February 2014

A World of News and Perspective

■ INSIDE: MEDICAL

SPECIAL SECTION

MEDICAL ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ VOLUME 21, NUMBER 2

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

■ February 2014

■ FEBRUARY 2014 The Attention Deficit Disorder That Often Goes Unnoticed

Politics

Group of Iranian Exiles Punches Above Its Weight in Washington In Washington, there are few issues that unite Republicans and Democrats. Yet the story of how an exiled Iranian dissident group secured bipartisan support from a host of heavyweight insiders and fought its way off the State Department’s terrorist list illustrates how power is wielded in Washington. PAGE 6

Diplomacy

Hiring Slowdown Leaves Hopeful Diplomats in Limbo Many erstwhile U.S. diplomats are currently stuck in employment limbo, having passed the necessary tests needed to join the Foreign Service but also facing a State Department that isn’t hiring nearly as aggressively as in years past. PAGE 8

culture

by Gina Shaw

My oldest daughter, now 8,

walked early, talked early, and read her first words when she was 4. she’s a bright and verbal little girl, but as she went from kindergarten into first grade, it became obvious that she was struggling with her

SOCHI 2014

schoolwork.

Continued on next page

Continued on next page February 2014

Russia’s Olympic Gamble

For most people, art is creation, but an unorthodox exhibition at the Hirshhorn presents art as exactly the opposite. PAGE 30

The Washington Diplomat

Page 23

In an exclusive interview, Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak slams Western media for missing the mark on the Olympics, focusing on gay rights, security threats and corruption while ignoring Moscow’s achievements in staging the Sochi Games.

But the real story is yet to come, as the world watches to see if Russia can pull off its Olympic dreams without a hitch. PAGE 13

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Diplomatic Spouses

Sanctions Expert: Give Iran Deal Time

Diplomacy Offers World of Adventure

Robert Einhorn, who was instrumental in crafting the sanctions credited with bringing Iran to the nuclear negotiating table, says the sanctions did their job — now give diplomacy a chance to do its job. PAGE 4

Destruction Is Creative In ‘Damage Control’

MEDICAL

Diplomatic life’s been an adventure for Marliese Heimann-Ammon, wife of German Ambassador Peter Ammon, who’s experienced U.S. culture while showing Ameri­ cans a new side of Germany. PAGE 31

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Page 2

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

February 2014

New tax rules

[ news ] 4

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People of World Influence The man who helped craft the sanctions widely credited with bringing Iran to the nuclear negotiating table is urging U.S. policymakers to give those talks a chance to succeed.

MEK Power With its shadowy past, shifting ideologies and deep pockets, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) has evolved from killing Americans to courting them.

ADHD in girls

Synetic Theater’s “Twelfth Night”

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Digital Diplomats

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No Man’s Land

Social media gives diplomats direct access to the public, but the digital realm is full of dos and don’ts — and those who solely use it to push out their message quickly find their accounts unheeded by the very people they’re trying to reach.

FATCA Fat Cats New IRS rules are going after Americans abroad who evade their taxes, but critics complain that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, will be a bureaucratic nightmare.

Cover Profile: RUSSIA Russia’s Olympic bid has been overshadowed by security threats and allegations of corruption, but Ambassador Sergey Kislyak is confident the Games will go off without a hitch.

[ culture ]

COVER: Taken at the Russian Residence by Lawrence Ruggeri of Ruggeriphoto.com.

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Risky ‘Night’

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awareness about heart disease, which kills more women than all forms of cancer combined.

The Rotunda Over four decades, Max Baucus has carved out a reputation in Congress as a dealmaker — skills that will be put to the test as the Montana senator heads to Beijing to serve as America’s ambassador in China.

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[ medical ] 26 heart disease

February is a time for men and women to wear red to raise

Turkey, Sans Tourists

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is often associated with boys, but a certain type of ADHD is more prevalent — and can be more destructive — in girls.

Creative ‘Damage’ “Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950” at the Hirshhorn Museum surveys the remnants of destruction and reminds us of its importance in the world of contemporary art.

Diplomatic spouses From fashion to art, Marliese Heimann-Ammon, wife of German Ambassador Peter Ammon, tries to show Americans an unexpected side of Germany, while also absorbing U.S. culture.

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23 ADHD in Girls

Ahmet Erdengiz may very well be the Rodney Dangerfield of D.C.-based foreign diplomats: He don’t get no respect — as representative of his self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Wannabe Diplomats Budget cuts and a hiring glut have left many hopeful U.S. diplomats waiting to find out if they made the cut to join the Foreign Service.

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Ara Güler, known as the “eye of Istanbul,” also had an eye for the historical treasures that dot Turkey’s Asian mainland — far beyond the country’s usual tourist attractions.

With its production of “Twelfth Night,” which marks Synetic’s 10th “silent Shakespeare” adaptation, the innovative theater company takes a well-calculated and clever risk.

dining DC Noodles has reinvented itself again, expanding on its Thai roots to a more pan-Asian approach based almost exclusively on the remarkable versatility of a humble carbohydrate.

Film Reviews “The Square” immerses viewers in the world of Egypt’s revolution by taking the camera to the streets and behind the scenes, capturing intimate moments behind sweeping actions that will go down in history.

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Cinema LISTING

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Events LISTING

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DIPLOMATIC spotlight

45 Appointments / WORLD HOLIDAYS 46

CLASSIFIEDS

47 Real Estate CLASSIFIEDS

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February 2014

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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Robert Einhorn

Give Iran Deal a Chance, Says Man Who Helped Orchestrate Sanctions

by Michael Coleman

L

ast November, hundreds of cheering supporters greeted Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Tehran airport when he returned from Geneva after negotiating a deal to ease economic sanctions against his country.

To most of the world, it seemed the jubilant Iranians were celebrating the deal itself. But Robert Einhorn, a former State Department official who helped craft the sanctions, sensed that their elation was about something even bigger.

“They were cheering because they saw pictures of their foreign minister shaking hands with the American secretary of state and they thought that this was the beginning of the end of their isolation — the beginning of the restoration of their respectability in the world,” Einhorn told The Diplomat during an interview in his office at the Brookings Institution, where he is now a senior fellow in the think tank’s Foreign Policy Program. “They want to be world citizens; they don’t want to be outlaws. The desire to end this isolation, together with the international sanctions, is what really motivated them.”

Einhorn would know. Before arriving at Brookings in May 2013, Einhorn served four years as special adviser on nonproliferation and arms control to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with an emphasis on policy toward Iran and North Korea. He played a leading role in the formulation and execution of international sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program — the very sanctions that are widely credited with bringing Tehran to the negotiating table to cinch a landmark six-month deal to try to resolve Western concerns over the country’s nuclear ambitions.

“That meant traveling to a lot of key countries — China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey and so forth — to build what became a very effective coalition to implement sanctions against Iran,” he recalled.

Einhorn has also helped shape the Obama administration’s overall approach to nonproliferation, working diplomatic contacts with China, Russia and elsewhere, and addressed nuclear security and stability challenges in South Asia. His portfolio at the State Department was so expansive that after his departure, his position was dissolved and split up among several highranking diplomats.

Between 2001 and 2009, Einhorn was a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he directed the Proliferation Prevention Program.

Before coming to CSIS, Einhorn was assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation,

Page 4

deputy assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, and a member of the State Department Policy Planning Staff.

From 1972 and 1986, he held various positions at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and served as representative to the strategic arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union.

“Early on, I was involved in kind of classical arms control issues, but at the end of the 1980s, with [former Soviet Premier Mikhail] Gorbachev and the end of the Soviet Union, it became clear to me that arms control was going to assume relatively less importance in our national security and nonproliferation and nuclear security was going to be more important,” Einhorn explained.

The career global arms expert said the Iranian deal reached in late November is an important first step in convincing the regime to abandon any plans it might have to become a nuclear weapons state. The agreement halts and rolls back portions of Iran’s nuclear program for six months in return for modest sanctions relief to allow the so-called P5+1 countries — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and

“

What it does is freeze in place Iran’s nuclear program — it halts further advances in that program in all significant respects…. By doing that it buys us time and space to negotiate a comprehensive deal.

— Robert Einhorn

”

former special advisor for nonproliferation and arms control at the State Department

Germany — to negotiate a long-term agreement by July 20.

Specifically, Iran has agreed to halt enrichment of uranium above 5 percent purity and dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium approaching 20 percent purity, which is considered close to weaponsgrade fuel; it can continue to enrich to a low level of 3.5 percent. Iran can also keep its existing centrifuges but agreed not to install any new centrifuges, start up any that were not already operating, or build new enrichment facilities. It will also allow regular inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency

(IAEA).

In return, the world powers agreed to suspend certain sanctions on trade in gold and precious metals, Iran’s automotive sector and its petrochemical exports. Total sanctions relief is estimated at between $6 billion and $7 billion — $4.2 billion of which is Iranian oil revenue frozen in foreign banks that will be released in installments throughout the six months if Iran abides by terms of the accord.

Einhorn stressed that the major sanctions against Iran — oil and banking restrictions that have devastated its economy — remain firmly in place.

“What we’re getting in the interim deal is essentially a freeze in their program and the Iranians get some sanctions relief, but in reality it’s very modest sanctions relief,” Einhorn said. “All crucial sanctions will remain in place. The sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy are the banking and oil sanctions. Those will remain in place.”

That hasn’t appeased congressional critics who contend the deal was premature and lets Iran off the hook, just when the seven-year sanctions regime was beginning to have its desired effect of choking Iran’s economy and forcing its government to make dramatic concessions.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told CNN that “we had the chance to deliver a body blow” and didn’t take the shot. “The sanctions actually worked but this interim deal gives the Iranians $7 billion in cash and leaves in place one of the most sophisticated enrichment programs around,” Graham said.

Both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have banded together to support a bill, spearheaded by Sen. Robert Menendez

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

(D-N.J), that would slap a full slate of sanctions on Iran if the current talks fail. “Should Iran breach this [existing six-month] agreement or fail to negotiate in good faith, the penalties it would face are severe,” Menendez wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in January.

President Obama has vowed to veto the bill, saying it would torpedo the first real diplomatic opening to reverse Iran’s nuclear advancement and characterizing it as a march toward war (hardliners in Iran have said they would boost enrichment to 60 percent if the bill passes).

Einhorn says the Menendez bill could unravel years of work in getting Iran to agree to any concessions.

“What’s at stake is undermining the best opportunity we have to stop Iran’s nuclear program,” he said. “Supporters of this bill should ask themselves what happens if inadvertently their efforts result in the scuttling of these negotiations. In that case, what options do they have for resolving this issue? I’m sure most of the sponsors of this bill are well meaning. They wish to give the administration additional leverage. But I think most of them are mistaken.”

Einhorn says the current deal, while not perfect, is far better than the alternatives of regime change or military strikes. He concedes that it does not dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure or significantly lengthen Iran’s nuclear breakout timeline. But he argues that those are goals that must be achieved in a comprehensive final agreement.

“I think essentially what we’re getting is a very promising first step toward a deal,” he told us. “This imminent agreement is not meant to be seen as a self-contained deal. It’s a stepping stone, a down payment if you will, to a final deal.You can’t really draw any conclusions from this interim agreement.

“What it does is freeze in place Iran’s nuclear program — it halts further advances in that program in all significant respects,” Einhorn continued. “By doing that it buys us time and space to negotiate a comprehensive deal. One of the concerns a lot of people have had is that the U.S. would be negotiating a final deal while Iran was making progress on its program. The fear was that Iran would string us along, make progress on their program, and we’d never come to an agreement — that essentially they would use the time to advance their program under the cover of negotia-

tions. The administration thought it was critical to halt their program right where it was during the negotiations of a final deal. I think they’ve done that very well.”

In fact, Einhorn said he was surprised by just how much the administration was able to extract from Tehran.

“The first-step deal convincingly and comprehensively closes the door to progress in Iran’s nuclear program during the sixmonth period…. stopping production of near-20 percent enriched uranium, banning the operation or further installation of advanced centrifuges, and preventing the fueling and operation of the Arak reactor. But it goes well beyond that,” he wrote in a Brookings blog posting, delving into the finer points of the agreement.

Among other things, it subjects Iran to daily monitoring that goes far beyond Iran’s current safeguards with the IAEA in return for a modest easing of sanctions.That relief represents a small fraction of the toll ongoing sanctions will cost Iran’s economy — $30 billion in lost oil revenue over the next six months alone, Einhorn said.“Also unexpected was the requirement to eliminate altogether the stocks of near-20 percent enriched uranium in the gaseous form most readily transformed into weapons-grade uranium,” he added. “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s famous redline required Iran to stay below 250 kilograms of near-20 percent enriched uranium in the form that could be boosted rapidly to weapons-grade.The deal will drop Iran to zero…. Few if any stones were left unturned in preventing Iran from advancing its program while negotiations are under way on a final deal.”

Einhorn, unassuming and easygoing in his Diplomat interview, has a reputation as a pit bull in nonproliferation negotiations.When representatives of South Korea, a favored U.S. ally, came to Washington to discuss extending the country’s bilateral civil nuclear agreement last year, talks broke down and the South Koreans pointed the finger at Einhorn. The Koreans wanted to enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel rods, but because of an international ban on such enrichment (because the same technologies can be used to make nuclear weapons), Seoul was forced to import raw uranium and then send it to a foreign firm for processing into usable nuclear fuel. Einhorn and the American negotiators were unmoved by South Korea’s protests about costs and inconvenience, leading the country’s national newspaper,The Chosun Ilbo, to label Einhorn as “the non-proliferations Taliban.”

Einhorn chuckled softly when reminded of the insult, and recalled a similar reaction from an Indian journalist who covered his dealings with that South Asian nuclear-armed nation.

“A well-known Indian journalist named Raja Mohan would describe me as Ayatollah Einhorn,” he recalled. “He accused me of being a fundamentalist of nonproliferation, as a kind of unyielding zealot. It wasn’t accurate, but it indicates how I was often perceived.

“When I went to China with [former Secretaries of State] Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher, I would be the spear on nonproliferation issues,” Einhorn said. “If I look at what I’ve done in nonproliferation, it really has been dealing with the hardest problems.”

The longtime arms expert said working with rogue states that aren’t superpowers is different than the days of the U.S.-Soviet Unions arms race.

“Dealing with these hard cases is very different than dealing with the Soviet Union on arms control,” Einhorn said.“Both we and the Soviets had lots of nuclear weapons, and it was in our mutual interest to reduce them in a balanced way to create greater stability on both sides. But with North Korea, for example, it’s a totally asymmetrical negotiation. We’re asking them to stop doing things they don’t want to do.

“Nonproliferation, almost by definition, with the word ‘non,’ you’re trying to persuade countries not to do what they’ve decided is in there own national interest,” he added. “Whether they have correctly calculated what is in their interest is another story. They believe that pursuing these is in their national interests. It’s a hard job.”

One of the most strenuous — and obvious — objections Einhorn and other U.S. nonproliferation experts hear from states with nuclear weapons ambitions is that the United States is the only country to have ever actually used nukes in warfare.

“Lots of countries have detonated nuclear weapons, but we’re the only ones who have used one in war,” Einhorn conceded, referring to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of World War II. So how does Einhorn justify America’s insistence that other

See Einhorn, page 12

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International Affairs

Middle East

Small Band of Iranian Exiles Gets Lots of Attention in U.S.

by Dave Seminara

I

n Washington, there are very few issues that unite Republicans and Democrats. One is support for Israel and condemnation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Yet the story of how an exiled Iranian dissident group secured bipartisan support from a host of heavyweight Washington insiders and fought its way off of the State Department’s list of designated terrorist organizations illustrates how power is wielded in Washington, and how former officials continue to influence American foreign policy.

The Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and People’s Holy Warriors, inspires fierce passion among its followers, deep skepticism among its critics, and more than its fair share of conspiracy theories. With its shadowy past, shifting ideologies and deep pockets, the MEK has been called “the most powerful lobby you’ve never heard of.”It has evolved from killing Americans to courting them — and supporting the Iranian Revolution to becoming its sworn enemy.

Violent History The MEK was one of two Marxist guerrilla student groups formed in the 1960s to topple Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran.

“They played an important role in bringing down the Shah,” said John Ghazvinian, a historian who is working on a book about the history of U.S.-Iranian relations.

“But they fell out of favor and [Ayatollah] Khomeini condemned them as hypocrites.

He called them the ‘Hypocrites of the People’ and said you can’t be Marxists and Muslims at the same time.”

In the ’70s and ’80s, the group committed acts of terrorism against the Islamic theocracy, killing scores of Iranians, plus six Americans. In perhaps their most notorious attack, MEK operatives blew up the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party in 1981, killing more than 70 prominent Iranian politicians, including members of parliament, clerics and cabinet ministers.

Two months later, they killed the prime minister and newly elected president.

“That massive campaign of terrorism turned Iranian people completely against them,” said Ghazvinian.

During the Iran-Iraq War, the group was given refuge by Saddam Hussein, and it mounted attacks on Iran from within Iraqi territory and joined Hussein’s brutal crack-

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“

Photo: Larry Luxner

You had people who had made their names as terrorism fighters in the Bush administration offering to speak on behalf of the MEK, which was on the terrorist list at the time, for $10,000.

”

— Jeremiah Goulka, former analyst for Rand Corp. down on the Kurdish rebellion. The State Department placed the MEK on its list of designated terrorist groups in 1997 for a “swath of terror” that targeted Americans and killed thousands of Iranians. But the group, which in the last decade has renounced violence, was removed from the State Department’s terrorist list in September 2012 after an intense lobbying campaign involving dozens of prominent American officials, including former directors of the FBI and CIA, generals and prominent politicians, most of them recently retired.

Limbo at Liberty The U.S. military disarmed the MEK after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, reportedly securing their cooperation in exchange for a pledge to protect them at Camp Ashraf. The group provided intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program — some charge that the information was funneled to them by Israeli intelligence — and began to win allies in the Department of

Defense by sounding the right notes about democracy, women’s empowerment and freedom of speech.

Since control of Camp Ashraf was returned to Iraq in 2009, more than 100 MEK members have been killed, allegedly

by Iraqi security forces with ties to Iran.

MEK supporters believe that the Shiitedominated government in Baghdad is deliberately targeting their group, now about 3,200 strong and located in the former Camp Liberty near Baghdad, acting on orders from the Iranian regime, which still views them as traitors.

The bulk of MEK members moved to Liberty (also called Camp Hurriya) last year, reportedly as a condition for being taken off the State Department’s terrorist list. (From there, U.N. and State officials hope to resettle them in third countries.)

About 100 members remain at Camp Ashraf, where 52 people were killed in a Sept. 1 attack that the MEK blamed on Iraqi security forces (a separate rocket attack on Camp Liberty in late December

Iranian-American activists protest in Washington, D.C., in June 2009 demanding protection for members of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) in Camp Ashraf. The MEK says the Iraqi government periodically attacked the camp, where some 3,000 MEK members have since been moved to another camp near Baghdad after being taken off the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

reportedly killed three people). The circumstances of the Ashraf attack remain murky. Nevertheless, the deaths sparked outrage in various quarters of Washington.

Rep.Ted Poe (R-Texas) decried what he called a “massacre.” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded that Iraq do more to find the seven members who were allegedly taken hostage during the attack. Both suggested withholding U.S. weapons sales to Baghdad until it cooperates. Marc Ginsberg, former U.S. ambassador to Morocco under the Clinton administration, evoked the memory of John F. Kennedy and his advocacy for refugees to push President Obama to help the Iranian dissidents. Reporter James Morrison of the Washington Times’s Embassy Row column has written about the MEK no fewer than a dozen times last year alone.

Beltway Cause Célèbre The plight of these 3,000 stranded

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

Iranians has certainly taken up an inordinate amount of bandwidth in Washington, as strange bedfellows offer a full-throated defense of a group that has been described by critics and former members as a cult.

The MEK is part of an umbrella coalition known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based “parliament in exile” led for decades by Maryam Rajavi and her husband Massoud (Maryam is now the main figurehead).

Interestingly, feminism is part of the group’s ideology, and the MEK is “the only army in the world with a commander corps composed mostly of women,” according to Elizabeth Rubin, a former Council on Foreign Relations press fellow.

Critics though say the group is hardly a beacon of democracy and women’s rights. Defectors have accused it of being a totalitarian cult that forced its members to divorce and stay celibate (so they could focus on fighting Iran) and confess their sexual fantasies in public. The MEK counters that many former members are really Iranian agents out to tarnish them.

Despite its opacity and relative obscurity, analysts agree that the MEK has been able to punch above its weight in Washington. The bipartisan roster of prominent supporters includes: R. James Woolsey and Porter J. Goss, both former CIA directors; Louis J. Freeh, the former FBI director; President George W. Bush’s homeland security secretary,Tom Ridge, his attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, and his chief of staff, Andrew Card; former National Security Adviser Gen. James L. Jones; former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton; former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell; former House Speakers Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich; and former Vermont Governor and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean, among many others.

“You had people who had made their names as terrorism fighters in the Bush administration offering to speak on behalf of the MEK, which was on the terrorist list at the time, for $10,000,” said

Jeremiah Goulka, a writer and former analyst at the Rand Corp. who was the lead author of a lengthy 2009 report on the MEK. (The MEK took issue with the report, hiring a crisis communications firm to publish its own rebuttal. Goulka says he spent a year researching the report in the United States and in Iraq, along with its co-authors, and stands by it.)

Many on the MEK’s list of prominent supporters were indeed paid by the group to deliver speeches, sometimes reportedly charging up to $40,000 per speaking engagement. Rendell told the Washington Post that he was paid more than $150,000 in expenses. The MEK also recruited journalists as speakers. According to ProPublica, the group paid Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame $12,000 and Clarence Page, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, $20,000.

A number of the MEK’s high-profile supporters spoke on its behalf while it was still designated as a terrorist group, often through speaker agencies or third-party Iranian-American organizations.

According to news reports, the Treasury Department investigated Rendell’s receipt of money from the MEK but apparently declined to pursue the matter.

Glenn Greenwald, writing for Salon, pointed out that numerous Muslims inside the United States “have been prosecuted for providing ‘material support for terrorism’ for doing far less than these American politicians are publicly doing on behalf of a designated terrorist group.”

An Iran analyst who works for a major think tank in Washington, D.C., but didn’t want to speak for attribution because he feared a backlash from MEK supporters, said that the MEK’s well-funded lobbying campaign, which included full-page ads in prominent newspapers as well as high-powered advocacy, was what got them off the State Department’s list of terrorist groups.

“They are paying a lot of influential people big sums of money to come and speak at their events, and I think that’s had an impact,” he said.“They’re a marginal actor on the Iran issue, but they garner

support because they spend a lot of money.”

like it was by Saddam Hussein years ago.

Hired Guns?

‘American Honor’

How does a group of Iranian dissidents, most of them stranded in a refugee camp in Iraq, afford millions of dollars to advertise and pay big-name politicians to make speeches? A story in NBC News from February 2012, citing unnamed U.S. officials, asserted that the MEK was financed by Israeli intelligence, which also reportedly used MEK operatives to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists.The MEK issued a statement denying the allegations.

Ghazvinian thinks the MEK-Israel connection is credible.

“The Israelis have a long history of using the MEK as a sort of foil,” the historian said.“In 2002, when the allegations about Iran’s nuclear programs hit the headlines, they were presented to the world as having come from the MEK, but they probably came from Israel. The revelations were handed to the MEK because the Mossad didn’t want to be obvious. Better to present the information as coming from this ‘Iranian opposition group.’ It made it look to the world like it was Iranians blowing the whistle, but that was probably not what happened.”

Goulka said he wasn’t sure if the MEK would risk getting involved in covert activities like the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists because, at that time, the group was making a major push to get off the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

Despite being on that list, Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker, reported in 2012 that the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) trained MEK operatives at a secret site in Nevada beginning in 2005.A JSOC spokesperson denied the report.

Still, suspicions linger that the group hasn’t completely left its militancy days behind it and is being recruited as a proxy to fight Iran, much

The MEK declined numerous interview requests, but in an interview with The Diplomat, Howard Dean said that he wasn’t under any illusions about the MEK’s past — or the present-day humanitarian situation it finds itself in. Dean acknowledged being paid by the MEK to make speeches at their conferences over the years but declined to say how much he received, insisting that it was only his “normal speaking fee.” But he said that he would be a supporter of the MEK regardless of whether they paid him.

“That’s what really annoys me about journalists,” he said, referring to insinuations in the media that he was paid by the MEK in exchange for his support.“What they say is, because I gave a speech for the MEK, therefore my argument doesn’t mean anything…. I was never paid to speak on their behalf. I was paid to speak at their conferences and I say what I damn well please, which is what I always do.There’s a lot of snideness and assumptions. If you think we can all be bought by speaking fees, that’s your privilege.”

Dean alleged that many supposedly nonpartisan Iran analysts in the United States are actually on the Islamic Republic’s payroll, and he insisted that there was an “Arabist rump” at the State Department that was soft on Iran and unhelpful to the MEK. He also maintains that senior American military commanders convinced the MEK to disarm after the invasion of Iraq and promised them protection.

“Thirty-one hundred unarmed people get herded into what has turned into a prison camp — we talked them into that. We thought it was the best way to get them out of Iraq in one piece,” he told us.“Since then, the State Department has done very little to keep them safe. They are in danger every single day.They’re being abused every day.”

See MEK, page 9

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The Washington Diplomat Page 7

Diplomacy

Washington, D.C.

Hiring Slowdown at State Leaves Candidates in Limbo

by Martin Austermuhle

S

itting in a D.C. coffee shop in midNovember, Michael notes with a hint of irony that even though it took him three years to pass the written and oral components of the test that determines who becomes a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, he’s still not sure if — or when — he can expect to serve in a U.S. embassy abroad.

And he’s not alone. Many erstwhile U.S. diplomats are currently stuck in employment limbo, having passed the necessary tests needed to join the Foreign Service but also facing a department that isn’t hiring nearly as aggressively as in years past.

Much like the rest of the U.S. government, the State Department has been a victim of across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration. In 2013, the cuts amounted to $400 million, forcing the department to ratchet down on hiring, leaving candidates like Michael, who asked that his real name not be used, to languish on a register of Foreign Service candidates without any clear hint as to when they might move off the list.

According to figures posted on a State Department message board, the hiring decreases have been substantial: In the 2013 fiscal year that just ended, the State Department hired 291 Foreign Service generalists, down 47 percent from the year prior and 150 percent from 2010. Hiring among Foreign Service specialists — who focus on administrative, management and technical matters at embassies abroad — has also fallen, dropping from 502 in 2010 to 299 in 2013.

“Due to sequestration, the department has implemented a hiring slowdown, hiring one employee for every two that departs.This applies to Foreign Service, civil service and locally employed staff. A few special areas have been exempted primarily for the protection of life and property or where staffing is supported by fees charged for services,” explained the State Department through its press office.

