June 2012 by The Washington Diplomat

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Egypt Votes, But Democracy Far From Certain Although it only took protesters 18 days to oust Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the fate of the country he led for more than 30 years is still very much up in the air, but a long-awaited presidential election may finally steer Egypt toward democracy — or further uncertainty. PAGE 8

■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

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ExtrEmE MALL makEovEr

June 2012

LUXURY LIVING

by Veronika Oleksyn

White Flint Redevelopment Aims To Bring European Style to Suburbia

The Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. Madrid’s Plaza de Santa Ana. The Piazza Navona in Rome.

Not really what comes to mind when you think of American shopping centers. But if all goes according to plan, Maryland’s White Flint Mall, an aging concrete complex off congested Rockville Pike, could soon resemble these European landmarks. At least a little.

Continued on next page

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South ASIA

INDIA RISING Sometime between 2025 and 2030, India will surpass China as the

UNITED STATES

Chinese Dissident’s Plight Opens Up Can Of Diplomatic Worms The case of blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng resurrected a question that has bedeviled foreign missions as long as they’ve existed in hostile or war-stricken countries: How far can American embassies go in protecting dissidents from their own governments? PAGE 12

world’s most populous nation. Ambassador Nirupama Rao, New Delhi’s veteran diplomat, is confident that the world’s largest democracy has what it takes to lift this massive sea of humanity from destitute poverty to relative prosperity in the years ahead. PAGE 13

culture

Miró: Catalonia’s Passionate Soul Spanish artist Joan Miró put a mirror up to the world around him, while reflecting on the place where he found peace. PAGE 28

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

DEVELOPMENT

Institute Manages Minutiae of Conflict

World Bank Gets New President

After 19 years, Richard H. Solomon is leaving the U.S. Institute of Peace, having built a nimble agency that practices what it preaches by undertaking the spadework of stabilizing conflict-ridden societies. PAGE 6

As Robert Zoellick hands the reins of the World Bank over to Jim Yong Kim, for the first time ever, a development expert is slated to lead the world’s largest development agency. PAGE 10

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June 2012

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(MECHANICAL SCALE = 100%) KEYLINES DO NOT PRINT The Washington Diplomat

June 2012

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

June 2012

12 Political asylum

[ news ] 6

Embassy Golf Tournament

POliTiCS

dEVElOPmENT Though change comes slowly at the World Bank, for the first time ever, a development expert is slated to lead the world’s largest development agency.

COVER: Photo taken at the Indian Residence by Abby Greenawalt.

[ luxury living ]

[ culture ]

ThEaTER The Wild West of gunslingers, shootouts and swarthy cowboys provides a fitting backdrop for the Bard’s quintessential battle of the sexes.

EVENTS After eight years, The Washington Diplomat’s Embassy Golf Tournament is still on par as one of the liveliest diplomatic events around town.

diNiNG Nightclubs are usually more flash than substance when it comes to the food, but Fujimar hopes to bring a little taste to Washington’s nightlife scene.

mall REdEVElOPmENT

Two new exhibits on Joan Miró illustrate the Spanish artist’s response to the world around him, both in his travels and amid the turmoil of the 20th century.

COVER PROFilE: iNdia “The old India is behind us. You’re looking at a country in the 21st century,” proclaims New Delhi’s veteran envoy, Nirupama Rao, who is upfront about India’s impressive achievements and the incredible challenges ahead.

Prostate cancer screening has been shown to be of little benefit for men of all ages, though, although neither patients nor doctors seem to be getting the message.

aRT

ThEaTER A children’s schoolyard brawl erupts into a savage battle among urbane parents in “God of Carnage,” a fiercely funny one-act play by Yasmina Reza now at Signature Theatre.

mEdiCal

Developers have ambitious plans to transform Maryland’s White Flint Mall into an outdoor town center, replacing concrete parking lots with European-inspired piazzas.

diPlOmaCY When blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng sought sanctuary in a U.S. embassy, he raised the thorny issue of whether America’s foreign missions can act as safe houses for the persecuted.

GlObal VaNTaGE POiNT There may be no appetite for new international commitments at a time of pressing domestic challenges, but there are still many politically feasible ways for the U.S. to help ensure sustainable energy for everyone on the planet.

Nearly a year and a half after Egyptians mobilized on the streets of Cairo, the revolution they began is still very much a work in progress.

White Flint Mall redevelopment

PEOPlE OF WORld iNFluENCE After two protracted conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a war-weary America is ready for peace. And that’s precisely where the U.S. Institute of Peace can help.

Film REViEWS Ambitious French artist Maïwenn successfully takes on three more jobs as the actress-writer-director of the popular French crime drama “Polisse.”

CiNEma liSTiNG

EVENTS liSTiNG

diPlOmaTiC SPOTliGhT

WORld hOlidaYS / aPPOiNTmENTS

ClaSSiFiEdS

REal ESTaTE ClaSSiFiEdS

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

June 2012

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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Richard H. Solomon

USIP Keeping the Peace, One Conflict at a Time by Michael Coleman

ver the past decade, war has dominated the American foreign policy agenda. The protracted conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. Debate about the wars’ worth will persist for decades.

As U.S. soldiers finally return home from Iraq and prepare to leave Afghanistan, a war-weary America hopes for peace. That’s where the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) — a congressionally mandated agency that works closely with the U.S. Departments of Defense and State — can help. The independent, nonpartisan agency’s longtime president, Richard H. Solomon, will step down in September after 19 years at the helm. But during an interview with The Diplomat at the institute’s soaring, sun-drenched new headquarters on the National Mall, Solomon said today’s organization is well equipped not only to promote peace abroad, but to help America’s soldiers improve their peacekeeping skills, as well. Today, USIP’s officers are working with Defense and State Department personnel in Iran,Afghanistan, Egypt and other global hotspots, while also helping local leaders learn the nitty-gritty fundamentals of conflict prevention, management and resolution. And USIP’s specialty is the nitty-gritty, often-underappreciated spadework of stabilizing conflict-ridden societies. On the ground, the institute mediates local tribal disputes over land and family issues and conducts training on topics ranging from how to use the radio to educate rural Afghans on the rule of law to securitysector reform in Tunisia. Back in Washington, unlike the broad discussions emanating from many think tanks, USIP delves into the minutiae of conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction, reporting on the effectiveness of female peacekeepers in Liberia, for instance, or the inability of young men in South Sudan to meet rising dowry demands, which forces them to join militias or cattle raids to earn enough money to get married. The institute has been examining the question of whether to negotiate with the Taliban and extremists years before the issue emerged on the national radar. “The character of diplomacy has changed,” Solomon told us.“We fill a space that deals with the kinds of conflicts and actors in international affairs that were not part of 20th-century diplomacy.” Solomon has served as USIP’s president

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since 1993 and has overseen its growth into a center of international conflict management, analysis, training and applied programs. Prior to assuming leadership of USIP, he was assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and U.S. ambassador to the Philippines. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Solomon negotiated the Cambodia peace treaty, the first United Nations “Permanent Five” peacemaking agreement; and had a leading role in the nuclear policy discussions among the United States and South and North Korea. In 1995, the State Department awarded Solomon its Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service. During his nearly two decades at USIP, Solomon has pushed to expand and evolve the peace agency’s mission. The institute came into existence in 1984, conceived by Congress and authorized by President Reagan to research issues of non-violent conflict resolution and to supplement the functions of the U.S. military academies. Photo: U.S. Institute of Peace

“

The biggest supporters of our mission are people who would otherwise go out and fight and die…. Our work has very clearly saved lives and money by keeping people out of a fight.

”

— Richard H. Solomon, president of the U.S. Institute of Peace “The idea was that it would be a kind of complement to the military academies — that we train war fighters at Annapolis and West Point but we should train peacemakers, too,” Solomon recalled. “But this was during the Cold War and it really wasn’t clear what an institution with that kind of a charter would be doing.” For its first half-decade, the institute focused on international conflict analysis, sharing its findings with the Department of Defense, as well as other governments interested in peace. USIP began, essentially, as a Washington think tank. After the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, the organization began to practice what it preached. “When the Cold War ended, the character of international conflict began to change dramatically,” Solomon said.

A series of regional but savage humanitarian crises in Haiti, Rwanda, Somalia and later the Balkans challenged America’s perception of conflict and exposed shortcomings in the lumbering, formal protocols of the Departments of Defense and State. “They’d been structured to deal with the Cold War environment,” Solomon said. “We were small and had a very flexible charter that enabled us to start doing some of the things the big agencies weren’t structured or experienced to deal with.” He explained that the institute isn’t constrained by the protocols of the State Department, nor met with the fear, anger or skepticism that often confronts U.S. soldiers overseas. “We’re floating between the big bureau-

cracies,” Solomon said.“We’re a creation of the Congress, particularly the Senate, and that gives us a kind of semi-independence where we can take up a position that the formal bureaucracies don’t easily do.” The USIP currently has offices in Baghdad, Kabul and Islamabad and officers working in Asia, Africa, Haiti, Latin America, the Korean Peninsula, Israel, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere. Institute officers can frequently be found in villages, working face to face with local leaders. A major thrust of the agency in recent years has been improving social conditions for women in oppressed countries and encouraging a dramatic uptick in the use of women as key members of peacekeeping forces from America and its allies. “In the case of Egypt, they see our people out talking in the rural areas to local villagers or talking to activists in the city in a more sort of open way than the formal diplomatic process would support,” Solomon said. “Precisely because we’re small and agile and sort of below the radar screen, we’re able to be active and on the ground in a way that the formal government agencies would find it harder to operate.” Much of the State Department’s work

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June 2012

ple out of a fight.” In fact, when the House voted to cut the institute’s budget last year, Anthony C. Zinni, former commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, came to USIP’s defense in a nationally published op-ed titled “Peace-Building That Pays Off.” “The Institute of Peace is like the Marine Corps or special forces for foreign affairs and peace-building.When others are fleeing conflict around the world, you’ll usually find institute staff members going in,” wrote Zinni, a retired Marine Corps general. “In Afghanistan, the institute conducts mediations on issues from refugees to property and water disputes. In the last year, these operations have resolved 18 tribal disputes throughout the country, mostly involving the abuse of women, and included 30 training programs for government officials, lawyers, mullahs, tribal councils and community leaders. The network is even supporting dialogue along the AfghanistanPakistan border, the earth’s most dangerous frontier,” he wrote. “Congress would be hard-pressed to find an agency that does more with less. The institute’s entire budget would not pay for the Afghan war for three hours, is less than the cost of a fighter plane, and wouldn’t sustain even 40 American troops in Afghanistan for a year.” Solomon is often asked about his thoughts on war given his capacity as chief executive of a national institute for peace, not war. “It’s really hard to eliminate a lot of conflicts,” he said. “Our objective should be to manage them by nonviolent means, to prevent conflict from crossing that line from dispute into violence.” He added: “The notion that you’re going to create a world of peace absent of conflict doesn’t seem to be the way the human society works.”

overseas, for example, is in the formal confines of embassies and foreign government buildings. “In the wake of our embassy bombings and all the rest, our State folks tend to be rather cloistered in very secure embassies,” Solomon said. “Our people are out and about and they give the government outreach into these societies.” Out in the field, the institute focuses intently on the nuts and bolts of building civil societies, such as supporting judicial reform and rule of law initiatives. “If you’re going to have a democratic government, you need to have a population that is organized below the level of government, and have some way of aggregating public opinion and playing a role that feeds into the formal mechanisms of government,” Solomon said. By law, the institute is obligated to spend a quarter of its annual budget of roughly $50 million on institution building in countries that have experienced government upheaval. “We help build civil societies in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan,” Solomon said.“It creates a balance between the formal institutions and the public.” Institute board members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Nominees tend to have bipartisan support. Some of the nation’s most hawkish Republicans — including Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — are among USIP’s most enthusiastic supporters. Solomon also keeps in regular contact with the nation’s top military brass and mentioned that he had dinner with Gen. Raymond Odierno, the Army chief of staff, in April and talked about peacekeeping training for soldiers. “The biggest supporters of our mission are people who would otherwise go out and fight and die,” Solomon said. “Our work has very clearly saved lives and money by keeping peo-

In the absence of world peace, Solomon said USIP is constantly trying to calibrate how much time and resources it spends on preventing violent conflicts versus managing them.The budget tells where the priorities are, he said. “Much of our budgetary increase has been for the post-conflict stabilization efforts — to get us out of Iraq and help stabilize the situation,” he explained.“One of the dilemmas in our business is what I call the political will problem. We’ve run a program on genocide prevention but for some reason, people really don’t want to get involved until public opinion or the cost of a conflict becomes overwhelming. “The political will often isn’t there for preventative action,” he added.“We can do an awful lot with a minimal amount of resources in a preventative way.” Sometimes people are confused about the agency’s mission. Solomon was careful to stress that USIP does not protest American military action overseas. It tries to manage it to a peaceful conclusion. “People ask, let’s say in the case of Iraq, why were we not out demonstrating [against U.S. military force],” he said.“We are not an advocacy outfit. We are trained professionals and in an operational sense try to control conflict. “If you’re out there on the streets demonstrating, you’re too late,” he pointed out. “We can be more effective if we prevent the conflict or bring it to an early conclusion. In that sense, we’re very practical rather than just being a political demonstration outfit.” As Solomon prepares to head for the exits, he said he is eager to leave his management responsibilities behind and get back to research, teaching and training. Solomon, who started his career as a political science professor at the University of Michigan, doesn’t have a full-time job lined up yet, but said he’s talking to potential

employers and plans to write books — perhaps more on Chinese politics, his longtime area of academic expertise. “I’ve been very fortunate to have the kind of experiences that I think give me a unique perspective on what international affairs and conflict management means,” he said. Solomon said USIP’s next big push is in the realm of public outreach and education. The center’s new headquarters boasts 20,000 square feet of state-of-the-art exhibit and conference space — an asset that Solomon is eager to put to use in training students, foreign and domestic government officials and others who want to learn more about building peace. He also noted that satellites and high-definition televisions have the power to transform global communications and training because international instruction and interaction can be achieved via satellite instead of expensive, timeconsuming and exhausting airplane trips. Gesturing toward his panoramic office window with its spectacular views of the Lincoln Memorial and the adjacent Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, Solomon noted that the site of USIP’s new, gleaming white building, which opened for business last year, is often described as the “war and peace corner of the Mall.” The building has dramatically elevated the profile of an agency that formerly was relegated to renting space from the National Restaurant Association. “It dramatizes our work and makes it much more visible to the tourists who come to see the memorials,” Solomon said. “One of our areas of growth is our public outreach and explaining how tax money is being spent for peacemaking instead of just war fighting.” Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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June 2012

call (301) 933-3552. The Washington Diplomat Page 7

Politics

Arab Spring

Egyptians Vote, But Can They Decide on a Path Forward? by Dave Seminara

early a year and a half after Egyptians mobilized on the streets of Cairo, demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian revolution is still very much a work in progress. Although it only took 18 days to kick Mubarak out, the fate of the country he led for more than 30 years is up in the air, but the presidential election scheduled for May 23 and 24 (with a runoff on June 16 and 17, if necessary) will likely dictate the direction of the country as it slowly transitions toward democracy — or slips back into autocracy, or adopts another hybrid altogether. Vastly different segments of Egyptian society have been vying to represent the new face of the Arab world’s most populous nation, from the Muslim Brotherhood, which enjoys widespread support and has pledged a Westernfriendly government rooted in Islam, à la the Turkey model; to the unabashedly ultraconservative Islamists known as the Salafis who, among other things, would restrict women’s dress and the sale of alcohol; to secular liberals who feel sidelined by the very revolution they helped spark. Also thrown into the mix are remnants of the Mubarak regime who promise stability, veteran technocrats who promise effective governance, and the military, which promises to relinquish control to a civilian authority by the end of June, although just how much it will give up remains to be seen. After Mubarak grudgingly left the scene in February 2011, the military took over, dissolved the parliament and created a body called the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, ostensibly to oversee the country’s transition toward democracy. And while the Egyptian military remains widely respected in some quarters of society, others deeply resent it, with more than 100 Egyptians having died protesting the military’s stewardship of the country. The election was also thrown into chaos after a slew of prominent candidates were barred from running in April, fueling speculation that the military was trying to rig the contest. The election should be a milestone for Egypt and the wider Arab world, but will it usher in a functioning civil government or lead to more power wrangling? Samer Shehata, an assistant professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University, who was born in Alexandria, believes the election will go relatively smoothly and is confident that the military will respect the will of the voters. “People have died and everyone’s conscious of that,” he said in a recent interview. As of press time, despite a few trouble spots, voting was proceeding as scheduled without any major problems, though the outcome was difficult to predict. It was a historic moment for millions of Egyptians, although the power struggle certainly won’t end once the ballots are counted. Plans to draft a new constitution have stalled and it’s still unclear exactly what powers the country’s new president will have. “On a strictly legal basis, you have this constitutional declaration which gives the president an awful lot of potential power,” said Nathan Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at the George

Page 8

“

Photo: Jonathan Rashad (www.flickr.com/photos/drumzo/)

If there can be democratic elections in Egypt … that sends a message to people not only in Syria but also in the Gulf countries, Sudan and Jordan that there might be some pain and some setbacks, but this is the direction of the future. — Samer Shehata assistant professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University

”

Washington University. “But it’s not clear how much power they’ll actually be able to exercise without the Parliament, especially since the Parliament is controlled by other political parties which aren’t aligned with whomever will be president.” In the recent parliamentary elections, voters gave the most seats to candidates from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. Another Islamist party allied with the Salafis, Al-Nour, received the second-most votes. The Brotherhood, seeking to allay fears of an Islamist takeover, initially pledged that it wouldn’t field a candidate for the presidential election, but reversed course, nominating Khairat el-Shater, its leading strategist, in March. But the High Election Commission disqualified el-Shater and nine other candidates, including Mubarak’s former spy chief and Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an ultraconservative, on technicalities in mid April. Handicapping the roller-coaster race is tricky; a recent poll released by the Egyptian Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center indicated that 42 percent of the respondents were undecided. Thus far, the campaign has

Protesters swarm Tahrir Square demanding the removal of President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 9, 2011. They got their wish, but whether they get a new president who brings the country together, or tears it apart, remains to be seen.

been driven more by personalities than issues and party loyalties. But three leading candidates have emerged: Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood considered to be a liberal Islamist, Mohamed Morsi, who replaced el-Shater as the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party candidate, and Amr Moussa, a former diplomat who was the secretary-general of the Arab League for most of the last decade. Two other candidates are also putting up a fight, including Ahmed Shafik, a former Air Force general and vestige of the old regime who served as Mubarak’s last prime minister. Another figure that’s emerged is Hamdeen Sabahi, who is positioning himself as an alternative to Islamist and Mubarak-era figures. “The dark horse is Hamdeen Sabahi, a poet turned populist campaigning as a follower of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leader of the Egyptian revolution of 1952,” wrote David D. Kirkpatrick of the New York Times on May 23, noting that “Sabahi is campaigning on vows to increase the government’s role in the economy, provide more subsidies to workers and farmers and take a tough line against Israel.” Shehata of Georgetown University believes that Amr Moussa and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh will capture the most votes in the first round, with Aboul Fotouh likely winning the runoff election in June. Brown said he thought that Egyptian voters would turn to Moussa, as an experienced beacon of stability in a time of chaos. The candidacies of all five men reveal a nuanced electoral landscape in which questions of social identity are competing with bread-and-butter issues such as the economy, complicated by the tug of war not only among religious and secular groups, but also within Islamic

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June 2012

groups themselves. The Muslim Brotherhood, for example, while close to the Salafis culturally, is comprised of educated middle-class and business-minded voters who tend to look down on the Salafis, who in turn appeal to many poorer Egyptians. Yet all three of the leading candidates appear to be adopting a somewhat conciliatory approach toward the military, which wields enormous power and has vast commercial interests in the country. Each has pledged to work closely with the military leaders and Moussa went so far as to blame demonstrators for trying to storm the Defense Ministry. Aboul Fotouh has been mildly critical of the military’s commercial ties and leadership, but has also pledged to appoint one of the ruling generals as his defense minister. Aboul Fotouh, 60, is seen as a strong contender, forging an unusual coalition of reformminded liberals and more conservative Salafis to the right of the Brotherhood — a reflection of the conflicting yet at times overlapping interests among Egypt’s various political parties. Aboul Fotouh is a former doctor and political prisoner who was expelled from the Brotherhood last year for advocating moderate policies such as the separation of religion and politics and for defying the group by deciding to run for president. He publicly supported the revolution from the start and has called for national unity. He also advocates a constitution based on Sharia law, but not to the degree advocated by more conservative candidates, and he says that individual freedom and social justice are key to advancing Islamic law. But Aboul Fotouh, who was imprisoned on political charges in 1981, from 1996 to 2001, and again for five months in 2009, stresses that the Muslim Brotherhood shouldn’t have a political wing and that preaching and politics shouldn’t mix. “The overlap between what’s partisan politics and what’s missionary is disastrous for the religious mission and a disaster for the party as well,” Aboul Fotouh recently told El Rahma, a major Salafi satellite channel. Despite his stance against religion in politics, he’s earned the endorsement of Salafi leaders, who see him as the strongest candidate and who fear a Brotherhood monopoly even though they’re closer to the Brotherhood on social values.And as David D. Kirkpatrick and Mayy El Sheikh of the New York Times recently pointed out, “Leading Salafis hinted in recent days that they did not expect quick fulfillment of their goals for a state governed by Islamic law. Instead, they wanted a president who could deal with Egypt’s pressing needs while allowing them freedom to preach and advocate.” To that end, the charismatic Aboul Fotouh fired up the crowd during a campaign speech in Alexandria in early May by highlighting his pledge to tackle corruption and influence peddling. “The time when Egyptian blood was shed without a price is over,” he said.“The time when Egypt’s dignity was humiliated is over.The time when Egypt’s fortune was stolen to be given to a certain group of people is over.” Despite the recent boost for Aboul Fotouh, who leads Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, the two men could split the Islamist vote, giving the advantage to Amr Moussa, 76. Moussa, the frontrunner in preliminary polling, served as Mubarak’s foreign minister for 10 years but, according to the New York Times, was dismissed after a song called “I hate Israel and I love Amr Moussa” became a hit in 2001. Moussa sparked concerns in Israel and the United States in April with a comment that the peace accord between Israel and Egypt, signed at Camp David in 1979, was “dead and buried.” But he also said he would honor the portion of the agreement pertaining to Egypt and Israel. Moussa is seen as a pragmatist whose objection to the Camp David Accords is based on the language pertaining to the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. The career diplomat has long

been a champion of the Palestinian national movement and his scathing criticism of Israel has earned him popularity across the Arab world. Yet he’s also drawn criticism over the years for his supposedly passive stance on the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip in late 2008, and for stating on Egyptian television in 2010 that he would vote for Mubarak for a sixth term. Still, some believe he may be the man who can help find common ground among the military, the Islamists and the liberals. “Moussa is very likely the military’s choice at this point,” wrote Isobel Coleman of the Council on Foreign Relations in a recent op-ed. “A former diplomat who served as secretary-general of the Arab League, he is an establishment figure who has vowed to give the military a voice in key policy decisions through a national security council that would include top military officers.” But in the article “Is Egypt Headed for Islamist Rule?” Coleman also warned that Moussa’s victory was far from guaranteed.“The big swing factor is the Islamist vote. Moussa, a secularist, has said that Egypt cannot afford an ‘experiment’ in Islamic democracy at this time. Yet more than 70 percent of voters in the parliamentary election last fall opted for Islamist candidates. With the rejection of el-Shater, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate is now Mohamed Morsi, 60, who represents the older, more conservative wing of the Brotherhood and openly endorses a strict Islamic vision.” Morsi is currently polling in third place and hasn’t yet stoked the level of enthusiasm that el-Shater enjoyed, although he did take the top spot among the 250,000 Egyptians who’d voted abroad before the election. He received a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Southern California in 1982 and afterward taught at Cal State Northridge for three years before returning to teach in Egypt. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s and became a member of the group’s highest decision-making body, the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, in 1995. Derisively nicknamed “the substitute,” he’s considered a conservative voice within the Muslim Brotherhood and many believe that he won the Freedom and Justice Party nomination based on his close ties to el-Shater. Despite the Brotherhood’s organizational strength, Morsi’s campaign hasn’t taken off, partly due to his late start and partly because he’s not seen as very charismatic. In attempting to boost his credentials, the Brotherhood has promoted him as a “symbol of the revolution” who was arrested on political charges twice during the Mubarak years, once in 2006, when he was detained for seven months, and briefly on January 28, 2011, along with other members of the Brotherhood, in a pre-emptive measure as Mubarak tried to squash the growing protest movement. As a member of the Egyptian Parliament from 2000 to 2005, he made attempts to expose government corruption and pushed wide-ranging reforms, but was also a noted social conservative who was critical of the Miss Egypt beauty pageant, among other things. Most recently, Morsi has positioned himself as the most conservative candidate in a bid to attract Salafi support, marking a shift for the Muslim Brotherhood after it tried to distance itself from a hard-line Islamist platform. But now the group seems to have lurched back to the far right by embracing Morsi, who’s frequently called Israeli citizens “killers and vampires.” Brown of the George Washington University said that despite his time in the United States, Morsi is probably the most anti-American candidate of the three leading contenders. Both Brown and Shehata opined that the United States and Israel would probably be

