July 2012

■ TRAVEL & HOTELS

A World of News and Perspective

SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE

HOTELS T R A V E L &

■ VOLUME 19, NUMBER 7 ECONOMICS

Greeks Herald Epic Existential Crisis for Euro

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

SoUtHEASt ASIA

RVICEINFLUENCE PEOPLE OFSE WORLD

All-StARS

by Suzanne Kurtz

From heads of state to globetrotting tourists, visitors to Washington have come to expect an experience worthy of the nation’s capital.

A peak behind the scenes at some of D.C.’s premier hotels reveals a quiet cadre of dedicated service professionals working hard to ensure that the city’s guests are well looked after.

Harman Finds Haven Leading Wilson Center For Scholars wants Americans to vote yes

for tourism. PAGE 24 ■ U.S. airlines want to ground

TRAVEL & HOTELS

a new carbon tax being levied

Continued on next page

by the European Union. PAGE 27 ■

The Washington Diplomat

21

During nearly two decades in Congress, former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) gained a reputation as a leader on intelligence and defense issues, though she was also dogged by scandal. Now, the no-nonsense ex-congresswoman has found bipartisan peace without sacrificing her political relevance as head of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. PAGE 6

Cold War-Era Law Hems In U.S. Businesses At a glance, Russia joining the World Trade Organization looks like good news for Americans, opening up a market of more than 138 million consumers.

But American businesses could be out of luck if a law called the Jackson-Vanik Amendment stays on the books. PAGE 10

End of the world notwithstanding, there’s plenty of time to check out an exhibit on the Mayan underworld that proves the ancient culture is still very much alive and well. PAGE 30

Level Nine Lounge in the Dupont Circle Hotel

Staff Serve as Invisible Glue That Keeps Hotels Together

■ INSIDE: The travel industry

TRADE

Ancient Maya Alive and Well

■ July 2012

■ JULY 2012

July 2012

In today’s globalized world, where markets move faster than politicians do and nearly everyone has some kind of investment portfolio, the fate of Europe’s ailing economies — and the tonic they’ve been prescribed, austerity — is no longer just a matter for academics and economists to debate. PAGE 8

culture

&

■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

POLITICS

Singapore: ‘Time To go’ After 16 years, three administrations, a few scandals, many more successes, and countless friends and goodbye parties, Singapore’s Chan Heng Chee, the second-longest serving ambassador in Washington, is bidding farewell to the town where she elevated the profile of her tiny but economically powerful city-state. PAGE 15

Lugar’s Loss Reverberates Around World Diplomats in Washington have been treading a political minefield littered with some of the most intense partisanship in recent memory, looking for allies in a Congress mired in acrimony, division and dysfunction. Worse still, they just lost a major ally: Richard Lugar. PAGE 18

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The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

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The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

July 2012

8 Euro austerity

[ news ] 6

PEOPlE Of WOrld iNflUENCE After establishing herself as a fierce player in the rough-andtumble game of Beltway politics, former Rep. Jane Harman has found bipartisan sanctuary as head of the Wilson Center.

8

ECONOmiCS A decade after the euro’s introduction, the common currency is facing an unprecedented existential crisis, as the European Union grapples with ways to prop up its sickest members.

10

TradE

21 Hotel service

Katzen Arts Center

19

31

[ travel & hotels ] 21

24

15

COvEr PrOfilE: SiNGaPOrE Before her official departure this month, Ambassador Chan Heng Chee of Singapore reflects on her 16 years in D.C. and the changes she’s witnessed, both here and back home.

18

POliTiCS As diplomats wrestle with the partisan dysfunction that’s crippled U.S. politics, congressional expert John Shaw helps explain what role foreign policy will play on Capitol Hill.

30

SCUlPTUrE

[ culture ]

When it comes to the Maya these days, all people talk about is the end of the world. Thankfully, the Mexican Cultural Institute offers something a bit less depressing than mankind’s demise.

COvEr: Photo taken at the Embassy of Singapore by Lawrence Ruggeri.

HiSTOry “House & Home” crams the history of American domestic life into a nostalgia-drenched exhibit at the National Building Museum.

33

diNiNG When the Curious Grape wine shop lost its lease in May last year, it gave the owners a chance to bring to life an idea that had been percolating for some time.

34

film rEviEWS In the autobiographical documentary “5 Broken Cameras,” a Palestinian farm worker’s deeply personal stories quickly become intensely political, providing a uniquely engaging point of view of the long-lasting Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

airliNES The United States, China and other nations are balking at a European Union Emissions Trading Scheme to impose a carbon tax on their airlines.

Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party is poised for a comeback, but does that also signal a return to the corrupt mismanagement that pervaded the country for 70 years?

32

U.S. TOUriSm The travel industry has plans to “Get America Moving” and realize the importance of an industry that employs 14 million Americans and contributes $1.8 trillion in economic output a year.

arT The Katzen Arts Center invites viewers to get lost in two exhausting yet energizing shows, one of which challenges Mexican stereotypes while the other ruminates on Irish angst.

SErviCE STaff From bellhops to concierges to security staff, it takes a village of service professionals to give visitors to Washington an experience worthy of the nation’s capital.

27

POliTiCS

mEdiCal Extraordinary new technology is breathing new life into lungs once thought too damaged to be used in transplants.

July 4th is traditionally a day of fireworks in the U.S., but different sparks could fly as the Russian parliament votes to ratify accession to the World Trade Organization..

12

31

36

CiNEma liSTiNG

38

EvENTS liSTiNG

40

diPlOmaTiC SPOTliGHT

45

WOrld HOlidayS / aPPOiNTmENTS

46

ClaSSifiEdS

47

rEal ESTaTE ClaSSifiEdS

P.O. Box 1345 • Silver Spring, MD 20915-1345 • Phone: (301) 933-3552 • Fax: (301) 949-0065 • E-mail: news@washdiplomat.com • Web: www.washdiplomat.com Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Victor Shiblie director of Operations Fuad Shiblie managing Editor Anna Gawel News Editor Larry Luxner Contributing Writers Rachael Bade, Michael Coleman, Patrick Corcoran, Rachel G. Hunt, Stephanie Kanowitz, Suzanne Kurtz, Ky N. Nguyen, Dave Seminara, Gina Shaw, K.D. Tack-Czasu, Gary Tischler Photographer Jessica Latos account managers Jerry Grant, Chris Smith, Patrick Thomas Graphic designer Cari Bambach The Washington Diplomat is published monthly by The Washington Diplomat, Inc. The newspaper is distributed free of charge at several locations throughout the Washington, D.C. area. We do offer subscriptions for home delivery. Subscription rates are $25 for 12 issues and $45 for 24 issues. Call Fuad Shiblie for past issues. If your organization employs many people from the international community you may qualify for free bulk delivery. To see if you qualify you must contact Fuad Shiblie.

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July 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 5

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Jane Harman

Harman Trades ‘Blood Sport’ Of Politics for Scholarly Center

by Michael Coleman

D

uring nearly two decades in Congress, former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.)

— now head of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars — established herself as a forceful player in the rough-and-tumble game of Washington politics.

The Harvard Law School graduate and moderate Democrat racked up nine re-election wins in her conservative-leaning Southern California House district and gained a reputation as a national leader on intelligence and defense issues.After Sept. 11, 2001, Harman became a fixture on “Meet the Press” and other high-profile news shows and was sometimes cited as a potential CIA director or secretary of defense.

But the stylish congresswoman’s ambition sometimes exacted a political price.

Harman incurred the wrath of liberal Democrats when she supported elements of President George W. Bush’s post-Sept. 11 domestic surveillance program. A scandal involving espionage, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Harman briefly threatened to derail her career. And when Democrats won the U.S. House in 2006, Harman found that her quest to become chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee was stymied by her frosty relationship with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Despite the setbacks, Harman appeared to be cruising to a 10th term in office when she abruptly resigned her seat in February 2011. Sensing she had accomplished all she could in an increasingly polarized Congress, Harman simply bowed out. But while Harman left Congress, she didn’t quit the Washington policy game. Instead, she accepted an appointment as the first female director, president and CEO of the Wilson Center, a congressionally chartered think tank that aims to marry politics and scholarship in the quest for better public policies.

Since taking the helm, Harman has recruited her highpowered friends to speak at the center, reinvigorated its role in international affairs, and worked to raise the profile of female heads of state around the globe.

“This was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse,” said Harman, looking typically tanned and relaxed during an interview in her spacious, light-filled office on the top floor of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in the heart of downtown Washington. A green surfboard — a gift from a former constituent in California — rests in a corner of Harman’s office, adding a splash of vibrant color to the immaculate white lines of the room.

“I’m one of those politicians in exile now, but I’m enjoying a chance to catch my breath,” Harman told The Diplomat. “The opportunity to think more deeply about issues and be in a nonpartisan space was irresistible.”

The Wilson Center, as it’s frequently referred to in short, is a public policy organization that allows scholars and policy experts to research topics of national and international importance. The center received about $10 million in tax dollars in 2011, and took in slightly more than half that amount from private foundations and other donors. It aims to reflect the ideals of Woodrow Wilson, the nation’s only Ph.D.-holding president. Wilson preferred calm, well-researched decision making over immediately decisive, emotional actions.

Page 6

“It provides the safest political space in this town,” Harman said of the Wilson Center.

“It’s a place where both parties can come and have serious conversations and a place where the preeminent scholars in the world can come and do real research. The combination of scholarship and policy is what Woodrow Wilson stood for.”

During her time on the Hill, Harman was a major player in security-related issues, serving on all the major security committees: six years on the Armed Services Committee, eight years on Intelligence and four on Homeland Security. She also undertook numerous congressional fact-finding missions to hotspots around the world, including North Korea,Syria,Libya,Afghanistan,Pakistan, Yemen and Guantanamo Bay. Harman was taken aback when her interviewer suggested that her new job doesn’t occupy the same front-and-center position on the Washington stage as a seat in Congress.

The stage may be different, she suggested, but

“

I’m one of those politicians in exile now, but I’m enjoying a chance to catch my breath…. The opportunity to think more deeply about issues and be in a nonpartisan space was irresistible.

— Jane Harman

”

director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

it’s still one on which she is prominently perched.

“I am in the action!” Harman retorted, enthusiastically.

“I am in the action! I’m just back from observing the election in Egypt and participating in the World Economic Forum in Thailand.”

In her wide-ranging Diplomat interview, Harman discussed an array of international issues, including the Obama administration’s use of drones in Pakistan, the presidential election in Egypt and her provocative view that Russia should allow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to live in exile there. She also defiantly addressed the controversies that dogged her in office.

In late May, Harman and Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) were among a team of international observers monitoring Egypt’s first round of presidential elections following the fall of longtime head of state Hosni Mubarak.

Although the Wilson Center isn’t known for election

Photo: David Hawxhurst / Wilson Center

monitoring, Harman said she’s been participating in the democratic tests since her days as a California lawyer in private practice in the 1980s.

“I think it’s fascinating to see transitions to democracy,” she said, noting that the “mechanics of the [Egyptian] election were very fair.”

“There were some allegations [of irregularities] leading up to the election, but I didn’t see that,” she told us.“What I saw were long lines of men and women very excited to be voting for the first time in their lifetime for the president of their country.”

Harman — speaking before the June 17 election that seemed to usher the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi to the presidency, amid what many called a power grab by the military after the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the Islamist-led Parliament dissolved — downplayed the worries of many in the American foreign policy establishment that the conservative Muslim Brotherhood will dominate Egyptian politics.

“There is a lot of concern that if the Muslim Brotherhood has a majority in the Parliament and its candidate wins the presidential election, there really may not be room for expression of other points of view, “ Harman conceded.

“But we have to wait and see. Democracy doesn’t exist without pluralism.”

She said the emergence of Islamist political parties is “good news” “There are groups of people who hold strong views, and democracy is about the exchange of ideas and the free expression of views,” Harman said. “And there are Islamist parties that are running for election under more or less fair rules.

“I’d much rather have them in the tent than have them

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

outside, like al-Qaeda, trying to blow up the tent,” Harman added.“I think the rise of Islamist parties is healthy.”

Harman also has her own ideas about the violent conflict unfolding in Syria. In a March 30 op-ed in the Washington Post, Harman suggested that Syria’s Bashar al-Assad might be willing to give up power and stop the massacre of his own people in exchange for asylum for himself and his family. She pointed out that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s exodus to New York for medical treatment allowed for the peaceful transition of power there. Now, although it remains unclear where Saleh is, he’s at least not in power.

“Offering Assad immunity to get him out of Damascus may be the best of several less-thanideal options for stopping the bloodshed in Syria,” Harman wrote in the Post.

In her June Diplomat interview, Harman stood by her suggestion. She argued that such a move could help Russian President Vladimir Putin repair his international image, which she says was badly tarnished by irregularities and violence related to his own election this year. (Less than a week after The Diplomat’s interview with Harman, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced her suspicion that Russia was supplying the Assad regime with high-powered assault helicopters.)

“We’re choosing among bad alternatives and this is less bad than letting a massacre and a nascent civil war continue,” Harman said, referring to her asylum proposal.“If there is a possibility of getting the Bashar family out of the country and structuring a reasonably stable government in their place, I think we, the enlightened world — a coalition of nations — ought to seize it.

“I’m not defending Bashar al-Assad in any way and I think he may shortly be indicted for crimes against humanity,” Harman added. “But I’m still hopeful that Russia will seize an opportunity which is unique to Russia. It has been an arms

provider and is an immediate neighbor and obviously a confidante of the Bashar family.

“I think this would be in Putin’s interest to do,” she continued. “If he wants to rehabilitate his image in the world community after what most view as a very flawed election in Russia, it would earn him some serious cred.”

Harman dismissed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s suggestion that the U.S. government should arm the Syrian rebels battling Assad’s minority regime.

“I think arming the rebels is problematic,” she said.“I don’t know who they are and where those arms will go.There already is a problem with some of the arms that were in the caches in Libya, and some of those provided from outside, resurfacing in other parts of the world.

“If al-Qaeda is part of the opposition in Syria, which we now believe it is, I can’t imagine we’d want to give arms to al-Qaeda,” she added.

Turning to the subject of Obama’s overall foreign policy, Harman gave the president and his administration good grades — with a couple of caveats.

“There is no low hanging fruit in foreign policy anymore,” she said. “The Arab awakening caught the whole world by surprise, including our intelligence community. Finding the right path through this is tough.”

Harman noted that she refuses to refer to the revolutions in the Middle East as an “Arab Spring,” saying the term is “too optimistic.” She prefers “Arab awakening.”

Meanwhile, the former congresswoman said Obama would benefit from a more open dialogue on controversial strategies like drone strikes in Pakistan.

“I think it needs to be well explained,” Harman said. “If people pose an imminent threat to the safety of people in our country and they’re impossible to capture, I think in limited circumstances

with very clear rules it is OK to target them,” she explained, noting that a drone wiped out al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi in early June.

“Our drone program is very carefully managed and it needs to be,” she said.“It’s not OK with me to operate it outside of some strict set of rules.”

But who gets to determine those rules? That’s one of the main arguments used by critics of the covert program, which they say is outside the bounds of domestic and international law. Harman says the drone program should be staged in a way that is accountable.

“We don’t want to give license to other countries that will be able to perfect this technology to do whatever they want,” she said, echoing another chief complaint of the program.

Harman said she also supports Obama’s policy of coercive sanctions against Iran, with a military option remaining on the table, and backs a similar approach to North Korea with the added element of multiparty talks.

As the conversation turned to Harman’s political travails in office, the former congresswoman was direct and defiant. In 2006, news reports said the Justice Department was investigating Harman after she was reportedly overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two AIPAC officials, in return for the group’s help securing the House Intelligence Committee chairmanship by raising money for Pelosi and lobbying for Harman.

The issue resurfaced in 2009 when Congressional Quarterly’s Jeff Stein reported that the Harman investigation was dropped not because of a lack of evidence, but because then Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales intervened to stop the probe.

“Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administra-

tion’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about to break in The New York Times and engulf the White House,” Stein wrote.

Harman called the entire episode “a total political smear.”

“The Justice Department said in writing I never was a target of, or subject of an investigation and so did the House Ethics Committee — in writing,” she stressed.

So what was the motivation for the allegations and the reporting on the issue?

“Politics is a blood sport — that was the motivation as far as I know,” Harman said. “I never got more information than that. It was a miserable experience to live through but I was re-elected five times afterward, so it obviously didn’t impress the voters in my district.”

Harman also took vigorous exception to a reporter’s assertion that she “supported wireless wiretapping” during the Bush administration.

“That is not fair,” Harman quickly countered. “I defended wiretapping consistent with strict rules.

I was outraged when I learned that the terrorism surveillance program — which was revealed in an article in the New York Times — had not been conducted according to the law [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] that applied.

“I was extremely outspoken about it starting on the day I could talk about it and I worked with some others to amend FISA,” she continued.“FISA is not a warrantless wiretapping law; it’s not all wiretapping, it’s not all wires — there are other ways to intercept communication.”

Harman further explained that the FISA law has “strict rules for when you can intercept communications from foreigners or Americans.”

“I don’t call that warrantless and we had a very robust argument about that,” she said.

But in his book, “Bush’s Law: The Remaking of

See harman, page 14

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The Washington Diplomat Page 7

Economics

Europe

Cash-Strapped Greeks Stuck Between Rock and Hard Place

by Dave Seminara

W

hen Dimitris Kalaitzes, a Greek restaurateur from the island of Patmos, was pulled over while driving on the Verrazano Bridge in New York earlier this year, the NYPD officer didn’t ask him why he was going too fast.

Instead, he wanted an answer to the question that has vexed politicians, bankers, economists and investors the world over since the fall of 2009.

“He said, ‘Greece is this small little country,’” Kalaitzes recalled over a Greek coffee in his restaurant, Jimmy’s Balcony. “‘How is it possible that it could bring down the entire world economy?’”

In today’s globalized system, where markets move faster than politicians do and nearly everyone has some kind of investment portfolio, the fate of Europe’s ailing economies isn’t just a matter for academics and economists to ponder.

These days, almost anyone who’s vulnerable to a shaky world economy that gets easily rattled by market jitters — which is just about everyone — is suddenly interested in what previously obscure technocrats in Greece, Spain and Italy have to say about their teetering economies.

These days, many of the voters in those struggling nations are also rebelling against the austerity measures necessitated by the European debt crisis, and a decade after the introduction of the euro, the common currency is grappling with an existential crisis, as the European Union wrestles with ways to prop up its sickest members.

“There’s a growing sense here in Washington that the European debt crisis is causing a ripple effect across the global economy, and the weak job numbers for May here in the U.S. underscore the severity of the crisis,” said Heather Conley, a senior fellow and director of the Europe Program at the D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies and former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs.

How did the EU get itself into this mess? Many point to October 2009, when Georgios Papandreou, Greece’s newly inaugurated prime minister, admitted that his predecessors had concealed huge deficits. Within months, Greece was effectively unable to borrow on the open markets, and a series of bailout packages was devised by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, known as the troika. In return, Greece was required to adopt a raft of austerity measures to curb its bloated public sector spending.

Bailouts for Ireland and Portugal followed in 2010 and 2011, respectively, and by the middle of last year, fears had intensified that the larger economies of Spain and Italy would be the next dominos to crumble. Cyprus is already eyeing its own EU bailout, and Conley pointed to the recent Moody’s downgrade of German and Austrian banks as proof that the contagion that started in Greece is now spreading even to Europe’s healthier economies.

The euro zone’s third-largest economy, Italy, will be the real test. It seems to have stabilized under its technocratic prime minister, Mario Monti — for now, at least — but that hasn’t calmed nervous investors. A more immediate concern is Spain, the euro’s fourth-largest economy, which has an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent.

Despite a deal of up to $125 billion to help recapitalize

Page 8

“

Photo: Milos Bicanski / istock

We’re either going to see a Europe that has taken a quantum leap toward greater integration, or we may have to deal with a Europe moving toward disintegration.

— Heather Conley

”

director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

Spain’s debt-laden banks, the country’s borrowing costs remain unsustainably high, breaching the threshold that forced nations like Greek to seek a bailout.

The Spanish arrangement also comes without the same strings that were attached to the Greek, Irish and Portuguese bailouts, and politicians in Athens and elsewhere immediately pounced on that disparity to demand that the EU cut them some slack as well. (Spain though has been much more diligent about cutting government spending and debt).

Much of anti-austerity ire has been directed squarely at Berlin. The only EU member with enough fiscal firepower to save the euro, Germany has gotten flak for its slow response to the eurozone crisis and its insistence on austerity and drastic spending cuts, without any economic stimulus.

Yet Germany’s reluctance to throw money at the problem — at least not without first fixing the governance model that created the current fiasco — is understandable.

Europe’s strongest economy could easily be bled dry by bailing out mismanaged, deeply indebted nations like Greece, which would most likely fail to implement muchneeded reforms if the financial pressure was eased.And the

The headquarters of the Bank of Greece in Athens was vandalized following violent protests in February against the government’s unpopular austerity plans. While the majority of Greeks say they want to remain in the euro, they also favor renegotiating the harsh terms of the bailout that’s kept the country from bankruptcy.

type of reforms Germany is demanding — eliminating red tape and regulations that discourage competition, uprooting entrenched labor protections that stifle growth — are long overdue.

After reunification and the adoption of the euro, Germans also undertook harsh belt-tightening reforms to make their economy the competitive giant it is today. Greeks, on the other hand, squandered the cheap credit that entrance to the eurozone afforded them, racking up debt while refusing to modernize their dilapidated economic infrastructure.

At the same time, German voters, whose cheap exports benefited greatly from converting to the euro, are stuck in the same boat as other EU members if the currency sinks.

And so far, citizens in Greece are drowning in the tonic prescribed for their pain — austerity — without any relief in sight.

I’ve spent the last month in Greece and have seen the devastating impact of the crisis in every facet of Greek life.

Banks are failing because Greeks have moved some $12 billion out of the country. Pharmacists are striking because the government isn’t reimbursing them for the prescriptions they dispense.

Schoolchildren in parts of the country haven’t received their workbooks because there’s no money for photocopying. Tourism offices in some of Greece’s most popular islands are closed, as there’s no money to staff them.

Likewise, ancient monuments such as the Parthenon in Athens open to tourists haphazardly, depending on staffing.

Graffiti warning of a pending economic apocalypse is the backdrop for growing homelessness, drug use and hope-

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

lessness in the Greek capital and elsewhere.

Pensioners and public sector workers have had their income slashed dramatically, and private sector workers have seen their incomes decrease as well, as their bosses struggle to cope with higher taxes, weak sales and more vigilant tax collection.

It’s a crippling cycle of spending cuts and tax increases that are exacerbating the recession — battering wages, raising unemployment, and in turn lowering the revenue the government brings in, forcing it to pile on more debt. The country is about to buckle and it’s doubtful any new Greek government could push ahead with an austerity-only agenda.

Most Greeks understand how they ended up in their current predicament. Greece’s political leadership allowed public spending to mushroom while the country’s oligarchs were allowed to avoid paying taxes on a flagrant scale.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Greeks work longer hours than any other country in Europe, but the country’s huge cadre of civil servants were allowed to retire young with extremely generous pensions.

