June 2011

A World of News and Perspective

■ INSIDE: LUXURY LIVING SPECIAL SECTION

LIVING L U X U R Y

Q A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ VOLUME 18, NUMBER 6

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

Q June 2011

■ JUNE 2011

SOUTH ASIA

Will Bin Laden Raid Break Up U.S.-Pakistani Marriage of Necessity?

Osama bin Laden’s death has closed one chapter and opened another in the prickly U.S.Pakistani marriage, as the discovery that the world’s most-hunted terrorist was living in plain sight of the Pakistani military reignites fears that the U.S. is sleeping with an enemy. PAGE 8

UNITED STATES

Receptions Rooms At State Department House Priceless History There’s a sanctuary of American history, with an art collection valued at more than $100 million, quietly nestled atop the State Department, whose headquarters is more known for its drab austerity and security barricades than for fine art. PAGE 24

culture

Latin Artists Go ‘Beyond Labyrinth’ Some of the biggest names in Latin art ponder what’s “Beyond the Labyrinth” at the Mexican Cultural Institute. PAGE 38

PHOTO: CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NEWS

Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki waits for the arrival of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to sign a book of condolences for victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

JAPAN’S TRAUMA It was 2 a.m. here on March 11 when Ichiro Fujisaki learned that a monstrous earthquake had struck Japan, unleashing a massive tsunami, killing thousands and triggering the world’s most frightening

nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. Since then, Japan’s ambassador has spent virtually every waking moment of his life using his position in Washington to help his traumatized people get back on their feet. PAGE 13

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

Cardinal McCarrick: No Rest for Faithful

Kazakh Wife, Mother: Striking, Inside and Out

God himself might concede that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 80, deserves some rest and relaxation after faithfully serving the church for five decades. But a life of leisure doesn’t seem to be part of God’s plan for the retired archbishop of Washington. PAGE 6

Nurilla Idrissova of Kazakhstan could easily pass for a model, but she prefers to serve as a role model to the young diplomatic families posted with her husband. PAGE 40

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June 2011

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June 2011

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

8 U.S.-Pakistani ties after Osama bin Laden

[ news ] 6

8

11

Dupont and Logan Circle

Gabriel Metsu painting

22

42

28

INTERNATIONAL LAW

COVER PROFILE: JAPAN

Haiti, Chile, New Zealand and Japan — four countries with little in common — are now united by the common experience of having been devastated by the worst earthquakes in their respective histories.

19

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Compared to his fellow Arab colleagues who’ve had to defend governments killing their own citizens, Morocco’s veteran diplomat, Aziz Mekouar, had little to complain about — at least until recently.

46

38

ART

Latin America is very much a labyrinth of melding identity and enduring individuality, espoused by an artistic legacy that’s on full display at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington.

40

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES Knowing how difficult a life of diplomacy can be, Nurilla Idrissova of Kazakhstan has adopted the families of fellow young diplomats helping her husband.

DINING Seasons 52 makes its area debut, bringing its signature mix of healthy, fresh food that’s not just good for you, but also just plain good.

48

[ culture ]

EVENTS Shackleford stole the show — and the Triple Crown from Animal Kingdom — while the International Pavilion won over dignitaries watching the 136th Preakness Stakes.

FILM REVIEWS Tart British humor makes “The Trip” worthwhile and helps versatile director Michael Winterbottom conquer yet another genre: the road movie.

The two “circle” neighborhoods of Dupont and Logan exemplify the two sides of Washington: a grand capital city of international import, and a livable city with local character.

Japan must not only rebuild after the cascading disaster that killed as many as 25,000 of its people, but also confront the economic and political stagnation that’s been darkening the Land of the Rising Sun for years.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

45

[ luxury living ] NEIGHBORHOODS

ART A group of artists try to bridge the distance between Baltimore and D.C., which, although separated by just 40 miles on the map, often feel much further apart.

MEDICAL “Gluten free” may be the biggest food trend since organic came into vogue, but like the Atkins carbohydrate fad, does giving up gluten make sense?

29

17

DIPLOMACY The State Department’s lackluster exterior belies the treasures and tidbits of Americana housed inside its Diplomatic Reception Rooms, which quietly tell the story behind the founding of the United States.

ART Gabriel Metsu died young at the height of his career during the height of the Dutch Republic, whose daily life the artist captured with a resonance that outlived his reputation.

44 24

The bitter soul-searching after the world failed to prevent the Rwanda genocide in part gave rise to Responsibility to Protect, a controversial doctrine that is emerging as a bold new paradigm for when to use international force.

13

BUSINESS Plenty of foreign automotive companies are setting up shop on American soil, challenging long-held assumptions about the decline of U.S. manufacturing and changing the face of America’s auto industry.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The discovery that the world’s most-hunted terrorist was living fairly comfortably in a town surrounded by the Pakistani military has put a major strain on the U.S.Pakistani marriage of convenience.

42

29

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE At 80, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick certainly deserves a little rest after faithfully serving the church for five decades all over the world. But a life of leisure doesn’t seem to be part of God’s plan for the former archbishop of Washington.

June 2011

49

FILM FESTIVALS Now in its ninth year, the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Festival once again proves why it’s the real deal on the documentary film circuit.

50

CINEMA LISTING

52

EVENTS LISTING

54

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

59

WORLD HOLIDAYS / APPOINTMENTS

61

CLASSIFIEDS

62

REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS

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June 2011

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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick

Cardinal Still Preaches to Faithful, And to Choir of Religious Skeptics

by Michael Coleman

C

ardinal Theodore McCarrick, one of the most prominent figures in the American Catholic Church, officially retired as archbishop of the Washington Diocese in 2006 after an international career that took him from Harlem to Latin America to the Middle East and beyond.

God himself might concede that the 80-year-old priest deserves a little rest and relaxation after faithfully serving the church for five decades. But a life of leisure doesn’t seem to be part of God’s plan for the New York City-born theologian. In January, after a five-year respite from the rigors of running an archdiocese, McCarrick went back to work — this time at the Library of Congress, where he was recruited to serve as a distinguished visiting scholar in the library’s renowned John W. Kluge Center. According to the library’s website, the Kluge Center “fosters a mutually enriching relationship between scholars and political leaders.”

“At 80, it’s interesting to start a new job,” McCarrick said with a chuckle during an interview in his small, tidy and sun-splashed office tucked into a hard-to-find place in the library’s oldest and most impressive building, the Jefferson. “They are lovely people here.They’ve been so nice to me.”

With a long and distinguished career behind him, McCarrick represents the old guard in Catholicism, but as usual, he’s still working at the vanguard.After launching his career as assistant chaplain and then dean of student services at Catholic University in Washington in the early 1960s, McCarrick took an assignment in Puerto Rico and served as president of the Catholic University there. The job piqued a lifelong interest in language; McCarrick speaks Spanish, French, German and Italian, as well as English.

After his formative stint in Puerto Rico in the 1960s, McCarrick was summoned back to the United States, where he was made vicar of East Manhattan and Harlem and worked to develop the church’s then-burgeoning African American mission during the 1970s.

The tireless priest went on to become archbishop of a newly created diocese in Newark, New Jersey, one of the Catholic Church’s largest, before landing in Washington, one of the Church’s most prestigious, from 2001 until 2006.

While inWashington,McCarrick launched the “Forward in Faith” campaign, which raised $185 million in pledges to support education, vocation, parish and social needs, especially for new immigrants in the growing Latino community. Forward in Faith was one of the most successful capital campaigns in U.S. diocesan history.

He also oversaw the creation of various education and social services endeavors, including the DC Opportunity Scholarship

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program for low-income families; a Lay Leadership Institute in Silver Spring, Md., geared toward the Hispanic community; and the reorganization of four of the archdiocese’s social service agencies into one organization, Catholic Community Services, which helps more than 120,000 people each year.

In addition, McCarrick has traveled the world to press for human rights and humanitarian relief, including trips to China, Cuba, Iran,Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Rwanda, as well as to areas hit by major natural disasters such as Central America, Sri Lanka and the American Gulf after Hurricane Katrina.

A founding member of the Papal Foundation, McCarrick has served as its president since 1997, and he continues to travel on behalf of Catholic Relief Services as a board member. The congenial cardinal has also served on the secretary of state’s advisory committee on religious freedom abroad and from 1999 to 2001, he was a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Today, as a Kluge scholar, McCarrick is studying the intersection of religion and diplomacy, a trend in global affairs perhaps most evident in the United States in the

“

We’re supposed to love our neighbor but we have to understand our neighbor first…. We are neighbors not just with the family across the street but with the family across the world.

— CARDINAL THEODORE MCCARRICK archbishop emeritus of Washington

myriad “faith-based” initiatives and, particularly in Washington, the “interfaith dialogues” that blossomed after 9/11 and have become a cottage industry in their own right. For his part, however, McCarrick is working to understand and write about an obscure (at least in the secular world) but he says potentially transformative Jordanian document called the Amman Message.

Conceived by King Abdullah II during the 2004 observance of Ramadan, the Amman Message aims to define what Islam is and isn’t, as well as which actions are representative of the religion and which are not.The document’s stated goal is “to clarify to the modern world the true nature of

”

Islam.”

Seeking to imbue the Amman Message with unimpeachable religious authority, King Abdullah II sent three questions to two dozen of the world’s most senior religious scholars, who represented all the branches and schools of Islam. The questions were: Who is a Muslim? Is it permissible to declare someone an apostate? And who has the right to issue fatwas, or legal rulings under Islamic law?”

McCarrick said he hopes to illuminate the Amman Message in a way that fosters better understanding between followers of Islam and the skeptics who cast a wary eye not only on the religion, but on Muslims

themselves. He said the message is unusually credible because it has the weight of diverse Islamic scholars and authorities behind it.

“It is almost like an effort to get a common teaching or magisterial for Islam,” McCarrick said, explaining the intent of the Amman Message.“Islam has had a common teaching from the day of the prophet, of course, but after the Shiites and Sunnis sort of divided, they have never had a common teaching.”

The cardinal, a seasoned veteran of the oft-divided Catholic clergy, is especially impressed that the Amman Message is a collaborative effort among all eight schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

“The Amman Message speaks to a moderate Islam that I think the world is looking for right now,” McCarrick said. “In Islam today there are voices that are teaching and reading the sacred books and they are saying maybe there is a way these can be understood in the background of human rights. This is key — we all believe in the dignity of the universal. All of the family of Abraham — Christians, Jews and Muslims — seems to be content with understanding that there is a real dignity in every person.

June 2011

We are neighbors not just with the family across the street but with the family across the world.”

McCarrick, who has written for some of the world’s most prestigious journals and sermonized all over the world, noted that these days he isn’t as interested in talking as he is in listening.

“I’m not coming to teach [Muslims],” he said.“I’m coming to really learn what they are teaching and what are their movements now, and how can this document [the Amman Message] that finds a moderate element in the teachings and writings of Islam — how can we help make sure that all of our brothers and sisters in the Muslim world see this and accept the leadership of moderate voices.”

The cardinal paused for a moment, then seemed compelled to declare his credentials for this particular line of study. “I’ve learned a lot about Islam because I’ve had to,” the soft-spoken McCarrick explained.“I’ve been involved in the Middle East for a long time.”

McCarrick — who in 2000 was named by the president of Lebanon an Officer of the Order of the Cedars of Lebanon — cited Islam as the religion that seems most in need of some effective diplomacy (although Catholicism has certainly had highprofile PR crises of its own). Islam is a faith followed by roughly 1.3 billion people around the globe, the vast majority of whom aren’t radical antiAmerican or even anti-Christian, McCarrick pointed out.

“When you talk about religion and diplomacy, Islam comes right up,” he said matter-of-factly. “But there is a lot common ground between Islam and Catholicism and other world religions.”

McCarrick says the world’s burgeoning interest in the intersection of religion and diplomacy is a natural result of failed attempts at traditional diplomacy.

“You cannot understand a country with a major

Muslim population unless you understand Islam,” he said. “You can’t understand a country with a major Catholic population unless you try to understand Catholicism. This is true for a country of Shinto or Confucianism or whatever — religion is a part of our lives.

“We’re supposed to love our neighbor but we have to understand our neighbor first,” McCarrick added.“I traveled a great deal over the world and it’s all basically to understand and try to make sure that they understand the American Catholic and the Catholic generally. The more we understand each other the better for peace, harmony and cooperation.”

But the intermingling of religion and diplomacy has experienced some blowback. In April, U.S. Ambassador to Malta Douglas Kmiec, a prominent Roman Catholic academic who supported President Obama in his election bid, resigned after a State Department inspector general report criticized him for spending too much time writing about his religious beliefs.

“The ambassador’s outside activities have detracted from his attention to core mission goals,” the report charged.“Based on a belief that he was given a special mandate to promote President Obama’s interfaith initiatives, he has devoted considerable time to writing articles for publication in the United States as well as in Malta, and to presenting his views on subjects outside the bilateral portfolio.”

Kmiec defended his actions in his resignation letter to Obama (which incidentally came at the same time that the Senate finally voted to fill the long-vacant post of U.S. ambassador of international religious freedom).“I doubt very much whether one could ever spend too much time on this subject,” Kmiec wrote, noting that “too much of politics had been used to divide us, sometimes by excluding people of faith.”

But others have leveled the exact opposite charge at the many faith-based initiatives pushed by former President George W. Bush, arguing that religion was dominating American politics and breaching the sacred line between church and state upon which the country was founded.

McCarrick, whose bearing is remarkably low-key for a theologian of his vaunted status, becomes more animated when asked how the American commitment to a separation of church and state jibes with the notion of a diplomatic policy informed by religion.

“The separation of church and state has been very valuable for us, except when secularism becomes the established religion,” McCarrick told The Diplomat.“That happens even in the U.S. — the notion that secularism, you can’t touch it. You can put aside all of the religious part and say no it’s just this secular thing. What you do is create a secular religion and that becomes the established religion.

But this is a religious nation, and there has to be a place for religion in our society. We have to respect atheism, but we also have to respect religion.”

And what about those who contend that organized religion — extreme adherence to any faith — is responsible for far more harm than good? The skeptics point to the Christian crusades or to more contemporary violence at abortion clinics in the name of God, or radical Islamic-inspired terrorism in the name of Allah — or the perpetual fighting over Jerusalem, sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. Whether it’s Muslims and Christians clashing in Nigeria or American taxpayer money going to scientifically dubious abstinence-only pregnancyprevention programs, many critics contend that infusing U.S. policy with religion is a recipe for failure, or even strife.

“To them I say two things: Religion is injected into the life of all who we deal with,” McCarrick

argued. “The values of religion are values we get because we are human beings and we believe we are created by God and saved by God and loved by God. With all due respect to atheists and agnostics, for me the world doesn’t make sense unless there is a God. Ninety percent of our people believe there is a God.” The cardinal also pointed out that atheistic countries don’t have great track records.“I don’t know of any countries that are atheist,” he said.“We had them — they were the communist countries. But they blew up.”

While McCarrick emphasized that religion has a place in diplomacy, he said that doesn’t equate with trying to convert people of other faiths.

“I think there is a difference between evangelizing and proselytizing,” he cautioned.“Evangelizing is saying,‘Hey, I want to know about Moses, I want to know about Mohammed, let me tell you about Jesus too.’ Jesus says get the message out to all the world and we should do that, but conversion is always the grace given by God. You can’t impose conversion on someone else.You can’t make them a Catholic, a Christian, a Jew or Muslim.When we proclaim Jesus Christ and his crucifixion with all of our hearts and all our love to other people, nothing will happen unless the lord gives them the grace — faith is the grace.”

Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

U.S. and Pakistan

Pakistan: Marriage of Convenience Or Is U.S. Sleeping With an Enemy?

by Seth McLaughlin

O

sama bin Laden’s death has closed a chapter in history and opened another in the rocky decades-old marriage between the United States and Pakistan, with the relationship being put to one of its biggest tests following the damning revelation that the world’s most-hunted man wasn’t cowering in a remote mountain cave, but instead living fairly comfortably in a military town not very far from the Pakistani capital.

The discovery has reignited fears that the United States has been sleeping with an enemy, funneling roughly $20 billion in civilian and military assistance into Pakistan since 2001, all while the country has been turning a blind eye to uprooting the violent groups — or sheltering them — that U.S. policymakers warn could destabilize the volatile region.

What’s more, experts say, the United States may have little choice but to stay wedded to Pakistan, a Muslim-majority nation that is still largely secular and home to a large nuclear arsenal. Above all, the U.S. government wants to keep those nukes from falling into the hands of radical Islamists that have both cozied up to and, more recently, challenged the government. Pakistan is also pivotal to American efforts in Afghanistan, and eventually winding down that war, as well as the wider campaign against extremist militants in the region.

PITIFULLY IN PLAIN SIGHT But none of that can whitewash the fact that the world’s most-wanted terrorist was hiding in plain sight in Pakistan, exposing the dark undercurrents of this dysfunctional bilateral relationship. The resulting frustration, confusion and anger have been more than palpable on Capitol Hill.

More than anything else, lawmakers remain baffled as to how bin Laden flew under the radar for so long while living inside a hulking white compound in Abbottabad — smack dab inside a garrison city surrounded by the Pakistani military and close to an academy that’s the equivalent of West Point, all a short drive from Islamabad.

Some lawmakers have surmised that elements of the Pakistani military must have been complicit in harboring bin Laden or they’re simply incompetent. How, they also ask, could four U.S. helicopters fly more than 100 miles inside Pakistani territory, get in a gunfight and then leave undetected? Whether it’s duplicity or ineptitude or sheer intransigence, it doesn’t exactly instill confidence in a strategically vital country that receives roughly $3 billion in annual military and development assistance.

For its part, the Pakistani government has vehemently defended itself, pointing out that al-Qaeda’s spiritual leader eluded the entire world for more than decade. Moreover, it says Pakistan has lost more lives — an estimated 2,000 police officers and 30,000 civilians — in the fight against terrorism than any other nation. In fact, less than two weeks after the raid that killed bin Laden, twin suicide bombings killed at least 80 cadets outside a paramilitary training center in Pakistan’s northwest. Police believe the attack was most likely retaliation for the army’s stepped-up offensive against insurgents in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.

As John Brennan, President Obama’s counterterrorism advisor, put it recently: “Pakistan has been responsible for

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WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY PETE SOUZA

It’s complicated: President Barack Obama, right, talks with Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington last year. The U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden exacerbated long-standing frictions with Pakistan, although with Pakistan’s fast-growing nuclear weapons arsenal and a secular government under constant threat by Islamist extremists, the United States can hardly afford to abandon this pivotally strategic nation. perhaps best summed up the overriding concern when she questioned whether Pakistan — after years of denials that it This is one of the most was hiding bin Laden — was playing a “double game.”

“

complicated, maybe the most complicated security-intelligence relationship we have with any nation in the world.

”

— SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (I-CONN.) chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

capturing and killing more terrorists inside of Pakistan than any country, and it’s by a wide margin.”

Those arguments have failed to placate a number of lawmakers who are clamoring to suspend U.S. financial support for Pakistan until the nation’s leaders prove they knew nothing about bin Laden’s whereabouts and that they’re committed to fighting the terrorism living inside their borders. And given the current belt-tightening climate, lawmakers across the political spectrum say U.S. taxpayers can’t afford to burn money on a country that’s not trustworthy.

The day after the bin Laden killing, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said the Pakistani government has “a lot of explaining to do.” Levin has joined his colleagues Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who chairs the Appropriations panel overseeing Pakistan aid, in assessing whether to give Pakistan additional funding and whether conditions should be placed on it.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee,

GAME OVER? Many experts say Pakistan’s “double game” has involved capturing second-tier jihadists to appease American concerns while protecting others who remain key to Islamabad’s strategic interests. Pakistan has a long history of using militant groups such as the Haqqani network and Lashkar-eTaiba as proxies against its rivals,namely India andAfghanistan.

Moreover, Pakistani mistrust of the United States has an equally long history, with Islamabad hedging its bets that U.S. forces will abandon the region just as they have in the past.

(Pakistan, for instance, remains wary of cracking down on the Taliban for fear it will eventually regain some power in Afghanistan after the Americans leave.)

Games though abound on both sides. The Obama administration has waged a covert campaign using Predator drones to target senior militants inside Pakistan, sometimes with tacit approval from the Pakistani military, which has faced a barrage of violent attacks from the Islamists they once nurtured.

But bin Laden may have been the breaking point in U.S.Pakistani military cooperation, however imperfect, and the rules of the game may have changed.

The Obama administration purposely kept the Pakistanis in the dark about the raid. And the backlash from the Pakistanis has been fierce. Officials condemned the United States for sending Navy Seals onto their sovereign soil without permission, with Pakistan’s spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, denouncing the move as a “sting operation.”

Reports have also suggested that Pakistani authorities likely

See PAKISTAN, page 10 June 2011

June 2011

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from page 8

Pakistan leaked the name of a CIA station chief in Islamabad to news outlets as retribution for the bin Laden raid.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani Parliament has demanded a permanent halt to all drone strikes, and even before the raid, the army was pushing American forces to significantly limit its reliance on the drones — despised by the public — after a diplomatic crisis erupted over the arrest of a CIA officer accused of killing two Pakistanis during an alleged botched robbery.

President Obama, while pressing Pakistan for answers, has also sought to play up ties despite the rupture.“Over the years, I’ve repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where bin Laden was,” Obama said in announcing bin Laden’s death.“That is what we’ve done. But it’s important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding.

Indeed, bin Laden had declared war against Pakistan as well, and ordered attacks against the Pakistani people.”

At the same, the president, speaking to “60 Minutes,” made it clear that Pakistanis had to answer for bin Laden residing under their noses.“We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don’t know who or what that support network was … and that’s something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate.”

In fact, in the days after the raid, Obama ratcheted up the number of drone airstrikes on terrorist suspects — moves that have been celebrated by lawmakers and defense leaders here, but embarrassed military officials in Pakistan and stoked the flames of anti-American sentiment there.

The diplomatic debacle has put Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, in a tough political pinch, with security stepped up at

the embassy in Washington as a result of threatening phone calls and emails Haqqani said he’s received since the raid. He’s been busy trying to assure Americans that his country is doing all that it can to “to put to rest any misgivings the world has about our role” in bin Laden’s hideout, while also acknowledging Pakistan’s evident shortcomings, suggesting its preoccupation with the threat from India may have been a factor for not uncovering bin Laden.

“Heads will roll once the investigation has been completed. Now, if those heads are rolled on account of incompetence, we will share that information with you. And if, God forbid, somebody’s complicity is discovered, there will be zero tolerance for that as well,” Haqqani told ABC’ss “This Week.”

At the same time, Haqqani has pushed back against the flood of criticism, pointing out ut that more senior al-Qaeda terrorists have been captured or killed in Pakistan than in any other country.

“Be clear, we have been victims of terrorism, and we will see this through, and we will share our intelligence with everyone that we have to share this intellilli gence with,” Haqqani told ABC. The ambassador — who last year told CNN that whoever thinks Pakistan is willfully hiding bin Laden “is smoking something they shouldn’t be smoking” — also suggested that U.S. priorities in the region may have been misplaced, helping the terrorist mastermind evade capture. “The United States spent much more money in Iraq than it did in Afghanistan.Then it spent much more money in Afghanistan than it did in Pakistan. So were there cracks through which things fell through?

Absolutely, and we’ll investigate that. We’ll get to the bottom of it.”

QUESTION OF TRUST VS. NECESSITY In this heated backdrop of blame, President Obama and top congressional leaders are walking a dangerous tightrope, balancing their calls for clarification and accountability, while reassuring Pakistan that the bilateral relationship remains

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critical, which it does.

Some administration officials in fact have hinted that the successful mission may give them more leverage in pressuring the Pakistanis to cooperate with the U.S. more, not less.

Despite the anger on both sides, some mutual softening of positions has been evident. After stalling, Pakistani officials allowed American investigators access to bin Laden’s three widows. They also agreed to return the tail of the U.S. military helicopter that was damaged during the raid, following a May 16 visit by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a bid to reduce tensions. Kerry, who helped to develop a massive economic aid package for Pakistan, said sa he was visiting the country in an attempt to “recalibrate” the relationa ship, s arguing that it would be foolish to cut c off assistance but also urging specific c actions from Pakistan to alleviate congressional concerns. con “The “Th make-or-break is real,” Kerry, chairman of o the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Committ told reporters. “There are members of Congress who aren’t confident that [the Co relationship] l i hi ] can be patched back together again.

That is why actions, not words, are going to be critical to earning their votes.”

Not everyone is clamoring to cut off aid, however. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), for instance, agrees with Kerry that Pakistan remains an indispensable ally. “We both benefit from having a strong bilateral relationship. This is not a time to back away from Pakistan,” he told reporters. “We need more engagement, not less.”

Indeed, Washington policymakers are scratching their heads over whether they should blindly fund the bilateral marriage. Between the harsh rhetoric and words of support, there’s also a sense of exasperation with the inevitable reality.

“This is one of the most complicated, maybe the most complicated security-intelligence relationship we have with any nation in the world,” Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told reporters shortly after bin Laden’s death. “On the one hand, the fact is, they do give us very helpful intelligence assistance and military assistances. On the other hand, we have a lot of reason to believe that elements of their intelligence community continue to be very closely in touch with and perhaps supportive of terrorist groups that are fighting us and the Afghans in Afghanistan.”

The conundrum facing Capitol Hill is that although neither side trusts the other, cooperation between the two countries is most likely the lesser of two evils.

“They are codependent in the fight against militancy and terror: the United States in trying to exit Afghanistan in an orderly fashion, Pakistan in trying to contain its internal insurgencies,” Shuja Nawaz, director of the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, recently wrote.

Eric Edelman, a former top policy official at the Pentagon, agrees. “The sad truth is that as long as we’re involved in Afghanistan, we need to maintain some form of working relationship with Pakistan,” Edelman told Yochi J. Dreazen of the National Journal. “They’re a weak ally, and they always have the power that the weak ally has over the stronger ally, which is that they can say to us, ‘Be our friend, or we may roll over and die.’ ” Nawaz though says “the stakes may be higher for Pakistan since it remains captive of its geography and heavily tied to the U.S. aid program and the coalition support funds that sustain its battles against the Pakistani Taliban. It may be a bad marriage, once again, but not one that affords an easy divorce. Perhaps a separation, followed by reconciliation?”

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO A breakup simply isn’t an option, most analysts agree. It’s a love-hate relationship fueled by mutual mistrust and necessity — one that’s so complex, it can be difficult to distinguish between friend or foe.

“It is hard to imagine a more complicated bilateral relationship,” Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May. “Pakistan is at most a limited partner; it is not an ally,

and at times it is not even a partner.”

With a population of 180 million people, Pakistan is teeming with some of the highest levels of antiU.S. sentiment in the world — fueled by the perception that America’s war against terrorism is just that, America’s war and not Pakistan’s, even though they see their country bearing the brunt of that conflict.

Pakistan is also armed with a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons (which a large number of Pakistanis fear the United States ultimately wants to seize, one of the many conspiracy theories that drives the anti-American fervor). And it has served as a staging ground for al-Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban and other extremist groups accused of crossing into Afghanistan to carry out attacks against U.S. and allied troops.

Meanwhile, it has consistently teetered on the edge of war with archrival India, which the Pakistani military still views as its most fundamental threat, not the terrorist groups Americans want them to target. The country has also struggled to shake its history of military dictatorship, with a weak civilian government and a moribund economy reliant on development assistance. High levels of poverty and low levels of education are rampant.

For all these reasons, many U.S. policymakers think Pakistan is the most important country in the region for American interests — not Afghanistan.

“Pakistan is widely acknowledged to be more important than Afghanistan given its population, its arsenal of nuclear weapons, the presence of large numbers of terrorists on its territory, and the reality that developments in Pakistan can have a profound impact on the trajectory of India, sure to be one of the most important countries in the world,” Haass said in his testimony.

“A stable Afghanistan is not essential; a stable Pakistan is essential,” the late envoy Richard Holbrooke wrote in the musings he left behind to his wife, as reported by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times.

“As for Pakistan, Holbrooke told me and others that because of its size and nuclear weaponry, it was center stage; Afghanistan was a sideshow,” Kristof wrote. “Holbrooke was frustrated by Islamabad’s duplicity. But he also realized that Pakistan sheltered the Afghan Taliban because it distrusted the United States, particularly after the United States walked away in 1989 after the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan. And renewed threats of abandonment won’t build trust.”

Yet this scenario poses various problems for the Obama administration’s desire to eventually pare down the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. It doesn’t want to leave the country vulnerable to Pakistani-based extremist groups, and has to assure Pakistani officials that the withdrawal will not leave Afghanistan vulnerable to an India power grab that would leave Islamabad encircled by rivals. Moreover, keeping troops in Afghanistan hinges in large part on the enormous supply train running through Pakistan that requires the country’s daily cooperation.

In his book “Descent Into Chaos,” Ahmed Rashid argues that the presence of al-Qaeda and other groups in Pakistan is symptomatic of broader problems — “an acute sense of insecurity” and “continuing identity crises” that have plagued the nation since its birth in 1947.

“As a result, it has developed into a national security state in which the army has monopolized power and defined the national interest as keeping archenemy India at bay, developing nuclear weapons, and trying to create a friendly government in Afghanistan,” Rashid said. “The development of political institutions, a constitution, democracy and prosperous economy — the true indicators of national security — have been considered secondary. Two relationships have dominated the politics of the country: that between military power and civil society and the one between Islam and the state.”

Interestingly, Haqqani, before he became ambassador in Washington, also mused on his country’s conflicted relationship with military power in his book “Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military” — in which he admitted that “although listed among the U.S. allies in the war on terrorism, Pakistan cannot be easily characterized as either friend or foe.”

See PAKISTAN, page 60 June 2011

INTERNATIONAL LAW

State Sovereignty

Will the Responsibility to Protect Usher in New Global Paradigm?

by Luke Jerod Kummer

T

here is a certain morbid reassurance that the mass murder of nearly a million people has at least made a lasting impression that continues to shape international thinking years later. It was in large part the bitter soul-searching following the world’s failure to prevent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that gave rise to Responsibility to Protect, or R2P.

This controversial doctrine states that the international community has an explicit duty to act to prevent genocide, crimes against humanity, mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing when individual nations fail to meet these basic obligations of statehood within their own borders.

Since the doctrine was included in the outcome document of the United Nations World Summit in 2005, both proponents and critics of R2P have suggested that this idea is increasingly being cited as justification for actions that reach across borders. And while much of the world’s attention has been focused lately on President Obama’s “doctrine” to more cohesively define U.S. policy in response to the Arab uprisings, R2P quietly offers its own set of guiding principles that could have more far-reaching ramifications as a bold new paradigm for when to use international force.

R2P does say that the international community should first exhaust diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful tactics to resolve conflicts before resorting to coercive force. But it’s this last component that has received renewed attention and could very well signify a radical shift in international law that calls into question the very notions of the rights and responsibilities of sovereign states; the role and jurisdiction of the United Nations and other international bodies; and when military intervention is permissible.