See Egypt, page 20

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June 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 9

Development

World Bank

New President of World Bank Personifies Body’s Gradual Evolution by Talha Aquil

peaking to a crowd of think-tankers in March, Robert Zoellick addressed the hot debate over who should succeed him as head of the World Bank when he formally leaves June 30, warning we should “be careful … what the net effect will be” if the United States is pushed out of the system. Though he detailed at length the changing global order, the departing president emphasized the need for an American to continue at the helm of one of the most influential international bodies on the planet. Zoellick’s speech at the Council on Foreign Relations occurred on the eve of the World Bank’s first open competition for its presidency in almost seven decades. Until now, tradition has dictated that the United States would appoint one of its own as president, while the head of the International Monetary Fund goes to a European. The results of the bank’s election, however, once again elevated an American, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, to the top spot. While this news clearly disappointed observers who had hoped for a more dramatic turn away from precedence, the fact that the World Bank undertook an open and competitive process to fill its apex vacancy is seen as a first step in bringing the institution up to speed in a changing world where its dominance in development has faded as more emerging economies challenge American and European control of multilateral development organizations. This shift did not emerge out of nowhere. The World Bank has been moving in this direction over the past five years under Zoellick. As with many aspects of the World Bank, the recent changes during his tenure, though, maintain a preference for gradual progress and continuity. Zoellick’s election as president in 2007 came as his predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz, resigned amid a highly publicized scandal involving a generous pay raise and promotion he gave to a female companion at the bank. With a lengthy background at the U.S Treasury and the State Department for previous Republican administrations, Zoellick had most recently served as a U.S. trade representative and deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush. From the onset, Zoellick was determined to change how the bank functioned. At a speech at the National Press Club early in his term, he highlighted the need for a “differentiated business model for the middle-income countries,” adding that the bank must continue to move toward being a “knowledge bank” as much as a financial one. Over the past five years, the volume of financing from the bank has risen while its costs have held steady. Even as the credit crunch hit soon after Zoellick’s ascension to the presidency, the bank doubled its lending to meet increased demand from a developing world suffering from the repercussions of the Lehman Brothers collapse and the resulting global shock. Zoellick also embraced the bank’s strength as a premier source of development knowledge and information. It opened up its data to everyone in the world by posting it on the Internet. Under this new open-source

Page 10

credits: (above) Joe Mehling ’69 / Dartmouth College; (opposite page) World Bank

“

The bank is the only development institution that works on a global level…. It provides a setting in which all nations at different levels of development can talk, learn from each other, argue, collaborate, fuss and hopefully move forward on the great development problems we face this century. — Nancy Birdsall

”

president of the Center for Global Development

approach, the bank shares data with its clients and collaborates with software developers to find more innovative ways to take advantage of its vast reserves of information and technical know-how. For instance, Sebastian Mallaby of the Council on Foreign Relations, writing in the Financial Times piece “The Quiet Revolutionary Who Saved the World Bank,” pointed out that one such invention was an application to help pregnant women with mobile phones access health information. “The old leftist tirades painted World Bankers as ‘Lords of Poverty’ — fat-cat economists who justified austerity for poor countries with mysterious spreadsheets,” he wrote.“The new face of the Bank is the Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft that took aerial photographs of Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. The Bank immediately uploaded the photographs so that 600 engineers in 21 countries could brainstorm about the best way to

Dr. Jim Yong Kim, above, takes over as head of the World Bank on July 1 after the departure of Robert Zoellick, who instituted a series of gradual changes that helped the bank respond to the global financial crisis and recognize the growing power of emerging economies.

rebuild Haiti’s capital. The reign of the World Bank’s inhouse experts ended. Open-sourcing ruled instead.” Outside of these changes in the bank’s business model, Zoellick also made the institution more reflective of the world’s changing economic dynamics, in which newer powers are rapidly catching up to Europe and the United States. The bank filled nearly half of its vacancies with candidates from the developing world, including the notable appointment of a Chinese chief economist. These changes were necessary as much as they were revolutionary, however.The bank is no longer the global heavyweight it once was. As an aid donor to poor nations, the bank’s funds pale in comparison to assistance given by developed nations and groups such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Moreover, even poorer developing countries are now much more able to attract private investment given their expanding economies. Domenico Lombardi, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote that the World Bank is still an “important but no longer dominant actor alongside entities like church groups, nongovernmental institutions and private philanthropists, all with the ability to leverage substantial resources.” That’s why Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, has long argued that the World Bank needs to redefine its mission to stay relevant in the 21st century, in part by extending its mandate to the “global commons” — cross-border challenges such as climate change, drug-resistant pathogens and destabilizing water and other natural resource scarcities. “The bank is the only development institution that works on a global level,” she said in a recent Global

The Washington Diplomat

June 2012

Prosperity Wonkcast. “It provides a setting in which all nations at former minister of finance and public credit of Colombia. Pressure for this process to be merit-based rather than rooted in different levels of development can talk, learn from each other, argue, collaborate, fuss and hopefully move forward on the great realpolitik came from many directions. In April, 39 former World Bank senior managers wrote an open letter calling on the bank’s development problems we face this century.” And one of the bank’s greatest challenges as it tries to modern- executive board to make their decision on merit and further ize will be to adapt to the new reality in which it lives.“I think the endorsed Okonjo-Iweala as their preferred candidate. A bevy of biggest challenge is to work with the many members of the bank academics and policy professionals also backed either Okonjoon how to set new directions,” she said.“In particular, how to inter- Iweala or Ocampo. At the end though, Kim came out of the process as act with the dynamic emerging economies like China, the president-elect with support from not only the India, Brazil and several others who are now in a position United States, Europe and Canada, but also an endorseto have influence in the way the bank operates.” ment from Russia, among others. In a major shift, Kim Indeed, as the rise of countries such as China, Brazil and was elected in a majority vote of the bank’s 25-memIndia continues, so too does their desire to hold a more ber board. Previously, the president had been chosen important place at the global table.These emerging powby an artificial consensus. erhouses have not only become major investors and lendThe nomination of Kim, a Korean-born academic, ers for poorer developing countries, they’ve provided itself came as a surprise to many analysts, who’d much-needed capital to the World Bank itself.They’ve also speculated the post might go to high-profile names driven much of the economic growth since the global Robert Zoellick such as Lawrence Summers, Jeffrey Sachs, Susan Rice recession and have increasingly come together on the multilateral stage as well. For instance, at the last BRICS summit in or even Hillary Clinton. The choice to go with a global health March, a political agreement was reached to create a new special expert, as opposed to an economics guru, is also a notable break bank for the developing world run by Brazil, Russia, India, China, from World Bank tradition. Kim, the former president of Dartmouth College, co-founded South Africa and other emerging economies. With these winds blowing, the bank’s continued legitimacy in the nonprofit group Partners in Health alongside Paul Farmer and the developing world requires it to recognize the power that is one of the few bank presidents to have directly worked with developing nations wield. These members’ growing clout was on extremely poor communities — fitting given his new role heading view when Zoellick persuaded the bank’s shareholders to increase an institution intended to lift people out of poverty. As President its capital for the first time in decades — and developing countries Obama himself put it,“It’s time for a development professional to lead the world’s largest development agency.” provided nearly half of the money. Kim’s background is also well suited to continue the reforms Having become so widely associated with opening the bank up to developing partners, Zoellick startled some experts with his Zoellick started. Despite certain criticism of Kim’s lackluster ecoCouncil on Foreign Relations talk this March. “It was a little bit nomic credentials, some see this as a hidden strength. Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell University surprising that Zoellick publicly stated that the presidency should remain in the hands of the United States,” the CFR’s Stewart Patrick and also a senior fellow at Brookings, wrote in the New York Times that given the limited progress macro-economists have made in told The Diplomat. However, Patrick noted practical considerations may have influ- understanding the drivers of growth, “an open-minded approach enced Zoellick’s outlook: “There are questions whether Congress, to seeing what works and what doesn’t rather than being bound especially given a Republican-controlled House, would be able to by any specific models or theories might actually be an advantage.” He added that “Kim seems to have the intellectual self-confidence fund a bank led by a non-American,” he said. Regardless of Zoellick’s personal views, the bank under his to surround himself with competent people, including iconoclasts, stewardship went on to hold what it claimed to be a competitive who can ask tough questions and seek answers that are not bound process to select its new president.Three candidates stood for the by ideology but are largely pragmatic.” Prasad also noted, however, that Kim’s “willingness to question presidency: Kim as the American nominee, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the finance minister of Nigeria, and José Antonio Ocampo, the conventional wisdom about growth and its benefits implies that

he will face significant resistance from the entrenched bureaucracy at the World Bank.” Laurie Garrett at the Council for Foreign Relations also wrote in an expert brief that Kim’s previous experience battling a complicated bureaucracy during his stint with the World Health Organization could help him at the World Bank, which has a 10,000-member staff and deals with some 130 nations. Yet given hopes that the position might finally go to someone from the developing world, the question remains whether Kim will face resistance for being yet another American president. Patrick of CFR told The Diplomat that he doesn’t believe this will be a problem for Kim.“The BRICS countries, of whom Russia did support Kim, won’t withdraw their support in any measurable way, but there may be a redoubling of efforts on quota reforms and governance reforms to better reflect the realities of the global economic system,” he said. Others said Kim will be able to leverage his own diverse resume. “It is hard to emphasize enough the importance of Dr. Kim’s experience running a major university and what that brings to his role at the World Bank,” said Wayne Decker, a development studies professor at the University of Arizona who has worked with the World Bank for decades.“You cannot run a university in an authoritarian manner,” he told The Diplomat, noting Kim’s time as president of Dartmouth will likely help him navigate the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the World Bank. Kim agrees. In his statement to the World Bank Board of Directors, Kim stressed six major reasons why he would bring effective leadership to the institution, two of which rested on his tenure at the Ivy League university. He said he would have an advantage over other candidates because he has steered a large administration with a sizable organizational budget in tough economic times and, perhaps most importantly, because of his history at an institution geared toward the dissemination of knowledge. If Kim is indeed able to draw on his university experience in this regard, then it will be in line with Zoellick’s advancements framing the financial institution as a “knowledge” bank. This also fits the pattern of gradual reform and continuity that has characterized the bank’s broader reforms over the past decade. Building on the work of his predecessor, Kim will likely enact an even more competitive, transparent and merit-based process to select his own replacement. Talha Aquil is a freelance writer based in Toronto.

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Diplomacy

Political Asylum

Refuge or Refusal: How Easy Is It to Get Asylum at U.S. Missions? by Martin Austermuhle

n late April, when blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng escaped from home confinement and made it into the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, he all but sparked an international incident ahead of a high-level visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to China. His brief stay in the U.S. Embassy infuriated Chinese officials and put the Obama administration in an awkward position — how could it reconcile America’s support for human right advocates while delicately respecting a relationship of such strategic value? After days of high-level, top-secret negotiations, Chen left the U.S. Embassy for a hospital, but more confusion and diplomatic wrangling quickly followed when Chen changed his mind about wanting to stay in China. Eventually both sides found a resolution by allowing the activist and his immediate family to leave China for academic pursuits in New York but not to seek asylum. But Chen’s case again raised a question that has bedeviled foreign missions as long as they have existed in hostile, war-stricken or closed countries: How far can American embassies or consulates go in protecting dissidents from their own governments? What options did U.S. diplomats in Beijing even have with Chen? There’s a rich international tradition of embassies being used for refuge, primarily in Latin America. In 1975, the United Nations published a report in which it broadly analyzed the practice of “diplomatic asylum,” or the use of foreign missions for refuge and protection. It found that diplomatic asylum dated back to the 19th century and was widely used — sometimes to an extent that angered host countries. For U.S. embassies and consulates, it depends on the circumstances, it depends on the person, and it depends on what they want, say diplomats and experts in international law. In most cases, if someone appears at a U.S. embassy and requests a specific legal status — if they request asylum, for example — they will likely be turned away. According to the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual, “Posts may not grant or in any way promise ‘asylum’ to any foreign national. Although foreign nationals may request ‘asylum,’ posts should be aware that the term has specific meaning in U.S. immigration law. Persons may apply for asylum under U.S. law only if they are physically present in the United States or at a land border or port of entry….The United States does not recognize the granting of asylum at posts abroad.” Chen said he wasn’t interested in political asylum, though, and U.S. embassies and consulates have in the past served as a refuge of last resort for dissidents — albeit in very rare circumstances. Under such a scenario, he may have qualified. Moreover, Chen’s case was unique. He was a worldrenowned dissident and self-taught lawyer whose plight was well known to U.S. government officials for years. He was also initially accepted into the embassy under humanitarian grounds, suffering from a broken leg and other injuries sustained during his bold nighttime escape from house arrest.

Page 12

“

Photo: U.S. Embassy in Beijing

Posts may not grant or in any way promise ‘asylum’ to any foreign national…. Persons may apply for asylum under U.S. law only if they are physically present in the United States or at a land border or port of entry.

”

— U.S. State Department Foreign Affairs Manual

And even though Chen was no longer inside the U.S. Embassy but in a Beijing hospital when he reversed course and asked to leave China, by that time his escape had already drawn worldwide attention, putting the Obama administration in the spotlight — and in a bind. But according to a former Foreign Service officer who served in China and spoke to The Washington Diplomat on the condition of anonymity, offers of refuge or protection don’t come often. Nicole Thompson, a spokeswoman with the State Department, confirmed that it is not “normal protocol or procedure” to offer refuge or protection within U.S. embassies or consulates. In a secret 2009 cable published by WikiLeaks last year, the State Department outlined procedures for dealing with walk-ins, including those seeking refuge. “Temporary refuge may be granted only if there is compelling evidence that the walk-in is in imminent physical danger for any reason, or in imminent danger of

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, center, is escorted to a Beijing hospital by U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, right, and State Department legal advisor Harold Koh, left, following Chen’s brief stay in the U.S. Embassy, where he sought protection after a dramatic nighttime escape from house arrest 300 miles away in Shandong Province.

persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion,” it stated. Even then, though, the cable recognized that refuge should only be considered in the “rare situations in which an individual faces not just imminent physical danger, but immediate and exceptionally grave physical danger.” One of the most famous cases in U.S. diplomatic history is that of Cardinal József Mindszenty, a Hungarian religious leader and dissident persecuted by the country’s communist government in the late 1940s.After the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to shore up the struggling regime in 1956, Mindszenty asked the U.S. ambassador in Budapest for protection and shelter. It was granted, and for the next 15 years Mindszenty was confined to the U.S. Embassy compound. He was allowed to leave in 1971 under a deal brokered by the Vatican. In June 1978, seven Russian Pentecostalists stormed the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, where they demanded protection from religious persecution. For five years the group — which came to be known as the “Siberian Seven” — lived in a cramped basement room until they were finally allowed to immigrate to Israel. In 1989, Fang Lizhi, a Chinese astrophysicist and prodemocracy activist, and his wife Li Shuxian entered the U.S. Embassy in Beijing just as Chinese authorities began the crackdown at Tiananmen Square. He was granted

The Washington Diplomat

See Asylum, page 20 June 2012

COVER PROFILE

Ambassador Nirupama Rao

New Delhi’s Veteran Envoy: ‘The Old India Is Behind Us’ by Larry Luxner

ometime between 2025 and 2030, India will surpass China as the world’s most populous nation. With only 2.4 percent of the Earth’s total land area, that means it will also be one of the most crowded places on the planet.

Politicians in New Delhi are counting on rapid, sustained economic growth to lift this massive sea of humanity from destitute poverty to relative prosperity in the coming years — a huge challenge but a doable one, considering that India’s $4 trillion economy continues to boom as most other countries see their economies hit a plateau or, in the case of the European Union, even shrink a bit. According to official figures, India’s GDP rose by 6.9 percent in the financial year that ended March 31. Government advisors expect growth to rebound to 7.6 percent in 2012-13 and hit 8.6 percent in 2013-14. India has gained such prominence worldwide that its currency, the rupee, now has its own internationally accepted symbol — which combines a capital “R” with the Devanagari “ra” — alongside the dollar, the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen. The world’s largest democracy, widely known for its yoga, sitar music and Bollywood movies, is now the fifth-largest aid donor to

“

There is definitely a revolution of rising expectations within India today. Like people everywhere, Indians, too, desire better lives for themselves and for their children…. The old India is behind us. You’re looking at a country in the 21st century.

”

— Nirupama Rao ambassador of India to the United States

Afghanistan and enjoys international support in its bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. “India already has 1.2 billion inhabitants and our economy ranks fourth in purchasing power parity,” said the country’s energetic ambassador in Washington,

Nirupama Rao.“If we keep growing at 8 to 8.5 percent, we’ll be poised to become the third-largest economy in the world.” Rao is intimately familiar with the United States and China — which rank first and second on that list — thanks to her stint as minister of press affairs in Washington back in the mid-1990s, and as India’s first female envoy in Beijing from 2006 to 2009. Her impressive resume, quite lengthy because she joined the Foreign Service at the age of 22, also includes a posting as deputy chief of mission in Moscow, as well as ambassadorships in Peru, Bolivia and Sri Lanka. Most importantly, Rao spent two years as India’s foreign secretary prior to assuming her duties in Washington last fall. “Every diplomatic posting brings you valuable insights,” said Rao, 61 and the mother of two grown sons.“I believe that the 21st-century diplomat has to be open minded, sensitive and intellectually alert to the way our world is changing.” The Washington Diplomat interviewed Rao over Darjeeling tea and biscuits at her official residence last month — just as the ambassador began preparing for the visit of her boss, Foreign Minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna, to Washington in mid-June for the next round of the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, launched in 2010 to discuss and strengthen the bilateral relationship. At that strategic forum, Krishna and his counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who held talks May 8 in New Delhi — are expected to reaffirm their partnership on stability in Afghanistan following the planned 2014 pullout of U.S. troops and discuss joint efforts in counterterrorism. “This dialogue has matured in the last few years and encompasses almost every field of human endeavor: health care, education, agriculture, monsoon forecasting, energy efficiency and climate change,” the ambassador told us. “Increasingly in the last few years, we’ve seen the manner in which India and the United States have drawn closer.” That’s a far cry from the early 1970s, when the United States was a staunch ally of anti-communist Pakistan in its bitter war with India, then an ally of the Soviet Union.

Photo: Abby Greenawalt

“At that time, India was a very young nation, having marked 25 years of its independence — years during which our republic began its journey on the path of economic development and building a just and equitable social order after a dark period of colonial rule and exploitation,” Rao told University of Florida students at an April 27 commencement address in Gainesville, one of numerous university talks she’s held since coming to Washington. “In what was then a small town in India, where I studied for my master’s degree in English literature, I was witness to the tragedy of the war in Vietnam, the creation of Bangladesh, President Nixon’s historic visit to China and the menacing brinkmanship of the Cold War.” Fast-forward to today. Pakistan is no longer a close friend of the United States — in fact the two countries barely trust each other — and India has become one of Washington’s closest allies in the region. “The past is completely behind us,” Rao proudly told us. “Every country learns from history, and there is growing recognition here in the United States

June 2012

about India and its enormous potential. In addition, the contribution of the Indian-American community — which numbers close to 3 million — has served to reinforce our image as a very responsible global power.” Differences remain, however. In recent months, one of the Obama administration’s biggest irritations has been India’s refusal to stop importing petroleum from Iran, which is currently the subject of biting global sanctions over its nuclear program, including a European Union oil embargo set to begin July 1. India and China, two of Iran’s biggest importers, have largely resisted U.S. pressure to curb their use of Iranian oil or face punitive sanctions, citing their national interest in needing to power their thriving economies. At a recent breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Rao argued that cutting off oil imports from Tehran overnight is simply impossible, though cutbacks are being made. “The share of Iranian imports in our total volume of petroleum imports is

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 13

Continued from previous page going down as we speak, and there has been a significant reduction,” she said. “And I see that reduction being even more reinforced in the weeks and months to come.” Rao estimated that Iranian petroleum accounted for 10.3 percent of India’s total imports in 2011-12, down from 16.4 percent in 2008-09. Yet it still ranks as one of Iran’s top customers for crude oil. Moreover, to circumvent U.S. sanctions on its banking sector, Iran has devised a payment mechanism whereby it will accept rupees for almost half of India’s oil purchases — which in turn means that Iran will have to spend those rupees on Indian exports or investment, thereby increasing bilateral trade. We asked Rao if the Western boycott on Tehran’s oil has caused a mini-rupture in relations with Washington. Not at all, she insisted. “Contrary to what you may hear, these reports do not square with the facts. We do cooperate,” she said.“If you look at the vast majority of issues discussed within the U.N., India and the U.S. work together. We have established a very cooperative relationship in terms of the applications of U.N. sanctions that have been put in place against Iran. And we have agreed completely that we do not want to see the weaponization of Iran’s nuclear capability and that it should cooperate with the Security Council.” When it comes to business, there’s no question that the United States and India are tighter than ever. Bilateral trade has jumped from $9 billion in 1995 to around $100 billion today. Most of that growth is being driven by domestic demand, and by India’s rapidly growing middle class, which is projected to include 583 million people by 2025. Two of India’s fastest-growing sectors are telecommunications and the automotive industry. Between 15 million and 20 million Indians sign up for new mobile phone service each month, with 800 million — or two-thirds of the popula-

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credit: UN Photo / Kibae Park

tion — now glued to their cell phones. At present, close to 58 percent of India’s GDP now comes from services, while only 16 percent from manufacturing. “Our objective is to increase the share of manufacturing in our GDP to about 25 percent in the next 10 years,” said Rao.“If you go to cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad, you’ll find all the major Fortune 500 companies there, investing in software, IT, research and innovation.” India is also one of America’s best customers when it comes to defense, having spent $8 billion on U.S. weaponry in the last five years alone. In fact, India, which has embarked on an $80 billion military modernization overhaul in the next three years, recently became the world’s top arms buyer, with companies from BAE Systems Inc. to France’s Dassault Aviation looking to cash in on the country’s lucrative defense market. But India’s growing military might has sparked concerns of a regional arms race. The successful

Passengers crowd trains connecting the suburbs of Kolkata, India, whose economy grew at breakneck pace over the last decade, though analysts worry that government bureaucracy and corruption and reluctance for further market reforms could stifle future growth.

