The Washington Diplomat - August 2019

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VOLUME 26, NUMBER 08

AUGUST 2019

MIDDLE EAST

Will Muslim Brotherhood Be Stamped Out?

With the Trump administration considering designating it a terrorist organization, its leader dead and its members facing a wave of repression across the Arab world, the Muslim Brotherhood — the world’s oldest Islamist organization — may be on its last legs. PAGE 4

ASIA

Southeast Asia Wins as China, U.S. Butt Heads

Several countries are reaping the rewards of the U.S.-China trade war, but the United States and China aren’t among them, as manufacturers shift production to Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere to avoid the tariff fallout. PAGE 7

Culture

UZBEK REDO Javlon Vakhabov, Tashkent’s young new envoy in Washington, hopes to be the fresh face of a new Uzbekistan, as the former Soviet republic works to undo 25 years of repressive rule under the Karimov dictatorship and emerge from international isolation. PAGE 13

SPECIAL SECTION

Different Women, Different Times

The American University Museum explores the past and the future with women artists from Taiwan and the Philippines. PAGE 28

Hotels Offer Urban Oasis It's time to take advantage of the last few weeks of summer by beating the heat at area hotels, which offer an abundance of rooftops and patios to eat, drink, cool off and soak up spectacular views. Our Hotels & Travel special section is highlighting some of the area's best outdoor spaces at hotels located right here in our backyard. PAGE 18

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August 2019

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Contents

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

13

4

18

9

33 17

NEWS

HOTELS & TRAVEL

BROTHERHOOD ON THE RUN With its leader dead and its members in hiding, the Muslim Brotherhood is struggling to survive.

18

4

7 THE REAL TRADE VICTORS

As the U.S. and China battle it out over trade, other countries are reaping the rewards.

9 OPERATION JIHADI BRIDE

A former British soldier’s mission is to save the young women who joined the Islamic State.

13

COVER PROFILE: UZBEKISTAN

Uzbekistan’s young new envoy wants to show a new side to his former Soviet republic.

17

MEDICAL

Researchers have found possible links between a broken heart and cancer.

COOL HOTSPOTS

Enjoy the remaining days of summer by basking in the region’s many hotel rooftops and patios.

CULTURE 28

ECLECTIC SUMMER

The American University Museum features Filipino reflections and Taiwanese tech this summer.

29

WATER EQUALITY

“Fair Water: A Right of All” looks at the need to share and preserve our most precious resource.

31

TEXAS SPITFIRE

A no-holds-barred former governor of Texas comes back to life in “Ann.”

32

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS

The Canadian Embassy reminds Americans that Canada is their closest neighbor — and friend.

33

‘ROOTS OF PEACE’

A mural beneath the city streets paints a picture of the Americas and of its Uruguayan creator.

REGULARS 34 CINEMA LISTING 36 EVENTS LISTING 38 DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT 44 APPOINTMENTS 46 CLASSIFIEDS 47 REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 3

WD | Middle East

Brotherhood Under Siege Its Leader Dead and Members on the Run, Muslim Brotherhood May Be on Its Last Legs

BY JONATHAN GORVETT

W

ith the Trump administration considering designating it a terrorist organization and its members facing a wave of repression across the Muslim world, these are dark days for the world’s oldest Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).

Founded in 1928 as a pan-Islamic, transnational religious and social movement in the Egyptian city of Ismailia, the MB also recently saw its most prominent leader, former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, die in handcuffs behind a glass cage in a Cairo courtroom.

He had been swept to power when the Brotherhood’s time appeared to have finally come, back in 2011, as uprisings rippled across the Arab world.

After those uprisings ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak, Morsi became the country’s first democratically elected leader in 2012, signaling a break in decades of authoritarian rule and sparking hopes that Islamist groups could be folded into the political mainstream.

During the Mubarak years, the MB was both revered and reviled. It built a strong grassroots following with its charitable work and its influence quickly spread beyond Egypt. But the group was also viewed with widespread suspicion because of its Islamist political roots that rejected secularism. Although it was allowed to participate in Egyptian politics intermittently over the years, its members were also persecuted throughout Mubarak’s presidency.

After spending years as an underground organization, the MB — reluctantly at first — backed Egypt’s 2011 revolution. It initially pledged to stay out of the presidential race but eventually nominated its charismatic leader, Khairat el-Shater, to run for office. When Shater was disqualified from running, Morsi took his place, beating a challenger widely seen as a relic of the Mubarak era. As Morsi took charge in Egypt, other MB-associated groups also assumed leading positions in Tunisia, Jordan and Morocco, while receiving strong backing from Turkey and Qatar.

With existing MB-associated groups already in power in Sudan and the Gaza Strip, this made the organization one of the Arab world’s leading political groupings.

Now though, that impressive portfolio has been torn to shreds by the oftenviolent events of the last eight years (also see “Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Struggles to Recover After Spectacular Fall” in the July 2015 issue).

“The Brotherhood is going through a period of intense flux,” Martyn Frampton, an expert on the group from Lon-

4 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

Then-President Mohamed Morsi, right, and Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, left, listen to U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel during a meeting with U.S. officials on April 24, 2013. Shortly afterward, Morsi was overthrown in a military coup that resulted in el-Sisi taking over the presidency. Morsi was jailed and recently died in a Cairo courtroom.

“

After what [Sisi’s] regime did to [the Brotherhood] in 2013, they believe there can be no going back. Those now in power in Cairo think it’s either them or the Brotherhood.

MARTYN FRAMPTON, Queen Mary University in London

don’s Queen Mary University, told The Washington Diplomat. “The period since 2013 has been a historic nadir for the group.”

REGIONAL DEMISE

In 2013, Morsi, who had barely been in office for a year following a narrow election victory, was overthrown in a military coup, backed by strong popular support.

An engineer by training and a largely unknown figure before being thrust into the presidency, Morsi was accused of bumbling the economy and concentrating power in the hands of Brotherhood, in part by trying to ram through a new Islamist constitution. But his supporters counter that Morsi worked to maintain good relations with the West and that his government was perpetually undermined behind the scenes by Egypt’s military and business elite.

After millions took to the streets to

protest Morsi’s presidency, the military promptly stepped in. The coup saw hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters killed and was followed by mass arrests and the Brotherhood’s designation as a terrorist organization by the new regime of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Sisi has since cracked down on political opponents, notably anyone associated with the Muslim Brotherhood (thousands of whose sympathizers remain in jail) and pushed through a constitution that could keep the military strongman in power until 2030.

The remains of the Muslim Brotherhood have been driven underground or into exile, primarily in Turkey, Europe and Qatar. Meanwhile, Islamist-aligned parties in other nations have distanced themselves from the group or severed ties altogether.

In Jordan, the king himself had invited the MB to join the government in 2011, yet by 2013, the group had fragmented, its relationship with King Abdullah II

”

had fallen apart and in 2015, the MB’s core was banned — although its political wing, the Islamic Action Front, remains the country’s largest opposition group.

In Tunisia, the Ennahda party, which had MB links and was elected to office in 2011, stepped down in January 2014 after a protracted political crisis, although the party continues to play a key role in the government.

In Morocco, the Justice and Development Party (PJD) won the most votes in 2011 elections. Yet given the rapid decline of the MB’s standing, it has since strongly denied any relationship with the Brotherhood, despite plenty of historical connections.

In fact, the PJD and Ennahda may have adopted a more conciliatory approach to governing in the wake of the Muslim Brotherhood’s downfall in Egypt, according to the July 2018 Brookings report “Islamist Parties in North Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.”

“The PJD and Ennahda demonstrate that not all Islamist parties are intent on ruling unilaterally, or permanently. The PJD has forged multiple coalitions, and Ennahda turned power over to a technocratic government, compromised on constitutional issues, did not seek the presidency in 2014, and embraced its second-place finish in that year’s parliamentary elections,” wrote the report’s authors, Abel Abdel Ghafar and Bill Hess.

And while the report says that none of the three parties pursued a strict policy of Sharia law following their elections as some had feared, the Muslim Brotherhood “pursued a zero-sum approach that brought it into conflict with several actors in the Egyptian political system and ultimately led to its downfall.”

The Brotherhood has seen its influence wane in other parts of the region because of internal politics and changes.

In Sudan, Omar al-Bashir had been one of the first MB-supported leaders to take power, back in 1989, but he was recently overthrown. The future of the Sudanese Brotherhood — which now backs an agreement between the opposition that overthrew Bashir and the military — remains in question.

Hamas, meanwhile, was first established as an offshoot of the Egyptian Brotherhood during the First Intifada in 1987. Yet it too has distanced itself from the MB in recent years.

Setting out a key policy document in the Qatari capital of Doha in May 2017, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said that

while his group was still part of the MB’s pan-Islamic “intellectual school,” it was now an entirely “independent Palestinian organization.”

HOLDOUTS

The MB has thus become a group with few friends, with Turkey and Qatar the most prominent of those remaining.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) shares much of the MB’s Islamist outlook, although it grew from different roots. Erdoğan was one of the most outspoken supporters of the short-lived MB government in Egypt, while also developing links with Bashir’s Sudan.

Qatar, meanwhile, has long had a different relationship with the MB than that of other Gulf monarchies, namely the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

“In Qatar, the Brotherhood has a strong influence socially, through some very well-connected families, and in institutions such as the Ministry of Education and the Islamic foundations,” professor Courtney Freer of the London School of Economics, who has written widely on the Brotherhood, told The Washington Diplomat.

This influence has, however, enraged the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which, along with Egypt and Bahrain, broke off relations with Qatar in 2017 and launched a subsequent blockade.

Both the Saudis and Emiratis have made stamping out the Brotherhood

a geopolitical objective. Followers and affiliates of the MB were initially welcomed by the two monarchies, but by the late ’80s, the conservative ruling families in Saudi Arabia and the UAE grew increasingly wary of political Islam, seeing it as an ideological and security threat. Members and sympathizers of the MB were arrested or sent into exile — a crackdown that intensified after the Arab Spring, when the UAE and Saudi Arabia supported the coup that overthrew Morsi (shortly afterward, both countries designated the MB a terrorist group).

Since the 2013 coup, many MB members have been living in exile in Europe, particularly the U.K., with the group attempting to position itself as the authoritative voice of the Muslim community via organizations such as the Muslim Council of Britain.

“This has also been their strategy elsewhere, in the U.S., France, Germany and other Western countries,” said Frampton. “It’s a form of identity politics, to become the authentic voice of the Muslim community, even though, of course, that community has many voices.”

TERRORISTS OR POLITICIANS?

After Sisi’s visit to the White House in April this year, President Trump announced that the U.S. would be reviving an earlier move, abandoned in SEE BROT H E RH O O D • PAGE 6

PHOTO: BY THE_LION_OF_EGYPTIAN_REVOLUTION_(QASR_AL-NIL_BRIDGE).JPG:KODAK AGFA FROM EGYPTDERIVATIVE WORK: JBARTA (TALK) - CC BY-SA 2.0; CREDIT

A protester holds the Egyptian flag during the 2011 uprising that overthrew the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

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AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 5

Below, President Donald Trump greets Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the West Wing entrance of the White House on April 3, 2017.

At left, two women — who obscured their faces, fearing persecution — demonstrate against Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who ousted Morsi and crushed the Muslim Brotherhood, most of whose members have since fled or gone into hiding.

CREDIT: OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD

PHOTO: BY ALISDARE HICKSON - HTTPS://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/ALISDARE/22603231990/, CC BY-SA 2.0

Brotherhood CONTINUED • PAGE 5

2017, to designate the MB a terrorist organization.

This designation is a process, most recently used by Trump in April to brand the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran as a “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO).

To receive the designation, a group must engage in terrorist activity — and such activity must “threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security of the U.S.” Yet the MB has repeatedly renounced violence over its history, stressing that its methods must be peaceful.

It typically organizes on a social, community level and mobilizes large numbers of people, rather than engaging in violent actions perpetrated by small groups, as a terrorist organization typically behaves.

“Can you link the MB to a single terrorist attack in the past?” asked Freer. While in its early years in Egypt it possessed an armed wing, “in 1969, the organization repudiated violence,” she said.

Many U.S. defense and diplomatic officials have also voiced concern about the legalities of the designation because the MB is not a single party or organization, but a loose association of similarly minded “chapters” in various countries, each of which pursues its own vision.

“Each chapter — in Egypt, Jordan, the U.S. or wherever — is able to set its own agenda and respond to the particular circumstances in which it finds itself,” said Frampton.

PHOTO: BY LILIAN WAGDY - HTTPS://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/LILIANWAGDY/9176266797/IN/PHOTOSTREAM/LIGHTBOX/, CC BY 2.0

Protesters march against President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo on June 28, 2013.

“There is no Brotherhood International, setting a party line.”

A blanket designation could also ensnare many people and parties only loosely affiliated with the group.

“Sweepingly targeting the Muslim Brotherhood would create a cascade of diplomatic problems because political parties with Brotherhood roots serve in parliaments and even governments in many countries,” wrote Michele Dunne and Andrew Miller in a May 3 brief for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

They added that Muslims in the U.S. could also be unfairly targeted.

“Islamophobic groups — with contacts inside the Trump administration— would press the FBI to investigate every U.S. mosque or Muslim charity for possible ties to Muslim Brotherhoodsupported hospitals, clinics,

6 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

and religious organizations throughout the world,” they warned.

Moreover, they argued that the “Islamic State and al-Qaeda would celebrate such a designation as vindication of their argument that non-violent political activity is futile. They would use the designation in their efforts to recruit desperate and isolated Islamist youth, who once believed in peaceful politics.”

Yet, while the Muslim Brotherhood has ostensibly embraced political participation, doubts remain about the group’s commitment to nonviolence.

First, there is the Hamas connection, even though the Palestinian group now denies it is linked to the MB. Although it runs the Gaza Strip, Hamas is regarded as a terrorist group by the European Union, Canada, Israel, Japan, Jordan and the U.S., while other countries — such as

the U.K., Australia and New Zealand — have banned its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

“Saying the MB is nonviolent is problematic,” Frampton told us. “While they have embraced politics, the Brotherhood also believes in ‘resistance,’ in the case of occupation. So, they supported the insurgency against the U.S. and U.K. in Iraq, the Taliban in Afghanistan and they all support Hamas.”

Then there are the former MB members who have gone on to lead unabashedly terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Other groups that have split off from the MB and taken up arms include Egypt’s Harakat Sawa’d Misr (HASM) and Liwa al-Thawra, which the U.S. already considers to be terrorist groups.

“Some people see the MB as a kind of gateway drug,” said Freer. “You start in the

PHOTO: ABDULMOMN KADHIM / PIXABAY

Visitors gather at the Sphinx. In the wake of political turmoil since the 2011 revolution, tourism to Egypt has plummeted.

Brotherhood and become more and more radicalized.”

Yet al-Zawahiri has denounced the MB precisely for its nonviolent approach.

Moreover, banning a group for what its former members may or may not do in the future clearly poses major legal challenges.

“I don’t think designation is the right answer,” Frampton said. “It’s too crude a device to deal with such a complex organization.”

Meanwhile, the MB itself recognizes that its fortunes have been waning, although it draws strength from its long history of advances and withdrawals, having survived numerous crackdowns throughout its 90 years of existence.

“This is not the first time the MB has been pushed under,” Freer pointed out.

“There’s a general sense now

that this is another period when they have to work underground, but that it is a cycle, and eventually things will change again.”

Yet this time around, there may be a more concerted effort by a multitude of players to crush the Brotherhood once and for all.

“For people like Sisi,” Frampton says, “this is an existential struggle. After what his regime did to them in 2013, they believe there can be no going back. Those now in power in Cairo think it’s either them or the Brotherhood.” WD Jonathan Gorvett (jpgorvett. com) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and a freelance journalist specializing in Near and Middle Eastern affairs.

Asia

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WD

Trade Scramble As U.S. and China Duke It Out in Tariff War, Other Nations Emerge as Winners

BY JOHN BRINKLEY

V

ietnam is the new China.

Several countries are doing well because of the U.S.-China trade war, but the United States and China aren’t among them. Since the U.S. and China attacked and counterattacked each other last year with punitive tariffs, Vietnam has been the big winner, with Cambodia, Thailand and other countries also benefitting. China-based manufacturers have moved their operations to countries in Southeast Asia and elsewhere because the combination of rising labor costs in China and U.S. tariffs has gotten to be too much for them.

Chinese workers earn an average of $5.78 per hour in 2019, according to Statista. com. Vietnamese workers earn an average of $2.91 per hour.

U.S. imports from Vietnam totaled $25.8 billion during the first five months of 2019, compared with $18.9 billion during the same period in 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. trade deficit with that country rose from $15.6 billion to $21.6 billion during that timeframe.

Cambodia exported $1.5 billion worth of goods to the United States during the first five months of 2018 and $1.9 billion between Jan. 1 and May 31, 2019. Its trade surplus with the U.S. went up from $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion.

Mexico’s exports to the United States totaled $139.5 billion during the five-month period of 2018 and $149.1 billion in 2019. In fact, Mexican exports to the U.S. totaled $32.1 billion in May 2019, their highest monthly total ever. The U.S. trade deficit with Mexico rose from $30.1 billion to $40.5 billion.

Thailand, Chile, Malaysia, South Korea and Argentina also exported more goods to — and increased their trade surpluses with — the United States, in whole or in part because of President Trump’s punitive tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, imposed in June 2018.

Trump has advised Ameri-

CREDIT: OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD

Above, President Donald Trump joins Chinese President Xi Jinping at their bilateral meeting on June 29 at the G20 Japan Summit in Japan.

Below, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, left, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and members of his delegation for U.S.-China trade talks on Jan. 30 at the White House.

American companies that have bailed out of China include GoPro, Universal Electronics, Hasbro, Home Depot, Best Buy and Revlon. HP, Dell, Sony, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Apple are also reportedly examining the prospects of transferring some production out of China.

CREDIT: OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY ANDREA HANKS

can companies that object to his tariffs to move back to the United States.

Very few have taken his advice. That’s largely because labor costs in the United States are higher than in any nonEuropean country, according to the Conference Board. The American Chamber of Commerce in China surveyed its member firms last year on how the U.S.-China trade war was affecting them. About 35 percent said they were considering leaving China, but only 6 percent said they were considering moving back to the United States.

American companies that have bailed out of China in-

clude GoPro, which makes mobile cameras, Universal Electronics, which makes remote controls, and Hasbro, the toy maker. Of those, only Hasbro will move some production back to the United States. Home Depot, Best Buy and Revlon have also left.

In addition, HP, Dell, Sony, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Apple are reportedly examining the prospects of transferring some production out of China, according to the Nikkei Asian Review.

The potential beneficiaries are likely to be located in Southeast Asia, but other nations could reap the rewards as well. For example,

Giant Manufacturing, the world’s largest bicycle maker, is considering opening a new factory in Hungary and has already moved some of its production away from China to its home base in Taiwan, according to a June 17 Bloomberg article.

Some of the import increases from Asian countries may be the result of illegal transshipment, whereby a product is built in one country, shipped to another country, then sent on to the United States with the intermediate country listed as the country of origin to skirt tariffs.

“We’ve heard that there are Chinese and non-Chinese companies looking to do

this,” said Lenny Feldman, a Miami-based trade lawyer with the firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg. “We’ve gotten a lot of questions about it from companies asking if they could do it and we tell them no.”

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is responsible for enforcing a federal law against the illegal transshipment of goods to the U.S., but it has no data on seizures of transshipped goods or prosecution of those responsible, said spokeswoman Kelly Cahalan.

Moving production from one country to another is not SEE CHINA • PAGE 8

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 7

China CONTINUED • PAGE 7

PHOTO: © ILO / AARON JOEL SANTOS

Ando International, a Vietnamese garment firm with 900 workers in Ho Chi Minh City, has improved its labor standards since joining Better Work Vietnam, a partnership between the U.N. International Labour Organization and the International Finance Corp. With labor costs rising in China and the country mired in a trade war with the U.S., many manufacturers have moved their production to lower-cost countries such as Vietnam.

8 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

something a company does lightly.

There are myriad factors to consider, said Julie Niederhoff, a Syracuse University professor with expertise in supply chain management.

They include labor costs, quality of infrastructure, quality of internet access, the political and regulatory environment, proximity of airports and shipping ports, among others.

“It’s a pretty big deal to move,” Niederhoff said.

A crucial factor for manufacturers that relocate is the availability of suppliers, said Dan Levine, a trade economist with Oxford Economics. Some companies need highly specialized parts and components and need to be able to get them quickly and easily.

“That’s a major, major hurdle” for companies considering relocating, he said.

There are also longer-term questions to consider, such as the stability of the government, the possibility of legal or regulatory changes and the extent to which intellectual property rights will be protected.

Because upending an entire supply chain is a complex, costly and lengthy process, some companies that have moved their manufacturing facilities from China to other Asian countries may not return even if the trade dispute with Trump is resolved.

Another reason why companies may not return is because Chinese labor costs were already rising before the trade war started. This has made lower-wage countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh an attractive alternative.

While countries such as Vietnam still lack the supply of labor and land that China has, the manufacturing shift is likely to continue as the trade war drags on — with no end in sight.

In fact, Larry Kudlow, a senior economic advisor to President Trump, said the United States and China may never agree on a trade deal.

Whether to go back to China “depends on how much investment they’ve made in the new location,” Niederhoff said. In many cases, “there’s probably not a compelling reason to go back.” WD John Brinkley is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Middle East | WD

Operation Jihadi Bride Former British Soldier Saves Women from Islamic State

BY BEN MACHELL

For 18 months, a former British soldier known as John Carney made repeated incursions into the most dangerous parts of Islamic State territory. His mission? To save the young women who wanted to escape the caliphate and return to the West. He talks about how and why he did it.