But of course, as with any legal issue, there are a wide range of interpretations of what this new doctrine means and what its implications will be. For example, observers continue to debate how R2P relates to the original 1945 U.N. charter, which has traditionally been the basis of statehood, sovereignty and what constitutes a just war.

Significantly, the armed intervention in Libya undertaken earlier this year by an international coalition is the first example of R2P being used as justification for a U.N. Security Council resolution that authorizes military action, though some of the doctrine’s language had been employed in earlier resolutions not authorizing force, most notably during the violence in Kenya that followed the 2007 elections. But R2P’s military component has always been its most controversial aspect. Many experts consider the Libya intervention a test case that will help determine R2P’s future and, perhaps, amend international law as we know it.

Yet it could also open up a Pandora’s box

June 2011

of possibilities that the international community will be grappling with for years to come.

If Libya qualifies for an intervention, is Syria next? Why not North Korea then? In an increasingly globalized world, how much responsibility does the world shoulder to protect the people within it?

CHARTING A NEW COURSE? The original 1945 Charter of the United Nations was intended to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” following two World Wars. Its goal was for nations to work collectively to maintain international peace and security, but — significantly — it was based on the principle “of the sovereign equality of all its members.”That meant members were ultimately responsible for what happened within their own borders. R2P challenges that notion.

“

What we’re seeing is a series of precedents … where the view that international security is best protected by protecting states’ sovereignty is increasingly yielding to the movement to protect human beings.

— RUTI TEITEL

”

New York Law School professor

“In my opinion neither the World Summit document or the intervention in Libya change the U.N. charter, per se, but over a long period of time, and after many different instances where R2P is put to work, what will change is customary international law — the type of law that is established by a long train of practice, a pattern that’s widely shared and engaged in normatively,” said Michael Doyle, a professor at Columbia University who teaches international affairs and international law.

“What we’re talking about is not hard, black-letter law, but R2P is beginning to become a strong norm,” added Doyle, who previously served as assistant secretary-general and special adviser to Kofi Annan.

From its beginnings in the late 1990s,

UN PHOTO / UNHCR / ALEXIS DUCLOS

The United Nations estimates that more than 2 million civilians have been caught up in the conflict in Libya, with some 800,000 fleeing to neighboring countries, as a NATO-led, U.N.-authorized military intervention drags on in what’s become the biggest test case of Responsibility to Protect, or R2P, a controversial doctrine that says the international community has an explicit duty to prevent genocide.

ardent supporters have called R2P an overdue response to the inaction that allowed the genocide in Rwanda. Equally vocal critics have targeted R2P for its perceived shortcomings and oversteps. Since then, R2P has increasingly emerged at the United Nations and has even begun entering discussions among other international bodies such as the International Criminal Court.

Now, with Libya, the Obama administration adopted much of the language of R2P as a predicate to dispense the U.S. military in preventing the mass murder of rebels trying to dislodge longtime ruler Col. Muammar Qaddafi from power. In a remarkably short period, R2P seems to have grown from a rough draft of how a humanitarian mission might be handled to being an accepted principle to guide when and how outside forces ought to intervene in the domestic matters of sovereign states.

“Basically, in about a decade you’ve moved from a situation where sovereignty was king or queen to now where that’s been adapted and reset and rethought,”said Lloyd Axworthy,

who helped originate the doctrine of R2P after becoming Canada’s foreign minister in 1996. “We introduced a fairly clear norm or standard in the World Summit in 2005. But now we’re to the point where it’s being implemented, if not in word certainly in deed, and you’re actually getting some international action.”

Axworthy recounted for The Diplomat the environment from which R2P sprang, both in the context of the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and other world events.

“After the Berlin Wall came down, all the foreign ministers were struggling to figure it out — what’s the new paradigm? The big turning point, of course, was Kosovo,” Axworthy explained. “Very clearly, here was an emerging case of people being murdered or ethnically disintegrated and moved around.

Even though we were all very much affected by what happened in Rwanda, all we had to confront this similar situation in Kosovo was a kind of an ad hoc initiative. What we need-

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 11

Continued from previous page ed was more of a frame — not just,‘Oh, gosh darn, we can’t let what happened in Rwanda happen in Kosovo.’”

After much dispute and deliberation at the United Nations – lost time that ultimately cost countless lives — the United States ended up bypassing obtaining a U.N. Security Council resolution by forging an armed coalition under the broad principle of humanitarian intervention.

While Axworthy supported the bombing campaign that ensued against the Serbs to stop the ethnic cleansing of Kosovars, he and others fretted that it too had been a slow response and had ultimately ended up flouting the very institution that was meant to deal with international crises — the United Nations.

The following year Axworthy launched the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty to develop a framework that could be used as a basis for the Security Council to quickly authorize effective interventions to prevent the world’s most heinous crimes. The principles that the commission laid out in its 2001 report were based on the concept of “human security,” or a policy of protection for individual people that sometimes could supersede even the U.N.’s mandate to protect the sovereignty of member states.

THE LIMITS OF RESPONSIBILITY Since its formal adoption in 2005, R2P has faced challenges from what can only be called a collection of strange bedfellows. Russia and China, who have traditionally been stark advocates for state sovereignty, for example, have been reliable detractors on the grounds of non-interference.Developing countries that have historically identified with the non-aligned movement have expressed concern

that R2P is a vehicle for permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to manipulate the affairs of less powerful states. This view also tends to be shared by hardened left-wing critics of U.S. foreign policy such as Noam Chomsky.At the other end of the spectrum, some conservatives in the United States see R2P as an attempt to curtail American influence, or even to hijack the country’s ability to decide when to use its unrivaled, and therefore indispensable, military might around the world.

Steven Groves, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation who concentrates on international law and sovereignty, says that his primary problem with R2P is what he calls a jurisdictional creep of the United Nations.“I don’t want committing the United States to a humanitarian intervention to become a requirement instead of a decision that we make based on our own interests,” he said.

“The U.N. charter is silent on humanitarian intervention. It speaks in terms of you’ve got the right to self-defense,” said Groves.“Instead, R2P sets out a series of conditions that would cause the international community to feel as though it has a responsibility to conduct an intervention in a given country. But when it’s time to do that intervention, who’s going to be spending the blood and the treasure? Well, the United States is the only military power that’s capable of getting the job done, so it’s going to be us.”

Like Doyle, the Columbia professor, Groves believes that “the more the United States acts in a way like we did with Libya, the more we lend legitimacy to R2P and the more we are stepping in the direction of making this a recognized international law,” he told us. Except Groves contends that the United States will be in dire straits if R2P somehow becomes customary international law because it has the potential to infringe upon U.S. autonomy and run counter to U.S. interests.

Others argue that R2P is flawed because it has

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not been, and can never be, applied evenly.

“One of the main problems with R2P is that there is an inevitable selectivity to it,” said Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of the think tank’s Program on International Institutions and Global Governance. “If you look around the world, you wouldn’t say necessarily that the problems confronting civilians in the areas that Qaddafi tried to retake control of are necessarily the most pivotal moral imperatives in the world. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a serious situation. But in the past decade there have been millions of people killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, multiple atrocities committed in Darfur, major human rights violations in Burma and, arguably, Zimbabwe. So then people argue, why Libya and not this?”

Patrick, who previously worked as a policy planning staff member in the U.S. State Department, said that because of the way R2P is currently formulated, each military action would require authorization by the U.N. Security Council. This implies inevitable constraints. Because of the veto power of China, for instance, it would be a tall order to get approval for any action in Burma or North Korea.

“I think there’s going to be a level of selectivity always in the invocation of this principle,” said Patrick, explaining that there will also be other considerations having to do both with foreign policy and logistics that will limit when R2P can be applied.

If a nation is accused of atrocities but has a formidable military, for example, it will be hard to intervene and risk sparking a bloody war. That in essence means that powerful nations such as Russia and the United States are effectively exempt from R2P since no one will realistically pick a fight with them. Or if major powers are bogged down in other conflicts — as the United States is in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya — that will also limit available options, Patrick said.

“In the end, President Obama made the call that just because you can’t act everywhere doesn’t mean that you can’t act anyplace. That’s what he tried to explain to the American people,” Patrick said, adding that although he supports this worldview, the failure of the United States to act significantly in Bahrain, a close American ally, also set a precedent.

“There the situation was less urgent and pressing, but to some degree R2P will be undermined by the perceived hypocrisy of the United States and its coalition partners in the Arab world and other parts of the world where regimes are oppressing civilians,” Patrick said, noting that the United States was reluctant to act because it uses Bahrain as a base for the Navy’s Fifth Fleet. “For instance, if [President Ali Abdullah] Saleh were to dramatically escalate the situation in Yemen in terms of really letting loose on civilian protesters, it would create an excruciating dilemma for the United States now.”

He noted, however, that there are “other levers besides armed intervention that can sometimes be used with R2P as well.” For example, as Syrian President President Bashar al Assad’s regime continues to shoot protesters and crush dissent, Patrick said,“There are things that can be done within the doctrine to inflict pain on Syria without military force, but whether it will ultimately win the day is the question.”

FINDING ITS LEGS Despite its relative success in becoming common currency in international affairs conversations, the debate against R2P has exploded on multiple fronts.

“You hear it from both sides — from those who think that there will rarely be interventions such as Libya and others who fear the unbounded-ness of R2P,” said Ruti Teitel, a professor of comparative constitutional law at New York Law School and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. “My view is that there are a variety of other principles and existing law that suggest that we’re inevitably going to be in a case-by-case scenario.”

Teitel, whose forthcoming book “Humanity’s Law” will be available later this year, said she sees certain limitations built into R2P, but ultimately believes its emergence is part of an evolution of legal thought that includes the creation of the International Criminal Court in 2002 and can be traced back even further. “What we’re seeing is a series of precedents from Adolf Eichmann on, where the view that international security is best protected by protecting states’ sovereignty is increasingly yielding to the movement to protect human beings,” she said.

But even as the international community has rolled the dice by introducing the military component of R2P with the Security Council’s authorization of force in Libya, new questions have been raised, such as whether R2P as it is written can ever go far enough to fulfill its original intent.

“This whole operation is supposed to protect civilians, which did happen in Benghazi. But now that we have a war situation, if you’re going to use military force, it’s going to lead to attacks on civilians because that’s what happens in wars,” said Roberta Cohen, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and senior adviser to the Brookings-London School of Economics Project on Internal Displacement.

“The civil war that’s developing in Libya is resulting in civilian casualties and massive displacement. You have a population flow of maybe 800,000 people who have left Libya and crossed into Egypt and Tunisia and some are trying to get to Europe,” Cohen pointed out.“The mission is bigger than what was initially envisaged.”

She argued that there’s a lack of clarity now because the Libyan case is morphing from a humanitarian intervention meant to protect civilians from slaughter into a military mission committed to the overthrow of the Libyan government and setting up a new state — a natural consequence, many experts say, of the fact that the international coalition skirted around the ultimate purpose and endgame of the intervention.

And regime change is not really part of the R2P formula, at least not overtly, but not enough analysis has been done of what it actually means to put R2P into practice, Cohen says.“So now there have been descriptions of what’s gone on in Libya as a half-baked military operation, or as intervention on the cheap,” she said.

Cohen remains a strong supporter of R2P, however, despite having what she calls a critical eye.

“Libya should be seen as an effort whereby you learn how to operationalize this concept, where you learn what you can do better or what did you do well,” she said.“It’s not the end of the story.And it shouldn’t be seen as the end of the story.”

Proponents of R2P generally saw it as an encouraging sign that the international community has begun to embrace the doctrine when China and Russia did not use their Security Council veto to scuttle the use of armed force against Libya.

Others see the robust action taken in Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential stalemate and possible slide into civil war — whereby the Security Council passed a resolution that was similarly worded to its ruling on Libya only a few weeks earlier and resulted in military action by French and U.N. peacekeepers — as another important marker in the timeline progression for R2P. Even for its most devout supporters, however, R2P is often viewed as a work in progress.

Axworthy, who helped conceive R2P more than a decade ago, concedes that the doctrine is an imperfect one, but said he is excited it has come this far. Not so long ago, he pointed out, it was very much a revolutionary, outsider idea. He said he hopes R2P will continue to develop and help enshrine the concept of human security so that the world will never see another Rwanda.

“I always use the analogy that it’s like a walking dog,” he said. “It may not be very elegant, but it is walking on hind legs.”

Luke Jerod Kummer is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

June 2011

COVER PROFILE

Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki

Japan’s Ichiro Fujisaki: Managing the Nightmare

by Larry Luxner t was 2 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast on March 11 when Ichiro Fujisaki learned — via email — that a monstrous earthquake had struck northeastern Japan, unleashing a massive tsunami, killing thousands of people and triggering the world’s most frightening nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

In the two and a half months since then, Fujisaki, Japan’s ambassador to the United States, has spent virtually every waking moment of his life using his position in Washington to help his traumatized people get back on their feet.

I

Reminders of the cascading disaster abound throughout the Japanese Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue — from the souvenir baseball cap given to Fujisaki by Virginia’s Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team to a small book of condolences signed by top U.S. dignitaries, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.

“My heart goes out to the people of Japan during this enormous tragedy. Please know that America will always stand by one of its greatest allies during this time of need,” Obama wrote in that book.“Because of the strength and wisdom of its people, we know that Japan will recover, and indeed will emerge stronger than ever.”

Encouraging words from the president — yet the reality is that the Land of the Rising Sun was floundering in economic and political stagnation long before what’s now known in official circles as the “Great East Japan Earthquake.”

Although its citizens enjoy a high standard of living, with a per-capita GDP of $34,000, Japan’s annual economic growth had averaged only 1 percent a year for the past two decades.As a result of the magnitude-9.0 quake — the most powerful ever to hit Japan and one of the five strongest quakes in recorded history — the economy officially slipped back into recession (after recovering from the last one in 2009), having contracted for two quarters in a row. Reconstruction demand could pull the economy back up, yet even before the quake, Japan had lost its coveted spot as the world’s second-largest economy, a position it had held since 1968, with its ALSO SEE: nominal GDP of $5.47 trilQuake-Ravaged lion last year falling short of Countries Share China’s $5.88 trillion.

Challenges, Lessons “For four decades after of Rebuilding the war, Japan experienced cozy politics backed by a PAGE17 robust economy,” according to Japan expert Marcus Noland, deputy director and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Lightly populated rural districts had a disproportionate effect on national politics.The government financed multibillion-dollar bridges to nowhere, expensive port facilities for small fishing villages and bullet trains to traverse bucolJune 2011

ic rural areas,” Noland wrote in the Washington Post.

“But in 1990, the bubble burst. The working-age share of the population began to fall. In 1998, the labor force started to shrink, and a decade later, the country’s population began to decline.”

Similarly, Martin Fackler of the New York Times observed:“For nearly a generation now, the nation has been trapped in low growth and a corrosive downward spiral of prices, known as deflation, in the process shriveling from an economic Godzilla to little more than an afterthought in the global economy.”

Years of vast public works spending and deregulation left Japan with government debt amounting to 200 percent of the country’s annual GDP — the highest of any industrialized nation. The headline of our Washington Diplomat cover profile of Ambassador Fujisaki, published in November 2008,said it all:“Japan Confronts

PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER

“

Yes, this is the biggest tragedy we have experienced since World War II, but.… with the resilience of the Japanese people and such a huge amount of goodwill coming from all over the world, we can be pretty optimistic about the future.

”

— ICHIRO FUJISAKI, ambassador of Japan to the United States Economic Crisis to Prevent Another ‘Lost Decade.’”

Politically, the country has been rudderless, cycling through a number of lackluster prime ministers since Junichiro Koizumi stepped down in 2006. Even after voters tossed out the Liberal Democratic Party — which had governed Japan almost continuously since the end of the U.S. military occupation following World War II — the rival Democratic Party of Japan has so far failed to re-energize the sclerotic political system, bumbling under a series of scandals and charges of indecisive leadership.

Only five days before the quake, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who had been on the job for six months, was forced to

resign after a political opponent revealed he had accepted illegal campaign donations from a foreigner.

The current prime minister, Naoto Kan, hasn’t become mired in scandal, although he’s received mixed marks for his handling of the crisis. Nothing, of course, could have prepared Kan or his government for the cataclysmic events of March 11. Not even a country as well prepared for disasters as Japan — which invented the word for tsunami and is internationally renowned for its strict building codes — could have foreseen the back-to-back blows Mother Nature wrought on it.

The undersea earthquake — which was preceded by a number of “forequakes” and followed by hundreds of aftershocks —

was so powerful it moved portions of northeastern Japan up to eight feet closer to North America and sped up the Earth’s rotation, shortening the day by 1.8 microseconds.

At last count, the quake and resulting wall of water had killed just over 15,000 people and injured thousands more across 18 prefectures. Officially, some 13,000 people are still missing, although there may be some overlap with casualties that have already been counted. Regardless, the final death toll may top 25,000.

Losses have been pegged at $300 billion, making the disaster the most expensive natural catastrophe in world history (Standard & Poor’s estimated the rebuilding tab could ultimately run as high as $600 billion). An estimated 125,000 buildings were damaged, toppled or swept away. In Miyagi prefecture alone, 146,000 vehicles (10 percent of the total) were damaged or destroyed, and according to the environment ministry, at least 20 million metric tons of debris were scattered among coastal areas.

Entire towns and villages were swallowed by a tsunami that in some places spawned waves 120 feet high — “something seen only in Hollywood movies,” said

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 13

Continued from previous page Fujisaki. Initially, the catastrophe left 450,000 people homeless, and survivors in places like Ishinomaki and HigashiMatsushima shivered in freezing darkness as more than 4 million people struggled without electricity.

And in a chain reaction of events that gripped the world, the quake disabled cooling systems at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant 135 miles north of Tokyo, causing fuel rods to overheat and partially melt.Three reactors at the plant were heavily damaged in the days immediately following the earthquake — prompting the government to declare and then widen a mandatory evacuation zone that forced some tens of thousands of people from their homes, perhaps permanently. Tokyo Electric Power Company has said it might be able to bring the plant under control in six to nine months, but that’s predicated on the assumption that it can cool the fuel in several badly damaged reactors.

The nuclear calamity has also forced the country — and the entire world — to rethink its reliance on nuclear power, which generates 30 percent of Japan’s electricity. Kan recently announced that Japan would abandon plans to build future nuclear reactors, saying his country needed to “start from scratch” in formulating a new energy policy.

Meanwhile, experts say the government may also need to fundamentally rethink how the country rebuilds to foster sustainable economic growth and tackle the country’s demographic crisis. Many younger survivors have already fled the devastated communities for Tokyo and other cities, leaving behind mangled ghost towns were quaint fishing and farming villages once dotted the coastline.

It takes a tough sort of ambassador to represent his country at a time like this, but Japan’s composed envoy to the United States seems cut out for the task.

“Yes, this is the biggest tragedy we have experienced since World War II, but saying it’ll take years to recover is jumping to conclusions a little. I would fervently deny that,” Fujisaki told The Washington Diplomat in an exclusive interview.“As you can see, with the resilience of the Japanese people and such a huge amount of goodwill coming from all over the world, we can be pretty optimistic about the future.”

Indeed, Japan, one of the world’s most prosperous and industrious societies, bounced back relatively well after an enormous quake struck the city of Kobe in 1995, killing thousands.The country is also one of the most disciplined in the world — reflecting a culture that values shared sacrifice and teamwork over individual gain.Those values were

Page 14

The Washington Diplomat

PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER

Following the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that have ravaged Japan, President Barack Obama wrote that the United States “will always stand by one of its greatest allies during this time of need,” in the official condolence book at the Japanese Embassy. “Because of the strength and wisdom of its people, we know that Japan will recover, and indeed will emerge stronger than ever.”

evident immediately after the disaster when exhausted survivors, emerging from the wreckage, waited calmly in line for hours for water.

As horrific as the triple wallop has been, there are still reasons for the country as a whole to remain positive, according to the ambassador. For one thing,“the major part of the Japanese economy was not hit — for example,Tokyo,” Fujisaki pointed out.“The industrial output of the [affected] region is only 2 percent of Japan’s total. Of course it’s important agriculturally, but Japanese factories will continue to be a supply chain for industrial goods, and they’re open for business.”

Asked about the tragedy’s impact on U.S.-Japanese trade relations — which have improved considerably in the last 10 or 15 years — Fujisaki said it’s simply too early to say.

“We are concentrating now on this earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster. I don’t know how it will be affected,” he responded.“In principle, our basic relations will not be altered, but fortified.”

Fujisaki, 63, has had a close relationship with the United States since the early 1960s, when he attended junior high school in Seattle

as an exchange student. Fujisaki joined his country’s diplomatic service in 1969, and in the early 1970s, he spent one year each at Brown University and Stanford University Graduate School.

Fujisaki went on to become director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s North American Affairs Bureau and rose to the rank of deputy minister for foreign affairs. From 1995 to 1999, Fujisaki was political minister at the Japanese Embassy in Washington. He also served in Jakarta, London, Paris and Geneva before being named Japan’s ambassador to the United States in 2008.

In the days and weeks following the earthquake, Fujisaki maintained a hectic schedule, acting as liaison between Japan and various institutions here including the State Department,Pentagon,Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

“The U.S. government sent over 50 nuclear experts to Japan, and they worked day and night,” he said.“Since all the headquarters were here in Washington, I communicated directly with top officials, conveying Japanese views, wishes and information from Japan. I also tried to explain what was occurring in Japan, on radio,TV and newspapers.

There was enormous goodwill in the United States, so I went to churches and gatherings to express my gratitude to these charities.”

In mid-April, right before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Japan, Fujisaki flew back home to brief Prime Minister Kan and Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto on official U.S. thinking regarding Japanese recovery efforts — leaving no time to visit the disaster area. He rushed back to Washington so the embassy could prepare for Matsumoto’s April 29 arrival here and meetings with Clinton, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, top officials of the NRC and other dignitaries.

“The U.S. has been so good in extending support to us,” the ambassador said. “Volunteer teams came from Fairfax County and Los Angeles, and more than 20,000 men and women in uniform deployed search-and-rescue missions and distributed food and water.We are not asking anything from Congress or the State Department.”

The Japanese government has allocated an emergency budget of $50 billion to begin the massive reconstruction campaign. But that doesn’t mean Americans haven’t been pitching in as well.The day we interviewed Fujisaki, 47 children from a local school presented a $500 check to the embassy. Some of that money came from parents in the form of birthday gifts. Other grassroots donations from average Americans have poured in, the result of school bake sales and neighborhood fundraising efforts.

“I think the United States has been doing whatever it can, and not only Japanese-Americans,” Fujisaki said, with deep humility.“You have done more than what anyone could expect.”

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from page 14

Japan Fujisaki, whose daughter is covering the disaster as a reporter for Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper, said Japan is no longer in a crisis mode. “We are improving,� he told The Diplomat. “We are now in the reconstruction phase. That means we have recovered all the major railways, roads and airport. More than 160,000 people are still homeless, so we have to provide food, water, electricity and shelter for them. Some lost their houses because of the earthquake or tsunami, but many others had to leave their homes because they were in the vicinity of the nuclear reactor.�

Despite his own government’s categorization of the Fukushima crisis as a Level-7 incident comparable to the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, Fujisaki said there’s absolutely no comparison. “Many of those people will be able to go back, because it’s totally different from Chernobyl, where a reactor exploded.There was no explosion, so the level of radioactivity was quite lower than in Chernobyl, and the range of those radioactive materials has not spread out over a wide area, like it did in Chernobyl.�

Indeed, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) — the private utility that operates the crippled Fukushima complex — confirmed in May that most of the melted fuel in the three damaged reactors had remained inside their vessels, averting a “China Syndrome� scenario, a reference to a 1970s-era term describing a severe nuclear meltdown in which spent fuel penetrates the ground.

At the same time, however, recent inspections reveal that one of the reactors had sustained much more damage than originally thought, with its fuel rods left fully exposed for some time. That, in turn, will make it much more difficult for Tepco to stabilize the plant — where about 1,900 people were working as of mid-May — within its announced timeframe of six to nine months.

Tepco has also been criticized for its slow, at-

times clumsy response (its president resigned in May following a $15 billion annual loss for the troubled utility company). For instance, Tepco has now belatedly acknowledged that three of its stricken reactors most likely suffered fuel meltdowns in the early days of the crisis. And shortly after the damage at Fukushima became apparent and abnormally high radiation levels were detected, authorities asked everyone living within a 12-mile radius of the plant to evacuate. (That compares to a 19-mile exclusion zone around the crippled Chernobyl plant in Ukraine; no one has lived in that zone since the 1986 meltdown). Yet the U.S. Embassy urged Americans living within 50 miles of Fukushima to leave at once — leading some Japanese to question whether they were being told the whole story.

Fujisaki, refraining from discussing Tepco’s role in the crisis, insists that his government has been truthful from the beginning and done its best in an extraordinarily chaotic situation. “I don’t think we’re concealing anything,� said the ambassador.“The only thing we can provide are scientific facts and we should be very transparent about it. Up until now, we are making only the most cautious estimates.�

Even if there wasn’t outright duplicity, many Japanese blame incompetence, miscommunication and collusion among authorities for exacerbating the nuclear crisis. Residents and environmentalists have been warning for years that certain nuclear plants had major safety issues and wouldn’t be prepared to withstand a natural disaster — warnings that apparently fell on deaf ears.

Today, fears of radiation poisoning — and restrictions placed on locally produced food — have led millions of Japanese to don facemasks and avoid drinking milk and eating spinach and other vegetables. But Fujisaki says the disaster has not significantly dampened the country’s enthusiasm for nuclear power. “One poll I saw taken right after the earthquake asked people if we should maintain nuclear power generation at present levels, and 51 percent

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answered in the affirmative. In 2007, when the same question was asked, 53 percent said yes — so there’s very little difference,� said Fujisaki, noting that Japan produces only 4 percent of its total energy needs, compared to 62 percent for the United States, and therefore will remain extremely dependent on Middle East oil for decades to come.

Even so, the government is playing it safe. In early May, Kan announced he was dropping his ambitious goal of generating half of Japan’s energy needs from nuclear power by 2030 — a plan that called for the construction of 14 new reactors — and will instead emphasize renewable energy sources like solar, wind and biomass. “We are coping with this issue day by day,� said Fujisaki.“We are making progress little by little, trying to put things under control. It’ll take time, but I think we’re advancing.�

But not fast enough for most Japanese, who are gradually coming to the realization that “the natural and nuclear disasters unleashed on March 11 have exposed the fragility of Japan’s postwar economic order — and that a recovery will not be a return to the status quo,� wrote Hiroko Tabuchi in the New York Times. “We cannot have recovery for recovery’s sake,�

Hiroko Ota, a former economy minister and vice president at Japan’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, told the Times. “We must make this the starting point for a new economy.�

Of critical importance is Japan’s factory output.

For decades, manufacturing has been the linchpin of the Japanese economy and key to the country’s wealth and high standard of living. But even Japan’s biggest companies are starting to rethink their strategies in the wake of the disaster.

Toyota Motor Corp. — already plagued by a wave of vehicle recalls and safety issues — concedes it will probably lose its title as the world’s biggest automaker this year, maybe even falling to third place behind General Motors and Volkswagen.

Toyota says that even though its 17 plants in Japan escaped the quake and tsunami relatively unscathed, its domestic factory lines are working at only half volume and at 40 percent overseas, as auto-parts suppliers in the worst-affected areas struggle to restart operations.

Atsushi Niimi, Toyota’s executive vice president in charge of production, told reporters in April that the company would have to consider procuring more parts overseas. The following month, Toyota reported that its quarterly profit had fallen 77 percent, and that the disaster had slashed operating income by 110 billion yen ($1.36 billion) even though it occurred only three weeks before the end of the quarter.

Nevertheless, Toyota — whose production has been running at about 50 percent of normal globally and only 30 percent in North America — said it would begin recovering in June, with production rising to about 70 percent of normal.The company also notes that it is “carefully monitoring the situation in each region and for each vehicle model and is every day working its hardest to identify every way to restore production as much as possible.�

Meanwhile, Meiko Electronics — a supplier of circuit boards to some of the world’s biggest makers of smartphones — would no longer manufacture domestically after the quake ravaged two of its five Japanese factories. According to the New York Times, Meiko already makes 80 percent of its parts overseas and has recently begun production at a new plant in Wuhan, China.

Although Japan’s manufacturing sector has been hobbled not only by the recent disaster but also by global competition from cheaper countries such as China, many industries are proving to be as resilient as the Japanese people themselves. A survey in late April by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry found that two-thirds of 70 factories damaged by the earthquake and tsunami had recovered, while most of the remainder expect to be back in full production by summer. Sony, for example, has already resumed operations at nine of its 10 shuttered plants.

If anything, the reverberations in the global supply chain, whether it’s in auto parts or smartphone chips, demonstrate that Japan remains a crucial cog in fueling the world’s economy. For instance, Ricoh, a $25 billion maker of copiers, suffered big losses

when the ceiling of its motor factory in ShibataMachi collapsed following the March quake. As a result, an even larger Ricoh plant in the Chinese industrial city of Shenzhen had to stop production for a week. “Ricoh is also dependent on parts from various suppliers in Japan, some of which suffered their own damage from the earthquake,� wrote Andrew Pollack in the New York Times. “That is forcing Ricoh to live off its inventory of certain computer chips and connectors. If production of those parts does not resume in the next couple of months, Ricoh might have to slow or halt production.�

And that is “exactly what we are trying to avoid,� warned Fujisaki. “We must keep the supply chain moving. If we can’t get parts to our customers, they will start to look elsewhere.�

An even bigger problem — one that has been looming for decades — is Japan’s declining population, a trend likely to be exacerbated by the recent tragedy. More than 23 percent of Japan’s 127 million citizens are over the age of 65 (compared to only 13 percent of Americans) — making it one of the grayest countries on Earth.

In 2011, Japan’s median age was 44.8 years, and its traditional reluctance to admit immigrants means the Japanese population will just keep getting older and older, increasing the national health care bill and the burden on pension funds.

And if current trends continue, Japan will barely have 100 million people by 2050. Yet with the tremendous losses caused by the March tragedy, a cash-incentive program to encourage young couples to have more babies has already fallen by the wayside. “There are things the government has to continue doing in order to increase the birthrate, especially in a country that has no natural resources,�

Fujisaki conceded. “We need to increase our birthrate. It’s one of our top priorities, but we have to do what is good for the country.�

We asked the ambassador what key lessons Japan has learned from this horrific experience. “First, central decision-making is so important in a time of crisis,� he answered. “Second is transparency and communications, so that people will be assured — even if it’s not good news. They’ll be very nervous if they’re kept in the dark. You must provide information as soon as possible. And third, take as cautious an attitude as possible, to give assurances that you’re not taking this lightly.�

And then Fujisaki offered us some unsolicited advice of his own. “Maybe it sounds presumptuous, but I’d say this in front of my younger colleagues: Diplomats are trained to prioritize,� he explained, as two younger embassy staffers listened intently, scribbling notes. “Four days ago, I was at a college in Massachusetts.

