Diplomatic Connections Jan/Feb 2016 by Diplomatic Connections

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JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2016 • $7.95

BUSINESS • POLITICS • TRAVEL • ENTERTAINMENT • MILITARY & DEFENSE • CONGRESS

AMBASSADOR HAARDE EMBASSY OF ICELAND

AMBASSADOR MUBARAK EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF YEMEN

THE HONORABLE CÁNDIDO CREIS SPAIN’S CG in MIAMI

U.S. SENATOR TIM KAINE • KING FELIPE VI • QUEEN LETIZIA

KUWAIT • QATAR • OMAN • SAUDI ARABIA • BAHRAIN • UAE

PRESIDENT FRANCOIS HOLLANDE PRESIDENT OLAFUR RAGNAR GRIMSSON

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clevelandclinic.org /global D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | J A N U A R Y â&#x20AC;&#x201C; F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6

LETTER FROM

THE

PUBLISHER

You read our pages for interviews and viewpoints you won’t find anywhere else, and this edition features an exclusive we’re privileged to share — the first interview Ambassador of Yemen Dr. Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak has given in the United States. His time serving his country has been fraught with incredible adversity. A rebel group kidnapped him in January 2015 for 12 days. While many people might want to lead a retiring life after such a traumatic event, he instead presented his credentials to President Obama seven months later as Yemen’s ambassador to the U.S. Readers may notice that this interview (beginning on page 50) is longer than our usual length, but that is done purposefully due to the churning current events happening in Yemen. You might be tempted to think that not a lot happens in a country of 320,000 people. But Ambassador of Iceland Geir Haarde’s conversation proves that wrong. Iceland’s economic battering, the U.S. relinquishment of its Air Force base at Keflavik and the occasional Russian trespass into the country’s airspace have all weighed on Iceland in recent times. This interview proves that small nations face down massive challenges more often than we might think. Next we travel to Miami to meet Spain’s consul general there — Candido Creis. A man with a highly fascinating life, he spent two years working for his country’s royal family between posts in Brussels and Israel. In our candid conversation, he gives us a glimpse into what it is like to head up a jurisdiction that includes 40,000 of his countrymen. We stay to Miami to cover its flash, cash and panache. Writer Roland Flamini reports on the city where art and architecture collide amidst a wave of Latin American influences — making South Beach and its environs one of the most hypnotizing urban playgrounds in the world. Our international travel article takes us to the Azores — the nine jaw-droppingly gorgeous islands off the coast of Portugal. They may not have the household name recognition some of the world’s other stunning island groups have, but we prove that they’re well worth a top spot on your 2016 vacation wish list. From ancient bullfighting to modern paddle boating, we cover the best of what the Azores offer. On the topic of heat, 2015 was the hottest year on record. The UN Paris Climate Change Conference couldn’t be more timely or important. This issue, we investigate just what the conference’s outcomes were and how they’ll set the tone for the developing and developed world in the years to come. We examine where previous climate accords have failed and what makes this one different. We are back again with our unequivocal medical directory. There is no secondbest when it comes to your health, so we profile the region’s top physicians to ensure you and your family can always find world-class care. This feature begins from the inside front cover to page 9. Our next International Diplomatic Appreciation ReceptionTM will be held at the stunning French Embassy on April 12th. Don’t miss the opportunity to rub “coudes” (that’s “elbows” in French) with members of the Washington, D.C., diplomatic and international community while learning more about the exceptional services our sponsors offer you. Warmest regards, Dawn Parker Publisher & Founder Diplomatic Connections

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Diplomatic EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dawn Parker ASSISTANTS TO THE EDITOR Ashley Gatewood Lauren Peace BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVES Evan Strianese, Scott Goss, Pat Keane DESIGN & CREATIVE Betty Watson CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER Larry Smith DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENTS and CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Roland Flamini, James Winship, PhD, Mike Mosettig, Monica Frim

To contact an advertising executive CALL: 202.536.4810 EMAIL: info@diplomaticconnections.com DIPLOMATIC CONNECTIONS WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT IMS (Inquiry Management Systems) 304 Park Avenue South, 11th Floor New York, NY 10010 Marc Highbloom, Vice President marc@ims.ca Maria D’Urso, Project Manager Mariad@ims.ca CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHY Christophe Avril; Dr. John Frim; Paula Morrision; Diario Las Américas

To order photos from the events go to: www.diplomaticconnections.com Send any name or address changes in writing to: Diplomatic Connections 4410 Massachusetts Avenue / #200 Washington, DC 20016 Diplomatic Connections Business Edition is published bi-monthly. Diplomatic Connections does not endorse any of the goods or services offered herein this publication. Copyright 2016 by Diplomatic Connections All rights reserved.

Consul General of Spain in Miami Cándido Creis, Diario Las Américas; Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, Alex Wong/Getty Images; Saudi, GCC Meeting, Fayez Nureldine/ AFP/Getty Images; President Hollande and President Grimsson, Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images; H.E. Geir Haarde, Ambassador of Iceland to the U.S., Paula Morrision/Diplomatic Connections; H.E. Dr. Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, Ambassador of Yemen to the U.S., Paula Morrison/Diplomatic Connections

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Diplomatic

D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S BUSINESS EDITION

JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2016

APARTMENTS, CONDOMINIUMS and HOUSING Metropolitan Pacific Properties . . . . . INSIDE BACK COVER

Kimpton Hotels Carlyle Dupont Circle Washington, D.C. . . . . 47 Glover Park Hotel Washington, D.C. . . . . . 47 Langham Place New York, Fifth Avenue . . . . 47

COMMERCIAL SALES

[The] Peninsula Beverly Hills * . . . . . . . . .95

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AUTOMOTIVE – CARS and LIMOUSINE SERVICES

Sofitel Washington, D.C. . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Admiral Leasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

The Watergate Hotel . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

BMW of Rockville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

HOSPITALS AND MEDICAL CENTERS

Lehmann-Peterson . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Cancer Treatment Centers of America . . . . . 5

Manhattan Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Featured Physicians . . . . . . . . 4 through 7 Cleveland Clinic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

AMBASSADOR MUBARAK EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF YEMEN

AMBASSADOR HAARDE EMBASSY OF ICELAND

DIPLOMATIC LIFESTYLES/DUTY FREE RAYJAK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 DUTY FREE THE HONORABLE CÁNDIDO CREIS SPAIN’S CONSUL GENERAL IN MIAMI

FRENCH PRESIDENT FRANCOIS HOLLANDE ICELANDIC PRESIDENT OLAFUR RAGNAR GRIMSSON

Featured Physicians . . INSIDE FRONT COVER, 2 and 3 LINENS

Ferraro Pralines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Abrielle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

Hershey’s Kisses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Clarins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 L’Occitane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 EDUCATION – INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS British International School of Chicago, Lincoln Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Kingsbury Day School . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Randolph-Macon Academy . . . . . . . . . . 43

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Rudolf Steiner School - New York City . . . . . 13

FEATURED ARTICLES

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Ambassador Interviews ICELAND

FINANCIAL SERVICES United Nations Federal Credit Union UNFCU . . 45

Ambassador Haarde . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 YEMEN

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Ambassador Mubarak . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 CONSUL GENERAL in MIAMI

CORT Furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 HOTELS, DINING and ACCOMMODATIONS KUWAIT • QATAR • OMAN • SAUDI ARABIA • BAHRAIN • UAE

Johns Hopkins Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CANDY

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U.S. SENATOR TIM KAINE • KING FELIPE VI • QUEEN LETIZIA

[The] Peninsula New York . . . . . . . . . . .95

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Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 HOLLYWOOD Foreign Press – Golden Globes . . . . . . . 84 Travel Azores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Miami . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

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EMAIL: info@diplomaticconnections.com

UNITED NATIONS

H.E. GEIR HAARDE AMBASSADOR OF ICELAND TO THE UNITED STATES

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MODERN ICELANDIC

CELAN

NARRATIVE, AS TOLD BY ONE OF ITS PROTAGONISTS —

AMBASSADOR GEIR HAARDE BY ROLAND FLAMINI

WHILE MOST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

WERE BADLY BRUISED BY THE FINANCIAL CRASH OF 2008, the impact on Iceland’s

economy was nothing short of catastrophic. But Iceland has recovered quicker than

most and its remarkable turnaround adds

a modern narrative to the ancient Icelandic sagas that define the Nordic island’s

history and society. Iceland got there by

letting its profligate banks fail — even as

the U.S. government was buying stakes in its own ailing financial institutions. It did

so by slashing household debt, letting its currency devalue by almost 60 percent,

putting capital controls in place restricting

what people could do with their money and imposing draconian austerity measures.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The fact that Iceland was not in the eurozone, and therefore could let the value of the krona collapse, proved an advantage in making the

Keystone/Getty Images

country competitive.â&#x20AC;&#x153;

January 16, 1951: A meeting of the North Atlantic Council Deputies at 13 Belgrave Square, London, attended by General Dwight D Eisenhower, supreme commander of the combined land forces. From left to right, are: C. H. Straneo (Italy); G. Petursson (Iceland); M. A. Clasen (Luxembourg); Count Reventlow (Denmark); Vicomte Obert De Thieusies (Belgium); M. D. Bryn (Norway); R. E. Ulrich (Portugal); General Eisenhower; C. M. Sofford (Chairman of the North Atlantic Council Deputies); M. H. Alphand (France); Jonkheer A. W. L. Tjarda Van Starkenborgh-Stachouwer (Netherlands); L. D. Wilgress (Canada); Frederick Hoyer Millar (UK). 16

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he fact that Iceland was not in the eurozone, and therefore could let the value of the krona collapse, proved an advantage in making the country competitive. It’s perhaps one reason why Icelanders continue to blow

hot and cold over the issue of becoming members of the European Union, starting negotiations one year and stopping them the next. Other factors include Iceland’s miniscule population of around 320,000 and a relatively narrow economic base led by fisheries, power-intensive industry, and tourism. Few Icelanders were more closely connected with the crisis than Geir H. Haarde, a leading politician who was successively finance minister, foreign minister and prime minister. He was indicted for his handling of the precrisis situation in what he calls a politically motivated trial that backfired when he was cleared of all substantive charges. Now out of active politics after more than three decades, he is Iceland’s ambassador to the United States. It’s a country he knows well from his student days at Brandeis, the University of Minnesota, Washington’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and subsequent working visits. He

Jonathan Ernst/AFP/Getty Images

talked to Diplomatic Connections in his embassy ofﬁce overlooking the Potomac.

December 1, 2015: Sixty-four years later, foreign ministers of NATO’s 28 member states pose for a family photo at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the podium flanked by Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski (2nd L). The alliance was enlarged by the addition of Eastern European and Baltic nations, some of its original Cold War enemies. They are shown here with the unveiled logo for the 2016 NATO ministerial meetings in Warsaw, the Polish capital.

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Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

(L to R) Swedish Minister for Strategic Development and Nordic Cooperation Kristina Persson; Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila; Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma; British Prime Minister David Cameron; Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson; Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas; Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg; Danish Prime Minisiter Lars Lokke Rasmussen; and Lithuanian Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Neris Germanas pose on the podium during the opening plenary at The Northern Future Forum on October 29, 2015 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Northern Future Forum brings together the Prime Ministers from the UK, the Nordic and the Baltic countries focusing on how to improve the standard of living in the participating countries.

