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Education & Medical Special Sections Inside Education

A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

VOLUME 23, NUMBER 5

t

May 2016

MAY 2016

WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM Stories from the Front

Europe

Educating Military Members

T

Forms Backbone of UMUC’s

Global Rise t BY KARIN ZEITVOGEL

he images and memories from late April 1975 in Saigon — now Ho are indelibly etched Chi Minh City — in many of our minds.

An American helicopter, ning, hovers just above its rotors spina rooftop as it picks up en and children waiting a dozen of the long line on a stairway, desperate of men, womto leave the capital of then South Vietnam.

The North Vietnamese had a few days earlier, making shelled the airport serving Saigon mass evacuations by plane ble. The U.S. Armed Forces impossiNetwork (AFN) played by’s “White Christmas�

Bing Crosand aired a message that — and Vietnamese who Americans had —— recognized as a signal cooperated with the Americans that it was time to go. The city was

EUROPE

Under Intense Pressure, Balkan Nations Shut Door on Refugees

beyond tense. As AFN said in its message, the temperature 105 degrees and rising. was Out of camera range and life in South Vietnam was beyond the airwaves, one aspect of continuing almost as normal: The 30

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Amid increasingly chaotic scenes of Syrian refugees fleeing violence at home and Balkan nations hastily throwing up fences to keep out the never-ending influx, the D.C.based ambassadors of four European countries recently debated what the European Union and U.S. should do about the continent’s worst refugee crisis since World War II. / PAGE 12

Middle East

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Contents

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016

37

12

44 20

29

NEWS 5

People of World Influence Daniel Benjamin sizes up the differing transatlantic approaches to counterterrorism.

8

15 26 Their Day in Court Lawsuits force foreign governments to navigate the U.S. legal system.

44 Herculean Passport Cultural Tourism DC pulls off a massive event with a little help from their friends.

EDUCATION

45 Saudi Transformation ‘Symbolic Cities’ surveys the rapidly changing landscapes of Riyadh and Mecca.

Who Is MbS? A once-obscure, and opaque, prince could transform Saudi Arabia — or wreck it.

29 Stories from the Front Educating U.S. service members forms the backbone of UMUC’s global rise.

12

33 Academia Under Fire

Balkan Breakdown As Balkan states throw up barriers, EU envoys debate what to do with refugees.

15 Cover Profile The Nordic region has become an unlikely hotbed of pressing global issues.

20 Sykes-Picot at 100 The secret deal that carved up the Middle East still fuels resentment.

22

Groups step up to help Syrian and Iraqi scholars fleeing war.

MEDICAL

In for the Kill A Uruguayan artist uses a decidedly morbid approach to document the death of habitats.

47 Inevitable ‘Death’ A poetic tragedy of rigid social mores elevates GALA’s 40th season.

37 Zika and Pregnancy

48

CULTURE

REGULARS

42 Surprising ‘Story’

50 Cinema Listing 51 Events Listing 54 Diplomatic Spotlight 57 World Holidays 58 Classifieds 59 Real Estate Classifieds

As Zika arrives in the U.S., should women be told to avoid pregnancy during mosquito season?

Art of Gift-Giving American officials are regularly showered with swag they cannot keep.

Arab and Iranian women defy stereotypes in personal and provocative photographs.

24

43

Observing, From Afar A one-man show in Britain tries to fill the black hole of information coming out of Syria.

46

Diplomatic Spouses For two Thai political junkies, their honeymoon with Washington isn’t over.

Dining A once-blighted complex is now a showcase of cuisine and gentrification.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 3

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WD | People of World Influence

Reverberations of an Attack Terrorism Expert Breaks Down Differences in U.S., European Approaches to Extremism

by Michael Coleman

I

n the nearly 15 years since 9/11, Islamic terrorists have coordinated murderous attacks on hundreds of innocent people in countries as far-flung as Russia, Pakistan and Kenya, and in cities across the European continent from London to Madrid to Paris to Brussels.

The terror attacks in those four European cities alone resulted in over 400 casualties. But with the exception of a handful of incidents involving lone actors, the United States has been spared the devastation of those kinds of largescale terrorist attacks since that tragic day in New York and Washington, D.C., years ago. Daniel Benjamin, one of America’s leading experts on terrorism, says there are some good reasons for that.

Benjamin served as the top counterterrorism official in the second term of President Bill Clinton’s administration and, more recently, as Hillary Clinton’s chief counterterrorism coordinator at the State Department. He is also a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Time magazine who has co-authored several books, including “The Age of Sacred Terror” and “The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting It Right.” He now serves as director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth University and nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Benjamin also remains an in-demand terrorism analyst across the major media spectrum.

Writing for Politico Magazine in the wake of the Brussels terrorist attacks, Benjamin argued that, “While the jihadist threat is genuinely global, it is by no means equally distributed. There is, of course, no such thing as perfect security, and as we saw as recently as the San Bernardino shootings in December of last year, there are individuals in the United States who are prepared to commit violence against other Americans. But the European context underlying the attacks at Brussels Airport and the downtown Maelbeek subway station — one of alienated, underemployed and ghettoized Muslims as well as subpar security — differs dramatically from anything found in the United States.”

In an interview with The Washington Diplomat, Benjamin said that the U.S. response to 9/11, which included roughly $650 billion in security infrastructure improvements, is probably the number-one reason why America hasn’t endured the kinds of bloody, mass killings that jihadists have carried out elsewhere.

But other dynamics, such as geog-

raphy, demographics and the mindset of the terrorists themselves, also factor into the equation. We spoke to Benjamin about why the U.S. appears to be better able than Europe to ward off major terrorist attacks, why it’s so hard to coordinate counterterrorism efforts among sovereign nations, the difference between the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, U.S. gun culture, Donald Trump’s inflammatory comments about Muslims and more.

The Washington Diplomat: In a nutshell, why haven’t terrorists managed to create more large-scale destruction in the U.S. as they have in other countries?

Daniel Benjamin: For the United States, 9/11 was a profoundly catalytic moment. It was the biggest loss of life we had suffered in a single day since World War II and it happened on our own territory. That for us was unprecedented. We poured enormous resources into intelligence, law enforcement, border security and the like, and it’s really been priority number one since that day. It’s a sad but true fact that many governments have recognized that the threat is real, but until they are actually hit they don’t really

“

For the United States, 9/11 was a profoundly catalytic moment…. It’s a sad but true fact that many governments have recognized that the threat [of terrorism] is real, but until they are actually hit they don’t really seem to ever get up to speed as they should.

Daniel Benjamin

”

director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth University

seem to ever get up to speed as they should. The U.K. has been very, very serious about their counterterrorism measures and the French have been up to a point, but lots of countries in

Photo: Dartmouth College / Eli Burakian

Europe didn’t focus on it as much as they should have because they thought it was a threat aimed at the U.S. and they didn’t have that really powerful prod.

The other thing is the nature of the Muslim minority communities in Europe, which tend to be larger, poorer, less educated and more discriminated against, and have overall higher degrees of radicalization. That is not to say that the vast majority of European Muslims aren’t patriotic; polls even show they are more patriotic on average than the non-Muslim populations.

But in these sizable populations, there are elements that are more disposed to accept the jihadist agenda. I think it’s when you put those two things together and you add the fact that geography makes it easier for jihadis to get into Europe and to leave Europe.

think by and large we’ve gotten a lot of benefit from the money we’ve spent.

One of the things I find dismaying is how little public appreciation there is for the improvements that have been made. A lot of them are very technical and hard to understand, complex and obscure. But I don’t think there is enough of a public understanding of how much has changed in the intervening years.

TWD: You have said that the United States spent upward of $650 billion on homeland security since 9/11 — a staggering amount of money even in the context of a massive federal budget.

Has it been money well spent?

Benjamin: We have incredibly detailed vetting processes that take a very long time — on the order of two years.

This is completely different than what we see in Europe. We have brought thousands of Iraqi refugees to this country and the number of bad apples was very small and we caught them. It disappoints me that there isn’t a better understanding of that and it disappoints me as well that the people who have suffered the most from the Syrian

Benjamin: I think for the most part the money has been well spent. Government is a big spender and often maybe doesn’t target resources as precisely as it should, but I think in this particular case overshooting the mark was preferable to undershooting it. I

TWD: One of the developments in recent years that makes many Americans nervous is that continued instability in places like Iraq and Syria has resulted in a flood of refugees. Some Americans are very nervous that terror networks are using the refugee crisis to effectively smuggle jihadis to American shores. Is that a legitimate concern in your opinion?

See Benjamin • page 6 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 5

Benjamin Continued • page 5

crisis, that is to say the Syrians themselves, are being victimized again in terms of not being given access to a country that can give them asylum and resettle them. The United States can’t take care of the whole refugee problem by a longshot, but I think that we do have a responsibility to be a good global citizen and take a share of those refugees.

TWD: How would you characterize cooperation among the U.S., which has a very sophisticated and — at least in recent years — largely successful anti-terror strategy, and countries in Europe, which have been less successful?

Photo: Miguel Discart on Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons

People gather around chalk drawings and flowers honoring the victims of the March 2016 terrorist attacks in Brussels. The largest message in French says “Brussels is beautiful,” as well as “stop violence, stop war, unity, and humanity.”

Benjamin: We have different ways that we haven’t taken the initiative to do it among tive of the information they gather and decooperate. We have strong relationships in themselves, which we think is extraordi- spite the EU and its unification, intelligence intelligence law effort enforcement andto we NOTE: Althoughand every is made assure yourimportant. ad is freeOur of mistakes spellingisand the last place they will pool and share narily leverage is in limited. work together in the a customer content it ismultilateral ultimatelyarena. up toIt’sthe make theon final proof.of best (information) naturally, if you will. I think We’re very to forthcoming all kinds bit of a challenge in that we don’t fund any- practices, but there is no lever here to press these are just cultural issues that need to be thing.

Wefaxed don’t changes pay for programs in most The first two will be made at nothem costtoto subsequent overcome. During the Cold War in the U.S., dothe it inadvertiser, many cases unless they wantchanges categories in Western Europe, which is very, to do it. there was a lot of suspicion among different will very be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration.

Signed ads are considered approved. wealthy.

We hope the events in Paris last fall and agencies and lots of stovepipes that needed But it’s also important to understand the events in Brussels this spring are a wake- to be broken down. Those stovepipes are this adabsent carefully.

Mark any changes to your ad. these Please are proudcheck countries and dra- up call. A number of countries have started bigger and tougher when they are mainmatic events, their willingness to make big pushing their budgets upward and increas- tained by sovereign countries as they are If the changes ad is correct sign and faxlimited. to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes has been historically We’ve ing staff. It doesn’t change things overnight in Europe. Many of these countries had not had a lot of success at the cost of hard diplo- but it will in the long term. And we hope it really thought the threat was imminently macy in getting them to exchange informaThe Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 demonstrates a major turn in how they view directed against them. And so they’re in a tion with us, for example on aviation travel, this threat. difficult position right now. because Congress made it a condition of the Approved __________________________________________________________ visa waiver programs. It took several years TWD: One of the shifts in strategy among terChanges ___________________________________________________________ to get all the visa waiver programs signed TWD: You’ve written that intelligence-sharing between the U.S. and its European allies, rorists seems to be the willingness to use simup and to do all the exchanges they needed ___________________________________________________________________ ple firearms to carry out attacks, as we saw to. But the irony is that many of those coun- and among the European countries themin Paris last November when 130 people were tries don’t exchange that information among selves, is weak and ineffective. Why is that? killed. Does that not make U.S. society, which themselves. They may have felt like they were coerced into doing it with us, but they Benjamin: All countries are very protec- is awash in guns, more vulnerable?

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Benjamin: That side of the equation is very worrisome to the United States, although there are more and more weapons available in Europe from various sources. The availability of weaponry in the U.S. is a very big problem, particularly when you have a terrorist group that believes you should act wherever you can and doesn’t have the kind of obsession with extremely complex covert operations with multiple attacks and large explosives or even WMDs, as al-Qaeda did. The barrier to entry has fallen in a lot of places because the terrorists are prepared to use cruder instruments to carry out their violence. That’s a problem.

The flipside to that is that we seem to be — and no one can confirm this with any kind of certainty and we still need to be vigilant — a bit safer from catastrophic threats than we were in 2001 to 2003. I’m sure there is someone at ISIS (Islamic State) who would like to carry out a spectacular attack, but that has not been the primary focus of their plotting to date.

TWD: What is the biggest difference between the Islamic State and al-Qaeda and the kinds of Islamic terror groups that plotted successfully against the U.S. in the 1990s and early 2000s?

Benjamin: The biggest difference here is that ISIS, led by their founder (Abu Musab) al-Zarqawi, focused on holding territory, on creating a caliphate and pursuing a sectarian agenda and really focusing on killing Shia. Whereas (al-Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden opposed the notion of holding territory because he thought it was really hard to preserve a state that was essentially at war with all of its neighbors and an entire international community. His view was that he wanted to damage the U.S. and the West efficiently so it would get out of the Middle East, so it would no longer prop up the

apostate authoritarian governments of the Middle East.

He had a long game he was playing and he thought that was the most sensible way to go. That did not really galvanize the masses in the Muslim world, so he did not attract the kind of following that ISIS has with its effort to create its own caliphate, create an ideal state that would fulfill the dreams and ambitions of Muslims around the world.

That was a very different approach on the part of al-Zarqawi and a lot more magnetism for the admittedly small number of people who believe it. As a percentage of the global Muslim community, the believers are small in number but enough that you have 30,000 or 40,000 fighters come into ISIS-controlled territory. I think ISIS recognized that fighting Shia, particularly Shia in Iraq, was going to be more palpable, more immediate and attractive to lots of would-be fighters.

ISIS grows out of al-Qaeda and they both have their same roots in Saudi and Egyptian extremism in the mid to late 20th century, but they have taken fairly different paths in terms of their grand strategy.

TWD: One consistent characteristic of the response to terrorist attacks around the globe among the U.S. population is the notion that moderate Muslims should be more vocal in denouncing the killings and shaming those who support them. What is your reaction to that sentiment, which is shared by many nonMuslim Americans?

Benjamin: I think it’s usually misplaced. It comes from people often not looking in the right places and not knowing who to listen to and not being tuned into those communities. And often it’s not having a clear sense of the language those communities speak. I think in the U.S. right now there is enormous concern about young people being lured away by an ideology that is totally alien and anathema to everything those communities believe in. There may be some hesitancy because these are not immigrant communities that have been in the U.S. for 200 years, but I think by and large those communities should be and can be and often are in the frontlines in the fight against extremism. I think it’s often too glib to expect them to speak in the same language that commentators on FOX News do.

TWD: Speaking of FOX News, it’s been interesting to watch the feud between that network and Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner for president of the United States. Trump’s rhetoric toward Muslims in America has been fairly extreme. He’s suggested banning Muslims from the U.S. and in mid-March proclaimed that “Islam hates us,” meaning the United States. What effect does Trump’s rhetoric have on the Muslim world, here and abroad?

Benjamin: Trump has brought out an incredibly ugly streak in public opinion and has had a deeply unsettling effect on lots of communities in the United States and around the world. It’s not a unique phenomenon. We’ve seen nativist parties and individuals come to the fore in many different countries, but it’s particularly distressing when it’s your own country and when it’s so vitally important that Muslims remain trusting of the authorities. Damaging that trust is really disastrous for our efforts to defend ourselves and it’s also distressing and kind of horrifying in a country that has such a history of welcoming migrants and integrating them over the long term. A strong and competent nation ought not to let a threat change entirely the way it does business. WD Michael Coleman (@michaelcoleman) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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WD | Middle East

Who is MbS? Saudi Watchers Stunned, Mystified as Obscure Prince Catapults to Power

by Dave Seminara

A

year ago, when Saudi Arabia’s King Salman named Mohammed bin Salman the country’s deputy crown prince, with an expansive portfolio that transformed him from an obscure 29year-old royal to arguably the nation’s leading powerbroker overnight, longtime Saudi watchers were stunned. The kingdom, and its opaque ruling family, the House of Saud, has long valued seniority and spreading responsibility widely to ensure harmony.

“It was enormously shocking,” said Simon Henderson, a Saudi expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This is a man who came out of nowhere. Although he is notionally second in line to succeed King Salman, behind Mohammed bin Nayef, he is, in a sense, more powerful. Ten or 20 years ago, the notion that a young upstart could become king would have been ludicrous. Now it’s possible.”

MbS, as he’s sometimes called, does indeed wield remarkable power. He is the minister of defense, widely credited with being the architect of the Saudi offensive against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, but he is also the head of a powerful economic policy council created by the king, making him the country’s leading authority on oil and financial policy. Henderson notes that while bin Nayef, 56, known as MbN, chairs another key council focused on politics and security, MbS also sits on that council, whereas MbN does not sit on MbS’s council.

MbS’s wide-ranging portfolio puts him in charge of the kingdom’s most pressing problems, both foreign and domestic — among them, its proxy wars in Yemen and Syria, Riyadh’s power struggles with its Shiite archrival Iran and the government’s efforts to manage and modernize the economy in the face of tumbling oil prices.

MbS has been praised as a savvy, no-nonsense breath of fresh air who will usher the stagnate House of Saud into the future. At the same time, a German intelligence memo painted him as a reckless and impulsive neophyte who is plunging the country into military quagmires while needlessly provoking Iran.

So which version is correct? Why has 80-year-old King Salman placed so much trust in him? And is his ascendency a good thing for the West? A year into MbS’s tenure as deputy crown prince, all of these questions, and many others, remain largely unanswered, although some clues are emerging that mark him as a very new kind of Saudi leader — for better or worse.

Playing Favorites MbS is the eldest son of Fahda bint Falah bin Sultan, the king’s third and most recent wife. Unlike many other Saudi princes who tend to study (and sometimes sow wild oats) in the United States, MbS went to university at home, earning a bachelor’s degree in law at King Saud University in Riyadh. And he apparently recently took a second wife, which is also somewhat unusual among young Saudi princes.

The dashing prince wears a neatly trimmed beard and favors sandals over Gucci loafers. And in a recent interview with Bloomberg, he was photographed without a traditional headdress, highly unusual for a Saudi prince at an official function.

An early New York Times profile noted that he was fond of Apple products and all things Japanese, but had been long overshadowed by three high-achieving older half-brothers, one an astronaut, another 8 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

Photo: State Department

Secretary of State John Kerry, left, is greeted by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, during a 2015 visit.

an Oxford-educated political scientist who was once a subtle reference to his youth. a research fellow at Georgetown and a third a wellPaul Sullivan, a professor of economics and a Saudi regarded oil minister. But even if he flew under the ra- expert at the National Defense University, thinks that dar prior to his appointment as deputy crown prince, Western leaders are “still trying to figure” MbS out. many observers also note that he wisely kept a low “I think he’s a tough and smart fellow and clearly profile as he was sagely preparing to lead. knows his way around the corridors of power in Saudi MbS’s official biography is short on specifics re- Arabia and beyond,” he said. garding his business career, Henderson describes MbN — simply noting that he “held who is officially next in line to the many positions … was self-emthrone — as cautious, stoic and inployed and had many philantellectually a bit “plodding,” while thropic initiatives that earned MbS is seen as youthful, vigorous, his many awards.” Aside from ambitious and perhaps even a little that, he was an advisor to the ruthless. As evidence of this ruthgovernor of Riyadh province, lessness, Henderson cited an unamong others, and served on a confirmed but “widely believed” number of commissions. Henanecdote asserting that MbS once derson thinks that the king sees left a bullet on the desk of a busia younger version of himself ness rival. in MbS and believes that his Paul Aarts, a professor at the mother may have played a key University of Amsterdam and the role in his rise. co-author of the book “Saudi Ara“The third wife is essentially bia: A Kingdom in Peril,” says that the favorite wife; she’s the one while the jury may still be out on who talks to the king in the priMbS in the West, he’s undeniably vacy of the bedroom,” he said. popular in Saudi Arabia.

Simon Henderson “The king regards MbS as a “He may be overly ambitious son in his own image — he has but nearly every Saudi I met there director of the Gulf and Energy Policy a soft spot for him, and this is on a recent trip said, ‘We need a Program at the Washington Institute amplified by the fact that MbS’s leader who is ambitious,’” he told for Near East Policy mother is ambitious in her own us. “It’s a very young country and right on behalf of her son. She many believe it is high time for a may have pushed him forward or promoted him in younger leader. In a way, he is seen as the savior of the royal bed chamber.” the nation.”

After meeting MbS at a Gulf nations summit at But Aarts says that while MbS is seen as a muchCamp David last year, President Obama remarked needed agent of change, he carries the burden of high that MbS “struck us as extremely knowledgeable, very expectations during a challenging time of recordsmart.” And in an interview, the president said he seemed “wise beyond his years,” in what was perhaps See Saudi Arabia • page 10

“

This is a man who came out of nowhere…. Ten or 20 years ago, the notion that a young upstart could become king would have been ludicrous. Now it’s possible.

”

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Saudi Arabia conTinUED • pAgE 8

low oil prices, stubbornly high youth unemployment and instability in Yemen, Syria and Bahrain.

“There is a huge risk because if he doesn’t deliver, that could lead to a great disappointment,” he said. “But very few people are talking about that. Most have huge trust that he will change the kingdom forever.”

no SignS oF BAcking DoWn Aarts said that the MbS-led military campaign to defeat Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen is still popular at home, where Saudis see Iran as a growing threat and fear that the United States can no longer be trusted to counter Iranian influence in the region. Nevertheless, he says that the proxy war with Iran is a “quagmire” that is likely to drag on for years with no resolution.

On that note, critics have compared the Saudi-led bombing campaign of Yemen to America’s Vietnam War. The conflict has killed over 6,000 Yemenis — nearly half of them civilians — as the Arab world’s poorest nation falls deeper into despair. As a critical ally, the U.S. has faced blowback for supporting the Saudi aerial assault, which has been denounced as indiscriminate and ineffective.

A recent Human Rights Watch investigation of a Saudi airstrike, which hit a market in northwest Yemen, found that 97 civilians, including 25 children, were killed, along with about 10 militants by U.S.-supplied bombs.

A recently announced ceasefire and upcoming peace talks may signal that Saudi Arabia, under Western pressure, is looking for a face-saving way out of Yemen.

Despite the criticism over his foreign adventures, MbS appears to be moving forward with an aggressive military posture abroad

and economic reforms at home. While some countries might look inward at a time when dwindling oil revenues are draining state coffers, clearly MbS and other Saudi leaders aren’t retreating into a domestic bubble.

Chas Freeman, a career diplomat who served as the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s, says that MbS’s approach to world affairs has been popular at home, at least in some quarters.

“His war in Yemen and his notably independent and assertive foreign policy have clearly struck a chord with Saudi nationalists,” he said in an e-mail.

But clearly MbS is also savvy enough to realize that he will need to help the country diversify its economy and create jobs for its legions of unemployed young people (the official youth unemployment rate has hovered near 30 percent in recent years).

To that end, in April MbS outlined sweeping reforms that could upend Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy. “The biggest economic shake-up since the founding of Saudi Arabia would accelerate subsidy cuts and impose more levies, a plan to spread the burden of lower crude prices among a population more accustomed to government largess,” wrote Bloomberg News, which conducted a five-hour interview with the prince.

The measures would raise at least $100 billion a year by 2020, helping to boost nonoil revenues and balance the budget. MbS also revealed plans for the creation of what may become the world’s largest superfund.

According to Bloomberg, Riyadh will sell shares in Saudi Aramco’s parent company and “transform the state oil giant into an industrial conglomerate.” They report that the initial public offering could happen “as soon as next year, with the country currently planning to sell less than 5 percent” of Aramco.

Most of the financial press hailed the announcement as a good first step toward weaning the country off its dependence on oil, but details were sketchy. (Oil revenues accounted for between 77 percent to 88 percent

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of the state’s total income in 2015.) Aarts isn’t convinced that the fund, which the Saudis hope will be worth some $2 trillion, will be a panacea.

“I don’t see how it solves the youth unemployment problem,” he said. “I don’t see how it will help create the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are needed.”

In a wide-ranging interview with the Economist in January, MbS denied that the country’s economy was in dire straits. He insisted that the government would create jobs in the mining and tourism sectors and through a Margaret Thatcher-style privatization of real estate holdings and other state assets, although he ruled out the idea of introducing income taxes. And he obliquely alluded to the possibility that Riyadh might make it harder for expatriate guest workers, who could make up as much as threequarters of the private-sector workforce, to secure or renew visas.

MbS also maintained that steady progress was being made in Yemen and on enfranchising Saudi women, while evoking a rosy vision for how he’d like to see the kingdom move forward.

“The Saudi Arabia that I hope for … is a Saudi Arabia that is not dependent on oil; a Saudi Arabia with a growing economy; a Saudi Arabia with transparent laws; a Saudi Arabia with a very strong position in the world; a Saudi Arabia that can fulfill the dream of any Saudi, or his ambition, through creating enticing incentives, the right environment; a Saudi Arabia with sustainability; a Saudi Arabia that guarantees the participation of everyone in decision-making; a Saudi Arabia that is an important addition to the world and participates in the production of the world,” he said.

WhAT — AnD Who — iS nExT? Saudi Arabia is a critical ally of the United States in a geopolitical hotbed. Many are optimistic that MbS might be the kind of youth-

ful leader with whom Washington could have fruitful relations. But can he deliver the change young people in the kingdom crave, and will he leapfrog MbN when his father dies?

Aarts believes MbN, not MbS, will almost certainly be the next king. And he thinks King Salman, though not in the best of health at 80 and clearly in full-on delegation-mode, is in control of his faculties. Henderson isn’t so sure, and thinks the succession issue isn’t clear-cut.

“It hugely depends on the circumstances,” he said. “There is supposed to be a schism in the royal family, with some who don’t want MbS to become king and others who want MbN to be king. Since MbS is clearly ambitious and would like be king, he must think that if his father dies and MbN becomes king, one of MbN’s first moves will be to sack him.”

Henderson says MbS will have to “outmaneuver” MbN to ensure that doesn’t happen, but he has no idea how the jockeying will unfold. Sullivan of the National Defense University sees the potential for “trouble ahead” if MbS doesn’t figure out how to kick-start the economy. While Aarts also sees the possibility of social unrest, he believes that the House of Saud is likely to continue to deliver the kind of stability Western leaders expect.

“Their security apparatus and the methods to suppress opposition are still huge,” he pointed out. “If push comes to shove, the regime will handle unrest with repressive measures.”

He said that in a region where sympathy for radical jihadis, including the Islamic State, is a fact of life, the House of Saud is still the West’s best bet.

“There is no alternative to the House of Saud,” Aarts said. “Who is going to take over? The House is the glue that keeps the country together. Better the devil you know, as they say.” WD Dave Seminara (@DaveSem) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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WD | Europe

No Way Out Balkan Envoys Ponder Wider Implications of EU Refugee Crisis

by Larry Luxner

A

mid increasingly chaotic scenes of Syrian refugees fleeing violence at home and Balkan nations hastily throwing up fences to keep out the never-ending influx, the Washington-based ambassadors of four European countries — along with two regional experts — recently debated what the 28-member European Union as well as the United States should do about the continent’s worst refugee crisis since World War II. Réka Szemerkényi, Hungary’s envoy to the United States, defended her country’s hardline position against accepting more migrants, while ambassadors from three of the six republics that once formed Yugoslavia — Croatia’s Josip Paro, Macedonia’s Vasko Naumovski and Montenegro’s Srdjan Darmanovic — lamented the tough choices Europe faces to manage the unprecedented influx.

“Macedonia is not the final destination for these people. It is only a transit country, and there is nothing easier for us than to let them pass through our country to their final destination,” said Naumovski. He noted that in the preceding two weeks, more than 10,000 desperate refugees have tried to penetrate his country’s southern border with Greece, an EU member state where nearly 50,000 migrants have been stranded ever since Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Macedonia erected fences along sections of their borders.

“They are using force trying to enter, and we have the right to defend our territory using appropriate means,” Naumovski said. “I can’t imagine what would happen if someone tried to force his way into U.S. territory.”

The four ambassadors and two Balkan experts — Indiana University professor Frances Trix and Ivan Vejvoda of the German Marshall Fund — spoke at an April 13 conference titled “The Refugee Crisis: Its Impact on the U.S., Europe and our Collective Security.”

The event was co-sponsored by two nonprofit groups, United Macedonian Diaspora and the Southeast Europe Coalition, and organized by the Washington office of Clements Worldwide, which provides political risk insurance.

It followed on the heels of a March 18 agreement between Turkey and the EU aimed at halting the uncontrolled flow of migrants. Under that deal, people smuggled from the Turkish coast onto Greek islands will be returned, while Turkey will be allowed to send some of the millions of Syrian refugees on its territory to the EU through legal channels. In addition, Turkey will receive billions of dollars in EU assistance and

12 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

Photo: © UNICEF/UNI197839/Gilbertson VII

On Oct. 7, 2015, in Serbia, Rosa Jelal, 20, changes her 10-month-old daughter, Chechak Chea, as they pass through a transit center in Sid. Jelal is a refugee from Kobani, Syria, and was making her way to Germany with her family. Up until recently, Serbia had been a transit country for most refugees passing through Europe on their way to the west.

“

We must find a solution in Syria, because this crisis will not end on its own.

You cannot just create a mess and let other people deal with the consequences.

Vasko Naumovski ambassador of Macedonia to the United States

accelerated talks on visa-free travel and EU membership.

According to EU officials, some 1.26 million migrants streamed through southeastern Europe in 2015, double the number in 2014. But Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war made up only 29 percent of the total; the rest were Iraqis and Afghanis also fleeing violence in their countries, as well as a mix of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Africans and others seeking safe haven and economic opportunity in Europe.

As of December 2015, only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghanis were getting through the Greek-Macedonian border. All others — including Iranians, Pakistanis, Somalis, Algerians, Moroccans, Libyans, Eritreans and Yemenis — were excluded. Since March, Afghan refugees have also been barred from crossing.

