Diplomatic Connections September-October 2011

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March 13

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SAVE THE DATE Diplomatic Connections is Hosting Another

eception D iplomatA ppreciation R On March 13, 2012 at the Hay Adams Across the Street from the White HOuse in Washington, D.C.

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South Africa, Building Homes, Building Hope 74 Swissotel Hotels and Resorts - Chicago 36 & 92 United Nations, Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Japan and Korea 78 United Nations, Forest Whitaker, UNESCO 68 United Nations, Michael Douglas “UN Messenger of Peace” 30 United Nations Foundation, Monique Coleman 84 US Limo System 77 Washington Hospital Center 7 Wings Jets 13

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dawn Parker AssistantS to the Editor Chanel Cherry Ashley Gatewood VICE-PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Dwight Boswell BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Evan Strianese ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES Kendra Edmonds, Reina Gabbud EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Kyle Byram DESIGN & CREATIVE KDG Advertising, Design & Marketing msocha@kdgadvertising.com DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENTS and CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Roland Flamini, James Winship, PhD, Mark Kennedy, Megan Lawson, Karin Lornsen To contact an advertising executive CALL: 202.536.4810 FAX: 202.370.6882 EMAIL: info@diplomaticconnections.com DIPLOMATIC CONNECTIONS WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT IMS (Inquiry Management Systems) 304 Park Avenue South, 11th Floor New York, NY 10010 TOLL FREE: 877.467.8721 X701 Website: www.ims.com Marc Highbloom, Vice President marc@ims.ca Maria D’Urso, Project Manager Mariad@ims.ca CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Christophe Avril, Gimmemotalk, UN Information Center (UNIC), UN Photo/Ryan Brown, UN Foundation To order photos from the events go to: www.diplomaticconnections.com Send any name or address changes in writing to: Diplomatic Connections 4410 Massachusetts Avenue / #200 Washington, DC 20016 Diplomatic Connections Business Edition is published bi-monthly. Diplomatic Connections does not endorse any of the goods or services offered herein this publication. Copyright 2011 by Diplomatic Connections All rights reserved. Cover photo credits: Center - Actor Michael Douglas at United Nations headquarters in New York, Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images; Duchess Catherine, Prince William and British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Chris Pizzello - Pool/Getty Images;SecGen Ban Ki-moon with Kim Sung-hwan in Seoul, Korea, UN Photo/Evan Schneider; Forest Whitaker, Francois Guillot/ Getty Images; Michael Douglas with family, Lewis Whyld - WPA Pool/Getty Images; Senator Frank Lautenberg and Jessica Alba, Leigh Vogel/WireImage; Monique Coleman, United Nations Foundation;Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Duchess Catherine, Nicole Kidman and Prince William at BAFTA event, Matt Baron-Pool/Getty Images; Prince William and Duchess Catherine rowing dragon boat, Chris Jackson/Getty Images;Donald Driver,Leigh Vogel/ WireImage for NEA; Eva Longoria, Paul Morigi/WireImage.

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By James A. Winship, Ph.D.

Maps.

They are as old as the human imagination and the desire to find the way from one place to another. They are the product of travel, exploration, and discovery. They combine art, imagination, science, craft and are often the substance of legend and fable. Maps help us chronicle the past, illustrate the present, and project the future. They are capable of inspiring the deep-set emotions of nationalism and memory. Their boundary lines have been the cause of international disputes and triggered many wars. Maps have divided peoples and united nations. They present the perennial problem of representing a three-dimenD I P L O M A T I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S edition | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1

Maps

If navigational needs drove the development of increasingly accurate measures of location, it was the military necessity of the battlefield that drove the increasingly sophisticated development of map-making techniques and applied technology to the presentation of detailed local data on a map.

sional world in a two-dimensional space. The tentative solution to that problem, of course, is the globe. But have you ever tried to place one of those in your pocket? And, is a spherical globe really representative of the shape of the earth? Well . . . no, not really. Science learned in the mid18th century that the earth is oblate; it bulges at the equator. Another representational difficulty guaranteed to drive the makers of spherical globes to distraction. Maps bring back memories of those impossible to refold correctly, octopus-like road maps that were free and available everywhere in the full-service gas stations of yesteryear. No glove box was complete without a handful of maps and few households were without at least one shoe box full of the things. Today, those beloved maps have been replaced by computer downloads and the disembodied human voice â&#x20AC;&#x201D; offering the language, accent, and gender of your choice â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of the portable Global Positioning System (GPS), whether handheld or mounted in the dashboard of our cars. The skills of mapmaking have evolved with the technology of travel and navigation. The development of the sextant, which allowed navigators to measure the angle of the sun or a celestial body to the horizon at any given point on earth at any given time, allowed for the determination of latitude. The later introduction of the marine chronometer in the 19th century allowed for the reasonably accurate determination of longitude. Together, these measurements provided the theoretical designation of any position on earth, within the bounds of human and instrument error. If navigational needs drove the development of increasingly accurate measures of location, it was the military 16

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necessity of the battlefield that drove the increasingly sophisticated development of mapmaking techniques and applied technology to the presentation of detailed local data on a map. Intimate knowledge of the geographic detail of a prospective battlefield and its environs could provide a commander with an important, sometimes decisive, military advantage. While technological developments drove the science of mapmaking, their practical application often lagged behind the rough and ready needs of military commanders faced with the practical realities of locating the enemy and moving substantial numbers of troops, unwieldy weaponry, and large amounts of supplies. This potential advantage of detailed knowledge of the battlefield was apparent to both the Union and the Confederate militaries during the American Civil War. Since the great

in charge of the Union Army just one week before facing General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg. While historians continue competing assessments of Gettysburg to this day, it is eminently clear that Meade used the topography of the battlefield to his defensive advantage and dealt Lee’s forces a significant defeat. What the Civil War demonstrated most effectively, however, was that state-of-the-art technology was no substitute for maps incorporating critical military intelligence in a way that would allow commanders to visualize the battlefield and exploit terrain effectively. The Civil War saw the first battlefield use of the plane table — a flat level surface used for map drawing that would allow for more accurate measures of distance and elevation — under wartime

battles of the Civil War largely took place in the South, with the notable exception of the battle of Gettysburg, local knowledge tended to favor the Confederate forces. Interestingly, top students at the United States Military Academy at West Point tended to join either the Army Corps of Engineers, the builders, or the Corps of Topographical Engineers, the mappers. Assignment to the Corps of Topographical Engineers, or “topogs” as they were known, was especially valued because they got to employ some of the very latest scientific equipment. But, topographical engineers were soldiers as well. Captain George G. Meade, for whom Fort Meade in Maryland is named, was a topographical engineer responsible for mapping the Great Lakes. Subsequently, he was promoted to Major General and put

conditions. Unfortunately, use of the plane table exposed the topographic engineers to enemy fire and proved too dangerous to be effective, even when adapted for use on horseback. Instead, what the military commanders needed was “practicable” geographic intelligence. It was vitally important to know where streams could be forded, for example, but it was of even greater importance to know the capabilities of the ford. Troops, for instance, could ford a stream through 4-5 feet of water. Wagons, which carried the critical supplies on which an army lived and fought, could handle a depth of no more than 2.5 feet. And, a ford that might accommodate a small handful of wagons might simply disintegrate under the impact of dozens of wagons and heavy artillery pieces. Woods and forests also presented important tactical advantages and sometimes insurmountable challenges. Control of a Civil War army depended on line of sight,

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The Cold War brought continuing increases in photographic resolution and high altitude aerial photography that allowed reconnaissance and mapping of potential battlefields.

and forests represented obstructions that no general could overcome. “Topogs” could scout forest lands, map locations, chart streams, and assess the density of trees and underbrush, all crucial characteristics for battlefield commanders to know. Typically, a Civil War topographical engineer’s toolkit would include a pocket-sized sketchbook, a soft lead pencil secured by string so as not to be dropped and lost while on horseback, a ruler, a prismatic compass used for determining bearings of specific roads or land features, and a pocket aneroid barometer used to determine elevations. Map drawing implements included a protractor, compasses, a ruler, paper, drawing pens, and India ink. Such tools were basic but effective in the hands of a trained topog. In a technological advance that provided only marginal results, the Civil War Corps of Topographical Engineers experimented with hydrogen-filled balloons for aerial reconnaissance and battlefield mapping. Foreshadowing the direction military aviation would move in the 20th century, the balloons were serviced and launched from converted coal barges equipped 18