April launch of the Agni 5, a ballistic missile able to reach Beijing and Shanghai, propelled India into an elite club of nations that boast long-range nuclear weapons capability. Days later, India’s archrival Pakistan launched its own intermediaterange ballistic missile, triggering fears of heightened tensions not only between New Delhi and Islamabad, but between India and China, which have also clashed militarily over the years. And even though India’s defense spending, as a percentage of its GDP, is still less than its neighbors, and its aging military apparatus is in need of upgrades, the steady rise in defense spending has raised eyebrows. A 2010 Deloitte study, for example, projected that India’s arms procurement could climb to $120 billion by 2017. To those who question such enormous expenses in a nation where 500 million people still don’t have access to electricity, Rao has a ready answer: “We have to safeguard our security interests. We’re a huge country and have borders to protect. We have not indulged in violence or irresponsible behavior, and India’s defense needs are very legitimate. Our right to defend ourselves cannot be questioned.” Sadly, one thing that’s brought the United States, which is predominantly Christian, and India, which is mostly Hindu, together is the common threat of terrorism by Islamic fundamentalist groups. The November 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai — coming just over seven years after 9/11 — killed 166 people and injured another 308 at various sites around India’s financial capital, including two luxury hotels and a Jewish center. The victims included Virginia residents Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter Naomi, who were gunned down as they enjoyed dinner at the Oberoi hotel. “We want Pakistan to bring to justice those persons who were responsible for the Mumbai attacks,” said Rao, who recently received Alan Scherr’s widow, Kia, at the embassy. “It’s been established that the plot to attack Mumbai emanated from Pakistani soil. The trauma of Mumbai has not gone away.” Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving terrorist who was captured by Indian forces, later confessed during interrogation that the attacks were conducted with the support of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI. Both India and the United States have also been pressing Pakistan to take action against Hafiz Saeed, the militant accused of orchestrating the 2008 attacks (the U.S. recently offered a $10 million bounty for his capture). In fact, India has suffered from cross-border terrorism since the 1980s, said Rao — generally at the hands of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant organization. “Terrorist groups operate from the soil of

Pakistan, targeting our cities, complicating the lives of ordinary civilians and destroying our economic progress. So we have firsthand awareness and knowledge of the havoc that terrorism can wreak on an innocent population,” Rao told The Diplomat.“In our dialogue with Pakistan, we have sought to emphasize that they must take effective action to remove the terrorist havens on their soil and eliminate those groups.” As if that’s not clear enough, Rao rephrased her ultimatum: “We would like Pakistan to grow economically and be a stable, peaceful country. It is our neighbor and we cannot choose our neighbors. But Pakistan must understand that unless it deals with the violence and terrorism, its own progress will be affected.” Asked about her dealings with Islamabad’s new ambassador here in Washington, Sherry Rehman, she replied, though without much enthusiasm: “We have a civil relationship and we communicate with each other. Each ambassador is preoccupied with bilateral duties.” India and Pakistan have fought three wars since both countries won independence in 1947, although some tentative progress has been made since relations took a nosedive following the Mumbai attacks. In April, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the first visit ever by a Pakistani head of state to India. During the lowkey stop, the two leaders discussed expanding trade ties and loosening visa restrictions, with Singh saying he would visit Pakistan at some point in the future. Kashmir has also been relatively quiet, although the disputed territory, claimed by both sides, remains the most serious issue that divides the two nuclear-armed adversaries. “Jammu and Kashmir, as I’ve always told my American friends, is an integral part of India,” Rao insisted.“The situation there has been improving, although the threat of terrorism and infiltration from the Pakistani-occupied part of Kashmir continues. The people of Kashmir are citizens of India, and they want peace, development and a better life for their children.” On that score, it seems this is exactly what all of India’s citizens want — though it remains to be seen if their country is capable of delivering. According to a Gallup poll conducted in the five BRICS countries and released in early April, only 44 percent of Indian respondents said they were satisfied with their standard of living. That compares to 47 percent in South Africa, 65 percent in Brazil and 79 percent in China; only Russia, at 26 percent, ranked lower than India. And among the poorest fifth of respondents, only 27 percent said their standard of living is improving, compared to 61 percent of the richest 20 percent. Rao says she doesn’t necessarily agree with the survey. “There is definitely a revolution of rising expectations within India today. Like people everywhere, Indians, too, desire better lives for themselves and for their children,” she said. “I do not subscribe to the view, however, that the quality of life has declined in India over the years. Quite to the contrary, living standards have improved tangibly, and every decade of reform has brought a change for the better in economic conditions.” But India has a long, long, long way to go. Even though it has come incredibly far, there are concerns that India’s supersonic growth may be ebbing, with its services-based industry reaching its limits and, above all, an inefficient government bureaucracy and reluctance for further market reforms stifling future growth. (In April, Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook for India, from stable to negative, in light of the government’s inability to tackle the country’s relatively high debt and fiscal deficit.) On that note, corruption has hobbled national progress and drawn the fury of hundreds of millions of Indians fed up with entrenched graft — an issue brought to the fore last year by Anna

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June 2012

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The Bandra-Worli Sea Link opened to the public in 2009 and helps connect different suburbs and localities in the sprawling Indian city of Mumbai.

from page 14

India Hazare, a longtime activist whose hunger strike tapped widespread outrage and forced the government to create an independent anticorruption agency. Hazare’s ongoing campaign echoes the frustrations of large swaths of India’s population that feel left behind by the country’s boom. For instance, it’s estimated that half of all children under the age of 5 still suffer from malnutrition. Inequality is rampant; in Mumbai, gleaming new skyscrapers stand alongside a labyrinth of slums that are home to millions of people and reek of human waste and garbage. Even though the Indian Planning Commission says government spending has helped to slash the poverty rate from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 to 29.8 percent in 2009-10, by its own estimates, some 360 million people still live in poverty. Moreover, critics say the government vastly underestimates the poverty levels, setting the threshold artificially low, with some putting the figures as high as 800 million people (the State Department says 700 million Indians live on $2 a day or less). Rao conceded that tremendous challenges remain — as do tremendous achievements. “Alleviation of poverty is the most important priority for our government,” the ambassador told us. “We must improve literacy levels. Today the right to education is a fundamental right, and the government is committed to giving access to education for our poor people. There’s going to be a revolution in literacy. We have 700 to 800 million people voting in our elections. They’re aware what democracy brings to them, and what political parties stand for. They’re increasingly aware of the need to send their children to school. The old India is behind us. You’re looking at a country in the 21st century.” She added: “Our rate of population growth is falling. India is paying increasing attention to ensuring that expenditures in health and education go up as a percentage of our GDP. We must promote awareness of the need for people to have smaller families.” Yet India, a democracy, has no intention of adopting communist China’s forced method of population control. For years, Chinese authorities have limited married couples to one child, except in rural areas. That’s enabled China to slow its annual birthrate to 0.49 percent, which in turn has raised living standards. India’s birthrate, by comparison, clocked in at 1.34 percent last year, with one northern state, Uttar Pradesh, now home to 200 million inhabitants — more than the entire population of Brazil. Rao, who became a China expert while working in the East Asia Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, was a member of the delegation of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi when he made his historic visit to Beijing in December 1988. Today, she said, “Our relationship with China,

our largest neighbor, is no doubt complex. But we have created a management regime for this relationship that has ensured regular dialogue and ongoing negotiation to resolve outstanding issues like the boundary question. While all this is happening, trade has multiplied.” It also appears that the two giants may be moving slowly toward a solution for their border dispute in the Himalayas, which sparked a brief war in 1962. China claims about 90,000 square kilometers of what India says is its territory, mostly along their shared border in Arunachal Pradesh, east of Bhutan. “With China, we have not reached a settlement of our differences, but there is a mechanism in place to discuss this,” said Rao. She added that even though the Dalai Lama lives in New Delhi, India has no desire to infuriate Beijing by clamoring for Tibetan independence. “Our position on that is very clear,” said the ambassador. “We recognize Tibet as an autonomous region of China, and Tibetan refugees in India are not expected to indulge in any anti-Chinese activities. The Dalai Lama is a revered spiritual leader, and the Chinese are aware of our position.” Relations with another important neighbor, Bangladesh, are “excellent” these days, says Rao, despite grumblings about a double-walled, barbedwire fence India has been quietly constructing along the 4,053-kilometer length of its border with its Wisconsin-size neighbor. The forbidding fence has sparked protests in both countries, but more so in Bangladesh — many of whose 160 million inhabitants could find themselves with nowhere to go as large parts of their low-lying country disappear underneath the sea in a catastrophic climate-change scenario. According to the Indian human rights watch organization Odhikar, nearly 1,000 people of both nationalities have been gunned down by overzealous Indian border guards since 2000, including 31 last year alone. “‘In flagrant violations of international norms and treaties, Indian Border Security Forces shoot and kill unarmed Bangladeshi civilians in the border areas and,on occasion,even inside Bangladeshi territories,” says the group. Adds New York-based Human Rights Watch: “The abusive methods used by the BSF are disproportionate to the problems that the Indian government faces on its eastern border. Numerous ordinary Indian and Bangladeshi citizen residents in the border area end up as victims of abuses, which range from verbal abuse and intimidation to torture, beatings and killings. Even the most serious abuses by border guards go unpunished. This sends a clear message that the Indian government finds such abuses acceptable.” Rao admitted that there have been “incidents” along the border, but added that “our prime minister had a very good visit to Bangladesh last fall, which resulted in an understanding on settling our differences. We are putting in place an effec-

The Washington Diplomat

See india, page 20 June 2012

June 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 17

Global Vantage Point

Energy

U.S. Can Add Momentum to Sustainable Energy at Rio+20 by Nigel Purvis and Abigail Jones

lobal development depends in part on access to reliable, affordable, convenient and safe cooking fuels and electricity to power economic growth and improve living standards. People live longer, healthier and more productive lives when they don’t spend hours each day gathering fuel and breathing smoky air, and when they don’t have to stop reading, studying or working when it is dark. Today, 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity and roughly 2.7 billion are without access to clean, safe cooking fuel. Giving them access to such energy is a development imperative. At the same time, successfully confronting climate change, the impacts of which are already being felt disproportionately by the poor, will require a global shift toward sustainable energy — namely a mix of renewable energy sources, fossil fuels and energy-efficiency measures that by mid-century produce zero or minimal greenhouse gas emissions. Because unmanageable climate change risks threaten to reverse hardwon development gains, efforts to end energy poverty must be compatible with climate goals. Fortunately, the two are compatible.The International Energy Agency estimates that ending energy poverty using a mix of energy sources and policies would only increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.7 percent in 2030. Exciting things are happening on energy. Improved cook stoves, new inexpensive solar lanterns and numerous other technologies are saving lives, improving the quality of life, and creating new livelihoods in even the most impoverished, rural areas. Today, many companies and governments around the world have the technological and managerial skills and financial expertise to help address the sustainable energy challenge, while environmental and povertyoriented NGOs have large networks of supporters for whom these issues have strong resonance. What’s lacking most are creative and politically feasible partnerships to scale up these efforts and mobilize financial resources. Fortunately, the occasion of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20),

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credit: UN Photo / Eskinder Debebe

which marks the 20th anniversary of the original Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro this June, provides a useful fulcrum for lifting global ambitions. At the Rio+20 Conference, world leaders, along with some 50,000 participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, will come together and try to agree on an “outcome document” detailing ways to reduce poverty, advance social equity, and ensure environmental protection on an increasingly crowded planet.

Today, 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity and roughly 2.7 billion are without access to clean, safe cooking fuel. However, with the United States in the midst of a presidential election campaign, high unemployment rates and financial uncertainty, the nation, like many others, is squarely focused on pressing domestic challenges. There is almost no appetite for new international commitments and little pressure from U.S. constituents to deliver at Rio+20. Environmental groups are concerned primarily about domestic energy and clean air policies. Development advo-

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, right, attends the launch of “Rio+20: The Future We Want,” a campaign for people around the world to contribute to discussions on sustainability ahead of the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro this month.

cates are working hard to avoid draconian budget cuts to foreign aid programs that may flow from the deficit reduction law passed in 2011. Still, many around the world are eager for stronger U.S. leadership to advance both the vision and promise of sustainable development, and outlining a clear vision and a concrete set of policies for global sustainable development would be good U.S. foreign policy. These are important challenges, and America has much to offer if it decides to engage. To that end, we have outlined a number of politically feasible recommendations for the Obama administration and Congress to consider — ideas that would contribute to the global effort to realize sustainable energy for all at Rio+20. To begin with, the United States should support the U.N. secretary-general’s “Sustainable Energy for All” initiative (sometimes referred to as “SE4ALL”), which proposes that governments, businesses and civil society commit to three complementary goals to be achieved by 2030: 1) ensure universal access to modern energy services, 2) double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and 3) double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. While these goals lack measurability

as currently conceived (there are no baselines against which to judge progress) and perhaps also a degree of ambition if defined too loosely, new energy goals (like the Millennium Development Goals they mimic) would likely bring greater global attention to energy poverty and over time greater resources to bear on sustainable energy deployment. At Rio, therefore, the United States could at a minimum work to ensure that the international community endorses the secretary-general’s objectives and folds them into a member state-driven process to refine and expand by a date certain. Second, the United States should offer concrete ideas for how to scale up technical assistance and knowledge sharing on best-practice policies that will help channel the $5 trillion invested annually in energy infrastructure projects to sustainable alternatives. For example, the Clean Energy Solutions Center, a virtual network of experts on and tools for energy policy funded by the United States and Australia through the Clean Energy Ministerial, should be expanded. The virtual network should integrate the technical capacity of existing bricks-

The Washington Diplomat

See Rio+20, page 46 June 2012

MEDICAL

Cancer

Prostate Cancer Screening: Does It Help or Hurt Men? by Gina Shaw

or several years, one of the hottest debates in cancer screening has been the value and validity of the prostatespecific antigen (PSA) test. PSA is present in the blood serum of all men, but is often elevated with prostate cancer. But the reliability of this test as a screening tool for prostate cancer has been problematic. Last month, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) upended two decades of fairly standard medical practice by concluding that healthy men of all ages should no longer undergo routine PSA screening, saying that such testing doesn’t actually save lives and can even harm them. The group found that routine screening can at best help save the life of 1 in 1,000 men but is far more likely to lead to unnecessary biopsies and other tests, and even needless overtreatment of slow-growing, indolent cancers that may never have posed a real threat. (Surgery and radiation for prostate cancer pose the risk of incontinence and impotence.) In fact, the task force, which analyzed several large studies, found that up to 43 men for every 1,000 tested will face serious risks, with 30 to 40 developing incontinence or erectile dysfunction, or both, as a result of treatment. In addition, for every man saved by PSA screening, two more men will experience a serious cardiovascular event such as a heart attack because of treatment, and one man will develop a life-threatening blood clot in his legs or lungs. The findings reinforced draft recommendations issued last October by USPSTF, but they still sent shockwaves throughout the medical community. So, are many men and their doctors giving up on the PSA test? Hardly.In April,finance wizard Warren Buffett announced that he had been diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer after a screening test — a test that some experts have said he need not have undergone in the first place. At 81, Buffett is much more likely to die of some other cause well before a stage I prostate cancer poses any threat, but he has nonetheless begun undergoing radiation therapy for the disease. Buffett isn’t alone. In a study published in a letter in the April 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, investigators from the University of Chicago Medical Center and UCLA found that nearly half of all men over 75 receive PSA screening tests, even though this age group is least likely to benefit from the testing. The USPSTF had recommended against regular PSA screening for men over 75 as far back as 2008. But between that year and 2010, the number of older men receiving PSA tests actually increased—from 43 percent to 43.9 percent. Coincidentally, a related study appeared in the April 19 online edition of the journal Cancer. A survey of doctors in the Johns Hopkins Community Physicians Group found that only about half agreed or strongly agreed with the draft guidelines on PSA screening. Those studies were released prior to the recommendations by USPSTF that were published online May 21 in Annals of Internal Medicine. Still, resistance to change remains widespread. “Change is hard,” Dr. Michael L. LeFevre, co-vice chairman of the task force and professor of family and community medicine at the University of Missouri, told the New York Times. “It’s hard for all of us, both within and outside the

Photo: Yuri Arcurs / bigstock

Investigators found that nearly half of all men over 75 receive PSA screening tests, even though this age group is least likely to benefit from the testing. medical profession, to accept that not all cancers need to be detected or treated, and that there are harms associated with screening and not just benefits.” This reaction echoes the backlash among many ob-gyns and breast cancer experts to similar recommendations issued by the USPSTF regarding mammograms for women between the ages of 40 and 50. In 2009, the task force issued a recommendation against the longstanding practice of baseline mammograms at age 40 and suggested that routine screening mammography should only start at age 50. (Somewhat less reported but equally controversial, they also recommended against teaching women breast self-examination.) Reports since then suggest that the new recommendations have confused women and their doctors rather than being seen as helpful. So are the new PSA guidelines correct, or will they too cause more confusion? Some prostate cancer experts agree with the guidelines, but others point out that the USPSTF incorporated the results of three randomized clinical trials that did not demonstrate any benefit for PSA screening, while ignoring at least one significant trial — the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer — that did show a benefit, indicating that PSA screening cuts prostate cancer deaths by 20 percent. In February, the debate made the pages of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, as two leading voices in prostate cancer argued a point-counterpoint on the new draft recommendations. Richard Ablin, professor of pathology at the University of Arizona-Tucson and the origi-

June 2012

nal discoverer of the PSA marker, came out in support of the task force guidelines, writing that the “controversy and debate of PSA screening were predictable from the onset and should have never in all actuality occurred, nor should have the tragedy of the resulting overdiagnosis and overtreatment in excess of a million men in the United States.” On the opposite side, Dr. William Catalona, professor of urology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, writes, “Nearly all urologists and most internists support PSA screening, but because of extensive media coverage, a change in clinical practice is likely and fewer patients will opt to be tested.” He further notes that PSA screening “is the best screening test we have for the early diagnosis of prostate cancer; for now, no other way to identify prostate cancer in its curable stages exists.” So where does that leave men and their doctors considering whether or not to do routine PSA screening? Probably just about as confused as women and their doctors wondering about mammography and breast self-exams. And the answer to their bewilderment should be the same: A recommendation is only a recommendation, not a mandate. Nobody’s banning PSA screening. While it’s too early to tell, the take-home for both prostate and breast cancer screening may well be that risk for these relatively more common cancers, particularly among people who don’t fall into known high-risk groups (like women with a strong family history of breast cancer), is a very individual thing, and you really can’t make decisions about the kind of screening that’s right for you based solely on blanket recommendations from a large, nationally focused group. Don’t ignore the guidelines, but don’t make them your sole deciding factor, either. Some men may be much more afraid of a slight risk of developing cancer than they are of impotence or continence problems; other men might feel exactly the opposite. When considering any screening test like this, your best starting point is to talk in detail with your doctor and try to come to a decision that feels right for you. Gina Shaw is the medical writer for The Washington Diplomat. The Washington Diplomat Page 19

from page 9

Egypt

from page 12

Asylum refuge — by President George Bush, no less — and after a year living in a windowless embassy room, the couple was allowed to leave China as part of negotiations between U.S. and Chinese authorities. Fang died this past April 6 at his home in Tucson, Arizona. Still, as Chen’s case demonstrated, decisions of these sorts, especially when they involve complex relationships, often rise to the highest levels of the State Department and are balanced against broader strategic interests. According to the New York Times, negotiations over Chen’s permanence at the embassy involved the State Department’s senior-most legal advisor. Moreover, U.S. posts have to consider the practical realities of offering sanctuary to dissidents. “Granting a walk-in temporary refuge in an embassy or other USG facility may actually increase the danger to an individual, particularly in hostile countries and if the individual is a host-country national. The longer the person remains, the more likely the host government will become aware of the request for temporary refuge and possibly take retaliatory action,” said the 2009 cable. A final consideration — but one that is extremely important, say diplomats — is the perception that U.S. embassies and consulates are havens for all matter of dissidents, political activists and regular people seeking to escape their own countries. During a congressional hearing in 1981 on a bill that would have granted the “Siberian Seven” visas to travel to the United States and counted their time in

Photo: U.S. Embassy in Beijing

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton participates in last month’s U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which was dominated by the case of blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. The New York Times reported that Clinton made no requests during the talks, but made it clear that she would have to speak about the case before the press. Within hours, the Chinese released a statement that Chen could travel to study abroad.

the embassy as time served toward gaining U.S.citizenship,the State Department worried about the future implications of such a move. “[T]he effect from the Soviet point of view would indeed be to set a precedent,” said Thomas W. Simons, director of the Office of Soviet Union Affairs, during his testimony on the bill.“They cannot avoid the specter, I think, of very many people being heartened by a precedent, and sitting in foreign embassies until they are allowed directly out of the country.” On that note, the State Department’s 2009 cable again provides guidance:

“Temporary refuge may never be granted to foreign nationals who simply wish to immigrate to the United States or evade local criminal law.” Martin Austermuhle is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and editor in chief of DCist.com.

