July 2014

A World of News and Perspective

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

■ VOLUME 21, NUMBER 7 ExCLUSIVE

Peter Selfridge, New U.S. Protocol Chief, Makes His Debut On May 13, Peter Selfridge was sworn in as the new U.S. protocol chief, and eight days later, he made his public debut as Ambassador Selfridge during a reception at Mount Vernon attended by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and diplomats from 60 countries. PAGE 6

SPANISH RECOVERY? EUROPE

Despite anemic growth, crippling unemployment and a monarchy mired in scandal (not to mention a painful World Cup loss), Ambassador Ramón Gil-Casares says

Spain is finally surfacing from the economic meltdown that nearly drowned the once-proud nation of 47 million. PAGE 13

UNITED STATES

Conspiracy Complex Stokes Flames of Benghazi Tragedy It’s been called a conspiracy, a conspiracy theory in search of a conspiracy, a vast government cover-up, a Republican witchhunt, and a sorry indicator of just how partisan politics has become. But whatever you call it,“Benghazi” isn’t going away anytime soon. PAGE 9

culture

D.C. Hits Jackpot With ‘Peruvian Gold’ “Peruvian Gold: Ancient Treasures Unearthed” shines a dazzling light on objects from the country’s pre-Inca heritage. PAGE 28

■ INSIDE: TRAVEL & HOTELS SPECIAL SECTION

■ JULY 2014 PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Nigeria on Brink Before Abduction of Schoolgirls The abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls woke the world up to the savagery of Boko Haram but it probably came as little surprise to John Campbell, the former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria who has been sounding the alarm about the religious strife and governance problems bedeviling Africa’s most populous country for years. PAGE 4

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

Wife Presents Another Side Of Pakistan For 30 years, Shaista Jilani has joined her husband, Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, in representing Pakistan around the world while raising their three sons, helping with charity groups, especially those related to education and women, and working to project a different image of Pakistan. PAGE 29

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Page 2

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

23

18 Diego Garcia

[ news ] 4

6

9

ThE Big BENghazi CONSPiRaCy The deaths of four Americans in Benghazi has spawned over 25,000 pages of documents, 50 briefings and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of conspiracy theories.

11

20

30

21

[ hotels & travel ] 23

25

TRavEl Visiting America can be a dream — or a logistical nightmare. But the Obama administration is trying to take some of the hassle out of traveling to the United States

diEgO gaRCia BaTTlE Diego Garcia, a remote speck of land in the middle of the Indian Ocean, is at the heart of a brewing battle between two world powers and Mauritius.

COvER: Taken at the Embassy of Spain by Lawrence Ruggeri of Ruggeriphoto.com.

29

31

NOT-SO-PRETTy PaRadiSE A new exhibit of Caribbean art at the IDB Cultural Center presents a different side of paradise, critiquing archetypes of beauty, gender, race and power in an image-driven culture.

32

NOT-SO-PRivaTE livES Noël Coward’s “Private Lives” — a sarcastic misnomer because we end up knowing way too much about the play’s characters — finishes up the Shakespeare Theatre’s season with frothy one-liners and giggles.

33

wiNdOw iNTO wyETh “Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In” offers a glimpse into the world of the famed 20th-century American painter through his cherished windows.

34

diNiNg The husband-and-wife team behind Soi 38 wanted to offer American diners the type of foods they eat when they visit their native Bangkok — “real Thai” in other words.

[ culture ]

36

A remarkable collection of ancient gold and silver artifacts excavated from Peru’s legendary royal tombs makes its way to D.C. in “Peruvian Gold: Ancient Treasures Unearthed.”

38

CiNEMa liSTiNg

40 42 45 46 47

EvENTS liSTiNg diPlOMaTiC SPOTlighT wORld hOlidayS ClaSSiFiEdS REal ESTaTE ClaSSiFiEdS

dECiPhERiNg diPlOSPEak 28

iMPRESSiONiSTiC FRiENdS A lovingly curated, compact new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art explores the mutual admiration and friendship between late 19th-century impressionists Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas.

SuMMER SiPPiNg As D.C.’s drinking culture grows more sophisticated, the city’s hotel bars have been shaking things up, putting as much care and creativity into their beverage programs as they do their food menus.

COvER PROFilE: SPaiN

Parsing the generic press releases and statements that the State Department regularly cranks out can reveal surprising tidbits about America’s relations with other countries.

18

MEdiCal Does a doctor’s bedside manner really matter? According to research, yes it does. In fact, good patient communication can improve outcomes for some chronic conditions as much as well-established medical treatments can.

Spanish Ambassador Ramón Gil-Casares says his country can finally see the light at the end of a long tunnel littered with economic malaise, unemployment and toxic debt.

16

BOOk REviEw In his memoir “Fire and Ashes,” Michael Ignatieff does something few politicians ever do: He talks openly about losing.

iNuNdaTEd wiTh aPaThy Envoys from three ex-Yugoslav republics that once fought each other are uniting to draw attention to the worst flooding to hit the Balkans in over a century.

13

“Private Lives”

PROTOCOl dEBuT Peter Selfridge made his debut as protocol chief at a reception at Mount Vernon attended by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and diplomats from 60 countries.

32

Summer sipping

PEOPlE OF wORld iNFluENCE The abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls woke the world up to the savagery of Boko Haram but it probably came as little surprise to John Campbell, a longtime Nigeria watcher.

July 2014

PERuviaN JaCkPOT

diPlOMaTiC SPOuSES Throughout 30 years of postings, Shaista Jilani and her husband, Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, always found a way to share a laugh while representing Pakistan around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Australia to Belgium.

FilM REviEwS “Ai Weiwei The Fake Case,” a searing documentary by Danish filmmaker Andreas Johnsen, boldly looks into the legal battles of Chinese contemporary artist and activist Ai Weiwei.

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 Martin Austermuhle, Michael Coleman, Rachel Hunt, Stephanie Kanowitz, Miranda Katz, Eliza Krigman, Ky N. Nguyen, Gail Scott, Dave Seminara, Gina Shaw, John Shaw, Gary Tischler, Lisa Troshinsky, Karin Zeitvogel Photographers Jessica Latos, Lawrence Ruggeri account Managers Rod Carrasco, Chris Smith graphic designer Cari Henderson The Washington Diplomat is published monthly by The Washington Diplomat, Inc. The newspaper is distributed free of charge at several locations throughout the Washington, D.C. area. We do offer subscriptions for home delivery. Subscription rates are $25 for 12 issues and $45 for 24 issues. Call Fuad Shiblie for past issues. If your organization employs many people from the international community you may qualify for free bulk delivery. To see if you qualify you must contact Fuad Shiblie.

The Washington Diplomat assumes no responsibility for the safe keeping or return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork or other material. The information contained in this publication is in no way to be construed as a recommendation by the Publisher of any kind or nature whatsoever, nor as a recommendation of any industry standard, nor as an endorsement of any product or service, nor as an opinion or certification regarding the accuracy of any such information.

July 2014

The Washington Diplomat Page 3

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

John Campbell

Ex-Envoy Sounded Alarm on Nigeria Long Before #BringBackOurGirls

by Michael Coleman

T

his spring, as news of the abduction of nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by the radical Islamic group Boko Haram spread throughout the world, many Americans were riveted by the sensational story and finally woke up to the carnage that has bedeviled Africa’s most populous country for years.

Eventually, every major U.S. news network covered the brazenly frightening kidnapping and a new hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls, exploded across social media, attracting the attention of celebrities, members of Congress and even first lady Michelle Obama.

Fast forward three months.

The Nigerian schoolgirls — abducted in protest of their “Western” education and threatened to be sold off for as little as $12 — are still missing. Nigerian officials have issued conflicting accounts on efforts to rescue the girls, only reinforcing impressions of the government’s impotence and incompetence.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram, in its ongoing campaign to impose strict Islamic Sharia law on the country, has escalated its murderous rampages, slaughtering hundreds in early June after its members posed as a Nigerian military unit sent to protect villagers. Reports have also surfaced of at least two other mass kidnappings of girls (and boys) since April. Other spectacular attacks have reached deep into the capital of Abuja, far from the group’s stomping ground in the northeast. In all, Boko Haram has killed at least 4,000 people in the last four years, Christians and Muslims alike, and driven over half a million more from their homes.

Boko Haram’s reign of terror no longer

“

2010 book “Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink,” reprinted last year, explores the country’s precarious political state, as well as the radical Islamic violence plaguing the country’s northern sections. Now a senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Campbell told The Diplomat in an interview at CFR’s downtown office that Boko Haram wants to create a breakaway Islamic state in the religiously mixed country of 170 million people where Muslims make up the majority in the north while Christians dominate the south.

Although Boko Haram — whose name, loosely translated from the Hausa dialect, means “Western education is forbidden” — is comprised of Islamic radicals, its agenda is different than other anti-Western jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda or the Taliban. In fact, some experts say the highly splintered group is inspired as much by opportunistic banditry and local grievances as it is by religious ideology.

“Boko Haram is a product of uniquely Nigerian factors and its focus is on the destruction of the Nigerian government,” Campbell explained. “It doesn’t have an international focus and it is not part of an international jihad. But its rhetoric is becoming increasingly anti-American, particularly as we are more and more associated with the Jonathan government.”

Boko Haram is a product of uniquely Nigerian factors and its focus is on the destruction of the Nigerian government…. It’s all about God. That is one of the reasons they are so very difficult to deal with.

— John Campbell

”

Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations

dominates global newscasts, but American officials and African experts continue to pay close attention to the Islamic group that threatens the stability of Africa’s largest economy.

John Campbell, who served as U.S. ambassador to Nigeria from 2004 to 2007, is among the world’s foremost experts on Nigeria and has been sounding the alarm about its problems for years. Campbell’s

Page 4

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has drawn intense criticism for his handling of the crisis. He refused to acknowledge the schoolgirl kidnappings for weeks (while his wife ordered the arrest of protesters pleading for the girls’ return) — a symptom of the president’s longstanding reluctance to forcefully confront Boko Haram.

That reticence stems in part from the

Photo: Council on Foreign Relations

country’s delicate, ethnically dictated political balance.The presidency traditionally alternates between a Christian and a Muslim to keep religious rivalries in check.

Jonathan, a Christian southerner, took power in 2010 after the death of his Muslim predecessor. Some say he’s breaking this informal gentleman’s agreement by running for re-election in 2015.

As a result, even though he declared a state of emergency in the north, Jonathan has seemed hesitant to wage open war against Boko Haram, perhaps for fear of alienating the region’s Muslim majority.

Some segments of Nigeria’s security forces, whose political loyalties are dubious, may not even support Jonathan and would rather see him fail.

Whatever the case, the military’s reputation is not much better than the president’s. After the schoolgirl kidnappings, reports surfaced that the military knew about the attack in advance but did nothing to stop it. Other news reports indicate that some members have provided arms and information to Boko Haram. The Nigerian armed forces have long been

criticized for being too disorganized, disinterested, ill equipped and corrupt to confront the extremist group. Some blame the military’s heavy-handed campaign of retribution, including arbitrary detentions and “disappearances,” for fueling the insurgency in the north.

This record of human rights abuses has kept the United States from cooperating with Nigeria’s army more closely in the past. But the recent violence seems to have changed the calculus. President Obama has deployed a group of U.S. officials to aid in the search for the missing schoolgirls, along with drones to patrol northeastern Nigeria, a move Campbell likened to searching for a needle in a haystack.

“Don’t hold your breath on what surveillance cameras can actually find,” he warned. “The territory involved is larger than all the New England states combined.”

And despite the global outrage, Campbell said the world’s last remaining superpower is highly unlikely to send American troops to Nigeria.

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

“Can you imagine the level of support for that after Afghanistan or Iraq?” he asked, instead suggesting that the United States engage in intelligence sharing and military training.

“What I would like to do is try to build [support] for targeted humanitarian assistance in the north. The number of internally displaced citizens is very large. A governor of a northern state told me he had 2 million of them in his state.

Now that would be an extremely soft number but clearly there are a lot of displaced citizens,” Campbell said.

“We are quite good at humanitarian assistance through medicine, and in terms of countering the narrative that the United States is at war with Islam, those bags of beans that say, ‘These are a gift from the U.S.,’ that helps and we’re good at it.”

Nigeria could use the help. Even though it recently overtook South Africa as the continent’s largest economy after a statistical re-evaluation, Nigeria has been chronically mismanaged since its independence in 1960. It has failed to spread its oil windfall to the bulk of its people, notably in the undeveloped north. In fact, poverty has actually increased despite steady GDP growth, with more than 60 percent of the population living on less than $1 dollar a day as of 2010. Boko Haram gained a foothold by denouncing the rampant corruption that has fueled resentment in the north, where male unemployment exceeds 50 percent.

The Obama administration has no intention of sending boots into this cauldron of economic disparity and ethnic strife. Likewise, President Jonathan refuses to consider foreign troops on his soil.

But some very influential Americans contend more should be done.

“If they knew where they were, I certainly would send in U.S. troops to rescue them, in a New York minute, without permission of the host country,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said shortly after the girls were abducted.

That prompted a shark rebuke from Nigeria’s ambassador in Washington, Adebowale Ibidapo Adefuye, who advised McCain’s “well-paid staff to brief him properly on Nigeria and accord our country as well as the office of the president the respect they deserve.”

Hillary Clinton has also come under fire because as secretary of state, she refused to place Boko Haram on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations after the group bombed the U.N. headquarters in Abuja in 2011. The CIA, Justice Department, FBI and more than a dozen members of Congress had urged the listing.

But Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary for African affairs at the time, defended the decision, saying such a listing would’ve conferred legitimacy on Boko Haram, possibly sparked retaliation against Western interests, and diverted attention from the homegrown nature of the group’s complaints.

The State Department did eventually list Boko Haram and an offshoot group as terrorist organizations under John Kerry. The listing allows Washington to freeze members’ assets, impose travel bans and prohibit Americans from offering them material support.

Campbell said the criticism of Clinton was unwarranted and that he still opposes the listing, which has done little to quell the violence.

“It was not remotely justified,” Campbell said.“I along with some 20 others who watch Nigeria quite closely sent a letter to Secretary Clinton that Boko Haram not be so designated. The reasons we advanced are still every bit as relevant now as they were then. It’s water over the dam … but I continue to think the designation is a mistake and in the future what it may do is deprive us of a diplomatic instrument.

“The ability of Americans out of government to enter into any kind of dialogue with some part of Boko Haram is depriving us of a potential tool,” Campbell said. “Officially that [listing] made sense, but there are times when it is useful for private American citizens to be able to talk to

Credit: UN Photo

A rally in Lagos calls for the return of nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted in April by the extremist group Boko Haram, which has terrorized northern Nigeria in its campaign to impose strict Islamic Sharia law on the country.

these people.”

Campbell said there are other reasons why the designation is counterproductive.

“Its primary provisions are almost entirely irrelevant,” he argued.“It denies visas to members of the group. Boko Haramites are hardly lining up at embassies to get visas to come to the United States. It also blocks the transfer of assets from the U.S. to the designated organization. Boko Haram doesn’t have any assets in the United States. The Nigerian-American community in the U.S. is overwhelmingly southern and Christian, so it’s not going to be sending remittances to Boko Haram. It’s irrelevant, but it makes people feel good.

“It is extremely limited in scope,” Campbell added. “It was originally designed for Middle Eastern groups like Hamas and that just doesn’t fit.”

The former diplomat said it’s important to distinguish between Boko Haram and other Islamic terrorist groups.

“They use the same rhetoric and they have essentially the same abstract goal, which is the achievement of God’s kingdom on earth through justice for the poor by means of Sharia,” Campbell said. “The difference is al-Qaeda in its various iterations is part of an international movement with an international focus and the U.S. is the great Satan.

“Boko Haram’s focus is on Nigeria but that could change the more we are associated with the Jonathan government’s struggle against them,” Campbell added.

The group has long viewed American values as corrupting influences, in particular education but also democracy, which it considers un-Islamic.

“The syllogism works this way,” Campbell explained.“Western education promotes secularism. Secularism is a foundation of the Nigerian state. The Nigerian state is utterly corrupt and exploits the poor, therefore the Nigerian state is anti-Islamic and so the destruction of Western education is an Islamic goal for which any means is justified, including slitting the throats of 59 adolescent boys or kidnapping 200 girls,” he said, referring to a February ambush on a boarding school in which the male students were massacred. In that attack, the girls were spared and told to leave school and get husbands. A few months later, another set of girls was not so lucky.

“It’s perfectly logical — the girls were brought together to take high school exams,” Campbell said of the April kidnappings. “That’s Western education.”

Some observers say the source of Boko Haram’s rage — education — could also be its downfall, if the government addressed the marginalization that has made the north fertile recruiting ground for the group. Isobel Coleman

and Sigrid von Wendel, writing in Foreign Affairs, point out that despite its oil wealth, Nigeria has the “ignominious distinction of spending less on education as a percentage of [gross national income] than every other nation on earth, except Myanmar.”

“Abuja has long relied on indiscriminate force to fight Boko Haram, which has only resulted in massive civilian casualties, fueled popular distrust of government forces, and left vulnerable villagers feeling trapped between radical extremists who favor no-holds-barred violence and an ineffective, even disinterested government that is also willing to resort to brutality,” they wrote, urging the government to tackle underlying socioeconomic issues such as unemployment, illitera-

cy and insecurity.

Campbell said the brazen kidnapping is a testament to Boko Haram’s support in northern Nigeria — a popularity that is often downplayed by the government — as well as its relative sophistication.

“You’re talking about more than 200 girls all dressed uniformly,” he pointed out. “That means Boko Haram has the ability to move around more than 200 girls, dress them, feed them and provide some kind of shelter.This implies a logistical and support train, which is more than a bunch of thugs running around,” he said, noting that they had access to military uniforms and transport for the girls.

Campbell also said that Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s leader, has shown signs of political savvy, despite his out-of-touch rants and doubts over how much control he exerts over Boko Haram’s disparate cells.

“Shekau knows how to push buttons.What he is now saying is, ‘You can have your girls back if you release all of our operatives that are in jail,’” Campbell said. “No government can really do that, but suddenly he seems, if not reasonable, then he is at least opening up an avenue of hope.

It’s quite clever. He knows exactly what he is doing.”

But while Shekau may know how to push political buttons, there is no indication Boko Haram is prepared to govern.

“They seek the destruction of the Nigerian state and its replacement by a purely Islamic state,” Campbell said.“They are a movement; they are not a political group.Their goal is not a political program; it’s a kind of religious aspiration.

“They don’t have 12-point program to address poverty in the north,” Campbell continued. “It’s all about God.That is one of the reasons they are so very difficult to deal with.You can’t buy them off, which is the traditional way of doing things.”

Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 5

EXCLUSIVE

Diplomacy

Peter Selfridge, New Protocol Chief, Meets Diplomats at Mount Vernon

Foreign diplomats tour George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon in Virginia during a May 21 reception to welcome Peter Selfridge, the new U.S. chief of protocol at the State Department.

story and photos by Larry Luxner

A

t a Senate confirmation hearing in March to become President Obama’s new chief of protocol, Peter A. Selfridge spoke proudly of his family’s German, Scottish and Irish heritage, of his Midwestern upbringing — born in Illinois, raised in Minnesota, educated in Iowa — and of his wife Parita Shah, whose parents come from the Indian state of Gujarat.

“My father taught me from an early age that good etiquette and decorum are not only useful tools for navigating society, but a reflection of the person wielding them,” Selfridge said in his written statement.

“Treating others as you would be treated is a virtue for everyday life, and it is one of the guiding principles of protocol.”

On May 5, the Senate confirmed Selfridge for the job. On May 13, the former White House chief of advance was sworn in, and eight days later, he made his first public appearance as Ambassador

Page 6

Selfridge, during a reception at Mount Vernon attended by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an array of local business executives, and diplomats from 60 countries ranging from Benin to Papua New Guinea to El Salvador.

“I look forward to working with all of you in the future,” Selfridge told the 200 or so guests in attendance at George Washington’s estate in Alexandria, Va.“Our diplomatic partnership division offers an opportunity for diplomats to interact not just with the State Department but with

business leaders and state and community leaders. This evening, we are fortunate enough to have all of these groups represented here.”

The May 21 event was privately funded by half a dozen sponsors including liquor conglomerate Diageo; Richmond-based FTI Consulting; Shahin Mafi, founder and CEO of Home Health Connection Inc.; prominent Virginia “power couple” Ray and Shaista Mahmood; and the 160-yearold Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (MVLA).

As guests sampled colonial delicacies such as apricot-honey grilled chicken with garden succotash, spinach salad with strawberries, and Virginia farm cheeses, Barbara Lucas of the MVLA offered the diplomats a quick history lesson.

“Mount Vernon has been hosting dignitaries from around the world for more than 200 years, from the Marquis de

Lafayette to Queen Elizabeth II, Boris Yeltsin and Nicolas Sarkozy, so you’re certainly in good company,”she said.“Although George Washington was never officially an ambassador as were his contemporaries, he was no less masterful as a diplomat. He hosted many foreign dignitaries during the Revolutionary War, assuring diplomats from France, Spain and other countries that America could — and would — prevail, and that the notion of independence was viable. George Washington is widely revered for his character, courage and leadership, but without his diplomatic savvy, our American story would likely have had a different ending.”

In 1853, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association raised the $200,000 necessary to save the 8,000-acre plantation estate from being sold off to speculators. The organization has run Mount Vernon ever since, and today it has a Board of Regents

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

“

Treating others as you would be treated is a virtue for everyday life, and it is one of the guiding principles of protocol.

”

— Peter Selfridge, U.S. chief of protocol — still all women — representing nearly 30 states.

“From our earliest days, we have funded our efforts entirely with public support,” Lucas said proudly. “Our organization has never accepted any government funding, federal or state, and today, we’re telling the story of America’s first president like never before.”

In 2013, Mount Vernon welcomed over 1 million visitors, bringing the cumulative total to more than 85 million since 1860.

“We’re highlighting a great treasure to the diplomatic corps, who in turn are going to tell their friends and generate additional traffic to sites like this,” Selfridge said as foreign ambassadors took an early evening tour of Mount Vernon’s palatial grounds and well-preserved structures. “It’s a win-win for us. It’s also a great way to interact socially with diplomats who talk business all day.”

But business — and encouraging the kind of personal connections that foster trade and investment — is an unofficial part of the Protocol Office’s mission. Edward Reilly, global CEO of strategic communications at FTI Consulting, talked about the importance of foreign trade but, in the spirit of George Washington, promised to be brief.

“Our first president used just 135 words in his second inaugural address, so I will take my cue from him,” Reilly said, inciting laughter. “Most farmers here in Virginia were raising tobacco, but

George Washington was one of the first to diversify to wheat. He was already looking for opportunities abroad, selling flour and whisky to faraway markets. He understood that commerce — the trading of things — was essential to the success of our fledgling nation, that economic development underpins all the hopes and dreams of our people and fuels social progress.”

As Virginia’s governor, McAuliffe took advantage of the presence of so many foreign diplomats to plug his state as an ideal trading partner and investment destination.

“You are truly in the greatest state of the United States. I would like all of you to do business in the commonwealth of Virginia,” he said, urging his audience to “take one fact from tonight’s event: Last week, Forbes magazine rated Virginia the number-one state in the nation to do business. Forget those other 49 states.They don’t really matter. We have it all for you, folks.”

McAuliffe then introduced Denis McDonough, Obama’s chief of staff, joking that, “I just have to worry about one state. You have to worry about 50.”

Zoran Jolevski, who represents the Balkan republic of Macedonia, attended the Mount Vernon party with his wife Suzana.

“This was one of the best events I have attend-

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, left, and U.S. Chief of Protocol Peter Selfridge, the former White House chief of advance, headline a reception at Mount Vernon attended by diplomats from 60 countries ranging from Benin to Papua New Guinea to El Salvador.

From left, Ambassador of Macedonia Zoran Jolevski and his wife Suzana Jolevska join Leila Beale and her husband Ambassador of Barbados John Beale at a reception at Mount Vernon.

Continued on next page

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Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al-Mughairy, below left, and Hani Masri of Stone House Partners LP attend a reception at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate in Alexandria, Va., which has welcomed more than 85 million visitors since 1860.

Joseph Semrad, staff assistant at the State Department’s Office of Protocol, directs guests to the “American Heritage Series” reception for foreign diplomats and local business executives at Mount Vernon.

Ambassador of Papua New Guinea Rupa Mulina, below left, talks with Ambassador of Grenada Angus Friday at a Mount Vernon reception hosted by the State Department Office of Protocol.

Continued from previous page ed as ambassador here,” he told The Washington Diplomat. “I had the opportunity to visit the home of George Washington. I also spoke with the governor of Virginia, the president’s chief of staff, the chief of protocol and Virginia’s secretary of commerce.”

As a result of the connections Jolevski made that night, he’s now organizing a Macedonian business delegation to visit Virginia in September or October. His Vermont-size country of 2.1 million inhabitants is already a major tobacco exporter and hopes to boost such exports even more.

And John Beale, ambassador of Barbados, used the event to tell McAuliffe about the historical connection between his Caribbean island and the Revolutionary War. “I enlightened the governor on the fact that George Washington went to Barbados because of his brother Lawrence, who was sick with tuberculosis. While there, George contracted smallpox but was cured by a doctor, so he became immune,” he said, noting that by the 1770s, smallpox had reached epidemic proportions throughout the American colonies, eventually killing 100,000 people. “I jokingly told him that if George had not gone to Barbados, maybe U.S. history would have been different.”

As the reception was winding down, Selfridge spoke briefly to The Diplomat about his new position at the State Department. A regular golf partner of President Obama’s, Selfridge has served stints in the private sector as a public affairs consultant and has worked for various presidential campaigns, including Al Gore’s in 2000, John Kerry’s in 2003 and Barack Obama’s in 2008. After President Obama’s inauguration, Selfridge was named Vice President Biden’s director of advance, becoming deputy assistant to the president and director of advance and operations at the White House in 2011.

“I’ve inherited a fantastic staff which is very experienced,” said Selfridge, whose predecessor, Capricia Penavic Marshall, former White House social secretary in the Clinton administration, headed the Protocol Office from 2009 to 2013.

She’s now ambassador-in-residence with the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

Page 8

Ambassador of Brunei Dato Paduka Haji Yusoff bin Haji Abdul Hamid and his wife Datin Mahani binti Dato Abu Zar attend a reception at Mount Vernon for foreign diplomats.

“Protocol chief is one of those unique roles where gender is not all that important. Like most stereotypes, it’s a fallacy that maybe there needs to be a woman in this role,” Selfridge said, noting that what’s important is “to show courtesy and respect.”

Selfridge, who will also be in charge of Blair House, said his priority is to “preserve the traditions” of the office.

“Historically, protocol plays a pretty important role, especially in the modern era. With this president, we have a great partnership with the White House, both for visits to Washington [for foreign heads of state] and when the president goes overseas,” he said.

“We’re doing what a lot of government agencies are having to do: find ways to continue all that we’ve been doing — outreach with the diplomatic corps and hosting great events with foreign leaders — on a smaller budget. It’s important for today’s public servants to do that.”

Selfridge said his background as advance chief at the White House has prepared him well for his new job.

“The logistics are a natural match. You get to know how events are run, and what the president and secretary of state look for. This job travels with the president,” he said.

For Selfridge’s first overseas trip, he flew with Obama to Europe in early June for the G-7 summit in Brussels and the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy, France. A few weeks later, he led a four-day trip to Seattle as part of the Experience America pro-

From left, Natalie Jones, deputy chief of protocol at the State Department; Shaista and Ray Mahmood; Barbara Lucas, regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association; and Susan Magill, vice president of advancement at Mount Vernon, attend a reception at Mount Vernon for foreign diplomats.

Numa Mulina, wife of the ambassador of Papua New Guinea, and Queenie Thompson, wife of the ambassador of Fiji, attend a reception celebrating Peter Selfridge, who made his first public appearance as the new U.S. chief of protocol.

gram, which allows Washington-based ambassadors to travel within the United States as an organized group and meet with state and local officials.

Previous trips have taken dozens of ambassadors to New York, Florida,Texas,Wyoming,Alaska and Arkansas (also see “Arkansas Odyssey: Ambassadors Experience the Natural State” in our January 2013 issue).