Greeks repudiated the two political parties that were mostly responsible for the debacle, and voters were initially seduced by Syriza, a coalition of left-wing parties led by 37-year-old Alexis Tsipras, a charismatic politician who had promised to renegotiate Greece’s 130 billion euro bailout deal with the troika. But after the May 6 election failed to produce a coalition government, Greeks appeared to have a slight change of heart in the June 17 election, giving the proEurope center-right New Democracy party a slight edge over Syriza, which will remain a formidable opposition bloc in Parliament.

If Syriza had won and indeed reneged on Greece’s commitments, the IMF would have suspended aid payments, prompting the government to default over the summer or by September.

Despite worldwide relief that Greeks will remain in the eurozone, for now, markets quickly slumped after a brief bump — a reflection of the lingering doubts that Greece and other indebted euro economies will be able to climb out of their fiscal morass.

The June election proved that many Greeks fear venturing into the unknown by abandoning the euro, though they probably fear the bloc’s austerity just as much.

Kostas Lavdas, head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Crete, believes that many Greeks are wrong to fault the bailout agreement itself.

“Without this agreement, our recession would be even more pronounced than it is now,” he said. “So there’s a misunderstanding, I think, on the part of Greek society about the agreement.

People blame the agreement itself rather than the measures taken and the way the agreement has been implemented, and this creates a negative feeling among many Greeks because they think the agreement is the cause that led to recession.”

Opinions run the gamut, however, and many Greeks resent the austerity straitjacket being imposed on them.

“There is a quiet, peaceful revolution happening in Greece,” said Anna Avgouli, the editor in chief of Stathmos, a newspaper on the island of Kos.“The world wants Greece to be subdued.”

Avgouli opined that 99 percent of the bailout money went to the banks, many of them German, and not to Greeks, a claim that I heard over and over again in my travels around the country.

Yet others point out that Greeks want their cake and eat it too — remaining in the euro but not having to curb the profligate spending that got them into trouble.

“The continued failure of the Greek government to take responsibility for its actions is salt in the wounds for every German who is being asked to pay for this,” says Alexei Monsarrat, director of the Global Business and Economics Program at the Atlantic Council. “There are all kinds of reasons why Germany should do this, all of them based on Germany’s interest, but it’s

hard to do that when the people you’re bailing out are sticking their finger in your eye and telling you you should let them off the hook.”

Monsarrat likened Tsipras’s pledge to keep Greece in the eurozone while renegotiating the bailout deal — a promise New Democracy has made as well — to a “sixth-grade election promise to have recess all day long.”

“They’re pointing at the troika and Germany and saying, ‘Isn’t it horrible you’re making us do all these things,’ but you borrowed the money — you do actually have to pay that back.”

But he concedes that ordinary Greeks are just as outraged by their leaders’ poor stewardship of the country’s finances as the rest of the world.

As Greek politicians bicker over how to get out of a no-win situation, the possibility of a “Grexit” from the eurozone, considered taboo just a few months ago, is now entirely conceivable.

Some economists have argued that Greece might actually be better off reverting to the drachma because countries tethered to the euro currently lack one of the biggest tools to ward off recession: currency depreciation. If Greeks returned to the drachma, exports would be cheap and tourism, which accounts for one-fifth of Greece’s GDP, might increase as prices go down. Moreover, most international banks have limited their exposure to Greek debt, which could staunch a potential panic in the markets and limit the damage to the EU. Despite the cacophony of speculation, however, no one really knows how a Grexit would play out, and many think that Greece is better off in the eurozone.

“The immediate consequences for Greece — or other countries — of leaving the euro would be dire,” wrote the Washington Post’s Robert J. Samuelson. “Some companies, unable to repay euro-denominated debts, would go bankrupt.

Inflation would shoot up. Banks might suffer large withdrawals. Worse, if Greece dropped the euro, it might trigger a chain reaction. Depositors in Spain, Italy or Ireland might stage runs on their banks, trying to withdraw euros before they were replaced by less valuable national currencies.”

The cost of a Greek exit from the eurozone would be $1.25 trillion, according to the Institute of International Finance, so the ripple effect across the global economy would be tremendous.

Either way for Greeks, whether in or out of the eurozone, they face a tough road ahead littered with severe sacrifices.

Professor Lavdas puts the odds of a Grexit at only 25 to 30 percent within the next year, and most Greeks I’ve spoken to think that it’s highly unlikely the country will leave or be kicked out.

Many still believe that they can have it both ways, staying in the eurozone, but managing to renegotiate the bailout deal more favorably.

“This is the diplomatic equivalent to holding a gun to your own head and threatening to pull the trigger if they don’t let you out of the trap,” warned Monsarrat. “It is a serious miscalculation on the part of the Greeks.”

The troika is treading carefully with Greece because their reaction to the crisis will establish a precedent that other ailing economies could then try to draw on. If Greece is allowed to renegotiate its deal or leaves the euro altogether, what happens when other countries want to do the same?

“Europe’s preferred methodology is to muddle through, but at some point there’s going to have to be some decisions taken,” said Conley. “If we see a full run on Spanish and Greek banks, they’ll need to take more decisive action.”

But decisive action might be unlikely given France’s recent election of Socialist François Hollande to replace Nicolas Sarkozy as president in May. Sarkozy worked closely with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to engineer the euro’s various bailouts, which helped contribute to his downfall at home. Hollande has spoken out in favor of bold moves to spur growth, putting him at odds with Merkel’s austerity approach.

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TRADE

U.S.-Russia Relations

As Russia Joins Trade Bloc, Cold War Law Hampers U.S.

by K.D. Tack-Czasu

T

he Fourth of July is traditionally a day of fireworks in the United States, but this year, there could be different sparks flying on July 4th as the Russian parliament, or Duma, votes to ratify accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

At a glance, Russia joining the Geneva-headquartered body, which describes itself as a “forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements … a place for them to settle trade disputes” and the overseer of a system of trade rules, looks like good news for Americans. After all, it would open a market of more than 138 million consumers to U.S. goods and services, and bring the last major economy in the Group of 20 into the fold of the global trade body.

Russia will officially become a WTO member 30 days after it notifies the trade organization of the results of the Duma vote, which is widely expected to be in favor of joining. Once it becomes a member, Russia will have to comply with the conditions that have been laboriously hammered out over the two decades it took for the country to join the WTO, such as tariff cuts on imports including cars, electrical machinery and other manufactured goods. Many of those goods are produced

by U.S. companies that are champing at the bit to gain access to Russian consumers.

According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, U.S. exports to Russia could double in five years to $20 billion when Russia joins the WTO — but only if a Cold War-era law called the Jackson-Vanik Amendment is repealed.

Jackson-Vanik, as those who deal with it call it, was set up in 1974 to pressure the then Soviet Union to allow its citizens, and specifically Jews, to emigrate freely. JacksonVanik has been hailed by former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, who spent eight years in a Soviet gulag from the late 1970s until the mid-1980s, as a cornerstone of successful U.S. policies to pressure the Soviets to respect human rights. Sharansky, who left the USSR on his release from a Soviet jail in 1986 and moved to Israel, where he has served in the Knesset, also says that the fall of the Soviet Union has led to Western governments letting down their guard against rights abuses by Moscow.

Repealing Jackson-Vanik would be another step away from keeping pressure on Moscow to respect human rights.

But proponents of a repeal of Jackson-Vanik argue that Jews and others have been allowed to freely leave Russia and other former Soviet states since the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991; that Russia is now a market economy; and that the United States has waived the application of Jackson-Vanik every year since 1994. In other words, the law is outdated.

It also leaves a sour taste in the mouths of Russians, who see Jackson-Vanik “as an anachronism that equates them to the Soviets,” former U.S.Ambassador to Moscow Thomas Pickering told The Washington Diplomat.

“It has a high emotional impact on the Russians.They don’t care about the practical effect of the law,” Pickering said, echoing a call by many top U.S. officials to repeal Jackson-Vanik.

Among them is current U.S. Ambassador to Moscow

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Photo: WTO / Studio Casagrande

“

Once Russia becomes a member of the World Trade Organization, we need to make sure that American businesses have the full advantages of that, and, therefore, it’s necessary for us to lift Jackson-Vanik.

— Ron Kirk

U.S. trade representative

”

Michael McFaul, who said at an event on Capitol Hill in March that “there is no upside to holding onto JacksonVanik right now.”

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk was quoted in an Associated Press story in June as saying: “Once Russia becomes a member of the World Trade Organization, we need to make sure that American businesses have the full advantages of that, and, therefore, it’s necessary for us to lift Jackson-Vanik.”

Even Russian opposition leaders have called for an end to Jackson-Vanik, saying it merely plays into the hands of recently re-elected Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Jackson-Vanik is … a very useful tool for Mr. Putin’s anti-American propaganda machine,” said a statement released by key leaders of protests that brought tens of thousands of Russians into the streets of Moscow to call for “honest elections” after a fraud-marred parliamentary vote in December. “It helps him to depict the United States as hostile to Russia, using outdated Cold War tools to undermine Russia’s international competitiveness.”

The Russian opposition leaders also warned that,

From left, Chairman S.H. Jóhannesson of Iceland, World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy, and Maxim Medvedkov, Russia’s chief WTO negotiator, attend a meeting on Russia’s WTO accession, which brings the last major economy in the G-20 into the fold of the global trade body.

without a repeal of Jackson-Vanik, U.S. businesses would be left out in the cold, facing higher tariffs than other countries doing business with Russia when WTO membership takes effect.

WTO rules stipulate that members of the organization must grant each other permanent normal trade relations, referred to by its acronym, PNTR. If JacksonVanik is in force when Russia becomes a member, the United States will be in violation of those rules and Moscow has the right to deny U.S. exporters the marketopening benefits of WTO accession, while extending them to other companies around the world.

That notion has particularly alarmed America’s auto industry, which has been clamoring for access to Russia’s growing car-buying middle class.

“There’s an expectation that Russia will become the world’s sixth-largest car market by 2020. It’s currently number 10,” U.S. Commerce Deputy Undersecretary Michelle O’Neill told Reuters in April. “It’s going to be the largest car market in Europe within the next three years.”

McKinsey & Company consultants predict that the passenger car market in Russia will grow by 3 percent a year and return to pre-global economic crisis levels of more than 2.7 million units sold by 2014. Foreign carmakers are expected to benefit the most from the buoyant Russian carmaker, with Russian brands only making up a quarter of the market in 2011, McKinsey said in a report.

“The Russian passenger-car market … will be increasingly important — it is on the road to being one of the

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

largest on the continent,” McKinsey said.

“There is a real appetite for American cars in Russia, especially Moscow,” said Christopher Boian, an American journalist who works at RIA Novosti. “But it is still a far cry from what I suspect it’s going to become again after full WTO accession. A lot of American cars are really good value for money — and everyone here knows it!”

As the call to ditch Jackson-Vanik grows louder, some are insisting that a new law be put in its place to continue to press Russia on human rights. Not doing so would send a message that trade trumps human rights.

The law they have proposed, the Magnitsky Act — named after Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison in 2009 — would not use trade as a stick. Instead, it would use targeted sanctions against individuals suspected of human rights violations, including involvement in Magnitsky’s death, naming and shaming them, freezing their U.S. assets, and barring them from obtaining visas to come to the United States.

Magnitsky was arrested in 2008 after he accused Russian officials of involvement in a scheme to defraud the government of hundreds of millions of dollars. He died a year later in prison. He was 37.

“The good news is that the Magnitsky Act doesn’t threaten trade sanctions, because that’s against the WTO rules and Russia could just turn around and say they won’t give U.S. companies the same concessions as they’re giving everyone else,” Pickering said.

“The bad news is, this would add a negative quotient to relations with Russia” at a time when the United States is trying to convince Moscow to bring pressure on the Syrian regime to end violence in the country and press Iran to be more transparent with its nuclear program, added

Pickering, who was ambassador to Moscow from 1993 to 1996.

“The Russians are very unhappy with Magnitsky because they see it as interference in their internal affairs,” he said.

The proposed law passed a House of Representatives panel in June and was marked up by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The Republican chair of the committee, Ileana RosLehtinen of Florida, and her Democratic minority counterpart, Howard Berman of California, both said they would like the Magnitsky law to be linked to a repeal of Jackson-Vanik.

Several influential senators, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair John Kerry (D-Mass.), have also backed the idea of passing the Magnitsky Act as a tradeoff for ending Jackson-Vanik, although Kerry’s committee delayed consideration of the act in February and, as of press time, has yet to reschedule a markup on the bill.

In the meantime, the bill must also move through other committees, such as finance, because of its overlapping jurisdiction. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) recently announced his support for legislation granting normal trade relations with Russia, but pairing it with the Magnitsky Act. According to a report in the Hill, he wrote a letter to Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.),RogerWicker (R-Miss.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) saying he will “ensure that these two important pieces of legislation can be linked together, reported out of the committee and voted on by the full Senate as soon as possible this year, probably by the August recess.”

The Obama administration, however, is publicly against the move and has been working with the Magnitsky sponsors to tweak portions of the bill.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a June Wall

Street Journal op-ed, argued that the repeal of Jackson-Vanik doesn’t mean the U.S. would stop pressing Russia on its human rights record. In fact, she said,“Extending permanent normal trading relations isn’t a gift to Russia. It is a smart, strategic investment in one of the fastest growing markets for U.S. goods and services. It’s also an investment in the more open and prosperous Russia that we want to see develop.”

“As the demonstrations across Russia over the past six months make clear, the country’s middle class is demanding a more transparent and accountable government, a more modern political system, and a diversified economy. We should support these Russian efforts,” Clinton wrote.

“When Russia joins the WTO, it will be required — for the first time ever — to establish predictable tariff rates, ensure transparency in the publication and enactment of laws, and adhere to an enforceable mechanism for resolving disputes. If we extend permanent normal trading relations to Russia, we’ll be able to use the WTO’s tools to hold it accountable for meeting these obligations,” she said.

The current row is just the latest bump in the long, rocky road that Russia has traveled to gain WTO membership. Georgia objected to Russia joining the trade bloc after the two countries fought a short war in 2008, but lifted its objection last year when a trade deal was reached between the two countries. Previous obstacles to WTO accession included disputes with the United States and Europe on issues including wood import quotas and agricultural exports, as well as bans on meat imports imposed by Russia amid health scares.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said in a report released in May: “The U.S. should grant Russia permanent normal trade relations status, but only after updating its tools for protecting human rights in Russia.”

K.D. Tack-Czasu is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, warns that the U.S. economy “will take the hit” if Jackson-Vanik remains in force, “since most of the rest of the world will gain preferable access to the Russian market when Moscow joins the 153-nation World Trade Organization.” However, the center also backs the idea of replacing the human rights aspect of Jackson-Vanik with the Magnitsky Act. But like his predecessor Pickering,Ambassador McFaul is against swapping one law for the other.

McFaul was quoted by the Moscow Times as telling students at the New Economic School in the Russian capital that the United States already has “enhanced powers to review” immigration cases and “this issue has been resolved.”

Pickering said he expects the Magnitsky Act to pass Congress. Russian officials, meanwhile, have warned that Moscow will not sit idly by if it does.

Bloomberg News quoted Russian Ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak as telling journalists in April that there would be “a significant reaction” from Moscow “if anything of the type is adopted.” He was referring to the Magnitsky Act, which he said would “undermine” the ability of Russia to work with the United States “on a number of issues.”

Arguing in favor of a repeal of Jackson-Vanik is the fact that it dates from a different time, and if it remains on the books, Russia could refuse to accord lower, post-WTO-accession tariffs to U.S. companies. If the Cold War-era law is repealed and “replaced” by the Magnitsky Act, Russia would be annoyed but would not be able to bar U.S. companies from benefiting from lower tariffs. In fact, doing so would put Russia in violation of WTO rules.

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Politics

North America

Will New Face of Mexico Be Ghost From Its Past?

by Patrick Corcoran

W

hen Mexicans head to the polls to select a successor to Felipe Calderón on July 1, all in­dications are that they will opt for Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which had ruled the country for more than 70 years until 2000.

The former governor of Mexico State, an entity of 15 million residents surrounding Mexico City, Peña Nieto has been the clear frontrunner for years. Even as the race tightened in the weeks leading up to the contest, with student protests chipping away at the PRI candidate’s aura of inevitability, most polls continued to give Peña Nieto a significant if not insurmountable lead.

Peña Nieto was fortunate in the opponents he faced. The leftist Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) and its allies selected Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who lost the 2006 election to Calderón by a hair, as their candidate. López Obrador retains a great deal of support among the left, but his reaction to the 2006 loss — namely camping out along one of Mexico City’s principal thoroughfares along with thousands of supporters to protest what they deemed an electoral fraud, disrupting businesses and everyday life — made him the most negatively viewed politician in all of Mexico.

However, by appealing to poorer segments of the country and capitalizing on student protests aimed at Peña Nieto, López Obrador deflated some of the frontrunner’s steam, though as of press time, it remained to be seen if this lastminute push would be enough to take the fiery leftist candidate over the finish line.

Calderón’s right-leaning National Action Party (PAN) opted for Josefina Vázquez Mota, the first woman nominated by a major party in Mexican history.While that distinction generated some excitement, Vázquez Mota, a former cabinet secretary and congressional leader, trailed from the start and ran an erratic campaign filled with oddball gambits such as demanding that all the candidates submit to polygraph tests.

Opponents aside, the reasons for Peña Nieto’s political popularity have much to do with his fame. He’s an extremely telegenic figure, and he and his team have exploited the media to an unprecedented degree for a Mexican governor. Peña

Page 12

“

Photo: Reinhard Jahn, Mannheim / selbst fotografiert

There is no new PRI. The only thing new about Peña Nieto is his face. The way he governed Mexico State is the old PRI. — John Ackerman

”

professor at the Institute for Legal Research of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Nieto also happens to be married to a famous soap opera star — their courtship and nuptials were one of the most talkedabout gossip-show events of the past several years — which gives him an unusual degree of recognition among voters who don’t closely follow politics.

“It is really remarkable how [Enrique Peña Nieto] runs on a celebrity status based on good looks and a glamorous marriage rather than his record, which leaves much to be desired,” said Dag Mossige, a visiting assistant professor at Davidson University who specializes in Mexican politics.

But the 45-year-old’s movie-star appeal is also a double-edged sword: It plays into long-standing accusations that Peña Nieto is a political lightweight. And his campaign, while generally successful, did nothing to disabuse voters of that notion.

He famously meandered incoherently through a question about three books that influenced his life, misnaming authors and trailing off repeatedly. In an interview last year, he was unable to identify the price of a kilo of tortillas (roughly analogous to the price of a gallon of gas in the U.S.) and understated the minimum wage

in Mexico by half. Peña Nieto is capable enough as an orator, and he passed the final presidential debate without much fanfare, but he often appears shaky in unscripted appearances.

Adding to this superficial impression is the lack of concrete policy ideas he’s put forth, other than vaguely pledging to pass reforms, reduce drug-related violence, boost economic growth, and create jobs.

And although the race has hinged more on personality than actual policies, Peña Nieto’s record has come under scrutiny.

Unlike the rest of the country, murders did not spike during his stint as governor of Mexico State, which is certainly a credit to his administration, but the levels of violence against women, including murder, grew dramatically. A number of social development indicators worsened during his tenure as well; for instance, 214,000 more residents of Mexico State were suffering from nutritional poverty in 2010 than had been two years earlier. His political opponents also accuse Peña Nieto of saddling the state with an enormous debt.

In short, Peña Nieto’s track record is decidedly mixed and a major reason that

The National Palace in Mexico City is home of the country’s executive branch. If Enrique Peña Nieto, opposite page, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) wins the July 1 presidential election, it would herald the return of the long-ruling PRI to power after a 12-year absence.

his once-insurmountable advantage shrank considerably as the election approached. But the concern among many Mexicans stems not only from worries that Peña Nieto might not be up to the task, but from the party he represents.

PRI Redux?

Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its forerunners ruled Mexico from 1929 through 2000. While initially serving as a welcome guarantor of stability following the chaos of the Mexican Revolution, the party came to be known primarily for its economic mismanagement, corruption and anti-democratic tendencies. These flaws fed the growing dissatisfaction with the party during the final years of its reign, before it was voted from power in a historic 2000 election.

Since its defeat, the party has made a show of renovating itself and promoting a generation of new PRI figures.These newbies, of whom Peña Nieto is the most prominent, came of age in a far different era than their political forefathers and, according to their supporters, are endowed with a greater commitment to transparency and democratic pluralism than the notorious leaders of PRI’s past.

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

Whether or not this is actually true, however, is a matter of constant debate in Mexico. John Ackerman, a professor at the Institute for Legal Research of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, is among those skeptical of the notion of a reborn PRI. “Peña Nieto himself and the people around him represent the old PRI,” Ackerman told The Diplomat. “There is no new PRI. The only thing new about Peña Nieto is his face.The way he governed Mexico State is the old PRI.” In an op-ed in the LA Times, Ackerman accuses the party of being up to its same old dirty tricks.

“The 10 states where the PRI has never lost power are among the most violent, underdeveloped and corrupt in the country,” he wrote. “The state of Mexico, where Peña Nieto just finished a six-year stint as governor, is no exception…. A recent study by scholar Guadalupe Hernandez found that millions in government ‘social spending’ went unaccounted for while Peña Nieto was governor, most likely to illegally fund his presidential campaign. Independent civil society groups rank the state at the bottom in competitiveness and tops in corruption.”

A return of the old PRI could spell the end of the economic stability that Mexico has enjoyed over the past 15 years. Mossige notes that Peña Nieto’s own economic views are not well understood and that he has borrowed liberally from many different wings of the PRI. “There is no question that there is great potential for mismanagement,” Mossige said. “On the one hand, Peña Nieto has incorporated several key figures from the [Ernesto] Zedillo administration, which augurs well for macroeconomic stability. On the other hand, he has made a range of rather spectacular campaign promises.”

Grassroots Backlash

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the PRI have been relatively muted.The party has been by far the most successful over the course of Calderón’s term: The PRI controls more than half the governor’s offices in Mexico, has a majority (together with a smaller coalition partner) in the lower house of Congress, and was the big winner in a number of midterm elections. A growing perception of the PRI as just another party rather than a bloc of latent authoritarians was a major factor in Peña Nieto emerging as the clear favorite in the presidential race.

However, as the election progressed, the grassroots alarm over a potential return of the PRI grew — fueling a student-led movement known as YoSoy132, or “I am 132,” whose name refers to

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For the past several years, negative opinions of

Photo: Edgar Alberto Dominguez Cataño / World Economic Forum

Enrique Peña Nieto, the former governor of Mexican State, has attracted legions of fans for his telegenic good looks and marriage to a famous soap opera star, though his critics say he’s a political lightweight.

l, and global

The U.S. Relationship The U.S. government has been a strong supporter of the Calderón’s administration — in particular its head-on fight against the drug cartels — and was no doubt happy to see the PRI, widely seen as complicit in Mexico’s drug trafficking, get kicked out of office in 2000.