Ambassador Haarde: This is a situation we’ve had since Iceland first opened a mission in D.C. during the Second World War, when we were recognized as an independent republic. When we established our own foreign service, the ambassador in Washington would represent Iceland in all of South and Central America and, following the creation of the United Nations, took on representation there as well. Now we have an ambassador at the U.N. and another in Ottawa. The three of us divide the rest of the continent between us. So instead of having 27 countries, I have eight. We are a small country with a small foreign service and we have to make the best use of the limited human resources that we have. I expect to be able to present my credentials in all of them eventually, but I haven’t done so yet. It’s different from our bilateral relations with the United States where we have a lot of issues. Diplomatic Connections: Does that mean you would expect to be on the road a lot?

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Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images

Diplomatic Connections: You are not only ambassador of Iceland in the United States, you’re also Icelandic ambassador to eight other countries, including Brazil and Argentina. It’s not unusual for a chief of mission in Washington to be accredited to one or two other countries, but eight is an unusually large number. How do you cope with such a broad assignment? Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmund David Gunnlaugsson and British Prime Minister David Cameron at the Althingi Congress house in Reykjavik on October 28, 2015.

Ambassador Haarde: I would expect to try to visit these countries regularly, but I also have to do a certain amount of travel in the U.S. Since I came here in January 2015, I’ve been to Alaska twice and on the West Coast and Minneapolis.. Diplomatic Connections: What about the diaspora? How many people of Icelandic origin are there in this country? Ambassador Haarde: I cannot give you an exact figure, but I can tell you that between the U.S. and Canada there are more people of Icelandic descent than there are in Iceland. There was quite a movement of people in the late 19th century to Canada and the Midwest. Ever since, there has been a tendency for people to want to move to the U.S. We have quite a big population around Minneapolis and North Dakota, also New York and Boston. We have mixed marriages of Icelandic women who married American servicemen stationed in Iceland, and people who have come to study and

“We are a small country with a small foreign service and we have to make the best use of the limited human resources. . .” stayed, medical doctors, for example. In several places in the U.S. there are Icelandic associations which are quite active and some of my time is attending Icelandic festivals. We have a large network of honorary consuls.

Diplomatic Connections: How are bilateral relations with the United States at the moment? Ambassador Haarde: We have no issues that you would describe as serious problems, but we have a lot to talk about. We have a defense treaty that goes back to 1951. We had a continuous U.S. presence from 1951 to 2006 when the U.S. government decided to end their presence at Keflavik base. Things are a little different now, 10 years later. The decision in 2006 was based on hopes, expectations and developments in Europe that have not exactly turned out to be true. So we are talking to the Americans about the security situation in the North Atlantic, the new face of Russia — who we, on the other hand, also consider friends. In addition to this, the U.S. is a big trading partner, although no longer the single most important trading partner, which is the EU taken together, and the United Kingdom as a single nation. Maintaining the U.S. relationship, trying to be a facilitator for trade and

Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images

French President Francois Hollande poses with Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

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business and investment is an important part of the job of this embassy, and also cultivating cultural exchanges, science and technology.

of the base infrastructure is still used as a security area and it’s the venue of the control center for the NATO Air Defense Radar System in Iceland.

Diplomatic Connections: During the Cold War, Iceland had a key role as part of the line of defense. Has the emergence of a more aggressive Russia led the Americans to have second thoughts about having quit Keflavik and maybe want to return?

Diplomatic Connections: Doesn’t the NATO air policing system operate out of Keflavik?

Ambassador Haarde: I don’t think they would go back in the same way as before, but I’ve met people here in the administration who think the decision taken in 2006 was a mistake. The question now is to figure out what would be mutually beneficial in the current circumstances. Whether that requires a permanent presence of U.S. forces of some kind is not clear at this point. But the situation in the world, and particularly in our part of the world, is definitely different to what it was 10 years ago. Unfortunate, but it’s a hard fact. Diplomatic Connections: Would you agree with some people’s description of the present situation as a new Cold War? Ambassador Haarde: I think that’s a little extreme. I hope that at the end of the day the leaders involved would find a way to avoid that. Our geography has not changed. We were strategically important in World War II. We were important in the Cold War. Some called Iceland an aircraft carrier — you had sealanes on both sides of the island where you had submarine traffic. If you wanted to be able to control the action and to know what was going on, it was better to have this piece of property in your camp. The British occupied our country in May 1940, and with our approval the Americans took over a year later. Diplomatic Connections: When the Americans left Keflavik, there was the problem of cleaning out years of dumped waste, some of it toxic, the removal of which was not covered in the bilateral base agreement. What is the current status of that issue? Ambassador Haarde: There was a problem with waste spillage and disposal, but it may not have been as big as people feared. Another issue was the fact that the voltage on the base buildings was American, 110 as opposed to the European 220, so there was quite a problem to convert all that to the Icelandic standards. But that issue has also been resolved, and the base itself has been re-developed. Diplomatic Connections: What has happened to the former base now? Ambassador Haarde: Part of it has been converted for other purposes. There is student housing, a school, a number of businesses have opened there — there’s a lot of activity. Part 20

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Ambassador Haarde: Yes, but it’s not 24/7 like in the Baltic States. Squadrons from a number of NATO countries come in rotation: France was one of the first; the U.S. has been there every year; the Czechs have been there twice recently. Diplomatic Connections: Is it Icelandic airspace that the Russians sometimes trespass? Ambassador Haarde: I cannot go into specifics on air defense issues and flight paths: the Russians have long distance bombers which don’t always identify themselves when they fly near Iceland. In the old days Iceland-based American fighters would scramble. Diplomatic Connections: But now presumably it’s the air policing that reacts? Ambassador Haarde: Yes, when they are there. But they are not there all the time. Diplomatic Connections: The Icelandic economic crisis made history because it was huge in proportion to the size of the island and its economy. But the story now is one of recovery. So how would you summarize the latest developments? Ambassador Haarde: We were the first to be hit by the international financial crisis, but in many ways also first out. We have now repaid everything we borrowed from the IMF and others during the crisis. But we did impose capital controls in 2008 – not to control trade, but to prevent great, destabilizing movements of capital out of the country-- and they are now gradually being lifted. Diplomatic Connections: Did Iceland nationalize the banks? Ambassador Haarde: There were three big private banks that fell, constituting between 80 and 85 percent of the financial system. The authorities split them up into “old” and “new.” The government refinanced the much smaller new banks who took over domestic services – domestic businesses, deposits, and so on – and the old banks were taken over by resolution committees controlled by the creditors. The external indebtedness of those private banks was not guaranteed by the government so their losses were not socialized. They had borrowed excessively and irresponsibly. The creditors, of course, got hurt in the process but maybe they should have been a little more careful in lending

“Maintaining the U.S. relationship, trying to be a facilitator for trade and business and investment is an important part of the job of this embassy. . .” to those banks. The whole winding up of the old banks is hopefully coming to an end in the next few months through a transparent resolution process in accordance with Icelandic law. Diplomatic Connections: You were in government at the time and were subsequently the target of an indictment. Ambassador Haarde: There was a court case brought against me by a slender majority in parliament: basically my political opponents engineered it. Diplomatic Connections: So it was a political maneuver? Ambassador Haarde: Clearly, and it’s very sad to see this happen in a Western democracy. I won the case, but it was, in my view, a horrible example of mixing together political and criminal responsibility. There were six counts in the indictment. Two of them were thrown out of court as they were deemed legally inadmissible. On the three that had anything to do with the financial crisis, I was acquitted and cleared of those serious accusations. That was the most important outcome, and in line with what I had expected all along. On one technical count claiming that I had not held enough cabinet meetings to discuss the banking situation, I was found guilty by a vote of 9 to 6. The court, however, regarded this ridiculous charge as a minor offence and did not impose any punishment. Instead, it ordered the government to pay my legal costs. Diplomatic Connections: Presumably the fact that it was a global financial crisis, much of it out of Iceland’s control, was an argument in your favor. Ambassador Haarde: Definitely. Iceland was a member of the European Economic Area, with full freedom of capital movement when this happened; the banks took advantage

of those rules in terms of cross-border banking. There were all kinds of things in the European framework that were flawed, and that have since been corrected. Singling out an individual political leader of the time always seemed to me to be something that happens in countries with which we prefer not to compare ourselves. And several of the people who took part in this later told me that voting in favor of the indictment had been a grave mistake. I don’t want to dwell on this issue: I am doing different things now and I have to work with a lot of people in and out of government. Diplomatic Connections: Iceland is a member of the European Economic Area, but Iceland also applied for full EU membership. What is the current status of that application? Ambassador Haarde: After I left office in 2009 the new government decided to apply for EU membership but on the basis that entry would later be subject to a referendum. Talks started and were not finished when the next election came around in 2013. They announced to the EU that Iceland was not interested in joining and the discussions stopped. So we’re not an applicant country. One of the potentially difficult issues in the accession talks, of course, was fishing. But we have a good relationship with the European Union, which is our most important market in terms of both exports and imports – and, of course, we are Europeans. I often say that you can be a good European without being a member of the European Union. Diplomatic Connections: Has Iceland had any major security threats? Ambassador Haarde: We are in many ways very lucky. Our location isolated us for centuries from outside influence and threats. The fact that we are located up there in the middle of the Atlantic has been a hindrance. In World War II people realized that we were a valuable piece of property. We are founding members of NATO, which has been a key factor in our thinking in terms of defense and security Diplomatic Connections: Having been successively economics minister, foreign minister and prime minister, how does it feel to be at the receiving end of instructions after many years of issuing them yourself? Ambassador Haarde: It takes a little bit of getting used to. Before I went into politics I was a civil servant, so it’s not such a difficult switch over for me. I know most of the people that I’m dealing with in the ministries from before. I have a lot of respect for my colleagues, and I have no problem working with anybody even though I’m not in the same position.

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Diplomatic Connections: Once this incursion into diplomacy is over do you envision going back into politics?

government offices in Washington numerous times. Diplomatic Connections: So do you see a change in the way Washington does business?

Ambassador Haarde: I have no such plans.

Ambassador Haarde: Yes. It seems to me that it’s changed quite a bit, not necessarily for the better, in terms Ambassador Haarde: No. I was in of the politics of the situation. But I parliament for 22 years, 11 of them don’t think it’s appropriate for me to in the cabinet. Before parliament I say much more about that. It seems was political assistant to the then to me that there is less bipartisanship minister of finance. Basically, that’s Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker meet at which used to be a hallmark of U.S. enough political involvement for any EU headquarters in Brussels. foreign policy. Unfortunately, we have normal person. had a little bit of the same phenomenon in my own country. Diplomatic Connections: How well do you know the Politics have become more divisive. United States? Ambassador Haarde: I spent six years in the United States as a young man going home every summer to work as a journalist. It had a great influence on me and I believe I know the country quite well. After school, in my various appointments, I have visited the U.S. many, many times, and the various

Diplomatic Connections: You must get asked this a lot. Why is Greenland called Greenland and Iceland called Iceland when Iceland is green and Greenland is ice-covered? Ambassador Haarde: Some people say that it’s the result of good public relations by the Greenlanders.

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King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain visit Castillo San Marcos during the 450th St. Augustine anniversary on September 18, 2015 in St. Augustine, Florida. Consul General Creis is directly behind King Felipe VI.