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most comfortable dealing with Moussa, as a known commodity, but they also believe that the United States could do business with any of the three candidates. “If Morsi or Aboul Fotouh wins, there will be some hand wringing in the U.S.,” Brown said.“But at the same time, in Washington, there’s now a little more familiarity with the Brotherhood, so there will be some nervousness, but I don’t think it will lead to the sudden recoiling in horror, like with the Hamas election, but rather a more measured, wait-and-see response.” Many liberals believe that the country’s two most powerful institutions, the Muslim Brotherhood and the military, will hatch some sort of deal to share power, but others are doubtful that an agreement could take shape. The Islamist-dominated Parliament has rejected the military council’s economic plan, and it’s unclear how the two sides can bridge their differences. Whoever wins the presidency, one of their first tasks will be to revive Egypt’s moribund economy.Tourists have trickled back into the country, with arrivals so far this year tripling over last year, but are still well below their pre-revolution peak. Moreover, unemployment and inflation are up, the state’s foreign reserves are dwindling, and a $3.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund has been held up. Despite the economic and political turmoil, a recent Pew Research Center report found that two-thirds of Egyptians consider democracy preferable to any other form of government, though six in 10 also consider law and order a very important priority. Moreover, most Egyptians remain “optimistic” about the country’s prospects and “embrace democracy and religion in political life.” Likewise, Shehata is optimistic about Egypt’s future and believes that the election will be an important bellwether, not just for Egypt, but also for the wider region. “This is the most populous Arab country, it’s very important politically and strategically, and it will affect the direction or the perception of what’s happened over the last 15 months,” he said. “If there can be democratic elections in Egypt and if a president comes to office as a result of popular will and that president seems to have some authority and things are moving in a positive direction, that sends a message to people not only in Syria but also in the Gulf countries, Sudan and Jordan that there might be some pain and some setbacks, but this is the direction of the future and that change can happen.” Dave Seminara is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and a former diplomat based in Northern Virginia.

from page 16

India tive border management regime that will prevent any complicated situations from occurring.” As India expands its economic influence around the world, it’s also beginning to extend economic aid not only to Bangladesh but also to other smaller, poorer countries like Afghanistan, Djibouti and Burma. “It’s time to start thinking of India not as a beneficiary of the world’s charity but as a major donor,” argue India experts Rani Mullen and Sumit Ganguly, writing in Foreign Policy magazine. “Indian foreign assistance has not only tripled since the turn of the century — with foreign aid by the five BRICS countries growing 10 times faster than aid by G-7 countries — but it has also grown in terms of the diversity of recipients.” The article, titled “The Rise of India’s Soft Power,” points out that after a decade of nearly 9 percent annual growth, India is for the first time in a position to provide direct cash transfers and subsidized loans. “India’s assistance effort is clearly enmeshed into a larger set of foreignpolicy goals: ensuring secure sources of energy for an expanding economy, opening markets for India’s increasingly export-oriented industrial and service sectors, and bolstering geostrategic ties with key neighbors.” Meanwhile, Rao said her government is investing a mind-boggling $1 trillion in infrastructure at home over the next five years, which is double what India spent in the last five.That money will go mainly toward the development of rail-

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Photo: Pete Souza / The White House

President Barack Obama addresses the Indian Parliament in New Delhi during a visit in November 2010. Relations between the United States and India, the world’s largest democracy, were significantly improved under former President George W. Bush and have remained strong under Obama.

ways, airports, highways, bridges and mass transport throughout India. She’s also gung-ho about a recent flurry of visits by U.S. state governors to her country, most recently by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Last December’s visit by O’Malley and 100 executives resulted in $60 million worth of business deals for Maryland companies ranging from software development to pharmaceutical manufacturing. “A number of delegations from states in both countries are reaching out to each other,” she

said. “A lot of them now want to develop sisterstate relationships.” To that end, Rao says she’s also doing all she can to push U.S. tourism to India — a task no doubt made easier by such popular movies as Danny Boyle’s 2008 drama “Slumdog Millionaire,” the more recent chick flick “Eat Pray Love” starring Julia Roberts, and the 2012 British comedy “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” with Judi Dench and Tom Wilkinson. A slick magazine published by the Ministry of External Affairs and distributed by the Indian Embassy in Washington has full-color articles

promoting such adventures as bird-watching in Kaziranga National Park, enjoying big-game safaris in the Sunderbans — habitat of the royal Bengal tiger — and skiing at Rohtang La, a snowy Himalayan resort that at 14,000 feet above sea level boasts the highest motorable road in the world. “It would be nice to see more young Americans discover India,” Rao said. “The love of a country really grows when you see it as a young person and you keep going back, again and again. India is fascinating in terms of its diversity. Each region, each state is different from the other. It requires a lifetime to understand India.” Despite all the progress India has made, however, it won’t matter much over the long term unless fertility rates decline substantially, especially in impoverished states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The Washington-based Population Reference Bureau (PRB) says those two states have a fertility rate of 4.3 per woman — more than twice that of Rao’s native Kerala, where per-capita income and educational levels are substantially higher. Here’s a frightening thought:According to the experts at PRB, India’s population will approach 1.8 billion by 2050 and may even exceed 2 billion by 2100 — making it the world’s first, and only, country ever to reach that dubious distinction. Asked whether she thinks that’s likely, Ambassador Rao, whose diplomatic career spans more three decades, quipped:“I wouldn’t bet my money on that.” Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat

June 2012

LIVING L U X U R Y

■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

ExtrEmE MALL makEovEr akEovEr

■ June 2012

ILLuSTRATIoN: MAxIM KAzMIN / FoToLIA

LUXURY LIVING June 2012

by Veronika Oleksyn

White Flint Redevelopment Aims To Bring European Style to Suburbia

The Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. Madrid’s Plaza de Santa Ana. The Piazza Navona in Rome. Not really what comes to mind when you think of American shopping centers. But if all goes according to plan, Maryland’s White Flint Mall, an aging concrete complex off congested Rockville Pike, could soon resemble these European landmarks. At least a little. Continued on next page

The Washington Diplomat Page 21

Continued from previous page A sweeping redevelopment proposal for the 34-year-old institution envisions a mix of stores, residences, outdoor cafés and even a promenade in place of a strip of sidewalk where pedestrians currently fear being run over. It’s all part of a wider scheme to revamp an area north of Bethesda marred by traffic, strip malls, big box stores and fast food outlets. It’s also part of the larger “smart growth” trend to reverse decades of carcentric suburban sprawl in America and build more walkable, and livable, communities — bringing the benefits of compact urban living to suburbia (also see “Neighborhood Reinvention: Region Banks on Smart Growth to Turn Suburban Sprawl Into Mixed-Use Mecca” in the December 2010 Luxury Living section of The Washington Diplomat). Two years ago, the Montgomery County Council unanimously approved the White Flint Sector Plan to radically transform the 430acre area surrounding the White Flint Metro station, situated on the Red Line less than half an hour from downtown Washington, over the next two to three decades.The idea is to cluster a new kind of town center around mass public transportation, with easy walking and NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and biking access. content it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. “This Sector Plan vision establishes policies for transforming an auto-oriented suburban development pattern into an urban center of Developers plan to eventually remake White Flint Mall, whose residences and businesses where people walktwo to work, transit and shop, The first faxed changes will” says be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes glory days have long passed, into a pedestrian-friendly oasis of the document.“White Flint will be a place where different lifestyles converge will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed ads are considered approved. stores, residences, outdoor cafés, green spaces and even a to make urban living interesting and exciting.” promenade in place of asphalt parking lots. The makeover of White Flint Mall, which at aboutcheck 45 acresthis comprises Please ad carefully. Mark any changes to your ad. In February, the owners filed a so-called sketch plan more than 10 percent of the Sector Plan’s surface area, is being billed as an application with the Montgomery County Planning integral part of this transformation. theasadMadlen is correct andoffax (301) 949-0065 needs changes Department containing details of their proposed endeavThat’s no surprise to expertsIfsuch Simon,sign director theto: architecture program at the University of Maryland, who noted that to stay relevant in this or, to be implemented in four phases. The on Washington (301)online. 933-3552Although it may still take years to gain the necessary approvals for construction to Internet age, malls must focus more what peopleDiplomat can’t get from shopping “I think the U.S. mall has to reinvent itself in order to survive,” said Simon, who is begin, the sketch plan paints a vastly different picture to the current panorama — a also an associate professor.“TheApproved mall has to __________________________________________________________ be a place where people can live, where boxy amalgamation of anchor stores such as Bloomingdale’s and Lord & Taylor that in people can work, where people can eat and come face to face with their fellow citi- their heyday were considered a sleek shopping destination. But those days have long Changes ___________________________________________________________ since passed. zens.” Bloomingdale’s and Lord & Taylor, which independently own their real estate space, That’s precisely what Lerner___________________________________________________________________ Enterprises and the Tower Cos., owners of the mall, could reopen in the new project (though Bloomies already shuttered its doors this have in mind for White Flint.

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spring) and talks are under way with the mall’s other tenants, but from what details have been released so far, it’s clear that developers plan to reinvent White Flint — or “demall” it, as they put it. For one, the structure of the compound would fundamentally change to integrate office and retail space, as well as a 300-room hotel and roughly 2,460 residential units. Buildings would vary in height and be interspersed with greenery and open areas. In all, 850,000 square feet of mall space would be replaced by 5.2 million square feet of new development, including 1 million square feet of office space, 1 million square feet for retail, and nearly 3 million square feet of residential space. It would essentially be a brand new town. “The project aims to transform an aging retail shopping mall into a lively, mixed-use development complete with exciting public amenities and green spaces, and an expanded road network that creates walkable blocks,” states the sketch plan. With parking spots to be moved largely from traditional and space-eating lots to below ground, bike lanes are being factored in, as are wide sidewalks. A key family-friendly public space would be dedicated to a 2.1-

acre Central Piazza inspired in part by the Luxembourg Gardens in the French capital and complete with a fountain and outdoor café seating, as well as gathering places. At the moment, diners seated outside the P.F. Chang’s China Bistro overlook an asphalt parking lot. Another area, to be known as Neighborhood Plaza, is to be modeled on the Plaza de Santa Ana in Madrid, Spain. Along Rockville Pike, a “grand boulevard effect” would be created through, among other things, street-level stores and eating establishments. Developers say a so-called Gateway Plaza will be inspired by the Piazza Navona in Rome, as well as downtown Chicago’s Michigan Avenue and the Gateway Towers at LAX Airport in Los Angeles. The plans also foresee about 2.3 acres being used to expand the White Flint Neighborhood Park. Meanwhile, the creation of an elementary school is under consideration to serve as a “community gathering place for families from established and future residential development,” according to the proposal. Mall owners aren’t saying much more for

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Continued from previous page the moment apart from highlighting that, as yet, they have no specific timeline due to an “extended planning and approval process.” “The plan recognizes a desire for more green space, underground parking, pedestrian access, an environmentally friendly development,” Lerner Enterprises, one of the owners, said in an emailed statement that also noted steps will be taken to ensure a smooth transition for mall tenants and the community. The Montgomery County Planning Board is tentatively scheduled to consider the sketch plan at its June 7 meeting, according to Valerie Berton, communications manager for the Montgomery County Planning Department. She described sketch plans as preliminary applications that lay out general goals of a project and list amenities the developer plans to provide. Berton went on to explain that the White Flint Mall redevelopment is in an area known as a Commercial Residential Zone that came into being with the 2010 White Flint Sector Plan. Among the list of amenities it requires for the public are parking, affordable housing, day or adult care centers, historic resource protection, public space and vegetated roofs, she wrote in an email. So what do locals think about all this? During a Nov. 16 town hall meeting about the development, members of the public had the chance to voice their concerns and ask questions. According to minutes compiled by the law firm Lerch Early & Brewer, the roughly 150 community members at the gathering “seemed generally supportive” of the proposed plan. A Nov. 17 Gazette.Net report, meanwhile, described reactions as mixed, “with most agreeing the shopping center needs to be updated but also expressing concern that the large-scale project would be too disruptive.” Changes are unlikely to happen overnight. As a representative of Lerner Enterprises told the Nov.16 gathering, the sketch plan is only the first of three major phases in the development approval process. Right across the street from the mall, however, the change is already visible with the recently built North Bethesda Market community of residences, shops and restaurants. Among the swanky new additions: the health-conscious eatery Seasons 52, LA Fitness, Arhaus Furniture, Brio Tuscan Grille and — the ultimate harbinger of urbanization — a Whole Foods Market. Just across the street but seemingly a world away, White Flint Mall was largely empty on a recent weekday afternoon. With elevator music playing in the background, an elderly woman lounged in a chair relishing an ice cream cone. Nearby, a

Photo: Montgomery County Planning Department

The proposed development of North Bethesda Market II, above, is part of a larger plan to remake the area north of Bethesda, Md., into a greener, more walkable — and livable — town center community.

mother pushed a stroller while a giggling group of teenage school girls headed for the exit. Every so often, a fairground train carrying a handful of young children did the rounds, hardly needing to honk due to a lack of foot traffic. When asked about the redevelopment plans, most patrons appeared to consider them the best way forward. Others seemed disinterested or unaware of what was in the works. “I wouldn’t mind if it was gone,” said 26-year-old Philip Jones while chatting outside the main entrance. He lamented the lack of a skateboard store and described what was on offer as too high end. “I think it’s a great idea,” senior Helen Snyder said of the plans alongside her husband, Herb, in the partially filled parking lot. “I think the outside kinds of malls are very pretty.” Veronika Oleksyn is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

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culture & arts

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GUt Reaction

THEATER

ART

Wild ‘Shrew’ The Folger Theatre shrewdly places Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” in a Wild West setting to tame the play’s overt misogyny. PAGE 29

THEATER

Uncivil ‘Carnage’ “God of Carnage” strips away the veneer of civility to expose the darkness that lurks in the hearts and minds of even the most “evolved” adults. PAGE 30

The work of the great Spanish artist Joan Miró is swamped in almost every artistic “ism” of the 20th century — surrealism, magical realism, cubcub ism, primitivism, to name a few. But two new exhibits showshow case Miró’s most important “ism”: his humanism, as he reacted to the turmoil around him. PAGE 28

EVENTS

Hole in One Great golfing, Moroccan culture, dozens of diplomats and tons of prizes made for a swinging good time at the eighth annual Embassy Golf Tournament. PAGE 31 Photo: Centre PomPidou, musée national d’ art moderne, Paris

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[ art ]

Revolutionary Mirrór Joan Miró’s Multifaceted Art Reflected Turbulent World by Gary Tischler

[ Page 28

he life and work of the great Spanish artist Joan Miró (1893-1983) is almost swamped in every artistic “ism” of the 20th century — surrealism, magical realism, cubism, primitivism, expressionism, Fauvism, to name a few. Yet the Barcelona-born painter, sculptor and ceramicist insisted he was a “self-taught amateur” to express his contempt for convention, constantly experimenting and innovating in what he famously described as an “assassination of painting” to upend the establishment. “Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape,” the new and comprehensive exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, alongside a smaller exhibition at the Kreeger Museum, showcase Miró’s most fundamental and important “ism”: his humanism. We see this as he responds to the world around him, both in his travels and amidst the turmoil of the 20th century, all while anchored in the root of his unfailing devotion, his native Catalonia. Even in all of his sojourns and passionate embraces of modernism’s many guises and genres, Miró never truly escaped the often turbulent and tragic world in which he lived. But he does answer a basic question about modernism and abstraction: How much content can you squeeze into works of art when you’re deconstructing them, while on a mission of “assassinating” art? Quite a lot, as it turns out in Miró’s case — so much so that the more than 120 works in the National Gallery of Art belt out a siren song that’s impossible to ignore. Miró never leaves content out or behind, though the pieces still coalesce into a singular mosaic of thought and emotion. Nevertheless, the abstraction can be puzzling — the jarring, brusque lines, whimsical shapes and rich landscapes that carry the weight of metaphor and meaning, the punch of intent and passion. Miró became known for the fantastical works that resonate in dreamlike fashion on the canvas like children’s music, but he was never merely being playful. There’s always a darker edge to his whimsical, Alexander Calder-like constructions. “The Ladder of Escape” (a reference to Miró’s retreat to the beautiful, dreamlike works that let him escape from the battles around him) is very much about how the artist related and reacted to the world at large. And that world was messy, as Miró confronted the often visceral and violent politics that swept across Photo: ColleCtion oF emilio Fernández his homeland, from the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s to the decades-long dictatorship Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape of Francisco Franco, not to mention two World Wars. Throughout the upheaval, through aug. 12 Miró’s rock was his love of Spain and speNational Gallery of Art cifically his native Catalonia, settling in on the national mall between 3rd and 9th streets 1940 on the island of Mallorca, where he at Constitution avenue, nW created some of his most pointed commenFor more information, please call (202) 737-4215 tary on war. or visit www.nga.gov. Miró’s father wanted him to be a businessman, but the budding artist recoiled from that prospect to the point of having a nervous breakdown as a teenager. Instead, he spent summers in the coastal Catalan village of Mont-roig, an area that became an early favorite subject for his paintings, which in this period were rich in physical, powerful, emotive detail. The most famous of these is “The Farm,” a painting that contains of a number of those isms — cubism, abstraction and primitivism. But at its heart, it was a stunningly authentic

]

The Washington Diplomat

Joan Miró’s famous painting “the Farm,” above, is on display at the national Gallery of art exhibit “Joan miró: the ladder of escape” alongside works such as “help spain!,” left, and miró’s self-portrait, far left, as well as the sculpture “object of sunset,” pictured on the culture cover.

vision of Miró’s memories. At least that’s what Ernest Hemingway thought. He bought the painting shortly after it was done and wrote of it in typical Hemingway style: “It has in it all you feel about Spain, when you are there, and all that you feel when you are away and cannot go there” — a faint echo of Hemingway’s own paean to Spain in his Spanish Civil War novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Spain was also the landscape for some of Photo: the museum oF modern art, neW york Miró’s most engrossing, powerful works — a confused cauldron of dictators and elected governments on the right and left lashing out against one another and battling for the nation’s soul. The Spanish Civil War attracted fighters to both sides of the conflict, including American liberal spirits like Hemingway, not to mention the Soviet Union, as well as fascists and Nazis from Italy and Germany. The dictators used Spain like a proving ground for new weapons like tanks, and airplanes — witness the near destruction of Guernica. In the end, Franco (and fascism) emerged as more or less the permanent victor of a war that figured strongly in the imagination of artists such as Hemingway, Miró, Federico García Lorca and Pablo Picasso. In fact, Picasso’s iconic image of Guernica, with its simple, stark lines, has become an enduring image of the conflict. But if you look at Miró’s body of work here, you see the passion of the struggle, its large-scale and wholesale tragedy that are the ghosts in the attic of a generation of Spaniards and certainly Catalans like Miró.

see Miro, page 33 June 2012

[ theater ]

Wild West ‘Shrew’ Bard’s Battle of Sexes Shotguns Its Way to American Frontier by Lisa Troshinsky

taging Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” for modern audiences (in this case, anyone born after the witch trials in Salem) can prove to be “tricky,” at best, admitted award-winning director Aaron Posner of the Folger Theatre. A play that can be construed as glorifying misogyny by its theme, and even its title, makes audiences, at best, uncomfortable. So what is Posner to do? He cleverly does the following: He turns the script into a parody, which beefs up its comic character and tones down the unfortunate portrayal of life for oppressed Elizabethan women. Posner plunks down his cast of crazy characters and plotlines into the Wild West, where swarthy, drunken, lusty, power-hungry men are handsome, brave and heroic, while their meek, obedient women are the backbone of a blossoming America. How can any true-blooded American get seriously bothered by the political incorrectness of a Western? Staging “Shrew” as a Western is not a novel idea; it’s been done before for logical reasons. “The mythological ‘Old West’ was a place where power and money ruled. And law was still … flexible,” explained Posner.“The Wild West of gunslingers, shootouts, stampedes and cowboys is deep in our national psyche. I find a lot of that wonderful, mythic, rough-and-tumble spirit in this play.” It does work well in the Bard’s quintessential battle-of-the-sexes comedy, as the spirited Katherine, i.e. the “Shrew,” is “tamed” by Petruchio, who has agreed to woo and marry Katherine as a favor to his old friend Hortensio, who in turn is in love with Bianca, Katherine’s younger and more popular sister. Kate Eastwood Norris as Katherine, above left, and Cody Nickell as Petruchio Posner ups the ante in the Folger production with the origisquare off in a Wild West take on Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” nal compositions of singer-songwriter Cliff Eberhardt, who’s been twanging out his soulful and bluesy guitar solos since the At left, Bianca (Sarah Mollo-Christensen) is wooed by suitors Hortensio (Marcus 1970s. Eberhardt plays the Blind Balladeer, fixed at the piano in Kyd, foreground) and Lucentio (Thomas Keegan, in window) in the Folger the back of a bar room, who serves the role of a Shakespearean Theatre production of “The Taming of the Shrew.” chorus that comments and narrates the plot and character anger management problems but a depression witnessed in the beginemotions. Here’s a sample of his editorializing in verse:“I need ning of the play when she’s drowning her sorrows in a whiskey bottle. a little kick/I need a little bite/I need a little push/And I need a Handsome, mustached Nickell is her convincing match as the macho little shove/Or it doesn’t really feel like love.” Not exactly the Western bruiser known as Petruchio. Bard’s poetry, but it does the job. The rest of the cast is well rounded. Southern-drawled and humorous Besides adding a character to the play, Posner takes other Danny Scheie is Grumio, Petruchio’s trusty, flamboyant servant. Craig licenses by using a little gender-bending in the casting — a Wallace commands the stage in his smaller role of Gremio, a wealthy, staple of Shakespeare’s works. elder suitor to Bianca. And Sarah Mollo-Christensen makes for an Posner recasts the role of Bianca and Katherine’s mild-manangelic and diminutive Bianca. nered father Baptista into their whiskey-chugging, shotgunThe play’s Wild West theme was inspired by the HBO series wielding mother, hilariously played by D.C. funny woman Sarah “Deadwood,” which is aptly reflected in Tony Cisek’s 1800s-era tavern Marshall. This makes sense given that Posner molds sharpset. Petruchio makes his entrances by busting through swinging saloon tempered Katherine into an aggressive Annie Oakley type who doors, Bianca and her suitors canoodle on the floor behind a wellfollows in her mother’s forceful footsteps while engaging in a Photo: jeff malet stocked bar, dowry deals are clinched chugging moonshine on bar major power play with her.When all other characters pull stools, and a would-be husband of Bianca’s tumbles down a long, out their pistols to stage a duel, Baptista trumps them all The Taming of the Shrew wooden staircase after a drunken brawl. All of the action takes with an unwieldy rifle. through June 10 place beneath a monstrous chandelier decorated with antlers. Tranio, who is traditionally cast as the male servant to Folger Theatre A fine balance between frontier motif and Elizabethan threads is Lucentio, Bianca’s wealthy suitor, is played by the talented 201 East Capitol St., SE found in Helen Huang’s costumes. Western cowboy boots, vests, Holly Twyford, who later disguises herself as Lucentio and Tickets are $39 to $65. holsters and hats accompany Shakespearian feathers, lace, gowns convincingly swaggers around the stage in a mustache and ruffles.This mix is emphasized in Petruchio’s gift to Katherine and smart suit. For more information, please call (202) 544-7077 of an exquisite Elizabethan gown accented by riding pants and Posner’s gender play ingeniously parallels Shakespeare’s or visit www.folger.edu. cowboy boots and hat. role reversals at the play’s end where Katherine becomes Shakespeare traditionalists could argue that the Western genre overpowers the Bard’s obedient and Bianca turns ornery. This begs the essential question: What does one’s delicate and heady poetry and nuances. They’re right insofar as this theme eventually gender really mean and how should it dictate behavior? The leads are played by real-life married partners Kate Eastwood Norris, as explosive wears itself out like a well-worn joke. But all in all, the similarities of the two worlds — Katherine, and Cody Nickell, as her betrothed, mad man Petruchio.They have, as can be one in early England and the other in early America — are great enough to warrant their expected, an instant physical and emotional chemistry on stage, and manage to pull off union in this rousing, ambitious and entertaining endeavor. the impression of true affection between the characters by the play’s end. Tall, statuesque, blond Norris makes a feisty and imposing Katherine, who is given to not only Lisa Troshinsky is the theater reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

