a sizable bar stocked with all the whiskies, scotches and spirits you could imagine. In fact, the bar, sleek and modern, is a great destination in its own right, even for nonsmokers — because Civil is equipped with a state-of-the-art ventilation sys-

Photo: jennIFer BerMan

Co-owner John Anderson recently opened Civil Cigar Lounge next door to Range.

tem that filters and replaces all of the air every two minutes. the space is also a creative choice for parties, with a glass-encased private room on tap for private events. above all, Civil — whose motto is “drink, smoke, eat” — caters to both cigar aficionados and novices, with approachable staff willing to teach you the finer points of lighting up. It’s all, well, quite civilized. — Anna Gawel

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

February 2013

The Washington Diplomat Page 35

[ film reviews ]

Award-Fêted ‘Amour’ Haneke’s Meditation on Love Continues Prize-Winning Roll to Oscars by Ky N. Nguyen

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or his French-language critical smash questions about where they are now versus “Amour,” iconoclast German writerwhere they had planned to be. Not all of director Michael Haneke (“The Piano the subjects are still interested in participatTeacher,” “Caché”) captured his second ing, but most have endured through the Palme d’Or for best film at the 2012 series.The latest installment, 2012’s “56 Up,” Cannes Film Festival, following his first which Apted co-directs with Paul Almond, Palme d’Or only three years earlier for proves to be among the best of the bunch, “The White Ribbon.” Now, “Amour” is up for five providing new insights and revelations that Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language add much to the film’s depth. Film, for which it’s a frontrunner, and — in a surWell into middle age, all the subjects prise nomination — Best Motion Picture. now have lives quite a long way from when Austria’s official submission to the Oscars, which they were originally interviewed at the age will be held later this month on Feb. 24, also of 7, some more so than others. Even at the secured nods for Best Director and Best Writing for ripe old age of 56, there’s still room for Original Screenplay, both for Haneke, as well as dramatic changes and surprises in life. Best Actress for Emmanuelle Riva, who at 85 is the They’re asked frank questions about what all-time oldest Best Actress Oscar nominee. The they have achieved and where they’ve fallPhoto: Films du Losange / Sony Pictures Classics film’s whopping five Oscar nods are a staggering en short of their dreams.They discuss their number; it’s rare that a foreign language film gains Jean-Louis Trintignant, left, and Emmanuelle Riva star in Michael Haneke’s poignant “Amour,” socioeconomic status, health, relationships, such crossover respect from the Academy’s main- which has racked up Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Riva. children and usually grandchildren. Current stream categories. interviews are interspersed with the sub“Amour” truly manages to live up to all the hype. Over the years, Haneke has markedly jects’ remarks on camera from years past, delivering a live time capsule comparing and conmatured as both a writer and director. His well-crafted script is fairly straightforward, minimiz- trasting the present with the past. ing the puzzles prevalent in a mystery like “Caché.” He assuredly directs the action and actors With varying degrees of self-awareness, the subjects evaluate how much of their fates were with disciplined objectivity.And the steady cinematography by veteran Iranian-French director determined by the situations into which they were born and raised — widely held to be of photography Darius Khondji lights up dreamlike scenes, making even modest surroundings nearly completely deterministic in class-conscious memorable. Britain, though real life can be more complex — ver56 Up The story centers around former music sus their own individual efforts over the years. Amour (English; 144 min.) teachers Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) For instance, “Seven Up!” presented Andrew and (French with English subtitles; 127 min.) Landmark’s E Street Cinema and Anne (Riva), now in their 80s and still John as classmates at a pre-preparatory school in deeply in love after decades of marriage. Kensington, where the upper-class lads were already Angelika Mosaic Opens Fri., Feb. 15 They live easy, cultured retirements in Paris. insufferable snobs.As could be predicted, they grew Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema ★★★★✩ But after Anne suffers a debilitating stroke, up into adulthood developing successful careers as Landmark’s E Street Cinema she pleads with Georges to agree to let her wealthy barristers. In “56 Up,” John insists that his live her last days in the comfort of their depiction earlier in the series as a privileged elite was misleading. His father’s death when he ★★★★✩ beloved home. As things get worse, their was 9 forced hardship on his family, requiring his mother to toil at work to support them; he musician daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert) increasingly visits from her current home in a for- was able to attend Oxford only on scholarship. On the other hand, Suzy was born into a posh eign country, where her attentions have been mostly drawn to her career and husband. Despite life but dropped out of boarding school at 16, after which she worked as a secretary in Paris Eva’s insistence that Anne will have better care in a nursing for a spell. home, which would also make life much easier for all A street-smart Cockney from the East End of London,Tony failed in his childinvolved, Georges sticks to his vow to Anne despite its conhood ambition to become a jockey. Instead, he managed to pass London’s tinuing, overwhelming hardship. notoriously tough exam for taxi drivers, after which he climbed up the ladder. He eventually owned his own cab and earned a good living to support his The haunting performances by French acting legends Riva family. He even accumulated enough capital to dabble in Spanish real estate, a and Trintignant, barely recognizable well past their prime, gamble squashed by the global economic downturn that he could not avoid captivate the audience’s attention with poignant emotions even though he had anticipated it. Yet his disappointments did not prevent portrayed with subtle resonance. Younger, though now midhim from maintaining his optimism and appreciation for life. dle-age, French star Huppert (Haneke’s regular leading lady in The only minority subject depicted, Symon, began life given up to a chil“The Piano Teacher” and “White Ribbon”) shines in a supportdren’s home. Not so surprisingly, by “28 Up,” Symon had sired five children. By ing role in which her character expresses the embrace of life, “35 Up,” he had divorced his first wife. By “42 Up,” he was estranged from some contrasting with her parents’ quiet acceptance of the inevitaof his children from his first marriage, but he had wed Vienetta, a second wife bility of decline and death. with whom he had fathered a 4-year-old. By “56 Up,” Symon and Vienetta had undergone classes to become foster parents.Taking a certain level of personal Ups and Downs of Time responsibility, he assigned his low socioeconomic status to his own lack of Photo: ITV / First Run Features “56 Up” is the latest fascinating installment in renowned initiative rather than his impoverished upbringing. He supported himself as a British filmmaker Michael Apted’s (“Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Jackie, Lynn and Sue are seen at age 7 in Michael manual laborer in a freight warehouse near Heathrow struggling to make ends “Gorillas in the Mist,”“The World Is Not Enough,”“Nell”) long- Apted’s “56 Up,” a fascinating documentary series meet, but he seemed relatively at peace with his current circumstances, provlasting documentary series, all historical treasures of contem- that tracks a group of English school children every ing money is not necessarily correlated with happiness. porary social analysis. In 1964, Paul Almond’s seminal British seven years throughout their lives. television documentary “Seven Up!” interviewed 14 English Seasoned ‘Quartet’ school children, all age 7, from a broad demographic spectrum about their day-to-day lives and Acclaimed American movie star Dustin Hoffman finally takes up directing for the first time future aspirations. Their enlightening responses revealed remarkable reflections on the Jesuit at age 75 with “Quartet,” a breezy British comedy-drama. The smart script, adroitly adapted by proverb:“Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man.” Every seven years since 1964,“Seven Up” researcher Apted has continued the project, directing sequel documentaries in which the original subjects are tracked down and asked follow-up See film reviews, page 39

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February 2013

[ film ]

‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Sweep Bin Laden Hunt and French Love Story Top 2012 WAFCA Awards by Ky N. Nguyen

“Z

ero Dark Thirty,” the vivid depiction of the U.S. intelligence community and military’s 10-year quest in search of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden — mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — which concluded with the daring raid on his secret hideout in Pakistan, collected a leading three awards by the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA). The American political action drama swept WAFCA’s most prestigious prizes of Best Film, Best Director (American Kathryn Bigelow) and Best Actress (American Jessica Chastain for her tour-de-force performance as a dogged CIA analyst). “In a year full of strong films, director Kathryn Bigelow’s bold and audacious vision, represented in our Best Picture winner, is the perfect political story for our members in the District of Columbia.This story, told with steely, cold effectiveness, is a worthy entry into WAFCA’s Best Picture canon and a cinematic achievement that we are proud to honor,” proclaimed WAFCA President Tim Gordon. Bigelow’s second Best Director WAFCA Award comes only three years after she became the first woman to ever win by helming “The Hurt Locker,” her powerful depiction of a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team’s danto gers during the Iraq War. For 2009’s “The Hurt Locker,” Bigelow also scored the distinction of being the For more information, first female filmmaker to take home the please visit coveted Best Director Oscar after 82 years. www.dcfilmcritics.com. However, that honor has no chance of repeating this year as she was shockingly

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Repertory Notes

shut out of the 85th annual Academy Award nominees for Best Director, even though she was considered a leading contender and “Zero Dark Thirty” was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Austrian maverick writer-director Michael Haneke’s French-language “Amour” (see film reviews) was crowned WAFCA’s Best Foreign Language Film, one of a lengthy string of honors positioning it as an Oscar favorite. Anglo-Irish leading man Daniel Day-Lewis acquired the Best Actor Award by depicting the larger-than-life eponymous character of “Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg’s historical epic. The British musical sensation “Les Misérables” garnered Best Acting Ensemble for its star-studded international cast and Best Supporting Actress for American movie star Anne Hathaway. Distinctive American actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was deemed Best Supporting Actor for “The Master,”for which English composer Jonny Greenwood claimed Best Score, making it one of only three films with more than one WAFCA Award. This season, WAFCA instituted the Joe Barber Award for Best Youth Performance in honor of Joe Barber, who died a little over a year ago after an influential career as WTOP’s long-tenured arts editor and a D.C. film critic. American child actress Quvenzhané Wallis, the precocious star of the indie fable “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” who was just 6 years old at the time of filming, earned the inaugural memorial accolade spotlighting the best performance from an actor or actress under 20. “It’s a shame Joe was not able to see Quvenzhané’s fierce and compassionate performance in this gem of a

Photo: Columbia Pictures Industries

film. It’s exactly the sort of role Joe would have loved, and we are so thankful to be “Zero Dark Thirty,” a able to remember him going forward with gripping account of the this very special award,” said Gordon. Now 10-year manhunt for 9 years old, Wallis also became the young- Osama bin Laden, garest Best Actress nominee of all time at the nered three top awards from the Washington DC Academy Awards. The three WAFCA prizes given to “Zero Area Film Critics Dark Thirty” epitomize a year in which Association. political and historical dramas dominated the association’s awards, which recognized the top-quality movies and talent of 2012 according to a decidedly local perspective. WAFCA’s voting membership consists of nearly 50 film critics — including this writer — covering the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia area who report in print, web, radio and television.

by Washington Diplomat film reviewer Ky N. Nguyen

Please see International Film Clips for detailed listings available at press time.