Yet in some ways, the return of the PRI may not be a huge problem for Washington. Economically, Peña Nieto may lean away from Washington’s preferred approach on a number of issues, but he’ll be a loyal supporter of NAFTA, and he is not the open threat to U.S. interests that some of his South American counterparts have been.

Continued on next page

Graduate School USA’s

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either the PAN or PRD. Calderón’s PAN is the most likely collaborator for Peña Nieto. After it became clear that the PRD’s López Obrador had a chance to catch up to Peña Nieto and that she was no longer a competitive contender, the PAN’s Vázquez Mota directed most of her fire at her PRD adversary rather than at the frontrunner. A number of high-profile “panistas” have also called on the party faithful to support Peña Nieto, much as a number of PRI activists did in 2006 for Calderón.

Furthermore, over the past 12 years, the PAN and the PRI have worked together on a number of different agenda items. The relationship broke down often and was characterized as much by gridlock as it was by cross-party cooperation, but the template for PRI-PAN collaboration was set during the negotiations for a series of reforms — namely legislation modifying the electoral laws, public pension system, oil industry and tax regime — under the Calderón administration. If Peña Nieto hopes to improve on Calderón’s legislative achievements, he’ll need to carve out a similar modus operandi.

c h a llen g es

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the 131 students from the prestigious Universidad Iberoamericana who appeared in a video affirming their concern over Peña Nieto’s campaign and a perceived media bias in his favor. In just several weeks of existence, the group launched protest marches against Peña Nieto and organized a debate that served as an alternative to the stilted official contests on TV. “I think the 132 student protest … really galvanized and woke a lot of people up who may not have been paying a lot of attention before,” said Daniel Hernandez, a Mexico City-based journalist and author of the book “Down and Delirious in Mexico City.”

The presidential race, of course, provided an obvious impetus for people suspicious of the PRI to mobilize. Going forward, however, maintaining that momentum will be harder, and the shape of the opposition will almost certainly shift.

Hernandez expressed some hope that those whose political awareness was sparked by the current movement would remain active, but others are skeptical that YoSoy132 will continue to play a large role in marshalling opposition to the PRI. “I believe we will see at least a small surge in anti-PRI activism and that some conscience of the ‘forgotten’ problems under previous PRI administrations will be created amongst otherwise lessinformed younger voters, but it won’t be an enormous thing,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, a Dutch journalist who runs the Voice of Mexico, a news and commentary website.

Within the halls of power, the opposition’s response to the PRI will also be decisive in determining Mexico’s path forward. The most likely result of the congressional elections, which occur on the same day as the presidential contest and in which every seat is up for grabs, is a divided legislature. This means that to enact any semblance of his agenda, Peña Nieto will need the support of

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“I really do see Peña Nieto as the candidate of continuity,” said Ackerman.“Perhaps he will open the door to more corruption or impunity. This is quite likely.That could definitely complicate relations with the U.S., insofar as the U.S. is interested in combating corruption and continuity.”

But the U.S. government’s foremost concern in Mexico these days is drug violence, and here the issue is a bit more complicated. All of the major presidential candidates pledged to refocus the drug battle on making communities safer and lowering the astounding levels of violence that have seized parts of the country — killing more than 50,000 people since Calderón dispatched the military to take on the cartels in 2006 — rather than adhering to the U.S.-backed strategy of disrupting drug supplies and capturing kingpins.

Although Calderón’s aggressive approach has taken a lot of heat for ratcheting up the body count and barbarity — headless torsos dumped alongside highways have long stopped being an aberration — the PRI’s track record was equally dubious. The party was notorious for its deeply embedded links to drug traffickers, and today many analysts have speculated on the possibility of a peace pact with the narcos, modeled after the PRI collusion of yesteryear, to quell the rampant violence.

Nonetheless, in a handful of public appearances both in Mexico and in the United States, Peña Nieto has insisted that he will continue to combat criminal groups in Mexico, albeit perhaps not on the scale that Calderón has waged.

Most experts also discount the likelihood of an overarching system of collusion between drug traffickers and the federal government. “A

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The Washington Diplomat

American Justice,” New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lichtblau wrote that Harman “changed her tune” about warrantless wiretapping after a story about the Bush program broke in the New York Times in 2006. Harman was among those who had convinced the Times to hold the story for a year, he said.

“When the story broke publicly, she was among the first in line on Capitol Hill to denounce the administration’s handling of the wiretapping program, declaring that what the NSA was doing could have been done under the existing FISA law,” Lichtblau wrote.

Nevertheless, Harman insists she only supported surveillance under strict guidelines.

“No, I am not for warrantless wiretapping,” Harman said. “It’s a very sloppy and less than fully informed characterization of what many of us believed. There may be somebody out there who is for warrantless wiretapping, but I’m not in that group.”

Harman’s intense demeanor began to

Euro Their collaboration will be put to the test at the end of June, as leaders meet for an EU summit amid rumors of a “grand bargain” of deeper integration, whereby Germany has indicated some willingness to pool the bloc’s bad debt into a single fund that would be paid off over some 25 years. In return, however, Berlin would demand greater centralized control of economic matters to ensure fiscal discipline, forcing members states to answer to Brussels, a tough pill for them to swallow. Any plan to fundamentally alter the unwieldy bloc would also involve

negotiation or explicit ‘pact’ between the president of Mexico and organized crime is a remote possibility,” said Eduardo Guerrero Gutierrez, a security analyst in Mexico City.

While that prospect may be somewhat reassuring to U.S. policymakers, more of the same does not promise any improvement in Mexico’s escalating drug carnage. As Guerrero Gutierrez and others have pointed out, while Peña Nieto has pledged to reorganize Mexico’s security forces (something virtually every president has done for a generation), he hasn’t made a convincing argument for how he will be able to reduce the increasingly gruesome killings shaking the country.

Though his security proposals remain vague, a changeover in the ruling party could have some positive side effects, regardless of the policies emanating from the executive branch. One could be increased coordination between the federal government and the states, given that the PRI controls a majority of the governor’s posts.

“It’s likely that coordination would improve,” Guerrero Gutierrez said of a potential Peña Nieto administration. Pointing to the current problems, he added,“The governors and mayors that aren’t from the PAN, which are most of them, have a distant and distrustful relationship with the federal government’s security agencies.”

Mexico’s new president will certainly need all the help and cooperation he can get over the next six years (presidents are limited to one sixyear term) to turn around a security situation that has sunk to new lows over the last six years, while healing political divisions that have festered for decades.

Patrick Corcoran is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

brighten as the interview returned to her work at the Wilson Center. She talked about a program celebrating female heads of state around the world that had been languishing under the center’s previous directors. The Council of Women World Leaders aims to mobilize the highest-level female leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women.

Harman imagines the program as a chance for these female leaders to network amongst themselves and find ways to be role models and mentors to emerging women leaders.

“Our world has a scarcity of leaders,” Harman said.“If more than 50 percent of the population can be encouraged to become the best leaders possible, it can only improve things. We think the potential is huge.”

Despite a long and productive career in government, the feisty former California congresswoman declared herself happy in her new role.

“The Wilson center stands for freedom,” Harman said. “I’m very proud of what we do.”

Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

lengthy treaty modifications and require time, consensus and cooperation — none of which the EU has at the moment.

Conley believes the future of the European experiment is at stake, but fears that Europeans may cling to sovereignty at a time when they need further integration.

“We’re going to see a new Europe,” she said.

“We’re either going to see a Europe that has taken a quantum leap toward greater integration, or we may have to deal with a Europe moving toward disintegration.”

Dave Seminara is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and a former diplomat based in Northern Virginia.

July 2012

COVER PROFILE

Ambassador Chan Heng Chee

Singapore’s Ambassador Chan Says Goodbye After 16 Years

by Larry Luxner

I

n 1996, when Chan Heng Chee arrived as Singapore’s new envoy to the United States, there were only five women ambassadors in Washington. The world hadn’t yet heard of Facebook, Twitter or social networking, and Bill Clinton was already in deep doo-doo over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

But Chan had her own scandal to deal with. Two years earlier, Michael Fay, 18, had been arrested for spray-painting cars and stealing street signs. His punishment: four months in jail, a $2,200 fine and six strokes of the cane.

“It was not an easy time for me,” she recalled. “We had just gone through the caning of an American teenager for being a very naughty boy. My initial problem was to change the image of Singapore and remind Americans that Michael Fay was an aberration, and that Singapore was more than just this episode. We’re a reliable defense partner and a good trading partner, but somehow that was forgotten.”

Chan remembered that when asked about the incident on MTV, Clinton asked her government to waive the caning altogether. Out of respect to the president, Singapore eventually reduced the number of strokes from six to four.

“

Someone said to me that only The Who has had more farewells than me.

They went on a five-year farewell tour.

”

— Chan Heng Chee ambassador of Singapore to the United States

“Things were raised to a level where it was difficult for us to retreat. It was all blown out of proportion,” she said, noting that Fay didn’t vandalize those cars all by himself; his partner in crime was a “hohum” Chinese boy from Hong Kong.“But that was never reported.The whole exercise was portrayed as East against West.”

These days, few Americans remember Fay or his unusual punishment — and Singapore meanwhile has solidified its reputation as a prosperous, squeaky-clean democracy of 5.2 million inhabitants who thrive on foreign trade and investment.

In 2011, Singapore enjoyed GDP growth of 4.9 percent and annual percapita income of $49,000. At 2 percent,

its unemployment rate is among the world’s lowest, and last year its total trade with the rest of the world amounted to $760 billion — a mind-boggling sum for a country half the size of Montgomery County, Maryland.

“Anybody who’s been to Singapore in the last five years realizes that it’s a thriving, glittering city whose cuisine makes it the best place in the world for foodies.

We still have one of the finest airlines in the world, and we’re known as an educational and financial center,” Chan told The Washington Diplomat in an interview that stretched nearly two hours.

“But Singapore is not a big power; it’s not a member of the P-5, the G-8 or even the G-20,” she said. “The question for me was always, how do you represent a small country in the most powerful capital in the world, where competition for time is so fierce? How do you get the attention of very high-level officials in the administration — and especially the right kind of attention? You don’t want attention as a country in trouble. That is what I have worked at constantly for the past 16 years.”

But as all good things must come to an end, Chan informed her superiors at the Foreign Ministry last year that when her contract expired, she wouldn’t be renewing it.

“It was time to go,” she said, gazing at the nearby University of the District of Columbia campus through her embassy’s large plate-glass windows. “I believe that one must be willing and ready to give up a job. No one is indispensable. I also think I can do quite a bit and make some contributions to my country when I go home.”

Chan does not intend to go quietly into the night, but will instead return to academia as head of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, to be established in the new Singapore University of Technology and Design.

The university is a venture comprising the government of Singapore, China’s Zhejiang University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It’s now rising near Changi Airport and will open in three years, even though 400 students already take classes in temporary buildings.The president is Thomas L Magnanti, MIT’s former dean of engineering.

Photo: Lawrence Ruggeriw

“It sounds very exciting for me. I will look at urban challenges, urban solutions, government issues, the use of technology and new ideas,” Chan said.“The other half of my time, I’ll be ambassador-at-large with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Her replacement in Washington will be fellow career diplomat Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, who’s been Singapore’s ambassador to Indonesia since July 2006.

Though she’s not actually leaving until July 14, the last month has seen a string of going-away parties. “Someone said to me that only The Who has had more farewells than me. They went on a five-year farewell tour,” she joked.“Since the end of April, people have been taking me out, saying goodbye.”

On June 19, for example, the Asia Society presented her with its Diplomatic Achievement Award during a gala at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

“I have made very good friends with too many people to name. They are friends I will continue to see and keep up with from Singapore,” she said. “I’ve learned from everyone around me, whether it was about the global economy, security, foreign policy, culture and how you look at Asia.”

July 2012

Chan’s office is decorated with photographs and mementos that bear witness to her illustrious career and connections.

In one corner is a plaque of appreciation signed by 17 female members of Congress.

In another is a 1989 black-and-white photo of Chan presenting her credentials to Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, secretary-general of the United Nations.

There’s also her framed Distinguished Service Order, accompanied by a letter from President Tony Tan Keng Yam. His letter notes that Chan “combines intellect and drive with a great sense of dedication, working tirelessly to promote Singapore’s political, economic and security interests in the United States.”

All these will be traveling back to Singapore with her, along with the veteran diplomat’s prized furniture, artwork, books and collection of vinyl records.

The job of ambassador itself has changed dramatically in the last 16 years, Chan told The Diplomat.

“The new technology is challenging because it forces a diplomat to think how you are going to reach out. If you do not use the new tools, you’ll fall behind,” said

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 15

Continued from previous page Chan, who never tweets and doesn’t have a personal Facebook account.

On the other hand, she said, “I find the workload much heavier now.Productivity has increased with new technology, but the email does not stop.And because of that new technology, I don’t have to stay at the embassy, so I work longer hours than before.”

Chan said she used to get to sleep at 12:30 a.m., but now she often can’t turn in until 2 a.m.

— and there are still breakfasts to attend at 8:15 a.m. sharp.

One of more than two dozen women ambassadors now serving in Washington, Chan notes that Singapore, like the United States, also has many women in high positions in the private sector, including CEOs of major banks. “But in government, we had a woman minister who lost the election and no women as full cabinet members.

The U.S. is really far ahead of Singapore in this regard.”

Chan has many friends in Congress, including Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).

“But the person I really admire in Washington is Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton,” said the ambassador.“She has shown how a woman leader can behave with dignity, projecting high intelligence, her command of knowledge a factor to be reckoned with. She has an energy, diligence and drive which is unequaled.”

Chan says her departure is “bittersweet” because — although she worked hard to see passage of a bilateral free trade agreement that came into force Jan. 1, 2004 — she will not be able to continue her work with CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States), which reviews the national security implications of specific foreign investments here.

“Because of Singapore’s interest in purchasing U.S. companies, I’ve had to learn something about that CFIUS process,” she noted.

Photo: Embassy of Singapore

Ambassador Chan Heng Chee of Singapore presents her credentials to President Bill Clinton in 1996. Chan arrived after the widely publicized caning of an American teenager arrested for vandalism, which marked one of the few hiccups in U.S.-Singapore relations in recent memory.

When Chan arrived here in 1996, Saudi Arabia’s Bandar bin Sultan was dean of the diplomatic corps. Then he left, and Djibouti’s Roble Olhaye, who’s been here since 1988, took his place. That makes Chan the second-longest serving ambassador here — and one of the diplomatic corps’ top experts on the inner workings of Capitol Hill.

“I came just in time to see President Clinton run for re-election against Bob Dole. I was plunged into the political process by attending the two conventions. That was my introduction to American politics,” she recalled.

“I did not see many negative ads, and the political atmosphere was less charged then. The conventions were like carnivals.That has changed.

I watched this year’s Republican primaries and saw how contentious and fractious it was — and this was within one party. These days, the contests seem to be much sharper and quite destruc-

tive. I shouldn’t be, but I’m constantly surprised at how the [Republican] Party comes together to rally behind the presumptive nominee.”

Politics in Singapore has changed as well, albeit on a less dramatic scale. In 2011, the People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled the country since its independence in 1965, returned to power with the lowest number of votes in its history.

Still, its grip on power remains solid — the party got 60 percent of the popular vote and garnered 81 out of 87 parliamentary seats. But the election, which featured a small but strong opposition campaign, revealed stirrings of public discontent and served as a warning shot that the conformist city-state won’t be immune to political debate.

“This election marks a distinct shift in our political landscape which all of us must adjust to,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was quoted by

the New York Times as saying following the party’s victory.“While the voters have given the P.A.P. a strong mandate, many voters, including some of those who voted for us, clearly expressed their significant concerns both on the issues and our approach to government…. We hear your voice.

The P.A.P. will learn from this election and put right what is wrong.”

The party has since worked to tackle issues such as a growing disparity between rich and poor and rising tensions between native Singaporeans and the foreign workers flocking to the wealthy island.

In fact, Chan says Singapore has changed far more than has the United States during her decade and a half in Washington.

“When you read about Singapore today, it’s about the buzz, and now everybody wants to live there,” she said. “It has developed in so many directions and sectors that we now engage with the U.S. across a much more broad-based front.

It’s not just defense and trade. We cooperate on educational exchanges. We learn about your biotech industry, your IT industry, we try to learn how you develop gardens and develop museums.”

There’s no question that Singapore’s success depends on a healthy global economy. Its largest trading partners in 2011 were Malaysia, the European Union and the United States, with U.S.Singapore trade at $60.9 billion — or 7.9 percent of the total.

“Much of the growth you see in Asia is because all of us are part of a production chain to produce different parts of a product which will eventually enter the American and European markets. If demand slows down, our growth is affected,” Chan explained.

And that’s exactly what happened in 2008, when Singapore’s GDP grew by only 1.5 percent and shrank by 0.8 percent the next year. Recovery only began in 2010, and has continued, tepidly, ever since.

“The dynamism of China and India has helped the entire ASEAN region, and that to some degree

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The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

has mitigated the economic downtown in Europe and the slow recovery in the U.S.,” Chan explained.“But we would be like ostriches with our heads in the sand if we believed that without a recovery in Europe or the United States we can really reach the economic highs that we enjoyed in the past.”

Besides being a major player in the maritime industry, Singapore also ranks 14th when it comes to overseas investment in the United States. Very few people know, for example, that oil rig maker Keppel AmFELS — a subsidiary of Singapore-based Keppel Offshore & Marine — is the largest employer in Brownsville, Texas. Or that Mobile Aerospace Engineering, a unit of Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd., employs 1,500 people in Mobile, Ala. All told, Singapore has invested a cumulative $20.6 billion in the United States, while U.S. investment in Singapore has crossed the $100 billion mark and generated $17 billion in profits last year.

In 2003, the two countries signed a free trade agreement, the first FTA between the United States and any Southeast Asian country. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama visited Singapore as presidents; Bill Clinton did not.

“Singapore is a city-state and a nation-state.

The country punches above its weight,” Chan said proudly. “I have countries’ ambassadors coming to see me as if we were a middle power, which we are definitely not.”

We asked Chan what was the defining moment during her long ambassadorship. She replied that although Hurricane Katrina left a deep impression on her, “9/11 had a lasting effect, because the whole way of access to the U.S. changed. Airport security has become so much a part of our lives.”

She said that even as diplomats, she and her fellow ambassadors were frequently deemed “SSS,” which means “selected for special screening” at airports.

Following the 9/11 attacks, Singapore built the Changi Naval Base to fit the dimensions of

U.S. aircraft carriers.The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) also sent a handful of engineers and dentists to Afghanistan’s Bamyan Province — because that’s what the provincial governor specifically asked for. SAF deployments peaked in 2010, with about 100 personnel taking part in various weaponry, medical and other specialized teams.

Overall, said Chan, Singapore’s security and defense relationship with the United States has improved significantly over the years.

“In 1992, Singapore signed a memo of understanding to allow the U.S. to access our facilities,” she said. “But Singapore had already been arguing for a U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific region to remain after the Vietnam War. We put our money where our mouth is by offering these facilities to the United States. And when George W. Bush decided to go into Iraq, Singapore was one of the members of the Coalition of the Willing. Our position then was that if the U.S. decided to go into Iraq, it had to win.”

More recently, she said, “we have deepened our defense cooperation by signing the Strategic Framework Agreement in 2005, expanding it to cover new issues like intelligence exchange and how to deal with terrorism.We’ve also just had a visit by two Independence-class littoral combat ships.”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in fact, used his stop in Singapore last month to unveil the administration’s plan for “pivoting” U.S. military forces toward the Asia-Pacific.“Make no mistake,” he said, “in a steady, deliberate and sustainable way, the United States military is rebalancing and brings enhanced capabilities to this vital region” — a rebalancing that nations such as Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines have welcomed as a hedge against Chinese dominion over critical but disputed economic arteries such as the South China Sea. So are there any issues where Singapore and the United States don’t see eye to eye?

See singapore, page 46

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July 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 17

Politics

Washington, D.C.

Diplomats Crave Insights Into Paralyzed Congress

by Anna Gawel

I

t’s no secret that the 2012 U.S. presidential contest will hinge largely on domestic issues, not foreign policy, barring of course some major international incident. That leaves diplomats in Washington — often relegated to the sidelines in an election year anyway because they can’t vote — spectators heading into November.

But that doesn’t mean diplomats don’t have their work cut out for them, tasked with keeping their governments back home up to date on a nail-biting, rollercoaster race that has confounded even the most seasoned Beltway handicappers.

They must also navigate a political minefield fraught with some of the most intense partisanship in recent memory, looking for allies in a Congress mired in acrimony, division and dysfunction.

Worse still, the foreign policy community just lost a major ally.

Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, who was first elected to the Senate in 1976 and whom the New York Times called its “foreign policy conscious,” became the latest casualty of the antiincumbent, anti-establishment surge sweeping America. His resounding defeat in a May 8 Republican primary to Richard Mourdock also signaled the enduring power of tea party-inspired conservatives averse to the kind of moderation and comity that Lugar, 80, embodied.

When Washington Diplomat correspondent John Shaw began researching his book about Lugar in the fall of 2006, the idea that the senator would lose the seat he’s held for 35 years was not even in the cards. In “Richard G. Lugar: Statesman of the Senate,” Shaw chronicled Lugar’s globally respected work to advance arms control, nonproliferation, effective and humane global food policies, and international law.

“

The departure of Senator Lugar from the Senate will be a real loss for the country and for the diplomatic community.

”

— John Shaw

author of “Richard G. Lugar: Statesman of the Senate”

But as the release of his book neared in the spring of 2012, Shaw was struggling to understand and explain why one of the most respected American lawmakers in the last quarter of a century was scrambling for his political life.Those outside the Beltway, too, find it difficult to explain.

Page 18

As former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans put it in a recent op-ed for Project Syndicate, “You wouldn’t expect much interest beyond the United States, or even beyond his own state, when an 80-year-old conservative legislator, who has already served six terms, loses his party’s endorsement to run yet again. But the crushing defeat of Senator Richard Lugar in the recent Indiana Republican primary, in a Tea Party-supported campaign of shocking mindlessness, has reverberated in capitals around the world, including my own.”

So The Washington Diplomat tapped John Shaw, its resident congressional expert, to help diplomats understand the factors that led to Lugar’s fall and, more broadly, shed light on the long-term prospects for foreign policy cooperation on Capitol Hill.

The verdict on those prospects? They’re not pretty, but not completely hopeless either.

Political Perils of Statesmanship

Author and Washington Diplomat correspondent John Shaw talks to a group of diplomats at the Blue Duck Tavern about his new book, “Richard G. Lugar: Statesman of the Senate.”

Shaw participated in two recent events hosted by The Diplomat: a policy seminar titled “Is There Any Hope for American Politics?” held May 22 at the Dupont Circle Hotel, where he was joined by former Congressman Bill Frenzel and fellow author Ira Shapiro; as well as an intimate breakfast discussion at the Park Hyatt Washington’s Blue Duck Tavern on May 30.

Both events offered not only political insights, but also the warm hospitality of two top-tier properties.