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June 2012

Photo: Carol Pratt

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The Washington Diplomat Page 29

[ theater ]

Eviscerating ‘Carnage’ Reza’s Dark Comedy Savagely Strips Away Pretense of Civility by Michael Coleman

[ Page 30

n the opening scene of Signature Theatre’s “God of Carnage,” two sets of seemingly civilized parents sit in the living room of an elegant New York apartment trying to come to terms with a violent playground dispute between their two young sons. After less than a minute of dialogue, at which point one parent accuses the others’ child of being “armed” with a stick, it’s clear that the schoolyard brawl will erupt into a battle of another sort. What isn’t clear — at least not yet — is that the adult confrontation will eventually make the children’s skirmish seem harmless by comparison. “God of Carnage,” a fiercely funny one-act play by Yasmina Reza, exposes the darkness that lurks in the hearts and minds of even the most “evolved” adults. (Earlier this year, it was released as a film directed by Roman Polanski and reviewed in the January 2012 issue of The Washington Diplomat.) With taut direction by Joe Calarco, deft character development in Reza’s script and vivid, energetic acting, “God of Carnage” keeps us entertained for its full 75 minutes. Photos: sCott suChman As with Signature’s recent production of Above from left, Vanessa lock and Paul morella as alan and annette raleigh Reza’s “Art,” the characters in “Carnage” engage in a heated war of words with the novaks, played by naomi Jacobson repeatedly eviscerate each other with a sin- and andy Brownstein, in “God of Carnage” at Virginia’s signature theatre. gle, sarcastic quip. “Carnage” is centered entirely on the living room conversation among the two rally teaming up against each other. couples: Michael and Veronica Novak (he sells home supplies, she writes books But it’s clear from the rolling of about international trouble spots like Darfur) and Alan and Annette Raleigh (he’s both women’s eyes when the men a lawyer for a pharmaceutical company, she’s a wealth manager). The urbane are speaking — and the way the professionals, meeting with the best of intentions over coffee and pastry, immedi- men mock the women’s concerns ately stumble as they try to reach consensus on how to resolve a fight in which — that resentments abound. the Raleighs’ son smacked the Novaks’ with a stick, knocking two of his teeth out. At various points, the women The accusation that the Raleigh kid was “armed” sets off a verbal tug of war in team up on the men, the men on which sophisticated semantics repeatedly reveal cloaked aggression. the women and briefly, the spous“We’re eccentric enough to believe in the soothing power of culture,”Veronica es even switch sides in battle. — played high-minded and full of self-regard by Naomi Jacobson — condescendStaged in Signature’s smaller, ingly tells the Raleighs when they inquire about her books, for example. 115-seat ARC theatre, this producVeronica wants the Raleigh child to apolo- tion feels especially intimate, as if gize to her son, and to “mean it.” That triggers you are sitting on an adjacent God of Carnage an exasperated response from Alan, an aggres- couch at a friend’s house observthrough June 24 sive, shrewd corporate attorney who reveals ing in quiet horror, although the Signature Theatre slippery ethics during a series of client phone Signature audience was rather 4200 Campbell ave., arlington, Va. calls that he obnoxiously takes on his cell vocal, laughing and hissing in equal measure at the acerbic action onstage. phone. Alan seems to think that the kids’ fight tickets are $56 to $80. Although the dialogue is bracing and at times almost vicious, there is a catharwas simply kids being kids. tic quality about the honesty of the exchanges. It’s also impressive (and maybe a For more information, please call (703) 820-9771 Michael, a beefy man with a working-class bit unbelievable) that strangers would say these things to each other — and listen or visit www.signature-theatre.org. New York accent, seems to think so, as well, to and absorb the insults — without someone storming out. The Raleighs do try although he obviously has sympathy for his son and views the Raleighs as insuf- to leave on a couple of occasions, but are coaxed into staying by the Novaks, who ferably pretentious. Michael, effectively portrayed by Andy Brownstein as the hope to find resolution. play’s most sympathetic character early on, eventually reveals his more aggressive As the play progresses, courtesies are abandoned and truths emerge. inner nature after he introduces a bottle of rum to the proceedings. “Courtesy is a waste of time,” Veronica bellows at one point. “It weakens and All of the actors in “Carnage” are skilled and convincing, but Paul Morella’s Alan undermines you.” Raleigh is especially good. He plays the character with a mix of arrogance, intel“Life is a struggle until you die,” Alan says at another point in the play. ligence and a kind of smarmy charm, his slim physique and perfectly tailored suit Indeed, once the veneer of civility is stripped away in “God of Carnage,” we see bolstering the character’s believability. His wife Annette is also rendered effec- these characters as the sad and empty people they really are. It might not be tively as something of an ice queen by Vanessa Lock. pretty, but it makes for riveting theater. One of the play’s most interesting aspects, aside from the rapid-fire verbal volleying, is the way the allegiances repeatedly shift. At first, the couples are natu- Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat

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June 2012

EVENTS

Annual Embassy Golf Tournament Offers Break from Beltway Grind

Who says you can’t mix work with pleasure? the Washington diplomat has been successfully doing it for eight years at its annual embassy Golf tournament, offering the diplomatic community a much-needed break from the Beltway grind. the tournament, held this year on may 4, regularly attracts more than 150 participants for a leisurely game of golf at Cross Creek Golf Club in maryland. ambassadors, diplomats, members of Congress, u.s. government officials and business leaders also enjoy a sun-filled day (eight years in a row — thanks to the weather gods) of networking, international culture, fabulous food, and tons of high-end prizes and goodies. above all, the embassy Golf tournament offers participants a chance to relax and drop their diplomatic guard. embassy teams deck out their golf carts with their national flags or proudly don their national colors in the friendly competition. in addition to embassy representation by nations ranging from Britain to laos to zimbabwe, various businesses and corporations have generously supported the tournament over the years, including this year’s sponsor Visa, as well as the Willard interContinental hotels, Johns hopkins medicine and royal air maroc. dozens of ambassadors have also attended over the years, with moroccan ambassador rachad Bouhlal, an avid golfer, serving as this year’s honorary diplomatic host. Past hosts have included envoys from Canada, south africa and kazakhstan. Bouhlal was joined by fellow ambassadors such as João Vale de almeida of the european union, ali aujali of libya, John NO INTEREST Beale of Barbados, hem heng of Cambodia, Gudmundur arni For 12 Months stefansson of iceland, and many others. AME AS CASH! With approved credit in fact, the winner of this year’s tournament was a seand minimum purchase of soned pro: erlan idrissov, ambassador of kazakhstan, who $4000 APR 23.97% took the best ball honors along with his foursome teammates: Jason yuan, head of the taipei economic and Cultural representative office, u.s. rep. dan Burton (r-ind.), and douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie For more endowment for international Peace. photos, another tournament veteran won for being closest to the see page pin for women, receiving a rejuvenation session at millennium 44 or to view all the photos medical spa: l.e. Bhutto, nigeria’s ambassador to the from the Embassy Golf Bahamas, who regularly flies in to play in the annual comTournament, be sure to like petition. The Washington other awards and prizes included a stay at the state Plaza Diplomat on and Fairfax at embassy row hotels, aged rum donated by the Facebook. ambassador of Barbados, an iPad and a 42-inch flat-screen lCd television donated by mhz networks. But the ultimate raffle freebie was two trips to morocco courtesy of the embassy and royal air maroc, with luxury accommodations at the mamounia hotel in marrakesh and Palais Faraj suites & spa in Fez. the lucky recipients: angelique rutledge of the netherlands embassy and eu ambassador João Vale de almeida, who won after two other raffle numbers were called but the participants had just left. lesson to be learned: always stay till the end of the party when prizes are involved. at the conclusion of the dinner reception, ambassador Bouhlal even suggested holding next year’s embassy Golf tournament in morocco — a suggestion we’re quite tempted to take him up on! — Anna Gawel

see

Photos: JessiCa latos

From left, Ambassador of the European Union João Vale de Almeida, Ambassador of Libya Ali Aujali, Ambassador of Morocco Rachad Bouhlal, and Maryland Secretary of State John McDonough eye the put at The Washington Diplomat’s eighth annual Embassy Golf Tournament, where Ambassador Bouhlal served as this year’s honorary diplomatic host.

From left, John Phipps, senior director of global government relations at Visa, a corporate sponsor of the tournament, and Ambassador Michael Samuels of Samuels International Associates Inc., watch as Ambassador of Laos Seng Soukhathivong makes his shot at the Embassy Golf Tournament.

From left, Stefan Gudjohnsen of Globescope, The Washington Diplomat Publisher/ Editor in Chief Victor Shiblie, former outside linebacker for the Washington Redskins Ken Harvey, Gerhard Olsen of Merrill Lynch, and Ambassador of Iceland Gudmundur Arni Stefansson attend the lunchtime cookout prior to the start of the tournament.

June 2012

Above, from left, Vice President for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Douglas Paal, Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov, Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington Jason Yuan, and U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) won the tournament with the best overall score. Left, Ambassador John Beale of Barbados takes a swing at the eighth annual Embassy Golf Tournament, held at Cross Creek Golf Club in Maryland.

The Washington Diplomat Page 31

[ dining ]

Nightclub with Taste Lima Broadens Its Base With Latin-Asian Fujimar by Rachel G. Hunt

ashington’s pulsating nightlife scene is usually more flash than substance when it comes to the food, but every once in a while, culinary quality shines through the glam. In February, local hospitality entrepreneur and promoter MasoudAboughaddareh reopened the restaurant at his popular K Street nightclub Lima. With a new concept and design, Fujimar intends to up the culinary stakes and broaden its young club-going customer base with a nouveau Asian-Latin theme. In developing the menu, executive chef Raynold Mendizabal explores how Asian immigrants to Latin America may have adapted their cuisine to the new ingredients and culture they encountered. (Diners familiar with the former Lima’s menu will see some continuity between the new and old menus.) A Cuba native (and former math and physics teacher), Mendizabal brings a deep understanding and appreciation of his country’s cuisine that has not been as clearly expressed in his other ventures. Fujimar’s caramelized plantains, for instance, served up with spicy crème fraiche, take this humble dish to a new level, while the tostones, perfectly flattened and very crisp, are some of the best we’ve tasted in a long time. Fujimar emphasizes seafood dishes and uses sustainably caught fresh seafood imported daily from Hawaii. With this focus on fish, Mendizabal can tap into the expertise he developed as the head chef at Pesce and Aguardiente, as well as co-creator of Ceviche Restaurant. Sushi and ceviche figure prominently on Fujimar’s menu as well. More than a dozen types of nigiri and sashimi are typically available, including ono, hamachi and the most unusual Fujimar hapu’upu’u, a type of grouper with a above Lima Lounge delicate texture and mild flavor, 1401 K St., NW found only in Hawaii. (202) 789-2800 Likewise, the range of ceviche www.fujimarrestaurant.com illustrates just how diverse this dish can be, from a traditional white fish Dinner: Mon. - Thu., 6 - 11 p.m. marinated in lime, onions, cilantro (sushi bar until 1 a.m.); and hot green pepper; to barramundi with Fri., Sat., 6 p.m. - 12 a.m. (sushi bar until 2 a.m.) rocoto pepper; to a tiradito (similar to ceviche but with no onions and cut differently) Sushi: $5 - $22 Side dishes: $4 - $9 of scallops with bitter orange chutney and Entrées: $10 - $25 Desserts: $8 - $12 olive oil. In particular, the ahi tuna tiradito with lemon-infused olive oil, shiro shoyu, and Reservations: Accepted tiny green tobico (flying fish roe) is superb. Atmosphere: Casual cool The red deep-sea sweet crab from the southeastern coast of Tasmania, prepared with avocado, olive oil, lime and black pepper, is unusual and intriguing. Head sushi chef Khan Enkhbaatar Gayabazar has created several hand rolls, traditional rolls and signature rolls for Fujimar that run the gamut from crunchy spicy tuna, to eel and shrimp, to salmon and crab. The wide selection offers enough choices for several visits just sampling the sushi, but Fujimar offers diners plenty of other options as well. Mendizabal has assembled a collection of main and side dishes to suit the broadest spectrum of appetites and fully express the range of his talents. Classic Asian dishes such as sweet and sour spicy shrimp and the Kung pao beef are only slightly modified

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The Washington Diplomat

Photos: Jessica Latos

Fujimar, the new restaurant above Lima nightclub, offers up an Asian-Latin menu that focuses heavily on seafood in a striking modernist space that’s broken up into distinct dining areas.

to reflect a Latin influence. Other dishes are a more balanced fusion of the two cuisines, such as the salmon filet grilled in adobo spices and served with grilled yellow corn, edamame ragu and chipotle mojo, as well as the short ribs (so tender they almost melt in your mouth) braised in sweet ponzu sauce and spicy wasabi Yukon gold potato purée. Still others, such as the beef empanadas, are purely Latin in origin. Seafood figures prominently on the main menu, including specialties such as Hawaii’s Chilean sea bass, the mero. Pan seared with a black soybean crust and a sweet-hot ponzu sauce, the rich white fish is effectively paired with a subtle purée of malanga. Maine lobster baked in wasabi-mango butter is an unusual but savory choice. The crispy Blue Point oysters served with watercress, tomato and yuzu-jalapeño dressing, as well as the mussels steamed in sake, cilantro and hot chilies are also nice combinations. While the prices of the main dishes seem quite reasonable, the portions in some cases could be described as small plates, so order accordingly. The fusion concept at Fujimar extends to the desserts, but here the basic dishes and techniques are continental with Latin or Asian flavors mixed in. For the coconut and chocolate “tea service,” a dense mousse of rum and fresh coconut is served in a chocolate cup along with a tiny pitcher of warm orange-infused chocolate and lemon-lime cookies. The unusual passion fruit tart is actually a thick cookie covered with passion fruit cream and served with a glass of passion fruit pulp and a cup of lavender-flavored crème brulée. The whole combination is exotic and somewhat unexpected, but delicious. If you have time, the chocolate soufflé, a rich dark chocolate infused with fresh ginger and served with a green tea crème anglaise, is well worth the 20-minute wait. For a more traditional Latin dessert, try the churros. Served with lime syrup and a thick chocolate dipping sauce, this version is many cuts above the standard fare. Mixologists Ari and Micah Wilder, who helm Lima’s beverage program, have created June 2012

from page 28

Miro “Telling the story of Miró’s life and the times that he witnessed reveals a dark intensity of many of his works. Behind the engaging innocence of his style lies a profound concern for humanity and a sense of personal identity,” said Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery. Indeed, he was able to incorporate elements such as grace, sweetness and innocence while fully engaging them in combat with dark forces, stormy canvases and a full-throated expression of not only his Spanish soul, but his humanism. “Joan Miró From the Collection of the Kreeger Museum” stems from a different phase of Miró’s life set in the island of Mallorca, where he lived and worked after 1940, following the end of the Spanish Civil War and the beginning of World allows viewers to witness his Joan Miró From the Collection War II. thought process. This exhibition features the The Kreeger Museum for of the Kreeger Museum complete collection of works by instance is believed to be the only through July 31 Miró in the Kreeger’s possession, place in the United States where a Kreeger Museum including “The Mallorca Suite,” complete set of “The Mallorca 2401 Foxhall Road, NW “Makimono” and “El Vol de l’Alosa Suite” images can be seen.Added to For more information, please call (202) 337-3050 (The Flight of the Lark).” the set are various decompositions or visit www.kreegermuseum.org. They are unconventional, signaof each etching that offer a glimpse ture pieces befitting the underapinto how the work evolved, as the preciated gem that is the Kreeger Museum. Here, Miró artist himself did in 1973. expresses and stretches his art through printmaking, which “Makimono” is a huge (36 feet long and 16 inches wide)

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Photos: Collection of The Kreeger Museum

The Joan Miró exhibition at the Kreeger Museum features works from the museum’s collection such as the natural silk print “Makimono,” top, selections from “The Mallorca Suite (Sèrie Mallorca),” left, and “The Flight of the Lark (El Vol de l’Alosa),” above.

piece made of specially woven raw Lyon silk and printed with lithographed and etched designs from Miró’s original wood and metal blocks that took five years to execute in the 1950s. Though it infuses elements of Eastern culture and primitive echoes of the West, its bright colors and symbols are once again deep-seated expressions of Miró’s love for his native Catalonia. The Kreeger exhibition is emphatically an exhibition about materials — paper, blocks, ink, silk — and provides a critical addendum to the never-ending glow of Miró’s work, a glow that manages, by resurrecting long-lost memories of his homeland, to triumph over the horrors of war. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

from page 32

Dining several special cocktails that mirror the East meets Latin theme by blending tropical and Asian fruit juices. The Eastern Promise, for example, is a complex concoction of U’Luvka Vodka, yellow Chartreuse Yellow, yuzu, tamarind nectar, Sauterne foam, and a sprinkle of house-made violet salt. Deceptively benign, it packs quite a wallop. The Wilders have also assembled an unusual list of artisanal wines and sake that they classify by character as a guide to selecting an appropriate pairing for a meal. In creating Fujimar, Aboughaddareh brought in designer Ali Reza Honarkar to transform the second-floor space. The principle at Division 1, Honarkar is most noted for striking modernist residences in the area. With Fujimar’s capacity expanded to 160 seats, Honakar has created a collection of eclectic dining spaces. One room is dark with a heavy, almost brooding feel. Red upholstery, gray floors and dark wood paneling are illuminated by dim lighting from red crystal chandeliers. Pass along a wide, glowing corridor with hanging lucite cove chairs and blue chandeliers and you enter a room bright with white leather furniture and a long stainless steel bar and column encased in glass.The walls of both rooms are dominated by screens showing live feed from cameras above the sushi bar that capture the precision work of head sushi chef Gayabazar and his assistants as they caramelize scallops with a mini blowtorch for one of the house special rolls. The live feed is also interspersed with other images to suit the mood. On recent visits, diners were treated to a screensaver of charming tropical sea creatures enjoying their own dinner. In converting Lima restaurant to Fujimar, Aboughaddareh and his team have created a more distinct identity for their cuisine and June 2012

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Head sushi chef Khan Enkhbaatar Gayabazar has created a variety of traditional and signature rolls for Fujimar that run the gamut from crunchy spicy tuna to salmon and crab.

moved away from the all-in-one concept that exemplified his other establishment, the Park at Fourteenth. If this shift continues to reflect an increased focus on the food, and initial visits suggest it does, Fujimar may well attract a broader audience than did its predecessor. It’s certainly worth a try. However, if thumping club music and in-crowd seekers are not to your liking, plan your visit for early in the evening or early in the week to get the full food experience at Fujimar. Rachel G. Hunt is the restaurant reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 33

[ film reviews ]

Close-Knit Cops Triple Threat Maïwenn Documents Paris’s Child Protectors in ‘Polisse’ by Ky N. Nguyen

premiere of “The Lady,” a respectful biopic about the Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in mbitious French artWashington, D.C. ist Maïwenn successAt the screening, the film’s fully takes on three French director Luc Besson (“The more jobs as the Professional,” “The Fifth Element”) a c t re s s - w r i t e r joined a panel discussion moderatdirector of the ed by U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for popular French Global Women’s Issues Melanne hit “Polisse.” The talented polyVerveer,along with U.S.Ambassador math hosted the well-received Derek Mitchell, special representapremiere of her crime drama at tive for Burma, and star of “The the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. Lady,” Hong Kong-based Malaysian The critically acclaimed film Chinese actress Michelle Yeoh had already received the presti(“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” gious Jury Prize at the 2011 “Tomorrow Never Dies”). Cannes Film Festival and 15 Yeoh’s subtle, powerful perforCésar (French Academy Award) mance as Suu Kyi serves as the nominations, winning two. emotional anchor of “The Lady,” After watching a documenrevealing glimpses of the democtary about the Paris Police De Photo: Les Productions du Trésor racy icon’s quiet resolve as a partment’s Children’s Protect Members of the Paris Police Department’s Children’s Protection Unit question a suspect in actress-writer-director woman enduring heartbreaking ion Unit (CPU), Maïwenn re Maïwenn’s popular French hit “Polisse.” personal sacrifices to serve her quested authorization to shadow its police officers, both on and off duty.“Polisse,” written by Maïwenn and Emmanuelle country. Perhaps in part because Suu Kyi serves as the face of a political movement based Bercot, is derived from actual happenings witnessed by Maïwenn or told to her by CPU on the principle of nonviolent protest, Besson’s steady direction is an unexpected change officers, resulting in a deeply layered script bristling with a sensation of authenticity and of pace for a director best known for his fast-paced action flicks. Alas, the pace slows to a plodding level at times, a bit of a disappointment when the tension against Burma’s brutal crisp dialogue. Maïwenn’s vivid documentary-like direction enhances the film’s verisimilitude. Its true military dictatorship offers plenty of opportunities stories are brought to life by an accomplished French ensemble cast whose members for dramatic conflict. Nonetheless,“The Lady” is well The Lady include Maïwenn, Bercot, Karin Viard, Marina Foïs, Nicolas Duvauchelle, and Joeystarr — a worth seeing for Yeoh’s standout turn and its fasci(English and Burmese with subtitles; rapper-turned-actor whose thespian chops are good enough to challenge American movie nating true tale. Rebecca Frayn wrote the epic script 127 min.; scope) based on interviews with insiders of Suu Kyi’s circle star Mark Wahlberg (former rapper Marky Mark). Landmark’s E Street Cinema Maïwenn plays a photographer whose new assignment is to live with and document over three years. In 1947, when Suu Kyi was only 2, her father the CPU, whose members face added emotional stress when trying to solve various ★★★✩✩ crimes against child victims: A bunch of Romanians send children in their care into the General Aung San was assassinated by his enemies streets to bring home the bacon as pickpockets. An Algerian father intends to arrange a in Burma, months after he signed the papers of Burmese independence from Britain. In marriage for his 14-year-old daughter, which may be accepted practice back home but is 1989, she was living a comfortable life in Oxford, England, as a housewife married to an academic, Michael Aris (David Thewlis), and the classified as statutory rape in France. And one well-connectmother of two boys. After her mother suffered a ed man thinks he’s beyond the reach of the law, so he stroke, Suu Kyi returned to Burma to care for her openly discusses incest with his children in front of the dying parent and was swept up in the tides of police, making an officer so history. As the daughter of Aung San, revered as upset that he hits the pervert Polisse the father of independent Burma, Suu Kyi acceptoff his chair. (French with subtitles; 127 min.) ed the call from her people to lead their nascent Yet the CPU is looked down Landmark’s E Street Cinema democracy movement. upon by other officers in the She suffered house arrest for a total of 15 years Paris Police Department, who ★★★★✩ between 1989 and 2010, making her the world’s don’t view the men and most famous political prisoner, particularly after women of the CPU as real cops. Its dedicated officers must she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. That deal with self-esteem issues from their lower professional honor was the result of a nomination campaign status. These greater burdens make the CPU’s officers parengineered by her husband Michael in an effort ticularly close-knit as they can only rely on each other when to raise her international profile, a stature that fighting criminals and bureaucrats. They toil hard when might better ensure her safety in Burma. Suu conducting investigations and interrogations, seeking the Kyi’s years of imprisonment were not the only Photo: Magali Bragard / Cohen Media Group magical confession from suspects. Like all police officers, sacrifice she made for her people. She refused to the strain of the job negatively impacts their personal lives, Michelle Yeoh gives a subtle, powerful performance as Burmese democleave Burma, afraid the government would never resulting in mental health problems, relationship breakups, racy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in “The Lady.” let her return. As such, she saw her husband and intra-squad politics, etc.Yet it’s not always doom and gloom, sons only when the Burmese government granted them visas, requests that were often as moments of humor lighten the unit’s mood. repeatedly denied, including when Michael was dying of cancer. After the film’s end, Suu Kyi’s story is still being written as history in the making.When ‘The Lady’ Makes History Clinton traveled to Burma last year for the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in more On Mon., April 9, 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Assistant than 50 years, she met with Burmese President Thein Sein as well as with Suu Kyi, General Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell introduced a special Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD). On April 2, Burma’s official elec-