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with hydrogen generators, which were termed “aerostat carriers” — precursors of the modern day aircraft carriers that are at the core of the projection of naval airpower. Union officers generally felt that although the balloons increased the distance from which the battlefield could be overlooked, they were so unsteady as to make accurate measurements difficult. After the war, however, Confederate generals indicated that avoiding the observation balloons above the battlefield forced a good deal of roundabout troop movement. The latter part of the 19th century saw the formation of the U.S. Geological Survey established for “classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain.” The goal was initially to map the public lands of the West and their potential mineral wealth with an eye toward settlement and the development of resources. To this day, the U.S. Geological Survey continues to provide among the most detailed and accurate maps of the United States, primarily in digital form rather than in print. This makes it easier to revise and update the maps as more detailed data become available. Keeping these critical maps up-to-date and accurate using the most advanced mapping techniques, however, remains an underfunded and underappreciated task. World War I began the marriage of photography with the military use of the airplane to develop aerial mapping techniques, an emerging science that would become known as “photogrammetry.” Aerial photography, in its early stages was used primarily to provide basic battlefield intelligence such as the location and size of troop and artillery formations as well as the locations of key physical features such as roads, rivers, and forests. World War II, however, benefitted from increasingly sophisticated techniques developed between the two World Wars and refined under the battlefield conditions of World War II. Aircraft-mounted cameras with increasingly high resolution now took strips of overlapping photos that could be projected in such a way as to produce a threedimensional map of the area being photographed. Human analysts could examine these composite photos for detailed intelligence gathering, and mechanical analog plotters could reconstruct the three-dimensional aerial geometry in the form of contour maps. The Cold War brought continuing increases in photographic resolution and high altitude aerial photography that allowed reconnaissance and mapping of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as well as other potential battlefields. Subsequently, the introduction of reconnaissance satellites allowed for even more sophisticated photographic techniques, though

the continued use of film cartridges required the development of mid-air retrieval techniques to snatch film ejected from satellites in mid-air. Despite the Cold War mapping advances, when the United States entered the Vietnam War its forces were overly dependent on outdated French maps from the 1950s Indochina War and the earlier French colonial period. The Army Map Service (AMS) developed pictomaps using photographic images that were sufficient for infantry use and identification of landmarks but were not sufficient to permit accurate artillery control. The post-Vietnam years brought significant advances in aerial photography and photogrammetric techniques that developed mathematical formulas to reconstruct aerial geometry, and the advent of computers made it possible to move beyond the Rube Goldberg contraptions that used photographs to draw analog maps to the use of smaller analytical plotters. That same technology made it possible to develop a more complex system of aerial photography called simultaneous block aerotriangulation that permitted multiple flight lines of photographs to be tied together in ways that allowed the construction of highly-detailed maps. The greatest breakthroughs have come in the 1990s and afterwards with the introduction of digital imaging technology that allows for real-time transmission of image data from airplanes as well as satellites passing over various points on earth. New technologies such as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which uses light impulses in the form of infra-red laser beams, and IFSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar), which uses two phased sets of radio wave impulses to measure elevation and map terrain, have made it possible to 20

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overcome some of the traditional limitations of aerial photography. Both systems can operate in darkness. Airborne LiDAR systems emit hundreds of thousands of laser pulses per second, creating LiDAR “point clouds” of data that map the tops of trees, buildings, as well as the bare-earth terrain beneath the vegetation if laser pulses can pass through or between the trees. LiDAR is now the leading technology for mapping 3-D topographic surfaces. IFSAR has almost non-existent weather restrictions and has strong cloud- and weather-penetrating capabilities. What was initially developed as the U.S. Army’s Terrain Information Extraction System (TIES) has been commercially developed by BAE Systems as “Socet Set®,” digital mapping software that is used for precision photogrammetry and geo-

spatial analysis. The system is able to handle large amounts of data from various image sources and provides a sophisticated point-matching formula that can correlate literally millions of points to tie thousands of images together with their real-world locations. Socet Set® similarly performs lidargrammetry — processing billions of 3-D elevation points from LiDAR data. The resulting processes from photogrammetry and lidargrammetry create high-resolution digital terrain and surface models, image maps called orthophotos, 3-D visualizations, and Geographic Information System (GIS) databases. The military applications of these evolving technologies are many, varied, and often classified. Suffice it to say, however, that enhanced geospatial information and imaging technologies have improved mission planning and mission rehearsal capabilities and have made possible remarkably detailed and sophisticated computer simulations of potential battlefields. Nowhere were these new technologies more visible than in the First Iraq War (1990-91). The Army’s Engineer Topographic Laboratories (ETL) were responsible for developing a “Country Profile Program” that provided commanders with the most detailed and accurate maps of the potential battlefield ever created, including critical infrastructure, rivers, military sites, detailed street plans indicating key facilities, and the locations of key resources. ETL was also responsible for developing the guidance systems employed in Cruise Missile technology, previously untried in combat. Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) used elevation data to guide the cruise missile’s flight path, and digital image correlation provided terminal guidance that allowed the missile to match prepared images of its intended target with what it was seeing

on the ground. ETL also developed a system of virtually realtime mapping of the battlefield that would allow geospatial intelligence to be downloaded and transformed into maps that could be electronically delivered to commanders in the field within a few hours. Remote imaging allowed the detailed mapping of mine fields and the “fire trenches” which Iraqi forces had engineered as defensive, delaying tactics against any American-led coalition assault. Field operational engineers provided on-site sand testing to determine where heavy tanks and artillery could effectively operate, and GPS equipment was used for the first time for initialization of artillery positioning and azimuth determining systems. While the GPS devices that have become so much a part of our traveling lives represent one of the most obvious spin-offs of the development of military mapping technology, the civilian uses of the LiDAR and IFSAR elevation mapping techniques are myriad. The new systems are critical to the development of environmentally-conscious planning, not only by mapping land contours but by measuring such things as rainfall penetration and the thickness of underbrush. A project currently underway in Nepal with the cooperation of the Nepali and Finnish governments uses LiDAR technology to produce three-dimensional maps of the forest that can be used to calculate the amount of carbon stored in large areas of forest. This will allow Nepal to participate in international carbon-trading schemes designed to allow high carbon producing countries to pay poor countries with lots of forest area to refrain from cutting down trees in exchange for carbon credits. The new systems enhance land and resource management

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Dewberry

r. David Maune studies the ups and downs of life. He

of the extended Cold War, and of the First Iraq War . . . and he

is not a psychiatrist, a moral philosopher, or a public

is one of the world’s leading experts on Digital Elevation Mea-

opinion pollster; he is a cartographer — a map maker —

surement. He really did edit the book on it, “Digital Elevation

or, more, specifically, a topographer — an engineer who

Model Technologies and Applications: The DEM User’s Manual”

specializes in measuring elevation. Without Dr. Maune’s

published by the American Society for Photogrammetry and

assistance, this article would not have been possible. It grew

Remote Sensing, now in its second edition.

out of a professional presentation he made to an audience

of engineers exploring “Topographic Mapping: From the Civil

Engineers as a full colonel in 1991 after a career as the Army’s

War to the Present.” Dr. Maune was kind enough to spend

leading specialist in topographic engineering. He served with

hours with me sharing his experiences during his 30-year

the Army Corps of Engineers in Vietnam, Germany, England,

military career and his now 20-year civilian engineering

and the U.S. His career took him on to command of the 652nd

career with Dewberry, a Virginia-based consulting firm.

Engineer Battalion (Topographic), service as Inspector General

of the Defense Mapping Agency — now the National Geospatial

Keep your eyes open as you drive Route 50 through the

David Maune retired from the United States Army Corps of

Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, and you might spot Dr.

Intelligence Agency, service as Director of the Defense Mapping

Maune. His Virginia license plate succinctly summarizes a

School, and finally service as Commander and Director of the

good bit of his professional life story. “MAP-ER” it reads in

U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories (ETL) and the

bold blue letters against a white background. To the left the

U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center (TEC).

plate is graced with an image of the Purple Heart Medal giv-

en to military personnel wounded in combat, and the words

University of Science and Technology, David Maune joined

“Combat Wounded” are emblazoned in red across the bottom

the Army Corps of Engineers immediately after graduation.

edge of the plate. Dr. Maune is a veteran of the Vietnam War,

Ironically, it would be Vietnam that led directly to his graduate

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A mechanical engineering graduate of the Missouri

Dave Maune has been mapping the earth’s topography, worldwide, since 1963.

techniques and make possible precision farming designed to get the most production from a given combination of land, topography, seeds, water, and fertilizer. Navigational safety can be dramatically improved at sea and in the air. Snow packs and snow melt can be mapped to more accurately predict flooding and rises in sea level. Urban and regional planning can make use of these technologies to examine building footprints and their interaction with the landscape, and virtual cities can be created to assess their impact on the patterns of life. Epidemiologists can examine standing water patterns and terrain to predict the spread of insect and water-borne disease. The new imaging techniques can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom not only to project maps but to help students better understand the earth and its ecosystems. They are as old as time and travel. And they are as new as the most innovative technologies available. No longer do we have to unfold or unroll them; they’re as close as the nearest cell phone or handheld computing device. One thing never changes, however. Maps are the projections of the human imagination showing us the details of the landscape, the battlefield, a city, a country . . . a picture of where we are not . . . but where we might be. n

Maps. studies in mapping and topography. There, a Chinese-made hand grenade, with a normal kill radius of 25-feet, landed just in front of him. He managed to get just 8-feet away when the grenade exploded. He survived. Several surgeries and much physical therapy later, the Army suggested that they would send him to graduate school with one assignment: learn everything he could about how to map the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe without the knowledge of their governments. He emerged from The Ohio State University with a Ph.D. in Geodetic Science and Photogrammetry.