“Experience America gets ambassadors out of D.C. and showcases the rest of America. It gives them new cultural and geographic exposure,” said Selfridge.

The Seattle trip, scheduled for June 25 to 28, included meetings with top officials on the city’s eco-friendly development; tours of major univer-

sities and manufacturing facilities, including Boeing’s airplane factory; and panel discussions with the Gates Foundation as well as representatives of Seattle-based Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft and Amazon. The Diplomat participated in the trip; stay tuned for exclusive coverage.

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat

Your Source for Diplomatic News. www.washdiplomat.com

July 2014

Politics

United States

Benghazi Tragedy: Vast Conspiracy Or Conspiracy Theorists’ Dream?

by Karin Zeitvogel

I

t’s been called a conspiracy, a conspiracy theory in search of a conspiracy, a vast government cover-up, a Republican witch-hunt, a tragedy exploited for political gain, and a sorry indicator of just how partisan politics in Washington has become.

Inside-the-Beltway publication Politico said that, as of the beginning of May, it had spawned 13 congressional hearings, 25,000 pages of documents and 50 briefings.

And in a letter to Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the Pentagon says government agencies have spent thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars responding to congressional queries about it.

“It” is the consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept.

11, 2012, in which four Americans died, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens.Although U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release in exchange for five senior Taliban fighters temporarily knocked it off its perch, Benghazi has been, depending on which angle you’re looking at it from, the hottest conspiracy/overblown obsession on the block.

Even the news last month that U.S. forces captured one of the suspected ringleaders of the attack, Ahmed Abu Khattala, is unlikely to quell the conspiratorial furor, which comes in handy for riling up the conservative base ahead of elections. Already, many prominent conservatives were slamming President Barack Obama for not sending Abu Khattala to Guantanamo Bay, where he could be interrogated at length without legal protections, and instead charging him in federal court (even though hundreds of terrorism suspects have been tried in civilian courts since 9/11).

Conspiracy theories tend to take on a life of their own — and aren’t quick to die. Among some of the tamer theories still floating around about Benghazi: Fox News presenter Eric Bolling said the attack happened before Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs, and the White House, in issuing the now infamous talking points that then U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used in interviews to explain the attack, was trying to cover up for the fact that Obama was “soft on terror.” Administration officials back in Washington watched the attacks unfold in real time but did nothing to intervene. Requests from U.S. officials on the ground in Libya for military backup were denied, and two top military officials were relieved of their commands because they tried to provide assistance during the attack.

All of these allegations been proven to be false. What is generally accepted about Benghazi is that it was a murky, chaotic onslaught that came in waves over eight hours at two locations.The city, which was the cradle of the insurgency that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi, was a hotbed of local rebels and Islamist fighters. Many of them had links to Ansar al-Sharia, a designated terrorist organization that the FBI suspects may have been behind the attack. At the time — the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — tensions throughout the region were running high over a U.S.-made video mocking the Prophet Mohammad.

Extremists in Libya, perhaps seizing on the anti-Ameri-

Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

“

People tend to believe that where there’s smoke, there’s fire, so the more smoke they see, the more likely they are to believe that something is going on.

— Dan Cassino

”

political science professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University

can protests in Egypt and elsewhere, launched a surprise offensive against an inadequately secured diplomatic compound.The Libyan guards and militias that Americans had called on for help did not intervene.Various investigations have shown that the assault was more of an opportunistic siege coordinated in advance by local anti-Western militants, with elements of spontaneous violence, than a carefully orchestrated al-Qaeda operation.

An exhaustive report by the New York Times “turned up no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault. The attack was led, instead, by fighters who had benefited directly from NATO’s extensive air power and logistics support during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi. And contrary to claims by some members of Congress, it was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam.”

Conspiracy Believers None of that, of course, has silenced Benghazi conspiracy believers. In fact, if they believe one of the theories, they are likely to believe all of them, Maggie KoerthBaker wrote in the New York Times in May last year.

July 2014

President Barack Obama stands with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sept. 14, 2012, in a ceremony marking the return of the bodies of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, who were killed in the attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

“The best predictor of belief in a conspiracy theory is belief in other conspiracy theories,” Koerth-Baker wrote, quoting University of Westminster psychology professor Viren Swami.

She also quotes from a 1965 book by Richard Hofstadter,“The Paranoid Style in American Politics.”

“Conspiracy theories, especially those involving meddlesome foreigners, are a favorite pastime in this nation,” Koerth-Baker summarizes. “Americans have always had the sneaking suspicion that somebody was out to get us — be it Freemasons, Catholics or communists. But in recent years, it seems as if every tragedy comes with a round of yarn-spinning.”

And a lot of that spinning occurs along partisan lines.

The results of a poll published in January 2013 by Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey found that 63 percent of registered voters in the United States buy into at least one political conspiracy theory, with Republicans significantly more likely to believe in conspiracy theories (75 percent) than Democrats (56 percent).

The poll also found that “the more people know about current events, the less likely they are to believe in conspiracy theories,” unless they’re Republicans, for whom “more knowledge leads to greater belief” that there’s a conspiracy lurking somewhere.

“People tend to believe that where there’s smoke, there’s fire, so the more smoke they see, the more likely they are to believe that something is going on,” said Fairleigh Dickinson political science professor Dan Cassino.

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 9

controlled House Armed Services Committee and the Pentagon.

Obama’s announcement that U.S. Special Forces had caught the suspected “mastermind” of the Benghazi attack may finally unravel the mystery of what happened that day and silence his skeptics. Or it may unleash a whole new deluge of conspiracy theories. Just after news broke about Abu Khattala’s capture, speculation began swirling that the administration engineered the timing of the raid to divert attention from the escalating violence in Iraq.A U.S. official rebuffed that suggestion, telling the New York Times that these kinds of operations take months of planning.

Continued from previous page

Smoke and Mirrors And there’s plenty of smoke to blow around.

Just a day before the announcement of Abu Khattala’s capture, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative D.C. think tank, held an event on Benghazi that devolved into “accusations about the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating the Obama administration, President Obama funding jihadists in their quest to destroy the United States, Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton attempting to impose Sharia blasphemy laws on Americans and Al Jazeera America being an organ of ‘enemy propaganda,’” according to the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank.

Those are just some of the eyebrow-raising theories spawned by the attack. People have also claimed that Benghazi was actually a foiled plot to kidnap Ambassador Stevens and trade him for the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; that Obama denied the involvement of terrorists to divert attention from a covert CIA annex that was moving weapons out of Libya (an allegation raised by Sen. Rand Paul); and that CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell took “the fall” for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton so he could become CIA director if Clinton ever won the presidency (that gem goes to Rep. Michele Bachmann).

But the theory that underpins much of the anger over Benghazi is one that has legs: Was Obama reluctant to classify Benghazi as a terrorist attack because that would’ve blown a hole through his election narrative that al-Qaeda was largely defeated?

The president did call the attack an act of terror the day after it occurred.Yet it’s those talking points Rice made shortly after the smoke settled that have stoked the fire, even though the CIA insists she was simply reciting what intelligence agencies knew at the time. The obsession with those talking points seems almost misplaced because there is a far more legitimate case to be made that officials failed to heed clear warning signs about security lapses and dangerous conditions in Benghazi.

But Rice’s talking points resurfaced as the “smoking gun” in May when the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained confidential White House emails, including a memo from Ben Rhodes, deputy national security director for strategic communications, telling Rice “to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.”

Kenneth Timmerman, a candidate on the Republican ticket in Maryland’s gubernatorial elections, wrote in a New York Post op-ed that the Rhodes memo “shows how the administration was trying to spin the attack as something other than their own strategic failures.”

Spin, of course, is nothing new in politics, but the memo has fed the narrative that Benghazi is “the scandal the Obama administration always said it wasn’t,” according to Timmerman, who has spun the tragedy into a new book, “Dark Forces: The Truth about What Happened in Benghazi.”

Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma gave the book pre-publication praise, saying it illustrates how “Benghazi will go down as the greatest government cover-up in history — bigger than the Pentagon Papers, Iran-Contra and Watergate.” (It’s notable that all three became scandals under Republican presidents, while Benghazi happened on the watch of a Democrat.)

Massaging a Tragedy?

Democrats, meanwhile, have to admit that the Obama administration made a stupid mistake when Rhodes told Rice to talk up a benign version of what happened. It rapidly emerged that the attackers were Islamic radicals and local

Page 10

Competing Scandals

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The pictures of those who died in the uprising that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi hang in the courthouse square in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city and the cradle of the country’s 2011 revolution.

insurgents, not protesters upset about an antiIslamic video, and that elements of the assault were pre-planned.

Administration officials were already calling Benghazi a terrorist attack days after Rice’s TV appearance, but by then Obama’s critics had all the ammo they needed to accuse the White House of massaging the tragedy to suit its political needs.

It’s not completely unheard of. Take for instance the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which took place just days before Spain’s general election. The simultaneous attacks during the morning rush hour on March 11 were initially blamed

by Prime Minister José María Aznar and his ruling party on the Basque separatist group ETA. Very quickly, though, it was established that al-Qaedainspired radicals had carried out the attacks, which killed 191 people and injured nearly 2,000. Aznar’s party lost the elections, and 10 years later, some Spaniards still say Aznar tried to manipulate the tragic events for political gain.

Maybe timing is everything, and had Benghazi happened just days before the November presidential election, Mitt Romney would have made it to the White House. But Obama was re-elected and Democrats held onto their majority in the Senate.

That hasn’t deterred Republicans on Capitol Hill from using the issue to clobber Democrats.

House Speaker John Boehner is setting up a select committee on Benghazi in response to the recent dump of White House emails — the latest in a string of congressional investigations that pledged to reveal explosive bombshells, none of which ever materialized. But the high-profile probe allows Republicans to keep Benghazi in the news well into the mid-term elections while taking a shot at the Democrats’ possible 2016 presidential contender, Hillary Clinton.

The Investigation Former U.S.Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering chaired the panel set up by then Secretary of State Clinton within days of the Benghazi attack to investigate, in Pickering’s words,“the security issues and whether mistakes were made and if so what they were and any corrections.” He told The Washington Diplomat that Benghazi is still a “hot potato because, from the beginning, the Republicans felt it was a very strong issue with which to attack both Obama and Clinton, particularly if Clinton were going to run” for president.

But Benghazi is “nothing more, nothing less” than a cudgel with which to hammer Democrats, according to Pickering, a former undersecretary

of state for political affairs who says that the majority of the stories about Benghazi have “no basis in fact.”

As head of the accountability board set up to dig into Benghazi security issues, Pickering said he “insisted that State give us all of the press stories they collected — and they collect everything.” He still has the cuttings, which stand a foot-and-a-half high, and he uses the photocopied articles as scrap paper for printing on the blank side.

“I read all the stories because I wanted to read what people were saying. I would have to tell you that about 80 percent of the comments had no basis in fact. Clearly,” Pickering said.

That’s not to say the State Department didn’t drop the ball.

Among the board’s 29 different findings was that “State, over a period of time, had made decisions about what to do about Benghazi which were not adequate to meet the needs of the task,” Pickering said.

He said his investigation uncovered “serious errors in the way in which people were assigned to Benghazi on the security side,” and there were “inadequacies in local Libyans hired to deal with buildings in the compound,” which, he noted, was “neither a consulate, nor an embassy, nor an official mission.”

In all, the board cited “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” at senior levels, although it did not directly investigate Clinton’s role in those failures. A separate bipartisan Senate report said the State Department under Clinton did not provide the Benghazi outpost with enough protection despite well-known dangers. (Secretaries of state aren’t normally involved in diplomatic security arrangements, and Clinton has said she did not know about the requests for added security in Benghazi but takes responsibility for the attack.)

The State Department has since adopted most of the board’s recommendations and beefed up embassy security around the world.

Pickering’s team also looked very carefully into the question of “whether there could’ve been any immediate military support and we concluded, after having a long discussion with the military with the help of Adm. Mike Mullen, the vice chairman of the review board, we didn’t think there was a real possibility of doing that,” he said.

And yet, conspiracies persist that an order came from up above for the military to “stand down,” even though those theories have been consistently debunked by the Republican-

Interestingly, the possible breakup of Iraq after Sunni-led militants captured large swaths of territory sidelined another controversy that had conspiracy theorists salivating: the swap of Bowe Bergdahl, America’s last prisoner of war, for five members of the Afghan Taliban.

For a brief time, Bergdahl replaced Benghazi as the scandal du jour. It began with whispers that Bergdahl’s father had converted to Islam and was a Taliban sympathizer, as evidenced by his long beard (which he said he grew to show solidarity with his son and better understand his captors). It quickly snowballed into unsubstantiated rumors that Bergdahl was not only an emotionally distraught soldier and possible deserter, but a Taliban colluder as well.

On June 6, Fox News reporter James Rosen revealed that “secret documents prepared on the basis of a purported eyewitness account”showed that Bergdahl had, during his five years of captivity, converted to Islam, “fraternized openly with his captors and declared himself a ‘mujahid’ or warrior for Islam.”

But what he called “real-time dispatches” were actually generated by the Eclipse Group, which Rosen himself describes as “a shadowy private firm of former intelligence officers and operatives” that delivers “granular intelligence on terrorist activities and other security-related topics.”

Rosen goes on to note that the group is run by Duane R. (“Dewey”) Clarridge, who worked for the CIA in the 1980s and is “best known for having been indicted for lying to Congress about his role in the tangled set of events that became known as the Iran-Contra scandal.” Not exactly an impeccable source.

Theories on those Taliban prisoners are also proliferating on the internet, as seen in an image making the social media rounds of a man who looks like one of the five released Taliban fighters, posing in front of five severed heads.

The image was sent to me by a distant acquaintance on Facebook. Just as other journalists did with Rosen’s revelations about Bergdahl converting to Islam and declaring jihad, I questioned the veracity and provenance of the image purporting to be one of the Taliban fighters. I also asked the sender not to send me any more stuff like this because even scratch-the-surface investigations show almost all of it to have “no basis in fact,” to borrow from Pickering’s words.

My request to be excluded from emails of this genre resulted in a barrage of invective from the sender, accusations that I could not accept the truth, and an insistence that the man in the picture was one of the exchanged prisoners and he was a monster.

The paranoia, distrust and passion surrounding Benghazi and Bergdahl have also grown to monster-like proportions. The anger that many people feel toward these scandals is very real, even if the “scandals” themselves may not be. But it’s an election year and there’s already a lot of smoke out there, so people will be looking for a fire.

Karin Zeitvogel is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

International Affairs

Europe

Balkan States Cast Aside Hostilities In Aftermath of Disastrous Flooding

by Larry Luxner

D

iplomats from three former Yugoslav republics that once waged war against each other are banding together to raise money in the wake of the worst flooding to hit the Balkans in more than a century.

Over three days in May, a cyclone named Tamara dumped three months’ worth of rainfall over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia, leaving dozens dead, a million people directly affected, more than 100,000 homes destroyed, and billions of dollars in damage.

On June 5, envoys from the three countries spoke in D.C. at an event organized by the Turkic American Alliance.

The reception, which attracted about 40 dignitaries and public officials, left little doubt about the desperation felt by these small, struggling nations — and the sense that the rest of the world isn’t paying much attention to their plight.

The torrential floods were the worst in the region since recordkeeping began 120 years ago, triggering thousands of landslides and possibly exposing some of the estimated 100,000 unexploded landmines left from years of war. In fact, the flood damage costs are likely to exceed even those caused by the ethnic wars of the 1990s following Yugoslavia’s breakup — conflicts remembered for the horrors of ethnic cleansing, rape and crimes against humanity in which an estimated 140,000 people died.

Both Bosnia and Serbia have opened talks with the 28-member European Union to support reconstruction efforts.The government of Serbia, a candidate for EU membership, has said the damage from the floods exceeded 0.64 percent of the country’s GDP, meaning it can apply for help from the EU Solidarity Fund.

“All our embassies and consulates are actively looking for aid for our countries,” said Vladimir Jovicic, deputy chief of mission at the Serbian Embassy in Washington, following a video presentation on this latest humanitarian disaster to strike the Balkans.

Jovicic said that in Serbia alone, 24 people were killed in the floods and 38 are still missing. More than 32,000 Serbs were evacuated as torrents of water swelled the country’s rivers and tributaries. In all, roughly 20 percent of the population was impacted.

“The United Nations, European Union and World Bank are working to establish some precise estimates of the consequences, and we are hoping in the next few weeks to have those estimates,” he said.“But preliminary numbers show damage of up to €2 billion just for Serbia.And Bosnia may be hit even harder.”

Jovicic said some 3,000 kilometers of roads and highways have been damaged or destroyed, not to mention more than 200 bridges and thousands of dwellings. In addition, between 75,000 and 83,000 hectares of arable land were flooded.

“Some businesses have been completely washed away or seriously damaged,” he said. “In our agriculture sector, which is roughly 10 percent of our GDP, we will probably be able to cover our own needs, but exports will be nonexistent.”

He added that Serbia’s mining industry will incur losses of at least €500 million, because coal mines have been ravaged and coal-burning power plants will see output drop

Photo: BIH / Wikimedia Commons

“

Nobody remembers anything like this ever happening before.

It is really a catastrophic situation…. Everything is wiped away. Some people said this is worse than war, because after the war, they came back and found the ground of their houses, but now there’s no ground at all.

— Jadranka Negodic

”

ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United States

by 40 to 50 percent. An electric-generating facility at Obrenovac, which supplies half of Serbia’s power, was saved, though the town itself was completely submerged by the Kolubara River.

Jovicic is also worried about contaminated drinking water and the coming summer, which will bring high temperatures and the risk for infectious diseases to spread.

Meanwhile, the American Red Cross has contributed $400,000 to support flood relief efforts in the Balkans.

“The floodwaters are receding, but 40 percent of Bosnia was under water at one point. Now we’re conducting an ongoing assessment of longer-term needs,” said Eric Berisa, a Red Cross official in Washington.“In Serbia, efforts were

July 2014

In May, a cyclone named Tamara dumped three months’ worth of rainfall over Bosnia and Herzegovina (seen above), Serbia and Croatia, leaving dozens dead, a million people directly affected, and billions of dollars in damage.

concentrated on sheltering…. Since Croatia was not as significantly affected by the flooding, it has been involved in response efforts, but at this point has not requested international assistance.”

“Croatia was the least affected of the three countries, so we were more or less able to help ourselves and help our neighbors who fared much worse,” said Mario Skunca, political secretary at the Croatian Embassy.“We were lucky that it was really only limited to the eastern part of Croatia.

Still, 50 percent of the crops and livestock in this area will be affected. In the medium and long term, all three countries will need help.”

But the one that appears to need the most help right now is Bosnia and Herzegovina.

An estimated 25 percent of Bosnia’s 4 million inhabitants have been affected by the flooding. In addition, many of the more than 9,000 landmines left over from Bosnia’s bruising 1992-95 war with Serbia have been dislodged, along with the signs indicating where they were buried.

“Nobody remembers anything like this ever happening before. It is really a catastrophic situation,” Jadranka Negodic, Bosnia’s ambassador to the United States, told The Washington Diplomat.“Apart from the flooding, there were more than 2,000 landslides, and people lost not just their homes but their fields too. Everything is wiped away.

Some people said this is worse than war, because after the war, they came back and found the ground of their houses, but now there’s no ground at all.”

Negodic, who has been Bosnia’s envoy in D.C. for the

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 11

Continued from previous page

Photo: Aktron / Wikimedia Commons

Floodwaters rise at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers in Belgrade, Serbia, which, along with its Balkan neighbors, recently experienced the worst flooding in more than a century. Vladimir Jovicic, deputy chief of mission at the Serbian Embassy, speaks at a June 5 event to raise awareness of the Balkan flood devastation.

Photo: Larry Luxner

past two years, said “the immediate danger now is infections, since thousands of animal corpses are still floating, and there’s a lack of drinking water.”

Yet the fact that she can sit down with her Serbian counterpart and discuss the disaster in a friendly, courteous way is not unusual at all, Negodic said.

“This is proof that all differences between peoples are political,” she told us. “The war ended in 1995. This is 19 years later, and life goes on. I don’t want to say that people forgot what happened, but they’re more interested in the future.

The past shouldn’t be an obstacle.”

She added, “All these countries have the same foreign policy goals. We are all heading in the same direction, and slowly we are showing more readiness to cooperate. The floods showed that when a tragedy like this strikes, it affects all people equally — Serbs, Bosnians and Croats.

There were so many examples in Bosnia of how this disaster helped people put politics aside to help each other, regardless where they lived.”

Negodic said she’s working with Bosnian communities in the United States to raise money for flood relief, especially the community in St. Louis, Mo., which is home to 70,000 Bosnians.

The disaster has attracted some attention. Angelina Jolie, whose film “In the Land of Blood and Honey” was an interethnic love story set against the atrocities of the Bosnian war, gave $50,000 for Red Cross flood relief efforts in the Balkans (see our story on the film in the February 2012 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, who had just won the Rome Masters in Italy, donated his entire cash prize of about $750,000 for the cause. He also upbraided the international media for neglecting the story of the floods for days (even now coverage is relatively scarce).

Meanwhile, the Pentagon airlifted 26 tons of humanitarian aid to hard-hit areas in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, although assistance from the U.S. government has so far been paltry. The onus seems to be on the European Union and World Bank for now — and Serbia and Bosnia, in particular, both of which had been struggling long before the floods, could use all the financial help they can get.

Recovery is especially complicated by Bosnia’s 44 percent unemployment rate — one of the highest in Europe. Serbia isn’t faring much better. Its economy never really recovered from the global sanctions during the 1990s, and the country is plagued by massive corruption and mismanagement. Officially, Serbia’s jobless rate is 20 percent, but it is believed to be much higher.

“Our economies were growing at 1 or 2 percent a year. Donations will be able to cover 20 to 25 percent of our needs, but what about the rest?” asked Serbia’s Jovicic. “We shouldn’t be left alone to cope with the elements. The keyword should be donations, but also rebuilding and re-establishing industry.

That’s the only way we can have longterm stability.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

MISSION PARTNER OF

Pristine Seas Expeditions

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The Washington Diplomat

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July 2014

COVER PROFILE

Ambassador Ramón Gil-Casares

Long-Suffering Spain Stumbles Forward in Road to Recovery

by Larry Luxner

I

f Spain’s Ramón Gil-Casares was hoping for an early World Cup victory in Brazil to lift his country’s sagging spirits, the ambassador certainly didn’t get his wish.

On June 13 — the second day of the month-long FIFA tournament — Spain’s top diplomat in the United States stared at his TV screen in shock as the Netherlands crushed the Spanish national soccer team 5-1. Six days later, Chile defeated Spain 2-0, eliminating the team from further play. The two losses together constituted the most humiliating defeat ever suffered by a reigning World Cup champion, souring the mood even further in a country already beset by a stagnant economy, massive unemployment, the abdication of a king mired in scandal and perennial separatist agitation in Catalonia.

On the surface, it seems things can’t get any more toxic in a nation whose energy, creativity and passion once inspired optimism throughout Europe. Spain’s jobless rate stands at 25.6 percent, the second-highest in the 28-nation European Union, behind only Greece (at 27.1 percent) and five times higher than Austria’s 5.0 percent, according to Eurostat.

Even worse, youth unemployment hit a staggering 57.7 percent last November — meaning nearly two out of three Spaniards under the age of 25 were without work — before falling to “only” 50 percent as of mid-May. Nearly 6 million people throughout Spain remain jobless, with the government expecting unemployment to remain above 20 percent until at least 2017. Meanwhile, economists worry about deflation, a situation that makes it harder and more expensive for debtors to pay back their loans.

And to top it all off, Spanish voters elected 54 representatives to the European Parliament in late May, but the country’s two main parties — which had been taking turns in power since 1977 — failed to garner even 50 percent of the vote, marking their poorest performance in Spain’s democratic history.

“Virtually all of the institutions that brought about the country’s late 20th-century renewal have been discredited,” James Badcock wrote in Foreign Policy last month.

“Political parties, labor unions, big business and the judiciary have all felt the tide of public opinion turn against them. Corruption and abuse of authority are perceived as standard practice among the country’s elites.”

In a recent interview, Gil-Casares didn’t try to paper over Spain’s problems. Yet he did argue that the worst of the crisis has finally passed in this once-proud nation of 47 million — and that the current government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is to thank for cleaning up the mess.

“Not only are things not as dire as a year ago, but we’re technically out of recession,” the gregarious ambassador told The Washington Diplomat over coffee at his seventhfloor office fronting Pennsylvania Avenue. Gil-Casares noted that Spain’s economy edged up by 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2013 — the first positive sign after nine consecutive quarters of a shrinking GDP — followed by a 0.4 percent increase in the first quarter of 2014. That means the economy is now growing faster than at any time since Spain imploded from the real estate bust of 2008.

Photo: Lawrence Ruggeri

“

Employment, albeit in small quantities, is growing…. We’re on the right path. The measures and reforms taken by the government are starting to yield results. Investments are coming back.

”

— Ramón Gil-Casares

ambassador of Spain to the United States

Based on those numbers, Madrid has revised its forecast for GDP growth this year upward to 1.2 percent (from 0.7 percent) and 1.8 percent for 2015 (from 1.2 percent).

“Employment, albeit in small quantities, is growing,” GilCasares said.“In May, there was an increase of 50,000 jobs.

We’re on the right path. The measures and reforms taken by the government are starting to yield results. Investments are coming back.”

Spain, which two years ago was forced to seek a bailout from the European Union for its troubled banks, isn’t the only country in Europe witnessing a tepid recovery. But the word “recovery” is almost an insult to the millions of people still out of work in countries like Greece and Spain, where several years ago a grassroots movement called the indignados (“outraged”) took over public squares around the country to protest the government’s handling of the economic crisis.

Regardless, the good news may not even last, given the slowdown of the Spanish export sector — triggered by a strong euro, which drives up prices for Spain’s goods overseas — and continuing problems in the construction industry, which has lost nearly 1.8 million jobs since 2008.

July 2014

Ramón Gil-Casares previously served as Spain’s ambassador to South Africa and South Sudan before coming to Washington in 2012.

The true health of Spain’s banks also remains to be seen.

Gil-Casares, 60, has had a long and distinguished diplomatic career. Born in Madrid in 1953, he was the son of a Franco-era diplomat and a childhood friend of former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, who was a classmate of his at Madrid’s Colegio Santa María del Pilar. He earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy and law at the Complutense University of Madrid in 1982 — the same year he joined Spain’s Foreign Service and was sent at the age of 28 to Equatorial Guinea,Africa’s only Spanishspeaking country.

He returned to Malabo, the capital, years later as the second-in-command at the embassy and head of Spain’s aid program there. The diplomat was also posted to the Philippines, Uruguay and New York before being named ambassador to South Africa and later to Sudan.

“I had the honor of witnessing the birth of the newest state while in Juba, and became the first ambassador of Spain to South Sudan,” said Gil-Casares, who also served as secretary of state for foreign affairs for two years in Aznar’s administration.

But the economy is now his main focus, and Gil-Casares, who arrived here in 2012, is fairly blunt about how Spain tumbled into its current nightmare.

“During the years of our prosperity, we had been following a very flexible policy designed by the European Central Bank,” he explained.“Interest rates were very low, so there was a lot of liquidity in the banks.That led to very cheap loans for everybody. Construction was booming; anybody could get a mortgage. All of a sudden, the crisis erupted in the U.S., and because of globalization, it came to Europe, and people had debt up to their ears.”

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 13

Continued from previous page From 1997 to 2007, the year the real estate bubble burst, construction accounted for an astounding 12 percent of Spain’s GDP. More houses, condominiums and office buildings went up in Spain than in Britain, France and Germany combined.

“On the private side, many people became indebted to the banks and couldn’t afford it anymore because jobs were not there,” Gil-Casares said. “People got fired and small construction companies had to close. People could not face the loans they had.We had 51 banks at the time, and many of them disappeared. We had to go through a restructuring of the banking sector. The main banks were able to survive the crisis and weather the storm.”

The ambassador argues that irresponsible policies of the past are to blame for what his countrymen are going through today.