Naumovski noted that of the 800,000 people who have passed through Macedonia in the past 12 months, only 80

”

have applied for actual asylum; most migrants instead choose to apply for asylum in wealthier countries such as Austria, Germany or Sweden.

By far, Germany and Sweden have been the most generous in welcoming refugees and both have had more success absorbing Muslim immigrants than countries such as France. But leaders in Berlin and Stockholm have felt the political blowback from voters concerned that migrants are taking scarce jobs and failing to assimilate into society. Another top concern: Islamicinspired extremists infiltrating refugee inflows to launch terrorist attacks on European soil.

“Not all these refugees are terrorists, but there’s a lack of control and intelligence exchange in Europe, in addition to the free movement of hundreds of thousands of people,” the Macedonian ambassador said. “Several thousands of them have been trained in the Middle East. It took two attacks — in Paris and

Brussels — to see that even people born in Europe do not always fully accept European values. Unfortunately, Europe has not learned from the intelligence failures in the U.S. before 9/11. Some European nations are still living in the past of their own glorious histories.”

Paradoxically, Trix, an ethnic anthropologist who specializes in Balkan history, said Europe and the United States should step up the admission of Syrian war refugees not only on humanitarian grounds — but also because the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) hates them.

“The Syrians coming to Europe are cosmopolitan, middle-class, educated people. They are very different from the Moroccans in Brussels who come from villages in North Africa,” said Trix.

“This does not come out in the newspapers.”

The Islamic State hates the refugees, she said, because the exodus takes away men from the armed forces, removes inhabitants from the tax base and discredits the self-declared Islamic caliphate, amounting to what she called a “public relations disaster” for the terrorists.

“ISIS does everything it can to discredit the refugees,” she noted. “Every Muslim family that comes to the West is a defeat for ISIS.” Naumovski agreed that the image of poverty-stricken refugees with nothing but the clothes on their backs isn’t See Balkans • page 14

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Balkans Continued • page 12

entirely accurate. These migrants’ travels, he said, are highly organized, with many using smartphones to locate routes and checkpoints, and possessing the financial resources to afford bus tickets and hotel rooms to aid their passage through his country.

Nevertheless, integrating these foreignborn populations is a huge problem across the continent, he said. “The EU is also paying the price for failing to integrate existing immigrant communities, unlike the U.S. The European concept of multiculturalism has failed, and even the German chancellor [Angela Merkel] has admitted this. So how can we expect Europe to integrate additional immigrants into society?”

Vejvoda couldn’t disagree more. The Serbian scholar noted that in the 1990s, following the collapse of Albania’s Marxist regime, predominantly Christian Orthodox Greece took in roughly 1 million Muslim Albanians, without major problems — so absorbing Syrian migrants (in a bloc of over 500 million people) is not impossible.

Vejvoda calls Turkey’s deal with the EU “an example of realpolitik” and says the Hungarian approach of building fences and walls is wrongheaded. But with Germany straining under the refugee burden, he said that Balkan countries — which were largely praised for their hospitality toward refugees last year — had no choice but to start shutting their doors one by one, creating a bottleneck in Greece.

“Even though the EU’s values are all about freedom and human rights, this simply had to be put aside because Germany — acting alone — needed to stem the flow of refugees. Everything we’re seeing now is to stem those numbers in whichever way possible, and some of

Photo: Larry Luxner

From left, Croatian Ambassador Josip Paro, Macedonian Ambassador Vasko Naumovski and Montenegrin Ambassador Srdjan Darmanovic discuss Europe’s refugee crisis at an April 13 conference.

it is not nice to watch.” Images of police firing tear gas at migrants protesting behind razorwire fences in Macedonia and Hungary, for example, have made international headlines.

“When there was talk about the Balkans closing off routes, it wasn’t Serbia or Macedonia deciding anything; at best, it is in concert with Germany,” Vejvoda added. “Nobody in our part of the world decides anything on such big issues by themselves. Our countries have stepped up to the plate and gone the extra mile, as opposed to Hungary. We in Serbia have done exactly the opposite: no building of walls and help manage the flow. And the Greeks are doing what they can.”

Hungary’s Szemerkényi defended her government’s uncompromising crackdown on migrants. She said the problem in her country

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is particularly acute: Some 397,000 migrants have entered Hungary without passports or documentation in the last year alone. That, she said, is equivalent to 12 million illegal immigrants pouring into the United States across its borders with Mexico and Canada over a 12-month period.

But the problem, she argues, has been complicated by “misconceptions” about Hungary that do not reflect reality.

“We all agree that the majority of people arriving in Europe are the victims of fundamentally failed international policies toward their regions. They’re also victims of a failed policy of us Europeans which created expectations that are impossible to fulfill,” she said.

“But they are also victims of human trafficking as well. It is our moral responsibility to help these people rebuild lives in their own countries. We owe these people. We have to start focusing on the reality, rather than simplistically saying this is a humanitarian crisis.

It’s a lot more than this.”

For that reason, the Hungarian ambassador is advocating a 1 percent increase in EU contributions to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey — the three countries hosting the highest numbers of Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war.

But she denied suggestions from at least one member of the audience that the hardline rhetoric of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is giving rise to far-right radicalism — in the form of the anti-immigrant, extremist Jobbik party, which is backed by 11 percent of voters according to a Jan. 30 poll.

On Feb. 24, Orbán announced that Hungary would hold a vote later this year on whether to accept the mandatory quotas for refugees passed by the EU last year. He has argued that instituting relocation quotas ordered by Brussels without consulting his country’s 10 million citizens amounts to an “abuse of power.”

Last year, Orbán described the refugees entering Hungary as “looking like an army” and ordered the construction of a steel fence along its Serbian and Croatian borders.

Even so, claims Szemerkényi, “the rise of the radical right” has nothing to do with Orbán pronouncements.

“Take a look at the political map in Hungary. The right has not gained any political space in the past year, despite the massive immigration wave crossing through Hungary,” she said. “Our point in using harsh language is that the need for security is equally important, and if you do not address this need, that’s when the radical right will gain support.”

Croatia’s Paro, whose country in March announced it would no longer allow refugees to transit Croatian soil on their way to other EU states to the north and west, said that Balkan

nations had little choice but to seal their borders, even though that is only a temporary fix to a much larger problem.

“You may conclude that by closing the Balkan route — which is consistent with a coordinated effort by all countries along the route — that this is a lasting solution. Of course it is not,” Paro said. “Turkey is playing an important role, and there’s no doubt that if we want the EU to survive, we have to show more solidarity. But we also have to impose clear rules for refugees so they know what is awaiting them.”

Last year, some 816,000 refugees passed through the Balkan corridor on their way to Western Europe — up from only 50,834 the year before. And some 123,000 trudged this route in the first two months of 2016 alone.

This still pales in comparison to the number of refugees who have inundated Syria’s neighbors. A total of 4.8 million Syrians languish in other Middle Eastern countries, including 2.7 million in Turkey, 1.2 million in Lebanon, 630,000 in Jordan, 250,000 in Iraq and 130,000 in Egypt.

Meanwhile, the United States has resettled a paltry 3,127 Syrian refugees since 2011, compared to Canada, which — under newly inaugurated Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — has admitted 25,000 Syrians in 2016 alone.

President Obama’s proposal to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees for the fiscal 2016 year was met with fierce resistance from conservatives who said terrorists could slip into the country, even though the refugees would have gone through an intense years-long vetting process.

Despite the opposition, Obama has pressed ahead with his plan, although the House recently introduced the Refugee Program Integrity Restoration Act (H.R. 4731) to cap refugee admissions and prioritize those fleeing religious persecution.

“The current political rhetoric and H.R. 4731 — with its fear of Muslims — is based on ignorance and is unworthy of us,” said Trix, noting that the legislation favors Christians and other minorities, and effectively blocks most Muslim asylum applicants. For this reason, the bill is opposed by 234 organizations ranging from Amnesty International to Jewish Refugee Services to the World Council of Churches. “This will hurt us in the long run.

Hospitality toward Syrian refugees of different religious backgrounds is wise. We should be a model for the world.”

In the end, said Vejvoda, it’s all about preventing a repeat of the hatred that led to the Holocaust.

“People need to find a scapegoat for their problems, either the Jews or the Muslims. It brings back the worst of European history,” he said. “As kids in the former Yugoslavia, all of us were taken to see the sites of the Holocaust.

We read the books and heard the stories told by survivors. And yet my country went to war in the 1990s and disappeared. Our leaders in the former Yugoslavia took us to the extremes of suffering, even though they could have avoided war. It’s easy to whip up emotions and rallying around the flag in the worst possible way — and that’s what we’re seeing now.”

Added Naumovski, the Macedonian ambassador: “If you don’t like the reality, there are two solutions: accept it or change the reality. We must find a solution in Syria, because this crisis will not end on its own. You cannot just create a mess and let other people deal with the consequences.” WD Larry Luxner is the news editor for The Washington Diplomat.

Your Source for Diplomatic News www.washdiplomat.com

WD | Cover Profile

Nordic Issues Heat Up Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden Prepare for Upcoming White House Summit

by Anna Gawel

W

hen Americans think of the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, they often imagine a utopian bastion filled with free health care, expansive education, gender equality, generous benefits and generally happy people — with an occasional fjord and sauna thrown into the mix.

While rich and relatively content, the Nordic region is also grappling with a litany of problems that have confounded policymakers the world over. Climate change is an opportunity and threat to Arctic nations. Russian saber-rattling has the region on edge. Danes, Finns and Swedes have gone off to fight for the Islamic State. A tidal wave of refugees from the war-ravaged Middle East and North Africa has swamped countries like Denmark and Sweden, severely testing the Nordic reputation for tolerance and benevolence. Fears of radicalism and unchecked immigration have fueled the rise of right-wing political parties and xenophobic sentiment.

And the global controversy over offshore tax havens that was unleashed by the “Panama Papers” data dump has even ensnared the small island of Iceland, even though it is consistently ranked as one of the least corrupt governments on earth.

Security, refugees, sustainability and other pressing issues will take center stage on May 13, as President Obama hosts leaders from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden at the White House for a U.S.Nordic Leaders Summit. Before the gathering, The Washington Diplomat sat down with the ambassadors of these five nations for an exclusive group interview at the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel to preview the upcoming summit.

The envoys — Lars Gert Lose of Denmark, Kirsti Kauppi of Finland, Geir H. Haarde of Iceland, Kåre R. Aas of Norway and Björn Lyrvall of Sweden — have found common cause on issues such as LGBT rights (all five embassies will be participating in the annual Gay Pride Parade in D.C. in June) and expanding the European trade agenda with Washington.

At the same time, sharp differences remain. Sweden, for instance, has absorbed the most refugees on a percapita basis among all European nations. It also recently announced that it would allocate an additional $1.2 billion to hire more teachers and health care workers to cope with the influx. In stark contrast, Denmark has slashed benefits for refugees, published ads discouraging them from trying to enter the country and passed a controversial law that would seize assets and other valuables from asylum seekers. Meanwhile, Iceland, a nation of just over 300,000 — compared to Sweden’s 10 million and Denmark’s 5.6 million — hasn’t felt the same pressures as its Nordic neighbors, although it too has experienced a jump in immigration.

But as Icelandic Ambassador Haarde told us during our roundtable discussion, the U.S.-Nordic Leaders Summit will focus on the region as a whole, as opposed to individual nations. Among the myriad issues on the table: violent extremism, the environment, nuclear security and the refugee crisis.

“We had a Nordic leaders meeting with President Obama in Stockholm in September 2013 and we mapped a very useful agenda for collaboration, and I see this as a continuation of that dialogue,” said Sweden’s Lyrvall, noting that trade and LGBT rights will be discussed as well.

Norway’s Aas pointed out that the Arctic, energy and

Photo: Lawrence Ruggeri of Ruggeriphoto.com

From left, Swedish Ambassador Björn Lyrvall, Danish Ambassador Lars Gert Lose, Finnish Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi, Icelandic Ambassador Geir H. Haarde and Norwegian Ambassador Kåre R. Aas preview the upcoming U.S.-Nordic Leaders Summit during an exclusive roundtable interview with The Washington Diplomat at the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel.

Graphic: wikipedia Commons

international military operations in the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean are also on the agenda — as is climate policy and development aid, according to Lose of Denmark.

“This kind of meeting brings attention to the fact that we have this broad cooperation, common values, common interests, and it also gives added impetus to the concrete things that we are doing together,” said Kauppi of Finland.

The Migrant Crisis: Complexity and Solidarity One of the most acute dilemmas facing the region is what to do with the thousands of refugees pouring into

Europe every week to escape war and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Last year, more than a million migrants streamed into Europe, inundating front-line countries such as Greece as well as end-line countries such as Germany, which accepted the bulk of migrants in 2015.

Like Germany, the Nordic countries are renowned for their generous social benefits and have become magnets for migrants. All five Nordic ambassadors say the migrant crisis is a complex phenomenon that is often misunderstood in the United States.

“We are counting 163,000 refugees last year, which is roughly equivalent to 2 percent of the Swedish population. In the United States that would be the equivalent of 6 million people coming in one year, and most of these people came in a time span of two months,” said Lyrvall.

He noted that this unprecedented influx has stretched Sweden’s welfare services thin. Patience in some countries appears to be wearing thin as well.

Denmark has long been hailed for its hospitality, offering safe haven to Jews during World War II and Eastern Europeans during the Cold War. But the migrant crisis has sparked a populist, anti-immigrant backlash in the Scandinavian nation, and Danes have cracked down — hard.

In addition to passing a highly controversial law that would confiscate valuables from asylum seekers (items of sentimental value such as wedding rings are excluded), Danish authorities recently prosecuted a 70-yearold grandmother for human smuggling. Her crime: See n or dic • page 16 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 15

phoTo: WikiMEDiA coMMonS / pUBlic DoMAin

originally a viking fishing village founded in the 10th century, copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century.

Nordic conTinUED • pAgE 14

Giving several migrants who were stranded along a highway, including a newborn baby, a ride to Sweden.

The Danish government points out that the country, which is smaller in size than Maryland, took 21,300 asylum seekers last year out of a population of 5.7 million — the equivalent of the U.S. receiving 1.2 asylum seekers.

Lose says Denmark has historically offered sanctuary to those fleeing war and persecution, but it cannot realistically accommodate every migrant seeking a better life, especially considering the ample benefits the government doles out.

“We all have very well-developed states. The rights of refugees and asylum seekers are very extensive,” he said.

Even Sweden, which has long prided itself on its open-door policy, is feeling the squeeze, sealing its borders, cutting refugee benefits and tightening rules for bringing over family members.

Lyrvall admits that the migrant crisis has “put extreme pressure on our social systems and has pushed other issues from the agenda. It has just been overwhelming.” But he insisted that Sweden won’t turn its back on those in need. “We are not about to close down the borders to our countries and say enough, no more refugees. That’s not going to happen.”

At the same time, he said other EU nations need to pull their weight.

“Of course we’re asking for European solidarity so that other countries around Europe would also take their part of this burden. We have not been satisfied with the response of our European partners in that respect — some countries have taken more; others have not done very much at all. So the current situation is such that we’ve had to undertake some temporary measures to manage the influx,” Lyrvall said.

Among the temporary measures that nations such as Austria, Hungary and France have been imposing is tighter border restrictions, which threaten to unravel the EU system of passport-free travel known as the Schengen zone.

The bloc has struggled to implement a plan that would redistribute up to 160,000 refugees throughout

the EU. So far, only a tiny fraction has been resettled as member states such as Slovakia balk at the idea of refugee quotas dictated by Brussels.

Failing to persuade other nations to pick up the slack, Germany spearheaded an effort to deter migrants from making the perilous journey in the first place. Under a recently announced deal, the EU will accept one vetted Syrian refugee directly from Turkey for every migrant deported from Greece back to Turkey.

In return for helping to curb human trafficking along the Mediterranean, Ankara would receive billions of dollars in EU aid and the prospect of visa-free travel and progress on long-stalled EU membership talks.

Finland has already begun to accept some Syrian families from Turkey, but human rights groups call the proposal illegal and immoral. The plan also faces huge logistical hurdles, given that the onus to process asylum claims falls on cash-strapped

“

There is no such thing as a free lunch. All the public services are of course paid for by citizens through their taxes, so the level of taxation is correlated to the level of services provided.

”

gEir h. hAArDE

ambassador of Iceland to the United States

Greece, which is still mired in its own economic crisis.

Asked if they were confident whether the EU-Turkey deal would work, the Nordic envoys had a simple response: There’s no other choice.

“This is the only possible solution.

It has to work,” said Lose. “I’m sure there will be a lot of bumps on the road, probably some delays, probably another extraordinary European Union Council again discussing this, but it’s the only way to go. And again, the political process might look difficult, messy, complicated, but at the end of the day we’ll get there because we have to get there. Everybody has

16 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

to take their fair share and we have to pour financial resources into Greece.”

“Everybody knows it has to work, and we need European-wide solutions,” Kauppi said, noting that last year’s migrant surge was a wake-up call for the EU. “I think the big shock was also to realize that unless we do something jointly, this is going to happen again. It is not just the over 1 million people who came last year, but it would be maybe 2 million this year and so on…. I’m confident that this is the start of a process where the common solutions will be implemented — it’s never 100 percent, but it is a start.”

Lyrvall agreed that perfection may be unattainable. “You obviously cannot be completely confident that all this will happen. We will have to work toward it … to help with capacity-building in Greece, to take part in receiving families from [refugee] camps … putting more funds in Turkey,” he said.

“But we also need to deal with the root causes of the problem and here’s where the United States comes into the picture,” Lyrvall added. “It’s really important to see the United States engaged … to address the root causes such as the war in Syria and peace efforts there and also the neighboring countries where refugees have been in camps.”

Kauppi echoed that sentiment.

“We need to help the countries in the region which are hosting most of the refugees. We need to tackle the human smuggling and we need to also try to have an impact on the root causes, not only where you have a security crisis but where you have poverty. In all of these issues, the U.S. has a critical role to play.”

“The U.S. is already doing a lot.

They’re the biggest donor when it comes to humanitarian aid and trying to solve the crisis in Syria,” Lose pointed out.

While the Danish ambassador praised the U.S. government for its involvement in Syria, he said the American media often understates the magnitude of the migrant crisis on Europe. “I really think there’s a lack of understanding of what we are going through and what the potential consequences of this is.”

Perhaps the most common misperception, according to Lose, is that the unwieldy bureaucracy of 28 vastly different EU nations will fail to deliver a cohesive solution to the migrant crisis.

“There’s a lot of pessimism in the U.S. when it comes to the EU and the ability to handle this crisis. I think that’s a bit overblown. If you look at the history of the EU, it doesn’t look good, it always looks messy, but at the end of the day, we will find a solution to this … so we will get there but I guess in that sense it’s a bit like Congress,” Lose quipped, alluding to the political dysfunction that has gripped Capitol Hill over the last several years (and earning a few laughs from everyone around the table).

Aas also lamented that many Americans “haven’t grasped the complexity and the volume of this crisis.” He pointed out that Norway has accepted immigrants from a broad spectrum of nations, not just Syria. Some 30 different nationalities arrived in Norway just last fall, he said. And while it will stand by its international obligations, Norway

denmark at a Glance National Day june 5, 1849 (became a constitutional monarchy)

GDP per-capita (PPP) $45,800

Location northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the north Sea, on a peninsula north of germany (jutland); also includes several major islands (Sjaelland, Fyn and Bornholm)

GDP growth 1.6 percent (2015 estimate)

Capital copenhagen

(2015 estimate)

Unemployment 4.7 percent (2015 estimate)

Population below poverty line 13.4 percent (2011 estimate)

Population 5.5 million (July 2015 estimate) Ethnic groups Scandinavian, inuit, Faroese, german, Turkish, iranian, Somali

National flag of Denmark

GDP (purchasing power parity) $257 billion (2015 estimate)

— whose center-right government wants to put in place strict family reunification laws for refugees — cannot absorb every migrant who comes solely for economic reasons.

On that note, Kauppi said it is important to make a distinction between refugees fleeing war and migrants searching for jobs (although human rights groups say the distinction is hazy in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq).

“And just to illustrate that this is a very complex phenomenon, about 70 to 80 percent of the people who came to Finland — that was about ten-fold the normal annual number — they were from Iraq, not Syria.

And probably when they screen applications, most of them would not [qualify for] asylum. Actually already about 4,000, 5,000 have returned to Iraq.”

Even the sparsely populated, volcanic island of Iceland has seen its fair share of economic migrants.

“We have not been under the same pressure as our Nordic friends and neighbors, partly for geographi-

SoUrcE: ciA WorlD FAcTBook

“

If you look at the history of the EU, it doesn’t look good, it always looks messy, but at the end of the day, we will find a solution to this. lArS gErT loSE ambassador of Denmark to the United States

”

cal and logistical reasons,” Haarde said. “But … we have had a much heavier stream of asylum seekers in my country — economic migrants looking for better living conditions, better medical care, etc. This number has risen dramatically.”

Haarde said that in addition to contributing financially to UNICEF and other humanitarian groups, “our

phoTo: BrAD WEBEr - oWn Work / cc By-SA 3.0

Suðureyri is a small, scenic fishing village in iceland.

iceland at a Glance National Day Dec. 1, 1918 (became a sovereign state under Danish crown); june 17, 1944 (from Denmark)

GDP (purchasing power parity) $15 billion (2015 estimate)

Location northern Europe, island between the greenland Sea and the north Atlantic ocean, northwest of the United kingdom

(2015 estimate)

Capital reykjavik Population 330,000 (July 2015 estimate) Ethnic groups homogeneous mixture of descendants of norse and celts: 94 percent, foreign origin: 6 percent SoUrcE: ciA WorlD FAcTBook

GDP per-capita (PPP) $46,600 GDP growth 3.7 percent (2015 estimate) Unemployment 3.8 percent (2015 estimate)

Population below poverty line not available National flag of Iceland

government’s cooperation with local authorities has a system to try to integrate whoever wants to come [to Iceland] and provide them with services — medical care, school, jobs, language lessons and so on — and try to make sure there are no formation of ghettos, that people are actually integrated into society.”

ASSiMilATion or AliEnATion?

The question of integration is one that haunts all Nordic nations. Muslims accuse their Nordic hosts of alienation and discrimination; natives counter that Muslims have failed to assimilate.

Lose says this is not a new debate. “We’ve all been working on this for many years,” he told us, noting that Denmark has long wrestled with problems such as whether kindergartens should serve pork on their menus (Islam forbids pork).

“It’s a huge discussion … especially for Nordic countries, which are very, very homogenous countries, so it is a challenge, but we’ve been dealing with this for many years. Of course the attacks in Cologne put a lot of emphasis on that, but it’s not something new.”

A series of high-profile sexual assaults in the German city of Cologne over New Year’s Eve, allegedly committed by Islamic asylum seekers, sparked fears in Finland, Sweden and elsewhere about culture clashes, particularly with men from devoutly Muslim nations. The Nordic countries are pioneers in gender equality. Mothers and fathers are offered substantial paid parental leave, salary gaps between men and women are low and nearly half of all government positions are filled by women. The question of whether the region’s progressive values are compatible with migrants who hail from religiously conservative societies has prompted deep soul-searching.

Lyrvall said that while sex assaults garner headlines, immigrant success stories tend to fly under the radar. “Sweden is not a mono-cultural society; it’s a multicultural society — 20 percent of the population was born outside of Sweden.

We have received refugees from different crisis areas over decades. These people have been integrated into society, they have been making great contributions to Swedish society — many of the household names in sports, entertainment, some of the best entrepreneurs with a go-getter mentality are immigrants who have made it in Swedish society,” he said.

At the same time, dozens of Swedes — as well as Danes and Finns — have gone to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State.

Preventing foreign fighters from returning and launching Paris- or Brussels-style terrorist at-

“

This kind of meeting brings attention to the fact that we have this broad cooperation, common values, common interests, and it also gives added impetus to the concrete things that we are doing together. kirSTi kAUppi ambassador of Finland to the United States

”

tacks has become a priority for European law enforcement agencies, as has stopping radicalism from sprouting in the first place.

Lyrvall said Sweden’s approach is twofold: contributing to the U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State — which for Swedish troops includes training Kurdish forces to reclaim Iraqi territory — and reaching out to families to prevent Swedes from being lured by the terrorist group.

Lose said Denmark has had the most suc-

phoTo: Mikko pAAnAnEn / MoDiFiED By -MAjESTic- AnD ilMAri kAronEn / cc By-SA 3.0

The lutheran cathedral in the Finnish capital of helsinki is seen from the South harbour in this 2002 photo.

Finland at a Glance National Day Dec. 6, 1917 (from russia)

GDP per-capita (PPP) $41,200 (2015 estimate)

Location northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, gulf of Bothnia, and gulf of Finland, between Sweden and russia

GDP growth .4 percent (2015 estimate)

Capital helsinki Ethnic groups Finn 93.4 percent, Swede 5.6 percent, russian 0.5 percent, Estonian 0.3 percent, roma 0.1 percent, Sami 0.1 percent (2006) (2015 estimate)

(2015 estimate)

Population below poverty line not available

Population 5.4 million (July 2015 estimate)

GDP (purchasing power parity) $224 billion

Unemployment 9.4 percent

National flag of Finland SoUrcE: ciA WorlD FAcTBook

SEE no r d i c • pAgE 18

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norway at a Glance

Nordic conTinUED • pAgE 17

cess intervening at the community level, “where police and intelligence services cooperate with imams, religious leaders and social authorities, bringing all those groups together in order to get into contact with young people before they decide to go to Iraq or Syria.”

Lose also cautioned there is no one-size-fits-all profile for a jihadist, noting that a 2015 terrorist attack in Copenhagen was perpetrated by a homegrown terrorist — “not someone fighting in Syria or Iraq, but somebody who grew up in Denmark.”

Likewise, Aas cited the 2011 lone wolf terrorist attacks in Norway that killed 77 people to illustrate the fact that governments must tackle violent extremism in general, instead of narrowly focusing on counterterrorism. The attacks were committed by homegrown radical Anders Behring Breivik, who vehemently opposed Islam and immigration.

“We reach out to cities, we reach out to communities, we reach out to universities, we reach out to young children in order to discuss this phenomenon,” Aas said. “The answer is that you need a comprehensive national effort in order to succeed. I also think we have to recognize that this won’t take a year or two, but it will take decades in order to reach our objective.”

colD WAr rEDUx One security challenge that many Europeans assumed was behind them seems to have reared its head again: Russia, which is certain to be high on the agenda of the White House summit.

“Recent Russian behavior has caused a lot of concern for us,” Haarde said. “There is increased submarine activity around Iceland. There are these occasional long-range flights coming from the Kola Peninsula and [provocations] in the Baltic Sea area.”

As a result, Haarde said Iceland and other NATO members are beefing up their defenses against a resurgent Russia. “And I think that is the reaction that you’d expect and is normal when the partnership that we were all hoping for in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union did not really come through. We were all very hopeful in the early ’90s that we would be seeing a new world order with respect to our relationship with Russia. Unfortunately, it hasn’t turned out that way.”

Instead, Russia has flexed its muscles with aircraft incursions into NATO airspace and military exercises practicing the hypothetical invasion of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

“We’ve seen the illegal annexation of Crimea, we’ve seen military incursions into a neighboring country, Ukraine, we’ve seen provocative behavior in the Baltic Sea area and our immediate neighborhood, which is also threatening the safety of civilian flights and activities,” Lyrvall said.

“We are strengthening our defense structures in Sweden. We have a very broad consensus in parliament to increase defense spending.”

National Day june 7, 1905 (norway declared the union with Sweden dissolved); oct. 26, 1905 (Sweden agreed to the repeal of the union) Location northern Europe, bordering the north Sea and the north Atlantic ocean, west of Sweden

GDP per-capita (PPP) $68,400 (2015 estimate)

GDP growth .9 percent (2015 estimate) Unemployment 4.4 percent (2015 estimate)

Capital oslo Population 5.2 million (July 2015 estimate) Ethnic groups norwegian 94.4 percent (includes Sami, about 60,000), other European 3.6 percent, other 2 percent (2007 estimate) phoTo: pETr ŠMErkl, WikipEDiA - oWn Work / cc By-SA 3.0

GDP (purchasing power parity) $352 billion (2015 estimate)

Population below poverty line not available National flag of Norway

SoUrcE: ciA WorlD FAcTBook

red fishermen’s cottages dot the picturesque landscape of reine in norway.

“

We reach out to cities, we reach out to communities, we reach out to universities, we reach out to young children in order to discuss this phenomenon [of violent extremism]….

The answer is that you need a comprehensive national effort in order to succeed. kÅrE r. AAS, ambassador of Norway to the United States

“At the same time, I would also like to say that even though we have a strong position against the Russian annexation of Crimea and [meddling] in the eastern parts of Ukraine, we still have cooperation with Russia since we are neighbors,” Aas said, citing areas such fisheries in the Bering Sea and resource-sharing in the Arctic.

Militarily neutral Finland, in particular, straddles a fine line between standing up to Russian aggression and accommodating a top trading partner. Kauppi noted that the population of Saint Petersburg alone equals the whole of Finland. “And of course for Finland having 1,300 kilometers of border with Russia, it is clear that we cannot ignore Russia.”

Nevertheless, that dependence hasn’t stopped Finland from supporting Western sanctions against Moscow for annexing Crimea, which have taken an economic toll on both the EU and Russia. “The direct impact of sanctions is there, but there is an even bigger impact by the fact that the Russian economy is going down,” she said, citing not only the slump in oil prices, but also “the lack of modernization in Russian society.”

“We have to show strength, but we also keep the door open to dialogue and we do cooperate on certain practical issues,” she said. “It’s a longterm issue so we have to be prepared for a long-haul effort.”

conDUcivE cliMATE Another long-term issue sure to crop up at the summit is climate change, which touches the Nordic countries directly. Changing weather patterns are thawing Arctic sea ice at a rapid clip. On the one hand, new shipping routes will open, as will possibilities for oil and gas exploration; on the other hand, Arctic warming could dramatically accelerate the rise of sea levels.