In a February 2013 letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Secretary of State John Kerry warned about the impact of the cuts on American diplomacy, which seems to be making a comeback of sorts with the recent Iranian nuclear breakthrough.“Cuts of this magnitude would seriously impair our ability to execute our vital missions of national security, diplomacy and development,” he wrote.

That’s where Michael finds himself.After three prior attempts, in early 2013 he passed the written portion of the Foreign Service exam, and in September he surpassed the oral portion. (In between the written and oral exams, there’s also an essay, and if that doesn’t pass muster, candidates don’t move on to the oral.) With slowly building fluency in a critical language — which adds points to his final score — Michael felt confident that he could quickly make his way into a new class of diplomats-in-training.

That hope is currently on hold as he joins more than 600 other candidates on the register of applicants who have passed the Foreign Service exam but are waiting for a formal job offer from the State Department.

Page 8

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Photo: U.S. Department of State

Our core concern is about the people. The State Department is largely a function of the hiring of people serving overseas in the Foreign Service.

— Robert Silverman

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president of the American Foreign Service Association

The hiring freeze isn’t the only challenge he faces, though. The department hasn’t stopped advertising Foreign Service jobs or cut down on the number of annual tests, so even as current candidates may not move off of the register at all, new ones who take the test can be added to it — and, depending on their score, they could place ahead of people who have been patiently waiting for a job.

“You don’t know how many people are above you [on the register]. There are people in the queue, waiting to take their oral assessments.They could take their oral assessment tomorrow and get one point higher than me and, if they already have their clearances, they’ll go on the list the next day and they’ll beat me,” he said.

Michael also worries that his already slim chances are being threatened by Foreign Service assignments provided noncompetitively through initiatives like the Mustang Program, which allows civil servants or Foreign Service specialists to join the traditional diplomatic corps. Military veterans also automatically get a bump in their score, so classes tend to have a sizable military representation.

Despite diplomacy often taking a backseat to defense in terms of prestige, plenty of people want to

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holds a digital videoconference with American diplomats and military personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, last year. In the 2013 fiscal year that just ended, the State Department hired 291 Foreign Service generalists, down 47 percent from the year prior and 150 percent from 2010.

join the Foreign Service. According to the State Department, some 20,000 people take the Foreign Service exam every year. Despite the fierce competition for a coveted spot, the department hasn’t significantly raised the bar needed to pass the written and oral tests, creating a glut of “successful” candidates who may never get jobs in the present hiring climate.

The wait may feel like it’s lasting forever, but it won’t: Candidates who pass the Foreign Service exam can only spend 18 months on the register before having to start the process all over. Many, like Michael, do so even before their time is up, taking the test every year to ensure that they can extend their stay on the register. Still, it’s a gamble. Candidates can only choose one score, and if they fare poorly on a more recent test, they have to choose between a higher placement that might expire more quickly or a lower placement that would keep them on the register longer.

In the meantime, candidates face another dilemma: jeopardizing their current jobs in the hopes of securing a future one working in U.S. foreign policy. That’s because the hiring process requires intensive screening and background checks. Investigators have to interview a candidate’s current employer, so there’s no way to keep your boss in the dark about the fact that you hope to eventually leave your job. Other candidates come from all over the world to take the oral exam (at their own expense) and even when a “conditional offer of employment” is made, there is no guarantee that will translate into an actual job. On message boards, some successful candidates have complained of waiting years to get hired, including one nine-year odyssey.

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

In fact, even as State deals with budget cuts, it may be draining taxpayer money by continuing to administer the Foreign Service exam at the same pace as in years past.That’s because of the rigorous vetting process and extensive medical evaluation, which includes chest X-rays and full blood panels.Yet despite the backlog of approved candidates waiting in the wings, the State Department continues to offer the test three times a year, performing (and paying for) hundreds of medical checks on people who may never be brought on board.

Whether the hiring situation will improve — or possibly get worse in the coming year — is a concern for Robert Silverman, president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA).

“Our core concern is about the people. The State Department is largely a function of the hiring of people serving overseas in the Foreign Service. That’s how we get things done. What we’re concerned about, our message to Congress and to the public, is that we need to support our

from page 7

MEK The group was issued identity cards, but it’s unclear how U.S. officials could pledge to protect MEK members, knowing that U.S. troops wouldn’t be in the country indefinitely. Dean maintained that retired U.S.Army Col. Wes Martin or retired Brig. Gen. David Phillips could verify what was promised to the MEK.The Diplomat learned that both are now members of the U.S. Foundation for Liberty, a nonprofit group that appears to be working on behalf of MEK members in Iraq.

The foundation did not respond to a request to make Phillips or Martin available for an interview.

The State Department appointed a senior advisor, Jonathan Wine, to help resettle those in Camp Hurriya, and the United Nations has been in the process of determining their refugee status. Albania has agreed to take about 200 MEK exiles, but no other country has stepped forward to accept any others. Dean says Washington should organize an airlift to bring the 3,100 remaining members to the United States, where he believes they should be allowed to stay permanently as refugees.

“It’s a matter of American honor,” he argued.

“Are we willing to let 3,100 now civilians die?

I don’t think that would preserve American honor.”

But if the State Department is reluctant to issue visas for Iraqi and Afghan interpreters who risked their lives to help Americans during those wars, it’s doubtful Washington would bring over 3,000 Iranians that up until fairly recently were officially deemed terrorists.

Moreover, Ghazvinian warned that action could derail sensitive talks with Iran on the nuclear issue.

“At a time when we’re possibly about to make headway with Iran in the nuclear negotiations, it strikes me that giving asylum to 3,000 MEK is quite possibly the dumbest thing we could do,” he said.“Even dumber than adding new sanctions.”

MEK’s Chances Back Home Yet some neoconservatives and avid supporters of Israel on the left hold the group up as a possible democratic alternative to the clerical regime in Iran. But Iran scholars and analysts say that notion is wishful thinking.

“The MEK is a lot like Ahmed Chalabi was for Iraq,” said Goulka, referring to the Iraqi dissident accused of trumping up intelligence on Iraq’s phantom weapons of mass destruction to goad the United States into war.

The Iran analyst who spoke toThe Diplomat

February 2014

people overseas and the budget environment currently will see a drop in our ability to be effective overseas,” he said.

Silverman has taken his message to Congress, and he says that many legislators — the same ones who rely on Foreign Service Officers for assistance when they travel abroad — are sympathetic to the department’s woes. They also recognize that a changing global landscape requires an adequately staffed diplomatic corps.

“In the Middle East, where we’re winding down from two wars, our military presence in Afghanistan and in Iraq has declined, and will decline further. But our diplomatic presence will not. It needs to continue if not increase because all the democratic changes going on in that part of the world, the upheaval makes it more important to engage with a broader spectrum of the public overseas.The people who do that are the Foreign Service. Our mission is not declining, but the budget is affecting our ability to be effective,” said Silverman, who spent 18 years working in

on background said that hardcore opponents of Iran have reflexively backed the MEK, without knowing much about the group.

“There’s a tendency to support any group that opposes the Islamic Republic without delving very deep into what that group stands for,” he said.

Goulka’s report for Rand alleged that the MEK leadership engaged in cult-like practices after leaving Iran.

“Families were broken up, there was mandatory divorce, there is mandatory celebratory,” he said.“They separate friends.They tell family members back home in Iran that members were killed by the regime, so they don’t try to get in touch. They keep diaries of their sexual thoughts and then discuss them.

They’re publicly jeered for having them but if they deny having them, they are criticized because they must be lying.”

In 2005, Human Rights Watch issued a report alleging that the MEK engaged in serious human rights abuses from 1991 until February 2003, prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government, including “prolonged deprivation of liberty and torture.”

Elizabeth Rubin of the New York Times Magazine visited Camp Ashraf just after U.S. forces invaded Iraq. “After my visit, I met and spoke to men and women who had escaped from the group’s clutches. Many had to be deprogrammed. They recounted how people were locked up if they disagreed with the leadership or tried to escape; some were even killed,” she wrote.

The State Department itself once had harsh words for the group. In a 1994 report to Congress, it said that co-founder Massoud Rajavi “fostered a cult of personality” around himself and that “internally, the Mujahedin run their organization autocratically, suppressing dissent and eschewing tolerance of differing viewpoints.”

Massoud Rajavi himself hasn’t been seen publicly in more than a decade, only adding to the enigma of the MEK. Regardless, both the State Department and the European Union seemed to have changed their tunes about the Iranian exile group, removing it from their respective terrorist lists.

But Ghazvinian, who has spent time in Iran recently to conduct research for his book, says the group has scant support in Europe and North America, and virtually none in Iran.

“The MEK is the one thing that most Iranians of any political persuasion can agree on,” he said. “They are viewed as traitors to their country.”

Dave Seminara (@DaveSem) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Photo: U.S. Department of State

U.S. embassies abroad.

The omnibus budget deal that passed in January should give officials a better sense of whether the hiring slowdown will become more permanent. The bill allocated $49 billion for State and Foreign Operations for fiscal 2014, a $4.3 billion cut from last year. Diplomatic security saw an increase in funding but other areas, including USAID and foreign assistance, took a hit.

In the meantime, Michael tries to stay positive and assumes that it’s only a matter of time before he joins the ranks of diplomats posted abroad.

“I’m going to be a Foreign Service Officer. It’s just a matter of when,” he says.

Sam, another hopeful Foreign Service Officer (FSO) who asked not to be identified by his real name, is less hopeful. He says that his current

State Department officials work behind the scenes at U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s Google+ Hangout discussing the situation in Syria.

place on the register expires in April, and while he plans on taking the test again this month, he’s not expecting much from Congress by way of additional funds or flexibility for the department.

“I’m fairly certain I will time-off the registry.

The current political climate is so toxic it is hard to believe otherwise,” he said. “That somewhat typifies the FSO wannabe’s life — reading the governmental tea leaves hoping to not get my hopes up too much.”

Martin Austermuhle (@maustermuhle) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 9

Money

United States

FATCA Blowback: Some Americans Outraged by U.S. Tax Evader Law

by Karin Zeitvogel

I

ts name sounds like an IKEA armchair that you sink into when you get home after a hard day at the office, but FATCA is anything but. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, is a law passed by Congress in 2010 to “target noncompliance by U.S. taxpayers using foreign accounts” and try to narrow the “tax gap” — defined by the Treasury Department as “the difference between the tax dollars that are owed under the law, and those that are actually collected.”

Basically, it wants to clamp down on offshore tax evasion.

It aims to do that by getting foreign banks and other financial institutions to identify Americans who have investments or bank accounts outside the United States, and comparing the information with what Americans file on their annual tax returns.

By July 1 of this year, banks will have to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) any American clients who have $50,000 or more in overseas accounts. Sums under that amount exempt the bank from reporting on the client.

If the bank doesn’t report on an American client’s overseas investments or assets, FATCA puts its secret weapon into action and levies punitive sanctions on the financial institution that failed to comply with U.S. law.

A little confused? It’s understandable.

Banking on Compliance Germany’s HypoVereinsbank, which is one of the foreign financial institutions that has chosen to comply with FATCA to spare itself and its customers what it says would be a lot of misery, released a short video to explain FATCA and the consequences to consumers and banks who refuse to go along with it.

“U.S. citizens who live abroad have to pay taxes in the United States, but only a few do, and the United States is losing a lot of money because of this,” the narrator says in a sing-song voice in German just as the animated video shows a bag of money being dropped into the Atlantic Ocean and disappearing.

Under the terms of FATCA,“Foreign banks — including banks in Germany — have to identify which of their clients are U.S. citizens….The banks report the data on their American clients to German tax officials, who then pass it on to the IRS.”The German bank does it that way because Germany is one of about a dozen governments that have struck an intergovernmental agreement with the United States on FATCA. More on that later.

“But why should German banks be worried about U.S. tax laws?” the cheerful narrator in the German bank’s video asks.

Why indeed, you might think.

The reason is simple, explains the German narrator in HypoVereinsbank’s video. It’s those punitive measures.

“Any bank that doesn’t cooperate has to pay a penalty

Page 10

Photo: vadimmmus / fotolia

“

We’re making a demand on foreign institutions to follow a law that they have no legal or moral obligation to obey and threatening them with what, in my opinion, are illegal sanctions if they don’t obey.

— Jim Jatras anti-FATCA lobbyist

”

of 30 percent on all revenues from the U.S.A.,” he says.

That’s everything from a money transfer from a great aunt in California to dividends paid out by a U.S. company to interest from U.S. government bonds, the bank says in its video. The banks would doubtless pass this loss onto clients, both local and American, but banks like HypoVereinsbank have spared customers the terror of the 30 percent fine by agreeing to the terms of FATCA, the narrator says as a big, green check mark appears on the screen, next to the word “FATCA.” HypoVereinsbank should never have had to put a check in the box next to FATCA, though, critics of the U.S. law say.

“We’re making a demand on foreign institutions to follow a law that they have no legal or moral obligation to obey and threatening them with what, in my opinion, are illegal sanctions if they don’t obey,” said Jim Jatras, a former diplomat and U.S. Senate staffer who now works in government relations and media, and edits the RepealFATCA.com website. “That is a gross violation of the norms of international behavior,” he told The Diplomat.

Getting Governments to Sign On Many foreign financial institutions would be in breach of their own domestic laws on privacy and data protection if they handed over information on their clients to the U.S. tax authorities, FATCA critics contend.

To get around that, the United States has been signing FATCA-related intergovernmental agreements, or IGAs, with foreign governments. Banks in countries that have signed an IGA on FATCA may have simplified “reporting and other compliance burdens,” the IRS says on its website.

“Such financial institutions will not be subject to withholding under FATCA,” it says, using the euphemistic term “withholding” for what the HypoVereinsbank translated into “Strafabzug” — literally,“punitive deduction.”

IGAs are essentially tweaking the laws of a country so that its banks can ignore that country’s privacy and data protection laws and, basically, bow to the wishes of the United States, critics argue, with some calling FATCA an example of U.S. imperialism and the epitome of the “ugly American.”

But there is a problem for the U.S. authorities on the IGA front:They have fallen short of their goal, which was to ink 50 IGAs by the time the law comes into effect for foreign financial institutions on July 1. That date is, in itself, six months later than the original deadline of Jan. 1, 2014, because other countries have not been busting down the door to agree to send Washington information about Americans who live on their soil or invest in their banks and businesses.

Still, it’s likely governments will eventually come on board to avoid running afoul of U.S. law, although the process could take years. Some countries, like Russia and China, have refused to go along with a FATCA agreement unless the United States sends them the same information about their nationals who bank in the United States. In midJanuary, a federal court ruled that U.S. banks must report that information to foreign governments to comply with the IGA agreements that have been signed with other

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

countries, striking down the arguments of bankers’ associations who said the requirement would lead to a “capital flight” of foreign accountholders in the U.S.

Fat New Burden?

Renouncing Citizenship But will extra paperwork and the fear of penalties be enough to compel Americans to give up their U.S. citizenship?

The BBC reported a jump in the number of American expatriates renouncing their U.S. citizenship in the second quarter of 2013 compared to the same timeframe last year — 1,131 cases versus 189 — although that still only represents a tiny fraction of the estimated 6 million American expats abroad.

Nevertheless, there are sporadic stories of U.S. citizens, fuming over FATCA, who’ve turned in their passports. Former Swiss-American dual national and U.S. army veteran Daniel Kuttel said he has felt the impact of FATCA firsthand.

Born a dual national, Kuttel moved to Switzerland in 2001 after losing his job in the February 2014

Photo: Lynne Swanson

United States when the dot-com bubble burst.

Last year, when he needed to refinance his Swiss mortgage, “each bank that I contacted said that they would not refinance it for me because of FATCA.” “I would call the banks and say,‘I’m American and I’m interested in refinancing my mortgage,’ and they’d say that since I’m American, they couldn’t do it.Then I’d tell them that I was also a Swiss citizen, and they’d go and check with management, and it would still be no,” Kuttel told The Washington Diplomat by phone from his home near Zurich.

To avoid losing the roof over his head, Kuttel renounced his U.S. citizenship in October last year. “It was very difficult for me, emotionally,” he said.

Had FACTA not existed,“I might still be a U.S. citizen,” he added.

An IRS spokesman said U.S. tax officials “have heard of” stories such as Kuttel’s but refused to comment further. The Treasury Depart­­­ment referred The Washington Diplomat to a posting on its FATCA blog, where it dismisses cases like Kuttel’s as myths.

Myth one on the blog says that FATCA is “overly costly and burdensome due to complex regulations and difficult to meet reporting requirements.” The retaliatory “fact” is that “Treasury and the IRS have designed our regulations in a way that minimizes administrative burdens and related costs.”

Myth two, according to the site, is that “U.S. citizens living overseas will become outcasts in the international financial world.”

But Treasury flat out rejects that notion.

Everyone will be an outcast, regardless of nationality, because “we expect that many, if not most, of the governments implementing FATCA through IGAs will require their financial institutions to identify and report on all non-resident account holders, not just U.S. account holders.”

And if everyone is an outcast, there are no outcasts.

Myth three is the one that pertains to Kuttel.

“Some claim that Americans living abroad will give up their U.S. citizenship because of liabilities and burdens created by FATCA.” Treasury doesn’t refute that myth but says that FATCA imposes no new obligations on Americans living abroad because they should’ve been paying their taxes in the United States anyway.

Prior to renouncing his citizenship, Kuttel said he never owed taxes to the IRS. He also insisted that he is not a myth.

Other expatriate Americans, and people who were born in the United States who are considered “U.S. persons” by the IRS and Treasury, have set up a page on the blogging site Tumblr to protest Treasury’s dismissive portrayal of their fight against FATCA. One of the posts on the “We are not a myth” Tumblr page is from a Canadian wildlife photographer who is married to a “U.S. person.”

“Wife works as part-time retail cashier. You think we’re hiding millions?” he asks.“Get real.”

Karin Zeitvogel is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Disney characters and artwork ©Disney, Disney/Pixar characters ©Disney/Pixar.

Lynne Swanson holds up a sign for the “We are not a myth” Tumblr blog, which features stories of Americans living abroad who say they will be negatively affected by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The postings aim to refute a Treasury Department site that tries to dispel myths about FATCA, which it says targets tax dodgers.

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Besides objecting to being robbed of some of their sovereignty, some banks, both here and abroad, have been put off by the costs of complying with FATCA. British tax officials have estimated FATCA regulations will cost British banks alone 1.6 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) in one-time expenses and another 90 million pounds annually, Nat Rudarakanchana wrote in the International Business Times in October.

Jatras says they would have been wiser spending a fraction of that to press the U.S. government to repeal the law. Others are doing just that.

The World Council of Credit Unions, which represents credit unions on all five continents, and the U.S. Credit Union National Association (CUNA), which represents the overwhelming majority of the nearly 7,000 credit unions in the United States, are among the U.S.-based organizations calling for a repeal of FATCA. In a letter to Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the head of CUNA, Bill Cheney, expressed concern that “FATCA, if left in place, will impose billions of dollars of compliance costs on U.S. credit unions and banks annually” and that the IGAs being negotiated by the United States would “undermine the constitutional privacy rights of U.S. credit union members and bank customers.”

But the U.S. government counters that its right to collect taxpayer money is being undermined by tax-dodgers. Some estimates say Uncle Sam misses out on $100 billion a year in lost offshore tax revenue. U.S. citizens, who are taxed regardless of where they reside, have always been required to file tax returns and disclose their foreign accounts. FATCA just makes the rules tougher.

But critics say it also makes the processing of filing overseas tougher — and more time-consuming and expensive, forcing Americans to hire tax lawyers to sort out the paperwork.

Joey Musmar, a partner with the CPA firm of MillerMusmar in Virginia, says the onus will really fall on tax filers, rather than banking institutions, to comply with the new law.

“The compliance requirements that [the IRS] already has are tough to begin with. This is not something new. There are a lot of things that have to be declared when you have business interests overseas to begin with. So this is just an added burden with a reporting mechanism where the foreign institutions are going to report on you. So if you are not coming clean, you are going to be reported on, by these institutions. That’s the new dynamic of it,” he explained.

“The flip side of it is that those who don’t do it correctly or forget to file, they are the ones who are going to feel the wrath of the government — especially if they get reported on by a financial institution, because this can be as severe as a criminal investigation of a U.S. taxpayer,” Musmar warned.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 11

from page 5

Einhorn countries don’t acquire or develop these weapons of mass destruction?

“We say, ‘Look, first of all, that was a different time,’” he told us.“Now that the Cold War is over, we don’t need these huge arsenals, so for the last 20 years we’ve been working to reduce them.

We’re now at a pretty small fraction of what we had at the height of the Cold War. “We say we’ve learned the mistakes of our ways and we’re reducing our capabilities,” Einhorn added. “We’re heading in this direction and you’re heading in the opposite direction.”

That argument alone won’t be enough to convince the leadership in Tehran — which also cites Israel’s widely presumed nuclear weapons arsenal as an example of the West’s double standard on the issue — to abandon its nuclear program, which is a source of national pride among Iranians, even those who oppose the ruling government.

Einhorn admits there are formidable obstacles in the talks ahead, namely reconciling Iran’s desire to pursue what it says is its inalienable “right to enrich” for peaceful, civilian purposes, with the international community’s desire to keep Tehran from nuclear weapons breakout capability. Yet he sounded optimistic about reaching a final agreement. In the meantime, Einhorn rejects criticism that the interim deal will encourage the world to resume trade and commerce with Iran, although he conceded that’s what the Iranians probably want.

“I think their hope is that this will create a psychological shift in the world,” he said.“I think they’re hoping with this initial measure that

countries and companies will be less reticent to U.S. or Israel using military force, but I do know major factor, he said, despite the fact that engage with Iran in areas that are permitted they find the economic sanctions to be very Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the ultimate decision under the sanctions regime. They’re hoping it onerous. It’s crippled their economy, and they maker in the country.

“The Rouhani election had a huge effect,” will create a kind of momentum even if the can’t have much of a future while they have Einhorn said. “Rouhani is not the ultimate ruler, actual sanctions easing is quite modest.” these sanctions in place.”

But Einhorn predicted that international comBut what may work in forcing action from one but what his election showed the Supreme Leader was that his people wanted a change. panies are not going to plunge back into Iran country, may not work for another. until they see what the six-month agreement “For example, sanctions haven’t been decisive They were fed up with the economic mismanproduces. in North Korea. Why? Because North Korea’s agement of [former President] Mahmoud “Companies are not going to want to con- material needs are tiny,” Einhorn explained.“Even Ahmadinejad, they were fed up with internaclude new deals with Iran for a six-month period if you can cut North Korea’s economic interac- tional sanctions,they wanted change.[Khamenei] — make new investments and all of that — if tions with the rest of the world, as long as they has to manage various political pressures, and I after six months there is no final deal,” he said.“I have one big benefactor — China — who is think he saw that if Iran wanted to become a think most companies are going to sit back and prepared to fund much of its fuel and keep them great country, it could not do that without sigwait to see whether there is a final agreement afloat no matter what, then sanctions aren’t nificant change.”

Einhorn also noted that at one time not that that removes the sanctions. They may have pre- going to be decisive.every effort is made to assure NOTE: Although your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and liminary discussions with the Iranians and see “Iran doesn’t have one big benefactor who is long ago, before the 1979 Iranian Revolution that content it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. what can be done, but they’re not going to make prepared to bail them out,” Einhorn added. “Iran ushered in clerical rule in Iran, the United States business decisions before they know the sanc- has a vulnerability that North Korea doesn’t and Iran were friends. to the advertiser, “It’scost not inconceivable that thatsubsequent could happenchanges tions are really going to be lifted and they’re not The have:first oil.” two faxed changes will be made at no again, but Signed it’s goingads to take a while,” he said. will billedof at rate of $75 per faxed are considered approved.

Thebe timing thea sanctions also worked, as alteration. going to know that for some time. They’re not other oil-producing nations made up the differ- “There are a lot of layers of mistrust that have to going to dive right in. be overcome. first stepto is the nuclear of drilling “And the concerns that sanctions over six ence and unconventional Please forms check this adhelped carefully.

Mark anyThe changes your ad. deal. If that could be done conscientiously then I think months are going to erode are overblown,” unearth vast reserves of untapped oil and gas. it can open the door to other types of engageimpose Einhorn argued.

If the“We adhappened is correcttosign andtheir fax oil to:sanctions (301) 949-0065 needs changes While sanctions appear to have forced Iran to when the Saudis were boosting production, and ment. But there is a lot of skepticism on the American side.

People want to take this one step the bargaining table, some international experts at a time when Iraq, Libya and North America Diplomat (301) 933-3552 at a time.” hadWashington boosted production, ” he said. “At a time remain unconvinced that they are an effective The tool for dealing with rogue, stubborn nations. when we were asking countries to reduce their purchases,__________________________________________________________ we were able to tell them, ‘You don’t Michael Coleman is a contributing writer Einhorn said he suspects that the Iranian Approved response — even if it took seven long years — have to reduce your consumption. You can buy for The Washington Diplomat.

Changes ___________________________________________________________ will help bolster the argument for sanctions oil elsewhere,’ and that’s what happened.”

Going back to the theme he outlined at the instead of military force in future global con- ___________________________________________________________________ outset of his interview, Einhorn reiterated his flicts.

“I do think the Iran experience will give a belief that social and political pressures coming boost” to sanctions, he said. “I think frankly the from within Iran’s youthful population helped Get the latest diplomatic news. key motivating factor [in getting Iran to the push the country’s leaders to the bargaining Sign up at www.washdiplomat.com. table] was the economic sanctions. I don’t know table. The election of Hassan Rouhani as the the likelihood that their audience placed on the country’s moderate new president was also a

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The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

COVER PROFILE

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak

Russia Puts Its Olympic Dreams, Reputation on the Line at Sochi

by Larry Luxner

N

otwithstanding a horrific act of terrorism, Feb. 7, 2014 — the day Russian President Vladimir Putin proudly opens the 22nd Olympic Winter Games in Sochi — may well be remembered more for who wasn’t in attendance than for the tens of thousands of cheering fans who were.

Neither President Barack Obama nor first lady Michelle Obama plan to make an appearance. Nor will Vice President Joe Biden or his wife Jill — marking the first time since 2000 that an Olympics begins or ends without a U.S. president, vice president, first lady or former president in the viewing stands. Adding insult to injury, Obama made sure to include two openly gay athletes in the official U.S. delegation: tennis star Billie Jean King and two-time Olympic hockey medalist Caitlin Cahow.

It’s not just the Americans who are snubbing Putin on what is supposed to be the longtime Russian leader’s moment of glory.

Other world leaders on the no-show list for the opening ceremony: British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Canada, Belgium, Georgia and Moldova.

On the other hand, Russian security forces will be on the lookout for someone else in the crowd: Ruzanna Ibragimova, the widow of an Islamic militant believed to be at large in Sochi. She’s one of several wanted “black widows,” female suicide bombers seeking vengeance for the deaths of husbands or male relatives in Russia’s longstanding battle against Islamic insurgents in the Caucasus. And she’s not the only terrorist with their eye on the ultimate prize: disrupting the Winter Games.