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CONSUL GENERAL OF SPAIN IN MIAMI CÁNDIDO CREIS

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A WITNESS TO HISTORY

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n August 2015, King Felipe VI of Spain and Queen Letizia visited St. Augustine, Fla., to add their luster to the 450th anniversary celebrations of its founding as a Spanish colony, making it the oldest city in America. Among the officials welcoming the royal couple was the familiar face of Spain’s then new consul general to the state, Candido Creis. Familiar because Creis, a career diplomat, had until recently served as the young king’s chief of protocol, and had held the same office under the king’s father, King Juan Carlos, until the latter’s abdication. In fact, Creis, 50, spent eight of his 20-year diplomatic career as a member of Spain’s royal household, in two separate periods with assignments in Israel and the Spanish mission to the European Union in Brussels in between. He was involved in the events leading up to the abdication of Juan Carlos -- a chapter in Spain’s recent history on which he is, understandably, reticent. He took up his post in Miami just in time to greet the arriving king. Spain has nine consulates-general in the United States, but Miami has a special significance because of its historic links to Spain and its strong Hispanic presence – primarily the result of Cuban refugees, but with a large influx from all over Latin America. If ever bi-linguality flourished in the U.S. it is in Miami, where Creis can hold conversations with many local officials in his native Spanish. But Cries’ primary responsibility is the 40,000 Spanish citizens working and living in the consulate’s area of coverage, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina – the highest number in any Spanish consular jurisdiction. His other objective is to advance Spanish business and cultural interests, and to handle the brisk two-way traffic of students – Spaniards coming to Florida, and Americans wishing to study in Spain. New security considerations have made the visa process more complex, but as Consul General Creis told Diplomatic Connections in a recent interview in his Miami office, bi-lateral relations with the United States are healthy, including in the area of security cooperation.

Food Fair [Expo Milan 2015: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life]. Spain had a good project there, and they wanted someone to be on the spot to set up the whole operation. I was there for six months.

Diplomatic Connections: Did you come to Miami directly from your post at the royal palace?

Consul General Creis: Working at the palace meant prepare, prepare and prepare at every step; but at the same time the corollary of that principle was be ready to improvise if

Consul General Creis: No, I came from Milan where I was deputy commissioner of the Spanish pavilion at the Milan 28

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Diplomatic Connections: Is the exhibition now closed? Consul General Creis: Yes, and it was a great success. The Italian organizers were expecting 22 million visitors overall and got 20.5 million: we were expecting 2.2 million at the Spanish pavilion but in fact we got 3.3 million, so for us it was a great, great success. Diplomatic Connections: But before that you served at Sarsuela, the royal palace for quite some time. Consul General Creis: Yes, I was chief of protocol at the royal palace – for my last six months with King Felipe, and before that with King Juan Carlos. It was a fantastic post, probably one of the most interesting post you can have as a civil servant, because of the things you work at, and because you are serving your country at the level of the head of state. Of course, it’s all team work. Diplomatic Connections: You held the post during the abdication of King Juan Carlos in favor of Crown Prince Felipe in 2014. Consul General Creis: Working on the abdication was a fascinating experience. It had to be crafted very carefully. It was the first time that it was done in the Spanish democracy, and I’m very proud that the process was calm, and at the same time very serene, but also having the dignity of the situation. Everything had to be planned in very great detail at very short notice [According to media reports, King Juan Carlos stepped down three weeks after making his decision to abdicate]. And several Spanish institutions were involved in the preparations – the office of the prime minister, the Spanish parliament, the security forces. Planning, coordination, and lots of work were the key elements of a successful outcome. Diplomatic Connections: What was it like working at Sarsuela?

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King Felipe VI (3rd L) and Queen Letizia (R) of Spain during a photo-op with U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) (2nd L) and Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) (L) prior to a meeting with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee September 14, 2015 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The royal couple had a meeting with President Obama at the White House earlier that day.

necessary. So that’s basically what I learned. If you ask me to define what protocol is I would say, common sense, and also respect.

this office to register. They find out that they need to register when they want to renew their passport, which is every nine years, so it takes a little while.

Diplomatic Connections: What are you tasked with in Miami?

Diplomatic Connections: What about during elections in Spain?

Consul General Creis: Consuls do many things that embassies don’t do. First and foremost is to serve the Spanish population. There’s been a great increase in the last few years, and we now have around 40,000 Spaniards in our area of coverage—more than in the New York area of responsibility. Our area, incidentally, comprises Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Consul General Creis: Yes. We mailed out thousands of notices to Spanish citizens in advance of the December 20 elections in Spain. There is a wonderful collectivity about the Spanish community: they’re a very good bunch of people. Some came during the ‘Sixties and ‘Seventies to study or to be with family, especially Spaniards of Cuban origin many of whom had fled from Cuba. These did very well: they worked very, very hard, they have at the same time become very American, but they still are conscious of their Spanish origin and they’re very fond of Spain. In Florida, for example, there are hundreds of people named Suarez, including the Miami city commissioner. It’s a family name originating in Asturias. Many of them go to Asturias almost every year, some to see relatives. Some have bought or inherited small houses there, or a piece of land. They come and go all the time.

Diplomatic Connections: How does this Spanish presence break down geographically? Consul General Creis: South Carolina has about 80; in Georgia it’s probably 1,100 – 2,000; and the rest is Florida. We’re talking about Spaniards who have registered with the consulate: we calculate that a third of those 40,000 have not registered, because many people who, for example, come here for a year – you don’t want to spend the time coming here to

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(L-R) President of the regional government of Andalusia Susana Diaz, King Felipe VI of Spain, Queen Letizia of Spain and Culture minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo attend the Gold Medals of Merit in Fine Arts ceremony at the Bellas Artes Museum on December 2, 2015 in Seville, Spain. Arts are a vital part of Spanish Culture.

Diplomatic Connections: But Spain is also a big tourist draw for Americans in general.

Diplomatic Connections: What about the global village syndrome? Is there a more recent influx of Spaniards into the area?

Consul General Creis: Yes enormous. In the past, Spain meant beaches, sun, and sangria. Now people go for the history, the museums, the culture, nature, and the gastronomy. There are visitors who go to Spain for two or three days specifically to eat at three or four famous restaurants that have won stars in the Michelin guide.

Consul General Creis: Lately, there have been many businessmen, young professionals, escaping from the economic problems in Spain, which fortunately are now receding. They are attracted by the quality of life, good schools for children, and Florida is very welcoming. We also deal with a lot of students who want to study in Spain, which is the third destination for U.S. college students studying

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abroad. This is an important part of our role. It establishes bridges: after their study these students continue to be linked to Spain, inasmuch as Spaniards studying in the United States establish a similar network. For example, there are Spanish students on scholarships from a Spanish oil corporation pursing advance courses on sustainable energy at U.S. universities. Diplomatic Connections: King Felipe was at Georgetown. Consul General Creis: Yes, good example. Diplomatic Connections: Increasingly, the growing Hispanic presence in this country raises the issue of their political influence, and Florida, is a good place to consider this. How does that impact on Spanish interests in the United States? Consul General Creis: That’s a question that would probably be better addressed to the embassy, actually.

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Diplomatic Connections: Yes, but you’re in the front line here, with two of the Republican presidential candidates having strong links with Florida. You probably know them both. Consul General Creis: I have just arrived and I have met one of them. But one thing I need to clarify is that the consulate does not relate to political issues. At the consulate family here we have a trade commissioner, an education and culture commissioner, we also have a tourist office, so it’s basically promoting Spanish links with Florida. We do not get involved that much in politics – political issues are dealt with within the framework of the embassy.

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Diplomatic Connections: Even so, both culture and trade can and often do have a diplomacy dimension, and hasn’t there been a recent increase in the use of cultural diplomacy to gain attention, to advance a country’s interests? Consul General Creis: Well, yes, soft diplomacy. The consulate has just opened an art exhibition in our downtown cultural center called “Cuba Now: the New Generation” showing the paintings and sculptures of a new generation of Cuban artists. In the same event are included film, theater, music and dance. The Mexicans are doing the same, so there’s a trend. For us it’s the result of our deputy consul having previously been cultural counselor in Havana and

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain attend the Iberdrola Foundation Scholarships at the Casa de America on July 9, 2015 in Madrid, Spain.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain deliver Iberdrola Foundation Scholarships at the Casa de America on July 9, 2015 in Madrid, Spain. 31

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the quality of Spanish food products – meat, vegetables, olive oil, wine -- speaks for itself, and the quality-price ratio is attractive. The problems in the home market in the last few years made Spanish businesses seek markets abroad. There are big Spanish construction companies competing for contracts in the United States and in Latin America, and often winning them. But middle sized companies that before had not ventured into the international market are now trying to expand across the Atlantic.

Consul General Creis: [The process] takes longer, but it’s necessary. Contacts between the United States – Washington – and Madrid are excellent. We do not deal with such negotiations here, but we have to implement them and we have to be very alert. Basically people know that the system in the U.S. is very serious, and you can’t avoid it. Everything these days is connected through the internet. We had a case recently of someone who Queen Letizia and King Felipe VI of Spain at the ten years ago was told to leave the U.S. Miami-Dade College Presidential Medal presentation at the Freedom Tower on September 17, 2015 in permanently; when this person tried getting to know many people within the Miami, Florida. to come back into this country he was art movements in Cuba. stopped at the airport and sent back to Spain. Diplomatic Connections: In your view, how has the recent Diplomatic Connections: Does a Spanish official – let’s put it that resumption of U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations impacted on life way – feel more comfortable in Spanish speaking Miami than, for in Miami? example, in Irish speaking Chicago? Consul General Creis: For example, if you go to Art Basel Consul General Creis: Well, you go to an event in Miami and [the major art convention held in Miami in early December] it could be conducted in either English or Spanish. The other every single exhibition has works by Cuban artists. There has day, I went to a charter school graduation and the students been an upsurge in Cuban art on exhibition compared were offered the choice of further education in either the to previous years. United States or in Spain. Diplomatic Connections: But coming back to the Spanish Diplomatic Connections: Do you think this country is on the way presence, has Spain’s commercial activity in your area increased? to embracing bi-linguality officially, like Canada? Consul General Creis: In 2014, Spain exports to Florida totaled Consul General Creis: I don’t think it will be mandated by $836.7 million, an increase of 16.30 percent over the previous Congress, you Americans are too practical for that. A fifty-fifty year: Florida exports to Spain amounted to $319.5 million, division won’t make any sense, and also this is a melting pot, an increase of 12.29 percent. In the last year there’s been a and you have to respect other minorities. But that doesn’t further increase in Spanish exports to Florida, and that’s not mean more Spanish will not be spoken across the country in only because of the exchange rate [of the weakened euro], the future. King Felipe VI of Spain accepts the Miami-Dade College Presidential Medal from Dr. Eduardo Padron at the Freedom Tower on September 17, 2015 in Miami, Florida.

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Diplomatic Connections: Recent terrorist attacks on both sides of the Atlantic have raised security questions about the procedures for foreigners entering the United States. Do visitors from Spain face closer scrutiny?

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Queen Letizia of Spain and former Queen SofĂa of Spain (Mother of King Felipe VI)

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Former King Juan Carlos I of Spain (father) and King Felipe VI of Spain D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | J A N U A R Y â&#x20AC;&#x201C; F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6

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Attendees view ‘Blue Prism Painting XI’ by artist Josiah McElheny from White Cube at the Art Basel Miami Beach - VIP Preview at the Miami Beach Convention Center on December 2, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida.

