■ HOTELS & TRAVEL
SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE
A World of News and Perspective
HOTELS T R A V E L &
■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat
■ July 2015
The Sofitel’s “magnifique renewal” celebrates the ties between Paris and Washington, D.C.
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■ JULY 2015
■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM
■ VOLUME 22, NUMBER 7
RENOVATION RACE
In Hypercompetitive Market, Hotels Spruce Up to Stay Fresh
POLITICS
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After Spectacular Fall, Can Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Recover? On June 24, 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood arguably reached its pinnacle of power when it won Egypt’s first democratic election. Since then, however, it has experienced an epic fall from grace, but is Egypt’s largest and oldest Islamist political movement really on its last legs? PAGE 8
PHOTO: HAMADA ELRASAM FOR VOA
ECONOMICS
Amid ‘Greek Ruins,’ Journalist Uncovers Self-Inflicted Wounds In “The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins,” journalist James Angelos takes on his own “tribe” to provide a sobering account of how Greece became the sick man of Europe and a threat to the global economy. PAGE 10
culture
Textile Museum, GW Join Forces One of the city’s hidden gems, the Textile Museum has found new life, and relevance, in its merger with the George Washington University. PAGE 26
EUROPE
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hen Washington welcomed a record-breaking 18.3 by Stephanie Kanowitz million domestic visitors in Today, in addition to the Hiltons, 2014, local hotel owners Hyatts and Holiday Inns, sat up a little straighter. After Washington has boutique hotels all, whether they came here decorated with local art (we’re for closed-door meetings with looking at you Kimpton), mammoth members of Congress or to structures with 1,700-plus stroll with their families rooms and conaround the Smithsonian museums, vention centers (think Marriott Marquis and Gaylord National those visitors needed places to sleep. Resort), hotels with And this area has plenty of histories (the Hay-Adams, Willard options when it comes to lodging InterContinental and the Jefferson — with many fit the bill) more on the way. Currently, and uber posh hotels that get the nation’s capital is home upward of $800 a night for to more than 140 hotel regular rooms (also properties and 31,000 rooms, known as the Capella). Next according to Destination DC, year, D.C. will even have its first “micro hotel” which markets the at area as a great place to visit. 7th and H Streets, NW, courtesy About 20 more properties are of Modus Hotels. The New York set for construction. will “pod” concept Also worth noting is that while feature much smaller rooms (and rates) than the visitors are here, they spend typical hotel setup. money — and plenty of it. Domestic visitors To remain competitive in this alone spent about $6.8 billion constantly evolving environment, in D.C. last year, established according to IHS Global Inc., hotels have to step up their a year-over-year increase of games and constantly refresh 1.9 percent. Yes, that’s we themselves. Here billion with a B. look at how five hotels have reinvented themselves in recent months.
The Washington Diplomat July 2015
July 2015
TRAVEL & HOTELS
Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat
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Arab and African migrants desperate to reach Europe’s shores are dying in the Mediterranean. Russia continues to ratchet up tensions in Ukraine. Cash-strapped Greeks may be forced out of the eurozone while the Brits ponder going it alone as well. Undeterred, the European Union’s new ambassador to the U.S., David O’Sullivan, is confident the bloc can rise to the complex tangle of crises facing it. PAGE 13
EUROPEAN UNION JUGGLE PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE
DIPLOMACY
Retirement Doesn’t Dim Diplomat’s Relevance
Nordic Envoys Make History on Twitter
After a renowned Foreign Service career that included key ambassadorships to the U.N., Russia, India, Israel and Nigeria, Thomas Pickering continues to leave his mark on issues ranging from Iran to Benghazi to reforming the State Department. PAGE 4
On a hot summer day, Nordic envoys discussed a chilly topic, the Arctic, and made history by becoming the first five ambassadors to ever host a Twitter town hall meeting together. PAGE 6
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The Washington Diplomat
A World of News & Perspective
June 2015
CONTENTS tHE WasHINgtON DIPLOmat
10 Greek economy
[ news ] 4
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CHILLY TWITTER TALK on a steamy summer day, nordic envoys took to Twitter to discuss a chilly topic, the Arctic, in a history-making town hall meeting.
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MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD’S FATE
Hotel renovations
“Filthy Lucre”
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GREEK TRAGICOMEDY
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RENOVATION COMPETITION
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AIRLINE WAR OF WORDS u.s. airlines are accusing gulf carriers of unfairly taking American jobs while Qatar and the uAE accuse the legacy carriers of being spoiled sports in an escalating war of words.
[ culture ] 26
COVER: Cover photo taken at the European Union Delegation by Lawrence Ruggeri of Ruggeriphoto.com.
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BIG PICTURE The national gallery of Art reflects on its growing photographic imprint in three major shows.
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DINING sticky, humid summers in Washington have one upside: menus packed with locally sourced ingredients that thrive in the region’s verdant climate and myriad waterways.
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FILM REVIEWS “Eden” conveys the highs and lows of a music scene that entranced a generation with its promise of happy beats, thrills and freedom.
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FILM INTERVIEW Mia hansen-løve and her brother Sven co-wrote an intelligent, complex script about his real life as a French garage house DJ.
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CINEMA LISTING
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EVENTS LISTING
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DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT
BRITISH JULY 4TH
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APPOINTMENTS / WORLD HOLIDAYS
Every year, a British city celebrates America’s independence from the British in a unique partnership that embodies the spirit of sister cities.
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CLASSIFIEDS
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REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS
A combination of culture and history underlines the $33 million merger between the george Washington university Museum and Textile Museum, which debuted March 21 after three years of planning.
DIGITAL DIPLOMACY FORUM The northern ireland Bureau has walked a fine line navigating between sensitive events back home and its larger union with the u.k. to carve out a social media niche for itself.
TEXTILE TEAM
SYRIAN VOICE Teenage piano prodigy Tambi Asaad Cimuk represents a glimmer of hope for the nearly 1.8 million syrian refugees who have adopted Turkey in the four years since leaving their homeland behind.
With a record-breaking number of visitors to D.C. last year and a string of new properties in development, the city’s hotels have to stay fresh to stay ahead.
COVER PROFILE: EUROPEAN UNION With a migration crisis, the ukraine crisis and eurozone crisis bearing down on it, the once-exclusive club of the European union is taking one hit after another.
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MEDICAL
[ hotels & travel ]
‘FILTHY’ FEUD “Filthy lucre,” a recreation of the sumptuous 19th-century “Peacock room,” illustrates the bitter feud behind Whistler’s original masterpiece.
As a growing body of research establishes the long-term risks posed by repeated concussions, participation in elementary and high school football has taken a hit.
James Angelos’s “The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the new greek ruins” almost reads like a tragicomedy, if the real-life consequences of a Greek default weren’t so serious.
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BOOK REVIEW Joseph nye’s “is the American Century over?” argues that it is not, sorting through the bold claims and fuzzy thinking that pervade the debate about America’s role in the world.
The Muslim Brotherhood has fallen spectacularly in Egypt and around the region, but is the islamist group really on its last legs?.
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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE Few modern-day diplomats have left as indelible a mark on the State Department as Thomas Pickering, and retirement has not dimmed the former envoy’s influence on issues ranging from iran to Benghazi.
July 2015
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 sarah Alaoui, Michael Coleman, Linda harper, stephanie kanowitz, sean Lyngaas, Molly McCluskey, ky n. nguyen, kate oczypok, Justin salhani, gail scott, Dave seminara, gina shaw, John shaw, gary Tischler Photographer Lawrence ruggeri Account Managers rod Carrasco 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 $29 for 12 issues and $49 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 2015
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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE
Thomas Pickering
After Stellar Foreign Service Career, Pickering Still Going Strong by Michael Coleman
F
ew modern-day diplomats have left as indelible a mark on the U.S. State Department as Thomas Pickering, and retirement has not diminished the former ambassador’s influence on urgent issues ranging from Iran to Benghazi.
The New Jersey native’s globetrotting four-decade career in the Foreign Service included key ambassadorships to the United Nations, Russia, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and Jordan. In the 1970s, King Hussein of Jordan declared Pickering “the best American ambassador I’ve dealt with.” Later, as ambassador to the United Nations, Pickering reportedly did his job so well — and garnered so many headlines in the New York Times — that thenSecretary of State James Baker had him transferred to a post in India because he had overshadowed Baker during the Persian Gulf Crisis of the early 1990s. Pickering also served as undersecretary of state for political affairs and eventually earned the personal rank of career ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service, before his retirement in 2000. Following his retirement, the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program was renamed the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program to honor the longtime diplomat.
Libya, and he helped found the Iran Project, an independent nongovernmental entity that aims to reduce misunderstandings between Iran and the United States through informal discussions with influential Iranians. As controversy swirled around the negotiations to curb Iran’s nuclear program ahead of a self-imposed June 30 deadline, Pickering rejected the notion that engaging with one’s enemies conveys weakness. Instead, he told The Diplomat that communicating provides insights that lead to diplomatic breakthroughs. “Talking is the method of communication in which you work to solve problems,” Pickering said in an interview at his office in midtown D.C.“Most of your most serious problems are with your enemies. So being able to use all of the leverage you have and marshal that in ways in which you bring your enemies along is the centerpiece of diplomacy. “There are others who believe you can punish other countries by not talking to them,” he said.“Generally, it doesn’t work…. This is where we are with
“
Talking is the method of communication in which you work to solve problems…. Most of your most serious problems are with your enemies. So being able to use all of the leverage you have and marshal that in ways in which you bring your enemies along is the centerpiece of diplomacy.
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— Thomas Pickering former U.S. ambassador and undersecretary of state for political affairs
But in Pickering’s case, “retirement” was just an official term demarking the end of one career and the start of another. He went on to serve as vice president of international relations for Boeing, and today, the 83-year-old former diplomat is vice chairman of Hills & Co., an international business consulting firm. He also sits on the boards of numerous nonprofits and professional organizations and continues to write about topics ranging from Afghanistan to Cuba. Pickering stays active in foreign affairs, as well. He was chairman of the panel that investigated security lapses at the U.S. government compound in Benghazi,
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North Korea at the moment.” That’s not to say the United States shouldn’t negotiate “from a position of strength,” Pickering added, but the talks with Iran are somewhat complicated by the other negotiating partners, known as the P5+1, which includes Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany. “One can have a logical argument about Iran,” Pickering said. “Have we deployed enough pressure and are we getting what we should for it? Part of the difficulty here is that we are not negotiating alone. We have five other partners and part of the success of the pressure
The Washington Diplomat
Photo: Brookings Institution
we are using, which is sanctions, underlying a military threat if they try to make a nuclear weapon,” relies on the cooperation of those partners. Pickering said the deal struck by the Obama administration and other countries to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions is a good one — and likely as good as Washington is going to get. “If we don’t take the present framework agreement and seek to ratchet it up more, are we going to have all these [countries] with us? The answer is clearly no,” Pickering said three weeks before the June 30 deadline for a final agreement on a deal. “Can we solve our problem with the framework that has been put together?” Pickering asked. “Most of us believe we can, but … we won’t make that judgment until there is a final agreement. Our group has been recommending the Congress to do exactly the same — keep an open mind, think about what is already on the table, think about what else needs to be done and evaluate it when the process is finished.” Pickering suggested patience on the part of a Republican-controlled Congress that has consistently tried to inject itself in the ongoing negotiations. “We have taken the view that the
Congress has a logical and important role to play in this, and the Congress needs to decide for itself whether it is prepared to accept an agreement or not,” Pickering said. Asked if he envisions a scenario in which the United States and Iran could eventually forge a more trusting bilateral relationship based on mutual interests, Pickering said, “It’s much too early to answer that question.” “The nuclear question is a central factor in whether the relationship can proceed further,” he explained. “There are a huge number of outstanding issues. We have differences over Syria, we have differences over the Iranian support for terrorist organizations, we have differences over the view of how to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, we have serious differences over the way the Iranians handle domestic human rights issues, particularly freedom of religion. “But we have common agreements about Afghanistan; neither of us wants a Taliban government; and about what to do about the future of Iraq; neither of us wants to see [the Islamic State] in charge,” he said. “If we can resolve the nuclear question, the next question is what else July 2015
should we tackle and in what priority order and that is obviously a presidential decision,” Pickering said.“But my sense is you don’t want a world in which you live in perpetual disagreement with everybody or anybody.” Perpetual disagreement, however, defines a foreign policy controversy that has come to haunt both President Obama and his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.The Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi that killed four U.S. government personnel, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, has spawned more than a dozen congressional hearings, tens of thousands of documents, calls to improve diplomatic security and a host of largely debunked conspiracy theories. Republicans say they are simply trying to uncover the truth about the still-murky attack, while Democrats accuse them of using the tragedy to tarnish their presumptive nominee for the White House in 2016. Pickering played a key role in the Benghazi aftermath, having been tasked by then-Secretary Clinton to head an Accountability Review Board to examine the circumstances surrounding the attack, widely blamed on Islamist militants who roam parts of the fractured country. He has been eager to address lingering criticisms of his report since its release in late 2012. The investigation of the chaotic attack, which involved arson, small-arms and machinegun fire, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and mortars, focused on two U.S. facilities in Benghazi. Pickering was named chairman of the review board, and Adm. Mike Mullen, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, served as vice chairman. Perhaps not surprisingly, the report was immediately criticized by Republican members of Congress, many of whom have alleged a State Department coverup of the security lapses. “In my district — and the vast majority of Americans — feel that your report was a whitewash,” Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) told Pickering and Mullen at a House Oversight Committee hearing after the report’s release. “That’s what people feel.” A primary complaint was that the review board didn’t bother to interview Clinton. Pickering pushed back against the criticism two years ago, and reiterated his stance on the matter in his Diplomat interview. He said the scope of the review was dictated by Congress and that the investigation revealed that Clinton wasn’t responsible. “We were charged by the Congress … with looking at four issues: Was there a security problem, did we take it fully into account, did we do the right kind of thing and what needs to be done if we didn’t do the right thing,” Pickering explained. “We looked at it from that perspective and we interviewed maybe over 100 people, including people who were with the secretary the night of the event,” Pickering continued. “We decided that two things were true — that the decisions made in connection with preparing Benghazi adequately for the security situation were made at a level well below the secretary and reviewed at a level well below the secretary. And we held the people who made those decisions responsible.” The State Department disciplined four officials in the incident and the highest-ranking among them, Eric Boswell, head of the Diplomatic Security Bureau,resigned.Pickering said the purpose of the report was to find out who was responsible for the lax security at the U.S. government compounds in Benghazi — not to find a high-ranking scapegoat. “The Congress said in the material accompanying the [Accountability Review Board] act to not accept as a solution to the investigation that some senior-level official accepts full
Photo: State Department
Foreign Service Officers Kristen Pisani and Ana Escrogima discuss their experiences as U.S. Department of State Rusk Fellows at Georgetown University with the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, chaired by former U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, at left, in May 2011 in D.C.
responsibility when in fact the decisions were made further down and the accountability rests further down,” Pickering said. “That was the conclusion we reached and I have seen nothing since then that in all honesty I believe changes the equation,” he added. “I’m perfectly prepared to consider the fact that if new information comes to light that changes the equation, [but] so far that has not happened.” In fact, he says, the unprecedented scrutiny into Benghazi has revealed no smoking gun or massive conspiracy. “I feel reinforced now two years later — almost three years later — that there has been nothing produced,” he said. “But I am not of the mind that nothing can ever be produced because I said today nothing has been produced. We were working with what we had.” So, why not talk to Clinton anyway, given the expected criticism of the report and the great likelihood that she would run for president — at least to get her on the record? “We carefully considered this question and the group, the five of us, had already concluded the responsibility rested where it rested,” Pickering replied.“We didn’t think it was necessary under what we knew at the time, which is what we still know now, to conduct an interrogation of the secretary.” Asked to assess Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, Pickering was strongly complimentary, but also makes a point of conceding that he served on her special policy advisory committee while she was on the job. “I felt that she and the State Department under her period of time did a good job — an excellent job,” Pickering said.“Nobody escapes scot-free from making a mistake or two, but I always thought Secretary Clinton went out of her way to be honest with the public. When she made a mistake, or thought she made a mistake, or thought she should have done so differently after the fact, she said so and not too many human beings of that stature who have ambitions to go further are prepared to be as frank in public as she was in those cases.” That’s hardly likely to satisfy Republicans who are demanding full access to Clinton’s emails during her tenure as secretary of state, along with her testimony before the House Select Committee investigating Benghazi. Pickering said it’s obvious that the Accountability Review Board report didn’t close the door on the tragedy. “Most questions have been laid to rest but they are not going to stay at rest,” he conceded. “They will continue to dog her campaign. It’s part of the natural flow of events in a democ-
racy in which presidential races are hard fought and carry a great deal of weight and I can’t complain about that.” With his own Benghazi report in the rearview mirror (the State Department has accepted all 29 of the board’s security recommendations), Pickering has been spending his time thinking about the future of the State Department itself. Among the things that concern him most is its lack of diversity. “We are still a predominantly white WASPish American organization,” he said, referring to the acronym for a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. In a Washington Post op-ed published in
May, Pickering and Edward J. Perkins, also a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, argued that the American Foreign Service suffers from a lack of people of color. “Every dollar we invest in diversifying the diplomatic service will be repaid many times over by resolving disputes, averting conflicts, making new friends and opening new markets in a world whose variety must be reflected by our representatives overseas,” the former diplomats wrote. Pickering said he was disappointed to realize that State Department fellowships that bear his and Rep. Charles Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) names were slated for budget cutbacks by a belt-tightening Congress. “My hope and objective has always been that we should double the size of those programs because diversity is important and those programs have been the sources of most of the diversity in the State Department,” Pickering said. “If you have the brains and the competitive nature to participate and you don’t have the money, the State Department finds the money [for a student] to study for three years and you have to give the State Department five years of your life, and we hope they stay.” Pickering also lamented what he said is the politicizing of the department by awarding prized ambassadorships to those who raise money for presidential campaigns, commonly called “bundlers” in political parlance. The longstanding criticism — and it has been borne out at some high-profile confirmation hearings recently — is that these political appointees are seriously uninformed about the countries in which they are chosen for ambassadorships.
See Pickering, page 7
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The Washington Diplomat Page 5
Digital Diplomacy
Washington, D.C.
Nordic Ambassadors Take to Twitter For Freewheeling Talk on Arctic by Larry Luxner
O
n a hot and steamy summer day last month, five Nordic ambassadors and their aides met in a ninthfloor conference room in D.C. to reach across the social media spectrum and discuss a very chilly topic: the Arctic. The encounter took place shortly after the State Department hosted a reception to launch the twoyear U.S. chairmanship of the eight-nation Arctic Council. But it also made diplomatic history for another reason: the one-hour gathering was the first time five ambassadors have ever gathered here for a Twitter town hall meeting on any subject. Promoted via the #AskNordicAmbs hashtag and publicized online in Huffington Post and other media, the event generated nearly 650 questions tweeted by the public — on everything from cooperation with Russia on climate change, to oil drilling in Greenland, to the rights of indigenous people living north of the Arctic Circle. And the ambassadors — sitting around a long conference table at Twitter’s Washington office on 15th Street, NW, hunched over their laptops — did their best to answer them. “This shows how cooperation is the key for the future of digital diplomacy,” said Andreas Sandre, press and public affairs officer at the Italian Embassy, who earlier this year published a book on that very topic. “Ambassadors, diplomats and the tech world are coming together to increase their level of engagement exponentially — at the same time offering different perspectives on common issues and challenges,” Sandre told us. “It’s good to see countries experimenting and trying different things.” Added Sean Evins of Twitter’s government and politics team, which helped organize the event: “You may have one ambassador answer a question, or you may have all of them answer a question. It turns into a conversation you can’t have on other media.” The Twitterfest brought together Washingtonbased ambassadors Peter Taksøe-Jensen of Denmark; Ritva Koukku-Ronde of Finland; Geir H. Haarde of Iceland; Kåre R. Aas of Norway; and Björn Lyrvall of Sweden. “The inspiration for this came from a Twitter town hall that I held with my U.S. counterpart in Denmark,” said Taksøe-Jensen.“The subject was U.S.Danish relations, and we did it with the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Rufus Gifford. He was in Copenhagen, I was here in D.C. We responded in cyberspace, and it lasted an hour. For us, the experience was incredible.” Taksøe-Jensen later told his four Nordic colleagues in Washington about it, and they agreed to find a subject of mutual interest: the future of the Arctic. “Since all five Nordic countries are members of the Arctic Council, we thought that would be a common denominator,” he told The Diplomat.“This is really a great way to put a focus on an issue and reach people who would not normally be among
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The Washington Diplomat
From left, Ambassador of Denmark Peter Taksøe-Jensen; Pernille Florin Elbech, press attaché at the Danish Embassy; Urd Milbury, cultural and information officer at the Norwegian Embassy; and Ambassador of Norway Kåre Aas hold a town hall meeting on the Arctic at Twitter’s Washington headquarters.
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It’s one thing communicating our views and messages on the Arctic. But this is also a way of interacting with people concerned with what’s going on. It’s wonderful to be able to engage in this kind of interactive diplomacy. — Kåre R. Aas
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ambassador of Norway to the United States
those who get in contact with diplomats. By using new lines of communication and social media, we hope to reach new audiences and get them interested in diplomacy.” Norway’s Aas said climate change was the focus of many of the questions tweeted to him and his four Nordic colleagues. “It’s one thing communicating our views and messages on the Arctic. But this is also a way of interacting with people concerned with what’s going on. It’s wonderful to be able to engage in this kind of interactive diplomacy.” And no topic was more suitable for such an encounter than the Arctic, home to an estimated one-third of the world’s remaining oil and natural
Photo: Larry Luxner
gas reserves. The rush to access those reserves has intensified now that climate change is opening up previously closed-off shipping lanes and offshore drilling sites. The territorial scramble has pitted Russia against the U.S. and its allies and cast a spotlight on the Arctic Council, an otherwise-mundane grouping intended to foster regional cooperation. “Addressing and adapting to climate change is vital because it is happening at an accelerated pace in the Arctic,” Aas co-wrote in the Huffington Post article posted May 26, a week before the Nordic Twitter town hall. “The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. This is mainly because melting snow and ice expose a darker surface, which increases the amount of solar energy absorbed. The regional warming leads to less sea ice, melting of glaciers and of the Greenland ice cap. Climate change in the Arctic affects the rest of the world with rising sea levels and changing weather patterns.” On that note, the article’s authors warned:“What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic.” Questions sent to the five ambassadors in the Twitter format of 140 characters or less ranged from “What can Nordic countries do to attract investments to the #Arctic? Are public-private funds an option?” to “When will the #indigenous @ ArcticPeoples Secretariat be relocated to #Tromsø?” In publicizing the plight of the Arctic via a medium like Twitter, it certainly helps that Scandinavia — which leads the world in per-capita income and quality of life indicators — also enjoys its highest Internet penetration rates. Some 96.5 percent of Iceland’s 335,000 people have Internet July 2015
access, followed closely by Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, according to Internet Live Stats. “In Denmark, only those who choose not to be on the Internet aren’t,” Taksøe-Jensen said. “My mother is on the Internet; so is my mother-in-law.They had to learn how to use it. People are almost forced to communicate with government via Internet.” Yet Iceland’s Haarde — like President Obama — is a relative newcomer to Twitter; the former Icelandic prime minister sent out his first tweet only three days before the town hall. “This was an extremely interesting experience, and I had a lot of fun doing this,” said Haarde, who also previously served as Iceland’s foreign affairs and finance minister. “The Arctic is an issue people feel very strongly about, but there were no tweets I can recall that were hostile. It was more people seeking information. Doing it this way probably caught the attention of people who are on Twitter but normally don’t think about Arctic issues.” Diplomacy has certainly come a long way from the days when a website was an embassy’s only real online presence. “What we do on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and YouTube are of key importance these days,” said Sweden’s Lyrvall. “The embassy website is still there and is updated regularly, but the real interaction happens on social media.”
Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.
from page 5
Pickering
Photo: UN / Mark Garten
A view of the Arctic landscape is seen in 2009, during a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to witness the impact of climate change on polar icebergs and glaciers.
“It’s gotten worse every year and the price has gone up,” Pickering said. “Twenty years ago the price was $300,000 and now it’s a $1.3 million average.That’s what they’ve either bundled or donated to get attention, to be considered. “However you shape this, it’s people buying jobs and the sale of office ought to be prohibited — and it is, by law,” Pickering said.“We completely ignore it, work our way around it, and both parties are fully agreed they want to do this because they have to raise a lot of money. “I’m totally in favor of doing everything we can to ensure we appoint people with really formidable talent to these jobs,” he said. So how does the government return to a more merit-based Foreign Service? “One of the ways you get at this is campaign finance reform,” Pickering said. Just as quickly, though, he discounted the notion that the current system will ever be reformed. But he said the percentage of political appointees can be reduced, “so that the White House can be proud of the people it appoints. Ambassador jobs are becoming
even trickier in this day and age because we have a multiplicity of problems and the guy on the spot has to make judgments. Unfortunately, some of these political appointees hardly ever show up on the job, which is another issue,” he said. “We proposed that the standards for appointment be very high and … that high standards are maintained so that rather than have 30 or 33 percent be appointed out of the White House political process, that they aim for 10 percent. That would give them the capacity to be very tough with bundlers and say you really have to have some experience here.” So what would Pickering say to young Americans contemplating a career in the Foreign Service? “You have an enormous opportunity to serve your government,” he said. “You can do it in a way where you and your ideas really count, whether it’s changing a mistake in the administration or bureaucracy or changing of foreign policy. You can make a real difference. It’s a highly competitive service, but if you work hard, you can find your way to the top.”