“It was because of a poorly designed economic policy.The previous government [of socialist José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, who served from 2004 to 2011] didn’t see it coming,” he said. “They denied the existence of the crisis, giving nice messages for the people to hear — and the situation went from bad to worse.”

However, critics of Zapatero’s successor, social conservative Mariano Rajoy, accuse him of economic shock therapy, imposing harsh austerity measures that have compounded a vicious cycle of unemployment, spending cuts and tax increases. A corruption scandal involving secret cash payments to senior party officials also shook confidence in Rajoy’s administration.

But Gil-Casares says his boss deserves credit for tackling Spain’s underlying economic problems head on and gradually luring back investors.

“You can imagine the strict measures our government had to take,” the ambassador said.“This was absolutely the opposite recipe that was followed here during your crisis, but we didn’t control monetary policy. If we did, maybe we would have followed your advice. But our monetary policy was in the hands of the European Central Bank.”

In mid-January, Spain finally completed the €41 billion ($56 billion) eurozone bailout program that Rajoy had sought in June 2012.

“We will start to create jobs, albeit few and slowly,” Gil-Casares said. “But it is also a fact that we’re out of the recession. We reduced the deficit and spending at regional levels and came up with a constitutional requirement to have a balanced budget. And we came up with laws to reform the administration and make it thinner. Government employment has dropped, and reforms have been done. We made banks concentrate on requirements of liquidity that they didn’t have before.”

Gil-Casares says his main priority is “to try to convince our American friends” that Spain is on the right track.

“People here were asking if we would be next after Ireland, Portugal and Greece to ask for a bailout. We were knocking on the doors of the administration, think tanks and newspapers, explaining to them the situation and how those messages were going to yield results in the end.We were received with a certain degree of skepticism. But as the situation started to improve and people were hearing the news from investors, we went from being a case study of how things went wrong to a country that offered possibilities for investment,” he told The Diplomat.

Indeed, despite anemic growth that hasn’t trickled down to most Spaniards, the country is no longer a pariah to global investors and yields on bonds have been substantially reduced.

Ironically, the very industry that precipitated Spain’s crash is now a potential bright spot in its economic recovery. In fact, there’s no greater investment bargain in Spain right now than real estate.

With property prices down as much as 50 percent, reports Jenny Anderson of the New York Times, Spain has become a magnet for global bargain hunters.

“British Airways flights to Madrid are packed with Londonbased real estate executives,” Anderson wrote. “The hedge fund Baupost is buying shopping centers, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone are buying apartments in Madrid, and Paulson & Company and George Soros’s fund are anchor investors in a publicly listed Spanish real estate investment vehicle.”

Last year, about €5 billion worth of real estate transactions took place, according to consulting firm CBRE Spain — more than double the previous year, said the Times.

Still, the housing market remains fragile and the investment frenzy has only fueled fears of another bubble.The recovery is also coming a little too late for the millions of homeowners facing foreclosure and financial ruin. It doesn’t help that Spain has the EU’s highest rate of home ownership, 85 percent, thanks to decadeslong aggressive governmental promotion of home ownership and

Page 14

Photo: Carlos Delgado / Kadellar / Wikimedia Commons

Protests against the Spanish government’s handling of the country’s economic crisis by groups such as the indignants (indignados) movement peaked in 2011 and 2012. Despite recent growth, however, Spain continues to wrestle with a 25 percent unemployment rate that has left nearly two out of three Spaniards under the age of 25 without work.

Photo: Fotograccion / Keraunoscopia / Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Olmo Calvo / Tygerpencil / Wikimedia Commons

borrowing.

“Eviction and foreclosure now threatens anyone who was duped by the government’s irresponsible lending, unfair mortgage contracts, dodgy behavior, and lack of oversight during the booming economic years,” reported the Latin Post on June 13.

A May 27 report by Human Rights Watch titled “Shattered Dreams: Impact of Spain’s Housing Crisis on Vulnerable Groups” says that “immigrants, female victims of economic abuse, and children are the most affected by the crumbling economy, and most likely to default on mortgage payments and be ejected from their homes.”

Gil-Casares doesn’t deny the impact the crisis has had on certain segments of society, including foreign-born Spaniards, who flocked to the country during the economic boom and make up 10 percent of the population. The largest group of immigrants, nearly

400,000 people, come from Great Britain — but the ones who have been hurt the most are from Latin America,mainly Ecuadoreans, Peruvians, Dominicans and Bolivians.

“During the years of economic prosperity, in which we grew 3 to 5 percent a year and unemployment dropped from 22 to 8 percent, about 600,000 immigrants arrived from Latin America and Africa,” Gil-Casares said.“Many of them became Spanish, and when the real estate and construction bubble exploded, they’re the ones who suffered.”

In the midst of it all, Spain has begun welcoming back the descendants of another group who suffered: an estimated 200,000 Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand during the Inquisition. Under legislation approved earlier this year, the Spanish government will grant citizenship to those Jews who can prove their lineage, though they don’t necessarily have to move to Spain or even give up citizenship of the country in which they live.

But critics, including some religious leaders in Israel, have called the citizenship program a scheme to attract Jewish investment at a time when the country is in dire economic straits.

Gil-Casares says that’s not true.“This is part of a bigger awareness of our Jewish past, and of the richness of Sephardic culture that we have forgotten over many centuries,” he said.“The fact of the matter is we’re not granting citizenship to a single nationality but to a whole group for historical reasons. It has nothing to do with the crisis.”

But the outcome of the latest EU parliamentary elections clearly had everything to do with the crisis. The ruling center-right People’s Party won only 26.1 percent of the votes while the opposition Socialist Workers’ Party got 23 percent — the worst showing Prime Minister

by Spain’s two dominant political parties in Mariano Rajoy nearly 40 years.

The big surprise was Podemos (We Can), an anti-establishment party that had been formed only four months earlier by 35-year-old university lecturer and disgruntled socialist Pablo Iglesias. Podemos took five seats and 8 percent of the total vote.

“This massive loss of support reflects the rapid rise of smaller parties that portray the two main players as being similarly corrupt, beholden to money and unable to effectively deal with the economic crisis,” the Guardian newspaper opined.“Despite the fragmentation of the vote, however, no anti-European or xenophobe party has made any headway in Spain, in contrast with other countries

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

such as France, Britain or Greece.”

Even though Podemos has worked to broaden its appeal, Gil-Casares calls the upstart party “an extreme-left” movement and “media phenomenon” that came out of nowhere. He claims that the blow to Spain’s two-party system is the result of voter ignorance and frustration with politics as usual.

“We have not managed to get the European Union close to the citizen, in the sense that the average citizen doesn’t understand the EU very well. It’s complicated to explain,” he said.“And in moments of crisis, there’s always the temptation to say the fault is in Brussels. So in these elections, what people do is react in nationalistic terms.

They vote against their governments.”

Yet Spanish citizens have also begun souring on the monarchy, which not long ago consistently ranked among the country’s most respected institutions.

On June 2, King Juan Carlos — who had reigned since 1975 and shepherded the country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy — announced he would abdicate in favor of his son, Prince Felipe, following a series of scandals and mishaps that have plagued the 76-year-old ruler for the past three years. The king’s son-inlaw was investigated for fraud and he and his wife, Princess Cristina, were shut out of official royal engagements. Anti-monarchy sentiment increased when the king himself admitted that he had taken an expensive elephant-hunting trip to Botswana at a time when millions of Spaniards were standing on unemployment lines.

As such, King Felipe VI’s ascension to the throne comes amidst a hostile environment for Spain’s royal family and growing demands by leftists for a referendum on the future of the monarchy itself.

“People are looking at the new king as a sign that things will start to change,” said Gil-Casares.

“Felipe was a Washingtonian in the sense that he

Spain at a Glance Independence: 1492 Location: Southwestern Europe, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, Portugal and France Capital: Madrid Size: Largest country in South America Population: 47.7 million (July 2014 estimate) Life expectancy: 81.4 years Religions: Roman Catholic 94 percent, other 6 percent GDP (purchasing power parity): $1.3 trillion (2013 estimate) GDP per-capita: $30,100 (2013 estimate) GDP growth: -1.3 percent (2013 estimate) Unemployment: 26.3 percent (2013 estimate) Population below poverty line: 21.1 percent (2012 estimate) Exports: Machinery, motor vehicles, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, medicines, other consumer goods Imports: Machinery and equipment, fuels, chemicals, semi-finished goods, foodstuffs, consumer goods, measuring and medical control instruments

Source: CIA World Factbook

studied at Georgetown University for three years.

He’s 46 and a sign of generational change. We think it’s going to be good.”

Palace intrigue aside, Gil-Casares said he’s focusing on luring potential U.S. investors to Spain while highlighting his country’s long relationship with the United States and its obvious advantage in reaching the nation’s huge Spanishspeaking market.

“When I meet with American investors, I tell them, ‘Listen, you’re going to a country that because of our past prosperity probably has one

of the best infrastructures in Europe. The cost of living has gone down because of the crisis, and the productivity of our workers has increased because of labor reforms.’”

The ambassador said 800 U.S. firms now operate in Spain, where they employ 150,000 people.

Total U.S. investment in his country stands at roughly $47 billion.

The push toward investing abroad is in fact a transatlantic phenomenon.

“One of the consequences of this crisis is that many Spanish firms are looking abroad for oppor-

tunities they don’t find at home anymore,” GilCasares said. “In the late 1990s, we started to invest in Latin America, but all of a sudden, the big companies have turned to the United States.”

In 2011, total Spanish investment in the United States stood at €48 billion, up from €42.8 billion in 2010 and €13.6 billion in 2007, the year the crisis hit.That investment is concentrated mainly in Florida, California, Texas, New York and other states with large Spanish-speaking populations.

“Our main objective as an embassy is to raise awareness of the traditional links between Spain and the United States. Even before this country became a country, the first European who set foot on the mainland was Juan Ponce de León.

And the first city was St. Augustine [Florida], settled by Spaniards in 1565.”

The ambassador predicted that ultimately, this country’s fast-growing Hispanic population could be a real “game-changer” for Spain.

“According to all forecasts, the Hispanic minority will become much more important in the future. By 2050, white non-Hispanics will form 47 percent of the U.S. population, and Hispanics will be 29 percent,” he said. “This benefits Spain, because we think we have a much better product than is understood in this country. We encourage Hispanic leaders to profit from the opportunity our country might bring them.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

Follow The Diplomat Connect at www.washdiplomat.com.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 15

Diplomacy

Washington, D.C.

Bland State Department Statements Say A Lot About U.S. Foreign Policy

by Dave Seminara

T

he United States has been called the planet’s one indispensible nation in world affairs. And with that role comes the responsibility to weigh in on seemingly everything that’s happening in every corner of the globe, from routine national day messages to more serious matters such as elections, wars, natural disasters and acts of terrorism.

In May, the State Department published more than 200 press releases, posted hundreds of updates to its Facebook page and tweeted with gusto. These communiqués, particularly the press releases, are often filled with platitudes about common interests and shared values. But a close look at them reveals a lot about America’s bilateral relations with other countries — how they change over time, and what matters most about that country to U.S. policymakers.

“The State Department churns out a lot,” said Tara Sonenshine, a former undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department who is now a distinguished fellow at the George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. “There is almost an overflow of press releases, but if you are going to do one you have to do them all. If you’re the regional assistant secretary of state or the ambassador or the public affairs person working on a specific country, you want to make sure your country feels loved.”

The least controversial press releases the State Department sends out are congratulatory messages to countries on their national days or during important religious holidays, such as Nowruz, which is celebrated in Iran and other countries in the region. National day messages are rarely controversial and attract little attention, but they also serve as succinct snapshots of America’s bilateral relations with a given country at that moment.

They are often drafted by lower-level employees, typically State Department desk officers who are both Foreign and Civil Service. But the texts they draft have to be cleared by a large array of other offices within the State Department bureaucracy, so the language is carefully vetted.

The tone that the State Department uses can change in a flash. For example, in February the State Department issued a press release, sent in Secretary of State John Kerry’s name, effusively praising Brunei, a tiny oil-rich kingdom in Southeast Asia, as “wonderful” and “commendable” on its national day.

“The friendship between our two countries goes back more than 160 years.The depth and value of this relationship was plain for me to see during my two visits to your wonderful ‘Abode of Peace’ last year,” the release said.

“Brunei’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations during 2013 was commendable in every way.”

Just weeks later, though, the Sultan of Brunei introduced harsh new criminal penalties, based on Sharia law, targeting gays and unmarried persons who commit adul-

Page 16

“

There is almost an overflow of press releases, but if you are going to do one you have to do them all.

If you’re the regional assistant secretary of state or the ambassador or the public affairs person working on a specific country, you want to make sure your country feels loved.

— Tara Sonenshine

”

former undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department

tery with punishment such as flogging, severing limbs and death by stoning. The move sparked a boycott of luxury hotels owned by the Sultan that was championed

by Jay Leno, Ellen DeGeneres and other celebrities. The State Department is apparently pushing ahead with a trade deal that would include Brunei, and a spokesperson said only that they were “closely monitoring” how the new rules will be implemented.

“In many respects, these national day messages are the

The State Department issued an effusive statement praising America’s “rich history and enduring alliance” with the Philippines on its Independence Day, perhaps a reflection of Washington’s courtship of the Southeast Asian nation as part of President Obama’s Asia pivot.

only visible comments out there on these countries, so some care should be taken about their content,” said Philip Seib, a professor of journalism, public diplomacy and international relations at the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy. “I suspect that next year the message to Brunei would be toned down or there would be some cautionary inflection added to it.”

National day messages tend to be somewhat cordial, but the State Department also sends subtle messages and not-so-subtle digs buried in them. A recent example of this tactic can be found in the final line of a terse threesentence greeting for Eritrea on its independence day in May: “Know that the government and people of the United States stand beside you in your continued search for the promise of a free, prosperous, and democratic Eritrea.”

The line has the veneer of diplomatic nicety, but make no mistake: The implication here is that Eritrea isn’t free, prosperous or democratic now.

“These messages are directed to the people of those countries,” said Seib.“So that sounds quite appropriate for a country like Eritrea.”

But there is also no guarantee that countries with repressive leaders and no freedom for their citizens will get chilly communiqués. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, which is perennially near the bottom ofTransparency International’s Corruption Index and other human development indices,

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

with an iron hand since 1979. But his country, a your country as you celebrate your Independence popular destination for U.S. investors, received a Day on January 4.” surprisingly cordial national day greeting from Aside from the usual niceties, many of these the State Department in 2013. messages lay bare what America’s key interests in “The United States and Equatorial Guinea that country or region are. For example, recent share many binding ties…. Our close coopera- national day messages directed to Panama and tion on maritime security has contributed to Mauritania refer to the free flow of trade through regional peace and stability. And we remain com- the Panama Canal and the Trans-Sahara mitted to continued collaboration for the benefit Counterterrorism Partnership, respectively — of the Equatoguinean people, especially in the two areas that obviously have no relation to the areas of health and education.” holidays for which the press releases were craftCountries that move toward democracy, such ed in the first place. as Myanmar, feel more love from Washington as In spitting out such a large volume of official they make improvements. In an independence statements, is there a risk that if you say too day message to Myanmar in 2012, the State much, you’ll breed resentment, or that others will Department called for the “release of all political start to tune you out? Seib and Sonenshine prisoners, a halt to hostilities in ethnic areas and believe that the benefits of frequent communicaan inclusive dialogue with ethnic minorities tion outweigh the risks. toward national reconciliation, space for all “In an e-world, two plus two equals 22,” political parties to freely compete in April 1 by- Sonenshine said. “The cumulative effect is you elections, and full implementation of legislation are spreading your love.The counterargument is, to protect universal freedoms of expression, if you don’t, a country feels ignored or disreassembly and association.” spected or irrelevant or forgotten. If you don’t Not exactly a raise-a-glass-and-here’s-to-you recognize a Baltic anniversary, for example, someslap on the back, but greetings in subsequent one in the Foreign Ministry of Lithuania might years were reflective of Myanmar’s tentative say, ‘Estonia and Latvia were recognized, so why moves toward democracy. In 2013, after not us?’ What does it cost? It’s the opportunity Washington re-established normal diplomatic cost of not doing them versus the two minutes it relations with Myanmar, the national day message takes to do them…. I don’t know if you can argue read almost like a successful report card: that it’s wasting anyone’s time or effort.”

“Together, our two countries have been working Seib said that national day and other routine on a number of important issues, and we are press releases might be the only official commupleased with the steady process of reform,” the nication smaller countries receive from the statement said, although it still referred to the United States and thus have value because they country as Burma, a name that’s frowned upon are likely to be picked up by local media in that by the military junta. country.

And whereas the previous year’s message “The audience it reaches, assuming local media started tersely, “January 4, 2012 marks the 64th picks it up, they don’t know there were eight anniversary of Burma’s independence,” the 2013 other messages that went out that day to eight communiqué began, “On behalf of President other countries,” he pointed out.“It gives us some Obama and the people of the United States, I am visibility in those countries. I think it has some delighted to send best wishes to the people of Custom use, asAdvertisement long as a certain amount of care is exer4.75 6.25”

cised to keep the comments in line with policy.”

Indeed, few would doubt that the State Department does exercise care, but perhaps not much creativity or flair in drafting these releases.

Case in point, empty statements like this one, which was a concluding sentiment in a national day message for Equatorial Guinea in 2012: “And we remain committed to working together to meet the challenges of the future.”

That line combines two cherished chestnuts — working together and meeting challenges — but there are a host of other public diplomacy buzzwords and catchphrases that proliferate.

Based on the public statements issued by the State Department, the United States is a country that is perpetually “concerned” about one thing or another. We are “committed to building on partnerships” with just about everyone, we “share binding ties” with seemingly every nation on earth, and we are seriously into peace, prosperity, empowerment, democracy, human rights and plenty of other feel-good “diplospeak.”

Sonenshine says that repeating these ideals and using the same language might not be creative, but it works.

“Those are the evergreen statements,” said Sonenshine, who also served as executive vice president of the U.S. Institute of Peace. “It’s important to keep saying those things.”

She said that as a public diplomacy practitioner, she crafted messages directed at the people of a country, not the government, and focused on the “three Ps: people, principles and policy.”

Sonenshine said the United States invented the press release and that other countries are moving toward its assertive, active approach to public diplomacy.

“We’ve always been a country that is sort of outreach crazed,” she said. “We have a press release tradition. It honors freedom of the press and it’s about telling our American story.”

In May, Great Britain’s Home Office issued 74

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foreign affairs-related press releases,while Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs issued 73, far less than the 207 the State Department pumped out, but more than the United States on a per-capita basis, given our much larger population.

Before the advent of social media, the State Department had to send out press releases and hope they got picked up in order to get their message out. Now anyone can sign up for an email subscription to these press releases, or read State Department or embassy tweets and Facebook posts. Many have argued that as this ability to cut out the middleman — the press — has increased, the level of access and cooperation provided to media outlets has declined, given that these publications and websites are no longer needed to deliver the U.S. government’s message.

But the fast-paced, footloose world of digital diplomacy has its own drawbacks. In an era when one misstep can go viral, a culture of caution predominates. Seib pointed out that in December 2012, the State Department considered a two- to five-day review process for tweets, but ultimately backed off in the face of widespread criticism.

“That was ridiculous,” he said. “Why bother tweeting if you have to wait two days? Some of those institutional procedures have had to change in the face of reality.”

Press releases may be less important in the social media era, but there is no sign that they’re going the way of the dinosaur anytime soon.And people like Seib, who subscribes to them, say that’s a good thing.

“I like to receive them, actually,” he said.

“Wasn’t yesterday Tonga Day? You don’t have to click into everything you get and, hey, it’s pretty easy to delete what you don’t need.”

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

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International Relations

Legal Disputes

Mauritius Lobbies to Regain Control Of Diego Garcia, Site of U.S. Base

by Larry Luxner

D

iego Garcia, a remote speck of land in the middle of the Indian Ocean, rarely makes news. But in recent months, the coral atoll has grabbed the attention of online conspiracy theorists who claim the missing Malaysian Airlines jet secretly landed there as part of some clandestine U.S. military operation.

The obscure island even got a mention in the latest installment of the Fox TV show “24,” as super-agent Jack Bauer rushes to thwart terrorists who’ve hijacked a group of American drones at the exact time that the U.S. president is trying to convince Britain to extend a treaty allowing the use of drones on its base in Diego Garcia.

As dramatic as these references are, they do hint at the island’s strategic value just as the United States, Great Britain and Mauritius prepare for talks on the future of the Chagos archipelago, which includes Diego Garcia.

At issue: Who, exactly, owns this tiny island 1,000 miles east of Mauritius and 2,900 miles northwest of Australia?

In 1965, three years before Mauritius won independence, Great Britain detached the Chagos archipelago from the rest of its then-colony and created the British Indian Ocean Territory to administer the islands from London. The following year, it signed a 50-year treaty with the United States that allowed Americans to establish a military outpost on Diego Garcia; in return, it secured a discount on U.S. Polaris missiles. In the process, Britain kicked out about 2,000 native Chagossians to make way for the American outpost.

In the ensuing years, the Pentagon has spent untold billions of dollars turning Diego Garcia into a satellite tracking station, an enormous air and naval base with a 12,000-foot runway from which bombing raids on both Iraq and Afghanistan have been launched, and — some claim — a secret “black site” where CIA personnel detained and tortured suspected alQaeda terrorists.

At present, 1,700 military personnel and 1,500 civilian contractors live on the island, which is off-limits to tourists and requires U.S. government permission to visit.

The 1966 treaty expires in December

Page 18

Photo: SRA Sarah E Shaw / U.S. Air Force

2016, but requires Washington and London to renegotiate the lease two years earlier — by the end of 2014. Mauritius is lobbying to be included in those talks and, ultimately, regain control of the island.

At the time of the treaty, Britain said the Chagos islands would be returned to Mauritius when they were no longer required for defense purposes, a vague definition that’s open to legal interpretation. So far, the United States has not indicated whether it would sideline

the present agreement with the U.K.” Meetarbhan, who is based in New York, spoke to The Washington Diplomat during a visit here arranged by Mercury Public Affairs, a PR firm representing the Mauritian government.

Despite its remoteness from Mauritius, the envoy said, “We believe the excision of Diego Garcia from Mauritius prior to independence in 1968 was a breach of international law. We’ve always said this was part of our territory, and we’ve

“

We want all three parties — the U.S., the U.K. and Mauritius — to start talking about what happens after 2016…. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of getting it right and putting an end to the last vestige of colonialism in Africa.

”

— Milan J.N. Meetarbhan

ambassador of Mauritius to the United Nations

Britain to give Mauritius a say in the talks.

“Our concern is about sovereignty,” said Milan J.N. Meetarbhan, the Mauritian ambassador to the United Nations. “What we want is that after 2016 … there would be an agreement between the U.S. and Mauritius on the use of Diego Garcia as a military base.The terms of that agreement would in no way be less than the terms of

reached a point now where we think there’s a very good window of opportunity to resolve this dispute.”

The Chagos archipelago consists of half a dozen main islands; Diego Garcia is the largest and southernmost of the chain.

“Diego Garcia has no native inhabitants,” Meetarbhan explained. “When the Americans first expressed interest in hav-

This 1998 aerial view shows the U.S. Naval Station on Diego Garcia, a remote speck of land in the Indian Ocean administered by Great Britain, which signed a 50-year treaty with the United States in 1966 allowing it to build a military outpost there.

ing a military base there, the British told them there was nobody living on the island. Subsequently, when the base was about to be set up, they found about 2,000 people there.All of them were forcibly deported to Mauritius.”

To date, the indigenous population has kept up calls to be resettled on the island.

Complicating matters is Britain’s declaration of a 545,000-square-mile marine reserve around the archipelago. The reserve, announced in April 2010, is now the focus of a hearing by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), a United Nations-backed tribunal based in the Netherlands. The PCA plans to hold a series of proceedings in Turkey, but they will be closed to the public.

Yet a British Foreign Office cable from 2009 that was exposed by WikiLeaks raised suspicion that the marine reserve declaration was just a ploy to keep the Chagossians from ever returning to Diego Garcia.The memo quotes a British official as saying that “former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve,” contemptuously describing them as “Man Fridays.”

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

The memo also noted,however,that Mauritius’s main interest in the territory was its economic potential as a fishery, not its environmental protection — and that U.S.-U.K. stewardship of the island, even though it came at the cost of expelling the native population, has preserved its “pristine” condition.

The British government, which receives no money for leasing Diego Garcia to the Americans, declined to comment on the dispute, calling it a confidential legal matter.

But J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, says Meetarbhan’s argument is “absurd” and has no legal merit whatsoever.

“The fact is, Great Britain was the acknowledged sovereign of the British Empire’s East Indian Ocean territories,” Pham told us.“It chose to divide Diego Garcia and neighboring islands from the rest of Mauritius before independence, and then subsequently gave Mauritius independence and chose to lease Diego Garcia to the United States. Mauritius claims they had no right to redraw the border.”

By that logic, Pham said, southern Somalia must be returned to Kenya — the country that territory once belonged to before Britain gave it to Italy as a reward for the Italians entering World War I on the Allied side.

“There’s a domestic political agenda in Mauritius,” Pham added.“A small group of people who are descendants of those evicted by the British has formed a vocal constituency, which plays well domestically. Two, Mauritius is largely irrelevant, but this raises its profile considerably.”

Pham says there’s “no realistic chance” of Mauritius getting what it wants, no matter how hard it lobbies the Pentagon or Congress.

“If you accept the premise of what they’re

that would enable it to avoid legal and political controversies at a time when it wants to enlist Africa’s help in the war on terrorism and other sensitive issues.

“We want all three parties — the U.S., the U.K. and Mauritius — to start talking about what happens after 2016,” he said. “The U.K. has always said the islands would be returned to Mauritius once they are no longer required for defense purposes. So if these defense purposes can be met by an agreement between Mauritius and the United States, there’s no point to continue this dispute.”

Meetarbhan said that ultimately, “it’s for the United States to decide” the fate of Diego Garcia, whose original inhabitants were offered limited compensation in the 1980s.The ambassador told us he doesn’t expect the Pentagon to give up its NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure ad isoutpost free of mistakes in spelling and most your important in the Indian Ocean — PHOTO: SENIOR AIRMAN REBECA M. LUQUIN / U.S. AIR FORCE content it is ultimately up to thejust customer finalinhabitants. proof. to respectto themake island’sthe original “The Chagossians are asking for the right of our economy was nothing sugar. at return, to visit the graves of their subsequent ancestors. The change arguing, we’d be opening so many cans of The when first two faxed changes willexcept be made no cost to the advertiser, worms around the world, there’d be no end to it,” We’ve diversified and now sugar is less than 10 African Union has adopted a unanimous resolube billed at aGDP, rate of $75 per Signed adswe’ve are had considered approved. of our ” Meetarbhan said.faxed Thesealteration. tion supporting us, and a similar resothe Africa expert warned. “Diego Garcia, as our willpercent recent wars in the Middle East have shown, has days, garment manufacturing, tourism and finan- lution adopted by the Non-Aligned Movement,” economy. he said.

“At any the end of the day,toit’syour a matter been a critical part of the U.S. military infrastruc- cial services dominate Please the check this ad carefully.

Mark changes ad.of getYet the ambassador says solving the Chagos ting it right and putting an end to the last vestige ture overseas. We’re not going to turn on an ally of colonialism in Africa.” such as Great Britain because of the domestic archipelago dispute is “a matter of principle.”

If the ad“We is correct sign and to: We (301) needs changes are not talking aboutfax money. think949-0065 it political considerations of a country that doesn’t was wrong and unfair to deport these people. It Larry Luxner is news editor of The even maintain an embassy in Washington.” was wrong toDiplomat detach part of our territory.

Mauritius does, in fact, have a Washington Washington Diplomat.

The Washington (301) Now 933-3552 embassy on N Street, though the dispute over that this agreement is going to expire, we think Diego Garcia is being handled by the country’s it’s an opportune time for the United States in Approved __________________________________________________________ particular to be on the right side of history,” he U.N. mission in New York.

A prosperous nation of 1.3 million inhabitants, said, adding that “nobody’s living [on Diego Changes ___________________________________________________________ Mauritius is Africa’s highest-ranking country Garcia], but obviously if this is part of Mauritian ___________________________________________________________________ when it comes to good governance and ease of territory, the prohibitions applied by the U.K. on Get the latest diplomatic news. doing business. And its annual per-capita GDP of visiting these islands will be lifted.”