The Blue Duck Tavern event — which drew ambassadors from Finland, Liechtenstein, Niger and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as diplomats from Cyprus, Guyana, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Singapore and Taiwan — also showcased the restaurant’s new “Influential Breakfast” program. Executive Chef Sebastien Archambault, who joined Park Hyatt Washington in December 2011, designed a new menu that blends his French roots with farm-to-table fare inspired by the American South. In addition to goodies like eggs benedict with pork belly and short rib hash with olive oil, the breakfast features complimentary Wi-Fi, valet parking and newspaper in language of your choice to accommodate busy professionals.

At the Dupont Circle Hotel, guests were treated to an evening reception featuring the stunning vistas off Level Nine, a hotel within a hotel that was built from scratch and added a whole new floor to the property following a major $52 million refurbishment (also see “On Cloud Nine Over Dupont Circle” in the January 2012 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

Before nibbling on lamb, crab and shrimp on the Level Nine balcony directly overlooking Dupont Circle, guests peppered the panel with questions, such as whether the political gridlock will turn away younger voters, or what impact the courts will have on congressional legislation.

The discussion was cordial — in stark contrast to the take-no-prisoners mentality that has seized Congress, a phenomenon that to a large degree can be traced to the rise of the tea party.

Shaw admitted that like many other observers, he didn’t foresee the tea party’s staying power back when the movement emerged as a major force in the 2010 midterm elections, in which control of the House shifted to Republicans.

A congressional correspondent and vice president for Market News International

Photo: Jessica Latos

and a contributing writer for The Diplomat since 1997, Shaw said Lugar’s defeat in the Indiana Republican primary could in part be attributed to the tea party’s backing of Richard Mourdock, but it was also due to a “perfect storm” of factors that converged to convince the GOP in that state to oust the six-term senator.

The fracas over Lugar’s lack of residency certainly didn’t help (he hadn’t lived in Indiana since 1977). According to Shaw, Lugar also seemed to waffle between campaign strategies, at times shunning the esteemed foreign policy record that he’d built a career on, perhaps to avoid being branded a “globe-trotter,” which is precisely what Mourdock labeled him.

But in a larger sense, Shaw said the public’s sour mood about Congress — polls consistently show approval ratings in the teens or even single digits — Lugar’s moderate personality, and his willingness to work with Democrats all worked against him.

“Lugar’s soft-spoken, civil, moderate tone is now out of sync with where the Republican base is right now,” he said.

The Washington Diplomat

See shaw, page 44 July 2012

MEDICAL

Lung Transplants

Ex Vivo Transplants Give Rejected Lungs New Life

by Gina Shaw

T

he lung is a touchy organ. When someone who has agreed to donate their organs passes away, one of the first things that the medical team does is evaluate the suitability of those organs for transplant — in other words, are they healthy enough to survive in another person?

For an organ like the kidney, for example, the answer is yes about 60 percent to 65 percent of the time.

With lungs, however, only about 15 percent of them prove suitable for transplant. That’s one of the reasons why about 1,800 people with “end-stage” lung conditions ranging from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to cystic fibrosis are currently on the waiting list to receive lung transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). In 2010, 233 people died while on the waiting list for a donor lung.

But that may be changing soon, thanks to an extraordinary technology that is restoring lungs once thought too damaged to be used in transplants.

Called ex vivo lung perfusion, the technology was developed by surgeons at the University of Toronto.When a possible set of donor lungs is evaluated as “marginal” — not damaged beyond repair, but not strong enough to be automatically transplanted — the lungs are placed in a protective, transparent chamber that looks a lot like the glass-topped domes where bakeries display pastry wares.

For the next four to six hours, the precious lungs are connected to a circuit that filters in oxygen, nutrients and a special solution called STEEN to replenish their function.

During that time, they are evaluated on key measures of lung function to help surgeons decide whether they can safely be transplanted.

Since the groundbreaking first successful transplant in Toronto in 2008, five U.S. centers have been testing the technology in a nationwide clinical trial called NOVEL (Normothermic Ex-Vivo Lung Perfusion as an Assessment of Extended/Marginal Donor Lungs) — including the University of Maryland, which performed the first such transplant in this country in September 2011.

At Columbia University Medical Center in New York, three of the eight sets of lungs first studied in the NOVEL trial proved to be suitable for transplant, and all three of the patients who received the donated lungs are doing very well, says Dr. Frank D’Ovidio, director of the Ex-Vivo Lung Perfusion Program and associate surgical director of the Lung Transplant Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/CUMC. “That’s a very favorable result. Three lungs that would otherwise have been discarded are now keeping patients alive. If this technology increases donor availability even by just 10 percent, at a center like Columbia that does about 50 to 60 transplants a year, we’ve done five or six more transplants,” said D’Ovidio. “Over time we hope to increase that percentage even further.”

In addition to Columbia and the University of Maryland, ex vivo lung transplantation is being tested at Duke University, the University of Colorado, and Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The trial’s goal is to have 42 patients transplanted using ex vivo technology com-

Photo: CJ Cornell / bigstock

“

There’s so much that I haven’t done since I was 42…. I can go grocery shopping, I cook, clean, vacuum.

I play with my grandchildren! I can do all the things I love to do.

— Patricia Kingsbury

”

ex vivo lung perfusion transplant recipient

pared with 42 who received standard lung transplants.

One person whose life has been changed by the trial is 56-year-old Patricia Kingsbury, of upstate New York. She had been on the waiting list for a lung at Columbia since early 2010, after a lifetime with asthma and a smoking habit that she desperately tried to kick without success.

In 1996, at the age of 46, a chest x-ray and a pulmonary function test showed that Kingsbury had severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a combination of asthma and emphysema. For the next several years, Kingsbury tried different medication regimens, but she found that every respiratory infection triggered an exacerbation of her COPD. At work, she switched to a desk job and tried to hide her symptoms, but in 2000, with her lung function at 17 percent, she was forced to go on disability.

“The bathroom was probably about 100 feet away from my office, and I could barely get there,” she recalled.

By 2007, although she had quit smoking for good in 2003, Kingsbury entered what seemed like an endless round of hospitalizations. After going on the transplant

July 2012

waiting list in 2010, she was called to the hospital for a possible transplant several times, only to learn after arriving there that the donor lungs weren’t viable. She ultimately ended up in a rehabilitation hospital and was then sent home to Albany to await a move to a nursing home.

“I was there one day when I got the call from Columbia,” she said.

She was actually second in line for the ex vivo lung, but the patient ahead of her decided to forego the experimental trial, so Kingsbury got a bonus: a double lung transplant rather than a single. A month later, she left the hospital.

“I don’t think I would have made it through another hospitalization and intubation,” she said.“Now, I’m amazed with what I can do. There’s so much that I haven’t done since I was 42. Now I can walk outside in front of my apartment. I’ve lived here for three years and had never walked on the sidewalk before! I’ve started taking my own garbage out and I volunteer to help my neighbors. I can go grocery shopping, I cook, clean, vacuum. I play with my grandchildren! I can do all the things I love to do.”

D’Ovidio says that as of early summer, the trial was about one-third of the way to completion. He’s not certain how long it might take for the Food and Drug Administration to approve the technology after the trial is over, but with results like Patricia Kingsbury’s, the outlook seems promising.

Canada has already had great success with a similar trial. “They tested 23 lungs ex vivo against 23 lungs that did not require the technology, and got equivalent results,” said D’Ovidio. Multiple centers throughout Europe have also been using the technique.

Gina Shaw is the medical writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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HOTELS T R A V E L &

■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ July 2012

Level Nine Lounge in the Dupont Circle Hotel

SERVICE All-StARS

Staff Serve as Invisible Glue That Keeps Hotels Together

Photo: the DuPont CirCle hotel / the Doyle ColleCtion

by Suzanne Kurtz From heads of state to globetrotting tourists, visitors to Washington have come to expect an experience worthy of the nation’s capital.

A peak behind the scenes at some of D.C.’s premier hotels reveals a quiet cadre of dedicated service professionals working hard to ensure that the city’s guests are well looked after.

Continued on next page

■ INSIDE: The travel industry wants Americans to vote yes for tourism. PAGE 24 ■ U.S. airlines want to ground a new carbon tax being levied by the European Union. PAGE 27 ■

July 2012

TRAVEL & HOTELS

The Washington Diplomat

21

Continued from previous page In a structure built in 1818, and always functioning as a hotel of some sort, the Willard InterContinental Washington has a long history of hospitality, which even includes hosting the first diplomatic mission of samurai from Japan in 1860.

“That legacy impacts our service to this day,” said Barbara Bahny, director of public relations for the hotel. “In many parts of life service has gone away and been replaced by self-service.”

But at the Willard InterContinental, Bahny said, “it takes an army, a village,” to provide exceptional service to the guests staying in the hotel’s 335 guestrooms and 41 suites.

At the frontline of that army is bell captain Steve Blum. For more than 25 years, Blum has welcomed to the hotel seven U.S. presidents, countless heads of state, numerous members of royal families and dozens of Hollywood celebrities.

“I like to be professional,” said Blum, of his particular greeting. “I always want to be charming and friendly, but not chummy.”When diplomatic missions arrive, he makes it a point to learn a few catch phrases in their native language.

Photo: Willard InterContinental Washington “It’s still a little thrilling,” he said, to watch a flagbearing motorcade pull up to the hotel, even after all Getting guests what they need, whether it’s dinner reservations or insider travel tips, of his years on the job. often falls to chef concierges such as Robert Watson of the Willard InterContinental NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure is free of mistakesreceive in spelling Staffyour at thead Willard InterContinental trainingand Washington, above, and Michael High of the Dupont Circle Hotel, left. the StatetoDepartment certain cultural sensicontent it is ultimately up to thefrom customer make theon final proof. tivities for different countries, said Blum, but it often In a 37-year career, Robert Watson worked his way up at hotels in London, South Africa down “common sense and treating peo- and Luxembourg before serving for the past six years as the chef concierge at the Willard The first two faxed changes will be made atjust no comes cost to the toadvertiser, subsequent changes ple respectfully, whether it’s a foreign head of state or InterContinental. will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed ads are considered approved. a lady from Philadelphia.”

“No two days are the same,” said Watson. “As a concierge, you must like dealing with In particular, Blum said he especially enjoys greeting people.

It’s what we are known for.”

Photo: The Dupont Circle Hotel Please check this ad carefully.

Mark your ad.them a families withany youngchanges children andtolikes to show Asking the right questions is an important part of understanding the needs and tastes reversible hand puppet that changes from an elephant to a donkey depending upon par- of a guest, he explained.“Their [general] needs are always the same,” only the results and preference. staying at the hotel, he keeps treats under the desk. locations are different.

If the ad is correcttisan sign and fax For to: canine (301) guests 949-0065 needs changes Perhaps not surprising, Blum has sometimes been called upon to go above and beyond “I treat each guest as an individual,” he said, adding that he usually tries to send them the expected responsibilities of a hotel bell captain. to places in the city “where the locals go.”

The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 When the wife of the head of state of a European country wanted to buy a particular Having a great team behind him is also critical for being able to provide what Watson electric toothbrush, he personally went to a nearby CVS pharmacy to make the purchase describes as the “European mentality of service” at the Willard. “We all feed from each Approved __________________________________________________________ for her, using his own credit card when the total exceeded the cash that she had given other.” him.

But even after so many years on the job, he said he is still learning and constantly lookChanges ___________________________________________________________ While Blum admits that he has jumped through “more hula hoops” for some guests, he ing for ways to improve the services he provides. Tools like Google Earth and iPads have ___________________________________________________________________ added that “every guest is a VIP in my mind.” allowed Watson and his staff to better assist guests.

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Page 22

TRAVEL & HOTELS

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

“You can teach someone how to do a job.

But not qualities like personality, being service-oriented, caring, looking people in the eye, the way they speak — this is who we hire.”

When Welcoming the Diplomatic Community The Choices Are Clear

Liliana Baldassari director of public relations for the Four Seasons Washington, DC

He uses Google Earth to show guests how guests, fellow employees and even pets at the to enter complicated sites like the U.S. Capitol city’s only five-star, five-diamond hotel, she Building and the National Mall. If the line gets said. very long at the room check-in, he will walk The ability to think on one’s feet is another over to a guest with the iPad and offer to important skill that hotel employees must make a dinner reservation for them. “It helps possess as well. the time pass while they are waiting in line. It The Four Seasons security staff is trained to improves service and the guests appreciate it,” handle a wide array of situations from lost said Watson. items to guest illness to bomb threats, said As chef concierge of the Dupont Circle Them Nyanungo, who has been working in Hotel for the past three years, Michael High the security department at the hotel for the would agree. past 10 years. Strong working relationships “I speak to everybody,” said High. “I like to between the hotel and local police and fire have fun with my guests.And departments have been as long as it’s above board established. and ethical, I’ll get them But when a security whatever they need.” situation inevitably arisLike champagne, flowers es, Nyanungo said,“I first or hard-to-get dinner reservatake a second to think, to tions — “I create magic try and be rational and moments,” he said. not emotional, to use my But at a busy hotel, good best judgment and not time management is critical panic. Once on the before any magic can hapscene, I take charge.” pen, High told The Diplomat.

He recalled a time “You have to manage your when a plan was estabtime well. I can have six lished by the Secret people waiting to speak to Service for escorting the me and I don’t want to upset president of an African Photo: The Four Seasons any of them.” country into the hotel If his desk gets congested, As the doorman at the Four Seasons through a private back he said he first makes it a Hotel for more than 30 years, entrance. Nyanungo, propoint to acknowledge every Eskinder Isayas says he strives to ficient in the president’s guest standing in line while exceed the expectations guests native dialect, overheard politely moving each person might have of a five-star property. the president complainalong. ing that he did not want Appreciative guests at the Park Hyatt to enter the hotel through the back door. The Washington in West End have praised the president instead wanted to use the front efforts of chef concierge Shane King with entrance where he could be seen by people. positive reviews on travel websites like Nyanungo discreetly alerted the Secret Service Tripadvisor.com and Orbitz.com. to the president’s wishes and an alternative “Guests will say, ‘I read about you,’” said plan was worked out.

“We find a way to solve problems,” said King, who replies to them by asking: “Now what can I do to make you feel the same Nyanungo. “Nothing is too difficult that we can’t find a solution for our guests.” way!”

As the doorman at the Four Seasons Hotel From simple to more complicated requests, King has helped to plan special after-dinner for more than 30 years, Eskinder Isayas said dessert receptions at the Lincoln Memorial his guiding principles are to always greet and assisted in choreographing surprise mar- guests in a friendly manner, to provide the utmost service, and to even exceed the expecriage proposals.

“Our guests expect an attention to detail,” tations that one might have of a five-star prophe told The Diplomat.“It’s not that I have to go erty.

“I like to meet people and greet people. above and beyond, but I pride myself on making the experience as memorable as possible.” That’s where the first impression is made,” For King, the key to providing great hotel said Isayas. “It’s what I most enjoy about my service is to be “organized, patient, polite, well job.”

“From time to time, every job is challengmannered, have the ability to read people and ing,” he said. On busy days when the hotel’s be diplomatic.”

With a list of exacting qualities like that, it driveway becomes filled with cars of multiis no surprise that at the Four Seasons in ple arriving guests, he makes sure that “no Georgetown, quality service frequently begins one is left alone and everyone is tended to properly.” with the hiring process.

Isayas concedes that it’s not always an easy “You can teach someone how to do a job.

But not qualities like personality, being ser- task to keep one’s composure especially vice-oriented, caring, looking people in the when guests are irritable or difficult. But the eye, the way they speak — this is who we most important thing to providing impeccahire,” said Liliana Baldassari, director of public ble service, he said, is to “be sincere and keep smiling.” relations for the hotel.

It keeps guests returning to the hotels and A frequent destination for diplomatic visits, the 459 collective employees speak a com- to the city. Heads of state and tourists may bined total of 32 different languages and are come and go, but with exceptional staff, great expected to adhere to “the golden rule” of service in Washington, D.C., is here to stay. treating others as you would like to be treated, said Baldassari. That philosophy applies to Suzanne Kurtz is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

July 2012

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The Washington Diplomat

23

[ tourism ]

Travel Works Campaigns Highlight Economic Importance of Tourism to U.S.

by Stephanie Kanowitz

T

he word “travel” conjures up different meanings for different people. For some, it’s associated with luxurious escapes to exotic new locales. For others, it’s a part of everyday business operations.

But for a huge percentage of U.S. workers — and the cities in which they live — the travel industry is a source of income.

“For every 33 visitors we welcome to the United States, that creates one American job,” said Blain Rethmeier, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations at the U.S. Travel Association, a national nonprofit with 1,200-plus members that works to increase travel to and within the country.“It’s really taking it from that fun and frivolous notion and putting some solid research and some economic relevance behind what the travel industry actually provides everyday Americans.”

The travel industry employs 14 million Americans, contributes $1.8 trillion in economic output a year (and 2.7 percent of the country’s GDP), and is America’s export leader, according to the association. Here in Washington, the tourism industry is second only to — no surprise here — federal government work.

Travelers from overseas make up about 10 percent of D.C. visitors, but they generate 27 percent of the economic impact from travel, according to Destination DC, a nonprofit whose mission is marketing the District to travelers. The total spent by all D.C. visitors last year was $6 billion, up 6.2 percent from $5.68 billion in 2010.

In an effort to make people — not only foreign travelers with cash to burn but also U.S. voters, politicians and candidates this election year — more aware of the travel industry’s impact on the economy, several initiatives are under way. One comes straight from the top: President Obama’s National Travel and Tourism Strategy. Another, called Vote Travel, is sponsored by U.S. Travel Association. They both focus on easing foreign guests’ entrée to the country, providing a better experience once here, and promoting the United States as an unrivaled travel destination to compete with Europe and other tourist hotspots.

Coming to America In January, Obama announced the “We Can’t Wait” campaign and signed an executive order with an eye toward eliminating some of the red tape for foreign travelers. The National Travel and Tourism Strategy released in May solidified that pledge and aims to bring in 100 million foreign visitors by the end of 2021.

As part of the plan, Obama asked the Homeland Security and State Departments to speed up non-immigrant visa processing for travelers from key growth markets, namely China and Brazil. He also proposed increasing trusted traveler programs and expedited screening for low-risk travelers, as well as expanding the Visa Waiver Program, which lets 36 participating countries travel to the United States for 90 days or less without a visa, and adding Taiwan to it.

“One of the policy issues our organization has been working on has been focusing on streamlining the airline security process, establishing the trusted traveler program so that people that fly frequently don’t have to endure the hassles associated with going through airport security or getting on a plane,” Rethmeier noted.

One of the biggest components of the administration’s strategy focuses especially on China, Brazil and India because the number of travelers from

Page 24

Photos: Vote Travel

The Vote Travel campaign, sponsored by the U.S. Travel Association, embarked on a 20,000-mile bus tour across the U.S., holding rallies in cities such as Washington, D.C., and New York to highlight the importance of the travel industry, which employs 14 million Americans.

those countries is expected to grow by 135 percent, 274 percent and 50 percent respectively between 2010 and 2016, according to a White House press release. Chinese and Brazilian tourists also spend more than $6,000 and $5,000, respectively, per trip, the Commerce Department reports.

However, many of those deep-pocketed travelers from booming economies are currently spending their money in other places such as Western Europe (which is capturing a larger share of the long-haul market from Brazil, China and India than the U.S. is), in part because it often takes weeks for U.S. consuls to interview applicants and process visas.

In particular, Brazil — whose tourists spend more per capita than any other nationality — has complained about the arduous visa process, which can require thousands of dollars and significant legwork just getting to U.S. consul offices that are sometimes hundreds of miles away, all before ever stepping foot outside the country to actually travel to the States.

It’s a hassle that prevents many foreigners from coming to the U.S. — and one the State Department has been trying to remedy, without compromising national security.

“Consular officers at our embassies and consulates are working tirelessly to protect our borders, keep visa wait times short, and streamline the process for visa applicants, particularly in fast-growing markets — like China, Brazil, and Mexico — that offer exceptional growth opportunities,” said a recent State Department press release. “In anticipation of the future growth in these new markets, we’re deploying additional staff, expanding existing operations, and opening new consulates.”

Among the improvements: In Brazil, consular officers issued more than 555,000 visas in the first half of fiscal year 2012, compared to 350,000 visas

TRAVEL & HOTELS

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

during the same time in 2011, an increase of 59 percent, according to the State Department. In China, there was a 46 percent jump in visas issued between the same timeframe.

Wait times, while still high, have dropped in Brazil and now average two weeks or less in Brasilia, Recife and Rio de Janeiro, and 35 days or less in Sao Paulo. In addition, two new consulates will soon open in the country of nearly 200 million.

The State Department is also targeting recruits who already speak Portuguese or Mandarin, giving them the same consular training as career Foreign Service Officers to augment consular staff abroad.

“The administration deserves a lot of credit because a lot of the new policies they put in place this year have worked to reduce wait times in key markets like China and Brazil,” Rethmeier said.“The visa waiver in particular would really aid a country like Brazil that is, I think, interested in the program but unless Congress takes any action, would not be eligible for the program.”

Industry Gets Moving Modeled on the grassroots efforts of a political campaign, the Vote Travel effort has similar goals in its five-point “Get America Moving” plan: • Attract more visitors to the United States to recoup the country’s share of international travelers’ spending, which dropped 30 percent between 2000 and 2010, through more visa-free travel, a streamlined visa process and an easier entry process overall.

• Reduce travel hassles through more efficient airport security, seamless transportation networks and the enactment of a smart travel tax policy.

• “Keep America Meeting” by encouraging face-to-face business meet-ups through making businesspeople and politicians aware of the benefits of such contact.

Pro copy Wash Diplomat Lev 9 APR ad 12-FP.indd 1

July 2012

• Reduce energy costs for travelers by lowering fuel costs, developing a bipartisan national energy strategy and promoting environmentally friendly policies.

• Strengthen communities and families by encouraging Americans to travel with their families in order to reconnect.

Vote Travel came about in January, when the association started to consider plans for May’s Travel and Tourism Week.

“We were talking about the benefits of travel and 2012 being an election year.We thought that was a unique way to perhaps break through a lot of the different interest groups that are there,” Rethmeier said. “On its face, Vote Travel might sound like you’re supporting going on a vacation, but I think through the different messages that we’ve delivered through the campaign, it’s so much more than that. A vote for travel is obviously a vote for jobs and a vote for jobs is a vote for supporting your local community.”

The campaign kicked off at Union Station on March 21 with the Get America Moving Policymaker Reception.

“We had upward of more than 100 members of Congress come and meet the [150 travel industry] representatives and hear about the importance of what travel means to their district and to the state and to the broader economy,” Rethmeier said.

From there, the campaign continued on a 20,000-mile bus tour, holding rallies in Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles and Nashville, for instance, to engage local officials and voters. Vote Travel has also made progress through its Get America Moving Pledge, which asks people to commit to supporting policies that reduce travel barriers.

“It’s been enormously successful,” Rethmeier said.

Destination DC joined forces with Vote Travel on May 8 for the fourth annual D.C.Travel Rally, part of a nationwide effort during National Travel and Tourism Week. Attendees included Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).