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Ellie Goulding performed at the South Beach Art Basel on December 2, 2015 in Miami, Florida.

as international singer Ellie Goulding performed for the guests’ entertainment. In its early days, the show focused on shock and awe, but registered poor sales. Today, the week-long South 38

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Beach Art Basel in early December is more commercial. At this year’s show, which drew more than 80,000 collectors, gallery owners, and other visitors, a Francis Bacon painting exhibited by a leading London gallery was said to have a price tag of “thirty.” In other words, $30 million, but such are the prices that there was no need to be specific. Not everything was priced in millions, but there were no bargains either. As a random example, at another London gallery owned by Edmondo di Robilant, an Italian art dealer, works by the Italian kinetic artist Gianni Colombo were tagged at between $30,000 and $40,000 — and selling. What the New York Times recently called “a critical mass of cultural attractions,” complements the big art show with some more adventurous projects. For example, the always elegant and innovative de la Cruz Gallery, went heavy on German contemporary artists ranging from Martin Kippenberger and Sigmar Polke to the oversize cloth sculptures by Cosima von Benin. In fact, there was such an important presence of German contemporary works in Miami that German Ambassador to Washington, Peter Wittig, and his wife, Huberta von Voss-Wittig, were drawn to visit the area. Music has a new (since 2011) showcase in the New World Center, the futuristic concert hall designed by Frank Ghery. The also new Perez Art Museum focuses on modern and contemporary art from Latin America. Nearby is the Miami Design District brimming with creative ideas. In the thriving muralist neighborhood of Wynwood a street art exhibit splashed across 80,000 feet of exterior walls is constantly changing.What was once a warehouse district full of crumbling buildings is now a showcase for largescale works by a wide range of artists. A large part of South Beach’s renascence is its array of carefully restored Art Deco architecture that lines Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue, a legacy of its earlier heyday in the 1920s and 1930s as a playground for millionaires and Hollywood movie stars. That glittering era faded with the start of World War II and with it the fanciful pastel buildings of South Beach Deco. Their maritime motifs recall the cruise ships that regularly make Miami a port of call, with portholes for windows, ship railings and sea shell moldings. For example, the 1937 Park Central Hotel, the first structure to be renovated, was once favored by Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and other stars. Much of the credit for this revival goes to a former Communist activist and New York transplant named

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One of the main props of South Beach’s remarkable transformation is Art Basel Miami, an immensely popular yearly market of contemporary painting and sculpture established fourteen years ago. These days you’ll even see celebrities and musicians attending and showing their support. Accomplished actors such as Hillary Swank and Sylvester Stallone were there for an opening soiree

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Deceased Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace’s palatial home, known as Casa Casuarina, has since been converted into a boutique hotel with dining facilities known to be one of South Beach’s best places to eat.

Barbara Baer Capitman, the widow of a prominent party member who had moved to South Beach. In 1976, she formed the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL) to save the historical buildings from the predatory hands of developers wanting to destroy them. The MDPL (www. mdpl.org) campaigned to have them restored to what the writer Alexander Cockburn once called “the stagey, solemn simplicity of another era,” and successfully rescued some 800 structures from — as he puts it — “condomaniac, behemothic tide” of glass and steel architectural excess. The League organizes walking tours of the main restored buildings such as the Tides Hotel, designed in 1936 by Lawrence Murray Dixon, one of the principal architects of Deco South Beach along with Henry Hohauser. Dixon was both prolific and versatile, and between 1930 and 1945 dominated the city, designing scores of hotels and 40

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hundreds of homes. Hohauser built the graceful Cardozo Hotel, with its characteristic rounded façade, now owned by the singer Gloria Estefan and her record-producer husband Emilio. Hotels provide the venue for some of South Beach’s new crop of high end restaurants. Greater Miami probably has a larger cluster of celebrity chefs than anywhere else in the country, among them the ubiquitous José Andrés with The Bazaar in the SLS Hotel. Also worthy of note, Andrew Carmellini’s The Dutch Miami at the W Hotel, and the Michael Schwartz Restaurant at the Raleigh Hotel. But South Beach’s rebirth as the largest concentration of Art Deco structures in the country was not achieved without a struggle. Many historic hotels fell to the wrecking ball even as activists and developers fought their battles in the courts. And the area has its darker moments, notably

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the Latino and Hispanic population grows and becomes economically and politically more assertive. The narrative of Cuba’s refugees conditioned U.S. policy towards the neighboring island for over five decades. But in July 2015, the United States and Cuba resumed diplomatic relations as part of a process of rapprochement. It’s too early to see the impact of this tectonic shift in bi-lateral relations, especially since Cubans in the Miami area are feigning indifference. But warming bilateral relations have so far not dimmed Miami’s light as a beacon of hope for Cuban refugees. More people made the 200-mile crossing in 2015 than at any other Hilary Swank and Sylvester Stallone attend annual Art Basel Miami Beach Kick-Off Party at Delano Beach Club on December 1, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. time in the past decade. In September, bathers in the killing of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace on South Beach applauded as a dozen exhausted Cubans and the steps of his palatial (but not Art Deco) home in 1997. their dog named Chiquitica beached their sailing boat after Versace was shot to death by Andrew Cunanan, who had being at sea for six days and running out of food and water. gone on a killing spree before finally committing suicide. Miami is also a Mecca for denizens of the Hemisphere Inevitably, the house — Casa Casuarina — is now a boutique who swarm into the shopping malls like locusts. Three hotel with one of South Beach’s best restaurants. years ago, it was rich Russians buying the condos while Miami experienced its second transformation with they were still skeletal construction sites. But that wave has the influx of Cuban refugees which altered both the come and gone. Today it’s wealthy Brazilians and Chileans demographics and the culture of the city. It is apparent less acquiring beachfront condos as homes away from home — so in South Beach than in Miami’s Dade County, where 53 with lots selling at $634 per sq foot as condo prices have percent of the population is of Cuban origin. But the Cuban spiked 57 percent since 2009. Telemundo, the Hispanic culture spills over into South Beach in the clubs, cafes, and television giant has its production hub in Miami. even the parks where Cuban rhythms reverberate, and Miami has been called a city near the United States. It’s people float easily between English and rapid-fire Spanish. a joke — or is it? Miami as a whole comes closest to a bi-lingual city, perhaps foreshadowing other areas of the United States as D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | J A N U A R Y – F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6

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H.E. DR. AHMED AWAD BIN MUBARAK AMBASSADOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF YEMEN TO THE UNITED STATES

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in His Country’s

SERVICE:

Ambassador Mubarak Seeks to Stabilize and Reconstruct War-Torn Yemen By James A. Winship, Ph.D.

What a difference a year makes! In January 2015, Dr. Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak was the Director of Yemeni President Hadi’s presidential ofﬁce and custodian of a long national reconciliation process that sought to rebuild Yemen out of a pastiche of regional fragments, traditional loyalties and dashed hopes of government reform. On January 17, 2015, Mubarak was kidnapped and held prisoner for 12 days by a rebel group opposed to a new federal constitution for Yemen. He was kept blindfolded and moved from place to place around the country before his release.

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H.E. Dr. Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak presented his credentials as Ambassador of the Republic of Yemen to the United States to President Obama in August 2015. Acceptance of Mubarak’s credentials brought to an end a three-year hiatus in Yemen’s diplomatic representation in Washington caused by tumultuous political events in that country, which resulted in the resignation of the long-time Yemeni Ambassador in Washington. Still, the country’s diplomacy was left in the complicated position of having the internationally recognized government of President Hadi, operating either from exile in Saudi Arabia or from his temporary Yemeni capital in Aden, representing it in Washington even as that government was being contested in Yemen. Ambassador Mubarak’s role in Washington assumes considerable importance because Yemen’s local conflict has become a proxy war between the major contesting regional powers – Iran and Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Yemen’s location in the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula and astride international shipping routes passing from the Arabian Sea through the Bab el Mandeb Strait and into the Red Sea leading to the Suez Canal gives it outsized geostrategic importance to international energy supply lines and to developments in the Horn of Africa. What was historically an internal conflict, characterized by deep fragmentation between communities and social groups with perceived cultural differences and conflicting territorial claims, created a power vacuum across Yemen that provided fertile ground for extremist groups and terrorist activities, including the emergence of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Yemen’s corner of the Arabian Peninsula has now become a theater in the global

effort to resist Islamic extremism and the terrorist attacks it spawns. These factors have served to internationalize the conflict in Yemen: attracting the attention of the United States, which staged drone aircraft there; bringing Iran to the assistance of rebel forces known as the Houthis with heavy weapons and other resources. This, in turn, drew in a Saudi Arabian-led coalition of regional Arab states from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that has engaged in an extensive air war against the rebels and expanded to include forces on the ground. The multilayered civil conflict in Yemen is characterized by historical enmities between tribes, harsh and varied geography that ranges from isolated mountains to sea coasts, cultural differences, limited resources and disparate colonial histories between the country’s North and South. Yemen as a locale, as an idea in people’s minds – “I am Yemeni,” – preceded the idea of Yemen as a nation-state. Building a modern state on top of traditional structures of rule that involve primarily family, clan, tribe . . . and regions is like trying to put together a puzzle on top of a puzzle. A graphic in a recent edition of a major international news publication characterized Yemen as one of the “failed states” in the Middle East and North Africa region. The other two are Syria and Libya. Ambassador Mubarak, however, is unwilling to accept that description. He still believes in the vision of a federal Yemen with a new constitution that tolerates substantial regional autonomy while preserving the historical heritage of Yemen, mending the political fabric of the country, rejecting extremism, limiting foreign interference and rebuilding a national economy that can be integrated into the global trading system. Ambassador Mubarak was kind enough to grant Diplomatic Connections his first formal interview in the United States. We explored with him the complexities of the situation in Yemen, and he offered us insights into past events, into the ways those events have frequently been misunderstood in the international press, and possible future directions for his country. All leavened with persistent optimism and a measure of hope, tempered by realism.

Diplomatic Connections: Yemen, is deeply torn by political strife and violence at the moment. The elected President of Yemen, President Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi, has just returned to Yemen after being in exile for several months in Saudi Arabia. Given the terribly disrupted situation in your country, who do you represent here in Washington at this point? Ambassador Mubarak: I am representing the Republic and people of Yemen, and its leadership constituting the legitimate government of Yemen. President Hadi, the elected president of our country, represents legitimacy and also the interests of the people. Diplomatic Connections: You hold a Ph.D. in Business Administration and an MBA from the University of Baghdad. You began your career as an academic at Sana’a University. How did you make your way into politics and diplomacy work? Ambassador Mubarak: I must say that I miss the nice days of being an academician. But, at the same time I have been fascinated to link the realities of politics and diplomacy with the theoretical insights that I gained in my academic training. In 2011, Yemenis, mainly the young people started voicing their demands in the street. “Change Square,” where youth mounted their protest against the government of Yemen, was right next to the university. I could see it from my office. I found myself captivated, wanting to be a part of the revolution. Many of those young people were my students. Diplomatic Connections: Was that the beginning of the “Arab Spring” in Yemen? Ambassador Mubarak: Yemenis began voicing their concerns about the actions of their national government and calling for reform long before the Arab Spring began in Tunisia in 2011. In 2007, the Hirak Movement or Southern Mobility Movement began to voice a demand for regional autonomy, even secession from Yemen’s North. [NOTE: The northern and southern portions of Yemen were only united under a single national government in 1990. These areas had very different colonial histories and came to independence under very different circumstances.] Our first dialogue about the future of our country began in 2008-2009. I was on the university faculty, and found myself in sympathy with many of the calls for change in my country. I understood and supported the calls for a new, modern state and for

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(From L to R) Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah; Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah; Omani Foreign Minister Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah; Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir; Bahrainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Foreign Affairs Minister Sheik Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa; and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan pose for a picture during a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers on December 7, 2015 in the Saudi capital Riyadh, a few days ahead of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit. The GCC summit focused on the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

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(From L to R) Assistant of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) secretary general Ahmed bin Heli, Yemen’s Vice President; Prime Minister Khaled Bahah; Yemen’s President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi; and GCC secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani attend the opening of ‘Riyadh Conference for Saving Yemen and Building Federal State’ in the Saudi capital Riyadh, on May 17, 2015.