Y

ou are in a supermarket doing your weekly shopping. Just ahead of you is a tall, bearish bloke in shorts and flip-flops. He’s in his mid-40s and has a heavy stubble and dark, greying hair. He stops, puts a six-pack of beer in his trolley, then continues on his way.

Suddenly, his phone starts to ring.

He answers, wedging it between his shoulder and chin to talk while he browses. From what you can overhear, the voice on the other end of the line belongs to a girl. You get the sense that she is talking quickly and insistently, while he, in response, makes low, reassuring noises after first establishing that she is OK. The conversation continues in hushed tones for a minute or so, then finishes with the man telling the voice on the phone that he will come and get her as soon as he is able.

He puts his phone back in his pocket.

If you had to guess, you’d say that he was a dutiful father who’d just had his weekend plans rearranged by a teenage daughter.

But you would be wrong. The girl on the phone is calling from Mosul. Or Raqqa. Or any number of other towns or cities that were, for a time, under the direct control of the Islamic State.

She had, at the age of 17 or 18 or 19, secretly traveled to the Middle East from her home somewhere in Europe to start a new life — to become a “jihadi bride.” Only, it is now mid-2017.

Coalition forces have the caliphate in full retreat. Airstrikes screech overhead and bombs explode nearby, making the walls of her bare home shake and her baby scream. There are punishment beatings and executions and thousands of skinny, wild-eyed young men seeking martyrdom. Everywhere, it seems, is gunfire and death. She wants out.

She has already contacted her family back home — the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands — to tell them this, and they have made some inquiries. Their government cannot or will not do anything to help. But they come to hear of a man who can. His name is John Carney and he is a former British soldier turned independent intelligence operative with years of experience in the Middle East. And during the height of

PHOTO: ©UNICEF / KHALIL ASHAWI

A woman cradles her child in a makeshift camp at Syria’s Atmah village, near the Turkish border, on June 5 after violence broke out between the Islamic State and the Syrian government.

“

There were times when they would call me up while I was at the shops or doing the school run. ‘Where are you?

Where are you, John? Help me now, help me!’ There’s someone’s life on the other end of that phone. You can’t just turn it off. You can’t just ignore it.

JOHN CARNEY

independent intelligence operative

the fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS), he acquired a reputation for doing something incredibly dangerous. He would go into ISIS-held territory and rescue — or, as he puts it, “retrieve and extract” — women and young children who were desperate to get out.

“There were times when they would call me up while I was at the shops or doing the school run,” he said. “‘Where are you? Where are you, John? Help me now, help me!’ There’s someone’s life on the other end of that phone. You can’t just turn it off. You can’t just ignore it.”

He didn’t. Over an 18-month period between 2016 and 2018, Carney led

”

operations that resulted in the retrieval and extraction of some 70 women from Syria and northern Iraq. As Iraqiled coalition forces fought with Islamic State jihadists for control of Mosul — a bloody, nine-month battle for a city of 2 million people — Carney and his small team of predominantly Kurdish operatives raced about the “apocalypse” of the bombed-out cityscape in a people carrier trying to track down their girls, swapping GPS coordinates and messages on WhatsApp like some nightmarish parody of an Uber driver attempting to find their customer.

Armed with assault rifles, body armour and grenades, Carney and his team would often have to fight their

way out of trouble when it became clear that they would not be able to simply speed away. You might think that this is the sort of thing that only government agents would be allowed to do. In fact, says Carney, it’s the other way around. The very fact that he was able to take a call directly from a terrified jihadi bride and then show up in the middle of a major modern battle in a people carrier to collect her is precisely because he does not work for anybody other than himself.

“I’m not attached to any security service; I’m not attached to any government,” he said. “So I get dropped off at an airport, get picked up by a friend, we can collect weapons, jump in a vehicle and drive somewhere. That process is impossible for any agency because their risk assessment needs to be in place. Our risk assessments are shorter. We haven’t got the worries of someone being kidnapped or paraded about or having their head cut off on TV.” Which is not to say that there is not still a risk of being kidnapped or having your head cut off when you go around rescuing young women from the Islamic State. It’s just that, compared with the same thing happening to an actual spy, it’s a lot less SEE IS IS • PAGE 10 AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 9

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ISIS degrees .* CONTINUED • PAGE 9

embarrassing for the government. “We’re deniable,” Carney said. And if he does end up decapitated? It’s not like the Islamic State has killed James Bond. Carney says he’s just some anonymous “numpty” crazy enough to go to that part of the world. It will barely register with people watching the news at home.

“It’d just be like, OK, next channel,” he said, shrugging.

It’s a drizzly afternoon and we’re in a pub not far from London Bridge. Carney drinks pints of cider. He’s wearing a white shirt, smart trousers and a waterproof coat, which makes him look like any number of city workers knocking off early for the day.

You’d have to get pretty close to him to notice that his fingernails are incongruously dirty. And speaking of getting close to Carney, this is as good a time as any to mention that he is, in fact, on an Islamic State death list — which complicates things a little. His name is not really John Carney. He does not seem

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twitchy or paranoid, but he does politely ask that I don’t offer anything more than a general description of him.

“You’re always checking in the rearview mirror; you’re always doing your little bits like making sure you go round a roundabout twice,” he said, explaining that this is how he checks for anyone who might be tailing him.

“If you’re in a big city like London and you see the same set of eyes twice in a day, there’s something wrong.”

There are many details about himself that Carney cannot reveal. What he can tell us, though, is that he grew up in Wiltshire in Southwest England, had a rough childhood — his father was violent, his mother didn’t seem to care, according to him — and he was in and out of youth detention centers until he found his way to the army. He served six years with the Yorkshire Regiment, did two tours of Northern Ireland and then, immediately after the end of the Iraq War, joined a private defense company working in Iraq.

Since 2011, he’s worked for himself, offering security services across the Middle East and, more recently, running deradicalization programs on the Syrian-Turkish border.

He has a wife and daughter and they all live on the Greek island of Crete. He tries not to let the death-list stuff bother him too much.

“From the age of 12, my girl could strip, assemble, load and fire a shotgun, so she’s looking after the house at the moment,” he said.

“She’s 15 now.”

Carney has written a book about his experiences, “Operation Jihadi Bride.” It’s fascinating, not least because it serves as a portrait of the Middle East as observed and experienced by a man who has spent a long time living and

operating there, understanding the customs and worldviews of Kurds, Arabs, Shias, Sunnis and all the other moving parts and peoples that make up the region.

“I’ve built up relationships. You know, going for a whisky with the local sheikh or local governor, sitting down, eating with people, living with families,” he said.

There have been times when he’s been engaged in battles with local militias that have then called a truce and asked him, a little bashfully, if they could not do any fighting at a certain time tomorrow, as that’s when one of their fathers will be herding his sheep through the village. “You go, ‘OK, that’s fine. Not a problem.’ Yes, it’s an interaction with somebody who is normally trying to kill you. But you don’t have to go toe-to-toe all the time.

And it helps to have an understanding of who you are fighting.”

This willingness to listen to and engage with the local people around him meant that, by the time he was first contacted about a young woman who wanted out of the Islamic State in 2016, Carney had a huge network of contacts he could mine for help. The woman in question was called Laura Angela Hansen, a 21-year-old from the Netherlands who had converted to Islam. She’d met and married a man who would take her and her two young children to northern Syria under the pretense, she would later claim, of a “holiday.” The reality was that they traveled to Raqqa, then Mosul, to live under the caliphate.

The woman’s family had been able to raise $10,000, some £8,000, for her safe return — a risible amount given the risk involved — and yet, even when it transpired that they had been swindled out of this sum by middlemen,

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Carney, for some reason, still committed to the rescue mission. “There was a girl with two children out there,” he remembers in “Operation Jihadi Bride.” “If I didn’t bring them in, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

Which brings us to the question of motivation. Why did a worldly gun-for-hire choose to make the retrieval and extraction of women and children from the clutches of a fanatical death cult his mission in life?

I’ve tried very hard to get to the bottom of this, to work out if it’s a saviour complex or repressed guilt.

And over the course of 300 pages of his book, plus two hours of conversation and seven and a half collective pints, there is only one solid conclusion I can offer: Carney is just a very good bloke.

Or, as he puts it, “a hard bastard with a chip on my shoulder.” His childhood, he says, was “crap.”

“When I first arrived in borstal [youth detention], I’d always have to have a fight against a bigger person. My thinking became, ‘You’re bigger than me. Let’s go for it,’” he said. “One recollection of secondary school was walking through the playground and seeing a girl being bullied by a much older guy. So I jumped in and beat the guy up.”

This landed him back in borstal, meaning that the whole process repeated itself until a need to help the

PHOTO: ©UNICEF / AHMAD HAWAS

A mother in the Al-Hol refugee camp, located in northeast Syria, embraces her child, who has just been vaccinated by a UNICEF-supported health worker. The camp is currently home to 70,000 people, mainly women and children.

underdog became hardwired. So, as the caliphate began to crumble and he heard of more and more young women desperate to flee, he real-

ized that there were few people better positioned — or motivated — to help than he was.

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the end, picked up by Kurdish Peshmerga forces in July 2016. But Carney was already planning more rescue missions of his own. Operat-

ing out of Erbil, a city in Iraqi Kurdistan, he and his small team built up detailed profiles of the women they had been approached to rescue. Carney would spend hours interviewing their family members over Skype and, if possible, establish communication with the women directly.

This, though, was a huge risk. If a woman without the right connections was found with a phone in the caliphate, she could be beaten. If she was found a second time, she could be stoned to death. “In fact, if these girls were found to be talking to me, their children may have been taken and killed as a result.”

Carney said that one method used by the Islamic State to ensure compliance or extract information was to douse a baby or infant in petrol and stand over it with a lit match. “You see that, you go down on your knees and beg to have your head cut off to save the child.”

Typically, the families involved would offer Carney between $1,000 and $15,000 to free their daughters; he would frequently use any larger payments that he received to cover multiple extractions. Often he was barely meeting the cost of the operations. “To be honest, I was covering expenses from my own pocket on occasions,” he admitted, adding wryly that he did not become “rock SEE IS IS • PAGE 12

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star rich” from this line of work. “The money was the main Achilles’ heel.”

Still, as Carney and his team began to extract more and more women, he was able to build up a picture of what they had experienced and what had motivated them to join the caliphate in the first place. Many of the women taken as wives by Islamic State fighters had faced rape and abuse. In his book, he recounts a scene in which he has taken three young women back to the safety of Erbil.

They drink bottles of beer and describe their experiences to him. “They passed us around like sweets,” one woman said. They spent hours locked up and faced starvation. Men exchanged food for sex. Strict dress codes were enforced to ensure their modesty, a sick hypocrisy given how so many of them were treated. “They liked to keep our hair long and remove every trace of body hair,” one girl told Carney, explaining that the same shops that sold the clothes that would cover them head to toe also sold the sexiest lingerie imaginable.

“When they peeled away our clothes, they wanted to find children dressed as porn stars.”

Carney admits that these debriefings, which he would do before passing the young women on to official state agencies, were challenging. “I was never trained to speak to a 16or 17-year-old girl about these things.”

But it was also insightful, because not all the women he rescued had experienced this

PHOTO: ©UNICEF / AHMAD HAWAS

A woman walks through the dust of the Al-Hol refugee camp in Syria, where she sought shelter after fighting broke out between the Islamic State and Syrian Democratic Forces in nearby Deir ez-Zor.

kind of horror — nor had they all been “radicalized” or “recruited” online. Often, their motivations for coming to cities like Raqqa or Mosul were simple and, he found, relatable. Many just loved their husbands and thus followed them east. Others were from backgrounds where poverty, family dysfunction and racism were rampant. “They could be who they wanted to be when they went to the

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caliphate, rather than living in a dilapidated house on an estate. There, she was actually somebody.”

Talk, inevitably, turns to the case of Shamima Begum. In 2015, she was one of three 15-year-old British schoolgirls who left London to travel to the caliphate. In February this year she was located by The Times foreign correspondent Anthony Loyd in a refugee camp in northern Syria. Married off to an Islamic State fighter within weeks of arriving, she had lost two children and a third, born shortly after her discovery, died in the refugee camp within a few weeks of his birth. Begum had hoped to return to the U.K. and, despite this possibility being blocked by the government, has since received legal aid to fight for the right to do so. She remains the highestprofile test case as to how we, as a society, treat the young women who willingly traveled to join the Islamic State.

Carney is circumspect about commenting on Begum directly, but his general view is that there are strong arguments for bringing young women in her position back home.

“I’m a firm believer that everyone should have a second chance,” he said.

There’s also the question of justice. If someone has been involved, even tangentially, with a terrorist organization that has caused death and destruction in the U.K., he thinks that person should be extracted from that refugee camp and brought to trial. He cites the Manchester Arena bombing as an example: How would the families of victims feel if there was the possibility that somebody involved was currently in a refugee camp? “I’m not saying that this person you mentioned [Begum] was one of them. But I think that should be part of the process — not to leave the families in Manchester with no closure.”

I get the sense that Carney also feels protective of these girls. Regardless of their beliefs, seeing them demonized frustrates him. It gives the impression that the issue is an openand-shut case, that the likes of Begum are simply evil and that’s that. “When you’ve got a young girl telling me she used to go to KFC with her dad and that he’d tuck her in at night with her favorite teddy bear, it makes that person real. They’re not just the set of eyes and a

flowing black headscarf you see in the media.”

Also, he continues, we need to understand that, however brutal the Islamic States seemed to us in the West, its regime was not degrees of magnitude more cruel or brutal than what had come before. It was just part of a continuum of horror that has been in motion since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Carney has been operating in and among the civil, sectarian and tribal conflict that followed the U.S. withdrawal, all of which was pre-ISIS and all of which was equally horrific. “We had guys that would get taken, put in acid baths, murdered, executed. If you get caught, you get tortured — then they cut off your head. The brutality doesn’t just come from ISIS. It’s across the board. It’s not, ‘Oh, they’re playing a different game.’ They’re playing the same game as everyone else. Torture is torture. Death is death.”

During one rescue operation, he lost a close friend and colleague, a Kurd, to enemy fire. Although he describes himself as “a civilian,” Carney has himself had to fight and, on at least one occasion, kill Islamic State fighters when there was no other option left but to battle their way out of trouble. “So as soon as you make that decision to fight, that’s it. Your weapon is already cocked, you flip the safety catch off and you go into your drills,” he said.

“Your drills are to fight your way through and that’s what you do. You put as much lead down as you can and you kill them.”

In March this year, the last tiny pocket of Islamic State-held territory in the Middle East fell to Syrian troops. Carney does not believe for a moment that this means the group is no longer a threat. “When you fragment something, it splinters, it goes into underground networks,” he said.

It’s also important to remember that the Islamic State was — and is — not just an ideological project, but a money-making exercise, too. The idea that it can be killed off simply because it no longer exists on a map is naive in the extreme. “It’s growing in Africa, Eastern European states, the Balkans,” Carney said.

“All those areas.”

He is very much still in business and expects to be for some time. His body is still holding up. “If it aches, then you go through it.

If it’s painful, then you just have to remember that pain is a weakness,” Carney grins, finishing his last pint of cider.

He said that many of the young women he’s helped are now back in society and living normal lives. “They’ve been vetted, they’ve gone to court, they’ve had their trial and nothing’s come of it. Their kids are in schools. They’ve carried on with their lives. They’ve matured. They could,” he says, smiling, “be your dentist.”

He gets up to go. The cider doesn’t seem to have touched the sides. He said that he just hopes that people can see, whatever they think of the girls who ran away, that he was just trying to do something positive. The fact that he is also a hard bastard with a chip on his shoulder probably doesn’t hurt. But then, nor does the fact that he’s just a very good bloke.

“I mean, I’ve got my own family, so I know the perils of children growing up and the decisions they can make. I’d like to think that if my daughter did a similar thing, that there would be somebody I could go to and say, ‘Please can you help me?’” he said. “And that they would.” WD Ben Machell is a feature writer and columnist for The Times of London.

This article is reprinted with permission from The Interview People.

Cover Profile | WD

Fresh New Face Uzbekistan’s Young Envoy Says Country Is Gradually Undoing 25 Years of Repression

BY LARRY LUXNER

U

zbekistan, as any geography nerd will proudly tell you, is the world’s only landlocked country — aside from European microstate Liechtenstein — that’s completely surrounded by other landlocked countries.

More trivia: In 2017, a team of Uzbek chefs prepared a plov weighing more than eight tons, earning the country a place in the Guinness World Records as the largest ricebased meat dish of its kind ever created. Not too shabby for an obscure, former Soviet republic that already boasts the world’s largest gold mine (Muruntau), its deepest cave (Dark Star) and one of its oldest cities (Samarkand).

Less admirable is Uzbekistan’s longstanding reputation as one of the most repressive places on Earth.

Thanks to sham elections in which he consistently received roughly 90 percent of the vote, President Islam Karimov managed to rule his California-size nation with an iron fist from the day of its birth on Sept.

1, 1991, until his death 25 years and one day later, on Sept. 2, 2016.

The Karimov dictatorship was marked by brazen acts of corruption, human rights abuses and forced labor that still resonate nearly three years after his replacement by Shavkat Mirziyoyev, a former prime minister who won the December 2016 presidential election with 88.6 percent of all ballots cast.

Mirziyoyev’s election certainly did not herald a democratic awakening in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Graft, political persecution, a tightly controlled state-run economy and severe restrictions on civil liberties are the enduring remnants of Karimov’s ruthless, paranoid rule.

But Mirziyoyev’s election has shaken up politics — not only at home, but around the region as well.

Next door in Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev recently resigned after three decades in power. While Nazarbayev will remain a powerful figure behind the scenes, many have speculated that Karimov’s death spurred the strongman to prepare for his own eventual demise.

Alexander Gabuev, the Russia chair of the Asia-Pacific Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, tweeted that the likely trigger for Nazarbayev’s surprise resignation was Karimov’s death. “The lesson for Nazarbayev was: If you want to keep your loved ones free, alive and wealthy, dying in office isn’t

PHOTO: LAWRENCE RUGGERI

“

Our president’s key slogan is that the period when the people of Uzbekistan serve the government is over. Now the government should serve the people.

JAVLON VAKHABOV

”

ambassador of Uzbekistan to the United States

an option.”

While Nazarbayev still pulls the strings in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan’s new leader is firmly in charge — and using his authority to enact a series of promising reforms, including economic liberalization, improved ties with the West and reducing the powers of the feared security apparatus.

But change won’t come overnight in a country where Uzbek security forces once shot hundreds of protesters and dissidents were savagely tortured. Mirziyoyev is still very much a member of the old guard and isn’t likely to end media censorship or allow free elections any time soon, if ever.

Javlon Vakhabov, Uzbekistan’s new ambassador in Washington, acknowledges past abuses but insists that Uzbekistan has completely changed under Mirziyoyev, who he says has “jolted” the entire political system.

“As you may know, since 2016

when the new president came to power, the government has embarked on a very ambitious program of drastic reforms,” he said during a recent interview with The Washington Diplomat. “All these reforms are organized around a solid commitment to providing good governance, ensuring the rule of law, liberalizing the economy, strengthening our social policy, focusing on education and health care and building up constructive relations — primarily with our neighbors in Central Asia and, of course, with huge powers — but not by sacrificing our independence and sovereignty.”

TAPPING UZBEKISTAN’S POTENTIAL

In many ways, Vakhabov himself represents a new generation of Uzbeks who may be able to help nudge the country out of international iso-

lation.

In October 2017, Vakhabov arrived in Washington as Uzbekistan’s sixth envoy to the United States since independence. The youthful diplomat is 38, which makes him the second-youngest ambassador in Washington (Kosovo’s Vlora Çitaku is the youngest, by two months).

Vakhabov and nine other diplomats work at the Uzbek Embassy, a mansion off Dupont Circle that was built in 1909 by a Canadian businessman who died in the Titanic disaster three years later. For 70 years, it was owned by the Canadian government, which sold the building to Uzbekistan in 1996.

With 33 million people, Uzbekistan is by far the most populous of the five Central Asian “stans” that came into being after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Since 1989, the country’s population has jumped by 65.8 percent — and within 20 years, Uzbekistan will overtake rapidly shrinking Ukraine as the largest of the 15 former Soviet republics, besides Russia itself.

Its capital, Tashkent, is a booming metropolis of 2.4 million, making it the largest city in Central Asia after China’s Urumqi and Afghanistan’s Kabul. Tashkent is famous for its gleaming subway system, towering Soviet-era monuments and handicrafts markets. The country itself is SEE UZ B EK IS TAN • PAGE 14 AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 13

PHOTO: LOGGAWIGGLER / PIXABAY

Uzbekistan CONTINUED • PAGE 13

among Central Asia’s most impressive in terms of its rich history as part of the Silk Road, which left behind a string of ancient cities and stunning Islamic-inspired architecture. Lonely Planet notes that in the year following Mirziyoyev’s reforms, tourism to Uzbekistan has jumped by 25 percent.

But 25 years of Soviet-style economic mismanagement took a huge toll on the country. GDP stands at only $50 billion and nearly 13 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line — despite the fact that Uzbekistan boasts an abundance of hydrocarbons and minerals.

So Mirziyoyev’s government has enacted a raft of reforms, including efforts to expand private businesses and attract foreign investment. With more than 90 percent of Uzbekistan’s economy in government control, the private sector is tiny. The current government is trying to sell off nearly 30 stateowned enterprises in a bid to jumpstart the economy. That includes banks, gold mining conglomerates and the national airline.

“Our president’s key slogan is that the period when the people of Uzbekistan serve the government is over,” Vakhabov said. “Now the government should serve the people.”

