August 2012

■ INSIDE: SPECIAL

A World of News and Perspective

MEDICAL SECTION

MEDICAL ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ August 2012

A lmost...

For Pregnant Women, 40, Not 37, Is Magic Number

■ vOLUME 19, nUMBEr 8

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

by Gina Shaw

W

hen I was preparing to deliver my younger daughter in 2010 at New Jersey’s Morristown Hospital, my midwife told me about a new rule there: no elective inductions of labor or C-sections before 39 completed weeks of pregnancy. If a woman or doctor wanted labor induced or a C-section scheduled before the magic 39-week mark, they would have to present the hospital with a legitimate medical reason why it was better to evict the baby early instead of letting things get closer to the 40 weeks that constitutes a completed pregnancy.

Morristown isn’t alone. In 2009, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued new guidelines, updating 10-yearold criteria, warning against inducing labor prior to 39 weeks of pregnancy in the absence of a medical reason.

EnvIrOnMEnT

Climate Change Altering Life Around Planet

■ AUGUST 2012

Continued on next page

August 2012

MEDICAL The Washington Diplomat

Page 25

This summer’s record-smashing heat wave in Washington has rekindled the climate change debate, though U.S. skepticism remains rampant. But around the world, nations are not only acknowledging the existence of climate change, but bracing for the pending storm. PAGE 8

UniTED KinGDoM

DIPLOMACy

Embassies and Protesters Go Hand in Hand Whether it’s a hunger strike in front of the Canadian Embassy or George Clooney getting arrested outside the Sudanese Mission, embassies in Washington and around the world are a magnet for protesters seeking a venue to air their grievances. PAGE 14

SpOtLight On LOndOn First it was the royal wedding, then the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and now London is back in the global limelight as an estimated 4 billion people — including Her Majesty’s new man in Washington, Sir Peter Westmacott — tune into the 2012 Summer Olympics. PAGE 17

culture

Modern Triumvirate At D.C. Museums Three museums are collaborating on a retrospective of three pivotal artists who defined the “Modern American Genius.” PAGE 30

PEOPLE OF WOrLD InFLUEnCE

DIPLOMACy

U.S. Labor Secretary Fights for Workers

State Official’s Iraqi Exposé Ruffles Feathers

Hilda L. Solis was a high school senior when a guidance counselor hinted she wasn’t exactly college material and should become a secretary. She followed that advice — only not in the way he could’ve imagined. PAGE 6

In D.C., whistleblowers are a dime a dozen, but Peter Van Buren blew the whistle while still employed at the State Department, a move that’s got him scrambling to keep his job now. PAGE 23

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August 2012

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The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

August 2012

8 Special report: Climate change

[ news ] 6

London at Folger Library

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SPECial rEPOrT: ClimaTE CHaNGE

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COvEr PrOFilE: uNiTED KiNGDOm British Ambassador Peter Westmacott’s homeland is basking in the limelight, with all eyes on London for a royal wedding, the Queen’s Jubilee and now the 2012 Summer Olympics.

arT

[ culture ]

Three local museums are collaborating on a three-artist retrospective that celebrates the achievements of the “Modern American Genius” this summer.

31

HiSTOry Expect the unexpected at the Folger Shakespeare Library as you travel through the 200-year saga of London, a medieval city that evolved into a global metropolis.

COvEr: Photo taken at the British Residence by Lawrence Ruggeri.

arT “Constellations” at the Organization of American States looks at artists who embraced the notion of abstraction as a symbol of freedom to break from nationalism.

34

DiNiNG Despite celebrity and success, chef Bryan Voltaggio hasn’t dropped the ball on his signature achievement, Volt.

36

PrETErm DElivEry By 37 or 38 weeks, many pregnant women and doctors are more than ready to welcome baby into the world, but there’s a reason Mother Nature intended for pregnancies to last the full 40 weeks.

DiPlOmaCy Embassies are a magnet for protests — from the political to the outlandish — but do these demonstrations actually do anything other than make noise?

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SPECial rEPOrT: ClimaTE CHaNGE For small island states such as Fiji and the Bahamas, climate change is not just an academic debate. It’s an encroaching threat to their very existence.

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[ medical ]

arT “African Cosmos” is the first major exhibit to explore the historical legacy of African cultural astronomy and its intersection with traditional and contemporary art.

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DiPlOmaCy After writing a tell-all on the State Department’s Iraqi rebuilding effort and alienating his employers, Peter Van Buren is fighting to keep the job he’s had for two dozen years.

SPECial rEPOrT: ClimaTE CHaNGE

Former Ecuadorian Ambassador Ivonne Baki is leveraging her D.C. connections to save one of the world’s last stretches of pristine Amazon rainforest.

DiPlOmaCy With a bevy of multilateral meetings recently from the G-20 to Rio+20, the summer summit season has been a busy one, but does anything concrete ever come out of these international powwows?

As the area swelters through its hottest summer on record, more people here are taking climate change seriously. Yet Bangladesh, called the “ground zero” of global warming, has been taking the issue quite seriously for years.

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Preterm delivery

PEOPlE OF WOrlD iNFluENCE As labor secretary, Hilda L. Solis is reaching out to embassies to protect the rights of all workers in the U.S., while tackling the joblessness that’s undercutting the economy.

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Film rEviEWS An obscure American folk singer who became a legend in South Africa is lost and found in “Searching for Sugar Man.”

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Film FESTivalS The stories of a blind South Korean poet, a Geneva detention center, and a trio of California teens were among the documentaries that took top honors at the Silverdocs festival.

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CiNEma liSTiNG

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EvENTS liSTiNG

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DiPlOmaTiC SPOTliGHT

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WOrlD HOliDayS / aPPOiNTmENTS

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ClaSSiFiEDS

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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, Rachael Bade, Michael Coleman, Rachel G. Hunt, Suzanne Kurtz, Ky N. Nguyen, Ryan Schuessler, Dave Seminara, Gina Shaw, Gary Tischler 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.

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August 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 5

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis

From Immigrants’ Daughter To Nation’s Top Jobs Official

by Larry Luxner

H

ilda L. Solis was still a senior at La Puente High School east of Los Angeles when a guidance counselor hinted she wasn’t exactly college material.

“He told me I was best suited for office work and suggested that I become a secretary,” recalled Solis, who would one day follow her counselor’s advice — only not in a way he could have imagined at the time. The ambitious student, raised along with six other children by her Nicaraguan mother and Mexican father, went on to earn degrees from the California State Polytechnic University and the University of Southern California, and entered politics in 1992.

Eventually, Congresswoman Hilda Solis — representing California’s 31st District, then the 32nd District in the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009 — became Labor Secretary Hilda Solis on Feb. 24, 2009, making history as the first Hispanic woman ever to serve in the U.S. Cabinet.

While on the Hill, she promoted women’s rights and environmental issues, including a law to train workers for “greencollar” jobs.As head of the Labor Department, she’s found an outlet for her lifelong dedication to promoting worker rights, strengthening workplace safety rules while tackling the joblessness that’s been eroding the U.S. economy.

Earlier this summer, Solis, 54, spoke to The Washington Diplomat. It was the second time in 10 years this reporter had interviewed her; the first was in Mexico City, during the 2002 visit of a 12-member Congressional Hispanic Caucus delegation.

The occasion for our latest meeting: a June 11 signing ceremony at Labor Department headquarters with Solis and the ambassadors of Ecuador, Honduras, Peru and the Philippines. Under the partnership agreements signed that day, the department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) as well as its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will cooperate with the local consulates of all four countries, reaching out to migrant workers in the United States with information about U.S. health, safety and wage laws.

“The Department of Labor has already had such an agreement with Mexico since 2005. That’s really where the basis of this comes from,” Solis said.“I took it a step further, working with the Mexican Embassy and its consulates around the United States to get other Latin American countries on board.

Eventually, the embassies of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and India agreed to participate. The latest group brings the total number of countries in the program — known in Spanish as “Podemos Ayudar” — to 10.

“Honduras is extremely pleased to sign these letters of arrangement with the Department of Labor, WHD and OSHA,” said Honduran Ambassador Jorge Ramón Hernández Alcerro.“It marks an important step forward in the cooperation between our governments that will promote the respect and defense of migrant workers’ rights.”

Added Philippine Ambassador José L. Cuisia Jr.:“We assure the Department of Labor we will do our part in ensuring the dissemination of helpful information to Filipino workers concerning their right to a safe and healthy working environment, and fair wages and working hours in the U.S. — and assisting them to seek redress when such rights are disregarded or outright violated.”

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“

Photo: U.S. Department of Labor

If we allow a few unscrupulous employers to exploit and underpay their workers, it sends a message that it’s OK to do in order to compete.

— Hilda L. Solis U.S. secretary of labor

”

The Labor Department would like to add Vietnam and several other Asian countries to the list, as well as expand its efforts around the Caribbean.

“Many of their people are working here but aren’t aware of their rights,” Solis explained, emphasizing that this includes undocumented immigrants as well — a position for which she’s taken considerable heat from Republicans and Tea Party activists. Early on, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) questioned why taxpayers would spend money to ensure that illegal workers get help from the Labor Department while millions of unemployed Americans can’t find jobs.

“The role here is to elevate the protection of workers overall, and to let some of these industries know that they have an obligation to play by the rules,” the labor secretary insisted. “Many of these businesses are fully versed in these laws as well.”

Solis said that since taking over at the Labor Department, she’s hired more than 300 investigators fluent in Spanish, Vietnamese and Haitian Creole, as well as other languages, who go out into the field and meet with workers. The goal is to minimize on-the-job injuries and wage violations by letting foreign workers here know their rights.

Getting the embassies involved, she said,“is a new way of doing business with existing resources that are already here in Washington. It’s an amplification of current rules and laws, empowering these communities and the churches, community-based organizations and other various entities that work

with them.”

Solis noted that the program is not targeted at farm workers but rather service workers in the construction, hotel and restaurant industries that tend to hire immigrants, particularly Hispanics.

“For example, we know that fatalities in the Hispanic community are very high in the construction industry,” she pointed out. “We’re rolling out different campaigns with OSHA: Protect yourself while you’re working outside, whether you’re a car-wash employee, an outdoor sales rep or even a restaurant employee working over a hot stove.”

Solis said the program has paid off in the form of other dividends.

“I knew the president of El Salvador [Mauricio Funes] when he was a congressman.And I’ve visited Nicaragua and worked out a labor agreement, under which the ILO [International Labour Organization] will help monitor for better worker protection in the garment industry.”

She added: “We’re working with the ILO to see how we can set better standards, so that when garments are being produced, you know they are going to have some kind of seal of approval saying they were not made by children or abused women. That’s a whole new set of standards that began under the Clinton administration, and we’re trying to expand that effort.”

Born in Los Angeles in 1957, Solis is the third oldest of seven siblings — four sisters and two brothers; her parents had met in citizenship class and married four years earlier.

Her father,American-born Raúl Solis, moved to Mexico at an early age and came back to the United States, where he worked on farms, on a railroad and as a shop steward for the Teamsters Union at a battery recycling plant in California’s San Gabriel Valley.

Her Nicaraguan-born mother, Juana Sequeira, spent 20 years working the night shift on the assembly line at toy manufacturer Mattel. She was a member of the United Rubber Workers and was also an outspoken advocate for improved working conditions.

Labor issues were a common theme at the family dinner

The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

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a big portion of those claims because many came from workers in construction, janitorial jobs and the poultry industry — all sectors in which Hispanics tend to be overrepresented.

As secretary of labor, what Solis does and says has an impact on millions of lives, from the families of victims of West Virginia’s April 2010 Massey Energy disaster, in which 29 coal miners died, to those affected in Louisiana in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that same month.

As the presidential campaign grows increasingly negative, President Obama has made an issue of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s role at private equity firm Bain Capital when it sent jobs overseas. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission place Romney in charge of Bain from 1999 to 2001, when jobs were outsourced and companies in its charge fell into bankruptcy — yet Romney has done everything he can to distance himself from this period in Bain’s history.

Regardless of who is telling the truth, Solis said this country has a responsibility to not only prevent outsourcing of good jobs, but to encourage the in-sourcing of jobs back to U.S. shores.

“President Obama understands that as other countries grow and develop middle classes of their own, global companies are going to pursue those markets and employ workers. But right now, as our economy recovers, we have a unique opportunity to bring some of our good manufacturing jobs back. Now is the time for us to seize the moment. That’s why we are pushing tax proposals that reward companies that choose to bring jobs home and invest in America. And we want to eliminate tax breaks for companies that are moving jobs overseas.”

On the other hand, Solis is adamantly opposed to the idea of states like Arizona and Alabama playing the role of immigration cop. In those states, at least 70,000 jobs have been lost due to draconian laws that not only give police officers the right — but make it a requirement — to check on the

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table — but so was the importance of doing well in school.

“My parents knew that the only way for their children to have a better life was to get an education,” Solis recalled.“Without their moral and spiritual support, I know I couldn’t have achieved so much. I was the first person in my family to go to college. I was a good student in high school, but I didn’t think about college. No one in my family ever had.”

Maybe that explains why education is such a critical factor in her approach today to dealing with the nation’s 8.2 percent unemployment rate — which she considers her most urgent priority as labor secretary.At present, more than 12 million Americans are jobless, yet 3.7 million jobs remain unfilled across the country.

“We need to match qualified job seekers with jobs that are available now. So my department is making major investments in America’s community colleges and in worker-training programs in areas like science, technology, engineering and math, so we can out-educate, out-innovate and outbuild our global competitors in the 21st century,” she said.

“At the same time, we cannot allow any worker to be denied their rightful pay or sacrifice their life for their livelihood. If we allow a few unscrupulous employers to exploit and underpay their workers, it sends a message that it’s OK to do in order to compete,” she added.

“That’s why we’re partnering with consulates to make sure all workers in America are treated fairly and paid fully for the work they do. We understand that many migrant workers in America are afraid to report mistreatment because it can lead to more abuse, the loss of their job or deportation. We’re making it easier for immigrant workers to come forward by partnering with the institutions where they are most likely to go for help — their country’s own consulates.”

In 2010, the Wage and Hour Division concluded 26,486 cases finding more than $176 million in back wages for 209,814 employees. Hispanics filed

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The FTAs also include protections for labor rights, the environment and intellectual property so that trade really is free and fair, the secretary noted.

“They will promote green jobs and clean energy, another area where we’ve been deepening our international cooperation,” she said. “Also, we insisted that Congress include a robust Trade Adjustment Assistance program so American workers who are negatively impacted by shifts in global trade can get high-quality retraining to thrive in the growth industries of the 21st century.”

Solis said she sympathizes deeply with the children of immigrants who came to the United States illegally but then made lives for themselves.

“These people who are of school age, who have known no other home except the United States, came in through no fault of their own. It’s like the DREAM Act. You can qualify to stay here and be granted a work permit, as long as you have no criminal background,” she said. “Nonetheless, this would be reviewed on a two-year basis. That’s a system even people from the other side of the aisle agree with.”

Compromise is something she learned a long time ago, though it’s also important to build trust with people from diverse backgrounds — a skill she acquired during her first elected position as trustee at a community college in California.

“If you take an all-or-nothing approach to a problem, too often the result is nothing.

Unfortunately, you don’t see the kind of cooperation and compromise in Washington that’s so important to our progress,” she told The Diplomat.

“President Obama has worked very hard to change that, but he has too often been rebuffed by folks on the other side of the aisle. But we continue to reach out, because the American people cannot afford to wait until the next election for both sides in Congress to find a way to work together for the common good.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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immigration status of people they pull over.

“You see industries suffering there. What happens to the businesses, the farmers, the grocerystore owners, the people who live and work in the community who now have to close their doors? It has a devastating domino effect. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost because people have left.”

Another hot-button issue for hard-core GOP loyalists is the secretary’s support of public employees in Wisconsin, where voters in June supported Republican Gov. Scott Walker in a contentious recall election. Walker earned the wrath of unions nationwide after he slashed workers’ benefits to ease the state’s dire cash crunch.

But Solis is unfazed by the political attacks and has stood her ground, according to a recent article in Latino magazine.

“Some of that resolve has come from her background,” writes correspondent Ana Radelat.“What she learned from her father about labor relations has served her well, as has her early ties to unions and their organizers. It helped her win political support that propelled her to the California State Senate, where she served as chairwoman of the Senate Industrial Relations Committee and led a battle to increase California’s minimum wage.”

While pro-business groups have long viewed Solis as working against their interests and siding with big labor, on one issue she appears to agree with the U.S. business community: free trade.

Asked if the recently ratified free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea — which were bitterly opposed by the AFL-CIO and other unions — have helped or hurt American workers, she said the FTAs were a “win-win” for all the countries.

“For our farmers and ranchers here in the United States, the agreements will increase exports of agricultural products. From aerospace to electronics, it will increase American manufacturing exports, including those produced by our small businesses — and they will help level the playing field for American automakers,” Solis told us.

WD-AUG12-II

graduateschool.edu/ii August 2012

(202) 314-3500 The Washington Diplomat Page 7

SPECIAL REPORT

Climate Change Heats Up

Giant sandbags line the coastal road south of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to prevent erosion, a consequence of climate change.

by Larry Luxner

This summer’s record-smashing heat wave in the Washington area and across the country has rekindled the debate over climate change. Although scientists caution against directly linking global warming with extreme weather events such as the Colorado wildfires and Texas drought this summer, they say climate change is clearly making such events far more frequent, likely and intense.

Yet in the United States, especially during an election year, the debate over climate change remains stifled by skepticism, with many Americans discounting that the phenomenon exists despite the preponderance of scientific evidence.

Around the world, however, that debate has become moot, as nations not only acknowledge the existence of climate change, but brace for the pending storm.

So this month, The Washington Diplomat travels the globe to present a special series on how countries such as Bangladesh and Ecuador are trying to turn the climate tide.

Page 8

Photo: Larry Luxner

South Asia

As Ground Zero of Climate Change, Bangladesh Braces for the Deluge COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Along the world’s longest unbroken white-sand beach at Himchori, about 50 kilometers from the Burmese border, little boys and girls splash in the surf while their parents sell sliced mangoes, coconut milk and trinkets to the few foreign tourists who pass through their quaint fishing village.

Not so picturesque are the enormous sandbags installed two years ago by Bangladeshi Army troops to protect the newly built coastal road running from Cox’s Bazar to Teknaf, at the country’s southernmost tip.The 20-meter-long sandbags, stretching clear to the horizon, curiously resemble beached whales with nowhere to go.

“Ten years ago, this shore extended out 150 meters,” said local tour operator Mahi Uddin Zia.“Slowly, the sea level rose and is now affecting this land.The original road, Marine Drive, is already in the sea.We don’t know how long this new road will exist — maybe three or four years from now we won’t find it.”

As the Washington area swelters through its hottest summer on record, more and more people here are suddenly taking climate change seriously. Yet the 158 million inhabitants of Wisconsin-size Bangladesh have worried about this topic for decades.

This South Asian country, often called the “ground zero” of global warming, could find up to a third of its 147,600 square kilometers under water if greenhouse gas emissions force temperatures up by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, causing glaciers as nearby as the Himalayas and as far away as Antarctica to begin to melt.

The net result: an estimated 20 million environmental refugees, and double that number without livelihoods. Fleeing across the border to India may not even be an option, since the government in New Delhi is well on its way to building a high-security fence that almost completely encircles Bangladesh. Besides, in the event of catastrophic storms and rising seas, India may not be much better off

than its smaller neighbor.

This correspondent recently spent 11 days in Bangladesh, traveling with a group of foreign journalists from the capital of Dhaka (population 12 million) south to the crowded port of Chittagong, then to the popular beach resort of Cox’s Bazar and finally northeast to Srimangal, in the heart of Bangladesh’s tea-growing region.

Throughout the trip, which was arranged by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the subject of climate change and catastrophe was never far away.

One evening, as the group was traveling by minivan to a beachfront hotel in Cox’s Bazar, our guide somberly announced that an 8.6-magnitude earthquake had just struck off the coast of Sumatra — and that a tsunami would reach the Bay of Bengal coastline, precisely where our minibus was heading, at exactly 10:51 that night.

The tsunami alert was eventually called off, but not before rattling a few nerves.

Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, says natural disasters are nothing new for his country, one of the unluckiest in Asia.

“Climate change does not cause the formation of cyclones, but it does increase their frequency and intensity,” said Rahman, interviewed on the sidelines of a Dhaka climate change conference. He said that the two cyclones that hit Bangladesh in 2007 and 2009, Sidr and Aila, were in fact mega-cyclones — the kind that generally happen only once every 20 years.

“But those two were followed by Nargis, which killed 150,000 people in Burma.Those three happening in such close proximity? It’s a violation of statistics. They should have happened over a 60-year period.”

On the other hand, he said,“If Nargis had struck Bangladesh, probably only 6,000 to 10,000 people would have died, because our society has mobilized a whole preparedness program. That adaptation plan consists mainly of dredging rivers, planting trees, building

The Washington Diplomat

See bangladesh, page 10

August 2012

SPECIAL REPORT Islands

Small Island Nations Warn Of Climate-Triggered Extinction

Seven of the 1,192 islands that make up the Maldives are seen in this spectacular aerial view on a flight from the capital of Malé to Meedhupparu, in the Raa atoll.

Several months ago, at a Pacific Day celebration hosted by the Embassy of New Zealand, dignitaries from more than a dozen nations enjoyed performances by Australian didgeridoo player Cameron McCarthy, New Zealand’s Kahurangi professional Maori dancers, as well as dance and cultural groups from Samoa, Fiji and Hawaii.

Photo: Larry Luxner

They also feasted on a variety of foods from across the Pacific, including banana plantain cooked in coconut milk from Micronesia; tapioca from Palau; grilled milk fish from Papua New Guinea; and kalel pumpkin and rice bobo from the Marshall Islands.

What a shame it would be if some of these exotic islands literally disappeared under rising seas — triggered by global warming that we ourselves caused.

If drastic action isn’t taken immediately, that’s exactly what can happen, warns Marlene Moses, chairwoman of the 43-member Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

Moses is also the United Nations permanent representative of Nauru, an eight-square-mile Pacific atoll that once earned billions in phosphate exports, giving it one of the world’s highest per-capita incomes.

These days, however, Nauru is more worried about its very existence — as are dozens of other low-lying islands around the planet, from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean to the Bahamas in the Caribbean.

“Despite two decades of escalating warnings and costly impacts, we have made insufficient progress toward lowering greenhouse gas levels responsible for this crisis,” Moses told the Pacific Day delegates. “The political appetite to do what is necessary is at the low-

est point that I can remember.”

Moses said AOSIS “is recognized for the moral authority that comes from representing some of the world’s smallest and most vulnerable states. If the international community cannot ensure the continued existence of all states, then we have all failed.”

In February 2008, former Ambassador Masao Nakayama of Micronesia warned a U.S. House of Representatives panel that “climate change is about our very existence — our existence as a country.”That testimony occurred one year after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared that the evidence for human-caused global warming was “unequivocal.”

Yet since then, the worst-case scenarios imagined by that panel have been realized or exceeded. Studies now predict that sea levels could rise by five feet by the end of this century. Combined with increasingly severe storm surges and other extreme weather events, this would be disastrous for island states, warns AOSIS. In addition, new research suggests that small island nations could lose parts of their exclusive economic zones as their outer atolls succumb to the rising waters.

In the face of these growing threats, Micronesia has proposed a number of fast-action strategies for climate mitigation in the near term. This includes an amendment to the Montreal Protocol to slash production and use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 85 to 90 percent.That would achieve climate mitigation equivalent to 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2050.

After the Micronesians first proposed phasing down these super-greenhouse gases, a similar proposal was submitted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“Reducing HFCs is critical for slowing sea-level rise

See Islands, page 12

Conservation

Eco-Ingenuity: World Pays Ecuador to Forgo Oil Profits Few who met Ivonne Baki during her time here as Ecuador’s ambassador have forgotten the glamorous diplomat — a Harvard graduate with six languages under her belt who also made a name for herself as a talented artist and dedicated peace negotiator.

These days, Baki, who’s back in Quito working for President Rafael Correa, is leveraging her D.C. connections to promote an even bigger cause: saving one of the world’s last pristine Amazon rainforests from destruction by eager oil companies.

August 2012

But she’s not doing it through protests, fundraising, lobbying or the usual eco-campaigning. She’s part of one of the most daring schemes in the history of the environmental movement — one that, if it succeeds, could have a profound effect on future conservation efforts. How does it work? The international community is literally paying the Ecuadorian government not to drill on the land. It’s essentially a bribe — but a noble one.

Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, which has been designated as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, covers 10,000 hectares — slightly more than half the size of the District of Columbia.