National Gallery of Art Programmed with the aid of the Embassy of Spain and the Institut Ramon Llull, the retrospective “Isaki Lacuesta: The Artist’s Ruse” (Feb. 3-24) reviews the work of the Catalan filmmaker, “a visual adventurer who seeks subjects that others would find daunting,” according to the National Gallery of Art. Don’t miss the D.C. premiere of the digital restoration Andrzej Wajda’s “Ashes and Diamonds” (Sat., Feb. 2, 2:30 p.m.), a seminal masterpiece of Polish cinema. “The Nicholas Brothers: Born to Dance” (Sat., Feb. 9, 2:30 p.m.) is an illustrated talk by Bruce Goldstein (director of repertory programming at New York’s Film Forum) about his friends the Nicholas Brothers, Fayard (1914-2006) and Harold (1921-2000), leading African American dancers known for show-stopping numbers in films such as “Stormy Weather” and “Sun Valley Serenade.” In a Ciné-Concert accompanied by Andrew Simpson on piano, Thomas Ince’s 1919 “One a Minute” is preceded by his 1914 “O Mimi San” (Sat., Feb. 16, 2 p.m.), a Japan-set melodrama that was the first American cycle to star Asian performers. Brian Taves (author of “Thomas Ince: Hollywood’s Independent Pioneer”) introduces the silent double bill. A Library of Congress restoration of Michael Roemer and Robert M.

Young’s “Nothing But a Man” (Sat., Feb. 16, 4:30 p.m.) showcases the unromantic depiction of the African American lifestyle, with a Motown soundtrack, that was a hit at international festivals in the early 1960s. (202) 842-6799, www.nga.gov/programs/film

Freer Gallery of Art The British documentary “When China Met Africa” (Wed., Feb. 13, 7 p.m.) is followed by a Q&A with co-director Nick Francis via Skype. Always a crowd favorite, the 17th annual Iranian Film Festival 2013 (through Feb. 23) continues with “Rhino Season,” “The Last Step,” “No Men Allowed a.k.a. No Entry for Men” and “The Iran Job,” with directors Till Schauder and Sara Nodjoumi in person. ((202) 357-2700, www.asia.si.edu/events/films.asp

Goethe-Institut he “Mapping Democracy in Film” series (through Feb. 20) continues with “Democracy Under Attack – An Intervention” (Mon., Feb. 11 6:30 p.m.), introduced by Romuald Karmakar (an independent filmmaker based in Berlin) in discussion with professor Peter C. Pfeiffer of Georgetown University. In between the screenings of “American Casino” (Thu., Feb. 21, 6 p.m.) and “Marx Reloaded” (Thu., Feb. 21, 8 p.m.), Andrew and Leslie Cockburn (“American Casino” filmmak-

February 2013

ers) and Ulrich Steinvorth (George Mason University and Hamburg University) lead a discussion about the financial crisis. The “In Fokus” series (Feb. 25-March 11) opens with the documentary “The Photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher” (Mon., Feb. 25, 6:30 p.m.). (202) 289-1200, www.goethe.de/ins/us/was/kue/flm/enindex.htm

American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theatre The world premiere of the D.C. graffiti artist documentary “The Legend Of Cool ‘Disco’ Dan” (Sat., Feb. 23, 8 p.m.) — featuring interviews with D.C. “Mayor for Life” Marion Barry, civil rights activist Rev. Walter Fauntroy, punk rock historian and activist Mark Andersen and musicians Chuck Brown and Ian MacKaye — offers filmmakers Joseph Pattisall, Roger Gastman, Iley Brown and Caleb Neelon, as well as narrator Henry Rollins in person. It screens in conjunction with the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s exhibition “Pump Me Up: D.C. Subculture of the 1980s” (opens Feb. 23). The “Ballet in Cinema” series presents “An Evening with Sol León and Paul Lightfoot” (Sun., Feb. 3, 7:30 p.m.; Mon., Feb. 4, 7 p.m.) from The Hague’s Nederlands Dans Theatre. “La Bayadére (The Temple Dancer)” (Tue., Feb. 19, 1 p.m.), from the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, screens in a new scenic version by Yuri Grigorovich with Marius Petipa’s choreography. (301) 495-6700, www.afi.com/silver

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[ film ]

CINEMA LISTING *Unless specific times are listed, please check the theater for times. Theater locations are subject to change.

English Directed by Michael Apted and Paul Almond (U.K., 2012, 144 min.)

“Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man.” Starting in 1964 with “Seven UP,” the UP documentary series has explored this Jesuit maxim by examining the lives of 14 English school children every seven years. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Feb. 15

American Casino Directed by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn (U.S., 2009, 89 min.)

This film explains how the meltdown of Wall Street has affected not just the heedless spendthrifts of Wall Street legend, but millions of members of the American middle class, such as a high school teacher, a therapist and a church minister (screens with “Marx Reloaded” (Germany, 2011, 52 min.), a cultural documentary that examines the relevance of German socialist and philosopher Karl Marx’s ideas for understanding the global economic and financial crisis of 2008-09). Goethe-Institut Thu., Feb. 21, 6 p.m.

Argo Directed by Ben Affleck (U.S., 2012, 120 min.)

Ben Affleck’s award-winning political thriller chronicles the covert CIA operation to smuggle six Americans out of the Canadian ambassador’s residence during the Iranian hostage crisis. Landmark’s E Street Cinema

A Better Life Directed by Chris Weitz (U.S., 2011, 98 min.)

A gardener in East L.A. struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while trying to give his son the opportunities he never had (English and Spanish). Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Sun., Feb. 3, 10 a.m.

Garbo the Spy (Garbo: El espía) Directed by Isaki Lacuesta (Spain, 2008, 88 min.)

Juan Pujol García (code name Garbo, after the actress) was a famous Spanish double agent whose well-timed trickery made possible the success of the Normandy invasions. (English, Spanish, German and Catalan). National Gallery of Art Sun., Feb. 3, 4:30 p.m.

The Great Silence (Il grande silenzio) Directed by Sergio Corbucci (Italy, 1968, 105 min.)

Chaos reigns during the Great Blizzard of 1899, driving the villagers of Snowhill, Utah, to steal in order to survive. Enter ruthless, psychotic bounty hunter Klaus Kinski and his band of killers, who slaughter the naïve outlaws for profit. AFI Silver Theatre

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Sat., Feb. 9, 9:30 p.m., Sun., Feb. 10, 9:20 p.m.

Rich and Strange

The Hellbenders aka The Cruel Ones (I crudeli)

When office drone Henry Kendall declares to wife Joan Barry that he’s had enough, the couple leave on a world cruise with exotic ports of call — Paris, Marseille, Port Said, Ceylon and Singapore — each finding themselves courted by, and falling for, more worldly fellow passengers.

Directed by Sergio Corbucci (Italy/Spain, 1967, 90 min.)

56 Up

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Refusing to admit defeat, ex-Confederate Colonel Jonas (Joseph Cotten) and his sons raid a Union Army transport laden with cash, massacring the soldiers, but their evil ways will prove their undoing. AFI Silver Theatre Fri., Feb. 8, 9:15 p.m., Tue., Feb. 12, 9:20 p.m.

The Iran Job Directed by Till Schauder and Sara Nodjoumi (U.S./Iran, 2012, 93 min.)

In this highly entertaining documentary, American basketball player Kevin Sheppard accepts a job to play in Iran, bonding with local shop owners, teaching his teammates American slang, and forming genuine friendships with three outspoken Iranian women. (English and Farsi) Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Feb. 22, 7 p.m., Sun., Feb. 24, 2 p.m.

The Legend of Cool ‘Disco’ Dan Directed by Joseph Pattisall (U.S., 2012, 90 min.)

Discover the “other” Washington of the 1980s through the story of legendary graffiti artist Cool “Disco” Dan, a mysterious, ubiquitous presence during the height of go-go music, record crime rates and citywide dysfunction. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Feb. 23, 8 p.m.

Life of Pi Directed by Ang Lee (U.S., 2012, 127 min.)

Pi Patel, the precocious son of a zookeeper, and his family decide to move to Canada, hitching a ride on a huge freighter. After a shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean on a 26-foot lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a 450pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, all fighting for survival. Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Ninotchka Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (U.S., 1939, 110 min.)

In this mirthful romance, stern Soviet special envoy Nina Ivanovna Yakushova travels to Paris to sort out wayward emissaries who’ve bungled the sale of some confiscated White Russian jewelry and become corrupted by the decadent West. AFI Silver Theatre Feb. 1 to 7

Quartet Directed by Dustin Hoffman (U.K., 2012, 99 min.)