In a July 6 article, The Economist praised the president for overhauling the economy by, among other things, installing businessfriendly technocrats; abolishing most capital and currency controls; opening borders; and curbing forced

labor in the cotton industry.

The magazine also noted that “Uzbek diplomats have been instructed to focus on drumming up investment above all.”

Yet, despite robust economic growth over the last three years, it remains to be seen if the growth will be fast enough to support 41 million Uzbeks by 2039.

“Uzbekistan’s large population will fuel consumerled growth and could even lead to the arrival of large investors in search of a lowcost workforce. Yet so far, incomes have remained too low for consumption-led growth on any significant scale,” said the business site BNE Intellinews.

Under Karimov, it noted that “foreign investment was stymied by laws such as that banning repatriation of profits, not to mention investors being at the mercy of a rapacious local elite, with the late president’s eldest daughter, Gulnara Karimova — dubbed the ‘robber baron’ in a leaked U.S. Embassy cable — being a prime example.

As a result, it was oil- and mineral-rich Kazakhstan, rather than more populous Uzbekistan, that shot ahead of its neighbors during the transition period.”

This past March, a federal district court in New York indicted Karimova on corruption charges for using her official position to solicit $865 million in bribes from three telecom companies, then laundering the money through U.S. banks. In a statement, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said this was only “the third installment in a trilogy of cases arising from an almost $1 billion bribery scheme that reached the highest echelons of the Uzbekistan government and was orchestrated by some of the largest

14 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

PHOTO: RHODAN59 / PIXABAY

Uzbekistan boasts a rich history as part of the Silk Road, which left behind a string of ancient cities and Islamic-inspired architecture.

At left, a statue of the Persian scholar and mathematician Al-Khwarizmi sits in the Uzbek city of Khiva, which was established around 1,500 years ago. Above, Samarkand is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia.

PHOTO: KREMLIN.RU, CC BY 4.0

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev greets then-President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev at the 2018 Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in China. Many have speculated that the death of Mirziyoyev’s predecessor, Islam Karimov, spurred Kazakhstan’s longtime leader to prepare for his own eventual demise.

telecommunications companies in the world.”

It’s little wonder then that Transparency International ranked Uzbekistan 158th out of 180 countries in its Corruption Perception Index 2018, with a dismal score of 23. Among former Soviet republics, only neighboring Turkmenistan, which scored 20, was perceived to be more corrupt.

Vakhabov conceded that corruption is an enduring problem in his country.

“One of the first laws the new president signed right after he came to power was the anti-corruption law,” he told us. “This law strengthens criminal penalties for convicted officials. In this regard, we’ve started working closely with Transparency International about how we should tackle challenges related to corruption

PHOTO: KREMLIN PRESS SERVICE - HTTP://KREMLIN.RU/EVENTS/PRESIDENT/NEWS/58851, CC BY 3.0

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, walks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev during a state visit to Uzbekistan in October 2018.

in Uzbekistan.”

REHABILITATING UZBEKISTAN’S IMAGE

Graft is not the only corrosive leftover of a brutal re-

gime that crushed all dissent through arbitrary arrests, torture and other abuses.

In the Freedom in the World 2019 index, published

by Freedom House, Uzbekistan had among the worst scores in terms of civil liberties, freedom and political

rights.

“Reports of torture and other ill treatment remain common, although highly publicized cases of abuse have led to dismissals and prosecutions for some officials,” according to Freedom House. “Despite some highprofile releases, the government still holds numerous prisoners on political and religious grounds.”

In general, said the Washington-based think tank, “while ongoing reforms under [the] new president have led to improvements on some issues, Uzbekistan remains a consolidated authoritarian regime. No genuine opposition parties operate legally. The legislature and judiciary effectively serve as instruments of the executive branch, which initiates reforms by decree, and the media remains tightly controlled by the state.”

Vakhabov sees things quite differently.

“It is not true,” he told us. “Currently, five political parties are represented in our parliament. The Green Party, which was created a few months ago, was previously called the ecological movement, and now they are a full-fledged political party.

And this coming December, parliamentary elections will be held in Uzbekistan.”

What about his country’s “tightly controlled” media?

Vakhabov says that’s not true, either.

“Our government has prioritized strengthening the role of civil society, especially mass media,” he insisted. “Last year, we allowed the Voice of America to set up a representative office in Uzbekistan. They’re free to highlight current reforms

— both domestic and international — taking place in our country, without any restrictions. Just a few weeks ago, VOA visited previously closed areas of Uzbekistan’s border with Afghanistan to eyewitness how we’re easing travel for people living in border areas.

We’ve also accredited a BBC representative in Uzbekistan. Such requests previously addressed to the government had been pending for more than 15 or 20 years.”

Independence Day Sept. 1, 1991 (from the Soviet Union) Location Central Asia, north of Turkmenistan, south of Kazakhstan Capital Tashkent

BLOODSTAINED PAST

Population 30 million (July 2018 estimate) Ethnic groups Uzbek 83.8 percent, Tajik

4.8 percent, Kazakh 2.5 percent, Russian 2.3 percent, Karakalpak 2.2 percent, Tatar 1.5 percent, other 4.4 percent (2017 estimate)

Religious groups Muslim 88 percent

(mostly Sunni), Eastern Orthodox 9 percent, other 3 percent

GDP (purchasing power parity) $223 billion (2017 estimate)

base on the Afghan border, established closer relations with Russia and continued his crackdown on what he perceived as the threat from Islamist fundamentalism.

Over the years, according to critics, thousands of Muslims were arrested and tortured; several were even said to have been boiled alive.

While not addressing those specific allegations, Vakhabov said such tactics have ended, and said the new government has made it a point to ensure religious freedom.

In fact, as Reuters reported in late 2017, some emboldened Uzbek imams have begun

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The master suite includes two walk in closets and an award-winning bath. The home features an elevator, five fireplaces, two-car garage, pool, recreation/game room and incredible lot with nearly 24,000 sq ft.

Pam Wye Vice President 202.320.4169 Pam@compass.com

Claudia Donovan Senior Vice President 202.251.7011 Claudia@compass.com

GDP per-capita (PPP) $6,900 (2017 estimate) GDP growth 5.3 percent (2017 estimate) Unemployment 5 percent (2017 estimate) Population below poverty line 14 percent (2016 estimate)

Industries Textiles, food processing, machine building, metallurgy, mining, hydrocarbon extraction, chemicals

SOURCE: CIA WORLD FACTBOOK

to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer from loudspeakers for the first time in a decade without seeking government permission — an act that under Karimov could have resulted in imprisonment.

“Since 2016, the new president has removed from the so-called blacklist almost 20,000 Uzbeks who had previously been charged with religious extremism and crimes of international terrorism. More than 3,000 of our people who were jailed have been pardoned, for the first time in our history,” said the ambassador. “The president is the only person authorized by the constitution to pardon our

FROM CARS TO COTTON: TURNING THINGS AROUND

In 2018, said Vakhabov, bilateral trade SEE UZ B EK IS TAN • PAGE 16

Compass is a licensed real estate brokerage that abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is not guaranteed. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Compass is licensed as Compass Real Estate in DC and as Compass in Virginia and Maryland. 5471 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 300, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 | 301.298.1001

But the ugly reminders of Karimov’s ironfisted rule won’t be easy to erase.

It was no secret that, under Karimov, Islamic fundamentalism was ruthlessly suppressed. After a series of car bombings in Tashkent in February 1999, Karimov warned on Uzbek radio that “I’m prepared to rip off the heads of 200 people, to sacrifice their lives, in order to save peace and calm in the republic.”

In 2002, Uzbekistan received more than $500 million in aid and credit from the Bush administration, in return for the Pentagon’s use of the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in southern Uzbekistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Three years later, Uzbek security forces used live ammunition against a crowd of protesters in Andijan, killing several hundred people, including women and children, according to rights groups and survivors (although the government put the death toll at 187 and blamed Islamists for inciting the violence).

The massacre soured relations with the West, as the U.S. and EU imposed an arms embargo on the government. Meanwhile, Karimov kicked the U.S. out of its military

7 Bedrooms

Flag of Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan at a Glance

people, and he has used his authority properly. Besides that, we’ve significantly improved Uzbekistan’s perception internationally.”

Vakhabov also said that since 2016, “a real breakthrough has taken place” in Uzbekistan’s relations with its neighbors — which the government hopes will improve regional connectivity through infrastructure, transportation and other projects.

“Despite many predictions, the newly elected president paid his first state visit to Turkmenistan. During that visit, we signed a treaty establishing a strategic partnership with Turkmenistan. And his second state visit was to Kazakhstan. We’ve also significantly improved our relations with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In the past, relations with both of these countries were challenging because of water management and border issues.”

Relations with the United States are also on the upswing, he said. In May 2018, Mirziyoyev met President Trump at the White House, marking the first visit by an Uzbek president to the United States since March 2002.

U.S. military engagement with the strategically located Central Asian nation has also ramped up. Acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper just met with his Uzbek counterpart on July 12, praising Uzbekistan as “a respected and valued partner, especially with regard to military operations in Afghanistan.”

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 15

yes, we have a challenging issue, but these are very individual cases, occurring mostly at a very local level,” Vakhabov said. “We are confident that this coming fall, during the harvest of 2019, we will be able to entirely eliminate forced labor in Uzbekistan.”

That assessment is backed up by the ILO’s Beate Andrees.

“In many ways, the 2018 cotton harvest was a real test for Uzbekistan,” Andrees said. “A year ago at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, President Mirziyoyev committed his government to working with the ILO and the World Bank to eradicate child and forced labor in the harvest. This political commitment was followed by a number of structural changes and reforms in recruitment practices.

The ILO monitors have observed that these measures are working and people on the ground can feel a real difference.” WD

Uzbekistan CONTINUED • PAGE 15

between the United States and Uzbekistan exceeded $400 million — more than double the $150 million recorded in 2017, and nearly 20 times the $21 million in 1991.

Uzbekistan’s top customers for its goods are China, Russia and Kazakhstan — in that order — with exports led by finished textile products, automobiles and fruits such as apples, cherries, pomegranates, strawberries and watermelons.

Yet American investment is also trickling in. General Motors has two plants in the country; one, in Tashkent, makes engines, primarily for its other operation in Andijan province that exports more than 200,000 Spark, Malibu and other Chevrolet vehicles to Russia and elsewhere. Cars, in fact, now account for more than 10 percent of Uzbekistan’s total exports.

Uzbekistan is also a major cotton producer, with some 2.6 million people temporarily picking cotton every year, making it the world’s largest recruitment operation. But for years, human rights groups, along with the U.S. State Depart-

PHOTO: KHUSEN RUSTAMOV / PIXABAY

The Uzbek capital of Tashkent is a booming metropolis of 2.4 million that’s famous for its gleaming subway system, towering Soviet-era monuments and handicrafts markets.

ment, had accused the Karimov regime of using child and forced labor to harvest the crop.

Following a worldwide outcry, authorities have largely put a stop to the practice.

“Previously, the State Depart-

ment’s annual report placed us at Tier 3; now we’re at Tier 2. It’s a recognition of how significantly we have moved forward to eliminating so-called child and forced labor — an issue for which my country has been criticized for decades,”

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Vakhabov said, pointing also to the latest report of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which says 93 percent of all Uzbek cotton fields are now free of child or forced labor.

“With the remaining 7 percent,

Tel Aviv-based journalist Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

Follow The Diplomat Connect at www.washdiplomat.com.

Medical | WD

Heartfelt Pain Researchers Find Possible Links Between Broken Heart Syndrome and Cancer

BY SERENA GORDON

“B

roken heart syndrome” may harm more than just the heart, new research suggests.

While the extreme stress of losing a loved one has been linked to heart troubles in prior research, a new study found that one in six people with broken heart syndrome also had cancer. Even worse, they were less likely to survive their cancer five years after diagnosis.

“There seems to be a strong interplay between Takotsubo syndrome [broken heart syndrome] and malignancies,” said senior study author Dr. Christian Templin. He’s director of acute cardiac care at University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland.

“Therefore, it should be recommended for Takotsubo syndrome patients to participate in cancer screening to improve overall survival,” he said, adding that the reverse is also true. Still, the study did not prove that one causes the other.

Broken heart syndrome causes sudden intense chest pain and shortness of breath that can be mistaken for a heart attack. These symptoms are a reaction to a sudden surge in stress hormones, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).

The condition causes the heart’s main pumping chamber to enlarge, the researchers said. And that means the heart can’t pump blood effectively.

Broken heart syndrome can happen after just about any intensely emotional experience. The death of a loved one, a breakup or divorce, financial problems and even an intensely positive experience like winning the lottery can trigger broken heart syndrome, the AHA said.

Major physical stress can also trigger broken heart syndrome. A physical trauma or surgery, respiratory failure and infections are examples of physical stresses that can contribute to broken heart syndrome, the study noted.

The new study included just over 1,600 people with broken heart syndrome. The participants were recruited at 26 medical centers in nine different countries, including eight European countries and the United States.

Among those diagnosed with cancer, most were women (88 percent) and their average age was 70.

The incidence of cancer cases was much higher than would normally be expected, Templin said. That

PHOTO: PIXEL2013 / PIXABAY

Broken heart syndrome can happen after just about any intensely emotional experience. The death of a loved one, a breakup or divorce, financial problems and even an intensely positive experience like winning the lottery can trigger broken heart syndrome. was true for both genders and all age groups. For example, in women ages 44 years and younger, the expected rate of cancer is 0.4 percent, but for those with broken heart syndrome it was 8 percent. In men 45 to 64 years old, the expected rate of cancer was 2 percent, but in those with broken heart syndrome, it was 22 percent. In both older men and women, the expected cancer cases were more than double what would be expected for those with broken heart syndrome.

The most common type of cancer was breast cancer. Other cancers affected areas including the digestive system, the respiratory tract, internal sex organs and the skin.

People who also had cancer were more likely to have a physical trigger for broken heart syndrome than an emotional one, the findings showed.

For More Information Learn more about broken heart syndrome from the American Heart Association at www.heart.org/en/ health-topics/cardiomyopathy/ what-is-cardiomyopathy-in-adults/ is-broken-heart-syndrome-real.

Templin said it’s not clear from this study exactly how these conditions are linked, although he noted that stress from a cancer diagnosis might trigger broken heart syndrome. It’s also possible that metabolic or hormonal changes caused by cancer could increase the risk of broken heart syndrome.

Dr. Guy Mintz, director of cardiovascular health and lipidology at Northwell Health’s Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital in Manhasset,

N.Y., said, “Many cancer patients have both significant emotional stress and multiple medical interventions, the most common triggers found in this study.”

But he noted that “the study was too small and the cancers too variable to draw conclusions regarding a direct mechanism and the interaction of the two diagnoses on longevity.”

Mintz said it’s important for physicians to be aware of the link between broken heart syndrome and cancer so that doctors — including primary care, cancer and heart doctors — can intervene earlier in the course of either condition.

The findings were published online July 17 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. WD Serena Gordon is a HealthDay reporter. Copyright © 2019 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 17

Hotels & Travel A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

August 2019

Top of the Gate at the Watergate Hotel offers Mediterraneaninspired bites and handcrafted popsicle cocktails called “poptails.”

PHOTO: DAVID PRETA

Outdoor Oases

BY STEPHANIE KANOWITZ

Chill Out and Relax at the Region’s Many Hotel Rooftops and Patios

W

ith just one month of summer left, it’s time to make sure you’ve taken full advantage of all that the nation’s capital has to offer during the

warmer months. Of course, for some, that means outdoor pools, hiking, beach trips and standup paddle boarding. But we aren’t talking to those folks. No, we are highlighting some

18 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

of the best outdoor spaces at hotels right here in our backyard, where Washingtonians can eat, drink, be merry, cool off and maybe take in some pretty spectacular views.

PHOTO: RAQUEL SHARMA

Dirty Habit at the Hotel Monaco offers summertime drinks such as the frozen Basil Lemontini.

The new Conrad hotel in CityCenterDC offers an array of drinks at its Summit Rooftop, seen below.

PHOTO: JIM TETRO

The Fairfax Embassy Row recently added street-level outdoor seating to its new restaurant, The Sally.

FAIRFAX AT EMBASSY ROW

The Sally ADDRESS 2100 MASSACHUSETTS AVE., NW WEB THESALLYDC.COM

This recently renovated hotel added streetlevel (read: prime people-watching) outdoor seating to the hotel’s new restaurant, named after Sally Cary Fairfax, the wife of a prominent member of the landed gentry in late colonial Virginia. The terrace seats 22 and features a portable bar cart from which mixologists can create drinks in front of guests.

To go with the new look, there are seasonal dishes inspired by French chef Ricardo Planas, such as the three-asparagus salad with a 63-degree egg; pickled wild ramps (a member of the onion family) and an everything bagel; and the Liberty Delight Farms striploin, served with petit pois, wild ramp chimichurri and a cumin crust. Summery drinks that debuted in June are Strawberry’s Field, made with Wheatley Vodka, Licor 43, kiwi and strawberry, and Real Ladies Never Blush, made with prosecco, limoncello and

pomegranate.

CONRAD WASHINGTON, DC

Summit Rooftop ADDRESS 950 NEW YORK AVE., NW

WEB CONRADWASHINGTONDC.COM/DINE ROOFTOP

This new modern hotel at the heart of CityCenterDC boasts a rooftop bar and lounge on its 11th floor that offers sweeping views of the city. The space, much like the rest of this contemporary property, is sparse but expansive, giving guests room to breathe, unlike many other cramped city rooftops.

Signature drinks include a Parisian Party with Dolin Blanc Vermouth de Chambéry, La Colombe cold brew, Demerara sugar, absinthe and soda; Oh, Behave! with Seedlip Garden herbal spirit, cucumber and Q tonic; and Peach Caipirinha with Leblon Cachaça, Giffard Peche and lime. Small plates are available, too, including a cheese plate, pork wings, short rib tacos and scotch-smoked s’mores.

INTERCONTINENTAL WASHINGTON D.C. – THE WHARF

WAVES ADDRESS 801 WHARF ST., SW

WEB WHARFINTERCONTINENTALDC.COM

The rooftop pool and bar area are a great perch from which to watch the boats go

by on the Potomac River — or to peoplewatch the crowds heading to a concert at The Anthem or the pedestrians shopping at Wharf destinations such as Politics and Prose Bookstore or A Beautiful Closet, a boutique curated by a former World Bank employee.

This summer, the bar is serving signature cocktails such as the Hibiscus Mule, made with Grey Goose Vodka, lime, hibiscus and ginger beer, and a Mango Gin and Tonic, made with Bombay Sapphire, mango infusion and tonic. Light bites include a lobster roll, tomato watermelon SEE OUT DOOR • PAGE 20

E M B A S S Y R O W, D. C .

Life Is No Longer One Dimensional You’re invited to visit our NEWLY renovated space

· American small plates and cocktail-centric menu · Dinner served 5PM to 10PM. Bar open to Midnight. · Sign up at www.thesallydc.com

E M B A S S Y R O W, D. C .

E M B A S S Y R O W, D. C .

· Grab & Go or Sit & Sip for breakfast, lunch, or lite fare and beverages in the evening · Breakfast and/or Swing’s coffee 6AM. Lunch at 11AM. Service until 10PM · Relax by the fireplace and unwind, read a book, work on your computer, play a game

Join us where Classic Elegance Meets Modern PHOTO: FOTOBRICENO LLC

The rooftop pool and bar at WAVES atop the InterContinental hotel at The Wharf offers views of the Potomac River.

2100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW | Washington, D.C. 20008 (202) 293-2100 | www.fairfaxwashingtondc.com

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 19

Outdoor CONTINUED • PAGE 19

salad and turkey club. On Wednesdays through Sept. 4, the hotel is offering diplomats with valid diplomatic credentials 20 percent off an overnight stay plus 10 percent off food and beverage with reservations at Kith/Kin, the Watering Hole, WAVES and in-room dining.

HAMPTON INN & SUITES WASHINGTON DCNAVY YARD

Top of the Yard Bar & Bites ADDRESS 1265 FIRST ST., SE WEB TOTYDC.COM

Maybe the best seat in the house for a Nationals home game is not in the house at all but atop the Hampton Inn & Suites at the Navy Yard. The Top of the Yard looks directly down onto the baseball stadium for those who want to keep an eye on the game, but there’s seating and a firepit for anyone who doesn’t. Also within eyesight: the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood and several monuments.

The food menu is casual, offering ballpark-type fare such as hot dogs, burgers, nachos and soft pretzels. Cocktails are appropriately named after baseball terms. For instance, there’s the Triple Play Margarita and 7th Inning Stretch, made with raspberry vodka, Captain Morgan Run, Jose Cuervo Gold Tequila, Cointreau, pineapple and orange juices, and Sprite.

The Summit Rooftop at the Conrad offers sweeping views of the city and a sparse, contemporary look.

PHOTO: SAMMY TODD DYESS PHOTOGRAPHY

W WASHINGTON DC

POV Rooftop ADDRESS 515 15TH ST., NW WEB POVROOFTOP.COM

This prime space overlooking the White House reopened in May after a $50 million floor-to-rooftop renovation. Of course, you might want to keep your eyes peeled for more than a presidential sighting. Since POV opened 10 years ago, Leonardo DiCaprio has had tea with Martin Scorsese there, John Legend serPHOTO: DAN SWARTZ enaded Chrissy Teigen and Jamie Foxx grabbed a mic to entertain the crowd. The POV Rooftop at the W Washington DC, seen above during the day and at night to the The newly added floor-to-ceiling retract- right, recently underwent a massive $50 million floor-to-rooftop renovation. able glass means POV will be open yearround.