Sign up at www.washdiplomat.com. nearly $10,000 is among the continent’s highest.

Meetarbhan insists that it is in Washington’s “We’ve come a long way since independence, interests to resolve the matter, especially because b-1b lancer bombers take off from Diego Garcia at the start of the war in Afghanistan in October 2001.

The Pentagon has spent untold billions of dollars turning Diego Garcia into a satellite tracking station, an enormous air and naval base and, some claim, a secret CIA “black site.”

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The Washington Diplomat Page 19

Book Review

Michael Ignatieff

Into the Fire: Academic Emerges From Political Plunge Enlightened

by John Shaw

I

t’s been said that no one loses an argument in their memoir. This refers to the timeless tendency of people to recall events in their lives in ways that are flattering to them — a tendency that’s especially pronounced among politicians.

However, in his memoir “Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics,” Michael Ignatieff not only loses arguments, but he occasionally obfuscates, evades and calculates. Ignatieff even describes in considerable detail how he got trounced in a critical election.

“Fire and Ashes” is a strikingly honest book by a man who left a successful career as an academic, author and journalist to run for political office in Canada. He won a seat in Parliament, captured the Liberal Party leadership, and almost became prime minister. But he then suffered a decisive and apparently political career-ending defeat.

Ignatieff decided to write about the ordeal, hoping his defeat can help others pursue more productive political careers. While Ignatieff’s loss was personally and professionally painful, it also inspired him to reflect on “this politics, this brutal game, this dramatic encounter between fate and will, malignity and nobility.” Crushing failure provided him with a unique perspective that he describes candidly. “I’ve earned the right to praise a life that did not go so well for me,” he writes.

“Fire and Ashes” is a blunt and provocative book that does not seem orchestrated to help Ignatieff relaunch his political career. Rather, it’s a harsh critique of contemporary democratic politics and his own highly flawed participation in it.

Before running for office, Ignatieff had successful careers as a professor, historian and writer, primarily in the United Kingdom and United States. The son of a Canadian diplomat, Ignatieff was born in Canada but moved frequently as a boy and young man. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and a doctorate in history from Harvard University, where he currently teaches. He has written 17 books; worked as a documentary filmmaker and newspaper columnist; and has taught at the University of British Columbia, Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

While teaching at Harvard in 2004, Ignatieff was approached by several Canadian political operatives who urged him to return to Canada, run for a seat in the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party, and prepare to run for party leader. They said they wanted Ignatieff to rebuild the Liberal Party, which was then headed for defeat, and eventually become prime minister of Canada.

Ignatieff’s electoral prospects were complicated because he had not lived in Canada for 30 years. While maintaining an emotional connection to his homeland, his career took him abroad. But he proudly recalled his father’s diplomatic work for several Canadian prime ministers, especially Lester Pearson, and he admired intellectuals who entered politics such as Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa, the Czech Republic’s Václav Havel and Mexico’s Carlos Fuentes.

So he returned to Canada and set his sights on

Page 20

Photo: Harvard University Press

“

Within a year of entering politics, I had the disoriented feeling of having been taken over by a doppelganger, a strange new persona I could barely recognize when I looked at myself in the mirror…. I had never been so well dressed in my life and had never felt so hollow.

”

— Michael Ignatieff

author of “Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics”

Parliament. Ignatieff acknowledges he’s not certain why he decided to plunge into electoral politics, surmising that patriotism, opportunity, family responsibility and ambition were all factors. “I want to explain how it becomes possible for an otherwise sensible person to turn his life upside down for the sake of a dream, or to put it less charitably, why a person like me succumbed, so helplessly to hubris,” he writes.

In January 2006, Ignatieff ran for and won a seat in the House of Commons representing the Etobicoke-Lakeshore district, which is outside of Toronto. Eight weeks after winning a seat in Parliament, he announced he would run to become leader of the Liberal Party, narrowly losing the

race to Stéphane Dion. Disappointed, Ignatieff joined Dion’s leadership team. As Ignatieff puts it, he “wiped the frown off my face and fell in behind the new leader. I applauded his speeches, gave advice that was mostly ignored, never raised the flag of discord and bided my time.” When Dion led the Liberal Party to defeat in 2008, he resigned and Ignatieff ran to replace him and won.

As head of the Liberal Party from 2008 to 2011, Ignatieff tried to rebuild and re-energize the centrist party that had dominated Canadian politics for most of the 20th century but had been steadily losing support to the Conservative Party on the right and the New Democratic Party on the left. He tried to fashion a policy agenda based on environmental stewardship, international leadership, strengthening the social safety net, protecting the economy from systemic risk, and fighting for greater equality.

Ignatieff turned down an opportunity in December 2008 to form a coalition government with the New Democratic Party that would have made him prime minister. He thought the move would be viewed as unseemly and cynical because the opening came after an election in which the Conservative Party won more seats than either the Liberals or the New Democrats.

He focused instead on trying to revive the Liberal Party, but his party was browbeaten in the 2011 election, with Ignatieff even losing his own seat.

Ignatieff left politics and returned to academia. He now teaches at the University of Toronto and Harvard and wrote “Fire and Ashes” to make sense of a turbulent political career that began with great hope and ended in crushing defeat. “I pursued the flame of power and saw hope dwindle to ashes,” he writes.

The most important lesson he learned from his brief but packed political career, Ignatieff says, is that it’s essential to know why you are going into politics. He muses on his possible motives: enjoying the perks of the job, acquiring power and fame, settling old scores, and proving himself to everyone who said he would never be successful. Ignatieff concludes he entered politics because he thought his parents would have wanted it, but adds that this was a mistake. “You can’t lead a political life to live up to your parents,” he writes, declaring that a sense of mission and vocation are necessary for a consequential political career.

Successful politicians, he believes, need a narrative to incorporate their personal ambitions into a broader story about their country.“A compelling narrative allows you to present yourself to the nation and party and gives you standing, a foundation from which to argue and promote positions,” he writes.“Without a narrative that defines the messenger as one with the audience he wants to reach, no message can get a hearing.”

Ignatieff says the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, launched an aggressive campaign to define him as an opportunist who returned to

The Washington Diplomat

See book review, page 22 July 2014

MEDICAL

Doctors

Better Bedside Manner: Worth the Investment?

by Gina Shaw

T

en years ago this summer, I was in the middle of chemotherapy for breast cancer. When I first met the medical oncologist who would be managing my care while I endured 16 weeks of toxic chemicals coursing through my veins, she was more than an hour late to our first appointment.

I was annoyed. At first.

Then she arrived, apologized profusely for her lateness, and sat down with me in her office and shut the door. We talked for over an hour. She answered every question I had. She never once looked at her watch, or at the door, or made me feel like she had anywhere else she needed to be except right there with me, being my doctor.

I soon learned that this was the way she was. If you had an appointment, she might be a little late or very late, but none of her patients minded — because we knew why. She was taking as much time with the person right before us as she would take with us. We all got as much of her time as we needed and 100 percent of her attention every minute she was in the room with us.

Needless to say, that’s not how most encounters with doctors go these days. It’s been a full 30 years since the Annals of Internal Medicine published a well-known study that found the average amount of time a patient was allowed to speak before the doctor interrupted was a paltry 18 seconds. Over the intervening years, reams of medical curricula, pages and pages of scholarly research, and hours upon hours of discussion among medical leaders have been devoted to the deficiencies in many doctors’ bedside manners.

And yet things don’t seem to be improving — if anything, they may be getting worse. In a 2001 study of medical residents in primary care published by the journal Family Medicine, patients were allowed to speak for only 12 seconds, on average, before being interrupted.

And just last year, a study from Johns Hopkins published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine found that internal medicine interns — residents in their first year out of medical school — only introduced themselves to their patients 40 percent of the time, explained their role 37 percent of the time, and sat down just 9 percent of the time.

These more recent studies are particularly dispiriting because they involve medical residents — doctors fresh out of training, with that “new doctor smell” still clinging to their white lab coats. Medical schools have been trumpeting their efforts to teach better bedside manner for at least a decade, many much longer. But has any of it been sinking in?

Perhaps some doctors, whether newly minted or long in practice, remain unconvinced of the real clinical importance of good patient communication. Most doctors enter medicine because they want to help people, and all but the brusquest probably wish they had more time to spend with their patients than seems feasible in today’s frenzied health care system. But if good bedside manner falls through the cracks sometimes, does it really harm the patient?

Photo: Corbis

Good patient communication actually does as much to improve outcomes for some chronic conditions as many well-established medical treatments.

Apparently so — or at least, the reverse is true: Good patient communication actually does as much to improve outcomes for some chronic conditions as many wellestablished medical treatments, according to a recent review of studies related to bedside manner and the doctor-patient relationship.

The study, published in the online journal PLOS ONE in April, analyzed outcomes from 13 randomized controlled trials in which physicians received various types of training or other programming designed to improve their relationships with patients.

The authors, led by John Kelley, a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, found that relationshipfocused training had a “small but statistically significant” effect on measurable health outcomes in patients with obesity, diabetes, asthma or osteoarthritis. In fact, improved doctor-patient communication was more effective at preventing heart attack than low-dose aspirin or cholesterol-lowering statins.

So doctors like mine — the ones who actually sit down and listen to their patients instead of lingering at the door — can improve patients’ health in measurable ways, not just make the experience of going to the doctor less unpleasant.

Going forward, we’ll have to see if some of the mandates of the Affordable Care Act can help make those doctors more the rule than the exception. At the

moment, some private insurance carriers, particularly HMOs, dictate the length of time each visit should take (some routine consultations, for example, amount to 15 minutes).

Starting this year, part of each hospital’s payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is linked to a set of quality measures that include something called the “Patient Experience of Care Domain,” a score that’s based on a national patient survey that asks questions about things like communication with doctors and nurses and the responsiveness of hospital staff.

Many hospitals are now adding a new high-level staff role called the “chief experience officer” (the Cleveland Clinic lays claim to being the first).That might sound like a Club Med kind of job, and in fact most of the people filling these posts come from the hospitality industry rather than from health care (although the Cleveland Clinic’s CXO is a colorectal surgeon).

And last month, more than 2,100 health care professionals from 49 states and 39 countries attended the fifth annual Patient Experience: Empathy + Innovation Summit, with session titles such as “Compassionate Connectedness,”“Communicating Empathy” and “Lessons Learned on Building a Physician Communication Program.”

It’s encouraging to see all this attention — both carrots and sticks — focused on improving doctor-patient communication and the patient experience in general.

What it will translate to in the real world remains to be seen. But despite the false starts we’ve had so far, it’s an effort worth making. While the medical care I received 10 years ago is what saved my life, the “compassionate connectedness” of my oncologist played an enormous role in sustaining me at one of the hardest times in my life.That’s medicine at its best.

Gina Shaw is the medical writer for The Washington Diplomat.

July 2014

The Washington Diplomat Page 21

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Page 22

from page 20

Book Review Canada just for political power, labeling him with such phrases as “Just Visiting” and “He Didn’t Come Back for You.” Ignatieff says this line of attack was both cynical and effective.

“He [Harper] didn’t attack what I said. He attacked my right to say anything at all. He denied me standing in my own country,” Ignatieff writes. “Standing has become the primary area of combat in modern politics.You no longer attack a candidate’s ideas or positions.

You attack who they are.”

Ignatieff argues that winning candidates need to secure their standing because it gives them the authority to make their case and get a fair hearing. Standing will not guarantee success, but it is necessary to be competitive.“You have to go out and earn it, face to face, doorstep to doorstep, phone call by phone call,” he says.

Ignatieff notes that Italian politician Niccolò Machiavelli understood the importance of good fortune (“Fortuna”) 500 years ago and his insights remain true today. “Politics plays itself out beneath the gaze of a fickle goddess.

Practical politics is no science but rather the ceaseless attempts of wily humans to adapt to what Fortuna throws in their paths. Its basic skills can be learned but they cannot be taught,” the author writes.“What we call luck in politics is actually a gift for timing, for knowing when to strike and when to bide your time and wait for a better opportunity.”

Ignatieff observes ruefully that some of the greatest classics of political theory were written by those who had only modestly successful political careers, such as Machiavelli, Cicero, Edmund Burke, James Madison and Max Weber.

This convinces him that theoretical acumen is more often linked with political failure than success. Book smarts only takes you so far in politics, he says, adding that successful politicians are usually adaptable, cunning, intuitive and respond decisively to changing circumstances. They also have “the noble capacity to lead, to charm, and to inspire.”

Unvarnished candor is not possible in politics, Ignatieff concludes. “In politics calling a fact a fact can be the equivalent of pulling the pin out of a hand grenade,” he wrote.

Politics, he says, is “unlike any word game you have ever played,” and that “freely expressing yourself is a luxury you can’t afford. Your language, like your personality, becomes guarded.”

Those entering politics should set aside some of their idealism and recognize that spontaneity doesn’t work. “In the strange kabuki play of a press conference or interview, candor is a temptation best avoided. Be candid if you can, be strategic if you must. All truth is good, the African proverb goes, but not all truth is good to say. You never try to lie, but you don’t have to answer the question you’re asked, only the question you want to answer,” he advises.

Ignatieff argues that politicians also must be perpetually on their guard and aware that their personalities will change as they deal with the onslaught of attention from the press and public.

“As you submit to the compromises demanded by public life, your public self begins to alter the person inside. Within a year of entering politics, I had the disoriented feeling of having been taken over by a doppelganger, a strange new persona I could barely recognize when I looked at myself in the mirror,” Ignatieff recalled. “I had never been so well dressed in my life and had never felt so hollow. Looking back now, I would say that some sense of hollowness, some sense of a divide between the face you present to the world and the face you reserve for the mirror, is a sign of mental health.

It’s when you no longer notice that the public self has taken over the private self that trouble starts…. You become your smile, the fixed rictus of geniality that politics demands of you.”

Ignatieff laments the harsh partisanship that now infects politics, as elected officials adhere to the party line and rarely meet or speak with

Photo: Harvard University Press

Michael Ignatieff left a successful career as an academic, author and journalist to run for political office in Canada.

members across the aisle. “Partisanship divides an already divided society and turns adversaries into enemies. An adversary has to be defeated, while an enemy has to be destroyed. You cannot compromise with enemies. With adversaries compromise is possible. An adversary today can become an ally tomorrow,” he points out.

Ignatieff complains that this new era of the permanent campaign forces politicians to try to define and even demonize members of other parties rather than search for common ground. He calls for civility, which he describes as the recognition that your opponent’s integrity and sincerity is equal to your own.

Trying to end his book on an upbeat note, Ignatieff hopes his failures can help others who are contemplating a similar career path.

Those who want to wade into the tinderbox of politics should do so with passion and fearlessness — and should have a private life that they can return to if they fail, he suggests.

“Don’t be afraid to take the plunge and don’t be afraid to fail. If you can free yourself of the idea that failure is a disgrace, you won’t be crushed by it and you won’t be spoiled by success either. Strive for success and don’t allow any excuses for failure, but above all learn equanimity,” he writes. “Since Fortuna largely determines political careers, you have no reason to rail at fate if she turns against you. Don’t make the mistake of supposing you control your fate. That’s called hubris.”

“Fire and Ashes” is a rich and rewarding book that will stay with you long after finishing it. Ignatieff raises many far-reaching questions about modern politics, including the central question of failure. Can pragmatic, problemsolving centrists survive and prosper in an era of hyper-partisanship, polarization and permanent campaigns? Can a politician advocating unspectacular themes such as community and stewardship stir voters enough to win elections? Recent electoral results are not encouraging.

But Ignatieff strives to remind readers that politics need not be a blood sport. “Politics is not war; it is our only reliable alternative to it,” he writes. He adds that answering the call of public service is more important than success or failure in elections. But everyone should be aware that things can go badly. “Knowing that you can lose is the best guarantee that you can stay honest,” he writes, reminding us that in politics, as in sports, most careers “eventually end in tears.”

John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

T R A V E L &

HOTELS ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ July 2014

Raise a Glass

BBG Lounge in Capital Hotels’s Beacon Hotel PHoto: www.HerastudIos.com / caPItal Hotels & suItes

In Spirited Evolution, Mixologists Shake Things Up at Hotel Bars by Martin Austermuhle

If a hotel bar doesn’t strike you as a city’s scene-defining attraction, don’t worry, you’re probably not alone. Hotel bars have long been known more for their utility than their experience; it might be a place to get a drink, but only because it’s downstairs and you’re willing to settle.

Continued on next page

■ INSIDE: The Obama administration is trying to make it easier for foreign travelers to visit the United States. PAGE 25 ■

July 2014

TRAVEL & HOTELS

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23

Continued from previous page But as D.C.’s drinking culture has matured and grown more sophisticated in recent years, many hotel bars have opted to up their game instead of resting on their laurels — in much the same way that hotel restaurants have evolved into a distinct dining experience. More hotels are hiring bartenders — or “mixologists” in the new parlance — to design drink menus that both embrace and expand upon traditional cocktails.These same properties are marketing their bars as destinations to tourists and locals alike.

“There’s a cocktail renaissance. You can’t be stuffy anymore.You have to keep up with the bars outside to be able to draw attention,” said Orcun Turkay, director of beverage and mixology at the St. Regis’s bar and restaurant, Decanter.The bar was renovated last year, and Turkay, who came to the St. Regis after a long career at the W, was tasked with

PHoto: mIcHael wIse / caPella

the Rye concerto, rye Bar limeade and Imperfect martini are some of the summertime concoctions at the capella hotel.

“There’s a cocktail renaissance. You can’t be stuffy anymore. You have to keep up with the bars outside to be able to draw attention.”

— oRcuN tuRkAy director of beverage and mixology at the st. regis

developing a beverage program to match the restaurant’s Mediterranean-inspired fare.

(Before being Decanter, the hotel’s restaurant was Alain Ducasse’s Adour, which closed in May 2013.)

“Washington has elevated its game in terms of food and beverage. I would say in the last 15 years there’s been a great upsurge in that,” said Hector Torres, general manager of the Beacon Hotel & Corporate Quarters in Dupont Circle and vice president of Capital Hotels & Suites. And as the city’s PHoto: danIel swartz residents have come to expect more from local restaurants and bars, hotels — many of parties and tourists, the weeknights are for At the Rye Bar in the capella hotel in them located in areas trafficked heavily by local office workers.)

Georgetown, head mixologist angel cervantes Torres says it’s that support — and the strives to create more modern cocktails. office workers or residents — have similarly improved offerings to satisfy their closest growing expectations for what a bar and restaurant should offer — that led him to offered this year — Turkay walked an audiclientele.

“This is really a community. This is very design a creative menu of cocktails and ence of six through the basics of some of his local-oriented. We’re very happy to say that appetizers paired by price increments: The cocktails, focusing on the theme of egg we’re sustained, a good portion, by our local Mint Julep and Gringo Nachos cost $5 each, whites. He taught the group, which included clientele,”Torres said of the Beacon’s bar and an Absolut Collins and sweet pea hummus this reporter, how to make a Whiskey Sour grille. “We would not survive, frankly, if it both cost $6, and so on up to $10.The cock- and Pisco Sour, as well as two of his own were not for local support.” (Turkay says tails range from classic to experimental; the concoctions, one revolving around cherry much the same of the St. Regis; while its Paloma-rita is a margarita made with habane- liqueur, the other around lavender bitters.

NOTE: Although every effort is made istoanassure ad isstruck free of in spelling and ro-infused tequila, while the Portlandia Eachyour cocktail a mistakes delicate balance weekend crowd may consist of wedding inventivecontent take on Manhattan flavors — fresh and it isthe ultimately up that to thebetween customer to make the lime final juice proof. includes DC Brau beer, made locally in simple syrup served as a base, while the egg Washington. whites added texture and the bitters a pleas- changes The first two faxed changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent Meanwhile, the St. Regis plays on its his- ant contrast. will be at a rate $75 Signed ads are considered approved. torybilled — it opened its of doors in per 1926faxed as thealteration.

At the Rye Bar in the Capella hotel in Carlton Hotel — to craft a cocktail menu Georgetown, head mixologist Angel Pleasetocheck this ad carefully.Cervantes Mark any ad.more that pays homage the classics. sayschanges he strivestotoyour create Turkay noted that the hotel’s bar was the modern cocktails, which he defines as posfirst wine barand afterfax prohibition ended. sessing complexity that changes drinkers may more If the adcity’s is correct sign to: (301) 949-0065 needs As such, he focuses on pre-prohibition cock- often associate with wine. “Modern cocktail tails like the Old Fashioned, the Side Car and making is mixing flavors together and makThe Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 the Manhattan, as well as seasonal offerings ing something new,” he told us. he designs himself (in May, he came up with Cervantes, who has worked in restaurants Edible Watermelon).

Approvedthe__________________________________________________________ ranging from Red Sage to Michel Richard’s For him, the key is to hew to the originals Citronelle, recently led a cocktail class — Changes ___________________________________________________________ as much as possible while using high-quality which he says are popular with couples — ___________________________________________________________________ ingredients, including locally distilled liquors of his own from the bar’s rooftop deck like Green Hat Gin, made in a small distillery overlooking the C&O Canal and Georgetown in Northeast Washington. “We don’t go too Waterfront. Mixing standard bar mixers with crazy with ingredients. Personally, I like sim- a wide collection of rye whiskeys and hardplicity,” he said, noting that four ingredients to-find liqueurs like English shrub (a vinegarusually do the trick. see cocktAIlS, page 26 At a recent cocktail class — the third he

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July 2014

[ tourism ]

Bigger Welcome Mat National Tourism Strategy Aims to Make Visiting U.S. Easier

by Stephanie Kanowitz

T

he White House is making strides toward its goal of attracting 100 million international visitors to the United States annually by the end of 2021, according to a new progress report on President Obama’s National Travel and Tourism Strategy.

When he launched the tourism initiative in 2012, Obama declared America “open for business” and sought ways to make traveling to the U.S. smoother and more attractive.

“We are on track to meet our goal, and we have made significant progress on specific actions to encourage and make it easier for international travelers to visit the United States,” says a report issued in May by the White House.

America’s travel and tourism industry is a key economic driver, supporting 8 million jobs last year.

While the United States remains a top tourism destination, the logistical headaches of visa applications and tighter security restrictions in the wake of 9/11 deter many foreigners from visiting. The hassles of coming to America are acutely felt in emerging nations such as Brazil and China, where a growing middle class is opting to vacation elsewhere because of lengthy wait times and onerous fees to get a U.S. visa and long distances to reach U.S. consulates.

The White House cites specific successes in minimizing these irritants. Among them: The State Department issued 9.2 million visas in 2013, up 42 percent since 2010; wait times for visas in Brazil and China dropped from 100 days to less than five on average; Greece, Taiwan and Chile joined the 35 countries in the Visa Waiver Program; and there was a 60 percent increase in the number of people who have access to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol’s Trusted Traveler Programs, which expedite pre-approved, lowrisk travelers.

The number of visitors to the United States has increased by 78 percent since 2001, when tourism took a major hit after the Sept.

11 terrorist attacks, from 39.2 million that — Patricia Rojas-Ungár year to 69.8 million in 2013, according to the vice president of government relations Commerce Department. Those nearly 70 milfor the U.S. Travel Association lion tourists spent a record $181 billion while here last year. Each overseas visitor spends on average $4,500 per visit at American hotels, shops, economics in everything we do,” the official said. restaurants and other local businesses.

“We’ve sharpened our thinking about how market Additionally, every 65 international visitors create forces can advance foreign policy goals. We’ve made one American job in the $1.5 trillion travel and tour- it easier for businesses to work with our embassies, ism industry. “The United States leads the world in as consular officers continue to facilitate legitimate revenues from international travel and tourism and tourism to the United States.” ranks second in the number of international visitors,” For instance, State has invested millions of dollars the report states. on existing and new facilities in Brazil, China, India Because tourism is a major contributor to the U.S. and Mexico, which accounted for almost half of the economy, Obama wants to bring in even more guests. visas issued last year. It also hired more officers in So the president tasked the State Department and China and Brazil, which increased capacity by about other travel-related agencies such as the Homeland 600,000 and 700,000 interviews, respectively.

Security Department with cutting some of the red Moreover, the department is implementing the tap and improving the visa application and entry Global Support Strategy (GSS) to make the visa appliprocess, according to a State official. cation process — the first impression many foreign“The Department of State has elevated the role of ers have of the U.S. government — easier. Visitors

“We really think that the best ambassadors to the U.S. are actual American citizens here in our country.”

July 2014

TRAVEL & HOTELS

Photo: wyuey / BigStock

Tourists take in the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Obama administration is trying to make it easier for foreign travelers to visit the U.S. by streamlining the visa application and airport entry processes.

receive application information, schedule appointments, pay fees, arrange for document delivery and in some cases provide fingerprints through one interface before they go to the consular section for their interviews.

“GSS services will soon be provided for 99 percent of our worldwide visa volume,” the State official said.

“GSS replaced the previous contractor-provided visa support services at overseas posts with a single contract and comprehensive process for logistical arrangements preceding the actual adjudication process. The system has allowed consular managers to increase per-officer adjudications without adding staff, has improved transparency, and has established uniform service standards and goals.”

For example, under GSS, 14 applicant service centers in Mexico allow visa renewal applicants to complete much of their processing in one visit that averages 20 minutes or less. The result is lower costs to applicants, the official said, because third-party fees are gone.

Additionally, State officials now interview more than 92 percent of applicants within three weeks of

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25

“Research has shown that when people come to the United States, they’re more likely to have a better impression of Americans, our culture and our policies, so we do believe that this is the best foreign policy out there.”

— Patricia Rojas-Ungár vice president of government relations for the U.S. Travel Association

Continued from previous page their appointment request, the official noted.

“They instituted changes that have really made the process more efficient without taking away the security protocols,” said Patricia Rojas-Ungár, vice president of government relations at the U.S.Travel Association.

The association surveyed 1,200 overseas travelers in 2013 and found that 43 percent said they would recommend avoiding a trip to the United States because of hassles with the entry process.

“The fastest way to grow our international inbound travel is by increasing the Visa Waiver Program,” Rojas-Ungár said.“We’d like to see new countries added to the program,” such as Brazil, Croatia, Israel and Poland.

She would also like to see the term length for multiple entries on one visa for Chinese nationals extended from one year to at least five. For Brazilians, U.S. visas are good for 10 years.

“That means there are less people doing renewals who are clogging up the line,” RojasUngár said.

Overseas tourism is about more than the economy, however. It can also help foster international diplomacy.

“We really think that the best ambassadors to the U.S. are actual American citizens here in our country,” Rojas-Ungár said, “and research has shown that when people come to the United States, they’re more likely to have a better impression of Americans, our culture and our policies, so we do believe that this is the best foreign policy out there.”

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

A Legendary Hotel Located on Pennsylvania Avenue in the Nation’s Capital… Truly Inspirational

The Melrose Hotel Ms. Ella Savon, Diplomatic Relations 202.463.2391 ella.savon@melrosehoteldc.com

2430 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington DC 20037 202.955.6400 www.melrosehoteldc.com

Photo: Dakota Fine / St. Regis

from page 24

Cocktails

Orcun Turkay is the director of beverage and mixology at the St. Regis’s new bar and restaurant, Decanter.

based liquor mixed with fruit), Cervantes produced cocktails like the Rye Bar Limeade (lime juice, rye whiskey, Campari and lavender syrup), Golden Rain (shrub, absinthe, rye, lemon juice, simple syrup) and his take on a mojito, which replaced rum for rye and mint for basil.

Like Turkay and many other cocktail slingers in town, Cervantes says that making the drinks fresh and from scratch matters.“It makes a difference,” he said, and one that more discerning drinkers will notice.

Torres, who has worked in the hospitality industry for 35 years, finds middle ground between Turkay’s simple-is-best approach and Cervantes’s more experimental mixing.

“The classics are coming back, but remodified.You’ve got classically inspired cocktails … but very innovatively presented.You play with that experimentation,” he said.

“In many ways, a good mixologist is the equivalent of a damn good chef,” Torres added.“There’s a lot of competition being able to show not only a savviness, but also your taste in creating beautifully prepared drinks that are different or make reference to the past, but they’re your reinvention.”