Dr. Maune is a transformer. Trained as a topographer, he

spent his military career demonstrating the importance of maps and employing the latest technologies to transform field data into geospatial intelligence. After retiring from the military, he took his skills into the civilian sector where he has been a leader in the field application of digital imaging technologies to provide geospatial information critical for a wide variety of federal and state government agencies. And more than that, he has encouraged the training and development of a whole new generation of “topogs” who meld the historic skills of the map maker with the extraordinary information gathering capabilities of new digital technologies . . . to reach new heights (and depths). n D I P L O M A T I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S edition | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1

By Roland Flamini

Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (3rd L) and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (2nd L) stand beside the statue of late US President Ronald Reagan at the Freedom Square of Budapest, close to the US Embassy building, on June 29, 2011, during the unveiling ceremony of the 180 kilograms and 2.18 meter tall bronze statue showing Reagan to mark the 100th anniversary of the late president. Ronald Reagan never visited Hungary, but his efforts to end communism have endeared him to many Hungarians.

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BUDAPEST: California Democrat Tom Lantos first entered the U.S. Congress in 1981, the same year Republican Ronald Reagan took over

the White House. Politically, that was about all the two politicians had in common. Yet in July both men were honored in Budapest on two successive days in events that brought together a former and current U.S. Secretary of State and

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Prime Minister Orban praised Reagan for his role in enabling Hungary to regain its sovereignty and the subsequent withdrawal of Soviet troops. So the symbolism of the 40th president of the United States starting down the obslisk from a hundred paces was not lost. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) headed the list of members of the U.S. Congress that included — among others — Republican Representatives Lynn Westmoreland (California), Vern Buchanan (Florida), and Ed Whitfield (Kentucky); and Democratic Representatives Karen Bass and Loretta Sanchez (California), and North Carolina´s David Price. Some of the distinguished American visitors also attended Reagan commemorative events in Prague and Krakow, Poland, home for forty years of Pope John Paul II, a kindred spirit to Ronald Reagan in combating communism. And by July 3, everyone had converged on London where another statue to Reagan was unveiled in Grosvenor Square, site of the U.S. Embassy. Hungary´s domed Parliament building on the banks of the Danube River in Budapest was the venue of the second event, the inauguration of the Lantos Institute, named after the California Democrat. Reagan was honored without ever having set foot in Budapest. But Lantos was a son of Hungary. He was born to a Hungarian-Jewish family in Budapest in 1928 and survived

Jerome Delay/AFP/Getty Images

a passel of members of Congress from both sides of the House. In the first event, Condoleezza Rice joined Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to unveil a 7 foot 3 inch bronze statue of Reagan, one of a series of celebrations across Europe to mark the centenary of his birth. The president is captured striding purposefully across Szabadsag (Freedom) Square in the direction of a nearby memorial to Soviet soldiers killed during the ouster of the Nazis from Hungary in the closing phases of World War II. The obelisk topped by a gilt star is an emotional eyesore to most Hungarians, but can´t be moved to a more remote location because of an agreement with Moscow. The Hungarians, like other Eastern Europeans, regard Reagan´s hard line anti-communist policy as pivotal in the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989. At the unveiling,

Karoly Grosz (L), the then-Hungarian General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (HSWP), listens to the then-US President Ronald Reagan’s (C) speech during a White House departure ceremony in Washington on July 27, 1988. Reagan told the reporters and guests that the United States was impressed with Grosz’s openness to new ideas and were encouraged by his recognition that economic reforms cannot succeed unless they are accompanied by political reforms in Hungary. 26

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Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) and former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice (L) attend a ceremony to unveil a statue of former US president Ronald Reagan at the Freedom Square in downtown Budapest on June 29, 2011. The 40th president of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989, Reagan is celebrated in Hungary for helping to hasten the collapse of the Soviet Union and of communism in Eastern Europe. The 2.2-metre (7.2-foot) high bronze statue by Hungarian sculptor Istvan Mate, erected by the Hungarian Ronald Reagan Memorial Committee, marked the 100th anniversary this year of the US president’s birth and has been set close to the US embassy.

the Nazi occupation of Hungary before migrating to the United States. He became the only Holocaust survivor to enter the U.S. Congress, where he served until his death in 2008, at the age of 80. Throughout his life, he maintained close relations with his homeland and became known in the House for his work on human rights. He founded the Human Rights Commission in the U.S. Congress that still bears his name. Appropriately, the Lantos Institute — in the words of Katrina Lantos Swett, the late congressman´s daughter who heads the California-based Lantos Foundation, its joint sponsor with Hungary — ¨represents an important commitment on the part of the Hungarian government to advance human rights, protect minority rights, promote tolerance and strengthen trans-Atlantic relations.” A portrait of Lantos holding his pet dog is hung in the gilt-encrusted, Gothic Revival parliament chamber. For the Hungarian government, the celebrations had a wide significance. Together, the two events were projected as an expression of Hungary´s involvement in the Atlantic Alliance. “The reason we are gathered together is to further strengthen the alliance between the United States of America and Hungary [...] and to celebrate a new rampart of this alliance,” declared Prime Minister Orban. Making a rare appearance together were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice. They sat on the velvet-covered seats normally occupied by the government, with Prime Minister Orban between them. Both women paid tribute to the late congressman’s

commitment to human rights. Hillary Clinton called him “the physical and moral embodiment of the values that we share and the commitment to freedom that means so much to the American and Hungarian people.” But the secretary used the occasion to make a wideranging speech about human rights, voicing her concern about those countries “trumpeting national economic growth over freedom and human rights” — a thinly veiled reference to China — and specifically referring to the poor human

rights record of Belarus and the regime of Moammar Gaddafi in Libya. Clinton also encouraged countries that had experience in making the transition from repressive regimes to more liberal governments in helping Arab countries in taking their first step towards democracy. At a reception for the American guests in the parliament’s long gallery, an orchestra of strings and that uniquely Hungarian instrument, the zither, played musical selections. Including — inevitably — the Harry Lime theme from the 1950s movie “The Third Man” which introduced the zither to a global public. n

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Michael Douglas, “Messenger of Peace” for the United Nations

Battles the Cancer of Nuclear Weapons A

ctor Michael Douglas stunned the movie-going public late last year when he announced that he would undergo radiation treatments and chemotherapy for throat cancer, a battle that he has now apparently won. His willingness to battle cancer to a standstill, however, should have come as no surprise. Douglas has been battling another global scourge — the continuing presence and proliferation of nuclear weapons — for the last 13 years, ever since he was named a United Nations “Messenger for Peace” by then Secretary General Kofi Annan. Douglas is deeply committed to the cause of global disarmament and has spoken out repeatedly on the importance of nuclear nonproliferation, limiting the global trade in small arms and light weapons, and the plight of child soldiers forced into various conflicts around the world. Michael Douglas is a two-time Academy 30

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Actor Michael Douglas attends the inauguration of a new art installation of civil society petitions calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons at the United Nations headquarters in New York, March 24, 2011. The art installation, in support of Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims, will be part of the UN General Assembly permanent exhibition, displaying two plexiglass columns encasing over one million petitions calling for a total abolition of nuclear weapons.

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Michael Douglas (second from right), UN Messenger of Peace, speaks during the inauguration ceremony of a new installation of civil society petitions calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Also present is Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

A one-million signature petition from cities around the world demanding the abolition of nuclear weapons went on exhibition at United Nations Headquarters in New York in a ceremony attended by Japanese survivors of the first and only use of the devastating bombs. Organized by Mayors for Peace, which was founded in 1982 by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities laid waste by atomic bombs in 1945, and now includes 4,540 cities in 150 countries, the exhibition underscores the goal of transcending national borders to fight for nuclear disarmament in what Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called a â&#x20AC;&#x153;landmark occasionâ&#x20AC;? that helps to build international momentum. 32

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Douglas is deeply committed to the cause of global importance of nuclear nonproliferation, limiting the the plight of child soldiers forced into various

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art, literature, music, and sports who accept the mission of Award-winner receiving a “Best Picture” Oscar for his producfocusing worldwide attention on the work of the United Nation of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and later the tions. Secretary General Kofi Annan (1997-2006) spelled out Oscar for “Best Actor” for his role as the ruthless banker Gordon his vision for the program in remarks before two conferences Gekko, known for his now famous aphorism “Greed is good,” in on “Celebrity Advocacy for the United Nations.” Celebrities, “Wall Street” (1987). But it was his involvement in the produche believed could advance the work of the United Nations in tion of the 1979 film “The China Syndrome” that drew Douglas two ways: first, by encouraging reluctant governments to take into the nuclear debate. As he told a British audience in 2000, more seriously the rhetori“I was first confronted with cal pledges they so readily nuclear issues when I was made in UN-sponsored involved in the making international conferences; of the film “The China and second, by using their Syndrome.” Three weeks global star status to perafter the movie opened, the suade public opinion that Three Mile Island nuclear the UN’s goals of idealism disaster occurred. I was and optimism could make deeply concerned when a real difference in internuclear physicists told me national diplomacy, where that 135 out of 160 fail-safe the cynicism of political steps had failed, almost realism and worst case exactly as had happened in scenarios often reigned. the film. That started me While attending a United on this cause.” The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Section of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) delivers 40,000 liters of Nations Disarmament Douglas went on to water to Tora village, approximately 50 km north of El Fasher, North Darfur. The water is Conference in New York in explain to that same Britused to make bricks for the construction of a village school which will house 30 former child soldiers. 2010, Michael Douglas was ish audience that, “It is asked point blank about what impact even an award-winning increasingly likely that you and I will wake up one morning actor and producer could have on an issue so big and seemto find that a sub-state group with a grievance is threateningly intractable as global disarmament. He offered a modest ing a major Western city with a ‘suitcase’ nuclear bomb. It is but pointed rationale. “As somebody who’s in the movies, considered by specialists to be only a matter of time before people know you around the world. And, there’s a number this happens. We have no defense whatsoever against it. of world leaders who spend their time watching movies, so The only significant way we can reduce this risk is to put

disarmament and has spoken out repeatedly on the global trade in small arms and light weapons, and conflicts around the world..................... materials to make nuclear weapons under lock and key. That is possible, but the nuclear weapons nations have to do it.” That statement was made 11 years ago, and in that time Michael Douglas has repeatedly spoken out at the United Nations and around the world for turning the “dream” of nuclear disarmament into a practical, functioning reality. The United Nations Messengers for Peace program brings together distinguished individuals from the fields of

you sometimes have easier access to them than being a government official. So I try to take advantage of that to speak about my enthusiasm on the issue of disarmament.” And speak out he does. In 2009, at a United Nations Conference dealing with the proposed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which has been signed by 182 states and ratified by 154 but still lacks the critical nuclear state (Annex 2) ratifications necessary to bring the treaty into force, Douglas made a