See Ecuador, page 11

Photo: Geoff Gallice / ww.flickr.com/photos/11014423@N07

White-banded swallows perch on a tree stump in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, arguably one of the most biologically diverse locations on Earth.

The Washington Diplomat Page 9

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Bangladesh dams and constructing cyclone shelters.”

Yet already, experts say, seasonal monsoons are becoming shorter, with too much rain over brief periods of time, damaging crops and houses and causing flash floods followed by prolonged periods of drought. Many smaller islands in the Ganges River Delta have disappeared due to the frequent flooding, which has contaminated rice fields and water wells with salt, destroying agriculture.

“For us, climate change is real, and it’s happening now,” says Sufiur Rahman, director-general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “We’re already experiencing a three-millimeter-per-year rise in sea levels. But it is going to rise significantly. If it’s five to six millimeters per year, our calculations say that by 2050, one-third of Bangladesh will be inundated.”

Assuming yearly production of 40 million metric tons of cereals in Bangladesh and global productivity losses of 10 percent due to a 1 degree Celsius temperature increase, that translates into roughly $4 billion in annual losses to the country’s GDP, which currently stands at $110 billion.

“In a developing country like Bangladesh, we need 8 to 10 percent GDP growth a year, and if climate change takes 5 percent of that growth away, you can imagine the impact on employment, health and every other aspect of society,” said Sufiur Rahman.

“Now we at least have the capacity to purchase grains, but dealing with these extreme weather events will divert scarce resources we need to feed our people,” he explained.“And even

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Because of external political reasons, the United States has basically walked out on climate change, but they don’t understand that the U.S. will become a victim too.

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— Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies after the event is over, these people need to be relocated to other places. A country like Bangladesh is very densely populated, and if you relocate them to other villages or districts, you create pressures. We are trapped in a situation where we need to get cooperation and support from others.”

But that cooperation is declining. In 2010, overseas development assistance to Bangladesh went down both as a percentage of GDP and in absolute numbers. That year, said Sufiur Rahman, “The total inflow of money was $1.1 billion and we had to pay $900 million in the form of interest payments. So the net inflow was $300 million.

This is a clear case of climate injustice.”

Still, the Asian Development Bank, in a recent report, concluded that although Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country in Asia when it comes to climate change, it’s also the best prepared to face the challenges climate change will bring.

“That coping capacity didn’t come from a high level of education or disposable income, but primarily from a motivation and awareness campaign that we run,” said Sufiur Rahman. “The entire shoreline is dotted with cyclone shelters.

Similarly, we need technology to develop our capacities. Bangladesh has undertaken its own mitigation responsibilities very seriously.”

The Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund, established in 2009, now has $300 million; each year, the government puts another $100 million into the fund.

Saleemul Huq, director of Dhaka’s International Centre for Climate Change and Development, said that compared to citizens of other poor countries, Bangladeshis are by far the most aware of climate change.

“Talk to waiters, they’ll tell you about it. They may not get it right, but they’ve heard of it,” he told The Diplomat. “Our prime minister can give you a very coherent speech on it. The level of awareness is extremely high.We are now translating that awareness into knowledge and action.

We’re beginning to move in the right direction.”

For example, he said, “We’ve developed heattolerant varieties of rice. What used to be 24 degrees is now 35. It is the extremes that will dominate lives, not the averages.” However, he points out that “climate change is happening faster than two generations ago, so I fear there may be a knowledge gap. In Bangladesh, rainfall will be condensed into a shorter period of time.

The whole crop calendar oscillates around the rain.”

Ardashir Kabir is senior vice president of the Bangladesh Tea Association and owner of the Sathgao Tea Estate in Srimangal. He says that for his industry — one of the most important in Bangladesh — climate change is no longer a matter of debate.

“We are already finding that the rainfall patterns have changed,” Kabir told us. “We have records going back 100 years. In the old days, we would assume there’d be a minor drought once every four or five years. These days, we have almost drought-like conditions early season and late season. We’re never sure whether the rains will continue in October.”

Kabir’s tea estate is located only a few kilometers from India, where the double-walled, barbwire fence can easily be seen in the distance.

Guarded day and night by troops known to have shot cattle that strayed too close, the 4,053-kilometer-long fence is largely seen in Bangladesh as an effort by New Delhi to keep millions of potential climate refugees from flooding into India.

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. Assuming things will only get worse as the world heats up, that pretty much precludes a mass exodus of Bangladeshis across the border, in search of dry land. That means the penned-in population will have to seek shelter somewhere within already-crowded Bangladesh — not a very attractive prospect at all.

“The idea that people want to be relocated is a lot of rubbish. If they’re forced by climate change to go somewhere temporarily, they’ll go to the nearest urban center — and after that they’ll move to megacities like Dhaka,” said Huq, who predicts huge displacements of millions of inhabitants.“What I propose is that these people who are climate-induced migrants will have to be

Photo: Larry Luxner

taken in by the countries that created greenhouse gases in the first place.”

In Gwynne Dyer’s bestseller “Climate Wars:The Fight for Survival As the World Overheats,” greenhouse gas emissions have reached record levels, causing global catastrophe and suffering.

Bangladesh — already burdened by the weight of millions of refugees with nowhere to go — threatens to inject one million tons of powdered sulphates into the stratosphere in a desperate ploy to “geo-engineer” global cooling.

That last-ditch attempt to blackmail the world, with Indonesia’s help, forces wealthier countries to sign an international geo-engineering treaty that eventually brings down CO2 concentrations to 387 parts per million — slightly below today’s 400 ppm levels — by 2075.

Bangladeshi experts warn that the world might very well have to resort to such extreme measures if politicians continue to deny that climate change exists — and that human activity is causing it.

Rahman of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, who used to teach at Oxford, has been a climate change expert for 25 years. He complained that while American scientists “are very good at doing the science,” they’re not as good in communicating that science to ordinary U.S. citizens, many of whom have endured record-setting heat, drought, wildfire, snows and other weather catastrophes in recent years yet still scoff at the existence of climate change.

Rahman noted that President Obama’s chief scientific advisor, John Holdren, is a “very close friend” of his. But constant lobbying by climate change deniers keeps Holdren busy, virtually paralyzing his work.

“These are all strategies in a whole systematic plan to keep climate off the agenda,” he told The Diplomat. “The United States has some of the best scientists, both in climate change and in general, but their message is not getting across.

And the nongovernment community has been pretty useless in terms of raising issues to ordinary people, because they want to be kind to Obama, and not take a confrontational position.

“The highest number of cynics are in Washington, because they’re paid to tell lies,” he said sadly. “The number of lobbyists who deemphasize climate increased by a factor of three or four after Obama came along. Because of external political reasons, the United States has basically walked out on climate change, but they don’t understand that the U.S. will become a victim too. There’ll be many more Katrinas. It’s just a matter of time before the Florida coastline disappears.”

Larry Luxner, news editor of The Washington Diplomat, traveled to Bangladesh in April as a guest of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

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It’s a very difficult thing for Ecuador to take this decision, because we need this oil…. But it’s a brave decision.

Ecuador Just one of those hectares, says Baki, contains more tree species than all of North America, which is why the entire rainforest must be preserved at all costs — even though an estimated 846 million barrels of petroleum lie underneath all this diversity.

The idea behind the Yasuní Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (Yasuní-ITT) Initiative is simple: Ecuador vows to keep all that petroleum forever in the ground in exchange for collecting a payment of $3.6 billion — about half the oil’s value — over a 13-year period. By doing so, the country will support the livelihood and culture of nearby indigenous tribes living in voluntary isolation while ensuring net avoided emissions of 1.2 billion metric tons of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

“It’s a very difficult thing for Ecuador to take this decision, because we need this oil,” Baki recently told The Washington Diplomat.“But it’s a brave decision.”

To promote the Yasuní project, Baki enlisted her old friend, actress Bo Derek, to be its goodwill ambassador. Her government has also hired public relations powerhouse Ogilvy & Mather to spread the word; in fact, we interviewed the former ambassador at the PR firm’s downtown Washington offices.

“Ogilvy will be running the international campaign, positioning and raising awareness in key markets: Europe, the Middle East and the United States. Our goal is to make sure decision makers in the public and private sectors are aware of our initiative,” said Baki, though she declined to specify how much Ogilvy’s campaign is costing taxpayers back home.

According to a press handout, “the Yasuní-ITT Initiative addresses global warming by preventing the release of carbon reserves into the atmosphere. This involves non-exploitation of the vast oil reserves to be left indefinitely underground and, in the case of the forests, guaranteeing the conservation of these giant carbon sinks.”

Some view the deal as outright extortion, but Baki says it’s really about saving future generations from the ravages of climate change, with the emissions saved from keeping Yasuní’s oil in the ground greater than the annual emissions of countries such as Brazil or France.

“That’s why we’re asking the world to protect it, because it’s not only for Ecuador,” she told us.

“This is still the most bio-diverse, unique place in the Amazon. It’s at the intersection of the Equator and the Andes mountains. Global warming hasn’t affected it, so when you go there, it’s like nothing has changed. Everything is intact.”

Baki, who’s been to the remote rainforest paradise about 10 times since taking on this latest challenge, said the petroleum trapped underneath Yasuní represents up to 20 percent of Ecuador’s total oil reserves.That’s nothing to sneeze at for a country where poverty remains pervasive despite decades of lucrative petroleum exports.

“We are not against extracting the oil in general,” said Baki. “Only in this place, because even with the best technology, it’s impossible not to damage the biodiversity.”

She said President Correa has made Yasuní-ITT his top priority, and that 78 percent of her country’s 12 million inhabitants support the initiative.

The Correa government also stresses that contributing to the fund is not a form of charity, pointing out that even though Ecuador is asking for $3.6

ALSO SEE: August 2012

”

— Ivonne Baki former ambassador of Ecuador to the United States

Photo: Larry Luxner

billion under the deal, it is also forgoing more than $3 billion in potential oil profits.

“But he’s disappointed by the world. He thought there would be a much bigger reaction,” Baki said.

That’s partly because the big push for donations coincided with the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis, which has constrained the ability of many potential donor nations to help Ecuador out. It remains to be seen if the government will abandon the accord if the money fails to eventually filter in.

Even so, Baki said, the Yasuní-ITT Trust Fund administered by the United Nations Development Program contains $120 million and “is growing every day” with donations coming in from around the world. Governments that have given the most include Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Belgium, with smaller amounts donated by Turkey, Georgia and Lebanon — the country where Baki spent most of her childhood and early adulthood.

Ecuador has also gotten some support from corporate donors like Coca-Cola and Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht, as well as from fellow members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

“Being oil-exporting countries, they believe in conservation, so they support our initiative unanimously,” said Baki.“Ecuadoreans are also giving to the fund. Every day, people are giving money online, in amounts as small as $10. These small amounts are getting to be big.”

Not everybody, however, is enamored with Baki or her Yasuní-ITT Initiative. Some of Baki’s detractors accuse her of having tried to help one of the world’s biggest oil conglomerates — Chevron — thwart an $18 billion legal judgment against it in exchange for a much smaller donation to the rainforest project.

The Amazon Defense Coalition alleges that Baki promoted a “billion-dollar bait-and-switch” whereby oil giant Chevron would pay $500 million to the Yasuní project and another $500 million directly to the Quito government.

In exchange, the group alleged, the Correa government would discreetly use its political influence to quash an $18 billion lawsuit that indigenous tribes had filed against Chevron for deliberately discharging 16 billion gallons of toxic waste into Ecuador’s Amazon when, operating as Texaco, it had an oil concession there from 1964 to 1992.

“We’re not about to give Chevron a getout-of-jail-free card by donating to the Yasuní,” local environmentalist Esperanza Weather Patterns Spell Grim Forecast Martínez told the online Huffington Post in for Central America - Online Exclusive an interview.“Not only would such a donaat www.washdiplomat.com tion violate the rights of thousands of

Ecuadoreans who are victims of Chevron’s misconduct, it would also violate the very spirit of the initiative. In short, Ecuador is not interested in Chevron’s blood money.”

“Chevron and Baki think Ecuadorean officials are still running a banana republic government willing to sacrifice the rights of their own citizens for a small bribe,” added Pablo Fajardo, lead lawyer for the Ecuadorean plaintiffs who won the judgment against the oil conglomerate.

In 1998, according to Amazon Watch, Baki — as Ecuador’s ambassador under then-President Jamil Mahuad — “signed an official letter to a U.S. federal judge in New York seeking dismissal of the environmental lawsuit against Chevron.”

Throughout 2004, while serving as Ecuador’s trade minister, alleges the NGO,“Baki helped organize and participated in several meetings between Chevron and high-level Ecuadorean officials — including the attorney general — which sought strategies to end the case. During one of those

meetings, rainforest residents staged a sit-in in her offices and demanded she stop efforts to undermine the legal case against the company.”

Asked about the allegations against her, Baki angrily called them all lies.

“They invented all that and were mentioning it just recently because they claimed it’s impossible to raise $100 million without money from Chevron,” the former ambassador told us. “There was no money that came for Yasuní from Chevron.

If our account grew during that time, it was because we received 35 million euros from Germany.”

At any rate, she said the controversy is irrelevant and detracts from all the goodwill her project is generating.

“I don’t want to mention any amounts of money because I don’t know how much I have,” she said, estimating the fund’s current assets at around $200 million. “The account is growing every day, and I cannot ask every day how much is there. But that’s not the issue.Talk instead about Rio+20 and our new strategies.That’s much more important.”

Baki also pointed out that her efforts have the full support of both Correa and the woman who now serves as Ecuador’s ambassador in Washington, Nathalie Cely.

“This is a full-time job,” Baki told us.“There are so many things I’m postponing because I believe in this. I told the president I’m giving it one or two more years, because this is the moment. If we don’t do it now, the crisis that’s going to be created will be much worse than the economic crisis.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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Islands in the short term,” said Micronesia’s current ambassador, Asterio Takesy.“In Durban, the world agreed to develop a new climate plan by 2015 to go into effect in 2020, but we need action now, and an agreement to phase down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol is the best strategy this year.

We’re asking all at-risk islands and coastal states to join us to ensure a successful outcome this year.”

The second strategy Micronesia first promoted has since garnered significant international support: the fast mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). Fast action to reduce these pollutants — including black carbon soot, methane and tropospheric ozone — is, along with HFCs, an essential complement to slashing carbon dioxide, and a strategy that can produce results in the next few decades, according to Takesy.

Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said SLCPs are the second-largest contributor to climate change after CO2. He also agrees with Micronesia’s plan to target HFCs. “Let’s stop making them,” said Zaelke. “This would remove 100 billion tons of CO2 equivalent, which is 5 percent of what we need to stay below 2 degrees Celsius.And it can be done with existing technologies.”

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Some of our countries, like Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, the Maldives and the Marshall Islands, are going to drown.

They face the end of history.

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— Antonio Lima, ambassador of Cape Verde to the United Nations

He added: “Climate despair is now beginning to infect the world. These solutions can show us we are smart enough to solve the problem.”

Concern about the catastrophic damage climate change might wreak on small island states isn’t confined to the Pacific. According to a new report by the Oxford University Centre for the Environment, every Caribbean island faces huge economic losses caused by rising sea levels in coming decades — resulting in the loss of hospitals, airports, power plants, multimillion-dollar tourist resorts, roads, bridges and farmland.

Damages in the 15 member states of Caricom would amount to between $4 billion and $6 billion annually, said the study, which didn’t consider the costs of coral reef losses or the possibility of increased hurricane or storm activity with climate change.

“Small islands and countries with low-lying coastal areas are now at high risk from global warming and sea-level rise. This has been repeated so often that even the people of Weather Patterns Spell Grim Forecast small states seem to have become immune to the catastrophic effects that they are for Central America - Online Exclusive facing. It seems that almost every governat www.washdiplomat.com ment in the world is waiting for disaster

before they act,” observed Ronald Sanders, a former diplomat from Barbados.

“But, by taking no collective action, governments of small countries are in danger of being complicit with the polluting nations in neglecting their own plight,” he added. “If they wait too late to wake up to the absolute necessity of defending their own existence, not even survival might be possible.”

According to the Oxford study, the Bahamas, Guyana, Suriname,Trinidad and Belize would suffer the greatest economic losses in absolute terms, though the hit to smaller states like Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Nevis would be proportionally greater.

“Some of our countries, like Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, the Maldives and the Marshall Islands, are going to drown. They face the end of history.They are in a desperate situation,” warned Antonio Lima, ambassador to the United Nations for Cape Verde, a 10-island chain off Africa’s west coast.“All of us face disaster. We don’t want to be the forgotten, sacrificed countries of the 21st century.”

The Maldives isn’t waiting for help to arrive.

The country is comprised of 1,192 islands —

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most of them remote and uninhabited — yet its capital city of Malé, occupying an island measuring one square mile, contains 90,000 of the nation’s 385,000 inhabitants. So it’s using tourism revenues to build Hulhumalé, a box-shaped artificial island constructed from landfill just across the sea from overcrowded Malé.

Yet man-made Hulhumalé neither looks nor feels anything like its natural sister islands. From its conception only eight years ago, in 1997, to its official inauguration on May 12, 2004, this work in progress is being meticulously planned to boost the country’s economic fortunes while staving off the rising seas that may one day wipe much of the Maldives off the map.

For starters, Hulhumalé is, by Maldivian standards, high ground: It rises two meters above the sea, double the elevation of some 80 percent of the other islands, measured at their highest points. With worldwide sea levels rising up to nine-tenths of a centimeter per year, the entire country — save Hulhumalé — could be inundated within a century. And Hulhumalé’s wide boulevards, carefully landscaped gardens and serried ranks of apartment blocks offer a dramatic contrast to the impromptu, colorful hubbub of Malé, only 20 minutes away by ferry.

Hulhumalé was the brainchild of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who in 2008 stepped down after a 30-year dictatorship. Under Gayoom, the Maldives became the first country to sign the 1997 Kyoto Protocol urging reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

It was Gayoom, too, who, after severe flooding in 1987, secured Japanese financing to build a concrete breakwater three meters tall around Malé.And well before “global warming” became a household term, at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio

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SPECIAL REPORT de Janeiro, it was Gayoom who warned that his country might have less than a century before it disappeared underneath the waves.

Yet such expensive projects are not an option for many AOSIS member states, given that it costs $4,500 a meter just to protect airports, meaning these countries would have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to erect protective barriers that may or may not keep the floodwaters at bay. This is why AOSIS members don’t want to use adaptation money to build sea defenses. Nor do they want to compromise on their insistence of holding the world to no more than a 1.5-degree rise in temperatures, rather than the 2 degrees proposed by the United States and Europe.

“AOSIS recently presented our ‘work plan for survival’ in Bonn, which highlights the immediate need to begin raising mitigation to the level required to keep well below 1.5 degrees Celsius,” said AOSIS Chairwoman Moses. “I wish I could say it was warmly embraced, but the response was lackluster. I believe the world has become complacent as the challenges have become greater. As leaders, we need to demonstrate political will to ensure that what we agreed to do at Rio and the U.N. are not more than just words, that we’re doing more than just putting on a show.”

To that end, the June 20-22 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, better known as Rio+20,“proved to be a mixed bag for the Pacific islands.”That’s the conclusion reached by researcher Elke Larsen of the Washingtonbased Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The Pacific islands have regularly been disap-

pointed by the international community’s failure to fulfill commitments on issues critical to their survival,” he wrote. “Despite Rio+20’s problems, the Pacific islands’ agenda enjoyed some noteworthy successes, as some of strongest statements in the concluding document cover the Pacific islands’ key concerns.”

These include a commitment by leading industrial nations to reduce sea pollutants that affect fishing stocks and helping the islands become energy-independent through renewable sources like wind and solar. Under the previously signed Barbados Declaration, a number of countries including Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Denmark and Norway have agreed to help Fiji, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, Samoa, Tuvalu and the Cook Islands reach their renewable energy goals by 2030 at the latest.

Unfortunately, writes Larsen, Rio+20’s relative achievements on marine protection and renewable energy stand in contrast to those regarding mining, which she says is “incompatible” with the goal of sustainable development.

“Although seabed and onshore mining in Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea will undoubtedly boost GDP and provide potential for development, extractive industries should not be categorized as being sustainable,” said Larsen. “Most export profits from mining go to the companies that make the initial investment, and compared to other industries, relatively little is reinvested in local communities…. One need only look to the skeletons of Nauru’s phosphate industry as testimony.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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Embassy Protests Make Noise, But Do They Make a Difference?

by Martin Austermuhle

I

n early June, Jay McGinley finally took a bite to eat. The seemingly routine meal stood out because it was his first in 39 days. Up until that point, McGinley had led a oneman hunger strike outside Canada’s embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue, seeking to convince the U.S. government not to use energy produced from Canadian tar sands.

It wasn’t McGinley’s first such protest — in 2007 he had similarly starved himself for 44 days outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington to protest the government’s actions in Darfur. It also may not be the last anyone sees of him — he told supporters that he’s looking to recruit fellow hunger strikers for a larger protest to come.

Just as Canada’s well-located and iconic embassy served as the focal point of McGinley’s ire, the roughly 170 embassies located in Washington are both centers for international diplomacy and rich targets for protests and demonstrations. Ever since foreign governments established missions in Washington, they have run the risk of being protested — and many of them have.

Whether anti-fascist protesters picketing the Japanese Embassy in 1937 or the thousands of demonstrators that marched on South Africa’s mission to decry apartheid, the protests have brought events happening in faraway lands home to the nation’s capital.

The protests can serve as an outlet for expats, exiles and refugees who want to express solidarity with their country without running the risk of returning. In 1979, for example, 76 supporters of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini were arrested outside the Iranian Embassy — then controlled by an ally of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. In 1989, 3,500 Chinese students marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Chinese Embassy to mourn those lost in the Chinese government’s crackdown at Tiananmen Square. In 1995, it was the Nigerian Embassy that was targeted by opponents of the country’s military dictatorship.

China should be used to the protests.

Members of the Falun Gong routinely camped out in a small park directly across the old Chinese Embassy on Connecticut Avenue to denounce the government’s clampdown on the spiritual movement, drawing the attention of motorists crossing the Taft Bridge over Rock Creek Park.

When China moved into its grand new

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Photo: Larry Luxner

Ever since foreign governments established missions in Washington, they have run the risk of being protested — and many of them have. embassy in Van Ness, the Falun Gong protests dwindled, though the gleaming new mission still attracts the occasional angry crowd, such as protests condemning Beijing’s support for the Burmese military junta.

More recently, in early 2011, hundreds of Egyptians protested outside their embassy in Washington to demand that President Hosni Mubarak step down, while Syrians appeared outside of their embassy in Kalorama Heights to decry the bloody crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad.

In fact, allegations surfaced last summer that Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha and his staff were spying on the dissidents protesting outside the embassy, with an eye on harassing their family members back in Syria.

“We received reports that Syrian mission personnel under Ambassador Moustapha’s authority have been conducting video and photographic surveillance of people participating in peaceful demonstrations in the United States,” the State Department said. “The United States government takes very seriously reports of any foreign government actions attempting to intimidate individuals in the United States who are exercising their lawful right

to freedom of speech as protected by the U.S. Constitution.”

The State Department confined Moustapha to remain within a 25-mile radius of the city; shortly afterward, he returned to Syria and then became Damascus’s envoy in China.

The protests have also provided Americans with a focal point for expressing national outrage or concern. After the Iranian Revolution, Americans protested the seizing of their embassy in Tehran outside of Iran’s mission in Washington.And in the wake of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s comments referring to President George W. Bush as the “devil” in a 2006 speech to the U.N. General Assembly, a small group quickly gathered to protest outside the country’s mission in Georgetown.

These demonstrations can also provide a useful sounding board for issue-based advocacy, such as McGinley’s hunger strike as a means to draw attention to climate change, or a 1971 protest against the Canadian mission targeting the practice of seal hunting. In 1993, it was the French Embassy’s turn, as anti-abortion activists used the mission as a means to oppose the marketing of RU-486, a French-made abor-

Over the years, the Chinese Embassy in Washington has been a focal point for public anger, including members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, for instance, and protesters criticizing China’s support of the Burmese military regime, seen above.

tion pill, in the United States.

They also serve as a space for symbolic protests, as when actor George Clooney and various members of Congress were briefly arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington in March, generating headlines around the world.

Probably one of the longest-running protests outside of a diplomatic mission in Washington is the one-man demonstration led by John Wojnowski outside the Embassy of the Holy See on Massachusetts Avenue, across from the U.S. vice president’s residence. For 14 years, Wojnowski has stood outside the embassy at rush hour holding signs accusing Vatican officials of concealing and protecting pedophile priests; the Polish-born retired ironworker cites his own history of abuse as the spark that led him to take up the protest in 1998.