Michael Coleman (@michaelcoleman) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
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July 2015
The Washington Diplomat Page 7
Politics
North Africa
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Struggles To Recover After Spectacular Fall by Justin Salhani
O
n June 24, 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood arguably reached its pinnacle of political accomplishment. A history of rulers from the pharaohs to Hosni Mubarak had been imposed on Egypt’s people, and while some like Gamal Abdel Nasser captured this Arab powerhouse’s imagination, none had been selected democratically. And when the people chose, it was the Brotherhood they had selected in the form of Mohamed Morsi, a former Egyptian lawmaker and member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau. But since then, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest and oldest Islamist political and social movement, has experienced an epic fall from grace. Mass protests in 2013 ousted the party from power. Hundreds of its supporters were killed. Thousands have been arrested. The group has been outlawed in the name of fighting terrorism, and Morsi, in jail facing a slew of charges, has been sentenced to death. Despite the fact that Egypt’s Tahrir Square revolution ostensibly traded in one autocrat for another — military strongman Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who took over for Morsi pledging a return to stability — there seems to be little love lost for the Muslim Brotherhood. While in Cairo recently, many of the locals I spoke to said they had taken to the streets twice in recent history to protest. The first was on Jan. 25, 2011, to administer the fall of Mubarak.The second time was June 30, 2013, just days before Morsi was deposed by an Egyptian Armed Forces-led coup. “On June 25, I was down on the street [protesting],” Salah Mohammad, 33, told The Washington Diplomat as he sat outside a café in Cairo’s Garden City neighborhood. He said he returned to the streets two years later and that this time he was “more excited” to see the Brotherhood ousted from power. “They were difficult,” Mohammad said, reflecting popular opinion about the Brotherhood in Egypt. Even liberal or moderate activists who disagreed with the way Egypt’s first-ever democratically elected president was ousted felt Morsi and the Brotherhood did themselves few favors while in power. Despite initial promises to be the president of all Egyptians and work to reach a consensus, critics say the Brotherhood worked to the contrary. In cabinet meetings, Morsi reportedly negotiated, discussed and settled pressing issues before turning around and declaring completely contradictory statements. This led many to believe that Morsi was simply taking orders from his higher-ups in the Brotherhood. But Morsi and his supporters counter that the Muslim Brotherhood was continually being undermined behind the scenes by Egypt’s military and business elite, as well by wealthy Gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates. They cite leaked audio
8
The Washington Diplomat
Photo: “Rabaa al-Adawiya” by Amsg07 / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Muslim Brotherhood supporters are dispersed by security forces during an August 2013 protest at Rabaa, where an estimated 800 people were killed.
“
The most charitable explanation for the Muslim Brotherhood’s obstinacy was that long decades underground had ill prepared it for public life. After a history of state suppression and anti-Brotherhood propaganda, even a well-intentioned Brother might find it confusing to distinguish real criticism from propaganda. — Thanassis Cambanis
”
author of ‘Once Upon A Revolution: An Egyptian Story’
recordings that purportedly show senior Egyptian officials discussing Gulf-funded bank accounts belonging to an opposition movement as proof that the military and its Gulf backers instigated the protests against Morsi. Yet public opposition to Morsi had been brewing for some time amid anger that he pushed through a new Islamist-dominated constitution while granting himself broad new powers. As journalist Thanassis Cambanis wrote in his book “Once Upon A Revolution: An Egyptian Story”: “The most charitable explanation for the Muslim Brotherhood’s obstinacy was that long decades underground had ill prepared it for public life. After a history of state suppression and anti-Brotherhood
propaganda, even a well-intentioned Brother might find it confusing to distinguish real criticism from propaganda…. Brothers also exhibited unmistakable signs of messianic fervor and religious primacy. Morsi declared repeatedly that God had blessed his group, so it couldn’t ever be all that wrong.” But if God had blessed the group, his blessings quickly ran out on July 3, 2013, when Morsi was removed in a coup — clearly undemocratic but also clearly favored by a large section of the country’s population. A massacre at Rabaa of Brotherhood supporters and members followed a month later in which at least 800 people, largely unarmed, were killed by security forces. Compounding the misery suffered by the Brotherhood, an interim government declared the group a terrorist organization in December of that year. It seems that this crackdown was just the start of a regional suppression of the group. Less than a year later, the United Arab Emirates lumped the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in with Syria’s al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front and the infamous Islamic State (then ISIS) on its list of state-banned terrorist groups. When Zaki Bani Rushaid, the group’s deputy head in Jordan, criticized the UAE by stating that its rulers lacked legitimacy, he was promptly arrested. In February, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The Brotherhood also lost a key backer when aspiring powerhouse Qatar — long seen as the group’s primary funder — quietly withdrew its support in the face of regional opposition. In September of last year, at least seven Brotherhood officials and clerics left the tiny Gulf kingdom nation in what experts said indicated a cooling of its backing. Qatar had increasingly found itself isolated from countries July 2015
like Saudi Arabia and the UAE that support the Brotherhood’s expulsion from power and isolation from political life. Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid al-Attiyah said in an interview with the London-based Arab daily Al-Hayat earlier this year that, “Qatar does not back the Brotherhood.” In fact, the only place where support for a Brotherhood branch could be on the up is in Gaza, where polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey claim support for local affiliate Hamas is at an all-time high following last summer’s war with Israel. Egypt, though, is where the group has fallen most spectacularly. Many of the group’s members are dead, in jail, in exile or doing their best to keep a low profile. Some supporters in towns outside the capital still protest and are met with brutal repression tactics from Egyptian security forces. When Morsi was initially elected, it was by slim margins — just under 52 percent. Additionally, many Egyptians voted for Morsi not because of his platform but despite it, instead seeing a vote for Morsi as a vote against his challenger,Ahmed Shafik.A former Egyptian prime minister under the Mubarak regime, Shafik was widely seen as a torchbearer for the previous government. Following Morsi’s actions in office — including declaring his presidential powers superior to the judiciary (largely appointed by and sympathetic to Mubarak) and showing public support for jihadists fighting in Syria — few Egyptians had
Photo: Hamada Elrasam for VOA
A protester holds up a sign that reads “neither Morsi nor the military: Egypt’s Third Square Movement seeks an alternative vision for the future” during a July 2013 protest in Egypt. President Mohamed Morsi had been ousted in a military coup a month earlier.
faith in him or the Brotherhood. The sentiment in Egypt is that the Muslim Brotherhood could be on its last legs. But it has also been in this situation before. For decades, the Brotherhood bid its time and planned for a time to rule. Many view that as the reason it grabbed power so quickly following Mubarak’s fall. But this time there is a difference, as some of the group’s younger and more radical segments are tossing aside the tradition of nonviolence and calling for attacks against state figures. Some of these have been more symbolic than dangerous, including attacks on empty police vehicles. But discontent is certainly alive as these younger elements are less willing to go without challenging their exiled leaders based in
Photo: Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo / Wikimedia Commons via CCA 2.0
A picture of better days: From right, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi meets with U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on April 24, 2013. After Morsi’s ouster two months later, al-Sisi eventually become Egypt’s president while Morsi today sits on death row.
Turkey. The verdict on Morsi’s successor is still out as well, especially if Sisi doesn’t usher in the economic turnaround that Egypt desperately needs. But Egyptians don’t seem eager to give the Brotherhood another chance, even assuming Sisi fails. Abdallah Helmy, vice president of Egypt’s Reform and Development Party, said he estimated that if parliamentary elections were
held today, the Muslim Brotherhood would only gather “10 to 15 percent” of the country’s votes. He said the group, once relied on for its charitable services but largely vilified in Egypt these days, is inspiring “paranoia” among the populace. “If they walk in again, there will be the same dilemmas and miseries.”
Justin Salhani (@JustinSalhani) is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C., and Beirut.
“INVALUABLE RESOURCE” J. Peter Pham Director Atlantic Council Africa Center
“COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN” John Campbell Former US Ambassador to Nigeria
“IMPORTANT LESSONS” Kenneth L. Brown President, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training
New insights by Herman J. Cohen, Presidential Advisor, Career Ambassador, and 38-year Veteran of the Foreign Service More at CohenOnAfrica.com
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July 2015
The Washington Diplomat Page 9
Economics
Europe
Journalist Finds Self-Inflicted Wounds Wandering ‘New Greek Ruins’ by Dave Seminara Angelos: That’s something economists argue about. But there’s a difference between whether Greece should have been in the euro zone — which is no — and what can you do now. The fact that they shouldn’t have gone in doesn’t mean it should now leave because the damage that could inspire, the flight of capital from the country and the instability that would cause, the consequences are unknown until you try it. But with the devaluation of the currency, Greece might become competitive again.
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edophiles qualified for partial disability payments. The state-owned broadcasting corporation had a choir. Civil servants convicted of murder had the right to collect half of their salaries for years while in prison. A country that was effectively broke spent more on pharmaceuticals as a percentage of GDP than any other industrialized country. An alarming number of self-employed professionals evaded taxes on a grand scale.And thousands who claimed to be blind or have another disability were apparently con artists. These are just a handful of reasons — skillfully reported by Greek-American journalist James Angelos in his new book, “The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins” — why Greece has been in dire straits in recent years. Angelos is a multilingual, Berlin-based freelance journalist who has reported on Greece’s debt crisis for the Wall Street Journal and other publications. In “The Full Catastrophe,” he provides an engaging but deeply sobering account of how Greece became the sick man of Europe and a threat to the global economy. Greece’s ailments have, of course, hit home the hardest. One out of every four Greeks is unemployed. Average income has decreased by 40 percent. Basic services like police protection and trash collection have suffered. Universities and hospitals have shuttered.Depression and drug use are on the rise. And many experts say Greece is essentially bankrupt and has little hope of ever paying off its mountain of public debt, which has soared to 180 percent of its GDP. Unlike other reporters, however, Angelos doesn’t offer sympathetic coverage of the harsh European Unionimposed austerity measures that have deepened the country’s misery, nor does he focus on the bankers who helped plunge the country into financial chaos. Instead, he gives readers an inside look at Greece’s endemic corruption, xenophobia and governance problems while shedding light on its reparation claims against Germany, its immigration crisis and a host of other issues. We spoke to Angelos in early June as Greece and its creditors were wrangling over negotiations to prevent a default on Greece’s debt and keep it in the euro zone.
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TWD: Greeks are rightly very proud of their culture and their heritage, perhaps more so than most other places in the world? Angelos: Greeks are in one way doomed to always be contrasting themselves to their ancient predecessors. But at the same time it’s a weight. The trouble is that Greeks often look to what has been instead of what’s becoming. That presents certain challenges. Greece’s challenge is to form a government and a political system that Greeks can be proud of, instead of being proud of an ancient past that was millennia ago. TWD: Did the fact that you are a GreekAmerican make it any more difficult for you to write an objective, many would say quite critical, book about Greece?
Photo: Penguin Random House
The Washington Diplomat: There are obviously many countries around the world with failing economies, bad governance and corruption. Why does Greece matter? James Angelos: Greece is on the cusp of a default which could lead to a euro zone exit and that could destabilize the global economy. That’s why the U.S. government has been active in trying to press Greece’s creditors and Greek leaders to come to a compromise. Many of Greece’s creditors believe that Greece has been sufficiently quarantined, that a Greek exit (from the euro zone) no longer poses a threat to the global financial system. Right now, global markets aren’t reacting in the same way as they did in previous phases of the crisis. Borrowing costs in Italy and Spain haven’t skyrocketed as they did before,
The Washington Diplomat
so to some extent it’s true. But I think they may also be playing with fire. TWD: Was this is a historic blunder to let Greece into the euro zone to begin with? Angelos: I think so because it wasn’t ready. Its institutions weren’t ready. Greece’s euro zone entry allowed it to borrow extensively at a low interest rate. The government was borrowing and finding ways to disseminate that money. Greece was growing at the second-fastest clip in the euro zone from the time it entered to the time the crisis started (in 2009). On average, there was 4 percent growth. It was a good run. Salaries were going up but Greek competitiveness was going down.We’re now experiencing the aftermath of that party. TWD: Should Greece still have the drachma?
Angelos: I think in a lot of small diaspora communities there is this sense — you’re a member of the tribe, so you should put the best face of the country forward. I had a mayor on the island of Hydra tell me, “You’re Greek, you need to project a good image of our country.” This is pretty common. I did have a nagging sense while reporting, “Am I representing Greeks well here? Am I in danger of betraying the tribe?” But I think my reportorial instincts and my desire to do a good job kicked in and overrode those concerns. I tried to present a balanced book. Everyone will make their own judgments. I tried not to be scolding of the Greeks but it’s clearly pretty critical. TWD: You went to the island of Zakynthos to look into why so many people there were able to collect blindness disability checks. You wrote that 498 of the 680 people receiving this benefit apparently shouldn’t have been getting it, according to a police investigation. And when the disabled had to show up in government offices around the country to demonstrate their disability, 36,000 of them never appeared, saving the government 100 million euros. You concluded that for some Greeks, “scamming the state isn’t the same as scamming the nation.” Is this a Greek phenomenon or common around the region?
July 2015
“
Angelos: Because of the prevalence of this kind of small corruption, if you aren’t doing something that is really uncommon you can justify it. You don’t feel too bad about it. The way one woman who was getting the benefit justified it to me was,“It’s a supplement to my pension, which is already quite low.� If you live in a place like Denmark or Sweden, people are willing to pay taxes, hand over money to their government with the expectation that goods and services will be returned. That doesn’t exist in Greece.There is very little loyalty to the state in Greece. But that does not equate to the concept of loyalty to the tribe, the ethnos. TWD: During my travels in Greece, I kept hearing people lay the blame at this small group of wealthy, tax-evading elite Greeks and the politicians who enable them. Angelos: The lack of trust in government pervades the society. It’s true that the people at the top, to use a Greek expression, “ate� more than those at the bottom. But that doesn’t necessarily justify the small-time stuff because that adds up and has an impact on the country. People would prefer, though, for the government to start at the top and work their way down, but there is a widespread perception that the Greek government did it the other way around. TWD: You’re based in Germany. When you told Greeks you lived there, what kind of reaction did you get, given all the ill feeling toward Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany in general in recent years? Angelos: I got a range of reactions. The most surprising was,“Can you help my son get a job there?�You get that and you get,“Oh, what the Germans are doing to us now is worse than what they did during the war� — which is absurd.
Greeks are in one way doomed to always be contrasting themselves to their ancient predecessors. But at the same time it’s a weight. The trouble is that Greeks often look to what has been instead of what’s becoming. — James Angelos TWD: In the book, you cited a 2012 poll in which 91 percent of Greeks said that their government should use all necessary means to obtain World War II reparations from Germany — and the figure that has been used is 162 billion euros not including interest. A lot of people, and not just in Germany, question the timing of this. Angelos: My first reaction about the reparation demands was, “Wow, I can’t believe it.� But the more I learned about the topic, the less I felt that way. I’m not saying the Greeks should get reparations. But when you look at the postWorld War II history, Germany wasn’t going to be forced to pay reparations because it couldn’t possibly pay for all the destruction it caused. They didn’t make the mistakes that were made following World War I (when the Allies imposed harsh conditions on Germany that drove it into financial ruin). It’s not like the crisis came along and then the Greeks invented the reparations claim; it’s an issue that’s been around for a very long time and hasn’t gone away. It’s just that now more people are paying attention to Greece now. The left in Greece has been passionately arguing for reparations really since the end of World War II. TWD: You live in Germany. Is there still a percep-
�
tion there that Greeks are lazy, despite statistics showing that private sector workers in Greece work longer hours than perhaps almost any other country in Europe? Angelos: There is enough of that in Germany, and in the U.S. and other parts of the world too. But there are also plenty of people in Germany who don’t buy that at all. Both sides pick the most controversial things said about each other in the media and just replay them to each other. People conflate the problems in the public administration with what’s going on across the economy. But in the public administration, a lot of those people got their jobs because of who they knew or because of their political affiliation. And so some of them aren’t motivated to perform at the highest level. But that doesn’t necessarily bleed over into the private sector. TWD: You confronted a number of people who may have had something to hide in your reporting — the wife of a government worker who killed a mayor but was still collecting half his salary while he was in prison for years, the doctor in Zakynthos handing out bogus disability statements and so on. Were you at all concerned for how this kind of immersive reporting would go over?
Angelos: I was but was often surprised by how friendly people were, including the shooter’s brother and his wife. I wanted to meet them to fairly represent their side of the story. This woman who was married to the shooter, her situation is sad. No matter how wrong her husband acted, it was still important to represent the totality of the consequences of what happened. As a reporter, it’s trying to do people justice by covering all sides of a story. TWD: You spent a pretty big chunk of the book documenting the problem of xenophobia in Greece and the rise of the far-right party Golden Dawn. But aren’t there also a number of Greeks who aren’t racist but who are legitimately concerned that their government can’t control the country’s borders, can’t afford to resettle refugees and isn’t getting any support from the EU on these problems? Angelos: I think it’s legitimate for Greeks to be concerned about the level of irregular immigration coming into the country. Europe is coming to a better place on this burden sharing. Germany is taking on the greatest number of asylum applicants. Before the system was: the country that first receives the migrant must process their asylum application, which was insanely unfair. But this doesn’t justify the bad treatment that migrants have been forced to endure in Greece. The debate is often talked about as though there were a finite number of jobs and that migrants come to a country and take those jobs and I think that is a very poor perception of reality. When migrants come to a country, they also create demand in that country, and if they are motivated to work and become part of the society, they create jobs and they pay taxes. If Greece were more willing to open its doors to migrants coming into the country — even if
Continued on next page
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tiative) challenged the long-entrenched notion that Thessaloniki has always been a purely Greek city. He complicated that narrative, and there was a lot of backlash, especially among religious conservatives. But then the people of Thessaloniki re-elected him. Why? Probably because they saw the benefits of opening up the tourism sector and they saw that hotel bookings from Israel quadrupled. The previous mayor left the city broke and Boutaris came in and balanced the budget. People could see there was a marked improvement.There is a thirst in Greece for a new way forward. There have been a lot of reforms. If Greece gets some breathing room, things can turn around and there’s a lot of potential for the country.
Continued from previous page they perceive them as being not the kind of migrants they want — it could be beneficial to the country in the long run. These people want to work; they want to make a living. TWD: So even with Greece’s 25 percent unemployment rate, if you were setting policy, you would have an open-borders immigration policy? angelos: I wouldn’t have an open-borders policy. But I just don’t think (immigration) is the unmitigated problem that people think it is. I think it is just as much a cultural identity issue as an economics issue.
TWD: Is that the best-case scenario — that Greece’s creditors give it some breathing room and it finds a way out of this crisis?
TWD: Golden Dawn has polled around 6 percent or so in recent elections. How does Greece’s far-right movement compare to similar groups in France, the U.K, Hungary and elsewhere in Europe?
angelos: The creditors have leverage to get Greece to carry out the reform program. It’s important that pressure stays on Greece to implement these reforms, but at the same time, there has to be some acknowledgement that the country needs fiscal breathing room in order to grow. There is still too much uncertainty for the economy to grow, so Greece needs some political stability. Greeks need a vision of what’s coming in the future, so they see that things will get better if they stay the course.
angelos: [Marine] Le Pen, for example, is far right, but has she organized assault battalions to go out in the streets to hunt down migrants? I don’t think so. The U.K. Independence Party, the National Front in France, they are not the same thing as Golden Dawn. They may have objectionable viewpoints but Golden Dawn has put into practice an ideology of Fascist violence on the streets. TWD: So they are more violent than, for example, Jobbik in Hungary and others? angelos: Hungary might be comparable but I wouldn’t compare [Greece] to France and the U.K.Those aren’t Fascist parties putting in place systematic violence on the streets. What I was struck by was the impunity with which they were able to roam the streets of Athens and what that says about the wider society. TWD: What does it say about the wider society? angelos: It’s a fringe movement. I don’t think they will ever come close to coming to power, but they have an effect on the overall political system.They can appeal to some of these narratives. The thing about Golden Dawn is they downplay their Nazism to appeal to the more mainstream voter.
PHOTO: “ΝΑΥΑΓΙΟ ΖΑΚΥΝΘΟΥ” BY USER: ALEXIGNATIOU - GREEK WIKIPEDIA
The famous navagio (shipwreck) beach in Zakynthos, greece, is a major tourist attraction. But the idyllic greek island is also a microcosm of the kind of corruption that has hobbled the country’s economic recovery. TWD: The book is a great read but it is also a very sobering portrait of a country that has some really serious problems. Are there any reasons to be optimistic about Greece’s future? angelos: There are a lot of depressing things in the book but there are positives as well. Take the mayor of Thessaloniki, Yiannis Boutaris, for example. He invited Israelis and Turks to come visit Thessaloniki. (The city once had a huge Jewish population prior to World War II, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, was born in Thessaloniki.) This (ini-
YOU SAY “I DO”... WE DO THE REST.
TWD: Would you be more surprised if, five years from now, Greece was still in the euro zone and its economy was doing much better, or if things were much the same as they are now? angelos: I’m afraid I don’t know. And what is most concerning is that I don’t think anyone else does either — and that includes the Greek government and Europe’s leaders. All along, I’ve been betting that there will be an 11th-hour agreement that will keep Greece in the euro. But I can’t see how the status quo could last for five more years. So my immediate forecast, if I’m forced to make one, is that both sides have too much to lose to allow for a euro exit, so they’ll do what they can to avoid it. But the longerterm future is still too muddy to see.
Dave Seminara (@DaveSem) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
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COvER PROFILE
Ambassador David o’sullivan
EU Envoy Juggles Litany of Crises by Larry Luxner
E
very month, thousands of desperate Arab and African refugees reach Europe’s Mediterranean shores after crossing the sea from lawless Libya on rickety, wooden boats; some of them die along the way.
Russia’s continuing military aggression against Ukraine threatens to spark the worst confrontation between Brussels and Moscow since the Cold War. The European Union itself struggles with economic stagnation throughout the continent, with anger especially strong in cash-strapped Greece, which sits on the verge of a debt default, while British voters eye holding a referendum on whether to pull out of the club altogether. Between the migrant crisis, the Ukraine crisis, the eurozone crisis and the sheer complexity of representing 28 countries in Washington simultaneously, it’s a good thing Ambassador David O’Sullivan hasn’t lost his sense of humor — or, for that matter, his passion for the country where he now serves as Europe’s top diplomat. “I love the United States,” the Dublinborn O’Sullivan told us recently.“I came to California as a young child; I describe that as my ‘Wizard of Oz’ moment, when the movie goes from black and white to Technicolor. I’ve always retained this great affection for this country’s vitality and energy, and for the optimism of the American people. And now I’ve rediscovered all that again.”
O’Sullivan, whose 45-minute interview with The Washington Diplomat was the first he’s granted to any local media since presenting his credentials to President Obama in November 2014. “We have 28 ambassadors representing each of their member states here,” he said. “I bring the added value of topping it up with what we do as the EU.” O’Sullivan is only the second diplomat to hold that position, established when the Treaty of Lisbon came into force on Dec. 1, 2009. The first was Portugal’s João Vale de Almeida, who served from August 2010 until O’Sullivan’s arrival. The Irishman — who’s fluent in French, Spanish, German and Japanese besides his native English — was chief operating officer of the EU’s diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service, prior to taking on what’s likely his last assignment before retirement. He calls the EU itself a “remarkable achievement” unprecedented in human history. “Some people don’t agree with the Europe we have built, or feel we should not integrate further,” he said.“But never forget that what we’ve done in Europe is a unique political experiment. Never in history has a supranational entity
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some people don’t agree with the Europe we have built, or feel we should not integrate further…. But never forget that what we’ve done in Europe is a unique political experiment. never in history has a supranational entity been built through the voluntary pooling of sovereignty of independent democratic states. — DaViD o’sULLiVan
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ambassador of the European union to the united states
As chief of the EU Delegation to the United States, O’Sullivan says his role in the diplomatic community is somewhat unique. “My job is explaining what’s going on in the EU to Americans — foreign policy issues like Ukraine, the migration crisis, the digital single market and Daesh [an Arabic word for the Islamic State] — and explaining what’s happening here to people back in Brussels,” said
July 2015
been built through the voluntary pooling of sovereignty of independent democratic states.” Formed in 1957, the EU is home to more than 500 million inhabitants, or just over 7 percent of the world’s population. Its trade with the rest of the world comprises 20 percent of global exports and imports. In 2014, the bloc’s GDP came to $13.9 trillion euro, just behind China but slightly ahead of the
PhoTo: LAWrEnCE ruggEri oF ruggEriPhoTo.CoM
United States. “When I first joined in 1979, we were nine countries,” O’Sullivan told us.“Some 36 years later, we are 28 countries — including 12 from the former Soviet bloc — with a single market, a fully integrated economic structure, common values and a single currency for 19 countries. You can drive from Helsinki to Lisbon without having to change your currency or show your passport, and you can pay with your bank card in every gas station along the way.” Despite its recent fiscal crisis, the EU’s relative prosperity is luring immigrants from Africa and the Arab world like never before. With Libya immersed in civil war and nobody to patrol the desert country’s vast Mediterranean coastline, human traffickers are using the country as a jumping-off point to smuggle tens of thousands of immigrants to Europe in search of better lives. “A tragedy of epic proportions” is how the United Nations calls the current crisis in the Mediterranean, where a record 100,000 migrants and refugees have attempted the crossing in the first half of 2015,many from Syria,Afghanistan and Eritrea. In 2014, Italy alone received more than 170,000 refugees, while Germany was flooded with over
200,000 applicants. Sweden, meanwhile, had the most applicants per capita, with 8.4 asylum seekers per 1,000 residents. African migrants pay $400 to $700 per person to make the trip, while those fleeing the war in Syria are charged up to $1,500 to cross the sea, said Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Yet many of these desperate people don’t make it to Europe. So far this year, more than 1,800 refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean, with those numbers expected to surge in the coming months as the weather improves. “To a certain extent, the migration issue is the problem from hell,”O’Sullivan told The Diplomat. “It’s so multilayered and has so many dimensions, there is no simple answer. So what the European Commission has proposed — and which has been broadly endorsed — is basically a multilayered response.” That includes beefing up the budget for maritime-patrolling operations; destroying the boats used by smugglers; targeting human traffickers; and instituting a voluntary program to resettle refugees across the EU while “rapidly” assessing and returning those who do not
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Continued from previous page qualify for asylum (and the vast majority — roughly 95 percent — do not). The most immediate priority, O’Sullivan said, is humanitarian: rescuing people at sea. Italy ended a largely effective search-and-rescue mission last year after complaining that the EU needed to shoulder more of the financial burden.A subsequent EU patrolling operation was more limited in scope and funds (in part because of budget constraints but also because of fears that a strong rescue operation would perversely encourage more migrants to undertake the dangerous journey). The bloc didn’t fully respond to the humanitarian crisis on its shores until a sinking in April killed at least 900 people. In mid-May, authorities unveiled a proposal to triple the EU budget specifically for life-saving missions throughout the Mediterranean, which would help Italy and other countries that have borne a disproportionate share of the burden of caring for new arrivals simply because of their southern location. Under the European Agenda on Migration, a quota plan also urges member countries to take in migrants based on those states’ relative size and economic circumstances. “Italy in particular, but also Greece and Malta, have done a fantastic job and shown great generosity of spirit during difficult times. But we needed a broader effort, and that’s now happening,” O’Sullivan explained. “We also need to stop the abuse by smugglers of people in distress being put out to sea on unseaworthy boats. We must smash their business models. “I don’t think it’s so much a question of how much money, but more a question of greater willingness to spread the burden,” the EU envoy continued.“The commission has proposed, on a more permanent basis, to have pre-allocations for other countries which will take asylum seekers once they’ve been processed, so that the burden of accommodating these people does not fall only on the countries where they first arrive.” But growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Britain, Hungary and elsewhere is already fueling opposition to the EU plan, even though other countries such as France, Germany and Italy support it, as do many nongovernmental organizations throughout Europe. “These initiatives reflect serious and constructive approaches to a challenge which IOM expects to continue,” the organization’s director-general, William Lacy Swing, said in a recent statement. “We strongly support the EU recommendation to prioritize saving migrant lives at sea by expanding current border patrol operations to the level and scale of the life-saving Mare Nostrum operation, which was phased out last year.” But the Geneva-based humanitarian group and a slew of scholars have serious concerns about new EU proposals to “systematically identify, capture and destroy vessels used by smugglers.” They warn that such actions, however laudable, could fur-
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Photo: David Iliff / Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA 3.0
The hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, is seen during a plenary session in 2014.