All of these sophisticated offerings emerging in Washington’s hotel bars reflect a city that has become more exciting gastronomically. Hotel bars and restaurants may not face the same bottom-line pressures as stand-alone restaurants, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have to try to remain on the cutting edge of cuisine and cocktail.

They also have to pay attention to another essential part of any bar’s beverage program: wine. In that department, the Ritz-Carlton on 22nd Street has added convenience to its prestigious wine list to satisfy the most discriminating oenophile.

Starting this spring, diners at the Ritz’s Westend Bistro who want to sample some of the finest wines in the world have the luxury of purchasing them by the glass — not the usual method of by the bottle, thanks to a nifty little gadget.

The Coravin is a sleek-looking device that extracts wine via a thin, hollow needle inserted through the cork, leaving the cork in place. The bottle is pressurized with argon, an inert gas, and when the Coravin is removed, the cork reseals itself and the wine is theoretically preserved because it doesn’t come into contact with oxygen.

The Westend Bistro began using the Coravin this spring. The restaurant’s knowledgeable sommelier, Michael H. Kennedy II, also recently attended Chicago’s Auction of Finest and Rarest Wines and brought back highly soughtafter labels to enhance the wine menu.

Meticulously stored in a top private cellar since original purchase, the majority of the new wine additions are items that have never gone to auction before, anywhere in the world. Some of the treasures that were acquired include: 1985 Louis Latour, “BâtardMontrachet” Grand Cru, Puligny-Montrachet, Burgundy; and a 1971 Bouchard Père et Fils, “Clos Vougeot” Grand Cru, Vougeot, Burgundy.

That Louis Latour will run you a hefty $80 for a three-ounce pour or $160 for a six-ounce glass. But compare that to the $640 that the Photo: Ritz-Carlton wine costs per bottle. For a serious wine enthusiast, the chance to try more than one The Ritz-Carlton recently introduced a new world-class vintage without having to pur- program that allows diners at Westend Bistro chase an entire bottle may be worth the to sample world-class bottles of wines by the glass. price.

“To our knowledge, no wine program in the country is offering wines of this caliber and age by the glass,” said Kennedy.

The fierce competition among the city’s upscale hotels has opened the floodgates on inspired beverage offerings designed to attract everyone from the refined wine collector to the hipster office worker looking for the latest hand-made craft cocktail.

It’s a stirring evolution, as D.C.’s hotel bars have transformed from utilitarian watering holes to intoxicating oases of invention.

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

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The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

culture & arts

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

entertainment

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

‘Quiet One’

Impressive Friendship

The Inca Empire arose in the Peruvian highlands in the early 13th century and continues to fascinate historians and archeologists today. But Peru was home to a wealth of culture and civilization long before the Inca — a golden past that sparkles in “Peruvian Gold: Ancient Treasures Unearthed.” PAGE 28

“We have divided our role, but we both build bridges between the two countries,” said Shaista Jilani, the wife of recently appointed Pakistani Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani and the self-described “quiet one” of the two. PAGE 29

ART

The National Gallery of Art explores the long and influential friendship between 19th-century impressionists Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas, providing new depth to our understanding of both artists. PAGE 30

■ JULY 2014

ART

DAZZLING

FIND

ART

Cosmetic Caribbean A new exhibit at the IDB Cultural Center challenges viewers to deepen their perceptions of the Caribbean, using contemporary art to critique the superficiality of today’s image-driven culture. PAGE 31

Photos: Museo Larco, LiMa / Joaquin rubio

DINING

FILM REVIEWS

The team behind Soi 38 reversed the food truck trend by bringing classic Thai street food inside. PAGE 34

“Ai Weiwei The Fake Case” offers a very real portrait of China’s persecution of dissidents. PAGE 36

[ art ]

Shining Past National Geographic Strikes Gold with Ancient Peruvian Artifacts

by Gail Scott

T

he Inca Empire, the largest empire of the pre-Columbian era, arose in the Peruvian highlands in the early 13th century and continues to fascinate historians and archeologists today.

But Peru was also home to a wealth of culture and civilization long before the Inca, and the remnants of that golden past have been dug up in archeological finds over the past half-century.

Now, a remarkable collection of ancient gold and silver artifacts excavated from Peru’s legendary royal tombs has made its way to D.C. for “Peruvian Gold: Ancient Treasures Unearthed.” The dazzling new exhibit at the National Geographic Museum shines a light on extraordinary objects from Peru’s pre-Inca heritage — spanning 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1450 — and includes gold ceremonial and funerary masks, beakers, textiles, ceremonial ornaments, ceramics and jewelry.

The exhibit’s centerpiece, “El Tocado,” is the largest and most ornate preColumbian headdress ever discovered. Like many of the other pieces in the show, it is being displayed in the United States for the first time.

All of the items — from an intricately beaded pectoral to a whimsically decorated nose ring — hint at the sophistication and complexity of Peruvian craftsmanship that reigned centuries ago.

The exhibit also provides context and insights into one of the earliest Andean civilizations, revealing the rituals, customs, beliefs and symbolism that shaped the artwork on display.

Peruvian Ambassador Harold Forsyth and his wife María Verónica were on hand at the National Geographic Museum for the festive opening on April 10, as were officials from the three Peruvian institutions that loaned nearly 100 objects to the museum.

“Peru has a long history of cooperation and partnership with the National Geographic Society, which dates back to the early years of the institution,” the ambassador said.“National Geographic has been involved in many of the most important Peruvian archaeological findings to date and has always been a dependable partner, managing to properly portray the image of Peru beyond its borders.”

In fact, the National Geographic Society has funded more than 180 grants related to exploratory field research in Peru since 1912. Its fruitful relationship with Peru began with the iconic magazine’s coverage of Hiram Bingham’s excavation of Machu Picchu in 1911.

That 15th-century Inca site, perched atop a mountain ridge above Peru’s Sacred Valley, remains one of the world’s most stunning archeological discoveries, attracting millions of tourists over the years.

Among the guests at the opening night of “Peruvian Gold” was Abigail “Abbie” Bingham Endicott, granddaughter of the great explorer. “My grandfather loved Peru’s culture so much,” she told the crowd.

“The partnership between National Geographic and Peru, which this ‘Peruvian Gold’ exhibit represents, first began with my grandfather and the excavation of Machu Picchu little more than a century ago. As you probably know, no gold was found at Machu Picchu, but this ‘Peruvian Peruvian Gold: Gold’ exhibition features treasures from earlier Ancient Treasures Unearthed times and other places in Peru that are fascinating,” she said. “My grandfather was always through sept. 14 proudest of having been an explorer. He cerNational Geographic Museum tainly instilled that love in me and his other 1145 17th st., nW descendants.”

For more information, please call (202) 857-7700 That love of adventure and uncovering or visit www.ngmuseum.org. new cultures, both past and present, is the impetus behind National Geographic, whose magazine has been published continuously since 1888, nine months after the National Geographic Society itself was founded.

“National Geographic has been sharing the stories and the archaeology of ancient Peru for more than 100 years,” said Kathryn Keane, vice president of National Geographic exhibitions. “This exhibition is an opportunity to walk into the pages of National Geographic magazine and see unique treasures from Peru’s golden past.”

Photo: Museo sican / rafaeL rioJa

[

Photo: Museo Larco, LiMa / carLos roJas and danieL Giannoni

]

“El Tocado,” above, a gold headdress from the sican period (750-1350) that is the largest and most ornate pre-columbian headdress ever discovered, is the centerpiece of the exhibit “Peruvian Gold: ancient treasures unearthed.” other highlights include a deity mask, top, bimetal nose ring, left, as well as a beaded pectoral and diadem, shown on the culture cover.

Photo: Museo deL banco centraL de reserva de Peru

Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Page 28

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

[ diplomatic spouses ]

Battling Perceptions Pakistani Couple Returns to D.C. to Offer ‘Right’ Image of Homeland

by Gail Scott

S

haista Jilani was barely 20 and newly married. Their first posting was Saudi Arabia. Shortly after arriving in Riyadh, she and her husband were out for a ride in a country that does not allow women to drive, even if they are diplomats or married to one.

“A policeman stopped our car, told me that my wife would have to put on her scarf,” recalled Pakistani Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani.“The policeman demanded that she put it on immediately.‘You are right,’ I told the policeman.

‘I already told her to do that but she doesn’t listen.’ The policeman just

laughed.”

Throughout all their postings and 30 years together, the Jilanis have always found a way to share a laugh and enjoy time with their three sons while representing Pakistan around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Australia to Belgium.

Ambassador Jilani, who took up his Washington posting earlier this year, joined us for tea at the residence while waiting for a Pakistani delegation to arrive at Dulles Airport.

Shaista said that he was the talkative one while she was “the quiet one.” He denied that and proceeded to tell us story after story about their life together and their homeland.

“We have good laughs,” she told us,“but you can see who’s ‘the quiet one.’”

The couple feels at home here. Their first posting to Washington was from 1995 to 1999. They lived in McLean, Va., with their two oldest boys, who at the time attended Franklin Sherman Elementary School. When they moved back to D.C. into the country’s handsome residence on S Street just off Embassy Row, the family hosted a luncheon for their sons’ former teacher, Patricia Brownley.

“The boys hugged her and looked at their teacher with great affection. They were all thrilled to see each other again,” Shaista said.

“Their school was wonderful. Our kids had friends here they haven’t had in any other posts,” she added.“There was such respect and love in this elementary school.”

Ahmed is now 27 years old and working for the United Nations in Rome. Amir, two years younger, is in Australia and works with the Centre for International Economics but is returning to Washington to get his master’s degree at Georgetown University. Their youngest son,Talha, is 16 and a rising junior at the School Without Walls.

Along with taking care of three boys wherever they lived in the world, Shaista has always devoted her time to various charity programs, particularly those related to education and women.

In Islamabad, she was the education secretary of the Pakistan Foreign Office Women’s Association for seven years. The group arranges scholarships for deserving Pakistani he has a lot on his plate…. students, raises funds for members of the Foreign Office, and supports those with We have divided our role, but we physical and mental disabilities. While her husband was posted to Brussels, she served both build bridges between the as president of the Asia Pacific Women’s Association, organizing excursions, fundraistwo countries. ing events and cultural and education programs.

When her husband returned to Pakistan — ShAiSTA JilANi to become foreign secretary, Shaista rejoined wife of Pakistani ambassador Jalil abbas Jilani the Foreign Office Women’s Association as its president. The group’s annual fall bazaar was so important to Shaista that she agreed to come to Washington only after the early December event was over.

“Due to all this charity work, when we were here before and wherever we have been posted, she has always been my introduction to every important section in society,” the ambassador said. “She has been my invitation to many homes…. By meeting the spouse, you learn about the country and the ambassador.”

After becoming Pakistan’s foreign secretary, Jilani, a former ambassador to the European Union, did not expect to be sent abroad again. But Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to appoint the veteran envoy to Washington after his political party won an election that marked the first successful completion of a democratically elected government’s term in Pakistan’s tumultuous 66-year history.

The Jilanis had almost no notice about the appointment. He was called to a high-level meeting and she was at the market. Her cell phone rang and it was her sister who told her the news. “It’s all over television,” she told her flabbergasted sister. Shaista spent the rest of the day and evening fielding phone calls and watching the breaking coverage on the air.They only had a few weeks before they had to leave.

“

”

July 2014

Photo: GaiL scott

Pakistani ambassador Jalil abbas Jilani and his wife shaista Jilani pose in front of a portrait of Muhammad ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

In a sense it was a trial by fire for the career diplomat, who was sent into a cauldron of mutual mistrust and acrimony. Both Washington and Islamabad have deep grievances against the other. Many Pakistanis are angered by American drone strikes that they say are a violation of the country’s sovereignty while complaining about Washington’s historical fickleness toward the region — and its lack of recognition for the large number of Pakistani troops who’ve died in the “war on terror.” On the flip side, the United States often views Pakistan as playing a double game, coddling the very terrorist groups it’s supposedly targeting while gladly taking U.S. military assistance.

It seems every few months there’s another bump in the rocky relationship — at the time of Jilani’s appointment, a U.S. drone attack killed Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in North Waziristan. But Jilani does his best to put a positive spin on the prickly alliance, saying there is a “degree of maturity in the relationship between the two democracies, Pakistan and America — more so than when I was here before.”

He added: “We have good cooperation, especially on security, fighting terrorism and extremism.”

Indeed, despite the constant friction, Washington can’t exactly turn its back on the nuclear-armed nation, which since its independence in 1947 has been racked by military coups, political assassinations and ethnic, sectarian and religious violence. Today, rising Islamist extremism in the Muslim-majority nation of 180 million has made it one of the most dangerous in the world. Most recently, Islamic terrorism has reached into the commercial capital of Karachi, where the country’s largest airport was stormed by 10 militants last month.The Pakistani Taliban claimed credit for the attack, which killed 36 people, saying it was in retaliation for the death of their former chief, Mehsud.

“I want to express our gratitude to the U.S. for helping us,” the ambassador said of the airport assault. “Trust and cooperation is paramount. We want Americans to remember how we helped defeat the Soviet Union…. And we helped the U.S. become the sole superpower. Some of the credit lies with Pakistan, who served as a frontline state.”

see DiPloMATic SPoUSES, page 35 The Washington Diplomat Page 29

[ art ]

Beautiful Friendship ‘Degas/Cassatt’ Depicts Mutual Respect Between Famed Impressionists

by Michael coleman

I

[ Page 30

t is well known among fans of late 19th-century impressionists that Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas enjoyed a long friendship based on mutual respect and admiration.

What might be less known is just how much Cassatt, an American 10 years younger than Degas, influenced the great French painter’s own work. A lovingly curated, compact new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art explores this glorious artistic relationship, providing new depth to our understanding of both artists.

“It was very much a kind of dialogue, rather than a monologue,” said Kimberly Jones, the gallery’s associate curator of French paintings, in describing the way the two painters worked.

Indeed, the exhibition explores this artistic dialogue throughout four galleries focusing on the height of Degas and Cassatt’s artistic alliance from the late 1870s through the mid-1880s. Included are more than 70 oil paintings, pastels and works on paper — etchings, lithographs, monotypes and drawings — several of which were once in the artists’ personal collections.

Cassatt stated that her first encounter with Degas’s art “changed my life,” while Degas, upon seeing Cassatt’s art for the first time, said “there is someone who feels as I do.”

Cassatt’s “Little Girl in a Blue Armchair,” an iconic 1878 oil painting, is the exhibition’s focal point and the only example of a painting on which the two artists actually collaborated.

Illuminating wall text in the exhibition describes how Degas, who was constantly aiming to improve his own “finished” paintings, changed the background on Cassatt’s canvas, providing the room with greater dimension and light. In addition to a letter that Cassatt wrote to her dealer mentioning Degas’s involvement with the work, modern-day techniques such x-radiographs and infrared images that reveal changes beneath the paint surface provide clear evidence of Degas’s influence.

The painting itself is a portrait of youthful repose and, typically for these painters, conveys notions of a lush, privileged life.

It is arguably Cassatt’s first true impressionist painting, according the museum. Degas, Degas/cassatt one of a small group of celebrated French through oct. 5 impressionists, was so taken by Cassatt’s skills that he invited her to show her work National Gallery of Art with the group in France. Cassatt became on the national Mall between 3rd and 9th one of only three women, and the only streets at constitution avenue, nW American, ever to join the French impresFor more information, please call (202) 737-4215 sionists. or visit www.nga.gov.

Nearby, Degas’s “Rehearsal in the Studio” employs rarely used egg tempera (pigments mixed with egg yolks) and is one of many compositions devoted to ballet that the artist produced in the 1870s. Degas was fascinated with the mechanization of the human body that the rigorous discipline of ballet imposed. His meticulous yet gauzy oil paintings depict dance as elegant, serene and disciplined.

Cassatt’s “At the Theater: Woman with a Fan” is typical of her fascination with the stage and draws the viewer in with a glimmering fan that actually serves as a barrier between the subject and the stage.

Degas, while often preoccupied with the arts and bourgeois French society, changed focus, at least momentarily, later in his career when he painted more rugged scenes of horse races. “Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey,” injects the exhibition with some earthy masculinity — the browns of the horses glisten as they gallop across the canvas. Meanwhile, a rider lays prone in the foreground, his shimmer-

]

The Washington Diplomat

Photo: nationaL GaLLery of art

Mary cassatt’s “Little Girl in a blue armchair,” above, and edgar degas’s “rehearsal in the studio” are among the highlights of an exhibit at the national Gallery of art that examines how the two 19th-century impressionists influenced each other throughout their long friendship.

ing pink shirt splashing the palette with its only soft color.

Painted in 1866 for exhibition at the Paris Salon, this painting marked a transition from the classically inspired history paintings of Degas’s youth toward the depiction of subjects drawn from modern life that would dominate his art for the rest of his career. It is also one of the best Photo: © sheLburne MuseuM, sheLburne, verMont examples of Degas’s obsession with reworking his own art. The artist refinished the painting multiple times and it remained in his studio at the time of his death.

Cassatt’s “The Visitor,” reproduced twice in 1881, proves her astonishing ability to locate and depict the arc of the human form. The etching is dark, elegant and beautiful.

Meanwhile, “Child Picking a Fruit,” an 1893 oil on canvass also by Cassatt, is an explosion of cool color. The mother’s bright pink dress, framed by the most soothing green this side of Ireland, represents the artist’s growing interest in family and maternity.

Although their friendship endured until Degas’s death in 1917, the two artists’ interactions decreased after the eighth and final impressionist exhibition in 1886.

Nevertheless, Degas continued to acquire Cassatt’s work while she promoted his to collectors back in the United States.The close working relationship certainly gives rise to the question of whether the relationship veered from the platonic to the romantic.

If it did, there is no evidence of it here — or apparently anywhere. Regardless of the artists’ relationship status, there was no mistaking Cassatt’s grief when Degas died in 1917.

“He was my oldest friend here and the last great artist of the 19th century,” she said.

Their important friendship makes for a beautiful exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

July 2014

[ art ]

Against the ‘Flow’ Caribbean Artists Critique Image-Driven Culture Photo: © reGina GaLindo

by Miranda Katz

W

hen many people think of the Caribbean, they picture all-inclusive resorts, pristine beaches and tropical beverages. A new exhibition at the InterAmerican Development Bank’s Cultural Center is seeking to complicate that image.

“Flow: Economies of the Look and Creativity in Contemporary Art from the Caribbean” addresses the region’s shifting culture, critiquing archetypes of beauty, gender, race and power. Featuring 27 works by artists from more than a dozen islands and nations — Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago — the exhibition is a commentary on today’s image-driven pop culture, particularly in an increasingly globalized Caribbean.

The exhibition is broken into three categories: “Surfaces,” “Acces(sories)” and “Vanity Fair.”The first category deals primarily with themes of beauty and aesthetics, looking at the role appearance plays in society, from tattoos to fashion.The second explores the significance of brands and personal decorations: What, exactly, do they tell us about a particular reality? The latter Photos: roni Mocán / © Jessica LaGunas category is concerned with the image of the Caribbean itself From top, regina Galindo’s “cut through the and juxtaposes the ideal of a beach paradise with a reality that can Line (recorte por la línea),” Jessica Lagunas’s be the antithesis of paradise. video performance series, and Keith Morrison’s Though the gallery does not make explicitly clear to which cate“Market iv” examine the importance of gory each piece belongs, this is no detriment; rather, this ambiguity appearance in today’s image-driven culture allows viewers to contemplate the myriad messages each piece in “flow: economies of the Look and creativity might convey. in contemporary art from the caribbean.”

For example, Jessica Lagunas’s three video performances — “The Better to Caress You With,” “The Better to Kiss You With” and “The unattainable ideals of beauty. The piece was Better to See You With” — belong to the category of “Surfaces,” yet filmed in Venezuela, which has some of the speak to more than just the theme of idealized beauty. In the videos, highest rates of cosmetic surgery in the world Lagunas applies nail polish, lipstick and mascara, respectively, until and an entire industry built around beauty each container is fully emptied, resulting in grotesquely over-painted Photo: saM fritch / © Keith Morrison pageants. nails, lips and eyelashes.This series addresses cosmetics and the ideMary’s piece, on the other hand, is a chromogenic print that depicts a woman sitals to which women aspire, yet it also comments on the commoditization of the beauty industry itself; as such, it treads the line between “Surfaces” and “Acces(sories),” ting in a sensual pose and holding out scissors. Written on her headdress are the words “castrate rapists.” Here, archetypes of female beauty come into conflict with calling into question the relationship between aesthetics and economics.

Nail polish makes another appearance in Nicole Awai’s “Specimen from Local sexism and gender violence. The piece’s title refers to the victim of the 2012 Delhi Ephemera: Castle Nut and Drama Queen Series,” a mixed-media piece that blends gang rape, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student who died after being brutally raped by standard materials — graphite, acrylic paint — with the less traditional, such as glitter six men on a bus.

“Flow” is a diverse exhibition, with no predominating style or medium. Within 20 and the aforementioned nail polish.“Specimen” offsets classical portraiture and architectural precision with a legend detailing the colors of the nail polishes she has feet, one can go from Keith Morrison’s watercolor “Market” series, featuring detailed painted with — “Pool Party” blue,“Dream Queen” pink and so on. With the brands of drawings of fruit and vegetables in baskets; to Miguel Luciano’s “Pure Plantainum,” a each polish written clearly on the surface of the piece, it is ambiguous whether Awai plantain-shaped platinum pendant signifying the “bling” that rappers often wear; and Winston Strick’s “American Woman,” an abstract sculpis critiquing commodity culture or embracing it as ture made of leather belts and metal. Large, richly a new medium. Regardless, her use of these unique Flow: Economies of the look and detailed pencil drawings, such as Jairo Alfonso’s “212,” materials creates a complex and entrancing effect. are juxtaposed with tiny, intricately decorated chicken creativity in contemporary Art The exhibition’s title,“Flow,” refers to “the approskulls by Alessandra Exposito. And then there is Jessica priation of elements of popular culture in relation from the caribbean Kairé’s “Comfort Set,” a set of weapons made out of to the economies of the look,” according to the through aug. 29 plush, pastel-colored material, so as to resemble sinister catalogue. Yet the word’s colloquial meaning — a children’s toys. The exhibition challenges viewers to inter-American Development Bank cultural center continuous, steady stream of movement — defines deepen their understanding of the Caribbean, using the experience of the gallery, which seamlessly 1300 new york ave., nW contemporary art to do so. takes visitors from subtle commentary on these For more information please call (202) 623-1410 A thought-provoking commentary on image-obsessed “economies of the look” to overt critiques of an or visit www.iadb.org/cultural. societies,“Flow” defies easy definition. These artists subimage-driven society. Set off from the main room vert stereotypes of the Caribbean, revealing complexiare two of the most striking pieces of such criticism: Regina Galindo’s “Cut Through the Line (Recorte por la línea)” and Kelly ties that go far beyond the paradisiacal image of the region propagated by the tourism industry. Do not be deceived by its title:The exhibition does not encourage going with Sinnapah Mary’s “Vagina, Jyoti Singh Pandey.”

The former is a video performance in which a plastic surgeon draws on the artist’s the “flow” of commoditization and beautification; rather, it pushes back against that naked body with marker to indicate the surgeries that would be necessary to render current, acting as a critical check to contemporary Caribbean culture. her physically perfect.As Galindo’s body becomes covered with marker ink, the overlapping shapes and lines blur and overlap, losing their meaning while highlighting Miranda Katz is an editorial assistant for The Washington Diplomat.

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The Washington Diplomat Page 31

[ theater ]

Sidesplitting ‘Private Lives’ Noël Coward’s Love-Hate Comedy Bursts With Giddy Madness by lisa Troshinsky

N

James Waterston oël Coward’s silly comeand bianca amato, dy of manners, “Private left, star in the Lives,” finishes up the shakespeare Shakespeare Theatre’s seatheatre production son with frothy one-liners of “Private Lives” and giggles. as two bickering The quick-witted script, divorcees who set in the 1930s, is great fodder for rekindle their belly laughs, and this production is a romance, much polished gem, having been mounted to the chagrin with the same cast and crew in 2012 of their new at Boston’s Huntington Theatre. spouses, played “Private Lives” (a sarcastic misnoby autumn hurlbert mer, because we end up knowing way and Jeremy Webb. too much about its characters) is Photos: scott suchMan / sometimes described as a “plot-less shaKesPeare theatre co. play about purposeless people.” But it succeeds in its real purpose: to simply entertain while poking fun at the empty-headed worries of rich people.

The play’s unlikely premise is delightfully wicked.

Upper-class divorcees Elyot and Amanda unexpectedly run into each other while honeymooning with their new spouses in the same hotel, in rooms with adjacent balconies, in southern France.

James Waterston, as Elyot, and Bianca Amato, as Amanda, are dynamic together. They played lovers Jack and Gwendolen in the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” and their familiar, sizzling chemistry is apparent. Here, their characters’ narcissism and immaturity are gloriously well matched, whether they’re jabbing each other with accusations and insults or showering each other with excessive romantic gestures.

Autumn Hurlbert, as Elyot’s wife Sibyl, and Jeremy Webb, as Private lives Amanda’s husband Victor, are also perfectly cast as their jealthrough July 13 ous yet obtuse new spouses. Hurlbert’s tiny stature and Shakespeare lansburgh Theatre annoying voice add hilarity to Sibyl’s outlandishly dramatic and ineffectual temper tantrums, while Victor’s fastidious 450 7th st., nW nerves can’t cope with the unfortunate turn of events on his tickets are $40 to $100. honeymoon.

For more information, please call (202) 547-1122 Act I sets in motion a perfect storm of bad manners.As one or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org. can guess, Amanda and Elyot’s codependent natures make them unable to resist rekindling their tumultuous relationOne aspect of this production that doesn’t tire is the remarkable and detailed ship.Their affair flips into high speed and they shuck their newly formed wedding vows, abandoning their adoring spouses.The audience gets to watch the impend- period scenery and costumes. Set designer Allen Moyer, who was inspired by the ing, inevitable train wreck. The more the characters squirm, the more thrilled we French Fauvist painter Raoul Dufy (think of the vibrant colors and broad brushstrokes of Henri Matisse), conjures up a European visual masterpiece of moving become.

By Act II, however, the playwright seems to run out of fresh material. sets that are as elaborate, lavish and whimsical as is the play’s rich dialogue. In fact, Sequestered away in their love nest in Amanda’s Parisian flat, she and Elyot can’t Moyer cleverly mounts two Dufy paintings prior to Act I and Act II. The first is of make up their minds whether they love or detest each other.They alternately fling a harbor that the couples’ balconies could likely be facing, and the second is of a words of devotion and passion with hatred and venom back and forth like ping- busy scene in Paris.

The costumes, thanks to the design of Candice Donnelly, are breathtakingly pong balls to the point of tedium. They’re full of melodramatics and emotional antics, but Coward overplays this card, and after repeated use, it loses some affect. elegant. One wants a character to make another entrance just for the thrilling anticipation of what they will wear next. The women’s floor-length gowns, the Although the play’s premise is one of folly, it still needs some believability.

This isn’t the fault of the actors, who are delightfully sassy and articulated, or a men’s layered suits and even the leads’ silk pajamas are extravagant — in keeping problem with the direction, by Maria Aitken, a Coward expert who has played with the characters’ lifestyle and behavior.

The scenery and costumes alone are enough to lure one to the Lansburgh more Coward heroines than any other actress, including Amanda in 1980 at London’s Duchess Theatre. The glitch, instead, appears to be inherent in the text. Theatre.Then again, at the end of a long, cold winter and the start of what’s bound Amanda and Elyot are funnier in Act I as part of a foursome (don’t worry, Sibyl and to be a typically long, hot summer in Washington, D.C., who doesn’t need to kick Victor reappear in Act III) and one is left to wonder how the two lovebirds can up their heels and just laugh? honestly reach such heights of anger and adoration so many times within the span of half an hour.

Lisa Troshinsky is the theater reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

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July 2014

[ art ]

Window into Wyeth National Gallery Offers Nuanced Look at American Painter

by Gary Tischler

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[

alking through the tightly focused exhibition “Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In” at the National Gallery of Art, one almost expects to hear the distant but distinct sound of rustling curtains, a gentle breeze tickling the grass, the flutter of birds or the squeaking of an old, cracked windowsill.