They invited me in order to give me an honorary degree on behalf of the Japanese people. “I told them that during your 16 years of school, you’re taught to get A’s. Forget about that. In the real world, try to be a B-getter — the first ‘B’ meaning bonds, as in human relations. In school, if you raise your hand, teachers let you speak. In society, you will not be given an opportunity.You have to know people, you have to get invited. “The second ‘B’ is balance. Balance your priorities. In school, a math test and a history test will not come at the same time. But in the real world, anything can happen at the same time. If you scream that you cannot do 10 things at once, then next time no one will look at you.You have to train yourself to anticipate and juggle things,� he said. “The last ‘B’ is brevity. At school, you can write a 30-page thesis and you’ll be appreciated. In the real world, everything has to be two pages or two minutes long. No one will read more than a two-page article. Get to the point. Make it short.�

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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June 2011

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Natural Disasters

Quake-Ravaged Countries Share Challenges, Lessons of Rebuilding

by Larry Luxner

H

aiti, Chile, New Zealand and Japan — four countries with little in common — are now united by the common experience of having been devastated by the worst earthquakes in their respective histories.

Yet while the Japan quake, tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis caused an estimated $300 billion in damages — making it the world’s most expensive natural disaster ever — the earthquakes that recently struck Haiti, Chile and New Zealand caused far more damage as a proportion of those countries’ relatively small economies.

Although the disasters were each different, all three nations have learned and continue to draw critical lessons as they rebuild and recover from their individual tragedies. But perhaps the most vital lesson of all is the one that distinguishes one calamity from all the others: the importance of disaster preparedness, so painfully illustrated in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

The numbers, sadly, speak for themselves. In highly developed New Zealand, a February 6.3-magnitude earthquake killed 181 people, while a more powerful one a few months earlier didn’t result in a single casualty. In Chile, another seismically active country, a February 8.8 quake killed more than 500 people.

And in Japan, world-renowned for its strict building codes and sturdy construction designed to withstand the worst Mother Nature can throw at it, the death toll may climb as high as 25,000 from the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11 that swallowed entire swaths of the coastline and even shifted the nation by several feet.

Yet as horrific as Japan’s death toll is, it still pales in comparison to Haiti, where a magnitude-7.0 quake — less powerful than what struck Japan and Chile — back in January 2010 claimed more than 230,000 lives, left some 1.5 million homeless and caused damages that actually exceeded the country’s meager GDP by at least $1 billion.

When the quake hit Haiti, the country’s flimsy buildings crumpled like matchsticks in the overcrowded capital of Port-au-Prince, where today, tent cities threaten to become permanent fixtures for the roughly 1 million Haitians who remain homeless, while reconstruction efforts have barely made a dent in the overwhelming wreckage (not to mention a separate cholera outbreak that’s sickened 300,000 and killed 5,000).

The May 14 inauguration of a new president after months of political unrest has sparked tepid hope that the desperately poor country will finally begin climbing out of its perpetual misery. Haiti’s new president, Michel Martelly — a flamboyant pop singer turned political newcomer — promised tangible results during his first 100 days in office.

Whether “Sweet Micky” (who’s shed the diapers he used to wear on stage for somber presidential suits) has what it takes to lead this deeply troubled country remains to be seen.

At the very least though, his charisma and energy mark a refreshing change from his seemingly paralyzed predecessor, René Préval, who was rarely seen in public after the quake or in the squalid tarp-covered tent cities — including one right across from the dilapidated presidential palace, where thousands of Haitians still struggle for survival.

Raymond Joseph — who served as Haiti’s ambassador before, during and for half a year after the earthquake until he resigned last year to run for president himself — says his government has failed miserably.

June 2011

UN PHOTO / MARCO DORMINO

Children jump rope in a rubble-strewn street in Port-au-Prince. Although Haiti has made progress in removing the rubble, officially only 20 percent of the debris has been cleared in the year and a half since a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated what was already the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.

“

Although we were very successful in facing the immediate consequences of the earthquake, our most urgent problem was that we didn’t have an emergency task force prepared for going to the damaged areas and working efficiently under one chain of command.

— ARTURO FERMANDOIS

”

ambassador of Chile to the United States

“During her recent meeting at the State Department with Martelly, Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton said that only 20 percent of the rubble had been disposed of since the quake,” Joseph told The Diplomat in a phone interview from Port-auPrince, where he’s negotiating for some sort of official position with the new government.

“If 15 months later, only 20 percent of the rubble has been removed, this is a failure. If you come to Haiti now, you’ll see tent cities that appear to be permanent. The people here are so angry. Préval has been absent from Day One and continues to be absent. That’s why in the last election they voted overwhelmingly against his party.”

In the months following the earthquake, Joseph said he became so disillusioned with Préval that he finally decided to quit his job in August after having served in Washington since 2005.Throughout his tenure, Joseph advocated for the

decentralization of Port-au-Prince, relocating some of its 2 million inhabitants outside the shantytowns that litter the capital city, where experts fear buildings are being hastily reconstructed by even shoddier standards than before, creating another recipe for disaster.

For now, Joseph said he’s seeing signs of rebirth and houses being built here and there,“but this has all been done by the NGOs,” he complained, referring to the thicket of nongovernmental organizations that have flocked to help Haiti, but have also complicated the disorganized reconstruction campaign. “I have not seen any plan of action by the government.”

What Joseph did see from the government was greed. “I have challenged the regime since then and have exposed whatever corruption I saw, especially in customs. After the earthquake, I had a lot of NGOs that wanted to help Haiti, but their products and equipment were kept at customs warehouses where officials were asking for money under the table.That was one of the reasons I resigned,” he said.

Edmond Mulet, chief of MINUSTAH — the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti — agrees that corruption is endemic, but disagrees that no progress has been made in cleanup efforts since the quake.

“It’s really amazing.You don’t see any rubble in the main arteries anymore,” said Mulet, a veteran Guatemalan diplomat whose assignment in Haiti ended May 31 and who had returned to the post after his predecessor was killed by the 2010 quake. “All schools have been cleared of rubble and UNICEF has been able to set up temporary structures. More people are cleaning up their own pieces of land, though it’s mainly been a private-sector effort.”

The problem is that the crippled Haitian government isn’t yet capable of keeping the streets safe, let alone financing an entire army, he says.

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 17

Continued from previous page “Right now, they don’t even pay their policemen,” Mulet lamented. “There’s corruption among the police, there’s corruption in customs, there’s corruption at all levels. One of the things the new government must focus on is confronting this corruption, to stop with this culture of impunity in Haiti and investigate whoever is involved.”

Added former Ambassador Joseph: “Martelly speaks about having a Haitian national police force.

I’m for that. But we cannot be depending on MINUSTAH for the rest of our lives.”

The people at MINUSTAH agree, and the idea is to eventually phase out the U.N. presence and replace it with Haitian military and police institutions. But that could take quite a while, given the current political and economic struggles and Haiti’s long history of governance failure.

“MINUSTAH has been on the ground here for seven years, so we would now like to downsize,” said Mulet, who oversees a force of 12,000 peacekeepers and a $793 million annual budget.“Our role has changed dramatically, from guaranteeing safety and security to humanitarian assistance, then the delivery of food and water, then the cholera outbreak. And during the election, we played a very important role with logistical support. Now we need to work with the new government.”

Joining the new president will be Mariano Fernández, a former foreign minister from Chile and ambassador in Washington who was recently named Mulet’s successor to the seven-year-old international peacekeeping force.

On a broader scale, the United Nations has for years tried to highlight the effectiveness of disaster preparedness in saving lives and money. The U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) pushes low-profile but high-impact measures such as installing early warning systems, educating the public and carrying out evacuation drills, adapting to climate change, building disasterresilient structures, and improving governmental cooperation — as well as simple steps such as reinforcing drainage systems to reduce the likeli-

hood of floods.

The UNISDR held a “Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction” in Geneva in May, against the backdrop of flooding in the U.S. South and an earthquake in Spain.The group is also specifically targeting its efforts on cities, spurred by the fact that by 2030, the United Nations predicts that 60 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas.

“We cannot stop cities growing but we can start planning them in a more sustainable way,” UNISDR chief Margareta Wahlström said in a recent statement, noting that disaster risk reduction is also “essential to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by protecting development investments.”

Wahlström pointed out that lax regulations in Haiti’s urban shantytowns compounded the catastrophic January earthquake. In comparison, the magnitude of the quake that happened a month later in Chile was far greater than the one in Haiti, but claimed a tiny fraction of lives.

That massive earthquake was centered along Chile’s Pacific coast southwest of Santiago. At 8.8 on the Richter scale, the Feb. 27 quake was the world’s sixth largest ever to be recorded by a seismograph (the strongest was the 1960 Valdivia quake, also in Chile, which measured 9.5 on the Richter scale).

The 2010 disaster killed 562 people and caused $30 billion in damage, which is equivalent to 18 percent of the country’s GDP. More specifically, it damaged or destroyed 370,000 homes, 200 bridges, 4,000 schools and nearly 100 hospitals.

Arturo Fermandois, Chile’s ambassador to the United States, said that despite his country’s economic gains in recent years and long history of earthquakes, looking back, it’s clear his country wasn’t as well prepared for this latest disaster as it could have been.

“Although we were very successful in facing the immediate consequences of the earthquake, our most urgent problem was that we didn’t have an emergency task force prepared for going to the damaged areas and working efficiently under one chain of command,” he told The Diplomat.

“We used the military, civil volunteers and government officials, for example, but we didn’t have a

specific group of people prepared to go the very same day,” Fermandois explained. “We also didn’t have a sufficient system of communications for receiving information about the tsunami, nor did we have an efficient way to communicate that a tsunami was coming through radio, cell phones, sirens and TV.” Following harsh criticism that it ignored warnings sent by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center — which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people — Chile’s National Office of Emergency of the Interior Ministry (known by its Spanish acronym ONEMI) was completely revamped to improve its effectiveness.

“The most important lesson was that we needed to improve the chain of command and have one place where decisions are taken,” said Fermandois, echoing a common problem in post-disaster environments: a lack of central organization. “There were too many people providing information to different officials. We had different ministers, the director of ONEMI, the minister of interior, the minister of defense and the president involved, but we didn’t have one war room with a few people taking decisions and receiving information from a reliable, single source. It was an organizational mistake.That’s since been corrected.”

ONEMI has also received help from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which itself came under heavy criticism following its response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“We didn’t copy the FEMA system, but did get some help and suggestions on how to fight disasters. There’s been close cooperation between the U.S. and Chile on this,” said the ambassador, adding that “for practical purposes, we need to act like the chances of having another earthquake are very high.”

In New Zealand, people are still on edge after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake devastated Christchurch, the country’s second-largest city, earlier this year.

Thousands of aftershocks have struck since the Feb. 22 temblor — which itself followed an even more powerful magnitude-7 quake on Sept. 4, although that quake did less damage. This time around though the city was far less fortunate, with the 2011

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quake killing 181 people and causing upward of $12 billion in damage, according to New Zealand’s ambassador in Washington, Michael Moore.

“If you talk of Hurricane Katrina costing the U.S. economy 1 percent of GDP, then this earthquake cost us between 6 and 9 percent of GDP,” he said.“In economic terms, this is like the U.S. losing Detroit, Chicago, Miami and Houston.”

Moore, a former prime minister of New Zealand, said a U.S.-New Zealand Partnership meeting was under way in Christchurch when the quake hit, unnerving several visiting American officials.

“The first quake in September was bigger than Haiti’s, but nobody got hurt. Then we had 3,000 smaller quakes and then the big one hit — and that’s when the city fell over,” he told us.

Although smaller in magnitude than the 2010 quake that struck the Canterbury region, the later quake was far more devastating, leading Prime Minister John Key to state that Feb. 22 “may well be New Zealand’s darkest day.” It was much closer to Christchurch than the previous quake and shallower at five kilometers underground, whereas the September quake was 10 kilometers deep.

In addition, the later quake occurred on a weekday during lunchtime when Christchurch’s central business district was packed, causing many fatalities. More than half of those who died were foreign tourists and students at a language school, including 20 Japanese students.

In a particularly tragic twist, said Moore, one Japanese student survived the Christchurch quake as her dormitory collapsed around her — only to learn later on that her parents had been killed in the magnitude-9.0 quake that devastated northern Japan.

“Downtown Christchurch is completely demolished. We will rebuild the city, but we’re still thinking this through,” Moore said, noting that the most important landmarks of Christchurch — including the city’s cathedral and basilica — have been reduced to rubble.“We have high standards like the Japanese, but this was an unusual quake.”

Jonathan Ling, chief executive officer of Fletcher Building Ltd. who’s been commissioned by the government to reconstruct homes in the city, estimated that it could take up to 20 years to fully rebuild Christchurch, one-third of whose business district was demolished. On the flip side, Ling noted that New Zealand’s building industry could grow by 10 percent each year during the next decade as a result of the reconstruction campaign.

Moore said he’s been struck by the generosity of ordinary people and the business community.

Employees of the New Zealand Embassy raised $10,000 for quake relief, then held a gala dinner in April (featuring Kiwi native Phil Keoghan, host of the TV series “The Amazing Race”) that raised another $200,000. Several U.S. companies have also donated $1 million each, the ambassador noted,“but what’s more touching is the person who sends us $50 with a shaky, handwritten letter, or some school you never heard of that sends us a couple of thousand dollars.”

Even though this country of 4 million inhabitants enjoys one of the world’s highest standards of living, it has already begun feeling the economic jolt caused by the earthquake.

“We’ll have to borrow, and we’ll have to work harder. There’s a big debate whether to impose a special tax,” said Moore.“A tax is good but it’ll stunt growth.That’s a political decision.”

Yet in a way, New Zealanders were lucky because the country has compulsory re-insurance and a compulsory levy on home insurance policies (also see “New Zealand’s Mike Moore: Kiwi Optimism Will Prevail” in the October 2010 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

“That goes to an Earthquake and War Damage Commission. The money is invested offshore and reinsured through big re-insurance companies, so a major part of the damages will be covered,” explained Moore, pointing out it’s only natural for a country that regularly experiences disasters to have strategies in place to deal with the inevitable aftermath.

“This happens all the time. If you live in Florida, you expect hurricanes, and earthquakes are a part of living in New Zealand.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

June 2011

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

North Africa

Morocco Tries to Reform, While Preserving Stability

by Larry Luxner

C

ompared to his fellow Arab colleagues, veteran diplomat Aziz Mekouar had little to complain about — at least until recently. The Moroccan ambassador in Washington, unlike his counterparts from North Africa to the Persian Gulf, represents a country still mostly at peace with itself, a relative island of calm in a region facing its worst social unrest in modern history.

With Libya engulfed in civil war, dictators overthrown in Egypt and Tunisia, and authoritarian regimes beating up and killing protesters in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, faraway Morocco seemed quiet by comparison, even though protesters there have also been calling for greater democracy.

“This has been a very easy time for me, because we’re doing the right thing,” a notably relaxed Mekouar told The Washington Diplomat. “The American press talks a lot about the Moroccan exception.We have demonstrations too, but if you look at our demonstrations, nobody is calling for the downfall of the monarchy.”

But as the Arab revolts have shown time and again, nothing can be taken for granted, especially calm. Mekouar’s hopeful words were uttered before April 28, the day a powerful bomb ripped apart the crowded Argana café overlooking Marrakesh’s Djemaa el-Fna square, one of the most popular tourist spots in Morocco. Seventeen people were killed in the terrorist attack — including six French nationals, five Moroccans, two Canadians, one Israeli and three others. In addition, dozens of people were injured. It was the bloodiest attack since 2003, when 45 people were killed in simultaneous suicide attacks by Islamist militants in Morocco’s commercial capital of Casablanca.

Moroccan authorities immediately pointed the finger at al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, though AQIM denied involvement. Since then, seven people have been arrested in connection with the attack who are thought to have been sympathizers of al-Qaeda, although police haven’t uncovered any direct links to AQIM. Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui told reporters that the three main suspects in custody “admire al-Qaeda, are filled with al-Qaeda ideology and with Salafist ideology.”

Despite the arrests, the long-term impact of the bombing on tourism remains a major concern. Geoff Porter of North Africa Risk Consulting said the likely downturn in tourist numbers as a result of the attack would have dire consequences for the Moroccan economy. Tourism is Morocco’s second biggest employer after agriculture, with more than 9 million people visiting the country last year, according to the state news agency.

“Tourism ... is fickle and tourists flee at the slightest possibility of violence,” Porter told Reuters.“The loss of tourist revenue will spell economic trouble for the monarchy, which is already experiencing widening budget deficits because of high oil and food prices.”

June 2011

Another looming issue is the broader instability the attacks threaten to exacerbate.

Shortly after the Marrakesh bombing, violence erupted in several Moroccan prisons by Islamist prisoners alleging torture, unfair trials and arbitrary detention.Wider public protests have also continued, with thousands marching in the streets just days after the bombings to demand more democratic rights — while at the same time denouncing terrorism.

In fact, some Moroccans worry that at the very moment the country needs unity, it’s heading down a dangerous path of social upheaval that has torn other Arab nations apart.

Morocco began flaring up in late February, when around 35,000 protesters — inspired by the downfall of Tunisia’s Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak — rallied in Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh and other cities, demanding political reform. Six people died in that Feb. 20 protest — which sparked the so-called February 20 Movement — including five who burned to death in a bank torched by people Mekouar calls “hooligans.”

PHOTO: JESSICA LATOS

“

We have demonstrations too, but if you look at our demonstrations, nobody is calling for the downfall of the monarchy.

— AZIZ MEKOUAR ambassador of Morocco to the United States

Another 128, most of them police officers, were wounded in the violence, and 120 people were arrested.

“Some people were asking for the dissolution of parliament, others for the resignation of the prime minister. Some had banners against specific persons,” the ambassador told us.“But nobody put into question the monarchy itself. And the king is very popular, so it was all about governance and corruption.”

Indeed, Morocco’s protests have — so far — been of a decidedly different nature than the turmoil in other Arab nations, with citizens calling for reform but not for the abolishment of the monarchy headed by King Mohammed VI, widely considered one of the most progressive rulers in the region.

Two weeks later after the initial protests, the king went on national TV promising sweeping constitutional reforms, including real executive powers for a prime minister elected by parliament instead of a royal

”

appointee, as well as an independent judiciary.

A proposal from the committee for constitutional reform that the king established is due out this month, with a referendum later this year.

“We have decided to undertake a comprehensive constitutional reform,” said the king, underlining his “firm commitment to giving strong impetus to the dynamic and deep reforms taking place.”

In addition, King Mohammed VI has released or reduced the sentences of some 200 prisoners, mostly Salafi jihadists captured during a sweep after the 2003 bombings, in what human rights groups say may be a precursor to a wider review of Morocco’s political prisoners.

The gestures though have failed to quell the violence. On May 15, Moroccan security forces beat a group of activists protesting alleged human rights abuses against prisoners in Rabat, injuring at least 10 people. The protesters wanted to stage a demonstration in

front of what they said was a secret government detention center; however, anti-riot police dispersed the crowd before their rally even began.

The king has formed a national council of human rights to probe the allegations of abuse, pledging “expanded individual and collective liberties and the reinforcement of human rights in all dimensions” as part of his broader campaign to install an elected prime minister and free judiciary.

This, writes columnist Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, is a very big deal. “The king, instead of cracking down, decided to speed up a process of decentralization and deconcentration of power. The idea is to move power and authority out of Rabat and devolve it to local elected bodies,” she wrote.

“That will entail monumental challenges for a country where local figures have not had responsibility for governance. The opportunity for graft is real and significant.To say there will be a steep learning curve would be a vast understatement.”

But Mekouar, who’s been Morocco’s ambassador in Washington since June 2002, says his country is up to the challenge, given its unique history in this part of the world (also see “Morocco Embraces Modernization Without Shrugging Off Traditions” cover pro-

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 19

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file in the September 2009 issue of The Washington Diplomat). “It’s a totally different mentality, because democracy exists in Morocco,� said the 60-year-old envoy. “We have never had a one-party system as it happened in most other countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Our political parties go back to the 1930s, when the national movement was created to fight for independence, which we gained in 1956. Morocco is a constitutional monarchy, and we have had a constitution since 1962.�

Mekouar, reciting a quick history of Morocco’s main political parties, said that despite the heavyhanded rule of Hassan II, who became king in 1961 and remained on the throne until his death in 1999, “we always had a multi-party and multiunion system� and that “our reforms started many years ago.�

Shortly before his death, Hassan II appointed the leader of the socialist party, Abderraman Yusufi, who had been in the opposition for more than 30 years, to become prime minister.

Mohammed VI replaced his father on the throne in July 1999 and soon after, went on TV to promise the Moroccan people he would immediately enact social and political reforms. “He introduced a culture of human rights in Morocco and addressed the issue of women’s rights, saying that no country can think of having a chance to develop without addressing the interests of half its population,� Mekouar told The Diplomat. “The family law was completely unbalanced in favor of men.Women’s organizations had been fighting for years to change that law. The government tried to launch a debate, but there was strong opposition from the most conservative parts of the country against any changes.�

Nevertheless, a new family code, known as Moudawana, came into effect in February 2004.

Among other things, it reserves 30 seats in Morocco’s 335-member parliament for women.

Today, women comprise 11.5 percent of the country’s top legislative body, Mekouar noted.

“This new law put men and women on a completely equal footing. For the first time, Morocco showed that there was no contradiction between Islam and gender equality,� the ambassador said. “Other Muslim countries — Tunisia and Turkey, for example — have pretty balanced family laws, but the Moroccan law is based on religion, on Islam.

That’s important� in a country where 99.9 percent of the 32 million inhabitants are Muslim.

Something else Mohammed did was establish a commission to look into past violations of human rights under his father’s 40-year reign. Among other things, it gave indemnifications to all people who suffered abuses. “The first elections under Mohammed’s reign were in 2002, and were considered totally free and fair,� added Mekouar. “In the last 10 years, we’ve had a multiplicity of parties and unions, and the newspapers are free. People can say whatever they want.We’ve had demonstrations almost every day for one reason or another.�

But, we insisted, isn’t it illegal to criticize the king, who wields ultimate political power in his kingdom? “That’s one of the red lines,� Mekouar replied. “In the press, you should not criticize the king. But if you read the news, there is a lot of debate. The king is very popular in Morocco.�

Whether Mohammed maintains that popularity in the face of mounting protests though remains to be seen. In other parts of the region — long ruled by autocratic kings and presidents — leaders aren’t exactly winning any popularity contests.

Mekouar admits he never expected the Arab world to be turned upside-down in a matter of months. The current wave of revolutions began with spontaneous protests against Tunisia’s Ben Ali, who had ruled that country for 23 years. “I was very much surprised by how the events unfolded, but I was not surprised by the upheavals. Sometimes when you have that kind of situation, one spark is enough,� Mekouar said.“The Ben Ali regime was very tight. You couldn’t talk, you had no liberties, there was no right of free associa-

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June 2011

tion.There was no space for freedom. Everything was closed.This is why it ended by exploding,” he added.

“But I think Tunisia could really be a success story because it has an educated population, it’s a country of only 10 million, and they have a broad middle class and very good intellectuals.

Tunisia is struggling to be on the right track, and the prime minister is a very respected man. I have a lot of confidence in him.”

While things have quieted down somewhat in Tunisia, protests continue to rage almost every day throughout the rest of the Arab world. In neighboring Algeria, demonstrators have rallied against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who’s been in power since 1999 (and who recently pledged to release thousands of Islamists from prison). Moroccan-Algerian relations have long been poor — mainly due to Algeria’s support of Polisario guerrillas in the Western Sahara, a sparsely populated desert territory claimed by Morocco.

Mekouar politely declined to discuss Algeria, and briefly noting the overthrow of Egypt’s Mubarak, said only that “they’ve adopted new amendments to the constitution and now we have to see what will happen. We’re still waiting.”

Mekouar was equally vague about the ongoing civil war in Libya.When asked if the United States is doing the right thing by aggressively supporting rebels trying to oust Col. Muammar Qaddafi, Mekouar stuck to the script. “The Arab League took a decision, and the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution,” he said. “Since then, every country in the world is bound by that resolution.

Each country has its way of interpreting the resolution, and this is what’s happening.”

Turning back to developments at home, the ambassador said he is hopeful that Morocco will usher in change without opening the door to nationwide instability, pointing out that young people are more involved in politics than ever before.“In our first elections in 2007, we had only a 38 percent turnout. But with all the debate going on now, we will see more people voting,”

he predicted.

Decentralization is a big part of Mohammed VI’s drive toward efficiency and accountability in government. The new policy is also aimed at reducing the endemic corruption for which Morocco is well known.

“The country will be divided into 12 regions, and the president of each region will be elected to manage that region,” Mekouar explained.“This trend of reforms started many years ago, but these new changes to the constitution started with the king’s speech in 2009 when he announced the regionalization of Morocco and appointed a commission to work on it.”

That commission must present its report in June, after which the new constitution will be voted on through a national referendum, which will most likely take place by year’s end.

“Everybody will be able to vote. The constitution can be changed only by the will of the people, and the only way to have that is through a referendum,” said Mekouar. “Of course, some people will not agree with the constitution. We don’t know how it will turn out. It’s impossible to know because nobody knows what the constitution will look like.”

Mekouar says that thanks to rapid economic growth (Morocco’s gross domestic product has expanded by an average 5 percent over the last five years), the ratio of Moroccans living below the poverty line has dropped from 15 percent to 9 percent. Annual per-capita income now stands at $4,900, he said, adding that Morocco will be “one of the very few countries” to achieve the U.N. Millennium Goals by 2015.

“Our National Initiative for Human Development was to make sure economic growth trickles down to every part of society,” he said.“Morocco believes the only solution for the region is full economic integration. We should have open borders and we should trade freely, following the example of Europe, where each country has its own sovereignty but you can go from Lisbon to Warsaw without showing your passport.”

While a Maghreb economic zone is still years away, Morocco has benefitted from its free trade agreement with the United States.

“Morocco was the second Arab country to sign an FTA with the United States, after Jordan, and the only one in North Africa.This has already doubled trade between the U.S. and Morocco.

When you have more trade, you have a better economy and more investments. This brings down unemployment and raises income levels.”

Mekouar said he’s satisfied that the United States is solidly behind Morocco’s reforms, even though the Washington Post’s Rubin noted that Obama was “characteristically silent” after the king’s speech and that the official commendation was instead delivered by a State Department spokesman.

Mekouar dismissed such speculation. “We’ve had very good statements coming from Hillary Clinton during the visit of our foreign minister and even before that. The Obama administration has been pretty clear.All across the political spectrum, we’ve seen supportive statements coming from members of Congress, especially immediately after the speech of our king.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), in fact, was effusive in his praise of Morocco, saying in a statement: “This new reform agenda builds on the king’s long-standing commitment to lead Morocco to a future of reform and modernization, and it could ensure that the Kingdom of Morocco will continue to stand as a positive example to governments across the Middle East and North Africa.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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BUSINESS

Automotive Industry

Foreign ‘ Transplants’ Fuel U.S. Car Manufacturing

by Lois Kapila

D

espite longstanding talk of the decline in U.S. manufacturing, plenty of foreign automotive firms have been setting up plants throughout the United States, which offers a number of competitive advantages, according to Jonathan Browning, president and chief executive officer of the Volkswagen Group of America who spoke at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington on May 13.

Addressing a crowd of around 60 people on the subject of “American revival,” Browning explained the strategy behind Volkswagen’s decision to build a new, soon-to-be-opened, billion-dollar plant in Chattanooga,Tennessee, that is set to churn out 150,000 vehicles annually.

Volkswagen joins a parade of other foreign car companies, including Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz, that over the past few decades have set up U.S. “transplants,” as these foreign-owned facilities are known in the industry.

The growth in foreign automotive manufacturing parallels a more recent upsurge in the U.S. manufacturing industry in general, with the nation’s factories having added 250,000 jobs since the beginning of last year — making up about 13 percent of what was shed during the last recession and, more significantly, marking the first sustained increase in manufacturing employment since 1997, according to a recent report in the Washington Post.

Similarly, U.S. car production is experiencing an uptick, part of broader pattern of foreign transportation transplants finding a lucrative base on American soil. In the process, this is challenging long-held assumptions about U.S. manufacturing and changing the face of America’s auto industry.

WHY BUILD CARS IN THE U.S.?

At first glance, moves to set up new vehicle plants in the United States, given the narrative of high labor prices and a saturated market, seem out of step with history.

Browning explained Volkswagen’s decision as part of a long-term strategy at VW to aggressively increase its presence in the United States. “We identified the U.S. as one of our under-performing markets. Because if you look at the VW Group on a global basis, we have a market share north of 10 percent, whereas … in the U.S. our market share is around 3 percent,” he said.

The U.S. market, he pointed out, is still expanding, offering a lucrative consumer pool. And while in the past, the “buy American” movement may have marginalized European and Asian carmakers, today attitudes among U.S. consumers are considerably more favorable.

According to John Heitmann, a history professor at the University of Dayton and author of the book “The Automobile and American Life,” it is no longer such a disadvantage to be a foreign brand in the U.S. market, and may even be considered a badge of pride.“Years ago, a decade or so, the ‘buy American’ thing was a concern, but I think in the last decade the industry has become so global in terms of supplies and branding,” he said. “If anything, it ought to bring some advantage to be a German manufacturing brand in this country, associated with quality, style and good handling.”

The shift in attitude bodes well for Browning’s assertion that he wants the Volkswagen brand to mean “German engi-

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The Washington Diplomat

PHOTO: VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INC.

A 2012 Passat stands outside of Volkswagen’s new billion-dollar plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the German automaker joins a parade of other foreign car companies such as Toyota and Mercedes-Benz that have set up manufacturing plants in the United States.

“

Years ago … the ‘buy American’ thing was a concern, but I think in the last decade the industry has become so global in terms of supplies and branding.

— JOHN HEITMANN

”

author of “The Automobile and American Life”

neering, made in America.” The company, he stressed, “will remain first and foremost a German company, and the soul of the brand will remain exactly what it is.”

Having a plant in the United States, Browning argues, will give the company an invaluable vantage point from which to monitor American trends and developments in what he considers one of the most transparent markets in the world.“It is much more than just an economic proposition. And I think it is sometimes underestimated what it means to have a manufacturing presence in a market as opposed to a, lets call it, just a sales and distribution footprint,” he said.

“When you have a plant, that means you bring not only product engineers, manufacturing engineers, you bring purchasing teams, you bring quality teams, so the whole organization is engaged with the market … to understand how that plant operates, you have to understand the environment, the market that it’s addressing, and so the degree of engagement with a market is exponentially larger when you’ve got a manufacturing presence there as well.”

Browning also repeatedly stressed the importance of the plant for maintaining the flexibility needed to adapt to local markets, as well as the scale needed to be an international player. Consumers are different in different places. So while in

Western Europe a customer might be happy to specify the type of car they want and wait weeks for it to be made and shipped to them, U.S. consumers are less patient, preferring to buy a car, jump in it, and drive home.