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“The vast majority of people the world over intuitively earth and fear the consequences of the use of these we Please put the test ban high on our agendas. It is a pointed and impassioned case for support of the treaty. “The vast majority of people the world over intuitively abhor the exploding of nuclear weapons in our precious earth and fear the consequences of the use of these weapons by accident or by mad design upon our cities. Now that leaders have made clear their understanding of the risks and stated forcefully the value of eliminating them we must rally together to make their aspirations a reality. Please put the test ban high on our agendas. It is a necessary step to the future we all know is best.” More recently, Michael Douglas spoke at the opening of a special exhibition “Cities Are Not Targets” (CANT) which will become part of the permanent disarmament display in the United Nations General Assembly Hall. Included as part of the exhibition is a petition, assembled by Mayors for Peace, with over one million signatures from people all over the world. “Mayors for Peace” was founded in 1982 by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, the only two cities to have known the direct impact of atomic bombs dropped in warfare at the end of World War II. The organization now counts more than 4,540 cities in 150 countries as active members dedicated to the total abolition of nuclear weapons. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon observed that this was the first exhibit in the permanent disarmament display “which emphasizes the importance of our partnership with a global non-governmental organization.” Drawing a parallel between the current post-earthquake nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power generating station and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedy 66 years ago, Douglas noted that despite “a lifetime of scars for those who survived the blasts, the Japanese people have a history 34

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of rebuilding their country from both natural and man-made disasters.” “The people who signed these petitions,” he continued, “are sending a clear and unambiguous message that cities do not accept being held hostage by nuclear weapons.” Though the United Nations has represented a major commitment for Michael Douglas, his interests and involvements do not end there. He is a member of the Board of Directors of “Ploughshares Fund,” which “works to build a safe, secure, nuclear weapons-free world by developing and investing in initiatives to reduce and ultimately eliminate the world’s nuclear stockpiles and to promote stability in regions of conflict.” In addition, Douglas is an active supporter of The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and a board member of Humanistic Robotics, which grew out of the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining and develops technologies for landmine clearance and the defeat of pressure-sensitive improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He is the recipient of numerous humanitarian awards, including the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award for outstanding excellence in the field of culture for using his art to reach out to other cultures. Michael Douglas is married to the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is not only at his side for his UN Ambassadorial duties but extends his work with a focus of her own on international children’s issues, supporting the work of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Worldwide Orphans Fund, and Cinema for Peace. Douglas is following in the footsteps of his father, award-winning actor Kirk Douglas, who himself has twice served as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. n

Opposite Page: Michael Douglas (left), UN Messenger of Peace, and Joseph Deiss, President of the 65th session of the General Assembly, are pictured during the inauguration ceremony of a new installation of civil society petitions calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

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Left: United Nations Headquarters, Mr. Kirk Douglas, the well-known motion picture actor, talks with Miss Otillie Hayes, then-UN Secretariat member, at the Information Desk in the Main Lobby of the Secretariat Building on January 11, 1952.

abhor the exploding of nuclear weapons in our precious apons by accident or by mad design upon our cities. . . necessary step to the future we all know is best.â&#x20AC;?

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) meets with Michael Douglas, UN Messenger of Peace, at UN Headquarters in New York.

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Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones (R) arrives with her husband, actor Michael Douglas and their children Dylan and Carys Douglas, to attend a Royal Investiture at Buckingham Palace on February 24, 2011, in London, England. The 41-year-old Swansea-born actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who became an Oscar-winning Hollywood star, was presented with a CBE by Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, in honor of services to the film industry and to charity.

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Actress and activist Eva Longoria speaks on Capitol Hill during the Farm Worker Help Bill press conference at the House Triangle on June 16, 2011, in Washington, DC.

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Helping Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard to Spotlight Plight of Latino Children Picking the Nation’s Produce

The

fictional Wisteria Lane of “Desperate Housewives” may have brought Eva Longoria fame and recognition, but it is in Washington, DC, where she has found her voice. Best known for her character Gabrielle Solis, the beautiful scheming housewife whose life adventures add spice to the comedy/soap opera’s convoluted story lines, Longoria has become a frequent visitor on Capitol Hill and an outspoken advocate for the rights of Latina woman and children. Longoria is Tejano, an American of Spanish and Mexican descent whose family has resided in Texas since before the formation of the United States. Her ancestors migrated to what

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Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, (D-CA), right, and actress Eva Longoria hold a news conference at the House Triangle to introduce the Farm Worker Help Bill on Thursday, June 16, 2011.

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“There are a lot of privileges that I have and so many people fought before me so that I could have them. So I want to continue their fight to make a better life for those who want it and earn it and need it.”

was then New Spain in 1603 and moved North toward what would become the modern U.S.-Mexico border. Though her ancestors had received a sizeable land grant from the King of Spain in the eighteenth century, Longoria grew up with her parents on a hard-scrabble “ranch” in the land between the Nueces and the Rio Grande rivers. She frequently describes herself as “Texican” or “Tex-Mex,” and she has never strayed far from her Hispanic roots despite her theatrical success. Building on her personal success, Longoria has poured time and energy into a variety of humanitarian causes, many of them dedicated to protecting the rights and health of children. “My philanthropic drive definitely comes from my mother. My Latino pride — my Mexican-American pride — comes from my father,” she adds, “who always taught me to never forget where you came from, and I never do. There are a lot of privileges that I have and so many people fought before me so that I could have them. So I want to continue their fight to make a better life for those who want it and earn it and need it.”

In 2006, she founded “Eva’s Heroes,” which helps developmentally-disabled children and is dedicated to her sister Lisa, who is herself developmentally disabled. Longoria also serves as the national spokesperson for PADRES Contra El Cancér — Parents Against Cancer — a non-profit organization committed to helping Latino children and their families as they cope with the expensive and sometimes debilitating range of cancer treatments their children must undergo. As the only such Latino program in the country, PADRES focuses on the needs of the entire family by providing educational, financial, and language services. Early this summer, Eva Longoria joined Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) on Capitol Hill to announce the reintroduction of “The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment” (CARE, HR 2234), which would require limited working hours and increased protections for children working in agricultural fields in the United States. “Agriculture,” Congresswoman Roybal-Allard noted, “is the only industry

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“Agriculture,” Congresswoman Roybal-Allard noted, “is the only industry governed by labor laws that allow children as young as 12 to work with virtually no restrictions on the number of hours they spend in the fields outside of the school day.”

governed by labor laws that allow children as young as 12 to work with virtually no restrictions on the number of hours they spend in the fields outside of the school day.” There are an estimated 400,000 children who work as migrant farm laborers, traveling across thousands of miles with their families to pick crops in southern Texas, northern Michigan, and northern Florida all the while dealing with scorching heat, pesticide residues, the emotional burden of helping their families through tough economic times, separation from friends and familiar places, and the constant disruption of their school lives as they follow the crops from place to place. Actress Eva Longoria became Executive Producer Eva Longoria, working with director U. Roberto Romano and “Shine Global” to create a documentary film “The Harvest/ La Cosecha” that examines the hardship-filled lives of child migrant laborers. Shine Global is a non-profit film production company dedicated to “ending the abuse of children worldwide [by making] theatrically cinematic films that raise awareness, promote action and inspire political change. Beyond providing an emotional film experience, however, [our goal is] to empower children to tell their stories in a manner that reveals hope within horror.” The film, which was screened on Capitol Hill, the same 42