ther endanger migrants’ lives by creating a response that focuses primarily on law and enforcement, rather than search and rescue. O’Sullivan played down the idea that EU security forces would drop explosives on rickety boats off the Libyan coast as a way to disrupt human trafficking networks. “Bombing vessels might be a very small part of it, but this whole debate has been hijacked by the issue of bombing boats,” he lamented. “Frankly, I don’t even know if that will be part of the mission statement when it’s decided in New York.” O’Sullivan said it’s also crucial that the EU make better use of development aid to offer people in source countries prospects for a better future — along with “revamping our migration policy to make it slightly easier to increase the possibilities for legal migration, recognizing that under no circumstances would we be able to accept everyone who wants to come to Europe.” In the long term, he said, the EU must “try to help bring political stability to the countries which are the source of the problem. The fact is that law and order has broken down in Libya, and we need to help Libya rebuild a sense of governance.” That sounds like a tall order to fill, now that the vast North African country has basically collapsed amid bitter fighting between Libya’s internationally recognized government and rebel groups struggling to bring that government down. “Of course it’s difficult, but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying to end the violence in both Syria and Libya,” O’Sullivan told us. “On one level, it’s not rocket science. The challenge is, if the situation has gotten to this point, it’s because there are some intractable disagreements. Our challenge is to change that dynamic.We’re extremely supportive of what Bernardino León [the U.N. special representative for Libya] is doing, and he’s tirelessly working to get the parties back around the table. That’s at the heart of what Europe is about.” Europe’s other big foreign policy crisis is, of course, Ukraine and the tensions sparked by Russia’s March 2014 annexation of Crimea. Last year’s uprising in eastern Ukraine by
The Washington Diplomat
pro-Russian rebels has morphed into an all-out civil war that so far has claimed more than 6,500 lives, displaced 1.3 million and destroyed much of the country’s industrial heartland. Meanwhile, according to the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine’s GDP fell by 6.8 percent in 2014 and will shrink another 5.5 percent this year. (By comparison, the EU projects overall GDP in the 28-nation bloc to rise by 1.7 percent this year and 2.1 percent in 2016.) To force Russian President Vladimir Putin to lay off Ukraine, the EU — along with the United States — has imposed a punishing series of sanctions against Moscow, recently agreeing to extend those sanctions by another six months. “The sanctions will continue until there’s full implementation of the Minsk agreement. That’s been our position for some time now,” said O’Sullivan, referring to the ceasefire signed in Belarus by Ukraine, Russia and the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics. “The best hope for an improvement in the situation is the Minsk agreement, which if fully implemented would offer a diplomatic way forward. We expect both parties to that agreement to live up to the responsibilities they have undertaken.” The fact that hasn’t happened doesn’t mean the EU’s anti-Kremlin policy has been a mistake, the ambassador said. “The combination of sanctions and the fall in oil prices has incurred a serious cost to the Russian economy, in which we take no pleasure,” O’Sullivan explained. “It’s ordinary Russian people who are suffering as a result, but it is the only way we can send a very clear message that Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its interference in eastern Ukraine is completely unacceptable. We are profoundly convinced that Mr. Putin has to be sent a very strong message.”’ Asked why he wouldn’t call Russia’s involvement in Ukraine an “invasion” rather than the less sinister-sounding “interference,” the diplomat had this to say:“I don’t want to play with words. The intervention in Crimea is a hybrid warfare exercise involving a mixture of propaganda
and stirring up discontent, and certainly the presence of the Russian military, whether fully or officially sanctioned or not. If there were to be a breakdown of negotiations, then the question of additional sanctions would have to be considered. We trade much more with Russia than the U.S. does, so it’s clear that the sanctions hit us much harder than they hit the United States.” And those sanctions have hit certain countries harder than others — a crack Putin has been eagerly trying to exploit by courting EU members such as Hungary and Greece. Exactly how much those sanctions have cost EU member states is hard to say, though earlier this year, Spain’s foreign minister put the figure at 21 billion euro. Part of that is direct losses from the ban on exports to Russia, but it also includes Moscow’s reciprocal ban, for example, on Polish apples and pears, “so when we impose sanctions, the Russians retaliate, causing a country like Poland to suffer massively,” O’Sullivan said. He added: “It’s the same with the Iran sanctions. That also hurts us economically.You get the impression that Europeans run away from difficult choices, but in both these cases, we have taken some very tough positions which cause us pain.” On a more positive economic front, O’Sullivan spends much of his time these days pushing the benefits of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a complex free-trade agreement that would basically remove barriers to commerce between the United States and the EU. Like its companion proposal, the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that focuses on Asia, eventual passage of TTIP depended on President Obama first winning congressional approval for “fast-track” authority, which allows him to submit trade deals for an up-or-down vote in Congress. Republicans helped pass that authority last month, although the legislative maneuvering caused a rift between Obama and his fellow Democrats, who oppose both trade deals mainly on the grounds that they erode American jobs and wages. For O’Sullivan, the benefits of
TTIP to both Americans and Europeans are obvious and passage should be a “no-brainer,” he argues. If successful, TTIP would account for more than 40 percent of global GDP. “Our transatlantic trade corridor is already the largest in the world. We do more business with each other than either of us do with any other part of the world,” he pointed out. “Opening up our trade and services still further would only enhance the economic interaction across the Atlantic. I understand that some people are afraid this will somehow negatively impact consumer rights and environmental standards, but I cannot imagine either the United States or the EU proposing for ratification a deal that did that.” O’Sullivan also denied reports that negotiators in Washington and Brussels are engaging in backroom deals that could somehow cost millions of jobs. Late last year, a series of protests broke out across European cities by trade opponents worried about everything from shale gas to corporate finance. “On the European side, we have made public all the texts so people can see what we have put on the table, in order to bust the myth that somehow lots of secret deals were going on,” the ambassador told us. “I don’t know what else to say.” One thing O’Sullivan does not seem particularly worried about is the rise in populist euroskeptic parties across the continent. In 2014 elections to the European Parliament, political parties opposed to greater EU integration won about 25 percent of the vote — with particularly strong showings by Britain’s UK Independence Party, the National Front in France, Denmark’s People’s Party and the Greek leftist party Syriza. “I believe that on closer examination, these euroskeptic parties will be seen not to have a credible alternative how we can make Europe more peaceful, but I’m disappointed that there seems to be a growth in the support of these views,” he said. On that note, the diplomat praised British Prime Minister David Cameron’s May 27 announcement — only eight months after the failure of a referendum on Scottish independence — to hold a similar referendum, possibly before the end of 2017, on whether U.K. citizens want to stay in the EU. “There is clearly a substantial debate in the U.K. It’s a good thing that debate is going to happen, and they’ll get to vote on what they ultimately want,” O’Sullivan said.“I hope a majority of the British people will vote to remain in the EU, but I don’t take that for granted. But we should not be afraid of allowing the debate to take place.”
Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.
Follow The Diplomat Connect at www.washdiplomat.com.
July 2015
Digital Diplomacy Forum
Europe
Northern Ireland Punches Above Its Weight in Digital Diplomacy by Molly McCluskey
W
hen riots erupted in Belfast during the annual Twelfth parades in July 2013, the Northern Ireland Bureau found itself in the midst of a conundrum: how could it remain politically neutral, while countering the damage that the images could have not only on Northern Ireland’s ongoing and sometimes fragile peace process, but on efforts to establish it as a safe place for both investors and tourists? Photo: Northern Ireland Bureau
The Twelfth is an annual holiday celebrated by the territory’s British Protestant majority that commemorates a 17th-century military victory over their Irish Catholic foes. Clashes during the annual pro-Protestant parade, which winds through heavily Catholic areas, are not uncommon — a reflection of the lingering sectarian tensions that simmer in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Bureau’s social media efforts had begun somewhat halfheartedly in 2011 and then accelerated in 2012 with a more measured approach. It was just in time: In December 2012, a law changed how frequently Britain’s Union Jack would fly over government buildings, leading to widespread protests in Northern Ireland, which is a part of the United Kingdom. Bronagh Finnegan is the public affairs and outreach officer at the bureau and serves as the lead of a joint effort to formulate strategy and feed content from both the D.C. office and partners in New York. She says the immediate nature of platforms like Twitter and Facebook can be a double-edged sword in instances like protests and riots. “It’s important for us, because obviously with Twitter and Facebook being sort of instantaneous, to counteract those images in real time as opposed to drafting a press release, getting it approved, then sending out when the stories have already been circulating for ages,” she said. “It’s still a relatively new concept, and it is still a little bit scary for our government because it’s not as controlled as what we’re used to.” During the riots, the bureau contributed heavily to the hashtag #PositiveNI, a viral campaign that had users around the world tweeting photos of their favorite places, upbeat news and fond memories of Northern Ireland.The bureau is limited by what it can post, as many diplomatic missions are, but Finnegan says that hasn’t hampered its outreach. “It would be counterproductive for us if there were issues at home and we just went quiet.That’s not what we’re here to do,” she said. “Oftentimes when we don’t have an official line on things, because it’s a contentious issue at home, we definitely bombard our accounts with more positive information on Northern Ireland about investment, tourism or involvement in our peace process.We definitely try to blast those out on social media because it’s important to us. We can’t just step back and do nothing.”
Bronagh Finnegan, public affairs and outreach officer for the Northern Ireland Bureau, second from right, participates in a Digital Diplomacy Coalition panel on the rise of sub-state actors in digital diplomacy at the Brookings Institution. At left, the Stormont Parliament Buildings in Belfast are the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Photo: “Stormont Parliament Buildings during Giro d’Italia” by John D. McDonald / CC BY-SA 3.0
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In all aspects of Northern Ireland and what we do here, we really punch above our weight in a bit of a way, and our social media accounts demonstrate that. — Bronagh Finnegan
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public affairs and outreach officer at the Northern Ireland Bureau
Despite the sensitivity over controversial issues, Finnegan says the staff has never accidentally crossed a line and sparked their own uproar. “It’s never happened, which I’m particularly proud of. I think we’re all very aware of our role here and who we represent, so we’re all in tune with what we can and cannot do,” she said.“We also have a strategy so there are certain checks and balances within our social media stuff, and what we’ll post and what we won’t, and we all understand that, so that helps in navigating our various issues.” While the Northern Ireland Bureau can’t take a political stance on delicate issues like disputes with Britain, its role is to manage the reputation of Northern Ireland in North America. It would have been tempting to simply let the British Embassy steer the social media direction for Northern Ireland, but Finnegan said the two entities have very different jobs.
July 2015
“The U.K. staff is very, very good at social media. And they are our colleagues, so we definitely sit down with them and ask their best practices,” Finnegan said. “But for the most part, we are fairly separate.” More than 15 years after the Good Friday peace agreement was reached to end the decades-long Troubles, Finnegan said Northern Ireland is focused on looking forward, and it sees the Irish diaspora as a vital part of that process. “We realized there were a lot of Irish Americans and they’re really interested in Northern Ireland, but at the same time, they’d really focus on a Northern Ireland that many people know as not quite as accurate as what we’d like it to be,” Finnegan said. “They were really focusing on the past, and not really Of Note promoting the image that we wantAs of July 1, Bronagh ed to promote, which is that Finnegan accepted a Northern Ireland is a modern, innoposition as a financial vative, outwardly-looking region.” She said Northern Ireland has a engineer with First unique position, not only on the Derivatives and has global stage, but within the digital returned to Belfast. sphere. “In all aspects of Northern Ireland and what we do here, we really punch above our weight in a bit of a way, and our social media accounts demonstrate that,” she told us. “In another sense, we are sort of peculiar in the fact that we are part of the British Embassy, and they have a huge social media presence and they’re very, very good at it,” Finnegan added. “But we are carving out our own little way and that’s something that we’re proud of.”
Molly McCluskey (@MollyEMcCluskey) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and has covered Northern Ireland for a variety of publications. She is currently in Belfast covering the Twelfth parades and the ongoing peace process. The Washington Diplomat Page 15
Book Review
Joseph Nye
Amid Decline Debate, Nye Insists American Century Is Far From Over by John Shaw
T
hroughout American history, two very different schools of thought about the essence of the United States have coexisted with surprising ease.
The first is the often-discussed notion of American exceptionalism, which posits that the United States is a uniquely special country. The other is the persistent concern that America is falling short of its ideals and potential and is undermining its own power in the world. The modern manifestation of the decline theory was partly triggered by the 1987 book “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers” by historian Paul Kennedy. This book ignited a nearly 30-year debate that shows no sign of abating about whether the United States is strategically overextended and is imperiling its position as the world’s leading power. Rarely a year passes without extensive handwringing about this proposition in foreign affairs journals or policy seminars. Joseph Nye, a Harvard political science professor, wrote a response to Kennedy’s book in 1990 and has returned to the debate with a new book, “Is the American Century Over?” This book is not a direct challenge of Kennedy’s thesis, but rather an assessment of where America stands now. If you read Nye’s essay hoping for a pithy answer to the question posed by the title, you will probably be disappointed. However, if you are seeking a thoughtful and nuanced discussion of American power in the 21st century, you will be stimulated. “Is the American Century Over?” sorts through many of the sweeping assertions, dubious assumptions, bold claims and fuzzy thinking that pervade the debate about America’s role in the world. Too often analysts seize on several negative geopolitical events or a cluster of disappointing economic news to proclaim that America is unraveling and its global power fading. “Is the American Century Over?” encourages readers to think carefully and speak precisely about the complexities of U.S. power. Nye has been a professor at Harvard since 1964 and is a former dean at its John F. Kennedy School of Government. A former chair of the National Intelligence Council, Nye is widely regarded as one of the world’s most respected political scientists and most creative thinkers. Among other things, he is credited with pioneering the concept of “soft power,”
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Photo: Harvard University
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America has many problems, but it is not in absolute decline, and even in relative terms, it is likely to remain more powerful than any single state in the coming several decades. — Joseph Nye author of ‘Is the American Century Over?’
which refers to the importance of persuasion and example over coercion and force in international affairs. He is a prolific author, having written 13 books and more than 150 articles; his recent books include “Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era,” “The Future of Power” and “Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics.”
The Washington Diplomat
”
“Is the American Century Over?” is a work of synthesis and reflection rather than a book that advances novel concepts or fresh theories of global politics. Nye builds his analysis around the idea of an “American century” that was proclaimed by Henry Luce, the legendary publisher, in a 1941 essay in Life magazine. The initial chapters of Nye’s book
define important concepts. For example, he examines power in world politics and offers a concise definition.“Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes one wants and there are three ways to do that: by coercion (sticks); by payments (carrots); and by attraction or persuasion. Sticks and carrots are forms of hard power; attraction and persuasion are called soft power,” he writes, delving into the three types of power: military, economic and soft. Nye considers the life cycle of state power in history and finds the duration of dominance has varied greatly. For example, the Roman Empire peaked in 117 AD and survived until 476 in the West and 1453 in the East. The preeminence of other nations was much shorter: the Portuguese from 1516 to 1540, the Dutch from 1609 to 1640, the British from 1714 to 1740 and then again from 1815 to 1850. Nye notes that some scholars have embraced the theory of a 100year life cycle of national power. He combines this theory with Luce’s proclamation of an American century to anchor his analysis. Nye observes that hegemony is an imprecise and even highly subjective concept. While the United States has been a strong country for a long time, there is no agreement on when American power peaked and the so-called American century began. He says a number of starting dates are defensible: 1898 (the Spanish American War); 1914 (the start of World War I and the decline of Europe); 1941 (America’s entry into World War II); 1945 (the Allied victory in World War II); 1947 (the beginning of America’s containment strategy); or even 1991 (the collapse of the Soviet Union). American primacy in the economic, military and soft power realms can plausibly be dated to 1941 when it entered World War II, Nye argues, noting that the nation “became a central actor in the global balance of power.”As to when the American century will end, Nye makes an important distinction between relative decline and absolute decline. Relative decline pertains to a nation losing ground to other competitors; absolute decline is when a nation begins to regress or decay internally. “While the two are often related, they need not be,” he writes. Nye divides the challenges to American primacy into two categories: those posed by other nations or national groupings and those posed by the diffusion of power that is weakening all nations. As for national or regional competitors to the United States in the 21st century, Nye says the list is long but the threats they pose are relatively modest. He argues that while the European Union, July 2015
Japan, Russia, India, and Brazil all have strengths, no one nation, or even any conceivable grouping of them, is likely to contest American primacy in the foreseeable future. The challenge the United States faces from China is more daunting and complex. Nye observes that China has considerable strengths: an economy that has grown briskly for more than three decades, a territory that is as large as the United States and with a population that is four times greater, an expanding military capability with about 250 nuclear weapons, the most Internet users in the world, and robust space and cyber capabilities. But China also has major weaknesses, including profound environmental and demographic problems and neighbors that view it with suspicion, if not hostility. Additionally, Chinese leaders now seem more intent on boosting their economy and projecting power in their region rather than aspiring to be a global hegemon. Nye says that China still lags behind the United States in economic, military and soft power. While its economy may soon be larger than the American economy in overall size, China’s percapita gross domestic product is far less than America’s and its innovative prowess lags woefully behind as well. China is investing increasingly large sums in its military but its spending is still well below U.S. expenditures. China has an ancient civilization and its contemporary appeal is real but remains limited. China’s rise asevery a global power, Nye concludes, willyour takead time NOTE: Although effort is made to assure is free of mistakes in spelling and and it poses no immediate threat to American primacy. PhoTo: hArVArD uniVErsiTy content it is ultimately up to the customer He to make the final proof. argues that if Chinese leaders make good policy decisions, the “is the american Century over?” by harvard professor Joseph nye country’s economic vibrancy will boost its relative strength and ponders the question of American exceptionalism. Thebring firstittwo faxed changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes closer to the United States in power resources over the will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed ads are considered approved. next few decades.“These relative gains do not necessarily mean in the sense of the centrality of the United States to the balance that China will surpass the United States as the most powerful of power and American leadership in the production of public Please check this ad carefully. Mark any changes country,” he adds. goods,to butyour it willad. look different from how it did in the latter half America’s leadership will be more seriously challenged by of the last century,” Nye writes. power from to non-state actors, largely needs If the the ad diffusion is correctofsign and faxstates to: (301) 949-0065 changes While the United States must confront challenges from state driven by the revolution in information technology. “What this and non-state actors, Nye believes America’s fate will be, in large means is thatDiplomat world politics will(301) not be933-3552 the sole province of part, determined by decisions it makes. Ending political paralysis The Washington governments,” he writes, declaring that individuals, private com- and instituting reforms in education, immigration and fiscal panies and nongovernmental organizations are playing ever- policy would give the nation a boost and position it nicely for Approved larger __________________________________________________________ roles in international affairs. the coming decades. Additionally, careful decisions on funding contends that while America’s position relative to other defense and foreign policy programs, helping create global instiChangesNye ___________________________________________________________ nations may erode, no precipitous decline is likely. However, the tutions and networks, and shoring up alliances would bolster ___________________________________________________________________ overall diffusion of power away from all nation states will the nation. reduce American strength.“The American century will continue “America has many problems, but it is not in absolute decline,
and even in relative terms, it is likely to remain more powerful than any single state in the coming several decades. The real problem for the United States is not that it will be overtaken by China or another contender, but that it will be faced with a rise in the power resources of many others — both states and nonstate actors.This diffusion of power will make the United States relatively less able to control others. Entropy may prove a greater challenge than China,” he writes. Nye argues that the United States must make wise strategic choices both at home and abroad if it wishes to maintain its position.“The American century is likely to continue for a number of decades at the very least, but it will look very different from how it did when Henry Luce first articulated it,” he writes. “Is the American Century Over?” is an excellent book that will help students of international affairs think carefully about the world and America’s opportunities and challenges in the 21st century. It’s brief, succinct and provocative. Most of Nye’s arguments and conclusions are persuasive. However, in his assessment of American strengths and weaknesses, I think he downplays how harmful and even noxious America’s domestic political climate has become.While it’s true that the nation has endured more difficult political conflicts in the past (the Civil War is an obvious example), the current stalemate is preventing needed reforms in critical areas such as immigration and fiscal policies that would strengthen and revitalize the nation. And there is no sign this stalemate will end anytime soon. While there are profound global forces in motion, America’s future, at least in the short and medium term, is in its own hands. The United States is largely the master of its own destiny and the future can be as be as bright and hopeful or as dark and pessimistic as Americans make it.
John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
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MEDICAL
Concussions
Why I’m Saying No To Football for My Son by Gina Shaw
I
grew up in Nebraska, where football is a religion. On football Sundays, the secondlargest city in the state is Cornhusker Stadium at the University of NebraskaLincoln. The memories of my youth are punctuated with crisp fall Friday nights at the high school field, and Saturday afternoons in front of the TV with my father yelling encouragement — or scorn — at the Huskers’ latest play. Football was an integral part of my childhood. But I will never, ever sign a permission slip to allow my son to play football. Apparently I’m not alone. An Associated Press poll taken last summer found that 44 percent of parents weren’t comfortable letting their children play football — and participation is down at both the elementary and high school levels. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, nearly 1.1 million students played 11-man football during the 2012-13 school year, down approximately 10,000 from the year before and more than 20,000 since the 2008-2009 school year. Participation in Pop Warner, the nation’s top youth football program, dropped 9.5 percent between 2010 and 2012. As a growing body of research has established the long-term risks posed by repeated concussions and nearconcussions sustained by NFL and college football players, doctors and parents have also begun to focus concern on the brain injury risks of football for younger players. High school football players have a concussion rate that is 11 percent higher than their college-age counterparts, according to a study published in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. Another study, presented at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting last December, found that players who sustained heavy hits for just one season — without a single diagnosed concussion — still had observable brain abnormalities on MRI scans. At least two class-action lawsuits — one in Mississippi in 2013 and another in Illinois just this summer — have been filed seeking major changes in the way concussions are handled at the high school level, such as mandatory baseline testing for all football players, stricter guidelines on returning to play and the presence of medical personnel at practices in addition to games. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all 50 states have now passed some type of “return to play” law regarding concussions in sports for youth and high school players, generally requiring that an athlete believed to have sustained a concussion be removed immediately and only returned to play or practice after at least 24 hours, and after having received clearance from a medical professional. But the laws aren’t always consistent, nor are they consistently followed. Even when they are, they may not be sufficient. A report from Minnesota Public Radio News in September 2014, for instance, noted that the state’s law doesn’t require high schools to track concussions, and not all do, nor do all schools perform “baseline” testing of players’ cognitive abilities at the beginning of
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An Associated Press poll taken last summer found that 44 percent of parents weren’t comfortable letting their children play football — and participation is down at both the elementary and high school levels. the season. In another example, an Iowa football player won over $1 million in a lawsuit against his school district after head injuries he sustained in a game three years ago left him in a wheelchair.The judgment found that the school nurse who assessed him erroneously failed to diagnose a concussion, and did not notify his coaches or parents. Two high school football players died within days of each other after sustaining head injuries in the fall of 2014, one in Alabama and one in Long Island, N.Y., and in one shocking incident in the Boston area in 2012, five Pop Warner players — all ages 10 to 12 — sustained concussions in a single game but returned to play later. And while many youth and high football organizations have limited contact drills and adopted so-called “Heads Up” tackle policies that stress tackling with the shoulder instead of the head — a program introduced in 2012 by the NFL’s youth development arm — there’s no data yet on whether this is making a difference in the number of concussions. Most state laws do not address primary prevention of concussion in youth sports.
When I say that I’m not going to allow my son to play football, people sometimes respond that kids can’t be kept in a bubble, or that all sports have risks — that indeed, you could get a concussion in almost any sport, from swimming to lacrosse to tennis, if the circumstances are right.That’s true. But football accounts for about half of all concussions in youth sports; the only other sport that comes close is ice hockey. Soccer’s concussion rate is less than onethird that of football, with basketball and volleyball even lower. And sure, a child could damage his elbow pitching in high school baseball, or blow an ACL on a family ski vacation. But what it comes down to for me is that you don’t think with your elbow or your ACL. You can fix a damaged elbow or a torn ACL. But damage to the brain is not so easy to fix. When he announced his retirement from the game after just one season in the NFL due to fear of brain injuries, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland had some words for parents who watched his decision: “If you weigh the risk and decide this is something you want to partake in…. It’s a free country,” he said.“But If I could relay a message to kids and their parents it would be twofold: Number one, make an informed decision. And number two, don’t play through concussions. Who knows how many hits is too many?” Exactly. My child’s brain is a wondrous and magical thing. And I’m going to do what I have to do to protect it.
Gina Shaw is the medical writer for The Washington Diplomat. July 2015
T R A V E L &
HOTELS ■ a special section of The washington Diplomat
■ July 2015
The Sofitel’s “magnifique renewal” celebrates the ties between Paris and Washington, D.C.