Sergey Kislyak — Putin’s top diplomat in Washington — is well aware of how much Russia’s reputation is riding on the Olympics. But as for the whole debate over gay rights, he thinks that aspect has been overblown and obscures the bigger story about Sochi.

“I understand how the press here works.

They need hot issues in order to be read, to have high circulation,” said Kislyak, interviewed by this member of the press on Jan. 13 at his stately residence on 16th Street over tea and chocolates.“This is not only an American phenomenon. But I start every working day reading about Russia from the news clips my staff prepares, and I would say it’s not the most encouraging reading.”

Gay-rights advocates though are understandably furious with Moscow’s recent approval of legislation that criminalizes the promotion of “nontraditional sexual relations” in the presence of minors, effectively barring gay rights parades and discussion

February 2014

of the issue in the media or in the classroom, since children might be exposed to it. (The government legalized homosexuality itself in 1993.)

But the ambassador says Russia has been unfairly stereotyped in Western media over an issue that simply isn’t a priority for most Russians. He laments that there’s hardly been any ink spilled over just what Moscow has achieved by staging such a high-profile event in Sochi, a Black Sea resort located near the Caucasus Mountains, just a dozen miles from the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia.

When it comes to Sochi, that achievement is impressive, at least on paper.

Engineers had to essentially build much of the large-scale infrastructure projects from scratch on a thin slice of land wedged between the mountains and the sea, prone to both flooding and mild weather. Eleven new sports venues seating a total of 120,000 people have been constructed around Sochi, normally home to 400,000 inhabitants. Sochi’s Olympic Village will host 6,000 athletes, and roughly 13,000 members of the press are expected to converge on the city.

“

When Russia and the U.S. work together, things get done. But when we work against each other, it’s almost a recipe for failure.

”

— Sergey Kislyak

ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States

“Hosting the Olympics is always a very significant event for any country. It’s also a kind of festival of friendship. We are very proud that Russia was selected as a venue for the Winter Olympics. This is an opportunity for people to learn more about our country,” said Kislyak, who rarely grants interviews to U.S. media outlets and was speaking to The Washington Diplomat for the first time since his arrival in the United States.

Photo: Lawrence Ruggeri

“Sochi is one of the few places where we enjoy access to a warm climate,” he added.“By building sport facilities there, by renovating the infrastructure — including transportation to the mountains — we have also developed a region that will be used by Russian citizens for decades to come.”

But a terrorist attack could also be remembered for decades to come and could ruin everything for Putin, who’s staked his legacy on Russia’s Olympic ambitions.

On Jan. 10, the State Department issued a travel warning urging Americans to “be vigilant” about the potential for extremist violence at the Sochi Games, calling it “an attractive target for terrorists,” though it said no specific security threat exists.

Said Kislyak: “This is a typical State Department advisory. Had I written it, I would have done it quite differently.We are taking fierce measures to ensure safety and security so people can be very much relaxed.”

Those “fierce measures” follow two sui-

cide bombings in late December that targeted public transportation in Volgograd, 600 miles from Sochi. The twin blasts — one at the city’s railway station, the other on a trolleybus — left more than 30 people dead, injured more than 60, and put the entire country on edge.

It’s put the entire world on edge, in fact, as a barrage of warnings and threats ahead of the Olympics rattled nerves and even had some athletes expressing concerns about safety in Sochi. Moscow insists the Games — surrounded by a supposed 1,500-mile “ring of steel” — are secure. It’s dispatched a reported 100,000 security personnel led by the Federal Security Service to Sochi, including 40,000 police officers and 30,000 armed forces. Russia’s 58th Army will patrol the nearby Georgian border, while a high-tech army of drones, sonar systems, reconnaissance robots, internet and phone monitoring systems, and other security measures will provide round-the-clock surveillance. All ticket-

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 13

Continued from previous page holders must undergo mandatory background checks, and U.S. warships are standing nearby in case they need to evacuate American citizens.

Sochi may be on lockdown, but that has prompted fears that other Russian cities could be exposed to attacks by terrorists seeking to spoil the Games any way they can.

Chechen rebel warlord Doku Umarov, self-proclaimed leader of the “Caucasus Emirate,” called for disrupting the Sochi Olympics; in mid-January, reports surfaced that Umarov had been killed by Russian security forces, although such claims have been made in the past.

Regardless, “Umarov is more of a symbolic leader of the Islamist extremists than an actual commander-in-chief,” Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, told the Council on Foreign Relations shortly after the Volgograd bombings.

Trenin says the deeper issue is Islamist extremism in Chechnya, Dagestan and elsewhere, fueled

by Moscow’s heavy-handed crackdown. “Islamist extremism in Dagestan and elsewhere in the North Caucasus has the support of a significant portion of the population; otherwise, it would have been crushed. This support is driven by the widely shared feelings of inequality and injustice; an atmosphere of widespread corruption among local elites; and, very importantly, poor prospects for getting ahead in life,” he argues.

Kislyak, however, points out that the vast majority of Russia’s 24 million Muslims are “lawabiding citizens and are well respected in Russian society.”

Even so, he warned, “We don’t negotiate with terrorists. They do not represent anybody, so we will exterminate them.”

Ten years ago, Kislyak’s predecessor in Washington, Yuri Viktorovich Ushakov, uttered nearly identical words following the Beslan school siege of September 2004 — in which Islamic separatists took some 1,200 people hostage in North Ossetia. The drama ended with a botched Russian rescue operation, resulting in the deaths of more than 300 hostages, including 186 children.

“Terrorists will never stop killing us,” Ushakov said at the time,“if they are not eliminated with all the power and might of our nation and that of the civilized world.”

Russia has spared no expense to project power and might at Sochi, but that has come at a heavy cost — a staggering $51 billion, which could very well go down as the world’s most expensive, and perhaps most corrupt, sporting event in history.

In January, a Swiss member of the Genevabased International Olympic Committee (IOC) suggested that up to one-third of Sochi’s construction and development budget had been embezzled or siphoned off in the form of bribes and kickbacks. Gian-Franco Kasper, longtime president of the International Ski Federation, told Swiss media that contracts had been given to a “construction mafia” of businessmen linked to the Kremlin and specifically to Putin himself — a charge echoed by Russian sources as well.

“We’ve been trying to interest the IOC in this issue for quite awhile, but to no avail,” complained Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister, outspoken Putin critic and author of a study that details the corruption he says has pervaded the Sochi Games. Nemtsov told the Christian Science Monitor that “though there has been considerable attention to the issue of gay rights in advance of the Olympics, and the IOC has taken a stand on this, they have largely ignored corruption, environmental destruction and other types of human rights violations that have been occurring.”

In “The Waste and Corruption of Vladimir Putin’s 2014 Winter Olympics,” Bloomberg Businessweek reported that cost was never really an issue for Putin, although even he’s grown fed up with the economic mismanagement.

“Putin never saw the Sochi Olympics as a mere sporting event, or even a one-of-a-kind publicrelations opportunity. Rather, he viewed the Games as a way to rejuvenate the entire Caucasus region,” wrote Joshua Yaffa. “But since then, as

Page 14

costs have increased, Russian officials have grown less eager to boast about the size of the final bill,” he added, noting that the tab surpasses the $40 billion China spent on the Beijing Summer Games, even though it had three times as many events.

“It’s received wisdom in Moscow that the state will crack down on at least some of the more egregious cases of fraud and abuse in Olympic construction — once the Games are over and attention has moved on,”Yaffa wrote.

The ambassador doesn’t deny that corruption is a reality, although he questions Kasper’s allegation that $18 billion in taxpayer funds has “disappeared” into thin air.

“We have a lot of organizations that are very watchful as to how money is spent,” he said. “But I doubt that these kinds of figures are even in the ball park.”

On the contrary, Kislyak says Moscow is doing everything it can to fight the cancer of corruption (in Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index, Russia ranked 127th among 176 countries, slightly better than Bangladesh, Honduras and Nigeria).

“The Russian media very energetically discusses these problems.

There are cases of corruption that are very troubling to us,” he said.

“The president has made very concerted efforts to get the prime minister [Dmitry Medvedev] to combat corruption. I think we are making good strides on this. You need to understand that modern Russia is only 22 years old. It’s a young market economy.We have gone through a transformation — from a system based on central planning by the state to a market economy — that not one single other country has gone through.We can be proud of what we have achieved.”

Kislyak, 63, is Russia’s fifth ambassador here since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

He’s now in the sixth year of his assignment, an eternity for diplomats normally accustomed to three-year postings. But Kislyak is a relative newbie compared to Anatoly Dobrynin, whose 24-year tenure as the Soviet envoy in Washington stretched from the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 to the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in 1986.

Even so, Kislyak is no stranger to American ways.

The diplomat, who’s fluent in both English and French, served from 1981 to 1985 as second secretary at Moscow’s mission to the United Nations in New York, then transferred to Washington as first secretary at the Soviet Embassy here, a post he held until 1989. In 2003, after a five-year stint as ambassador to Belgium and NATO, he was named Russia’s deputy minister of foreign affairs — leaving that job five years later to come to Washington.

“I arrived here in early September 2008. It was a very difficult period, the lowest point in our relations since the end of the Cold War,” he recalled.“It was the time of the Georgian invasion and we had big differences with the United States.

It wasn’t easy. I remember I started my first working day after presenting my credentials at the White House by making two speeches, explaining the Russian position.”

The invasion Kislyak refers to is Georgia’s brief but bloody war with Russia, which killed about 400 Georgians and created 30,000 internal refugees. According to a European Union-led factfinding mission, the August 2008 war was sparked when the former Soviet republic’s then-president, Mikheil Saakashvili, ordered an attack on separatists in South Ossetia, one of two disputed territories with Russia (Abkhazia being the other).

Moscow retaliated, seizing on the apparent miscalculation to firmly put the two breakaway regions under Russian control.

“Things started improving and after the elections, President Obama proposed the reset, which

Photo: Lebedev Anton / iStock

Photo: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Krasnaya_Polyana_08.jpg

The ski resort of Krasnaya Polyana will host the snow competitions for the Winter Olympics at the Russian city of Sochi. Some have been concerned about the warm weather at Sochi, seen at top, which is located on the same latitude as the French Mediterranean resort of Nice.

we took very seriously. I think we have responded in a very constructive fashion. Russian-American relations are important under all circumstances,” Kislyak said. “Is everything so rosy and positive?

Of course not, but our relations have never been simple. They have always been complex, and we certainly have irritants in our relationship. As far as I’m concerned, relations are much more productive than we are given credit for.”

Kislyak said people frequently ask him whether the “reset” in bilateral ties — famously hyped (and mistranslated) by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in March 2009 — is now dead in the water. His response is that Moscow and Washington completed talks to reduce strategic nuclear weapons, implemented the “1-2-3 agreement” on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and worked together on Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization, among other things.

“WTO entry is a recognition of Russia’s status as a full market economy and opens up additional opportunities for businesses from both countries,” the ambassador said. “The United States was willing to do this because it serves American business interests, which is fine with us.The more business, the better it is for both our economies.”

Yet a Google search of the words “Russian reset” pulls up more than 45 million entries — led by articles titled “Obama’s ‘reset’ with Russia:What went wrong?” (The Week) and “President Obama’s Russia reset unravels” (Politico).

“The story of the administration’s ‘reset’ policy toward Russia is a case study in how the heady idealism of Mr. Obama’s first term has given way to the disillusionment of his second,” New York Times reporter Peter Baker concluded last September. “Critics say he was naïve to think he could really make common cause with Moscow.

Aides say it was better to try than not, and it did yield tangible successes in arms control, trade and military cooperation before souring.”

The final nail in the “reset” coffin was Putin’s August 2013 decision to give safe haven to

Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower whose leaks have deeply embarrassed the White House. Moscow’s offer of asylum to Snowden prompted Obama to cancel a one-onone meeting he had scheduled with Putin while in St. Petersburg to attend the G-20 summit in September.

Asked why the Kremlin was willing to risk its relationship with Washington to protect the 30-year-old former NSA employee, Kislyak said it’s actually very simple.

“Mr. Snowden is an American citizen. He was traveling through Russia. He didn’t come by invitation. He saw his passport revoked by U.S. authorities when he arrived, so he wasn’t able to continue his journey,” the ambassador explained.

“We do not have an extradition treaty with the United States, so there is no legal basis on which we could have extradited him. He hasn’t violated any Russian laws, and certainly he got into a situation that was very unique, so we gave him temporary status to live in Russia. But from a historical perspective, this will be a short-lived problem.

We have significantly more important issues on the U.S.-Russian agenda.”

One of those issues is Syria — and the reported use of chemical weapons by Moscow’s longtime patron, President Bashar al-Assad, whose country’s civil war has claimed an estimated 130,000 lives since it erupted in March 2011.

In September, Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, struck a deal to destroy those weapons and avert a threatened U.S. military strike, for which Congress and the American public had little appetite. The night the accord was signed in Geneva, Dmitry Kiselyov — anchorman of the main weekly news show on Russian state TV — declared that the “diplomatic duel” between Moscow and Washington had ended in “the great victory of Russia” thanks to Putin’s skills as a global peacemaker, while the White House had seen its “geopolitical amateurishness swept away, leaving only the ruins of narcissism.”

Kislyak, engaging in diplomatic niceties, denies that his government really sees things that way.

“We never considered this to be a victory for one politician or another,” he said. “What we found together is a solution that is best for all.This was discussed between the two presidents and is something the foreign ministries agreed to implement. I’m positively surprised how efficient and productive this process of establishing the modalities of the disposition of chemical weapons has been achieved in Syria.”

Regarding Moscow’s backing of Assad against the rebels and Islamic extremists hoping to overthrow him, Kislyak claims — not very convincingly — that his government is impartial.

“We don’t support any particular person. What we support is the right of the Syrians to decide what is right and wrong, but I mean all the Syrians,” he insists. “What we are working toward now is a peace conference, a political dialogue that presupposes it’s something the Syrians will negotiate themselves. I hope they will come to the table. If they are to achieve something, it will

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

have to be a mutual compromise. There is no military solution to the issue. It has to be found through political negotiations.” (As of press time, the Syrian government and opposition had only managed to trade barbs and accusations at one another at the so-called Geneva II peace talks.)

In general, Kislyak says Russia is “definitely not” fairly covered by U.S. media — a complaint that stems from the Cold War, characterized by decades of mutual suspicion.

“Here’s a very simple example,” he said. “For years and years, the American press has reported on our looming demographic catastrophe, forecasting that Russia’s population would shrink.

But we’ve invested in health care and encouraged younger people to have children.As a result of our very intensive efforts, we have seen a drastic change. It’s not a level we are satisfied with, but we’re no longer losing population. But have you seen a single article on this? I haven’t.”

Actually, Forbes magazine reported, in a May 2013 article titled “Russia’s Population Isn’t Shrinking (It’s Growing Very, Very Slowly),” that the country stopped losing people in the early 2000s and that it now has around 143.3 million inhabitants — about 100,000 more than it had in 2006 — but that this growth is almost entirely being driven by immigration rather than any increase in fertility rates. Russia now ranks ninth in world population — way behind Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh — and ahead of Japan and Mexico. By 2050, unless current trends are reversed, vast Russia could have only 107 million citizens.

The press, and average Russians for that matter, will no doubt continue to debate what’s ahead for the one-time superpower. Will Putin, who’s ruled the country in one form or another since 2000, become a modern-day tsar? Will he revive the country’s geopolitical prestige, pulling nations

Russia at a Glance Independence: Aug. 24, 1991 (from the Soviet Union) Location: North Asia bordering the Arctic Ocean, extending from Europe (the portion west of the Urals) to the North Pacific Ocean Capital: Moscow Size: Approximately 1.8 times the size of the United States Population: 142.5 million (July 2013 estimate) Life expectancy: 69.8 years Religions: Russian Orthodox 15-20 percent, Muslim 10-15 percent, other Christian 2 percent (2006 est.)

GDP (purchasing power parity): $2.48 trillion (2012 estimate) GDP per-capita: $17,500 (2012 estimate) GDP growth: 3.4 percent (2012 estimate) Unemployment: 5.5 percent (2012 estimate) Population below poverty line: 12.7 percent (2011 estimate) Exports: Petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, metals, wood and wood products, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures Imports: Machinery, vehicles, pharmaceutical products, plastic, semi-finished metal products, meat, fruits and nuts, optical and medical instruments, iron, steel

Source: CIA World Factbook

like Ukraine into its orbit? Will the Russians implement real economic reforms, or continue to bank on oil and gas revenues? And in the immediate term, will Putin pull off his audacious bid to host the Olympics without a hitch?

Whatever the future holds, Kislyak says he’ll keep pushing back against the oversimplification of his complex homeland.

“As is the goal of any ambassador, my job is to

build productive ties and overcome the stereotypes that are still haunting us,” he told us. “Our differences will always remain, but we must also be mindful of things we can do together, to have more interactions between people, especially among the younger generation. They need to understand what Russia is, and what it is not.”

In that regard, the diplomat offers a sharp contrast to his 50-year-old counterpart in Moscow,

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U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, who has nearly 59,000 followers on his Twitter account — including Kislyak himself. Just as Kislyak complains that U.S. media doesn’t always treat Russia fairly, McFaul hasn’t exactly been warmly embraced by the press in Russia either.

Yet Twitter has given McFaul a platform from which to reach out to young Russians, particularly since the big TV networks began ignoring him.

“McFaul’s popularity is especially noteworthy considering the recent tension between Washington and Moscow, not to mention the distinctly anti-American tone of the reporting by Russia’s state-dominated mainstream media,” wrote Foreign Policy’s Anna Nemtsova.

Asked about that, Kislyak responded:“I read his tweets from time to time. It would be inappropriate to say whether he’s trying to bypass the government or not. I know Mike for a long time, and he seems to be enjoying his job. I’m not as avid a Twitter user as he is. I prefer to speak to the audience. I love talking to people and being forced to answer questions.”

Yet, sensing that he’d already answered enough of our questions, we decided to ask the envoy one more: Whether he’s satisfied with the overall state of U.S.-Russian ties?

“We could do better,” Kislyak responded.“Look how we cooperate in space. I visited the Houston Space Center and saw how Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts work together, living as one scientific family.This cooperation has become immune to the political crises on the ground.

When Russia and the U.S. work together, things get done. But when we work against each other, it’s almost a recipe for failure.”

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The Rotunda

Foreign Affairs on Capitol Hill

Old Hand on Capitol Hill Prepares To Be U.S. Ambassador to China

by Luke Jerod Kummer

O

ver the course of more than four decades, Max Baucus has carved out a reputation in Congress as a dealmaker. In December, President Obama nominated the 72-year-old retiring Democratic senator from Montana to become the next U.S. envoy to China.

If confirmed by his colleagues on Capitol Hill — an easy sell — Baucus will soon head to Beijing to represent America on the front lines in negotiations between the world’s juggernauts.

The move surprised many because the veteran lawmaker, who joined the Senate in 1978, will be relinquishing his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, where he’s been working on an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.Any chances of major tax re­­forms this year, already dim, now seem unlikely.

But wisenheimers in Washington quickly deduced that the unanticipated selection of Baucus to succeed Ambassador Gary Locke, who announced his resignation abruptly in November, is a shrewd chess move for Democrats. It will allow the Democratic governor of Montana, a red state, to appoint a member of the party to fill Baucus’ seat — who can then enjoy the advantages of incumbency when running on November’s ballot in a race that looks to be fiercely competitive at a time when the chamber’s Democratic majority is up for grabs. The maneuver also grants Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) the chairmanship of the Finance Committee, which will let Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) claim the gavel Wyden held on the Energy Committee, thus boosting her fundraising prowess immensely in her own tough re-election bid.

It’s complicated, and it’s clever.

Such machinations, however, should not overshadow Baucus’s considerable appeal for this important job, according to some well-placed observers.

Jon Huntsman, the American ambassador in China from 2009 until 2011, told The Diplomat that Baucus was an intriguing prospect for a variety of reasons, not least of which because he can be an effective intermediary between the U.S. legislature and the world’s second-largest

Page 16

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

President Barack Obama talks with the congressional delegation aboard Air Force One in April 2009, during a flight from Trinidad and Tobago following the Summit of the Americas. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), seated at right, was recently nominated by Obama to be the U.S. ambassador in China.

“

Coming from a leadership position in the U.S. Senate, [Max Baucus] should be able to open some important doors for Congress and China…. Traditionally they have been very difficult to unlock, and it could be of enormous value to the U.S.-China relationship over the longer term.

”

— Jon Huntsman, former U.S. ambassador to China economy.

“Listen, finding a U.S. ambassador to China is a very difficult thing to do because you’ve got to start by finding somebody who’s going to pass muster in Beijing. People forget that before the president can actually formally nominate someone, they have to be accepted by the Foreign Ministry in the host country.

That’s just part of the diplomatic rules of the road, and the Chinese would not accept somebody who wasn’t of a certain stature, who they didn’t think could manage the relationship and get the work done,” Huntsman said.

“Second, you’ve got to find somebody who knows something about a terribly complex relationship.You just don’t find that many people who have any kind of background in U.S.-China relations. And

Sen. Baucus, by virtue of being on the Finance Committee, is well versed in the economic side of China,” said Huntsman.

In the 1990s, Baucus helped push for China to be accepted into the World Trade Organization and has spoken out on the need for normal trade relations with Beijing. He has also visited the country eight times (and met with the country’s new president). And as Politico noted, Baucus’s move echoes that of Mike Mansfield, another long-serving Democratic senator from Montana who became ambassador to Japan from 1977 to 1988.

“He knows these guys in Chinese leadership extremely well and has met with them on several occasions,” Jon Selib, Baucus’s former chief of staff, told Bloomberg.

Political commentators also speculated that the move removed a vocal critic of the administration’s botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act (though Baucus was key to getting the law passed in 2010). Similar charges were made when Obama selected Huntsman, a Republican, to the post in Beijing, thereby removing a potential 2012 presidential rival, at least for a while.

Huntsman, a former governor of Utah who left the State Department in 2011 to mount a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, was recently named chairman of the Atlantic Council. He said he has spent hours discussing the ambassadorship with Baucus and offering advice. Although he wouldn’t reveal exactly what tips he gave him, he did say that the senator should arrive in Beijing with a checklist that includes at least one big economic goal, such as advancing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a blockbuster multinational trade deal that’s been in the works for years (China, which has been leery of the deal, is not among the dozen Pacific Rim nations involved in the talks).

“He’ll also want to focus on things like opening the beef market, which he is uniquely positioned to do, coming from a state like Montana and knowing all of the players and knowing how critically important that component on Capitol

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

Hill is,” Huntsman added.

Easing restrictions on American beef being sent to China, which could spell billions of dollars in U.S. exports, is “on the cusp of happening,” he said.

“It just needs an extra nudge.”

In addition, Huntsman said he expects the new ambassador will pave the way for Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping to hold a summit, “which should take place in the first half of this year.”

But the greatest good Baucus can achieve, said Huntsman, is to ensure that Congress “better understands the stakes involved in the most important relationship in the 21st century, the implications of failed policies and, by the same token, the benefit of good policies, on the economic side, on export enhancements, on trade policy, on job creation through greater interaction with China, and certainly on the security side — of course dealing with the most recent issues playing out in the East China Sea and the South China Sea.” Baucus won’t be the first U.S. senator to become a diplomat in the People’s Republic of China. In his second term, President Clinton appointed Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.) to the post during a fractious period on Capitol Hill. Since the United States resumed normal relations with China in 1979, the position has been held by people with a wide range of backgrounds, including career diplomats and leaders from business, labor and national intelligence. In fact, before the United States and China mended diplomatic ties, President Ford sent George H.W. Bush to Beijing to be a special liaison after he had served in the House of Representatives.

In some cases, diplomats with congressional experience may have an advantage over other types of political appointees at U.S. embassies, namely campaign donors, according to Richard Swett, who served in the House (D-N.H.) in the 1990s and as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark under President Clinton.

“So often [the president] is rewarding people because they have been very successful business people who have given large amounts of money to political parties in a campaign season. That’s a very different kind of background than someone who’s serving on Capitol Hill as a member of Congress, and I think you’re able to draw on a very different set of qualities in fulfilling that role,” Swett said.

“When you’re a political appointee, you have an uphill climb to make in the State Department because a lot of the career people are in a waitand-see aspect — they’re looking to find out if you really have the kind of skill sets that can help them do their jobs better. Until you build that trust with the career people in the State Department, I think you’re on a proving ground,” Swett said.“Someone with Max Baucus’s background and experience is going to prove that very quickly and very easily demonstrate that he can be extremely helpful to the career diplomats in making their work that much easier.”

Huntsman agreed with Swett that many of an American ambassador’s chief challenges, especially in Beijing, are managerial.

“You have a substantial and complicated diplomatic footprint in China, including more than 40 departments and agencies represented.You’ve got five consulates, some of which are larger than most embassies in other countries,” Huntsman pointed out.“The fact that he’s been chair of a very powerful committee on Capitol Hill would suggest that he knows how to manage priorities, and that he knows how to work with special interest groups,” he added, noting that an American ambassador gets “knocks on your door from every conceivable realm of life — from civil society, from commercial business interests, higher [education] leaders, students from foreign exchange programs, other diplomatic representatives in the country.”

“I mean you see it all. So you’ve got to be a manager. You’ve got to know how to prioritize America’s interests.”

Max Baucus, the 72-year-old retiring Democratic senator from Montana, is relinquishing his chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee to become America’s next envoy to China.

Elizabeth Economy, director of Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Diplomat that Baucus would have his work cut out for him.

“The overall political climate in China is a difficult one given Beijing’s recent crackdown on the Internet, rising regional tensions and general uncertainty over the country’s current economic trajectory. None of these conditions is conducive to a robust U.S.-China relationship,” Economy said.

“However, given Sen. Baucus’s background in trade, he might have some unique qualifications to advance the U.S.-China economic relationship by helping to carry the water for the administration on efforts to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty

and by keeping lines of communication open on future Chinese participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. On the political and security front, the new ambassador might also take the temperature of Chinese officials on issues such as North Korea and climate change, where there might be some room for greater cooperation,” said Economy, the author of“The River Runs Black:The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future.”

“The biggest policy challenge that Sen. Baucus will face is that he has limited ability to shape the U.S.-China relationship,” she added.“Domestic considerations in both countries will drive bilateral relations rather than any personal ambassadorial policy or diplomacy.”

Yet personalities do matter, as evidenced by Locke’s tenure. The former commerce secretary made waves in China with what many saw as his humble approach (buying his own coffee at Starbucks, traveling in coach, etc.), impressing legions of average Chinese fed up with lavish lifestyles among the party elite.

Huntsman, too, made an impression in China with his deep knowledge of the region (and one of the rare U.S. ambassadors fluent in Mandarin).