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day the announcement of the proposed CARE Act legislation was made, profiles three child workers — Zulema Lopez (12), Perla Sanchez (14), and Victor Huapilla (16) — as they work through the 2009 harvest. Zulema’s earliest memories are of her mother teaching her how to pick and clean strawberries. After attending eight schools in eight years, she’s worried she may not even make it into, much less through, high school. Asked about her dreams, Zulema simply says she doesn’t have time for them. Perla sees one advantage to traveling with her family to pick crops across the United States. Migrating on the harvest provides some insulation from the temptations of drugs and gangs that are inherent in being a teenage Latina with limited resources. She has a dream of becoming a lawyer so that she can help other migrant families struggling to make ends meet. Victor lives in Florida and is on the path to full citizenship. He struggles to balance his time between harvesting and going to school, but he is glad that his younger sisters have been spared the ordeal of picking up to 1,5oo pounds of tomatoes a day. Still, the expenses of bringing his two older sisters to the United States legally have virtually bankrupted the family, making it impossible for them to migrate for work. What emerges is a vicious cycle of back-breaking work

in the fields and migrations with school sandwiched in the moments of available time and dwindling energy. Congresswoman Roybal-Allard summarized the dilemma of these child field workers. “Tragically, unable to keep up with the competing demands of long work hours in the fields and school, a recent report found that child farmworkers drop out of school at four times the national dropout rate — slamming the door shut on the very pathway that could one day help them escape a lifetime of unrelenting work harvesting our crops. I simply do not believe that our child labor laws reflect how we as Americans value our children.” “The difference Eva Longoria has made to this bill is huge,” Roybal-Allard said. “Before Eva, we would hold press conferences for this bill, but they were nothing like this.” She goes on to credit Longoria with helping to increase the number of co-sponsors who have signed on to the legislation since it was first introduced in 2007. “There are so many issues vying for our time in D.C. that migrant child labor can often get lost,” the Congresswoman noted, “so you need to have someone like Eva – someone of her stature – to really elevate the energy and excitement.” In Eva Longoria’s words, “With this documentary, we took the issue of farm workers in America and humanized it by giving it a face, and a need, and you really feel invested in

these people.” Perhaps that is Longoria’s greatest gift . . . feeling invested in people. Her investment is documented by her current enrollment in a master’s program in Chicano Studies and Political Science at Cal State University – Northridge. She explains this academic side of her life by noting, “I really wanted a better, more authentic understanding of what my community has gone through so that I can help create change.” Among her many endeavors is a cookbook, “Eva’s Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends,” which she describes as “a memoir of my life told through food.” It is based on her family experience of weddings over the years where each bride received a cookbook filled with favorite recipes from various family members. And, it’s dedicated to her Aunt Elsa who taught everyone in the family how to cook and all the while stretching the boundaries of recipes. “I’m a cook not a chef,” Longoria observes and quickly adds that she cooks to taste and to please family and friends . . . that makes writing formal recipes hard. “I treasure cooking and I value it. I love that it is always centered around family.” What’s true for cooking is equally true of Longoria’s political and social involvement. It seems always to be centered around family. Aunt Elsa would be proud. n

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“...we took the issue of farm workers in America and humanized it by giving it a face, and a need, and you really feel invested in these people.”

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Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, arrive on Parliament Hill in Ottawa during Canada Day celebrations on the second day of their nine-day tour of Canada on July 1, 2011.

By Meghan Lawson n the streets of London this summer, the romance had all but vanished. Gone were the carriages, cameras, and cast of celebrities that characterized the spring wedding between Catherine Middleton and Prince William. In their wake returned honking cabs, swarming tourists, and disgruntled media barons. An ocean away, however, a second act to the love story was taking shape. This time, it was not simply between a prince and his bride, but between two newlyweds and a nation. On June 30th, William and his new wife Catherine, as she prefers to be called, arrived in Canada for their first official overseas tour together, prompting Canadian Governor General David Johnston to dub the country the “honeymoon capital of the Commonwealth.” Instead of the predictable tour of etiquette and pomp, however, William and Catherine’s visit was more akin to a crash course in Canadian culture. “We’ve been looking forward to this moment for a very D I P L O M A T I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S edition | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1

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Duchess Catherine looks on as Prince William plays street hockey during an event at the Somba K’e Civic Plaza in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, on their nine-day tour in Canada.

long time, and before we were married, we had a longing to come here together,” William told a crowd during the couple’s first stop in Ottawa, the capital city. The 12-day North American juggernaut saw the novice Duke and Duchess of Cambridge race each other in dragon boats off Prince Edward Island, try their hand at cooking soufflé in Montreal, raise hockey sticks in the Northwest Territories, and even don ten-gallon cowboy hats at the world’s largest rodeo festival in Calgary. After nine days and 2,300 miles of travel across Canada — not only by plane but also by naval ship and canoe — William and Catherine journeyed south to Los Angeles, where they attended a fundraiser for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, of which William is president. Throughout the tour, humanitarianism set the agenda. On the tarmac at Calgary Airport, the couple took time to 46

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meet Diamond Marshall, a sixyear-old cancer patient. The newlyweds’ stint in LA included a tour of the Inner-City Arts campus in skid row, where young students grapple with poverty and homelessness. But perhaps most heartwarming was William and Catherine’s decision to cut their private time short in order to make an unscheduled visit to the small community of Slave Lake, Alberta, where relief workers and displaced families were still dealing with the aftermath of a devastating fire. Far from typical, the young couple’s “honeymoon” permitted few private moments together, save for an evening at historic Skoki Lodge in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. But both royals proved tireless in taking on their marathon-like itinerary, not to mention in engaging with eager crowds who often greeted them with chants of “Will and Kate, Will and Kate.” In fact, Canada is no stranger to royal visits. Since the

Below: Prince William and Duchess Catherine row dragon boats across Dalvay Lake on July 4, 2011, in Charlottetown, Canada. The 12 day visit to North America took in some more remote areas such as Prince Edward Island, Yellowknife, and Calgary. The Royal couple started off their tour by joining millions of Canadians in taking part in Canada Day celebrations which mark Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 144th birthday.

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Left: Prince William and Duchess Catherine board a Seaplane bound for Blachford Lake at the Old Town Float Base on July 5, 2011, in Yellowknife, Canada.

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Duchess Catherine and Prince William arrive at Calgary Airport on July 7, 2011, in Calgary, Canada. The newlymarried Royal Couple were on the eighth day of their first joint overseas tour.

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Duchess Catherine and Prince William speak with six-year-old terminal cancer sufferer Diamond as she arrives at Calgary Airport on July 7, 2011, in Calgary, Canada.

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18th century, members of the royal family have journeyed across the Atlantic, not only for more traditional tours, but also for private getaways, military service, and even to attend school. The earliest royal visit took place in 1786, when Prince Albert Edward, the future King William IV, began making frequent trips to Canada’s east coast while serving in the Royal Navy. In 1939, the Queen Mother declared, “Canada made us,” at the end of her first tour of the country with her husband, King George VI. Queen Elizabeth, however, tops even her most peripatetic forbearers, having traveled to the northern seat of the Commonwealth a total of 23 times — making Canada the most-visited country on the Queen’s list. Choosing Canada as the first official destination for the newly minted royal couple was no doubt a calculated

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decision on the part of Buckingham Palace. Although republican rumblings remain — most notably in the French-speaking province of Quebec — the monarchist voice in Canada appears to still be strong, even amongst youth. And who better to promote this Commonwealth support than the charismatic Duke and Duchess? Youthful, glamorous, and approachable — relatively speaking — William and Catherine are proving to be the royal family’s most powerful PR weapon. Tom Richards, head of the youth Prince William and Duchess Catherine are greeted by British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, (C) and his wife Lady Julia Sheinwald, California Governor Jerry Brown, and his wife Anne Gust as they arrive at Los Angeles wing of the Monarchist League of International Airport on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. The newly married Royal Couple were on a Canada, pointed to the popular newthree-day visit to Southern California. lyweds as a key factor in the increase of the organization’s membership. Youth are now the league’s fastestgrowing demographic, with membership sky-rocketing from a few hundred to approximately 2,250 in the past two years. “This is monarchy 2.0. This is the new generation. The institution is being reinvented for a new generation,” echoed Matthew Rowe, a league spokesman, in Ottawa. As late as 2009, however, the monarchy’s popularity in the Great White North was on thin ice. That year, William’s father, Prince Charles, received a more subdued welcome from sparse Canadian crowds, while protesters clashed with riot police during the Prince’s stop in Montreal. Lady Julia Sheinwald (curtseying), wife of British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, greets Prince William and A national poll conducted at the Duchess Catherine as they arrive at Los Angeles International Airport on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. Also pictured are (L-R) Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, California Governor Jerry Brown, and his wife time revealed that two-thirds of CaAnne Gust, who is holding a red, white and blue bouquet of flowers for the Duchess of Cambridge. nadians would prefer an elected head of state that was native to their side of the pond. A year later, the Palace is gaining ground. Around 300,000 turned up for another poll conducted during a visit by Queen Elizabeth the Canada Day celebrations, which typically draw 50,000. showed more favorable results, with less than half of Canadi South of the border, California also found itself in the ans deeming the monarchy to be an outdated institution. grips of “Wills and Kate mania.” In a town accustomed to the If the crowds that thronged Parliament Hill for William cult of celebrity, the Duke and Duchess were in a league all and Catherine’s visit on July 1 are any indication, support for their own as they touched down in Los Angeles on July 8th.

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Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, are greeted by Consul-General Dame Barbara Hay at a private reception held at the British Consul-Generalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residence on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. The 12 day visit to North America was coming to a conclusion with a three-day visit to Southern California.

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Above: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, attend a private reception at the British Consul-Generalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residence on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. Opposite Page: Duchess Catherine and Prince William look on during remarks by British ambassador to the United States Sir Nigel Sheinwald. This photo was taken during a private reception at the British Consul-Generalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residence on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.