Those changes will affect U.S. interests as well — Washington currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council — but so far climate change hasn’t registered as a high priority among many American voters. Despite the gener-

18 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

”

al apathy and Republican reluctance to embrace the science of climate change, Lose said President Obama has made significant strides in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

“I think it’s fair to say that this administration has done a lot when it comes to climate change,” he said.

Lose noted that U.S.-China cooperation ensured the success of the climate talks in Paris last December — cooperation that was sorely lacking at an earlier U.N. climate summit in his capital of Copenhagen.

“We are also very impressed with what is being done in the U.S.,” Lose added, citing the “ambitious” Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon pollution from power plants. “In Den-

mark, we are huge exporters of green technologies, one of our fastestgrowing export sectors. And we see very promising developments in the U.S. when it comes to offshore wind, on-shore wind, waste-water management etc. And it’s not only a federal project; it’s mainly a project on the state level as well because clean technology has become good business.

The largest wind producer is Texas.

It’s probably not because they’re extremely concerned about the climate. It’s because it’s good business.”

DEBUnking MyTh oF norDic UTopiA While all five Nordic countries

The parliament house in Sweden (riksdagshuset) is located in central Stockholm.

Sweden at a Glance National Day june 6, 1523 Location northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, gulf of Bothnia, kattegat, and Skagerrak, between Finland and norway Capital Stockholm Population 9.8 million (July 2015 estimate) Ethnic groups indigenous population: Swedes with Finnish and Sami minorities; foreign-born or first-generation immigrants: Finns, yugoslavs, Danes, norwegians, greeks, Turks GDP (purchasing power parity) $467 billion (2015 estimate)

consistently rank as good places to do business in, Americans often think of the region as a socialist paradise brimming with free health care, education and other lavish benefits.

When we asked the envoys about the myths of the Nordic “nanny” state, the first thing all five practically screamed out in unison was: “It’s not socialist!”

The ambassadors conceded that their societies are highly taxed, but they stressed that taxes don’t come at the cost of innovation.

“We are open, transparent, innovative, business-friendly countries very much focused on our international relations. Our dependency on foreign trade is considerable. Fifty percent of Swedish GDP we owe to our foreign trade,” Lyrvall explained.

“These are capitalist countries with a social welfare system but one that creates conditions on the labor market that produces very, very good results as far as our GDP growth….

These are countries that are hitting the top five usually or top 10 at least

GDP per-capita (PPP) $48,000 (2015 estimate)

GDP growth 2.8 percent (2015 estimate) Unemployment 7.4 percent (2015 estimate)

Population below poverty line 14 percent (2011 estimate)

National flag of Sweden SoUrcE: ciA WorlD FAcTBook

SEE nordic • pAgE 59

phoTo: holgEr.EllgAArD – oWn Work / cc By-SA 3.0

“

We are counting 163,000 refugees last year, which is roughly equivalent to 2 percent of the Swedish population. … and most of these people came in a time span of two months.

”

BjÖrn lyrvAll

ambassador of Sweden to the United States

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WD | History

Sykes-Picot at 100 Secret Deal That Carved Up Middle East Still Fuels Resentment

by Justin Salhani

I

n May 1916, European powers ratified the Asia Minor Agreement, better known as the SykesPicot Agreement, to partition the collapsing Ottoman Empire between British, French and Russian spheres of influence. One hundred years later, the borders drawn by this secret agreement continue to influence state and regional affairs around the Levant.

In November 1915, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and François Georges-Picot of France met to begin negotiations over the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The empire that had spanned more than 600 years descended into a final collapse during World War I — a war that saw the Ottomans side with the Germans.

As the world marks the 100th anniversary of SykesPicot this month, the agreement is largely a footnote in the annals of history for many Western countries.

But its legacy remains controversial in the Middle East, where many accuse colonial powers of divvying up Arab lands behind closed doors and setting the stage for many of today’s intractable conflicts.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement was predated by the Constantinople Agreements of 1915, brokered by the Triple Entente powers of Great Britain and France.

That deal promised to give the Ottoman capital and a geo-strategically important Turkish strait to Russia, while France would receive Syria and Cilicia, and Britain would annex Cyprus and declare Egypt a protectorate.

Later that year came another furtive deal: the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which further partitioned Arab territories among the victors of the Great War. It guaranteed Syria and Cilicia to France but also Middle East and has had a profound influence over awarded the French large swathes of what is now the last 100 years in how politics, conflict and conIraq. France’s sphere of influence fessionalism have developed extended to Mosul and encomin the region. Sykes-Picot and passed modern-day Lebanon, as the Balfour Declaration are well as Turkish cities like Diyaroften credited with laying the bakir, while Britain claimed large groundwork for the Israeli-Palparts of Mesopotamia, including estinian conflict (briefly known the historic city of Baghdad. Britas the Arab-Israeli conflict ain also took over Haifa and ‘Akko, when Egypt and Syria got inwhile Palestine was supposed to volved in the 1960s). Sectarian be placed under international propolitics and occasional violence tection. Russia was to be granted in countries like Iraq and Lebaseveral Armenian provinces in non have also been blamed on Asia Minor as well as some KurdSykes-Picot at times, with critics ish territory. Alexandria would be citing the drawing of artificial a free port and there would be a borders that precluded the right confederation of Arab states — to self-determination by locals. or a single Arab state — where In Lebanon, for example, many France and Britain would carve living in the east would have out regions to influence. preferred to be a part of a larger Sykes-Picot wasn’t applied in Syrian state — a sentiment that its entirety, however. A Turkish persists among portions of the nationalist movement claimed the Lebanese population today. area that is modern-day Turkey, F. Gregory Gause III More recently, the Islamic expelling foreign forces and estab- head of the International Affairs State has sought to reverse the lishing the state with its current Department at the Texas A&M University effects of Sykes-Picot in its quest borders. Britain also supported Bush School of Government and to build an Islamic caliphate. the Balfour Declaration, which Some have argued that with Public Service provided the Jewish people with the current upheavals in counan area of land in Palestine under tries such as Iraq, Syria and YeBritish control. France did maintain hegemony over men, we could be seeing the end of Sykes-Picot-imLebanon, Syria and parts of Iraq, while Britain had posed borders. But 100 years on, those borders have control of Egypt and other Iraqi land. largely remained intact.

While the agreement didn’t hold in its entirety, it “Their borders are basically unchanged from their did set the precedent for many state borders in the post-World War I creation,” F. Gregory Gause III of

“

This is the ultimate analytical flaw of the ‘end of Sykes-Picot’ argument. Outsiders drew those borders.

No outsiders seem to have any interest in redrawing them, or recognizing the redrawing of them, at this time.

”

20 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

Photo: Royal Geographical Society (map) / the National Archives (United Kingdom)

This map of the Sykes-Picot Agreement shows Eastern Turkey in Asia, Syria and Western Persia, and areas of control and influence agreed to between the British and the French. It was signed by Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot on May 8, 1916.

Texas A&M University wrote in the Washington Post.

“Transjordan is now Jordan, and the old mandate of Palestine is now completely under Israeli control (with Gaza a partial exception and the West Bank in an uncertain limbo regarding sovereignty). Iraq, Lebanon and Syria … remain as they were created.” The only exception to that today would be if one were to recognize the chunk of land claimed by the Islamic State between Syria and Iraq.

“This is the ultimate analytical flaw of the ‘end of Sykes-Picot’ argument. Outsiders drew those borders. No outsiders seem to have any interest in redrawing them, or recognizing the redrawing of them, at this time,” Gause wrote.

Many of the borders, in fact, remain durable despite years of turmoil. “First, no one questions the longevity of either Israel Sir Mark Sykes or Jordan. Palestinian statehood, which would have been a major shift in the map, looked closer to realization in 1999 than it does now,” Gause wrote.

He also pointed out that despite the establishment of a semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq supported by Western powers, the map of the Iraqi state remains unchanged.

That does not mean governments have full control of the land inside those borders, which Gause likened to “territorial shells” created by colonial authorities and local elites.

Photo: The Education program of the National Library of Israel / CC BY-SA 3.0

Ottoman troops line up during the Mesopotamian campaign of World War I. When the Ottomans sided with the German-led Central Powers and lost to the Allies, the British and French divided the Ottoman Empire as the spoils of war.

As Gause points out, the Lebanese government is not entirely in control of its territory. The militia and political movement Hezbollah has greater influence in large parts of the country and the tribes of the eastern Bekaa region have greater authority than the central government does in many areas.

The same can be said in many of the Levant’s states, especially outside of major cities. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost major tracts of land to anti-government rebels and extremist groups. Iraq is also fractured, with the central government maintaining control over Baghdad, but the Islamic State taking over Mosul and other cities.

Whether borders are altered or states fragment, the legacy of the Sykes-Picot Agreement will live on in the Middle East,

where some view it as a catalyst to conflict, while others see it as a scapegoat.

“This is history that the Arab peoples will never forget because they see it as directly relevant to problems they face today,” Oxford University’s Eugene Rogan, an author who writes about modern Middle Eastern history, told the Guardian newspaper last year. “The wartime partition agreements left a legacy of imperialism, of Arab mistrust in great power politics, and of a belief in conspiracies that the Arab peoples have held responsible for their misfortunes ever since.” WD Justin Salhani (@JustinSalhani) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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WD | Diplomacy

Art of Gift-Giving U.S. President, Officials Showered With Swag They Cannot Keep

by Stephanie Kanowitz

I

magine receiving a diamond-and-emerald jewelry set or a gem-encrusted sword and not being able to keep them. That’s just part of the job for the president of the United States.

Each year, the first couple (along with a long roster of U.S. government officials) receives millions of dollars of swag, all of which they can accept on behalf of the country, but not of themselves. The main — and obvious — reason for this is to avoid the possibility or even appearance of bribery. This notion was so objectionable that America’s founding fathers wrote it into the U.S. Constitution.

Honest Abe — President Abraham Lincoln — followed the rules when, in 1862, he graciously declined the offer of elephants to be used in the Civil War from the King of Siam.

But as time went on and America gained power, the number and value of the gifts being offered grew. Today, presidents may receive thousands of gifts each year. So laws were put in place to alleviate Congress of the burden the Constitution set forth, the most recent being the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act of 1966. It limits the value of a gift the president may accept without congressional involvement. Since January 2014, that limit has been $375. For comparison, the maximum value during the Reagan administration was $180.

If a gift’s value is greater than $375 and the recipient wants to keep it, they can pay fair market value for it. The same principle goes for Obama and for federal employees, who are bound by rules set by the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act. The General Services Administration (GSA) Foreign Gifts and Decorations Officer is responsible for determining the fate of a gift. Typically, it goes to the National Archives and Records Administration or presidential libraries, but recipients can ask to use them for official use. (One notable example of a gift put to good use is the ornate carved wood desk that Queen Victoria of England gave to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 — you know, the famous Resolute desk the president uses in the Oval Office.)

Perishable goods are “handled pursuant to United States Secret Service policy.” While that policy is not spelled out, Bloomberg notes that government guidelines say foodstuffs and similar items “may, with approval, be given to charity, shared with the office or destroyed” (though it would be a shame to destroy those expensive bottles of French wine).

Recipients can also purchase the gift from the GSA, as Stephanie Williams, former deputy chief of mission of the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain, apparently did with a set of pearl earrings valued at $1,000 in January 2013. So did Acting Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Kelly, when he purchased a “traditional sword with belt,” worth an estimated $580, that was given to him by the Yemeni defense minister. Deputy Chief of Protocol Mark Walsh, meanwhile, bought a black Traser watch worth over $500 that was given to him by King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Governing Gifts Each year, the State Department’s Federal Register publishes a detailed list of the gifts, including 22 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

Photo: monoliza / fotolia

Watches, cufflinks and jewelry are common gifts given by foreign governments to U.S. officials, who can only keep gifts if they purchase them at fair market value.

“

It can help forge a relationship, it could ease tensions maybe between leaders, heads of state, and it could be also to say thank you for being such a great ally. So it’s very important to give gifts.

is also responsible for selecting gifts the president and other officials give to foreign dignitaries.

Despite the strict rules and many government entities involved in gifting, the practice is crucial to international relations.

“It [has] real tremendous potential, this giftgiving ceremonial thing that we do, to forge relationships,” said Pamela Eyring, president of the Protocol School of Washington. “It can help forge a relationship, it could ease tensions maybe between leaders, heads of state, and it could be also to say thank you for being such a great ally. So it’s very important to give gifts.”

Pamela Eyring

It’s the Thought that Counts

”

president of the Protocol School of Washington

their recipients, givers, values and destinations.

“The way it works in practice is gifts that are given to the president, all are turned over to the GSA and the GSA takes possession of them on behalf of the federal government,” said Lawrence Dunham, former assistant chief of protocol at State for 16 years and current senior associate at Protocol Partners, a protocol consulting, staffing, training and operations firm. “They become federal government property. And then when the president leaves office, they are displayed in the presidential library.”

The government established a chief of protocol in 1928 to assist with gift receiving, among other diplomatic tasks. Today, the Office of Government Ethics oversees gifting rules, and the Gift Unit within State’s Office of Protocol serves as the processing point for gifts received by executive branch employees from foreign officials. The unit

Gifts come in all shapes and sizes. There are plenty of cufflinks and bottles of wine (and cognac) to go around. But a lot of thought goes into gifts to make them representative of the country giving them and/or of the relationship between the countries. Here are some examples: • In 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave President Obama a framed blackand-white photograph of the first American consulate in Jerusalem circa 1888. It was valued at $440.

• In 2011, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave basketball fan Obama a basketball signed by the 2010-11 Toronto Raptors NBA basketball team in a plastic display case and an antique map of North America. These were valued at $1,880.

• In 2014, British Prime Minister David Cameron gave Obama a framed and matted photograph

of Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower reviewing American paratroopers, along with a two-page facsimile telegram from Prime Minister Churchill to President Harry Truman.

• In 2002, Lt. Gen. Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates gave President George W. Bush a limited edition “Stars and Stripes” Montblanc pen inset with rubies and diamonds in an American flag pattern. The item was valued at $18,000.

St. Basil’s Cathedral, two large G8 Summit notebooks, pens, planner and a brown leather briefcase.

• The late Saudi King Abdullah seemed to be partial to the Bulgari line of Italian luxury items, giving Bulgari watches to various U.S. officials, including a men’s watch valued at nearly $20,000 to Jonathan Finer, deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State John Kerry, in 2014.

• In 2014, Malaysia’s prime minister gave the president a framed portrait of Obama woven in songket fabric, a stamp collection and six booklets about Islam. Other Malaysian • In appreciation of their visit to the Hudson River Valley goodies that year included a bronze tone-covered album in 1939, Crown Prince Olav and Princess Märtha of Norway Although every effort is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and of photos showing Obama’s visit to the country in 2014, as sent President Franklin D. Roosevelt and hisNOTE: wife a tea set. as a 20-inch sword with a grip made of polished wood content it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final well proof. carved in the shape of water fowl and held in a sheath of Other times, the gifts represent a show of wealth. For ingemstone-encrusted stance, that diamond-and-emerald set — earrings, necklace, The first two faxed changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changesgold and silver. phoTo: chArlES j ShArp / ShArp phoTogrAphy viA WikipEDiA ring and bracelet — was given in 2014 to Michelle Obama • President Obama received a slew of commemorative will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed ads are considered approved. by the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud in 1990, president george h.W. Bush received a komodo dragon from the mementos and wardrobe items from Indian Prime Minister and was valued at $560,000. He gave the Obamas’ daugh- president of indonesia (he donated it to the cincinnati zoo and Botanical Narendra Modi, including digital recordings of civil rights Please check garden). this ad carefully. Mark any changes to your ad. ters jewelry valued at $80,000. There was also a gold-plated leader Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta visiting brass replica of the Makkah Clock Tower estimated to be • In 2003, gave Georgeneeds W. Bush 300 India; a variety of fabrics, paintings and books, including a If the correct sign and faxArgentina’s to: (301) president 949-0065 changes worth $57,000. In fact, the Saudi king’s gift s to ad the is Obamas special-edition copy of “Bhagavad Gita According to Ganpounds of raw lamb meat, valued at $1,500. totaled about $1.3 million that year. dhi”; a purple dress with small gems and a multicolored Sometimes, the gifts can simply seemThe odd.Washington Here are ex-Diplomat (301) 933-3552 • In 1990, George H.W. Bush received a Komodo dragon embroidery of peacocks, flowers and vines; and a tan tunic amples of those, too: from the president of Indonesia and donated it to the Cin- with matching drawstring pants. cinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, where it died in 2007.

Approved __________________________________________________________ • In 2009, then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko • In 2012, Obama received from Colombian President Changes an ___________________________________________________________ Juan Manuel Santos “a silver figure representing overGifts run the gamut from bizarre to banal, practical to gave Vice President Joe Biden a bottle of 1945 Massandra white port harvest wine from Crimea’s oldest winery. Five sized coffee bean.” Along with a book, the gift was valued pricey. Here are a few other recent highlights: ___________________________________________________________________ years later, Russia annexed the peninsula of Crimea. at $942.84.

• In 2014, the sultan of Brunei gave Obama a gift basket • Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Md.) and Angus King (I-Maine) • In 2011, Australia’s Northern Territory Chief Minister of eclectic trinkets, including an automatic tea infuser in the each received a 98 million-year-old fish fossil from Ziad Paul Henderson gave Obama a $50,000 policy that would shape of a penguin, 12 scented votive candles, a cheese tray Hawat, the mayor of the Lebanese city of Byblos. The fossil cover him in case he was attacked by a crocodile. made of walnut, a deep purple snakeskin storage trunk and was valued at $400.

• In 2014, not to be outdone in the vanity department, the book “People You’d Like to Know” featuring photos of Britain’s Prince William gave Obama a signed portrait of legendary American musicians.

DElicATE ExchAngE himself valued at $888.

• Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state who It’s not news to foreign officials that generosity comes at • In 2010, Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, received a veritable a price — in this case, strict rules to accepting gifts. and his wife gave Obama an MP3 player and “uGoGo elec- smorgasbord of office supplies from the Russian deputy foreign minister in 2014, including a paperweight etched with tronic pulse massager,” for a total value of $550.

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WD | Middle East

Observing, From Afar U.k.-Based outfit Attempts to Fill Black hole of information in Syria By jUSTin SAlhAni

I

nformation about the Syrian civil war, now in its sixth year, remains elusive. Even the death count is a mystery. The figure that has been ubiquitously quoted is 250,000 (the last number given by the United Nations before it stopped counting), though a Syrian research center announced that the death toll has likely surpassed 470,000. With data so hard to come by, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has proved an invaluable tool for the media and Syria experts.

The small British-based NGO provides a wealth of details about the murky conflict on a near-daily basis.

It documents the war’s death and destruction in graphic photos on its Facebook page. In one day in April, its website ran a litany of reports on the latest airstrikes, car bombings, clashes and casualties throughout Syria.

For example, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claimed that the recent Russian air offensive in Syria had killed 5,081 people since last September — 40 percent of them civilians.

It noted that warplanes in Al-Raqqah province had killed 24 members of the Islamic State in mid-April. It even said the Islamic State set up loudspeakers telling the remaining 15,000 residents of Palmyra to flee before the regime’s advance on the ancient city.

Another recent example is the alleged death of Islamic State commander Abu Omar al-Shishani by an American airstrike. Reuters ran a story on March 10 that quoted SOHR’s claim that al-Shishani wasn’t dead but seriously injured.

“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that Islamic State’s military commander was badly wounded but still alive, appearing to contradict U.S. officials who said he was likely killed in a U.S. air strike,” Reuters reported, despite not being able to independently verify the claim. U.S. officials later told CNN that al-Shishani had in fact been injured in the airstrike and subsequently died, though they wouldn’t reveal how they knew about his death.

Quoted by a variety of outlets, SOHR is run by Rami Abdulrahman, born Osama Suleiman. He manages the entire operation from his home in Coventry, England, where he’s lived since fleeing Syria in 2000 after fearing arrest by the regime. In 2006, he started SOHR and when the Syrian civil war began in 2011, he focused his full efforts on tracking violations. Answering a slew of phone calls each day, Abdulrahman keeps SOHR ticking almost singlehandedly.

24 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

Abdulrahman doesn’t work alone.

The New York Times reported that he has confidants in Syria who gather reports from a large network of over 200 activists. Some of these activists have been killed during the war, according to Abdulrahman, and many work in the shadows to avoid the ire of the various warring actors. He also has a colleague translate the reports and post them on Facebook in English.

“Using the simplest, cheapest Internet technology available, Mr. Abdul Rahman spends virtually every waking minute tracking the war in Syria, disseminating bursts of information about the fighting and the death toll,” Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times wrote in a profile of Abdulrahman in 2013. “What began as sporadic, rudimentary e-mails about protests early in the uprising has swelled into a torrent of statistics and details.”

The Syrian civil war started in 2011 after the government brutally repressed peaceful demonstrations. Protesters picked up arms and formed rebel bat-

“

A dearth of information coming out of Syria means that experts continue to rely on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights for casualty counts and on-theground reports, even though there’s no way to validate the group’s claims.

”

talions that led to enough chaos that a constellation of foreign governments and extremist groups entered the fray.

Syria became increasingly dangerous for the international media. Journalists like James Foley and Steven Sotloff were captured by the Islamic State and beheaded in gruesome videos broadcast to the public. Syria was listed as the deadliest country in the world for journalists in 2015 by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The intensity and divisiveness of the Syrian war, as well as the regime’s role in controlling media, means that it is also difficult for local journalists to report on the conflict from more than one angle. In their

stead, Abdulrahman now collects casualty counts from his group of activists and supplies it to the international media. His work has taken on added importance as experts try to collect evidence to establish possible charges of war crimes in the future.

While SOHR is an indispensable resource, it is far from infallible in the eyes of many.

Speaking to The Washington Diplomat, two Syria experts — with differing political leanings — said SOHR’s figures must be taken with a grain of salt. A dearth of information coming out of Syria, however, means that experts continue to rely on Abdulrahman for casualty counts and on-the-ground reports, even though there’s no way to validate the group’s claims.

“All sides in the conflict accuse him of bias, and even he acknowledges that the truth can be elusive on Syria’s tangled and bitter battlefields,” the New York Times reported, noting that Abdulrahman has been accused of working for everyone from the Muslim Brotherhood to the CIA to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s exiled uncle.

Of all his critics, the Syrian regime has probably been his biggest detractor.

“Assad’s government says he is lying and its powerful propaganda machine has unleashed a campaign against Abdulrahman on Syrian state television,” Reuters reported in 2012. “Assad supporters have publicly threatened to kill him.”

Abdulrahman’s history with the Syrian regime and his comments to international media do show his resentment toward Assad (he founded SOHR to draw attention to jailed activists inside

Syria).

“The truth will make people aware,” Abdulrahman told the New York Times. “Hearing the number of people killed every day will make them ask the government, ‘Where are you taking us?’”

Aside from death threats and accusations of bias, SOHR has came under attack from fellow Syrian activists.

Mousab Azzawi is a Syrian pathologist who set up a rival observatory in London several years ago and tried to discredit Abdulrahman’s work.

“I agree that unifying powers of human rights activists is better,” Azzawi told Reuters in 2012. “[But] if I can’t trust my colleague ... why waste my time?”

Russian government-funded media outlet RT reported that Azzawi was a former translator for Abdulrahman’s SOHR but was fired after calling for foreign intervention in Syria. Azzawi’s human rights monitoring site did not count the death of Syrian soldiers among its casualties.

Azzawi’s name, however, has since fallen into obscurity as Abdulrahman’s Syrian Observatory seems to have withstood the test of time — even if not entirely unscathed.

Until journalists, both local and foreign, are able to move freely around Syria and report on the latest events in the war-ravaged country, expect SOHR to continue appearing in a plethora of media reports. WD Justin Salhani (@JustinSalhani) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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WD | Global Vantage Point

Legal Minefield Lawsuits Force Foreign Governments to Navigate U.S. Court System

by John B. Bellinger III

M

ost embassies in Washington are well aware that the United States is a land of lawyers and lawsuits. The majority of lawsuits in the U.S. are filed against American companies and nationals, but each year a significant number is filed in U.S courts against foreign governments, their ministries and their state-owned companies. An increasing number of lawsuits is also brought against foreign officials, including current or former heads of state and senior government ministers, for international law violations allegedly committed by these officials in their own countries.

These suits cause great aggravation for embassies and occasionally diplomatic friction between the U.S. government and their foreign counterparts. Foreign governments almost always must retain U.S. law firms to represent their national interests and officials in U.S. court. For suits against foreign officials, the U.S. government is often willing to file a legal brief asking that a case be dismissed, but it may still take months or years before a lawsuit against a foreign head of state or senior minister is terminated.

So how can foreign governments and their embassies navigate this complicated legal minefield?

Over the last 40 years, more than 50 lawsuits have been filed in U.S. courts against foreign government officials, including the current or former heads of state Angola, Azerbaijan, Brunei, China, Cameroon, Colombia, Gabon, Ghana Grenada, Haiti, India, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Myanmar, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Zimbabwe. Prince Charles has been sued. Queen Rania of Jordan has been sued. Even two popes — John Paul II and Benedict XVI — have been the target of lawsuits. And suits have been filed against numerous senior officials, including foreign ministers, defense and interior ministers, and even foreign judges.

Almost all of the suits are filed by nationals of the countries involved, rather than by U.S. citizens. The complaints often allege that the foreign government official has personally committed or, more often, been responsible for serious human rights violations or war crimes, such as extrajudicial killings, torture, slavery and rape, although occasionally the claims are more mundane (such as for breach of contract). Most lawsuits

26 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

Photo: 3drenderings / fotolia

“

Over the last 40 years, more than 50 lawsuits have been filed in U.S. courts against foreign government officials….

Prince Charles has been sued. Queen Rania of Jordan has been sued. Even two popes — John Paul II and Benedict XVI — have been the target of lawsuits.

claim that U.S. courts have jurisdiction to decide the cases under one or both of two federal laws: the Alien Tort Statute or the Torture Victim Protection Act. The Alien Tort Statute (ATS) was passed in 1789 by the first Congress of the United States and is generally believed to have been intended to allow non-U.S. nationals (aliens) to bring civil suits in federal courts for violations of international law that were recognized in the 18th century, such as piracy or physical assaults on ambassadors. The ATS was littleused for nearly 200 years until human rights lawyers rediscovered it in the 1970s and have since relied on it to bring hundreds of lawsuits against both foreign government officials and multinational corporations for alleged human rights abuses.

”

Plaintiffs often brought so-called “foreign-cubed” cases in U.S. court, i.e., a foreign plaintiff suing a foreign defendant for acts that took place in a foreign country. Lawsuits under the ATS have been controversial, and many foreign governments have filed briefs objecting to ATS suits against their nationals or companies. The Supreme Court responded by issuing several decisions limiting the reach of the ATS, most recently by holding in 2013 (in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum) that the statute does not provide jurisdiction for alleged offenses that occur in the territory of other countries, except in rare circumstances. The court’s decision may reduce the number of lawsuits filed under the ATS against foreign government officials, although it is too soon to tell.

Unlike the Alien Tort Statute, the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) was specifically enacted by Congress in 1991 to permit lawsuits against foreign government officials for acts of torture and extrajudicial killing in their own countries. Congress believed the law would allow victims of human rights abuses to secure justice in U.S. courts that they might not be able to achieve in their home countries.

Foreign governments often react forcefully against these types of lawsuits. They generally view them as legal attacks on their policies. Some suits are entirely frivolous. (In a few cases, usually when there has been a change in government, a government may ignore or even support suits against the officials of the former government.) Many governments file diplomatic notes John B. Bellinger III of protest and ask the State Department to take action to ensure that the suits are dismissed. When I was the legal adviser of the State Department, I regularly met with unhappy ambassadors of countries whose officials had been targeted in human rights lawsuits.

Some governments initially refuse to take any action to defend their officials in court, insisting that

the suits are improper and that the U.S. government should be responsible for ensuring the suits are dismissed (just as the U.S. is responsible for ensuring the protection of diplomatic facilities). In response, the State Department has generally explained to foreign governments that, while the U.S. government may provide some assistance, the foreign official or foreign government bears primary responsibility for their defense. In most cases, the foreign government will then retain an experienced law firm and lawyer to defend the official in court. Relatively few American lawyers have experience in cases involving foreign government officials, so choosing a knowledgeable lawyer is important.

Although plaintiffs may try to bring lawsuits under the ATS and TVPA, this does not mean that the suits may proceed.

In many cases, foreign government officials enjoy immunity from suit. In contrast to the immunity of foreign governments, their ministries and state-owned companies, which is governed by federal statute (the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, or FSIA), the immunity of foreign officials is governed by common law (i.e., judicial determinations by courts), based on guidance provided by the Executive Branch and informed by principles of international law.

Although the U.S. government will not formally represent a foreign official or foreign government in court, if the suit is against a head of state, foreign minister or other official relating to the official’s governmental acts, it is usually willing to file a special legal brief called a “Suggestion of Immunity,” which asks a judge to dismiss the suit on the basis that these officials enjoy immunity under both U.S. law and international law. Sitting heads of state or government and foreign ministers are entitled to absolute “status-based immunity” from lawsuits based on the positions they hold. Lower-ranking officials and former officials (including former heads of state or government) enjoy “conduct-based immunity” against suits for their governmental acts (but do not enjoy immunity for their personal acts).

The Justice Department, which is responsible for representing the interests of the United States in federal or state court, submits the Suggestion of Immunity, which attaches a letter from the legal adviser of the State Department formally recognizing that person’s immunity. I signed many such determinations when I served as legal adviser. Already in 2016, the legal adviser has made immunity determinations on behalf of the emperor and prime minister of Japan and the president and foreign minister of Myanmar.

The U.S. government has filed many Suggestions of Immunity for sitting heads of state or foreign ministers for over 50 years. In contrast, its practice with respect to lower-ranking officials and former heads of state or governments has changed in recent years. Until five years ago, most federal courts assumed that FSIA governed the immunity of current and former foreign government officials as well as the immunity of governments. In 2010, however, the Supreme Court held (in Samantar v.