The former envoy told us that one of the keys to the job, which he believes Baucus is well suited to accomplish, will be helping both sides understand what the domestic considerations in the other country might be. “He has to explain two incomprehensible topics to two different constituencies — American politics and Chinese politics,” Huntsman said.

“Coming from a leadership position in the U.S. Senate, he should be able to open some important doors for Congress and China,” Huntsman concluded.“Traditionally they have been very difficult to unlock, and it could be of enormous value to the U.S.-China relationship over the longer term.”

Luke Jerod Kummer is the congressional correspondent for The Washington Diplomat.

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February 2014

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The Washington Diplomat Page 17

Diplomacy

Washington, D.C.

Social Media Helps Diplomats Engage — Online and Off

by Molly McCluskey

W

hen Ambassador Ritva Koukku-Ronde of Fin­ land finally took the dive into Twitter in December 2012, she was in the company of another famous diplomat who joined the same day. Her first tweet? “Dear friends of Finland, if the Pope can do it I can do it, too.”

Barring cheeky references to Pope Benedict XVI (who started @Pontifex, which now has 3.5 million followers), conversations about digital diplomacy usually contain the same corporate jargon-laden catchphrases. Social media platforms are ways to “engage the public,” “promote cultural understanding,” and “encourage informed debate.”

Social media does do all of that, but more to the point, it is a way to communicate with the masses — whether it’s Kosovo striving for global legitimacy, or France sharing its famed “Map of Kisses,” or Greece posting photos of Byzantine art to promote its exhibit at the National Gallery.

However, diplomats who use social media solely to push out their message have quickly found their accounts unheeded by the very people they’re trying to reach. Instead, a range of creative and, more important, focused campaigns have proven effective at gaining ground in a digital space that grows more overcrowded each day.

A blooming array of resources, from organizations devoted to digital diplomacy to consultants and conferences, can help cut through the clutter. And, of course, embassy staffers who have figured out how to promote their nations are key to successful digital campaigns.

Social Media Becomes Standard Practice Maintaining a Facebook and Twitter site has become de rigueur for the city’s embassies and ambassadors (also see “Tweet This: Embassies Embrace Digital Diplomacy” in the April 2013 issue of The Washington Diplomat) — to say nothing of the many other platforms diplomats are also learning to navigate, from Flickr and Tumblr to Instagram and Pinterest.

Ambassador Nathalie Cely Suárez of Ecuador joined Koukku-Ronde on the

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Photo: Anatoliy / iStock

“

Social media helps us tell the story of what we’re becoming. It lets us ask, ‘What are you expecting from us? Are we doing a good job?

How are people looking at Italy?’

— Andreas Sandre

”

press and public affairs officer at the Embassy of Italy

digital diplomacy panel at The Diplomat’s second annual Country Promotion Strategies Conference (#CPS2013) last November. Stuart Holliday, head of the Meridian International Center and conference moderator, called Cely — who has more than 50,000 Twitter followers — an “early adapter and trailblazer” in the digital realm.

Cely said her first rule of social media is that you need to like it.“If you’re doing it professionally, you need to take it seriously,” she told the more than 200 diplomats gathered at the Ritz-Carlton in D.C. for the event.“I tweet about things I care about the most.”

And the information has to be useful.

She noted that the embassy developed an application — downloaded by more than 15,000 people — that helps Ecuadorians in the United States (and Americans who’ve retired in Ecuador) locate consulates to obtain visas.

The ambassador also said she balances political posts with personal observa-

tions and opinions to ensure authenticity and build a fan base that can relate to her — an aspect of social media that can be difficult for professional diplomats whose job, after all, is to be diplomatic.

“Sometimes I’ll share something very personal if it’s relevant…. You have to develop a persona,” she said. “People need to know it’s you. People are very smart.They’ll know if it’s not.”

Katie Harbath, policy manager at Facebook, who also spoke at the CPS Conference, agreed that being authentic will attract more fans. For instance, she suggested postings that chronicle a “day in the life of an ambassador” to give fans an inside look at what goes on at an embassy.

James Barbour, press secretary and head of communications for the British Embassy, said social media has upended traditional diplomacy — and journalism for that matter. “It’s absolutely a paradigm shift, like the invention of the newspaper.”

Barbour said that Twitter, Facebook and other platforms have changed the way communications professionals engage with journalists. “Social media can be so fantastically visual,” he said.

“You do more if you tweet it than send it out as a press release.”

While the official British Embassy Twitter feed (UKinUSA) primarily shares policy and hard news updates, the embassy’s Facebook page has more of a mix, with a focus on cultural events, study abroad information and theater reviews, including a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the classic British television series “Doctor Who.” But perhaps the most notable change in the U.K.’s social media policy is the emergence of the Northern Ireland Bureau (NIB) as a separate presence.

“The rising influence of social media could not have come soon enough for Northern Ireland,”said Bronagh Finnegan, administration and public affairs officer for the NIB. “As a region that constantly finds itself trying to overcome negative and anachronistic coverage in the traditional press, our digital diplomacy campaign has allowed us to convey a more accurate picture of Northern Ireland through a prism that better reflects the reality on the ground.

“The impact of this shift is staggering as a new generation in the U.S. has a greater understanding of a region with important historic, economic and ancestral ties to America,” Finnegan said.

Social media can indeed amplify the

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

voices of smaller groups. For example, despite its small size, Kosovo has leveraged its substantial online presence (it was recently ranked fourth in the world for its digital diplomacy efforts by the Turkish diplomatic publication Yeni Diplomasi) to push for greater recognition on the world stage since it unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia in 2008.That includes getting Internet giants like Google and Amazon to recognize Kosovo’s independence on their sites.

“We had a 17-year-old kid who managed to convince Twitter to recognize Kosovo as a country,” Petrit Selimi, Kosovo’s deputy foreign affairs minister, said at a discussion last September at Johns Hopkins University in D.C. “LinkedIn just recognized Kosovo. Our big aim is Facebook. And we’re in dialogue with Google as well.”

Two-Way Street While social media has given nations an unprecedented avenue to quickly disseminate information to the public and press, for a digital campaign to succeed, it has to be a two-way street.

Finding strategies — and the time — to genuinely engage with people online is a challenge not only for ambassadors, but for world leaders as well.

A global study called “Twiplomacy” released last summer by the PR firm Burson-Marsteller found that more than three-quarters of world leaders have a Twitter account.

But the same study found that a Twitter presence did not necessarily translate into connectivity. For example, while President Obama is the world’s most followed leader on Twitter, he is not the best-connected leader. @BarackObama only mutually follows two other world leaders: Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg and Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev.Likewise,@WhiteHouse and @StateDept are followed by 132 and 99 peers, respectively, but they barely follow any other world leaders.

On the flip side, Uganda’s prime minister (@AmamaMbabazi) is the most conversational world leader, with 96 percent of his tweets being @replies to other users.

“This study illustrates how Twitter and social media in general have become part and parcel of any integrated government communications,” said Jeremy Galbraith, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East and Africa. “While Twitter is certainly not the only channel of communication and will not replace face-to-face meetings, it allows for direct peer-to-peer interaction.”

And that interaction is crucial. “You’re using it the wrong way around if it’s only one way,” Ilse van Overveld, counselor for public diplomacy, press and culture at the Netherlands Embassy, said of social media at the CPS Conference. She recommended question-and-answer sessions with ambassadors and diplomats to start a dialogue with online users. She also noted that in addition to public diplomacy officers, the Dutch Embassy is working to have diplomats who specialize in other areas, such as defense and economics, share their expertise online as well.

Fellow panelist Marc Johnson of APCO Worldwide said embassies should avoid a “push and pray model” — push a message out and pray that it sticks. Rather, he advised diplomats to genuinely engage with their audience and “find the conversations where you want to be relevant.”

For instance, experts point out that Twitter hashtags are an easy way for embassies to hone in on conversations involving their respective nations. Other social media monitoring and marketing tools such as Radian6 can help organizations keep track of what’s being said across the digital spectrum.

Overveld’s embassy uses Storify to collect its various online media postings into a coherent story. She stressed that the Dutch Embassy also works with its consulates throughout the country to build a unified communications strategy.

Lior Livak also embraces an integrated approach.

He’s director of digital initiatives at the Embassy of Israel, where Twitter and Facebook are used in February 2014

ed him, and this way we made them follow us — so our positive animal stories reached them as well, plus we got more followers!”

Innovative Collaboration

conjunction with a newsletter and website to ensure consistent messaging across a broad range of political and cultural topics.“We use Facebook as a political tool to complement our diplomats’ messages, and to get our point of view across,” Livak said.“But we also try to have fun with it.”

Facebook’s Harbath said postings should run the gamut, from emergency response updates during a national disaster to more lighthearted features. For example, she cited the Movember campaign, an annual initiative in November when men grow mustaches to raise awareness of men’s health issues. The Canadian, British and other embassies regularly post updates on how their diplomats’ mustaches are growing as part of Movember.“It gets people talking so the next time you post something, you have their attention.”

Beneficial Back and Forth With so many platforms to choose from, and so many distinct, but often overlapping audiences, it can be difficult to know how to engage. Andreas Sandre, press and public affairs officer at the Embassy of Italy and author of “Twitter for Diplomats,” points to the embassy’s social media hub as a way to reach users in their preferred method, and discover why they’re coming to Italy — online.

“People think of Italy as Michelangelo, Leonardo [da Vinci], pizza and pasta, but we’re much more than that. People are looking at us for how to build a pair of shoes, or the engineering in the Maserati.We are our history, but we’re much more than what Italy was. Social media helps us tell the story of what we’re becoming. It lets us ask,‘What are you expecting from us? Are we doing a good job? How are people looking at Italy?’”

Direct engagement can also lead to surprising results. For Maria Galanou, press officer at the Embassy of Greece, a chance letter to the ambassador turned into one of the embassy’s most successful outreach campaigns.

“Megan, an American student studying abroad in Greece, sent a letter to the ambassador called ‘Battling Preconceptions with Reality in Greece,’” Galanou said. “In this letter, she stated how amazing her experience in Greece has been thus far, and that what she sees is nothing like what the media portrays.”

So the embassy created a “Study Abroad in Greece” social media campaign, using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as the hashtag #studyabroadgreece. More than 25,000 social media users were exposed to the campaign.

“Our social media strategy consists of creating a relationship with our friends and followers.That is why we make sure to interact with them online,” said Galanou. “We choose our content so as to highlight the connections between the American and Greek people, and we welcome content that our friends and followers have to share.”

Although negative comments can be an unwelcome part of an embassy’s social media presence, Galanou hasn’t shied away from them. When a troll began spamming the embassy’s Twitter feed with tales of animal abuse in Greece, Galanou and the press team contacted him directly.“We reached out to him, talked to him, asked him questions, shared positive content. He responded positively but then again started the same, because he’s a troll.We also followed all the people who retweet-

Galanou, Sandre, Barbour and Overveld all participate in the Digital Diplomacy Coalition (DDC), a rapidly growing, volunteer-based group that hosts local lectures, panels, happy hours and, most recently, an open house at the Embassy of Canada to showcase the various social media programs of Washington’s diplomatic corps.“DDC is a brilliant initiative and a great source of information, knowledge and networking among digital strategists and communication professionals of the diplomatic community in D.C.,” said Galanou.

Time and again, diplomats point to social media as a networking and promotional tool.

Many embassies use social media to encourage their followers to attend a sporting match, celebrate holiday festivities, or simply connect in person.

The Embassy of Canada has capitalized on its prime real estate and digital savvy to take its branding campaign to the next level, so much so that since the 2013 presidential inauguration, the embassy building has had its own Twitter hashtag: #viewfrom501.

“The viewfrom501 hashtag came about through lively debate pre-inauguration festivities,” said Alexandra Vachon White, a deputy spokesperson for the embassy. “We wanted a hashtag that would highlight our unique vantage point at 501 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, and at the same time be short, easy to remember, and applicable for any future event at the embassy. It allows us, and visitors, to include more content in our tweets when referencing the embassy. Space is at a premium in the Twittersphere, and #viewfrom501 saves those

valuable characters.”

And it’s extremely effective. White points to the presidential inauguration as one of the embassy’s most successful campaigns. “The 2013 Inauguration Tailgate event campaign was very well received. Our [Connect2Canada] followers on Twitter and Facebook who were not in attendance appreciated access to such a special day, and we were able to engage guests on site during the event by displaying their photos and tweets live on the Jumbotron in real time.”

Such engagement wasn’t a fluke. At the Digital Diplomacy Open House, attendees tweeted photos, links and updates using #viewfrom501, which provided a real-time experience from inside the embassy to those unable to attend, whether in Washington or around the world.

The Digital Diplomacy Coalition offers a forum for diplomats to share these kinds of tips with one another. Some embassies have the luxury of digitally dedicated staffs, while others rely on everyone to chip in a little online.

But given the rapid evolution of social media, there’s a constant learning curve for almost everyone involved. Finnish Ambassador Koukku-Ronde said her Ministry of Foreign Affairs is encouraging its diplomats to embrace social media, although she is still navigating this newfound terrain.

She said she tweets occasionally and tries to limit the number of people she’s following so as not to get overwhelmed. But she’s learned one old-fashioned trick that seems to get people’s attention. Taking a cue from BuzzFeed’s viral videos of cute animals, Koukku-Ronde joked that when all else fails,“use pictures of cats.”

Molly McCluskey (@MollyEMcCluskey) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Follow The Washington Diplomat on Twitter (@diplomatnews) and Facebook, or visit us online at www.washdiplomat.com.

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Diplomacy

Mediterranean

Turkish Cypriots Celebrate 30th Anniversary of Fictitious TRNC

by Larry Luxner

A

hmet Erdengiz may very well be the Rodney Dangerfield of Washington-based foreign diplomats: He don’t get no respect. That’s because only one nation, Turkey, recognizes his self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) — a political oddity slightly bigger than Rhode Island that unilaterally proclaimed independence on Nov. 15, 1983.

To mark the 30th anniversary of a country that doesn’t exist, Erdengiz invited several hundred guests to an official function last November at historic Parks House along Embassy Row, where guests noshed on a variety of Turkish delights such as hummus,Antalya bean salad, stuffed grape leaves, lamb kebabs and baklava.

One of the evening’s most prominent guests was former Congressman Michael McMahon of New York. Now a partner at Herrick Feinstein, the ex-lawmaker heads up a $200,000, one-year contract for his Park Avenue law firm to handle public affairs and government relations for the TRNC. McMahon has also done extensive legal work on behalf of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

But other than Turkey’s Namik Tan, no ambassadors were there to congratulate Erdengiz. Nor was anybody from the State Department, whose officials normally flock to such national day celebrations.

“It’s obvious that whenever people visit our office from the government side, the Greek Cypriot Embassy causes lots of problems,” Erdengiz told The Washington Diplomat.

“So we do not want our friends to suffer needlessly.”

Asked whom he considers his friends or enemies on Capitol Hill, Erdengiz refused to name names, saying only that “congressmen of Greek descent have always been hostile to us.”

It’s hard to overstate the enmity between Greece and Turkey, two ancient rivals engaged in a modern-day standoff on the small Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Of the 1.13 million inhabitants of Cyprus, about 840,000 people, nearly all of them Orthodox Christians, live in the Greekspeaking 63 percent of the island not under Turkish occupation, while just under 300,000 people, practically all of them Muslims, live in the Turkish-occupied northern zone Erdengiz calls the TRNC. The Greek-speaking citizens of Cyprus, as well as their allies in Greece and elsewhere, argue that Erdengiz’s socalled “Turkish republic” deserves no more international respect than the breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia or the short-lived “homelands” of Transkei and Ciskei, which were created and recognized only by the apartheid regime in South Africa.

For his part, Erdengiz insists that “we have been trying for a long time to solve the Cyprus issue. The talks have been going on and off for the last 48 years. It’s unbelievable.This must be one of the longest surviving disputes in the world.”

Deep Diplomatic Freeze It’s a frozen conflict that doesn’t appear to be thawing anytime soon. Recent attempts to restart reunification

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Photo: Larry Luxner

“

We have been trying for a long time to solve the Cyprus issue.

The talks have been going on and off for the last 48 years.

It’s unbelievable. This must be one of the longest surviving disputes in the world.

— Ahmet Erdengiz

”

U.S. representative of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

talks after an 18-month hiatus were derailed over the wording of a joint statement. It was just the latest failure to resolve a decades-long trauma that has been seared into the collective psyches of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, igniting fierce passions and a narrative of victimhood that each side claims as its own.

The seeds of the conflict date to 1960, when the Republic of Cyprus achieved full independence from Britain under an agreement that included guarantees of the rights of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

The accord also prohibited either political union with Greece (an option backed by Greek Cypriots but strongly opposed by the Turks) or partition of Cyprus into two separate republics. Yet following independence, the Greek Cypriot majority curtailed the rights of the country’s Turkish-speaking minority, launching what the Turks say was a violent campaign to force Turkish inhabitants into fleeing. In 1964, U.N. peacekeeping forces had to be sent in to quell the worsening communal violence.

From left, Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan; Ahmet Erdengiz, the U.S. representative of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC); and Ambassador James H. Holmes, president and CEO of the American-Turkish Council, pose for a picture at the TRNC’s 30th anniversary reception in Washington, D.C.

The situation finally exploded on July 15, 1974, when a military coup by officers favoring union with Greece deposed the government. On July 20, Turkey invaded Cyprus and occupied the northern two-fifths of the island. Following the 1974 invasion, an estimated 170,000 Greek Cypriots were expelled, and thousands of Turks from Anatolia were brought in to populate the area. In 1975, Turkey announced a de facto partition of Cyprus, and eight years later, the TRNC was unilaterally declared.

Erdengiz denies that Turkey’s rule over the northern 37 percent of Cyprus constitutes a military occupation.

“Turkish troops arrived on the island in 1974 in accordance with an international treaty that gave Turkey the right and obligation to intervene if the territorial integrity of Cyprus was threatened, or if any of the communities living there were threatened,” he said.“Turkish troops did not invade the island but were sent to protect and save it.”

That’s ridiculous, counters George Chacalli, the Cypriot ambassador to the United States, who has never met Erdengiz and has no desire to.

“Since he is part of an entity that promotes this forcible division of my country, how do you expect me to have a conversation with him?” Chacalli told The Diplomat.“You’re talking about a part of our country that is under foreign occupation. It’s been created by force of arms contrary to international law. Thousands of colonists from Turkey have been imported, fundamental human rights are being violated, and religious freedoms are going down the drain.”

Miltos Miltiadou, a former spokesman for the Embassy

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

of Cyprus in Washington, was even more bitter in his condemnation of the Turkish Cypriot festivities in the city where he used to serve.

“It is incomprehensible why anyone would join celebrations for such an international crime — planned, directed and executed by Turkey — to dismember the Republic of Cyprus,” Miltiadou told The Diplomat in an email from Nicosia, listing a litany of transgressions that includes massive ethnic cleansing, “systematic cultural genocide aimed at eradicating all traces of non-Turkish and non-Muslim cultural heritage,” and usurpation of the homes and properties of displaced Greek Cypriots. “All these crimes are part of Turkey’s ongoing aggression against Cyprus and an insult to human decency and an affront to the rule of law. How can one feel good participating in parties celebrating such despicable acts?”

The ill will is clearly mutual, judging from the way Erdengiz speaks.

“They cannot simply make Turkish Cyprus disappear by saying there is only one Cyprus,” he said.“The fact is that since 1963, we have administered ourselves. Turkish Cypriots were kicked out of the Republic of Cyprus by force of arms, so as far as we’re concerned that republic does not exist.”

The United Nations, though, says it’s the other way around. On Nov. 18, 1983 — just three days after the TRNC declared its “independence” — the U.N. Security Council ruled the Turkish Cypriot declaration legally invalid.

Since then, the United Nations has tried to broker talks between the two sides but continually stumbled over issues such as power sharing, redrawing boundaries, Turkey’s military presence and thousands of property claims by the displaced. A pivotal moment came in April 2004, when more than three-fourths of Greek Cypriots voted to reject a United Nations plan to reunite the divided island. Some 65 percent of Turkish Cypriots supported the move, seeing it as a way to end their international isolation. However, both sides had to approve the plan — put forth by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan — for Cyprus to be reunified in time for membership in the European Union.

As a result, the island joined the EU “divided and militarized,”Annan told the media, complaining that Cyprus missed a historic opportunity to solve its problems.

“Four decades on, the sides remain far apart even on the meaning of the negotiations’ agreed objective: a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation,” the International Crisis Group said in a 2011 report that outlined six steps both sides could take to reach an elusive settlement. “Although there has long been peace, and a relative freedom to interact since 2003, trade and visits between the two communities across the Green Line are decreasing, reflecting popular cynicism toward the prospects of reunification.”

Pseudo Statehood In the meantime, the TRNC, despite its economic and diplomatic isolation, does its best to keep up the trappings of sovereignty. Besides its own passports, the TRNC issues its own postage stamps and maintains a 5,000-man Turkish Cypriot Security Force. It even has its own international dialing code, +392, though all phone calls must be routed through Turkey.

Erdengiz, 56, was born and raised in Nicosia, the last divided city on Earth. He’s been in the diplomatic service for the last 26 years, except for a five-year period as head of his government’s Missing Persons Committee. Previously, Erdengiz served at TRNC missions in Brussels and Istanbul.

He also did two stints in Washington — once from 1987 to 1991 and again from 1997 to 2001.

Erdengiz arrived for his third Washington posting in April 2012, heading a four-person office on K Street.Yet this seasoned diplomat doesn’t enjoy the red-carpet treatment afforded most foreign dignitaries. On the contrary, his frequent arrivals at Dulles International Airport on flights from February 2014

chapter veto if Turkey opens its airports and seaports to Cypriot vessels.

For his part, Chacalli says his country is ready to move forward with talks, despite rejecting the landmark 2004 reunification deal.

He noted that since the election of Nicos Anastasiades of the center-right political party Democratic Rally as president last February, “we’ve been working very hard to achieve some kind of a solution. There’s now a very intense effort between the two communities to come up with a common declaration that will set the principles on which a high-level dialogue will be based, under the auspices of the United Nations.”

Chacalli said the 2012-13 financial crisis, which led to the downgrading of his country’s credit rating to junk status, the closing of its second-largest bank, and finally to a €10 billion EU-IMF bailout, has had “no effect whatsoever” on this ongoing dialogue. track one thing,in thespelling political and NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure “The youreconomic ad is free of is mistakes element is completely different,” said the Cypriot content it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. ambassador. “We are trying to get the economy Photo: Larry Luxner of the Republic of Cyprus back on track, and This panoramic view of Nicosia, the world’s last dividedThe capital city,two looksfaxed toward the northern will half ofbe Nicosia, which first changes made at nowe’re costalso to the advertiser, subsequent changes trying to find a political solution since functions as capital of the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

1974.” Signed ads are considered approved. will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration.

Of course, Erdengiz doesn’t buy that arguyear over check the recent crackdown on pro- ment Istanbul end up being a major headache because half a Please for any a minute. this ad carefully.

Mark changes to your ad. immigration officials don’t know what to do democracy protests in Istanbul. But the Cypriot “On the contrary, they use this economic crigovernment is blocking the opening of six of the sis as an excuse to delay the talks,” said the envoy, about his TRNC-issued passport. ad chapters is correctin sign to: (301) needs changes“The EU wants to the and EU’s fax rulebook, while949-0065 the sounding a note “It makes my job extremely difficult, to say Ifthethe 35 of pessimism. least. Even coming into this country is a big European Commission itself is blocking eight resolve this issue, but it is at the end of the day because of Turkey’s trade ban on(301) Cyprus, and up to the Greek Cypriots to come to the negotiordeal for us, because our passports are not recThe Washington Diplomat 933-3552 ating table. And since the Greek Cypriot side is ognized. We have to go through secondary France is blocking another four.

Turkish negotiator Egemen Bagis told report- recognized as the government of Cyprus and we inspections every time,” Erdengiz complained.

Approved __________________________________________________________ “Last time, I had to wait more than three hours at ers the United Nations is working on a new remain unrecognized, the Greek Cypriots don’t Changes ___________________________________________________________ conflict resolution deal that could be put to a feel the need to resolve it.” the airport. Life isn’t easy for Turkish Cypriots. vote by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots in 2014.

And it’s not only here. In many other countries ___________________________________________________________________ Meanwhile, EU official Stefan Füle said his Larry Luxner is news editor of The we face the same situation.”

Yet that doesn’t mean the TRNC is completely enlargement commission would lift its eight- Washington Diplomat. friendless.

“In Pakistan, we remain unrecognized, but we are part of the diplomatic corps. We have offices in all the Gulf states,” said Erdengiz. “We have 15 offices in Europe, including one in Sweden we opened around six months ago. We’re in the process of [establishing] new missions in Helsinki and elsewhere.”

According to Erdengiz, the TRNC’s New York

By John T. Shaw mission is slightly larger than its Washington office, with six staffers.

“We are registered [in the United States] under Before John F. Kennedy became the the Foreign Agents Registration Act and we maincharismatic 35th president of the United tain our offices as representatives,” he explained.

States and an enduring global icon, he “It’s more or less like Taiwan, but there’s a big served for nearly eight years as the junior difference: At one point, the U.S. recognized senator from Massachusetts. From 1953 Taiwan as a state. Nevertheless, we meet people to 1960, he mastered the nuances of on the Hill and function like a small embassy.And American politics and carefully charted a the U.S. Embassy in the Greek part of Cyprus path to realize his presidential dreams. maintains a liaison office in northern Nicosia.”

TRNC officials also maintain strong ties with In the first book to focus on his tenure as Israel as well as with several former Soviet — and a Senator, John Shaw shows how Kennedy predominantly Muslim — republics such as used the upper chamber as a policy and Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. political training ground.

“We have offices in Baku, Astana and Tel Aviv,” Shaw, a contributing writer for The WashErdengiz told us. “We have no problems with ington Diplomat, explores Kennedy's role Israel, and in fact we have Israeli tourists visiting in some of the most important domestic Northern Cyprus as well as Israeli investors in and international struggles of that era, the tourism sector…. We also receive Arab tourincluding the challenge posed by the ists from the Gulf states and have seven internaSoviet Union and China, France's faltertional universities with students coming from ing military interventions in Vietnam and more than 40 countries.”

JFK IN THE SENATE: Pathway to the Presidency

A.E. Fletcher Photography

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Algeria, and the battle to reform the labor movement in the United States.

Last Push for Peace, Or Another Letdown?

Yet Israel has also been cozying up to Cyprus as part of the rush to tap the vast reserves of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey has warned that it considers drilling off the southern coast of Cyprus illegal, sparking fears of energy-related clashes in the region.