Kings and Emirs from six Gulf states meet on the second day, December 10, 2015, of the 136th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit held in Riyadh. Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz called for political solutions to the wars in Syria and Yemen, while condemning ‘terrorism,’ at the opening of the annual Gulf summit.

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Yemeni fighters of the southern separatist movement and firefighters attempt to extinguish a flame at an oil refinery in the port city of Aden, following shelling by Shiite Houthi rebels. Fire erupted at Aden’s oil refinery when rebels shelled the nearby port to prevent a Qatari ship carrying aid for Yemen’s devastated second city from docking, officials told the press.

fairness in social and economic life as well as paths for mobility that would allow well-educated young people to begin careers and to enjoy prosperity, equal rights and opportunities for advancement. Diplomatic Connections: How did the course of reform proceed in Yemen? Ambassador Mubarak: After several months of protests in Yemen in 2011, the Gulf Cooperation Council submitted an initiative to all parties designed to bring about the resignation of President Saleh in exchange for granting him immunity from prosecution and transferring power to Vice-President Hadi, who would oversee a proposed new National Dialogue intended to reform the government. That National Dialogue would draft a new constitution, supervise a national referendum

President Hadi worked to prepare the ground for this comprehensive National Dialogue. I was one of those presenting the youth agenda aimed at reforming the government. Traditional powers and parties dominated the political scene in Yemen. Young people, for the first time, students and young professionals together – voices that were not part of the main parties in Yemen at that time – found ourselves active participants in the process of political change. We were not just members of a party, but were suddenly voices empowered to suggest and carry out the process of political change.

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Saleh Al-Obeidi/AFP/Getty Images

to approve the new constitution and oversee national elections to select a new president under the new constitution.

This is how I started and moved from an academic career to a political career. I was first the rapporteur of the National Dialogue Preparatory Committee. Then, I was chosen to be the Secretary General of the National Dialogue Conference, which was the first comprehensive national dialogue of its kind in Yemen, and in the region. Subsequently, I was appointed by President Hadi as his Chief of Staff, the Director of his Presidential Office.

Ambassador Mubarak: The reaction was mixed. We received a great deal of support from many parties for our efforts to bring together diverse voices from across the country, including the voices of women and young people, despite the inherent conservatism of Yemeni tradition. At the same time, we were verbally attacked by many parties in the process because we gave Houthis representation in the National Dialogue Conference.

Diplomatic Connections: When we talk about the National Dialogue Conference, who were the parties to that National Dialogue? Who was included and how were the groups selected?

Diplomatic Connections: The media constantly identify the Houthis and their relationship with Iran as the core of the conflict in your country. Who are the Houthis and what is it they want? Where are they within your country?

Ambassador Mubarak: In Yemen we must face problems of regional, tribal, clan and family loyalties that are older and deeper than the idea of our modern nation-state. Our recent history is really one of struggling to build a national identity out of the pieces of many different identities that have established roots in the geographic area that has been defined as Yemen. Recall that current national boundaries are a relatively modern phenomenon in the Arabian Peninsula. Diplomatic Connections: How did Yemen’s National Dialogue process seek to reshape and unify a nation-state? Ambassador Mubarak: Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference was unique. For the first time, Yemenis committed to solving our problems using political dialogue, negotiation and peaceful means. That was a first step and it came only with difficulty. We went through an inclusive process designed to ensure that we assembled the right representatives from across the nation. These were vertical and horizontal representations reflecting the cultural diversity of Yemeni society and digging deep into the social and economic questions that concern the security and prosperity of the people. Based on these efforts, we started the National Dialogue. We had 565 representatives. Fifty percent of them were from the South and 50 percent were from the North and across the rest of Yemen. Thirty percent of the representatives were women and 20 percent were young people. Diplomatic Connections: In these preparatory stages of the National Dialogue Conference there was an effort to focus on process and to be extremely inclusive. How were these efforts accepted?

Ambassador Mubarak: The Houthis, as a movement, started in 1992 when the “Believers,” or “Faithful Youth Movement,” was established by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi. “Houthi” is the name of a family that controlled significant territory in the Northwest of Yemen. He was killed by Yemeni government forces in 2004. By that point the world media had attached the name “Houthis” to the movement that he started. Initially theological in its approach, the movement was intended to promote a Zaidi religious revival in the Sa’dah region of Northwest Yemen. Houthis considered the growth of the Salafi [fundamentalist reform] movement in Sunni Islam as a threat to their Zaidi traditions. Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh initially supported this Houthi revival in hopes of promoting regional interests that would create harmony and help to establish an internal balance of power. Saleh’s regime gave the Houthis space to develop and sustain their revival by accepting Houthi control of the Sa’dah region. The Houthis claim that they are representing the interests of Hashemites or Zaidi tradition. We believe that they did not represent the interests of Zaidis at all. We differentiate totally between Zaidis and the Houthis. Though the Zaidis of Yemen identify with the Shi’a tradition of Islam, they are historically more moderate than the radical militants of “Twelver” Shi’ism in Iran, where the roles of religious and political leadership have been combined into a modern day theocracy as they await the coming of a currently invisible Twelfth Imam who will appear on judgment day. What began as a doctrinal/cultural difference became politicized and militarized as Houthis sought to resist fundamentalist Sunni influences being brought to Yemen

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through Saudi-sponsored Salafi schools. Their goal was to resist foreign influences and to establish a regional balance of power within Yemen. Ironically, by accepting Iranian assistance in their efforts to challenge the Yemeni government, they have opened the door to greater Iranian presence in our country. Diplomatic Connections: Were the Houthis included in the National Dialogue process and in the attempts to shape a new Yemeni government? Ambassador Mubarak: We took many steps to reassure the Houthis and to encourage them, as well as the secessionist movements in the South, to join in the National Dialogue. We believed it was the proper time to maximize the opportunities for establishing a truly unified government that the National Dialogue process offered. We accepted the Houthis, and many of the issues of greatest concern to them were addressed in the National Dialogue Conference. People close to the Houthis were part of the process at every stage of drafting a new constitution for a united Yemen. We tried to incorporate all of the Yemeni peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dreams into a new constitution. Diplomatic Connections: Why did this process of national reconciliation break down? Ambassador Mubarak: We made two main critical mistakes during this political process. First, we accepted proposals to allow the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to remain on the political scene. There was no requirement that he accept responsibility for the actions of his government or anything that was done in his name. I think that grant of immunity was fair to get him out of office, but accepting his continued presence on the political scene was a critical mistake. Second, we dealt with the Houthis as a political movement despite the fact that they were an ideological militia more than a true political party. We accepted the idea of having an ideological militia armed with heavy weapons and tanks as part of the political negotiation process alongside unarmed political parties and social movements. The Houthis never really negotiated or accepted the principle of having to give something to get something in return.

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The Houthis felt that they had the means to take the whole pie, so why would they accept just a small slice of what they wanted? They became even more powerful when former President Saleh and his followers sided with them. Add to that the Iranian intervention in support of the Houthis, and it became almost impossible for a true negotiation to proceed. The Houthis became an increasingly irresistible force on the ground, and they began to expand the territory under their control. Diplomatic Connections: Does that suggest that the roots of the conflict in Yemen are more political than religious? Ambassador Mubarak: We do not believe that the conflict in Yemen is a sectarian conflict. Historically, Yemen never had two deeply divided and distinct religious sects. We have Shafie and Zaidi schools of Islam and they are very, very close to each other. Although, the Shafie see themselves as Sunni Muslims and the Zaidi identify with the Shiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;a. Yemenis never called the Zaidis Shiite. They are a unique school of Islam all of their own. But, there is no doubt that Iran has made every effort to support the Houthiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in their revival, to encourage the Zaidi believers to align themselves more closely with the theocratic practices of the Iranian government, and to undermine the social and political fabric of Yemen. Diplomatic Connections: Is the relationship between the Houthis and the Iranians, then, a marriage of convenience for both? Ambassador Mubarak: Exactly. Primarily, the Houthis have exploited their Zaidi identity to attract financial, military and international support from the Iranian regime. In turn, Iran has exploited the Houthi connection to gain a territorial foothold on the Arabian Peninsula and astride the Bab el Mandeb waterway in proximity to major international shipping routes. Diplomatic Connections: We are beginning to get at what is the most puzzling piece of the conflict in Yemen for Americans and for the international community. Is what is happening in Yemen essentially an internal conflict, or is it part of a larger regional war? Ambassador Mubarak: Certainly there is widespread conflict in the region. And, certainly, outside powers have become involved in regional proxy conflicts. But, in Yemen, it is more of a Yemeni conflict. That is how it started: we faced difficult choices, either to leave Yemen to Iran and a group backed by Iran or to resist and try to limit foreign influence in our

country. What is happening in Yemen has major international implications, but it is more an internal conflict. Diplomatic Connections: Additionally, is what is happening in Yemen today a “proxy” war, an arena of the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran? Ambassador Mubarak: Iran is primarily interested in Yemen because it wants to outflank Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries by undermining their borders. Even if Iran does not develop a nuclear capacity, control of Yemen could yield it significant power to disrupt global energy trade, especially when it is coupled with their potential ability to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Diplomatic Connections: How would you characterize the role of the United States in these events? It is clear that there was a concern about the rise of AQAP in Yemen. There was a concern about Yemen as a haven for terrorist groups, even without the approval of the Yemeni government. In turn, that led to a greater American involvement, and eventually to the United States launching drone flights from facilities in your country. Did that American involvement make matters worse and possibly contribute to the perception that foreign powers were taking over the conflict in Yemen? Ambassador Mubarak: Yemen and the United States are facing the same threats in the region. We have mutual agreements on counter-terrorism activities in Yemen. Because of links with former President Saleh, who seeks to regain power, AQAP benefitted from the political vacuum that occurred in Yemen. Because of the Houthis resistance and their expanded control of territory in Yemen, extremists from Iran have been able to have more space to operate in Yemen. We take these issues of extremism seriously as a national government. We are dealing with both sorts of extremism. Otherwise, all of the extremists, – whether from the Houthi side or from the Jihadi [AQAP] side, will benefit from disorder, from the absence of a stable and moderate setting in Yemen. Diplomatic Connections: The Saudi Arabian involvement in Yemen, intended to support the government of President Hadi and to force the Houthis from the territory they occupy, has spread a great deal of destruction because of the heavy aerial bombardment tactics they have employed as well deploying some forces on the ground. GCC forces, both air and ground, have been involved in trying to liberate areas of the country, but the result of these efforts has been enormous destruction.

Iran is primarily interested in Yemen because it wants to outflank Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries by undermining their borders. Even if Iran does not develop a nuclear capacity, control of Yemen could yield it significant power to disrupt global energy trade, especially when it is coupled with their potential ability to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Are the Saudis seen as allies of the legitimate Yemeni government, or are they seen increasingly by the people of Yemen as destroyers more than saviors? Ambassador Mubarak: Most Yemenis appreciate what the military coalition is doing for them. Many have lost their homes and businesses and quite possibly their relatives because of the protracted violence. Wars are painful and always considered a last resort. However, had the coalition not intervened in Yemen, total chaos would have plagued the entire country. Various ideological armed groups would have spontaneously sprung up to counter the Houthi military advances. Disorder and disarray, similar to what Syria is experiencing, would have led to in-fighting among disparate communities across the nation. The coalition intervention, with all of its drawbacks, has actually served to rationalize the conflict in Yemen – by upholding the legitimate government of Yemen and uniting the forces, led by the New National Army, that are countering the Houthi militia thereby avoiding a complete and total collapse of the state. For us the problem is that too much of the media coverage focuses on the coalition bombing, almost to the exclusion of covering the extensive damage done by the Houthi attacks on communities and infrastructure. The media do not shed enough light on the destruction done by the Houthis and their militias, most of it caused by shelling from mortars and field guns as well as from Katyusha rockets supplied to them by Iran.