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The Washington Diplomat

June 2012

toral commission verified her election to the Burmese parliament’s lower house, officially making her the leader of the opposition, a role she has unofficially filled for 23 years.

risk given the documented rising sea levels in recent years attributed to climate change. The filmmaker’s unfettered, round-the-clock access to the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit provides a gripping look at Nasheed’s determined mission to try to save his country. He ‘Island President’ Adrift pleads with the world’s most powerful leaders, who have many more resources at their disposal, to take the tough steps American director Jon Shenk (“Lost Boys of Sudan”) ininecessary to reverse the literally rising tides of global warming. tially set out to make an environmental documentary with his In a sense, the Maldives is the canary in the coalmine. If the compelling film “The Island President,” a warning against the minor-league nation-state dies a natural death, it might be too dangers of global warming.The idea was probably something late to save higher-profile locales like Tokyo and Mumbai, in the vein of Davis Guggenheim’s Oscar-winning “An which would be next on the Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary narrated by former U.S. hit list. The Island President Vice President Al Gore. Alas, Nasheed didn’t get Of course, changing environmental policy usually involves (English; 101 min.) very far at Copenhagen, which politics, but the political intrigue in the background of “The Landmark’s E Street Cinema was largely a bust. And he’s Island President” has made a sudden leap to the forefront due now lost his official platform to current events.The result is a real-life political thriller about ★★★★✩ to broadcast his seemingly the charismatic former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Although every effort is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and content it is ultimately up 7, to2012, the customer quixotic message. On Feb. Nasheed resigned as presiNasheed, frequently knownNOTE: as the Mandela of the Maldives. Photo: Chiara Goia to make the final proof. dent after weeks of opposition protests in conjunction with Since the late 1970s, dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had Mohamed Nasheed, the recently ousted president of the Maldives, of the military and police.The following day, he claimed ruled the Maldives forThe almost Nasheed, onewill of be themade at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes will bemost first30 twoyears. faxed changes billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. campaigns to raise awareness of climate change in “The Island that he had been ousted in a coup d’état and forced to resign founders of the Maldivian Democratic Party, served as an Signed ads are considered approved. President.” at gunpoint by security officers. He has since been lobbying opposition leader, causing him to be jailed more than 20 times international community to support early elections in the to spread wordadglobally about his islandany nation’s poten- to the and tortured as a political prisoner. Eventually, the pro-democPlease checkthethis carefully. Mark changes your ad. racy movement succeeded in establishing free elections, tially short shelf life. Comprised of some 1,200 islands, the Maldives, linking the fight for democracy to his ongoing cruagainst climate change. the world’s lowest elevations ofThe any Washington coun- sade Diplomat If the ad in is October correct sign fax to:Gayoom (301) 949-0065 changes (301) 933-3552 which Nasheed won 2008,and defeating in Maldives has one ofneeds try. Nasheed’s homeland would be submerged and inhabitable the second round. Approved Changes seas _____________________________________________________________________ of only three feet, a definite Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat. Shortly after Nasheed_____________________________________________ was elected, his foremost mission was after a rise in the surrounding

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RichaRd G. LuGaR, Statesman of the Senate New book is a balanced and careful account of the senator’s work aS SenatoR LuGaR

By John T. Shaw

enters his toughest election battle in years, running against Richard Mourdock from

the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, John T. Shaw examines Lugar’s approach to lawmaking and diplomacy for what it reveals about the workings of the Senate and changes in that institution. Drawing on access to the senator over several years, and interviews with Lugar and other leading figures in foreign policy, Shaw chronicles Lugar's historic work on nuclear proliferation, arms control, energy, and global food issues, highlighting the senator’s ability to influence American foreign policy in consequential ways. Although Shaw was given access to Lugar over a number of years, Richard G. Lugar: Statesman of the Senate is by no means an authorized account. There is much in the book Senator Lugar is sure to disagree with, particularly in a chapter concerning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.

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"John Shaw deploys his reportorial skills to excellent effect...The result is a trenchant study of statesmanship as practiced from the legislative branch of our government." Strobe Talbott, president, Brookings Institution

"This book takes us on a fascinating journey through the political life of a giant in American foreign policy... An impressive account of Richard Lugar's rich political work and versatile political persona." Jan Eliasson, former president of UN General Assembly, former Swedish foreign minister and former Swedish ambassador to the United States

"A close-up look at the dedication, effectiveness, and outstanding public service of Senator Dick Lugar." Sam Nunn, former US Senator, CEO of Nuclear Threat Initiative

"Dick Lugar is a true 'statesman of the Senate,' who, from the Reagan years to the present, has had a major influence on US foreign policy." George Shultz, former US Secretary of State

to puRchaSe youR copy: www.iupReSS.indiana.edu

June 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 35

[ film ]

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

Arabic Where Do We Go Now? (Et maintenant on va où?) Directed by Nadine Labaki (France/Lebanon/Egypt/Italy, 2011, 100 min.)

Set in a remote village where a Christian church and Muslim mosque stand side by side, this ironically humorous drama follows the antics of the town’s women to keep their blowhard men from starting a religious war. (Arabic, Russian and English) Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Cantonese

exits the Prague subway and is lured to a mysterious marionette theater, where, following a dreamlike series of episodes, the unsuspecting soul submits to playing the role of Doctor Faustus. National Gallery of Art Sun., June 3, 4 p.m.

Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) (Prezít svuj zivot) Directed by Jan Svankmajer (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Japan, 2010, 109 min.)

Playfully reinventing his modus operandi, Jan Svankmajer uses colorful photographic cutouts of his actors instead of the actors themselves (“to save money”) and creates a “psychoanalytical comedy” through a blend of collage animation and live action.

A Simple Life (Tao jie)

National Gallery of Art Sun., June 10, 109 min.)

Directed by Ann Hui (Hong Kong, 2011, 118 min.)

English

When the lifelong maid to a wealthy family suffers a stroke, it’s up to the only family member in the city, a busy movie producer, to take care of her. (Cantonese, English and Mandarin)

Ballplayer: Pelotero

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., June 29, 7 p.m., Sun., July 1, 2 p.m.

Czech Alice (Neco z Alenky) Directed by Jan Svankmajer (Czechoslovakia/Switzerland/U.K./W. Germany, 1988, 86 min.)

Jan Svankmajer’s ingenious adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic, in which Alice is portrayed by an actress and an antique doll, is set entirely inside Alice’s home. National Gallery of Art Sat., June 2, 3:30 p.m.

Faust (Lekce Faust) Directed by Jan Svankmajer (Czech Republic/France/U.K., 1994, 97 min.)

In Jan Svankmajer’s fanciful retelling of the fable, a contemporary “everyman”

In the run-up to the most important day of their lives, two young Dominican baseball players confront competition and corruption to achieve their big league dreams. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 2, 8:30 p.m.

Bel Ami Directed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod (U.K./France/Italy, 2012, 102 min.)

A young man rises to power in Paris via his manipulation of the city’s most influential and wealthy women. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 8

Walking home from school one day, schoolgirl Haru rescues a cat from being hit by a car. To her surprise, the cat proceeds to rise up on his two hind feet, dust itself off, and thank her for her bravery. So begins Haru’s strange adventure with the Cat Prince in the secret Kingdom of Cats.

Directed by Pascale Obolo (Trinidad and Tobago, 2011, 85 min.)

Traveling to Paris, New York, Trinidad and Tobago and back to Africa, pieces of living legend Calypso Rose’s life are revealed. AFI Silver Theatre Fri., June 1, 9:45 p.m.

June 2012

champion boxer despite a country, community and family conflicted by a divisive political system.

low-budget search for the Grail, converting Arthurian legend into uncontrollable lunacy. Landmark’s E Street Cinema

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., June 3, 9:30 p.m.

Pink Ribbons, Inc.

A Hand Full of Dirt

Directed by Léa Pool (Canada, 2011, 98 min.)

Directed by Russell Watson (Barbados, 2010, 93 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 2, 11 a.m., Sun., June 3, 11 a.m.

Archie Redman is a middle-age man chasing a fading dream to hold onto his failing business, a small hotel, while his son is stuck in his own limbo.

Breast cancer has become the poster child of corporate cause-related marketing campaigns, but this feature documentary shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer becomes obfuscated by a shiny, pink story of success.

Desires & Deceptions

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., June 3, 5 p.m.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 8

Directed by Torriano Berry (Belize, 2012, 107 min.)

Howl’s Moving Castle

The Princess Bride

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Japan, 2004, 119 min.)

Directed by Rob Reiner (U.S., 1987, 98 min.)

A teenager named Sophie has her life turned upside-down when she meets a dashing young wizard named Howl and becomes caught up in a magicians’ feud.

Peter Falk reads the story of the beautiful Buttercup, in love with farm boy Westley but eventually betrothed to loathsome Prince Humperdinck in the 25th anniversary of this hilarious classic.

A Belizean politician resolves to go straight and steer clear of the petty corruptions and daily hurly-burly of public life, and at the same time tries to reconnect with the family he lost along the way.

Fire in Babylon Directed by Stevan Riley (U.K., 2010, 82 min.)

This energetic documentary looks back at the legendary West Indies cricket team that rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.

Forward Home: The Power of the Caribbean Diaspora Directed by Lisa Wickham (Trinidad and Tobago, 2011, 50 min.)

This documentary illuminates the findings of a groundbreaking research project that studies four Caribbean countries and their counterpart communities in global cities. AFI Silver Theatre Sun., June 3, 8 p.m.

Calypso Rose: The Lioness of the Jungle

Ghett’a Life Directed by Chris Browne (Jamaica, 2011, 104 min.)

In this “against the odds” action drama set in the politically turbulent inner city community of Kingston, Jamaica, a determined teenager realizes his dream of becoming a

AFI Silver Theatre June 15 to 17

Hysteria

AFI Silver Theatre June 15 to 17

Directed by Tanya Wexler (U.K./France/Germany/Luxembourg, 2011, 95 min.)

Sing Your Song

This lighthearted romantic comedy tells the surprising story of the birth of the electro-mechanical vibrator at the very peak of Victorian prudishness.

Told from Harry Belafonte’s point of view, this film charts his life, from his birth and boyhood in New York and early life in Jamaica, to his return to Harlem as a teen.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Last Call at the Oasis Directed by Jessica Yu (U.S., 2011, 100 min.)

Jessica Yu’s documentary presents a powerful argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century, illuminating the vital role water plays in our lives, exposing the defects in the current system, and depicting communities already struggling with its ill-effects. Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Monty Python and the Holy Grail Directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones (U.K., 1975, 89 min.)

King Arthur and his knights embark on a

Directed by Susanne Rostock (U.S., 2011, 104 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 2, 6 p.m.

The Skin Directed by Howard Allen (Antigua and Barbuda, 2011, 100 min.)

A young married couple is about to lose their home when they discover an ancient vase and their luck changes dramatically. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 2, 10:15 p.m.

Spirited Away Directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Japan, 2002, 125 min.)

While out exploring, a young girl strays from her parents and stumbles into the spirit world and is conscripted into working in a fabulous bathhouse where all

by Washington Diplomat film reviewer Ky N. Nguyen

10th Anniversary of Silverdocs Wow, has it already been 10 years? The 10th Anniversary AFI / Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival (June 18-24) celebrates what has grown to become called the “preeminent documentary festival in the U.S.” (Screen International), the “premiere showcase for documentary film” (Hollywood Reporter), and “non-fiction nirvana” (Variety). Some 27,000 attendees are expected to view films from more than 60 countries at the seven-day film festival, which will be accompanied by a five-day professional documentary filmmaking conference. Silverdocs is based in Silver Spring, Md., largely at the AFI Silver Theatre.

Page 36

Directed by Hiroyuki Morita (Japan, 2002, 75 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., June 1, 7:30 p.m.

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

(301) 495-6705, www.silverdocs.com

The Cat Returns

AFI Silver Theatre Mon., June 4, 7 p.m.

Directed by Ross Finkel (U.S./Dominican Republic, 2011, 77 min.)

Repertory Notes

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema The Freer Gallery of Art and AFI Silver Theatre join forces to present the series “Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema” (through June 28), which looks back at 13 films by legendary Bollywood actor, director, and mogul Raj Kapoor. (202) 357-2700, www.asia.si.edu/events/films.asp (301) 495-6700, www.afi.com/silver

American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theatre In addition to Silverdocs and “Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema,” AFI Silver in June presents the 2012 DC Caribbean Filmfest (June 1-4), “Castles in the Sky: Miyazaki, Takahata and the Masters of Studio Ghibli“ (through June 17), the Korean Film Festival DC 2012 (through June 13), “Silent Cinema Showcase” (through June 9), “Jack

Nicholson: A Retrospective” (through June 27), “Just One More Thing: Peter Falk Remembered” (through June 17), and “AFI Life Achievement Award Retrospective: Shirley MacLaine” (through June 11). (301) 495-6700, www.afi.com/silver

National Gallery of Art “The Tales of Jan Svankmajer” (May 26-June 10) provides a retrospective of the Czech avant-garde animator, who was influenced by early 20th-century Central and Eastern European animation. In turn, the registered member of the Czech Surrealist Society has influenced modern filmmakers like Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, and Timothy and Stephen Quay. (202) 842-6799, www.nga.gov/programs/film

The Washington Diplomat

June 2012

manner of magical creatures come to relax in Japan’s highest-grossing film of all time. AFI Silver Theatre June 8 to 10

years, vividly depicting the corruption and mendacity at the heart of Indian society and utilizing the Ganges itself as a guiding metaphor for the country’s decline.

Two Mules for Sister Sara

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., June 28, 7:30 p.m.

Directed by Don Siegel (U.S./Mexico, 1970, 116 min.)

Satyam Shivam Sundaram (Love Sublime)

In 1860s Mexico, during the Juarista resistance to the forces of Emperor Maximilian, mercenary Clint Eastwood rescues nun Shirley MacLaine from three ill-intentioned thugs, only to be persuaded into helping her get revenge on the Mexican Army.

Directed by Raj Kapoor (India, 1978, 172 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre June 2 to 7

Farsi This Is Not a Film (In film nist) Directed by Jafar Panahi (Iran, 2011, 78 min.)

In this clandestine documentary — smuggled into France in a cake — renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi shares his day-to-day life confined to his Tehran apartment as he awaits the appeal of his six-year prison sentence for supporting the opposition party in Iran’s 2009 election. Landmark’s E Street Cinema

French Elza (Le Bonheur d’Elza) Directed by Mariette Monpierre (Guadeloupe/France, 2011, 78 min.)

A Parisian single mother’s joy when her eldest daughter, Elza, becomes the first in the family to graduate from college turns to heartache when Elza runs away to their native Guadeloupe in search of the father she barely remembers. AFI Silver Theatre Sun., June 3, 6:20 p.m.

The Intouchables (Intouchables) Directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano (France, 2011, 112 min.)

After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, a Parisian aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caretaker. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 1

Polisse Directed by Maïwenn (France, 2011, 127 min.)

Officers in the Paris Police Department’s Children’s Protection Unit struggle to protect child victims, while coping with self-esteem issues and personal problems. Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Haitian Creole Stones in the Sun (Wòch nan soley) Directed by Patricia Benoit (Haiti/U.S., 2012, 95 min.)

In the midst of increasing political violence in their homeland, the lives of three pairs of Haitian refugees intersect in 1980s New York City. (Haitian Creole and French) AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 2, 5 p.m.

Magnet Releasing

“Headhunters” stars Aksel Hennie (Max Manus) as Roger, a charming scoundrel and Norway’s most accomplished headhunter.

A city engineer falls for a temple girl whose beauty is marred by a horrible scar on her right cheek, which she keeps hidden from him. When he discovers her disfigurement on their wedding night, he goes mad, and she undertakes a strange masquerade to win him back. Freer Gallery of Art Sun., June 24, 2 p.m.

Shree 420

Hindi

Directed by Raj Kapoor (India, 1955, 169 min.)

Aag (Fire)

Arriving in the big city to make his fortune, country bumpkin Raju (Kapoor) is introduced to the urban underworld following brief encounters with a moralistic oligarch and a Cassandra-like beggar.

Directed by Raj Kapoor (India, 1948, 138 min.)

This brooding, noir-ish melodrama is an ideal entrance point for audiences unfamiliar with Hindi cinema, with Raj Kapoor starring as a theater producer obsessed with the twinned concepts of ideal beauty and self-sacrifice. Freer Gallery of Art Fri., June 8, 7 p.m.

Awaara (The Vagabond) Directed by Raj Kapoor (India, 1951, 193 min.)

In one of the greatest and most famous Indian films ever made, a judge rejects his pregnant wife after she is kidnapped and presumably raped by a criminal. Protesting her innocence, she raises her son, who in turn tries to break out of the cycle of poverty. Freer Gallery of Art Sun., June 13, 2 p.m.

Barsaat (Monsoon) Directed by Raj Kapoor (India, 1949, 171 min.)

Raj Kapoor’s first megahit shuttles between the stories of a romantic idealist and his more carnally driven best friend, who both meet the daughters of innkeepers on two separate trips. Freer Gallery of Art Sun., June 17, 2 p.m.

Boot Polish Directed by Prakash Arora (India, 1953, 149 min.)

An orphaned brother and sister are forced by their horrid aunt to beg on the streets, until a kindly smuggler encourages them to join the boot-polish trade, but then their new life is interrupted by the monsoons, which tear the siblings apart. Freer Gallery of Art Fri., June 15, 7 p.m.

God, Your River Is Tainted (Ram Teri Ganga Maili) Directed by Raj Kapoor (India, 1985, 166 min.)

Raj Kapoor’s final and most financially successful film returns to the crusading social-message drama format of his early

Korean Moby Dick Directed by Park In-jae (South Korea, 2011, 112 min.) Captain Ahab’s monomaniacal obsession with the white whale in “Moby Dick” serves as a metaphor for a reporter’s determination to uncover a vast conspiracy in this action-filled thriller set amid tension between North and South Korea in 1994.

(Norway, 2011, 75 min.)

In Norway, 15-year-old Alma is consumed by her hormones and fantasies that range from sweetly romantic images of the boyfriend she yearns for, to daydreams about practically everybody she lays eyes on. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 1

Turkish

AFI Silver Theatre Tue., June 12, 9:10 p.m., Wed., June 13, 9:10 p.m.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir zamanlar Anadolu’da)

Norwegian

A murder suspect leads a convoy of police to the site of the crime, but the killer cannot recall where he left the body, so the convey travels through the deserted countryside as conversations along the way reveal not only the facts of the crime but political attitudes and personal longings.

Headhunters (Hodejegerne) Directed by Morten Tyldum (Norway/Germany, 2011, 100 min.)

Norway’s most accomplished corporate headhunter living a life of luxury well beyond his means risks everything to steal a valuable painting owned by a former mercenary. (Norwegian and Danish)

Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey/Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2011, 157 min.)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Turn Me On, Damnit! Directed by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen

Plan Your Entire Weekend. www.washdiplomat.com

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., June 1, 7 p.m.

Stay Awake (Jagte Raho) Directed by Amit Mitra and Sombhu Mitra (India, 1956, 137 min.)

A young tramp wanders into an upscale apartment building, where he witnesses a veritable carnival of evildoing in this exposé of the perversions of Calcutta’s upper-middle class. (Hindi and Bengali) AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 9, 5 p.m.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Kal Aaj Aur Kal) Directed by Randhir Kapoor (India, 1971, 158 min.)

Three generations of Kapoors — Prithviraj, Raj and Raj’s son Randhir, who also directs — take to the screen in this tale of generational conflict. AFI Silver Theatre Tue., June 26, 7:30 p.m.

Japanese I Wish (Kiseki) Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan, 2011, 128 min.)

Koichi, 12, who has been separated from his brother because of his parents’ divorce, begins to believe that the town’s new bullet train service will create a miracle when the first trains pass each other at top speed.

READIN’

ART

’RITING ’RITHMETIC

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

My Neighbors the Yamadas

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

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

Directed by Isao Takahata (Japan, 1999, 104 min.)

In a break from the frequently mythical storytelling of Studio Ghibli, director Isao Takahata wryly tweaks the everyday activities of family life with his depiction of the irresponsible, slovenly and lazy Yamada family and their unassuming way of life. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 9, 11 a.m., Sun., June 10, 11 a.m.

June 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 37

[ around town ]

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

ART Through June 1

Contemporary Uruguayan Artists

June 9 to Oct. 14

The Deep Element: Photography at the Beach

This exhibition brings together photographs of the beach from the late 19th century through the present day, revealing the many ways that artists have explored and been inspired by this rich subject. Corcoran Gallery of Art June 10 to Oct. 8

To honor Uruguay and the city of Montevideo, site of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank, 13 artists specializing in painting, print, sculpture, mixed media and photography offer a panorama of contemporary Uruguayan creativity, revisiting history and changes that have transformed the nation’s culture, environment and traditions.

George Bellows

Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center

2 Museums, 2 Nations, 1 Identity

Through June 2

The Style that Ruled the Empires: Russia, Napoleon, and 1812 Paintings, porcelain, glassware, metal ware, attire, Napoleonic armor and other items commemorate the bicentennial of Russia’s triumph over the French army in 1812, which dealt an arresting blow to Napoleon and his pursuit of European conquest while also igniting a collective Russian pride and production of decorative arts that persists today. Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens June 2 to Sept. 9

Antony Gormley: Drawing Space

The Phillips presents the first major U.S. exhibition of works on paper by British artist Antony Gormley, internationally acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public projects that investigate the human body’s relationship to space. The Phillips Collection June 2 to Sept. 9

Jasper Johns: Variations on a Theme

One of the most celebrated artists of the modern era, Jasper Johns revolutionized the field of printmaking. This exhibition features some 90 iconic examples of targets, flags, numbers and other subjects the artist explored from 1960 to today and celebrates his visionary response to lithography, intaglio, silkscreen and lead relief sculpture. The Phillips Collection June 5 to Sept. 30

Open City: London 1500-1700 Over the course of two centuries, London changed from the capital of England, secure within its medieval walls, to a metropolitan seat of empire. “Open City” explores activities and pressures that altered Londoners’ sense of community, focusing especially on three types of institutions: church, theater and market. Folger Shakespeare Library

Page 38

This comprehensive exhibition, the first in more than three decades, looks back at the career of George Bellows, arguably the most important figure in the generation of artists who negotiated the transition from the Victorian to the modern era in American culture. National Gallery of Art Through June 13

Photography, video and paintings are the result of a yearlong art initiative that linked young participants from rural Salvadoran towns and those of Salvadoran origin and their classmates living in Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C., as part of the State Department’s strategic efforts to strengthen people-to-people connections through museums worldwide. Art Museum of the Americas

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT Gómez Sicre, the founder and first director of the AMA.