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Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, arrive at the 2011 BAFTA â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Brits To Watchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Event at the Belasco Theatre on July 9, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.

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Above: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, in conversation with Rita Wilson and Jennifer Garner while attending the BAFTA ‘Brits to Watch’ event held at the Belasco Theatre on July 9, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.

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Left: Prince William and Duchess Catherine speak with Jennifer Lopez at the 2011 BAFTA ‘Brits To Watch’ Event at the Belasco Theatre on July 9, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.

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Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Nicole Kidman, and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, attend the BAFTA ‘Brits to Watch’ event held at the Belasco Theatre on July 9, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.

After a walk down the red carpet, the couple joined Hollywood’s own royalty — including Nicole Kidman, Tom Hanks and Jennifer Lopez — for a black tie-affair benefiting BAFTA, an independent charity that supports British talent in the film, television, and video gaming industries. Earlier that day, William put his long hours on the polo field to good use in Santa Barbara, where he played — and fittingly won — a match as part of another fundraising event. This time, the couple used the star-studded event to support the American Friends of the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry, which focuses its efforts on the environment, armed forces, and disadvantaged youth. In the United States as in Canada, the Duke and Duchess greeted crowds with poise and a well-practiced intimacy. Add in the pair’s sartorial sensibility, not to mention Catherine’s megawatt smile, and these young royals have a gloss few can

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ever hope to attain. But it was not simply William and Catherine’s star power that drew crowds on every leg of a tour that spanned three time zones. Instead, Canadians and Americans alike seemed bewitched by the royal couple’s relaxed manner, their bighearted agenda, and their genuine affection for one another. While attending the Calgary Stampede on their final night in Canada, William told a crowd that both he and Catherine understood what his great-grandmother had meant when she declared, “Canada made us,” in 1939. “Canada has far surpassed all that we were promised. Our promise to Canada is that we shall return,” William said to raucous cheers. As this love story expands to include not only a Duke and Duchess, but now an entire nation, William and Catherine will no doubt be welcomed back with open arms. n

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Above: Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, shown seated (upper right) watch a performance during a tour of the Inner City Arts campus in Los Angeles on July 10, 2011. Prince William and his wife Catherine were on a royal visit to California from July 8 to July 10.

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Below: Steven M. Missimer (L), USO Vice President of Programs, with Britain’s Prince William (C) and his wife Catherine (R), the Duchess of Cambridge. They put together USO boxes during the Mission Serve ‘Hiring Our Heroes’ job fair at Sony Studios in Culver City, California, USA, on July 10, 2011.

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Events that dazzle. But no one shines brighter than you.

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Jessica Alba join the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families

the United States Capitol.

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Leigh Vogel/WireImage

Coalition to discuss the Safe Chemicals Act at

By Meghan Lawson

o say Jessica Alba’s life is hectic would be an understatement. The Hollywood actress famous for her roles in such blockbuster films as “Fantastic Four” and “Sin City” is also a busy mother expecting her second child in September. This year, Alba added another feather to her cap by speaking out as an activist for environmental issues in Washington, D.C. In May, Alba joined Senators Lautenberg and Udall on Capitol Hill in support of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition, an organization that is pressing Congress for stronger federal toxins legislation. “As you may have heard, I’ll be having my second child soon. It would be wonderful if Congress could pass this legislation in time

for his or her arrival,” a visibly pregnant Alba told members of Congress on May 24th. “Don’t send flowers. No fruit baskets. Instead, let’s all give the gift of health to each other with the Safe Chemicals Act,” she said at the event sponsored by Senator Frank Lautenberg. In April, the New Jersey Senator proposed Bill S.487, the “Safe Chemicals Act,” to reform the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, the only law regulating chemicals in the United States. From baby bottles to wallpaper, Lautenberg and the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition point to links between various diseases — such as asthma and diabetes in children — and some of the thousands of chemicals present in day-to-day products.

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Actress Jessica Alba (L) joins Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition to speak with Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) in his office about pushing passage of the Safe Chemicals Act in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.

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Right: Green Bay Packers football player widereceiver Donald Driver attends NEAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Read Across America Kickoff with actress and activist Jessica Alba at The Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

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Leigh Vogel/WireImage for NEA

Above: Actress Jessica Alba attends a kickoff event with her daughter Honor (L), alongside Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver (R), for the National Education Association (NEA) Read Across America Day, at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Alba joined First Lady Michelle Obama and film, television, and sports personalities in the event marking Dr. Seussâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 107th birthday and the start of the 14th annual reading campaign.

Now more than 11 million members strong, the coalition advocates for greater oversight from the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as more clout for the TSCA, which remains the country’s only federal environmental legislation yet to receive a congressional update. As a soon-to-be mother of two, Alba’s efforts in this environmental campaign hit close to home. By taking her star power from the screen to the Hill, the actress’ appearance in Washington renewed momentum in the bill, particularly as political debate heats up over reforming the TSCA. Opponents to the bill argue that research on the dangers of chemicals such as phthalates — substances commonly found in everything from vinyl flooring to cosmetics — is tenuous. “We need a steady drumbeat of American moms telling Congress to fight for the safety of your family,” the film star countered in a letter released concurrently with her two-day lobbying effort in the capital.

Hazardous chemicals, however, were not the only cause on Alba’s plate this year. In March, the actress and her young daughter, Honor, joined First Lady Michelle Obama in kicking off the 14th annual Read Across America Day at the Library of Congress. The event also marked the 107th birthday of children’s author Dr. Seuss, with Alba and others reading from the celebrated writer’s oeuvre in front of nearly 300 elementary students. Although this sort of political engagement might seem unusual for a famed starlet, Alba is no stranger to activism. The actress has travelled to countries including Ghana and Senegal as the United States co-chair of the 1GOAL campaign, which advocates for universal basic education for children. Habitat for Humanity, RADD and SOS Children

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Jessica Alba poses with children at a news conference last year to discuss the 1Goal campaign at the Rayburn House

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Office Building in Washington, DC.

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Villages also number amongst Albaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s many charitable works, while in 2008 she raised eyebrows with a controversial advertising campaign aimed at encouraging youth voter turnout. On the surface, Alba might appear to be following the strict formula of Hollywoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s glamorous set. After all, she is a frequent cover girl for beauty magazines, a veteran of Hollywood action films, and a spokesperson for cosmetic lines. Outside her day job, however, the 30-yearold actress paints a second portrait of an engaged citizen harnessing her lofty position as a platform for the underrepresented. With a second child on the way, Albaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future humanitarian engagement remains to be seen. For now, she stands as a refreshing exception to the glitterati of tinseltown. n

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t’s a long way from South Central Los Angeles, where award-winning actor, producer, and director Forest Whitaker grew up, and the violence-torn African country of Uganda, but that is the road he has traveled. It’s a long way from being a kid in South Central Los Angeles to having his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, to being named as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation, but that too is a path Forest Whitaker has walked. UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization — named Whitaker a Goodwill Ambassador early this 68

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James A. Winship, Ph.D.

Actor Forest Whitaker delivers a speech on June 21, 2011, at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, after being named Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation for the United Nationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; educational, scientific, and cultural body.

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Actor Forest Whitaker (L) and UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova present the document officializing Whitaker’s nomination as Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation for the United Nations’ educational, scientific, and cultural body on June 21, 2011, at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France.

summer at a ceremony held at its headquarters building in Paris. Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General and the first woman to hold that position, indicated that the ambassadorial designation comes in recognition of Whitaker’s humanitarian and artistic commitments. “You have a true gift,” she told Whitaker, “this is the gift of empathy, the gift of understanding, and the gift of reaching out to others. This compassion has guided your actions as a citizen of the world — beyond the silver screen.” These traits, she continued, are most visible in his film projects such as “Better Angels,” a film about 70

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Ugandan child soldiers, and “Common Destiny,” a documentary about the common goals of achieving peace and mutual understanding, and the power of education in promoting peace and reconciliation between and within communities. At the Paris induction ceremony Ambassador David Killion, Permanent Delegate of the United States of America to UNESCO, described Whitaker’s most unique gift. “He sees the humanity in everyone, without exception. He reminds us of the true meaning of compassion. True compassion knows no prejudices, geographical boundaries, color, age, or

Peace and Dialogue Among Cultures held at United Nations headquarters in New York, Whitaker explained that his commitment to the issues of ending community violence and the abuse of childhood caused by dragging children into committing acts of violence was born of his own childhood in South Central Los Angeles where he watched the rise of gang violence all around him. He observed that there were commonalities between instances of youth violence wherever they occurred. “Their stories are related,” he said talking about his film “Better Angels.” “This story happened in Uganda, but you’d hear the same stories all over the world in different incarnations.” Whitaker hopes that his initial missions as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador will continue to involve him with young people and working to help them learn basic peace