Destination DC joined forces with the Vote Travel campaign on May 8 for the fourth annual D.C. Travel Rally. In Washington, the tourism industry is second only to the federal government; last year visitors to D.C. spent $6 billion.

Photo: Vote Travel

Continued on next page

TRAVEL & HOTELS

3/16/12 6:01 PM

The Washington Diplomat

25

Continued from previous page

WhAT TouriSTS meAn To D.C.

“On its face, Vote Travel might sound like you’re supporting going on a vacation, but … it’s so much more than that. A vote for travel is obviously a vote for jobs and a vote for jobs is a vote for supporting your local community.”

When people think of D.C., they think iconic: the White House, the Capitol, the Smithsonian Institution. But Destination DC wants people to look beyond the National 1121 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Mall.

Washington DC 20037 “Everything about the Mall is incredibly attractive — the monuments, the “In the Heart of the Nation’s Capital!”

Smithsonians,” said Elliott Ferguson, presiwww.georgetowndchotel.com dent and chief executive officer of Destination DC. “They’re attractive because BLAIN rEThmEIEr they’re free and they’re really interesting. senior vice president for public affairs and government relations But the reality is the heart of any city is at the u.s. travel Association really the people and the community.When you think of a city like Washington that has over 160 embassies and so many diverse over 2010.The top five overseas markets for unDerAppreCiATeD restaurants and great architecture, a lot of visitors to D.C. are the United Kingdom, eConomiC SAvior history — those are the things that we try Germany, Australia, China and France. to focus on as well because those are the “I do not anticipate it slowing down in Despite all that tourism does for the U.S. things that we’re known the least for. the next few years simply because of the economy in general and for local econoNOTE: Although every effort is made to assure“It’s your ad is free mistakes spelling and important thatof people know in there’s investment being made in continuously mies in particular, most people still overcontent it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. a value added associated with coming to building Washington as a destination,” look the industry’s contributions.

Washington for personal travel,” he said. Ferguson said, adding that the $662 million “For many folks, when you associate the “What when thesubsequent Smithsonians changes in annual tax revenue generated by tourists travel industry, you associate it with a perThe first two faxed changes will be made at no costdo to you the do advertiser, close? That’s whatads we’re to fill in.” approved. reduces the amount of taxes each D.C. sonal experience. For many folks — myself will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration.

Signed aretrying considered Single/Double Occupancy Within the past decade, the District has household must pay by $2,400 a year. included, I think back to days in Disneyland Effective until September 10, 2012! been making a name for itself as a destina“As the nation’s capital, there remains or the trip to Hawaii that I took,” Rethmeier Please check this ad carefully. Mark any changes to your ad. tion for arts, culture, food and fashion. The consistent tourism business to the city, and said. “For me, those memories are always Includes: $8 billion of new infrastructure under con- D.C. is a strong attraction to many markets fun and enjoyable and less serious than, say, • FREE Deluxe Continental If the ad is correct sign and Breakfast fax to: (301) 949-0065 changes struction hereneeds — including the Marriott of all ages,” said Sarah Deam, director of thinking about an energy policy or health • FREE High-Speed Wireless Internet Marquis, slated to open in 2014 with 1,175 sales and marketing at Washington’s Hay- care bill. I think what fails to click in peo• FREE Local Diplomat Phone Calls The Washington (301) 933-3552 rooms and more than 100,000 square feet Adams Hotel, where 75 percent of guests ple’s minds is that if it weren’t for the travel of function space — attest to the city’s are business travelers. “The continued industry, a lot of business would not be posWalk to the White House, Embassies & Metro! increasing draw beyond school field trips investment into the city and the unveiling sible.”

ApprovedContact __________________________________________________________ Hotel Directly at: and history buffs. of new memorials has also encouraged new Changes (___________________________________________________________ 202) 457-0565 The hospitality industry employed 76,000 visitors and increased awareness of the city Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer people in D.C. in 2011, a 7 percent growth as a destination.” ___________________________________________________________________ for The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat

TRAVEL & HOTELS

July 2012

[ airlines ]

Unfriendly Skies EU Carbon Tax Scheme Riles Up U.S. Airlines

Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental recently flew into Dulles International Airport from Frankfurt on its inaugural route.

Tensions have been growing though between the U.S. and European Union over a carbon emissions tax on all non-EU airlines flying into and out of its member states.

Photo: The Boeing Co. 2011

“Far from improving the environment, the EU’s goit-alone approach is impeding international progress on a multilateral agreement for international aviation that will actually deliver on our shared goal of achieving lasting reductions in greenhouse gases.”

Ray LaHood U.S. secretary of transportation

July 2012

T

by Suzanne Kurtz

ensions are continuing to escalate between the European Union and countries around the globe as the EU maintains its implementation of the Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), which went into effect for airlines on January 1 of this year.

The ETS is the EU’s attempt to combat climate change through the regulation of aviation greenhouse gases, assigning a carbon emissions tax on non-EU airlines flying into and out of its member states. The EU has said that its goal is for airlines to cut their emissions from their 2006 levels by 3 percent by 2013 and 5 percent by 2020. Two percent of all global man-made carbon emissions are attributed to aviation.

U.S. airlines, however, along with their counterparts in nations such as China and Russia, have balked at being forced to pay millions of dollars in fees based on how many tons of carbon dioxide their aircraft emit and have threatened to retaliate (airlines wouldn’t need to pay until the start of next year, although the EU began collecting data on emissions when ETS when into effect this January).

A major point of contention is that the EU calculation of carbon emissions is for entire flights entering or leaving its member states — including trips over international waters — and not just for the portion of travel over European airspace. Opponents of the tax regard this as an infringement of sovereignty and international laws governing aviation.

At a U.S. Senate hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation early last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood restated the U.S. objections to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

“We remain strongly opposed, on both legal and policy

TRAVEL & HOTELS

grounds, to the imposition of ETS on U.S. and other non-EU airlines,” said LaHood.“We share the EU’s objective of reducing aviation’s impact on the environment…. However, including international aviation in the EU ETS is the wrong way to achieve the right objective.”

Nancy Young, vice president for environmental affairs at Airlines for America (A4A), an airlines trade association, echoed LaHood’s position in her testimony before the Senate committee.

“The unilateral imposition of the cap-tax-and-trade scheme on U.S. citizens and U.S. companies is a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and the treaties governing international aviation and commerce.”

In addition, the A4A has raised concerns that there is no clear indicator that the EU is planning on using the tax revenue raised through ETS — estimated to be $3.1 billion from now until 2020 — for actual environmental purposes.

“Someone will have to pay for that,” said Young. “The impact [will be felt] by the airlines and the traveling public and we don’t want to see flights restricted.”

LaHood urged the EU to work with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to devise a “global solution” for aviation greenhouse gases. The ICAO, a United Nations agency created in 1944 and based in Montreal, regulates and sets standards for international civil aviation.

“International aviation is a quintessentially global industry that needs a global solution for addressing greenhouse gas emissions,” said LaHood.“Far from improving the environment, the EU’s goit-alone approach is impeding international progress on a multilateral agreement for international aviation that will actually deliver on our shared goal of achieving lasting reductions in greenhouse gases.”

Continued on next page

The Washington Diplomat

27

Continued from previous page Under the EU ETS, the emissions tax starts accruing at the time the airplane is engaged — even before it begins taxing from the gate.

According to a figure provided by A4A, on a flight from San Francisco to London, the total emissions breakdown is: 29 percent in U.S. airspace, 37 percent over Canadian airspace, 25 percent over the high seas and less than 9 percent over EU airspace.

U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) are pushing forward a bill in the Senate called the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act that would prohibit U.S. airlines from participating in the ETS. The House of Representatives passed similar bipartisan action earlier this year.

“Every dime of this tax they’re trying to put on our domestic airline industry could go to anything they want to spend money on in their government,” McCaskill said. “So not only is it taxing us for flying over airspace that has nothing to do with the EU, but it doesn’t even have to be used for the stated purpose of why they’re collecting the money in the first place.”

Also in their Senate hearing remarks, McCaskill and Young both urged LaHood to consider filing an Article 84, which permits ICAO members to file a complaint against other members for violating “the cardinal principle of state sovereignty” outlined in the Convention on International Civil Aviation, frequently referred to as the Chicago Convention, a treaty that was signed in 1944 by 52 members to regulate aviation. The convention states “that every country has jurisdiction over its own airspace.”

“Reducing these violations to mere legal citations does not do them justice,” said Young.“What is at stake here is nothing less than U.S. sovereignty.The U.S. must now take concrete legal action to overturn the application of the EU ETS.” Other countries, like India, are said to be considering an Article 84 complaint as well, and some 40 countries, including Russia and China, have opposed the EU’s actions and prohibited their airlines from participating in the EU scheme. Russia and China have taken a more aggressive stance than the United States so far. Russia has restricted some of its airspace for European flights and China has suspended $12 billion worth of orders from Airbus, a French-based aircraft carrier.

More recently, Reuters reported that Beijing could impound European aircraft if

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Photo: fotolia

the EU punishes Chinese airlines for not complying with its scheme to curb carbon emissions, ratcheting up the possibility of tit-for-tat reprisals.

In March, Connie Hedegaard, the EU minister for climate action, said the EU would support a global agreement on greenhouse gas reductions but that the ETS would “continue to apply to all aircraft operators using airports in EU territory.”

“Nobody can deny Europe the credit for moving sustainability up the global agenda,” said Tony Tyler, the director general and chief executive officer of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), an international aviation trade association, at the organization’s annual meeting in Beijing last month. But he also warned that “sustainability should unite the world with common purpose, not divide it with affronts to sovereignty that risk a trade war.”

“Europe seems more committed to implementing its ETS unilaterally than to sincerely negotiating a multilateral agreement,” Tyler said. “For Europe’s international counterparts, it’s like being asked to negotiate with a gun to their head.”

Suzanne Kurtz is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

TRAVEL & HOTELS

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

culture & arts

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

entertainment

ART

Katzen Lost and Found Be prepared to lose yourself in “Mexico Expected/Unexpect­ ed” and “Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – The Silence Becomes the Painting” and not want to ever be found. PAGE 31

HISTORY

Home Sweet Home

Home. It’s a word that has different meaning for everyone. It’s a ranch in Wyoming or a closet­size studio apart­ ment in Manhattan. But whatever you call it, “House & Home” at the National Building Museum illustrates why there’s no place quite like it.

PAGE 32

SSCULPTURe

THe

Maya Live ON Whenever the Mayans of Mexico come up these days, people fret about the alleged demise of civilization when the Mayan calendar runs out in December 2012.

DINING

Wining and Dining

Thankfully, the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington gives us something a bit more substantial — and certainly less stressful — to ponder than doomsday scenarios with “Hina/Jaina: On the Threshold of the Mayan Underworld.”

The Curious Grape in Shirlington aims to make wine accessible, while offer­ ing an intoxicating menu to satisfy diners and oenophiles alike. PAGE 33

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FILM ReVIeWS Politics collide in “5 Broken Cameras” as a Palestinian farm worker documents life in his West Bank village. PAGE 34

■ JULY 2012

Photos: Marco antonio carvajal – centro inah caMPeche / colleción inah

Anthropomorphic Female Figure Mayan Culture, Classic Period (200- 900 AD) Ceramic

[ sculpture ]

Maya Unearthed Mexican Institute Eschews Doomsday Predictions for Real Relics

by Michael Coleman

W

hen conversations turn to the ancient Mayans of Mexico these days, they often center on the alleged demise of civilization when the Mayan calendar runs out in December 2012.

Thankfully, the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington has given us something a bit more substantial — and certainly less stressful — to ponder than Mayan doomsday scenarios. “Hina/ Jaina: On the Threshold of the Mayan Underworld (600-900 AD)” showcases a rich array of Mayan figurines excavated from burial sites on the man-made island of Jaina, a vital ritual and religious site off the northnorth ern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

The exhibition features more than 50 small-scale “Jaina style” figurines that represent Mayan religious themes, cosmology and elements of society.

Many of the figurines straddle a fine line between whimsical and scary. The miniature sculptures depict wild hairstyles, headdresses and clothing, exotic animals, fantastical beings, musical instruments, as well as iconographic elements that identify some as personified deities.

The most immediately striking impression of the figurines, dated between 600 A.D. and 900 A.D., is how well preserved they are. They also give us a glimpse at the dress or “style” of the Mayan population.

Some of these figurines were made in molds and mass-produced. Others were crafted entirely by hand, carefully modeled to reveal animated gestures and expressions. The figurines, accord according to wall text in the institute’s galler galleries, represent members of elite society, attendants at court, and those from more modest walks of life.

A menagerie of animal figurines enclosed in a glass case is especially entertaining and features birds, rabbits, dogs, turtles, serpents and monkeys. Although the fundamental integrity of the figurines is well preserved, a spotted howler monkey shows his age because the black paint, or a coloring of some sort, is chipped away, giving the primate a mottled effect.

Vivid photographs inter-spersed with the figurines give the viewer a consistent sense of place, such as one of a freshwater sinkhole in the ocean at Jaina, one of nine such sinkholes found in the island’s immediate surHina/Jaina: On the Threshold roundings. In the Mayan world, these sinkholes repreof the Mayan Underworld (600-900 AD) sented a gateway to the underworld. through sept. 15 Jaina itself is also a marvel to behold.The place represents a feat of engineering on the part of pre-HispanMexican Cultural Institute ic Mayan civilizations, which transformed the physical 2829 16th st., nW landscape to create a cultural and sacred space. the next Mexican table programs will be Thanks to this engaging exhibit, viewers can take in held oct. 18 and Dec. 6. some of the Mayan mysticism without leaving For more information, please call (202) 728-1628 Washington — or fretting about the end of the or visit www.instituteofmexicodc.org. world.

Photos: Marco antonio carvajal – centro inah caMPeche / colleción inah

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

to ancient art, it’s home to some of the most authentic Mexican food in town.

The institute’s five-year-old “Mexican Table” program not only serves up deli delicious Mexican fare, it also teaches guests how to properly prepare it. Under the expert and charming tutelage of Patricia Jinich — host of “Pati’s Mexican Table” on PBS — about 125 guests learn how to make such Mexican delicacies as creamy poblano soup, chicken mole dish or white rice with plantains.

At an event in May in honor of Cinco de Mayo, Jinich focused on the Puebla state in Mexico, where a small Mexican militia prevailed in battle against the more powpow erful French army in 1862. Puebla cuisine, which marries traditional Mexican and Spanish styles, also is among the most complex and celebrated cooking styles in all of Mexico.

Jinich — speaking with a wireless headset microphone at the front of the institute’s beautifully tiled and airy banquet room — walks guests through the history of the food she’s preparing and provides helphelp ful and memorable tips. For examexam ple, Jinich informs us that adding a whole uncut jalapeno pepper or two to a boiling pot of rice or chicken will impart a modest bit of flavor without making the contents too spicy to enjoy. And the jalapeno will absorb all the mak other flavorful elements in the pot, making for a piquant treat in and of itself.

Part of the pleasure of watching Jinich cook is the aromas that permeate the room.

Sit as close to the front as possible if you really want to stimulate your olfactory senses. Attentive waiters are on hand to clear dishes and refill wine and replace the Mexican beers served as part of the meal.

At the end, Jinich sends everyone home with recipes, as well as a gift bag that — in our case — included Mexican chocolate for making mole, as well as two kinds of dried peppers and a beautiful piece of Mexican tile for resting a hot coffee cup or small pot.

If worrying about mankind’s final days has you thinking about your last meal, the Mexican Cultural Institute may also be able to satisfy that craving. In addition

Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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Anthropomorphic figurines dating from 600 a.D. and 900 a.D., discovered on the man-made island of jaina off the Yucatan Peninsula, offer insights into Mayan religious themes, cosmology and elements of society.

The Washington Diplomat

]

July 2012

[ art ]

Blissfully Lost Mexican Stereotypes and Irish Angst Find Home at Katzen

by Gary Tischler

I

deally, when you go to see an exhibition at the American University’s Katzen Arts Center, you should take a backpack, lunch, and leave someone your cell phone number and a description of yourself, just in case. You may be gone longer than you think, but you probably won’t want to be found — thanks to Katzen Director Jack Rasmussen, who inevitably manages to mount exhibitions that are provoking, enriching and time consuming, and just as inevitably, exhibitions you’re not likely to see anywhere else around.

At the Katzen’s latest summer shows — “Mexico Expected/ Unexpected” and “Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – The Silence Becomes the Painting” — the surprising thing is that there are essentially only two shows. Usually, there are as many as five or six at a time. And you cannot think of two more different exhibitions than “Mexico Expected/Unexpected” and “Patrick Graham.”

By its title alone, “Mexico: Expected/Unexpected,” a bottomless artistic wonderland of works culled from the Isabel and Agustín Coppel Collection, has an agenda, aiming to distill and dispel cultural clichés and stereotypes about Mexico and Mexican art, while also exploring and capitalizing on those stereotypes.

The result is a huge, almost unwieldy exhibition that spreads over two floors, slithering over walls and around corners with videos, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, objects and two unforgettable on-site installations. Together, the contents are like a living being, barely contained in their setting, and while they state quesDoug Aitken’s “99 Cents Dreams,” above, and Patrick Graham’s tions, they also raise new ones that beg “Family Portrait” are part of two very different shows at the Katzen answers. Trying to understand it as a Arts Center this summer, one on Mexican stereotypes and the total thing is like trying to kiss a threeother a brooding meditation on Irish art. headed hydra, dangerous, difficult, maybe impossible, but also strangely the great American photographer Ed Ruscha from Nebraska, Rineke and often wildly enjoyable.

Dijkstra from Holland, Maurizio Cattelan from Italy, Terence Koh To say the Mexican exhibition is a from China and Rivane Neuenschwander from Brazil. little unfocused is an understatement.

Stereotypes are shattered all over the place in these genre-busting The Patrick Graham exhibition — by a mash-ups. For instance, well-known Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco contemporary Irish artist just beginlargely works and lives in Paris. ning to resonate on the world stage All of which is to say that the exhibition, while blazing new paths, — is so focused it hurts. If one exhibifirmly places Mexican art in today’s globalized world. You can’t tion tries to get to the heart and soul of always say this work or that is Mexican in style or thought, or even Mexico with startling and diverse about Mexico per se. It’s best to just give in and embrace the show’s results, Graham, his own burning eyes all-encompassing nature.

Photo: ack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles ever present in some self-portraits, gets If you do, you’ll be touched by Belgian artist to the heart and soul of the Irish and their many differFrancis Alÿs s feathery whispers in a series of Mexico: Expected/Unexpected ent forms of art and afflictions. works that are indistinct, suggestive, sad and recogand The two exhibitions are like quixotic road trips that nizable. You’ll be haunted by Carlos Amorales’s Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – pick up fellow travelers along the way — one a kind of black and red skulls that echo certain nightmares. arts-and-warts “Canterbury Tales” across the Mexican You’ll run into an endearing, stuffed donkey made The Silence Becomes the Painting landscape, with many pilgrims; the other a solitary quest

by Maurizio Cattelan that sits expectantly in the through Aug. 12 into the dark, as if Don Quixote had been jolted into middle of the floor. And you’ll be struck by Rineke Katzen Arts Center American University Museum recognizing windmills as windmills, as opposed to feroDijkstra’s dangerous, bruised photographs of bull4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW cious giants, and he spiraled into a different sort of madfighters and attendants, their coats torn and bodies For more information, please call (202) 885-1300 ness. As in Quixote, Graham touches on issues of God, slightly battered. or visit www.american.edu/cas/museum. faith, priests, the troubles, the drink, sex and the nightBut there is nothing quite like Ricardo Rendon’s mares imbedded in his canvas. onsite installation, which took two days to create, The Mexican journey is one that starts with the commonplace: the sombrero, vio- according to Rasmussen. It’s made of hundreds of dry-wall screws, spaced exactly lent drug cartels, immigration, Mayan and Aztec imagery, Frida Kahlo, Salma Hayek and apart, in a fluid, seemingly endless array of circles, lines, half moons and circles within whatever else comes to mind when people think of America’s southern neighbor. circles.

The exhibition seeks to defy “commonly held stereotypes about Mexico and its art, “We had to stop him,” Rasmussen said.“I think they might have covered the whole exposing unexpected images and perspectives created and communicated by some of building.”

Mexico’s most influential contemporary artists,” with a goal to “encourage new In spite of the installation’s apparent exactness, it looks as if something is about to thoughts about Mexico and its place in the international, contemporary arts scene.” escape, a burst of shapes and magical forms about to break out of their artistic jail.

To which, I might add:“mission accomplished.”

There’s nothing precise about Patrick Graham, but there is a little cliché in his art But it’s an exhausting, tantalizing and complicated mission. For one thing, a good chunk of the works on display are by artists who are not even from Mexico, such as See katzen, page 35

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Photo: 303 Gallery, New York

]

July 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 31

[ history ]

No Place Like It National Building Museum Exhibit Hits Close to Home

by Rachael Bade

H

ome. It’s a word that has different but special meaning for everyone. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a late 19thcentury sociologist and author, called it the “center and circumference, the start and the finish of most of our lives.”

For one person, it’s a ranch in Wyoming surrounded by jagged Rocky Mountain peaks. For another, it’s a closet-size studio apartment in Manhattan that barely fits a bed. For a third, it’s a two-story suburban house with red shutters, carefully manicured lawn and a wooden fence. It’s a Northern Virginia condominium; it’s a Southwest adobe hut; it’s a California houseboat; it’s even a shack in downtown Chicago.

“We all live somewhere,” reads the first sentence of a display board at the National Building Museum’s newest long-term exhibit “House & Home,” which invites wistful reminiscing from the moment visitors walk through the door.

Funded by the Home Depot FoundaPhoto: stuDios eichbauM + arnolD, 2010 / national builDinG MuseuM tion, “House & Home” spans the history of American domestic life. will ring familiar to most people: children in Halloween cos- Above, a model “‘House & Home’ explores the idea that architecture and material culture can tell us tumes, girls in frou-frou ball gowns standing by a stairwell before of Fallingwater in complex stories about who we are, how we live and what a high school prom, a family decked in Green Pennsylvania, built we aspire to be,” said Chase W. Rynd, museum executive Bay jerseys cheering a football game on TV.

by Frank lloyd House & Home director, in a statement.“By exploring the diverse history of The photos capture snippets of so many Wright in 1935, is America’s homes, we can better understand our society’s lives and represent a shared American experi- on display at the national Building Museum priorities and possibilities, and, in turn, we can better ence. I stared in awe at the photo of a little national building 401 F st., nW understand ourselves.” boy sitting in his red wagon in his driveway Museum.

For more information, please call The array of hundreds of photographs, artifacts, house— my mom had an almost identical photo of (202) 272-2448 or visit www.nbm.org. hold items, models, videos and “please touch” walls are me doing the same thing at 5 years old. drenched in nostalgia.