“Looking Out, Looking In ” is not only a title but also an invitation to do just that: peer out and into the world of the famed 20th-century American painter.

Windows are at the heart of this exhibit of some 60 tempera paintings (Wyeth all but abjured painting with oils), watercolors and drawings. The exhibition is rooted in Wyeth’s 1947 “Wind from the Sea,” donated to the National Gallery in 2009.The acquisition piqued the gallery’s interest in Wyeth’s obsession with windows and serves as a wispy, haunting springboard to the rest of the artwork on display.

Although Wyeth clearly had fascination with windows — he painted some 300 window-themed works during his long career — these paintings are not what you might expect from his oeuvre.

Wyeth (1917-2009) gained acclaim early on for his poetic, naturalistic realist paintings that captured the places and people of his native Pennsylvania as well as his summer escape in Maine — the rural landscape of Wyeth’s life.

His enduring masterpiece, “Christina’s World,” depicts a paralyzed woman lying awkwardly on an expansive green field, gazing at her faraway home in Cushing, Maine. Wyeth was reportedly impressed with the strength and stoicism of his neighbor Christina Olson, who refused to use a wheelchair.

Wyeth’s deftness for figurative paintings and capturing the character of his subjects helped to make him one of America’s most popular 20th-century artists.

Wyeth’s window paintings, however, are devoid of the human protagonists he often placed front and center in his spare landscapes. Yet his most iconic window rendering was indirectly inspired by his best-known figurative work.

Wyeth was working in the Olson House featured in “Christina’s World” when an ocean breeze wafted in and captured the artist’s imagination.

“That summer in 1947 I was in one of the attic rooms feeling the dryness of everything and it was so hot I pried open a window. A west wind filled the Andrew Wyeth: looking out, dusty, frayed lace curtains and the delicate crolooking in cheted birds began to flutter and fly,” Wyeth through nov. 30 recalled.

He made a quick sketch of the scene and a National Gallery of Art few weeks later “Wind from the Sea” was born, on the national Mall between 3rd and 9th becoming the defining work that launched 60 streets at constitution avenue, nW years of window paintings. The finished prodFor more information, please call (202) 737-4215 uct resembles an elegy to a momentary emoor visit www.nga.gov. tion, sharply felt, as a delicate, transparent curtain flutters in the wind against the backdrop of a solitary footpath, furrowed fields and the dark skyline of trees outside.

Wyeth’s windows are “deceptively realistic,” according to the National Gallery, which notes that the artist used multiple visual techniques such as different vantage points (inside, outside, ground level, upstairs) to create skillfully manipulated constructions.

Throughout the exhibition, one can almost hear Wyeth answer his critics — and he had his fair share — insisting that he was not merely an “illustrator” like his father was or a representational artist at a time when abstraction was all the rage.

Abstraction may have consumed high art, but Wyeth’s down-to-earth works achieved widespread commercial success, much to some critics’ chagrin. He worked almost laterally in the same firmament as the pre-eminent American abstract expressionist artists who shifted the balance of art’s power from Europe to New York. Amid that exciting parallel world, Wyeth’s paintings sold very well and must have seemed like a conservative affront to followers of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and the later kinetic wall-busters of the pop art scene led by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Many critics

July 2014

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Photo: nationaL GaLLery of art / © andreW Wyeth

American artist andrew Wyeth painted 300 window-themed works during his prolific career, including the landmark “Wind from the sea,” above, and “room in the Mirror, study.”

praised Wyeth, while others dismissed him, often with contempt, as if he were some finely tuned, more artistic version of Norman Rockwell (his earthy nudes certainly dispel that quaint association).

Although he was often labeled a realist painter, Wyeth preferred to think of himself Photo: © andreW Wyeth as an abstractionist. He even said that “Wind from the Sea” was in fact a portrait of Christina Olson.

He makes an excellent case that his paintings are far more nuanced than they’re given credit for, up to a point. Much of what we see in the exhibition — variations on the theme of rooms and windows — amounts to a deconstruction.And abstraction plays on subtractions, taking things away until what’s left has morphed into an idea, as opposed to a factual rendering.

Wyeth subtly incorporates elements of abstraction into his work. The coats, wooden chairs and sleeping dogs that accompany his sparse windows suggest something larger. In the studies of rooms we see how details disappear in the final version and what’s left hints at the memory of a loss or the passage of time — a faint pattern of sunlight on a wall, apples past their due date, chipped paint on a window frame. The omnipresent window grid itself can be seen as an abstract pictorial device.

But whatever Wyeth’s assertions, these paintings don’t feel abstract. They are minimalistic and gauzy, but the work as a whole is framed by restraint, subtlety and, yes, realism.

They are paradoxically full of both heightened emotions and a certain solitude that invites viewers to ponder the perspective Wyeth’s windows offer.

“I think most people get to my work through the backdoor,” Wyeth once said.“They’re attracted by the realism and sense the emotion and the abstraction — and eventually, I hope, they get their own powerful emotion.”

I’m not sure why Wyeth felt he had to call his work something that his peers might think was more serious than what he had done previously. His paintings proudly stand on their own, pulling us in and offering us a window into a carefully constructed world that is both real and imagined.

Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat Page 33

[ dining ]

Real Thai Soi 38 Serves Up Authentic Bangkok Street Food Classics

by Rachel G. hunt Photos: soi 38

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Nat ongsangkoon and dia Khanthongthip offer Washingtonians a taste of the classic thai street food they eat when they visit their native bangkok at their new restaurant, soi 38.

ll over town, chefs are taking it to the streets in brightly colored food trucks to ply their wares to hungry officers workers and tourists, but Nat Ongsangkoon and Dia Khanthongthip reversed the trend when they brought classic Thai street food to Soi 38, the elegant new restaurant they opened in April.

There is a long tradition of excellent street food in Thailand, and Sukhumvit Soi 38 — a side street in Bangkok after which the restaurant is named — is one of the city’s most renowned late-night market and street food districts.There, locals and visitors alike gather around rickety tables after conventional restaurants close to sample authentic Thai dishes until the wee hours of the morning.

Though they have been operating the successful Thai Place a few blocks from Soi 38 for the last decade, the husband-and-wife team wanted to offer American diners the type of foods they eat when they visit their native Bangkok — “real Thai,” in other words.They saw Soi 38 as an opportunity to move away from the American approach to Thai cooking, which is sweeter and less complex than the spicier, intricately seasoned versions

[ ] Soi 38

want to

2101 L st., nW (202) 558-9215 www.soi38dc.com

go?

Photo: daKota fine MuLtiMedia

back home.

The partners teamed up with a friend, chef Mitchai Pankham, who brings to the mix a passion for the hours: sun. - thu., 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.; cuisine of his native northern Thailand, fri., sat., 11 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. and they put together a menu that offers a combination of recognizable Starters: $5.50 - $15 dishes along with brand new ones.

Entrées: $12 - $18 But even the seemingly familiar staDesserts: $5 - $7 ples emerge from the kitchen with new dimensions under Pankham’s Reservations: accepted expert ministrations.

Dress: casual The menu is divided into large and small dish categories and diners can choose among appetizers, soups, salads, rolls, main courses, curries, and noodle and rice dishes.

The “warm up” plates are primarily simple meat dishes.The Kor Moo Yang, grilled pork neck served in small slices with fresh lime and chili sauce, is tender and well seasoned. Gai Hor Bai Toey — small bites of chicken individually wrapped in pandanus leaves, fried and then served with sesame sauce — must be labor intensive to make but the subtle flavor imparted by the pandanus leaves makes it worth the effort. Meanwhile, the excellent Prik Tod — battered and fried green chili stuffed with chicken and shrimp and served with a creamy Sriracha — is dense but isn’t heavy, despite the frying. Nor is it very spicy, despite the three-chili rating (the high-

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The Washington Diplomat

est the restaurant gives).

Even some of the more conventional offerings such as the Tom Ka Gai soup (chicken, coconut milk, lemon grass soup, roasted chili paste) stand out from the pack. A less common soup, the Tom Yum Kradook Moo (spicy lemongrass soup made with bone-in pork spare rib) was equally well done.

Among the more unusual ingredients making an appearance on the menu is fish maw, or swim bladder, a gas-filled organ that helps a fish control its buoyancy. At Soi 38, it is baked and served in the Yum Sam Krob salad with fried squid, roasted cashews and spicy lime sauce. A delicacy in some Asian cultures, prior to latex, the bladders were used as condoms. For the less adventurous, the Yum Goong Fu salad — finely chopped, with heavily battered deep-fried shrimp, roasted cashews, red onions, lime, chili and fresh julienned mango — is an uncommon but approachable choice.

For sheer visual appeal, the Khao Pad Sapparod pineapple-fried rice served in a vertically split pineapple shell takes the prize. Made with shrimp, cashews and carrots, it is as tasty as it is attractive.

The flavors of chef Pankham’s northern Thailand pop up in the noodle category with the Khao Soi, a curry sauce-based dish made with both crispy and soft egg noodles, with a chicken leg thrown in.

The dish arrives with small side bowls of chopped onion, sour cabbage and hot chili sauce, which adds punch to the otherwise mild noodles.

Another traditional northern Thai dish, the Gaeng Hang Lay served with sticky rice, combines pork belly and ginger with the thick hang lay curry paste of chili, coriander root, cloves, lemon grass and salt for a classic Thai flavor profile.

Seafood appears throughout the menu in various guises. One of the most interesting is Pad Cha Talay, a combination of mussels, squid and shrimp sautéed with green and orange peppers, young peppercorns still on the stalk, rhizome and red chili sauce.This is a three-chili-rated dish and this time they aren’t kidding.

The heat-rating index at Soi 38, which goes from zero to three chilies, does not seem entirely consistent, which may be a reflection of individual tolerances to different spices more than anything else.The restaurant is accommodating and any dish can be made more or less spicy as requested. Soi 38 is accommodating in general about the way they cater to their guests.The chef will convert almost any dish into vegetarian or vegan options. The menu also includes many gluten-free options, a nod to one of the owners’ children who is gluten intolerant.

July 2014

The Washington Diplomat

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July 2014

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Per Thai tradition, the desserts at Soi 38 are more of an extension of the main meal than a sweet ending. In addition to a superior mango and sticky rice, the menu offers a rich Thai custard, a fried banana roll, Thai gelatin wrapped in pandanus leaves, and a warm coconut milk with three flavors of tiny sticky rice flour dumplings. There is also a dairy-free and gluten-free coconut milk ice cream. The texture of this not-too-sweet confection is unlike milk-based ice cream but is satisfying nonetheless.

Under a watchful reptilian eye above the bar, popular mixologist JP Caceres shakes up original cocktails and some power-packed versions of old standards. The potent Emperor’s Punch — a blend of whiskey, fresh lemon, tamarind syrup,Thai herbal tea and chili aromatic bitters — is elegantly served up in a teapot for two.

The much overdone piña colada get a new lease in life in the Menehune’s Painkiller, featuring two kinds of rum for added dimension, house-made coconut orgeat syrup, orange juice and yuzu.Caceres also offers a unique Singapore Sling — a tropical dream of gin, Luxardo cherry, Benedictine liqueur, clarified lime, chili aromatic bitters, sloe gin and pineapple juice. For those not imbibing, Caceres has developed refreshing house sodas such as lime-ginger and lemon-lemongrass fizz.

At Soi 38, the partners did not try to recreate the atmosphere of the Sukhumvit district, but they did hint at its essence by tapping noted Baltimore street artist Gaia, whose striking murals are normally seen outdoors. His golden July 2014

creatures, both real and mythic, command Soi 38’s interior, which is punctuated by richly understated browns of wood and leather. An Asian dragon snakes its way across the ceiling to confront a peacock and a tuk-tuk (an auto rickshaw taxi common in Asia) while an elephant with a decorative ax stands guard by a cranky-looking rooster (you get the feeling there is a wonderful story here, if only you could decipher it). Interesting lamps over the bar look as if they’re made of scales, and some say they are dragon eggs. Floor-to-ceiling windows flood the space with light and give diners a prime perch to watch the busy D.C. street life outside.

While Bangkok’s street life is the inspiration behind Soi 38, it does not mimic the frenetic pace of its eponymous nighttime food market, never staying open past 10:30 p.m. But the seats are a lot more comfortable, and with the heat of summer bearing down on us, the air conditioning is a nice break from the outdoors.

The owners do, however, plan to add a large outside seating area for the summer.

The food may also not be the bargain you’d get in Bangkok (it is slightly more expensive than Thai Palace), but it’s well worth the price to sample an authentic taste of a cuisine that’s become increasingly Americanized and, some say, sanitized. Soi 38 definitely veers off the beaten path of mainstream Thai food in D.C., venturing into welcome territory.

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

Call (301) 933-3552 to advertise your restaurant in the new diplomat dining Guide.

from page 29

Diplomatic Spouses “He has a lot on his plate,” Shaista said.

“Besides working within the Congress, the administration and business, he has people-to-people work, getting together with local Pakistanis, many of whom have been very successful in the United States.

“We have divided our role,” she said,“but we both build bridges between the two countries.”

Both will also have a critical role to play in countering the perception that Pakistan is becoming an intolerant state. In addition to having harsh blasphemy laws that have cowered religious minorities, women still face barbaric repression, especially in deeply conservative rural areas. In May, a pregnant woman was stoned to death by her own relatives in front of a Pakistani courthouse for marrying a man in defiance of her family’s wishes. That man, incidentally, admits to killing his first wife in order to be with the second.

The Jilanis will be working to show Americans a different side of Pakistan — one that encourages its women and isn’t usually portrayed in news headlines.“We have women who are fighter pilots, corporate CEOs, cabinet members, speaker of the parliament and 30 percent of parliament’s members,” said the ambassador, whose predecessor was a woman.

“We have more and more women profession-

Pakistani Ambassador Jalil abbas Jilani and his wife shaista pose with their three sons: from left, ahmed, talha and amir.

als, including 60 to 70 percent women students in medical, engineering, chemical engineering and automotive engineering schools.”

The ambassador thought it was an opportune moment to praise the woman who has been in the public eye with him for decades.

“She has been a great support. She is open, frank and makes friends with ease,” he said. “I always had great satisfaction knowing that she was taking care of our children and that peace of mind is of paramount importance,” he added.

“For dinners and receptions, she always adds her personal touch. She makes our guests feel at home, comfortable. You can’t leave that to other people,” he said.“She is projecting the right image of our country.”

Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat Page 35

[ film reviews ]

Art of Persecution ‘Ai Weiwei The Fake Case’ Is Real Story About China’s Abuses

by Ky N. Nguyen

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Ai Weiwei The Fake Case

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(Mandarin and English he searing, riveting new docuwith subtitles; 89 min.) mentary “Ai Weiwei The Fake Landmark’s E Street Cinema Case” by Danish filmmaker Andreas Johnsen (“Good Copy Bad Copy,” Opens Fri., July 4 “Kidd Life”) boldly looks into the legal battles of Chinese contem★★★✩✩ porary artist and activist Ai Weiwei.

Having developed a huge social media folWomen on the 6th Floor,”“The Apartment”) is also no slouch lowing, Ai has commanded a movement portraying Leduc’s contemporary, Simone de Beauvoir, that delivers pointed criticisms of China’s whose legendary presence is not easy to live up to. authoritarian government, making him a The structure of “Violette” is built on an intelligent screenripe target for the communist party. play whose time arc begins during World War II, when Leduc At the Beijing airport in April 2011, the is acting as the cover wife of Maurice Sachs (Olivier Py), a Photo: Andreas Johnsen Chinese police arrested Ai and squirreled homosexual, half-Jewish writer tucked away in rural France him away in a secret jail for 81 days, fol- A detail from “S.A.C.R.E.D.,” an artwork by Ai Weiwei, is featured in the searing for safety. lowed by house arrest. Ai’s outrageous new documentary “Ai Weiwei The Fake Case” about the famed Chinese artist After the war, they move to Paris. Inspired by Beauvoir’s detention sparked a global media cam- and political dissident.

“She Came to Stay,” Leduc writes her own autobiographical paign for his freedom, making him the novel, “L’Asphyxie” (“In the Prison of Her Skin”). She hands world’s most famous political prisoner. Finally, Chinese prosecutors charged Ai’s company her book to Beauvoir, an established literary and feminist celebrity with whom Leduc Fake Ltd. with tax evasion. Ai wryly notes that while the prosecution’s case is a fake case becomes infatuated. Impressed with what she reads, Beauvoir is convinced she is responabout a fake company, it’s also a real case about a real company. sible for making or breaking Leduc’s legacy as a singular writing talent.

In “Ai Weiwei The Fake Case,” Ai’s movements are much more restricted than in Alison Unstable Leduc becomes a protégée of the disciplined Beauvoir, who brings Leduc into Klayman’s earlier, informative documentary released in 2012, “Ai Weiwei: her intellectual circles. Leduc and Never Sorry.” Currently under probation from the tax evasion charges, Ai is Beauvoir develop an intense lifenot allowed to do much outside his house besides go to work. He lives long relationship based on their under constant surveillance by security personnel and 18 video cameras in mutual passions, but the latter never his home and studio, even in his bedroom. His passport remains impounded, allows Leduc to have the physical so he cannot leave China to attend the installations of his work at leading love affair that she so desired. museums and galleries around the world.

Even under these restrictions, Johnsen seems to have plenty of access to ‘Korengal’: Ai, certainly enough to make an enlightening documentary. The extensive footage of Ai is fortunate because he remains a fascinating character to Wounds of War watch on the screen. By now, he and many of his family members and col“Korengal,” the new Kickstarterleagues are naturals on camera. But the government’s campaign to intimifunded documentary by American date Ai has clearly affected his well being, including his sleep and memory. director Sebastian Junger (also a Yet the oppressive conditions fail to keep Ai from continuing to make art Photo: Outpost Films journalist and author) comes that creatively challenges through as a deserving, meditative the Chinese government’s “Korengal” follows up on the powerful Afghanistan war documentary perennial violations of “Restrepo,” interviewing soldiers whose perspectives have been changed sequel to the acclaimed 2010 Afghan­ istan war documentary “Restrepo.” human rights and freedom by war.

Junger directed “Restrepo” along of speech. with the late British-American filmmaker and Korengal photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was (English; 85 min.)

‘Violette’: A Writer Is Born killed in 2011 from shrapnel wounds sustained while reporting on the civil war in Libya.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Award-winning French writer-director Hetherington shot “Restrepo” and a large porMartin Provost follows up on the success ★★★★✩ tion of the first part of “Korengal” when he and of 2008’s “Séraphine,” a stirring biography Junger spent about 10 months in 2007 to 2008 of the painter Séraphine de Senlis, with his second biopic about a female artist as embedded reporters with the U.S. Army in the tough, six-mile-long Korengal Valley of using a single name for a title. “Violette” Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border. On an everyday basis, they lived and worked with profoundly explores two decades in the the soldiers who defended the distant outpost of Restrepo, named for a fallen medic colPhoto: adopt Films packed life of French writer Violette league.

Much of the action-packed “Restrepo” was photographed in the thick of battle with harLeduc, a pioneer in French feminism.

Emmanuelle Devos gives a tour-de-force performance as rowing combat scenes showcasing the thrill of the fight. “Korengal” features the same solProvost’s assured direction, with naturally French writer Violette Leduc in Martin Provost’s biopic lit images expertly photographed by cine- diers and officers, but their perspectives are entirely different as they take the time to “Violette.” matographer Yves Capes, enables a stark reflect on their actions. Hetherington’s footage of the military unit’s assignment in mise-en-scène that fills up a distinctive literary Afghanistan is supplemented by substantive post-deployment interviews of the men that Violette took place in Italy in 2008.The talking heads are shot in an evenhanded fashion belying the world.

(French, English and Italian Illuminating the silver screen with her pres- partners’ journalistic backgrounds.These generally calm, though at times angry, contemplawith subtitles; 94 min.) ence, versatile French leading lady Emmanuelle tions add new depth to the soldiers’ stories first told in “Restrepo.”

The authentically emotional subjects honestly discuss their psychological struggles dealAngelika Mosaic Devos (“Coco Before Chanel,” “Read My Lips”) thrives in a tour-de-force performance as the ing with the complex aftermath of battle. Everybody mourns for their dead brothers in arms Angelika Pop-Up obsessive Leduc, who was born illegitimately in killed in action. Nearly as universal is the loss of focused purpose and deep camaraderie ★★★★✩ the early 1900s. Sandrine Kiberlain (“The — practically a sustained high — that the soldiers had developed working together in tight

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The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

quarters during their tour of duty in the Korengal Valley. One soldier is still an enthusiastic, gung ho warrior who relishes taking out the enemy: “Shooting people. It’s always fun shooting.”

In contrast, another is racked by remorse for his sins of killing and seeks redemption from the Lord. Sgt. Brendan O’Byrne laments,“Everyone tells you,‘You did an honorable thing.You did alright, you’re alright, you did what you had to do.’ I just hate that comment, ‘You did what you had to do.’

Because I didn’t have to do any of it.”

Photo: Magnolia Pictures

“Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger” examines the symbiotic relationship between the notorious Boston mobster and law enforcement officials.

‘Whitey’: Mobster Made for Movies

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brother, William Bulger, who served as the president of the University of Massachusetts system. Whitey apparently prevailed with impunity for so long because he allegedly enjoyed an impenetrable extra shield of protection as an invaluable informant for local and state police, the FBI and Justice Department.

When the jig was up and law enforcement officers were about to close in on Whitey, he was tipped of by a friendly, corrupt FBI agent who had served as his handler, allowing Whitey to escape without a trace in 1994.After 16 years on the lam, he was finally captured in June 2011 hiding in plain sight in a rented apartment in Santa Monica, Calif.

Whitey’s subsequent trial in 2013 on racketeering charges served as a platform for he and his legal team to air their accusations of widespread corruption within the local, state and federal law enforcement and justice systems. A sweeping network of individuals allegedly benefited from Whitey’s collaboration and used him for their own ends, turning the other cheek in the face of Whitey’s growing collection of criminal misdeeds, including 19 alleged homicides. Nobody wanted to kill their golden goose, so Whitey literally got away with murder — at least for three decades.

“Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger” does not figure out all the answers to the mystery of the symbiotic relationship between Whitey and government officials; that will likely never happen. But Berlinger collects and displays plenty of revealing information, including archival and surveillance footage.The juiciest tidbits are in the form of candid interviews from current and former police officers, judges, government officials, Whitey’s criminal associates and his enemies, as well as the family members of his victims.

Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger

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‘Third Person’

(English; 107 min.)

At AFI Docs 2014, awardDoesn’t Add Up winning filmmaker Joe Landmark’s E Street Cinema Berlinger (“Brother’s At the Tribeca Film Festival, Canadian ★★★★✩ Keeper,” the “Paradise Lost” writer-director-producer Paul Haggis pretrilogy) presented his latest sented “Third Person,” his ambitious return mesmerizing documentary,“Whitey: United States of America to a multipart narrative reminiscent of “Crash” with a sprawlv. James J. Bulger.” Berlinger was fortunate enough to start off ing tale that spans three leading global cities: Paris, Rome with an inherently fascinating tale: the true story of notori- and New York. ous Irish mob leader James “Whitey” Bulger, who reigned The star-studded ensemble cast of “Third Person” delivers viciously over a sweeping organized crime syndicate in solid performances across the board, including standout South Boston for 30 years.Whitey’s infamous persona served turns by Liam Neeson,Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde, Mila Kunis as the model for Jack Nicholson’s Boston mobster kingpin in and Kim Basinger.They transform the characters sketched in Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed.”

Haggis’s screenplay into living, breathing beings in the flesh.

Whitey’s open campaign of terror was especially striking Alas, the inherent mystery underlying most of Haggis’s script in comparison to the successful public service career of his means that many of the characters are just not very devel-

Repertory Notes

Photo: Maria Marin / Sony Pictures Classics

Liam Neeson, left, and Olivia Wilde play two writers who have a complicated relationship in “Third Person.”

oped. So there is only so much even talented actors can do to help the viewers connect with the characters.

In Paris, which takes up the bulk of the screen time, the story focuses on Michael (Neeson), a graying Pulitzer-prize winner who has failed to deliver on his unfulfilled potential since the success of his first book.While ensconced Third Person in a hotel room, he’s work(English and Italian with subtitles; ing to nail it with his latest 137 min.; scope) novel while entertaining Angelika Mosaic visits from Anna (Wilde), a decades-younger writer ★★★✩✩ with whom he has a complicated relationship. It seems he has dumped his estranged wife Elaine (Basinger) and left her behind, but she still manages to reach out and touch him over the long-distance telephone lines.

Meanwhile, in an American-themed bar in Rome, ethically challenged American wheeler-dealer Sean (Brody) falls for and seeks to help enigmatic Monika (Israeli actress-producer Moran Atias), a Romani woman searching for her daughter whose trustworthiness is questionable.

Finally, in New York, frazzled, high-strung Julia (Kunis) must get her act together to defend herself against accusations of child abuse, with the assistance of her lawyer Theresa (Maria Bello), in an effort to win a nasty custody battle and take back her son from her acrimonious former husband Rick (James Franco).

The triple plot threads blend together at the edges, dropping hints and details that move toward filling out the story, depending heavily on a plot gimmick.The result is engaging and thought provoking enough to be worth a viewer’s time, but everything fails to add up and gel together to really succeed. Perhaps Haggis bit off more than he could chew this time around.

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

by Washington Diplomat film reviewer Ky N. Nguyen

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

Freer Gallery of Art Lee Talbot, curator at the Textile Museum, introduces the Smithsonian Folklife Festival Screening of “Through the Consul’s Eye” (Wed., July 2, 2 p.m.).

The world premiere screening of “James McNeill Whistler: The Case for Beauty” (Fri., July 11) includes a pre-screening tour of the exhibit “An American in London: Whistler and the Thames” (6:15 p.m.), reception (7 p.m.), discussion with the filmmaker (7:30 p.m.) and screening plus a Q&A (8 p.m.)

The 19th annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival (July 13-Aug. 17) features Pang Ho-cheung’s “Aberdeen” (Fri., July 18, 7 p.m.); Benny Chan’s “The White Storm” (Sun., July 20, 2 p.m.); Ricky Lau’s “Mr. Vampire” (Sun., July 27, 1 p.m.); and Juno Mak’s “Rigor Mortis” Sun., July 27, 3:30 p.m.).

A screening of Yasujiro Ozu’s “Tokyo Twilight” (Fri., July 25, 8 p.m.) marks the closing of the exhibit “Kiyochika: Master of the Night The City Nights.”

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

Embassy of France In collaboration with the National Gallery of Art, the series “Reminiscence: Alain Resnais” at the Embassy of France screens two films that bookend the career of the recently deceased French auteur Alain Resnais: 1961’s “Last Year at Marienbad” (Wed., July 16, 7 p.m.) and 2006’s “Coeurs” (Wed., July 23, 7 p.m.) http://marienbad.eventbrite.com http://coeurs.eventbrite.com

WJFF Summer Redux On Sun., July 13, favorites from the Washington Jewish Film Festival screen at the Washington DCJCC, including: Hilla Medalia’s “Dancing in Jaffa” (12:30 p.m.), Polish director Władysław Pasikowski’s “Aftermath” (2:30 p.m.) and French writer-director Diane Kurys’s “For A Woman” (4:30 p.m.). http://washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/film/wjff-year-round-/ film-pages/wjffsummerredux.html

July 2014

National Gallery of Art In the West Building Lecture Hall, the series “From Vault to Screen: Canyon Cinema 16 mm” (July 12-Aug. 31) showcases American experimental cinema from the Canyon Cinema Foundation’s archives: “Origins” (Sat., July 12, 2:30 p.m.) and “Sweet California” (Sun., July 13, 4 p.m.).

“Black Maria: Selections from the Festival” presents top festival shorts in two programs (Sat., July 19, 2:30 p.m.; Sun., July 20, 4 p.m.).

Austrian artist-filmmaker Gustav Deutsch and Hanna Schimek introduce their film, “Shirley - Visions of Reality” (Sat., July 26, 2:30 p.m.; Sun., July 27, 4 p.m.), in which 13 Edward Hopper paintings are transplanted to the screen, each enhanced by actress-choreographer Stephanie Cumming performing as “Shirley” in each panoramic frame.