Since 2004, Cypriots have also used their EU membership to thwart Turkey’s longstanding bid to join the European Union. In early November, talks resumed in Brussels on Turkey’s accession to the 28-member bloc after stalling for nearly

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The Washington Diplomat

(MECHANICAL SCALE = 100%)

KEYLINES DO NOT PRINT

February 2014

MEDICAL ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ February 2014

The Attention Deficit Disorder That Often Goes Unnoticed

by Gina Shaw

My oldest daughter, now 8, walked early, talked early, and read her first words when she was 4. She’s a bright and verbal little girl, but as she went from kindergarten into first grade, it became obvious that she was struggling with her schoolwork.

Continued on next page

Continued on next page

Photo: niko guido / istock

MEDICAL February 2014

The Washington Diplomat Page 23

Continued from previous page

“Girls with ADHD are more compliant and are not as easy to spot….

Often they are left to drift along from one school year to the next, never working up to their potential and suffering silently.”

Reading even a page of a simple book became a battle. For a time at the beginning of second grade, she complained of difficulty seeing small letters so convincingly that we were sure she needed glasses. (A — Dr. Patricia Quinn, author of “Attention, Girls! A Guide to Learn All About Your AD/HD” pediatric ophthalmologist soon proved otherwise.) She’d constantly lose her place in a book because she was trying to look ahead inattentive type, and combined type. The • Avoid or try to get out of tasks that require Today’s Push for Performance,” due out next NOTE: Although every effort is made assure ad is free spelling and to see how many more pages shetohad to read.your sustained concentration (like homework) hyperactive typeofis mistakes the one thatin probably month, he says that boys’ ADHD diagnoses “A whoooole page?” she’d moan. content it is ultimately up toDoing the spellcustomer proof.of ADHD • Lose things she needs for her homework comestotomake mind the whenfinal you think now outpace girls by only 2.5 to 1. ing practice, she’d misspell words that were (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder): fidgBut the gap is still far too wide, and girls or activities right in front of her on the spelling list. eting, squirming, getting up often when seatwith ADHD still have major problems that The first two faxed changes made atteacher no costed,totalking the advertiser, subsequent changes Then one day will her be second-grade • Get distracted easily too much or out of turn, interruptboys do not, according to Hinshaw’s research. took aside a school didn’t ing, will be billed at a me rate of at$75 perfunction. faxed She alteration.

Signed areplaying considered approved. having ads trouble quietly, and run- • Be forgetful in her daily activities He’s been following a group of more than 200 want to wait for parent-teacher conferences ning or playing at inappropriate times. girls with ADHD for more than 10 years, and to talk to me. With a lot of extra help, our But girls are more than twice as likely as at his 10-year follow-up review, 27 percent of When I read that list, it felt like someone Pleasedaughter check Mark any changes to your ad. wasthis at gradead levelcarefully. in reading but was boys to have the “inattentive” type of ADHD had been spying on our family as we’ve girls with inattentive ADHD and 51 percent of falling behind in math. “I think your daughter — a type that’s a lot less disruptive in the struggled with our daughter’s schoolwork for girls with combined type ADHD (both hyperhave attention deficit disorder, ” she sug- classroom.

A childchanges with predominantly inat- the past year and a half. Check, check, check, active and inattentive symptoms) had engaged he ad is correctmay sign and fax to: (301) 949-0065 needs gested. tentive ADHD won’t necessarily be a behavior in self-injury, like cutting or burning of skin.

When you think of a child with attention problem for the teacher. She won’t talk out of check — all nine signs fit perfectly with our And 23 percent of the girls with combineddaughter’s behavior. deficit disorder, you probably a hyper- turn or jump out of her seat during a lesson. e Washington Diplomat (301)picture 933-3552 We immediately made an appointment type ADHD, along with 8 percent of the inatactive little boy who can’t sit still in class, gets But according to Dr. Larry Silver, clinical protentive type, had made a serious suicide into fights, and runs around the room instead fessor of psychiatry at Georgetown University with an educational psychologist. We don’t attempt. yet know for sure that she has ADHD — or, if proved __________________________________________________________ of doing his homework.And it’s true that boys Medical Center, she probably will: “No boys follow-up has ever found anyshe does, whether or not other learning issues are nearly three times more likely than girls thing like this,” Hinshaw told the Chicago anges ___________________________________________________________ are also at play — but her alert teacher, who (13.2 percent vs. 5.6 percent) to have ever • Make careless mistakes in her schoolwork Tribune. “Boys with ADHD are more aggreshas a daughter with the same type of ADHD _________________________________________________________________ been diagnosed with attention deficit disorherself, gave us the heads up early on so that sive; later there are job problems. With girls, a der, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease • Have trouble sustaining attention in her we could get her evaluated by professionals startlingly high risk exists for directing negawork Control and Prevention. tivity inward, transforming into very selfBut that may not reflect what’s really going • Seem not to listen when spoken to directly before she fell even further behind. destructive behavior.”

Not all girls are so fortunate. on with our kids. Girls may be much less Fortunately, there are more resources today In a Harris Poll survey led by D.C.-based • Frequently fail to follow through on likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit than ever before specifically aimed at helping developmental pediatrician Dr. Patricia Quinn instructions and leave her schoolwork or disorder because of the kind of disorder many — author of more than 20 books on ADHD for girls and women with ADHD. Quinn’s chores unfinished of them have. children, including “Attention, Girls! A Guide ADDvance organization has a whole section There are three commonly identified types • Have difficulty organizing her work or to Learn All About Your AD/HD” — four out of for women and girls at http://www.addvance. of attention deficit disorder: hyperactive type, activities 10 teachers reported more difficulty in recog- com/help/women/index.html and an online nizing ADHD symptoms in girls. And 85 per- bookstore featuring dozens of titles focused cent of the teachers and more than half of the on the needs of girls and women who have parents and the general public believe that ADHD. Finally, here are a few tips from ADDvance girls with ADHD are more likely to go undiagto help your daughter succeed if she has nosed.

“Girls with ADHD are more compliant and ADHD: are not as easy to spot,” Quinn explained in an online interview with the Edge Foundation, • Help her to establish a “quiet zone” in her life.This isn’t just a quiet place to do homea nonprofit that helps high school and colwork undistracted, although she’ll probably lege students with ADHD.“Often they are left need that too. It’s about teaching her stress to drift along from one school year to the management skills and helping her take next, never working up to their potential and time for herself after being upset. suffering silently.” As many as 75 percent of girls with the disorder may be missed, accord- • Minimize correction and criticism. Her selfing to ADDvance, an organization created by esteem is probably low enough as it is. You Quinn and clinical psychologist Kathleen may be trying to help, but fill her up with Nadeau. encouragement and positive interactions to Quinn’s survey also found that while boys counterbalance the negative. who are struggling in school are more likely to be evaluated for ADHD or a learning dis- • Make home a safe place. Confidence can be eroded during a long day at school. Let her ability, girls who are performing poorly are unwind at home and feel supported and more likely to be asked to repeat a grade — understood. something that can be counterproductive • Help find ways she can excel. If she identiand further hamper their already floundering Face Lift/Neck Lift • Eyelid Surgery fies a skill or talent she’s good at, it can give self-esteem.

(Girls with ADHD tend to have TM ® ® Rhinoplasty • Skin Tyte • Fraxel • Botox your daughter an amazing boost. My daughmore self-esteem problems than boys, as TM ® ® ® Dysport • Sculptra • Radiesse • Juvederm ter, who was scaling a terrifyingly high junwell.)

BBLTM • Microdermabrasion • Chemical Peels gle gym at the age of 18 months, has joined “They might get an A on a report, but Voluma®• DermaPen®• Belotero®• Xeomin® a local rock-climbing gym. She might give because they had to work three times as hard up on a tough book at home, but she’ll go to get it, they see themselves as not being as back again and again to the most challengsmart as other people,” Quinn told ADDitude ing wall at the gym until she masters it. She magazine, a publication for people with attenJENNIFER PARKER PORTER, MD, FACS now writes poetry about rock climbing! tion deficit disorders.

And girls with ADHD are less likely to finish BOARD CERTIFIED a four-year college than other girls, according Gina Shaw is the medical writer FACIAL PLASTIC & RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY to a 10-year body of research from Stephen for The Washington Diplomat.

CLINICAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN Hinshaw, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the BROWN, B.S., DUKE, M.D. University of California at Berkeley and vice chair for psychology at UC-San Francisco.

The “gender gap” in ADHD diagnosis is better today than it was when Hinshaw first 8401 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, SUITE 107, CHEVY CHASE, MD 20815 started publishing on girls with the disorder Follow The Diplomat in 2002, doubling the published literature on 301.652.8191 WWW.CHEVYCHASEFACE.COM the topic with his first article. In “The ADHD Connect at www.washdiplomat.com.

Explosion: Myths, Medication, Money, and

Page 24

MEDICAL The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

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MEDICAL February 2014

The Washington Diplomat Page 25

[ heart disease ]

Seeing Red National Wear Red Day Spotlights Women’s Heart Health

by Larry Luxner

F

eb. 7, 2014, marks 50 years since the Beatles first set foot in America, 110 years since the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, and the inauguration of the XXII Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

But for many Americans, the first Friday of this month stands out as a red-letter day for an entirely different reason: It’s National Wear Red Day, when both men and women across the United States plan to wear red in unison to call attention to women’s heart health. While breast cancer and its related pink campaigns often attract national attention, heart disease kills more women than all forms of cancer combined.

The program is sponsored by the Heart Truth, a project of the Bethesda-based National Institutes of Health. Since its founding in 2002 by NIH and the American Heart Association, the program’s symbol has been a stylized red dress. It’s aimed primarily at women ages 40 through 60, though younger women are also at risk for heart disease — especially if they’re of African or Hispanic descent.

In fact, says the American Heart Association, on average, Hispanic women are likely to develop heart disease 10 years earlier than other women.

Despite that heightened risk, most are still unaware of the threat to themselves and their families. That’s why the campaign has lately been making a concerted effort to reach women in Spanish-speaking communities and tell them about this “silent killer” lurking in their midst.

“We hope this sea of red across our country leaves a lasting impression on every woman, communicating the hard truth that she may be at risk for heart disease, the number-one killer of women,” said Ann Taubenheim, chief of health campaigns and consumer services at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a division of NIH. “We also want this day to remind women that they can control their risk and protect their hearts, starting with a visit to the doctor to learn about their personal risk factors.”

Dr. David B. Grossberg, a Silver Spring, Md., cardiologist affiliated with Holy Cross Hospital, said he’s amazed how many women underestimate the dangers of heart disease.

“Most women think their biggest risk of dying is from breast or ovarian cancer. But a post-menopausal woman is much more likely to die of coronary heart disease,” said Grossberg, a board-certified, noninvasive cardiologist with a special interest in preventive cardiology, risk factor modification, coronary artery disease, and treatment of high cholesterol and other lipid disorders.

“There are things you can modify, and things you can’t,” said the physician.“I always tell my patients you can’t change your parents, your gender or your age.”

However, other risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol can be modified through common-sense dieting and exercise. Smoking and a sedentary lifestyle should be avoided

Page 26

Photo: Luiza Elena / iStock

at all costs, he said.

“Obviously, if you’re 30 years old and you smoke four packs a day, you already have a problem. But the risks are much higher after menopause,” he said. “With exercise, your goal should be at least 30 to 40 minutes of brisk walking four to five times a week. And the cigarette smoking has to stop.”

Evidently, women are starting to listen to their doctors — and the red dress may have something to do with that.

In the 12 years since NIH introduced the Heart Truth, heart disease deaths among American women have declined, while awareness of heart disease among women has nearly doubled. The government agency says more than half of women now know that heart disease is their leading cause of death, up from 34 percent in 2000. Furthermore, awareness is leading to action.

In 2009, 48 percent of women reported discussing heart disease with their doctors, up from 30 percent in 1997.

According to the American Heart Association, 34 percent fewer women died from heart disease in 2013 than in 2003, which translates into 330 lives saved every day. Moreover, 37 percent of women are losing weight, 43 percent are checking their cholesterol, 50 percent now exercise more than before, and 60 percent have improved their diets. In addition, 15 percent have quit smoking, while registration for the association’s Go Red For Women campaign exceeds 1.75 million people.

Other factoids: More than 25 million Red Dress Pins have been worn to support the cause, at least 185 cities now host Go Red For Women

See heart Disease, page 28

MEDICAL The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

MEDICAL February 2014

The Washington Diplomat Page 27

TargeT Your MarkeTing

“Most women think their biggest risk of dying is from breast or ovarian cancer.

But a post-menopausal woman is much more likely to die of coronary heart disease.”

N

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— Dr. David B. Grossberg

L

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Maryland cardiologist AL

IC MED

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from page 26

HOTE

Heart Disease

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events and luncheons — and more than 2,000 landmarks across the nation light up in red on National Wear Red Day. Meanwhile, the NIH says that, “Women who reported recently seeing or hearing about the red dress or the campaign were substantially more likely than other women to take at least one risk-reducing action as a result. More women are living longer, healthier lives, and fewer are dying of heart disease.”

Yet challenges remain, with heart disease killing nearly 1,100 mothers, sisters, daughters and friends every day.

That’s why so many first ladies have gotten in on the act. Laura Bush served as the program’s national ambassador from 2003 to 2009 as part of her Women’s Health and Wellness Initiative. And the First Ladies Red Dress Collection — featuring red dresses and suits worn by 14 of America’s first ladies, including Michelle

Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, Pat Nixon, Lady Bird Johnson and Jacqueline Kennedy — has been exhibited everywhere from Washington’s Kennedy Center to the National First Ladies’ Library in Canton, Ohio.

Last year, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) celebrated National Wear Red Day by getting hearts pumping and feet moving in a zumba class at the NIH Clinical Center.

After that, Dr. Gary Gibbons, director of the NHLBI, participated in a Twitter chat with U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin that “trended” nationwide, meaning it was one of the most-followed topics on Twitter that day.

National Wear Red Day is so popular that it’s now spread to the United Kingdom, where it’s celebrated annually on Feb. 26 and sponsored by the British Heart Foundation.

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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MEDICAL The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

culture & ■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

arts

entertainment

■ FEBRUARY 2014

Diplomatic Spouses

Adventures in Diplomacy Marliese Heimann-Ammon and her husband, German Ambassador Peter Ammon, have capitalized on his various postings to experience new adventures, from train rides through Africa to biking along American beaches. PAGE 31

Photography

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then award-winning Turkish photographer Ara Güler’s more than 800,000 photographs present a visual novel of Anatolia. PAGE 32

Theater

Swinging Silence While thinking outside the box is not new for Synetic Theater, whose trademark is wordless adaptations of theater classics, the group seems to throw out the metaphorical box altogether by staging “Twelfth Night” in the roaring ’20s. PAGE 33

Photo: Eileen Harris Norton

Anatolia in Focus

Creative ‘Damage’ ART

From nuclear armageddon to rebellion and violence, “Damage Control” isn’t always easy to look at, but the globe-spanning exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum does an admirable job of helping us see destruction as a force that is almost as important as creation in contemporary art. PAGE 30

DINING

FILM REVIEWS

Sak Pollert keeps stringing Washingtonians along — in a good way — by keeping DC Noodles fresh. PAGE 34

A microcosm of Egyptian history plays out in Jehane Noujaim’s “The Square.” PAGE 36

[ art ]

Constructive Destruction ‘Damage Control’ at Hirshhorn Surveys Ruins of Artistic Creation

by Michael Coleman

F

[ Page 30

or most people, art is creation, but an unorthodox exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum presents art as exactly the opposite.

“Damage Control:Art and Destruction Since 1950” delves into destruction and reminds us of its important place in the world of contemporary art. Featuring approximately 90 works by more than 40 international artists, the exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, printmaking, photography, film, video, installation and performance art.

The exhibition occupies most of the Hirshhorn’s second-floor gallery and begins with the biggest bang of all — a nuclear explosion.

In the 1950s, Harold Edgerton, along with his colleagues Kenneth Germeshausen and Herbert Grier, produced the film “Photography of Nuclear Detonations,” which captured a number of test explosions at the behest of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. One of their films, a 16-minute nuclear testing film, depicts a hydrogen bomb detonated in all its fury over the parched desert of southern New Mexico.The roiling intensity of the nuclear inferno and the velocity of the smoke rising to form a dreaded mushroom cloud wasn’t intended as art, but projected here on a wide screen in the Hirshhorn, it is nothing short of mesmerizing.

The nuclear imagery is a bracing introduction to an exhibition that explores artistic chaos in many different — if not always so apocalyptic — forms.

“I felt there was a need to create a thematic exhibition dealing with the numerous artists who since around 1950 have harnessed the powers of destruction as a counterattack on the destructive forces in a world close to the apocalypse,” said Hirshhorn interim director and chief curator Kerry Brougher in a press release announcing the exhibition.

Brougher curated the exhibition with Russell Ferguson, an art professor at UCLA, who said he “had become interested in exploring the way artists, from the mid-’60s on, had begun to re-engage with destruction as a vehicle for self-expression, iconoclasm and rebellion.”

Moving into the next gallery and away from nuclear explosions, Swiss artist Jean Tinguely’s “The Sorceress” strikes a much more whimsical note. Tinguely Damage Control: Art and employs a metallic jumble of hangers, springs, Destruction Since 1950 washers and other household items to create “The Sorceress,” which appears to be little through May 26 more than a scrap heap until plugged in.Then, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden it transforms into a jangling, throbbing life Independence Avenue and 7th Street, SW form. The image is not unlike a wild-haired For more information, please call (202) 633-1000 woman playing guitar — fun and possibly a bit or visit www.hirshhorn.si.edu. feral.

Raphael Montañez Ortiz’s “Archaeological Find #3” at first glance appears to be a wood installation, a tree opened up to reveal the organic complexity inside. But upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this is actually a burned mattress.The browns and beiges of the decayed cotton batting inside form a surprisingly eye-pleasing palette as the mattress’s rusting metal springs jut forth in random sequences.

Meanwhile, Thomas Demand’s “Landing” leaves nothing to the imagination, except perhaps the question of how this could happen. The large-scale photograph depicts Demand’s meticulous recreation of a mishap that occurred in January 2006 at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge when a visitor fell down a staircase and destroyed three 18th-century oriental vases, smashing them into hundreds of pieces. Demand meticulously recreated the scene of the crime, so to speak, based on photographs, and he manages to find a modicum of beauty in the horror. The soft light, coupled with the jade-colored fragments, is almost soothing.

Douglas Gordon’s series of vandalized photos of pop music stars, titled “Self Portrait of

]

The Washington Diplomat

Photo: Glenstone

From top, Jeff Wall’s “The Destroyed Room,” a still from Laurel Nakadate’s “Greater New York,” and Yoshitomo Nara’s “No Nukes (in the floating world)” — as well as Nara’s “No Fun! (in the floating world),” pictured on the culture cover — are among 90 works by more than 40 international artists in “Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950.”

You+Me,” depicts portraits of such musical luminaries as Marvin Gaye, the Bee Gees, Cher and Kurt Cobain in various stages of distress. A classic photo of the Gibb brothers posing back to back in all-white leisure Photo: Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York suits is seriously sullied by what looks like blood and burn holes splattered across the frame.

Gaye’s typically serene visage morphs into something sinister under Gordon’s treatment, which includes cutting out the famed soul singer’s eyes and mouth.

Pipilotti Rist’s 1997 video installation “Ever is Over All” is arresting not only for its staccato bursts of violence, but for the pretty sheen that Rist’s actress injects into the proceedings. In the Photo: Eileen Harris Norton short slow-motion film, a young woman walks along a city street, smashing the windows of parked cars with a large hammer in the shape of a tropical flower.The woman’s pleasant green dress and high-heeled shoes create a marked contrast to the aggressive damage she inflicts on the parked cars.

Toward the end of this interesting, if somewhat disjointed, exhibition, the allusions to destruction get intensely violent. In what is perhaps the most difficult piece in the show, Christian Marclay’s video “Guitar Drag,” a Fender Stratocaster guitar is affixed by a chain to the back of an automobile. The guitar — plugged in, amplified and screeching — is dragged down dirt roads and along asphalt thoroughfares.The imagery intends to invoke the horror of James Byrd Jr., a black man who was chained behind a pickup truck by white supremacists and pulled along to his death in 1998.

“Damage Control” isn’t always easy to look at, and sometimes it seems to veer in too many directions. But the exhibition does an admirable job of helping us see destruction as a force that is almost as important as creation in contemporary art.

Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

February 2014

[ diplomatic spouses ]

Life of Adventure From Fashion to Art, Wife Spotlights ‘New Germany’

by Gail Scott

“G

ermany is not just Bavaria,” said Marliese HeimannAmmon, wife of German Ambassador Peter Ammon, with just a wisp of hometown pride. “Cologne is my home,” she said, fondly adding, “It has the name, the city of the heart.”

It also has plenty of history. Cologne, Germany’s fourth-largest city, dates back 2,000 years to the Roman Empire.The University of Cologne is one of the oldest and largest in Europe. The city holds another unique place in history: The name for “eau de cologne,” a less concentrated perfume for daily use, originated there.

Located on both sides of the picturesque Rhine River, the city was bombed and almost totally destroyed during World War II. The rebuilding worked to preserve Cologne’s medieval gems while bringing it into the 21st century. Today, the city known to Germans as Köln has become a hub of arts and culture, with many museums and galleries, two symphony orchestras, 11 churches and a cathedral that’s been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Since coming to Washington in 2011, Heimann-Ammon has showcased several artists at the German Residence while adding German and American paintings and sculptures to the sleek, modern residence on Foxhall Road to give it more warmth and softness.“I’m always on the lookout for new artists,” she told us.

It’s part of her desire to give Americans a multifaceted picture of her dynamic homeland.

“Most Americans know a lot about Germany and have a positive view … only a few haven’t taken note of the changes since World War II,” she said.“Germany today is very tolerant and diverse. We are open to foreigners and have a successful integration of people from all over the world. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, we took in a great number of immigrants from Eastern Europe, many of whom were Jewish. And today we have a very strong Jewish community.”

And while Germany is known as the no-nonsense economic engine of Europe, Heimann-Ammon says it also has a lighthearted side. “People in Cologne have a good balance in their lives.They like to have fun and they are serious about their work.”

In fact, that combination of fun and work lit the spark between Heimann-Ammon and her husband.

“I was 24 when I left Cologne to teach in a secondary school in Berlin.

That’s where I met my husband. He was an assistant professor at Berlin’s Free University,” she recalled.“We met in a disco and he asked if I would like to go sailing with him the next The boat capsized and we My job is to make every day. nearly drowned. That was our first guest who comes to the date! This and our shared interest in traveling bound us together.That was 37 years ago.”

They were married in 1979 and moved to residence feel at home….

London the following year. Subsequent postings We are here to showcase the took them to Senegal, India and France.

“Following the tradition of those days, I had to new Germany. give up my own career,” Heimann-Ammon explained.“I am a late mother,” she added.“When — Marliese Heimann-Ammon my husband and I were posted to Africa, we had already been married for several years but could wife of German Ambassador Peter Ammon not have children. We traveled extensively in Africa during that time and had many incredible experiences.”

“For example, on a train ride from Dakar to Bamako in Mali, I shared a compartment for 40 hours with an African lady from the magic town of Timbuktu. She pitied me for not having children at my then age of 36 and tried to give me all kinds of advice. Two weeks later — on my way back to Dakar — she sought me out at the airport in Bamako only to tell me that I would have two children in the next few years. Six months later I was pregnant and two months after Ariane was born, I was pregnant again. Then of course my life changed. I said goodbye to adventurous travel and we returned to Germany where our two daughters were born.”

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February 2014

Marliese Heimann-Ammon is pictured with her husband, German Ambassador Peter Ammon, above, during a trip to Austin, Texas, as part of the State Department’s “Experience America” program, and at left with her daughters Ariane and Christina.

Today, 27-year-old Ariane is a veterinarian in Cologne and Christina, 26, is an economist in London.

“My daughters and I are very close. We did everything together when they were growing up,” Heimann-Ammon told us.

In 1989, the whole family moved to India where her husband was the press spokesman of the German Embassy in New Delhi. From 1991 to 1999, they returned to Germany, where Ammon was head of policy planning and speechwriter to the German president. Following that, they moved to Washington, D.C., for the first time. While the ambassador served as the embassy’s economic minister, their preteen-age girls attended the German School in Potomac, Md. Then came a stint in France, where Ammon was the ambassador from 2007 to 2008. “We lived in the famous Palais de Beauharnais, Germany’s residence in Paris,” Heimann-Ammon noted.

When Ammon became state secretary at the German Foreign Office, his wife had new duties as well.“I had to perform protocol tasks such as accompanying the German president and his wife on their official travels,” said Heimann-Ammon, who also organized events for the diplomatic corps.

In August 2011, they moved to D.C. for the second time.“The girls were young when we were here before so I didn’t get to know a lot of other people. I was busy taking them to after-school activities like horseback riding and piano lessons.This time, I have much more time to myself.”

So Heimann-Ammon has joined a panoply of different groups.“I enjoy attending the Eleanor Roosevelt Club’s lectures at CSIS,” she said, referring to the Center for Security and International Studies. “I also belong to International Club #1, the McLean Foreign Policy Club, and I especially like the monthly lectures held by the National Museum of Women in the Arts,” said Heimann-Ammon, who also belongs to a French conversation

See diplomatic spouses, page 35 The Washington Diplomat Page 31

[ photography ]

Documenting Anatolia ‘Eye of Istanbul’ Focuses on Lesser-Known Side of Turkey

by Sarah Alaoui

I

[

f a picture is worth a thousand words, then awardwinning Turkish photographer Ara Güler’s more than 800,000 photographs present a visual novel of Anatolia and, more broadly, a rapidly developing country beautifully frozen in time.

“In Focus: Ara Güler’s Anatolia,” on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, reveals a selection of never-before-shown works by this prolific photographer known as the “eye of Istanbul” for his iconic depictions of Turkish street life in the 1950s and 1960s.While the Turkey of travel books never fails to include colorful photos of the Bosphorus and the Hagia Sophia, this D.C. exhibition features 21 photos of important sites across Anatolia, Turkey’s vast Asian mainland that is unknown to many tourists who travel to the republic. The photos barely feature humans but rather focus on historical and archeological monuments. They were carefully chosen to stimulate discussion around various themes, including magic, change and truth.

“I believe that photography is a form of magic, by means of which a moment of experience is seized for transmission to future generations,” Güler, who is now 85 and continues to live and work in Istanbul, was once quoted as saying.

Yet the photojournalist had conflicted feelings about photography as art; rather he saw his role as documentarian rather than artist.An economics major at Istanbul University, Güler first dabbled in cinema before working as a photojournalist for various publications starting in the 1950s, including Hayat (Life) magazine, Time Life, Paris Match and Smithsonian magazine. And while he also worked at Magnum Photos (alongside acclaimed photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson) producing stunning imagery, in his eyes he was a visual historian, chronicling the experiences and landscape of his country rather than creating art for art’s sake. He insisted that his photographs “aren’t normal photographs — they are press photographs … press photographers record the visual history of our time.”