Reggie, Wilfred and Cecily, retired musicians living in Beecham House, are in for a shock when their new housemate turns out to be none other than their former singing partner (Maggie Smith), whose career as a star soloist, and the ego that accompanied it, split up their long friendship and ended her marriage to Reggie. AFI Silver Theatre Feb. 1 to 14 Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1931, 92 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Feb. 9, 1 p.m., Sun., Feb. 10, 4:45 p.m.

Sabotage Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1936, 76 min.)

Suspecting London cinema operator Oscar Homolka of terrorist activity, Scotland Yard detective John Loder goes undercover, ingratiating himself with Homolka’s American wife and her young brother — but not in time to uncover Homolka’s latest plot.

Pariya and her friends believe if their strict headmistress Ms. Darabi finds love, she’ll loosen the school’s rules, so when the first male teacher arrives at their school, the girls decide to play matchmaker. Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Feb. 15, 7 p.m., Sun., Feb. 17, 2 p.m.

Rhino Season (Fasle kargadan) Directed by Bahman Ghobadi (Iraq/Turkey, 2012, 104 min.)

In a haunting love story spanning three decades, Sahel falls victim to a personal vendetta and is thrown into prison along with his devoted wife Mina, who is released 10 years later and told her husband is dead. Heartbroken, she and her two children leave Iran for Istanbul, unknowingly leaving behind her verymuch-alive husband.

AFI Silver Theatre Feb. 22 to 26

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Feb. 1, 7 p.m., Sun., Feb. 3, 2 p.m.

Secret Agent

French

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1936, 86 min.)

His death at the front faked for the papers, a novelist-turned-soldier accepts a new identity and a spy mission to Switzerland, where he’s teamed with a high-living assassin and his fake wife to disrupt a German Ottoman military deal. AFI Silver Theatre Feb. 16 to 20

When China Met Africa Directed by Marc and Nick Francis (U.K., 2010, 90 min.)

This documentary delves behind the headlines to tell the stories of three people involved in China’s expanding presence in Africa: a Chinese agricultural entrepreneur, the manager of a Chinese company in Zambia, and Zambia’s trade minister. Freer Gallery of Art Wed., Feb. 13, 7 p.m.

Young and Innocent Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1937, 82 min.)

An aspiring screenwriter is wrongly accused of murdering an actress he was involved with, and goes on the lam in the English countryside until he can clear his name, with the sheriff’s enamored daughter in tow. AFI Silver Theatre Feb. 23 to 28

Farsi The Last Step (Pele akher) Directed by Ali Mosaffa (Iran, 2012, 88 min.)

Leili’s (successful acting career puts a strain on her marriage to Koshrow. When Koshrow dies unexpectedly, the film untangles the potential reasons behind their troubled marriage and his mysterious death. Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Feb. 8, 7 p.m., Sun., Feb. 10, 2 p.m.

No Men Allowed a.k.a. No Entry for Men (Vorood-e-Aghayan Mamnoo) Directed by Rambod Javan (Iran, 2011, 100 min.)

February 2013

Amour

German Democracy under Attack – An Intervention (Angriff auf die Demokratie eine Intervention) Directed by Romuald Karmakar (Germany, 2012, 102 min.)

In this documentary, journalists, artists and intellectuals voice their opinions in no uncertain terms on the current state of our democracy and make an appeal for intervention. Goethe-Institut Mon., Feb. 11, 6:30 p.m.

The Photographers Bernd und Hilla Becher Directed by Marianne Kapfer (Germany, 2011, 94 min.)

In 1959, Bernd and Hilla Becher began photographing abandoned and forgotten industrial structures that dotted the German landscape, finding minimalist and modernist beauty in these disappearing remnants of a declining way of life. Goethe-Institut Mon., Feb. 25, 6:30 p.m.

Directed by Michael Haneke (France/Germany/Austria, 2012, 127 min.)

Greek

Georges and Anne, retired music teachers in their 80s, find their bond of love severely tested when she suffers a debilitating stroke.

Raw Material (Proti yli)

AMC Loews Cineplex Shirlington Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema

El Cuaderno de Barro (The Clay Diaries) Directed by Isaki Lacuesta (Mali/Spain, 2011, 60 min.)

As a truck filled with four tons of wet clay arrives from Spain in the Dogon region of Mali, the local people are mystified. What ensues then is an astonishing performance by Spanish artist Miquel Barceló and French choreographer Josef Nadj on top of the Bandiagara cliffs (French and Bambara; followed by “Los Pasos Dobles”). National Gallery of Art Sun., Feb. 24, 4:30 p.m.

Los Pasos Dobles (The Double Steps) Directed by Isaki Lacuesta (Mali/Spain, 2011, 87 min.)

In the mid-20th century, French writer and artist François Augiéras painted a series of massive frescoes (known as the “Sistine Chapel of the desert”) that were swallowed up by advancing sand (French and Bambara; preceded by “El Cuaderno de Barro”). National Gallery of Art Sun., Feb. 24, 4:30 p.m.

A Man and a Woman (Un homme et une femme) Directed by Claude Lelouch (U.S., 1966, 102 min.)

An international art-house sensation and one of the most achingly romantic films of all time. Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée meet by chance at their children’s school. She a widow and he a widower, they get to know one another, their friendship growing tentatively into something more. AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Feb. 17, 1 p.m., Tue., Feb. 19, 7:15 p.m.

Directed by Christos Karakepelis (Greece, 2011, 78 min.)

Christos Karakepelis spent six years documenting a diverse community of people who subsist on collecting discarded metal, from old fridges to mattresses, in an impoverished shantytown in Athens. The Avalon Theatre Wed., Feb. 6, 8 p.m.

Hebrew The Flat Directed by Arnon Goldfinger (Israel/Germany, 2011, 97 min.)

As a documentarian cleans out the flat that belonged to his grandparents — both immigrants from Nazi Germany — he uncovers clues pointing to a complicated and shocking story. The Avalon Theatre Wed., Feb. 27, 8 p.m.

Italian Death Rides a Horse (Da uomo a uomo) Directed by Giulio Petroni (Italy/Spain, 1967, 120 min.)

Seeking revenge on the gang of outlaws who murdered his parents, John Phillip Law joins forces with an ex-con who’s seeking revenge on the same gang for very different purposes. AFI Silver Theatre Tue., Feb. 26, 9 p.m., Wed., Feb. 27, 6:30 p.m.

Django Directed by Sergio Corbucci (U.S., 1966, 87 min.)

Franco Nero stars as the titular badass in the 1966 original story of a man on a mysterious mission who confronts murderous ex-Confederates, Klansmen and banditos in his search for vengeance. AFI Silver Theatre Feb. 1 to 7

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

Navajo Joe (Un dollar a testa) Directed by Sergio Corbucci (Italy, 1966, 93 min.)

An outlaw and his band of scalp-hunters massacre the entire population of an Indian village, save one—Navajo Joe (Burt Reynolds), who returns to extract bloody retribution on the bastards. AFI Silver Theatre Fri., Feb. 17, 9:20 p.m., Wed., Feb. 20, 9:20 p.m.

Spanish All Night Long (La noche que no acaba) Directed by Isaki Lacuesta (Spain, 2010, 80 min.)

Isaki Lacuesta explores Hollywood star Ava Gardner’s fanatical attachment to Spain. National Gallery of Art Sun., Feb. 17, 4:30 p.m.

Cravan vs. Cravan

National Gallery of Art Sat., Feb. 23, 2 p.m.

Directed by Isaki Lacuesta (Spain, 2002, 100 min.)

Isaki Lacuesta pursues the realities and myths of maverick poet Arthur Cravan’s life, his comings and goings in Europe and North America, and his uncanny disappearance in the Gulf of Mexico in 1918 (Spanish, Catalan and French). National Gallery of Art Sun., Feb. 10, 4:30 p.m.

La Leyenda del Tiempo (The Legend of Time) Directed by Isaki Lacuesta (Spain, 2006, 109 min.)

Camarón de la Isla, a celebrated gypsy flamenco singer and hero-celebrity, continues

to inspire even after his untimely death at age 42 (screens with “Los Condenados”). National Gallery of Art Sat., Feb. 23, 4 p.m.

Swedish Summer with Monika

(Sommaren med Monika) Directed by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden, 1953, 96 min.)

Two young lovers spend a summer idyll together, only to see it wither in the light of real-world responsibilities. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Feb. 9, 7:15 p.m., Wed., Feb. 13, 7:15 p.m.

Los Condenados (The Condemned) Directed by Isaki Lacuesta (Spain, 2009, 94 min.)

In Argentina, one-time 1970s revolutionaries (their lives interrupted by the Dirty War) gather in a mysterious jungle setting to find the remains of murdered friends believed buried there, their quest to dig up the missing bodies at odds with the lush green surroundings (screens with “La Leyenda del tiempo”).