In the most effective embassy protests, though, U.S.-based groups have tied their own struggles to those of their counterparts in other countries. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, this was no more apparent than at the South African and Soviet embassies, where large groups regularly protest-

The Washington Diplomat

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August 2012

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In the mid-1980s, a conservative group filed suit after its members were prohibited from protesting outside the Soviet and Nicaraguan embassies.The ban stemmed from a 1937 law passed by Congress stating that protesters had to remain at ed and were often arrested.

During the apartheid regime, demonstrators least 500 feet away from embassies, and prohibitlinked to America’s own civil rights movement ed any signs that could bring a foreign governregularly protested outside the South African ment into “public odium” or “public disrepute.” In Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue, attracting 1986, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the law, but broad attention and employing tactics that they two years later it was largely overturned by the had used against state governments and police in Supreme Court, which ruled that protests could the United States, including a sit-in that saw three take place within 500 feet provided they did not disrupt “normal embassy activities.” people arrested. In 1985, 4,000 people descended Whether the protests accomplish anything is on the mission in a particularly large protest, certainly in question, as McGinley’s aborted hunincluding a number of senior officials in D.C.’s ger strike illustrated. Wojnowski’s one-man crulocal government who were arrested. That year, sade against the Vatican isn’t what forced the according to police, more than 1,800 people were Catholic Church to confront pedophile priests, arrested at the South African Embassy in a number though he does serve as a constant reminder of of protests. The names of those arrested ran the the scandal to the thousands of motorists who gamut from day-by-day activists to legendary fig- pass him on a daily basis. And though Clooney’s ures such as Rosa Parks, Arthur Ashe and Stevie recent arrest brought a flood of media attention, it Wonder. surely didn’t change the dynamic in Sudan more The Soviet Embassy was similarly a long-run- than the years of dedicated lobbying and advocaning target of demonstrators, primarily Jewish cy have. activists and religious leaders determined to highWhere the protests have been successful is in NOTE: every effortin isthemade assurelinking your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and lightAlthough the treatment of Jews Sovietto Union. local and global movements, as was the content it is ultimately up to the customer to makeAfrica. the The finaloutcry proof.against the Throughout the 1970s and ’80s protests took case with South place outside the Soviet mission on 16th Street; in apartheid government was widespread and interJune two 1985,faxed 21 rabbis were arrested protesting theno cost national, at its embassy in Washington The first changes will be made at to and theprotests advertiser, subsequent changes servedSigned to put pressure on theapproved.

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1973, police forbade what would have been a Martin Austermuhle is a contributing writer particularly creative protest — a group of Jewish for The Washington Diplomat and editor If the adyouth is correct sign on andbouncing fax to: basketballs (301) 949-0065 needs changes had planned out- in chief of DCist.com. side the embassy to protest the abuse of Israeli The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 basketball players at the World University Games in Moscow.)

YouR SouRCE FoR was those very protests against South Africa Approved It__________________________________________________________ and the Soviet Union that provoked a larger diPLomAtiC nEWS. Changesdebate ___________________________________________________________ and discussion on how free demonstrators www.washdiplomat.com could be in airing their grievances outside of dip___________________________________________________________________ lomatic missions in the U.S. capital.

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Page 16

The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

COVER PROFILE

Ambassador Peter Westmacott

London to the World: Let the Games Begin

by Larry Luxner

F

or the next few weeks, an estimated 4 billion people — well over half the world’s population — will be glued to their TV sets, iPads and smart-phones as London’s 2012 Summer Olympics unfolds.

From the moment on July 27, when Queen Elizabeth II declares the XXX Olympiad open and the final torchbearer lights the cauldron with the Olympic Flame, until the evening of Aug. 12, when that flame is extinguished during closing ceremonies, the eyes of the planet will truly be focused on the United Kingdom.

And that’s a good thing too, because aside from boosting tourism numbers, the Olympics will be a welcome diversion for the country’s 62 million citizens, who’ve been engulfed mostly by bad news since the last Olympics, held four years ago in Beijing.

The continuing debt crisis in the 17-nation eurozone has walloped the British economy, even though the U.K. wisely avoided adopting the euro as its currency. The Libor (London InterBank Offered Rate) interest rate-fixing scandal involving British banking giant Barclays and possibly other major banks has further tarnished London’s reputation as a financial hub. A phone-hacking scandal involving Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has also shaken the city and reached into the top echelons of government.

Meanwhile, joblessness and criticism of the government’s handling of the economic crisis continue to rise — so do military casualties in Afghanistan’s blood-soaked Helmand province. Nearly as many British soldiers have now died in that 11-year-old war as in the Iraq War and Britain’s 1982 Falklands conflict with Argentina combined.

The fact that it’s been raining nonstop all summer has only added to the gloom.

“We cannot legislate the weather,” said Sir Peter Westmacott, Her Majesty’s ambassador in Washington, “but we are putting out all the stops to ensure that this year’s Olympics is a very good news story and creates a lot of goodwill.”

Westmacott, 61, points out that London is the first city in Olympic history to host the prestigious event three times — in 1908, 1948 and 2012. This summer’s competition comes less than two months after the June 5 Diamond Jubilee celebration marking the Queen’s 60th anniversary on the throne, and three months after the royal wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William, which was enjoyed by a TV audience of 2.4 billion.

“We’ve paid a huge amount of attention to ensure that the Olympics are genuinely sustainable, and that our investment will be a legacy of lasting value rather than a collection of white elephants which are left to rot,” the ambassador told The Washington Diplomat last month during an interview at his official residence.“Organizers of the games have given back some of the original money because it’s coming in under budget and ahead of time.”

That investment is worth roughly £9 billion ($13.9 billion), of which £6.5 billion ($10 billion) is going to British companies. Lloyds TSB estimates that within five years, the return to the British economy will be in the neighborhood of £17 billion ($26.3 billion).

“We’ve recycled 2 million tons of contaminated sewage and spoiled wasteland in East London in order to redevelop a part of the city which was really a mess,” Westmacott August 2012

Photo: Lawrence Ruggeri

“

We cannot legislate the weather, but we are putting out all the stops to ensure that this year’s Olympics is a very good news story and creates a lot of goodwill.

”

— Sir Peter Westmacott

ambassador of the United Kingdom to the United States

proudly told us.“Alongside the enormous development of a financial services center at Canary Wharf, this has brought a whole new life to the city.”

Some 10,500 athletes representing more than 200 countries and territories will compete for 302 gold, silver and bronze medals in 26 sports ranging from archery to wrestling. Another 4,200 athletes will participate in the Paralympics — an event for disabled athletes first staged in London at the 1948 Games. The Olympic Park alone is home to eight venues including the iconic Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Center and Velodrome. After the Games are over, the athletes’ village will be converted into 12,000 units of affordable housing, Westmacott noted.

In addition to the 300,000 to 400,000 additional visitors that will be lured to London for the Games, no less than 120 foreign heads of government are expected to attend the inaugural ceremony; the U.S. delegation will be represented by first lady Michelle Obama.

The influx of athletes ahead of the Games caused headaches on London’s notoriously clogged arteries (residents complained about the traffic-restricted lanes, while athletes complained about getting lost), and worries abound that once the Olympics begin, the massive strain will overwhelm the city’s transportation networks. But the real test

will be security.

The Games in fact represent a potential security nightmare for British counterterrorism experts, acutely aware that this is the third Olympiad since 9/11. Potential attacks could come from a dizzying lineup of terrorist groups ranging from al-Qaeda to the Basque separatist group ETA to the Irish Republican Army. (The ambassador’s cousin, Capt.

Herbert Richard Westmacott, became the highest-ranking Special Air Service officer to be killed in action. His 1980 ambush in Belfast by an IRA unit nicknamed the “M60 gang” earned him a posthumously awarded Military Cross.)

“We are acutely aware of our responsibilities with security,” said Westmacott. “We know there are terrorists out there who are constantly planning to do terrible things against civil aviation.They like to get headlines, so we have to be on our guard. We will do whatever we feel is necessary to deter anybody who’s got bad ideas.”

In early July, British Home Secretary Theresa May confirmed that an additional 3,500 troops would safeguard the Olympics amid last-minute concerns that a private company, G4S, had failed to recruit enough staff. As of press time, the total number of military personnel involved in securing the Games climbed to just over 18,000 — far more than the 9,500 troops Britain has in Afghanistan. That’s aside from the 12,000 police, 3,000 volunteers, Typhoon fighter jets, two warships, bomb-disposal experts and surface-to-air missiles to be deployed across 100 Olympic venues.

“Large numbers of U.S. officials have been embedded alongside their British colleagues in London for many months to try to minimize the risk to U.S. and other citizens,”Westmacott told us.“We are also working closely with host governments to protect their teams.”

Last month, British intelligence led to the arrest of more than a dozen people (some of whom have since been charged with allegedly plotting a terrorist attack, while others have been released), including a suspected al-Qaeda militant caught crossing through the Olympic Park five

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 17

Continued from previous page times. Westmacott said the suspects were “clearly up to no good,” though he said no specific threats have been received.

“I don’t believe in being overconfident, but I do think we’ve done all we can [to prevent any acts of terrorism],” he said. “We began preparing for this in 2005, as soon as London won the bid. But we won’t be 100 percent sure until the Games have happened. We’re crossing our fingers.”

Once the Olympics are over, however, headlines in U.K. newspapers will again focus on the country’s economic malaise.

Great Britain is now officially in recession. Its economy shrank 0.4 percent in the final quarter of 2011 and then another 0.3 percent in the first quarter of this year. It’s also in the first “double-dip” recession since 1975, with the cumulative downturn even worse than that recorded during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

By his own calculations, the ambassador spends 40 percent of his time on the ongoing eurozone debt crisis and its worsening impact on the British economy.

“We had two consecutive quarters of negative growth, but the IMF predicts that the U.K. economy is likely to grow slightly more than either France or Germany this year,” he said. “We’re all at very disappointingly low levels of economic activity.We are in recession, but the expectation is that in the latter part of this year, we should do better.”

In fact, while the Washington-based International Monetary Fund projects growth of 0.8 percent this year — citing the European Central Bank’s efforts earlier this year to avert a eurozone meltdown by extending cheap lending to banks of £1 trillion — the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts Britain’s economy will actually shrink by 0.1 percent in 2012.

Westmacott, who took over as ambassador in January from his predecessor, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, concedes that his country has had “problems” with manufacturing output, but that the service sector is performing better.

“We are pleased about two things: One, we’re getting the deficit under control. We’ve come down from a high point of almost 12 percent, which is where we were in 2009, to just over 7 percent now, and with a strategy to get it down below 2 percent in the next four or five years.

“And secondly, although overall economic output remains very low, we have managed to create half a million jobs in the private sector since this government came to power,” he said. The ambassador noted, however, that 400,000 government jobs have disap-

Photo: Anthony Charlton / ODA

An aerial shot over London’s Olympic Park shows the Olympic Stadium and the adjacent Orbit Tower, a spiral work of art built by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, as well as the aquatics center and water polo arena.

peared during that time.

On that front, Conservative Party Prime Minister David Cameron’s insistence on austerity to slash government spending by nearly 20 percent (while cutting taxes for top earners) has sparked a public backlash, with critics blaming him for aggravating the economic slowdown.

Westmacott, who was appointed to the job by Cameron, defends the current approach. He says that even though unemployment hovers around 8.2 percent — about the same as in the United States — “we are rebalancing economic activity away from the public sector, which was necessary, and toward the private sector. We believe that together with the budget, which was deliberately designed to be business friendly — with incentives for more investment and the lowest corporate tax in the G7 — all this is setting us on the right path for recovery.

“What confirms us in that belief is that the messages we’re getting from the big foreign investors — high-tech companies, auto manufacturers, financial services, aerospace — are all positive. Our foreign investment figures are pretty good.”

Westmacott adds that his Conservative government is encouraging the Bank of England not to flood the economy with cash. In August, the BOE, along with the British Treasury, will unveil its joint

Funding for Lending Scheme to encourage banks to boost lending to citizens.

“We’ve done a bit more QE [quantitative easing],” he said, using economic jargon that simply means printing money. The Bank of England’s previous QE programs “created” £200 billion in 2009 and 2010; in October, the BOE said a further £75 billion was deployed, with more added in February.

“There’s plenty of money out there but the banks are not lending, and borrowers don’t want to borrow because they’re not confident about their future,” Westmacott lamented. “Interbank lending has almost dried up, so we’re trying to get banks to do what they’re supposed to do.”

That won’t come a moment too soon for Britain, which could face the unpleasant process of stagflation — stagnant growth combined with inflation.

Westmacott, who like his predecessor is constantly seeking to lure U.S. investment to Britain, acknowledges that the Cameron government’s success depends on digging his country out of recession. He’s also convinced, as are most of his fellow citizens, that hanging onto the British pound was a wise choice.

“British public opinion has become more sure, as the eurozone crisis evolved, that the U.K. was right not to join,” he told The Diplomat.“It was set up as a monetary union without being a fiscal union. It has a single currency and a single central bank, but each government runs its own fiscal and taxation policy. One of the consequences was that imbalances within the eurozone — between the strong and the weak, the heavily indebted and the lightly indebted — were allowed to continue until somebody said enough.”

That somebody was, of course, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who recently infuriated German voters with her concession on giving more power to the European Central Bank in Brussels to bail out troubled eurozone members Spain, Italy and Greece.

The euro crisis has only heightened Britain’s historic separation from the monetary union, curiously leaving the country a “bystander,” as the New York Times put it, to a debt crisis that could bring down its economy.

“There is looming recognition at 10 Downing Street that if the euro falls, Britain will sink along with everyone else. But if Europe manages to pull itself together by forging closer unity among the 17 countries that use the euro, then Britain faces being ever more marginalized in decisions on the Continent,” wrote Sarah Lyall and Stephen Castle of the Times.

“Of particular concern here is the health of Britain’s financial industry, a vital economic engine at a time of slowing growth and

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The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

deep cuts in government spending, which is seen to be vulnerable to new European regulations that could hurt British competitiveness in global markets,” they added.

“Despite all that is at stake, Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government looks doomed to be cast in the role of impotent bystander, torn between anti-Europe forces and European leaders’ moves toward greater fiscal integration on the Continent — with or without Britain.”

While Westmacott wouldn’t quite put it in such dire terms, he does admit that what happens to the euro will determine Britain’s economic fate as well.

“On one hand, the U.K. is pleased that it’s not a member of the eurozone, but on the other hand, we are in no sense smugly satisfied,” said Westmacott. “We are only 20 miles away, and half our trade is with our eurozone partners. The uncertainty created by the sovereign debt crisis is having a huge drag on U.K. economic growth and has a real impact on the city of London, which is the world’s largest international financial center.”

A survey taken in early June concludes that 83 percent of Liberal Democrats — who along with Conservatives make up the coalition now in power — see a breakup of the eurozone, with each country once again issuing its own currency, as bad for Britain. Only 5 percent of Liberal Democrats think such a move would benefit the British economy, while 11 percent either don’t know or don’t have an opinion.

Westmacott said the way he sees it, the eurozone was essentially flawed from the beginning because its members “flagrantly disregarded” the Maastricht Treaty, which stipulates that the annual deficits of individual countries may not exceed 3 percent of GDP and that accumulated official debt could not exceed 60 percent.

“That didn’t seem important at the time, because Europe was booming. But it began to look very irresponsible once the economy slowed down,” he said.

It’s worth noting that the last European

Photo: Fotolia

Olympics were held eight years ago in Athens, which today is seething with resentment over austerity cuts made by the Greek government to keep their country in the eurozone (also see “Cash-Strapped Greeks Stuck Between Rock and Hard Place” in the July 2012 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

Said Westmacott:“It’s up to the Greeks whether they stay in or not. A lot of work still needs to be done.There’s a long way to go before we’re out of the woods, but we hope Greece will remain part of the eurozone, because frankly, breaking it up raises huge issues of uncertainty and potentially very high costs.”

Keeping the eurozone together is one thing; keeping the United Kingdom united is quite another. Calls for Scottish independence have been growing louder ever since First Minister Alex Salmond began pushing for a referendum on the subject.

Yet polls indicate that Salmond may not get what he wants. Some 68 percent of respondents

Britain is banking on the Olympic Games to boost tourism revenues, as hundreds of thousands of visitors converge on the city and its iconic sights, such as the Big Ben clock tower at the Palace of Westminster, home to the British Parliament.

across Britain say the U.K. is stronger together, as opposed to just 24 percent who believe England and Scotland “are proud nations in their own right” that should thrive on their own. Even in Scotland itself, polls suggest that independence would be defeated in a referendum by a 61 to 39 percent margin.

“The people of Scotland have elected a Scottish parliament with a majority in favor of independence,” said Westmacott. “We hope the referendum will be organized sooner than later so that the uncertainty will be removed. The British government takes the view that the union is worth preserving. We will respect the views of the Scottish people, but our hope is that the people of Scotland will choose to remain within the U.K.”

Meanwhile, while the ambassador insists that the political relationship between Washington and London “is in very good shape and we don’t have significant differences on any subject,” some observers perennially wonder whether that “special feeling” still exists.

Heather A. Conley, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, argues that history forever binds the United States and England.

“We have fought against one another and for one another,” she wrote.“We have agreed on many issues, we have fundamental disagreements on others. We have extraordinarily close military and intelligence ties, and our economies are closely linked as well” — with 2010 bilateral trade in goods and services amounting to $189.3 billion.

“This triumvirate — history, defense and trade — has always and will continue to constitute our special relationship,” she said. But even more important, wrote Conley, has been the personal chemistry between the two countries’ leaders, most notably Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and “for better or worse,” George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

“These close relationships were tested in war: World War II, the Cold War and the Iraq War,” she said. “For President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron, their relationship will be forged in Afghanistan, where the longest American war is now a political test of transition for the United States and its European allies in an effort to declare a semblance of success in a war that is increasingly unpopular in both countries.”

The ambassador, whose father had spent time in Norfolk,Va., as a naval officer during World War II, was born in rural Somerset. He went to New College Oxford, joined the diplomatic service in 1972, and was awarded a knighthood in 2003.

Prior to coming to Washington, he served as British ambassador to France and Turkey. In addi-

Continued on next page

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Continued from previous page tion, he worked as deputy private secretary for Prince Charles for three years and was also counselor for political and public affairs at the British Embassy in Washington from 1993 to 1997.

In March, President Obama and the first lady hosted Cameron for an official visit and state dinner, following their royal reception last year by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace — an event filled with pomp and pageantry. (Since then, the two leaders have met three more times: at the G8 and NATO summits in May, and the G20 summit in June.)

Westmacott noted that it doesn’t really matter that he was appointed by Cameron, a conservative, while his predecessor, Sheinwald, was hired by former Labour Party leader and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“We’re all professional diplomats,” he told us. “Both Nigel and I knew the United States [before coming to Washington as ambassador]. He was a European specialist, and in my case, I had spent quite a lot of time in non-Arab parts of the Middle East. I don’t think we’re really very different from one another.”

Peter Reid, vice president of strategic communications at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, worked for Westmacott in the mid-1990s, when Reid was at the British Consulate in New York and reported to Westmacott in Washington.

“We worked very closely on the Northern Ireland issue,” said Reid, himself a native of Belfast. “My job was to win over IrishAmerican support for the deal that later became the Good Friday Agreement. Critical to that was having America on board. Peter spent a lot of time in Washington, convincing people we were doing the right thing.

“Growing up in Belfast, you meet a lot of people who can’t get out of the trench. Like myself, he lost someone in the conflict, but it did the opposite for him: It made him want to solve it. He put aside his own personal grief and used it for better things.”

Reid said he has no doubt Westmacott will turn in a stellar performance as London’s ambassador here.

“A lot of diplomats come here and live in their own stratosphere without ever really understanding the place. Peter likes it, which is really important, and he gets it,” said Reid.“He’s one of these people who can deal with anyone at any level.”

Westmacott has always spoken the language of the countries whose capitals he’s been posted to: Farsi in Tehran (1974-78), French in Paris (1980-84 and again as ambassador in 2007), and Turkish in Ankara (first in 1987, returning again as ambassador in

2002). Westmacott’s Farsi won’t be forgotten anytime soon, thanks to his second wife, Susie Nemazee, an American of Iranian origin who grew up in Bethesda, Md. “A lot of this job is trying to manage and empower the staff who work for you,” Westmacott said. “It’s also about developing relationships and understanding the local context of business, politics and other things that matter to your country. So you’ve got to get out there, speak to people and convince them.”

One of the things Westmacott speaks passionately about is Afghanistan.

As we went to press, the war in Afghanistan had claimed the lives of 422 British soldiers in the past 11 years. In early March, six British soldiers were killed, marking the highest death toll in a single incident since 2006.

“Proportionally, the U.K. has lost a larger number of soldiers than anyone else, largely because we’re trying to stabilize Helmand province” — one of the most dangerous in Afghanistan, he said. “Our intention has always been to clear Afghanistan of the al-Qaeda terrorist threat from which we all suffer, and to leave it in the best possible state to look after its own affairs, to manage its own security, and to ensure that the country does not again become a safe haven for terrorists. It remains our strategy to achieve that by 2014, which is when the bulk of our troops will leave Afghanistan.”

Despite the mounting casualties, Westmacott insists that “British public opinion is extremely supportive of our soldiers laying their lives on the line in Afghanistan, but it’s also quite clear that we now need to stick to the strategy of equipping and training Afghan armed forces. There is no overwhelming public demand for the British government to break ranks and leave early. None at all.”

He’s also spent a great deal of time on the Syria conundrum. In fact, the day we interviewed him, top officials from 100 countries converged on Paris for a “Friends of Syria” conference to discuss ways of dislodging Bashar al-Assad from power.

But asked if NATO will deploy troops to stop the bloodshed — which has killed an estimated 10,000 to 17,000 people since the uprising against Assad’s regime began in March 2011 — Westmacott said he doubts it.

“In Syria, unfortunately, there are no good answers to the problems we’ve got there,” he explained.“I don’t think NATO as an organization will get involved unless there is either an attack on a NATO member, or if the Security Council authorizes the use of force. We do believe Russia has an important role to play in bringing an end to the slaughter, and to grasp that the future of Syria does not lie with Assad — and that sticking to the current Russian policy risks

encouraging Syria to descend into sectarian civil war.”

Furthermore, Syria is not Libya, for several reasons.

“In Libya’s case, there was a very clear authorization from the Security Council. In Syria’s case, we do not have that, because the Russians and Chinese are blocking it. Secondly, with Libya, the Arab League and the Libyan opposition asked us to take action. We don’t have that in the case of Syria. And the third point is that Libya — where there was a credible, capable opposition — came to us and engaged the coalition members with a strategy. In Syria, it’s not like that.”

Finally, he said,“Military action in Syria would be extremely complicated and difficult and would require a very substantial military commitment. After all, it’s well equipped and well trained, and it’s essentially a military regime. It also has chemical weapons scattered around the country, and there’s a risk of military action unleashing even more violence.”

The same goes for Iran, warned the ambassador.

It’s clear, he said, that there’s a strong international desire to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of the regime led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “We have not taken any options off the table, but the clearly stated preference of the president is to try to achieve that objective through the twin-track approach of engagement and ever-tighter sanctions pressure.”

Asked about the possibility of a U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran, the ambassador said it’s not his place to speak about that. “Right now, my government is on record as saying it doesn’t believe military action against Iran would be helpful or appropriate.”

In the meantime, though, the ambassador seems to be relishing his first few months in Washington focusing on the major events generating positive headlines for his homeland. So far he’s hosted celebrations for the royal wedding, a D.C. visit by Prince Harry, various local events to pump up the pending Olympic Games, as well as a garden party at the residence to fête Queen Elizabeth II on her Diamond Jubilee.

Westmacott says his country’s love of Her Majesty and the monarchy in general is enduring and sincere.“There was what I’d call a blip — a downturn of public sentiment toward the monarchy around the time of Princess Diana’s death which did not last more than a few weeks. Apart from that, the monarchy is a much-loved and respected institution in the U.K., and if you look at any poll, you’d see that 70 or 80 percent of the British people have no desire to see the monarchy replaced with anything else.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

Diplomacy

Global Governance

Multilateral Summits Think Big, But Produce Little More Than Talk

by Talha Aquil

O

nce again, it’s summit season for global diplomacy, with a host of multilateral meetings filling up the summer calendar.

The G-8 met in May in the United States, as did NATO; the G-20 gathered in Mexico in June, with just a brief pause before the Rio+20 U.N. summit convened in Brazil; the Europeans have held multiple powwows to discuss the euro crisis; and the African Union met last month in Malawi for its annual summit.

While bold promises and commitments flood out from these meetings at a predictable rate, if historical precedent is anything to go by, most will be just as quickly forgotten or ignored.