French Revolution with more than 75 rarely seen works by 35 artists.

Art Museum of the Americas

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Through June 29

Through July 31

Le Temps Devant (Our Time Ahead)

Joan Miró from the Collection of the Kreeger Museum

The Alliance Française de Washington presents works by Frédéric Nauczyciel, who recognizes and reveals the anachronism of the survival of a utopic life that exists in the countryside among people who have explicitly chosen a rural life in the 21st century. Honfleur Gallery Through June 30

LEST WE FORGET: Masters of Soviet Dissent

National Gallery of Art

Through July 6

Alberto Schommer: Portraits and Scenarios

Embassy of Spain

June 16 to Dec. 30

Through July 8

Prêt-à-Papier: The Exquisite Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave

Masters of Mercy: Buddha’s Amazing Disciples

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens Through June 17

Hokusai: 36 Views of Mount Fuji The most acclaimed print series by Japan’s most famous artist, “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” by Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) contains images of worldwide renown, including “The Great Wave.” Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Kano Kazunobu’s (1816–1863) phantasmagoric paintings reflect a popular theme in Edo art: the lives and deeds of the Buddha’s legendary 500 disciples. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through July 29

From the Library: The Fleeting Structures of Early Modern Europe

In early modern Europe, state visits, coronations and weddings were among the occasions that gave cities a chance to stage lavish productions in which artists and architects designed elaborate structures and decorations, allowing them to experiment with new ideas or encourage city officials to consider new uses of public space. National Gallery of Art

June 21 to Sept. 23

Constellations: Constructivism, Internationalism and the Inter-American Avant-Garde

Drawn from the permanent collection and rich archival holdings of the Art Museum of the Americas, “Constellations” surveys the dynamic, inter-American history of geometric abstraction across the 20th century — a tribute to the curatorial vision of José

Through July 29

Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections The National Museum of Women in the Arts celebrates its 25th anniversary with the first exhibition to explore the life and work of women artists in the time of the

Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building Through Oct. 31

The Big Picture: A Photography Exhibition in Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the IDB Cultural Center

Comprising 44 striking images from the Inter-American Development Bank’s permanent collection, as well as pieces previously shown at other art events held by the D.C.-based international finance institution, “The Big Picture” highlights the cultural wealth and diversity of the Latin America and the Caribbean, as seen through the lens of 22 leading contemporary photographers from 13 countries. Dulles International Airport Gateway Gallery

Charles Krause/Reporting Fine Art Gallery

Embassy of Austria

A selection of iconic costumes and haute couture dresses — reflecting the rich history of fashion in European paintings and designs of the grand couturiers — are reinterpreted in trompe l’oeil paper masterpieces by Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave.

The Kreeger Museum

On the occasion of Vladimir Putin’s third inauguration as Russia’s president last month, this exhibit of paintings and works on paper by Leonhard Lapin and Alexander Zhdanov, two of the Soviet Union’s leading dissident artists, is dedicated “to those in Russia who continue the fight for rule of law, free and fair elections and fundamental human rights,” including the artists who defy repressive societies and authoritarian regimes.

Austrian-born Ulrike Kaiser lives and works in D.C. and Vienna producing snapshots of human life, using her direct surroundings, including family members, friends and sometimes herself, as the subject matter.

Ulrike Kaister

Joan Miró was a perfectionist who insisted he was a “self-taught amateur” to transgress traditional techniques, especially in pursuit of printmaking as a medium for his breathtaking expressions of Catalan culture. This exhibition marks the first time the Kreeger’s complete collection of works by Miró will be on view, including T”he Mallorca Suite,” “Makimono,” and “El Vol de l’Alosa (The Flight of the Lark).” Through Aug. 12

Alberto Schommer, one of Spain’s most prominent photographers, has pioneered a path challenging conventional forms, including a series of psychological portraits, always guided under the influence of the oeuvre of Irving Penn and William Klein. Part of the “Spain arts & culture” series (www.spainculture.us).

Through June 15

June 2012

Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape

Through some 120 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints from a career spanning almost a century, the exhibition reveals a politically engaged side to Joan Miró’s work, including his passionate response to one of the most turbulent periods in European history as well as his sense of Spanish — specifically Catalonian — identity. Through Aug. 31

Daniel Libeskind: Architecture for the Angel of History

Photographs depict the striking work of Daniel Libeskind, who designed several museums of national significance as well as living expressions of memory, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Military History Museum in Dresden. On May 18 at 2 p.m., Chase W. Rynd, executive director of the National Building Museum, discusses what role architecture plays in the culture of memory?

Through Jan. 6

Dragons, Nagas, and Creatures of the Deep

In the Spirit of the East Asian calendar’s Year of the Dragon, this exhibition highlights objects drawn from cultures as diverse as the ancient Mediterranean world, imperial China and contemporary South America, portraying dragons as everything from fire-breathing beasts to beneficent water gods. The Textile Museum Through Feb. 24

Lalla Essaydi: Revisions

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

Goethe-Institut

DANCE

Through Sept. 15

Through June 3

Hina/Jaina: On the Threshold of the Mayan Underworld (600-900 AD) More than 50 “Jaina style” figurines discovered on the man-made island of Jaina off the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula — an extremely important Mayan ritual and religious site in the classic period — depict various aspects of Mayan cosmology, religious beliefs and society, providing fascinating insight into one of Mexico’s most intriguing ancient civilizations. Mexican Cultural Institute Through Sept. 26

To Know Wisdom and Instruction: The Armenian Literary Tradition at the Library of Congress

The era of Armenian printing began in 1512, when Hakob Meghapart (Jacob the Sinner) opened an Armenian press in Venice. To mark the quincentenary of that event and UNESCO’s designation of the Armenian capital of Yerevan as its Book Capital of the World 2012, the Library of Congress highlights the Armenian literary tradition from the era of manuscripts to contemporary publishing.

Bolshoi Ballet: Coppélia

Led by Artistic Director Sergei Filin, Moscow’s renowned Bolshoi Ballet performs the evening-length production of Petipa and Cecchetti’s “Coppélia,” one of classical ballet’s greatest comedies. Tickets start at $29. Kennedy Center Opera House June 25 to Aug. 10

CityDance Dancing Around the World Summer Camps

CityDance Ensemble hosts various specialized camps with a global accent that offer daily classes in ballet, modern, jazz and hip hop, as well as Bollywood from India, folk dance from Sri Lanka, samba from Brazil and salsa from Cuba. For information, visit www.citydance.net. CityDance Center at Strathmore

DISCUSSIONS Tue., June 5, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Jurji Zaydan: His Contribution to Modern Arab Thought and Literature

In this symposium, scholars from the Arab

The Washington Diplomat

June 2012

world, Europe and North America discuss the life and work of noted Arab novelist, journalist and publisher Jurji Zaydan, the Beirut-born author of 22 historical novels covering the entirety of Arab-Islamic history. Library of Congress John W. Kluge Center Mon., June 18, 12 p.m.

Making the Chinese Mexican by Grace Delgado

Professor and author Grace Delgado examines the Chinese Diaspora in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and looks at immigration, nationalism and racism through the experiences of Chinese migrants in the region during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. National Archives McGowan Theater Tue., June 26, 7 p.m.

Le Studio: Wine Tasting 101

The monthly “Wine Tasting 101” soirées — with veteran wine journalist Claire Morin-Gibourg — explores the regions and vineyards in France, as well as tasting techniques, with June’s tasting featuring Champagne Deutz & Maison Delas (Rhône), with speaker Fabrice Rosset, CEO of Deutz & Delas. Tickets are $70. La Maison Française

FESTIVALS June 1 to 10

DC Jazz Festival

With more than 100 performances in dozens of venues across the city, the DC Jazz Festival is the largest music festival in Washington, D.C., and one of the most highly anticipated cultural events in the nation. Highlights include “Jazz Meets the Classics” at the Kennedy Center and performances at the newly restored Howard Theatre, such as Italian music legend Pino Daniele on June 10. For information, visit www.dcjazzfest.org.

social or legal. Tickets are $30 to $35. Gunston Arts Center

Events Highlight

UAE Welcomes WNO In a sense, the Washington National Opera (WNO) is its own worst enemy. As the crème de la crème of the city’s social calendar, the WNO’s annual Opera Ball constantly has to outdo itself, with a string of big-name embassies hosting the lavish event in recent years. The 2008 Opera Ball was held on the grounds of the palatial French Residence. The next year it was the striking modernist German Residence. Then the Russian Embassy transformed into a winter fairyland for the 2010 ball. And last year, the WNO scored a major coup by getting the Chinese to serve as diplomatic hosts. Each year, the costumed performers, opulent décor, handcrafted cocktails, laser light shows and multimedia projections seem to get bigger and bigger. Fortunately, the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, site of the 2012 Opera Ball, is sure to take the fabulousness up yet another notch. “As the U.A.E. develops into a hub for culture and the arts, we continue to build relationships with world-class organizations. To that end, Abeer and I welcome the opportunity to support the Kennedy Center and the Washington National Opera, and are honored to be associated with these two institutions,” said Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba. “Opera is a truly

global art form, and we are proud to continue our longstanding relationship with the Kennedy Center and be a part of this important cultural exchange.” The elite philanthropic event regularly attracts hundreds of high-profile Washingtonians despite the hefty ticket prices — $1,200 this year for an individual ticket. For many though, the price is well worth it. The Opera Ball is the WNO’s largest fundraiser, with 100 percent of the proceeds supporting its awardwinning artistic, educational and outreach programs. Ball guests enjoy intimate dinners hosted by various ambassadors at their embassies and residences throughout the city, followed by a dazzling evening of desserts, dancing, performances, culture and hobnobbing at one of the city’s premier black-tie events. “I am excited for Washington to experience the warm hospitality of our friends from the U.A.E., and I am grateful to Ambassador and Mrs. Al Otaiba for hosting what is sure to be a dazzling jewel of the Washington social calendar,” said Adrienne Arsht, chair of this year’s Opera Ball. “I know that longtime Kennedy Center supporters are in for a major treat when they attend and have the ‘Opera Ball Experience.’” — Anna Gawel

Various locations

MUSIC

La Maison Française

June 8 to July 1

Fri., June 8, 7:30 p.m.

June 28 to July 2

Europe Cup 2012

Bring your refreshments and watch broadcasts of the UEFA European Football Championship, one of the world’s biggest sporting events, with the final tournament of the Europe Cup 2012 held in Poland and Ukraine and featuring 16 nations. Goethe-Institut June 11 to 25

Zeitgeist: New Playwrights from Austria, Germany and Switzerland

Zeitgeist DC — a project of the GoetheInstitut, the Austrian Cultural Forum Washington, and the Embassies of Liechtenstein and Switzerland — makes the richness of German-language literature accessible to English speakers with a series of staged readings by leading contemporary authors and playwrights that reflect the literary scenes in Germanspeaking parts of Europe. Examples include “Crazy Blood,” a comic take on immigrant stereotypes, by Nurkan Erpulat on June 11. For information, visit www.zeitgeistdc.org. Various locations

Yevgeny Kutik, Violin Timothy Bozarth, Piano The Embassy of Luxembourg, with cooperation from the Embassy of Poland, welcomes Russian-American violinist Yevgeny Kutik, a gifted young artist whose music possesses “an old-fashioned rhapsodic style,” according to the New York Times. Tickets are $100, including buffet dinner and wine. For information, contact the Embassy Series at www.embassyseries.org. Embassy of Luxembourg Sat., June 23, 4 p.m.

Fête de la Musique Each year on the summer solstice, the French gather in the streets to celebrate the change of seasons with la fête de la musique — a tapestry of music and dancing by both amateur and professional musicians. For the 10th year in a row, the French Embassy (La Maison Française) recaptures this lively atmosphere in its gardens with more than 50 bands and street performers, along with French food, drinks and activities from temporary tattoos and character drawings to pictures in front of the Moulin Rouge. Admission is $8.

Serenade! Washington DC Choral Festival

Classical Movements, a leading concert touring company based in Washington, presents “Serenade!” — a festival featuring nine visiting choirs from seven countries, including Young Adelaide Voices from Australia, Countermeasure from Canada and Imilonji KaNtu Choral Society from South Africa, in 18 concerts and festival events around the area, as well as workshops and outreach exchanges with local organizations. For information, visit http://classicalmovements.org.

June 2 to July 8

Spring Awakening

In this Keegan Theatre production, a group of students in late 19th-century Germany move from adolescence into adulthood, navigating the devastation and wonder of sexuality and self-discovery — despite parents and authority figures who are intent on suppressing thought and expression. Tickets are $40. Church Street Theater June 7 to July 1

Puerto Rico...¡fuá!

GALA concludes its 36th season with the D.C. premiere of Puerto Rica’s most popular musical, a hilarious satire that spins tales from the Taíno natives, to invasions by the conquistadores and Americans, to the ups and downs of contemporary life on the Enchanted Island. Tickets are $38 or $40. GALA Hispanic Theatre June 8 to July 29

The Normal Heart

Fueled by love, anger, hope and pride, a circle of friends struggle to contain the mysterious disease ravaging New York’s gay community. Please call for ticket information. Arena Stage

Through June 2

Las Quiero a las Dos (I Want Them Both)

A husband packs to run off with his lover, but his wife locks him in as she waits for “the other one” to unleash a scandal in Teatro de la Luna’s comedy that uses the classic love triangle as the base for an intelligent theatrical game that examines what happens when people want no ties,

June 2012

When an older, wealthy mystery writer invites his wife’s lover to his elegant and isolated estate, a complex game of wits and gamesmanship begins, which could potentially end with deadly results, in this thriller by Anthony Shaffer that has inspired two film versions. Tickets start at $26. Olney Theatre Center Through June 24

The Servant of Two Masters

The wily servant Truffaldino devises a zany scheme to double his wages by serving two masters at once, but mayhem erupts when identities are mistaken, engagements are broken, and lovers are reunited in this commedia dell’arte masterpiece. Tickets are $39 to $95. The Shakespeare Theatre Through July 1

Home of the Soldier

Filled with physical staging, projections and multimedia, this world premiere commemorates the heroism of the armed forces with a dynamic story that follows the sudden evolution of one man from a videogame-playing youth to a real-life soldier, and the physical and psychological struggles he faces along the way. Tickets are $45 to $55. Synetic Theater at Crystal City

June 12 to July 15

The Merry Wives of Windsor

In Shakespeare’s riotous romp, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” directed by British director Stephen Rayne, the conniving, impoverished knight Falstaff plots to woo two wealthy wives at the same time, but his plan backfires and the cunning wives seek revenge. Tickets are $20 to $100.

Through July 1

Mr. Burns, a post-electric play

June 13 to July 1

Armageddon has struck and the grid is down: no TV, no radio, no Internet — how will life go on? For one group of tenacious survivors sitting around a fire and reminiscing about “The Simpsons,” a new industry is born from their collective memories: a crude theatrical recreation of the digital culture we can’t possibly live without. Tickets start at $35.

The Animals and Children Took to the Streets

Through July 1

Shakespeare Theatre Harman Hall

This genre-smashing piece from British company 1927 is a mix of performance, live music, animation and silent film that the Guardian describes as “Alexander Rodchenko meets Tim Burton, Charles Dickens meets Fritz Lang, and the early 20th-century silent movie meets the 21st-century graphic novel.” The Studio Theatre

Woolly Mammoth Theatre

Xanadu

Funky legwarmers and neon glow sticks are back with the Washington premiere of the musical comedy hit “Xanadu,” as Kira, one of seven quirky Greek muses, emboldens struggling artist Sonny to create the first roller disco. Tickets start at $63. Signature Theatre

CULTURE GUIDE

Various locations

THEATER

June 13 to July 8

Sleuth

Plan Your Entire Weekend.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 39

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

June 2012

WPAS Annual Gala and Auction

From left, Tony Award-winning Broadway singer Brian Stokes Mitchell joins Mrs. and Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki, the evening’s honorary diplomatic chairs, as well as Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his wife Maureen McDonnell for the Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS) Annual Gala and Auction held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of Ireland Michael Collins, Josie Bruland, and Ambassador of the Philippines and Mrs. Jose L. Cusia Jr. attend the VIP reception of the Washington Performing Arts Society Annual Gala and Auction.

Ambassador of Portugal Nuno Brito, left, joins Ambassador of the Czech Republic Petr Gandalovic at the Washington Performing Arts Society Annual Gala and Auction held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

Grace Bender, left, joins Judith Terra, chair of the D.C. Arts Commission, at the silent auction of the Washington Performing Arts Society Annual Gala, which featured a cherry blossom theme in honor of Japan.

Ambassador of Mexico Arturo Sarakhun, right, brought his sister-inlaw Paulina Valencia to the annual Washington Performing Arts Society Gala and Auction at the Marriott Wardman Park.

Former Secretary of Com merce Carlos Gutierrez and his wife Edi enter the Washington Performing Arts Society Annual Gala and Auction.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg takes her seat as the WPAS Children of the Gospel Choir, which has appeared twice on NBC’s “Today” show, sings for the 600 guests at the Washington Performing Arts Society Annual Gala and Auction.

Photos: thomas coleman

From left, Yoriko Fujisaki, Adrienne Arsht, and Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki attend the VIP reception of the Washington Performing Arts Society Annual Gala and Auction.

From left, Washington Performing Arts Society President (WPAS) Neale Perl, recently appointed U.S. Ambassador to Malta Gina AbercrombieWinstanley, and Gerard Winstanley attend the VIP reception of the WPAS Annual Gala, which raised $900,000 for WPAS, a nonprofit founded in 1965 that presents a wide range of musical performances throughout the area by both emerging and established artists.

Corcoran Ball

Corcoran Ball Chair Deborah de Gorter, left, welcomes Ambassador of France François Delattre, the evening’s diplomatic patron, to the 57th annual Corcoran Ball at the Corcoran Gallery of Art to benefit the museum and its award-winning outreach, educational and scholarship programs. The ball featured costumed performers and distinct dining rooms spread throughout the Corcoran’s galleries.

From left, Kei Tolliver, Sachiko Kuno, co-founder of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, and Yasuo Noda attend the 57th annual Corcoran Ball.

Page 40

Steve Labensky, left, joins Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano for the 57th annual Corcoran Ball.

From left, Ivy Howells joins Gail and Togo West at the 57th annual Corcoran Ball to benefit the Corcoran Gallery of Art and its College of Art + Design.

Photos: thomas coleman

From left, D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans, Frank Hauer, and D.C. Councilmember David Catania attend the 57th annual Corcoran Ball.

From left, Bill Dooley, Mario Blakey, and Liz and Thomas Donahue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, attend the 57th annual Corcoran Ball.

The Washington Diplomat

June 2012

Honoring Women Envoys

Photos: anna gawel / meridian international center

From left, Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Ahmed, Evelyn DiBona of MHz Networks, Ambassador of Costa Rica Muni Figueres Boggs, and Didi Cutler attend a reception celebrating women ambassadors as well as the Meridian Council on Women’s Leadership.

Chair of the Meridian Council on Women’s Leadership Michele Manatt, left, and U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Marshall talked about the Council on Women’s Leadership at Meridian, which strengthens international understanding of the political, economic and social factors that accelerate the empowerment of women locally, nationally and globally.

From left, Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde, Meridian Board of Trustees Chairman James J. Blanchard, also a partner at DLA Piper, and Claudia Salomon of DLA Piper attend a reception celebrating the Meridian Council on Women’s Leadership, co-hosted by the Meridian International Center, DLA Piper and Visa.

Ambassador of Mozambique Amélia Matos Sumbana, left, joins Monica Lewis at a reception celebrating women ambassadors, nine of whom were in attendance, held at the Meridian International Center.

Senior Vice President and Deputy of the Meridian International Center Sharon P. Wilkinson, left, joins Ambassador of Botswana Tebelelo Seretse at a Meridian reception celebrating women ambassadors in Washington.

Photo: jan du plain

Women Ambassadors Foundation From left, Ambassador of Tanzania Mwanaidi Sinare Maajar, Ambassador of Zambia Sheila Siwela, Meridian Council on Women’s Leadership member Ellen Schreiber, and Ambassador of Cape Verde Maria de Fatima Lima da Veiga attend a reception for women ambassadors held at the Meridian International Center.

From left, President of the Women Ambassadors Foundation (WAF) Marilyn Sephocle, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Brazilian Embassy Ernesto H. F. Araujo, and WAF Ambassador in Residence and Chair Emeritus Ljubica Z. Acevska attend the 17th Annual Women Ambassadors Conference at Howard University exploring the topic of “People, Democracy and Resources in a World of Transition.”

John Phipps, senior director of global government relations at Visa, left, joins President and CEO of the Meridian International Center Stuart Holliday at a Meridian reception celebrating women ambassadors in Washington.

Taste of Iceland

Beacon Martini Contest

Photos: thomas coleman

From left, President of Capital Hotels & Suites Jay Haddock; Beacon Bar and Grill general manager Kamran Vakili; Tom Crotteau, distributor for Skyy Vodka; Aaron Joseph, bartender at Sax Bar and the Four Seasons; and Hector Torres, general manager of the Beacon Hotel & Corporate Quarters, announce the winners of the Beacon’s fifth annual Best Martini in DC Contest, in which Joseph took top honors.

The Washington Diplomat was honored to be a celebrity judge at the Beacon Hotel’s fifth annual Best Martini in DC Contest. From left, D.C. Councilmember David Catania, Washington Diplomat Managing Editor Anna Gawel, and Publisher of Metro Weekly Sean Bugg judge different martini creations made from Skyy Vodka.

From left, chef Ris Lacoste of RIS Restaurant, Consul of the Icelandic Consulate-General in New York Hlynur Gudjonsson, and Ambassador of Iceland Gudmundur Árni Stefansson talk to industry insiders at a preview for “A Taste of Iceland,” a multiday event in mid-April highlighting Icelandic cuisine, music, film and culture in Washington.

Photos: thomas coleman

Acclaimed Icelandic chef Thrainn Freyr shows dishes such as Icelandic cod and free-range lamb that were part of the “A Taste of Iceland” menu at RIS Restaurant.

Mayor Gray at IFE

‘Prêt-à-Papier’ at Hillwood From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen, Institute for Education (IFE) founder and CEO Kathy Kemper, Judge William Webster, Ambassador of Bulgaria Elena Poptodorova Petrova, Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche, former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde, Ambassador of Turkey Namik Tan, Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov, and Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Paul Senninger attend an IFE-INFO breakfast roundtable featuring D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray.