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A wounded kid receives medical treatment at a hospital after the Houthis attacked residential areas with howitzers in Taiz, Yemen.

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Abdulnasser Al Saddek /Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Saleh Al-Obeidi/AFP/Getty Images

A badly wounded Yemeni girl lies on a hospital bed following a rocket attack by Houthi Shiite rebels and their allies in Adenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s loyalist-held alMansura district Aden.

Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images

A Yemeni blind child takes part in a demonstration gathering disabled people to protest after a center for the blind was reportedly destroyed in the capital Sanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;a on January 6, 2016.

Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A Yemeni man reacts next to the wreckage of a car at the site of a car bomb attack near the Qubbat alMahdi Mosque in Sanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;a, Yemen. At least three people were killed and seven others were injured when a a car bomb hit a mosque used by the Houthi fighters in the Yemeni capital, medical sources said.

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It is true that mistakes have been made and that unintended targets have been hit during the coalition military campaign. But, we are willing to submit to any kind of an independent investigation designed to uncover what happened in specific situations, especially relating to claims that hospitals and civilian targets were attacked. Diplomatic Connections: From your government’s point of view the Saudi-led coalition and its “Operation Decisive Storm,” launched in March 2015, then followed by “Operation Restore Hope” launched a month later were necessary evils, violence launched only as a last resort against illegitimate forces that sought to take over control of Yemen. Is that right? Ambassador Mubarak: The Houthi militias and their suppliers decided to break down all the political processes in Yemen. They encircled and took control of the capital city Sana’a. They moved from Sana’a to Dhamar, to Ibb, to Ta’iz moving southward, occupying cities and killing anyone who resisted. Thousands of people have been killed during the advance of the Houthi militias. If we didn’t have the Coalition intervention we would not have been able to mount any continued resistance to the Houthi militias supported by Iran. We were faced with very difficult choices. Either accept the Houthi occupation of large parts of the country or call for international assistance. Diplomatic Connections: What gives you cause for hope when your country has been pulled apart in so many different directions and that peace can be reestablished? Ambassador Mubarak: Yemen is one of the oldest civilizations in the world and the people claim a special measure of wisdom based on their long history. Yemenis are good on compromise, and they are good deal-makers. I was the Secretary General for the National Dialogue when we started that dialogue. On the first day, we were in a venue where you had the victim and the killer in the same room. The new president and representatives of the deposed president were there. The Houthis and the separatists from the South were there. Men and women were there. No one believed that we could reach an agreement. We spent 10 months. It was tough negotiating. But, in the end we reached a kind of consensus on what Yemenis needed and wanted.

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Diplomatic Connections: How does, then, does Yemen move forward? Ambassador Mubarak: Yemen is a poor country and cannot afford more war. We need peace. I believe that most of the Yemenis have received this message even in the midst of the violence that continues. Despite repeated setbacks, there is still hope to resolve our problems peacefully and to be about the business of rebuilding our country. We have a working draft of a new constitution. Additionally, we have a feasible road map in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216, which was approved by 14 members of the Security Council with no negative votes and one abstention by the Russian Federation. Though the first two rounds of negotiations in Switzerland failed to make progress, the changing situation on the ground with our government in control of more and more territory, leads me to hope for a breakthrough in the third round of talks scheduled for early in 2016. Diplomatic Connections: Your people are looking ahead and asking: What is the future of Yemen? Ambassador Mubarak: We are not a people – despite what events may make it appear – who revel in civil war. We have called our brothers in the GCC to help us reverse the results of the coup done by the Houthis and former President Saleh that forced President Hadi to leave Yemen for a period of months. After all the country has been through, I think the majority of the Yemeni people believe that we have to stop this conflict and return to the program we have previously agreed upon: completing the reform initiatives proposed in the National Dialogue, considering and adopting the proposed new constitution. The events of the past year have not made that task any easier, but I continue to believe it is possible. Yemen is a part of the Arab Peninsula. We envision the cooperation of the Arab nation and the Saudi state, but we cannot understand Iranian meddling.

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MONICA FRIM finds easygoing rhythms in the natural beauty and charming architecture of islands that entice with the simple pleasures of

THE

hiking, kayaking, bicycling and whale-watching.

AN ISLAND PARADISE IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN BY MONICA FRIM PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN FRIM AND MONICA FRIM

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Vila Campo do Franca, a seaside town that was once the capital of the Azores. After a sixteenth century earthquake destroyed the town, the capital was transferred to Ponta Delgada.

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A piscina naturale on Pico’s rugged coast.

he words ‘ISLAND PARADISE’ are not normally associated with the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. But if you combine the best of Hawaii, Iceland, New Zealand, and a few other far-flung countries,

you’ll likely land on a bundle of subtropical islands midway between the United States, Europe and Africa. Born of fire and brimstone over millions of years, the nine volcanic islands that make up the Azores shoot straight out of the ocean at one of the planet’s most turbulent locations—the collision point of the Eurasian, American and African tectonic plates. With sheer cliffs and sky-high headlands that totter over a hodgepodge of black basaltic rocks, and a persistent surf that pummels the coastlines into whimsical contours, the islands are among the world’s youngest, wildest and most scenic. Just don’t expect white sand

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UNITED

L AT

KINGDOM

GERMANY

EAN

FRANCE

*Azores Islands image not to scale. Enlarged for better visibility. The Azores are 948 miles from Portugal; 2,398 miles from Boston. SATA has regular flights to the Azores from Boston. PORTUGAL

SPAIN

beaches or swaying palm trees. These islands entice with fire breathing fumaroles, hot springs, lush green vegetation, glassy crater lakes, and skimpy black sand beaches squeezed between imposing cliffs and coastal rock pools.

Pico (The Black Island) Each island is informally named after its most dominant color. As the youngest island, Pico is also the blackest and roughest, with lava rocks creating natural swimming pools called piscinas naturales along an erratic shoreline, or serving as building materials for adegas (winemakers’ houses), or as dry stone fences to protect the grape vines from the salty sea winds. For centuries Pico’s economy was driven by wine and whales before both industries plummeted and, in the case of the whaling industry, came to a halt in the mid-1980s. Now both industries are enjoying a revival—the wine with hardier grapes, and the whaling with whale-watching tours that fortuitously turn a better profit. Until the 19th century Verdelho wine was the commercial backbone of Pico Island. But when disease decimated the vineyards, many people immigrated to North America. The industry struggled on with other wines and also produced fig and other brandies. The abandoned adegas were turned into vacation homes; and the old cellars, distilleries and warehouses into museums.

The Wine Museum on the outskirts of Madalena is one of the best places to see lava fields turned into fertile vineyards. Corrais—lava stone fences (corrals) protect the vines from the salty winds and retain the sun’s heat at night.

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The city of Horta and the Bay of Pim as seen from the Monte da Guia.

At Porto Cachorro, named for a rock whose shape resembles a puppy (cachorro), our guide, Vera, pointed out impressions—now permanently pressed into the hardened lava flows—of the wheels of the old oxcarts that carried the wine to the ports. “About 2,000 barrels crossed the channel between Pico and Faial each year,” said Vera. “The people on Faial owned the vineyards on Pico and exported the wine to Europe.” We took the coastal road to the old whale processing plant at Cais do Pico where whale blubber was rendered The Ponta Rasa windmill at São João. A dracaena or dragon tree. The dye from its sap (dragon’s blood) was used from the 15th to the 19th centuries.

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into oil, and bone and gristle ground into animal feed. But a more comprehensive picture emerged at the Whaler’s Museum at Lajes do Pico. Here the entire whaling industry was compressed into masterful displays of whaling tools, scrimshaw works, replicas of whaling boats and a film that drives home the dangers and gruesome nature of the hunt. It was pouring rain when our next guide, José, took us on a tour of the interior. Mount Pico, the mountain for which the island is named (pico means peak) disappeared into the clouds, and the forested lava fields of the misterios threw feathery splotches

of green across a misty grey canvas. Misterios translates as “mysteries”, the name given to the lava fields by the early islanders who were baffled by the volcanic eruptions that had created them. The misterios were rife with ferns, grey lichens, vines, Australian cheesewood and a variety of pine trees. Here and there clumps of pink belladonna, a leafless decorative flower, poked through the brothy fog. Cactuslike euphorbias sprouted in the cracks of the ubiquitous basalt fences and thick patches of moss grew in the ruins of abandoned houses. There was a sad beauty in the collapse of the properties and in the earth itself—historical tributes to the force of nature and its effect upon the locals. More uplifting was the sight of acres of vineyards hemmed into stony corrals so unique they’ve been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most expansive fields are near Madalena, where the old Carmelite Conventual House houses a museum complete with wine cellar and distillery. From Madalena our next island stop was a mere 30 minutes away by ferry.

Faial (The Blue Island) For many years Horta, on the Island of Faial, has been a primary port of call for yachts crossing the Atlantic. Local boats stopped here too—whaling boats and vessels laden with wine from Pico, which used Horta’s harbor because Pico’s unyielding coast could not accommodate the large ships destined for international markets. On the surface it seemed a fair trade—Pico wine for Faial port facilities—had Pico’s vineyards not also been owned by Faial’s elite but

worked by Pico’s people. Fortunately, the historical grudges are fading slowly as the two islands now share an interdependent tourist trade. A lot of Azores’ A section of the pier at Horta Harbor with murals painted by sailors. firsts took place in Horta: the first trans-Atlantic communications cable to be laid across the ocean floor, the first support station for ships in World War I, and the first refueling station for airplanes flying from Europe to America. All the while the harbor teemed with whalers unloading their oil; now it’s crammed with whale-touring boats and the yachts of wealthy globetrotters. Azorean superstition holds that sailors must paint a picture on the docks of Horta in order to assure safe passage. As a result every square inch of Horta’s pier and breakwater is covered in colorful murals with new pictures continuously being painted over old. Then, as now, “Peter’s Café Sport” was the most popular bar among those who dropped anchor. Memorabilia left by international sailors hang from walls and ceiling: flags and pennants, plaques and stickers, maps and pictures that go back to the café’s opening in 1918. But the greatest drawing card is the upstairs scrimshaw museum begun in the 1980s by José Azevedo, nicknamed Peter by a homesick British World War II officer. This is arguably one of the best private collections of scrimshaw in the world.

Lava arches at Lajinha.

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Capelhinos was formed by a volcanic eruption that lasted from September 1957 to October 1958. It enlarged the island of Faial by one square mile.