The best part of “House & Home” is the second gallery, a display Visitors enter the exhibit through a gallery brimming with photos of all different of almost 200 common household objects that populated homes throughout the past kinds of houses and family gatherings.There’s an image of an Ohio cottage built in 1817, century — toys, kitchen utensils, old phones, record players, etc. The dated items look San Francisco row houses from the 1940s, and a line of fishing houses propped up like they were pulled directly from a garage sale. But on their own, they become more on stilts by the water. than just relics of the past; they evoke strong memories and reveal how Surrounded by such images, I couldn’t help but think of the places I called home evolutions in technology and our own consumer culture have dramatidramati — from my blue childhood house in southeastern Ohio, where our golden retriever cally changed our everyday lives.

Montana sat waiting by the front door, to my “English basement” on Capitol Hill A squishy beanbag chair reminded me of the hot pink where my cat Princess Leia is never far from my heels. one I used to sink into as a child watching “Fox and the Family pictures line another wall and are sure to get visitors thinking about their Hound,” “Alice in Wonderland” or one of the dozens of own memories of home. The images Disney movies that lined our shelves. A Lincoln Logs set from the 1950s took me back to trips to our grandparents’ house, where we’d play with Dad’s old toys and ancient Among the many items and artifacts stuffed animals, some with an eye in the “house & home” exhibition are, obvimissing — objects Grandma obvi from left, a Fiestaware pitcher from ously didn’t have the heart to pitch. the 1950s to ’60s; a 1920s big ben alarm clock; tupperware snack cups see HOUSE & HOME, page 35 from the 1970s; a camera and a meat grinder, both from the 1940s; and a 1962 royal Doulton figurine.

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The Washington Diplomat

]

July 2012

[ dining ]

Wine and Dine The Curious Grape Satisfies Both Oenophiles and Foodies

by Rachel G. Hunt

W

hen the owners of the Curious Grape wine shop lost their lease in May last year, they were faced with both a challenge and an opportunity. After 10 years in Shirlington, Va., during which time they garnered praise as one of the Washington area’s top wine shops and venues for private wine tastings, they wanted to find a new location in Shirlington Village that would be convenient to loyal customers. Changing space gave owners Suzanne McGrath and Katie Park, both of whom hold certifications from the Society of Wine Educators, the chance to bring to life an idea that had been percolating for some time.

As a retail shop, the Curious Grape was all about helping visitors learn about wine, cheese, chocolate, and how to pair them to get the best out of each.They held regular tastings and offered more in-depth learning opportunities as well. But the ownership team, which also includes several silent partners, had long wanted the chance to extend the pairings principle to food. So they sought out a space that could accommodate not only the shop, but a dining space as well.

They found the perfect location in a large empty building just a few blocks away from the original site that is now home to a wine shop, wine bar, dining room, private dining room and cheese bar/pastry counter to give both diners and oenophiles a range of options.

Rolling several distinct activities into one space presented an interesting design challenge, so the owners brought on Grizform Design to help.

Having done spaces for both wine retailers and wine bars, Grizform designers clearly understood the requirements and have created a pleasing and effective space.A central large black granite bar, which serves as the cheese bar/pastry counter and separates the retail and restaurant sections, sits under a vaulted ceiling painted with a tranquil mural The Curious Grape of vineyards. Custom-made 2900 South Quincy Street, cherry wine racks lend heft Arlington, Va. to the retail side, while simple, sleek tables and chairs accented in (703) 671-8700 black and chrome add to the uncluttered www.curiousgrape.com open feel of the dining space. Picking up the purples and greens in the mural for the Dinner: Tue. - Thu., Sun., 5 - 9 p.m.; walls and furnishings, the designers have

Fri., Sat., 5 - 10 p.m. (closed Mon.) created a harmonious and soothing atmoCafé: Mon. - Sat., 7:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.; sphere.

Sun., 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Opening a restaurant meant the owners also had to find a chef who shared their Retail: Mon. - Thu., 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.; vision.A diligent search led them to a young

Fri., Sat. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.; but excellently credentialed D.C. native, Sun. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Eric McKamey, who got his start serving Small plates: $5 - $11 under local notables such as Haidar Karoum at Proof, Michel Richard at Central, Eric Entrées: $10 - $28 Desserts: $4 Ziebold at CityZen, Frank Ruta at Palena, Reservations: Accepted and Jonathan Krinn at 2941. Capitalizing on Atmosphere: Casual this background, McKamey moved on to lead spots at PassionFish in Reston, Va., and Local 16 in Washington, experiences that left him well prepared to take on the demands of creating a new restaurant and interpreting the owners’ wine-centric concept.

McKamey has put together an eclectic menu of small plate starters and entrées that change often to incorporate seasonally available ingredients, which is done with marked success.The carnaroli rice fritters, deep fried with saffron, sage and fontina val d’aosta, are

[ ] want to

go?

The Curious Grape is home to a wine shop, cheese bar/pastry counter and a new dining room that offers a wine-centric menu of dishes paired with wine choices selected by the chef and owners.

Photos: Jessica Latos

a perfect way to start a meal and make a nice snack with one of the suggested sparkling whites on the menu. For a lighter start, two excellent choices are the yellow tail, lightly cured and served with slivers of preserved lemon and fresh chili over paper-thin slices of radish and cumin seed, as well as the baby artichokes, served with spring garlic, mint, red chili and crispy bread crumbs.

Among recent entrée selections, a sheep’s milk ricotta gnocchi with sugar snap peas, porcini mushrooms, pea shoot pesto and pine nuts was a delight that perfectly illustrated chef McKamey’s characteristic approach, which emphasizes clear, bright flavors and elegant presentation.

McKamey’s varied culinary background emerges in offerings that cut across styles, borrowing ingredients and techniques liberally to create a distinct signature.The braised pork empanada starter, served with cilantro, pumpkin seed salsa and crème fraiche, is a tasty, lighter version of the more traditional cousin. McKamey’s ragu, served with penne pasta, is unusual for the Vietnamese-spiced pork that’s added to the beef Bolognese.The unlikely combination lends an intriguing dimension to the flavor that raises the profile of the dish from comfortable to inspired. Meanwhile, a simple but perfectly roasted chicken is elevated with a complex spice rub that renders the skin crisp and aromatic and the meat moist and tender. The green onion polenta, braised kale and tomato give the dish a country-cooking feel, on steroids.

In keeping with the Curious Grape’s original mission, all food on the menu is paired with wine choices selected by the chef and owners, who take the process very seriously (to the point where they will sometimes alter a recipe to achieve a good fit). But the suggestions aren’t daunting — they’re simple and easy to understand, a reflection of the driving philosophy behind Curious Grape, which aims to make wine more accessible.

The structure of the menu, which features plenty of half-plate options and myriad house wine suggestions in both full glasses and half pours, also makes it easy to sample a wide range of food and drink combos.

On a recent visit, the red wine-glazed braised lamb shoulder, perfectly tender and

July 2012

See dining, page 35 The Washington Diplomat Page 33

[ film reviews ]

Palestinian Lens Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Seen Through ‘5 Broken Cameras’

by Ky N. Nguyen

“Workingman’s Death.” At the 2011 Venice Film Festival,“Whores’ Glory” garnered the Orizzonti Special Jury Prize for its no-holds-barred n the stirring autobiographical approach. Glawogger tells it like it documentary “5 Broken Cameras,” is, not hesitating to reveal ugly Palestinian farm worker Emad details about the global sex trade Burnat’s deeply personal stories driven by desperate poverty — and quickly become intensely political, the greed of underworld characters, providing a uniquely engaging including organized crime netwindow into the long-lasting works.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A self-taught The film’s main tales are those of video camera operator, he inadvertently everyday women working as prostistumbles into a new avocation as a resitutes with whom the filmmaker has dent documentarian in his West Bank very close contact. Glawogger paid village of Bil’in by happening to be in the for that level of access, a questionright place at the right time — or not, able practice by traditional docudepending on one’s perspective. In any mentary ethical standards, but some case, the resulting film serves as an argue it’s more acceptable when impressive work of art, personal visual involving impoverished subjects. essay and historical record.

Perhaps fittingly,Glawogger declares Burnat’s filmmaking career started in the film notes,“Prostitution is not after his fourth son was born in 2005. He to be condemned or defended.

Photo: Kino Lorber procured a video camera intending to Prostitution simply is. It is like war. record the development of his boy and Gibreel, the son of Palestinian farm worker Emad Burnat, looks out over the Israeli settlements near his West Bank War is.” other family affairs, just like many other village in Burnat’s documentary “5 Broken Cameras.”

The film doesn’t judge its subfathers. Coincidentally in that year, the jects, who frequently make difficult Israeli government started to seize Palestinian-owned land around Bil’in to build new settle- decisions to survive. Instead, Glawogger’s script objectively depicts the profound influences ments for Israeli settlers and to construct the controversial West Bank Barrier to divide the across diverse cultures of economics, politics, sociology, faith and sexuality on modern human newcomers from the preexisting resident Palestinians. The reduction in farmland caused existence, affecting both males and females in varying ways.

Burnat and his colleagues to lose work, which contributed to Announcing itself as a “cinematic triptych on proshis decision to join fellow villagers, left-leaning Israelis, and titution,” the film relates the stories of working girls 5 Broken Cameras Whores’ Glory sympathetic foreigners in nonviolent protests against the set- in three different locales. In Bangkok, Thailand, the (Arabic, Hebrew and English (English, German, French, Thai, tlements and separation wall. world’s oldest profession seems very accepted. Sex with subtitles; 90 min.)

Japanese, Spanish and Bengali Burnat documented this campaign of civil disobedience workers start their day by praying at a Buddhist temLandmark’s E Street Cinema — and the ensuing harsh Israeli crackdown. Armed with his ple — for abundance, not forgiveness — before literwith subtitles; 119 min.)

Opens Fri., July 13 camera, he captured in dramatic detail what went down when ally punching the clock like factory workers at the Landmark’s E Street Cinema the villagers’ passive resistance was met with everyday arrests Fish Tank brothel.After being plastered with makeup, ★★★★✩ Opens Fri., July 6 (including himself and all four of his brothers), night raids and they pose like models — or mannequins — in a violent attacks with beatings, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and lethal “real” bullets. lighted glass box where customers can pick what ★★★★✩ The provocative title “5 Broken Cameras” refers to Burnat’s dogged perseverance in con- they want and pay with credit cards. Still, a client tinuing to capture on video his life and struggles between 2005 and 2010. Even when one insists,“We are the commodity.” camera after another is damaged in skirmishes Guilt is more prevalent in Faridpur, Bangladesh, where the with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and/or Israeli red light district is called “The City of Joy.” For example, one settlers, more than once by a gunshot that would prostitute declines to conduct oral sex with the same mouth have otherwise hit him, he finds some way to buy, she uses to pray to Allah. However, Islam does not deter many borrow or be gifted another camera (sometimes families from selling their daughters or prevent brothels from

by Israeli supporters). operating as family-run businesses. In Reynosa, Mexico, a border “When I film, I feel like the camera protects me, town across from McAllen, Texas, prostitution is relegated to a but that’s special zone in no man’s land where hookers are often outlaws “When I film, I feel like the camera protects me, and/or crack addicts. Facing the specter of Catholic guilt but that’s an illusion,” says Burnat, the film’s ingrained into Mexican society, fused locally with pagan rituals, insightful narrator. Indeed, though Burnat escapes the ladies of the night pray for an easy demise to a goddess at least two bullets blocked by the camera, he called Lady Death. does suffer an arrest and serious injuries.

After the fifth camera was broken, Burnat ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ teamed up with Guy Davidi, an Israeli filmmaker The post-Hurricane Katrina fairytale “Beasts of the Southern who lived in Bil’in in 2005 while working on the Wild, ” American director and co-writer Benh Zeitlin’s debut documentary “Interrupted Streams,” regarding feature film, captivated audiences at the Sundance Film Festival, Photo: Vinai Dithajohn / Kino Lorber West Bank water and power. Davidi and Veronique where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Lagoarde-Segot expertly edited Burnat’s 500 hours Prostitutes in Thailand sit behind a glass case so customers can Competition.The engrossing fantasy drama is such a completely of footage into an elegant, elegiac final cut. choose which girl they want in Michael Glawogger’s vivid cinematic experience that it’s hard to believe Zeitlin and codocumentary “Whores’ Glory.” writer Lucy Alibar adapted the screenplay from Alibar’s play ‘Whores’ Glory’ “Juicy and Delicious.”The distinctive script clearly benefited from the three years it was workAustrian writer-director Michael Glawogger’s vivid documentary “Whores’ Glory” is the shopped in the Sundance Institute’s laboratory program. final chapter of his enlightening trilogy on globalization, preceded by “Megacities” and Also first-rate is its organic body of technical work — cinematography, special effects, edit-

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ing, music, etc. Unlike the often grainy pictures of many American indies set in commonplace and familiar-looking locales, director of photography Ben Richardson’s exquisite images (for which he won the Cinematography Award at Sundance) bring to life one of the most exotic — and impoverished — settings in the United States.

“The Bathtub,” comprised of New Orleans wards lying at low elevations, is separated by the rest of the city by a unstable levy that comes with an undercurrent of danger. The isolation of the often-ignored bayou neighborhood develops a strong, even stubborn, sense of independence in its proud outcast residents who keep up their spirits with raucous partying.

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” grips the viewer’s imagination through the eyes of its optimistic 6-yearold African American heroine, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis). She uniquely resides in a sepBeasts of the Southern Wild arate makeshift, stilt-lifted (English; 93 min.) structure from that of her nearby father Wink AFI Silver Theatre (Dwight Henry), who said Landmark’s E Street Cinema her mother simply “swam Opens Fri., July 6 away,” so she’s effectively equally raised by her ★★★★✩ neighbors. Her father loves her, but he’s frequently absent — and often drunk, mad, and violent when he’s around.

Yet she proclaims that they live in “the prettiest place on Earth,” a belief supported by the beautiful scenes of nature on both land and water. But her idyllic existence is threatened when her father grows gravely ill and a flood mandates the

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from page 31

Katzen

neighborhood’s eviction by the outside authorities, forcing her to bravely face the world’s harsh realities head on.

Zeitlin coaxes the solid ensemble cast of nonprofessional actors into delivering naturalistic performances, which add greatly to the film’s overwhelming sense of verisimilitude depicting the local population and language. Astoundingly assured Quvenzhané Wallis gives the audience her all in nearly every scene throughout the film, leading to one of the most memorable child portrayals in the recent history of cinema. The final result is pretty much everything an independent film could hope to be but seldom is.

— the pain of it all. One critic wrote that “Graham’s paintings are difficult and disturbing….They’re not easy to like.”

That’s not the half of it.There’s something deeply confessional and personal about his paintings as Graham dives into ancient inspirations, pagan landmarks and Catholic sorrows, family, fathers and his own haunted, big-eyed self. The artist described his work as “a looking-in, rather than a lived experience. That ‘looking-in on things’ has stayed with me: a selfcontained art.”

Yet contained in that art is nothing less than a search for the meaning of life itself, meditations that are as thought provoking as they are disturbing. Caskets, bug-eyed men with wings, dripping blood, and nudes the color of heatedup flesh don’t exactly make for a pleasant Sunday stroll through the museum.

But you can’t help but be affected by the Irish genius for self-destruction and their demons. It’s dark, heavy and brilliant.

The Irish artist can of course write as well, describing a bog in his hometown in County Westmeath:“This is where I was thrown back and out of myself….This is where I pray. I don’t say words. I just look and listen. It’s a prayer of wonder about nature.”

At the end of a long day at the Katzen, it’s all too easy to get lost meandering around Mexico in all its guises, or roaming County Westmeath and Graham’s murky ruminations on life and faith. But in return you find a bounty of rewards, and the only thing you’ve lost is a lot of time well spent.

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

Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Photo: Jess Pinkham

Quvenzhané Wallis, left, gives a stellar performance as Hushpuppy, a 6-year-old girl who lives in a neglected bayou neighborhood with her father Wink (Dwight Henry) in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

from page 33

Dining

from page 32

accompanied with Swiss chard, rosemary and glazed turnips, was partnered with a selection of medium- and full-bodied reds from Bordeaux, Australia, Spain and Argentina.

The wine list changes frequently as the owners find new labels that they believe represent a good value for their customers. One of the defining features of the Curious Grape’s wine program has always been its emphasis on both quality and affordability. In the shop as well as on the menu, guests will find a broad spectrum of labels at both moderate and higher price points.

Owner McGrath, a former pastry chef, has taken on the task of developing a dessert menu to round out McKamey’s inventively savory offerings. She is also responsible for the inhouse baked goods that are available daily from the café pastry case. On recent visits, all the desserts have been perfect little bites of sweetness but one in particular, the lemon mousse served in a cookie cup with lavender blueberry sauce, stands out. The sweet and sour flavors and the silky smooth yet crispy crunchy textures combine to form a perfectly satisfying end to any meal. The strawberries and almond shortcake, served with white chocolate almond ice cream and rhubarb coulis, is another interesting choice. The little shortcakes are done with cornmeal rather than the typical white flour, giving them a more robust profile.

If cheese is more to your liking, the Curious Grape offers a nice selection, grouped in threes and paired with a specific type of wine. Diners can select from these or any that are available in the cheese case. The substantial selection of chocolate, mostly artisanal dark chocolates, also expands the dessert offerings.

A hallmark of the Curious Grape has always been the excellent staff, and this has not changed. Staff are trained under an in-house education program and can speak knowledgably about any of the wine suggestions for aficionados and neophytes alike. They are equally

One butterfly chair sent me daydreaming about college, where I carried around a fuzzy, bright orange butterfly chair that I swore helped me to study.

Everyone is bound to recognize and connect with the various objects on display, from a webbed folding lawn chair that neighbors would drag out to block parties, to a worn-in baseball glove, to the famous poster of Farrah Fawcett that sold a record 12 million copies in the 1970s. There’s also a kiddy pool, slow cooker, dog bowls, typewriter and a monopoly board.

They’re the everyday objects that fill our lives and often fly under our noses. But showcased in “House & Home,” they carry new life.

The long-term exhibit, which will be open to the public until May 2017, was designed by the award-winning New York‐based firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates. The company is best known for designing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the physical science and space wing at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Along with dredging up memories, the exhibit chronicles the amazing transformation and diversity of American domestic life. Massive “please touch” walls made from materials used in residential construction, from adobe brick and mud plaster to solar panels and fibercement siding, tell the story of home-building over the last several decades.

“House & Home” also includes more than a dozen scale models of some of the most iconic American homes, including Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural gem Fallingwater and Philip Johnson’s not-so-discreet Glass House.

In addition, a timeline explores the politics that shaped the American housing landscape,

House & Home

Photo: Jessica Latos

At the Curious Grape, D.C. native Eric McKamey has put together an eclectic menu of small plate starters and entrées based on seasonally available ingredients that are compatible with the restaurant’s focus on wine.

well prepared to discuss the beer selections, which are extensive and unusual.

Though still in its early days, it looks as though the expanded vision for the Curious Grape is well justified. It has retained the characteristics that made the retail business so successful, while taking the venture to the natural next step by adding food.

And while the Curious Grape Wine, Dine & Shop makes the wining, dining and shopping broadly accessible, with a setting that’s decidedly casual, it has not sacrificed any quality.The food is easily as good as any available in the Washington area. How lucky Shirlington Village is that the owners of the Curious Grape decided to stay open and stay loyal to the area.

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

July 2012

Photo: Jack E. Boucher; Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey

Architect Samuel Newsom built the striking Carson House in Eureka, Calif., in the late 1800s.

from land distribution and housing projects to mortgages and subprime loans. The chart, which runs the length of one gallery wall, includes the Indian Removal Act of 1830, when thousands of Native Americans were kicked off their land, as well as the Homestead Act of 1862, when the federal government offered Americans a free 160 acres for farming.

The timeline also shows how territorial disputes erupted throughout U.S. history. “We want white tenants in our white communities,” reads one sign in the section on segregation.

Meanwhile, films tell the story of contemporary American life, with six documentaries exploring communities such as an affordable housing project in New Orleans the historic neighborhoods of Washington, D.C. That last documentary is sure to hit close to home, but so does the entire experience, which forces visitors to take a second look at the objects that make up what they call home.

Whether that’s a historic colonial row house, a cramped college dorm room or a military barracks, it’s all home, and there’s no place quite like it.

Rachael Bade is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat Page 35

[ film ]

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

Lover’s Discourse (Leun yan sui yu)

Arabic

Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wan’s directorial debut presents a series of seemingly unconnected vignettes to create a poignant portrait of modern love, Hong Kong-style.

Love During Wartime Directed by Gabriella Bier (Sweden, 2011, 92 min.)

A Palestinian Muslim artist and an Israeli Jew who is a dancer and a daughter of a German Jewish immigrant find love but must fight an Israeli bureaucracy filled with suspicion and a menacing Palestinian society that make their lives together a nightmare.

The Jerusalem Fund

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT to take care of her. (Cantonese, English and Mandarin)

Directed by Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wan (Hong Kong, 2010, 117 min.)

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., July 27, 7 p.m., Sun., July 29, 2 p.m.

Once a Gangster (Fei saa fung chung chun) Directed by Felix Chong (Hong Kong, 2010, 95 min.)

Jordan Chan and Ekin Cheng—veterans of numerous triad films—poke fun at themselves, playing rivals doing everything they can not to get elected as top gangster.

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., July 1, 2 p.m.

English A Cat in Paris (Une Vie de Chat)

July 2012

(Germany, 2011, 97 min.)

Corinna Belz was granted exclusive access to Gerhard Richter, the infamously mediashy German painter, for this thrilling documentary of Richter’s creative process, juxtaposed with intimate conversations and rare archive material. (English and German) Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Take This Waltz Directed by Sarah Polley (Canada/Spain/Japan, 2011, 116 min.)

When a happily married women meets a handsome artist who lives across the street, their chemistry is intense and immediate.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol (France/Netherlands/Switzerland/Belgium, 2010, 69 min.)

Hip Hop is Bigger than the Occupation

In Paris, a cat who lives a secret life as a cat burglar’s aide must come to the rescue of the little girl he lives with, after she falls into a gangster’s clutches.

During a 10-day journey through Palestine, artists teach and perform nonviolent resistance, while witnessing night raids and meeting with young Palestinians who’ve been jailed, shot and humiliated (followed by a panel discussion with some of the film’s artists and activists).

French

Directed by Nana Dankwa (Palestine, 2011, 85 min.)

The Rabbi’s Cat (Le Chat du Rabbin) Directed by Antoine Delesvaux and Joann Sfar (France/Austria, 2011, 89 min.)

Set in Algeria in the 1920s, a rabbi’s cat who learns how to speak after swallowing the family parrot expresses his desire to Cantonese The Dark Knight Rises convert to Judaism. (A reception to benefit Georgetown University Directed by Christopher Nolan Freer Gallery of Art the Washington Jewish Film Festival Life without Principle NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and content it is ultimately up to the customer Rafik B. Hariri Building Fri., July 20, 7 p.m., (U.S./U.K., 2012, 164 min.) accompanies the screening.)

(Dyut meng gam) to make the final proof.

Sun., July 22, 2 p.m.

Despite his tarnished reputation, Batman La Maison Française Directed by Johnnie To To Rome with Love feels compelled to help Gotham and its (Hong Kong, 2011, 107 min.)

The first two faxedA changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration.