The space offers live entertainment such as POV Live, a music series that showcases deejays and other musicians, and What She Said, a global speaker series featuring inspiring female leaders in myriad industries.

It’s worth checking out just for the cocktail names. Draft cocktails include the Cold Brew Covfefe, made with Leopold Bros. Frenchpress Coffee Liqueur, Buzzard Point barrel-aged white rum, tonic, limoncello and espresso. There’s

PHOTO: GREG POWERS PHOTOGRAPHY

also a throwback to President Obama called Yes We Can, made with basil, honey, kombucha alcoholic tea and lavender bitters. Signature drinks include the Stormy Jack Daniels, Make America Grape Again and Bi-Partisan. Soak up some of that alcohol with a lobster roll — chilled lobster, ginger lime mayo, celery and chives — or surf and turf.

POD DC

Crimson View ADDRESS 627 H ST., NW

WEB THEPODHOTEL.COM/POD-DC

Take in views of Chinatown and other iconic D.C. sites from atop the 245room Pod Hotel, which opened in April 2017. In addition to beer and wine, the bar serves signature cocktails such as the Botanical Garden, made with Tanqueray Gin, honey, lemon juice and lavender bitters, and the Chocolate Rose, made with Cruzan aged dark rum, St. Germain, rosewater, Peychaud’s and Aztec cocktail bitters. Snacks include oysters, cheese boards, and chips and dips.

BEACON HOTEL

Sky Bar ADDRESS 1615 RHODE ISLAND AVE., NW

The Crimson View, seen above and at left, offers views of Chinatown and other iconic D.C. sites from atop the 245-room Pod Hotel.

20 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

WEB BEACONHOTELWDC.COM

Situated in a quiet Dupont Circle

WATERGATE HOTEL

Top of the Gate ADDRESS 2650 VIRGINIA AVE., NW WEB THEWATERGATEHOTEL.COM

Sit in a space home to Washington history and look at other iconic locations such as the Kennedy Center, Washington Monument and Potomac River. Soak it all in as you sample Mediterranean-inspired bites and sip on handcrafted “poptails,” popsicle cocktails that joined the Watergate menu in May. There’s the pomegranate mojito with Bacardi Rum, mint, soda and a pomegranate popsicle, as well as the Lemon Sparkletini featuring Moët Ice Imperial Champagne, lemon juice and Tito’s Vodka, garnished with a pineapple popsicle.

A Mediterranean-style menu with meze plates based on Moroccan, Lebanese, Italian and French flavors is also available this summer. Dishes include grilled octopus tentacles, lamb shish kebab and harissamarinated chicken thighs.

THE GRAHAM GEORGETOWN

The Rooftop ADDRESS 1075 THOMAS JEFFERSON ST., NW WEB THEGRAHAMGEORGETOWN.COM

The rooftop bar at this boutique sevenstory hotel is celebrating the Georgetown Dirty Habit at the Hotel Monaco offers an expansive outdoor courtyard serving summertime drinks.

Business Improvement District’s Sunset Cinema free movies program on Tuesneighborhood, this bar offers glimpses of Washington from above, but there’s plenty days through Aug. 6 with specialty themed to see around you, too, in the form of a bar wall that features murals by local artists. cocktails. The Aug. 6 movie is “Eat Pray Love” and the cocktail, called “You’re Happy hour runs from 5 to 7 p.m. on weekdays, when daily select beers are $5, wines Wishin’ Too Much, Baby,” is made with cranberry and orange juices, peach schnapps are $6 and cocktails are $7. Signature drinks are The Black Sheep, made with Stoli and grapefruit vodka.

Vodka or Jack Daniels Whiskey, blackberries, ginger beer and fresh THE JEFFERSON limes, and the Aperol Spritz with Aperol, elderflower liqueur, Rose Quill Brut and blood orange soda.

PHOTO: MARK WICKENS / DIRTY HABIT

ADDRESS 1200 16TH ST., NW

HOTEL MONACO

WEB JEFFERSONDC.COM/DOWNTOWN-WASHINGTON-DC-RESTAURANTS/PLUME

Dirty Habit

Quill at this 96-year-old hotel has a seasonal outdoor patio, where guests can grab a drink before or after dinner. Seasonal cocktails include the Heat Wave!, made with Ketel One, watermelon, basil, citrus and soda, and Cruel Summer, made with Ron del Barrilito Rum, Neisson Rhum Agricole, charred pineapple and citrus. Main dishes include grilled king salmon and veal schnitzel, or go light with the Ginger’s Popcorn appetizer, made with Amish honey and candied ginger, or bison sliders in blueberry barbecue sauce.

Locals can turn the visit into a staycation. Through Sept. 2, guests who live within driving distance can call The Jefferson to book a suite and mention the DMV offer to get a complimentary five-course tasting menu for two at Plume, the only D.C. restaurant with Forbes Five Star and Michelin recognition.

ADDRESS 555 8TH ST., NW WEB DIRTYHABITDC.COM

This courtyard, with its own dedicated outdoor bar and fire pits, takes up a whole city block yet feels insulated from the bustle of Penn Quarter right outside. On the menu this summer is Asian street food available daily starting at 4 p.m. on the patio food cart. Choices include Japanese takoyaki filled with octopus, scallions, The rooftop at The Graham hotel in Georgetown pickled ginger, bonito is offering specialty themed cocktails such as flakes, kewpie mayo and the Sandlot, above.

Worcestershire sauce, plus Korean short rib yakitori and teriyaki chicken yakitori. More substantial item are also available and include braised pork belly and Chilean sea bass.

Wash all of that down with the Basil Lemontini Slushee, a frozen drink made with basil-infused vodka, prosecco, simple syrup and fresh lemon juice.

SEE OUT DOOR • PAGE 22

Fairmont Washington, D.C., Georgetown ADDRESS 2401 M ST., NW

WEB FAIRMONT.COM/WASHINGTON

This month, the newly renovated Fairmont near historic Georgetown features weeknight happy hour from 5 to 7 p.m. in its lush, sunlit interior courtyard. Drinks available for half price ($7 to $7.50) include the Moscow mule, margarita, Negroni, and craft gin and tonic. In September, Paella Nights will return in the same time slot. The chef uses a family recipe from his hometown of Barcelona to prepare the Spanish dish with shrimp, chicken, mussels and other ingredients.

Manchego cheese, Serrano ham, tortilla de patatas, olives, anchovies and flan de caramel round out the food offerings. Red and white sangria are also available.

PHOTO: PERFECTLY PAIRED PHOTOGRAPHY

Quill at The Jefferson has a seasonal outdoor patio where guests can grab seasonal cocktails such as the Heat Wave!, made with Ketel One, watermelon, basil, citrus and soda.

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 21

Outdoor CONTINUED • PAGE 21

THE DONOVAN

DNV Rooftop ADDRESS 1155 14TH ST., NW WEB VICEROYHOTELSANDRESORTS.COM/ DONOVAN/

This month, the newly renovated Fairmont features weeknight happy hour in its cozy interior courtyard.

This popular gathering spot features a rotating list of craft cocktails with offerings such as Sunrise in Ha Long Bay made of cognac, cold brew and whipped coconut, as well as Booze in a Stick popsicles with hibiscus mai tai or spiced pina colada flavors.

PHOTO: JUSTIN KRIEL / VRX STUDIOS

Liaison Washington Capitol Hill

SOFITEL WASHINGTON D.C.

Opaline Bar and Brassiere

ADDRESS 415 NEW JERSEY AVE., NW

ADDRESS 806 15TH ST., NW

WEB YOTEL.COM/EN/HOTELS/LIAISONWASHINGTON-CAPITOL-HILL-AFFILIATEHOTEL

Refreshing beverages and beer are great, but when it comes to Washington’s oppressing humidity, nothing beats a dip in the pool. The Liaison is home to the city’s largest rooftop pool, so it’s a great outlet for politicos wanting to cool off after a heated day on Capitol Hill.

WEB OPALINEDC.COM

Located at the Sofitel Washington D.C. hotel by Lafayette Square, Opaline’s outdoor patio features a menu of French-inspired classics and bar bites. On weekdays from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., the restaurant offers its Rosé and Raw Bar, serving glasses of chilled Sofia Brut Rosé and Sofia Rosé for $8 — or get a bucket for $40. Oysters and shrimp are $1 apiece. Bring your four-legged friends, too. The patio is dog-friendly. WD Opaline Bar and Brassiere’s outdoor patio features a menu of French-inspired classics and bar bites.

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Diplomat Hotel Guide OPPORTUNITY TO PROMOTE YOUR

diplomatic amenities, conference rooms, spa, ballrooms, promotions, catering services, restaurant, guest rooms or all of the above in the monthly

DIPLOMAT HOTEL GUIDE WD

CALL ROD CARRASCO today to get started or for more details.

301.933.3552 22 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

E M B A S S Y R O W, D. C .

Life Is No Longer One Dimensional You’re invited to visit our NEWLY renovated space

E M B A S S Y R O W, D. C .

· American small plates and cocktail-centric menu · Dinner served 5PM to 10PM. Bar open to Midnight. · Sign up at www.thesallydc.com

E M B A S S Y R O W, D. C .

· Grab & Go or Sit & Sip for breakfast, lunch, or lite fare and beverages in the evening · Breakfast and/or Swing’s coffee 6AM. Lunch at 11AM. Service until 10PM

· Relax by the fireplace and unwind, read a book, work on your computer, play a game

Join us where Classic Elegance Meets Modern 2100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW | Washington, D.C. 20008 (202) 293-2100 | www.fairfaxwashingtondc.com

Sponsored Content

Omani Harmony Oman Spreads Its Message of Tolerance, Understanding and Coexistence Around the World

By Anna Gawel “Extremism, under whatever guise, fanaticism of whatever kind, factionalism of whatever persuasion would be hateful poisonous plants in the soil of our country which will not be allowed to flourish.”

Those words were spoken 25 years ago by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, the leader of Oman. Since taking power of this strategically important Gulf nation in 1970, Sultan Qaboos has transformed Oman into a modern nation with a strong economy, political stability and a low-key but highly influential role in regional affairs.

In the process, Sultan Qaboos has ensured that religious strife does not poison the soil of his country by planting the seeds of a moderate, tolerant brand of Islam at home.

Today, the government is promoting this vision of Islam abroad through a traveling worldwide exhibition known as “Tolerance, Understanding, Coexistence: Oman’s Message of Islam.”

PHOTOS: JESSICA KNOX PHOTOGRAPHY

That message has now spread to 125 cities in over 36 countries — so far — since the project’s inception in April 2010.

Its most recent stop was in Washington, D.C., where diplomats, U.S. government officials and others gathered at the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center on June 27 to view the exhibition, which consisted of Islamic-inspired artwork, calligraphy and a live sand art performance. The display also features two dozen panels that offer details on Omani life ranging from Islam’s introduction to the country, women’s role in politics, to societal traditions such funeral customs and birth rites.

Shaimah Al-Mughairy does a sand art performance for the audience at the recent opening of the exhibition “Tolerance, Understanding, Coexistence: Oman’s Message of Islam,” held at the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.

That’s precisely the purpose of the exhibition, said Mohammed Said Al-Mamari of the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in Muscat, who directs the project.

“We are open to new experiences, ideas and knowledge. This is essential in creating a common ground with others. A person might fully disagree, challenge or even contradict anyone on any issue from religion to politics, from food to sports, while at the same time respecting those with different opinions and treating them justly,” he said at the D.C. exhibition opening.

Omani Ambassador Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al-Mughairy and Mohammed Said Al-Mamari of the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in Muscat attend the D.C. debut of “Tolerance, Understanding, Coexistence: Oman’s Message of Islam.”

Omani Ambassador Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al-Mughairy — herself a symbol of the value Oman places on women in government — welcomed guests and discussed the Sultan’s philosophy of understanding and welcoming all faiths.

“His Majesty Sultan Qaboos is totally opposed to any attempts to twist Islam for political or malevolent purposes,” she said. “Today, throughout the Sultanate, one can see mosques for several streams of Islam and churches and Hindu or Sikh temples,” she added.

“Swiss theologian Hans Küng said there can be no peace among nations without peace among religions,” the ambassador told the audience. “It is incumbent on Muslims then to acknowledge and respect those of other faiths, including accepting differences, and be willing to interact with them. When people of diverse faiths engage in such dialogue, it leads to a meeting of the minds and a greater understanding of the other.”

And Oman is the “ideal conduit to deliver the message calling for mutual understanding,” Al-Mamari added.

“It is strategically well-placed to spearhead a new national drive for religious understanding. Geographically, Oman’s near neighbors include both Sunni and Shiite heartland. It is a short route to the world’s largest democracy and has historical trading roots which link the world’s most populous countries,” he pointed out. “For thousands of years, Omanis have traded in peace with other cultures.”

In fact, Oman’s strategic location has made it a crossroads of cultural exchange for 5,000 years. The Omanis were an ancient seafaring people who sailed the so-called “seven seas” all the way to China, where they traded dates for silk and porcelain, along with goods such as gold, ivory and spices. By the 19th century, the island of Zanzibar had become the center of the Omani trading empire. Rulers there were open and tolerant of Christians in East Africa even though Islam had long been the predominant religion in Oman.

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AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 23

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Islam was peacefully embraced by Oman in the year 629, when the Prophet Mohammed sent a letter to the two kings of Oman exhorting them to become followers. The kings agreed to convert, united the Arab tribes and expelled the Persians.

But a bloody confrontation between two caliphs led to the schism that created the Sunni and Shiite strains of Islam. Oman decided not to adopt either of these schools, allowing it to remain independent of the Umayyad Muslim dynasty. Eventually, Oman adopted a distinct strain of Islam known as the Ibadi school of thought that is neither Sunni nor Shiite.

Today, three-fourths of Omanis belong to the Ibadi sect. The country of 4.6 million people also boasts the most ethnically diverse population of any Arab country. It is home to a mix of ethnic groups ranging from the Baluchi, originally from Pakistan, to Swahili-speaking Arabs who trace their origins to Zanzibar.

This legacy of religious independence and multicultural exposure has shaped Oman’s unique identity, which stands out in a region plagued by religious and ethnic strife.

At the D.C. opening of “Tolerance, Understanding and Coexistence,” Al-Mamari acknowledged these corrosive divisions.

PHOTOS: JESSICA KNOX PHOTOGRAPHY

A guest examines information panels and Islamic-inspired artwork on display as part of “Tolerance, Understanding, Coexistence: Oman’s Message of Islam.”

broker in a range of disputes stretching back to the 1970s.

During the Obama administration, for instance, Muscat was instrumental in bringing Washington and Tehran to the bargaining table over Iran’s nuclear program, serving as a venue to conduct back-channel talks that later evolved into the Iran nuclear agreement. Today, with that agreement faltering, Oman has offered to serve as an intermediary between the Trump administration and Tehran in a bid to de-escalate tensions.

“The Middle East is faced with many challenges — political, Oman’s strategic location, economic interests and a economic, diplomatic, social tradition of pragmatism have guided this calculation and religious. These challenges to remain on good terms with Iran while not alienatmust not cause us to react with Mohammed Said Al-Mamari discusses his project “Tolerance, Understanding, Coexistence,” which has been shown in 125 cities in over 36 countries since its ing its partners in the Gulf or the West. anger, but with ambition,” he inception in April 2010. said. “This region has exported one of the great world religions, which to this day has shaped the values, choices “Politically, Oman has open and trusted relationships with all countries, including and habits of millions of people. This region should now construct and propagate those farther afield, in the Far East, Africa, North America and Europe,” Al-Mamari said, noting that his country has maintained “good relationships with many Mida global paradigm for peace.” dle Eastern countries, including Iran, and it has managed to fend off the influence Oman, which is roughly the size of Kansas, has played a quiet but critical role in of ISIS and other extremist groups.” fostering that peace while adroitly balancing the region’s competing interests. The country sits on the Strait of Hormuz, where just 18 miles of water separate Oman On that note, “in 2015, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at London’s King College found that not a single Omani from Iran. had joined the more than 20,000 foreign fighters battling alongside ISIS,” he said.

At the same time, Oman, which is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), shares a land border with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Ye- While Oman’s achievements as a neutral arbitrator that has eschewed extremism men — putting it smack dab in the middle of the some of the region’s most volatile is impressive, Al-Mamari stressed that the exhibition is separate from politics. Nor conflicts. That includes the proxy war between Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia does it try to impose Oman’s philosophy of religious tolerance on other nations. and its Shiite rival Iran; the war in Yemen; and the recent tensions between the U.S. Rather, Al-Mamari says the goal is to convey his homeland’s experience and iland Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil chokepoint. lustrate how Omanis have successfully lived together in harmony for centuries, an Despite being located in the heart of a hostile neighborhood, Oman has man- example that is particularly relevant in a world where hate speech is on the rise. aged to act as a trusted interlocutor without becoming entangled in the region’s Beyond serving as a model of religious tolerance, the exhibition offers an intimate various disputes. Often referred to as the Switzerland of the Middle East, Oman snapshot of life in Oman. has steered a neutral course through decades of regional conflicts, which has helped the Sultanate maintain a high degree of independence. It has also won For example, in showcasing the government’s efforts to improve literacy rates and Oman many friends in the wider world, with Sultan Qaboos acting as an honest education for girls, the panels explain that these efforts were so successful that the

24 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

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Sultan Qaboos University had to allocate quotas for men because the percentage of women studying there had skyrocketed.

While Oman’s constitution designates Islamic Sharia law as the basis of legislation in areas such as marital and family law, the government has also adopted laws that mandate maternity leave and equal pay for women, as well as protections for minorities.

And since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, the country has embarked on a series of reforms, including expanding the powers of the bicameral parliament known as the Council of Oman, authorizing direct elections for its lower house and guaranteeing the independence of the public prosecutor’s office.

Unlike other countries engulfed in turmoil during the 2011 uprisings, Oman’s population did not revolt against the monarchy.

That’s likely because of the progressive policies Sultan Qaboos has pursued since he began his reign in 1970.

Buoyed by oil and gas reserves, the government invested heavily in infrastructure, education and health services.

The results have been dramatic. In 1970, when Sultan Qaboos took power, people’s life expectancy was 49 years and the country had only one health clinic and three elementary schools. As of 2010, life expectancy shot up to 74 years and the country now boasts over 1,200 schools, including a state-run university and 12 private universities, as well as nearly 60 hospitals.

PHOTOS: JESSICA KNOX PHOTOGRAPHY

Guests watch a calligraphy demonstration, one of the various artistic components of “Tolerance, Understanding, Coexistence.”

Al-Mamari said the purpose of the multipronged exhibition is also to counter the lack of knowledge about Islam and fear of the religion that spiked after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

To do so, the project features replicas of historic manuscripts, a documentary film, a social media campaign (#ActForTolerance) and regular workshops and interfaith dialogues along with the exhibition’s information panels and artwork.

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with UNESCO nominating the exhibiBeyond touting Oman’s economic Colorful information panels offer details on Omani life ranging from Islam’s introduction to the tion for its peace prize in 2016 and 2018. and political achievements, the ex- country, to women’s role in politics, to societal traditions such funeral customs and birth rites. hibition offers an inside look at daily The project has been translated into 23 languages and held at 125 locations — life in the country, including the important role that the Quran plays. ranging from education centers to city halls to museums — in 37 countries, includFor example, Muslim men, women and children recite the sacred book each day ing Australia, Brunei, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, France, Greece, Japan, in their prayers and certain radio stations broadcast recitations of the Quran. In Kuwait, Pakistan, South Africa, Taiwan and Germany, where it originated. addition, many Omanis know the entire Quran by heart. The holy book must also be handled with special care so that its inscriptions are honored. If a page ever And the demand keeps growing. Al-Mamari said the project has been extended becomes detached, it is often rolled up and buried in a dry well or plugged into through 2023 and that he’s fielded more than 500 requests around the world to cracks in the wall. The Quran is also stored in elevated places to protect it from host the exhibit. desecration and abuse.

He said the choice to bring the exhibition to Washington, D.C., was especially poiThe exhibition also offers fascinating insights into time-honored rituals, including gnant, given that it opened a week before America’s July 4th Independence Day. funeral customs whereby washed bodies wrapped in white shrouds are carried to “The United States of America is a symbol for many around the world for individa simple grave. Interestingly, there is usually no indication of who is buried in a ual freedom, protection of human rights and what can be achieved when human diversity comes together to achieve a common good,” he said. “This project has grave, although gender is sometimes identified. evolved by listening to many voices around the world, and as we listen to those New life is also celebrated with certain birth rites, some of which are influenced calling for religious freedom, mutual understanding and acceptance, we hear a by religious traditions. For instance, immediately after birth, chewed dates are collective consciousness which can be characterized by united values representing rubbed on the baby’s gums, the call to prayer is whispered in the right ear while a the roots of human identity.” prayer for protection against the devil is whispered in the left ear, as instructed by And those roots are exactly what Sultan Qaboos wanted to instill when he first the Prophet Mohammed. planted the seeds of tolerance, understanding and coexistence at home.

It is these details that paint a picture of the complexity of Oman’s past, present Anna Gawel is managing editor of The Washington Diplomat. and future.

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 25

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Culture arts & entertainment art

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The Washington Diplomat | August 2019

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history

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events

EVENTS

Thirst for Equality

ART

The embassies of

Spain and Mexico are presenting a series of events

that explore the

basic human right to access the

world’s most pre-

cious resource in “Fair Water: A Right of All.” PAGE 29

THEATER

‘Ann’ for the Ages “Ann,” the portrayal

of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards now playing at Arena

Stage, has taken on

newfound relevance in today’s vicious political climate.