Diplomatic Connections wishes to thank SATA and the Azores Promotion Board in addition to the following sponsors:

PICO ISLAND

Restaurante Canto da Doca

Aldeia da Fonte

Rua Nova Angustias 9900-023 Horta TEL: +351 292 292 444 EMAIL: reservas@cantodadoca.com FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/ Restaurante-Canto-da-Doca-112889552055430/ info/?tab=page_info

Caminho de Baixo 2 9930-177 Lajes Pico   TEL: + 351 292 679 500  EMAIL: info@aldeiadafonte.com WEBSITE: www.aldeiadafonte.com

FAIAL ISLAND Casa D’Ávilas Ladeira da Igreja, 132 9900 – 323 Castelo Branco Filipe Ávila MOBILE: +351 962 432 694 EMAIL: geral@casadavilas.com WEBSITE: www.casadavilas.com

Restaurante Genuíno Areinha velha, n.º 9 Angustias 9900-011 Horta  TEL: +351 292 701 542 EMAIL: genuino@genuinomadruga.com WEBSITE: www.genuino.pt

Horta Cetáceos Cais de Sta. Cruz | Marina da Horta 9900 Horta  Pedro Filipe MOBILE: +351 965 251 322 TEL: +351 292 391 942 EMAIL: info@hortacetaceos.com WEBSITE: www.hortacetaceos.com

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TERCEIRA ISLAND Aguiatur Pontão C 9700-000 Angra do Heroísmo TEL: +351 295 217 036 EMAIL: geral@aguiaturazores.com WEBSITE: www.aguiaturazores.com

Hotel do Caracol Estrada Regional Nº 1 - Silveira 9700-193 Angra do Heroísmo  TEL: + 351 295 402 600 EMAIL: dep.reservas@hoteldocaracol.com WEBSITE: www.hoteldocaracol.com

Associação Cultural Angrajazz Centro Cultural e de Congressos de Angra do Heroísmo 9700-130 Angra do Heroísmo  TEL: +351 295 218 490 EMAIL: info@angrajazz.com WEBSITE: www.edicao2015.angrajazz.com

Another must-see restaurant for the décor is Restaurante Genuino. The owner, Genuino Madruga, sailed solo around the world twice and displays mementos from every port of call under glass table tops and along the walls. It’s also a good place to savor limpets, a local delicacy of grilled aquatic snails. Faial is named the Blue Island for its ubiquitous blue hydrangeas that divide the fields and pasturelands. Not that Faial lacks lava for fence material. Still tectonically active, Faial’s most recent volcanic eruption occurred offshore in the 1950s and lasted for 13 months. It added almost one square mile to the island and created the westernmost point of Capelhinos, a barren mound of ash and lava behind a lighthouse that is now too far from shore for its intended purpose. Instead it houses an underground museum with exhibits that tell not only the story of Capelhinos, but volcanic eruptions all over the world. As we exit the lighthouse, our guide Susana points to crumbling roofs poking through the ground—remnants of houses buried under the lava flows. We continue our circumnavigation of the island past empty shells of churches and lighthouses, victims of Faial’s other force of nature: earthquakes. The most recent occurred in 1998 and left many places, like Ribeirinha, virtual ghost towns. But if the abandoned buildings

GenuÍno Madruga, who twice sailed solo around the world and now owns the Restaurante GenuÍno on the Bay of Pim, wrote a book about his experiences. He displays T-shirts and other souvenirs from each port of call on the walls and tables of his restaurant.

are depressing, the landscape is pure joy. Windblown headlands and crater rims offer shimmering views of terraced fields, fissured rocks and whimsical coastal caves and arches. Above Horta two scenic lookouts—Espalamaca with its nearly 100-foot cross and statue of Our Lady of the Conception; and across the harbor, Monte da Guia with its chapel to Our Lady of Guidance—provide unparalleled views of Horta’s white-washed buildings curling up into the green

Quinta do Martelo

Restaurante QB

Terra Nostra Garden Hotel

Canada do Martelo 24, Cantinho, São Francisco das Almas, São Mateus 9700-576 Angra do Heroísmo TEL: +351 295 642 842 EMAIL: quintadomartelo@quintadomartelo.com WEBSITE: www.quintadomartelo.net

Caminho do Meio de São Carlos nº50 9700-222 Angra do Heroísmo Tel: +351 295 333 999 Email: geral@qbangra.com

Rua Padre José Jacinto Botelho, 5 9675-061 Furnas – Povoação S. Miguel – Açores TEL: +351 296 549 090  EMAIL: terra.nostra@bensaude.pt WEBSITE: www.bensaude.pt/terranostragardenhotel

Restaurante Cais D’Angra

SÃO MIGUEL ISLAND

Porto das Pipas 9700-154 Angra do Heroísmo TEL: +351 295 216 304 EMAIL: caisdeangra@hotmail.com FACEBOOK PAGE: www.facebook.com/cais.dangra/ timeline?ref=page_internal

Rua Marquês da Praia e Monforte, 40 9500-089 Ponta Delgada TEL: +351 296 308 500 EMAIL: reservas@hoteltalisman.com WEBSITE: www.hoteltalisman.com

Rua da Rocha, n.º8 9700-169 Angra do Heroísmo TEL: +351 295 212 992  EMAIL: montanheiros@montanheiros.com WEBSITE: www.montanheiros.com Rua de Cima de Santa Luzia, nº15 9700-051 Angra do Heroísmo TEL: +351 967 476 929  EMAIL: azoresxperience@gmail.com WEBSITE: www.azoresxperience.com

Taberna da Queimada TEL: +351 969 000 664

Bahia Palace Hotel Hotel Talisman

Os Montanheiros (Algar do Carvão)

Azores Xperience

Website: www.qbangra.com

Restaurante Anfiteatro Portas do Mar – Ponta Delgada  TEL: +351 296 206 150  EMAIL: eventosanfiteatro@mail.telepac.pt WEBSITE: www.efth.com.pt

Picos de Aventura Hotel Marina Atlântico Av. João B. Mota Amaral 9500-150 Ponta Delgada TEL: +351 296 283 288 EMAIL: reservas@picosdeaventura.com WEBSITE: www.picosdeaventura.com

Praia de Baía D’Alto 9680 Vila Franca do Campo  TEL: +351 296 539130 WEBSITE: www.hotelbahiapalace.com

Futurismo Portas do Mar - Loja 26 9500-771 Ponta Delgada  TEL: +351 296 628 522 EMAIL: reservations@futurismo.pt WEBSITE: www.futurismo.pt

Restaurante Lagoa Azul Rua da Caridade 18 9555-198 Ponta Delgada TEL: +351 296 915 678 EMAIL: restaurantelagoazul@gmail.com FACEBOOK PAGE: www.facebook.com/RestauranteLagoa-Azul-118244091603657/timeline

Restaurante Alcides Rua Hintze Ribeiro, 67 9500-049 Ponta Delgada TEL: +351 296 629 884 EMAIL: geral@alcides.pt WEBSITE: www.alcides.pt

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The Cathedral of Angra do Heroísmo towers over the orange clay-tiled roofs of the surrounding houses.

Terceira’s wild and lushly vegetated interior is best traversed by four-wheel drive.

pasturelands of the surrounding hills. Stand anywhere on the island and you can trick yourself into thinking you might be in Iceland or Hawaii. But here on the south side, you might also be reminded of Japan: looking seaward, Pico’s perfectly conical mountain appears a carbon copy of Mount Fuji.

Terceira (The Lilac Island) Terceira is arguably the Azores’ most colorful island, known for soft-hued sunsets and showy festivals. It’s also the object of some friendly ribbing: ”On Terceira there is always something happening,” said our guide, Nuno. “We say there are eight islands in the Azores and one big party.”

At a village tourada a corda (bull fighting on a rope), five bull handlers in white shirts and black hats stand rope in hand, ready to intervene should a street runner require assistance.

A village bullfighter teases a bull with his umbrella.

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A caldera provides fertile pastureland for cattle ranches.

That certainly seemed the case the night we arrived in the capital city of Angra do Heroísmo. It was the opening night of Angrajazz, an international festival of world-class musicians held in an old-bull-fighting arena turned Cultural and Conference Center. Here the likes of jazz greats like American Lee Konitz and Norwegian Tord Gustavsen, along with their attendant musicians, and the island-based Orquestra Angrajazz provided a dash of sophistication that was likely absent from the venue’s former function. Nevertheless, we did get an impromptu taste of Terceira’s taurine fervor in the seaside village of Biscoitos— known more for its natural lava pools and traditional vineyards. Each day from May to October, one or more

villages hosts a tourada a corda (bullfighting on a rope) so chapels known as Impérios, volcanic caves and chimneys, named because the bulls run through the streets controlled verdant craters turned into cattle pastures, and densely by a rope held by a team of pastores, bull handlers in forested hiking trails attest to an island life that’s almost white shirts and black hats. These events have none of the overpowering in its simplicity. Wild and ruggedly beautiful, blood and gore of Pamplona’s more famous run (the bull the landscape boasts ferns the size of small barns, giant is never killed or harmed), unless you count the boisterous araucaria trees, eucalyptus woods, and sulfur-breathing carousing that takes place in the makeshift bars after the fumaroles reminiscent of Iceland or New Zealand. bulls have been returned to their pens. Still, the bulls’ It’s a hiker’s paradise but with just the right amount horns are padded for the run, just in case of sophistication to keep city slickers an overconfident village tease gets a little enthralled. A UNESCO heritage site, Angra too close. do Heroísmo was almost completely First colonized in the 1400s by rebuilt after the earthquake of 1980, its Flemish settlers, Terceira soon found itself 19th century palaces, City Hall, church on the wish list of Portuguese, Spanish, museums and parks lovingly restored. French and English invaders. In the end São Miguel (The Green Island) the Portuguese won out but evidence of São Miguel’s roads twist up, down, and marauders’ interests remain in the form along crater rims with panoramic lookouts of hundreds of sunken ships and in the to more craters within craters. Forests of Spanish-built 16th century fortifications on laurel, chestnut, heather and holly tumble Monte Brasil. The Monte is actually an old into valleys that steam and burble with volcano connected by a small isthmus to mud pools and natural springs hot enough Angra on the mainland. to cook in. Dry stone fences and boxy Known for a variety of religious festivals, Terceira Elsewhere on Terceira, pastel colored boasts numerous Imperios, colorful spiritual chapels hedgerows of trimmed azalea bushes dedicated to the devotion of the Holy Spirit. This one houses, brightly trimmed spiritual line the roadsides, and purple and blue is in the city of Angra do Heroísmo One of many trails that offer panoramic views of the craters and lakes in the area of Sete Cidades.

Hamming it up on the Blue Lake.

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View from Memory Hill the to the city of Angra do HeroĂsmo, the harbor and Monte Brasil.

The eighteenth century City Gates at Ponta Delgada were moved from the old quay to their present location on the GonĂ§alo Velho Cabral Square during the construction of the seaside Prince Henry Avenue.

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The Gorreana Tea Plantation near Ribeira Grande produces both green and black varieties of tea. The Azores are the only place in Europe with a climate suitable for growing tea.

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hydrangeas, big as beach balls, divide verdant fields and pasturelands just as they do on the other islands. Hiking paths slice through pumice and jungle-covered terrain to spectacular viewpoints that stretch clear across the island or deep into the blue or green eyes of crater lakes that take on the colors of their surroundings. Of course the locals offer up more intriguing explanations for the different hues—such as the story of the green-eyed princess and blue-eyed shepherd boy whose tears at not being allowed to marry formed the two lakes of Sete Cidades. Eduardo, our guide, regaled us with a gold-mine of facts and folktales that had me convinced that Sao Miguel packs the best of all the Azores’ islands into one impressive bundle. At Sete Cidades we kayaked from one fabled lake to the other, the two lakes being connected by a narrow strait spanned by a multi-arched bridge. At the eastern end of the island we bicycled around Lagoa das Furnas, another crater lake famous for the nearby underground ovens that slow-cook a cozido of meats and vegetables for local restaurants. In the spa town of Furnas, leafy woodlands and berms of flowering bushes flank streets, canals and riversides that lead to hot pools and fountains of turmericcolored waters that taste as disgusting as they look. Supposedly they’re good for your health. The town’s Terra Nostra Botanical Garden is the epitome of English, Azorean and international gardening delights. Thousands of flowers, shrubs and trees are set among canals, grottoes and a thermal mineral bath that

turns toenails and bathing suits a ferrous orange. It’s worth packing an old bathing suit for the experience. More crater lakes dot the landscape between Furnas and Sete Cidades. At Caldeira Velha on the northern slope of Lagoa do Fogo, thermal springs and fumaroles are set within a natural area that includes Australian tree ferns, cheesewood and Kahili ginger as well as native Azorean plants. When the lush surroundings become too overwhelming, São Miguel’s administrative center of Ponta Delgado provides quaint urban relief. Eduardo leads us along cobbled streets and a seafront promenade through 18th century city gates into the historical canter. Churches and convents, many converted into museums, and warehouses turned into shops and banks, co-exist alongside houses trimmed with tiny wrought-iron balconies and basalt windowsills. Alleys with hostels and small hotels contrast with modern office complexes or lead to pretty parks and public squares adorned with statuary, trees and flowers. Across the street from the imposing Fortress of São Bras, three life-sized bronze figures point with hope towards America. This is the Monument to the Azorean Emigrants, erected in 1999 in memory of the many islanders who left the Azores. Today they return as tourists to rediscover their motherland. Or, possibly, like other international visitors, they’re finding pieces of Ireland, Iceland, Hawaii, New Zealand….