President Barack Obama characterized the G-8 summit as “frank and useful conversation” and “very fruitful.” That’s no surprise; similar euphemisms by world leaders always seem to emerge after every such multilateral summit, no matter what’s actually accomplished. The Rio+20 was a grand affair that drew nearly 100 heads of state and tens of thousands of participants to Brazil, but in the end it failed to attract key leaders such as Obama and produced little in the way of tangible climate solutions.

That’s not to say global gatherings aren’t necessary. Multilateralism is essential to solving interlocking challenges such as climate change, the economic slump and the Arab uprisings.

Photo: Presidencia de la Nación Argentina / www.presidencia.gov.ar

countries accountable for their ambitious promises.

The G-20 Research Group at the University of Toronto has begun releasing regular reports tracking individual G-20 nations’ compliance with the commitments made at the previous year’s summit.

This could not have come at a better time given the proliferation of summit bodies and the broad, urgent agendas they frequently take on.

Multilateral summits have changed drastically over the past decade. Previously, the premier global meeting involved the heads of state of the G-8 major industrialized countries. But the worldwide financial crisis and growing clout of many developing countries necessitated changes to the global order and redefined whom the relevant

“

Accountability is being boosted this year because few countries have money to spare, so there is a greater premium to making sure commitments made, money or otherwise, are effective.

”

— John Kirton, co-director of the G-20 Research Group The main question, thus, should not be whether world leaders find these meetings useful from a discussion standpoint, but rather, do such international gatherings result in any concrete changes?

As relatively nascent institutions such as the G-20 evolve and solidify into permanent world bodies and events, the countries comprising these organizations are slowly being prodded by their citizens and the media to ensure that commitments become more than just talking points. One group in particular is determined to hold August 2012

international players will be for years to come.

The G-20, formerly a gathering of finance ministers, transitioned into a heads-of-state meeting in 2008 to marshal international resources in the face of the global economic slowdown. The inclusion of the fast-growing economies of China, Brazil, India, South Korea,Turkey and others made the G-20 a better arena for global discussion than the mostly developed countries that made up the G-8. The G-20 is “more representative of the world’s economic

Heads of state meet for last year’s G-20 summit in the French city of Cannes.

Though big on pomp and promises, major multilateral gatherings such as the G-20 are often short on specifics and action.

powers than the G-7 or the G-8,” wrote Lex Rieffel of the Brookings Institution in reaction to the first G-20 heads of state summit four years ago.

But the expanded G-20 didn’t win over everybody. Many international observers point out that the group still excludes fourfifths of the world’s nations. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has said the G-20 lacks “international legitimacy — it has no mandate and it is unclear which functions it actually has.” He added that its composition is still “arbitrary” and that we no longer live in “a time when the major powers met and redrew the map of the world.”

But the reinvigorated G-20 has taken off, and its agenda has ballooned, encompassing not only economic challenges but issues such as clean energy, climate change, development, and even North-South dialogue.

Critics say that expansion has made the group unwieldy and clouded its original purpose: the need for a coordinated response to the inter-related economic crises threatening Europe, the United States, Asia and the rest of the world. On that front, the G-20 served as a beacon of hope when global financial markets teetered in 2008, but lately, it seems to have reverted into yet another talk shop that simply exposes the deep-seated divisions among world powers and the larger holes in global governance. Instead of bold multilateralism, G-20 nations muddle through while pledging to do better.

David Rothkopf, editor at large of Foreign Policy magazine, attributes some of this inaction to inertia on the part of

world leaders, who are often hemmed in by domestic constraints.

“One reason today’s seeming global power void is so frustrating is that we actually live at or near the moment of the world’s greatest aggregate wealth, a time when more nations possess more engines and instruments of real power than ever before,” he wrote in the article “For Multilateralism, Is This the Dark Moment Before the Dawn?”

“Our problem is not that the biggest powers are incapable of action to address current problems. It’s that just when the promise of a new post-Cold War, post-single-superpower era of collaboration among nations seemed to be greatest, many of the big powers have revealed themselves to be unwilling to assume the responsibilities of true global leadership — of motivating, cajoling, inspiring, intimidating, confronting or blocking actions by other powers.

It’s not so much that we are in a G-Zero world as it is that most of our leaders are zeroes,” he argued, citing Germany’s Angela Merkel and her myopic response to the euro crisis, as well as Russian and Chinese foot-dragging over the Syria conflict.

Much of the criticism surrounding these multilateral shindigs comes down to commitments, which are routinely made but rarely executed. However, the G-20 has made some recent strides to be more responsive to outside scrutiny and ensure that demonstrable results come out of its time-consuming and costly meetings.

While it’s difficult to gauge how much of this change is due to the G-20 Research

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 21

Continued from previous page Group’s influence, the watchdog has certainly cast a greater light on the summit’s commitments. Now, as the research group’s reports have enjoyed increasing media attention, world leaders are taking notice.

“We had one of the G-20 heads of state at the Cannes summit tell us that our compliance report was discussed by the leaders as part of the summit,” explained John Kirton, co-director of the G-20 Research Group. Other leaders have contacted the group with questions about their results after reading the report, he noted.

Kirton said he is encouraged by these developments and has noticed that the summit decision makers are balancing their “ever-escalating verbiage in communiqués” with implementing outlines produced in the meetings.

The financial straits that many countries have found themselves mired in have also motivated them into action.“Accountability is being boosted this year because few countries have money to spare, so there is a greater premium to making sure commitments made, money or otherwise, are effective,” Kirton told The Diplomat.

Across all international summits, in fact, a trend toward ensuring compliance seems to rising.The G-8 published its own accountability report at its 2010 Muskoka summit in Canada. According to Caroline Bracht, a researcher at the G-20 Research Group, this transparency is an “attempt at legitimacy at a time when the G-20 has taken center stage” and doubts have emerged about the relevance of the G-8.

Accountability and transparency are also becoming important to the citizens of G-20 countries, according to Terra Lawson-Remer, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.“To increase its legitimacy — and, ultimately, its effectiveness — the G-20 needs to improve transparency and accountability to the diverse constituencies that are ultimately impacted by the deals leaders cut behind closed doors in Cannes and Los Cabos,”

wrote Lawson-Remer.

One major obstacle against participants keeping their word at these summits may actually be that they have too much control of how commitments are worded. By crafting commitments in vague diplo-speak, these leaders have been known to create rhetorical escape hatches for themselves.

A related development has been member states outsourcing the execution of commitments to international organizations such as the World Bank or the World Trade Organization.

For Kirton, one of the major problems with this sort of outsourcing is the very mandates of the international organizations themselves.

“Pascal Lamy [the director-general of the WTO] is legally obliged to define protectionism as the WTO does, which is a narrow definition.”

However, this definition may not be the most accurate or useful one for G-20 countries, Kirton contends.

Such world bodies are also often hesitant to call out individual member states for non-compliance because doing so may complicate the decision-making process around other issues.

According to some, this is where organizations such as think tanks and research centers may need to step in. Stewart M. Patrick, another fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said think tanks can provide useful insight into this process “since they are less hampered by diplomatic niceties and political sensitivities.”

Another issue is that even if a summit produces unity on difficult economic matters, there is always the danger that continued fiscal problems might lead to a breakdown in any macroeconomic consensus formed at these summits.

“There is a risk that individual countries may resort to beggar-thy-neighbor policies on exchange rates, monetary policy, regulatory arbitrage and other means to restore growth, even if the global implications for strong, stable and balanced growth are unfavorable,” wrote Kemal Dervis and Homi Kharas, two Brookings develop-

ment scholars, in a recent commentary.

As Bracht of the G-20 Research Group pointed out, compliance with trade commitments is often ignored because of domestic politics. On the other hand, Dervis and Kharas wrote that “staving off these pressures is one of the unsung achievements of the G-20.” Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how long these pressures can be kept at bay with ongoing economic turmoil across the globe and the diminishing patience of unemployed voters.

Another interesting development is how various international gatherings have been institutionalized into more permanent bodies. Some G-20 countries, such as Brazil and France, among others, have been pushing for the creation of a formal G-20 secretariat, for example. The United States opposes such a move, however. Critics say that’s because U.S. policymakers prefer a more malleable structure that they can easily shape to further America’s own interests.

Some observers also believe that a bureaucratization of the summit will hinder decision making and execution — the very issues supporters of formalizing the G-20 believe a secretariat will solve. A structured bureaucracy could make it easier for the G-20 to track its own record, but there is no proof that it will be able to do so in an accurate manner, they say.

“It’s the equivalent of students giving themselves their own grades,” argues Kirton of the G-20 Research Group. “It is an independent check but it lacks playing-field credibility.”

He says it is important for G-20 leaders to have outside, fact-based evaluations of how well or poorly they adhered to their commitments because “the leaders made these commitments, made them in good faith, and made them genuinely believing that they could get them done.”

There are some positive signs that G-20 governments are embracing Kirton’s proposed reforms. For the June G-20 summit in Los Cabos, the host country of Mexico made overtures to groups outside of the national governments par-

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ticipating in the meeting. Parallel consultation groups for business and labor were set up, for example. Another sign that change is under way came when the Mexican government increased transparency of the event by tweeting about its G-20 preparations.

Many would say this is a good start, but such voluntary moves are entirely up to the G-20 country hosting the summit. It is highly questionable, then, whether Russia, which will take the reins of the G-20 in December, will continue with this approach. As Lawson-Remer of CFR wrote, “Without genuine ex ante engagement to build trust and support with diverse domestic constituencies — labor, business, civil society, and the members of parliaments and congresses that purportedly represent these different interests — leaders will never have the space within the G-20 to negotiate meaningful agreements.”

Based on recent steps, however, there’s been a clear trend toward greater openness and summits that prize results over handshakes. Kirton, for one, expects to see this trend continue.

Without such progress, heads of state will continue to gather while the rest of the world rolls its collective eyes at summits that are much ado about nothing. Multilateralism is desperately needed to tackle today’s globalized problems — empty rhetoric is not.Action though will depend on holding heads of state accountable for their rhetoric and bringing the lofty ideals of global summitry back down to earth to produce real change on the ground.

Talha Aquil is a freelance writer based in Toronto.

Follow The Diplomat Connect at www.washdiplomat.com.

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Page 22

The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

Diplomacy

U.S. State Department

U.S. Foreign Service Officer Blacklisted for Scathing Exposé

by Dave Seminara

I

n Washington, whistleblowers are a dime a dozen, and the memoirs of retired diplomats, spies and other civil servants could fill the Washington Monument with room to spare. But Peter Van Buren, and his book “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People,” represent a real departure from the publishing norm.

Van Buren didn’t wait to retire to publish his book and didn’t use a pen name.

He is now technically still employed by the State Department, but his security clearance was suspended, and he has been barred from the premises. In March, the State Department moved to fire him, alleging improper handling of classified material, conducting unauthorized interviews, insubordination and poor judgment, among other charges.

Van Buren led two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) in rural Iraq from 2009 to 2010. His book, which was named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and other publications, is an exposé of the U.S. government’s reconstruction efforts in Iraq that includes numerous examples of wasteful spending, including French pastry classes for Iraqi widows, a play about mules, and an effort to create a Baghdad yellow pages and Baghdad Craigslist, among other follies.

Van Buren claims that he submitted his manuscript through the normal bureaucratic clearance procedures and when he didn’t hear back within the mandated 30-day clearance process, he construed the lapse as permission to publish the manuscript. The State Department claims that he released classified material in the

“

The State Department is very much like the mafia — you don’t talk about the family outside the family. In fact, there are more books written by ex-mafia hit men then there are Foreign Service officers.

”

— Peter Van Buren author of “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People”

book and also objects to the fact that he posted a link to an unclassified cable that was published by WikiLeaks on his blog, among other charges.

The biting commentary on that blog, wemeantwell.com, lambastes aspects of August 2012

U.S. foreign policy and State Department bureaucracy. Not surprisingly, Van Buren doesn’t mince words when it comes to Iraq, writing that the “American Embassy in Baghdad remains a monument to American hubris, and American failure in the Middle East. In some far-future Planet of the Apes movie, it will be the remains of the embassy Charlton Heston’s character finds half-buried in the sand.”

Other postings mock Foggy Bottom’s attempts at Twitter and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s frequent declarations touting Internet freedom. “Clinton must have an alarm set on her smartphone to issue such a declaration every two weeks,” he wrote. “Even as the US summons the Hawk Men to find and render Julian Assange, Hillary can’t stop her own selfloving, claiming ‘The free flow of news and information is under threat in countries around the world.’”

Van Buren also invokes his own example to eviscerate State’s supposed embrace of Internet rights.“Imagine a world where your emails, web browsing, Facebook and Twitter are monitored, where you are threatened with prosecution at work, where government agents dig through your credit report and ask your neighbors and officemates for ‘dirt’ (some, scared, try to supply it), and where sudden ‘compelled’ interrogations shatter your life.

“Imagine being jerked out of your job of 24 years and placed on a Secret Service Watch List for publicly criticizing a government official, and then allowed back to work only in a capacity designed to humiliate you, and send a message to others to remain silent. Welcome to my world.”

Not exactly diplomatic.

With help from the Government Accountability Project and the ACLU, Van Buren has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel. He contends that the State Department doesn’t police the published work of most diplomats and, in fact, links to some blogs.

Van Buren’s case raises important questions: Should public servants have the right to publish, either in print or on the web, while still on active duty? Here are the blunt-talking diplomat’s thoughts on spilling his employer’s beans.

Q: Did you volunteer to serve in Iraq or were you coerced?

Photo: Peter Van Buren / www.wemeantwell.com

A: I had spent the last 4.5 years in D.C. and

my family had no interest in going overseas.

My daughter was in an expensive private college, so we needed money and going to Iraq or Afghanistan seemed like a perfect solution.

When I got to Iraq, my salary was roughly double what I was making in Washington.

Q: In the book, you document all kinds of wasteful spending on the part of the U.S. in Iraq. Did you get to the point where nothing surprised you?

A: We were spending money crazily. The only universal in working for the State Department was that there was never any money — we worried about how to pay for office supplies — and then we go to Iraq, and we’re literally handing out bags of cash to people. The contrast between the reality there and at home, where there was a recession, was very difficult to reconcile.

Q: Was our entire approach fundamentally flawed from the outset?

A: No one really cared about accomplishing anything. We were simply after the appearance that we were doing something. We wanted to say look, we just hired two more NGOs to say we’re empowering women, so that means we’re empowering women. We

weren’t concerned about results. Everyone was looking the other way. Your boss says, “Empower women in your district and do it

by Thursday” — what are you going to do?

I’ll hire an NGO that really exists for no reason other than to collect government money, and tell them I need a report by Thursday explaining how we’ve empowered women.

No one ever comes back and says, “What happened with this or that project?” I told congressional aides when I got back, “Take a look at the projects I wrote about and ask people at the State Department about them.”

Q: Did you believe that you’d be able to get away with writing a book that is highly critical of U.S. efforts in Iraq while still remaining in the Foreign Service?

A: The publisher asked me, “Are we going to have any problem with State?” and I said, “No, I sent it to them and they sat on it for 30 days, which gives me permission to publish.”

State clearly screwed up. I sent my manuscript in for clearance, they had 30 days to comment, they misplaced it, forgot about it, whatever. Every once in a while the bureaucracy breaks your way. Every once in a while they screw up in your favor and this was one of those instances.

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 23

Continued from previous page

Q: Tell me about the U.S. Embassy

Q: But it’s highly unusual for current Foreign Service officers (FSOs) to publish books while still serving, is it not?

A: The embassy in Baghdad is palatial. It’s a luxurious place. The State Department, using the guise of security, has kept that from the public’s eye. We spent close to a billion dollars building that thing without justification. We’ve created the world’s largest embassy in one of the world’s least important countries. We’ve destroyed the State Department personnel system in order to staff it, and they want to keep it a big secret that they have a bar, a swimming pool and a driving range and a tennis court over there.

A: The State Department is very much like the mafia — you don’t talk

about the family outside the family. In fact, there are more books written by ex-mafia hit men then there are Foreign Service officers. You really only see Foreign Service people publish two kinds of books: If you’re a famous ambassador, you write your memoirs about how you were right about everything, or if you were lower-level, you write a travelogue explaining how cool it was that you got to go to Venezuela or Jerusalem or wherever. I really believed that there was no inherent conflict between my job as a Foreign Service officer and writing this book.

Q: What job did you take after leaving Iraq?

A: I came back and was working in the Board of Examiners office. It would have been too much of a conflict to publish while I was still in Iraq.

But a lot of my colleagues in Iraq knew I was working on something.

We’d joke about who was going to play me in the movie version of the book. When people were pissed off at me, they’d said Paul Giamatti was going to play me and when they were in a good mood, they’d say George Clooney was going to play me.

Q: Did you consider resigning after or during your experience in Iraq?

A: People ask me why haven’t you resigned or if I’m a whistleblower

— a Bradley Manning with a better haircut — and I don’t buy any of that stuff. I have no interest in resigning. What I did was write down what happened to me. If you came to Iraq with me, that’s what you would have seen.

You don’t have to be Bradley Manning. I think it’s reasonable for people to believe that they can write about and talk about what goes on in government. The vast majority of people in government who make the vast majority of decisions which impact us aren’t elected. They’re just people like me, and so there is an obligation for people inside the government to tell people outside the government what goes on in there.

Page 24

have to agree with what I’ve written. I have disclaimers in my book and on the blog explaining that my views are my own and don’t represent those of the U.S. government.

in Baghdad?

Q: A lot of FSOs, including some I know, aren’t very happy about your book. Why do you think your book seemed to make some colleagues angry?

A: I was surprised by the vehemence. People saw me as a traitor. I broke the code — I talked publicly about the State Department.

Everyone at State is always worried what everyone else thinks about it.

The State Department doesn’t want people to know how we do business. They’re embarrassed by it.

There are all these clichés that diplomats just hang around at cocktail parties and you’re not allowed to say anything that shows there’s some truth to that. You just don’t talk about these things; it’s just not done.

Q: Do you feel like diplomats have a right to publish?

A: We do have a constitution which still has the First Amendment attached to it. The rules say: No classified or personal information can be released, you can’t talk about contracting and procurement stuff that would give anyone an advantage in bidding, and the last thing you can’t do is speak on behalf of the department. That’s it. They don’t

Q: And how do you think your peers perceive you now?

A: A lot of State Department people are under the mistaken impression that I didn’t clear the book but they’ve dropped that. People thought I went rogue, which I did not. I am not a popular person right now. Someone in an organization that is designed to help FSOs told me, “Most people in this building hate you.”

Some people worried that they’d have privileges in Baghdad taken away from them. That someone in Congress might wonder why we have a tennis court in Baghdad. I got de-friended by colleagues on Facebook. Most of them didn’t read the book.

One embassy book club refused to buy the book.

Lots of anonymous hate mail. [People telling me] shut up and do your service like everyone else did; half a million people have gone through Iraq and they didn’t have to bitch about everything like you did. I’ve also been harassed by Diplomatic Security people.

Q: Have you been fired yet?

A: I’m still employed. I’m on tele-work status with an extremely limited job description. But I’ve filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel. They took away my building access pass and my security clearance is temporarily suspended. The final decision on whether to fire me from the State Department is now before the director general, the head of human resources for the department. We do not have a timeline for her decision.

Q: It seems as though the State Department objects to some FSO blogs, but not to others — is that right?

The Washington Diplomat

See Exposé, page 46

August 2012

MEDICAL ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ August 2012

Almost...

For Pregnant Women, 40, Not 37, Is Magic Number

by Gina Shaw

W

hen I was preparing to deliver my younger daughter in 2010 at New Jersey’s Morristown Hospital, my midwife told me about a new rule there: no elective inductions of labor or C-sections before 39 completed weeks of pregnancy. If a woman or doctor wanted labor induced or a C-section scheduled before the magic 39-week mark, they would have to present the hospital with a legitimate medical reason why it was better to evict the baby early instead of letting things get closer to the 40 weeks that constitutes a completed pregnancy.

Morristown isn’t alone. In 2009, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued new guidelines, updating 10-yearold criteria, warning against inducing labor prior to 39 weeks of pregnancy in the absence of a medical reason.

Continued on next page PHOtO: BACHINskAyA IrINA ANdreevNA / BIGstOCk

MEDICAL August 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 25

Continued from previous page No one wants a premature baby. But many women, and even many doctors, don’t seem to take seriously the risks of “early full-term” birth — that is, births that happen in the window of about 36 to 39 weeks. After 37 weeks, a pregnancy is technically considered “full term,” and it’s easy to become impatient and just want to get that baby out of there, already!

But an ever-growing body of research shows that while a baby born at 38 weeks is generally a lot healthier than one born at 34 weeks, there are still long-term risks associated with eviction from the womb even just a couple of weeks before the baby is ready.

Most recently, a study published in the journal Pediatrics in early July, involving more than 100,000 New York schoolchildren, found that children born at 37 or 38 weeks did worse on third grade math and reading tests than kids born just a week or so later. The study showed that 2.3 percent of the children born at 37 weeks severely poor reading skills, and NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure your ad had is free of mistakes in spelling compared with just 1.8 percent of chilcontent it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. dren born at 41 weeks; that’s a 33 percent increased chance of severe reading The first two faxed changes will be made at no cost to the They advertiser, subsequent changes difficulty. also had a 19 percent will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration.

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The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 If you’re not concerned about a few points’ difference in math, consider this: In March, a study published in the British Medical Journal found that being born just two Approved __________________________________________________________ to six weeks early was the greatest single contributor to the risk of disease among children ages 3 to 5. Babies born four to seven weeks early had a greater risk of Changes ___________________________________________________________ asthma and wheezing than babies born full term, and babies born two to six weeks ___________________________________________________________________ early were more likely to require hospital admissions in the first few months of life.

“We are seeing far too many newborns delivered early and without a medical reason, and there are still a number of hospitals who refuse to make this information public.”

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At Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., last year, 19 percent of admissions were newborns who fell into the category of “early term” or 37 to 38 weeks gestational age.“These infants came to the Children’s NICU because of morbidity related to being delivered early,” noted Dr. Billie Lou Short, the hospital’s chief of neonatology, in a release earlier this year. Short detailed the far-from-minor complications that can go with these “full-term” deliveries: breathing temperature instability, jaundice, longer hospital stays, and a higher mortality rate — yes, more babies die because they’re born even “just a little bit” early.

This isn’t an isolated problem. Elective inductions and C-sections have been increasing in the United States. In the last two decades, the rate of elective inductions of labor more than doubled. And by 2009, statistics showed that more than half of all C-section deliveries were performed at maternal request, and more than a third of those were performed earlier than recommended. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the late preterm birth rate in the United States increased 20 percent between 1990 and 2006. During that time, C-section rates durFor Our Shareholders ing the late preterm period climbed from 23.5 to 34.3 percent.

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Walgreens pays dividends March, that June, September Checks are customarily mailed on the 12th of each of these months. probably going to have a big baby, so we’ve scheduled an induction for 37 weeks.”

(This even though ACOG’s guidelines specifically state that in cases of “suspected Transfer Agent and Registrar on matters such as lost shares or name changes on shares, fetal macrosomia” — that’s doctor speak for a “big baby”For —assistance “current evidence does please contact: not support early induction of labor.”)

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Shareowner Services Hoping to stem the tide of “early full-term” deliveries, the March of Dimes has put 161 North Concord Exchange Street together a tool kit for doctors and hospitals called “Elimination of55075-1139 Non-Medically South Saint Paul, MN Group Vice President and Treasurer www.wellsfargo.com/shareownerservices Indicated (Elective) Deliveries Before 39 Weeks Gestational Age. ” It includes a review (888) 368-7346 of the evidence, a step-by-step guide to help hospitals adopt policies like Morristown’s, Stock Purchase Plan and educational materials for physicians and hospital staff.Direct Wells Fargo Shareowner Services sponsors and administers a direct stock as a convenient of acquiring No one is suggesting that a woman with preeclampsiapurchase at 37planweeks justmethod hang out Walgreen stock by cash payments, reinvestment of dividends or both. For an information and wait, hoping her blood pressure doesn’t spike, until 39 weeks of pregnancy. booklet and enrollment form, please call (888)But 368-7346. General inquiries Wellsof Fargo Bank, N.A. regarding your Walgreen stock should also be in a healthy pregnancy, there’s no reason to kick the baby toout a comfortable uterus directed to (888) 368-7346. a couple of weeks early. Pregnancies are 40 weeks for a reason.

The good news is that progress is being made. “Of the hospitals that reported an elective delivery rate in 2010 and 2011, 65 percent improved their performance.This is extremely promising news. We are making a difference in the lives of women and newborns,” said Leah Binder, CEO of health-care quality organization the Leapfrog Group, which has made reducing “early full-term” deliveries a priority.