Photo: THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Dame Maggie Smith plays a diva who reunites with her estranged singing group in Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut, “Quartet.”

from page 36

Film Reviews screenwriter Ronald Harwood from his own stage play of the same name, is filled to the brim with liveliness, dry wit and elegance. In the vein of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,”“Quartet”offers upbeat, enjoyable movie content designed for grown-ups — and not necessarily only senior citizens — looking for a cinematic experience more mature than action superheroes fueled by computer-driven special effects. “Quartet” benefits from the solid foundation of a strong screenplay, but it also succeeds because Hoffman does not neglect emphasizing what he knows best: quality acting.The director is helped by fine, spirited performances from a veteran British ensemble cast that knows a thing or two about acting. They turn in appropriately hammy performances befitting characters near the end of a lifetime putting on shows for live audiences, firing off barbed wits with style. There’s only so much that the director can do to disguise the film’s origins as a staged play, but “Quartet” manages to overcome its stagy roots to a more than sufficient degree, resulting in a rather impressive result, especially for a directorial debut. “Quartet” takes place in Beecham House, a grand, well-maintained retirement home for aging musicians to live

[

Quartet (English; scope; 98 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s E Street Cinema

★★★★✩

]

out their golden years in a semblance of luxury. Easing the banality of a pampered life of leisure, the corridors are filled with whispers that a new housemate, reportedly a huge star, is on the way to join them. When the gossip turns out to be true, residents Wilfred Bond (Billy Connolly), Cecily Robson (Pauline Collins) and Reginald Paget (Tom Courtenay), formerly members of a singing group, are stunned to discover the newcomer happens to be Jean Horton (Dame Maggie Smith, recently of “Downton Abbey”), their ex-lead singer, long since estranged from the group. Jean’s madly successful solo career had given her a big head, which destroyed her friendly relations with the rest of the quartet. The frayed tensions also caused Jean and Reggie to divorce, so he’s especially unsettled with her unexpected presence. Perhaps a change in time and place can allow everyone to make amends. With luck, a reunion at Beecham House’s gala concert may be in order!

READIN’

ART

’RITING ’RITHMETIC

Royal dukes are squaresville. They have no rhythm. And they wear crowns.

Give your kids a chance to succeed. Up their daily dose of art.

Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

February 2013

The Washington Diplomat Page 39

[ around town ]

EVENTS LISTING **Admission is free unless otherwise noted. All information on event venues can be found on The Diplomat Web site at www.washdiplomat. com. Times and locations are subject to change. Unless listed, please call venue for specific event times and hours of operation.

Through Feb. 10

Shadow Sites: Recent Work by Jananne Al-Ani

ART

Inspired by archival archaeological and aerial photographs, as well as contemporary news, Jananne Al-Ani’s video works examine enduring representations of the Middle Eastern landscape.

Feb. 1 to 24

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Unfiltered: Paintings by Leslie M. Nolan

Feb. 13 to May 26

Featuring strong, bold brushwork and compositions, Leslie Nolan’s figurative artworks show people as raw and vulnerable in these private glimpses into real life. Touchstone Gallery Feb. 2 to March 2

International Connections

This group show showcases artists from different cultures, styles, subjects and media — united in their devotion to art and their commitment to sharing their visions with the world. International Visions Gallery Feb. 2 to Aug. 4

Arts of Japan: Edo Aviary and Poetic License

Complementary but distinct installations examine two themes of Edo period art: “Edo Aviary,” which traces how depictions of birds were influenced by natural history painting, and “Poetic License: Making Old Words New,” which shows how classical Japanese and Chinese literary traditions were absorbed into the merchant and artisan classes. Freer Gallery of Art Through Feb. 8

Auschwitz: The Final Solution

Ecuadoran artist and OAS General Secretariat official Gabriel Gross created a compelling series of eight large panels of oil on canvas reflecting on the World War II genocide of Jews to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27. Organization of American States Marcus Garvey Hall Feb. 9 to May 12

Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet

This exhibition reveals a rare cross-cultural artistic dialogue between American painter Jackson Pollock (1912-56), American artist and patron of European and American postwar art Alfonso Ossorio (1916-90), and French painter Jean Dubuffet (1901-85). Approximately 53 paintings and works on paper from 1945 to 1958 highlight visual affinities and inspired friendships among the artists at pivotal moments in their careers. The Phillips Collection Through Feb. 10

NOW at the Corcoran – Enoc Perez: Utopia

Enoc Perez’s lushly figured paintings of modernist buildings at once exploit and question the seductions of architecture as well as painting itself. Corcoran Gallery of Art

Page 40

On Common Ground: Dominican Republic + Haiti

In conjunction with the Embassies of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, this exhibition of works by emerging artists of Hispaniola, the island that these two countries share, offers fresh perspectives on Hispaniola’s cultural scene and addresses misconceptions surrounding the two nations’ complex relationship with one another, imagining a brighter future. OAS Art Museum of the Americas Through Feb. 15

Heavenly Jade of the Maya

Rare jade jewelry and objects from recent archaeological discoveries commemorate the ending of the Maya calendar cycle (Dec. 21, 2012) and the beginning of a new era. This exhibit displays the creative wealth worn by powerful nobles to keep their rituals and beliefs alive, since the Maya considered jade more precious than gold. Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center Feb. 15 to May 12

A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony

The first exhibition in the United States to focus on Danish modern painter Anna Ancher (1859-1935) and the artist colony at Skagen, Denmark, features 41 paintings and oil sketches by Ancher and more than 20 by her fellow Skagen artists. National Museum of Women in the Arts Feb. 16 to June 8

Pageant of the Tsars: The Romanov Coronation Albums

Marking the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Romanov dynasty in 1613, the history and spectacle of Russian tsars’ coronations are revealed through lavish, rarely seen albums and objects from Hillwood’s Russian collection. Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens Feb. 17 to May 5

Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop

In the first major exhibition devoted to the history of manipulated photographs before the digital age, some 200 works will demonstrate that today’s digitally altered photographs are part of a tradition that extends back to the beginning of photography. National Gallery of Art Through Feb. 22

The Points That Bring Us from Here to There

The mapping-focused work of Michael Dax Iacovone and Kathryn Zazenski map spaces and experiences, with Iacovone chronicling his journey driving across the 123

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT bridges that span the Mississippi River, while Zazenski presents maps from time spent in Haukijärvi, Finland, Washington, D.C., and Beijing, China. Honfleur Gallery Feb. 23 to April 7

Pump Me Up: D.C. Subculture of the 1980s

“Pump Me Up” is the first exhibition to explore the thriving underground of Washington, D.C., during the 1980s, giving visual form to the raucous energy of graffiti, Go-Go music, and a world-renowned punk and hardcore scene — demonstrating D.C.’s place in the history of street art as well as that of America’s capital city. Corcoran Gallery of Art Through Feb. 24

Ai Weiwei: According to What?

This major survey of Ai Weiwei, one of China’s most prolific and provocative artists, aims to reveal the rich and varied contexts that he has interwoven within the broad spectrum of his work, from sculpture, photography and video to site-specific architectural installations. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Through Feb. 24

Facing Democracy

Combining art, photojournalism and film, this exhibition features works by three American artists who documented the Occupy Movement and the civil unrest that exists in the United States, exploring the causes, activities and representations of the movement. Goethe-Institut Through Feb. 24

Lalla Essaydi: Revisions

Lalla Essaydi, a Moroccan-born, New Yorkbased artist, pushes the boundaries of Arab, Muslim and African perceptions of women’s identities with her art, which includes themes of feminism, gender, identity and the private inner lives of women while drawing on Arabic calligraphy for its decorative and communicative potential. National Museum of African Art Through Feb. 24

Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

An eye-opening look at the largely unknown ancient past of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, this exhibition draws on recently excavated archaeological material from sites throughout the Arabian Peninsula, tracing the impact of ancient trade routes and pilgrimage roads stretching from Yemen in the south to Iraq, Syria and Mediterranean cultures in the north. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through Feb. 24

Taryn Simon: A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII

February 2013

Through March 2

Through March 29

Luces y Sombras: Fourteen Travelers in Mexico

Rabín Ajaw: Indigenous Ceremonial Dress of Guatemala

The 20th century saw many internationally acclaimed photographers travel through Mexico to document the country from their unique perspectives. This exhibition focuses on 20 hand-pulled photogravures comprising Paul Strand’s seminal 1933 “Mexican Portfolio,” along with renowned photographers Edward Weston, Wayne Miller, Aaron Siskind and others who captured the sociopolitical realities, local architecture, and startling landscapes of 20th-century Mexico through a patently American lens. And accompanying exhibit, “Visions of Mexico: The Photography of Hugo Brehme,” presents 40 works from Hugo Brehme on loan from the Throckmorton Gallery in New York City. Mexican Cultural Institute Through March 3

Michelangelo’s David-Apollo

The presentation of the “David-Apollo,” a marble statue by Michelangelo lent to the National Gallery of Art by the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, opens the nationwide celebration “2013-The Year of Italian Culture.” National Gallery of Art Through March 10

The Sultan’s Garden: The Blossoming of Ottoman Art

More than 50 sumptuous textiles and other works of art illustrate the stylized floral designs that became synonymous with the wealth, abundance and influence of one of the world’s greatest empires. The Textile Museum Through March 16

Words Like Sapphires: 100 Years of Hebraica at the Library of Congress

A century ago, New York philanthropist Jacob H. Schiff purchased an initial collection of nearly 10,000 Hebrew books and pamphlets for the Library of Congress. This gift formed the nucleus of what is today one of the world’s greatest collections of Hebraic materials, comprising some 200,000 items. Library of Congress Through March 17

Andrei Molodkin: Crude

Andrei Molodkin is a globally recognized contemporary Russian artist who deconstructs the economic realities of geopolitical praxis with monumental ballpoint-pen drawings and threedimensional constructs filled with crude oil. American University Katzen Arts Center Through March 17

Grisha Bruskin: H-Hour

Taryn Simon produced this 18-chapter series over a four-year period (2008-11), during which she traveled around the world researching and recording bloodlines and their related stories.

Internationally acclaimed contemporary Russian artist Grisha Bruskin’s new Kafkaesque sculpture project “H-Hour” is a disturbing, toy-like anatomy of hate in the form of: the hostile state, class enemy, enemy of the subconscious, time and so on.