Yousuf) that the FSIA protects only foreign sovereigns and their instrumentalities, not foreign government officials. After Samantar, the Executive Branch has argued, and courts have accepted, that the immunity of lower-ranking officials, and former heads of state and government officials, is (like the immunity of heads of state and government) also governed by the common law, based on Suggestions of Immunity provided by the Executive Branch.

The Executive Branch considers its Suggestions of Immunity to be binding on the courts. In other words, it believes that

when the Justice Department submits a Suggestion of Immunity with a determination by the legal adviser, then a court is required to dismiss the case. U.S. judges have almost always been willing to defer to Suggestions of Immunity submitted on behalf of sitting heads of state or government, although some courts have hinted that they may not feel legally bound to accept immunity determinations involving lower-ranking or former officials.

The process for foreign governments to ask the U.S. to file a Suggestion of Immunity in cases where their officials have been sued is relatively simple. For lawsuits against a sitting head of state or government, the foreign government submits a diplomatic note to the appropriate geographic bureau or the legal adviser of the State Department confirming that the official is the current head of state or government and asking the Justice Department to submit a Suggestion of Immunity. The State Department will then send a letter to the Justice Department, which files the Suggestion.

For lawsuits involving lower-ranking or former officials, the foreign government must submit a diplomatic note confirming that the officials have been sued with respect to their authorized official actions, not unauthorized personal actions. These diplomatic notes can be more difficult to prepare because they require a government to state that the actions of their officials (which often involve allegations of extrajudicial killing or torture) were authorized actions. (In general, the foreign government disputes the allegations, while stating that any actions taken by their officials were done in an official capacity.)

The State Department will then give the plaintiffs the opportunity to argue that the actions were not authorized. These cases can sometimes put the State Department legal adviser in the uncomfortable position of informing the Justice Department, and a court, that actions alleged to be war crimes or human rights violations were actually done in an official capacity.

The State Department legal adviser has made a handful of immunity determinations in the last few years regarding former officials or lower-ranking officials, including in suits against former President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, former President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia, the directors of Pakistan’s intelligence directorate and several judges in Israel. The court subsequently dismissed the suit in all of these cases.

Even when a trial court dismisses a lawsuit based on a Suggestion of Immunity, plaintiffs often appeal the dismissal to an appellate court and even to the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeals may take months or years to resolve and often require the Justice Department to file further briefs urging dismissal.

In the end, all lawsuits against foreign government officials where the Justice Department has filed a Suggestion of Immunity have been dismissed. Unfortunately, the protracted litigation can be expensive and reputation-damaging for the foreign government, and frustrating for the embassy personnel who handle the suits. WD John B. Bellinger III heads the public international law practice at Arnold & Porter LLP. He served as the legal adviser for the State Department from 2005 to 2009 and legal advisor to the National Security Council from 2001 to 2005.

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•

May 2016

A member of the U.S. Air Force studies under a plane.

Stories from the Front Educating Military Members Forms Backbone of UMUC’s Global Rise •

by Karin Zeitvogel

T

he images and memories from late April 1975 in Saigon — now Ho Chi Minh City — are indelibly etched in many of our minds. An American helicopter, its rotors spinning, hovers just above a rooftop as it picks up a dozen of the long line of men, women and children waiting on a stairway, desperate to leave the capital of then South Vietnam.

The North Vietnamese had shelled the airport serving Saigon a few days earlier, making mass evacuations by plane impossible. The U.S. Armed Forces Network (AFN) played Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” and aired a message that Americans — and Vietnamese who had cooperated with the Americans — recognized as a signal that it was time to go.

The city was beyond tense. As AFN said in its message, the temperature was 105 degrees and rising.

Out of camera range and beyond the airwaves, one aspect of life in South Vietnam was continuing almost as normal: The

Joe Arden, who taught for the University of Maryland University College, left, is pictured in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1989.

Photos: University of Maryland University College

See UMUC • page 30 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 29

“

When we say the military is in our DNA, we mean it. It’s been a part of UMUC from the very beginning.

We hold this commitment very dearly.

UMUC Continued • page 29

”

American service members who had remained in South Vietnam after the U.S. pullout two years earlier and embassy staff were taking notes and listening to lectures in University of Maryland University College (UMUC) Rob Ludwig University of Maryland University College assistant vice president of media relations classrooms. Eventually, they had to interrupt their studies and flee with everyone else.

Created in 1947 to provide university educaOver time, the program has expanded to tions for the untold numbers of service members reach hundreds of sites around the world. Toreturning from World War II, including “battleday, UMUC is a leader in global education, enfield commissions” — soldiers promoted to the rolling more students worldwide in 2014 than rank of officer in the heat of World War II — who any other four-year, degree-granting public were threatened with demotion as the U.S. military university in the United States. Last year, the cut back after the war ended, UMUC first sent facinstitution, which is part of the University of ulty out to teach in the Washington, D.C., region, Maryland system, had nearly 250,000 worlddeploying teachers to the Pentagon, Bolling Air wide online course enrollments. Its overseas diForce Base, Fort Meade, Md., and wherever service visions offered on-site classes in more than 20 members were seeking an education. countries and territories throughout the world, Then, in 1949, the NATO military alliance was Photo: Tracey Brown / University of Maryland University College enrolling almost 11,000 individual students formed and many of the battlefield commissions in undergraduate and graduate programs in who were working toward their degrees were From left, Jeanne Tucker, Irving Tucker and Joe Arden Asia and Europe (also see “Maryland’s UMUC attend an April reunion in College Park, Md., of the poised to be sent back overseas.

Leads the Way in International Online Educa“That meant they would have to desert their Overseas Marylanders Association, a grouping of former tion” in the October 2015 education issue of educational programs, so they petitioned for their University of Maryland University College (UMUC) faculty programs to be brought overseas with them,” John and staff. Arden had been with UMUC since 1967, serving The Washington Diplomat). as director of the European Division from 1981 to 1996.

While UMUC is considered a pioneer in Golembe, a 30-year veteran of UMUC’s European online learning, its face-to-face instruction division, told The Washington Diplomat at an April reunion in College Park, Md., of the Overseas Marylanders Association, a of American military members formed the backbone of its international growth. When Golembe began working for UMUC in 1978, the univergrouping of former UMUC faculty and staff.

“The military quickly put out an order asking if there was anyone who sity’s European program had a footprint in 200 locations — from Iceland could do this, and only Maryland responded. In the fall of 1949 they sent in the north, to the eastern border of Germany, to Sicily and Turkey in the seven professors from the university overseas, expecting there would be south. By the early 1990s, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were about 600 students. On the first night, there were nearly 2,000, scattered 50,000 unique students in Europe alone in one year, Golembe said.

And that was before the ubiquity of the internet. UMUC overseas at six different locations,” he said.

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These are some of the decisions these young men made: Arizona State University, North Carolina State University, James Madison University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Illinois, Indiana State University, The Citadel, Washington and Lee University, University of Tampa, University of Virginia, Penn State University, University of Notre Dame, HampdenSydney College, Texas A & M, University of Colorado, Boston University Typical kids, outstanding results.

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30 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

courses were taught in person by resident faculty in classrooms. Professors held office hours, just as they would on a college campus back in the United States. But unlike traditional universities, UMUC terms lasted eight weeks “because with the military you can never be sure when they’re going to get up and depart or go out on a movement or operation,” Golembe said. And rather than teaching in one place, faculty traveled from U.S. base to U.S. base, never knowing until weeks before they were due to leave where they would be spending the next eight weeks. This earned them the nickname of “gypsy scholars” or “academic foreign legion,” both of which they still claim with pride.

The itinerant lifestyle was unfathomable to some onlookers, former faculty member Sharon Hudgins, who with her husband Tom taught for 20 years in Asia and Europe, said in an interview published in UMUC’s annual Achiever magazine.

“Our German friends could never understand that legitimate American professors would be sent to teach university courses on military bases overseas and also move to a different base and even a different country every eight weeks,” Hudgins said. “They thought we worked for the CIA and UMUC was our cover.”

Bruce Janoff was hired to work for UMUC straight out of graduate school in 1972. He shipped out to Asia and taught U.S. troops in Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Okinawa and the Philippines.

In his first academic year at UMUC, Joe Arden taught in Korea for the first term, in Vietnam for the second, and then in Thailand, Taiwan and northern Japan for one term each. “I was 26 or something. I thought there was some mistake — I should’ve been paying Maryland but Maryland was paying me,” Arden mused.

Faculty members had to know how to deal with a foreign culture, be independent, self-reliant, resourceful and able to find their next posting, no matter how remote the outpost they were being sent to, said former UMUC faculty recruiter Rosemary Hoffmann.

They also had to be prepared to accept the rigidity and discipline of life on a military base, where rules were enforced to the letter, said

Photo: Tracey Brown / University of Maryland University College

University of Maryland University College faculty and staff gather at an April reunion in College Park, Md.

Julian Jones, who also spent part of his time at UMUC recruiting faculty members.

But the military did not interfere in the classroom, said Jones. “I taught courses on war. I’m not a proponent of war but no one ever intervened and said, ‘You can’t teach this,’” he explained.

Just as UMUC faculty are not cut from the traditional teacher mold, neither are the university’s students, like Navy veteran Rachel Shannon.

Shannon knew she “didn’t want to go straight down the college factory road” when she finished high school.

“I wanted to travel, I wanted to be a service member. I also knew See U MU C • page 32

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tions for the university.

“UMUC has been remarkably successful in taking educational opportunities of a Continued • page 31 major American university around the world,” added Arden, a former teacher and dithat until I figured out what I like doing, it rector who although retired didn’t make sense for me to do a degree,” — as many of the faculty at she told The Washington Diplomat. the reunion were — still cares Shannon started her first bachelor’s deeply about the thousands degree, in social sciences, in 1998 and of students around the world finished it in 2011. She expects to graduwho turn to UMUC for an ate next year with a second UMUC bacheducation, and the hundreds elor’s degree under her belt, in psycholof teachers and administrators ogy. She did her studies for that degree who provide it. when she lived in Belgium recently with Photo: Tracey Brown / University of Maryland University College In fact, a few years after the her husband, also a military veteran. fall (or liberation, depend“I was able to take courses both around From left, Cyndi Inkpen and Don Inkpen, who both worked in the University ing on how you look at it) of my active military service member sched- of Maryland University College (UMUC) Asia Division, join Paula Harbecke, Saigon, Arden was director of ule — I was stationed in Spain and flying who served as director of the Asian Division (1990-1996) and European Division (1996-2000). Harbecke was the first woman to direct an overseas division UMUC’s Asia Program. “We to different countries all the time — and in the history of UMUC. received a postcard one day later, as a spouse of a veteran, a veteran from Malaysia, addressed simmyself and a mother, I was able to take classes that worked around ply to the University of Maryland, American Embassy, Tokyo, Japan,” my schedule,” she said.

Shannon is part of a unique club of UMUC graduates that includes he told The Washington Diplomat. “The postcard was from an ethnic retired Army Lt. Gen. Emmett Paige Jr., who was the first African Vietnamese who had been teaching math with us that last term in American to reach flag rank in the 116-year history of the Signal Vietnam. He explained in the postcard that he and his family had Corps; Voice of America executive producer and host Saman Arbabi; been able to get out of Vietnam as boat people and they’d made it to Malaysia, and could we do anything to help them. We did, of course.” and Mary Rakow Tanner, deputy director of the National Zoo. Although many UMUC courses are now available online, the uni- The math teacher and his family eventually came to the United States, versity still sends faculty members to teach U.S. troops deployed Arden said.

As for the students whose classes were interrupted when the North overseas in places like Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as U.S. Marines and staff at embassies around the world. The faculty is Vietnamese closed in on Saigon, Arden was tasked several years later just as dedicated to the students as the students are to their studies: A with deciding what to do with all of their “incompletes.” He gave the UMUC teacher once followed his students into the desert in Kuwait students the option to either finish the course or have their tuition refunded. WD so that they would not miss class while out on a training exercise.

“When we say the military is in our DNA, we mean it. It’s been a part of UMUC from the very beginning. We hold this commitment Karin Zeitvogel (@Zeitvogel) is a contributing writer very dearly,” said Rob Ludwig, assistant vice president of media rela- for The Washington Diplomat.

UMUC

32 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

WD | Education | Academia

Under Fire Organizations Step Up to Help Scholars Fleeing War, Threats •

by Karin Zeitvogel

I

t was 2014 and Syrian academic Nizar (not his real name) said he knew it was time to leave Syria. He and colleagues had been forced for the third time in several months to seek shelter in the basement underneath the university where they worked as mortars rained down on the city.

Photo: Institute of International Education

“

“I don’t know who was shelling us but I knew it was impossible to continue my work like this,” Nizar, who was in the process of setting up a new academic program for the university, told The Washington Diplomat, asking to remain anonymous.

But he was determined not to leave Syria as one of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have taken the perilous path across the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. “I planned to leave Syria with financial support and to have a visa as if the situation in Syria were normal,” he said. So he started to look into the possibilities available to scholars like himself: Nizar has a doctorate in electrical engineering and a master’s degree, both from French universities.

“I started searching for post-doctoral positions, and while searching, I found the IIE site,” he said, referring to the nearly 100-yearold, globally active Institute of International Education (IIE), which for decades has run a program to provide safe haven for persecuted scholars or academics who live in war-torn countries.

Nizar applied for and was awarded a fellowship through the IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF). After that, he had a year to find a university that would be willing to host him for the duration of his fellowship. Thanks to a former student of

Photo: © UNICEF/UN06848/Al Halabi

Top photo, Finnish Consul General Jukka Pietikäinen talks about his country’s efforts to provide safe places in Finland for threatened scholars from Iraq and Syria to continue their academic work, as part of a collaboration with the Institute of International Education. Above, two boys head home after school in eastern Aleppo. After five years of war, millions of Syrians have had their lives — and educations — uprooted.

chair mobility. Their project ended up beating some 500 others to win a competition in France organized by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. The two are in the process of creating a start-up to continue their work and bring their

They don’t think of themselves as refugees, and they’re not seeking asylum. They’re seeking this concept of haven. They’re very devoted to their students and their universities back home and want to go back.

Allan Goodman president of the Institute of International Education

his (a lesson to professors that it’s always a good idea to keep in touch with students), Nizar was awarded a two-year fellowship at a university in northern France.

He arrived in France in the late spring of 2014 and immediately began working with his former student on a project to improve wheel-

”

innovative products to market.

They’ve been awarded a grant for 60,000 euro from the French region they live and work in, and Nizar told The Diplomat that in early February, he and his partner were in talks with a “large company in Germany” that might be interested in funding the start-up. With Nizar’s fellow-

ship coming to an end, he is applying for an extension of his French resident’s permit to allow him to get his start-up for disabled people off the ground.

Nizar is typical of the 70 Syrian scholars who have been awarded SRF fellowships since the start of the conflict in 2011. Before Syria plunged into civil war, more than a quarter of young Syrians attended university, where they were taught by thousands of professors, said James King, assistant director of SRF. “Among the displaced Syrians, you have tens of thousands of university students and professors who have skills and expertise and are able to contribute to their host country before they return home or, in some cases, permanently,” King said.

IIE President Allan Goodman and Nizar both insisted that threatened scholars are not refugees. Most of them say that their “number-one wish is to return home” at the end of their fellowships to help rebuild

their countries, Goodman said.

“They don’t think of themselves as refugees, and they’re not seeking asylum. They’re seeking this concept of haven. They’re very devoted to their students and their universities back home and want to go back.

We view SRF as an investment in a post-conflict future,” he said.

Nizar said he does not know when he’ll be able to go back to Syria. His fellowship ends in May, but following his win in the innovation and entrepreneurship competition, he is in the process of applying for the right to remain in France as a businessman, rather than as a research scientist.

Through SRF, more than 625 scholars from 55 countries have found safe haven in some 350 host institutions in 41 countries around the world since 2002. That includes fellowships to dozens of scholars from Syria and over 300 from Iraq.

In January, Finland joined the ranks of countries that take in See Scholars • page 34 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 33

example of positive things we can do,” as Europe deals — some would argue badly — with the massive influx of people fleeContinued • page 33 ing war, violence and collapsing economies, Seitsalo said. threatened scholars. When the Finn“We hope that this program ish project is fully up and running, the will bring a positive element into Nordic country will take in at least five the debate and discussion here threatened scholars from Syria and Iraq in Finland about asylum seekers in the first year. “As civil war continues to and refugees in general. We hope devastate Syria’s higher education system, it shows that there are different and the self-proclaimed Islamic State and types of people who are threatother radical forces persist in Iraq, there ened and we need to help on all is a greater need than ever for trans-Atlevels,” he said. lantic partnerships that support academIIE budgets for 90 rescues ics facing war and targeted threats,” said a year, but “it’s nowhere near SRF Chairman Mark A. Angelson. enough to meet demand,” GoodPhoto: © UNICEF/UNI174576/Romenzi “Our idea is that we would be giving man lamented. scholars the possibility to contribute Seated on a rug atop the dirt ground, girls complete homework outside their tent home And who would have thought here in Finland to the university, and in the Kawergosk camp for Syrian refugees, just west of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan that, 100 years after IIE began they would have the possibility to learn region of Iraq. rescuing academics — at the about how we do things here,” said Samu time, they were fleeing the BolSeitsalo, director of the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO), which shevik revolution in Russia — “scholars would still be targeted,” Goodman works with the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture to promote in- said. ternational exchanges and cooperation. “One day, they could go back to “We wish we didn’t have to do this,” Goodman said, but as long as acatheir country and help to rebuild it. What I have understood from many demics are threatened with everything from assassination to kidnapping to of the scholars is that they would be willing to return home and help to bombardment to being arbitrarily thrown into prison or prevented from rebuild their nation.” entering a country, “global institutions and nations will be stepping up to IIE estimates that, among Syria’s refugee population of 4.5 million peo- help provide them a safe haven.” ple, there are as many as 2,000 university professionals and at least 100,000 And so they should, because the relationship between aided scholars and university-qualified students whose careers and educations have been in- the organizations and nations that help them is symbiotic and mutually terrupted by war. beneficial, according to Nizar.

Finland is joining the effort to offer a safe haven to these academics amid “In the last 16 to 17 months in France, I’ve achieved a lot, and my achievea rising and increasingly angry backlash to the flood of migrants from ments have the potential to help a lot of people. And it’s only been possible the Middle East and North Africa who are pouring into Europe. Finland because of this grant from the IIE,” he told The Diplomat. WD absorbed 35,000 asylum seekers last year, according to Seitsalo. That’s 10 Karin Zeitvogel (@Zeitvogel) is a contributing writer times the usual intake for the country of just 5.5 million people, he noted.

But by signing up to take in threatened scholars, “We want to give an for The Washington Diplomat.

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Other Help Available For Scholars at Risk N

ew York University’s Scholars at Risk (SAR) international network also arranges “positions of sanctuary” at institutions of higher education for academics forced to flee dangerous situations. In addition, the network provides advisory services for host institutions and scholars, including those still under threat as well as those forced into exile who are struggling to restart their lives and careers.

Scholars at Risk also runs a Scholarsin-Prison Project to help protect academics who are unable to leave their home countries due to threats, restrictions or wrongful imprisonment.

SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitor keeps a disturbing tally on threats and acts of violence against academics and entire educational systems. In a statement released after the disappearance and violent death of an Italian Ph.D. student in Egypt in January, SAR said it was the responsibility of state officials “to ensure the security of higher education communities, to prevent future attacks and to hold perpetrators of violence accountable.”

A fortnight after the death of the Italian student, whose body bore signs of torture, “Egyptian authorities have not indicated that any suspects have

www.rma.edu

been identified in connection with the incident,” SAR said. The brutally slain economics student was studying Egyptian labor movements and was reportedly in the process of preparing to do field research, including identifying labor rights activists for interviews, for his doctoral thesis. Egyptian authorities have denied claims that security forces were involved in his disappearance and death.

Academics face not only pressure from authorities, but from extremists as well. Militants in Pakistan have staged spectacular attacks on Pakistani schools in the country’s volatile northwestern region, including a massacre on a Peshawar army school in 2014 that killed over 140 people.

More recently, an armed attack on a Pakistani university earlier this year killed over 20 people.

SAR condemned the “extreme, targeted, violent attack” on Bacha Khan University that killed students, faculty members and others on Jan. 20.

“In addition to the terrible loss of life and injuries, such attacks target the core values of the university, including academic freedom, the free exchange of ideas, institutional autonomy and social responsibility,” SAR said.

— Karin Zeitvogel

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Medical A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

•

May 2016

Zika and Pregnancy U.S. Health Experts Debate Advice To Women Once Zika Virus Arrives •

HealtHday newS

At issue: Should women be told to avoid getting pregnant during mosquito season?

F

ollowing U.S. health officials’ announcement earlier this week that the Zika virus can definitely cause birth defects, many of those same experts are now locked in an unprecedented debate.

Should government health care officials recommend that American women delay getting pregnant in regions of the country once the mosquito-borne virus becomes active there?

So far, the virus in U.S. territories has been limited to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa. But as mosquito season approaches, health experts have said they expect to see infections in Gulf Coast states such as Florida and Texas, as well as Hawaii.

According to the New York Times, some infectious disease experts believe that avoiding pregnancy during the coming mosquito season is the only way to prevent the birth defect microcephaly, which can lead to abnormally small heads and brains. Most cases of the birth defect have been limited to Brazil, which has reported more than 5,000 suspected or confirmed cases.

But some women’s health specialists argue that the government “shouldn’t tell women what to do with their bodies,” the Times reported. Federal health officials have never suggested that all women in a region of the country avoid pregnancy. Moreover, the specialists say, most babies conceived during Zika epidemics in Latin America — where the virus has been most prevalent — have been born healthy, the newspaper said.

For now, the debate continues, with Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calling it “a very long conversation.”

“We do not have a recommendation to not become pregnant,” Frieden said.

“We do recommend access to contraception,” he added, the Times reported.

Currently, federal health officials recommend that pregnant women avoid areas where Zika is being actively transmitted by mosquitoes. To date, most of the infections have occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The CDC also recommends Zika testing for people potentially exposed to the virus and who have signs or symptoms of infection, typically a fever and rash. For now, that basically means people who have traveled to or lived in Latin America or the Caribbean.

On Friday, the CDC reported that from Jan. 3 to March 5, testing was done on 4,534 persons, including 3,335 (73.6 percent) pregnant women. Among the 1,541 people with one or more Zikarelated symptoms, 182 (11.8 percent) had a confirmed Zika infection. Only seven of 2,425 (0.3 percent) symptomless pregnant women were found to be infected.

Reporting in the April 15 issue of their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC officials said that given “the current U.S. setting, where most exposure is travel-associated, the likelihood of Zika virus infection among asymptomatic [symptomless] persons is low.” Still, with the risk of microcephaly, “health care providers should continue to offer Zika virus testing to asymptomatic pregnant women with potential exposure.”

Health officials also reported this week that gay men can become infected with Zika virus through sexual inter-

pHoto: baCHinSKaya irina andreevna / bigStoCK

course. The CDC and Texas health officials detailed the case of a Dallas man who had returned from a trip to Venezuela. He had had sex with his longtime partner, both developed symptoms and both recovered, according to published reports.

In fact, in an estimated 80 percent of

Following U.S. health officials’ announcement linking the Zika virus to birth defects, many of those same experts are now locked in an unprecedented debate over whether to recommend that american women delay getting pregnant once the mosquito-borne virus becomes active in certain parts of the country.

See ZIKA • page 38 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 37

Zika Continued • page 37

cases of Zika infection, the symptoms are mild or the person may not even know they’ve been infected, according to health officials.

But, Zika also has been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, an uncommon nervous system illness in which a person’s immune system damages the nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis, according to the CDC. On April 13, U.S. health officials announced that the Zika virus is a definite and direct cause of microcephaly and other brain-related birth defects.

“It is now clear,” the CDC’s Frieden said at a media briefing. “The CDC has concluded that Zika does cause microcephaly.”

He added: “There is still a lot that we don’t know, but there is no longer any doubt that Zika causes microcephaly.”

What’s more, it appears that Zika causes a particularly severe form of microcephaly that does terrible damage to infants’ brains, Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, director of the CDC’s Division of Public Health Information and Dissemination, said at the briefing.

The CDC made its announcement following what it described as a painstaking evidence review led by Rasmussen that was published on an expedited basis on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Frieden said.

However, there’s still much that needs to be learned about Zika’s effect on fetal development, said Rasmussen, who’s also editor-in-chief of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

For example, no one knows the exact risk of brain-related birth defects to the baby of a mother infected with Zika, she said, because some Zikainfected women have given birth to apparently healthy babies.

“We don’t know if the risk is somewhere in the range of 1 percent or in the range of 30 percent,” she said. “That’s one of the key questions we really want to answer.”

Researchers also don’t know if Zika will wind up causing learning dis-

“

There is still a lot that we don’t know, but there is no longer any doubt that Zika causes microcephaly.

”

Tom Frieden director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

abilities to these apparently healthy children later in life, or if Zika also causes birth defects beyond those that are brain-related, Rasmussen added.

The CDC said it hopes that its findings on the Zika-microcephaly connection will prompt pregnant women and women of child-bearing age to be even more careful regarding Zika, Rasmussen said.

Women living in an active Zika region should protect themselves by wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants, staying indoors with window and door screens to keep mosquitoes out, and using insect repellents.

People also can help cut down on mosquitoes in their neighborhoods by policing their properties and getting rid of any sources of standing water, she said.

“Mosquitoes breed in standing water, especially these mosquitoes,” Rasmussen said. “Even small amounts of standing water.”

As of April 6, there were 700 confirmed cases of Zika in U.S. states and territories, according to the CDC. However, none of the cases in the continental United States have occurred due to local transmission of the virus via mosquito bite. Nearly all these infections were acquired while traveling outside the country.

Public health officials have said they expect Zika to become active in the United States with the onset of mosquito season. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is expected to be the primary carrier in the United States.

Gulf Coast states are most at risk for local transmission of Zika, CDC officials have said. However, the A. aegypti mosquito ranges as far north as San Francisco, Kansas City and New York City, although health officials have said infections that far north are unlikely.

Copyright (c) 2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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www.gwhospital.com/international Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of the George Washington University Hospital. The hospital shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians. 160077

38 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

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40 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

Culture arts & entertainment art

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diplomatic spouses

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theater

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

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photography

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music

PHOTOGRAPHY

The Washington Diplomat

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history

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dining

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film

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May 2016 events

Nermine Hammam’s “The Break” from the series “Cairo Year One: Upekkha.”

Thai Politicos Wanchana Manawapat and her husband, Thai Ambassador Pisan Manawapat, have a special connection to D.C. — and to American politics. Their first overseas posting was in D.C. in the late 1980s, shortly after they were married, during which time he spent a year on Capitol Hill. / PAGE 43

FESTIVALS

Passport to Adventure It’s that time of year again when 30,000 people in the Washington area put on their most comfortable walking shoes and stroll around the world without leaving the District, thanks to Cultural Tourism DC’s annual Passport DC celebration. / PAGE 44

PHOTOGRAPHY

Saudi Evolution Ahmed Mater’s “Symbolic Cities” surveys the impact of urbanization and economic transformations on the landscapes of his native Saudi Arabia. / PAGE 45

OVERDUE

PHOTO: TAYMOUR GRAHNE

‘STORY’ Powerful and provocative, the new photography exhibition “She Who Tells a Story” highlights the work of 12 contemporary women artists from Iran and the Arab world as they explore the personal and the political. / PAGE 42

DINING

EVENTS

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

Union Market has become a symbol of revitalization — and a haven of culinary treats. / PAGE 48

Art / Festivals Music / Theater / PAGE 52

Heart’s Delight / Cherry Blossoms World Affairs Council Gala / PAGE 54 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 41

WD | Culture | Photography

Unexpected ‘Story’ Arab, Iranian Women Defy Stereotypes in Provocative Works •

PHOTO: ©SHADI GHADIRIAN / MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

BY MACKENZIE WEINGER

She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World THROUGH JULY 31 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS 1250 NEW YORK AVE., NW

(202) 783-5000 | WWW.NMWA.ORG

P

owerful and provocative, the new photography exhibition “She Who Tells a Story” highlights the work of 12 contemporary women artists from Iran and the Arab world as they explore the personal and the political.

With over 80 works on display aimed squarely at challenging stereotypes and showcasing the struggles and levity in everyday life, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) exhibition lives up to its title. This is the fourth venue for the show, which takes its name from the Arabic word rawiya, meaning “she who tells a story.”

The NMWA’s chief curator Kathryn Wat said she was excited to bring the exhibition to D.C. since “She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World” has proven to have “a real resonance with an American audience.” Wat told The Washington Diplomat the exhibition is an “excellent” choice for the region given that D.C. is the diplomatic capital of the nation and the show places a lens on women artists who are often unseen in the United States.

“It’s a great opportunity for audiences to learn about their work,” Wat said. “The one thing that’s so cool about the photographs is they’re all incredibly poetic. There’s wonderful poetry and nuance to the images, even if they’re gritty.”

Some pieces strike a far too obvious note — theatrically staged images from Gohar Dashti’s “Today’s Life and War” series, for instance, don’t leave much room for ambiguity — but there’s plenty of subtlety to be found elsewhere. Several series give viewers electrifying glimpses into seemingly mundane scenes, whether it’s on a Cairo subway in Rana El Nemr’s series “The Metro” or in Gaza in Tanya PHOTO: ©SHADI GHADIRIAN / MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON Habjouqa’s pieces catching women taking selfies or going on boat rides.

Then there are the wry, deftly done pieces from Shadi Ghadirian’s “Qajar” group, appearing on quick glance to be typical 19th-century studio portraits before revealing their contemporary nature thanks to props like a Pepsi can, boom box and pair of hipster sunglasses. Not just clever pastiches, but political commentaries on the restrictions that dominate life in Iran, Ghadirian’s pieces are among the standouts of the show.