SOUTHERN CHARMS While Browning may have brushed economic considerations aside in his discussion, there is little doubt that financial incentives and calculations have played a large role not only in the growth of transplants in the United States, but also in their locations within the country. Rather than setting up in the traditional manufacturing states of the Rust Belt — like Michigan and Ohio — automotive manufacturers are flocking to the Southeast, with its vast pools of trained but cheap workers.

According to Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley who specializes in labor and the global economy,“four factors have tended to attract foreign manufacturers to the South: a growing market, low wages, generous state incentives, and low union density.”

U.S. states have also actively courted foreign automakers for years (see “Local Governments Get Personal to Attract International Dollars” in the August 2007 issue of The Washington Diplomat). State incentives, for instance, have been on the rise: Mississippi reportedly gave Toyota and Nissan $296 million and $363 million, respectively, to build plants there. Georgia enticed Kia with a $419.4 million incentive package, and Tennessee offered Volkswagen $577.4 million to seal the deal.

Browning also admitted that the “attitude” of communities in the South also played a significant role.“In terms of looking at the future employee base, and adopting the working practices, the manufacturing processes, the manufacturing lets say culture that we are looking for, that was an important consideration of what we are trying to achieve,” he said.

With its “right-to-work” legislation, which bars unions from June 2011

making union-membership a condition of employment at a company, the South offers a more flexible and affordable workforce.

HAPPY UNION? The new jobs are a welcome boost to the battered southern economies, which have been hit by surges of unemployment in recent years.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Tennessee unemployment rate jumped from 4.2 percent in April 2007 to 10.2 percent in January 2011.

But some academics question whether the positive impact will be as far-reaching as workers and state officials hope. They argue that while unionized auto industry workers once provided the backbone of the middle class, these new nonunionized autoworkers will not necessarily benefit from the same status and job security.

Shaiken worries that “a key part of these gains are squandered when the attraction becomes low wages and low union density. The flip side of low wages is low purchasing power. This may obtain short-term corporate success at the expense of the long-term future of the middle class.And, the right of workers to freely decide if they want a union is both the law and a vital part of a democratic society.”

That’s why the United Auto Workers (UAW) union has made it one of its goals for 2011 to unionize transplants in the South, committing millions of dollars to the campaign. But scholars and industry experts doubt it will manage to convince workers they will be better off in a union, for a number of reasons.

The UAW itself claims that “the biggest challenge to organizing workers at foreign-owned car plants is intense employer opposition to unionization” and accuses the foreign car companies of harassing and intimidating workers who attempt to unionize. The group is currently attempting to convince several automakers to sign onto a set of principles, which they believe would ensure fair union elections.

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food

But others claim it is also a question of southern culture. According to Heitmann, “from Kentucky to Tennessee down, you have very independent folks who tend not to think of unions.”

Also, as the Christian Science Monitor has reported, while wages are higher for union workers — $36.34 as opposed to $25.65 per hour — the precarious position of the Big Three auto companies in the North (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) during the recession has left many southern workers wary of pressing too hard for more compensation. The threat of unionization has also led some plants to preemptively boost wages.

Despite the narrative of extortionate labor costs in the United States versus countries such as China, Browning himself suggested that labor’s contribution to the cost of a car is “not as much as you might think,” saying it was neither a majority nor an insignificant minority of the car’s total value, though he declined to break down company figures.

Browning does not doubt that China will be the biggest driver of growth when it comes to the proliferation of auto manufacturers in the coming years. Yet he believes America will retain its auto appeal thanks to a variety of factors — the low wages (relative to Europe), opportunity to better understand the U.S. market, still the world’s largest economy by far, as well as the ability to operate without tariffs within the NAFTA region and to shorten the length of supply chains — all of which is likely to propel foreign carmakers to follow Volkswagen’s quest to, as Browning put it,“get its green card.”

Lois Kapila is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

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DIPLOMACY

United States

Patriotic Spaces: Reception Rooms At State Department House History Story by Anna Gawel • Photos by Jessica Latos

I

nside sits the desk where Thomas Jefferson may have drafted parts of the Declaration of Independence. There are blue-rimmed porcelain china plates admired by George Washington, and a teapot made by silversmith Paul Revere — all surrounded by busts and portraits that form a parade of the major personalities behind the founding of the United States.

All told, the collection is valued at more than $100 million, but it’s not housed at one of Washington’s many prestigious art galleries, nor can it be found on a tour through the White House or Congress.

This sanctuary of American history is quietly nestled on the top floors of the State Department, whose headquarters along C Street is more known visually for its drab austerity and security barricades than for priceless art. But in stark contrast to the Harry S.Truman Building’s lackluster exterior, the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, spread out over the seventh and eighth floor, are a haven of American refinement.

Consisting of a suite of 42 different period settings spanning more than 28,000 square feet, the Diplomatic Reception Rooms hold some 5,000 items ranging from 18th-century Chippendale furniture to landscape paintings to mahogany grandfather clocks to portraits of all the secretaries of state, along with other treasures and tidbits of Americana. Another claim to fame: The rooms are home to the world’s largest collection of eagle-inlay furnishings and art. It’s not obvious at first, but take a closer look and you’ll see the omnipresence of America’s emblematic bird peering back at you from every corner.

“

To have a museum-quality collection of priceless objects that serve the country, serve the purpose of diplomacy, is extraordinary.

— MARCEE CRAIGHILL

”

director of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms

It’s an unrivaled collection that tells the story of America’s birth and its early days — from William Douglas MacLeod’s pastoral landscape depicting the Capitol Building in Washington in 1844, with cows overlooking the boarding houses where members of Congress stayed, to the silver eagle-adorned skippet boxes used to protect the wax seals on treaties and official documents, to a beaded Navajo leather saddle bag (one of

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The Washington Diplomat

the most recently donated items).

Mostly composed of fine and decorative arts from 1740 to 1840 — all privately donated — the Diplomatic Reception Rooms host some 90,000 visitors each year, from prime ministers, to students on field trips, to constituents touring the nation’s capital while meeting their members of Congress.

Yet the State Department isn’t exactly the first stop that comes to mind when tourists or Washingtonians want to gaze at illustrious works of art (by comparison, some 600,000 people tour the White House annually). So this year, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms — which will be fêted with a gala reception in October — State Department officials are working to boost the visibility of the masterpieces in their midst.

“We definitely welcome more exposure,” said Marcee Craighill, director and de facto curator of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms who leads an office of four staff members responsible for preserving and protecting the collection. “We have an unbelievable resource that’s just lying here waiting to have its stories told.”

In addition to the 50th anniversary gala, Craighill’s Fine Arts Office is hoping to broaden area educational partnerships and expand access to the Diplomatic Reception Rooms via the Internet, digitizing the entire collection so that when you Google “Benjamin Franklin,” for instance, items from the rooms instantly pop up, with links to historical and artistic information.

“I’m trying more and more to tell the stories of the objects in all of the material that we produce to take it from an extraordinary decorative art collection to an extraordinary historical story,” Craighill told The Washington Diplomat.“So we’ve spent a lot of time in the last few years rebranding who we are, what we do that’s different from other museums, and what our story is.”

That story also epitomizes America’s own arduous journey to statehood. “In so many ways, the story of the development of this collection parallels the story of the development of our nation. We really did have this early period where we were fumbling along and weren’t quite sure of ourselves. And then I think we hit our stride and really developed a cohesive, extraordinary collection that has such great purpose,” said Craighill, a museum specialist who holds a

A portrait of George Washington hangs in one of the State Department’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms, which span more than 28,000 square feet and feature artwork, furnishings and other treasures valued at more than $100 million that tell the story of America’s birth and early evolution.

master’s in American decorative arts from the Parsons School for Design in New York.

“To have a museum-quality collection of priceless objects that serve the country, serve the purpose of diplomacy, is extraordinary,” she added. “And truly I walk through the rooms every day and it’s an inspiration to me.”

But the rooms are more than an artistic showcase or walk through history; they’re diplomatic workhorses — a high-pressure environment where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton constantly meets with heads of state, ambassadors, delegations and even royalty from around the world. Here, press conferences are routinely held, envoys are sworn in, treaties are signed, and dinners — from the elaborate to the intimate — are staged with military-like precision.

For example, on a recent visit, The Washington Diplomat peeked into the James

Monroe State Reception Room (off-limits to public tours), which was being prepped for a working luncheon with Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf Bin Alawi bin Abdullah.

Individual place cards and menus were being carefully laid out, while falafel bread, hummus and other traditional Arab fare dotted the table.

Earlier in the day, Clinton delighted a group of youngsters with a “swearing-in ceremony” for the children of State Department employees as part of Take Your Child to Work Day. And a few weeks before that, Clinton joined former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for a taping of “The Charlie Rose Show”in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room, where the two veteran diplomats reflected on their jobs as part of the “Conversations on Diplomacy” series that will air on PBS. Most recently, the room served as the backdrop for President

June 2011

Obama’s landmark speech on the Arab spring and Mideast peace process.

It’s an intense, behind-the-scenes, 24-hour operation to keep the rooms running smoothly, as everyone from protocol officers to the kitchen staff must balance the daily stream of public viewings and private functions, which amount to three docent-led public tours every day and, Craighill estimated, about 350 to 400 activities each year.

“Unlike a museum, these rooms are constantly being used,” said Craighill, who has worked at the Office of Fine Arts for seven years.“It’s a museum collection with a great purpose,” she added,“fine art in the service of the country, of the art of diplomacy.”

That service though translates into a lot of wear and tear — which in turn fuels another crucial aspect of the operation: fundraising. The Diplomatic Reception Rooms embody the face of American diplomacy for countless dignitaries, so they can’t look haggard, but the restoration of priceless art can, of course, get pricey.

Craighill noted that to reupholster one gold-hued serpentine sofa, for instance, cost roughly $120,000. Each piece of silverware and brass must be re-polished with special lacquers.“The premise is that you do not cause any damage to historical objects. Every aspect is preservation and lowimpact — so that there’s not another nail hole driven. Every aspect of restoration is done in the way it would have been done in the 18th century,” Craighill explained.

Yet not a single taxpayer dime is spent for the upkeep, a fact the State Department prides itself on. Instead, it looks to private — and patriotic — citizens to cover the costs. Donors have contributed every single piece of art in the rooms and helped to raise funds each year for their conservation.

“It’s rather remarkable that all of it has been given,” Craighill said, noting she maintains “wonderful relationships” with donors in the U.S. art community.“It’s just remarkable that this collection came about through generosity, through careful selection and acquisitions, to create something that is considered the third most important collection of Americana in the nation.”

For example, David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, recently lent a copy of the Declaration of Independence commissioned under John Quincy Adams (and located in the room that bears his name) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original document. Other items have been donated by immigrants who came to the United States paupers but made their fortunes here, symbolizing the American dream of entrepreneurship.

Among the 5,000 items housed in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms are Chinese export porcelain, a striking 1778 portrait of Mrs. John Montresor

by John Singleton Copley, at left, and Native American pottery.

Like any museum curator, Craighill also works with patrons to fill gaps in the collection. She’s currently on the lookout for more portraits of women of the period — “We’d love to have a Dolley Madison” — and early views of U.S. cities in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as any other museum-caliber objects “that tell the story of America.”

Each year in August, the rooms are closed for inspection.

“Nothing is left to deteriorate. And so everything is examined,” Craighill explained. “Conservator scholars … do an evaluation of the collection and we discuss what we can do within our budget, and lay out a plan for the next few years.”

In the past though, it’s been more of a piecemeal approach, with Craighill’s office charged with raising roughly between $300,000 to $500,000 a year for conservation, forcing it at times to choose one priority over another if the money came up short.

So this year, the State Department has embarked on a concerted 50th anniversary campaign dubbed “Patrons of Diplomacy” to raise $20 million by the

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Continued from previous page end of the year — already reaching the $15 million mark as of May. Among the goals is to refurbish rooms that haven’t had any major work since 1969 with new lighting, wall paint, upholstery and rugs.

Another project is to add greenery to the rooftop terrace, part of a larger greening initiative to make the State Department and America’s embassies abroad more eco-friendly.

Another overarching aim of the Patrons of Diplomacy campaign is to create a permanent, self-sustaining endowment so that funds are always available to preserve the Diplomatic Reception Rooms for future generations. The State Department has also enlisted an all-star roster — including former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and George P. Shultz — to help tap a new legion of benefactors, hosting recent events for art patrons on the East and West Coasts.

Craighill also praises the current secretary of state for finding time in her busy schedule (she’s logged nearly 1 million miles as one of the country’s most well-traveled diplomats in history) to refocus attention on the rooms.

“When I started this job just over two years ago, I was surprised to learn that there was no endowment to support the Diplomatic Rooms or this collection. Marcee and her team were forced to make difficult decisions every year about which pieces would be conserved and which would not,” Clinton said at a recent reception honoring “Patrons of Diplomacy” donors, explaining the impetus behind the endowment.“It will ensure, with your help, that these rooms and the history inside them are protected for more people to enjoy…. because these works represent the best America has to offer.”

“It was just so serendipitous that Secretary Clinton arrived because we were ready to move forward,” Craighill told us,“but we just needed help.”

Likewise, she credits Protocol Chief Capricia Marshall and the entire Protocol Office for their outreach efforts, actively engaging with the diplomatic community and the public to raise awareness of what the U.S. government does on a daily basis.

The drive to remake the rooms though began in earnest decades ago. They started life almost as blank slates — more specifically, plain office space befitting the early 1960s era of utilitarian modernity. It may have worked for “Mad Men,” but it hardly worked as a grand entrée for foreign dignitaries. So Clement E. Conger, the collection’s founding curator, set about gradually transforming each room, teaming up with interior designer and architect Edward Vason Jones to imbue the space with

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The Washington Diplomat

The largest and most dramatic of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the State Department is the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room, above, which is lined with chandeliers and Corinthian columns and seats nearly 300. Other rooms are punctuated by intricate crown molding and elements of neoclassical, federalist and colonial architectural styles.

traditional beauty grounded in historical significance.

Square corners and sparse white walls gave way to elegant molding and architecture that references specific periods and places in American history.

Some rooms recreate the feel of an 18th-century home in Virginia, for example, while others evoke the Palladian style of Philadelphia during the time of the Continental Congress.

The pieces have also been deliberately chosen for their historical connection to the country’s early evolution. As Craighill says, “everything has a purpose,” and each piece is part of the larger American narrative.

That silver teapot belonging to patriot Paul Revere, for instance, was made around 1800, the year that ushered in a peaceful transfer of executive power from President John Adams to Thomas Jefferson. The Chinese export porcelain testifies to the boom in trade with the Far East and Europe.The earliest complete tea and coffee set made in the United States shows The Diplomatic Reception that the British didn’t have a monopoly on drinking tea. Paintings Rooms are home to the depicting the breathtaking Wyoming landscape by Thomas Moran, largest collection of eaglewho joined a U.S. Geological expedition there in 1871, helped per- inlay furnishings and art, suade Congress to set aside federal land for Yellowstone National with America’s emblematic Park. bird featured on this silver A mahogany desk and bookcase is fascinating not only for its unique skippet box, above, used to bombé shape, modeled after ancient Roman sarcophagi, but for its the protect the wax seals creator: Benjamin Frothingham, a young cabinetmaker whose life on official documents. embodies the early American spirit. After the British burned

June 2011

Charlestown, Mass., home to his shop, Frothingham fought in the Revolutionary War, rising through the ranks and meeting George Washington before resuming the family cabinet business after the United States won its independence.

The less-than-glorious sides of American history are documented as well. Simple but powerful Wedgewood medallions portraying the silhouette of a chained African American man — inscribed with the words,“Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” — were passed out like campaign buttons in the movement to abolish slavery (Benjamin Franklin handed out the politically charged cameos). A once-proud Native American warrior on horseback looks up to the heavens for guidance to keep his people from losing their land and their way of life in the bronze statue “Appeal to the Great Spirit.”

The objects are scattered throughout intricately themed rooms inspired by American icons such as John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Franklin. For instance, the pale blue walls of the Thomas Jefferson State Reception Room are reminiscent of Jefferson’s stately residence at Monticello. An imposing statue of the third U.S. president — a replica of the one that stands in the U.S. Capitol — watches over the room, which recently served as a photo op for delegates participating in the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

The smaller Martha Washington Ladies Lounge, punctuated by tinges of blue and peach, serves as a cozy parlor setting for afternoon tea. Meanwhile, Western and Native American artifacts dominate the clubby gentleman’s lounge next door.

Although individually appointed, the rooms are united by elements of Federal, colonial and neoclassical architectural styles that are most often associated with early American history.

But the undeniable star, and the largest of the rooms, is the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room, named after the father of American diplomacy. Ringed by two rows of maroon-streaked Corinthian columns, regal gilding and a line of chandeliers, the opulent space was designed by John Blatteau to symbolize the secretary of state’s role as custodian of the Great Seal of the United States.

That seal is prominently engraved in the heart of the ceiling and on the massive carpet anchoring the main hall, which can seat 275 people and leads to an outdoor terrace with stunning views of the Washington Monument and Tidal Basin. It’s the quintessential Washington backdrop, and although American democracy may have been built as anti-thesis to monarchy rule, it’s a room fit for royalty.

“I hope it conveys the spirit of how fortunate we are in this country that citizens have stepped forward,” Craighill said of the rooms in general and the collection inside them.“So many people have come in and said this wouldn’t of happened in their country, a collection like this wouldn’t exist — given by the citizens of the nation for the purpose of diplomacy, to represent their country. It’s very patriotic and it’s very inspirational to be surrounded by that, and reminded that we’re in a country where these things happen.And it’s a very quiet story.”

Anna Gawel is managing editor of The Washington Diplomat and news columnist of the Diplomatic Pouch.

The Diplomatic Reception Rooms are a microcosm of U.S. history: Paul Revere’s teapot and stand, left, is one of about 14 to survive from the silversmith’s shop.

Wedgewood medallions portraying the silhouette of a chained African American man — inscribed with the words, “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” — were passed out like campaign buttons in the abolitionist movement.

The Thomas Jefferson State Reception Room is a replica of Jefferson’s stately residence at Monticello.

June 2011

The Washington Diplomat Page 27

MEDICAL

Diets

Saying Goodbye to Gluten If You Can’t Stomach It

by Gina Shaw

I

f you’ve been in the grocery store recently, you’ve probably noticed a lot more products bearing the label “gluten free.” It may be the biggest food-designation boom since organic came into vogue, with gluten-free foods representing more than 5 percent of food and beverage launches worldwide in 2009, and $1.5 billion in U.S. sales that year alone, according to food and beverage tracker Innova Database.

Moreover, gluten free doesn’t mean free of taste anymore. It’s gone from boring and stodgy to one of the hottest celebrity food trends around, with stars from Gwyneth Paltrow to Jennifer Aniston touting its benefits.

Some celebs, like former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, went gluten free for the medical reason originally behind the eating plan: He has celiac disease.

“The bottom line here, for somebody with celiac, even the slightest amount of wheat can be like poison … [with] all the things that can go wrong — internal bleeding, bone density loss, organ disorders, malnutrition, digestive problems of every kind,” Olbermann once said of his disease.

Celiac disease isn’t a food allergy though. It’s an inherited autoimmune condition in which the body has a toxic reaction to foods containing gluten (a protein found in wheat and related starches such as barley and rye), damaging the small intestine and preventing foods from being properly absorbed. Even small amounts of gluten can cause a dangerous reaction in someone with true celiac disease. It’s estimated that about one in every 133 Americans, or about 3 million people, has the disease.

But other prominent gluten-free groupies don’t necessarily have celiac. Paltrow, Aniston and others have jumped on the bandwagon to drop pounds and feel healthier. But like the Atkins carbohydrate fad, does that make sense?

Actually, it might, says Dr. Timothy Harlan, associate chief of outpatient programs and assistant professor of clinical medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. Harlan is also a former restaurateur who hosts the “Dr. Gourmet” website and whose book “Just Tell Me What to Eat!” is out this month.

“If you’d asked me a few years ago if people who don’t have true celiac disease could benefit from a gluten-free diet, I would have said no,” explained Harlan, who was himself diagnosed with celiac disease two years ago. “But now, there is research to support that idea. Some people, while they don’t have true celiac disease, may be sensitive to gluten and feel better on a gluten-free diet.”

In a study published in January in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, Australian researchers followed a group of 34 men and women who did not have celiac disease (the disease is definitively diagnosed by an endoscopic biopsy — a tissue sample of the small intestine), but whose abdominal symptoms like diarrhea and bloating had been relieved by a gluten-free diet. Half of

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The Washington Diplomat

PHOTO: IRINA TISCHENKO /BIGSTOCK

“

If you’d asked me a few years ago if people who don’t have true celiac disease could benefit from a gluten-free diet, I would have said no…. But now, there is research to support that idea.

— DR. TIMOTHY HARLAN

”

Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans

the study’s participants got two slices of gluten-free bread and one gluten-free muffin to eat daily, while the other half got the same breads and muffins — but with gluten added.

Nine study participants had to withdraw from the study because their symptoms were so intolerable, and six of those were in the gluten group. In fact, almost 70 percent of those receiving gluten answered no to the question, “Are your symptoms well controlled?” compared to 40 percent of those eating gluten-free foods.

“If a patient of mine came in with irritable bowel syndrome or other gastrointestinal distress, and I couldn’t actually diagnose him with celiac, I might suggest that they try gluten free,” said Harlan. “I probably wouldn’t have said that two years ago. But the thing is

that there’s no such thing as partially gluten free. You have to be very strict about it.”

That said, Harlan notes, gluten intolerance or celiac disease is not like some food allergies, such as peanut or shellfish allergies, in which cross-contamination can be dangerous for the severely allergic. Indeed, as mentioned before, it’s not a food allergy at all but an autoimmune condition.

“There’s really not a risk from cross-contamination,” he said. “There are even some products like gluten-free makeup, which is unnecessary. Most studies have found that about five milligrams a day or more of gluten is what causes the problem. That’s a pretty small amount — it’s not like you can have a slice of bread, but it works out to about one-eighth of a teaspoon of flour. And you have to consume the gluten, not just be exposed to it or have it on your skin.”

If you’re interested in going gluten-free, there are many delicious recipes on Harlan’s Web site, www. drgourmet.com; free registration provides you with a diet plan that you can customize as gluten free. But check with a dietitian, Harlan cautions. “Studies have found that people on gluten-free diets tend to get less fiber and to be deficient in certain minerals, as well as getting more of their calories from sugar,” he said. “A dietitian can help you make sure you’re getting the nutrients you need.”

Gina Shaw is the medical writer for The Washington Diplomat.

June 2011

LIVING L U X U R Y

■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ June 2011

Tale of Two Circles Dupont and Logan Become Centerpieces of D.C. Change

To get a sense of the dramatic changes in demography and development that have swept Washington, D.C., over the past decade, one can hardly do better than take a stroll up 14th Street, NW, from Thomas Circle to U Street. Along this route, the backbone of “mid-city” Washington, lies a diverse stretch of buildings and businesses, young and old, newly

by Jacob Comenetz

refurbished and under construction, unequaled in the District.

LUXURY LIVING June 2011

Continued on next page

The Washington Diplomat Page 29

Continued from previous page The people one is likely to encounter along 14th Street, too, represent the changing face of D.C. today.

That Washington is rapidily changing is readily apparent to anyone who’s lived here in just the last few years alone.The 2010 Census data, released in late March, confirmed what one can tell from walking down the street: D.C. is getting younger, more populous, and more diverse. What was once known as “Chocolate City” is on the verge of losing its black majority.

The recent influx of well-to-do twentysomethings has transformed the residential, dining and transportation options throughout the city — in particular, in a broad swathe of central Washington that juts out from 14th Street, roughly defined by the Dupont Circle neighborhood to the west and Logan Circle to the east, U Street in the north and melding with downtown more or less around M Street in the south.

This area is home to a unique assemblage of institutions and individuals that exemplify the two sides of Washington: a grand capital city of international renown and import, as well as an intensely local, livable city with neighborhood character.

That character is perhaps best espoused by the dynamic and distinct Dupont-Logan Circle area. During the recent extended spell of pleasant spring weather, the sidewalk cafés and restaurants around Dupont Circle and Logan Circle were overflowing with al fresco diners. On the streets, the bright red Bikeshare bikes, with their unmistakable flickering lights, buzzed by, adding an eco-conscious urban chic to the scene.

In May, The Washington Diplomat met the founders and editors of the neighborhood blog Borderstan at the Mid-City Caffé, a favorite digital bohemian hangout above the trendy Miss Pixie’s consigment store, located between Corocoran and R Streets along 14th. Matt

The fountain at Dupont Circle serves as a focal point of a neighborhood that’s home to historic rowhouses and enjoyed a resurgence in the 1970s that continues to this day.

PHOTOS: AGNOSTICPREACHERSKID / HTTP://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/DUPONT_CIRCLE

Rhoades and Luis Gomez, married and living on 15th Street, founded the blog in August 2008 to improve coordination of public services in an area that cuts across three neighborhoods (Dupont, Logan and U Street Corridor) and lies on the border of two jurisdictions.

“It started out as a crime and public safety blog for the area around 15th Street, the dividing line between different police districts, with Dupont on the west and Logan on the east,” said Rhoades, a corporate communications director in his day job.

Though it’s no longer is the case, in 2007 there were “literally some instances where something [criminal] was going on across the street, and the officer wouldn’t do anything,” Rhoades said, noting that at the time, the blog served to raise awareness of the situation.

Though at the outset just a handful of friends and neighbors read the blog, over the last two and a half years it has ballooned “by a factor of 10 in terms of daily visitors,” according to Rhoades. As readership

See NEIGHBORHOODS, page 34

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Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, Founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, invites the diplomatic community to join her in the global fight against breast cancer at the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure® on June 4. To date, over $11 million have been granted for non-research community grants to 59 countries. But there is still more to do. Start a team today! Let 2011 be the year you join this global movement and help end breast cancer forever.

United against breast cancer.

Best science. Boldest community. Biggest impact.

2011 SUSAN G. KOMEN GLOBAL RACE FOR THE CURE ® Washington, D.C. • June 4, 2011 Register today at GlobalRacefortheCure.org

©2011 Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. The Running Ribbon is a registered trademark of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.

Photography contributed by: Jay Farbman and Andrew Councill.

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The Washington Diplomat

June 2011

JOIN US IN THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT TO END BREAST CANCER FOREVER Three decades ago I made a promise to my sister that I would do everything in my power to end breast cancer forever. That promise is now Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the global leader of the breast cancer movement, having invested more than $1.9 billion since our inception. in 1982. As the world’s largest network of survivors and activists, the strides we’ve made are amazing but we still have a long journey in front of us.

HOW TO REGISTER YOUR TEAM START A TEAM Team captains must register first to start the team.

First, think of a team name, then go to GlobalRacefortheCure.org, select the “Start a Team” option and follow the instructions.

JOIN A TEAM Team members will search for your team name on this screen.

More than 25 million people will be diagnosed worldwide and 10 million could die in the next 25 years without the cures.

We’re working to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures across the globe—but we can’t do it without your help. Through events like the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure® we are able to generate the funds necessary to continue our work and raise awareness of this merciless disease.

Will you join me on June 4 to take the first step toward the cures?

Register your embassy today for the 2011 Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure. Along with 40,000 other participants — including your fellow ambassadors, diplomats and the international community — together we can take a stand in this battle. By joining the Komen Global Race, your embassy will enjoy increased visibility among the international community here in Washington, D.C. As a registered embassy team, you will be invited to join other participating embassies in the dedicated International Tent on the morning of the Race. You are also welcome (and encouraged!) to bring your country’s flag and wave it as you move down the 5K route. Even if you cannot participate personally, we hope your embassy colleagues will represent you and your country.

Please direct any questions to Christine Florez, at (202) 654-6530 or CFlorez@komen.org.

RECRUIT TEAM MEMBERS Once you register the team, contact prospective team members and invite them to join your team. Team members will register and pay individually.

Make sure they know the name of your team. They should select the “Join a Team” option.

Note: If new team members have already registered for the Komen Global Race for the Cure, they must email teams@GlobalRacefortheCure.org to be officially added to your team.

Breast cancer knows no boundaries; we hope we can count on your support this year at the Komen Global Race. Thank you for joining our global movement to end breast cancer!

With warm appreciation,

Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker Founder and CEO Susan G. Komen for the Cure

COMMUNITY INVESTMENT Thanks to the Global Race, Komen is able to make a positive impact on the lives of breast cancer patients in the National Capital Area and women around the globe. Up to 75 percent of funds from the Komen Global Race stay in the D.C. area, one of the most cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse cities in North America. The remaining 25 percent helps Komen’s work around the globe to share knowledge and experience and to fund education and breast health services in regions where few exist.

Globally and locally, we fund projects that: • Increase breast health awareness • Increase access to detection and other breast cancer services • Address and confront any cultural stigma of breast cancer that may exist • Educate and empower women to advocate for and control their own health and health care • Recruit and fund medical staff • Provide services to breast cancer survivors and their families

June 2011

• Recruit and train lay ambassadors to promote breast cancer awareness and treatment messages in underserved areas around the globe For more information on Komen’s global commitment, visit komen.org/global.

1

Worldwide, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women.

25

Every 25 seconds someone in the world is given a diagnosis of breast cancer.

67

In developing countries, more than 67% of breast cancer cases are not diagnosed until the cancers are locally advanced or have already metastasized.

75

By 2020, researchers expect more than 75% of the new breast cancer cases will be among women under age 55 from developing countries.

The Washington Diplomat Page 33

from page 30

Neighborhoods has grown, the two have added categories, including more general news; a food section; arts and entertainment; politics and government; and stories on local business development.

“Those stories are always very heavily trafficked,” said Gomez, a photojournalist who moved to D.C. in 2003 from Caracas, Venezuela.

Borderstan currently has 10 volunteer contributors covering local issues and trends, from Advisory Neighborhood Commission meetings for Dupont and Logan to the controversial “Post Office” restaurant project on T Street (residents worry the proposed bistro will become a crowded nightclub destination).

They also post about bigger-picture issues with an eye to their impact on the neighborhood. A March 29 post about the Census results noted, for instance, the remarkable population increase of 33 percent, from 4,559 to 6,077 residents, in a part of Logan Circle bounded by 14th Street in the east, 16th Street in the west, Massachusetts Avenue in the south, and S Street in the north. Similarly, Ward 2, which encompasses most of the larger Dupontchallenges for this area are what you see all over the city, Logan area, increased in populain that so many parts of D.C. have become such desirtion by 16 percent — from 68,000 able places to live,” Rhoades said. “Maybe we’re at to 79,000 inhabitants — the fastest ground zero in terms of that.What affects me day to day rate in the city. is the high price of real estate.We’d love to buy a bigger Borderstan attributed the rapid place, but the real estate is so high, we can’t afford it,” he growth in Logan Circle to new complained.“And we’re not poor.” rental and condo buildings sproutAt the same time, the climbing rents and property ing up along the 1400 blocks of P taxes are driving the furious pace of development in the and Church Streets, NW, as well as area, bringing in businesses that can afford to move in.