PAGE 31

ART

What Lies Beneath Beneath the Organization of American States lies

a tunnel that’s home to

one of the world’s longest murals — a hidden gem

that’s now on display in “Roots of Peace.”

PAGE 33

LADIES OF

SUMMER

Maia Cruz's "Woman Leaning on a White Tigress"

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

The American University Museum is hosting two women-centric shows this summer that tackle vastly different subject matter, as Taiwanese women use technology to explore modern-day anxieties, while a Filipino American uses paint to look back at the colonization of her homeland. PAGE 28 AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 27

f y e .

WD | Culture | Art

All Over the Map High-Tech Taiwanese Women and Filipino Colonization Among AU’s Eclectic Summer Lineup •

BY KATE OCZYPOK

Being Here as ME – New Media Art Exhibition of Women Artists from Taiwan AND

Maia Cruz Palileo THROUGH AUG. 11

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM 4400 MASSACHUSETTS AVE., NW

(202) 885-1300

| WWW.AMERICAN.EDU/CAS/MUSEUM/

W

omen steal the show at the American University Museum this summer, but instead of tackling gender-specific themes, the artists offer compelling, diverse insights into broader issues ranging from the environment to colonialism — all while reflecting on the past and the future.

“Being Here as ME – New Media Art Exhibition of Women Artists from Taiwan” uses cutting-edge technology such as augmented reality and animation to explore anxieties about science, the environment and technology itself.

Meanwhile, Maia Cruz Palileo’s paintings examine the American colonization of her native Philippines, as well as her personal story of growing up as a Filipino American.

In “Being Here as ME,” Taiwanese artist Pey-Chwen Lin has created three series of works, including two videos, “Making of Eve Clone I” and “Birth of Eve Clone,” that incorporate 3D animation and 10 pieces of digital prints.

“Through my ‘Eve Clone’ series, I wanted to bring the issue that we humans should respect the original creation of God instead of using technology to modify God’s creations,” she said.

“That is why I named my work ‘Eve Clone.’”

To make her point, Lin ironically does just that — she manipulates historic Biblical depictions with technology, using a Leonardo da Vinci manuscript as her starting point. The end result is an interactive amalgamation of new and old.

Lin overlaps the original depiction in da Vinci’s document with a line sketch and grid of Eve Clone’s head and hand using computer software that Lin designed herself to create a digital rendering that both complements and contrasts with da Vinci’s vision. In the final print, the upper section shows a metallic-forming head and right hand, while the lower part shows the Biblical Book of Daniel and Revelation mirrored in da Vinci’s writing. The final touch uses augmented reality to transform “Eve Clone” from a static print into a dynamic video life form that engages and interacts with the viewer.

Curator Yu-Chuan Tseng said Lin’s “Eve Clone” series is one of her favorites in the exhibit.

“It is the first time that Taiwanese women artists in new media art are invited to have a show in D.C.,” she pointed out. “In this exhibit, women artists express their concerns and create artworks to show their anxiety and opinions about the ecology of society, science, technology and the environment with new media technology.”

Artist Laza Wu became involved in the project through Tseng, who was one of her Ph.D. committee members. Wu’s artwork considers the ramifications of future technologies on the human body, from artificial foods to artificial life forms.

Wu has three pieces in the exhibit, two of which are from the same “Posthuman Farm Project 2016” series.

“These works are all based on the real biotechnology development of synthetic

28 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

In the exhibit “Being Here as ME,” seen above, Taiwanese women create multimedia art that incorporates 3D animation, video and other technologies, as seen in works such as (from bottom clockwise) Wu Yung-Chieh’s “The Incantation of the Little One-Alas!!,” Pey-Chwen Lin’s “The Birth of Eve Clone” and Tzu-Ning Wu’s “The Post-Venus Flytrap Project 01.”

foods and future agriculture and about the moral issues after genetic modification and [the existence of] artificial life forms,” she said.

While “Being Here as ME” examines high-tech innovations and modern-day concerns from a Taiwanese perspective, Maia Cruz Palileo’s paintings take a look back at the history of her native Philippines. A small but signature work is “Burying Teeth,” which refers to the act of burying and uncovering as a metaphor for unearthing the historical narratives of her homeland’s colonial past.

Palileo’s work features overarching themes of belonging and not belonging. She uses brash, vibrant brushstrokes to replicate phoSEE WOM EN • PAGE 30

Events | Culture | WD

Thirst for Life ‘Fair Water’ Highlights Need to Share and Preserve a Finite Resource •

BY DERYL DAVIS

Fair Water: A Right of All THROUGH SEPT. 27

RESIDENCE OF THE FORMER AMBASSADORS OF SPAIN 2801 16TH ST., NW

(202) 728-2334

WWW.SPAINCULTURE.US/CITY/WASHINGTON-DC/ FAIR-WATER-THE-WATER-OFFICE/

I

n 1995, World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin made a prediction: “If the wars of the [20th century] were fought over oil,” he said, “the wars of the [21st] century will be fought over water.” Unfortunately, aspects of Serageldin’s prediction already have been borne out.

According to the California-based Pacific Institute, violent conflicts related to global water resources have indeed increased, while the World Bank reports that nearly 2.2 billion people live without safe drinking water and 4.2 billion without safe sanitation. Inequality in the distribution of water resources poses an existential threat to economic progress, the eradication of poverty and basic peace and stability, as studies by the World Bank and other organizations have shown.

It is timely, then, that the Embassy of Spain, in collaboration with the Mexican Embassy, the Inter-American Development Bank and other organizations, is spending this long, hot summer focusing on water justice.

“Fair Water: A Right of All” is a series of events largely hosted at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain on 16th Street, NW, that explores the human right to safe drinking water, sanitation, sustainable practices and the effects of environmental degradation on water resources.

A centerpiece of the series is a group of collaboratively produced artworks and exhibits that focus on the debate over water resources and illustrate how art may be used as a tool for action and even transformation. The workshops and artworks, collectively titled “The Water Office,” match professional artists from Spain, Mexico and the U.S. with volunteer participants to create works that reflect on the centrality of water in human life and the challenges to its access and safety.

Curated by Blanca de la Torre and inspired by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, “The Water Office” is composed of five artistic projects cum exhibits.

Juanli Carrión’s “PhDC” is part of a larger series in which the New Yorkbased artist creates textile installations that reflect the pH balance (i.e. acidity) of various water systems. For “PhDC,” Carrión and his collaborators used locally cultivated purple cabbage to create pH-sensitive dyes that, when applied to fabric, reflect the contamination level of the water in which the dyeing process takes place. The colors of the hanging fabrics in “PhDC” range from olive green to slate gray and harvest yellow, reflecting the pH balance or imbalance of the water samples. The samples taken from the Potomac River and the Tidal Basin all fell within the more or less normal range of pH 6.5 to 8.5. However, the sample from the Anacostia River — represented in the harvest yellow dye — is, at pH 5.5, the most acidic of the lot, reminding visitors of the inequities of water resources in the Washington region itself.

PHOTOS: SPAIN ARTS & CULTURE

“Fair Water: A Right of All” explores the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation through a series of events and exhibits showcasing unique pieces of art such as Juan Zamora’s “The Coliform Project: Performing Water Pollution,” seen at left, which places petri dishes of cultivated samples of contaminated Potomac River water over blank music sheets to create an eerie performance of sounds that reflects the health of the capital’s primary water system.

Juan Zamora’s “The Coliform Project: Performing Water Pollution” interprets contaminated water as music, placing petri dishes of cultivated samples of contaminated Potomac River water over blank music sheets. The result is an eerie performance of sounds that reflects the health of the capital’s primary water system.

Spanish artist collective Basurama and local artist Rachel Schmidt take a different tack, inviting visitors to “bottle” their memories of water in “Water Memories Itinerant Office.” The participatory exhibit consists of hundreds of plastic water bottles that, by means of written notes, images and designs, are the vehicle for individual human stories about water, its usage and the threats to it.

Bottles are artistically presented along a wall and clustered on the floor before a video projection of a large trash heap — the end to which they go. The artists ask us to reflect on the life cycle of water as both an element of nature and of human consumption. In fact, Basurama’s artistic practice revolves around rethinking trash — in this case as the inevitable human byproduct of an often SEE WATER • PAGE 30 AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 29

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Women CONTINUED • PAGE 28

tos from the U.S. government’s archives depicting anthropological documentation of Filipinos during the American colonization. In addition to the political, however, Palileo offers a personal take on her heritage by copying figures from old family photographs, recreating the intimacy of a traditional family album on a canvas of vivid paint colors.

Isabel Manalo, curator of the exhibit, first saw Palileo’s painting “Nochebuena” while living in Berlin in 2014.

“The feeling of the painting

was nostalgia and familiarity with that kind of family gathering,” Manalo said. “I loved her brushwork and color and seeing her work in person.”

As a fellow Filipino American, Manalo said that growing up, she hardly saw any Asians — much less Filipinos — in politics, the media or the arts. She called Palileo’s work personal.

“It’s a great way to step into the psyche of a Filipino American, where our position in the U.S. has always been invisible and or as diminutive little brown brothers, as we were regarded by the American colonialists,” she said.

Manalo herself is an artist who also explores issues of geography and post-colonial identity. She is currently working on a new body of work that consists of large-scale

Maia Cruz Palileo’s paintings examine the American colonization of her native Philippines and her own personal upbringing as a Filipino-American, as seen in works such as “Uranium in the Hot Springs,” left, “Uncles Drinking Beer II,” above, and “The Visitors.”

abstractions inspired by codes, symbols and language (her work can be seen at Addison/Ripley Fine Art, located on Wisconsin Ave., NW).

Diversity and heritage, both global and local, are hallmarks of exhibitions at the American University Museum, as seen in the other shows being featured this summer. That includes “Passages,” in which Jamaicanborn artist Keith Morrison highlights Afro-Caribbean and Meso-American art and architecture while reflecting on the

CREDIT: COURTESY OF TAYMOUR GRAHNE; PHOTO BY JASON MANDELLA,

somber history of the Middle Passage slave trade. On the local front, “Plans to Prosper You: Reflections of Black Resistance and Resilience in Montgomery Country’s Potomac River Valley” is a multimedia exhibition produced by AU graduate students and members of historic black churches in D.C. that examines the role of the black church in fostering social change. WD Kate Oczypok (@OczyKate) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF TAYMOUR GRAHNE

seen from 16th Street in a space shared by the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain and the Mexican Cultural Institute. “La CONTINUED • PAGE 29 Cascada (Let’s Go fetch Water!)” is a 13-foot-high, 30-foot-long public art installation of hundreds of idealized element of nature. recycled water buckets placed on a Visual artist and filmmaker Elena large cantilevered shelf. Water runs Lavellés focuses her work on resistance around and between the buckets as to policies of exploitation, including it makes its way toward the ground. the exploitation of nature. The exDesigned by the Spanish art colhibit “Strategic Contamination: Viral lective Luzinterruptus, “La CasSustainability” includes a multimedia cada” is meant to remind viewers installation of photos, artworks and of the daily struggles that ordinary found objects related to a visit Lavelpeople around the world, especially lés and collaborators took to D.C. Wawomen, go through to provide lifeter Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater giving water for their families. The Treatment Plant, the largest plant of water meanders slowly, rather than its kind in the world. The exhibit also rapidly, around the cascade of buckincludes a “Manifesto For Viral Susets, emphasizing its preciousness tainability: Water,” which encourages for those who make long, somereaders (and listeners of an accompatimes hazardous, journeys to collect PHOTO: SPAIN ARTS & CULTURE nying audio track) to “[u]nderstand it each day. Not a drop must be lost. the connections between the water This is an important message for In “PhDC,” New York-based artist Juanli Carrión creates textile installations that reflect the pH balance (i.e. acidity) of cycle, water sustainability and the role various water systems in the area. us in America who tend to think that humans have.” The purpose is to of water as an ever-renewable, inhelp visitors reflect on the value of wabetween the C&O Canal and the Potomac River. It also inexhaustible resource. “Fair Water: ter and how they can impact the use and stewardship of it. cludes segments of von Humboldt’s personal narrative of his A Right of All” creatively reminds us that water is indeed a Tania Candiani’s “Walking the River” was inspired by re- travels in the Americas (he visited then-President Thomas limited resource that we share with the rest of the planet. And nowned scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, Jefferson and others in Washington), as well as drawings, as the collaborative nature of these artworks suggests, findwho traveled extensively in the Americas at the turn of the writings and found objects contributed by Candiani’s artis- ing solutions to the equitable distribution and safety of water 19th century and is credited with being the first scientist tic collaborators. Like the other installations, “Walking the must be a collaborative effort, too. WD to warn of the dangers of human-induced climate change. River” represents a project, an artistic collaboration and a call Deryl Davis is a contributing writer for The “Walking the River” centers on a meditative audio-visual to advocacy. essay recorded along the popular Billy Goat Trail that runs One part of the “Fair Water: A Right of All” series can be Washington Diplomat.

Water

30 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

Theater | Culture | WD

Rejuvenated ‘Ann’ One-Woman Show Reminds Us That Politicians Can Be Outspoken and Classy •

BY JASON OVERDORF

Ann THROUGH AUG. 11 ARENA STAGE

1101 6TH ST., SW

(202) 488-3300

| WWW.ARENASTAGE.ORG

W

hen Holland Taylor’s “Ann” made its debut in San Antonio nearly a decade ago, a reviewer for the Dallas Morning News noted that the “affectionate portrait” of the late Texas Governor Ann Richards was not a political play.

That may well have been true in 2010, and even in 2013, when the show first made its way to Broadway. But it is less true today, when partisan bickering has reached a new low in rhetorical flourish as well as viciousness. And the play — which otherwise might lack the emotional stakes to support its two-hour run time —profits as a result.

On opening night at Arena Stage’s Mead Center for American Theater, the folksy wit for which Richards was famous was newly freighted with ideological heft and the audience supercharged with the energy of a Takoma Park impeachment rally.

Jayne Atkinson stars in what is essentially a one-woman show, although the voice of Richards’s assistant, Nancy Kohler (played by Julie White), can be heard from offstage. It begins with Richards delivering a commencement address in a Texas auditorium, then shifts to the office where she worked as a brash governor before losing to George W. Bush in 1994, with almost all of the dialogue delivered in phone calls to staff members, her grown children and then-President Bill Clinton.

The play is the brainchild of Emmy-winning actress Holland Taylor, who is known for her roles in “Two and a Half Men” and “The Practice” and who was once called “the first vaudeville Gentile we ever saw” by The New Yorker. She brings a feel-good sensibility to her warm and often funny depiction of only the second woman and the last Democrat to serve as the governor of Texas. Richards burst into national prominence with her 1988 keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in which she remarked of thenVice President George H.W. Bush: “Poor George, he can’t help it; he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

But the script glibly glosses over Richards’ struggle with alcoholism and never treats her micromanagement of her family or bullying of her staff as anything but a gag. After the intermission, the second act never really materializes, as no real conflict mounts, giving the protagonist no opportunity to grow.

Two things make the show work, now that the mourning period for the charming Democrat “with Republican hair” and her clever one-liners is behind us.

The first, of course, is Atkinson’s powerful charisma — which is obscured in the relatively staid TV roles for which she is currently best known, as Secretary of State Catherine Durant in “House of Cards” and as Vice President Teresa Hurst in “Madam Secretary.” Like the woman she portrays, Atkinson’s timing is impeccable, and she masterfully uses the script’s central conceit that the story being recounted is part of a commencement address before a gymnasium filled with graduating seniors to engage with her audience directly.

But it is the unmentioned elephant in the room — President Donald Trump

PHOTOS: MARGOT SCHULMAN

Jayne Atkinson stars as former Texas Gov. Ann Richards in the Arena Stage production of “Ann.”

— that makes the story crackle.

Through no fault of Taylor’s, who also portrayed Richards in the play’s original ascent from San Antonio to Broadway in its first run, hers was a heroine without a villain. Richards was a woman who broke all the rules, did things her way and beat the good ole boys at their own game. But the lack of a foil made it too easy to forget the rules she didn’t break, especially as she appeared in a one-woman show.

Today, her father’s bawdy jokes (a Great Dane is involved in the one that made the show) play like a tight-wire act, hilariously improper but demeaning to no one. Her send-ups of her Republican foes, as apt as they are excoriating, are good-humored rather than sarcastic or snide. And her alltoo evident character flaws are redeemed by interjections of humanity that would simply never occur to a sociopath.

After eviscerating a young staffer who has failed to vet the donor of airline tickets, leaving her stuck covering the $8,000 bill with a personal check, she pages her offstage assistant for the young man’s shoe size so she can include him in the group she’s buying boots for on an upcoming holiday jaunt. And her recurrent soul-searching over whether or not to issue a 30-day stay of execution to a man convicted of raping and murdering a nun makes clear that however much she might love power and the public eye, she never allows herself to lose sight of the reason she sought public office: “Life isn’t fair. But government should be.”

In 2010, no doubt it sounded like an old chestnut. This summer, it feels like a forgotten truth. WD Jason Overdorf (jasonoverdorf.com) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 31

WD | Culture | History

Friendly Reminder Amid Divisive Politics, Canadian Embassy Touts 150 Years of Friendship with U.S. •

BY VIRGINIA SCIOLINO

Between Friends - Entre Amis THROUGH AUG. 30

EMBASSY OF CANADA ART GALLERY 501 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., NW

HTTPS://BIT.LY/2JU5WAW

F

or the past 150 years, the United States and Canada have shared the longest border between any two countries, created one of the world’s most inextricably linked economic relationships — trading a staggering $2 billion in goods and services each day — and collaborated closely on matters ranging from security to human rights.

But that long history of collaboration is being challenged by an “America First” president who has questioned some of the country’s most fundamental alliances. That includes Canada, our large, unassuming neighbor to the north that frequently refers to itself as America’s best friend.

Given the less-than-friendly rhetoric emanating from the Trump administration, it only makes sense that the Canadian Embassy in Washington is reminding Americans of this close, mutually beneficial relationship with the exhibit “Between Friends-Entre Amis: A Snapshot of Canada-U.S. Relations.”

It’s a particularly timely reminder as the Trump administration presses Congress to ratify NATO’s replacement, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), before the summer recess — despite fierce opposition from Democratic lawmakers (also see “USMCA Countdown: Amid Tariffs and Looming Elections, Ratification of New NAFTA Is Ever-Moving Target”).

Ottawa has lobbied hard for the trade deal. Last October, after over a year of negotiations, the U.S., Canada and Mexico agreed to overhaul the 1994 agreement responsible for $1.2 trillion in annual trade among the three nations. And while Mexico recently ratified the deal, Canada appears to be waiting on Congress to approve the trade pact.

“Between Friends-Entre Amis” is also timely because of two milestones: the 150th anniversary of U.S.-Canada relations and the 30th birthday of Canada’s embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue close to Capitol Hill.

Denis Chouinard, the embassy’s public affairs counselor, said he was looking for a way to commemorate both anniversaries. “It started with meeting someone at the Meridian International Center a year and a half ago,” he told us. There, he saw “Northern Lights,” an exhibition by the U.S. Embassy in Canada documenting 150 years of relations. “It was interesting to see the U.S.’s take on the relationship, the friendship,” Chouinard said.

He was inspired to bring the exhibit to Washington, where Sarah Boorom curated the new display of posters that record the trajectory of U.S.-Canada ties.

“I started with the logo,” said Boorom, referencing the square that partially confines the bilingual exhibit name. “I wanted the name ‘Between Friends’ in English and ‘Entre Amis’ in French to be together … they’re together in a consolidated unit, but it is also open.”

The logo encapsulates the theme of the exhibit. Both countries, while distinct, are geographically, economically and culturally connected.

The relationship between the U.S. and Canada is as old as Canada itself. Harriet Tubman led people from enslavement in America to freedom in Canada. Sir William

32 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF CANADA

“Between Friends-Entre Amis” at the Canadian Embassy chronicles the long history of relations between Canada and the U.S. in defense, politics, human rights, trade and other areas.

McDougall and President Abraham Lincoln shared a friendship so personal that McDougall attended the Gettysburg Address — Chouinard pointed him out in a photo of the event. Four years later, McDougall and over two dozen other men would lead their nation’s own union as “Fathers of Confederation,” which saw Canada’s British colonies, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick united under one dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.

Around the same time, British North Americans crossed the border to fight in the U.S. Civil War, triggering the nations’ commitments to mutual defense, an area that has also come to define the U.S.-Canada relationship over the decades.

“Because of the importance of the security dimensions, we elaborated on the past and the strong ties between Canada and the U.S. in the context of NORAD and NATO,” Chouinard said, referring to the transatlantic security alliance and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

SEE CANADA • PAGE 46

Art | Culture | WD

PHOTO: COLLECTION OAS AMA | ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS

Deep ‘Roots’ Mural Beneath OAS Tells Fascinating History of the Americas, and its Uruguayan Creator •

BY JARED GANS

Roots of Peace THROUGH SEPT. 8

OAS ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS 201 18TH ST., NW

(202) 370-0147

| WWW.MUSEUM.OAS.ORG

I

n October 1972, Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró’s son was in a deadly airplane crash. The flight carrying a rugby team from Montevideo took off from Carrasco International Airport en route to Santiago, Chile, but it never made it to its destination.

Because of cloud cover and pilot error, the flight crashed in a remote section of the Andes Mountains. More than a quarter of the passengers did not survive the crash, while others later succumbed to the weather and their injuries.

For the next 72 days, the remaining survivors were forced to turn to cannibalism to stay alive.

In spite of the seemingly impossible odds, Páez Vilaró remained confident that his son was alive.

“He always thought, ‘My kid is alive, and I’m going to find my kid, and you will see,’” said Adriana Ospina, the collections curator at the Organization of American States Art Museum of the Americas. “And that’s what happened.”