UN Photo/Evan Schneider

gender. It is about connecting with people as they are, where they are. And it is through true compassion and human connections that we can build peace.” Ambassador Killion noted that, “This is why Forest is such a perfect choice as a Goodwill Ambassador. He has exemplified compassion in every area of his life, with humility and grace. He does this because it’s the right thing to do, not because it makes headlines or promotes his next film.” Whitaker, who has a long filmography and an extended list of television credits in his 30-year acting career, is best known for his Academy Award winning performance as Best Actor in the 2006 film “The Last King of Scotland.” In that film he played the role of Ugandan dictator General Idi Amin (1971-1979). Immersing himself in preparations for the role, Whitaker reviewed news and documentary footage of Amin in office, learned the Swahili language, mastered Amin’s East African accent, and spent time meeting with Ugandans who had known Amin closely as well as with victims of Amin’s repression. The actor’s involvement with Uganda did not end with the completion of “The Last King of Scotland,” however. He actively took up the cause of “child soldiers,” openly speaking against the outrage of children being forced to take up arms with rebel groups and being trained to fight adult conflicts in Uganda, elsewhere in Africa, and across the world. One of the actors Whitaker worked with in Uganda, Okello Sam, had started an orphanage as a refuge for child soldiers who broke away from their captors. Whitaker quickly became involved in the work of Hope North Uganda, a boarding school and vocational training center for escaped child soldiers, orphans, and other young victims of Uganda’s extended civil conflict. As part of his UNESCO induction ceremony, Whitaker screened his new documentary, “A Place of Peace,” which tells the story of Hope North Uganda. The center, the film makes clear, is more than simply a refuge; it is a place of self-discovery. Many of the young people there have been traumatized by the conflict that has surrounded them all of their lives and the violence that has broken their ties to family and community. In many ways, the center is becoming a new village, offering a place of connectedness and preparing displaced young people to re-enter society and to rebuild their lives. Still, as Whitaker is quick to point out, for many of these young people who have been forced to commit acts of violence and killing, “the most important thing is forgiveness . . . forgiveness of self as well as forgiveness from the outside.” At a recent UNESCO meeting of the High Panel of

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon poses for a photo with a group of children at the Joint Clinical Research Centre in Kamapala, Uganda.

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Left to right: Actor Michael Douglas, Oprah Winfrey, actor Forest Whitaker, and actress Emma Thompson speak in the audience during the 38th AFI Life Achievement Award honoring Mike Nichols held at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Forest Whitaker is premiering his newest documentary on the Oprah Winfrey Network entitled, “Serving Life.” It is narrated and executive produced by Whitaker.

and reconciliation techniques that will be of immediate use in their lives and communities. In the words of Director General Bokova, “This organization was created in 1945 to build the defenses of peace in the minds of men and women. Let us work to show that peace can be built through compassion and understanding, through dialogue, respect, and reconciliation.” Even as he was accepting his ambassadorial appointment from UNESCO, Whitaker was taking yet another compassionate step by premiering a new documentary on OWN — the Oprah Winfrey Network. Entitled “Serving Life,” the documentary — narrated and executive produced by Whitaker and directed by Lisa R. Cohen — focuses on the hospice program at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, a maximum security prison where 85 percent of the inmates will never know liberty again. It seems an unlikely place to discover compassion, but in this hospice program, inmates care for those among them who are terminally ill. Ironically, here inmates rediscover life in caring for others and are led 72

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to acknowledge a personal responsibility for their criminal actions and their disconnected lives. Here is another episode in Whitaker’s acting career of revealing surprising truths: care and compassion can flourish and humanity can be discovered in the most unexpected places. As she concluded her presentation UNESCO DirectorGeneral Bokova recalled to Whitaker words that he had spoken when he won the Academy Award. He began acting, Whitaker recalled, because of a desire to “connect with everyone — to that thing inside each of us, that light that I believe exists in all of us. Acting,” Whitaker said on that occasion, “is about believing in that connection, and it’s a connection so strong, it’s a connection so deep, that we feel it. And through our continued belief, we can create a new reality.” Bokova concluded her remarks by turning Whitaker’s own words to new purpose. The mission with which she charged him was “by dreaming and connecting [to] ‘create a new reality.’” It’s a daunting mission, but one that Forest Whitaker is clearly well prepared to undertake. n

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C on g r e s s m a n Pay ne a nd C on g r e s s w o m a n M c C ol l u m join Irish A mbassador Collins in fundraiser

Building Homes, Building Hope in South Africa

n July, the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative held its first Washington, DC, fundraiser at The Dubliner on Capitol Hill with the theme â&#x20AC;&#x153;Building Homes, Building Hope.â&#x20AC;? Since the non-profit was established by the Irish philanthropist Niall Mellon in 2002, over 10,000 volunteers have been recruited from Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other nations to build homes for families in South Africa previously living in dilapidated shacks without water or electricity. The organization is currently working in 23 townships. It is estimated that over two million homes must be constructed to meet the decent housing needs of the people of South Africa.

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The event was attended by the Ambassador of Ireland, Michael Collins, who spoke of his pride in the spirit of volunteerism which has prompted so many people from his country to join in the effort to bring hope and dignity to families living in the townships of South Africa, even during a time of financial hardship in Ireland. He also expressed his appreciation to the American volunteers who have joined in partnership with the Irish in recent years. Representative Donald Payne, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has personally visited the townships and participated in a handover ceremony to present a family with the key to their new home, spoke about the

Congressman Donald Payne, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, praised the work of the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative. Looking on (from left to right) are Congresswoman Betty McCollum of Minnesota, Dotti Mavromatis of the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative, and Keith Carney, National Director of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

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Ambassador of Ireland Michael Collins (far right) was joined by (from left to right) Alexandria Attorney Bob Nealon; Legislative Assistant to Representative Jim Moran - Tom Garofalo and National Director of the Ancient Order of Hibernians - Keith Carney.

UN Photo/Tim McKulka

many additional benefits of decent housing, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Giving families a home with clean running water and electricity dramatically changes their lives for the better. Children are healthier, safer, and able to perform better in school. The program also provides job training opportunities and stresses environmental sustainability.â&#x20AC;? Representative Betty McCollum, a member of the powerful House Budget and Appropriations Committees and a strong supporter of the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative, also attended, along with Mr. Norman Houston, Director of the Northern Ireland Bureau in Washington, DC. n

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Over 15,000 homes have been built in 23 townships in South Africa through the work of the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative. The non-profit is the largest charity provider of quality social housing in South Africa. Headquartered in Ireland, the organization has offices in South Africa and Washington, DC.

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Following his re-election to a second five-year term as SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon chose to make an extended nine-day visit to Japan and the Republic of Korea. His visit coincided with the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) meets with Kim Sung-hwan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, on August 12, 2011, in Seoul.

sixty-sixth anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and with the twentieth anniversary of the admission of the Republic of Korea and the Democratic Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Republic of Korea to the United Nations. He also used his visit as an opportunity to introduce some of the themes that he hopes to emphasize during his second term as Secretary-General.

One goal of his visit

was to renew working acquaintances with political and diplomatic leaders in Japan and D I P L O M A T I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S edition | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1

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A statue representing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stands in the small farming village where he was born in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea. Mr. Ban visited the area, making stops at his old high school and the home he grew up in.

UN Photos/Evan Schneider

Korea, but Ban also met with business and community leaders as well as villagers and students. He concluded his journey with a visit to his ancestral home. One look at the schedule makes it clear that the Secretary-General is more than the CEO of the extensive United Nations bureaucracy. The role calls for its holder to be a mediator of consummate skill, an unusually articulate communicator, and an ambassador for the broader global concerns of justice, human rights, economic development, and international security, especially as these are more definitively expressed in the UN’s Millennium Development Goals targeted for 2015. Each of these themes was visible in the Secretary-General’s demanding schedule. Though last year he attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, this year Secretary-General Ban chose to visit with displaced persons in eastern Japan who suffered the effects of the “triple disasters” — earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident — that struck the region this spring. After meeting with evacuees in Fukushima, Japan, Ban told reporters that he “was able to read in their faces that they were really asking the [Japanese] government and the United Nations that this kind of accident which happened in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant should never happen again in other parts of the world.” He also welcomed assurances from Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan that, “The Japanese government will share its invaluable experience and lessons learned from this tragedy with the international community, particularly in the area of disaster risk reduction and preparedness and also strengthening nuclear safety standards.” Before departing Japan, Secretary-General Ban met with Japan’s Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and expressed his thanks to the Japanese government for its support of United Nations field missions and for enhancing the capacity of UN peacekeepers, particularly the assistance provided by Japan to the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). At the same time, Mr. Ban also reiterated his request that Japan consider contributing engineers to the UN’s newest peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMIS). Arriving in South Korea, where he would meet with President Lee Myung-bak and other government leaders, Mr. Ban addressed the United Nations Academic Impact Forum meeting in Seoul and was hosted by the Korean Council for University Education and Handong Global University. The Forum is an outgrowth of the Secretary-General’s Academic Impact Initiative designed to build stronger ties between the United Nations and institutions of higher learning around the globe and to leverage the resources of the higher education community to assist UN programming around the world.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon waves to students of Chungju High School, his old school, after speaking with students, in North Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea on August 14, 2011.