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

Goethe-Institut The series “Film|Neu Presents” (through July 7) concludes with director Bora Dağtekin’s “Turkish for Beginners” (Mon., July 7, 6:30 p.m.).

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

The Washington Diplomat Page 37

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

Cantonese Aberdeen Directed by Pang Ho-cheung (Hong Kong, 2014, 96 min.)

In the town of Aberdeen, a family mourns the loss of its matriarch, with each member struggling to accept the truths of his or her own life.

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., July 18, 7 p.m.

Mr. Vampire (Goeng Si Sin Sang) Directed by Ricky Lau (Hong Kong, 1985, 96 min.)

A feng shui expert and his bungling assistant make the mistake of agreeing to rebury a rich man’s corpse and find themselves under assault by hordes of hopping vampires (screens with “Rigor Mortis”).

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., July 27, 1 p.m.

Rigor Mortis (Goeng Si) Directed by Juno Mak (Hong Kong, 2013, 105 min.)

A depressed former movie star moves into a cheap apartment building with the intention of committing suicide but soon discovers that the building and its inhabitants are in thrall to supernatural forces (screens with “Mr. Vampire”).

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., July 27, 3:30 p.m.

The White Storm Directed by Benny Chan (Hong Kong, 2013, 134 min.)

Two cops on the narcotics beat work with their longtime friend whose years of undercover assignments are starting to fray his nerves. When the team’s attempt to bust a drug kingpin in Thailand goes horribly wrong, the consequences are dire, and their bond becomes a rivalry.

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., July 20, 2 p.m.

The African Queen Directed by John Huston (U.K./U.S., 1951, 105 min.)

Fate, in the form of World War I and an invading German army, throws Katharine Hepburn’s starched and stiff-backed British missionary aboard seedy Canadian Humphrey Bogart’s decrepit, titular riverboat.

AFI Silver Theatre July 4 to 10

Code Black Directed by Ryan McGarry (U.S., 2013, 82 min.)

Amidst real life-and-death situations, physician Ryan McGarry follows a dedicated team of charismatic, young doctors-intraining at an inner-city ER as they wrestle openly with both their ideals and the reali-

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ties of saving lives in a complex and overburdened system.

to rescue Indian village children enslaved by a death cult.

Angelika Pop-Up Opens Fri., July 11

AFI Silver Theatre July 4 to 10

The Fall of the Roman Empire

Ivory Tower

Directed by Anthony Mann (U.S., 1964, 203 min.)

Directed by Andrew Rossi (U.S., 2014, 90 min.)

Alec Guinness gives noble bearing to his performance as Marcus Aurelius in Anthony Mann’s epic account of Rome’s twilight.

As tuition rates spiral beyond reach and student loan debt passes $1 trillion (more than credit card debt), the documentary “Ivory Tower” asks: Is college worth the cost?

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., July 20, 1 p.m.

A Farewell to Arms Directed by Frank Borzage (U.S., 1932, 80 min.)

Visionary romanticist Frank Borzage directed the screen adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel, chronicling the love affair between a wounded volunteer ambulance driver and the nurse attending him.

AFI Silver Theatre July 6 to 10

Father Brown aka The Detective Directed by Robert Hamer (U.K., 1954, 91 min.)

After being robbed en route from London to Rome, Father Brown sets to solving the crime, hoping to save not only the Church’s precious relic but a soul to boot.

AFI Silver Theatre July 13 to 17

Great Expectations Directed by David Lean (U.K., 1946, 118 min.)

Orphan lad Pip struggles to get by until an unknown benefactor provides him a generous allowance in David Lean’s beloved Charles Dickens adaptation.

AFI Silver Theatre July 3 to 9

A Hard Day’s Night Directed by Richard Lester (U.K., 1964, 87 min.)

This film, in which John, Paul, George, and Ringo play wily, exuberant versions of themselves, captures the astonishing moment when the Beatles officially became the singular, irreverent idols of their generation.

West End Cinema Opens Fri., July 4

English

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Henry IV Part II - Royal Shakespeare Company Directed by Gregory Doran

(U.K., 2014, 170 min.)

King Henry’s health is failing as a second rebellion threatens to surface, but he is uncertain that Hal is a worthy heir, believing him more concerned with earthly pleasures than the responsibility of rule.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Journey’s End Directed by James Whale (U.S./U.K., 1930, 120 min.)

James Whale’s adaptation of fellow British World War I vet R.C. Sherriff’s hit play delivers an authoritative account of life in the trenches — long stretches of boredom and claustrophobia punctuated by cataclysmic violence, with camaraderie as the best defense against soul-destroying fear.

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., July 25, 11:30 a.m., Mon., July 28, 7 p.m.

Kind Hearts and Coronets Directed by Robert Hamer (U.K., 1949, 106 min.)

There are eight D’Ascoyne heirs ahead of Louis Mazzini in the line of succession to the Chalfont Dukedom, and Mazzini’s methodical murderousness makes Shakespeare’s Richard III look like a lazybones.

AFI Silver Theatre July 11 to 16

Korengal Directed by Sebastian Junger (U.S./Italy/Afghanistan, 2014, 85 min.)

“Korengal” picks up where the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Restrepo” left off: the same men, the same valley in Afghanistan, the same commanders, but a very different look at the experience of war.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Ladykillers Directed by Alexander Mackendrick (U.K., 1955, 91 min.)

Alec Guinness poses as a mild-mannered music professor to rent a room from a sweet old lady, whose home is the perfect hideout for his eccentric gang of thieves.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., July 27, 11:10 a.m., Tue., July 29, 9 p.m.

Last Holiday Directed by Henry Cass (U.K., 1950, 88 min.)

West End Cinema Mon., July 14, 7 p.m., Sat., July 19, 11 a.m.

Newly diagnosed with a terminal disease, a quiet, unassuming man opts to go out on a high note, withdrawing all his savings and booking himself into a posh hotel and takes risks for the first time in his life.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., July 19, 2 p.m., Tue., July 22, 7 p.m.

Directed by Steven Spielberg (U.S., 1084, 118 min.)

The Lavender Hill Mob

After jumping out of a plane over the Himalayas without the aid of parachutes, the famed archeologist adventurer sets out

Directed by Charles Crichton (U.K., 1951, 81 min.)

With no promotion in sight, a deliveryman

July 2014

is fed up after 20 years of faithful service to his gold-trading firm and hatches a plan to boost £1 million in gold bullion, which will be melted and molded into Eiffel Tower souvenirs.

AFI Silver Theatre July 25 to 31

Lawrence of Arabia Directed by David Lean (U.K., 1962, 231 min.)

An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero to charlatan, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier.

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., July 4, 1:15 p.m., Sat., July 5, 1:15 p.m.

The Man in the White Suit Directed by Alexander Mackendrick (U.K., 1951, 85 min.)

Garment industry workers try to discredit an amateur inventor who’s come up with a wondrous fabric that can’t wear out or stain.

Quite at home in the divided Berlin of the early 1980s, a well-to-do couple plays out their union’s disintegration across the borders of sanity all the way into the supernatural.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., July 12, 9 p.m., Sun., July 13, 9:15 p.m., Mon., July 14, 9 p.m.

Red Dawn Directed by John Milius (U.S., 1984, 114 min.)

A Soviet-Cuban sneak attack cripples the U.S., but the invasion is repelled by freedom-loving teens, relying on a combination of hunting skills and lessons learned on the football field.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., July 6, 6 p.m., Mon., July 7, 9 p.m.

The Road Back Directed by James Whale (U.S., 1937, 97 min.)

A group of German World War I veterans tries to adjust to life after the war.

AFI Silver Theatre July 26 to 31

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., July 27, 11 a.m., Tue., July 29, 7 p.m.

A Most Wanted Man

The Rover

Directed by Anton Corbijn (U.K./U.S./Germany, 2014, 121 min.)

When a half-Chechen, half-Russian, brutally tortured immigrant turns up in Hamburg’s Islamic community, laying claim to his father’s ill-gotten fortune, both German and US security agencies take a close interest in him.

Directed by David Michod (Australia/U.S., 2014, 102 min.)

Ten years after a global economic collapse, a hardened ex-soldier tracks down the men who stole his only possession: his car.

As he travels through the lawless Australian outback, he takes a damaged young man as his unwitting accomplice.

Angelika Mosaic Opens Fri., July 25

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Mudlark

Directed by Charles Frend (U.K., 1949, 85 min.)

Directed by Jean Negulesco (U.K./U.S., 1950, 99 min.)

Enchanted by a cameo of Queen Victoria, a street urchin or “mudlark” sneaks into Windsor Castle and helps the sequestered queen reconnect with the world.

AFI Silver Theatre July 18 to 24

Oliver Twist Directed by David Lean (U.K., 1948, 116 min.)

Orphan Oliver Twist runs away from workhouse drudgery for life on the London streets and falls in with a gang of young pickpockets.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., July 3, 12 p.m., Tue., July 8, 4:30 p.m., Thu., July 10, 4:30 p.m.

Paths of Glory Directed by Stanley Kubrick (U.S., 1957, 88 min.)

Ordered to storm a German stronghold that holds little strategic value, French colonel Kirk Douglas’s troops take heavy losses and retreat under fire, while the top brass demand blood, covering up their own misdeeds and vainglorious motives.

AFI Silver Theatre July 12 to 17

Possession Directed by Andrzej Żuławski (France/Germany, 1981, 127 min.)

A Run for Your Money Singing Welsh miners win a trip to London, where the two plan to live it up, causing much consternation for their minder, a newspaper gardening columnist.

AFI Silver Theatre July 19 to 23

The Scapegoat Directed by Robert Hamer (U.K./U.S., 1959, 92 min.)

On holiday in France, British schoolteacher John Barratt (Alec Guinness) is stunned to meet his spitting image in Count Jacques De Gué (Guinness again), who, for reasons of his own, wishes Barratt to take his place.

AFI Silver Theatre July 12 to 16

Snowpiercer Directed by Bong Joon-ho (South Korea/U.S., 2013, 126 min.)

When a failed attempt at reversing climate change leads to an ice age, the last human survivors are left circling the earth in a nonstop express train. The rich are in the front carriages and the poor — from whose perspective the story is told — at the back.

AFI Silver Theatre Angelika Mosaic Opens Wed., July 2

Spirited Away Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

(Japan, 2002, 125 min.)

While out exploring, a young girl stumbles into the spirit world and is conscripted into working in a fabulous bathhouse where all manner of magical creatures come to relax.

AFI Silver Theatre Tue., July 1, 2:30 p.m., Wed., July 2, 2:30 p.m.

Third Person Directed by Paul Haggis (U.K./U.S./Germany/Belgium, 2013, 137 min.)

Three interlocking love stories involving three couples take place in Rome, Paris and New York (English and Italian).

Angelika Mosaic

Through the Consul’s Eye Directed by Jorge Amat (France, 1999, 50 min.)

Culled from his letters, diary entries and notes, this film chronicles the experiences of aristocratic diplomat Auguste François, who witnessed history when he was stationed in China from 1896 to 1905.

Freer Gallery of Art Wed., July 2, 2 p.m.

Waterloo Bridge Directed by James Whale (U.S., 1931, 81 min.)

Taking shelter during a London air raid, American soldier-on-leave Douglass Montgomery meets and falls in love with chorus girl Mae Clarke, unaware that she works as a prostitute to make ends meet.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., July 26, 11 a.m., Wed., July 30, 7:30 p.m.

French 14-18: The Noise and the Fury (14-18, le bruit et la fureur) Directed by Jean-François Delassus (France/Belgium, 2008, 103 min.)

Jean-François Delassus masterfully weaves together archival documentary footage from World War I with narrative selections in his attempt to explain the inexplicable: how tens of millions of men suffered through life in trenches while they could not even say why they were fighting?

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., July 12, 3:15 p.m.

Coeurs Directed by Alain Resnais (France/Italy, 2006, 120 min.)

Celebrated Yorkshire dramatist Alan Ayckbourn’s cerebral comedy about six characters who warily weave through four interconnected stories is transplanted to France.

Embassy of France Wed., July 23, 7 p.m.

For a Woman (Pour une femme) Directed by Diane Kurys (France, 2013, 110 min.)

In a journey that stretches from Nazi concentration camps to post-war France to the 1980s, a young woman’s destiny intertwines with her father’s past until they form a single, unforgettable story.

Washington DCJCC Sun., July 13, 4:30 p.m.

Grand Illusion (La grande illusion) Directed by Jean Renoir (France, 1937, 114 min.)

Jean Renoir’s powerfully humanistic tale of World War I French POWs whose fellowship keeps them strong while they plot their way to freedom spoke volumes to French audiences in 1937, on the cusp of yet another world-historical cataclysm.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., July 3, 7 p.m., Sat., July 5, 11:30 a.m., Wed., July 9, 12 and 7 p.m.

Last Year at Marienbad (L’année dernière à Marienbad) Directed by Alain Resnais (France/Italy, 1961, 93 min.)

An essential film of the 1960s New Wave, Alain Resnais’s daring memory escapade mingles the past with the present in a puzzling tale about a man and a woman who might have been lovers a year ago while staying in the same gilded château where they now find themselves.

Embassy of France Wed., July 16, 7 p.m.

Life and Nothing But (La vie et rien d’autre) Directed by Bertrand Tavernier (France, 1989, 135 min.)

Major Philippe Noiret and his team take a break from identifying France’s nameless 1920 World War I dead (50,000 down, 300,000 to go) to accommodate Sabine Azéma’s demands to hunt for her husband’s corpse and the government’s need for a particular Unknown Soldier.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., July 13, 1:15 p.m.

Venus in Fur Directed by Roman Polanski (France/Poland, 2013, 96 min.)

Alone in a Paris theater after a long day of unsuccessfully auditioning actresses for his new play, a writer-director is about to leave when an actress bursts in, a whirlwind of erratic and erotic energy (French and German).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., July 11

Violette Directed by Martin Provost (France/Belgium, 2013, 132 min.)

Martin Provost’s “Violette” spans 20 years in the complex life of trailblazing French feminist author Violette Leduc and her relationship with the legendary Simone de Beauvoir (French, English and Italian).

beginning of his career in 1958 when he met his lover and business partner, Pierre Berge (French, English, Russian, Arabic and Japanese).

has a burning desire to use dance for social good, teaming Jewish and Palestinian Israeli children as ballroom partners (Hebrew and Arabic).

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo)

Opens Fri., July 25

Theater TBA

Washington DCJCC Sun., July 13, 12:30 p.m.

Georgian

Italian

A bounty hunting scam unites two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.

In Bloom (Grdzeli nateli dgheebi)

Black Sabbath (I tre volti della paura)

Directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili (Georgia/Germany/France, 2013, 102 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Through July 3

In this trio of haunting tales, a call girl is terrified by threatening phone calls, which she believes are coming from the pimp she snitched on; a 19th-century Russian family falls prey to a vampiric creature; and a nurse is haunted by the ghost of a former patient.

German

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., July 11, 10:45 p.m., Sat., July 12, 11:30 p.m.

In the early 1990s, Tbilisi, the capital of the newly independent Georgia, is surrounded by violence, war and vigilante justice, but for Eka and Natia, 14-year-old inseparable friends, life just goes on.

A Coffee in Berlin Directed by Jan Ole Gerster (Germany, 2014, 88 min.)

During a single fateful day in Berlin, a charming 27-year-old slacker guy going nowhere drifts aimlessly through a series of amusing encounters with oddball characters.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., July 11

Shirley: Visions of Reality Directed by Gustav Deutsch (Austria, 2013, 93 min.)

Gustav Deutsch renders 13 of Edward Hopper’s iconic paintings to the screen in what is the most compelling Hopper adaptation yet — a sequence of precisely planned and brilliantly lit tableaux enhanced by actress choreographer Stephanie Cumming’s stunning performance.

National Gallery of Art Sat., July 26, 2:30 p.m.

Sun., July 27, 4 p.m.

Turkish for Beginners (Türkisch für Anfänger) Directed by Bora Dağtekin (Germany, 2012, 105 min.)

After an emergency landing in the Indian Ocean, sensible but slightly neurotic teenager Lena finds herself stranded on a deserted island with a Turkish macho man, his deeply religious sister and a stuttering Greek.

Goethe-Institut Mon., July 7, 6:30 p.m.

Hebrew

Angelika Mosaic Angelika Pop-Up

Cupcakes

Young & Beautiful

Set in contemporary Tel Aviv, six diverse best friends gather to watch the wildly popular UniverSong competition. Appalled by the Israeli entry, they decide to create their own and record it on a mobile phone (Hebrew, French and English).

Directed by François Ozon (France, 2014, 95 min.)

After losing her virginity, Isabelle inexplicably takes up a secret life as a call girl, showing little interest in the encounters themselves or the money she makes.

Directed by Eytan Fox (Israel/France, 2013, 92 min.)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Avalon Theatre Wed., July 23, 8 p.m.

Yves Saint Laurent

Dancing in Jaffa

(France, 2014, 106 min.)

This biography looks at the life of French designer Yves Saint Laurent from the

Directed by Mario Bava (Italy/U.K/France, 1963, 92 min.)

Directed by Hilla Medalia (Israel/U.S., 2013, 84 min.)

Renowned ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine

July 2014

Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio) Directed by Mario Bava (Italy, 1960, 87 min.)

In 17th-century Moldavia, a beautiful woman is sentenced to a gruesome death for witchcraft but vows revenge on the descendants of those responsible.

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., July 4, 10:45 p.m., Sun., July 6, 8:20 p.m.

Blood and Black Lace (Sei donne per l’assassino) Directed by Mario Bava (Italy/France/Monaco, 1963, 88 min.)

Two lovers run a fashion house rife with vice, and a model murdered by a mysterious masked man may have been killed for her diary documenting the business’s history of financial improprieties, blackmail, secret abortions and drug addiction.

AFI Silver Theatre Mon., July 28, 9:30 p.m., Wed., July 30, 9:30 p.m.

Duck, You Sucker (Giú, la testa)

Directed by Sergio Leone (Italy/Spain/Germany, 1967, 161 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre July 18 to 21

Once Upon a Time in America Directed by Sergio Leone (Italy/U.S., 1984, 229 min.)

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over 30 years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

AFI Silver Theatre July 25 to 27

The Whip and the Body (La frustra e il corpo) Directed by Mario Bava (Italy/France, 1963, 91 min.)

Sadistic nobleman Christopher Lee returns to his family mansion after many years in exile and soon sets his sights — and whips — on his brother’s wife and Lee’s former lover, whom he flogs for perverse sexual satisfaction.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., July 19, 12 a.m., Tue., July 22, 9 p.m.

Japanese Tokyo Twilight (Tōkyō boshoku) Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1957, 140 min.)

Takako has fled her abusive husband and moved back home with her daughter while her rebellious younger sister is secretly pregnant. The strains on the family grow when secrets about their mother, who left when they were children, come to light.

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., July 25, 8 p.m.

Directed by Sergio Leone (Italy, 1971, 157 min.)

Mandarin

An IRA explosives expert on the run from the British puts his dynamite skills to use in the Mexican Revolution.

Ai Weiwei The Fake Case

AFI Silver Theatre July 20 to 24

This provocative new documentary follows Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei’s battle against the gigantic lawsuit thrust upon him by the Chinese government in an effort to silence him (English and Mandarin).

A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) Directed by Sergio Leone (Italy/Germany/Spain, 1964, 99 min.)

A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride and revenge.

AFI Silver Theatre July 3 to 8

For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in piú) Directed by Sergio Leone (Italy/Spain/Germany, 1967, 132 min.)

In this sequel to “A Fistful of Dollars,” two bounty hunters with the same intentions team up to track down a Western outlaw.

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., July 11, 5:15 p.m., Sun., July 13, 4 p.m.

Directed by Andreas Johnsen (Denmark/China/U.K., 2013, 89 min.)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., July 4

Polish Aftermath (Pokłosie) Directed by Władysław Pasikowski (Poland/Holland/Russia/Slovakia, 2013, 104 min.)

Two brothers discover a terrible secret and are forced to revise their perception of their father, their entire family, their neighbors and the history of their nation.

Washington DCJCC Sun., July 13, 2:30 p.m.

The Washington Diplomat Page 39

[ around town ]

EVENTS LISTING **Admission is free unless otherwise noted. All information on event venues can be found on The Diplomat Web site at www.washdiplomat. com. Times and locations are subject to change.

Unless listed, please call venue for specific event times and hours of operation.

ART July 1 to Oct. 26

Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and Family History in Shakespeare’s England

This show — the largest and most comprehensive of its kind ever mounted — explores the birth of genealogy in its modern form by examining the colorful world of heralds and their rivals, which competed to profit from the craze for coats of arms that seized England during the reign of Elizabeth I. Folger Shakespeare Library July 1 to Dec. 31

Titian’s Danaë from the Capodimonte Museum, Naples

One of the most sensual paintings of the Italian Renaissance, Titian’s “Danaë” from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples will be on view to celebrate the commencement of Italy’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.

National Gallery of Art July 3 to Aug. 2

Sandra Pani: My Intangible Self

Celebrated Mexican artist Sandra Pani explores the body, its structure and its relationship with natural phenomena, using superimposed veilings that both invite deciphering and impede a definitive reading, opening up a variety of interpretations.

Mexican Cultural Institute Through July 3

AppArtAward - App goes art // Art goes app

Artists have been quick to recognize the creative potential of apps, particularly as a new form of communication and participation in contemporary art.

Goethe-Institut Through July 3

Lily Garafulic: Centenary Celebration Selected prints, drawings, watercolors, sculptures and a documentary examine the work of Lily Garafulic Yankovic (19142012), a Chilean sculptor who was among the 40 Generation artists who drew heavily from impressionism and Fauvism and remained largely removed from the more overtly political work being made at the time.

Through July 7

the virtual lens of computer simulation.

Corcoran Gallery of Art

the international movement toward a more just and humane world.

Through July 27

Art Museum of the Americas F Street Gallery

This exhibition featuring 33 innovative artists presents a vigorous panorama of fresh trends from various regions of the country, examining the very notion of territory not as an inherent condition of the world that we share, but as something that humans define for themselves through subjective means.

July 7 to Sept. 26

Through July 27

In the Library: Preservation and Loss during World War II

The loss of cultural patrimony in times of war is often a sad byproduct of military action, and until the modern era was rarely documented. But the National Gallery of Art Library contains thousands of photographic images that do just that: chronicle the loss and preservation of countless works of art and architecture that were in peril during armed conflict.

National Gallery of Art Through July 13

Dancing the Dream

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

National Portrait Gallery

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through July 31

Octavio Paz: De La Palabra a la Miranda

This display brings together Octavio Paz’s artist books, capturing the Nobel Laureate’s indelible word through the illustration of renowned artists from Mexico and abroad, including Rufino Tamayo, Juan Soriano, Vicente Rojo, Marcel Duchamp, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Motherwell, Balthus and Cy Twombly.

They Never Update the Lists

by Michael Borek

Through Aug. 1

July 17 to Oct. 5

Femininity Beyond Archetypes: Photography by Natalia Arias of Colombia This exhibit showcases Natalia Arias’ series “Venus,” which initiates a conversation on her vision of Venus and references the idea of the goddess throughout history, and the series “Taboo,” which demonstrates that female bodies are charged with concepts prohibited by society, denying the inherent beauty in biological functions.

Art Museum of the Americas

Shakespeare’s glorious tale of magical creatures, love and forgiveness on a faraway island is sure to captivate in our outdoor space, the Root Family Stage.

Please call for ticket information.

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On Sept. 3, 1868, the city called Edo ceased to exist. Renamed Tokyo by Japan’s new rulers, the city became the primary experiment in a national drive toward modernization. Kobayashi Kiyochika, a selftrained artist, set out to record his views of Tokyo in an ambitious and auspicious series of 100 prints.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Embassy of the Czech Republic

The Tempest

American States in Yuan Xikun’s Eyes: Preservation and Transformation

In this collaboration between China and OAS member countries, Yuan Xikun uses cross-disciplinary art and modern context to energize trans-Pacific dialogue.

Organization of American States Sculpture Garden Through Aug. 17

An American in London: Whistler and the Thames

American artist James McNeill Whistler arrived in London in 1859 and discovered in its neighborhoods and inhabitants an inexhaustible source of aesthetic inspiration. His images of the city created over the next two decades represent one of his most successful assaults on the contemporary art establishment.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through Aug. 17

Continental Drift

This survey of Washington artist Judy Byron invites the viewer to consider the visual and auditory environment that informs identity, acknowledging the artist’s drifting of visual influences among three specific countries: Brazil, China and Ghana.

American University Katzen Arts Center

Olney Shakespeare Theatre

Through Aug. 17

July 19 to Sept. 28

An Opening of the Field: Jess, Robert Duncan, and Their Circle

Mark Tribe: Plein Air

Nine large-scale images explore the aesthetics and representation of aerial views in landscape photography through

Made in the USA: American Masters from The Phillips Collection, 1850–1970

Following an acclaimed four-year world tour, the Phillips’s renowned collection of American masterworks returns to the museum to tell the story of American art from the late 19th-century to the mid-20th century, when it became a significant global force after World War II.

Kiyochika: Master of the Night

Through July 15

To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka, Michael Borek — a photographer and freelance interpreter raised in Prague and now based in Bethesda, Md. — addresses the themes of alienation and absurdity prevalent in the Czech writer’s work. For information, visit www.mzv.cz/washington/en/culture_ events/culture/index.html.

Through Aug. 31

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

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through July 3

Goethe-Institut

Chigusa and the Art of Tea

OAS Art Museum of the Americas

July 19 to Aug. 3

Blue Note Records celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2014. Its roots lie in Berlin, where two teenagers, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, discovered a passion for swing music and a strong friendship. They both moved to New York in the 1930s, where Blue Note Records was born in 1939.

July 2014

Territories and Subjectivities: Contemporary Art from Argentina

Art Museum of the Americas

Search for a New Sound. The Blue Note Photographs of Francis Wolff

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Jess Collins and his partner, the poet Robert Duncan, merged their personal and artistic lives by exploring their mutual interest in cultural mythologies, transformative

The Phillips Collection Photo: Capital Fringe Festival

An ape, Red Peter, evolves to behave like a human and presents the vile details of his captivity to a scientific academy in “Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka,” part of the Capital Fringe Festival.

narrative and the appropriation of images.

American University Katzen Arts Center

Through Sept. 2

Peruvian Gold: Ancient Treasures Unearthed

This exhibition journeys through civilizations from 1250 B.C. to 1450, learning through the ceremonial gold, silver, ceramics and textiles created by the complex Andean civilizations in ancient Peru that rival anything made by the ancient Egyptians.

Through Aug. 17

National Geographic Museum

Passionate Collectors: The Washington Print Club at 50

Through Sept. 5

With almost 150 prints selected from Washington collections, this exhibit reveals a diversity of techniques — from relief printing by celebrated masters Durer, van Dyck, Carracci, Pissarro, Picasso and Chuck Close to monoprints by contemporaries Richard Estes, Ventura Salimbeni, Thomas Frye, Adolphe Appian, Reinhard Hilker and Keiko Hara.

Marks and Traces: Helga Thomson Retrospective

The work of Buenos Aires-born artist Helga Thomson, who studied in Argentina, Europe and the United States, encompasses etchings, collagraphs, monoprints, digital prints, mixed media and installations that are rich in color and content, reflecting a life story with deep symbolic references.

American University Katzen Arts Center

Embassy of Argentina

Through Aug. 17

Through Sept. 7

Visions from the Forests: The Art of Liberia and Sierra Leone

The exhibition features some 70 artworks from the collection of William Siegmann (1943–2011) — a former curator of African art at the Brooklyn Museum who lived and worked in Liberia for more than two decades — that survey the traditional arts of Liberia and Sierra Leone.

National Museum of African Art Through Aug. 24

Africa ReViewed: The Photographic Legacy of Eliot Elisofon

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

National Museum of African Art Through Aug. 29

Investing in Women and Girls: A Photography exhibit of winners of the Colors of Life photo contest

This exhibition of winning entries of the Colors of Life International Photo Contest, organized in conjunction with the World Bank Art Program, features international documentary and street photographers tackling issues such as women’s rights and

Small Guide to Homeownership: Photography by Alejandro Cartagena of Mexico

This selection from Alejandro Cartagena’s “Mexicana Suburbia” series considers the interdependence of humans and landscape in the face of urban expansion.