Bathers relax in a pool of warm mineral water at the Caldeira Velha near Lagoa do Fogo (Fire Lake).

The Blue and Green crater lakes at Sete Cidades.

The cozido consists of various meats and vegetables steamed together underground. After six hours the pot is unearthed and transported to a restaurant in Furnas, a town famous for its fumaroles, mudpools and geysers.

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Arnaud Bouissou/COP21/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Christiana Figueres (L 2); Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon (C); Foreign Affairs Minister and President-designate of COP21 Laurent Fabius (R 2); and Franceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s President Francois Hollande (R) raise hands together after adoption of a historic global warming pact at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | J A N U A R Y â&#x20AC;&#x201C; F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6

Climate Conference Offers Signs of Hope for an International Response

By James A. Winship, Ph.D.

t is ofﬁcial. Two U.S. government science agencies, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, pronounced “Noah”), have conﬁrmed that 2015 surpassed 2014’s record-setting temperatures to become the hottest year. To emphasize

the reality of global warming, Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, noted that 15 of the hottest 16 years on record have now occurred in this century. The 21st Conference of Parties of the United Nations Climate Change Conference confronted these facts as representatives of 195 countries gathered in Paris in early December 2015 for two weeks of negotiations. “Recognizing that climate change represents an urgent and potentially, irreversible threat to human societies and to the planet,” began the basic framework document for these meetings, “[its solution] requires the widest possible cooperation by all countries, and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, with a view to accelerating the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions.” U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking at the opening session, underscored the urgent importance of the conference noting that, “For all the challenges we face, the growing threat of climate change could define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other.” Acknowledging the pall cast over Paris by the vicious terrorist attacks on that city that claimed 130 lives, Obama saluted “the people of Paris for insisting that this event go on — an act of defiance that proves nothing will deter us from building the future we want for our children. What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it?” 78

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The intricate diplomacy of United Nations Climate Change Conferences began in 1995 with a series of preparatory conferences leading up to 1997’s Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, an ambitious document designed to place legally binding obligations on developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Kyoto, however, was an agreement before its time and met with eventual disengagement by the United States as well as reluctance from the European Union. It also faced claims from China and India that their rapidly developing economies would be denied the use of fossil fuels that had built the industrial revolution and calls from late-developing economies for large-scale financial assistance from the developed world to meet environmental goals. What was needed to move the elaborately choreographed, but glacially slow, progress of environmental diplomacy forward in Paris was a renewed sense of urgency, a commitment to take the international politics of earth’s environment to a new level. That urgency emerged via the steady accumulation of evidence: rising temperatures, receding glaciers and disintegrating polar ice caps. By moving away from some of the most controversial past proposals — notably the idea of mandatory emissions

Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

Audience members and delgates applaud after the adoption of a historic global warming pact at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. Envoys from 195 nations on December 12 adopted to cheers and tears a historic accord to stop global warming, which threatens humanity with rising seas and worsening droughts, floods and storms.

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The slogan ‘1.5 Degrees’ is projected on the Eiffel Tower as part of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) in Paris, France.

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Chesnot/Getty Images

The slogan ‘Climate sign’ is projected on the Eiffel Tower as part of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) on December 11, 2015 in Paris, France. COP21 President Laurent Fabius unveiled the final draft text of a global climate agreement of negotiations in Paris.

The slogan ‘Decarbonize’ is projected on the Eiffel Tower as part of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) in Paris, France.

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cuts for highly developed economies while not requiring similar cuts from large, rapidly developing economies like China and India — the Paris Conference produced a surprising degree of agreement among states with disparate interests. They were united by a single common concern — shaping an effective, timely response to the immediate realities and potential dangers of global warming. The event’s outcomes include: Specific targets were set with states party to the agreement aiming to hold temperatures “well below 2 C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.” States developed and accepted a specific mechanism by which they will determine and submit their national commitment to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by a credible amount by 2030. These commitments are called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The agreement establishes a formal review process termed a global stocktake, beginning in 2023 and then held at five-year intervals where states will be required to revisit, update and enhance their national goals as set by their prior INDC commitments. The agreement not only encourages the research and technological development necessary for developed states to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, but also provides funding to help late-developing countries leapfrog the fossil fuel age that has been the engine of economic development. The Paris Agreement will become legally binding when joined by at least 55 countries, which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. For all the success of the Paris Conference and the promise of the Paris Agreement, there are major problems ahead. Even if fully enacted and adopted by every nationstate in the world, it is still not enough to avoid dangerous climate change. Estimates are that the projected INDCs submitted in advance of the conference will, at best, not hold global warming below 3 C. The Paris Agreement now moves to ratification by the individual states that accepted these proposals. There is sure to be resistance from national legislatures and major energy lobbies.

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Like much of international law, there are no enforcement mechanisms in the Paris Agreement. Fulfillment of the Paris Agreement depends upon voluntary compliance backed up by what can be hoped will be a substantial degree of peer pressure. The global stocktaking approach, based on review conferences every five years, seems a hollow mechanism, at best a theatrical public relations exercise and at worst a toothless substitute for any real enforcement. It is worth recalling the similar review process in the 1975 Helsinki Accords that eased Cold War tensions brought about by a series of review conferences that became a clarion call for human rights and a sounding trumpet that helped to bring down the Berlin Wall and saw the collapse of the Soviet Union. Returning to the recent data confirming that 2015 was the hottest year on record to date, the seriousness of climate change and the enormous challenge facing the Paris Agreement becomes immediately apparent. “A lot of times, when you break a record, you break it by a few hundredths of a degree,” observes Thomas Karl, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. “But this record we smashed. It was over a quarter of a degree Fahrenheit, and that’s a lot for the global temperature.” Recall that the Paris Agreement, about which there has been genuine excitement, says that the planet should not be allowed to warm more than 2 C (3.6 F) above preindustrial temperatures. It was agreed in Paris that global warming should be limited to 1.5 C (2.7 F). According to NOAA, 2015 was 0.9 C (1.62 F) above the 20th century average. Though there’s always a great deal of room for annual average temperature variance, NOAA’s data suggests that we are already halfway to the temperature ceiling just set as a goal by the Paris Agreement. That 2 C ceiling is the goal set for 2030, and even the global stocktake review process envisioned by the Paris Agreement does not begin until 2023. No telling irony should ever be wasted. So just in case global warming cannot be slowed, or even reversed, perhaps NOAA (“Noah”) should start urgent planning for a new global infrastructure project, a modern-day equivalent of the ark?

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ver since it was first launched in 1944, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe awards night has had a raffish, unorthodox edge to it, in part because unlike most of the Tinsel Town’s award events, alcohol is served and flows freely. In the past, there were also occasional rumors that the Association members were susceptible to friendly persuasion from publicists (shock! astonishment!), such as when the glamorous Raquel Welch won for best actress. Given its antecedents, it was hardly surprising that a subtext of this year’s Golden Globes evening was a not very subtle questioning whether the award had any meaning. For example: The actor DENZEL WASHINGTON, who received the Golden Globes’ Cecil B.DeMille award, recalled in his rather disjointed acceptance speech that, some years ago, his agent had told him he had been invited to lunch by the Hollywood Foreign Press, and if he posed for pictures with the members he would win the award. And he did. Even so, the event – the first of the awards season – continues to draw the cream of Hollywood’s television and film community who on this occasion put up with British comedian Ricky Gervais’ abuse, including calling them a variety of distasteful names, without actually lynching him. The fact is that the Golden Globes are important in the industry because they often set certain movies, their

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makers and actors on the road to success in the other, more prestigious and more marketable annual contest – the Oscars. In an industry where if a thing’s worth doing it’s worth doing at least twice, and insecurity is more revenant than the movie of that name, the Oscar voters are more likely to pick a proven winner than take a chance on a perhaps more deserving movie that has not already been recognized as such. Thus, after winning Golden Globes The Revenant, its star LEONARDO DI CAPRIO, and Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, looked set to sweep the board with 12 Oscar nominations, with the The Martian (unaccountably categorized as a comedy in the Golden Globes) hot on its heels, together with its protagonist MATT DAMON for best actor. But Brie Larson from Room was going to have to contend with the Oscar’s love affair with Jennifer Lawrence, herself also a winner at the Globes for best comedy actress in Joy. The irony is that one big reason why award shows remain television mega-draws has more to do with fashion than with movies and television shows. The fashion parade of arriving stars on the red carpet in their haute couture gowns creates a drama of its own: it’s as much a contest as what happens inside – a contest to capture attention. A significant shift away from the usual, daringly exposed creations of past years graced the red carpet. There was a good sprinkling of plunging necklines, but

L A N O I T A N INTER OW SH S E H C LAUN

S D R AWA N O S SEA

JENNIFER LOPEZ, high priestess of the less is more approach to evening wear, set the more restrained tone in an elaborate, sophisticated and stylish mustard-colored gown by Giambattista Valli. Gold was a favored color, echoing the Globe’s award. BRIE LARSON was draped in a cascade of golden stardust from Calvin Klein. Sequins sparkled on OLIVIA WILDE’S figure hugging Michael Kors dress, and swirled on JENNA DEWAN TATUM’S midnight blue Zahair Murad. One of the few bare midriffs belonged to KATE HUDSON in a light hued dress with a large cut-out midsection. JENNIFER LAWRENCE, no shrinking violet when it comes to showing-off her physical assets, wore an elegant, all-covering red Dior gown with two discreet cutouts, accented by a massive diamond choker. And it was Jennifer Lawrence, unpredictable as ever, who expressed possibly the most curious sentiment ever uttered in an acceptance speech. In thanking film maker David O. Russell who directed her in Joy, she said, “I want us to be buried next to each other.” Whatever the significance of the Golden Globes, with all the glitz and glamour, they triumphantly herald the subsequent award shows.

Photos from page 86 through to 92

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Actress Taraji P. Henson

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Actress Kate Hudson

Henson: John Shearer/Getty Images

Hudson: Steve Granitz/WireImage

The 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 10, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.

Rossum/Larson: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Actress Emmy Rossum

Actress Brie Larson

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Actress Jennifer Lawrence

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Actress Jennifer Lopez

Lawrence/Lopez: Steve Granitz/WireImage

The 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 10, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.

Wilde: John Shearer/Getty Images Menounos: George Pimentel/WireImage

TV personality Maria Menounos

Actress Olivia Wilde

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Actress Jenna Dewan Tatum

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Actress Jada Pinkett Smith

Tatum: John Shearer/Getty Images

Smith: Steve Granitz/WireImage

The 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 10, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.

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E! News Correspondent Actress Catt Sadler

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Model Chanel Iman

Sadler: Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images

Iman: Jeff Vespa/Getty Images for The Weinstein Company

The 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 10, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.

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