Corcoran Gallery of Art

American University Katzen Arts Center

Photographs by Juan Carlos Lemus Dahinten of Guatemala examine the aesthetics of indigenous, Guatemalan dress as a manifestation of cultural identity, and how modern styles influenced by global fashion and culture coexist with indigenous traditions. OAS Art Museum of the Americas F Street Gallery Through March 31

Pissarro on Paper

French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro first tried printmaking in his early thirties, and though he never stopped painting, printing became vital to his artistic enterprise. National Gallery of Art Through April 21

Orchids of Latin America

“Orchids of Latin America” highlights the importance of Latin American orchids in local culture and folklore through live flower displays and examines ways in which biological reserves are working to preserve orchid species and habitats today. National Museum of Natural History Through May 26

Color, Line, Light: French Drawings, Watercolors, and Pastels from Delacroix to Signac Some 100 drawings and watercolors from the collection of James T. Dyke showcase the broad development of modern draftsmanship in France, from romanticism and realism through the impressionists, Nabis and neo-impressionists. National Gallery of Art Through July 7

One Man’s Search for Ancient China: The Paul Singer Collection

New Jersey psychiatrist-turned-collector Paul Singer’s bequest to the Sackler Gallery created one of the largest Chinese archaeological collections in the United States. This exhibition looks at the collector’s contributions to Chinese art history — made largely at a time when contact between China and the West was heavily restricted — and examines how landmark archaeological discoveries have shed new light on his acquisitions and on ancient China. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

DISCUSSIONS Mon., Feb. 4, 6:30 p.m.

Sweet & Salt: Water and the Dutch

Tracy Metz’s book “Sweet & Salt: Water and the Dutch” addresses the complex and inescapable relationship between water and the Netherlands as sea levels rise, rivers swell, and storms and droughts multiply, offering a new perspective on living with water in the futute. Tickets are $20. National Building Museum Feb. 6 to 8

Protocol and Executive Etiquette Seminar

The Protocol Partners Washington Center

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

for Protocol presents a multiday comprehensive seminar on diplomatic, military and international protocol, as well as business and dining etiquette that will teach you the skills and industry standards to navigate various professional environments. Seminar content will offer lessons on greeting and hosting guests with confidence, accommodating international customs, planning VIP visits and other events, and building stronger business relationships. Tuition is $2,150; to register, visit www.theprotocolpartners.com. Willard InterContinental Washington Hotel Feb. 6 to 27

High-Stakes Intelligence Operations: From Catching Bin Laden to a Picture-Perfect Rescue in Iran

This four-session daytime course throughout February examines the kind of intelligence operations that hold human life in the balance and are some of the most difficult that any intelligence service can undertake. Tickets are $140; for information, visit smithsonianassociates.org. International Spy Museum Thu., Feb. 7, 6:30 p.m.

‘Dreamscapes’ by Edward Sullivan

During such cataclysmic events in Europe as the Spanish Civil War and World War II, many émigré artists found a welcoming home in Mexico City. Edward J. Sullivan of New York University explores the fascinating reasons why surrealism enjoyed such popularity in Mexico around 1940 and how Mexico City rivaled Paris as a center of surrealist invention. Admission is free but RSVP is recommended and can be made by emailing rsvp@instituteofmexicodc.org. Mexican Cultural Institute Fri., Feb. 8, 8:30 a.m.

2013 Congressional Trade Agenda

Prominent congressional trade leaders share their perspectives at the Washington International Trade Association’s annual off-the-record overview of the Hill’ trade agenda. To register, visit www.wita.org/en/cev/1494. Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

Attaché Norbert Bärlocher, features Leif Randt, author of “Shimmering Mist over Coby County,” and Tim Krohn, author of “Quatemberkinder” and “Vrenelis Gaertli.” Embassy of Austria

FESTIVALS Feb. 5 to 9

14th Annual Washington D.C. International Wine and Food Festival

After 12 years of success with an average of 6,000 attendees each year, recent guest feedback encouraged the Washington D.C. International Wine and Food Festival to extend the festivities over several days and include seminars, tastings, food pairings, dinners, and a signature event each evening. For information, visit www.wineandfooddc.com. Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Feb. 19 to March 17

Nordic Cool 2013

A month-long international festival of theater, dance, music, visual arts, literature, design, cuisine, and film to highlight the diverse cultures of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as well as the territories of Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Áland Islands. Kennedy Center Feb. 21 to May 19

The Washington DC International Design Festival

Artisphere and Apartment Zero present this free three-month-long multidisciplinary celebration of design, anchored by “The Next Wave: Industrial Design in the 21st Century,” a 4,000-square-foot exhibition exploring innovation in product design over the last 13 years. The exhibit of more than 100 objects from around the world will be complemented by a series of public programs. For information, visit www.artisphere.com or www.apartmentzero.com.

Sat., Feb. 9, 7 p.m.

http://beethoven.eventbrite.com.

Please call for ticket information.

La Saint-Valentin at the Embassy of France

Embassy of Austria

Signature Theatre

Tue., Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 7 to March 10

Percussions Clavier de Lyon

La Casa de los Espíritus / The House of the Spirits

This year, enjoy Valentine’s Day with a dramatic twist, as the French Embassy rendez-vous with the seduction and charm of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons)” in an evening inspired by Francois Choderlos de Laclos’s novel and the 1988 film starring Glenn Close and John Malkovitch. Whether you’re single, a couple, or with a group of friends, this popular annual soirée hosted by the FrenchAmerican Cultural Foundation offers an evening of romance, entertainment, and games worthy of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont. VIP tickets start at $90, and after-hours admission (8:30 p.m.) starts at $55. La Maison Française Sat., Feb. 9, 7 p.m.

A Viennese Faschingsball

Enjoy fine dining, exceptional Austrian wines, dancing with DJ Aaron and raffle at the annual ball for the Consular Corps of Washington, D.C. Tickets range from $90 to $250; for information, visit http://acfdc.org.

Dvorak and America

Inspired to Love: Gala to Benefit the Children of Belize

The Embassy of Belize in Washington and Kim Simplis-Barrow, special envoy for women and children and spouse of the Prime Minister of Belize, host a gala to benefit the children of Belize, featuring wine tasting, dinner and live auction. The event is presented in collaboration with the Organization of Women of the Americas under the patronage of Tim Shriver, chairman and CEO of the Special Olympics. Tickets are $250; for information, call (202) 332-9636 ext. 221 or email ebwreception@aol.com. Ritz-Carlton Washington Hotel

MUSIC Fri., Feb. 1, 8 p.m., Sat., Feb. 9, 8 p.m.

This grand orchestra, credited with creating an orchestral tradition unique to China, showcases its impressive artistry and award-winning instrumentalists with music from East to West under the baton of En Shao. Tickets are $30 to $60.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Tue., Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m.

Contemporary Voices: Tim Krohn and Leif Randt

This evening dedicated to emerging authors in contemporary German literature, moderated by Swiss Embassy Cultural

Noche de Pasión 2013 Destination Carnaval!

The Washington Ballet celebrates Latin American music, dance and culture with its annual philanthropic event, held this year at Brazilian Ambassador Mauro Mieira’s residence in the style of Carnival, to support Latino ballet dancers and scholarship students at the Washington Ballet, including the company’s newly established Latino Scholarship Fund. Tickets start at $275; for information, contact Elizabeth Bunting at (202) 362-3606 ext. 122 or ebunting@washingtonballet.org. Brazilian Residence

Sidney Harman Hall

Set in 1895 amid the colonial scramble for Southern Africa, the play follows Jekesai, a young girl who escapes village life and a forced marriage arrangement, ultimately discovering Christianity under the guidance of an African teacher. However, as anticolonial sentiments rise, Jekesai must choose between her new European God and the spirits of her ancestors. Tickets start at $35.

GALAS Sat., Feb. 9, 9 p.m.

Embassy of Austria

The hit Broadway musical — presented by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith — returns to the Shakespeare Theatre, bringing to life the true story of legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, whose soulful Afro-beat rhythms ignited a generation. Tickets are $30 to $100.

Boged (Traitor): An Enemy of the People

Sat., Feb. 2, 8 p.m.

Massumeh Farhad, chief curator of Islamic art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, will discuss the ground-breaking “Roads of Arabia” exhibition and highlight the meaning and function of some of the objects, ranging from mysterious steles and statues to gold funerary masks. Tickets are $25; for information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

The European Academy of Music and Art (EAMA) was founded by Bella Eugenia Oster in Maryland in 1991, performs a concert of Brahms, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and more. For ticket information, visit www.thingstododc.com.

FELA!

Sat., Feb. 16, 7 p.m.

Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Duke Ellington School of the Arts

Roads of Arabia: From Trade Routes to Pilgrimage Trails

Evening of Romantic Piano Music

Through Feb. 3

Wed., Feb. 13, 7 p.m.

Travel writer Reid Bramblett takes you to southern Italy, a sun-kissed land of legends and saints, where medieval churches are grafted onto ancient temples, and where timeless traditions survive amid the olive groves and fishing villages. Tickets are $130; for information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

Through Feb. 10

Thu., Feb. 28, 7 p.m.

Embassy of Austria

S. Dillon Ripley Center

Apulia to Sicily: Exploring Southern Italy

GALA Hispanic Theatre

Feb. 13 to March 10

Through a series of five concerts, PostClassical Ensemble’s “Dvorak and America” festival argues that Czech composer Antonín Dvorak acquired a distinctive and influential “American style” during his time in the United States that was fundamentally different in style from that of the music he had previously composed. The centerpiece is a March 1 concert at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center featuring the “Hiawatha Melodrama” alongside Dvorak’s “String Serenade” and his little-known “American Suite.” For information, visit http://postclassical.com.