Major insurers have also signed on.The nation’s four largest health plans — Aetna, Cigna, United Healthcare and WellPoint — have awareness campaigns aimed at educating expectant moms about the risks of elective deliveries before 39 weeks for non-medical reasons.

But there is still work to be done, says Binder. “We are seeing far too many newborns delivered early and without a medical reason, and there are still a number of hospitals who refuse to make this information public.

Officer ” Want to know your hospital’s rate of “early full-term” deliveries? Check out Edata provided online by the Leapfrog Group: www.leapfroggroup.org/tooearlydeliveries.

Design: Cagney + Associates, Inc.

Tailored Solutions

Photo: Pauline Breijer / istock

RECYCLED

Gina Shaw is the medical writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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MEDICAL The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

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MEDICAL August 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 27

EMBASSY NIGHT

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The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

culture & arts

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

entertainment

■ AUGUST 2012

MODERN

HISTORy

Stiff Upper Lip

MEN

The Folger charts the transformation of London from 1500 to 1700, a city that refused to be tamed by plagues, natural disasters, war or upheaval. PAGE 31

DIEbENkORN JOHNS NEWMAN

ART

Celestial Beings In “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts,” the continent’s artists and astronomers knew no bounds when it came to man’s timeless relationship with the heavens. PAGE 32

ART

Loaded Art Geometric abstraction as political rebellion? The art in “Constellations” at the OAS may be abstract, but the values it espouses certainly are not. PAGE 33

Photo: oAS AMA

Throughout the summer, the “Modern American Genius” of Richard Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns and Barnett Newman will be on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection and the National Gallery of Art, which will showcase how these trailblazers elevated the stature of modern American art on the international stage. PAGE 30 Photo: JASPer JohnS And GeMini G.e.L. / VAGA, new York, nY

DINING

FILM REVIEWS

After four years, Volt continues to recharge Bryan Voltaggio’s culinary career, as well as Frederick’s dining reputation. PAGE 34

A pair of determined fans trek to South Africa to find their enigmatic musical hero in “Searching for Sugar Man.” PAGE 36

[ art ]

Trailblazing Trio ‘Modern American Genius’ Showcased at Three Museums

by Suzanne Kurtz

T

hree popular art museums around D.C. are collaborating on a three-artist retrospective that celebrates the achievements of the “Modern American Genius.”

Throughout the summer, the cuttingedge contributions to the art world of Richard Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns and Barnett Newman will be on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection and the National Gallery of Art, respectively. Each museum will be hosting an exhibition dedicated to a seminal body of work from one of these major trailblazers, each of whom helped to elevate the stature of modern American art on the international stage.

Day at the Beach

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The Corcoran Gallery of Art’s exhibition of nearly 80 works by Richard Diebenkorn marks the first time a major museum will focus on the painter’s pivotal “Ocean Park” series, named for the beachside community in Santa Monica where the works were created.

“It is a rare and unique opportunity to bring to a broader audience this well-known yet underexhibited body of work,” said curator Sarah C. Bancroft.

Included in the exhibition are large-scale paintings, smaller paintings on cigar-box lids and mixed-media drawings on paper, monotypes and prints. Together they offer insights into the various media that Diebenkorn used when creating the series from 1967 to 1988 — often considered one of the most important bodies of work in American abstract painting.

Located on the top floor of the museum, the grid-like works of largely deep blues and greens are soothingly complemented by the light and airy space of the Corcoran, which will be the only East Coast stop for the retrospective.

The series also examines Diebenkorn’s artistic process, revealing scraped layers of paint and color and imperfect lines that invite introspection. Beyond the thought-provoking abstraction of his works, Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park series, with its breezy pastel hues, is reminiscent of a lazy, sun-drenched day at the beach, specifically the California coastline that served as the artist’s inspiration.

Born in 1922 in Portland, Oregon, Diebenkorn grew up in San Francisco. A former U.S. Marine, he studied art at the California School of Fine Arts, the University of Illinois and the University of New Mexico. After emerging as a leader of the Bay Area Figurative Movement in the mid-1950s, he relocated to Santa Monica in 1966 for a teaching position at UCLA. It is here that he would Richard Diebenkorn: create his seminal body of work of more than The Ocean Park Series 140 paintings and drawings, shifting away through Sept. 23 from his earlier figurative style and his focus Corcoran Gallery of Art on still lifes and landscapes that had earned him acclaim. Diebenkorn died at the age of 70 500 17th St., NW in 1993.

For more information, please call (202) 639-1700 “These works are powerful investigations or visit www.corcoran.org. of space, light, composition and the fundamental principles of modern abstraction, bringing together concepts forged by artists like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso,” said Philip Brookman, chief curator and head of research at the Corcoran and coordinating curator for the exhibition.“Diebenkorn investigated the tension between the real world and his own interior landscape to produce some of the most innovative, influential and time-

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The Washington Diplomat

Among the works in the “Modern American Genius” trio of exhibitions are Richard Diebenkorn’s 1975 oil “Ocean Park #79,” left, Jasper Johns’s 1977 lithograph “Savarin,” below, as well as Johns’s 1969 lithograph “Figure 1,” pictured on the culture cover.

less works of art during this decisive period of his career.”

Pioneering Variations “Jasper Johns: Variations on a Theme” at the Phillips Collection marks the first time that the Dupont Circle museum is hosting a show dedicated to the legendary artist and printmaker.

Born in Georgia in 1930, Johns’s work has been represented in nearly every major museum collection and featured in one-man exhibitions around the world. He was awarded the Presidential Photo: ©The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation / Philadelphia Museum of Art Medal of Freedom last year and continues to live and work in Sharon, Conn., and the Caribbean island of St. Martin.

“Jasper Johns’s persistent experimentation not only transformed printmaking but set the standard for contemporary art,” said Dorothy Kosinski, director of the Phillips Collection.

As the exhibition title suggests,“Variations” encapsulates Johns’s fascination with process and constructing variations on a single motif — a style that meshed well with printmaking.

Showcasing some 100 examples of Johns’s work mostly in lithography but also intaglio, silkscreen and lead relief, as well as painting, sculpture and drawing,“Variations on a Theme” spans five decades — from the 1960s through 2011 — highlighting the artist’s evolving interests and fascination with familiar symbols like targets, flags, numbers, maps, newsprint and even his own studio.

Photo: Jasper Johns and ULAE / VAGA, New York, NY Johns had used many of these symbols in his drawings and paintings before incorporating them into his printmaking Jasper Johns: in the late 1950s.

Variations on a Theme Johns once explained, “Using the through Sept. 9 design of the American flag took care Phillips Collection of a great deal for me because I didn’t have to design it. So I went on to 1600 21st St., NW similar things like the targets — For more information, please call (202) 387-2151 things the mind already knows.” or visit www.phillipscollection.org.

Another iconic symbol that is hard to miss in the exhibition is Johns’s classic rendering of a Savarin coffee can holding paintbrushes. Other striking works are a lead relief of a slice of bread and the Phillips own “The Critic Sees,” both eclectic examples of Johns’s experimentation.

“Variations” also includes a room with lithography and etching presses, lithographic stones and metal plates to explain Johns’s printmaking process and the

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August 2012

[ history ]

London Revisited Folger Surveys 200 Years of Citywide Reinvention

by Gary Tischler

B

y now, we all think we know London, whose image has been splashed across our TV screens for the Summer Olympics (not to mention a certain royal wedding and recent jubilee). We also probably think we have a good sense of the city’s past, crammed full with the delights of English literature and history — thanks to figures such as Charles Dickens and Shakespeare, shows such as “The Tudors,” and the various on-screen reincarnations of the revered Elizabeth I of England.

London is as familiar as Washington.

So when you see “Open City: London, 1500-1700,” the wide-ranging, highly characteristic exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library, you might expect to feel right at home. Well, you might not.

Expect the unexpected when you travel through this 200-year saga of London, a medieval city that evolved into an emerging modern metropolis. It’s a journey that whisks you through the reigns of Henry VIII up to William and Mary, as Great Britain stood poised to become a global empire.Along the way, there were plagues and natural disasters, civil war, religious clashes, royal overthrows and economic upheaval.

But this is not an exhibition about the lives of great monarchs, or even great men and women. There were 15 royal rulers during this period in PhotoS: FoLGer ShAkeSPeAre LibrArY England, along with famous courtiers, explorers, political men and families of From top, wenceslaus hollar’s 1647 etching “byrsa immense power, but on the whole, kings, Londinensis,” the deed of bargain and sale for Shakespeare’s queens and generals don’t get much of a purchase of the blackfriars Gatehouse in 1613, and “this Actuale mention in this show.

Survey” of London circa 1725 are among the various historical “Open City” is, as its title implies, about artifacts in the Folger exhibit “open city: London, 1500-1700.” the transformation of a city, how it changed and outgrew itself in physical explosion of mass communication, beginning with the revolusize, nature, outlook, function and poputionary printings of the Bible. lation. Significant historical events figure Here, we also see the beginnings of the first outdoor thestrongly here: Henry VIII, in pursuit of a aters. We see how Henry VIII’s appropriation of the city’s (and divorce, broke from the Catholic Church, country’s) monasteries upended the function of Blackfriars took over the country’s monasteries, and precinct, a walled monastery that was converted into a comforever changed the religious character mercial enterprise. The proof: a deed signed by none other of the city.A Richard Cromwell-led parliathan William Shakespeare, who lived in a townhouse on the ment sparked a civil war that ended in former monastery site during his retirement. regicide and also forever altered life in There are depictions of the aptly and charmingly named the city. And the twin disasters of a killer market district called Cheapside, theater programs for “Pericles” Open City: London, 1500-1700 plague and a tremendous fire all but and Ben Jonson plays, a chart showing the pew assignments for through Sept. 30 destroyed the London, which was revitalmembers of a London church, revealing their social hierarchy, ized in the destruction’s aftermath. and a map by Wenceslaus Hollar that shows the burgeoning Folger Shakespeare Library “Open City” is ultimately about a place city like a work of art, depicting many of the buildings that two 201 east capitol St., Se and the places within in it — neighbordecades later were engulfed by the Great Fire.

For more information, please call (202) 544-4600 hoods, markets, churches, theaters and But the city rebuilt and pressed on.This exhibition traverses or visit www.folger.edu. homes. It’s also about the people in those that rocky path, from destruction to gentrification to global places — playwrights, artists, architects, pre-eminence. It not only chronicles the growth of a city and clergymen, salesman, farmers and government officials — and how their lives its people, but also the progress and perseverance that has left a lasting imprint on changed with the physical and historic changes in the city. who we are today.

The exhibit is also very characteristic of the Folger itself. Visitors go down two “All of these changes — to economic competition, to capital, to religion not sides of a dark-brown hall and peruse books, manuscripts, paintings, drawings and, being imposed by the state, to reining in the power of monarchs — are changes in this case, maps and schematics.The Folger is, after all, a library. that have defined our world today,” said exhibit curator Kathleen Lynch.“So much Old and musky as much of the material may be in its archaic forms of spelling of the way we operate in Western democracies is due to the rules of the game and writing, it contains a vivid authenticity and an odd vitality. Drawings that are established in this period.” acutely accurate and panoramic are also touched by imagination and attitude.The 200 years contained in these books, letters and pamphlets represent the first true Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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[ art ]

Star Struck Heaven and Earth Collide in ‘African Cosmos’

by Suzanne Kurtz

Photo: MichAeL MckeLVeY / MichAeL c. cArLoS MuSeuM, eMorY uniVerSitY

“A

frican Cosmos: Stellar Arts,” an eclectic mix of some 100 objects, spanning from antiquity to modern day and encompassing the length and breadth of the continent, examines man’s timeless relationship with such heavenly phenomena like the earth, sky, sun, moon and stars as well as lightning and rainbows.

On display at the National Museum of African Art, “African Cosmos” is the first major exhibit to explore the historical legacy of African cultural astronomy and its intersection with traditional and contemporary African art.

The exhibition,“many years in the making, is part of the museum’s series focusing on Africa’s contributions to the history of knowledge — in this case, knowledge about the heavens and how this knowledge informs the creation of spectacular works of art,” said Christine Mullen Photo: (AboVe) JonAthAn Greet / october GALLerY, London; (beLow) FrAnko khourY Kreamer, deputy director and chief curator of the museum.“The project From top, an 18th-century figure pair made of wood and beads by connects my lifelong fascination the tabwa peoples of the democratic republic of the congo, owusuwith sky-watching to the arts and Ankomah’s 2007 “Starkid,” and Gavin Jantjes’s untitled 1989-90 cultures of Africa,” she added. acrylic painting are featured in “African cosmos: Stellar Arts,” a From ancient Egyptian papyrus wide-ranging exhibit that examines the continent’s relationship with drawings, to ritual items and masks heavenly phenomena such as the earth, sky, sun, moon and stars. from Mali, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, of outer space. to multi-media digital displays, the One of the exhibition’s featured artists, Nel’s objects reveal how Africans throughwork explores a long-standing engagement with out the ages related to the universe. science, the history of art and the human journey.

Among other examples, the In 2004, he was invited to participate as an artist-inexhibit makes note of this historical residence at the California Institute of Technology’s relationship by referencing Nabta Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), an astronomy Playa, a location near the border project that is mapping a two-degree square area between Egypt and the Sudan on of the sky. the edge of the Sahara Desert. Built a thousand years “Art and science have both questioned the African Cosmos: Stellar Arts before Stonehenge in England, Nabta Playa’s stone circles nature of reality for centuries, in their own ways,” through dec. 9 and sundials were used to mark the summer solstice said Nel, who is also an associate professor of fine national Museum of African Art more than 6,000 years ago. arts at the University of the Witwatersrand in Visitors to the exhibit hall are simultaneously greeted 950 independence Ave., Sw Johannesburg. by a mummy board, decorated with the ancient Egyptian Major sponsorship for the exhibition was proFor more information, please call (202) 633-4600 goddess of the sky, Nut, from approximately 1,000 B.C., vided by the South African government and the or visit http://africa.si.edu. that is sandwiched between electronic simulations of country’s Department of Science and Technology. airplanes taking off with images captured by Google Earth.

South Africa has a long history with astronomy; the first permanent observatory Also from ancient Egypt is a tablet depicting the star Sirius, whose sighting in the southern hemisphere was built in Cape Town in 1820. In addition, the indicated the yearly flooding of the Nile River and the beginning of the rainy exhibition comes on the heels of the recent Square Kilometre Array (SKA) deciseason necessary for farming. sion, a huge radio telescope project, with South Africa playing a major role in Looming large in the center of the hall is a circular and colorful sculpture its development. made from repurposed jerry cans titled “Rainbow Serpent” by Benin artist The June 19 exhibition preview featured Museum Director Johnnetta Betsch Romuald Hazoumè. For the Fon and Yoruba people of Benin and Nigeria, the Cole, Dr. Mae Jemison, the first female African American astronaut, and South rainbow serpent is a powerful symbol. The piece is meant to address contem- African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool. porary global concerns like the exploitation of natural resources and environOf the exhibition, Rasool said,“This is what Africa is capable of — a delicious mental pollution. But Hazoumè has described its meaning more optimistically combination of art and science. It has shaped the African personality and as “one day the good weather will come again.”

Africans’ understanding of themselves, their fellow human beings and the Another contemporary work is an interactive sculpture by South African art- Earth.” ist Karel Nel called “Trembling Field,” a carbon silicate work that focuses on exploring the ephemeral qualities of light as it diminishes into the far expanses Suzanne Kurtz is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

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[ art ]

Constructively Vague Latin Artists Used Geometric Abstraction to Rebel Against Nationalism

by Rachael Bade

I

[

was a bit puzzled when I sauntered through the door of the Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) to find eye-crossing, plaid-like patterns twisting my vision.

Bright colored vertical lines of blues, whites and reds made me squint. The odd geometric shapes gave the paintings the effect of movement, and I found myself wondering if I drank too much wine the night before.

Wasn’t this supposed to be an art exhibit about political change and cultural awareness? AMA, after all, is part of the Organization of American States (OAS), a regional intergovernmental organization that promotes peace, human rights and democracy.

I’d reviewed similar exhibitions before — shows that featured Spanish artists, Uruguayan works or Canadian photography, usually with a social or political tinge. But this one, “Constellations: Constructivism, Internationalism, and the Inter-American Avant-Garde,” was very different.

The exhibit delves into the history of geometric abstraction and its varied forms in the region.According to the museum, it “recognizes the socially constructive role that the arts have played in fostering democracy and freedom of expression at intense historical moments of social and political change.”

There is, of course, meaning and message behind the works — local nuances, reflections on shifting values and larger movements such as modern art — but it takes effort to discern.

A piece by Paraguay’s Enrique Careaga, for instance, features unidentifiable green orbs that seem to float aimlessly on the black canvas. Across the room, an apple-red backdrop is interrupted by blue-tipped angular cubes that seem to diagonally propel from the corners, creating a dizzying effect.

Another abstract piece reminded me of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe prints, except the colorful images all depicted the same letter “A” — which simultaneously looked like a woman’s curvy midriff, crotch and upper thighs.

Constellations: Constructivism, The link between the esoteric works — internationalism, and the intriguing as they were — and political cominter-American Avant-Garde mentary is far from obvious. Thankfully, exhibit curator Abigail McEwen, assistant through Sept. 23 professor of art history and archeology at Art Museum of the Americas the University of Maryland, is able to shed 201 18th St., nw some light on the connections.

For more information, please call (202) 458-6016 The exhibit itself is a showcase of history or visit http://museum.oas.org. and politics in the making, she says. Decades ago, the very notion of abstraction was a symbol of freedom and a break from nationalism.The point was to intentionally dissolve any links between culture and art.

The movement’s history, McEwen explained, is rich, and its rise demonstrated not just a change in taste from realist paintings, it captured a change in the world order:

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Photo: coLLection oAS AMA | Art MuSeuM oF the AMericAS

Many Latin artists in the mid 20th century embraced American abstraction to show their support for “American” values of freedom and democracy as opposed to the socialist realism of the Soviet bloc, as seen in works such as Joaquin Torres-Garcia’s 1943 oil “Constructive Composition,” above, and Jesus Rafael Soto’s “Escritura Hurtado (Hurtado Writing),” pictured on the culture cover.

A: the rise of abstraction in American art history is most closely related to the genesis of the new York School of abstract expressionism in the immediate post-world war ii era. in line with the international ascendance of the u.S. in geopolitical terms, the emergence of American abstraction appeared to mark the triumphant shift of the “art world” from Paris to new York by 1950.

Although abstraction certainly embodied u.S. cultural imperialism, to many of the Latin American countries — and no less, to the first director of the AMA — abstraction also signaled “American” values of freedom and democracy in contrast to the dogged socialist realism of the Soviet bloc. Across the Americas, abstraction also represented a break with nationalist realisms (e.g., Mexican muralism), and in this way too it conveyed an international currency and relevance to artists who had traditionally been seen as peripheral to the development of modern art.

Q: What is the importance of abstract art in American history?

SIDEbAR

Aussie Abstraction Artists in the Americas aren’t the only ones embracing geometric abstraction. the Australian embassy is making its own mark on the washington art scene with its newest exhibit, “Shifting Geometries,” which showcases the work of 10 contemporary Australian artists. contributing artists include: Akira Akira, Melinda harper, raafat ishak, John nicholson, John nixon, nick Selenitsch, Gemma Smith, bryan Spier, Andrea tu and brendan Van hek. brendan wall, director of cultural affairs at the Australian embassy and co-curator of the exhibit, noted that the embassy hosts approximately six art exhibits each year in the gallery adjacent to the building’s lobby. All are created by Australian artists whose styles range from aboriginal art to

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See COnSTeLLATiOnS, page 35

architecture. “Shifting Geometries,” though, puts a twist on the more traditional displays of the past. “this show is sort of a counter to the show on traditional landscapes,” wall told the diplomat of the embassy’s last exhibit. “[it’s in part] a tribute to contemporary artists from d.c. from the ’70s.” on that note, Australian Ambassador kim beazley credited the washington color School as a source of inspiration for the 10 artists on display. the washington color School was a mid-20th-century group of contemporary painters in washington that utilized lines and geometry in their art, the echoes of which are clear in the mesmerizing shapes of “Shifting Geometries.” the two-room exhibit does not take long to walk through but is definitely worth multiple rounds as the vast array of colors, patterns and lines provides new details to notice with each passing.

Ambassador beazley also discussed the openness of Australian diplomacy, but said that hosting art exhibits reveals the true soul of the Australian people. he fondly recalled the first exhibit he attended at the

embassy focusing on aboriginal art. “we display what Australians are really like,” the ambassador said.

“Gradually, we expand the character of Australian characters through these exhibits.” the debut was also of special significance because it was wall’s last exhibit before leaving the embassy. he will be returning to join the Australia council for the Arts. nobody had ever been as dedicated to bringing Australian art to the washington embassy as wall, and whoever fills his position has big shoes to fill, beazley said, drawing applause from the crowd.

“Shifting Geometries” runs through Sept. 14 at the Embassy of Australia, 1601 Massachusetts Ave., NW, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays.

For more information, please call (202) 797-3383 or visit www.usa.embassy.gov.au.

— ryan Schuessler

The Washington Diplomat Page 33

[ dining ]

Electrifying Run After Four Years of Fame, Volt Still Energizes Historic Frederick

by Rachel G. Hunt

N

estled on the piedmont of Catoctin Mountain, Frederick is a charming small city in Maryland that has a long, rich history, as well as a bright future. Since it was laid out as a town in 1745 by German settlers less than 50 miles north of Washington, D.C., Frederick has played an important role in Maryland’s history, serving as a strategic crossroad between east and west, north and south. So perhaps it is not surprising that it should be the birthplace of a pair of talented young brothers destined to establish themselves as important players in the evolving contemporary American fine dining movement.

Chefs Bryan and Michael Voltaggio earned celebrity status by becoming the final contestants on season six of Bravo’s popular culinary competition show “Top Chef.” Michael went on to win the coveted title of top chef, but both brothers have parlayed their moment in the spotlight for enduring and expanding careers in the restaurant industry.

Bryan Voltaggio was already a rising chef before his “Top Chef” appearance, having opened his first solo venture Volt in 2008 to much acclaim in his native Frederick. His run on “Top Chef” helped to elevate Volt’s stature, which in turn cemented Frederick’s transformation as an up-and-coming regional destination that combines quaint small-town appeal with cutting-edge dining and arts.

Bryan has since branched out with other widely anticipated ventures in the area, including the recently opened casual eatery Lunchbox, just a few blocks away from Volt, and the soon-to-debut Range, a new 14,000-square-foot restaurant at the Chevy Chase Pavilion in Friendship Heights that will incorporate lesser-used cuts of livestock.

Despite his burgeoning career, he hasn’t dropped the ball on his signature achievement, Volt, which continues to rack up accolades. And as diners from around the Washington area wait patiently for hard-to-come-by reservations, Volt remains an anchor of Frederick’s increasingly sophisticated dining scene.

The Voltaggio brothers both began their food careers very early on working in the kitchens of local Frederick restaurants. Bryan went on to study formally at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., then teamed up with chef Charlie Palmer at establishments in New York City, Las Vegas, and finally at Charlie Palmer Steak in the nation’s capital, from where he planned his move back to his hometown for the opening of Volt.

Teaming up with Hilda Staples, a former Capitol Hill aide and lobbyistturned-highly-effective restaurateur,Voltaggio set out to create a restaurant that allowed him to capitalize on the fresh ingredients available from the rich agricultural areas that surround Frederick.These were the same foods that his family had grown and prepared during his childhood, an upbringing that formed the cornerstone of his own approach to cooking.

To house their new venture, the team selected a Frederick landmark, the Houck Mansion. Designed by noted architects J.A. and Reinhardt Dempwolf in 1890, the three-story, 8,000-square-foot brick mansion was the private home of the six Houck sisters, who occupied and entertained in the building until the last sister died in 1924. It was converted to a professional building by a group of doctors until the partners leased the space for the restaurant building. But by that point, the mansion required considerable renovation to restore it to its former glory while also creating a space suitable for a fine dining concept.

Today, the restaurant, whose traditional exterior is juxtaposed with its modern interior, is divided into several discrete dining areas: a main room, a kitchen dining room with a chef’s tasting table (Table 21), a lounge, and an area for private dining in the conservatory. The renovation preserved some of the mansion’s original historic feel while using minimalist modern design as a backdrop.

While the core of Voltaggio’s work rests on the slow food movement’s tenant of

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The Washington Diplomat

Chef Bryan Voltaggio’s culinary star continues to rise with several new ventures in the area, but that hasn’t diminished the quality or creativity of his first restaurant, the acclaimed Volt in Frederick, Md. Photos: Jessica Latos

locally sourced and seasonally available ingredients (which is why the menu changes regularly), what is most evident is the notion of food as art. Each dish is a masterpiece reflecting both the careful planning and the creativity of the artist in producing a balance of taste, smell, texture and color.