RENOVATION RACE
In Hypercompetitive Market, Hotels Spruce Up to Stay Fresh Photo: SoFitEl WAShiNgtoN DC lAFAyEttE SquARE / AbACAPRESS / bob CoSCARElli
W
today, in addition to the hiltons, hyatts and holiday inns, hen Washington welcomed a record-breaking 18.3 by Stephanie Kanowitz Washington has boutique hotels decorated with local art (we’re million domestic visitors in 2014, local hotel owners looking at you kimpton), mammoth structures with 1,700-plus rooms and consat up a little straighter. After all, whether they came here for vention centers (think Marriott Marquis and gaylord National Resort), hotels with closed-door meetings with members of Congress or to stroll with their families histories (the hay-Adams, Willard interContinental and the Jefferson fit the bill) around the Smithsonian museums, those visitors needed places to sleep. and uber posh hotels that get upward of $800 a night for regular rooms (also And this area has plenty of options when it comes to lodging — with many known as the Capella). Next year, D.C. will even have its first “micro hotel” at more on the way. Currently, the nation’s capital is home to more than 140 hotel 7th and h Streets, NW, courtesy of Modus hotels. the New york “pod” concept properties and 31,000 rooms, according to Destination DC, which markets the area as a great place to visit. About 20 more properties are set for construction. will feature much smaller rooms (and rates) than the typical hotel setup. to remain competitive in this constantly evolving environment, established Also worth noting is that while visitors are here, they spend money — and hotels have to step up their games and constantly refresh themselves. here plenty of it. Domestic visitors alone spent about $6.8 billion in D.C. last year, according to ihS global inc., a year-over-year increase of 1.9 percent. yes, that’s we look at how five hotels have reinvented themselves in recent months. billion with a b. Continued on next page
July 2015
TRAVEL & HOTELS
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Technological updates are an important part of the renovation. The hotel offers Guest-Tek, which lets guests connect their smartThe Embassy Row Hotel phones or tablets to the TV to play 2015 Massachusetts Ave., NW music, movies or TV shows. embassyrowhotel.com But the changes are designed to give guests an outlet for both work First opened in the 1970s, this and play — or rather, unplugging Dupont Circle hotel finished a $15 milafter work. lion top-to-bottom renovation in March. “We’re literally designing the When Destination Hotels took over rooms to create specific areas that the property in November 2013, it are ideal for work, that are ideal to wanted to “bring it back to life,” said relax and unwind, and also the Sarah Vining, the hotel’s director of perfect sleep,” Bernand said.“So for marketing and communications. example, the mattresses we just “It’s the Embassy Row Hotel, it was put in place have different toppers. an iconic hotel on Embassy Row,” So based on the type of sleep you Vining said.“There’s a history of politilike to enjoy, whether it’s regular, cians, ambassadors and socialites and soft or firm, we have the ability of really big-name people who would actually changing just the topper.” stay here.” In addition to customized sleep But you won’t find the drab, buttechnology, rooms will also get Photo: Embassy Row Hotel toned-up style that D.C. has long been couches and a large workspace associated with at this place. Instead, First opened in the 1970s, the Embassy Row Hotel in Dupont Circle recently finished a $15 million counter, plus coffee machines and the hotel’s metamorphosis represents top-to-bottom renovation. tea kettles for in-room refreshWashington’s own, embracing color ments. and an edge. “When it comes to bathroom amenities, we are switching “The hotel décor is authentic to D.C. with art from local from L’Occitane to Ferragamo,” Bernand added.“It’s a custom photographers and artists,”Vining said.“But we’re not trying to Four Seasons line that we have that’s also a little bit more do your typical D.C. with the Constitution on the wall. We’re contemporary in look and has a better sense of place, espetrying to make it more authentic…. There are pictures of the cially when it comes from the design perspective — less Blind Whino [a local arts club located in a church], there are resort-like.” pictures of the [U.S. National] Arboretum — just different Construction will start in the 70-room west wing on July 23 things that [guests] might not know about D.C., but then and finish by Sept. 6. In January 2016, construction will start they’re walking around the city, they go,‘Oh, I know that place. on the east wing and take about two months. There’s a photograph of the Watermelon House.’” The revamp started with the roof last year, which had little Sofitel Washington DC Photo: Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square / ABACAPRESS / bob coscarelli more than a pool and some lounge chairs, Vining said. Now, Lafayette Square $500,000 later, it’s also got a bar and grill, making it one of the Since unveiling its new look in February, Sofitel few hotel rooftop pool lounges in the city.The pool also boasts guests have been greeted by hues of black and white 806 15th St., NW one of the city’s only heated saltwater chlorine swimming with green accents inspired by 1920s Paris. sofitel.com pools with sweeping views. The four-star Accor hotel is billing its makeover as a “magHeading inside, the redesign affected all 11 floors and 231 guest rooms, including the addition of three suites. No rooms were harmed in the making nifique renewal.” Boston-based architectural and design firm CBT is behind the look, of the suites. Instead, doorways were added to the ends of the sixth, seventh and eighth which celebrates the ties between Paris and Washington, D.C. “The renovation gives a much more modern touch to the rooms,” said general manager floors that could be closed off to make a suite. “The guest rooms were really nothing to it — bland, simple, white-beige,” Vining said. Mathieu Riviere.“What we tried to achieve with the design team was to bring an art deco “That’s not us. We’re eccentric. We’re eclectic. We’re vivacious. Everyone who walks in ambience to the hotel and to really enhance the luxurious aspect of the property.” The hotel was designed in 2002 and was heavy and dark, he said. Since unveiling the comments on the energy in the hotel, and the rooms really portray that.” That means leather headboards outlined with shiny nail heads, vinyl wallpaper and new look in February, guests have been greeted by hues of black and white with green custom throw pillows with the silhouettes of the National Cathedral and Washington accents inspired by 1920s Paris. Prominent in the lobby is a large tufted banquette, reminiscent of both the Palace of Versailles gardens and the White House Green Room. Monument. The black-and-white color scheme is carried into the guest rooms and suites, where it’s The new lobby also has a new eatery, Station Kitchen & Cocktails, which has local ties. It serves Compass Coffee, a company founded by two 20-something Washingtonians, and accented with red or blue.The Prestige Suites have a lounge chair in the color of the White locally made pastries. An adjacent 24-hour Chef’s Pantry partnered with the Union House Blue Room and a blue duvet inspired by the Hope Diamond, once owned by Kitchen food incubator for grab-and-go items. The restaurant also partnered with So Others Might Eat (SOME), which feeds, clothes Marie Antoinette and now displayed at the and houses D.C.’s homeless. When someone orders the special of the day, 25 cents go to National Museum of Natural History. “It’s not bland.You really have a sense of SOME, and when guests book the SOME Suite, the hotel donates a percentage back. The hotel also incorporated 8,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, which is atmosphere,” Riviere said of the redesign. handy because for two straight years it’s hosted Passport DC’s Around the World Embassy “That’s important.” From a comfort level, rooms now Tour — this year with the have 55-inch HDTV sets, new mini embassies of Fiji, Rwanda, Libya, bars and many more outlets, Riviere Morocco and the Arab League said.“Now travelers, being either busisetting up shop at the hotel. ness travelers or leisure, want to be Right now, most of the hotel’s able to plug their laptop, their tablet or guests are domestic travelers, Photo: JW Marriott their smartphone,” he said. Vining said, but she expects that Stylish touches reminiscent of for- The JW Marriott completed a redesign of its 750 guest to change. “A lot of European mer first lady Jacqueline Kennedy rooms, corridors, executive lounge and more than 37,000 countries are so design-focused punctuate the modern, classic look. square feet of banquet and meeting space in May. that we’ll start to see more of One of her quotes is reflected in the those European travelers who bathroom mirror, and vintage fashion prints are found throughout the hotel. are looking for boutique hotels Also new to the hotel is Riviere. He’s been in the job for about six months, and his and really eccentric experiencfirst major task was overseeing the renovation. es,” she predicted. “It’s not only the product that is new but the leadership of the hotel, so that’s excitPhoto: Four Seasons ing,” he said. Four Seasons Hotel The Four Seasons in Georgetown kicks off a $13 million Washington, DC renovation of all 222 guest rooms this month (a west wing JW Marriott Washington DC room rendering is pictured above). 2800 Pennsylvania Ave., NW 1331 Pennsylvania Ave., NW fourseasons.com/washington jwmarriottdc.com
Continued from previous page
At the Four Seasons, work kicks off this month on a $13 million renovation of all 222 guest rooms and most of its eight major suites. Changes include new carpet, paint, furniture, bathroom vanities, bathroom tiles, light fixtures and even doorknobs, said general manager David Bernand. “Basically you empty the room and we change everything,” Bernand said. “The only thing that’s staying is actually the TV because we just changed them, and the mattress.”
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A redesign of the hotel’s 750 guest rooms, corridors, executive lounge and more than 37,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space was completed in May, after five months of construction.The new look calls to mind bespoke business suits with its palette of dark brown, charcoal and pearl gray. Accents of pink and chrome punctuate the style and are intended to remind guests of pocket squares and men’s watches. Sprinkled throughout are textures of tweed, leather and herringbone stitching, along with patterns of Greek keys and
TRAVEL & HOTELS
The Washington Diplomat
July 2015
Photo: RoN bluNt
in March, the 335-room boutique hotel Palomar completed a $600,000 renovation of its meeting spaces, including the Phillips ballroom, above, which now features chevron wallpaper, patterned carpet and mirrored columns.
paisley, like those of men’s neckties. “The renovation brought an updated and sophisticated look that’s synonymous with JW to bring our property back up to that level of the JW tier,” said Tony Bonanno, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. The hotel opened in 1984 and had its last renovation in 2008.This new makeover was inspired by guests’ feedback. Unsurprisingly, updated technology was high on the wish list, so the hotel upgraded its Wi-Fi, added more USB ports and outlets near the beds and installed 48-inch HDTVs. “Based on our guest feedback, we needed to invest in our hotel to maintain our prominence in Washington, D.C.,” Bonanno said.“The quality of the room now with its subtle sophistication and calming tone is exactly what our business traveler and our group traveler was looking for, and really sets us apart from our competition.”
Washington’s universities, so a portion of one meeting room has wallpaper book shelving, another has color-blocked linen curtains that resemble a canvas tote bag, and the light bulbs are molecular spheres, modeled after what you’d find in a lab. “People want something different, and that was another piece of that inspiration,” Gonzalez said. “Ballrooms are no longer expected to be cookie-cutter…. We want to be able to speak to all different types of customers — you know, the corporate pharmaceutical company down to the alumni association, the nonprofit organization, the medical group. Then at nighttime, there may be a wedding reception there, there may be a political dinner, a speaker may be coming into town, so we want to make sure that our colors speak to all of those different audiences.” Los Angeles-based Powerstrip Studio handled the designs. For example, in the 2,200-square-foot Phillips Ballroom, which can hold up to 300 people, you’ll find chevhoTel PalomaR ron wallpaper, patterned carpet and mirwashingTon DC rored columns. 2121 P St., NW “We really stayed with classic colors, but hotelpalomar-dc.com instead of being brown, it’s a lighter brown, and we added hints and touches of blue In March, this 335-room boutique hotel throughout the space versus different texcompleted a $600,000 renovation of its tures and different colors in the brown meeting spaces. After being largely family,” Gonzalez explained.“That navy blue NOTE: Although for every effort to assure yourjust adgives is free mistakes in accent. spelling unchanged more thanis amade decade, the hue youofthat pop, that ” and content it issection ultimately up to the customer to makebrand the final 10,000-square-foot needed a new The Kimpton is notproof. only trying to look, said Erica Gonzalez, area director of stay fresh, it is also aggressively expanding, The first two changes willKimpton be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes sales andfaxed marketing for the hotel, having recently taken over the managenotbilled only to wear and tear,alteration. but mentSigned will be at account a rate offor$75 per faxed adsfor aretheconsidered approved. contracts Carlyle in Dupont also to keep the hotel competitive. Circle and the Savoy Suites Hotel in Glover “DuringPlease that time period, of carefully. our com- Mark Park.any The changes latest additions to ad. the company’s check thisallad to your petitors were really catching up,” she said. portfolio bring the total number of have tosign always sure you’re stay- Kimpton properties in D.C. to 10 — the If the ad“You is correct andmake fax to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes ing one step ahead. So since that time, highest concentration in any U.S. city — since ourDiplomat hotel doors opened we and mean one thing: more renovations. The Washington (301) and 933-3552 became the Palomar D.C., one of the larger Kimpton hotels in D.C., every single one of Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer Approvedour__________________________________________________________ competitors has renovated.” for The Washington Diplomat. Changes ___________________________________________________________ A renovation of the rooms is slated to start in November and finish in February ___________________________________________________________________ 2016, but the Palomar started with its meeting spaces, brightening the dark browns that dominated the previous look Plan your Entire Weekend. with brighter neutrals and pops of color. www.washdiplomat.com Overall, the design draws inspiration from
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[ airlines ]
Soaring Fight U.S. Airlines Cry Foul as Cash-Rich Gulf Carriers Grab More Business by Larry Luxner
S
everal months ago, a clever 60-second radio spot began airing on WTOP, Washington’s all-news FM station. It starts with a female announcer warning: “Ladies and gentlemen, please proceed to Gate 17. American jobs now departing for Dubai.” The advertisement — some would say scare tactic — goes on to describe how the oil-rich states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have subsidized their national air carriers to the tune of $42 billion since 2004, giving them an unfair edge and threatening the livelihoods of thousands of U.S. airline employees in the process. Americans for Fair Skies, which paid for the radio spots, has a similar ad campaign running in newspapers,TV and online. But the Gulf carriers are hitting back with their own PR blitz, one of which is called “Keep the Skies Open.” They argue that the perennially troubled American carriers are simply being out-competed, accusPhoto: Larry Luxner ing them of protectionism. In addition to Passengers use an information booth at the Emirates terminal of Dubai International Airport, offering customers superior service, Gulf carriers say they have positioned themselves to better serve the burgeoning market which in 2014 surpassed London’s Heathrow as the world’s busiest airport for international of travelers from emerging economies.They also point out that they contribute sig- arrivals and departures. nificant jobs and money to the American economy — and major U.S. corporations like Boeing back up their claims. But Americans for Fair Skies, a nonprofit coalition, says the opposite is true. Its president, Capt. Lee Moak, says it’s time to “level the playing field” and stop letting the two wealthy monarchies abuse the open-skies agreements they signed long ago with the U.S. Department of Transportation. “In carrying out their dramatic and subsidized expansion, the UAE and Qatar have turned Open Skies on its head and violated both its letter and spirit,” said Moak, a former Delta Air Lines pilot.“Instead of letting the market determine prices, frequencies and routes, the Gulf airlines rely on their govern— Ronen Paldi, president of Ya’lla Tours USA ments’ subsidies and largesse to compete unfairly, including their expansion into markets that would not otherwise be accessible through fair market-based competition, rendering U.S. airlines and their destination; rather they’re flying employees a mere regional jet service for the Gulf carriers’ massive global net- to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh work.” and points beyond. Open-skies agreements are a bedrock of global aviation, increasing market access The Gulf carriers have been while lowering airfares. Since 1992, the Transportation Department has negotiated successful in tapping into the some 111 open-skies agreements with foreign governments.These agreements have growing market of middle-class long been embraced by America’s airline industry — until the supersonic growth of travelers from countries in Asia, Persian Gulf airlines spooked the legacy U.S. carriers. Africa and the Middle East — in The three airlines financing Moak’s campaign are American, United and Delta, part thanks to sheer geography. while its targets are three hugely profitable Gulf-based carriers: Etihad Airways, based But the three airlines have also in Abu Dhabi; Qatar Airways, headquartered in the Qatari capital of Doha; and penetrated the all-important Emirates, based in Dubai — which in addition to boasting the world’s tallest building U.S. market. Photo: Americans for Fair Skies can now claim to have the world’s busiest international airport. In May for example, Qatar In 2014, DXB (Dubai International Airport) handled 70.5 million passengers, sur- Airways announced it would begin nonstop service from Doha to Atlanta, Boston passing London’s Heathrow; the brand-new Emirates terminal alone, built at a cost of and Los Angeles in 2016. In business just over 20 years, Qatar Airways has grown into $8 billion, is the world’s second-largest building by floor space and has a capacity for a mega-airline flying 156 aircraft to 146 destinations around the world, including Abu more than 47 million passengers — easily more than the combined passenger vol- Dhabi, Dubai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, New Delhi, Singapore and Jakarta — all with ume at Dulles International Airport (21.6 million) and Reagan National Airport (20.8 excellent connections from U.S. cities. million) last year. But Qatar’s inroads have threatened the long-haul business of Delta, American and All three Gulf carriers serve Dulles with nonstop flights, though the vast majority United, which are accusing Qatar of bankrolling its national airline.The tiny monarchy, of passengers originating at Dulles aren’t traveling to the UAE or Qatar as a final one of the world’s richest countries on a per-capita basis, is already embroiled in
“The U.S. carriers have lost touch, so when they have a viable alternative, consumers will go where they are treated like royalty.”
22
TRAVEL & HOTELS
The Washington Diplomat
July 2015
controversy over allegations that it bribed corrupt FIFA officials to select the burning hot desert emirate to host the 2022 Soccer World Cup. The three U.S. airlines have written a letter to the secretaries of state, commerce and transportation expressing dismay that Qatar Airways, along with Emirates and Etihad, have been allowed to add new U.S. destinations to their route maps despite an ongoing investigation into the three airlines. “These aggressive actions make requesting a freeze pending resolution even more urgent, because with every new U.S. flight, the Gulf carriers not only harm U.S. airlines and workers but also make reaching a negotiated solution more difficult,” said the letter, whose sentiments are shared by two European carriers, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Lufthansa. But the main accusation lobbed by Americans for Fair Skies — that the Gulf carriers receive unfair government subsidies in the form of airport fee exemptions, loans with no repayment obligation and other generous perks — is a dicey one to prove. Many airlines, U.S. ones included, receive some form of support from the state. After the 9/11 attacks, for instance, Washington essentially kept U.S. carriers afloat with a multibillion-dollar bailout. Etihad insists that “investing in success is not a crime,” especially in an industry that has such high entry costs and slim profit margins. Last year, Etihad, founded in 2003, carried 14.8 million passengers. “Etihad Airways has received investment from its shareholder, the government of Abu Dhabi, in the form of equity capital and shareholder loans. We have always been clear about that,” said the airline’s president and CEO, James Hogan, in a recent speech in London.“Our shareholder may be national but when it comes to money, it is very, very rational,” he added, noting that Abu Dhabi demanded that the airline become profitable within a decade.
July 2015
“The dark clouds of protectionism are gathering over Europe and the United States,” Hogan said. “Five mega-carriers are trying to pull the ladder up after years of having it their way. The people that will really lose if these giant legacy airlines are successful are the millions of travelers benefitting from new choice in the global air travel market.” On that note, the Gulf carriers insist they are simply offering consumers a better way to travel. Indeed, all three have consistently garnered accolades for their service, comfort and style. In contrast, the legacy U.S. carriers have become renowned for lowering standards and squeezing customers while ramping up prices and reaping impressive profits. Ronen Paldi is the owner of Ya’lla Tours USA, an Oregon-based agency that brings foreign tourists to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Oman and other Middle East destinations. He agrees the subsidy argument is nonsense. “Emirates, which we mostly use for our traffic to the Gulf region and beyond, is a top airline with excellent service. They bring back the meaning of service — both when we deal with them in the U.S. and certainly while on board. That’s why they are so successful,” Paldi told The Diplomat. “The U.S. carriers have lost touch, so when they have a viable alternative, consumers will go where they are treated like royalty. Instead of looking what they have done wrong and Emirates is doing right, the U.S. carriers blame others.” Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.
As part of an ad and PR blitz, Americans for Fair Skies has slammed the Gulf carriers for unfairly relying on government subsidies, as seen in an infographic the group put out on the opposite page, while Etihad Airways has countered the attack by touting its contributions to the U.S. economy, as seen at right.
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Photo: Etihad Airways
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July 2015
culture & HISTORY
British July 4th Every year, the British city of Sunderland celebrates America’s independence from the British in a unique partnership that embodies the spirit of sister cities and shared history. PAGE 27
entertainment
MUSEUMS
■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM
arts
■ JULY 2015
RIGHT
At first blush, it doesn’t really make sense. Merging a textile museum that focuses on non-Western pieces with a collection of hyper-local Washington memorabilia sounds as mixable as oil and water. But a closer look at the Textile Museum’s merger with George Washington University reveals a juxtaposition that is representative of D.C. — a combination of cultures and history uniting one capital. PAGE 26
ART
‘Filthy’ Collision “Filthy Lucre,” a reimagining of Whistler’s iconic “Peacock Room” at the Sackler Gallery, is a decadent, pointed commentary about the collision of art and power, and the creative yet destructive forces it unleashes. PAGE 29
MUSIC
Quiet Triumph The tragic stories of Syria’s many refugees have largely fallen on deaf ears, obscured by a cacophony of conflict and indifference. But there are a few hopeful exceptions trying to break through this quiet apathy, including 16-year-old pianist Tambi Asaad Cimuk. PAGE 30
MIX
PHOTO: WILLIAM ATKINS / THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
DINING
FILM REVIEWS
Summer in all its culinary glory is on display at three local restaurants this month. PAGE 32
“Eden” captures the pulse of the French electronic dance music scene of the 1990s. PAGE 34
[ museums ]
Beneficial Merger Textile Museum, George Washington University Combine Forces PHOTO: JESSICA MCCONNELL BURT / THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
by Stephanie Kanowitz
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t first blush, it doesn’t really make sense. Merging a textile museum that focuses on non-Western pieces with a private collection of hyper-local Washington memorabilia sounds as mixable as oil and water. But a closer look reveals a juxtaposition that is quite representative of D.C. — a combination of cultures and history uniting in one capital. That’s the underlying message of the new $33 million George Washington University Museum and the Textile Museum, which opened March 21 after three years of planning. It joins works from the formerly private Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection and the Textile Museum, a 90-year-old institution whose prestigious collection spans six continents and five millennia. The Small Collection — along with the Small Center for National Capital Area Studies — resides in the newly renovated 7,000square-foot Maxwell Woodhull House, built in 1855, while the Textile Museum is housed in a new 46,000-square-foot space that also includes the Arthur D. Jenkins Library, which with 20,000 volumes is the world’s oldest library devoted exclusively to the textile arts. It is the largest university museum in Washington. “The idea came to just merge the two entities and build a new museum right alongside the Woodhull House and make one attraction that would at once feature Washington history and at the same time feature textiles of a truly global nature,” said John Wetenhall, director of the new museum.“If you look at the material of the objects, they look quite different, but if you look at the themes, you can see how they relate.” That idea comes across in the museum’s three opening exhibitions.“Unraveling Identity: Our Textiles, Our Stories,” through Aug. 9, showcases the largest number of works from the Textile Museum’s collections ever displayed (it has about 19,000 pieces). That’s partly because the facility is twice the size of the old one, which was situated at S Street, NW, and closed in 2013 (the museum’s historic Kalorama property recently sold for $19 million). “The ‘Identity’ exhibition was intended to show the vast array Unraveling Identity: and the quality of the textile collection through the lens of Our Textiles, Our Stories how people live,” Wetenhall through Aug. 9 said. For example, a pair of tiny The George Washington University Museum Chinese slippers intended for and the Textile Museum bound feet sits next to singer Mae West’s platform shoes, dem701 21st St., NW onstrating how different culFor more information, please call (202) 994-5200 tures take different approaches or visit http://museum.gwu.edu. to essentially the same end. The other two exhibitions are derived from the 1,000 artifacts in the Small Collection: “Seat of Empire: Planning Washington, 1790-1801,” and “The Civil War and the Making of Modern Washington,” both through Oct. 15.The first uses historical maps and images to show how early urban design shaped the city, while the latter follows the city’s evolution from the Revolutionary Way through Reconstruction. It features maps, prints and illustrations of federal buildings, barracks, hospitals, hotels and markets. The new Textile Museum has added more context to display labels and put up touch screens where visitors can see textiles from other cultures as they relate to what’s in front of them, Wetenhall said. “It’s meant to be a very acces-
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The Washington Diplomat
PHOTOS: WILLIAM ATKINS / THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Among the items on display at the new Textile Museum and George Washington University Museum, pictured at top, are a Peruvian loincloth, above; a costume from the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of “The Tempest,” below left; and Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington; as well as a 19th-centry robe from Uzbekistan, pictured on the culture cover.
sible,” he said. In addition to being more accessible, the new museum aims to make textiles more interesting, shedding light on their artistic merit and cultural significance. The Textile Museum’s collections span the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and include Egyptian mummy wraps from the Pharaonic era and one of the world’s premier collections of carpets from Islamic cultures. Its oldest textiles are fragments from 2500 B.C. to 3000 B.C. The Small Collection includes a letter George Washington wrote to Congress in 1790 outlining the 10 square miles that would be the capital, a hand-drawn map that shows the rivers and road that ran from Georgetown to Anacostia and a bandana with the design of the first engraved map of Washington. The next exhibition will feature photographs from China at the turn of the 20th century, and the museum is working with the Embassy of Japan on an exhibit for next year that will feature “treasures of Okinawa museums,”Wetenhall said. “The Textile Museum has a long and expansive relationship with embassies
See TEXTILES, page 28
July 2015
[ history ]
A Sunderland July 4th English Sister City Celebrates America’s Victory Over the English by Linda Harper
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he mayor stands to speak about the meaning of freedom; students from John F. Kennedy and George Washington Primary Schools perform; a member of the youth parliament recites portions of the Declaration of Independence; and the 1950s doo-wop band the Drifters leads the crowd singing the Star-Spangled Banner as a flag bearing the U.S. stars and stripes is raised. It sounds like the typical small-town America celebration of July 4th and our independence from England. What made this celebration unique was that it took place at Washington Old Hall in Sunderland, a port city on the northeast coast of England about three hours north of London. Yes, the event was tinged with a bit of irony, but there are important reasons why an English city might celebrate America’s independence from England. Washington Old Hall is located in Washington, a small historic village in the incorporated city limits of Sunderland. It is a stately stone manor house, the center of which features a splendid paneled hall portion of the original medieval home of George Washington’s direct ancestors, and it is from here that the family took their surname of “Washington” at the end of the 12th century. It is surrounded by a lovely garden and orchard and beyond its walls lays a quiet residential neighborhood. Outside its front door waves a flag that looks suspiciously like the D.C. flag, with its white background, two red strips and three red stars. It represents the Washington family crest, denoting that the property was the ancestral home of George Washington, the rebel general who fought the British and became America’s founding father.
PHOTOS: SUNDERLAND CITY COUNCIL
Sunderland Mayor Stuart Porthouse, second from left, and his wife Marie, second from right, join the doo-wop band the Drifters and Donna Scarboro of George Washington University at last year’s July 4th ceremony at Washington Old Hall in the British city of Sunderland, an annual celebration of the close links between Sunderland and D.C.