Another stunning set of images comes at the end of the exhibition, in Newsha Tavakolian’s “Listen” series.

Highlighting female singers who are not permitted to record music in Iran because of Islamic tenets, Tavakolian’s pictures create imaginary album covers for records that can’t exist. Beautiful, haunting and uncompromising, the images leave you wishing you could really buy a copy on vinyl. In one, a woman sporting red boxing gloves stares forcefully at the viewer on a road in Tehran. She appears again on a different fictional album cover, standing in the ocean as waves crash around her.

This effective section also features videos of the women singers — muted.

It’s an emotive end to the show, and one that lets viewers linger on the many layers of the well-chosen title.

From fine art to photojournalism to the blurred lines between the two, “She Who Tells a Story” encourages viewers to challenge their ideas about the genre of photography and about life in Iran and the Arab world, Wat said.

“Most of us know the Middle East region through documentary photography,” she noted. “But these images are very expressive.”

And, as Wat pointed out, women have been involved in photography since its invention in the 19th century — and this show explores just the latest way women are making a stunning impact on the field. In the Middle East, Wat said, it is female photographers who are at the absolute forefront of innovation and artistry, as visitors to the NMWA show will be able to see.

42 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

PHOTO: ARTIST / HOWARD GREENBERG GALLERY

From clockwise top, Shadi Ghadirian’s “Qajar” series; Boushra Almutawakel’s series “The Hijab”; Newsha Tavakolian’s series “Listen”; Rania Matar’s “Reem, Doha, Lebanon” from the series “A Girl and Her Room”; and Shadi Ghadirian’s “Nil, Nil #11” are among the works in “She Who Tells a Story.”

PHOTO: ©RANIA MATAR / CARROLL AND SONS, BOSTON

The groundbreaking artists in the show are exploring identity, confronting widely held notions about Iranian and Arab women and helping to show the way women photographers resonate worldwide.

“It’s very gratifying that the most exciting, the most PHOTO: ARTIST / EAST WING CONTEMPORARY GALLERY compelling photo-based art being done in the Middle East region is being created by women. Absolutely the most gripping imagery is being created by women,” Wat said. WD Mackenzie Weinger (@mweinger) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

WD | Culture | Diplomatic Spouses

Political Observers For Thai Couple, Honeymoon With Washington Isn’t Over •

BY GAIL SCOTT

“I

love politics!” exclaimed Wanchana Manawapat, wife of Thai Ambassador Pisan Manawapat. “I keep watching the debates and deciding who’s winning.” Following diplomatic protocol not to interfere in the domestic politics of a host nation, however, she stopped short of handicapping the U.S. presidential race and revealing whom she hopes will end up in the White House.

“At home, many Thais don’t speak English, so Thai media conveys the American debates to them. We often take our news from CNN, BBC,” she noted.

“What I would like Americans to know about my country is that we have had a relationship with the United States for 183 years, when Andrew Jackson was president. Thailand was the first country in Asia to recognize the United States.”

The Manawapats also have a special connection to Washington, D.C. — and to American politics. Their first overseas posting was in D.C. in the late 1980s, shortly after they were married. During that time, Pisan Manawapat spent a year on Capitol Hill as a fellow for the American Political Science Association (APSA) in the offices of Rep. Don J. Pease (D-Ohio) and Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii).

“When we arrived the first time, we were just married. We were newlyweds,” Wanchana said.

“I almost married someone else. We had the rings and everything,” she admitted. “Then a mutual friend introduced Pisan and me when we were in our early 30s. We had gone to high school together. We were in the same grade. He got a scholarship from the foreign minister,” she recalled, noting that she thought a career in diplomacy would be fascinating. “Before we married, I had no idea what life was like for the diplomatic spouse — and how different it would be to be the ambassador’s wife.”

Thai Ambassador Pisan Manawapat, left, and his wife Wanchana Manawapat, right, opened A successful businesswoman in her own right, Wanchana said she learned that their residence — the historic Codman-Davis House — to host a surprise 86th birthday party for an ambassador’s wife “has a supporting role, not a leading role. This diplomatic role Esther Coopersmith, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who befriended the queen is completely different than any business role, especially when it is my business and of Thailand while serving as a UNESCO goodwill ambassador.

I can be my own boss. With my own work, I would have my own income and my But Thailand’s international reputation has been marred by political instability own agenda.”

Her education and career have been diverse. With an undergraduate degree in and charges of authoritarianism.

Coups d’états have been a regular facet of Thai politics since the introduction of mathematics from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, she then received a master’s degree in media and technology from Boston University before earning a cer- a constitutional monarchy in 1932. In recent years, power has swung from populist Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his legions of supporters, which tend to be tificate of special studies in administration and management from Harvard. poorer and more rural, and the urban establishment elite, which Her work has been equally varied. Wanchana’s is more middle-class and aligns itself with the military. first job was as product manager and secretary Over the last decade, protests between Shinawatra’s so-called to the chairman at Saha-Union Public Company “red-shirt” supporters and the “yellow-shirt” opposition drew Ltd. in Bangkok, which manufactures Nike shoes, millions to the streets and deeply polarized the Southeast Asian among other items. For her most recent venture, nation. A telecommunications billionaire, Shinawatra was deshe was the founder and advisor of Wongthep posed by a military coup in 2006 and went into self-imposed exCo., a distributor and contractor for Musco Sports ile. His sister Yingluck won a landslide victory in 2011 to become Lighting, an Iowa-based company that provides prime minister but was removed from office by the military in lighting for major sports events and stadiums.

2014 on charges of corruption.

“My career has been on and off. When my husSince then, the military junta has tightened its grip on the fracband starts to leave again [to a new post], I stop tured political system, granting itself sweeping powers, muzzling work and follow him.” the media, banning protests, detaining academics and activists She has followed him around the globe. Before and backtracking on promises to hold elections. his most recent post in Washington, Manawapat “After seizing power last year, General Prayuth [Chan-ocha] had served as Thailand’s ambassador to the Eupromised elections and a return to civilian rule of law,” wrote ropean Union, Belgium, Luxembourg, India and WANCHANA MANAWAPAT the New York Times editorial board in April 2015. “Not only do Canada. He also served at the Royal Thai Embassy wife of Thai Ambassador Pisan Manawapat those promises remain unfulfilled, but General Prayuth, in place in Kuala Lumpur and as deputy chief of mission in of martial law, has now granted himself sweeping executive, legisTokyo.

Despite his early foray into American politics, Manawapat’s career has been in lative and judicial powers under Article 44 of Thailand’s interim Constitution.”

The ambassador struck back on those accusations in a response to the New York diplomacy, not politics. Still, Wanchana thinks the hours are similar. “My husband is devoted to the Thai government. He breathes in and out for his government back Times in which he wrote that, “Since May 2014, Thailand’s leaders have lifted the home. He works a lot, night and day. It’s not unusual for him to work 12 hours a country out of political paralysis and violence. Until then, Thailand’s version of democracy was plagued by rampant corruption, abuse of power and absence of rule day.”

She has also pitched in to do her fair share. “As the ambassador’s wife, I design of law.”

Similarly, Wanchana defends her government back home. “Thailand is in a poeverything about our entertaining. I plan the menu. I taste the food. I oversee the presentation. For instance, I select different dishes for a Thai delegation than I do for litical transition. The people are fed up with street protests and political chaos. The country is taking steps to rectify our flawed democracy. Over the decade, our politiAmerican guests or other nationalities.”

Part of her job is also enlightening Americans about her homeland. “Americans cal system was broken, society deeply divided, parliament dysfunctional, governwho come to Thailand for vacation think Thais are carefree, spend their time by the ment shut down. Money was an indispensable part of the election campaign and beach and party all the time,” she joked. Despite these misconceptions, “Americans voters were angry with the establishment,” she explained. know more about Thailand than the Thais know about America. Americans have a SEE DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES • PAGE 49 good impression of the Thai people.”

PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT

“

Thailand is in a political transition.

The people are fed up with street protests and political chaos.

The country is taking steps to rectify our flawed democracy.

”

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 43

WD | Culture | Festivals

Doing More With Less Cultural Tourism DC Pulls Off Herculean Passport DC with Little Help from Friends •

BY STEPHANIE KANOWITZ

Passport DC MAY 1 TO 31 VARIOUS LOCATIONS WWW.CULTURALTOURISMDC.ORG

I

t’s that time of year again when 30,000 people in the Washington area put on their most comfortable walking shoes and stroll around the world without leaving the District, thanks to Cultural Tourism DC’s annual Passport DC celebration.

Events happen throughout this month, including the Embassy Chef Challenge (May 25) and Fiesta Asia Street Fair (May 21). But the most popular are the Around the World Embassy Tour (May 7) and Short Cut to Europe: European Union Embassies’ Open House (May 14) — when a good chunk of the city’s 180 embassies opens their doors to the public free of charge.

The two open house showcases have become an eagerly anticipated, citywide attraction, drawing in thousands to partake in everything from traditional folk dances and henna demonstrations to children’s face-painting and, of course, food — lots of food. Embassies participating in Passport DC span the globe, from Azerbaijan, Costa Rica PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER and Gabon to Japan, Mexico and Pakistan, not to mention the 28 member states of the EU. Passport DC offers Washingtonians a window into a Coordinating with these 70 or so embassies and managing hunworld of cultures, from Bolivia, above, to India, at left. dreds of volunteers are daunting tasks that seemingly require large The month-long showcase began in 2009, instantly teams of experienced professionals to pull off. But Cultural Tourism attracting large crowds, as seen below.

DC handles Passport DC with a full-time staff of just three people and one part-timer — plus a lot of help from its friends, including Destination DC and Events DC. “Because we’re in our ninth year, we don’t have to envision it abstractly,” said Steven Shulman, executive director of Cultural Tourism DC, an independent nonprofit coalition of more than 230 organizations that works to showcase the city’s culture and heritage. “We know how it should unfold and where we need help and what we need to do and when we need to do it to make sure we can accommodate the participants and the volunteers, so it does get somewhat easier by having that checklist of things to do.”

Planning for the month-long series of events starts almost as soon as the previous one ends, with debriefings in June. The organization PHOTO: CULTURAL TOURISM DC then takes a breather to focus on other programs before returning its focus to Passport DC at year’s end.

“I know their time is limited so I look at it “Our hot and heavy stuff probably really starts in December,” Shulas how can we best serve you in the time that man said. “We do the recruitment of embassies in February because you have to help bring awareness to your PHOTO: JEFF MALET lots of ambassadors are away from the city in December, January. country, to your projects,” Du Plain said.

Before we can get any traction, it’s usually late February. We’ll push for “I’m always thinking — not to sound too paALSO SEE: Kennedy Center Toasts a month to have embassies register. At the same time, we’ll look to our tronizing — of their interests. We would not affiliates to let us know about programming that might be interesting have this program if not for the embassies, Century of Irish Arts, Culture PAGE 53 to an international audience or has an international bent to it.” and that requires understanding their needs Before it reduced its staff size in recent years, Cultural Tourism DC and spending time trying to learn more had about 15 full-time workers, all of whom focused on Passport DC. Today, the about what they want.” nonprofit outsources tasks such as communications and marketing and logistical The idea, she said, is to support what embassies are doing, not add to their workassistance on event days. load.

“Like many nonprofit organizations, we’ve gone through a transition,” Shulman “With Passport, we will do the promotion, we will bring the people there, we will said. “That’s probably the biggest change in the past couple years from a logistics do the advertising, PR, get the banners, get the fliers — do all that part [because] you standpoint. I’m learning how to manage from a distance by email and little tech- have enough on your plate for when the people visit you,” Du Plain said. niques that we’ve picked up about how best to inform people and manage them and She also works with the embassies on ideas for presentations that would appeal to get the feedback we need to make decisions.” visitors. For instance, the Embassy of Nicaragua is having a centennial celebration of He relies heavily on technology to help get the job done now. For example, using a beloved poet. Additionally, she encourages embassy officials to think beyond the web-based customer relations management software, Shulman can be in touch with building to keep visitors engaged while they’re waiting in line to get in. As a result, the 300 people who volunteered to help with the embassy tour. Those helpers signed guests can expect to see demonstrations of martial arts at the Korean Cultural Cenup through VolunteerHub and will get their job assignments via a ticketing reserva- ter, for example. tion program.

Although Shulman draws on Passport DC’s past to prepare for future events, he “It’s those kinds of tools that make it possible for us to do a pretty efficient job with recognizes the need to change things, too. far fewer people,” he said.

“I think it’s important to keep things fresh,” he said. “Don’t just make change for Jan Du Plain, the embassy liaison for Passport DC, still does plenty of in-person recruitment, though. It’s her job to bring embassies on board for the event.

SEE PASSPORT DC • PAGE 53

44 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

WD | Culture | Photography

Saudi Transformation ‘Symbolic Cities’ Captures Changing Landscapes of Riyadh, Mecca •

BY KARIN SUN

Symbolic Cities: The Work of Ahmed Mater THROUGH SEPT. 18 ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY 1050 INDEPENDENCE AVE., SW

(202) 633-1000 | WWW.ASIA.SI.EDU

T

he first thing visitors see as they enter Ahmed Mater’s “Symbolic Cities” photo exhibit is a glowing antenna, lit from within by white cathode lighting, hanging at the entrance.

The sculpture, simply called “Antenna,” is a tribute to the artist’s early days in Saudi Arabia, where he would frequently stand on the rooftop of his childhood home and lift an antenna toward the sky in the hopes of catching a signal so that his family could watch television.

“The antenna is a visual embodiment of Mater’s work,” Carol Huh, the assistant curator of contemporary Asian art at the Freer and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, told The Washington Diplomat. “It represents the idea of receiving and sending out signals to better understand the world through art.”

It is also the gateway through which the viewer enters Mater’s world and embarks on a dreamlike journey from past to present.

Mater has come a long way since fidgeting with antennas on his rooftop — as has his rapidly changing homeland. Currently based in Jeddah, Mater is a physician as well as an artist who works in photography, video, installation and other media. He entered medical school at the age of 19 and became interested in photography while shooting X-rays at the hospital where he worked.

“Symbolic Cities,” which Mater shot over three years, explores the impact of urbanization and economic change on the landscapes of his native Saudi Arabia through long-form photography and video.

The exhibit consists of large-scale photographic works, shot in color, as well as two short films and a collection of smaller photographs.

Viewers traveling through the exhibit begin with “The Empty Land,” a series of 15 photographs that depict parched Saudi landscapes devoid of human presence, abandoned public works projects and discarded oil barrels — objects that represent the abandonment of traditional values and agrarian ways of life in the face of modernization.

“These images represent places in the country that are scarred by successive waves of industrialization,” Huh said. “The overall tone is very de-saturated and empty.”

From there, the journey takes a sharp turn into the past with a video depicting the traditional stone-throwing ritual during the hajj, the yearly Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. The ceremony is a reference to Abraham, who famously threw stones at three pillars to cast out the devil.

“There are no people in the video, but you can hear the crowds in the background,” said Huh. “The effect is to slowly lead you into one of the most significant and restrictive cities in the world.”

Mecca, also known as the “Symbolic City,” is an important focal point of the exhibit. The annual pilgrimage, depicted in several photographs, is in many ways a reflection of the holy city’s larger trajectory from tradition to urban modernity.

“As the exhibit progresses, we move more and more into the heart of political centralization and economic urbanization,” Huh told The Diplomat.

This transformation is clear in many of the photographs. “Between Dream and Reality,” a large color photo of a billboard painting covering a construction site in Mecca, vividly captures the collision between the city of the past and the commercialized one it is becoming.

“Many historic sites and features in Mecca are being destroyed to make room for modern buildings, and workers often put up billboards and paintings of the city in the past to cover up the destruction,” Huh explained.

Other photographs that capture this juxtaposition of past and present include “From the Real to the Symbolic City,” which portrays an overhead view of Mecca

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND ATHR

Ahmed Mater reflects on the sweeping social changes redefining his native Saudi Arabia in works such as “Crisis” from the series “Ashab Al-Lal/Fault Mirage: A Thousand Lost Years,” above, and “Antenna.”

covered in a smog of construction dust, with the city’s iconic clock tower peeking out from a corner of the fog.

“Over the years, I’ve been following Mecca as it changes, and I recognize what is different: huge buildings and cranes,” Mater, who first visited the city as a small boy, said in a 2012 interview with Creative Time Reports.

This theme of urban construction is seen time and again in the exhibit. “Human Highway” depicts hundreds of hajj pilgrims traveling through a large, V-shaped structure as they participate in the stone-throwing ritual in Mecca, while a vast field of cranes stretch out in front of the city’s Great Mosque in “Golden Hour.” In “Artificial Light Construction,” a public space surrounded by towering scaffolding shows the full scale of urbanization through the eyes of the city’s foreign construction workers.

Toward the back of the exhibit is a digital film of a drummer at a traditional wedding who appears to be in a trance as he steadfastly beats on his drum with both hands. The film, called “Ghost,” was shot in an area southwest of Mecca and, like “The Empty Land,” conveys the marginalization of traditional values in a rapidly evolving society.

“Ghost” also captures another major recurring theme in the exhibit: the idea of the mirage or hallucination, and the contrast between dream and reality. “Ashab Al-Lal/Fault Mirage: A Thousand Lost Years,” a collection of nine miniature photographs, delves into this theme.

The photos, which were taken from the artist’s private archives, show the impact of Saudi Arabia’s all-important oil industry through scenes of daily life in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s largest city, as well as Saudi Aramco oil compounds to the east of the city.

The unique format of the series, in which the miniature photos are set inside a row of wooden viewing sliders instead of being mounted on the wall, lends the images a certain dreamlike quality.

“The sense of mirage in these images keeps the journey going; it keeps you wanting to search in the desert for this ideal city,” Huh said.

“Unlike the larger photographs in the exhibit, this series was done on a smaller, more intimate scale,” Huh added. “You have to really get down and look. It becomes a more intimate viewing experience, and with that more intimate scale, you get a sense that you’re looking into the past and into memory.” WD Karin Sun is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 45

WD | Culture | Art

In for the Kill Uruguayan Artist Takes Morbidly Inventive Approach to Habitat Loss •

BY KATE OCZYPOK

Rimer Cardillo: A Journey to Ombú Ballaumbra THROUGH MAY 29 OAS ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS 201 18TH ST., NW

(202) 370-0147 | WWW.MUSEUM.OAS.ORG

A

rtist Rimer Cardillo of Uruguay approaches the issue of ecological destruction from a rather novel and somewhat morbid perspective, using plaster and clay molds of road kill. He shapes intriguing objects from plaster poured over the corpses of dead animals, specifically birds and mammals run over by highway traffic or whose habitats have been eroded by urban development.

Drawing inspiration from the environment, Cardillo has created a diverse body of work, including photography, sculpture and installation, using everything from cicadas and plants to, yes, road kill, the results of which are currently on display at the Art Museum of the Americas.

This includes birds that accidentally kill themselves against windows. “They smash themselves against a window and break their neck,” the artist said. “I make molds about those birds — the sources I use and metaphor that I use is a reflection of a landscape that’s not true.”

“This subject matter is harsh, but the work is aesthetically beautiful,” said Andrés Navia, director of the Art Museum of the Americas, part of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Cardillo specializes not only in unorthodox subject matter, but he also employs a variety of unusual techniques. His so-called “nests” consist of soft paper pulp that is hand pressed into plaster or clay molds cast directly from collected plant specimen or found animal remains.

Representing different species of plants and insects, the exhibit also includes Cardillo’s uncolored wooden boxes that hold prints made from a complex combination of etching, aquatint, mezzotint, engraving and embossing.

Karl Willers, curator of the exhibit and director of the Nassau County Museum of Art in New York, calls Cardillo’s technical skills “amazing” and says it is rare to find an artist who works in every printing medium.

Much of Cardillo’s oeuvre conveys his concerns about the loss of habitats for indigenous people, flora and fauna around the world.

“This exhibit is built around issues of environment and conservation,” Willers said. “This is a particularly wonderful project happening at OAS. It encapsulates the great reach of his artwork and the deterioration of the environment and loss of species diversity.”

Navia added that the Art Museum of the Americas views the exhibition as a celebration of the artist’s contributions to the culture of the region. “We see it as an opportunity to highlight our institution’s history of working with him, which dates back to the 1990s,” he said.

Among other things, Cardillo has been praised for his journalistic explorations of the Amazonian interior, the rural estancias of northern Uruguay and southern Paraguay, as well as other remote regions of the South American continent.

Navia also mentioned that the local diplomatic community would be interested in Cardillo for embodying a generation of artists who “developed coded visual languages to protest conditions created by the turbulent period of Latin American dictatorships.”

Cardillo was born in 1944 in Montevideo, where he studied at the National School of Fine Arts. His silkscreen prints of dark, menacing cicadas and moths evoke the political turmoil and military interference that enveloped Uruguay in the 1960s and ’70s.

Cardillo now works as a professor of art at SUNY-New Paltz in New York. His artwork has been featured in exhibits throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and is included in museums like the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art. After Cardillo’s exhibit, the Art Museum of the Americas will stage “(Art)xiomas,”

46 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

PHOTOS: ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS

Uruguayan artist Rimer Cardillo finds inspiration in the natural world around him, including plants, as seen in pieces such as, from clockwise top, “Anacahuita” from “The Pepper of the Poor” installation; “Geranium” from the “Carapaces Series”; the “Botanicals Series”; and “The Estancias to the Hudson River Valley Series.”

which celebrates contemporary Cuban art and the centennial of José Gómez Sicre, the museum’s founding director.

This May, in fact, the halls of the OAS will be more eclectic than ever. On the one hand, it is showcasing Cardillo’s plasters of bird corpses and gothic insects. On the other, the venue is hosting this year’s Opera Ball, the Washington National Opera’s widely anticipated annual fundraiser. The glittering black-tie event, to be held May 21, will celebrate the WNO’s 60th anniversary season and the company’s first-ever presentation of Richard Wagner’s epic “The Ring of the Nibelung.”

Michael Solomon, senior press representative, said that this year the Washington National Opera wished to try something new. “With the Opera Ball falling on the last weekend of our ‘Ring Cycle,’ the capstone of our 60th anniversary season, we thought why not have the Opera Ball on one of the off nights of that weekend, with people traveling in to see what we’re all about,” he said.

Solomon praised the staff at the OAS, calling it an amazing and iconic building in D.C. The Kennedy Center plans to create a variety of eye-catching displays throughout the OAS headquarters, with photographs and costumes from the WNO’s rich history dating back to 1956. WD Kate Oczypok (@OczyKate) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

WD | Culture | Theater

Inevitable ‘Death’ Poetic Tragedy of Rigid Social Mores Elevates GALA’s 40th Season •

BY LISA TROSHINSKY

Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Chronicle of a Death Foretold) THROUGH MAY 8 GALA HISPANIC THEATRE | 3333 14TH ST., NW TICKETS ARE $38 TO $42.

(202) 234-7174 | WWW.GALATHEATRE.ORG

G

ALA Hispanic Theatre, now in its 40th year of serving D.C.’s Latino community, made a brilliant decision when choosing to produce an adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s acclaimed novella “Chronicle of a Death Foretold.” The story’s transition from prose on page to spoken script is seamless and one could argue that the infamous tale of murder in 1950s Colombia is even more compelling in play form.

The book is based on the true story of how one small town’s unbendable moral codes led to the graphic and vengeful murder of Santiago Nasar for taking the virginity of Angela Vicario. Angela’s fall from grace is discovered by her rich husband, Bayardo San Roman, on their wedding night.

The dishonored bride, who was forced to marry against her will, names Santiago as the culprit while being beaten and interrogated by her family. Santiago’s murder — the unquestioned result of Angela’s infidelity — is considered an “honor killing” by her twin brothers Pedro and Pablo, who stab Santiago to death with butcher knives.

Because the narrative reads almost like a poem — it is nonlinear, repetitive and highly symbolic — it becomes more formidable when heard out loud.

This production — brilliantly adapted by Jorge Alí Triana and directed by José Zayas — smartly takes advantage of the story’s heightened dramatics. GALA often delivers dialogue -— performed in Spanish, with English surtitles — in a steady stream of emotionally high-pitched punctuations.

While this improbable staccato is sometimes overly theatrical, it is a perfect fit for Márquez’s intensely vivid storytelling. After all, the author is famous for magical realism, which is not without its artistic affectations.

The story illustrates how societal pressures and mass mentality affect people’s actions. The large cast — including standout performances from Nicolás Carrá as Santiago and Inés Domínguez del Corral as Angela — works well together, as if in a group dance, to act out the horrific event.

That the murder was inevitable, no matter how many people could have thwarted it, is ever apparent as a chorus of onlookers in the town not only witnesses the act, but seems to conspire against stopping it through their inaction.

“There’s no way out of this. It’s as if it had already happened,” Pablo says as Pedro hesitates to follow through on the killing.

“On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on” — that’s the helpless refrain recounted over and again throughout the play by the characters, who can only report the murder, not prevent it. When delivered by the chorus of townspeople, the effect is even more haunting than when spoken by the novella’s single narrator.

“Don’t worry children; they already killed him,” the townspeople chant in almost celebratory euphoria after Santiago is slain.

Scenic designer Elizabeth Jenkins McFadden expertly translates the play’s theme and tone into visual representations, making it clear that this small, unassuming Colombian town runs on barbaric ritual and honor at all costs. What looks like a bull ring takes center stage — the place where Santiago is eventually slaughtered for all the town to see — much like the public, ritualistic skewering of a bull by a matador. An excess of knives swings down from the ceiling, a constant reminder of this society’s accepted brutality; a cow’s carcass hangs, waiting for its butchering; wired enclosures frame the stage, where fresh meat

PHOTOS: SHALEV WEINSTEIN

At left, Erick Sotomayor portrays a rich husband who discovers on his wedding night that his bride, Inés Domínguez del Corral, isn’t a virgin. As retribution, her brothers murder the man who supposedly defiled her (Nicolás Carrá, seen above) in Gabriel García Márquez’s “Chronicle of a Death Foretold.”

is chopped; and what looks like a river of red blood flanks the backstage wall.

William D’Eugenio, composition and sound designer, has the luxury of adding sound to an otherwise silent novel.

A hauntingly beautiful, lyrical guitar accompanies the wedding night seduction between Bayardo and Angela, and it abruptly ends at orgasm. Ominous, repetitive drumbeats anticipate the murder, and consistent and angry dog barking tensely punctuates the uneasy air.

What makes Márquez so special is his gall to relay a gruesome tale without fear, partiality or judgment.

He tells of a clearly sexist society where women are portrayed either as virgin saints or whores. Angela was married against her will to Bayardo. Her mother often said of her daughters, “They’re perfect. Any man will be happy with them because they’ve been raised to suffer.” The male characters, however, also suffer. Santiago is brutally murdered, the twins are imprisoned for their deed and Bayardo is denied his young wife.

This sense of helplessness is ever paramount in the uncertainty over whether Santiago was truly the culprit, or if Angela just shouted out any name to stop her forceful interrogation. When someone asks her, “Do you know Santiago Nasar?” she replies, “He’s my author,” which led some critics to assume the story’s narrator is the guilty party. Regardless, someone had to be punished to preserve the family’s honor, and it almost didn’t matter who it was.

GALA manages — by using careful, excruciating finesse in acting and production — to perfectly capture the essence of this age-old tale. Although the world lost Gabriel García Márquez in 2014, his message lives on.

So does GALA’s mission to expose Washington audiences to Latino arts and culture. The group is hosting a Noche de Estrellas gala on May 10 at the Organization of American States to celebrate 40 years of artistic achievement and to honor Dolores Huerta and other outstanding Latino community and arts leaders. WD Lisa Troshinsky is the theater reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 47

WD | Culture | Dining

Delectable Union Once-Blighted Complex Transforms Into Culinary Market Smorgasbord •

BY MICHAEL COLEMAN

I

f you want to see what gentrification looks like in Washington in 2016, take a ride over to the intersection of Florida Avenue and 5th Street in Northeast.

There, on a long-blighted parcel of land just behind some dilapidated warehouses abutting Gallaudet University, is the gleaming Union Market food hall, where more than 40 local vendors hawk products ranging from artisanal olive oils and cheeses to handmade pasta, prime cuts of meat and craft beer and wine. If you’re making dinner for friends and want to impress them with quality ingredients — and don’t mind paying top dollar — it’s a great place to shop.

But Union Market, which opened over three years ago, is also a pretty good place to eat, as we discovered on a series of recent visits. The airy, sun-drenched space anchors a 45-acre complex that will eventually be the site of a boutique hotel and hundreds of new condos and apartments. But for now, the market is the main attraction, with numerous food stalls and several sit-down eating establishments including the Rappahannock Oyster Bar, Bidwell and Buffalo & Bergen.

On a recent sunny Saturday morning, we ambled up to the market and past an exterior that offers visitors tables to sit and chat, as well as a meeting place for dogs on a large swath of artificial turf. The festive atmosphere also includes a small trailer from which you can purchase beer and wine. Once inside, we skipped the long line for coffee at Peregrine Espresso — although the aroma was tempting — and focused on our priority: finding the most delicious food.

PHOTO: EDENS

Edens development group revived Union Market in Northeast D.C., reopening it in 2012 as an artisanal open-air marketplace featuring local vendors and various eateries.

BUFFALO & BERGEN After a quick stroll around the complex, we settled into one of the barstools at the Buffalo & Bergen counter. Named for a 1930s-era soda counter in Brooklyn, Buffalo & Bergen is situated along the northwest corner of the market and serves as a prize perch for people watching.

On our visits, Union Market’s clientele seemed to be a mix of locals and out-of-towners, along with a smattering of urban hipsters and students from nearby Gallaudet, America’s largest school for the deaf. We found the place pulsing with energy at all times of the day.

Buffalo & Bergen serves up a unique if limited menu featuring knishes — a Polish dish of dough stuffed with potato, onion and other ingredients — and bagels, either in the breakfast form or as lunch sandwiches. Buffalo & Bergen also sells alcohol (thumbs up for a tangy, tasty bloody mary) and sodas concocted with homemade syrups.