All of the dishes are collections of compatible ingredients and each is built according to a precise design that lends an almost architectural feel to the food. Take, for example, the foie gras. A curving strip of the delicate liver is served with a small oval scoop of rhubarb sorbet, a pickled strawberry, coconut crumbs, and drips of strawberry compote each placed with precision on the plate-cum-canvas.

Volt’s offerings mirror the kitchen staff’s superior technical skills. Pan-seared dishes such as the halibut and black bass come with crusty exteriors and moist interiors; roasted meats (the lamb and pork are consistently exceptional) are never overcooked; custards are smooth; and pureed ingredients for drizzles and drops of complementary accents are intensely flavored. Deep frying, applied to vegetables such as chicory and cauliflower, also produces intriguing results, as do some of the more rarified techniques such as nitrogen freezing that Volt staff excels at.

At the beginning of the year, Volt introduced changes to its menu. In the main dining room,Volt now offers a four-course prefixe menu that allows several choices per course, as well as a set seven-course kitchen menu, either meat or vegetarian.

The daily menus are modest in their descriptions, which do not adequately capture what will emerge from the kitchen. A seemingly simple salsify dish, for example, turns

August 2012

out to be quite complicated. Voltaggio prepares the humble root vegetable three ways — pureed, fried chunks and potato chip-like crisps — then pairs the vegetable, which tastes rather like an artichoke (as opposed to oysters, from which the plant derives its other name), with paper-thin country ham, fruit and ground hazelnut. It is an inspired combination. Likewise, the delicate pork tenderloin is accompanied with new potatoes, deep-fried kale and a top-on baby carrot, accented with a sweet and tart house-made mulberry fruit leather.

In some fine dining restaurants, dessert is handled separately from the savory dishes, with results that don’t always integrate well with the rest of the menu. This is not the case at Volt, where desserts are treated with the same creativity and attention to detail as all the other dishes.

The results are equally complex, with bits of puddings, custards, cakes, sauces, mousses, sorbets, cookies and candies working in harmony to create truly unique sweets.

Meanwhile, Volt’s substantial and varied wine program is designed to enhance Voltaggio’s creations, with pairings for the tasting menus. Under the guidance of Jill Zimorski, an experienced sommelier certified through the Court of Master Sommeliers, the program introduces new varieties that she has identified through her travels and research that reflect Volt’s values.

Volt also offers special touches throughout the meal that reinforce Voltaggio’s vision for the top-tier establishment. House-made still and sparkling water, excellent breads circulated throughout the meal, inventive amusebouches such as a savory macaroon filled with foie gras, and mignardises at the end of the meal such as dense chocolate truffles elevate the Volt experience from start to finish.

And like the cuisine, service at Volt is a carefully choreographed performance. It is indeed impressive to watch as teams of black-clad wait staff place the dishes on the table in perfect unison. This is not to say, however, that the

service is stiff or overly formal, which it isn’t.

The overall success of Volt since its opening in 2008 has established Bryan Voltaggio as a culinary luminary and has helped validate Frederick as a distinct dining destination. That success has only intensified interest in Volt, often making it difficult to get a table. But the restaurant introduced changes in January to remedy the long wait times.

Volt now takes reservations for all three dining areas only a month in advance, making the wait for Table 21 much shorter if you call early in the day to make reservations.Those changes will only further open up one of Frederick’s top attractions to an even wider audience, which is in for a treat when it watches the show that Bryan Voltaggio has in store for them.

[ ] Rachel G. Hunt is the restaurant reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

Volt

want to

228 north Market St., Frederick, Md. (301) 696-VOLT (8658) www.voltrestaurant.com

go?

Main and chef’s dining room: tue. - Sun. 5:30 - 10 p.m.

Brunch: Sat., Sun. 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Table 21: tue. - Sun. 7 p.m. seating Lounge: tue. - Sun. 3 p.m. - close, Sat., Sun. 11:30 a.m. - close Four-course pre-fixe menu: : $80 Seven-course kitchen menu: $95 Table 21: $150 Reservations: highly recommended and essential for weekends Dress: business casual

from page 30

recognition and praise of his peers.

Newman began painting “The Stations of the techniques he used to layer, repeat, Cross” series in 1958 after rework and weave together the recovering from a heart different elements in his collages attack. Forgoing color for and other pieces. black and white and utilizBut perhaps the best guide for ing stark, sparse lines understanding the work are down that “zip” down his Johns’s own words: “What intercanvas, he had described ests me is that something can be the series as an attempt to seen in two different ways and the address the “moral crisis” question whether seeing it one facing artists after the way necessarily obliterates seeing atrocities of World War II Photo: robert And JAne MeYerhoFF coLLection it the other way. Or whether it’s and the Holocaust.Newman possible to see both at once.”

Barnett newman’s “twelfth Station” said that through these is among the 15 works in the paintings, he hoped to cap‘MAN’S AGONy’ “Stations of the cross” series that ture Jesus’s cry from the The National Gallery of Art draws references the Passion of the christ. cross to God, posed as a question, in dread and conlargely from its own collection in presenting its 26-piece exhibition of the abstract fusion:“Why have you forsaken me?”

“This is the Passion,” Newman, who died in expressionist painter Barnett Newman. The fifth “In the Tower” show, located in the I.M. Pei- 1970, once said.“This outcry of Jesus. Not the terdesigned tower of the gallery, focuses mostly on rible walk up the Via Dolorosa, but the question the artist’s renowned “Stations of the Cross” series that has no answer.” Nor does it belong to any one narrative, he further explained, but rather is an created between 1958 and 1966.

A cycle of 15 paintings, “The Stations of the expression “of each man’s agony.”

Cross” is often considered to be Newman’s greatSuzanne Kurtz is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. est artistic achievement.

Newman, born in New York in 1905, had an existential crisis of sorts early in his artistic in the Tower: Barnett newman career, destroying all his paintings from the 1930s and early 1940s in the belief that early through Feb. 24 20th-century painting styles were obsolete. national Gallery of Art Instead, he founded the Subjects of the Artist on the national Mall between 3rd school in 1948 to explore ideas and methods for and 9th Streets at constitution Avenue, nw abstract expressionism. His first solo exhibitions For more information, please call (202) 737-4215 in the early 1950s were not well received, but or visit www.nga.gov. by the end of the decade, he had earned the

Genius

[

August 2012

]

Q: Why do you suppose people like abstract art?

How is it different than other forms of art?

from page 33

Constellations Q: But how did these works “foster democracy and freedom of expression?”

A: in contrast to the figurative realism of much of the art that preceded abstraction in Latin America, for the most part abstraction carried no national connotations — for instance, no references to the Mexican revolution, to brazilian fazendas (coffee plantations), to cuban rumba dancers, to colombian civil war. in fact, abstraction was controversial at this time during the1940s and 1950s precisely because it seemed too “foreign” or removed from the local contexts in which it was made. “constellations” suggests that these works fostered democratic values and freedoms through their resistance to literally describing the social realities of the time in which they were created. rather, these works sought to transcend the facts of world war, dictatorship, revolution, etc. the refusal of this art to be easily co-opted by national politics (how can a line, for example, be “Argentine?”) and its opposition to the figurative styles then advocated by the uSSr and china gave it contemporary connotations of freedom and internationalism.

Q: How do these works relate to the OAS’s mission?

A: Most of these works were added to the collection of the oAS under the aegis of the AMA’s founding director and curator, the cubanAmerican José Gómez-Sicre. in many ways, his tastes were shaped by the fallout from the cuban revolution, and his preference for abstraction — and resistance to indigenous realisms, say — fell very much in line with the inter-American values of the oAS and its efforts to broker hemispheric peace and cooperation.

A: historians and philosophers have speculated (for millennia!) about why abstraction appeals or doesn’t appeal to different people. with regard to “constellations,” i might argue that this kind of geometric abstraction is optically engaging — the works, particularly on the first floor, play with optical illusions and simulate movement, which creates sometimes dazzling visual effects. in contrast to the art of, for example, the italian renaissance or dynastic egypt, 20th-century geometric abstraction is intelligible to viewers who haven’t studied the history of patronage or religion; this art doesn’t presuppose historical knowledge and is accessible, in that sense, without extensive art-historical study.

Q: What do you hope people will learn or take away from this exhibit?

A: i hope that visitors appreciate the versatility of

abstraction as a visual form and, perhaps, come to understand as well the ways in which these artworks embodied particular ideological values during the mid-20th century. Although some of the artists have international reputations, many of them are lesser known and deserve to be considered in revisionist histories of American abstraction. in grouping the works thematically, rather than ordering them chronologically or nationally, i tried to suggest a range of contacts and influences that stretched across the Americas and to europe and, in so doing, to argue for the truly international orientation of Latin American abstraction. but mostly, i hope that visitors see that Latin American art is more than diego rivera and Frida kahlo and that they are moved, visually or philosophically, by the works in the show.

Rachael Bade is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 35

[ film reviews ]

‘Sugar Man’ Enigma Searching for Most Famous Unknown Rock Star Under Apartheid

by Ky N. Nguyen

the artist, his family, and close companions and colleagues. Perhaps she actually had too much footage with which to work. She directed, t the 2012 Tribeca Film Festi­val, produced, shot and co-edited “Ai Swedish filmmaker Malik Weiwei: Never Sorry,” which may Bendjelloul’s inspirational not be the most polished of docu“Search­ing for Sugar Man” mentaries, but the wildly compelwowed festival patrons at ling subject matter overcomes its much-anticipated East those limitations.

Coast premiere. After the Ai first gained international screening, its down-to-earth subject notoriety in 2008 as a designer of Rodriguez surprised filmgoers with a the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium stirring, unannounced musical perforin Beijing, seen around the world mance. The New York success was folas a historically important steplowed by the film’s crowd-pleasing D.C. pingstone for China onto the area premiere at the AFI-Discovery world stage. Yet instead of curryChannel Silverdocs Documentary ing easy favor with the ruling Festival. During its current theatrical party bosses, Ai criticized the release, local film lovers now have Olympics as Communist propaanother chance to catch the don’t-miss ganda. He boycotted the opening “Searching for Sugar Man” — one part ceremonies as a public protest mellifluous music documentary, anothagainst the impoverished local Photo: Hal Wilson / Sony Pictures Classics er part riveting mystery thriller. residents evicted from the site of In the 1970s, American folk singer Two fans try to uncover what happened to folk singer Rodriguez, who fell into musical obscurity in the United the new stadium.

Rodriguez released critically acclaimed States but became a huge hit in South Africa, in the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man.” Ai’s long-running 2008 Sichuan albums that barely registered any sales earthquake crusade sharply at U.S. record stores. He disappeared from the little public notice he ever received as his rebuked the deaths of more than 5,000 students buried when poorly built government career dissipated, leaving behind hearsay of an untimely demise. Meanwhile, his albums schools collapsed.To counter the government’s cover-up,Ai traveled to Chengdu in August became huge hits in South Africa, though he was completely unaware of his stardom in 2009 to document the aftermath. At his “So Sorry” the country that was then largely isolated from the interna- show in Munich, he displayed the students’ backtional community. packs intermingled with the debris from the earthAi Weiwei: Never Sorry Searching for Sugar Man His music’s anti-authority themes resonated with the quake. He compiled a list of victims that the gov(Mandarin and English white, liberal portion of the population opposed to apart- ernment refused to publish.And he encouraged his (English; 85 min.) with subtitles; 91 min.) heid. For them, Rodriguez was as big as the Beatles and legion of Twitter followers to record their voices Landmark’s E Street Cinema Simon and Garfunkel.Yet South Africans knew next to noth- saying a name of a victim, creating a massive, interLandmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Aug. 3 ing about one of the most popular musicians in their land. active art piece. The furious authorities sent the Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema After the belated CD release of Rodriguez’s second album, a Chengdu police to beat him, a process that he cap★★★★✩ pair of determined fans decided to follow the money from tured and turned into a sort of performance art ★★★★✩ South Africa to the United States on a not-quite-so quixotic quest to find answers about when he sued his attackers. their enigmatic hero. The truth they discovered was unbelievable — and in many ways Most recently, on April 3, 2011, on the way to Hong Kong,Ai was arrested at the airport better than they could have ever expected. in Beijing and vanished for 81 days, leading to an international cause célèbre in which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for his release. The police investigated his “economic crimes,” resulting in a $2 Unapologetic ‘Ai Weiwei’ million bill for alleged back taxes and penalties.The unapoloAt the 2012 AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs getic artist observed, “Maybe to be powerful is to be fragile.”

Festival, “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” made its longYet he proclaimed,“Never retreat, retweet.” awaited D.C. area premiere, satisfying a company town where politics is the dominant local Quirky ‘Nobody Else’ business. The astonishing documentary’s largerthan-life subject, Ai Weiwei, serves as one of the “Nobody Else But You,” French writer-director Gérald most prominent leaders of the political opposiHustache-Mathieu’s thoroughly enjoyable comedy thriller, tion in China, a position he has gained leveragrecalls the quirky dark humor of the Coen Brothers, notably ing his status as China’s pre-eminent contempo“Fargo” with its imposing winter scenery.The refreshing murrary artist — and vice versa.Ai has redefined the der mystery also borrows successfully from the surrealist maxim that all art is political. nature of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks.” In the end, however, Ai’s dissident art is exemplified by his photoperhaps the most prominent American icon is the enduring graphs of his middle finger raised before specter of Marilyn Monroe as the classic sex symbol of the Tiananmen Square and other iconic sites.As the cinema.

Photo: Never Sorry LLC film opens in 2009, Ai is seen prepping for his “Nobody Else But You” manages to fuse these cultural elewell-publicized “Sunflower Seeds” exhibit at the In “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” first-time filmmaker Alison Klayman ments into a well-oiled package driven by Pierre Cottereau’s Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London, which documents the Chinese provocateur in action. lavish cinematography and powerful performances from the raises his pedestal in the international art world lead actors. and corresponding political standing.

David Rousseau (Jean-Paul Rouve), a successful Parisian author of crime novels, is As a freelance journalist in China from 2006 to 2010, first-time filmmaker Alison Klayman happened to be in the right place at the right time, obtaining intimate access to See film reviews, page 39

A

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Page 36

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[

The Washington Diplomat

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August 2012

[ film festivals ]

Top Docs Documentary Festival Honors 2012 Winners

by Ky N. Nguyen

T

he 10th annual AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival showcased the screening of 114 films from 44 countries and a five-day professional documentary conference in June. More than 27,000 guests, including more than 1,000 filmmakers, media professionals, and film and television executives, attended the weeklong film festival based in Silver Spring, Md. The following awards honor major highlights of Silverdocs 2012:

Sterling Award for Best World Feature: ($5,000 cash award) “Planet of Snail” directed by Seungiun Yi Synopsis: A deaf and blind South Korean poet is unwilling to accept as limitations the world of sight and sound from which he is isolated.

Jury comments: “This film immersed us into the sensorial experience of love unbound. The poetic cinematography of life’s seemingly ordinary moments underscores the complexity of life itself.”

Jury: “This film patiently portrays what life looks and feels like inside the walls of injustice where a group of detained immigrants and their sympathetic caretakers are bound together by a complex web of inequality.

Through his powerful vérité filmmaking and access, Fernand Melgar lays bare a life without freedom.”

Photo: AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs

Sterling Award for Best U.S. Feature: ($5,000 cash award) “Only the Young”directed by Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims

Special World Feature Jury Mention: “Special Flight (Vol Special)” directed by Fernand Melgar

Synopsis: Three teens stuck in a chaste love triangle in a depressed Southern California suburb embark on different paths to maturity, independence and romance.

Synopsis: Even in tolerant Switzerland, the benign administration and guards of the Frambois detention center near Geneva can do little to alleviate the fate of undocumented immigrants entrapped in its system.

Jury: “We loved this film for its striking and beautiful cinematography and its innovative editing. But above all, we loved it for its sensitive and startlingly honest portrayal of adolescence. Neither saccharine nor snarky, the film captures

The story of a deaf and blind South Korean poet who refuses to accept any limitations won the Sterling Award for Best World Feature at this year’s AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Festival.

the depth and absurdity of being a teenager without cliché or caricature.”

Special U.S. Feature Jury Mention: “The Waiting Room” directed by Peter Nicks Synopsis: The ER waiting room in Oakland’s Highland Hospital serves as the backdrop to an encounter with a diverse community of largely uninsured patients alongside an indefatigable staff charged with caring for them.

“Paradise” documents the lives of three intrepid immigrants from Mexico who scale Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers to clean windows.

Sterling Short Honorable Mention: “Mondays at Racine” directed by Cynthia Wade Synopsis: Two sisters who watched their mother suffer the indignities and pain of struggling with cancer when they were younger now own a beauty salon in Islip, Long Island, where they open their doors every third Monday of the month to women living with cancer.

Jury: “The best documentaries immerse us in new worlds and connect us with people we’ve never met.

This vérité film gives us a personal experience with patients and caregivers trying to navigate a complicated and flawed health care system.”

Jury: “[Engaged] the viewer on a raw, emotional level through the moving testimony of two indelible characters facing illness.”

Sterling Award for Best Short Film: ($2,500 cash award) “Kings Point” directed by Sari Gilman

Synopsis: Three immigrant workers from Mexico make their living in an unusual way: by rappelling down some of Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers to clean windows.

Synopsis: Inhabited by numerous transplants from New York who were lured by the promise of sunshine and palm trees, Kings Point is a place where retirees have begun a new part of their lives, for some the final chapter.

Photo: AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs

community of peers.”

Jury: “[A] bittersweet exploration of the universal needs and challenges of creating human connections — even within a seemingly close-knit

August 2012

Sterling Short Honorable Mention: “Paradise” directed by Nadav Kurtz

Jury: “[Took] the audience to new heights in experiencing a unique perspective on immigrant labor through beautifully lensed and adventurous cinematography.”

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

The Washington Diplomat Page 37

[ film ]

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

ambassador to Turkey during World War II hatches a scheme along with a refugee countess from Poland to sell secrets to the Nazis.

Arabic

AFI Silver Theater Sun., Aug. 12, 6:15 p.m., Thu., Aug. 16, 5:10 p.m.

5 Broken Cameras Directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi (Palestine/Israel/France/Netherlands, 2011, 90 min.)

13 Rue Madeleine

When his fourth son is born in 2005, selftaught cameraman Burnat, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera, filming his village’s non-violent struggle against the Israeli construction of a separation barrier while at the same time recording the growth of his son.

In the run-up to D-Day, OSS man James Cagney identifies recruit Richard Conte as a German mole, but chooses to keep him in play, equipping him with disinformation to feed the Nazis.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Cantonese An Autumn’s Tale (Chou tin dik tong wah) Directed by Mabel Cheung (Hong Kong, 1987, 98 min.)

A naïve young woman from Hong Kong goes to study in New York, where her street-wise cabbie neighbor takes care of her in the big city. (Cantonese, English and Japanese) Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Aug. 10, 7 p.m., Sun., Aug. 12, 2 p.m.

Rouge (Yin ji kau) Directed by Stanley Kwan (Hong Kong, 1988, 96 min.)

Two journalists’ repair their own relationship as they help the spirit of a 1930s prostitute who returned to 1980s Hong Kong to find the man who chickened out of their suicide pact.

(Cantonese, English and Japanese) Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Aug. 3, 7 p.m., Sun., Aug 5, 2 p.m.

English 5 Fingers Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (U.S., 1952, 108 min.)

Based on a true story, a valet to Britain’s

Directed by Henry Hathaway (U.S., 1947, 95 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Aug. 12, 4:15 p.m., Mon., Aug. 13, 5:10 p.m.

Baraka Directed by Ron Fricke (U.S., 1992, 96 min.)

Ron Fricke’s custom-built camera moved across 24 countries on six continents over a stretch of 14 months examining “man’s relationship to the eternal.”

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., Aug. 3, 9:45 p.m., Sat., Aug. 4, 10 p.m., Sun., Aug. 5, 1:45 p.m.

Barry Lyndon Directed by Stanley Kubrick (U.S./U.K., 1975, 184 min.)

The callow striver Redmond Barry, a reluctant conscript in the British army, leaves his Irish home in disgrace, deserts the army, then re-enlists on the victorious Prussian side.

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., Aug. 24, 3:35 p.m., Sat., Aug. 25, 6:15 p.m.

Directed by Otto Preminger (U.S., 1958, 94 min.)

Cecile is a decadent young girl who lives with her rich playboy father Raymond, but when his old love interest comes to Raymond’s villa, Cecile becomes afraid for her way of life. (Screens with “Breathless”)

Repertory Notes

Directed by Stanley Kubrick (U.K., 1971, 136 min.)

Kubrick’s most idiosyncratic work is an exceedingly artful evocation of a dystopian future and a hugely influential cult classic that remains right-of-passage viewing for adventurous film lovers.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., Aug. 16, 9:20 p.m., Fri., Aug. 17, 9:30 p.m., Sat., Aug. 18, 11:30 a.m.

Diamonds Are Forever Directed by Guy Hamilton (U.K., 1971, 120 min.)

James Bond tracks a diamond-smuggling operation from Amsterdam to Los Angeles to Las Vegas, discovering that the trail leads to an archenemy whose interest in the rocks is military, not monetary.

August 2012

A British corporal, stranded by his army’s hasty retreat from the victorious German Afrika Korps in 1942, holes up in a remote hotel on the border between Egypt and Libya, only to find the Germans arrive to use the hotel as their headquarters.

(English and German) AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Aug. 4, 11 a.m., Mon., Aug. 6, 5:10 p.m., Tue., Aug. 7, 5:10 p.m.

Goldfinger Directed by Guy Hamilton (U.K., 1964, 110 min.)

One of the most iconic of the James Bond films, influencing future installments with its wickedly sardonic dialogue, “Goldfinger” features Sean Connery as the dashing British spy and Honor Blackman as aviatrix Pussy Galore.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Aug. 25, 3:45 p.m., Tue., Aug. 28, 7 p.m.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Aug. 4, 3:30 p.m., Tue., Aug. 7, 7:10 p.m.

The Deadly Affair

The Imposter

Directed by Sidney Lumet (U.K., 1966, 115 min)

Directed by Bart Layton (U.K., 2012, 99 min.)

After receiving an anonymous poison pen letter alleging a British Foreign Office minister’s communist sympathies, security agent James Mason investigates, clearing the man’s name — but the next day, the minister is found dead.

In this documentary, a young Frenchman convinces a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who went missing three years earlier.

AFI Silver Theatre Wed., Aug. 22, 9:20 p.m., Thu., Aug. 23, 9:20 p.m.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Kubrick’s classic Cold War satire kicks in when the paranoid Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper initiates a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union because he suspects the communists are poising America’s water supply.

AFI Silver Theatre Aug. 10 to 16

Five Graves to Cairo Directed by Billy Wilder (U.S., 1943, 96 min.)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Aug. 10

Khartoum Directed by Basil Dearden (U.S., 1966, 134 min.)

After British and Egyptian troops are massacred in the Sudanese desert in 1883 by an insurgent army led by a Muslim holy warrior, Prime Minister Gladstone dispatches maverick war hero General Charles Gordon to Khartoum to salvage what remains of British authority there.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Aug. 25, 1 p.m., Tue., Aug. 28, 4:20 p.m., Thu., Aug. 30, 4:20 p.m.

The Kremlin Letter Directed by John Huston (U.S., 1970, 120 min.)

A cadre of jaded American intelligence

veterans recruits a brilliant young phenom possessing a photographic memory and mastery of eight languages for a dangerous mission in Moscow.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Aug. 26, 9 p.m., Wed., Aug. 29, 7 p.m.

Lolita Directed by Stanley Kubrick (U.S./U.K., 1962, 152 min.)

A middle-aged college professor becomes infatuated with a 14-year-old nymphet.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Aug. 5, 6:30 p.m., Thu., Aug. 9, 6:30 p.m.

Lord Jim Directed by Richard Brooks (U.K./U.S., 1965, 154 min.)

Disgraced merchant seaman Peter O’Toole drifts aimlessly around Southeast Asia, until an offer of a dangerous mission rouses him to redemption.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Aug. 26, 1:20 p.m., Mon., Aug. 27, 4 p.m., Wed., Aug. 29, 4 p.m.

The Man Who Never Was Directed by Ronald Neame (U.K., 1956, 103 min.)

Based on a true story, a cadaver is pressed into duty to play a drowned British naval officer and washed ashore in Spain with forged documents detailing plans for an Allied assault on Greece in 1943 — a red herring to distract from the real plans to land in Sicily.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Aug. 5, 11 a.m., Mon., Aug. 6, 9:20 p.m., Tue., Aug. 7, 9:20 p.m.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Directed by Peter R. Hunt (U.K., 1969, 142 min.)