Rhode Island Avenue. Even with PHOTO: VICKI ISLEY / DESTINATION DC “People scream about too many restaurants and bars, these developments, and a total population of just over 600,000, however, D.C. is still far from its but they’re the only ones who have cash flows to pay those leases,” noted Rhoades. maximum-recorded population of more than 800,000 in 1950.

On the flip side, he worries the soaring prices may be forcing Although Rhoades and Gomez see the growth of this part of D.C. mostly in a positive light, they worry, as many do, about the rising other worthy businesses out: “One of my concerns on a personal cost of living out-pricing people who want to live there.“To me, the level, as someone who lives here, likes to shop locally, is how many

Page 34

Dupont Circle, along with neighboring Logan Circle, have attracted a recent influx of well-to-do twentysomethings that have flocked to the area’s mix of cafés, shops (such as Kramerbooks, a Dupont staple), markets and specialty boutiques.

PHOTOS: LARRY LUXNER

LUXURY LIVING The Washington Diplomat

June 2011

“I love the vitality, I love the international presence in our neighbors, I love the intellect that is surrounding and present in this area.”

— DEBORAH SCHREIBER president of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association

attempted to be made.”

In the 1980s, the association worked with the Department of Transportation to return the traffic circle to its original configuration and expand the historic district to include 14th Street. In the early 1990s, it held two large festivals of the arts on 14th Street, foreshadowing the blossoming of galleries and artist studios in more recent years.

The association’s current priorities, according to Maffin, 85, involve promoting livability, with a special focus on education. It aims to improve local schools so that young families will remain in the area (instead of migrating to the suburbs in search of better schools), as well as help the elderly continue to stay there. A community diverse in age will benefit all, goes the thinking.

In addition, Maffin says the association will continue to focus on historical preservation and beautification projects, such as tree-box structures and plantings.The group is now in the early stages of working with Cultural Tourism DC to implement a historical walking trail for the area, of the kind that have become popular for several other D.C. neighborhoods.

Maffin, who first came to Washington on a short-term assignment with the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Johnson years and stayed on, says he most enjoys the historical character of Logan Circle, the “best neighborhood I’ve lived in.” The well-preserved residential architecture of Vermont Avenue includes, for instance, the house of Mary McLeod Bethune, the daughter of slaves who grew up in poverty in the rural South and became a civil rights leader who organized the National Council of Negro Women in 1935. The house, a National Historic Site, describes her leading role in advancing racial and gender equality as an advisor to four U.S. presidents, among other activities.

The passion Maffin exhibits for Logan Circle is matched by that of his counterpart Deborah Schreiber, the current president of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association (DCCA), for “her” circle. Having lived on P Street just west of the circle since 2001, and rented the house there since 1985 while living with her husband on Capitol Hill, she has a quick answer when asked what she likes most about Dupont.

“I absolutely love the urban-ness of it — I don’t know how else to explain it,” she said. “I love the vitality, I love the international presence in our neighbors, I love the intellect that is sur-

Continued on next page

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of the small businesses will be able to make it with rising costs of real estate. That’s something we will see, is who will remain here.”

However, another typical side effect of the shift to higher rents and mortgages is not occurring, according Gomez: the much-bandied “g-word.”

“It’s not really gentrification, not in this area,” he said.“People are not being sent away; people are coming in.” The Borderstan editors note that when Whole Foods Market opened on the 1400 block of P Street in fall of 2000, the move sparked the revitalization of much of the surrounding area, including many lots that had stood vacant since the devastating riots of 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. A photograph in the Washington Star from April 6, 1968, taken on 14th Street at the height of the riots, shows three national guardsmen standing in front of the rubble of a still-smoking building. Lest it be confused as an image from World War II, the caption clarifies: “This is not a war scene.”

Additional photographs of Logan Circle from the summer of 1971 (in the “Images of America” series book on the neighborhood) show the circle in a decidedly disheveled state.“Logan Circle then experienced much crime and severe lack of maintenance,” according to the caption.

That may have been putting it mildly, with prostitution and homelessness once a common sight in Logan Circle — which didn’t develop as quickly as Dupont, a more established neighborhood that become re-energized in the 1970s by its growing gay and lesbian community, which remains a defining feature of the neighborhood today.

For Logan, the journey from the low-point of that period to the renaissance of restored Victorian rowhouses and flourishing new restaurants, shops and theaters that define the area today has not been a linear progression toward rejuvenation. Bob Maffin, a 40-year resident of the area currently serving his second term as president of the Logan Circle Community Association, recalls the association’s role in gradually improving the circle since its founding in 1974.

“During the 1970s and early ’80s, the community organized to try to get street prostitution out of the area, and we were successful,” he told us.“We did that through patient, nonviolent presence during the time that the transactions were

The Washington Diplomat Page 35

Continued from previous page rounding and present in this area.” She also cited the plethora of cultural offerings, from the Phillips Collection to the National Geographic, to the Keegan Theatre, as well as the “incredibly wonderful” restaurants. “You usually will hear four or five languages as you walk down street.”

Not to mention the circle itself, home to historic snowball fights, impromptu concerts, ongoing chess games and a constant hum of activity and life. “We have a wonderful, vivacious, exciting circle, which is a meeting place for any number of individuals who just want to take a little respite,” Schreiber said. “It’s beautifully landscaped and we have a wonderful sculpted fountain and it’s a gathering place for all ages.”

The DCCA, founded in 1922 and preparing to celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2012, has shifted its focus in recent years toward “fostering neighborliness,” Schreiber explained.

“Of all sections of the city over the last 30 to 40 years, there was a tremendous influence from development in Dupont Circle. So the DCCA had a strong focus in the ’60s and ’70s and into the ’80s on zoning and regulatory issues. Currently, most of the demand for looking out for development and protecting homeowners has lessened because we have pretty good zoning laws,” Schreiber said.“The focus for DCCA, as we transition to the 21st century, is looking to be a greater, stronger partner for residents and businesses.”

Like its counterpart in Logan Circle, the DCCA also sponsors an annual house tour, for which there is a “rigorous selection committee.”

In lieu of regular fundraising efforts, this major event draws supporters from across the region to visit 12 to 14 homes and enjoy snacks and tea, donated by local merchants, along the way.

This year’s tour is scheduled for Oct. 16. “It’s a wonderful event,” Schreiber noted.

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Along 14th Street, NW, from Thomas Circle to U Street, lies a diverse stretch of buildings and businesses, young and old, that have given the Dupont-Logan Circle neighborhoods the fastestgrowing population rate in the city.

As of late March, with the trees still bare and the fountain not yet bubbling, four large white letters, “L-O-V-E,” appeared at the center of Dupont Circle.

The “love” sign is in fact an advertisement for Virginia tourism, though it fits well on that spot.

As Schreiber said, there’s a lot to love about the Dupont neighborhood as well as the broader community stretching over to Logan Circle.“It’s so fabulous, I love Dupont Circle.”

Jacob Comenetz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

Motherly Instincts Though she looks like one, Nurilla Idrissova of Kazakhstan isn’t a runway model — but she is a nurturing role model for the wives of young diplomats posted with her husband. PAGE 40

ART

Dutch Depictions Unlike his contemporaries, Gabriel Metsu never really re-emerged in the artistic afterlife as a household name, though his originality d d as a compelling visual narrative endures today of 17th-century Dutch life. PAGE 42

PHOTO: FEMSA COLLECTION

LATIN GIANTS ART

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Illuminating ‘Corridor’ A group of local artists try to bridge the existential “corridor” between Baltimore and D.C., two cities close in distance but far apart in character. PAGE 44

“Beyond the Labyrinth” at the Mexican Cultural Institute brings together 50 eclectic works by some of the most prestigious Latin American artists from the past century to examine the region’s conflicted identity, and our own equally conflicted notions about it. PAGE 38

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[ art ]

Latin ‘Labyrinth’ Artists Survey Complex Landscape, Conflicted Legacy

by Jacob Comenetz

I

n his existentialist musings on the Mexican national character, “The Labyrinth of Solitude,” first published in 1950, the Nobel Laureate writer and diplomat Octavio Paz posits that the Mexican condition is one of particular alienation, the legacy of an identity trapped between indigenous and colonial influences.

“To become aware of our history is to become aware of our singularity,” he wrote. “It is a moment of reflective repose before we devote ourselves to action again.”

Today, more than 60 years later, certain ideas of Paz still resonate. Though a 2010 Economist magazine cover featured an inverted map of the Western Hemisphere with the title “Nobody’s backyard,” discussing the rise of Latin America and “the need for a new attitude north of the Rio Grande” to recognize that rise, the mood in some Latin countries is far from upbeat. In fact, there remains a palpable distance between the countries north and south of the PHOTOS: FEMSA COLLECTION Rio Grande.

“Beyond the Labyrinth” features 50 works by Globalization, economic growth, political changsome of the best-known Latin American artists es and lingering problems such as drug violence all continue to impact the psyche of present-day from the past century, including Frida Kahlo, above, Mexico and, more broadly, Latin America. So to take Francis Alÿs, top, and Kahlo’s husband Diego Rivera, a serious look at the region today is to realize the left — as well as Fernando Botero, whose “Santa need to reassess certain notions about it — and just Rosa de Lima” is featured on the culture cover. as in the “Labyrinth” era,“It is a moment of reflective repose.”

Modernist Tendencies,” moves through Offering a timely moment for such reflection is “Surrealism” and “The Social and Physical the exhibition“Beyond the Labyrinth”at the Mexican Landscape,” to “Constructivism and Cultural Institute. Featuring 50 disparate works by Abstraction,” then continues on the fourth some of the best-known Latin American artists from floor with “Postwar Figuration and Neothe past century, from Frida Kahlo to Fernando Expressionism” and finally,“Contemporary Art Botero, the exhibition asks viewers to question their preconcepand the New Millennium.”

Beyond the Labyrinth: tions about the meaning of “Latin American art” and its relationWorks by famous artists such as Diego Rivera and his wife ship to the wider world of Western art.

Latin American Art Frida Kahlo are particularly intriguing because they represent Curator Marysol Nieves said the exhibition’s title, partly lesser-known aspects of their repertoire: Rivera’s cubist “El and the FEMSA Collection inspired by Paz’s celebrated book, hints at alternative interpretagrande de España (El ángel azul)” dates from 1914 to his through June 18 tions of Latin American art. sojourn in Europe, as he was developing ideas that would influMexican Cultural Institute “Beyond defining the region’s cultural or artistic ‘identity’ as ence his later period as a muralist. Kahlo’s “Mi vestido cuelga 2829 16th St., NW subject to a perennial sense of dislocation or marginalization as aqui (My dress hangs there),” painted in New York in 1933, is For more information, please call suggested by Paz’s writings, ‘Beyond the Labyrinth’ suggests the not one of her iconic self-portraits, but rather a surrealist(202) 728-1628 or visit rich and dynamic role artists from Latin America have played in inspired collage filled with symbolic references from her subwww.instituteofmexicodc.org. the discourse and development of key aspects of modernism, and conscious. their ever growing presence in the contemporary art field on a Beyond these famous names, exhibition-goers will discover global stage,” she said. captivating works by artists such as Spanish-born Remedios Varo, whose 1958 surrealist Organized into six thematic sections, the exhibition’s impressive breadth is drawn from “Papilla estelar,” or “star pap” is sure to spark conversation, or Fernando Botero, a Colombian the FEMSA Collection, one of the world’s largest collections of art from Mexico and Latin artist inspired by the Italian Renaissance whose 1977 painting “Santa Rosa de Lima” porAmerica, with more than 1,000 works. FEMSA owns and operates Mexico’s largest chain trays a voluptuous nun wearing a necklace of pearls. of convenience stores under the OXXO brand, and is the largest independent bottler of Though selecting a favorite work may be a futile endeavor, curator Nieves said she could Coca-Cola products in the world as well as the second largest stakeholder in Heineken. identify one “that really synthesizes the main objectives of the exhibition” — Rufino The diverse roster of artists plucked from the collection includes Diego Rivera, Frida Tamayo’s “New York from the Terrace,” painted in 1937.

Kahlo, Dr.Atl, Rufino Tamayo (all from Mexico), Roberto Matta (Chile),Wifredo Lam (Cuba), “Stylistically the painting combines aspects of European vanguard practices such as Joaquín Torres García (Uruguay), Jesús Rafael Soto and Armando Reverón (Venezuela), to surrealism and synthetic cubism along with elements of Mexican modernism, so it essenname a few. After being invited by FEMSA to develop the exhibition for the Mexican tially demonstrates Tamayo’s desire to position himself with respect to these different Cultural Institute in Washington, independent curator Nieves, based in New York, said she influences and to somehow define a pictorial and stylistic language of his own,” Nieves soon saw how the artworks could be arranged in a cohesive manner. said.

“As soon as I began studying the collection the concept quickly took shape,” she said.

The painting depicts Tamayo looking through a spyglass over the jumbled maze of the “Particularly the presence of key modernist works by Tamayo, Kahlo, Torres-Garcia, Manhattan skyline, literally “placing the artist at the crossroads of these seemingly disparate Reverón and Rivera helped solidify my approach, which was to use this remarkable collec- worlds,” Nieves said.And like the artist, Latin America continues to stand at a crossroads of tion to explore profound developments and exchanges that have occurred throughout the seemingly disparate worlds, a labyrinth of melding identity and enduring individuality. history of modern and contemporary art.”

The exhibition begins on the first floor with a room devoted to “Cubism and Other Early Jacob Comenetz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

[

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The Washington Diplomat

]

June 2011

June 2011

The Washington Diplomat Page 39

[ diplomatic spouses ]

Model Den Mom Kazakh Wife Nurtures Embassy Family, Nourishes Soul

by Gail Scott

F

irst, you notice the high cheekbones, then her wide-set big brown eyes, and a sculptured, chiseled face with almost no lines.The look is timeless yet exotic, and quite mesmerizing. You think she could be a model from a distant land.

She is a model but not for the runway or camera lens. Nurilla Idrissova is an important role model for the wives of the young diplomats helping her husband, Ambassador Erlan Idrissov, tell Kazakhstan’s unique story in America. She is also the mother of their three children, ages 28 to 12, and a devoted disciple of feng shui and yoga to nurture and nourish her inner beauty.

“Since we are all away from our family and friends in Kazakhstan, we have created an extended family among ourselves at the embassy here,” she explained over tea at their new residence on Edgevale Terrace, NW. “My husband and I were pretty young, only 22, when we first went abroad and so we understand and know how hard it is. I have sort of adopted these diplomatic wives and their children.

“This group of women get together every month or even more often sometimes,” she continued.“I plan trips to different art galleries and attractions and we visit in each other’s homes.”

Every summer, when many Kazakhs come to the United States to visit their relatives working Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov and his wife Nurilla at the embassy in Washington, Nurilla and her husIdrissova ride in a carriage en route to present his credentials to band also arrange a huge all-day picnic for the [O]ur diplomats and staff are so the Court of St. James in London. After serving as ambassador to embassy’s extended family.

Britain, Norway, Sweden and Ireland, the Idrissovs moved to young and this is often their first job Last year, this inventive diplomatic spouse created Washington, D.C., in 2007. an electronic magazine that is produced each month abroad. They don’t know their way by one of the members of her embassy group. to the Court of St. James, also becoming ambassador to Among the topics are hints on how to prepare for Norway, Sweden and Ireland, with residency in London. around and often their spouses Kazakhstan’s traditional holidays and advice on how Since July 2007, the couple has made Washington their to save money while in Washington and where to home away from home. arrive here not speaking English. get the best bargain vacations in the United States.

“When we arrived in Washington five years ago, our One of those young diplomats from the Kazakh son spoke no English. It took him one year to learn, just I try to make them feel at home.

Embassy, Meruyert Saudabay, who was on hand to going to an English-speaking school. He was quiet the help translate during our interview, brought all the whole year and it was hard and lonely for him — no — NURILLA IDRISSOVA issues from the magazine’s first year. Computerother Central Asian students and not even a Russianwife of Kazakh Ambassador Erlan Idrissov generated, each issue features an inviting cover, colspeaking student,” Nurilla recalled. “But he learned and orful artwork and photos, and plenty of clever copy. now he speaks better than I do,” said this proud mother.

Now, with only 12-year-old Aljan at home, Nurilla feels that being the embassy’s “den Their middle child,Aigerim, now 25, lives and works in Kazakhstan’s new capital city mother” is her main job. She noted that one of the difficulties in Kazakhstan’s large Almaty as a freelance concept designer, illustrator and art director at a private advertisembassies in Russia and the United States “is that our diplomats and staff are so young ing agency, after having studies at the University of London’s Central Saint Martins and this is often their first job abroad.They don’t know their way around and often their College of Art and Design. spouses arrive here not speaking English. I try to make them feel at home,” with this Her older brother Daniar graduated from the Royal Holloway College at the support group.

University of London in 2005 and is currently putting his economics degree to good The Idrissovs themselves have been posted to many places, beginning in Moscow, use, working with several different Almaty companies that are involved in foreign where Erlan Idrissov studied international relations, English, Urdu, Hindi and French at investments and private equity businesses. the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of what was then the Soviet “All our children are just like their father! No one is like me,” Nurilla divulged, Union’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. laughing.

Their first foreign diplomatic assignment came in 1992 when the family moved to the As we talked, I realized that a whole new person was unfolding in front of me.When United States while he was posted as first secretary in Kazakhstan’s Permanent Mission we’d met before on the diplomatic circuit, we always smiled but didn’t talk much.The to the United Nations. ambassador always glowed when he spoke of his wife, but he also told me that he The ambassador quickly moved up the diplomatic ladder, serving as a presidential often attended events alone because his wife had a hearing problem, especially in large, assistant specializing in international issues before becoming first vice minister of foreign noisy crowds. affairs and later Kazakhstan’s minister of foreign affairs from 1999 to 2002.

So I asked her if it has been difficult to participate in diplomatic life, especially At that point, the family moved to London where he served as his country’s top envoy where neither her native language nor Russian are mostly spoken.

“

”

Page 40

The Washington Diplomat

June 2011

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From right, Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov and his wife Nurilla Idrissova pose with their three children: Aigerim, Aljan and Daniar. Aljan remains in Washington with his parents while his older siblings live and work in Kazakhstan’s capital city of Almaty.

“Yes, having a hearing problem and trying to speak in English and being surrounded by English is difficult for me,” she said.“Seven years ago, I woke up one morning and I noticed one eye was red.Then, I realized that I couldn’t hear anything out of that ear. One year later to the date, the same thing happened with the other ear,” she explained.

“I wear a hearing aid but in crowded places where it’s very noisy, it is hard for me. I come home with a terrible headache. When I watch TV, it helps if I use a headset. At live concerts, I can hear the music but the melody is in a different form that what I may remember from hearing it before I lost most of my hearing.

“I have been to doctors everywhere — in China, London, Ukraine, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and each one says there is nothing else to be done. Someday, I hope I will find someone who will give me hope and have a [different] answer.”

For now though, Nurilla does relish diplomatic life, which she admits can be difficult but extremely rewarding.

“It’s always nice to see a new country, new culture,” she said.“These experiences enrich our souls. I like to see the positive side of people and take those impressions back home. That’s one of my jobs here as wife of the ambassador…. I’m not trying to look for anything negative. My husband and I have respect for the local culture and appreciate many things about your government, like the Disabilities Act [of 1990],” she noted.

“Of course, it is anyone’s dream to come to

America. It is still the number-one country politically, economically, strategically, and you are rich also in human resources.We love seeing all the different regions with their own climate and nature. America is a beautiful country and we love to travel around, especially driving ourselves on car trips.We have been to Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami.”

Clearly well-traveled, Nurilla is also wellcoiffed and well-dressed. She is undeniably striking, so we discussed how she keeps so trim.

“I never starve myself,” she began. “I have done yoga for a long time and, now, aqua aerobics. Plus I watch my diet.You know what Coco Chanel said, don’t you? ‘At 20, a woman has a face by nature. At 30, she has to work on it and, after 50, you can explore your look.’

“My style is to never follow the fashion trends or other people,” Nurilla continued. “You must dress according to your lifestyle, status, age and body structure. It’s not important what brand anything is, just that it suits you.”

“Especially when you are older, beauty is part of your success,” she added.“Your inside beauty is fed by taking care of yourself and staying in shape.You must love yourself and love whatever you do. Always be yourself — never look back…. I tell our women that it is not healthy to have huge illusions; it is best to live for today.

That way you have the best experiences, whatever you are doing at that particular moment.”

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Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and lifestyle columnist for the Diplomatic Pouch.

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[ art ]

The One and Only Metsu Shined in Depicting Dutch Life, But Faded in Afterlife PHOTO: RIJKSMUSEUM, AMSTERDAM

P

by Gary Tischler

[ Page 42

ity Gabriel Metsu.The Dutch artist died young at the age of 38 in 1667 — at the height of a career that took place at the height of the prosperous Dutch Republic, whose daily life Metsu captured with stunning skill.

But unlike his better-known contemporaries such as Rembrandt van Rijn (who, considerably older, died two years after Metsu) and Johannes Vermeer, Metsu never really re-emerged as a household artistic name.

An exhibition of 33 paintings now at the National Gallery of Art proves without doubt how patently unfair his fate was. Then again, something similar happened to Vermeer, the god of holy light whose reputation in 19th-century Europe was buried among other dead artists. It took 20th-century critics, and perhaps a scarcity of his work, to lift Vermeer into the pantheon of Dutch sun gods.

Yet in his lifetime, Metsu was very much a success story — he was even most likely a prodigy, having been referred to as a “painter” around 1644 when he was only 14 or 15 years old and registering four years later as a master in the artistic Guild of Saint Luke in his native Leiden. Metsu’s reputation in fact was certainly as high or better than Vermeer’s in his time, along the lines of Gerrit Dou and Gerard ter Borch, who, like Metsu, were noted for their genre work in their lifetimes.

Incidentally, the National Gallery has hosted exhibitions on Dou and Borch, not to mention the blockbuster exhibition on Vermeer during the government shutdown in the Clinton years. The Dou and Borch exhibitions were interesting surveys of two painters whose reputations lost considerable luster in the artistic afterlife.

Metsu was influenced by both men, as well as Vermeer — an imprint that shows in some of the paintings in this exhibition. But what sets Metsu apart is an originality that endures today as a compelling visual narrative of 17th-century Dutch life.

Even though not much biographical material is available on his life, we do know something about the times and economic and social culture in which he lived, as well as about the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age. Metsu made sure of that in several ways: by putting himself in many of his paintings as the sole subject or as part of the scene, by portraying his wife in many more works, and by masterfully capturing the nuances of the urban landscape around him, notably Amsterdam. In the process, he used innovative techniques that distinguished him from the crowd and allowed him to depict sometimes-common scenes with uncommon emotion, nuance and individuality.

Metsu is now recognized for his so-called genre paintings of life in Dutch cities, towns and countryside, as well as the odd religious painting. In his scenes of courtship, busy markets and quiet home settings, he seems to be doing what other painters were doing — works that sold like hot cakes. The Dutch flourished during his lifetime, and, just as people would today, the PHOTO: PRIVATE COLLECTION, MOUNT STUART, ISLE OF BLUE high-flying members of the merchant class filled their homes Gabriel Metsu, 1629–1667 with all sorts of stuff to show off their success. Metsu, like many through July 24 of his contemporaries, did well National Gallery of Art for himself — which in turn on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets allowed him to move into the at Constitution Avenue, NW ranks of the upper social elite.

For more information, please call (202) 737-4215 In short, his paintings sold very well. or visit www.nga.gov.

Today, you can still see why. In works such as “A Man Writing a Letter,” which stands next to “A Woman Reading a Letter,” we discover the serenity of leisure. The tranquil subject matter seems to be influenced by Vermeer, and how he used light, but there’s a difference. You can say a lot about what happens in Metsu’s paintings, but ethereal wouldn’t be one of the words you used.

Metsu’s colors and lights have a smudgy, energetic feel to them.They focus on the humanity of the faces, in all their imperfections, as opposed to any aspirations toward the ideal. The genre scenes feel lively, full of living people and a realism that echoes the way impressionists would uncover the essence of a still life subject by stripping it of details.

His talents are particularly evident in “The Sick Child,” which isn’t burnished by

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The Washington Diplomat

PHOTOS: NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND / PHOTOGRAPHER: ROY HEWSON

Gabriel Metsu skillfully captured daily Dutch life in the 17th century, in all its beauty and banality, as seen in works such as, from clockwise top, “The Sick Child,” “A Man Writing a Letter,” “A Woman Reading a Letter,” and “An Old Couple Feeding a Dog.”

any attempt to make the subject heartbreaking.

There’s light here but it is revealing as opposed to sentimental or holy.

This isn’t to say that Metsu’s genre paintings aren’t detailed, but they’re detailed in the way that short stories serve as preludes to lengthy novels. Here, wooden baskets, women’s hats, fishes, flowers, the constant presence of dogs and cats, as well as chickens are part of a larger story — suggesting the interactions of the day.

For instance, we see a hunter dropping off a rabbit for a single woman (a gesture that h d was apparently a kind of erotic come-on back in the Dutch day), who reaches for her Bible, eying the handsome hunter in a quandary.“An Old Couple Feeding a Dog” suggests that the couple is nearing the end of their lives, with their faithful animal companion by their sides.

Metsu seems in tune with the world in which he lived, observing it relentlessly like a true artist would and recreating it in his paintings. Maybe we should leave questions of genius, who’s number one or two, out of the discussion when it comes to his work. If one of the characteristics of genius is a recognizable uniqueness, then Metsu fits the bill. He wasn’t a lesser Vermeer or a better Vermeer. He was Metsu, and no one else was.

Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

June 2011

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The Washington Diplomat Page 43

[ art ]

‘Corridor ’ Apart Baltimore, D.C. Find Common Creative Ground

by Jacob Comenetz

S

eparated by just 40 miles on the map, the cities of Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C., often seem much further apart. It’s not just the lack of convenient transportation options between them. Rather, the similarly-sized midAtlantic cities seem to cherish their mutual aloofness, like two siblings who never really could relate.

The cities’ artist communities, each with an identity tied to its respective urban environment, remain similarly distant. Baltimore, known for its gritty blue-collar vibe, factory remnants and warehouse spaces — which make for relatively cheap studio space to cash-strapped artists — serves as a foil to D.C., where rents tend to be higher and workspace scarcer, despite a plethora of world-renowned museums and galleries.

With this in mind, three Baltimore-based artists got together a year and half ago to bridge the divide with an exhibition that would bring the two artist communities, and with them their two cities, closer together.The exhibition “Corridor,” a reference to the I-95 highway linking Baltimore and D.C., features the work of 12 artists, six from each city, within the historic surroundings of the 1912 Spanish colonial-style Art Museum of the Americas — originally designed as the residence for the secretaries-general of the Organization of American States.

Veering from its usual focus on Latin art, the museum goes local for this compelling show, highlighting some of the leading talents in the region. But Laura Roulet, who cocurated the exhibit with her colleague Irene Hofmann, said it highlighted “not regional artists, but exceptional artists who happen to be based in the region.”

“The show is about networking, about connections between artists,” Roulet said.“We saw some threads we wanted to bring out, to create a pathway for the viewer.”

Despite the decisive role played by Roulet and Hofmann in selecting and organizing the artwork,“Corridor” represents a departure from the traditional artist-curator dynamic in that the three original artists — Bernhard Hildebrandt, Soledad Salamé and Joyce J. Scott — assumed the role of curators, selecting three D.C.-based artists to be included in the show.At that point, each artist in that group of six chose one additional artist, for PHOTOS: ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS a total of 12.

Only then, with the artists selectJohn Ruppert’s chain-link sculpture “Gourd,” above, ed, were the curators invited to visit graces the lawn outside the Art Museum of the Americas, their studios, pick out individual while inside sits Bernhard Hildebrandt’s “L3” series of pieces, and design the exhibition’s digital, monochromatic prints whose title references the layout and catalogue. Adding to this manufacturer of the most widely used model of whole-body curatorial “cross-pollination, D.C.scanners controversially adopted by American airports. based curator Roulet worked with the Baltimore-based artists, while high art.

Hofmann, then director of the The other artist featured in the room, Phil Nesmith, now Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, based in Richmond, Va., but representing D.C. for the purworked with the D.C. artists. poses of the show, is similarly interested in the historic The result is an eye-opening expephotographic methods of artists such as Man Ray, whose rience that reflects the area’s artistic innovations with direct image-making pushed the boundardepth as well as its regional demoies of photography as an art form. In Nesmith’s “Flight graphics, as the curators write in Patterns” series, flying creatures such as birds, bats and their forthcoming exhibition catainsects are captured and bottled, both in antique jars and containers, as logue. They note the even share of men and Corridor well as in time through the chosen medium of sepia-toned photograms. women represented in the show, and the fact through June 26 The exhibit itself travels the relatively short space between two cities that one third are African American and one that are home to such a range of artistic offerings. And because the quarter are Latina. “As curators, we were Art Museum of the Americas museum space itself is relatively small, visitors won’t have to rush intrigued by the artists’ choices of each other,” 201 18th St., NW through to see all of the diverse works that make up the exhibition’s two Roulet and Hofmann write.“Was the desire to For more information, please call (202) 458-6016 floors. include another artist based on stylistic affinior visit www.museum.oas.org.

They may want to linger on the curving staircase, where the fanciful, ties, media, gender, ethnicity, mentor relationintricately adorned “spirit bottles” of Baltimore native Oletha DeVane ships?”

Even as they represent their respective cities, the artists tackle universal themes in a stand guard in the alcoves, or meander through the lovely formal garden to contemvariety of three-dimensional and two-dimensional media that do not immediately iden- plate John Ruppert’s “River Jacks,” a series of cast-metal boulders set alongside an original granite one, or his chain-link sculpture “Gourd,” which mimics a natural form tify them as being from either Baltimore or D.C. Entering the museum, tucked between the imposing edifices of the Organization of with overtly manmade materials.

The Art Museum of the Americas is one of those hidden gems that many people who American States and Department of the Interior, one first encounters digital, monochromatic prints made by Hildebrand, who drew on full-body scanner images of the human have lived in Washington for years have yet to see.“Corridor” provides an ideal opporbody taken at many U.S. airports that echo much earlier work by Eadweard Muybridge tunity to make the trip to this intimate cultural venue while deepening one’s knowland Leonardo da Vinci. Inspired by the history and function of photography, Hildebrand edge of the region’s impressive artistic talent, whichever span of I-95 you land on. seems to ask whether the body images produced by the controversial TSA scanners in the name of security are capable of elevating the high-tech human form to the level of Jacob Comenetz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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June 2011

EVENTS

Shackleford Wins Preakness, Pavilion Wins Over Dignitaries S hackleford stole the show — and the Triple Crown from Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom — to take the 136th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., claiming the $1 million prize with half a length to spare at the finish line.

As the colt sweat his way to victory, against 12-to-1 odds, onlookers kept cool and dry in the air-conditioned International Pavilion inside the racetrack at the Corporate Village, where visitors paid $575 apiece to enjoy themed tents in the grassy infield.

Following the success of the inaugural International Pavilion in 2010 hosted by the Spanish Ambassador Jorge Dezcallar, this year’s pavilion was hosted by the Mexican Embassy. Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, who donned a casual beige suit for the occasion, joined Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and others in the large, seated tent, where guests feasted on Mexican specialties such as chicken ancho chile and various tequila concoctions.