The discovery that his son was among the 16 survivors was a dramatic chapter in the life of a prolific and influential abstract artist who was a renown painter, potter, sculptor, muralist, writer, composer and architect. Páez Vilaró, who died in 2014 at the age of 90, traveled extensively to countries such as Brazil and Senegal, drawing inspiration from myriad cultures. His work has been exhibited in museums, government offices and corporate headquarters around the world.

His son’s near-death experience influenced Páez Vilaró’s writings, which are now on display, along with his artwork, in “Roots of Peace” at the Art Museum of the Americas. The exhibit, which includes two dozen paintings, books and archival material, is named after the 10-section mural he painted in 1960 that encourages unity among the people of the Americas while embracing their differences.

The mural — one of the longest in the world — decorates a tunnel that connects the OAS headquarters with its administrative building two blocks away. As part of the exhibition, it will be open for public tours for the first time since it was painted in 1960.

“Carlos Páez Vilaró is a Uruguayan artist who had a pretty prolific career in many fronts,” Ospina said. “He was a painter. He wrote as well. He was a builder.”

She said he enjoyed a long-term relationship with the OAS and the Art Museum of the Americas and had his first of many exhibitions with the organization in 1958.

The next year, the chief of the OAS visual art unit watched as one of the most fa-

PHOTOS: COLLECTION MUSEO TALLER CASAPUEBLO

The Art Museum of the Americas is showcasing Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró’s mural beneath the Organization of American States — a detail of which is seen at the top — in “Roots of Peace.”

The exhibit also features various other works, including Abstracción,” above, “La pescadora de Bahía,” below, and “El abanico,” at left.

mous murals in Uruguay was demolished in a bus station when improvements were being made to the structure. With the fall of one mural, he was inspired to create another.

“I’m going to give you a wall,” the chief told Páez Vilaró. “I’m going to find you a wall in Washington so you can make a mural. I don’t know when. I don’t know how, but I will.”

Ospina said the chief reported back to Páez Vilaró that he had found a wall but could not provide him with any money for supplies or pay him for his work.

Páez Vilaró went ahead with the project, finding a sponsor in a Uruguayan paint company that sent him pigments and recruiting help from students at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and the University of Maryland.

Ospina said the mural, which is about as long as the Washington Monument SEE R OOT S • PAGE 35 AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 33

WD | Culture | Film

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

ARABIC Tel Aviv on Fire

Directed by Sameh Zoabi (Luxembourg/Belgium/Israel/ France, 2019, 100 min.)

Salam, an inexperienced young Palestinian man, becomes a writer on a popular soap opera after a chance meeting with an Israeli soldier. His creative career is on the rise — until the soldier and the show’s financial backers disagree about how the show should end, and Salam is caught in the middle. (Arabic and Hebrew).

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA OPENS FRI., AUG. 9

The Reports on Sarah and Saleem

Directed by Muaya Alayan (Palestine/Germany/Netherlands, 2019, 127 min.)

Sarah, an Israeli café owner living in West Jerusalem, and Saleem, her Palestinian bread vendor and deliveryman who lives in East Jerusalem, have a clandestine affair. But their tryst takes a dangerous political dimension when they are spotted in the wrong place at the wrong time, leaving them to deal with more than their broken marriages (Arabic, Hebrew and English).

WEST END CINEMA

CANTONESE Full Contact

Directed by Ringo Lam (Hong Kong, 1992, 104 min.)

Last year, Hong Kong lost one of its true cinematic pioneers.

Ringo Lam was among the leaders of a freakishly talented generation of filmmakers that turned Hong Kong into an international cinema powerhouse through high-octane, actionpacked gangster movies. We pay tribute to him by showing his ferociously over-the-top “Full Contact,” in which Chow Yun Fat stars a criminal with a conscience who seeks vengeance on the gay libertine gangster who double-crossed him and left him for dead (Cantonese and English).

FREER GALLERY OF ART FRI., AUG. 16, 7 P.M.

The Leakers

Directed by Herman Yau (Hong Kong/Malaysia, 2018, 103 min.)

When a contagious and deadly virus suddenly strikes Malaysia, a Hong Kong journalist is tipped off by a colleague that its release may not be accidental.

That touches off an investigation that entangles journalists, cops, a corrupt pharmaceutical company run by a wealthy, feud-

The Washington Diplomat

ing family and an international hacking group with shadowy motives (Cantonese, English, Malay, Tamil and Mandarin).

Master Z: Ip Man Legacy

FREER GALLERY OF ART SUN., AUG. 11, 2 P.M.

Police Story

Directed by Jackie Chan (Hong Kong, 1985, 100 min.)

The jaw-dropping set pieces fly fast and furious in Jackie Chan’s breathtakingly inventive martial-arts comedy, in which the director/star/one-man stunt machine plays a Hong Kong police inspector who goes rogue to bring down a drug kingpin and protect the case’s star witness from retribution (Cantonese and English).

FREER GALLERY OF ART SUN., AUG. 18, 2 P.M.

Project Gutenberg

Directed by Felix Chong (Hong Kong/China, 2018, 130 min.)

The winner of no less than seven Hong Kong Film Awards, this thriller follows the exploits of a gang of counterfeiters. The legendary Chow Yun-fat returns, with obvious enjoyment, to his smooth criminal roots as the suave, dapper and elusive head of the gang. He is being pursued by the Hong Kong police with the help of convicted counterfeiter, who has been extradited from Thailand to help them—but is his testimony reliable? (Cantonese and Mandarin).

FREER GALLERY OF ART SUN., AUG. 4, 2 P.M.

CZECH The Hastrman

Directed by Ondrej Havelka (Czech Republic, 2018, 100 min.)

At the beginning of the 19th century, after years abroad, a mysterious nobleman returns to his deteriorating ancestral home in a small Bohemian village to revitalize his family’s property. Despite looking human, his obsessive affinity for water shows he has a hidden side. In this romantic fantasy, a new love brings the Hastrman unexpected happiness and an agonizing dilemma: whether to remain a wild creature or cross the boundaries and get closer to becoming human.

34 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

August 2019

charter boats, became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World in 1989. Tracy’s inspirational dream was opposed on all sides: her male competitors thought an allwomen crew would never make it, the chauvinistic yachting press took bets on her failure and potential sponsors rejected her, fearing they would die at sea and generate bad publicity.

But Tracy refused to give up.

FREER GALLERY OF ART FRI., AUG. 9, 7 P.M.

Directed by Yuen Woo-ping (Hong Kong/China, 2018, 107 min.)

“Master Z: Ip Man Legacy” is a spin-off of the popular franchise about the life of Bruce Lee’s famous martial arts teacher. Max Zhang stars as a former challenger to Ip Man, who now lives a peaceful life as a single father running a store — until he runs afoul of local criminals and has to defend his turf from opium den proprietress (Cantonese and English).

|

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA WEST END CINEMA

The Manchurian Candidate PHOTO: GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT

A man tries to bond with his girlfriend’s son in the tightly wound family drama “Three Peaks.”

THE AVALON THEATRE WED., AUG. 14, 8 P.M.

ENGLISH After the Wedding

Directed by Bart Freundlich (U.S., 2019, 110 min.)

A manager of an orphanage in Kolkata travels to New York to meet a benefactor.

ANGELIKA MOSAIC OPENS FRI., AUG. 16

Blinded by Light

Directed by Gurinder Chadha (U.K., 2019, 117 min.)

In 1987 during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, a teenager learns to live life, understand his family and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.

ANGELIKA MOSAIC OPENS FRI., AUG. 16

Cold Case Hammarskjöld

Directed by Mads Brügger (Denmark/Norway/Sweden/ Belgium, 2019, 128 min.)

In 1961, U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane mysteriously crashed in what was then Northern Rhodesia, killing Hammarskjöld and 15 others.

Danish director Mads Brügger and Swedish private investigator Göran Björkdahl are trying to solve the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjöld. As their investigation closes in, they discover a crime far worse than killing the secretary-general of the United Nations (English, French, Swedish, Bemba and Danish).

LANDMARK’S THEATRES OPENS FRI., AUG. 23

The Farewell

Directed by Lulu Wang (U.S., 2019, 98 min.)

Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi reluctantly returns home to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai, has been given weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai-Nai herself. As Billi navigates family expectations, she finds a lot to celebrate: a

chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother’s wondrous spirit and ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken.

LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

(U.S., 2019, 102 min.)

Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) is a pioneer on the late-night talk-show circuit.

When she’s accused of being a “woman who hates women,” she puts affirmative action in action and presto, Molly (Mindy Kaling) is hired as the one woman in Katherine’s all-male writers’ room.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

AFI SILVER THEATRE ANGELIKA MOSAIC

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

Directed by David Leitch (U.S./U.K., 2019, 135 min.)

Lawman Luke Hobbs and outcast Deckard Shaw form an unlikely alliance when a cyber-genetically enhanced villain threatens the future of humanity.

ATLANTIC PLUMBING CINEMA OPENS FRI., AUG. 2

A Hard Day’s Night

Directed by Richard Lester (U.K., 1964, 87 min.)

In the band’s screen debut, the Beatles’s abundant charisma and American director Richard Lester’s effervescent style — a by-now much-imitated amalgam of TV commercial-honed technique, French New Wave style and documentary-like immediacy — won over middle-aged film critics and the public alike, helping to dispel any lingering suspicions of the Fab Four’s passing faddishness.

AFI SILVER THEATRE FRI., AUG. 2, 7:15 P.M., SAT., AUG. 3, 2:45 P.M.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Directed by Joe Talbot (U.S., 2019, 121 min.)

Jimmie dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

Late Night

Directed by Nisha Ganatra

THE AVALON THEATRE

The Lion King

Directed by Jon Favreau (U.S., 2019, 118 min.)

After the murder of his father, a young lion prince flees his kingdom only to learn the true meaning of responsibility and bravery.

ANGELIKA MOSAIC

ATLANTIC PLUMBING CINEMA

Love, Antosha

Directed by Garret Price (U.S., 2019) This heartfelt documentary portrays the brief but rich life of Anton Yelchin. Best known for his role as Chekov in the rebooted “Star Trek” films, he had an amazingly prolific career in movies and television, while dealing with a dangerous health condition he concealed.

LANDMARK’S THEATRES OPENS FRI., AUG. 30

Luce

Directed by Julius Onah (U.S., 2019, 109 min.)

A married couple is forced to reckon with their idealized image of their son, adopted from war-torn Eritrea, after an alarming discovery by a devoted high school teacher threatens his status as an all-star student.

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA OPENS FRI., AUG. 9

Maiden

Directed by Alex Holmes (U.K., 2019, 97 min.)

This is the story of how Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook in

Directed by John Frankenheimer (U.S., 1962, 126 min.)

John Frankenheimer’s renowned take on McCarthyism and Cold War fanaticism stars Laurence Harvey as a U.S. soldier abducted during the Korean War. In Manchuria, a communist cell brainwashes him before returning him to the U.S. to serve as an unwitting political assassin.

AFI SILVER THEATRE SUN., AUG. 4, 9:20 P.M., THU., AUG. 8, 9:30 P.M.

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love

Directed by Nick Broomfield (U.S., 2019, 102 min.)

This film takes an in-depth look at the relationship between the late musician Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen (English and Norwegian).

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

Midsommar

Directed by Ari Aster (U.S., 2019, 140) A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown’s fabled mid-summer festival.

But what begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

ATLANTIC PLUMBING CINEMA

Mike Wallace Is Here

Directed by Avi Belkin (U.S., 2019, 90 min.)

“Mike Wallace Is Here” offers an unflinching look at the legendary reporter, who interrogated the 20th century’s biggest figures in his over fifty years on air, and his aggressive reporting style and showmanship that redefined what America came to expect from broadcasters.

LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA OPENS FRI., AUG. 2

One Child Nation

Directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang (U.S., 2019, 85 min.)

China’s One Child Policy, the rigid population control measure in force for over 30 years that made it illegal for couples to have more than one child,

Film | Culture | WD

ended in 2015, but the process of dealing with the trauma of its brutal enforcement is only just beginning. This film explores the ripple effect of this devastating social experiment, uncovering shocking human rights violations such as abandoned newborns, forced sterilizations and abortions, government abductions and a lucrative adoption-to-foreigners market (English and Mandarin).

LANDMARK’S THEATRES OPENS FRI., AUG. 16

One, Two, Three

Directed by Billy Wilder (U.S., 1961, 104 min.)

Billy Wilder’s most frenetically paced comedy was both a throwback to 1930s screwball style and avant-garde for its anything-goes satire. Released as the Cold War was heating up in a divided Berlin (the Wall went up during production), this farce of capitalists, communists and “ex”-Nazis competing to rook each other struck some as tasteless, but its cult classic reputation has only grown with time.

AFI SILVER THEATRE SAT., AUG. 3, 12:30 P.M., TUE., AUG. 6, 5:15 P.M., THU., AUG. 8, 5:15 P.M.

Paris Is Burning

Directed by Jennie Livingston (U.S., 1990, 71 min.)

Where does “voguing” come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This groundbreaking documentary, seven years in the making, provides a still-vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag ball scene.

LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA OPENS FRI., AUG. 2

Pavarotti

Directed by Ron Howard (U.K./U.S., 2019, 114 min.)

This riveting documentary that lifts the curtain on the icon who brought opera to the people.

WEST END CINEMA

The Pink Panther

vices. Jean, who is no stranger to the foster system, is given the responsibility of temporarily looking after Theo. Meanwhile Alice, unable to have children of her own, has never stopped fighting to be a mother. Thanks to the dedicated members of social services, the paths of Alice and Theo will cross, blending the journey of Jean and the rest of the team along the way.

Directed by Blake Edwards (U.S., 1963, 113 min.)

It’s the largest diamond in the world, containing the image of a panther. Claudia Cardinale owns it, and David Niven — playboy by day, legendary jewel thief “the Phantom” by night — is after it.

It’s also sought by Niven’s nephew Robert Wagner, himself an aspiring jewel thief, who plans to cover his tracks by framing the Phantom — unaware that it’s his uncle. Is it any wonder Peter Sellers’s bumbling Inspector Clouseau is confused?

AFI SILVER THEATRE SAT., AUG. 17, 11 A.M., MON., AUG. 19, 5:15 P.M., WED., AUG. 21, 5:15 P.M.

Sea of Shadows

Directed by Richard Ladkani and Sean Bogle (Austria, 2019, 104 min.)

When Mexican drug cartels and Chinese traffickers join forces to poach the rare totoaba fish in the Sea of Cortez, their deadly methods threaten virtually all marine life in the region, including the most elusive and endangered whale species on Earth, the vaquita porpoise. A team of dedicated scientists, high-tech conservationists, investigative journalists and courageous undercover agents as well as the Mexican Navy put their lives on the line to save the last remaining vaquitas and bring the vicious international crime syndicate to justice (English and Spanish).

LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

A Shot in the Dark

Directed by Blake Edwards (U.S./U.K., 1964, 102 min.)

The first “return of the Pink Panther” finds bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) investigating a series of murders in which every clue points to the maid, bombshell Elke Sommer. Ever oblivious, Clouseau distrusts everyone except the obvious suspect, even notoriously accusing George Sanders of killing someone “in a rit of fealous jage.”

Roots CONTINUED • PAGE 33

is high, was completed in two to three months. Each of the 10 sections connect to the idea of “Pan-Americanism,” emphasizing unity throughout the Western Hemisphere while depicting themes of peace and development in the Americas. Páez Vilaró dedicated the mural to his father, an early supporter of the idea.

The first section of the mural is titled “technical cooperation.”

With objects such as a rake, microscope and telescope, it focuses on agricultural and scientific collaboration.

The section also includes the first of numerous abstract images of people throughout the work,

THE AVALON THEATRE WED., AUG. 21, 8 P.M.

GERMAN PHOTO: MUSIC BOX FILMS

A group of teenage boys becomes immersed in the violence of mafia life in “Piranhas.”

AFI SILVER THEATRE SUN., AUG. 18, 11 A.M., TUE., AUG. 20, 5:15 P.M., THU., AUG. 22, 5:15 P.M.

Them That Follow

Directed by Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage (U.S., 2019, 98 min.)

Set deep in the wilds of Appalachia, where believers handle death-dealing snakes to prove themselves before God, Them That Follow tells the story of a pastor’s daughter who holds a secret that threatens to tear her community apart.

ANGELIKA MOSAIC OPENS FRI., AUG. 9

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (U.S., 2019, 119 min.)

This artful and intimate meditation on the legendary storyteller examines her life, her works and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her literary career.

LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

Wild Rose

Directed by Tom Harper (U.K., 2019, 100 min.)

Rose-Lynn Harlan is bursting with raw talent, charisma

which Ospina said highlights Páez Vilaró’s belief in multiculturalism and embracing all races.

“I think it’s the theme of the entire mural, with these profiles of different colors,” she said.

The idea of racial tolerance is personified in the second section, with two people of separate races eating from the same plate.

Ospina said pictures of people of different races facing each other is a common theme throughout the mural.

Other sections represent areas in which the people of the Americas can come together, ranging from the protection of natural resources to the promotion of physical health. Ospina noted that fitness was particularly important to Páez Vilaró, who included scenes depicting basketball, tennis and weight-lifting in the mural.

In some of the sections, lines of previous editions of the mural can

and cheek. Fresh out of prison and reunited with her son and daughter, all she wants is to get out of Glasgow and make it as a country singer in Nashville.

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

Yesterday

Directed by Danny Boyle (U.K., 2019, 116 min.)

Jack, a struggling singer-songwriter in a tiny English seaside town, finds his dreams of fame rapidly fading, despite the fierce devotion of his childhood best friend, Ellie (Lily James). Then, after a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, Jack wakes up to discover that The Beatles have never existed.

Performing songs by the greatest band in history to a world that has never heard them, Jack’s fame explodes, but he risks losing Ellie in the process.

THE AVALON THEATRE

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

FRENCH In Safe Hands

Directed by Jeanne Herry (France/Belgium 2018, 110 min.)

Abandoned at birth, baby Theo’s uncertain future lies in the hands of the Child Welfare Ser-

still be seen. After its completion in 1960, the mural was restored in 1975, in 2002 and earlier this year.

The restored version includes newer painting techniques that Páez Vilaró gradually acquired over the years, after the original work was complete.

“This is a totally different vocabulary from the rest of the mural,” Ospina pointed out. “This thin black line — this more curvy line — is something he was doing in the 2000s rather than in the ’70s or ’60s.”

Ospina said the mural needs continuous upkeep because of Foggy Bottom’s location in a former swamp. She said humidity enables water to leak into the mural in an underground hallway, requiring the restorations.

She said the mural was also damaged in the past from people pushing carts through the hallway and scraping it, “not having a

(Italy, 2019, 105 min.)

Dreaming of a life lush with designer clothing and elite nightclubs, a group of naïve teenage boys join a local mafia gang and begin selling drugs — an entryway into the violent, power-hungry world of crime that becomes allconsuming, threatening their innocence, their relationships and the safety of their families.

LANDMARK’S THEATRES OPENS FRI., AUG. 9

JAPANESE

Three Peaks

Directed by Jan. Zabeil (Italy/Germany, 2019, 94 min.)

On a seemingly idyllic summer vacation in the spectacular Italian Dolomites, a man courts the acceptance of his girlfriend’s young son, trying to bond as a new family. But fatherhood, suspicion and resentment are a combustible formula in this tightly wound family drama turned harrowing survival thriller (German, French and English).

LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

High and Low

Directed by Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1963, 143 min.)

Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a coldblooded kidnapper in this highly influential domestic drama and police procedural from director Akira Kurosawa.

FREER GALLERY OF ART WED., AUG. 7, 2 P.M.

HEBREW

RUSSIAN

The Other Story

Aquarela

Directed by Avi Nesher and Jonathan Mordechay (Israel, 2019, 112 min.)

“The Other Story” tells a suspenseful, poignant and humorous story through the eyes of two rebellious young women from two troubled families that tangle in the most unexpected ways in Jerusalem. As the characters’ warring personal convictions and intimate anxieties clash, the secular and religious world views they hold dear also come to embody the struggle for identity reflecting present-day Israel.

WEST END CINEMA OPENS FRI., AUG. 2

arts & entertainment

Directed by Claudio Giovannesi

real understanding of the importance of the mural.”

Ospina said that a consistent characteristic of Páez Vilaró’s work was the influence of other artists such as Pablo Picasso and widely established symbols such as the wheel and the eye.

“He used universal symbols that are linked to the subject matter of his work,” she said.

For instance, the wheel was used to represent progress, the fish to represent peace and the eye to represent absorbing knowledge.

“It’s pretty much what he did in his entire career, and he did it through his struggles,” Ospina said. “He traveled around the world. He tried to absorb culture, and I think that’s why it’s always present in his art.” WD Jared Gans is an editorial intern for The Washington Diplomat.

ANGELIKA MOSAIC OPENS FRI., AUG. 23

Culture

ITALIAN Piranhas

Directed by Viktor Kossakovsky (U.K./Germany/Denmark/U.S., 2019, 89 min.)

Water is the main protagonist here, seen in all its great and terrible beauty, as Viktor Kossakovsky travels the world, from the precarious frozen waters of Russia’s Lake Baikal and Miami in the throes of Hurricane Irma, to Venezuela’s mighty Angel Falls to paint a portrait of this fluid life force in all its glorious forms (Russian, English and Spanish).

Plan Your Entire Weekend. www.washdiplomat.com

PHOTO: COLLECTION MUSEO TALLER CASAPUEBLO

Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró’s “Siempre te observaré desde el ojo de mi cuadro” is among the works featured in “Roots of Peace.”