Simple Life Directed by Woody Allen police force, which is struggling to cope This tense drama from veteran director German Signed ads are considered approved.

(U.S./Italy/Spain, 2012, 112 min.) with Bane’s plans to destroy the city.

(Tao jie) Johnnie To taps into the zeitgeist by E Street Cinema A kaleidoscope characters, some Directed by A nn Hui Café Müller telling three linked stories of Hong Kong’s Please check thisLandmark’s ad carefully.

Mark any changes to yourofad.

Opens Fri., July 20 (Hong Kong, 2011, 118 min.)

American, some Italian, engage in romancDirected by Pina Bausch money-obsessed culture. es, adventures and predicaments in one of When to a wealthy family Freer Gallery ofIfArt the ad is correct sign and faxthe to:lifelong (301)maid 949-0065 needs changes The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552(Germany, 1985, 55 min.) the world’s most enchanting cities.

Gerhard Richter Painting suffers a stroke, it’s up to the only family Fri., July 13, 7 p.m., “Café Müller” is Pina Bausch’s most perLandmark’s E Street Cinema

by Corinna Belz member in the city, a busy movie producer, Directed Sun., July 15, 2Approved p.m. _____________________________________________ Changes _____________________________________________________________________ Landmark’s E Street Cinema

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

By John T. Shaw

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

the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, John T. Shaw examines Lugar’s approach to lawmaking and diplomacy for what it reveals about the workings of the Senate and changes in that institution.

Drawing on access to the senator over several years, and interviews with Lugar and other leading figures in foreign policy, Shaw chronicles Lugar's historic work on nuclear proliferation, arms control, energy, and global food issues, highlighting the senator’s ability to influence American foreign policy in consequential ways.

Although Shaw was given access to Lugar over a number of years, Richard G. Lugar: Statesman of the Senate is by no means an authorized account.

There is much in the book Senator Lugar is sure to disagree with, particularly in a chapter concerning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.

Page 36

A.E. Fletcher Photography

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

Strobe Talbott, president, Brookings Institution

"This book takes us on a fascinating journey through the political life of a giant in American foreign policy... An impressive account of Richard Lugar's rich political work and versatile political persona."

Jan Eliasson, former president of UN General Assembly, former Swedish foreign minister and former Swedish ambassador to the United States

"A close-up look at the dedication, effectiveness, and outstanding public service of Senator Dick Lugar."

Sam Nunn, former US Senator, CEO of Nuclear Threat Initiative

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

George Shultz, former US Secretary of State

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

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

sonal and saddest performance, in which she expresses the human quest for safety and love. (Screens with “Pina Bausch”) Goethe-Institut Mon., July 2, 6:30 p.m.

The Complaint of an Empress (Die Klage der Kaiserin) Directed by Pina Bausch (Germany/France, 1990, 99 min.)

Put together as a collage with scenes set in different locations throughout and surrounding the city of Wuppertal, Germany, the futility of human action and the quest for love constitute the main focus of choreographer Pina Bausch’s debut film.

Goethe-Institut Mon., July 9, 6:30 p.m.

Pina Directed by Wim Wenders (Germany, 2011, 100 min.)

In this powerful new film, German master Wim Wenders shoots in 3D, putting the viewer deep inside Pina Bausch’s playful, thrillingly unpredictable pieces.

Goethe-Institut Mon., July 16, 6:30 p.m.

Pina Bausch Directed by Anne Linsel (Germany, 2006, 43 min.)

Just three years before her death, famous German choreographer Pina Bausch and the Tanztheater Wuppertal Ensemble try to track the roots of her own worldwide success. (Screens with “Café Müller) Goethe-Institut Mon., July 2, 6:30 p.m.

Hindi Alms of the Blind Horse (Anhey gorhey da daan) Directed by Gurvinder Singh (India, 2011, 117 min.)

The first Punjabi feature to make the international festival rounds chronicles a day in the life of a village — starring mostly actual villagers — that begins with the latenight destruction of a house by a greedy landlord.

Freer Gallery of Art Sat., July 14, 2 p.m.

Russian Elena Directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev (Russia, 2011, 109 min.)

When a sudden illness and an unexpected reunion threaten a dutiful Moscow housewife’s potential inheritance, she hatches a desperate plan.

FILM Highlight

Ambassadors Star in Silverdocs Festival Where did the time go? It’s hard to believe that the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival just made its 10th appearance in the Washington area. Since the beginning, The Washington Diplomat has covered this oncenascent fest that has developed into arguably the most prominent documentary film festival in the United States. And as a special treat for Diplomat readers, two international films at Silverdocs 2012 highlighted ambassadors.

‘The Ambassador’ (feature) “The Ambassador,” the latest work from Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger (“The Red Chapel”) screened in the Silver Spectrum program of Silverdocs. The documentarian delves into and reveals a seedy, underground marketplace in which impoverished Third World countries sell off diplomatic passports to the highest bidder, sometimes throwing in an official diplomatic position. Using mostly hidden cameras, he films the process for the record deploying a humorous, highly personal approach in the vein of Michael Moore (also see “‘Ambassador’ for Sale: Diplomatic Imposter Goes Undercover to Expose Corruption in Africa” in the May 2012 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

Brügger strives to become an ambassador to the Central African Republic (CAR), an appointment that would permit him to remove unlimited quantities of blood diamonds out of the country in his unsearchable diplomatic black bag. The filmmaker sports a fancy suit and a shaved head to pose as “Mads Cortzen.”

He traverses the CAR working on his diamond deal, which mostly consists of handing out bribes in the form of “envelopes of happiness.” He invests in the diamond mine owned by Dalkia Gilbert, a powerful CAR figure running for Parliament.

In the meantime, Brügger builds up his cover story: He’s starting a match factory in which pygmies would work — a sort of affirmative action program to assist minorities in the CAR. Along the way, Brügger has some close brushes with the shady characters who pepper his documentary, but he eventually scores his diplomatic credentials, a sad reflection of how money really does buy power, even in the supposedly hallowed

Photos: AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs

Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger stars as a crooked diplomat trying to nab African blood diamonds in the documentary “The Ambassador,” above, while Polish director Jan Czarlewski follows his workaholic father in “The Ambassador and Me,” left.

world of diplomacy.

At the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Brügger garnered a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize in World Cinema – Documentary, and at the 2012 Robert Festival, “The Ambassador” took the top prize for Best Documentary.

‘The Ambassador and Me’ (short) Polish director Jan Czarlewski’s poignant film “The Ambassador and Me,” which played in the Sterling Short Film Competition at Silverdocs, chronicles the life Czarlewski’s father, a workaholic who has poured his life into his career as a Polish diplomat, statesman and national hero. “He has

dedicated his whole life to his country, but he never had any time for me,” the filmmaker laments.

Czarlewski seeks to remedy their lack of a relationship by traveling to Brussels, the site of his father’s latest diplomatic posting.

During the trip, Czarlewski records his father in various activities, including a tennis match, a wreath laying, working at the office, and resting in bed. Unfortunately, the senior Czarlewski rebuffs his son’s attentions, becoming annoyed at being filmed and interviewed and insisting that a discrete profile at the embassy is critical to the success of his career.

When he’s frequently alone, the junior Czarlewski films silent periods reflecting the palpable distance that’s always existed between father and son. Still, the documentarian’s efforts are not strictly Quixotian, as the pair does come to learn somewhat more about each other.

— Ky N. Nguyen

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Repertory Notes

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 Freer’s annual Hong Kong Film Festival runs June 29 to Aug. 19. To ensure admittance, please come early to the ever-popular series, which kicks off with Ann Hui’s “A Simpler Life” (Fri., June 29, 7 p.m.; Sun., July 1, 2 p.m.). “Suffused with the gentle, unforced humanity viewers have come to expect from Hong Kong

helmer Ann Hui, ‘A Simple Life’ is a tender ode to the elderly, their caregivers and the mutual generosity of spirit that makes their limited time together worthwhile,” wrote Justin Chang in Variety.

The Indian classic movie “Alms of the Blind Horse” (Sat., July 14, 2 p.m.) earned a triple crown of distinctions: the initial Punjabi feature film to break through to the international festival circuit, director Gurvinder Singh’s feature debut, and the final film from the deceased legend Mani Kaul, who wore the title of creative producer.

American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theatre

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

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

July 2012

The returning program “Totally Awesome 6: Great Films of the 1980s” (June 29-Sept. 19) opens with “Explorers,” “Withnail and I” and “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.” The series “Spy Cinema” (June 29-Sept. 19) starts with “North by Northwest,” “Mata Hari” and “Dishonored.” The “Jean Harlow Retrospective” (June 30-Aug. 2) showcases the talented American actress, beginning with “Red Dust” and “Bombshell.”

The Washington Diplomat Page 37

[ around town ]

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

ART

and depiction of birds, featuring work by Colby Caldwell, Jenny Mullins and others.

Through July 8

Masters of Mercy: Buddha’s Amazing Disciples

Heiner Contemporary

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

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through July 16

Through July 6

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

Embassy of Spain

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Rosana Azar: Twenty-Two Years Celebrating the Arts

Buenos Aires-born artist Rosana Azar exhibited widely around Argentina before moving to the Washington area 22 years ago, quickly establishing herself as an artist of global relevance, with shows in the Washington Cathedral, Osaka, Japan, St. Tropez, France, and Bucharest, Romania.

July 28 to Sept. 16

Worlds Within Worlds: Imperial Paintings from India and Iran India’s Mughal emperors, who reigned over a vast empire that extended from Kabul over most of the South Asian subcontinent between the 16th and the 19th centuries, were passionate about lavish manuscripts and paintings. The exhibit brings together 60 of the finest folios and paintings from the Freer|Sackler collection, one of the world’s most important repositories of Mughal and Persian painting.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Embassy of Argentina

Through July 29

Through July 27

From the Library: The Fleeting Structures of Early Modern Europe

Winging It

This group exhibition explores the study

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

National Gallery of Art Through July 29

Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections The National Museum of Women in the Arts celebrates its 25th anniversary with the first exhibition to explore the life and work of women artists in the time of the French Revolution with more than 75 rarely seen works by 35 artists.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Through July 31

Joan Miró from the Collection of the Kreeger Museum Joan Miró was a perfectionist who insisted he was a “self-taught amateur” to transgress traditional techniques, especially in pursuit of printmaking as a medium for his breathtaking expressions of Catalan culture. This exhibition marks the first time the Kreeger’s complete collection of works

by Miró will be on view, including “The Mallorca Suite,” “Makimono,” and “El Vol de l’Alosa (The Flight of the Lark).”

The Kreeger Museum READIN’

ART

Through Aug. 12

Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape ’RITING ’RITHMETIC

Royal dukes are squaresville.

They have no rhythm.

And they wear crowns.

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

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

National Gallery of Art Through Aug. 31

Daniel Libeskind: Architecture for the Angel of History

Photographs depict the striking work of Daniel Libeskind, who designed several

Page 38

July 2012

museums of national significance as well as living expressions of memory, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Military History Museum in Dresden.

On May 18 at 2 p.m., Chase W. Rynd, executive director of the National Building Museum, discusses what role architecture plays in the culture of memory?

Goethe-Institut Through Sept. 9

Antony Gormley: Drawing Space

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

The Phillips Collection Through Sept. 9

Jasper Johns: Variations on a Theme

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

The Phillips Collection

Through Sept. 30

Open City: London 1500-1700

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

Folger Shakespeare Library Through Oct. 8

George Bellows

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

National Gallery of Art Through Oct. 14

The Deep Element: Photography at the Beach

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

Corcoran Gallery of Art Through Oct. 31

Through Sept. 15

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

Mexican Cultural Institute Through Sept. 23

Constellations: Constructivism, Internationalism and the Inter-American Avant-Garde Drawn from the permanent collection and rich archival holdings of the Art Museum of the Americas, “Constellations” surveys the dynamic, inter-American history of geometric abstraction across the 20th century — a tribute to the curatorial vision of José Gómez Sicre, the founder and first director of the AMA.

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

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

Dulles International Airport Gateway Gallery Through Dec. 9

African Cosmos: Stellar Arts

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

Art Museum of the Americas

National Museum of African Art

Through Sept. 26

Through Dec. 30

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

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

Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building

Growing up AFRO: Snapshots of Black Childhood from the Afro-American Newspapers

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

Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, Md. Through Dec. 30

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

A selection of iconic costumes and haute

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

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

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens Through Jan. 6

Dragons, Nagas, and Creatures of the Deep

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

The Textile Museum Through Feb. 24

Lalla Essaydi: Revisions

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

National Museum of African Art

DANCE July 5 to 8

Paris Opera Ballet: Giselle

Making a rare international appearance, Paris Opera Ballet brings their beautiful production of the classic evening-length ballet “Giselle,” choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. Tickets are $29 to $150.

Kennedy Center Opera House

countryside orchards. Scholar Alain Touwaide makes a case that the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean area was actually an attempt to take control of the production of medicinal plants.

Tickets are $40; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Thu., July 19, 7 p.m.

Le Studio: Defining the French Savoir-Faire

The monthly “Wine Tasting 101” soirées — with veteran wine journalist Claire MorinGibourg — explores the regions and vineyards in France, as well as tasting techniques, with July’s tasting featuring Languedoc-Roussillon and Cotes de Provence wines. Tickets are $70.

La Maison Française Tue., July 24, 7 p.m.

Nature’s Compass: The Secret Guide to Incredible Animal Journeys Whether it’s the monarch butterfly’s annual winter trek to Mexico or a homing pigeon’s journey back to the flock, animals demonstrate navigation strategies that range from the simple to the astonishing, but it’s only in recent years that scientists have learned how these feats are actually accomplished.

Tickets are $20; for information, visit www. smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Wed., July 25, 6:45 p.m.

Understanding Climate Change

Doug Herman, senior geographer at the American Indian Museum, provides an overview of the often-complex, and often-misunderstood, subject of climate.

Tickets are $35; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

DISCUSSIONS

FESTIVALS

Wed., July 11, 6:45 p.m.

July 1, July 4 to 8

What Makes a Leader?

Listening to Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Caesar

As America gears up to select a new leader, historian Barry Strauss looks back at a trio of great rulers and generals to consider the qualities that made them effective leaders. Tickets are $25; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

Hirshhorn Museum Ring Auditorium Thu., July 12, 6:45 p.m.

Pearl Harbor: Bold Stroke or Senseless Strategy?

United States Naval Academy military historian Robert Love discusses the concurrent struggles under way prior to Dec. 7 — in Europe between the Axis powers and Anglo- Soviet alliance and in Asia between Japan and China — and the outcome of the attack. Tickets are $40; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Wed., July 18, 6:45 p.m.

Ancient Roman Gardens as Urban Pharmacopeia

In the time of Augustus, the population of Rome experienced unprecedented growth that created a shortage of many medicinal plants, traditionally grown until then in

Smithsonian Folklife Festival This international exposition of living cultural heritage is organized annually outdoors on the National Mall. This year’s festival highlights three themes: “Campus and Community,” commemorating the year 1862, when the founding of public universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would touch the lives of people across the United States and the world every single day; “Citified,” a look at the arts and creativity east of the Anacostia River; and “Creativity and Crisis,” marking the 25th anniversary of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and 30 years of life with AIDS. National Mall Through July 2

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

http://classicalmovements.org.

Various locations July 12 to 29

Capital Fringe Festival

The Capital Fringe Festival is the only major unjuried, self-producing, openaccess festival in the Washington area providing hundreds of artists, whether new or established, a venue to express and develop their talents and visions, with a mission to nurture creative, cutting-edge, and contemporary performance in the District.

For information, visit www.capfringe.org.

Various locations Fri., July 13, 7 p.m.

Bastille Day at the Embassy of France

The French Embassy welcomes Washingtonians to Comité Tricolore’s spectacular annual Bastille Day celebration, featuring a delectable buffet of both classic French dishes and modern twists, with some of Washington’s most renowned chefs, as well as authentic French pastries and an open bar of French wine, spirits and bubbly. Tickets are $90.

La Maison Française

MUSIC Fri., July 6, 7:30 p.m.

From Mozart to Michael Jackson

Violinist Barbara Helfgott and pianist Michael Kahr present a versatile program ranging from famous classical pieces and traditional Viennese music to pop and melodies from popular musicals. Admission is free but RSVP is required and can be made at www.acfdc.org/events-registration or (202) 895-6776.

Embassy of Austria Sat., July 14, 3 to 6 p.m.

Musikkapelle Prutz

The Olney Big Band will be hosting the Austrian concert band Musikkapelle Prutz from western Austria near Innsbruck — whose 52 members will present a concert of Austrian classics and popular concert band favorites. Tickets are $15.

Olney Theatre Center

THEATER Through July 1

The Animals and Children Took to the Streets

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

Through July 1

Puerto Rico...¡fuá!

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

GALA Hispanic Theatre

Home of the Soldier

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

Synetic Theater at Crystal City

July 2012

Signature Theatre July 11 to Aug. 5

Through July 7

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You

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

Tickets are $38 to $43.

The American Century Theater presents Christopher Durang’s acerbic comedy about the Catholic Church and issues such as gay and women’s rights and domestic violence. Please visit americancentury.org for ticket information.

The Studio Theatre

Gunston Theatre II

Through July 15

Through July 8

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

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Sleuth

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

Olney Theatre Center

Shakespeare Theatre Harman Hall July 17 to Aug. 5

Through July 8

Spring Awakening

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

Church Street Theater July 10 to 29

The Addams Family

“The Addams Family” brings the darkly delirious world of Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Grandma, Wednesday, Pugsley and, of course, Lurch to life. Tickets are $39 to $115.

Kennedy Center Opera House July 11 to 28

Sizzlin’ Summer Cabaret

This showcase of red-hot acts from D.C.

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs By examining the human price we pay for our high-tech toys, Mike Daisey influenced drastic change in the corporate practices of Apple and its supplier in China. But he came under fire for fabricating parts of the story. So Woolly is restaging an all-new version of Daisey’s play that addresses the controversy head on, using the struggle over fact and fiction to tell an even better story that pierces the heart of our human relationship with our labor. Tickets start at $40.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Through July 29

The Normal Heart

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

Arena Stage

CULTURE GUIDE

The Studio Theatre Through July 1

and Broadway performers includes singersongwriter and internet sensation Carrie Manolakos (Broadway’s “Mamma Mia!”), Broadway husband-and-wife team Matthew Scott Kirsten Scott (“Follies” on Broadway), and Helen Hayes Award winner Natascia Diaz (“Brother Russia” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at Signature).

Tickets are $25.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 39

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

Diplomatic Breakfast Discussion

Photos: Jessica latos

Author John Shaw, left, talks with Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche during a breakfast discussion on political gridlock and foreign policy on Capitol Hill, hosted by The Washington Diplomat at the chef’s table of the Park Hyatt’s Blue Duck Tavern.

Veronica Puleo of the Italian Embassy, left, greets Ambassador of St. Vincent and the Grenadines La Celia A. Prince at a breakfast discussion held at the chef’s table of the Blue Duck Tavern.

From left, Catherine Rentschler, business travel sales manager at the Park Hyatt Washington, talks with Nicholas T. Manolis, first secretary at the Embassy of Cyprus, and Jennifer Danner Riccardi, senior advisor at the Embassy of Luxembourg, at a breakfast discussion held at the Blue Duck Tavern.

Jerome Lee, first secretary at the Singapore Embassy, left, and Justine Jablonska of the Polish Embassy enjoy the new breakfast menu at the Blue Duck Tavern prepared by Executive Chef Sebastien Archambault blending his French roots with Southern-inspired fare.

Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde peruses John Shaw’s latest book, “Richard G. Lugar: Statesman of the Senate,” during an intimate breakfast discussion held at the Blue Duck Tavern on the role of foreign policy in a politically paralyzed Congress.

Ambassador of Niger Maman S. Sidikou, left, greets First Secretary of the Embassy of Guyana Candida Daniels at “A Diplomatic Power Breakfast on How to Access D.C. Power Players,” hosted by The Washington Diplomat and Park Hyatt.

John Shaw, longtime correspondent for The Washington Diplomat, left, shares a laugh with John Chu, deputy director of the Press Division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), at a diplomatic breakfast discussion.

Park Hyatt Washington General Manager Andrew Davidson, center, welcomes diplomats to the Blue Duck Tavern, flanked by Catherine Rentschler, business travel sales manager, left, and Ernie A. Arias, area director of sales and marketing.

Russian Roundtable

From left, James Valentine, Institute for Education (IFE) founder and CEO Kathy Kemper, and Ambassador of Russia Sergey I. Kislyak attend an IFE-INFO breakfast roundtable held at the Russian Residence.

Photos: Institute for education

Rev. Dr. Cecilie Strommen, wife of the Norwegian ambassador, left, joins UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Esther Coopersmith at a breakfast roundtable.

From left, Jonathan Broder of Congressional Quarterly, Ambassador of Norway Wegger Christian Strommen, and Jennifer Griffin of Fox News enjoy breakfast at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Institute for Education at the Russian ambassador’s residence.

Moshira Soliman, left, and Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erlan A. Idrissov attend a breakfast roundtable at the Russian Residence hosted by the Institute for Education.

Ambassador of Bulgaria Elena Poptodorova arrives at the Russian Residence for a breakfast roundtable hosted by the Institute for Education.

Icelandic National Day

Photo: tony powell for susan g. komen

Komen Race for Cure From left, actress and Komen Global Ambassador Gabrielle Union, Ambassador of Canada Gary Doer, and Nancy G. Brinker, founder and chief executive of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, attend a barbeque at the Canadian Embassy ahead of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Page 40

From left, Ambassador of Macedonia Zoran Jolevski, Ambassador of Latvia Andrejs Pildegovics, Ambassador of Austria Hans Peter Manz, Ambassador of Estonia Marina Kaljurand, Ambassador of Iceland Gudmundur Arni Stefansson, Ambassador of Montenegro Srdjan Darmanovic, and Ambassador of Slovenia Roman Kirn celebrate Iceland’s National Day at Ambassador Stefansson’s residence.

From left, wife of the Latvian ambassador Jelena Pildegovica, Ambassador of Cyprus Pavlos Anastasiades, Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche, and wife of the Cypriot ambassador Maria Anastasiades attend the Icelandic National Day reception.

The Washington Diplomat

Recently reappointed Ambassador of Guatemala Jose Francisco Villagran de Leon, left, joins Ambassador of Iceland Gudmundur Arni Stefansson to celebrate Iceland’s National Day.

July 2012

Dupont Circle Panel on Politics

From left, Vice President of Market News International John Shaw, Diplomatic Sales Manager at the Dupont Circle Hotel Hiam Awad, and former Congressman Bill Frenzel (R-Minn.) enjoy the views off Level Nine, a hotel within a hotel at the Dupont Circle property, during a reception for the panel discussion “Is There Any Hope in American Politics?”

Photos: thomas coleman

Amanda Deatherage of “Amanda’s America,” left, and Marc Hanson of Refugees International attend a reception on Level Nine overlooking Dupont Circle.

From left, Mason Butler, Elise Ravenscroft and Donald R. Bramer of the Institute for Education enjoy a panel discussion on U.S. politics hosted by The Washington Diplomat and Dupont Circle Hotel.