Almost resembling scenes from a fairy tale, the never-before-shown photographs capturing medieval Seljuk, Armenian and Ottoman monuments were taken by Güler in the early 1960s. Ringing true to his philosophy of photography as documentation, the photos look more like materials from an archive than his portraits of Salvador Dalí or Alfred Hitchcock, for example. But these historical treasures are just as brimming with life, such as the Ottoman-period İshak Paşa Palace in Doğubayazıt, a UNESCO World Heritage site.The exhibition also includes photos that pay testament to Güler’s roots as a In Focus: Ara Güler’s Anatolia member of Istanbul’s Armenian minority (his parents were Armenian) — for example, the through May 4 10th-century church and monastic complex, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and 1050 Independence Ave., SW the Church of St. Gregory of Tigran Honents, For more information, please call which is situated in Ani near the tense Turkish(202) 633-1000 or visit www.asia.si.edu.

Armenian border.

In addition to the photographs, the exhibition features a seven-minute interview with the artist by FotoTV, which adds a voice to the visuals and helps visitors further understand Güler’s own definition of his career and purpose — whether we take it in as art or documentation.

The exhibition was curated by students in Johns Hopkins University’s Program in Museums and Society under the guidance of Nancy Micklewright, head of scholarly programs and publications at the Freer and Sackler Galleries.The silver gelatin prints are part of a set of 53 photographs featuring architectural monuments that were produced in 1965 and donated to the Freer and Sackler Archives in 1989 by former U.S.Ambassador to Turkey Raymond Hare.The career diplomat was always fascinated by the country’s architecture and received the photographs as a present from his colleagues at the end of his posting.

Photos: Freer Gallery and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archive

Turkish photographer Ara Güler documented various historical sites throughout Anatolia, Turkey’s Asian mainland, including (from clockwise top): İshak Paşa Palace in Doğubayazıt; a relief on the Yakutiye Medresesi, a 14th-century madrasa in Erzurum; the Walls of Ani; and the Church of St. Gregory of Tigran Honents in Ani.

]

Sarah Alaoui is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

[ theater ]

Swinging Surprise Synetic Thunders Away With ‘Twelfth Night’ Silent Extravaganza

by Lisa Troshinsky

S

ynetic Theater should be riding high. Not only does the eclectic thespian company knock it out of the park with its surprisingly different and clever adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” but Washingtonian magazine last month put the icing on the artistic cake by naming co-founders Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili “Washingtonians of the Year.”

The award is well deserved, especially in light of the entertainment value of its recent genius.

With its current production, which happens to be Synetic’s 10th “silent Shakespeare” adaptation, the company takes a well-calculated and clever risk. While thinking outside the box is not new for Synetic, whose trademark is wordless versions of theater classics, after seeing this collaboration of “Twelfth Night,” one might forget the metaphorical box ever existed.

This attempt is perfectly timed, as Synetic was falling prey to too much repetition. The Tsikurishvilis, Georgian artists who moved to the United States in the 1990s, have carved out a unique niche for themselves in the vibrant D.C. theater world by being a “physical Photos: Koko Lanham theater company,” which retells tales through a dance lens. “Twelfth Night” strays from the group’s Irina Tsikurishvili stars as Viola, above, usual heavy-handed diet of serious, intense modern in Synetic Theater’s production of dance and acrobatics and takes a chance on mime, “Twelfth Night,” which also features slapstick comedy and swing by placing the Bard’s Irakli Kavsadze as Malvolio, left. tale in a silent movie during the roaring ’20s. This decision firmly secures Synetic’s foothold as a theFeste (Ben Cunis) and Fabian (Vato Tsikurishvili) ater company to be reckoned with, and not one waddle silently on stage before the lights dim and content with being classified as merely a dance commence their amusing antics while ushers are still ensemble. seating the patrons. Even before the play’s action This crazy idea — the marriage of 17th-century officially begins, fans of lampoonish caricatures are “Twelfth Night” and a silent ’20s film — is not that whetting their appetite for what’s to follow. far-fetched.The Bard’s comedy is the madcap tale of Perhaps the most impressive makeover is Irina brother-and-sister duo Sebastian and Viola, who are Tsikurishvili as Viola, our heroine. Irina, usually tersely the sole survivors of a shipwreck and find thempowerful in a dramatic lead, is almost unrecognizable selves entangled in the frivolous and incestuous as the perfect embodiment of Chaplin’s tramp, disguised as a lives of the rich and narcissistic Lady Olivia and the Twelfth Night male servant to be near her new heartthrob, Orsino. Irina is dashing but shallow Duke Orsino. Staging the play as lithe and seamless in her dance movements and miming and a slapstick silent movie is merely taking Shakespeare’s through Feb. 16 perfects the wistful animation of silent, unrequited love. In satire a couple of steps further and more deeply Synetic Theater her hands, a simple balloon becomes a heavily weighted exploring its comic dimensions.

1800 S. Bell St., Arlington, Va. object, and she shows off her Jitterbug and Charleston prowPaata Tsikurishvili writes: “The play’s mixture of Tickets start at $35. ess with Orsino (played deftly by Philip Fletcher). uproarious humor and touching pathos is at once For more information, please call Another stage stealer is the character of Olivia, the apple baffling and beguiling, much like the films of some of (703) 824-8060 or visit www.synetictheater.org. of all men’s eyes, played hilariously by Kathy Gordon in a my great artistic heroes, Charlie Chaplin and Buster flapper dress and black veil, as she is in deep, self-important Keaton. Even more, the play’s structure — a series of mourning over her dead brother (catch the symmetry to brief, tightly constructed farcical scenes and subplots — has always caused me to think of ‘Twelfth Night’ as one of the most cinematic of Viola and Sebastian, who are fraternal twins?). Olivia spends most of her time replayShakespeare’s plays, much in keeping with Synetic’s own style, which has been ing the film reel of her dramatics during her brother’s funeral, to the distraction and dissatisfaction of her drunkard uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Hector Reynoso); his foolish described as similarly lean and cinematic.”

The Tsikurishvilis are trained in innovative dance, theater and film, after all. It was friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Dallas Tolentino); her ditsy maid Maria (Irina Kavsadze); and last but not least, her prudish butler Malvolio (Irakli Kavsadze). only a matter of time until they combined all three talents into one production.

No one in the cast is weak; it’s just a matter of deciding who is funnier at a given The result is that “Twelfth Night” explodes anew on stage in a sort of dreamlike transformation — a theme Shakespeare experiments with in many of his comedies. moment. That verdict changes often as this rapid-fire show — which alternates The script is now a wordless screenplay, run by the resident “fools,” Feste and Fabian, between pranks, comic bits and incredible dance numbers — speeds along to a satiswho have transformed into clowns (albeit more flexible than the average circus ones), fying finish.

Leaving the theater, with a smile on your face and hands that are sore from clapholding the projectors and directing the chaos on stage. This all takes place on Phil Charlwood’s rudimentary set — dark and minimalistic, resembling an industrial base- ping, you’ll likely vow to sign up for that swing class you’ve been meaning to take.At ment — with a scrim for projecting bits and pieces of the final project, as well as some the very least, all will concur that it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. of Shakespeare’s lines from “Twelfth Night,” just as lines would appear to guide the Lisa Troshinsky is the theater reviewer for The Washington Diplomat. action of a silent film.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 33

[ dining ]

New DC Noodles Pollert Uses Temporary Shutdown To Expand His Pioneering Concept

by Rachel G. Hunt

After construction of a massive redevelopment project on U Street forced it to close temporarily, DC Noodles recently reopened with a fresh, albeit somewhat sterile, new look.

A

fter the presidential inauguration of 2009, Sak Pollert shut down Simply Home, his U Street establishment that paired Thai cuisine with a boutique featuring home furnishings, gifts and fresh flowers. But he didn’t abandon the unusual concept altogether.

Like all smart businessmen, he reassessed his market and decided to rework the concept. What emerged was one of the earliest and best upscale Asian noodle venues in the area. A vanguard in the trend that has been growing steadily since 2009, DC Noodles kept a few successful items from the Simply Home menu but shifted the focus from Thai cuisine to a more pan-Asian approach based almost exclusively on the remarkable versatility of this humble carbohydrate.

Then, over a year ago, construction of a massive redevelopment project on the southwest corner of 14th and U Streets called Louis forced DC Noodles and Stem (the retail portion) to close temporarily. Once again, Pollert had the opportunity to take stock of what he had and where he was going.At the end of November, DC Noodles reopened like a Phoenix rising from the ashes.

The DC Noodles menu has not changed much since the reopening, though it has been redesigned. Deconstructionist in layout, it gives diners the opportunity to build their own combinations within a specific style of noodle dish, a flexible approach that accommodates a broad range of dietary requirements and whims. Starters include different versions of steamed buns, skewers, dumplings and fried dishes. The spicy beef steamed bun, accented with pico de gallo, chives and wasabi sour cream, is a sophisticated take on this usually plain dish, while the pork moo-ping skewer marinated with honey and sambal oelek chili paste and toasted sesame seeds is a delicious alternative to the more standard chicken and peanut sauce.

“Healthy bites,” including edamame, garden rolls and green salad, sound simple but rely on intense flavors for their distinction. Sesame-kaffir hoisin enlivens the spring rolls (which at first glance bear a striking resemblance to stuffed cabbage rolls), while corn and crispy DC Noodles noodles elevate the salad.

1412 U St., NW Perhaps one of the best starters on the menu, a hold(202) 232-8424 over from Simply Home, is www.dcnoodles.com chef Ztang Ruang­sang­­ Hours: Mon. - Thu.: 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. (lunch); watana’s pumpkin empanada.

The modest little appetizer 5 - 10:30 p.m. (dinner) — with its perfectly flaky Fri. and Sat.: 11: 30 a.m. - 11 p.m. pastry, rich squashy filling, Sun.: 11:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. and accents of cilantro and cucumber relish — is proof Starters: $6 - $7 that sometimes the simplest Entrées: $12 - $17 dishes stand as a testament to Desserts: $6 - $7 a chef’s skills.

The main noodle dishes are Reservations: Not accepted broken into four categories Dress: Casual based broadly on style of preparation. Wok noodles are classic Thai dishes, some prepared in the traditional way (pad Thai and pad see ewe), others updated, and all with a choice of protein. The drunken noodles, prepared with either traditional wide rice noodles or surprising squid ink spaghetti, are only slightly spicy.

Another category, the noodle soups, begins with one of three broths.All are light and flavorful, but the spicy ginger version, made with roasted chili paste, fresh ginger and Szechuan hot oil, is a real standout. Add in a choice of one of four noodles and one of six proteins and you get a robust version of tradi-

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The Washington Diplomat

tional Vietnamese pho topped with bean sprouts, cilantro, scallions, toasted garlic, string beans and ground peanuts. Leave out the broth and the dish becomes one of the noodle salads on the menu.

HoMU noodles, the house specialty, are an interesting collection of dishes reflecting a range of Asian origins. The sosu yakisoba — a deep bowl of sautéed egg noodles topped with grilled salmon, vegetables and toasted nori seaweed — hails from Japan, as does an enticing tempura ramen salad. More difficult to classify but no less satisfying is the stir-fry beef ragu served over rice noodles, with a tomato-turmeric soy and serrano vinaigrette.

The final category on the menu is the curry noodles. By far the richest dishes on the menu, each version again offers a choice of proteins but comes with a specific variety of noodles, each of which is quite distinct. Burmese kao soi features egg noodles with a turmeric- and cumin-flavored sauce. The green curry entrée features squid ink spaghetti with eggplant and basil, while the red curry version partners spinach linguini with kabocha squash.

Many of DC Noodle’s dishes are garnished with deep red tangles of beet

Photos: Jessica Latos

February 2014

threads, a reminder of the importance of beet chemistry in the umami (savory flavors) of Asian cuisine.The image of the beet threads is echoed in the unusual red spaghetti-like fixtures that dimly light the two dining rooms.

The menu includes a few dessert choices that are mostly in keeping with the rest of the dishes. Mango and sticky rice is less sweet than typical renderings and has more texture because the rice is a crunchy, nutty, purplish variety. The coconut ice cream is rich and mild, while the bread pudding is a dense but delicious choice. Green tea ice cream, served over the same excellent rice, is only slightly sweet, punctuated by the strong seaweed flavor that characterizes green tea.

The new DC Noodles is considerably larger than its former self. Pollert closed Stem permanently, using the former retail space to expand the restaurant while revamping the dining areas. The cartoonish mural from the old space is gone, as is much of the color.The new DC Noodles takes minimalist décor to new levels, unfortunately creating a rather cold and somewhat uninviting ambiance.

Stark gray walls and low lighting have an almost ice cave feel, but without the sparkle.

The main dining room has an interesting and pretty shrine-like display next to the bar (DC Noodles offers a selection of classic cocktails from a full-service bar and several good beer and wine choices.), but it is not enough to relieve the overall flatness of the space.

Backless seating further discourages lingering over a meal with friends. Staff on the other hand have been warm and inviting, and go a long way to making the experience a pleasant (though not always efficient) one.

The new DC Noodles is a conundrum. The food is overall excellent (though some might find it a bit on the salty side) and worth a trip.

However, the atmosphere may not encourage

from page 31

Diplomatic Spouses group that meets twice a month.

Another group of personal friends is called the “lobster girls.” “When we first arrived, I walked down to Jetties, the sandwich shop at the bottom of the hill. I met a woman there and we began talking. She offered to introduce me to Washington,” Heimann-Ammon explained.“Right away, she invited me to her home when she didn’t even know who I was! This is what I love about Americans — people are so open and friendly. Through her, I met other women who all decided that I had to go with them to get lobster rolls in Virginia. Ever since then I have called us the lobster girls.”

She also enjoys local adventures with her husband, including hiking the 4.7-mile Billy Goat Trail along the C&O Canal. When Ariane and Christina visited in the fall of 2012, HeimannAmmon and her daughters spent the night along the canal’s refurbished Lockhouse #10, which is open to overnight visitors who want an authentic, rustic experience that evokes the canal’s heyday.

“It was built in the 1930s. It had antique furniture and the beds were uncomfortable. It was like staying in a youth hostel, but we loved it,” Heimann-Ammon said. “Just before it got dark, the deer came right up to the house. I’ve recommended it to lots of people. Being there was like stepping back in time.”

For a more leisurely atmosphere, she and her husband have bought a condo in Hilton Head, S.C.“We went there last March and loved it.They have a bike path along the beach.”

Their passion for traveling has also taken them on various “Experience America” trips, a program sponsored by the State Department’s Protocol Office that takes ambassadors and their spouses to cities outside the Beltway. They have February 2014

Join Our Team

Photo: Jessica Latos

Sak Pollert’s DC Noodles pioneered the concept of an upscale Asian noodle house in Washington.

you to stay long or visit again.That would be a pity because while the menu at first glance appears limited, with the multiple combinations possible, each visit can offer a new taste experience. It will be interesting to see whether Pollert decides that less is not always more, especially when it comes to light and ambiance, and makes a few more adjustments to make the new DC Noodles the repeat destination the food suggests it should be.

Account Manager

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

enjoyed going to Los Angeles, New Orleans, Arkansas, and Texas; Miami is next. On their own, they went to Montana as guests of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who was just recently named U.S. ambassador to China.

As much as she enjoys the traveling aspect of diplomacy, Heimann-Ammon said one part she’s not fond of is “a lack of privacy in the residence, a reminder that this is not your own home.”

But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t made the residence a welcoming haven for Americans as she strives to highlight German culture, including its more contemporary side. Recently, she hosted a fashion show for Johnny Talbot of Nashville, Tenn., and Adrian Runhof of Mainz, Germany.Together, they make up the intriguing design duo behind the label Talbot Runhof (also see “Fashion Diplomacy Makes Statement at Local Embassies” in the January 2014 online edition of the Diplomatic Pouch).

The Ammons hosted also a fashion show for Talbot Runhof at their residence in Paris during that city’s fashion week, and they welcomed the pair to D.C. during their recent U.S. visit. The event was sophisticated yet laidback, mirroring the approachable style of this diplomatic couple.

Heimann-Ammon observed that Washing­ tonians dress casually yet are still stylish.“What I also love about America is that you can start a new career at any age,” she said. Johnny Talbot, for instance, was an electrical engineer who worked at the Pentagon and Radio Free Europe before becoming a fashion designer. She also cited artist Richard Binder, who was an oncologist for 40 years before becoming a sculptor and who has several pieces currently displayed at the residence, where Heimann-Ammon’s own brand of German hospitality is on full display as well.

“My job is to make every guest who comes to the residence feel at home,” she told us.“We are here to showcase the new Germany.”

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The Washington Diplomat Page 35

[ film reviews ]

Inside ‘The Square’ Egypt’s Revolution Will Now Be Televised

by Ky N. Nguyen

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[

t the Sundance Film Festival in January idea how the story will end.

2013, Egyptian-American directorThis uncertainty is encapsulated by cinematographer Jehane Noujaim singer Ahmed, who decries Mubarak’s (“Control Room,” “Startup.com”) injustice and declares, “We reclaimed screened a work-in-progress verour freedom…. And we dreamed that sion of “The Square,” her riveting, one day all of Egypt would be like timely documentary about the Tahrir Square.” Yet in another scene Egyptian Revolution driven by millions of after Morsi’s ouster, the activist quips protesters centered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. that he and fellow protesters will again Even though it was incomplete, the film’s take to the streets to protest the shortimpact on viewers was so powerful that it comings of the latest military takepicked up the Sundance Audience Award over. for best world cinema documentary. As it turned out, Noujaim and company had Refreshing ‘Gloria’ even more unfinished business than they Chilean writer-director Sebastián thought as the tides of history kept churnLelio’s “Gloria” made quite a stir when ing through the summer of 2013, when it made its world premiere at the 2013 Egypt’s democratically elected president, Photo: Noujaim Films Berlin International Film Festival, espeMohamed Morsi, was ousted in a military cially for Chilean actress Paulina coup that had widespread public support.

Egyptian activists Khalid Abdalla, left, and Ahmed Hassan were among six protesters whose stories make up García’s memorable performance as Sharp cinematography and crisp editing Jehane Noujaim’s documentary “The Square.” the eponymous protagonist, for which create a cinéma vérité experience full of verisimilitude and substance. The polished, assembled product adds depth and clarity to the she took home the coveted Silver Bear for Best Actress.

The film relies on a solid foundation provided by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza’s elegant, intelstory of a revolution in which moving images have already been widely distributed in the age of social media.“The Square” immerses its viewers inside the revolution by taking the camera ligent screenplay. The potentially heavy dramatic moments are balanced by García’s deft, to the streets and behind the scenes, capturing intimate moments behind sweeping actions comedic touches. The main character is incredibly resilient despite hitting a series of obstathat provide the film with an extraordinary imme- cles. It’s Gloria’s tale, told from her point of view, so our aging heroine appears on screen in diacy. Everybody in the audience and on screen every scene throughout the movie.

The Square Gloria, 58, appears to have a decent life in Santiago. She resides in a nice apartment and is knows that history is in the making around them (Al Midan) gainfully employed in a solid career that gives her purpose.Thirteen years after she divorced right now. her ex-husband Gabriel (Alejandro (English and Arabic with subtitles; 104 min.)

“The Square” pulls us Goic), she’s still an attractive woman. into the moment by sharWest End Cinema Unlike some other divorced or widing the personal stories of Netflix (streaming) owed mothers, she’s not entirely depensix protesters with a range dent on her kids to provide her exisof ages and backgrounds: ★★★★✩ tence with meaning. mid-40s conflicted Muslim Her two adult children continue to Brotherhood member Magdy Ashour; 30-something British-Egyptian play important roles in her life, at least actor Khalid Abdalla (“The Kite Runner”); mid-30s human rights when she reaches out to them. Pedro attorney and activist Ragia Omran; 20-something unknown Ramy (Diego Fontecilla) copes with the Essam, who gains fans as the revolution’s de facto singer-songwriter; demands of raising a child alone, while 20-something Ahmed Hassan, an enthusiastic protester conducting yoga teacher Ana’s (Fabiola Zamora) security who becomes an icon of Tahrir Square; and mid-20s idealisattentions have been drawn to a growtic videographer Aida El Kashef. ing romance. As both Pedro and Ana Noujaim’s team first started shooting “The Square” in January of have been getting caught up in their 2011, when 18 days of massive popular demonstrations against own lives lately, they have been graduEgyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government forced his shocking ally but surely slipping away from being resignation after 30 years of ironclad dictatorship. Following an the reliable presences in Gloria’s life interim period of strict military rule, itself protested by activists disPhoto: ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS that they once were. Gloria is aware that appointed by the military’s business-as-usual approach to govershe’s lonely and not quite fulfilled, so she nance, Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization Paulina García gives an effortless, marathon performance as an older woman steps out to do something about it. banned during Mubarak’s regime, won Egypt’s first democratic presi- dealing with everyday problems in “Gloria.”

At a disco for singles her age, she dential election. meets shy Rodolfo (Sergio Hernández), Morsi announced a controversial decree granting the president who was divorced a year ago and is still adjusting to recent absolute power, ostensibly to prevent the nascent nation and elected legislature Gloria weight loss after gastric bypass surgery. Used to making the from being tampered with by Mubarak-appointed officials, notably the judiciary, first move, she initiates their budding relationship, and he (Spanish and English with subtitles; and moved to enshrine his privileges in the new constitution. Furious secular and seems to be mad for Gloria. Yet he keeps her a secret from liberal protesters returned to the streets, culminating in Morsi’s removal by 110 min.; scope) his two grown daughters and ex-wife, who are all still Egyptian armed forces in July 2013. After Sundance, Noujaim’s crew returned to Landmark’s E Street Cinema dependent on him, and vice versa, as part of codependent Egypt to shoot the new rounds of historic demonstrations, actively opposed by relationships. When Gloria takes him to Pedro’s birthday Muslim Brotherhood counter-protesters. ★★★★✩ party, Rodolfo can’t cope with feeling like an outsider and The turbulence is seen through the eyes of participants with a deeply shared passion for their homeland but vastly different visions for its future. Protesters toppled the sneaks out, shaming Gloria. Should she give him another chance? government but had no concrete plan for governing. They recount the beginning of Egypt’s revolution, offering viewers a firsthand glimpse inside history, though none of them have any See film reviews, page 39

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February 2014

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February 2014

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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.

English The Atomic States of America Directed by Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce (U.S., 2011, 92 min.)

This film journeys to nuclear reactor communities around the country to provide a comprehensive exploration of the history and impact to date of nuclear power, and to investigate the truths and myths about nuclear energy (screens with “Tailings” (U.S., 2012, 12 min.) and “Yellow Cake. The Dirt Behind Uranium”).

Goethe-Institut Mon., Feb. 10, 4 p.m.

Colette Directed by Milan Cieslar (Slovakia/Czech Republic, 2013, 126 min.)

Arnošt Lustig’s novel “A Girl from Antwerp,” from which the film is based, draws on his personal experiences while incarcerated at Auschwitz during World War II and the power of love under extreme life circumstances (English with Czech subtitles).

The Avalon Theatre Wed., Feb. 12, 8 p.m.

The Invisible Woman Directed by Ralph Fiennes (U.K., 2013, 111 min.)

At the height of his career, Charles Dickens meets a younger woman who becomes his secret lover until his death.

Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Monuments Men Directed by George Clooney (U.S./Germany, 2014, 92 min.)

An unlikely World War II platoon is tasked to rescue art masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their owners.

Area theaters

The New Black Directed by Yoruba Richen (U.S., 2013, 82 min.)

This documentary tells the story of how the African American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights.

West End Cinema Wed., Feb. 12

Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1 Directed by Adam Jonas Horowitz (U.S., 2012, 87 min.)

February 2014 Yellow Cake.

The Dirt Behind Uranium

Film Festivals Human Rights Watch Festival The Human Rights Watch Festival (Wednesdays, Feb. 12-March 12) at the West End Cinema features “The New Black” (Feb. 12), “In the Shadow of the Sun” (Feb. 19), and “Camp 14: Total Control Zone” (Feb. 26), with all screenings followed by a Q&A.

Directed by Joachim Tschirner (Germany, 2010, 108 min.)

Film Festival (Feb. 27-March 9) unspools 64 films from 18 countries at 14 area theaters with 40 filmmaker guests. Attended by more than 10,000 moviegoers, WJFF is D.C.’s largest cultural event.

Goethe-Institut Tue., Feb. 11, 6:30 p.m.

Washington Jewish Film Festival

On opening night at the Washington DCJCC, Israeli director Ari Nesher (this year’s recipient of the WJFF Visionary Award) and original music composer Avner Dorman present the D.C. premiere of their film “The Wonders” (Thu., Feb. 27, 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.) and chat with festivalgoers at the opening night party (8:30 p.m.).

The Nut Job

The 24th annual Washington Jewish

(888) 718-4253, www.wjff.org

This documentary about the “Secret Project” in which the U.S. conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands in the 1950s illustrates the incredible affects of radiation on humans (screens with several shorts on atomic bombs).

Directed by Peter Lepeniotis (Canada/South Korea/U.S., 2014,

An incorrigibly self-serving exiled squirrel finds himself helping his former park brethren raid a nut store to survive, but it is also the front for a human gang’s bank robbery.

(202) 419-3456, www.westendcinema.com

Area theaters

Cinema Arts Theatre Landmark’s E Street Cinema Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Kentlands Stadium Regal Countryside

One Chance

Romeo and Juliet

Directed by David Frankel (U.K./U.S., 2013, 103 min.)

In this true story, Paul Potts, a shy, bullied shop assistant by day and an amateur opera singer by night, becomes phenomenon after being chosen for — and ultimately winning — “Britain’s Got Talent.”

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Feb. 14

Philomena Directed by Stephen Frears (U.K./U.S./France, 2013, 98 min.)

A world-weary political journalist picks up the story of a woman’s search for her son, who was taken away from her decades ago after she became pregnant and was forced to live in a convent.

AFI Silver Theatre AMC Loews Shirlington

Repertory Notes

AMC Courthouse AMC Hoffman Center AMC Tysons Corner Cinema Arts Theatre Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Regal Potomac Yards

Directed by Don Roy King (U.S., 2013)

The Square (Al Midan)

Watch Orlando Bloom and two-time Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad as they turned up the heat this fall as Broadway’s rule-breaking, heart-aching couple, Romeo and Juliet.

Directed by Jehane Noujaim (Egypt/U.S., 2013, 104 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Feb. 13 to 16 Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Thu., Feb. 13, 7 p.m., Sun., Feb. 16, 11 a.m.

Saving Mr. Banks Directed by John Lee Hancock (U.S./U.K./Australia, 2013, 125 min.)

Author P.L. Travers reflects on her difficult childhood while meeting with filmmaker Walt Disney during production for the adaptation of her novel, “Mary Poppins.”