George Washington University, served as the special guest to raise the flag. This year, Jon Gann, a local filmmaker and CEO of the DC Shorts Film Festival, was on hand to do the honors. Sunderland is launching its own short film festival and through a grant from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Our city is very proud of our Humanities, Gann has been advising the Sunderland Friendship Agreement with Washington, team on all aspects of creating, marketing and producing the project. Founded in 2003, the DC Shorts D.C., which takes our unique historical Film Festival has grown to be the largest short film event on the East Coast. In 2014, it received over connection and sets out to create 1,200 entries from 51 nations and played 135 films over 11 days to a combined audience of more than opportunities for bringing very real 9,300 people. Another aspect of the D.C.-Sunderland Sister City benefits for both of our communities. Partnership can be seen at Washington Old Hall.The staircase and liberty room contain an incredible col— COUNCILLOR PAUL WATSON lection of George Washington memorabilia comleader of Sunderland City Council memorating the life and achievements of America’s first president, including a fan that belonged to his Because of this connection, Sunderland wife Martha and a handwritten letter by George Washington.This permanent signed a Friendship Agreement with collection was inspired by conversations with the D.C. Archives and a temWashington, D.C., in 2006 as the only sis- porary loan from Clarence Davies’s personal collection of Washington’s cit that isn’t a nation’s capital (D.C. writings. A special area of interest is the history of slavery and its impact on ter city has sister-city partnerships with 14 other D.C. Sunderland school children have learned about Black History Month capitals). Several projects have moved and emancipation stories through educational programs and a free digital forward as the two cities continue to find resource created with support from Sunderland’s Library Services to share ways to work together. However, the July Sunderland’s own black history stories. 4th flag-raising ceremony at Washington This past winter, members of the Sunderland sister city team also visited Old Hall sparks special interest each year. with curators at D.C.’s Tudor Place to begin discussions about future exchangIn 2014, Donna Scarboro, associate Continued on next page provost for international programs at the
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PHOTO: CRAIG CONNOR / NORTH NEWS & PICTURES LTD.
From left, Washington School pupil Louise Trainor, Nick Dolan from the National Trust and Americans Luke and Holly Whitehead from Pennsylvania raise the stars and stripes during the July 4th Independence Day celebration in Sunderland.
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Textiles
Sunderland
and delegations throughout the city,” he said.“There have been a lot of embassies and countries that have supported textile exhibitions over the years because they are, after all, internationally based, and they’re forms of display of cultures of many and diverse countries.” In fact, the Textile Museum was often called a hidden cultural gem. From its newfound perch on GW’s Foggy Bottom campus, it will enjoy expanded programming and the security of being affiliated with a top-notch university. The Textile Museum is not the first to merge with a university, although such partnerships can be “counted in the tens, not hundreds,” Wetenhall said. This particular move is especially mutually beneficial, however. Besides getting more space in Foggy Bottom, the Textile Museum also has a 22,000- square-foot conservation and collections center at GW’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn and access to support from GW’s communications, legal, facilities and technologies departments. The school wins because it already is well known for graduating professionals from its museum studies programs in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, but now faculty are co-curating exhibits and the museum’s monthly attendance has doubled in part because of inter-
es that could benefit both museums and their collections. With an inheritance from George Washington, Thomas and Martha Custis Peter (Martha Washington’s granddaughter) purchased eight and a half acres of farmland in present-day Georgetown and completed their home in 1816. One of America’s first National Historic Landmarks, Tudor Place is today known not only for its stately home, but also for its gardens and extensive art collection related to the first family. History, economic development and the arts all come together in these exchanges. While Sunderland was once a thriving port city, it was also a key hub for glassmaking in England. As part of its current economic development program, the National Glass Centre was developed on the former site of the J.L. Thompson and Sons shipyard along the River Wear. Operated by the University of Sunderland, it includes studios for a growing number
PHOTO: WILLIAM ATKINS / THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
The Textile Museum exhibit “Unraveling Identity: Our Textiles,” Our Stories” features Arlette Muschter and Claudy Jongstra’s “Wedding Dress Japonesque, the Netherlands, 2000.”
est from the academic community, Wetenhall said. “This is a merger that really matters to the museum profession, and while we’re presenting the exhibitions for the public, the manner in which we design the exhibitions and handle the collections and move the objects often involves students, so we’re working on a dual mission to engage and to help to launch the next generation of museum professionals even as we function ourselves as current museum professionals.” Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
Visit Jordan & The Holy Land
of local glass artists, educational courses and a museum. Sunderland glass artists have been involved with various D.C. collaborations, including Artomatic and Pepco Edison Gallery exhibits, while glass artists from D.C. have traveled to Sunderland to learn and share their craft, enriching artists on both sides of the pond. “Our city is very proud of our Friendship Agreement with Washington, D.C., which takes our unique historical connection and sets out to create opportunities for bringing very real benefits for both of our communities,” said Councillor Paul Watson, leader of the Sunderland City Council. “The Independence Day celebrations in Washington [U.K.] each year help us to celebrate some of the very positive things that we have been doing with our friends and colleagues in America.” Linda Harper is the former CEO of Cultural Tourism DC and a former volunteer with the Office of Protocol and International Affairs at the D.C. Office of the Secretary. She currently serves as board chair of the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative.
Washington Old Hall, located in a small historic village in the British port city of Sunderland, is said to be the original medieval home of George Washington’s direct ancestors, and where the family took its surname of “Washington” at the end of the 12th century. PHOTO: LINDA HARPER
Rich Culture
Religious History
Visit the crown jewel of the Middle East, the Kingdom of Jordan. One of the most hospitable countries in the world, Jordan is home to one of the wonders of the world at Petra. Walk in the footsteps of Moses at Mount Nebo or see the site where Jesus was said to be baptized at Al-Maghtas. Camp with Bedouins in the vast valley of Wadi Rum, where you’ll enjoy traditional Jordanian food and dancing. Experience the stunning waters of Aqaba, which features unrivaled scuba diving and some of the most striking coral reefs in the world. Visit us as part of a biblical tour of the holy land: Jafa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Tiberias and Bethlehem. Conde Nast calls Jordan “one of the world’s must-see sights.” At Azure Tours we have spent decades giving tourists, groups and conference organizers the trip of a lifetime in the Kingdom. Whether you want to tour ancient or religious sites, embark on an adventure, enjoy a unique family get-away or organize a conference, we have the knowledge to help you experience the best of Jordan.
Call us at: 011 962 6 566 8970 • 011 962 79 552 6206 www.azure-tours.com • munther.twal@azure-tours.com
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Extreme Sports
Beautiful Resorts
July 2015
[ art ]
‘Filthy’ Feud Art, Money Collide in Waterston’s Vision of Decay, Decadence PHOTO: ART EVANS
by Kate Oczypok and Anna Gawel
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rtist Darren Waterston called it an “extraordinary experience” born out of an intense collaboration. His immersive work, “Filthy Lucre,” a reimagining of James McNeill Whistler’s iconic “Peacock Room” now on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, is a decadent, pointed commentary about the collision of art and power, and the creative yet destructive forces it unleashes. Waterston recreates Whistler’s sumptuous 19th-century dining room as an opulent ruin — literally dripping with excess in the form of oozing paint, encrusted gold, gilded stalactites and sagging shelves — to illustrate the feud behind Whistler’s original masterpiece. The American-born, British-based Whistler painted the intricately decorated paneled Peacock Room, also known as “Harmony in Blue and Gold,” from 1876 to 1877. It belonged to Whistler’s patron, Frederick R. Leyland, a wealthy ship magnate from Liverpool, England. According to the Freer Gallery of Art, where PHOTO: HUTOMO WICAKSONO / FREER GALLERY OF ART AND ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY the Peacock Room now resides,Whistler turned what had been a Artist Darren Waterston, top, reimagines James McNeill Whistler’s small consulting job into a full-blown overhaul while his patron iconic “Peacock Room” as an interior of decay and decadence in was away for the summer. Among other things, Whistler covered “Filthy Lucre,” now on display at the Sackler Gallery. the room in a stunning palette of blues, greens and golf leaf patterns reminiscent of a peacock’s plumage. and nighttime.” Today, the Peacock Room is considered one of the most majesWaterston’s creative process for “Filthy Lucre” — his first tic examples of the Anglo-Japanese style and one of the greatest collaboration with the Smithsonian — was immersive and surviving aesthetic interiors. Despite the room’s visual grandeur, relentless. Fatigue set in as he created the exhibition in the however, its owner was none too pleased with the dramatic transNorthern Berkshire District on the Massachusetts border formation Whistler had initiated (the painter even entertained with Vermont. visitors and journalists in the room without Leyland’s permis“The winter was brutal,” Waterston said. Along with his sion). colleagues,Waterston worked in a Civil War-era stone buildLeyland refused to pay Whistler for the changes, giving him half ing that was part of the Mass MoCA campus. There were of his demanded pay. In turn, Whistler gained access to Leyland’s times when the paint seemed to nearly freeze. The somber home and painted a pair of fighting peacocks to represent the working environment was heightened by the piece’s seriquarrel between him and his former patron. ous themes: “the complicated tensions between art and In Waterston’s version, those fighting peacocks have turned PHOTO: ARTIST / DC MOORE GALLERY, NY money, ego and patronage and acts of creative expression gruesomely violent, one of the many jarring images in “Filthy in the 19th century and today,” according to the Lucre.” Against an eerie dim glow and soundscape by Sackler Gallery. the band BETTY, the room appears to buckle under the Peacock Room REMIX: Darren The best advice Waterston gives to artists at any weight of its acrimonious history. Waterston’s Filthy Lucre stage of their career is to “always push to work Waterston, who has been exhibiting work in the U.S. outside of your comfort zone and find ways of and abroad since the early 1990s and is used to solitary through Jan. 2, 2017 expression that are maybe not so safe.” studio shows, created “Filthy Lucre” with “many loving Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art “Filthy Lucre” is the centerpiece of “Peacock hands.” Waterston’s installation was created in collabo1050 Independence Ave., SW Room REMIX,” an exhibition that examines ration with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Whistler’s relationship, and eventual fallout, with Art, or Mass MoCA. For more information, please call (202) 633-1000 Leyland. It features a changing series of installaIn his research, the California-born, New York-based or visit www.asia.si.edu. tions, beginning with Whistler’s portraits of the artist said he began thinking about all the great painted Leyland family and Waterston’s preparatory studies for “Filthy Lucre.”A second phase rooms in art history and the “Peacock Room” naturally came to mind. “The more I read, the more I studied and realized it was a story that felt so fresh in 2016,“The Lost Symphony: Whistler and the Perfection of Art,” highlights the hisand contemporary, a room built during the Gilded Age with such credible prosper- tory of a painting Leyland commissioned for the Peacock Room but Whistler never ity and deprivation happening at the same time,” Waterston told us.“Everything felt completed, while the 2017 display “Chinamania” explores the enduring fascination like the contemporary art world I am in. I wished to re-imagine this as my own work with Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. The opening of “Filthy Lucre” was celebrated in May with the Sackler’s Birds of a of art and explore ideas behind the original room.” Waterston said he had been influenced by Whistler since his early 20s and had Feather Gala, where Waterston was in attendance along with actress Gillian always greatly admired his work. “As a painter, I often looked at his nocturnes and Anderson (see photos in the Spotlight section). paintings that really bordered in pictorial space and pure abstraction,” he explained. “I was less interested in figurative work and more interested in the depiction of Kate Oczypok is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. space as in landscape space, and particularly paintings that have to do with twilight Anna Gawel is the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.
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[ music ]
Cacophony of War Syrian Refugee Tries to Break Through Silent Indifference by Sarah Alaoui
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early 1.8 million Syrian refugees have adopted Turkey as their home in the four years since civil war broke out in their homeland. Like any adoption, this massive influx stirs conflicting emotions. On the one hand, Turkey has welcomed Syria’s refugees more openly than perhaps any other neighboring nation, absorbing half of those who have fled the war-torn country. On the other hand, the flood of shell-shocked and often-destitute refugees has strained resources and bred resentment among their hosts. Like the many Syrians who have crowded into tent camps or blended anonymously into Turkey’s urban centers, their stories of violence, displacement and personal tragedy often fall on deaf ears, obscured by the cacophony of conflict and indifference. But there are a few hopeful exceptions trying to break through this quiet apathy, including 16-year-old pianist Tambi Asaad Cimuk. Personally granted Turkish citizenship by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and dubbed a prodigy by Turkish media, Cimuk’s talent has taken him from war-ravaged Damascus to Carnegie Hall. On May 14, the young musician — whose teachers predict will be the next Sergei Rachmaninoff — performed a concert at the Rayburn House PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF TURKEY Office Building on Capitol Hill in a concert hosted by the Turkish Embassy in partnership with the International Rescue Committee. Syrian pianist Tambi Asaad Cimuk, above, who now lives “Unfortunately, Tambi and his family weren’t able to move freely around in Turkey, performed during a recent Capitol Hill concert the world without Turkish citizenship, so they asked for our government’s attended by Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic and Rep. Ed help,” said Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic.“We hope that this concert in the Whitfield (R-Ky.), co-chair of the Turkey Congressional Caucus, halls of Congress will raise greater awareness on the need to come together below. The event included a photo exhibition on the nearly to bring peace for the millions of individuals who continue to suffer because 1.8 million Syrian refugees who have streamed into Turkey. of the Syrian conflict.” That conflict has killed at least 210,000 people. “We should do what we can to prevent the slaughter of these innocent Syrian civilians,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said at the D.C. concert, which was attended by more than 200 people.“We need to have a solution here where the people of Syria can return to their homes in peace and have a new government that coalesces around a basic respect for human dignity.” Cimuk had never been formally trained in We hope that this concert music, only playing the accordion as a hobby. The summer after he finished middle school, in in the halls of Congress will 2013, he and his family fled Syria for Turkey, where a chance visit to a music store sparked raise greater awareness on an acclaimed musical career. After asking the the need to come together store manager about music lessons, he met his hesitant to extend Syrians work permits or future teacher who would discover and nourto bring peace for the millions permanent legal status.Attaining citizenship is ish his talent for the piano. even harder, which is why Cimuk’s success is A pleasant and optimistic teenager, Cimuk is of individuals who continue to suffer such a rarity. He could not participate in interhumble about his success. “People think I’m national music competitions with his Syrian talented, but it’s not all about talent. It’s 2 perbecause of the Syrian conflict. papers, so his teachers made it a point to pubcent talent, and the rest is about working hard.” licize his case until he received a call from While he considers Syria his motherland, he — SERDAR KILIC, ambassador of Turkey President Erdoğan with good news granting expresses gratitude for the country that him and his family Turkish citizenship. allowed him to travel the world and make a The D.C. concert, in which Cimuk played pieces from Chopin, Mozart and career for himself. His story is uncommon, especially in a country where the influx of Syrian refugees has created a burden on Turkish social services and increased Rachmaninoff, also included a photo exhibition, “Safe Harbor Turkey: Restoring tension in communities, including border towns. Turkey has spent around $6 bil- Hope,” which highlighted the role of Turkey in providing refuge for fleeing Syrians. The event was both a chance to showcase Cimuk’s talents and a PR coup for lion on humanitarian assistance and relief for Syrian refugees inside the country. For years, the Turkish government has been complaining of the lopsided inter- Turkey. But for Cimuk, who has only just begun his training and still faces many chalnational response to the worsening refugee crisis in Syria, where over half the population is in need of aid and the bulk of refugees has converged on five neigh- lenges, the chance to just be heard on the world stage is a start. “I’m not a journalist or a soldier, but with my piano and music, I can send a boring states — Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt — each ill-equipped to handle the surge. In comparison to the millions of Syrian refugees living in these peaceful message,” said Cimuk.“I’m only 16 years old, so I can’t do too much, but states, only 120,000 have been accepted into the 28 European Union member music is something that is within my hands.” countries, which together are five times larger than Turkey. Despite the steps that Turkey has taken to welcome these refugees, it has been Sarah Alaoui (@musingsdiffused) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
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July 2015
[ photography ]
Picture of Growth National Gallery Toasts 25 Years of Photography With Massive Shows by Gary Tischler
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n 1989, the National Gallery of Art staged a monumental and powerful exhibition on photography as art with curators Sarah Greenough and David Travis filling the venerable West Building with hundreds of black-and-white and color photographs, not to mention nearly 300,000 admirers who turned out to view the exhibition. It was called “On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: 150 Years of Photography” and all the greats were there: Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams and literally over 200 more. And here we are again at the National Gallery, 26 years after that groundbreaking exhibition, with another landmark display — and Greenough, now senior curator and head of the department of photographs, exploring the beauty, nuance and legacy of photography. “In Light of the Past: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography at the National Gallery of Art” runs alongside the companion exhibition “The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art,Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund.” Both of these shows will be followed by another 25th anniversary event on Nov. 1 with the opening of “Celebrating Photography at the National Gallery of Art: Recent Gifts,” which marks the culmination of a yearlong celebration of photography at the museum. PHOTO: ALFRED H. MOSES AND FERN M. SCHAD FUND The current exhibitions, which Two exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art showcase the sit adjacent to each other, appear on the evolution of photography as art: Andrew Moore’s “Palace surface to be a little like two siblings in a Theater, Gary, Indiana,” above, and Moyra Davey’s “Copperhead wildly eclectic but passionately caring #95, 1990,” far left, are part of an exhibition on memory and (and sometimes argumentative) family. time, while Gustave Le Gray’s “The Pont du Carrousel, Paris: The kids were of a generation eager to View to the West from the Pont des Arts,” at left, and Edward strike out on their own and venture away Steichen’s “An Apple, A Boulder, A Mountain” highlight some from their loving but querulous homeof the most illustrious holdings in the museum’s collection. stead. “In Light of the Past” features some 175 of the collection’s most exemplary holdings and illustrates the evolution of photography as art, from its birth in 1839 with the invention of the negative-posiPHOTO: ALFRED H. MOSES AND FERN M. SCHAD FUND tive process of photography to the 1970s. “The Memory of Time” highlights 76 works by international PHOTO: NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART artists, on display at the National Gallery for the first time, who examine the medium’s relationIn Light of the Past: Celebrating 25 Years ship to time, memory and history. Despite the differing focus, the two exhibits of Photography at the National Gallery of Art are about process and ambition — the yearning through July 26 to discover something new while establishing PHOTO: NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART photography as a means for artistic discovery. The Memory of Time: Contemporary art form, but their present-day association Echoes of this desire for innovation, whether Photographs at the National Gallery of Art with the term “establishment” belies the in the 19th century or the 21st, could be heard revolutionary, pioneering spirit of these in “On the Art of Fixing a Shadow” — in Julia through Sept. 13 images. These were daring photographs Margaret Cameron’s haunting, almost post-VicNational Gallery of Art taken by artists who experimented with torian faces, or the garish faces of Brassaï’s between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue, NW new techniques. Parisian nightlife, or the visually searing work of Here, light, shadow and perspective intermasters like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward For more information, please call (202) 737-4215 or visit www.nga.gov. mingle to produce arresting masterpieces. Steichen. Even the still lifes capture an untamed After the 1989 show, the National Gallery led by Greenough enlarged its photography holdings, founded the Department of energy, perhaps a reflection of the photographer’s desire to capture fleeting Photographs and put on a series of exhibitions that showcased many of the indi- moments in time and make their movement permanent. Blurry photographs, whether purposeful or accidental, are like ghosts running out the door — a detervidual talents in “Fixing a Shadow.” “In Light of the Past” resembles a primer on the greatest hits from “Fixing a mined effort not to fix the shadow, but to assist in its escape, in its alteration. Photographers often altered the results of their work in the dark room, and not Shadow,” a sampling of “some of the rarest and most compelling photographs ever created,” as National Gallery of Art Director Earl A. Powell III put it in a press even the most honest, documentary image contains the picture’s entire backstory. release. See NATIONAL GALLERY, page 33 The photographs in both shows helped to establish photography as a respected
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[ dining ]
Hot Kitchens Chefs Soak Up Summer With Seasonal Flair
PHOTO: GREG POWERS PHOTOGRAPHY
by Michael Coleman
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he mere phrase “summer in Washington” tends to elicit groans and grumbles accompanied by mental images of high temperatures and hellish humidity. But thankfully, the Washington region’s steamy summers do offer a significant upside: restaurant menus packed with locally sourced fruits, vegetables and seafood that thrive in the region’s verdant climate and myriad waterways. No matter what type of cuisine one is craving — from American to Asian to Eastern European and beyond — chances are good that an area chef is serving it up using fresh, local ingredients. This month, let’s globetrot to three different area restaurants that showcase summer in all its culinary glory. And since it is July, when that most American of holidays known as the Fourth of July occurs, we’ll start close to home with American cuisine, followed by French and Italian.
LINCOLN
PHOTO: EPG PR
This summer, Casa Luca, pictured at top and on the opposite page, has created a three-course tasting menu on Sundays based on a different region of Italy each month, while Lincoln, above and at right, has crafted a local menu using area farmers, seafood and artisanal meat.
Lincoln, a sleek, bustling but unfussy eatery in the heart of downtown Washington whose namesake pays homage to one of America’s most beloved presidents, is boasting a seasonal menu that practically screams summer. Lincoln’s executive chef, Demetrio Zavala, has crafted an intensely local menu that focuses on small plates and uses fresh ingredients supplied by local farmers, daily seafood catches by area fishermen and artisanal meat from ranchers around the region. Zavala buys produce from Gorman Farm in Maryland and dairy from Trickling Springs Creamery in Pennsylvania, among other regional purveyors. Zavala also complements the restaurant’s playful side (check out the gleaming floor covered in copper pennies) by including nods to some of the former president’s favorite foods, including oysters, gingerbread and chicken fricassee. We started with edamame hummus and pickled vegetables. A generous portion of vibrant, green hummus arrived with crisp pickles and beautiful red radishes. Flavorful and light, it was the perfect summer starter. The Maryland hush puppies were another delicious all-American prelude with lump Maryland crab mixed into the breading.The delectable fried orbs of dough were drizzled with salsa verde and a light, tangy green goddess dressing.A half-dozen Maryland Choptank raw oysters — a solid deal at $12 — also hit the spot. Not too small and not too plump, the oysters offered a cool contrast to the warm hush puppies, and the briny flavor whet our appetite for the main courses. Lincoln’s lamb Bolognese — braised lamb shoulder with carrot puree, mint potato gnocchi, celery carrot, onion, tomatoes and lemon ricotta — wasn’t quite as impressive as it sounded.The flavors all came together nicely, but the dish itself was something of a mush. But the DC Brau Porter lemongrass shortrib with goat cheese leek grits and apricot horseradish mostarda was tender, delicious and filling. The eye-catching interior design includes original art by iconic American pop artists, but now might be a good time to check out Lincoln’s outdoor patio. The restaurant is also hosting a special “Independence Day with Lincoln” event on July 4th featuring a seasonal farm-to-table menu for $35 a person.
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The Washington Diplomat
PHOTO: EPG PR
BASTILLE Across the Potomac River in Alexandria,Va., the newly reopened Bastille, serving modern French cuisine, has launched an inaugural summer menu in its new location at 606 North Fayette Street. Chefs Christophe and Michelle Poteaux have taken full advantage of a warmer than usual spring season, which provided a bounty of fresh vegetables. Inspired by France’s Mediterranean coast, Bastille’s menu is bursting with heirloom and cherry tomatoes, sweet corn and green beans, or “haricots vert” if you’re up on your French. Peaches add a punch of tart sweetness to a seared foie gras with honey reduction blended with Banyuls dessert wine on spice bread. The salmon fillet with oven-roasted tomato, corn risotto and a basil coulis is a satisfying summer meal, or if you’re hungrier, the thick-cut “cote de porc,” a pork chop from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, is accompanied by a zesty barbecue mole sauce, fresh summer beans and corn succotash. Michelle Poteaux, a three-time RAMMY award nominee for pastry chef, is also in on the summer act at Bastille with her “summer melon,” a refreshing final course comprised of compressed cantaloupe, Greek yogurt sorbet, sesame crunch and mint puree.
July 2015
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DINING GUIDE
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July 2015
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CASA LUCA
from page 31
Finally, if you’re in the mood for summery Italian food, there are few better options, especially on a Sunday night, than Casa Luca, Fabio Trabocchi’s rustic, well-respected osteria focusing on the Marche region of Italy. Executive chef Erin Clarke and sommelier Sarah Bengtson have created a threecourse tasting menu available each Sunday for the reasonable price of $48 per person. The menu highlights the cuisine and wines of Italy’s distinctive regions, with a menu tailored to a different region or grape varietal each month. Clarke, like many of Washington’s best chefs, is also proud of her commitment to locally sourced ingredients when possible, although she also imports from Italy when necessary. Apparently, word has gotten out. When we visited Casa Luca on a Sunday in early June, the attractively chic but warm dining room was filling up fast. Luckily, our table was reserved and the focus for June was the southern Italian island of Sardinia, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily. For our first course, we had Insalata di Ricotta Salata and Pane Carasau, or arugula with pickled red onion, black walnuts, ricotta sheep’s milk cheese and crispy Sardinian flatbread. The colorful, flavorful salad was complemented nicely by a 2013 Argiolas “Costamolino” Vermentino, a nice, light white with accents of tropical fruit and honey. Next, our server delivered Spaghittus cun Cancioffa, or house-made saffron spaghetti with baby artichokes, melted onions and small cubes of dry-cured pork loin.The thin pasta was light on the palate and the fresh artichoke further enlivened the
But there are stories behind all of these photographs that prompt us to wonder what’s beyond the frame. The art of photographic manipulation has entered a new digital age of Photoshopping that allows us to construct and deconstruct reality, an evolution that’s on display in “The Memory of Time.” The sectioning of this remarkable exhibition reveals its obsession with the intangible concept of time: “Traces of History”; “Time PHOTO: ALFRED H. MOSES AND FERN M. SCHAD FUND Exposed”; “Memory and Archive”; “Framing Time Binh Danh’s “Ghost of Tuol and Place”; and “Contemporary Ruins.” Scattered throughout the sections, visitors find Sleng Genocide Museum #1” lessons on how to deal with the effects of time. evokes the Cambodian Photographer Sally Mann — who has made a genocide. career out of capturing the changes among her own growing offspring — epitomized the exhibit when she said, “Time, memory, loss and love are my artistic concerns, but time, among all of them, becomes the determinant.” From Carrie Mae Weems’s portraits of young African American girls in flowerpatterned dresses that evoke the pastorals of Manet and Renoir, to Binh Danh’s dark, mysterious photograph of a victim of Cambodia’s genocide, these intricately shot photographs are meditations on the past, present and future — and their impact on the full spectrum of humanity. Other photographers are more interested in ruination, rust and residue, such as Andrew Moore’s “Palace Theater, Gary, Indiana” or Moyra Davey’s remarkable rumination on the simple penny in a series of up-close and beyond personal takes on Abraham Lincoln’s copper visage, worn out by ruin and time. These two exhibitions trace the immensity and breadth of photography and the changes that will continue to redefine the medium. It’s a conversation in which the National Gallery of Art is well versed: Since the 1989 “Fixing a Shadow” exhibit, the museum’s collection of photographs has grown to nearly 15,000 works. The family keeps getting bigger, and it looks like the kids are all grown up.