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

International lawyer and author Ira Shapiro talks about political paralysis in the Senate during a panel discussion alongside author John Shaw and former Congressman Bill Frenzel at the Dupont Circle Hotel.

British Ambassador Peter Westmacott, center, introduces former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to Woodrow Wilson Center President Jane Harman at a garden party for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Photos: anna gawel Photo: British Embassy

From left, Mrs. and British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott welcome Mrs. and Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki to a garden party at their residence fêting Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which marks Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th year on the throne.

From left, former D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty joins Mrs. and Ambassador of Mexico Arturo Sarukhan at a garden party at the British Residence celebrating the 60-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the second-longest reign in Britain’s history after Queen Victoria.

Photo: British Embassy

From left, Ambassador of Israel Michael Oren, wife of the Barbados ambassador Leila Beale, and wife of the Israeli ambassador Sally Oren attend a garden party in honor of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.

Ambassador of Mozambique Amélia Matos Sumbana, left, joins Ambassador of Lesotho Eliachim Molapi Sebatane at a garden party for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which featured footage of the elaborate boat parade on the Thames in London.

From left, wife of the Norwegian ambassador Rev. Dr. Cecilie Strommen, Terry McAuliffe, Ina Ginsburg, and Ambassador of Kuwait Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah attend a garden party in honor of the Diamond Jubilee of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, head of the Commonwealth of 54 member states.

From left, recently appointed Ambassador of Malaysia Othman Hashim, Washington Diplomat publisher/editor in chief Victor Shiblie, Ambassador of Bangladesh Akramul Qader, and Ambassador of Brunei Dato Paduka Haji Yusoff bin Haji Abdul Hamid attend a garden party at the British Residence in honor of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Chile at Food Show

Ambassador of Namibia Martin Andjaba, left, joins Ambassador of Malawi Stephen Dick Tennyson Matenje at a garden party in honor of Queen Elizabeth II, which featured photos of the queen’s 60-year reign.

Ambassador of Chile Felipe Bulnes, center, and Alejandro Buvinic, trade commissioner at ProChile’s Washington office, right, sample Chilean wines at the Summer Fancy Food Show 2012 at the Washington Convention Center.

Photo: British Embassy

Lady Westmacott, wife of the British ambassador left, greets U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Marshall at a garden party in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.

Chilean olive oil exporters display samples of their extra-virgin olive oil at the Summer Fancy Food Show 2012, North America’s largest specialty food and beverage event.

Photos: larry Luxner

Photo: British Embassy

July 2012

The Washington Diplomat Page 41

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

2012 Opera Ball

Photo: margot schulman

Photo: margot schulman

Photo: margot schulman

Photos: anna gawel

From left, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates Yousef Al Otaiba and his wife Abeer Al Otaiba greet Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser at the 2012 Opera Ball, held at the UAE Embassy, which marked the inaugural season of the Washington National Opera under its new affiliation with the Kennedy Center.

From left, philanthropist Adrienne Arsht, chair of the 2012 Opera Ball, welcomes Mrs. and Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki to the dessert and dancing portion of the Opera Ball, which was preceded by intimate dinners hosted by ambassadors at their embassies and residences throughout the city.

From left, Jane Roberts and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts join Carol Melton at the 2012 Opera Ball held at the United Arab Emirates Embassy, which featured Emirati folk dancing, music and food, and was the first Arab embassy to host the Opera Ball.

Ambassador of India Nirupama Rao and her husband Shri Sudhakar Rao attend the 2012 Opera Ball, whose proceeds support the Washington National Opera’s award-winning artistic, educational, and outreach programs.

From left, Ambassador of Cyprus Pavlos Anastasiades and his wife Maria join Shamim Jawad and her husband former Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad at the 2012 Opera Ball, the largest fundraiser to benefit the Washington National Opera.

Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al Mughairy and her husband, the Omani Permanent Representative to the United Nations Fuad M. Al-Hinai, attend the 2012 Opera Ball at the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates.

From left, Lady and Sir Peter Westmacott, the ambassador of Britain, join Ambassador of Singapore Chan Heng Chee and Theow H. Tow at the 2012 Opera Ball, a highlight of the city’s cultural, philanthropic, and social season.

Mrs. and Ambassador of Switzerland Manuel Sager attend the 2012 Opera Ball hosted by the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, which was decked out in Arab pergolas, a custom-built lantern filled with candles, and traditional Emirati arts and crafts in outdoor gazebos.

From right, Ambassador of Germany Peter Ammon brought his daughter and wife to the Opera Ball, where they mingled with Mrs. and Ambassador of Morocco Mohamed Rachad Bouhlal.

Photo: margot schulman

From left, Dr. Robert Marshall, Dr. Ronald Dozoretz, Beth Dozoretz, and U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Marshall share a laugh at the 2012 Opera Ball.

Page 42

Ambassador of Egypt Sameh Shoukry and his wife Suzy stand by the entrance of the United Arab Emirates Embassy, which featured a 20-foot water wall and an atrium filled with palm trees and hanging orchids.

Ambassador of Peru Harold W. Forsyth, left, talks with Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche under one of the outdoor tents that the United Arab Emirates Embassy set up for the 2012 Opera Ball.

From left, Charles Parker Wright, wife of the Uzbek ambassador Gyul Asal Nematova, Margie Parker Wright, and Ambassador of Uzbekistan Ilhomjon Tuychievich Nematov chat at the Opera Ball after dining at the Embassy of Uzbekistan.

From left, Ambassador of Hungary György Szapáry and Mrs. and Andras Bacsi-Nagy, the deputy chief of mission at the Hungarian Embassy, attend the 2012 Opera Ball.

Photo: daniel schwartz

Photo: daniel schwartz

Tony and Heather Podesta attend the 2012 Opera Ball, the widely anticipated annual benefit for the Washington National Opera.

Artistic Advisor of the Washington National Opera Francesca Zambello and Faith Gay attend the 2012 Opera Ball at the United Arab Emirates Embassy.

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

Nooristan Foundation Benefit

Nooristan Foundation President Marie Kux welcomes guests to the “Evening of Hope” spring soiree at the French ambassador’s residence to benefit the women of Afghanistan.

Photos: thomas coleman

Nooristan Foundation Vice President Ambassador Dennis Kux, left, joins French Consul General of France in Washington Olivier Serot-Almeras at a benefit for the Nooristan Foundation held at the French ambassador’s residence.

Photos: nooristan foundation

From left, State Department Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman, Pakistani Ambassadorat-Large Ray Mahmood, and Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) attend a benefit for the Nooristan Foundation.

Guli Atash, left, and wife of the Afghan ambassador Sultana Hakimi attend a benefit reception for the Nooristan Foundation, an all-volunteer charity founded in 1999 to support health care, vocational training programs and education for women and children in Afghanistan.

Georgian Independence

From left, Ambassador of Bangladesh and Mrs.Akramul Qader join Ambassador of Georgia and Mrs. Temuri Yakobashvili for the Georgian Independence Day reception at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

Mrs. and Ambassador of Macedonia Zoran Jolevski attend a reception celebrating the Georgian Independence Day and 20 years of ties with the United States.

From left, Ambassador of Turkmenistan Meret Bairamovich Orazov greets Ambassador of Georgia and Mrs. Temuri Yakobashvili at a reception held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center celebrating the Georgian Independence Day.

Ambassador of Turkey Namik Tan, left, and Ambassador of Afghanistan Eklil Hakimi celebrate Georgian independence.

Small Nations Poetry

Director of International Affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Ann C. Santini joins Mrs. and Ambassador of Cyprus Pavlos Anastasiades for the annual Small Nations Poetry Night held at American University’s Katzen Arts Center.

Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum Andrea Schrammel, left, joins Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche at the Small Nations Poetry Night reading at Katzen Arts Center, which was followed by a reception hosted by the Embassy of Bahrain.

Louise Tennis Cup

Photo: laura gerhardt

From left top row, wife of the Swedish ambassador Eva Hafstrom; wife of the Luxembourg ambassador Louise Akerblom; wife of the Israeli ambassador Sally Oren; Christina Kemper Valentine; wife of the Norwegian ambassador Rev. Dr. Cecilie Strommen; and bottom row from left, wife of the Swiss ambassador Christine Sager; coach Kathy Kemper; Julia Senninger; and Rosa Batoreu of the Portuguese Embassy compete in the Louise International Tennis Cup at Congressional Country Club, held in honor of Louise Akerblom and her husband, Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean Paul Senninger, who are returning to Luxembourg in August.

Timor-Leste Independence

Ambassador of Austria Hans Peter Manz reads poetry from his country at the annual Small Nations Poetry Night, where he was joined by envoys from Bahrain, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Malta, Monaco and Slovenia.

Ambassador of Bulgaria Elena Poptodorova, left, and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Monaco Lorenzo Livio Maria Ravano attend the annual Small Nations Poetry Night.

From left, Ambassador of Malaysia Othman Hashim; Ambassador of Nepal Shankar P. Sharma; Ambassador of Bangladesh Akramul Qader; Ambassador of Brunei Dato Paduka Haji Yusoff bin Haji Abdul Hamid; and the wife of the Bangladeshi ambassador Rifat Sultana Akram attend a reception at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace marking the 10th anniversary of independence for Timor-Leste.

July 2012

Photos: larry Luxner

Joseph Yun, deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, speaks at a June 12 reception marking the 10th anniversary of independence for Timor-Leste.

The Washington Diplomat Page 43

from page 18

Shaw “They seem to want angrier, more confrontational political leaders.”

Fellow panelist Bill Frenzel, a Republican congressman from Minnesota who served in the House from 1971 to 1991, also lamented the “mortal combat” state of American politics, in which recriminations and attacks have replaced bipartisan problem solving.

He pointed out that today the opposition is viewed as an enemy, one who is not only wrong, but “terminally evil.”

“We can’t continue on our current path too much longer. The problems the country faces are too serious for that,” said Frenzel, who rose to become the top Republican on the House Budget Committee and was widely regarded as one of Congress’s leading fiscal experts.

Since 1991, he has been a guest scholar at the Photos: Jessica Latos Brookings Institution, where he’s continued to Above from left, Jerome Lee of the Singapore Embassy and Justine Jablonska of the Polish Embassy listen as Park work on fiscal issues. Frenzel advised President Hyatt General Manager Andrew Davidson talks about the new breakfast program at the Blue Duck Tavern under Bill Clinton on NAFTA and President George W. Executive Chef Sebastien Archambault.

Bush on Social Security and tax reform, and he From left, Washington is currently a chairman of the Committee for a Diplomat managing editor Responsible Federal Budget.

Anna Gawel, Washington Frenzel said that in addition to the usual inter-party warfare, where Democrats and Diplomat publisher/editor Republicans do battle, today’s deeply polarized in chief Victor Shiblie, Vice climate is marked by intra-party warfare, which President of Market News is more dangerous because it “creates purges to International John Shaw, keep the parties’ programs and their represenformer Congressman Bill tatives pure and usually extreme.”

Frenzel, and international “Cannibalism has become the norm. Almost lawyer and author Ira no one is right enough or left enough for party Shapiro take in the views activists. Electronic extremists are quick to of Level Nine at the Dupont broadcast the sins of party backsliders,” he Circle Hotel, where Shaw, said.

Frenzel and Shapiro headOn that note, Frenzel blamed some of the lined the panel discussion gridlock on today’s hyper-partisan echo cham“Is There Any Hope in ber, amplified by the media, which scrutinizes American Politics?”

Photos: Thomas Coleman every move a politician makes. He pointed out former senior Senate staffer himself. that during his 20 years in Congress, he worked in He argued that senators can and should work relatively obscurity, which allowed him to get immediately to change the Senate’s rules and things done. install new leaders who are willing to work coop“No one paid any attention to me,” he happily eratively to solve pressing national problems.“The said.

Senate includes many men and women who want Frenzel also derided the instantaneous, and their legacy to be a stronger country, not a degradoften vapid, world of social media like Twitter, ed Senate that fails the American people.” where 140 characters hardly makes for an “intelligent conversation.”

Loss of ‘Foreign Policy Giant’ The ultimate solution, Frenzel suggested, will America’s political dysfunction may also fail its be for voters to dig deeper and realize that the toxic partisan environment isn’t helping them or partners abroad, as Lugar’s loss leaves a deep hole in U.S. foreign policy. the nation.

Lugar, who served on the Senate Foreign “Our politics are now in a bad place and they have to change,” he said. “The American people Relations Committee since 1985,“was long one of must demand better politics and better policies the Senate’s foremost experts on foreign affairs,” wrote Murray Hiebert and MeiLee Dozier of the Michel Essono of the Embassy of Cameroon reads the from their elected representatives.”

Unfortunately, the American people seem to be Center for Strategic and International Studies. latest issue of The Washington Diplomat at the Dupont just as divided as their representatives. A recent “When he assumed the chair of the Foreign Circle Hotel’s Level Nine, a hotel within a hotel built Pew Research Center survey found that Americans’ Relations Committee in 2003 for the second time, from scratch following a $52 million refurbishment. values and basic beliefs are more polarized along he gave a press conference for foreign journalists, partisan lines than at any point in the past 25 which he began with a 20-minute overview of key sage of the new START arms control treaty with years. Party has now become the single largest issues from every region of the world, including Russia in 2010.

Yet Lugar’s role in the debate over the Iraq war fissure in American society, the report said, with Asia. He effortlessly ticked off the names of leadthe values gap between Republicans and ers and key facts about many countries, all with- was not one of the best chapters in his career, Democrats greater than gender, age, race or class out notes. He then fielded questions, ranging from Shaw argues, questioning the senator’s decision to China to Africa to Brazil and back voice his reservations about the war privately to divisions. to North Korea and Russia, for leading members of the Bush administration Ira Shapiro, an international For more another 45 minutes without skip- rather than expressing his concerns in a more lawyer, former ambassador in photos, ping a beat.” forceful and public way. the U.S. Trade Representative’s see page Lugar’s track record promotStill, despite some missteps, Shaw concludes Office and author of “The Last 40 or ing arms control, nuclear non- that Lugar has probably been the most important Great Senate: Courage and to view all the photos from proliferation, free trade and food U.S. senator in the foreign policy realm in the last Statesmanship in Times of Crisis,” the events, be sure to like security are extensively detailed quarter of a century, transcending the line from says that traditionally, the Senate The Washington in Shaw’s book “Richard G. Lugar: politician to leading statesman. was the body best able to cope Diplomat on Statesman of the Senate.”

So who can replace him? That was the question with crippling partisanship, Facebook.

“What I find so striking is how many in the diplomatic audience asked Shaw, who describing how leading senators often Senator Lugar is referred to in turn pointed out that even Lugar evolved into from both parties helped guide the U.S. through the challenges of the late 1970s. as a statesman and how rarely anyone else in the position, so only time will tell who picks up He said most currently serving senators are “as American politics is referred to as a statesman,” the foreign policy mantle in the Senate.

Shaw mentioned Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) as angry and frustrated about the Senate’s dysfunc- the author observed.

Shaw said Lugar boasts many important foreign one possibility who seems somewhat willing to tion as the public is. They feel trapped in the hyper-partisan model that has evolved over the policy achievements, citing the much-celebrated reach across the aisle. On the Democratic side, he Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction noted that Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, curpast 20 years.

“But they are not helpless,” added Shapiro, a Program and his role helping to secure Senate pas- rent chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations

to

see

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Page 44

Below, Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche, left, greets Ambassador of St. Vincent and the Grenadines La Celia A. Prince at a breakfast discussion hosted by The Washington Diplomat on the role of foreign policy in Congress.

Committee, is rumored to be eyeing the job of secretary of state, while Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), his possible replacement on the committee, may be too polarizing to cross party lines.

Diplomats in Washington crave those kinds of tidbits in such a history-making election year, but Shaw warned there might not be many foreign policy insights in the months ahead, as GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will probably avoid divulging policy details that might needlessly stir up controversy.

With many former advisors to President George W. Bush migrating to the Romney team, some analysts have gleaned that Romney’s foreign policy agenda could mirror Bush’s. But other than calls to label China a currency manipulator (unlikely given Romney’s business acumen) and tougher rhetoric on Iran and Syria, so far Romney’s foreign policy prescriptions don’t differ all that much from Obama’s.

That gets to the larger question of Romney the hard-line candidate versus Romney the pragmatic businessman, Shaw said, and which version would emerge if he won the presidency.

Regardless of who occupies the White House or Congress,Shaw advises diplomats in Washington to find areas where they can promote their bilateral interests — and do so relentlessly.

Shaw’s first book, “Washington Diplomacy: Profiles of People of World Influence,” is based on more than 60 profiles he wrote for The Washington Diplomat,while his second book,“The Ambassador: Inside the Life of a Working Diplomat,” profiled veteran Swedish envoy Jan Eliasson.

Eliasson, who served as Sweden’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2000 to 2005 and later became Sweden’s foreign minister and president of the U.N. General Assembly, was hugely successful in elevating Sweden’s profile in the United States, Shaw explained.

“He was relentless in finding ways to connect Sweden and the United States. He pursued every possible angle to advance his goals, to tell the American people about Sweden,” Shaw said.

The ambassador also had a “thick skin” when it came to penetrating Washington, Shaw added, noting that Eliasson never minded waiting around outside a senator’s office for a brief meeting — understanding that Sweden wasn’t a priority for most American politicians.

Nevertheless, Shaw admits that Lugar’s exit from the halls of the Senate will have both diplomatic and domestic consequences.First,Congress’s leading expert in foreign policy will be departing Capitol Hill in January 2013, leaving a huge policy void and the loss of considerable institutional memory. Second, lawmakers from both parties see Lugar’s defeat as a clear warning about what could happen to them if they work with members of the other party to tackle key problems.

“The departure of Senator Lugar from the Senate will be a real loss for the country and for the diplomatic community,” Shaw said.“He will be replaced eventually, but it’s hard to imagine anyone really filling his shoes anytime soon. He has been a foreign policy giant.”

Anna Gawel is managing editor of The Washington Diplomat and columnist for the Diplomatic Pouch.

The Washington Diplomat

July 2012

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APPOINTMENTS Croatia josip Paro became ambassador of Croatia to the united states on May 2. ambassador Paro previously served as Croatia’s ambassador to the netherlands and as permanent representative to the organization for Ambassador the Prohibition of Chemical Josip Paro Weapons since 2009. Prior to that, he was the Croatian ambassador to the united Kingdom (2003-09), with concurrent accreditation as nonresident ambassador to the Gambia (2004-09). in addition, ambassador Paro was assistant foreign minister in the Ministry of Foreign affairs (1997-2002), where he was also head of the Department for Political Planning (1996-97), as well as political counselor at the Croatian embassy in Madrid (1993-96). a career diplomat, ambassador Paro started his diplomatic career in 1992 as a desk officer for Western europe in the Ministry of Foreign affairs. he holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and comparative literature from the university of Zagreb, and he speaks english and spanish and has passive knowledge of French, Portuguese italian, slovenian and russian.

Republic of Congo François ibara departed the post of first secretary on May 22. stephane b. Mamaty assumed the position

July 2012

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Spain ramón Gil-Casares has been appointed ambassador of spain to the united states, having most recently served as spain’s ambassador to sudan and south sudan since 2011. a member of the spanish Foreign service since 1982, ambassador Gil-Casares also previously served as an advisor to the Directorate General for africa at the Ministry of Foreign affairs (2008-11); as ambassador to south africa, with concurrent accreditation to Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar and Lesotho (2005-08); and secretary of state for foreign affairs (2002-04). in 1996, he was appointed director of the international security Department in Prime Minister josé aznar’s cabinet, later serving as secretary of the Foreign Policy Council, formed in 2000 to coordinate the activities of different ministries and agencies abroad. in addition, he served as deputy director general of cooperatives at the spanish institute for Development Cooperation and later as spain’s deputy consul general of spain in new york in the early 1990s. earlier postings including equatorial Guinea, uruguay and the Philippines.

Uganda alfred nnam became deputy chief of mission on july 1, replacing Charles sentongo, who departed the post in june. nnam is a career diplomat who joined the Foreign service in 1980 and is married with six children.

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has rallied support and even inspired copycats after being arrested for reportedly plastering stickers on traffic signals, which she defends as a form of street art. The incident has renewed a debate on freedom of speech and artistic license in the tightly regulated, some say highly restrictive society.

Back in Washington, Chan certainly never restricted the conversation, welcoming the free flow of debate. During her time as ambassador, she became famous for her salon dinners, which usu-

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Ambassador Chan Heng Chee of singapore presents her credentials to u.n. secretary-General javier Pérez de Cuéllar in 1989 at the united nations headquarters in new york City.

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Yes, Chan told us without hesitation.“Singapore does not support unilateral sanctions against Iran. It’s a philosophical principle; we believe in constructive engagement, not isolation.”

Likewise, Chan’s government has long opposed the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Nor has Singapore — a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — ever supported sanctions against Myanmar, formerly Burma.

“I’ve had to keep explaining to my American friends that Myanmar is a member of ASEAN.To be absolutely honest, U.S. sanctions were not that effective because China and India were there also. China opened the front door and India opened the side door,” she said. The ambassador suggested that once all economic penalties against Myanmar disappear, “the entire region will benefit” — especially Thailand, Singapore and India.

Chan attributed divergent views on human rights and democracy in Singapore and the United States to “different nuancing” between the two countries.

“In the U.S., freedom of speech is first on your Bill of Rights. In Singapore, it’s fourth or fifth. Singaporeans would instead emphasize the right to a job, the right to a good education, the right to a home. Personal freedom would be number four. By and large, Singaporeans value the personal freedom to move in and out of the country and travel where you want, but it’s not our top priority.”

That’s not to say dissension doesn’t exist in Singapore.The country has again attracted attention for someone disobeying its strict anti-vandalism laws.A young female artist dubbed the “Sticker Lady”

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ally attracted 15 or 20 people and were a weekly occurrence.

“I try to bring together a group of people and have a very good conversation around the table on issues of the day — whether it’s about politics, security or what’s happening in the eurozone,” she said. “I find Washington stimulating and rewarding because of the discussions and conferences of think tanks, and I count many journalists among my friends. They ask good questions and are so well informed.”

Chan said she’s also interacted regularly with the Brookings Institution, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asia Society, the Nixon Center, the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

These think tanks, she said, run the gamut from very liberal to very conservative,“and some try to be centrist with bipartisan participation. So it’s important for any diplomat coming to Washington to understand the spectrum of views.”

So, what advice does Chan have for Singapore’s soon-to-be Ambassador Mirpuri?

“Engage with everybody.You must have high energy and engage at all levels. Step back and enjoy yourself as well,” she counseled.

“There’s much to enjoy in Washington and in the United States. One of the joys of being an ambassador here is the fact that you can also visit all the states, though I did not make it an ambition to visit all 50.”

Chan did travel to 42 of them, though she never made it to Nebraska, Oregon or the Dakotas. Among her favorite places: New York, Boston, San Antonio, New Mexico,Arizona,“and the West Coast as you drive from San Francisco to San Diego.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

July 2012

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