Jehane Noujaim follows a group of Egyptian activists as they battle leaders and regimes and risk their lives to build a new society of conscience (English and Arabic).

West End Cinema

Tim’s Vermeer Directed by Teller (U.S., 2013, 80 min.)

Inventor Tim Jenison seeks to understand the painting techniques used by Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Feb. 14

Over a period of several years, this film accompanies the biggest clean-up operation of uranium mining in Wismut, the third-largest uranium mine in the world, located in east Germany (screens with “Tailings” (U.S., 2012, 12 min.) and “The Atomic States of America”).

Goethe-Institut Mon., Feb. 10, 4 p.m.

Farsi Fat Shaker Directed by Mohammad Shirvani (Iran, 2013, 85 min.)

A gluttonous alcoholic uses his deaf-mute son to lure attractive young women into drug- and booze-fueled nights of illegal excess, extorting money from the women afterward by threatening to go to the authorities. But one female photographer refuses to be intimidated and instead attempts to rescue the young man from his controlling father.

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., Feb. 2, 2 p.m.

A Cinema of Discontent Directed by Jamsheed Akrami (U.S., 2013, 86 min.)

The international success of Iranian cinema over the past decades may have veiled the fact that Iranian filmmakers work under extremely harsh circumstances. “A Cinema of Discontent” explores the censorship codes through dozens of film clips as well as interviews with Iranian filmmakers. (Farsi and English).

Freer Gallery of Art Sat., Feb. 22, 2 p.m.

My Name is Negahdar Jamali and I Make Westerns Directed by Kamran Heydari (Iran, 2012, 65 min.)

For more than 35 years, Negahdar Jamali has been making Westerns in and around the ancient city of Shiraz — his passion

by Washington Diplomat film reviewer Ky N. Nguyen

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

Freer Gallery of Art The 18th annual Iranian Film Festival (through Feb. 22), always a popular draw at the Freer, boasts Mohammad Shirvani’s “Fat Shaker” (Sun., Feb. 2, 2 p.m.), Majid Barzegar’s “Parviz” (Fri., Feb. 7, 7 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 9, 2 p.m.), and Kamran Heydari’s documentary “My Name is Negahdar Jamali and I Make Westerns” (Fri., Feb. 14, 7 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 16, 2 p.m.).

Jamsheed Akrami speaks in person about his documentary “A Cinema of Discontent” (Sat., Feb. 22, 2 p.m.), which analyzes the government restrictions and censorship codes that have limited Iranian cinema since the Revolution.

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

Page 38

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

to the Future”’ (Feb. 3-28) kicks off with the program “Afrofuturism and Short Films” (Mon., Feb. 3, 6:30 p.m.), screening three shorts: Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu’s “Pumzi,” German filmmaker Simon Rittmeier’s “Drexciya,” and British artists the Otolith Group’s “Hydra Decapita.” Panel speakers include artist Daniel Kojo Schrade; performing artist Shona Cole; Naima J. Keith, curator of “The Shadows Took Shape” at the Studio Museum in Harlem; and moderator Karen E. Milbourne, curator at the National Museum of African Art. The show is presented in partnership with the National Museum of African Art and Georgetown University’s interdisciplinary conference “Performing Blackness in the Transatlantic World: Germany, Race, Intermediality” (Feb. 27-March 1) at the Goethe-Institut.

The Uranium Film Festival (Feb. 10-12, 6:30 p.m.) includes the films “Uranium Mining” (Feb. 10), “Atom Bombs & Nuclear War” (Feb. 11) and “Fukushima & Nuclear Power Plant Risks” (Feb. 12).

Goethe-Institut

Grimme Award-winning “In Face of the Crime” (Feb. 24-March 17, 6:30 p.m.), a 10-part German television miniseries written by Rolf Basedow and directed by Dominik Graf, screens over four Mondays.

The exhibit “Afrofuturism: Artists on Three Continents Explore ‘Black

(202) 289-1200, www.goethe.de/ins/us/was/ver/enindex.htm

National Gallery of Art The series “Michael Snow: Looking Forward, Looking Back” (through Feb. 9) boasts Canadian-born artist Michael Snow in person with his experimental films “Wavelength” followed by “So Is This” (Sat., Feb. 8, 2:30 p.m.), and “Back and Forth” preceded by “One Second in Montreal” (Sun., Feb. 9, 4:30 p.m.), following the opening of his retrospective exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Art films and events include Bruno Dumont’s new feature, “Camille Claudel 1915” (Sat., Feb. 15, 4 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 16, 2 p.m.), Les Lutins du Court-Métrage: Festival of New French Shorts (Sun., Feb. 16, 4:30 p.m.), and Perry Miller Adato’s Emmy-winning documentary “Dylan Thomas Centenary: The World I Breathe” followed by Jack Howells’s Oscar-winning documentary short “A Tribute to Dylan Thomas” (Sat., Feb. 22, 2 p.m.), honoring the Welsh poet.

(202) 842-6799, www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/calendar/film-programs.html

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

bordering on obsession and causing friction with his long-suffering wife and friends.

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Feb. 14, 7 p.m., Sun., Feb. 16, 2 p.m.

A stage actress makes a quick escape to Paris, where she meets a mysterious English stranger. Drawn toward him, she follows him, loves him, for a few hours, before facing what could be a new life.

Parviz

The Avalon Theatre Wed., Feb. 19, 8 p.m.

Directed by Majid Barzegar (Iran, 2012, 105 min.)

Parviz, a man in his 50s who has lived his entire life in his father’s home and never held a job, finds his quiet routine upended by his father’s decision to remarry — and to have Parviz move out.

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Feb. 7, 7 p.m., Sun., Feb. 9, 2 p.m.

French Camille Claudel 1915 Directed by Bruno Dumont (France, 2013, 95 min.)

Known as Auguste Rodin’s muse and protégée, Camille Claudel has lately been the focus of serious research. Filmmaker Dumont concentrates on her years of exile within a remote, church-run asylum near Avignon, where her family kept her incarcerated even after doctors urged for her release.

National Gallery of Art Sat., Feb. 15, 4 p.m., Sun., Feb. 16, 2 p.m.

Just a Sigh (Le temps de l’aventure) Directed by Jérôme Bonnell (France/Belgium/Ireland, 2013, 104 min.)

(Israel, 2011)

Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are father and son and rival professors in Talmudic Studies. When both men learn that Eliezer will be lauded for his work, their complicated relationship reaches a new peak.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Sun., Feb. 9, 10 a.m.

The Past (Le passé)

The Wonders

Directed by Asghar Farhadi (France/Italy, 2013, 130 min.)

An Iranian man returns to France to grant his wife a divorce and discovers she has started a relationship with an Arab man who has a son and a wife in a coma (French and Farsi).

AMC Loews Shirlington Landmark’s E Street Cinema Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Directed by Avi Nesher (Israel, 2013, 112 min.)

In this modern day film-noir, a bartender who doubles as a graffiti artist in Jerusalem enjoys whiling away the days with simple pleasures until he becomes enwrapped in a mystery taking place in his own apartment building.

Directed by Angelo Cianci (France/Luxembourg, 2010, 110 min.)

This dark comedy follows Francois, whose unhappy job serving eviction notices land him in a hostage situation with a bumbling pair of amateur drug dealers.

BloomBars Tue., Feb. 4, 7 p.m.

Footnote (Hearat Shulayim)

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy/France, 2013, 142 min.)

Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty (Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese).

West End Cinema Wed., Feb. 26

Spanish Gloria

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Directed by Sebastián Lelio (Chile/Spain, 2013, 110 min.)

Japanese

Gloria, a free-spirited older woman in Santiago, embarks on a whirlwind relationship with a recently divorced naval officer.

The Wind Rises (Kaze tachinu)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Hindi

This animated film looks at the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed Japanese fighter planes during World War II.

Swahili

The Lunchbox (Dabba)

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Feb. 21

Directed by Harry Freeland (Tanzania/U.K., 2012, 84 min.)

Directed by Ritesh Batra (India/France/Germany/U.S., 2013, 104 min.)

Korean

In Mumbai, the mistaken delivery of a lunchbox leads to a relationship between a lonely widower on the verge retirement and an unhappy housewife, as they start exchanging notes through the daily lunchbox (Hindi and English).

Hebrew

The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza)

the child of political prisoners, Shin Dong-Huyk was raised in a world where all he knew was torture and abuse. Filmmaker Wiese crafts his documentary by quietly drawing details from Shin in a series of interviews (Korean and English).

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Japan, 2013, 126 min.)

Washington DCJCC Thu., Feb. 27, 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.

Top Floor Left Wing (Dernier étage gauche gauche)

Italian

Camp 14: Total Control Zone Directed by Marc Wiese (Germany/South Korea, 2012, 104 min.)

Born inside a North Korean prison camp as

In the Shadow of the Sun Filmed over six years, “In the Shadow of the Sun” tells the story of two men with albinism in Tanzania pursuing their dreams in the face of virulent prejudice.

West End Cinema Wed., Feb. 19

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Feb. 28

Directed by Joseph Cedar

from page 36

Justin Zackham’s simple screenplay may be predictable, but it more than gets the job done telling the audience Paul’s story and keeping viewGarcía’s seemingly effortless, marers cheering for him. The athon performance is a revelation, a characters are largely stock breath of fresh air. It’s in no way archetypes, but an enthusiasflashy like the mannered, forceful tic British ensemble cast acting typically seen in recent perbreathes plenty of life and formances by female American humanity into their roles. movie stars who qualify as senior Starring as Paul, rising British citizens, like Meryl Streep, Jane actor James Corden is a Fonda and Diane Keaton — or their Photo: Liam Daniel / THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY INC. delight to root for as a lovable British peers such as Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren and Judi Dench — James Corden stars as the lovable underdog who underdog. Alexandra Roach is comparably charming as Julz, who often tend to make their char- wins “Britain’s Got Talent” in “One Chance.”

Paul’s loyal romantic partner. acters seem larger than life. García’s Paul is a soft-spoken, chubcharacter just seems like an everyby lad who’s been bullied since childOne Chance day woman with real emotions, desires hood. As a young adult working as a and problems.The audience feels what (English; 103 min.; scope) salesman in a local cell phone shop, she’s going through without making a Theater TBA he still lives at home with his loving big deal of the proceedings.

Opens Fri., Feb. 14 mother Yvonne (Julie Walters) and cranky father Roland (Colm Meany), ★★★✩✩ Feel-Good ‘Chance’ who’s always been disappointed that Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the crowd-pleasing his child hasn’t been tough enough to follow in his footBritish comedy-drama “One Chance” tells the inspirational steps as a man’s man. Paul has never had a real girlfriend, true tale of Paul Potts, the winner of the first season of though he’s had some sort of online, long-distance relation“Britain’s Got Talent.” He overcomes a lifetime of trials and ship for over a year with Julz, a woman whom he’s too tribulations, getting the chance to find true love and to chicken to meet in the flesh. So his boss and only friend fulfill his childhood dream of a career as an opera singer. Braddon (Mackenzie Crook) decides to give him a push.

There’s not much original about “One Chance,” but the Pretending to be Paul, Braddon uses Paul’s phone to text movie does what it’s supposed to do, which is to make the Julz and invite her to visit. audience feel good, smile and laugh. Viewers who appreciAfter a year of virtual flirting, Paul and Julz finally meet ate the lightweight charms of British comedies like “Love, and make cute, but their nascent love story is tested by Actually” and “The Full Monty” will probably find plenty to Paul’s departure to an opera school in Venice, where he’s like in “One Chance.” tempted by a beautiful classmate, Alessandra (Valeria Credit goes to all involved for keeping the proceedings Bilello). Stage fright causes Paul to choke and embarrass sweet enough to like without overdoing it by drowning himself at a once-in-a-lifetime audition for his idol, Luciano the audience in excessive saccharine. The heartfelt emo- Pavarotti, sending Paul into a deep depression. Is there tions feel authentic enough for the audience to accept and hope for our hero to get back on his feet? “Britain’s Got maintain its suspension of disbelief. American helmer Talent,” the U.K. version of “American Idol,” offers our hero David Frankel (“The Devil Wears Prada,” “Marley & Me,” a lyrical comeback.

“Hope Springs”) keeps the ball rolling, with the plot moving along at an assured pace.

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

Film Reviews

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READIN’

ART

’RITING ’RITHMETIC

Royal dukes are squaresville.

They have no rhythm.

And they wear crowns.

February 2014

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

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.

Feb. 22 to July 27

Chigusa and the Art of Tea

ART

“Chigusa” tells the story of a 700-year-old ordinary tea jar that rose to become one of the most famous and revered objects in the Japanese “art of tea” — so much so that it was granted a name, luxurious accessories and a devoted following.

Feb. 3 to 28

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Afrofuturism: Artists on Three Continents Explore ‘Black to the Future’

Feb. 23 to June 29

Three artists – Daniel Kojo Schrade (Germany), Bernard Akoi Jackson (Ghana) and Adejoke Tugbiyele (United States) use the lens of fiction to address issues of alienation and otherness. Afrofuturism, a term coined in the early 1990s, addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora using elements of science fiction and magic realism to critique the disinheritance of the past while exploring aspirations for the future.

Goethe-Institut Feb. 8 to March 8

Latvian Artists: Riga and World Cities. Live Paintings Contemporary paintings and large-scale works by Aleksejs Naumovs and Kristaps Zarins, rector and vice-rector of the Latvian Academy of Art, capture cities such as Riga, Washington, D.C., New York, Paris, Venice and Peking, where the artists worked outdoors, without letting unexpected weather stop them, to paint directly onto the canvas without sketches. The exhibition is organized as part of the program “Riga 2014: Cultural Capital of Europe” and is open Fridays and Saturdays; for information, visit www.latvia-usa.org.

Embassy of Latvia Art Space Through Feb. 9

Lines, Marks, and Drawings: Through the Lens of Roger Ballen This exhibit considers the 40-year-plus career of Roger Ballen, one of the more recognized photographic artists working today, through a new approach: an examination of line and drawing in his photographs.

National Museum of African Art Feb. 12 to June 21

Light Touch

The Cultural Service of the Embassy of France, in partnership with Maryland Art Place (MAP), features the work of five artists who explore aspects of the physical world through the lens of light as both a medium and a resource of value to our natural environment.

BWI Airport Through Feb. 14

Illuminating Opportunity: A Photography Exhibit for Social Good

This photography exhibit by Trees, Water and People explores the organization’s solar energy program in Honduras through the eyes of photographer Darren Mahuron.

Viewings are by appointment only; for information, call (202) 370-4618 or (202) 370-0151.

Organization of American States

Page 40

Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection

Ruth Kainen’s love of German expressionism, first displayed at the gallery in the 1985 exhibition “German Expressionist Prints from the Collection of Ruth and Jacob Kainen,” will be celebrated with 123 works recently donated to the gallery through her bequest, as well as with a few of her earlier gifts.

National Gallery of Art Through March 2

Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections

In the first exhibition devoted to Byzantine art at the National Gallery, some 170 rare and important works, drawn exclusively from Greek collections, offer a fascinating glimpse of the soul and splendor of the mysterious Byzantine Empire.

National Gallery of Art Through March 2

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art

Nearly 100 works in all media by 72 leading modern and contemporary artists present the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-20th century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge.

Smithsonian American Art Museum Through March 2

What’s Up: New Technologies in Art Instructive, inventive, evocative and evolving: Tech innovation is revolutionizing the art world, and this amazing exhibit puts some of the most provocative new media on display, including that of Austrian artist Waltraut Cooper, who studied mathematics and theoretical physics and whose work explores light, mathematics and color through fluorescent lights, neon and glass.

Mansion at Strathmore Through March 9

Alex Prager: Face in the Crowd

Los Angeles artist Alex Prager’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States debuts her latest series — elaborately staged crowd scenes, both poignant and revelatory — alongside earlier photographs and video works.

Corcoran Gallery of Art Through March 16

The Dying Gaul: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome Created in the first or second century AD, the “Dying Gaul” is one of the most renowned works from antiquity. This exhibition marks the first time it has left Italy since 1797, when Napoleonic forces took

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT the sculpture to Paris, where it was displayed at the Louvre until its return to Rome in 1816.

National Gallery of Art Through March 16

Transforming Cityscapes

On display are the winning entries of the 8th Ibero-American Architecture and Urban Design Biennial (IAUB), which focuses on lifetime achievements, outstanding works of architecture, publications, research projects and ideas presented by architects and architecture students.

OAS Art Museum of the Americas Through March 23

S.O.S. Spanish Office Showroom

As part of the SPAIN arts & culture program (www.spainculture.us), “S.O.S. Spanish Office Showroom” presents the most avantgarde pieces of Spanish design conceived for modern working environments, highlighting how the creativity of contemporary Spanish designers adapts to any office space and how Spanish design companies are successfully competing in international markets, such as the United States.

Former Spanish Ambassador’s Residence Through March 23

Tapas. Spanish Design for Food

Spain arts & culture showcases the Spanish chefs, including D.C.’s own chef José Andrés, as well as designers, architects, wineries and restaurants that pioneered the popular tapas movement, reflecting on the last 25 years of Spain’s avant-garde experimental blending of design and food.

Former Spanish Ambassador’s Residence Through April 13

Judy Chicago: Circa ’75

The iconic body of work from the 1970s by Judy Chicago demonstrates the prominent feminist artist’s firm belief in the power of art to redress gender inequalities.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Through April 27

Workt by Hand: Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts

Over time, quilts have been revered as nostalgic emblems of the past, dismissed as women’s work, and hailed as examples of American ingenuity. This exhibition breaks new ground by examining quilts through the lens of contemporary feminist theory.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Through May 4

In Focus: Ara Güler’s Anatolia

Ara Güler, the “Eye of Istanbul,” is famous for his iconic snapshots of the city in the 1950s and ’60s, but with an archive of more than 800,000 photographs, Güler’s body of work contains far more than these emblematic images — as seen in this exhibition of never-before-shown works by the legendary photographer.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through May 17

Man at the Crossroads: Diego Rivera’s Mural at Rockefeller Center

This exposition centers around the mural

February 2014

that Mexican artist Diego Rivera painted in New York City, reconstructing its history with unedited material, including reproduced letters, telegrams, contracts, sketches, and documents, following Rivera’s commission, subsequent tension and conflict, and finally, the mural’s destruction.

Mexican Cultural Institute Through May 26

Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950

The first in-depth exploration of the theme of destruction in international contemporary visual culture, this groundbreaking exhibition includes works by a diverse range of international artists working in painting, sculpture, photography, film, installation and performance.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Through June 8, 2014

Perspectives: Rina Banerjee

Born in India and based in New York City, artist Rina Banerjee draws on her background as a scientist and her experience as an immigrant in her richly textured works that complicate the role of objects as representations of cultures and invite viewers to share her fascination in materials.

DANCE Feb. 4 to 9

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

America’s cultural ambassador to the world, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Kennedy Center for its annual engagement with its winning combination of captivating new works and enduring classics. Tickets are $30 to $140.

Kennedy Center Opera House Feb. 7 to 8

Modern Dance Concert: Four By Burgess

The Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company performs new works by the critically acclaimed choreographer, recognized for his modern dances that sensitively translate the psychology of our human condition.Tickets are $25 to $31.

Kennedy Center Terrace Theater Wed., Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m.

The Peking Acrobats

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

The ancient art form of the Peking Acrobats dates back thousands of years, but their unique acts — which include juggling, tumbling, magic and much more — are as fresh and awe-inspiring to today’s audiences as ever before. Tickets are $32 to $48.

Through June 15

George Mason University Hylton Performing Arts Center

Shakespeare’s the Thing

Marking the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, this exhibition presents a miscellany of treasures in the Folger collection from Shakespeare’s 1623 First Folio to modern fine art prints, revealing the Bard’s influence on performance, adaptation, scholarship, printing, fine art and even in mild obsession.

Folger Shakespeare Library Through July 13

Dancing the Dream

From the late 19th century to today, dance has captured this nation’s culture in motion, as seen in photos that showcase generations of performers, choreographers and impresarios.

National Portrait Gallery Through Aug. 24

Africa ReViewed: The Photographic Legacy of Eliot Elisofon

“Africa ReViewed” showcases the African photography of celebrated Life magazine photographer Eliot Elisofon and explores the intricate relationships between his photographic archives and art collection at the National Museum of African Art. Elisofon’s images had a huge impact in framing America’s perceptions of Africa and its diverse cultures during the 20th century.

National Museum of African Art Through Sept. 21

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence

DISCUSSIONS Tue., Feb. 4, 7:30 p.m.

Franz Schubert, 1797-1828: A Literary Biography

Gloria Kaiser discusses her literary biography “Franz Schubert,” based on letters and excerpts from diaries that form a picture of the composer’s life, including the suffering that led to the divine spark of genius; the lecture is framed by a performance by pianist David Montgomery. Admission is free but RSVP is required and can be made at http://franzschubert.eventbrite.com.

Embassy of Austria Wed., Feb. 5, 6:45 p.m.

Barbara Tenenbaum on the Constitution of 1917

In this illustrated talk, Barbara Tenenbaum, specialist in Mexican culture at the Library of Congress, discusses the nature of the Mexican Revolution — what it was and what it was not — showing how this first lasting revolution of the 20th century was much more about Mexico than about revolution, and how the nation grew into its constitution of 1917. Admission is free; RSVP to rsvp@instituteofmexicodc.org.

Mexican Cultural Institute Wed., Feb. 5, 6:45 p.m.

Medieval Mosaics in Norman Sicily: An Artistic Convergence of Empires

A community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has developed a new form of bead art — using black fabric as a canvas and different colored Czech glass beads as the medium of expression — to empower local women.

The artistic treasures of the Norman Sicilian kingdom during the 12th and 13th centuries vied with those of the most resplendent in the known world, thriving under the Hauteville Normans, who embraced the artistic legacy of both Muslims and Byzantines. Tickets are $25; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

The Anacostia Community Museum

S. Dillon Ripley Center

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

Who Never Grew Up? Tickets are $55 to $135.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater Through Feb. 16

The Tallest Tree in the Forest

Daniel Beaty brings to life the true story of Paul Robeson, hailed as the “best-known black man in the world” for his incomparable singing and acting, brought low by accusations of disloyalty to America. Please call for ticket information.

Arena Stage Feb. 18 to March 23

Beaches

Based on the beloved book, “Beaches” follows two extraordinary friends through 30 years of camaraderie, laughter and sorrow.

Please call for ticket information.

Signature Theatre Feb. 8 to 25

Photos: National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian

“Dancing the Dream” at the National Portrait Gallery captures some of the greatest performers from the 19th century to today, including, from top left, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Liza Minnelli.

Feb. 5 to 7

Protocol and Etiquette Seminar

Protocol Partners-Washington Center for Protocol presents a two-and-a-half-day comprehensive seminar on diplomatic, military and international protocol, as well as business and dining etiquette, including how to: greet and host guests; accommodate international customs; and coordinate VIP visits and conferences.

Tuition is $1,795; for information, visit www.theprotocolpartners.com.

Willard InterContinental Washington Sat., Feb. 8, 9:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.

The Artistic Legacy of Byzantium Art historian Aneta Georgievska-Shine explores the Byzantine Empire, which shone with intellectual and artistic brilliance at a time when Western Europe was deep in the Dark Ages and flourished long after the first stirrings of the Renaissance.

Tickets are $130; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Tue., Feb. 11, 6:45 p.m.

The Flavors of India: The Original Fusion Cuisine Monica Bhide looks at Indian cuisine’s history and contemporary expressions, focusing on how modern Indian food combines time-honored and distinctly regional styles with new culinary influences and ingredients. Tickets are $30; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Wed., Feb. 19, 6:45 p.m.

El Greco, Goya, Velazquez, and Picasso: A Spanish Quartet Barbara von Barghahn of George Washington University looks at selected masterpieces that span from the Baroque golden age to the 20th century and explores how these enduring paintings reveal both the individual characters of their creators and the character of a nation.

Tickets are $42; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Thu., Feb. 20, 6:45 p.m.

Ancient Jewish Sects: Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes

First-century historian Josephus observed

that there were three sects among the Jews: the Pharisees, the Sadducees and Essenes. Historian Pamela Nadell examines these once-flourishing sects that thrived in the late Second Temple era until the war between the Jews and the Romans sealed their fates. Tickets are $42; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Sat., Feb. 22, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Photo: 1975 Max Waldman

Feb. 13 to 15

National Symphony Orchestra

“Brilliant violinist” (The New York Times) Anne-Sophie Mutter joins two programs led by conductor Cristian Macelaru in his NSO debut: one features Dvorák’s Violin Concerto; the other offers a D.C. premiere written specifically for Mutter. Tickets are $10 to $85.

Kennedy Center Concert Hall Fri., Feb. 14, 7:30 p.m.

Musical Valentine

MUSIC

This Valentine’s Day concert spotlights soprano Irina Mozyleva, performing a repertoire of one of the most renowned Russian cabaret singers, Kavdia Shulzhenko, who resembled the famous French singer Edith Piaf. Acclaimed accordionist, Alexander Sevastian also performs Russian romantic repertoire and Viennese waltzes. Tickets can be ordered through the Russian Chamber Art Society at http://thercas.com.

Sat., Feb. 1, 8 p.m., Sun., Feb. 9, 4 p.m.

Sun., Feb. 16, 7 p.m.

Scandal, British Style: 400 Years of Naughtiness and Notoriety

Lorella Brocklesby of New York University offers a perspective on how, over the centuries, famous and infamous Brits have misbehaved. Tickets are $130; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

Haifa Symphony Orchestra of Israel Appearing in Northern Virginia as part of its first tour of the United States, this orchestra (now in its seventh decade) is a centerpiece of Israeli cultural and musical life, and boasts a massive following in its homeland. Tickets are $30 to $60.

George Mason University Center for the Arts (Feb. 1) Hylton Performing Arts Center (Feb. 9) Tue., Feb. 4, 6:45 p.m.

Cepromusic Contemporary Ensemble This 10-piece contemporary music ensemble from the Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico guides audiences through the landscape of new Mexican music, featuring interpretations of works by Julio Estrada, Víctor Ibarra, Ricardo Zohn, Jorge Torres and Georgina Derbez. Admission is free; RSVP to rsvp@instituteofmexicodc.org.

Mexican Cultural Institute Wed., Feb. 12, 8 p.m.

Soweto Gospel Choir

Formed in 2002, this 52-member choir was formed to celebrate the unique and inspirational power of African gospel music, singing in six of South Africa’s 11 official languages to blend traditional sounds with contemporary music. Tickets are $30 to $45.

GW Lisner Auditorium

Embassy of Austria

Angelique Kidjo Angelique Kidjo is a Grammy-winning vocalist deemed “Africa’s premier diva”

by Time magazine whose internationally acclaimed repertoire crosses boundaries, blending Western pop and African traditions. Tickets are $30 to $45.