Although only in its second year, the pavilion has become a highlight of the Corporate Village and a key element in the larger campaign to attract more diplomats and dignitaries to the Preakness, the second race in the Triple Crown and a big moneymaker for the state of Maryland and its cash-strapped horseracing industry.

The effort seems to be paying off: This year’s Preakness drew more than 107,000, the sixth-largest crowd in Preakness history and the biggest since officials had barred fans from bringing their own alcohol into the track.

The drive to attract a bigger turnout, in fact, has produced a strange dichotomy of clientele.

Ambassadors and socialites in striking hats hobnobbed at the International Pavilion, which had a direct view of the finish line, while other tents offered tastings of single-malt scotch and complimentary makeovers.

Meanwhile, not too far away, patrons paid $60 to enjoy all-you-can-drink beer, goaded by a marketing campaign featuring an infield mascot named Kegasus, a halfhorse, half-man with a full beer belly.

As Robert McCartney pointed out in a Washington Post article: “It’s no surprise that our society is split by class and caste. But it’s rare to see the divisions so clearly on display in such a small space as they are at the Preakness,” he wrote, although he gave credit to the Maryland Jockey Club, the Preakness organizers, for expanding the vision, and profits, of a pivotal event that helps to sustain horseracing in Maryland.

“They’ve managed to pitch the race successfully to corporate executives and working people.”

Fans of all backgrounds seemed to be relishing the race, held on a gorgeous Saturday on May 21. And plans are already in the works for next year’s pavilion.

— Anna Gawel

June 2011

Above, from left, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Mrs. and Ambassador of Mexico Arturo Sarukhan, and President and Chief Executive Officer of the Maryland Jockey Club Thomas Chuckas Jr. stand at the International Pavilion, hosted by the Mexican Embassy, at the 136th Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Md.

Above, from right, Ambassador of Peru Luis M. Valdivieso joins his wife Aida and daughter Veronica at the International Pavilion of the 136th Preakness Stakes held at Pimlico Race Course.

Former Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad, now with the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and his wife Shamim enjoy the International Pavilion at the 136th Preakness Stakes.

From left, Carl Dodson, Jacqueline Mcateer, Jim H. Learned, Jamie Sterling and Ron Gordon attend the Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel in horse racing’s famed Triple Crown.

The Washington Diplomat Page 45

[ dining ]

Healthy Appetite Seasons 52 Satisfies With Fresh, Affordable, Filling Food

by Rachel G. Hunt

S

easons 52, a Florida-based chain noted for its fresh and healthy cuisine, opened its 17th restaurant — and the first located in the Washington area — last month, just in time for the “quick let’s get fit for the summer” season that’s suddenly upon us. After months of being wrapped in heavy sweaters and stoking the fires with rich, heavy comfort food to stave off the cold, appetites turn to lighter fare. And Seasons is the perfect place to feed that need while staying fit.

As the name suggests, Seasons has a menu that is reworked four times a year to reflect seasonal availability, while adding new dishes weekly to capture ingredients at their peak of flavor and quality — inspired by the fresh appeal of farmer’s markets that generally last 52 weeks a year (hence the second reference in the name).The Seasons 52 concept, which originated in Orlando in 2003 with the opening of the first Seasons, pairs the trend of seasonal-based freshness with the growing desire to eat well while still feeling well about it.

Seasons 52 claims that no dish on the menu has more than 475 calories.While that may sound like a lot for a single dish, consider that the average burrito from Chipotle weighs in at more than 1,000 calories.The fact that Seasons 52 does not use butter might make some diners a bit apprehensive that taste might be sacrificed for pant size. But Seasons 52 uses equipment, including wood-oven grilling and brick-oven roasting, that doesn’t require added fats for cooking, along with techniques such as caramelizing vegetables to enhance their natural flavors without packing on extra calories. Another obvious way to hold down calories is to limit portion size, but Seasons doesn’t take the easy way out here.The portions are of a reasonable size for the average appetite (though perhaps not for teenage boys) and because the dishes are so flavorful, they’re satisfying.

Flatbread is a good example. One of Seasons’ signature dishes, this first cousin to pizza and foccia (albeit a skinny first cousin) comes in the form of a long, rectangle, almost paper-thin crust bread topped with a delicious array of equally paper-thin ingredients. The combinations are inventive and inviting: steak and cremini mushrooms with fresh spinach and Wisconsin blue cheese; Maryland crab with onions; roasted red pepper and mustard sauce; spicy chipotle shrimp with grilled pineapple; feta cheese and Seasons 52 roasted poblano peppers; and garlic chicken with balsamic onions, 11414 Rockville Pike, roasted red peppers and mozzarelNorth Bethesda, Md. la cheese. The balance of these (301) 984-5252 almost cracker-like dishes is ideal, www.Seasons52.com so neither component overwhelms the other. The only caveat is that Hours: Mon. - Thu., 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.; they should be eaten quickly as, Fri., 11:30 a.m. - 11 p.m.; being so thin, they have a tendency Sat., 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.; to dry out.

Sun., 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Some of the dishes achieve their calorie counts by tipping the balAppetizers: $4.95 - $10.45 ance in favor of the vegetables, Entrées: $9 - $25.55 such as the tiger shrimp penne Desserts: $2.50 pasta and market vegetables sautéed in a lemon-basil sauce with parmesan cheese. Other vegetable-heavy Dress: Upscale casual items include the chicken citron with Reservations: Accepted golden beets, broccoli and wild rice, as well as the cedar-plank roasted salmon with whole-roasted sweet carrots and fresh asparagus — all deliciously virtuous. Some dishes are inherently lower on the calorie front, such as the grilled rainbow trout served with spring new potatoes and roasted vegetables, and the grilled turkey tenderloin skewer that is partnered with vegetable pearl pasta, haricots verts and dressed in a rich tamarind glaze. Broiled lemon, rather than butter, rounds out the flavor profile on many of the dishes.

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The Washington Diplomat

PHOTOS: JESSICA LATOS

Seasons 52, a Florida-based chain, recently made its Washington-area debut, bringing its signature mix of health-conscious, price-conscious, fresh — yet filling — food and expansive wine list.

You might think that with all the emphasis on health and calories that Seasons might forgo the challenge of offering sweets. Not so. Seasons 52 pioneered the “mini indulgences” dessert concept, creating small versions of classics, as well as a few innovations of its own, in custom-made double shot-size glasses. Diners can choose from old-fashioned favorites such as key lime or pecan pie, carrot cake or lemon pound cake. For chocolate lovers there is a dense chocolate peanut butter mousse, a rocky road version made with Belgian chocolate, and the sublime mocha macchiato that channels tiramisu but turns left at the ladyfingers in a concession to health.

Seasonal favorites also come and go, such as strawberry shortcake in the spring, with blueberry cheesecake and a miniature pumpkin pie on tap this summer and double gingersnap crust in the fall. Served in a sampling rack with nine spaces, diners can choose from a preset sampling of each dessert flavor, or can customize the tray to their own tastes. The minis are priced by the piece so it’s easy to get as little or as much as you want, and because each dish is small, it’s

June 2011

possible to try several kinds without too much stress on the waistline or budget.

Seasons 52 is most noted for two features: its healthy approach to fine dining and its wine program, which has won numerous accolades, including Wine Spectator’s 2009 and 2010 Awards of Excellence. Under the direction of George Miliotes, who is the 152nd “master sommelier” in the world, Seasons 52 offers an eclectic collection of more than 100 wines at a range of price points that will appeal to even the most exacting palate. Miliotes has a passion for uncovering a good value, and travels extensively to locate new labels that offer both the high quality and relatively low cost to mirror the rest of the menu.

Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired architecture combines with a design mix of earth tones, rich woods, exposed stone, modernist fabrics and art glass to create an environment that is both aesthetically appealing and warmly inviting. Murals of dried spices behind glass are a colorful preamble to the dishes to come. The large bar encompasses an area for a piano, and during the evenings live music permeates the whole dining space as a sort of background filler in the larger design scheme.

Season 52’s location is also a brilliant bit of marking. Located between an LA Fitness and Whole Foods in the new North Bethesda Market on Rockville Pike across the street from White Flint Mall, it’s got a ready-made customer base.

Even weeknights, the 310-seat restaurant was often quite full. And with the crowd comes the noise. Seasons can be a bit loud when more than half full, though not bothersomely so.

Seasons 52 adds another important dimension to its concept: price consciousness.

Originators wanted to create a restaurant that offers fresh, healthy food that’s also affordable.

They have succeeded surprisingly well, with most entrées staying under $20.This may be one of the most compelling things about Seasons 52.

The food has the creativity and the quality of a high-end restaurant, and the ambiance to match, but it’s affordable enough to dine there on more

PHOTO: JESSICA LATOS

At Seasons 52, executive chef Ben Erjavec uses the restaurant’s formula of wood-oven grilling, brick-oven roasting and other cooking techniques — all while avoiding butter — to keep each dish under 475 calories.

than just a special occasion. Seasons promotes itself as a “casually sophisticated restaurant serving fresh, great tasting food at a good value,” and in one of the rare cases of truth in advertising, the description is spot on.

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

Plan Your Entire Weekend. www.washdiplomat.com

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TICKETS: (202) 625-2361 Order online/info/mailing list: www.embassyseries.org

June 2011

t h e s m i t h so n i a n ’s m us eu m s o f as i a n a rt

The Washington Diplomat Page 47

[ film reviews ]

British Bromance Coogan, Brydon Take Hilarious ‘Trip’ on Road to Nowhere

by Ky N. Nguyen

A

[

t the U.S. premiere of “The Trip,” during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, British director Michael Winterbottom’s hilarious film was a favorite of both audiences and critics. One of the most versatile of directors (“The Shock Doctrine,” “A Mighty Heart,” “Code 46,” “Welcome to Sarajevo”),Winterbottom conquers yet another genre, the road movie. The comedy successfully reunites him with actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon (both in “Tristram Shandy” and “24 Hour Party People”), who once again emit amazing chemistry together, this time portraying a modern-day bromance.

Coogan basically acts as himself, or a particularly self-centered version of that persona, on a plum assignment from “The Observer.” He’s all set to eat his way through top restaurants on a pleasant vacation in the beautiful pastoral settings of northern England’s Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, accompanied by his beautiful girlfriend Mischa (Margo Stilley of “9 Songs”). When she bails on him, he calls upon his best friend Rob (Brydon, also more or less playing himself), for whom he shares equal feelings of love and frustration.

Steve and Rob continually spar with each other, attempting to outdo each other in improvised comedic sketches, including impersonations of actors like Michael Caine, Sean Connery The Trip and Woody Allen. They continuPHOTO: PHIL FISK / IFC FILMS (English; 107 min.) ously argue over whose Michael Rob Brydon, left, and Steve Coogan embark on a hilarious road trip together where they spar over friendship, Caine is better and debate on life, work and comedic improvisation as only best friends can in Michael Winterbottom’s “The Trip.”

Landmark’s E Street Cinema friendship, life, work,and endOpens Fri., June 17 We see that the same kind of obsession that compelled less more rumination as only the Saint-Laurent to create innovative works of fashion also best of friends can.

When not bickering ★★★★✩ compelled him to collect masterpieces of art. In that with Rob or sleeping with innkeepers, sense, each place and object provides a representation of Steve struggles against a weak cell phone signal to keep in touch with a particular aspect of Saint-Laurent’s extravagant life.

Mischa, his child from a former marriage and his agents in London and Archival footage includes the art in the presence of celebAmerica. Though Rob certainly has a more stable — and fulfilling — rity friends like Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and Catherine personal life with a loving wife and child that he misses, he himself has Deneuve. Bergé basically serves as a tour guide, delivering some angst that drives the story. most of the talking on screen. He remains coy about why Wait, did I say story? Like “Seinfeld,”“The Trip” is about nothing.What he’s selling the art, though he admits Saint-Laurent would makes it work is that super casual nature in which anything could haphave kept the collection together if he was still alive. pen.The special flavor of humor is distinctively British, tart, and unexBergé intersperses his compectedly coming from all over the place. Coogan and Brydon are achments with frank reflections on his ingly funny, especially together. As usual, Winterbottom cooks up L’Amour Fou relationship with Saint-Laurent and something much more special than the raw ingredients of a common (French with subtitles; 98 min.) the designer’s creations. Bergé road trip flick. Since the movie is edited from a six-episode BBC series refers to Saint-Laurent’s bouts of Landmark’s E Street Cinema also called “The Trip,” perhaps we’re seeing the very best of scenes. manic depression, driving him to ★★★★✩ workaholic frenzies at times while YSL’s ‘L’Amour’ leaving him incapable of caring for himself at others. The various pieces — of words and The documentary “L’Amour Fou,” which made its U.S. premiere at PHOTO: PIERRE BOULAT / SUNDANCE SELECTS images — presented in “L’Amour Fou” add up to a mosaic the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, provides a respectful yet revealing look providing a modestly intimate glimpse of Saint-Laurent’s at the life of the late fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent.The opening First-time French director Pierre private life, long hidden behind the curtains showing only footage comes from Saint-Laurent’s emotionally candid retirement Thoretton’s documentary “L’Amour Fou” his oversaturated public persona. speech in 2002, referring to well-publicized partying and drug use offers a respectful yet revealing look at over an epic career lasting more than a half century, including four the life of the late fashion designer Yves ‘Submarine’ of Teen Angst decades heading his eponymous fashion label.That followed the fash- Saint-Laurent.

“Submarine,” adapted by British writer-director Richard ion prodigy’s stunning rise to prominence as the head designer for the House of Dior at the tender age of 21. For his entire adult life,YSL was a larger-than-life Ayoade from the lauded novel by Joe Dunthorne, adds a distinctly British hero to the cinematic pantheon of overambitious eccentric youth typified in Hollywood comingfigure capturing the public’s attention.

“L’Amour Fou assumes the audience knows all that. First-time French director Pierre of-age movies like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Rushmore.”The humor and acting are Thoretton takes a more personal look at the fashion icon by utilizing the framework of more droll but just as eccentric. The look and feel of the mid to late 1980s are also the 2009 auction of art collected by Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé, his long-time part- authentically evoked, though the themes are universal.

Like many teenage boys, precocious 15-year-old Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) strives ner (in business and in love), during their four decades together. The priceless collection includes works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Brancusi, Modigliani, Braque,Warhol, to have sex by his 16th birthday. The leading object of his affections is Jordana Bevan Leger and more. The filmmaker, himself a visual artist, takes the viewers on intimate (Yasmin Paige), an energetic lass who’s a self-proclaimed pyromaniac. A tough cookie, tours of three of the couple’s magnificent houses in Paris, Normandy and Marrakesh See FILM REVIEWS, page 51 — in a pseudo documentary form à la “Summer Hours” by Olivier Assayas.

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[ film festivals ]

Reel Deal Silverdocs Documentary Festival Honors Hegedus and Pennebaker

by Ky N. Nguyen

T

he AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival, perhaps the nation’s leading documentary film festival, returns June 20 to 26 at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Md., and other venues around the Washington area.

Now in its ninth year, the festival has been called “non-fiction nirvana” by Variety magazine and spans seven days of film screenings — including 14 Oscar-nominated flicks — that represent more than 60 nations and attract some 27,000 viewers each year.

A defining highlight of the festival is the Charles Guggenheim Symposium, which this year will honor veteran documentarians Chris Hegedus and Donn Alan (D.A.) Pennebaker. The June 23 program will present selected clips, followed by a discussion of their work.

“With a collective body of work spanning over 50 years, Hegedus and Pennebaker have influenced a generation of filmmakers in direct cinema,” said Sky Sitney, festival director.“Whether it be Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign, the three-day 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, an intimate portrait of Bob Dylan or a behind-the-scenes view of dot-com mania, they have captured some of the most important subjects and iconic figures of our time.”

Hegedus and Pennebaker’s body of work includes “Don’t Look Back” (1967), “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” (1973), For more information on “War Room” (1993), “Moon Over Broadway” (1997), “Down from Silverdocs, please call the Mountain” (2000), “Startup.com” (2001), “Elaine Stritch at (301) 495-6765 or visit Liberty” (2004), “Al Franken: God Spoke” (2006) and “Kings of www.silverdocs.com.

Pastry” (2009).

PHOTO: AFI-DISCOVERY CHANNEL SILVERDOCS DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL The annual Charles Guggenheim Symposium is a tribute to the Veteran documentarians Chris Hegedus, left, and Donn Alan Pennebaker will be late D.C.-based filmmaker Charles Guggenheim, winner of four Academy Awards for honored this year at the Charles Guggenheim Symposium of the AFI-Discovery Channel his documentaries. Past recipients include Martin Scorsese (2006), Jonathan Demme Silverdocs Documentary Festival, now in its ninth year.

(2007), Spike Lee (2008), Albert Maysles (2009) and Frederick Wiseman (2010).

There’s even a daily happy hour talk show, “Silverdocs Tonight,” when host AJ Other conference highlights include panels on topics such as the relationship between journalism and documentary filmmaking, as well as workshops with advice Schnack will interview filmmakers, film subjects, and talk more about the featured on distribution, pitches and public funding, a “digital bootcamp,” and a master class documentaries and their day at Silverdocs. focusing on directing with Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (“Boys of Baraka,” “Jesus Camp,”“12th and Delaware”).

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

to learn

more

Repertory Notes

by Washington Diplomat film reviewer Ky N. Nguyen

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

10TH ANNUAL SHORTIE AWARDS YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL On June 5, at the Artisphere in Arlington, Va., more than 400 student filmmakers (ages 7 to 18) from 26 states and 14 countries will vie for the Shortie Awards, including best animation short, live action short film and daily news program. A project of MHz Networks, the festival recognizes original short film productions created by student filmmakers and their teachers. The Shortie Awards 10th anniversary will be complemented by a conference. “ShortieCon” includes two days of workshops on topics such as “Final Cut Pro: Editing for Elementary,” “Documentary in a Day: Media-Making in Your Classroom” and “Exploring through Television Production Short Filmmaking in the Classroom.” www.shortieawards.org

Japan Information and Culture Center, Korean Embassy’s KORUS House, the Royal Thai Embassy and Spanish Embassy. “Pushing the Boundaries” (June 27-July 11) presents three sports films by Pepe Danquart.

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

AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE (AFI) SILVER THEATRE In addition to Silverdocs (June 20-26), check out the 2011 DC Caribbean Filmfest (June 3-6) and Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” (June 15-19) with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Continuing series include “Alfred Hitchcock Retrospective, Part II: Hitchcock in Hollywood” (through June 30), “Poetry of the Past: The Visionary Films of František Vlácil” (through June 29), “AFI Life Achievement Award Retrospective: Morgan Freeman” (through June 19), “Korean Film Festival DC 2011” (through June 8) and “A Season of Rohmer” (through June 30).

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

GOETHE-INSTITUT “EuroAsiaShorts” (June 6-10, 6:30 p.m.) showcases short films from Europe, Asia and the United States, with this year’s focus on “Men and Women,” in partnership with Alliance Française, Chinatown Community Cultural Center, Italian Cultural Institute,

June 2011

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART “In Praise of Independents: The Flaherty” (June 4) offers highlights from the 56th year of the Flaherty seminar on independent

filmmaking with “non-preconception.” “American Originals Now: Kevin Jerome Everson” (June 5, 25) shares the acclaimed director’s cinematic explorations of the history of African Americans and people of African descent. “Color, Scope: Recent Restorations from the 1950s” (June 12-18) reviews what audiences saw for the first time in widescreen. “All for All: Collaborative Channeling with Nam June Paik” (June 12, 2 p.m.) presents three collaged single-channel works by the Korean-born “father of video art” and partners.

(202) 842-6799, www.nga.gov/programs/film

FREER GALLERY OF ART The documentary “The Meaning of Tea” (June 12, 2 p.m.) is presented by director Scott Chamberlin Hoyt. Afterward, the first 100 audience members may attend a tea ceremony accompanied by traditional music from Taiwan performed by Alice Gu-Zheng Ensemble. “Look Again: Japanese Cinema Classics” reviews Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low” (June 17, 7 p.m.), Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Life of Oharu” (June 19, 2 p.m.), Yasujiro Ozu’s “An Autumn Afternoon” (June 24, 7 p.m.) and Masaki Kobayashi’s “Kwaidan” (June 26, 2 p.m.).

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

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

Czech Art Nouveau Prague (Praha secesní lé ta 1895-1914) Directed by František Vláčil (Czechoslovakia, 1974, 30 min.)

This short documentary is a sumptuous survey of the art and architecture of Prague at the turn of the 20th century.

(Screens with “Glass Skies” and “Sentiment”) AFI Silver Theatre Tue., June 28, 7 p.m., Wed., June 29, 7 p.m.

Glass Skies (Sklenená oblaka) Directed by František Vláčil (Czechoslovakia, 1958, 18 min.)

A young boy and an old man share dreams of flight in this poetic and visually dazzling short film. (Screens with “Sentiment” and “Art Nouveau Prague”) AFI Silver Theatre Tue., June 28, 7 p.m., Wed., June 29, 7 p.m.

Identity Card (Občanský průkaz) Directed by Ondřej Trojan (Czech Republic, 2010,137 min.)

The lives of four boys in the 1970s and their friends, first loves and parents are tracked from the age of 15, when they receive their state identity cards, to age 18, when they try everything possible to get out of military service.

The Avalon Theatre Wed., June 8, 8 p.m.

Sentiment Directed by Tomas Hejtmanek (Czech Republic, 2003, 76 min.)

This tribute to director František Vláčil is based on interviews taped with him before he died, which are reenacted and intercut with footage of locations used in some of his films. (Screens with “Glass Skies” and “Art Nouveau Prague”) AFI Silver Theatre Tue., June 28, 7 p.m., Wed., June 29, 7 p.m.

Serpent’s Poison (Hadí jed) Directed by František Vláčil (Czechoslovakia, 1981, 80 min.)

Her mother dead, 18-year-old Vladka travels to a remote village in the dead of winter to find the father she has never met — and is disappointed when she finds that this hardworking man is an alcoholic.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 4, 3 p.m., Tue., June 7, 7 p.m.

The Shadow of the Fern (Stín kapradiny) Directed by František Vláčil (Czechoslovakia, 1984, 90 min.)

Caught poaching a deer, two callow teenagers shoot the gamekeeper and flee into

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the forest — imagining a life of escape and adventure for themselves outside the law in this hallucinatory nightmare of pursuit and persecution.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT Dial M For Murder Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1954, 105 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 18, 2:45 p.m., Sun., June 19, 7:45 p.m.

An ex-tennis pro and jealous husband carries out a plot to murder his wife, and when things go wrong, he improvises with a brilliant plan B.

Dutch

AFI Silver Theatre June 17 to 19

Directed by Félix de Rooy (Netherlands/Curacao/France, 1990, 100 min.)

Formally trained artist Gabriel courts controversy when he chooses the local Antillean beauty Ava, who is engaged to a white police officer, to model for his portrait of the Virgin Mary in the town’s church. (Dutch and Papamientu) AFI Silver Theatre Sun., June 5, 7:20 p.m.

Bride Flight Directed by Ben Sombogaart (Netherlands/Luxembourg, 2008, 130 min.)

Three women leave post-war Holland to join their fiancés New Zealand. On the immigration flight (the “Bride Flight”), the three form a bond of friendship, along with an attractive Dutchman, that over the next 50 years leads to adultery, betrayal, near tragedy and ultimately reunion.

(Dutch and English) The Avalon Theatre Opens in June

English ’70: Remembering a Revolution Directed by Alex de Tereuil and Elizabeth Topp (Trinidad and Tobago, 2010, color, 112 min.)

This documentary explores the impact of the 1970 Black Power revolution in the streets of Trinidad and Tobago 40 years after afros have given way to grey beards and the Che berets have been stored away.

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., June 3, 7 p.m.

Beginners Directed by Mike Mills (U.S., 2010, 104 min.)

A new love floods a man with memories of his father who — following 44 years of marriage — came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 10

Cave of Forgotten Dreams Directed by Wener Herzog (U.S./Canada/Germany/France/U.K., 2011, 90 min)

Werner Herzog filmed this documentary inside the Chauvet caves of southern France, capturing the oldest-known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.

(English and German) AFI Silver Theatre

exploration of themes about modern humanity through his “mobile street theater” mas bands during the Trinidadian Carnival. (Screens with “The Other Side of the Water: The Journey of a Haitian Rara Band in Brooklyn”)

Wed., June 1,8:30 p.m., Thu., June 2, 9:10 p.m.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 4, 7 p.m.

A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he’s accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.

Midnight in Paris Double Take

Ava & Gabriel: A Love Story (Ava & Gabriel: Un Historia di Amor)

June 2011

Directed by Johan Grimonprez (Netherlands/Belgium/Germany, 2009, 80 min.)

In this documentary disguised as a hallucinatory thriller begins with an anecdote told

by Alfred Hitchcock (lookalike actor Ron Burrage) about an encounter with his dopplegänger. His advice if you should ever meet your double: kill him. But what begins like one of Hitchcock’s droll television intros proceeds to chronicle the battle of images during the Cold War. AFI Silver Theatre June 28 to 30

The First Grader Directed by Justin Chadwick (U.K./U.S./Kenya, 2010, 103 min.)

In this dramatization of a true story, an 84-year-old Kenyan villager and exMau Mau veteran now fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

House of Bamboo Directed by Samuel Fuller (U.S., 1955, 102 min.)

In occupied Japan, American military cop Robert Stack infiltrates a gang of criminals — all dishonorably discharged GIs — led by the urbane and unbalanced Robert Ryan. (English and Japanese) National Gallery of Art Sat., June 18, 2:30 p.m.

I Confess Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1953, 95 min.)

Refusing to give into police interrogators’ suspicions, due to the seal of confession, a priest becomes the prime suspect in a murder in this religious thriller set in Quebec. (English, French, Italian and German) AFI Silver Theatre Sat, June 4, 1 p.m., Mon., June 6, 9:15 p.m., Wed., June 8, 9:10 p.m.

Lift Up Directed by Huguens Jean and Philip Knowlton (U.S./Haiti, 2011, 86 min.)

This documentary follows Clifford and Huguens, two Haitian immigrant brothers who now call Maryland home, on an emotional journey back to Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake that left the country ravaged. (English and Creole) AFI Silver Theatre Sun., June 5, 5:30 p.m.

Mas Man Directed by Dalton Narine (U.S./Trinidad and Tobago, 2010, 57 min.)

This documentary portrays Caribbean carnival artist Peter Minshall and his

Directed by Woody Allen (Spain/U.S., 2011, 94 min.)

Traveling to the French capital for business with their family, a young engaged couple is forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Other Side of the Water: The Journey of a Haitian Rara Band in Brooklyn Directed by Jeremy Robins and Magali Damas (U.S./Haiti, 2008, 52 min.)

This documentary follows the journey of DJARARA, a Haitian “rara” band made up of young immigrants who take this ancient music from the hills of Haiti to the streets of Brooklyn. (Screens with “Mas Man”) AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 4, 7 p.m.

Paris: The Luminous Years Directed by Perry Miller Adato (U.K./U.S., 2010, 120 min.)

One of America’s most original cultural documentarians, Perry Miller Adato’s latest effort portrays the city and its famed café society as a catalyst in the modernist movement, focusing on the many Americans who made Paris their home.

Stage Fright Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1950, 110 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 4, 4:45 p.m..

Sun., June 5, 1 p.m., Thu., June 9, 9 p.m.

Strangers on a Train Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1951, 101 min.)

Tennis Champ Farley Granger meets mysterious, overly admiring Robert Walker on a train from New York and receives a startling proposal: Walker will kill Granger’s unfaithful wife in return for Granger killing Walker’s father.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., June 2, 7 p.m.

Submarine Directed by Richard Ayoade (U.K./U.S., 2010, 97 min.)

Oliver Tate, 15, has two big ambitions: to save his parents’ marriage via carefully plotted intervention in their love life, and to lose his virginity before his next birthday.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 10

The Tree of Life Directed by Terrence Malick (U.S., 2011, 138 min.)

Riseup

This impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950s follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father.

Directed by Luciano Blotta (Argentina, 2009, 88 min.)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 3

National Gallery of Art Sat., June 11, 2:30 p.m.

Three Jamaican musicians fight for a place in an overcrowded reggae field in this documentary set in the dangerous streets, back alleys and crowded dance halls of Kingston, Jamaica. (English and Jamaican patois) AFI Silver Theatre Sun., June 5, 9:25 p.m.

Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae Directed by Stascha Bader (Switzerland/Canada, 2009, 98 min.)

The remaining great singers and musicians of rocksteady — the prevailing style during Jamaica’s Golden Age of music in the late 1960s and precursor of reggae — come together after 40 years to perform and record a reunion concert in Kingston.

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., Jun 3, 9:30 p.m.

Rope Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1948, 80 min.)

Two young men strangle their classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the “perfection” of their crime.

AFI Silver Theatre

The Trip Directed by Michael Winterbottom (U.K., 2010, 107 min.)

When a man is asked to tour the country’s finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend, but when she backs out, he has no one to accompany him but his best friend and source of eternal aggravation.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 17

Under Capricorn Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1949, 117 min.)

In Hitchcock’s least-seen film, an Irishman comes to Australia with his uncle, the new governor — and finds himself drawn into a dangerous love triangle with a married couple.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 11, 12:20 p.m., Sun., June 12, 12:20 p.m.

French L’Amour Fou Directed by Pierre Thoretton

June 2011

(France, 2010, 98 min.)

The relationship between fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent and his lover is portrayed in this documentary that includes a tour of the couple’s lavishly furnished houses in Paris, Normandy and Marrakech and their priceless art collection.

enjoys a carefree single life when she stays at her apartment in Paris, but can she continue to have it both ways?

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 11, 2:45 p.m., Sun., June 12, 2:45 p.m.

Incendies Directed by Denis Villeneuve (Canada/France, 2011, 130 min.)

Boyfriends and Girlfriends (L’Ami de Mon Amie)

A mother’s last wish sends her twins on a journey to their ancestral homeland in the Middle East in search of their tangled family roots, where they discover a mother very different from the one they knew.

(French, Arabic and English)

Best friends Lea and Blanche get caught up in romantic game-playing after Lea takes a liking to Alexandre whom Blanche has a crush on, and decides that Blanche would be perfect for Lea’s boyfriend, Fabien whom she has grown tired of.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 18, 4:45 p.m., Sun., June 19, 2:45 p.m.

Diary of Country Priest (Journal d’un Curé de Campagne) Directed by Robert Bresson (France, 1951, 115 min.)

In post-World War II France, rookie priest Claude takes on a tough assignment in a small village whose inhabitants seem as cold as the forbidding climate.

AFI Silver Theatre June 10 to16

Le Doulos Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville (France, 1962, 109 min.)

Serge Reggiani gets out of the slammer and back into the game, settling an old score and joining a crew on a major heist.

But the cops, seemingly tipped off, catch him in the act. Was there a squealer?