July 2015
National Gallery
PHOTO: GREG POWERS PHOTOGRAPHY
Casa Luca’s back dining room
summery flavor of the dish. This time, a dry but robust red wine called Sella e Mosca “Cannonau” Riserva from 2010 accompanied the course — another winner. A third course of Fregula Sarda, or toasted semolina couscous, dorade fish, middleneck clams, slowroasted tomato and spicy shellfish brodetto was clean, flavorful and filling.A 2007 Cantina di Santadi “Shardana” Carignano — reportedly one of the most in-demand wines in Sardinia — had intense flavors of black fruit and plum and, again, made a perfect accompaniment. We’re told that in July, Casa Luca will be featuring a Summer Sips menu based on that most summery of wines — rosé — and different regions of Italy that produce excellent variations of the popular wine. If June was any indication, Casa Luca’s guests should be in for a treat. Michael Coleman (@michaelcoleman) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
The Washington Diplomat Page 33
[ film reviews ]
Entrancing ‘Eden’ Music-Inspired Sibling Endeavor Shows Highs, Lows of DJ Scene
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by Ky N. Nguyen
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Cartel Land (English and Spanish with subtitles; 98 min.; scope)
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Landmark’s E Street Cinema n January 2015, French director/co-writer Mia opens Fri., July 10 Hansen-Løve and lead actor ★★★★✩ Félix de Givry presented their music-inspired feature existence of two vigilante groups fighting “Eden” at the Sundance Film the cartels: the Arizona Border Recon and Festival. Hansen-Løve and the Autodefensas, one on each side of the her brother Sven Hansen-Løve coU.S.-Mexico border. The filmmakers gained wrote the intelligent, complex script remarkable access into the underpinnings about his real life as a French garage of these little-known paramilitary organizahouse DJ. The film captures perfecttions, showing revealing footage while ly the excitement of the French keeping themselves out of the picture. electronic dance music scene of the Their members banded together follow1990s that entranced a generation ing mounting concerns about the ability of with its promise of happy beats, local and federal law enforcement officers thrills and freedom. Yet “Eden” isn’t Photo: BroaDgrEEn PIcturES to stem the growing tide of criminal excessa straightforward music movie that es by the brutal Mexican drug cartels. The glorifies the leading players as large- actor Félix de givry, above left, portrays a French garage house DJ in the 1990s, based on the real life people took matters into their own hands, of Sven hansen-løve, the co-writer of “eden.” ly heroic figures. becoming independent security forces to French leading man Givry astutely portrays Sven’s alter ego, Paul, a student of literature. In 1992, his academic studies defend themselves.Yet the actual story is not so black and white separating the heroes become sidetracked when he discovers garage house, a musical import from the United from the villains. The Autodefensas grew out of the Mexican state of Michoacán in response to the States. Following endless delays and lack of progress on his neglected thesis, his advisor essentially kicks Paul out of his literature program. Already a fledgling DJ, Paul plunges viciousness of the dominant Knights Templar drug cartel.The Autodefensas are headed full time into the business, becoming a pioneer of the “French touch,” the 1990s French by the small-town physician Jose Mireles, known to his followers as “El Doctor.” Meanwhile, the Arizona Border Recon house music movement. patrols the 52 miles of the “Cocaine Alley” After starting a DJ duo with his pal Stan (Hugo Conzelmann), that runs through Arizona. U.S. military vetPaul naturally segue-ways into party promotion for their own eran Tim “Nailer” Foley oversees the small events. Along the way, he picks up a range of girlfriends and militia whose goal is to keep the drug carhanger-ons, each of whom tels’ violence from seeping into the United complement him in a way eden States. that underlines his character (French; 130 min.; scope) “Cartel Land” plays like a thrilling old development. Paul enjoys a Landmark’s E Street Cinema school Western, benefitting from stunning fleeting modicum of sucphotography of dusty settings and sweepcess, flying to New York to ★★★★✩ ing desert landscapes.The images underlie a play a famous daytime party. solid foundation supporting the film’s placeBut he never climbs anywhere close to the heights of sucment in an otherworldly environment. cess enjoyed by Daft Punk, a duo that inhabited the same Paris dance music circles, played in the movie by the actual members of Daft Punk. (In a running gag, they can’t get into Revisiting ‘Jimmy’s Hall’ parties — even after they are famous — because they perIrish actors Barry Ward, Jim Norton and Photo: WWW.cartEllanDmoVIE.com form in real life wearing face-obscuring helmets.) Simone Kirby presented the North American In the end, Paul succumbs to the overwhelming weight of the filmmakers behind the documentary “Cartel Land” gained premiere of “Jimmy’s Hall” at the 2015 his troubles: the darkness of the club scene, his drug addic- remarkable access into the daily lives of two vigilante groups battling Tribeca Film Festival. The screening was a tion fueled within the electronic music culture and his crush- the mexican drug cartels. highly anticipated event, being the 24th and ing debt to his longtime overly indulgent mother (played by Armenian-Canadian actress Arsinée Khanjian with raw emotion). He gives up the not- latest feature from renowned activist British filmmaker Ken Loach. The left-leaning so-glamorous DJ life for an office job, returns to his writing pursuits and starts to director is well known for the consistent quality of his socially conscious body of work, such as “The Wind that Shakes the Barley,” for which he claimed the 2006 Cannes Film develop a normal romantic relationship with a woman he meets in a literary class. With the siblings’ balanced story and Mia’s even-handed direction, “Eden” honestly Festival’s coveted Palme d’Or. “Jimmy’s Hall,” which made its world preilluminates Sven’s real-life emotionally taxing moments of both elation and struggles as Jimmy’s Hall a DJ. Even though the script was considerably trimmed from its earlier draft as a two- miere at Cannes in 2014, isn’t exactly in the (English; 109 min.) part movie, “Eden” still paints a thorough portrait of Sven’s two-decade career in the league of Loach’s best films. But it’s still worth Landmark’s E Street Cinema notoriously tough music and club industry. If anything, the pacing may be a tad too slow, a look as a more than serviceable feature by a world-class auteur, especially as hearsay sugopens Fri., July 10 and the film might benefit from crisper editing. gests it may be the last for the 77-year-old. As ★★★★✩ usual, Loach’s direction is consistently up to par, Otherworldly ‘Cartel Land’ enabled by masterful 35mm film cinematograThe Mexican-American documentary “Cartel Land” left a big impact after its world phy mostly shot in natural light by director of photography Robbie Ryan. Adapted from Donal O’Kelly’s play, Paul Laverty’s well-crafted script deftly supplepremiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where buzz grew that it was one of the must-see movies. Matthew Heineman’s well-paced directing creates a vivid, dramatic feature ments the scattered historical facts known about the legendary Irish figure James about the battle against Mexican drug cartels, transcending the stillness of traditional Gralton, a.k.a. the eponymous Jimmy, a political activist who was accused of communism during Ireland’s Red Scare and became the only Irish citizen to be deported from documentaries. The hyper-realistic mise-en-scène starts with awe-striking initial actions by the direc- his own country. The excellent ensemble cast is led by Irish star Barry Ward, who impressively tor and his crew. They risked their lives by ingraining themselves into the day-to-day
The Washington Diplomat
]
July 2015
[ film interview ]
Sibling Harmony In ‘Eden,’ French Filmmaker Tells Family Story Close to Home by Ky N. Nguyen
“
A
It was the idea to make a film inspired by my brother’s life that would be some kind of a portrait of him, but also to make a film about my generation…. When I was trying to define what my generation was really passionate about, it was the music that came first to me.
t the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve hosted screenings of her fourth narrative feature, “Eden,” an autobiographical tale that she co-wrote with her brother Sven Hansen-Løve based on his modest rise and more dramatic fall as a French garage house music DJ in the
1990s. Mia Hansen-Løve’s first two films,“All Is Forgiven” and “Father of My Children,” made their world premieres at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Her third film, “Goodbye First Love,” got love from the critics after debuting at the Locarno International Film Festival. At Sundance, “Eden” was slotted in the Spectrum sidebar, the festival programmers’ favorite picks from leading international film festivals. In between screenings at Sundance, Hansen-Løve retreated to a quiet house just one block from the crowds on Main Street in Park City, Utah, but she didn’t take too much of a breather. She squeezed into her hectic schedule a one-on-one chat with The Washington Diplomat and proved to be an earnest interview subject. Soft-spoken and humble, she apologized for her English even though it was excellent. Hansen-Løve was pleasantly surprised that I saw her teenage acting debut in “Late August, Early September,” directed by acclaimed French auteur Olivier Assayas, who later become her husband.“I’ve changed a lot since then. I was lucky to be in Olivier’s film by chance. I was in high school at the time. I was 16, 17. My parents weren’t working in the movie business; they are teachers.They did this casting in the school, looking for young girls; I went there,” she recalled. “I was doing some theater in school, but I didn’t have any plans as an actress. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had no idea. I knew what I didn’t want to do … becoming a teacher. I admired my parents, but I thought they had a very tough life. I guess I wanted to be able to travel more than they did, to have less obligations, be more free. I wanted to live. I wanted to write, too. “I met Olivier Assayas through this film. That’s how it really started for me,” she continued. “It wasn’t so much for me becoming an actress because I never felt like a professional actress. It’s more that I experienced what it was to make a film through these few days that I spent on the shooting. It changed me forever in a way. It’s not that I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I knew I wanted to be involved in films in a way or another,” Hansen-Løve explained.
occupies the role of Jimmy, demonstrating how his charisma and passion correlate with his popularity as a community leader. Veteran Irish character actor Jim Norton makes a formidable archenemy playing Father Sheridan. Set in Ireland, “Jimmy’s Hall” unfolds in the 1930s, about a decade after the War of Independence depicted in “The Wind that Shakes the Barley.” Prewar, in solidly Catholic southern
”
— Mia Hansen-Løve, director of ‘Eden’
Photo: Broadgreen Pictures
Mia Hansen-Løve directed “Eden” based on her brother Sven’s life as a DJ in the French electronic dance music scene of the 1990s.
“At the same time, I wanted to write. I wrote a short film when I was 21. I used to be a very shy young girl and woman.The thing that was very impressive for me is that on the day when I was on the set, I immediately felt that I was in the right place for me even though I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know the technique. I hadn’t been to film school. But I felt at ease on the set from the start.” Nevertheless, writing and directing “Eden” was an arduous journey.“It has been a long process. I’ve been writing this film [since] three, four years ago. It was the idea to make a film inspired by my brother’s life that would be some kind of a portrait of him, but also to make a film about my generation….When I was trying to define what my generation was really passionate about, it was the music that came first to me,” Hansen-Løve told us. “Like my previous films, it’s a mixture of things that are very close to reality almost in a documentary way [and] things that are much more fictionalized,” the director said.“For me, it’s more about the filming of truth; I try to transmit that. But then the real facts and the fiction are organically balanced. “It’s really close to my brother’s life in terms of the events,” she added.“We shot in many of the clubs where
Ireland, Jimmy established the Pearse-Connolly community hall, a multipurpose community center that hosted dances as well as instruction and discussions for the likes of music, sports, literature and politics. All this made him an enemy of the conservative Catholic leaders wielding local power, who saw Jimmy’s efforts as an encroachment against their domain controlling education and politics.
Jimmy escapes to the United States, building a new life for himself in New York over 10 years. After his brother passes away, though, Jimmy feels compelled to help manage his family farm for his aging mother (Aileen Henry in a fine turn), so he returns to Ireland and to his ex Oonagh (Simone Kirby), who is now married with children. He is still revered by many people for founding his beloved hall, which he is
my brother used to work — or we recreated them. A lot of the characters around him are also inspired by people he’s known, even though often they’re a mixture of two different characters.” Hansen-Løve, who as Sven’s sister only has a minor role in the film, reflected on her real-life relationship with her brother.“On the one hand, I’m quite close to my brother. I couldn’t have made this film if I wasn’t because we spent so much time together. The film actually made us even closer,” she said. His DJ career, in fact, enabled her to go to nightclubs when she was just a young teenager and helped her develop an appreciation of music. “He used to bring me mix tapes,” Hansen-Løve recalled.“He was really the one who made me discover music — not only house music, any kind of music — because my parents obviously were listening to Schubert and Brahms. So my brother was the one bringing me the Velvet Underground, Beatles, Otis Redding, whatever, and then house music, which came very early, almost at the same time. All this music came from him.” Sven eventually stopped DJing “because he was tired of it,” Hansen-Løve said.“He was broke. He was depressed … having lived too long in that area, becoming aware that it wasn’t going anywhere at the end anymore. Also, he saw his friends going away, living another life and getting other jobs. “He left his career as a DJ even though now, with the film, he’s kind of started again, actually, but in a very different way,” she added, noting that he’s kept his day job. “But he was invited to DJ at some places in Paris.” Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.
persuaded to reopen. But the powers that be, using fear and politics, are still just as determined to keep Jimmy’s hall closed. Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.
Photo: Joss Barratt / Sixteen Films
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July 2015
Barry Ward as Jimmy, left, and Simone Kirby as Oonagh dance together in Ken Loach’s latest feature, “Jimmy’s Hall.” The Washington Diplomat Page 35
[ film ]
CINEMA LISTING *Unless specific times are listed, please check the theater for times. Theater locations are subject to change.
Bengali Apu Trilogy Directed by Satyajit Ray (India, 1960, 105 min.)
By the time “The World of Apu (Apur Sansar)” was released, Satyajit Ray had directed not only the first two Apu films but also the masterpiece “The Music Room” and was well on his way to becoming a legend. This extraordinary final chapter brings our protagonist’s journey full circle. Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Cantonese Days of Being Wild Directed by Wong Kar-Wai (Hong Kong, 1990, 94 min.)
In 1960s Hong Kong, idle playboy Leslie Cheung is kept in luxury by his retired courtesan foster mother, who gives him everything he needs but not the one thing he wants: the identity of his birth mother (Cantonese, Shanghainese, Tagalog, English and Mandarin). AFI Silver Theatre Fri., July 17, 7 p.m.
From Vegas to Macau Directed by Wong Jing (Hong Kong/China, 2014, 93 min.)
Hong Kong megastar Chow Yun-fat is at his comedic and charismatic best in this action-comedy in which he plays the suave gambler “Magic Hands” Ken, who teams up with his protégés to take down an international crime ring (Cantonese and Mandarin). Freer Gallery of Art Fri., July 24, 7 p.m.
Golden Chickensss (Gam gai SSS) Directed by Matt Chow (Hong Kong, 2014, 100 min.)
The brilliant comic actress Sandra Ng returns to her iconic role in this reboot of the popular “Golden Chicken” series. In the first two films, Ng played a fast-talking prostitute. Ten years later, she now runs her own crew of high-class escorts. Freer Gallery of Art Sun., July 19, 2 p.m.
Martial Club (Wu guan) Directed by Lau Kar Leung (Hong Kong, 1981, 110 min.)
This “pure, unfiltered example of the classic kung fu movie” (Kung Fu Cinema) about a rivalry between two kung fu schools stars Gordon Liu as the legendary hero Wong Fei-hung (followed by a demonstration and discussion with martial arts masters). Freer Gallery of Art Sun., July 26, 2 p.m.
The Midnight After Directed by Fruit Chan (Hong Kong, 2014, 124 min.)
Named both Best Film and Best Director by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, Fruit Chan’s science-fiction comedy follows a group of Hong Kong denizens on a late-night trip. When they emerge from
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THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT
July 2015
their minibus, the travelers discover they are the only people left in the city — the first of many disturbing realizations.
Directed by Marcel Carné (France, 1945, 205 min.)
In 1840 Paris, the intertwined love lives of characters from diverse demi-mondes — the city’s artists, aristocrats and its criminal underworld — all intersect on the boulevards and in the cafés of a Parisian neighborhood.
Freer Gallery of Art Fri., July 31, 7 p.m.
Dutch The New Rijksmuseum (Het nieuwe Rijksmuseum)
AFI Silver Theatre Sun., July 12, 3:30 p.m., Tue., July 14, 12:30 and 6:30 p.m.
Directed by Oeke Hoogendijk (Netherlands, 2013, 120 min.)
Eden
In 2003, an optimistic start was made on the renovation of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, but from the start, the grand project was opposed by unyielding counter-forces and Rembrandt’s palace changed into a permanent building site (Dutch, English and Spanish).
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve (France, 2014, 130 min.)
Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., July 3
English Cartel Land Directed by Matthew Heineman (Mexico/U.S., 2015, 98 min.)
With unprecedented access, “Cartel Land” is a riveting, on-the-ground look at the journeys of two modern-day vigilante groups and their shared enemy — the murderous Mexican drug cartels. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., July 10
Casablanca Directed by Michael Curtis (U.S., 1942, 102 min.)
Why is he in Casablanca? “I was misinformed,” explains nightclub owner/war refugee Humphrey Bogart, who won’t “stick his neck out for nobody” — until Ingrid Bergman walks in. AFI Silver Theatre July 2 to 9
Escobar: Paradise Lost Directed by Andrea Di Stefano (France/Spain/Belgium/Panama, 2015, 120 min.)
In Colombia, a young surfer meets the woman of his dreams - and then he meets her uncle, Pablo Escobar. Angelika Pop-Up
Every Last Child Directed by Tom Roberts (UAE, Pakistan, 2014, 83 min.)
“Every Last Child” is the dramatic story of five people impacted by the current polio crisis in Pakistan. Taking place on the front line of the fight against the disease, it is a story of sacrifice, fearless determination and sorrow in the face of mistrust, cynicism and violence (English, Urdu and Pushto). Angelika Pop-Up
Gaslight Directed by George Cukor (U.S., 1944, 114 min.)
Ingrid Bergman won the first of her three Oscars for her portrayal of an innocent wife driven mad by a domineering and treacherous husband in George Cukor’s Victorian-set psychological thriller. AFI Silver Theatre July 12 to 16
Hamlet Directed by Michael Almereyda (U.S., 2000, 112 min.)
Photo: Dogstudio
Based on the Belgian book series by Gabrielle Vincent, “Ernest & Celestine” tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a mouse and a bear and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
Michael Almereyda’s visionary, bleedingedge contemporary re-imagining of “Hamlet” stars Ethan Hawke as the moody prince, a film student in New York whose uncle Claudius has recently assumed control of the family business, Denmark Corp. AFI Silver Theatre Wed., July 1, 9:20 p.m.
Indiscreet Directed by Stanley Donen (U.K., 1958, 100 min.)
Ingrid Bergman leads a lonely life until wealthy diplomat Cary Grant sweeps her off her feet. While he claims to be stuck in a loveless marriage, he may just be scared of commitment.
Miami, 1946: After her Nazisympathizing father is sent to prison for seditious activity, Ingrid Bergman gets recruited by OSS man Cary Grant to work as an American agent and infiltrate a Nazi cell in Rio de Janeiro. Bergman must seduce Nazi industrialist Claude Rains, which means the love affair in bloom between Grant and Bergman must be nipped in the bud.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1945, 111 min.)
Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., July 10
The Third Man
An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name. AFI Silver Theatre July 3 to 9
Mr. Holmes Directed by Bill Condon (U.K./U.S., 2015, 104 min.)
An aged, retired Sherlock Holmes looks back on his life, and grapples with an unsolved case involving a beautiful woman. Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., July 17
Notorious Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1946, 101 min.)
In a world where bears live above ground while rodents live below in fear and hate, Celestine, an apprentice mouse dentist, forms an unlikely friendship with a poor street bear musician names Ernest. Angelika Pop-Up July 4 to 9
Directed by Luc Besson (France/Italy, 1990, 118 min.)
AFI Silver Theatre Fri., July 24, 2:15 p.m., Sat., July 25, 1 p.m.
Directed by David Lean (U.K., 1062, 216 min.)
Multiple directors (France/Belgium/Luxembourg, 2014, 80 min.)
Spellbound
Political activist Jimmy Gralton is deported from Ireland during the country’s “Red Scare” of the 1930s.
Lawrence of Arabia
Ernest & Celestine
La Femme Nikita (Nikita)
Directed by Ken Loach (U.K./Ireland/France, 2014, 109 min.)
Jimmy’s Hall
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
AFI Silver Theatre July 17 to 22
Ingrid Bergman is a hardworking, serious-minded psychiatrist at a Swiss mental hospital who channels all of her energies into work, until she discovers a previously unknown passion by falling in love with the new doctor, Gregory Peck, but is Peck really the doctor he claims to be?
AFI Silver Theatre July 18 to 23
“Eden” looks at the life of a French DJ who’s credited with inventing “French house” or the “French touch,” a type of French electronic music that became popular in the 1990s (French and English).
Directed by Carol Reed (U.K., 1949, 104 min.)
An American pulp novelist in postwar Vienna finds himself enmeshed in the hunt for an old friend, now a notorious black marketeer. AFI Silver Theatre Through July 2
Under Capricorn Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1949, 117 min.)
In 1831, Irishman Michael Wilding arrives in Sydney, Australia, with his uncle, the new governor, hoping to make his fortune. He discovers a rough-and-tumble world of financial scheming and exploitation, but also one where amazing reversals of fortune have made ex-convicts into millionaires. AFI Silver Theatre Fri., July 24, 12 p.m., Sun., July 26, 1 p.m.
French Children of Paradise (Les enfants du paradise)
A drugged-out Parisian punk (Anne Parillaud) shoots a cop and faces life imprisonment. But instead she is “recruited” (death being the second choice) for a secret government program, where she is trained to be a covert assassin and given a respectable civilian cover (French and Italian). AFI Silver Theatre Fri., July 3, 9:35 p.m., Tue., July 7, 9:20 p.m.
From Mayerling to Sarajevo (De Mayerling à Sarajevo) Directed by Max Ophüls (France, 1940, 96 min.)
In 1940, as World War II began, director Max Ophüls, a German Jew who had fled to France, filmed, with a romantic champagne froth, this bitterly ironic drama of how the First World War got started — specifically how the progressive Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Hapsburg throne, ended up in Sarajevo on the fateful day in 1914. AFI Silver Theatre July 3 to 9
Indonesian The Look of Silence Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer (Denmark/Finland/Indonesia/Norway/U.K., 2015, 103 min.)
Through Joshua Oppenheimer’s footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and
The Washington Diplomat
July 2015
terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: He confronts the men who killed his brother. Opens Fri., July 31
Italian
Mandarin Dearest (Qin ai de) Directed by Peter Chan (Hong Kong/China, 2014, 130 min.)
The Passionate Thief (Risate di Gioia) Directed by Mario Monicelli (Italy, 1960, 106 min.)
On New Year’s Eve, an insecure, struggling actress has nothing to do. When a colleague invites her to a New Year’s party, she jumps at the opportunity and embarks on a series of adventures throughout Rome. AFI Silver Theatre Through July 2
This gripping, morally complex drama is based on a true story of divorced parents spending years searching for their missing child. When they finally track him down, he is with a poor woman who has no idea that her now-deceased husband abducted him, and the boy has no memory of his real parents. Freer Gallery of Art Fri., July 17, 7 p.m.
Rebels of the Neon God (Qing shao nian nuo zha)
Korean
Directed by Ming-liang Tsai (Taiwan, 1994, 106 min.)
A Hard Day (Kkeut-kka-ji-gan-da) Directed by Seong-hoon Kim (South Korea, 2014, 111 min.)
Detective Go Geon-soo is having a hard day: He receives a divorce notice from his wife. His mother dies. He and his coworkers are investigated by police inspectors over alleged embezzlement. Then on his way to his mother’s funeral, he commits a fatal hit and run, hiding the man’s corpse in his deceased mother’s coffin. But someone has been watching all along. Angelika Pop-Up
Opens Fri., July 24
Defying his parents, Hsiao Kang heads for the bright lights of downtown Taipei, where he falls in with a pretty thug and their relationships is a confused mixture of hero-worship and rivalry that soon leads to trouble. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., July 10
Silent
Dziga Vertov’s groundbreaking experimental documentary about Soviet life is also a treatise on filmmaking. Banned in the Soviet Union, it has since become one of the most celebrated and influential films of all time. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., July 11, 5:30 p.m.
Vietnamese The Children of the Village (Nhung dua con cua lang) Directed by Nguyáť…n Ä?ᝊc Viᝇt (Vietnam, 2014, 89 min.)
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In a village in central Vietnam, 20 years after a wartime massacre decimated its population and destroyed its bridge to the opposite riverbank, a former guerrilla leader cannot forget the pain of war, reminding his fellow villagers of the importance of revenge. But for the next generation of villagers, including his own daughter, matters are less clear cut. Freer Gallery of Art Sat., July 11, 2 p.m.
The Prince and the Pagoda Boy (KhĂĄt vong Thang Long)
Directed by LĆ°u Tráť?ng Ninh (Vietnam, 2010, 110 min.)
Man With a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kino-apparatom)
This lush historical drama recounts the life of Ly Cong Uan, from his youth as a Buddhist disciple to his ascension to emperor of Vietnam in 1010.
Directed by Dziga Vertov (U.S.S.R., 1929, 68 min.)
Freer Gallery of Art Sun., July 12, 2 p.m.
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July 2015
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[ around town ]
EVENTS LISTING **Admission is free unless otherwise noted. All information on event venues can be found on The Diplomat Web site at www.washdiplomat.com. Times and locations are subject to change. Unless listed, please call venue for specific event times and hours of operation.