Sat., Feb. 9, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

La Maison Française

This haunting and poetic adaptation of Chilean-American author Isabel Allende’s acclaimed novel “The House of the Spirits” spans four generations of political, social and familial upheaval through the power of remembrance, love, magic and fate. Tickets are $36 or $40.

THEATER

Artisphere Feb. 22 to April 19

With a dizzyingly varied repertoire that spans Bach to Ravel to Zappa and back again, Percussions Clavier de Lyon are five passionate and demanding musicians who have succeeded in maintaining an ensemble dedicated solely to percussion keyboard instruments — marimbas, vibraphones, and xylophones. Tickets are $25.

Paco Peña: Flamenco Viva

Named the “Best Flamenco Guitarist” by America’s Guitar for five consecutive years, Paco Peña brings his troupe of brilliant flamenco musicians and dancers to George Mason for a tour through the history of flamenco. Tickets are $23 to $46. George Mason University Center for the Arts (Feb. 1) George Mason University Hylton Performing Arts Center (Feb. 9)

The Convert

Emerging from Israel’s social justice movement of the past year, “Boged (Traitor)” is an up-to-the-minute adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play of environmental whistle blowing; part of the Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival. Tickets start at $35. Washington DCJCC

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Mon., Feb. 4, 6:30 p.m.

Feb. 14 to March 9

Obama in Naples

Neapolitan craziness and fun break out when an Italian journalist returns to Naples to investigate whether conditions will ever improve there, but is mistaken for a member of President Obama’s advance party and ends up getting more involved in saving the city than he bargained for. To register, visit www. iicwashington.esteri.it/IIC_Washington/.

Gunston Arts Center – Theater Two

Feb. 5 to March 3

Through March 17

Shakespeare’s R&J

Hughie

A repressive all-male Catholic boarding school bans “Romeo and Juliet,” but four students unearth a secret copy and steal into the night to recite the prohibited tale of adolescent passion. While it begins as a lark, the story gradually draws the boys into a discovery of universal truth that parallels their own coming-of-age.

Christoph Traxler, one of Austria’s most promising young pianists, has performed with orchestras such as the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and top conductors such as Manfred Honeck and Ralf Weikert. Admission is free but RSVP is required and can be made at

Emmy Award-winning actor Richard Schiff (“The West Wing”) plays the title role in Eugene O’Neill’s powerfully focused play about a man whose illusions of a grand lifestyle waver after the death of the stranger who quietly validated his largerthan-life confidence. Please call for ticket information. Shakespeare Theatre Company

CULTURE GUIDE

George Mason University Center for the Arts

Classical Pianist Christoph Traxler: Ludwig van Beethoven

Teatro de la Luna presents an irreverent romantic comedy that illustrates the beliefs held by each gender, the role each is expected to play within a relationship, and the emotional problems both men and women face in their day-to-day lives. Tickets are $30 or $35.

Embassy of Italy

China National Symphony Orchestra

Tue., Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas (Sex, Shame and Tears)

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DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

57th Presidential Inauguration

DOD photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.

White House photo by Sonya N. Hebert

President Barack Obama takes the oath of office from Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., right, in a public ceremony at the U.S. Capitol before thousands of people in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21.

DOD photo by EJ Hersom

The U.S. Navy Band marches during the 57th Inauguration Day parade, in which 2,100 service members from each of the five branches marched and about 5,000 additional troops supported inauguration festivities.

President Barack Obama dances with Air Force Staff Sgt. Bria Nelson, while first lady Michelle Obama dances with Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Timothy Easterling during the Commander in Chief’s Ball at the Washington Convention Center, which held the two official balls of the 57th Presidential Inauguration.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Fayloga

DOD photo by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sun L. Vega

Vice President Joe Biden dances with Army Staff Sgt. Keesha Dentino while his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, dances with Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Figuero at the Commander in Chief’s Ball.

Audience members wave flags from the National Mall during the 57th Presidential Inauguration. More than 180 Marines marched in the inaugural parade behind the U.S. Marine Corps Band, known as “The President’s Own.”

Photo: thomas coleman Photo: thomas coleman

Photo: gail scott

Ambassador of Botswana Tebelelo Seretse, right, and her guest arrive at the 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural Ball, proceeds of which went to benefit micro-finance company ShuFund Capital, the Meriwether Foundation, the Kit Entrepreneurs Need Opportunities (KENO) Foundation, and AthleTECH.

Marie Royce and her husband U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (who incidentally proposed to his wife at President Reagan’s 1985 inaugural gala), attend the 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural Ball.

Photo: gail scott

From left, Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago Neil Parsan, Ambassador of Panama Mario Jaramillo, and Honorary Consul General of Botswana Robert S. Shumake, CEO of ShuFund Capital, attend the 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural Ball, held at Carnegie Library, adjacent to the Washington Convention Center.

From left, Innocent Matengu of the Embassy of Botswana; Dimakatso Radimapo, political, information and consular first secretary at the Botswana Embassy; and Masego S.D. Nkgomotsang, economic and commercial affairs second secretary at the Botswana Embassy, were among the diplomats who attended the 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural Ball.

Photo: gail scott

Claudia Kuttan and her husband Appu Kuttan, founder and chairman of the National Education Foundation, attend the Ambassadors Inaugural Ball, which also featured performances by DJ Biz Markie, award-winning African singer Lira, Johannesburg-based band Mi Casa, and Cape Verdean DJ Anané Vega.

Photos: thomas coleman

From left, Eric Motley, a vice president of the Aspen Institute, Ambassador Stuart Holliday, president and CEO of the Meridian International Center, and his wife Gwen Moore Holliday, a vice president of DCI Group, attend the Café Milano inaugural celebration.

ABC 7 News anchor Pamela Brown, left, and Laura Gail Smith attend the inaugural celebration at Café Milano, hosted by Gina F. Adams of FedEx Corp., Robert L. Johnson of the RLJ Companies, and Café Milano owner Franco Nuschese.

From left, Marc Cipullo, Mark Ein, founder and owner of the Washington Kastles tennis team, and Septime Webre, artistic director of the Washington Ballet, attend the Café Milano inaugural celebration.

Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago Neil Parsan, left, and Miss USA Nana Meriwether attend the 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural Ball held at the Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square and sponsored by GrupoMex, Signet Jewelers, Botswana Tourism and other companies.

Photos: European Union Delegation to the u.S.

From left, Dr. Bruce Allen, an honorary consul for Liechtenstein, Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche, and Shaista and Ray Mahmood — standing in front of an ice sculpture with the presidential seal — attend an inaugural celebration at Café Milano in Georgetown.

Page 42

Boris Tadić, former president of Serbia (2004-12), center, is surrounded by his advisor Jovan Ratkovic, left, and Ambassador of Serbia Vladimir Petrovic at the Café Milano inaugural celebration.

European Union Ambassador João Vale de Almeida stands by the inauguration platform where President Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term. De Almeida tweeted about the day’s events (@ValedeAlmeidaEU).

From left, Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Louis Wolzfeld, Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde, and Ambassador of the Netherlands Rudolf Simon Bekink pose for a photo taken by European Union Ambassador João Vale de Almeida as part of his tweets about the 57th Presidential Inauguration.

The Washington Diplomat

President and CEO of United Aid for Africa Bintou Jessica Diomande, left, and former Ambassador of Grenada Denis G. Antoine, now with the University of the District of Columbia, attend the VIP reception at the 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural Ball.

Photo: Ambassador of monaco gilles noghes

Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al Mughairy bundles up for the inauguration. Ambassadors are taken to the swearing-in by the State Department, after which they attend a luncheon at Blair House.

February 2013

EU Nobel Peace Prize

Photo: European Union Delegation Photo: European Union Delegation

European Union Ambassador João Vale de Almeida cuts a bûche de noël cake featuring the flags of all 27 EU member states as part of a reception to celebrate the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union.

Ambassador of Peru Harold W. Forsyth, left, and Ambassador of Brazil Mauro Vieira attend the European Union-Nobel Peace Prize reception held at the Belgian Residence.

Ambassador of Austria Hans Peter Manz, left, and Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Robert D. Hormats attend the European Union-Nobel Peace Prize reception held at the Belgian Residence.

From left, Ambassador of Croatia Josip Paro, Ambassador of Jordan Alia Hatoug-Bouran, and Mrs. and European Union Ambassador João Vale de Almeida attend the European Union-Nobel Peace Prize reception.

‘The Candle Burns’

Photo: European Union Delegation to the U.S.

Photos: thomas coleman

Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen welcomes more than two dozen ambassadors and guests to his residence for a Dec. 10 reception celebrating the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to the European Union earlier that day.

Ambassador of the Netherlands Rudolf Simon Bekink, left, and Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Louis Wolzfeld attend the European Union-Nobel Peace Prize reception held at the Belgian Residence.

From left, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Estonian Parliament Marko Mihkelson, Ambassador of Latvia Andris Razans, and Ambassador of Estonia Marina Kaljurand attend the European Union-Nobel Peace Prize reception held at the Belgian Residence.

Nobel Dinner

Ambassador of Cyprus Pavlos Anastasiades, left, and Ambassador of Malta Joseph Cole attend the European Union-Nobel Peace Prize reception along with envoys from their fellow EU member states.

Photos: thomas coleman

Ambassador of Russia Sergey I. Kislyak, left, and Susan Lehrman, chair of the American University’s Initiative for Russian Culture, attend the European Union-Nobel Peace Prize reception.