Buffalo & Bergen distinguishes itself with excellent bagels, which for some reason have long been hard to find in Washington. Gina Chersevani, who co-owns Buffalo & Bergen with partner Jamie Leeds, orders her bagels made in New York with the secret ingredient being New York water. The doughy orbs are shipped to Union Market, where Chersevani’s crew bakes them in-house. Seems like a hassle, but it works.

Our “everything” bagel — served toasted with jalapeno cream cheese and crispy, crumbled bacon — was near flawless. It was slightly crunchy on the outside and dense and chewy on the inside. There are other breakfast/brunch options at Union Market but if you’re looking for a quick, satisfying bite, the bagel sandwiches at Buffalo & Bergen — if you can get a seat — are a good bet.

SOUP UP If you’re looking for a more expansive and adventurous lunch or dinner, I’d suggest a multicourse meal utilizing two or three of Union Market’s food counters. Returning a few days later for lunch, we surveyed the offerings again and spotted Soup Up, which makes all of its soups without dairy, butter, oil or added salt. Despite the absence of these flavor-enhancing but health-diminishing ingredients, we found both of our soups — a beef stew and a vegetable and turkey sausage concoction — hot, hearty and tasty. They are also pricey, starting at $8 for a small soup. Two soups — a small and a medium — came to almost $18, but even the small size is hearty enough to put a good dent in your hunger.

DC EMPANADAS After warming up at Soup Up, we ventured to the more moderately priced DC Em48 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016

panadas counter and tried the “Badass,” a buffalo chicken and blue cheese combo, and the “El Greco,” filled with spinach, feta cheese and onion. The empanadas — pastries stuffed, folded and fried to a golden brown — were fresh out the fryer and not unpleasant but not exceptional. The “Badass” didn’t quite live up to its spicy billing. The “El Greco” was better but could have used more feta. Both were perfectly cooked, however. This is a good option for a filling, inexpensive snack.

PHOTO: DAN CUNNINGHAM

DC MEDITERRANEAN CORNER

After our Latin experiment we headed over to the Mediterranean — DC Mediterranean specifically. Here we experienced our first significant culinary stumble at Union Market. Our order of chicken shawarma — grilled meat wrapped in a pita of sorts — was lukewarm and practically flavorless. The chicken had no characteristics of having been grilled and instead tasted oddly boiled. We didn’t finish it.

While the shawarma disappointed, DC Mediterranean’s baba ghanoush was excellent, with a pleasantly creamy eggplant consistency and plenty of garlic. The UNION MARKET baked pita chips for dipping were also outstanding — 1309 5TH ST., NE crisp and savory. We’d suggest sticking to the appetizers (301) 347-3998 at this counter.

WWW.UNIONMARKETDC.COM

CUCINA AL VOLO A week later, we tried dinner at Union Market and found our best meal yet. On previous visits, I’d been eyeballing Cucina Al Volo, an Italian counter that offered a selection of fresh pasta, including pappardelle and fettuccine with a choice of sauces such as wild mushroom, lobster and shrimp, pesto, duck ragu and other tantalizing options. But the short rib lasagna seemed too tasty to resist, so I didn’t even try.

As it turned out, this was the single-best decision made in three trips to Union Market. Proprietor Matteo Catalani, a 23-year-old native of Pistoia, Italy, is rapidly making a name for himself as owner of one of the go-to spots in the space. His lasagna noodles were perfect on the palate, soft without being soggy. The beef was flaky tender with just a hint of salt, but it was the béchamel sauce — a French-inspired concoction of butter, flour and milk — that added a sublime creaminess to the dish. At $13, the lasagna isn’t cheap, but the portion was generous and the flavor had us still thinking about it days later.

SEE DINING • PAGE 49

WD | Culture | Dining

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Dining CONTINUED • PAGE 48

Don’t just take it from us: Check out Cucina Al Volo’s near-perfect Yelp reviews for more testimonials, such as this one from Emily D: “I had no idea that pasta could even taste like this. Not even kidding. I have had the fresh pasta with bolognese as a lunch option AND bought some to take home and cook. I don’t think I will ever go back to store bought pasta as long as this place is in Union Market.”

If you’d like to take some fresh pasta home to experiment in your own kitchen, Catalani has you covered. You can even watch as his crew cranks out fresh strands of the delicious carbs right before your eyes.

TAKOREAN For our final stop at Union Market, we got in line at TaKorean. The taco stand might be the most popular spot in Union Market and we can see why. Everything we tried tasted fresh and interesting. Diners can create dozens of concoctions among TaKorean bowls or tacos, as well as their slaws, kimchi and kale.

For protein, choose among Korean-style bulgogi beef, dak galbi chicken, bo ssam roasted pork and hoisin-caramelized tofu.

We mixed it up, trying one each of the beef, chicken and pork tacos topped with kimchi, slaw and kale respectively. Each had a distinctive flavor, with the shredded bulgogi beef and spicy kimchi combo coming out on top. Each

PHOTO: EDENS

For over 200 years, Union Market was a historic site that attracted fresh food vendors, but it had fallen into disrepair until a recent restoration.

of the tacos was generously proportioned and a relative bargain at $9 for all three. If we had one quibble it was the corn tortillas — or shell — that the tacos were served in. Not bad, but a little dense and could have used a bit more heating up. It’s a small complaint, but worth noting for taco aficionados.

TaKorean also offers some interesting craft beers on tap, which are a steal at $4 apiece during happy hour from 3 p.m. until Union Market’s 8 p.m. closing time.

At a time when the D.C. area is focusing intently on food as entertainment and as a destination, it’s no surprise that Union Market is drawing huge crowds. And the fact that it’s helping lift a previously downtrodden part of town into a brighter economic future (many of its employees hail from the same Northeast neighborhood) is all the more reason to celebrate. WD Michael Coleman (@michaelcoleman) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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the house for his cousin, Martha, heiress to a prominent Boston clipper ship family. She was known for being an extravagant hostess CONTINUED • PAGE 43 and for her collection of early 19th-century American paintings.

Paintings are again in the spotlight in this “Thailand is taking a break. Political vio- gracious home — only this time, they are lence was brought to a halt. The new draft Wanchana’s own work.

“I took a short art course when I was an constitution will be presented to the people for national referendum by early summer and undergrad in Thailand. One day I felt like I’d like to do some art. I was walkfree and fair elections should ing in a shopping mall and they be held by next summer,” she were teaching in a small gallery.” told us.

She promptly joined the class.

“We are going through “When I completed my painting, these challenges and are conthe gallery owner asked, ‘Can I fident that in the end, we will buy it?’” Wanchana proudly remuddle through to get our called. “I like to work in oil, wademocracy,” she added. “We tercolors and pen and ink. I don’t can certainly learn more force myself to paint. I only paint from Washington on how to when I feel like I want to.” strengthen our political inThe Manawapats’ daughter, stitutions, promoting good Arisa, is now a lawyer in New governance and respect for Wanchana Manawapat York City after graduating from the rule of law.” and her daughter Arisa, a Columbia University Law School.

In the meantime, she en- lawyer, visit New York City.

As a little girl, she traveled with courages both investors and tourists to visit her homeland, which is stud- her parents to Malaysia and Japan and later atded with ancient ruins, picturesque beaches tended an English boarding school.

Today, the busy empty-nesters stay in and an economy that is expected to pick up this year and next. “We are a free and open touch with their daughter and try to enjoy society. Today, we are a base for car manufac- their downtime from diplomacy. “We love to turing and IT, the technology we export to the play golf but I can beat him,” Wanchana said U.S. We also export food around the world — smiling.

The couple is also busy reconnecting with seafood, rice and fruit.

“I love this country,” Wanchana said of the the city they got to know as newlyweds and U.S. “I love the food and everyone is so nice. I neophytes to diplomacy. “You make friends hope to build good relationships that will last from all over the world. If you keep in touch, you can connect with old friends,” she said. forever.”

Aiding in that endeavor is the Thai Resi- “We’ve come back and we have good friends dence, an impressive venue for hosting events. here. It’s wonderful to get together with Once called the Codman-Davis House, it was them.” WD built in 1906 by architect and interior decorator Ogden Codman and is cherished for its Gail Scott is a contributing writer neoclassical revival style. Codman designed for The Washington Diplomat.

Diplomatic Spouses

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAY 2016 | 49

WD | Culture | Film

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

Danish Men & Chicken Directed by Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark/Germany, 2016, 100 min.)

A pair of socially challenged siblings discover they are adopted half­ brothers in their late father’s will.

Their journey in search of their true father takes them to a small, insular Danish island, where they stumble upon three additional half­brothers— each also sporting hereditary harelips and lunatic tendencies.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 6

Dutch Ben Ali Libi, Magician Directed by Dirk Jan Roeleven (Netherlands, 2015, 54 min.)

Trace the larger story of the Holocaust through this heartfelt search for magician Ben Ali Libi, the main character in an iconic poem of the Dutch poet Willem Wilmink.

Washington DCJCC Tue., May 24, 7:30 p.m.

English The 33 Directed by Patricia Riggen (U.S./Chile, 2015, 127 min.)

I n 2010, 33 Chilean miners were buried alive by the catastrophic explosion and collapse of a centuryold gold and copper mine. Over the next 69 days, an international team worked around the clock in a desperate attempt to rescue the trapped men as their families and friends, and millions around the world, watched anxiously for any sign of hope. Two hundred stories beneath the surface, in the suffocating heat and with tensions rising, provisions — and time — were quickly running out (English and Spanish).

AFI Silver Theatre Mon., May 2, 7 p.m.

Dough

The Man Who Knew Infinity

Directed by John Goldschmidt (U.K./Hungary, 2016, 94 min.)

An old Jewish baker takes on a young Muslim apprentice to save his failing London kosher bakery. When his apprentice’s marijuana stash accidentally falls in the mixing dough, the challah starts flying off the shelves.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Directed by Matt Brown (U.K., 2016, 108 min.)

Growing up poor in Madras, India, Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar earns admittance to Cambridge University during World War I, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G.H. Hardy (English and Tamil).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 6

Eye in the Sky Directed by Gavin Hood (U.K., 2016, 102 min.)

Col. Katherine Powell, a military officer in command of an operation to capture terrorists in Kenya, sees her mission escalate when a girl enters the kill zone and triggers an international dispute over the implications of modern warfare.

Angelika Mosaic

High-Rise Directed by Ben Wheatley (U.K./Ireland/Belgium, 2016, 119 min.)

Dr. Robert Laing is the newest resident of a luxurious apartment in a high-tech concrete skyscraper whose lofty location places him amongst the upper class.

But as power outages become more frequent and building flaws emerge, particularly on the lower floors, the regimented social strata begins to crumble and the building becomes a battlefield in a literal class war.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 13

A Hologram for the King Directed by Tom Tykwer (U.K./France/Germany/U.S., 2016, 97 min.)

In recession-ravaged 2010, an American businessman, depressed and freshly divorced, arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to sell a state-of-the-art holographic teleconferencing system to the Saudi government. After a rough start, cultural barriers break down and he begins to contemplate the possibility of a fresh start in a land where tradition and modernity meet in perplexing ways.

Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Lobster

Directed by Luca Guadagnino (Italy/France, 2016, 124 min.)

The vacation of a famous rock star and a filmmaker is disrupted by the unexpected visit of an old friend and his daughter.

Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 13

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Ireland/U.K./Greece/France Netherlands/U.S., 2016, 118 min.)

In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 13

Dark Horse

Love & Friendship

Directed by Louise Osmond (U.K., 2016, 85 min.)

Set in a former mining village in Wales, “Dark Horse” is the inspirational true story of a group of friends from a working men’s club who decide to take on the elite “sport of kings” and breed themselves a racehorse.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 13

Directed by Whit Stillman (Ireland/Netherlands/France/U.S., 2016, 92 min.)

Lady Susan Vernon takes up temporary residence at her in-laws’ estate and, while there, is determined to be a matchmaker for her daughter Frederica — and herself too, naturally.

Angelika Mosaic Opens Fri., May 20

A Bigger Splash

50 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016

Presenting Princess Shaw Directed by Ido Haar (Israel, 2015, 80 min.)

By day, Samantha Montgomery cares for the elderly in one of New Orleans’s toughest neighborhoods. By night, she writes and sings her own songs as Princess Shaw on her confessional YouTube channel. Across the globe in Israel, Ophir Kutiel creates video mash ups of amateur Youtube performers.

These two strangers, almost 7,000 miles apart, begin to build a song (English and Hebrew).

Washington DCJCC Tue., May 31, 7:30 p.m.

Rio, I Love You

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016 eyes of a 14-year-old boy who is looking for a break from a home strained by his parents’ relationship and money troubles, while trying to adjust to his new inner-city public school where the kids are rough and the teachers are rougher. Trying to impress a beautiful classmate, he forms a band with a few lads, and the group pours their heart into writing lyrics and shooting videos.

Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Farsi Fireworks Wednesday (Chaharshanbe-soori) Directed by Asghar Farhadi (Iran, 2016, 104 min.)

A betrothed woman who works for a local housekeeping agency accepts an assignment cleaning the home of an affluent married couple about to leave on vacation. Soon, this newcomer to the household is sucked into a virulent nuptial conflict of deceit, treachery, and vitriol that challenges all of her presuppositions about the nature of married life.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Multiple directors (Brazil/U.S., 2014, 110 min.)

The third episode of the “Cities of Love” franchise, following “New York, I Love You” and “Paris, Je T’aime,” is an anthology of love stories created by ten visionary directors from across the globe. The storyline of each segment focuses on an encounter of love in a different neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, demonstrating the distinctive qualities and character of that location (English, Portuguese, French and Spanish).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

French

Sembene!

Hindi

Directed by Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman (Senegal/U.S., 2015, 86 min.)

In fable-like fashion, “Sembène!” traces the course of pivotal Senegalese filmmaker Ousman Sembène’s life from his youth on the shores of the rural Casamance River, to his years as a manual laborer and then as celebrated novelist and filmmaker. At the same time, it tells the story of Samba Gadjigo (one of the movie’s directors) who was motivated by Sembène’s work.

National Gallery of Art Sun., May 8, 4 p.m.

Haider

Xala Directed by Ousman Sembène (Senegal, 1977, 123 min.)

A scathing look at the pretentions of the upper classes in post-colonial Africa, “Xala” tells the tale a nouveauriche official abruptly afflicted with the curse of “xala” (impotence) when he takes his third wife (French and Wolof).

National Gallery of Art Sun., May 15, 4 p.m.

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj (India, 2014, 162 min.)

The final and most ambitious of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespeare adaptations sets “Hamlet” against the backdrop of the 1995 insurgency in Kashmir, the volatile border region between India and Pakistan (Hindi and Urdu).

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., May 21, 1:30 p.m.

Maqbool

Directed by Jennifer Peedom (Australia/U.K., 2015, 96 min.)

Mount Everest inspires numerous stories that put foreign climbers at the peak of attention. “Sherpa” shifts the focus to the Himalayan locals who do most of the heavy lifting on the mountain they call Chomolungma (English and Nepali).

AFI Silver Theatre Mon., May 9, 7:15 p.m.

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj (India, 2003, 132 min.)

The “Scottish Play” moves to Mumbai in this reimagining of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” set in India’s criminal underworld.

When Maqbool begins an affair with the boss’s mistress, she eggs him into a plot to take over the gang, while two corrupt, wisecracking cops replace the famous three witches of the play (Hindi and Urdu).

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., May 8, 3:30 p.m.

Sing Street

Omkara

Directed by John Carney (Ireland/U.K./U.S., 2016, 106 min.)

Dublin in the 1980s is seen through the

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj (India, 2006, 155 min.)

“Omkara” sets Shakespeare’s “Othello”

Sherpa

amid the seedy, intertwined worlds of organized crime and politics in Vishal Bhardwaj’s native Uttar Pradesh.

Bollywood superstar Ajay Devgan plays the title role — a violent gang enforcer who becomes increasingly convinced that his wife is cheating on him (Hindi and Khariboli).

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., May 15, 1:30 p.m.

Italian The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La Classe Operaia va in Paradiso) Directed by Elio Petri (Italy, 1971, 126 min.)

An overachieving auto worker is a superstar on the factory floor, the darling of his employers and the envy of his fellow workers due to the ease of his production. But after he loses a finger in a work accident, he begins to question what it’s all about and begins a strange journey.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., May 22, 3:15 p.m.

Japanese Late Spring Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1949, 108 min.)

One of the most powerful of Yasujiro Ozu’s family portraits, “Late Spring” tells the story of a widowed father who feels compelled to marry off his beloved only daughter.

Avalon Theatre Tue., May 17, 10:30 a.m.

Korean Gangnam Blues Directed by Yoo Ha (South Korea, 2015, 135 min.)

Immortalized by K-pop star Psy’s song “Gangnam Style,” Seoul’s most exclusive neighborhood was nothing but farmland a few short decades ago.

Set in 1970, this epic drama tells the story of how this millionaire’s playground was built by politicians, gangsters and the armies of ruffians they hired to do their dirty work, implicitly implying that Korea’s economic miracle has its roots in corruption and thuggery.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., May 19, 7:15 p.m.

Cinema Arts Theatres Thu., May 26, 7 p.m.

National Museum of American History Sun., May 22, 3:30 p.m.

Right Now, Wrong Then Directed by Hong Sang-soo (South Korea, 2015, 121 min.)

A respected filmmaker who travels to the town of Suwon, where he meets a female artist. During a long drinking bout, a relationship rises and falls. Then, the film begins again, with variations that show what might have been.

National Museum of American History Sun., May 22, 1 p.m.

Mandarin Dragon Inn Directed by King Hu (Taiwan, 1967, 111 min.)

During the Ming dynasty, the emperor’s minister of defense is framed by a powerful court eunuch and executed, and his family is pursued by secret police. In the ensuing chase, a mysterious band of strangers begins to gather at the remote Dragon Gate Inn, where paths (and swords) will cross.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 20

Spanish A Monster with a Thousand Heads (Un monstruo de mil cabezas) Directed by Rodrigo Plá (Mexico, 2016, 74 min.)

When Sonia receives the news that her husband’s cancer has progressed to a terminal stage, she races to secure the insurance company approval for the care that can help him. Met with indifference and negligence at every turn, Sonia’s desperation triggers a primal survival instinct as a series of increasingly violent confrontations unfold.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 27

Redes Directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel and Fred Zinnemann (Mexico, 1936, 65 min.)

In this vivid, documentary-like dramatization of the daily grind of men struggling to make a living by fishing in the Gulf of Mexico (mostly played by real-life fishermen), one worker’s terrible loss instigates a political awakening among his fellow laborers.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., May 14, 3:30 p.m.

My Love, Don’t Cross the River

Viva

Directed by Jin Mo-young (South Korea, 2014, 85 min.)

This tender, tremendously moving documentary became the highest-grossing independent movie in Korean history.

Beautifully filmed over the changing seasons in the countryside, it follows a husband and wife, who have been married for 76 years and are clearly as in love as they were when they married. Their joy in each other’s company is tempered by the bittersweet knowledge that their time on earth is growing shorter.

Directed by Paddy Breathnach (Ireland/Cuba, 2016, 100 min.)

A young hairdresser working at a Havana nightclub that showcases drag performers dreams of being a performer himself. Encouraged by his mentor, he finally gets his chance to take the stage, but when his estranged father abruptly reenters his life, his world is quickly turned upside down.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 20

WD | Culture | Events

Events Listings *Unless specific times are listed, please check the venue for times. Venue locations are subject to change.

ART May 3 to 20

Half-Lives and Half-Truths in the Radioactive Shadowlands In “Shadowlands,” Robert Knoth (photographer) and Antoinette de Jong (interviewer) visited the Fukushima region with Greenpeace in 2011 to witness the effects wrought on the region by the nuclear fallout from the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. In “Chernobyl Revisited: Half-Lives & Half-Truths,” the “worst environmental catastrophe” is captured through the everyday lives of the people of Ukraine and Belarus by D.C.-based award-winning documentary photographer and multimedia artist Gabriela Bulisova.

Goethe-Institut

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016 Through May 30

The Lost Symphony: Whistler and the Perfection of Art

HIGHLIGHT

The Diplomat Is Busy This Month!

T

he Washington Diplomat is hosting a trio of events this month for the local international, government and business communities. Our 12th annual Embassy Golf Tournament on May 6 is co-hosted by Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates Yousef Al Otaiba. The popular annual event — the only one of its kind in the city — regularly attracts more than 150 ambassadors and diplomats, as well as members of Congress and officials from the U.S. government, multilateral agencies and the corporate world.

Participants enjoy a casual, relaxed day of golf and networking in addition to lunch, post-tournament dinner reception and awards presentation. Among the past prizes are iPads, high-definition

TO LEARN MORE: To register or for more information, visit www.washdiplomat.com/DiplomatEvents/. televisions, local hotel excursions and airline tickets.

The tournament starts at noon at Worthington Manor Golf Club in Maryland, a U.S. Open Qualifying site with accolades ranging from “Best Courses You Can Play”

by Golfweek to “Middle Atlantic’s 50 Best Courses” by GolfStyles. All levels of golfers are welcome.

Also this month, The Washington Diplomat presents two of its Ambassador Insider Series discussions, an exclusive

May 6 to 31

Migration and Identity This exhibition of textile and installation artwork by TeaYoun Kim-Kassor explores the inextricable connection between “Who am I?” and “Where am I?” that defines us as individuals.

An associate professor at Georgia College, Kim-Kassor has dedicated much of her diverse artistic career to the nature of identity, and the profound impact of migration on that fundamental personal question. Here, she presents two of her signature collections. In “Migration Series,” a traditional Korean sewing technique, nubi, provides the basis for delicately layered textiles which — like one’s identity, built up from countless experiences, places and people — are dimensionless, boundless and defy perfect description. In “Tension,” she takes this complexity of self a step further, physically and visually illustrating the constant push and pull on the fabric that constitutes our lives: Our homeland can pull us back, while our destination pushes us forward.

Korean Cultural Center Through May 8

Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection This major exhibition exploring the evolution of American and European landscape painting features 39 masterpieces, spanning five centuries, on loan from the collection of philanthropist and entrepreneur Paul G. Allen. “Seeing Nature” showcases the development of landscape painting from intimate views of the world to artists’ personal experiences with their surroundings.

The Phillips Collection May 8 to Sept. 18

In Celebration of Paul Mellon Paul Mellon was one of America’s greatest art collectors and remains

one of the gallery’s leading benefactors. Timed to coincide with the gallery’s 75th anniversary, a special exhibition features 80 of the finest pastels, watercolors, drawings, prints, and illustrated books selected from his donations.

National Gallery of Art May 11 to 27

Wolfgang Sagmeister: Indisputable Evidence?

This exhibition presents works by Wolfgang Sagmeister and Krista Kim. Sagmeister was born 1963 in Vienna and received his doctorate in historical and cultural studies from the University of Vienna in 2006. Kim is a Techism artist whose work is a response to our constant exposure to LED lights through our devices. Her work expresses digital consciousness and questions our current aesthetic principles, examining digital technology’s revolutionary effects on human perception, media, social structures and communication. For information, visit acfdc.org.

Embassy of Austria Through May 15

Louise Bourgeois: No Exit Louise Bourgeois’s ties to surrealism and existentialism will be explored through 17 works on paper and four sculptures.

National Gallery of Art

program that allows guests to meet and mingle with the city’s foreign envoys and learn about their nations in an intimate setting at some of D.C.’s top venues.

On May 4, enjoy authentic Bajan rum and top-quality Nicaraguan cigars while learning about two of the most interesting, yet lesser-known, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Barbados and Nicaragua. The event is also an opportunity to bid farewell to John Beale, Bridgetown’s longtime ambassador in Washington, who is returning to his beloved Barbados after seven years in the United States.

Following the discussion at the Westin Georgetown hotel’s Promenade Room, participants will move to the outdoor terrace to enjoy a networking reception with plenty to eat, drink and smoke (a veteran cigar roller will be on hand to craft authentic Nicaraguan cigars on the spot).

Then on May 19, European Union Ambassador David O’Sullivan discusses the array of pressing challenges facing the EU — from radical Islamic extremists to the unprecedented influx of refugees from war-torn nations — at the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel.

O’Sullivan, who appeared on the July 2015 cover of The Washington Diplomat, will examine issues such as terrorism, the migrant crisis, the euro crisis, NATO and the possibility of a so-called “Brexit” that has triggered alarm bells on both sides of the Atlantic.

Through May 18

Through May 22

South Arabia Revisited: The Work of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Yemen

Salon Style: French Portraits from the Collection

Archaeologists have always been fascinated by the impressive remains of monumental architecture, sculptures and artifacts of South Arabia’s past.

This exhibit of archival documents, photographs, notebooks and drawings highlight stories from the field and collaborative efforts, showcasing important archaeological sites such as Barāqish and Tamna. The Italian Archaeological Mission in Yemen was launched in 1980 with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On view by appointment only; for information, visit www.iicwashington. esteri.it/iic_washington/en/.

Embassy of Italy May 18 to Jan. 2

Senses of Time: Video and Film-Based Works of Africa This exhibition features six internationally recognized African artists and examines how time is experienced and produced by the body. Bodies stand, climb, dance and dissolve in seven works of video and film art by Sammy Baloji, Theo Eshetu, Moataz Nasr, Berni Searle, Yinka Shonibare and Sue Williamson, all of whom repeat, resist and reverse the expectation that time must move relentlessly forward.

National Museum of African Art

Presenting works at the salon — an exhibition sponsored by the Royal Academy of Art in Paris — marked success for artists in 18th-century France. The famed artist Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun was among the first women to exhibit at the event, yet she was by no means the only one. Drawn from the museum’s rich collection, this focus exhibition visualizes the world of the art salon and reveals how French women artists inspired each other as well as male artists who noted their great success.

National Museum of Women in the Arts May 23 to June 12

Math You Can Touch Mathematics, sometimes an abstract science, is brought to life via more than 160 experiments at the Mathematikum in Giessen, Germany, the first interactive mathematics museum in the world.

Goethe-Institut Through May 29

Rimer Cardillo: A Journey to Ombú Bellaumbra This exhibition features a diverse body of Uruguayan artist Rimer Cardillo’s work, including prints, photography, sculpture and

installations. In addition to creating site-specific pieces that he refers to as cupí (the Guaraní word for anthill) and his collaborations in the fields of entomology and archaeology, Cardillo is also noted for his journalistic explorations of the Amazonian interior, rural estancias of northern Uruguay and southern Paraguay, and other remote regions of the South American continent.

Art Museum of the Americas May 29 to Jan. 2

Intersections: Photographs and Videos from the National Gallery of Art and Corcoran Gallery of Art Nearly 700 photographs from Eadweard Muybridge’s groundbreaking publication “Animal Locomotion,” acquired by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1887, became the foundation for the institution’s early interest in photography. The Key Set of more than 1,600 works by Alfred Stieglitz, donated by Georgia O’Keeffe and the Alfred Stieglitz Estate, launched the photography collection at the National Gallery of Art in 1949.

Inspired by these two seminal artists, Muybridge and Stieglitz, the exhibition brings together highlights of the recently merged collections of the Corcoran and the National Gallery of Art by a range of artists from the 1840s to today.

National Gallery of Art

As part of “Peacock Room REMIX,” this exhibition reconstructs how Whistler’s unrealized quest for “the perfection of art” intersected with less-rarified concerns about patronage, payment, and professional reputation.

Freer Gallery of Art Through May 31

Explore Canada: Manulife Art Collection A selection of works from the Manulife art collection explores Canada through pieces from various regions, genres and artistic talents from across the country. The exhibit provides a unique view into the dynamic artistic pieces that were produced in Canada over the last 165 years. Manulife is a Canadian-based international financial services company with operations in the United States, Asia and Canada. In the United States, Manulife operates as John Hancock, which has been serving Americans for more than 150 years.

Embassy of Canada Art Gallery Through June 3

In the Library: The Intersection of Commerce and Instruction in Art The art we experience often depends as much upon the materials available to the artists who make it as it depends on the artists themselves.

This exhibition looks at a variety of literature surrounding artists’ materials and instruction, and charts the ways in which the increasing commercialization of their production may have affected the practice of artists, especially following the industrial revolution.

National Gallery of Art Through June 5

Perspectives: Lara Baladi Egyptian-Lebanese artist Lara Baladi experiments with the photographic medium, investigating its history and its role in shaping perceptions of the Middle East, particularly Egypt, where she is based.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through June 12

Konstantin Makovsky: The Tsar’s Painter With Hillwood’s “A Boyar Wedding Feast” as the centerpiece, this exhibit offers a new perspective on Konstantin Makovsky’s work and its popularity in Gilded Age America, where it satisfied the appetite for dramatic historical stories, exotic settings and costumes, and admiration of European art and culture. In a dramatically lit setting, exquisite objects and details from the painting will be brought to life through groupings of 17th-century objects of boyar life, such as intricately embroidered garments and pearl-studded kokoshniki See events • page 52

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016 | 51

WD | Culture | Events

Events Listings Events Continued • page 51

(women’s headdresses).

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens Through June 26

Spanish Illustrators: The Color of Optimism This show highlights outstanding works of contemporary illustrators in Spain that are creating new trends. Curated by journalist Mario Suárez, the exhibition showcases a generation of talented creators who frequently contribute to national and international publications, galleries, museums and popular brands.

Former Residence of the Ambassador of Spain Through July 24

America’s Shakespeare “America’s Shakespeare” reveals how Americans have made Shakespeare our own using a fascinating selection of rare letters, costumes, books and more.

Folger Shakespeare Library Through July 24

Three Centuries of American Prints from the National Gallery of Art Since opening in 1941, the gallery has amassed an outstanding collection of American prints representing the history of American art from the early 18th century to the present.