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 35

WD | Culture | Events

Events Listings

The Washington Diplomat

ART THROUGH AUG. 7

Open Site: Mixed Media Works by Korean Artist Tae Eun Ahn

KOREAN CULTURAL CENTER

AUG. 8 TO DEC. 15

Fast Fashion/Slow Art

“Fast Fashion/Slow Art” scrutinizes today’s garment industry.

A diverse group of emerging and established contemporary artists and filmmakers including Julia Brown, Cat Mazza, Hito Steyerl and Rosemarie Trockel explore issues of waste, consumerism and the human cost of mass production through 11 films and video installations.

GW ART GALLERIES

THROUGH AUG. 11

Being Here as ME- New Media Art Exhibition of Women Artists from Taiwan

This exhibit features new media art, with augmented reality, animation and digital images, to explore how Taiwanese women artists surpass discussions of gender equality and express broader concerns. The emerging popularity of new media technology provides these artists new tools of creation and new topics of concern, helping them reveal their anxieties and opinions about the ecology of society, science, technology and the environment.

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

THROUGH AUG. 11

Burying Teeth: Maia Cruz Palileo

There is a mystery in the act of burying and even more so in uncovering throughout the works of contemporary artist Maia Cruz Palileo. Created from 2016 to 2019, they depict historical narratives from the colonial past of the Philippines, Maia’s country of origin, as well as stories and moments about her own life as a Filipina American growing up in the United States. Her paintings and drawings replicate figures from old family photographs, as well as photos from American textbooks depicting anthropological documentation of Filipinos during the American colonization.

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

August 2019

nation of Senegal, stylish women have often used jewelry as part of an overall strategy of exhibiting their elegance and prestige. Rooted in the Wolof concept of sañse (dressing up, looking and feeling good), “Good as Gold” examines the production, display, and circulation of gold in Senegal as it celebrates a significant gift of gold jewelry to the National Museum of African Art’s collection.

*Please check the venue for times. Venue locations are subject to change.

This is the first U.S. solo exhibition of works by Korean artist Tae Eun Ahn, whose tactile and visceral art seeks to expand our perception of the world by examining the role of the body as a bridge between internal and external existence. “Open Site” works in a variety of media that attempt to capture traces of the body in motion, including six videos and installations, six photographic works, four paintings, one sculpture created primarily out of clay, and a live performance by the artist herself.

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NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART

THROUGH SEPT. 30

PHOTO: © GEORGIA SAXELBY / EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA

In “Lullaby,” Georgia Saxelby explores the relationship between architecture, gender and ritual within the D.C. landscape.

THROUGH AUG. 11

Forward Press: 21st-Century Printmaking

Ten innovative print artists from across the United States employ the finest examples of handprinted and digital techniques, creating works that reinterpret centuries-old printmaking techniques in the digital age, exploring themes of culture, identity, religion, environment, memory, and art history.

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

THROUGH AUG. 11

Glacier

The Icelandic chairmanship in the Arctic Council will emphasize the Arctic marine environment; climate and green energy solutions; people in the Arctic and welfare issues; as well as a stronger Arctic Council. In conjunction with the chairmanship, the Embassy of Iceland will host a photo exhibition at the House of Sweden by Ragnar Axelsson (RAX), one of Iceland’s most prominent photographers.

He has chronicled life in the Arctic through his lens for many decades having traveled on multiple occasions to all the Arctic countries to document life and nature in the high north. His new book and exhibition “Glacier” focuses on the awesome beauty of the northern glaciers and their magnificence.

HOUSE OF SWEDEN

THROUGH AUG. 11

Passages: Keith Morrison, 1998-2019

A magician of color and space and a teller of tales, fanciful and real, Jamaican-born Keith Morrison focuses on the tangible and spiritual components of culture. His acrylic and oil paintings on canvas and transparent watercolors on paper encompass Afro-Caribbean and Meso-American art and architecture, along with the somber history of the Middle Passage.

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

THROUGH AUG. 18

The Life of Animals in Japanese Art

Artworks representing animals — real or imaginary, religious or secular — span the full breadth

36 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

and splendor of Japanese artistic production. This first exhibition devoted to the subject features over 300 works that cover 17 centuries and a wide variety of media — sculpture, painting, lacquerwork, ceramics, metalwork, textile and the woodblock print.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

THROUGH AUG. 19

Escape Velocity

Abstract paintings on canvas by Singapore-born artist CheeKeong Kung are influenced by the artist’s formal education in art and architecture as well as his upbringing in multiethnic Singapore. Kung embraces influences from traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, the pace and intensity of the digital age, as well as images of buildings under construction (or destruction).

THE FRED SCHNIDER GALLERY OF ART

THROUGH AUG. 23

Queer as German Folk

This innovative punk, activism and DIY-inspired project synthesizes local and German narratives on the constant crusade for queer equality and achieving queer civil rights throughout the last half century.

GOETHE-INSTITUT WASHINGTON

THROUGH AUG. 30

Museum: A Haunted Medium

Photographers Paula Pedrosa (Brazil), Traer Scott (United States) and Andrés Wertheim (Argentina) create works where natural history museums, art museums, gallery spaces and theme parks all become mediums that encourage interactions. Scott captures the interaction between the ghostlike human reflection on the glass and the frozen motion of animals as part of ornate wildlife landscapes. Pedrosa depicts staged, cripplingly decorated interior jungle-like landscapes.

Wertheim forges connections between the audiences in the museum and the portrayed characters in the same spaces’ galleries. Interactions throughout, between the living and the dead, the past and the present,

and natural and the artificial, reveal that it is perhaps we who are more truly ghosts in the museum.

ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS F STREET GALLERY

THROUGH SEPT. 2

Infinite Space: A Retrospective

by Refik Anadol

In taking the data that flows around us as his primary material and the neural network of a computerized mind as his collaborator, Refik Anadol creates radical visualizations of our digitized memories, expanding the possibilities of architecture, narrative and the body in motion. The exhibition will take over ARTECHOUSE galleries featuring Anadol’s infamous immersive installation titled “Infinity Room” seen by more than 1 million people around the world, including a half million during a tour in China alone last year, three infinity boxes and a selection of multimedia works spanning his variegated career.

ARTECHOUSE

THROUGH SEPT. 8

The Evidence Room

This installation gives visual testament to the atrocities of the Holocaust, drawing on architectural forensic evidence to focus attention on the architecture that made the Auschwitz concentration camp a systematic factory for mass murder.

HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN

THROUGH SEPT. 8

Roots of Peace: Carlos Páez Vilaró Works and Writings

This retrospective looks at the work of Carlos Páez Vilaró, a Uruguayan painter, potter, sculptor, muralist, writer, composer and builder. Specifically, it showcases paintings, books and other archival materials examining the history of the “Roots of Peace” mural, painted in 1960. Spanning over 530 feet in a tunnel linking the OAS main building in D.C. and the Art Museum of the Americas building, “Roots of Peace” is one of the longest murals in the world.

Its goal is to serve as a graphic

statement of continental peace and harmony throughout the Western Hemisphere, highlighting the spiritual unity that bonds peoples of the Americas while respecting their unique differences.

OAS ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS

THROUGH SEPT. 15

Oliver Lee Jackson: Recent Paintings

American painter, printmaker, and sculptor Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935) has created a complex body of work which masterfully weaves together visual influences ranging from the Renaissance to modernism with principles of rhythm and improvisation drawn from his study of African cultures and American jazz.

Rafael Soriano: Cabezas (Heads)

This exhibition features more than 20 significant artworks

by Cuban-born painter Rafael Soriano (1920-2015), one of the major Latin American artists of his generation. Soriano stands apart from his peers who largely focused on formalism and gestural abstraction because he developed his own visual vocabulary informed by abstraction yet steeped in metaphysical meaning. Drawing on loans from the Rafael Soriano Foundation, this exhibit chronicles the development of Soriano’s unique biomorphic style, which culminated in a specific body of work depicting the human head.

This is the first exhibit devoted to Soriano’s important series of paintings of heads, which are some of the artist’s most figurative and introspective works.

ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

THROUGH SEPT. 22

The Warmth of Other Suns

Through installations, videos, paintings and documentary images, 75 historical and contemporary artists — from the United States as well as Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Syria, Turkey, the U.K., Vietnam and more — pose urgent questions around the experiences and perceptions of migration and the current global refugee crisis.

THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION

THROUGH SEPT. 27

Animals in Japanese Outsider Art

This exhibition, held in tandem with “Life of Animals in Japanese Art” at the National Gallery of Art, features beautiful works of art created by those with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses, who often depict animals with a rich color palette and a variety of unique patterns, interpreted from a truly distinctive point of view. The two exhibits could even be said to be the Olympics and Special Olympics of Japanese artwork.

Japan Information & Culture Center Through Sept. 29 Good as Gold: Fashioning Senegalese Women In the cities of the West African

PHOTO: JAPAN INFORMATION AND CULTURE CENTER

The work of artists with intellectual disabilities is featured in “Animals in Japanese Outsider Art.” THROUGH OCT. 18

Lullaby by Georgia Saxelby

“Lullaby” explores the relationship between architecture, gender and ritual within the monumental landscape of Washington, D.C. This solo exhibition presents Australian-born, U.S.-based artist Georgia Saxelby’s recent video installation that documents a series of performances staged at five of the monuments on Washington’s National Mall.

Collaborating with performers Viva Soudan and Bailey Nolan, the artist developed a series of imagined ritual gestures that repurpose the heroic forms and masculine iconography ubiquitous in the nation’s capital. In doing so, Saxelby questions the symbolic spaces in which we perform our identities and value

Events | Culture | WD

systems today.

GALLERY @ EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA

THROUGH OCT. 20

Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths

More than 225 works of art — including blades and currencies in myriad shapes and sizes, wood sculptures studded with iron, musical instruments and elaborate body adornments — reveal the histories of invention and technical sophistication that led African blacksmiths to transform one of Earth’s most fundamental natural resources into objects of life-changing utility, empowerment, prestige, artistry and spiritual potency.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART

THROUGH OCT. 27

Revolutionary Reflections: French Memories of the War for America

This exhibition explores how the French king’s officers understood the American Revolution and their role in the achievement of American independence, and how they remembered the war in the years that followed—years of revolutionary upheaval in France that included the execution of the king and many of their brothers-in-arms.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION INSTITUTE OF THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI

THROUGH NOV. 17

Portraits of the World: Korea

Pioneering feminist artist Yun Suknam (born 1939) uses portraiture to gain insights into the lives of women, past and present. A wood assemblage portrait of her mother is the centerpiece of this exhibition, which includes portraits of American artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Louise Nevelson, Marisol, Kiki Smith and Nancy Spero.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

THROUGH 2019

Urban Challenges

According to the U.N., 2.5 billion people are expected to live in cities by 2050. This will force cities to find new ways to handle the increased demands on natural resources, housing and infrastructure. This exhibition presents some of the social, economic and technological solutions proposed by Sweden to absorb the impact of our rapidly growing urban environment while leaving the environmental legacy next generations deserve.

Come and find out more about Guerilla Crafts, Democratic Architecture and the mixed reality Block Builder application in large-scale environments. Part of the Swedish Embassy’s 2019 thematic programming “Smart Societies – Creative & Inclusive”; for information, visit www.swedenabroad.se/en/embassies/usawashington/current/calendar/.

HOUSE OF SWEDEN

THROUGH JAN. 5, 2020

By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs The year 2019 marks the 50th

anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969.

Photography played a significant role both in preparing for the mission and in shaping the cultural consciousness of the event. An exhibition of some 50 works will include a selection of photographs from the unmanned Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter missions that led up to Apollo 11.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

THROUGH JAN. 5, 2020

Ginny Ruffner: Reforestation of the Imagination

Imagine an apocalyptic landscape. It appears barren, devastated and hopeless. It is not. At the Renwick Gallery, internationally renowned artist Ginny Ruffner creates a seemingly bleak environment that suddenly evolves into a thriving floral oasis by combining traditional sculpture with augmented reality (AR) technology.

RENWICK GALLERY

THROUGH JAN. 5, 2020

A Monument to Shakespeare

The Folger Shakespeare Library is throwing back the curtains on its origins and exciting future in an exhibition where visitors are invited to play, lounge, be curious and see more of the Folger Shakespeare Library than ever before.

Among the treats: rummage through Henry Folger’s desk and read the correspondences that brought the Folger to the nation’s capital; explore large scale reproductions of Cret’s detailed architectural drawings, newly digitized for this exhibition; and visit the first complete edition of Shakespeare’s plays published in 1623.

FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

THROUGH JAN. 12, 2020

Mid-Century Master: The Photography of Alfred Eisenstaedt

When he photographed her for the November 5, 1965 issue of Life magazine, Alfred Eisenstaedt cemented Marjorie Merriweather Post’s place among the most notable people of the 20th century. Featuring nearly fifty Eisenstaedt photographs and ephemera from his career in photojournalism, focusing on his timeless images of life in the mid-20th-century and the era’s most celebrated figures, this special exhibition will explore the relationship between Post and Eisenstaedt and the broader body of Eisenstaedt’s work documenting life in the midtwentieth century.

HILLWOOD MUSEUM, ESTATE & GARDENS

THROUGH SPRING 2020

Animals, Collected

The National Building Museum is home to 320,000 objects related to the built environment. Many of these artifacts in the permanent collection have never been displayed. “Animals, Collected” is a chance to explore some of the museum’s most unusual treasures — through the lens of the animal kingdom.

NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

THROUGH JULY 5, 2020

I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa

Taking its name from a 1970’s feminist anthem, “I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa” draws upon a selection of artworks by women artists from the National Museum of African Art’s permanent collection to reveal a more contemporary feminism that recognizes the contributions of women to the most pressing issues of their times. With experimental and sophisticated use of diverse media, the 27 featured artists offer insightful and visually stunning approaches to matters of community, faith, the environment, politics, colonial encounters, racism, identity and more.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART

DISCUSSIONS THU., AUG. 1, 6:45 P.M.

Travels with Darley: Inside Hong Kong and Macao

As melting pots of cuisine and culture, Hong Kong and Macao are two of the most exciting destinations on the planet, and they’re separated by only an hour’s ferry ride. Discover the myriad of attractions these Asian locales hold as you get insider’s tips from television host, writer, and producer Darley Newman. Tickets are $45, including light reception. For information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

S. DILLON RIPLEY CENTER

THU., AUG. 15, 6:45 P.M.

Tiki Time! Exotic Cocktails and the Cult of the Tiki Bar

Discover the inventive and imaginative story of Polynesian Pop. The fantastical history of the tiki bar was shaped by (and inspired) a movement that included art, music, architecture, and more in mid-century America. Martin and Rebecca Cate, founders and owners of Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, lead a colorful journey into the lore and legend of tiki: its birth as an escapist fantasy for Depression-era Americans; how exotic cocktails were invented, stolen, and reinvented; Hollywood starlets and scandals; and tiki’s modern-day revival. Tickets are $65, including tastings. For information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

S. DILLON RIPLEY CENTER

WED., AUG. 21, 6:45 P.M.

Overtourism: How to Avoid It

From Machu Picchu to Prague to Reykjavik, popular destinations everywhere are being overrun by hordes of tourists, turning a trip into a nightmare for many. But the problem isn’t just an inconvenience for the traveler. There are real and severe implications for the destination in terms of safety, sustainability, economics, and protection of environmental and cultural resources.

Join Washington Post travel writer Andrea Sachs, Martha Honey of the Center for Responsible Travel and Kate Simpson of Academic Travel Abroad, as they discuss destinations to avoid, places to visit instead, and how to become a more responsible traveler today. Tickets are $45.

For information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

S. DILLON RIPLEY CENTER

FESTIVALS AUG. 2 TO 4

2019 Asian American Literature Festival

The Asian American Literature Festival s a new model of literary programming: literature meets the museum. It is a convening, engine and incubator. It is a community-generated cooperative space with dynamic, interactive programming for sharing and growing Asian American literature.

SMITHSONIAN ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN CENTER

THROUGH SEPT. 27

Fair Water: A Right of All

Inspired by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Embassy of Spain presents a series of events dedicated to the right to safe drinking water and sanitation in the fields of diplomacy, human rights, sustainable development, and arts and culture.

For information, visit www. spainculture.us/city/washingtondc/fair-water-a-right-of-all/.

FORMER RESIDENCE OF THE AMBASSADORS OF SPAIN

MUSIC FRI., AUG. 9, 8 P.M.

Chopteeth Afrofund Big Band

This 13-piece Afrofunk orchestra explores the common groove between the funkiest, most hip-shakin’ West African beats and American popular music. At the core of Chopteeth’s sound is Afrobeat — a big-band funk invented by Fela Kuti in 1970s Nigeria that’s a spicy stew of modern jazz, Yoruba tribal music and burning, James Browninspired rhythms. Tickets are $22 to $29.

AMP BY STRATHMORE

TUE., AUG. 13, 7:30 P.M.

Lila Downs in Concert

Lila Downs is one of Latin America’s most influential artists who is known for her charismatic performances.

Her upbringing was split between Minnesota and Oaxaca, Mexico, a multicultural background that influences her musical compositions, which combine genres and rhythms ranging from Mexican rancheras, corridos and boleros to jazz standards, hip-hop, cumbia and popular American music.

Her lyrics frequently focus on justice, immigration, and issues affecting women. Please call for ticket information.

mance. Tickets start at $25.

KENNEDY CENTER TERRACE GALLERY

AUG. 16 TO 21

AUG. 6 TO SEPT. 8

WOLF TRAP

Native American Inspirations: From Spillville to Pine Ridge

Around 1900, the “Indianists” movement attempted to fashion an American concert idiom inspired by Native American music and lore. Although forgotten today, it produced the closest thing to an American Bartok: the astonishing Arthur Farwell, who lived with Native Americans and reported outof-body experiences. In recent decades, gifted Native American composers have begun to write for the concert hall — preeminently, Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate. Explore it all, with guest performers from South Dakota’s visionary Lakota Music Project, via PostClassical Ensemble’s “Native American Inspirations.”

Please visit postclassical.com for ticket information.

WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL

WED., AUG. 28, 8 P.M.

Mames Babegenush

Klezmer, traditional eastern European Jewish music, is in turn buoyant, poignant, and able to convey feelings of joy and sorrow with equal conviction.

Mames Babegenush harness this rich palette of emotion and merge it with their Scandinavian roots, artistry, and imagination, to present a vibrant interpretation of the genre. Tickets are $26 to $46.

AMP BY STRATHMORE

THEATER AUG. 3 TO 25

Legally Blonde

Elle Woods is a Southern Californian co-ed cutie who is accustomed to getting what she wants. When her boyfriend, Warner, calls it off because she is not serious about her future, Elle turns her attention from fashion to the books and enrolls in Harvard Law School. Along the way, Elle discovers her true potential and proves that kindness and compassion are always in style. Please call for ticket information.

THE KREEGER THEATRE

THROUGH AUG. 4

The Band’s Visit

In this joyously offbeat story, set in a town that’s way off the beaten path, a band of musicians arrive lost, out of the blue.

Under the spell of the desert sky, and with beautiful music perfuming the air, the band brings the town to life in unexpected and tantalizing ways.

Tickets are $45 to $149.

THE BIRCHMERE MUSIC HALL

KENNEDY CENTER EISENHOWER THEATER

WED., AUG. 14, 8 P.M.

THROUGH AUG. 4

Over the past several centuries, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has emerged as a cultural leader whose musical impact can be felt across Asia and the rest of the world. Celebrate the orchestra’s 140th anniversary by attending this rare U.S. perfor-

While the world waits for the launch of Apollo 11 in 1969, three children of key NASA employees watch from different perspectives. By dreaming a collective dream of landing on the moon together, the kids learn to understand the historic mission — not fear it. Tickets are $20.

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

Earthrise

Dear Evan Hansen

A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he’s always wanted: a chance to finally fit in. “Dear Evan Hansen” is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. Tickets are $79 to $175.

KENNEDY CENTER EISENHOWER THEATER

FRI., AUG. 9, 8:15 P.M.

Rossini’s The Barber of Seville

A wily barber aids the captivating Count Almaviva in wooing the vivacious Rosina right from under her cantankerous guardian’s nose. Uproariously funny, “The Barber of Seville” brims with sensational music, highflying vocal fireworks, and some of opera’s most famous arias as its story twists and turns in the quest for love. Tickets start at $25.

WOLF TRAP

AUG. 9 TO 31

The War Boys

First produced in London in 1993, “The War Boys” is more relevant than ever. Set on the Texas/Mexico border, David, George and Greg, three childhood friendsturned-vigilante border patrol, spend their nights antagonizing both themselves and those they catch trying to cross the border.

But these youths soon learn that even the most guarded borders are permeable in this production

by Ally Theatre Company. Tickets are $25.

JOE’S MOVEMENT EMPORIUM

AUG. 11 TO SEPT. 29

Assassins

From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, nine would-be and successful presidential assassins inspire each other to pull the trigger and change their worlds in a perverse, wry and thrillingly entertaining vaudeville. Please call for ticket information.

SIGNATURE THEATRE

THROUGH AUG. 18

Treasure Island

This classic coming-of-age tale follows Jane Hawkins, an orphan who longs for adventure, as she is swept up on a wild hunt for buried treasure with a ruthless band of buccaneers. Along the way, Jane’s bravery, morality and sense of self are put to the test as she learns about her past and the path she wants to follow.

Tickets start at $35.

SYNETIC THEATER

THROUGH SEPT. 7

Disney’s Aladdin

From the producer of “The Lion King” comes the timeless story of “Aladdin” in a thrilling new production filled with unforgettable beauty, magic, comedy and breathtaking spectacle. Tickets are $39 to $179.