Art Museum of the Americas Through Sept. 14

Bountiful Waters: Aquatic Life in Japanese Art

This exhibition features a selection of prints, paintings, illustrated books and ceramics that depict the Japanese appreciation for the beauty and variety of fish and other species.

Freer Gallery of Art Through Sept. 14

Meret Oppenheim: Tender Friendships

More than 20 artworks and archival papers

by Swiss surrealist Meret Oppenheim (1913-85) explore friendship as a source of support and inspiration, as seen through two 18th-century poets, Bettina von Brentano and Karoline von Günderode.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Through Sept. 21

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence

A community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

Africa, has developed a new form of bead art — using black fabric as a canvas and different colored Czech glass beads as the medium of expression — to empower local women.

spectacular annual Bastille Day celebration, which offers access to Washington’s top chefs and their signature dishes; a night of dancing; live jazz and swing music; open bars; and a wide-ranging silent and live auction. This year’s event commemorates the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, a symbol of the enduring American-French partnership. Tickets are $90 to $175; for information, visit www.frenchembassybastilleday2014.eventbrite.com.

The Anacostia Community Museum Through Sept. 28

American Metal: The Art of Albert Paley

Spanning a remarkable 50-year career, this first-ever retrospective surveys the art of Albert Paley, one of the world’s most distinguished metalsmiths.

Embassy of France

Corcoran Gallery of Art

MUSIC

Through Sept. 30

Thu., July 3, 8 p.m.

Magic Songs of the Eternal Steppe

Marco Paoli Photography

Marco Paoli presents large black-andwhite photographs from his collection “Silenzio (Silence)” and from his forthcoming monograph on Ethiopia, using his travels as metaphors for an artistic exploration around the concepts of silence, memory, emotion and inner journey (viewing appointments must be made by emailing iicwashington@esteri.it).

Embassy of Italy Through Oct. 5

Degas/Cassatt

Although Edgar Degas’s influence upon Mary Cassatt has long been acknowledged, the extent to which Cassatt shaped Degas’s artistic production and prepared the way for his warm reception by American audiences is fully examined in this exhibition for the first time.

National Gallery of Art Through Oct. 12

Total Art: Contemporary Video

The first museum exhibition to focus on women’s impact on the field of video art highlights the inventive processes and compelling subjects that sustain women artists’ position at the forefront of video.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Through Nov. 14

The First Woman Graphic Novelist: Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová

Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová (1894– 1980) was a Czech graphic artist whose 1929 novel “Zmého dětství (From My Childhood)” is widely acknowledged to be the first wordless novel created by a woman.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Through Dec. 31

Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Dazzling Gems

One of Cartier’s most important and enduring clients, Marjorie Merriweather Post commissioned some of the most exquisite jewelry sets, fashionable accessories and finely crafted jeweled frames of any American collector.

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens Through Jan. 4

One Nation With News for All

Ethnic newspapers, radio, television and online publications have helped millions of immigrants to America become part of their new country while preserving their ties to their native lands. This exhibit tells the dramatic story of how immigrants and minorities used the power of the press to fight for their rights and shape the American experience.

Newseum

DANCE July 11 to 27

Blue Moon/Red River

One of the few dance-focused companies presenting work at this year’s Capital

Photo: Apartment Zero

D.C.- and Beijing-based designers will showcase their work and participate in a series of discussions as part of “Design@+,” which celebrates the sister-city relationship between the two capitals.

Fringe Festival, Jane Franklin Dance collaborates with Helen Hayes Award-winning percussionist Tom Teasley live on stage as 11 athletic dancers form organic and human landscapes that dwell in the persistent sound reminiscent of the winds of the Southwestern plains. Please call for ticket information.

The Regency World of Jane Austen

Emma Woodhouse, Elizabeth Bennet, Anne Elliot, and the Dashwood sisters may be fictional heroines, but their creator Jane Austen sets their adventures in romance against the very real social and historical backdrop of Regency England. Art historian Bonita Billman brings the era to life during a delightful day of cultural time traveling.

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

This extraordinary concert presented by the Kazakh American Association takes audiences on a journey to the great Silk Road through the unrivaled technique and passion of Kazakhstan’s greatest musicians, composers and vocalists, who for thousands of years have drawn their musical inspiration from the country’s enchanting landscape. Tickets are $20.

Kennedy Center Concert Hall Tue., July 8, 8 p.m.

Jose Alberto “El Canario” and Domingo Quinones

Tea Across Time

Wed., July 23, 6:45 p.m.

Jose Alberto, a Dominican salsa singer, became a major Latin star after the release of his 1984 debut “Noches Calientes,” while his 1991 album “Dance With Me” established a new style of salsa called salsa romantica. Tickets are $29.50 to $60.

Masterpieces of Art in Early Renaissance Italy

Tue., July 15, 9 p.m.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

Elaine Ruffolo explores the early years of the Italian Renaissance, which saw an explosion of artistic energy as the visual arts underwent seminal changes in form, function and status, and as artists’ interests turned from predominantly religious themes to the real world — with startling results. Tickets are $42; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

Atlas Performing Arts Center

DISCUSSIONS Wed., July 9, 6:45 p.m.

Tea drinking, known to have taken place in China in the third century, has long played a role in shaping societies, art, politics and economies. With a pair of exhibitions focusing on Japanese tea culture now on view at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, this evening seminar with tasting looks at the beloved beverage’s rich global history.

Tickets are $45; for information, visit www. smithsonianassociates.org.

Thu., July 10, 6:45 p.m.

Jesuit Missions in the Early Modern World

Thomas Cohen of Catholic University examines the Jesuits’ work in overseas missions from 1549 to 1773, looking at the order’s establishment of missions in a wide range of settings, from the Chinese and Mughal courts to the frontiers of the Iberian empires in the Americas.

Tickets are $25; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Tue., July 15, 6:45 p.m.

Shakespeare at 450: A Standing Ovation

Celebrate the 450th anniversary of the birth of Shakespeare, whom Ben Jonson so aptly eulogized as a man as “not of an age, but for all time,” with Carol Ann Lloyd Stanger, a Tudor and Renaissance scholar and education specialist at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Tickets are $42; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Thu., July 17, 6:45 p.m.

St. Nazaire: The Greatest Raid of All

The British raid on St. Nazaire on the Atlantic coast of occupied France ranks as one of the most extraordinary acts of heroism in World War II. Tickets are $42; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center Sat., July 19, 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

S. Dillon Ripley Center

FESTIVALS July 7 to 11

Design @+

To mark the 30th Anniversary of the sistercity relationship between the District of Columbia and Beijing, “Design@+” was launched to bridge the creative conversation between two capitals by engaging design professionals in a weeklong series of events. In addition to an exhibit of 80 contemporary designs ranging from furniture and product design to fashion and graphic design, “Design @+” includes various discussions such as “Google Art Night Talk: What is the Role of Technology (such as 3D printing) in Industrial Designs?” on July 9.

For information, visit www.jintaimuseum.org or www.facebook.com/dcbeijingdesign.

Howard Theatre

Los Pericos

Los Pericos, a reggae rock band from Argentina formed in 1987, has enjoyed international success, especially throughout South America, and was featured on an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show “No Reservations.” Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 at the door.

Howard Theatre Thu., July 24, 6:45 p.m.

The Eblen Macari Trio

This summer concert features the acclaimed Eblen Macari Trio, which fuses improvisation and world music by using myriad instruments to uncover the baroque and Levantine influences in Mexican music.

Mexican Cultural Institute Fri., July 25, 9 p.m.

Pupy y Los Que Son Son

César “Pupy” Pedroso, one of Cuba’s best and most prolific composers, played a seminal role in revolutionizing the art of salsa piano playing. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

ticket information.

Signature Theatre July 11 to 27

Medea’s Got Some Issues

As part of the Capital Fringe Fetival, No Rules Theatre Company and SPAIN arts & culture present the D.C. premiere of Spanish playwright Emilio Williams’ award-winning farce, which delivers a sidesplitting take on the infamous Greek myth. Finally audiences get Medea’s uncensored side of the story: the whirlwind romance that drove her to murder her children, the tragedy that is modern theater, and the portrayal of women in the age of Rihanna and JLaw. Tickets are $17.

Warehouse July 12 to 27

Report to an Academy

by Franz Kafka

An ape evolves to behave like a human and presents his fascinating tale of transformation — and the horrid details of his former ape life — to a top scientific academy. For ticket information, visit www.ScenaTheater.org.

Caos on F Street Gallery Through July 14

Side Show

Chronicling their rise from freak circus attractions to famous vaudeville entertainers during the Great Depression, “Side Show” follows conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton in their heartwarming search for love and normalcy amidst the spectacle of fame and scrutiny. Tickets are $45 to $130.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater Through July 15

Noël Coward’s Private Lives

Noël Coward’s quick-witted comedy opens in a blissful hotel in France where divorcées Elyot and Amanda are on a honeymoon with their new spouses. When the ex-couple discover each other on neighboring balconies, they try to maintain a veneer of etiquette and respectability, but old feelings make matters complicated.

Tickets are $40 to $100.

Shakespeare Lansburgh Theatre July 25 and 26

Globe to Globe Hamlet

Shakespeare’s Globe launches a worldwide tour of “Hamlet,” bringing their acclaimed production back to the Folger after a highly successful run in 2012. The London-based Shakespeare’s Globe production will visit all 205 nations on earth in an unprecedented theatrical adventure, including this stop in the United States. Tickets are $60 to $85.

Folger Shakespeare Library

Howard Theatre

July 28 to Aug. 17

Powerhouse in Georgetown

THEATER

July 10 to 27

Through July 5

An aspiring young director rampages against the art created by his mother’s generation while a nubile young actress wrestles with an aging Hollywood star for the affections of a renowned novelist in this irreverent remix of Chekhov’s “The Seagull.” Please call for ticket information.

Capital Fringe Festival

Happy Days

This annual performing arts festival features more than 100 events at venues across town that connect exploratory artists with adventurous audiences by creating outlets and spaces for creative, cuttingedge and contemporary performance ranging from theater, dance and music to poetry and puppetry. For information, visit www.capitalfringe.org.

Scena Theater presents the absurdist classic “Happy Days” by the esteemed Irish playwright Samuel Beckett and directed by local acting veteran Nancy Robinette.

Tickets are $20 to $40.

Various locations

Third-rate detective Nick Cutter is down on his luck when a beautiful blonde bombshell tosses a very intriguing case (and herself) into his lap in this zany, mile-aminute whodunit that features four actors playing nearly 20 roles. Please call for

Fri., July 11, 7:30 p.m.

Bastille Day Celebration

The Embassy of France welcomes Washingtonians to the Comité Tricolore’s

July 2014

Atlas Performing Arts Center

Stupid F###king Bird

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Through Aug. 17

Through July 6

Disney’s The Lion King

Cloak and Dagger

Winner of six Tonys including Best Musical, “Disney’s The Lion King” returns with direction and costumes by Julie Taymor and a score by Elton John and Tim Rice that brings the African Pridelands to life.

Tickets are $40 to $190.

Kennedy Center Opera House

The Washington Diplomat Page 41

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT Embassy Chef Challenge

Capricia Marshall, former protocol chief and honorary gala chair, left, samples the food of chef Muhammadali Aliyev of the Uzbek Embassy at the sixth annual Embassy Chef Challenge, an annual fundraiser for Cultural Tourism DC that gives the public access to one of D.C.’s best-kept secrets: world-class embassy chefs.

July 2014

UAE Art at Meridian

Chef Sherene James of the Jamaican Embassy was one of more than a dozen embassy chefs who competed in Cultural Tourism DC’s Embassy Chef Challenge held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

From left, Laura Denise Bisogniero, wife of the Italian ambassador, joins Andrew Gelfuso and Hosai Rashid of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, one of the sponsors of the sixth annual Embassy Chef Challenge.

Ambassador of El Salvador Ruben Ignacio Zamora Rivas, left, joins his embassy’s chef, Edgar Meléndez, at the sixth annual Embassy Chef Challenge hosted by Cultural Tourism DC as part of its annual Passport DC, a monthlong showcase of international culture in May.

Chef Mukesh “Tiger” Ramnarine of the Embassy of Trinadad and Tobago Embassy made Atlantic red crabmeat “Callaloo” passion fruit and plantain chips for the Embassy Chef Challenge.

3Chef Roberto Grazioli of the Italian Embassy presents his dish, eggplant delight, at the Embassy Chef Challenge hosted by Cultural Tourism DC, a nonprofit that showcases the city’s heritage, international exchange and humanities.

3Chef Andrzej Bielach of the Polish Embassy was among more than a dozen embassy chefs who presented small plates showcasing their country’s signature delicacies at the Embassy Chef Challenge.

Chef Hasan Siyam of the Turkish Embassy made Islim Kebap with veiled rice for the Embassy Chef Challenge held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

The Washington Diplomat

Steven Shulman, executive director of Cultural Tourism DC, glances at the silent auction items on offer at the Embassy Chef Challenge, including many private embassy experiences.

From left, philanthropist Susan Lehrman, Ambassador of Russia Sergey Kislyak and Jan Du Plain attend the Embassy Chef Challenge, where the Russian Embassy’s chef, Roman Shchadrin, won the People’s Choice Award for his salmon ice cream.

Photo: Nick Khazal

From left, Zeinab Al Hashemi; Maitha Al Mehairbi; Ambassador of the UAE Yousef Al Otaiba; Khalid Mezaina; curator Noor Al Suwaidi; and Meridian International Center President and CEO Stuart Holliday attend the opening of “Past Forward,” the first major exhibition of contemporary art from the United Arab Emirates to tour the United States.

Public relations specialist Jan Du Plain, left, and UAE artist Maitha Al Mehairbi attend the opening of “Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates,” a groundbreaking exhibit that tells the story of the UAE’s history, culture and rapid development through the works of 25 notable Emirati artists.

From left, former Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad, Marie Royce and Shamim Jawad attend the opening of “Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates” at the Meridian International Center’s White-Meyer House.

Gwen Holliday, left, and Janet Blanchard attend the opening of “Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates,” featuring over 50 paintings, sculptures, photographs and other artwork on display at the Meridian International Center until July 13, followed by a U.S. tour.

From left, Meridian Vice President for Arts and Cultural Programs Curtis Sandberg; U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. David Stillwell; and Karen Lemmey, sculpture curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, attend the opening of “Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates,” co-curated

by Sandber

Nepalese Republic Day 3From left, Kamala Ghimire and Rishi Ram Ghimire, deputy chief of mission of the Nepalese Embassy, welcome the new U.S. Chief of Protocol Peter Selfridge to the Nepalese Republic Day reception held at the Holiday Inn Georgetown. photos: larry luxner

Chef Ángel L. of the Venezuelan Embassy made Venezuela blacked roast and cassava balls for the sixth annual Embassy Chef Challenge.

Page 42

Chef Jiraporn Bunlet of the Royal Thai Embassy won the coveted Judges’ Choice Award at the Embassy Chef Challenge for her Phla Salmon (spicy salmon salad), which she served to a panel of celebrity judges that included “Top Chef” contestant and D.C. restaurateur Bart Vandaele.

Chef Sindre Risvoll of the Norwegian Embassy cooked up North Atlantic halibut confit with smoked puree of celeriac, sun choke and cured game meat.

4From left, Paul Lee, senior partner and founder of Strategic Health Care; Romanian author Ioana Lee; filmmaker Carl Colby; and Rhoda Septilici, diplomatic liaison for the Washington International Piano Arts Council, attend the Nepalese Republic Day reception.

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

Hospice Benefit Refugees International

From left, restaurateur and chef José Andrés, Ambassador of the UAE Yousef Al Otaiba and J. Robinson West, founder and chairman of PFC Energy, attend the Refugees International 35th anniversary dinner at the Mellon Auditorium, where Andrés was honored with the McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award for his work advocating for sustainable solutions to combat hunger worldwide.

Actor Sam Waterston, a board member of Refugees International, left, and Farooq Kathwari, chairman, president and CEO of Ethan Allen Interiors, attend the 35th anniversary dinner for Refugees International, a nonprofit that advocates for life-saving protection for displaced and stateless people worldwide.

3From left, Lisa Barry, formerly of Chevron; Laura Lane, president of global public affairs for UPS; and Sarah Thorn, senior director of international trade for Walmart, attend the Refugees International 35th anniversary dinner.

From left, Judith Terra, chair of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities; UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Esther Coopersmith; journalist Eleanor Clift of the Daily Beast; and Tim Cox, CEO of the Washington Home & Community Hospices, attend the “Celebration of Caring” benefit to honor the 125th anniversary of the Washington Home & Community Hospices.

From left, philanthropist and community activist Marlene Malek, Washington Home & Community Hospices Board Chair Sharon Casey and public relations specialist Jan Du Plain attend an Italian-themed benefit for the pioneer hospice organization, which since 1888, has led the way in caring for patients with illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and HIV/AIDS.

4Gouri Mirpuri, wife of the Singaporean ambassador, left, and Shahin Mafi, founder and CEO of Home Health Connection Inc., enjoy the Italian buffet at the “Celebration of Caring” benefit at the Italian Embassy to honor the 125th anniversary of Washington Home & Community Hospices.

photos: gail scott

From left, David and Penny Yao join Jana Mason, a senior advisor for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and her husband attorney Shu-Ping Chan at the 35th anniversary dinner of Refugees International.

Documentary filmmaker Rohini Talalla and her husband Jeffrey Bader, former senior director for East Asian affairs on the National Security Council, serve as benefit chairs of the Refugees International 35th anniversary dinner.

From left, Laura Denise Bisogniero, wife of the Italian ambassador, left, welcomes Diane and Peter Schaefer to the “Celebration of Caring” benefit at the Italian Embassy to honor the 125th anniversary of Washington Home & Community Hospices, which provides health care services for aging, chronically and terminally ill area residents.

From left, Jack Lynch, Ellen Loughran, Meghan Dotter and Nicole Watson attend the “Celebration of Caring” benefit at the Italian Embassy to honor the 125th anniversary of Washington Home & Community Hospices.

3Barbara Hawthorne, left, and Deputy Chief of Mission of the Italian Embassy Luca Franchetti Pardo attend the “Celebration of Caring” benefit, which turned the Italian Embassy into an elegant Italian market featuring upscale clothing, leather goods, jewelry, ceramics, perfumes and wines.

Art of Storytelling

Actor Matt Dillon, a longtime supporter of Refugees Inter­ national, served as master of ceremonies for the group’s 35th anniversary dinner held at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.

Physicians are not employees or agents of this hospital.

Shamin Jawad and her husband former Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad attend the Refugees International 35th anniversary dinner.

Marie Royce of Alcatel-Lucent and her husband Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, attend the Refugees International 35th anniversary dinner.

From left, Laura Denise Bisogniero, Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, and Ambassador of Italy Claudio Bisogniero attend a reception at Villa Firenze in honor of Llosa and Storaro, who led a symposium on the art of storytelling and filmmaking at Georgetown University. photo: embassy of italy

Appointment scheduling • Interpretation Package/Cost estimates 202-715-5100 • helen.salazar@gwu-hospital.com

July 2014

The Washington Diplomat Page 43

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

July 2014

Heart’s Delight

Photo: heart’s delight

French Ambassador François Delattre, center top, hosts a dinner at his residence as part of the 15th annual Heart’s Delight Wine Tasting & Auction, a four-day fundraising event that includes a showcase of American wine; a series of private dinners, many at embassies or ambassador residences; a black-tie gala vintners dinner; and a day of tastings and master wine classes.

Bangladeshi Farewell

Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), left, joins Heart’s Delight Chairman Nicholas E. Calio, president and chief executive officer of Airlines for America, at the United States of Wine Celebration held on the rooftop of 101 Constitution Avenue, NW, overlooking the U.S. Capitol.

From left, Sue Murray, Senior Vice President of Global Government Affairs for Airlines for America Christine Burgeson, and Alison Jones attend the Heart’s Delight United States of Wine Celebration to raise awareness of heart disease, the number-one killer of both men and women in the United States.

Photo: heart’s delight

Wine goes on the auction block at the Heart’s Delight Vintners Dinner, a black-tie, $1,000-perperson gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium to benefit the American Heart Association; this year’s dinner focused on the wines of Château Margaux presented by Paul Pontallier.

Jeffrey Birnbaum, president of BGR Public Relations, left, tries wine from Ashley Bell of Domaine Drouhin Oregon at the 15th annual Heart’s Delight Wine Tasting & Auction to benefit the American Heart Association.

photo: larry luxner

From left, Ambassador Peter Selfridge, the State Department’s new chief of protocol; Akramul Qader, the departing ambassador of Bangladesh; Atul Keshap, deputy assistant secretary at the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs; and Christopher Elms, Bangladesh desk officer at the State Department, attend a farewell reception for Ambassador Qader.

From left, Charles Birr; food and beverage director of Two Rivers Country Club in Virginia; Marc Hodies cyber security principal scientist at QinetIQ-NA; and William Bright, manager of Jardenea Restaurant and Lounge at the Melrose Hotel, attend the Heart’s Delight United States of Wine Celebration.

From left, Sara Carter; Heather Shaw Menis, director of marketing for Saks Fifth Avenue in Tysons, Va.; Gouri Mirpuri, wife of the Singaporean ambassador; Barbara Bassin; and her husband Dr. Stanley Appelbaum attend a dinner at the Embassy of Singapore as part of the wine benefit Heart’s Delight.

Bassin’s family, which owns MacArthur Beverages, launched the annual fundraiser to honor her brother Bruce, who died of a heart attack at the age of 40.

Brian and Brendan Kearney represent Addax Wines at the United States of Wine Celebration — the first year they’ve participated in the Hearts Delight four-day wine fundraiser to benefit the American Heart Association.

John Duffy, left, and Bud Hawk attend the United States of Wine Celebration as part of the Heart’s Delight Wine Tasting & Auction, an annual fundraiser that has grown into one of the biggest wine juggernauts in the country, raising more than $12 million for the American Heart Association over the last 14 years.

Invictus Games

Photo: UK in USA

British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott welcomes wounded American service members and veterans to the British Residence for a reception marking the 100-day countdown to the Invictus Games in London. Inspired by the U.S. Warrior Games, the Invictus Games celebrates the resilience of injured service members and the significant role sports can play in recovery.

Photo: Janessa Jackson for British Embassy Washington Photo: UK in USA

From left, Jeffrey S. Lerner, director of education, employment and reconditioning programs for the Defense Department’s Warrior Care Policy; Karen Lerner; and Guy A. Stratton, special assistant for the Defense Department’s Warrior Care Policy, attend a British Residence reception celebrating the upcoming Invictus Games.

From left, Sultana Hakimi; Lady Westmacott; British Ambassador Peter Westmacott; and Ambassador of Afghanistan Eklil Hakimi attend a reception at the British Residence marking 100 days until London’s Invictus Games, where more than 400 athletes from 14 nations whose troops have fought together will compete.

3British Ambassador Peter Westmacott discusses the significance of the inaugural Invictus Games, the brainchild of Prince Harry, who was inspired by watching the 2013 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs.

3From left, Erika Foster, Sarah Evans and Brad Snyder join other wounded American service members and veterans who will participate in the Invictus Games, which will take place this September in London.

Photo: UK in USA

4From left, Holly Petraeus of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the wife of Gen. David Petraeus; Lady Westmacott, wife of the British ambassador; and Sheila Casey of the Center for Women in Business and the wife of Gen. George Casey, attend a reception celebrating the upcoming Invictus Games in London.

Page 44

Gay Pride British Embassy staff and friends participate in the 39th annual Capital Pride Parade, a celebration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The British Pride contingent consisted of a “Love is GREAT”-themed trolley and “Keep Calm and Marry on” T-shirts.

Photo: Scott Henrichsen for the british embassy

Toro Toro 4Adm. James A. “Sandy” Winnefeld, Jr., vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, left, and Mark Campbell attend a reception at the British Residence celebrating the wounded American service members and veterans who will participate in the Invictus Games later this year.

From left, chef Richard Sandoval, Laura Medina Mora and Ambassador of Mexico Eduardo Medina Mora cut the ribbon on Sandoval’s new pan-Latin steakhouse, Toro Toro.

The Washington Diplomat

Photo: Larry Luxner

July 2014

AROUNDTHEWORLD

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July 2014

HOLIDAYS 203526A01 AFGhANIsTAN July 29: eid al-Fitr AlBANIA July 29: eid al-Fitr AlGerIA July 5: independence day July 29: eid al-Fitr ANTIGuA and BArBudA July 7: Caricom day ArGeNTINA July 9: independence day ArmeNIA July 5: Constitution day AZerBAIJAN July 29: ramazan Bayramy BAhAmAs July 10: independence day BAhrAIN July 29: eid al-Fitr

ColomBIA July 20: independence day Comoros July 6: independence day CosTA rICA July 25: guanacaste Annexation day CÔTe d’IVoIre July 25: laïlatoul-Kadr July 29: Aïd-el Fitr CuBA July 25-27: Celebrations for the day of the national rebelliousness CZeCh rePuBlIC July 5: st. Cyril and st. methodius day July 6: John hus day dJIBouTI July 29: eid el Fitr

BANGlAdesh July 29: eid-al Fitr

eGyPT July 23: revolution day July 29: eid el Fitr

BelArus July 3: independence day

erITreA July 29: eid al-Fitr

BelGIum July 21: independence day BeNIN July 29: eid al-Fitr BoTsWANA July 1: sir seretse Khama day July 15: President’s day July 16: Public holiday BruNeI July 15: Birthday of the sultan and yang di-Pertuan of Brunei darussalam July 29: eid al-Fitr BurKINA FAso July 29: eid al-Fitr BurmA (myANmAr) July 19: martyrs’ day BuruNdI July 1: independence day

FIJI July 28: Constitution day FrANCe July 14: Bastille day GAmBIA July 29: eid-al-Fitr GhANA July 1: republic day July 29: eid al-Fitr GuyANA July 7: Caricom day INdIA July 29: idu’l Fitr INdoNesIA July 29: idul Fitri IrAN July 29: eid al-Fitr IrAQ July 29: eid al-Fitr

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KoreA, rePuBlIC oF July 17: Constitution day

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omAN July 29: eid al-Fitr

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PhIlIPPINes July 29: eid ul Fitre

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TuNIsIA July 25: republic day July 29: Aïd el Fitr

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TurKey July 29: seker Bayram

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ToNGA July 12: Crown Prince’s Birthday TrINIdAd and ToBAGo July 29: eid-ul-Fitr

uruGuAy July 18: Constitution day uZBeKIsTAN July 29: eid al-Fitr VeNeZuelA July 5: independence day July 24: simón Bolívar day

uNITed ArAB emIrATes July 29: eid al-Fitr

yemeN July 29: eid al-Fitr

uNITed KINGdom July 12: Battle of the Boyne (orangemen’s day)

ZAmBIA July 5: heroes’ day July 6: unity day

arm yourself with information.

QATAr July 29: eid al-Fitr romANIA July 29: day of the national hymn rWANdA July 1: independence day

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sT. VINCeNT and The GreNAdINes July 7: Caricom day sAo Tome ANd PrINCIPe July 12: independence day sAudI ArABIA July 29: eid al-Fitr seNeGAl July 29: eid al-Fitr sINGAPore July 29: hari raya Puasa sloVAK rePuBlIC July 5: st. Cyril and st. methodius day

NePAl July 7: the King’s Birthday (national day)

solomoN IslANds July 7: independence day

CANAdA July 1: Canada day

JAPAN July 19: marine day (umi no hi)

CAPe Verde July 5: independence day

JordAN July 29: eid al-Fitr

NICArAGuA July 19: sandinistas revolution day

sPAIN July 25: Apostle santiago day

ChAd July 29: Aïd-el Fitr

KeNyA July 29: idd-ul-Fitr

NIGer July 29: eid al-Fitr

srI lANKA July 29: id-ul-Fitr

July 2014

sWAZIlANd July 22: Public holiday

syrIA July 29: eid al-Fitr

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