Timed to coincide with the gallery’s 75th anniversary, this first comprehensive exhibition of American prints to encompass three centuries will highlight some 160 works from the gallery’s collection National Gallery of Art Through July 29

Caribbean in Motion: Improving Lives through Artistry and Animation This video-based exhibit by Caribbean artists pays tribute to the Bahamas, host of the 2016 annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank Board of Governors. “Caribbean in Motion” explores the multifaceted social and economic benefits generated by the animation industry, underscoring the importance of nurturing a vibrant creative economy.

Animation, the art of illustrating video sequences, has huge potential as both a business and an art form that supports sustainable social and economic development in the Caribbean.

Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center

place of Cyrus the Great. Impressed with its ruins, German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld (1879–1948) briefly surveyed the site for the first time in 1905, returning to conduct more extensive excavations. Featuring selections from the Freer|Sackler Archives’ rich holdings of Herzfeld’s drawings, notes and photographs, this exhibition illuminates one of the most important sites of the ancient world.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

artistic heritage. Over the past decade, Turquoise Mountain, an organization founded in 2006 at the request of the prince of Wales and the president of Afghanistan, has transformed the Murad Khani district of Old Kabul from slum conditions into a vibrant cultural and economic center.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through July 31

May 4 to 15

She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World This landmark exhibition of more than 80 photographs and a video installation challenges stereotypes surrounding the people, landscapes and cultures of Iran and the Arab world.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Through Sept. 4

Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora In this juried and invitational exhibition, 44 artists share personal and universal stories of migration — from historic events that scattered communities across continents to today’s accounts of migrants and refugees adapting to a new homeland. The artists explore: historic events that scattered people and cultures across continents; today’s accounts of migrants from Syria, Latin America and Africa adapting to new homes; and personal experiences of family members. The exhibition will feature works by artists such as fashion designer Hussein Chalayan, Mexican-American fiber artist Consuelo Jiménez Underwood, French-Togolese artist William Adjété Wilson and American artists Faith Ringgold and Penny Mateer.

The George Washington University Museum Textile Museum Through Sept. 18

Symbolic Cities: The World of Ahmed Mater

Through July 31

Born in 1979 in southern Saudi Arabia and trained as a medical doctor, Ahmed Mater has been a practicing artist since the early 1990s, creating works that offer an unparalleled perspective on contemporary Saudi Arabia. Now based in Jeddah, Mater has focused primarily on photography and video since 2010.

From abandoned desert cities to the extraordinary transformation of Mecca, “Symbolic Cities” presents his visual and aural journeys observing economic and urban change in Saudi Arabia.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Heart of an Empire: Herzfeld’s Discover of Pasargadae

Through Jan. 29

Located in southwestern Iran, Pasargadae was the first capital of the ancient Achaemenid Persian Empire (circa 540 B.C.) and the last resting

Decades of civil unrest nearly destroyed Afghanistan’s vital

Turquoise Mountain: Artists Transforming Afghanistan

52 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016

MUSIC Thu., May 5, 7:30 p.m.

Edgar Moreau, Cello

DANCE Bowie & Queen: A Ballet Rock Tribute The Washington Ballet presents a full-throttle evening of entertainment that combines the artistry and beauty of dance with the power of the world’s most innovative popular rock icons who defined an epoch and became fixtures in American pop culture: David Bowie and Queen. The performance features two company premieres: Trey McIntyre’s “Mercury Half-Life” and Edwaard Liang’s “Dancing in the Street,” and includes a live electric violin performance by S&R Foundation’s Artist-in-Residence Machiko Ozawa. Tickets are $32.25 to $130.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

DISCUSSIONS Thu., May 5, 12:30 p.m.

How’s It Going, Germany?

Germany’s Brand Germany has been enjoying a golden age in terms of its image in the U.S. This is closely associated with the success of German industry and trade.

How resilient is the brand, and how can faith in the brand be restored if it is damaged? Jake Jones of Daimler, Thomas Zielke of the Representative of German Industry and Trade and the Washington Post’s Charles Lane discuss the issue.

Goethe-Institut Fri., May 20, 6:30 p.m.

The Botstiber Foundation: The Politics of Migration in America and Austria The Botstiber Foundation presents a panel discussion on migration issues (including related issues of racism, nationalism and terrorism) confronting both Austria and the United States from the perspective of three leading academics who will compare and contrast the issues that afflict both countries. The issue dominates the 2016 campaign for the American presidency, where a Republican candidate would deport all illegal immigrants, refuse entry to all Muslims and build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. Austrians are polarized by the surge of Middle Eastern immigrants coming across their border, first from Hungary and later from Slovenia.

Nearly 100,000 people have applied for asylum in Austria over the past year, raising fears of joblessness, terrorism and cultural collapse.

Embassy of Austria

Photo: Jennifer Zmuda

The Washington Ballet performs an homage to rockers David Bowie and Queen this month at the Kennedy Center.

FESTIVALS May 1 to 31

Passport DC Cultural Tourism DC hosts this month-long journey around the world highlighting D.C.’s thriving international diplomatic community and its lively and varied culture.

Celebrated annually in May, which is International Cultural Awareness Month in Washington, Passport DC is 31 days of programming by 70 embassies and more than 40 of the city’s very best cultural institutions. In 2015, more than 250,000 people enjoyed the popular embassy open houses, street festivals, performances, exhibtions, workshops and more. For information, visit www.culturaltourismdc.org.

Various locations May 13 to 15

SerbFest DC Spring 2016 Festival Presented by the Saint Luke Serbian Orthodox Church of Potomac, Md., the epicenter of Serbian culture in and around D.C., this three-day festival spans an entire weekend to showcase authentic Serbian cuisine, customs and culture. SerbFest DC Spring 2016 has something for everyone, including traditional Serbian dishes, beverages, dance, music performances, gifts and boutique items and family-friendly activities.

In addition, admission and parking are free, an indoor setup has been arranged in case of inclement weather and all a la carte food item proceeds benefit Saint Luke Serbian Orthodox Church. For more information, visit serbfestdc.com.

Saint Luke Serbian Orthodox Church Sun., May 15, 12 to 5 p.m.

Fiesta Paraguaya The Embassy of Paraguay hosts this free, open-air festival to celebrate 205 years of independence as well as Paraguayan Mother’s Day. The event with feature an array of Paraguayan culture and entertainment, including dance; live music by local and special guest artists from Paraguay; food stands with traditional dishes; arts and crafts; children’s games; a mini-soccer tournament; prizes and

more. Follow “Fiesta Paraguaya” on Facebook.

Bretton Woods Recreation Center Germantown, Md.

GALAS Fri., May 13

The Phillips Collection Annual Gala: Arabesque: Patterns of Beauty East– West, A Salute to Qatar The Phillips Collection’s annual gala partners with the Embassy of Qatar this year to pay homage to the impact of the arabesque on modern art, and celebrate artistic exchange and cultural diplomacy between Qatar and the United States. The glittering gala attracts 500 cultural, political, diplomatic and business leaders to dine among the Phillips’s masterworks. With the support of many local and national partners, the black-tie event includes a cocktail reception and dinner followed by live music, dessert and champagne. The evening coincides with “Contemporaries Bash: Dreaming of Doha” — a dazzling night of cocktails, music, food, fashion, and dancing at Dock 5 at Union Market that attracts more than 700 of the city’s young professionals. For information, visit www.phillipscollection.org/support/ annual-gala.

The Phillips Collection Sat., May 21

Opera Ball The Washington National Opera (WNO) hosts its annual Opera Ball at the iconic headquarters of the Organization of American States this year. Under the joint chairmanship of Jane and Calvin Cafritz and Samia and A. Huda Farouki — and in celebration of WNO’s 60th Diamond Anniversary Season — the evening will feature intimate pre-ball dinners hosted by various ambassadors at their elegant residences and embassies throughout D.C., concluding at the OAS, where guests will experience a memorable evening of dessert, music and dancing. To receive more information, contact the Kennedy Center Special Events Office at (202) 416-8496 Organization of American States

Jessica Osborne, Piano “The rising star of the French cello,” 21-year-old cellist Edgar Moreau consistently captivates audiences with his effortless virtuosity and dynamic performances (Le Figaro Magazine). He performs a program of Bach, Franck, Schnittke and Chopin. Tickets are $150, including valet parking; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Belmont Mansion Tue., May 10, 7 p.m.

Washington Performing Arts: Itzhak Perlman, Violin, and Emanuel Ax, Piano With numerous awards and honors between them, these celebrated statesmen of the classical music world prove their wit and charm are ever present, performing sonatas

by Mozart, Fauré, Strauss and other selections to be announced from the stage. Tickets are $55 to $135.

Kennedy Center Concert Hall Thu., May 19, 7:30 p.m.

Mozart in Vienna: Le Nozze di Figaro Mozart in Vienna presents the composer’s opera “Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro),” which debuted in Vienna on May 1, 1786. Mozart’s comic masterpiece about love and marriage in the “upstairs-downstairs” castle of the Count and Countess Almaviva thrills with his magnificent melodies, glorious arias, comic fun and the timeless message of love, fidelity and forgiveness. This special performance celebrates the 230th anniversary debut of Mozart’s greatest opera and shines with internationally acclaimed singers, costumes and chamber ensemble in Italian with English narration. For ticket information, visit acfdc.org.

Embassy of Austria Sat., May 21, 7:30 p.m.

Laufey Sigurðardóttir, Violin Beth Levin, Piano Reykjavik native Laufey Sigurðardóttir studied in Iceland, the U.S., Belgium and Italy, and has appeared as a recitalist and chamber musician in all of the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, Spain and Russia She performs a program of Schubert, Grieg and Beethoven. Tickets are $110, including buffet reception; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Icelandic Ambassador’s Residence Sat., May 21, 6:30 p.m.

Opera Camerata of Washington D.C. Spring Gala Under the patronage of Greek Ambassador Christos P. Panagopoulos, the Opera Camerata of Washington D.C. hosts a dinner and performance of Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” at

WD | Culture | Events

Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies. Opera Camerata offers both first-time and longtime fans of all ages a unique, intimate opera experience that combines world-class performances and orchestras with lavish receptions held in exclusive salon settings. Tickets start at $225; for information, visit www.operacamerata.org.

Center for Hellenic Studies Sun., May 22, 4 p.m.

The Children’s Chorus of Washington: Around the World in 20 Years A grand finale for D.C.’s premier children’s chorus founder, Joan Gregoryk, this concert features music from around the world performed by the Children’s Chorus of Washington’s ensembles, its alumni chorus and special guests. Call for ticket information.

GW Lisner Auditorium Tue., May 24, 7:30 p.m.

Juan Vasle, Bass-Baritone George Peachey, Piano Juan Vasle, a Slovenian citizen, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he received his diploma as a singer at the Superior Institute of Arte of the Teatro Colón. Since 1990, he is a member of the solo ensemble of the SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, where he has performed a long line of important bass roles. He performs a program of operatic arias, Lieder, tangos and South American and Slovenian folksongs. Tickets are $90, including buffet reception; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Slovenia

Fri., May 27, 7:30 p.m.

Through May 8

Kauder Trio

The Reduced Shakespeare Company: William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged)

Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms?

Famous names are rarely found on the programs of the Hugo Kauder Trio; however, great music definitely is. The three musicians are convinced that the jewels of sound can be found at eye level with the creations of the great masters, written by Kahn, Klughardt or Kauder. In addition to the qualities of the music itself, the unexpected spectrum of timbres in the rare combination of oboe, viola and piano plays a vital role in the success of this trio as well.

They perform a program of Kauder, Dvořák, Kupkovič, Tchaikovsky and Scharwenka. Tickets are $80, including buffet reception; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Slovakia

Photo: Aleksandra Radic

Traditional Serb folk dancers will perform at the SerbFest DC Spring 2016 Festival from May 13 to 15.

beautiful Brünnhilde. Tickets are $75 to $525.

Kennedy Center Opera House May 6 to 22

Through May 8

Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Crónica de una muerte anunciada)

In the “Ring” second chapter, the offspring of Wotan, king of the gods, boldly test his will. Siegmund is attracted to his sister Sieglinde, while Brünnhilde is torn between obeying orders and preventing Siegmund’s demise. Tickets are $75 to $525.

Kennedy Center Opera House

The “Ring” reaches its supreme / climax in this final saga of betrayal and sacrifice, destruction and renewal. Siegfried is tricked into abandoning Brünnhilde, who makes one final, shocking choice to restore the universe to its natural order.

Tickets are $75 to $525.

Kennedy Center Opera House

Based on a true story, this tightly woven tale of a small town in Colombia unfolds against a conspiracy of silence, revenge and strict moral codes that lead to tragedy. After marrying against her will, Angela is returned to her mother when the angry new husband discovers she is not a virgin. Forced to name who deflowered her, Angela’s brothers embark on a murderous mission.

Tickets are $38 to $42.

GALA Hispanic Theatre

May 4 to 20

Through May 8

Through May 8

THEATER

Washington National Opera: Ring Cycle – Twilight of the Gods

May 2 to 18

Washington National Opera: Ring Cycle – The Valkyrie

Washington National Opera: Ring Cycle – Siegfried The third opera in the “Ring Cycle” is a coming-of-age story at heart.

Raised in the wilderness, Wotan’s grandchild Siegfried sets out to escape his wicked caretaker, slay a fearsome dragon and rescue the

Passport DC Continued • page 44

the sake of change, but make change for the sake of improvement, and don’t be afraid to try something out but have the essence of what you do continue to be important. So, we’re changing and evolving all the time but not losing sight of why people are coming.”

This year, Cultural Tourism DC is adding a third embassy tour hub at the Washington National Cathedral. It will join the traditional hubs at Dupont Circle and the University of the District of Columbia — kickoff points for the tours and a spot to pick up information and buy souvenir passports.

Despite Shulman’s best efforts, there is always one thing he can’t control: the weather. “It’s so much better when it’s a nice day,” he said. “People want to be out in it…. The ultimate goal is to work with the weather man or weather woman.” WD For past coverage of Passport DC, see “New Cultural Tourism Chief Ready to Take Flight with Passport DC” in the May 2013 issue of The Washington Diplomat and “Passport DC Still Opening Doors – And Not Just to Embassies” in the May 2012 issue.

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

All the Way It’s not personal, it’s politics in this 2014 Tony Award-winning drama about President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s impassioned struggle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Tickets are $40 to $90.

Arena Stage

C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert For the first time, Max McLean takes audiences on a fascinating theatrical adventure as C.S. Lewis, tracing his journey from atheism to belief.

Tickets are $36 to $96.

The Shakespeare Lansburgh Theatre

Discovered in a treasure-filled parking lot in Leicester, England, an ancient manuscript proves to be the long-lost first play by none other than the young William Shakespeare.

Using questionable scholarship and street-performer smarts, the three comic actors throw themselves into a fast, funny, and frenzied festival of physical finesse, witty wordplay, and plentiful (pitiful) punning. Tickets are $35 to $75.

Folger Shakespeare Library May 11 to June 19

The Man in the Iron Mask In Synetic Theater’s follow-up to “The Three Musketeers,” our hero D’Artagnan finds himself alone in the service of King Louis XIV after his comrades have retired. Unbeknownst to D’Artagnan, his old friends plan to remove the corrupt king and replace him with his good twin, held captive in the Bastille. Tickets start at $35.

Synetic Theater May 17 to June 26

The Taming of the Shrew Stage and screen actors Maulik Pancholy (“Weeds,”“30 Rock”) and Peter Gadiot (“Once Upon a Time in Wonderland”) will be seen playing Katherina and Petruchio respectively in Ed Sylvanus Iskandar’s bold new interpretation of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” Spilling from the stage into the lobbies and the street, this production will use an all-male cast to examine the fluidity of identity, the authenticity of self-performance and the economics

of love in one of Shakespeare’s most notorious texts. Call for ticket information.

Shakespeare Theatre Harman Hall Through May 29

Disgraced The son of South Asian immigrants, Amir has worked hard to achieve the American Dream — complete with a successful career, a beautiful wife and $600 custom-tailored shirts.

But has he removed himself too far from his roots? And when a friendly dinner party conversation rockets out of control, will the internal battle between his culture and his identity raze all that he’s worked so hard to achieve? Tickets are $40 to $90.

Arena Stage May 31 to July 3

District Merchants Love and litigation, deep passions and predatory lending are taken to a new level in this uneasy comedy, which wades fearlessly into the endless complexities and contradictions of life in America.

Set among the black and Jewish populations of an imagined time and place — simultaneously Shakespearean, post-Civil War D.C., and today— “District Merchants” is a remarkable tale of money, merchandise, and mercy brought to the stage by four-time Helen Hayes Award-winner Aaron Posner. Tickets are $35 to $75.

Folger Shakespeare Theatre

Culture arts & entertainment

Plan Your Entire Weekend. www.washdiplomat.com

SIDEBAR

Kennedy Center Toasts Century of Irish Arts, Culture

T

he John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is celebrating 100 years of Irish independence with a three-week festival featuring more than 50 performances and the participation of more than 500 artists.

“Ireland 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts and Culture,” which kicks off May 17 and runs through June 5, showcases the country’s imprint on theater, literature, music and dance.

The festival coincides with a larger global celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, which led to Ireland’s independence. It’s fitting that the Kennedy Center is hosting the event since President Kennedy, who would have turned 100 this year, too, was the best-known Irish-American president and the first sitting U.S. president to visit the country.

The festival, which has been in the works for three years, begins with a performance in the Concert Hall directed and hosted by Irish actor and director Fiona Shaw. Irish acts will punctuate a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra, led by Irish conductor David Brophy. Tickets start at $15.

“Performances and events that you don’t want to miss are the Gloaming; the festivalopening performance on May 17 led by Fiona Shaw; the Beckett radio play ‘All That Fall’; and the literary forums,” said Alicia Adams, vice president of international programming and dance

May 17 to June 5

author and humanities professor at Stanford University. Other featured writers include Ireland’s first Laureate for Fiction, Laureate for Children’s Literature and the country’s professor of poetry.

Kennedy Center | 2700 F St., NW

Other events include:

(202) 467-4600

• “President Kennedy in Ireland – Documentary Film Screenings” on May 28 at 4 p.m. for $10.

Ireland 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts and Culture

www.kennedy-center.org/festivals/ireland/

• A solo performance by Irish step dancer Colin Dunne on May 20 and 21 at 7 p.m. for 39. at the center.

The Gloaming musical group makes its D.C. debut on June 4. Amid individual careers, the five musicians met in 2011 to explore a new musical direction, and they have been known for extending Irish and Celtic music in fresh ways.

Tickets start at $25.

“All That Fall” is a play by Samuel Beckett that is part black comedy, part murder mystery, part cryptic literary riddle and part quasi-musical score. Audiences who see the show May 19, 20 or 21 will sit in rocking chairs to experience the playwright’s first radio play as he intended.

Tickets start at $29.

The literary forums include a free reading and discussion on June 1 with authors Colm Tóibín, whose novel “Brooklyn” was turned into an Oscar-nominated film, and Eavan Boland, an

• A free performance by Celtic rock band Screaming Orphans — four sisters who play melodic pop and traditional tunes — on May 26 at 6 p.m.

• An Irish whiskey tasting on May 26 at 7:30 p.m. for $49.

• Children’s events, including Redhead Day, a free event May 21 that will have musical acts, dance performances and activities before culminating in a parade of redheads and redheads at heart.

“I hope that people will gain a broader sense of Irish arts and culture from all of the performances, readings and music,” Adams said.

“It is such a rich culture and we have a chance to showcase some of the best of the Irish.”

— Stephanie Kanowitz

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016 | 53

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Diplomatic Spotlight

May 2016

Giving with Heart Wine, food and a good cause — Heart’s Delight has capitalized on this winning formula for the last 17 years. The annual five-day tasting and auction showcasing master winemakers and culinary luminaries has raised over $15 million for the American Heart Association since 1999. This year’s oenophile extravaganza featured a reception overlooking Capitol Hill highlighting American wines on March 9; a private dinner series held at embassies and ambassador residences on March 10; a vintners’ dinner featuring a premier grand cru at Andrew Mellon Auditorium on March 11; and Bordeaux classes and tastings at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on March 12. Also, on April 20, Heart’s Delight honored House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) with its Congress Has Heart Award. Ryan, who was a teenager when his father died of a heart attack, is a fitness enthusiast. Many Heart’s Delight supporters have a personal connection to the cause. The fundraiser was created by Ruth Bassin, owner of MacArthur Beverages in D.C., who lost her son to a heart attack when he was just 40 years old. Heart disease is the number-one killer in the nation, while stroke ranks fourth.

Ambassador of France Gérard Araud, back center, welcomes guests to the French Residence.

Ambassador of the Netherlands Henne Schuwer welcomes guests to the Dutch Residence.

From right, Jamie Ritchie of Sotheby’s with Véronique Bonnie-Laplane and Bruno Laplane of Château Malartic-Lagravière.

Ambassador of Brazil Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado; his wife Maria Angelica Ikeda; DeDe Lea, executive vice president of Viacom’s government relations; and her husband Dr. Dallas Lea.

Congressional honoree Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) and 2016 Heart’s Delight Chairman David Marventano of Fluor Corp.

Bordeaux master classes featured château owners and directors.

Bud Hawk, chairman and managing partner at Corstone, John Duffy of Rittenhouse Partners and Dennis Yee, president and owner of Abacus Technology Corp.

Ambassador of Portugal Domingos Fezas Vital, second from left, talks with his guests at the Portuguese Residence.

Chefs Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune and Paras Shah of Kat & Theo in New York join auctioneer Jamie Ritchie of Sotheby’s.

Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche, center, welcomes guests to her residence.

Chef Amy Brandwein of Centrolina prepared ravioli of quail egg and sheep’s milk ricotta.

54 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016

Anna Gawel, managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, a media sponsor of Heart’s Delight, and David Marventano, senior vice president of government relations for Fluor.

Chef Nicholas Yanes of Juniper.

Photos: Heart’s Delight

WD | Culture | Spotlight

World Affairs Council Global Education Gala Priding itself as the place “where learning happens,” the World Affairs Council-Washington, DC (WAC-DC) hosted its annual HONORS: Global Education Gala on March 29 at the Ritz-Carlton. Leaders from over 70 nations came out to toast the five honorees: Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter (International Public Service Award); National Geographic Society President Gary E. Knell (Global Communication Award); IBM Corp. (Global Education Award); George Mason University President Ángel Cabrera (Educator of the Year Award); and Ambassador of South Africa Mninwa J. Mahlangu (Distinguished Diplomatic Service Award). WAC-DC is a nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 1980 that is dedicated to expanding awareness of our interconnected world, hosting public presentations, debates and fora on global education and international affairs, both locally and nationally.

Global Education Gala Chairman Michael P. Norris of Sodexo and emcee Cris Carter, a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.

National Geographic Society President and CEO Gary E. Knell; WAC-DC Global Communications Chair David Trulio, operations director for Raytheon International; and WAC-DC President and CEO Tony R. Culley-Foster.

Founding Chairman of WAC-DC Patrick W. Gross; WAC-DC Chairwoman Edie Fraser, CEO of STEMconnector; Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter; WAC-DC President and CEO Tony R. Culley-Foster; George Mason University Ángel Cabrera; General Manager of the IBM Global Public Sector Daniel S. Pelino; former Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.); former Rep. Thomas Davis (R-Va.); and former Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.).

Nomaswazi Mahlangu and Ambassador of South Africa Mninwa J. Mahlangu.

Ambassador of Afghanistan Hamdullah Mohib and Harmon Adams Mohib.

Ambassador of Iraq Lukman Faily and Nancy Ziuzin Schlegel, vice president of international government affairs for Lockheed Martin.

Jeff Ballou of Al Jazeera English, Ray Mahmood and British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch.

Carsen Zarin of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and Medal of Honor recipient retired U.S. Army Capt. Florent Groberg.

Mark Gerencser, chairman of the University of Maryland University College Board of Visitors, and Richard Blewitt, president of the Blewitt Foundation.

Beth Cabrera; George Mason University President Ángel Cabrera; Anne Altman of IBM; WAC-DC Chairwoman Edie Fraser of STEMconnector; and General Manager of the IBM Global Public Sector Daniel S. Pelino.

Embassy liaison Jan Du Plain and Timothy Cox, CEO of Washington Home and Community Hospices.

Jason Colosky of Raytheon, retired U.S. Army Gen. Richard Cody and WAC-DC Global Communications Chair David Trulio, operations director for Raytheon International.

Fuad Sahouri, CEO of Sahouri Insurance; Victor Shiblie, publisher and editor in chief of The Washington Diplomat; and Michael Sahouri, vice president of operations at Sahouri Insurance.

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, Stephanie Carter and Ambassador of Afghanistan Hamdullah Mohib.

Dale Jones and Thomas Spouse of Tunaweza.

Cherry Blossoms at Japan Japanese Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae and his wife Nobuko opened their residence to celebrate the 2016 National Cherry Blossom Festival on April 12. The annual springtime series of events commemorates Japan’s gift of over 3,000 cherry trees to the United States in 1912.

Photos: Gail Scott

Ambassador of Japan Kenichiro Sasae, Nobuko Sasae, White House Deputy National Security Advisor Avril Dannica Haines and her husband David Davighi.

Keiko Niwa, Amanda Misaki Buker (Miss Maryland), Miyuko Niwa (Miss Japan), Rebecca Lee (Miss Virginia) and Japanese Embassy Social Secretary Kiyomi Buker.

Cherry Blossom Junior Princesses Marina and Miho Kambe are pictured with their grandmother Hatsumi Kaneko and mother Megumi Kambe.

Tina Broccolino of the Claudia Mayer / Tina Broccolino Cancer Resource Center at Howard County General Hospital and Nobuko Sasae.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016 | 55

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Diplomatic Spotlight Sister Cities International

NUSACC Ambassadors Forum The National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC) and the State Department co-hosted the fourth annual Ambassadors Forum on March 17, bringing together 12 U.S. ambassadors stationed in the Middle East and North Africa and 11 Arab Ambassadors assigned to the United States. Some 400 business and government leaders were also in attendance to hear the chiefs of mission discuss current opportunities and challenges of doing business in the Middle East and Africa. Sponsors of this year’s forum included Black & Veatch and Amazon Web Services.

Photos: National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce

Ambassador of Qatar Mohammed Al Kuwari and U.S. Ambassador to Oman Marc Sievers.

May 2016

Retired U.S. Ambassador Joseph Huggins talks with Amin Salam and NUSACC President and CEO David Hamod.

Ambassador of Sudan Maowia Khalid, Ambassador of Yemen Ahmed Bin-Mubarak and U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Matthew Tueller.

Sister Cities International (SCI) held its Diplomatic Awards Reception in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8 at the Greater Washington Board of Trade. The event honored Jayne Plank, formerly with the State Department Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and the former mayor of Kensington, Md., as well as Robin Sanders, former U.S. ambassador to the Congo and Nigeria. Sister Cities International is a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network that creates and strengthens partnerships between U.S. and international communities, with over 2,300 partnerships in 150 countries on six continents.

Christine Warnke of Hogan and Lovells, former U.S. Ambassador Robin Sanders and SCI President and CEO Mary D. Kane.

Former Kensington Mayor Jayne Plank, Ambassador of Tunisia Fayçal Gouia and former U.S. Ambassador Robin Sanders.

Banker Kate Carr, Jayne Plank and SCI President and CEO Mary D. Kane.

Photos: Sister Cities International

Libyan Embassy Chief of Mission Wafa Bugaighis.

House of Sweden 10th Anniversary Ambassador of Egypt Yasser Reda and M. Shafik Gabr, chairman and managing director of ARTOC Group.

Ambassador of Tunisia Fayçal Gouia, right, talks with a guest at the VIP reception.

Forum sponsor Paul Weida of Black & Veatch and Ambassador of Algeria Madjid Bouguerra.

Former Undersecretary of State for Economics Alan Larson and Ambassador of Morocco Rachad Bouhlal.

U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Dwight Bush and retired U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia Gordon Gray, now NUSACC executive vice president.

Celebrating 10 years of Swedish public diplomacy in the U.S., the House of Sweden is presenting a slew of exhibitions and events this year that espouse the country’s progressive dynamism and diversity. Over the last decade, the House of Sweden (i.e. the Swedish Embassy located in Georgetown on the banks of the Potomac River) has organized more than 210 seminars, 110 concerts, 80 exhibitions and 35 family days. The latest batch of offerings includes the exhibit “Gender Equality: We’ve Come a Long Way – Haven’t We?” (through Dec. 4), “Next Level Craft – Cutting-Edge Handicraft from Sweden” (through April 25) and a family-friendly room for children.

Ambassador of Sudan Maowia Khalid, Ambassador of Algeria Madjid Bouguerra and Ambassador of the Arab League Salah Sarhan.

Photo: Embassy of Sweden

Johanna Hofring and Tor Söderin’s woolen goddess greets guests in the lower-level of the House of Sweden.

Blue Network The governments of Grenada and the Netherlands hosted a kickoff event for the Blue Network, created to protect the world’s oceans and unlock the value of coastal and island developing countries for economic and social development. The initiative is directed by Grenadian Ambassador Angus Friday and chaired by Dutch Vice Minister for Agriculture Hans Hoogeveen.

Ambassador of Grenada Angus Friday and chaired

by Dutch Vice Minister for Agriculture Hans Hoogeveen.

56 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016

Ambassador Björn Lyrvall introduces Azita Raji, America’s first female ambassador to Sweden.

Photos: Gail Scott

Ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis Everson Hull; Gareth Bynoe, counselor at the Embassy of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Ambassador of Barbados John Beale; and Ambassador of the Bahamas Eugene Glenwood Newry.

Photo: Embassy of Sweden

Cutting-edge handicrafts create an otherworldly, cavernous experience.

“Gender Equality: We’ve Come a Long Way – Haven’t We?” examines issues such as rape and pay equity.