Villainous Ernst Stavro Blofeld plans to cripple the world’s crop production by spreading the Virus Omega by means of the Angels of Death, 12 brainwashed women from around the globe.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Aug. 19, 7:45 p.m., Tue., Aug. 21, 6:45 p.m.

by Washington Diplomat film reviewer Ky N. Nguyen

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

American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theatre “70mm Spectacular” (through Sept. 19) includes Ron Fricke’s “Baraka” (Aug. 3-5); Ken Anakin’s “Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines Or: How I Flew From London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes“ (Aug. 11-12); Stanley Kramer’s “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (Aug. 18-19); Basil Dearden and Eliot Elisofon’s “Khartoum” (Aug. 25-30); Richard Brooks’s “Lord Jim” (Aug. 26-29); and Steven Lisberger’s “Tron” (Aug. 31-Sept. 1).

“The Films of Stanley Kubrick” (through Sept. 13) features “Lolita” (Aug 5, 9); “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb” (Aug. 10-16); “A Clockwork Orange” (Aug. 16-18); “Barry Lyndon” (Aug. 24-25); and “The Shining” (Aug. 31-Sept. 1).

“Ballet in Cinema” includes “La Bayadere” (Aug. 5, 28) and “La

Page 38

A Clockwork Orange

Directed by Stanley Kubrick (U.K., 1964, 96 min.)

Bonjour Tristesse

National Gallery of Art Sat., Aug. 18, 2 p.m.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Source” (Aug. 26, 29). “Opera in Cinema” includes “Norma” (Aug. 12, 27) and “Cavalleria Rusticana” with “Pagliacci” (Aug. 12, 27).

“NIH Science in the Cinema” free Wednesday 7 p.m. screenings include “A Dangerous Method” (Aug. 1), “Contagion” (Aug 8), and “65 Red Roses” (Aug. 15). Other series include “Marilyn Monroe Retrospective” (Aug. 3-Sept. 17), “Totally Awesome 6: Great Films of the 1980s” (through Sept. 19), and “Spy Cinema” (through Sept. 19).

(301) 495-6700, www.afi.com/silver

Freer Gallery of Art The Freer’s annual, ever-popular “Hong Kong Film Festival” continues through Aug. 19. Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung star in Stanley Kwan’s acclaimed ghost story “Rouge” (Aug. 3, 7 p.m., Aug. 5, 2 p.m.).

Chow Yun-Fat and Cherie Chung star in Mabel Cheung’s popular romance drama “An Autumn’s Tale” (Aug. 10, 7 p.m., Aug. 12, 2 p.m.). The Shaw Brothers martial arts classic “Killer Clans” (Aug. 17,

7 p.m., Aug. 19, 2 p.m.) closes the festival.

K. Atif’s 1960 Urdu epic “Mughal-e-Azam” (Aug. 11, 5:30 p.m.) screens as part of the “Indian Visions at the Freer” series.

(202) 357-2700, www.asia.si.edu/events/films.asp

National Gallery of Art “Michelangelo Antonioni Centenary” (Aug. 11-Sept. 3) commemorates the 100th birthday of Italian auteur Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007), “arguably the most influential director of the postwar era,” according to the National Gallery. Screenings include early Italian films loaned courtesy of Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale: “Story of a Love Affair” (Aug. 11, 2 p.m.); “I Vinti” (Aug. 11, 4:30 p.m.); “Lady without Camelias” (Aug. 12, 4:30 p.m.); “Le Amiche” (Aug. 25, 2:30 p.m.); and “L’Avventura” (Aug. 26, 4:30 p.m.)

(202) 842-6799, www.nga.gov/programs/film

The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

Our Man in Havana Director by Carol Reed (U.K., 1959, 111 min.)

The third and final of the Carol ReedGraham Greene collaborations, this time in spoof mode: Havana vacuum cleaner salesman Alec Guinness is surprised to find himself recruited by Caribbean spymaster Noël Coward for service in MI6.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Aug. 19, 5:30 p.m., Wed. Aug. 22, 7 p.m.

Pickup on South Street

through urbanization and education.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

You Only Live Twice Directed by Lewis Gilbert (U.K., 1967, 117 min.)

After U.S. and Soviet space capsules mysteriously disappear from orbit, Sean Connery as James Bond follows the trail to Japan, where he uncovers a plot by SPECTRE to start World War II. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Aug. 18, 4:15 p.m., Mon., Aug. 20, 7 p.m.

Directed by Samuel Fuller (U.S., 1953, 80 min.)

French

A small-time criminal picks a pocket on the New York subway, but scores more than he bargained for: a strip of microfilm containing classified U.S. secrets, intended for delivery to a ring of communist spies.

Breathless (À bout de soufflé)

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Aug. 11, 11:05 a.m., Sun., Aug. 12, 8:30 p.m., Tue., Aug. 14, 5:10 p.m.

Searching for Sugar Man Directed by Malik Bendjelloul (Sweden/U.K., 2012, 85 min.)

Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock ‘n’ roller Rodriguez.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Aug. 3

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard (France, 1960, 87 min.)

A young car thief kills a policeman and tries to persuade a girl to hide in Italy with him. (Screens with “Bonjour Tristesse”) National Gallery of Art Sat., Aug. 18, 2 p.m.

Nobody Else But You (Poupoupidou) Directed by Gérald Hustache-Mathieu (France, 2011, 102 min.)

A bestselling Parisian crime novelist investigates the murder of a young, attractive, and vibrant woman who thinks she is the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

to film inside the Chauvet Pont d’Arc caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known paintings and drawings of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.

(German, English and French) Goethe-Institut Mon., Aug. 27, 6:30

Three (Drei) Directed by Tom Tykwer (Germany, 2010, 119 min.)

Hannah and Simon are a couple in their early 40s living together in Berlin, with a lot behind them but not much ahead — until they both fall in love with the same man.

Goethe-Institut Mon., Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m.

When We Leave (Die Fremde) Directed by Feo Aladag (Germany, 2010, 119 min.)

Imprisoned in a loveless marriage in Istanbul, German-born Umay flees to Berlin to make a better life for herself and her 5-year-old son, but is distressed to discover her family sides with her husband.

(German and Turkish) Goethe-Institut Mon., Aug. 20, 6:30 p.m.

Italian Le Amiche

Directed by Martin Ritt (U.K., 1965, 112 min.)

Unforgiveable (Impardonnables)

After a drunken binge, a stint in jail and an affair with communist Claire Bloom, British agent Richard Burton appears washed up with MI6 and perhaps defection material. But is it all a sham?

Directed by André Téchiné (France, 2011, 111 min.)

Returning to her native Turin to open a salon on the heels of her Roman success, a fashion stylist painfully tries to bond with the local au courant crowd. [Screens with “Superstizione” (1949, 9 min.)]

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Aug. 18, 6:45 p.m., Thu., Aug. 23, 7 p.m.

Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines Directed by Ken Annakin (U.K., 1965, 138 min.)

In 1910, an intrepid bunch of pioneer pilots enters a London-to-Paris air race, an international field led by a barnstorming American, an Italian ace Alberto Sordi, Red Baron-esque Prussian, amorous Frenchman and a Japanese naval officer.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Aug. 11, 1 p.m., Sun., Aug. 12, 1:30 p.m.

Thunderball Directed by Terence Young (U.K., 1965, 130 min.)

Armed with two stolen NATO nuclear warheads, SPECTRE holds the U.K. and U.S. hostage, threatening to blow up a major city of their ransom demand for £100 million in uncut diamonds is not met.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Aug. 11, 5:55 p.m., Tue., Aug. 14, 7 p.m.

Trishna Directed by Michael Winterbottom (U.K., 2011, 113 min.)

Set in contemporary Rajasthan, a young Indian woman falls in love with a wealthy British businessman, but despite their feelings for each other, they cannot escape the conflicting pressures of a rural society that is changing rapidly

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The War Is Over (La guerre est finie) Directed by Alain Resnais (France/Sweden, 1966, 121 min.)

After a close call crossing the French border, anti-Franco operative Yves Montand begins to question the cause to which he has devoted nearly three decades of his life. (French and Spanish) AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Aug. 26, 6:30 p.m., Mon., Aug. 27, 7 p.m.

The Well-Digger’s Daughter (La fille du puisatier) Directed by Daniel Auteuil (France, 2011, 107 min.)

In pre-World War II France, a father is torn between his sense of honor and his deep love for his daughter when she gets in trouble with the wealthy son of a shopkeeper.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

German Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Die Höhle der vergessenen Träume) Directed by Werner Herzog (Multiple countries, 2010, 90 min.)

A woman disappears along a rocky stretch of beach and her friend and lover try to find her, developing an attraction for each other. [Screens with “Nettezza Urbana” (1948, 9 min.)]

National Gallery of Art Sat., Aug. 25, 2:30 p.m.

Mandarin Killer Clans (Liu xing hu die jian) Directed by Chor Yuen (Hong Kong, 1976, 103 min.)

Rival assassins fall for the beautiful daughter they’ve been hired to kill in this breathtaking mix of swordplay, treachery, and titillation.

The Lady without Camelias (La signora senza camelie) Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy/France, 1953, 106 min.)

A Milanese shop girl vaults to movie stardom, but teeters between ceding to the demands of “art” films or descending to low-budget spear-and-sandal epics, while oscillating in her personal life between a domineering producer and a suave diplomat. [Screens with “L’Amorosa menzogna” (1949, 10 min.)]

National Gallery of Art Sun., Aug. 12, 4:30 p.m.

Story of a Love Affair (Cronaca di un amore) Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy, 1950, 98 min)

A former working-class girl’s rich husband hires a detective to confirm his fears that her penniless old flame has returned, inadvertently reuniting the two former lovers in the process.

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy, 1955, 100 min.)

A crime writer living in Venice while working on his new novel meets and soon marries his real estate agent. They move to a remote house on Torcello Island, where his obsession with his wife’s daily whereabouts takes a dark turn. (French and Italian)

National Gallery of Art Sat., Aug. 11, 4:30 p.m.

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy/France, 1960, 145 min.)

National Gallery of Art Sun., Aug. 26, 4:30 p.m.

Opens Fri., Aug. 3

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

L’Avventura

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Aug. 17, 7 p.m., Sun., Aug. 19, 2 p.m.

Swedish Easy Money (Snabba Cash) Directed by Daniel Espinosa (Sweden, 2010, 124 min.)

When JW becomes a drug runner to maintain his double life, his fate becomes tied to two other men: Jorge, a fugitive on the run from both the Serbian mafia and the police, and mafia enforcer Mrado, who is on the hunt for Jorge.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Aug. 10

Urdu

National Gallery of Art Sat., Aug. 11, 2 p.m.

Mughal-e-Azam

I Vinti

In this lavish Bollywood spectacle inspired by true events, a 16th-century prince falls in love with a court dancer and battles with his emperor father.

Directed by K. Asif (India, 1960, 185 min.)

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy, 1952, 110 min.)

Three morality tales follow well-off youths who commit murders in this French-ItalianBritish examination of postwar youth.

Freer Gallery of Art Sat., Aug. 11, 5:30 p.m.

from page 36

Film Reviews plagued by fatigue and writer’s block. “California Dreamin’” plays on the car radio as he drives around the remote, über-frozen mountain village of Mouthe, known colloquially as “Little Siberia,” situated in the Jura region on France’s border of Switzerland. In town to claim an inheritance, Rousseau nearly slips on the dead body of local beauty Candice Lecoeur (Sophie Quinton), best known as a weather girl and as the sexy face of the popular cheese called “Belle de Jura” (an ode to Luis Buñuel).

Photo:Jean-Claude Lother When Lecoeur was alive, she thought of herself as Sophie Quinton is a small-town beauty who believes she’s Marilyn Monroe’s reincarnated spirit. Lecoeur was born Martine Langevin, a plain brunette transformed into a the reincarnated spirit of Marilyn Monroe in “Nobody Else blonde bombshell after being discovered at her family’s But You.” that Lecoeur took sleeping pills to filling station by a photogracommit suicide.Though the villagpher, followed by a nude calNobody Else But You ers don’t question the hasty conendar shoot that started her (Poupoupidou) clusion, Rousseau doesn’t buy it path to local celebrity. She suffor a second. He puts on his amafered through shaky marriages (French with subtitles; 102 min.; scope) teur gumshoe hat and gets to as well affairs with the charisLandmark’s E Street Cinema work discovering the facts, assistmatic president of the region, Opens Fri., Aug. 3 ed by a sincere young police offiJean-François Burdeau, aka JFB cer, Brigadier Bruno Leloup (Ken Samuels), along with his ★★★★✩ (Guillaume Gouix).The truth turns brother Bernard-Olivier Burdeau, aka BOB (Antoine Chappey), the local prefect. out to be stranger than fiction, providing good fodder inspiring Rousseau to write his next book.

Sound familiar?

After a cursory investigation, sketchy-looking police Commandant Colbert (Olivier Rabourdin) determines Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

[

]

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access

August 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 39

[ around town ]

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

Aug. 4 to Feb. 3

Citizens of the Republic: Portraits from the Dutch Golden Age

Stalwart Dutch citizens, distinguished for their contributions to the arts and the state, are sensitively rendered in a selection of 17th- and 18th-century engravings.

National Gallery of Art

ART

Aug. 11 to Nov. 12

Aug. 1 to Sept. 2

A Small Hope

Lukman Ahmad, a self-taught Kurdish artist from Syria, expresses his personal connection to the Kurdish land and its people — a history layered with tragedy, perseverance and aspirations — in works that are steeped in vivid colors and moving shapes.

Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan

Recently conducted scientific excavations provide a fascinating look into the nomadic culture of the ancient peoples of Kazakhstan, with more than 150 spectacular finds from this vast Central Asian nation challenging traditional views of the nomadic societies that thrived thousands of years ago.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

August 2012

Catalonian — identity.

human body’s relationship to space.

National Gallery of Art

The Phillips Collection

Through Aug. 26

Through Sept. 9

Embassy of Argentina

Tati Valle-Riestra: Bodies of Ink

Jasper Johns: Variations on a Theme

Through Sept. 15

A selection of 31 ink-wash figure drawings

by Tati Valle-Riestra’s in her first solo show in the United States render the human body in various poses, an achingly familiar topic to the Peruvian artist who is also a lifelong dancer.

Artspace 109 Alexandria, Va. Through Aug. 31

Daniel Libeskind: Architecture for the Angel of History

activist David Kirby taken by Therese Frare at the hospital, with his father, sister and niece at his bedside.

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

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.

Through Sept. 14 Photographs depict the striking work of Mexican Cultural Institute Shifting Geometries Daniel Libeskind, who designed several museums of national significance as well Ten contemporary artists from Australia Through Sept. 16 Aug. 1 to Sept. 28 as living expressions of memory, including offer their takes on the diverse traditions Arthur M. Sackler Gallery the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the of abstraction.

Within Worlds: Imperial Outward Reach NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and content it is ultimately up to theWorlds customer MilitarytoHistory Museum in Dresden.

Through Aug. 12 Embassy of Australia Paintings from India and Iran This exhibit celebrates Jamaica’s golden make the final proof.

Goethe-Institut jubilee anniversary of independence with Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape India’s Mughal emperors, who reigned over 14 at a rate of $75 per faxed photography, new media and Thevideo firstbytwo faxed changes madedrawings, at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changesThrough will beSept. billed a vastalteration. empire that extended from Kabul Through some will 120 be paintings, Throughads Sept.are 9 considered approved. United Colors of HIV seven Jamaican artists living and working over most of the South Asian subcontinent sculptures, and prints from a career span- Signed Antony Gormley: Drawing Space in the United States — a convergence of between the 16th and the 19th centuries, ning almost a century, the exhibition In conjunction with the XIX International topical creativity and expression across Phillips presents theMark first major U.S.changes were passionate about lavish manuscripts Please carefully. any to your ad. reveals a politically engaged sidecheck to Joan thisThead AIDS Conference, Fabián H. Ríos Rubino national boundaries that fosters the OAS exhibition of works on paper by British artand paintings. The exhibit brings together Miró’s work, including his passionate (a.k.a. Blitiri) of Argentina uses art to ask values of hemispheric cultural exchange, ist needs Antony Gormley, internationally 60 of the finest folios and paintings from response to one of the most turbulent what does living with HIV mean today after If the ad is correct sign and fax to: (301) 949-0065 changes The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 freedom of expression, and innovation. acclaimed for his sculptures, installations periods in European history as well as more than 25 years of its first fatal victims, the Freer|Sackler collection, one of the OAS Art Museum of the Americas andChanges public projects that investigate the world’s most important repositories of his sense of Spanish — specifically focusing on the iconic 1991 photo of AIDS Approved _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ The Foundry Gallery

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.

Page 40

A.E. Fletcher Photography

"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

The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

Mughal and Persian painting.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through 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 Gómez Sicre, the founder and first director of the AMA. Art Museum of the Americas Through Sept. 23

Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series

A pivotal figure in the history of modern painting, Richard Diebenkorn (1922–93) was an innovator whose work inspired legions of artists and greatly advanced the lexicon of abstraction.

Corcoran Gallery of Art Through Sept. 26

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

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 Oct. 14

Elegance and Refinement: The Still-Life Paintings of Willem van Aeist

Few artists were more skilled than Dutch still-life artist Willem van Aelst (1627–83) at depicting luscious fruits, luxurious fabrics, and spoils of the hunt — 28 examples of which are featured in this first exhibit devoted solely to the artist.

National Gallery of Art Through 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 Through Oct. 28

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.

Charlotte Dumas: Anima

Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building

Corcoran Gallery of Art

Through Sept. 28

Ocean Fishes and Taxonomy

Working in the tradition of naturalists such as John James Audubon and Louis Agassiz Fuertes, James Prosek reminds us of the role visual representation plays in shaping our perceptions of the natural world with paintings, sculptures and taxidermy specimens exploring the nature of two-dimensional representation and the limitations of classification systems.

The National Academy of Sciences Through Sept. 28

Painted_Interventions

The third in a series of exhibitions of Austrian contemporary art, which takes place in cooperation with “bäckerstrasse 4 – plattform für junge kunst,” features works by Austrians Elisabeth Wedenig, Matthias Lautner and Markus Hofer, as well as an artist from D.C., who reflect on the importance of the pluralistic world of the media.

Embassy of Austria Through 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 Through Oct. 8

George Bellows

This comprehensive exhibition, the first

Dutch-born artist Charlotte Dumas travels the world making evocative portraits of animals, characterized by their utility, social function or by the way they relate to people. “Anima,” her first one-person museum exhibition in the U.S., centers on the majestic burial horses of Arlington National Cemetery that carry soldiers to their final resting place in traditional military funerals.

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 Through Dec. 9

African Cosmos: Stellar Arts

In the first major exhibition to explore the historical legacy of African cultural astronomy and its intersection with traditional and contemporary African arts, some 100 objects consider how the sun, moon and stars and celestial phenomena such as lightning and rainbows serve as sources of inspiration in the creation of African art from ancient times to the present.

National Museum of African Art Through Dec. 30

Growing up AFRO: Snapshots of Black Childhood from the AfroAmerican Newspapers

In honor of the 120th anniversary of the Afro-American Newspapers, this pictorial exhibition features 120 images from the AFRO’s archive collections that demonstrate the vital role young people played in African American history.

Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, Md.

Through Dec. 30

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

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.

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens 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 Jan. 13

Dark Matters

“Dark Matters” brings together works from the Hirshhorn’s collection that draw upon the associations and implications of darkness and its notions of mortality, silence, solitude and loss.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Through Feb. 24

Lalla Essaydi: Revisions

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

Child, who changed America’s attitude toward food? Quite a lot, actually.

Biographer Bob Sptiz portrays her life as an adventure story: work for the OSS, spying in Ceylon with husband Paul Child, attending the Cordon Bleu in Paris, where the idea of adapting French cuisine for mainstream America began to stir, and a long career on public television. Tickets are $25. For information, call (202) 633-3030 or visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Thu., Aug. 9, 6:30 p.m.

Monkey Around at the Sackler Gallery

Sip the evening’s specialty cocktail, enjoy light hors d’oeuvres, and have more fun than a barrel of very artistic monkeys during this Asian-inspired Mingle in the usually serene spaces of the Sackler Gallery. Tickets are $35. For information, call (202) 633-3030 or visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Sun., Aug. 26, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The Burning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814 All-Day Tour

In the summer of 1814, British troops made a 50-mile march to capture the American capital, routing pitiful citizen militiamen, while President James Madison rode out of town. Historian Anthony S. Pitch leads a full-day exploration of sites associated with this monumental event. Tickets are $171. For information, call (202) 633-3030 or visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

Departs from Holiday Inn Capitol, SW

Plaza” grand finale.

Signature Theatre Through Aug. 5

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs By examining the human price we pay for our high-tech toys, Mike Daisey influenced drastic change in the corporate practices of Apple and its supplier in China.

But he came under fire for fabricating parts of the story. So Woolly is restaging an all-new version of Daisey’s play that addresses the controversy head on, using the struggle over fact and fiction to tell an even better story that pierces the heart of our human relationship with our labor. Tickets start at $40.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Through Aug. 5

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson This rowdy and irreverent musical imagines President Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson as a rock star, following young Jackson from his boyhood home to the spotlight of the White House and beyond. Tickets are $38 to $43.

The Studio Theatre Thu., Aug. 16, 8 p.m.

Moizi & Schwab Rock the US Tour

Peter Moizi and Christian Schwab, two popular Austrian comedians known as the Comedy Hirten (Comedy Shepherds), present a cabaret/comedy program in English about major events that made it into Austria’s and the international media.

Tickets are $30; for information, call Karl Hofer at (914) 934-0111.

Embassy of Austria

THEATER

Through Aug. 19

National Museum of African Art

Aug. 1 to 26

Mein Kampf

CAMP

In this musical romp, a hapless florist shop worker raises a mysterious plant that brings the florist attention from everyone, including his crush, but eventually he gives in to the plant’s appetite for human flesh and blood. Tickets start at $26.

Aug. 6 to 10

Hallyu Camp 2012

The Korean Cultural Center presents a fiveday immersion experience for fans of Korean pop culture, offered through the embassy’s King Sejong Institute Washington D.C. Korean pop culture, including K-pop music, dramas and movies, has become a global phenomenon in recent years, growing a passionate fan community that spans cultures and languages worldwide. Students will experience this trend through a variety of interactive workshops, lessons, discussions and creative projects related to Korean traditional and pop culture. The fee is $230. For information, visit www.dynamic-korea.com or www.tinyurl.com/HallyuCamp.

Little Shop of Horrors

Aug. 23 to Sept. 5

Sat., Aug. 4, 12 to 10 p.m.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual “Free For All” returns with the Bard’s story of adventure and romance, set in World War I, as Helena, the daughter of a physician, pursues the non-committal Count Bertram, who in turn tries to escape her advances through harsh words and disdainful actions.

Signature Theatre Open House Virginia’s Signature Theatre opens its doors for its annual open house, with free live performances on five stages as well as demonstrations, kids’ activities, master classes, a dance-nkaraoke party, Signature Idol Competition and a “Concert on the

Thu., Aug. 2, 11 a.m.

Step Afrika!

DISCUSSIONS Wed., Aug. 8, 7 p.m.

Julia Child’s Bon Appetit for Life What more is there to say about Julia

All’s Well That Ends Well

Sidney Harman Hall

CULTURE GUIDE

DANCE

George Mason University Hylton Performing Arts Center

H Street Playhouse

Olney Theatre Center

Korean Cultural Center

The dazzling D.C.-based company Step Afrika! is a global ambassador for “stepping,” the uniquely American genre that is descended from African song and dance rituals. Tickets are $15.

SCENA Theatre in-your-face dark comedy

by George Tabori about down-and-out painter Adolf Hitler and his relationship with two Jews, Herzl and Lobkowitz, in a Viennese flophouse circa 1900s.

Tickets are $25 to $35.

Plan Your Entire Weekend.

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August 2012

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The Washington Diplomat Page 41

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

Protocol and Pies

photos: victor shiblie

Ambassador of Djibouti Roble Olhaye, dean of the diplomatic corps in Washington, welcomes fellow ambassadors and their families to the State Department to watch the July 4th fireworks over the National Mall and enjoy apple pies baked by local embassies.

photos: Thomas coleman

U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Penavic Marshall convenes the inaugural Global Chiefs of Protocol Conference at the State Department, where nearly 100 representatives from nations and organizations on five continents gathered to exchange knowledge and strengthen the role of protocol in diplomacy. Throughout the day, individual plenary sessions focused on hosting international conferences and summits, engaging the diplomatic corps, media and messaging, as well as ceremonies and traditions. The day earlier, Marshall presided over the State Department’s annual Independence Day celebration for the diplomatic community. The reception also featured the first-ever apple pie contest among more than a dozen foreign embassies to the United States.