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“The initiative,” noted Mr. Ban “has grown very encouragingly. What started with a few schools and the simple wish to harness academia’s great power for the common good, has become a global enterprise. More than 670 schools in 104 countries are now taking part — 47 from the Republic of Korea alone.” Ban reminded his academic audience that the United Nations was founded as an organization where states and their diplomatic representatives would meet to resolve disputes before they became major conflicts, to protect human rights, and to promote improved standards of living for the world’s people. “Today,” however, “a new view has taken hold: Governments cannot do it alone, nor should they want to. As the challenges we face grow more complex and interconnected, the United Nations has opened its doors to a wide range of new, exciting, and sometimes unexpected partners: businesses and non-governmental organizations; philanthropies and parliamentarians; young people empowered by technology and the latest social mobilization tools. The academic community is among those key new partners injecting dynamism into our work and making such partnerships the wave of the future.” Addressing the Third Global Model United Nations Conference meeting in Inchon the next day, Secretary-General Ban told the assembled student ambassadors from around the world, “Your experience in this conference will give you a full taste of the complexity of international relations, the intricacies of negotiations among diverse peoples and perspectives, the challenges of achieving consensus and the patience required to win progress. Yes, technology offers solutions,” he told the students, “but I prefer to put my faith in people, young people in particular. That is why the United Nations needs your engagement on the challenges that will shape the world

you will leave to your children. After all, you will soon be the government officials who will negotiate peace, the community leaders who will help feed and shelter the vulnerable, the entrepreneurs and innovators who will get carbon emissions under control, the lawyers and human rights defenders who will fight injustice, impunity, and intolerance.” He concluded, “That is why I am telling you the future of our world depends on your active engagement today.” Ban also told the students that if there was one theme that summed up his first term as Secretary-General and would shape his second term, it is “new multilateralism.” “No single country or group of countries, no matter how powerful they may be, can take on the major issues of the day alone. In an era when challenges spill over borders and have global reach, our future depends on how well we work together.” Speaking to the assembled diplomatic community in Seoul the following day, Secretary Ban began to outline the agenda that would accompany this theme. The most immediate crisis on his mind is in the Horn of Africa, but that is a microcosm of the larger problems of sustainable development that is at the top of his list of priorities. Global and regional security and democratization challenges, including the transitions underway in Egypt and Tunisia and diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the conflict in Libya are also critical priorities. Budgetary and institutional reforms of the United Nations’ operations are also central concerns. Mr. Ban also took this opportunity to address the unique situation on the Korean peninsula. Food shortages caused by a harsh winter and severe flooding in North Korea have caused the World Food Programme to launch emergency assistance operations. While the major challenge of improv-

Left: Children await the arrival of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the small village where he was born, in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea, as part of a welcome ceremony held by county officials on August 14, 2011.

Opposite page, bottom: SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon (seated left), accompanied by his wife, Yoo Soon-taek, lays out offerings at his father’s tomb in Eumseong County, where Mr. Ban was born, in North Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea on August 14, 2011. 82

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UN Photos/Evan Schneider

Opposite page, top: SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon is embraced by his mother at the welcome ceremony.

UN Photos/Evan Schneider UN Photos/Evan Schneider

ing inter-Korean relations “is the responsibility of the parties themselves,” the United Nations will do its part to help in meeting the challenge of creating a nuclear-weapon-free, democratic, and prosperous Korean Peninsula. Ban strongly supported South Korea’s growing international presence and praised Lee Myung-bak’s Global Korea initiatives. “This country made an inspiring transformation from poverty to prosperity, and from repressive governance to robust democracy,” the Secretary-General recalled. “My strong feeling is that this gives Korea a special obligation to help poorer nations have the same opportunities and a better future.” Before leaving South Korea to return to New York, Secretary-General Ban, his wife, Madam Yoo Soon-taek, and other members of his family visited his childhood home in rural Eumseong county, where he was greeted by local leaders and his 92-year-old mother, Shin Hyun Soon. While there, Mr. Ban visited a reconstructed version of his childhood home, a two-bedroom thatched roof structure heated by a wood-burning central oven that would warm the entire house, where he grew up in a family of eight. He began his day by visiting his father’s burial site to pay respect to the deceased and visiting a family shrine to honor his ancestors. Later in the day, he also visited Chungju High School, where he graduated and met his wife. There he recalled how the principal had encouraged him to enter a Red Crosssponsored essay contest, which he won and which provided him with the opportunity to visit the United States. In Washington, DC, as an 18-year-old he had the opportunity to meet President John F. Kennedy in 1962. It was “the most inspiring moment of his life.” Mr. Ban has often recalled how he grew up a child of war in Korea. That experience coupled with the Kennedy meeting as a young man prompted Ban to ponder his own future, “I thought about how Korea was such a poor and underdeveloped country, [and] I considered what I could do to make Korea a better place. And I decided to become a diplomat.” That decision would take him on a path that would lead to becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in South Korea and would lead from there to his current position as Secretary-General. Standing in his hometown, speaking to villagers, political leaders, and students, Mr. Ban urged them to think of themselves not just as residents of Eumseong county, but as citizens of the world. “Global is local and local is global,” he reminded them. “You may live here in Eumseong county, but you have access to the world.” Those who listened to his words were hometown folks, but the audience for his message was the global community. n D I P L O M A T I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S edition | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1

Monique Coleman, designated United Nations Youth Champion for the International Year of Youth. Opposite Page: Coleman visiting the ‘Un Techo Para Mi Pais’ project in Chile — A youth run organization that addresses the issue of poverty by building solutions, one house at a time.

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By Karin Lornsen

he United Nations has long recognized the importance of harnessing the passion and creativity of young people to drive change in the world. And the organization put a special focus on this issue during their just-concluded International Year of Youth, which ran from August 12, 2010, through August 11, 2011. As part of this year-long focus, the UN created a new designation — that of Youth Champion. In November 2010, they appointed American actress Monique Coleman, best known for playing Taylor McKessie in the “High School Musical” movies, as the first ever to fill this role. In accepting the title, Coleman pledged to raise awareness about the challenges young people face and to highlight the positive contribution they make to their communities. The actress also promised to use her position to promote global efforts to achieve the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which have a 2015 deadline, with a special emphasis on the empowerment of youth. Coleman said she recognized the importance of the UN in advancing human rights, global security, and sustainable development, and she was excited to have the opportunity to see the UN’s impact with her own eyes. “My motivation for

becoming involved with the UN and the International Year of Youth is simply because I want to make a difference,” Coleman said at the time. “The UN stands for everything I believe in, and I’m deeply honored and grateful to work on their behalf.” After her appointment in November, Coleman held listening sessions with youth around the world to hear firsthand how global, regional, and national issues affect them today. Her six-month world tour kicked off in February in Sydney, Australia, and then took her around the globe with stops in Thailand, The Philippines, China, Japan, Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Chile, and more. Using social media channels and her online talk show “Gimme Mo’” as a platform, Coleman connected youth worldwide and urged bridge building across cultures, religions, and generations. Recently, at a special luncheon hosted by the United Nations Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Coleman shared insights from her travels. “Un Techo Para Mi Pais in South America was one of the most impressive projects I visited on my tour,” she said. “It’s a youth-run organization that addresses the issue of poverty in Latin America by building solutions one house at a time.” The goal of this UN-supported initiative is to lift young people

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out of extreme poverty through the construction of transitional American girls to help raise funds and awareness houses and the implementation of social inclusion programs. to provide girls in developing countries with basic “The site I visited almost brought me to tears,” Coleman said. needs such as school supplies, clean water, and “Here, I got to see that what these young people are doing is health services. working. The project builds so much more than houses. They As for Coleman, she says the UN Youth build people.” Questions for Monique Coleman from Football Un Techo Para Mi Pais is a terrific example of United players in Sydney, Australia. youth helping youth, and is one of many projects promoted by the UN to help young people ages 15 to 24 to make a difference in the world. Similarly, the United Nations Foundation recognizes the value of youth volunteerism in international causes and has provided various platforms for this demographic to get involved. For instance, the Global Classrooms educational program and Model UN events allow high school students to step into the shoes of UN Ambassadors and debate a range of issues on the UN agenda. (These programs are both run by the Foundation’s United Nations Association of the United States of America.) Also, the UN Foundation’s Girl Up campaign allows

Coleman with children living in the SOS Children’s Village in South Africa.

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Above: Coleman visits the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, which serves over 70,000 refugees who fled wars in neighboring countries. Left: Monique Coleman, United Nations Youth Champion for the International Year of Youth, during a press conference at UN Headquarters.

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Monique Coleman visits the Gandhi Memorial International School in Jakarta, Indonesia, as a guest of the United Nations Information Centre.

July, 2011, back in the United States, Coleman talks about her travels to 25 countries for the United Nations at an event in Washington, DC, hosted by the UN Foundation. She is surrounded by fellow panelists, Youth Action Net Director Ashok Regmi, USAID Senior Advisor Nicole Goldin, and UN Foundation’s Aaron Sherinian.

Champion position taught her some important lessons. “I don’t take my career less seriously, but I take myself less seriously,” she said. “I realized that if I don’t get a role, or if it doesn’t move me or interest me, that there are plenty of planes I can jump on, plenty of young people that could use some inspiration or empowerment.” And what does Coleman think teens and tweens in the U.S. and around the world can do to make a difference? “Young people can first make themselves aware of the problems in their area and then come up with sustainable solutions to solve them,” she said. “Volunteerism is a great start. It connects you with people who are already making a difference and gives you skills that can later be applied to your own projects.” n

To learn more about the UN’s work with the world’s youth,

visit: www.diplomaticconnections.com and click on: http://social.un.org/index/Youth.aspx

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