KENNEDY CENTER OPERA HOUSE

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 37

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Diplomatic Spotlight

August 2019

Ryan Jarvis of Merck, European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis and Deniz Big Öncel, director of global public policy and international government affairs (EU/EURAM) at Merck, one of the sponsors of the event.

European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis.

Congressman Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis share a laugh.

Welcome Reception for European Union Ambassador On June 26, The Washington Diplomat hosted a reception at The Residences at Eastern Market in Capitol Hill to welcome recently appointed European Union Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis. Among the over 100 guests in attendance were fellow diplomats, the media and members of Congress, including Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), who praised the ambassador for promoting the critical transatlantic alliance.

The event also celebrated The Diplomat’s exclusive cover profile of the ambassador in our June issue, which discussed an extensive range of topics, including relations with the Trump administration, China, Iran, trade, populism and human rights.

Lambrinidis — a former Greek foreign minister who served as the EU’s human rights chief for seven years — joked with managing editor Anna Gawel that she “prepared me for every interview that I would ever possibly give because The Washington Diplomat sales director Rod Carrasco, publisher Victor Shiblie, Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), you asked me every question in the book…. managing editor Anna Gawel and European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis.

We talked from trade wars to bicycling on the Potomac. It was brilliant.”

Photos by Jessica Knox Photography In his remarks, Lambrinidis touched on many of those thorny issues.

On the EU Parliamentary elections in May, for example, while far-right parties enjoyed their best showing yet, eroding support for traditional center-right and center-left parties, Green parties and other centrists also made major gains, meaning that euroskeptic parties will struggle to enact their agenda.

Calling the elections “a remarkable exercise of democracy,” Lambrinidis said, “There are people in Europe that feel that the European Union should disappear and those people got a very, very small percentage of the vote. It was remarkable how the parties in Europe that support and defend a united EU did remarkably well, in spite of some of the gloomiest predictions.”

The ambassador touted other achievements to counter the notion of a fractured Europe.

“In the last five years … we opened and concluded major trade agreements with 71 countries around the world. The European Union is the biggest, most open, freest market for trading,” he said.

Continued on page 40

38 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis talks about his interview in the June issue of The Diplomat.

Aaron Manaigo of Potomac International Partners joins Maia Robakidze, James Ryan and Ursula McNamara, all with the Intercontinental D.C. - The Wharf.

Ambassador of Bulgaria Tihomir Stoytchev, Ambassador of Nicaragua Francisco Campbell and Ambassador of Cape Verde Carlos Veiga.

European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis talks to former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

Spotlight | Culture | WD

Mohammed Makhadmi, senior business development manager at Cigna Global; Amir Aziz of Cigna; European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis; and Neeru Dhawan, global head of marketing for Cigna, one of the sponsors of the event.

Congressman Jim Costa (D-Calif.) talks to Michelle Kosinski of CNN and Victor Shiblie of The Washington Diplomat.

Joel Gehrke, foreign affairs reporter for the Washington Examiner; Mamica Toska of the Embassy of Albania; and Barbara Plett Usher, State Department correspondent for the BBC.

Ryan Williams and Kylie Atwood, national security reporter for CNN.

Ben Belton, global partner engagement director at AARP; former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard of DLA Piper; and Alex Sarnowski, policy officer and congressional liaison at the EU Delegation to the U.S.

Marc Jay, first secretary of trade and agriculture policy at the British Embassy, joins Jake Diamond and Madison Van Every, both of the House of Representatives.

Thomas Guastini and Thomas Coleman, both from the Department of Homeland Security.

Kasper Zeuthen, senior press and media officer at the EU Delegation; Rod Carrasco of The Washington Diplomat; Andelka Rogač, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Montenegro; and Erin Aliaj of Booking.com.

The Washington Diplomat operations director Fuad Shiblie, a guest and Eamonn Cooney, president of the British-American Business Association.

Ambassador of Malta Keith Azzopardi, managing editor of The Washington Diplomat Anna Gawel and publisher Victor Shiblie.

European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis talks to the audience.

Amanda Klimek of the U.S. Census Bureau and Evan Johnson of Potomac Partners.

Chocolate gift bags from Windows Catering.

Stephen Vardas of Long & Foster and Alan Behar, CEO of Ike Behar Apparel and Design.

Men’s designs from Ike Behar on M Street, NW.

Georgios Apostolakis, press officer at the Embassy of Greece, Maria Galanou and Zoie Lafis of the Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University.

Men’s designs from Ike Behar on M Street, NW.

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 39

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Diplomatic Spotlight

August 2019

Welcome Reception for European Union Ambassador Continued from page 38

Lambrinidis also noted that the EU has “unanimously imposed extremely harsh sanctions on Russia for its aggression on Ukraine” and passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to ensure “that our privacy on the internet is protected and respected — that our data are not treated like commodities. They’re ours. They’re our lives.”

Above all, the ambassador stressed the importance of the transatlantic alliance, which has taken a beating under Trump.

Lambrinidis pointed out that 70 percent of all foreign investment to the U.S. comes from the EU. “Eight million jobs are created in the U.S. every year because of EU investment, and that is more than what the 10 biggest companies in the U.S. create together in terms of jobs.”

The U.S. and EU are also united by more than just trade. “We are in a values war around the world,” he said. “I can tell you that countries such as China do not any more simply export subsidized cheap goods to others, but they also try to export subsidized cheap ideas, such as ideas on human rights or ideas on governance. I am not OK with that.

“Right now we are at the cusp of understanding what artificial intelligence is and what it will be able to do. Who will set the standards for artificial intelligence?” he asked. “It is the United States and Europe getting our best scientists, our best business people, our best regulators together to do that work, and every day that we waste fighting over silly, unsubstantiated things instead of uniting to set the standards of the future is a day wasted for democracy and for freedom.”

And despite friction with the Trump administration over European financial contributions to NATO, the ambassador said “it is a mistake to be looking at security and our ability to achieve it merely by looking at how many guns we have. The security challenges of the world have changed dramatically.

Whether its cyber threats or foreign fighters or hybrid threats, we are building countries.”

That’s why “we decided to add the word ‘sustainable’ before development, because we realized that we can’t develop by having child labor, and by polluting your environment and by producing cheaper goods. At the end of the day, that’s not development that is acceptable, because it tears apart the society.”

On that point, Lambrinidis made his most impassioned argument that to counter extremism, education, particularly of women, is key.

As the EU’s human rights chief, Lambrinidis said he was often told, “We are fighting terrorists, and you are talking about human rights. Isn’t human rights a utopia? And I answered that question with another question. I said, ‘OK, why don’t you just tell me, what is so scary about smart girls?’

“Why does Boko Haram in Nigeria abduct 300 girls from school instead of bombing one more police barracks, like they’re good at. In Pakistan, why did the Taliban plant a bullet in Malala Yousafzai’s head when she was an advocate for girls’ education. In Syria, why did ISIS abduct and rape and forcibly marry and kill hundreds of Yazidi girls?” he asked.

“What’s so scary about smart girls to terrorists? And the answer, to me at least, was pretty clear. Smart girls become educated girls, and educated girls become empowered women and empowered women change entirely the balance of power in any society, and the last thing the terrorists want is empowered societies,” he declared. “You want to fight them?

We stick together to ensure that everything they hate, we promote around the world.”

On that note, Lambrinidis returned to the case he’s been making since taking up his post in early April: the enduring importance of the transatlantic alliance.”

“As I said in my interview, in my view there’s one overriding message, which is that the EU-U.S. relationship is not a problem that needs to be fixed. It is … a solution to many of the problems around the world. It is a win-win relationship in the most traditional sense of the world. A prosperous, strong, united Europe multiplies exponentially the prosperity and the security of the United States, and a strong, successful United States ensures the strength and success of Europe. We are in this together.”

— Anna Gawel and Virginia Sciolino

European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis.

Shane Fairclough and David Raley, general manager of Bozzuto Management Co.

Above, European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis makes a case for the importance of the transatlantic alliance.

Guests listen to speeches by Congressman Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis.

40 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

The Washington Diplomat publisher Victor Shiblie, Alina Scheppke and Vincent Campos of the State Department Bureau of Energy Resources.

Brianna Battle, legislative correspondent at the U.S. Senate, Jasmine Wyatt of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Maggie Angel.

Brandi Dunn of the CATO Institute and Bridget Dotson of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

Ryan Jarvis, Chloé-Lee Ryce of the British Embassy, Alyssa Hanou of the British Embassy and Deniz Big Öncel of Merck.

Yuehong Wang and Xiaoyu Wang of the Chinese Embassy.

Spotlight | Culture | WD

Samuel Pina and Sandra Gonzalez-Reyna of the Embassy of Mexico join Kimberly Kahnhauser Freeman, executive director of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group.

Steven Starks, congressional fellow with the American Political Science Association; Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.); Congressional Fellow Shae Allen; and Ryan Williams.

Luis Chang, chief tourism and investment specialist with Peru Trade Office; Kenneth Arnold of T. Deen Reed Co. and Georgios Apostolakis of the Embassy of Greece.

Maddalena Vrhovec and Fabienne Moser, both of the Embassy of Austria.

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Michael Heuer and Leila Beale.

Photos by Jessica Knox Photography

David Raley, general manager of Bozzuto Management Co, and Salley Widmayer of Long & Foster.

Maranda Finney of the Daily Caller; Rod Carrasco of The Washington Diplomat; Stephanie Hamill of the Daily Caller; and ChristiannĂŠ L. Allen of D.C. Digital.

Congressman Jim Costa (D-Calif.).

Sarah Basilion and Mindy Corriher, both from American University.

Ryan Hamilos of One Big Idea NYC, Jeni Hansen and Rod Carrasco of The Washington Diplomat.

Kriti Doval of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership and Anna Gawel of The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat managing editor Anna Gawel, European Union Ambassador Stravros Lambrinidis and publisher Victor Shiblie.

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 41

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Diplomatic Spotlight Georgia Ambassador Insider Series

Georgian Ambassador David Bakradze is interviewed

by Larry Luxner, the Tel Avivbased news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

On June 20, The Washington Diplomat held its latest Ambassador Insider Series (AIS) discussion with Georgian Ambassador David Bakradze at the Georgian Embassy. Less than half the size of the U.S. state that bears the same name, Georgia is home to 3.8 million people.

The discussion covered myriad topics, including Georgia’s rich history. It is one of the first countries ever to adopt Christianity and is famous for its medieval capital of Tbilisi and ancient wine cellars. The wide-ranging talk also examined the political issues that the nation faces, including its complicated relationship with Russia and its desire to join NATO.

Levatz Beridze, Shawn Baker-Garcia, CEO of The Critical Mass LLC and Greg Baker, analyst at TATE Inc. Georgian Ambassador David Bakradze, second from left, joins members of The Washington Diplomat: publisher Victor Shiblie, news editor Larry Luxner, managing editor Anna Gawel and sales director Rod Carrasco.

A veteran diplomat, Bakradze has served as state minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, ambassador to Greece and Serbia, and chargé d’affaires at the Georgian Embassy in Finland.

The interview was conducted by The Washington Diplomat’s news editor, Larry Luxner, who has traveled to Georgia on assignment twice — in 2016, and more recently one year.

Luis Chang, chief tourism and investment specialist with the Peru Trade Office; Steve Mukherjee, program cost manager with the U.S. State Department; Leandra de Freitas; and Josileide da Cruz.

August 2019

Holly Hull, managing director of the Republic Properties Corp.; David Raley; Kim Schanzer of Windows Catering Company; and Rebecca del Vecchio from the office of Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.).

Mindy Corriher, assistant director of the English Language and Training Academy at American University, and Cristina Roman.

Larry Luxner of The Washington Diplomat and Jacob Comenetz of the German Embassy.

Derrick Wayland of the Department of Homeland Security; John Borgia; Alyssa Booker; and Samantha Macken — all from Dynamis.

Brandi Dunn of the CATO Institute and Reyna Narbay of the Kimpton Hotel Palomar.

Christina Perrone of the Embassy of Bahrain and Victor Shiblie, publisher of The Washington Diplomat.

Ken Indart of Aviation Advisor at ECS Inc. and Ryan Nabil, Rosenthal Fellow in international relations at the U.S. Congress.

At left, Mark Sawyer and Cole Ragels of the International Republican Institute.

42 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

At left, Kote Lomidze, senior vice president and CFO at World Learning, and Nino Paichadze of the Department of Global Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University.

Maia Robakidze and Ursula McNamara of the Intercontinental Washington D.C. The Wharf.

Georgian Ambassador David Bakradze is interviewed by Larry Luxner.

Spotlight | Culture | WD

NUSACC Iftar The National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC) held its eighth annual Iftar dinner to commemorate the final days of Ramadan, the holy month observed by an estimated 1.8 billion Muslims all over the world. Nearly 30 diplomats from 16 Arab nations attended the event, which was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, along with senior government officials, business officials and people from all walks of life and faiths.

“The Golden Rule tells us that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us,” said NUSACC President and CEO David Hamod. “Actions speak louder than words, and how we treat others reflects on our own humaneness.” So, in the spirit of Ramadan, he said that, “Whatever one’s faith and whatever one’s ‘tribe,’ let us be remembered for our respect and tolerance.”

Added Algerian Ambassador Madjid Bouguerra: “This Iftar goes far beyond symbolism. It is a demonstration of the continued commitment in service to both Americans and Arabs. There is no better way of bringing Americans and Arabs closer than to get them together at Iftar, during this holy month of Ramadan, a special month when we all are called to join efforts in the spirit of togetherness, in order to build tolerance, friendship, cooperation and peace.”

Ambassador of Tunisia Fayçal Gouia and Ambassador of Libya Wafa Bughaighis.

NUSACC President and CEO David Hamod talks with U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Richard Ashooh.

Ambassador James Smith, CEO of Crosswinds Strategic Consulting LLC and board member of the NUSACC.

Imam Mohamad Bashar Arafat, president of the Islamic Affairs Council of Maryland, talks with Rev. Joseph Rahal of the Saint George Antiochian Orthodoz Christian Church.

Nancy Ziuzin Schlegel, NUSACC board member and vice president of international government affairs at Lockheed Martin.

PHOTOS: RAY’S PHOTOGRAPHY

IFE Intellectual Property Visit Andrei Iancu, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office, welcomed Ambassador of Belgium Dirk Wouters and coach Kathy Kemper, founder and CEO of the Institute for Education (IFE) to his office at USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Va. The off-the-record conversation covered issues such as intellectual property, trademarks, patents, copyright infringement and innovation.

The group then took a tour of the impressive National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum, which is a must see for any visitor and native Capital City tech forward person, all ages.

PHOTOS: GUILLAUME JAQUEMIN

Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Al-Mughairy.

Egyptian National Day On July 11, the Embassy of Egypt hosted a reception to celebrate Egypt’s National Day and to bid farewell to Egyptian Ambassador Yasser Reda.

Nahla Reda; Egyptian Tourism Minister Rania Al-Mashat; Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; his wife Hilary Geary; and Ambassador of Egypt Yasser Reda.

Welcome Simelane, political minister at the South African Embassy, joins Gordon Buay Malek, deputy chief of mission of the South Sudanese Embassy.

Newly appointed Ambassador of Saudi Arabia Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, second from left, joins Nahla Reda, wife of the Egyptian ambassador, second from right, and guests to celebrate Egypt’s National Day.

PHOTO: EMBASSY OF EGYPT

Ambassador of Iraq Fareed Yasseen and Ambassador of Kuwait Salem Al-Sabah.

U.S. Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs Caroline Casagrande, Ambassador of Iraq Fareed Yasseen and Assistant Secretary of State for Education and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce.

Oliver Moss and Katherine Moss of the Potomac Exchange, Ambassador of Brunei Serbini Ali, his wife Rafiah Arif and Ambassador of Myanmar Aung Lynn

Egyptian Tourism Minister Rania Al-Mashat, Ambassador of Egypt Yasser Reda and Nahla Reda sing the national anthem.

Ambassador of Lebanon Gabriel Issa and Deputy Chief of Mission of the Lebanese Embassy Wael Hachem.

Director of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office Andrei Iancu, coach Kathy Kemper, Ambassador of Belgium Dirk Wouters and Ambassador of Ireland Daniel Mulhall tour the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum.

Ambassador of Singapore Ashok Mirpuri; Ambassador of Ireland Daniel Mulhall; Minister Marvin Hildebrand of Canada; Director of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office Andrei Iancu; coach Kathy Kemper; Yifat Alon Perel of the Israeli Embassy; and Erlan Begezhanov of the Embassy of Kazakhstan.

Ambassador of Ireland Daniel Mulhall

AUGUST 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 43

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Diplomatic Spotlight WPA Gala & Auction

Welcome to Washington at Meridian On May 14, the Meridian International Center hosted an evening reception to welcome newly arrived international ambassadors to Washington, D.C. The biannual Welcome to Washington receptions provide chiefs of mission with an opportunity to meet and engage with a cross-section of Washingtonians from the government, business and policy communities.

PHOTOS: JESSICA LATOS

Ambassador of Denmark Lone Dencker Wisborg greets Ambassador of Pakistan Asad Majeed Khan.

August 2019

Tom Higgins; Ann Stock; Ambassador of Grenada Yolande Smith; Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan Bolot Otunbaev; Ambassador of Denmark Lone Dencker Wisborg; Ambassador of Pakistan Asad Majeed Khan; Stuart Holliday; Ambassador of New Zealand Rosemary Banks; Ambassador of Cambodia Chum Sounry; Ambassador of Cyprus Marios Lyssiotis; Ambassador of Liberia George S. W. Patten Sr.; Ambassador of Malaysia Dato’ Azmil Bin Mohd Zabidi; Megan Beyer; and Janet Blanchard.

Brad Knox, senior vice president and counsel of federal relations at Aflac Meridian President and CEO Stuart Holliday, Inc., talks with Keith Mason, senior advisor at Oaktree Capital Transpor- Ambassador of New Zealand Rosemary Banks and Ambassador of Cambodia Chum Sounry. tation Infrastructure Investing.

Ambassador of Liberia George S. W. Patten Sr., Mark Rebstock of the Meridian International Center and Fuad Sahouri, CEO of SAHOURI Insurance.

Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan Bolot Otunbaev talks with Natalie Jones of the Meridian International Center.

Washington Performing Arts (WPA) held its 2019 Gala & Auction, “Sizzle & Swing,” on March 30 at the National Building Museum.

Special guests included emcee and actress Tamara Tunie, the Children of the Gospel Choir and vocalist Veronica Swift. The annual gala supports WPA’s farreaching arts education initiatives and presentation of articles at 10 venues each season.

Habib Debs, chairman and CEO of Advanced Technology Systems; Luana Saghieh; Shaika Aisha AlKhalifa; Ambassador of Bahrain Shaikh Abdullah AlKhalifa; and former Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).

Ambassador of Bahrain Shaikh Abdullah AlKhalifa, Habib Debs and George Lund, chairman of Torch Hill Investment Partners.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg enjoys dinner.

PHOTOS: WPA

Irene Roth, Ambassador of Armenia Varuzhan Nersesyan, Dr. Vicken Poochikian and Narine Malkhasyan, wife of the Armenian ambassador.

Ambassador of Switzerland Martin Dahinden and his wife Anita Dahinden.

WPA President Emeritus Doug Wheeler receives his birthday pie.

Diplomatic Appointments France Philippe Etienne became the ambassador of France to the United States on July 8, 2019. He previously held numerous posts within the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Ambassador notably as ambassador of Philippe Etienne France to Romania (200205); director of the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs (2007-09); permanent representative of France to the European Union (2009-14); ambassador of France to Germany (2014-17); and most recently, diplomatic adviser to President Emmanuel Macron (2017-19). Ambassador Etienne is an expert on the European Union and continental Europe. He has held posts in Moscow, Belgrade, Bucharest, Bonn, Berlin and Brussels. He has also served as an adviser in the Cabinet of the Minister of

Foreign Affairs on several occasions. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (“Voltaire” Class, 1980), Ambassador Etienne also holds the Agrégation (teaching diploma) in mathematics, has a degree in economics and is a graduate of the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Serbo-Croatian). He speaks English, German, Spanish, Russian and Romanian.

He also is an Officer of the Legion of Honor and a Commander of the National Order of Merit.

Peru Hugo de Zela became ambassador of Peru to the United States and coordinator of the Lima Group on July 8, 2019, having previously served as Peru’s vice minister of foreign affairs since April 2018. He also served as chief of staff of the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) on two occasions, from 1989 to 1994 and 2011 to 2015. A career diplomat

44 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | AUGUST 2019

with 42 years of experience, Ambassador de Zela has served as permanent representative to the OAS, Peru’s ambassador to Brazil and Argentina, Peru’s national coordinator in the Rio Group, as well as a member of Peru’s Ambassador delegation in border nego- Hugo de Zela tiations with Ecuador from 1997 to 1998. He holds a degree in international relations from the Diplomatic Academy of Peru and has studies in economic and administrative sciences at the Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay, as well as doctorate studies in political sciences at the Unversidad del Salvador in Argentina.

Sri Lanka E. Rodney M. Perera became ambassador of Sri

Lanka to the United States on July 8, 2019, having previously served as his country’s ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union. A member of the Sri Lankan Foreign Service for over three decades, Ambassador Perera has held Ambassador various senior posts in Sri E. Rodney Lanka missions abroad and M. Perera in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as additional secretary and as the ministry spokesman from 2013 to 2014, and he was Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Norway (200912) and to Italy (2003-07). Ambassador Rodney Perera holds a master’s degree in international relations from Columbia University in New York.

He is also the recipient of “Grande Ufficiale - Ordine Della Stella Della Solidarieta” (Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity), Italy’s highest civilian honor.

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