ART Through July 3
Take It Right Back: Works by Paula Doepfner
In her graphic and sculptural pieces, Berlinbased artist Paula Doepfner works with natural shapes, materials and products such as flowers and ice, alongside iron and glass, as material ways of conveying stories, processes, feelings and utopias. Goethe-Institut July 7 to Sept. 11
Miguel Salom: Ictum Olim III: Ambrotypes and Tintypes
Miquel Salom’s exhibited works resulted from decades of applied photographic research and visits to the United States to observe, firsthand, original works by photography pioneers. Selected portraits and landscapes use wet collodion, an early form of photographic emulsion. OAS Art Museum of the Americas July 12 to Aug. 28
Definition of Color
Colombian-born, New York-based mixedmedia artist Andés Hoyos primarily works with objects that have been discarded or left behind by others. His hope is that by giving these objects new life he helps to start a broader discussion about recycling. Viewings are by appointment only; email mrueda@colombiaemb. org to schedule a visit. Colombian Ambassador’s Residence Through July 20
Between: Works by Kim Ji Min
This solo exhibition features works by cutting-edge Korean contemporary artist Kim Ji Min that creatively explores the psychology of life in our consumer-driven society. Combining elements of visual, installation, video and found art, Kim’s work explores the contradictions inherent in our modern consumer society by repurposing mass quantities of common product labels into striking composite images of nature — an exquisite juxtaposition of industrialized material and organic form. The title “Between” refers to the indeterminate space between our highly labeled social reality and our idealized structure of life. Korean Cultural Center
works and turn-of-the-century pictorialist photographs; exceptional examples of international modernism from the 1920s and 1930s and seminal mid-20th-century American photography; as well as photographs exploring new directions in color and conceptual art from the 1960s and 1970s, the exhibition demonstrates the richness of the National Gallery’s photography collection. National Gallery of Art Through July 26
Travels in the Imagination
The personal, poetic and playful work of Visvaldis Ziediņš — a Latvian artist who lived and worked during the Soviet era but was not discovered until 2009, two years after his death — changes the perception of the nature of Latvian art during the Soviet era, and refutes the commonly held idea that Latvia did not produce non-conformist art. AU Museum at Katzen Arts Center Through Aug. 2
From the Library: Florentine Publishing in the Renaissance
This exhibition presents a variety of books from the late 15th through the early 17th century and explores the development of publishing related to the artistic and scholarly community in Florence. National Gallery of Art Through Aug. 5
War & Art: Destruction and Protection of Italian Cultural Heritage during World War I
This photographic exhibition illustrates the Italian people’s struggle to protect their cultural patrimony from the ravages of war. A century later, the images not only document early preservation efforts, but have become works of art in their own right, reminding us of the enduring struggle to save the highest expressions of the human spirit from the degradations and savagery of war. Woodrow Wilson House Through Aug. 9
Jacob Lawrence: Struggle … From the History of the American People
Produced between 1954 and 1956, Jacob Lawrence’s “Struggle … From the History of the American People” portrays scenes from American history, chronicling events from the Revolutionary War through the great westward expansion of 1817. The Phillips Collection
Through July 26
Through Aug. 16
Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns
Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition
This first comprehensive exhibition to examine the history of metalpoint — the art of drawing with a metal stylus on a specially prepared ground — presents some 90 drawings from the late Middle Ages to the present, from the collections of the British Museum, the National Gallery of Art and other major museums in the United States and Europe. National Gallery of Art
In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, this exhibit will showcase 20 artifacts collected from the debris of the bombings, six large folding screens that depict the horrors of the bombings and a collection of drawings by Japanese children created two years after the war ended. AU Museum at Katzen Arts Center
Through July 26
Through Aug. 23
In Light of the Past: Twenty-Five Years of Photography at the National Gallery of Art
Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude
Highlighting exquisite 19th-century
38
To mark the 300th anniversary of the passing of the Longitude Act in 1714,
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT this landmark exhibition tells the extraordinary story of the race to determine longitude (east-west position) at sea, helping to solve the problem of navigation and saving seafarers from terrible fates including shipwreck and starvation. Folger Shakespeare Library Through Aug. 30
Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation
On the heels of its summer blockbuster “BIG Maze,” the international design firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) returns to take visitors from the hottest to the coldest parts of our planet and explore how BIG’s design solutions are shaped by their cultural and climatic contexts. More than 60 three-dimensional models will be suspended at the second-floor balconies of the museum’s historic Great Hall in an unprecedented use of this public space. National Building Museum Through Sept. 7
Watch This! Revelations in Media Art
This exhibit of pioneering and contemporary artworks that trace the evolution of a continuously emerging medium celebrates artists who are engaged in a creative revolution — one shaped as much by developments in science and technology as by style or medium. Smithsonian American Art Museum Through Sept. 13
American Moments: Photographs from the Phillips Collection In celebration of recent major gifts, the Phillips presents for the first time a major photography exhibition drawn exclusively from the museum’s permanent collection. The exhibit showcases more than 140 photographs that capture the changing landscape of America after World War I, with more than 30 renowned artists represented and many works new to the collection. The Phillips Collection Through Sept. 13
Chief S.O. Alonge: Photographer to the Royal Court of Benin, Nigeria
This retrospective showcases the work of noted Nigerian photographer Chief S.O. Alonge, the first indigenous photographer of the Royal Court of Benin, in conjunction with royal arts from the Benin kingdom. The collection of historic photographs was captured on Kodak glassplate negatives and documents more than 50 years of the ritual, pageantry and regalia of the obas (kings), their wives and retainers. National Museum of African Art Through Sept. 13
The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art
In the decades since 1990, the concepts of time and memory have been frequently explored by photographers who seek not simply to reflect the world but to illuminate how photography constructs our understanding of it. This exhibition explores the work of 26 contemporary artists who investigate the complex and resonant relationship of photography to time, memory and history. National Gallery of Art
July 2015
Through Sept. 13
Through Oct. 4
Organic Matters – Women to Watch 2015 / Super Natural
Recent Acquisitions of Italian Renaissance Prints: Ideas Made Flesh
Historically, women artists were encouraged by society to take the natural world as their subject. Rather than narrative art, which was thought to require invention and imagination beyond women’s capabilities, subjects such as botanical drawings, still-life paintings and images of animals seemed to require merely the power of observation. Turning this archaic paradigm upside down, these featured contemporary artists actively redefine the relationship of women, nature and art by investigating the natural world — to fanciful and sometimes frightful effect. National Museum of Women in the Arts Through Sept. 13
Super Natural
Rather than merely document beauty, artists in “Super Natural” engage with nature as a space for exploration and invention. Historical painters and naturalists focused on the singularity or strangeness of plant and animal specimens, sometimes adding narrative details and imagined settings. National Museum of Women in the Arts Through Sept. 20
Shirin Neshat: Facing History
This major exhibition of works by Iranian-born, New York-based video artist, photographer and filmmaker Shirin Neshat is the first to place Neshat’s work in the context of the history of modern Iran, a significant influence on her career.
Prints played a pivotal role in the development and transmission of Italian Renaissance style. But because many of these 16th-century prints reproduce the designs of other artists, they have often been undervalued. This exhibition presents some two dozen, reflecting the principal styles and numerous major masters of the period. National Gallery of Art Through Oct. 31
Celebrating 25 Years of the MCI Silver on Silver: William Spratling, An American in Taxco
Adventurer, writer, collector, illustrator, architect, designer, entrepreneur and businessman are just a few words that have been used to describe William Spratling, a person who undoubtedly had much to do with Taxco’s transformation from Mexican small town to center of design. Granted to the Museo Franz Mayer for a 10-year loan in 2012, this exhibition shows the trajectory of Spratling’s vision for design as tool of not only aesthetics, but also one of social transformation. In four parts covering different themes, silver pieces, including jewelry and documents, seek to show Spratling as a designer committed to his context and his community. Mexican Cultural Institute
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Through Nov. 1
Through Sept. 27
The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists
Waterweavers: The River in Contemporary Colombian Visual and Material Culture
The confluence of the image of the river and the act of weaving is present both metaphorically and literally across contemporary practices in Colombia. Using the river as a conceptual device to explore the intersections in Colombian culture today between design, craft and art, “Waterweavers” investigates the intricate ways in which culture and nature can intertwine across disciplines. OAS Art Museum of the Americas Through Oct. 4
Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye
Gustave Caillebotte (1848-94) was among the most critically noted impressionist artists during the height of their activity in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Some 45 paintings from the period when Caillebotte was fully engaged with the impressionist movement will provide a focused understanding of the provocative character and complexity of his artistic contributions. National Gallery of Art Through Oct. 4
Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael
The first monographic exhibition on Dutch painter Wtewael will showcase his international mannerist style and remarkable technical ability through some 45 complex biblical and mythological narratives, as well as portraits and genre scenes. National Gallery of Art
This dramatic multimedia exhibition reveals the ongoing global relevance of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic as part of a shared intellectual heritage and includes original commissions and renowned works of art by approximately 40 of the most dynamic contemporary artists from 19 African nations and the diaspora. National Museum of African Art Through Dec. 31
Ingénue to Icon: 70 Years of Fashion
The first exhibition at Hillwood to present Marjorie Post’s full range of style, “Ingénue to Icon” will examine how Post’s lifelong passion for objects that were exceptionally beautiful and impeccably constructed extended to her taste for clothing Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens Through Jan. 2
Peacock Room Remix: Darren Waterston’s Filthy Lucre
“Peacock Room REMIX” centers on “Filthy Lucre,” an immersive interior by painter Darren Waterston who reinterprets James McNeill Whistler’s famed Peacock Room as a resplendent ruin, an aesthetic space that is literally overburdened by its own excesses — of materials, history, and creativity. Like “Filthy Lucre” and the original Peacock Room, this exhibition invites viewers to consider the complex relationships among art, money and the passage of time. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
The Washington Diplomat
July 2015
Through Jan. 3
between Fukushima Prefecture’s capital city and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where three of six reactor cores melted down after the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami. This panel discussion investigates how we deal with nuclear crisis and how we can transfer and apply the insights we have gained from the disaster in Fukushima to nuclear power plants in the U.S.
Enigmas: The Art of Bada Shanren (1626-1705)
Thu., July 23, 6:45 p.m.
Through Jan. 3
Bold and Beautiful: Rinpa in Japanese Art
The modern term Rinpa (Rimpa) describes a remarkable group of Japanese artists who created striking images for paintings, ceramics, textiles and lacquerware. Freer Gallery of Art
Born a prince of the Ming imperial house, Bada Shanren (1626–1705) lived a storied life, remaking himself as a secluded Buddhist monk and, later, as a professional painter and calligrapher. Featured in this exhibition are examples of his most daring and idiosyncratic works, demonstrating his unique visual vocabulary. Freer Gallery of Art
DANCE Wed., July 1, 7:30 p.m.
Indian Performing Arts Promotions Presents: Amazing Odisha
The Odisha Society of America presents a multifaceted program of classical Indian dance and music to showcase the rich history, artistic excellence and unique culture of the peoples from the eastern Indian state of Odisha. Tickets are $50. Kennedy Center Terrace Theater Tue., July 14, 8:30 p.m.
National Ballet of China: The Peony Pavilion
Fusing classical Western ballet with traditional Chinese dance, this spellbinding performance by the National Ballet of China tells the story of star-crossed lovers through luscious costumes and poetic staging. Tickets are $20 to $65. Wolf Trap Filene Center
DISCUSSIONS Wed., July 8, 6:30 p.m.
Finding Shared Values for U.S. Foreign Policy
Highlighting the importance late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye placed on bipartisanship and moral courage, the first annual Daniel K. Inouye Distinguished Lecture Series will address shared values in U.S. foreign policy with two former secretaries of state, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell, speaking while Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent with NBC News, moderates.
Goethe-Institut
Turkish Delights: In Search of Unique Destinations
Gobeklitepe. Catalhoyuk. Land of the Fairy Chimneys. Ephesus. These names evoke destinations mysterious, hidden, far away. But if you are ready to take the path less traveled, why not begin that journey in Turkey? The country is studded with secret places to discover, says Serif Yenen, who explores these destinations and more in a lecture followed by a reception. Tickets are $42; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org. S. Dillon Ripley Center Sat., July 25, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Anatolia: A Turkish Odyssey
Anatolia’s colorful history has left a windfall of cultural riches — ancient ruins, ornate Byzantine churches, supremely elegant mosques, and splendid Ottoman palaces. In this illustrated seminar, Serif Yenen highlights the history and splendor of ancient Turkey by way of some of its hidden gems. Tickets are $130; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org. S. Dillon Ripley Center Mon., July 27, 6:45 p.m.
Bringing the Etruscans Into View The words “mysterious� or “enigmatic� always seem linked to any mention of the Etruscans, a people who lived in the region of Tuscany in the first millennium B.C. Although influenced in some ways by the Greeks and later integrated into the Roman state, the Etruscans have a style that is all their own and, according to art historian Renee Gondek, we can learn much about their daily practices from the artifacts and structures that have been recovered. Tickets are $42; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.
In the Shadow of Power and Light: Experiences and Lessons from Fukushima
Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant lies a mere 40 miles from D.C., the same distance
Choir Concert: Kinder – Und Jugendakademie Graz
One of the oldest secular Austrian boarding high schools (since 1854), the HIB in Graz with its attached Singing Academy offers its pupils a comprehensive vocal education. On their tours around the world, the young singers from Graz try to build a bridge from the rich Austrian choir tradition to international contemporary music. Admission is free; visit acfdc. org to register.
Smithsonian Folklife Festival
THEATER July 7 to Aug. 2
Let Them Eat Chaos
Famed Chicago troupe the Second City returns to Woolly with its latest uproarious offering, a blast of irreverent sketch comedy and razor-sharp satire that skewer American culture. Tickets are $35 to $100. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Through July 5
Tartuffe
Orgon has fallen under the spell of the pious fraud Tartuffe, at great cost to his family and household in “Tartuffe,â€? Molière’s crowning achievement and scathing indictment of religious hypocrisy. Tickets are $20 to $110. Shakespeare Theatre
Embassy of Austria
July 7 to Aug. 16
Thu., July 9, 6 p.m.
Theatrically breathtaking, the eight-time 2012 Tony Award–winning musical tells the enchanting tale of a Dublin street musician who’s about to give up on his dream when a beautiful young woman takes a sudden interest in his haunting love songs. Tickets are $65 to $160.
Once
PostClassical Ensemble Concert and Screening of ‘The City’
Aaron Copland, born in Brooklyn, both implicitly and explicitly evokes urban landscapes in his “Piano Variations� and “Quiet City� for chamber orchestra, both of which are performed live at this event — followed by a screening of “The City� (1939), with Copland’s most vivid and important film score (as re-recorded by PostClassical Ensemble). Tickets are $12. Phillips Collection Sat., July 11, 8:15 p.m.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5: Sarah Chang Plays Bruch
The world’s most recognizable classical composition, revered as “splendid beyond all measure� (E.T.A. Hoffmann), provides a dramatic finale to an awardwinning international violinist’s performance of Bruch. Tickets are $20 to $58.
life, death, politics, love and destiny. Tickets are $32 to $88. The Barns at Wolf Trap
July 15 to Aug. 9
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Synetic remounts its playful adaptation of Shakespeare’s timeless comedy with a trademark movement-based visual storytelling. This fantastical, darkly playful game of love, mistaken identity and the supernatural was honored with nine Helen Hayes Award nominations when it was first produced in 2010. Tickets start at $35. Synetic Theatre
July 18 to 26
RomĂŠo et Juliette Driven by the unique mission to revitalize the importance of vocal artistry and the singer’s freedom of expression as the sine qua non of the operatic form, Maryland Lyric Opera presents “RomĂŠo et Juliette,â€? Charles Gounod’s grand opera and the most famous of the operatic treatments of this iconic tragedy by Shakespeare. Tickets are $35 to $100.
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater
University of Maryland Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts
July 10 to 18
Through Aug. 16
To rewrite history and save Marie Antoinette from the guillotine, the famed playwright of “The Marriage of Figaro� and “The Barber of Seville� stages an opera for the ghost queen that can reverse her fate. Don’t miss this comic opera-within-an-opera in which the ghosts from the Court of Louis XVI tempt
Hailed by the New York Times as “the best musical of this century,� this outrageous musical comedy follows the misadventures of a mismatched pair of missionaries, sent halfway across the world to spread the Good Word. Tickets are $43 to $250.
The Ghosts of Versailles
The Book of Mormon
Kennedy Center Opera House
Wolf Trap Filene Center Fri., July 24, 8:15 p.m.
Verdi’s Aida in Concert
Venture into Ancient Egypt with the majestic music of Verdi’s grand opera “Aida,� sung by Metropolitan Opera artists and Wolf Trap Opera alumni Michelle DeYoung, Marjorie Owens, Carl Tanner, and Scott Hendricks. Tickets are $22 to $75. Wolf Trap Filene Center
Mark Damisch 40th Anniversary Tour
The theme of the 2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival — an international exposition of living cultural heritage produced annually outdoors on the National Mall — is “PerĂş: Pachamama,â€? exploring the country’s stunning vertical landscape that integrates a diversity of ecosystems and cultures. Visitors to the Peru Festival program will experience these unique
Thu., July 16, 6:30 p.m.
Tue., July 7, 7:30 p.m.
FESTIVALS
Mon., July 13, 6:45 p.m.
S. Dillon Ripley Center
MUSIC
Fri., July 31, 5 p.m.
July 1 to 5
You may know them as pierogis or wontons. They’re baozi in China, nikuman in Japan and salapao in Thailand. From North and South America to Europe, Africa and Asia, the dumpling — by any name — has become synonymous with comfort food. Food expert Barbara Gallani explores the contrast between the dumpling as everyday meal and special-occasion food and how this simple dish has inspired songs, poems and even monuments. Following the lecture, sample dumplings from around the world from local restaurants, including Mari Vanna, Osteria Morini and The Source. Tickets are $42; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.
National Mall
S. Dillon Ripley Center
Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building
Dumplings: A Global Wrap and Savory Culinary History
connections through cooking and craft demonstrations, music and dance performances, moderated discussions, ritual and celebratory processions, and other participatory activities.
Mark Damisch, an American concert pianist who began studying organ at the Evanston Conservatory of Music at the age of 4, celebrates 40 years of tours that have taken him to more than 40 countries, including Japan, the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Israel, Egypt, the Netherlands, Africa, China, the Greek Islands, Iceland, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, India and more. Admission is free; visit acfdc.org to register. Embassy of Austria READIN’
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July 2015
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DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT
The Washington Diplomat
July 2015
Passport DC
photo: larry luxner photo: larry luxner
Costa Rican Ambassador Román Macaya and his family hold up a souvenir license plate for sale at the Embassy of Costa Rica during Passport DC’s Around the World Embassy Tour, in which over 40 embassies opened their doors to the public.
Crowds enjoy the open house at the Embassy of Costa Rica as part of Passport DC, a month-long showcase of international programs and cultural events hosted by Cultural Tourism DC, a nonprofit that seeks to broaden understanding of the culture and heritage of the nation’s capital.
photo: larry luxner photo: larry luxner
Hungry tourists line up for arroz con pollo and other Caribbean delicacies at the Embassy of the Dominican Republic, one of dozens of embassies participating in the Around the World Embassy Tour.
Indigenous dancers perform at the Bolivian Embassy as part of the Around the World Embassy Tour, in which visitors can pet alpacas, taste international cuisine, learn indigenous dances and participate in myriad other activities.
Photo: Yuri Gripas / EU Delegation photo: larry luxner
Children dressed in traditional costumes entertain guests at the Japanese Embassy as part of the Around the World Embassy Tour, which this year attracted 30,000 visitors and groups from as far away as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Iowa.
A dancer welcomes visitors to the Irish Embassy during Shortcut to Europe: European Union Embassies’ Open House, which allowed visitors to experience the authentic music, dance, food, film and art of the EU’s 28 distinctive member states.
Photo: Yuri Gripas / EU Delegation
Photo: Yuri Gripas / EU Delegation
Traditional dancers welcome visitors to the Austrian Embassy as part of the EU Embassies’ Open House, which attracted thousands of visitors on May 9.
Visitors pose in front of a Polish city at the Polish Embassy during the EU Embassies’ Open House, an annual event that offers a rare look inside Europe’s cultural heritage and national traditions.
Children perform at the Slovakian Embassy during the EU Embassies’ Open House. Photo: Yuri Gripas / EU Delegation
A replica of a sauna sits outside the Finnish Embassy as part of Shortcut to Europe: European Union Embassies’ Open House. Photo: Yuri Gripas / EU Delegation
photo: larry luxner
photo: larry luxner
Congolese artist Aurelie Nsoki paints the face of a little girl at the Embassy of Costa Rica during the Around the World Embassy Tour.
Carol Arias Castellón, owner of the Tica Queen clothing line, displays original T-shirts and tank tops for sale at the Embassy of Costa Rica.
photo: larry luxner
Indigenous dancers perform at the Bolivian Embassy along Massachusetts Avenue as part of the Around the World Embassy Tour.
Photo: Samia Fine Photography
photo: larry luxner
photo: larry luxner
photo: larry luxner
A Bolivian man waves his flag during the citywide Passport DC festivities.
Haitian Ambassador Paul Altidor has some fun posing behind an island tap tap bus during his embassy’s open house.
A live drumming band performs at the Haitian Embassy as part of Passport DC’s Around the World Embassy Tour.
From left, Lebanese Consul Ali Karanoah, Dina Taji from United Palestinian Appeal, Deputy Chief Representative of the Arab League to the U.S. Sameh Alfonse and Nora Jarrar of the Embassy of Jordan attend the Arab League open house. Photo: Samia Fine Photography
40
Photo: Yuri Gripas / EU Delegation
A freshly baked sweet pastry known as trdelník was available outside the Czech Embassy during the EU Embassies’ Open House.
photo: larry luxner
Erick Marín and his friends open bottles of Imperial beer for visitors to the Embassy of Costa Rica during Passport DC, now in its eighth year.
Among the activities at the Arab League’s open house were: Iraqi calligrapher Hameed Al-Issa; classic Arab music by Jordanian oud player Abd elWahab Kayali; Omani desserts; and contributions from various groups and 22 Arab nations.
Photo: Yuri Gripas / EU Delegation
Dogs enjoy the show as well outside the Hungarian Embassy during the EU Embassies’ Open House.
photo: larry luxner
From left, Sabina Ramírez, Maria de los Ángeles Sierra and Yanira Gutiérrez, in typical dress, greet Passport DC visitors to the Guatemalan Embassy.
The Washington Diplomat
July 2015
ISH Garden Party
From left, Ambassador of Kosovo Akan Ismaili, Barbara Slavin of the Atlantic Council and Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) attend a Spring Garden Party for the International Student House, a nonprofit that provides housing for foreign students.
From left, former U.S. Assistant Chief of Protocol Lawrence Dunham; Marie Royce, wife of Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.); and Debbie Meadows, wife of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and chair of this year’s International Student House (ISH) Global Leadership Awards Dinner, attend the ISH Spring Garden Party.
From left, Christopher Collins, CEO of the Washington Home and Community Hospices Tim Cox, Üzeyir Baser, Head of the Press and Public Diplomacy Section of the European Union Delegation James Barbour and Minister Counselor at the Dominican Republic Embassy Ligia Reid attend the International Student House Spring Garden Party.
From left, Ambassador of Uzbekistan Bakhtiyar Gulyamov, Cultural Attaché at the Afghan Embassy Ahmad Haidari and Ambassador of Kazakhstan Kairat Umarov attend the International Student House Spring Garden Party.
OAS Secretary-General
Phillips 2015 Gala
Director of the Phillips Collection Dorothy Kosinski and her husband, architect Thomas Krahenbuhl, attend the Phillips Collection’s 2015 Gala, where 400 guests dined among the masterworks of the Phillips, followed by a Contemporaries Bash at Dock 5 at Union Market attended by 600 guests.
Abagail Nyamapfenia, left, and Rwatie Matsika of the Embassy of Zimbabwe attend a Spring Garden Party for the International Student House, a student housing complex on R Street, NW.
Photos: Paul Morigi, Getty Images
Occasions Hibachi Grill was among the Japanese-inspired bites at the Phillips Collection’s Contemporaries Bash: A Tokyo Night, which also featured a traditional Taiko drummer, shaved snow truck, gaming lounge and music by DJ Ben Chang.
From left, Luis Almagro, former Uruguayan foreign minister and recently elected secretarygeneral of the Organization of American States (OAS); Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the OAS Neil Parsan, who holds the chair of the OAS Permanent Council; and OAS Assistant SecretaryGeneral Albert Ramdin attend the inauguration of Almagro at the OAS Headquarters.
From left, former U.S. Protocol Chief Capricia Marshall, Gala Chair Ann Stock and Rita Braver of CBS News attend the Phillips Collection’s 2015 Gala, which raises funds for the museum’s award-winning education programs that reach over 48,000 people each year.
Photo: Juan Manuel Herrera / OAS
Photo: Maria Patricia Leiva / OAS
From left, the permanent representatives of Guatemala, Grenada, the United States, El Salvador and Ecuador to the Organization of American States (OAS) watch as Luis Almagro is inaugurated as OAS secretary-general.
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) was one of the honorees at the Phillips Collection’s 2015 Gala, which transformed the museum to reflect various Japanese aesthetics, from cherry blossoms to paper lanterns, to honor this year’s theme of “Postcards from Japan.”
Chip Comstock and his wife Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) attend the Phillips Collection’s 2015 Gala, where political, business and diplomatic leaders enjoyed Japanese-inspired hors d’oeuvres and perused online auction lots while listening to traditional koto music.
Phillips Board Chairman George Vradenburg and his wife Trish Vradenburg attend the 2015 Gala of the Phillips Collection, which holds one of the world’s most distinguished collections of impressionist, modern American and European art.
Ambassador of Japan Kenichiro Sasae and his wife Nobuko Sasae were the diplomatic chairs of the Phillips Collection’s 2015 Gala, whose theme “Postcards from Japan” paid homage to the influence Japan had on Duncan Phillips, the museum’s founder.
Permanent Representative of Guyana to the Organization of American States (OAS) Bayney Karran, left, congratulates Luis Almagro on becoming OAS secretary-general. Photo: Juan Manuel Herrera / OAS
The International Patient Program at the George Washington University Hospital A boutique concierge program offering care for our diplomats and international community:
• Language interpretation • Appointment scheduling
• Medical cost estimates • Insurance settlements
For more information, call 202-715-5100 or email helen.salazar@gwu-hospital.com
www.gwhospital.com/international
July 2015
Photo: Shiv Vachhani Physicians are not employees or agents of this hospital. 150079
The Washington Diplomat Page 41
DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT
The Washington Diplomat
July 2015
Heart’s Delight
photo: heart’s delight
photo: heart’s delight
photo: heart’s delight
From left, Daina Paulin of Château Haut-Bailly, President and CEO of Airlines for America Nicholas E. Calio and Lydia Calio attend the Vintners Dinner as part of the 2015 Heart’s Delight Wine Tasting & Auction a premier four-day wine celebration that benefits the American Heart Association.