GW Lisner Auditorium

THEATER Feb. 5 to March 2

Orphie and the Book of Heroes

Spunky and curious Orphie, a young girl in Ancient Greece, sets out to save storyteller Homer and his Book of Heroes in this humorous world premiere musical. Tickets are $20.

Kennedy Center Family Theater Feb. 10 to March 9

We Are Proud to Present…

“We Are Proud to Present…” follows a group of idealistic actors — three black and three white — who come together to tell the little-known story of a centuries-old conflict in southwest Africa, recreating the extinction of the Herero tribe at the hands of their German colonizers. Tickets start at $35.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Through Feb. 23

Tribes

When Billy, who was born deaf into a garrulous academic family that raised him to lip read and integrate into the hearing world, meets Sylvia, who is going deaf herself, he decides it’s time to speak on his own terms in Nina Raine’s moving play, the second offering in Studio’s yearlong New British Invasion Festival. Tickets are $39 to $75.

The Studio Theatre Through March 2

The Importance of Being Earnest

Keith Baxter returns to direct Oscar Wilde’s most perfect of plays — a comedy of class, courtship, and avoiding burdensome social conventions. Please call for ticket information.

Shakespeare Lansburgh Theatre

Feb. 13 to March 9

La Vida Que Me Das … y no me alcanza (Such a Life You’ve Given Me … and it’s not enough)

This work tackles with humor the encounter of three women who examine maternity and sexuality, looking for the balance between their desires, their negative perceptions and pettiness. Tickets are $15 to $35.

Teatro de la Luna

Through March 9

Mother Courage and Her Children

Kathleen Turner returns to Arena to star as a tough-as-nails matriarch who profits off the very war that steals her children from her one by one. But will the cost of war be higher than she’s prepared to pay? Please call for ticket information.

Arena Stage Through March 9

Richard III

Gunston Arts Center Through Feb. 16

Peter and the Starcatcher

In this swashbuckling prequel to “Peter Pan,” a company of 12 actors plays more than a 100 unforgettable characters, all on a journey to answer the century-old question: How did Peter Pan become the Boy

Explore Shakespeare’s portrait of maniacal ambition and dig into the truth about this king’s real nature with this celebrated history play — staged, for the first time in Folger history, in an Elizabethan Theatre reconfigured to allow for a production “in the round.” Tickets are $39 to $72.

Folger Shakespeare Library

Seminar In Theresa Rebeck’s Broadway comedic hit, four aspiring young novelists sign up for a private class with an international literary figure, some thriving while others flounder under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction. Tickets are $$10 to $45.

CULTURE GUIDE

Round House Theatre Bethesda Feb. 6 to March 9

La Señorita de Tacna (The Young Lady from Tacna)

A writer tried to recreate the grand romance of Mamaé, a 100 year-old spinster aunt who ended her engagement with a dashing Chilean captain when she was young. Tickets are $38 or $42.

GALA Hispanic Theatre

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February 2014

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The Washington Diplomat Page 41

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

Choral Arts Society Gala

From left, Ambassador of Italy and gala honorary patron Claudio Bisogniero, gala chair Olwen Pongrace, Laura Denise Bisogniero, and Donald Pongrace of Akin Gump welcome guests to the 33rd annual Choral Arts Society Holiday Concert and Gala held at the Kennedy Center, where the Italian theme was “Buon Natale.”

Cinnie Fehr, left, and Choral Arts Society of Washington Executive Director Debra Kraft attend the 33rd annual Holiday Concert and Gala fundraiser for the Choral Arts Society, whose symphonic chorus of over 180 volunteer singers performs at the Kennedy Center each year.

Ambassador of Russia Sergey Kislyak and his wife Natalia attend the 33rd annual Holiday Concert and Gala for the Choral Arts Society of Washington, founded by Norman Scribner in 1965.

Ambassador of Bulgaria Elena Poptodorova scans the silent auction items at the Choral Arts Society annual fundraising gala, which featured “An Enchanted Christmas” concert with Italian holiday classics and a black-tie dinner atop the Kennedy Center.

Brooke Stroud Carnot, left, a past gala chair, and Kitty Dove attend the Choral Arts Society Holiday Concert and Gala. Last year’s benefit raised more than $625,000 for the group.

Brian Jarosinski of “The Bachelorette,” left, and jazz artist Ski Johnson attend the Choral Arts Society Holiday Concert and Gala.

Stradivarius at Italy

From left, Ambassador of Singapore Ashok Kumar Mirpuri and Gouri Mirpuri join Vice President of General Dynamics Information Technology Jo Decker and Dr. Stuart Seidner at the Choral Arts Society Holiday Concert and Gala.

Ambassador of Italy Claudio Bisogniero, left, examines a rare Stradivarius violin with Kenneth Slowik, artistic director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, at a special concert held at the Italian Residence to showcase Stradivarius violins from the Smithsonian Institution collection.

From left, former CIA and FBI Director William Webster and his wife Lynda Webster of the Webster Group join Agnes Aerts and her husband, outgoing Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen, at the Choral Arts Society Holiday Concert and Gala.

Nepalese Farewell

From left, attorney James Feldman, novelist Natalie Wexler, Karen Schuiling, and Choral Arts Society Artistic Director Scott Tucker attend the Choral Arts Society Holiday Concert and Gala at the Kennedy Center.

From left, James and Hannah Burris join Laura Medina Mora and Ambassador of Mexico Eduardo Medina Mora at the 33rd annual Choral Arts Society Holiday Concert and Gala.

Arab-American Day

Departing Ambassador of Nepal Shankar P. Sharma, center, addresses his guests with his wife Kalpana, right, and Nisha Desai Biswal, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, at the ambassador’s farewell reception.

From left, Ambassador of Laos Seng Soukhathivong, Ambassador of Mauritius Somduth Soborun, Ambassador of Suriname Subhas-Chandra Mungra, and Ambassador of Sri Lanka Jaliya Wickramasuriya attend a farewell reception for the Nepalese ambassador.

photos: gail scott

Laura Denise Bisogniero, left, welcomes former U.S. Protocol Chief Selwa “Lucky” Roosevelt to a reception at the Italian Residence (Villa Firenze) celebrating Stradivarius violins from the 17th and 18th centuries as part of the Year of Italian Culture in the U.S.

photos: gail scott

From right, Ambassador of the League of Arab States Mohammed Al Hussaini Al Sharif welcomes Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Al-Mughairy and her husband, former Ambassador of Oman to the U.N. Fuad Mubarak Al-Hinai, to the second annual Arab-American Day at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center hosted by the Arab League and the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Washington, D.C.

photos: Kaveh Sardari

From left, Deputy Chief Representative of the League of Arab States Sameh Alfonse, Arab League Ambassador Mohammed Al Hussaini Al Sharif, Afghan reporter Nazira Karimi, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, former Arab League Ambassador to the U.N. and U.S. Clovis Maksoud, former U.S. Ambassador to Oman Richard J. Schmierer, Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Al-Mughairy, and International Trade Director at the Ronald Reagan Building Andrew Gelfuso attend the Arab-American Day reception.

Qatar National Day

From left, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and his wife Martha-Ann talk with Agnes Aerts and her husband, outgoing Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen, at an Italian reception showcasing Stradi­ varius violins from the Smithsonian’s vault.

Page 42

Finnish National Day

photo: gail scott

Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde, center, stands with Norwegian chef Sindre Risvoll, left, and the Finnish Embassy’s new chef, Petri Hotti, at Finland’s National Day celebration.

From left, Ambassador of Lebanon Antoine Chedid, Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Al-Mughairy and her husband, former Ambassador of Oman to the U.N. Fuad Mubarak Al-Hinai, attend the Qatari National Day reception.

Outgoing Ambassador of Qatar Mohamed Abdulla Al-Rumaihi, left, welcomes Ambassador of Cambodia Hem Heng to Qatar’s National Day reception held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.

The Washington Diplomat

photos: gail scott

Ambassador of Dominica Hubert J. Charles, left, and Ambassador of Mauritania Mohamed Lemine El Haycen , attend the Qatari National Day reception.

February 2014

New Irish Ambassador

Belgian Farewell

photos: gail scott

From left, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Belgian Embassy Thomas Lambert toasts Agnes Aerts and her husband, Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen, who left Washington, D.C., on Dec. 31, at their farewell reception held at the Belgian Residence.

From left, Bobbi Barrasso joins Ambassador of Turkmenistan Meret Bairamovich Orazov and his wife Irina Orazova at a farewell reception for Belgian Ambassador Jan Matthysen at his residence.

Gitte Wallin Pedersen, left, and Ambassador of Denmark Peter TaksøeJensen attend the Belgian ambassador’s farewell reception.

Former Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs Esther Brimmer, now with the George Washington University, left, and Ambassador of Germany Peter Ammon attend the Belgian ambassador’s farewell reception.

From left, former Ambassador of Mexico Arturo Sarukhan, now with the Podesta Group, Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche, Veronica ValenciaSarukhan, Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde, and her husband Dr. Hidde Ronde attend the Belgian ambassador’s farewell reception.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Esther Coopersmith, left, and former Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) attend the Belgian ambassador’s farewell reception.

Ambassador of Ireland Anne Anderson, left, is fêted by her next-door neighbor Esther Coopersmith, a UNESCO ambassador and prominent Democratic fundraiser.

Longtime Democratic supporter Esther Coopersmith, left, welcomes House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to a reception for Anne Anderson, Ireland’s first female ambassador to the U.S.

From left, Ambassador of Switzerland Manuel Sager, his wife Christine Sager, Mary Haft and Debbie Dingell, wife of Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), attend a reception at the home of Esther Coopersmith.

From left, Ambassador of the Netherlands Rudolf Simon Bekink and his wife Gabrielle de Kuyper join Ambassador of Spain Ramón Gil-Casares for a reception at the home of Esther Coopersmith.

Georgetown Jingle State Holiday Reception

photos: U.S. Department of state

Secretary of State John Kerry, left, greets Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda Deborah Mae Lovell at the annual holiday reception for ambassadors and their spouses at the State Department.

Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the annual State Department holiday reception for the diplomatic corps and their spouses.

From left, Secretary of State John Kerry talks to Ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire Daouda Diabate and recently departed Ambassador of Indonesia Dino Patti Djalal at the annual holiday reception for ambassadors and their spouses at the State Department.

From left, Will Thomas of Fox 5 WTTG News, auction chair Leda DiLeonardo, Thomas DiLeonardo, and Michael DiLeonardo attend the eighth annual Georgetown Jingle at the Four Seasons, a familyfriendly holiday extravaganza hosted by the Four Seasons and design community to raise funds for Medstar Georgetown University Hospital’s pediatric oncology programs.

Susan Harreld, left, and Patricia Vercelli, general counsel for UATP, attend the eighth annual Georgetown Jingle, which has raised more than $1.5 million for Georgetown University pediatric oncology programs, in part by auctioning holiday-themed trees created by top area designers.

Kazakh Independence

photo: gail scott

Ambassador of Kazakhstan Kairat Umarov and his wife Galiya Umarova welcome guests to a reception at the Willard InterContinental Wash­­ington to celebrate Kazakhstan’s 22nd anniversary of independence.

Japanese Emperor’s Birthday photos: Gail scott

Ambassador of Azerbaijan Elin Suleymanov, center, brings his wife Lala Abdurahimova and his mother Sevda Abdullayea to Kazakhstan’s Independence Day reception.

From left, Ambassador of Japan Kenichiro Sasae, his wife Nobuko Sasae, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) attend a reception at the Japanese Residence celebrating the Japanese emperor’s birthday.

Smith Yewell, CEO of Welocalize Inc., left, and Julie Broas attend the eighth annual Georgetown Jingle at the Four Seasons hotel.

February 2014

The Georgetown Jingle featured a family-centric “Holiday Wonderland” afternoon followed by “Anything Can Happen!” with live entertainment

by Pamala Stanley and cuisine from top area chefs.

The Washington Diplomat Page 43

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

February 2014

Fashion Diplomacy

photos: gail scott

Marliese Heimann-Ammon, left, and Ambassador of Germany Peter Ammon, right, welcome designers Adrian Runhof and Johnny Talbot to the German Residence for a fashion show of their women’s clothing line, Talbot Runhof. Striking black-and white designs in a Harlequin pattern are among the hallmarks of Talbot Runhof.

Innovation at IFE

A model walks down a makeshift runway at a fashion show held at the Turkish Embassy Residence for Sarar, a Turkish retailer that recently opened a store in Washington, D.C.

From right, Fügen Tan, wife of the Turkish ambassador, welcomes Lala Abdurahimova, wife of the Azerbaijani ambassador, and Samia Aidi to a fashion show at the Turkish Embassy Residence.

Canadian designer Michael Kaye, center, poses with several of his models at a fashion showcase at the Canadian Embassy. Kaye said he loves to work with tartans, beaded or sequined materials and fur.

Omani National Day

Deputy Chief of Mission at the Portuguese Embassy Rosa Batoreu, top right, with coach Kathy Kemper to her right, host the annual Institute for Education Fellows Dinner at the Portuguese Residence with (front row from left) Genelle Quarles, Chris Golden, Mark Schulte, R. David Edelman, John Paul Farmer, Nick Roberts, Quenton Horton, (middle row from left) Jenny Shore, Joanne Ke, Jordan D’Eri, (back row from left) Elise Ravenscroft, Carla Langjer, and Nick Roberts.

Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Al-Mughairy and her husband, former Ambassador of Oman to the U.N. Fuad Mubarak Al-Hinai, welcome guests to Oman’s 43rd National Day reception held at the Fairmont Washington Hotel.

photos: Gail scott

From left, Ambassador of Fiji Winston Thompson talks with Suzana Jolevska, wife of the Macedonian ambassador, and her son Filip at the Omani National Day reception.

Former Ambassador of Bahrain Houda Nonoo, left, and former Ambassador of Iraq Samir Sumaida’ie attend the Omani National Day reception.

Ambassador of Egypt Mohamed Tawfik, center, talks with Egyptian Defense, Military, Naval and Air Attaché Rear Adm. Mohamed M. Abdelaziz Elsayed, left, and Bahraini Assistant Defense, Military, Naval and Air Attaché Lt. Col. Mohamed Ali E. Ahmed at the Omani National Day reception.

Singapore Arts

photos: institute for education

From left, Ambassador of Russia Sergey Kislyak, Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Louis Wolzfeld, and Judge William Webster kick off the 23rd season of the Institute for Education (IFE) INFO Roundtable hosted by Webster, and IFE steward and former CIA and FBI director, at the Alibi Club.

Nobuko Sasae, wife of the Japanese ambassador, left, and White House Senior Advisor Brian Forde attend an Institute for Education (IFE) INFO Roundtable at the Alibi Club focusing on technology and innovation.

Indonesia Farewells

From left, Ambassador of Switzerland Manuel Sager and his wife Christine welcome Gouri Mirpuri, wife of the Singapore ambassador, to an Institute for Education Public Policy Salon on civic innovation featuring White House Innovation Fellows.

Ambassador of the Philippines Jose Cuisia, center, and coach Kathy Kemper, second from right, host an Institute for Education salon on civic innovation at the Philippine Embassy with Presidential Innovation Fellows, including, from left, Scott Wu of USAID, White House Senior Advisor John Paul Farmer, Jacqueline Kazil of FEMA, and Adam Dole of the Department of Health and Human Services.

From left, Shaista Mahmood, Rosa Rai Djalal, wife of the Azeri ambassador Lala Abdurahimova, and wife of the Lebanese ambassador Nicole Chedid attend a farewell reception for the Djalals.

Ambassador of Singapore Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, left, joins Euleen Goh Yiu Kiang, chairwoman of the Singapore International Foundation, at a reception to celebrate the arts and culture of Singapore.

photo: Gail scott

photo: Gail scott

Recently departed Ambassador of Indonesia Dino Patti Djalal, who’s running for president back home, left, presents his wife Rosa Rai Djalal with a ring in a surprise ceremony to renew their vows at a farewell reception held at the home of Ray and Shaista Mahmood.

Page 44

Shahin Mafi, founder and CEO of Home Health Connection, left, and Jan Du Plain, right, host a farewell reception for outgoing Ambassador of Indonesia Dino Patti Djalal and his wife Rosa at Mafi’s Potomac residence.

photos: Gail scott

Dancers from the Maya Dance Theatre in Singapore perform at the embassy in Washington, D.C.

The Washington Diplomat

Wife of the Singaporean ambassador, Gouri Mirpuri, center, welcomes artists Gregory Burns and Angie Tan-Burns, who shared their work at a reception celebrating the arts and culture of Singapore.

February 2014

AROUNDTHEWORLD

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

February 2014

APPOINTMENTS Bahamas Eugene Newry became ambassador of the Bahamas on Dec. 3, having previously served as the permanent representative of the Bahamas to the United Nations in New York. He was also a special envoy to the prime minister and from 2002 to 2007, he served Ambassador concurrently as the Bahamas’ Eugene Newry ambassador to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A neurosurgeon by profession, Ambassador Newry holds a bachelor’s of science degree from Saint Francis Xavier University in Canada and a medical degree from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

States. He was also a columnist for the Jerusalem Post for three years and co-authored with Natan Sharansky the 2004 bestselling book, “The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror,” which has been translated into 10 languages. Born and raised in Miami Beach, Fla., he earned a degree in finance and management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Ambassador Pennsylvania and a degree in philosophy, politics and econom- Ron Dermer ics (PPE) from Oxford University.

He is married to Rhoda and has five children.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kazakhstan

Adnan Hadrovic assumed the position of deputy chief of mission-minister counselor on Dec. 1, replacing Damir Dzanko, who departed the post Aug. 1. Hadrovic previously served in the Consulate General of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Istanbul and in Munich, as well as at the embassy in Washington, D.C. on a prior occasion. He has also held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 19 years. Hadrovic holds a master’s degree in administrative science with a specialization in diplomacy and international relations from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.

Colombia Luis Carlos Villegas became ambassador of Colombia to the United States on Dec. 3, having most recently served as president of the National Business Association of Colombia (ANDI), a position he held for more than 17 Ambassador years. In addition, Ambassador Villegas is a member of the Luis Carlos Colombian government’s negotiVillegas ating team in the ongoing peace talks with FARC rebels. While at the helm of ANDI, he served two terms as president of the National Business Council (1998-99; 2002-12) and was also president of the Board of Directors of the Fund for the Reconstruction and Social Development for the Coffee Belt (FOREC) from 1999 to 2000, following an earthquake that hit this important region of Colombia. In addition, he was president of the Association for CEE/Latin American Business Cooperation (ACE) and the Andean Business Advisory Council (1998-99), as well as president of Corfioccidente (1992-95). Ambassador Villegas has also held a number of positions in public office, including as senator representing the Risaralda department (state) of Colombia (1990-92), governor of Risaralda (1985-86), and international secretary of the Colombian Liberal Party (1989-94).

Between 1979 and 1989, Ambassador Villegas served in various capacities, including deputy minister of foreign affairs; general secretary of the National Federation of Coffee Growers; secretary of the Commission of Foreign Affairs; secretary-general and undersecretary for economic and social affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and economic counselor at the Embassy of Colombia in Paris. A native of Pereira, Colombia, Ambassador Villegas received his bachelor’s degree in socioeconomics and his law degree from the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He also submitted a D.A. in public administration from the University of Paris. He is married to Carmela Restrepo and has two grown children, Juliana and Daniel.

Czech Republic Pavel Pitel assumed the position of consular section head on Nov. 21, replacing Frantisek Vintr, who departed Dec. 2.

Michal Sveda assumed the position of political officer on Jan. 6, replacing Barbora Esnerova, who departed Jan. 11.

Israel Ron Dermer became ambassador of Israel to the United States on Dec. 3, having previously served as senior advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since 2009. From 2005 to 2008, Ambassador Dermer served as Israel’s minister of economic affairs in the United

February 2014

Talgat Baimukhambetov assumed the position of counselor on Dec. 10, having previously served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Olzhas Nurgaliyev assumed the position of second secretary on Dec. 26, having previously served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ermar Serikov departed the post of first secretary.

Zhanat Shaimerdenov departed the post of first secretary on Dec. 15.

Amir Sultangozhin departed the post of first secretary on Dec. 16.

Monaco Maguy Maccario Doyle became ambassador of Monaco to the United States on Dec. 3, having previously served as Monaco’s longtime consul general in New York. Ambassador Maccario Photo: Brian Doben Doyle started her U.S. career at Ambassador the Monaco Government Tourist Maguy Office in New York in 1976 and was appointed director for North Maccario Doyle America in 1994. In 1995, Prince Rainier III appointed her consul of Monaco in New York, then consul general in 1997, making her the first Monégasque woman worldwide to hold the position of career consul. Under her direction, the consulate organized promotional and philanthropic events to benefit charitable endeavors, including the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation-USA and the Princess Grace Foundation-USA. As director of the Monaco Government Tourist Office, her responsibilities included the development of leisure and group business travel to the principality. She also initiated numerous cultural and crosspromotional programs, including the successful annual “Monaco Takes New York” marketing campaign (which spread to other U.S. cities). In 2007, she was the driving force behind the internationally lauded “A Celebration of Grace” series of events that raised more than $1.5 million for the Princess Grace Foundation-USA and captured a combined media audience in excess of 140 million. In 2008, Ambassador Maccario Doyle was appointed by Prince Albert to be vice president of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation-USA and has since spearheaded many local fundraising and awareness events (with, among others, Travel + Leisure magazine, Chicago’s Field Museum, Disney and Tesla), as well as the creation of Monaco’s Environmental Stewardship Gallery, a customized installation depicting the principality’s conservation efforts. Ambassador Maccario Doyle also supports various humanitarian causes and in 1998 was awarded a gold medal from ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for her services toward its international programs. In 1996, Prince Rainier presented her with a “Chevalier de l’Ordre de Saint-Charles” distinction in recognition of services to the Principality of Monaco and the Princely Family.

Romania Iulian Buga became ambassador of Romania to the United States on Dec. 3, having previously served as Romania’s

HOLIDAYS ANGOLA Feb. 4: Beginning of the Armed Struggle Day

of the Tartu Peace Treaty Feb. 24: Independence Day

BANGLADESH Feb. 21: Shaheed Dibash Day (Martyrs’/ Language Day)

GAMBIA Feb. 18: Independence Day

BOLIVIA Feb. 28-March 4: Carnival BRAZIL Feb. 28-March 4: Carnival BRUNEI Feb. 23: National Day BURUNDI Feb. 5: Unity Day CAMEROON Feb. 11: Youth Day DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Feb. 27: Independence Day ESTONIA Feb. 2: Anniversary

GRENADA Feb. 7: Independence Day GUYANA Feb. 23: Republic Day HONDURAS Feb. 2: Patron Virgin, Virgin of Suyapa IRAN Feb. 11: Revolution Day JAPAN Feb. 11: National Foundation Day (Kenkoku Kinen No Hi) KOSOVO Feb. 17: Independence Day

ambassador to Ireland since 2009. In addition, he was state secretary for political and strategic affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2007-09); ambassador to the Netherlands and permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2001-07); as well as director of the North America Division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1999-2001). Ambassador Buga has also served in the United States before, as consul general in Los Angeles (1997-98) and as counselor at the Romanian Embassy in Washington, D.C. (1994-97). Other postings at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which Ambassador he joined in 1991, include deputy Iulian Buga director of the North America Division (1993-94) and deputy director of the Protocol Department (1992-93). Prior to that, Ambassador Buga was a scientific researcher with the Research and Design Institute for Electronic Components in Bucharest (1982-91).

He holds a master’s degree with distinction in international relations and diplomacy from Westminster University in London and a bachelor’s in electronics and telecommunications from the Polytechnic Institute in Bucharest. He has also completed post-graduate diplomatic training courses at N. Titulescu – University of Paris Foundation in Romania, a post-graduate course in management and marketing from the Academy for Economic Studies in Bucharest, and a post-graduate course in computer techniques from the Polytechnic Institute in Bucharest. Ambassador Buga speaks Romanian, English and French and is married to Mihaela and has a daughter, Irina.

São Tomé and Principe Carlos Filomeno Azevedo Agostinho das Neves became the ambassador of São Tomé and Principe on Dec. 3, having previously served as permanent representative of São Tomé and Principe to the United Nations in New York since September 2012. In addition, Ambassador Neves served as director of the National Petroleum Agency’s Administrative and Public Department, prior to which he was adviser to the National Assembly (2008-09). He was vice president to that body from 2002 to 2006, a period

KUWAIT Feb. 25: National Day Feb. 26: Liberation Day LEBANON Feb. 9: St. Maroun’s Day LIBERIA Feb. 11: Armed Forces Day LIECHTENSTEIN Feb. 2: Candlemass LITHUANIA Feb. 16: Independence Day MALTA Feb. 10: Feast of St. Paul’s Shipwreck in Malta

NEPAL Feb. 18: Democracy Day of Nepal NEW ZEALAND Feb. 6: Waitangi Day RUSSIA Feb. 23: Defender of the Fatherland Day ST. LUCIA Feb. 22: Independence Day SERBIA Feb. 15: National Day SLOVENIA Feb. 8: Preseren Day, Slovene Culture Day SRI LANKA Feb. 4: National Day

MEXICO Feb. 5: Commemoration of Mexico’s Constitution of 1917

SURINAME Feb. 25: Revolution Day

MOZAMBIQUE Feb. 3: Heroes’ Day

TURKMENISTAN Feb. 19: Flag Day

TAJIKISTAN Feb. 23: Army Day

when he also served as president of its Oil and Gas Commission (2004-06). Ambassador Neves served as president of the National Assembly’s Economic Affairs Commission until 1998, having won the position after his election as a deputy in 1994. He was also the general secretary of the political party Acçao Democratica Independente (1994-2002), having previously been ambassador to Spain (1992-94) and ambassador to Portugal (1991-94). Ambassador Neves holds a master’s degree in history from the University of Lisbon and a bachelor’s in history from the Classic University of Lisbon. Born on June 20, 1953, Ambassador Neves is married.

Thailand Vijavat Isarabhakdi became ambassador of Thailand to the United States on Dec. 3, having previously served in the Thai Embassy in Washington, D.C., as first secretary from 1994 to 1998 and second secretary from Ambassador 1993 to 1994. More recently, he Vijavat Isarabhakdi was deputy permanent secretary in the Office of the Permanent Secretary (2012-13), director-general of the Department of International Organizations (2010-12), and minister in the Thai Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva (2006-10). Ambassador Isarabhakdi also served various postings with the Secretariat of the Prime Minister, including minister (2005-06), minister-counselor (200305), and counselor (2001-03), as well as in the Office of the Secretary to the Minister, including counselor (200001) and first secretary (1998-2000). Other postings include first secretary (1998-2000) and second secretary (1992-93) in the Department of East Asian Affairs, as well as third secretary in the Americas Division of the Department of Political Affairs (1991-92). Ambassador Isarabhakdi holds a doctorate in international relations and a master’s degree in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in English with first-class honors from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. He is married to Wannipa Isarabhakdi and has one daughter.

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The Washington Diplomat

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