Belgium took top honors in the State Department’s inaugural apple pie contest, as Ambassador Jan Matthysen, right, accepts a prize from Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, who was one of the contest judges, alongside Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema and Alli Blakely of Pie Sisters in Georgetown.

As part of the State Department’s Independence Day festivities, foreign embassies in Washington were invited to create their own versions of the traditional apple pie for a contest where the only rules were to use apples and be creative. The embassies that dished up their own take on the all-American pie were: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Britain, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Turkey and Ukraine.

From left, Ukrainian Chief of Protocol Yurii Ladnyi, Ambassador of Uzbekistan Ilhomjon Tuychievich Nematov, Ambassador of Ukraine Olexander Motsyk, Ambassador of Moldova Igor Munteanu, and Polish Chief of Protocol Krzysztof Krajewski attend an Independence Day celebration at the State Department, which was followed the next day by a Global Chiefs of Protocol Conference.

Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Paul Senninger, left, and wife of the Belgian ambassador Agnes Julia Aerts attend the July 4th fireworks reception at the State Department, which featured American picnic fare such as barbeque pork, hot dogs and pasta salad.

Page 42

From left, Ambassador of Djibouti Roble Olhaye, Ambassador of Mauritius Somduth Soborun, and Ambassador of Uganda Perezi K. Kamunanwire share a laugh at the State Department’s annual July 4th Independence Day reception for diplomats.

Ambassador of Chile Felipe Bulnes brought his wife and mother to enjoy the State Department’s annual July 4th Independence Day reception.

Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, right, presents British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott with the second-place award for his embassy’s entry in the State Department’s inaugural apple pie contest (Hungary took third place).

Ambassador of the Philippines Jose L. Cuisia Jr. surveys the pies on display at the State Department as part of the first-ever apple pie contest among foreign embassies to the United States.

Ambassador of Afghanistan Eklil Hakimi and his wife Sultana Hakimi brought their family to the State Department’s July 4th fireworks reception, where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, made a surprise appearance.

The Washington Diplomat

Ambassador of Lebanon Antoine Chedid, left, joins Ambassador of Fiji Winston Thompson at the State Department, where the local diplomatic corps and their families gathered to watch the July 4th fireworks over the National Mall.

August 2012

Luxembourg Farewell

Broadway Stars

Photo: Ronald Baker, Solid Image

From left, Broadway performer Chuck Wagner, Ambassador of Botswana Tebelelo Seretse, and D.C. Councilmember Marion Barry attend “A Night of Broadway Stars” Gala at THEARC to benefit Covenant House, the largest privately funded agency in the Americas serving homeless, runaway, and at-risk youth.

Photos: James P. Adams, Ester Strommen, Christina Kemper Valentine

Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Paul Senninger is surrounded by his wife Louise Åkerblom and daughter Julia Senninger at his farewell reception.

Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen and his wife Agnes attend the From left, Brian Forde, Ina Ginsburg farewell reception for and John P. Farmer attend the farewell Ambassador of reception for Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Paul Luxembourg Jean-Paul Senninger.

Senninger.

Pakistani BBQ From left, Ambassador of Pakistan Sherry Rehman, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Esther Coopersmith, and Shaista Mahmood attend a summer barbeque garden party at Ambassador Rehman’s residence.

Slovenia National Day

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), left, joins Ambassador of Slovenia Roman Kirn for the Slovenian National Day reception, which also celebrated 20 years of U.S.Slovene diplomatic relations.

Ambassador of Croatia Josip Paro, left, and Ambassador of Georgia Temuri Yakobashvili attend the Slovenian National Day reception held at the Slovenian Embassy.

Photos: James P. Adams, Ester Strommen, Christina Kemper Valentine

From left, coach Kathy Kemper of the Institute for Education, Ina Ginsburg, Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche, and Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde attend the Slovenian National Day reception.

Ambassador of Monaco Gilles Noghès and his wife Ellen attend the Slovenian National Day reception.

Que Nguyen, left, joins E. Allan Wendt, the first U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Slovenia, at the Slovenian National Day reception.

Pacific Day

Photo: ge gargallo photography

Photo: ge gargallo photography

From left, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully, Ambassador of Palau Hersey Kyota, Ambassador of New Zealand Mike Moore, and New Zealand Embassy Political Officer Michael Appleton attend the annual Pacific Day reception at the New Zealand Embassy.

Among the panelists who spoke at the Pacific Day reception and discussion were, from left, Permanent Representative of Papua New Guinea to the U.N. Robert Aisi, Permanent Representative of Nauru to the U.N. Marlene Moses, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development Durwood Zaelkeand, and moderator Ernie Bower of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Photo: Larry Luxner

New Zealand’s Kahurangi professional Maori dancers as well as dance groups from Samoa, Fiji and Hawaii performed at Pacific Day, an annual gathering of officials from a dozen Pacific jurisdictions large and small that dates back to the early 1990s.

Photo: Larry Luxner

Clelia Berindoague, owner of Café Citrón, left, and Nadia Hashem, assistant to the ambassador of Yemen, attend the Pacific Day reception at the Embassy of New Zealand.

Asia Society Awards

Zambian Farewell

Photo: jan du plain

From left, Ambassador of Cape Verde Maria de Fatima Lima da Veiga, outgoing Ambassador of Senegal Fatou Danielle Diagne, outgoing Ambassador of Zambia Sheila Siwela, Ambassador of Tanzania Mwanaidi Sinare Maajar, and Ambassador of Botswana Tebelelo Seretse attend a private farewell dinner for Ambassador Siwela hosted by Ambassador Seretse.

August 2012

Photo: larry luxner

From left, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs Kurt Campbell, departing Ambassador of Singapore Chan Heng Chee, and Asia Society President Vishakha Desai attend the Asia Society’s annual dinner, which honored Chan with the group’s Diplomatic Achievement Award.

Photo: asia society

From left, Claudine B. Malone, Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai, Thomas R. Pickering, Henrietta Fore, Ambassador of Singapore Chan Heng Chee, Michèle A. Flournoy, Frank G. Wisner, John D. Negroponte, and Nicholas Platt attend the Asia Society’s 2012 Washington Awards Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

The Washington Diplomat Page 43

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

Friendly Game of Golf

August 2012 Left, Korean Ambassador Y.J. Choi plays in the inaugural Friendly Golf Tournament held at the Army Navy Club in Fairfax, Va.

photos: embassy of kazakhstan

From left, Ambassador of the European Union João Vale de Almeida, Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov, and Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington Jason Yuan attend the first annual Friendly Golf Tournament held at the Army Navy Club and organized by the Embassy of Kazakhstan.

From left, CEO of Vox Frontera Greg Schmidt, former Congressman and lobbyist Marty Russo, cardiologist Dr. Robert Marshall, Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov, President of Bond Associates James Bond, Washington Diplomat Publisher Victor Shiblie, and George Zaidan of the Huffington Post represented Team USA in the Friendly Golf Tournament.

Kyl Roundtable

From left, Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to U.N. Robert Guba Aisi, British Ambassador to the U.N. Sir Mark Lyall Grant, Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov, Ambassador of Finland to the U.N. Jarmo Viinanen, and Ambassador of Palau to the U.N. Stuart Beck represented the United Nations team at the inaugural Friendly Golf Tournament.

Coach Kathy Kemper, center, honors Louise Åkerblom, wife of the Luxembourg ambassador, left, and Dr. Rosa Batoreu of the Embassy of Portugal, the two finalists in the Louise International Tennis Cup.

From left, Christopher Caine of Mercator XXI, Christine Sager and Ambassador of Switzerland Manual Sager attend a public policy roundtable hosted by the Institute for Education.

From left, Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), and President and CEO of the American Gaming Association Frank Fahrenkopf attend an Institute for Education INFO Public Policy Roundtable in the L.B.J. room of the U.S. Capitol featuring Kyl, the Senate minority whip.

From left, former CIA Director Gen. Michael V. Hayden, Brent McIntosh, former Republican National Committee Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf, and Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen attend a discussion at the U.S. Capitol featuring Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).

From left, Tom Patton and Julia Patton join Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukuu-Ronde at a public policy roundtable featuring Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). photos: institute for education

Education Exchange

Ghana VP at Press Club

Photo: jan du plain

From left, journalist and author Eleanor Herman moderates a National Press Club Book and Author evening with special guest John Dramani Mahama, vice president of Ghana and author of “My First Coup D’Etat and Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa,” and his son Shafik Mahama.

Bulgarian Ties

From left, Kuwaiti Embassy Cultural Attaché Shafiqah Al-Awadhi, Ambassador of Kuwait Shaikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti Embassy Cultural Counselor/Director Abdulazeez Al-Omar, Noida Ashton, and Parichehr Navai were among the representatives of Cultural Missions of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at an open house hosted by the Kuwaiti Cultural Office to connect embassy cultural divisions, which have students studying in the U.S., with officials from the State Department and U.S. higher education system.

photo: James P. Adams

From left, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman, Ambassador of Bulgaria Elena Poptodorova, and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle attend a reception at the Bulgarian Residence marking the 109th anniversary of U.S.-Bulgarian diplomatic relations. photo: embassy of kuwait

Refugees International

From left, actor Matt Dillon, Lauren Bush Lauren, cofounder of the FEED Foundation, and her husband David Lauren attend the Refugees International’s 33rd Anniversary Dinner, where Bush Lauren was honored with the McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award for her role in fighting world hunger.

Page 44

Photos: refugees international

From left, Ambassador of Azerbaijan Elin Suleymanov, Shamim Jawad, Lala Abdurahimova, and former Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad attend the anniversary dinner for Refugees International, which advocates for the 43.7 million refugees and internally displaced people as well as the 12 million stateless people around the world.

From left, wife of the Mexican ambassador Veronica Valencia-Sarukhan, Shamim Jawad, and Mariella Trager attend the Refugees International’s 33rd Anniversary Dinner.

The Washington Diplomat

August 2012

Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki and his wife Yoriko deliver remarks at the Refugees International’s 33rd Anniversary Dinner held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.

AROUNDTHEWORLD

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

august 2012

HOLIDAYS BANglAdESh aug. 19: eid-al Fitr

AlBANiA aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

BArBAdoS aug. 1: emancipation Day aug. 1: Kadooment Day

AlgEriA aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

BElgiUM aug. 15: assumption

ANdorrA aug. 15: assumption

BENiN aug. 1: national Day aug. 15: assumption aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

AUStriA aug. 15: assumption AZErBAiJAN aug. 19: ramazan Bayramy BAhAMAS aug. 1: emancipation Day BAhrAiN aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

BoliviA aug. 6: independence Day BrUNEi aug. 19: eid al-Fitr BUrKiNA fASo aug. 5: independence Day aug. 15: assumption

COMING & GOING Summer is a time of change, and turnover, in the diplomatic community. So before we welcome a new crop of envoys to town, we bid a fond farewell to the some of the ambassadors who will be leaving us: Bosnia and herzegovina: Ambassador Mitar Kujundzic In Washington since February 2009 Colombia: Ambassador Gabriel Silva In Washington since October 2010 Egypt: Ambassador Sameh Shoukry In Washington since September 2008 honduras: Ambassador Jorge Ramon Hernandez-Alcerro In Washington since June 2010 Jamaica: Ambassador Audrey Patrice Marks In Washington since May 2010 Kurdistan regional government: Representative Qubad Talabani In Washington since October 2006 latvia: Ambassador Andrejs Pildegovics In Washington since July 2007 luxembourg: Ambassador Jean-Paul Senninger In Washington since August 2008 Netherlands: Ambassador Renée Jones-Bos In Washington since August 2008 Senegal: Ambassador Fatou Danielle Diagne In Washington since March 2010 Singapore: Ambassador Chan Heng Chee Appointed to Washington in July 1996; also see cover profile in the July 2012 issue of The Washington Diplomat Uruguay: Ambassador Carlos Gianelli Derois In Washington since July 2005

August 2012

aug. 19: eid al-Fitr BUrUNdi aug. 15: assumption CAMErooN aug. 15: assumption CApE vErdE aug. 15: assumption

grEECE aug. 15: assumption

MAdAgASCAr aug. 15: assumption

grENAdA aug. 1: emancipation Day

MAlAWi aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

ChAd aug. 11: independence Day aug. 19: aïd-el Fitr

gUAtEMAlA aug. 15: assumption

MAlAySiA aug. 19: hari raya Puasa aug. 31: national Day

ColoMBiA aug. 7: Battle of Boyacá aug. 15: assumption CoNgo, rEpUBliC of aug. 15: independence Day CoStA riCA aug. 15: assumption/Mother’s Day CÔtE d’ivoirE aug. 7: national Day aug. 14: laïlatoul-Kadr aug. 15: assumption aug. 19: aïd-el Fitr CroAtiA aug. 5: victory and homeland thanksgiving Day aug. 15: assumption

togo aug. 15: assumption

hAiti aug. 15: assumption

MAUritANiA aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

hUNgAry aug. 20: national holiday

St. KittS and NEviS aug. 6: august Monday

MoldovA aug. 27: independence Day aug. 31: national language Day

St. lUCiA aug. 1: emancipation Day

triNidAd and toBAgo aug. 1: emancipation Day aug. 19: eid-ul-Fitr aug. 31: independence Day

iCElANd aug. 6: commerce Day

iNdoNESiA aug. 17: independence Day sept. 19: idul Fitri

MoroCCo aug. 14: commemoration of oued eddahab (reunification Day) aug. 19: eid al-Fitr aug. 20: revolution of the King and the People aug. 21: King’s Birthday

irAN aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

NAMiBiA aug. 26: heroes’ Day

irAQ aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

NigEr aug. 3: independence Day aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

iNdiA aug. 15: independence Day aug. 19: idu’l Fitr

doMiNiCAN rEpUBliC aug. 16: restoration Day

JAMAiCA aug. 1: emancipation Day aug. 6: independence Day JordAN aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

ECUAdor aug. 10: independence Day

KAZAKhStAN aug. 30: constitution Day

Egypt aug. 19: eid el Fitr

KENyA aug. 19: idd-ul-Fitr

EQUAtoriAl gUiNEA aug. 3: armed Forces Day aug. 15: constitution Day

KUWAit aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

gABoN aug. 15: assumption aug. 17: national Day gAMBiA aug. 15: assumption aug. 19: eid-al-Fitr gEorgiA aug. 28: assumption (Mariamoba) ghANA aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

tANZANiA aug. 8: Farmers’ Day (nane nane)

rWANdA aug. 15: assumption

itAly aug. 15: assumption

frANCE aug. 15: assumption

portUgAl aug. 15: assumption

tAJiKiStAN aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

MAltA aug. 15: assumption

gUyANA aug. 4: Freedom Day

dJiBoUti aug. 19: eid el Fitr

EStoNiA aug. 20: Day of restoration of independence

polANd aug. 15: the ascension of st.

Mary

thAilANd aug. 12: hM the Queen’s Birthday

irElANd aug. 6: Bank holiday

EritrEA aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

SyriA aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

QAtAr aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

CyprUS: aug. 15: assumption

EASt tiMor aug. 15: assumption aug. 30: constitution Day

SWitZErlANd aug. 1: national Day aug. 15: assumption

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

CENtrAl AfriCAN rEpUBliC aug. 13: Proclamation of independence aug. 15: assumption

ChilE aug. 15: assumption

SUdAN aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

Send Us Your Holidays and Appointments

KyrgyZStAN aug. 31: independence Day lEBANoN aug. 15: assumption aug. 19: eid al-Fitr liBEriA aug. 24: national Flag Day liByA aug. 19: eid al-Fitr liEChtENStEiN aug. 15: national holiday (assumption) lithUANiA aug. 15: assumption (Zoline) lUXEMBoUrg aug. 15: assumption MACEdoNiA aug. 2: national Day (ilinden)

NigEriA aug. 19: id-el-Fitri

St. viNCENt and thE grENAdiNES aug. 6: august Monday SAUdi ArABiA aug. 19: eid al-Fitr SENEgAl aug. 15: assumption SEyChEllES aug. 15: assumption SENEgAl aug. 19: eid al-Fitr SiNgAporE aug. 9: national Day aug. 19: hari raya Puasa

oMAN aug. 19: eid al-Fitr

SlovAKiA aug. 29: slovak national uprising Day

pAKiStAN aug. 14: independence Day aug. 19: eid-ul-Fitr

SlovENiA aug. 15: assumption

pANAMA aug. 15: the Founding of Panama city pArAgUAy aug. 15: Founding of asunción

SoUth AfriCA aug. 9: national Women’s Day SoUth KorEA aug. 15: liberation Day

pErU aug. 30: st. rosa of lima

SpAiN aug. 15: ascension of the virgin

philippiNES aug. 19: eid ul Fitre

Sri lANKA aug. 19: id-ul-Fitr

tUNiSiA aug. 13: Women’s Day aug. 19: aïd el Fitr tUrKEy aug. 19: seker Bayram aug. 30: victory Day tUrKMENiStAN aug. 19: ramadan Bairam UgANdA aug. 19: eid al-Fitr UKrAiNE aug. 24: independence Day UNitEd ArAB EMirAtES aug. 19: eid al-Fitr UNitEd KiNgdoM aug. 27: summer Bank holiday UrUgUAy aug. 25: independence Day UZBEKiStAN aug. 19: eid al-Fitr vENEZUElA aug. 15: assumption yEMEN aug. 19: eid al-Fitr ZAMBiA aug. 4: Farmers’ Day ZiMBABWE aug. 11: heroes’ Day aug. 12: Defense Forces’ national Day

08581

4 DATA 9

OUR

AfghANiStAN aug. 19: eid al-Fitr aug. 19: independence Day

SPEAKS VOLUMES

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461

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Exposé A: it’s vindictive prosecution. the state Department links to dozens of Foreign service blogs and those people aren’t getting clearance on everything they post — they can’t. But those blogs are about how the food in venezuela is great or we love the secretary. the idea — we’re going to pick on you because we don’t like what you’re writing — that scrapes up against the First amendment. if the state Department wants to police my blog, they have to police all of them.

Q: And if you sought clearance for everything you

wrote on a blog, how long would it take to get it?

A: you can’t possibly blog on a 45-day lead, which is how long it takes to get something cleared. it’s prior restraint because it would shut down your blog.

Q: But surely you can understand that if lots of

FSOs decided to write critical books like yours

Page 46

The Washington Diplomat

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Q: What do you plan to do now?

A: the plan is to retire in september. i won’t get

Q: Do you have regrets?

A: i can understand that argument. But this is part of living in a free society. as Donald rumsfeld said, “Democracy is messy.” the state Department promotes the rights of people to speak back to their governments. the arab spring — we want people in syria to shout back at their government, but we won’t let our own employees do that.

security clearance back, so my goal is to stumble to the finish line one way or the other. i have no security clearance, no building pass, i have no job, and i’m just an additional person in human resources. But i still get paid.

Q: Is it your position that State’s position on your case is unconstitutional?

A: state’s actions add up to retribution for what i’ve written. there is no due process in suspending a security clearance. [Diplomatic security] has no

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internal affairs division. Personally nothing good has come out of this for me. i’ve essentially lost my job, i’ve been harassed, i’ve had people be very unpleasant to me. My wife and daughter love me so my needs are covered, but it’s still very unpleasant. i didn’t make any money off the book, so there’s been no financial gain for me. But it’s important to have this story out there. i got to tell the Prt story and that’s one of the things the state Department’s not happy about.

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Q: not really, my career was essentially over. i’m

leaving something else behind and i’m not done yet. i told the Prt story to the world. i left something so my family knows what i did in iraq and i sent a message for my kids that some things in life are worth standing up and getting kicked in the ass for, and the state Department may yet have to change the way it looks at the writing of its employees — that part is still yet to be written. one of the problems with the Foreign service is we’ve never recovered from the Mccarthy era. We

real Estate ads: 25 words with a photo are $40, without photo $20. each additional word is 35¢. policies: tear sheets are not sent for classified ads. if you would like a copy of the paper mailed to you, please add $2.00 to your payment. deadline: the deadline for ads is the 15th of each month at the close of business.

gave up being an aggressive advocate in the foreign affairs arena during those years and we’ve never come back. it’s all about going along and play along and it rewards people who do. a lot of things the military does have finite, measurable results. With state, the goals are amorphous — to secure friendly relations, to empower women, etc. — it’s stuff that isn’t measurable, and so it’s easy to just kind of float around. the people who get promoted don’t have opinions; they’re the people who just do whatever they’re told. i don’t think that’s good for america.

Q: What do you plan to do after you retire?

A: i don’t know what i’m going to do in my retirement, but i do know that i’m not going to be that guy. i’m not going to make a career out of bitching about the state Department. i might be ringing you up at Whole Foods. i don’t want to be a professional pain in the ass who writes weird letters to the editor.

Dave Seminara is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and a former diplomat based in Northern Virginia.

August 2012

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DIPLOMAT REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS — Place your real estate classifed today in The Washington

If the ad is correct sign and fax to: (301) 949-0065 needs Diplomat by calling (301)changes 933-3552.

The Washington SELL - BUYDiplomat - RENT:

Bethesda, MD — Sensational contemporary residence with dramatic open floor plan and swimming pool, ideal for diplomatic receptions. Includes a floor with four completely equipped office work stations.

Gorgeous swimming pool in park like setting halfway between downtown Bethesda and Potomac village.

Call Alden Byrholdt, Washington Fine Properties.com (202) 255-6793.

Your customers will see this ad too! Put yours here.

Washington D.C. NW —

Please call Guy d’Amecourt for consultation. check this ad (202) 415-7800 Please or (202) 682-6261

FOR SALE

(301) 933-3552 301-933-3552 Bethesda, MD — Elegant, furnished 4+ BRs,

Approved __________________________________________________________ 3.5 BAs home, fireplace, FOR ___________________________________________________________ SALE OR RENT large pool, finished baseChanges ment with bar/kitchen. ___________________________________________________________________ Excellent Walt Whitman EMBASSY ROW —

Elegant Chancery style mansion in close proximity to Embassy Row. Adjacent to the DuPont Circle Metro Station. Parking. Lease/Sale. LPC Commercial Services Inc. (202) 491-5300.

school district. Walk to downtown Bethesda. Ideal for entertaining, off-street parking. Available September 2012 to June 2013. Move-in/out dates flexible. $5,000 per month. Call (202) 841-0583 or email jdhollinger@gmail.com.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA INVESTMENT PROPERTY Large Home with In the warm we Pool — $175,000

3604 Prospect St., NW Washington, DC 20007 Price: $2,475,000 Prospect Street...Timeless historic home on deep and wide lot with gorgeous Potomac river view with potential for rear addition and rooftop terrace.

Misook Lee Cell: 301-204-7149 Office: Bethesda Avenue, Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Office: 240-497-1700

LAND/LOTS MASSACHUSETTS AVE. HEIGHTS — Estate Land Assemblage. Unique Diplomatic Church School Compound-Style Property. Can build.

Approximately 30,000 sq. ft. with parking.

Metro 2 blocks. LPC (202) 513-6708.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Residential, Commercial Sales, Upper-End Rentals — Since 1975 - Reliable, knowledgeable, professional, prompt service — Kalorama, Georgetown, Capitol Hill, Mass. Avenue, Wesley Heights, etc.

Patricia Henryk, Broker- Pat Henryk Real Estate (202) 362-7155 or (202) 528-1042. email: pathenryk@verizon.net

– SOLD IN 2 DAYS – for $1.7 million

at this stucco ho her of Arizona, me ha pool and man s a private y upgrades.

More than 3,00 0 of luxury living. square feet 3 2.5 baths and bedrooms, 2-car garage.

FOR YOUR INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY IN PHOENIX, CALL SAMIR. .5 baths edrooms, 2 stove, b 3 g, in in Formal d munity. Microwave, m in a new co and dryer included. washer

$124,000 > Almost Neehward—ly lived in, nice twOoA

Prominent Fairfax attorney, Steven Bancroft and his wife Barbara, sold their home on 2604 Hannah Farm Court in Oakton for $1.7 million. The

Newer hom maintenance and H rd story, low ya care of front yard. takes

house sold in two days. Steven is the President/Senior Partner of Bancroft, McGavin, Horvath & Judkins, PC, a civil litigation firm in Fairfax, Virginia.

House was listed by Lilian Jorgenson of the McLean Long and Foster Sales Office.

SAMIR RAFEEDIE, President CEO 15256 N. 75th Ave. 300, Peoria, AZ 85381 samir.rahomes.com • (623) 815-1900 http: www.realtyambassadors.com

August 2012

REALTOR

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

703-407-0766 – www.Lilian.com

The Washington Diplomat Page 47

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The Washington Diplomat

August 2012