Ambassador of Finland Ritva KoukkuRonde, left, and Ambassador of Cape Verde Maria de Fatima Lima da Veiga attend the European Union-Nobel Peace Prize reception held at the Belgian Residence.

Photos: Lawrence French

From left, George Petrov, his wife Ambassador of Bulgaria Elena Poptodorova, and Shahin Mafi, CEO of Home Health Connection Inc., attend a book signing at the National Press Club in honor of Mafi’s mother, Azar Vakil Gilani (Mafi), author of a new book of Persian poems, “The Candle Burns.”

U.S. Rep. Randall M. Hultgren (R-Ill.), left, and former U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Thomas L. Siebert attend a dinner in honor of the 2012 American Nobel Laureates.

Photos: embassy of sweden

From left, the Rev. Dr. Cecilie Jørgensen Strømmen, Ambassador of Norway Wegger Christian Strømmen, Eva Hafström, and Ambassador of Sweden Jonas Hafström host a dinner in honor of the 2012 American Nobel Laureates.

From left, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), her husband John Bessler, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, coach Kathy Kemper of the Institute for Education, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attend a dinner in honor of the 2012 American Nobel Laureates.

Day of Arab-Americans

photos: league of arab states

Former President of Bolivia Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and his wife Ximena Sanchez De Lozada attend a reception for “The Candle Burns” hosted by the Mafi family, whose Azar Foundation helps abandoned and underprivileged children.

Downton in D.C.

photo: tony powell for the british embassy

British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott and his wife Susie Nemazee, center, welcome to their residence the cast of the hit British show “Downton Abbey” — from left, Jim Carter, Elizabeth McGovern, Joanne Froggatt, Sophie McShera, Hugh Bonneville, and Rob James-Collier — in a reception co-hosted by PBS and WETA television.

From left, Founding President and CEO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations John Duke Anthony, Ambassador of Lebanon Antoine Chedid, Ambassador of Qatar Mohamed Bin Abdulla Al-Rumaihi, and Ambassador of the League of Arab States Mohammed Al Hussaini Al Sharif attend the “Day of Arab-Americans” event hosted by the Arab League and the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Washington, D.C.

February 2013

Former U.S. Ambassador to Oman Richard Schmierer, now deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, talks at the Day of ArabAmericans at the National Geographic Society, which is hosting “1001 Inventions” on the golden age of Muslim scientific and cultural achievements.

The Washington Diplomat Page 43

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT Tajik Book Event

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

Bangladesh Victory Day

Ambassador of Tajikistan Nuriddin Shamsov, right, presents the book “Tajik Golden Heritage” to Associate Librarian of Congress for Central Asian Affairs Roberta Shaffer. The book was published by Tajik Minister of Foreign Affairs H. Zarifi, a former ambassador to the United States.

From left, Ambassador of Afghanistan Eklil Hakimi, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Kazakh Embassy Dastan Yeleukenov, Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan Muktar Djumaliev, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of South and Central Asia Affairs Geoffrey Pyatt, Ambassador of Tajikistan Nuriddin Shamsov, and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. and Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad attend a reception hosted by the Embassy of Tajikistan at the Library of Congress.

Thomas Dine, senior policy advisor at the Israel Policy Forum and former executive director of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), speaks at the Bangladesh Victory Day celebration.

photos: embassy of bangladesh

From left, Ambassador of Bangladesh and Mrs. Akramul Qader, Thomas Dine, and his wife Joan Dine attend the Bangladesh Victory Day celebration at the embassy.

Albanian Independence

Photos: Kate Oczypok

Etleva Galanxhi and Ambassador of Albania Gilbert Galanxhi welcome guests to the reception celebrating the 100th anniversary of Albanian independence.

From left, Police Attaché at the Albanian Embassy Arben Hanelli, Mirela Hanelli, Senior Director of Memorial Programs at National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund Lynn Lyons-Wynne and Daniel Wynne attend the Albanian 100th Independence Day reception.

From left, Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations of Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies Michael Haltzel, Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina Jadranka Negodić, and MinisterCounselor at the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina Adnan Hadrovic attend the Albanian 100th Independence Day reception.

Assistant Defense and Air Attaché at the Canadian Embassy Col. Scott Howden, left, and Sharon Howden attend the Albanian Independence Day reception at the Marriott Wardman Park.

Ciprian Miron, home affairs attaché and police liaison officer at the Embassy of Romania, left, and Patrick Stevens attend the Albanian 100th Independence Day reception held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

Coca-Cola Clean Water

Inventor Dean Kamen, left, and Coca-Cola Chief Sustainability Officer Beatriz Perez discussed Kamen’s Slingshot water purification system at a reception held at the Turkish Residence.

Ambassador of Turkey Namik Tan, left, and Ambassador of Monaco Gilles Noghès cohosted a discussion on a clean water partnership between Coca-Cola and Dean Kamen, president of DEKA Research and Development Corp. and inventor of the Segway scooter.

Photos: thomas coleman

From left, Kerry Duggan of the U.S. Department of Energy, Jan Cousteau of EarthEcho International, Mariella Trager, and Ellen Noghès, wife of the Monaco ambassador, attend a presentation on the Slingshot water purification system, which condenses any dirty water source and turns it into potable water.

Stephen Gaull, senior director at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, left, and Darius Mans, president and CEO of Africare, attend a discussion on the Slingshot water purification system; Africare is partnering with Coca-Cola to field test Slingshot in South African health clinics in 2013.

Rauf Alp R. Denktas, congressional liaison, spokesman and counselor at the Turkish Embassy, left, and Fugen Tan, wife of the Turkish ambassador, attend a presentation on clean water at the Turkish Residence.

Polish-Hungarian Books

Passing of the Torch

Photo: british embassy

British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott ceremonially passes the London 2012 Olympic Torch to Brazilian Ambassador Mauro Vieira. The 2016 Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro.

Page 44

Ambassador of Germany Peter Ammon, left, and recently appointed Ambassador of Poland Ryszard Schnepf attend a book reception held at the Polish ambassador’s new residence.

Ambassador of Poland Ryszard Schnepf, left, and Ambassador of Hungary György Szapáry introduce Anne Applebaum, author of “Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956,” and Danielle Crittenden, co-author of “From a Polish Country House Kitchen: 90 Recipes for the Ultimate Comfort Food.”

photo: embassy of chile

Photos: Thomas coleman

From left, wife of the Belgian ambassador Agnes Aerts, Ambassador of Sweden Jonas Hafström, and Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen attend a book reception at the Polish Residence.

Chilean Fruit in Delaware Ambassador of Chile Felipe Bulnes, left, and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell welcome the first shipment of Chilean winter fruit to the U.S. for the 2012-13 season at the Port of Wilmington, Del., a major port of entry for Chilean fruit.

The Washington Diplomat

February 2013

AROUNDtheWORLD

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

February 2013

HOLIDAYS ANDoRRA Feb. 11: carnival Monday

BRUNEi Feb. 23: national day

ANGoLA Feb. 4: Beginning of the armed struggle day Feb. 12: carnival

BURUNDi Feb. 5: unity day

GAMBiA Feb. 18: Independence day

CAMERooN Feb. 11: youth day

GRENADA Feb. 7: Independence day

DoMiNiCAN REPUBLiC Feb. 27: Independence day

GUyANA Feb. 23: republic day

BANGLADESh Feb. 21: shaheed dibash day (Martyrs’/Language day) BoLiviA Feb. 9-12: carnival BRAZiL Feb. 9-12: carnival

ESToNiA Feb. 2: anniversary of the tartu Peace treaty Feb. 24: Independence

day

hoNDURAS Feb. 2: Patron Virgin, Virgin of suyapa iRAN Feb. 11: revolution day

iSRAEL Feb. 21: ta’anit esther Feb. 23-24: Purim Feb. 25: shushan Purim JAMAiCA Feb. 13: ash Wednesday JAPAN Feb. 11: national Foundation day (Kenkoku Kinen no hi) KoSovo Feb. 17: Independence day

KUwAiT Feb. 25: national day Feb. 26: Liberation day LEBANoN Feb. 9: st. Maroun’s day LiBERiA Feb. 11: armed Forces day

Kairat umarov became ambassador of Kazakhstan to the united states on Jan. 14. ambassador umarov previously served as deputy foreign minister of Kazakhstan from 2009 to January 2013. Before that, he was Kazakhstan’s ambassador to India (2004-09), with concurrent accreditation to sri Lanka (2008-09), as well as ambassador-atAmbassador large in the Ministry of Foreign affairs and chief inspector of the Foreign Policy Kairat Umarov center for the administration of the president of Kazakhstan (2004). ambassador umarov also served in Washington, d.c., on two prior occasions: as minister counselor at the Kazakh embassy from 1998 to 2003 and as first secretary and counselor from 1994 to 1996. In addition, he’s held various postings in the Ministry of Foreign affairs, including deputy director of the third department (1997-98); head of the unit and deputy director of the european states department (1996-97); and second secretary, first secretary and head of section (1992-94). Prior to that, ambassador umarov was chief editor of the Writers’ union of Kazakhstan (1989-91), a research fellow at the Kazakh university of history, archeology and ethnography (1988-89), and a teacher at the almaty Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages (1987-88). ambassador umarov graduated from the almaty Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages with honors, and he speaks english and French. he is married with one son.