AFI Silver Theatre June 28 to 30

Frantz Fanon, His Life, His Struggle, His Work Directed by Cheikh Djemaï (Martinique/France/Algeria/Tunisia, 2004, 52 min.)

This documentary reveals the short but intense life of one of the great thinkers of the 20th century: Frantz Fanon, a Martinique-born psychiatrist who became an unlikely spokesman for the Algerian revolution against French colonialism in the 1950s. (Screens with “Maestra”)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Léon Morin, Priest (Léon Morin, Prêtre) Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville (France/Italy, 1961, 117 min.)

A jaded widow befriends a young priest and an extraordinary relationship between two spirited individuals — provocative, persuasive, even seductive — plays out against the treacherous backdrop of Nazi-occupied France.

AFI Silver Theatre June 28 to 30

Pauline at the Beach (Pauline à la Plage) Directed by Eric Rohmer (France, 1983, 94 min.)

A teenager spends her summer in the company of her chic, recently divorced older cousin, and gets swept up in a whirlwind of parties and romantic intrigues before gaining a more clear-eyed perspective on the folly of it all.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., June 5, 3:15 p.m., Tue., June 7, 8:45 p.m., Thu., June 9, 7 p.m.

Summer (Le Rayon Vert) Directed by Eric Rohmer (France, 1986, 98 min.)

Parisian secretary Delphine, bored with summer plans that constantly don’t pan out the way she’d like, finally and accidentally meets someone who seems to be totally made for her.

AFI Silver Theatre Tue., June 28, 9:30 p.m., Thu., June 30, 7 p.m.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., June 4, 5 p.m.

German

Free Hands (Les Mains Libres)

To the Limit (Am Limit)

Directed by Brigitte Sy (France, 2010, 100 mi.)

Directed by Pepe Danquart (Austria/Germany, 2007, 100 min.)

A filmmaker shooting interviews with long-term inmates in a Paris prison has an affair with one of the inmates, leading her to break the law.

Brothers Alexander and Thomas Huber, among the world’s best sport and alpine climbers, set out to break the record in speed climbing at the wall of all walls: El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California.

La Maison Française Tue., June 14, 7 p.m.

Full Moon in Paris (Les Nuits de la Pleine Lune)

Goethe-Institut Mon., June 27, 6:30 p.m.

Directed by Eric Rohmer (France, 1984, 100 min.)

The Robber (Der Räuber)

A beautiful interior decorator has a live-in boyfriend at her home in the country and

Directed by Benjamin Heisenberg (Germany/Austria, 2010, 97 min.)

June 2011

17th-century Japan’s feudal patriarchy.

Mon., June 6, 7 p.m.

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., June 19, 2 p.m.

Mandarin

Korean

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Directed by Eric Rohmer (France, 1987, 103 min.)

This is the true story of Austria’s mostwanted bank robber of the 1980s, a champion marathon runner who led a double life as a serial bank robber, sprinting between heists (and away from police cars) as many as three times a day.

Italian The Double Hour (La doppia ora) Directed by Giuseppe Capotondi (Italy, 2009, 95 min.)

A penniless maid and a chilly ex-cop, each tormented by past mistakes and unable to move forward with their lives, meet during a schmaltzy speed dating event — as wary flirtation blooms into desperate passion.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Actresses (Yeobaeudeul)

Directed by Lu Chuan (China/Hong Kong, 2009, 132 min.)

Directed by E J-yong (South Korea, 2009, 104 min.)

The Imperial Japanese Army siege of the Chinese capital of Nanking, in which as many as 300,000 citizens were killed, is recreated through the eyes of both victims and occupiers. (Mandarin and English)

Six of South Korea’s biggest female actresses star in this amusing behind-thescenes show-biz exposé that also reveals the psychological stresses of the Korean star system.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., June 5, 5:15 p.m., Wed., June 8, 7 p.m.

Papamientu

Japanese

Almacita, Soul of Desolato (Almacita di Desolato)

13 Assassins (Jûsan-nin no shikaku)

Directed by Felix de Rooy (Netherlands/Curacao, 1986, 100 min.)

Directed by Takashi Miike (Japan/U.K., 2010, 126 min.)

In 1844 Japan, young lord rapes and kills with impunity by virtue of his political connections. Though the era of the samurai is fading, an honest government official covertly enlists 13 swordsmen to assassinate this sadistic lord before he can seize more power.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

An Autumn Afternoon (Sanma no aji) Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1962, 112 min.)

An aging widower arranges a marriage for his only daughter in postwar Japan but finds himself torn between happiness for her and sadness at her impending departure.

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., June 24, 7 p.m.

High and Low (Tengoku to jigoku) Directed by Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1963, 143 min.)

A wealthy executive is drawn into a quandary when a kidnapper nabs his chauffeur’s son by mistake but still demands a ransom large enough to ruin him financially.

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., June 17, 7 p.m.

Kwaidan (Kaidan) Directed by Masaki Kobayashi (Japan, 1964, 161 min.)

Four traditional Japanese supernatural folktales come together in one film that employs stylized sets, bold colors, and haunting performances from the cast.

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., June 26, 2 p.m.

Life of Oharu (Saikaku ichidai onna) Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi (Japan, 1952, 136 min.)

A samurai’s daughter suffers under

City of Life and Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!)

This folktale epic from Curacao, complete with rain dances and benta music, focuses on the mythic adventures of Solem, a village priestess and “miracle worker,” and little Lucio.

AFI Silver Theatre

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 10

Spanish Maestra (Teacher) Directed by Catherine Murphy (U.S./Cuba, 2011, 33 min.)

This documentary tells the story of the Cuban Literacy Campaign in 1961 — one of the farthest-reaching and most successful literacy campaigns to date — through the eyes of the female literacy workers.

(Screens with “Frantz Fanon, His Life, His Struggle, His Work”) AFI Silver Theatre Sat,, June 4, 5 p.m.

from page 48

Film Reviews she takes advantage of her dominant role in the relationship by bossing him around, including editing his journal entries about her.Alas, she’s understandably distracted from their budding love affair by her mother’s brain tumor.

Oliver’s equally important, if more noble, goal is to prevent his parents’ marriage from falling apart. He’s worried that in seven months, his parents haven’t dimmed their bedroom lights, previously a telltale sign they were having sex. Concerned his mother Jill (Sally Hawkins) is having extramarital relations with New Age guru Graham Purvis (Paddy Considine), an old flame, Oliver spies on them. Meanwhile, he tries to keep his father, Lloyd (Noah Taylor), from falling even deeper into depression, a malady that might afflict young Oliver himself.

“Submarine” benefits from uniformly strong performances by its talented ensemble cast. Hawkins and Taylor get a chance to display their acting chops as the troubled parents. Considine takes his campy performance over the top as Graham the guru. Certainly, most credit goes to Roberts and Paige for exuding a palpable connection together with a sympathetic blend of young eagerness and confusion as our erstwhile teenage hero and heroine.

Ayoade’s ambitious feature debut, after a successful career in television, aims high and generally hits the mark.

PHOTO: DEAN ROGERS / THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Craig Roberts stars as 15-year-old Oliver Tate in British writer-director Richard Ayoade’s “Submarine.”

His direction uses all sorts of highly visible techniques — like a kaleidoscope sequence as Oliver rides a bike and an artificially aged old footage montage.

Though sometimes they seem a bit forced, these stylistic flourishes usually work well enough. The pleasantly nostalgic result recalls the free-spirited nature of the early Nouvelle Vague, notably François Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows,” itself an iconic coming-of-age tale.

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

[

Submarine (English; 97 min.)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., June 10

★★★★✩

]

The Washington Diplomat Page 51

[ around town ]

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

The Phillips Collection

ART

June 11 to Jan. 16

June 4 to Aug. 14

Family Matters: Portraits from the Qing Court

E • CO River degradation. Torrential rains in Brazil.

The consequences of nuclear power in Eastern Europe. Environmental issues are captured by professional photographers from across Latin America and Europe in a body of work first shown in Spain in conjunction with “E • CO 2010,” a meeting organized by the Spanish Ministry of Culture to highlight professional photographers’ challenges and needs in the rapidly evolving digital media landscape.

American University Katzen Arts Center June 4 to Aug. 14

Registro 02 Is a work of art defined by the artist’s intent and methods, or do the people viewing it help define the work through their perceptions of it? Encompassing the works of four individual artists and one collective, this exhibit sets out to show that both the artistic process and the audience’s perception help inform art’s meaning.

American University Katzen Arts Center Through June 5

In Small Things Remembered: The Early Years of U.S.-Afghan Relations More than 100 reproductions of photographs and documents culled from private and public archives around the United States and Afghanistan — created for the State Department and U.S. Embassy in Kabul, the exhibit — offer an in-depth chronicle of the relationship between the two countries beginning with initial contacts in the early 20th century and continuing through the late 1970s.

Meridian International Center June 9 to Sept. 3

gute aussichten: young German photography 2010/2011 Works by eight winners of gute aussichten, the seventh annual German competition for graduate photography students, come to D.C. on the exhibition’s worldwide tour.

The Goethe-Institut June 11 to Sept. 4

Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting with White Border After a visit to his native Moscow, Vasily Kandinsky recorded his “extremely powerful impressions” in his 1913 masterpiece, “Painting with White Border,” which, for this exhibition, is reunited with more than 12 preparatory studies from international collections, including the Phillips’s oil sketch, and compared with other closely related works.

The Phillips Collection

the Phillips Collection presents recent works from Frank Stella’s “K “series inspired by the 18th-century composer Domenico Scarlatti’s harpsichord sonatas.

Lavish portraits — almost evenly divided between images of men and women, some nearly life-size — show Qing dynasty royal family members dressed in the elaborate formal robes required for attendance at court or more casual attire in moments of leisure, offering a fascinating look at imperial family life in the later half of China’s Qing dynasty.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery June 17 to Oct. 2

The Guerrilla Girls Talk Back The Guerrilla Girls, a group of anonymous artist-activists, critique the sexism and racism pervading contemporary culture through their populist art production, which includes posters, books and live performances in which they wear gorilla masks.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center Through July 24

Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Community through Language Lorenzo Dow Turner’s foundational work in the 1930s established that people of African heritage, despite slavery, had retained and passed on their cultural identity through words, music and story wherever they landed. Features of the exhibition include rare audio recordings, photographs and artifacts from Turner’s linguistic explorations into the African Diaspora.

Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum Through July 30

Tom Wesselmann Draws This marks the most comprehensive exhibition of drawings by Tom Wesselmann, a brilliant colorist and innovator who in the 1960s was one of the key leaders in the pop art movement alongside Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

Featuring 75 works by 42 artists including Elaine de Kooning, Louise Nevelson, Margo Humphrey, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith and Kiki Smith, “Pressing Ideas” explores the breadth of experimentation in lithography and women’s contributions to a workshop that stretches creative boundaries.

National Museum of Women in the Arts June 18 to Jan. 1

Wedding Belles: Bridal Fashions from the Marjorie Merriweather Post Family, 1874-1958 Bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses belonging to heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and her family, along with a royal veil and stunning Cartier bag carried by Post’s daughter —actress Dina Merrill — tell the story of 20th-century wedding styles through the lens of one of America’s most notable and fashionable families.

Hillwood Estate and Museum June 25 to Aug. 14

Washington Color and Light Artists associated with the Washington Color School and their contemporaries were united by an exploration of the language of abstraction, a desire to experiment with materials, and a love of color.

This exhibition reveals the artistic innovations and individual approaches that shaped new directions in abstract painting and sculpture from the 1950s to the late 1970s.

Corcoran Gallery of Art Through June 30

All Come in Color

For the first time in a museum exhibition,

Embassy of Argentina

The Washington Diplomat

A selection of contemporary Jamaican artists were invited by the World Bank to exhibit their work in the Caribbean segment of “About Change,” the hemispheric art survey organized by the World Bank Art Program in partnership with the InterAmerican Development Bank, the Organization of American States, and the Caribbean Community Secretariat.

Pressing Ideas: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind

Stella Sounds: The Scarlatti K Series

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Through July 22

Contemporary Jamaican Artists

June 17 to Oct. 2

Five local Argentine artists present abstract and figurative paintings to celebrate the month of the May Revolution in their home country. For information, call (202) 2386464.

June 11 to Sept. 4

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

The Kreeger Museum Through July 31

Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan Majestic sixth-century Chinese Buddhist sculpture is combined with 3D imaging technology in this exploration of one of the most important groups of Buddhist devotional sites in early medieval China: the Buddhist cave temples of Xiangtangshan carved into the mountains of northern China — home to a magnificent array of sculptures, from monumental Buddhas and divine attendant figures to crouching monsters framed by floral motifs.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through Aug. 12

Stefan Zweig – An Austrian from Europe In 1992, the city of Salzburg honored wellknown writer and political observer Stefan Zweig with an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death — a retrospective that now comes to Washington with more than 120 photographs and numerous reproductions and other documents on his life. Admission is free but registration is required and can be made at www.acfdc.org/events-registration.

Embassy of Austria Through Aug. 13

The Last Full Measure: / Civil War Photos from the Liljenquist Family Collection Portrait photographs of the young men who fought and died in the American Civil War serve as a memorial to those who gave their lives during the devastating conflict, displaying the faces of 360 Union soldiers

June 2011

— one for every 1,000 who died — and 52 Confederate soldiers, one for every 5,000.

Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building

new productions of Bournonville’s signature and enduring masterpiece “Napoli” and “A Folk Tale,” both re-staged by new Artistic Director Nikolaj Hübbe. Tickets are $29 to $99.

Kennedy Center Opera House

Through Sept. 30

Democratic Principles This exhibit of 22 portraits by Elizabeth McClancy represent contemporary progressive political leaders in ways that reveal the magnitude of the challenges they face and the leadership they must assume. A special panel discussion on June 8 at 7 p.m. features Howard Dean and will discuss the next of the arts in democratic development. For information, visit www. democraticwoman.org.

The Woman’s National Democratic Club

DISCUSSIONS Sat., June 4, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Armchair Egyptologist If the pyramids could talk, what mysteries they would reveal about ancient Egypt?

Egyptologist Bob Brier takes you to five major sites and monuments to see what they have to tell us. Tickets are $120. For information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

Location on ticket

Through Oct. 9

NASA / ART: 50 Years of Exploration More than 70 pieces of art — from the illustrative to the abstract — offer a look at the works commissioned by the NASA Art Program, which was established soon after the inception of the U.S. space program in 1958 as a way to communicate the accomplishments, setbacks and sheer excitement of space exploration over the past five decades to the public.

Tue., June 7 to 28, 6:45 p.m.

Cathedrals and Beyond: Art of the Medieval World This course examines the art and architecture of the 1,000-year period between classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and its relationship to a society infused with faith and spirituality. Tickets for the five sessions are $131. For information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

National Air and Space Museum Wed., June 8, 6:45 p.m.

Through Nov. 27

Italian Master Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection: 1525–1835 The splendors of Italian draftsmanship from the late Renaissance to the height of the neoclassical movement are showcased in an exhibition of 65 superb drawings assembled by the European private collector Wolfgang Ratjen.

National Gallery of Art

Latin American Masters: The Modern Heritage of Latino Art Art historian Abigail McEwen discusses how many of Latin America’s leading avant-garde artists, from Wifredo Lam to Diego Rivera, traveled to the United States in the 1930s and ’40s, creating monumental artworks and enriching the development of modern American art. Tickets are $40.

For information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

Location on ticket

Through Dec. 4

Artists in Dialogue 2: Sandile Zulu and Henrique Oliveira The second in a series of exhibitions in which two artists are invited to create new works — each inspired by, and in response to the other — this installment features Sandile Zulu, who lives in Johannesburg, and Henrique Oliveira, who lives in Sao Paolo, and their site-specific works composed of unlikely materials such as weathered wood and fire.

National Museum of African Art

DANCE

Wed., June 15, 6:45 p.m.

Tigers to Honey Bees: Where in the World Did They Go? What do coral, tigers, frogs, birds, and honeybees have in common? Catastrophic decline, which could lead to irreversible changes in the functioning of natural ecosystems and all the services they provide.

A group of conservations experts discuss both efforts to preserve endangered species and the ecological implications of extinction. Tickets are $35. For information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

Location on ticket Wed., June 22, 6 p.m.

Through June 5

Ballet Nacional de Cuba

Literature Talk Between NPR’s Diane Rehm and Eva Gabrielsson

The Ballet Nacional de Cuba, founded by Alicia Alonso in 1948, presents “The Magic of Dance,” a compilation of ballet highlights spanning the classical anthology from “Giselle” to “Swan Lake” (May 31-June 1), as well as their acclaimed version of “Don Quixote” (June 2-5). Tickets are $25 to $99.

NPR anchor Diane Rehm talks with Eva Gabrielsson, author of “There Are Things I Want You to Know About Stieg Larsson and Me,” about the life she shared with Swedish journalist and author Stieg Larsson. Tickets are $10. For information, visit www.houseofsweden.com or www. ticketweb.com.

Kennedy Center Opera House

House of Sweden

June 7 to 12

Thu., June 23, 7 p.m.

The Royal Danish Ballet

Le Studio: Wine Tasting 101

The Royal Danish Ballet continues to command attention on the world stage with

Every month, Le Studio focuses on a different wine region of France with some of its

June 2011

most famous vintners. This wine tasting features the Côte de Beaune and Maison Faiveley presenting an amazing journey in Burgundy through a historic estate, with author and critic James K. Finkel.

Tickets are $65.

pianist Raymond Wertheim, as well as an exhibition by Ingrid Dohm — with proceeds supporting Tibetan students living in India.

Tickets are $40. For information, call Gerda Merwald at (703) 354-0796 or visit www.acfdc.org.

tion, visit www.houseofsweden.com or www.ticketweb.com.

Gunston Arts Center, Va.

House of Sweden

Through June 12

La Maison Française

Austrian Ambassador’s Residence

FESTIVALS

Sun., June 26, 5:30 p.m.

June 13 to 27

The Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s annual awards gala, “the RAMMYS,” now in its 29th year, toasts the many extraordinary professionals that comprise the D.C. dining scene and has become one of the area’s most anticipated culinary events. Tickets are $300. For information, visit www.ramw.org/ Rammy-s/2011/.

The Palestine Strings of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music teams up with the Danadeesh Dance Group of the First Ramallah Group for a performance showcasing young Palestinians, featuring 18 violinists and 16 modern and folkloric dancers. Tickets are $50.

Zeitgeist DC: Contemporary Literature The Goethe-Institut, Embassy of Switzerland and the Embassy of Austria, under the banner of the Zeitgeist DC Literary Collaborative, present three of Europe’s newest and edgiest plays by three of its most famous playwrights today, Marius von Mayenburg, Ewald Palmetshofer and Lukas Bärfuss. The Monday evening literature and play readings are performed by top local actors.

For information, visit www.zeitgeistdc.org.

Various locations

2011 RAMMYS: Carnevale da Cuisine

Marriott Wardman Park Hotel

MUSIC Fri., June 3, 7:30 p.m.

The Brass-A-Holics June 21 to 26

Nordic Food Week The embassies of the Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — showcase the region’s best and most creative chefs in the United States for the first time, introducing new Nordic food to the D.C. dining scene (participating restaurants include Masa 14, DC Coast, Birch & Barley, Vidalia and Marcel’s) with exclusive culinary master classes, food demonstrations and other culinaryrelated happenings throughout the metropolitan area. For information, visit www. nordicinnovation.org/nordicfooddaysdc.

Various locations

GALAS

A “go-go brass funk band,” this eight-piece ensemble incorporates New Orleans brass elements with a full drum set, keyboards and an electric guitar to produce an invigorating sound. Tickets are $25.

(Part of the DC Jazz Festival) La Maison Française June 12, 16 and 17, 7 p.m.

Duke Ellington School of the Arts Show Choir Famous for its energetic showmanship and artistic diversity, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Show Choir is bringing its musical talent to France this July. To celebrate, it will perform three benefit shows at the French Embassy in Washington. Tickets are $25.

La Maison Française

Wed., June 8

Embassy Progressive Dinner In honor of its 10th anniversary, the Center for Global Development hosts an evening with three stops — the British ambassador’s residence (for cocktails), the Embassy of Finland (for dinner), and the Norwegian ambassador’s residence (for dessert) — celebrating individuals working on highlevel policy in the development sphere, including ambassadors, members of the U.S. Congress, current and former heads of state, corporate executives, philanthropists and academics. The event also honors Donald Kaberuka’s efforts and success in rebuilding the African Development Bank.

Tickets start at $1,000. For information, visit www.cgdev.org/section/about/donate/ embassy_dinner_event/evening_details.

Various locations Sun., June 12, 2 p.m.

Ninth Annual Tea-Off to Good Health The Jamaican Women of Washington Inc. and Jamaican Ambassador Audrey Marks, along with John Schriffen of NBC4, host the ninth annual Tea-Off to Good Health Reception and Auction to raise awareness of hypertension and stroke prevention.

Tickets are $150 or $250. For information, visit www.jwow.org.

Four Seasons Hotel Sat., June 18, 6:30 p.m.

Farewell to Ambassador and Mrs. Christian Prosl Austrian Ambassador Christian Prosl and his wife Patricia Prosl- Hurni, in cooperation with the American-Austrian Cultural Society, present an evening filled with chamber music by cellist Earl Williams and

June 2011

Thu., June 16, 7:30 p.m.

Fri., June 17, 7:30 p.m.

Great Singers of Hungary and Poland In honor of Hungarian independence on June 16, 1989, as well as Poland assuming the rotating presidency of the European Union, the Embassy Series presents two concerts by celebrated tenor Szabolcs Brickner, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Wór and pianist George Peachey. Tickets are $75 and include buffet reception. For information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Hungary (June 16) Embassy of Poland (June 17)

Wed., June 22, 7 p.m.

Palestine Youth Cultural Choir

George Mason University Center for the Arts, Va.

THEATER June 2 to July 3

Don Quixote Synetic Theater once again merges its unique physical theater style with text in its season closer, “Don Quixote,” as the iconic character abandons his home and reality to become a wandering knight, lost in the mystical world of his books.

Tickets are $40 to $50.

Synetic Theater at Chrystal City, Va. Through June 5

Ruined In war-torn Congo, Mama Nadi keeps the peace between customers on both sides of the civil war as she protects and profits from the women under her charge in this widely acclaimed play that tells an uncommonly human story with humor and song.

Please call for ticket information.

Arena Stage June 8 to 26

Canto al Perú Negro…

Celebrating Afro Peru!

Weaving together the music, poetry, history and contemporary experiences of AfroPeruvians, “Canto al Perú Negro” revels in the rich cultural traditions and stories brought from Africa to Peru to the streets of D.C. Tickets are $34 and $38.

GALA Hispanic Theatre June 9 to July 3

Arena Stage

Cyrano

June 21 to July 3

Cyrano de Bergerac — ashamed of his large nose — uses his wit and poetry to help the handsome Christian woo Roxane in this compelling new adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s classic play, set in the streets of 17th-century Paris. Tickets are $39 to $60.

Reduced Shakespeare Company: Completely Hollywood (abridged) America’s “Bad Boys of Abridgement” are back, taking on 186 movies in 100 minutes with hilarious results. Tickets are $39 to $49.

Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

Folger Shakespeare Library June 21 to July 24 Through June 12

Side by Side by Sondheim

The Merchant of Venice

This award-winning musical revue celebrates the early works of America’s leading composer with timeless Sondheim songs from some of Broadway’s most memorable musicals including “West Side Story” and “Pacific Overtures.” Tickets are $55 to $81.

Whether contemplating the contents of gilded chests or the darkest corners of human nature, “The Merchant of Venice” — which features some of Shakespeare’s most complex and memorable characters — challenges audiences to look beyond misleading appearances to find the true measure of things Tickets are $20 to $98.

Signature Theatre

Shakespeare Theatre Harman Hall

June 17 to 19

Through June 26

Inside/Out…voices from the disability community

Bootycandy

VSA, the international organization on arts and disability, presents an interview-based theater performance piece by Ping Chong & Company about culture and identity in America that weaves the cast members’ individual stories with historical events.

Tickets are $20.

Robert O’Hara’s kaleidoscope of sassy lessons in sex education speaks the truth about growing up gay and African American with outrageous humor and real heart, testing how we talk about our bodies at home, in church and on the corner.

Tickets start at $35.

Woolly Mammoth Theater Company

Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Md. Through July 3 Through June 19

Old Times

Follies

Memory and reality collide in British playwright Harold Pinter’s “Old Times,” as three friends recall their relationship from 20 years prior in a highly charged exploration of whether we can truly ever know another person, or even ourselves.

Tickets start at $37.

All of life’s might-have-beens take center stage as two couple rehash past times and favorite songs amid the crumbling magnificence of their old theater in this winner of seven Tony Awards. Tickets start at $45.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

The Shakespeare Theatre Through June 19

A Time to Kill

Through July 3

After an unspeakable crime is committed against his daughter, Carl Lee Hailey takes the law into his own hands in John Grisham’s stunning first novel, which comes to the stage in this world premiere, pre-Broadway adaptation by Tony Award

Venus in Fur David Ives’s crackling exploration of desire and control pits actress against playwright in a seductive game of cat and mouse.

Tickets are $44 to $65.

The Studio Theatre

The Glass Menagerie In a tenement apartment in 1930s St. Louis, the Wingfield family struggles to hang on to their dreams for the future in this fresh re-envisioning of Tennessee Williams’s legendary masterpiece, his most autobiographical play, presented as part of Georgetown’s Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival. Tickets start at $35.

Arena Stage

Sat., June 18, 4 p.m.

Fête de la Musique

June 9 to July 3

Each year on the summer solstice, the French gather in the streets to celebrate the change of seasons with La Fête de la Musique — a dynamic tapestry of both amateur and professional musicians. For the ninth consecutive year, the French Embassy in Washington (La Maison Française) recaptures this lively atmosphere with more than 50 bands and street performers dazzling audiences in its gardens. Admission is $8.

Purge

La Maison Française

H Street Playhouse

Sun., June 19, 6 p.m.

Through June 11

Nordic Jazz 2011

Como si fuera esta noche (As If It Were Tonight)

Jazz bands from Iceland, Norway and Sweden play on the spectacular rooftop terrace of House of Sweden overlooking the Potomac River in the heart of Georgetown. The evening includes complimentary hors d’oeuvres by five of the world’s best chefs — the Nordic Bocuse d’Or chefs — and a cash bar between 6 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $25. For informa-

winner Rupert Holmes. Tickets start at $55.

Set in western Estonia in 1992, “Purge”

by Sofi Oksanen, an award-winning author and playwright of Estonian-Finnish descent, is the story of two generations of women challenged by a male-dominated political structure a year after the Soviet Union’s collapse and haunted by the memories of Soviet occupation in the 1950s.

Tickets are $16 to $40. For information, visit www.scenatheater.org.

Teatro de la Luna presents Spanish playwright Gracia Morales’s vision of a magical world that, passing through all physical barriers, allows us to leap through two decades, offering a fleeting encounter between a mother and daughter that proves to be decisive for the latter.

Tickets are $25 and $30.

CULTURE GUIDE English Conversation Classes Learn English in a friendly and supportive environment. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels available. Information about American culture is also included during classes.

Convenient location for Embassy personnel.

Only $40 for a 10 week course.

Sponsored by The Global Neighborhood Center.

3855 Massachusetts Avenue, NW (Christ Church) Washington, DC 20016

202-363-4090

Plan Your Entire Weekend.

www.washdiplomat.com

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION Contact Dave Garber at: email: dgarber@washdiplomat.com phone: (301) 933-3552, ext. 30 fax: (301) 949-0065

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301.933.3552 The Washington Diplomat Page 53

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

June 2011

Seventh Annual Embassy Golf Tournament Ambassador John Beale of Barbados tees off at the Embassy Golf Tournament, which was held at Cross Creek Golf Club in Beltsville, Md., and featured more than a dozen different embassy teams.

From left, Chief Executive of MHz Networks Frederick Thomas, Ambassador of Canada Gary Doer, and former Rep. Don Bonkers, now with APCO Worldwide, play at the seventh annual Embassy Golf Tournament hosted by The Washington Diplomat under the diplomatic patronage of Ambassador Doer and the Embassy of Canada.

PHOTOS: JESSICA LATOS

Chris Madoo of Marriott, second from right, joins members of the Australian Embassy team, including, from left, Tim Davies, John Garama and Rob Kofman at the lunch before the start of the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament.

From left, Nansak Shagaya and Chukwuemeka Onyewu of the Embassy of Nigeria, join Nigerian Ambassador to Cuba Laraba Bhutto and Nigerian Senator John Shagaya at the seventh annual Embassy Golf Tournament hosted by The Washington Diplomat.

From left, Gabor Szabo, Andras Szorenyi, Attila Toth, and Bela Gedeon represent the Embassy of Hungary, which just wrapped up its rotating presidency of the European Union, at the seventh annual Embassy Golf Tournament.

Enjoying the lunch prior to the Embassy Golf Tournament are, from left, Tony Edson, Tony Lima, Nilambari Sheth, and Sandeep Pandit, tournament sponsors from VFS Global, a subsidiary of the 104-year-old Swiss multinational Kuoni Group that is the largest outsourcing and technology service specialists for diplomatic missions and governments worldwide.

From left, Ambassador of Cambodia Hem Heng, Monique McKenzie of Ritz-Carlton, and Ambassador of Laos Seng Soukhathivong play together at the seventh aannual Embassy Golf Tournament hosted by The Washington Diplomat.

From left: Nick Jenkins, Stefan Klauser, Guillaume Scheurer and Shiraz Hassig represent the Embassy of Switzerland at the seventh annual Embassy Golf Tournament hosted by The Washington Diplomat.

From left, Lt. Col. Pat McAdam of the Embassy of Canada, former Libyan Ambassador Ali Aujali, now with the National Interim Council in Libya, and Christopher Harvin of Sanitas International play together at the Embassy Golf Tournament held at Cross Creek Golf Club in Beltsville, Md.

From left, Angelo Granger, Akil Gordon, Huyen Pham, and Patrick Boukens play for the Royal Dutch Embassy at the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament.

From left, Hamairuddin Ramli, Ton Azmi, Brig. Gen. Othman Abdullah, and Nasaruddin Jalil represent the Embassy of Malaysia at the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament hosted by The Washington Diplomat and the Embassy of Canada.

Michael Paul, left, and Philip Bamu, right, both from the Embassy of Zimbabwe, join their ambassador, Machi Mapuranga, and his wife Shupi at the Embassy Golf Tournament, now in its seventh year.

Representing the Netherlands Embassy at the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament were, from left, Einte Rinsma, Nancy Heagle, Angelique Rutledge, and Regilio Hinds.

From left, David Richmond, Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov (a past tournament sponsor), and congressional staffer Vili Leâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;i play together at the seventh annual Embassy Golf Tournament held at Cross Creek Golf Club.

Page 54

The Washington Diplomat

From left, representing the Australian Embassy at the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament were Brett Little, John Garama, Phil Hodges, and Jeff Quirk.

Bill Dalson, international director of the Americas for Lockheed Martin Corp., eyes the put at the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament, held at Cross Creek Golf Club in Beltsville, Md.