WD | May 2016

around the World holidays ALBANIA May 1: Labor Day

ALGERIA May 1: Labor Day

ANDORRA May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 15: Pentecost

ANGOLA May 1: International Workers’ Day May 25: Africa Day

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA May 1: Labor Day May 16: Whit Monday

ARGENTINA May 1: Labor Day May 25: Anniversary of the May Revolution

ARMENIA May 1: Labor Day May 9: Victory and Peace Day May 28: Republic Day

AUSTRIA May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Whit Monday

AZERBAIJAN May 9: Victory Day May 28: Republic Day

BAHAMAS

BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA May 1: Labor Day

BOTSWANA May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension

BRAZIL May 1: Labor Day

BULGARIA May 1: Labor Day May 6: St. George’s Day/Day of the Bulgarian Army May 24: Day of the Slavic Alphabet and Bulgarian Culture

BURKINA FASO May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension

BURMA (MYANMAR) May 1: May Day

BURUNDI May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension

CAMBODIA May 1: Labor Day May 9: Royal Ploughing Ceremony

CAMEROON May 1: Labor Day May 20: National Day

May 16: Whit Monday

CANADA

BARBADOS

May 23: Victoria Day

May 1: Labor Day May 16: Whit Monday

CAPE VERDE

BELARUS

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day May 9: Day of National Emblem and National Flag May 9: Victory Day

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

BELGIUM May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 15: Whit Sunday May 16: Whit Monday

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Pentecost Monday May 25: Africa Day

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ESTONIA

HONDURAS

CÔTE D’IVOIRE

May 1: Spring Day May 15: Pentecost

May 1: Labor Day

May 4: Declaration of Independence

HUNGARY

LEBANON

CROATIA May 1: Labor Day

CUBA

ETHIOPIA May 28: National Day

EUROPEAN UNION May 9: Soloman Day

May 1: International Workers’ Day

FINLAND

CYPRUS

FRANCE

May 1: Labor Day

CZECH REPUBLIC May 1: Labor Day May 8: Liberation Day

DENMARK May 1: Workers’ Day May 5: Ascension May 7: Store Bededag May 15: Whit Sunday May 16: Whit Monday

May 1: May Day May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 8: Victory Day of 1945 May 15: Pentecost May 16: Pentecost Monday

GABON

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Pentecost Monday May 26: Mother’s Day

DOMINICA

GAMBIA

DJIBOUTI

May 1: May Day May 15: Whit Sunday May 16: Whit Monday

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC May 1: Labor Day

EAST TIMOR May 1: Labor Day May 20: Independence Day

ECUADOR

TAJIKISTAN

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day

RUSSIA

TANZANIA

May 1-2: Spring and Labor Day May 9: Victory Day

May 1: Workers’ Day

May 10: Constitution Day

May 1: Labor Day May 16: Whit Monday

ICELAND May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 15: Whit Sunday May 16: Whit Monday

INDONESIA May 5: Ascension

May 1: Labor Day May 6: Martyrs’ Day May 25: Liberation the South

JAMAICA

MOZAMBIQUE

May 1: Labor Day

TRINIDAD and TOBAGO

ST. VINCENT and THE GRENADINES

May 30: Indian Arrival Day

LIECHTENSTEIN

NETHERLANDS

May 1: Labor Day May 16: Whit Monday

TUNISIA

SENEGAL

TURKEY

May 1: Labor Day

LUXEMBOURG May 1: May Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Whit Monday

May 5: Liberation Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Whit Monday

NIGER

SERBIA

May 9: Victory Day May 18: Constitution Day

May 1: Labor Day

May 1-2: Labor Day May 9: Victory Day

UKRAINE

SEYCHELLES

May 1-2: Labor Day May 9: Victory Day

May 1: Labor Day

NIGERIA

May 26: Independence Day

GERMANY

JORDAN

GHANA May 1: May Day

EL SALVADOR May 1: Labor Day

May 16: Whit Monday

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Whit Monday

CHINA May 1: Labor Day

May 1: May Day May 25: Africa Day

BOLIVIA

COLOMBIA

ERITREA

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension

May 24: Liberation Day

May 1: Labor Day

GRENADA GUATEMALA May 1: Labor Day

GUYANA May 1: Labor Day May 5: Indian Heritage Day May 26: Independence Day

KAZAKHSTAN

May 1: Labor Day

PALAU

MALAYSIA

May 5: Senior Citizen’s Day

May 1: Day of Unity of Peoples of Kazakhstan May 9: Victory Day

May 1: Labor Day

KENYA

MALTA

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day

KYRGYZSTAN

MARSHALL ISLANDS

May 5: Constitution Day May 9: WWII Victory Day

LAOS

MALI May 25: Africa Day

MAURITIUS

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day

SLOVAKIA May 1: Labor Day May 8: Triumph Over Fascism Day

SLOVENIA

UNITED KINGDOM May 1: May Day May 30: Spring Bank Holiday

URUGUAY May 1: Labor Day May 18: Battle of Las Piedras

UZBEKISTAN

PANAMA

May 1: Workers’ Day

May 1: Labor Day May 9: Victory Day

May 1: Labor Day

SPAIN

VENEZUELA

PARAGUAY

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day May 15: Independence Day

SRI LANKA

VIETNAM

PERU

May 1: May Day

May 1: Labor Day

SWEDEN

YEMEN

May 1: May Day May 5: Ascension May 15: Whit Sunday

May 1: Labor Day May 22: National Day

May 1: Labor Day

SWITZERLAND

POLAND

May 1: May Day May 5: Ascension May 15: Whit Sunday May 16: Whit Monday

May 1: Labor Day May 25: Africa Day

MAURITANIA

LATVIA

SINGAPORE

SOUTH AFRICA

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day

TURKMENISTAN

May 1-2: Labor Day

May 1: Constitution Day May 1: Labor Day May 25: Africa Day

May 19: Youth and Sports Day

May 1: Labor Day

NICARAGUA

May 1: May Day May 5: Ascension May 15: Whit Sunday May 16: Whit Monday May 17: National Day

MALAWI

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 15: Whit Sunday May 16: Whit Monday

NORWAY

May 25: Independence Day

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 15: Pentecost May 16: Pentecost Monday

ST. LUCIA

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Pentecost Monday May 25: Africa Day

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Whit Monday

TOGO

May 1: Workers’ Day May 4: Cassinga Day May 5: Ascension May 25: Africa Day

MADAGASCAR

GEORGIA

ST. KITTS and NEVIS

NAMIBIA

May 3: Constitution Memorial Day May 4: National Holiday May 5: Children’s Day

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Workers’ Day May 5: Ascension May 25: Africa Day/ Heroes’ Day

LITHUANIA

May 1: May Day

May 21: Independence Day

LESOTHO

ISRAEL

ITALY

MONTENEGRO

May 5: Coronation Day

May 1: May Day May 16: Whit Monday

May 2: May Day May 22: Second Passover May 26: Lag B’Omer

RWANDA

THAILAND

May 1: Workers’ Day

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Pentecost Monday

IRELAND

May 1: Labor Day May 9: Victory Day

JAPAN

May 1: Labor Day May 21: Battle of Iquique

May 1: Labor Day

ROMANIA

May 1-2: Labor Day

CHILE

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

MICRONESIA

MACEDONIA

May 1: Labor Day May 25: Africa Day

BENIN

May 1: Labor Day

May 24: Labor Day

GREECE

May 1: Labor Day May 24: Commonwealth Day

SYRIA

May 1: Labor Day

May 1: Worker’s Day May 27: Children’s Day

May 1: Labor Day May 24: Anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha

BELIZE

PORTUGAL

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Cinco de Mayo

MOLDOVA

COSTA RICA

May 1: Labor Day May 5: Ascension May 16: Whit Monday

MEXICO

PHILIPPINES

May 1: Labor Day May 3: Constitution Day

ZAMBIA

ZIMBABWE May 1: Workers’ Day May 25: Africa Day

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAy 2016 | 57

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Gifts CONTINUED • PAGE 23

“Foreign governments know what the rules are, and they know what the exceptions are, too,” Dunham said. “The president doesn’t tell you, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’”

What’s more, the United States is not alone in its restrictions on gifting. Many other countries, including England, have similar rules.

“I think you’ll find that a lot more countries now are putting rules on gifts because of ethics and bribery, so where maybe before they were very relaxed about giving gifts and especially receiving gifts, now we’re finding that gift giving is being controlled,” Eyring said. “There are some 58 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAy 2016

[countries] that have no rules at all.”

And just as they receive gifts, U.S. presidents and officials always give them when they meet with foreign leaders. The State Department’s gift officer typically handles the selection. The job is politically appointed to reflect the taste of the president and first lady, Dunham said, and the officer works closely with the first couple on choosing the right item.

Generally, Dunham said, two types of gifts are selected: something personal that reflects the interest of the couple receiving it or something that’s the same for every recipient. In the latter case, it can be an engraved piece of silver from an American company such as Tiffany or crystal by an American

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manufacturer like Steuben Glass.

“These gifts should be unique and match the level of the relationship we have with that country,” Eyring said. “They have to be culturally sensitive.

We don’t give alcohol traditionally as a gift. We watch the colors of the wrapping or the colors of the gift. The most important consideration is to make PhOTO: FOTOLIA a connection with the country or the person.”

Both Eyring and Dunham recalled a gift that President Bill Clinton gave to South African President Nelson Mandela. After former Chief of Protocol Mary Mel French and her team found out that Mandela was a boxing fan, they collected personalized letters to the iconic anti-apartheid leader from all the living U.S. boxing champions and put them in a beautiful leather-bound

book with an inscription from the president. “That gift really meant something to Mandela,” Eyring said.

Despite every effort to the contrary, blunders do occur. For instance, in 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a “reset” button that was intended to show a diplomatic starting over. But the word on the red button was misspelled. Instead of reading “perezagruzka,” or reset, it read “peregruzka,” or overcharged or overloaded.

Both leaders handled the blunder with ease and understanding, and Clinton promised to correct the mistake and send a new one. If she wins the White House in November, she’ll have four more years to find the perfect present. WD Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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of every index we see, from … happiest countries or where you should raise your children or where you want to grow old.”

“But [we are] also on all the indexes of the most competitive, where to do business, the most innovative and creative,” Lose interjected. “The five countries are almost always in the top 10.”

Haarde pointed out that Nordic citizens have made a conscious decision to pay higher taxes in return for higher-quality services, none of which are “free.”

“I think it’s important to note that these are very healthy market economies with a social contract that stipulates that you should take care of the needy in terms of social benefits,” he said. “There is no such thing as a free lunch. All the public services are of course paid for by citizens through their taxes, so the level of taxation is correlated to the level of services provided.”

“I think in our countries there is a very strong feeling that the government is owned by the people, so it’s not a socialist institution that is taxing you. It’s us,” Kauppi added.

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“Also when you compare it to the U.S., this sentiment of noninterference, it doesn’t exist in our countries. We rely on the state, we trust the state to do these kinds of things, we expect the state to do these kinds of things,” Lose said.

‘A GREAT ShOW’ Lose’s nation, in fact, was recently mentioned on the U.S. campaign trail. Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has extolled the virtues of the Scandinavian welfare state. His rival Hillary Clinton retorted that, “We are not Denmark.”

“It’s very colorful,” Lose said of the U.S. presidential race, noting that he and many of his colleagues went to New Hampshire to observe the Granite State’s primary and were impressed by the grassroots democracy they witnessed.

“You could go to any bar and you can meet all the candidates if you wanted to, even in a country as big as the U.S.,” he said. “It’s very interesting, very colorful and very different from what we have in our systems.”

Most of the ambassadors have backgrounds in political affairs at their respective ministries of foreign affairs (Haarde is a former prime minister). Following diplomatic decorum, however, none of

PhOTO: GUO JUNJUN - OWN WORk / CC BY-SA 3.0

Nyhavn is a 17th-century waterfront in Copenhagen lined by brightly colored townhouses. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has extolled the virtues of the Nordic social safety net, while his rival hillary Clinton argues that the U.S. cannot mimic the Nordic model of high taxes and generous benefits, saying, “We are not Denmark.”

the ambassadors would hazard a guess as to who might be the next occupant of the White House, although Lyrvall offered up a wish list of sorts.

“We really, sincerely hope that it will be an outcome of an election that produces a president who is responsible, who is also taking an interest in multilateral cooperation, ready to work with partners and to continue to keep the United States engaged in the world,” he said, adding that he finds it “staggering” how people from all over the world have kept

up with the Iowa caucuses and other arcane minutiae of the U.S. voting process.

“This is obviously democracy in action and we learn a lot from it and it’s important for this great country, but it’s also extremely important for the world,” Lyrvall told us. “So what we are doing is observing something that has a direct impact conceivably on our own countries and the state of the affairs in the world.”

“Sometimes it is as if the candidates don’t always realize that,” Haarde quipped, prompting wry

laughter from his colleagues.

Jokes aside, the Icelandic ambassador said he is concerned about the polarizing, nationalist discourse that has overtaken politics — on both sides of the Atlantic.

“I’m a longtime observer of U.S. politics, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this before since the ’60s. We are not in a position to make judgments or substantive arguments on what’s right or wrong in this, but it seems to me that very unusual things are happening,” he mused. “There are a lot of undercurrents in politics it seems, but of course the political system here is very different from ours. We have parliamentary democracies where the executive branch has to have the support of the legislature to be able to function. Here you have a checks-andbalances system and it often leads to difficult clashes, maybe even more now than historically.”

Haarde noted that he plans on attending both conventions this summer, “and I’m really looking forward to observing what will be happening.”

Whatever the outcome, Lose perhaps summed it up best when he remarked: “It’s going to be a great show.” WD Anna Gawel is managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | MAy 2016 | 59

352*5$0 *8,'( Â&#x2021; 0$< Download the Passport DC App on your smartphone for interactive maps, event listings, and exclusive content!

app.passportdc.org

EVENTS \

THE FLOWER MART AT WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL

AROUND THE WORLD EMBASSY TOUR Sat., May 7 10 am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 4 pm

SHORTCUT TO EUROPE Â&#x2019; 3 C 3;0/AA73A¸ OPEN HOUSE

NATIONAL ASIAN HERITAGE FESTIVAL Â&#x2019; 473AB/ /A7/ AB@33B 4/7@

EMBASSY CHEF CHALLENGE

Sat., May 21, 10 am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7 pm

EmbassyChefChallenge.org

AsiaHeritageFoundation.org

ADMISSION: $65 Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

Fri., May 6, and Sat., May 7 10 am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6 pm

PassportDC.org

Sat., May 14 10 am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 4 pm

AllHallowsGuild.org

ADMISSION: FREE

EUOpenHouse.com

ADMISSION: FREE

Shop for plants, and enjoy diverse food, puppet shows, carousel rides, and entertainment for the whole family. Go inside the Cathedral to see the popular â&#x20AC;&#x153;Flowers Around the Worldâ&#x20AC;? exhibit that highlights the natural and floral heritage of selected countries as well as the topography, national colors, flags, and symbols of each country.

Dozens of embassies, representing four continents, invite the public into their stately mansions and exclusive compounds to experience their countriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; food, art, dance, and music.

See list of A.W.E.T. Embassies on Page 2 X

ADMISSION: FREE

The European Union Delegation to the U.S. and the embassies of the EU Member States invite visitors to experience the authentic music, dance, food, film, and art of 28 distinctive nations along with a rare behindthe-scenes look into the European Union embassies.

our ped!

Y t e G Stam ssport to get it t r o p Pass ort DC Souvenir Puavisit on May 7.hase

urc ssp sy yo p a Pa le for p hs embas b a h l i c a a Pick u v e a ot ed at nd are ormation Bo a 5 $ stamp y onl C Inf d Van rts are rism D cle, an r i C t Passpo Cultural Tou n s. , Dupo tation at the r Mart s e l i w a o R l F etro at the UDC M Ness-

60 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016

ADMISSION: FREE Pennsylvania Avenue, NW between Third and Sixth Streets

Fiesta Asia Street Fair features more than 1000 performers on five stages representing more than 20 cultures. Attendees can experience Pan-Asian cuisine, a shopping bazaar, kid-friendly, interactive activities, a talent competition, a parade, Bollywood street dancing, and traditional and contemporary Asian crafts!

Wed., May 25 6:30 pm â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10:30 pm

More than a dozen world-class embassy chefs present small plates of their countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s signature cuisine and compete for the Judgesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Choice and Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Choice Awards.

DCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Premier International Culinary Competition

X 60+ Participating Embassies X Exciting Programs and Events X Tips for Getting Around X What You Need to Know

More Passport DC X

Welcome to Passport DC, a month-long “journey” around the world. May is International Cultural Awareness Month, and Passport DC celebrates with more than 100 international events and activities. From the popular embassy open houses, to street festivals, performances and exhibitions, Passport DC offers something for everyone. As you enjoy Passport DC, remember that the signature events are free thanks to contributions from individuals like you and our sponsors. Help us keep Passport DC free and accessible to all by donating today at www.CulturalTourismDC.org.

BIENVENIDO ΕέΡϱΏ VÄLKOMMEN ʷʡʬʺ ʴʯ TERETULNUD TERVETULOA 쀍꾶 ACCUEIL ҟ‫ ט‬WILLKOMMEN ȀǹȁȍȈȅȇǿȈȂǹ ȾɈȻɊɈ ɉɈɀȺɅɈȼȺɌɖ CROESO CHÀO ÐÓN

΁̟ ̭΍ ΍αΕϕΏ΍ϝ ɅȺɋɄȺȼɈ ɉɊɈɋɂɆɈ .$5ù,/$0$

WELCOME!

For the most up-to-date information about Passport DC events, sign up for the Cultural Tourism DC weekly Culture Communiqué at CulturalTourismDC.org. Changes, additions, and cancellations to schedules will be listed at App.PassportDC.org.

Scan this QR code to connect to the Passport DC app. X

AROUND THE WORLD EMBASSY TOUR

Participating Embassies

SATURDAY, MAY 7 10 am - 4 pm

1

THE DELEGATION OF THE AFRICAN UNION MISSION

The Africa House, 1640 Wisconsin Ave NW EMBASSY OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN

2

2001 24th St NW

3

2100 S St NW

4 5

EMBASSY OF ALBANIA EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA

1600 New Hampshire Ave NW EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN

2741 34th St NW

7 8

EMBASSY OF GHANA

19 3512 International Dr NW

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA

EMBASSY OF BELIZE

9 2535 Massachusetts Ave NW

EMBASSY OF KOSOVO

à Admission is free. Reservations are not required.

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOZAMBIQUE

EMBASSY OF BRAZIL

30 Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, 1100 16th St NW

EMBASSY OF CHILE

31

EMBASSY OF COLOMBIA

14 Ambassador’s Residence: 1520 20th St NW EMBASSY OF COSTA RICA

15 2114 S St NW

EMBASSY OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

16 1715 22nd St NW

1525 New Hampshire Ave NW EMBASSY OF NEPAL EMBASSY OF THE SULTANATE OF OMAN EMBASSY OF PAKISTAN

3517 International Ct NW EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA

32 Whittemore House: 1526 New Hampshire Ave NW EMBASSY OF PERU

33 1700 Massachusetts Ave NW EMBASSY OF THE STATE OF QATAR

34 2555 M ST NW

THE ROYAL EMBASSY OF SAUDI ARABIA

EMBASSY OF ETHIOPIA

35

EMBASSY OF GABONESE REPUBLIC

36 EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA 3051 Massachusetts Ave NW

17 3506 International Dr NW 18 2034 20th St NW

What You Need to Know

EMBASSY OF MEXICO

27 Mexican Cultural Institute, 2829 16th St NW

29 2730 34th Pl NW

13 2305 Massachusetts Ave NW

EMBASSY OF THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA

Bolivarian Hall, 2443 Massachusetts Ave NW

à All embassies are open from 10 am to 4 pm, unless otherwise noted.

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA

12 Ambassador’s Residence: 3000 Massachusetts Ave NW

EMBASSY OF URUGUAY

1913 I St NW

EMBASSY OF LIBYA

26 Whittemore House: 1526 New Hampshire Ave NW

28

11 1531-1533 New Hampshire Ave NW

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

Whittemore House: 1526 New Hampshire Ave NW

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA

EMBASSY OF THE PLURINATIONAL STATE OF BOLIVIA

10 3014 Massachusetts Ave NW

40

EMBASSY OF SRI LANKA

3025 Whitehaven St NW

23 2249 R St NW

25 Whittemore House: 1526 New Hampshire Ave NW

2144 Wyoming Ave NW

39

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

22 2020 Massachusetts Ave NW

EMBASSY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BANGLADESH EMBASSY OF BARBADOS

38

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI

21 2311 Massachusetts Ave NW

24 Korean Cultural Center, 2370 Massachusetts Ave NW

3510 International Dr NW

37

EMBASSY OF GUATEMALA

20 2220 R St NW

EMBASSY OF THE BAHAMAS

6 2220 Massachusetts Ave NW

Your global journey awaits! Taste the food, hear the music, practice the dances, and explore foreign lands as you visit DC’s many beautiful embassies. Use the map to your right to plan your adventure.

à Many embassies require photo ID for admission. à Embassies may have items for sale and some may accept cash only. à Most embassies will stamp your Souvenir Passport upon entry. Souvenir Passports are available at the three Passport DC Information Booths at the Flower Mart at National Cathedral (3101 Wisconsin Avenue NW) and near the Dupont Circle and Van Ness-UDC Metrorail stations. à Public transportation is strongly encouraged and readily available to access the embassies. Visitors also may want to use Lyft, Uber, and local taxi services. à Follow @DCCulture and #PassportDC on Twitter for updates about lines, exciting activities, and other breaking news.

601 New Hampshire Ave NW

PASSPORT DC SPONSORS

Caterpillar Inc. Ken Golding (Stanton Development) WDC Economic Partnership Women’s National Democratic Club U.S. Chamber of Commerce

2

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016 | 61

AROUND THE WORLD EMBASSY TOUR 2016

METRO BUS ROUTES Consider these local buses for transportation:

TIPS FOR GETTING AROUND

Run every 20 minutes along Massachusetts Ave, with a travel time of 15 minutes between 20th Street and Massachusetts Ave and Observatory Circle.

N2

All participating Passport DC embassies are located in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, DC, and most are along three major corridors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Massachusetts Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, and 16th Street, NW. Embassies are also located in Foggy Bottom and Georgetown.

N3 N4

Parking is limited in most areas. Public transportation is strongly encouraged and readily available.

N6

To reach the Flower Mart, continue on the bus to Wisconsin Ave and walk north to the Cathedral.

Several clusters of embassies are located within 10-15 minutes walking distance of the Dupont Circle Information Booth; 5-10 minutes walking distance of the Van Ness Information Booth (embassies on International Drive and International Court); and 15-20 minutes of the Flower Mart at National Cathedral.

L2

Runs every 20 minutes along Connecticut Ave between Van Ness and UDC via the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Travel time is 20 minutes

Insider Tips for Walking and Taking Public Transportation

To visit embassies north along Massachusetts Avenue, from Dupont Circle walk 8 minutes to Sheridan Circle.

Alternately, take the N6 bus and exit at California Street to access embassies midway up Massachusetts Avenue, at 30th Street to access embassies on upper Massachusetts Avenue, or at Fulton Street to access embassies near Observatory Circle and the Flower Mart on Wisconsin Avenue.

S2

Runs every 20 minutes along 16th Street between M Street and Harvard Street.

S4

Runs across town between 16th Street and Columbia Road to Connecticut Ave and Van Ness Street.

H2

To visit embassies along New Hampshire Avenue NW, from Dupont Circle, walk 5 minutes to the 1500 block and the embassies of Botswana, Mozambique and more.

Walk south along Massachusetts Avenue from Dupont Circle for 5-8 minutes to visit embassies southeast of Dupont Circle and near Scott Circle.

METRO Rail: On the Red Line, trains leave every 15 minutes and take 7 minutes to travel between the Dupont Circle and Van Ness-UDC MetroRail stations.

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62 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016

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INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS & EVENTS She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World May 1-31 National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave NW

Metro: Metro Center

Admission: Free

nmwa.org

The European Month of Culture May 1-31

The fourth annual European Month of Culture celebration takes place at various venues in DC. Metro: Varies Admission: Most events are Free EUintheUS.org/EUMC

Rimer Cardillo: A Journey to Ombú Bellaumbra May 1-29, 10 am – 5 pm, Tuesday - Sunday

Visit our website for more information

Demonstrations: Artisans at Work May 12, 14, 15, and 19, 10 am – 1 pm Freer Gallery of Art, 1050 Independence Ave SW

Metro: Smithsonian Admission: Free asia.si.edu

Eurovision Screening Party Event With Live Broadcast From Stockholm May 14, 1:30 pm – 6:00 pm House of Sweden, 2900 K St NW Metro: Foggy Bottom Admission: $15, $5 (under age 15)

Swedenabroad.com

The Muslim Women’s Association (MWA) Annual International Bazaar May 14, 10 am – 4 pm

Art Museum of the Americas, 201 18th St NW

Islamic Center, 2551 Massachusetts Ave NW Metro: Dupont Circle Admission: Free mwawashingtondc.org

Disgraced May 1-29

Saturday Stories May 14 and May 28, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm National Museum of African Art, 950 Independence Ave SW

Metro: Farragut West Admission: Free museum.oas.org

Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage, 1101 6th St SW Metro: Waterfront Admission: $55 - $110 Arenastage.org

Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora May 1-31 The Textile Museum, 701 21st St NW Metro: Foggy Bottom

Admission: $8 TextileMuseum.org

A Picture Plus a Thousand Words: Aligning Art with Stories May 1, 1 pm - 3 pm National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave NW Metro: Metro Center

Admission: Free nmwa.org

Beyond Nuclear presents Lessons from Chernobyl and Fukushima The Risks of “Normalizing” Radiation, A Fukushima+5 Chernobyl+30 anniversary event May 3, 2 pm – 5 pm and 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm Goethe-Institut, 1601 Massachusetts Ave NW Metro: Gallery Place Chinatown

Admission: Free

goethe.de/Washington

Metro: L’Enfant Plaza & Smithsonian Admission: Free africa.si.edu

FRESH TALK: Women on Wheels - Can a bicycle be an agent of change?

May 15, 5 pm – 8 pm National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave NW

Metro: Metro Center

Admission: $25 (non-members); $15 (members) NMWA.org

Ireland 100: Celebrating A Century Of Irish Arts And Culture May 17 – 31, various times The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St NW

Metro: Foggy Bottom Admission: Varies per performance kennedy-center.org

World Bee Day: To Bee or Not To Bee May 20, 9:00 am -10.30 am

Delegation of the European Union to the United States, 2175 K St NW

Metro: Foggy Bottom

Admission: Free (registration required) EUintheUS.org

French Wine & Cheese & Conversation May 20, 7 pm – 9 pm Alliance Française de Washington DC, 2142 Wyoming Ave NW

Rita Gabis - A Guest at the Shooter’s Banquet May 3, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm DCJCC, 1529 16th St NW

Metro: Dupont Circle Admission: $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers) francedc.org

Edgar Moreau May 6, 7:30 pm

Metro: Eastern Market Admission: $85 (includes beer and wine) HillCenterDC.org

Metro: Dupont Circle Admission: $150 (includes buffet dinner and wine) embassyseries.org

The Washington DC Dragon Boat Festival May 21-22, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm Thompsons Boat Center, 2900 Virginia Ave NW

Metro: Farragut North Admission: $16.50 DCJCC.org

Belmont Mansion, 1618 New Hampshire Ave NW

Nordic Stars Exhibition May 6 – 28, Monday – Saturday, 12 pm – 5 pm, Hillyer Art Space, 9 Hillyer Ct NW

Metro: Dupont Circle Admission: Free hillyerartspace.org

Multicultural Open House May 7, 3 pm – 6 pm

Italian Master Cooking Class with Jake Addeo May 21, 11 am to 2 pm Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania Ave SE

Metro: Foggy Bottom Admission: Free DragonBoatDC.com

Meet the Artisan Tour May 22, 2 pm – 3 pm Freer Gallery of Art, 1050 Independence Ave SW

Metro: Smithsonian Admission: Free asia.si.edu

Hostelling International-Washington, DC, 1009 11th St NW Metro: Metro Center Admission: Free hiwashingtondc.org

Exploring the Invisible: Diving the Blue Holes of the Bahamas May 12, 10:15 am National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th St NW Metro: Farragut North Admission: $10 per student NGMuseum.org

Where cultures connect Effective diplomacy requires influence and in DC’s international circles no place says influence like the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Whether an economic summit, trade negotiation or a private diplomatic affair, our international trade experts and expansive network of leaders enable embassies and governments to amplify their message and strengthen their impact, locally and globally. Expand your reach. Grow your influence with us.

We invented invented the the car car and andthe thetruck. truck.

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As a global manufacturer As a global manufacturer present in almost every country, Daimler present in almost every seeks to promote cultural awareness andcountry, understanding in our globalized world.

Daimler and to its in North American units global manufacturer present almost everybusiness country, Daimler Daimler seeks promote cultural are proud support: eks to promote cultural awareness and understanding in our awareness and to understanding in

balized world.

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Daimler and business units &XOWXUDO 7RXULVP '&¶V are proud to support: its2015 North American business units Embassy Chef Challenge are proud to support: &XOWXUDO 7RXULVP '&¶V 2015 Cultural EmbassyTourism Chef Challenge DC

Fiesta Asia Street Fair 2 0 1 6 N a t i o n a l A s i a n H e r i t a g e F e s t i v a l Saturday May 21 10 a.m.- 7 p.m.

FREE ADMISSION

Penn. Ave. NW bet. 3rd St. & 6th St. info@fiestaasia.org 202.681.7818 fiestaasia.org

4 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016 | 63

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5 64 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | May 2016

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Visit for a chance to win !

We want to know your opinion!

Please use this QR code to complete our 2016 Passport DC survey for a chance to win tickets to enjoy an evening of international cuisine.

One lucky entry will win two (2) tickets to the 8th Annual Embassy Chef Challenge gala on Wed., May 25, 2016, when more than a dozen embassy chefs will present signature epicurean delights and compete for Judges’ Choice and People’s Choice Awards. (Deadline for contest entry is Sun., May 22, 2016, at 11:59 pm)