Mexico eduardo Medina Mora became ambassador of Mexico to the united states on Jan. 14. ambassador Medina Mora previously served as Mexico’s ambassador the united Kingdom and northern Ireland from 2009 to January 2013, as well as permanent representative to the International Maritime organization (IMo), the International coffee Ambassador organization (Ico), the International Eduardo sugar organization (Iso), and the Medina Mora International Mobile satellite organization (IMso). In addition, he served as attorney general of Mexico (2006-09), secretary for public security (2005-06), and director general of the centre for Investigation and national security (2000-05). he was also a member of the Public security cabinet and of the national security council (2000-09), and he chaired the national Public security council (2005-06). In his private-sector career, ambassador Medina Mora was deputy director general of desc group from 1991 to

February 2013

LUXEMBoURG Feb. 12: carnival MALTA Feb. 10: Feast of st. Paul’s shipwreck in Malta

LiEChTENSTEiN Feb. 2: candlemass

MEXiCo Feb. 5: commemoration of Mexico’s constitution of 1917

LiThUANiA Feb. 16: Independence

MoZAMBiQUE Feb. 3: heroes’ day

APPOINTMENTS Kazakhstan

NEPAL Feb. 18: democracy day of nepal

day

SERBiA Feb. 15: national day

NEw ZEALAND Feb. 6: Waitangi day

SLovENiA Feb. 8: Preseren day, slovene culture day

PANAMA Feb. 12: carnival

SRi LANKA Feb. 4: national day

RUSSiA Feb. 23: defender of the Fatherland day ST. LUCiA Feb. 22: Independence day

SURiNAME Feb. 25: revolution day TAJiKiSTAN Feb. 23: army day TURKMENiSTAN Feb. 19: Flag day

LETTER TO THE EDITOR 2000. he was also coordinator of the legal advisory group that advised the government of Mexico during negotiations for the north american Free trade agreement (naFta) and its parallel agreements, Legal advisor to the national agricultural council, as well as a member of its national executive committee and national counselor of the Business coordinating council. he is member of the royal Institute of International affairs (chatham house), the International Institute for strategic studies (IIss), the Mexican Bar association and the american Bar association. ambassador Medina Mora, who holds a law degree from the national autonomous university of Mexico, is married with three children.

Thank you for your well-done and supportive article, “From Star Trek to Springsteen, Colleges Go Where No School’s Gone Before” (January 2012 issue). Your point must be more wildly distributed: These pop culture-involved courses are neither inherently better nor inferior to all traditional courses. They must be judged via an evaluation of each course on its own and not automatically dismissed as frivolous. I doubt your piece will convince all on this matter but it does move the flag along. On behalf of my pop culture colleagues as well as myself, thank you for making the case so well. John Massaro State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam

Mongolia altangerel Bulgaa became ambassador of Mongolia to the united states on Jan. 14. ambassador altangerel previously served as Mongolia’s ambassador to the united Kingdom as well as nonresident ambassador to south africa, Ireland and Iceland (2008-13). he was also director general for legal and conAmbassador sular affairs at the Ministry of Foreign affairs (2003-08) and ambassador to Altangerel Bulgaa turkey, with nonresident accreditation to Bulgaria, Lebanon, romania and uzbekistan (1997-2003). In addition, he served several postings in the state great hural (sgh), the Parliament of Mongolia, including foreign policy advisor (1990-91), director of the Foreign relations department (1991-92), and director of the Foreign relations directorate (1992-97), both in the sgh secretariat. ambassador altangerel, who joined the Ministry of Foreign affairs in 1979, was also posted to the Mongolian embassy in afghanistan from 1981 to 1985, and he was a member of the Inter-governmental commission on the inspection of state boundaries between Mongolia and the soviet union from 1985 to 1988. In addition, he was a member of the Board of directors of the trust Fund for Victims of the International criminal court (2007-12); chair of the International Law department at Mongolian national university (1993-97); responsible secretary of the Mongolian Inter-Parliamentary group (1990-97); and a professor at Mongolian national university and at the academy of the russian Federation. ambassador altangerel holds master’s degrees in international law and political sciences from the Moscow Institute of International relations and the Moscow Institute of Political sciences, as well as a Ph.d. in international law from the Kiev national taras shevchenko university in ukraine. he was also a visiting fellow for international law and international public affairs at columbia university. he is married with three daughters.

CLARIfICATION The January 2012 People of World Influence profile “Brzezinski: Obama Must ‘Regain’ Lost Ground in Foreign Policy” stated that former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski “famously urged Obama to shoot down Israeli fighter jets should they attack Iran.” In a 2009 interview with the Daily Beast, Brzezinski advocated denying Israel the right to use Iraqi airspace for a possible attack on Iran and said that if Israel deliberately violated American airspace in the course of such an attack, an incident could arise in which Israeli and American jets might engage in a clash. He added that such an incident “is nothing to be wished for.”

Send Us Your Holidays and Appointments Fax to: the Washington diplomat at: (301) 949-0065 E-mail to: news@washdiplomat.com Mail to: P.o. Box 1345, silver spring, Md 20915-1345

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Georgia former Soviet republics in Washington are closely monitoring what happens in Georgia. “All these countries — Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan — hope everything will go smoothly because they have a huge stake in our success.” But for many average Georgians, success is not so much defined by how closely aligned the country is with Russia or the West, but rather by bread-and-butter issues like jobs and quality of life. Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute, said that as the country’s undergoes its first experience with “cohabitation” — in which the president and prime minister share power — elected leaders face the challenge of responding to those issues that citizens care about most. An NDI public opinion poll conducted last November confirmed that Georgians cite jobs and affordable health care as their top national priorities. “Despite a polarized political environment,” Wollack told The Diplomat by email, “there seems to be growing consensus in Georgia on fundamental issues related to European integration and economic and political reform.” But this most recent bout of political upheaval has already taken its toll on foreign investment. “Before the elections, our economic growth was 8 percent. Now it’s down to 2.5 percent,”Yakobashvili said.“Investors are obviously in expectation mode. It’s not helping the economy.” And although he praises his country for holding free and fair elections, the ambassador criticized Ivanishvili for influencing the outcome with his vast personal wealth. “There were not only attempts to buy the electorate, but promises as well,” he claims.“When the richest man in the country tells you, ‘I will cut your utility bills in half, and if there’s not enough

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Interests, Technology, & Analysis for the "pita-consuming" money in the state budget, regionI will add my own,’ obviously, it plays into the results.” PITAPOLICY According to ForbesBody: magazine, the 56-year-oldfocuses Ivanishvili has a net worth of $6.4 billion — equivalent to nearly half the country’s on international development; GDP of $14 billion. Yet CSIS’s Bugajski says the tycoon better be writing, such as careful the Georgianresearch people don’t&become dependent on his personal piggy bank. formulating policy papers; “Poorer social sectors may welcome his funding, program evaluation; andin view of Ivanishvili’s previous large-scale subsidies to various constituensurvey design. Issueand areas of cies, including his native district of Sachkhere the Georgian Orthodox Church,” focus he wrote in a November 2012 policy for the MENA region brief. “However, such policies do not improve economic efficiency and include: competitiveness, and may increase unrealistic expectations for further state subsidies.” Pledges to root out corruption andDevelopment impunity may also fall victim ~Human to unrealistic expectations. (Indicators, Entrepre-Freedom Ella Asoyan, a Georgia specialist atSocial Washington-based House, says that while the country has certainly advanced in its neurship) ~ electoral practices, its rule of law institutions remain nascent and weak. Institutional & num“Jury trials have only recently beenDevelopment attempted in a select ber of cases, yet the scale scope of (Transparency) retributive justice for which Civiland Society ~ the Ivanishvili government is calling will require that strengthened judicial practices be Economic instituted quite quickly,”Asoyan told us. Of course, Ivanishvili’s pledge to deliver swift justice to tainted members of the former government is (Resource seen as a political witch Development hunt by his critics. “The outcomes of these cases, and dozens of Management) ~ Politicalon the right others, must be reached by adhering to commitments to a fair trial with transparency, fairness and due application of Participation & Civic Georgian law,”Asoyan said. A commitment to the rule of law has been sorely lacking in the nation for years, andEngagement at the end of the (Strategy, day, neither Ivanishvili Orga- nor Saakashvili are exactly shiningElections) beacons of justice. And the political nizing, ~ Monitoring mudslinging and legal battles have only just begun, with both sides

& Evaluation

accusing the other of corruption and abuses. Asoyan warns that Saakashvili’s efforts to dissolve the newly elected Parliament could “throw the country backwards” — though a petition drive to remove Saakashvili from office before his term ends “would likely be seen as gratuitous and a sign that the new government is taking cues from those bent on revenge.” Yakobashvili agrees, saying some Georgians are out collecting signatures, trying to mobilize a constitutional majority in Parliament to impeach the president or amend the constitution. “I think it’s a very bad idea,” he told us. “The president should complete his term, and whoever wins will win.” As for Yakobashvili, the departing ambassador said he already has consulting and other job offers from five European countries and two Asian ones he prefers not to name just yet. His goal: to use his knowledge and experience “to do something bigger than bilateral relations” — either regional or global. “I am not distancing myself from Georgia,” he said. “I just think the best I can do now is not get into internal Georgian politics, but to labor for Georgia on an international level. In my life, I’ve done many things. I worked as a diplomat, and before becoming ambassador I worked 11 years in the Foreign Ministry. I was a minister, created my own think tank, and was an activist and fundraiser. What I enjoy most is to develop an idea and then help implement that idea, so I don’t want to be only a manager.” In the meantime,Yakobashvili says the “Ukrainization” of Georgia must be prevented at all costs. “That’s why the successful transfer of power is vitally important not only for Georgia,” he said.“We may have had a democratic election, but we have to avoid sliding back. We should prove that democracy is a good thing and that it works. If Georgia fails in that task, it will set an extremely negative example for all our neighbors.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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