June 2011

Seventh Annual Embassy Golf Tournament From left, David Hutchison of the Embassy of Canada, Bill Dalson of Lockheed Martin, Susan Maraghy of Lockheed Martin, The Washington Diplomat publisher Victor Shiblie, and Jake McMinn of Lockheed Martin are honored as a winning team at the Embassy Golf Tournament.

PHOTOS: JESSICA LATOS

From left, publisher and editor in chief of The Washington Diplomat Victor Shiblie talks with Ambassador of Macedonia Zoran Jolevski and his son Filip at the dinner and awards presentation following the Embassy Golf Tournament at Cross Creek Golf Club.

Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer, who previously served as premier of Manitoba for 10 years, welcomes guests to the dinner reception following the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament, hosted by the Canadian Embassy.

Laleh Alemzadeh Hancock, director of business development and operations for Haleh Design Inc., a tournament sponsor, left, gives Maj. Jeffrey Forgrave of the Canadian Embassy a prize at the dinner reception of the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament.

Maj. Jeffrey Forgrave of the Canadian Embassy expresses his frustration at the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament.

Shirin Kooros, left, and Kate Thompson of the Donovan House, one of the sponsors of the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament, greet players on the course at Cross Creek.

From left, Keith Bezanson, Dorrel Bell, Col. Michel Duhamel, and Maj. Jeffrey Forgrave represent the Embassy of Canada, the 2011 host for the seventh annual Embassy Golf Tournament.

Atlantic Council Awards Dinner

The Canadian contingent at the 2011 Embassy Golf Tournament was strong. From left, Connie Terreberry, Stephane Eyer, Bill Mackey, and Karen Bergstrom Mackey play for the Embassy of Canada, the diplomatic hosts of the tournament.

From left, former National Security Advisors James Jones and Brent Scowcroft join Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and dinner emcees, at the Atlantic Council Awards Dinner.

Alma Powell, left, joins former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar at the Atlantic Council Awards Dinner, which launched the 50th anniversary celebration of the nonpartisan institution devoted to promoting transatlantic cooperation and international security.

PHOTO: TONY POWELL

The 2011 Atlantic Council Annual Awards Dinner honored, from left, Coca-Cola Chief Executive Officer and Board Chairman Muhtar Kent, Washington National Opera General Director Plácido Domingo, Vice President Joe Biden, and Supreme Allied Commander of European Command Adm. James G. Stavridis for their business, artistic, international and military leadership, respectively.

Former Congressman Don Bonkers, now with APCO Worldwide, left, high-fives Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer as they complete a hole at the seventh annual Embassy Golf Tournament.

PHOTOS: ATLANTIC COUNCIL OF THE UNITED STATES

From left, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlantic Council Fred Kempe, Atlantic Council International Advisory Board Chairman Brent Scowcroft, Bahaa Hariri, Shaukat Aziz and George Lund attend the Atlantic Council Awards Dinner, which also marked two new endeavors at the council: a center to honor former National Security Advisor Scowcroft as well as the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East after the slain former Lebanese prime minister.

PHOTO: TONY POWELL

Ambassador of Sweden Jonas Hafström and his wife Eva Hafstrom attend the Atlantic Council Annual Awards Dinner along with more than 50 ambassadors and diplomatic representatives.

PHOTO: TONY POWELL

Broadcast journalist Charlie Rose, left, shares a laugh with former Secretary of State Colin Powell at the Atlantic Council Annual Awards Dinner, where they both introduced the evening’s honorees.

June 2011

Ambassador of India Meera Shankar and her husband Ajay Shankar attend the annual dinner for the Atlantic Council of the United States, a Washington-based think tank that promotes constructive U.S. leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the central role of the Atlantic community in meeting 21st-century challenges.

PHOTO: ANNA GAWEL PHOTO: TONY POWELL

Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates Yousef Al Otaiba and his wife Abir Al Otaiba attend the 2011 Atlantic Council Annual Awards Dinner held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Ambassador of Slovenia Roman Kirn, left, joins Boyko Nitzov, director of programs at the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council, whose annual dinner was held at the Ritz-Carlton.

The Washington Diplomat Page 55

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT Opera Ball at China

The Washington Diplomat

June 2011

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife Jane Sullivan attend this year’s Opera Ball held at the Chinese Embassy, which was preceded by private diplomatic dinners held at 30 embassies and residences around Washington.

PHOTO: DANIEL SCHWARTZ FOR WNO

PHOTO: DANIEL SCHWARTZ FOR WNO

From left, Plácido Domingo, Opera Ball chair Susan E. Lehrman, Ambassador of China Zhang Yesui, and Washington National Opera President Kenneth R. Feinberg share a laugh at the 2011 Opera Ball, which honored Domingo for his 15 years of service as general director of the Washington National Opera and was held for the first time at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.

Ambassador of France François Delattre and his wife Susanna Francois Delattre attend the Opera Ball at the Chinese Embassy — where guests were treated to opera performances by local and Chinese groups and futuristic laser light shows evoking Shanghai and Beijing.

PHOTO: LYNN HORNOR KEITH FOR WNO

PHOTO: LYNN HORNOR KEITH FOR WNO

PHOTO: DANIEL SCHWARTZ FOR WNO

From left, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), his wife Elizabeth Kucinich, and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) attend the Opera Ball set in the grand ballroom of the Chinese Embassy, which was transformed into a formal tea house, while guests danced to the music of “floating opera” with Glenn Pearson.

PHOTO: DANIEL SCHWARTZ FOR WNO

Plácido Domingo, the guest of honor at the Washington National Opera’s Opera Ball, and his wife Marta Domingo, pose with Peking Opera models at the Chinese Embassy.

U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Marshall and her husband Rob Marshall attend the Washington National Opera’s annual Opera Ball held on May 7.

Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al-Mughairy, left, and her daughter Farah Al-Hinai join more than 800 guests for the Washington National Opera’s widely anticipated annual Opera Ball, which was hosted

by Chinese Ambassadr Zhang Yesui and his wife Madame Chen Naiqing at the Chinese Embassy.

The annual Opera Ball, the Washington National Opera’s largest fundraiser, dazzled more than 800 guests with a journey through contemporary and ancient China at the Chinese Embassy, this year’s Opera Ball hosts.

PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT

PHOTO: LYNN HORNOR KEITH FOR WNO

From left, Ambassador of Chile Arturo Fermandois Vöhringer, Ambassador of Ireland Michael Collins, Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Paul Senninger, and Ambassador of Switzerland Manuel Sager gather for a picture at the Opera Ball.

PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT

PHOTO: DANIEL SCHWARTZ FOR WNO

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pens a message to maestro Plácido Domingo on a tribute scroll specially crafted for the celebration of his 15 seasons as general director of the Washington National Opera.

From left, Ambassador of Germany Klaus Scharioth, Ambassador of Israel Michael Oren, Sally Oren, Ambassador of the Netherlands Renée Jones-Bos, Dr. Richard Huw Jones, and Dr. Ulrike Scharioth attend the 2011 Opera Ball.

From left, wife of the Irish ambassador Marie Collins, wife the Chilean ambassador Carolina Santa Cruz Fermandois, and wife of the Swiss ambassador Christine Sager enjoy the hospitality of the Chinese Embassy. Guests had the opportunity to sample sweet and savory teas and watch a master carver create artistic creations from fruits and vegetables.

From left, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), Marie Therese Royce, Nina Pillsbury, Ellen Noghès, wife of the ambassador of Luxembourg Louise Åkerblom, and Ambassador of Monaco Gilles Noghès attend the Opera Ball.

Ambassador of Romania Adrian Vierita and his wife Codrina attend the Opera Ball.

Departing the ball, which celebrated Chinese culture, guests strolled through a tunnel of 999 red Chinese lanterns, symbols of good fortune.

PHOTO: LYNN HORNOR KEITH FOR WNO

From left, wife of the Barbados ambassador Leila Beale, U.S. Ambassador to Barbados Mary Ourisman, and Ambassador of Barbados John Beale attend the 2011 Opera Ball.

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The Washington Diplomat

Nina Pillsbury, left, joins Veronica ValenciaSarukhan, wife of the Mexican ambassador, at the Washington National Opera’s annual Opera Ball, which begins with formal dinners hosted by embassies throughout the city and continues with dessert and dancing.

PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT

PHOTO: LYNN HORNOR KEITH FOR WNO

PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT

Julia Sheinwald, wife of the British ambassador, left, and Mark Gillespie attend the annual Opera Ball, held for the first time this year at the Chinese Embassy.

Philanthropists Calvin and Jane Cafritz, founders with Plácido Domingo of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, attend the Opera Ball.

Several of the young artists sang their farewells to their beloved maestro.

June 2011

From left, former U.S. Ambassador to Latvia Brian Carlson, current U.S. Ambassador to Latvia Judith Garber, and former U.S. Ambassador to Latvia Ints Silins attend a reception at the Latvian Embassy during the 2011 Joint Baltic American National Committee (JBANC) annual conference.

Latvia Fêtes JBANC

Turkish Jazz Series Ambassador of Turkey Namik Tan, left, joins John Edward Hasse, curator of American music for the PHOTOS: GAIL SCOTT Smithsonian and an expert on Duke Ellington, at the second concert in the Ertegün Jazz Series, a tribute to “jam sessions” held at the Turkish Embassy in the 1930s by a young Ahmet Ertegün, founder and chairman of Atlantic Records, and his brother Nesuhi, along with their father, Turkish Ambassador Munir Ertegün.

From left, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Alexander Vershbow, Daniel Fried, special State Department envoy to Guantanamo Bay detention center, President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers, and Ambassador of Latvia Andrejs Pildegovics attend a reception at the Latvian Embassy to mark the 50th anniversary of the Joint Baltic American National Committee (JBANC) as well as 20 years of Baltic independence.

Ben Williams, a D.C. native who plays acoustic and electric bass with the Helen Sung Quartet, left, and “Cat” Henry, associate director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, attend a jazz concert at the Turkish Embassy, which decades earlier hosted the first racially integrated “jam sessions” in then-segregated Washington, a picture of which Williams is pointing to.

PHOTOS: GAIL SCOTT

Europe Day

From left, Ambassador of Slovenia Roman Kirn, Ambassador of the European Union João Vale de Almeida, and Ambassador of Slovakia Peter Burian attend the Europe Day celebration held at the EU Residence.

Polish Constitution Day From left, Defense, Military, Naval and Air Attaché at the Polish Embassy Brig. Gen. Leszek Soczewica joins Ambassador of Poland Robert Kupiecki, right, and his wife Malgorzata Kupiecka and their daughter at the Polish Constitution Day reception held at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

From left, Ambassador of Japan and Mrs. Ichiro Fujisaki join Mrs. and Ambassador of the European Union João Vale de Almeida at the Europe Day reception held at Vale de Almeida’s residence.

‘Peace and Understanding’ Dinner

From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of Spain Jorge Dezcallar talk with Ambassador of the European Union João Vale de Almeida at the Europe Day reception.

Green at Textile Museum

From left, Grand Mufti of Bosnia Mustafa Ceric joins Ray and Shaista Mahmood at a dinner in Ceric’s honor at the home of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Esther Coopersmith.

PHOTOS: GAIL SCOTT

From left, Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), Ambassador of Bulgaria Elena Poptodorova, Carol Ring, and hostess Esther Coopersmith attend a dinner to promote interreligious peace and understanding at Coopersmith’s home.

PHOTOS: GAIL SCOTT

From left, Anna al-Senussi and Idris al-Senussi, an exiled opposition figure and member of the former monarchy of Libya, join wife of the Moroccan ambassador Maria-Felice Mekouar at a dinner in honor of “peace and understanding” held at the Kalorama residence of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Esther Coopersmith.

Austrian Ambassador Christian Prosl, left, and Austrian artist Beate von Harten pose with her winning entry, “Svenja’s Fields and Meadows,” for the Textile Museum exhibit “Green: The Color and the Cause.”

Latino Student Fund Gala

From left, Minister-Counselor at the Embassy of Spain D. Juan Manuel Molina, wife of the Spanish ambassador Teresa Dezcallar, and Latino Student Fund Board Chair and founder Rosalia Miller attend the annual Latino Student Fund Gala held at the Organization of American States.

June 2011

PHOTOS: GAIL SCOTT

From left, Mary Raul, Alan Raul, Latino Student Fund Board member Alexandra Garcia, and Ambassador of Guatemala Francisco Villagrán de León attend the Latino Student Fund Gala.

From left, Latino Student Fund (LSF) Gala Chair Wendy Thompson Márquez, LSF Board Vice President Idalia Fernandez, LSF Board member Zenayda Mostofi, and LSF Board Chair and founder Rosalia Miller attend the annual gala to benefit LSF, which provides educational opportunities for students of Hispanic descent.

The Textile Museum’s “Green: the Color and the Cause” exhibit presents greentinted fabrics that span 1,700 years of history and include this modern work by Shigeo Kubota of Kyoto, Japan, who created his contemporary eight-foot installation called “Shape of Green II” from hand-dyed fishing line.

The Washington Diplomat Page 57

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT Phillips Collection Annual Gala

The Washington Diplomat

June 2011

From left, Lockheed Martin Vice President Bruce Tanner and his wife Vicki Tanner, the Phillips Collection Director Dorothy Kosinski, Trish Vradenburg, and Chairman of the Phillips Collection Board George Vradenburg attend the Phillips Collection Annual Gala celebrating “90 Years of New” at the Washington museum.

PHOTOS: JAMES R. BRANTLEY

Moroccan Ambassador Aziz Mekouar and his wife Maria Felice Mekouar celebrate the Phillips Collection’s 90th anniversary at its annual gala. The Phillips Collection debuted as America’s first museum of modern art in 1921.

From left, Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Paul Senninger, Ambassador of Norway Wegger Strommen, and Ambassador of Sweden Jonas Hafstrom catch up at the Phillips Collection Annual Gala.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and his wife Annette Shelby arrive at the Phillips Collection Annual Gala, which featured dinner at the museum and desserts and dancing at the nearby Anderson House.

From left, Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki and his wife Yoriko Fujisaki pose with former Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad and his wife Shamim at the Phillips Collection Annual Gala.

National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg and her husband David Reines arrive at the Phillips Collection’s Annual Gala for a night of dinner and dancing celebrating the museum’s 90th anniversary.

From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of Sweden Jonas Hafstrom join founder of the Institute for Education coach Kathy Kemper at the Phillips Collection Annual Gala.

From left, Newsweek/Daily Beast board member and former Rep. Jane Harman, lobbyist Tony Podesta, Debbie Dingell and Heather Podesta chat at a reception amongst the modern masterworks of the Phillips Collection.

Pati’s Mexican Table: New PBS Show

PHOTO: MORRIS SIMON, THE SIMON FIRM FOR THE EMBASSY SERIES

Embassy Series at Germany Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan and his wife Veronica Valencia-Sarukhan attend the Phillips Collection Annual Gala, a blacktie event that featured a cocktail reception and dining among the masterpieces of the Phillips Collection.

From left Newsweek/Daily Beast board member and former Rep. Jane Harman, Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), and former U.S. Chief of Protocol Molly Raiser admire the art at the Phillips Collection on the occasion of its 90th anniversary.

From left, violinist Anjte Weithaas, Embassy Series Director Jerome Barry, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, and Ambassador of Germany Klaus Scharioth headline an Embassy Series concert held at the German ambassador’s residence.

Queen Beatrix’s Birthday

Celtic Chefs

Chairwoman of Susan Davis International Susan Ann Davis, left, and Ambassador of Ireland Michael Collins attend “An Evening with Celtic Chefs,” hosted by the Washington Ireland Program at the St. Regis hotel to highlight Ireland’s most noted professional chefs.

Page 58

The Washington Diplomat

PHOTOS: SUSAN DAVIS INTERNATIONAL

From left, Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Penn.), Rep. Timothy Murphy (R-Penn.), Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, , Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.), Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.), and political columnist and commentator Mark Shields served as “sous chefs” and helped prepare dishes to raise money for the Washington Ireland Program.

Pati Jinich, second from right, is the host of the Mexican Cultural Institute’s cooking series “Pati’s Mexican Table” and now has her own weekly Saturday morning PBS television show (shown locally on Channel 26). She celebrated with Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, right, and her family — husband Daniel Jinich and sons Alan, Samuel and Julian — at a launch party (which also marked her birthday) held at the Mexican Cultural Institute.

Dr. Richard Huw Jones, left, greets Ambassador of Germany Klaus Scharioth and his wife Dr. Ulrike Scharioth at the birthday reception in honor of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands held at the Royal Dutch Embassy.

From left, Dr. Richard Huw Jones and Ambassador of the Netherlands Renée Jones-Bos greet Ambassador of Montenegro Srdjan Darmanovic at the official birthday celebration for Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands held at the Royal Dutch Embassy.

June 2011

AROUNDTHEWORLD

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

June 2011

WORLD HOLIDAYS BOLIVIA June 23: Corpus Christi

ANGOLA June 1: International Children’s Day

BOTSWANA June 2: Ascension

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA June 13: Whit Monday ARGENTINA June 21: Flag Day AUSTRALIA June 13: Queen’s Birthday AUSTRIA June 2: Ascension June 13: Whit Monday June 23: Corpus Christi AZERBAIJAN June 15: National Salvation Day June 26: National Army Day BAHAMAS June 1: Labor Day June 13: Whit Monday BARBADOS June 13: Whit Monday

BRUNEI June 29: Ascension of Mohammed BURKINA FASO June 2: Ascension BURUNDI June 2: Ascension CAMBODIA June 1: International Children’s Day June 20: Birthday of HM the Queen Mother CAPE VERDE June 1: International Children’s Day CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC June 2: Ascension June 13: Pentecost Monday June 30: National Prayer Day

BELGIUM June 2: Ascension June 12: Whit Sunday June 13: Whit Monday

COLOMBIA June 2: Ascension June 23: Corpus Christi June 29: St. Peter and St. Paul Day

BENIN June 2: Ascension June 13: Whit Monday

COMOROS June 29: Ascension of Mohammed

CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF June 30: Independence Day CÔTE D’IVOIRE June 2: Ascension June 13: Whit Monday CROATIA June 22: Anti-Fascism Day June 23: Corpus Christi June 25: Statehood Day (National Day) CYPRUS June 13: PentecostKataklysmos DENMARK June 2: Ascension June 5: Constitution Day June 12: Whit Sunday June 13: Whit Monday DJIBOUTI June 27: Independence Day June 29: Ascension of Mohammed DOMINICA June 12: Whit Sunday June 13: Whit Monday

St. Paul Day

Send Us Your Holidays and Appointments Fax to: The Washington Diplomat at: (301) 949-0065 E-mail to: news@washdiplomat.com Mail to: P.O. Box 1345, Silver Spring, MD 20915-1345

June 23: Corpus Christi ERITREA June 20: Martyrs Day ESTONIA June 4: National Flag Day June 12: Pentecost June 14: Day of Mourning and Commemoration June 18: St. John’s Day/ Midsummer’s Day June 23: Victory Day FINLAND June 2: Ascension June 12: Whit Sunday June 18: Midsummer’s Day

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC June 23: Corpus Christi

FRANCE June 2: Ascension June 12: Pentecost June 13: Pentecost Monday

EQUATORIAL GUINEA June 5: President’s Birthday

GABON June 2: Ascension June 13: Pentecost

Monday GERMANY June 2: Ascension June 13: Whit Monday GRENADA June 13: Whit Monday June 23: Corpus Christi GUATEMALA June 30: Army Day HUNGARY June 13: Whit Monday ICELAND June 2: Ascension June 12: Whit Sunday June 13: Whit Monday June 17: National Day INDONESIA June 2: Ascension June 29: Ascension of Mohammed IRAN June 29: Ascension of Mohammed IRAQ June 29: Ascension of Mohammed

Philip Barton became deputy chief of mission of the British Embassy in April. Barton most recently served as the director for foreign policy and Afghanistan/Pakistan coordinator at the Cabinet Office’s Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1986, and has served in Venezuela, India, Cyprus and Gibraltar. From 1997 to 2000, he served as private secretary to Prime Ministers John Major and then Tony Blair, and from 2008 to 2009, he was the FCO’s additional director for South Asia. Barton, who is married with two children, succeeds Dominick Chilcott, who was deputy chief of mission for the last three years.

Vietnam Nguyen Quoc Cuong presented his credentials to the State Department to become the ambassador of Vietnam to the United States on May 2. A career diplomat, Ambassador Cuong previously served as deputy foreign minister, in charge of the Press and Information Service and relations between Vietnam and European countries, as well as negotiations with the Vatican (2008-11). In addition, he was director-general and executive assistant to the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, later becoming assistant minister of foreign affairs (2005-07), and deputy director-general of the Department of

ITALY June 2: Foundation of the Italian Republic KENYA June 1: Madaraka Day KOSOVO June 15: Constitution Day KUWAIT June 29: Ascension of Mohammed LATVIA June 17-18: Midsummer Celebrations LESOTHO June 2: Ascension LIECHTENSTEIN June 2: Ascension June 13: Pentecost Monday June 23: Corpus Christi LITHUANIA June 24: St. John’s Day LUXEMBOURG June 2: Ascension June 13: Whit Monday June 23: National Day

APPOINTMENTS United Kingdom

IRELAND June 6: Bank Holiday

Multilateral Economic Cooperation and head of the Political and Security Section of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Vietnam 2006 Secretariat (200507). He also worked as an officer at the China Department and researcher at the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since Ambassador 1981. During his 30-year career, Ambassador Cuong was posted Nguyen Quoc twice to Vietnam’s missions Cuong abroad, once as minister counselor, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Vietnam in Canada (2002-05) and the other as second secretary in China (1990-93). Ambassador Cuong graduated from the University of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam and earned a master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He also took a course on public administration at the Maxwell School of Public Administration at Syracuse University in 1998 and participated in the Vietnam Executive Leadership Program at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government in 2009. He speaks fluent English and is married with a daughter and a son.

MALAYSIA June 4: Birthday of HM the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong MALTA June 7: Sette Giugno Commemoration Day June 29: St. Peter and St. Paul Day MONGOLIA June 1: International Children’s Day MOZAMBIQUE June 25: National Day NAMIBIA June 2: Ascension

PHILIPPINES June 12: Philippine Independence Day POLAND June 23: Corpus Christi PORTUGAL June 10: Portugal Day June 23: Corpus Christi QATAR June 27: Anniversary of the Amir’s Succession ROMANIA June 1: International Children’s Day June 26: Day of the National Flag RUSSIA June 12: National Day ST. KITTS and NEVIS June 13: Whit Monday

SOLOMON ISLANDS June 13: Queen’s Birthday SOUTH AFRICA June 16: Youth Day SWEDEN June 2: Ascension June 6: National Day June 12: Whit Sunday June 18: Midsummer Day SWITZERLAND June 2: Ascension June 12: Whit Sunday June 13: Whit Monday June 29: St. Peter and St. Paul Day TAJIKISTAN June 27: Unity Day TOGO June 2: Ascension June 12: Pentecost June 13: Pentecost Monday June 21: Martyrs’ Day

ST. LUCIA June 23: Corpus Christi

TONGA June 4: National Day

NEW ZEALAND June 6: Queen’s Birthday

ST. KITTS and NEVIS June 13: Queen’s Birthday June 13: Whit Monday

TRINIDAD and TOBAGO June 19: Labor Day June 23: Corpus Christi

NORWAY June 2: Ascension June 12: Whit Sunday June 13: Whit Monday

ST. VINCENT and THE GRENADINES June 13: Whit Monday

NETHERLANDS June 2: Ascension June 13: Whit Monday

OMAN June 29: Ascension of Mohammed PALAU June 1: President’s Day

SAMOA June 1: National Day SENEGAL June 2: Ascension June 12: Whit Sunday June 13: Whit Monday

MADAGASCAR June 2: Ascension June 13: Pentecost Monday June 26: National Day

PARAGUAY June 12: Chaco Armistice

SEYCHELLES June 5: Liberation Day June 18: National Day June 23: Corpus Christi June 29: Independence Day

MALAWI June 14: Freedom Day

PERU June 29: St. Peter and

SLOVENIA June 25: National Day

PAPUA NEW GUINEA June 13: The Queen’s Birthday

UGANDA June 3: Uganda Martyrs’ Day June 9: National Heroes’ Day UKRAINE June 28: Constitution Day UNITED ARAB EMIRATES June 29: Ascension of Mohammed URUGUAY June 19: Birthday of José G. Artigas VENEZUELA June 24: Battle of Carabobo

4 DATA 9

OUR

ALGERIA June 19: National Youth Day

SPEAKS VOLUMES

What does this mean? It means that, as a publication audited by Circulation Verification Council (CVC), we have a clear understanding of our impact, including the number of households we reach, how much we’re read and our influence on purchasing decisions. When it comes to serving readers and advertisers, CVC is the standard.

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June 2011

The Washington Diplomat Page 59

During a 2002 mission in eastern Afghanistan, members of a U.S. Navy Seal team found valuable intelligence, including this Osama bin Laden propaganda poster. But it would take another nine years before the Seals could stage a daring operation inside Pakistan to capture the 9/11 terrorist mastermind, killing the world’s most-hunted man but also straining ties with Pakistan.

from page 10

Pakistan “Some of its security concerns, such as the need for a credible deterrent against India, are real, but the Pakistani military’s desire for institutional supremacy within the country has created psychological and political layers to the Pakistani nation’s sense of insecurity,” he wrote.“The alliance between mosque and military in Pakistan maintains, and sometimes exaggerates, these psycho-political fears and helps both the Islamists and the generals in their exercise of political power.”

According to Michael Hirsh, chief correspondent for the National Journal, “Haqqani argued that Pakistani leaders going back to the nation’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Pakistani generals have constantly used the unifying principle of Islam and the perceived threat from Hindu India to build a national identity,” he wrote. “This helps explain everything from the military’s decades-old effort to build up an Islamist insurgency in disputed Kashmir to Islamabad’s successful strategy of aiding and building up the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan during the 1990s.

“But it has proved to be something of a Faustian bargain,” Hirsh added. “Many jihadists the Pakistanis once considered ‘theirs’ have since aligned themselves with the Taliban or al-Qaida, and even launched plots against … other Pakistani officials.”

As Haqqani himself wrote at the time, because the military’s strategic focus remains consumed with building counterweights to India, only democracy “can gradually wean the country from Islamic extremism.”

This is easier said than done, however, and requires a shift in U.S. strategy, using its financial leverage over the Pakistani military while bolstering the weak civilian government.

“Pakistan’s relations with the United States have been part of the Pakistani military’s policy tripod that emphasizes Islam as a national unifier, rivalry with India as the principal objective of the state’s foreign policy, and an alliance with the United States as a means to defray the costs of Pakistan’s massive military expenditures,” the ambassador wrote.

“Washington should no longer condone the Pakistani military’s support for Islamic militants, its use of its intelligence apparatus for controlling domestic politics, and its refusal to cede power to a constitutional democratic government,” he added, suggesting the very condi-

tions on aid now being proposed on Capitol Hill.

STOP-AND-GO REVENUE STREAM But it’s still the military that runs the show in Pakistan, along with the country’s all-powerful InterServices Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, which has been a source of friction with the U.S. government for years.

PHOTO: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE The ISI openly supported the Taliban until Sept.

11, 2001. Since then, it has publicly distanced itself from the group, although many analysts believe that at least elements within the spy service maintain links to the Taliban and other groups such as the Haqqani network as a “strategic hedge,” as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates put it, to preserve Pakistani influence in Afghanistan once U.S. troops pull out.

Another concern is that Pakistan is simply playing both sides, publicly keeping the Taliban at bay, while privately funneling financial assistance to them, part of which comes from the U.S. Congress.

That’s why lawmakers have considered scaling back or attaching strings to the funding. If they do, it would not be the first time the flow of financial assistance has been suspended or scaled back — a revenue stream that’s been going to Pakistan on and off since 1954.

Military aid slowed between 1965 and 1971 because of Pakistan’s two wars with India. In 1979, President Carter cut aid after it was discovered Pakistan had a uranium-enrichment facility.

Washington tried to renew financial ties after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, but Pakistani leader Gen. Muhammad Ziaul-Haq balked at the initial offer of $400 million, calling it “peanuts.” A year later though, the revenue river swelled after President Reagan entered office, agreeing to a five-year deal worth $3.2 billion, including the sale of 40 F-16 fighters.

“Between 1982 and 1990 the CIA, working with the ISI and Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service, funded the training arrival and arming of some 35,000 Islamic militants from 43 Muslim countries around in Pakistan madrassas to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan,” Rashid, author of “Descent Into Chaos,” wrote.“This global jihad launched by Zia and Reagan was to sow the seeds of al-Qaeda and turn Pakistan into the

world center of jihadism for the next two decades.”

After the fall of the Soviet Union, President George H.W. Bush cut off military funds and significantly pared back other assistance, partly because of concerns over the country’s nuclear weapons program and the simple fact that the United States lost interest in the country after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan — a move some Pakistanis still view as a slap in the face. The U.S. government again scaled back aid further in 1998 after the country tested nuclear weapons.

But following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Pakistan re-emerged as America’s biggest ally in the region practically overnight. Then President Pervez Musharraf, facing a stark ultimatum from the Bush administration, pledged allegiance to the U.S. fight against terrorism and ever since, the country has received more than $20 billion in assistance, with Congress approving a $7.5 billion civilian package for infrastructure and other projects as part of an attempt to convince Pakistan that U.S. interests extend beyond military cooperation.

Despite the recent uproar from many lawmakers, Congress has yet to signal that it will seriously pull the plug on aid to Pakistan.

“Distancing ourselves from Pakistan would be unwise and extremely dangerous,” said Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the ranking Republican member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.“It would weaken our intelligence gathering, limit our ability to prevent conflict between India and Pakistan, further complicate military operations in Afghanistan, end cooperation on finding terrorists, and eliminate engagement with Islamabad on the security of its nuclear weapons.”

Sen. Kerry has driven home that point as well, saying there are “few countries as important to our national security right now as Pakistan.”

“A legitimate analysis concludes that it is undeniable that our relationship with Pakistan has helped us pursue our security goals,” Kerry told his colleagues in May, arguing that the United States has an important role to play in helping the more secular elements of Pakistani society trump extremism. “Will the forces of violent extremism grow more dominant, eventually overpowering the moderate majority?” he asked. “Or will Pakistanis recommit to the values espoused by the founder of their country, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and come together to build a stable, moderate democracy, an economically vibrant and socially tolerant nation at peace with itself and its neighbors?”

He added: “No matter what we learn about these events that proceeded the killing of Osama bin Laden, we still have vital national security interests in this region and we have worked hard to build a partnership with Pakistan, fragile, and difficult and challenging as it may be at times, that allows us to pursue common threats and interests.”

Anna Gawel, managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, contributed to this report.

Seth McLaughlin is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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PK]QHWZRUNV RUJ PK]LQGF IRU FDEOH VDWHOOLWH WHOFR QXPEHUV IRU WKHVH FKDQQHOV The Washington Diplomat Page 63

YOUR URBAN OASIS AWAITS

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June 2011