Photos: institute for education

Judge William Webster, left, talks with D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray at an Institute for Education INFO Public Policy Roundtable held at the Belgian Residence, where Mayor Gray spoke about his plans for the city.

June 2012

photo: hillwood museum

From left, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union William E. Kennard, Deborah Diane Kennedy, artist Isabelle de Borchgrave, Hillwood Executive Director Kate Markert, and Bunky Markert visit de Borchgrave’s studio in Brussels to prepare for the June exhibition “Prêt-à-Papier: The Exquisite Art of Isabelle De Borchgrave” at the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington.

The Washington Diplomat Page 41

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT New Polish Residence

The Washington Diplomat

From left, Ambassador of Slovenia Roman Kirn joins Maria and Leonard Oberlander, a consulting international liaison, at the official opening of the new Polish Residence.

From left, Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde, Ambassador of the Holy See Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, and Ambassador of Austria Hans Peter Manz attend the opening of the new Polish Residence, which also celebrated the country’s Constitution Day.

Ambassador of Ukraine Olexander Motsyk, a former ambassador to Poland, and his wife Natalia attend the official opening of the new Polish Residence on Whitehaven Street.

Ambassador of Poland Robert Kupiecki, left, listens as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives remarks on the new Polish ambassador’s residence, located a stone’s throw from Secretary Clinton’s residence.

2012 Folger Gala

June 2012

Photos: thomas coleman

From left, Kevin Chaffee, Roxanne Roberts of the Washington Post, the evening’s hostess, and novelist Arthur Phillips attend the 2012 Folger Gala at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Germany at OAS From left, Bill McSweeney, Dorothy McSweeney, Folger Shakespeare Library Director Michael Witmore, British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott and Lady Susie Westmacott attend the 2012 Folger Gala, which celebrated the Folger Shakespeare Library’s 80th anniversary.

Photos: James R. Brantley

Gala chairs Margaret Gardner and David Gardner are joined by their daughter Katherine, center, at the 2012 Folger Gala.

Jazz at Singapore

Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS) José Miguel Insulza, right, meets with Ambassador of Germany Peter Ammon to discuss current regional economic and social issues at the OAS headquarters in D.C.

Totah Tribute

From left, Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), Mrs. and Ambassador of Turkey Namik Tan, Ambassador of Singapore Chan Heng Chee, and Ambassador of India Nirupama Rao attend a jazz concert by the Hilary Kole Quartet, left, at the Embassy of Singapore, part of the DC Jazz Festival.

Queen Beatrix’s Birthday

From left, Ambassador of the Netherlands Renée JonesBos and her husband Dr. Richard Huw Jones welcome Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche to the Queen’s Day reception at the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

Page 42

Photo: Patricia Leiva/OAS

From left, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, jazz singer Hilary Kole, and Chairman of the DC Jazz Festival Board of Directors Michael R. Sonnenreich attend a jazz concert featuring the Hilary Kole Quartet at the Embassy of Singapore.

U.S. Army Foreign Liaison Rebecca Fielder, left, joins Assistant Defense Attaché at the Dutch Embassy Col. Arie Ooms at the Queen’s Day reception held at the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

Ambassador of the Netherlands Renée Jones-Bos and her husband Dr. Richard Huw Jones, center, are joined by their son William and daughter Georgia at a reception celebrating the birthday of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

The Washington Diplomat

Photos: jan du plain

UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Esther Coopersmith, left, joins Annie Totah, who was honored by Franco Nuschese, owner of Café Milano, for being “A Woman of Great Courage, Compassion and Dedication.” Armenian-born Totah, who emigrated from Lebanon to the U.S. 40 years ago, has received numerous awards including the “Ellis Island Medal of Honor.”

From left, Prince Reza Pahlavi of Iran, Shamim Jawad, Princess Yasmine Pahlavi, and former Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad, now CEO of Capitalize LLC, attend a tribute dinner at Café Milano for Annie Totah.

June 2012

Alliance Française Benefit

The Phillips Collection Gala

From left, Trish Vradenburg and Trustee Board Chair George Vradenburg greet Ambassador of Switzerland Manuel Sager and his wife Christine at the Phillips Collection Annual Gala.

Photos: Yacouba Tanou / YTanou Photography

From left, benefit co-chair Evelyn Di Bona, Ambassador of France François Delattre, corporate chair Marie Royce, and co-chair Nina Pillsbury attend a dinner at the French Residence to benefit the Alliance Française Educational Initiatives that offer D.C. school children French language and cultural learning.

Photos: institute for education

From left, Jim Valentine, the evening’s honoree Clarice Smith, Phillips Collection Director Dorothy Kosinski, and Institute for Education founder and CEO Kathy Kemper attend the Phillips Collection Annual Gala.

From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of France François Delattre welcome Mrs. and Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen to their residence to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Alliance Française Educational Initiatives (AFEI), an educational and cultural initiative founded by Anne Bujon de l’Estang that helps the Alliance Française de Washington offer French language education and cultural enrichment to more than 5,000 students in D.C. primary schools.

Photo: James R. Brantley

From left, Ambassador of Belgium and Mrs. Jan Matthysen talk with Phillips Director Dorothy Kosinski at the Phillips Collection Annual Circles Dinner held at the Belgian Residence.

Ambassador of Norway Wegger Strommen and his wife Rev. Cecilie Strommen arrive at the Phillips Collection Annual Gala, proceeds of which support the museum’s education programs.

Ambassador of Israel Michael Oren and his wife Sally attend the Phillips Collection Annual Gala, which featured dinner among the museum’s masterpieces followed by an after-party in the ballroom of Anderson House.

Latvian Independence

From left, Ambassador of France François Delattre, Institute for Education founder and CEO Kathy Kemper, and Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Paul Senninger attend the Phillips Collection Annual Gala held at the museum.

WAC-DC Education Gala

Photos: larry luxner

From left, Ambassador of Latvia Andrejs Pildegovics welcomes Ambassador of Luxembourg and Mrs. Jean-Paul Senninger to the reception celebrating the 22nd anniversary of the declaration restoring Latvian independence.

From left, Ambassador of Austria Hans Peter Manz, Ambassador of Iceland Gudmundur Arni Stefansson, and Ambassador of Portugal Nuno Brito attend the Latvian Independence celebration at the Latvian Embassy.

Ambassador of Bulgaria, left, and recently appointed Ambassador of Croatia Josip Paro attend the Latvian Independence celebration, which also featured an exhibition of leading contemporary Latvian painters.

Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, recipient of World Affairs Council of D.C.’s Distinguished Diplomatic Service Award, left, and William Courtney, chairman of the WAC-DC’s international affairs committee, attend the World Affairs Council’s 2012 Global Education Gala at the Ritz-Carlton Washington hotel.

Countdown to London Olympics

Photos: the british embassy

British Ambassador Peter Westmacott joins teams from the embassies of seven former Olympic host countries as well as the State Department for an Olympic-themed competition held at American University’s Reeves Field and hosted by the British Embassy to celebrate the 100-day countdown until the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

June 2012

From left, Marc E. Albert, a member of the World Affairs Council of D.C. board of directors; Sidney Ribeau, president of Howard University and winner of WAC-DC’s Educator of the Year Award; and Georgetown University student Roberta Belden, an intern at the World Affairs Council of D.C., appear on stage at the 2012 Global Education Gala at the Ritz-Carlton.

The Washington Diplomat Page 43

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT Annual Embassy Golf Tournament

The Washington Diplomat

June 2012

Photos BY Jessica Latos

the Washington diplomat eighth annual embassy golf tournament, with Moroccan ambassador rachad Bouhlal serving as this year’s honorary diplomatic host, attracted more than 150 participants for a leisurely game of golf at cross creek golf club in Beltsville, Maryland on May 4.

ambassador of cambodia hem heng, left, joins teammate ambassador of Laos seng soukhathivong at the lunchtime cookout.

From left, teammates Paul cohen of Partner concepts, Fred thomas of Mhz networks, and Yurly romanchuck and oleksandr Pakhil of the ukrainian embassy.

aidan caddisy of the northern ireland Bureau celebrates after making his putt.

From left, ambassador of the european union João Vale de almeida won the raffle prize for a trip to Morocco and celebrates with the Washington diplomat Publisher/editor in chief Victor shiblie, ambassador of Morocco rachad Bouhlal, and abdelhamid Khalil of royal air Maroc at the dinner and awards reception.

From left, teammates dr. John ulatowski of Johns hopkins Medicine international, dick nabors of international Limousine service, Luigi di Mauro of the embassy of italy, and Joan silverman of international Limousine service.

From right, wife of the Zimbabwean ambassador shupikayi Mapuranga and scott Fetterolf Jr. of summit commercial real estate congratulate each other as teammates ambassador of Zimbabwe Machivenyika Mapuranga and guy d’amecourt of summit commercial real estate look on.

From left, teammates tom culligan of the Washington times, ambassador of Barbados John Beale, stefan Laetsch of the embassy of germany and david Jackson of the Washington times.

ambassador of Morocco rachad Bouhlal served as the honorary diplomatic host of this year’s golf tournament.

From left, Wayne Young of the embassy of nigeria, ambassador of nigeria to the Bahamas Laraba elsie Bhutto, who won closest to the pin in the women’s category, and Marvin Kimmie of the embassy of nigeria.

scott gerlach of the intercontinental cleveland hotel, left, and Kirsten ste. Marie of the Willard intercontinental Washington sponsor a table at one of the holes.

angelique rutledge of the embassy of the netherlands celebrates as she wins a free trip to Morocco courtesy of the Moroccan embassy and royal air Maroc.

John Phipps, senior director of global government relations at Visa, a sponsor of the embassy golf tournament, talks to the players following the tournament at the dinner and awards reception. William neal and cornelia neal of the embassy of the netherlands.

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For more photos, see page 31 or to view all the photos from the Embassy Golf Tournament, be sure to like The Washington Diplomat on Facebook.

Page 44

The Washington Diplomat

stefan Laetsch of the embassy of germany wins a bottle of rum courtesy of the embassy of Barbados.

hector dominguez of the embassy of Mexico, left, is presented with a weekend stay at state Plaza hotel by the Washington diplomat Publisher Victor shiblie for winning the longest drive in the men’s category.

Vice President for studies at the carnegie endowment for international Peace douglas Paal, left, talks with his teammate, ambassador of Kazakhstan erlan idrissov, at the dinner reception.

June 2012

AROUNDTHEWORLD

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

June 2012

HOLIDAYS ALGERIA June 19: national Youth day ANGOLA June 1: international children’s day ARGENTINA June 21: Flag day AuSTRALIA June 11: Queen’s Birthday AuSTRIA June 7: corpus christi AZERBAIJAN June 15: national salvation day June 26: national army day

BAHAMAS June 1: Labor day BOLIvIA June 7: corpus christi BRuNEI June 16: ascension of Mohammed CAMBODIA June 1: international children’s day June 18: Birthday of hM the Queen Mother CAPE vERDE June 1: international children’s day CENTRAL AFRICAN REPuBLIC June 30: national

Prayer day COLOMBIA June 7: corpus christi June 29: st. Peter and st. Paul day COMOROS June 16: ascension of Mohammed CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPuBLIC OF June 30: independence day CROATIA June 7: corpus christi June 22: anti-Fascism day June 25: statehood day (national day)

APPOINTMENTS Haiti Paul altidor became ambassador of haiti to the united states on May 2, having previously served as vice president at the clinton Bush haiti Fund in Washington, d.c. ambassador altidor has an extensive private sector background. as a management consultant, he counseled firms in various countries on corporate governance and responsibility. in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, ambassador altidor led a team of professors and researchers from the Massachusetts institute of technology’s community Ambassador innovators Lab to haiti to provide guidance on housing polPaul Altidor icy and financing. Prior to the 2010 earthquake, ambassador altidor worked at the international Finance corporation, where he advised governments on infrastructure projects and public-private partnerships. he has also worked for the World Bank and taught at ecole supérieure catholique de droit de Jérémie, a law school in his native town of Jérémie. ambassador altidor received his undergraduate degree from Boston college, an advanced degree from the Massachusetts institute of technology, and also pursued graduate studies in law and economics at the university of Paris in France.

DENMARK June 5: constitution day

Liberia Jeremiah congbeh sulunteh became ambassador of Liberia to the united states on

June 2012

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

DJIBOuTI June 16: ascension of Mohammed June 27: independence day

and commemoration June 23: Victory day June 23-24: st. John’s day/Midsummer’s day

DOMINICAN REPuBLIC June 7: corpus christi EQuATORIAL GuINEA June 5: President’s Birthday June 7: corpus christi

FINLAND June 23: Midsummer’s day

ERITREA June 20: Martyrs day ESTONIA June 4: national Flag day June 14: day of Mourning

GRENADA June 7: corpus christi GuATEMALA June 30: army day

ICELAND June 17: national day

IRELAND June 4: Bank holiday

INDONESIA June 16: ascension of Mohammed

ITALY June 2: Foundation of the italian republic

IRAN June 16: ascension of Mohammed

KENYA June 1: Madaraka day

IRAQ June 16: ascension of Mohammed

May 2. since 2006, ambassador sulunteh has held several cabinet positions under President ellen Johnson sirleaf, including minister of transport and then minister of labor, transport and post and telecommunication. Following his first appointment as transport minister, ambassador sulunteh undertook a project to build an elementary and junior high school in his hometown of gboimu to ensure that children would not have to walk, as he had done, three miles every morning to attend school in neighboring gbondoi. in addition, ambassador sulunteh taught economic Ambassador development at the graduate school of cuttington university, Jeremiah Congbeh his alma mater, and public finance administration at the Sulunteh nation’s oldest institution of higher learning, the university of Liberia. his writings include “Public sector deficits and Macroeconomic Performance: adjustment, reform and growth, the case of ghana” (2000); “sustainable african economic development: the role of the iMF” (1999); “the Political economy of african development: a comparative study of Kenya and tanzania” (1994); and “the government Privatization Policy: a case study of the Liberia electricity corporation” (1988). ambassador sulunteh holds a bachelor’s of science degree in economics from cuttington university college (now cuttington university), a master’s degree in public administration from the american university in cairo, egypt, and a master’s of arts degree in economics from York university in toronto, canada. he speaks and writes fluent Kpelle, his native tongue, and is married to Kabeh sulunteh with three children.

Kosovo akan ismaili became ambassador of Kosovo to the united states on May 2. a former telecommunications entrepreneur and chief executive officer, ambassador ismaili cofounded internet Project Kosovo (iPKo), a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the use of information and communications technology as a tool to foster rebuilding and development in Kosovo after the nato campaign ended in 1999. iPKo has been credited with bringing the internet to Ambassador Kosovo. in 2001, iPKo split into two entities: iPKonet and Akan Ismaili iPKo institute, and ambassador ismaili served as the ceo of iPKonet, a company that expanded access to broadband, mobile, fixed telephone and television in Kosovo. over his 10-year tenure, iPKo became a modern enterprise and is now recognized as one of the fastestgrowing telecommunications companies in europe and a pillar of the new economy in Kosovo. during the same time, ambassador ismaili founded the american university Foundation in Kosovo, which draws support from Kosovar citizens and its diaspora to establish an american-style higher education institution in Kosovo. to date, the foundation has raised more than $8 million, which it has used for programs in conjunction with new York’s rochester institute of technology. Prior to the war, ambassador ismaili managed it infrastructure for the u.s. diplomatic office in Pristina, serving as a translator for u.s. diplomats when the war started. Just before the nato bombing campaign began, ambassador ismaili was evacuated to Vienna, where he led a team of four people tasked with translating and distributing u.s. government news articles to the albanian-language media in the region and at refugee camps. ambassador ismaili studied computer science in Pristina until 1994, when he set up the city’s first e-mail server, which played a central role in helping the opposition organize against the old regime. his work has been featured by the advocacy Project, Wired and the new York times.

Send Us Your Holidays and Appointments

Malaysia

Ambassador Datuk Othman Hashim

datuk othman hashim became ambassador of Malaysia to the united states on May 2. Prior to his current assignment, ambassador hashim was the permanent representative of Malaysia to the united nations in geneva. he has also served as Malaysia’s ambassador to the czech republic as well as deputy secretary-general for bilateral affairs at the Ministry of Foreign affairs.

Thailand chaiyong satjipanon became ambassador of thailand to the united states on May 2. he previously served as thailand’s ambassador to south Korea (2010-12); ambassador to switzerland with concurrent accreditation to Liechtenstein and the holy see (2007-10); permanent representative to the united nations and other international organizations in geneva (2003-07); and ambassador to indonesia with concurrent accreditation to Papua new guinea (2001-03). he Ambassador was also the consul general of the royal thai consulategeneral in sydney, australia, from 1994 to 2000. in addition, Chaiyong ambassador satjipanon has held various posts at the Satjipanon Ministry of Foreign affairs, which he joined in 1975, including director-general of the department of american and south Pacific affairs and ambassador attached to the office of the Permanent secretary (2000-01); deputy director-general of the department of economic affairs (1993-94); director of the Policy and Planning division of the office of the Permanent secretary (1990-93), counselor in the southeast asia division of the department of Political affairs (199093); and counselor of the americas division of the department of Political affairs (1989-90). ambassador satjipanon holds a bachelor’s degree with honors and a master’s degree from chulalongkorn university in Bangkok, thailand, as well as a master’s of law degree and a doctorate in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher school of Law and diplomacy at tufts university.

KOSOvO June 15: constitution day KuWAIT June 16: ascension of Mohammed

PORTuGAL June 7: corpus christi June 10: Portugal day QATAR June 27: anniversary of the amir’s succession ROMANIA June 1: international children’s day June 26: day of the national Flag RuSSIA June 12: national day ST. KITTS and NEvIS June 11: Queen’s Birthday ST. LuCIA June 7: corpus christi SAMOA June 1: national day

LIECHTENSTEIN June 7: corpus christi

SEYCHELLES June 5: Liberation day June 7: corpus christi June 18: national day June 29: independence day

LITHuANIA June 24: st. John’s day

SLOvENIA June 25: national day

LuXEMBOuRG June 23: national day

SOLOMON ISLANDS June 11: Queen’s Birthday

MADAGASCAR June 26: national day

SOuTH AFRICA June 16: Youth day

MALAWI June 14: Freedom day

SWEDEN June 6: national day June 23: Midsummer day

LATvIA June 23-24: Midsummer celebrations

MALAYSIA June 4: Birthday of hM the Yang di-Pertuan agong MALTA June 7: sette giugno commemoration day June 29: st. Peter and st. Paul day MONGOLIA June 1: international children’s day MOZAMBIQuE June 25: national day NEW ZEALAND June 4: Queen’s Birthday OMAN June 16: ascension of Mohammed PALAu June 1: President’s day PAPuA NEW GuINEA June 11: the Queen’s Birthday PARAGuAY June 12: chaco armistice PERu June 29: st. Peter and st. Paul day PHILIPPINES June 12: Philippine independence day POLAND June 7: corpus christi

SWITZERLAND June 29: st. Peter and st. Paul day TAJIKISTAN June 27: unity day TOGO June 21: Martyrs’ day TONGA June 4: national day TRINIDAD and TOBAGO June 7: corpus christi June 19: Labor day uGANDA June 3: uganda Martyrs’ day June 9: national heroes’ day uKRAINE June 28: constitution day uNITED ARAB EMIRATES June 16: ascension of Mohammed uNITED KINGDOM June 2-5: Queen’s diamond Jubilee uRuGuAY June 19: Birthday of José g. artigas vENEZuELA June 24: Battle of carabobo

The Washington Diplomat Page 45

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Rio+20 and-mortar centers of applied policy research across the world. Strengthening this global network would enable nations to build domestic capacity and gather helpful insights about how best to achieve sustainable energy, building on lessons learned elsewhere.To be effective, these institutions should be prefunded by the international community to assist any government with the political will to tailor and implement proven policies for achieving sustainable energy for all. This theory of change — spreading knowledge through a global network of experts that serves as a global public good that governments can access largely without cost — is precisely how the international community spread the knowledge needed for the green revolution in the 1960s via the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research.While the subject matters are quite different, the challenge is fundamentally the same: ensuring that people everywhere learn what has worked elsewhere and applying those lessons locally in appropriate and tailored solutions. In the case of energy, as was true for agriculture, implementing the right policies will be essential to success. Third, the United States should announce at Rio+20 its commitment to work with other nations to develop a new “deal flow generator” — a new mechanism within existing international financial institutions that would connect long-term investors (including pension funds, life insurance, endowment funds and sovereign wealth funds) with sustainable energy for all investment opportunities. According to the International Monetary Fund, long-term institutional investors in developed nations held $60 trillion in total The Washington Diplomat

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assets, while bank assets in these countries amounted to an additional $72 trillion in 2009. Many private investors, including pension and sovereign wealth funds, are eager to invest in sustainable energy ventures. What’s missing is not interest or funds, but rather an abundance of investment-grade opportunities; there just are not enough projects that meet basic investment criteria to attract big money. This new mechanism would alleviate the problem by aggregating sustainable energy projects to create large-scale investment opportunities; perform due diligence on projects and rate investment opportunities to help private investors manage risk; and cluster projects or securitize them to create liquid and tradable assets that could be traded on private secondary markets. Such a mechanism would naturally build on the work being done in the context of the U.S.-Brazil Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability, a platform seeking to mobilize large-scale investment in green infrastructure in both Rio de Janeiro and Philadelphia. As part of this initiative, partners are working to aggregate and bundle small-scale infrastructure projects into investment-size portfolios for diverse investors ranging from the World Bank to Goldman Sachs. Scaling up this effort to the global level to support sustainable energy would provide a useful starting point. Finally, the U.S. government should announce a suite of new initiatives to extend the impact of the nation’s foreign investment agencies, including the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im). In addition to more funding, which remains essential, the United States should expand beyond the use of traditional techniques and offer new products including: “first loss” funds; dedicated seed funding to help small and medium businesses work with developing countries on sustainable energy projects; co-financing initiatives with

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counterparts in Germany, Japan and other developed nations to more effectively align and leverage available global public funding; and create a new equity fund reserved only for equity investments that have high expected returns from a sustainable energy standpoint. In conclusion, a major global effort to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy access in the name of sustainable energy for all would produce tremendous benefits for international development and the climate. While the economic, fiscal and political conditions for such a campaign are far from ideal, the Rio+20 summit in June presents a number of important opportunities for progress. With the right preparations, Rio+20 could help set clear and compelling global clean energy and energy access goals, while also launching innovative public-private partnerships to move the world decisively toward action. The United States must do its part. Focusing as they do on unleashing private enterprise, stimulating economic growth and expanding trade, these recommendations would advance U.S. economic, development and climate goals in ways that would attract broad political support at home and abroad. Sustainable development requires sustainable energy, and the United States should be at the forefront of promoting both. Nigel Purvis is the president and CEO of Climate Advisers and former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment and science. Abigail Jones is director of research and policy at Climate Advisers. This paper is an abridged version of the April 2012 article “Energizing Rio+20: How the United States Can Promote Sustainable Energy for all at the 2012 Earth Summit,” first published by the Center for Global Development with support from the Danish Embassy. June 2012

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