Jamie Ritchie, president and CEO of Americas and Asia for Sotheby’s Wine, left, and Bruno Laplane of Château Malartic-Lagraviere lead the auction at the Heart’s Delight Vintners Dinner held at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.
Guests raise their bid numbers at the Vintners Dinner as part of the 2015 Heart’s Delight Wine Tasting & Auction, which this year raised nearly $1.2 million for the American Heart Association, adding to the $13 million it has raised since its first event in 1999.
photo: heart’s delight
photo: heart’s delight
From left, Douglas Jaraczewski, president of the Campaign Finance Group; Rebecca Mandell Jaraczewski of Amgen; Jake Jones of Daimler; Veronica Nyhan-Jones of the International Finance Corp.; Norman C. Ankers of Honigman LLP; Janet Ankers; Matthew Keller; Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche; John Bernick of the Michigan Occupational Health Association; Jan Bernick; and Michael Coleman of The Washington Diplomat attend a Heart’s Delight embassy dinner hosted by Liechtenstein.
Pierre Lurton of Château d’Yquem and Château Cheval Blanc, left, and Jamie Ritchie, president and CEO of Americas and Asia for Sotheby’s Wine, attend the Heart’s Delight private dinner series held at the French ambassador’s residence.
photo: heart’s delight
photo: kate oczypok
photo: kate oczypok
photo: heart’s delight
From left, Sue Murray, Kyle Player and Lydia Calio attend the United States of Wine rooftop reception overlooking Capitol Hill as part of the four-day Heart’s Delight Wine Tasting & Auction.
From left, political consultant Doug Heye, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Jennifer Choudhry attend the United States of Wine rooftop reception as part of the Heart’s Delight Wine Tasting & Auction.
John Conover of PlumpJack Winery, left, poses with Evan Morris, vice president of government affairs for Genentech and 2015 Heart’s Delight chair, on the rooftop of 101 Constitution Avenue overlooking Capitol Hill.
Bob O’Braitis, president and founder of Lansdowne Private Wealth Management, left, and Dennis Yee, owner and president of Abacus Technology Corp., attend the United States of Wine rooftop reception, which was followed by a collectors’ dinner at Charlie Palmer Steak.
photo: heart’s delight
Ambassador of Portugal Nuno Brito was one of several ambassadors who opened their residence to host the private dinner series of the four-day Heart’s Delight wine showcase and fundraiser, now in its 16th year.
3Michael Silacci of Opus One was one of the featured winemakers at the Heart’s Delight United States of Wine reception. photo: heart’s delight
photo: kate oczypok
Priya Bettadapur of Streetsense, left, and Tom Madrecki of Chez Le Commis attend the United States of Wine rooftop reception on 101 Constitution Avenue.
photo: heart’s delight
Alfred Tesseron of Château Pontet-Canet, left, and Kinou Cazes-Hachemian of Château Lynch-Bage enjoy the live auction during the Heart’s Delight Vintners Dinner at Mellon Auditorium.
photo: heart’s delight
Brendan Kearney of Kearney & Co. enjoys the Heart’s Delight Grand Tasting & Auction at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, featuring seminars, tastings and an after-party.
42
photo: kate oczypok
Elisabeth Koeberle and Claude Koeberle of Soliste Cellars were among the wine specialists featured at the Heart’s Delight United States of Wine reception.
photo: kate oczypok
Lisa Edgley and Trish Janssen survey the auction items at the Heart’s Delight United States of Wine reception.
photo: heart’s delight
photo: heart’s delight
photo: kate oczypok
Former Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.), now with Capitol Counsel LLC, enjoys one of the food samplings at the buttercream bakeshop station at the Heart’s Delight Grand Tasting & Auction at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
From left, Christine Burgeson of Airlines for America, Greg Fredde of Merit Medical Systems and Valerie Nelson attend the United States of Wine rooftop reception showcasing American wine.
photo: heart’s delight
A formal seated Bordeaux master class was a highlight of the Heart’s Delight Grand Tasting & Auction.
The Washington Diplomat
photo: kate oczypok
Bill Messerle of PwC, left, and Phyllis English attend the United States of Wine rooftop reception overlooking Capitol Hill.
July 2015
THIS for Diplomats
From left, Hugh Grindstaff, Seon Hwa Lee, Ambassador of South Korea Ahn Ho-Young and former THIS for Diplomats President Joan Keston welcome guests to the All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction to benefit THIS for Diplomats held at the Korean ambassador’s residence.
Jan Du Plain, left, and C. Naseer Ahmad, president of AZI Consulting, attend the THIS for Diplomats’ All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction at the Korean Residence.
Heart’s Delight
From left, retired Col. Dick Klass of the American Security Project, financial advisor Elizabeth Bizic and Peter Cole attend the All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction to benefit THIS for Diplomats, a volunteer nonprofit that welcomes and assists diplomats and their families during their stays in D.C.
Jin Lee, left, and Brian Lee attend the All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction to benefit THIS for Diplomats, organized in 1961 at the request of the U.S. protocol chief to help new diplomats and their families adapt to life in the United States.
Ambassador of Ghana Joseph Smith and his wife Douha Smith attend the All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction to benefit THIS for Diplomats, which offers newly arrived diplomats programs such as insider tours, cultural events and exchange groups in eight languages.
Nan Coughlin of THIS for Diplomats, left, and President and CEO of the Meridian International Center Stuart Holliday attend the All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction to benefit THIS for Diplomats, which is supported by Meridian and over 300 volunteers from more than 100 countries.
Les Bailem, left, and THIS for Diplomats President Elizabeth Klass attend the THIS for Diplomats’ All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction featuring the Conservatory Classic Jazz Band.
Argentine National Day
From left, Ambassador of South Korea Ahn Ho-Young, former Meridian International Center President Walter Cutler, photographer Didi Cutler and Hugh Grindstaff attend the THIS for Diplomats’ All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction at the Korean Residence.
Pam Miller, left, and Karen Russo attend the THIS for Diplomats’ All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction at the Korean Residence.
April daSilva, left, and Ray daSilva, group president of Interstate Moving, attend the THIS for Diplomats’ All That Jazz Gala and Silent Auction at the Korean Residence.
Taiwanese Banquet Celebrating Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, Representative Lyushun Shen of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) hosted an authentic Taiwanese gourmet banquet on May 21 at the historic Twin Oaks Estate.
The Taiwanese gourmet banquet first course consisted of four delicacies: pan fried scallops with lemon sauce, peeled tomatoes marinated with roses, golden kimchi and smoked salmon roll with pineapple.
photo: heart’s delight
From left, Carly Maher and Larry Stone of Quintessa Wine, based in California, join Scott Claffee during the auction of the Heart’s Delight United States of Wine reception.
photos: tecro
From left, pianist Greg Clark, Ambassador of Argentina Cecilia Nahón, soprano Fabiana Bravo, baritone Ne Meh Azzam and Argentine Embassy Minister and Head of Cultural Affairs Federico Barttfeld attend the Argentine National Day celebration, which featured opera performances, traditional dance, empanadas and homemade dulce de leche ice cream.
4From right, Representative Lyushun Shen of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office presents certificates of appreciation to the two Taiwanese chefs, Pan Meng-Jen and Tsai Wan-Li, who prepared the May 21 banquet at the Twin Oaks Estate.
Boys and Girls Club
photo: kate oczypok
Janet Ankers and Norman C. Ankers, partner at Honigman LLC, attend the United States of Wine rooftop reception showcasing American wine.
Follow The Diplomat Connect at www.washdiplomat.com.
photos: Joy Asico
photos: embassy of argentina
From left, Ambassador of Belize Néstor Mendez, Ambassador of Argentina Cecilia Nahón and Ambassador of Peru Luis Miguel Castilla attend the Argentina National Day reception celebrating the 205th anniversary of the May Revolution of 1810.
From left, Patricia Ellis of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, Ambassador of Argentina Cecilia Nahón and former U.S. Protocol Chief Capricia Marshall were among 300 guests who celebrated the Argentine National Day at the embassy.
From left, Washington Redskins teammates Spencer Long, Trent Murphy, quarterback Robert Griffin III, Will Compton, Pierre Garcon, Jason Hatcher and Stephen Paea attend the third annual All-White Clothing Charity Event benefiting the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington at the Millennium Building.
July 2015
From left, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington (BGCGW) Chief Development Officer Paul Alagero; BGCGW Youth of the Year Ayanna Holmes; Washington Redskins wide receiver and event host Pierre Garçon; BGCGW President Pandit F. Wright; and BGCGW Board Chair Debbi Jarvis attend the third annual All-White Clothing Charity Event to benefit BGCGW.
The Washington Diplomat Page 43
DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT
The Washington Diplomat
July 2015
Birds of a Feather Gala
Photo: Neil Greentree, courtesy the Freer|Sackler
Artist Darren Waterston, left, and actress and gala co-chair Gillian Anderson stand in “Filthy Lucre,” an immersive interior by Waterston that reimagines James McNeill Whistler’s famed “Peacock Room,” as part of the Birds of a Feather Gala at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
From left, British Embassy Social Secretary Amanda Downes, Chairman of Oceana Energy Co. William Nitze and arts advocate Suzi Cordish attend the Birds of a Feather Gala in honor of the exhibit “Peacock Room REMIX: Darren Waterston’s ‘Filthy Lucre.’”
From left, philanthropic strategic planner Elbrun Kimmelman, President of Asset Management LLC Peter Kimmelman, curator of Chinese art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries Jan Stuart, Emily van Agtmael and President and Chief Investment Officer of Emerging Markets Investors Corp. Antoine van Agtmael attend the Birds of a Feather Gala.
Photo: Joyce Boghosian, courtesy the Freer|Sackler
From left, Stuti and Ashok Kaveeshwar, curator of South and Southeast Asian art Debra Diamond, and Sudhakar and Aruna Kaveeshwar attend the Birds of a Feather Gala and Flock Together after-party.
Photo: Joyce Boghosian, courtesy the Freer|Sackler
Photo: Neil Greentree, courtesy the Freer|Sackler
Gala co-chair Dame Jillian Sackler, left, and Penny Yao attend the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery’s Birds of a Feather Gala celebrating “Filthy Lucre,” which recreates James McNeill Whistler’s iconic Peacock Room and examines the artist’s feud with his patron (also see story in the culture section on page 29).
Above from left, gala chair and lawyer Max Berry, Pamela Thomas, Thomas Colville, Karen Sonneborn and Ann Nitze attend the Sackler Gallery’s Birds of a Feather Gala and Flock Together afterparty.
From left, Director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries Julian Raby, David Park Curry of the Baltimore Museum of Art and Robert Mintz of the Walters Art Museum attend the Birds of a Feather Gala, which featured an exclusive preview of Darren Waterston’s “Filthy Lucre” interior exhibit.
Susan Pillsbury, left, and Ambassador of Italy Claudio Bisogniero attend the Flock Together after-party at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium, which followed the Birds of a Feather opening gala at the Sackler Gallery.
From left, actress Gillian Anderson, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Jeffrey Cunard and Mariko Ikehara stand in “Filthy Lucre,” a recreation of Whistler’s sumptuous 19th-century dining room.
Philippine Fashion
Photo: Joyce Boghosian, courtesy the Freer|Sackler
Heidi Lange, left, and Director of the Boston Nutrition Foundation Barbara Millen attend the Birds of a Feather Gala and Flock Together after-party.
Fashion designer and writer Mary McFadden attends the Birds of a Feather Gala and Flock Together after-party at the Mellon Auditorium, which featured a performance by the rock band BETTY.
From left, lawyer Marsha Swiss, Melanie Du Bois and Director of External Affairs for the Freer and Sackler Galleries Katie Ziglar attend the Sackler Gallery’s Birds of a Feather Gala and Flock Together after-party.
4A Philippine fashion show celebrated piña, a fabric produced in the Philippine province of Aklan, which was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Proceeds from the gala will help rebuild the piña industry and benefit Aklan Piña MANTrA, a women-led fiber production microenterprise.
3Fashion designer Patis Tesoro, far right, made her Washington debut at a Philippine fashion show that highlighted her collection of some 60 breathtaking pieces made from piña, considered the finest of all Philippine handwoven fabrics.
44
photo: gail scott
Former U.S. National Intelli gence Director John Negro ponte, who served in the Phili ppines in the early ’90s and is the current co-chair of the US-Philippines Society, and his wife Diana Negroponte of the Brookings Institution attend a Philippine fashion show and National Day celebration.
4Andrew Gelfuso, vice president of global business development at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, left, greets Ambassador of the Philippines Jose L. Cuisia Jr. at a Philippine fashion and National Day celebration held at the Reagan Building.
photo: philippine embassy
photo: gail scott
From left, financial advisor Dickinson Miller, Larry Miller and Tim Whitney attend the Sackler Gallery’s Birds of a Feather Gala and Flock Together afterparty.
photo: philippine embassy
From left, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Ambassador of the Philippines Jose L. Cuisia Jr. and his wife Maria Victoria Cuisia attend a “Gala Evening Celebrating Philippine Design, Textile and Fashion” in commemoration of the 117th anniversary of Philippine independence.
photo: philippine embassy
photo: gail scott
3From left, Margaret Ecarma, Martina Driscoll, Janelle Meagher and Hedy Thomas of the Bohol Restoration Group attend a Philippine fashion show dedicated to the women behind the creation of piña, one of the most exquisite, sought-after handmade fabrics in the world.
photo: gail scott
Ambassador of Barbados John Beale, left, and Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago Neil Parsan attend a Philippine fashion and National Day gala held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
photo: gail scott
The Washington Diplomat
July 2015
AROUNDTHEWORLD
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT
HOLIDAYS aFGHaNisTaN July 17: Eid al-Fitr aLBaNia July 17: Eid al-Fitr aLGeRia July 5: Independence Day July 17: Eid al-Fitr aRGeNTiNa July 9: Independence Day aRMeNia July 5: constitution Day aZeRBaiJaN July 17: ramazan Bayramy BaHaMas July 10: Independence Day BaHRaiN July 17: Eid al-Fitr BaNGLaDesH July 17: Eid-al Fitr
LeBaNON July 17: Eid al-Fitr
BeLaRUs July 3: Independence Day
BURUNDi July 1: Independence Day
BeLGiUM July 21: Independence Day
CaNaDa July 1: canada Day
BeNiN July 17: 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 17: Eid al-Fitr BURKiNa FasO July 17: Eid al-Fitr BURMa (MYaNMaR) July 19: martyrs’ Day
CaPe veRDe July 5: Independence Day CHaD July 17: aïd-El Fitr COLOMBia July 20: Independence Day COMOROs July 6: Independence Day COsTa RiCa July 25: guanacaste annexation Day CÔTe D’ivOiRe July 17: aïd-El Fitr July 25: laïlatoulKadr 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 17: Eid El Fitr eGYPT July 17: Eid El Fitr July 23: revolution Day eRiTRea July 17: Eid al-Fitr FiJi July 28: constitution Day FRaNCe July 14: Bastille Day GaMBia July 17: Eid-al-Fitr GHaNa July 1: republic Day July 17: Eid al-Fitr
APPOINTMENTS Barbados
ecuador
angela Kinch assumed the position of first secretary on may 1, having previously served in the ministry of Foreign affairs and Foreign trade in Barbados.
Francisco José Borja cevallos became ambassador of Ecuador to the united States on may 18, 2015, having previously served as Ecuador’s minister of culture and ambassador heritage (2014-15) and Francisco José ambassador to chile Borja Cevallos (2007-14). Prior to that, ambassador cevallos had a long career as a journalist, serving as national director of the news channel teleamazonas in Quito (200607); director of the daily newspaper metro hoy (2002-06); manager, general director, presenter and editorial director of the show la televisión, teleamazonas, and Ecuavisa in Quito (1996-2000); and political editor and editorial writer for the newspaper hoy (1992-96; 1982-87). he was also advisor to Ecuadorian President rodrigo Borja cevallos (1988-92) and reporter, presenter, assistant director and then director of the news program contacto Directo of canal 8 (1978-82). ambassador cevallos attended the american School of Quito and studied law at the catholic university of Quito (PucE). he has also participated in dozens of workshops, seminars and courses in political science, journalism, senior management, international relations, etc. (FlacSo, complutense university of madrid, gabriel garcía marquez Institute for new Iberoamerican Journalism, the South american commission for Peace, carlos matus Institute for Strategic Situational Planning and the george Washington university). Born June 22, 1949, he speaks Spanish and English.
Brazil luiz alberto Figueiredo became ambassador of Brazil to the united States on may 18, 2015. he previously served as minister of external relations of Photo: ValtEr camPanato/ Brazil (2013-14) and aBr - agÊncIa BraSIl acted as executive secre- ambassador tary of the rio+20 Luiz alberto national commission. at Figueiredo the ministry of External relations, he also served as undersecretary for environment, energy, science and technology (2011-13) and acted as director of the Department for Environment and Special affairs (2005-11), as well as head of the Division on Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development (2002-04) and of the Division on Sea, antarctic and outer Space affairs (1995-96). In addition, ambassador machado — who served as permanent representative to the united nations in new York in 2013 — was posted to the Brazilian mission to the united nations (198689); the Brazilian Embassy in Santiago (198992); the embassy in Washington, D.c. (199699); the embassy in ottawa (1999-2002); and the Brazilian mission to unESco (2003-05). he participated, and in many times headed, Brazilian delegations in several multilateral meetings since 1981 in the areas of environment and sustainable development, disarmament and international security, law of the sea, antarctica, outer space, health and labor. Born in July 1955, ambassador machado holds a law degree from the university of the State of rio de Janeiro.
india arun K. Singh became ambassador of India to the united States on may 18, 2015, having most recently served as ambassador to
GUYaNa July 6: caricom Day iNDia July 17: Idu’l Fitr iNDONesia July 17: Idul Fitri iRaN July 17: Eid al-Fitr iRaQ July 17: Eid al-Fitr JaPaN July 19: marine Day (umi no hi) JORDaN July 17: Eid al-Fitr KeNYa July 17: Idd-ul-Fitr KORea, RePUBLiC OF July 17: constitution Day KUWaiT July 17: Eid al-Fitr
MaURiTaNia July 10: armed Forces Day July 17: Eid al-Fitr
LesOTHO July 17: King’s Birthday LiBeRia July 26: Independence Day LiBYa July 17: Eid al-Fitr July 23: revolution Day LiTHUaNia July 6: State Day (crowning of King mindaugas in 1253) MaLaWi July 6: republic Day July 17: Eid al-Fitr MaLaYsia July 17: hari raya Puasa MaLDives July 26: Independence Day MaRsHaLL isLaNDs July 3: Fisherman’s Day
France (2013-15). he was in Washington on an earlier posting from 2008 to 2013 as deputy chief of mission of the Indian Embassy in D.c. In addition, he was India’s ambassador to Israel (2005-08). ambassador Singh also served as joint secretary in Delhi dealing first with u.n. policy and then Pakistan, afghanistan and the Iran Divisions at the ministry of External affairs (2000-05); counselor/minister at the Indian Embassy in russia (1997-2000); and counselor at India’s Permanent mission to the united nations in new York, handling multilateral social and economic negotiations (1993-97). ambassador Singh’s first assignment abroad was at the Embassy of India in moscow (1981-82), later being posted to addis ababa as second secretary (1982-85) and tokyo as first secretary (1985-88). on returning to Delhi to the headquarters of the ministry of External affairs, he served as deputy secretary/director dealing with East asia and Pakistan Divisions (1988-91). From 1991 to 1993, he headed the offices of the Foreign Secretary and the ambassador External affairs minister arun K. singh of India. ambassador Singh joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1979 after completing his master’s degree in economics from Delhi university and teaching at the university for two years. he speaks russian and Japanese and has some knowledge of French and hebrew. ambassador Singh is married to Dr. maina chawla Singh and they have one daughter.
Malawi necton Darlington mhura became ambassador of malawi to the united States on may 18, 2015. ambassador mhura, a lawyer by profession, previously served as a lecturer at the university of malawi chancellor college teaching law and as a board member of the Electricity Supply corporation of malawi ltd.
ROMaNia July 29: Day of the national hymn
MONGOLia July 11-13: national naadam holiday/ anniversary of the mongolian People’s revolution MOROCCO July 17: Eid al-Fitr July 30: throne Day (King mohammed VI’s accession to the throne) NePaL July 7: the King’s Birthday (national Day) NiCaRaGUa July 19: Sandinistas revolution Day NiGeR July 17: Eid al-Fitr NiGeRia July 17: Id-el-Fitri OMaN July 17: Eid al-Fitr PaKisTaN July 17: Eid-ul-Fitr PaLaU July 9: constitution
July 2015
RWaNDa July 1: Independence Day sT. viNCeNT and THe GReNaDiNes July 6: caricom Day July 6-7: carnival saO TOMe aND PRiNCiPe July 12: Independence Day
TaJiKisTaN July 17: Eid al-Fitr TaNZaNia July 7: Saba Saba TONGa July 12: crown Prince’s Birthday TRiNiDaD and TOBaGO July 17: Eid-ul-Fitr TUNisia July 17: aïd El Fitr July 25: republic Day
saUDi aRaBia July 17: Eid al-Fitr seNeGaL July 17: Eid al-Fitr siNGaPORe July 17: hari raya Puasa sLOvaK RePUBLiC July 5: St. cyril and St. methodius Day
TURKeY July 17: Seker Bayram UGaNDa July 17: Eid al-Fitr UNiTeD aRaB eMiRaTes July 17: Eid al-Fitr
sOLOMON isLaNDs July 7: Independence Day
UNiTeD KiNGDOM July 12: Battle of the Boyne (orangemen’s Day)
sPaiN July 25: apostle Santiago Day
URUGUaY July 18: constitution Day
sRi LaNKa
UZBeKisTaN
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July 2015
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REAL ESTATE
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COMMERCIAL
T WS K S VIE
45 RIV 32OMAC
CLASSIFIED ADS
July 2015
FOR RENT
COMMERCIAL
eMBassY ROW aRea — Embassy office Space – Dc/ nYc chancery Buildings / residential Buildings and land Development Sites. leases and lease renegotiation Services. Embassy row area mansions with parking. Ideal for embassies, law firms, foundations, etc. lease or Sale. Scr (202) 491-5300. James connelly – the Diplomats agent
ER
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FOR RENT IN KALORAMA
agent has numerous other properties to show!
CALL
EMBASSY OFFICE BUILDING WITH PARKING FOR SALE
ALL COMMERCIAL USES EMAIL: JCONNELLY@SUMMITCRE.COM TOURS BY APPT: 202 491 5300
(301) 933-3552
To place an ad in the classified section, call (301) 933-3552 or email sales@washdiplomat.com
COMMERCIAL
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18 132 th 5 St .
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DUPONT METRO OFFICE CONDO JCONNELLY@SUMMITCRE.COM TOURS BY APPT: 202.491.5300
Fully furnished extra large one bedroom condo in elegant European style building 2 blocks from Embassy Row in Kalorama. Building and unit updated, and includes wood floors in living room, walk-in closet, washer and dryer in unit, gas stove, and balcony. Located on lush, quiet, residential street, yet minutes to cafes and the Dupont Circle or Woodley Park metro. Building has 360 view of Washington from shared rooftop patio with lounge tables and chairs. Minimum 6 month lease or longer, beginning either August or September 2015. $2,800.
Contact: 202-281-9441
kalorama 2310 tracy place, nw washington, dc
WASHINGTON F I N E P RO P E RT I E S , L L C
Invest in Arizona
COMMeRCiaL OFFiCe saLes/LeasiNG — Embassy chancery commercial office Sales/leasing over the past 30 years we have specialized in working with Embassies to find suitable chancery and office properties to buy or lease. Please call guy d’amecourt for consultation. (202) 415-7800 or (202) 682-6261 sUMMiT Commercial Real estate, LLC
SELL? BUY? RENT? DiPLOMaT ReaL esTaTe CLassiFieDs
CALL 301-933-3552 PROFESSIONAL sOveReiGN OR DisCReeT ReaLTY sPeCiaLisT — need help to sale, buy, lease
Samir Rafeedie Broker-President
16165 N 83rd Ave Suite 200 • Peoria, Arizona 85382 Ph: 623.815.1900 • Fax: 623.505.1900 samir@rahomes.com • www.realtyambassadors.com
PLaCiNG CLassiFieDs aDs
Diplomat Classifieds. (301) 933-3552.
or Invest? arnez Washington, century 21 new millennium (202) 907-3053. astuterei@gmail.com (202) 546-0055.
T: 7.625 in
DUPONT / KaLORaMa — Elegant, bright, and specious 1 Br apartment in a threeunit row house. nestled between Dupont, Kalorama, Embassy row and adams morgan; ¼ block west of connecticut, two blocks north of the Phillips collection, and three blocks from Dupont metro north. 12-month lease. $2,500 per month. contact (414) 534-6607; askari@msn.com.
Your customers will see this ad too! McLeaN, va — Prestigious mclean location; minutes to Dc; excellent schools, ideal for diplomats or executives. Stately 3-4 Br, 2.5 Ba 3,300+ sq. ft. colonial; updated kitchen and baths. marble/hardwood main level; wall-to-wall carpet second floor. Bright vaulted ceiling great room, large charming landscaped yard; 2-car garage. available august 2015; lease 2, 3, or 4 years, starting at $5,15 0 per month. Email: Jack.roepers@gmail.com.
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Real estate ads
Foreign diplomats are entitled to a 25 word ad (additional words are 35¢ each) for merchandise only. offer limited to one ad per month and does not include real estate or business ads. must fax a copy of Diplomatic Identification card.
real Estate ads of 25 words with a photo are $40, without photo $20. Each additional word is 35¢.
PROOF #1
Classified ad Rates
Placing Your ad ISSUE DATE: 05.08.15
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rates start at $20. classified ad $20 for 25 words, 35¢ each additional word. add photo for $20. all classifieds running three months or longer are posted on the Web at no additional cost to the advertiser - a saving of $10/month. NOTe: ad materials and full payment due by the 15th of the month prior to publication.
July 2015
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T: 5.25 in
Free ads for Diplomats
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ADVER
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July 2015